Fox, Sony TV look to revive ‘Heathers’
Mark Rizzo, Jenny Bicks to adapt 1989 film
Fox is developing a contemporary take on the 1989 Christian Slater/Winona Ryder feature “Heathers.” Dark comedy will be adapted for TV by scribe Mark Rizzo, with an assist from “Sex and the City” alum Jenny Bicks. Sony Pictures TV, where Bicks is based, will produce, along with Lakeshore Entertainment, which holds the rights to “Heathers.”

‘Shalom Sesame’ books Gyllenhaal, Stiller
Twelve-part series will shoot in Israel, U.S.
Jake Gyllenhaal, Ben Stiller and Christina Applegate are just a few of the stars slated to appear in a new Sesame Street-style production geared at teaching Jewish-American children about Jewish culture. “Shalom Sesame,” a 12-part series for preschoolers featuring the globe-trotting Muppet Grover, will explore Jewish identity and traditions and will film on location at several Israeli sites, including the Western Wall. Big-name guest stars, including actors Debra Messing, Greg Kinnear and Cedric the Entertainer, will join puppets and children in segments filmed in Israel and the U.S., according to the series’ producers.

Who Summer Glau will play on Dollhouse and more
Summer Glau (“Firefly,” “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”) reunites with Joss Whedon when the actress joins the cast of DOLLHOUSE this fall in a recurring role as BENNETT, a Dollhouse employee who shares a past with ECHO (Eliza Dushku). Additional guest stars appearing throughout the upcoming second season include Alexis Denisof (“Angel”), Jamie Bamber (“Battlestar Galactica”), Michael Hogan (“Battlestar Galactica”) and Keith Carradine (“Dexter”).

Superman’s Brandon Routh joining NBC’s Chuck
Brandon Routh is joining NBC’s Chuck for a multi-episode arc in the show’s new season in March 2010. Routh’s character, Shaw, is a mysterious new spy who takes control as the new leader of Operation Bartowski, becoming a mentor to Chuck and a rival in his affections for Sarah. Chuck will return on NBC after the Olympics in March.

‘Seinfeld’ reunion on Curb Your Enthusiasm
Over the last six seasons, viewers have come to expect the outrageous from Curb, Larry David’s comedic exploration of a man named Larry David. For season 7, the co-creator of Seinfeld decided it was finally time to reunite the gang from his old, pathologically revered NBC sitcom, who up until now had resisted the urge to re-emerge.

‘Leverage’ returning for third season
TNT con series averages 4.1 million viewers
TNT has renewed “Leverage” for a third season. The Timothy Hutton starrer, about a team of con artists and hackers who bring down corrupt bigwigs, has been averaging 4.1 million viewers and ranked ninth on the list of most-watched returning TV shows on cable this summer. The network ordered 15 episodes to debut next year. The show’s summer finale is Sept. 9, then it will return to finish its second season this winter.

Jenna Bush joins ‘Today’
To contribute stories monthly to the NBC show
Former first daughter Jenna Bush Hager, a 27-year-old teacher in Baltimore, will contribute stories about once a month on issues like education to television’s top-rated morning news show, said Jim Bell, its executive producer.

‘House’ gets Fox’s guerrilla ad treatment
Hugh Laurie proposed summer campaign idea
Perhaps you’ve seen the flashes of a caduceus employing a cane instead of a staff while watching commercial breaks on Fox. Or seen the symbol drawn with chalk on New York streets. Or even clicked through to the phrase’s cryptic Web site. Fox is set to announce what many who’ve spied the symbol already suspect: It’s been a summerlong guerrilla marketing promotion for Season 6 of “House” in the fall. Yet few would guess that the idea came from “House” star Hugh Laurie. In the spring, the actor sketched the symbol and showed it to the network, whose marketing department ran with the idea as an innovative teaser campaign.

Fox teams with Twitter for promo
Cast members to tweet live during repeats of ‘Fringe,’ ‘Glee’
The network this week will introduce “tweet-peats” of “Fringe” and “Glee”: encore presentations accompanied by messages from cast and producers via the online social network. During the episodes, viewers can follow Twitter-sent messages (online and on-air via a scroll near the bottom of the screen) providing commentary on the episodes, revealing behind-the-scenes details and answering fan questions.

Remake outbreak hits TV
‘Melrose,’ ‘Eastwick’ use name recognition to launch
Primetime TV is once again in the throes of remake fever, with the CW’s “Melrose” only one of the latest, alongside ABC’s “Eastwick” (based on “The Witches of Eastwick”) and midseason entries “Parenthood” on NBC and “V” (based on the 1980s sci-fi mini) on ABC. Each project starts out with name recognition, and in the stormy weather of broadcasting, allows networks to try to catch lightning in a bigger bottle. It all comes with a price. A remake requires rights fees that include per-episode costs of $5,000-$50,000.

FX to end ‘Rescue Me’ in 2011
Firefighter drama to make 19 final episodes
FX’s “Rescue Me” is set to end its run in 2011, 10 years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that provided the creative impetus for the series. New York-shot drama from Sony Television will continue for 19 more episodes after the current season finale airs on Tuesday. It’s undetermined how the network will release the final shows, though most likely in two different seasons of 10 and nine episodes, or vice versa. The series stars Denis Leary, a hard-drinking conflicted fireman who begins dating the wife of his cousin who died in the World Trade Center.

James Murdoch attacks U.K. policies
News Corp. exec addresses Edinburgh TV fest
Murdoch said: “The investment climate in media in the U.K. reminds me of Tolstoy’s dictum that all happy families resemble one another, while each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. True, none of the markets I have experience of is completely happy, but there are things to welcome — the regulatory professionalism of Germany, the growth opportunities of India — even France outdoes us in its robust defense of intellectual property. “The problem with the U.K. is that it is unhappy in every way. … It is the Addams family of world media.”

HBO looks to Michigan for ‘Middlesex’
Cabler options Detroit-set novel for drama series
HBO has optioned Jeffrey Eugenides’ Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “Middlesex,” set in Detroit, for a one-hour drama series from a script by Donald Margulies. “Middlesex” is about genetics, gender identity and family politics. The story begins in early 1960s Detroit when the male Cal Stephanides is born and raised — due to misidentification by the doctors and a family secret — as the female Callie.

Fremantle slides into Aussie drama
Distributor acquires rights to ‘Slide’
Global distributor FremantleMedia Enterprises is beefing up its activity in the Australian drama market after acquiring international rights to upcoming multiplatform teen saga “Slide.” It is believed to be Oz’s first ever drama that will bow with an online prequel followed by conventional transmissions on Foxtel next April. Meanwhile, FME has sold season three of Australian Roger Simpson’s sex-worker drama “Satisfaction” to HBO Latin America.

The Fine Print

This is by no means meant to be a comprehensive roundup of the entire weeks’ news. All stories are chosen by me for no other reason than that they got my attention and might capture yours. If something you think is more important chime in on the feedback; we’d love to hear comments and have a conversation about it.

Considering the film is made up of bits not used in Anchorman, there is enough there for Wake Up Ron Burgundy to have a pretty decent, if predictable, story. The events of this movie take place after Anchorman, with Ron dealing with a group of bank robbers known as the Alarm Clock. Of course this whole storyline uses extended versions of a few scenes and actually allows for more humor from the channel 4 news team. Of course with any film, the story has to flow well. Unfortunately this is where the movie shows its weakness, as the story does not mesh well as a sequel to Anchorman. The biggest reason for this is the reuse of scenes, namely the scenes where Ron is interacting with Veronica Corningstone, as these scenes show them at odds or acting like they hardly know each other when in actuality they are supposed to have already fallen in love. Of course the narration helps to add some explanation, but toward the middle of the film it is already clear that it does not work and is pretty much ignored. Of course the scenes that were deleted that form the main story work well, as a lot of them do not feature any of the main cast. This allows for these characters to exist without really throwing off the established mythology. One could say this film’s story is meant to be a lot like an insert-able story that could have happened at any time in the life of Ron Burgundy. Without spoiling the movie, if you have seen Anchorman, then some of the plot will seem almost exactly the same, but of course most people who enjoyed the first film liked it for the jokes, and this film does not recycle many of those.

A comedy film like Anchorman has a lot of memorable jokes, so of course one should expect this film to be no different, and it isn’t. The one aspect of this film that makes it work better is the use of all of the characters, while Anchorman has some great bits, it really focused a lot on Ron Burgundy. This film, while still centering on him, allows for more bits with the rest of the cast. Whether this is a good thing, is really dependent on whether you like the other characters. Oddly enough, this film also gives a lot more background on both Brick and Champ, two characters that were funny in the first film but maybe needed a little more screen time. Then there is the Alarm Clock, their scenes sometimes felt a little strained, but some scenes, like the bank scene with Amy Pohler were pretty funny and helped show that this film could stand on its own as an entertaining and hilarious movie.

Time for a rating, if you liked Anchorman, then I would say this is probably a great movie to add to the collection, as it is probably as funny as the first, making it a solid Cool, but if you haven’t seen the first film then you wouldn’t enjoy it as much, so for those uninitiated I would give it a Meh+. Of course if you are looking for a great story, then this is definitely not it.

Trailer

[See post to watch Flash video]