The Buzz: A Good Day To Die Hard, Golden Globes, Star Wars, and More!

The Buzz is a feature in which we round up the Top 3 most-buzzed-about movie/TV stories of the week (in more-or-less chronological order). Why go through pages of blogs just to find out what everyone is talking about? We’ve got it all right here in The Buzz.

1) “A Good Die To Die Hard” Is R

The fifth installment of the Die Hard franchise opens Valentine’s Day, and while Live Free or Die Hard may have disappointed some, we got some news this week about A Good Day to Die Hard that shows promise. Unlike its predecessor, the new film will indeed be rated R like the first three Die Hard films. There’s no word yet from the MPAA on the reason for the rating, but the studio (20th Century Fox) has supposedly been expecting it. While the last film did well at the box office, and even with critics, the biggest criticism was the PG-13 rating. Hopefully now we’ll see some no-holds-barred action and swearing.

2) The Golden Globes Happened

Last Sunday we had HFPA’s 70th Annual Golden Globe Awards, probably the second biggest award show in the film industry after the Oscars. The Hollywood Foreign Press honored Jodie Foster with the Cecil B. Demille Lifetime Achievement Award, and she took the time to go on a meandering yet captivating speech where she pretty much came out as a lesbian (which was already rumored for years) without really saying it. No movie really dominated the night, but Argo won for Best Drama and Director (Ben Affleck), while Les Miserables won Best Musical or Comedy and Best Actor (Hugh Jackman) and Best Supporting Actress (Anne Hathaway) in the Musical or Comedy category. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler were great as hosts, and there were plenty of funny bits. Check out /Film for a great rundown of the event.

3) Zack Snyder “Star Wars” Rumor Too Good To Be True

One of the biggest nerdgasm rumors ever hit the web on Monday. Supposedly, Zack Snyder would be directing a Star Wars spin-off that would be similar to the style of Seven Samurai. Seven Samurai is about small Japanese village in the 1600s that keeps getting raided by bandits, so they hire seven ronin (masterless samurai) to protect them. We had already heard that new Lucasfilm owner Disney was looking to make more movies, and Zack Snyder has been rumored for Episode VII before, so it seemed plausible. Another interesting tie-in is that Akira Kurosawa directed the Seven Samurai, and his film The Hidden Fortress was part of the inspiration for the original Star Wars films. I would have loved to see this happen, especially since Seven Samurai is my favorite foreign film, but alas Snyder’s rep debunked the rumor, saying he is not involved in any way with Star Wars.

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