io9: tv movie

Ian McKellen Is A Sick Torture Genius In New Trailer For "The Prisoner"

Meredith Woerner — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:00:00 PDT

Let the mind games begin. In this exclusive trailer from AMC's miniseries remake of The Prisoner, see the many ways Number Two (McKellen) plans on messing with Number Six (Jim Caviezel). Plus, is that a baby Number Two?

We're all really excited about Ian McKellen in this role, you really couldn't ask for a better new Number Two. The miniseries premieres on AMC November 15 and lasts three nights.

AMC's Prisoner Reboot Sets A Date

Meredith Woerner — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:58:00 PDT

At last, we can witness the Ian McKellen/Jim Caviezel battle of wills (and acting.) AMC's remake of the The Prisoner will air on November 15 and stretch over three nights — that's six hours of mind twists.

Ian McKellen plays the devious Number Two, leader of "The Village" a place where retired agent Number Six (Jim Caviezel) is sent to against his will. The Village is made up of exiled a exotic collection of folk, each with a secret past with numbers for names.

Can't wait until November? Right now AMC is hosting the entire 60s show on their site. The reboot will air at 8 PM.

[Variety]

It's The Lou Diamond Philips, Jersey Devil Buddy-Cop Movie

Meredith Woerner — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:00:00 PDT

Is Carny the most random Syfy Original yet? A carnival full of actual freaks lets their most prized creature loose, and now it's up to LDP to bag and and tag the giant urban legend.

Carny will air this Saturday on the Syfy Channel, and will no doubt scare the crap out of us all with that three-eyed weirdo. What is that freaks ability? And what's up with cat lady and tattoo man?

Worst Secret Superhero Club Ever

Charlie Jane Anders — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 17:30:00 PDT

The 1997 Justice League TV movie is like a tutorial on how not to do superheroes on film, from the stiff, I-can't-move costumes to the incredibly cheesy dialogue and acting. (Although I think the little documentary-interview segments are a neat idea, just horribly executed.) Here's the scene where our point-of-view character Tori Olafsdotter meets the rest of the League, who are based on the mid-1990s comics lineup of characters you've never heard of except Flash and Green Lantern. No matter how awful George Miller's abortive Justice League: Mortal might have been, it would have looked great compared to this disaster.

The above clip also showcases one of the biggest challenges of doing a super-team movie or TV show properly: shoehorning in everybody's origins and explaining how all these random people got together. Justice League gets around this problem by making the Martian Manhunter into the Charlie, and all of the other Leaguers into his Angels. Sadly, J'onn J'onnz, Manhunter from Mars, is also kind of a dick, judging from the way he introduces himself to Tori disguised as her creepy coworker who's actually a supervillain.

I wanted to find a clip of the League doing something superheroic and using their powers in an awesome way, but sadly that doesn't really happen in Justice League. The TV movie's big final set piece consists of Green Lantern incompetently confronting the arch-villain, the Weatherman, and failing to prevent him from activating his weather disaster machine. And then the Flash incompetently carries a few kids to safety, but fails to take them far enough. And Tori, who's been pretty useless up until this point, finally stops the Weather Man's destructive tidal wave by freezing it with her ice powers. And Green Lantern, maybe overcompensating for his total failure a few moments earlier, makes a dumb crack about how the Weatherman is always wrong.

As dull as many superhero movies have been since Sam Raimi and Chris Nolan made the genre viable again, it's good to remember how dire they really were, back in the nadir of the Joel Schumacher era.

Jungle Disco Around The Roast Dino Head

Charlie Jane Anders — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 17:30:00 PDT

This summer's remake of Journey To The Center of the Earth can't possibly be as pulptastic as this 1999 TV movie version, starring Treat Williams. Sure, the new Brendan Fraser vehicle will be 3-D and have actual special effects, but will it have jungle women doing a super-choreographed dance around a roasting dinosaur head? I didn't think so. Another clip, below the fold, showcases more things the new Journey won't have: matriarchs in Bette Midler-esque red feather headgear, jealous stone-axe-waving husbands — and lizard people who want to watch two random humans do the nasty in exchange for a piece of weird cantaloupe.

Battlestar TV Movie Shows Torture Orders Came From The Top

charliejane — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 11:29:49 PDT

We get to see Admiral Cain actually ordering the use of torture in the new Battlestar Galactica: Razor TV movie, which airs Nov. 24. We'll also get to see the scene, alluded to back in season two, where Admiral Cain shoots her XO in the head for disagreeing with her orders. The scene where she orders her Cylon prisoner tortured is one of two new clips from Razor which have turned up on YouTube. There's also a new review, featuring spoilers:

Turns out there's a separate Cylon faction that wants to protect something called The Guardian. We'll be seeing more of this Cylon civil war in season four. And a Cylon "God guy" makes some dire predictions of what will happen if the humans follow Kara Thrace, who is referred to as "the harbinger of the Apocalypse for the human race."

Battlestar Galactica: Razor Is Amazing [Eclipse Magazine]