MumboJumbo are developing DS and PSP versions of a videogame based upon The Office. Not the UK original, but the vastly superior American do-over.
And there's plenty more Office memorabilia coming - from bobblehead figures of the cast to replica Dundie trophies. Apparently, the merchandisers are to take ideas from the dailies and then try to get products on shelves at the time the relevant episode airs.
I'd like Ricky Gervais to be in a videogame. Manhunt 2, perhaps.
- US readers can preview the first episode of Meadowlands online. The password you'll need is not secret, but it is 'secret'. I found the link at BigScreenLittleScreen.
- According to ShockTilYouDrop, the next Tobe Hooper film is to be called Training Ground. The film is about backpackers being picked off by Al Qaeda terrorists after they steal the plans for a series of attacks on the US. Seriously.
- Guillermo Del Toro has stopped by the message boards at DelToroFilms to spill some details of the Hellboy 2 cast: John Hurt is back for a cameo. Myers is not back. Universal has NOT authorized a brief Kroenen cameo/epilogue - yet. Johann will be played by John Alexander (body) and Tomas Kretschmann (voice). Dougie will play 4 characters. Brian Steele will play 4 characters. Anna Walton is the actress playing Princess Nuala. Luke Goss plays Prince Nuada, Silverlance. Roy Dotrice plays King Balor.
- After 26 years in the same pill-littered ghetto, Pac Man is to have some new mazes to race around.
- Paul Dini has plenty to say about the closure of Warner Bros. Animation.
- Just Jared has pics of Keanu Reeves on the Night Watch set.
- Ever wondered about the real world salaries of fictional characters? Pam from The Office makes about 23,000 a year, for example, in her role as a receptionist.
This is a moral fable, of a sort.
When America Ferrera signed to star in Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, she also signed an option for a sequel. Essentially, that means the producers can force her into making a second film. Now she's Ugly Betty, she's very popular and she's not really looking for a Sisterhood sequel.
The film's producers don't agree, they're exercising their option, and America is cornered. She's going to have to show up, or cough up. Of course, her new found fame is virually the entire reason this seuqel exists in the first place.
I'm thinking Ferrera will do the film, hardly invest herself in it, and pray that Ugly Betty maintains momentum - or, if she's smarter, she'll do the film, really do her best to turn in a blinding performance, and try to sign for some other, better films as soon as she can. That way, she's got a safety net for when Ugly Betty - maybe not quite as ridiculously repetitive as my US TV fave, House, but one tenth as well written and about one hundredth as interesting - inevitably falters.
Sanna Hamri is to direct these new travels of the Pants. She's a truly woeful music video director and, according to reviews, her feature debut Something New shows even less aptitude. Ken Kwapis directed the first Travelling Pants episode but he's doing okay, thank you, with the flattering cast and material of The Office and high-profile hype of License to Wed, so there's little wonder he's not coming back to play second fiddle to America Ferrera, freshly minted movie star.
Lucy Lawless and Kiele Sanchez joined the cast last of Football Wives week, now Ving Rhames has been added on too. He's playing the GM of one of the teams.
I'm really quite sceptical about this series, despite the Bryan Singer factor. Then again, I was really quite sceptical about NBC's version of The Office as well, and that turned out rather well indeed.
It was just last week that I was defending the American version of The Office in the pub - I bet that doesn't happen every day, at least not in a 'real' pub in England - and now Joss Whedon comes out and confirms he'll be directing an episode.
If you wade through the discussion on the man's message board, you might miss his brief comment: " Yes, people, it's true. I am the ideal mate."
I think the episodes I saw from the second series of The Office: An American Workplace were much, much better than anything in the UK series, and it goes without saying that Steve Carell is a hugely more talented performer than Ricky Gervais. I've yet to see a single frame of the third year's episodes - how are they?
