BuzzSugar

Project Runway Gets Another Spinoff; Santino Gets a Job

BuzzSugar — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:30:40 -0700

Apparently, the two Project Runway spinoffs that the Weinstein Company announced it had up its sleeve for Lifetime just aren't enough. The Weinsteins are pitching another Project-titled project, this one called Project Triple Threat.

The show will be a quest for the nation's best actor/singer/dancer, according to Variety. Just like the rest of the Project shows, the 16 contestants will share a house together while competing for a grand prize, this time a shot at a record contract and a role in a musical. That's in addition to the newly named Models of the Runway, the show about Project Runway's models, and Project Pygmalion, a society-themed competition that will turn its winner into a high-class socialite.

I think at some point, all these Project _______ shows are just going to lead to diminishing returns, just like how Bravo's Top ______ series fizzled a bit with Top Design last year. A lot depends on the contestants' personalities and the challenges they're given, of course, but at some point, the formula's just not interesting anymore. Do you think you'd watch Project Triple Threat?

In other Runway related news, second-season runner-up Santino Rice will be competing on a Fox Reality Channel show called Gimme My Reality Show, in which "D-list celebs who have appeared on reality shows but never starred in their own" will "battle for star recognition in a variety of challenges." I kind of want to cry now. Meanwhile, the lawsuit over Runway's move to Lifetime will be heard in court on July 17 - one day after the fifth season premieres on Bravo. Good timing, universe!

Source and Source

Weinstein Co. to Make Live-Action Fraggle Rock Movie

BuzzSugar — Tue, 13 May 2008 11:29:44 -0700

Guess what? It's time to "Dance your cares away/ Worry's for another day/ Let the music play/ Down at Fraggle Rock!" The Fraggles are back! According to Variety, the Weinsteins are teaming up with Lisa Henson of the Jim Henson Company to bring a live-action, half-human half-puppet Fraggle Rock extravaganza to the big screen. Check it out:

Just like the series, the film will be populated by a mix of human characters and Fraggle Rock puppets. . .Pic will take the core characters Gobo, Wembley, Mokey, Boober and Red outside of their home in Fraggle Rock, where they interact with humans, which they think are aliens. The show premiered on HBO in 1983, ran five seasons and was broadcast in more than 80 countries. It posted strong sales recently when the first three seasons were released on DVD.

Awww! I'm excited about this news for so many reasons, but first and foremost: Hooray for no CGI! It'll be so great to get some good old-fashioned puppets, just like we'll get with Jason Segel's Muppet project. Plus, I can't wait to see some Fraggle musical production numbers choreographed for the big screen - and hopefully accompanied by Gobo on his gourd guitar.

Want to take a sweet little trip down Memory Lane? After the jump, relive the adorableness that is the opening sequence to Fraggle Rock. You can enjoy when you read more.

Source

Project Runway Gets Two Spinoffs on Lifetime

BuzzSugar — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:30:26 -0700

Though the whole Project Runway vs. NBC lawsuit is yet to be settled, Lifetime is moving forward as though it will be airing the show in the Fall for sure. And that's not all: At a presentation on Monday, Harvey Weinstein - whose company produces Project Runway - told reporters that Lifetime will be airing not one but two spinoffs of the show around the same time as the show's November premiere.

The first of them doesn't have a title yet, but Weinstein said it will look at the Project Runway world through the eyes of the show's models. The second, dubbed Project Pygmalion, is a makeover series that will turn its winner into a high-society socialite.

Now, I do love a good reality show, but doesn't that seem like a bit . . . much? Especially if both shows and Runway are airing around the same time? I would think that Lifetime would want to be very careful about Runway-related overkill, especially because there will be another season of the show airing on Bravo sometime between now and November.

Also of note: Michael Kors is for sure on board for the move to Lifetime, but Nina Garcia isn't yet - though he noted that everyone would like for her to continue on the show. It sounds like her recent departure from Elle, which was a Runway sponsor, is an issue. Meanwhile, Bravo has its own programming presentation scheduled for Tuesday, which should be interesting to say the least!

Source and Bravo

Weekend Box Office: 21 Wins the Pot

BuzzSugar — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 08:15:05 -0700

Well, it looks like 21, the film about MIT students who take Vegas by storm, was a safe bet as it easily won the top spot at the box office. However, the overall weekend box office total was down 17 percent compared to last year, Variety reports. 21 earned an estimated $23 million, beating Horton Hears a Who and firmly establishing Jim Sturgess as a viable leading man.

Compare these results to another new release this weekend: Stop-Loss, starring Ryan Phillippe, who is a household name. Another box office casualty in a long line of Iraq War-related film flops, Stop-Loss only earned $4.5 million, coming in at No. 8.

Which brings me to the other box office disappointment this weekend, Superhero Movie. Could it be that Round One of Harvey Weinstein vs. Fanboys' fanboys goes to the geeks (more on the feud here)? Protesters gathered on both coasts where Superhero was playing, though in LA it appears Weinstein was prepared with guards. One protester told the Hollywood Reporter:

Guards were everywhere. At one point, I counted nine, no joke. They hired a whole force and whenever someone showed up looking around for the protest, they were surrounded by guards and told to leave instantly or be arrested. I guess you can't really hold a protest on private property.

Ultimately the film came in the third spot with a measly $9.5 million. Is this a little bit hilarious to anyone else?

Finally, Run Fat Boy Run starring Simon Pegg came in 13th and only earned an estimated $2.3 million here in the US. The movie grossed $22.6 million in the UK last Fall.

Photos courtesy of Sony Pictures

Fanboys Battle "Darth Weinstein" Over Fanboys

BuzzSugar — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 08:30:29 -0700

Fanboys angrily defending Fanboys . . . This stuff writes itself.
So, there's this movie Fanboys, starring a brunette Kristen Bell and a dorky Seth Rogen, in which "a group of young, passionate Star Wars fans . . . drive cross-country to raid George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch, and watch Star Wars: Episode 1- The Phantom Menace." In the original version of the movie, which was finished long ago, the trip is motivated by the fact that one of the characters has cancer.

To cancer, or not to cancer . . .
Apparently, real-life "passionate Star Wars fans" have been eagerly awaiting this film's release, have seen parts of the film at Comic-Con and the such, and loved it the way it was. Yet producer Harvey Weinstein was not pleased with the sad plotline and reshoots were ordered to, well, remove the cancerous parts for the theatrical release (though there's still no actual release date, and I bet they're regretting their initial tag line for the movie: "Coming to our galaxy in 2007"). Outraged, the fanboys of Fanboys have dubbed Harvey "Darth Weinstein" and declared a boycott of all things Weinstein until they are certain that the original version will go to theaters.

Honestly, the movie probably won't even make it that far.
In a press release issued this week, the Weinstein Co. tried to find some compromise with the fans, promising to issue both cuts of the film when it comes out on DVD, but still don't have a date for when this movie will make it to the big screen.

Having recently watched the trailer, I'm not sure it should be released theatrically at all. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter, though, so to watch the trailer, read more.

Fanboys Trailer
by Adamavich

Do You Want to See A Modern Retelling of Pygmalion?

BuzzSugar — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 13:00:00 -0800

Recently the Weinstein Company bought the rights to a book that hasn't even been published, titled I Think She's Got It, by Birdie Clark. The story is said to be a modern-day Pygmalion, set in Manhattan and focusing on "a shy Midwesterner who is transformed into a sophisticated socialite by a man-about-town who insists he can turn anyone into the latest 'it' girl."

The title of course refers to Eliza Doolittle "getting it" in My Fair Lady, which was itself a retelling of Pygmalion.

What do you think about this project? Do you think it could be really cute, or has Pygmalion been rehashed enough?