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Hugh Hugh Hugh!
MaineWriter:
The worst show in the history of television? Ouch! From the New York Times....
October 18, 2007
Television Review | 'Viva Laughlin '
Singing in the Casino? That’s a Gamble
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
“Viva Laughlin” on CBS may well be the worst new show of the season, but is it the worst show in the history of television?
It certainly comes close in a category that includes “Beverly Hills Buntz” in 1987 (Dennis Franz in a short-lived spinoff of “Hill Street Blues”), the self-explanatory “Manimal” in 1983 or last year’s one-episode wonder, “Emily’s Reasons Why Not.” “Viva Laughlin” is not even in the same league as “Cop Rock,” a 1990 experimental series created by Steven Bochco that leavened a gritty police drama with Broadway musical moments: cops and criminals breaking into song and dance. “Viva Laughlin” also features musical outbursts and is far worse.
“Cop Rock,” which featured original music, was ridiculed at the time but deserved credit for daring and originality, even though it was inspired by British series like “Pennies From Heaven” and “The Singing Detective.”
“Viva Laughlin” is far more derivative, a blander American adaptation of a hit British series. The BBC’s “Viva Blackpool” found sardonic humor in its setting — Las Vegas-style casino gambling in a seedy British seaside resort town — almost the kind of cultural disconnect that enlivened “Breaking Away,” a 1979 movie about teenagers in Bloomington, Ind., who become obsessed with Italian bicycle racing. “Viva Laughlin” moves the gambling back to sun-baked Laughlin, Nev., and deflates the joke. The writing is too flat to allow the characters to take form.
The series revolves around Ripley Holden (Lloyd Owen), an extroverted self-made entrepreneur intent on creating his own casino, despite the misgivings of his wife, Natalie (Mädchen Amick), and their two teenage children. When Ripley proudly tours the casino’s unfinished site, he sings and struts to Elvis Presley’s “Viva Las Vegas.”
Ripley’s nemesis, Nicky Fontana, is played by Hugh Jackman, who is also an executive producer, and his signature song is the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil,” which Mr. Jackman lip-syncs, even though he is a successful Broadway singer and dancer. Actually it’s not quite lip-synching: the actors sing, softly, along with the original performer, a little like commuters mumbling along with oldie hits on the car radio.
Melanie Griffith plays Bunny, a former flame of Ripley’s who is married to one of his investors but still has a thing for him, which she expresses by wearing a pink and black lace lingerie while singing the Blondie song “One Way or Another.” (“One way or another, I’m gonna find ya/I’m gonna get ya, get ya, get ya, get ya. ”)
When Bunny’s husband is killed, everyone, including Ripley, is a likely suspect.
A musical murder mystery is not an inherently bad idea. It worked brilliantly for the BBC’s “Singing Detective” some 20 years ago, and music has become only more integrated into television and pop culture since then. The iPod has emboldened people of all ages to work, eat and exercise to their own private soundtracks. “American Idol” has turned television into one huge variety show, while series like “The OC” and “Grey’s Anatomy” substitute long stretches of pop music for plot and dialogue.
John Turturro recently released the film “Romance & Cigarettes,” which stars James Gandolfini as a philandering blue-collar worker who must choose between his wife (Susan Sarandon) and his mistress (Kate Winslet). Those characters also express themselves through golden oldies; Mr. Gandolfini resorts to Engelbert Humperdinck’s “A Man Without Love.”
There has never been a better time for offbeat manipulations of music on television dramas, yet “Viva Laughlin” isn’t even a near miss.
louisev:
ai yi yi ! Hugh! I'm so embarrassed for him!
MaineWriter:
from E! Online
Wolverine Carves Out May '09 Release by Josh Grossberg
Fox is sending out a May Day for Wolverine.
The studio on Thursday confirmed it has set a May 1, 2009 release date for X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the much buzzed about spinoff featuring Hugh Jackman's hirsute hero in a solo adventure.
Meanwhile, according to Variety, Liev Schreiber, who appeared opposite Jackman in the 2001 fantasy romance "Kate & Leopold," is in final talks to play a younger incarnation of Wolverine nemesis William Stryker. Brian Cox essayed the role in 2003's X2: X-Men United.
Taking his cue from the original Marvel Comic, writer David Benioff (Troy, The Kite Runner) will follow the tough-talking, cigar-chomping Logan as he struggles to unlock his mysterious past and avenge the death of his girlfriend at the hands of Victor Creed, who will eventually become the supervillain Sabertooth.
Along the way, the film will also detail how Logan came to be in Stryker's secret Weapon X program, where Logan was left with a skeletal frame fused with the indestructible metal adamantium that gave him superhuman strength, healing powers and three retractable metal claws on each hand.
He'll also meet other mutants, although it remains unknown whether that will include any of his X-Men pals such as Professor Charles Xavier, Cyclops, Storm or longtime crush Jean Grey.
One new mutant who seems destined for a big-screen appearance is Gambit, a reformed thief who hails from New Orleans and speaks with a thick Cajun drawl. His special powers include making inanimate objects explode at will, charging playing cards with kinetic energy and hurling them as deadly weapons, and superior martial-arts abilities.
Gavin Hood, whose directing credits include 2005's award-winning Tsotsi and the political drama Rendition, hitting theaters this Friday, will take the reins on Wolverine.
The would-be blockbuster is slated to begin shooting later this year at Fox's studio complex in Australia, before moving on to New Zealand and then wrapping up in New Orleans.
Jackman and his partner John Palermo will coproduce Wolverine through their Seed Productions shingle, along with veterans Lauren Shuler Donner and Ralph Winter, who produced the original X-Men trilogy. Executive producing will be Marvel's Kevin Feige.
Before he can grow out his sideburns again, Jackman must first finish work on Baz Luhrmann's romantic saga Australia, with Nicole Kidman. The 37-year-old actor is also executive producing and guest-starring on the new CBS series Viva Laughlin, which debuts Thursday at 10 p.m.
Wolverine will anchor what Fox hopes is a huge summer.
The studio will unleash James Cameron's 3-D sci-fi epic Avatar May 22, followed by Ice Age 3 July 1.
Given the first three X-Men movies grossed an uncanny $1 billion worldwide, Fox has been looking for ways to expand the franchise.
Besides Wolverine, the studio is also developing a film centered on Magneto, the X-Men antagonist played by Ian McKellen. The origin story will tell how the young mutant comes to grips with his metallic-attracting powers during the Holocaust and his quest for vengeance against both his Nazi captors and antimutant factions.
David Goyer, who penned Blade: Trinity and Batman Begins, is slated to helm that project, which will likely feature Magneto and Professor X played by actors in their 20s. No word yet on a cast or a release date.
MaineWriter:
from an Australian paper...more on Wolverine, with a picture:
In Hollywood, major movie deals are done over lunch at The Ivy between bottles of Dom Perignon. In Aussiewood they are done on Bondi Beach over a bottle of Reef Oil and screeching kids.
Hugh Jackman has been quietly casting roles for the $100 million plus sci-fi blockbuster Wolverine, a spin-off from the X Men franchise to be filmed in Sydney and New Zealand, between trips to the beach with his children Oscar and Ava. Jackman and Seed Productions, the company he runs with his wife, Deborra-lee Furness, are associate producers of the film with 20th Century Fox.
In recent weeks Jackman has been spotted approaching would-be stars and offering them the chance to audition for roles in the flick, which is said to be a prequel that delves deep into the early years of Jackman's hirsute Wolverine character who, by all accounts, is the sexiest mutant on the big screen.
One such opportunity has gone to the former McCleod's Daughters "hunk" Aaron Jeffrey, who has already gone through one screen test to play Jackman's brother in the film. Jackman and Jeffrey - similarly tall, dark and handsome - have had regular catch-ups on Bondi, where Jeffrey is regularly spotted with his girlfriend, another actor with considerable success in Hollywood, Peta Wilson.
The official word from Seed Productions is that not all the casting has been finalised and the company declined to shed any light on Jeffrey's situation specifically. However, if he lands the role, it could propel his career into the Hollywood major league.
Meanwhile Jackman has been busy getting even more buff for the role, employing his great mate Michael Ryan as his personal trainer.
Earlier in the year PS reported that Jackman was best man at Ryan's wedding on the Gold Coast and the pair were spotted recently at a training session in Kings Cross gym.
Filming is expected to last between three and four months. The Wolverine director Gavin Hood and his crew have been spotted in New Zealand doing some location scouting with cinematographer Donald McAlpine (Moulin Rouge!, Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe) already on board.
MaineWriter:
Oh my....I still have the first show taped, which I haven't watched yet. I guess it is a historical artifact, now. From the New York Times:
“Viva Laughlin,” the musical-drama hybrid that starred Hugh Jackman as a casino owner and was lambasted by critics, has been canceled by CBS after only two episodes.
“The Amazing Race” will replace “Viva Laughlin” in the Sunday at 8 p.m. time slot beginning Nov. 4. (A “CSI” repeat will be broadcast this Sunday.) The Hollywood Reporter calls “Viva Laughlin” the “first major casualty of the 2007-08 season.”
When “Viva Laughlin” debuted on Oct. 18 in a special time slot after “CSI” the program shed more than half of its valuable lead-in and averaged 8.8 million viewers. It then moved to its normal time slot on Sunday, following “60 Minutes,” but its second episode, on Oct. 21, drew an average of 6.8 million viewers, placing CBS in fourth place for the hour.
CBS clearly expects “The Amazing Race” to deliver higher ratings. In the announcement this afternoon, the network noted that the eleven previous versions of the reality show have averaged 10 million viewers in various time slots.
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