The Hobbit, Wonder Woman, and geeky parodies

A few quick things to share today.

For those of you with an interest in the two planned Hobbit movies, there may be hope. After being delayed due to MGM's debt and failure to find a buyer, they lost director Guillermo Del Toro, though it looks like Peter Jackson will step in for him. Recently, the seven major actor unions boycotted the film due to the studio's failure to sign a deal with local actors. On the studio's side, they say that the union instigating the boycott is Australia-based, and its young New Zealand branch represents only 10% of New Zealand actors, and the trouble they're raising is just a ploy to allow them to extend their influence, blah blah blah (Variety). Anyway, things have been pretty rocky lately. However, sources close to the project have hinted that studios MGM and New Line may be close to greenlighting the project, though it's still not a certainty (Variety). Sets, wardrobe, animatics, and battle sequences have all been prepared. Here's hoping for some concrete good news soon.

David E. Kelley, best known for legal dramas including Ally McBeal, The Practice, and Boston Legal, is turning his eye towards superheroes. He is planning to work with Warner Bros. TV to create a new live action Wonder Woman TV series (Variety, MTV). We don't have any idea who will play her, what her outfit will look like, whether she'll have the invisible airplane, etc., but we do know that it will be a modern take on the superhero. While fans continue to wait for a Wonder Woman movie, maybe we'll at least have a TV show to hold us over.

Lastly, most of you have probably already seen the excellent Team Unicorn "Geek and Gamer Girls" parody of Katy Perry's "California Gurls". It's hilarious, clever, and sexy, and has a couple great cameos. For those of you who haven't seen it, check it out below, and for those of you who have seen it, well, it's always worth another watch:


Geek and Gamer Girls Song - Watch more Funny Videos

Anyway, I know I'm slow about these things, but I only recently discovered this other geek-themed parody, this one for the guys: "California Dorks" by JasonMundayMusic. The geekery is a little more towards the tech side, it has some California-specific details (as the name suggests), and it's less sexy than dorky, but I found it utterly endearing. This guy is awesome. "You can search Google Ma-aps..." Not as polished as the Geek and Gamer Girls (lower production values and all), but at least it's in tune (I've listened to a bunch of parodies out there that are a little bit painful). Enjoy!