BuzzSugar

Buzz News Roundup, 8/5

BuzzSugar — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 13:30:23 -0700

Hugh Jackman will reportedly take the role of legendary showman P.T. Barnum in the musical tale The Greatest Showman on Earth, with Anne Hathaway possibly starring opposite him. - AP
Alyssa Milano's comedy, Romantically Challenged, has been picked up for a midseason slot on ABC. - The Hollywood Reporter
14-year-old actress Jodelle Ferland is joining The Twilight Saga: Eclipse as a vampire who has just been turned. - Variety
Katherine Heigl's next leading man will be Josh Duhamel when the two star together in the romantic drama *Life As We Know It. - ComingSoon
Syfy has picked up Alphas, which was originally in development for ABC as Section 8. - The Hollywood Reporter
The movie about an all-female prison band, Goree Girls starring Jennifer Aniston, now has a director: Grey Gardens director Michael Sucsy. - Variety
Ratings for Jon and Kate Plus 8's return episode on Monday were still solid but were down from the peak seen earlier this year. - USA Today
Nickelodeon's teen network plans to make a TV series version of the young adult book series Catwalk. - The Hollywood Reporter
Jason Segel is attached to star alongside Jonah Hill and Jason Schwartzman in the comedy The Adventurer's Handbook. - ComingSoon

Jennifer Aniston Starts Production Co., Announces Projects

BuzzSugar — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 10:29:46 -0700

Brad Pitt can have his Plan B - Jennifer Aniston will do just fine with her own production company, thank you very much. Joining forces with producing partner Kristin Hahn (who served as executive producer on The Departed), Aniston is creating Echo, a production company with a first-look deal at Universal Pictures. Variety has more:

Echo's emphasis will be on producing grounded, relatable material, the partners say. . ."We're drawn to stories about people finding their voice and finding their way because they help us as listeners and viewers do what we feel we're all trying to do, which is making sense of our lives through the stories of others," Aniston said. "That's why we chose the name Echo, to echo back an idea, a challenge, something that resonates through all of us."

The busy duo has already acquired several projects for Echo, some of which sound pretty great. Of course, there's the singing Texan female prisoners movie Goree Girls which will also star Aniston. And then there's my favorite of the bunch: "Chemistry, a David Sussman-scripted dramedy centered around the fact that romantic love and obsessive compulsive disorder demonstrate similar brain chemistry." For a list of the other movies Echo will be handling, read more.

Getting Rid of Matthew: "[Jane] Fallon, a veteran U.K. TV producer who is married to Ricky Gervais, will adapt her novel about a hard-charging publicist whose lusty affair with a married man is ruined by his decision to leave his wife and two children for her. She invents a new persona, befriends the spurned wife and attempts to patch up the marriage up so she can be rid of him. In the process, she develops a thing for his oldest son."
The Divorce Party: "As a husband and wife reach their 35th wedding anniversary, they hold a party to announce their divorce. It creates complications for their son, who returns home with his commitment-shy fiancee."
Counter-Clockwise: "A true story based on a study conducted by Harvard prof and psychologist Ellen Langer in which she tried to reverse the aging process of subjects by re-creating the era of their prime."
Love: Todd: "A drama about an aging tennis pro-turned-coach who gets schooled by a precocious teen tennis phenom."

Source

Jennifer Aniston to Produce Prison Musical

BuzzSugar — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 10:30:23 -0700

The news:
Jennifer Aniston will produce Goree Girls, a 1940s musical about singing female prisoners.

Come again?
You read correctly. Reuters has details:

Goree Girls revolves around eight women at Texas' Goree Prison during the 1940s who formed one of the first all-female country and western acts in the country and captured the hearts of millions of fans in the process.

Craziest part:
Aniston may star in the movie. Singing. Hey, maybe she'll surprise me, like Renee Zellweger did playing a singing prisoner in Chicago.

My prediction:
I'm envisioning something like A League of Their Own, just set in a prison. And, you know, a musical.

Source

Buzz Battle: What Is the Scariest Movie Ever?

BuzzSugar — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 06:30:00 -0700

We're almost at the end of our long battle to determine the Scariest Movie of All Time. The two movies left standing are definitely among the classics of the horror genre: The Exorcist and The Shining. We've heard some pretty heavy arguments for each side, (particularly from my girl Fab, a horror aficionado who is on team Shining all the way) - and even the Buzz editors stand as a team divided. In today's Buzz battle, we'll give you our arguments on why each movie deserves the ultimate title.

Editor S will support The Shining while Editor B will make a case for The Exorcist. Don't forget to make your own pick after reading our arguments!

Editor S: As someone's who's long been a chicken about watching scary movies, I tend to get freaked out by a horror flick, and then eventually get over it. I have never gotten over The Shining. It's scary because it's more disturbing than anything; it's not a supernatural story like The Exorcist that you can choose not to believe in; cabin fever could realistically happen to someone - someone you know.
Editor B rebuttal: I will admit that I do think The Shining is terrifying, but it didn't haunt me the way The Exorcist does. That face? That voice? The imagery of a girl crabwalking backwards down the stairs is imprinted in my brain! You can't unsee that kinda stuff, though I wish I could. And cabin fever may be real, but The Exorcist left me believing that maybe possession is real too.

To see the rest of the arguments, just read more.

Editor S: The Shining has just about every horrific horror film element you can think of: gore, psychological disintegration, cabin fever, possession; but none of them define the movie. It's such a complex, well done film with great acting and directing. While there are a few shocks, some of the scariest moments of the movie are the quietest, like when you gaze down an empty hall, see Jack at his desk, working, or discover what's been typed on Jack's typewriter over and over again with his wife. Because the terror is so simmering and pervasive in the movie, there's no time you can stop stressing out, no calm scenes in between the madness.
Editor B rebuttal: The Exorcist has all the elements that make horror films fun and terrifying at the same time. Monstrous images? Check. Creepy child? Check. Excessive amounts of bodily fluids (hello, green bile)? Check. Not to mention the over-the-top campiness, suspenseful moments, and perhaps the scariest theme music of all time. Oh, and levitation. Talk about being stressed out - just when you think there's a safe moment, a vision of the devil flashes across the scene, trying to brainwash us all.
Editor S closing argument: With most scary movies, you can become desensitized to a gory murder scene, tell yourself it's just a movie, but that doesn't work with The Shining. It stays with you more; even as great an actor as Jack Nicholson is, I'll never not see him wielding an axe at his terrified wife. And I'm also irrationally scared of empty hotels.
Editor B: The Exorcist is the kind of movie that you can watch at 10:30 in the morning, surrounded by friends and family, and still be scared to your core. (Ever had a daymare? This is the fast track to get you there). Jack Nicholson went on to find fame with other films, but nobody could ever look at Linda Blair again without envisioning her head turning all the way around.

So, which movie has your vote?

Zombieland: The Feel-Good Zombie Flick of the Year

TresSugar — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 11:30:23 -0700

A Note From Buzz: With so many new movies this week, my friend Très was nice enough to apply her scary-movie expertise to review the box office's newest zombie flick.

In the United States of Zombieland, zombies outnumber people. A mad-cow tainted burger tipped the population in favor of the drooling, limping, and grunting set, and now zombies roam a crashed-car littered, empty-minimall-blighted zombiescape.

Columbus (Adventureland's Jesse Eisenberg), the virginal antihero of horror-comedy Zombieland, has learned to survive this zombie apocalypse by keeping a list of necessary survival skills. Rule #1? Cardio. If you don't want zombies gnawing on you like an hors d'oeuvre, you'd better be fast and limber. In addition, beware of bathrooms, practice the "double tap" (make sure your zombie's actually dead after you kill him), and don't be a hero. (Regarding this last rule - some rules were made to be broken.)

When Columbus meets up with Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), a swaggering cowboy type with a penchant for tank-like cars, shotguns, and Twinkies, and the spitfire sister duo of Wichita (Emma Stone) and Arkansas (Little Miss Sunshine's Abigail Breslin), Zombieland takes off like a scary/fun amusement park ride. To find out what happens on this motley crew's wild road trip from hell, read more

There's something funny about zombies and the zombie genre, and in his first feature film, director Ruben Fleischer plays their comic possibilities to the hilt. Zombies don't have what you'd call well-rounded personalities; they're pretty predictable. They have bad attitudes, come out of nowhere, grunt, and see all nonzombies as food to feast on. They're the perfect foil (or straight men, even) to a cast of characters with more than enough personality to make up for the zombies' boorish one dimensionality.

Take nebbishy Columbus. The world changed for him, he tells us in an early voice-over, when a pretty neighbor he calls #406, asks to stay over because a crazed homeless man tries to bite her. Sadly, although she falls asleep on Columbus's shoulder, she wakes up as a rabid zombie and begins chasing him around his apartment, forcing him to repeatedly knock her over the head with a toilet lid. "The first time I let a girl in my life," deadpans Columbus, "and she tries to eat me."

This kind of witty dialogue abounds in Zombieland, and although fans of gore and violence against zombies will be more than satisfied (Tallahassee's scenes of zombie-killing, especially, have a Tarantinoesque choreography to them), it's really the mismatched goofball characters and how they bond and evolve, surprisingly, that hold the film together. A hilarious cameo from Bill Murray in the Beverly Hills sequence of Zombieland, also, is practically worth the price of admission.

Harrelson chews the scenery as Tallahassee, but as we find out, part of the reason he's hell-bent on killing zombies is because they took away his baby boy. As for the sisters, tough-girl Wichita just wants to take care of her little sister Arkansas (who, as a good shot, doesn't seem to need much help), but a beautiful girl has needs, too, and before long she develops feelings for Columbus. Will he or won't he finally be able to live out his nerd-boy fantasy of brushing the hair over a girl's ear?

You probably know the answer to that question, but just because Zombieland adheres to certain formulas doesn't mean that it doesn't revive them in witty ways. Although the zombie-killing gore fest may not be for everyone, Zombieland's amazing visuals, charming characters, and witty dialogue may leave a goofy grin on your face as you leave the theater.

Photos courtesy of Sony Pictures

The Vampire Diaries: The Good, the Bad, and the Bloody

BuzzSugar — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 09:30:25 -0700

The Vampire Diaries must be doing something right, because the CW just ordered nine more episodes of the freshman series. I'm pretty psyched - with its third episode, "Friday Night Bites," Diaries has become one of my favorites of the Fall season.

Even though I've been gushing over Ian Somerhalder's Damon, this week the episode belonged to sensitive Stefan, who put down the blood bag, picked up the football, and brought out the high-school girl in me, who roots for the hot quarterback. Of course, the show hasn't lost all its cheesiness, which I'm ready to talk about (spoilers ahead) when you read more.

The Good

Nina Dobrev really won me over in this episode - her portrayal of Elena got a little more complex this week, which, I guess, is due to Elena getting more complex. I cheered for her when she slaps Damon after leaning in for a kiss, declaring unwaveringly, "I am NOT Katherine."
Speaking of that interaction, the sexual tension between Elena and Damon is out of control, rejections notwithstanding. Her chemistry with Stefan is also great, but the Damon-Elena dynamic is worthy of Eric and Sookie on that other vampire show.
The atmosphere has gone from cheesy (the fog) to palpably creepy. It's not just about the vampiric stuff, either; when Bonnie sees the numbers that have been playing in her head (so Lost-y!) around Coach Tanner's murder scene, I got chills. By the by - can Bonnie predict deaths? That's so much better than a vague psychic or seeing the future ability, but I have a feeling it won't be that specific.
The dialogue seems to get better and better with each episode. It helps when you have Kevin Williamson writing and people like Ian Somerhalder delivering it with such ease: "BTW. That means by the way." You can educate me about acronyms all day, Damon.

The Bad

This is a complaint about many vampire shows or movies, but why do people always think a vampire attack is an animal attack? I get it, a wild animal would bite and go for the neck, but is it really the only possibility to people? Elena: "What kind of animal could be doing all this? Why would it come out of the woods and attack someone in the middle of town?" Exactly. What kind of crack police force does Mystic Falls have?
Thanks for listening to me about the diary writing, Vampire Diaries, but I still saw one crow! It's not really creepy, it's just weird.

The Bloody

So apparently every episode is going to open with a scary scene. I can handle that, now that I know to be prepared. This week's opener is pretty small potatoes in the gore department, but I was still terrified as I watched Damon breathe and sleep (such a faker!) while Caroline tiptoed around the room.
Damon didn't do much to disprove Stefan's humanity theory when he kills Coach Tanner in front of him. The guy was a total douche, taunting his students, and Elena's aunt called him an "asshat" last week. Asshats don't last long in the horror genre. Good riddance.

So were you rah-rahing this week's episode with me? I'm really intrigued for the next few episodes - I want to know more about this Katherine-Damon-Stefan love triangle and, surprisingly, Bonnie. What did you like and dislike about "Friday Night Bites"?

Photo courtesy of The CW