Majors Stars Go Straight to Video

I think I first noticed the phenomenon when I heard about Amy Heckerling's unreleased movie I Could Never Be Your Woman. Until then, I thought it was just the B, C, and D-list celebs that went straight to video. If you ever saw a big star on a tape in Blockbuster without seeing that movies first in theaters, it had to be some dreck they put out before they were famous, right?

Wrong. Michelle Pfeifer and Paul Rudd aren't the only ones with such a blemish on their records--plenty of major stars have movies that never get distributed. Here's a few I have found. The first two are just meh, but the last one almost looks like one of those film parodies you might see at the end of Tropic Thunder. What about you? Know of any more?


My Mom's New Boyfriend (2008)
Meg Ryan, Colin Hanks (Tom Hank's son), Antonio Banderas


Neverwas (2005)

Ian McKellen, Aaron Eckhart, Jessica Lange


Tiptoes, 2005
Kate Beckinsale, Matthew McConaughey, and, well, wait for it...

Hulu Poised to Take Over the Universe

"Oh my god," were the first words out of my mouth, when I heard that ABC's parent company Disney had joined Hulu, but it should have been, "it's about friggin' time."

As you can tell from the posts below, ever since I ditched my TV, I use Hulu almost exclusively to watch online shows. Although I go to ABC.com to watch Lost, ABC's homepage has one video ad blaring on its site for something like Desparate Housewives or Samantha Who, which quickly bypass when I leave the page.

Hulu's home page, on the other hand, exposes you immediately to five shows based on what's popular and timely, and makes it easy to scroll to about 30 more. It also shows you other videos you might like based on the videos you view.

But even if ABC had a site exactly like Hulu, it wouldn't have the additional content related to its shows--what other shows are like Lost? The ones that come closest are NBC's Heroes and Fox's Fringe, both of which are on Hulu. The old logic of not wanting viewers to discover other network's shows no longer applies in the new world of time-shifting--so long as the shows are good and viewers have the time, all shows can win.

The first inkling I should have had that the ABC/Disney deal was coming was when I saw an ad for ABC's Castle on Hulu. Castle, a decent Moonlighting/Murder She Wrote hybrid, features actor Nathan Fillion. Mainstream viewers would be most likely to recognize him from stints on the ABC shows Desparate Housewifes, One Life to Live and, delving way back, Two Guys and a Girl. However, he's positively worshiped by rabid fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, all of which are on Hulu. Adding fans like these could help this show survive past its first season.

So now ABC has gone beyond advertising its shows on Hulu and will likely actually post them there starting this summer. This is great for ABC, NBC and Fox but in a way, bad for me. The whole reason I started watching my shows on the internet was to avoid mindless channel surfing and unfortunately, Hulu is a really good at facilitating that. Thank goodness they don't have a deal with, or I'd really be done for. Project Runway or Best Week.

The Superbowl Ad that said it all

Update: Here's their new TV ad, which debuted yesterday

Live Streaming on Hulu

I think I've seen this trailer for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince that they were advertising on the Hulu home page, but I was curious about the ability to embed a live stream. So let's see how this works, shall we?

Hulu Film Line Up

One thing I didn't realize was that the movies shown on Hulu often expire after a time, so early films like Sideways are gone. Instead, there are a lot of movie trailers. But there are still some interesting ones: if you haven't seen Super Size Me, it's entertaining and alarming. Here are some others that are somehow significant, though in an "eat your broccoli" kind of way.

Hoop Dreams
Buena Vista Social Club
Wuthering Heights
Koyaanisqatsi
Sexy Beast
Last Tango in Paris
Inherit the Wind

About the Cornerless Paper on BSG.

"All I know is the prop guy from the miniseries who had that idea lived in infamy for the next five years, with assistants shaving corners off of everything in sight, saying "I want to strangle whoever had this idea."

-David Eick, in National Geographic.

What Jimmy Fallon's First Interview with De Niro Reminded Me Of

Yes, it was this uncomfortable: