BuzzSugar

Buzz News Roundup, 3/26

BuzzSugar — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 13:30:47 -0700

According to Variety, a celebrity-studded version of Family Feud will be coming to primetime.
The Hollywood Reporter writes that Shekhar Kapur will direct the late Anthony Minghella's last project, a short film for the anthology New York, I Love You.
Hugh Jackman and TV writer/producer Marc Guggenheim are co-creating an original comic book series titled Nowhere Man, ComingSoon reports.
Zap2It has news that Jaime King will star in a 3-D remake of the 1981 horror flick My Bloody Valentine.
Variety reports that TV judges are getting their own Daytime Emmy Awards category.
VH1's Rock Honors will only honor The Who this year, the Associated Press reports.
Gabrielle Union is set to star in Cadillac Records, playing Muddy Waters' girlfriend Geneva Wade, writes ComingSoon.
A Broadway musical version of A Tale of Two Cities will head to New York this summer, Variety reports.

Director Anthony Minghella Dies at Age 54

BuzzSugar — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 10:30:05 -0700

Oscar-winning director Anthony Minghella died today at the age of 54 of a hemorrhage following surgery. He won the Best Director Oscar in 1997 for The English Patient, and was later nominated for his work on The Talented Mr. Ripley. He also directed Cold Mountain and the 2006 drama Breaking and Entering.

According to the AP, "Minghella's publicist, Jonathan Rutter, said the filmmaker died at London's Charing Cross Hospital. He said Minghella was operated on last week for a growth in his neck, 'and the operation seemed to have gone well. At 5 a.m. today he had a fatal hemorrhage.'"

His latest projects included the adaptation of Alexander McCall Smith's book series The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, which Minghella filmed in Botswana and which will be turned into a 13-part series for HBO. He was also scheduled to direct a short for the film anthology New York, I Love You (the New York version of the 2006 anthology Paris, je t'aime). In addition to serving as executive producer on various projects like Michael Clayton and the Kate Winslet film Iris, Minghella has one acting credit on his filmography: he played the interviewer at the end of Atonement.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is quoted as saying, "Anthony Minghella was a wonderful human being, creative and brilliant, but still humble, gentle and a joy to be with. Whatever I did with him, personally or professionally, left me with complete admiration for him, as a character and as an artist of the highest caliber."

Minghella photo source

HBO Has Female-Driven Programming On Deck

BuzzSugar — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 14:31:11 -0700

This year we've seen two network TV shows, Cashmere Mafia and Lipstick Jungle, that have tried to recreate the magic of HBO's Sex and the City, with mixed results. By contrast, HBO itself is moving on, leaving SATC for the big screen and once again developing interesting and unexpected female-driven projects.

Jill Scott and Anika Noni Rose will star in Oscar-winning director Anthony Minghella's adaptation of the popular book series the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. The project, about an all-female private detective agency in Botswana, was originally developed as a movie. Variety reports that this story will now be told on the small screen as HBO has ordered 13 episodes of it. If this sounds confusingly similar to another recent female detective project, never fear, I've broken down the differences between the two. As for the other female-led show HBO has on deck, it's a little quirky, so read more.

Actually, "quirky" is probably a generous way to describe this other HBO project, though I think it will end up being quirky-awesome, not quirky-awkward. Apparently, The comedy is titled Driving Around With Joni and follows "a woman who spends her days driving around Los Angeles with her French bulldog, looking for meaning in her life after the sudden death of her husband." No word on who will star as the widow. Got suggestions?

French bulldog image source