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Buzz News Roundup, 8/10

BuzzSugar — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 13:30:58 -0700

Chase and Cameron will get their old jobs back on House. - Entertainment Weekly
Battlestar Galactica star Edward James Olmos will reportedly star alongside Seth Rogen and Cameron Diaz in The Green Hornet. - ComingSoon
Frank Langella will join the cast of Oliver Stone's sequel Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps, which already stars Shia LaBeouf and Michael Douglas. - Variety
King of the Hill's one-hour series finale will air Sept. 13. - Zap2it
Four more actors have joined the Red Dawn remake, including Tom Cruise's son Connor. - AP
The creator of The Shield is working on a new cop drama called Ridealong for Fox. - The Hollywood Reporter
Universal has bought the "body-switching comedy" Change Up by Hangover screenwriters Jon Lucas and Scott Moore. - Variety
TNT has renewed Hawthorne for a second season. - Broadcasting and Cable

Photo courtesy of Fox

Movie Preview: The Box

BuzzSugar — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 05:45:42 -0700

I've been watching out for director Richard Kelly's (Donnie Darko) movie The Box for a long time now, and I'm excited to say that while the premise sounds odd/silly, I think this could turn out to be a great film. Cameron Diaz and James Marsden play married couple Norma and Arthur Lewis who have a pretty storybook life but eventually run into money troubles. Cue very creepy music and Frank Langella showing up on their doorstep with a box. He tells them that if they push the button in the box someone they do not know will die and they will receive a lot of money.

Again, it sounds silly but so did a movie about a teenage boy who talks to a bunny rabbit named Frank, and we know how well that turned out (really well). The trailer is weird and creepy, and totally smacks of Richard Kelly. Count me in! The movie will hit theaters Oct. 30. To watch the trailer for yourself, read more.

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.

Frost/Nixon: A Solid and Entertaining Talkathon

BuzzSugar — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 11:30:01 -0800

Doubt and Frost/Nixon have a lot in common: Both are stage-to-screen adaptations, both are receiving a lot of awards buzz, and neither has a particularly compelling visual story to tell. Instead, the drama lies in the words people are saying. I've heard both of these movies referred to as "grown-up" cinema, which is probably apt given that it takes a pretty mature attention span to fully appreciate them.

All this might sound a bit boring but Frost/Nixon actually ends up being just the opposite. Playwright/screenwriter Peter Morgan is proving to be an expert at lifting the curtain on some of history's most intriguing leaders and applying his imagination to the factual outlines of their lives (he also wrote The Queen and The Last King of Scotland). To see why I think Morgan - with the help of director Ron Howard - has created another smart and absorbing movie, read more.

Frost/Nixon revisits some familiar cinematic ground with Richard Nixon. The disgraced thirty-seventh President of the United States has come to symbolize so many things and is often regarded as a deeply flawed, morally-challenged, Machiavellian caricature of himself. That's fun stuff for dramatists! It's no wonder everyone from Oliver Stone to Gene Hackman has tackled the man. Heck, there's even a book called Nixon at the Movies. But Morgan, Howard and Co. tell a new story with this movie, a story of the president's post-resignation TV inquisition by the most unlikely journalist/TV personality.

Frost (played by Michael Sheen reprising his stage role) is the underdog in this scenario who will take numerous punches while interviewing President Nixon (Frank Langella, who also originated the role on stage). Langella's Nixon is giant and lumbering and doesn't bear all that much resemblance to the actual guy. The power of his performance lies in the way he conveys the complexities and emotions of a man who was practically kicked out of the White House.

Frost sets out to resuscitate his career by getting Nixon to sit down for a multi-session television interview with the metaphorical death blow being when he corners the president into giving the American people the confession of guilt he'd thus far avoided. Frost and his research team (played with humor and charm by Sam Rockwell, Oliver Platt, and the super cute Matthew Macfadyen) come up against all kinds of obstacles in between each sit-down - including getting someone to pay for and air the interview. Meanwhile, Nixon's intellect and question-dodging abilities prove to be formidable, giving this talkfest most of its nail-biting moments.

In retrospect it's amazing that so much talking between two men about familiar events can lend itself to such a natural dramatic arc. This is a well-matched duel between two giant egos. Both are in it for something but only one can triumph. Nixon is a tough beast to slay, but just when you think Frost is down, you can bet (as is the case in most movies based on a match like this) the little guy will eventually rally. All in all, it's a smart movie that manages to get your adrenaline pumping with lots of words.

Photos courtesy of Universal Pictures

Movie Preview: Ron Howard's Frost/Nixon

BuzzSugar — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 05:45:47 -0700

"There's a reason they called him Tricky Dick."

The international trailer for the new Ron Howard movie, Frost/Nixon, has arrived and from what I can tell it looks pretty amazing. Based on the well-received play of the same title by Peter Morgan (the same man who wrote the script for The Queen), the movie chronicles the true story of a series of televised interviews Nixon gave to British journalist David Frost in 1977. Both lead actors in the movie played the same roles on the stage: Frank Langella as Nixon and Michael Sheen as Frost.

This is a really good trailer and I'm trying to figure out what's so gripping. Obviously the story is an interesting one but it doesn't look like it's presented in an overly simplistic way, and I get the sense that the shades of grey that defined this moment in time are handled with care. Also, the cast looks stellar. Langella appears to be pulling off Nixon just fine, Sheen already has me pinned to my seat, and then throw in Kevin Bacon, Sam Rockwell, Oliver Platt and Rebecca Hall and I'm sold.

If you want to learn more about the play, check out this interesting clip of The Charlie Rose show. The movie opens December 5 (hopefully) and to check out the trailer for yourself, read more.

Source

Buzz News Roundup, 5/23

BuzzSugar — Fri, 23 May 2008 14:30:57 -0700

ComingSoon has the newly announced NBC Fall premiere dates, which includes a two-hour season premiere of Heroes on Monday September 22.
Hellboy's Ron Perlman will star in the upcoming FX series Sons of Anarchy, writes Hollywood Reporter.
There's now a Bruce Lee Broadway musical in the works, Variety writes.
According to Billboard, Jonathan Demme is now directing the Bob Marley documentary, replacing Martin Scorsese.
Marvel Studios will adapt the series Runaways for the big screen, ComingSoon reports.
Beau Bridges has been cast in an untitled ABC comedy pilot, according to Zap2It.
Law & Order and Criminal Intent have been renewed for another season, Reuters reports.
Variety has news that Frank Langella will topline a Broadway production of A Man for All Seasons in the Fall.

Photo courtesy of NBC

The Box: An Inadequate Package to Unwrap

BuzzSugar — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:30:56 -0800

I so wanted The Box to be a worthy successor to Donnie Darko, director Richard Kelly's first film and much-appreciated cult fave. Unfortunately, I didn't exactly get my wish.

The Box is a highly stylized, good-looking thriller, from the retro 1976 Virginia setting to the Barbie and Ken looks of leads Cameron Diaz and James Marsden. They play husband and wife Arthur and Norma Lewis, who run into a bit of a financial jam when a strange opportunity conveniently presents itself. A creepy, disfigured man (Frank Langella) offers them a million dollars if they push a button inside a box - but a stranger will die if they do.

Kelly has all the right elements and the creativity to give us a hip, entertaining thriller, but there are a number of blatant missteps that make the movie unsatisfying. To see more about what I mean, just read more.

Kelly puts his stamp on everything, namely the constant eerie atmosphere and the random sinister characters (apparently an old person standing still in the road is his trademark). Though many questioned the casting of Cameron Diaz and her requisite Virginia accent, there was a similar doubt when Drew Barrymore and Patrick Swayze were cast in Darko, and it ended up working. With Diaz, it's not that I would say that she nailed the part, but that the accent and greater aspects of the plot are very campy. And I like campy, but I don't know if that's what the film is going for.

If you're not taking it seriously, the movie is a pretty good time, with some frightening scenes and jumps. There are also many parts that are supposed to be creepy, but they're so labored that they come out as funny. Like, laugh out loud in the theater funny. I wouldn't call that a failure, I'd just invoke the term I used before campy.

The major problem the movie runs into is when it begins exploring these sci-fi and supernatural angles, which end up being red herrings. For instance, much is made of Arthur's job at NASA and Mars, which made me think we were in for a weird, wild sci-fi ride. I was ready to embrace something really out there (I'm a big David Lynch fan, after all), but you don't really get it. There are so many elements that are introduced but never followed to a conclusion, so you're left shrugging your shoulders when the movie ends. It's even more perplexing because the mystery of The Box itself is explained, but you're left with all these details that went nowhere, in retrospect. It's one thing to leave things open-ended, but you have to give the audience something to work with.

Honestly, if you're a Kelly fan, you'll probably find it enjoyable. But if you want complete resolution, I'd wait for the director's cut.

Photos courtesy of Warner Bros.