‘Jersey Shore’ Season 4 Headed To Italy

Now, some longtime readers of Screen Rant may be ready to blast me in the comments, but I’m sure that some of you reading this were lured here by the proclamations of the headline above -- this news is for you. The rest of you who are ready to hate on this proud Jersey Shore lover -- there are plenty of other articles for you to read.

MTV has confirmed that Jersey Shore Season 4 will be shot in Italy! Meaning that the JS cast will be taking their hijinks overseas, likely continuing to erode America’s international relations.

So how will Europe react to The Situation’s perennially missing shirts, Pauly D’s hammerhead blowout hairdo, gorilla Ronnie’s effeminate giggles and the entity only known as Snooki, I hear you asking? Well, my friend, therein lies the juicy trashy TV that millions of Jersey Shore fans have come to love wallowing in every week.

Said MTV Executive Vice President of Programming, Chris Linn:

“While the stateside “Jersey Shore” locales have become iconic for our audience it’s really the constantly evolving dynamic amongst the cast that keeps them coming back each season, and Europe is a fresh spin on a show that continues to reach new heights for us…The cast is headed to the birthplace of the culture they love and live by. We can’t wait to see what erupts as a result.”

The gang reportedly won’t be left out in the “Old Country” without a haven: cast member Vinnie Guadagnino has family in Italy who will open their doors (and their dinner table) to America’s favorite guidos and guidettes. More than that, though, there are several questions that this news raises:

Which cast members will we see in Italia (specifically, will Sammy Sweetheart be back)?How will actual native Italians react to a group of (possibly offensive) American-Italian stereotypes?Will Italians accept those cast members who aren’t even fully Italian? (Do your research, some of them aren’t Italian.)Will Italian women swoon for M.V.P.?Can America suffer this kind of foreign relations nightmare?Will Snooki ever find love???

All these questions -- and others -- will be exactly the sort of bait that hooks me and millions of other Americans into watching Jersey Shore season 4. Love or hate it, the show is a monster hit for MTV (8.9 million viewers as of the last episode) and the fact that they change locales every season has certainly kept things…interesting.

Personally, I’m glad they’re taking this act overseas. Watching the current third season of Jersey Shore (which has returned the cast to the Seaside Heights setting of season 1), it’s become apparent that what made the show so entertaining is no longer sustainable within an environment where these kids are now bonafide American celebrities. I’ve noted to other viewers all season that the increased presence of security guards and the hyper-awareness of every shore-head walking the boardwalk is robbing Jersey Shore of it’s natural, organic aesthetic. Ok, Ok, I’m really more upset that the security details mean the opportunities for fights are fewer, and that the fists that do fly do so for shorter amounts of time. Maybe the lower profile setting of Italy will change all that…

You excited to hear Jersey Shore is going to Italy, or are you ashamed that I’m reporting this?

Jersey Shore season 4 starts filming in Italy in Spring 2011 and should air later in the year.

BONUS: The cast celebrate the news that they’re going to Italy (not really, but suddenly this video is very fitting):

Source: MTV

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Howard Shore Returning To Score ‘The Hobbit’

Now that The Hobbit has clawed its way out of that MGM mess and has been given the all-important green light, us fans are free to properly look forward to what Peter Jackson has in store for us with the much-anticipated adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved novel.

For a while now we’ve been hearing word of the different cast members being brought onboard for the The Hobbit, including Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins, Richard Armitage as the leader of the Company of Dwarves and James Nesbitt as the dwarf Bofur (amongst many other casting additions). Now we have just have to wait for confirmation of those long-standing rumors that Ian McKellen and Andy Serkis will be reprising their roles as Gandalf and Gollum, respectively.

Fans now have one more reason to jump for joy in anticipation of The Hobbit, as it appears that Lord of the Rings composer, Howard Shore, will be returning to compose the musical score for Jackson’s two-part Hobbit epic. The Province spoke to Shore himself:

“We’ve [Shore and Jackson] talked about making these movies [The Hobbit] for many years, at least since 2002… It looks like finally it’s going to be happening. I’ll be working on it for the next three years — it’s going to consume a lot of my time and work now.”

Shore’s score for the LOTR trilogy – which he originally recorded 11 hours of music for – has taken on a life of its own outside of the confines of the films, having been performed over 160 times since 2003. The latest performance will be next week by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Shore regards the music as his best work and says that, “everything I knew about composing, orchestrating, conducting — everything I had learned about music was in it.”

The Lord of the Rings score being conducted

Does anyone really think that Shore won’t do just as stellar of a job with The Hobbit as he did with LOTR? I certainly don’t. His score for the latter somehow managed to be monumentally epic but still feel rather intimate, which perfectly mirrored the journey Frodo and Sam took to destroy the One Ring To Rule Them All.

Fans of The Hobbit novel will know that it has similar attributes to the journey taken in the LOTR but nonetheless falls a lot more on the intimate side of the fence. I have every bit of faith that Shore will help Jackson do justice to the source material.

Both parts of The Hobbit are being shot back-to-back in New Zealand, starting early next year. Part 1 is currently scheduled to hit theaters on December 19th, 2012, while Part 2 will follow a year later in December, 2013.

Source: The Province via Coming Soon

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