BuzzSugar

Drew Barrymore to Swim With the Fishes

BuzzSugar — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:30:19 PST

Hot off winning a Golden Globe for HBO's Grey Gardens, Drew Barrymore is going back to the big screen. The actress is eying the role of a Greenpeace activist for Everybody Loves Whales, a Universal film following real-life events in 1988 when a group of whales got trapped under ice in the Arctic Circle. But this isn't just an environmental film - the incident also took a political turn, helping ease relations between the US and Soviets when President Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev lent their power to help free Willy.

Ken Kwapis, who teamed with Barrymore for He's Just Not That Into You, is on board to direct Whales, which has me curious about the audience they're targeting. Is it a family film? A drama? Is Barrymore going to fall in love with an activist on an iceberg, only to have him never call? One thing's for sure - this news seems pretty untimely given the recent SeaWorld headlines. Perhaps they should rethink that title for now.

Buzz News Roundup, 6/5

BuzzSugar — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:15:24 PDT

Fox will still air an episode of Mental guest-starring David Carradine despite the actor's death this week. - Washington Post
Emilie de Ravin, Pierce Brosnan. and Chris Cooper are set to star alongside Robert Pattinson in Remember Me. - Variety
Screen Gems has set Lisa Kudrow, Patricia Clarkson, Stanley Tucci, Penn Badgley and several others to join Emma Stone and Amanda Bynes in the comedy Easy A. - ComingSoon
He's Just Not That Into You director Ken Kwapis is set to direct Everybody Loves Whales. - Reuters
The Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling" is CBS's new promo song. - The Hollywood Reporter
Mary-Kate Olsen and Alex Pettyfer have joined Vanessa Hudgens in the Beauty and the Beast update Beastly. - Zap2It
The Shield has topped the nominations for the Television Critics Association's annual awards. - Variety
Sigourney Weaver has been cast in Disney's You Again and is in talks to join the Greg Mottola-directed comedy Paul. - ComingSoon

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NBC Might Be Getting "Outsourced"

BuzzSugar — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 16:00:59 PDT

In our second movie-into-TV-series development of the week so far, NBC is developing a series based on the indie comedy Outsourced, to be directed by Ken Kwapis.

The movie, which just came out in limited release in the U.S., is the story of a Seattle call center manager who learns that his entire office is being outsourced to India - and he has to move overseas to train his replacement. It's been described as a workplace version of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and this trailer is pretty cute.

I love that an indie film is getting enough notice to be turned into a series like this, and Kwapis - who directed the first episode of the NBC version of "The Office" - seems like a good choice to oversee the adaptation. Frankly, with all the ways outsourcing has changed our world, I'm a little surprised it hasn't been the subject of a series before. Has anyone seen the movie? And can you imagine watching the series?

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The Many(?) Facial Expressions of John Krasinski

BuzzSugar — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 15:41:15 PDT

John Krasinski's eye rolls, thin-mouthed smirks and baffled glances are some of the most consistently funny things about "The Office." But how many faces can our favorite everyman actually make?

Well, according to Krasinski's License to Wed director, Ken Kwapis, there's a finite number of contortions: six. In a half-serious, half-jokey interview with the Los Angeles Times, Kwapis confined Krasinski's facial expressions to the single digits. And, what's more, the paper even put together a photo gallery of the half-dozen expressions they think are the most common, from "the grimace" to "the happy."

It's pretty funny to see all those faces one after the other, flipbook-style. But after spinning through the gallery, I think six is pretty conservative; at the very least, Krasinski's bugged-out eyes deserve their own spot on the list. Take a look and tell me what you think. What's your favorite John face?

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Drew Barrymore to Produce Self-Help Movie

BuzzSugar — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 16:00:00 PDT

Drew Barrymore's Flower Films is set to produce He's Just Not That Into You, an adaptation of the ladies' guide to dating by "Sex and the City" writers Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo. You may recall this concept from the show, when Miranda - usually an extremely logical character - is amazed by the possibility that if a guy isn't acting interested, it could be as simple as ... he's just not that into you.

Slated to direct is The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants helmer Ken Kwapis, whose most recent project is the upcoming summer comedy License to Wed, starring the "The Office's" adorable John Krasinski and Mandy Moore.

So ... it's going to be a movie based on a self-help book? And not just any self-help book, but one that points out the common sense idea that sometimes people don't gel? I can only imagine this will turn into, so

Never mind that guys might expected to be upfront and honest, or that there are those crazy times when (gasp!) she's just not that into him. I can imagine the plot going something like this:

Girl meets boy. Girl likes boy. Boy doesn't call. Girl is puzzled and, despite this modern age, somehow doesn't think to call him. Light bulb flashes on, and girl feels empowered by the knowledge that it's nothing she did - it's just that he's just not that into her! Girl swiftly meets Mr. Right, who does call. Girl praises the "he's just not that into you" theorists for showing her the painfully obvious way.

This project is already making me cringe. It's almost as bad as if someone decided to make a movie based on Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus. Oh, wait - they did.

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