TCA Tidbits - Fox

Here are some initial highlights from the beginning salvos of the Fox portion of the TCA press tour:

* Tony Award winning actress Cherry Jones has been confirmed as the next president of the United States for the upcoming season of 24. Which means two things: The acclaimed Jones likely is going to get the highest profile role of her career, and chances are that she'll be blown up real good or be revealed to be an archvillain before the proceedings are over.

* Also regarding 24, producers have announced that they plan to make their season finale as carbon neutral as possible. Now all they have to do is come up with a season finale - and, for that matter, a season to begin with.

* Among the voices scheduled to appear on the new season of The Simpsons: Jon Stewart, Jack Black, Lionel Richie, Matt Dillon, Placido Domingo and Topher Grace. Also there will be a mini-Frasier reunion when Kelsey Grammer, David Hyde Pierce and John Mahoney team up as, respectively, Sideshow Bob and his brother and father. Guess Jane Leeves was unavailable to play Bob's saucy British sister-in-law.

*Kevin Reilly, the recently deposed (i.e. sh*tcanned) ex-president of NBC programming who has found a home (i.e. refuge) in a similar position on Fox, found himself answering as many questions about the schedule of his former network as about his new one. Awkward!!! (Still, Reilly's co-prez Peter Ligouri got a nice slam in, noting that he and his pal weren't concerned "about the No. 4 network". Snap!)

* Ligouri confirms that the pilot for the long-anticipated Terminator follow-up The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which includes a shooting in a high school, will be reshot in the wake of the Virginia Tech tragedy. Luckily, the show is set for midseason (that is, unless K-Ville falls on its ass), so they have time for touch-ups.

Oi, Pilot! Your Name's Not On The List, You're Not Coming In

ABC have now decided which of it's series will be comissioned as full series and two film ick favourites were hanging in the balance.

The bad news is that, according to The Hollywood Reporter at least, Football Wives, with a Brian Singer pilot, is not on the list. Perhaps it was more like the execrable UK original than I'd hoped.

The better news is that, again according to the same list, The Cashmere Mafia has been picked up. The pilot was directed by Peyton Reed, one of the most underrated of studio filmmakers, and even if the series is a wash-out overall, I'm looking forward to Reed's installment very much.

It looks like the Mr. and Mrs. Smith spin-off has been left out in the cold too. Probably where it belongs.

And meanwhile over at Fox, the Terminator spin-off The Sarah Connor Chronicles has been given the nod. I blame all those wound-up insomniacs googling Lena Headey images - but let's see how long it lasts before Fox axes it. Three episodes? Four?

Movie Minesweeper - The I've Missed You Too Edition

Not much activity on film ick over the last 24 hours or so, but I want to put that straight... over the next 24 minutes or so. Martin's currently prepping his review of the Burn After Reading script, by Ethan and Joel Coen. To keep you going until then, here's a heap of links you might want to bother with.

- Lindsay Lohan will apparently play a stripper in I Know Who Killed Me. I suppose this news has set the web alight as people are assuming she'll go naked on screen. I don't assume this, personally - for one thing, I saw Closer. Besides, there's not much of Lohan left to see, there's not really any air of mystery.

- There are to be up to three more Terminator films, apparently built out of seemingly incidental details hidden in Terminator 3. We'll see.

- Eli Roth is planning an entire film of fake trailers, to be called Trailer Trash - to be shot before and after Cell. Not all of them will be directed by Roth. He discusses this in a video interview with Collider.

- Orlando Bloom and Scarlett Johansson are rumoured to be in talks for Roman Polanski's Pompeii.

- Michael Bay has responded to Bruce Willis' disses - and either Bay is lying again, as per the Transformers lips, or he's just rumbled Bruno something rotten. According to Bay he was originally approached to direct Die Hard 4.0.

- Michel Gondry is directing Bjork's Declare Independence video, due for a July release.

- John De Mol is to revive the Hammer brand name.

- Peter Cattaneo is to direct The Rocker, with Rainn Wilson lined up to star as "a failed drummer given a second shot at fame".

- Gena Holden is the new Dale Arden.

Transfer Students

Toby Jones, Lena Headey, Celia Imrie and Anna Chancellor are now on the staff roll for Barnaby Thompson's St. Trinian's remake. Does this mean Headey's Terminator show didn't get picked up after a pilot? I wouldn't be surprised - she's bird-boned, not exactly Sarah Connor material.

This new St. Trinian's is going to be Britain's answer to the School For Scoundrels remake, I have no dounbt.