Actor Stephen Lang, award-winning veteran of stage, film, and television, earned his biggest success to date playing the hardened Colonel Miles Quaritch in James Cameron's Avatar. But in the wake of Avatar, the character actor was looking for a departure of sorts, and he found it in the mythic fantasy landscape conceived by Robert E. Howard playing a bloodthirsty warlord in Marcus Nispel's Conan the Barbarian.
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Where have America's sweethearts gone? Seventeen-year-old Dakota Fanning is charging hard towards adulthood, with Abigail Breslin (15), Chloe Moretz (14), and sister Elle (13) hot on her heels. Enter 11-year-old Bailee Madison (Bridge to Terabithia, Conviction, Just Go With It), a young actress who's already been acting for half of her life and shows it by holding her own opposite Guy Pearce and Katie Holmes in the Guillermo del Toro-produced horror thriller Don't Be Afraid of the Dark.
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Back in 2007, Sam Riley burst on the scene with a starmaking performance in the critically acclaimed film Control. Poised to be the latest hot British import to invade U.S. shores, Riley followed Control up with two intriguing-on-paper titles -- Franklyn with Ryan Phillippe and Eva Green and 13 opposite Ray Winstone, Mickey Rourke, Jason Statham, Michael Shannon and Alexander Skarsgaard. The rest, as they say, is history -- though maybe not the kind Riley initially envisioned.
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Devotees of Tom Holland's 1985 vampire pic Fright Night, Anton Yelchin would like to allay your fears about Craig Gillespie's remake of the horror cult classic. The new Fright Night, in theaters today, pays loving homage to the original even as it updates the setting to suburban Las Vegas, turns teen hero Charley Brewster (Yelchin) into a savvy, sneaker-freak cool kid with a hot girlfriend (Imogen Poots), and makes new changes to Fright Night's cast of characters, from the dangerously sexy vampire next door (Colin Farrell) to the angry geek "Evil" Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) to the drastically re-imagined Peter Vincent (David Tennant), now a Criss Angel-like Vegas magician with a penthouse suit on the Strip.
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Somehow, despite his chiseled good looks, his True Blood fame, and the glut of comic book movies in Hollywood these days, 34-year-old Ryan Kwanten hadn't yet played a superhero until now. And the one he does play -- the only one that's interested him, he says -- comes in this week's small-scale Australian indie Griff the Invisible, in which the erstwhile Jason Stackhouse plays a mild-mannered, socially-awkward geek by day and vigilante crime fighter by night.
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In Lone Scherfig's One Day, adapted by David Nicholls from his own novel, young Brits Emma (Anne Hathaway) and Dexter (Jim Sturgess) meet cute on the last day of college and spend the '80s and '90s flitting in and out of each other's lives. As the pair grows into adulthood, they begin to realize the love that existed between them from the start -- even if neither can fully see it. The film -- which occurs on a single day of each year throughout the relationship -- is not just about romance, however; it's about maturing, making mistakes and the memories we hold on to from precious moments spent with the ones we love.
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Jeremy Piven -- the three-time Emmy winner who just entered his eighth and final season as Ari Gold on Entourage -- is a bizarre, yet perfect choice for his roles in Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D. As both the Spy Kid-assisting Danger D'Amo and the nefarious time-hoarder Tick Tock, he gets to exercise a knack for broad comedy and old-school dual casting. (Like in Cat Ballou, anybody? Lee Marvin? Anyway.) Movieline caught up with the 46-year-old actor to discuss Robert Rodriguez's vision for the time-jumping flick, bringing his movie experiences back to Entourage, and his favorite film scene of all time. It's a grim one.
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When Jason Momoa assumes the mantle and broadsword of Robert E. Howard's iconic hero Conan the Cimmerian in Marcus Nispel's re-envisioned Conan the Barbarian, he's got eight decades of popularized novels, artwork, and the specter of Arnold Schwarzenegger's famous '80s-era barbarian to contend with. Which is why, with Hawaiian-born Momoa's distinct look, his influences, and the circuitous route he took from Baywatch hunk to Game of Thrones fan favorite, you should be happy that this isn't your grandpa's Conan.
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The modest (at best) box-office performance of 30 Minutes or Less over the weekend is a bit of a disappointment to the folks at Sony, who had faith in director Ruben Fleischer and stars Jess Eisenberg, Aziz Ansari and Danny McBride to put an exclamation point on the summer of the R-rated comedy. That didn't happen -- in fact, many viewers might have perceived more of a question mark. To wit, what happened to McBride's character in the last scene of the film?
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Don't be surprised if Craig Gillespie's new, updated Fright Night bears only partial resemblance to the 1985 cult horror-comedy of the same name; with a suburban Las Vegas setting, a much cooler teen protagonist, and a modern milieu filled with iPods and 4G-equipped cell phones, the tale of a high schooler's (Anton Yelchin) battle against the seductive vampire who moves in next door (Colin Farrell) is more like a slick second-cousin to the totally '80s Chris Sarandon/William Ragsdale-starring original. And as such, 22-year-old Christopher Mintz-Plasse isn't your parents' "Evil" Ed Thompson. Far from it.
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As William Bludworth, the coroner who's witnessed many a teenager attempt to cheat fate in Final Destination, Final Destination 2, and this Friday's 3-D sequel Final Destination 5, actor Tony Todd carries an eerie, prescient look in his eyes -- the look of a man who knows Death's secrets. Of course, Todd has plenty of experience himself toying with the agency of death in cinema, having starred in countless horror films, from the iconic Candyman series to the Night of the Living Dead remake to Adam Green's Hatchet and Hatchet II. So Movieline queried the horror icon: Which are the most memorable on-screen deaths he's either suffered, inflicted or witnessed over his 25-year career?
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After contributing scene-stealing but all-too-brief supporting turns in films like Observe & Report, I Love You, Man, and Funny People ("Raaaaandy!"), Aziz Ansari finally gets a full-on leading role in this week's 30 Minutes or Less as Jesse Eisenberg's straitlaced BFF/partner in crime, Chet. What took Hollywood so long to give Ansari, who's currently between seasons stealing yet more scenes on Parks & Recreation, the screen time he deserves? According to Ansari, he's just been paying his dues.
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It's crazy to think that Viola Davis's Oscar-nominated breakthrough in Doubt came only three short years ago, considering how forcefully the theater and film veteran has emerged as one of the more compelling actresses of her generation. As Aibileen Clark, an unassuming middle-aged maid in 1960s Mississippi in Tate Taylor's ensemble drama The Help, Davis wears the emotional toll of the Jim Crow South in her gait and gaze, an everywoman living through one of the most difficult times in America's past. And yet, thanks to the film's origins and the controversy surrounding her role, Davis nearly balked at taking on the "extraordinary" project.
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Danny McBride returns to theaters this week in 30 Minutes or Less, an action-tinged "double-buddy" comedy featuring McBride as Dwayne, the hapless mastermind of a plot to strap a bomb to a kidnapped pizza deliveryman (Jesse Eisenberg) and give him mere hours to procure more than $100,000. Director Ruben Fleischer's film then parallels the stories of Dwayne and his partner in crime (Nick Swardson) alongside that of the deliveryman and his own best friend (Aziz Ansari), whom he desperately enlists to help rob a bank.
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Rachel Weisz delivers an extraordinary performance in this week's The Whistleblower, which features the Oscar-winner as a Nebraska cop whose stint as a UN peacekeeper in Bosnia unravels when she discovers her coalition's complicity in an international sex-slavery ring. Based on true events involving Weisz's character Kathryn Bolkovac, the film charts a downswing of humanity salvaged only by Bolkovac's struggle to expose it and, in turn, Weisz's sensitive handling of a woman coming to terms with a world beyond compassion.
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