Connor Chronicles On Cusp Of Termination
Written by Ian Cullen on September 30, 2008 – 11:21 pm -By Ian M. Cullen
Our friends at SyFy Portal have uncovered some interesting information concerning the fate of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
As many fans will already know – since its return to Fox Network just four weeks ago the series has lost a fairly large chunk of its audience – and hasn’t been performing to the networks expectations.
Sources told the website that the show could cease production as early as this week if things don’t improve.
“Audiences just aren’t responding to the show,” a Fox source tells SyFy Portal. “Our biggest surprise are the 18-to-49s [a key advertising demographic], those numbers are in the toilet.”
Should production cease it would be terrible news for the series given that it had such a strong start and was among the highest rated new series for 2007 – in spite of the fact that only nine episodes were made for that first season – due to the writers strike – which still seems to be casting a rather large shadow over a number of Television series.
As to what will happen if the numbers do not improve for the series.
“All I can say is that production will likely stop, and I would think that Fox might try to air some of the episodes already in the can,” the source said. “But I don’t know. They don’t want to lose ‘Prison Break,’ so there could be some schedule shuffling in the future.”
Of course, none of this has been confirmed by Fox, so treat this as rumour.
To read the full report – which includes all the facts and figures click here.
Tags: Fox Network, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Posted in SF-TV & Movie News | No Comments »
Max Payne Gets PG –13 Rating
Written by Ian Cullen on September 30, 2008 – 2:57 pm -
By Ian M. Cullen
According to a report at Shacknews.com the movie adaptation of popular video game Max Payne has secured a PG -13 Rating.
The movie centres around a New York cop, Max Payne, whose wife and baby are murdered by criminals high on a new drug called Valkyr. Without much left to live for, Payne joins the DEA and goes undercover with the mob to discover the source of the drug. Framed by the murder of his partner, Max is hunted down by both the mob and the cops in his one-man war on crime.
The violent video game adaptation stars Mark Wahlberg in the title role – and initially had been given an R – rating. Following on from this decision director John Moore strongly objected to the rating – claiming it was unjustified when you compare Max Payne to other blockbuster movies of a similar nature.
Moore argued that The Motion Picture Association of America pandered to Warner Bros – when they awarded Batman: The Dark Knight a PG – 13 rating.
The PG – 13 rating for Max Payne was only awarded to the movie – once Moore had agreed to trim a few frames of the action down – in order to curtail the level of violence – something which Moore wasn’t really to happy about saying that he felt they just “trimmed some frames more for the sake of trimming frames,” in order to make the MPAA happy.
As an aside the director also revealed plans to GameDaily for a special Gamer Dedicated cut of the movie for the pending DVD release.
“There’s what I call the Gamer Dedicated Cut of the movie. It’s a little slower and a little more atmospheric. There are some rougher edges on it, but it’s not going to be a bloodfest. I want this to be the Max Payne that I set out to shoot. It’s not that I wanted to release one version in the theatres and make a cheap buck by following up with a blood-drenched DVD version. The movie you see in the theatres will be an intense experience and the movie you see on DVD will be as intense an experience with some extra sensibilities for people who really adore the game.”
Tags: John Moore, Mark Wahlberg, Max Payne
Posted in Games and Gaming, SF-TV & Movie News | No Comments »
‘Lost’ Brings Back Goodspeed
Written by Ian Cullen on September 30, 2008 – 10:10 am -
By Ian M. Cullen
ABC’s genre series Lost has seen many characters come and go – and one character that will return to the series next year is Horace Goodspeed who is played by Doug Hutchison.
Goodspeed first popped up in the flashback episode – which revealed how Ben Linus came to be on the island as part of the Dharma initiative. In an interview for SciFi Wire Hutchison revealed a little about the character – and his return to the hit series.
“He’s this cool, weed-smoking sort of just laid-back throwback to the ’60s. He’s this cat who has flashbacks from the ’60s to the ’70s, all the way up to the ’90s, and he’s an integral part of the role of Ben [Michael Emerson] on the show and how Ben got started, because he knew him when Ben was a little boy.”
Those who have watched Lost without missing an episode will know that Goodspeed only lasted the one episode – before Ben betrayed the Dharma camp and had everyone killed. So it’s fair to say that Hutchison was a little surprised to be asked back onto the series.
According to the actor – Goodspeeds return will be in the present and will take up a possible 4 episode story arc.
“I got the script, and sure enough, now Horace Goodspeed…I don’t know,” Hutchison added. “I don’t know what’s going on. Nobody knows what’s going on on that island, but I’m either a ghost or a memory, a figment of one’s imagination or a piece of the island. I could be I’m conjured by the island. I shot that out in a day, and now I got a call from my agent about a month ago saying, ‘Lost would like to have you do at least four episodes for this coming season, pending your availability.’ I don’t know what they have up their sleeve. I’m lost!”
All Hutchison really knows is, Goodspeed will be “resurrected in some incarnation.”
As for other characters returning for season five, it’s been leaked through various sources that Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) will be back, as will Ana-Lucia (Michelle Rodriguez). Emilie de Ravin is rumored to be back for season six.
Tags: ABC, Doug Hutchison, Lost
Posted in SF-TV & Movie News | No Comments »
