Extra Control

The Newcastle Sentinel have been chatting to extras appearing in Control, Anonto Corbijn's Ian Curtis biopic. They also reveal that the film is goign to feature actual footage of Joy Division, that the band made of actors are actually going to perform in the film and that New Order have, apparently, already recorded the film's soundtrack.

The decision to shoot in black and white is explained thus: When people read about the band the first time, everything was in black and white - the photographs, the NME.

Well, not everything. Ian Curtis was fleshtone himself, I'm pretty sure. Sallow fleshtone, but fleshtone none the less.

Eagle-eyed continuity spods take note: it is also revealed that an ambulance driver and a drunken uncle "in a tight fitting 70s suit" are both played by the same man. This happens a lot, but now I've brought your attention to it, you won't be able to miss it.

Andy Barker, PI Gets A Due Date

NBC have announced that Andy Barker, PI will finally launch on Thursday March 15th, at 9.30pm Eastern Time. About time too.

If you know what's good for you, you'll set an alarm for this date and time right now.

Richard Ayoade Repeating Himself In The USA

The NBC are remaking Graham Linehan's The IT Crowd - as you probably knew. I mean, the UK-to-US sitcom remake path is well trodden but rarely yields exciting results. Now, though, a glimmer of interest as it has been revealed that Richard Ayoade is to reprise his role as the wonderfully overcoiffed Moss, whereas Chris O'Dowd and Katherine Parkinson have been ditched in favour of Joel McHale, sometime host of The Soup, and Jessica St. Clair who can be seen in For Your Consideration.

Oddly, St. Clair appeared in a TV show called Smoking Gun and McHale was in Kuntz and Maguire's ill-fated Onion Movie - not entirely dissimilar projects. Factor in Aoyade's turns in Time Trumpet and you've pretty much got a hat trick.

Ayoade is really quite superb - he was easily the best thing about Nathan Barley - and I'm pleased to see him get this profile boost, though I expect he'll be lambasted for taking the opportunity and get chalked up as a sell-out. Good luck to him, though. I dare say he'll be directing episodes of the US series before long, and soon after that find himself in charge of a feature film. A Garth Marenghi movie, anyone?

In the UK IT Crowd, Chris Morris appeared as Denholm, the very, very odd boss character. I'm almost certain that somebody has thought of Conan O'Brien for this role in the remake - his guest spot in Andy Richter Controls the Universe guarantees he'd nail it. Here's hoping.