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Two New Movies: Call of the Wild, Cal of the Wild

BuzzSugar — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:30:12 PDT

Yeah, I thought it was a typo at first - but no! Two separate film projects are in the news today, one of them based on the Jack London story Call of the Wild and the other one is a play on the title, Cal of the Wild. One has already been made and has just been picked up by a studio for distribution, while the other one was just announced. Here's a breakdown:

Call of the Wild: Starring Christopher Lloyd, Veronica Cartwright, and Wes Studi, this movie was just picked up by Vivendi Entertainment for US distribution. The adaptation of Jack London's story is set in modern-day Montana and "is notable as the first digital 3-D release made entirely with live-action photography, with no CGI."

Cal of the Wild: Hooray for Freaks and Geeks' John Francis Daley (little bro Sam Weir) getting more work! Daley's been writing up a storm in recent years, and he and fellow writer Jonathan Goldstein have been tapped to write the comedy Cal of the Wild for DreamWorks. Based on reality TV shows like Survivor, the story "revolves around Cal Tanner, the fraudulent star of a cable TV survival show, who is forced to keep himself and his female assistant alive when they're put in an actual survival situation." (Sounds a bit like something that some people might wish for Speidi, no?)

Source and Source

Link Time! 10/9

BuzzSugar — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:32:33 PDT

Is now the right time for Oliver Stone's movie W.? - Popwatch
Speaking of W., here's a list of 10 hilarious political impressions. - Vulture
Ridley Scott has confirmed that his next project will be a film adaptation of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. - Cinematical
In these tough economic times, can you stomach watching the fabulously wealthy on TV? - TV Filter
Guillermo del Toro isn't too keen on the idea of Peter Jackson helping him film The Hobbit. - MTV Movies Blog
Siiiiiiigh: More people are watching Knight Rider than Pushing Daisies. - Tuned In
Girl crush of the day: Japanese all-girl rockabilly band The 5678's. - GiggleSugar
An interview with John Francis Daley, who will always be Sam Wier to me. - The TV Addict

Image courtesy of Lionsgate

Freaks and Geeks Speak: Part Three

BuzzSugar — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 15:30:23 PST

Over the weekend, a group of Freaks and Geeks alumni - cast members Linda Cardellini, John Francis Daley, Samm Levine, Martin Starr, Busy Philipps, Dave (Gruber) Allen, and Steve Bannos and creator Paul Feig - took the stage at San Francisco's Sketchfest to share their memories of the great, underappreciated show. I was there, and this week, I'm sharing some of their best stories with you. I've already told you how the series got started and passed on some tales from the set. In today's final installment, I have trivia from the show, plus news on everyone's new projects. Here goes:

Linda Cardellini still has the green Army jacket that was practically a part of her body when she played Lindsay. "I thought about bringing it," she told the audience, "but I thought I might look like a gigantic loser."
Sarah Hagan, who played the conservative Millie, was apparently a shocking amount like her character. Cardellini recalled that in one scene, Millie was supposed to ask Lindsay if Kim "fornicates," but Hagan (who, Cardellini recalled, hadn't talked much about sex at that time) accidentally asked if she "fornicated it." That take ended up in the show.
Busy Philipps only did the show because she ran into Cardellini in the airport in LA shortly before the show was supposed to start. Philipps' agent had been against her taking the role of Kim Kelly because it was initially only a guest spot for the pilot, but Cardellini - whom she'd known in college - insisted that working together would be fun.
Samm Levine and Martin Starr were both terrible about learning their lines and would typically just cram the morning of the shoot.
Linda mastered the art of never eating food on screen; in the dinner scenes, she mostly just pushes her food around and gestures with it, which Paul Feig pointed out is "very teenage girl." She said it was all because of an early job where she didn't realize that if she ate food in one take, she'd need to eat in every take; that experience turned her off lasagna for 10 years. Philipps said it took a Freaks and Geeks scene where she ate more than a dozen donuts over the course of shooting for her to learn that lesson.

To hear my favorite story from the whole discussion and see where you can find your favorite Freaks and Geeks now, just

Freaks and Geeks Speak: Part Two

BuzzSugar — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 09:30:40 PST

Over the weekend, a group of Freaks and Geeks alumni - cast members Linda Cardellini, John Francis Daley, Samm Levine, Martin Starr, Busy Philipps, Dave (Gruber) Allen, and Steve Bannos and creator Paul Feig - took the stage at San Francisco's Sketchfest to share their memories of the great, underappreciated show. I was there, and this week, I'm sharing some of their best stories with you. Yesterday, I told you how the series got started; today, I have tales of what it was like on set:

While it seems like the whole cast genuinely likes each other now, that wasn't always the case. "It was really too much like high school sometimes," Cardellini said, with cliques and alliances forming and disbanding.
Daley said at the time of the show, he was "14 years old and alone," and the big kids wouldn't let him hang out with them. But, he acknowledged, it probably would have been weird to have a young teenager hanging out with actors who were out of high school.
Some of the nastiest disputes on the set came between Philipps and James Franco. At the time, Philipps said, they could barely even speak to each other: "It was legendary how much we hated each other."

To hear about the biggest dispute Philipps and Franco ever had, and to see where the characters might have gone had there been a season two, just

Geek of the Week: John Francis Daley

GeekSugar — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 13:26:10 PST

John Francis Daley played the ultimate geeky kid, Sam Weir, on the short lived but wonderful Freaks and Geeks. The little brother of the show's main character, Sam was all about morals, manners, action figures and Saturday Night Live. Though the show is set during the 80's when computers were new on the scene, there are plenty of techie jokes to go around.

My favorite thing about the Sam character is that unlike most nice guys, he finishes first. He may be awkward about his crush on the school cheerleader, but he's actually cool enough to win her attention. Got some geek photos of your own? Add photos of yourself, your best friend or that one geeky guy to the geeksugar Geek of the Week group or send us an e-mail nominating your favorite celebrity.

Horrible Bosses: Earns Its Paycheck

Shannon Vestal — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 07:52:28 PDT

Horrible Bosses highlights a common pain of the gainfully employed: working your butt off for someone you hate. Though the movie may be preying on your plight, it's a laugh-filled escape from an oppressive office. Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, and Charlie Day star as three friends who are so unhappy at their respective workplaces that they come to an extreme conclusion: to murder their three bosses. Bateman plays Nick, a financial exec trying to move up in the corporate world, but he's roadblocked by his company's malicious CEO (Kevin Spacey). Sudeikis is content at work until his kindly boss dies, leaving the family business to his drug-addicted loser son (Colin Farrell). Lastly, Day's character Dale is the assistant to a sultry dentist (Jennifer Aniston) who sexually harasses him at all hours of the workday.

The plot may be far-fetched - would three well-adjusted guys really plot to kill their bosses? - but the premise works thanks to clever writing of John Francis Daley (of Freaks and Geeks fame) and Michael Markowitz. And really, the movie is so funny that it's easy to suspend your disbelief.

To find out why Horrible Bosses is the opposite of horrible, just

read more. The casting is just about perfect; the chemistry between the three leading men is outstanding, although Charlie Day wins MVP. Best known for It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the combination of Day's energy, high voice, and mannerisms make Bateman and Sudeikis seem bland by comparison. The movie also has a lot of fun with supporting characters playing against type - very far against type. Farrell's role is most noteworthy, and not just because of his balding head; he impressed me by lobbing one-liners like a seasoned comedian. Jamie Foxx also has a memorable part as a "murder consultant," which is one of my favorite bits of the movie. It lets the actor, more prone to drama these days, go back to his goofy comedy roots. Then there's Aniston as the sexually hostile dentist, although the role is more eyebrow raising than funny. The wholesome movie star strips down to lingerie and pretty much only opens her mouth to say something filthy. It's more novelty than proof of Aniston's comedic range, but the shock value is almost worth the price of admission. One of Horrible Bosses's most pleasant surprises is the fact that it doesn't rely on lots of gross jokes. Aside from Aniston's language, the raunch factor is pretty limited. And although the premise itself is dark, it doesn't take that as an opportunity to shift into overly violent territory. Instead, the humor comes from a hilarious script and some capable actors who truly kill - at comedy, anyway.