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Comedy Central has resurrected the former Fox animated SF series Futurama, ordering 13 episodes to debut in 2008, Variety reported. The deal builds on the cable network's acquisition of the 72-episode library last fall. Discussions about a revival of the half-hour show began in earnest earlier this year between Futurama producer 20th Century Fox Television and series creators Matt Groening and David X. Cohen. A sticking point, which has been resolved, had been bringing back the cast, who hadn't worked on new episodes for the show since it left the air in August 2003. Voice actors Billy West, Katey Sagal and John DiMaggio are on board for the new episodes, which will continue the story of Fry (West), a pizza delivery boy who was accidentally frozen for 1,000 years and who wakes up in the future. |
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| Futurama DVD Film Is Epic Rich Moore, who produced the upcoming direct-to-DVD Futurama movie Bender's Big Score, told SCI FI Wire that it will be bigger and more epic in scale than the original Fox television series. "It's composed to look more like a movie," Moore said in an interview. "It has some pretty big set pieces. It's a little more epic than what we could pull off on the series. Maybe not as huge as The Simpsons Movie was, but it has that feeling to it. Futurama already felt more like a movie anyway, compared to The Simpsons, just because of the science fiction aspect of it. So it kind of demanded that it be bigger." Since its cancellation in 2003, Futurama—the brainchild of Simpsons creator Matt Groening and writer-producer David X. Cohen—has continued to reach new viewers through syndication and the release of the episodes on DVD. The first of four new feature-length movies, Bender's Big Score will also be broken up into seasons and aired on Comedy Central in 2008. Moore, who worked on the original Futurama series as well as the recent Simpsons movie, likened the show's growth in popularity to that of another popular science fiction franchise. "It's kind of like Star Trek in a way," he said. "It's really weird, where it was kind of cancelled before it's time and a whole new group of people saw it in syndication and because of their interest, the studio re-explored it. So hopefully it has the same success as Star Trek. Let's hope." Bender's Big Score finds Fry, Leela, Bender and the other employees of Planet Express battling against nudist alien Internet spammers and discovering the secret of time travel via a tattoo that mysteriously appears on Fry's buttocks. All of the members of the original voice cast—including Billy West (Fry), Katey Sagal (Leela) and John DiMaggio (Bender)—return, alongside guest stars Al Gore, Sarah Silverman and Coolio. Moore said that the movie will provide an introduction to the characters for new viewers, but in a way that won't alienate loyal fans. "This one kind of kicks off the subsequent movies," he said. "It's a great story to kind of reintroduce the characters to the audience." For fans, Moore added: "They're really going to love just the kind of references to things in past episodes and appearances by characters, I mean so many characters from the series kind of pop up again in this and have their own little scenes in the movie." The experience of making the film, as well as The Simpsons Movie, has inspired the producers to think about a possible future theatrical release. "It's great to have the time to kind of let the story breathe and not have to try and force it all into, like, 22 minutes," Moore said. " Bender's Big Score is available on DVD beginning Nov. 27. |
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| Futurama star settles the score Natalie Jamieson Newsbeat entertainment reporter Matt Groening's animated favourite Futurama is set to return as part of a four-part movie series. The first, Bender's Big Score, sees Planet Express become the victim of a hostile takeover by a company of aliens. John DiMaggio, the voice behind the foul-mouthed robot, gave Newsbeat the lowdown on his latest adventures. Tell us about the story? It's a pretty funny story about internet spammers from an alien planet. They pretty much spam the earth of their belongings and Bender helps the aliens along. The series was axed by Fox in 2003 and throughout the movie there are lots of references to the fact that the writers were obviously quite bitter that it got cancelled? Oh yeah. Well the opening five minutes is all about just a slap in the face to Fox which is pretty funny because every big corporation deserves a slap in the face every once in a while. But they had it coming (laughs). It's pretty funny. Am I going to get fired for this? Anybody looking? Anybody? Do you know the story of all four movies then? Yes but I'm not allowed to say the other plots. But Bender does get a little pirate-y. And there are various things that are gross. I don't know if anyone remembers the episode with the Slurm Queen when she sucks her own tail? It's along them lines. My father got disgusted by that. So there's really gross stuff and it's really funny. Are you feeling any pressure to make sure this film is a fantastic movie? I think people will get a real kick out of this and they'll like it. It's a really, really funny movie. There's some really great jokes in it. They're really witty, deep and really strange, really out there. Have you got a favourite episode? My favourite episode is the one about Fry's dog. It's got the most depressing ending in animated series' history. It makes you want to cry at the end. I was really blown away by that. A lot of people would expect me to say a Bender's episode is my favourite but that's not the case. Have you got a favourite Bender joke or catchphrase? One of my favourite lines is when Bender is walking up the side of the building with Fry and Leela. They walk past this room and Bender shouts, 'Aargh get a room'. And they say, 'We're in a room'. And he says, 'Well lose some weight'. That is Newsbeat's questions out of the way. Now it's the turn of the fans to put Bender on the spot. Why is Bender so selfish? (Ashley) Bender is selfish because he can be. What does his shiny metal ass taste like? (Seb) Its got a little zincy kind of taste to it. Did you ever lick a pole? I'm not specifying which kind of pole you're licking, but if you lick a poll it tastes like that. Have you ever used your Bender voice for a prank phone call? (Cartey) Some people will come up to me and go, 'Are you Bender? Oh my God. My friend is the biggest fan'. I'd be like, 'Dude give me your phone, call your friend up and I'll leave a message saying, 'Yeah this is Bender, your favourite robot. I'm here with your friend but you aren't because you suck''. So yeah, I've left messages. Will Fry ever win Leela's heart? How is The Crushinator? (Michael) I don't know if he'll ever win Leela's heart or if Leela will ever let him win it. Basically that means I have no idea. But keep the faith because you never know. As for the Crushinator, she's a little pain. She keeps calling and I can't get her to get off the phone. It's very difficult because she's a bigger robot than I am. Does Leela have nice boobs? Leela has bigger boobs than she does eyes. That's as far as I can go (laughs). Bender's Big Score is out on DVD on April 7. Story from BBC NEWS: |
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| Second Futurama DVD In June Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment will release the second of four new Futurama movies, The Beast With a Billion Backs, on DVD June 24. The company described the movie this way: In their latest extraterrestrial exploit, Bender, Fry, Leela and the crew encounter a repulsive, planet-sized creature with billions of probing tentacles and find themselves involved in a disturbing--yet sensuous--interplanetary love story. The movie will feature guest voice performances from David Cross, Brittany Murphy, Dan Castellaneta and physicist Stephen Hawking. Futurama: The Beast With a Billion Backs also features bonus materials, including commentary from Matt Groening and David X. Cohen and cast members Billy West, John DiMaggio and Maurice LaMarche, as well as director Peter Avanzino and producers Claudia Katz, Lee Supercinski and Michael Rowe. Other extras include a 30-minute "Lost Futurama Adventure" and behind-the-scenes featurettes "Meet Yivo!" (with David Cross) and "A Brief History of Deathball," as well as a sneak peek at the next Futurama movie, Bender's Game. The disc also contains storyboard animatics, deleted scenes and bloopers. Futurama: The Beast With a Billion Backs will carry a suggested retail price of $29.98. |
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| Futurama Has Monster Love David X. Cohen, writer and co-executive producer of Futurama, told SCI FI Wire that the new DVD movie, The Beast With a Billion Backs, is a monster movie/love story involving the gang. Beast With a Billion Backs is the second of four feature-length Futurama DVDs, following Bender's Big Score and preceding the upcoming Bender's Game and Into the Wild Green Yonder. It reunites Bender (John DiMaggio), Fry (Billy West) and Leela (Katey Sagal). "We have worked very hard, actually, to make them all pretty different from each other," Cohen said in an interview. "We definitely wanted to mix it up so that people did not claim that we were repeating ourselves. The first one was a big time-travel epic. The second one, I would say, at its heart, is a monster movie that's been twisted together with this bizarre intergalactic love story, to put it lightly. I could use a lot filthier language to describe it." Beast features the voices of Brittany Murphy, The Simpsons' Dan Castellaneta, David Cross and physicist Stephen Hawking, who previously lent his voice to "Anthology of Interest," an episode that ran in 2000, during the show's second season as a weekly series. "I'd like to think he [returned for an encore] because Futurama, while being ridiculous, is kind of a pro-science show," Cohen said. "A lot of the writers have scientific backgrounds, and, while we're making jokes about it, we try not to belittle it, and I always like it when science is the hero, ultimately, rather than the villain who's destroying things. So I'd like to think that he knew that or had heard about that from other people, that we were trying to popularize science in the public eye. One thing I will tell you is it's clear that he really enjoys the process." Futurama: The Beast With a Billion Backs is now available from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. |
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| Bender's Game Just A Pun Futurama executive producer David X. Cohen told SCI FI Wire that the next DVD movie will be called Bender's Game--and Cohen admitted that he'd long wanted to use that title, a pun on Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. "We had an index card up on the wall for years," Cohen said in an interview while promoting The Beast With a Billion Backs. "Ender's Game is a classic sci-fi novel and probably one of my favorite sci-fi novels. So we've always wanted to use the title Bender's Game, but we never had the right episode before." Despite the title, the third of four DVD movies is not a parody of Card's book, Cohen said. It "has very, very little to do with that subject matter, [but] it does involve Bender [John Di Maggio] and a game," he said. "So we thought, 'OK, it's now or never to use that title.' And we pounced on it." Bender's Game is the Futurama team's first full-scale foray into the world of fantasy. It's an alternate universe adventure, with Bender, Fry (Billy West) and the gang trying to determine why dark matter, which serves as fuel for starships in the 30th century, costs so damn much. "We were all kind of shocked when we started talking about the idea, that we hadn't done it before, really," Cohen said. "It almost seems obvious that it's something our fans would like. It has the overlap with SF while being something a little bit different. So we were very excited, because we felt like we'd just hit a treasure trove of material that we had not explored before." The movie takes place in a "land of magic and dragons," Cohen said. "You'll get to see the fantasy versions of all of our characters. Visually, it's going to be very spectacular, I think." Beast With a Billion Backs is out now, and Bender's Game will be released later this year. |