'Prometheus' Teaser Scares and Intrigues
Today: the first Prometheus trailer is promising, Aaron Sorkin's new show has a title, and Tom Cruise is victorious again.
.The Call Sheet sifts through the day's glut of Hollywood news to find the stories even non-industry types care about. Today: the first Prometheus trailer is promising, Aaron Sorkin's new show has a title, and Tom Cruise is victorious again.
Here's a first teaser trailer for Ridley Scott's return to science-fiction, Prometheus, a kinda sorta but only in a really vague way prequel to Alien that's, it seems, about the origins of life on Earth. We don't really see much beyond spooky visuals and big crashing things in this, but you know what? We're gonna just go ahead and say it looks good. There are great people involved -- from Scott, to co-writer Damon Lindelof, to stars Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Noomi Rapace (said to be the true lead in the movie), and Idris Elba -- so why poo-poo it now? We don't need to be skeptics all the time! So yes for Prometheus. Ticket for one, please. (Yeah, just one. Nerds: What can you do?)
Aaron Sorkin's upcoming HBO show about cable news was once called More As This Story Develops, which was a long and clunky title, one a little too cutesy for what is, hopefully, an entertaining-smart look at a fascinating, if usually frustrating, subject. But now it has a new, simpler title: The Newsroom. OK, that makes sense. It makes it sound a little more about reporters rather than studio anchors and network brass, but we suppose he couldn't call it The Network, lest people accuse it of shamefully piggybacking on Sidney Lumet's classic news movie Network. Broadcast News was taken too, though that would imply one of the big three nightly news shows, which of course this is not about. So sure, The Newsroom. Whatever else, it's better than Studio 50 on the 6th Avenue Strip. [Deadline]
Hah, this is a little sad for old cracker salesman Regis Philbin. Ratings of Live! with Kelly have actually been up since he left the morning chat show last month. "Well, when you're my age, things involving you are rarely up," Philbin said to nobody in a press conference that didn't happen, we just had to make that terrible joke. Really this is probably just a curiosity factor thing, with people tuning in to see how Kelly does with the various celebrity guest hosts that have paraded through the (what we imagine to be) hyper air-conditioned studio. Maybe they'll never get a permanent replacement for her? That could be interesting. Like if Johnny Carson had replaced Ed McMahon every week or so. Now don't you go getting nervous, Andy Richter. You'll be fine. They probably will hire a permanent person for Regis's chair, because trying to get a guest host every few days is probably not a job that any producer wants. [NYT]
Disney has all of a sudden up and decided to show the upcoming superhero orgy The Avengers in 3D. We don't know everything there is to know about moviemaking, but we're pretty sure this means that they have to go back and film the whole thing over again. Right? Just scrap what they've got and start at square one. C'mon, Downey. Let's go, Hemsworth. You too, Johansson. Everybody back to the set. Disney wants this thing 3D, so we gotta give it to 'em 3D. And just at the holidays too! Hollywood's a tough business. Nobody ever said it wasn't. [The Wrap]
This is kind of happy news. Tom Cruise's latest movie, the totally lots of fun Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol is entering the holiday weekend as the number one movie at the box office. Good for old Tommyboy! Sure he's an alien weirdo from the planet Glibtron, and sure his alien-human hybrid baby will one day enslave us all to rule cruelly for a thousand years as galatic empress (with headquarters in Bel Air), but it's nice to have Tom Cruise back on top again. (Most likely he'll be back on bottom again soon enough -- he's pretty versatile. Woof.) It harkens back to an older, simpler time. A time when there were real Movie Star deities, not the Twitter-happy demigods Tinseltown is scattered with these days. Just real, actual million-watt smile superstars. Does this mean Clinton's back in office? Are we in high school again?? Oh it's all so exciting. [THR]