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Showtime is turning the story of Uber into a TV series
It seems Showtime reckons the turbulent behind-the-scenes story of Uber is good fodder for a TV show. It's developing a limited series about the ups and downs of the ridesharing company. Billions co-creators Brian Koppelman and David Levien will write and produce the show, based on Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber.
'Console Wars' novel is being developed into a TV series
Console Wars, the non-fiction novel by Blake J. Harris on Nintendo and Sega's rivalry throughout the 1990s, is in development as a limited TV series, Deadline reports. It will be produced by Legendary Television, behind the upcoming Netflix series Lost in Space, and Seth Rogen's Point Grey Pictures. There's no word yet on whether it will air on a network or streaming platform.
Ubisoft is adapting 'Child of Light' for TV
With more and more games turning into TV and movie properties (such as The Witcher, Street Fighter and Alan Wake), it's only natural that a major studio such as Ubisoft would want a bigger slice of the action. Among other projects, the company is working on scripts for a Child of Light TV series and a Werewolves Within movie, it told Variety.
Amazon’s ‘The Tick’ trailer keeps the comic’s oddball humor
It's been over two decades since the idiosyncratic comic The Tick was successfully adapted into three seasons of a Saturday morning cartoon, but its first live-action TV version a few years later was tragically cancelled after nine episodes. Amazon decided to give the idea another go by greenlighting a new take on The Tick last fall after its first trial episode survived the platform's viewer voting pilot period. The first trailer for the bizarre blue bug's new show dropped -- along with a release date, August 25th, when it will be available to Amazon Prime members.
Glenn Close to star as a zombie in an Amazon pilot
Amazon has been hard at work beefing up its TV offerings lately, and there could soon be more reason to pay attention to the tech giant's original content. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Emmy-winning actress Glenn Close is set to star in Sea Oak, a half-hour comedy-drama pilot about an angry zombie who terrorizes her remaining living relatives. Close will play Aunt Bernie, a formerly meek woman who returns from the grave from "sheer force of dissatisfaction".
'Enemy of the State' gets a timely TV series sequel
Jerry Bruckheimer has announced that he's developing a TV sequel to his 1998 hit movie Enemy of the State. The series will be filmed with a view to airing on ABC and will be set 20 years after the original that starred Will Smith and Gene Hackman. Of course, back then, the notion of ubiquitous government surveillance that could examine every part of our lives seemed totally far-fetched. The film itself concerned a reckless NSA official who planned to erode traditional notions of privacy in modern day America. Yeah, about that.
The BBC wants to right Hollywood's 'Golden Compass' wrongs
The Golden Compass was a critical flop, but thankfully Philip Pullman's epic trilogy of fantasy books, His Dark Materials, is being given another shot on TV. The BBC has commissioned an eight-part series based on the complete works, which will be made in Wales by Bad Wolf and New Line Cinema. The story begins with Lyra, an orphan that lives in a parallel world and finds herself swept up in a mystery surrounding strange "Dust" particles. She eventually encounters Will, a boy from our world, and the pair go on an epic adventure spanning countless cities and creatures. A TV mini-series should give the producers more space to explore the characters and their relationships. One concern, however, is the budget -- aside from Doctor Who, the BBC hasn't delivered many fantasy TV shows on the level of, say, Game of Thrones. His Dark Materials covers a dizzying number of worlds that, without the proper funding, could be rather tricky to pull off.
Amazon discounts Prime subscriptions to celebrate its Emmy wins
If you haven't heard, Amazon original series Transparent won five Emmys over the weekend, including Jeffrey Tambor nabbing Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. To properly celebrate, the online retailer is discounting the cost of Prime for new members this Friday. From 12:00 AM ET to 11:59 PM PT, signing up for the annual subscription will set you back $67 instead of the usual $99. Of course, opting for Prime gets you access to Transparent (season 2 starts in December) and other movies and TV shows in addition to music streaming, free two-day shipping and more. [Image credit: Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images]
Telltale Games and Lionsgate are working on a 'Super Show' TV series
Telltale Games has created quite the following with episodic titles like Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead. Now, with the help of Lionsgate, the studio is looking to tackle a televisions series with a similar approach: a game/show hybrid the studio is calling a Super Show. The format includes both scripted and "playable" elements for episodes, so just like the games, viewers will be able to decide the sequence of events. "It's not an interactive series with a show, or a TV show with a game, but a story integrated in a way that only Telltale can do," Telltale CEO Kevin Bruner told Entertainment Weekly. "For us it's a very natural evolution of the interactive story telling expertise we've pioneered."
iTunes in the Cloud looks to be hitting more of Europe with TV series, films (update: confirmed)
While stateside users might complain that we get all the good stuff in Europe first, Apple's iTunes in the Cloud for movies and TV shows has finally got around to rolling in to France and other parts of Europe, eons after it came out in the US. We confirmed that the new functionality works in France, which lets you buy films and TV shows from a computer, Apple TV or iOS device, then download it for free from the cloud on another. Others have reported by Twitter that it's working in Holland and Sweden as well, making it the first big move for the service since it rolled into the UK, Australia and Canada last summer. Until now, users in those nations were only able to download books, apps and music purchased in iTunes from the cloud. There's still no word from Apple about the move, however, and the list of supported countries hasn't been updated for those features -- so we'll enjoy it for now and hope Cupertino doesn't change its mind. Update: We've confirmed with Apple that this rollout has indeed taken place. Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden all get movies in the cloud, while France gets both movies and TV series in the cloud.
Twitter rumored to be pitching in-feed video shows to studios
Twitter has been making a giant push for expanded tweets from content providers. It's only a short logical leap from that to Twitter providing the content itself, and that's exactly what AdWeek claims may well happen. Its unconfirmed tipsters have the microblog taking a page from YouTube by pitching Hollywood movie and TV studios on "several" original shows that would live in followers' feeds, including the seemingly inescapable reality show. While Twitter wouldn't have someone in the director's chair, it might still play a role by letting viewers affect the show as it's happening -- and of course, running ads. Silence is the only official response to the rumor from Twitter so far; don't plan your viewing schedule just yet, but do brace yourself in case Twitter breaks out a Horse ebooks cameo to boost ratings in mid-season.
Vudu adds TV shows to its rental catalog, but only some are in HD
Here we go again with a good news / bad news announcement from Vudu, as it's added a nice catalog of TV shows to its library for rent and/or purchase. The bad news however, is that despite having the 1080p / 5.1 audio HDX technology we've come to know and love, it's currently only offering a small subset of them in anything other than standard definition. Like other online stores, there's an odd situation where some things are a decent value (season one of The Walking Dead is $26.99 on Blu-ray at Amazon, $15.99 on iTunes in HD, and $16.99 on Vudu HDX) and others are not (season six of Weeds is $27.99 on Vudu HDX, $23.99 on Blu-ray at Amazon and $38.87 on iTunes) so shop carefully. Given time the library will probably even out more in quality and price and once Vudu is available on more devices (and hopefully in HD on the PC at some point) there will be more reasons to consider it as a VOD option.
My Movies plugin for Media Center will add support for TV shows in March
Brian Binnerup, developer of the long running My Movies plugin for Media Center, has announced plans to test support for TV series beginning in March for "select users" with more than 2,500 points accumulated. Users who have been looking to slot DVD/Blu-ray series boxed sets next to their movie cousins will finally be able to do so, with the cover art and metadata delivered via the web. An official 4.0 release will come afterward, possibly by the end of March.
Epix TV network to deliver real pilot based on a fake Steve Jobs
It looks like our old friend, the Fake Steve Jobs, is doing pretty well for himself. A popular blog, a well-received book, and now -- with any luck, at least -- a new TV series. Currently the Epix network (still only available on FiOS TV) is teaming up with the money men at Media Rights Capital to deliver a pilot called iCON. Featuring a character named Tom Rhodes, "a composite of Jobs and other Silicon Valley titans," the story is described as "a savage satire, a study of ego, power and greed." The man behind it all is none other than Larry Charles (of Borat, Bruno, and Seinfeld fame) who will direct the thing and oversee the script being written by Dan Lyons (Fake Steve Jobs himself). As you might have guessed, the announcement is pretty nutty: "We are attempting to do nothing less than a modern Citizen Kane," Charles said. "A scabrous satire of Silicon Valley and its most famous citizen. We needed a bold environment to nurture such a vision. One that was free of pre-conceived ideas. And Epix made it clear they were that place. They asked us to make their home our home. And we have." Since no one we know has actually seen Citizen Kane, we can't tell you if that's a good thing or not. But if it turns out to be anything like Fast Times at Ridgemont High, we love it already! PR after the break.
Some TV series reverse, go from Blu-ray back to DVD-only releases
Given the high price of Blu-ray boxed sets, the news from Video Business that some series are going backwards from having Blu-ray editions to DVD only really isn't that surprising. Specifically cited are Rescue Me, Damages and Nip/Tuck, with numbers indicating the average title sells only 5% of its copies in HD. Series that appeal to early adopting Blu-ray owners and HDTV fans like Fringe, Lost and Terminator:SCC naturally do better on Blu-ray, regardless of price, but with the exception of fanatics who will either pay up or wait for a sale, it's not surprising that most people would rather keep an extra $15 - $30 in their pocket and just grab it on standard def.
Exclusive footage from the "Lost" game
ABC's Jimmy Kimmel managed to get his hands on an advance copy of the Lost video game. "One of the guys at the office played it all day today", and as you'll see, he certainly seemed to enjoy it.
