Almost Paradise

Director Kenny Ortega has walked away from the new Footloose film. Check out the full story here.

I'm really bummed. I think Ortega is a good director (HSM and Newsies have their flaws, but they're well directed films) and an unbelievable choreographer. Honestly, he was the redeeming factor for me when it came to this film.

I also think it's interesting that this was conceived as a project for Ortega and Zack Efron and now they've both walked away. Not promising, I can tell you that much.

Although I love Chace Crawford and Julianne Hough, I'm just not convinced that they're going to be able to pull off Footloose. Ren and Ariel are pretty complicated and difficult characters. Ren has to both brood and make the best of things at the same time. While we all love watching Chace brood, something Josh Scwartz hasn't let him do lately, I'm not sure he'll be able to pull off the making the best of it aspect. Although maybe he has hidden depths. To be fair, I wasn't sure Efron could pull off the acting necessary either, but we knew he had the singing and dancing aspect.

Ariel has to flirt with the line of being extremely unlikable. She's petulant, spoiled, impulsive (in the bad way) and demanding. I love Julianne. Adore her. I even voted for Adam Corrolla on DWTS just to keep Julianne around, I'm just not sure if she can surrender the cuteness and the million watt dancer smile for long enough to see the pain that Ariel's going through without taking it so far as to make us hate her.

I was really looking forward to seeing what Ortega did with it. He handles emotion very well in his movies, and one just has to watch Newsies to see how good he can be at "One kid against the world" story.

But then again, that kid was Christian Bale...something tells me Bruce Wayne can do a bit more than Nate Archibald.

What do you think of Ortega's exit?

I need a hero...

So, it's been pretty much universally acknowledged that Julianne Hough has been offered the role of Ariel in the Footloose musical movie (I refuse to call it a remake, it isn't!)...I think it's interesting because apparently it came down to her and Hayden Panetierre, and they were both on my "casting list" although Julianne for Rusty, not Ariel. I listened to her album the other day to decide how I felt about it vocally, and really, she definitely has the vocal chops, but Ariel's a pretty intense role emotionally. Plus I don't think I'm going to enjoy seeing Julianne get beat by her boyfriend.

But between her and Chace Crawford, two of my favorite TV personalities are now in this movie. I'm interested in seeing where it goes.

It's also funny because of this:

Yup, that's Julianne's big brother Derek as Ren in the London production of Footloose. Hehe, good times!

Big Wolfy Beefcake

WOW! JAILBAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No, Ok, so really there's no news attached to this photo, I just felt the need to share this with you.

New Moon could be the worst movie ever, and it'll still be worth my ten bucks just for the man candy!

I did it my way

http://www.imdb.com/news/ni0785058/

OMG Yay! So, if you're too lazy to click the link, this is the official word that Martin Scorcese will direct a Frank Sinatra biopic. I think Scorcese is the perfect choice to tell Ol' Blue Eyes story. I'm not sure about Leo in the role, but I guess I could see it.

There is definitely a resemblence, and lord knows Leo has the talent and since this is the official family sanctioned bio pic, we get the real voice lip synched so Leo's vocal ability (which I have no idea if its good or not) is not a issue.

This is absolutely my favorite Sinatra:

Enjoy!

ARE THEY TRYING TO KILL ME?

OK, so it's bad enough that they've replaced Catherine Hardwicke with the guy who did The Golden Compass for New Moon (BTW, according to anyone who actually read The Golden Compass, I did not, although I did enjoy the film, he butchered it) but now they're talking about replacing Taylor Lautner with Ben Barnes for Jacob!


NOOO!

Taylor Lautner was perfect. And I like Ben Barnes. I do, I mean, Prince Caspian...swoon. But he's not Jacob. And you can't do that. Recasting of a big role rarely works out. Like in Hannibal, I like Julianne Moore, but she's not Jodie Foster. Or Val Kilmer as Batman, yuck. (OK, I actually like Batman Forever, but because of Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey and Nicole Kidman) Whichever Darrin Stevens was second, just not as good. If Ben Barnes wants in on Twilight, he can play Sam or something. Actually Ben Barnes would make a really good Sam, now that I think about it. Or maybe Embry. But not JACOB! You can't give me the perfect Jacob, who btw is actually Native American not British and bizarrely good at accents and then just take him away. Why does Robert effing Pattinson get a free pass? Edward is barely even in New Moon. He's in it as much as Jacob is in Twilight.

And don't even get me started on the Catherine Hardwicke thing. She did an amazing job on Twilight, with next to no budget and tremendous pressure. Not to mention part of what I love about Twilight is the feminine tour de force that it is. Think of Sci Fi/Fantasy/Horror authors who are household names. Guess what? Chances are they AREN'T WOMEN...with the exception of JK Rowling (who had to abbreviate her name because her publisher didn't think that if people knew right away Harry Potter was written by a woman they would buy it) there are very few women who are famous in that genre, and guess who the other two that I can think of are? Stefanie Meyer and Anne Rice. So having a woman direct the movie really meant something, especially to a young woman who has an interest in the entertainment industry. But now it's, "Oh, we can afford a man, so we're going to use him this time." It really puts me off, a lot. Luckily Stephanie said she's got her eye on him. I'm so glad they're letting her be involved. She better keep him from butchering it.

And the wolves better not look cheesy.