Six Feet Under alum (and star of Fox's upcoming Return of Jezebel James) Lauren Ambrose will voice KW, one of the giant creatures in Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are. Ambrose replaces Michelle Williams, whose voice was deemed a not-so-perfect match with the producers' vision.... Disney Feature Animation's Bolt (nee American Dog, and featuring the voices of John Travolta and Susie Essman), will be released in 3-D when it opens next Thanksgiving.... Jet Li will net 100 million juan (about $13 million) for his next movie, The Warlords, marking a record for an actor in a Chinese-language film.
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Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz by Kwaku Alston/FOX
As if the implications of the writers’ strike weren’t already giving us migraines, along comes Fox to make our heads explode with its latest incomprehensible schedule announcement, covering the strike-impacted midseason from January to April (consider most everything you read from here on subject to change). The first piece of bad news was expected: The seventh season of 24 is being postponed indefinitely, until Fox can ensure the entire season can run intact and uninterrupted. Who knows when that will be? Another blow: Fox is finally living up to its threat to move Bones to Fridays, effective Jan. 4, where it will be paired with repeats of House (the Fox equivalent of Law & Order, considering how often the hit medical drama will be peppered throughout the network’s new and unimproved lineup).To try to help make sense of it all, let’s look at the schedule night by night:Monday: With 24 out of the picture, the new big-ticket midseason item is now the action-pa...
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Patricia Heaton and Kelsey Grammer in Back to You by Joe Viles/Fox
If you could just ignore those pesky months between September and December, Fox would be sitting pretty. The challenge each year for this network is how to schedule a fall start that will live up to the blockbuster spring finish provided by late-arriving shows like American Idol and (even a diminished) 24.In the last of the week’s Upfront presentations, Fox Entertainment president Peter Ligouri made the curious choice of putting himself in the middle of a 24 parody, trading exchanges on the phone with clips of Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland, not in attendance in New York this year) from 24, in which Jack addressed “the president.” The ticking-clock (ticking bomb?) metaphor isn’t the most natural fit for a sales presentation, you’d think. And given that the first thing anyone in Los Angeles (where I’ve been the last three weeks) wants to talk to me about is the steep decline in 24’s quality this season, is this really putting your best foot forward? ...
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Anthony Anderson in K-ville by Rebecca Brenneman/Fox
3:50: Fox upfront. The words still send shivers down my spine. As you recall, the network's presentation last year was widely considered to be the single most grueling upfront in the history of upfrontmanship. The post-traumatic stress still hasn't worn off.3:51: Good news. Fox has clearly learned from their mistakes. In stark contrast to last year, the check-in process was easy-breezy. Even better, the air conditioning is working! Now if we can wrap this thing up in under two hours, almost all will be forgiven.4:01: I'm in complete denial about the VM thing, BTW. Just thought I'd share. Ooooh, the show is starting... with a 24 parody!4:05: Jack Bauer urges Fox president Peter Liguori to keep this year's presentation under an hour! LOL!4:06: They're bringing all their stars out onstage. Fox always has a good talent turnout at these things. 4:08: Well, most years they have a good turnout. The only Prison Breaker in attendance is Sucre (Amaury Nolasco)!4:09: No Kiefer Sutherland, but ...
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The new dramas premiering this fall are K-Ville, starring Anthony Anderson and Cole Hauser as police officers in post-Katrina New Orleans; and New Amsterdam, the first American television project from Oscar-nominated director/producer Lasse Hallström, featuring newcomer Nikolaj Coster Waldau as a unique New York City homicide detective.The new comedy slated for fall is Back to You, from executive producers Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd. Set at a TV news station in Pittsburgh, the sitcom stars Emmy Award-winners Patricia Heaton and Kelsey Grammer, and is directed by James Burrows.The new unscripted series that will premiere this fall include The Search for the Next Great American Band(working title), a reality competition from the producers of American Idol, which will do for undiscovered groups what Idol has done for singers. From the producers of Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County, Nashville (working title) is an unscripted docu-soap featuring a group of ambitious you...
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The latest pilot-casting bits, from our friends at Variety and the Hollywood Reporter:• Crossing Jordan's Jerry O'Connell, along with Fred Goss (Sons & Daughters) and stand-up comic Jerry Minor, are among ABC's Carpoolers.• Scott Wolf (The Nine Party of Five) has landed the lead in an untitled ABC comedy about a top law firm.• Two-time Six Feet Under Emmy nominee Lauren Ambrose has been cast as Parker Posey's younger sister in Amy Sherman-Palladino's The Return of Jezebel James.• "Varsity Blues: The Later Years"? James Van Der Beek is a rookie in ABC's Football Wives.• Hey, Dean Wormer, get a load of this: Tim Matheson is the head of the university in Barnes, the CW's dramedy about crime-solving college students.• OK, this time I got it right: Jayma Mays, aka Heroes' ill-fated waitress, has come on board the ABC workplace comedy Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office.• Josh Hopkins (pre-Rob Lowe Brothers & Sisters) and Molly Parker (Deadwoo...
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Earlier this week, Amanda Peet told Late Show's David Letterman that she is four months pregnant — earning her the nickname "Fatty" on the Studio 60 set — and is planning to tie the knot with screenwriter David Benioff this weekend.... Sources tell the New York Post's Page Six that Angelina Jolie is itching to adopt again, but beau Brad Pitt is hot to sire a son – or at least die smiling, trying. Also per the Post: Britney Spears refuses to confirm that Sutton Preston is her newborn's name until the tot's first pics pop up in People.... Six Feet Under's Lauren Ambrose is six months pregnant with her first child, Us reports.
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Question: Mr. Televisionary, you're my only hope! I know that once before you answered a question about a song played during a show. (See? I do read your column avidly!) But you wouldn't give up your sources for finding out this info, so here I am asking for your help! I loved the song that played during the closing credits of Six Feet Under in the "Driving Mr. Mossback" episode. Please put me out of my misery! Thank you.
Answer: Oh, Lynne — once before? Surely, an avid reader such as yourself knows that I'm a sucker for these "What was that song?" questions and that I answer them quite frequently. But who am I to doubt you? Thanks for your readership just the same.
I believe the song that's making you so darned miserable is Joe 90's "Drive," which is on the album Dream This. It played while Nate (
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Lauren Ambrose and Frank Langella will star in the indie Starting out in the Evening, about a writer whose world is shaken by an ambitious grad student.... Also per Variety: Pride & Prejudice director Joe Wright has been tapped to remake the 1944 thriller Gaslight, in which a woman's suitor tries to drive her insane.... Warner Bros. is in talks to rent out a 191,000-square-foot space in the Bronx's Kingsbridge Armory to be used for production of a film version of the famed sci-fi novel I Am Legend, reports the New York Daily News.
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Entourage
Laurence Hall Matheson: 1971-2005. Certainly one of the quickest opening death scenes ever. Less than 30 seconds in, a dude is mauled by a cougar and I'm the one scared to death. Nice fade into a close-up of Nate being taken away on a stretcher. I loved how David, being the smart brother, chose not to tell Brenda that Nate was with Maggie when he collapsed. Awkward moment No. 1: Brenda showing up at the hospital and seeing Maggie there. Claire to David: "Why is she here?" David (whispering): "Later." Such a perfect brother-sister scene. Meanwhile, back at the campfire, Ruth is about to have sex with Ed Begley Jr., I mean, Hiram. Awkward moment No. 2: Brenda's conversation with Maggie at the hospital after the neurosurgeon (played by Michele Greene from L.A. Law, don't ya know) gave the Nate update. But back to Ruth: The comic highlight of the episode was, of course, the dream sequence shootout , with Ruth taking down all her former amours with a rifle. Too funny
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