Inspired by the successful Celebrity 100 franchise, which lists the “world’s most powerful celebrities,” Forbes Magazine has launched Power Performers, a new series that profiles the most powerful personalities in entertainment, with “compelling stories about inspiration and drive.” The first episode, ‘Kim Kardashian Shaking It Up,’ features the 29-year old reality star turned career-woman Kim Kardashian.
Now, I should preface this by saying – noir and I are like this. I know you can’t see me right now, but I’m crossing like eight fingers. I have a ritual – every three months, I re-watch Brick, Spartan, The Way of the Gun, and LA Confidential, sometimes along with Se7en, depending on how bad I want to feel before I go to bed. I should also be clear in mentioning that zombies are awesome.
So, it should be a no-brainer for Hamilton Carver: Zombie PI to tap in to that part of my brain labeled “Awesome Sauce.” The premise of the show has the titular character finding his girlfriend dead, swearing an oath of vengeance, and promptly being murdered at a pot luck he threw with all the suspects in attendance. Of course, if you read the title, he doesn’t stay that way.
Right off the bat I have to say that the dialogue is incredibly off-putting – not in the writing, which, while sufficiently pulpy, can get a little cliched over time – but in the actual sound of the dialogue. It seems as if it’s all re-recorded in post-production, sometimes with different voices, sometimes with the same voices but a completely different reading than what we’re seeing on screen.
t’s a good month for fans of The Guild.
Less that one week after MSN released season four of the uber-popular web series, Felicia Day (the series creator and objection of affection of anyone who likes MMOs, Joss Whedon, and ladies) announced the pen and ink version of the online show will be back. Day is saddled up to take another ride in the comic book world with Dark Horse.
In 2011, the web star and indie comic book publisher will collaborate to release a five-part mini-series. Each installment will be illustrated by a different artist and focus on a different member of the fictional guild within The Guild, the Knights of Good. That means Zaboo, Vork, Bladezz, Clara and Tinkerballa are all slated to receive an in-depth comic book treatment. The series will kick off with a closer look at Herman Holden, “the man who would one day become the extremely frugal and overly organized guild leader,” Vork. Day and Jeff Lewis, the flesh and blood human behind the Herman Holden character and Vork avatar, will co-write the issue.
The Guild’s sophomore comic book series takes place in the timeframe before the first season of The Guild, but after the backstory established in the first Day / Dark Horse collaboration. Released in May of 2010, that three-part mini-series explores the origination of the Knights of Good, as well as Day’s character, Cyd Sherman and her creation of the avatar, Codex.
Dark Horse is slated to make the official announcement about a sequel set of Guild comics at this year’s Comic-Con. With this news and season four of the series already released, it’s proving difficult to predict with what awesome new thing The Guild will rock San Diego. But come Saturday, we’ll find out.
Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show, the Streamy-winning Charlie Rose-style interview web series with titular host Kevin Pollak, is heading to Amazon VOD and Hulu, according to a recent Beet TV interview (below) by Daisy Whitney.
The one year-old talk show has become the anchor of upstart web show network that Pollak co-founded, This Week In—and notably the only show on the network without “This Week In” in its title.
“Amazon has just made us a crazy sweet deal for the whole library,” said Pollak in the interview. The Amazon deal, Pollak tells us, is apparently set for the entire library for purchase, rental, Video On Demand & digital download, as well as all new episodes. While Hulu has made a similar offer—for the entire library as well as future episodes—the deal has yet to be officially closed.
Alex Albrecht, Streamy award-winning co-host of Revision3′s Diggnation and Totally Rad Show will be directing a project off a script selected from a contest at Scripped.com and produced by crowdsourced funds from IndieGoGo. Albrecht’s deal will mark the first time ever that a film production will be based on a crowdsourced screenplay using crowdsourced funding.
Has it been a year already? Once again, Comic-Con week is upon us and this year looks like it’s going to take last year and blow it out of the water in terms of web series representation. What’s unique this year are the amount of off-site events happening during Con that you can attend even if you don’t have a Con badge; we’ve made note of them below (Full disclosure: I am producing one of the off-site events). Just like last year, here is a list we’ve whipped up to help web series fans fill out their event schedule for the 4-day geek-out spectacular.
Web Series Related Panels, Events and Screenings at Comic-Con 2010:
(We’ll keep updating this list as we hear of new events or schedule changes. Check back often.)
WEDNESDAY, JULY 21:
8:30 PM: Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em Improv Comedy Show Join Felicia Day, Sandeep Parikh, Jeff Lewis, Alex Albrecht, Tony Janning, Tara Perry and Brooke Seguin for the incredibly popular improv comedy show that’s been a huge hit in LA. Tickets available Lyceum Theatre 79 Horton Plaza, 92101 (Comic-Con badges not required)
THURSDAY, FRIDAY, AND SATURDAY
(Throughout the day):The Guild The Guild booth, #4201, listed under “Signal Fire Studios/The Guild.” Signings with the entire cast every day (2 signings on Thursday, Friday and Saturday). DVDs, T-Shirts, posters and photos for sale. (See: The Guild at Comic-Con UPDATE)
The Guild Now in its fourth season, The Guild is a multi-award-winning independent web series that started on YouTube and has grown into a worldwide phenomenon with over 50 million views, a groundbreaking distribution deal with Microsoft, a chart-topping song and music video, and a comic book from Dark Horse Comics. Writer/producer and Comic-Con special guest Felicia Day, producer Kim Evey, director Sean Becker, and the cast of The Guild including Wil Wheaton are on hand for a discussion and Q&A, along with the debut of never-before-seen content and other surprises. Indigo Ballroom, San Diego Hilton Bayfront (See: ‘The Guild’ Season 4 Takes Off Today)
Most box office watchers could have told you months ago that Inception, the sci-fi thriller from The Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan would open strong this weekend. And had the Senate not shot down the Film Futures trading market idea, there would have been a nice spike in Inception’s ticker after a strong $3 million midnight opening last night.
But being the web video junkies that we are, we couldn’t help but come across some of the Inception spoofs that have already popped up online. There will no doubt be more, and we’re still hoping for a Fine Brothers adaptation, but until then, this is what’s out there. (For reference, the official trailer is embedded above.)
Over three years ago, on one of the first episodes of Stella’s very own, The Michael Showalter Showalter, Showalter talks to the post-Dog-Bites-Man-pre-The-Hangover comedian about dipping tobacco and Fiona Apple. It’s a silly conversation with a deadpan facade that’s always on the verge of cracking should one of them get a case of the Jimmy Fallon giggles.
With the help of CollegeHumor, Showalter went onto release nine more installments of The Michael Showalter Showalter, firmly establishing himself as a progenitor of the now very popular faux-comedian-talk-show genre of web series. But the last Showalter episode was released nine months ago, and a certain class of comedy nerds – the kids who, in the wild days before YouTube, bootlegged VHS copies of The State and followed the former MTV sketch troupe’s diaspora to Comedy Central shows like Viva Variety and Reno 911 – want to know what he’s been up to since.
Babelgum has some answers. The web and mobile video platform tapped Showalter for a four part series dubbed, Michael Showalter Presents the Making of…. The first set tackles popular television commercials and what goes on behind the scenes, starting with those Intel spots with the United Colors of Benetton choir. And it’s kinda sorta not really all that funny.
Showalter’s Showalter thrives on unpredictability and the presence of one of my favorite comedians of all time. The Making of… has neither. Maybe I’ve developed some kind of spidey skills from being exposed to too many pop culture, sketch comedy spoofs, but you can tell which direction the episode is going from its first fake interview with an Intel systems analyst. Plus, Showalter is nowhere to be found.
It’s great marketing to have a web series created by one of the members of Stella premiere on your network, but it’s a missed opportunity if the guy doesn’t show up on camera. Here’s to hoping Showalter’s fiendish grin gets on screen soon.
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