The roster of actors in the world who could reduce megastar George Clooney to rubble with a single withering look is short, but add newcomer Shailene Woodley to the top of the list. As Alex, the acerbic 17-year-old daughter of Clooney's Hawaiian landowner and family man in Alexander Payne's The Descendants, Woodley (of ABC Family's The Secret Life of the American Teenager) makes an auspicious film debut that could land her in the Oscar race -- not that Woodley, perhaps the most well-adjusted young star on the rise in Hollywood, would take awards razzle-dazzle too seriously.
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As Cullen family ringleader Carlisle, Peter Facinelli has faced off with the Volturi, rallied his clan to keep Bella and Edward safe and, in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn -- Part 1, walks a tightrope trying to keep Bella unharmed during her unexpected pregnancy. Facinelli talked with Movieline about working with writer/director Bill Condon and Stephenie Meyer on the final two films and the daunting task of shooting them -- at the junket for the film earlier in the day, Facinelli was still marveling at the screenplay's heft.
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This weekend, fans and critics will dissect The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1, to evaluate the film's dreamy wedding, nightmare pregnancy and cinematic merit. But what does the actual vampire community think about the latest Stephenie Meyer adaptation that features Robert Pattinson as a hunky bloodsucker, Kristen Stewart as his teen bride and Taylor Lautner as a walking set of abs?
To get answers, Movieline tracked down an Atlanta-based, self-identified vampire named Merticus who --- in spite of his community's near-universal hatred of the tween-targeted franchise -- was willing to shed light on the vampire misconceptions perpetuated in the latest Twilight installment.
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Jason Segel claims he cried when "meeting" Kermit the Frog for the first time, but the self-declared Muppets purist does not sound like a lachrymose superfan when explaining his update of Jim Henson's brand. As the co-writer and star of The Muppets (out Nov. 23), Segel proves his Muppet mettle with a slick, but classically jovial take on the old troupe. Its swiftness is reminiscent of charming '90s efforts like A Muppet Christmas Carol while Amy Adams and Chris Cooper's performances smack of the original Muppet trilogy's celebrity gusto; the Muppets themselves even conjure the old-school showmanship of the immortal The Muppet Show.
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Actor. Writer. Photographer. Musician. And now Joshua Leonard makes his feature directing debut this week with The Lie, a darkly comic, sneakily moving vision of 30-something parenthood.
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Now that the Twilight film franchise is drawing to a close (with $1.8 billion in receipts and counting, not including the projected $125 million opening predicted for this weekend's Breaking Dawn - Part 1), series screenwriter and Dexter veteran Melissa Rosenberg has turned her attention to a sizable slate of television projects. Talking with Movieline today, Rosenberg delved into the Sopranosesque qualities of her newly announced female-led crime drama Penoza and discussed the challenges of bringing a Jessica Jones superheroine series into a post-Birds of Prey/Wonder Woman world.
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Jackson Rathbone says he has felt right at home playing Jasper in the Twilight films, though the vampire's quiet, reserved nature contrasts with the actor's other identity: as the leader of L.A. funk rock band 100 Monkeys, who kick off their first European tour this month. Rathbone, who was strumming a guitar between interviews at the recent junket for this week's Breaking Dawn - Part 1, spoke with Movieline about balancing film and music, Twilight's effect on his success as a musician, and moving on from the series after Breaking Dawn - Part 2 hits theaters next year.
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There has always been something innately memorable about actress Judy Greer. The curiously beautiful actress with razor-sharp timing, a scene-stealer in everything from What Women Want to Arrested Development, carries an underlying melancholy behind her eyes that lends the sweetest characters deeper layers and the over the top ones an even greater sense of unpredictability, whether in comedies or, increasingly, in dramatic fare. So maybe she was born to be in an Alexander Payne movie like The Descendants, which flits back and forth along the painful edge between tragedy and humor in ways that feel completely, and achingly, human.
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It was almost seven months ago, in my preparations for the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival, that I was sent a film called Rid of Me, director James Westby's curious hybrid of psychological drama and pitch-black comedy that, if there's any justice, should make actress Katie O'Grady a star. And now that it's making its way into limited theatrical release, viewers outside the festival circuit can find out why.
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Even though you may not immediately recognize the name Warwick Davis, you are familiar with his work. That's because the English actor has been involved with two of the most storied franchises in all of film history -- the first being Star Wars, where Davis made his onscreen debut as Wicket in Return of the Jedi at the tender age of 13. Nearly three decades (and title roles in Willow and the six-part Leprechaun series) later, Davis helps close the door on the Harry Potter franchise, where he has played Hogwarts charms master Professor Flitwick and Gringotts goblin Griphook for 10 years.
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Director Wim Wenders has made his best-received film in years with Pina, a bold, beautiful 3-D tribute to his late friend and collaborator, the German choreographer Pina Bausch. But 2011 also marks the 20th anniversary of an even more ambitious -- if eminently troubled -- Wenders work loaded with cutting-edge visuals, music and concepts.
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In his debut feature Another Happy Day, director Sam Levinson (yep, Barry's son) worked with a cast including actors who've been legends since before he was born in 1985: Ellen Barkin, Ellen Burstyn, George Kennedy, Demi Moore, Thomas Haden Church, and newcomer Ezra Miller play stubborn, dysfunctional family members who bicker, spar, and essentially fail to communicate at a tumultuous wedding. Levinson garnered the 2011 Sundance Film Festival Waldo Salt screenwriting award for penning Another Happy Day, and -- like Barkin on Twitter -- is proving himself to be a fearsome, perceptive, and honest voice. We phoned Levinson to discuss his father's influence, why he screened Carnal Knowledge for his cast and crew, and Ellen Barkin's amazing candor.
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This weekend, most of the Harry Potter cast and filmmakers flew down to Universal Orlando's Wizarding World of Harry Potter to fête the home release of Deathly Hallows -- Part 2, the final installment in the film series based on J.K. Rowling's beloved books. At a Potter-themed party in Hogsmeade Village Saturday night -- complete with a performance by the frog choir, endless rounds of butter beer served by wizards and fireworks -- franchise star Rupert Grint took a moment to play a round of 'My Favorite Scene' with Movieline.
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Ashley Greene has been playing Alice, an unwaveringly supportive sisterly friend to Kristen Stewart's Bella, since the beginning of the Twilight series. In Breaking Dawn -- Part 1 the psychic Alice serves as wedding planner and all-around helpful vampire girl, but also faces a sudden inability to help Bella by seeing her future, or that of the child she's carrying. Greene talked about Bella's well-being, the nature of relationships and the film's intense birth scene.
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This past July was a bittersweet month for Harry Potter fans who flocked to theaters en masse to bid farewell to their beloved J.K. Rowling franchise with David Yates's final film installment Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows -- Part 2 starring, one last time, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint. Fortunately for honorary Hogwarts members, J.K. Rowling's mythical universe is still very much alive at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Parks in Orlando, Florida -- where, this weekend, Warner Bros. hosts a junket for the Deathly Hallows -- Part 2 home release.
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