Buzz (2006)

Movie News

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  Cannes Chatter: Marion Cotillard Already Stirring Up Oscar Buzz

  Plus, the latest epic from the Wachowskis is finally unveiled.
  

  
  
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  'Beasts of the Southern Wild' Trailer: Worthy of All the Buzz?

  We finally get a glimpse of the Sundance hit.
  

  
  
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  'Carnage' Trailer Oscar-Buzzes Its Way Online

  Roman Polanski, an all-Oscar cast, and a Broadway origin!

  
  
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  Find Out Why 'Attack the Block' Is the Buzziest Movie in Ages

  The first trailer hints at what the comedy sci-f has to offer.
  

  
  
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  'Green Hornet' to Generate Box Office Buzz!

  'The Green Hornet' is expected to give Vince Vaughn a “Dilemma” this weekend.

  
  
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  B.O. Buzz-Kill: 'Pineapple Express' Down 50 Percent from Opening Day

  Pineapple Express (Sony), which opened to a spectacular $12.15M on Wednesday, suffered its expected Thursday buzz-kill, down about 50 percent, according to preliminary numbers.

  
  
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  'Indiana Jones' on the French Riviera: Upside to a Little Bad Buzz

  As the Cannes Film Festival prepares for Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which premieres on Sunday, there is a question that begs asking. Why did Steven Spielberg and George Lucas decide to bring this ‘popcorn movie’ to face the jaded industry types and elite critics on the French Riviera’

  
  
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  "You're fired" Tops TV Buzzwords, Kutcher's Dolce Restaurant Burglarized, Traffic Charges Against Givens Dismissed

  "You're fired!" tops TV buzzwords, Kutcher's Dolce restaurant burglarized, traffic charges against Givens dismissed, more...

  
  
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  BUZZ/SAW: George Clooney's 'Titanic'?

  "OCEAN'S FOUR?" The 1960 Frank Sinatra/Rat Pack heist comedy "Ocean's Eleven," about former military guys who reunite to rob a bunch of Vegas casinos, isn't exactly a National Film Registry-bound oeuvre destined for the Pantheon of Cinema Classics. No matter.
  
  Although it's the new millennium, Hollywood still knows no shame in venturing where no others dare in scavenging for material. Thus, we have on the boards plans for a remake of "Ocean's Eleven," courtesy of Warner Bros. and producer Jerry Weintraub, with George Clooney -- as Danny Ocean -- so far the only star firmed for the megastar cast of 11 partying felons.
  
  Problem is, this "Ocean's" could be heading for a Titanic-like iceberg of a budget. For starters, Clooney pockets about $10 million per pic. Already mentioned to co-star with him are Brad Pitt (about $17.5 mil per pic), Johnny Depp ($11 million), Julia Roberts

  
  
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  Buzz: Dennis Quaid and other stars play under a full moon

  Dennis Quaid performs at the Latin Lounge in West Hollywood

  
  
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  Buzz: Tim Allen, re-tooled for the YMCA

  Tim Allen returns to the stand up stage at the Laugh Factory for a YMCA fundraiser

  
  
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  Ray Romano on his show's favorable Emmy buzz

  Actor/comedian Ray Romano, speaking to Entertainment Tonight, about the success of Everybody Loves Raymond and the show's favorable Emmy buzz.

  
  
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  BUZZ/SAW: Listen Up, Broadway!

  NEW YORK, NY, June 5, 2000 -- No one knows this yet but there's a new musical that will land on Broadway very soon and it will be a huge, huge hit.
  
  How can we be so sure? Yes, the spankin' new musical comedy version of the smash indie "The Full Monty" opened last Thursday at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre to great reviews, including one in Monday's Variety, but this column has always been a little, uh, skeptical of critics.
  
  But one of the theater world's most seasoned professionals (now a major force on the West Coast after having cut his teeth in New York for years) caught a preview early last week and declared "The Full Monty" an "unequivocal smash" and "howlingly commercial."
  
  Yes, playwright Terrence McNally ("The Kiss of the Spider Woman," "Master Class," "Love! Valour! Compassion!") uncharacteristically breaks no new ground here, but he and novice musical comedy

  
  
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  BUZZ/SAW: Listen Up, Broadway (And Broadway.com)!

  NEW YORK, NY, June 5, 2000 -- No one knows this yet but there's a new musical that will land on Broadway very soon and it will be a huge, huge hit.
  
  How can we be so sure? Yes, the spankin' new musical comedy version of the smash indie "The Full Monty" opened last Thursday at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre to great reviews, including one in Monday's Variety, but this column has always been a little, uh, skeptical of critics.
  
  But one of the theater world's most seasoned professionals (now a major force on the West Coast after having cut his teeth in New York for years) caught a preview early last week and declared "The Full Monty" an "unequivocal smash" and "howlingly commercial."
  
  Yes, playwright Terrence McNally ("The Kiss of the Spider Woman," "Master Class," "Love! Valour! Compassion!") uncharacteristically breaks no new ground here, but he and novice musical comedy

  
  
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  BUZZ/SAW: L.A. vs. New York

  NEW YORK, N.Y., Jan. 24, 2000 -- The Hollywood Foreign Press Association's 57th Annual Golden Globe Awards on Sunday night was dubbed "Hollywood's party of the year," and it certainly brought out some of Hollywood's biggest names. But a closer look under the show's "Holly-hood" reveals New York, like Hollywood, as big a star of the ceremony.
  
  Yes, Hollywood pillars such as Jim Carrey, Tom Cruise, Jack Lemmon and Peter Fonda hugged statuettes for, respectively, "Man on the Moon," "Magnolia," "Inherit the Wind" and "Passion of Ayn Rand." And DreamWorks' "American Beauty" and Disney/Pixar's "Toy Story 2," both, cinematically speaking, very much American beauties, are most definitely brilliant Hollywood creations.
  
  But, moving right along and Hollywood aside, New Yorkers couldn't get enough awards and recognition. Central Park West's Michael J. Fox, who sadly is leaving "Spin Cit

  
  
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  BUZZ/SAW: Rex Reed, Celebrity

  NEW YORK, April 4, 2000 -- In yet another chapter of "How Infamy Feeds Fame," accused shoplifter and critic/writer/celebrityhound/bon vivant Rex Reed is seeing his own star rise as a result of being busted for allegedly lifting CDs from a New York Tower Records. Since his humiliating arrest in February, Reed has been featured in a full-page story in Fan, a freebie paper in Los Angeles. The article, "Who is Rex Reed Anyway?" was a kind bio of the seasoned writer. The Fan writer, not stopping with his rose-tinted portrait, went so far as to speculate that Reed, as he himself maintained, might have stuffed the unpaid-for CDs into his clothing in an absent-minded fog.
  
  (The "fan"/journalist no doubt missed a New York Post report that one of the CDs was packed into the waistband of Reed's pants.)
  
  Reed has also just popped up in ads for New York's critically acclaimed Off Broad

  
  
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  BUZZ/SAW: The Return of Tarantino

  NEW YORK, Feb. 8, 2000 — It used to be impossible to step out to the movies and not bump into Quentin Tarantino, not in the popcorn line, of course, but up on the screen. As director, screenwriter, producer and even actor, the wünderkind had a career that took off like a bat out of hell in the early '90s with such hits as "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction."
  
  Alas, Tarantino's acting turns in films like "Destiny Turns on the Radio" and "From Dusk Till Dawn" were, um, not terribly memorable, but who cared? Tarantino was so hot he was even cool in lukewarm roles.
  
  But Tarantino got cold. Just like that, one of the busiest, most visible filmmakers of the '90s seemed to disappear.
  
  Now comes word that Tarantino is back as an actor, and we have director Steven Brill, New Line Cinema and Adam Sandler to thank. The prematurely retired filmmaker has a "significant" role in N

  
  
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  BUZZ/SAW: Michael Douglas' New "Baby"

  New York, NY, Jan. 11, 2000 - Y2K looks to be a big year for Michael Douglas. Having just announced his engagement to Catherine Zeta-Jones (via the Internet, no less -- we hope someone e-mailed Catherine the good news), Douglas is poised to tie the knot with the beautiful Welsh star this year.
  
  Also in 2000 - next month in fact -- Douglas will be seen in Paramount's "Wonder Boys," about a majorly blocked writer. While initial reports described Douglas' character as "overweight" and "pot-smoking," Those Who Have Read the script say the role has a lot more dignity than that.
  
  And then there's the "baby." Douglas' production company Further Films has birthed its very first release, "One Night at McCool's," starring none other than Daddy. (Look for the bouncing black comedy in the fall.)
  
  And parenting will be very much on Douglas' mind when he begins pre-production late

  
  
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  BUZZ/SAW (Dec. 7-13)

  NEW YANKED MAGAZINE? New York Magazine is a very popular read in Los Angeles, especially because so many homesick ex-New Yorkers have relocated to the Left Coast.
  
  So it came as quite a blow when the native sons and daughters couldn't find their weekly Gotham fix — the Nov. 29 issue of New York Magazine -- on L.A. newsstands.
  
  What makes it doubly annoying is the fact that the issue carried a highly unusual L.A.-centric article, a scathing profile by Nikki Finke of ex-CAA superagent, drug addict and Mike Ovitz protege Jay Moloney, whose recent suicide shocked the entertainment community.
  
  Finke's allegations were stinging: Dubbing Moloney a "gangsta" agent, she also suggested that the former CAA "Young Turk" was a racketeer whose death may have been more karma than tragic. She recounted his rise in the Biz, thanks to mentor Ovitz, who had him do double duty as nanny

  
  
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  BUZZ/SAW: Advertisers Go 'Psycho'

  NEW YORK, April 25, 2000 -- Has anyone else noticed the sudden surge of "Psycho"-inspired ads on both TV and radio? Spots for DiGiorno's make-it-at-home pizza and the Web's AltaVista are both "Psycho" knock-offs. So why "Psycho" and why now? New York Times advertising reporter Stuart Elliott, who was planning his own item on the mini-phenom, noted that advertising and pop culture have always met at intersections, making "Psycho," Alfred Hitchcock's very recognizable cultural touchstone, an obvious target.
  
  He also suggested that "Psycho" has been fresh in the collective psyche because of the recent celebration of Hitchcock's 100th birthday. Memories of the classic have been further jogged by director Gus Van Sant's shot-by-shot 1998 remake.
  
  Rob Palmer, creative director on the AltaVista spot for the Wieden and Kennedy ad firm, said that when he and his colleague embraced

  
  
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  BUZZ/SAW: Elie, We Can Hear Ya!

  NEW YORK, NY, May 15, 2000 -- Proving that sometimes PR mavens really do earn their fees, new producer on the block Elie (pronounced Eelee) Samaha, who moved in the mid-90s from careers in club-bouncing, dry-cleaning, and club-owning to film-making, has been getting loads and loads of ink recently.
  
  Yes, the Elie avalanche has been a good job by flacks, but the media has also been responding to his good luck at having produced the surprise Bruce Willis/Matthew Perry hit "The Whole Nine Yards" and finally getting that cumbersome John Travolta vehicle, "Battlefield Earth," off the launching pad.
  
  Within the past two weeks, Elie stories have run in publications like the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times. Suggesting that Elie doesn't have a heck of a lot to say, some of the same quotes were duplicated in both stories. And, appropriately, both laid out the producer's modus

  
  
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  BUZZ/SAW: It's the Storm, Stupid

  NEW YORK, NY, June 12, 2000 -- How do you sell a really big summer movie if all the good guys, including your major stars, die at the end? (At least Kate Winslet's Rose Dewitt Bukater, if not poor Leo, survived the "Titanic" !)
  
  When the film is Warner Bros.' "The Perfect Storm," which opens later this month, stars George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg have to take a back seat to the movie's real star – the storm itself.
  
  At least that's how Warner Bros.' marketing campaign has lined up its ducks. In the print ads, trailers, TV ads, Web and radio promotions, it's the storm, storm, storm (and loud she is!) they're pushing. There's barely a glimpse of George and Mark, who were seen together last year in "Three Kings."
  
  This marketing manoeuvering for "The Perfect Storm" was surely tricky, especially since the huge marquee value of Clooney and Wahlberg had to be devalued. The

  
  
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  BUZZ/SAW: 'Mars' Landing in Digital

  NEW YORK, March 7, 2000 -- When "Mission to Mars" touches down on thousands of screens Friday, the flick about space pioneers will help pioneer a little cinematic history.
  
  Disney has elected to project the sci-fi actioner starring Gary Sinise, Tim Robbins and Don Cheadle, in digital format on 12 screens. This means that in a dozen theaters, good ol' scratch-prone and dust-attracting celluloid won't be running through projectors. Instead, "Mission to Mars" will be fed from DVD disks on players through prototypal digital projectors using Texas Instruments' Digital Light Processing chip.
  
  The participating theaters include four AMC screens in San Francisco, Orlando, Fla., Chicago and (where?) Olathe, Kan., as well as Disney's own El Capitan in Hollywood. Later, "Mission to Mars" will get digital lift-offs in cities such as Boston, Tokyo, London, Paris and Brussels, Belgium.
  

  
  
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  BUZZ/SAW: Dining Out With Diane Keaton

  NEW YORK, N.Y., Feb. 22, 2000 -- Who needs rehearsals? Apparently not Diane Keaton, director and star of "Hanging Up."
  
  In the comedy hit, Keaton, Meg Ryan and Lisa Kudrow play three ambitious sisters who are drawn closer together when their womanizing screenwriter father (Walter Matthau) becomes hospitalized. The spunky on-screen spontaneity suggests Keaton's loose-leash approach.
  
  Indeed, according to Bill Robinson, the film's producer and Keaton's longtime partner in her Blue Relief production company: "Diane doesn't believe in a formal rehearsal process. She feels that you can kill whatever spontaneity and freshness the actors bring to the role if you keep putting them through their paces. The rehearsal process for her was having a read-through or going out to dinner and talking about the character."
  
  Compare that rehearsal-lite approach with that adopted by the

  
  
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  BUZZ/SAW: How to Make 'Mars'

  NEW YORK, March 14, 2000 -- The critics so hated last weekend's box-office smash "Mission to Mars" -- in fact, some were downright mean to director Brian De Palma's new-agey sci-fi pic -- they forgot to mention that the film's visuals, including the amazing special effects, are, ahem, out of this world. Two special-effects houses -- Dream Quest Images and George Lucas' renowned Industrial Light and Magic -- were needed for the more than 400 special-effects shots that invoke the scary Mars surface, the weightless space travel and the astronauts' spacewalk after their recovery-ship accident.
  
  Reportedly costing close to $100 million to produce, "Mission To Mars" boasts one of the biggest sets ever built for a motion picture. The set, based just south of Vancouver, B.C., served as the vast (and blushing!) surface of Mars that the fearless astronauts played by Gary Sinise and crew mu

  
  
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  BUZZ/SAW: Free Rex Reed!

  NEW YORK, NY, Feb. 15, 2000 -- The news broke Sunday in New York newspapers and on Time Warner Cable's New York 1 channel that film critic/columnist/actor Rex Reed was arrested Saturday for allegedly shoplifting three compact discs. National coverage of the alleged crime continued Monday in such publications as USA Today.
  
  Reed was apprehended by security officers at a Tower Records store near his apartment for allegedly tucking CDs by Mel Torme, Peggy Lee and Carmen McRae into his jacket without, as authorities maintain, paying for them.
  
  Sources suggest Reed, who currently writes an entertainment column for The New York Observer, could have sustained the financial hit of paying for the items. He lives at the Dakota, one of Manhattan's most expensive and exclusive apartment buildings (John Lennon was shot there); owns a spread in an elite corner of rural Connecticut; and,

  
  
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  BUZZ/SAW: Jodie Foster Freaks Again?

  NEW YORK, N.Y., Jan. 4, 2000 --- Jodie Foster may be passing on "Hannibal," the grisly sequel to "The Silence of the Lambs," but she isn't quite abandoning oddball projects.
  
  Come this spring, she'll be producing and directing "Flora Plum," a period film about a young waif (Claire Danes) who is adopted by a circus and befriended by a freak who falls for her while running her newfound showbiz career.
  
  The movie is a return to the "freak" territory Foster roamed in so many of her films prior to this winter's regal "Anna and the King." Foster's pre-"Anna" "freaky" string of troubled characters and assorted weirdos dates back as far as 1972 and "Kansas City Bomber" (in which she played the daughter of a female roller-derby star).
  
  The freaky Foster roster also includes: "Taxi Driver" (she's a kid hooker in a creepy nocturnal New York); "Nell" (she's a wolf-girl); "Carny"

  
  
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  BUZZ/SAW: Edward Norton's Next?

  
  
  NEW YORK, N.Y., Dec. 27, 1999 -- We hear that Edward Norton ("Fight Club") may step into Paramount's crime actioner "The Score" as the young hood who locks horns with the older thief played by Robert De Niro. Ben Affleck was to co-star opposite De Niro but quickly exited the project for unknown reasons. Norton recently completed "Keeping the Faith," in which he made his directorial debut.
  
  PLAYGROUND'S SETTING OF PLAY: Some big -- albeit under wraps -- names are involved in the highly secret development of a new version of William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," with the tony beach resort community of East Hampton, N.Y., to be the whimsical, if unlikely, setting.
  
  There have already been at least eight big-screen adaptations of Shakespeare's fantasy-comedy, so it's a relief to learn that this latest effort is headed for its original home -- the stage. Sp

  
  
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  BUZZ/SAW (Dec. 14-20)

  LEOFEST TO LAUNCH: It's not just Santa who will be arriving any day soon. Leonardo DiCaprio will be delivering the official version of his LeoFest International Online Short Film Festival to the Web right after the New Year/new millennium celebration (a work-in-progress site is up now).
  
  LeoFest is calling for anyone, anywhere (Tonga! Iceland! Wichita! You name it!) to submit for consideration a film of up to 15 minutes in any of the following categories: narrative, documentary, animation and alternative. Filmmakers will have to make transfers before they submit since LeoFest says that no film stock of any gauge will be accepted (Take that, Eastman Kodak!).
  
  While prizes haven't yet been announced, we've heard that Leo himself will be awarding grand prizes of $20,000 to all finalists, and it's money right out of his own pocket. And we bet that the talent scouts at Leo's all

  
  
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  Oscar buzz surrounds 'The Green Mile' premiere

  LOS ANGELES -- The "Green Mile" premiere Monday night was accompanied by all of the fantastical effects, glitz and star power a possible Oscar contender deserves.
  
  Director Frank Darabont returns after five years ("Shawshank Redemption") to bring Stephen King's 1996 best-selling serialized novel to the big screen.
  
  "This is really exciting," said Darabont. "It took me this long to make another movie. I was waiting to fall in love with a story again, enough so I would go through the anguish of directing a movie. Thankfully, Stephen King gave me exactly that story."
  
  Set on death row in a Southern prison in 1935, Tom Hanks stars as Paul Edgecomb. In flashbacks, Edgecomb recounts his tour of duty watching over a series of convicted killers awaiting execution in the electric chair.
  
  "Stephen King wrote something that is quite in the realm of fanciful there in 1935

  
  
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  TV movie producers accused of "buzzing" office buildings

  The Canadian government agency Transport Canada announced Monday that it has launched an investigation into the use of a low-flying helicopter for the production of an NBC TV movie, Ground Zero, in Vancouver on Friday.