BuzzSugar

Buzz News Roundup, 3/18

BuzzSugar — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 13:30:44 -0700

Ellen DeGeneres has signed on to play Mother Nature in an untitled comedy written by Sex and the City writer-executive producer Jenny Bicks. - The Hollywood Reporter
The Weinstein Co. has acquired the rights for Nowhere Boy, the story of John Lennon's tumultuous childhood. - Billboard
The Simpsons celebrated St. Patrick's Day by premiering an Irish-themed episode in Ireland and the UK on Tuesday; it airs in the US on Sunday. - TV Guide
Two music videos which represent actor Heath Ledger's last directorial work before his death in January 2008 will be released this year. - Billboard
Paramount has bought film rights to an upcoming Wired article about a band of Italian diamond thieves and J.J. Abrams is producing through his Bad Robot production company. - ComingSoon
Kelly Clarkson's All I Ever Wanted tops this week's Billboard charts. - New York Times
Maybe that will make Kelly more valuable when American Idol launches its line of trading cards in April. - AP
Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke is in talks to direct a film adaptation of another young-adult fantasy series, Maximum Ride. - The Hollywood Reporter
Kanye West will voice a character in Fox's Family Guy spinoff The Cleveland Show. - TV.com

Source

Buzz News Roundup, 1/12

BuzzSugar — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 13:30:48 -0800

Hilary Duff is set to star as a young lawyer in the NBC sitcom Barely Legal. - The Hollywood Reporter
French actor, director, and producer Claude Berri has died at age 74. - AP
Kristin Scott Thomas has signed on to play John Lennon's aunt, Mimi Smith, in the movie Nowhere Boy. - Zap2It
Flight of the Conchords fans will now be able to purchase music from each episode the day after it airs. - The Hollywood Reporter
Brendan Fraser will join Harrison Ford in the drama Crowley. - ComingSoon
The Art Directors Guild has announced the nominations for its 2008 Excellence in Production Design Awards, including everything from Changeling and Iron Man to 30 Rock and Weeds. - Variety
Shiri Appleby will play a mom on the CW's hourlong pilot Light Years. - Zap2It

Source

John Lennon Biopic is a Go; Now, Who Should Play John?

BuzzSugar — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 12:00:51 -0700

John Lennon's life looks like it's heading for the big screen. The Hollywood Reporter writes that a biopic called Nowhere Boy is in the works, to be directed by visual artist Sam Taylor-Wood and written by Matt Greenhalgh, who most recently wrote the Ian Curtis biopic Control.

According to the Reporter, the movie will film in Lennon's hometown of Liverpool and focus on his early years:

Greenhalgh's script details the story of Lennon as a lonely teenager growing up as his aunt and the mother who gave him up fight for his love. His only escape is music, art and his fateful friendship with Paul McCartney.

Casting is reportedly underway now for the lead role - which of course brings about the crucial question: What actors could you see playing the young John Lennon? And how about prefame Paul? (For an irreverent take on the question, there's always Paul Rudd as John and Jack Black as Paul, as seen in Walk Hard . . . but I'm pretty sure that's not the tone this particular film is going for.)

Source

Zombieland: The Feel-Good Zombie Flick of the Year

TresSugar — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 11:30:23 -0700

A Note From Buzz: With so many new movies this week, my friend Très was nice enough to apply her scary-movie expertise to review the box office's newest zombie flick.

In the United States of Zombieland, zombies outnumber people. A mad-cow tainted burger tipped the population in favor of the drooling, limping, and grunting set, and now zombies roam a crashed-car littered, empty-minimall-blighted zombiescape.

Columbus (Adventureland's Jesse Eisenberg), the virginal antihero of horror-comedy Zombieland, has learned to survive this zombie apocalypse by keeping a list of necessary survival skills. Rule #1? Cardio. If you don't want zombies gnawing on you like an hors d'oeuvre, you'd better be fast and limber. In addition, beware of bathrooms, practice the "double tap" (make sure your zombie's actually dead after you kill him), and don't be a hero. (Regarding this last rule - some rules were made to be broken.)

When Columbus meets up with Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), a swaggering cowboy type with a penchant for tank-like cars, shotguns, and Twinkies, and the spitfire sister duo of Wichita (Emma Stone) and Arkansas (Little Miss Sunshine's Abigail Breslin), Zombieland takes off like a scary/fun amusement park ride. To find out what happens on this motley crew's wild road trip from hell, read more

There's something funny about zombies and the zombie genre, and in his first feature film, director Ruben Fleischer plays their comic possibilities to the hilt. Zombies don't have what you'd call well-rounded personalities; they're pretty predictable. They have bad attitudes, come out of nowhere, grunt, and see all nonzombies as food to feast on. They're the perfect foil (or straight men, even) to a cast of characters with more than enough personality to make up for the zombies' boorish one dimensionality.

Take nebbishy Columbus. The world changed for him, he tells us in an early voice-over, when a pretty neighbor he calls #406, asks to stay over because a crazed homeless man tries to bite her. Sadly, although she falls asleep on Columbus's shoulder, she wakes up as a rabid zombie and begins chasing him around his apartment, forcing him to repeatedly knock her over the head with a toilet lid. "The first time I let a girl in my life," deadpans Columbus, "and she tries to eat me."

This kind of witty dialogue abounds in Zombieland, and although fans of gore and violence against zombies will be more than satisfied (Tallahassee's scenes of zombie-killing, especially, have a Tarantinoesque choreography to them), it's really the mismatched goofball characters and how they bond and evolve, surprisingly, that hold the film together. A hilarious cameo from Bill Murray in the Beverly Hills sequence of Zombieland, also, is practically worth the price of admission.

Harrelson chews the scenery as Tallahassee, but as we find out, part of the reason he's hell-bent on killing zombies is because they took away his baby boy. As for the sisters, tough-girl Wichita just wants to take care of her little sister Arkansas (who, as a good shot, doesn't seem to need much help), but a beautiful girl has needs, too, and before long she develops feelings for Columbus. Will he or won't he finally be able to live out his nerd-boy fantasy of brushing the hair over a girl's ear?

You probably know the answer to that question, but just because Zombieland adheres to certain formulas doesn't mean that it doesn't revive them in witty ways. Although the zombie-killing gore fest may not be for everyone, Zombieland's amazing visuals, charming characters, and witty dialogue may leave a goofy grin on your face as you leave the theater.

Photos courtesy of Sony Pictures