STEVEN MOFFAT INTERVIEW (BEANS ON TOAST)

[20.54 - French Time] Our friends of Beans On Toast, the first French-speaking information source about the Whoniverse, have just put online an interview with Steven Moffat.

The Doctor Who supremo and Sherlock co-conspirator (with Mark Gatiss) was the Guest of Honour of Comic Con' Paris 2011.

http://www.doctor-who.fr/d_itw_moffat2011.php (In French)

LE DOCTEUR SPEAKS

[15.54 - French Time] Website Beans On Toast, the first French-speaking information source about the Whoniverse, has just put online an interesting interview with Belgian actor and dubbing artist David Manet by Aude Boubaker and Aurélie Demonchaux.

Very appreciated by French-speaking Doctor Who fans, Manet was the voice of The Doctor as portrayed by Christopher Eccleston and later David Tennant.

Full disclosure: Your humble servant is mentioned because of his short stint as a consultant on the dubbing in French language.

You can listen to this interview here: http://www.doctor-who.fr/d_itw_manet.php (In French)

FANS GET DOCTOR WHO SERIES FOUR DVD FRENCH RELEASE

[18.59 - French Time] Website Beans On Toast, the first French-speaking information source about the Whoniverse, has announced that the fourth series of Doctor Who will finally get a French DVD release after almost two years in limbo.

Until the modern day version of Doctor Who, France had a very complicated relationship with our favourite Time lord. French viewers knew only a small portion of the classic series: some Tom Baker episodes aired at the end of the 1980s by French private network TF1 on sunday mornings. "Doctor, who?" almost became a recurring joke in one of the countries in the world which has not its permanent local Sesame Street version. Until the 2005 revival aired by DTT channel France 4 - operated by pubcaster group France Télévisions.

Nevertheless, Doctor Who's notoriety is now quite established in France, thanks to the internet and the effective activism of French-speaking fans - particularly the Beans on Toast team. And it's BOT which announced in Fall 2009 the decision of France Télévisions Distribution, the France Télévisions subsidiary holding Doctor Who's DVD rights here, to suspend the release of series four DVDs in France. The impact of the French language only series three DVD release on the sales was at the time definitely a parameter in FTD's evaluation of its title.

Beans on Toast noted then that the sale number of the first three series went from 700 to a little more than 1000 copies. The economic argument would have been fully acceptable if the treatment of Doctor Who by FTD had not been so minimalist those last years: no extra features, which would be understandable regarding the ratio between costs engaged and the market segment targeted, and no special episodes. Not to mention the fact that the series was on a DTT channel in a territory not fully covered by DTT.

In August 2010 the website launched an online petition to get a DVD release of the fourth series of Doctor Who. Today, France Télévisions Distribution has confirmed to Beans on Toast that there will be a French DVD release of series four including the original English dialogue track, preceded by a re-release of series one to three. And series three will also have the original English dialogue track.

Doctor Who's fifth series arrives on France 4 in Primetime on Saturday, 12 February, with the first three episodes.

http://www.doctor-who.fr/ (In French)
http://doctorwho.xooit.fr/t2133-DVD-Sortie-Francaise-de-la-saison-4.htm (In French)

INTERVIEW OF THE FRENCH-SPEAKING VOICE OF THE DOCTOR (BEANS ON TOAST)

Our friends of Beans On Toast (http://www.doctor-who.fr/), the most important French-speaking resource on the Whoniverse (Doctor Who, Torchwood, The Sarah Jane Adventures, etc), publish today a joint interview of Belgian actor David Manet - also a dubbing artist, and David Macaluso - the dubbing director of Doctor Who since 2005.

David Manet is the French voice of The Doctor as incarnated by Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant.

http://www.doctor-who.fr/d_itw_david.php (In French)

DOCTOR WHO SERIES 4 FRENCH DVD RELEASE SUSPENDED

France has very complicated relationships with Doctor Who, relationships which would deserve a whole behind-the-scenes book.

French viewers know only a ridiculously little portion of the classic series: some Tom Baker episodes dubbed and shown on sunday in an early morning kid show at the end of the 1980s. "Doctor, who?" almost became a recurring joke in France, one of the countries in the world which has not its local Sesame Street version, until the 2005 revival helmed by Russell T. Davies.

France 4, owned by the France Télévisions public service, a channel of the then fledging digital terrestrial free offer, began to show the new Doctor Who with a dubbing made in French-speaking Belgium (for financial motives). The dubbing of the show would deserve a whole chapter in the book about the relationships between France and Who. Suffice to say that after two heavily criticized years of the French dubbing, your humble servant came aboard on series 3 as consultant. Circumstances unfortunately made that I didn't work on series 4 (http://www.doctor-who.fr/d_itw_attard.php - In French).

In this Internet era, the notoriety of Doctor Who is since series 1 quite established in France. And the wonderful folks of Beans On Toast (http://www.doctor-who.fr/), the first French-speaking information source about the Whoniverse, widely contribute to the phenomenon. In the past they gave news about the delays of the dubbing of series 4 caused by a strike of Belgian dubbing artists and, most of all, delivered a complete and exclusive coverage about a major issue around the release in France of series 3 on DVD: the absence of a track with the original English-speaking dialogues.

Now Beans on Toast announces that France Télévisions Distribution, the subsidiary of France Télévisions holding the rights of the show on DVD from series 1 to 4, has suspended the release of series 4 DVD box in France. The impact of the French-only series 3 DVD release on their sales is without any doubt a parameter in the evaluation of the situation by FTD. Beans on Toast recall that the sale number of the first three series went from 700 to a little more than 1000 copies.

The economic argument would be fully acceptable (especially in these times of recession) if the treatment of Doctor Who by France Télévisions Distribution was not already so minimalist: no extra features, which would be understandable regarding the ratio between costs engaged and the market segment targeted, but - maybe more embarassing - no special episodes. Worse: DVDs of Torchwood, the spin-off of Doctor Who, are published in France by a great company called Koba Films Vidéo (whose DVDs are often reviewed on the French version of this blog), which manages to get extra features for a reasonable sale price regarding the quality of their DVD boxes. Actually DVD critics, specialist and fans even considered Torchwood series 1 DVD box set as a magnificent answer to the policy of France Télévisions with Doctor Who.

FTD has not taken any final decision about series 4, explains Beans on Toast. Perhaps they're testing how much fans really want to buy it before releasing a product whose future at France Télévisions looks rather bleak at the moment. French digital terrestrial private channel NRJ12 has shown a big interest for the series distributed by BBC Worldwide this year, buying shows like Hustle (previously on M6) and Primeval. Many French fans wish that Koba Films Vidéo buys the DVD rights of the next series of Doctor Who. Koba has a very good reputation and many BBC entries in its catalog.

Beans On Toast prepares an action to show France Télévisions the importance of French-speaking fandom of Doctor Who. We'll follow this story with the highest interest.

THINGS TO WATCH IN HOLLYWOODLAND (YOU KNOW THE REST)

Every season, Hollywood works hard in order to urge Lee Goldberg to write a new edition of his great Unsold Television Pilots (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0595189644/ref=ase_adventuresintele/103-7358193-8705413?v=glance&s=books). Den of Geek has published a list of 36 pilots which may or may not become regular series. Strictly on paper this is the less attractive pilot lineup of the decade (http://www.denofgeek.com/television/207248/36_upcoming_us_tv_pilots.html).

Sommersby 9/11 style? Mark Pellington (Arlington Road) directs Back, where a victim of the attack on the WTC reappears after 8 years presumed dead. The pitch is one of the most exciting of the year (by the standards of network television), but the problem of US contemporary television is that it never goes beyond pitches. Should CBS pick it, let's hope that they'll have a whole season written before shooting.

Since Yo soy Betty la fea went global bonanza through worldwide adaptations, latin shows are on the radars of every television exec of the planet. Hermanos y detectives (2006), an Argentinian tv series about a cop and his 11 year-old brother, a genius super-sleuth child, has already been remade in Spain as Hermanos & detectives (2007) for Telecinco, the channel of Spanish RIS (http://www.telecinco.es/hermanosydetectives/). Now ABC is doing it as Brothers & Detectives, and it is directed by Gregory Hoblit (Hill Street Blues). Well done, it could be ABC's Monk or Psych. On the contrary, it could hurt your humble servant's teeth badly. Remember Ugly Betty...

Has the success of the BBC's revival of Survivors, the monument imagined by Terry Nation, inspired NBC? Day One describes a small group of... survivors, after a mysterious event destroys the world as we know it. « You can't copyright the end of the world », wisely writes Martin Anderson in his Den of Geek article. And you can't copyright a group of con artists acting as Robin Hood. NBC Universal's courage is admirable, remember Jericho. By the way, is Freema Agyeman in it?

After courage, bravery: two failed attempts in 1992 and 2002 (http://leegoldberg.typepad.com/a_writers_life/2008/08/maybe-the-third-time-will-be-the-charmor-rather-charmed.html) did not discourage ABC to order a pilot based on John Updike's book The Witches of Eastwick, and the namesake movie. It's called Eastwick and it is directed by the talented David Nutter. I expect Desperate Housewives meets Charmed, or is it the reverse? NBC wants to remake Parenthood, the 1989 movie... Trying to make weekly series out of films is so nineties.

Please cry for me, Argentina. Fox adapts Lalola (2007), an Argentinian comedy about a playboy transformed into a blonde, as Eva Adams. The show, like Hermanos y detectives, has already been remade in Spain. So you can copyright the old trick of the gender switch? ITV has a very similar concept called Boy meets girl, starring Martin Freeman (1).

Looking for the next Lost... (not me) FlashForward, from a novel written in 1999 by Robert J. Sawyer: a glitch during a scientific experiment accidentally allows everybody to have glimpses of their lives in the future. I had a glimpse of the 2009-2010 television season, and I'm in a quasi-trauma, so imagine. David Goyer (co-writer of The Dark Knight) directs for ABC.

What else? The new project from Paul Scheuring (Prison Break) for Fox: Masterwork is sold as « A thriller about a race against time to recover the world's most sought-after artefacts ». Martin Anderson calls it The Da Vinci code - weekly. I'm not a fan of neither Prison Break nor of Dan Brown.

There's also a Mentalist wannabe with a twist, a bunch of political dramas and legal dramas, the new candidate to the Don't tell them Supersoaps died in the nineties Award: after Cane or Dirty Sexy Money, Empire State, described as « Romeo and Juliet in modern Manhattan » (ABC). A new version of Human Target (Fox), from a DC comic book by Len Wein and Carmine Infantino, with the excellent Mark Valley as a freelance bodyguard who literally impersonates his clients to protect them. It's directed by Simon West (Con Air) and produced by McG (Charlie's Angels, Terminator Salvation) so it has potential for a good action/adventure show. Rick Springfield starred in a 1992 entertaining but short-lived adaptation. Trying to make weekly series out of comic books is so... (you know the rest) but I don't care. If picked for a series I just hope it will not have the fate of Knight Rider 2008.

At least it seems we will be spared of new Hawaii Five-O, Lost in Space or The Streets of San Francisco, but ABC has ordered a remake of V (http://leegoldberg.typepad.com/a_writers_life/2009/02/rehashes-reworkings-and-reimaginings.html). Someday fascist lizards in orange mechanic suits will eat us... again. Groundhog Day with reptiles, and we are Phil Connors.

(1) As Corinne Auffret-Nguyên, of the essential Beans on Toast - the French-speaking Doctor Who website (http://www.doctor-who.fr/), recalls me after some research.

IT'S ONLY A MOVIE, INGRID (EPISODE 3)

Ingrid is asking herself if the expression « Bear Market » means that at the end we have the right to eat the bear if it doesn't eat us first.

LADY JANE GOES WEST

The Guardian has confirmed what the always excellent British newspaper calls « the worst kept secret in broadcasting »: Jane Tranter, the BBC controller of fiction, leaves her post to become Executive vice-president of programming and production at BBC Worldwide's North American production branch (http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/sep/22/janetranter.bbc). Jane Tranter has more than contributed to make fictions from the Beeb the main export product of the Corporation, with shows such as the new Doctor Who, Life on Mars or Spooks/MI-5 (http://tattard2.blogspot.com/2008/08/its-only-movie-ingrid-episode-2.html). Now Ben Dowell asks the £ 100 000 question: How will Jane Tranter's departure affect BBC Drama, particularly with a lower-than-expected licence fee settlement? (http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2008/sep/22/bbc.television)

Jane Tranter will be replaced by head of drama commissioning Ben Stephenson. There have been rumors that the BBC tried to tempt Jane Featherstone, co-founder of the Kudos production company (Spooks, Hustle...), to take the job. But we learn from Tara Conlan, one of our favourite signatures, that Featherstone has been appointed creative director of Kudos, while Stephen Garrett, co-founder of the company, becomes executive chairman - focusing on strategic and international development (http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/oct/08/independentproductioncompanies.television).

ABSOLUTELY... NOT?

We will see within two or three weeks what the US remake of Life on Mars will become, but now Fox Network is working on a remake of the mythical British sitcom Absolutely Fabulous (1992-2005) by the team behind the enjoyable Two and a Half men. This is the third attempt to remake Ab Fab, with the French movie of 2001 and a failed ABC project helmed by comedienne Roseanne Barr with Carrie Fisher involved.

Your humble French Nestle milk addict being too young for senility (40 next week), please see http://tattard2.blogspot.com/2008/08/young-barnaby-jones-chronicles.html to get his unasked opinion about remakes. Amusingly, I see that this Fox version has catched the attention of multi-talented Lee Goldberg (http://www.leegoldberg.com/about.html), author, writer, producer, TV Historian and expert, teacher, etc - a man often mentioned here (http://leegoldberg.typepad.com/a_writers_life/2008/10/absolutely-scary.html). We recommend you A Writer's Life (http://leegoldberg.typepad.com/), his blog, and his official site (http://www.leegoldberg.com/index.html).

15 MINUTES OF FAME...

Well, er, how to put it... the very nice folks of Beans on Toast, the French Doctor Who website, have published last month an interview of your servant - consultant for the French dubbing of season 3 of Nu-Who: http://www.doctor-who.fr/d_itw_attard.php. This interview is in French.