WEEK 4: Saturday 23 January - Friday 29 January 2010

TV2 kicks this week off with Jackie Chan in the Saturday Blockbuster, Shanghai Noon, which screens at 9pm. The Wild West meets the Far East in a battle for honour, royalty and riches, when acrobatic Chinese Imperial Guard Chon Wang (Chan) comes to America to rescue a kidnapped princess. Also starring Lucy Liu (Charlie's Angels) and Owen Wilson (Wedding Crashers).

Monday at 8.30pm sees the gripping season finale of The Mentalist. Lisbon (Robin Tunney) fears that serial killer Red John is drawing Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) into a trap when the CBI team investigates the murder of a young girl and the abduction of her twin sister. On Monday at 9.30pm, TV2 commemorates the passing of ER: The Final Season, with the last ever episode. Guest starring some of the biggest stars from ER's history, it is followed at 10.30pm by ER: Retrospective, which takes a look back at the past 15 seasons of ER, featuring interviews with the show's stars. The auditions continue in American Idol on Friday at 8.30pm, with superstar guest judge Shania Twain joining the panel to give her opinion on the budding popstars.

Movie - Enchanted, Sunday 24 January, 7pm: Patrick Dempsey (Grey's Anatomy), Amy Adams (Julie & Julia), and Susan Sarandon (The Lovely Bones) star in TV2's Sunday Summer Blockbuster, Enchanted, a modern-day fairytale.

A classic Disney fairytale that collides with modern-day New York City, Enchanted tells the story of Giselle (Adams), a fairytale princess who is thrust into present-day by an evil queen (Sarandon). Soon after her arrival in New York City, Princess Giselle begins to change her views on life and love after meeting a handsome lawyer (Dempsey). Can a storybook view of romance survive in the real world? Screenwriter Bill Kelly says he toyed with the idea of taking a wide-eyed, innocent character from the land of make believe, and setting her loose in a modern, cynical world. "It was sort of a 'What if?' idea," explains Kelly. "We kept working on it, but we were having trouble in terms of making that character believable. And then, one day, we decided it'd be a lot easier if she was essentially this animated character, and that's how we came up with the feature story." Disney director Kevin Lima says it was the juxtaposition of worlds that kicked his creative sensibilities into high gear. "The movie starts in the typical Disney animated world, with all of the Disney icons offered up in a 10-minute opening, after which the film really takes off. It's actually a live-action movie at heart. The characters from the animated opening become real people, and that transformation is really the core of the story. Things happen in Disney movies that don't happen in real life, and that's what the movie plays off in a big way." Amy Adams, who did a lot of musical theatre growing up and as an adult, fell in love with Giselle and her journey. "Giselle discovers what love really is and what being human is all about - what it feels like to have genuine emotions. She finds out life is more complicated than it has appeared so far - it's not all about happy endings. It's about something much deeper, much better. I really loved that about the story, and that journey is something an actor relishes bringing to life." The journey from animated fairytale happiness to real life also appealed to Patrick Dempsey. "There is a nice balance - it's an escape movie that is fun and contemporary, yet references old traditions with singing numbers. And the shift to modern-day New York is entertaining and challenging. Essentially, though, the movie is about true love."

Reality - I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, Weekdays, 5pm: This week on TV2, the latest series of I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here kicks off, with the dramatic arrival of a former jungle inhabitant.

Cut off from the outside world in one of the most hostile environments on earth, the celebrities have just basic food rations to survive on, and will have to undergo petrifying and stomach-churning challenges to win supplies. The celebrities heading into the jungle this year include Lucy Benjamin (EastEnders); chef Gino D'Acampo; Camilla Dallerup (Strictly Come Dancing); 80s singer Sam Fox; actor George Hamilton (The Godfather, Part III); Sabrina Washington from girl-band Mis-Teeq; snooker player Jimmy White; and Kim Woodburn (How Clean Is Your House?). But before they get too comfortable in camp, they also have to deal with the return of infamous glamour model Katie Price. Last time she appeared on the show, she met her now ex-husband Peter Andre. Will there be more fireworks this time? Price admits she hopes her return to the show will bring some "closure" to her relationship with Andre, saying, "it's where my fairytale started, and it's where it ends". "A lot of people say I am mad coming back. And I'm walking through here and it is bringing back memories. But I'm not out to prove anything to anyone. I hope I meet some nice friends in there to be honest - I don't want any dramas. I'm not looking for love." However, her arrival this week comes with a twist, as she has to complete a challenge that sees her wading through a pool of fish guts and cockroaches to get to her fellow celebrities in the living quarters. "I knew there was no way they were going to let me just walk into camp. I just knew there was going to be some kind of challenge," Price says. Ultimately, she hopes that her stint on the show will offer her some respite from the furious press attention that follows her wherever she goes. "I'm away from all the newspapers, the paparazzi and it's peace and quiet for me." But with the competing celebrity egos, sparse living conditions, and a lack of food supplies, how long will that peace and quiet last?

Local Drama - Shortland Street, Weekdays, 7pm: The family unit Daniel Potts (Ido Drent) has come to know and love has fallen apart, and this week on Shortland Street, Daniel does his best to get it back on track.

When Sarah (Amanda Billing) and TK (Ben Mitchell) broke up, Daniel couldn't believe it. Distraught that TK seems to be giving up so easily, Daniel spurs him on to keep trying. But is it too late? When Sarah announced she was leaving TK, Daniel hoped it was just a passing phase and that it wouldn't take long for them to work it out. Ido Drent explains: "Daniel felt like everything had come together with his family, so when Sarah leaves TK that feeling is shattered. At this stage, he still feels sure it will all work out." But as the distance between the married pair increases, Daniel becomes worried TK hasn't managed to patch things up between them. Certain that they're still in love, Daniel encourages TK to keep trying. "TK needs to keep fighting for Sarah and being understanding of her," says Drent. "He truly believes that TK can change Sarah's mind." Daniel's had an unusual upbringing, believing throughout that his mum Sarah was in fact his sister. In real life though, Drent was lucky enough to have a solid loving family. "I've got two great sisters and parents that love each other, which I feel very lucky about," says Drent. "Daniel doesn't have any siblings, so it must be really hard for him, and lonely. He really doesn't feel like he has any support." Since starting on the show a year ago, Drent has worked closely with Billing and Mitchell, and gets on with them extremely well. "Amanda and Ben are incredible to work with. They're patient, understanding, encouraging and very approachable. They're also a lot of fun to be around." Will Daniel's wish for Sarah and TK to get back together come true? Or has too much damage been done? If you have missed an episode, full episodes of Shortland Street will be available free online 12 hours after the show has aired on TV2. Go to tvnz.co.nz and click the 'ondemand' button.

Special - The Day Of The Triffids, Wednesday 27 January, 8.30pm: Dougray Scott (Mission Impossible II) and Joely Richardson (Nip/Tuck) star in TV2's big-budget mini-series, about a terrifying species of carnivorous plant that comes to life, in The Day Of The Triffids.

Scientist Bill Masen (Scott) is the world's foremost authority on an extraordinary plant species known as Triffids. Genetically modified, the plants are mass-produced for their 'triffoil', a vital source of renewable fuel. However, Bill has also noticed an unnerving change in their behavioural patterns - the Triffids are starting to communicate. After a freak electrical storm blinds most of the population of the planet, Masen meets Jo Playton (Richardson) in London, and they battle through the streets of panicked, blind mobs in a city that has descended into chaos. But a more chilling discovery soon comes to light. The Triffids have escaped from the farms and are making their way towards Britain's towns, where they can find the most abundant food-source - mankind. Dougray Scott says he was attracted to the project by the human stories that underpin the action sequences. The actor describes the mini-series as, "a wonderful post-apocalyptic tale" about how people deal with a tragic event differently. When his character encounters the power-hungry Torrence (Eddie Izzard, The Riches), who has installed himself as commander of an army of the blind, Masen quickly realises that he is laying the foundations of a tyrannical dictatorship. Scott believes the show is centred on the battle between those who have a fascist method to rebuilding the fallen society, and others who "have a more humane approach." Masen and Playton's struggle for survival underpins this difference. "To me, it's a tale of two ordinary people coming together in extraordinary circumstances." The impressive series boasts an all-star cast that also includes Jason Priestley (Colditz), Brian Cox (The Bourne Supremacy), and Vanessa Redgrave (Atonement).

Movie - Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Thursday 28 January, 7.30pm: Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory) is caught up in another tangled web of supernatural intrigue, in the TV2 feature, Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.

Although the curse of the Black Pearl has been lifted, an even more terrifying threat looms over its captain and scurvy crew: it turns out that Jack owes a blood debt to the legendary Davy Jones (Bill Nighy, Notes On A Scandal). Ruler of the Ocean Depths, Jones captains the ghostly Flying Dutchman, which no other ship can match in speed and stealth. Unless the ever-crafty Jack figures a cunning way out of this Faustian pact, he will be cursed to an afterlife of eternal servitude and damnation in the service of Jones. This startling development interrupts the wedding plans of Will Turner (Orlando Bloom, Elizabethtown) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley, Bend It Like Beckham), who once again find themselves thrust into Jack's misadventures, leading to escalating confrontations with sea monsters, and very unfriendly islanders. The second film in the Pirates Of The Caribbean trilogy, Dead Man's Chest dips deeply into the treasure trove of pirate and seagoing lore and mythology, such as Davy Jones, a sea monster fabled since the 12th century. Screenwriter Ted Elliott explains, "There are a lot of supernatural stories people have heard about the sea. But nobody had actually done those stories as part of a larger pirate or swashbuckler movie, so there was a wealth of legends to draw from." "We touched on some of those in the first movie; there's a line of dialogue in which Will talks about sending himself down to Davy Jones' Locker. So in Dead Man's Chest, we decided to explore who Davy Jones is, and then we brought in another well known legend of the seas, the Flying Dutchman, and combined them together." After the phenomenal success of the first movie, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, it made practical sense, economically, to film two follow-up films simultaneously, taking full advantage of locations, sets and availability of its increasingly in-demand stars. It also made sense creatively, because with the characters so well established in the first film, taking them on further voyages was an exciting prospect. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer explains: "We were hoping for the success of The Curse of the Black Pearl so that we could make more 'Pirate' movies, such as Dead Man's Chest. The second and third films explore and complete everything that was started in the first. It's a true trilogy." Elliott elaborates, "One of the things we liked about the characters in the first film was that there's a certain moral ambiguity to them, and we wanted to explore that - we wanted to put Jack Sparrow into a situation where he has to do something that, in fact, puts his goals in opposition to Will and Elizabeth's goals. Dead Man's Chest was all about expanding the characters and taking them in a further direction".