futurama Tagged Articles at Cinematical

With two of four Futurama movies now behind me, I think I have the formula figured out. If the first flick -- the very amusing Bender's Big Score! -- was a patchwork and episodic affair, then at least it was a choppy good time. It was great seeing the old Planet Express crew in their resurrected form, but since the film was made with perforations ... it was a little bit of a mess. (Basically, each of the four new Futurama flicks were made to be split into four television episodes apiece. And it really shows.)

So there's my biggest and most basic complaint about Bender's Big Score! and doubly so for Movie #2: The Beast With a Billion Backs. That the writers and producers were asked to create four modular-style movies when the fans were pretty much expecting "normal" movies. The kind with three cohesive acts and what-not. Such is definitely not the case with the first two Futurama flicks -- and I expect that it's a slight malady that will continue across Bender's Game and Into the Wild Green Yonder.

So with that obvious complaint out of the way, I can also say that Futurama Movie #2 is really funny, chock-full of unexpected surprises, stunningly animated, and an absolute treat for the old-school fans. If the movie feels more like four inter-connected mini-stories than one big "movie movie," then oh well. It's still great to see the Futurama gang back in action. Especially because they're still so damn funny.

It's probably because Bender's Big Score was the first reunion with the Futurama crew that it was all so much fun -- but we've been promised three more DVD movies from the Planet Express gang, and I'm starting to get impatient! Fortunately, DVDActive.com has a press release regarding movie #2 (The Beast with a Billion Backs), and here's what it has to say! (I'm so proud of myself for not using the "Good news everyone!" gag, but there I just went and blew it.)

According to DVDA, the disc (which doesn't touch down until June 24 darnit) will offer a multi-participant commentary track, a 30-minute "Futurama Lost Adventure," a pair of featurettes, deleted scenes, bloopers, storyboards, animatics, and all sorts of extra-geeky stuff. (And also a peek at the third Futurama flick!) Here's what the official plot synopsis sounds like: "In Futurama's latest and most tentacle-packed epic, space itself rips open, revealing a gateway to another universe. But what lies beyond? Horror? Love? Or maybe both, if it happens to contain a repulsive, planet-sized monster with romantic intentions! Nothing less than the fate of human and robot-kind is at stake as the Futurama crew takes on The Beast With A Billion Backs."

And the DVD cover is really cool. I've snipped just a section of it for Cinematical purposes, but check out the real deal right here.

Asking me to review a brand-new Futurama movie is like asking a junkie to write an article about crack cocaine: It'll be enthusiastic and perhaps slightly amusing, but it might not be all that articulate. Having said that, I just got done watching a movie that shouldn't even exist. But Family Guy taught us that the fans CAN bring you back to life, and Firefly / Serenity proved that a "network casualty" CAN turn into a fantastic film ... so I guess all bets are off these days. (Especially when you're dealing with the Fox network, canceler of all three series.)

But let's be fair: Thanks to the endlessly profitable Simpsons revenue stream, Fox did allow Futurama to run for four stellar production seasons, but the fans were left to mope and complain as the last remaining episodes were tossed onto the airwaves with casual disdain -- which sucked extra-hard because the final episodes were all pretty great! And then Futurama was dead. Boo! I took solace in the fact that I owned all 72 episodes on DVD AND the fact opinion that Futurama is one of the most eminently "re-watchable" TV comedies ever produced. So it could have been worse: Fox still owes me another four or five seasons of Arrested Development, and I'm still waiting.

So imagine my slack-jawed geek-face when I learned that, whoa, Futurama would be returning ... in some form! Turns out that Fox Home Video is once again in the resurrection business, because here come FOUR new Futurama movies! Wow! The only catch is that you can't see the Planet Express crew in a cinematic adventure (yet), but here's the good news: The first DVD flick, Bender's Big Score, is funnier than most theatrical-release comedies -- and yep, that includes The Simpsons Movie.

Good things sometimes happen when you behave in a geeky and enthusiastic fashion. For example, from the minute I heard that four brand-new Futurama movies were going into production, I wet myself a little and then went insane. (Examples of the aforementioned insanity can be found here, here and here.) So not too long ago, I got an email asking if I'd like to express my Futurama obsession in the form of an interview piece, I said "Yes!" Which is how I got to ask a bunch of questions to:

• Claudia Katz -- Partner at Rough Draft Studios and producer of the Futurama movies and TV series.
• Dwayne Carey-Hill -- Director of Futurama movies one (Bender's Big Score!) and three (Bender's Game) and season four of the TV series.
• Peter Avanzino – director of Futurama movies two (The Beast with a Billion Backs) and four (Into the Wild Green Yonder) and seasons one through four of the TV series.

Not bad, eh? So knowing that I was about to chit-chat with three of the more "hands-on" creators, I set out to create some questions that were as interesting as they were amusing. So here's how the conversation(s) went down!

Futurama freaking rocks. Everyone in the universe knows this -- except for the small handful of people who used to work at Fox who canceled it. How painful was it when the final news came down? Did anyone make a beeline for the prototype suicide booth? At that point, did anyone hold out any (REALISTIC) hope that the series would be re-born in some fashion?

Claudia Katz: Well, the sad truth is it took a very long time for the news to officially come down. And even then we were lodged in limbo (between no pick-up and not canceled) and eventually got the hint. I believe, after what seemed like an eternity, they let Matt [Groening] know we were not getting a pick-up "for now," and we all figured it was time to move on. Before we reached this point, I felt it was a good idea to remove the studio's suicide booth. In retrospect, I consider this a very prudent decision. By Season 4 we had assembled the perfect crew [but] unfortunately the series came to an end. At Rough Draft we've always held out hope for its return. Right after the series ended, there was some brief talk of a possible theatrical Futurama feature. This, of course, is my new Futurama hope!

Dwayne Carey-Hill: Futurama came to an end in such a non-definitive way that there was a lot more standing around scratching heads than there was taking of one's own life. It was more like the ending to our Halloween parties. You don't want it to end and a lot of people hang around talking and laughing. But eventually, all the conversations come to an uncomfortable end and everybody just turns and goes their own separate ways.

How many DVDs had to sell before someone (new) at Fox said "Heyyyy, there's still some more money to be made here! Someone politely get Matt Groening on the phone!"? When discussing the new Futurama projects, does the word "vindicated" come up very often? Is it pretty much the same crew from the series that's working on the movies? And do you haze the newbies like in a frat house?

CK: It's very hard to get the numbers on DVD sales, but clearly for Fox to consider producing more, they must have sold well. Understandably for Fox, it come down to a business decision, and we're thrilled they decided to go ahead with the DVDs. We've always had a great relationship with Matt, David [X. Cohen] and the writers, and this time around there's also been a great collaboration with the Studio (Fox). We feel vindicated, but more importantly, it feels like you can go home again. As far as the crew, we're super-fortunate to have a lot of great return talent. In addition to the other Rough Draft partners Rich Moore, Gregg Vanzo and Scott Vanzo, both Dwayne Carey-Hill and Peter Avanzino who directed on the series are back. Scott is back as the head of CG, as well as our lead CG artist Eric Whited. Our color supervisor Samantha Harrison and colorist Rachel Stratton returned, as well as our digital producer, Geraldine Symon, and our associate producer Elise Belknap. Luckily some layout artists returned, but we geared up for the DVDs in the midst of production on The Simpsons Movie. So we hired a largely new crew, which was some initial cause for concern, but they've done an incredible job. I can't release any exact hazing details, but we try to curtail them to activities that don't leave any marks or cause lifelong therapy needs.

Long before I was a writer for this fine online publication, I was an avid reader of both Cinematical and TV Squad. One of the things that made me very jealous about TVS (aside from the fact that all their writers are more talented than I am) was that they got to write about two series I'm very passionate about: The phenomenally brilliant Arrested Development and the hilariously geeky Futurama. And now that the latter series is about to make the leap into movie-ville, that means that now *I* get to write about it! As Tobias Funke would say: Huzzah!

Granted, the four Futurama movies are being produced directly for the DVD marketplace, but with Matt Groening and all of his original producers / writers / cast members on hand, I predict that these animated flicks will prove to be a real gold mine for the old-school Planet Express fans. While browsing through my bible I came across some info that might not be brand-new to the die-hard Futurama freaks -- but it was the first I heard about it, so I got all excited and logged in to Cinematical to start sharing the nerdiness.

According to the IMDb, the Futurama movies are called Bender's Big Score!, Bender's Game, Into the Wild Green Yonder and The Beast with a Billion Backs. Aside from those titles, that's about all the info that the IMDb has to impart. But being a longtime and unquestioning supporter of The Hypnotoad, I'm of course very familiar with the excellent fansite called CGEF.com. If you need a website to bookmark and refresh constantly in an effort to learn the latest on these Futurama movies, I highly recommend the CGEF.

Anyway, their news bin informs us of the following: Actress Lauren Tom told IGN that the voice-work on all four movies is done. (Apparently the movies will also break down into 16 episodes for Cartoon Network Comedy Central, which is just fine by me. Just give me the DVD versions!) A little more poking around yields the news that the first flick (Bender's Big Score!) will be in DVD stores before the end of the year with the others to follow in short order throughout 2008. Awesome. (And really, if you've never seen Futurama and you're wondering why I'm this psyched about the new flicks, just do yourself a favor and buy / rent the first two seasons. And then the second two. And then you won't wonder anymore.)

With The Simpsons Movie (finally) about to make its appearance, a few eyes have turned toward that other animated Fox series, and the new question seems to be this? Will Seth MacFarlane's Family Guy ever hit the silver screen? And if so, when? (And will it be NC-17?)

During a recent appearance at the Just for Laughs Festival, Mr. MacFarlane told The Hollywood Reporter that while there certainly have been some discussions regarding a Family Guy movie, there's nothing down on paper just yet: "We have been trying to figure out how to do that and the series at the same time without the series suffering ... Nothing is official." Fans of the generally hilarious animated series are probably well aware that Family Guy has already spawned a direct-to-video movie ... one that wasn't any funnier than the TV episodes, if you're asking me. But hey, any time I get to see Peter Griffin fall down I'm a happy guy.

And regarding that other other animated Fox series, let's not forget that Matt Groening and his Futurama crew are presently hard at work at turning out some new material. Here's what the creator of Bender told ComingSoon.net: "We're doing four straight-to-DVD Futurama movies and then new episodes on Comedy Central starting in 2008. The first DVD for Futurama will be out for the holidays." Y'know ... as much as I love The Simpsons (and boy do I), I'm more excited about the new Futurama stuff than I am about The Simpsons Movie. Does that make me weird?

OK, this is most definitely TVSquad's territory, but there are three reasons I'm posting it here too:

1. You will not find a bigger Futurama geek than yours truly. Seriously.
2. I'm so excited I feel like kicking back with a can of Slurm.
3. The news deals with movies in a very cursory fashion.

Short version: Comedy Central, a network I now love so much that I've promised to name my first son Comedy Central Weinberg, has signed a deal to produce 13 brand-new episodes of the beloved sci-fi series, and they'll be bringing back the entire creative team and voice cast. How awesome is that??!? The new episodes won't be ready until 2008, but I don't care. Just the fact that we have some new episodes on the horizon is enough to make me cancel my trip to the nearest suicide booth.

So what's this tenuous movie connection I mentioned? Well, not too long ago, Futurama voice actor Billy West mentioned that Fox would be producing a series of direct-to-video Futurama movies. Apaprently that plan is no more, seeing that the gang will spend the next year banging out just over a dozen new episodes! Yes! In your face, Fox! You cancelled yet another show that turned out to be mega-profitable for someone else. Good job, meatbags!

For a much better breakdown on the very exciting Futurama news, check out TVSquad, which is where all good TV news ends up eventually. Heck, even Bender himself stopped by The Squad to celebrate the good news!

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• Dreamwatch Magazine talked to Elektra director Rob Bowman who says that an R-rated Director's Cut will be coming out in November. Other tidbits include the film budget, which he reports was $43 million, making the worldwide box office total of $56 million look a lot better. This also doesn't include DVD and VHS sales. Bowman also thinks there's still a plan to make a third movie in the Daredevil/Electra series.
  
• SuperHeroHype has a Ghost Rider set report which includes pictures.
  
• They also have five new international posters for the Fantastic Four movie.
  
• Check out these pictures from the second unit Superman Returns film shoot at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
• The full international trailer for Fantastic Four is now up at the Apple Quicktime site.
• Now Playing Magazine talked to John Carter of Mars screenwriter Ehren Kruger: "I'm in the writing process for John Carter of Mars, working with the director - Sky Captain's Kerry Conran," says Kruger of the Edgar Rice Burroughs adaptation. "He's in, too, with his visual design team — the effects, and the sort of outlandish worlds that need to be created for that. He has to design all that. So we're pretty (well) along with the script."
• GotFuturama.com reports that David X. Cohen said that they had talks with the top guys at FOX who were extremely impressed with the sales of the Futurama DVDs. The idea was proposed to make a series of direct to DVD Futurama movies.
  

The Geek Report is published on Cinematical Monday through Friday. Got a geek news tip? Leave it in the comments!