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Adam Shankman to Direct Rock of Ages Movie Musical

BuzzSugar — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:30:28 -0700

Sometimes I forget that So You Think You Can Dance's Adam Shankman is also heavily involved in the movie biz - he directed 2007's remake Hairspray and recently produced 17 Again. Now the booty shakin' judge just scored a deal to direct and choreograph another movie musical, the Broadway hit Rock of Ages.

The stage show debuted in 2006 and revolves around the hits of '80s glam/hair/metal rock bands. It boosted the career of former American Idol contestant Constantine Maroulis, but he may not be reprising his role: Shankman remarked, "I'm thinking big, and absolutely am going to attempt to cast with movie stars. Now that musicals are working again, actors are much more open to it."

I've never seen the show, but I just read the listing of songs (think Journey and Bon Jovi) and now I'm dying to see it on stage and on the big screen. If you've seen it, what big names could you see starring?

Hairspray Director to Develop Bye Bye Birdie Remake

BuzzSugar — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 11:38:33 -0800

Now that his projects Hairspray and Bedtime Stories have proven successful, director Adam Shankman is moving on to the next big thing: A remake of Bye Bye Birdie. So far Shankman is signed on to develop and produce the "long-gestating remake." Here's more:

A stage favorite for the past half-century, Birdie centers on Conrad Birdie, a popular singer whose character is based loosely on Elvis Presley. He's about to be shipped off to the army, but as part of a publicity stunt, he agrees to one last encounter with a fan before he goes to war.

The 1958 musical has had several screen adaptations, including an Ann-Margret and Dick Van Dyke version in 1963 and a television movie starring Jason Alexander in 1995.

Columbia has been developing an updated version for a number of years, with the logline at one point re-imagining the title character as a hip-hop star.

Hmm. . . a hip-hop star? I find it interesting that this has been so long in the making and it makes me wonder why. Is there something about Bye Bye Birdie that makes this difficult? And who will they get to play the lead characters?

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Buzz News Roundup, 12/19

BuzzSugar — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 13:30:21 -0800

Aretha Franklin is set to sing at Barack Obama's inauguration. - Billboard
Director Adam Shankman (Hairspray, Bedtime Stories) has two more movie projects lined up: Bob the Musical and a new take on the epic adventure Sinbad. - ComingSoon
HBO has picked up three comedies, including Bored to Death starring Jason Schwartzman and Hung starring Thomas Jane. - Zap2It
Barry Sonnenfeld will direct and produce the action-comedy The How-To Guide For Saving the World. - ComingSoon
Rainn Wilson and Jenna Fischer are both executive-producing new pilots at NBC. - Variety
United Artists will turn Fritz Leiber's 1952 supernatural thriller novel Conjure Wife into a feature film. - Variety
The Shield's Michael Chiklis is developing a series about a bad investment scheme - after becoming a victim of one himself. - The Hollywood Reporter
Frank Miller may direct a Buck Rogers movie. - Zap2It

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First Look: Adam Sandler in Bedtime Stories

BuzzSugar — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 14:30:00 -0700

When Adam Sandler uses his talents for cuteness (as opposed to, say, Zohan) it can be so good. I've enjoyed watching him work with kids in the past - I can never resist Big Daddy when it's on TV, and I think he shines in the scenes with his tween daughter in Spanglish. Now I'm happy to see him at the center of a new Disney movie that looks completely adorable.

Directed by Hairspray's Adam Shankman, Bedtime Stories is about a handyman who tells his niece and nephew imaginative stories that start to come true. Whatever the kids come up with each evening he has to survive in real life, including a gumball rainstorm and being set on fire. In the recent TV spot for the movie, it looks like a funny, good-natured kids movie and I found myself laughing more than I thought I would. The kids are super cute, and Sandler is a good sport.

Though I may not be in the key demographic for this one, it really does look like a fun movie! Check out the TV spot here and tell me what you think.

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Hairspray: Massively Fun

BuzzSugar — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 23:50:43 -0700

What with all the racial tensions, weight issues and societal crises, Hairspray was the most fun I’ve had in a theater in a very long time. It is virtually impossible to watch this newest film version of Hairspray without laughing and wanting to get up and dance. In fact, if you don't crack a smile at least once during this super high-energy, teenage fun fest, I might wonder if your heart were still beating at all.

This rock-n-roll high school musical is full of the energy and tensions of the 1960s when hair was shellacked high and dancing was a daily teenage pastime. As a high school kid in Baltimore, the "pleasantly plump" Tracy Turnblad (Nikki Blonsky) longs to be on The Corny Collins show, a local TV dance program, but when she goes to the open try-outs with her loyal friend Penny (the lollipop-sucking jail bait Amanda Bynes), she's cruelly turned away by the evil station manager, Velma Von Tussle (Michelle Pfeiffer) and her equally heinous daughter Amber (Brittany Snow). Back at school Tracy gets sent to detention - which seems to double as a kind of night club - and befriends a bunch of black kids, in particular the smooth Seaweed (Elijah Kelley) who teaches Tracy some fancy new moves. That's certainly not the end, though, so read more

Forcing her way onto The Corny Collins show one afternoon, Tracy catches the eye of Corny himself (James Marsden) with her newfound moves and is placed as a regular on the show. Once there, Tracy attempts to get The Corny Collins show to be integrated all the time, rather than the one day a week when black kids are allowed to dance. This leads to a heap of trouble with the station - and then with the police. The whole thing ends, of course, with a spectacular ensemble number. Through it all, there are a lot of songs about weight, and lessons about race relations abound. Yet all these heavy issues (no pun intended) are made lighter by all the smiling, bopping and belting, in classic musical fashion.

The one (gigantic) sore spot in this whole outrageous production is John Travolta playing Tracy's mother, Edna Turnblad. In this role, Travolta is constantly giving the audience a chubby-eyed wink, so uncomfortable and outlandish in his fat suit and muumuus it made me squirm in uneasiness for him. He makes a mockery of the role of Edna and therefore of all of Edna's issues: her insecurities and eventual triumphant ownership over her weight are rendered meaningless in Travolta's performance. He comes across as a buffoonish caricature not of a large woman, but of a human being in general.

Aside from that, the rest of the cast is delicious. Nikki Blonsky has an infectious light-filled presence onscreen and a great, big voice to go with it. Zac Efron is completely adorable as - big stretch here - a somewhat narcissistic teen idol. Queen Latifah does her relaxed-yet-powerful thing, James Marsden is magnificently cheesy as Corny, and Allison Janney is hilarious as Penny's crazy, Bible-thumping mother. Amanda Bynes herself gets many of the funniest lines in the movie, and supplies the appropriate amount of cutesy naivete. Hopefully you'll get a lively audience like I did, one that cheers, laughs and claps as though the actors are there to hear the praise. This really is a fantastic musical, presenting real issues while simultaneously providing a raucous and heartfelt good time.

Movie Preview: Hairspray

BuzzSugar — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 16:31:01 -0700

Surely you're aware that Hairspray opens nationwide this Friday, that it was directed by Adam Shankman and stars Nikki Blonsky (both of whom I interviewed!), and that it features John Travolta wearing women's clothing and heavyset prosthetics. So, yeah, there's a lot going on with this movie. Based more on the stage musical than on John Waters' original 1988 film, this summer's Hairspray retains the same storyline: During the racially charged 1960s, the lovable Tracy Turnblad (Blonsky) takes Baltimore by storm when she not only makes it onto the local teen dance show, The Corny Collins Show, but strives to integrate the show as well. The movie also stars Queen Latifah, Allison Janney, Christopher Walken, Michelle Pfeiffer, Amanda Bynes, Brittany Snow and the adorable Zac Efron. Check out my full review this Friday, and if you haven't seen the toe-tappingly fun trailer, you can watch it if you read more

Photo courtesy of New Line Cinema

Buzz Interview: Hairspray's Nikki Blonsky and Adam Shankman

BuzzSugar — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 23:44:39 -0700

I recently sat down with Hairspray director/choreographer Adam Shankman and the star of the show, Nikki Blonsky, to discuss their film adaptation of the Broadway musical (which was itself a stage adaptation of John Waters' original 1988 movie). You'll hear more of my thoughts on the movie next week, though for the purposes of this interview I'll tell you I think this movie promises to be a major summer hit. Being a fan of John Waters' original, I was wary of this version but it turned out to be thoroughly enjoyable.

In the brief time we spent together, I didn't get to hear nearly enough from Miss Blonsky, the sweet 18-year-old who positively lights up the screen with her excitement and charm. Director Adam Shankman - who was a guest judge this week on "So You Think You Can Dance" - comes off as a passionate guy who likes to chat. A lot. Check it out:

On the topic of this version of Hairspray vs. John Waters' film:
ADAM: I was not concerned about competing with John’s movie because John Waters made me feel like this was my own baby. He was just like a proud grandfather in that he would support me no matter what. He’s just such a generous man. And I did not want to go away from it too much. We had lunch in Baltimore and he drove me to the neighborhood where he shot the movie and where the characters actually lived...and nothing’s changed! None of it, none of it’s changed since that period, since he made the movie... I felt like we were approaching it in a really unique way… I really broke it apart and I really made it my own.

There was a lot more to say, so read more

On the topic of Shankman's passion for Hairspray:
ADAM: You know what, [I feel so passionate about Hairspray] because I think I feel like Tracy. I feel like an outsider who never understood the word "can't," but that hovered over my head because of certain things, like being gay. I was Jewish in a heavily non-Jewish neighborhood, I was strangely handicapped even though I was like, this white kid born into an upper-middle-class family, so I came to realize that in our own really weird ways, what we are bonded by is that we are all somehow minorities. Which is why I don’t understand how fear in our country, and prejudice, exist.

And besides, what other musical has this kind of music that has so much power, so much energy, so much positivity, and is so goofy but is about something so real, and so relevant, and frankly, totally ripped from the headlines right now - with Don Imus, Michael Richards, Isaiah Washington, I mean we are still living in a climate of prejudice…The idea that I have the opportunity to make a movie that portrays racists as idiots was something that I felt strongly to do.

On searching for someone to play Tracy:
ADAM: I said from the beginning I needed a teenager playing the part of Tracy because I will not have any dishonesty about Tracy. And that is the tradition - that Edna is always a man and Tracy is always a newcomer and I was not going to shy away from that. Whoever was going to play Tracy had to be totally unencumbered by judgments. She had to be the shiny new face of courage and honesty. And I ended up finding this heavenly creature who is literally, exactly what Tracy is: working class, really pretty, plus-size and proud of it. I mean she sees no sexual lines no color lines, whatever, you know, literally no judgment. And the level of confidence that I saw in her audition was mind-blowing. And so you know when everybody else joined the cast they became a little bit intimidated, oddly, by her, because she has no pretense. And no baggage and no nothing.

On the other cast members:
ADAM: Everyone just kind of brought their A-game... Oh, and by the way everybody kind of ended up becoming who they were, you know, their characters, in a truly charming way. John became very maternal with [Nikki]. Michelle [Pfeiffer] really wanted to make sure everything was okay, you know she was white-knuckling it during some of those numbers sometimes. Amanda [Bynes] is a total goofball. And Queen Latifah - a one-woman NAACP. Christopher Walken - a walking joke shop. Oh, Zac Efron, teen idol, imagine! The only two people who are literally nothing like their characters are Brittany [Snow] and Allison [Janney]. Those are miraculous performances because they have absolutely zero in common with their characters… Jimmy [Marsden] is the corniest person on the planet.

On casting Nikki Blonsky in the role of Tracy:
ADAM: I was determined that [Tracy] was going to be young. And she was going to be somebody I wasn’t going to have to pad. And it was going to be somebody very pretty, and who could sing the crap out of the material.

Nikki read about it online, the audition, it was an open call, and she...submitted the tape and... I loved her. I couldn’t believe how sweet and real and innocent and like, her eyes were all over the place with excitement, and she was heavier, a lot heavier than she is now and... she just oozed confidence. Finally I was like, ‘You guys, it’s her.’

On Nikki's experience working on Hairspray:
NIKKI: I had the greatest time.

ADAM: If there had been 28 hours a day for her to shoot, she would have done it.

NIKKI (to Adam): Well, I mean, you took me out of this normal environment. I know what it’s like to work, you know, a part-time job [at Coldstone Creamery], get paid literally nothing and then have taxes taken out. So, I know what it’s like to be scrubbing toilets and scraping dried ice cream off the counter. And when I came into this I was just like, 'Oh my God, this is everything I’ve ever wanted to do, I just have to prove to them that they made the right choice. I’m going to give them everything that they want - and more.' 'Cause I was just determined to give them what they asked for.

On casting John Travolta, and how Hairspray rounds out his trio of musical movies: Grease (set in the 1950s), Saturday Night Fever (set in the 1970s) and now Hairspray (set in the 1960s):
ADAM: Unfortunately, I didn’t cast... he was being talked to before I got involved. What I was excited about, with the idea of him doing it, was all that – and then with including Michelle in there, you know, with Grease 2 and all that, it’s crazy. And I think what makes this all the same is that rock-n-roll musical, you know, they’re all similar in that way with the unabashed zeal, unapologetic breaking into song. We just went for it headlong in a way that was celebrant.

On what's next for Nikki:
NIKKI: I pray to continue in film, I’ve gotten the film bug, I would love it. I have just had the most amazing experience.

ADAM: She has a great relationship with the camera, that’s not something she could learn or buy, that’s the 'It' factor, you know? I think when we started out I had the camera this close to her and she didn't even blink. I am telling you, half that board (points to the giant cast poster for Hairspray) - and I’m not gonna tell you who - you start moving that camera close and they start moving away. [Nikki] was just like, 'What do you want me to do?' I think she should do more movies.

NIKKI: I want to do more movies, I mean that’s what I want to do. Maybe someday if I have the hunger to go to Broadway, maybe originate a role, that would be cool.

ADAM: I’ll say.

NIKKI: But I want to, right now, stick with more films.

A joke is made about remaking Pink Flamingos next:
ADAM: No, no, no. Why would you remake a John Waters just to remake it? It was the music that made us want to do this.

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"So You Think You Can Dance": The Top 14 Compete

BuzzSugar — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 10:29:03 -0700

I've said it every week: This year's crop of "So You Think You Can Dance" dancers is good. Really good. But this week, for the first time, I wondered if their overall goodness is making them a little dull. At this point, I feel like I know what to expect from each pair, and even though I love some of the current partnerships (Sabra/Dominic, Lacey/Kameron), I'm ready for things to be shaken up a little.

Talkative Hairspray director Adam Shankman (whose chatty ways I learned about firsthand when I interviewed him recently - check back tomorrow for that) showed up as this week's guest judge. While his rambling comments often rivaled Mary's for sheer length and goofiness, he also offered one interesting bit of commentary on the subject of Danny. Shankman said Danny acts like he's already been named the winner, and he needs to show some humility to go with his fantastic technique. Curiously, there was just a New York Times story on this very topic, asserting that Danny was too good to be on a "talent show" and shouldn't be considered aloof just because he doesn't stoop to mugging for the camera. For my part, I think Danny might be the best dancer in this competition, but I'm not sure I'm seeing the spark that would make him America's favorite dancer. What do you think?

Meanwhile, in another night of goodness, it's hard to pick favorites. Lauren (or should I say "Misha" - how weird was that?) and Neil impressed me this week, thanks to some awesome Wade Robson jazz choreography. Sabra and Dominic were so hot, they were practically on Cinemax. And I have to give a shoutout to Sara and her new partner Pasha for teaming up so well together and delivering a fun West Coast swing number choreographed by none other than reigning dance champ Benji Schwimmer.

To see which couples I'd put in the bottom - and see a gallery of photos from another night with several questionable costumes - read more

I wouldn't be surprised if Danny and Anya end up in the bottom three tonight, despite how strong and talented they both are. Aside from the Great Danny Debate, I think the two of them are almost too precise in their performances, and this time I didn't feel the same connection between them as I usually do. Hok and Jaimie tried hard to sell their waltz, but they couldn't disguise the fact that Hok looked pretty awkward attempting to glide across the stage. And, honestly, I'd put Cedric and Shauna in the bottom, too; I love Shauna, and I thought Cedric really did his best this week and even made Mary like him, but to me, their mambo seemed slow - and possibly dumbed-down for Cedric's benefit.

What do you think? Who was the best of the night? Who will be in danger at tonight's elimination? And what was up with Sara's outfit of sequined bikini, drapey fabric, and exposed faux-panties?

View 7 Photos ›

Photos courtesy of Fox

TV Tonight: "So You Think You Can Dance"

BuzzSugar — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 08:30:00 -0700

Apparently, when it comes to me and "So You Think You Can Dance," absence truly does make the heart grow fonder. I only had to go one week without this silly reality show, and yet every morning this week I've woken up with one thought in my head: "Is it Wednesday yet?" Reading the spoilers about who's dancing which routine this week (I know, I'm bad) only made it worse.

Luckily, tonight is finally the night the top 14 take to the stage. I'm most curious to see how Sara does with Pasha as her new partner, if Cedric can survive yet another week, and if Lauren will step things up. I'm also looking forward to this week's guest judge, Hairspray director and choreographer Adam Shankman.

Tell me: Have you also been in "So You Think You Can Dance" withdrawal? If so, you can watch an interview with Jessi and Jesus talking about their elimination if you read more

Photo and video courtesy of Fox

Rewind: This Week's Buzz

BuzzSugar — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 07:00:00 -0700

Halloween is around the corner! Take a peek at these festive TV pics and 10 fun film-inspired costumes. Plus, don't forget to vote in my scary movie bracket!
Speaking of spooky stuff, are you pumped for New Moon? I am - despite all those spoilers. Check out the brand new TwilightSugar.com (you can win a DVF bag!) and what the stars from the film (including Robert Pattinson himself) looked like before they hit it big.
So You Think You Can Dance judge Adam Shankman got another gig directing a Rock of Ages movie, and he helped narrow down the dancers on SYTYCD. Finally, we have our list of the Top 20!
Do you care about albums by American Idols? I'm mixed, yet I'm kind of liking Adam Lambert's music video.
Melrose Place is being revamped. No surprise there, since many of you have said that you're not into it - but what returning shows have let you down?
I spoke with the lovely Paula Patton for Part 1 of my exclusive interviews with the cast of Precious. Check back next week as I talk to the director, Lee Daniels!
New movies this weekend include Amelia, Cirque du Freak, and Motherhood. None of 'em knocked my socks off, but if you go this weekend, be sure to tell me what you think - and if you have any annoying audience members like these Buzz readers did!

Photo courtesy of The CW