In a study conducted by the blog TorrentFreak, HBO's gritty documentary series Game of Thrones was found to be the most illegally downloaded TV show of the year, with six bad apples watching the show without paying for it. Haha, just kidding. In truth, there 4.28 million downloads of one episode this year, meaning many millions more likely accessed the rest of the season. So that is a popular show to pirate! Showtime's screwball comedy Dexter was next on the list, its top episode being stolen 3.85 million times. The top broadcast show to be pirated was CBS' bracing drama The Big Bang Theory, which topped out at 3.2 million downloads. So basically the lesson is that people are stealing TV shows left and right and there's probably very little anyone can do about it, save for police the internet like something out of Tron or some nonsense. While we happily pay for HBO and Showtime and sweet, sweet Cinemax, we can't judge others for doing what they do. This is a complicated, tricky world, and there is no black and white. Though, c'mon, guys. They work really hard on Game of Thrones and they do such a good job. Throw 'em some scratch, won't you? [The Hollywood Reporter]
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Peter Jackson's dirge-like video game movie The Hobbit has passed the $500 million mark in global box office, an auspicious milestone that means only one thing: Sequels! Oh god, can you imagine? Bilbo and friends travel to Europe where they have an even zanier adventure. Or Sean Connery shows up as Bilbo's crusty old dad and they have some madcap laughs and mishaps. Or maybe it's the exact same story, just set in New York City. Really they could be anything, these probably inevitable Hobbit sequels. Hm? What's that? They've already shot two sequels, they're part of a planned trilogy that divides a single children's novel into three three-hour movies? Oh. Hm. OK. Are they sure they don't just want to have Bilbo get lost in New York instead? That sounds a lot better, actually. [Deadline]
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Fox has announced that most recent American Idol winner and official troubadour of the U.S. Women's Gymnastics team Phillip Phillips will "no longer take the stage alongside Lifehouse and Carmen Electra" on the network's Marlon Wayans-hosted New Year's Eve special. Yeah. They're replacing Phillips with recent X Factor winner Tate Stevens. So out goes the dreamy, creamy, growl-voiced kid with the sweet song hit, and in comes some beefy old country guy who no one's ever heard of. Smart move, Fox. "This year we don't want teen girls to watch. We've had enough of the teen girls." I mean, those were the only people that were going to watch the Fox New Year's Eve special, right? The teen girls who wanted to see Phillip Phillips? Ah well. It's their show, they can do with it what they want. No word on what Phillips has to say about all this, but we can guess that he's happy with the decision, based on "alongside Lifehouse and Carmen Electra" alone. The sweet relief of having dodged a Lifehouse-shaped bullet washes over him. Phillip Phillips.... Washing... Sorry, what were we saying? [The Hollywood Reporter]
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Here are the first four minutes of the upcoming zombie romance comedy (yes, it's come to that) Warm Bodies, starring Nicholas Hoult from About a Boy/Skins. (Not About a Boy's Skin, an entirely different movie, of which only one copy exists, hidden behind other videotapes in Ryan Seacrest's rec room.) Yeah, it's the beginning of the movie, so if you want that spoiled for you, have a look. We're going to wait until the movie comes out next month, but if you really are that impatient for this sure-to-be screamer of a zombie romance comedy, then by all means have a look. But maybe it's time to reexamine how you're choosing to spend four-minute chunks of your life, is all we're saying.
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