TV Nooz

[40cakes]

May very well be still hungover. My TV newsletter had the week off, so it looks like there's a lot of backup. Here's the fun stuff.

IFC will premiere a new anime block beginning January 5 with two new series:
Gunslinger Girl at 11p – the government is using its Social Welfare Agency as a ruse when in reality it takes little girls, with terminal illnesses, and teaches them to become assassins. Thirteen half-hour episodes.
Basilisk at 1130p – a love story between the two young heirs of warring clans in feudal Japan. Twenty-four half-hour episodes.

ImaginAsian TV will launch a new primetime anime block, Anime EnerG, with Geneon Entertainment on January 30 at 8p. The 120-minute primetime anime block will feature Geneon's Japanese anime series Elemental Gelade, Kyoh Kara Maoh!, Law of Ueki, and Gankutsuou:The Count of Monte Cristo on the new Tuesday evening animation block. iaTV will be the first network to broadcast them in both English subtitled and dubbed versions. Three other Geneon Entertainment anime series, Paradise Kiss, Ayakashi and Kamichu, are scheduled to premiere on iaTV in Summer 2007.

The perennial syndicated game shows Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! have been renewed through the 2011-2012 season. So far, the shows have cleared in about a third of the country with stations signing up from ABC, CBS, Post-Newsweek, Hearst-Argyle and Sinclair. When this new deal ends, Wheel of Fortune will have completed 29 seasons and Jeopardy! 28 seasons. Both shows are produced by Sony Pictures Television and distributed domestically by King World Productions, Inc. and internationally by CBS Paramount International Television, both divisions of CBS Television Distribution.
Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune have only cleared in about a third of the country? Who's haggling over those? What parts of the country are saying, "Well, our viewers can't read and get confused about the 'answer as a question' part, so we're not sure if we want to renew..."

ABC has ordered up a pilot based on the film Mr. and Mrs. Smith, about a couple who are both hired assassins. The film's director, Doug Liman, is on board to direct the pilot. The film's writer, Simon Kinberg, has also written the TV script. The project is from Regency TV and Fox TV Studios.

At Fox, Josh Safran has a private eye/adventure drama with a sci-fi twist -- two detectives help their clients go back in time to change things they now regret. Fox has ordered a script.

And for all the poor filmmakers I went to college with:
Casting Call: NBC and BBC Worldwide are hosting open casting calls for a new show called Fortune (wt) where average Americans will pitch a panel of wealthy philanthropists for a chance to receive money to fund their dream. The show's producers are open to any and all requests – funding for inventions, an engagement ring to charitable donations and business start-ups. Interested participants need to have a one-minute story ready and know how much money is needed and explain how it will be life changing. The open casting calls begin this Friday in New York City from 9a to 6p, and in a bulk of other cities as well. For more information go to www.nbc.com/Casting or contact FortuneCasting@yahoo.com . Good luck!

Comments

[pyrobovaphiliac.livejournal.com]

Now I can kinda see Basilisk, but Gunslinger Girl is both a little old and meaninglessly angsty. Remember how you say anime (or any media for that matter) that has content for it's own sake and not to further plot or character is that much worse for it? Yeah, Gunslinger Girl is like that with angst.