As reported here last week, the new season of American Express's Unstaged concert series commences Wednesday with the unlikely pairing of David Lynch and Duran Duran. Or is it unlikely? Movieline got on the phone with the busy filmmaker today to discuss the pairing, what to expect both in the crowd and while viewing online, and why Mulholland Drive's 10-year anniversary isn't as big a deal as it sounds. Like, at all.
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You've seen Gus Van Sant's Milk, but for the real story of slain San Francisco city supervisor (and gay rights pioneer/martyr) Harvey Milk, you absolutely must watch Rob Epstein's Oscar-winning 1984 documentary The Times of Harvey Milk. The Criterion Collection releases a gorgeous Blu-ray this week, which features the thoroughness for which the company is famous -- a new digital transfer, terrific essays, an informative commentary, and featurettes on everything from the making of the film to the investigation of the assassination of Milk and mayor George Moscone.
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How do you even begin to wrap your head around Zack Snyder's latest epic, Sucker Punch? The anachronistic pop fantasy mash-up follows '60s-era insane asylum inmate Babydoll (Emily Browning) who plots escape with four fellow prisoners (Abbie Cornish as Sweet Pea, Jena Malone as Rocket, Vanessa Hudgens as Blondie, and Jamie Chung as Amber) by going into a dream world within another dream world to fight dragons, zombie Nazis, and evil nightclub pimps. And as Snyder and Co. revealed while making the press rounds, what hits theaters this Friday is only one version of what Sucker Punch ever was, is, and still could be whenever Snyder's unveils his full Director's Cut.
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Ben Schwartz is that rare Hollywood up and comer, if only because in addition to working on everything from indie films to beloved television series to hot cable pilots to big-budget screenplays, he's also blessed with boundless enthusiasm. One conversation with the Peep World star (who you might also know as the hilariously douche-y Jean-Ralphio on Parks and Recreation), and you can't help walk away with a sense of Hollywood's limitless possibilities. It's kinda contagious.
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Brit Marling studied economics at Georgetown and might have been an environmental activist or banker in another life if she hadn't answered the siren call of Los Angeles and moved west to risk it all as an actor. And what a payoff: having co-written, produced, and starred in two critically acclaimed films at Sundance (the sci-fi romance Another Earth and the wonderfully hard-to-define cult drama Sound of My Voice), Marling's smack dab in the middle of her well-deserved breakout moment. Movieline caught up with Marling at SXSW to discuss borderline illegal guerrilla filmmaking tricks, taking professional risks, and avoiding the "morally-corrupt swamp" that is Hollywood.
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More bits and pieces of Zack Snyder's upcoming Superman project emerged Sunday as the director made the press rounds with the girl power action pic Sucker Punch, another wildly fantastical, epic-scale vision from the man behind 300 and Watchmen. As Snyder told Movieline exclusively with a nod to his creative exchanges with producer Christopher Nolan, Superman will mark a stylistic departure of sorts: The comic book adventure about the flying, super-powered Man of Steel will be his most realistic film to date.
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Strange things can happen once fatigue sits in for an interviewee. In the worst of cases it leads to rushed and phoned-in answers. In the case of Win Win and The Office's Amy Ryan, however, it leads to a delightful, almost slaphappy experience -- accelerated by a simple misunderstanding of a question that leads to a new project starring Vin Diesel.
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French filmmaker and DJ Quentin Dupieux directed a movie about a killer tire. I repeat: Quentin Duplex -- who also goes by the name Mr. Oizo -- created a full-length movie about a tire that kills people. A lot of assumptions could be made about Dupieux's feelings toward the American film audience -- who, in the movie, are obnoxious and are eventually poisoned -- or Hollywood in general. But! As Dupieux explains, he's just making fun of himself. OK?
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Simon Pegg swears that there are not as many movie references in Paul as you might think. Which technically may be true, if only because there's a good chance that his new film does feature less than a million. Regardless of the actual amount, though, Pegg, Nick Frost and director Greg Mottola (Superbad) have created a bona fide nerd oasis in Paul. But will non-nerds want to show up to this party, too?
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One of two things happens when interviewing a pair of subjects at once; most often it's some variation on the tried-and-true "I'll take the first question, you take second one" formula. Then there are Win Win co-stars Paul Giamatti and newcomer Alex Shaffer, for whom a more unique, conversational style takes over. Which is to say, unique in a sort of "older brother the younger brother obviously respects but also openly mocks" kind of way.
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Despite protests from opponents accusing the film of bias, the US premiere of director Julian Schnabel's latest, Miral, unspooled as planned Monday night at United Nations headquarters in New York. And while a redoubtable list of friends and heavy hitters -- including Sean Penn, Robert De Niro and Josh Brolin -- materialized in support, Schnabel had words for the resistance.
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In Monogamy, Chris Messina plays Theo, a burnt out wedding photographer who starts a side job that involves photographing clients in a more natural, unaware surrounding. When one of his clients with the provocative handle "Subgirl" (Meital Dohan) shows up for her session and puts on quite a show, it leads Theo down a road of obsession that puts a strain on his current engagement to Nat (Rashida Jones). Movieline sat down with Messina to discuss the dark twists of Monogamy, an audition outburst that led to him being banned for life from the future work of The Sopranos' David Chase, and why it was unfair that Devil got caught up in the stink left over from M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender.
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The most striking observation made during a recent chat with Shiloh Fernandez is that the 26-year-old is a gentle and thoughtful soul in person -- sincere, open, and regretful of comments he made recently about his run-in with Kristen Stewart years ago when reading for the role of Edward Cullen in Catherine Hardwicke's Twilight. Fernandez may not have been meant to play the famous sparkling vampire, but he got another shot at working with Hardwicke when she cast him as the village bad boy in Red Riding Hood, the first romantic lead role in his young career to date. (Plus, he's an avid Movieline reader. So, you know -- bonus points!)
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Kristen Wiig realizes that not everyone is going to universally love every single character that she creates on Saturday Night Live. It's not that she spends a lot of time (or any time, for that matter) thinking about what the overall consensus will be, but it's kind of hard to ignore when her own mother calls to voice disapproval over a new character.
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After departing the phenomenally successful Twilight franchise that launched star Kristen Stewart into the stratosphere along with then-unknowns Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner, director Catherine Hardwicke set her sights on another supernatural teen romance: Red Riding Hood. Starring Amanda Seyfried as the titular heroine, Hardwicke's take on the age-old fairytale becomes a medieval murder-mystery with a current of seething sensuality bubbling beneath the surface -- just one of many subjects the director discussed in a frank conversation with Movieline about Red Riding Hood, post-Twilight pressure, her critics, and more.
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