Futurama Movie Announced!

[:]

I was surfing the web and decided to look up Billy West's credits on IMDB (internet Movie Database).  Allmost fell out of my seat when i saw what his newest credit said.
The Futurama Movie (2007) (V) (announced)

You can all see for yourself.  Check out this link:  http://http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0921942/

or go to www.IMDB.com  and look up Billy West.

[#1 :]

We're discussing a possbile Futurama movie in this thread.

There are lots of rumours about a Futurama movie, and for all intents and purposes it looks like it's going to happen, but so far we don't have any official confirmation of it.

IMDB is not reliable in that regard, they just react to the rumours as well.

Edit: Welcome to PEEL. Enjoy it here. 

[#2 :]

actually IMDB is very reliable.  I live in Los Angeles and my roommate works in casting.  IMDB is pretty much the entertainment industry standard.  If a casting director or agent need to find someone or look up their credits they go to IMDB.  I have several friends who are actors and i've heard them talk about how all of their credits MUST be on IMDB and how tough it is to update their own credits if something is missing.  They have to submit it to IMDB and they veify it before posting.

[#3 :]

Yes, IMDB is very reliable about previous work, or work in progress. There's no denying that.

However when it comes to future work, not yet officially confirmed, their track record is somewhat more dubious in my experience.

[#4 :]

what have you experienced with IMDB that turned out to be a false rumor? 

[#5 :]

 

Originally posted by lulu:
what have you experienced with IMDB that turned out to be a false rumor? 

Most recently Bill Murray's 'starring role' in Basic Instinct 2

[#6 :]

Thats not a false rumor. Casts change and sometimes actors back out of deals or get replaced.  My roommate deals with that all the time. IMDB has too much to lose to be printing rumors without some sort of verification.

[#7 :]

 

Originally posted by lulu:
actually IMDB is very reliable.  ...  They have to submit it to IMDB and they veify it before posting.

Not always. Because of the way IMDB is structured, anyone can submit information to them and unconfirmed rumours (and quite often blatent lies) slip through without being noticed.

Take that Futurama Movie entry, for example. It lists the main cast from the show as already being a part of it. While it's pretty certain they'll all be involved with the movie, none of them have officially signed up to it yet. The movie itself still hasn't been officially announced (?)

[#8 :]

Go ahead then..try to submit a false credit. If it was that easy do you know how many actors would pad their resumes with false credits.  Like I said before, I have actor friends who on occasion have had trouble posting their REAL credits because they need to be verified first.

At any rate, its kind of sad that ALL of you are so negative.  Instead of saying, "oh, great.  That's one more verification that there is going to be a Futurama Movie.  Cool.  I'm excited."  You nitpick known, reliable sources by saying, "Yes, IMDB is right 99.99999999999% of the time.  But 0.00000000001% of the time they might make a mistake so this is obviously a mistake."

[#9 :]

Better to be pessimistic and then be pleasantly surprised then be optimistic and horribly disappointed.

[#10 :]

Well its too bad that you've all chosen to gang up on me.   

This is one of my first times posting anything, but i've been reading the entries for a while now and i've watched you guys fight as bitterly as possible to stay as negative and pessamistic as possible.  I bet if Matt Groening made the announcement himself standing between the top executives at FOX you'd find a way to shoot it down.

[#11 :]

No we wouldn't. It's not that we don't want the movie to happen, we just aren't going to get excited until we see Matt Groening making the announcement himself while standing between the top executives at Fox. All we have that's 'official' is West who while optimistic hasn't actually signed any paperwork yet. But we do have Cohen, the executive producer, saying nothing is official yet. I think everyone here is more inclined to believe the executive producer. Since he is after all, the EXECUTIVE PRODUCER. I think that makes him a little more credible than IMDB.

[#12 :]

 

Originally posted by lulu:
I bet if Matt Groening made the announcement himself standing between the top executives at FOX you'd find a way to shoot it down.

No, because that's exactly what we (or at least I am) are waiting for. When Matt Groening (or Cohen) come out an say "We have deal/signed contract with FOX for 'X Number' of movies", we'll party like it's 1999 ... again.

 

At any rate, its kind of sad that ALL of you are so negative.

What is kinda sad is the fact that when one chose to say "this is just another rumour that lent more credibility to the chance of a Futurama movie but it's not official" rather than going "OMG! A Futurama movie is here! This is the best thing since sliced bread" you're accused of not being a true fan (you're not, but others have) or being professional pessimists. Is it that hard to accept that some of us will wait for Groening or Cohen to confirm it before working ourselves into a frenzy?

The very fact that we don't have anything official from Groening or Cohen might indicate that this isn't an iron-cast deal yet.

 

Well its too bad that you've all chosen to gang up on me.

We're not. We're just expressing our opinion, but if you want to take this as "ganging up" on you, we can't be held responsible for that.

[#13 :]

And where do you think IMDB gets its information? I have a feeling that none of you guys live anywhere CLOSE to Los Angeles, much less undertand the inner working of the Entertainment Industry. 

TV and film productions submit their information to IMDB not the other way around.

IMDB started out as some guy who was really into movies so he decided he was going to post a database on the internet for other people to see.  That was many years ago.  Soon, production companies, agents, and casting directors realised they could search for an actor by using IMDB.  Then about a year or two ago, IMDB became very serious.  There is now IMDBPro that Entertainment Industry Professionals like casting directors, agents, and production companies PAY to subscribe to.  Why on earth would they PAY for a service and use it almost exclusively if it wasn't reliable and accurate? 

[#14 :]

And for the record, I've actually seen Matt Groening a couple of times at this open air mall near my house. And a good friend of mine (he's a producer) is going to be at a table reading next week for the Simpsons.  He promised to bring me a souveneir because he knows i'm such a huge Simpsons fan.  I'd have my friend ask, but i don't think Matt Growning actively works on the Simpsons anymore.

[#15 :]

My last post for today.  Shoot holes in this as much as you want.  I logged on to IMDBPro using my roommate's account and in their Testimonials section there is a quote from one of the top Execs at FOX

"IMDbPro.com is an invaluable information resource. I rely on IMDbPro.com everyday."
Fred Baron, Executive VP Production,
20th Century Fox

I'd love to see what a top Exec. at FOX has to say about one of their own shows IF the Futurama credit is false.

[#16 :]

I personally think that there will be a Futurama movie, but it is wise to not get your hopes up. Venus said it perfectly a couple of posts up.

As for IMDB never being wrong, I distinctly remember being disappointed whenever True Lies 2 was cancelled, and whenever John Lithgow's voice, in fact, did not appear in Shrek 2, despite what IMDB said. And that's just off the top of my head.

Anyway, there are many similar threads, you've already been linked to the main one, and this is a bit of a spamfest. Soon, some creepy guy with a Disco Stu avatar will come in here, make a devastating joke at your expense, and your thread will be mysteriously closed. Mark my words.

[#17 :]

While IMDB is a pretty reliable source, lulu, Venus was right when she said that it's better to be pessimistic than optimistic, if only because, if the movie does get made (*crosses fingers*) we'll be pleasantly surprised. Likewise, if the movie doesn't get made, we won't all go on killing sprees out of sheer disappointment. Personally, I think it's only a matter of time until we get an official confirmation on this, but I'm going to remain at least a little skeptical until that happens.

Oh yeah, and, you might want to use this button: next time. The mods kind of frown upon double triple-posting. Just a word of advice.

[#18 :]

Lulu: With your insight into the industry perhaps you could help us understand why, other than the item you cite, there are conflicting statements from those who would be involved. And why a cartoon's production would be so secretive. Don't be too hard on the folks here. If you read through the posts you'll see that the confusion stems from "inside" parties and a "No comment" aura that rivals the Defense Department. Almost fearful that someone may say the wrong thing, so they don't say anything.

[#19 :]

Gladly, Futz.  I'd be more than happy to explain to anyone who is interested the actual process. 

First of all, i'm not sure how you guys think it works, but when a film to tv show gets the Greenlight someone does not go to the top of the Hollywood Hills and proclaim, "Hear Ye, Hear Ye, Waterworld 2 has commenced production!".  Its usually just a little blurb in a magazine called the Hollywood Reporter.

Here's an example from the March 8th edition of The Hollywood Reporter, "In the latest round of pilot castings, Dennis Hopper has joined NBC's "E-Ring," Regina Taylor has come on board CBS' "The Unit," Elizabeth Rohm and Charles Mesure are set to topline Fox's "Briar & Graves," Jennifer Esposito has been cast in the WB Network's untitled Liz Tuccillo project, Paul Blackthorne has landed the lead in ABC's "Pros & Cons," and Joely Fisher and Matt Letscher have been tapped as the leads in Fox's untitled Jablonski/Katims project."

As for secrecy, often times, if a particular show or film has a big following, the production and parties involved try to keep things as quiet as possible because they know that if the fans get word of it they might hack in or snoop around and basically reveal information that's key to the plot, etc. Here's an example; in the US there is very popular show called Desperate Hosuewives.  An up and coming soap actress named Kelly Monocco is rumored to be joining the cast.  Everytime reporters ask her if thats true,  She just says, "no comment", "I can't talk about that", etc.  Does that mean it's a false rumor.  No, it's more likely they don't want to compromise the production by revealing too much. And it's more fun for the fans when its a surprise.  Star Wars is an extreme example where they used a fake name during the production of the the first sequel so that word wouldn't leak out.

This is just the short version of how things work.  I could probably go on for several more pages. 

Regardles,  whether or not you guys want to believe IMDB or not, i think we should all celebrate just a little by going out and buying the new Futurama DVD thats coming out Aug. 23rd.  I think it's only like $10 on Amazon.

[#20 :]

Ok, thanks. The Star Wars thing did come to mind.

[#21 :]

A Futurama Movie,I'll believe it when I c it.I hope they do come out with a movie though.

[#22 :]

-As a matter of fact, I do live very close to Los Angeles. (It's only about 45 minutes away if the Blue Line Train System is used, and even less if the freeway is taken.)
-I remember a few months ago there was a rumor that there was a new season of 'Futurama' in production. I got all happy, and then terribly disappointed when I found out it was false.
-So in conclusion, I will be wary of anything until I hear an official announcement, or one of the producers (preferably Matt Groening and/or David X. Cohen), announces something.
-Oh yeah, and I will be getting the 'Futurama' DVD on Tuesday. (Mostly for the intros and the new commentary.)