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PAGE 6
THURSDAY, APRIL 17, 2014
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE
From left, Johnny Depp as Will Caster, Robecca Hall as Evelyn Caster, and Paul Bettany as Max Waters in Alcon Entertainment's sci-fi thriller "Transcendence," a Warner Bros. Pictures release.
'Transcendence' draws parallels with 'Her'
MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE
"Transcendence" is "Her' for dummies — a romance between a woman and a machine for people who care more about technology, pixels and special effects than, you know, the things in life that matter.
The movie marks the debut of cinematographer Wally Pfister, a frequent Christopher Nolan collaborator, and you can picture him sitting at home at Oscar night, shaking his fists and yelling at the TV when Spike Jonze won the Best Original Screenplay award for "Her." Judging by the size and scope of the movie, Pfister probably started working on his film first. But there are too many similarities not to compare the two pictures, and there isn't a single instance in which Pfister comes out top, aside from the number of shots of Johnny Depp speaking into a futuristic Skype camera.
Why pay the notoriously costly actor his typically enormous salary when he's barely in the movie? That could be Max Headroom macking on Katherine Heigl up there and you wouldn't notice the difference. Heigl would have probably snuck in a couple of cute pratfalls, though, or a scene where she grabs a cord and asks "Where
does this go?" while holding it comically near her face.
The premise of "Transcendence" (which was written by Jack Paglen, who should invest his paycheck wisely) follows what happens when the terminally ill Depp comes up with a groundbreaking idea to plug himself into a mammoth computer — an enormous, sentient machine with advanced artificial intelligence and see if he can continue to live virtually when his body dies on him. His wife and loyal partner (Brecca Hall) goes along with the plan, if only for the possibility of not losing her husband. As FBI / NSA agents, Morgan Freeman and Cillian Murphy see nothing wrong with this idea, even if Depp would gain instant control of every computer and smart device on the planet if he succeeds. Hey, what's a little God complex between friends, right?
Only two people in the movie seem to have any common sense at all: Paul Bettany, as another of Depp's fellow scientists, who isn't too sure this whole let's-give Depp-control-of-the-planet enterprise is a good idea, and Kate Mara (as driven here as she is on "House of Cards"), who is part of a terrorist organization plotting to pull
the plug on this bunch of notso-bright brainiacs.
"Transcendence" is filled with preposterous, you-gotta-be-kidding-me story elements you can't stop to think about, or else you'll start craving a trip to the concession stand
anything to stave off the boredom. (Wouldn't the government notice a gigantic solar-powered laboratory the size of a university seems to have popped up in a dusty town like a weed?) As Depp's power's grows, his performance becomes more and more HAL-like (still the grandmaster of evil machines), and after he starts seizing physical control of people and gives them super-strength, I kept waiting for him to pull off a toupee and break out with a Dr. Evil laugh.
For all its improbabilities, "Her" explored the intricacies of romantic relationship and how much they hurt when they end while giving you plenty of neat eye-candy. "Transcendence" is a movie that, aside from a few scene where he's seen walking around in a suit, Depp could have shot in his living room while instant-messaging his agent about the next "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie. That prospect, torturous as it sounds, is a better alternative than this.
WGN America has high expectations for 'Salem'
MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE
SHREVEPORT, La. — A woodsy stretch of Willow Lake Farm, just outside this city, has been painstakingly built to look like a 17th century New England village, filled with shops and houses with steep-pitched roofs and drab clapboard exterior.
Milling about nearby are women in elaborate capes and cinched dresses, and men clad in peasant shirts and heavy coats.
It's all textbook quaint — until you see the towering gallows at the center of town. This is the setting for "Salem," the new TV series from Tribune Co.'s WGN America set in the Massachusetts village that was the scene of notorious Colonial witch trials.
The show itself will be a trial of sorts for WGN America.
With "Salem," the Chicago network _ best known for showing Chicago Cubs baseball games and sitcom rurs _ is entering the increasingly crowded field of original content. The hope is the new programs can lift WGN America from being largely a regional player to a top-tier national cable channel.
All this is not lost on Peter Liguori, the chief executive of Tribune Co. (which also owns the Los Angeles Times). Liguori says "Salem," which premieres April 20 at 10 p.m., is simply the opening act in transforming the struggling media company into a profitable TV-centric enterprise.
"This is Step One," Liguori said. "We are by far and away no FX. We are no AMC. We are no HBO."
The new show will run Sundays, the most hotly contested night in television because of shows such as HBO's "Game of Thrones," CBS's "The Good Wife" and AMC's "Mad Men." "Salem" must also stand out from a host of other programs with the supernatural or witches at their narrative center.
But Liguori, a veteran entertainment executive who oversaw programming at Fox and FX, said WGN America has potential because
of the quality of its new programming and Tribune's media muscle. The company is one of the largest television station owners in the country, with nearly 40 stations, including WGN America, and it can reach more than 70 million homes through cable providers and satellite services such as DirecTV.
"It's got tremendous upside," he said. "It's prime real estate." The company has more than witches waiting in the wings. Other original scripted series ordered by WGN America include "Manhattan," a period piece set in Los Alamos, N.M., that dramatizes the Manhattan Project scientists racing to build the first atomic bomb.
The network also will present another version of "The Ten Commandments." The 10-part miniseries boasts high-profile actors and filmmakers - including Michael Cera, Wes Craven, Lee Daniels, Jim Sheridan and Gus Van Sant - each directing an installment.
"The risk is balanced by the potential reward. 'Salem' sets the foundation."
BILL CARROLL TV advertising analyst
Both "Salem" and "Manhattan" were ordered straight to series with 13 episodes each. Although increasingly common in the fierce competition for original programming, straight-to-order series carry risks because executives don't have a pilot to review. That's often where weaknesses in the plot or the characters are identified — and corrected — before the show airs.
Media analysts say the move may be risky, but it is necessary for 'Tribune Co.', which is poised to spin off its newspaper holdings later this year and is still recovering from a four-year stretch in bankruptcy reorganization it emerged from in 2012. Without original programming, a network cannot expect to
grow financially, they say.
grow mentally, they say.
"Thethey are now in a forward-looking mode, as opposed to maintaining status quo," said Bill Carroll, an analyst at Katz Television Group, which advises companies on TV advertising. "The risk is balanced by the potential reward. 'Salem' sets the foundation."
In another move to bolster revenue, the company also recently relaunched L.A.-based Tribune Studios to develop original programming for its own network and local stations owned by Tribune Broadcasting.
Last month, WGN America joined the annual stampede to the cable "uprfront market," where networks unveil their new programming lineups for advertisers in hopes of corralling big dollars.
It's too early to know how Tribune performed, but upfront sales for cable have steadily risen for years as networks scramble to beef up their stock of original programming. In 2013-14, ad-supported cable networks generated a record $10.2 billion in advertising commitments, surpassing the $9.15 billion in sales for the broadcast networks.
AMC's zombie apocalypsetale, "The Walking Dead," routinely outperformed its scripted cousins on broadcast networks. HBO's fourthseason premiere of sword-and-dragon fantasy "Game of Thrones" drew so many viewers that its streamingservice was overloaded andshut down.
"Salem" places a twist on the infamous Massachusetts trials. The supernatural drama posits there was good reason for the hysteria: The witches were real and they were running the trials.
"Knowing that the horror drama and supernatural drama is a genre that's thriving and the audience seems to have an appetite for is important because it can do some of the heavy lifting for us in terms of drawing audience to the network," said Matt Cherniss, president and general manager of WGN America and Tribune Studios.
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