The Showbuzz Weekly Forecast
Just as we bid "The Sopranos" adieu, HBO is bringing back another popular series, "Big Love," which isn't about mobsters, but a happy (or not so happy) polygamist family.
The movies offer some great comedy options like "Eagle vs. Shark" and "Fido." For the kids, check out "Nancy Drew."
MOVIES
"DOA" is spun-off the "Dead or Alive" videogames and has a cast full of hot young actors, including Devon Akoi, Jaime Pressly and Eric Roberts. A number of fighters travel to a remote island for an elimination-style martial arts tournament. The movie is directed by Corey Yuen.
"Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" is yet another sequel out this summer. The Marvel superheroes must stop the Silver Surfer from destroying the planet. Meanwhile, they also have to deal with Dr. Doom's return. The movie stars Jessica Alba and Michael Chiklis.
"Nancy Drew" has been a favorite among young readers for years. Now the teen detective is brought to movie life when she's played by Emma Roberts. Nancy moves to Los Angeles and enrolls in a new high school where money and looks rule and she doesn't quite fit in. Of course, Nancy eventually finds herself a mystery in a haunted mansion.Photos: Jessica Alba
"Eagle vs. Shark": In the vein of "Napoleon Dynamite," two social outcasts find each other in this New Zealand movie directed by Taika Waititi. The sweet but odd Lily is utterly devoted to her boss at the fast-food restaurant, Jarrod. She tries to win his love and end his obsession with a enemy from childhood.
"Fido", directed by Andrew Currie, stars Carrie-Anne Moss as a 1950s housewife in the small town of Willard. There, zombies (creatures who rose from the dead) are servants for the living. Even though they crave human flesh, zombies are not all bad. Moss's character gets a zombie of her own, Fido, played by Billy Connolly.
"Jhoom Barabar Jhoom" stars the immensely popular Bollywood star Abhishek Bachchan as a soccer fan with terminal cancer. When he travels to England for one last soccer season, he meets a female fan who also is dying of cancer.
"Raising Flagg" stars "Little Miss Sunshine"'s Alan Arkin as a grumpy farmer who has long been battling against his neighbor, played by Austin Pendleton. Pendleton becomes convinced that his days are numbered and his whole family flocks to his side.
TV:
"Big Love": HBO's polygamy drama is back on Monday at 9 p.m. EDT. Now Bill Henrickson, played by Bill Paxton, owns a second hardware superstore. But the family, with three wives and seven children, are still vulnerable. The show also features Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chloe Sevigny, Ginnifer Goodwin and Harry Dean Stanton.
The History Channel film "Titanic's Achilles Heel" explores questions about the legendary shipwreck, picking up from last year's "Titanic: Missing Pieces." The documentary examines why the ship may have broken apart earlier than was previously thought and whether the ship's builders were aware of its problems even as its thousands of passengers were boarding. The documentary airs Sunday at 8 p.m.
Although "The Loop" was overlooked last season, it is back on Fox. Set in Chicago, "The Loop" focuses on Sam (Bret Harrison), who is the youngest executive at the headquarters of a major airline, and the first of his friends to get a real, grown-up job. He struggles to balance his adult life with his immature friends, all the while dealing with the unrelenting demands of Russ, his gruff, kookie boss (Philip Baker Hall), and dodge the none-too-subtle advances of his chronically randy colleague Meryl (Mimi Rogers). "The Loop" airs Tuesday at 8:30 ET.
"Have You Seen Andy?" is a film about the disappearance of 10-year-old Andy Puglisi from a swimming pool in Lawrence, Mass. In 1998, his childhood friend, filmmaker Melanie Perkins, began looking for answers to this still-unsolved case. The film is a personal account of the friendship that abruptly ended in the tragic abduction. It airs Tuesday at 7 p.m. on Cinemax.
Bear Grylls purposely puts himself in remote survival scenarios armed with only the basics (a knife, a water bottle and a flint) for his new show, "Man vs. Wild." The seasoned adventurer and former British Special Air Service soldier must then find his way back to civilization, along the way demonstrating survival techniques. The show premieres Friday at 9 p.m. on Discovery Channel.
MUSIC:
"Big Dog Daddy" is the new album out by patriotic country star Toby Keith, famous for telling enemies of the United States that "We'll stick a boot up your a--."
Eight months after being shot in New York City, "Holla Back" rapper Fabolous is out with a new album, "From Nothin' to Somethin."
"Era Vulgaris" is the new album from alternative rockers Queens of the Stone Age.
For the socially concerned, a new album to raise money for Darfur hits the shelves. "Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur" features John Lennon songs like "Instant Karma" performed by U2 and "Give Peace a Chance" performed by Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars.
The Traveling Wilburys, made up of rock legends Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty, are out with a three disc set, which, among many other songs will feature the hits "Handle with Care" and "End of the Line."
BOOKS:
"Double Take" by Catherine Coulter is a two-pronged mystery. In San Francisco, Julia Ransom is nearly killed just six months after her husband's death. In Maestro, Va., Coulter's character from "Point Blank" Sheriff Dixon Noble still wonders where his missing wife is. He hears a woman — Charlotte Pallack — who looks just like her is in San Francisco, and is compelled to see for himself. There he encounters Special Agent Cheney Stone, who rescued Ransom from drowning. Many interlocking questions must be answered.
"Blaze: A Posthumous Novel" by Richard Bachman (a.k.a. Stephen King) is the fifth book by the horror author's alter ego. Clayton "Blaze" Blaisdell has been horribly abused by his father, resulting in brain damage. He ends up in a Maine orphanage and makes friends with George Rackley who is later murdered. Even after George dies, Blaze keeps talking to him as if he's there and attempts to go ahead with their kidnapping scheme.
"The Diana Chronicles" by Tina Brown is yet another book about Princess Diana. This one examines what the author considers to be her contradictions. On one hand, her efforts on behalf of AIDS and to rid the world of landmines; on the other, she was self-centered and media savvy.
"Stalin's Ghost" by Martin Cruz Smith is a fictional examination of post-Soviet Russia through the eyes of Senior Investigator Arkady Renko, the detetive introduced in Smith's bestselling "Gorky Park." It's a tale of murder and poltical corruption.
DVD:
"Breach," starring Chris Cooper, Ryan Phillippe, Laura Linney and Dennis Haysbert, is a drama based in fact about an FBI traitor who makes $600,000 giving sensitive information to the Soviet Union.
The Nicholas Cage flick "Ghost Rider" is now out on DVD. Cage, a motorcycle stuntman, offers his soul to Mephistopheles to save the life of his true love, played by Eva Mendes. As a result, he becomes a supernatural entity with a flaming skull.
Just in time for the new Nancy Drew movie, The Original Nancy Drew Mystery Movie Collection is out on DVD, containing four Warner Brothers features from 1938-1939 starring Bonita Granville as the intrepid young detective.
To accompany your Nancy Drew collection, pick up "Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries" Season Two, from the memorable '70s TV series starring Pamela Sue Martin.
THEATER:
"Butcher of Baraboo" is a black comedy about a female butcher, Valerie, who may or may not have killed her husband. It opens in the Off Off Broadway McGinn/Cazale Theatre on June 11.
"10 Million Miles" begins June 14 at the Off Broadway Atlantic Theater Company. The musical tells the story of Duane and Molly's road trip from Southern Florida to Upstate New York.