Brusimm Cinema Static TV NewsEW is reporting that a The CW television network has ordered a TV series that is Hunger Games-like.  See the tidbit below…

Based on the forthcoming series of books by Kiera Cass, The Selection is an epic romance set 300 years in the future which centers on a poor young woman who is chosen by lottery to participate in a competition to become the next queen of a war-torn nation at a crossroads.  The Executive Producers/Writers: Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain; Warner Bros. Television

Based on a forthcoming book series?  Does that mean it’s not out yet?

To be honest, I had thought that if anyone, the Syfy channel would come along with a movie that might have been called Hungry Games or what not…  they’ve aired some infamously rushed and horrible rip-offs in the past like Battle of Los Angeles is one that comes to mind.  And they rush to get it on the air the weekend of that the movie their mocking opens.  It seemed shameful!

But may-hap, The Selection won’t come out being as parallel to The Hunger Games is it seems to sound.

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New Movies at the Box Office from Cinema Static 2011 logo 475w lq

This week, there aren’t that many new movies at the box office that will give The Grey a run for its money.  I anticipate that The Grey will come in third in the box office tally for the upcoming weekend.

New movies coming out on Friday, February 3rd, 2012 include stars like Drew Barrymore, Abbie Cornish, Daniel Radcliffe, & Michael B. Jordan.

Check it out and make your plans:

•      Chronicle

Chronicle movie poster

Chronicle stars Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell, Friday Night Lights‘ very own Michael B. Jordan & Michael Kelly in a movie about three high school friends who gain superpowers after making an incredible discovery. Soon, though, they find their lives spinning out of control and their bond tested as they embrace their darker sides.

It’s directed by Josh Trank, in his first big screen directorial effort.

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•      The Woman in Black

The Woman in Black promo movie poster

This movie is directed by James Watkins (Eden Lake) and includes Daniel Radcliffe in a role without a magic wand.

The movie is about “A young lawyer who travels to a remote village where he discovers the vengeful ghost of a scorned woman is terrorizing the locals.

(Sounds like someone’s ex!!!)

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Movies & TV Shows New on DVD and Blu-ray

This week there are over 100 new releases coming to DVD & Blu-ray discs this week, on Tuesday, January 31st, 2012.

Stars hitting the home entertainment venue this week include Ryan Gosling, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, Gregory Peck, Steve Martin and Richard Gere.

Featured amongst these new titles are Drive, Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Thing and the 3D Blu-ray release of Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

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Drive on Blu-ray

Drive Starring Ryan Gosling and Bryan Cranston.  (It behooves me to remind you of the marketing of this film… see my warning and movie review of Drive)

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Transformers 3 on 3D Blu-ray

Transformers: Dark of the Moon (Three-Disc Combo: Blu-ray 3D/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy)

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New Releases on Amazon

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Ah, with The Hunger Games quickly approaching our own movie theaters, on March 23, 2012, the viral campaign is marching forward.  And it’s pretty entertaining actually.

"The Hunger Games" movie logo 500w

Since I’m a “citizen of Panem,” via the virtue of signing up for The Hunger Games Facebook page (Or one of the pages associated with the movie), I get intermittent updates.  In this case, I received an email for the ‘Capitol Couture’ newsletter from Seneca Crane, the Head Gamemaker for the 74th Hunger Games.

(Seneca Crane is played by Wes Bentley)

In this newsletter, is a leader image with a link off to the “newsletter” and one fictional newsletter ad in the content urging citizens to get ready to buy their tickets!

The Hunger Games Couture Newsletter Ad

The newsletter is based on learning about the fashion, trends and lifestyle of Capitol within the fictional world of The Hunger Games that was created by Suzanne Collins.  (It must be neat for her to see so much stuff being made for and about her creation.)

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NASCAR announced that they’ve extended (and restructured) their digital partnership through the year 2016.

NASCARAnd something that many folks behind the industry think, will be a good thing, is that NASCAR is regaining control of their interactive, digital and social media rights while Turner will continue to represent sponsorships and advertising for all NASCAR digital platforms.

Believe it or not, this regain of control that starts in 2013 includes NASCAR.com and such.  Yep…  their own site was run by another entity.  Turner had managed all their digital content since 2001.

And for the SiriusXM fans, this could finally mean more content streamed from the satellite radio station and other digital content.

If you’ve ever wondered why they haven’t done one thing or another with their site, and kept hearing the term “rights issues,” well, more than likely you won’t be hearing that as much any more.

I can’t wait to see what they do with the place!

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'The Avengers' Set Logo

Will you be seeing Joss Whedon‘s The Avengers in 3D?  I wasn’t planning on it, but Disney may have swayed my hand here!  Damnit!

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As far as 3D movies go, I’ve dug my heels in hard.  It seems pointless to fork out extra cash for most live-action 3D movies unless there’s CGI involved like in Tron: Legacy, or Transformers: Dark of the Moon.   Animated features seem to benefit the most from 3D, bringing that type of movie to life.

But there’s very little that can get me to fork out the extra bucks for a live-action 3D movie these days.  It doesn’t add anything to the live-action movie.  But then again, it looks like Disney has found my weak spot!

Disney and RealD have come up with the concoction of custom designed 3D movie glasses based on characters from The Avengers.

Iron Man RealD 3D Glasses

And I have to tell ya, it’s tempting, if for anything else, to have a pair of your own super cool 3D glasses.

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Cinema Static Top-10 Movies & Box Office NumbersThis weekend, the new movies that hit the box office Friday populated the 1st, 3rd and 5th place spots in the chart of top-10 movies.

According to estimates, The Grey with Liam Neeson will be the lead money maker in the top-10 movies by the time the weekend is over, pulling in $20 million in it’s opening weekend, dominating the other movies by almost double.

Trailing The Grey is a movie in its second week in movie theaters, Underworld: Awakening, which  dropped by more than half from it’s opening weekend, will pull in an estimated $12.5M this weekend.

In third place in the charts is the new Katherine Heigl movie, One for the Money.  Apparently Heigl doesn’t have the draw they’d like her to have and the movie only pulled in $11.7M in ticket sales in its first weekend out. Hmm, no wonder she dropped the soundbite about wanting to return to Grey’s Anatomy.

Outside the top-3 in 4th, is Red Tails with Cuba Gooding Jr.Red Tails dropped nearly 50% from its opening weekend too and pulled in just over $10M.  But still hung on to a spot in the list of top-10 movies.

The new movie Man on the Ledge starring Sam Worthington seemed to have very little draw compared to the other top-4 movies, pulling in an estimated $8M.  Ouch.

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I finally caught the first 3 episodes of Alcatraz on Fox.  I have to say that it is interesting and written well enough to be a wee bit engaging.  Even with its flaws.

Alcatraz on Fox

TV Review:

Alcatraz comes to us from Elizabeth Sarnoff (Lost, Deadwood), Steven Lilien (Kyle XY), Bryan Wynbrandt (Kyle XY) and is executive produced by J.J. Abrams.

The cast includes Sarah Jones (Sons of Anarchy), Jorge Garcia (Lost), Jonny Coyne, Parminder Nagra (ER) & Sam Neill.

The premise of Alcatraz is that back on March 20th, 1963, everyone on the island disappeared.  Now, here in 2012, the folks who disappeared seem to be returning.  And that’s not good.

The interesting thing is that there’s an organization that has already been set up and expecting the inmates to be returning.  Their advanced office of equipment is set up under the prison and is run by Emerson Hauser (Neill).  Lucy Banerjee (Nagra) is his partner and Jones plays detective Madsen who gets herself recruited to their team.  She tags a comic book writer to help her, who also happens to be an expert on Alcatraz history (Garcia).

So each case of the week has them hunting down the newest perp who has reappeared and doing what they do best, is evil stuff.  We watch the perp do his deed here in the present, but we also get flashbacks to their lives back in the 60′s.  It’s some filler, background material giving us their motivation, if there’s motivation to be understood.

PhotobucketHere’s the gang at Comic-Con 2011, meeting, greeting and signing things fans brought by…

And once they do catch their man, Hauser transports them to a new version of Alcatraz, somewhere off in the woods.  This is where they’re putting all the inmates they reclaim.

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Brad Douriff (L) and Cleavant Derricks in Syfy Movie Swamp Volcano - a TV Review

This is a TV review of Swamp Volcano (AKA Miami Magma) Original Saturday Night movie on Syfy.  It stars ex-model Rachel Hunter (Gravity), Melissa Ordway (In Time, Escapee), Cleavant Derricks (Sliders) and acting veteran Brad Dourif (Catch .44, Priest; on TV: Deadwood).

Swamp Volcano (AKA Miami Magma) was produced by Activity Film Services and directed by Todor Chapkanov (Monsterwolf).  It was written by Declan O’Brien (Wrong Turn 3 & 4; Sharktopus).  [I keep saying aka because it's referred to in IMDb as Miami Magma.]

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Swamp Volcano starts out on Syfy looking and sounding like an older TV show, my first thought was Miami Vice, but that opening was better.  (I was starting to worry right away, but things settled down for me.) Then we switch to a dad video chatting with his daughter and wife on his smart phone.  He’s on a Holter Energy drilling rig (called Trans Ocean Alpha) when a funky computer read out suggested they should stop drilling but of course, they argue about it until they try to shut down.  But it’s too late and the rig runs into trouble.  As in volcanic trouble and blows up… in a tiny CGI explosion.

(Oh dude, you’re supposed to put the life vest on, then dive in…  not throw the life vest in and dive after it!)

The movie distinctly looks/feels like it was filmed on tape!  It’s got that fuzzy, noisy sound.

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Liam McIntyre in Spartacus Vengeance

The 2nd season of Starz’ Spartacus, Spartacus: Vengeance, kicked it in gear tonight, January 27th, 2012. (It’s been on VoD, as a free preview, since the 20th)  Spartacus: Vengeance stars Liam McIntyre, Manu Bennett, Viva Bianca, Peter Mensah and more cast from last season, with a few new characters.

Last season ended with Spartacus leading a revolt and escape of slaves from the house of Batiatus.

The second season premiere starts with Spartacus (McIntyre) running from several horsemen in pursuit, hell-bent on skewering Spartacus.  Yet this is but a trap as the Roman soldiers ride head-long into the awaiting swords of Spartacus‘ men.

Viva Bianca in Spartacus: Vengeance

And thus we see how the escaped slaves are existing… hidden in tunnels, foraging for supplies and needing to share amongst themselves.

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