Welcome to Buzz Worthy News where the stories are awesome. Need your YA industry news? Never fear, Kate Copeseeley is here to give it to you straight.

In this week’s Buzz Worthy News: Beauty And The Beast Trailer, Competing Mermaid Movies, Captain America Betrayal, and Wonder Woman Kicks Butt. All this and more!

Buzz Worthy News is Cuddlebuggery’s weekly news post bringing you all the best information about the book and blogging world, particularly for the venn diagram of people who overlap between the two.

Author’s Note: If you did not get today’s email, please sign up for the new mailing list on the sidebar.  Thank you! (Also, I’ll be taking a mini hiatus because of summer vacation stuff for the month of June.  I’ll be back July 11th.  Have a great month!)

Beauty And The Beast Teaser Trailer

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! The teaser is here! The set is amazing! The music brought tears to my eyes! Why do I have to wait until 2017 to watch it?!?!

And btw: all you movie execs who think that movies featuring and starring women hold no money making power, I present to you this little tidbit:

The teaser for Disney’s live-action version of Beauty And The Beast, starring Emma Watson, was viewed almost 92 million times in its first 24 hours alone this week, beating the previous record holder for most viewed teaser Star Wars: The Force Awakens, as well as the latest installments of Marvel titles Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Age Of Ultron — all of which are Disney movies.

Enjoy the trailer for yourselves while I’m over here vibrating with excitement.

Notre Dame Remake

Okay, so this one isn’t Disney, but I just loved that movie so much. (some may disagree. Personal taste thing) There’s a twist to this new movie, though… it’s from Esmeralda’s point of view.

The film, also set to be called Esmeralda, will reimagine the Victor Hugo novel, previously turned into a 1996 Disney animation and centre it around the street-dancing female character who shows sympathy towards hunchbacked bell-ringer Quasimodo.

According to the Tracking Board, it’s being developed by producer Peter Chernin, whose varied credits include The Heat, Oblivion, Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Exodus: Gods and Kings.

It’s rumoured to be a family friendly retread, following in the footsteps of Maleficent and Cinderella, which implies that the darker elements of the book (such as Esméralda being falsely accused of murder and being sentenced to death) are likely to be removed.

Sounds good to me!

Source

Disney and Universal Could Be Competing Over A Movie Idea

Speaking of live action versions of our favorite Disney movies, Disney revealed plans for a retelling in the near future:

Execs at Disney are in the early stages of reviving Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid as a live-action feature. Disney production chiefs recently heard a new take and are currently evaluating whether to proceed with the idea. Deadline understands that initial discussions have also taken place with major producers, including some with a strong connection to the studio.

The Little Mermaid holds special significance for Disney, which produced an animated version of the story in 1989. That pic, which followed the adventures of Ariel the singing mermaid, gave viewers classic songs such as “Under The Sea” and helped usher in a new golden age of animation at Disney. That streak would include Beauty And The Beast and Aladdin.

But of course, this is only one of TWO Mermaid retellings in the works, the other by Universal. The movie, starring Chloe Grace Moretz, has not been without complications,

Earlier this year, Sofia Coppola left the director’s chair due to “creative differences.” According to Variety, Moretz had long been Universal’s choice for the role — and may have been a reason why Coppola chose to leave. The Bling Ring director reportedly wanted to bring in Maya Thurman Hawke, daughter of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman as the lead, but studio execs weren’t too keen on the newcomer.

In regards to the screenplay, many changes have also been made. When Coppola was still on board, a script draft was written by Caroline Thompson, known for her work with Tim Burton on Edward Scissorhands and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Richard Curtis, who wrote Love Actually, Four Weddings and a Funeral and Bridget Jones’ Diary, is now in talks to pen the script.

It will be really interesting to see where this story goes as the whole thing plays out.

Sources HERE and HERE

Lauren Graham’s New Book Includes BTS from Gilmore Girls

Hold onto your hats, Gilmore Girl fans. If you’re looking for juicy deets on the Gilmore Girls revival soon to be aired on Netflix, look no further! Lauren Graham has got you covered:

Where Lauren Graham leads, we will follow — and the Gilmore Girls star is leading us behind-the-scenes of the show’s Netflix revival(among other places) with her new book of humorous essays, Talking As Fast As I Can.

Acquired by Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House, Talking As Fast As I Can will cover Graham’s “awkward adolescent years, the confusing dating years, and the fulfilling years working as an actor in New York and Los Angeles,” as well as her years playing Lorelai Gilmore — the first time and the second time.

Graham’s debut novel, Someday, Someday, Maybe, was released in 2013 to critical acclaim, and was an instant New York Times best-seller. According to the release, Graham is also at work on a second novel.

Talking As Fast As I Can will hit bookstores November 29th of this year.

Source

Captain America Works for WHO????

The internet is awash with rage over the highly anticipated first edition of Captain America: Steve Rogers. Which is weird, right? I mean, unless you’re a total comic book geek, you probably didn’t even know that a knew comic book was coming out. (admission time: I didn’t)

However, EVERYONE SOON FOUND OUT ABOUT IT when some early reviews let it slip that Captain America was now an undercover Hydra agent (an evil Nazi organization) and had been part of Hydra his whole life. Uh, what now?

This is what executive editor Tom Brevoort had to say:

Nick Spencer, who is the writer of the series, pitched us the story as part and parcel of restoring Steve to his youth and vigor. In the comics, he’s been old for awhile. The super soldier serum that was keeping him young had been broken down, so for the 75th anniversary, Nick had this notion that we were going to restore him. But then we went into this other story about Hydra, and this is only the tip of the iceberg.

It means on the most fundamental level that the most trusted hero in the Marvel universe is now secretly a deep-cover Hydra operative, a fact that’s really only known to the readers and to him. That makes every interaction he has with anyone take on a second layer, a second meaning.

Every single month whether it’s a run of the mill month for Captain America or an extraordinary month, our job is to put him in situations that place that character under some degree of pressure and see how he reacts to that. And hopefully our readers are surprised, shocked, elated, see something of themselves, learn something about themselves. To say it’s a gimmick implies that it’s done heedlessly just to shock. The proof is always going to be in the execution. So you’ll have to read the rest of the story to see.

But I certainly believe it’s not a gimmick. It’s a story that we spent a long time on, that’s compelling and captures the zeitgeist of the world. It will make readers wonder how the heck we’ll get out of this.

The response, as you can imagine, have said everything from “it’s a gimmick” to “it’s bad storytelling” to “how could they betray fans like this?” Here is what twitter had to say:

People who think Hydra!Cap is a twist clearly don't realize how much our world is still a lot like the one in which Steve was born.

— @FangirlJeanne.bsky.social (@fangirlJeanne) May 26, 2016

A real twist is Steve Rogers wearing a Black Lives Matter t-shirt while standing behind Sam and T'Challa on the cover of a Marvel comic book

— @FangirlJeanne.bsky.social (@fangirlJeanne) May 26, 2016

A real twist is Steve Rogers finally having a name for his sexual orientation and being about to be who he is publicly and America dealing

— @FangirlJeanne.bsky.social (@fangirlJeanne) May 26, 2016

https://twitter.com/skywalkerauhl/status/735865919658938368?refsrc=email&s=11

Twitter is horrified to learn that comics sometimes use wild, temporary plot twists to sell issues. #SayNoToHYDRACap pic.twitter.com/setRwiTLM8

— Matt Farley (@Matt_Farley) May 25, 2016

Exactly! #SayNoToHydraCap #SayItAintSo pic.twitter.com/UJAFR5JLaF

— Sebastiene Elston (@SebastieneE) May 26, 2016

Most Telling are the Chris Evans reactions (though one is admittedly tongue in cheek):

https://twitter.com/nickspencer/status/728016337004453888

#SayNoToHYDRACap: The man himself, @ChrisEvans, shares his reaction to the comic book @CaptainAmerica twist! pic.twitter.com/hOlq0k2NCL

— Geek Guardians (@GeekGuardians) May 26, 2016

All Joking aside, though, there is a much more serious side to the story:

Captain America was created in 1941 by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby as a superpowered, super-patriotic soldier fighting the Axis forces. He was famously depicted punching out Adolf Hitler on the cover of his first appearance, in Captain America Comics #1—which hit stands in December 1940, a full year before Pearl Harbor and before the United States joined World War II, making that cover a bold political statement.

And Simon and Kirby—born Hymie Simon and Jacob Kurtzberg—were not making it lightly. Like most of the biggest names in the Golden Age of comics, they were Jewish. They had family and friends back in Europe who were losing their homes, their freedom, and eventually their lives to the Holocaust. The creation of Captain America was deeply personal and deeply political.

Ever since, Steve Rogers has stood in opposition to tyranny, prejudice, and genocide. While other characters have their backstories rolled up behind them as the decades march on to keep them young and relevant, Cap is never removed from his original context. He can’t be. To do so would empty the character of all meaning.

But yesterday, that’s what Marvel did.

It's not that baffling, it makes Cap more relatable to bigots who want to see themselves as heroes. #SayNoToHydraCap https://t.co/OFxNu5Qtkp

— @FangirlJeanne.bsky.social (@fangirlJeanne) May 25, 2016

If you’re still feeling down after reading that story, I’ve got a little Stucky pick-me-up for you courtesy of BBC Three:

We saw that #GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend was trending on Twitter and thought… doesn’t he already have one?https://t.co/ZxxrGXl4Os

— BBC Three (@bbcthree) May 24, 2016

Sources HERE and HERE and HERE

Wonder Woman Breaks Boundaries

It’s not all bad news in the land of the superhero as a new fact about the upcoming Wonder Woman movie has come out:

Earlier this year, a study showed only a fifth of the UK’s film workers were female in 2015 while Hollywood sexism is reportedly being investigated by government officials.

Even with incredible directors such as Ava DuVernay, Sofia Coppola, and Kathryn Bigelow being critically acclaimed and commercially viable, not a single studio has ‘entrusted’ a woman to direct a live-action film with a budget of over $100 million.

Finally, that has changed, as the budget for Warner Bros. and DC’s Wonder Woman, directed by Patty Jenkins, has been revealed.

While speaking to an audience about women in the film industry, Athena Film Festival artistic director Melissa Silverstein said (viaVariety): “[Wonder Woman] is the first movie that a woman has directed — a live-action movie — with a $100 million budget. First.”

I am so FREAKING excited about this movie. (please don’t ruin it, please don’t ruin it, please don’t ruin it)

Source

American Terrorist Shakes up Book Blogging World

This week Simon and Schuster released the cover and title of a new title from Todd Strasser, set to release February 14, 2017 according to their Riveted site reveal.

The publication of the book sparked scathing internet response with the blurb stating:

The blurb was later changed due to the backlash, but still appears the same on Goodreads.

The MuslimSquad wrote about it for Buzzfeed which you can see here.

For some reactions:

https://twitter.com/ChateauAdib/status/735908329097023490

Here's my biggest problem with the whole ordeal. (Preface: I don't care how AT ends. The synopsis, particularly the last line is enough.)

— Hafsah Faizal (@hafsahfaizal) May 26, 2016

https://twitter.com/AlishaRai/status/735898017132249089

American Terrorist has already garnered a 1 star review rating on Goodreads.

Interesting Links:

16 Of The Most Misleading Book Covers Of All Time

More Game Of Thrones Spoilers Revealed

MacMillan Buys Self-Publishing Platform

Cassie Clare To Write Magnus Bane Series (for adults!)