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Back Seat Producers Season 03 Shows Special Episode Special Guests

BSP Special Episode 06: A Chat with Tee and Pip

Strap in folks, this is a long and glorious ride.

We chatted with Tee Morris, author of… well, you know all the books he’s written, and Philippa Ballantine, author of Chasing the Bard.

Tee and Pip are promoting their books that are just about to be released and asking all of us to purchase them at Amazon.

Philippa Ballantine – Digital Magic

Tee Morris – The Case of the Pitcher’s Pendant: A Billibub Baddings Mystery

Also, be warned, you are about to be FLOODED with content over the next 7 days.  We want our friends Tee and Pip to do well, for their books to do well, and we want to spread the word in any way we can.

Sit back, relax, get comfy… it’s a long one, but we dare you not to laugh along with us.

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Back Seat Producers Season 03 Shows

BSP Episode 071: The Dark Knight

Tony, Tony and Adam have a mega discussion of the record breaking film, The Dark Knight.

Themes, implications, analysis, and the future of the franchise are just a small portion of the lengthy discussion of the film.

Also discussed: Green Porno Seriously… we didn’t believe it either until we saw it.

And another episode of the Booster Seat Producers, this time WALL·E is the focus of analysis for Tony and Holden.

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News

News Briefs

OK Magazine reports that Shia Labeouf’s recent DUI may cost Transformers as much as $200,000 a day while they await his recovery from hand surgery brought on by the accident.

Kung Fu Panda’s earnings have helped buoy Dreamworks’ second quarter earnings according to the NY Times. Panda earned $210 million domestic and over $500 million international since its June release and is expected to be the company’s most profitable non-sequel to date. Dreamworks earned 28 cents a share for the second quarter topping analysts expectations of 23 cents a share.

Ridley Scott’s Nottingham has postponed production for roughly eight months until Spring. Scott realized that his real-life forrest back drop was going turn brown half way through filming with the onset of Autumn. From The Independent.

According to Yahoo! Tech Warner took extraordinary measures to keep The Dark Knight off the web including a chain of custody system to track everyone who came into contact with the prints, staggering delivery of the reels and distributing night vision goggles to theater employees in Australia (first country to get The Dark Knight) to help them spot camcorders.

The Urban Cinefile reports that The Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC) has launched an internet based content delivery tool called iView. With iView surfers can view ABC’s broadcast TV programming from the internet, choosing from 5 different channels currently and more to come in the future.
“ABC TV is committed to offering diverse and engaging television to Australian audiences. With a particular emphasis and focus on Australian content. And as Australians spend more time on line and increasingly get some of their entertainment and information via broadband we want the ABC to be there with Australian made programs and the best of our overseas content. We are redefining television.”
said Director of Television for ABC Kim Dalton. iView will provide full-screen, high-res video and will require a high-speed connection.

The trailer for the sixth installment in the Harry Potter franchise, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, is now available at Moviefone.

The Movie Blog has confirmed that there will be an Alvin and the Chipmunks sequel.

 

Sources:

MSNBC

OK Magazine

NY Times

The Independent

Yahoo! Tech

The Urban Cinefile

Moviefone

The Movie Blog

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Back Seat Reality Shows

BSR Episode 002:Big Brother S10 W2

Hello again.


In this episode, Tony and Julie bring you their thoughts on week two of the current season of Big Brother.

For those of you who might be wondering, within the next episode or two, these episodes will branch off into a new website/feed. If you are one of our regular listeners, but don’t watch Big Brother, do you know someone who does? This could be the way to initiate that person into the wonderful world of podcasting.

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News

Weekend Box Office for July 25 – 27

#1 The Dark Knight from Waner Bros. dominates the box office for the second weekend in a row, despite a 52% drop in reciepts for the film, bringing in $75,630,000 from 4366 theaters bringing its total earnings to $314,245,000. Dark Knight cost $185 million.

#2 Step Brothers from Sony debuts in the #2 spot this weekend bringing in $30 million from 3094 theaters. Step Brothers cost $65 million.

#3 Mamma Mia! from Universal drops to the #3 spot taking in $17,865,000 million, thats down 35.6%, from 2990 theaters which is +14 over last. Mamma Mia! cost roughly $52 million to make.

#4 The X-Files: I Want To Believe from Fox debuts in a disappointing  #4 position this weekend taking in $10.2 million from 3185 theaters. X-files cost roughly $30 million.

#5 Journey to the Center of the Earth from New Line drops one this week to #5 taking $9,415,000 million, down only 23.7%, bringing its total so far to $60,185,000 million. Journey showed in 2688 theaters, thats down 142 from last week, and cost roughly $60 million to make.

#6 Hancock from Sony dropped one spot to #3. Hancock brought in $8,200,000 million, down 41.6% from last week, bringing its total to $206,371,000 and showed in 3309 theaters, down 467. Hancock cost roughly $150 million.

#7 Wall-E from Disney and Pixar drops to #7 position this weekend bringing in $6,349,000 million, thats a 37% drop from last week, bringing it total earnings to $195,235,000 million. Wall-E showed in 3044 theaters, down 299 from last week and cost roughly $180 million to make.

#8 Hellboy II: The Golden Army from Universal drops hard for the second weekend in a row to the #8 spot bringing in $4,934,000 million for the weekend, thats down 51.2% from last week, bringing its total to $65,894,000 million. Hellboy II showed in 3018 theaters, down 194, and cost roughly $85 million.

#9 Space Chimps from Fox drops to the #9 spot this weekend and maintains a tenuous hold on to the top ten. Chimps brought in $4,375,000, which was down 39.1% from last week but was up 27 theaters from last bringing its total to 2538. Chimps cost $37 million.

#10 Wanted from Universal drops to #10 bringing in $2,727,000, down 46.2%, bringing its total to $128,616,000. Wanted showed in 1754 theaters, down 679, and cost roughly $75 million. 

A note on “Gross”: On average, studios will earn approximately 55 percent of the final gross.

Sources:
Box Office Mojo

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Text Reviews Theatrical Review

Theatrical Review: The X Files: I Want To Believe

After six years, former FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully are brought out of hiding to aid the FBI in a case involving a missing agent. Because of their involvement with the paranormal, their expertise is needed especially seeing that the FBI is using the talents of a psychic in their search. The psychic though is a former catholic priest who’s also a convicted pedophile and his name is Father Joe. There’s something with this guy though, that catches Mulder and commits him to the case. And so while dealing with their own personal issues, Mulder and Scully get involved in something that’s far more than what it appears on it’s surface.

That’s the basic premise of The X Files: I Want To Believe from writer/director and X Files creator Chris Carter, bringing his television creation back to life with it’s second feature film. For a summer filled with some big, explosive stories, The X Files is a little different, offering up an introspective and understated thriller that feels like the old show to some extent.

I thought it was pretty good my own self, though not at all in the same league as other movies that I’ve seen this year, but still fun to see these characters back and with a pretty gruesome crime attached to it. This isn’t anything connected to the series core mythology, other than continuing the relationship that Mulder and Scully had (and I must admit, buy the end of the show’s run, I’d not been paying attention that closely as I just wasn’t as interested any more as I was during it’s prime period- this was one show that went on for maybe two seasons more than it should’ve).

The case itself is pretty interesting, as is the character of Father Joe, but where the film stumbles is in the ping-ponging of the Mulder-Scully relationship, sometimes putting them on the same page and other times acting like they hadn’t had all their familiarity. Now this didn’t really bother me that much as I sorta thought this was part and parcel of the relationship, but then, like I said above, I’d lost some interest by the time the show ended as well, so I might not be the best judge of that.

Of course, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson are back (as is a surprise character late in the film) and joining them for this film are Amanda Peet (as the FBI agent who calls them back into service), Billy Connelly as Father Joe, and Battlestar Galactica’s Callum Keith Rennie as one of the suspects, and the cast does a pretty nice job here- there’s really nothing that felt out of place. I give really good marks to both Peet and Connelly, they really got themselves into this well.

Carter certainly seems on the mark as well for this considerably quiet movie. Like I said, it’s quite understated in this summer of gigantic comic book action, so understated that it might seem a disappointment to those expecting something a bigger, but I thought it was a cool change of pace and I certainly enjoyed it. Duchovny is already on the record for wanting to do more films, and I wouldn’t mind seeing them make a few more as well…

If you don’t mind having something smaller in your summer movie repertoire, and your an X Files fan, you might have a pretty good time with this. I wouldn’t exactly urge you to get right out there right now and see it, but if you want to kill some time at the theatre, this isn’t bad, but if the size of our audience was any indication (under 20 people for a 10 P.M. show), more are probably waiting for the DVD release, and I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing either…

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Back Seat Producers Season 03 Shows

BSP Episode 070: Eight Days a Week

Tony and Adam discuss the film Eight Days a Week.  This is the unofficial kick-off of our support for Tee Morris and Philippa Ballantine’s Double Trouble promotion.  (more to come on this next week)

This is a short discussion, so we included a bonus.

Tony gave his review of the new Get Smart film to Adam and Phil when they recorded the trivia episode.  This conversation was recorded and resurrected and tagged on here.

Next week: The Dark Knight

Categories
News

News Briefs

Directors Darren Lynn Bousman of the Saw franchise,  Zack Snyder from the most recent Dawn Of The Dead and Andrew Douglas from Amityville Horror have all signed deals with Microsoft to make a series of shorts for the Xbox Live to be produced by the Safran Group, a French technology company based in Paris.

The Dark Knight set two more records. On Monday: biggest gross for a non-holiday Monday, bringing in $24.6 million and raising its total to $182.9 million for 4 days and on Tuesday: fastest movie to $200 million (5 days), beating Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest which did the same in 8 days in ’06.

Former Golden Girl Estelle Getty died Tuesday. The 84 year old actress had been suffering from advanced dementia.

Disney has replaced both Ebert and Roeper as hosts of the syndicated Ebert & Roeper and the Movies just two days after Roeper and one day after Ebert quit the show. They will be replaced by E! Entertainment’s Ben Lyons and TCM’s Ben Mankiewicz. Ebert has not appeared on the show since 2006 when an operation left him unable to speak.

FantasyMoguls.com is predicting that the Dark Knight may swamp this weekends earnings possibly holding X-Files to a sub $20 million opening.

MTV will be remaking the cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The original screenplay will stay but will be featuring all new music. No info on casting or a director.

Sources:

IMDB News

Studio Briefing

FantasyMoguls.com

GetTheBigPicture.net

Categories
Back Seat Producers Season 03 Shows

BSP Episode 069: Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure

In tribute to the late George Carlin, we discuss the 1989 film, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.

Phil (The Red Earth Saga) joins us for a few drinks and a conversation about George, the film, and a few other tangential topics.

Be excellent to each other!

Party on, dudes!

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News

"The Dark Knight" Breaks Records And Shores Up Summer Sales

The Dark Knight,” the sixth in Warner Brothers’ franchise of “Batman” movies, set a record with three-day ticket sales of $155.3 million over the weekend.

By Warner’s estimate, the film outstripped opening-weekend ticket sales of last year’s “Spider-Man 3,” which took $151.1 million for Sony Pictures and was the previous record holder. “The Dark Knight” also set a one-day box office record with $66.4 million on opening day, Warner Bros. head of distribution Dan Fellman said Saturday, breaking another Spider-man 3 record.

The Dark Knight” began with a record $18.5 million from midnight screenings, topping the previous high of $16.9 million for “Star Wars: Episode III : The Revenge of the Sith.”

“We’ve really never seen anything like this,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers. “The death of a fine actor taken in his prime, a legendary performance, and a movie that lives up to all the hype. That all combined to create these record-breaking numbers.”

“It’s a combination of things. Certainly, that’s a great part of it, but I think this movie’s gross was partly because of the reviews it received and the incredible buzz and word of mouth that preceded it with our early screenings,” Fellman said. “And the success and quality of the last one, `Batman Begins,’ delivered by Chris Nolan just set the tone for the opening of this movie.”

The Dark Knight went on to set 5 more records including:

 1 – LARGEST NUMBER OF OPENING THEATRES WITH 4,366 (MORE THAN THE 4,362 DEBUT THEATRES OF PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD’S END IN 2007).

2 – BIGGEST IMAX MIDNIGHT PREVIEWS SET AN NEW RECORD WITH $640,000 (INCLUDED IN THE $18.489 MILLION PREVIEW NUMBER).

3 – BIGGEST OPENING WEEKEND GROSS FOR AN IMAX RELEASE IN BOX OFFICE HISTORY WITH $6,214,061 MILLION IN 94 THEATRES WITH $66,107 PER THEATRE. (BESTS THE $4.7 MILLION SET BY SPIDER-MAN 3 IN 2007.) IMAX SHOWING AT FULL CAPACITY $1.9 MILLION ON SATURDAY ALONE.

4 – BIGGEST OPENING WEEKEND OF 2008 WITH $151.340 (BEATS INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL’S $101.137 MILLION FROM MAY 23-25, 2008)

5 – BIGGEST JULY OPENING EVER (BEATS PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN’S CHEST’S $135,634,554 ON JULY 7, 2006).

Including a solid $27.6 million for the musical “Mamma Mia!” from Universal, the weekend’s top 12 films took in about $249.6 million, according to the box office consultant Media By Numbers. That lifted the domestic box office total for the year so far to $5.36 billion.

That is still down about 1 percent from last year, and the number of theatergoers is down 3.7 percent. But the weekend performance gave studios and theater owners alike reason to take heart, as it proved that even a familiar franchise like the “Batman” series can still bring surprises.

“It just took on a life of its own,” said Dan Fellman, Warner’s president for theatrical distribution. “You never expect anything like this.”

Unusual excitement began to build weeks ago around “The Dark Knight,” much of it fed by anticipation of a performance as the villainous Joker by Heath Ledger, the Australian actor who died in January.

Theaters began adding midnight and early morning screenings of the film, as fans scooped up advance tickets from the online ticket services Fandango.com and Movietickets.com. At sellout shows around the country, audiences, including more than a few viewers who came made up to resemble Ledger’s Joker, pushed Friday ticket sales to an estimated $66.4 million, including an extraordinary $18.5 million from the midnight showings.

That the film’s opening took on an event status that previous “Batman” movies never quite achieved apparently owed something to its strong presence in the outsized Imax format.

The film, directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Christian Bale, was filmed partly using Imax cameras, and opened on nearly 100 Imax screens in the United States. That meant a boost at the box office because Imax tickets cost an average of $12.80, about 75 percent more than the overall average ticket price of $7.08, as estimated by Media By Numbers.

The summer box office thus far had been solid, but hardly spectacular, with tickets for the season up slightly at $2.76 billion, thanks to price inflation, and attendance down about 2 percent. Films like “Iron Man” from Paramount Pictures and Marvel Studios, and “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” from Paramount and LucasFilm, topped the $300 million mark.

But “Hancock,” an off-center superhero movie from Sony Pictures and the star Will Smith, came up short of last year’s “Transformers” over the July Fourth holiday, and several pictures, including “Meet Dave” from Eddie Murphy and 20th Century Fox fell flat.

Fox suffered another embarrassment with “Space Chimps,” an animated film that took in just $7.4 million and debuted seventh at the box office this weekend.

A strong opening like that of “The Dark Knight” tends to drive future ticket sales, as viewers find their appetites piqued. In this case, a future beneficiary may be “Terminator Salvation,” a Warner action film scheduled to open next May: The movie’s trailer was attached to “The Dark Knight,” putting it in front of a particularly eager audience.

The box office take for “Mamma Mia!,” which starred Meryl Streep, was almost identical to that on the equivalent weekend last year by “Hairspray,” a New Line Cinema musical that took in $27.5 million in first-weekend sales and went on to make $118.9 million.

Other top-performing films this weekend included “Hancock,” with $14 million (for a total of $191.5 million); “Journey to the Center of the Earth” from Warner, with $11.9 million (a total of $43.1)million; “Hellboy II: The Golden Army” from Universal, with $10 million ($56.4 million total); and “Wall-E” from the Walt Disney Company with $9.8 million ($182.5 million total).

For all the record-setting, the weekend’s performance has also underscored how much harder studios have been working for their hits in recent years.

In 1989, “Batman,” with a budget of $35 million, opened to $40.5 million and went on to take in more than $251 million at the domestic box office.

The Dark Knight,” by contrast, cost over $180 million. Given the pattern of contemporary blockbusters, the film appears unlikely to match the performance of its predecessor, whose domestic box office sales would be on the order of $450 million if adjusted to reflect ticket price inflation.

Today’s blockbusters films tend to open bigger, and disappear more quickly, than those of the past. “Spider-Man 3” took in about 45 percent of its $336.5 million in total sales on its opening weekend, and “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” took in 37 percent of its $309.4 million on the first weekend last year.

Batman,” by contrast, will likely take only 16 percent of sales from its opening weekend.

Mr. Fellman said he believed “The Dark Knight” would continue to outpace “Spider-Man 3” in coming days, thanks to a midsummer date when school is out. “Spider-Man 3” was released in early May and had to fight harder for midweek business.

By the week’s end, Mr. Fellman said, “The Dark Knight” is likely to take in more than the $205 million in total domestic ticket sales for its immediate predecessor, “Batman Begins,” in 2005.

Sources:

The Huffington Post

The NY Times

Deadline Hollywood