Image Credit: DisneyWhen Disney announced in February that its latest animated movie — a new spin on the Rapunzel story, featuring Mandy Moore as the long-locked princess — would be called Tangled, fans were confused. Why not just call it Rapunzel, in the tradition of Disney classics like Sleeping Beauty and Snow White? Later, when the movie’s first trailer showed a prominent male lead character — the roguish Flynn Ryder (voiced by Zachary Levi) — blogs buzzed with theories that Disney had beefed up the movie’s testosterone level as a reaction to the non-blockbuster box office performance of The Princess and the Frog, which grossed $104 million in 2009. But was that really the case? With the movie out in theaters today, we decided to give Tangled directors Nathan Greno and Byron Howard to grab those rumors by the, er… hair.
Archive: November 2010 (21-30 of 94)
How did Rapunzel become 'Tangled'? Directors Nathan Greno and Byron Howard set the record straight
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'Hop' teaser: Russell Brand's Easter Bunny plays the drums. Sure. Why not?
A teaser trailer for Hop has been released. Watch it below. It’s as vague as you’d expect, since the comedy is from Illumination Entertainment, the folks who brought you Despicable Me. You’ll recall Hop, hitting theaters this spring, is the film that stars James Marsden as a live-action out-of-work slacker named Fred who accidentally injures the animated Easter Bunny (voiced by Russell Brand) and is forced to take him in as he recovers. Per the movie’s official site, “As Fred struggles with the world’s worst houseguest, both will learn what it takes to finally grow up.” The teaser doesn’t show Marsden, it just features the Easter Bunny rocking out to Blur on the drums. So I guess we’re to assume that a rabbit playing the drums annoys Fred.
My biggest question at this moment, aside from whether the Easter Bunny will have a British accent, is if the Easter Bunny normally dresses like this or if he borrowed clothes from Fred and shrunk them. READ FULL STORY »
'Every Day': Liev Schreiber, Helen Hunt, and the underbelly of domestic bliss
Every Day stars Liev Schreiber, Helen Hunt, Carla Gugino, and Eddie Izzard. Dayenu! But it looks emotionally literate and interesting, too: Schrieber and Hunt play a married couple whose long-time pairing is on the rocks thanks to the stress of, you know, being alive I guess. READ FULL STORY »
Alan Menken discusses 'Tangled' and the past, present, and future of the animated musical
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Alan Menken has won more Oscars — eight! — than anybody else alive. And no wonder. When you think of the smash hits that revived Walt Disney Animation, starting with The Little Mermaid in 1989 and continuing with Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin, it’s impossible to separate the movies from the music. “Under the Sea,” “Part of Your World,” “Be Our Guest,” “Friend Like Me,” “A Whole New World” — they’re the stuff high school glee clubs are made of. Menken, with lyricists Howard Ashman and Tim Rice, gave us all of these ear confections, winning over audiences and the Academy in the process. But history can take unexpected turns, and the art form Menken once dominated, that of hand-drawn Broadway-style animated musicals, has all but vanished. Now, he’s prepped his next revolution: the first CG-animated film that’s also a full, break-into-song musical, Walt Disney Animation’s Tangled, opening today. EW talked to Menken about his unrivaled career, his work on Tangled, and why Disney has chosen not to market it as a musical.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: In some ways, Tangled is a landmark film. It’s the first complete musical for a CG-animated film.
ALAN MENKEN: It’s the first to even attempt it. I knew that going in, but I always felt Pixar would attempt a “break into song” musical. The closest they came was with “When She Loved Me” in Toy Story 2, but that was still just montage material.
Was it more challenging to compose music for a CG-animated film as opposed to a hand-drawn film?
To compose, no. Do people respond to CGI, though, in the same way they respond to hand-drawn? In the case of Tangled, I think the name Disney on it makes all the difference. It gives permission to the fact that it is a musical. Having a tradition is a great thing to work within, and maybe today [it] is the only way to really land musically dramatic work. People have to already be comfortable with the form. READ FULL STORY »
'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' remake: Kristy Swanson supports it... and wants to act in it
Image Credit: Everett CollectionJoss Whedon has already spoken out about plans for an upcoming Buffy the Vampire slayer remake, and now Kristy Swanson, the first woman who first brought the vamp-killing heroine to life on the big screen, also has something to say about it: “Let Buffy live. Why not?”
“If they wanted me to be a part of it, I think that would be fantastic and that it would be a blast,” she tells EW.
Swanson was 22 when she first stepped into the role that would be transformed by Sarah Michelle Gellar seven years later, and she remembers that her first reaction to the new take on the character was, in fact, positive. (“It was a whole new idea, a whole new look,” she says.) And she believes a transformation can happen again — even without its original maker. READ FULL STORY »
Adrien Brody wins court battle against 'Giallo'
A federal district judge in Los Angeles has ruled that the makers of the film, Giallo, are not allowed to use Adrien Brody’s likeness until the Oscar winner is fully paid for his performance, according to the Associated Press. Brody had previously attempted to stop the sale of the film, claiming he was still owed $640,000 for his role as an FBI agent hunting a serial killer in Italy, but it was ultimately released straight-to-DVD. The court injunction could make it difficult to market and distribute the film unless the parties come to some resolution.
Gore Verbinski rides with Johnny Depp for 'The Lone Ranger'
Image Credit: Everett CollectionPirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski will direct The Lone Ranger for Disney, according to a spokesperson for the studio. Deadline first reported the news that Verbinski would reunite with Pirates star Johnny Depp, who’s slated to play the Ranger’s sidekick, Tonto. Verbinski and Depp also collaborated on the upcoming animated film, Tango, in which Depp voices a desert lizard.
Read more:
Mike Newell in talks to direct ‘Lone Ranger’
Johnny Depp to star in ‘Lone Ranger’
'Mean Girls 2' trailer: Not-as-fetch Plastics return, as does Tim Meadows
Remember Mean Girls? Well, Mean Girls 2 sure wants you to. In fact, the first 20 seconds of the minute-and-a-half trailer for the sequel highlights clips from the first film — which, sadly for the new Plastics, only serves to remind us how tough it is to top Rachel McAdams & Co.
In the sequel, which goes direct-to-video Feb. 11, two high schoolers (played by Meaghan Jette Martin and Jennifer Stone) attempt to take down their school’s perkily evil mean girls, who, as in the first film, are nicknamed the Plastics. Only one problem: I thought Tina Fey’s Ms. Norbury successfully disbanded the group — and therefore, any future iterations of it — in the first film. [Dear lovely readers, you were right! I forgot about the mini-Plastics. I guess I'm just having one of those Karen Smith days.] Aw man. This is like when I felt completely satisfied with the ending of The Mummy, thinking Rick and Evy lived happily ever after once they sent Imhotep back to the world of the dead, only to find out he would return in the sequel, along with a giant man-spider. You’re killing my cinematic optimism, Hollywood!
Hey, look, Tim Meadows is still there! READ FULL STORY »
Christian Bale says 'The Dark Knight Rises' will be 'the last time' he plays Batman
Christian Bale isn’t sure that he’ll be heading back to Gotham after The Dark Knight Rises. “This will be, I believe, until Chris [Nolan] says different, the last time I’ll be playing Batman,” Bale told E!. “Absolutely, we want to go all out with it.”
“I don’t even know if [The Dark Knight Rises is] the right title,” Bale said. “Until Chris tells me, I don’t believe it.”
Bale was not expected to play Batman forever; his contract called for three films. But since the actual plot details for TDKR – if that is it’s real name — are so tantalizingly vague, Bale’s confirmation of something — anything — concrete attracts some added significance. READ FULL STORY »
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