Animation Futurama Thread

[AlteredEgo]

wait, so there was pretty much no talk at the panel about what was going to happen to the voice-cast?

Spoiler

 

[Gilpesh]

From that source, looks like it. Hopefully it is more that this person wasn't paying attention... hopefully

 

[enterthemadness]

Fox can F off.

 

[gap5ewl]

Full details on what happened at Comic Con

"US, July 25, 2009 - Amongst all the tension surrounding the troubles with Futurama's voice actors re-signing for the next season, the panel continued on and gave us answers to some of the largest questions that were on our minds. Starting out with a brief address by series creator Matt Groening, we were immediately given an answer to our biggest question: Will we see the original voice actors come back?

According to Matt Groening, "We love our Futurama actors. And we hope that FOX and the actors can come to an agreement as soon as possible." So… the answer is that we are still left waiting to see whether FOX and the series' main cast can come to some sort of agreement. We were expecting a little more than this brief answer and a mandate that no Q&A questions could ask about the issue, but we suppose that we are at a point in contract negotiations where we will have to wait and see.

Still, even though there was no news on the casting front and as such the voice actors did not show up for the panel, we were given a full line-up with animators, writers and producers who all did their best to entertain the fans despite the audience's obvious disappointment. Starting the audience out with a comedic opening featuring the hypnotoad, we were soon given a fake behind the scenes video – which had voice actress Lauren Tom (Amy Wong) producing the whole show, and a bunch of humorous quotes from the writer's room, which led to a Q&A session where the fans were given plenty to optimistic about despite some disappointment.

One such thing that had everybody excited was hints on storylines for the upcoming season. Withholding spoilers, you can expect to see the origin of Scruffy, Twitter in the year 3000, a budding relationship between Bender and Amy, Leela and Zapp getting stuck on a planet together, and Fry and Professor Farnsworth travelling uncontrollably forward in time. Other ideas touched on, but not confirmed for the upcoming season, were another Anthology of Interest episode and an explanation as to why Professor Farnsworth keeps Zoidberg on staff.

Other news items stemmed from the question: Where will the next season of Futurama begin? After the revelations at the end of the last movie "Into the Wild Green Yonder" (driving the Planet Express ship into a wormhole as Fry and Leela finally profess their love for one another), Matt Groening mentioned that he wanted to ignore the happenings and just continue back on Earth like a traditional sitcom, while David X. Cohen wisely convinced everybody to resolve the conflicts… however brief the resolution may be. From the minor spoilers that they were giving out, we are expecting Fry and Leela to be dating, which should be interesting for all fans of the series.

On the movie front, Groening and the rest of the panel mentioned that they are willing and ready to do a feature length Futurama movie, but the studio needs to work it out first. And in response to quality of the straight to DVD movies, Cohen and Groening stated that nothing changed with who was writing the episodes, it was just that they had to pace the special to have a feature format that would work when chopped up into episodes. While they won't say whether the movies were better or worse than the TV episodes, they put it up to the audience to decide.

All in all, the panel was about as entertaining as it could be with the dark cloud looming over it. Really what summed it up best was Cohen saying, "Hope for the best." And as fans of the show, we do hope for the best next season possible, voice actors or not."

http://au.tv.ign.com/articles/100/1007511p1.html

Also the cast were at Comic Con but in a separate room giving out autographs. They stayed quiet on the matter and just hoped that everything would work out.

 

[enterthemadness]

From Maurice LaMarche's facebook

http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?futura13

#1751 ftw.

 

[Etienne]

Full details on what happened at Comic Con


http://au.tv.ign.com/articles/100/1007511p1.html

Also the cast were at Comic Con but in a separate room giving out autographs. They stayed quiet on the matter and just hoped that everything would work out.

That could be good or bad.

 

[Kingfish]

Well, if it was going to break as a prank or publicity stunt, it would have here, so it's sadly real.

Obviously it didn't happen, but it would have been nice to see some form of fan protest, such as a walkout on the bull**** panel when they weren't allowed to ask about it.

 

[chaseter]

Welp, my knowledge that Fox is run by a bunch of idiots remains intact.

 

[Obi-Ron]

They're fools. I know I won't be watching without Billy West and company.

 

[craigdbfan]

Adult Swim just ran an awesome bump.

Basically giving the middle finger to Comedy Central/Fox for not coughing up the goods and saying if they can't do it right give the syndication rights back to them and they'll give us results.

[as]

 

[Kingfish]

Oh sure. Trust the guys that are "More than just cartoons." That'll end up just swell.

 

[Manic]

I know I'd be slightly more inclined to trust Cartoon Network than FOX. The only show I loved that Cartoon Network came close to screwing over was Justice League. During JLU's 2nd season (or JL's 4th. Whatever), they kept randomly taking it in & out of its timeslot and never announced when a new episode was coming up, but damned if they didn't give us an unexpected extra season anyway.

FOX renewed Tru Calling for a second season, then changed their minds and canned it while the cast & crew was still filming.

So... yeah.

 

[Gilpesh]

So... yeah.

That's the perfect response to what they did to Futurama. They finally gave Futurama the respect it deserves and brought it back! But they're trying to low ball the cast.... so yeah.

 

[chaseter]

Rothman, went from ****ing up movies to ****ing up television.

 

[Etienne]

Adult Swim just ran an awesome bump.

Basically giving the middle finger to Comedy Central/Fox for not coughing up the goods and saying if they can't do it right give the syndication rights back to them and they'll give us results.

[as]

The dudes at Williams Street are never afraid to "speak" their minds.

Oh sure. Trust the guys that are "More than just cartoons." That'll end up just swell.

 

[Spidey-Bat]

He's referring to Cartoon Network dropping their all-cartoon format. They have live action stuff now.

 

[Etienne]

I'm aware of that but Futurama used to air during Adult Swim's block. What Cartoon Network does with it's reality/live action shows has nothing to do with Adult Swim.

 

[Specter313]

Don't know how reliable this is but:

LOS ANGELES–The Star has learned exclusively that the voice cast of Futurama has just signed a new contract with Fox after weeks of intense salary negotiations.

As late as last week, the network was threatening to replace the original voices of Matt Groening's cult-hit cartoon, to the point of actually announcing a casting call for voice actors to replace them.

The compromise agreement, with the studio paying more and the actors accepting less, comes after the announcement of a 26-episode pick-up here by Comedy Central. Futurama also airs internationally in syndication, has produced four bestselling straight-to-DVD movies (later cut into episodes) and an upcoming feature film.

A Fox spokesman, reacting to this story, insisted that only two of the cast have so far signed the deal, but later added that they expect to have the matter resolved by the end of the day.

http://www.thestar.com/comment/columnists/article/674841

 

[Obi-Ron]

Well I'm sure we are all hoping for the best on this one!

 

[Kingfish]

Hope it's true and we can finally get some positive news about the show.

 

[Kanon]

Yeah! Ridley Scott on Alien, and the cast of Futurama is back, all in one day!

I can be friends with FOX again

 

[Kanon]

****! double post

 

[Ziggyman]

Woo...Just read this...this is great!

 

[Kanon]

Confirmation on the deal: Maurice LaMarche's facebook state: had a productive afternoon... he finally cleaned up his backyard - threw away all the sun-scarred cracked pool toys, peeling boogie boards, an old broom, deflated faded basketball, and, oh yeah, closed his Futurama deal.

 

[Kingfish]

Yep, IGN is reporting that deals for all the cast are done. Sure dodged a bullet on that one.