Better late than never to become an Academy darling. Just ask Jeff Bridges: At 61, the actor has followed his Oscar-winning role as a raggedy, washed-up country singer in Crazy Heart with another Oscar-nominated turn as the raggedy, wasted Rooster Cogburn in the Coen brothers' True Grit. It's a part with an awards heritage of its own -- John Wayne won his only Oscar playing the gruff US Marshal in the 1969 adaptation of the Charles Portis novel -- yet one Bridges inhabits with his customary, blown-out swagger that is at once classic and utterly modern.
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Director Mikael Hafstrom (1408, Derailed) was initially skeptical of taking on the exorcism thriller The Rite, about a young priest (Colin O'Donoghue) who learns the craft of ghost -- okay, demon -- busting from Sir Anthony Hopkins in Rome. Then he read the non-fiction book which provided the basis for its story based from American priest (and guest Movieline critic) Father Gary Thomas, and found that he could bring more to the table than the schlocky thrills found in most other genre offerings.
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Donald Glover may play Troy Barnes, the purely emotional (quoth co-star Danny Pudi) ex-quarterback on NBC's Community, but he's a realist when it comes to his show's appeal and fans. We caught up with the 27-year-old actor-writer-comic to discuss his own college experience, the best characters to write for on 30 Rock, and how Community may be a "stepping stone" for a better TV world.
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One look at the gun-crazy poster for The Mechanic and you know what you're in for with this week's hit-man thriller: Lots and lots of gun porn. Pairing Jason Statham as a calculating, composed assassin and Ben Foster as his boss's loose cannon of a son, director Simon West remakes the original 1972 Charles Bronson flick of the same name with a greater focus on his characters. But the initial appeal, as Foster tells Movieline, was the prospect of getting to "blow sh*t up" with Jason Statham.
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When Lucky McKee's Sundance horror entry The Woman premiered in Park City and promptly elicited walkouts, a panic injury, and one irate moviegoer's infamous YouTubed rant, some -- okay, Movieline -- wondered if it was all a stunt. (For a personal retelling of the shouting match that followed, read Drew McWeeny's firsthand account.) To set the record straight, Movieline went straight to the source for McKee's version of what went down when the credits started rolling.
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Maggie Q, the star of the CW's breakout action-drama Nikita, knows what she wants, and she's happy to announce that she gets it. The 31-year-old martial arts cinema vet moved from Honololu, learned her craft from Jackie Chan, became a star in Hong Kong, and co-starred in various TV shows, miniseries, and films before hitting stateside fame with Mission: Impossible III, Deception, and Balls of Fury. Now, with 14 years of fight choreography under her belt, the Nikita topliner is torqued for the future of her series -- especially because she has a specific vision of what the show should look, sound, and move like. It's a vision she reiterates frequently.
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Last year's Greenberg may have marked Greta Gerwig's entrance into mainstream cinema -- when you come from the world of making nano-budgeted improvised films with your friends, a Noah Baumbach project is a big film - but 2011 will be the year the indie darling truly goes Hollywood. In this week's friends-with-benefits comedy No Strings Attached, Gerwig stands out as Natalie Portman's level-headed BFF; in April, she'll play the object of Russell Brand's affections in Arthur. And next month, she'll vie for her first major acting award at the Spirit Awards, nominated (opposite No Strings Attached co-star Portman) for her work as a winsome Los Angeleno in Greenberg.
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While Joel McHale's wryness sets the tone on NBC's hilarious Community, it's Danny Pudi's contributions as the brainy, jolting Abed that fiercely punctuate the show's ensemble. Abed's been funny, reflective, and childlike in Community's second season, and for the Chicago-born Pudi, those facets have posed an irresistible acting challenge. We spoke with Pudi last week about Abed's complicated headspace, relating to his role, and Community's fairytale tendencies.
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This spring, Friday Night Lights star Zach Gilford attempts to leave behind his beloved character Matt Saracen -- the shy former quarterback of the Dillon Panthers -- for an outdoorsy doctor on Shonda Rhimes' latest ABC medical drama, Off the Map. Will the Northwestern grad be able to endear himself to an entirely new audience and adjust to life away from the bubble that he grew comfortable on during the last five seasons on FNL?
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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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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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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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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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The second season of Glee has been an important one for Heather Morris. The actress -- who portrays Brittany, the ditzy New Directions member who believes that Dr. Pepper is a dentist -- became an official series regular, made her singing debut (in her character's titular episode), out-danced Britney Spears and established herself as the most reliably funny actor on the Emmy-nominated series. Knowing all of this, Movieline made a point to track down the Arizona-raised back-up-dancer-turned-actress at Tuesday night's Fox TCA Press Party to ask the break-out triple talent about her hilarious viral rap video, the possibility of a lesbian relationship on the show and her character's patented one-liners.
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Michel Gondry, best known for directing cerebral, handmade films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep, might at first seem peculiar as the director associated with the big-budget superhero movie The Green Hornet. Yet Gondry has been attached to The Green Hornet on and off since 1997, creating a long road for Gondry to complete what was supposed to be his first Hollywood film; stars including George Clooney, Jason Scott Lee, Greg Kinnear, Mark Wahlberg, Jet Li, Jake Gyllenhaal and Nicholas Cage were all at some point associated with The Green Hornet. Finally, it comes down to this weekend and Seth Rogen.
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