The Littlest Winslow

Devastating. Happy Endings has bit the dust. Keep those fingers crossed though, Interweb: rumor has it that USA may be scooping the zany sitcom up just like TBS did last year with Cougar Town. I really hope this isn’t the last we’ve seen of SinBrad. So even though this sucks royally, there’s still happening Fall TV-related goodness to be celebrating:

Community Has Been Renewed Making Up for the Aforementioned Devastation Lodged In My Gut from Happy Endings Getting Canned

As I’ve already said on Facebook: There is a God.

Losing both HE and Community might’ve been enough to convince me to give up on TV all together. (But maybe that wouldn’t have been such a bad thing.) Either way, it’s joyous, dear readers, to hear that the Greendale Human Beings (and their Dean!) will be back for more timeline-hopping, paintball-fighting insanity. It’s a beautiful thing when a show’s unparalleled creativity and its fans’ loyalty is rewarded.

CBS Picks Up New Robin Williams/Sarah Michelle Gellar Comedy The Crazy Ones

This is clearly one of my most anticipated new shows that made a network’s fall schedule. Sure, having Sarah Michelle Gellar back on TV again is like some National Sports League or whatever announcing that they’re returning from a strike or something. But ladies and gentlemen: Robin Williams on a weekly sitcom. That can only mean good things right? OK, so back to Gellar: She’s proven many times that she can do comedy – her SNL hosting gigs were all well-received! It’ll be great to see what this power-duo can do. Williams plays an unorthodox advertising executive and Gellar stars as his daughter/co-worker. It should be interesting! Oh, and Kelly Clarkson is in the pilot. Win-win-win.

Marvel’s Agents of ‘S.H.I.E.L.D. Finds a Home at ABC

It’s looking like Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is going to be the Next Big Thing on TV. I mean, The Avengers only made 239048239487 billion dollars! If those incredibly factual numbers translate to ratings, this could be the biggest thing ABC has seen since Lost. The show will follow the non-superhero humans of that universe and will star Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson, whose character was actually killed off in Joss Whedon’s The Avengers. According to Gregg, we won’t find out exactly how or why Coulson is alive…at least not right away.

Adds co-star Chloe Bennet: “If you love The Avengers, if you love any of Joss Whedon’s work, you’re going to absolutely love the show. It’s about these people living in a super world dealing with being human. You see these superhero movies and you see the superheroes struggle but you don’t see how humans do in a world like that.”

A little housekeeping: These posts are getting moved to Thursdays. With summer almost here, I’m bound to get lazier on Fridays, and you’re bound to get busier. Good talk.

In the middle of writing, directing and cranking out the third highest grossing movie of all time (The Avengers), Joss Whedon collaborated with some friends to make yet another movie, because clearly the man is not a fan of sleep or free time. The movie in question: Much Ado About Nothing, a modern-day version of a Shakespeare comedy, adapted and directed by The Man Himself.

Flimed in just 12 days, Much Ado features some beloved actors from Whedon’s past works, including Amy Acker (Angel) and Alexis Denisof (Buffy, Angel) as Beatrice and Benedick, Nathan Fillion (Firefly) as Dogberry, Clark Gregg (The Avengers) as Leonato, Fran Kranz (Dollhouse, Cabin in the Woods) as Claudio and Reed Diamond (Dollhouse) as Don Pedro. Some of Whedon’s cast are even veterans of Shakespearean theater – bonus!

As the trailer shows, the movie was shot in gorgeous black and white, and follows the story of two unlikely lovers who inevitably fall in love. I don’t know this story at all and am avoiding spoilers because of that, but since there was a gun in the trailer and it’s Shakespeare, I’m assuming everyone dies at the end. And Whedon is GREAT at killing everyone!

The film opens in North America on June 7 and in the UK and Ireland on June 14. Check out the trailer below (which includes a hot track from St Germain called “Rose Rouge”):

Maybe, just maybe, the world will finally fall in love with Amy Acker.

Props to ComingSoon.net

Although everyone and their adoptive mother’s third cousin has already reviewed Marvel’s latest superhero soiree, I would still be so, so remiss if I didn’t comment on the super-mega-ultra blockbuster. I’m somewhat remiss by posting this nearly a week after the powerhouse raped and pillaged the box office and made it its bitch, but dammit, here I go.

Given my occasional Joss Whedon fanboy tendencies, I’m sure it’s of no surprise when I tell you that I absolutely loved The Avengers, and support it with every fiber of my being. Now that the world has all of a sudden jumped aboard the Whedon train, I’m fighting the urge to do a grotesque, insanely awkward “I told you so” dance, even though Whedon more-or-less told me to. Putting my various biases aside, the movie really did work on so many different levels.

Having also written the script, Whedon did a great job of properly serving and balancing each superhero’s side story. Since most of the characters already had their origin stories told in previous films, I’m sure the ability to soar right over that aspect really helped us firmly plant ourselves in the world of The Avengers rather than backtracking or rehashing. The screen time balance for such a large cast is a tricky tightrope to navigate, but Joss’s resume proves he has experience in doing just that (Firefly/Serenity, for one).

The action scenes were also extremely well done: they were intense and well shot, really accompanying the 3D aspects of the film nicely. But even when our heroes were simply hanging around and talking shop, well, Alex Pappademas from GQ said it best: “It’s the rare superhero movie that doesn’t flatline when its characters are just standing around talking, because in Whedon’s work that stuff is the meat, not the bread.”

There can’t be a good movie, nay, a blockbuster without a solid script. Isn’t that the difference between John Carter and The Hunger Games? Between Pearl Harbor and Jurassic Park? A shitty script makes a shitty movie and no amount of action or wowing CGI or 3D mumbo jumbo can ever fix that. Luckily for us, Whedon had all of these elements on lockdown;  he was aware of the necessary measures in order to successfully pull off not just any ol’ blockbuster, but one that combines multiple beloved series in a well-written and intelligent way. It’s a difficult feat, and simply stated, he nailed it.

So back to that huge “I told you so”…tempting, but I’ll hold off. In fact, it doesn’t even need to be said. Even though only one week has passed, there’s no question:  The Avengers is a huge success. Sure, with fame and success comes more hype and possibly more pressure for Whedon’s next outing, but as some of us have known for more than a decade, he’s more than capable. And his army will only continue to grow.

Joss Whedon. Sam Jackson. Robert Downey, Jr.  ScarJo. Jeremy Renner. The list goes on and on.

The Avengers hits theaters on May 4 in epic digital 3D glory. Lets all take two and a half minutes out of our Thursdays to bask in the light that is this trailer.

Not only will The Avengers likely be the summer season’s first major blockbuster, it could go down as one of the best for 2012.

First Cabin in the Woods and then The Avengers? It’s a great time to be a Whedon fan.

I saw this trailer first on Monster Popcorn. Check it!

Captain America: The First Avenger opens July 22, and even though I’m pretty iffy on superhero movies (my interest wavers, depending on the series), this poster looks pretty rockin’. It’s dark and dreary, the suit looks badass, the expression on Chris Evans’ face is reserved and contemplative – lookin’ good Joe Johnston!

Captain America will be the precursor to Joss Whedon’s upcoming moviefilm The Avengers, so naturally I’m going to support the series from Capitano Americano and beyond. Even though I’m interested and biased by default, Johnston’s upcoming film looks set up to be one of the summer’s biggest blockbusters! It’ll be interesting to see how it fares and how it affects the buzz machine for Whedon’s 2012 release.

Also, this just in: Cobie Smulders, frontrunner for the role of Agent Maria Hill, has been confirmed for The Avengers. Apparently, Whedon was going to cast her as his Wonder Woman before that project bit the big one.

All good things, I say! I’m on board…are you?

Comic-Con began today and two of the greatest minds of today sat next to each other to discuss movies and upcoming projects: Joss Whedon and J.J. Abrams. Reports are still flooding in (I’m sure blogs will be buzzing tomorrow…apparently there’s no WiFi there and even cell service is bad), but Whedon did announce that he’s finally and officially directing The Avengers. This is great news for Whedon-ites such as myself because any Whedon is good Whedon. Since “Wonder Woman” went south, I’ve been dying to see what Whedon could bring to the superhero table – and we’re soon about to find out!

Whedon had nothing but positivity to throw Abrams’ way: “I’ve had actual moments of sheer fucking panic because I loved Star Trek so much,” Whedon said. “I just keep watching it and going, ‘This is the gold standard for a team movie, for a summer movie, for any movie that has come out in the last several years.’ And it makes me throw up with fear, so I have to stop watching it.”

Besides the fact that this pairing is my panel wet dream, I think I’d really dig checking out Comic-Con one year. First of all – any excuse to visit sunny San Diego is worth flying out there. San Diego is a beautiful city. Ahh, a whale’s vagina…Secondly – it’d be one badass experience to be there amongst the Uber-fans. I’m a bit of a geek and I just know I’d fit in well with my people (But I would not dress up as anything. I have some standards..)

However, after reading Videogum’s diatribe about the convention in general, I’m a bit torn. On one hand, settle down, Beavis! You’re in CALIFORNIA, which sure beats the humid, traffic-ridden Tri-State area. How is California ever a bad thing? Reading incessant whining about the convention as I sit at my 9-5…quite obnoxious. Put a smile on your face, man. DAMN!

On the other hand, I guess I see where they’re coming from. Waiting in all-day lines just to see a trailer? Meh. That doesn’t sound too great…See! I can watch the fancy Tron: Legacy trailer from the comfort of my luxurious super-single ex-water bed!

But then I start reading the EW coverage and I get all happy again. I want to be there, hanging with the talent, chilling with the cool kids. Sometimes the best part of concert going is the trouble it takes to get there. The anticipation of it all. But once you’re there safely nestled in the front row or rockin’ with your friends in the way back, the band hits the stage and nothing else really matters. The stories that spawn from those experiences are invaluable. I want to be a part of this excitement too, one day. And I’ll gladly take it all in – the fandom, the geekage, and hell, even the line waiting.