Ben & Jerry’s has named a new ice cream flavor after Stephen Colbert: “Stephen Colbert’s Americone Dream”. The ice cream is vanilla flavored with fudge-covered waffle cone pieces and caramel. Yum! Ben & Jerry’s called it, “the sweet taste of liberty in your mouth.” Read more on Yahoo News.
IGN is reporting that J.J. Abrams (Lost producer) is prepared to direct The Dark Tower, based on the Stephen King series.
IGN has exclusively learned that J.J. Abrams is poised to direct The Dark Tower, based on the Stephen King literary series. Abrams’ production company Bad Robot had “no comment” on the matter.
Sources advised us that an official announcement is forthcoming. We have been unable to determine whether Dark Tower will be a film project or a TV miniseries, although the latter is a more likely prospect given the complex nature of King’s seven-book series. Given Abrams’ success on the small screen — and King’s well known love for the Abrams-produced TV series Lost — the tube seems a better fit for The Dark Tower. That said, IGN now has reason to believe the project will be for the big-screen.
Read the full article on IGN.
Updated: Hollywood Reporter also confirms that J.J. Abrams is going to be involved in bringing The Dark Tower to film.
SciFi has officially renewed Battlestar Galactica for a fourth season (was there really any doubt?). The season will contain at least 13 episodes, and is set to start in January of 2008.
Don’t forget about the planned Battlestar Galactica movie (Spoilers in the link), which is set to be released between seasons 3 and 4. January 2008 is a long time to wait for season 4, but it’s not so bad with the movie releasing in between.
This week’s episode of “The Office” was directed by Joss Whedon. The plot centers around bats. Really. Check out a preview of the episode here:
OgMog has posted a writeup of a panel discussion with Heroes executives, including the show’s creators, Tim Kring and Jeph Loeb. The article includes a discussion about future plans for the show, a comparison to Lost-type plot lines, and other info. Warning: If you are not caught up watching the show, there are spoilers in the article.
The Five Year Plan
Unlike other heroinarratives, like LOST, which have begun to meander, the Heroes gang has a five year plan. “We’ve thought about seasons 1-5 and how we might arc them,” said series creator Tim Kring. The creators explained that both specific and general story arcs have been considered far in advance.
Heroes likened to 24, rather than LOST
The creators compared Heroes more to 24 than to LOST, and said that each season will conclude in a way. “The first season will come to a conclusion,” Co-executive producer and comic book guru Jeph Loeb told the audience. “Next season will be a brand new adventure.”
Read more at OgMog (try the Dugg Mirror if the main site is slow or down).
A new upcoming drama series on Fox is called Drive. It was created by Tim Minear (writer for Angel and Firefly), and has Nathan Fillion (Buffy and Firefly) and Amy Acker (Angel) on the cast list. The show is about a secret, illegal road race, and is planned to air this spring. Nathan Fillion is a great actor and I’m looking forward to it.
Fans of Nathan Fillion will especially enjoy this new Drive Promo Video. Thanks to Whedonesque for the news.
YouTube has videos of all the Superbowl ads and is holding a poll to determine the best ad. Check them out and vote for your favorite at YouTube.
Overall I was a bit disappointed with the Superbowl ads (and the Superbowl). There wasn’t a whole lot of creativity that didn’t come off as just strange. My favorite though was the Rock, Paper, Scissors ad. Check out the link above to see it.
This isn’t quite new news. We’ve known for a while that more Futurama is coming, and now we know the format. Rotten Tomatoes reports that Fox will be producing four straight to DVD movies. Then afterwards Comedy Central will be breaking up these movies into episodes and airing them.
“I was frustrated when it got cancelled, but Fox, 20th Television is the one who came back and said, ‘Would you like to do a DVD movie?’” Groening recalled. We said, ‘Let’s do two’ and they said, ‘Well, why not three?’ and we said, ‘Well, why not four?’ and they said, ‘Okay, four’ and then that’s it.”
The article also mentions that because the movies/episodes will be shown on DVD and Comedy Central (not Fox), they can be a little more extreme and push the limits a bit. Cable stations don’t have to be as strict about content as network stations. I can’t wait!
All glory to the Hypnotoad!
Before you get too excited, this isn’t an official continuation of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Nor does it include the original cast members. Forgotten Memories is a fan produced 40 minute episode following the end of Buffy season 7. From the production’s web site:
The project “Forgotten Memories” first began its journey in early 2004 when budding scriptwriter Emma Paige Langley penned her ideas for a continuation of the Buffyverse after the series finale “Chosen.” In her words: “these characters don’t just go away. They stay in people’s minds, thoughts and memories. That’s why Buffy is so amazing. Joss doesn’t just create a show or a character, he creates worlds that audiences find themselves drawn to.”
I have not downloaded and watched it yet, but it sounds like a wonderful idea! There are some great quotes on the website, including one from Joss Whedon: “Thank God someone else wrote season 8!”
Download the Forgotten Memories video!
On Monday, at the end of the opening credits for The Colbert Report the word “Superstantial” was replaced with “Freem” (previous words include “Grippy”, “Licolnish”, and “Megamerican”). Fans have been abuzz with speculation because Stephen Colbert has not yet explained the meaning of the word, and previous words have been fairly easy to figure out. An entry has already been made in the Urban Dictionary for “Freem”, although it points out that the definition is not yet known.