Mindy and Zooey Will Ride Again
Today in show business news: Fox wants more of its comedies, the Bible is bigger than ever, and Halle Berry is going to be a weather girl again.
.Today in show business news: Fox wants more of its comedies, the Bible is bigger than ever, and Halle Berry is going to be a weather girl again.
Fox has announced that it has renewed its comedies Raising Hope, New Girl, and The Mindy Project for next season, a sign of confidence in its Tuesday night comedy bloc; only Ben & Kate didn't survive the season. It's particularly good news for freshman series The Mindy Project, which hasn't had the greatest ratings. But it's a "cool" hit with Twitter/blogger types and critics, so Fox decided to stick with it anyway. It also pairs well with New Girl, both being about "quirky" early thirtysomethings tryin' to figure it out. On the other end of the spectrum, Fox has also renewed its faux-literary serial killer show The Following for a second season, so we'll be getting at least fifteen more episodes of that lurid nonsense. The show is apparently quite popular in DVR viewings; when factored in, the DVR numbers make the show the second most popular broadcast drama on the air. Which is pretty dang good. Fox has, of course, already renewed America's favorite television series The Bones for a twenty-third season, while another Glee season is still being negotiated. Good grief, Fox. Either pay the demon priestess her thirty pounds of bloody bones and get the show for another season or walk away from the haunted bazaar. It's not that hard. Of course all the forces of good and light in the world implore you to not buy another season of the accursed program, but we know that the foul sorceress's powers are hard to resist. Just try to be strong. [Deadline]
Speaking of sorceresses, Halle Berry will once again be playing the white-haired, weather-controlling mystic Storm. Well, technically she's a mutant, but same difference. But yes, Bryan Singer has announced that Storm will be one of the returning characters in his X-Men: Days of Future Past, which is already bringing back Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan, Hugh Jackman, Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, Shawn Ashmore, and maybe Kelly and Brandon, if not Dylan. There's no word yet on how big all of these roles will be — they could be mere cameos — but the sense seems to be that there's a time-travel element at work in the movie, as the first prequel took place in the 1960s and most of the above people played characters in the 2000s. Either that or they don't age at all, which is possible, given that they're mutants. Though of course Magneto and Professor X have aged... So. Who knows. It's X-Men. They can just make stuff up. [Entertainment Weekly]
Wonderful actress Rebecca Hall has joined the cast of Transcendence, the directorial debut of longtime Christopher Nolan cinematographer Wally Pfister. She'll be playing Johnny Depp's wife in the mysterious sci-fi picture, which in some way involves a computer becoming self-aware. Paul Bettany also stars. Hm, Paul Bettany's kinda weird, so maybe he plays the computer? Or like the voice of the computer? Though doesn't Johnny Depp usually want the weird roles? Is Rebecca Hall married to a computer? How many wigs and fake teeth are involved in this movie? I'm beginning to get a little worried that Johnny Depp might be playing an actual human man in this movie. That can't be! That cannot be. Figure something out, Pfister. At least give him a weird accent. At least do that. Don't let Bettany have all the fun. I don't know if Johnny could take it. [The Hollywood Reporter]
Not to be outdone by HBO's Game of Thrones, the History Channel has thrown itself into the fantasy ring with a miniseries called The Bible, based on the popular book, and it has really connected with audiences. The first two hours of the ten-hour series premiered last night to a whopping 13.1 million people. That is a massive amount of people for basic cable. Heck, these days it's a lot of people period. So it looks like the History Channel has a big hit on its hands! Lots of watercooler chatter and theorizing and whatnot. In case you haven't already read the book, we're not going to give away any spoilers, but know that there's a big death coming up. Like maybe bigger than you-know-who in GoT. Brace yourselves! [Entertainment Weekly]
Here's a trailer for What Maisie Knew, a film adaptation of the Henry James novel starring Julianne Moore, Steve Coogan, and Alexander Skarsgård. Though nobody's running around in late Victorian garb and calling each other sir. This is set in modern-day New York City and seems to be more dreamy/sad than morally scolding. Whatever it is, we're curious. It's a good cast, and who can resist that Stars song? That's a guaranteed goosebump or shiver right there. Take heed, movie trailer makers.