Michael Lown"WTF?!" Movie News Report: Law, Order, Wachowski, and Joaquin
May 16th 2010 16:53
WTF!: They Cancelled Law & Order
Sad but true, the classic show that has been on NBC for a whole twenty years has finally been put to sleep by the powers that be. While the announcement isn't too shocking, the show has been struggling with failing ratings, bad time slots, budget cuts, and previous near-cancellations, it's still hard to imagine a primetime lineup without the legal drama. Especially considering how the show was only a season remains until is was able to beat Gunsmoke's record as the longest-running live-action primetime show.
That being said, you really can't say Law & Order is gone for good: spin-off SVU is still going strong on the same network, while Criminal Intent has gotten a good jolt thanks to Jeff Goldblum on USA. The news of the cancellation comes right after the announcement that NBC will be picking up, along with a slew of other new shows in an attempt to resuscitate their low, Jay Leno-induced ratings, a bread new spinoff, Law & Order: Los Angeles. Obviously, the new show will two things: make the old-age televison franchise relevent, and to save the network's ass after cancelling the critically-acclaimed Southland.
That being said, it'll be sad to see an entire generation of television swept away. But look on the bright side: there'll always be TNT.
In other television-related news, NBC also decided to put Heroes out of its misery, cancelling along with other shows, Mercy and Trauma. This news shouldn't be a surprise to anybody: for the past three seasons, the series has been dealing with terrible plotlines and had been suffering worser ratings in the process. Despite ending in a cliffhanger (a desperate attempt to keep a show alive) and rumors of a truncated fifth season meant to wrap things up, NBC realized it was simply better to end the show right here and now, making one of the many other shows (Twin Peaks, Lois & Clark) to have unresolved-endings.
R.I.P. Heroes, 2006-2010: Gone, but Never Remembered...
WTF!: Wachowski's to Make Gay Iraq War Movie
While they haven't given an interview since '99, those Wachowski Boys (?) sure love to keep throw out the most bizarre pieces of news. Ever since the anti-success of Speed Racer two years back, it's been a question of many as to what they will be up to next. A few months back, news started to stream out from Liberal blogger Arianna Huffington's twitter account, where she stated that she was working on a new project with the Wachowski's, along with a few photos (even some featuring a newly-sex-changed Lana Wachowski, which was in of itself crazy news). Things only got crazier when Jesse Ventura appeared Howard Stern and said how he was also working with them, and said he had little idea what the film was to be about, only that he has something to do with the Iraq war set in the future.
Fast forward to present, where more on the project is starting to leak out, including some kind of idea of the film's plot. Turns out the movie involves a gay love story between an soldier in the Iraq war and an Iraqi, which is set in current times and in the future.
Once the news broke, the web was filled with question marks and enough homophobic slurs to make GLAAD turn purple. Is this really going to be the Wachowski's follow-up picture after making a PG-rated anime adaptation. If you look back on their filmography, it isn't too strange for them. Remember, the Wachowski's are the same people who made Bound, a thriller which involved a lesbian couple stealing money from the mob. Add to the rather-alternative lifestlyes of Larry/Lana, and you got yourself some kind of explanation.
Other questions, however, still remain: will something like this return the Wachowski's back to critically darlings after missteps like Racer and Ninja Assassin (which they only produced, but that's no excuse)? Is there anybody ready to see something like this? Is there anybody there ready to fund this, considering how all the Wachowski's have is finished script and test footage? Is this project actually real, or just some weird rumor started from some misinformation? Knowking Wachowski, we won't know the answer to this anytime soon.
WTF!: Phoenix Documentary is Real
In news that seems to be a bad attempt to make Joaquin Phoenix look sane, word leaked out that documentary detailing his new "rap career" is very much real, not just the pot of b.s. we previously thought. Even better, the doc's director, Casey "Ben's Little Brother" Affleck has been showing of his new movie, titled I'm Still Here: The Lost Year of Joaquin Phoenix, to potential buyers.
Apparently this unsuspecting souls were subjected through a film which involved "more male frontal nudity than you'd find in some gay porn films and a stomach-turning sequence in which someone feuding with Phoenix defecates on the actor while he's asleep... (Phoenix) snorting cocaine, ordering call girls, having oral sex with a publicist, and treating his assistants abusively."
Probably the biggest "WTF" thing in this whole report this that these two clowns, Phoenix and Affleck (both well-respected, Oscar-nominated actors), think anyone would want to see any of this? Turns out, they don't. These screenings seem to have had the power to have Phoenix commited rather than paying even a dime for the distribution rights.
The good news from this is that we can finally close the book on the whole Joaquin debacle. Whether or not he's serious about a rap career, it's now painfully obvious that whatever his intentions are, it is nothing than a silly publicity stunt from a talented guy with too much time on his hands and should really know better.
| 51 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
