Film

• Shane Black to direct Cold Warrior
• Chris Morris's suicide bombers comedy to be a movie instead
• Matt Lucas and David Walliams working on a movie
• Filming begins on Hammer's The Wake Wood
• Nick Cassavetes to direct Keira Knightley in The Beautiful and the Damned
• Remake of Rashomon to be released in 2010
• Daniel Craig says no to gay Bond sex

Theatre

• £2.5m free theatre tickets scheme for young adults
• Alan Bennett's Enjoy to transfer to the West End

British TV

• Steve Coogan to star in BBC1's Sunshine
• Ben Stephenson to head BBC drama commissioning
  
• Merlin gets 6.6m viewers

US TV

• Aaron Sorkin writes a meeting between Jed Bartlet and Barack Obama
• Bridget Moynahan to appear on Eli Stone
• Fox developing CIA comedy with Ben Stiller
• The differences between the UK and US versions of The Eleventh Hour
• Producers apologise for Do Not Disturb and ask for a second chance
• Fox picks up Tim Roth's Lie To Me
• Tom Everett Scott joins LAPD
• Tana Ramsay gets her own US TV show
• More episodes for 90210
• Ex-List showrunner joins Cupid
• Mary McDonnell in talks to appear on Grey's Anatomy
• I can't believe we all missed David Caruso Day

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Read other posts about: Chris Morris, James Bond, The West Wing

Today's biggish news is that famed director and writer Jonathan Miller has decided to have a go at West End casting practices - and in particular the casting of David Tennant (and Jude Law) in Hamlet.

Apparently, he's been trying to get his no-star version of Hamlet into the West End but can't, even though he reckons the performances are bound to be better than either Tennant's or Law's.

So the question for you, my friends, is does he have a point? Or do West End producers have a point?

For my own part, I'm very easily swayed by some big film or TV names into turning up at a theatre when I otherwise wouldn't: my most recent theatre attendances (off the top of my head) have included Fat Pig (Joanna Page, Robert Webb, Kris Marshall, Ella Smith), Art (bloke off Dalziel and Pascoe, Sean Hughes and Alistair McGowen if I recall correctly), A Few Good Men (with Rob Lowe and John Barrowman), The Master Builder (Patrick Stewart and Kelly Reilly), Patrick Stewart's one-man version of A Christmas Carol, and Sexual Perversity in Chicago (Matthew Perry, Minnie Driver, Hank Azaria, Kelly Reilly).

That's money in the pockets of theatres that they otherwise wouldn't have had with less well-known casts. And the West End isn't exactly cheap.

More to the point, are celebs possibly the best choices? Maybe they're famous because they have talent. David Tennant isn't exactly unknown in theatre.

In fact, is Miller just grumpy because he couldn't get his own production off the ground? Why have a go at a version of Hamlet that hasn't even started performing? 

Fat Pig is the most obvious piece of TV celeb casting at the moment, so why not pick on it? Is it because, way back in 2002, he cast the RADA-trained Joanna Page in his production of Camera Obscura at the Almeida (to generally excellent reviews), and so wouldn't have had much of a leg to stand on?

What do you think? Are good actors being overlooked? Are they being overlooked in favour of better, more famous actors? Or is celeb casting a necessary evil in a competitive market?

Read other posts about: Gavin and Stacey, Peep Show, Studio 60, The West Wing, Torchwood

Film

• Plot for Toy Story 3 revealed?
• Roland Emmerich to end the world in 2012?
• David Fincher to direct Black Hole, based on Charles Burns' graphic novel
• WB to make live action Akira movies
• Garth Ennis' The Boys picked up by Colombia
• All the studios are now lined up behind Blu-ray
• Trailer for Neil Gaiman's Coraline
• New trailer for 10,000BC

British TV

• Noel Fielding wants Gary Numan and Mick Jagger for the Mighty Boosh movie
• Black Entertainment Network to launch in the UK
• BBC to create iPlayer for iPhone and iPod touch

US TV

• ABC gives writers deadline of Wednesday for new projects
• The future looks bleak for Jericho
• More musical chairs at Law and Order
• Strike was good for Daily Show says Stewart
• Mythbusters to do more MacGyver episodes
• Jimmy Smits West Wing character was based on Barack Obama
• Bionic Woman almost definitely cancelled

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Read other posts about: Jericho, The West Wing

Doctor Who

• Billie Piper to be in Doctor Who movie, not series?

Film

• Val Kilmer to be a felon
• Serenity 2?
• Bradley Whitford and Neve Campbell to star in global warming mini-series
• Stephen Fry and Lily Allen to star in Jane Austen spoof?

Web TV

• Two new wildlife channels for Joost

British TV

• Sooty's up for sale
• Reunion planned for Grange Hill's 30th anniversary
• Ofcom launches public consultation on Sky's plans for not-FreeView
• Jericho's Lennie James joins C4 knife drama
• ITV to save The Prisoner remake
• Jonas Armstrong's been down the gym, apparently
• Peter Serafinowicz talks about his new show
• Dragon's Den is back on the 15th
• Tribute acts to vie for Las Vegas contract

US TV

• Studio 60's Steven Weber joins Brothers and Sisters
• FX commissions pilot for Tim Robbins' Possible Side Effects
• Ally Sheedy joins Kyle XY. Nice casting!
• More star cameos for 30 Rock
• Jericho's second season is completed
• The Daily Show's Lewis Black gets his own show
• Pushing Daisies gets good ratings

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Read other posts about: 30 Rock, Jericho, Kyle XY, Studio 60, The Prisoner, The West Wing

Film

• Screen rights to Mike Mignola's Baltimore acquired
• Ray Winstone turns down part in Sweeney remake

British TV

• Peter Bazalgette steps down from Endemol
• Trigger Happy TV could come back
• Messiah returns with Marc Warren instead of Ken Stott
• Kudos put together a show about a hit squad. It's for ITV though
• BBC2 and BBC4 will suffer most from budget cuts

US TV

• Bionic Woman gets highest Wednesday adult ratings since The West Wing
• Fountains turning red for Dexter
• Someone's leaving CSI [spoilers]
• ABC and NBC developing scripted musical series
• A statue for Fonzie?
• McG working on a rip-off of The Invisible Man?

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Read other posts about: CSI, Dexter, The West Wing

Occasional contributor Linda Jones is asking over on her blog who our favourite fictional journalists are. My somewhat incoherent reply:

Ooh, tricky. So many good ones to choose from. Tin Tin? Sarah Jane Smith in Doctor Who, etc? There's Kevin McKidd in Journeyman to look forward to. I was always kind of partial to David Warner in Hold the Back Page. And Julia Sawalha in Press Gang. Danny in The West Wing? John Simm in State of Play?

I'd probably go for Darren McGavin in Kolchak: The Night Stalker though.

Who says I watch too much television?

But how about you guys? Answer here, answer there, answer in your own blog: the meme is on.

Read other posts about: State of Play, The West Wing

Meadowlands/Cape Wrath
Well, if you made it through to the final episode, you'll probably have been a little frustrated, but will no doubt have spotted the continuing parallels with The Prisoner. At the end of that 60s classic, after a series in which Number 6 had tried to work out where the village was using stellar navigation and other means after a couple of boat trips home, it's finally revealed he's in Britain at the end of an A-road.

Similarly, at the end of Meadowlands, it's finally revealed that the eponymous village of that show is in fact in the middle of a desert. That would be the only desert with a small enclave that has the exact same weather conditions and solar strength as Kent, then.

John From Cincinnati (not Cincinatti, people!)
For true weirdness though, you had to watch John From Cincinnati. I'm sure that people are going to be discussing it for ages, and with every line of dialogue amenable to being stamped on a T-shirt, it'll probably grow as a cult over time. The ending, of course, explained little, but did explain a few things. Quite who John is remains somewhat inconclusive, although with his various speeches about his father and his father's father and heeding his father's words, I'm veering towards John being the son of Jesus, sent here to warn us of impending doom. Anyone got any better theories?

UPDATE

Burn Notice
Sorry. Forgot this one the first time round. Was that Richard Schiff (Toby from The West Wing) I heard on the phone a couple of episodes ago as the guy who put the burn notice on our hero? If it was, he's going to the villain of note this season, I suspect. Also, good use of Arye Gross as an assassin last week.

Read other posts about: Burn Notice, The West Wing

Doctor Who

• The Lazarus Experiment got 6.7 million viewers
• An interview (or two) with Mark Gatiss
• John Barrowman talks about everything Who
• David Tennant is to sing at his best friend's wedding
• Sweet FA nearly gave up acting

Film

• New Spinal Tap movie available for free online
• Three more Spiderman sequels planned?
• Mike Myers is planning an Evil movie
• Puss in Boots: the movie?
• Michael Douglas is back for a sequel to Wall Street
• Buffy/Angel alumna Julie Benz joins the cast of Rambo 4

British TV

• Film24 is taking over the Bonanza channel [free registration required]
• 'Unprecedented' coverage of the Hay Festival due
• The Beeb has indeed dropped out the Neighbours bidding war

US TV

• Medium gets renewed for a fourth season
• HBO's chairman ends up in jail in Las Vegas
• Donald Bellisario is leaving NCIS
• Janel Moloney from The West Wing joins Brotherhood
• The General Lee from The Dukes of Hazzard is sold for $10 million
• Lost will end in 2010 after three short seasons
• US farmers need wives via remakes of UK reality TV shows, apparently
• Eric Roberts now has fans under the age of 15, thanks to Heroes
• Some things to look forward to (allegedly) in season four of BSG
• Studio 60's sets are being dismantled
• Scrubs will end on a cliffhanger

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Read other posts about: Battlestar Galactica, Brotherhood, Heroes, Lost, Scrubs, Studio 60, The West Wing

Did you hear? It's the weekend tomorrow.

Doctor Who

• A special Comic Relief comic BeanoMax will feature the Daleks and David Tennant, as well as Jonathan Ross and Jamie Oliver.

Film

• Capricorn One is up for a remake
• So is Spies Like Us
• Sony is turning Metal Gear Solid into a movie.
• Borat 2 is on the way

British TV

• There's a German version of Life on Mars on the way. If you look carefully, there's a spoiler in one of the article's quotes that gives away the entire reason why Sam is in 1973. I don't think he meant to say what he did...
• Sky is planning a new, free digital terrestrial TV service. Only problem: it doesn't work with Freeview boxes. Sounds attractive, no?
• A preview of new ITV drama Instinct
• Steve Coogan is going to host a Classic Coogan weekend on UKTV G2
• There's more Secret Millionaire on the way [subscription required]

US TV

• Lost's new time slot hasn't helped it in the ratings
• Paul McCrane talks about being Jack Bauer's brother (spoilers)
• A panel chat about Heroes by the show's execs reveals attitudes to Lost plus future plans (spoilers)
• Someone else joins my quest to get Liev Schreiber a permanent job on CSI with William Petersen. (spoilers)
• Richard Schiff talks about the final season of The West Wing and where it went wrong
• Sarah Silverman's new show got the highest ranking premiere of the last three years on Comedy Central

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Read other posts about: 24, CSI, Heroes, Life on Mars, Lost, The West Wing

Have a nice weekend?

Film and comics

• Joss Whedon's off the Wonder Woman movie.
• Ghostbusters 3 is still happening. Both Dan Ackroyd and Bill Murray are up for it. But it's going to be all-cg.
• A new version of Barbarella is in the works.
• Joel Schumacher wants to film Sandman.
• The Flash has a new director.

Commercials

• The Cadbury's Flake ads are coming back on Friday. Directed by Jack “son of Ridley” Scott, they will focus “on the unique way of eating a Cadbury Flake: peeling back the wrapper and enjoying the crumbliest, flakiest chocolate in the world.” Ooh, top euphemism.

Events

• Free comedy nights at the Science Museum.

British TV

• Jo O'Meara reckons cancelling Big Brother is a good idea. Hmm.
• Wank week's been postponed. Or as Broadcast put it, it's been pulled.

US TV

• Adam Sandler is to appear on King of Queens.
• Studio 60's going on hiatus, with The Black Donnellys due to get its time slot.
• Thomas Schlamme talks about West Wing and Studio 60 walk-and-talks
• Promo images for next week's Heroes.
• Another interview with Tim Kring of Heroes.

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Read other posts about: Big Brother, Heroes, Studio 60, The West Wing