Forget the brawny gods of Asgard; as Darcy, the sardonic college intern to Natalie Portman's frazzled-but-gorgeous astrophysicist in Thor, Kat Dennings has the weight of the film resting on her shoulders. Her snappy one-liners bring the comic book adventure down to Earth, grounding the high-flying tale of a super-powered cosmic prince (Chris Hemsworth) with a real world skepticism that reflects that of the audience.
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What better way to kick off the summer than with the hero whose mighty hammer is set to swing down and launch the biggest movie season of the year? Movieline spoke with Thor himself, Chris Hemsworth -- Australian actor, costume-ripper, and onetime Verge designee -- about his career-changing turn as Marvel Studios' God of Thunder, how he's currently preparing to resume the role in Joss Whedon's upcoming Avengers film -- or films -- and more. By Odin's beard, dive in!
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With only two weeks to go until the epic fantasy adventure Thor barrels into theaters to ring in the summer movie season, Paramount/Marvel Studios have unleashed an array of new images for your perusal. Among them, closer looks at Asgard's finest gods and goddesses, including Rene Russo as Frigga and Jaimie Alexander as Thor's childhood gal pal, Sif. After the jump, dive into the gallery for over 35 images from Thor -- including, ahem, a full shot of Chris Hemsworth sans shirt. Who needs shirts, anyway? Shirts are for puny humans!
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In this week's Hanna, 16-year-old knife enthusiast Saoirse Ronan joins the illustrious ranks of the lethal young women who've taken up arms (or fangs, or machine gun-arms) in the movies in the name of raining down righteous fury upon their enemies. Whether raised as assassins or transformed by tragic circumstance, these ten adolescent girls and teens don't take crap from anyone -- and they have the combined body count to prove it. If you run into any of these fierce misses in a darkened alley, let's hope they're on your side.
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Movieline didn't set out to discuss the finer points of creature genitalia at length with award-winning director David Gordon Green, but standing opposite the filmmaker and a plate of cookies at the tail end of his Your Highness press day, all bets were off. Possessed of a laser focus and a restless energy, Green has carved an eclectic career path for himself ranging from sensitive dramas (George Washington, All the Real Girls) to raunchy comedy (HBO's Eastbound & Down, Pineapple Express). Featuring pedophile gags, stoner jokes, ridiculous medieval accents and the aforementioned Minotaur schlong, Your Highness -- co-written by friend and star Danny McBride -- is decidedly not one of those highbrow affairs.
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It was with no small amount of eagerness that Movieline ventured to the Magic Castle in Los Angeles to meet with screen veteran Barbara Hershey and discuss her work in Insidious, her second horror film in the last four months, following December's Black Swan. There, ensconced in a room in the famed nightclub -- a place purposefully shrouded in mystery -- conversation turned from the James Wan-directed tale to the paranormal and beyond thanks to a series of eerie mystery noises that, fittingly enough, evoked the thrills and scares found in the haunted house chiller.
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Fans of Dario Argento's cult 1977 thriller Suspiria who are a bit wary of the upcoming Natalie Portman-starring remake, take note: Writer-director David Gordon Green would like to put your minds at ease. Catching up with Movieline while discussing his new stoner comedy Your Highness, the versatile filmmaker emphasized a commitment to faithfulness and shared plans to recreate specific scenes and dialogue from the original. Most exciting of all? He's got the rights to the original Suspiria score by prog-rock band Goblin -- and he intends to use it.
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Another day, another Natalie Portman authenticity scandal. But this one isn't about how much dancing the Oscar-winner did or didn't do in Black Swan; it's of even more significance, to a certain segment of the movie-going audience: Did Portman use a butt double in her upcoming medieval comedy, Your Highness?
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Backstage at the Spirit Awards Saturday afternoon, Darren Aronofsky was in a jaunty mood. And why not? With Black Swan's two biggest Oscar rivals, The Social Network and The King's Speech, absent from competition at the penultimate awards show of the year (TSN excluded by budget, TKS relegated to the foreign film category), the night belonged to Aronofsky's stylish psychological ballet thriller. So after Black Swan took home Best Cinematography (Matthew Libatique), Best Actress (Natalie Portman), Best Director, and Best Feature, Aronofsky took to the winners' room to have some fun with the press.
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Yes, yes. The King's Speech will win, and no matter how hard we try to tell ourselves any other film has a chance in hell, its abiding safeness will triumph Sunday night. But I'd like to think the Academy will spread the love around -- a win for The Social Network here, a Natalie Portman winner's guffaw there, and some gold for Hailee Steinfeld. Hope she brings her blingitude for the big night.
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Can we all agree that the Thor marketing materials thus far have been a little less than thrilling? Good. Because now we really have something to look forward to from the Kenneth Branagh-directed Marvel actioner -- an epic-scale tent pole set on two worlds with a sense of humor about itself, lots of swirling, hammer-smashing action, fantastical villains and creatures to ogle, and the acknowledged fetishizing of Chris Hemsworth's abs.
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Natalie Portman's approach to acting demands that she wears her heart on her sleeve so explicitly, the heart becomes the whole garment -- a crimson chemise with streaks of blue veins running across it. So writer-director Don Roos casting her in his new film, The Other Woman, sounds subversive, given that his career includes The Opposite of Sex and other mocking takes on melodrama; he's Pedro Almodovar with low blood pressure. You might suppose Roos would find a way to comment on her moist-eyed vivacity. (You'd be hard-pressed to find another actress with such natural camera rapport who still commits so fervently; she makes the contestants on American Idol seem like Dick Cheney.)
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First-time screenwriter Elizabeth Meriwether had already earned fans among the New York art-kid scene with plays like Heddatron (Hedda Gabler meets - what else? - robots), but it was a television pilot entitled Sluts that got her on the fast track to a Hollywood screenwriting career. Sluts didn't get picked up, but it did bring her to the attention of filmmaker Ivan Reitman, who threw out an idea for her to expand into a script. The resulting F*ckbuddies hit the Black List and turned into last weekend's box office topper No Strings Attached -- not a bad way to make your Hollywood screenwriting debut.
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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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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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