HBO’s star turn
HBO’s star-studded afternoon sessions at the Television Critics press tour launched with Claire Danes discussing her February biopic “Temple Grandin,” and ended with Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant bantering about the 13-part animated comedy series “The Ricky Gervais Show.”
In between, the network brought out luminaries, including Al Pacino, Susan Sarandon, Rosie O’Donnell, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg to talk about their spring projects.
In the movie “You Don’t Know Jack,” Pacino slips into the skin of Jack Kevorkian, the most public face of the assisted suicide movement.
“We didn’t set out to do a movie about assisted suicide,” writer Adam Mazer pointed out. “We wanted to make a movie about Jack Kevorkian.”
Pacino insisted that the title was apt, “because you don’t know this guy. . . . It’s a portrait of a zealot I don’t think we see that often.”
‘Pacific’ war
The biggest draw of the day was HBO’s 10-part historical miniseries “Pacific,” a follow-up to “Band of Brothers” executive produced by Hanks, Spielberg and Gary Goetzman.
Hanks spoke passionately about the project, which debuts March 14 and focuses on the tales of three real Marines who fought in the Pacific Theater during World War II. He said the series tracks the effect of war on soldiers’ humanity.
Spielberg noted a visual shift between their previous WWII series and this one. “There’s a strong desaturated look to ‘Band of Brothers,’ ” he said. “Here, they’re fighting in blue skies, so there are more vivid colors in ‘Pacific,’ because that’s the way it was.”
HBO also announced a debut date of April 11 for its other highly anticipated series, “Treme,” from “The Wire” creator David Simon and Eric Overmyer. A drama set in New Orleans in 2005, it delves into the aftermath of the hurricane through an ensemble of characters. As Simon told reporters, “This is a city essential in the American psyche.”
MTV’s ‘Times’
While the reality show “Jersey Shore” about proud, party-hopping Italian Americans raising havoc in South Jersey has proved to be a sleeper hit for MTV, the channel is making a push to reinvent itself outside of its reality TV comfort zone.
“The Hard Times of RJ Berger,” airing this summer, is a scripted coming-of-age tale about a desperately unpopular teen who achieves notoriety among his high school peers when they discover that he’s got a rather large penis.
“It’s important to have a ratings hit, but I think at MTV, we really need people to also be talking about us in pop culture,” said MTV head of programming Tony DiSanto.
The network is also reviving the character of Warren the Ape, longtime sidekick of cult character Greg the Bunny. “Warren the Ape,” scheduled to premiere in June, is a parody of reality shows, a behind-the-scenes peek revolving around a D-list, often debauched, out-of-work celebrity puppet attempting to get back into Hollywood’s good graces.
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