Usually, a movie version of a TV show deserves sighs, not cheers. That’s because they’re usually full of Jessica Simpson trying not to look confused as entire sentences pour out of her gormless head.
But, just this once, we’re actually looking forward to a movie version of a TV show. And that’s because the TV show is The Simpsons. According to promotional clips that went before Ice Age 2 at the weekend, the long-mooted Simpsons movie will hit our cinema screens in July 2007. So long as the producers remember not to make it a live-action Simpsons movie starring Johnny Knoxville, we’ll all be OK…
The way things are going, The Simpsons – just like mountains and Marmite – will outlive us all. It was only recently announced that two new seasons of The Simpsons – the 18th and 19th – have been commissioned by Fox, meaning that new episodes of The Simpsons
will keep being churned out until at least 2008. But that’s just TV –
what about those of us who enjoy paying £7.50 to sit in a dark room
full of noisy-eating mouthbreathers for two hours? Will we ever get to
see The Simpsons in the cinema?
The audience for the Ice Age 2 premiere at the weekend,
having presumably braced themselves for 90 minutes of second-rate
cartoon action voiced by the bloke from Everybody Loves Raymond, were treated to a tantalisingly brief clip of what a Simpsons movie would be like. The clip opened with a giant letter S, as a voice boomed:
"Leaping his way onto the silver screen, the greatest hero in American history!"
Cue Homer Simpson, sitting in his pants, saying:
"I forgot what I was supposed to say."
Hurrah! The audience were then informed that The Simpsons Movie will be in cinemas on July 27 2007. That means that The Simpsons Movie could be in direct competition with Ocean’s Thirteen, the Halo movie and a Michael Bay-directed live-action Transformers remake – although we’re fairly sure that The Simpsons
movie won’t be too troubled by any of these, seeing as how they are –
respectively – a lame-o smugfest sequel, a spoddy videogame movie and a
Michael Bay film.
Quite what the storyline of The Simpsons Movie will be is another question entirely. Producer James L. Brooks has already admitted that a few fake plots will be scattered around the Internet to throw audiences off the scent – but The Simpsons will soon have had 400 episodes, and it’s bound to be an uphill struggle to find something new to say.
Still, at least there’s one guarantee from the release of The Simpsons Movie – waves and waves of shoddy Simpsons merchandise.
OK, OK, here’s the trailer for The Simpsons Movie…
Read more:
Moviegoers Glimpse "Simpsons" Teaser – E! Online
[story by Stuart Heritage]
Greg says
You have gotta be joking!! The Halo movie will without any doubt be a huge blocjbuster – especially with the $$$ on Microsoft and the creative geniuse of Peter Jackson behind it. I agree the Simpsons will also be huge but if you know how phenomenal and original the Halo universe is, there can be no doubt it will be a MEGA hollywood cinema release. Also consider the timing, to tie in with the Halo 3 game release and associated MS/Hollywood marketing giga dollar spend…so fair enough mate to have yourhe own opinion, but without adequate research please don’t cast dispersions on one of the most anticipated movies in history. If you think thats an overstatement consider that Games now exceed the entire worldwide movie industry, and with another 15 months of Halo game sales I can’t see how it could fail to be a monstrous cross-platform success.
Cheers Greg
Levi says
Halo a spoddy videogame movie?
lets not forget its being directed by Peter Jackson (yes thats right- the creative genius behind the Lord of the Rings trilogy and more recently King Kong) and has been given a huge budget by the largest software company in the world… yes im talking about Microsoft… and rumoured $50-$75 million budget.
Furthermore the game’s developers are overseeing its development which is highly promising… for those who havent played the game, it has an expansive and depthful story with plunges you into a huge unique universe and would be great expanded onto the big screen if done carefully.
That done and said, I believe the Simpson movie will still attract a large audience, i mean it’ll be a very different movie to the others and is likely to attract slightly different audiences, and whats to say that you cant see both?
Scumpy_AU says
The Simpsons has been a worldwide hit ever since it appeared way back in the 90’s. Fans have been waiting years for the Feature film, and its finally coming. I think its great the creators of the Simpsons didnt go down the path of other catoon series and cash in on movie sucsess straight away. eg South Park, Bigger longer uncut. ( Who still remembers that? ) I’ll be glad to watch the Simpsons on the big screen for and hour and a half instead of a small telly. Halo, the movie? Just another Doom knockoff! Also, we dont need another ‘Oceans’ movie, hollywood. Gawd! The second one was bad enough. Really. *J