Of all the roles that Christian Slater has played in his 30-year career, one of his most beloved remains Clarence Worley, the comic book store clerk who falls for a cute call girl in True Romance. So it is ironic that when Movieline asked the actor -- who stars in Fox's upcoming workplace comedy Breaking In -- to play a round of Movieline's go-to parlor game last week, Slater described the big screen romance that rang truest to him. Hint: There ain't gonna be no re-match for this very special round of My Favorite Scene.
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After spending the last five years out of the director's chair (during which time he produced no fewer than eight films including Disturbia, Hotel for Dogs, Chloe, son Jason's Up in the Air, and Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day), comedy veteran Ivan Reitman has gone back to the basics. For Reitman (Stripes, Animal House) that means taking the time to personally shepherd his scripts, making movies about people who talk like real people, and as in his latest film No Strings Attached, it means sex jokes. Lots of sex jokes.
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Casey Wilson's two-season career on Saturday Night Live concluded abruptly, but since she exited Studio 8H last year, she's proved herself a viable sitcom draw: The 30-year-old writer/actress picked up a recurring role on TV Land's upcoming Retired at 35 and a starring role on ABC's newest ensemble comedy Happy Endings, which kicks off in April. We caught up with Casey last week at the TCA winter press tour in Pasadena.
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Let's just say that Scott Speedman could be described as a bit of a "free spirit." As the Canadian actor is describing his tendency to disappear for months at a time, the notion of him walking right out of the room -- never to be seen again -- seemed not only possible but also highly probable. Thankfully, that didn't happen, instead Speedman was free to discuss what he was apparently there to talk about: The American.
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It's rare enough to have one film at the Sundance Film Festival, but youngster Kyle Gallner has two pretty high-profile affairs premiering in Park City, Utah later this week: Kevin Smith's horror film Red State and Elgin James' in-competition Little Birds. Not bad for a 24-year-old.
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Just weeks after stepping into the lead female role in Julie Taymor's highly scrutinized $65 million musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, T.V. Carpio is already collecting compliments for her performance as Arachne, a role for which she replaced original cast member Natalie Mendoza following the string of highly publicized accidents and delays that rocked the Broadway community. Movieline spoke exclusively with the film and stage actress today -- not long after the news hit that Spider-Man's opening date will be postponed, yet again, to March -- in a wide-ranging career-tracking conversation that will be posted in full soon. For now, hit the jump to hear what Carpio had to say in response to Spider-Man's critics.
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If there is one person that could succeed Tina Fey as Hollywood's Queen of Comedy, it's Mindy Kaling. The Dartmouth graduate -- who plays, of course, Kelly Kapoor on The Office -- is an Emmy-nominated writer, with credits on 18 episodes of the NBC series, plus the writer/director and star of the show's spin-off web series, Subtle Sexuality. Oh, and on top of that, Kaling co-stars in the upcoming Natalie Portman rom-com No Strings Attached, is searching for directors for her own romantic comedy (co-written by fellow Office scribe Brent Forrester) and is feverishly writing her first book The Contents of My Purse for Random House. Just a few things.
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Here's the thing about Carla Gugino: If you're not paying close attention to the actress in this role or that character, there's a chance that you may not even realize that it's her. The same Gugino who portrays a free-spirited, needy television writer in the new release Every Day also plays the tough-as-nails, no-nonsense Amanda Daniels on Entourage. And that's not even mentioning her following in the realm of fanboys for her roles as Sally Jupiter in Watchmen and her upcoming role as Madam Gorski in Zack Snyder's March release, Sucker Punch. Not surprisingly, the sultry star likes it that way.
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Say what you will about Paris Hilton, but the blond heiress/actress/socialite/entrepreneur arrived promptly for NBC Universal's Television Critics Press tour event on Thursday night in Pasadena, and gamely talked to each and every reporter who requested a word. Like Movieline! Ahead, Paris -- who stars on the new Oxygen series The World According to Paris -- discusses her perceived life as a dumb blonde and her favorite film scene (which, ironically, is from a movie about a dumb blonde).
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To hear Ron Howard tell it, the key element of his new film The Dilemma is surprise: Tonal twists from comedy to thriller to drama and pathos back again, frequently without warning and with little indication of which character will turn up where -- or how or why they'll do it. Perhaps it was inevitable, then, that I walked into a chat with the filmmaker to find his younger brother, the actor (and Ron Howard stock player) Clint Howard would be joining. Score!
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Back in 2007 fan fave Edgar Wright curated his first film series at the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles, spawning a popular screening series of classic films and cult favorites hand selected by guest programmers ranging from Eli Roth to Peter Bogdanovich. This weekend the busy Wright returns to host The Wright Stuff II, a two-week bonanza that will bring some of his favorite films to the big screen.
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Holding court for an assembly of journalists yesterday in Los Angeles, Sir Anthony Hopkins gamely talked up his upcoming thriller The Rite, in which he plays a seasoned Jesuit exorcist mentoring a skeptical seminary student (newcomer Colin O'Donoghue) in Rome. Sitting across from the Oscar-winning actor, one thing was clear: At 73, Sir Anthony has, to borrow from Plato, achieved a great sense of calm and freedom. Like, the freedom to do whatever the hell he wants, whether it's starring last year in Woody Allen's You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, getting hairy in the uber flop The Wolfman, making a special appearance in low-budget B-movies about female cage fighters, or playing a Norse god in this summer's big-budget Marvel adaptation Thor.
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There's a scene in Barney's Version in which Barney Panofsky (Paul Giamatti) prepares for his first date with the woman who will eventually become his third wife by downing a few cocktails to kill the nerves. Not surprisingly, by the time Barney shows up for his date, he's visibly sauced. Coincidentally, Rosamund Pike, who plays the woman who will eventually become Barney's third wife, had a similar experience with a drunken suitor that, oddly, ended exactly the same way.
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Earlier this week, a contributor to the right-wing film and culture Web site Big Hollywood offered up the delightfully titled tale, "For $745 You Too Can Be Insulted By Famed Hollywood Screenwriting Teacher Robert McKee." Author Ann McElhinney proceeded to recount her time in McKee's celebrated (and, indeed, expensive) story seminar last October, time reportedly spent chafing under the instructor's prodigious use of profanity, social criticism, "Bush bashing" and other liberal bloviation. A torrent of conservative bile followed in the site's comments. Of course, anyone who's seen Adaptation, featuring Brian Cox as the legendary -- and legendarily irascible -- writing mentor, could have warned McElhinney of at least some pedagogical turbulence ahead. So Movieline asked McKee on Wednesday: What, if anything, went wrong here?
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Here's a very special edition of Movieline's game for cinephiles, "My Favorite Scene." Usually we ask our subjects (like Zach Gilford) simply to name their favorite film scene of all-time, and a reason why. With Lost creator and illustrious film producer J.J. Abrams, though, we learned a bit more than usual. Join us as the Super 8 writer/director names his favorite scene, his favorite set, and the woman whose death almost inspired him to write a play about his childhood.
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