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Movie News Roundup: Watts, Fox, Another 300 Movie and More

BuzzSugar — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 09:46:17 -0700

According to The Guardian, Naomi Watts will play one of King Lear's daughters in the next film adaptation of Shakespeare's play. Gwyneth Paltrow and Keira Knightley will take on the roles of the other two daughters to Anthony Hopkins's King Lear.
Matthew Fox is in talks to star in yet another one of Hollywood's comic book-turned-movies, Billy Smoke, about "an elite hit man who's nearly killed during a botched job and realizes that his only way to find redemption is to rid the world of all assassins."
Hollywood Reporter writes that Helena Bonham Carter will have a "small but pivotal role" in the fourth Terminator movie.
A follow-up to 300 is officially in the works, with Frank Miller currently writing the graphic novel on which it will be based. Though he's not committed yet, 300 director Zack Snyder is "definitely interested" to see what Miller comes up with. It's unclear whether the new installment will be a prequel or a spinoff, Variety reports.
Robert Rodriguez is casting his lady Rose McGowan yet again, this time for a new film version of Red Sonja, a story based on the fearsome woman warrior created by Robert E. Howard and later adapted for Marvel Comics, Variety writes.
According to Hollywood Reporter, four more ladies (Marcia Gay Harden, Kristen Wiig, Juliette Lewis and Zoe Bell) have joined Drew Barrymore's directorial feature Whip It, starring Ellen Page. The movie is based on the novel Derby Girl.

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Buzz News Roundup, 4/11

BuzzSugar — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 13:30:45 -0700

Despite rumors that Universal Pictures did not want Rose McGowan to play Barbarella in an upcoming remake, she insists she's got the role and has the contracts to prove it, ComingSoon reports.
Adrien Brody is set to star in a thriller called Giallo about a search for a woman abducted by a serial killer named Yellow, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Heroes creator Tim Kring has signed on to co-write a book trilogy, USA Today reports.
Mariah Carey's having a good week as her single "Touch My Body" has scored a second week at No. 1, Billboard reports.

Neil Patrick Harris doesn't think How I Met Your Mother needs any more guest stars, the Associated Press reports.
EW has new details about the Sex and the City movie soundtrack that will include Fergie and Jennifer Hudson.
In pilot casting news, Zap2it reports that Donal Logue has joined the cast of 1% on HBO, while TV Guide reports that Marcia Gay Harden has been cast in The Tower, a CBS journalism drama.

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Turner Classic Movies Features a Month of Guest Programmers

BuzzSugar — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 15:25:44 -0800

Did you know that one of Kermit the Frog's favorite movies is Singin' in the Rain?

November is a month of guest programmers on Turner Classic Movies, which means that we will learn all about the favorite movies of random celebrities from various branches of entertainment and commerce. Tonight the channel is featuring some of Rose McGowan's favorite classic films, like The Night of the Hunter (1955) and Out of the Past (1947).

It's oddly fascinating to learn about these peoples' favorite old films, like funny man Jerry Stiller's suggested movies are the 1948 drama I Remember Mama and the religiously-themed Boys Town. Martha Stewart's night of programming (November 30) includes Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House and Anna Karenina. Kicking things off on the first of November, Whoopi Goldberg brought us the 1946 version of Beauty and the Beast, and Danny Devito's pick of The Battle of Algiers will be shown on November 10.

Among the more random guest programmers are The Food Network's Alton Brown (who has selected the 1967 movie Point Blank), and Maria Menounos with her selection of The Hustler. Donald Trump picked The African Queen on November 3 and one of Matt Groening's favorite films is apparently Blues in the Night.

Which old movies would you pick if you could be a guest programmer on TCM?

Grindhouse: A Clever Experiment That Succeeds

BuzzSugar — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 13:47:32 -0700

Should you spend three hours of your life indulging two directors’ fanboy fantasies with a parade of gross-out humor, awkward pacing, bad acting, and obscure movie references?

Yes, you absolutely should.

As you've probably heard by now, Grindhouse is actually two movies in one: Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror and Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof. But it's also an ambitious attempt to recreate an obsolete experience - seeing a double-feature at a '70s B-movie parlor, complete with trailers, missing film reels, scratched frames, and the freedom to applaud ass-kicking moments and "ew" over icky ones.

In this regard, collaborators and comrades Rodriguez and Tarantino are entirely successful, and it's highly entertaining to watch how they pull it off, so

I know a lot of you are approaching Grindhouse with total disinterest, but the intentionally over-the-top movie is actually quite thought-provoking. Each director interprets the challenge differently, which makes the film pairing that much more captivating.

The first movie, Rodriguez’s Planet Terror is pure homage - a zombie movie with a modern-day terrorism twist - and, in my opinion, the more successful of the two. It has all the trappings of a B-movie, including choppy editing, a pointless plot, even B-list actors, including Freddy Rodriguez as a vigilante and Rose McGowan as a go-go dancer on a mission. The acting is at once terrible and brilliant - Stacy Ferguson (aka "Fergie") couldn't act her way out of a backseat, and for that reason, she is expertly cast as a troubled motorist.

The problem with actual bad movies is that they have the potential to be really boring. What's impressive about Planet Terror is that it feels authentic without actually being bad. Much the way John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China was both campy and entertaining, Rodriguez manages to make tired B-movie tropes - cliched dialog, blood and guts that might have been purchased at Spencer Gifts - feel surprisingly novel.

But while Planet's influences are obvious, Tarantino’s contribution, a sort of tribute to stunt-people called Death Proof, is harder to get your head around. Much the way that Kill Bill took the martial arts movie and Tarantinofied it, Death Proof gathers inspiration from car-chase films and horror flicks to invent what feels like an entirely new genre.

Oddly, Death Proof also plays like two movies in one, and like Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown, the action unfolds in what looks like a fictional era, blending a '70s aesthetic with modern conveniences like cell phones. Set and shot in Austin, TX - in what feels like an excuse for Tarantino to namecheck lots of local restaurants - the first half follows a group of freewheeling gals on a night out, and though it turns out to be a horror movie, it forgoes the dramatic tension that normally imbues horror movies, so the format feels entirely unfamiliar.

The same thing could be said for part two, which follows another group of girls only tangentially related to the first group. Working on location for a movie, these women - including Kill Bill stunt-woman Zoe Bell, playing herself - morph the movie from horror film into women's revenge flick in a way that's entirely unexpected and also quite jarring.

It would be an impressive trick, but in my opinion, Tarantino doesn't quite pull it off. Rather than work in his favor, the odd pacing makes the disparate plots feel unfinished. At the same time, the trademark Tarantino banter in cars and diners feels watered down compared to some of the genius scenes in Reservoir Dogs and other Tarantino movies. However, I will say that Death Proof feels unlike anything I've ever seen on the big screen - and also like one of those cases where I should wait to see the director's cut.

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Will You Tune In For the Last Season of Nip/Tuck?

BuzzSugar — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 09:30:00 -0700

Tonight, Christian Troy and Sean McNamara are back for the sixth and final season of Nip/Tuck. I was hooked on the jaw-dropping, soapy series back in the day, but had to break up with the show when the ick factor became more than I could bear.

Admittedly, I've spent some time catching up on episodes past because I'm still kinda interested in what became of the characters and the over-the-top story lines. I'm sure that the writers will be pulling out all the stops for the final season, which is packed with guest stars including Vanessa Redgrave, Melanie Griffith, Rose McGowan, and the return of Famke Janssen just to name a few. I just might have to give it another chance, but what about you?

Photo courtesy of FX