Reminiscence in 150 Words or Less

The best compliment I can give Reminiscence is it feels like a second draft script, not a first at least, but it needed more than two to be frank -- ten maybe? Or just toss it all out and start over? A total waste of time, much like the later seasons of Westworld funny enough -- I don't want to rag on writer-director Lisa Joy too bad because she's a Pushing Daisies alum and those people must be CHERISHED but this movie just does not work and I have no idea why it was made. Well scratch that -- I wish more movies like Reminiscence were made, in theory, because in theory it's a Sci-Fi Noir standalone curiosity that purports to be "about people" but in practice it's all bruised elbows and shattered glass, the remnants of a fight that reportedly happened but nothing to see here move it along...

#NowWatching REMINISCENCE which so far has a few things going for it... namely Rebecca Ferguson is incapable of not being 1000% watchable, and Daniel Wu's abs pic.twitter.com/x46kmhvIRw

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) September 1, 2021

Pace You, Pace Me, Pace It For Always

A very very very very happy 42nd birthday to the actor Lee Pace today! Here's to hoping that Apple's adaptation of Isaac Asimov's Foundation series of books gives our Piemaker another great role to work his tall-man-magic upon, it's been too damn long. Not counting his brief role in the Captain Marvel movie -- not counting because he's buried under all that damn make-up and armor for Ronan...

bike tracks

... I feel like I haven't been given the gift of proper Lee since Halt and Catch Fire ended in 2017. Oh I guess I did get to see him (all of him) during that period on stage with Angels in America, and he was very nearly best in show there -- I found his "Joe Pitt" the best take on the role I've seen to date (yes even better than the white-hot-heat of Patrick Wilson); I said at the time that there were obviously reasons why he'd be so good at digging around in the agony of a closeted man but whatever the reasons he really channeled something transcendent and raw out of it the night I saw that show. 

Anyway I hope Foundation takes advantage of what they've got, and I don't have to get my only whole Pace fix off his Instagram (although if he keeps posting thirsty gems like this, or this, or jeez louise this, I don't mind the dang Instagram!) But mostly I hope him and his Pushing Daisies / Wonderfalls creative-paramour Bryan Fuller reunite sometime on something, anything. They make the best shit together! After all these many years I daren't dream of a Pushing Daisies revisit, but... daren't I? I dare, I dare! These pandemic icons need to live again, dammit!

Until then today I found a few Lee Pace photos I've never posted before up to and including some shots of him in his NYC home standing in front of his bookshelves (SWOON) so I've assembled us a little gallery to sate ourselves and our 99.44% pleasure receptors right on after the jump... 

The Books of Bloodening

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We've been hearing about an adaptation of Clive Barker's legendary Books of Blood for so long that I wasn't sure I hadn't already heard the news it is officially happening thanks to Hulu or not -- a dive into the archives shows no mention though, so I guess this is news to me! Hulu just dropped that poster seen above today, along with the word that the anthology film -- they mention it will include "three uncanny tales tangled in space and time" -- will be dropping on October 7th, right in time for our All-Hallowing. Names attached cast-wise are Britt Robertson (from Tomorrowland) and A Star is Born's cutie Rafi Gavron...

... who is like an ideal Clive Barker slab of meat. He's British and pretty but there's something sharp and angular and weird (I mean this in the best way possible) about him. Ideal Barker Material. Oh and also Pushing Daisies star Anna Friel is in there! We adore her! The IMDb page has a few more names, check them all out there. The director is a question mark -- his name is Brannon Braga and this is his first proper film; he's done lots of TV, but nothing I've seen.

No idea which three stories they'll be using, as several have already been adapted for movies (like The Midnight Meat Train and oh you know Candyman) -- anyway I doubt they'll do my favorite, "In the Hills the Cities," even though I was just recently saying how we've got the computer technology now to make that super fantastical story possible. Scanning through the few character names included on the film's IMDb I do see actor Andy McQueen is playing a "Steve" which probably means they're adapting the story "Dread" which is one that...

... has indeed already been turned into a movie, back in 2009, starring Jackson Rathbone. I'm pretty sure I saw that and didn't like it, but I don't recall it in any great detail. The story's about some college students who take their investigations into fear a little (read a lot) too far -- kind of like the torture porn version of Flatliners. Besides that I don't recognize any character names though, so we'll have to be patient, wait for the trailer!
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It's Lee Pace's Galaxy Again

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When I was visiting my hometown last I was scouring the bookshelves of the local thrift store, as I'm way wont to do, and I saw some copies of Isaac Asimov's Foundation series of sci-fi novels -- which I have never read -- and it both occurred to me that I should probably read those some time and also that it's probably only a matter of time until somebody tries to turn them into a series. Well one of those things is happening sooner than the other, as Apple's just announced they're adapting the books for their new TV platform and it will star sci-fi superstar Lee Pace (with this and The Hobbit and the Marvel movies he's basically got Comic-Cons booked until the end of time) and Chernobyl stud Jared Harris.

"Based on Isaac Asimov's novel series of the same name, Foundation chronicles the epic saga of The Foundation, a band of exiles who discover that the only way to save the Galactic Empire from destruction is to defy it. Harris will star as Hari Seldon, a mathematical genius who predicts the demise of the empire. Pace is set as Brother Day, the current Emperor of the Galaxy. David S. Goyer serves as the lone show-runner on the series."

(thx Mac) So who's read the books and what would you knowledgable people have to say about all of this? Since every time Lee Pace attaches himself to a new project my main and only thought process is -- how much time will this take from him signing on to do a new season of Pushing Daisies, and can he use his paycheck from this to fund a new season of Pushing Daisies, and so on. In summation here's a photo Lee posted on his Instagram of himself standing half-naked on a cliff-side whilst wearing long socks, as normal people do:

Good Morning, World

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View this post on Instagram

🚀 #captainmarvel @marvel

A post shared by Lee Pace (@leeepfrog) on Aug 25, 2018 at 5:51am PDT

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A happy 40th birthday to the pie-maker Lee Pace!

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Good Morning, World

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Been awhile since we checked in with Brit actor Emmett Scanlan, who we first got to know thanks to the far-too-short-lived zombie drama In the Flesh (have y'all managed to seek that show out by now, by the way? It is streaming on Amazon Prime and it's so so good) -- right now he's playing the father of a trans girl on the ITV miniseries Butterfly (which is what these gifs are from) opposite our beloved Pushing Daisies star Anna Friel; he also just recently joined the cast of the second season of the Superman show Krypton on SyFy, where he's playing the bounty hunter Lobo I guess - I know he had to get jacked for it anyway. Alright happy Monday everybody, and hit the jump if you want a couple more...

Quote of the Day

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Last week we covered Lee Pace's "coming out" of sorts in an interview with W Magazine and it stoked some reactions, up to and including from yours truly. Most of us were just irritated at Lee's tone, which read as hostile in the moment. So I'll happily share his three-tweet response to the brouhaha today, hoping we can put this all behind us, present company included, and focus on what really matters - getting Netflix to green-light ten more seasons of Pushing Daisies. Here's what Lee had to say for himself:

"In a recent phone interview, I was asked questions that I wasn’t expecting and found myself momentarily at a loss for the right words. My privacy is important to me, so I protect it. When interviewed by the media, I keep the focus on my work. As a member of the queer community, I understand the importance of living openly, being counted, and happily owning who I am. That’s how I’ve always lived my life, just as it's been important to me to portray queer characters with dignity for my entire career: A Soldier's Girl (Showtime. 2003). The Normal Heart (Broadway. 2011). Halt and Catch Fire (AMC. 2014-2017). Angels in America. (Broadway. NOW.) Onward, with Pride."

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The Only "Falling Ice" I Care About...

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#AccidentProne pic.twitter.com/Oi7kkNFBFE

— Kristin Chenoweth (@KChenoweth) March 17, 2017

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... is the falling ice in
the opening credits to Imitation of Life:

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(This is the gayest post I have ever done.)

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I Am Link

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--- Boo Witch - I won't be watching it (I still haven't watched the first one) but there's a new trailer for the new Blair Witch and you can watch it over here - there are also several stills from the film which consist of a bunch of people I don't recognize standing around in the woods, and I wouldn't want it any other way! I just realized I'm going to be traveling the weekend this movie comes out, so I guess I'm going to some bizarro movie theater on the road to see it.

--- Darker Things - Go director Doug Liman is very busy right now - we told you a couple of weeks ago about how he recently attached himself to Chaos Walking with Daisy Ridley, which is an adaptation of a book series we liked very much; well he's just had to drop off his Gambit movie with Channing Tatum, which he was also set to direct, because he's making a Justice League Dark movie - which I maintain is just the silliest name; it sounds like a chocolate bar - which is like The Avengers but with weirdos... you know, like Suicide Squad. Or Guardians of the Galaxy even! Anyway this group of weirdos includes "John Constantine, Swamp Thing, Deadman, Zatanna and Etrigan the Demon." I am down for some Swamp Thing.

--- Ride 'Em Cowboy - Pedro Almodovar has come up this week a bunch, he's been doing lots of press for Julieta, but I can't not mention all his talk about what his version of Brokeback Mountain would've consisted of (he almost made it before Ang Lee did) because I would watch this!

"More sex, more sex. And this is not gratuitous. Annie Proulx’s story is about a physical relationship, an animal relation. So sex is necessary, because it is the body of the story. So I always had the image — these two guys start making love to each other like animals, like they were taking care of . Against the cold, in the mountain; almost a way to survive in the mountains. In the end, they discover that it was something else and they were surprised; it was like a big accident. But the physical part, [the story] is about that. "

--- Poor Peggy - I wanted to quote something from this interview with Kirsten Dunst in the New York Times, in which she talks lovingly about her character from Fargo (I liked the bit about her grandma) but I have hit the paywall on their website and they're not letting me reload the article so whatever, go read it, unless you're paywalled out too, in which case we can commiserate together on our shared cheapness.

--- Gold is the Warmest Color - I liked the sci-fi romance Equals with Nicholas Hoult & Kristen Stewart quite a bit when I saw it at Tribeca, so I am excited to read that that film's director is making yet another weird romance next, and it will star Charlie Hunnam and Lea Seydoux! I guess he wants a blond bookend to that brunette one. No word on what makes this story "unique" but with Charlie around I am hoping it's set in a nudist colony.

--- Night and the City - Writer-director Dan Gilroy is finally lining up a project to direct after he knocked at least me out with Nightcrawler - it's called Inner City and it looks like it will star Denzel Washington; not much on specifics but they're comparing it to the Paul newman movie The Verdict (which I have never seen) in that it is "a character study as much a courtroom drama and is set in Los Angeles."

--- Happy Easter - I don't know how this slipped by me posting about it (I knew the news, but I didn't exclaim the news) but Kristin Chenoweth has reunited with her best Pushing Daisies boyfriend Bryan Fuller  on American Gods! She will be playing the character called Easter, and Bryan posted that shot of Cheno in character, with bonnet, on Twitter yesterday. Oh heavens I am excited!

--- And Finally it's brief - you might say it's a tease! - but here's the teaser trailer for the third season of The Fall with Gillian Anderson and Jamie Dornan, a show I have enjoyed very much even if I think Jamie Dornan is not the greatest actor in the bunch still. Gillian more than makes up for his woodenness. We still don't have a release date for this, though.
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Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Pushing Daisies (2007)

Chuck: I can't even hug you? 

What if you need a hug? 

A hug can turn your day around. 

Ned: I'm not a fan of the hug. 

Chuck: Then you haven't been hugged properly. 

It's like an emotional Heimlich. 

Someone puts their arms around you and they give you 

a squeeze and all your fear and anxiety come shooting

 out of your mouth in a big wet wad 

and you can breath again. 

A very huggy 40th to Anna Friel today!

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Fuller's Final Frontier

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A huge congratulations to Hannibal creator Bryan Fuller who, it was announced today, is getting his dream-gig - he's returning to Star Trek, his first love, to run the new show for CBS! Fuller's first gigs were writing for Deep Space Nine and Voyager -- THR says he wrote 22 episodes of those shows before moving on to create some of the best television of the past 15 years with Wonderfalls and Dead Like Me and Pushing Daisies and finally Hannibal; now it's back to where no man has gone before for him, something he's publicly been pining away for for as long as I've been following him. 

Fuller is of course also running the adaptation of Neil Gaiman's American Gods for Starz, which we couldn't be more enthusiastic about; we don't have any worries about him spreading himself thin though since he's proven an endless supply of awesomeness for so long - we have nothing but faith... and in a weird way pride too? My lil' buddy is ruling the world! And he totally deserves to. 

The new Star Trek is scheduled for January 2017.

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Quote of the Day

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First things first, hey-oh it's a new picture from Southpaw. (via) Much like the previous pictures I've posted, sure, but it's not like we can turn our nose up at Shirtless Jake now is it? Exactly. Second things second, it's now less than a week until "Original Audrey" Ellen Greene teams up with "Original Bubble Boy" Jake to revisit Little Shop of Horrors on stage here in New York for three performances and I'm kinda hyperventilating just thinking about it. Greene spoke to TheaterMania (thanks Mac) about the shows - the past and the very near present ones - and here's a choice bit:

TM: Does the age difference between you and Jake Gyllenhaal matter? 

Ellen: Well, if I looked like sh*t. But I don't. I have my [Dorian Gray] painting further and further back in the closet. [laughs] [Audrey] was always older than [Seymour]. There are many elements [in which] I hope I don't disappoint, but I'm obviously competing with my younger self. I have been in Audrey drag [recently], for the D.C. Gay Men's Chorus, and I was shocked: It looks good still. [Scanlan] looked at all sorts of ages, but Jake, he came to Dick and said, "I want the part, and I want to do it with Ellen Greene." You can't deny it when a great actor says, "I want the part."

Which is Hotter?

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Some pictures from our forever daisy Kristin Chenoweth's new Broadway show On the Twentieth Century were unloaded online today and the above shot of KC straddling a very fine very mustachio'd and very vintage Andy Karl made us realize there was a question that needed asking...

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poll by twiigs.com

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When I saw Rocky on Broadway last year Andy Karl was out for the night and I'm still getting over that, but I suppose I can stare at the video of him performing with The Skivvies in his skivvies and find some way to move on...

Pics of the Day

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I'll forgive you, although just, if you missed it in yesterday's Ways Not To Die post when we got towards the end and started discussing High Moon, the upcoming SyFy movie produced and co-written by Hannibal's Bryan Fuller (along with some of his Pushing Daisies mates); there was a lot before that to take in, perhaps your eye grew tired. But now I'm perking them up, because Bryan's been tweeting some sparkling Daisies-ish-in-space images from the film in preparation of its airing on September 15th. Like Chris Diamantopoulos in a snug little space jumper! And space dinosaurs!

Well this can't get here quick enough.

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Pic of the Day

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What did I tell you guys? Just two weeks ago when that pap-snap of them was caught I said I was calling it, that within six months Lee Pace & Richard Armitage would be public masters of their gay domain, and now here they are posing with Lee's Pushing Daisies gal Anna Friel on her Instagram. Yes they sandwiched her between them like some sort of heterosexual force-field, but baby steps. 

By the way y'all can still vote on that poll I posted considering who'll come out first, the Pace or the Noted Luke Evans. Lee is winning (and not just because he comes home to Richard Armitage at night). And finally in related news here's somebody trying to douse the flames of Luke's queeniness by dumping ice cubes on his head. It didn't work, Luke.

I Am Link

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--- Full Sensation - When they released the loooong list of names of people who were are going to be in the Wachowskis new show for Netflix last week my eyes must have rolled back into my head before I got to the end because I totally missed that my favorite new Almodovar piece of meat was up in there - Miguel Ángel Silvestre (who has maybe dropped the Ángel?) will be part of the enormous cast for Sense8, which sounds like it will be Joss Whedon's consciousness-linked flick In Your Eyes multiplied by eight.

--- Ferry Man -  Last week we heard that Wong Kar-wai is working on a new movie already, which he will film next year, but we didn't know anything about it (other than it will apparently star one of China's sexiest men, who's so far unnamed) - now we've got some information on the source of the movie at least, and its story. It's coming from an apparently super-popular-n-China collection of short stories called I Belonged To You, and will focus on one story called "Ferryman" about an affair between a girl and a married artist. 

--- No Hero For You - A couple of months ago it was announced that NBC was reviving its show Heroes for a mini-event type-thing like just got done with 24 on Fox (side-note: I haven't watched any of the latter yet; should I bother? i watched 24 sporadically but never really missed it that much) - now comes word that Milo Ventimiglia and his gravity-defying butt will not be a part of it. What about Adrian Pasdar and his gravity-defying butt, will they at least give us that?

--- Helter Skelter - David Duchovny is making a thirteen-episode series (brief series being all the rage right now) about the cops who were tracking Charles Manson, and Games of Thrones' gay king slash shaving-enthusiast Gethin Anthony is playing the crazy cult leader himself. 

--- Lost Stoker - If you wanna know how to make me lose my effing mind in five seconds flat tell me that the studio forced Park Chan-wook to cut twenty minutes from Stoker - what what what??? That's what Snowpiercer director Bong Joon-ho says in this interview where he's talking about his own well-documented problems with Harvey Weinstein and sure enough, mind lost. Get me a director's cut right now dammit!

--- Secret Guardian - This is one of those times when I dislike the internet's big mouth (and yet here I am contributing to it) - word's leaked on a small cameo in Guardians of the Galaxy by one of our favorite actors; only click over if you don't give a shit about knowing, I guess. I wish I'd have been able to be surprised in the theater by it, myself.

--- The Boy Bird - I love the idea of Daniel Radcliffe playing Robin opposite Ben Affleck in the new Batman stuff! And then he could kill Ben Affleck and star in Robin movies (they could just make it a Batman Beyond movie, or whatever) and we'd all be so much better off.

--- Death Becomes Him - TV Line did a very Ways Not To Die thing with Bryan Fuller this week, getting him to say a little about some of the best death scenes from his death-soaked works, from Dead Like Me to Pushing Daisies to Hannibal. Once upon a time MNPP got Bryan to talk about several of those Daisies deaths, which you can see right here. Those were fun! (thanks Mac)

--- Stop Drop & Tucker - Speaking of Bryan Fuller stuff, this news is CRAZY old (it's from last August) but it totally bypassed me that sexy beast Jonathan Tucker (who recently got nearly naked on Hannibal) was cast in High Moon, Bryan's science-fiction series for SyFy. I only caught onto it thanks to Tucker's Instagram account where he posted a video of him dancing in some sort of genie garb - I think they might be filming that pilot right now? Anyway the first thing I expected to see from this show was definitely NOT that, so once again I think we can expect something surprising from Bryan coming our way.

--- And Finally I was so over-worked when it came time to write up my thoughts about Ira Sachs' glorious Love is Strange after Tribeca that I didn't do the movie justice at all, but you should know to see it, see it, see it - it's a great movie; it will probably be one of the year's best. It's out at the end of August, and we just got the first trailer, watch it here.

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I Am Link

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--- Get Snookered - Eight days til Hannibal is back! Bryan Fuller gave an interview to E! that's gotten some headlines the past couple of days where he renewed the drool-worthy idea of making a Pushing Daisies musical that would focus on Kristin Chenoweth's character Olive Snook. Yes yes yes, make this happen, yes. As for Hannibal he talks the possibilities of certain Daisies actors (Cheno included) showing up in the cannibal's kitchen.

--- Deuce Up -Danny Boyle is going to make a movie about the infamous 1973 "battle of the sexes" tennis match that had Billie Jean King facing off with a super douche-bag - I think there was a special about this match on PBS recently (I watched a bunch of it whatever channel it was on) and it's amazing what a dickbag this dude was. Anyway these'll be a couple of killers parts for actors to play.

--- Force Strong - Jack Reynor must have some extra special behind-the-scenes skills (wink wink nudge nudge) because goddamn he's getting cast in everything without anybody outside of "behind the scenes" having a clue about him - he's already starring in the new Transformers opposite Mark Wahlberg as well as a drug movie with Toni Collette (guess which one's more important) and now comes word that he's gotten a role in JJ Abrams Star Wars movie, although nobody out of Vader-ville is confirming or denying anything casting-wise on anybody yet.

--- Major Props - Leave it to Michael Musto to get some fun dishy dirt from an anonymous Oscar voter on what's driving their personal ballot and the ballots of their friends - I like a lot of what this man/woman has to say, from the dissing of Wolf of Wall Street and the over-praise of Matthew McConaughey on down.
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--- The Lovely Lupita - Over at The Film Experience Nat got to chat with 12 Years a Slave's Lupita Nyong'o about making the movie and working with Michael Fassbender (and damn I wish there was audio of that bit because it sounds as if she does a bit of an impression while doing so), and basically she just keeps on being her charming self. Y'all know I love Jennifer Lawrence but it will be a crime if she steals Lupita's statue on Oscar night.

--- Monster Bay - I hadn't been paying attention to where the new Godzilla movie had been filmed I guess, so the new poster showing that the giant lizard will be stomping up San Francisco kinda surprised me, in a good way. (And now I'm imagining a crossover with Looking, involving Aaron Johnson and rim-jobs, and I am very happy indeed.)

--- Ghost Busta - Sexy beast James Badge Dale (here he is simultaneously slapping Michael Fassbender's ass and winning my heart) is going to star in a movie called Spectral, described as "a supernatural Black Hawk Down" (yes, someone described something that way) about a black-ops team fighting ghouls that've infiltrated New York City. This sounds an awful lot like that Eric Bana/Joel McHale/Edgar Ramirez movie about cops and priests fighting demons in New York City. But there's plenty of rumor for all of these movies, as long as they all star hot pieces of ass, I say.

--- Give Me Beauty - The Playlist chats with Italian Best Foreign Film nominee The Great Beauty's director Paolo Sorrentino about his influences and music choices and whether he'd like to make a movie in Hollywood - he has an emphatic yes for the latter, and says making a noir would be a hoot. You may recall that I totally adored The Great Beauty - here's my review.

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Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Pushing Daisies (2007)

Olive: Look carefully, ladies;
this is your future. 

Lily: Is it vodka? 

Olive: Water. 

Lily: As in Russian for vodka? 

 Happy 69, Swoosie!

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Bad Pie Maker

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We don't know who the bad guy is yet, but everybody's favorite pie-maker cum resurrector Lee Pace is reportedly in "final negotiations" to play the bad guy in Guardians of the Galaxy, aka the next big weird superhero team-up coming from Marvel. We've already got one pretend boyfriend in the film - Chris Pratt is set to play the gang's leader. Rumors abound that the bad guy in the film is Thanos, a character that was glimpsed after the credits in The Avengers - if true, as seen below it would involve Lee being under a ton of make-up. Anyway, does this mean he'll be too big to make a Kickstarter funded Pushing Daisies movie for real now? Damn damn damn. Slash congrats, Lee!

Space Is The Place

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We first heard about this project way back in August of 2010, but there seems to finally be news fit to print on the Bryan Fuller produced adaptation of John Cristopher's classic science-fiction story The Lotus Caves - SyFy has gone ahead and ordered a pilot. They're dropping the Lotus title and going with High Moon, which we also already knew. It tells the story of a civilization on the Moon that lives under a bubble - bubbles are so hot right now! - that discover a new life-form which leads to bad bad stuff, so forth. I read the book back when this news first dropped in '10 but I'll be damned if I can remember much more than that myself. Anyway Pushing Daisies writer Jim Danger Gray will be the one really running the show, it seems, doing the writing and what not. It will shoot in Vancouver this Fall.

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