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Buzz News Roundup, 9/11

BuzzSugar — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:30:37 -0700

Jeff Bridges is in talks to star in a Coen Brothers remake of True Grit. - Variety
Abigail Breslin will star in Janie Jones, as a girl abandoned by her mother at a rock concert. - The Hollywood Reporter
Will Smith, Charlize Theron, and Jason Bateman will reunite for a Hancock sequel. - Variety
Texts From Last Night will be made into a TV show. - GeekSugar
Edward Norton will guest-star on ABC's Modern Family. - Entertainment Weekly
Barry Manilow's music is being made into a romantic comedy. - Variety
Casey Wilson dispelled the rumors that SNL fired her for being fat. - Zap2it
Members of Nirvana are not pleased with Kurt Cobain's appearance in Guitar Hero 5. - Billboard
Augusten Burroughs's novel, SelleVision, is being adapted into a one-hour comedy for NBC. - The Hollywood Reporter

Buzz News Roundup, 7/10

BuzzSugar — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:30:35 -0700

Ryan Seacrest is close to a deal that would bring him back as American Idol host with a significant raise. - The Hollywood Reporter
Zooey Deschanel is joining James Franco and Natalie Portman in the comedy Your Highness. She will play Belladonna, Franco's virginal bride. - ComingSoon
Brooke Shields, Dick Van Dyke, Ken Jeong, and Samantha Bee have come aboard the live-action family comedy Furry Vengeance. - The Hollywood Reporter
Here are some new characters coming to Ugly Betty in the Fall. - TV Guide
And here are a couple of new roles on Big Love. - Entertainment Weekly
BBC Films has acquired the bestselling Chris Cleave novel Little Bee, and Nicole Kidman has attached herself as star and producer. - Variety
Gary Ross, who directed Tobey Maguire in Seabiscuit and Pleasantville, will rewrite the script for Spider-Man 4. - ComingSoon
I Am Legend director Francis Lawrence may be reuniting with Will Smith for a fantastical drama titled The City That Sailed. - The Hollywood Reporter

Photo courtesy of Fox

Seven Pounds: Slow and Frustrating

BuzzSugar — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 12:30:56 -0800

If you were confused by the trailer for Seven Pounds that's because the movie is mostly one long guessing game, meant to have a confusing, slow build-up to a twisty surprise ending. There seems to be such an emphasis on keeping the audience wondering what's going on, and I was frustrated not because I didn't understand the "why"s of the plot but because it's hard to care enough about these characters - even the lead played by Will Smith - to truly want to figure out what the heck's going on.

Mostly I just wished they would stop talking in gratingly general terms ("Remember that thing you took from me?" "Yes, and I remember the thing I gave you, too." "It's all about that pact we made a while ago! Remember the pact? And that other thing?"). This goes on for an absurdly long time and I just wanted to shout "Enough already! Tell us what the deal is so we can all go home!" This is not a good sign. I stuck with it until the end though, so for some of my thoughts on it all, read more.

The movie is basically a puzzling series of events leading up to a climactic end, so in order to not spoil everything, I'll sum up the plot like this: Will Smith plays an IRS agent who carries around tremendous guilt for an event that took place years ago. So, he sets out to find redemption for the terrible thing he feels responsible for by dramatically improving the lives of seven people. When he starts to develop a relationship with one of them, Emily Posa (Rosario Dawson), he finds not just redemption but the glimmer of love and hope, even though he knows it can't last forever.

In theory and perhaps on paper, the concept for this film is intriguing, and I can imagine being drawn to it as an actor or filmmaker. But something goes awry on the way to the screen. These are capable actors, Smith is fine in this role and I found his relationship with Dawson's character to be surprisingly endearing at times. There are moments of sweetness and true drama, but they are few and far between and they nearly drown amid the majority of the scenes which plod along at a glacial pace. It all errs on the side of sappy and sometimes it's downright boring. Adding to all this, there's some cheesy metaphoric stuff going on (the woman he loves needs a new heart) that certainly doesn't help the overall melodrama.

With a script like this, in which there's a series of mysterious things happening that we're supposed to be eagerly piecing together, it helps if there's something to keep us interested or if there are tense scenes alternating with the slow and quiet ones. As it is, the narrative is like a reverse death, flatlining for an hour and a half before jolting alive briefly at the end. This ending is, I believe, supposed to be hopeful and sweet in its own way - certainly redemptive. I'm just not convinced that it makes up for the previous hour and a half or so of trudging somberly along toward it.

Photos courtesy of Sony Pictures

Movie Preview: Will Smith in Seven Pounds

BuzzSugar — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 11:30:16 -0700

It's cool that there's a new trailer out for Will Smith's upcoming heartwarming drama Seven Pounds, even if it doesn't offer much insight into what the movie is about. I turned to IMDB for a little help, so here's the plot description as found on the Seven Pounds page: "Ben (Will Smith) is an IRS agent who is depressed and guilt-ridden about mistakes from his past. He sets out to make amends by helping seven strangers. When he meets Emily (Rosario Dawson), a beautiful woman with a heart condition, he falls in love with her, thereby complicating his plans." Ahhh, got it now.

The film is brought to us by the director of The Pursuit of Happyness and it opens Dec. 19. To check out the trailer and tell me what you think, read more.

Source

Movie News: Vampires, Legends, Oprah, Tonto, and More

BuzzSugar — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 14:30:01 -0700

It's a busy time for Tinseltown:

Another 20-something city girl: Anne Hathaway will play the lead role in the film version of a book I really enjoyed: The Opposite of Love. The movie is about "a commitment-phobic attorney who finds her well-constructed life coming apart at the seams when she rebuffs her ready-for-marriage boyfriend."
Before I was legend: Well, it's official - Will Smith will reprise his role as Dr. Robert Neville in an I Am Legend prequel. This movie "will cover the final days of humanity in New York City before a man-made virus creates a plague that wipes out the population, leaving Neville alone with the mutated inhabitants."
What's the latest in vampire news, Buzz?: Funny you should ask! Cloverfield director Matt Reeves's next project is a "vampire tale" titled Let the Right One In, a remake of a Swedish film about "a young boy who befriends a female neighbor who moves to town." I bet she's not your ordinary neighbor.
More vampires, not so much movie related: Mostly I'm just excited about this news because it's about Guillermo del Toro (yay!!) who "is collaborating with crime author Chuck Hogan on a trilogy of vampire novels, starting next Summer with The Strain. I love that guy (del Toro, not Chuck Hogan).

Depp, Oprah, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers news if you read more.

Disney just loves Johnny Depp, but then again, who doesn't? Along with taking on the role of the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, Disney announced that Johnny Depp will also star in a fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie, and he will star as Tonto in The Lone Ranger.
O, that voice! In more Disney news, Oprah Winfrey will give voice to Eudora in the New Orleans-set animated princess movie, The Princess and the Frog.
Wondering what Jonathan Rhys Meyers is up to these days? Well, I'll tell ya. Meyers is teaming up with John Travolta in the thriller From Paris With Love. The story follows "a young embassy worker and an American secret agent who cross paths while working on a high-risk mission in Paris." Travolta, though? Really?

Source and source

Hancock Is a Box Office Superhero

BuzzSugar — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 06:30:27 -0700

A surprise to no one (but still a delight to me, since I find this Will Smith movie to be pretty fun), Hancock won the crown at the box office over the Fourth of July holiday weekend. According to Variety, the movie "is the eighth Smith film in a row to open at No. 1 domestically, as well as his fifth - and most successful - Fourth of July outing." It is also Smith's second-biggest opening after the record-breaking opening of I Am Legend in December. Over the long holiday weekend (5.5 days), Hancock raked in approximately $107.3 million.

So, in case anyone doubted it before, Will Smith = box office gold.

Elsewhere in the top five box office hits, Wall-E stepped into second place over the weekend, followed by Wanted and then Get Smart. Kung Fu Panda rounded out the group in fifth place. Kit Kittredge came in at No. 8, performing less well than studios had hoped.

Within the indie market, The Wackness did exceptionally well in its per-location average, and the Dr. Hunter S. Thompson documentary, Gonzo, also "enjoyed a solid debut."

Next weekend will bring us yet another movie deemed "male-skewing" by Variety: Hellboy II: The Golden Army (though I not-so-secretly cannot wait to see it!). Overall (with the exception of Wall-E), it looks like next weekend's top five at the box office will be pretty "male-skewing" (Hellboy II, Hancock, Wanted and Get Smart, with The Incredible Hulk still not too far behind).

Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures

Hancock: A New Kind of Superhero Movie

BuzzSugar — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:30:26 -0700

I'm not totally sure who the intended audience is for Hancock. The superhero aspect is campy enough for kids (and sometimes way too campy for adults), but there's definitely language that doesn't seem suitable for youngsters. Perhaps the teenagers will most enjoy the movie, though as an adult I liked it well enough and I certainly applaud what the story attempts to accomplish: tell a superhuman's story with the emphasis on the "human" experience. In a world overly saturated with superhero movies, this angle is actually pretty refreshing.

Also, it's a mainstream movie focused on a black superhero and I gotta say, it's about damn time.

Will Smith is Hancock, a modern-day superhero who's fallen out of favor with the public. For every good deed he does, he leaves a staggering amount of destruction in his wake. Hancock is surly, drinks constantly and has intense anger management problems. But when he saves the life of PR guy and general do-gooder Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman), Ray offers to help Hancock turn around his image. He devises a strategy for making the public stop taking Hancock for granted, while coaching him on how to seem more like a hero and less like a careless drunk. As Ray spends more and more time with Hancock, his son Aaron grows attached to the superhero, though Ray's wife Mary (Charlize Theron) seems constantly suspicious of him. Ray helps Hancock change his image, but that's just half the story; Hancock's past includes many more secrets he didn't even know were there.

For more of my take on the movie, read more.

At it's most basic, the premise for the story is really clever. It's similar to the way Seinfeld manages to be funny while merely waxing philosophic about everyday things: If we look, quite seriously, at what it might be like for a modern-day superhero - especially one with rage issues - what challenges might this guy face? Might the public turn on him? Might he forget his strength and heave a whale into a boat? These would be real issues for a real superhuman, though to us they're just interesting and funny. Where the movie drags considerably is when it tries to be super dark, somber and overly dramatic.

Nobody is a better pick for this role than Will Smith. There are probably better comedians out there and there are guys who are good at being the badass. Smith, perhaps like his character, easily achieves a balance of two beings. He's a funny badass superhero.

And yet the best part of the whole movie is the relationship between Ray and Hancock. One of my favorite actors, Bateman is a funny guy on his own and within an ensemble cast, but when paired up with such a larger-than-life character, he's completely hysterical - and so is Smith. Like Bateman's former onscreen "son" Michael Cera, he plays the straight man like few people can: guilelessly, optimistically, truthfully. He's really just a good, normal guy trying to do his thing, and when set against Smith's great, off-kilter character, it strikes a perfect comedic balance.

It's a silly movie, for sure, and how much you like it will probably depend on your tolerance for silliness. It's not a masterpiece. But it is a pretty fun way to spend a couple of hot summer hours.

Photos courtesy of Sony Pictures

Buzz News Roundup, 5/21

BuzzSugar — Wed, 21 May 2008 13:37:03 -0700

Variety reports that Spike Lee plans to make a feature-length documentary about Michael Jordan to premier at next year's Cannes Film Festival.
The Telegraph reports that the voice cast members of The Simpsons will receive $500,000 per episode for the next 22-episode season.
According to Hollywood Reporter, John Grisham's bestseller Playing for Pizza will be adapted for the big screen.
Steve Buscemi, Ray Liotta and others have joined Michael Cera for the comedy Youth in Revolt, writes ComingSoon.
CBS will stream a number of archived television shows online, including Twin Peaks and The Love Boat, reports The Wall Street Journal.
According to Variety, there will be a Rupert Wainwright-directed indie drama titled Waco, based on the 1993 stand-off at Waco, Texas.
Janet Jackson is gearing up to do a tour, kicking off in Vancouver on September 10, Billboard writes.
Will Smith will produce a remake of France's smash hit comedy Welcome to the Sticks, Zap2It reports.
Reuters reports that Sharon Osbourne has signed on to star in VH1's reality show Rock of Love Girls: Charm School, teaching contestants "about etiquette, fashion and manners."
Zap2It has the news that John Cusack and Chiwetel Ejiofor are in talks to join Roland Emmerich's apocalyptic thriller 2012.

Source

Movie Preview: Hancock

BuzzSugar — Fri, 02 May 2008 11:42:13 -0700

I gotta say, I really like the premise for Hancock. There's a complicated, surly, alcoholic superhero (Will Smith) who grates on peoples' nerves rather than earning their adoration. Thus, he needs a PR pro (Jason Bateman) to help him gain the trust of the public. It could be totally silly, certainly, but the new full-length trailer makes the movie look pretty amusing. I even laughed out loud a few times (mostly during the part with the female cop he's trying to help). However, I also feel like the entire movie is shown in the three-minute trailer, which is frustrating.

Hancock hits theaters July 2, so to check out the trailer and tell me what you think, read more.

Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures

What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday

BuzzSugar — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 06:30:00 -0700

All of the new DVD releases hit stores (and Netflix) on Tuesdays. So each week in What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday, I sort through the best of the batch and tell you what to add to your queue. In addition to the titles below, Guy Ritchie's Revolver and Southland Tales starring Justin Timberlake, The Rock, and Sarah Michelle Gellar are also available today.

Enchanted
Is it just me or does it feel like we've been waiting for this movie to come out on DVD for forever? Enchanted is a treat for anyone who grew up loving those good old-fashioned animated Disney films (remember life before Pixar?). I truly enjoyed this trip down Disney Memory Lane and I know a lot of you did, too. The movie, starring Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, Susan Sarandon, and James Marsden is a wonderfully fun twist on the classic princess tale.

The story centers around Giselle (Adams), an amalgamation of Disney heroines from the days of yore who lives in a land called Andalasia. Giselle's chief concerns are marrying Prince Edward (Marsden), singing, and dancing with forest creatures. Edward's stepmother (Sarandon) is unhappy with Gisele and Edward's relationship, and she uses her evil magic to boot Giselle out of the animated world and into real-world Times Square. Once there, Giselle's simple, optimistic outlook on life is challenged by a force much darker and more cynical than any evil witch: a New York divorce attorney (Dempsey).

This DVD comes with lots of special featurettes including bloopers, a glimpse behind the creation of Andalasia, and extra shorts about Pip's (Giselle's trusty chipmunk friend) adventures.

More romance and adventure coming out this week, so read more.

I am Legend
I Am Legend was hit or miss with folks when it came out, but now that it's on DVD it's the kind of movie that will do the trick if you're looking to kick back and be entertained by some action. Plus, it's Will Smith and he's always good entertainment.

The film is based on Richard Matheson's 1954 sci-fi novel and follows Robert Neville (Smith), one of the few people who survives a virus that nearly renders humanity extinct. Robert's not alone however, there is another group of people, the infecteds, who have turned into "the night seekers." These scary things are like vampires/zombies that go around at night trying to infect surviving humans. Robert, a scientist, is working hard to find a cure for the disease before the creepies can get him. Thus, this sci-fi thriller takes you through a suspenseful race against time.

Special features include four animated comics as well as bonus material "exploring the history and current status of life-threatening viral infections."

Love in the Time of Cholera
I'm a big fan of Gabriel García Márquez’s wonderful 1985 novel Love in the Time of Cholera, as are many, but when I heard it was being adapted to film I had a hard time figuring out how that would work. In the book, plot isn't necessarily the driving force so much as the long, gorgeous sentences and the poetic feeling of the exquisite torture of longing for something you love. Like many, this film slipped off my radar and I still haven't been able to see this story brought to life onscreen.

I'm adding this to my queue partly out of curiosity, but also because the Oscar-winning super dreamy Javier Bardem stars as Florentino Ariza, a young man who falls hard (seriously, he loves her forever) for Fermina Daza (played by Giovanna Mezzogiorno). The film is directed by Mike Newell (Donnie Brasco, Four Weddings and Funeral) and was filmed in Columbia. Add it all up and this is one romantic drama I'm excited to get lost in at home.