The Final Cut in Movies Radio Program

02-29-08: Spiderwick Chronicles & the Academy Awards

Click here to listen to tonight's show.

Click here to download this show's podcast. (If you have trouble opening the podcast, please click here and download it from M. B. Weston's Podcasts blog.)

On tonight's show, we'll be discussing The Spiderwick Chronicles, the 2008 Academy Awards, and other science fiction & fantasy news.

The show will air from 8:00-9:00pm and re-air from 9:00-10:00pm. Catch reruns of the show throughout the week on www.adastraradio.com.

M. B. Weston is the host of The Final Cut, an internet radio talk show about science fiction and fantasy movies on Ad Astra Radio. She is also a the author of The Elysian Chronicles, a fantasy series about guardian angel warfare and treason. Weston is a speaker who talks to children, teens, and adults about writing and the process of getting published. For more information on M. B. Weston, visit her website, www.mbweston.com, and her personal blog, www.mbwestonblog.com. Find out more about The Elysian Chronicles at www.elysianchronicles.com.

02/29/08 Movie News

• The Dark Knight (Batman, for those of you in Abercrombie Land): According to Warner Brothers, Heath Ledger completed all work on the new Batman movie as the Joker before his death. They are thinking of changing some of their movie posters, thinking that portraying Ledger as the Joker smiling with the caption: Why so Serious? might be slightly inappropriate.
• Hooray for Good Movies! The movies I Am Legend and the second National Treasure installment have respectively grossed $254 and $216 million to date after only 8-9 weeks of opening. Compare this to Hollywood's newest art film/musical, Sweeney Todd, which after being out for the same amount of time has only sniffed $50.
• The Family Guy: Blue Harvest out on DVD: Star Wars fans, I should not have to tell you what Blue Harvest is. The show's 6th season premiere spoofing Star Wars--yes, with George Lucas's permission, is out on DVD.
• Spider Man director Sam Raimi has confirmed meeting with producers about a new direction for the series, meaning a possibly 4th installment.
• Mark Wahlberg has replaced Ryan Gosling in The Lovely Bones, directed by Peter Jackson.
• Indiana Jones: George Lucas has announced that Sean Connery won't be in the new Indiana Jones.
• X-Files: David Duchovny has met with Gillian Anderson to discuss a second X-Files film. (The movie is set for release in, um, July, so I hope she agrees.)
• Transformers 2: It's coming. Ehren Kruger, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are negotiating to write the screenplay. The visual effects supervisor, Scott Farrar, also says that the sequel will be more ambitious visually than the first. Hmm. I wonder how they are going to pull that off, considering. They anticipate releasing Transformers 2 on June 26th, 2009. (The writers had better hurry up and get that screenplay done...)
• The Hobbit: Ian McKellen has expressed interest in being Gandalf in The Hobbit, even without Peter Jackson directing it. (We're sure he'll get the role.)
• X-Men: Dominic Monaghan (The Lord of the Rings, Lost) will play Beak in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
• The Writer's Guild is finally done striking, meaning all your favorite shows will be coming back.
• The Actors Guild may call a strike in late June. I've got to ask. Why is it that we get so angry when athletes strike, but everyone applauds writers and actors for striking?
• The Justice League is eyeing a 2009 release date.

M. B. Weston is the host of The Final Cut, an internet radio talk show about science fiction and fantasy movies on Ad Astra Radio. She is also a the author of The Elysian Chronicles, a fantasy series about guardian angel warfare and treason. Weston is a speaker who talks to children, teens, and adults about writing and the process of getting published. For more information on M. B. Weston, visit her website, www.mbweston.com, and her personal blog, www.mbwestonblog.com. Find out more about The Elysian Chronicles at www.elysianchronicles.com.

Oscar Night 2008: The Elitist Academy Does it Again

I discovered a few interesting things about the ratio between this year's Academy Awards nominees and box office earnings.

These are the top Academy Awards nominees (for the full list, visit the Academy Awards website:

• There Will Be Blood, 8 nominations, ($35 million)
• No Country For Old Men, 8 nominations, ($64 million)
• Michael Clayton, 7 nominations, ($47 million)
• Atonement, 7 nominations, ($49 million)

All four of these movies grossed a total of $195 million. Now, these are all the movies in 2007 that grossed (individually) more than $195 million. (Taken from boxofficereport.com.)

• Spider-Man 3, $337 million
• Shrek the Third, $321 million
• Transformers, $319 million
• Pirates of the Caribbean 3, $309, million
• Harry Potter 5, $292 million
• I Am Legend, $255 million
• The Bourne Ultimatum, $227 million
• National Treasure: Book of Secrets, $216 million
• Alvin and the Chipmunks, $212 million
• 300, $210 million
• Ratatouille, $206 million

Hmm. $195 million? Spiderman 3 grossed $151 opening weekend....

Now, the average box office earnings of all the movies that actually won Oscars (not counting Bourne Ultimatum, which only won for editing, sound editing, and sound mixing) was $75 million.

Perspective: Transformers grossed $70 on opening weekend.

This is why I have a beef with the Elitist Academy.

M. B. Weston is the host of The Final Cut, an internet radio talk show about science fiction and fantasy movies on Ad Astra Radio. She is also a the author of The Elysian Chronicles, a fantasy series about guardian angel warfare and treason. Weston is a speaker who talks to children, teens, and adults about writing and the process of getting published. For more information on M. B. Weston, visit her website, www.mbweston.com, and her personal blog, www.mbwestonblog.com. Find out more about The Elysian Chronicles at www.elysianchronicles.com.

Lights, Camera...

We've got a name: The Final Cut in Movies, but I'll be referring to it as The Final Cut. (The "in movies" is just an addition that lets people know what it's about--and it gets the word "movies" into the URL. Important stuff when it comes to generating site traffic and getting the Google bots to take notice.)

We are set to air our first show on February 29th at 8:00pm on Ad Astra Radio. I'll be discussing The Spiderwick Chronicles, the Academy Awards, and other science fiction and fantasy movie news, so tune in!

(I don't have the links to the streaming audio yet, but I'll let you know as soon as I do.)

M. B. Weston is the host of The Final Cut, an internet radio talk show about science fiction and fantasy movies on Ad Astra Radio. She is also a the author of The Elysian Chronicles, a fantasy series about guardian angel warfare and treason. Weston is a speaker who talks to children, teens, and adults about writing and the process of getting published. For more information on M. B. Weston, visit her website, www.mbweston.com, and her personal blog, www.mbwestonblog.com. Find out more about The Elysian Chronicles at www.elysianchronicles.com.

Welcome!

Welcome to my new science fiction/fantasy movie review Internet radio talk show. (I will not be reading that sentence out loud on air.) I'll be starting the show in a few weeks--I don't even have an official name for it. It will air on Ad Astra Radio at www.adastraradio.com. Keep checking here for updates--especially on the name change!

Fantasy novelist M. B. Weston is the author of The Elysian Chronicles, a fantasy series about guardian angel warfare and treason. She speaks to children, teens, and adults about writing and the process of getting published. For more information on M. B. Weston, visit www.mbweston.com and her personal blog, www.mbwestonblog.com. Find out more about The Elysian Chronicles at www.elysianchronicles.com.