the box

Trade Roundup: NBC To Try To Nurture ‘Friday Night Lights’ To Eventual Nielsen Health

5:53AM Defamer Hollywood | · NBC has pre-upfront pick-up fever, renewing the critically beloved, but anemically rated, Friday Night Lights for a second season. (”First be best, then be first” is the Peacock motto stitched into a throw pillow on Kevin Reilly’s couch.) Also making the schedule: new dramas The Bionic Woman, Chuck, Journeyman and Life. [Variety] · Barry Sonnenfeld is in talks to direct supernatural adventure The Box for Fox, prompting the best headline of the morning: “Sonnenfeld Ponders Fox’s ‘Box’.” Can’t wait for “Barry All Up Inside Fox’s Box” when the deal closes. [THR] · Forgiving the franchise for its later floppy-eared, jive-talking transgressions against their craft, The Visual Effects Society recognizes Star Wars as having the most influential special effects of all time. [THR] · Var boldly predicts that Spider-Man 3 will crush new competition Georgia Rule and 28 Weeks Later, but does note Spidey’s fallen off the record-setting pace of last summer’s Pirates sequel.. [Variety] · With his shocking Dreamgirls Oscar loss solidifying the dissociative identity disorder that drives him to take roles in terrible comedies demanding he portray multiple characters, Eddie Murphy signs on for a family-friendly big-screen version of Fantasy Island in which he’s expected to play a variety of roles. Get ready for some disturbing, Little Man-style FX grafting his face onto a dwarf’s body for his Tattoo scenes. [THR] · You know what the world really needs? Another Terminator movie, but without Schwarzenegger or Cameron or anything that made the first two worth watching. [Variety] More »