There are bad guys, and there are bad. Guys. Veteran Australian actor Ben Mendelsohn plays the latter in Animal Kingdom, the Sundance-winning, Melbourne-set crime drama currently wowing moviegoers in limited release. Much of that reaction has focused on the quality of the film's evil double-headed, awards-worthy hydra, with the terrific Jacki Weaver smiling and snarling on one side and Mendelsohn -- as bipolar (or monopolar, really) robber ganglord Arthur "Pope" Cody -- on the other. As Mendelsohn candidly and readily admits, it was not a beast you wanted to mess before or during the grueling Kingdom shoot.
more »
Last Thursday, I had a lengthy, terrific interview with James Cameron in advance of the special edition of Avatar (rereleased to theaters August 27), and all this week, Movieline will bring you pieces of that wide-ranging talk.
Before its release last December, Avatar was touted as a 3D game-changer, and it certainly has been -- though not always in ways James Cameron intended. What does he think of the trend of post-conversion 3D, the push for 3D television sets, and mega movies like Inception (which resisted a 3D conversion) and the Spider-Man reboot (which will be shot natively in 3D)? Cameron told Movieline.
more »
Contrary to what you may have seen on Funny or Die, Adam McKay and Will Ferrell didn't find Chris Gethard living in the woods when they were looking to replace Jon Heder as the lead on their new sitcom. They just remembered the auditions for The Other Guys.
more »
Last Thursday, I had a lengthy, terrific interview with James Cameron in advance of the special edition of Avatar (rereleased to theaters August 27), and all this week, Movieline will bring you pieces of that wide-ranging talk. For the first installment of our interview, Cameron explained his tendency to revise his films after their release, where he draws the line, and why he thinks a test audience bristled at Avatar's infamous sex scene, which has now been reinstated.
more »
It's not easy to play a cinematic dream girl, especially the inscrutable Ramona Flowers of Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, who literally meets our titular hero (played by Michael Cera) for the first time inside his own dream. Still, actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead pulls it off, and why shouldn't she, after braving challenges like Live Free or Die Hard, Death Proof, and the upcoming remake of The Thing? Just before Scott Pilgrim's release this past weekend, Winstead called up Movieline to discuss elements of a fight scene you didn't see, the film's reshot ending, and the credit she's got that's even weirder than Scott Pilgrim.
more »
As Tommy, the impoverished younger brother to Sam (Sam Trammell) on True Blood, Marshall Allman plays a shapeshifting character who's still licking wounds from a family that forced him into dogfighting. Talking to Allman himself, however, is the furthest thing from a grim experience. The hilarious 26-year-old called up Movieline this week to chat about getting in shape, the tabloid treatment of his former Prison Break costar Wentworth Miller, and the lengths Mad Men showrunner Matthew Weiner went to during Allman's guest appearance.
more »
"Do you know the Myers-Briggs Test?"
It's Tuesday morning in Manhattan, and Jacki Weaver awaits an answer. The actress doesn't have all day. She's on a 36-hour stopover here promoting her new film Animal Kingdom -- Weaver's first theatrical feature in 13 years, and quite possibly the movie that will earn the stage/screen/television veteran of nearly a half-century an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, if not the trophy itself. Which is where the Myers-Briggs Test comes in. I ask her to explain.
more »
After earning a supporting actress nomination at the Oscars last year for her work in Up in the Air, Anna Kendrick again provides valuable support as part of the ensemble cast of Edgar Wright's hyper-caffeinated comic book adaptation Scott Pilgrim vs the World. So how does the 25-year-old actress feel about shooting her role as Scott's sister Stacey, her part in the upcoming cancer comedy Live With It, and the rigors of an Oscar season she's finally put to bed? She told Movieline.
more »
Autumn Reeser has come a long way from playing the Tracy Flick-like Taylor Townsend on The O.C. The versatile character actress has spent the better part of this summer giving Ari Gold a second ulcer in her recurring part as the foul-mouthed and super-smart Lizzie on Entourage. This fall, she'll ply her trade at family friendly dramedy in the upcoming ABC pilot No Ordinary Family, a sort of live-action version of The Incredibles. She also does a monthly stage show in Los Angeles and juggles going back to school. And you thought your life was busy.
more »
For someone who launched to fame as The Osbournes' family rock, Sharon Osbourne has since racked up an impressive set of credentials on her own that have established her as a reality TV mainstay. Now, as she prepares to judge the first semifinal round of America's Got Talent, Movieline checked in with Osbourne to discuss Talent's best acts, her new daytime show The Talk, and her favorite film scene.
more »
Nearly seven months after his debut feature Animal Kingdom wowed Sundance, found American distribution and repurposed Air Supply's "All Out of Love" in the most harrowing way possible, writer-director David Michôd is readying for the rest of America's reaction to the Australian crime-family drama. If the critics are any indication, he has nothing to worry about -- except, maybe, how to follow it up.
more »
How do you recover from a graphic vampire-on-vampire sex scene that ended with one nasty staking and screams that literally curdled blood? If you're actor Theo Alexander, you fly to Greece to unwind -- and edit the aforementioned sequence out of the bootlegged episode of True Blood you plan on screening for your mother. This morning, the Greek actor took a break from his two-week vacation to phone Movieline and discuss the sensual way he prepared for True sex, his fear of getting in touch with his "gay" side, and his character's 700-year romance with the King of Mississippi.
more »
Swoosie Kurtz has enjoyed a rich career that has spanned three mediums, netted one Emmy, garnered Broadway's coveted "Triple Crown" and afforded her a trip into Bryan Fuller's fantastically whimsical Pushing Daisies world, where she played a heavy-drinking, gun-toting, agoraphobic aunt who lost an eye while cleaning a litter box. This fall, nearly three decades after starring alongside Tony Randall in the sitcom Love, Sidney, Kurtz returns to the half-hour arena in Mike and Molly.
more »
In Middle Men, Laura Ramsey plays a woman who parlays an ignoble beginning (selling sex on the internet) into a lucrative business, and in some ways, it's a fortuitous match of actress and character. Ramsey, too, paid her dues in productions she'd probably rather forget (like MTV's reality flop The Real Cancun), but she's since built a promising career as an actress, with notable appearances in projects like The Ruins, The Covenant, and Mad Men. She called up Movieline to talk about fake online profiles, and donning a sailor hat for Sofia Coppola.
more »
For the perfect example of someone who can do a lot with just a little, just check out True Blood's scene stealer Kristin Bauer. As Pam, the stylish second-in-command vampire to Bon Temps big shot Eric (Alexander Skarsgard), it often falls to Bauer to swan into a scene, casually toss off the episode's best lines, and leave a lasting impression in just a few minutes. She talked to Movieline about how she does it.
more »
