TVSquad

It looks like Yogi and Boo-Boo are going to be introduced to a new generation. They're getting the big screen treatment in a combination of live-action and CGI, a la Alvin and the Chipmunks or The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle. Unlike the aforementioned, one can only hope that a decent script will be done before anything is committed to the screen. However, being that I have no faith in Hollywood, I doubt it.

As a matter of fact, when I think of Hanna Barbera properties on the big screen, I automatically think of the 1994 movie version of The Flintstones. Then I shudder. The script will probably be cliché and have very little in common with the original cartoon, and the new generation will lap it up like milk. It's another pleasant childhood memory flushed down the toilet in the name of the almighty dollar.

Enough of my rant. My big question is: who will be playing Ranger Smith?

One of the greatest TV mini-series of all time was I, Claudius. It was riveting TV and every time it's been repeated since it premiered in 1976, I've watched it religiously. The Robert Graves novel about the Roman empire, including the mad Caligula, is now set for a remake. Director Jim Sheridan (My Left Foot) will be helming an adaptation of I, Claudius with Nye Heron and Sheridan penning the script.

At this point, the project seems headed to the big screen. That would be a plus insofar as the set design and lush look. However, one of the benefits of the 1976 version was the length. It was 13 episodes, a hour each (sans commercials). That meant the complexities of Graves' novel -- and there were dozens of them -- not to mention the enormous cast of characters, could be played out.

It continues to look as if the movie industry has totally run out of ideas for new concepts to bring the $10 a ticket crowd into the theaters. Dipping its foot into the television pool once again, it was announced that Universal has cut a deal to promote Sid & Marty Kroftt's Sigmund and the Sea Monsters to the big screen. This will be the second Kroftt movie for Universal (another property, H.R. Pufnstuf, is with Sony). The first, Land of the Lost starring Will Ferrell, has completed filming and is set for release in June of 2009.

For those uninitiated to the golden age of Saturday morning programming, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters premiered on the NBC schedule during the 1973-74 season. It featured a friendly sea monster (played by Billy Barty) who was befriended by two human boys (one of them being Family Affair's Johnny Whitaker). The typical sitcomy plot usually involved Sigmund getting into some sort of trouble that alerted his sea monster brothers and mother (who lived in a nearby sea cave), and his human friends making sure he wasn't found out. It became the first Sid & Marty Kroftt production up to that time to be renewed for a second season.

Are Kermit, Fozzie and Miss Piggy poised for a comeback? Jason wrote about it in June, and now there's more news if you believe this item from the UK Telegraph. Citing an unnamed source, the newspaper reported that How I Met Your Mother's star Jason Segel has written a script that brings Jim Henson's Muppets to the big screen, setting up a return to television. It sounds like a great idea, but without confirmed sources, I'd take the whole thing with a grain of salt.

Disney owns the rights to the Muppets and they would produce the picture. Segel's story picks up with the Muppets reuniting long after their TV show has ended. They agree to put on one big variety show to save the studio. Should this come off as planned and the film is a hit, the Muppets would then come back to series TV.

You read it correctly. The Office is headed to the big screen. Except that it's not the American version. Nor is it the original British version. The German version, called Stromberg, is getting the movie treatment.

It will be an interesting experiment. If it is successful, I wonder if we'll see other franchises of The Office hit the big screen? Gervais and Merchant wrapped up the storylines of the British version quite nicely in the final special, so I don't see that version hitting the theaters (but since no story ever truly ends, I could be proven wrong).

The stars of the NBC version, however, are currently movie stars in their own right (Yes, I am counting The Rocker) and could possibly carry a movie version. However, at this stage a movie version would just interfere with the television version (much like Steven Moffat said about Doctor Who) so I don't see a movie of the U.S. version anytime soon.

Steven Moffat, the upcoming showrunner for the hit Brit sci-fi television series, has hinted at a big-screen version of Doctor Who. Upon review of the article, I can only conclude that someone took an offhand statement made by Mr. Moffat and ran with it. Perhaps they're just mentioning it to gauge fan interest in such a project.

Rumors will fly, of course. Doctor Who movies have been attempted since the days of Tom Baker as the lead role. Two out-of-continuity movies were made in the 1960s (based on William Hartnell episodes of the program) in which the Peter Cushing Doctor fought his greatest enemies, the Daleks.

If I had my druthers, I'd want to see a Paul McGann movie that fills in some of the gap between the 1996 movie and the Christopher Eccleston Doctor, but that's just me. Given the logistics of arranging such a thing, I'd put the odds of that happening somewhere between diddly and squat. Still, a movie about the Last Great Time War would be nice.

We all know that studios go ga-ga for big screen movies based on TV shows. Even if they tank, there seems to be an unending appetite to bring a beloved (or even semi-beloved) TV show to a theater near you: The Fugitive, Charlie's Angels, Transformers, The Beverly Hillbillies, Serenity (Firefly), The Simpsons, South Park, The Flintstones, The Jetsons...the list is endless. Now Den of Geek has a list of 23 shows that studios are planning to bring to the big screen.

But this list is really incomplete in so many ways. We've all heard that Magnum, P.I. might get the movie treatment, but this list only says that Matthew McConaughey might star and doesn't mention other people who have been rumored to have been attached to it in the past, including Ben Affleck and George Clooney.

Why do I think this is going to be really bad?

Warner Brothers has decided to make a big screen feature based on the Martin The Martin character, the little black and green guy who wanted to destroy Earth and/or Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck in several cartoons. Now, a feature film based on the character wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, but here's the sentence that sends a shiver down my spine:

Project will blend live action and CGI.*

Ugh. They can't just do a straight animated movie, they have to have some sort of live element that just ruins it? The plot will have Marvin coming to Earth to destroy Christmas, only to get stuck in a box. Producers say the movie will be aimed at families and people who like movies that kinda suck. Of course, I truly hope I'm wrong. Marvin is a great, classic cartoon character.

*Another reason to hate that sentence: the idiotic writing style that Variety uses.

Oh, I'll be there, probably on opening weekend, but something about the new X-Files flick makes me nervous as hell.

Maybe it's the fact that it has been ten years since the last movie, and I wonder if people are still interested in it enough to make it a hit (and push another movie into production). I also worry about the plot, since nothing much has been leaked about what the film is about, other than it involves snow, mysterious happenings, and Billy Connolly bleeding from the eyes.

No, the real reason I'm worried is that the movie has a "standalone" plot and is not part of the mythology arc from the show and the first movie. I think this could be a mistake.

Since it's Star Trek Week here at TV Squad (the original series, that is), I thought I'd post the first official teaser poster ads for the movie that show what Chris Pine and Zachery Quinto look like as James. T. Kirk and Spock.

Now, it's wrong to judge a book by its cover, or in this case a movie from a teaser poster. But if we can judge the movie on the casting of one of the major parts and/or the makeup used on that actor, then this movie looks awesome. Quinto (Sylar on Heroes) is a terrific choice to play a younger Spock. I say "younger" and not "young" because Quinto is only a few years younger than Leonard Nimoy was when he debuted as Spock on NBC in the 60s. There's not a lot of info about the plot of the movie, only that it takes place before the original show and involves Starfleet, so I'm not sure exactly how young Kirk and Spock are supposed to be (plus we're talking about a half Vulcan here so getting into those details are probably pointless).

But what about the guy playing Kirk?

I've never interviewed Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski and don't know him personally, but he sure seems like one classy guy. He recently posted a note on his web site, giving readers his thoughts on more Babylon 5 DVDs.

In short, he's against it. He feels that offerings like the TV movie, Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers, and the straight-to-DVD story, Babylon 5: The Lost Tales, take away from the strength of the original TV series.

He writes that The Lost Tales was commissioned at a $2 million budget, and they did the best they could with it. Apparently, the studio wasn't sure there was an audience for Babylon 5. Silly studio.

Yet another BBC series is being adapted to American audiences. Only this time, it sounds like it's going to be a movie.

Universal Pictures will be adapting the 1999 BBC series Second Sight which launched the career of Clive Owen. It will be produced by Angry Film's Don Murphy and Susan Montford. The story is about a homicide detective named Ross Tanner who suffers from a degenerative eye illness that leads to blindness and hallucinations. As a result, he must rely more on his intuition to solve crimes.

There have certainly been any number of American adaptations of British shows over time. Some are good and some are utter crap. Second Sight does sound like a good premise (I've never seen the show), but I think the movie would have more credentials if they made sure to involve members of the original crew. I wonder if they'll get Clive Owen to reprise his role?

Lorenzo Semple Jr., the pilot writer of the Batman television show of the 1960's (and writer of such movies as Three Days of the Condor), has written an article for Variety sharing his opinion of the Batman movie franchise. In it, he discusses the origins of the Batman TV show.

Semple has a very enjoyable, erudite writing style. Here's an example: "...I am often asked what I think of the string of Batman features which has followed. My answer disappoints. Truth is, I think only rarely about Warner's big-screen charades, for they are related to our antique effort in little beyond the eponymous title."

As one can guess, he doesn't really dig the new franchise. But Bob Kane, Batman's creator, didn't really understand Frank Miller's famous Batman comic book The Dark Knight Returns, so I guess it's a generational thing.

The article is also a good history lesson regarding how the business of television worked at the time. Recommended reading.

There's such a thing as beating a dead horse and then there's beating a dead horse, chopping it up into tiny bits, and flinging it around like a monkey flings poo. The fact that we're still reading news items about Deadwood nearly two years after it aired its final episode just goes to show you how much it's missed. Well get this - as if we didn't already know - those two final "wrap-up the series with a neat little bow" movies are as dead as Wild Bill Hickok.

During the HBO's panel at the TCA Press Tour, executives Richard Plepler, Co-president, and Michael Lombardo, President of Programming and West Coast Operations, said they'd be interested in doing a Sopranos movie and a second Sex and the City movie. Plepler said that Warner Bros. and New Line are definitely interested in doing another Sex and the City movie. They are trying to put something together, but there's no timeline. "Everyone associated with the project was really heartened by the fans and by the new fans to the show," Plepler said.

As far as a Sopranos feature goes, Lombardo says HBO would be delighted to take part in it. He says that series creator David Chase is in France on vacation right now but, "If David wants to do it, we'd be delight to explore that."

When the executives were pressed about Mad Men (rumors are abound that HBO turned down the show and AMC snatched it up), Lombardo said only this, "Heres the bottom line, it's a wonderful show and I wish it were on HBO. Matt [Weiner is] an extraordinary talent and I hope that one day, he'll do something for us."

Would you see another Sex and the City movie? How about a Sopranos movie?