SFSurplus-2008-02-17 #019 [28:45m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Topics: TV Schedule, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, The Hobbit, Star Trek XI, Blu-Ray

Thank you for spending time with us. This is show number 19 and we’re going to be talking about the T-V schedule in the U-S now that the strike is over. We hope to cover most of the major shows you watch so you’ll want to stick around. Star Wars in theaters again, more trouble with Hobbits, and a delay for the Trek film are issues in the news. I’m also going to tell you why I’m okay with switching to Blu-Ray.

To get a free audio-book, click here to join Audible.com!

It takes a lot of people make this all work and I would like to point out that Randy has been doing a lot of work behind the scenes to get this show organized and I want to make sure that I send him a special thank you.

Time’s a wastin’ so let’s get our geek on!

Anti-witness News

The Clone Wars in Theaters
http://www.starwars.com/theclonewars/news/announcement.html

Vince:
The all-new “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” will be coming to theaters this summer and televisions this fall. In what LucasFilm is calling “the new era of Star Wars entertainment,” The Clone Wars will be a movie and will continue with half-hour episodes on T-V. Executive Producer, George Lucas says he would like to push the art of animation forward at the same time as telling new stories. The Clone Wars will be in Theaters on August 15th and Cartoon Network has added the series to it’s Fall line-up.

Tolkien estate sues New Line Cinema for $450 million.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/movies/la-fi-newline12feb12,0,354442.story

Casey:
More delays for new “Hobbit” films are possible because of further lawsuits against New Line Cinema. “The Tolkien Trust,” a charitable organization that owns the rights to J-R-R Tolkien’s Middle Earth, says it was cheated out of at least one hundred fifty million dollars. In addition, the trust is seeking to terminate New Line’s rights to the films.

Star Trek XI moved to Summer ‘09

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i797c75af15317bcf82fd246dd185d9f7

Vince:
Paramount is pushing J.J. Abrams’ new Star Trek movie back to the summer of 2009. It was originally set for a Christmas 2008 date. They say that the shuffle has nothing to do with the writer’s strike. Rather, they’re taking better advantage of it’s box-office potential with a summer release.

NBC: Chuck and Heroes Get New Seasons
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=0&id=48531&type=0
Casey:
N-B-C has committed to new seasons of “Chuck” and “Heroes” for their fall line-up. Both of these shows were shortened by the writer’s strike. The network says they will initiate “major re-launch campaigns” for these shows.

Battlestar Galactica Starts Fourth and Final Season

http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=0&id=48251

Vince:
Battlestar Galactica will kick off it’s fourth and final season with two half hour specials that will air on March 28th. The first episode is meant to refresh everybody on what has happened during the last three seasons. It’s also meant to serve as a jumping off point for new viewers for whom the fourth season might be the first glimpse of Galactica. Shame on you folks. The second show is a celebration of Galactica’s effect on pop culture and will feature Seth Green, Brad Paisley, and Joel McHale, whom I met last weekend.

Wal-Mart drops HD DVD
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6186141.html

Casey:

The competition between Blu-Ray and H-D D-V-D may be coming to a close. Wal-Mart has announced that is will discontinue sales of H-D D-V-D players and will only sell Blu-Ray by June. This may be the nail-in-the-coffin as Best Buy is actively telling consumers to not purchase H-D D-V-D machines and the mail-order service “Net-Flix” is backing Blu-Ray. Toshiba, the H-D D-V-D creators are loosing popularity despite dropping the prices on all of their H-D D-V-D players.