Dollhouse Canceled

That sound you hear? It's the dozens of people gasping by this news.

Fox has officially canceled Dollhouse, according to THR. The series, created by cult-magnet Joss Whedon and starring Eliza Dushku, was doomed from the start when the network placed it on Friday nights. Just as fans of Whedon's previous Fox collaboration Firefly had feared, the Friday Night Deathslot has claimed yet another in a long line of victims.

To their credit, Fox deserves props for at least giving the show a fighting chance. The fact that it got a second season was nothing short of an act of God. The show being owned and produced by the network that aired it certainly helped. Then again if they were truly confident in it from the get-go, why did they dump it on Fridays?

Nonetheless as previously reported, the remaining episodes will in fact air starting on December 4 and Whedon has said he intends to give Dollhouse a send-off. For the fans' sake, I hope it delivers the goods for them.

Maybe this second experience with Fox will convince Whedon he should move over to cable television. I'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who thinks that network television has better quality programming in this juncture. Plus, I could easily see Whedon doing something on the Sci-Fi Channel (fuck that "SyFy" shit!) or USA Network.

Date Night Trailer

I love Steve Carell, Tina Fey and the NBC shows they headline. That would be The Office and 30 Rock, for those who don't know. And considering the Peacock network's ratings over the last few years, that's not necessarily a joke.

The trailer for their forthcoming comedy Date Night has been released. The film, directed by Shawn Levy and co-starring Mark Wahlberg, Ray Liotta, Common, Mila Kunis and James Franco dressed up as Danny McBride from the looks of it, is scheduled for release April 9, 2010.

Thank God Carell and Fey have their day-jobs to fall back on...

First Official Look at Sorcerer's Apprentice

If it didn’t for us already know about The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, I’d have sworn that was a picture of Nicolas Cage in between films. I mean what with him being broke and all. No offense, but how many houses does one human being need?

Fanboyz has a First Look (not pertaining to on-set photos, at least) at the John Turteltaub-directed, Jerry Bruckheimer-produced fantasy adventure opening next July.

More Black Cat News For Spider-Man 4

I’m not against Spider-Man 4. I just don’t know how Sam Raimi and crew are going to be able to win the audience back after the 2007 third installment. Folks (real people and us nerds alike) truly hated that flick. But to their credit, they’re giving it the old college try.

Our pals over at Hey U Guys! have their own set of exclusive info coming days after the reports that Black Cat makes an appearance. As per their source(s), you can expect a Felicia Hardy different from the one comic-fans have been familiar with for years.

Instead of being the daughter of a cat burglar, her daddy will be the new editor of The Daily Bugle who falls for Webhead, discovers his duality and “becomes a threat” after dear old Dad eats a bullet. Doesn’t that basically sound like Elektra in the Daredevil film? Just sayin! And while we’re talking about her editor-in-chief dad, he is said to be a villain with a referral as being “a viper” being the clue. Don’t know any Spider-Man baddies related to snakes – a little help?

If these claims are to be believed (and we’ve known Hey U Guys! since the start of TMT’s conception and like them, so I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt), this continues the ever-going copying of the Spider-Man films to the Superman films. Seriously, compare them. It’s interesting how close they match up. And now there could be a new love-interest for Spidey in his new boss’s daughter? Remember Superman IV: The Quest For Peace? Yep, the same plot-point happened there too.

Then again, what does all of this say for Mary Jane? Will she and Peter be splitsville in this one? Might we expect a “Special Appearance by…” credit for Kirsten Dunst?

No Dark Tower For J.J. Abrams

If you’re one of those hoping to see a Dark Tower movie, don’t expect it anytime in the near future – especially not with J.J. Abrams in the director’s chair. The Stephen King series has long been on the part-time Verizon Wireless salesman’s “To Do” list. But considering he’s already attached to 40 billion other projects, there was going to be a casualty.

The Star Trek (and presumably Trek 2) helmer confirms to MTV his time on the would-be property is a thing of the past:

“After working six years on 'Lost,' the last thing I want to do is spend the next seven years adapting one of my favorite books of all time. I'm such a massive Stephen King fan that I'm terrified of screwing it up. I'd do anything to see those movies written by someone else. My guess is they will get made because they're so incredible. But not by me.”

To his credit, Abrams’ isn’t blaming this on Paramount or anyone else. If he really wanted to get this made, he could with the kind of clout he has right now. So the closest thing you’re going to get for the time-being will be the li’l cocktease at the beginning of Frank Darabont’s The Mist.

Clash of the Titans Teaser Trailer

If anything is going to 100% sell to the masses that Sam Worthington is the next cinematic take-names-ass-kicker (like studios wants us to believe), it's gonna be Clash of the Titans.

The remake to the 1981 cult-favorite, directed by The Incredible Hulk helmer Louis Leterrier and with a cast featuring Worthington as well as Ralph Fiennes, Gemma Arterton, Mads Mikkelsen, Pete Postlethwaite and Liam Neeson, hits cinemas this coming March.

Yahoo! Movies now has a First Look at the film's teaser trailer. Funny I kinda figured they'd put it in front of Avatar or something. Nonetheless, it looks pretty bad-ass along with the leaked posters from last week.

It's The End of the World As Len Wiseman Knows It

20^th Century Fox just bought up a pitch about the end of the world under a current working title Nocturne. This is according to THR.

The studio has already lined up Len Wiseman to direct and produce. Wiseman most recently directed Live Free or Die Hard for Fox to general success, depending on who you talk to and helmed the first two Underworld films.

A search for screenwriters is also said to be underway. I’m assuming that means the executives liked what they heard from the initial pitch, but wanted to go for someone with a bit more track-record for this. Well, that’s how it sounds.

Depending on the reception of Roland Emmerich’s latest destruction-porn 2012, this is either a good idea or a bad one. Then again, I don’t recall the Disaster genre ever being out of favor for studios.

Will Smith vs. Oscar - Round 3

Considering his popularity across the board and the fact that everything he touches turns to box-office gold (minus last Christmas' turkey Seven Pounds), it's inevitable that Will Smith will win an Oscar. Everyone loves the guy too much to snub him for his own naked golden boy trophy. He's been nominated twice before (for 2001s Ali and 2006s The Pursuit of Happyness) to no success. But it appears the perfect vehicle might have fallen on his lap.

Pajiba (damn, they've gotten quite the scoops as of late!) reports that Smith has signed on to produce and star in Flowers for Algernon. That's the short-story turned novel about a mentally-challenged man who undergoes an experimental surgery that increases his intelligence (which was previously done on a lab mouse named Algernon - hence the title of the story). Once his I.Q. goes through the roof, he starts alienating the people around him. Then there's the discovery that his newly implanted brain-smarts aren't permanent.

It's been adapted multiple times with the most known being the 1968 film Charly starring Cliff Robertson (aka Uncle Ben from the Spider-Man films for you kids out there! No, he wasn't born old!) which won him the "Best Actor" Oscar. However, you're more familiar with this from The Simpsons episode HOMЯ where the explanation of Homer's stupidity comes from a crayon stuck up his nose.

That's right. Big Willie is going full-on retard. That's a gimme for Oscar voters. I mean, they even nominated Sean Penn in that piece of shit I Am Sam.

The Black Cat Shows Up In Spider-Man 4?

That's what the folks over at Mania have to say on the matter.

As per their source(s), director Sam Raimi and his team are up to their ass in casting and looking for an actress to put on the skin-tight, black-leather outfit as Black Cat/Alicia Hardy for Spider-Man 4. Dare I say, I'd offer my services to critique the wardrobe fittings for that role. Just putting that out there, Mr. Raimi.

With filming expected to start up in the early months of next year, it appears that things are finally moving forward on the next installment. Don't know how many more times we can hear Raimi talking about how "the script is coming along great" and what not. According to the site, one possible candidate for Hardy is Rachel McAdams whose supposed already met with Raimi and the producers for the role.

So what about those rumors of Curt Conners finally transforming into the Lizard from last month? The site points to a search for a "male villain" to go along with Black Cat. And considering that Dylan Baker will return for Spider-Man 4, that would suggest that we're looking at someone else to kick Webhead's ass for two hours.

An Ugly Wanda Movie In Development?!?

What the Hell, Jamie Foxx? Has the Oscar curse claimed another victim? Quick! Someone hide Jennifer Hudson!

Foxx is a solid actor, won an Oscar for doing an awesome Ray Charles impersonation and appeared in a fair number of good movies (i.e. Jarhead, The Kingdom, Collateral, Dreamgirls, etc.) So why he’s resorting himself to this crap is a big question-mark. Did a couple of checks bounce or something?

From the mouths of Latino Review to our ears comes the poisonous news that Foxx, along with Martin Lawrence, will write and direct Sheneneh and Wanda. Yes, true believer, as in the characters both actors played on television in the 90s and on Fox, no less.

Foxx played Ugly Wanda during his time on In Living Color (which I watched back when FX played it in heavy rotation in the late 90s) and Lawrence originated Sheneneh on his self-titled sitcom Martin (didn't watch that one, so it didn't hold any sentimental value for me). Of course, Lawrence has been in Movie Hell for years now. So that's not a surprise. But seeing that Foxx is reduced to this?

How the mighty hath fallen.