There wasn't a new episode of True Blood last Sunday, but then again, you probably needed that downtime to decompress from the previous episode's insane final scene. On a show that commingles sex and violence as a general rule, that last encounter between Bill (Stephen Moyer) and Lorena (Mariana Klaveno) may have shredded the envelope: testing the limits of vampire-on-vampire hate-sex, Bill twisted Lorena's head completely around between thrusts -- and true to Lorena's malevolent nature, she loved it.
Did Klaveno feel the same way about having to shoot it, though? With True Blood resuming its run this weekend, she called up Movieline to discuss exactly how they made it work, why Lorena just can't get over Bill, and how J.J. Abrams is inadvertently responsible.
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There were all sorts of reasons that Grease shouldn't have worked: it was coming at the tail end of the musical's golden age in 1978, it was a period piece, and its stars were way, way too old to be playing teenagers -- yet something about that perfect lead casting of John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John and those irresistible songs made it a phenomenon. Now, as Paramount re-releases Grease in a new sing-a-long format, Movieline called up director Randal Kleiser to reminisce and dish.
Want to know what he thinks of Grease 2, modern-day musicals, or his very first role in a student film directed by George Lucas? Read on.
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What a difference a few months make. When we profiled Josh Hutcherson in The Verge last August, he was a promising young actor in two low-profile films that failed to do much business. This year, though, his career has taken off with a bang: not only was he heavily considered to play the title character in the reboot of Spider-Man, but the 17-year-old has supplanted Brendan Fraser as the star of their franchise, Journey to the Center of the Earth. And then there's Lisa Cholodenko's The Kids Are All Right: as Laser, the young son who spurs his mothers (Annette Bening and Julianne Moore) to meet the sperm donor who fathered him, Hutcherson turns in a winning performance in one of the best films of the year.
Last month, I sat down with the up-and-comer to discuss how shocked he was that people found Kids to be a comedy, what exactly is going on with the troubled remake of Red Dawn, and how he feels when he loses out on a major role (in what turned out to be a prescient conversation).
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In his 30 years as a showbiz mainstay, Alan Ruck has starred in movies and TV shows that have come to exemplify their times. The John Hughes movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off, in which Ruck played hooky accomplice Cameron Frye, remains a hallmark for rambunctious '80s teen comedies, while Spin City, where Ruck played the quipping Stuart Bondek, typifies the multicamera sitcom streak of the '90s. Now, his new NBC miniseries Persons Unknown encapsulates the DVD-friendly serializaed appeal of television today, complete with a jigsaw mystery that can please fans of Veronica Mars, Lost, and The Twilight Zone alike.
Ruck phoned Movieline last week to discuss the curious production of Persons Unknown, his disappointment with current TV, and the legacy of John Hughes.
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After earning an Oscar nomination as the sultry object of a wine aficionado's affection in Sideways, Virginia Madsen realized that there still weren't many good film roles left for actresses. That's why the 80's sex symbol made the transition from the multiplex to mainstream television, and in her second-ever regular role on a network series, Madsen is tackling one of the biggest challenges of her career: balancing her well-honed dramatic talents while discovering comedy. The satisfying role is courtesy of ABC's summer dramedy Scoundrels, where Madsen stars as a headstrong mother of four who is determined to give her family an honest life after her husband (David James Elliott) is sentenced to prison.
Last week, Madsen phoned Movieline to explain why actresses are fleeing to television, the time her brain literally exploded, and her secret to great onscreen (and offscreen) chemistry.
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Vinny Guadagnino is the self-touted family man of MTV's reality juggernaut Jersey Shore, the ever-pinchable voice of reason who declares the "GTL" lifestyle a little ridiculous and who tames JWOWW after she punches The Situation in the chest. He's a party guy whose fist-pimping prowess is second to none, though his vainglorious co-stars tend to dwarf him when it comes to rambunctious spectacle and occasional insanity. Luckily, with the premiere of season two less than a month away, Vinny's just as torqued as Snooki or DJ Pauly D for the debauchery to begin anew. But did he thrive away from Seaside Heights in the new ecosystem of Miami? Movieline wanted answers.
We phoned Vinny earlier this week to discuss season two, his artistic (and political!) ambitions, and the rumors that he won't be on board for season three.
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When David Slade was announced as the director of the third Twilight film, Eclipse, it seemed like a risky proposition: he had only made two other movies (Hard Candy and 30 Days of Night), and both indicated a sensibility that might be too aggressive for the romantic Stephenie Meyer series. Perhaps that's exactly what the franchise needed, though, as Slade's turned in a well-received installment that's a good deal more propulsive than Chris Weitz's sluggish New Moon.
The day after Eclipse's Los Angeles premiere, Slade was still riding high from the audience's reaction as he talked to Movieline about the tough shoot, his thoughts on the controversial Breaking Dawn, and the follow-up he definitely isn't making next.
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Of all the reasons to love Dame Helen Mirren -- her taste, class, grace, skill, discipline, fearlessness and ageless eroticism among them -- 2010 might be the year we get the best look at her versatility. Having already given us the outsized wife of Leo Tolstoy in The Last Station, the Oscar-winner arrives in theaters this week as the flat-accented, fur-clutching, no-nonsense brothel madam Grace Bontempo of Love Ranch. October will bring the action-packed intrigue Red, featuring Mirren's turn as a former CIA spook eluding an assassination rap alongside Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman and John Malkovich. The jury's out on the latter film, but the long-delayed Love Ranch (directed by Mirren's husband Taylor Hackford) indeed provides a worthwhile study of grande dame by way of Nevada desert.
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In many ways, Melissa Rosenberg has the Twilight franchise's most difficult job: as screenwriter, she has to satisfy not just the original novelist Stephenie Meyer, but the actors (including Kristen Stewart, who famously won't say a line if she doesn't believe it), directors, and fans, too. The imminent Eclipse is her third crack at the series, and up next is the very controversial Breaking Dawn, which Rosenberg is busily splitting into two movies.
In a candid interview with Movieline, Rosenberg discussed fan frustrations, her thoughts on Summit's director selections, and just how she pictures that Breaking Dawn split.
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It only took 25 years after their first, small collaboration, but director Taylor Hackford finally found the right film to make with his wife Helen Mirren. And to think: Love Ranch, which opens next week, almost didn't open at all. The fictionalized story of the first legal brothel in the U.S. -- and the crimes of passion (and otherwise) that helped sink it in 1977 -- was in distribution limbo for most of 2009, ultimately breaking out earlier this year. Along with it come Mirren as a no-nonsense Nevada madam and Joe Pesci (in his first starring role in more than a decade) as her bare-knuckled pimpresario husband.
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Joan Rivers probably works harder in 2010 than every standup comic who ever called her groundbreaking. In the new documentary Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, the legend repeatedly caws that she is no artifact. She's riding creaky elevators down New York cellars and wisecracking to crowds. She's on TV. She's selling a stage show overseas. And she's never satisfied with her 50 years of performing -- there's too much money to be made, too many opportunities to pounce upon, and too many disappointments to overcome. She is work. But as the film proves, she is also a scratchy sage who can articulate the thrills and pitfalls of ambition better than any of her colleagues in the mic-brandishing game.
Movieline phoned the 77-year-old comic great yesterday to discuss the A Piece of Work, the flattery of Johnny Carson's resentment, her favorite comedians, and the failures (including the suicide of her husband Edgar) she refuses to forget.
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When it came time for Mark and Jay Duplass to choose a leading man for Cyrus, their first studio film, it had to be John C. Reilly. The 45-year-old actor has spent much of his career taking what's on the page and embroidering it with improvisation and inspiration, and that's the exact approach the Duplasses have spent their last few movies refining. Whether he's riffing wildly in Talladega Nights or taking a much more controlled approach (as he does in Lynne Ramsay's upcoming We Need To Talk About Kevin), Reilly has the ability to make even the craziest lines and behavior of his characters seem utterly natural.
Last week, I met up with him at the Four Seasons in Los Angeles to talk about Cyrus, tease Kevin, and discuss his ever-shifting attitude toward his own work.
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The new comedy Cyrus may be low-budget by most studio standards, but for directors Mark and Jay Duplass, it was a whole new world. The brothers made their name in mumblecore until Fox Searchlight came calling, but with more money, more crew members, and actors like Jonah Hill, John C. Reilly, and Marisa Tomei involved, the Duplasses had to work just as hard to preserve the shaggy, improvisatory aesthetic that got them the job in the first place.
In a candid interview with Movieline, Mark and Jay opened up about what their crew thought of them, why they're unlikely to direct someone else's script, and what's in store for their next movie, the stoner comedy Jeff Who Lives at Home.
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Ever since Colin Hanks's first major film role in the 2002 teen comedy Orange County, he's been aware of his character niche: a likable, wry, non-threatening everyman. While he's played that type several times and bears a strong resemblance to his two-time Academy Award-winning father, Hanks still displays a balance of comic timing and magnetic sanity he can call his own. Now, on Fox's flashy new cop dramedy The Good Guys, we watch as the 32-year-old actor amps his appeal to an explosive high as Det. Jack Bailey, who must survive duty alongside his Starsky and Hutch caricature of a partner, Dan Stark (Bradley Whitford).
Hanks phoned Movieline last week to discuss what drew him to The Good Guys, his intriguing Mad Men stint, and the reason Turner and Hooch recently made him laugh.
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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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