Can Dwight Schrute and his proud family tradition carry the weight of a spinoff?

On Wednesday, Deadline.com began the rumor mill by announcing that NBC was considering an Office spinoff starring Dwight, Schrute farms, beets and the whole Schrute family. The show would be slated to begin sometime in midseason of 2013.

According to Deadline, the genesis of the spinoff started with actor Rainn Wilson and Office executive producer Paul Lieberstein (a.k.a Toby). A Deadline source is quoted as saying, “Paul and Rainn have been joking for years about Dwight’s life on the farm, his family and how ill-suited he is to run a B&B. A while ago, it started to feel like a show to them. NBC agreed, it’s been further developed to include multiple generations, many cousins and neighbors. At its base it will be about a family farm struggling to survive and a family trying to stay together.”

Considering the poor track history of TV spinoffs (think Joey, The Brady Brides, Baywatch Nights), the proposal may initially come as a bit of a surprise. In fact, can you name even one or two spinoffs that went on to become successful? However, The Office has been one of NBC’s great pickups. Winning an Emmy in 2006 for best comedy series, and still drawing more than 6 million viewers per week in its eighth season, The Office has become the staple brand of  NBC.

If the spinoff is indeed in the works, it could signal for this to be the final season of the network’s prime-time draw. With Rainn, hypothetically, leaving to start the spinoff, and Ed Helms, John Krasinksi and Mindy Kaling all unsigned for next season, this could be the end of NBC’s most successful show. Could the show possibly continue without Andy, Jim, Kelly and possibly others? Doubtful. And as critics have opined, it may be for the best. After Steve Carell’s departure, the remaining core characters, and an infused James Spader as Sabre CEO, have been unable to save the show’s ratings from declining.

TV shows rarely last as long as The Office. For every Friends (10 seasons) and Cheers (11) there are dozens of shows that barely make it to a third season (wishfully hoping Whitney falls into this category), let alone past the pilot. And for those that do enjoy a long running voyage, few end with their dignity and ratings still intact (see Smallville). So, whether or not the spinoff becomes a hit with the 18 -49 demographic that has sustained Jim, Pam and Dwight’s long run, perhaps it’s all for the best.

Technorati Tags: dwight, jim and pam, office, schrute, spinoff, television show, the office, tv

Written By: Sarah Clausen

For movie buffs, the start of the new year means one thing: Awards Season. Starting in January it seems like nearly every week there is another awards show being held. So what are some of the different types of awards can a film receive?

One of the first awards show of the season is the Golden Globe awards. This annual ceremony and dinner recognizes the year’s best domestic and foreign films and television shows. The first Golden Globes were given out in January 1944 by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Since 1961 the awards show has been held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. The 2012 Golden Globes were held on January 15.

The Golden Globes are held annually in January

Those interested in the directorial aspects of film should be aware of the Directors Guild of America Awards. These annual awards are given out by the Directors Guild of America to films with outstanding direction. And interesting note about the DGA Awards is that only six times since the awards’ inception in 1949 has the winner of the Award for Feature Film not won the Academy Award for Best Director. The 2012 DGA Awards will take place on January 28.

A similar award is the Producers Guild of America Awards. A new addition to the field, they were started in 1990 as the Golden Laurel Awards. The Producers Guild of America seeks to honor and recognize those who produce motion pictures and television. The PGA Awards also have a good track record of predicting which film will win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. The 2012 PGA Awards were held on January 21.

Of course, one would be remiss to not mention the culminating awards show of the season, the Academy Awards. Also known as the Oscars, these awards have been given out since 1929 by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). The nominees are voted on by the members of AMPAS, with the nominations being made public in late January of each year. The 2012 Academy Awards will be held on February 26.

The Oscar is given out at the Academy Awards

This is just a small sampling of the myriad awards presentations held each year. Whatever awards show you follow, the most important question is: Did you favorite film win?

Technorati Tags: academy awards, Directors Guild of America Awards, golden globes, hollywood, movie, Producers Guild of America Awards

3-D is just as exciting and innovative as it was in 1960

Written by: Holly Troupe

3-D is the bane of the contemporary cinephile’s existence. It is brain-addling. It encourages filmmakers to insert awkward and jarring stunts. The ticket cost is prohibitively high. Yet movie studios cling to the new technology as one might to a life raft in the swirling seas, even in the face of dwindling receipts. Will 3-D weather the storm of passing fancy, or will it go back on the shelf for another 50 years?

Who doesn’t enjoy a novelty? Impresarios have dazzled consumers for hundreds of years with innovative methods for the absorption of diversions: P. T. Barnum and his menagerie of wonderment; Nickelodeons projecting images of strongmen and dancing ladies; Al Jolson strapping on a microphone for “The Jazz Singer.” 3-D technology is nearly as old as movies themselves, and was one of the numerous movie amenities entertainment industrialists attempted over the decades. However, for the past 10 years with the implementation of digital technology, 3-D has enjoyed a boom that has surpassed even its 1950s heyday.

The biggest technological innovations in filmmaking—color and sound—began as curiosities. As use of the technologies became more sophisticated, the market demand became such that color and sound became studio no-brainers. While black and white films will never entirely go away, use of black and white is a specific style choice, rather than something the industry drags out of mothballs when the color bloom wears off. Once those technologies came into the mainstream, it was all on-wards and upwards. The same cannot be said for 3-D. Yasser Hamed, a senior 3-D animator, attributes the fluctuations in popularity to short-sightedness on the part of filmmakers. “3-D failed once before in the 1950s because directors considered it more of a gimmick,” he said. “People no longer go to the movies just for a story, they go for the experience. But directors need to ensure they are not making the same past mistakes to secure the long-term future of 3-D.”

Can 3-D ever be more than a gimmick? We can hear and we have color perception, so it makes sense that an audience wants the flickering on screen projections to be perceived just as they would be live. But 3-D on screen isn’t really three-dimension as in life. “The biggest problem with 3-D is the ‘convergence/focus’ issue,” says film editor Walter Murch. “The audience must focus their eyes at the plane of the screen — say it is 80 feet away. This is constant no matter what. But their eyes must converge at perhaps 10 feet away, then 60 feet, then 120 feet, and so on, depending on what the illusion is. So 3-D films require us to focus at one distance and converge at another.” This optical phenomenon is what causes many movie-goers to experience headaches and nausea while watching 3-D films; our brains just aren’t wired to efficiently absorb visual information that way.

The quality of projected 3-D films is also an issue. Some theater projectionists have been deliberately dimming the bulbs in the projectors during screenings to save money. As a result, many films have a dark, muddy look theatergoers (and, occasionally, reviewers) attribute to the filmmakers. Filmmaker Michael Bay, in desperation, wrote to projectionists before the opening of his film “Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon,” asking them to turn the bulbs back up, telling them: “Projectionists are of ultimate importance because your expertise defines the audience’s experience. Let’s make the audience believe again.”

What does 3-D offer? Something that has no convenient hand-held alternative. An enormous swathe of stimuli; a sensory wash of color, shape and excitement; something impossible to recreate at home. “3-D is about choice and it’s an option our guests have when they come to our theaters. We believe 3-D has a bright future as undoubtedly evolving technology will only work in its favor,” said AMC Director of Public Relations, Ryan Noonan.

3-D has evolved, albeit in a meandering way. The technology existed, in some form or another, for nearly 100 years. It first made an appearance in 1915, when the Lumiere brothers modified their original film “L’arrivée du Train” for 3-D using Stereoscope. Studios have released at least one 3-D film nearly every year since 1934, with 57 released in 1953 alone. These films were primarily a series of oddities—Andy Warhol’ version of “Frankenstein” was in 3-D—that became more and more laughable as the culture became more politically and socially charged in the 60s and 70s. 3-D dwindled until the late 90s, when digital technologies made 3-D conversion more practicable. IMAX cinemas with specialized projection also began showing huge screen productions that eclipsed anything seen in a standard multiplex. IMAX’s gain in popularity caused a steady increase of 3-D conversions in the early 2000s. We all have James Cameron to thank for the rest.

“Avatar,” James Cameron’s fiscal magnum opus and the world’s blue-skinned cultural touchstone, earned 71 percent of its $2.7 billion total gross on the 3-D version of the film. However, the biggest 3-D releases since—“Shrek Ever After,” “The Green Lantern,” “Pirates of the Caribbean”—earned more money opening weekend on standard screens than their 3-D counterparts. For many, the 3-D experience isn’t markedly better, at least not enough to justify paying as much as $6 more for a ticket, not including the cost of glasses. “So many movies are made in 3-D now, people are tired of it and so many are just not that impressive,” said Rob Weiner, film librarian at Texas Tech University. “The suits in Hollywood think that audiences only want to see something 3-D which is totally wrong.”

Not according to James Cameron. “When color came out, was it overkill? It’s just the way things are. Everything is in color now. It’s not in black and white. Everything will eventually be in 3-D.” Woe betide the cineaste planning to re-make “My Dinner with Andre.”

Technorati Tags: 3-D, blockbuster movies, film industry, films, hollywood, ticket prices

Who doesn’t love Dakota Fanning? We adore this young actress, who began her career when she was merely five years of age. She impresses us for having been the youngest person in history to be nominated (for her role in “I Am Sam”) for a Screen Actor’s Guild Award. We first got to know Dakota through a Tide detergent commercial, followed by appearances on famous television shows like ER and Ally McBeal. We were enthralled by her appearance in TomCats, and we haven’t stopped following her since…

Most recently, we spotted Dakota Fanning wearing a Lemon Sorbet watch by Fruitz, which manufactures fun, colorful and fashionable timepieces.

Fruitz currently offers three collections: Fruitz Classic, Sorbet and Happy Hour. The Sorbet collection differs from the other two in that watches in this collection have expandable stainless steel bracelets, as opposed to watches in the other collections with have silicon straps.

All Fruitz watches, including the Lemon Sorbet that Dakota loves, have natural frequency technology disks embedded in their case backs. These disks are infused with the same frequency at which the earth resonates, and claim to relax and calm wearers.

Looks like Dakota Fanning is pretty relaxed in her Fruits watch, don’t you think? Well, apparently her watch has her in good spirits; as she says, “I am so happy to have one!”

Technorati Tags: dakota fanning, fruits, watches

The guy on the left sells liquor, and the middle one owns a Diamond mine.

Today, Tuesday, March 23, the government of Sri Lanka announced that Akon, the long forgotten Senegalese-American R&B singer – known for such gems as “I wanna F**K you,” “Smack That,” and “I’m so paid” – had been officially denied him an entry visa. While many would wonder why such a talented musician would be prevented from entering a prestigious country like Sri Lanka, all it takes is a simple glance into the notoriously controversial artist’s recent past to realize that it was probably a really good idea.

According to Akon, his full name is Aliaune Damala Akon Thiam, even though his legal name is all that but one very important part – Akon. His shady claim of a three-year stint in an auto-theft ring dissolved in light of the fact that he’d never been convicted of a crime. And, it seems that Konvict Records isn’t even remotely the truth, considering how he has yet to spend a single day in prison during criminalistic years.

This sort of stuff isn't cool in Sri Lanka, Akon.

In truth, the man has fathered six children with three different women, and owns a South African diamond mine to produce the musical gems of auto-tuned perfection. Fortunately, for his musical career, he depends on something else other than his own god-given talent.

Technorati Tags: akon, controversial, denied, sri lanka

Californian movie sets like this are growing ever more scarce by the year

In 2003, California’s world share of studio films – or, in other words, the movies made by the six biggest studios – was at a healthy 66 percent; by 2008 it had plummeted to a meager 34 percent. To question how Hollywood has slowly become the least popular place to make movies, is to trace the roots back to 1998, when Canada first started to offer incentive tax breaks for producers and crews who were willing to conduct business outside of California. Since then, seven U.S. states, and 24 different countries have begun competing with grants, rebates, and tax credits promising to eliminate as much as 40 percent of the cost for shooting a film.

Product of Vancouver, Canada

The reason behind the madness is simple economics; when a monstrous production arrives in any location, there are instantly a few hundred new jobs that pop up out of thin air (which is especially fantastic when the given city doesn’t have the money to build factories). California, which is currently suffering from a hard budget crisis, has managed to get ten feature films shot on location in Los Angeles by using what modest incentive the golden state could muster.

Perhaps the city of L.A. should offer up free gas masks or parking spots to those who do decide to continue making movies in California.

Technorati Tags: california, canada, crews, hollywood, movie, producers

The HOst of The Daily SHow on Comedy Central

Jon Stewart went political on Senator Chris Dodd, aka the Democrat from Connecticut – aka the Banking Committee Chairman – when he learned of the Senator’s decision to pull the emergency brakes on any possible bi-partisan negotiations for healthcare reform. Senator Dodd announced that he would draft his very own bill, which was expected to include: an end to “too-big-to-fail bailouts;” the invention of an early warning system for future economic catastrophes; and finally, the introduction of transparency and accountability in hedge-funds and derivatives, or as the Senator himself called them, “exotic instruments.”

But, Mr. Stewart had heard all this jabbertalky already, his attention was focused on the consumer watch dog, a small and independent entity meant to protect consumers. In his excitement,  Jon recommended getting the watch-dog laser eyes, a jet-pack, and adamantine claws, on top of Dodd’s humble promise to get it a louder bark and a stronger bite.

The New Consumer Protection Agency

Later on in the show, Stewart goes on to explain the normal world, where people who sell fraudulent products go to jail, and how it differs from the realm of Mr. Lehman, where it’s okay to package something in gold wrapping paper and call it pure gold. He describes how corporations hire third-parties to rate their assets for far more than they are actually worth, and that if they still fail to find investors, they simply establish another corporation, in which the hide their garbage stocks. Stewart sites Citi as an example, since they were reported for having two segments of operations: one being, Citicorp, which had good stuff, and the other titled, Citi Holdings, responsible for hiding the parent company’s trash from view.

In the end, this episode teaches everyone how to act like a corporation, and turn their $900 dollar piece-of-junk Volvo into a $10 million Volvo-jet.

Technorati Tags: banking committee chairman, healthcare reform, Jon Stewart, senator chris dodd

Rupert Murdock

In a February 2nd conference call with Rupert Murdock, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer to New-York based News Corporation admitted that movies directed by James Cameron had a tendency to go over budget; but, his decision to hedge much of the risk for “Avatar” out to other investors has ended up with the media mogul making a very expensive investor’s mistake.

After all, once history’s highest-grossing film is released on DVD and pay-to-view television, it is projected to earn $350 million to $400 million for Murdock’s corporation. This sum alone is only 40 percent  of the 1 billion-dollar cut that Twentieth Century Fox and “Avatar” investors are expected to earn, an astounding total that equals News Corp.’s average quarterly operating profit from 2009. So, as it turns out, instead of getting the whole cake, Mr. Generous gave New York-based Dune Entertainment LLC a 40 percent cut, and London-based Ingenious Media Holdings PLC  the left overs.

But News Corp hasn’t made a public profit forecast for James Cameron’s “Avatar,” so analysts have been left to their own devices to estimate a profit margin. Projections go from a low of $380 million in a proposal by Soleil Securities’ Alan Gould, to a high of $737 million, as proposed by Anthony DiClemente, a Barclays analyst who also considered another $220 million dollars in distribution during his calculations.

The movie that will make billions...believe it, or not.

There’s no reason to doubt that Murdock is disappointed with his doubting James Cameron’s vision of Pandora, since Box Office Mojo reported that the film has generated a whopping $2.64 billion in worldwide ticket sales as of Sunday, March 14th.

Technorati Tags: Avatar, James Cameron, News Corporation, Rupert Murdock

"You like my music....right?"

By the time she had made her official stage debut at the Lollapalooza (OCT 09′), Kesha had co-written the title song for Miley Cyrus‘ The Time of Our Lives (EP), garnished the rough edged albums of Pitbull and Taio Cruz, landed a gig as the cover girl for Women’s Wear Daily, and vomited in Paris Hilton‘s closet. From her humble beginnings as a self-proclaimed psycho, who harmlessly dropped by Prince’s crib with a demo tape in hand, Kesha has created the longest running number one debut single by any female artist since 1977.

Kesha’s exposure grew in early 2009 after appearing on Flo Rida’s numero uno track, “Right Round,” from which she received neither cash nor credit; however, her credit (and subsequently swollen bank accounts) were built for her background-vocal work in Paris Hilton’s single, “Nothing in this World”  and Britney Spears’ “Lace and Leather.”

It’s as if the entire world loves this twenty-three-year-old and her song, “Tik Tok,” which hit the top in New Zealand, Canada, Australia, Norway (to name a few) marched to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 while leeching 610,00 copies of itself into the public sphere. Below is a copy of the lyrics to “Tik Tok,” for those who do not already have the elegant lyrics memorized and ferociously engraved in their psyche by the radio (since it is number one in eleven countries, and also record holder for the most digital downloads in a single week by any female artist in history), provided below are the partial lyrics, which should prevent anyone from getting left out when the entire world breaks into song:

Tick Tock Album Cover

“Wake up in the morning feeling like P Diddy
(Hey, what up girl?)
Grab my glasses, I’m out the door, I’m gonna hit this city
(Lets go)
Before I leave, brush my teeth with a bottle of Jack
‘Cause when I leave for the night, I ain’t coming back

I’m talking pedicure on our toes, toes
Trying on all our clothes, clothes
Boys blowing up our phones, phones
Drop-topping, playing our favorite CDs
Pulling up to the parties
Trying to get a little bit tipsy

Don’t stop, make it pop
DJ, blow my speakers up
Tonight, I’mma fight
‘Til we see the sunlight
Tick tock on the clock
But the party don’t stop, no

Don’t stop, make it pop
DJ, blow my speakers up
Tonight, I’mma fight
‘Til we see the sunlight
Tick tock, on the clock
But the party don’t stop, no

Ain’t got a care in world, but got plenty of beer
Ain’t got no money in my pocket, but I’m already here
And now, the dudes are lining up cause they hear we got swagger
But we kick em to the curb unless they look like Mick Jagger

I’m talking about everybody getting crunk, crunk
Boys tryin’ to touch my junk, junk
Gonna smack him if he getting too drunk, drunk

Now, now, we go until they kick us out, out
Or the police shut us down, down
Police shut us down, down
Po-po shut us”

- Kesha (best female artist to ever stroke the eardrum).

Technorati Tags: Flo Rida, Kesha, Miley Cyrus, number one, Paris Hilton, Tick Tock

Sarver on the Left, James on the Right

Jeffrey Sarver, a 38-year-old sergeant in the army’s Explosive Ordinance Disposal, claims that he was the model for the main character in the movie the Hurt Locker,  and has therefore introduced a multimillion-dollar lawsuit after failing to receive any credit for his efforts.

In the film, Jeffrey was depicted as Will James (played by Jeremy Renner), the extreme risk-taker soldier who continuously pushes his bomb-disposing buddies to take ever-increasing risks while they’re out in the field; however, Summit Entertainment, the film’s distributors, asserts that the character is entirely fictitious.

Sarver, now armed with the infamously tough-as-nails lawyer, Geoffrey Fieger – who had worked on such controversial cases as that of Jack Kevorkian (aka Doctor Death) – are adamantly pressing the belief that a soldier’s life has been stolen by Hollywood. They draw the attention of the jury to the fact that Mark Boal, the screenwriter, was also a journalist who had essentially followed Sarver and a few other soldiers around for a report he was doing for Playboy magazine. They also mention how some of Boal’s best lines, including the title, were down right stolen straight from the soldier’s mouth (so to speak); for example, the nickname for Will James’ character, “Blaster One,” was actually Sarver’s call signal in the field.

The Movie Marquee

But, in spite of the evidence, there is still some speculation regarding whether of nor this lawsuit is built on noble grounds, since some propose this as just another ploy by the opposition to prevent a nominee from winning an Oscar. Whatever happens next, hopefully the man who actually owns the hurt locker receives the credit that he deserves – be it the soldier – or the man who brought the story to the masses.

Technorati Tags: credit, Hurt Locker, Jeffrey Sarver, lawsuit