Buzz Worthy News: March 27, 2017

27 March, 2017 Buzz Worthy News 3 comments

Welcome to Buzz Worthy News where the stories are awesome (or at least fun to read). Need your book industry news? Never fear, Kate Copeseeley is here to give it to you straight.

In this week’s Buzz Worthy News:  #HandmaidsTale, #Mulan Without Singing!?, and A Library Mystery. 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.

 


Handmaid’s Tale Full Trailer

Chilling. I cannot WAIT to watch this. I already got the audiobook from my library. 🙂

Captain Underpants Trailer

My kidlet just watched this trailer with me and has requested to watch this movie for his birthday. *sigh*

The Secret Scripture


New Amazon Offering “Amberville” In the Works

I don’t know why, but any show where there’s like stuffed animals and murder, I just can’t. So I will leave this one for those of you who can. 😀

Annapurna is developing a new animated comedy for Amazon Studios called Amberville. Created by Chris McCoy and Sausage Party’s Conrad Vernon, the show is based on Tim Davys’ Mollisan Town book series.

Amberville is a darkly comedic animated crime show set in a city populated by living, breathing stuffed animals. The story follows a reformed Teddy Bear who is pulled back in to the criminal underworld when his former boss enlists him for an impossible new job.

McCoy wrote the pilot with a story by McCoy and Vernon. Vernon is also attached to direct the pilot. Annapurna’s Megan Ellison, Sue Naegle and David Distenfeld will serve as executive producers on the project alongside McCoy and Vernon.

Um, seems interesting? *shudder*

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Disney’s Mulan Won’t Be Disney’s Mulan

It was inevitable, really, but I feel like Mulan isn’t the place to go back to the “serious” remakes, when literally everyone in the WORLD was looking forward to the silly, dragon-filled, singing version.

The director behind the live-action retelling Niki Caro has confirmed the new movie will be sans songs when it’s released in 2018.

The film originally hit cinemas in 1998 with songs like I’ll Make a Man Out of You and Reflection.

In an interview with Moviefone , Caro talked about her approach to remaking the film.

“From what I understand, no songs right now, much to the horror of my children” she said.

She also described the film as “a big, girly martial arts epic. It will be extremely muscular and thrilling and entertaining and moving.”

I mean, NO SINGING IN MULAN, WHAT ARE YOU THINKING PEOPLE???

 But, perhaps this is about making sure they represent a culture properly?  I’m just trying to give them the benefit of the doubt.

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New Dr. Dolittle Project

I’ve been burned before. Like, I LOVE Eddie Murphy, but I’ve been a fan of Dr. Dolittle since I was little. Rex Harrison, y’all.

Robert Downey Jr. will star in The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle, based on the character from the 1920s series of children’s books by Hugh Lofting. Stephen Gaghan (Syriana, Gold) will direct the film based on a script he wrote, with an earlier draft by Tom Shepherd.

In a competitive situation, Universal won the rights to the hot package after it hit town and garnered multiple bids from studios last week.

Joe Roth and Jeff Kirschenbaum will produce for their Roth/Kirschenbaum Films alongside Susan Downey for Team Downey.

Doctor Dolittle first hit the bit screen in the 1967 movie Doctor Dolittle, directed by Richard Fleischer and written by Leslie Bricusse based on the Lofting novels The Story of Doctor Dolittle, The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle and Doctor Dolittle’s Circus. The story follows the eccentric Doctor John Dolittle, a former physician who lives with and treats animals, claiming that he can communicate with them.

The film, which starred Rex Harrison and was a musical, was not well received at the time, but was nominated for an Oscar for best picture and won for best original song and visual effects.

I will wait and see on this one. Will it be a period piece or a comedy? No clue.  I will say that I think RDJ has done great in former period movies, Sherlock coming to mind.

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Penelope Cruz to Star in Versace Series

So it looks like the success of the OJ series has led to a new series being adapted. And now they have their Donatalla Versace.

Penelope Cruz is joining the cadre of stars heading to television.

The Oscar winner is set to topline FX’s Ryan Murphy anthology Versace: American Crime Story, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

Versace — which will come after the franchise’s second season, Katrina — will explore the July 1997 assassination of legendary designer Gianni Versace (Edgar Ramirez). His killer, Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss), committed suicide eight days later as Miami Dade police were on the verge of capturing the serial killer behind five slayings. The 10-episode third season of ACS will debut in 2018, following quickly on Katrina’s heels.

Cruz will play Donatella Versace, the sister of the slain fashion designer, who took over the company following his death.

Versace, from Fox 21 and FX Productions, will be based on the book Vulgar Favors by Vanity Fair writer Maureen Orth, with Tom Rob Smith (London Spy) set to write the first two and multiple subsequent episodes.

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Obama’s White House To Become Workplace Comedy

Is this for realz? hahahaha

Universal Pictures has optioned a book by a White House stenographer for a workplace comedy about working in the Obama White House.

The book, From the Corner of the Oval, was proposed by Beck Dorey-Stein, a former White House stenographer, who has already received a seven-figure book deal from Random House Publishing Group division Spiegel & Grau. The book is expected to come out in 2018.

Rather than looking into the specifics and inner workings of the Obama White House, this story focuses on the interpersonal relationships there. The book itself follows a young woman who manages to get a job as a White House stenographer after an all-time career low and finds herself suddenly thrust into an elite world that she was not quite prepared for.

Anonymous Content’s Michael Sugar, who produced the Oscar-winning drama Spotlight, is set to produce.

I’d watch it.

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Jamie Lee Curtis To Write Selfie Book

This book will be one giant guilt trip, won’t it?

Jamie Lee Curtis will publish a new children’s picture book, Feiwel and Friends, an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, announced Tuesday. Me, Myselfie & I: A Cautionary Tale will tackle selfie culture as it tells a tale of a mom who gets a smartphone for her birthday and proceeds to become obsessed with documenting every aspect of her and her family’s lives via selfies, only for her daughters to remind her of all the stuff that happens when the camera is off.

“My new book is my response to the ‘selfie’ craze that has taken over the world,” said Curtis in a statement. “I hope that Me, Myselfie & I will open a dialogue about the impact of smartphone technology on families, and provide a fun and whimsical take on our obsession with self-documentation, while also showing the value in looking beyond the screen and living in the moment.”

Actually, I’m way more likely to ignore my children for a book than a phone. teehee

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George RR Martin Creates Nonprofit Film Studio

This sounds really cool. I wonder what projects will film there over time.

George R.R. Martin is launching a non-profit movie production studio open to both established Hollywood talent and emerging filmmakers. Stagecoach Foundation, based in the author’s hometown, Santa Fe, New Mexico, is a 30,000 square-foot space housing an office and production facility, The Albuquerque Journal reports.

Santa Fe Mayor Javier Gonzales tweeted about meeting the author, promising the new facility will boost the city’s film economy. He also echoed Albuquerque Journal’s report that Joel and Ethan Coen will shoot portions of their next project at Stagecoach. (The Oscar-winning duo filmed part of of 2007’s No County for Old Men in New Mexico.)

 In an interview with the Journal, Gonzales said Stagecoach will help define the city’s “film infrastructure,” attracting more productions from both filmmakers, film editors and digital media creators. “As a foundation and a non-profit, [Martin’s] vision to make this facility accessible and affordable,” he said.

Meanwhile, Martin recently fueled anticipation of The Winds of Winter, the last installment of the Game of Thrones-inspiring novel series A Song of Ice and Fire. “Not done yet, but I’ve made progress,” he wrote on his Live Journal page in January. “But not as much as I hoped a year ago, when I thought to be done by now. I think it will be out this year. (But hey, I thought the same thing last year).”

I’ve given up on The Winds of Winter. *sob*

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Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Board Members Pull Book From Curriculum

It seems that Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District has been having issues with their curriculum.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg School (CMS) Board members are concerned they were left in the dark about a controversial curriculum that was about to happen.

First graders were supposed to read the book “Jacob’s New Dress,” which deals with a student who wants to wear a dress to school and possible bullying that could take place if he did.

Teachers were also expected to talk to the young students about understanding sexual and gender-based harassment.

State leaders thought that was too much.

“These are first graders,” State Representative Craig Horn said. “They are having a hard enough time just dealing with themselves at this point. I think that introducing a social agenda is inappropriate and unnecessary.”

 

 

CMS Board Chairperson Mary McCray tells WBTV she had a conversation with CMS Superintendent Ann Clark Tuesday about the matter.

“There are going to be some things that you gotta use some common sense about,” McCray said. “Especially with the title such as that book. Let me run this by the board first – ultimately it’s the board who takes the heat and Ms Clark understands that.”

CMS was trying to comply with Federal Guidelines. It states schools should have an anti-bullying and harassment curriculum in place for students.

“As Charlotte’s City Council passed an outrageous ordinance last year that made it necessary for the State to correct the mistake with HB2,” NC Values Coalition Executive Director Tami Fitzgerald said. “Charlotte -Mecklenburg schools was working on rolling out a new anti-bullying policy that seeks to indoctrinate students in the school district by normalizing transgender behavior. Both Charlotte’s ordinance and the CMS transgender indoctrination were advanced by the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBT activist group, in conjunction with its NC affiliates, Equality NC and Time Out Youth. They provided the curriculum, the training, and the lesson plans for mandated transgender training for our children, complete with the Gender Unicorn, all while the Bank of America funded the program and the groups that support it.  The purpose of our elementary schools is to teach principals of writing, reading and arithmetic not to encourage boys to wear dresses. CMS is failing our children; In the recent 2016 state academic ratings, 43 of 165 CMS schools achieved overall pass rates below 50% and a majority (59%) earned a grade of C or below when measuring student proficiency and growth. These lessons are not appropriate for any child whose parents support traditional family values. There is no question that this proposed mandated training is nothing more than putting a dress on CMS’s Gender Unicorn. We encourage CMS to return their focus to their mission of maximizing academic achievement instead of focusing on this controversial curriculum.”

Red the Crayon will now be the book on bullying that the district will use.

Source


A1 Sauce Left In Library

Okay, what the heck now?

A public library in Ohio has launched a high-steaks investigation (ar ar) after workers discovered dozens of empty A.1. bottles stashed in their stacks.

Employees of the Avon Lake, Ohio, library found the first bottle in their building in January, when one appeared in the newspaper section, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.

Since then, workers and security guards have found almost 30 of the bottles hidden behind books and plants in the library. Video from the library has not turned up a culprit.

All the bottles were stripped of their labels and had been cleaned, library employees told People magazine.

Library employee Linda Janesz and her co-workers are stumped by the appearance of the steak sauce bottles.

“Sometimes we find one, sometimes we find three or four, sometimes we don’t find any,” she said. “Our surveillance video doesn’t show anyone trying to hide something.”

Library workers first theorized that the bottles were being used to hide alcohol. (A Napa Valley Cabernet goes well with a New York strip.)

But after subjecting the bottles to a smell test, employees determined the bottles had contained only tangy steak sauce and not booze, reports the (Elyria, Ohio) Chronicle-Telegram.

Library page supervisor Dan Cotton said that if there’s a method to the steak-sauce madness, the staff has been unable to figure it out.

“We mapped the first 12 to see if we could find a pattern, but we couldn’t find a discernible pattern,” he said.

Janesz said she thinks it’s unlikely that a student has been leaving the bottles, since they seem to be hidden during the day. But she’s at a loss to explain who’s behind the flow of steak sauce bottles.

“We don’t know if they are playing a game or purposely doing this to stump us,” she said. “We don’t know; it’s just kind of bizarre. Is it a game that we don’t know how to play or are we messing up someone’s game?”

Someone needs to solve this mystery posthaste, because I want to know what the heck is going on??

Source


Interesting Links

A Husband Wrote a Biography of his Wife that Ruined her Rep

Kate Copeseeley

Kate Copeseeley

Buzz Worthy News Correspondent
Kate Copeseeley is the Buzz Worthy News Correspondent, occasional reviewer, and a bonafide bookslut®. She can be found haunting Goodreads, writing The 100 fanfic, and neglecting everything else in favor of burying her nose in a book. Visit her on Goodreads.
Kate Copeseeley

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3 Responses to “Buzz Worthy News: March 27, 2017”

  1. Carina Olsen
    Twitter:

    Yay for bunch of awesome news 😀 As always, thank you for sharing Kate. <3 You are the best 🙂 And ahh, I'm so upset about the Mulan thing 🙁 No songs, no romance.. I won't like this movie :\ Ugh. But hope they will change their mind 😀 Hope you are doing great. <3
    Carina Olsen recently posted…Review: Flashfall by Jenny MoyerMy Profile

    • Kate Copeseeley

      Thanks, Carina! I’m really sad about Mulan, too. 🙁 It won’t be as fun unless they do the absolutely completely inaccurate singing version. *sigh*

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