Nicholas Sparks. The name alone conjures up images of a romantic connection leaping between two people like an electric current, of fireworks illuminating the sky behind a couple canoodling at the side of a silvery lake somewhere and swearing they'll never be parted — except that she's dying of terminal amnesia and he has to leave tomorrow for an 50-year deployment in the Middle East, oh no!
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He is the Lorax, he speaks for the trees – or at least he would, if he could get a word in edgewise. Because Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, as directed by Chris Renaud and Kyle Balda, is so cluttered -- with extra narrative, extra characters, extra everything -- that its famously mossy and bossy central figure barely figures into the plot. More a bowdlerization than an adaptation of the great Theodor Geisel’s somber plea for environmental preservation, The Lorax is so big, flashy and redundant that it courts precisely the kind of blind consumerism it’s supposed to be condemning. It doesn’t trust kids to sit still and pay attention for even a minute.
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"You dropped a -- a condom on the red carpet," asked esteemed Today Show journalists Matt Lauer of The Lorax star Zac Efron, grilling the former High School Musical tween idol about the red carpet incident that had the internet agog last week. "That was hard for you to say, wasn't it?" returned Efron, who coolly answered with an unabashed confirmation. Let me reiterate: Yes, that was a gold condom that fluttered out of Efron's pants pocket at the premiere of a Dr. Seuss movie. WHAT OF IT, LAUER??
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There've been updates about The Paperboy's casting for awhile, but only now do I realize the gravity of what's occurring. Um, wow: Nicole Kidman and Zac Efron are sharing a screen! And John Cusack! And Matthew McConaughey, for the hell of it! And -- what now? -- Lee Daniels is directing! They should call this quaint tale Extra Precious: Based on the Cutie 'Zac' by Efron. Synopsis and impressive poster after the jump.
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With the year 2011 drawing to a close, the stars of Garry Marshall's New Year's Eve were a sentimental -- and cheeky -- bunch talking up the portmanteau rom-com recently in Los Angeles. "When I stopped wanting my New Year's Eve to be perfect, to ring in the New Year right, is when it started working out right," admitted Hilary Swank, seated at a podium about as long as the credit roll for the star-studded holiday pic. At the other end of the panel, Zac Efron faux-wooed co-star Michelle Pfeiffer. "You're coming out with me this year," he winked at her. "I'll show you how we do it."
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You only have to wait four and a half more months until you rally your book club for an opening night screening of the latest Nicholas Sparks adaptation, The Lucky One. In a new featurette for the movie -- which shares enough striking similarities to The Notebook to list after the jump -- star Zac Efron wonders aloud about love, destiny and other people's favorite books in between shots of him wooing Taylor Schilling onscreen.
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The next Nicholas Sparks joint, The Lucky One, comes out April 20, but Zac Efron gives us everything we need to survive the five-month wait -- namely, a killer pout. He stars in The Lucky One as an Iraq War vet who comes home to locate the unknown woman who served as his "good luck charm during the war." In the film's poster, he appears to have found her: Taylor Schilling, of the unfairly canceled NBC drama Mercy, stands in frame. Pretty damn Notebook-y all around.
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The Lorax is one of Dr. Seuss's most didactic books, which makes it seem less intriguing as a candidate for the big screen. But avast! The trailer for the animated The Lorax -- which features the voices of Danny DeVito, Zac Efron, Taylor Swift, Betty White, and Ed Helms -- is positively fresh and ebullient. Forests of Pez-colored pompoms! Popsicle-colored streets! An environmentally friendly message dressed up in Tropical Skittles! It's a must-watch.
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In the brand new trailer for New Year's Eve, Garry Marshall's holiday-themed movie event that promises to give the phrase "ensemble romantic comedy" a bad name, Robert De Niro wonders what could possibly beat "New York on New Year's Eve." I'll tell you what: Not throwing all of your actorly credibility out the window confetti-style to appear alongside Zac Efron, Jon Bon Jovi and Ludacris in a movie that features Ashton Kutcher trapped in an elevator with the annoying girl from Glee. You know what other moviegoers might also consider better than seeing Garry Marshall's vision of NYC on New Year's Eve? Tom Six's Human Centipede 2, which inspires similar nausea but for different reasons.
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Answer: A film entitled The Paperboy, based on Pete Dexter's 1995 novel. I know, I know; when you hear the word "paperboy" you think A) minimum wage-earning neighborhood scamp, B) the 1984 Atari video game, or C) the 1993 hip-hop jam "Ditty," by the rapper Paperboy. But no! Pedro Almodovar, Matthew McConaughey, Zac Efron, Tobey Maguire, Sofia Vergara, and Precious director Lee Daniels have another Paperboy in mind.
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