Category: Opinion

John Ostrander: Revamp, Reinterpret, Regenerate, Reinvigorate

On makin’ the old wine new:

Ostrander Art 130303 John Ostrander: Revamp, Reinterpret, Regenerate, Reinvigorate by John Ostrander

There’s been a lot of pushing the reset button in pop culture recently and I find the results interesting. J.J. Abrams rebooted the Star Trek franchise a few years back and, while some fans complained, I think it was successful. Certainly it was financially successful, which is what the Hollywood moguls really care about.

At the start of Daniel Craig’s run, the James Bond movies were also rebooted, culminating in the recent spectacular Skyfall, which – again this may be heresy to some – was the best Bond film ever. It’s visually stunning and takes Bond himself to greater depths and heights than I’ve seen up until now.

Sherlock Holmes has been reinterpreted into the modern age with two versions, the BBC’s magnificent Sherlock and Elementary on CBS. Both are true to the basics and it’s amazing how well the classic fictional detective gibes with modern times. read article

Power and Powerlessness in House of Cards

Overthinking It, um, overthinks again!

house-of-cards-banner

by John Perich

Netflix’s House of Cards boasts an extensive cast, but it follows the rise and fall of two men in particular: Francis Underwood and Peter Russo. Underwood is the majority whip of the House of Representatives; Russo, a representative from Pennsylvania. Russo seems fairly satisfied with the modest power he has: an attractive aide he can sleep with, the ability to do favors for his constituency, a big office. Underwood craves power at all times. read article

LB: Everyone Should be Reading Gerry Conway’s Blog

…And he should be writing a lot more on it too.

Gerry is one of the Kings of TV and film and comic book writing and also one of my longest-lasting and closest friends. We met almost 50 years ago at Harlan Ellison’s house, when we were both, um, kids. I went on to do what I’ve done, and Gerry did his thing at least as well. We’ve always stayed close. This post in his blog last week shows a few of the reasons why:

punisher
Gerry created the Punisher but not exactly in his own image

Writing for a living is Hard, and other Obvious Observations
by Gerry Conway

I’m one very lucky son of a bitch. read article

Peer Production: The 25 Best Web Series Right Now

…According to Brenden Gallagher of Complex.Com:

webseries
Click the image above & enjoy the shows

We posted the selections above because, ahem, we disagree with almost all of them. But of course we don’t want to ram our choices down your throats.

If you want to see our list from January, though (which also includes TV series choices because we believe in 1 level playing field),  it’s HERE. read article

Why the TV Industry Needs Its Version of Steve Jobs — and Fast

The Hollywood Reporter has been surprising us lately by doing 2 things:

  1. Biting the hand that feeds it (i.e., the entrenched Hollywood powers-that-be and their business-as-usual-ways)
  2. Being right (i.e., understanding that because of technological innovation change in the Hollywood biz paradigm is essential to the survival of the industry)

Here’s a good example:

steve jobs as Hollywood savior read article