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Reel News Tim Ryan |
‘Dog’ gets renewed
for another season
Though no official announcement has been given yet by the A&E cable network, look for its surprise hit show "Dog: The Bounty Hunter," starring Duane "Dog" Chapman and wife Beth Smith, to get renewed for a second season that reportedly will include more than the 18 first-season episodes and a bigger salary for the couple. Season two filming is expected to begin on Oahu in late November.Some possible changes to the show: new additional characters, more mainland filming in West Coast cities, and celebrity ride-alongs. A&E apparently is readying a line of "Dog" memorabilia as well, such as handcuffs, dog tags, clothing and even a Pez dispenser with Chapman's head as the top. Chapman's Web site, dogthebountyhunter.com, is already selling logo T-shirts and caps.
When A&E aired two new episodes early last month, the show averaged 2.65 million viewers against the tail end of the Cheney-Edwards vice-presidential debate, helping make "Dog" one of the network's top 10 shows ever.
A biography from Harper Collins is also in the works, titled "You Can Run But You Cannot Hide," by Kent Black, who penned this year's Playboy magazine story on the bounty hunter. There's even talk of a film. Sources say Chapman met with NBC's "Hawaii" producers to appear on the cop drama, but the show was canceled before it happened ...
"Tides of War" completes three weeks of filming Friday. The naval drama will air by spring of 2005 ...
New Line Cinema's "Snakes on a Plane," directed by David Ellisis, is a thriller where a witness to a mob hit must travel from Hawaii to the mainland to testify. Accompanying him on the flight is a crate of 250 poisonous snakes, which are to prevent the witness from getting to the trial. No word if the film will shoot in Hawaii ...
Peter Navy Tuiasosopo, who played a funny but tough cop on "Hawaii," has the rights, the actors and a top Hollywood screenwriter penning a rewrite of his biopic script about sumo champ Samoan-American Seleeva Fuali Atisanoe, aka Konishiki. The $8 to $10-million film will likely be filmed entirely in Hawaii with Tuiasosopo, a long time friend of Konishiki's, to star as the wrestler. The Hawaii Film Office has lent their support ...
And don't be surprised if "Hawaii" co-star Eric Balfour announces in the next few months a film project with a top Hollywood director with major Hawaii connections. Stay tuned ...
Contact Tim Ryan at tryan@starbulletin.com.