Fans of old-school Eddie Murphy, one of the greatest stand-ups of all time, may have something to get excited about – because for the first time in over 10 years he has decided to return to that which made him a household name, that which made him great: R-rated comedies. And the comedy he has chosen will be The Misadventures of Fluffy for Paramount.

Wait. What? Nevermind, everyone can sit back down. Really? The Misadventures of Fluffy? I hate even writing that title, let alone watching it. C’mon Eddie, what are you doing? Last thing we heard was that Eddie Murphy had backed out of starring in the Richard Pryor bio-pic and now we’ve got this? He’s picking Fluffy over Richard Pryor.

‘Tis the season to be Jolly. Not because of the holidays (yuck, holidays) but because of David Tennant’s finale as Doctor Who and since everyone seems to be in the giving spirit, BBC America has bestowed upon us the gift of a three-minute sneak-peek at Doctor Who: The End of Time.

It was not a week ago that we learned the name of Tennant’s swan song, along with getting a 40-second teaser trailer. Now we’ve got three-minutes from the episode! With the way information keeps rolling out of the two “beebs” (BBC & BBC America), I’m guessing that by next week we’re going to have the entire episode available. Well, maybe not the entire episode, but hopefully the opening sequence .

While common-folk around the world are pulling their hair out trying to figure out how to program their DVRs, fans of Supernatural know that at 9PM on Thursday nights is time for the Winchester brothers to kick some supernatural butt. Given that tonight’s episode is the last episode of 2009, I figured it’s only appropriate to write something up.

Since the premiere of the fifth season, we’ve seen Lucifer rise from hell, Bobby become confined to a wheelchair, the brothers Winchester become television stars, 80-yr-old Dean Winchester kick some warlock butt and we finally find out what happens at all those Supernatural conventions. I’d say that’s pretty good for a couple of month’s work.

Since it’s Thursday, let’s double up on the Fringe news. While we recently brought you news of everyone’s favorite baldy weirdo popping up all over the place, we’ve got bigger fish to fry. In this case, the proverbial fish is the elusive William Bell (played by your friendly neighborhood Vulcan, Leonard Nimoy) and whether or not the story of William Bell is over before it even had a chance to get started.

If you’re in the camp to believe anything this Nimoy fellow has to say, there might be some credit to this rumor. At the DVD launch party for J.J. Abrahams Star Trek, Nimoy took the time to wax poetic about all things Fringe.

For the past couple of days the internet has been abuzz about the possibility of Katie Holmes joining Mission: Impossible IV. The website Monsters and Critics is citing a “source” that claims to have any and all information regarding Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes and Mission: Impossible IV villains. Although, I have a feeling that like Transformers, there’s more to meet the eye, so let’s take a look and see if we can’t debunk some of these rumors.

The site states that our favorite height-challenged thespian is “desperate to work with his wife” and since Cruise could (almost literally) pick any film and role for his wife to be a part of, his extensive film knowledge leads him to believe that “an evil part for her in the fourth film would be perfect.”

While fans around the world are waiting to see the final moments of David Tennant as Doctor Who, the Doctor himself has already moved on and is set to star in the pilot for the comedic legal drama Rex Is Not Your Lawyer for NBC.

Created by Andrew Leeds and David Lampson (Stephen’s Life – never heard of it either), the show centers around Rex Alexander (Tennant) who is Chicago’s top litigator, but after suffering from panic attacks, he’s forced to step down from litigating and takes up teaching clients how to represent themselves in court.

While Americans were sitting at home on Sunday watching 60 Minutes, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Dexter, our friends across the pond in the UK were being treated to some of the best television known to man. In the UK, not only was Sunday night the start of the fourteenth season of the always wonderful motor program, Top Gear,  it was also the premiere of ”The Waters of Mars,” the second (of four) Doctor Who specials to air in 2009.

Unfortunately, for those in the US, you will have to wait until December 19th to see exactly what aquatic horrors lie on the distant red planet. So, for the sake of not being called names that make me cry (even though I’m extremely manly), I shall refrain from discussing any elements of “The Waters of March” until the special airs on BBC America.

Drug addicts, doctors, renegade police offices and anyone else that may need “to help themselves” should stay on edge as it looks like the Jigsaw Killer will be on the lamb for the foreseeable future as Lionsgate recently stated that they will continue making the Rube Goldberg horror series Saw “as long as we make money.”

Lionsgate vice chairman Michael Burns spoke those exact words at the Median and Money conference in New York on Thursday. To further prove his point, the confident Burns states that Dirty Dancing, 20 years after its debut, still sells an average of 2,000 DVDs per day.

Columbia Pictures has just released the teaser trailer for their upcoming comedy Grown Ups, staring Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, Rob Schneider and David Spade. While all five actors have previously worked together, this film marks the first time such a comedic ensemble has been put together in a starring role.

Here’s the synopsis:

Five friends and former teammates reunite years later to honor the passing of their childhood basketball coach. With their wives and kids in tow, they spend the Fourth of July holiday weekend together at the lake house where they celebrated their championship years earlier. Picking up where they left off, they discover why growing older doesn’t mean growing up.

Those looking to get a glimpse at next year’s NBC Thursday primetime lineup-inspired hybrid film are in luck as 20th Century Fox has release the first trailer for the upcoming Steve Carell and Tina Fey romantic, action, comedy film Date Night.

This marks the first film by director Shawn Levy since his box office hits Night at the Museum and Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian raked in over $1 Billion. Not only does Levy have a new film, but also a script written by the talented Brian Koppelman and David Levien (Ocean’s Thirteen) with revisions by Josh Klausner (Shrek The Third), Simon Kinberg (Mr. and Mrs. Smith) and Aline Bros McKenna (The Devil Wears Prada). (You may remember the names Simon Kinberg and Aline Brosh McKenna as they are the writing team to sell a $2 million film pitch to Paramount with J.J. Abrams.)

Citizens of Earth, as the resistance against the Visitors grows, mankind just may have a fighting chance against the alien beings. Unfortunately, I don’t believe our favorite alphabet network (ABC) is so gung-ho about this particular extraterrestrial opposition, as resistance means that ratings for their new science-fiction series V have dropped significantly from last week’s debut.

The premiere episode of ABC’s re-imagining of the 1983 sci-fi mini-series raked in 14.30 million viewers, while this week’s episode saw its audience drop 27% to 10.7 million viewers. While all new shows expect to see a slight drop in ratings after their premiere episode, the drop that V saw was the largest since this season started in September.

Still, 10.7 million viewers is nothing to complain about. If V continues to received ratings in that range, fans of the series need not worry about its fate (sorry Dollhouse). Also, looking at Tuesday’s ratings shows you just much of a powerhouse CBS’s NCIS is, as this week’s episode brought in an astonishing 21 million viewers. (Now we all know how NCIS continues to be the number one rated show: it’s awesome!)

The question remains; why so much of the drop off? Have viewers become numb with revisiting past memories with a new paint job? Is the new V just not holding up to what everyone had hoped it would be?

I, myself, never saw the original mini-series, but have become quite interested in this new version. While I’ve fallen back around four episodes in FlashForward, I continue to look forward to the next episode of V. Although, I do have a problem that they’ve turned a mini-series into a regular episodic television series as this means they’re going to have to artificially lengthen a story that has been previously told. I continue to fight the urge to return to the original just so that I know the entire story.

…I can’t be the only one.

Catch V Tuesday nights at 8PM on ABC

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

This past weekend there was a test screening for the highly anticipated Platinum Dunes re-imagining of the horror classic, A Nightmare on Elm Street. Lucky for us, someone going by the pseudonym “Skin Peeler”  was in attendance and wrote up an extremely lengthy review of the film for the folks over at Ain’t It Cool News.

What did he think? While I’ve sampled some of the highlights from the review here, I can tell you right now that it appears much work needs to be done before the April 30, 2010, release date. Keep in mind that none of the effects, sound, editing (pretty much everything) are final at this moment.

[Update: Rachel McAdams has debunked the rumor that she is playing Black Cat. Go HERE for details]

The past couple of weeks have been filled with a ton of Spider-Man talk with the majority of the chatter being focused on which villain fans can look forward to seeing our favorite web-slinger battle in Spider-man 4. Well, the speculation can subside (for the time being) as the folks over at Mania.com have heard from “reliable sources” that Sam Raimi is in the midst of casting the villains for the next installment of the Spider-Man franchise.

Some of the possibilities that we’ve heard were Bruce Campbell as Mysterio, Dr. Connors (Dylan Baker) as The Lizard and the possibility of William Defoe returning as Green Goblin.

With Sam Raimi receiving complete control over Spider-Man 4 (unlike Spider-Man 3) he has decided to go in a complete different direction than what was previously discussed and has allegedly chosen the formidable Felicia Hardy, known the fans around the world as the skilled cat burglar Black Cat as one of the villains for Spider-Man 4. (Yes, that’s right. I said “one of”).

It appears that the newest additions to NBC’s Thursday night comedy line-up may have found their primetime audience as last week’s episodes of Community and Park & Recreation both received some their highest ratings. Conversly, while the peacock was rejoicing, things weren’t so positive on the other side of the proverbial road as FOX’s sophomore science fiction series Fringe hit an all time low, but is Fringe really to blame or did the World Series have something to do with it?

Paramount asked the public to demand that Paranormal Acitivity be played in their hometowns and the public did just that by not only pushing the supernatural thriller to the number one position against Saw VI, but also helping it become the most profitable independent film ever made.

As of now, Paranormal Activity has earned almost 6,000 times its original production budget of $15,000; as a expression of gratitude to moviegoers around the world, Paramount wants to make sure that you, the fans, are personally thanked for all your support by allowing you to submit your name to be featured in the “Thank You” section of the film’s credits when it’s released on DVD.

Last week, Steve “Frosty” Weintraub over at Collider ventured over to über-producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s office in Santa Monica to get an early look at the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time trailer. After viewing the trailer, Weintraub ran into Bruckheimer and took the time to ask him some questions regarding the upcoming fourth addition to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, entitled, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

The three questions Weintraub chose to ask were:

What’s up with the script?
When are they going to shoot the film?
Did the regime change at Disney cause any problems?

Hankering for some Captain N? In need of the Superhuman Samurai Cybersquad? Been wondering what Penny, Brain and Inspector Gadget are up to? Well, we’ve got just what you need as The Cookie Jar Company has just launched Jaroo.com, a Hulu-esque video site with full-length episodes of over 50 television series that anyone who remembers when Saturday morning was “Saturday morning” will enjoy.

Jaroo.com launches today with one of the largest selections of full-length episodes of popular kids television programming and movies, both current and classic. The new free premium video destination for kids of all ages will initially offer over 50 popular TV series with more than 500 episodes available on-demand, any time, making entertaining your child or inner-child just a simple click away. Full episodes of such longtime favorites as “Inspector Gadget”, “Johnny Test”, “Super Mario Bros.”, “Zelda”, “The Adventures of Paddington Bear” and “Madeline” as well as the exclusive U.S. premiere of “Mona the Vampire” are available on Jaroo.com.

Additional shows include “Ripley’s Believe It or Not!”, “Horseland”, “Liberty’s Kids” and live-action favorite, “Cake”, plus many more. New episodes and shows will be added daily, with over 2,000 episodes offered over the next three months to ensure Jaroo.com will always remain fresh.

Columbia Pictures recently released two more clips from the upcoming disaster movie, 2012. These clips, while not as long as the five minute clip we previously posted, still have yet to show anything that makes me feel like this film will be anything more than a money-grab at the end of the world. (Which, I guess, would be the perfect time to do it).

In the first clip we find a zombie-free Woody Harrelson playing “crazy” internet blogger Charlie Frost who knows everything there is to know about the end of the world and warns Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) that, in typical movie fashion, the destruction will start in Hollywood, California. (It’s movies like this that always make me feel better about living in Michigan. So far it looks like I’m surviving Independence Day and when Skynet becomes self-aware on Judgement Day).

[WARNING: READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!]

Last week the Paley Center for Media hosted an “Inside the Writers Room” for the hit HBO vampire series, True Blood. Before the event started, the folks over at Sci-Fi Wire caught up with writer/producers Alan Ball, Alexander Woo and Raelle Tucker, to ask them what kind of things we can expect to see in Season 3.  It appears that the showrunners may still be under demon-god Maryann’s spell as they have no inhibitions about revealing anything and everything about the third season.

Readers beware, WHAT LIES BELOW IS NOTHING BUT SPOILERS!!! So, if you’re the type that doesn’t want things ruined for you, turn back now. But, if you’re like me and can’t bear to wait until June 2010 for the next season, then enjoy.

While making the rounds for his hit ABC show Castle, Nathan Fillion spoke with MTV News about all things Hammer and divulged some new information about the highly anticipated sequel to last year’s Emmy award-winning web musical, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along-Blog.

While we’ve previously announced that they’ve been talking about the sequel, everything has been pretty much in the air, but now Fillion sheds some light on the title and some songs. Unfortunately, Fillion stops short of saying exactly what said title would be.

“There are plans. The media for the sequel has not yet been decided, but there is a title.”

With November sweeps and the World Series both starting last week, it causes a strange effect in television ratings. While November sweeps is supposed to bring in high ratings, the World Series always cuts into their usual audience as we’re seeing with ABC’s much touted drama, FlashForward. The new series created by David S. Goyer and Brannon Braga saw its lowest ratings last week and conversly, this past week Smallville saw their highest ratings since the ninth season began.

Still, can the World Series really account for all these ratings fluctuations? As a fan of Smallville, I make sure to always tune in, but even with the show being able to pull in 2.6 million viewers; it’s still down over 1 million viewers from last season. When Smallville made the move to Friday night, The CW was putting their veteran series up against the powerhouse that is CBS’s Friday night line-up. Since the Kryptonian visitor has been able to hold its own on the toughest night of the week, I have a feeling that Mr. Kent may receive another season order.

Fans can rejoice as new life has been given into their favorite police drama, Southland, with TNT announcing this morning that they’ve closed the deal to pick up the popular series recently canceled by NBC for being too dark and inappropriate for their 9pm time slot.

TNT has picked up the critically acclaimed series SOUTHLAND, closing a deal with Warner Bros. Television that will bring the drama from Emmy®-winning producer John Wells (ER, The West Wing) to the network in January.  TNT has obtained exclusive rights to air all six episodes that have been shot for the second season, as well as the seven episodes from the series’ first season.  SOUTHLAND will air on TNT Tuesdays at 10 p.m. (ET/PT), beginning with the first episode of the series on Jan. 12.

We recently reported that there were rumors about TNT picking up the series, but nothing was substantiated and no one really knew if it would come to fruition. Southland has been on quite the journey as its second season run was supposed to start September 25, but was pushed back to October 23 only to be canceled by the network on October 8. Now, almost a month later, the show has found a new home. There haven’t been many shows able to pull off such a feat.

Much credit has to be given to executive producer John Wells who, upon news of Southland’s cancellation, promised to find a new home for the series.

“We’re delighted that TNT has stepped forward to pick up SOUTHLAND.  We are all extremely proud of the show,” Wells said.

I know what you’re thinking. Sure, they’re picking up the show and they’re going to air the six already produced episodes of the second season, but what happens after that? Are they going to order any additional episodes?

TNT has decided to wait until after the initial six episode run before they make a decision on whether or not to order any additional episodes. They’ve given the show a new channel, day and time. Now it’s all up to the fans to make sure it stays that way. Although, if Southland is able to retain a fraction of the average 7.5 million viewers who turned into the first season, it’ll be a home run.

Still, there will be enough time to wonder about the future of the show. Today, fans can be happy as their wishes have been granted.

Now, who at TNT can we talk to about picking up Life? Cause I’ve been hankering for some Charlie Crews, fresh fruit and Zen.

Southland will premiere January 12 at 9PM on TNT.

Source: Turner Newsroom

What’s that? You’re one of the two people (Gary Busey is the other) on the face of the planet that doesn’t know what this little indie film called Avatar from this up and coming production company, FOX, is all about? Well, fear not weary moviegoer for on November 1st, 20th Century FOX proves just how important media dominance is by going for the “world’s largest live trailer viewing” on “one of the biggest sports days of the year.”

FOX Sports will take the entire country viewing FOX NFL SUNDAY, America’s No. 1 NFL pre-game show, to Arlington, Texas and the new Cowboys Stadium, where the three minute and thirty second trailer will play live from the enormous Mitsubishi Electric Diamond Vision screen.  The crowd attending the Cowboys-Seattle Seahawks game will experience the AVATAR trailer live just minutes prior to the noon (Central) kickoff between the Cowboys and Seahawks, on the enormous, four-sided, high-definition screen that hangs above the Cowboys Stadium playing field.  At the same time, millions of others watching FOX NFL SUNDAY will see the trailer on-air – making it the largest live motion picture trailer viewing in history.

Employees of Orange Orange and the Buy More can sleep a little easier at night because, for the time being, it appears that their jobs are safe as NBC has decided to order six more episodes of our favorite undercover underachiever, Chuck.

As good news comes, so must the bad. In this case the bad news is NBC will be canceling their low-rated freshman paramedic series Trauma after just five episodes.  Although, I have a feeling that fans of Chuck won’t be too dejected by this news.

Still, fans of Trauma deserve their moment to grieve and NBC has decided to give them that moment, as they’re committed to airing the remaining seven episodes of Trauma. While it’s only prolonging the inevitable, it’s more than Southland received. (I won’t even bring you up, FOX, and that whole Firefly debacle.)

This past weekend the creator of Arrested Develoment, Mitchell Hurtwitz, attended the Austin Film Festival and was the focal point of two panels, “The Art of Storytelling” and a “Conversation With Mitchell Hurwitz.” During both panels the “Mrs. Featherbottom” architect discussed our favorite criminally-challenged family and their venture to the big screen with the Arrested Development film.

In “The Art of Storytelling” Hurwitz was accompanied by fellow Arrested Development producers Steven Zaillan and Ron Howard. The trio discussed the origins of the documentary style and how they sought to avoid the comparison to the original British version of The Office which was gaining momentum at the same time of Arrested Development’s development. (Say that three times… Arrested Development’s develop… I can’t even type it.)

Fresh off the set in New York come a slew of photos of Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson from the upcoming Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg buddy-cop comedy, The Other Guys. Those familiar with Johnson’s film repertoire might be surprised to find that there is not single tutu, fairy costume or alien child associated with this latest role.

The film is a collaboration between Adam McKay (Anchorman, Step Brothers) and Chris Henchy. The pair recently worked with Henchy writing and McKay producing this summers Land of the Lost.

Disney is looking to give consumers the ability to watch their films on any device of their choosing with their new digital distribution system, code-named Keychest. This new service will use the now popular technology of “cloud-computing” to allow you pay one price for the capability to watch your favorite Disney film (unless it’s in the vault – bummer) simultaneously on multiple devices.

“Dad has a Zune, Mom has an iPod, there’s a Mac and a PC at home and a Roku box; right now, those devices don’t talk to one another. We intend to blend those worlds.”

Any dolls out there looking to have a “treatment” anytime soon had better make haste – that, or risk being stuck with a Swedish accent and the ability to put together an Erector Set blindfolded. Why? FOX has decided to pull Dollhouse off the schedule and put it in the attic. For the month of November anyway.

Sources in the know have stated that the month-long removal is because of November sweeps. The show will return to its Friday night time slot in December with back-to-back episodes.

Fans of the Gallifreyan traveler can add one more thing to the long list of changes we can expect on the new series of Doctor Who premiering in 2010, as one surreptitious fan caught a glimpse of the TARDIS on location in a churchyard. And while it doesn’t appear to actually be bigger on the inside, there’s something different about our favorite time-traveling police box. Luckily, the furtive fan also brought along a camera so I don’t have to describe it (because I’m horrible at descriptions).

“There are lights and stairs.”

See!

Folks in Hollywood are going to have to mind more than their P’s and Q’s as studios are starting to crack down on employees using social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook in an attempt to curb information leaking out ahead of schedule.

Some studios have already begun the crackdown with Disney including clauses in their contracts citing “interactive media such as Facebook, Twitter, or any other interactive social network or personal blog” as a means for breaching confidentially. DreamWorks is another studio to jump on the social network clampdown by cautioning their employees not to circumvent (“cirsumvent” – Gob Bluth) the company’s press releases through the use of “a social networking site, blog or other Internet-type site.”