TV Bulletin Board (April 26)
04/26/07 11:43
By ED BARK
***Princess Leia, a k a Carrie Fisher will be among the four judges on Fox's On the Lot, a new filmmaking competition co-produced by Steven Spielberg and Mark Burnett. Also signing on are director/producers Garry Marshall (Pretty Woman), Brett Ratner (X-Men 3: the Last Stand) and Jon Avnet (Fried Green Tomatoes).
They'll judge the series' two "audition episodes" on May 22 and 24, with other judges to be named later. Fox says the show has received 12,000 submissions, with just 50 being selected to attend On the Lot's "Hollywood Boot Camp."
***On a lesser Fox note, the network has junked the new series Drive, which becomes the 10th series this season to be canceled after five or fewer episodes. Drive's been towed after four episodes. House repeats will air in its place at 7 p.m. (central time) Mondays.
***Mark Cuban's Dallas-based HDNet will air a live John Mellencamp concert at Walter Reed Army Medical Center on Friday, April 27 (7 p.m. central).
Mellencamp says in an HDNet release that he originally planned to do a benefit show, but "then it dawned on me what I really wanted to do is lighten the load of the soldiers and workers in the hospital, so why not just play for them."
Cuban, whose Dallas Mavericks are in the thick of the NBA playoffs, is the founder of the Fallen Patriot Fund.
***HBO has signed Kevin Bacon to star in Taking Chance, a fact-based film about a lieutenant colonel assigned to accompany the body of U.S. Marine Chance Phelps on the journey back to his hometown of Dubois, Wyoming. Phelps was killed in Iraq in spring 2004. Bacon plays escort officer Michael Strobl.
HBO also has greenlighted The Pacific, a 10-hour World War II miniseries that will re-team Band of Brothers producers Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman. Production starts this summer, with a cast to be named later.