Big Screen Little Screen

Defamer reports that while the entirety of the MAD TV staff was placed on permanent leave yesterday, Saturday Night Live picked up two female castmates in Abby Elliot (offspring of alum Chris) and Michaela Watkins to make up for the recent losses of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Two more getting the trial by fire treatment while Casey Wilson and Bobby Moynihan have yet to show a breakthrough performance or earn a signature role. Godspeed, young ones. (via Mr. Weatherbee’s)

Ingredients: 200 Toshiba Gigashot cameras (highest number of moving image cameras ever used in a film sequence), custom rig weighing half a metric ton, 20 terrabytes of data.  Add Crystal Castles.  Add Flashdance reference.  Add sporty spices.  Add target demo participants.  Shoot.  Edit.  Broadcast.

Details (via Engadget)

Bjork clears up any confusion you may have had (via Gizmodo)

The Sopranos: The Complete Series, available November 11, 2008. 6 seasons over 33 discs. Weighing in at 10 pounds, the box set features 3 ½ hours of never-before-seen bonus material, including:

– Supper with The Sopranos, two sit-down dinners with cast and crew
– Exclusive two-part interview of creator David Chase by actor Alec Baldwin
– Paley Center for Media Seminar discussion with David Chase and Terence Winter, featuring characters who were “whacked” including Vincent Pastore, Steve Buscemi, Drea de Matteo, David Proval and Annabella Sciorra
– Spoofs and parodies of The Sopranos
– Lost scenes from all six seasons
– Original audio commentaries from cast and crew
– 2 CD soundtracks

David Chase will never come out and definitively reveal the fate of Tony, but out of frustration last year, he left some not-so-subtle clues. Today, Entertainment Weekly released a gallery of Sopranos images along with a segmented interview with Chase covering reactions to the ending, how he anguished over offing Adriana (Drea de Matteo), Alec Baldwin not getting on the show, and how Mad Men might be the only series left to carry the torch.

David Chase Gets the Last Word - EW

In reading this profile of Joel McHale and The Soup, there’s an obvious love-hate thing going on between the Washington Post staffer that praises the adept “meta-contempt” of Joel and his always aggregating production team with one hand, but condescends to the need for a show that traffics in clips from the “ninety percent of what’s on television [that’s] not good” with the other. Problem is, if you can’t bullshit a bullshitter, you’re not going to outsnark a black-belt like McHale either.

Flip, Clip, Rip - Washington Post (via Karina Longworth)

– HBO has acquired rights for a Ed Norton produced documentary following Barack Obama from the early days of his presidential campaign all the way through Election Day - Hollywood Reporter

– Turning the tables on the usual remake story - Fox Japan takes a shot at Alexander Payne’s Sideways. Same old remake story - Steven Spielberg eyes an Oldboy remake utilizing Will Smith which, rest assured, will capture none of the spirit of the original.

– Kevin Smith, Michael Moore, M.Night Shyamalan, Cameron Crowe, and Uwe Boll - 5 Directors, 5 Achilles Heels - Spout

– Christopher Mintz-Plasse (McLovin) is everywhere - L.A. Times

– In defense of a defunct format: The Guardian’s Darragh McManus hearts the VCR

– David Lynch to launch a new web series based on his latest book, Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness and Creativity - Wired

– The Red Balloon, Rumble Fish, Le Petit Amour, Billy the Kid - Miranda July on films that shaped her childhood and career - The Guardian

– Interviews: Salon and 30 Rock’s Jack McBrayer, A.V. Club and Paul Rudd, and Vulture with Jean-Claude Van Damme on the critically acclaimed(!?) JCVD.

– Video: Seth Rogen and Kevin Smith on Clerks, Superbad, Zack and Miri, and fat guys on film. (via Hollywood Elsewhere)

Slideshow: Will.i.am trapped in CNN hologram, hurtling through space and time - 23/6

Seems appropriate. Change - cosmetic and otherwise - is coming.

Apologies for the non-posting.  The latest on Don Draper and Zack and Miri and the lot seems so small while history is in the making. I mean, CNN just dropped a hologram on our unsuspecting heads for Pete’s sake.  Elect today, blog tomorrow.