If there's a Jonah Hill you thought you knew, you won't find him in Cyrus. Take it from Hill himself -- the 26-year-old actor is acutely aware of how he's perceived after starring in films like Superbad and Get Him to the Greek, and he hopes that his darker turn in Cyrus will surprise audiences the way it surprised him. Sure, it involves a lot of the improvisatory flair that he's gotten down to a science, but as the title character -- a manipulative man-child who's determined not to lose his mother Molly (Marisa Tomei) to her new beau (John C. Reilly) -- Hill gets to show off considerable dramatic chops, too.
In an interview with Movieline, Hill couldn't contain his excitement over the movie (directed by Mark and Jay Duplass), though when it came to the way it was being advertised, he had one strong quibble.
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Of all the journalists who covered the dramatic ups and downs of late night television this year, only one has made the genre his journalistic purview. Reacquaint yourselves with Bill Carter: New York Times media reporter, bestselling author of The Late Shift and the authority on late night. In spite of the tens of thousands of headlines already devoted to Conan, Leno and Letterman in 2010, the late night industry is still relatively small, with a handful of hosts, a few hundred employees and several tightly guarded doors. As evidenced by his definitive book about the battle over Johnny Carson's crown, Carter is the only person with complete access to this cutthroat world. In anticipation of his upcoming chronicle, The War For Late Night: When Leno Went Early and Television Went Crazy, which will be published in September, Movieline picked Carter's brain about another HBO adaptation, a potential Tonight Showdown at the Emmys and the reason why Conan might contribute to the collapse of late night.
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Earlier this month, Steve Zahn rang Movieline from his Kentucky farm to discuss Treme, HBO's ensemble drama about post-Katrina New Orleans. As his character, Davis McAlary -- a charismatic disc jockey, amateur politician, and advanced stoner -- grows frustrated with the Big Easy's gradual recovery from disaster, so too have some Treme viewers grown frustrated with David Simon's sprawling series. Hopefully, this Sunday's finale will remind audiences why they enjoyed the series when it first premiered in April, and to celebrate the conclusion of his freshman year at HBO, Steve Zahn joined us for a round of the age-old Movieline classic, My Favorite Scene.
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Welcome back to Moment of Truth, Movieline's spotlight on the best in nonfiction cinema. Today we hear from director Reed Cowan about 8: The Mormon Proposition, a new documentary focusing on masterminds -- and the motivations -- behind the controversial 2008 initiative banning gay marriage in California.
Reed Cowan didn't start out intending to lift the veil on his church. A born and bred Mormon -- with the education, two-year mission and perspective to show for it -- he had privately attempted to reckon his homosexuality with the less-than-tolerant teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. But as a filmmaker and journalist for whom one treatment of the subject led to another, the development of Proposition 8 in 2008 proved the story -- and perhaps the message -- of a lifetime.
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Friday Night Lights has always has passionate fans, but over the last few weeks, their fervor has been updated for the Facebook age. It's due in large part to Zach Gilford's shattering performance in the recent episode "The Son," which found his character Matt Saracen grappling with his hated father's death. Perhaps inspired by the grassroots activism that landed Betty White on Saturday Night Live, the website PopEater launched an unofficial Emmy campaign for Gilford (he'd be nominated in the guest actor category, since he went from regular to recurring this past season) and now it's become a surging Facebook petition that's brought a spotlight back to the acclaimed but underseen series.
As he films an arc of episodes for the show's fifth (and presumed-to-be final) season, Gilford rang Movieline to talk about filming the tough episode, the things we didn't see, and what the FNL series finale will (and won't) have in common with the final episode of lost.
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Long before Justin Halpern launched the Twitter feed Sh*t My Dad Says to catalog his father's cranky observations about life, the writer spent five years waiting tables at the Crocodile Cafe in Pasadena. At that point in his struggling writing career, the recent New York Times bestselling author cites the time that he served sparkling water to Home Improvement co-star Richard Karn as the most exciting moment of his life. Since then, Halpern moved back into his parents' house in San Diego, accumulated over a million Twitter followers, wrote a book, moved to Los Angeles and created a network sitcom starring William Shatner that premieres in September.
Earlier this week, Justin Halpern phoned Movieline to discuss his whirlwind success, his Twitter technique and the sh*t his dad says about his CBS series.
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In the new comedy Cyrus, Jonah Hill and John C. Reilly may have the showiest roles, but Marisa Tomei has the trickiest. While Hill (as her son) and Reilly (as her suitor) spar for her affections, Tomei has to make her Molly attractive but attainable, naive but not stupid, and loving but fundamentally misguided. Those are a whole lot of contradictions to play for any actor, but as Tomei explains it, it was all part of the process of working with directors Jay and Mark Duplass. The pair encourage the actors to make not just the characters but the dialogue and blocking their own, and Academy Award winner Tomei had plenty of ideas on how to do exactly that.
The actress talked to Movieline this week about some of the challenges inherent in that process, how she reconceived the character counter to what the Duplasses had originally intended, and how Hollywood has a problem with allowing women be funny.
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Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn created something of a fanboy stir last month when he dropped hints about wanting to adapt Wonder Woman for the screen. Some thought Refn was joking; after all, his best known films (The Pusher Trilogy, Bronson) are foreign-made indies rendered with unflinching brutality and pitch-black humor. But Refn -- one of the more thoughtful, articulate, visionary and prolific filmmakers working today at any level, like Werner Herzog with a bludgeon -- wasn't kidding at all. Hell, if Sam Raimi can do it, why can't he?
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It can't be argued that Australian men are having a bit of a moment in Hollywood -- just ask actors like Ryan Kwanten or the Hemsworth brothers, tapped to play roles that America's slender man-boys can't quite muster up the strength for -- but what of the Australian actresses who'll follow in the footsteps of Nicole Kidman or Naomi Watts? Enter Teresa Palmer. The 24-year-old Adelaide native has appeared in productions like December Boys and Bedtime Stories, but things are about to ramp up considerably; next month, she'll be seen as Jay Baruchel's love interest in The Sorcerer's Apprentice, then she's primed for a big action moment in the alien adventure I Am Number Four, where she'll star alongside other rising stars like Alex Pettyfer and Glee's Dianna Agron.
Palmer called up Movieline last week to chat about the crazy training regimen she's currently undertaking for Number Four, the big movie she swears she isn't actually attached to (no matter what IMDb says), and how the swerves of her early career have made her stronger.
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Over the course of three seasons, Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan has transformed his protagonist from a spineless husband and chemistry teacher into a cold-hearted meth chemist who neglects his family in order to churn out hundreds of pounds of lethal crystal for cash. The role, born somewhere deep in Gilligan's subconscious, won star Bryan Cranston back-to-back Emmys, and tied together three seasons of one of the best (and darkest) dramas on television today. Gilligan himself, though, could not be any more different than the grim world and characters he created.
In anticipation of this Sunday's season finale, the native Virginian -- who also wrote and produced over 30 episodes of The X Files and penned the Will Smith blockbuster Hancock -- phoned Movieline to cheerfully talk about the nuttiest scene he ever wrote for Walt (that never made it to air), the encouragement of AMC, and the possibility of renewing Breaking Bad for a fifth season.
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True Blood is one of television's most audacious shows, and it has Ryan Kwanten to thank for helping to set the tone. Sure, the 33-year-old Aussie's role as Jason Stackhouse requires him to go nude a lot -- and in the third season, premiering this Sunday, he's back to his old tricks right away -- but he can't just be credited for the fact that he helped establish the show's sexual daring. What the new episodes confirm more than ever is that Kwanten is the funniest person on the show, and he's able to pull off his dimwitted character without ever once winking at the audience. There are times that True Blood veers close to knowing self-parody, but Kwanten's smart enough to play those lines like Jason has no idea.
On the eve of the season premiere, Kwanten called Movieline to discuss working with series creator Alan Ball, True Blood's habit of splitting its characters up, and the healthy state of Australian film.
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At the Sundance film festival this year, Debra Granik's Ozark drama Winter's Bone was one of the most buzzed-about titles, earning plaudits for its impressively conjured setting and riveting cast. We've already brought you a Verge interview with Jennifer Lawrence, who plays the film's lead Ree, but as Winter's Bone goes into limited release this weekend, here's more about the movie from some of the people who know it best: Granik, John Hawkes (who almost walks away with the film as Ree's fearsome uncle Teardrop), and Dale Dickey (who plays the stubborn, implacable mountain woman Merab).
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Like every other twenty-something, Stephanie Pratt has fought to overcome her own insecurities. Only unlike the masses, she did so as part of MTV's cultural phenomenon The Hills. Her journey was especially sophisticated for a reality show that specializes in glamorous simplification -- picture-perfect young cast members, glistening shots of the L.A. cityscape and conversations that rarely delve into complex designer names, let alone emotions. But as The Hills winds down its final season, Stephanie -- who became a lead cast member this year -- has emerged as of one of the show's most integral and reliable characters.
Last week, Stephanie phoned Movieline to discuss the career detour that took her to The Hills , the one cast member she trusts for advice and her strained relationship with her brother.
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Luke Evans is your new leading man -- you just don't know it yet. The Welsh 30-year-old made his name on the British stage by starring in productions of Miss Saigon and Taboo, and since he transitioned into film last year, he's booked role after role after role. In Robin Hood and Clash of the Titans, Evans had smaller supporting parts, but he turned heads as the romantic lead opposite Gemma Arterton in the Cannes comedy Tamara Drewe, and after he finishes Tarsem Singh's Immortals, he'll be playing Aramis in Paul W.S. Anderson's The Three Musketeers (with a cast that includes Orlando Bloom and Christoph Waltz) and the title character in the biopic Vivaldi, opposite Jessica Biel. Not a bad haul for someone who hadn't even appeared in a film until this year!
Movieline caught up with the busy Evans to get the scoop on all of his upcoming projects and the one movie musical he's desperate to be a part of.
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Perhaps the only endeavor more difficult than saving post-Katrina New Orleans was creating a television series that intimately captured the perspective of the disaster-torn city. But that is exactly what Steve Zahn and the ensemble cast of HBO's freshman series Treme have done under the guidance of The Wire's David Simon and Eric Overmyer. Zahn portrays a passionate disc jockey and musician whose frustration with the Big Easy's snail-like rebuilding pace leads to brilliant anti-administration country songs and random displays of passive-aggressive rage. As the series nears the end of its freshman season, Zahn phoned Movieline yesterday from his Kentucky farm to discuss his transition into television, his hope that Treme will cover the BP oil spill and the one biopic he'd love to headline.
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