BuzzSugar

Buzz News Roundup, 11/5

BuzzSugar — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 13:37:47 -0800

Nikki Blonsky will guest star on Ugly Betty as an assistant at Elle who bonds with Betty. - Zap2it
Charlize Theron is negotiating to star with Tom Cruise in The Tourist, a remake of the French thriller Anthony Zimmer. - ComingSoon
True Beauty, a reality show from Tyra Banks and Ashton Kutcher, will premiere Jan. 5. - The Futon Critic
Paramount has acquired the graphic novel Battling Boy for Brad Pitt to produce through his company, Plan B. - Zap2It
Ray Winstone and Ray Liotta have joined Mickey Rourke, Jason Statham, Sam Riley and 50 Cent to star in 13, a remake of the French film 13 Tzameti. - Variety
Tina Fey is officially retiring her Sarah Palin impression. - Entertainment Weekly
Jenna Fischer has nabbed the lead role in an indie dramedy titled A Little Help. - ComingSoon

Movie Preview: Harold

BuzzSugar — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 08:30:39 -0700

"I'm going over the nerd wall and I ain't never going back." Those are words to live by.

Trying to guess exactly how the film Harold would shape up based on the casting news alone was kinda difficult. There is an odd mix of actors involved, including Cuba Gooding Jr., some Saturday Night Live alums (Rachel Dratch, Colin Quinn, Chris Parnell), '80s star Ally Sheedy, and cute young actors like Spencer Breslin and Nikki Blonsky in her first feature film role since Hairspray.

The trailer is goofy and sweet and makes me laugh. The idea of a kid with premature balding getting picked on is you know, heartbreaking, but I can't help but giggle at people mistaking the poor guy for an elderly person. And Cuba Gooding Jr. actually looks like he may be back on his game, as he seems pretty charming and funny in the preview. The whole thing looks sweetly absurd with something life-affirming at the core.

The movie opens in limited release July 11. To check the trailer, read more.

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Blonsky, Quinn and Sheedy Join Teen Comedy

BuzzSugar — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 16:36:44 -0700

Harold, the rapidly aging teen.
Nikki Blonsky, Ally Sheedy and Colin Quinn have been added to the cast of the comedy Harold, all about a prematurely balding teenager (played by Spencer Breslin). Blonsky, in her first role after Hairspray, will play Harold's loyal, nerdy friend Rhonda. Sheedy, returning to her teenage movie roots (she played Allison in The Breakfast Club), will play Harold's mother tasked with the challenge of helping her son endure the teasing of his peers. Quinn, who I rarely enjoy watching at all, will play Reedy, "a drunken barfly who's a regular at a strip club Harold frequents."

Interestingly...
The movie will be shot at Blonsky's real-life former middle school, about which she says, "It's kinda creepy. I didn't have the best time there, so going back is definitely cooler."

Oh, and then there's this:
"Cuba Gooding Jr., one of the film's producers, plays a school janitor who befriends the troubled title character."

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Hairspray: Massively Fun

BuzzSugar — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 23:50:43 -0700

What with all the racial tensions, weight issues and societal crises, Hairspray was the most fun I’ve had in a theater in a very long time. It is virtually impossible to watch this newest film version of Hairspray without laughing and wanting to get up and dance. In fact, if you don't crack a smile at least once during this super high-energy, teenage fun fest, I might wonder if your heart were still beating at all.

This rock-n-roll high school musical is full of the energy and tensions of the 1960s when hair was shellacked high and dancing was a daily teenage pastime. As a high school kid in Baltimore, the "pleasantly plump" Tracy Turnblad (Nikki Blonsky) longs to be on The Corny Collins show, a local TV dance program, but when she goes to the open try-outs with her loyal friend Penny (the lollipop-sucking jail bait Amanda Bynes), she's cruelly turned away by the evil station manager, Velma Von Tussle (Michelle Pfeiffer) and her equally heinous daughter Amber (Brittany Snow). Back at school Tracy gets sent to detention - which seems to double as a kind of night club - and befriends a bunch of black kids, in particular the smooth Seaweed (Elijah Kelley) who teaches Tracy some fancy new moves. That's certainly not the end, though, so read more

Forcing her way onto The Corny Collins show one afternoon, Tracy catches the eye of Corny himself (James Marsden) with her newfound moves and is placed as a regular on the show. Once there, Tracy attempts to get The Corny Collins show to be integrated all the time, rather than the one day a week when black kids are allowed to dance. This leads to a heap of trouble with the station - and then with the police. The whole thing ends, of course, with a spectacular ensemble number. Through it all, there are a lot of songs about weight, and lessons about race relations abound. Yet all these heavy issues (no pun intended) are made lighter by all the smiling, bopping and belting, in classic musical fashion.

The one (gigantic) sore spot in this whole outrageous production is John Travolta playing Tracy's mother, Edna Turnblad. In this role, Travolta is constantly giving the audience a chubby-eyed wink, so uncomfortable and outlandish in his fat suit and muumuus it made me squirm in uneasiness for him. He makes a mockery of the role of Edna and therefore of all of Edna's issues: her insecurities and eventual triumphant ownership over her weight are rendered meaningless in Travolta's performance. He comes across as a buffoonish caricature not of a large woman, but of a human being in general.

Aside from that, the rest of the cast is delicious. Nikki Blonsky has an infectious light-filled presence onscreen and a great, big voice to go with it. Zac Efron is completely adorable as - big stretch here - a somewhat narcissistic teen idol. Queen Latifah does her relaxed-yet-powerful thing, James Marsden is magnificently cheesy as Corny, and Allison Janney is hilarious as Penny's crazy, Bible-thumping mother. Amanda Bynes herself gets many of the funniest lines in the movie, and supplies the appropriate amount of cutesy naivete. Hopefully you'll get a lively audience like I did, one that cheers, laughs and claps as though the actors are there to hear the praise. This really is a fantastic musical, presenting real issues while simultaneously providing a raucous and heartfelt good time.

Movie Preview: Hairspray

BuzzSugar — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 16:31:01 -0700

Surely you're aware that Hairspray opens nationwide this Friday, that it was directed by Adam Shankman and stars Nikki Blonsky (both of whom I interviewed!), and that it features John Travolta wearing women's clothing and heavyset prosthetics. So, yeah, there's a lot going on with this movie. Based more on the stage musical than on John Waters' original 1988 film, this summer's Hairspray retains the same storyline: During the racially charged 1960s, the lovable Tracy Turnblad (Blonsky) takes Baltimore by storm when she not only makes it onto the local teen dance show, The Corny Collins Show, but strives to integrate the show as well. The movie also stars Queen Latifah, Allison Janney, Christopher Walken, Michelle Pfeiffer, Amanda Bynes, Brittany Snow and the adorable Zac Efron. Check out my full review this Friday, and if you haven't seen the toe-tappingly fun trailer, you can watch it if you read more

Photo courtesy of New Line Cinema

Buzz Interview: Hairspray's Nikki Blonsky and Adam Shankman

BuzzSugar — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 23:44:39 -0700

I recently sat down with Hairspray director/choreographer Adam Shankman and the star of the show, Nikki Blonsky, to discuss their film adaptation of the Broadway musical (which was itself a stage adaptation of John Waters' original 1988 movie). You'll hear more of my thoughts on the movie next week, though for the purposes of this interview I'll tell you I think this movie promises to be a major summer hit. Being a fan of John Waters' original, I was wary of this version but it turned out to be thoroughly enjoyable.

In the brief time we spent together, I didn't get to hear nearly enough from Miss Blonsky, the sweet 18-year-old who positively lights up the screen with her excitement and charm. Director Adam Shankman - who was a guest judge this week on "So You Think You Can Dance" - comes off as a passionate guy who likes to chat. A lot. Check it out:

On the topic of this version of Hairspray vs. John Waters' film:
ADAM: I was not concerned about competing with John’s movie because John Waters made me feel like this was my own baby. He was just like a proud grandfather in that he would support me no matter what. He’s just such a generous man. And I did not want to go away from it too much. We had lunch in Baltimore and he drove me to the neighborhood where he shot the movie and where the characters actually lived...and nothing’s changed! None of it, none of it’s changed since that period, since he made the movie... I felt like we were approaching it in a really unique way… I really broke it apart and I really made it my own.

There was a lot more to say, so read more

On the topic of Shankman's passion for Hairspray:
ADAM: You know what, [I feel so passionate about Hairspray] because I think I feel like Tracy. I feel like an outsider who never understood the word "can't," but that hovered over my head because of certain things, like being gay. I was Jewish in a heavily non-Jewish neighborhood, I was strangely handicapped even though I was like, this white kid born into an upper-middle-class family, so I came to realize that in our own really weird ways, what we are bonded by is that we are all somehow minorities. Which is why I don’t understand how fear in our country, and prejudice, exist.

And besides, what other musical has this kind of music that has so much power, so much energy, so much positivity, and is so goofy but is about something so real, and so relevant, and frankly, totally ripped from the headlines right now - with Don Imus, Michael Richards, Isaiah Washington, I mean we are still living in a climate of prejudice…The idea that I have the opportunity to make a movie that portrays racists as idiots was something that I felt strongly to do.

On searching for someone to play Tracy:
ADAM: I said from the beginning I needed a teenager playing the part of Tracy because I will not have any dishonesty about Tracy. And that is the tradition - that Edna is always a man and Tracy is always a newcomer and I was not going to shy away from that. Whoever was going to play Tracy had to be totally unencumbered by judgments. She had to be the shiny new face of courage and honesty. And I ended up finding this heavenly creature who is literally, exactly what Tracy is: working class, really pretty, plus-size and proud of it. I mean she sees no sexual lines no color lines, whatever, you know, literally no judgment. And the level of confidence that I saw in her audition was mind-blowing. And so you know when everybody else joined the cast they became a little bit intimidated, oddly, by her, because she has no pretense. And no baggage and no nothing.

On the other cast members:
ADAM: Everyone just kind of brought their A-game... Oh, and by the way everybody kind of ended up becoming who they were, you know, their characters, in a truly charming way. John became very maternal with [Nikki]. Michelle [Pfeiffer] really wanted to make sure everything was okay, you know she was white-knuckling it during some of those numbers sometimes. Amanda [Bynes] is a total goofball. And Queen Latifah - a one-woman NAACP. Christopher Walken - a walking joke shop. Oh, Zac Efron, teen idol, imagine! The only two people who are literally nothing like their characters are Brittany [Snow] and Allison [Janney]. Those are miraculous performances because they have absolutely zero in common with their characters… Jimmy [Marsden] is the corniest person on the planet.

On casting Nikki Blonsky in the role of Tracy:
ADAM: I was determined that [Tracy] was going to be young. And she was going to be somebody I wasn’t going to have to pad. And it was going to be somebody very pretty, and who could sing the crap out of the material.

Nikki read about it online, the audition, it was an open call, and she...submitted the tape and... I loved her. I couldn’t believe how sweet and real and innocent and like, her eyes were all over the place with excitement, and she was heavier, a lot heavier than she is now and... she just oozed confidence. Finally I was like, ‘You guys, it’s her.’

On Nikki's experience working on Hairspray:
NIKKI: I had the greatest time.

ADAM: If there had been 28 hours a day for her to shoot, she would have done it.

NIKKI (to Adam): Well, I mean, you took me out of this normal environment. I know what it’s like to work, you know, a part-time job [at Coldstone Creamery], get paid literally nothing and then have taxes taken out. So, I know what it’s like to be scrubbing toilets and scraping dried ice cream off the counter. And when I came into this I was just like, 'Oh my God, this is everything I’ve ever wanted to do, I just have to prove to them that they made the right choice. I’m going to give them everything that they want - and more.' 'Cause I was just determined to give them what they asked for.

On casting John Travolta, and how Hairspray rounds out his trio of musical movies: Grease (set in the 1950s), Saturday Night Fever (set in the 1970s) and now Hairspray (set in the 1960s):
ADAM: Unfortunately, I didn’t cast... he was being talked to before I got involved. What I was excited about, with the idea of him doing it, was all that – and then with including Michelle in there, you know, with Grease 2 and all that, it’s crazy. And I think what makes this all the same is that rock-n-roll musical, you know, they’re all similar in that way with the unabashed zeal, unapologetic breaking into song. We just went for it headlong in a way that was celebrant.

On what's next for Nikki:
NIKKI: I pray to continue in film, I’ve gotten the film bug, I would love it. I have just had the most amazing experience.

ADAM: She has a great relationship with the camera, that’s not something she could learn or buy, that’s the 'It' factor, you know? I think when we started out I had the camera this close to her and she didn't even blink. I am telling you, half that board (points to the giant cast poster for Hairspray) - and I’m not gonna tell you who - you start moving that camera close and they start moving away. [Nikki] was just like, 'What do you want me to do?' I think she should do more movies.

NIKKI: I want to do more movies, I mean that’s what I want to do. Maybe someday if I have the hunger to go to Broadway, maybe originate a role, that would be cool.

ADAM: I’ll say.

NIKKI: But I want to, right now, stick with more films.

A joke is made about remaking Pink Flamingos next:
ADAM: No, no, no. Why would you remake a John Waters just to remake it? It was the music that made us want to do this.

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