Sorta OT: What Was Roger Friedman Thinking?

In case you never visit FoxNews.com, Roger Friedman was the site's movie critic/celebrity reporter for several years. Whenever I was in a masochistic mood, I would read his posts. The most annoying thing about Friedman's reports was his blatant favoritism toward some stars and his blatant lack of favoritism toward others. Some, like Michael Jackson, kind of deserved his ire. Others, like the spectacularly slutty Sienna Miller who occasionally moonlights as an actress, did not deserve his gushing praise. Since this is a SW themed LJ, I will mention that Friedman liked George Lucas personally but didn't really care for his movies. Ahem.

Anyway, a copy of the upcoming 20th Century Fox film X-Men Origins: Wolverine was illegally leaked over the weekend. I guess ol' Roger Roger had some time on his hands, so he downloaded the pirated flick and posted his review on FoxNews.com!! Sure, it was a positive review but it was not the sort of synergy Rupert Murdoch had in mind. The folks over at the film division of Fox understandably went ballistic and Friedman was canned as of today.

This is the sort of thing one would expect of Harry Knowles but Friedman was no teenage fanboy. This middle-aged guy is an alleged professional and given his years covering the business, he would know that an illegal leak like this could cost a film a lot of money at the box office. Especially if it's a popcorn, tentpole film that is more likely to benefit from repeat viewings. He had to have known that this would hurt a Fox company.

Oh well, don't let the door hit ya on the way out. Some people deserve what they get for their idiocy.

Red Tails finally gets off the ground

When I first heard about Red Tails in the early '90s, I thought (like many SW fen at the time) it was some secret code name for a new SW film. When things got rolling with SW again, RT got put on the backburner until now. It finally has a cast and director and will start shooting soon:

http://www.starwars.com/themovies/other/redtailsrelease.html

The story of the famed Tuskegee Airmen is an interesting one (I once worked with a guy whose grandfather was a Tuskegee Airman) and if it's done right, it ought to be a pretty decent film. Personally, I worry that the subject matter might drag the film into PC-ville, but we'll see how it turns out. Rick McCallum is apparently producing so it should be f@$#$ awesome ;).