Big Screen Little Screen

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.

– You’d wonder whether the internet might swallow itself upon hearing that John Hamm - the one Anne Thompson says could be The Next George Clooney - might spend his break away from Mad Men over on the set of 30 Rock, as Liz Lemon’s neighbor and potential love interest no less. (EW’s Michael Ausiello)

– While they’re fighting what’s likely a losing battle with The Weinsteins that will probably end with Project Runway finally moving over to Lifetime, Bravo has another title in the works - Fashion Show, which sounds suspiciously similar to Runway, though in this case the winner will be selected by viewers American Idol style. Another in development: Celebrity Sew-Off, in which celebs are paired with fashion experts and compete to launch their own clothing labels. (Hollywood Reporter)

– Barack Obama’s Wednesday night presidentfomercial was watched by 33.6 million viewers across 7 networks, boosting ratings by 11 percent across the board, and beating the viewership for the final game of the World Series by 70 percent. The candidate did wonders for John Stewart’s numbers as well. (HR)

Barack Obama has been catching up with Mad Men on the campaign trail as of late, and John McCain is a 24 guy that counts on Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm for laughs, according to Men’s Vogue. Both candidates are said to be big proponents of The Wire. Undecideds, this must have been the piece of info you were waiting for - you can vote with confidence now.

Conversely, if you need to know who The Wire’s Sonja Sohn (Kima), Seth Gilliam (Sgt. Carter), and Gbenga Akinnagbe (Chris Parlow) support in the race, there’s this. And Curb’s Larry David has also made his preference known. (via Time)

Mindy Kaling stars in this web series for the newly launched video portal, Strike TV. Kaling co-scripted the episode with Office writing staffer Lester Lewis.

One week early. Enjoy. (Bigger, U.S. only?)

Written by Jonathan Raymond and Kelly Reichardt (both behind 2006’s Old Joy) and directed by Reichardt. Michelle Williams stars as drifter Wendy, en route to a cannery job in Alaska with her dog Lucy in tow. As her car breaks down in a small Oregon town, her tight-money problems create a ripple of bad decisions and piled-on crises. Scheduled release: December 10, 2008 (limited).

Related: indieWIRE Profile - Williams on Wendy and Lucy (via GreenCine)

Larry David’s off again, on again love affair with his own HBO series is back in go mode, as the network has announced that Curb Your Enthusiasm will return to production starting this December. Slated for 10 episodes in 2009, the air date for the seventh season is as of yet, undetermined. (Variety)

Related: “The debates were particularly challenging for me to monitor. First I tried running in and out of the room so I would only hear my guy. This worked until I knocked over a tray of hors d’oeuvres. ‘Sit down or get out!’ my host demanded. ‘Okay,’ I said, and took a seat, but I was more fidgety than a ten-year-old at temple. I just couldn’t watch without saying anything, and my running commentary, which mostly consisted of ‘Shut up, you prick!’ or ‘You’re a fucking liar!!!’ or ‘Go to hell, you cocksucker!’ was way too distracting for the attendees, and finally I was asked to leave.” - Waiting for Nov. 4th, by Larry David

“I like the way she’s handing out the Pops. The kids are excited.
But, the mom reminds me of something.”

“No, this is original.”

Second City Entertainment has a first-look deal in place with CBS to utilize its over 125 writer-performers, directors, and showrunners across its four stages in Chicago, Toronto, Detroit, and Los Angeles to draft potential comedy pilots for the network.

Alums of the long running improvisational comedy theater and production company include Alan Arkin, Joan Rivers, Fred Willard, Harold Ramis, Gilda Radner, John Belushi, John Candy, Catherine O’Hara, Martin Short, Dan Akroyd, Bill Murray, Mike Myers, Chris Farley, Tim Meadows, Steve Carell, Amy Sedaris, Stephen Colbert, Rachel Dratch, Adam McKay, Jason Sudekis, and Tina Fey. (Variety)

Picked up by Showtime for two more seasons at 12 episodes each, Micheal C. Hall’s Dexter will restart production this spring. “I thought at best we would attract a devoted cult audience but soon realized that, ironically, this show is so thematically rich and layered with humanity that audiences of all kinds have flocked to it,” said Showtime head Robert Greenblatt. (Hollywood Reporter)

I want to ignore this - to pretend that I’m above this evolving, now bicoastal MTV saga - this Tale of Two Ciphers. I want to scoff and tell you that Whitney Port’s pop-soundtracked Manhattan adventures won’t mean a thing to me, but that would be a lie. (via LAT)

Having directed one of the best dramas of the year in Snow Angels and a top comedy in the Judd Apatow produced Pineapple Express, David Gordon Green will continue to show off his range by taking on the adaptation of the Steve Niles graphic novel, Freaks of the Heartland (Hollywood Reporter). Add Freaks to Green’s growing list of projects, including writing and exec producer credits for the recently announced Fox TV animated comedy Good Vibes, about California surfer teens. (Variety)

Truthful TV Title Cards - Glark (via Fraktastic)