Tag Archives: spencer-smith

Was It Appropriate For This High School Teacher To Pose As Trayvon Martin In Yearbook Photo?

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A California high school teacher has stirred up controversy and praise by posing as Trayvon Martin in his yearbook photo. According to reports, Spencer Smith…

Was It Appropriate For This High School Teacher To Pose As Trayvon Martin In Yearbook Photo?

Oscar Nominee James Franco Set To Direct ‘As I Lay Dying’

The ‘127 Hours’ star and Oscar host tells MTV News he’ll helm movie based on William Faulkner’s novel this summer. By Aly Semigran James Franco Photo: MTV News James Franco may very well be Hollywood’s ultimate Renaissance Man. In addition to his already busy 2011 schedule, which includes attending the 83rd Annual Academy Awards, both as first-time host and Best Actor nominee (for “127 Hours”) , the actor/writer/ student will also tackle directing duties. Over the weekend, MTV News managed to catch a minute with Franco at the Sundance Film Festival , where he revealed to us yet another impressive future endeavor. The star spilled, “This summer I’m going to direct a movie based on William Faulkner’s novel ‘As I Lay Dying.’ ” Franco, who has in the past done some work behind the camera, explained, “I shoot a test of the whole movie before I make a movie. So we just shot a test.” Despite working from a lengthy script (160 pages, to be exact), Franco did an entire pre-shoot with actors in North Carolina on New Year’s Day. And in keeping with his already unorthodox methods, the 32-year-old noted that the actors he used for the test filming, won’t necessarily be the ones he works with on the final product. While Franco says he “might” appear in his adaptation of “As I Lay Dying,” he has his sights set on his favorite actor, “Boardwalk Empire” and “Revolutionary Road” star Michael Shannon, whom he has worked with twice before. The cast already includes Paul Dano (“Little Miss Sunshine,” “There Will Be Blood”) and, if all works out for Franco, Richard Jenkins (“The Visitor,” “Six Feet Under”) and Joaquin Phoenix will be onboard as well. For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com . Related Videos And The Nominees Are … MTV Rough Cut: James Franco At 2011 Sundance Related Photos 2011 Academy Award Nominees

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Oscar Nominee James Franco Set To Direct ‘As I Lay Dying’

Panic! At The Disco Say Vices & Virtues Is ‘All Over The Place’

Band just shot video for ‘The Ballad of Mona Lisa,’ the first single from March album. By James Montgomery Panic! at the Disco’s Brendon Urie and Spencer Smith Photo: Jennifer Tzar/ Atlantic Records The last time MTV News spoke with Panic! At The Disco , Brendon Urie and Spencer Smith had just premiered “New Perspective,” a song they’d written for the Megan Fox horror flick “Jennifer’s Body.” They were fresh off a run of shows opening for Blink-182 and only two months removed from the departure of Ryan Ross and Jon Walker , who were still 10 months away from releasing their first album as the Young Veins . So, yeah, it’s been a while. But in recent weeks, Panic! have slowly begun edging their way back into the spotlight. They’ve announced plans for a new album — Vices & Virtues, due March 29 — and unveiled the first single from that disc, “The Ballad of Mona Lisa,” which drops February 1. And they’ve just filmed a video for the song, directed by longtime collaborator Shane C. Drake. MTV News was on location with the band during the shoot, and while we can’t reveal any details just yet, we did manage to ask Urie and Smith a bit about the single and the album, both of which, it would seem, are rather intrinsically linked. “Basically, all of the songs, including ‘Mona Lisa,’ kind of touch on what the album is called … it’s called Vices & Virtues, and in one way or the other, at least one to 10 virtues or vices are represented in every song,” Urie said. “[It’s] little minor things I didn’t know were vices or virtues, until we looked them up. I was like, ‘I don’t know what altruism means, so I’ll look that up.’ Things like logic, pride, vanity — it can go either way. So it was kind of interesting to read about that. “And it just made sense, because all the songs [on the album] are so all over the place,” he continued. “They don’t sound anything like each other, and it’s like, ‘How does this all tie together?’ and then it kind of made sense. It was kind of lucky.” And though Vices is a musical grab bag, Panic! couldn’t have made the album any other way, and they’re pretty sure fans will be happy with the results — especially fans clamoring for a return to their A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out heyday. “We’ve been working on music for about a year and a half, so I think that partly adds to why some of the songs have some varying styles,” Smith said. “Part of it was us, at the beginning, trying to figure out what we wanted to do — we had a new opportunity with just the two of us — and as we sort of got a better hold on what that was, just kind of went from there. … I think there’s stuff from the first album that we kind of got away from on the second record that people who were fans of the first one will enjoy.” Are you happy to hear that Panic! will hark back to their Fever days? Let us know in the comments! Related Artists Panic! At The Disco

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Panic! At The Disco Say Vices & Virtues Is ‘All Over The Place’

Panic! At The Disco Had Deja Vu Watching Taylor Swift/ Kanye West VMA Incident

Band was bum-rushed by stage-crasher when accepting award during 2006 VMAs. By James Montgomery Panic! at the Disco’s Spencer Smith and Brendon Urie Photo: MTV News/ Akshay Bhansali On Sunday night at the MTV Video Music Awards, as Kanye West bum-rushed Taylor Swift’s Best Female Video acceptance speech, there were millions of viewers who probably felt empathy for the country singer.

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Panic! At The Disco Had Deja Vu Watching Taylor Swift/ Kanye West VMA Incident

Mark Hoppus Confirms He’s Working With Panic! At The Disco

Blink-182 bassist is producing at least one ‘gigantic’ song on his tourmates’ new LP. By James Montgomery Mark Hoppus Photo: MTV News Earlier this month, Panic! at the Disco drummer Spencer Smith told MTV News that he hoped to hand Blink-182 ‘s Mark Hoppus a few of his demos while the two bands toured together.

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Mark Hoppus Confirms He’s Working With Panic! At The Disco

Spencer Smith Explains Why Panic! At The Disco Brought Back The ‘!’

Drummer says exclamation point reinforces that band ‘is not breaking up, it’s still going.’ By James Montgomery Panic! at the Disco’s Spencer Smith Photo: Ethan Miller/ Getty Images It was the one question that dogged Panic! at the Disco the entire time they were promoting 2008’s Pretty. Odd. album: Why did they decide to drop the exclamation point from their name ?

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Spencer Smith Explains Why Panic! At The Disco Brought Back The ‘!’