Question: How is it that characters on shows like Rescue Me and Blade can use the S-word? Is it allowed on certain cable channels after 10 pm? Do they just pay whatever the fine is?
Answer: Cable operates under different rules and restrictions than network TV. These shows, which regularly feature graphic language, sexuality and violence, are generally labeled TV-MA, the strongest adult rating available in the current system, and air only after 10 pm/ET. They're meant for adult audiences only and are billed as such, with viewer-discretion warnings prominently displayed. Of course, none of this satisfies the watchdog groups, who would love to do away with anything that screams R-rated TV. ...
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TV's Blade, Batman Begins
In Part 1 of our Q&A with David S. Goyer, the producer/writer detailed the differences and similarities between Spike TV's Blade: The Series (Wednesdays at 10 pm/ET) and its big-screen begetter. Here he shares the scoop on which other Blade characters will surface on TV, status reports on The Flash, Nicolas Cage's Ghost Rider and the Batman Begins follow-up, and the sad truth about why shows such as
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Question: Regarding Blade: The Series, if Spike TV really wanted a vampire series that the fans would love, why didn't it just give us "Spike" the movie or series? No one does better justice to a black duster than James Marsters!
Answer: Surely you're not looking for an argument here. And wouldn't Spike the vamp have been a perfect poster bad boy for Spike the network? I'm just ashamed I didn't think of that when I wrote my review, in which I was more fixated on comparing how Buffy the Vampire Slayer improved from movie to TV show while Blade, to be generous, doesn't. At least not yet ...
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Kirk "Sticky Fingaz" Jones is TV's Blade.
Producer/writer David S. Goyer is hotter than a solar flash on the big screen these days. While the veteran comic-book (Justice Society of America) and sci-fi/horror-film scribe (Batman Begins, Dark City) is currently working on, among other projects, big-screen takes on The Flash and Ghost Rider, it'
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Normally I'm a sucker for a good bloodsucker, but I've seen paper cuts go deeper than Blade (Wednesdays at 10 pm/ET on Spike TV), the toothless new TV version of the comic-book-turned-film franchise about a hip-hop, Harley-riding, half-breed vampire who's bad news for his more evil brethren.
Where Buffy the Vampire Slayer took a mediocre film and elevated it to TV art, Blade doesn't even try to improve on the loud, flashily hollow movies. It's just more of the same martial artlessness. I kept expecting to see Batman-style OOF! BAM! graphics on screen.
"Sun's down. Time to make some friends," mutters Blade (Over There's Kirk
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Casper Van Dien, The Curse of King Tut's Tomb
On Saturday at 8 pm/ET, Hallmark Channel sends onetime Starship Trooper Casper Van Dien to contend with The Curse of King Tut's Tomb, as his maverick archeaologist races a ruthless rival (The Mummy's Jonathan Hyde) to find the boy king's untold riches. Sound a bit familiar? TVGuide.com spoke with Van Dien about his bid to prove he's Harrison Ford-tough, his famous lineage and the secrets to a successful royal romance.
TVGuide.com: So you're doing a
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Barry Manilow has agreed to keep performing at the Las Vegas Hilton through 2008, the hotel has announced. In related news, Paris Hilton will continue performing wherever and whenever she is allowed to.... Michael Madsen and Daryl Hannah will walk the beat in the indie thriller Vice, about a squad of cops who start looking mighty suspicious when a passel of drugs go missing, the Hollywood Reporter says.... Rumor has it that among the D-listers trying to lose enough weight to get back on the C-list on the next cycle of Celebrity Fit Club will be none other than Family Ties moppet Tina Yothers.... A Harley-Davidson Night Rod has been cast as the titular vampire slayer's preferred mode of transportation in Spike TV's upcoming series adaptation of Blade, premiering June 28.
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Meanwhile, even better news for a potty-mouthed babe and a half-man, half-vampire. Comedy Central has ordered six episodes of The Sarah Silverman Program, set to premiere in the summer, while Spike TV has rung up 13 hours of its first-ever scripted series, Blade, based on the Marvel superhero. Filling Wesley Snipes' shoes will be Kirk "Sticky" Jones. (Nope, not gonna ask.)
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When I heard that David S. Goyer was an executive producer of this CSI -The X-Files hybrid, I was pretty juiced. Although best known for Batman Begins and the Blade franchise, Goyer won my heart and mind by reviving (with James Robinson and the ubiquitous Geoff Johns) comics' first and greatest superteam, the almighty Justice Society (or JSA). As far as I'm concerned, anybody who can restore '40s titans like the Golden Age Green Lantern, Flash and Wildcat into 21st-century butt-kickers is definitely a marvel. Molly Anne Caffrey (Carla Gugino) could have used the help of all three superheroes to find a military-school cadet determined to spread the alien sonic virus. Gugino handles the team with a cool, human authority, and has the most sensual lips this side of Kelly LeBrock. There was a chilling Children of the Corn aspect to Molly's collision with
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