Possibly distressing Futurama news

[Ghoulish Delight]

After success with the straight-to-video Futurama movies (I thought the first one was solidly funny, the others just so-so at best), it was announced that Futurama would be brought back to TV in the old half hour format.

Today comes this news:
link

When the "Futurama" characters come back for new episodes on Comedy Central in mid-2010, they may sound different.

That is because producing studio 20th TV is proceeding with auditioning new actors after failing to reach an agreement with the original voice cast: John DiMaggio, Maurice LaMarche, Billy West, Tress MacNeille and Katey Sagal.

But wait, odds are that's B.S. They pulled the same thing with the Simpsons cast a while back. This is more than likely either (or both) a negotiating tactic or a way to draw attention heading into ComiCon.

Phil Lamar wrote on his blog: "It's a negotiating ploy by 20th Century Fox studio. It's the same thing they did w/ the Simpsons several years ago. They're hoping to scare the actors into accepting lower pay.
They don't think that it matters to the audience who is doing the voices. If people's emails don't convince them, maybe they'll find out at the Comic-Con panel next week."

If anything, they'd definitely have quite the spectacle if they set up an audition booth at the Con.