Angry Web

Sources say yes! Check out the video below at 1:18

After 8 seasons of the hit show “24″, Fox has decided to pull the plug on this unique action-drama due to rising expenses, lower ratings and the inability to involve Jack Bauer on another intense day. 20th Century Fox, the production company for the show, attempted to pitch it to NBC but was denied a time slot. Though the ratings are still high, it simply isn’t enough to cover the cost of each episode which includes a $5 million licensing fee to the studio.

The Hollywood Reporter interviewed producer Howard Gordon which gave some insight to the series finale:

THR: What’s next for “24″?
Gordon: There are other possible iterations of Jack Bauer and his world — whether a movie or some other sort of scenario. We’re developing the movie, Billy Ray (”State of Play,” “Shattered Glass”) is writing it. It depends on how well it comes out and Fox’s appetite. Most importantly it’s about ending the show right and doing it with the same level of intensity and commitment that we started with.

THR: When’s the soonest that fans could realistically expect a feature film?

Gordon: Obviously the script’s still being written. It could be as early as next year depending on how things come together.

THR: Since the setting shifts to Europe for the movie, will CTU still play a role?
Gordon: Yes and no. Jack is really the center of it, catching up with him emotionally and locationally where he is. The opportunity is not to use the real-time aspect and also to do it on a scale the TV show never allowed.

THR: Is there anything TV-related that you’re looking to do in the future with the “24” brand?

Gordon: There are conversations about that. If one of the writers came up with a good idea, I’d happily pitch to Kiefer and happily pitch the show to the network — whether Fox or someone else. We just don’t have that idea and that’s where everything has to start.

THR: You never pitched an idea for next season?

Gordon: We couldn’t come up with something that really satisfied us. We’ve done everything we feel we can do with that character in this format.

THR: How did ending the show come about?

Gordon: It helped that this was the end of a lot of peoples’ contracts. There was a deal finiteness in place. Also, every year is a high-wire act. We all look at each other and ask, ‘Can we really do this again?’ and it’s not with complete conviction that we say, ‘Yes.’ As an act of faith and effort, we get through it. This year Kiefer said it felt like the senior year of high school.

THR: How do you want “24” the series to be remembered?

Gordon: I’d like it to be remembered as a revolutionary concept. The second thing is that we loved this show so much and never did anything less than our best. I hope we delivered to our fans like we feel we did to ourselves. We loved this show from the very first hour to the last hour, so I hope people think of it being consistently at that quality and that it never dipped too terribly — except for season six.

THR: Can you tease to the rest of the season?

Gordon: We’ve taken a risk in the last eight episodes. It was challenging to the writers to the actors. We’re taking a risk, the show has to do that. Without spoiling what’s to come, it’s pretty dark and complex and a place that was uncomfortable for us to write and for some of the actors to act. We really swung for the fences. Because the show is as old as it is, this season hasn’t really been given its due. But our audience is hanging in there with us and I think it’s been a very successful season.

THR: How has this decision creatively impacted the ending?

Gordon: There have been a couple other season-enders that would have been spectacular series enders. Season four, season five and last year. I was more aware this time of ending something that really felt surprising, but not cheap; emotionally consistent. Some will throw their shoes at the screen, inevitably some will be angry, some will say they hated it the last three years. You can’t please everybody you can only do the best you can do. I’m hoping people lean forward. I’m hoping the first feeling people have is, “Damn I miss it, I want more.”

Fans can look forward to a feature length movie that is to take place in Europe and can expect a “definitive ending” to the season finale which is to air in May.

Well, it’s official – Marvel Studios and director Joe Johnston have finally sealed the deal with actor Chris Evans to step into the title role of “The First Avenger: Captain America”.  Evans has signed onto a 9-picture option with Marvel Studios at a low $300,000 salary, although I’m sure that didn’t discourage the actor from signing on – after all, he’s going to be CAPTAIN #$%#@$ AMERICA!

Note that while Evans has starred as The Human Torch in both the dreadful Fantastic 4 films, the character is Fox-owned whereas Captain America belongs to Marvel Studios.

We would list the other former contenders, but we doubt you’d want to know…cough…”Step Up”…cough.

Filming is scheduled to begin in the UK in late June with plans for a July 22nd, 2011 release.

Okay, who wouldn’t watch this?

Looks like we’re going to be seeing a new Predator movie. Robert Rodriguez of El Mariachi, Spy Kids, Sin City and Grindhouse is producing. The movie, supposed to be a direct sequel to the Schwarzenegger original, is starring Topher Grace, Lawrence Fishburne, and Adrian Brody.

Official Trailer is slated for release on the 18th.

Catch a sneak peak at http://www.predators-movie.com/

After a 4 or 5 year development cycle, a roller coaster of delays, platform changing, and a universe planned out to play out among 3 games, Final Fantasy XIII has finally landed on our shores. And it sure has been worth the wait. Final Fantasy XIII has a massive significance in this generation, not only for consoles but Final Fantasy as a series overall. XIII marks the newest advancement in graphical and technological design as the first Final Fantasy in true high definition and the first original multi-platform numbered offline Final Fantasy ever.

From a technological aspect the game is very well built. Visually, its difficult at times to tell the difference between the in-game character models and the game’s CG sequences. We can see a justification for a long localization process with so much detail involved. All the dialogue in the game has been voice and lip matched, and I mean everything. Of course some things don’t receive as much attention, but at the start of the game I had to double take at NPCs talking to me, their mouths didn’t simply move when they talked, but they move matching the words they speak according to the English dialogue. The game requires absolutely no install, it plays straight from the Blu-ray (I played it on the PS3) and there’s virtually no load times for things, although I experienced exactly 2 instances when I had a lag time when switching from overworld to battle scenes, but that might be because I rarely ever turned off my PS3. Otherwise, entering a battle was absolutely seamless. The horizon is expansive, in an area similar to the Calm Lands from Final Fantasy X, you can really feel the grand scale of the area. In the distance you can see a colossal creature’ moving around behind the mountains, flying monsters in the sky, packs of wolf monsters running around the plains, and giant walking elephant-like creatures (they’re this game’s version of Adamantoise) grazing.

Gameplay is solid as well. Battle is revolved around the paradigm shift. Essentially job changing mid fight; likened to shuffling a deck of cards. In preparation for battle, you assign each character in your party a role: healer, physical attacker, magic attacker, enemy enfeebler, party support, or a tank. And you need to change your party members’ roles on the fly according to the situation in battle. Combat is as involved as it has ever been in a Final Fantasy. Gone are the days you can simply mindless push the action button to advance the fight. While most of the combat is automated, if you turn away from certain fights for even a moment your game could be over. You only control one character essentially, and if that character dies, the game is over. Luckily, to reduce the frustration of having to retry you don’t have to restart from your save point, after losing a battle you pick up right were you engaged the monster and can try again or choose to run around it. Once again random battles are no more. Monsters are seen and you can try to sneak up on them prior to the fight to get a head start on the battle. At the beginning of the game, the combat seems too easy, you’re healed to full after every fight, even if you have character’s K.O.’ed. But it turns out to be very welcome near the middle of the game. You don’t have to buy restorative items constantly at shops, monsters don’t even drop Gil. HP levels are absurdly large, normal monsters seem to average around 600k near the end of the game. To balance this off, damage dealt has been largely increased as well. Battles revolve around chaining attacks to build a chain meter, once that meter reaches a predetermined point dependent on each enemy they are put into a stagger state when damage is exponentially increased. Then taking down a boss with 3million hit points doesn’t seem so daunting.

But this isn’t a new concept, other RPGs have given large amounts of damage before. But this is where things have changed in the themes of Final Fantasy as a franchise. Certain elements are very different this time around. The musical elements are something I personally missed. The only familiar tune is the chocobo theme. There is no traditional victory fanfare, no prelude, no Final Fantasy theme, not even in the ending credits. The gameplay is linear throughout the entire game, the only real time you can break away from the story is at the very end of the game prior to the last dungeon. While a linear story is not new to FF, (FFX was linear) there is no world map, no airship, not even towns.  The side quest system is borrowed from Final Fantasy XII a la monster hunts and summons are limited to only six; four of which are classic summons. It doesn’t always feel like Final Fantasy, but it’s still a a great game in its own right. Each character is likable and there’s a bit of character development, albeit a tad cliche. The voice acting is well done and not awkward (like White Knight Chronicles).  People have complained that the series has become stale and old and Square Enix responds by an even larger departure from tradition. It’s only fitting that the last story trophy/achievement you receive is called Instrument of  Change.

Marvel Studios has official revealed their casting choice for Red Skull, the main villain to be featured in “The First Avenger: Captain America”…and the role goes to Hugo Weaving! Excellent casting choice, no? In case you’re clueless as to who this legendary villain is, here’s the description courtesy of Wikipedia:

The Red Skull, Johann Schmidt (sometimes spelled Shmidt), was a former Nazi general officer and confidant of Adolf Hitler. He has been closely affiliated with HYDRA and is an enemy of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Avengers, and the interests of the United States and the free world in general. He was physically augmented by having his mind placed into the body of a clone of Captain America, the pinnacle of human perfection. He has been seemingly killed in the past, only to return time and time again to plague the world with schemes of world domination and genocide.

While the deadline for casting Captain America was originally March 1st, director Joe Johnston is still in the process of deciding amongst 4 remaining contenders: Mike Vogel (Cloverfield), Garrett Hedlund (Tron: Legacy), Wilson Bethel (Generation Kill, The Young and the Restless) and Chris Evans (Fantastic Four). Shooting is scheduled to begin in the UK late June of this year.

“The First Avenger: Captain America” is projected to hit theaters July 22nd, 2011.

I bet you’re all itching to know the answer to the ultimate question: Is Chris Nolan directing Batman 3??? The best answer we can give is…it’s very likely In a recent interview with the LA Times, Nolan had the following to say regarding Batman 3:

The key thing that makes the third film a great possibility for us is that we want to finish our story. And in viewing it as the finishing of a story rather than infinitely blowing up the balloon and expanding the story…I’m very excited about the end of the film, the conclusion, and what we’ve done with the characters. My brother has come up with some pretty exciting stuff. Unlike the comics, these thing don’t go on forever in film and viewing it as a story with an end is useful. Viewing it as an ending, that sets you very much on the right track about the appropriate conclusion and the essence of what tale we’re telling.

There you have it.  Nolan also mentioned that his brother Jonathan Nolan is “now doing the hard work” of writing the script with David Goyer.  He had the following to say:

My brother is writing a script for me and we’ll wait to see how it turns out…. He’s struggling to put it together into the epic story that you want it to be.

In addition, expect key characters who survived the first 2 films to return for the third.  Will that include the Joker?  We have no idea.  Here’s the quote:

We have a great ensemble, that’s one of the attractions of doing another film, since we’ve been having a great time for years.

…wait, there’s more Batman 3 news, you say?  Yes, indeed!  Nolan has also eliminated one of many potential villains who have been speculated to appear in the third film: Mr. Freeze.  Looks like those rumors about Dick Grayson and Mr. Freeze making cameos in Arkham Asylum were complete BS after all – as if we didn’t already know.

Moving onto news of the next “Superman” project, Chris Nolan had the following to say:

It’s very exciting, we have a fantastic story. And we feel we can do it right. We know the milieu, if you will, we know the genre and how to get it done right…[it] is a way of approaching the story I’ve never seen before that makes it incredibly exciting. I wanted to get Emma and I involved in shepherding the project right away and getting it to the studio and getting it going in an exciting way.

Nolan also stated that this next film will stand on its own, dismissing ideas of whether there will ever be a Superman/Batman crossover film:

A lot of people have approached Superman in a lot of different ways. I only know the way that has worked for us that’s what I know how to do.  Each (Batman, Superman) serves to the internal logic of the story. They have nothing to do with each other.

Well, it certainly looks like the ball has started rolling on these 2 projects and with the approaching summer release of Nolan’s next film “Inception”, expect to hear more from the director in the coming months ahead.

You can find the entire LA Times article here: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2010/03/christopher-nolan-takes-flight-with-superman-we-have-a-fantastic-story-1.html

One word: Badass…

“Iron Man 2″ hits theaters this May 7th.