Tagged: Mad Men

Joss Whedon Named #1 Showrunner

Joss Whedon Named #1 Showrunner

The Hollywood Reporter named its top 40 showrunners with genre mastermind Joss Whedon heading the list. The role of showrunner has evolved through the years but is the producer charged with making the television series hum, from concept to airdate.  They tend to direct the creative process and are involved in every aspect such as the stories, casting, and post-production. Whereas the director has the final say on a movie set, the showrunner is the voice on a television production.

Whedon’s choice is interesting considering he has not produced a television series since the failed Firefly in 2003 and there’s been much controversy surrounding his next show, January’s Dollhouse.

Here’s what the trade says about the top ten showrunners.

Joss Whedon, Dollhouse (Fox)

Whedon believes in the power of the writers room so much that after filming three episodes of his forthcoming midseason drama Dollhouse, he shut down production because he hadn’t spent enough time there. "I use the room for (script structure) and then I send people off on their lonesomes to write," he says. Whedon prefers that approach for himself, too; he’ll head to a restaurant with his Pilot Razor Points and listen to movie soundtracks while composing scripts by hand. He is a showrunning vet (at one point he was in control of Angel, Firefly and Buffy the Vampire Slayer), but Whedon says that doesn’t make him experienced. "The thing about showrunning is you never learn anything," he admits. "The biggest part is to surround yourself with smart people and then take credit for it."

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AMC Seeks Best Monster Hunters

AMC Seeks Best Monster Hunters

While we disapprove of AMC’s decision to air their movies with ad breaks, we do admire their original series, Mad Men, and their various online features.  Today, in honor of the holiday, they have launched the Master Monster Hunter Tournament. Readers are being asked to nominate their favorite hunters and the top 16 will be facing off in a voting death match between November 10 and December 12.  Finalists are being named on November 6 so you have a week to give this some deep thought as you munch your Halloween treats.

Nominations to date:

  • Van Helsing (Peter Cushing)
  • Riddick
  • Seth Gecko, From Dusk Till Dawn
  • Blade (Wesley Snipes), Blade, Blade II, and Blade: Trinity
  • Jay & Slient Bob (Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith), Dogma
  • Ashley (Bruce Campbell), Evil Dead
  • Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), Alien, Aliens and Alien 3
  • Jack Crow (James Woods), Vampire$
  • Hellboy (Ron Perlman)
  • Alice, Resident Evil
  • Dr. Alan Grant from Jurassic Parks 1 and 3
  • Charlie Brewster (William Ragsdale) and Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowell), Fright Night
  • Quinn (Christian Bale) and Van Zan (Matthew McConaughey), Reign of Fire
  • Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar)
  • The Winchester brothers, Supernatural
  • Casper Van Dien, Starship Troopers
  • The Ghostbusters
  • Jamie Lloyd, Halloween sequels
  • Harry Potter
  • Shaun and Ed, Shaun of the Dead
  • Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland), Wizard of Oz
  • Beowulf
  • Laura Croft (Angelina Jolie)
  • Godzilla
  • The Incredible Hulk (Edward Norton)
  • Chris McCormick (David Arquette), Eight Legged Freaks
  • Jack Burton (Kurt Russell), Big Trouble In Little China
  • Fox Mulder (David Duchovny), The X-Files
  • Lloyd Gallagher (Kyle McLauchlan), The Hidden
  • Doctor Who
  • John Constantine (Keanu Reaves)
  • River Tam (Summer Glau), Serenity
  • Ronon Dex, Stargate Atlantis
  • Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), Torchwood
  • Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), Pirates of the Caribbean
TV Tidbits

TV Tidbits

Michael Ausiello writes at Entertainment Weekly, "Good news: A Sci Fi source confirms to me exclusively that the last half of season 4 premieres on Friday, January 16, at 10 p.m. Which, by my calculations, puts the series finale (boo-hoo!) at Friday, March 20." This means the network will not skip the three-day weekend i nFebruary as they normally have in the past, which is good news for one and all.

CBS has given a full season order to The Mentalist starring Simon Baker. The freshman series has garnered good ratings and positive reviews encouraging the Eye Network.

NBC has ordered three additional scripts for its midseason drama Medium. The peacock network may be forced to add the series to its schedule before the end of the year given some weaker than expected ratings for its lineup.

AMC has ordered a third season of the wonderful Mad Men.  Creator Matthew Weiner and Lionsgate, though, are still talking contracts with the studio hoping to sign the creator/producer to a two year deal which would encourage AMC to green-light a fourth season sooner than later.  Regardless, the second season of the award-winning drama will reach its conclusion October 26.

Brian Cox has been cast opposite Katee Sackhoff in the NBC pilot Lost and Found. He will play her character’s fractious partner Burt Macey, described by The Hollywood Reporter as "a foul-mouthed, racist dinosaur of a cop who does things the old-fashioned way: with blunt force and bigoted rants." The two are assigned to the worst possible cases after Sackhoff’s Tessa pisses off her Los Angeles Police Department superiors. Cox has also been cast for a multiple-episode story arc for the network’s midseason replacement, Kings.

‘Iron Man’, ‘Dark Knight’ Earn Multiple Nominations

‘Iron Man’, ‘Dark Knight’ Earn Multiple Nominations

The Hollywood Post Alliance Awards announced the nominees for the third annual award presentation for excellent in post production work. Iron Man and The Dark Knight among other genre films received multiple nominations. The HPA Awards will be presented Nov. 6 at the Skirball Cultural Center.Nominees for the HPA Awards include:

Outstanding Color Grading Feature Film in a DI Process

Iron Man, Steven J. Scott (EFilm)
Sweeney Todd, Stefan Sonnenfeld (Company 3)
Kite Runner, Mike Sowa (LaserPacific Media Corporation)

Outstanding Color Grading – Television

Pushing Daisies, “’The Fun in Funerals”, Joe Hathaway (LaserPacific Media Corporation)
ESPN: The Masters, Siggy Ferstl (RIOT)
Andromeda Strain, Night 2: Part 1, Mike Sowa (LaserPacific Media Corporation)

Outstanding Editing – Feature Film

Iron Man, Dan Lebental, A.C.E.
Into the Wild, Jay Cassidy, A.C.E.
The Dark Knight, Lee Smith, A.C.E.

Outstanding Editing – Television

Mad Men “Indian Summer”, David J. Siegel, A.C.E.
Breaking Bad (Pilot Episode), Lynne Willingham, A.C.E. (Sony Pictures Entertainment)
Pushing Daisies, “Pie-lette”, Stuart Bass, A.C.E.

Outstanding Audio Post – Feature Film

Wanted, Wylie Stateman and Harry Cohen (Soundelux) & Christopher Jenkins and Frank A. Montano (Universal Studios)
Wall*E, Ben Burtt (Pixar Animation Studios), Tom Myers, Michael Semanick and Matthew Wood (Skywalker Sound)
Into the Wild, Michael Minkler (Todd AO), Lora Hirschberg (Skywalker Sound) and Martin Hernandez (Ztrackz)

Outstanding Audio Post- Television

CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION, “Cockroaches”, Mace Matiosian, Ruth Adelman, David Vanslyke, Bill Smith, Yuri Reese and Jivan Tahmizian (Todd-AO)
John Adams, Episode 3: “Don’t Tread on Me", Marc Fishman and Tony Lamberti (Todd-AO) & Stephen Hunter Flick and Vanessa Lapato (Warner Brothers Post)
R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour Don’t Think About It, Sam Kaufmann and John Schell (Media City Sound)

ComicMix Six: Super-Heroes on Television

ComicMix Six: Super-Heroes on Television

There have been some sad attempts at live-action super-hero shows over the years. On the other hand, Smallville has done pretty well for itself, going strong for eight seasons now. Heroes on NBC has made many TV fans question what may have been a dismissive attitude towards super-hero stories. And shows such as Buffy, Angel and The Dead Zone have shown that many folks out there enjoy stories about people who have unique abilities and fight evil.

So we at ComicMix pondered “what other super-heroes could work if brought to life on the small screen?” Personally, I think there are tons that could be great. But because none of us have that kind of time, we stuck by our habit of keeping the list down to six.

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