Actor, singer, magician, talented master of ceremonies, web star... Neil Patrick Harris can pretty much do it all -- but can he make the leap into mainstream movie stardom? He'll find out this month in Sony's live action-CG adaptation The Smurfs, which sees the famous blue creatures take Manhattan -- and the lives of Patrick (Harris) and Grace Winslow (Jayma Mays) -- by storm in a modern day-set adventure about appreciating family and stepping into fatherhood.
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Earlier this year, Verge designee and writer-producer-actor Brit Marling took the festival circuit by storm with not one, but two knock-out indie films which she starred in and co-wrote: the philosophical sci-fi pic Another Earth, directed by Mike Cahill, and the cult drama Sound of My Voice, directed by Zal Batmanglij. This summer, Fox Searchlight will release the first of the Brit Marling two-fer, Another Earth, starring Marling as a young woman haunted by a chance tragedy in her past who finds hope of a sort when a duplicate Earth appears in the sky. Finally, the world will see what all the fuss was about.
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Patricia Clarkson is hot, and proud of it -- just don't call her a cougar. The veteran actress addressed the plight of the older woman (and older actress in Hollywood) while playfully discussing her latest film, Friends with Benefits, in which she co-stars as Mila Kunis's free-spirited, sexually aggressive mother.
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Screenwriting duo Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely began their partnership in college, moved to Los Angeles together ("We watched Baywatch and thought, 'Somebody wrote Baywatch -- we could do that!'" quips McFeely), wrote a film for Bill Pullman, scripted The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, and caught the eye of Andrew Adamson, who then hired them to write all three Chronicles of Narnia films. Now they've penned Captain America: The First Avenger, the latest in Marvel Studios' multi-film Avengers franchise and a rollicking WWII-set adventure that they hope to follow up with a sequel. It's safe to say Markus and McFeely might have some wise words to share on the subject of their craft.
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Speaking with press about this Friday's Captain America: The First Avenger, Chris Evans got to talking about his work on the Marvel super group pic The Avengers: How his costume's been updated, why he was initial commitment-phobic when pitched on the multiple film franchise, and most importantly, which of his Avengers co-stars dazzled him so much on set that he left the set walking on air. Who was the mystery movie star who charmed the charmer?
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When Michael Rapaport's documentary lens captured the behind-the-scenes drama between members of iconic rap group A Tribe Called Quest, his subjects took to the media to voice their discontent. But by the time Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest premiered at Sundance, Tribeca, and won the Audience Award at the L.A. Film Fest, Rapaport had earned all but one Tribe member's public support.
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After auditioning "five or six times" for the role of Steve Rogers, a/k/a Captain America, 27 year-old Sebastian Stan didn't get the gig. But he did get a call to discuss a different iconic character in the WWII-set Marvel comics blockbuster: James "Bucky" Barnes, Cap's best friend, sidekick, and, in Joe Johnston's big screen adaptation (in theaters Friday), a soldier who could potentially undergo big changes in future Captain America sequels.
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Jonathan Goldstein is the more experienced half of the Horrible Bosses writing partnership. His partner (and this week's Verge designee) John Francis Daley is a Freaks and Geeks alum with a new career in penning comedies, but Goldstein has a varied history in TV writing on The PJs, The New Adventures of Old Christine, and $#*! My Dad Says. He met Daley when he worked as a writer on The Geena Davis Show, a show on which Daley costarred. We talked to the veteran about his box office success with Horrible Bosses, making a transition to a film career, and getting anxious when actors want to improvise.
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Chances are you first laid eyes on former Verge designee Ari Graynor as a gum-snapping party girl in Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, the breakout role that put the 28-year-old actress on Hollywood's radar back in 2008. Since then, she's continued to steal scenes in films like Youth in Revolt, Whip It, and Holy Rollers, but as she prepares for another big comedic year ahead of her (plus a run on Broadway), Graynor's ready to take her next big leap -- right into leading lady territory for the first time -- in the indie black comedy Lucky.
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You know John Francis Daley from the Freaks and Geeks shrine you maintain in your rec room, but you may not realize that you also know him from his success as a screenwriter: His Horrible Bosses, which he co-wrote with Jonathan Goldstein (whom we also interviewed -- stay tuned), pulled in $28 million over its premiere weekend, edging out even Bridesmaids's debut. We caught up with the 25-year-old scribe, whose future projects with Goldstein include the Steve Carell starrer Burt Wonderstone and a remake of Vacation, and asked about Horrible Bosses's original ending, dealing with success, and residual Freaks and Geeks fanaticism.
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For a guy who has spent the last three decades mapping the contours of human frailty and folly, director Errol Morris is awfully upbeat about the future. Of course, his is not just any map: It illustrates redoubts of genius (A Brief History of Time, Mr. Death) and islands of quirk (Gates of Heaven, Vernon, Florida) in vast seas of systemic failure (The Thin Blue Line, the Oscar-winning The Fog of War, Standard Operating Procedure). Its moral compass points mysteriously inward, challenging viewers to orient themselves accordingly. His latest film, Tabloid, exists as its own sort of hemisphere in this schema, marking milestones of crime, gossip, sex, religion, love, science and indiscretion in the jaw-dropping story of Joyce McKinney.
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Bob Stephenson may not be what you'd call a household name, but he might be the closest thing we have to a household face. Stephenson has appeared in countless commercials and played Deputy Jimmy Taylor on the CBS drama Jericho and Walter Bailey in the ABC series The Forgotten. He was the shy slob who dated Jennifer Aniston in Friends With Money and the airport security guard who confronted Edward Norton about his vibrating suitcase in Fight Club. (He's appeared in four David Fincher films, in fact.) And beginning this month, the Oxnard-born actor is about to get a lot more big-screen time with his one-two-three-four box-office punch Larry Crowne, Our Idiot Brother, Hick (with Blake Lively and Alec Baldwin) and Lorene Scafaria's feature debut Seeking a Friend for the End of the World.
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With his nice guy looks and demeanor, Colin Hanks has played a lot of, well, nice guys over the years. But in Gil Cates, Jr.'s Lucky, in limited release this week, the 33-year-old actor and neophyte documentarian throws that image for a loop as Ben, a meek Midwesterner who wins a $36 million lottery jackpot, marries his dream girl (Ari Graynor)... and just so happens to be a serial killer.
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Liv Tyler ends an unusually long break from the movies this year, first with the wild dark comedy Super and today with The Ledge, in which she co-stars as the troubled, born-again Christian wife in the middle of a fundamentalist husband (Patrick Wilson) and hunky atheist neighbor (Charlie Hunnam) sandwich. Faith, sex, love, and mortality collide in writer-director Matthew Chapman's potboiler, which culminates in a suicide showdown also featuring Terrence Howard. It's madness! But it's also, as always, a pleasure to see Tyler back onscreen -- where she has a confirmed interest to return even more frequently in the months and years ahead.
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Actor Michael Rapaport was such a passionate fan of hip-hop legends A Tribe Called Quest, it's almost tragic what happened after he was granted permission to film the group, reunited after disbanding in 1998, for his directorial debut in the documentary Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest. Having captured incredibly intimate footage of members Phife Dawg, Q-Tip, Jarobi White, and Ali Shaheed Muhammad -- along with a veritable oral history of the '90s-era Native Tongues hip-hop movement culled from musical luminaries of past and present -- Rapaport found himself on the outs with A Tribe Called Quest just as his passion project was on the brink of a distribution deal.
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