With Thanksgiving upon us, you might expect the Screeners to take a couple leisurely weeks off, much like your favorite late-night shows, but they’re having none of it. Hollywood’s releasing blockbusters at the end of November, so they’re here to deconstruct them...after Jump Cuts, of course.

How Do You Solve a Problem Like...Christmas?

The holidays have arrived, so we might as well enjoy them in the lightning round. Chris starts us off by soliciting the Screeners’ favorite holiday movies. They manage to come up with almost entirely different lists, and Josh has even seen a couple of the movies on them. Christmas miracles do exist!

And speaking of classic holiday joy, coming-alive-sound-music-live-153420903.html">NBC is bringing back the Christmas musical. Except instead of finding the next Bing Crosby, they’ve cast Carrie Underwood to star in a revival of the stage version of The Sound of Music. We’re going to go ahead and assume that everyone’s first reaction is a bewildered, “Wait...what?” But could it work?

From red and green all the way to noir:  Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are slated to work together on one of DC’s upcoming film properties. Unfortunately, they’re only signed up as producers, and the superhero star for this one is Sleeper. 

“Who?”

Yeah, that’s what we said.

Finally, a moment of silence for television. That’s right. Cable companies are seeing their subscriber rolls decline, and people are even dropping broadband plans in some areas. The graphs are undeniable, but what does this actually mean for the industry? Who better to make semi-informed prognostications than the Screeners?

Consider the Fire Caught

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is officially the highest-grossing November movie of all time. In a season usually dedicated to a slate of somewhat artsy movies, Hollywood has gambled on a teen-targeted blockbuster, and it’s paid off so far, at least in ticket sales.

What does this say for the fall movie season, though...and, more importantly, what can the Screeners find to argue about in the story of Katniss’ sacrificial love and courage? We’re betting there’s something…

The Screeners Cross-promotion Extravaganza

For this episode’s Cutting Room Floor, the Screeners welcome their first-ever celebrity guest. Author RG Triplett joins the fray to talk about his new project, the Epic of Haven trilogy. The first book, The Great Darkening, is slated for release next March. He’s self-publishing the whole series with the help of some enterprising friends (including maybe a Screener or two) and hoping to gain some traction with a Kickstarter campaign, so there’s plenty of conversation material. Oh yeah, and we should probably ask him about the story itself while we have him around. 

It’s a busy episode, but that about wraps things up. See you next time on the Screeners Podcast!