“Jonathan Storm: FX series "Justified" on target with audiences and critics - Philadelphia Daily News” plus 1 more

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Five Filters featured article: "Peace Envoy" Blair Gets an Easy Ride in the Independent. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Jonathan Storm: FX series "Justified" on target with audiences and critics - Philadelphia Daily News Posted: 04 Aug 2010 12:02 AM PDT Posted on Wed, Aug. 4, 2010 Inquirer television critic Jonathan Storm is reporting this week from the television critics' press tour in Beverly Hills. These items originally appeared in his blog, "Eye of the Storm," at www.philly.com/ philly/blogs/storm. Justified hits the FX bull's-eyes - however many of them there might be. "It's hard to hit both targets," FX chief John Landgraf told TV critics Tuesday morning at their summer meeting - and then listed three. "We're always trying to make very commercial, very entertaining, very popular shows," he said. (One target.) "We try to take familiar genres and treat them very differently, with our own style." (That's another.) "Justified is our try to do a Western," Landgraf said, citing Western heroes from Gary Cooper to John Wayne. "We want to deconstruct that hero over time." Based on a character created by Elmore Leonard, Justified stars Timothy Olyphant as a decidedly unheroic U.S. marshal working in the back hollows of Kentucky (that's sure a different spot to have a Western), with a delightful cast of lowlife criminals. Olyphant is just super with his big white hat and distinctively self-assured gait. "A lot of people really got what we were trying to do," Landgraf said. "It got the best premiere numbers we've ever done and held beautifully throughout the season." And the show, like so much of the fare on FX, was embraced not only by the audience but by critics (third target), most of whom can't stop raving about the series. More and more movie stars are gravitating to TV, Landgraf said. "I think it has become almost a status symbol for an actor to have a cable show." A few minutes later Donal Logue, who stars in FX's newest drama, Terriers, politely agreed. "The best writing for actors exists in cable television," he told the critics. Terriers, premiering Sept. 8, follows a couple of loser, beach-bum P.I.'s who solve cases even as they have a very difficult time holding their own lives together. Michael Imperioli, on the origin of crooks and cops. Cops and robbers. Do they come from the same place? "I don't know if the motivations are the same," said Imperioli, five-time Emmy nominee (and one-time winner) for his role as callow mobster Christopher Moltisanti in The Sopranos. "I think, you know, the origins may be the same. Like . . . where I grew up in New York, which is very close to the Bronx, Mount Vernon, N.Y., people who lived in the same neighborhood could have gone in either direction." Imperioli, who is first among equals in ABC's rough-and-ready Detroit 1-8-7, about homicide detectives in the Motor City, said he doesn't prefer to patrol one side of the fence or the other, criminal or crime-fighter. "I prefer to work on well-written and well-executed pieces of material," he said. "And that's why I'm happy to be here." The show is shot in Detroit, which gave the producers strong tax incentives to go on location. But that's not why they did it. "You're not thinking about tax incentives when you're sitting down to create something," said exec producer Jason Richman. "I went to visit Detroit a couple years ago, and I just thought it was a really compelling place," he said. "It's a story, that city. It's a real quintessential American city with a very rich history. It's a city in transition . . . and it's a city that's trying to find itself on the rebound. And it's an underdog story. . . . And that's why the show is set in Detroit." Contact television critic Jonathan Storm at 215-854-5618 or jstorm@ phillynews.com. Five Filters featured article: "Peace Envoy" Blair Gets an Easy Ride in the Independent. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Get Medieval with New Series from EA’s Award-Winning the Sims Studio - Melodika.net Posted: 04 Aug 2010 02:25 AM PDT

Go back in time and get medieval! The EA Play Label of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) today announced The Sims™ Medieval, a new series currently in development that places the popular Sims™ characters from The Sims™ game into the Middle Ages and brings players robust, compelling gameplay never seen before in the history of The Sims. For the first time, players can create heroes, venture on quests, build and control a kingdom, and play every Hero Sim™ character in the land. Creativity will soar as players tell stories like never before full of drama, romance, conflict, and comedy. "The Middle Ages is a time of intrigue, legend, and excitement. It offers a perfect backdrop for a brand new series from The Sims studio due to the limitless stories that can be told," said Scott Evans, General Manager of The Sims Studio at EA. "The Sims Medieval offers a new way for players to experience The Sims which we hope fans will enjoy, and it features gameplay that fans of strategy and role-playing games will find appealing such as controlling an entire kingdom and quest-based gameplay mechanics." The Sims Medieval offers players a chance to build up a medieval kingdom, controlling characters from all walks of life, from Kings and Queens, to Knights and Wizards, Blacksmiths and Bards. It provides a host of storytelling possibilities in the form of quests, from crafting a legendary sword to arranging a royal wedding, to protecting the kingdom from an evil sorcerer, to finding the fountain of youth. Every quest plays out differently depending on which Hero Sim the player is controlling. The destiny of the kingdom rests in the players' hands. Will players build up their kingdom through internal expansion, or perhaps look for a more imperial type of domination, expanding their rule by conquering territories? Will they take on quests in pursuit of fame, or focus on the health and wellbeing of their people? The choice is theirs! With the start of every new game, players will be able to select a new ambition for their kingdom, and embark on a new set of stories. Everything in The Sims Medieval is crafted to create an immersive medieval world, from the quest-based gameplay, to the medieval objects such as swords and stocks and thrones, right down to the warm look of the characters, and the painterly approach to the world itself. Players can choose to customize every new Hero that comes to the kingdom, including selecting their traits and their fatal flaw. Players get close to their characters, not only sending them on epic quests, but also making sure they carry out their daily responsibilities such as healing the sick, trading for exotic goods, or forging armor. From having a baby to competing in a royal tournament, what happens to their Sims is up to the player. The time of romance and chivalry is back with The Sims Medieval. Developed by The Sims Studio, The Sims Medieval for PC/Mac will be available in spring 2011 and has not yet been rated by the ESRB. To download artwork, please visit www.info.ea.com. For more information about The Sims Medieval please visit www.info.ea.com or the official website at www.TheSimsMedieval.com. About The Sims The Sims™, the groundbreaking franchise that allows players to create and live a virtual, simulated life on a computer, celebrates its ten year anniversary in 2010 with an impressive more than 125 million units sold since its launch in February 2000. Now translated into 22 different languages and available in 60 different countries, The Sims has quickly become a universal gaming and cultural phenomenon. Since its June 2009 launch, The Sims 3 has sold more than 5 million copies worldwide to date and was the #1 best-selling PC title for 2009 in North America and Europe. Fan intensity is evidenced through the 150 million downloads of player created content including: Sims, houses, stories and more. The Sims 3 community site, www.thesims3.com, welcomes up to four million unique visitors monthly, handles nearly 300 content downloads every minute and more than 2.5 million uploads have been made to date, including 15 movies each hour. The Sims 3 YouTube Channel is within the top 10 most viewed sponsored channels of all time with more than 32 million video views. Visit The Sims 3 official website to see what the players are creating at www.TheSims3.com or the official YouTube Channel for The Sims at http://www.youtube.com/user/TheSims. The Sims 3 is currently available for PC, Mac, iPhone®, iPod touch® and mobile devices and in the fall 2010 on Nintendo DS™, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system and Wii™ and in 2011 the Nintendo 3DS. About Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is a leading global interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the Company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, wireless devices and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTS™, EA™, EA Mobile™ and POGO™. In fiscal 2010, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $3.7 billion and had 27 titles that sold more than one million units. EA's homepage and online game site is www.ea.com. More information about EA's products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com. EA, EA SPORTS, EA Mobile, POGO, and The Sims are trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. Mac, iPhone, and iPod touch are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Wii and the Nintendo DS are trademarks of Nintendo. "PlayStation" is a registered trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Xbox and Xbox 360 are registered trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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