A Vineyard blog offshoot. It's the dumping ground of my thoughts on the movies, books, music, TV series, and websites I've seen/heard/read ... so that I remember the ones that sucked ... or not.
After Prince Caspian, Will Moseley will be saying goodbye to appearing in the Chronicles of Narnia movies. Another Will is going to be in the cast, though.
Will Poulter is playing Eustace Clarence Scrubb in the next Narnia movie. Eustace is Edmund and Lucy Pevensie's cousin. He is introduced in the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and becomes a main character in the succeeding Narnian chronicles.
Eustace is one of my favorite characters. My other favorite is Edmund. Both start out as naughty boys until Narnia brings out the good in them. The 180 degree turn-around is what makes both characters interesting. Skandar Keynes does a very good portrayal of Edmund, and I hope Will makes a good Eustace.
When I saw a picture of Will, he wasn't what my idea of Eustace looks like. I looked him up at Google and learned that he plays Lee Carter in the film Son of Rambow, which is directed by the same person behind one of my favorite films of 2005: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I watched the Son of Rambow trailer in YouTube:
That trailer sold me the idea that Will can portray Eustace. His take on Lee Carter shows that he will not have a problem playing the bratty and generally annoying Eustace.
The UK trailer shows us much more of Lee Carter:
Funny thing is, I know he will also be good at portraying a reformed Eustace. He only has to act like himself... the following clip is Will Poulter being very modest on the red carpet at the London Film Festival.
Will seems to be a good actor. I can't wait too see how he and Skandar will interact onscreen as Eustace and Edmund. Ofcourse that means waiting till 2010.
For more Will Poulter and Bill Milner (who is equally talented), here is an interview by Kewego:
An odd way to commemorate this death anniversary is an all out attack on the organization by a group calling itself Anonymous.
And it all boils down to CoS using its legal muscle to remove the leaked videos of Tom Cruise on YouTube where he talks about being a Scientologist. Lots of people took offense, and war was declared. I guess the idea is to vigilantly "expose" CoS in response to CoS' vigilance to protect its name, reputation, and if you believe their detractors, protecting opportunities to make more money by requiring people to be paying members before they have the right to see the Tom Cruise video.
The clip is basically an interview with the latest winner of the CoS Medal of Valor (Tom Cruise, who else?). I could paste a link to the video here, but it would be a waste of effort since I'm pretty sure that link will be gone in 24 hours courtesy of the CoS patrol. If you want to watch Tom Cruise ramble, use a search engine like Google to find the latest upload of the video.
I'm not kidding ... Cruise just rambles in that clip. It's precious for the tiny bits about CoS that Cruise mentions, but generally yawn-inspiring. Ofcourse if you idolize Cruise, you're welcome to drink in every word. CoS will probably be glad to have more members in the Philippines.
Oh yeah, Scientology has already reached this Land of the Morning. We keep inviting David Pomeranz every year to hold Valentine's Day concerts here ... it was inevitable he would not only bring his music, but Scientology as well. Scientology registered as a religious organization in the Philippines in 2003. I think their local center is somewhere in Greenhills. The government has welcomed their assistance in helping out with illiteracy and drug problems. The group doesn't believe in psychology or psychiatry as we know it, and thinks itself a better solution to the psychs, but I guess the government takes what works especially if given for free - including a series of pamphlets based on the Scientology handbook.
Funny, huh? A controversial organization such as CoS who would sue the pants off of anyone who divulges its "scriptures" to the rest of the world is actively distributing a handbook in a third world country.
-----edit-----
Holy S**t! Pages on the official Scientology site were not available or disappeared one by one from the moment I started writing this post. And now the site is totally down ... again! Anon's work, definitely.
A movie about California's first openly gay elected politician, Harvey Milk (picture on the left), is in the works. Milk will be directed by Gus Van Sant and will star Sean Penn (picture on the right) in the title role. Reportedly playing Daniel Nicoletta is Lucas Grabeel. Ah... so now you know why I'm writing about this movie.
Danny Nicoletta started as a clerk in Harvey Milk's Castro Street camera store in San Francisco. When Milk ran for office, Nicoletta worked on his campaigns as well. After Milk was gunned down, Nicoletta and other friends of the politician formed a group dedicated to preserving Milk's legacy. Apart from keeping the memory of Milk alive, Nicoletta is also a well known photographer specializing in documenting the gay and lesbian community of San Francisco.
Young Daniel Nicoletta
Daniel Nicoletta now
Lucas Grabeel
James Franco is rumored to play Milk's lover, Scott Smith, while either Matt Damon or Josh Brolin will play Milk's killer, Dan White.
OK Magazine
OK magazine just published an interview with Lucas Grabeel too, with a companion write up on its website. The topic is High School Musical, the fame that came with it, and working on the movie Lock and Roll Forever.
Nice and simple, but I totally hate having to turn off the music every time I go back to the homepage. This Filipina has done well. Like Vera Wang, Lhuillier has made a name creating wedding gowns of Hollywood celebrities, and she has branched out to evening wear and RTW. Her gowns have been worn by actresses strutting the red carpet on award shows. Lhuillier has also designed a line of dinner ware. There are rumors that she may come out with her own line of fragrance.
Michael Copon
I didn't watch Power Rangers, and neither do I watch One Tree Hill, therefore I haven't seen or heard about Michael Copon till I read his name being mentioned in the same paragraph as Monique Lhuillier and Vanessa Hudgens. Googled him and he's quite the hunk. This Filipino/German-American's current project is starring in the latest Scorpion King movie: Rise of the Akkadian. The movie is based on the video game of the same name.
Duwayne Johnson passed on the chance to reprise his role.
Copon is also starring in another movie: The Kentucky Fried Horror Show.
Speaking of Scorpion King, the movie that started it all, The Mummy, will also have its own sequel this year. Brendan Fraser has reportedly agreed to reprise his role. Fraser being one of my favorite actors, there's no question that I will watch this movie.
Scream
Keri Hilson and Filipino-American Nicole Scherzinger is featured in Timbaland's "Scream".
The audio's not that good in this video, but the beat is still good. Song's currently stuck in my head.
Raisin in the Sun
Sean Combs aka Puff Diddy is promoting the movie made for TV: Raisin in the Sun. Raisin in the Sun is a 1959 play that was revived on Broadway in 2004, during which a couple of cast members won Tony awards. Sean Combs is part of the 2004 cast that performed the play in Broadway. Got to hand it to Sean Combs for his decisions on WHERE to branch out. Music label, clothing line, scents, and now acting. By the way, this is the first TV movie to be accepted to the Sundance Film Festival.
Ready, Set, Don't Go
Miley Cyrus's songs as Hannah Montana are definitely teen pop. Bubble gum pop. This duet with her dad, Billy Ray Cyrus is a refreshing change. One of those lovely country songs.
Wicked Guitar work
John Mayer trying out the interlude of "I Think She Knows":
When HSM2 actor Lucas Grabeel said he has set up his own company 14341 to make the movies he likes, he wasn't joking. Apparently, he started his first project, Beauregard, in the last half of December 2007. I think he directs this movie and maybe he does a little cameo. I'm guessing it's got something to do with a family and a dog.
This shot reminds me of the social bunny NPC in Sims 2. I so want to play that videogame now, but I haven't replaced my busted hard disk, so now I don't have enough memory to play it (I was using virtual memory instead of paying for an additional chip). Reminds me... Lanie has asked to borrow my Sims1 CDs because her Sims2 is taking up too much memory.
Back to the movie. Emily, Marc and Mike - Lucas' friends - are involved here too ... Emily's an actress, and Mike's an editor - so I assume he'll do the same kind of work in this movie. Apart from Emily, other people who've appeared in Disney movies or TV shows are part of the cast: there's Mark Taylor who plays Mr. Fulton in High School Musical 2, and there's Phill Lewis who plays Mr. Moseby in Suite Life of Zack and Cody. Jeff Braine, who appears with Grabeel in the Adventures of Food Boy indie movie, is also part of the cast.
All photos on the set are by Marc. Click the cast and crew photo below to see more Beauregard pictures on Marc's website:
Jay Leno got some flak for resuming his talk show using his own scripts ... the issue is that Leno is a member of the writers' guild and therefore shouldn't be writing. Doesn't matter if he's writing for his own show. Rules are rules.
Matthew Gubler and friends made use of their spare time digging up footage and finally posted a new "unauthorized documentary" on YouTube.
It's the first of "Season 2". Can't wait for more. Love Gubler for his sense of humor. Hoping he gets more and better projects, not only in acting - but in other aspects of the business. He has already directed a music video for a rock band. He has promise: his film projects in college are good, and considered noteworthy by his school ... although his stuff, if you find them on YouTube, leaned towards the bizaare.
Hate it that Studio23 isn't showing new episodes of Criminal Minds yet. I keep tuning in every Friday at 9:30PM, hoping to see an episode I haven't seen before. No such luck. At least they're not showing the same episode two weeks in a row ... which is what C/S is doing with Heroes Season 2. Aargh!!!
Was asleep on the bus ride home, as always. Still, the following entertainment news registered ... Jennylyn Mercado is 6 weeks pregnant with Patrick de Guzman's baby. Well, at least she's already 20 and not 16 like Jamie Lyn Spears. Speaking of Spears .... saw Britney on TV laid out on a gurney, rushed to the hospital for OD. Oh yeah, it's not all the time that I use words that rhyme, if I keep this up someone would accuse me of committing a crime.
I logged onto YouTube to see the amusing shibashi video by Sr. Mary John Mananzan. Saw this in my subscription box:
That would be the Marc Blackwell that everyone in LG.org is familiar with, plugging his photography business. He could do better in my opinion... he rarely looks at the camera in this clip. What I find amusing is that the fangirls at LG.org have now added his voice to their discussion. Tired of discussing Lucas' boxers, socks, tongue/teeth and his other body parts ... the girls have lately ventured onto discussing Marc's facial hair. When I first saw that thread, I found it creepy yet hilarious at the same time.
Hopefully Marc doesn't get stalked. When Billy Boyd's website still had a forum, his friend and the web administrator then, "Steelso", had a creepy experience of one fangirl actually stalking him. Dunno if the girl already lived in Scotland, or if she lived in another country and just went there to see him. I really don't know the details.
Ah, bb.net. I miss that forum. Of all message boards related to the Lord of the Rings movies, bb.net was the friendliest, which is why I hung out there a lot. LG.org is close ... but I easily get tired of Lucas talk, and most members are tweens. In bb.net, members range from 10 to 40. I usually hung around threads that discuss LOTR and anything about Middle Earth. I participated more in threads that talk about other stuff not related to Billy Boyd or LOTR though. The bb.net forum closed shortly after the last LOTR movie came out. The members created substitute forums, and I joined a couple of them. The atmosphere weren't the same as the original however, so I stopped logging onto those forums.
Back to the clip... Marc mentions that Lucas will work on his own project, "Beauregard", after "Lock and Roll Forever". Speaking of Lucas... an RSS feed alerted me to the new, official website of the independent film he shot: The Adventures of Foodboy.
On another HSM star: Vanessa Hudgens is on Seventeen's February issue ... AND she consents to talk about the unfortunate nude pictures incident.
HSM3 will start filming soon. Wonder what the movie will be like. When it comes to musicals though, what I'm really looking forward to is the movie adaptation of the play Mama Mia! ABBA may have been popular during my sister's "time" (she's 20 yrs. older), but I still like their music.
Another movie I'm looking forward to is Hancock. It's a comedy about a superhero in crisis. Starring one of my favorite actors: Will Smith. I know I'll enjoy this movie because Will Smith is in it. I was already watching this guy when he was just the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
It's only Friday now, and C/S replays Heroes on Saturdays at 7PM. More than 24 hours to go. I don't usually watch the Heroes replays on Saturdays, but I wasn't able to watch Heroes this Monday because I was in Hong Kong. Which is why I'm looking forward to tomorrow.
To fill the gap and my "withdrawal symptom", it's a good thing I discovered that Adrian Pasdar's hobby is filming his castmates behind the scenes and posting the clips on YouTube on his buckshotwon channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/buckshotwon
Loving the Heroes actors more now. They're quite hilarious off camera... especially David Anders and Greg Grunberg.
And yes, I love Adrian Pasdar for doing this.
One of Grunny's funniest:
-----edit: Dec. 1------
I don't believe it ... they actually replayed last week's episode. This means I didn't miss one episode at all. What sucks is that I waited ... only to watch what I've already seen before. Either my prayer wishing I won't miss an episode worked way too well, or C/S wants other Heroes fans in the Philippines to catch up on season 2.
Apparently, the High School Musical producers saw the band (which hails from Osaka and has quite a following) and wanted to make another musical featuring them.
The asahi article offers the plot:
The film's musical story centers on an American student in Japan who hears the sextet performing at a live music venue in Sakai.
The music talks, and the girls soon become friends. After the American girl returns home, her Japanese band friends come to visit her and play a few gigs. They are soon a huge hit, and their musical careers are set.... Shooting starts this fall at locations around Sakai and Los Angeles. The film will open in Japan and the United States next year.
I don't know if Terry's the manager or something like that, but this is his blog and it complements the girls' blog (he likes to post pictures): http://playlog.jp/o-s-k/blog/
'Lock and Roll' about girl-band's American invasion By DAVE MCNARY
Sony's Japanese music arm is partnering with the producers of "High School Musical" for "Lock and Roll Forever," a feature centered on an all-girl Japanese band coming to America.
"Lock" is a co-venture between T&C Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan. Producers are Bill Borden and Barry Rosenbush, the team behind three iterations of "High School Musical;" Arata Matsushima is exec producing.
Script's penned by another member of the "High School Musical" team, Peter Barsocchini. TV helmer Chris Grismer, whose credits include "Queer as Folk" and "Playmakers," is directing.
Pic stars members of Oreska Band from a small Japanese industrial city. Lucas Grabeel ("High School Musical"), Ike Barinholtz, Taylor Negron, Brad Dourif and Naoko Nozawa also star.
Shooting began this week; locations include Salt Lake City, Los Angeles and Japan.
Music industry veteran Kaz Utsunomiya is the music producer.
The thing about reading those bits casting agencies post when looking for extras is that you get to know more of the story (does this qualify as a spoiler?):
Feature Film: Oreska
The six-girl Japanese rock band, Oreska Band, comes to Los Angeles, intent on becoming stars, under the aegis of shifty "impresario" Donnie Greene.
Role: LOMAX - Funny, the comic relief, cool and hip, and keeps Donnie on the right track, and is Donnie's sole employee and apparently, his sole remaining friend. In charge of driving Donnie's tour bus, Lomax is at a professional dead end, along with Donnie. A cultural hero in Japan because of the popular toothpaste commercial he did a few years ago, Lomax reduces the Oreska-band girls to giggling squeals, and he/she soon comes to like them. He/she is person with a conscience, Lomax urges Donny not to break any of his many promises to the girls. Female or Male - All Ethnicities - 25 to 30
Role: "Z" - All-knowing, hip, cool, eccentric, knows all the answers -- the "go to" person. Would love to cast a Rock n Roll Icon - anyone from Roger Daltrey to Ludacris to Deborah Harry, or could even be a Comic Icon - anyone from Cedric the Entertainer to George Lopez. This character will be related to Donnie. Female or Male - All Ethnicities - 40 & Over
Role: MARTY POST - He's a shady looking music producer. Marty in fact is an extremely successful, extremely wealthy power broker who spots Oreska-band at a karaoke performance, and requests they play at a private party at his home. Male - All Ethnicities - 45 to 60
Well, the full music video for Lucas Grabeel's You Got It was just posted, but it's not on Itunes. They uploaded it to Payloadz.com. This is the link: http://payloadz.com/go?id=360265 It's cheaper than Itunes by $0.49.
Had a peek at the You Got It video. I don't think that clip of Zac Efron's appearance actually made it to the final cut... maybe that's why Michael called it "Extra". He he ... like most dance tunes, it's about 4 minutes of one phrase being said over and over. It is nowhere near what I expected though(I thought it would be Fatboyslim funny, remember?).
Was checking on my YouTube account 2 days ago when I saw this under my subscriptons box:
I couldn't believe Lucas and his gang are actually releasing a video to "You Got It". When I first heard the audio only version of the song, I found it funny that all you could hear is "you got it". The song's really not great, but it tends to get stuck in your head till you catch yourself humming it.
I think the full music video will be entertaining if this teaser is any indication. According to his friend Michael, the idea was to put Lucas in situations where people would have to react...the idea reminds me of Fatboyslim's "Praise You" video.
The gang took the footage during their European trip. I actually think Lucas dyed his hair to be incognito in Europe and do the crazy things he's done in this clip. I also think they filmed this before Lucas appeared in the launching of HSM2 in France where everybody first saw his new hair color.
This teaser can be viewed for free in YouTube, where lots of fans have already posted kudos. Now, it's pretty obvious that I like Lucas, but I think the praises the fangirls have heaped on this teaser are overboard, making this teaser overrated. It's probably going to be "cool", but definitely not the "greatest video ever made". Fangirls...sheesh.
The final version of the music video will be available next week ... but you have to pay to view it because it's on Itunes. Which makes me wonder if I'll actually get to see it. I'm not keen on spending $2 to download any music video, and even if I become one of those inclined to pay for it, itunes is not available in the Philippines. Mike says he'll find other ways to make it accessible to people who can't access itunes. I think he means other pay per view sites.
For the clueles: This song has had an interesting journey. Lucas was strumming it on a guitar while on the HSM concert tour in Latin America. The dance version was heard in the High School Musical 2 movie as the radio song being played in Sharpay Evans' car while the twins were headed to their parents' resort. Due to apparent demand from fangirls, this song was offered for download from itunes. Now the music video will be on itunes as well.
An observation: I find it a bit appalling that the other song this kid wrote/improv'd also used repetitive words. If you listen to the song Lucas was singing in the video tribute to his fans (below), you'll hear "cool" a lot.
I hope he's written better songs. If they all sound like these two, he should just stick to acting, singing and dancing. He'll still be in my list of multi-talented people to watch out for though.
----------October 30, 2007 Update---------- Well, the full music video's up, but it's not on Itunes. They uploaded it to this link: http://payloadz.com/go?id=360265 It's cheaper than Itunes by $0.49.
"Living With Lucas" Febuary 25th 2008! Current mood: happy
Hey everyone!
This is Lucas. I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm so glad that I have fans like you guys. You mean the world to me, if I didn't have you guys, I wouldn't be here now. Thank you so much.
I just wanted to clear somethings up with you guys. First off, I'm getting my own show! "Living With Lucas" I can't tell you much about it, but I will give you little details.
I've got one problem though, this isn't the myspace account cited in Grabeel's official website. This news is also not in his website, nor in his official myspace account. If this announcement turns out to be a prank, then the poor souls who responded with "kudos" and positive comments are getting excited over nothing.
An interesting October 3 article from the National Ledger that may or may not be related to this:
NOW FOR HIS NEXT FEAT: Lucas Grabeel, who plays Ryan Evans in the "High School Musical" movies, says he plans on striking while the iron's hot. "I've been auditioning like crazy. I'm also going to be starting a production company and will be making my own stuff," claims the actor, who tells us acting is his primary passion, though he grew up surrounded by music. "I want to create projects with people that I want to work with -- stuff that really means a lot to me. It might be kind of a guerilla film-making style, just going out and shooting things on the fly."
After rumors of a break up caused by the stress of the Vanessa Hudgens nude picture scandal, HSM's famous couple have been seen and photographed together this week (now I believe Kai, hehehe!): http://justjared.buzznet.com/2007/09/27/zanessa-truly-outrageous
Which makes this song more appropriate for the Zanessa ship, don't you think?:
This is the music video for Vanessa Hudgens' "Say Ok REMIX", which features Zac Efron. Released by Hollywood Records.
Betcha they weren't thinking of the scandal when they released this video last May.
I have to admit I enjoy High School Musical. I almost didn't see it ... simply because I hated being told by a huge disney marketing campaign to watch it. anyway ... I caught it the second time it was shown and understood why kids love it.
Which is why I watched the sequel the first time it was shown in Asia.
I love the Evans twins. I love them both in High School Musical, and love Ashley's Sharpay in the second one even more. It was Clueless meets Legally Blonde. Favorite scene? "Drummer, give me a beat" ... then Sharpay sashays out of the rehearsal room. Favorite song? Fabulous.
Ryan had an interesting "arc" ... but at the end of HSM2, he has stepped too far away from the Ryan that I found hilarious in the first movie, that I couldn't say he's still a favorite character.
I still love Lucas Grabeel though. Ha ha ha! Three reasons why: he can sing/dance/act (all around guy - that's impressive), he's played a spectrum of characters from villain to heartthrob to effeminate drama king (he can switch roles easily - brands him a real actor to me), and he's not as hugely popular as Zac Efron (makes him an underdog, which means it would be interesting to watch how much farther his career will go until he becomes really famous). Let's add two more reasons: He's cute and funny.
A gauge to measure a celebrity's popularity is seeing how much people are talking about him on messageboards and blogs. This morning, I decided to look up people blogging about Grabeel.
So why am I blogging now?
Lucas' best friend Marc Blackwell keeps a blog. He has mentioned sometime last April about getting prank messages or calls on his cellphone. Guess what I found this morning? Someone blogging about a friend knowing some girls who managed to get hold of Lucas's roommate's number and leaving messages but not having the guts to answer the return calls.
Freaking hilarious! I just found out where some of those prank callers are. Ofcourse, the blogger was writing last August 2006 and it may not be Marc's number they were calling.
-------- Added on 22-Sep-2007:
Checked out Smallville bloggers talking about the "Reunion" episode of the said TV show where Grabeel plays young Lex Luthor. They seem to agree that it was good casting as Grabeel acted/moved like the older Luthor as portrayed by Rosenbaum. It's actually refreshing to read someone blogging about Lucas without the "OMG he is hot!!!" phrase typed all over the page.
Below is someone's clip on YouTube on the flashback part:
Comments on the video were mostly from disney fans who I just realized live in a totally different world because 1) they found the clip hard to watch and 2) they can't get over Lucas cursing and being violent. Crazies, at some level.
Will Poulter is playing Eustace Clarence Scrubb in the next Narnia movie. Eustace is Edmund and Lucy Pevensie's cousin. He is introduced in the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and becomes a main character in the succeeding Narnian chronicles.
