Scarlett Johansson might have some competition from Lizzy Caplan in the Avengers world.
Although the short film Item 47, which stars Caplan, hasn't officially debuted yet — it's one of the many Avengers Blu-ray extras, due out September 25 — the actress had fun riffing on the possibilities if her appearance in the one-shot S.H.I.E.L.D adventure could lead to to her suiting up as a Marvel superheroine. more »
Friday's release of the R&B musical remake Sparkle marks a bittersweet triumph for the late Whitney Houston, whose death in February preempted what many, including producing partner and friend Debra Martin Chase, insist would have been Houston’s comeback. Co-stars Jordin Sparks, Mike Epps, Tika Sumpter, and Carmen Ejogo remembered the iconic Grammy-winning singer, actress, and executive producer as a "vibrant" and "open" force on set who was gearing up to bounce back from her recent personal troubles.
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Twi-hards — and the media — have certainly been paying more attention to David Cronenberg since the filmmaker cast Robert Pattinson in his latest, Cosmopolis, but they shouldn't expect him to reciprocate. Movieline pal Grace Randolph caught The Fly director and his star on the red carpet at the New York premiere of Cosmopolis, where Cronenberg shrugged off the impact of Pattinson's reported break-up with his Twilight star Kristen Stewart.
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Some time after turning down a role in 2010’s Expendables (the part he was offered lacked substance, legend has it) Jean-Claude Van Damme thought better of opting out of the Sylvester Stallone throwback, which went onto become a hit. But perhaps things worked out for the best: In this week’s Expendables 2, Van Damme steals away with the spotlight as the eccentric and hilariously disdainful uber-villain Jean Vilain (yes, really) with an over-the-top performance that called for full commitment to character on set.
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Barack Obama occupies the same pantheon as late "Superfreak" singer Rick James, according to Chris Rock.
In the Julie Delpy-directed 2 Days in New York, Rock plays a Village Voice writer and radio-show host who occasionally carries on one-sided conversations with a life-size cut-out of the president, and at the Cinema Society and MCM-hosted screening of the film in New York on Wednesday, the comic told Movieline pal Grace Randolph why the cardboard Commander in Chief got the nod. more »
Jessica Biel likes to play her action heroes with a touch of femininity. Movieline pal Grace Randolph hit a special New York screening of Total Recall on Thursday night and chatted with the actress on the red carpet. Biel plays the resistance fighter Melina and asked what quality she likes to bring to her action roles, tells Randolph that she aims to portray a character "who feels like a real woman," not "someone who's so tough that you can relate to [her] but someone who is feminine and has an emotional arc as well as a physical arc. more »
Friday’s Total Recall reboot trades heavily on brand enthusiasm for Paul Verhoeven’s original 1990 dystopian sci-fi actioner, but its makers had to be careful not to invoke too much of the Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle. And cool as it would’ve been to see the former Governator pop up in the new, grittier reimagining starring Colin Farrell, Jessica Biel, Kate Beckinsale, and Bryan Cranston, director Len Wiseman (Underworld, Live Free or Die Hard) explained to Movieline why he chose not to indulge his inner fanboy.
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He's made dozens of films since his 2001 breakout Y Tu Mamá También charmed audiences not only at home in Mexico, but also north of the border. Since then he played a priest in The Crime of Father Amaro, acted with the likes of Brad Pitt and Cate Blachett in Babel, a footballer (soccer player) in Rudo Y Cursi and even the revolutionary Ernest "Ché" Guevara in The Motorcycle Diaries. But now Gael García Bernal, the Mexican actor/director/producer and even festival founder (he and fellow actor Diego Luna co-founded Mexico's Ambulante Documentary Festival), is playing a more conventional revolutionary of sorts in Pablo Larraín's No, which debuted last May in Cannes and will screen at the Locarno Film Festival, which opens Wednesday.
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Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis face off as political rivals vying for the same Congressional seat in The Campaign — but should Democrats or Republicans be more worried about being skewered for laughs in the August 10 comedy?
Movieline pal Grace Randolph hit the star-studded NYC premiere with Beyond the Trailer for the scoop from candidates Ferrell and Galifianakis, catching up with a flurry of SNL alums, 30 Rock players, ABC News vet John Stossel and Jon Hamm to discuss the pressing issues of the day. Such as: Are babies good at improv?
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From the time it detonated public consciousness at Sundance last January, Benh Zeitlin’s dazzling magic realist feature debut Beasts of the Southern Wild has occasioned its own peculiar brand awe and wonder. After winning the grand jury prize and an award for best cinematography in Park City, the movie continues to conquer the world. Last month at Cannes, it captured the prestigious Camera d’Or for best first feature.
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The Invisible War by director Kirby Dick and producer Amy Ziering is simply shocking. In this doc, which won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival in January and screened at the recent Provincetown International Film Festival (where it also picked up an audience prize) the filmmaking duo expose a long-brewing scandal in the U.S. military. Sexual assault against both women and men has run rampant throughout the various branches of the military and even up the chain of command. It is, in fact, the chain of command that has, in part, allowed rape and other sexual assault to remain virtually hidden despite its ubiquity. The Invisible War blows the cover off this decades-old (or older) crisis with an emotional and devastating look at the victims of sexual assault and how it can be fixed.
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Bachelorette was dubbed the "indie Bridesmaids" at Sundance. OK, maybe there are some similarities. There are females and there's a pending wedding and the proverbial "shit hits the fan," but that's about it. Based on a play of the same name by Leslye Headland who directed the screen version, the story is quite frankly not going to be a hit with everyone. But for the segment of the population that gets a thrill off of bad ass humor, Bachelorette offers up a load of laughs. John Waters appeared to enjoy himself at the screening of the film, which opened up the Provincetown International Film Festival this week, so that is a stamp of some sort of approval, right?
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At the Seattle International Film Festival over the weekend to fete director and Lifetime Achievement honoree William Friedkin and present their NC-17 Southern-fried potboiler Killer Joe, actor Emile Hirsch spoke with Movieline about the “secret” movie he’d just shot with David Gordon Green (Prince Avalanche, also starring Paul Rudd) and the experience of being on a Friedkin set, where the pressure to deliver on a tight schedule was palpable. “If you messed up your lines or something, Billy would make you pay a little bit,” Hirsch said. “You really didn’t want to mess up at all.”
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Throughout the '70s and into the first part of the '80s, it was hard to ignore singer/songwriter/actor/sometimes talk show host and best-friend of the Muppets Paul Williams. He won Grammys and even an Oscar for hits he wrote including "We've Only Just Begun,", "Rainy Days on Mondays," "Evergreen," "Just an Old Fashioned Love Song" and "Rainbow Connection." Barbra Streisand, The Carpenters and even Kermit the Frog are among the artists he wrote super-hits for. Below, Paul Williams gives us his top ten movie songs of all time and dishes insight on Stephen Kessler's documentary about him, Paul Williams Still Alive, about his raging ascent and crashing fall and return to form...
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Summer's gearing up (though it is still spring) with the latest blockbustery types hitting screens around the country. Madagascar 3 opens with everyone's favorite wild animals on another adventure, this time escaping the serene lands of Africa for a mis-adventure in Europe as they try and make their way back to their beloved - err - New York. Ridley Scott's crew leaves Earth altogether in Prometheus, which has already shown box office snuff overseas. Will it catch on here? And are you ready for some non-studio (or not so studio) entertainment?
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