As one of Movieline's inaugural interviewees upon our relaunch last April, Brett Ratner shared his love of literature -- especially that of his own Rat Press -- with our new readership. Five months later, his further adventures in moguldom have piqued our interest once more. His new venture The Shooter Series compiles hits, swings and admittedly a few misses from his nearly 20 years of work, from his music videos for Madonna, Wu-Tang Clan, Mariah Carey and others to his rather staggering short film documenting Mickey Rourke's transition into boxing.
It's both hubristic (a short doc about himself, with all-star endorsees like Robert Evans and Russell Simmons) and self-effacing (rawer-than-raw NYU student films), and not just a little revelatory in its charting of how a hyperactive home-moviemaker from Miami became a reliable captain of Hollywood blockbusters. Ratner spoke recently with Movieline about The Shooter Series, Madonna before megastardom and coming to terms with mass appeal.
more »
One of those pleasant gems you hope to stumble upon at any film festival, The Disappearance of Alice Creed is a wonderfully entertaining little thriller from British screenwriter and first-time director, J Blakeson. Set almost entirely in an enclosed apartment, Blakeson's story takes a simple premise -- "So you've kidnapped a beautiful heiress. Now what?" -- and wrings out of it a darkly humorous and utterly unpredictable tale of greed gone wrong, with shades of Rope, Shallow Grave and Deathtrap. The titular heiress is played by Quantum of Solace star Gemma Arterton, who squeezed in this film between her two upcoming blockbusters, Prince of Persia and Clash of the Titans. Rounding out the triangle are the two kidnappers, the elder and more volatile man played by Eddie Marsan -- star of Mike Leigh's Vera Drake and Happy-Go-Lucky and Will Smith's super-nemesis in Hancock -- and the younger played by Martin Compston, a Scottish actor discovered by Ken Loach (who gave him the lead in Sweet Sixteen). Both are superb in their roles. Movieline spoke to Marsan and Compston this morning at TIFF, for what it turns out was their first official interview in support of the film.
more »
Go ahead and add Perrier's Bounty to the films that could spark heated market interest in Toronto this year. The dark-comic Irish crime thriller premieres tonight and features Cillian Murphy as Michael McCrae, a ne'er-do-well whose outstanding debt to gangster Darren Perrier (Brendan Gleeson) becomes the common interest of half the Dublin underworld after an unexpected visit one night from his estranged, dying father Jim (Jim Broadbent). Joined by Michael's heartbroken (and possibly fugitive) downstairs neighbor Brenda, the duo's race from imminent death both threatens and fuels their reconciliation. The violence, twists and even the philosophy of Mark O'Rowe's cracker-jack screenplay explode and illuminate one scene after another, sharpened to raw, laugh-out-loud set pieces by sophomore director Ian FitzGibbon. All its characters need is one flash of luck that always seems just around the corner; here's hoping whatever eludes them finds its way to you in the way of an American deal -- and soon.
Murphy sat down with Movieline today to discuss the pleasures of pitch-black comedy, working with his heroes, and how one gets "movie-fit."
more »
When browsing the program for this year's Toronto International Film Festival -- the 34th edition of which opens Thursday night -- one name pops up unusually often. Or at least four films at one fest might seem unusual for the majority of actors, filmmakers and other talent on the scene. But not so much for Willem Dafoe, the durable stage and screen figure whose notorious Cannes alum Antichrist joins Werner Herzog's My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done, the indie vampire thriller Daybreakers, and the Cold War-era drama L'Affaire Farewell to unspool within the next 10 days up north. If only Wes Anderson had The Fantastic Mr. Fox ready for early fall, Dafoe could have made it an even five.
But his Canadian itinerary should keep him busy enough for now. Movieline laced up its running shoes last week for a chat with the veteran actor about the outlook for Toronto, his role-selecting process, the appeal of maverick filmmakers, and how and when he takes vacations.
more »
Through the '90s, the Phoenix-born, Tulsa-raised Amber Valletta was the essence of the term "supermodel," one of a handful of striking beauties to inherit the title from the Linda/Cindy/Naomi generation who defined it. With a face that could radiate everything from Grace Kelly throwback glamour to an almost android-like futurism, Valletta helped sell the illusion for labels like Louis Vuitton, Calvin Klein and Versace. She then moved into TV hosting work (with friend and fellow supermodel Shalom Harlow on MTV's House of Style) and eventually began to land film work. Living now in Los Angeles with her volleyball champion husband Chip McCaw and their son, Valletta struts back onto screens today starring opposite Gerard Butler in Gamer, a mind-control video game thriller from gonzo filmmakers Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor. We talked to Valletta about it, in a conversation that at times became hampered by the hectic, easily distractable life of a modern model, mom and movie star.
more »
Dustin Milligan's role in Mike Judge's comedy Extract couldn't be coming along at a better time for the 24-year-old actor. After a season of playing male lead Ethan on the teen soap 90210, Milligan was ultimately let go in May amidst creative retooling. Now, though, as the dunderheaded male gigolo who comes between Jason Bateman and his wife Kristen Wiig in Extract, Milligan finally gets to show off his comic abilities in a way 90210 never let him.
Milligan spoke to Movieline about his thoughts on leaving 90210 (don't worry, we definitely brought up that picture) and his eagerness to leave his teen idol image behind in favor of becoming a comic scene-stealer.
more »
Production designer John Myhre has two Academy Awards on his (undoubtedly stylish) mantle, both earned for his sumptuous work on Rob Marshall's previous films -- 2002's Chicago and 2005's Memoirs of a Geisha. In the years that followed, he'd envision the sparkling '60s showcases of Bill Condon's Dreamgirls, and the cubicle farms and baroque hitman lairs of Timur Bekmambetov's Wanted. Though it's not due in theaters until the holidays, the accolades have already begun to trickle in for Nine, the all-star Broadway musical adaptation that reunites production designer with the director who twice guided him to gold. We spoke with Myhre shortly after he was named Production Designer of the Year by the Behind the Camera Awards.
more »
Mitch McCabe realized when she was young that aging horrified her, and as she grew older, she resorted to expensive facial salves and chemical hair-coloring treatments to reduce the signs of natural evolution.
more »
Rob Zombie's 2007 remake of Halloween became a surprise hit, taking in $60 million at the box office and reinvigorating a stale franchise with a unique spin that explored the childhood origins of the Man in the Shatner Mask. Its sequel, Halloween II, opens today on 3,000 screens, and marks the fourth feature-film outing for the Grammy-winning metal maestro-turned-director. In a recent conversation with Movieline, Zombie talked about the nightmare of making the first Halloween and his hesitation in coming back for seconds: Pity the horror auteur contractually obligated to carve up a nubile teen once per reel, when all he really wants to do is get inside her head.
more »
Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock is as much a confluence of chance, mood and timing as it is an actual movie, one of those meant-to-be phenomena not so unlike the historic concert cited in its title. It started with Lee running into Elliot Tiber, the man whose Catskills motel served as ground zero for Woodstock's planners in the weeks leading up to Aug. 15, 1969; nearly 40 years later, Tiber was promoting his memoir on the same Bay Area television show where Lee was pushing his 2007 film Lust, Caution. Their introduction resulted in an adaptation by Lee's long-time collaborator James Schamus, who soon suggested comic Demetri Martin as a leading man.
more »
When director Rob Zombie debuted his rebooted Halloween in 2007, one of its most daring gambits was to delay the introduction of series heroine Laurie Strode until deep into the movie, instead focusing on the development of villain Michael Myers. However, in Halloween II (opening this Friday), the troubled, victimized Laurie finally comes to the fore, which is welcome news for her portrayer, actress Scout Taylor-Compton.
Movieline talked to Taylor-Compton about the controversy surrounding Zombie's take on the franchise, her daring new spin on Laurie, and her upcoming role as Lita Ford in the upcoming music biopic The Runaways (starring Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning).
more »
The first thing you heard about Big Fan after its premiere at this year's Sundance Film Festival was that its star, veteran comedian Patton Oswalt, was terrific. The second thing you heard was that he wasn't remotely funny. Mission accomplished, though: Those were precisely the dynamics screenwriter Rob Siegel (The Wrestler) sought in his directorial debut about Paul Aufiero (Oswalt), a parking attendant and sports-radio regular whose obsession with the New York Giants leads to a chain of misjudgments, misfortunes and turmoil for him, his famliy and the team itself.
It's a squirmy, often unpleasant and yet revelatory sit, for both Oswalt's disappearance in character and Siegel's continued, unflinching study of working-class obsessives. Oswalt talked to Movieline this week about Big Fan (which opens Aug. 28), giving comedy a rest, and his forthcoming work with "fucking pro" Steven Soderbergh.
more »
George Hamilton may have seemed like the movie star who has everything: A half-century show business tenure, worshipful fans and the most famous tan in Hollywood. But there was one thing eluding him: A biopic. This week's period dramedy My One and Only takes care of that, featuring breakout star Logan Lerman as young George Deveraux, a wisecracking 15-going-on-40-year-old who joins his mother (Renee Zellweger) and older brother (Mark Rendall) on a cross-country journey away from his philandering bandleader father (Kevin Bacon).
Movieline caught up with Hamilton this week to talk about the peaks and perils of fame, his otherworldy glow, what Twilight taught him about teen girls, and why Quentin Tarantino has him all wrong.
more »
As we told you yesterday in our review, though Brad Pitt gives Inglourious Basterds its marquee value, Mélanie Laurent provides its heart and soul. It falls to the 26-year-old French actress to anchor some of the World War II film's most challenging scenes as Shosanna, the Parisian theater owner who's seen her entire family slaughtered by Nazi Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) and seizes the opportunity to lure the S.S. into her theater for murderous revenge.
Though cool and collected on screen, in person Laurent (pictured above in an exclusive still from Basterds) is all impish charm, suggesting a younger, delightfully bratty variation on Marion Cotillard. As she folded her legs beneath her and smoked a slim cigarette, Movieline asked Laurent to elaborate on all things Basterds, including the unconventional demands made on her by Quentin Tarantino, her relationship with onscreen suitor Daniel Brühl, and the Shosanna scenes that Laurent found pivotal, yet ended up on the cutting room floor.
more »
To hear him tell it, even Bobcat Goldthwait probably wouldn't have bet on going two-for-two with his recent renaissance as an independent filmmaker. Not that he doesn't have faith in his work -- which has made sizable strides since his 1991 cult classic Shakes the Clown -- or that he nurses a false-modesty streak. Anything but. Instead, the man best known as a growling, yelping '80s comedy icon didn't anticipate that his squirmy blend of pathos and pitch-black humor might find an audience at the Sundance Film Festival (twice), or that his long relationship with Robin Williams might culminate in this week's sensational World's Greatest Dad.
more »
