Doctor Who: The Time of Angels – What did you think?

Episode Four of Matt Smith’s Doctor Who and things took a turn to the spooky with the return of the Weeping Angels. Spoilers ahead.

Blink was one of Steven Moffat’s great episodes from the David Tennant era. The Weeping Angels, creature that cannot move if you look at them, are genuinely chilling and a great monster.

Now they are back along with River Song who is literally the Time Traveller’s wife. Her and the Doctor have an ongoing relationship that he discovered back in the silent library. The only thing is the Doctor is still at the early days of the relationship.

Song’s return was a great start to the episode, which also had a small part for The Street’s Mike Skinner. She was all Catwoman thief style and leaving a message for the Doctor to read 12,000 years in the future was fantastic and I love the way Moffat uses the whole concept of time travel in his stories as opposed to many who just have the Doctor turn up in whatever time and that is the end of it until the story runs its course.

Other great bits from the start were finding out the Doctor likes the TARDIS to fly without stabilizers as it is more fun and the iconic sound of the TARDIS materializing is simply because he leaves the breaks on (Matt Smith doing the sound of the TARDIS was rather funny).

Before too long we are with the Weeping Angels – great bit finding out that whatever has the image of an Angel becomes an Angel. Having the image move on a repeated 4 second segment was nice and chilling – lots of dark tunnels, soldiers of the Church with guns and people getting killed one by one, all while the Doctor and River Song bicker like an old married couple. Luckily companion Amy Pond manages to hold her own and you get her feeling of excitement as she journeys to another world.

Moffat used a similar concept from the library story. Both the Weeping Angels and the Vashta Nerada used people they had killed to speak to the Doctor over a com-link. Not sure if there is anything in that apart from Moffat likes to use that for dramatic effect.

All in all a great episode and probably my favourite of the series so far. Matt Smith’s Doctor finally seems to be in control of the situation- I like the fact his Doctor usually knows exactly what to do, it just takes a minute for him to focus on that thought. Alex Kingston as River Song is a great character, mysterious and all knowing which makes a change from most people the Doctor encounters. Karen Gillan again shows her companion is clever, brave and a boon to the Doctor.

All that topped off with the Weeping Angels. Great stuff and looking forward to the next part of the story.

What did you think of the episode? Post your thoughts, theories, rants in the comments below.

Don’t blink.

Doctor Who – What do you think so far?

We are now two episodes in to Matt Smith’s run as the Doctor and Steven Moffat behind the scenes.

So far I have been impressed with Smith. He is more like a mad professor and the character’s scary intelligence comes across more than it did with Tennant.

Karen Gillan as Amy Pond is also a great actress and could well be a classic Companion.

Story wise the bad guys have been a bit week though, but early days. However, there does appear to be a bit of an increase in the budget or at least with what they are doing with it.

That’s all from me. Now over to you. What do you think of the show so far?

Discuss in the comments below.

Here is the trailer for next weeks episode.

Wouldn’t it be great if they could cross it over with the Empty Child episodes from Christopher Eccleston’s turn as the Doctor.

Doctor Who – 4 computer adventure games are part of the series

Doctor Who: The Adventure Games has been produced by a team drawing on the very best talent from TV and gaming. The four interactive episodes are executive produced by Steven Moffat, Piers Wenger, Beth Willis, along with Anwen Aspden (BBC Wales Interactive) and Charles Cecil – one of videogaming’s most revered creators.

The games are being developed by Sumo Digital, one of the UK’s best game designers. Stories and scripts are from Phil Ford (co-writer Doctor Who ‘Waters of Mars’) and James Moran (Severance, Torchwood Children of Earth). The project has been commissioned for BBC Online by the Vision Multiplatform team, headed up by Simon Nelson, and is being driven by BBC Wales Interactive.

Matt Smith and Karen Gillan have been digitally recreated in-game, and have provided full voice-overs. Music has been provided by TV series’ composer Murray Gold. An additional cast will portray original characters and classic enemies.

“Children don’t just watch Doctor Who – they join in. They make up games, invent their monsters, create their own stories,” says Steven Moffat, Head Writer and Executive Producer, Doctor Who. “Now, there’s something else – now they can be the Doctor in brand new episodes. Doctor Who: The Adventure Games will offer fans of the Doctor a unique opportunity to enter his world, face his challenges and grapple with his deadliest foes.

“By developing these games alongside the new TV series, we’ve been able to weave exciting narrative strands with the very finest game design to create a new kind of Doctor Who, which can be enjoyed by the whole family.”

“There aren’t 13 episodes of Doctor Who this year,” adds Piers Wenger, Head of Drama, BBC Wales and Executive Producer, Doctor Who. “There are 17 – four of which are interactive. Everything you see and experience within the game is part of the Doctor Who universe: we’ll be taking you to places you’ve only ever dreamed about seeing – including locations impossible to create on television.”

Simon Nelson, Head of BBC Multiplatform in Vision, continues: “A few years ago we couldn’t have dreamt of commissioning such an innovative form of drama. By integrating the creation of these ‘interactive episodes’ with the development of the TV series, we’ve been able to create amazing two-hour dramas in which you control the action. We’ve all imagined what it would be like to come face-to-face with some of the universe’s most terrifying monsters – now viewers can find out for themselves.

“Establishing new forms of drama is exactly what the BBC should be doing. By aiming these ‘interactive episodes’ at the broad audience of TV show – unique in British television, in that it encompasses at least three generations – we’re aiming to encourage the family to gather round the PC or Mac in the same way they do the television. Driving computer literacy is a keystone of the BBC’s public service remit and we expect Doctor Who: The Adventure Games to be hugely popular in the homes of Britain this year.

“Only the BBC could produce such an innovative slice of new drama. We’re offering two-hour original Doctor Who episodes to production standards on a par with the TV series, working with the very best creatives within the UK. We’re hugely proud of Doctor Who: The Adventure Games, which will establish new standards in interactive drama and allow families the country over to enjoy Doctor Who stories in unique and innovative ways.”

“Doctor Who: The Adventure Games will offer the chance for Doctor Who fans to visit places they’ve only dreamed off, facing off against monsters they’ve previously had to imagine,” concludes Anwen Aspden, Executive Producer, BBC Wales Online. “Players will visit places which have never been shown on television – and these will go on to define the look and feel of future TV episodes.”

The exact titles of the four free episodes are being kept secret for the time being, but the four original stories will take players on a journey throughout time and space, including one location from the Doctor Who series which has never been seen before on screen. Players will encounter new and original monsters, in stories which form part of the overall Doctor Who canon.

The first episode of Doctor Who: The Adventure Games will be available to download for PC and Mac from the BBC website in June 2010. Its title will be revealed at a special press event on April 21st 2010.

Doctor Who – Description of the New TARDIS’ interior

At the recent regeneration of Tennant’s Doctor to Matt Smith, the TARDIS got blasted. We’ve known it was going to get a new look and now we get a description of it.

First of all it will be bigger and is probably three times the size of David Tennant’s. There are multiple levels, joined by staircases. And the Telegraph adds:

Less grubby than its predecessor, with a transparent plastic floor on the main level, its walls are resplendent with polished copper and its central column features a blown glass decoration that could be straight from Tales of the Unexpected. There are old car seats and downstairs – downstairs! – a swing. With a nod to Paul McGann’s Tardis, the central column features an old TV screen on an extendable trellis. It also has a 1980s-style computer keyboard, and a His-Master’s-Voice style trumpet speaker. Viewers won’t see this Tardis until the end of episode one, when the Doctor and Amy walk in for their first journey together.

Viewers won’t see this Tardis until the end of episode one, which will be 60 minutes, when the Doctor and Amy walk in for their first journey together.

The sonic screwdriver is also due a makeover as it gets blasted in the first episode.

Matt Smith asks, ‘Have you seen the new sonic screwdriver yet?’ and pulls it from his pocket. It’s a very shiny metal toy with a green light and, when Smith flicks his hand, metal claws that pop out at one end.

I’m made up they are expanding the interior of the TARDIS. I remember years ago you saw courtyards and corridors within in it and would love to see an episode set inside it.

UPDATED: Exclusive Interview – Paul McGuigan talks modern day Sherlock Holmes, Deathlok, Bond, Grant Morrison and more

Scottish director Paul McGuigan made his name with British gangster film, Gangster Number 1 before moving across to the States where he worked with big names such as Josh Hartnett, Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman in Lucky Number Slevin. With his energetic and unique visual style, McGuigan is one of the biggest Scottish directors working in Hollywood today. We were lucky enough to catch up with Paul to discuss his previous films and his upcoming projects. Richard of LFF took the interview so without further ado over to Rich.

When I call, he is taking a break from editing his latest project; a modern day take on Sherlock Holmes for the BBC with Benedict Cumberbatch as Holmes and Martin Freeman as his loyal sidekick Watson. Three feature length episodes are planned; McGuigan will direct the first due out in the autumn.

(Noise)
PM: Sorry, I’m editing next to Dr Who, there was a big meeting today it’s a bit noisy

McGuigan eventually finds a quite spot in the corner and I open by trying to grab some information about the rumours surrounding his next film.

LFF: So I heard some news about a new project this morning, can you talk about it?

PM: Well I’m hoping to sign on in the next few days.

LFF: It’s written by the guys that did The Hangover, right?

PM: Yeah, it’s their next film.

LFF: Is it a flat out comedy?

PM: It’s a comedy thriller. But I’m waiting until the ink has been dried on the contract before I can really start talking about it.

The Acid House

LFF: Of course. So I was going to start by talking about some of your older films, The Acid House was your first feature, right?

PM: It was yeah, it was three short stories. I initially directed one short called The Granton Star Cause and it did pretty well on Channel 4 so they wanted to do all three. I’d only done documentaries before and was a photographer before that, so when Irvine Welsh asked me to do it, I initially turned it down because it wasn’t what I was used to doing. But then he told me about the story about the man having a bad day, meeting God in the pub and it was just crazy! I thought if it’s going to fail I may as well go out in a blaze of glory. It turned out to be such fun to do, Channel 4 wanted it to be a proper Irvine Welsh story and not filter it for an English audience. It was fun.

Paul Bettany in Gangster Number 1

LFF: So after that you made Little Angels (a docu-drama focusing on heroin addicts) and Gangster Number 1. Along with The Acid House, did you get the feeling you were marked as a controversial director?

PM: Aye, but I’d say life is pretty controversial, I mean you’re going to come cross times when you’re not in a good place. Sometime real life is not filtered through on to the screen in the way some people would like it to. Life imitates art whereas art never usually imitates life and art always imitates art if you will, so for a genre like gangster films the only reference points we have of gangsters are through the cinema, and we just keep copying ourselves which means we portray gangsters in a certain way. But that’s fine that’s a good way of getting to an audience because they are comfortable with that, it’s what they are used to, but then you have to start breaking down some of the barriers of it. The lifestyle isn’t always glamorous; it can be ugly and violent. I always think violence is a hard thing for a director to portray; I don’t want to advocate it’s like pornography where you get off on it because that’s not the case. Violence to me is always the sounds and the hatred in the person perpetrating the violence. So what I wanted to do (In Gangster) was kill the audience that were watching it, you don’t see much when Paul Bettany strips naked and butchers the guy with an axe, but it’s still a very violent scene. I didn’t want to let the audience off with that you know? I wanted to show that violence was not glamorous. It’s also hard trying to find new ways to shoot violence, give it an original point of view to all the others.

LFF: Even though a lot of people really like Gangster Number 1, do you think it’s a bit underrated?

PM: I think a lot of my films are. Any director will tell you that about their movies. It seems to take time for people to find my movies. It’s like Lucky Number Slevin, it didn’t make millions at box office but then went on to make a ton on DVD. It’s almost like people found it and went “oh I’ve found this cool movie” and then claim it for themselves. It was the same with The Acid house.

LFF: I think I know what you mean. I stumbled across Wicker Park in Blockbuster, had never heard of it but I went on to enjoy it.

PM: Yeah It’s strange. I don’t think my style is as palatable to a mainstream audience marketable and it is to certain people. Production companies always seem to find them hard to market. Its like, “is Wicker Park a love story? Is it a thriller?” Well no, it’s not a love story because if it was a love story I would have shot it differently, so yeah it’s a thriller. So they always seem to have a problem marketing it.

The Reckoning

LFF: I was reading up on a film called The Reckoning but I had never heard of it.

PM: Well the reckoning is a prime example of bad marketing. I’m working with the likes of Martin Freeman and Benedict and they have never heard of it, it’s about the birth of modern day theatre you’d have thought they might have seen it! (laughs) It’s not bad, beautiful looking film, but it’s quite an art house movie, I wasn’t trying to make a mainstream film I just wanted to make a film about something I thought was interesting.

LFF: It boasts a great cast too.

PM: Yeah it’s got Paul Bettany, Vincent Cassell is in it, Wilem Defoe, Brian Cox.

LFF: I can’t seem to find it anywhere!

PM: (laughs) well there you go! But essentially it’s an expensive art house film lets put it that way, ill hold my hands up and say that’s what it is. But after that I realised I just needed to concentrate on what I’m best at and try and make films people want to see.

LFF: So after that you moved to the US, was it Gangster that brought you attention from America?

PM: Yeah it definitely was, it was a great calling card. I got a call from Robert Newman and he said it was getting a great reaction. After that I got the chance to meet Bruce Willis and some other big actors who said they wanted to work with me, and later on they came true to their word and worked with me on different projects over the years. But it still is a great calling card, people really like it.

McGuigan and Freeman - Lucky Number Slevin

LFF: After you completed Wicker Park in the US, would you say Slevin cemented you over there?

PM: To be honest it’s all indie companies I’ve worked for so I’ve always been on that side of the fence. Even with Push, I’ve never a studio movie.

LFF: I assume the next one will be for a studio?

PM: It’s not like I go out of my way to avoid it. I have been attached to various Marvel projects to James Bond.

LFF: Really?

PM: Yeah for Casino Royale. I was down to the last two, it would have been great and I haven’t given that one up just yet. Not like playing for Glasgow Celtic or playing in front of a crowd at the Barrowlands, some things you have to give up (laughs) but that’s not one of them.

LFF: Who would you cast as Bond?

PM: I think James McAvoy would be great. Daniel Craig is very good though. The thing that I didn’t like about Quantum of Solace is it took itself too god damn seriously. There’s a great sense of fun attached to Bond films and that has to be embraced, you can be serious when it’s required, but you just have to relax a bit.

Deathlok

LFF: Another project you were linked to was Deathlok

PM: Deathlok was just taking too long in development. David Self wrote it and it was a great script, the hardest thing bout Deathlok and this sounds crazy but was to get the idea of Knight Rider out of my head! Just couldn’t get over that. I really wanted to do that film but I had to put on the backburner.

LFF: But you got to kind of make a ‘superhero’ film with Push.

PM: I suppose so, yeah, but I never really approached it that way. Push was me wanting to do an action film, you know? Before the Acid House I never watched Trainspotting, so I never watched X Men or anything like that which might have influenced the way I do things, I just like to do my own thing. But obviously certain people and studios always want certain things in there.

LFF: Push isn’t as glossy, if you will, compared to other ‘superhero’ films

PM: I would have made it grittier if I could have! But what you have to remember is with these ‘superhero’ films if you want to call them, is that you’re up against these big budget pieces with the greatest technologies available. Push was made for $25m, which is a lot of money, but that’s not much compared to those films which are up to £100m now. But that shouldn’t put off and I think it’s a pretty cool movie.

McGuigan with Chris Evans - Push

LFF: So let’s talk about Sherlock again, is it anything with Guy Ritchie’s recent film?

PM: No. It’s written by Steven Moffat who does Doctor Who and Mark Gatiss from League of Gentlemen. They are big fans and wanted to do an updated version, he has to be smarter now he’s up against all this new technology. I think it’s harder to make him modern and immediate being set in the present day rather than back in the olden days. I thought Guy Ritchie’s film was entertaining, but that’s what it has to be as a lot of people see it as a bit of a romp. But we want to bring it back to the clever detective side. The BBC are putting a bit of a wedge behind it so hopefully it will do well.

LFF: So no pipes and hats then?

PM: (laughs) No, no hats, but I thought that might be cool. He’s covered in nicotine patches and that kinda stuff. It pays homage to the originals, it still feels like Baker Street but with plasmas televisions.

Grant Morrison

LFF: The Acid House is still the only thing you have filmed in Scotland, would you be interested in making something else there?

PM: Yeah Grant Morrison and myself are working on, I wouldn’t call it a secret project, but a project with Stephen Fry and it’s a thriller set in Scotland. Me and Grant have been friends for a while and we wanted to do something together and Grant went off and wrote a treatment, so it’s at the treatment stage at the moment.

UPDATE: The show is going to be called Bonnyroad according to Bleeding Cool. END OF LINE

LFF: Is it a full series?

PM: It’s seven episodes. It takes place over seven days around an event that happens in Scotland. It’s a modern take on an old fable or fairy story. If you know Grants work you might have an idea of what it will be like. It’s like Twin Peaks meets Brigadoon! It’s off the wall and smart but in a watchable commercial way. It’s still in the early stages but I’m very excited about it.

LFF: There’s still not a large amount of ‘big’ Scottish directors out there at the moment.

PM: I think we quietly work away, you’ve got MacKenzie and Peter Mullan who I think is great, he has a story to tell. So not quite a full squad yet, we’ve probably got a five a side.

LFF: Do you think more could be done to help develop talent?

PM: There has to be grassroots. Eighteen year olds will look at it and think, “I can’t see a career for me here”, so they make it creating video games and things like that. We need to change that mindset and get back into it. I read some stats the other day and it said film and television in Scotland work an average of seven days a year, that’s no career it’s almost a hobby. It’s sad. But the BBC seem to be keen in putting some money in and hopefully it’s just a bump in the road. There’s some great talent up here, it just needs to be harvested.

LFF: Mark Millar is rumoured to be writing a Scottish superhero tale. Would a film version interest you?

PM: Mark’s a talented boy, but I don’t think he will work with me after I slagged off his last film, Wanted. I never insulted him directly because he didn’t even write the screenplay and I wouldn’t intentionally slag off someone else’s work but certain people stirred it up. The funniest part was when Morgan Freeman, who I adore, started talking about the weavers or something. I just wanted to pause it and rewind it in the cinema and say, “sorry, are they trying to tell us this makes any sense?!” But good luck and good power to the man.

Check out the other LFF interviews including Duncan Jones, Mike Sizemore, Johnny Depp, Tony Grisoni, Michael Marshall Smith, Neal Asher, Leslie Simpson and more.

Doctor Who – New trailer for Matt Smith’s turn as the Time Lord

Here is a another look at the next Doctor from Steven Moffat’s run on the BBC’s show. Apparently you will be able to watch it in 3D when it shows before Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland hence the look and swirly-whirly-timey-wimey whirlpool look of the trailer.

Sherlock Holmes coming to the BBC with a modern day spin

Robert Downey Jr is starring as a different take on Holmes and now it looks as if there will be a another version.

The BBC confirmed today it has commissioned the first series of the new Sherlock Holmes series, written by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, as three ninety minute episodes.

Moffat is the new Doctor Who showrunner and Tintin screenplay writer, Gatiss is best known as a member of comedy troupe, The League Of Gentlemen.

Gattiss, was one of the four creators of League Of Gentlemen, has writtne episodes of Dr Who and the Lucifer Box novels.

Benedict Cumberbatch (Fortysomething and The Last Enemy) will star as Holmes with The Office’s Martin Freeman as Doctor Watson, set in 2009 London, remaking Holmes as a “dynamic superhero” figure. Rupert Graves plays Inspector Lestrade and Coky Giedroyc will direct the series.

Not sure if this is a great idea or whether it will blow great big chunks of cheese. The fact Moffat is involved means it should hopefully be good.

Source: Bleeding Cool

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The new Doctor’s new companion has been cast

A virtually unknown actress as been picked to partner new Time Lord, the virtually unknown actor, Matt Smith in the latest series of Doctor Who, to be broadcast later this year. Karen Gillan, 21, will play the Doctor’s assistant in the BBC’s prime-time sci-fi drama.

It is thought Gillan, who played a Roman soothsayer in an episode in the last series of Doctor Who, was chosen so as not to overshadow Smith – the youngest Doctor ever – in his first season as David Tennant’s replacement.

Writer and executive producer Steven Moffat told the BBC that Gillan is funny, clever, gorgeous and sexy: “A generation of little girls will want to be her. And a generation of little boys will want them to be her, too.”

Gillan, an alumnus of London’s Italia Conti drama school, has appeared in Scottish detective drama Rebus and Channel 4 fashion drama Stacked. She will also appear in British horror film Outcast (that’s the one starring James Nesbitt that I’ve mentioned a while back), which is in production.

After her unveiling, Gillan said: “I am absolutely over the moon at being chosen to play the Doctor’s new companion – I just can’t wait to get started. The show is such a massive phenomenon that I can’t quite believe I am going to be a part of it.”

Source: FP

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Dr Who – Gillian Anderson may be The Rani

The Telegraph is reporting that former “The X-Files” star and now UK resident Gillian Anderson is being pursued to play a villain in an episode of the fifth season Dr Who airing in 2010. The so-called insider says the most likely role would be The Doctor’s other Time Lord rival, The Rani.

Kate O’Mara previously played the exiled Time Lady who commits insidious experiments in the name of her research. Since ‘Who’ was revived in 2005 however, rumors of The Rani casting have proven fruitless in the past with the likes of “Footballers Wives” star Zoe Lucker being linked by the tabloids years ago.

Also unknown at present is if the most notable of the remaining ‘Who-verse’ alien races not yet introduced, such as the Ice Warriors or the Silurians/Sea Devils, will be included in the fifth season which sees a new Doctor (Matt Smith) and showrunner (Stephen Moffat). Filming on the fifth season kicks off in a few months.

Anderson is about to star alongside former Doctor Christopher Eccleston on stage in “A Doll’s House”.

Source: Dark Horizons

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Tintin news – Daniel Craig is the big bad and Jamie Bell is Tintin

Collider have some news on the Tintin movie.

It’s going to be called The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn.

Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot, King Kong) will be playing Tintin after Thomas Sangster dropped out.

Daniel Craig will be playing the nefarious “Red Rackham”. Craig previously worked with producer and director of the first Tintin film Steven Spielberg on Munich.

The film will co-star Andy Serkis, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Gad Elmaleh, Toby Jones and Mackenzie Crook. All will be doing the motion capture dance.

Finally the script is being writtern by Edgar Wright (Spaced, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz), Steven Moffat (Dr Who, Press Gang) and Joe Cornish (Adam & Joe).

All in all good news for the Tintin film.

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