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Would You Watch a J.J. Abrams Medical Comedy?

BuzzSugar — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 12:30:02 -0700

J.J. Abrams, the king of TV sci-fi, is looking for laughs. The man behind Lost and Fringe just signed on to executive produce a "comedic medical show" for FOX. Random!

I've always been a huge fan of Abrams, but I've never thought of him as a funny ha-ha kinda guy. Yes, his shows have had their goofy moments - Felicity's Richard used to always make me guffaw - but this is the same guy who creates smoke monsters. This is a total departure from his usual territory.

Not that I won't watch. Shows based around hospitals may be a dime a dozen these days, but with the old Scrubs that I loved on its way out, this could be a potential worthy replacement. Plus, everything that Abrams touches seems to turn into ratings gold.

What do you guys think of this news? Will you watch J.J. Abrams's new comedy when it comes out?

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

Should William Shatner Have Been in the New Star Trek?

BuzzSugar — Fri, 15 May 2009 14:30:26 -0700

During the run-up to the premiere of J.J. Abrams's wildly successful Star Trek reboot, William Shatner was not shy about expressing how hurt he was to be left out of the movie.

Recently, two of the movie's writers said in an interview that there was a scene written for him originally. Ultimately, though, their idea didn't feel "organic" enough and they didn't end up using it.

Now that I've seen the movie I still can't decide if including Shatner would have been a good idea or not. On one hand, it's a nice nod to older fans and could have been an easy passing-of-the-torch gesture. On the other hand, if a scene doesn't work it doesn't work, and making a good movie was obviously the top priority for Abrams and his team.

What do you think? Should the new Star Trek filmmakers have found a way to include Shatner?

Source

Box Office: Trek Hits No. 1 at Warp Speed

BuzzSugar — Mon, 11 May 2009 06:30:33 -0700

J.J. Abrams' reboot of Star Trek was a smash success this weekend with an estimated $76.5 million (including $4 million Thursday night), taking the top spot at the box office (though not surpassing X-Men Origins: Wolverine's opening weekend take of $85 million, as so many of you thought it would). This was "the biggest Trek opening yet, soaring past the previous high of Star Trek: First Contact, which started at $30.7 million or the equivalent of over $50 million adjusted for ticket price inflation."

Meanwhile Wolverine "wilted to an X-Men franchise low" in the wake of Star Trek, coming in at No. 2 with an estimated $27 million. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past took the third spot, followed by Obsessed and 17 Again in fourth and fifth place.

Sounds like good word of mouth quickly spread about Star Trek. Were you swayed by the stellar (ha, ha) reviews? Did you head out to see it?

Photos courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Star Trek: Move Over Kirk, Spock Is Hot

BuzzSugar — Fri, 08 May 2009 10:30:01 -0700

To be honest, I'm not a huge Star Trek fan. Obviously as a member of the human race who was raised in the United States, I've been exposed to the original television show and many of its different iterations. I've even seen some of the movies including Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (responsible for my lifelong fear of earwigs) and the movie I commonly refer to as "the one with the whales," aka Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

So, getting me to be excited for anything Star Trek related is a bit of an uphill battle. Given that, it's a pretty amazing thing director J.J. Abrams and his team have accomplished with this reboot. The movie successfully turns back the clock on a franchise four decades old and brings it back to life with an adrenaline shock to the system that will leave you breathless. And in pure Abrams fashion, the story and characterization do not suffer. The result is popcorn cinema at its best. Despite not being a Trekkie (or Trekker, or whatever you call megafans these days), I can't stop thinking about this movie. To see why, read more.

The question I had going into this movie was: How does one reimagine Star Trek for today's audience without completely alienating hardcore fans? The answer, it turns out, was to simply start over. In a clever twist, the opening sequence sets into motion events that alter the space/time continuum. Yes - and this will come as no surprise to Lost fans - Abrams uses time travel that bends around certain facts. Rather than disregard Trek lore, the filmmakers simply figured out an acceptable way to start fresh with the characters.

Because of these time-bending events, James T. Kirk, the future captain of the USS Enterprise, grows up fatherless in Iowa. He's brilliant but extremely self-destructive. Meanwhile, on Vulcan, a young Spock is teased and discriminated against for having a human mother (Winona Ryder). We know the two young men are destined to meet but when they finally do it's different than what you might imagine. When Kirk (played by Chris Pine with a wink and nod to the original performance) meets Spock (Zachary Quinto) at the Starfleet Academy they do not get along. Kirk is all swagger and machismo. Spock is, of course, logical but Quinto plays him with a smug know-it-all edge that hints at the human emotions beneath the surface.

However, when the movie's villain Nero (Eric Bana) declares war on Vulcan and then Earth, it's all-hands-on-deck time and the two must work together. A bunch of green, yet familiar, cadets - Dr. "Bones" McCoy (Karl Urban), Uhura (Zoe Saldana), Sulu (John Cho), Chekov (Anton Yelchin), and eventually Scotty (Simon Pegg) - suddenly find themselves in charge of a brand-new ship. There are moments when seeing these good-looking youngsters in such a well-known uniform feels a little bit like the Trek version of Muppet Babies. But that feeling is fleeting and for the most part the performances are heartfelt and quite funny.

In the midst of chaos and war, Kirk and Spock become friends - but not before Spock violently pins Kirk's cocky butt to the floor. In Abrams's universe, Spock aims for logic but often succumbs to his emotions, messy though they may be. Pine charges through the film with all the charisma needed in a golden-haired leading man, but in a lot of ways this is Quinto's movie and he actually turns Spock into something of a sex symbol. Some fans might find these changes to the characters' personalities sacrilegious, but I just appreciate the fact that their friendship provides the movie with an emotional center.

In the end, the experience is completely satisfying. There are in-jokes galore that even a Trek philistine like myself found thrilling and there are action sequences that had me on the edge of my seat. It's thoughtful, it looks great, and it's completely absorbing. In terms of epic action-adventures, it doesn't get much better than this.

Photos courtesy of Paramount Pictures

BuzzSugar at WonderCon: Star Trek and Terminator Preach to the Choir

BuzzSugar — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 09:30:10 -0800

It was an insane - not to mention insanely fun - weekend at WonderCon here in San Francisco. I already reported back on the exciting Watchmen panel, and now I'm giving the lowdown on the panels I attended for Star Trek and Terminator Salvation. The directors of both movies showed up to explain to a crowd of devotees how they think they've done right by fans with these reboots. To read what J.J. Abrams and McG had to say about reviving beloved franchises with care, read more.

Warning!: The following might be considered spoilery.

Star Trek:

Well, Heroes may not be pleasing all the fans lately, but Zachary Quinto (who plays Spock in the movie) remains a hot commodity to this crowd - the lady screams were loud and long when he appeared onstage. Chris Pine (Kirk) and Zoe Saldana (Lt. Nyota Uhura) also showed up alongside J.J. Abrams for the panel.
Anton Yelchin has big parts in both Star Trek and Terminator but didn't take the stage for Star Trek.
Everyone talked with deep reverence for the Trek canon, though their levels of fandom vary (Abrams admitted he never really watched the show but was still excited about this movie).

It sounded like Quinto got a lot of time with Leonard Nimoy, and Pine said of following in William Shatner's footsteps, "Mr. Shatner's incredibly funny . . . it's that twinkle in his eye that's like, you know, anything can happen. Something I couldn't try to re-create for the life of me."
We saw a brand new world premiere trailer that is similar to the last one, but includes new goose-bump-inducing scenes like a young Kirk sitting down in the captain's seat on the Enterprise bridge for the first time.
J.J. Abrams threw the crowd some Cloverfield sequel news crumbs, too, saying, "We have an idea for something that's pretty cool . . . the idea is pretty sweet!"

Terminator Salvation

Director McG entered the stage and was pumped about his movie. He kicked things off with the premiere of a whole new trailer that fans will see before Watchmen and that is totally different than anything we've seen so far. This one focuses more on story and less on robots, as we learn that humans are being collected and harvested by Skynet.
One of the funniest moments of the panel was when McG responded to the moderator's request to address the now infamous Christian Bale on-set meltdown with, "What don't you f*cking understand?"
Talent included Yelchin (who plays Kyle Reese, Connor's dad), Bryce Dallas Howard (Kate Connor), Common and Moon Bloodgood. They all seemed genuinely impressed and speechless after seeing this new trailer along with the crowd for the first time.
Another cute moment came from Common who answered a question about how he got involved with this movie: "I wanted to do a movie with Christian Bale."
We saw a few more unfinished clips and it's a lot of action, a lot of robots, etc. Pretty heart-pounding, though not at all unexpected.
I thought it was funny how everyone on the panel constantly gushed about the first two Terminator films - the elephant in the room being the third movie, directed by Jonathan Mostow. Everyone sort of agreed to be polite about it but it was clear they consider it a blemish on the franchise.
Finally, McG danced around it a bit, but he made it seem like the odds were pretty decent that the T-800 will make an appearance, which is the model Arnold Schwarzenegger played in the series. Will the Governator make an appearance? I'm betting yes.

Ford and McAdams and Abrams - Oh, My!

BuzzSugar — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 12:30:04 -0800

This movie news is just delightful. I probably would have never thought to put together the names of these Hollywood folks, but now that I see it, I think it's pretty awesome. Harrison Ford and Rachel McAdams (though she's still "in negotiations") will star in Morning Glory, a comedy that will be produced by JJ Abrams and his Bad Robot production company. Notting Hill director Roger Michell will direct. Here's more:

McAdams would play an aspiring news producer who tries to save a failing morning show by getting control of its feuding anchors. Ford will play one of the anchors, and the female thesp playing the other anchor will be set shortly.

There's still that other female anchor to cast, so is there any way to make this cast even better? I vote for Kristen Chenoweth (can you imagine her battling it out with Harrison Ford?!). Any other suggestions?

Source

Check Out the Full-Length Star Trek Trailer

BuzzSugar — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:30:00 -0800

"The wait is over." I wonder if J.J. Abrams was feeling cheeky when he made those the final words in this first full-length trailer for Star Trek, which premiered over the weekend before screenings of Quantum of Solace. The last thing we saw was a teaser all the way back in January, and it's been radio silence since then.

So, here we are: our first look at a young James Tiberius Kirk and the others in this quick, action-packed promo. By action-packed, I mean that a lot of things blow up, and there's some punching and some sex (but not in the same scene). And Zachary Quinto looks just as awesome as Spock as I'd hoped he would. Other than that, I leave it to you: What do you think of this trailer? Does it boost your expectations for the movie, or does it fall short? To check it out, just read more.

Check It: Season Five Preview For Lost

BuzzSugar — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 10:30:59 -0700

Here we go: a preview for the next season of Lost, which starts up in February 2009. The first part of the preview is a montage of certain plot points we've learned in the past, setting us up for some new footage we can look forward to in season five. After the fourth season with all the Oceanic Six stuff, the next season appears to deal with those six going back to the island:

Jack: "Everyone we left behind, they'd die too if I didn't come back."
Ben: "Well, thank God for second chances."

Want to check out the video and chat about it? Just read more.

Lost Fans: Would You Want a Lost Movie?

BuzzSugar — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 06:30:02 -0700

Though he asserts that it probably won't ever happen, JJ Abrams recently said in an interview that theoretically there "could be" a Lost movie after the series ends in 2010.

I imagine it would basically be like one long episode explaining any unsolved mysteries from the series, but do you think that would be necessary or interesting once the show is over? Are there enough Lost fans to make a movie worthwhile? Do you think it would be fun to see Lost on the big screen someday, or does the idea strike you as pointless?