Harrison Ford says yes to CBS movie - UPDATE
I don’t think this is a case of a big star taking a role on TV for the paycheck. Mr. Box Office — I gave him that name based on the Star Wars and Indiana Jones series alone — Harrison Ford has agreed to star in a CBS film called Crowley. The picture is a true story, based on the case of John and Aileen Crowley, whose children are afflicted with a rare genetic condition. They seek the help of researcher — Ford’s character — who may have the cure.
The book on which the Robert Nelson Jacobs (The Water Horse) screenplay was written is called The Cure. The original idea came from a Wall Street Journal article and book by Geeta Anand. The director is still being negotiated, but Tom Vaughan is the prime candidate. Considering his last film was What Happens in Vegas, I hope they keep looking. Ford will be executive producing the film as well as playing the scientist.
Not surprisingly, CBS is hoping to get this film into production fast. Ford’s got another film prepping — Crossing Over with Sean Penn — which will take a lot longer to shoot than a TV movie. Also looming out there is the potential SAG strike. If the union has not settled with the producers by June 30, a strike may occur.
CBS has traditionally been a great place to TV movies, so this would seem a great get. After all, Harrison Ford is currently riding high (pretty high) with the latest Indiana Jones movie. However, CBS recently dumped two big star vehicles – Sybil and Vinegar Hill — on Saturday nights in June. Presumably, a Harrison Ford movie, even if he’s only in a supporting role, will get much more prominence. I’m thinking November sweeps if they can get it shot and edited by then.
UPDATE: This is not a TV movie after all. It’s a theatrical release that’s being done by CBS Studios.
Is “Nuke the Fridge” the New “Jump the Shark”?
The Urban Dictionary has added an entry for “Nuke the Fridge”, a contemporary replacement for the slang term “Jumped the Shark”.
Jump the Shark is a reference to a scene in an episode of Happy Days when Fonzie literally jumps over a shark while water skiing. The scene was considered so preposterous, and is considered by many to signify the moment in time when the show became unappealing to its core audience.
The new term Nuke the Fridge is based on an event in the opening sequence of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Here is an explanation of the term from the online Urban Dictionary:
“Nuke the fridge is a colloquialism used to refer to the moment in a film series that is so incredible that it lessens the excitement of subsequent scenes that rely on more understated action or suspense, and it becomes apparent that a certain installment is not as good as a previous installments, due to ridiculous or low quality storylines, events or characters.
The term comes from the film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, in which, near the start of the movie, Harrison Ford’s character survives a nuclear detonation by climbing into a kitchen fridge, which is then blown hundreds of feet through the sky whilst the town disintegrates. He then emerges from the fridge with no apparent injury. Later in the movie, the audience is expected to fear for his safety in a normal fistfight.
Fans of the Indiana Jones series found the absurdity of this event in the film to be the best example of the lower quality of this installment in the series, and thus coined the phrase, “nuke the fridge”.
The phrase is also a reference to the phrase “jump the shark”, which has the same meaning, only applied to a television series instead of a film series.
This phrase is not in common use.
“Star Wars didn’t really nuke the fridge until Jar Jar Binks was introduced.”
“Peter Parker dancing around the bar in Spider-Man 3? Kinda nukes the fridge!”
“The Godfather: Part III nukes the fridge.”
“Gremlins 2 more or less nuked the fridge.”
What do you think? Pretty funny but I think “Jumped the Shark” rolls off the tongue easier.
via: FilmDrunk
Who’s an Indy Fan? Hey, Who Isn’t?
Indiana Jones fans, the theory goes, are different.
“They’re not like Trekkie fans, and they’re not like Star Wars fans,” says filmmaker Brandon Kleyla, choosing his words carefully. “They’re more humble.”
Or maybe not.
Fans of the George Lucas-Steven Spielberg adventure franchise are expected to help Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, opening on nearly 4,000 screens at midnight tonight, to a five-day debut of a very unhumble $150 million. Or more.
“It looks to be the movie that all other blockbusters will try to beat for the summer box-office crown,” Gitesh Pandya, editor of BoxOfficeGuru.com, said in an email interview.
Pandya foresees a Thursday-Monday, extended Memorial Day weekend opening “north of $150 million.”
Box-office analyst Jeff Bock of Exhibitor Relations Co. is thinking $175 million, a figure that would match the record set by Lucas’ Star Wars: Episode IIIRevenge of the Sith, which collected nine figures over the same span in 2005.
Both see Kingdom of the Crystal Skull doing what Speed Racer and, to a lesser degree, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian couldn’t dodominate the family market.
Sketchy buzz over the weekend that gave way to solid reviews in the past few days seemingly has fueled expectations. A nearly 20-year wait between movies clearly has fueled anticipation.
And when pent-up demand meets opening day? Bock predicts that Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the fourth film in the Indiana Jones series, will gross as much as $50 million tomorrow. That would again put it in the neighborhood of Revenge of the Sith, currently the all-time Thursday king.
And that’s only the tip of the bullwhip. The real money for the new Indiana Jones lies overseas where the iconic Harrison Ford archaeologist is, well, extra iconic.
“This is Indiana Jones and the Quest for Worldwide Domination,” Bock says. “Make no mistake, this is going to be a hit worldwide.”
Kleyla is not surprised by the lofty expectations. The actor-director is, after all, something of an expert on the appeal of Indiana Jones. He’s a fana child of the ’80s who first discovered the good Dr. Jones at a theme park. He’s a collector. And he’s a documentarian.
His new film, Indyfans and the Quest for Fortune and Glory, profiles more than 50 devotees of Henry Walton Jones Jr., Ph.D.
If the documentary sounds like Trekkies for Indiana Jones followers, then it is, sort of. And it isn’t, sort of. For one thing, there aren’t any Indiana Jones convention scenes because, according to Kleyla, there aren’t any Indiana Jones conventions.
“It’s just a different breed of fan,” Kleyla says. “…Some of them have really amazing careers, and huge jobs, and you wouldn’t know it until you walk into their office and see the Indy mannequin.”
The stealth nature of the fandom stems, in part, Kleyla thinks, from Jones’ penchant for the workaday ensemble of khakis, leather jacket and fedora.
“The thing with the Indy outfit is,” Kleyla says, “you can wear it around, and nobody knows.”
Actually, Kleyla acknowledges, the hat usually is the tip-off. And he expects to see quite a lot of them in the coming days.
“No doubt they’ll be there opening weekend,” he says of the faithful. “They’ll show up dressed and ready to go.”
And in that respect, Indiana Jones fans are just like Star Wars and Star Trek fans.
“They plunk down their cash,” says Bock. “And that’s what counts.”
Indiana Jones Scratch Tickets?
ThrowMeTheIdol posted the scanned photo seen above. Apparently they sell tickets themed after all four films in the Indiana Jones series. Strangely, I couldn’t find any more information on the promotional tickets online.