With the recent avalanche of remakes and reboots being announced, I can say in all honesty that it’s actually a bit of a breath of fresh air to hear about a new TV adaptation.

T.J. Hooker, the Aaron Spelling show that starred William Shatner and Heather Locklear, is now being developed into a big screen feature length action comedy. The show followed T.J. Hooker (Shatner), a cop who voluntarily demotes himself after his partner is slain so that he can train rookie cops and get back to the hands-on work. One of the rookies he teams up with is a cocky young kid who doesn’t make things easy for Hooker. It ran from 1982 to 1986.

Chuck Russell is currently in talks to direct the adaptation. He’s best known for his work helming The Scorpion King and The Mask, but also has done The Blob (1988), Eraser, and A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. He was a producer on Michael Mann’s Collateral, as well. [...]

Weapons
Directed by Adam Bhala Lough
Starring Nick Cannon, Paul Dano, Mark Webber
Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Release Date: March 3, 2009

I knew I was headed for trouble when I saw Nick Cannon on the cover of the DVD for the movie Weapons. But I am forever an optimist, so I decided to give it a shot. Just because Mr. Cannon’s claim to fame is being on basic cable and marrying Mariah Carey doesn’t mean he can’t act or pick good movies to star in, right? So after watching this movie, was I proven wrong? Sadly, no.

Weapons is just about near every idealistic student film you have ever seen. Right off the bat, a murder occurs at a fast food restaurant and Reggie (Cannon) is killed. For the rest of the film, the movie follows Reggie as well as other youths in a series of disjointed flashback vignettes that explains how Reggie ended up dead and why the murder occurred in the first place. The whole point of the film is to explain that even the smallest event can have devastating results but after watching 30 minutes of the film, does it really matter? [...]

Yes, yes, yes, bring the metal \m/\m/

Today’s MP3 album deal of the day over at Amazon is Love At First Sting by The Scorpions for only $1.99.

For those of you who are not familiar with this German metal outfit, allow me to tell you that yes, yes are, and Love At First Sting is the album that you’d know them from, thanks to their mega-hit “Rock You Like a Hurricane.” Yup, it’s on this album, so if you want that song, this is the way to go.

Released in 1984, the entire album is filled with great tunes like “Big City Nights,” “Bad Boys Running Wild,” and the power ballad “Still Loving You.” The must-have “Still Loving You” and “Rock You Like a Hurricane” are two bucks on their own right there, which makes this deal definitely worth it [...]

In the not so distant past, Latino Review caught word that Nimród Antal was the top choice to direct the Rober Rodriguez-produced reboot Predators for Fox and Troublemaker Studios. Now, this news has been confirmed directly from Rodriguez himself to Ain’t It Cool News.

Antal is still fairly new to the game, but he has directed movies like Kontroll and Vacancy, with another on the way called Armored. The director was among a handful of talents being considered for the job, including Marcus Nispel (Friday the 13th) and Neil Marshall (The Descent). Rodriguez ultimately chose Antal after noticing many impressive skills and virtues that reminded him of a young Quentin Tarantino — most of which was his ability to work with various well-known actors without issue. This trait stood out due to the fact that Rodriguez wants Predators to have strong story as well as a great cast fueling the action flick. He also is putting the work into creating awesome creatures and avoiding CGI as much as humanly possible, which is worthy of celebration. [...]

Year One
Directed by Harold Ramis
Starring Jack Black, Michael Cera
Rated PG-13
Release date: June 19, 2009

There are a lot of stock catchphrases that are widely used by people to describe movies that I have grown tired of hearing. Reading a review of a film that is described as a “rollercoaster thrill ride” or a performance is hailed as being a “tour de force” stinks of laziness and unoriginality by the critic. Specifically there are two descriptions that apply to Year One that I am deathly sick of hearing across the board: “Check your brain at the door” and “the actors looked like they had fun making the movie.”

A movie like Year One wasn’t made to be dissected into deeper meaning. Zed (Jack Black) and Oh (Michael Cera) are hunter-gatherers who are kicked out of their village for being worthless and forced into the world on their own. They have a variety of encounters that are loosely based on stories from the Bible. Dumb cavemen weaving in and out of biblical stories. That’s pretty much it. I’d like to be able to go into detail but the movie simply doesn’t provide that opportunity.

All told, Year One is Harold Ramis directing Jack Black and Michael Cera in a Judd Apatow-produced comedy. Based on the credits you would have expected that even if the whole thing didn’t work, it would have at least had its moments. It did not. Why? Because it was Harold Ramis directing Jack Black and Michael Cera in a Judd Apatow comedy. None of those names is strong enough to carry a film on its own anymore because they all rode the waves of their respective success into the ground [...]

Captain America: Reborn #1
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Penciler: Bryan Hitch and Butch Guice
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Release date: July 1, 2009

I should be more excited about this. I have loved Ed Brubaker’s run on Captain America since I picked up the first trade. It’s probably my favorite book that I’m currently reading on a monthly basis. So why is ‘underwhelmed’ the first word coming to mind? I’ll tell you why: it’s mostly that too much of Captain America: Reborn #1 is spent recapping info that was recapped two weeks ago in Captain America #600. So what we get is a second issue in a row of set-up; well-illustrated set-up, but set-up nonetheless.

This issue follows from where Issue #600 left off. Sharon Carter and the Falcon take the gun that killed Steve Rogers to Hank Pym for some investigation. They discuss Sharon’s memories from when she was under the Red Skull’s control and how she saw what could be one of Dr. Doom’s Time Platforms and that the Red Skull may have already brought Steve back. Meanwhile, the current Cap and the Black Widow try to track down the Time Platform so they can see what it really is. Unfortunately, the Platform is in the custody of Norman Osborne, so they have to break into a H.A.M.M.E.R. facility, where all does not go according to plan. Finally, we get a hint of what may be happening to Steve, and how he may be brought back [...]

The Sci Fi (SyFy? If we all refuse to acknowledge that, will they change it back?) channel has already far and away proven that they can take an old TV series, completely restructure it, and create one of the best shows of all time. Now that Battlestar Galactica has come and gone, Sci Fi is developing a new potential series based on Alien Nation with fanboy favorite Tim Minear writing.

Alien Nation first started as a movie starring James Caan in 1988 that turned into a 1989 TV series on Fox. The show was canceled after one season, but has seen five new TV movies made since then, as well. The show is basically a social observation using a fictional setting and aliens known as “Newcomers” who were at first made to live away from humans, but now have been allowed to reside among us; of course this doesn’t stop racism from continuing. The original movie for which this new project is being based followed an L.A. cop (Caan) whose partner is killed while investigating the Newcomers. When the first alien police officer comes to his department, he volunteers to join up with him in order to sneakily try and investigate the death of his former partner. [...]

LOST
The Complete Second Season, Blu-ray Edition
Starring: Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, Jorge Garcia, Josh Holloway, Dominic Monaghan, Terry O’Quinn
Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Release date: June 16, 2009

I didn’t start watching Lost until the second season was underway. All I knew about it before then was that everyone who watched the show was on the edge of their seats talking about numbers and hatches and “others.” All I saw was some people staring down a metal shaft with confused looks on their faces. Oh how little I knew back then.

Things really change in the second season. The survivors learn a lot more about the history of the island, the Dharma Initiative, and “The Others.” The writers also found a plausible way to introduce several new characters into the series as we see what happened to the people in the tail end of the plane (though off camera issues would result in many of the having short lived stints on the show.) We also get to meet Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick), the man whose fate is intricately tied to the island and who knows what caused the crash of Oceanic 815 in the first place. Then there’s ‘Henry Gale’ (Michael Emerson), possibly the best addition to a TV show’s cast… ever.

Season two also showed the first signs of weakness in the show’s writing. While entertaining, some episodes seem to drag on, rehashing the same plot over and over in an attempt to fill in the gaps between the first and last episodes [...]

It’s been a while since we heard that Guillermo del Toro was attached to remake the 1973 TV movie Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark. Recently the project has begun to heat up with the announcement of Katie Holmes being cast, and now comes word that Guy Pearce is in final negotiations to star in the movie. Nine-year old Bailee Madison — who already has almost 20 IMDB listings — has also been cast.

The movie was about a man whose young daughter moves into his creepy house with him and his girlfriend. Eventually the young girl discovers that the house is also inhabited by demons who want to make the little girl one of their own — though her father refuses to believe this to be true.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, Pearce will of course play the father; Holmes will play his girlfriend, while Madison will naturally play his daughter. Guillermo del Toro wrote the script with Matthew Robbins and he is producing with Mark Johnson. One of del Toro’s understudies, Troy Nixey, will be directing the movie adaptation. [...]

The Harry Potter website, The Leaky Cauldron, has found out that actor Bill Nighy has told The Independent that he will finally be starring in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows after a long, long time claiming to be one of the few British actors not cast in a Potter film.

The Leaky Cauldron apparently caught wind of this a long while back, but only now is it seemingly being confirmed by Nighy himself. Though the actor decided not to say who he would be player, experts are confident that he’s a shoo-in for the role of Minister of Magic Rufus Scrimgeour

Here is what Bill Nighy had to say:

I don’t think I’m allowed to say it but I’m going to be in the next Harry Potter film. I won’t say which character, but he’s a goodie. I just got the gig.

When asked if he’s even read the books, he explained “Not yet, but I will! It’s rather like being in a Shakespeare that way, you know?” — a quote that may have Potter fans nervous. [...]

In the new crime biopic Public Enemies, Johnny Depp stars as John Dillinger, the notorious bank robber who became Public Enemy #1 in 1930s in the United States in the beginning years of the J. Edgar Hoover-led FBI. During the Great Depression, the real-life Dillinger was a two-time escaped convict who not only pulled two [...]