AMC will air the final season of “Mad Men” in two seven-episode arcs, one in 2014 and one in 2015.
AMC will commission spinoff series tied to its established hits “Breaking Bad” and “The Walking Dead,” rankling viewers who are craving new originals rather than tired retreads. Now, AMC has announced that it will split the seventh and last season of “Mad Men” into two years to capitalize on ratings, buzz and Emmy awards before the show can finally ride off into the sunset. This same strategy worked like gangbusters for “Breaking Bad,” but “Mad Men” may be approaching its expiration date faster.
The fall shows are off to the races.
Though the fall TV season doesn’t officially start until next week, Fox rolled out three high-profile new shows this week. The bonkers fantasy drama “Sleepy Hollow” slayed expectations with 10 million viewers, while “Parks and Recreation” creator Michael Schur’s new police comedy “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” attracted a solid sampling for its first episode. The network’s lowest-rated new show is also its most maligned: “Dads,” a multi-cam comedy with racist, sexist overtones that critics have been slaughtering for months.
Prepare for withdrawal symptoms: Pixar is taking 2014 off.
A few weeks ago, Pixar announced that “Up” director Bob Petersen is no longer at the helm for the studio’s upcoming adventure, “The Good Dinosaur.” Now the studio has delayed the film’s release until 2015, leaving a hole in the studio’s 2014 schedule and pushing “Finding Dory” to June 2016. The last year without a Pixar film was 2005, during the period between “The Incredibles” and “Cars.” The Pixar crew is notoriously perfectionist, so the news isn’t cause for alarm. The studio’s famous lamp will next appear on movie screens in June 2015 with the release of “Inside Out,” which takes place inside a young girl’s brain.
Britney Spears will take over Las Vegas…and your headphones.
One of the biggest pop stars in the world came back in full force this week, unleashing a flurry of announcements during her appearance on “Good Morning America.” First, Britney Spears released her new single “Work Bitch,” an aggressive electro-pop jam that instantly shot to the upper reaches of the iTunes chart. “Work Bitch” is the first single from her upcoming Dec. 3 album, which will feature songs about Spears’ breakup with ex-fiance Jason Trawick. Finally, Spears will take up a two-year residency at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas starting Nov. 27. “Britney Spears: Piece of Me” will feature a mix of her biggest hits with new tracks from the upcoming album.
WikiLeaks gets access to the movie script about WikiLeaks.
Bill Condon’s “The Fifth Estate” stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Julian Assange, the leader of the controversial WikiLeaks movement that has aroused contentious debates about free speech and government relations with the public. WikiLeaks managed to find a leaked copy of the movie’s script, written by Josh Singer, and Assange is not happy with how he’s depicted personally or professionally in the film. As WikiLeaks tellingly tweeted last night, “As WikiLeaks was never consulted about the upcoming Hollywood film on us, we’ve given our advice for free: It’s bad.”
mlieberman@theeagleonline.com
