The Week In Geek, Christmas Edition: A Little Batman, A Little Bond, A Little Buffy & More

So by now, being that you’re a geek reading a site called Geekscape, you’ve seen the Dark Knight Rises trailer that was released this week. And probably fifty times at that. Maybe you’ve even the seen the six minute prologue that was attached to the new Mission Impossible movie. And so you’re well aware of the “Bane Problem” being reported by everyone, everywhere. That being that you can’t understand a fucking thing Tom Hardy says under that mask of his.

The whole Bane problem has been addressed by every major nerd site, and already even has a Youtube parody out there. This being the case, you’d think Warner Brothers would be in serious panic mode….and they apparently are. But Christopher Nolan isn’t so much in panic mode. Apparently, to him it isn’t that important that you understand everything that Bane says. Nolan has responded by saying that he will only tweak the sound mix slightly, rather than totally change it. An executive  at Warner Brothers had this to say as well:  “Chris wants the audience to catch up and participate rather than push everything at them. He doesn’t want to dumb things down. You’ve got to pedal faster to keep up.” I have no idea how a character’s voice being unintelligible gibberish makes the audience dumber for not understanding him, but whatever.

So uh, subtitles maybe?

American Horror Story Will Have A Whole New Cast In Season Two. But Is That A Good Thing Or Not?

So FX’s freshman hit/#1 television Guilty Pleasure American Horror Story ended this week, wrapping up everything pretty much in a nice little bow. If you saw it (and SPOILERS from here on out if you haven’t) if it felt to you more like a series finale than a season finale, that’s because it kind of was. In talking to the press after the finale, AHS producers Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuck revealed that next season will feature an all new haunted location, new opening credits and star a different cast entirely. Instead of anthology episodes like shows of the past, this show would have anthology seasons instead.  Some former cast members might return, but supposedly as all new characters, the way the old Twilight Zone liked to re use certain character actors over and over.

I have to say, this is kind of a ballsy and risky move from the producers, as television audiences might not turn out for what will essentially be an all new show next year that just happens to have a similar premise. It will either backfire spectacularly or pay off like gangbusters, proving that such a new and different format of essentially rotatating mini series can work. The real trick will be finding someone of the same acting caliber of actress Jessica Lange for next year. Aside from just being acting royalty, she was easily the show’s most valuable player, and I know I’m personally a lot less interested knowing she won’t be back. Can’t every haunted house on the show just have a Constance living next door? 

No Buffy Reboot Anytime Soon. Merry Christmas Geeks!

 Santa Claus brought geeks a little early Christmas present it seems; remember that Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot movie that was announced last year? The one absolutely no one on Earth asked for or wanted, that didn’t have Joss Whedon or Sarah Michelle Gellar’s involvement? Yeah, that. Well, it looks like it has hit a major roadblock, as first time screen writer Whit Anderson was just shit canned by the producers after turning in her script last summer.  According to LA Time’s Hero Complex, Anderson’s first time screen play felt like…well, a first time screen play, and “fell far short of expectations and, in the end, was rejected completely.” And with that, she was let go. “If you’re going to bring it back, you have to do it right,… She came in with some great ideas and she had reinvented some of the lore and it was pretty cool but in the end there just wasn’t enough on the page.” 

The search for a new screenwriter is said to be on, but it was also hinted in the Times’ article that momentum has just gone out of the whole project, and the online fan backlash has scared the producers, hopefully for good. Twentieth Century Fox still owns the rights for Buffy on television, not to mention all the characters from the show who aren’t Buffy herself. I’d say with the movie seemingly not happening, it’s time to dust off the old animated series idea and bring that back, as the movie producers are far less likely to proceed with a movie with a version of “classic” Buffy out there. And we know Joss Whedon can multi task (the man once had three shows on the air at once) and it’s not like Sarah Michelle Gellar’s Ringer is probably gonna be on next season. 

Will Daniel Craig Be The Longest Serving Bond?

Production is just now really ramping up on the new Bond flick Skyfall, and while a lot of people were predicting that this movie will be Daniel Craig’s last outing as James Bond, it seem the producers of the series want more of him…a lot more. Various sources are reporting that Bond producer Michael G Wilson wishes Craig to star in at least five more Bond movies. Wilson is said to offer Craig a “multi-million pound deal to become the longest serving 007 of all time.” Roger Moore is currently the record holder for the actor who has starred in the most Bond films. He played 007 seven times, although Sean Connery has also played Bond seven times, but Never Say Never Again wasn’t an “official” Bond flick. Of course, Craig might not want to be tied down for that many movies, but money does indeed talk. 

No Ancient Original Cast Members In Trek Sequel, All Youngin’s This Time 

We still don’t know who the villain (or villains) will be in the new Trek movie, but we do know who won’t be in it; director JJ Abrams confirmed this week that no original series crew members will be reprising their roles for the new movie. So sorry Shatner, you missed your opportunity with the last movie when you wanted more than a cameo and the producers told you to shove it. Hopefully by the time this column comes back in 2012, we’ll at least finally know who the villain will be in Trek 2, so we can all finally shut up and stop speculating about that aspect at least.