Misfits in the USA

Last week I attended the Misfits S3 launch and screening at the BFI.

I won't delve deeper into the premiere episode aside from saying that any concerns about the series' demise, with the departure of Nathan, were premature and assuaged by a breakout performance from Joseph Gilgun as Rudy.

During the cast and creator Q&A that followed. Misfits' creator Howard Overman outlined that Superhoodie's identity was decided midway through recording S2 and alluded to a US version, after it was noted that Misfits has garnered a cult following, in North America, since Hulu started streaming S1.

Josh Schwartz (The OC and Gossip Girl) confirmed that a Misfits remake will be produced by his company Fake Empire under Warner Bros.

The combination of Howard Overman and the power of the Schwartz is too compelling to fail! The OC's Rachel Bilson should be cast as Alisha. What do you think?

Misfits S3 starts on E4 Sunday, 30th October, at 10pm.

Watch Misfits online at LOVEFiLM.com today, LOVEFiLM stream a huge collection of movies, also sign up now and get a 2 week trial absolutely free.

Misfits cast Joe Gilgun as new recruit Rudy

As filming begins on Series 3 of E4's Bafta-nominated smash hit drama series Misfits, Joe Gilgun (star of This Is England '86) enrols for community service as new guy Rudy. He lines up alongside Misfits resident delinquents Bafta nominee Lauren Socha, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Antonia Thomas and Iwan Rheon in the super-sized series which sees its run extended to eight episodes.

New kid on the block Rudy gets a rude awakening in his first few days of community service, learning that with the keys to the infamous locker comes a great deal of running and screaming and, in some instances, bloodletting. But that really is the least of his worries. More pressing is just how to keep his secret superpower, well, secret. And is it super? As in from the A- List?

The rest of the gang are also back with all-new powers. But just how did that trade off with Seth (Matthew McNulty), the superpower dealer, go down? You would hope that at least one of them has a power approaching something halfway useful. You would hope... Is Simon any closer to fulfilling his destiny as Superhoodie? And just where does he learn to do all that nifty parkour?

With Seth still trading powers, zombies on the loose, havoc being wreaked with events from the past and even more havoc being wreaked in the present, things haven't got any quieter for our gang...

The 8 x 60 min series will be produced by Clerkenwell Films (Afterlife, Persuasion) for transmission on E4 later in 2011. And it's not just a new look cast - the production team get their very own make-over. Matt Strevens (Skins) produces while Alex Garcia and Wayne Yip (Coming Up, Secret Diary of a Call Girl) take on co-directorial duties.

Writer Howard Overman (Misfits, Merlin) will be writing five of the eight episodes and executive producers for Clerkenwell Films Murray Ferguson and Petra Fried both return. The new series has been greenlit by Drama Commissioning Editor Robert Wulff-Cochrane.

No 'sloppy seconds' for E4's Misfits!

On Thursday I was invited to a press screening of Misfits S2 episode one at the BFI, which was followed by a Q&A, chaired by Jonathan Ross, with the cast and crew.

Alongside BBC Radio 1, I was fortunate enough to attend a pre-screening Bloggers Q&A with the cast, and left struck by their genuine warmth and camaraderie. David Monteith, from Geek Syndicate, had posed a prescient Star Wars-related question to kick things off...



Series 2 is off to a strong start with an opening sequence - introducing a new mysterious character - that owes much to Chris Nolan's The Dark Knight. Listen carefully to the soundtrack, and tell me that it doesn't evoke Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard, too! However, the pomp is subverted, in Misfits' inimitable style, when a paper airplane pokes Kelly in the eye.

Featuring the revelation of Nathan's superpower, a spurned shape-shifter running amok and a Wall's Cornetto gag, episode one sets things up for a blockbuster second series.

If you're wondering if there'll ever be a Misfits movie, Howard Overman, the series' creator, nixed that idea during the subsequent Q&A. Overman was refreshingly candid. He revealed that there's no deliberate subtext pertaining to the 'disenfranchised' and nor will everything be explained.

In the spirit of transmedia storytelling (a term I learnt from Steve Berry at Channel Four). Follow the Misfits on Twitter @simonmisfits @alishamisfits @kellymisfits @nathanmisfits @curtismisfits and me of course!

Misfits. Thursday 11 November, 10pm, E4. For exclusive content visit www.e4.com/misfits. However, if you can't wait that long there's iTunes.

Misfits returning to E4 this November

The following press release arrived in my inbox this morning. Hope I get an invite to the screener.

‘This sort of thing only happens in America...’

Filming begins on E4’s BAFTA-nominated smash hit drama series MISFITS II; so strap on your ankle tags and lock up your kids, it’s all about to kick off again.

“Misfits blazed onto the screen with a terrific sense of humour, self confidence and brio” Daily Telegraph

“..a script that fizzes with wit and invention and a charismatic cast of next generation talent” Time Out

“Misfits is funny, scary, full of emotion and character and…banter that would drop Joss Whedon from a hundred paces” Bleeding Cool

“Misfits is the most brilliantly aimed teen gang adventure there may have been on TV” London Evening Standard

Everyone’s favourite ASBO teens, Nathan (Robert Sheehan), Kelly (BAFTA-nominee Lauren Socha), Curtis (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett), Alisha (Antonia Thomas) and Simon (Iwan Rheon) are back for a second series of E4’s hit comedy drama Misfits.

So to recap; a freak storm left our posse of social outcasts with slightly crap super powers; Curtis can turn back time, Kelly can read minds, Simon can turn invisible and Alisha can send people into a sexual frenzy with just one touch. Then there’s their two dead probation workers (one is buried under the local environmental monitoring station; the other stored in a freezer in the community centre). And finally, unbeknownst to the others, Nathan is trapped six feet under in a coffin, immortal and very much alive.

But it’s not just the ASBO Five who were affected by the storm. With the super-charged local townsfolk going the way of Gotham City, each week as we head back to the community centre our gang will be faced with a whole new world of weird and wild characters.

And just who IS the masked, hooded stranger who seems to be watching their every move? A force for good? An evil arch-nemesis intent on bringing about our gang’s destruction? Or just another kid in a hoodie?

The 6 x 60 min series will be produced by Clerkenwell Films (Afterlife, Persuasion) for transmission on E4 in November 2010.

Director Tom Green (Misfits I) returns to the helm along with writer Howard Overman (Misfits, Merlin), producer Kate Crowe (Misfits I) and executive producers for Clerkenwell Films Murray Ferguson and Petra Fried. The new series has been greenlit by Drama Commissioning Editor, Robert Wulff-Cochrane.

Quiz E4's Misfits cast

Readers will already know that I gave E4's Misfits an unequivocally positive review here.

You can now pose your questions directly to cast members Antonia Thomas (Alisha), Iwan Rheon (Simon) and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (Curtis).

Submit your questions to the cast here, and the best ones will be used in video interviews that will appear online.

Deadline for questions is 10am, Tuesday 24th November, so get a move on.

Misfits is no misfire

On Thursday night I was invited, along with luminaries from the social media space, to a preview screening of E4's new six-part super hero comedy drama, Misfits, in the hallowed halls of Channel Four.

Party-girl Alisha (Antonia Thomas) can send people into a sexual frenzy with just one touch, hard as nails Kelly (Lauren Socha) can suddenly hear people’s thoughts, while one-time sporting hero Curtis (Nathan Stewart Jarrett) discovers he has the ability to turn back time. Even painfully shy nerd Simon (Iwan Rheon) can make himself invisible – which is what he has always felt.

Howard Overman's (Merlin, Hustle, New Tricks) treatment of super hero mythology is worthy of comparison to Bryan Singer's The X-Men. Sans sentiment, one scene brutally lampoons The X-Men's Professor Xavier. However, Overman denies such subtext, preferring the audience to embellish!

There will be no trite explanation of the meaning behind the mysterious storm that enthuses the ASBO miscreants with super powers, thereby preserving some semblance of enigma and precluding a narrative 'black hole' should Misfits, deservedly in my opinion, garner a second season! And, the creative team should be lauded for holding back on the special effects, which were secondary and tertiary to the charismatic characters. Again, the adage of less is more, applies here, in abundance (budgetary limitations aside)!

I should point out that Misfits will embrace, in the words of Channel Four's Steve Berry, 'transmedia storytelling'. This is storytelling across multiple forms of media with each element making distinctive contributions to a viewer's understanding of the story world. By using different media formats, it attempts to create "entrypoints" through which consumers can become immersed in a story world. And, perhaps most coolly of all, audiences will be able to officially follow the protagonists on Twitter; Mad Men fans started tweeting as characters, and the studio, bogged down by old media politics, initially tried to stop it, which was counter-intuitive.

Misfits isn't a reaction to Heroes, the programme's genesis pre-dates the hit US television drama series, or a self-serving misfire caching in on sociological trends. But, could be the best in-house genre show from the Channel Four stable since Dead Set! That's a super power worthy of any hero or anti-hero...

So, set your PVR to record Misfits, which begins 10PM Thursday November 12th on E4.

Special thanks to Channel Four's Steve and Alex for being so welcoming.

Skins

Skins – Series 1

3-disc set released by 4DVD on Monday 24th September 2007

“It’s Official: We’re addicted to Skins.” Heat

“This is TV at its best: feisty, polarising & compelling.” The Times

“Funny, pacey and authentic.” Daily Mirror

From the makers of the multi award-winning show Shameless comes Skins, the critically-acclaimed hit comedy drama series about the lives and loves of a diverse group of Bristol teenagers who get high, get drunk, get laid and get up for their A-levels. These kids really grab life by the balls and then give it a twirl.

A ratings smash that has been recomissioned for a second season, Series 1 of Skins is released for the first time ever on DVD on Monday 24th September courtesy of 4DVD. The brainchild of a young team of writers with an average age of just 22, including Josie Long (newcomer 2006, Edinburgh Comedy Festival), Jack Thorne (Shameless), Simon Amstell (Never Mind the Buzzcocks), The Dawson Brothers (Balls of Steel, Dirty Tricks), and 20-something newcomers, Ben Schiffer and Jamie Brittain, with creator and executive producer Bryan Elsley (The Young Person’s Guide To Becoming a Rock Star, 40, The Crow Road).

The Skins DVD is packed with extras, including an ancillary story line for each episode, video diaries from the main characters, the director’s cut trailer, and a music video for Gossip’s ‘Standing in the Way of Control.’

At the centre of the Bristol teenage scene is Tony (About a Boy’s Nicholas Hoult), the most popular boy in school with a manipulative streak a mile wide. Everything he touches turns to gold, but this philosophy-reading hedonist uses his charm more often for evil than good. Caught in Tony’s web is his best friend Sid (Mike Bailey), an unconfident virgin who is often verbally abused by Tony, but sticks around because he is in love with Tony’s gorgeous girlfriend Michelle (April Pearson).

Joining the love triangle is kooky Cassie (Hannah Murray), who struggles with severe eating problems; Chris (Joe Dempsie), the resident party animal with a thing for his psychology teacher; Michelle’s best friend Jal (Larissa Wilson), a no-nonsense person with serious ambitions about her clarinet playing; Anwar (Dev Patel), a Muslim boy who finds that the Koran and his pleasure-seeking lifestyle do not mix well; Maxxie (Mitch Hewer), the only gay boy in the group; and Tony’s mysterious younger sister Effy (Kaya Scodelario), the only person Tony truly cares about.

Except for the premier and final episodes, which are ensemble cast pieces, each of the nine 60-minute episodes are named after a different central character, which the episode then focuses on. However, overarching plot lines run throughout the entire series, such as Tony’s tumultuous relationship with his girlfriend Michelle, and Sid’s quest to lose his virginity to escape Tony’s taunting.

Made by Company Pictures for E4, Skins is created by Bryan Elsley (The Young Person’s Guide to Becoming a Rock Star) and Jamie Brittain, executive produced by Charles Pattinson, George Faber (Shameless), and Bryan Elsley, and produced by Chris Clough (Trial and Retribution).

After a hugely successful premier run on E4, Skins series 1 comes to Channel 4 on 21st August, and Series 2 began filming this summer on location in Bristol.

Lookout for my Skins Series 1 DVD review.

Mini size me

E4 will be showing the first of two The OC specials before the UK premiere of S2 tonight. And Warner Bros is set to release the show on Mini-DVD in Q1. Mini-DVD was originally developed for the US children's market and intended to compete with Hasbro's VideoNow. The idea has caught-on and mainstream electronics companies are releasing players for a wider customer base. The 3" discs (remember CD singles from Japan?) and Gameboy Advance SP scale hardware is the epitome of an always-on-the-move lifestyle! The format will also go head-to-head with Sony's proprietary PSP.



Today's Macworld Keynote from Steve Jobs may be considered historic in years to come. The feted 'headless' iMac emerged as Mac mini. A miniature marvel with a pedigree that matches the coveted Cube (2000) sans confusing marketing and prohibitive price! The SuperDrive option, coupled with Airport Express and Bluetooth, equates to a scalable A/V blockbuster beneath your TV (via Mini DVI to Video Adapter).

The zealous emulation community has dubbed the Mac mini a 'super console' when used in conjunction with MacMAME, SNES9x and PCSX (amongst others). From this Mac User's perspective the Mac mini evoked memories of the Apple/Bandai Pippin (1995) games console. The Pippin was essentially a stripped down computer (see Microsoft's XBOX) and predicted the popularity of online play (repeat income from subscription services).

The petite package includes iLife '05 (iDVD 5, iMovie HD, iPhoto 5, iTunes 4.7 and Garageband 2) and Mac OS X 10.3 Panther. I'd recommend considering iWorks if your budget precludes Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac (further upgrades are imminent and I'll post any significant changes).

In summary. It's easy to envisage these selling like hot cakes on Amazon UK and I'll most certainly purchase a Mac mini sometime this year.

And don't get me started on the ubiquitous iPod franchise. The iPod shuffle is the perfect impulse purchase and birthday gift (casual hint to family and friends). How long before both show up in hit television dramas and pop videos? Apple is the new Sony...

Although there was no official announcement regarding the release date of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. 10.3 Panther continues to reap the rewards of further development as Apple begins seeding 10.3.8. This has ignited speculation that existing hardware (PowerBook, iBook and iMac G5) will be refreshed later in the month or early February.

Custom built Jedi

A couple of weeks ago during an online chat with Aspyr programmer Brad Oliver, I asked whether or not a Software Development Kit (SDK) for Jedi Academy (Mac port) would ever be released? Last evening Brad lifted the wraps off an unofficial Star Wars: Jedi Academy SDK (download link), that allows players to create custom multiplayer (MP) content for the popular Star Wars FPS. You will need to have Xcode installed. For more details. Quake 3 game engine mods are a scarce commodity on the Mac! So, this is a rare treat!

E4 has stopped showing The OC mid season! Considering the buzz surrounding the show, it's a curious scheduling decision. However, previous faux pas included Angel and Alias.

Enterprise is mining, to exhaustion, the Borg/Starfleet battle from Star Trek: First Contact, as it collides with an uncertain future (both figuratively and literally)! However, as I've mentioned previously it's pretty sterling stuff.

Inauguration Day

Nothing important happened today other than this! 😉

Started watching new time-traveling drama series Tru Calling on Sky One! Initially, I was averse to the series due to my disappointment at Eliza Dushku's reluctance to sign-on for a second sequel series to Buffy! Faith. However, Tru Calling is a pleasure to watch and the notion of Groundhog Day meets The X-Files is seductive! This show has, as they say in Hollyweird, legs!

Another US show that has become a guilty pleasure is The OC on E4! Now that Dawson's Creek is over (the series should have ended after 4 seasons) I was in need of a witty dose of angst and a cute brunette female fix! The sultry Summer Roberts, played by Rachel Bilson, fits the bill!

Just finished writing my second review for Inside Mac Games (IMG). This time it's Feral Interactive's Mac port of Worms 3D that comes under my literary microscope! Hope that it gets posted over the next few days! Does it need a rewrite? I sincerely hope not, because "real world" activities take precedence! Friends know what I'm alluding to!

Time to 'fire-up' GameRanger and play Jedi Academy MP!