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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Movie notes: ‘Buffy’ to return but without its original creator

From Wire Reports

Vampires, beware: Buffy is coming back.

A remake of the horror comedy “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” is in the works at Warner Bros., the studio said Tuesday.

A spokeswoman says the project is in the earliest stages of development. It hasn’t even been green-lit yet, and there’s no director or star attached.

One thing we do know: Joss Whedon, who wrote the first “Buffy” script and created the TV series starring Sarah Michelle Gellar that became a pop-culture phenomenon, is not involved.

The new script comes from Whit Anderson, a 29-year-old actress-turned-writer.

The original 1992 movie starred Kristy Swanson as a teenager who learns it’s her destiny to battle vampires.

Three for the show

Only three nominees will be in the running for best animated feature film at this year’s Academy Awards.

Oscar organizers said that 15 animated features have been accepted for consideration, one short of the minimum 16 needed to expand the category to five nominees.

Among the films accepted for consideration are “Toy Story 3,” which was the year’s top-grossing movie, along with fellow hits “How to Train Your Dragon,” “Despicable Me,” “Shrek Forever After” and “Megamind.”

Also in the running is Disney’s new “Tangled,” along with “Alpha and Omega,” “Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore,” “Idiots and Angels,” “Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole,” “My Dog Tulip” and “Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue.”

The final three of the academy’s 15 accepted films still need to start a one-week run at a Los Angeles theater by Dec. 31 to qualify for this year’s Oscars: “The Illusionist,” “The Dreams of Jinsha” and “Summer Wars.”

Nominations come out Jan. 25, with the Oscar ceremony following on Feb. 27.

That’s G as in gender

No parent who has tried to reconcile the sweet storyline of “The Little Mermaid” with Ariel’s skimpy attire will be surprised at a new study that reveals family films often portray female characters as eye candy.

The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, founded by the “Thelma and Louise” actress in 2004 to improve images of girls in television and films, recently commissioned a study that examined 122 top-grossing domestic family films rated G, PG and PG-13 from 2006 to 2009.

The findings: Of 5,554 speaking characters studied, 71 percent were male, 29 percent female, and 24 percent of females were depicted in sexualized attire, as opposed to 4 percent of males.