June 7, 2008
Dennis Hopper is very good at playing evil human beings. One of his best, and most infamous scenes, came in the Quentin Tarantino-penned film True Romance, in which he faced off with Christopher Walken. In that scene, which is far too racy too discuss here, Walken played to Hopper's character's inherent racism, eventually earning a mercy killing at the hands of Hopper and his mafia henchman. I bring this up because Hopper has just been cast in the TV adaptation of Oscar-winning film Crash. The cable channel Starz has ordered thirteen episodes of Crash. The film focused on the topic of racism in modern-day Los Angeles, and will become only the second Best Picture winning film to be turned into a television show (the first was In the Heat of the Night). Hopper will play a character named Ben, a maverick record producer. Also joining the cast is Clare Carey, most recently seen in the now-deceased Jericho, who will Christine, a frustrated mother married to a real-estate developer. Hopper has recently been on the television show E-Ring, as well as a small, but important role on the first season of 24.
June 3, 2008
Sprague Grayden, well known for having either one of the best or one of the worst names in Hollywood, will play the daughter of the President of the United States on season 7 of 24. Grayden, who most recently has been seen as regular on the now-defunct Jericho and in a recurring role on Weeds, will play the daughter of 24's new president, who will be portrayed by famed Broadway actress Cherry Jones. As for Grayden's role on 24's seventh season, these things are shrouded in mystery. Since it is 24, there's a good chance Gradyen's first kid character will be either be tortured, kidnapped, killed, kill someone, team up with Jack Bauer or all of the above.
May 13, 2008
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Regardless of what CBS says, it's beginning to look like nuts again. The peanut protest in the name of Jericho's continued existence appears to be back, only this time, the nuts aren't headed for CBS but for Nielsen, the company responsible for measuring TV ratings.
According to The Tampa Tribune, die-hard Jericho aficionados are scheduled to picket at noon today in front of Nielsen's local office in Oldsmar, in Pinellas County in Tampa Bay, Florida.
May 7, 2008
Battlestar Galactica is still well into its final season, but before fans start mourning the loss, there's more news on the Ronald D. Moore spin-off Caprica. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Paula Malcomson and Esai Morales have been cast as two of the leads in the new series.
Malcomson, best known as the prostitute Trixie on HBO's Deadwood, will play the role of Amanda Grayston, a brilliant scientist, which Morales, most recently seen as Major Beck on Jericho, will play Joseph Adama, Bill's father. In Caprica, Amanda and her husband pioneer the creation of the Cylons. In the pilot, their daughter Zoe is killed, but her DNA and consciousness live on as she is the prototype for the next step of humanity, the Cylon equivalent to Eve.
May 2, 2008
When fans were able to bring back Jericho by bombarding CBS with tons of nuts, they thought they made an impression. However, the series has now become double dead with the second season cut short after just seven episodes. Fans were disappointed, and a few are still hopeful that they could pull off another save-the-show campaign. The fact that the show was shut down twice says something about Jericho. The low-rated show just can't survive on CBS.
Nonetheless, some are hoping that Comcast will enter the picture and save the day--or the show, for that matter. Recently, there have been talks that Comcast may enter a similar deal like that of DirecTV for another struggling but highly acclaimed show, Friday Night Lights. But now that the future of Jericho is terribly bleak, the actors and actresses have resigned to pursuing other endeavors than waiting it off in the meantime.
April 22, 2008
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It's been a month since CBS officially axed Jericho for a second and most likely final time. After allowing it an experimental seven-episode second season, the network once again deemed it necessary to send the series to oblivion.
Although fans managed to undo Jericho's fate at the close of its maiden season via an onslaught of nuts hurled at the network powers-that-be, it doesn't appear any such campaign could sway the CBS bigwigs a second time. Nina Tassler, CBS entertainment president, spoke with The Hollywood Reporter and made a reference to Jericho while addressing the question of another show's fate.