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Buzz News Roundup, 7/10

BuzzSugar — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:30:35 -0700

Ryan Seacrest is close to a deal that would bring him back as American Idol host with a significant raise. - The Hollywood Reporter
Zooey Deschanel is joining James Franco and Natalie Portman in the comedy Your Highness. She will play Belladonna, Franco's virginal bride. - ComingSoon
Brooke Shields, Dick Van Dyke, Ken Jeong, and Samantha Bee have come aboard the live-action family comedy Furry Vengeance. - The Hollywood Reporter
Here are some new characters coming to Ugly Betty in the Fall. - TV Guide
And here are a couple of new roles on Big Love. - Entertainment Weekly
BBC Films has acquired the bestselling Chris Cleave novel Little Bee, and Nicole Kidman has attached herself as star and producer. - Variety
Gary Ross, who directed Tobey Maguire in Seabiscuit and Pleasantville, will rewrite the script for Spider-Man 4. - ComingSoon
I Am Legend director Francis Lawrence may be reuniting with Will Smith for a fantastical drama titled The City That Sailed. - The Hollywood Reporter

Photo courtesy of Fox

Buzz News Roundup, 6/12

BuzzSugar — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:00:58 -0700

The next James Bond movie has gotten Frost/Nixon writer Peter Morgan to co-write the script, and Daniel Craig is confirmed to reprise his role as Bond. Variety
SPIN magazine is celebrating the 25th anniversary of Prince's Purple Rain with a free downloadable tribute that features nine bands doing covers of the record's classic tracks. - Billboard
Michael Cunningham, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hours, has written a scary genre thriller titled Beautiful Girl. - Variety
It looks like the Lance Armstrong biopic finally has a writer: Seabiscuit writer/director Gary Ross. - ComingSoon
TV stations across the US started cutting their analog signals this morning, and the FCC has put 4,000 operators on standby for calls from confused viewers. - The Hollywood Reporter
Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle has signed a three-year producing pact with Fox Searchlight. - Variety
J.J. Abrams says he will be producing the fourth Mission: Impossible film and that he and Tom Cruise "have come up with a really cool idea." - ComingSoon
The View co-host Joy Behar will host The Joy Behar Show, a one-hour primetime talk show, on HLN (formerly Headline News). - The Hollywood Reporter

Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures

Tobey Maguire Set for Drama About Landmark Civil Rights Case

BuzzSugar — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:30:59 -0700

Spider-Man 3 is in the news this week as The Dark Knight surpasses its record-breaking opening weekend but that doesn't mean the star of the superhero franchise is slowing down. Tobey Maguire is set to star in a drama titled The Crusaders about the historic Brown v. Board of Education case. According to Variety:

Maguire would play Jack Greenberg, who, as an idealistic lawyer fresh out of law school, joined with NAACP Legal Defense Fund head and future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall to win a Supreme Court case that ruled segregation in American schools illegal.

Besides Maguire, there's some interesting behind-the-scenes talent involved as well. Gary Ross, who's worked with Maguire before on Pleasantville and Seabiscuit will direct and the writer of the recent HBO film Recount, Jay Roach, is working on the movie's script. It's been a while since I've seen a powerful, well-done drama about the civil rights movement and I'll be curious to watch this project unfold.

Are you glad to see Maguire getting back to his dramatic pre-Spidey roots?

Source

"On the Lot": Five Ford Commercials ... Er, Road Films

BuzzSugar — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 09:33:42 -0700

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that this week's "On the Lot" was sponsored even more generously than usual by Ford. The five remaining directors all made films about the wonders of the open road - and, it would seem, the wonder of driving Ford vehicles on it. At one point, Adrianna Costa even stood like a showroom model next to one giant SUV, just in case we weren't getting the message.

Before we could get to the "road films," we had to see who was going to be eliminated after last week's comedies. Adrianna told the gang that Zach and Andrew had the fewest votes, but Zach just barely nosed ahead out to stay in the competition. Jason, meanwhile, won the box office tally again; as a reward, he got to work with Jerry O'Connell this week. Hmmm ... blessing or curse?

This week's guest judge was Gary Ross of Seabiscuit. The other Garry was mysteriously absent, but his sister Penny filled in instead, showing that babbling runs in the family. As for the five new films:

Adam started off the night with Driving Under the Influence, about a car stereo that makes people dance against their will. I think Adam's really at his best when he does things with dancing, for whatever reason, though I thought the ending was ridiculous. Carrie agreed that Adam rocks at the dancing, Gary thought it worked, and Penny was about as coherent as Garry typically is.
Sam came next with Backseat Driving Test, about a young man whose mother is an insufferable backseat driver. She gets sent to backseat driving rehab, which seems to consist mostly of being driven around a course at high speed with dust flying everywhere. It was a lot of driving effects and not a lot else, in my opinion. Carrie said it was Sam's best movie, while Gary was impressed with the effects and Penny smiled a lot.

Three more, so read more

Zach apparently wants to get kicked off, because he came back from his near-elimination with a sequel to the film that almost did him in, Bonus Feature 2. It did have something more of a story than last week's, it's true, but I also would never classify it as a "road movie," thus putting him into some dangerous Marty Martin-esque territory. Carrie said it was better than last week's and babbled some stuff about Zach being extraordinary, Gary thought it was good storytelling, and Penny said Zach took the notes from last week and came back with a better film.
Jason got the prize of putting Jerry O'Connell in his film, The Move. I'm kind of confused; it was either about a guy moving or about a prank Jerry O'Connell's character played on a friend, and I'm honestly not sure which. Carrie was confused too, Gary said it was well shot but the big reveal at the end made no sense, and Penny may or may not have made a racist comment about Asian people(?).
Will finished things off with Road Rage 101, about a guy who beats up on his car while he's stuck in traffic - until the car starts to fight back. Fox is clearly hammering on Will being the sentimental favorite, as his intro package again mentioned that this is Will's last chance in film, but this was not one of his best. Carrie mostly praised Will's earlier work, Gary was impressed with some of the technical stuff but wished we'd learned more about the character of the car, and Penny said she didn't understand why the guy was so mad at the car in the first place.

Judges' favorites: Gary and Carrie picked Adam's, while Penny picked Sam's.

As for me, I'd put Adam at the top of my list, while Jason and Zach were my least favorites. I would think Jason would be the one heading home, but whichever cross-section of America still watches this show seems to love him. Thoughts?

Photo courtesy of Fox