Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog Trailer
A trailer for Joss Whedon’s 36-minute three-part SCi-Fi internet musical Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog has hit the interwebs. Neil Patrick Harris stars as the title character, a low-rent supervillain who’s trying to impress the cute girl from the laundromat he’s too shy to talk to (Felicia Day of Buffy the Vampire Slayer), defeat his nemesis, superhero Captain Hammer (played by Firefly’s Nathan Fillion) and gain entry into the Evil League of Evil. Whedon penned the musical with his brothers (Zack and Jed Whedon) during the writers’ strike earlier this year. Check it out below and tell me what you think in the comments!
MPAA Tells Kevin Smith Not to Make Unapproved Internet Porno
I hate to say this, but I was actually expecting this to happen. The vulgar and unrated internet teaser trailer for Zack and Miri Make a Prono has been removed from the interwebs by the MPAA (cue Darth Vader’s theme “The Imperial March”).
“The MPAA called and said we had to take it down. Weinstein Co., like most studios, is a signatory of the MPAA,” explains Smith. “As such, there are protocols involving trailers that we failed to follow. As with features, all trailers get rated get rated by the MPAA. The majority of them are for general audiences (Green Band trailers), but trailers packed with adult content (like our teaser) earns you what’s called a Red Band trailer. … Well, we didn’t go through this process - simply because, we felt, that since the teaser didn’t contain any footage from the actual flick, it wasn’t technically a trailer. Boy, was I wrong.”
ALL promotional material for any film financed and/or distributed by a signatory of the MPAA has to be MPAA approved, including internet-only materials.
“I never realized this, as it’d never been a problem in the past: we’ve been doing ‘net-only teasers since “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” and nobody ever raised a red flag before, not even on the last flick, for which we also put up two ‘net-only teasers in advance of the rated trailer. But I guess since the teaser was so, shall we say, racy… a rating was in order.”
Smith has now officially submitted the teaser to the MPAA for rating, and will putt he trailer back online if they approve it. It’s an unfortunate situation and its only bound to get worse in the coming years as the MPAA attempts to police all movie related content on the internet.
source: NewsAskew
BitTorrent’s Top 10 TV shows (not that you would do that)
Now I know that none of our readers would do anything like this, but apparently there are people out there who just love to download and watch television via BitTorrent. In fact, 50% of BitTorrent activity is apparently the downloading of television shows, with literally millions of downloads for each episode of those top shows. The folks over at TorrentFreak compiled a list of the Top 10 BitTorrented television shows for the week of May 25 - June 1.
I’m not surprised at all to see shows like The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Lost and Battlestar Galactica among the top of these rankings. Just think of the kind of audience these types of shows are likely to draw. It’s unfortunate that this list couldn’t have been compiled a few weeks ago when most of the broadcast networks were still streaming new episodes. So You Think You Can Dance ranked pretty well, but I wonder if American Idol would have been tops here as well. Further into the list were some even more interesting choices.
With a reported 10 million downloads for Lost, I guess it makes sense where those dwinding television viewers are going. The ultimate “On Demand” television you just watch whenever you feel like it, and having it available all in one place, as opposed to at various network websites, is a no-brainer. The sooner TV can properly figure out how to embrace the interwebs that’s taking away all their viewers, the sooner television can leap fully into the twenty-first century.
Hulu, which is a combination of several television studios on one site with ad-generated revenue in place is a huge step in the right direction and has quickly risen to become the number one online destination for TV watchers. I think we’re getting really close, but during this unfortunate transition period, there are quality shows that attract huge online viewership (younger more hip and savvy viewers I call them) but lack in traditional numbers are still falling to the hangman’s noose while network executives figure out how to count those viewers and ring money out of their advertisers for them. I’ll count Jericho among these shows, even though it did get a second chance, as it’s online numbers were Top 10. Had online viewership been properly attributed the show wouldn’t have been in danger of cancellation anyway.
I have faith that the networks will get it figured out. It will just take them a really long time to do it. But if they can come up with a comprehensive destination for television viewing, think Hulu on crack, then “those people” wouldn’t have to resort to sites like BitTorrent to catch their latest shows when they want to. They can just head on over to HowJasonHughesSavedTelevision.com and watch everything in one place!
Zach Braff goes to Bristol University - VIDEO
One of the things that helps me keep my cool when I meet or speak to celebrities is the knowledge that at one time, they were just another person struggling to keep his or her head above water, just like everyone else. Take Zach Braff, for example: it wasn’t too long ago that Zach was just another struggling actor and not one of the highest-paid stars on TV. And, thanks to the fun that is the interwebs, we can find evidence of that very easily.
The video after the jump is from a commercial for ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown show, which looks like it was from 1998 or so. At the time, those wacky guys at the Worldwide Leader were referring to themselves as “Bristol University” (the network is located in Bristol, CT), and this particular ad shows student registration for classes like “History of the AFC Central Division 1994-1997,” taught by Chris Berman. But the most popular class is the one taught by the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (of course), and Braff is one of the students who get to ask the cheerleaders about the class’ content. You can see some elements here of what made him a good choice to play J.D. on Scrubs three years later. It’s just too bad that class doesn’t exist …
[Thanks to Adam C. for the tip.]