Danny Glover, Thandie Newton and Oliver Platt Join 2012
Danny Glover, Thandie Newton and Oliver Platt are in discussions to join Roland Emmerich’s epic disaster project 2012. An academic researcher (John Cusack) opens a portal into a parallel universe and makes contact with his double in order to prevent an apocalypse predicted by the ancient Mayans. December 21st 2012 is the last day of the Mayan calendar, believed to be the end of the world. Glover would play the president of the United States, Newton would be his daughter, and Platt would be his chief of staff.
THR also says that 2012 was being shopped around Hollywood with a $200 million budget, but Columbia claims it will be made for less than that. This either means the preproduction budget is like $180-190 million or the Sony-owened studio just doesn’t want to fess up to the real price tag. Bottom line is that the film is expensive. Emmerich is best known as the director of Independence Day, Stargate and Universal Soldier. But as of recent years the German director has produced lackluster efforts: Godzilla, The Day After Tomorrow and 10,000 BC. Bad news is that Emmerich penned the screenplay with composer turned writer Harald Kloser, the same guy behind 10,000 BC.
2012 is scheduled to begin shooting in July 2009, and is penciled in for a July 10th 2009 release (however, the actors strike could delay everything).
SOAPnet books another season of Night Shift
When something’s a success, a follow up is inevitable. Therefore, the news that SoapNet is launching a second season of General Hospital: Night Shift, commencing Tuesday, July 22, is no big surprise. The surprise will be who is going to be involved in the daytime soap spinoff that airs once a week on SoapNet at 11 o’clock. Last season, actors for General Hospital, including Kimberly McCullough, Jason Thompson and Steve Burton did double-duty. And they weren’t alone. Some new characters appeared on Night Shift, but the draw was definitely the daytime stars.
SoapNet ordered 13 new episodes of Night Shift and this year the show will be produced in high def. Production begins next month, and unlike last year’s edition, the show will be filmed on new stages dedicated solely to Night Shift instead of sharing space with General Hospital.
The new Night Shift will be executive produced by Lisa De Cazotte (Passions, All My Children, One Life To Live) and written by Sri Rao (MTV’s What Goes On), but General Hospital’s Jill Farren Phelps and Robert Guza, Jr., exec produce and headwriter respectively, will oversee their efforts.
“Sri has worked closely with Bob and Jill, scoping out where the storylines are going to be on General Hospital,” said ABC daytime chief Brian Frons. “One thing we heard from fans was that there were some disconnects. We’re working hard to make sure there will be more consistency tying the shows together better.”
That’s very true. Night Shift was fun, but it seemed to be playing in a parallel universe to General Hospital when it played in 2007. What you saw in daytime wasn’t reflected in the Night Shift storylines, so there was a jarring effect. Rumors have been flying about who may or may not be involved in the new Night Shift. One, which seems unlikely, is that Jack Wagner — currently on CBS’s The Bold and the Beautiful as Nick Marone — would be lured to Night Shift to play his GH character Frisco Jones. Considering how ABC nixed GH’s Finola Hughes’ moonlighting on CBS’s The Young and the Restless, it would be unbelievable to think CBS would agree to let Wagner moonlight on ABC.
The other hot rumor suggests that Antonio Sabato, Jr. (Melrose Place) would be coming back to the GH world as Jagger Cates. He was last on the soap in 1995.
Smallville: Apocalypse
(S07E17) Most sci-fi or fantasy television series have used a “parallel universe” or “what if” storyline in which we see what life would be like if a different set of circumstances existed in the characters’ universe. As of tonight’s episode, Smallville is no exception to this rule. In fact, it’s kind of surprising the creators haven’t done it before now since they seem to rely on television clichés.
Somebody saaaaaavvvveeee meeeee….
Clark is shown through a simulation by his dead father what life would have been like on Earth if his rocket was never sent there. Lana is happily married with kids. Chloe is engaged. Luthor is President of the United States and about to launch a global thermonuclear war with Brainiac and Kara by his side. Naturally, Clark is in the middle of this parallel world determined to stop the worst from happening.
The first question on my mind was: if Kryptonians have time-travel technology, why did Krypton explode in the first place? That was answered near the end of the episode by Clark himself. But if they had this capability, why use a ship for Clark to escape in? Why not just teleport him out? Yes, I know. It’s Smallville. That’s the answer.
Not much information was given about the “alternate” Clark Kent. He was presumably adopted and younger than our familiar Clark since he was still wearing a high school jacket. I guess they didn’t have enough time in the episode to go through his back story.
I had heard there would be an old, familiar face in the episode and was hoping it was going to be John Schneider, back from the dead and being Pa Kent. It ended up being Sheriff Adams, who was really unnecessary as a cameo. It made me wonder if they tried to get back Bo Duke and couldn’t. It was still nice to see Jonathan and Martha again, even if it was just a photo.
This was really an episode for references to other versions of Superman. From the 1950’s series, Jimmy was wearing a bow-tie. There was a mention of the Reeves Dam, which is likely a tribute to George Reeves, the actor who played Superman in that series. From the comics, there was the Ace of Clubs and Supergirl’s comic book alter ego of Linda Danvers. From the Superman: the Animated Series, there was Lois’ address of Clark as “Smallville” (more on that later).
It’s somewhat ironic that Lois develops Clark’s famous nerdy reporter look. I admit I got a slight thrill when I saw him in the suit and glasses. Now he just needs the tights and cape to hide underneath and they can end the series on a high note.
Lex is kind of young to be President, isn’t he? It’s a requirement of the position to be 35 years old and Lex is at most 28 at this stage. I guess Brainiac had to use his special powers to make that happen. Or Lex just lied about his age.
This episode could easily have been a two-parter, with the first part dealing with the alternate timeline and the second part being Clark’s attempt to stop Brainiac from changing history on Krypton. What story logic could they have used for Jor-El and Lara not being at the launch of Kal-El’s ship? Did Brainiac kill them already?
It’s nice to see the origin on the other side. A few episodes ago, we saw the events that led the Lex to Smallville. Now we’ve seen the events that took Clark there. There’s symmetry in that.
Clark had a hell of a choice at the end of the episode. Either save Lana or reveal his secrets to Luthor. Given what he’d seen in the alternate timeline as well as his knowledge of Lex, he chose the lesser of two evils. And what was happening to Kara at the end? Was Brainiac’s programming to kill Clark (mentioned in the parallel world) kicking in?
Finally, there is the foreshadowing of affection being shown between Clark and Lois. If Lana is saved, given the fact that she’s only a part-timer for next season, it’s likely the Clark/Lana relationship will be done and the Clark/Lois relationship will start. They’ve even given themselves an “out” by having Lois refer to Clark as “Smallville”. In doing so, the series becomes about Clark rather than the town he grew up in. If the creators wanted, they could move him to Metropolis next season and still keep the name.
While it was predictable, this was a good episode. It showed a lot of progression and the pacing felt correct for the most part. That is one of the benefits of parallel world stories. They can make the characters move forward without anything actually happening.
The Lost Opening - What If JJ Abrams Thought Like Everyone Else?
Matt Griswold found this video showing a remix of the opening of Lost, created in a parallel universe where JJ Abrams thought like everyone else who creates television shows. I think you will agree - Thank God he doesn’t. Although I am kinda digging the theme song…
I know, I know… We’re not a television site. But from time to time we post about sci-fi television shows. And it just happens this is the second post in 24 hours about Lost. Trust me, it’s just the way it happened, I didn’t plan for it.