Before everyone jumps out of their seat to tell me that this was already on The Simpsons, let me just say that everything has already been done on The Simpsons, even The Simpsons are repeating stories from The Simpsons. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, CBS has released the first trailer for the television adaptation of Stephen King‘s Under the Dome.
The series stars Mike Vogel (Cloverfield), Dean Norris (Breaking Bad), Jeff Fahey (Machete), Rachelle Lefevre (Twilight), Britt Robertson (Scream 4) and Keith Harris (Big Fish) with a premiere date set for Monday, June 24th.
The only certain thing, is that thing’s in town are going to go to hell and a hand basket a lot sooner than anyone thinks. Ever read about experiments with numerous rats in enclosed spaces? It’s not pretty.
It’s one of the most anticipated series’ premieres of the summer, if not the year. CBS’ Under the Dome, based on the novel by Stephen King, was discussed at a panel at WonderCon over the weekend, and now we’ve been given our first look at the show, as well as some behind the scenes insight from King himself.
What is Under the Dome? Adapted for TV by comic writer and Lost contributor Brian K. Vaughan, the series (and novel) follows the citizens of the small town of Chester’s Mill who become trapped behind a forcefield that surrounds their town, keeping them in and the rest of the world out. And before you say, “Homer will save them,” as been noted before, King started working on the novel in the 1980s and had returned to it over the years before it was finally published in 2009.
The series stars Rachelle Lefevre, Mike Vogel, Dean Norris, Britt Robertson, and Keith Harris. Click play to see the preview below.
Writer, producer Gregory Garcia (Yes Dear, My Name is Earl, Raising Hope) has just singed one of Nerdom’s favorite resident gingers, Rupert Grint (Harry Potter‘s Ron Weasley) to star in his new CBS comedy Super Clyde. The single camera comedy is described as:
Clyde is a meek, unassuming fast-food worker who decides to become a super hero. The well-meaning and sweet yet slightly neurotic guy who never feels like he really fits in. The avid comic book reader considers himself a borderline agoraphobic with mild to severe anxiety issues who wishes he were a super hero himself. When Clyde inherits a $100,000 a month inheritance from his long-dead eccentric Uncle Bill, he decides that the cash will be his secret super power and will use it only for good and reward the good-hearted.
So I’m guessing he won’t be using his new-found wealth to refurbish his basement into the Batcave or be beating heads like Kick Ass. Hey, Kick Ass is a comedy, an action comedy, but a comedy all the same.
Garcia does have a stellar track record with comedies so there’s a good chance this pilot will make it to television screens and mark the first small screen series regular role for Grint.
What do you think? Can Grint carry a show by himself? Could some of his Harry Potter friends make some guest appearances?
CBS has set it’s sights on casting character actor Brandon T. Jackson in the lead role of their television Beverly Hills Cop adaptation. You’ve seen Jackson in films including Tropic Thunder, Lottery Ticket, Fast & FuriousPercy Jackson; Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son and others.
The show would focus on Axel Foley’s (Eddie Murphy) son Aaron (Brandon Jackson) with Murphy making guest appearances. Aaron’s beat would be in Beverly Hills where he would us a mixture of comedy and action to take down the criminal elements threatening the rich and famous while trying to live up to or perhaps live down his father’s reputation.
The truly interesting part of this production is participation of the creator of The Shield, Shawn Ryan, who is the creative force behind the scenes. As a huge fan of The Shield I’m very interested to see how Ryan translates his tough, violent style of police drama to a franchise that is known for its mix of action and comedy, with comedy taking a lead role. I don’t remember laughing too many times when watching The Shield, just a lot of grimacing and “Oh Shit” moments.
I do like this casting choice, he was really good in Tropic Thunder. What do you think about this casting choice and the show in general?
Some may be scratching their heads as to why we’ve been reporting on this new series at all. It’s not sci-fi, it’s doesn’t have zombies, so why do we give a shit about a new detective show on CBS. Well, to be honest, I’m mostly interested in Elementary because I want to see it fail. See, there’s this phenomenal show across the pond from Steven Moffat. No, not Doctor Who, though it might as well be about his non-time traveling brother from another mother. It’s called Sherlock and it is a modern re-imagining of Sherlock Holmes from Moffat and Mark Gattis. Did I mention it’s incredible? How about spectacular? Guys, it’s mind-blowingly good television you need to watching! (You’re in luck too because the most recent season is available on PBS’ site.) Sherlock stars Benedict Cumberbatch as the detective and Martin Freeman as Dr. Watson. You might be familiar with them from a couple, low-key projects they have coming up, Star Trek 2 and The Hobbit. Sherlock‘s loaded with plenty of geek cred and is really worth checking out. Would I lead you astray?
Okay, enough gushing about why Sherlock is like, the best thing ever. Elementary appears to be CBS’ attempt to capitalize on the modern-Sherlock Holmes popularity. It should be noted that earlier on CBS optioned to adapt Moffat and Gattis’ Sherlock for American television. Moffat smartly replied, fuck no, learning from the train wreck that was an American version of his British sitcom, Coupling. So, it’s a little suspicious when CBS comes out with their own modern-Sherlock Holmes TV show after Moffat turned them down. Hmm.
Earlier today we shared our first official look at Elementary stars Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Lui as Sherlock Holmes and Joan Watson, respectively. “See! Look! We’ve got a girl Watson. This is completely different!” said CBS trying to defend their blatant ripoff. Now we’ve seen the first bit of footage from Elementary in this behind-the-scenes promo,
Miller’s doing a nice job as Holmes, I really can’t complain about anything he does here. It’s just, I’ve seen it done better, by Cumberbatch, funny enough his co-star from their widely acclaimed stage show, Frankenstein. And Lui, well, she’s Lucy Lui. I’ve never seen her act in anything that’s been dramatically different from what I’ve seen her do before, and this seems to be much of the same.
From what we can see in the short behind-the-scenes promo this just screams Americanized Sherlock. But of course, I’m sure they’re skirting that line very carefully and making their show just different enough the BBC won’t have a reason to release the legal hounds.
Here’s the official synopsis,
ELEMENTARY stars Jonny Lee Miller as detective Sherlock Holmes and Lucy Liu as Dr. Joan Watson in a modern-day drama about a crime-solving duo that cracks the NYPD’s most impossible cases. Following his fall from grace in London and a stint in rehab, eccentric Sherlock escapes to Manhattan where his wealthy father forces him to live with his worst nightmare – a sober companion, Dr. Watson. A successful surgeon until she lost a patient and her license three years ago, Watson views her current job as another opportunity to help people, as well as paying a penance. However, the restless Sherlock is nothing like her previous clients. He informs her that none of her expertise as an addiction specialist applies to him and he’s devised his own post-rehab regimen – resuming his work as a police consultant in New York City. Watson has no choice but to accompany her irascible new charge on his jobs. But Sherlock finds her medical background helpful, and Watson realizes she has a knack for playing investigator. Sherlock’s police contact, Capt. Tobias “Toby” Gregson (Aidan Quinn), knows from previous experience working with Scotland Yard that Sherlock is brilliant at closing cases, and welcomes him as part of the team. With the mischievous Sherlock Holmes now running free in New York solving crimes, it’s simple deduction that he’s going to need someone to keep him grounded, and it’s elementary that it’s a job for Watson. Rob Doherty, Sarah Timberman, Carl Beverly and Michael Cuesta, who directed the pilot, are executive producers for CBS Television Studios.
What do you guys think? Does it look any good to you? Does appear to be a blatant Sherlock ripoff? (Come on! He’s even wearing a scarf!) Or is there room for two, equally good, modernizations of the famous sleuth?
Elementary is another look at Sherlock Holmes set in modern day New York. The show is scheduled to air on CBS this Autumn. In hopes of stirring the already controversial pot of Internet and BBC angst, CBS sent out this first official image of the lead characters – Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes and Lucy Liu as disgraced doctor Joan Watson. Aidan Quinn is also in the cast as Captain Gregson, who sounds like a modern day Lestrade figure.
After the hoopla surrounding the announcement of an American remake that follows so closely on the heels of an already wildly popular British BBC series modern day retake of Sherlock Holmes this time using a female Watson (Lucy Liu) died down, we haven’t heard or seen much. Hopefully we’ll be seeing more soon as CBS starts stirring the media pot.
This NerdBastard is hoping the show will be worthwile and not, as many fear, an attempt to hop on Moffat and Gatiss’ coat tails. Rumor is that a trailer might make it’s way to the Internet in the next couple of days.
Any thoughts? Did anyone read this far down the article?
By the sounds of things, Netflix is in talks to resurrect another long dead cult favorite TV show. TV Guide Magazine has confirmed that the internet based streaming service is in early talks with CBS to bring back the post nuclear apocalypse TV drama Jericho.
Apparently in the four years since the show go the axe it has remained very popular with Netflix users. Hell I’ll admit it, I didn’t watch it till it was offered on there, I have a long standing ‘no Skeet Ulrich‘ rule.
With a rabid fan base that had a successful mail-in-peanuts campaign that earned the show a second (and final) season, a couple of failed attempts to return to TV in some form or another, stalled out movie talks and, a comic book season 3, Netflix thinks there is still enough interest in the happenings of a small Kansas town in the wake of a nuclear attack to bring it back created by Jon Turteltaub.
Jericho would add to a growing list of original programming for Netflix, Lilyhammer, the upcoming House of Cards and of course, Arrested Development(among many other rumored resurrections) and if this happens it could start as soon as 2013. Granted you’d have to round up the (at least some) of the original cast, hire some writers, get Skeet to book of time from Arby’s…
In lieu of cursing CBS and kicking dirt all over their loafers for going ahead with Elementary, (the very blatant copying of the BBC series Sherlock), creator and writer Steven Moffat had decided to place a vow of silence on himself . . . until now anyway. Once the shots from the set of the Elementary pilot displayed stars Johnny Lee Miller as Sherlock and Lucy Liu as Dr. Joan Watson, Moffat must have reached his breaking point.
Bring on the verbal smack-down!
Maybe it was that Holmes beloved sidekick was gender-flipped into a “Charlie’s Angel”, but according to BBC Radio, Moffat may finally been showing how he really feels about the American Sherlock.
“It isn’t a version of our show. … They’ve just decided to go off and do one of their own, having been turned down by us to do an adaptation of our version. So how do you think I feel about it? Annoyed is in there.”The bigger problem for us with Elementary is, what if it’s terrible? What if it’s awful? Then it degrades the brand. … I remember there was a legitimate American version made of Coupling, actually adapted from our version. It was terrible and it was a disaster and it did sort of diminish the original. So if there’s this completely unrelated rogue version of Sherlock going around and it’s bad, it can be bad for us.”
The man has every right to be worried, Sherlock is his baby and the last thing he wants is it’s red headed step-child shaming the series with a poor pilot. Even so, it’s not like Steven should be extremely worried. While his producer Sue Vertue is prepping legal action in a courtroom, Steven has a more Zen approach:
“We don’t own Sherlock Holmes. … We don’t even own the idea of updating it. It’s been done before. I hope they know their Sherlock Holmes very, very well indeed because we know what’s in our show and wasn’t in the original. So if we did discover our material had made it into somebody else’s show we would have a problem with that. If there is no such incidence of that, then there’s nothing we can object to.”
The joy of something like Sherlock is the fact that over the course of an afternoon you can sit down and watch a season, series, in their entire three episode run. And even with such a short season you still manage to get drawn into feeling for Sherlock and his lover good friend Dr.John Watson. Let’s hope Elementary can at least capture some of that magic, instead if ripping it’s counter-part off. CBS better hope they know what their doing.
Watson: “By gove you’re right Holmes, who is it this time?”
Holmes: It’s the Yanks I’m afraid . . . and you’re a woman.”
Watson: ” A WHAT? . . . well now . . . I say.”
Holmes: “Give it a chance Watson, don’t be a bore.”
Watson: “Right, right Holmes, stiff upper lip and all that.”
Elementary has begun filming, the Holmes-in-New York pilot that will star Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock and Lucy Liu as Dr. Joan Watson. The production has been on location around the city in the last couple of days, giving paparazzi their chance to capture Miller and Liu in costume. Click on each for the larger size.
As predicted, CBS has gone with a, shall we say, unconventional choice to play Watson to Johnny Lee Miller‘s Sherlock in the network’s modern-day Americanized update of Holmes in Elementary.
It’s been confirmed that Lucy Liu (Kill Bill, Charlie’s Angels) will take up the part of Dr. Joan Watson, the former surgeon and right-hand woman of expert detective Sherlock Holmes, “a recovering addict and consultant for the NYPD,” according to TV Guide.
So what are we to make of this PC police move? Sure, Liu is a talented actress and all, but is this is the kind of maneuver that people who hate American remakes of foreign TV shows hate. So is there a practical reason why Watson is now an Asian-American woman, or is it just cynical political correctness afoot?
I guess we’ll see for certain when and if Elementary airs in the fall on CBS.
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