Arts Audio/Video - NPR

Science fiction isn't typical source material for opera. Which is why Placido Domingo was a little surprised when The Fly landed on his desk. But David Cronenberg and Howard Shore's opera opens Sept. 7 in Los Angeles.

Despite economic woes, domestic ticket sales topped a record $4 billion this summer. Slate.com's Mark Jordan Legan caught up with a few movie-goers to see what they enjoyed about their cinematic experience. Food prices weren't part of it.

Bill Melendez, the animator who gave life to Snoopy, Charlie Brown and other Peanuts characters on the small and big screens died Tuesday. He was 91. Melendez animated TV specials such as A Charlie Brown Christmas and was the voice of Snoopy.

The new HBO series centers on a vampire clan living in a small Louisiana town. It's by Alan Ball, creator of the hit series Six Feet Under, and based on a series of novels by Charlaine Harris. Anna Paquin stars.

Shawn Ryan, creator and executive producer of the acclaimed FX drama, The Shield, discusses his involvement in the series.

Michael Chiklis stars as rogue detective Vic Mackey in the TV series The Shield; the Peabody Award-winning show is in its seventh season on the FX cable channel.

Best known for her portrayal of Detective Claudette Wyms on The Shield, the actress also boasts film credits ranging from Bagdad Cafe to Benny & Joon.

It's a big week for the creator of the death-obsessed series Six Feet Under. After several years out of the spotlight, his two major projects are emerging within a few days of each other. He discusses why both are focused on sex.

In a remembrance of movie trailer announcer Don LaFontaine on Wednesday, his voice was misidentified. Today, we set the record straight and add a little confusion to the mix.

The creator of The Sims has a new game out. In Spore, players create their own worlds — starting from creatures the size of a cell, and evolving until an entire civilization springs up.

Literary critics feared that after the Soviet collapse, the easy availability of popular romance novels and thrillers would seduce Russian readers away from deeper works. Now they attribute a literary revival to the country's new authoritarianism.

Voiceover artist Don LaFontaine died this week at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles from complications of an ongoing illness. He was 68. LaFontaine was the voice behind thousands of movie trailers. In 2006, he parodied himself in a Geico commercial.

In a new book based on his popular blog, Christian Lander tracks the trends and tendencies of white people, from fair-trade organic coffee to vintage T-shirts.

Two decades ago, cartoonist Alison Bechdel spelled out a test for whether a movie was worth her time. "Yes" if: it (a) featured at least two women who (b) talk to each other about (c) something other than a man. Two decades later, what measures up?

It's time to bid farewell to one of TV's most under-appreciated series. When this gritty FX cop drama began in 2002, it was groundbreaking in more ways than one.

TV critic David Bianculli considers the impact of the FX drama series The Shield, which begins its seventh and final season.

The lights at the Peach Pit went out at the turn of the century when Beverly Hills 90210 went off the air. But the television show that was a pop culture sensation in the 1990s is back, in what's being marketed as an edgy, updated show. The prime time teen soap premieres Tuesday.

A French summertime tradition for young children is a visit to a marionette theatre to watch the antics of a character named Guignol. Guignol always manages to outwit the thief with the help of children in the audience.

Forty years ago, the best picture nominees signaled a stirring in Hollywood — an appetite for revolutionary realism, socially conscious stories and movies targeted at the long-ignored youth audience.

Sunday night, one of the biggest phenomena in pop music reunites for the eighth BMI Urban Awards. Four of the five original members of the Jackson 5 (Jackie, Tito, Marlon and Jermaine Jackson) are all scheduled to appear at the Wilshire Theatre. Michael Jackson has not yet confirmed an appearance.

For nearly a quarter of his presidency, Abraham Lincoln lived not in the White House, but rather three miles away — in a large, airy summer home in Northwest Washington, D.C.

Fort Ticonderoga, in upstate New York, saw bloody action in the French and Indian Wars and the Revolutionary Wars But now the privately owned museum and battleground is fighting for its own existence. The fort could be forced to shut down or sell off key artifacts.

A pretty, plucky heroine, a wicked massage-parlor proprietress, and a handsome-prince figure more perceptive than most — this modern fairy tale stays breezy, brisk and down to Earth.

Do we really need another SuperBad-esque comedy? Slate.com's Mark Jordan Legan tells us what the critics are saying about College as well as the latest sci-fi flick, Babylon AD starring Vin Diesel and Traitor starring Don Cheadle.

As New Orleans' levees buckled, Kimberly Rivers Roberts turned her video camera on marooned friends, relatives and neighbors. Roberts' footage has been adapted into a powerful documentary that is as much about America as it is about the deadly storm.

There are exactly 103 roads named after Catholic saints in Los Angeles. J. Michael Walker has spent eight years exploring these roads and avenues, researching their namesake saints and finding connections with the people who inhabit them.

Barack Obama will accept the Democratic presidential nomination in an outdoor stadium with 70,000 screaming onlookers, a light show and music. It'll look like a rock concert rather than a political rally. Bruce Springsteen concertgoers give advice on how to keep your cool and not look like an Obama poseur.

It's no shoot-'em-up, and not quite a blockbuster. But at nearly 100,000 downloads and counting, the moody "meaning-of-life" time-tripper feels like a game that a grown-up can play — and maybe should.

In his latest movie, Traitor, Don Cheadle plays a CIA operative who goes undercover to work with a terrorist group — but then becomes a suspected terrorist himself.

As the summer movie season draws to a close, Morning Edition commentator John Ridley weighs in on what he thinks has been a really bad spell for minorities at the multiplex — both for actors and moviegoers.

Free summer staging of the '60s musical has New Yorkers camping out overnight — but a sense of shared adventure (and bike messengers bearing delivery breakfasts) help pass the time.

Security concerns have led to a lot of surveillance equipment around Stool Pigeon Street. A fictional fellow discovers that wherever he goes, he's being watched. By who, it almost doesn't matter any more.

The two collaborated on the new Steve Coogan comedy, about a failed actor and overzealous drama teacher who mounts a musical sequel to Shakespeare's most famous tragedy.

Slate's Mark Jordan Legan reviews film reviews for Death Race, House Bunny, and Hamlet 2.

Director Darryl Roberts explores whether Americans care too much about looks in his new movie America the Beautiful. He follows models and interviews media editors to get answers.

The guys in this week's Barbershop — Jimi Izrael, Ruben Navarrette, Arsalan Iftikhar and Nick Charles — comb through the week's headlines. They talk about the latest buzz surrounding the presidential veep stakes, the USA's performance in the Olympics and rapper Master P's latest business venture, family friendly TV.

Critic at large John Powers remembers film critic and artist Manny Farber, who died Aug. 18 at the age of 91.

Often compared to the likes of Ben Folds, or even a muted incarnation of Queen, Jukebox the Ghost makes music that's buoyant without leaving a saccharine aftertaste. Exhibit A: the flamboyantly orchestrated "Good Day."

Brett Morgan's film, Chicago 10, uses a combination of archival footage, animation and music to tell the story of eight anti-war protesters who were put on trial following the 1968 Democratic National Convention.