Category: 1. Jason Apuzzo

Showtime Says The Kennedys Doesn’t Fit Their ‘Brand’; But Secret Diary of a Call Girl Does!

"Um, maybe we can do cameos on 'Weeds'?"

By Jason Apuzzo. To add to The History Channel’s initial rejection of Joel Surnow’s The Kennedys miniseries, you can now add Showtime’s rejection of the series – and also that of Starz and FX.

According to Showtime, even though the miniseries is “well-produced, well-acted and a quality piece of work,” it still apparently “doesn’t fit the Showtime programming brand.” Let’s remember here that several series that do apparently fit the Showtime brand are: Californication, Secret Diary of a Call Girl, Weeds, and Penn & Teller: Bullshit!

Available only as a bootleg?

I know that everyone is currently consumed with the controversy associated with the Arizona shooting, but this developing story with respect to the Kennedy miniseries is really quite extraordinary – and eerily reminiscent of the situation from several years ago with respect to ABC’s The Path to 9/11, a series that was critical of the Clintons. Whereas the CBS miniseries The Reagans – the series to which The Kennedys has repeatedly been compared in the media – did eventually land on Showtime, no such fate currently seems guaranteed for Surnow’s series, which is extraordinary.

In the years since The Path to 9/11 came out, my colleague Cyrus Nowrasteh has been reduced to handing out bootlegged copies of the film to friends and colleagues, because ABC refuses to release a DVD of the program. The situation is really quite incredible, when you consider that Path was a $40 million network movie that had 28 million viewers the night of its premiere. I’m sure Joel never thought such a situation was possible with respect to The Kennedys, yet here we are all over again.

It’s a shame that the Fox News and talk radio people are so busy right now having to defend their own careers, because at least they still have some measure of free speech in what they do. If you work in the Hollywood system? Forget it.

Posted on January 12th, 2011 at 3:36pm.

UPDATED: ABC’s V Back Tonight + New Morena Baccarin Interview with Details About the Show’s Future

Morena Baccarin as the alien queen, Anna.

By Jason Apuzzo. I just wanted to remind those of you who are enjoying ABC’s V that the show is back tonight, in what promises to be an interesting episode. Previews for the show (albeit not the one below) have shown a suicide bombing taking place during this episode; plus, the colorful Jane Badler – who played the alien leader in the old series – returns in this episode, something teased in the season premiere.

Also today there’s a new interview out with actress Morena Baccarin, who plays the Visitor queen, Anna. SPOILER WARNING: Baccarin reveals some tantalizing details about how the show’s storyline will be developing – including what cast members from the original series will be returning, and in what capacity; and, furthermore, it’s revealed that the producers have planned-out the storyline of the series through a hypothetical third season, a season which may or may not happen depending on ratings.

Click on over to Collider for more details. I’ve also embedded a preview for tonight’s show below.

[UPDATE: Having now seen the episode, I was not happy with it at all – and my earlier fears about the ‘suicide bomber’ subplot were validated, alas. Although there were aspects of the show I liked – particularly the speculative elements about the human soul, and Jane Badler’s juicy performance as the alien queen’s mother – I was very disappointed by the overall arc and purpose of the suicide bomber subplot. Its purpose seems to be to show that ‘desperate people in desperate circumstances’ will turn to terrorism, even – as we learn – an ex-Israeli Mossad agent. Memo to ABC: the Mossad fights terrorism, and doesn’t practice it. Had the leader of this rogue, suicide-bombing branch of the show’s ‘Fifth Column’ been a Chechen or a Russian, I think it would’ve been much more believable. As it stands, however, having its leader be ex-Mossad feels like a cheap shot toward the Israelis. Also: having the actual suicide bomber himself be a Catholic parishioner who is ‘inspired’ by Father Jack’s words was in extremely poor taste. What a disappointment. Two shows in, and my enthusiasm has already cooled.]

Posted on January 11th, 2011 at 2:26pm.

UPDATED: Kennedy Series Pulled by History Channel Due to Network’s ‘Rigorous Standards’; Ancient Aliens Apparently OK

By Jason Apuzzo. According to The Hollywood Reporter, 24 creator Joel Surnow’s 8-part miniseries The Kennedys has apparently been cancelled by The History Channel after the show “was not considered historically accurate enough for the network’s rigorous standards.” The series stars Greg Kinnear, Katie Holmes and Tom Wilkinson.

I’m laughing at this, because just the other day while channel surfing I happened to notice that The History Channel is still running its rigorously accurate series Ancient Aliens, featuring theories on extraterrestrial visitations to our planet – theories explained by such noted, credible scholars as Erich von Däniken.

Greg Kinnear & Katie Holmes in "The Kennedys."

What a farce this decision is.

For the record, Govindini and I know Joel and are certain that he and his team have put together a show that more than merits a showing on a network that currently includes on its schedule such scrupulously accurate series as MonsterQuest, The Bible Code: Predicting Armageddon, Nostradamus Effect, The Real Face of Jesus?, Stan Lee’s Superhumans and UFO Hunters.

We’ve embedded the trailer for Joel’s series above, and frankly it looks great. It also appears to be pointed and opinionated on the subject of the Kennedys – but nothing out of bounds, from what I’ve thus far seen.

After all, don’t we already know that image and reality were often quite different with respect to the Kennedys? God forbid that discrepancy would actually be dramatized in a television series.

As a side note, The History Channel has just guaranteed a few more ratings points for this series when it eventually airs on another network (possibly Showtime, according to reports) – which it inevitably will.

[UPDATE: Thanks to Michelle Malkin’s Hot Air for linking to this post. Welcome to our Hot Air readers.]

[UPDATE #2: It now appears that The History Channel pulled the show due to lobbying on behalf of Caroline Kennedy, and also Maria Shriver according to The Hollywood Reporter. As the story goes, the History Channel is co-owned by Disney – and Kennedy herself has a book deal with Disney – and she was planning to appear on (Disney’s) ABC network to do some exclusive promotion of the book. So it seems that Disney received an ‘either/or’ choice from the Kennedys, and ultimately decided to drop the show – and concoct this ludicrous story about the show ‘not being up to network standards.’ And so the farce goes on.]

Posted on January 8th, 2011 at 5:15pm.

New Trailer for John Milius’ Homefront; Game Debuts March 18th

By Jason Apuzzo. For you Libertas readers who are currently digging ABC’s V, I wanted to mention to you folks that something quite similar (at least in terms of being a futuristic invasion scenario) – namely, John Milius’ video game Homefront – is debuting March 18th and has a new trailer out which you can see above.

Homefront is set in 2027. The idea is that North Korea has by then become a mini-expansionist empire, invigorated by a young new leader, and that this empire grows to consume both South Korea and Japan. Meanwhile, the United States’ economic and military profiles continue to weaken.

It’s at this point that the North Koreans launch some kind of advanced electronic pulse weapon that cripples our defense systems – and subsequently invade the American homeland. A patriotic American ‘insurgency’ ensues.

The video below develops in great detail the thinking behind the game, and I recommend that you give it a look – even if you don’t like video games, or have no plans to buy this one – because it will encourage you to know that what a refuge the video game world has become for Cold Warriors.

Enjoy, and best wishes to John and the Homefront team. If Call of Duty‘s success is any indication, this game may become a major hit.

Posted on January 7th, 2011 at 3:02pm.

Watch Heavy Metal in Baghdad Now for Free

Watch more free documentaries

By Jason Apuzzo. We wanted Libertas readers to get the chance to see an interesting film that recently became available on-line called Heavy Metal in Baghdad, about the underground music scene in Iraq before and during the recent war. SnagFilms recently acquired this documentary and made it available for free viewing.

Like other recent films No One Knows About Persian Cats or The Taqwacores, Heavy Metal shows what a vital role music is playing in giving young people in the Islamic world an opportunity for self-expression. The film has been very well received (see reviews by The New York Times and New York Post), and won Best Documentary at the 24th Warsaw Film Festival.

Acrassicauda in concert.

Do not expect this to be a ‘political’ film, even though the Iraq War obviously serves as a backdrop. Based on what I’ve seen (I haven’t finished watching the film in its entirety), the film does not contain an especially focused or coherent point of view on the war itself, but remains concerned with the lives and travails of ‘Acrassicauda’ (Latin for ‘Black Scorpion’), Iraq’s only heavy metal band – a band that originally formed in 2001 and who managed to survive (more or less) during and after the war.

Due to death threats from terrorists, the band has only managed to play only 6 concerts in Baghdad, 2 in Syria and one in Turkey – where the band currently resides, as I understand. In the Islamic world, Acrassicauda is literally a band on the run.

If you want to understand what true artistic courage is like – as opposed to what too often passes for it here in the States (hello, Sean Penn) – I recommend that you watch this film. WARNING: the movie is absolutely saturated with four-letter words, and obviously deals with heavy metal music and the lifestyles of those who play it, so only watch this if you’re up for that.

Our best wishes and congratulations to the filmmakers, who literally put their lives at risk to document this band’s story. Glad you guys made it out alive.

Posted on January 7th, 2011 at 2:10pm.

Afghanistan’s Black Tulip Screens in Los Angeles for Oscar Consideration, 12/30-1/5

By Jason Apuzzo. Recently Libertas’ Joe Bendel wrote an important piece about Black Tulip (see the trailer above), Afghanistan’s official submission for the Best Foreign Language Film award at this year’s Oscars.

Still in the Oscar race.

Despite the recent controversy over whether the film qualifies for the Best Foreign Language Film category, I was happy to learn recently from Black Tulip co-producer Chris Cole that the film is indeed still in contention for that award (see here), and is also having a limited one-week theatrical release here in Los Angeles starting this Thursday, December 30th at the the Laemmle Sunset 5 (on the corner of Sunset and N. Crescent Heights). According to Chris, this limited theatrical run is intended to qualify the film for Best Score, Best Original Song (from Natalie Cole) and Best Cinematography consideration.

We want to encourage everyone in the Los Angeles area to turn out and give this film the buzz and support it needs heading into awards season. Imagine for a moment what it would mean to the people of Afghanistan to have a film in the running for an award on Oscar night – at a time when the Taliban and their allies are still trying to snuff out free speech in that country.

Screening times for the film in Los Angeles are as follows:

Laemmle Sunset 5

  • Thursday, December 30th at 7:30pm
  • Friday, December 31st through Wednesday, January 5th at 1:00pm

We want to congratulate director Sonia Nassery Cole and co-producer Chris Cole on their courage in overcoming extraordinary obstacles in getting this film made and out to the public. Their example is one that I wish more filmmakers here in America would follow, and we wish them every success with this important film.

Posted on December 29th, 2010 at 3:01pm.