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Buzz News Roundup, 8/28

BuzzSugar — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:30:27 -0700

Kristin Chenoweth will be a guest judge on the next season of American Idol. - Zap2it
Mad Men's Christina Hendricks will join Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel in Life as We Know It. - Variety
Laura Linney will star in The C Word, a new comedy pilot for Showtime about a suburban wife battling cancer. - The Hollywood Reporter
Robin Williams will star in the romantic comedy Wedding Banned. - Reuters
Brandon Routh, most famous for his role in Superman Returns, will have a recurring role on the upcoming season of Chuck. - Entertainment Weekly
Daniel Craig will star in the psychological thriller Dream House. - Coming Soon
TNT has ordered a third season of Leverage. - Variety
Helen Mirren has signed on for a film adaption of Graham Greene's Brighton Rock. - Variety

Movie Preview: Linney, Neeson and Banderas in The Other Man

BuzzSugar — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 13:30:00 -0700

The Other Man is directed by Notes on a Scandal's Richard Eyre, and it seems to feature that movie's same ominous and disturbing tone. I like that the cast includes some of my favorite actors: Laura Linney, Liam Neeson and Antonio Banderas, along with Atonement's Romola Garai. But what I like most about the trailer for this film is that I don't feel as though I've seen the entire movie in the preview. The suspenseful aspect of this movie may still be intact when I go to watch it.

Neeson plays Peter, a man who becomes obsessed with tracking down the man (Banderas) who is having an affair with his wife (Linney). It sounds basic enough and perhaps it is, but the trailer makes it seem like there might be something more to this thriller/mystery. The Other Man will apparently have a limited release in the US starting Sept. 25. To check out the preview, read more.

James McAvoy, Elizabeth Banks Team Up For Dark Comedy

BuzzSugar — Thu, 07 May 2009 10:30:54 -0700

Aww, this cast is so adorable: James McAvoy, Elizabeth Banks, Anna Friel and Laura Linney have all signed on for the dark comedy The Details. No real details yet on Friel or Linney's roles, but apparently the story centers on a couple, to be played by McAvoy and Banks, "who discover an infestation of raccoons in their back yard. Disagreements over how to deal with the animals lead to an escalating series of events."

There's not too much to say about this project yet besides the fact that I'm so intrigued to see Banks and McAvoy together onscreen. I never would have thought of pairing up these two, but now that I think about it, this seems like it could be really funny (and McAvoy is always very easy to watch, of course). Who else would you want to see teamed up with James McAvoy? Do you think he and Banks will do well together?

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Odds and Ends From the Emmy Press Room

BuzzSugar — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 12:30:51 -0700

I'm still feeling the afterglow today from my time in the Emmy press room, where so many happy stars came to talk about their big awards. There are a bunch of tidbits I didn't get to share with you live, so to see what Bryan Cranston, Paul Giamatti, and Laura Linney had to say, read on!

Bryan Cranston was maybe the happiest guy on Earth when he came back to the press room, clutching his Emmy in one hand and the envelope with his name on it in the other. "I thought I was the dark horse, I really did," he said. "I thought I should have been in the back of the pack. Breaking Bad only had seven episodes to air. I didn't know if that would be enough sampling for the academy to take a look. I'm shocked and wonderfully surprised."
Cranston also talked a little about his bald head, a look he's currently sporting for the role as his character is going through chemotherapy (he's also lost 17 pounds, he said). Immersing himself in a character that way, he said, is "something actors dream about." That said, he compared baldness to having a skull made of velcro. "There are all kinds of things that are sticking to my head - fuzz, a jujube . . . "
Someone asked Jon Hamm about his reaction to his success and whether he was getting either a) shy or b) a big head. After laughing that both of those things were true, Hamm got serious: "I still feel like I'm in 10th grade and no one will talk to me at lunch," he said.
Laura Linney said she's still got a huge stack of history books by her bed, long after her work on John Adams was done. "I had a real understanding of how people get addicted to American history," she said, because each person leads to another. "I'm still reading, actually."

To hear from Jerry Bruckheimer, Jeff Probst, and January Jones, just read more.

Jeff Probst shrugged off criticism about the Emmys opening when he came backstage to talk about winning the Outstanding Reality Host award. "Did that work? I don't know," he said. "I give a lot of credit to [producer] Ken Ehrlich and those guys in terms of putting up with us."
Speaking of that opener, Jeremy Piven poked some fun at it during his acceptance speech and then went on at length about it backstage. "I thought we were being punked as an audience," he said. "There was that awkward - you know, like in the movie The Producers, [play-within-a-play] Springtime for Hitler? It was that confusing moment like, you know, what's happening right now?"

During the Mad Men session, January Jones declined to hint at where Betty's storyline is going, but she did say it's been fun to play the darker side of Betty. "The first season was all Betty sort of imploding," she said, "and the second season she's sort of exploding."
Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner made an interesting point when reporters asked how it felt to be the first basic cable show to win an outstanding series award. "I'm surprised that there's such a segregated and caste system at the Emmys - I was unaware of it," he said. "I have this amazing cast. None of them were asked to present tonight."
Before he started rambling about inappropriate things, Barry Sonnenfeld praised the upcoming season of Pushing Daisies: "The scripts are better than last year," he said. "I think they're funnier. I think all of the actors have really gotten into their characters."
Wishing The Amazing Race would stop submitting its name after six straight Emmy wins? Don't count on it. "I doubt it, I really do," producer Jerry Bruckheimer said when asked if the show would step aside. "We love these statues."
Though Paul Giamatti was widely expected to win for playing John Adams, he claimed he had no expectations himself. "Not an optimist," he said. He compared his work on the miniseries to an endurance test (while wearing a hot wig): "I had to do everything," he said. But, on the other hand, "I got to do everything, which was amazing - run the emotional gamut and ride a horse . . . "

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First Look: John Adams on HBO

BuzzSugar — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 11:30:02 -0800

When I think of fascinating historical figures, John Adams isn't necessarily one who jumps out at me. But maybe that's because I just don't know enough about him yet. After all, as executive producer Tom Hanks says in the preview for HBO's upcoming John Adams miniseries, "If I had been told this at any time in my educational career, it would have blown my little skull."

Based on David McCullough's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, the seven-part miniseries chronicles Adams' life as a man both dedicated to law and committed to freedom. Besides focusing on his role as a founding father, the movie also spotlights his relationship with his wife, Abigail, regarded - as HBO puts it - as "one of the most moving love stories in American history." It helps that two of my favorite actors, Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney, appear in the starring roles.

The miniseries starts March 16 with a special two-part broadcast. I know Citizen and Liberty are pumped - are you? To watch a preview and a clip with Giamatti and Linney talking about their roles, just read more.

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The Nanny Diaries: Hugely Disappointing

BuzzSugar — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 09:30:00 -0700

Having enjoyed the delightful book, The Nanny Diaries movie was a massive disappointment. Overall it feels empty, frantically rushed, and insubstantial. The book versions of things are often better than the movie versions, but in this case, it's not quite worth it to bother with the movie at all.

I, along with many of you, had some reservations about Scarlett Johansson playing the main character in The Nanny Diaries, and it appears these anxieties were not ill-founded. In this performance, she's flat and seemingly bored with the role herself. She plays Annie, a recent college graduate who is looking for work so she can move out of her mother's house and fulfill her mother's ambitious dreams for her. Yet her degree in anthropology doesn't leave a ton of options, so she randomly decides to nanny a child on the Upper East Side - but not tell her mom about it. There's more, of course (though not much more), so read more

Annie narrates the film as though she's writing an application essay for grad school, so at some point she decides to treat her story as a case study, of sorts, and says that everyone referred to her as "Nanny" instead of her real name. In the book, Nanny really likes kids and has experience with them so it makes sense that the discerning Mrs. X would be sort of a stickler about Nanny's background and resume. In the film, however, Mrs. X has exceedingly high expectations about everything else in her world, though the fact that all Annie knows about babysitting is what she "learned from the movies" doesn't faze her.

So, Annie moves into the Xs' apartment and becomes the nanny to their son Grayer. Soon, a cute guy who lives in the building becomes interested in her, though she seems to think their economic backgrounds are way too different to allow any kind of relationship. In the end, Annie learns a bit about life, herself, kids and rich people.

Laura Linney as Mrs. X is truly the brightest spot in the whole movie. She's so rigid, cold and misguided you can't help but hate and fear her. Yet the humanity that Linney brings to everything she does causes us to actually pity Mrs. X as well. She almost makes the movie worth watching. Almost.

As for the script, everything in it feels forced and completely rushed. One moment the little boy hates Annie's (Nanny's) guts, and in the blink of an eye he's her best-best friend. Not that kids aren't fickle sometimes, but everything in the movie comes about that quickly and easily. Like her unlikely relationship with the cute guy who she rather cruelly and out of nowhere insists was raised with a silver spoon in his mouth. His instantaneous obsession with Annie seems weird and stalkerish.

It all just feels bizarrely disjointed and frustrating. There's even a trippy dream section in which Annie grabs hold of a red umbrella and drifts away from her stern mother and a whole bunch of people in suits representing the rat race. You know when people tell you about their dreams, and it's not that interesting to you? This is just like that.

Alicia Keys is perfectly fine as Annie's best buddy who rarely ventures above 14th Street (because, you know, she's so real), and is basically propped up as Annie's one thread connecting her to her former hip and cool life. Yet Johansson herself seems empty, distracted and emotionless. Like a robot, but worse. Rosie the robot maid on "The Jetsons" had more passion in her metal claw than Scarjo has in her whole being in this film. Nanny is supposed to be the beating heart of this story, but instead it's like there's no pulse.

The Nanny Diaries to Open August 24

BuzzSugar — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 12:29:07 -0700

Having changed release dates several times, the film adaptation of bestselling novel The Nanny Diaries finally has a definite opening date: August 24. A few months ago there came news that the movie wasn't going to open in April as planned, causing people to speculate whether the filmmakers were dissatisfied with the end product and lacking confidence in the film's potential. Studio chief Steve Bunnell assures us that's not the case however, saying that in fact, opening just before Labor Day weekend will hopefully get more people to see the movie: "If we had a movie in June or July and moved it back to August, then that could be a dumping ground, but this isn't that situation at all." Harvey Weinstein himself says, "We really believe in the movie and people like it."

Well, that's reassuring. I'd had my qualms about the movie based on the trailer, but I'm really pulling for this one to succeed because I thought the book was such a fun read. My biggest concern might be Scarlett Johansson. I often like her in movies, but I just envisioned someone quite different in the role of Nan. Any other Nanny Diaries fans out there? Do you think you'll check out the movie version come August 24? To see the trailer, read more

Breach: Better Than Dateline

BuzzSugar — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 10:49:09 -0800

Perhaps I've watched too much "Alias" and "24," because it turns out I expect espionage/government agency stories to be fast-paced, entertaining, and suspenseful to the point of biting off my fingertips. If one goes into Breach expecting these qualities, one will not find them. The real-life story on which the film is based is intriguing, but the film itself is not. If the intention was to make a great dramatic thriller, then something went wrong. But as a way to tell the story of a real-life FBI take-down, it's more titillating than your average Dateline special.

Ryan Phillippe plays baby-faced Eric O'Neill, the FBI agent hopeful assigned to the case of veteran operative and alleged mole Robert Hanssen (Chris Cooper). Hanssen is suspected of providing information to the Soviets, costing the government financial drain and leading to the deaths of at least a few American agents, yet the FBI has never been able to gain enough evidence to take him down. The actual things Hanssen did or how he got away with his crimes for years are not the focus of the film, and I was left thinking that maybe they should have been, so

The story is really about O'Neill gaining Hanssen's trust and learning how to play this man who has played the Bureau's best agents for years. Yet while O'Neill struggles to gain Hanssen's trust, Hanssen needles his way into O'Neill's personal life, endangering O'Neill's mission and causing tension in his marriage. Thus the two men dance a back-and-forth power struggle. I actually feel sorry for the real Eric O'Neill, because in Phillippe's portrayal, he's glum-faced and one-dimensional with a bulbous bottom lip that prevents him from speaking properly. When Phillippe as O'Neill whines to his superior, "What if he's smarter than me?," I had to snort. I mean, "what if?" - it isn't exactly a stretch.

Phillippe pales in comparison to Cooper, and perhaps that is the point. O'Neill is supposed to seem less capable in every way, and he succeeds. He is, essentially, the window through which we observe Hanssen, and Cooper's surly, bitter performance dominates every time he's on the screen. It was rumored that Hanssen viewed the FBI as an organization of imbeciles without enough sense to listen to his ideas, and his disdain for the bureau seems to have been a driving force behind his actions. The film, however, never spells out his motivations, wisely leaving the viewer to speculate.

The final glimpse of Hanssen, too, is well-played. Throughout the movie, Hanssen is a deeply religious man, judging himself as though through God's eyes while being both professionally and personally corrupt. In the end, O'Neill's triumph is silenced by the Hanssen's inward downfall.

And of course, we know the ending from the beginning; in fact, the film kicks off with actual footage of Ashcroft announcing Hanssen's resignation. Since knowing this takes away any sort of surprise ending, the getting-there should be the gripping part. Maybe I expected too much from this serious, slow-moving film, but aside from a few great moments, the grip is loose.

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