Trade Round-Up: NBC Staples Self To Reality TV Chicken, Crosses Road
· NBC goes cuckoo for the tainted Cocoa Puffs of reality television, planning to roll out six shows this summer. Scheduled to chip away at your soul: More Biggest Loser, Average "We Always Pick The Hot Guy, So Why Bother?" Joe, a new entry in the still-hot family-destablization genre (Meet Mr. Mom), and something from whose uterus sprung Paris Hilton. We're never going to get a tan at this rate. [Variety]
· Oliver Stone gets another opportunity to prove he's completely forgotten how to direct a compelling movie with an adaptation of James Ellroy's The Night Watchman. [THR]
· HBO lands The Office's Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's next show, Extras, about a struggling actor in Hollywood. And even though HBO is already jam-packed with Hollywood-set shows like Entourage and Unscripted, there is still much rejoicing that Gervais didn't take his new baby to a broadcast network. [Variety]
· The resurrected Family Guy seems "less frenetic" than it was in its early, oft-canceled incarnation. [THR]
· Marvel and Paramount enter into a production deal, ensuring that every obscure superhero in the Marvel Universe gets his chance to be in an absolutely execrable movie that will make fanboys sob into their Power Man and Iron-Fist pillow cases. [Variety]