The Moviefone Blog http://news.moviefone.com The Moviefone Blog is the place for movie lists, trailers, trivia, interviews and features on movies out in theaters and coming soon. http://news.moviefone.com/media/feedlogo.gif The Moviefone Blog http://news.moviefone.com en-us Copyright 2013 Blogsmith, LLC. The contents of this headlines and excerpts feed are available for limited commercial distribution. You may repost this feed to your site provided you link back to the original story, do not edit the material, and do not remove this copyright notice. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/ <![CDATA[Keanu Reeves On 'Side By Side,' His Directorial Debut & 'Point Break']]> 20590960 Keanu Reeves appears in one of the best movies of the summer -- but unlike "The Matrix" franchise, this one likely isn't coming to a theater near you.

Called "Side by Side," the limited-released documentary -- which debuts in Los Angeles on Aug. 17 before a nationwide VOD release on Aug. 22 and further theatrical expansion to come -- explains via interviews with directors like James Cameron and Christopher Nolan the pros and cons of both photochemical and digital film techniques. Reeves produced the film and conducted the interviews, gaining unprecedented access to some of the most respected craftspeople in the history of filmmaking; beyond Cameron and Nolan, award-winning below-the-line specialists like Anne V. Coates (editor of "Lawrence of Arabia") and Michael Ballhaus (cinematographer of "Goodfellas") also make appearances.

"Side by Side" came at a perfect time for Reeves, who just recently finished filming his directorial debut, "Man of Tai Chi." The erstwhile Neo has kept a low profile onscreen in recent years, but with "Side by Side," "Man of Tai Chi" and the upcoming "47 Ronin" on the horizon, Reeves is on the comeback trail. (There's also the long-rumored "Bill & Ted 3," which took another step toward existence earlier this month when a director was reportedly hired.)

An enthusiastic Reeves spoke with HuffPost Entertainment about "Side by Side," whether audiences actually care about the difference between film and digital and which of his past films was just "good, clean fun."

In the press notes, you mention that Anthony Dod Mantle winning the Best Cinematography Oscar at the 2009 Academy Awards -- the first digital film to earn that honor -- was the impetus for "Side By Side." But did you have interest in the behind-the-scenes machinations of filmmaking before that? I was always interested in how movies get made: Working as an actor, starting with the camera, lens, lighting, et cetera. But I was working on a film in the fall of 2010 and in the process I was seeing that traditional movie making was changing. To me, it was the camera. Digital cameras were really being used more and more. I was like, "Is this the end of film?" I was interested in this question and I approached Chris Kenneally, who ended up being the director of the film, to see if he wanted to go on this expedition to find out where we came from with traditional filmmaking, where are we today, and where we'll go in the future.

The film does a great job of balancing both sides of the issue, but where do you stand? Digital or film? I would say that I was more the photochemical side when we started the documentary and Chris was more of the digital. I was thinking, "What are we losing if film goes away?" And he was like, "What are we gaining with the digital?" So we were side by side, and I think that comes across in the film. Over the course of making the film, I learned so much, and I kind of land where Michael Ballhaus [lands]: If you do something with your heart and passion, it doesn't matter what [format] you use.

You talk to a lot of big-time directors in this film -- David Fincher, Martin Scorsese, even the Wachowski siblings. How difficult was it to get everyone to cooperate? We just reached out. When we first started, no one knew what we were doing. We pretty much started at a film festival in Poland called Plus Camerimage. We started interviewing cinematographers. That started to get word on the street. But, beyond that, the story led us. An example would be Anthony Do Mantle. A film he worked on was the Dogme 95 film called "Celebration." He ended up working with Danny Boyle on "28 Days Later" and "Slumdog Millionaire." We followed the story. If you're talking about early editing, you've got to talk with George Lucas, who started with the edit droid. I had worked with Anne V. Coates, and she had edited "Lawrence of Arabia," but she also digitally edited films I had worked on. It was great to speak with her because she was steeped in traditional filmmaking, but also this new digital aspect. We would just reach out and hope people would talk to us.

Were there people you couldn't get that you really wanted? Yes, of course! But let's not dwell on the past and the heartache!

Two of the biggest films of the year are "The Dark Knight Rises" and "The Hunger Games," and both were shot on film. Do you think audiences actually care about the difference between the capture methods? I don't know. I think it's a case by case thing. Once that turns into a bell curve, I don't know what that looks like. Certainly, digital images have improved over the last few years. You need the right circumstances for both ways of exhibiting. If the projector sucks for digital, it's not going to look as good. If the projector is not set up right for film, it's not going to look great. Whether or not people care or not, I don't know. I hope our documentary deepens the appreciation for what you're looking at and experiencing.

Are you surprised filmmakers are still pushing 3D, when often times the images are still dark and compromised? We're talking about different levels of execution. You can have bad looking films. You can have bad looking 3D. But James Cameron dealt with the light issues; he made a brighter movie [with "Avatar"]. Martin Scorsese and Robert Richardson really paid attention to that image [in "Hugo"] in the way that they could. But then there's also some less successful 3D films. [Laughs] Cameron talks about how the novelty of 3D is this a cash opportunity. There are certain moments where 3D is a miracle; it's beautiful. Then, sometimes, it gives you a headache. It's not as developed. We've been making 3D films for a long time, but the cinema language of 3D, and the digital technology, is immature. When you get it into the hands of a storytelling master like Cameron or Scorsese, they do something better with it. They know what they're doing! [Laughs] They know how to tell a story.

As an actor, do you prefer working on movies that are shot on film or shot digitally? Film, to me -- I grew up in it -- is the gold standard. To make a movie was to shoot 35mm and to make a movie. That's changed. I don't feel that way anymore. Certainly in the early days, to go on a digital set was very different from a photochemical set; the capture medium, if it was film, was shorter than the digital medium. The rhythm of the floor changed. I can't say if it was better or worse, but I miss, sometimes, the event and romance of photochemical film.

You just directed your first movie, "Man of Tai Chi." Did you shoot it with photochemical film? I shot digitally.

Why? Ultimately, because it was the right look for me. Ultimately. In the beginning, I was expecting and hoping to shoot on film. But practically, because I was shooting in mainland China and the film industry there is not as established, there were some quality control issues. Digital made more sense for the production. I tested a few cameras and looks and I landed on something great. I'm happy with it.

How much did making this documentary help you in the process of directing? Yeah, I would say absolutely that the experience making the documentary definitely informed and educated me in knowing a little more about what I had to do. [There was] familiarity with what it meant for digital workflow and how to look at the images; a comfort with the set, with the digital technicians. It definitely helped make the forest I was going into a little more known.

You hired Elliot Davis as cinematographer for "Man of Tai Chi" and he's done some great work in the past -- even shooting "Out of Sight" for Steven Soderbergh, which is an anomaly since Soderbergh often shoots his own films. Why did you hire him? When I was looking for a cinematographer, his work kept coming up. It was the emotion he captures in the camera in his work with Catherine Hardwicke on "Twilight" and "Lords of Dogtown"; the beauty of his images. "Out of Sight" is a very stylish film, too. His framing is always tasteful. He has an immediacy with his cinematography. Even in a film like "Twilight," there's an intimacy in that lens and with the world he creates. And, you know, we got along. He was gracious enough to meet with me and take a chance to make a Chinese kung-fu movie.

You haven't acted in very many films during the past five years. Is that a matter of the roles not being right or you being picky? It's a mixture of all of those things. In the past couple of years I got to work on "Henry's Crime" and "47 Ronin"; I played a villain in this film I just did. Yeah, it's been harder. It's harder to get films off the ground. It's harder to get roles. So, I guess it's just been my lot in life. But I'm working on it!

You talked with all those directors, did you think of maybe slipping them a headshot? [Laughs.] Right? "If you enjoyed speaking with me, I can act. Would you maybe think about putting me in your next film?" I don't know. Any little bit helps.

When you were working with Kathryn Bigelow on "Point Break" did you have any idea that she'd become Kathryn Bigelow? When Kathryn and I got a chance to work together, I knew she was special. What she wanted from the cinema. The storytelling. How she worked. She's really talented and great. I was really lucky to have the chance to work with her. That film was part of changing my life. It's a good, clean, fun movie!

For more on "Side By Side," head over to the film's website.

]]> 2012-08-14T08:53:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/08/14/keanu-reeves-side-by-side/ <![CDATA['Hunger Games': Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson And Elizabeth Banks Unscripted Interview (VIDEO)]]> 20591688 Judging from the fact that "The Hunger Games" earned a record-breaking $155 million over the weekend, it goes to reason to assume that you've seen the blockbuster franchise starter at least once. Maybe even twice. Yet! Hopefully you're not too "Hunger Games'd" out at this point, because Moviefone has a special treat for you: the full "Hunger Games" Unscripted interview with Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Elizabeth Banks.

The stars sat down with each other for a wide-ranging talk on everything from Capitol accents to cake balls and everything in between. It was fun! And it'll make you lurve the charming trio even more than you did in "The Hunger Games."

For more on "The Hunger Games," click here. ]]> 2012-03-26T08:15:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/03/26/hunger-games-jennifer-lawrence-unscripted/ <![CDATA['Breaking Dawn Part 2' Teaser Trailer: Bella's Finally Found A Way To Shine (VIDEO)]]> 20591690 If 15 seconds of "Breaking Dawn Part 2" weren't enough to quench your thirst for all things "Twilight," perhaps the full 48-second teaser trailer will do the trick. The clip premiered in front of "The Hunger Games" over the weekend -- likely to equal amounts of squeals and groans in your packed theater -- and shows where things stand at the beginning of the "Twilight" finale: Bella's a vampire, and harmless deers better watch out.

What else to cull(en) from this short tease? Not much! But apparently becoming a member of the undead allows even the most closed-off teenage girl to realize her inner beauty. "After 18 years of being utterly ordinary, I finally found that I can shine," says Bella. See: it does get better.

"The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2" arrives in theaters on Nov. 16. ]]> 2012-03-26T07:46:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/03/26/breaking-dawn-part-2-teaser-trailer/ <![CDATA['That Is Mahogany!' Jennifer Lawrence Does Her Best Effie Trinket Impression (VIDEO)]]> 20591693 "You just have to get really guttural. The back of the throat." That's "Hunger Games" star Jennifer Lawrence's advice on how to sound like Effie Trinket.

In the blockbuster new film, Elizabeth Banks stars as the peppy Capitol representative for District 12, and the actress said she worked very hard on perfecting her accent. "It honestly happened on the first day," Banks said during Moviefone's special "Hunger Games" Unscripted session. "I started talking at the Reaping, and I heard myself projected out." The rest is history, and Banks-as-Effie provides "The Hunger Games" with some of its more amusing moments.

Above, watch Lawrence impersonate one one of Effie's signature lines, and learn which "Good Wife" star Banks tried to sound like in one of her early voice tests.

For more on "The Hunger Games," click here.

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]]> 2012-03-25T09:00:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/03/25/that-is-mahogany-hunger-games/ <![CDATA[Elizabeth Banks: 'Hunger Games' Haters Should Relax (VIDEO)]]> 20591707 Not everyone loves "The Hunger Games." For Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Elizabeth Banks, that might seem like a problem, but Banks is here to set the record straight.

"[People ask] 'Are you worried about the haters, these people that don't like us?'" Banks said during Moviefone's special "Hunger Games" unscripted session. "I feel like all of us have to be like, 'We committed.' Suzanne Collins wrote the book, and she's happy. So we're happy."

Or as Josh Hutcherson responded: "Haters gonna hate."

Watch the clip above to find out more -- including what Banks thought when she was cast as Effie Trinkett -- and head here for all things "Hunger Games."

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]]> 2012-03-23T13:38:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/03/23/elizabeth-banks-hunger-games/ <![CDATA[Jennifer Lawrence 'House At The End Of The Street' Photo: 'Hunger Games' Star Makes Horror Film]]> 20591706 In "The Hunger Games," nobody who knows better would mess with Jennifer Lawrence's ultra-survivor Katniss Everdeen, but in her upcoming horror thriller "House at the End of the Street," the 21-year-old actress stars as someone a lot more vulnerable -- though just as threatened. ]]> 2012-03-23T13:38:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/03/23/jennifer-lawrence-house-at-the-end-of-the-street/ <![CDATA['Hunger Games' Midnight Screenings: Box Office Could Reach $30 Million [UPDATE]]]> 20591709 Not that you're surprised, but the odds are definitely in favor of Lionsgate and the team behind "The Hunger Games." The $78 million-budget adaptation of Suzanne Collins's best-selling YA novel earned at least $25 million from its midnight screenings on early Friday morning, and that number could hit $30 million by the time receipts are counted later today.

UPDATE: According to Lionsgate, "The Hunger Games" earned $19.7 million from its midnight screenings, the seventh biggest debut in reported box-office history. In addition to that, "The Hunger Games" becomes the highest grossing non-sequel to ever premiere at midnight, and -- wait for it -- "the highest IMAX non-summer, non-holiday, 2D opening of all time."

The original story continues below.

That would put "Hunger Games" in the same economic bracket "Breaking Dawn Part 1" occupied last November; the first installment of the "Twilight" finale grossed $30.25 from its midnight screenings, a franchise record. ("Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2" owns the overall midnight screening record, with $43.5 million in night-owl ticket sales.)

Whether "The Hunger Games" can reach the $138.1 million opening weekend that "Breaking Dawn Part 1" did remains to be seen, though it does have much better reviews than any "Twilight" installment. ("The Hunger Games" currently holds an 87 percent Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.) According to Variety, the film is expected to earn somewhere between $120-125 million.

[via Variety]

PHOTOS: "Hunger Games" Reviews

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]]> 2012-03-23T08:24:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/03/23/hunger-games-midnight-screenings-box-office/ <![CDATA['The Host' Trailer: Stephenie Meyer's Other YA Book Gets Big-Screen Adaptation]]> 20591714 Because "The Hunger Games" and "Twilight" haven't sated your need for YA movie adaptations, here comes "The Host," a big-screen take on "Twilight" author Stephenie Meyer's other best-seller.

Starring Saoirse Ronan ("The Lovely Bones"), "The Host" leaves werewolves and vampires behind for aliens. There's still a love triangle, natch, but this one is a bit more tricky than Edward-Bella-Jacob: after an alien race invades Earth and takes over the minds of the population, a young girl (Ronan) and her alien puppet-master fall in love with different suitors (Max Irons and Jake Abel). Complicated, said Avril Lavigne.

The teaser keeps things simple, focusing on the alien-invaders aspect with some scary eyeball photography, while Ronan -- who perfected sullen young evil in "Atonement" -- looks appropriately dour. Between this and the new teaser for "Breaking Dawn Part 2," here's guessing there will be a lot of squealing before your screening of "The Hunger Games" this weekend. ]]> 2012-03-22T18:57:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/03/22/the-host-trailer-stephenie-meyer/ <![CDATA[Peeta Camouflage Scene: Josh Hutcherson Reveals Most Difficult 'Hunger Games' Moment (VIDEO)]]> 20591718 Everyone on Team Peeta knows that the selfless District 12 tribute is a wizard when it comes to frosting, but making "The Hunger Games" wasn't a piece of cake for Josh Hutcherson. (Yep, went there.)

"That makeup was really intense," Hutcherson said during Moviefone's special "Hunger Games" Unscripted. "I had to lay there for an hour-and-a-half without moving. And humans don't not move for an hour-and-a-half."

Of course, for Hutcherson, it was all part of the experience of making "The Hunger Games" as real as possible for fans. Watch the video above for more on the killer scene -- it even included snakes! -- and click here for all things "Hunger Games."

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]]> 2012-03-22T17:45:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/03/22/peeta-camouflage-scene-josh-hutcherson/ <![CDATA['Hangover 3' Release Date: Comedy Threequel Scheduled For Memorial Day 2013]]> 20591722 Asked about the prospect of a third "Hangover" film last week, star Ed Helms seemed to temper expectations. "It's not official, but I'm hopeful that happens," he told Vulture. "It's certainly been talked about a lot. It's just not a greenlit project at this point." About that: Warner Bros. has scheduled "The Hangover 3" for release on May 24, 2013. Greenlights are so 2011.

Warner Bros. has been angling to make the film a priority since "The Hangover Part II" earned $581 million worldwide after its release in 2010. Of course, whether the third film in the series would be as profitable as the second remains to be seen; the cast reportedly wants $15 million in salary to return.

After tackling Las Vegas (in the superior first film) and Thailand (in the not superior second film), the Wolf Pack could stick to Los Angeles for part three. Helms, Bradley Cooper and Zach Galifianakis are all signed on.

"We're going to surprise a lot of people with the final chapter we have planned," director Todd Phillips said in a statement. "It will be a fitting conclusion to our three-part opera of mayhem, despair and bad decisions."

Universal currently has "Fast Six" -- the sequel to the equally high-grossing "Fast Five" -- scheduled for Memorial Day 2013 as well, setting up quite the potential box-office battle between the two popular franchises.

[via Box Office Mojo] ]]> 2012-03-22T16:11:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/03/22/hangover-3-release-date/ <![CDATA[Jennifer Lawrence Body: Too 'Womanly' To Play Katniss In Hunger Games?]]> 20591723 When exhausting Internet curmudgeon Jeffrey Wells wrote that "certain female critics" may be "susceptible" to giving "The Hunger Games" a favorable review, he apparently wasn't referring to Manhola Dargis. The venerable New York Times critic gave the new film a negative review, while also calling into question whether star Jennifer Lawrence was gaunt enough to play the half-starved heroine, Katniss Everdeen.

"A few years ago Ms. Lawrence might have looked hungry enough to play Katniss," wrote Dargis, "but now, at 20, her seductive, womanly figure makes a bad fit for a dystopian fantasy about a people starved into submission."

Salon.com television critic Willa Paskin took some offense to Dargis's remark.

"I know 'Hunger Games' is about starving children," Paskin wrote on Twitter, "but given the universe we live in maybe [Manhola] Dargis could not call [Lawrence] fat."

In addition to Dargis, the Hollywood Reporter's Todd McCarthy called out Lawrence's "lingering baby fat."

Lawrence herself has been quoted as being quite happy with her figure. "[I'm] so sick of these young girls with diets," she told Seventeen earlier this year. "I think it's really important for girls to have people to look up to and to feel good about themselves."

When Lawrence was cast as Katniss, some fans were wary of her shape on various "Hunger Games" fan message boards, but there were plenty of readers who lept to her defense.

"Whenever I see people complain about [Lawrence] being curvy all I want to do is slap them with my slipper and say 'WTF...are you BLIND!??'" wrote one fan last year. "Jen's got a really nice body and I don't understand why people can't accept it."

As New York pointed out recently, critics have spared "Hunger Games" stars Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth from the "too healthy to be hungry" criticism, despite the pair's "requisite buff young actor frames."

"The Hunger Games," which made a jaw-dropping $155 million at the box office last weekend, is in theaters now. For more on the film, click here.

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]]> 2012-03-22T14:41:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/03/22/jennifer-lawrence-body-hunger-games/ <![CDATA[Box Office Bombs: 'John Carter,' 'Pluto Nash,' 'Heaven's Gate' And More (PHOTOS)]]> 20591740 Maybe Disney should forget Mars altogether. Almost one year to the day that the studio released the high-budgeted "Mars Needs Moms" to some terrible box-office returns, the Mars-set "John Carter" landed with similarly dire results. The Andrew Stanton film, which cost $250 million to produce, could lose Disney as much as $200 million. Of course, the Mouse House isn't the first studio to weather the fallout from a red-ink spewing bust; ahead, 12 other infamous box-office misfires.

[Figures via Box Office Mojo and Wikipedia]

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]]> 2012-03-21T15:18:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/03/21/box-office-bombs/ <![CDATA['Jeff, Who Lives At Home' Clip: Ed Helms Digs Through A Dumpster (VIDEO)]]> 20591746 If you don't plan on seeing "The Hunger Games" this weekend, there's some good news: you could see the well-received indie film "Jeff, Who Lives At Home." Released last week, the latest feature from Mark and Jay Duplass stars Jason Segel and Ed Helms as Jeff and Pat, a pair of estranged brothers who go on a journey, in part, to find out who Pat's wife is having an affair with.

In the clip above, Helms's Pat goes dumpster diving in the hopes of finding the other man's credit card receipt. As you'll see, it doesn't necessarily go all that well.

"Jeff, Who Lives At Home" is in theaters now. ]]> 2012-03-21T11:26:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/03/21/jeff-who-lives-at-home-clip/ <![CDATA[Katniss Everdeen: Jennifer Lawrence Never Pictured Herself As 'Hunger Games' Heroine (VIDEO)]]> 20591749 So, when Jennifer Lawrence was reading "The Hunger Games," who did she imagine playing Katniss Everdeen? Hint: not herself!

"I pictured [her] as another face, with a braid," she said during Moviefone's special "Hunger Games" edition of Unscripted. The ever-modest actress has said repeatedly that she didn't even think about playing Katniss in a movie version of Suzanne Collins's best-selling YA book. "That would be slightly narcissistic, anyway," she told Moviefone earlier.

While Lawrence wasn't in a Katniss frame of mind, the same can't be said for her co-star, Josh Hutcherson. Find out who he thought should play Katniss while reading the books in the video above.

Check back to Moviefone all week for more on "The Hunger Games"; for all your "Hunger Games" needs, click here.

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]]> 2012-03-21T08:01:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/03/21/katniss-everdeen-jennifer-lawrence/ <![CDATA['Madagascar 3' Trailer: Noah Baumbach Wrote This (VIDEO)]]> 20591754 Auteurs gotta eat! The new trailer for "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted" arrived online this afternoon, providing another reminder that Noah Baumbach wrote this one. Yep, the Noah Baumbach who penned heady indies like "Kicking and Screaming," "The Squid and The Whale" and "Greenberg." (Not "Margot at the Wedding," because that thing is poison.)

"Madagascar 3" focuses on Alex (voiced by Ben Stiller), Marty (voiced by Chris Rock), Gloria (voiced by Jada Pinkett Smith) and Melman (voiced by David Schwimmer), and their attempts to get back to New York by traveling with a circus. LMAFO-scored hijinks ensue ("Only penguins and people can drive!"), which will certainly make the kiddies happy. Here's hoping, "Europe's Most Wanted" also features something about Brooklyn hipsters, angry literati, and Pink Floyd. ]]> 2012-03-20T17:46:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/03/20/madagascar-3-trailer-noah-baumbach/ <![CDATA['Iron Lady' Russian Translation: Meryl Streep Movie Gets Pirated In Russia With New Dialogue]]> 20591755 If Margaret Thatcher's family had a problem with "The Iron Lady," you can only imagine how they'll feel about a pirated Russian translation of the film, which compares Thatcher to Adolf Hitler.

According to The Guardian, a pirated version of "The Iron Lady" in Russia features some very inflammatory -- and intentionally misleading -- translations, including one part where Thatcher is presented as "a bloodthirsty, Hitler-admiring leader, whose fondest desire is to destroy the working class."

That might sound outlandish, but it reportedly fooled one Russian film critic, who still gave the film a positive review.

Despite winning two Oscars at the 84th annual Academy Awards last month, "The Iron Lady" has been under fire by critics from the start. Even the trailer was criticized, because some felt it painted Thatcher as "over-emotional."

"Not one of those people have seen it," director Phyllida Lloyd said to THR last year. "It's very far from a biopic. You're only seeing some fragments of her political career and life from how it might have been, not how it was."

Streep won her third Oscar for playing Thatcher; the film also received an Oscar for Best Makeup. "The Iron Lady," which arrives on DVD and Blu-ray on April 10, has earned $95 million around the globe, including just over $649,000 since opening in Russia earlier this month.

[via The Guardian] ]]> 2012-03-20T15:55:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/03/20/iron-lady-russian-translation/ <![CDATA[Jennifer Lawrence, 'Hunger Games' Star: We're 'Numbed To Trauma' (VIDEO)]]> 20591757 Jennifer Lawrence takes her role as Katniss Everdeen in "The Hunger Games" very seriously. "It's something I want to talk about," she told Moviefone. "I want people to see, and I'm proud to put my name to it."

Based on the best-selling book series by Suzanne Collins, "The Hunger Games" imagines a dystopian world where 24 children are chosen from the districts of Panem and forced to fight to the death for entertainment purposes. Does Lawrence think something like that could happen in the future?

"Humanity is becoming dulled to itself," she said. "We can watch people die on TV; we can watch a snowboarder fall off a mountain and die. We watch it as entertainment. The world is obsessed with reality television, and in a world where history repeats itself, it's plausible, really, that our world could get there."

Well, then! Fingers crossed, we don't -- especially if "The Hunger Games" has that same impact on the millions of viewers who see it this weekend and beyond. As part of Moviefone's Unscripted, Lawrence revealed what she hopes fans will take away from the film. Watch above, and check back to Moviefone for more exclusive new videos this week.

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]]> 2012-03-20T13:06:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/03/20/jennifer-lawrence-hunger-games-trauma/ <![CDATA['Breaking Dawn Part 2' Trailer Teaser: 'We're The Same Temperature Now']]> 20591761 Hope you didn't think "The Hunger Games" was the only game (sorry) in town this week: premiering in front of prints of the slam-dunk box-office smash will be the first trailer for "Breaking Dawn Part 2." It's a veritable orgy of YA obsessions, y'all!

Summit has released 15 seconds of the trailer online, and it's...well, it's 15 seconds. But! You get to hear Robert Pattinson-as-Edward Cullen utter the immediately immortal line: "We're the same temperature now." Bella's a vampire and everyone is invited.

The "Breaking Dawn Part 2" trailer will debut in front of "The Hunger Games" on Friday; the full trailer will arrive online on March 26. For now, watch these 15 seconds on loop and get excited.

The final installment of "The Twilight Saga" arrives in theaters on Nov. 16. ]]> 2012-03-20T10:44:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/03/20/breaking-dawn-part-2-trailer-teaser/ <![CDATA['Hunger Games' Clip: Katniss Says Goodbye To Gale (VIDEO)]]> 20591772 "The Hunger Games" finally arrives in theaters on Friday! If you can't wait to see what the big-screen adaptation of Suzanne Collins's best-selling book, though, here's some good news: an exclusive new clip of Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) and Gale (Liam Hemsworth) saying goodbye after the Reaping.

"I had a very strong sense when I saw 'Winter's Bone' that Jennifer Lawrence was going to be the right person," director Gary Ross told Moviefone about his casting process. "And then when I met Jen, I was even more convinced. She just sort of blew me away. So it was an easy decision."

You can get a sense of why Lawrence blew Ross away in the clip above, but don't sleep on Hemsworth; he's got just the right amount of nobility and toughness to play Gale.

"The Hunger Games" is in theaters on Friday. Check back to Moviefone all week for more on the highly anticipated film.

]]> 2012-03-19T15:59:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/03/19/hunger-games-clip-katniss-gale/ <![CDATA[Johnny Depp '21 Jump Street' Cameo: Inside The Star's Appearance In Big Screen Reboot]]> 20591780 SPOILERS AHEAD

"21 Jump Street" might seem like your typical R-rated comedy -- the "Bridesmaids"-y debut at SXSW, the Apatow-infused cast -- but the TV reboot featured one big surprise for ticket buyers this weekend: Johnny Depp, who shared jokes and bullets with Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum and original Jump Streeters Peter DeLuise and Holly Robinson Peete in the new comedy. So! How did Depp end up in "21 Jump Street," and whose idea was it to use him in a way that recalled Bill Murray's cameo "Zombieland"?

"Jonah wanted to approach Johnny Depp very early in the process," screenwriter Michael Bacall ("Scott Pilgrim vs. The World") told HuffPost Entertainment before the film's release. "It took a while, but we kinda heard through the grapevine that he might be interested in it."

He was, but with a caveat: Depp wanted his "21 Jump Street" character to have some "closure," as Bacall said, in a way that would wrap up his '80s storyline: with his death.

"It is such a funny idea," Bacall said with a laugh about the twist. "Huge credit to him for having that idea. Then we just immediately took that ball and ran with it, and wanted to take it as far as we could."

Bacall and Hill (who has a story credit on the film) made good on their word, giving Depp a "21 Jump Street" send-off worthy of "True Romance." And while Depp's appearance in the film is fairly brief, the star made an immediate impact on set.

"That was our third day on the set," co-director Phil Lord told HuffPost Entertainment last week. "Basically, on a movie set that we were supposed to be in charge, you realize how not in charge of anything you are. How crazy that can make a set. And then you realize instantly why someone like that is such a big movie star. There's no smoking on set. 'OK, no problem,' he says. [Then] he's smoking. You're like, 'Of course!' That's what makes him awesome."

Despite shrugging off the no-smoking rules, Lord said Depp was a great collaborator. "Such a creative guy. Such a genuine person, great improviser. Game. Doesn't take himself so seriously. It was like, 'I understand why he makes a kajillion dollars.' He's awesome. Everything you would hope for in a movie star, he's it."

Judging from how things end up, it's doubtful Depp will return for any sequel to "21 Jump Street." Bacall, however, said that he's got some ideas for a second part already -- and with $35 million in ticket sales over the weekend, it seems likely he'll have the chance to put them into action.

"21 Jump Street" is in theaters now. ]]> 2012-03-19T09:52:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/03/19/johnny-depp-21-jump-street-cameo/ <![CDATA['Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter' Trailer: Honest Abe Wants To Kill Them All (VIDEO)]]> 20591790 You might find the premise to "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" completely ridiculous and silly -- that being: our sixteenth president killed vampires with an axe for a living -- but don't tell that to producer Tim Burton and director Timur Bekmambetov ("Wanted"). Judging from the serious new trailer for the film, killing vampires is not to be taken lightly.

Combining aspects of "Batman Begins," "Sherlock Holmes," "The Matrix" and "Underworld," the new clip showcases a bit more plot than the initial teaser, but doesn't skimp on the action. Daniel Day-Lewis might win an Oscar for playing Lincoln later this year in Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln," but here's guessing he doesn't get to cut a vampire's head off with an axe, like "Hunter's" Benjamin Walker.

Watch the trailer above. "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" is in theaters on June 22.

[via Slashfilm] ]]> 2012-03-17T18:23:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/03/17/abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter-trailer/ <![CDATA[SXSW 2012: Mike Birbiglia On The Challenges Of Making 'Sleepwalk With Me']]> 20591791 After winning the Best Of NEXT audience award at the Sundance Film Festival in January, comedian Mike Birbiglia's "Sleepwalk With Me" was so popular at the South By Southwest Film Festival in Austin, that organizers had to turn fans away at each of its screenings last week. Too bad for them: "Sleepwalk With Me," Birbiglia's directorial debut, is a charming bit of indie dramedy that manages to combine elements of "Annie Hall," "Funny People," and even "Goodfellas" into one heartfelt story about relationships and nocturnal activity.

Based on Birbiglia's one-man, off-Broadway show -- which also spawned a book, comedy album and segment on "This American Life" -- "Sleepwalk With Me" follows Matt (Birbiglia), a struggling comic at a crossroads in life: his eight-year relationship with Abbie (Lauren Ambrose) is drifting into dead-shark territory, and his REM behavior disorder is getting more and more out of hand. Funny and filled with great character beats, "Sleepwalk With Me" is an assured debut from the 33-year-old comic, but its success didn't happen overnight.

"We ended up leaving a situation where our script was owned by a company that didn't really think it was done; that's how they described it," Birbiglia told Moviefone at SXSW. "'It's not done yet.' We're like, 'No, no, it's done.' They're like, 'No, it's not.' We were in a little bit of a stalemate, because we're the artists making it."

Birbiglia and his co-writers -- his brother, Joe, "This American Life" host Ira Glass, and stage veteran Seth Barrish -- ended up getting together with Bedrocket, a production company that the writer-director calls "extremely artist friendly." That environment allowed Birbiglia and his collaborators to flourish, but the shoot wasn't as effortless as the final product which appears onscreen.

The comic spoke to Moviefone about the ups and downs of the production, how his comedy background helped during the editing process, and why you should never say "I don't know" on a film set.

How long were you working on the screenplay? The screenplay took like two years to write. I have to say, part of the reason we ended up making it was that I was just antsy to make it. So much of my process is trial and error, so much of it is writing something in a day and often putting it on stage that night. So the Hollywood idea of like having 95 scripts in the bullpen -- I don't really want to be in the bullpen. It's just not where I want to live my life. I want to be a starting pitcher and if i throw some bad games, I'll learn from it and get better.

OK, well how do you reconcile that trial-and-error approach with directing a feature film, especially an independent one like this where you don't have the luxury of time? I made a lot of mistakes early on. The biggest thing I learned -- and, whenever I say this, [producer] Jacob Jaffke always points out that I made this mistake for like, one day; it felt like 10 years that I was making this mistake -- is that you can't really say the phrase, "I don't know" on a film set. In theater, it's welcomed, it's encouraged; "I don't know" is an invitation to explore. Everybody asks questions like, "Yeah, what is that about?" On movie sets, you say "I don't know" and everybody is grabbing coffee. They're like, "Well, if he doesn't know, it's at least going to be another 40 minutes." And then we're not going to make our day, and then we're going to be behind, and it's going to cost us $30,000. That was a really hard thing to reconcile. A lot of my comedy and my personality is based on sort of comedic ambivalence [laughs], and my process is based on ambivalence. I think in a good way. But I had to learn that feature film process and, at certain points, I got hit pretty hard by the process. I was sleep deprived, I was up against a wall, and we were being kicked out of locations, and we were just trying to get the whole movie in the can.

I was so impressed with how you used voice-over in the film -- especially because it's a technique that has such a high rate of failure. I think the reason why it ultimately worked in the film is that it called upon my skills as a comedian, doing trial and error. So, me and [editor] Geoffrey Richman would just be in the edit together and we'd say, "Well, what if it had voice-over at this moment? What if it had voice-over at that moment?" And we just pull out the microphone and we'd record it -- just scratch audio, and we'd just drop it in. That's a very strange thing, a very unusual luxury to have. To be like, "What about this? What about this?" The editing process was really fun because it's not as pressure-filled as the production is, because if you go an hour long, you're not going into penalties and overtime for a 40-person crew. You're not being kicked out of your location. There were a lot of late nights and kind of "What if, what if, what if?" which was really good for the film, because it played to my strengths, and me and Seth and Ira's strengths.

Another thing that really stood out: your performance. You're ostensibly playing yourself -- which is hard in its own right -- and you had to balance acting with your duties as a first-time filmmaker. Not the easiest of tasks, I imagine. Pretty early on in the process I brought on Seth [Barrish] who directed plays, my one-man show. He's a real kind of acting guru. He wrote a book about acting, he's an artistic director of a theater company in New York called the Barrow Group, so he teaches acting. I really wanted him to guide my performance and really just keep an eye on it. He and I worked together for a long time, we know how each other works and thinks really well. So, my fear during the film and editing the film was not that I would mess up colossally, but that I would mess up in small, key places which would have a ripple effect on the finished product. Moments where you really have to bring it as an actor to make people believe they're experiencing this with you. If not, you're just setting yourself up for people to jump on your performance. Like, "This is ridiculous! This guy should have gotten another actor!" [Laughs] That kind of thing. So, Seth was extraordinary in that way.

It really feels like a team effort. How do you feel about the finished film? It just feels like we created thing thing that even we don't fully quite understand. Everyone else sees the film as this movie that's happening, and whenever I look at the screen, I see the production designer. I see the costume designer. I see the make-up artist. It actually stresses me out to look at the screen [laughs], because there's just so much happening in every frame that is part of this massive team that put his movie together.

There's something about movies where there's so many artistic elements that are occurring simultaneously that you can't even fully wrap your brain around what it is that's connecting with audience. All you can do is try to connect with the audience, and then at a certain point you go, "Well, I hope this works."

IFC picked up "Sleepwalk With Me" for distribution. Look for it in theaters this year. ]]> 2012-03-17T15:19:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/03/17/sxsw-2012-mike-birbiglia-sleepwalk-with-me/ <![CDATA[SXSW 2012 Audience Awards: Matthew Lillard, 'Brooklyn Castle,' Paul Simon Among Honorees]]> 20591792 Matthew Lillard's comeback continues! On the heels of his strong supporting performance in the Oscar-lauded film "The Descendants," Lillard's directorial debut, "Fat Kid Rules the World," won the audience award for narrative feature at the South By Southwest film festival. About an overweight and suicidal teen who joins a rock band, "Fat Kid Rules the World" stars Jacob Wysocki and Billy Campbell, and features music by Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready.

In the narrative documentary category, "Brooklyn Castle" took home the audience award. That film -- which is already earmarked for a feature film adaptation from producer Scott Rudin -- focuses on a poor, inner-city school, which just so happens to have one of the best chess teams in the country.

The Paul Simon documentary, "Under African Skies," was also honored, winning the 24 Beats Per Second award.

The full list of SXSW audience award winners is below.

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE SPOTLIGHT: "Brooklyn Castle" NARRATIVE FEATURE SPOTLIGHT: "Fat Kid Rules the World" 24 BEATS PER SECOND: "Under African Skies" EMERGING VISIONS: "Low & Clear" MIDNIGHTERS: "Citadel" SXGLOBAL: "Her Master's Voice" FESTIVAL FAVORITES: "Chasing Ice" ]]> 2012-03-17T12:19:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/03/17/sxsw-2012-audience-awards/ <![CDATA[Richard Grieco '21 Jump Street' Photos: Actor Hits Los Angeles Premiere]]> 20591794 If looks could kill. (It's Friday, y'all; hackery welcome!) While Richard Grieco does not make a cameo appearance in this weekend's reboot of "21 Jump Street," the actor was on hand at the Los Angeles premiere of the new film earlier this week.

Grieco, who co-starred on the seminal Fox series as Dennis Booker for 18 episodes between 1988 and 1989, said the new comic take on "21 Jump Street" was surprising.

"I didn't know what to expect," he told ABCNews.com. "They made it into a real funny comedy. There were two ways to go with it, either make it really dark or go overboard and make it funny, and that's what they did. I think they pulled it off in that respect."

Starring Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Dave Franco and Ice Cube, "21 Jump Street" is out in theaters now. Check out Grieco hamming it up at the Los Angeles premiere below.

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]]> 2012-03-16T16:42:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/03/16/richard-grieco-21-jump-street-photos/ <![CDATA[Jennifer Lawrence, 'Hunger Games' Star, On 'Twilight' Comparisons, Fame, And Her 'Karate Hands']]> 20591805 Jennifer Lawrence landed on the A-list earlier than most. Oscar-nominated for 2010's "Winter's Bone" at just 20 years old, the Kentucky-born actress won the coveted role of Katniss Everdeen in "The Hunger Games" last year, meaning her meteoric rise should only increase, provided the film cashes in as expected the box office. Suffice it to say, this is certainly an exciting time for J.Law. At the moment, however, she's a little concerned with her awkward "karate hands," which only come out when she runs. "I'm a weird runner," Lawrence told Moviefone when asked about her training for the future blockbuster. "So, that was unfortunate."

In "The Hunger Games," Lawrence is forced to do a lot of running: she plays Katniss Everdeen, the District 12 tribute sent to compete in the annual Hunger Games, a barbaric event where the citizens of Panem, the post-apocalyptic name given to what's left of North America, watch their children kill one another for sport. For fanatics of Suzanne Collins's best-selling book series, the actress is Katniss incarnate (this despite her naturally blonde hair, which was dyed for the film). Lawrence, however, wasn't so sure -- she almost turned down the role of her lifetime, before her mother convinced her otherwise.

Moviefone chatted with Lawrence about what "The Hunger Games" means to her, what moment she can't wait to replicate onscreen, and what she thinks about the "Twilight" movies.

When you read the books, did you imagine yourself playing Katniss? No [laughs]. When I read them, it was before there was any talk of the movie or anything, so I definitely didn't picture myself. That would be slightly narcissistic, anyway. By the time there were talks of the movie, I was so turned off by the idea -- because we've watched so many people destroy our favorite books [by turning them into movies]. There was interest in me for it, so I had a meeting with Gary Ross, and just loved everything he was saying. I knew the movie was being made by people who are fans of the book and wanted to stay true to its story, and understood that it's a sad story, not a cool action flick. There was hesitation, of course, over the size of it and what my life would be like if I were to say yes, but I slowly came around to the idea. I'm happy I did [laughs].

How did you overcome that hesitation about signing on. A lot of actors seem to bristle at the idea of leading these big franchises. It was funny because I've always been asked why did I always do indies, why didn't I do a big studio film. I always said, "Because it's not about the size of the movie, it's about the script." When I was almost going to turn this down because it was too big, my mom told me I was being a hypocrite, because I loved the story, loved the characters and I truly believe in the message that these films are bringing. I really don't feel like I'm being tied down to it -- especially after filming the first one, where I had the time of my life. I actually can't wait to go back. It's a character I would love to revisit. I think if you sign on to the right franchise [you're OK]. I don't feel like a slave to anyone. I feel like I'm very passionate about this story and what it means about our world and about humanity. It's something I want to talk about, I want people to see, and I'm proud to put my name to it.

OK, well: What does "The Hunger Games" say about humanity? I took away that, over time, we're just becoming so desensitized to death. Humanity is becoming dulled to itself. We can watch people die on TV; we can watch a snowboarder fall off a mountain and die. We watch it as entertainment. The world is obsessed with reality television, and in a world where history repeats itself, it's plausible, really, that our world could get there.

Despite the fact that these books are nothing like "Twilight," comparisons between the two franchises are often made in the media. Does that bother you? I don't really care! I mean, I get it: they're all beloved books and they're huge best-sellers, and they become a franchise. It's easy to compare them. I think I'm more relaxed about it because once you see the movie you know it's absolutely nothing like "Twilight," or nothing like "Harry Potter," except in size. I'm not worried about it. I like the "Twilight" movies.

Do you take anything away from the how the actors and actresses in "Twilight" and "Harry Potter" handle this kind of massive fame and attention? I think everybody kind of handles it in their own way. I don't compare myself to them because I still refuse to accept the fact that I might be recognized. If somebody recognizes me, I think it's a freak accident. But who knows what's going to happen? I could go off the deep end.

You're a huge fan of the books. Was there anything cut out that you wish wasn't? There was not one thing that I wasn't blown away by -- that I just loved. I know that's a typical interview answer, but really: what the Capitol looked like, what the train looked like, what an Avox looks like -- they created this world that I couldn't even imagine when I was reading the book. Anything that has changed is for the better -- for making a better movie. I think that's where people go wrong when they're making books into movies. People are disappointed if there's something missing, but you also have to think that you're making a movie. It's the perfect combination; everything that you want in there is in there, but it's also just a great film.

Were you happy with how the extreme violence is handled for PG-13 audiences? That was a fear of mine: I didn't want them to dull the violence. That's what makes the story what it is; it's kids fighting to survive, and the only way to survive is by killing someone else. You don't want to sugarcoat that. You can't sugarcoat that, because then you lose what the story is all about.

Do you have a favorite book in the series? My personal favorite was the third, because I feel like that's where she became Joan of Arc. That's where she really took up the responsibility of, "This is what I've created." The revolution that started. She kind of became a warrior. So, I like that.

Even before that happens in the third book, Katniss is a very physical presence. Did you get to do your own stunts? I did as much as I could, Actually, the studio was more open than I thought they would be. I think when we're on the last movie -- when they don't need me anymore -- I'll probably be able to do all of my own stunts [laughs]. But I did a lot, actually -- lots of harness work, lots of running. And I'm a weird runner. So, that was unfortunate.

So, we should look out for your awkward running. Yes. My run is so weird. That's what I'm most nervous about in this whole ordeal. I'm most nervous about everybody making fun of the way I run. I do, like, karate hands. Instead of running with my hands closed together like a normal person. It's like I'm trying to be aerodynamic or something, so my hands are straight like razors. Karate hands.

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]]> 2012-03-16T09:47:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/03/16/jennifer-lawrence-hunger-games/ <![CDATA['Jurassic Park 3D' Re-Release: Date Set For Steven Spielberg Retrofitted Classic]]> 20591808 "The only movie that I would ever even consider retrofitting is the first 'Jurassic Park,'" Steven Spielberg told Moviefone last year. "I think would look pretty spectacular in 3D." Looks like the acclaimed director is ready to put his money where his mouth is: Universal has set a 3D re-release of "Jurassic Park" for July 19, 2013.

Originally released on June 11, 1993, "Jurassic Park" earned over $357 million at U.S. theaters and another $557 million abroad. With the re-release, "Park" could become Spielberg's first $1 billion global hit; the dinosaur adventure currently stands at $914.6 million worldwide.

Based on the novel by Michael Crichton, "Jurassic Park" imagines what dinosaurs would look like in present day. Despite being 19 years old, the special effects work in the film still has an impact on movies today.

"[W]e invented the technology," Spielberg told Moviefone about technological advances since "Park" was released. "We're not just standing on the shoulders of giants; we're the inventors of the technology to begin with. The first leading characters in history that were digital characters were the dinosaurs in 'Jurassic Park.' That had never happened before."

In other release-date news: Universal has moved "Oblivion," with Tom Cruise in the lead, to April 26, 2013. It's the second Cruise film to shift dates this week.

[via Variety] ]]> 2012-03-16T08:15:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/03/16/jurassic-park-3d-release-date/ <![CDATA['Dark Shadows' Trailer: Johnny Depp, Tim Burton Team For Best '70s-Set Vampire Comedy Of The Year?]]> 20591811 If the first images of Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins in "Dark Shadows" had you worried that it was going to be another one of Depp's "weird," post-Jack Sparrow paycheck roles, then watch the new trailer for the film immediately. Showing a spark that he hasn't had since, arguably, the first "Pirates of the Caribbean" film, Depp brings just the right bit of eccentricity to Tim Burton's adaptation of the cult '60s soap opera about a cursed vampire who haunts his old mansion.

Starring Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Michelle Pffeifer, Chloe Mortez and Eva Green, "Dark Shadows" looks like it has more in common with those classic Depp-Burton collaborations you love ("Edward Scissorhands," "Ed Wood"), than those you don't ("Alice in Wonderland," "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"). It's funny! And random! Also, Eva Green. That is all.

Watch the trailer above and head over to Apple to check it out in HD. "Dark Shadows" arrives in theaters on May 11; bang a gong to pass the time until it comes out. ]]> 2012-03-15T20:51:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/03/15/dark-shadows-trailer-johnny-depp/ <![CDATA[Jennifer Lawrence In Demand: 'Hunger Games,' 'X-Men' Sequels Want Rising Starlet]]> 20591814 Not that you needed any further proof now is the best time ever to be Jennifer Lawrence, but the actress is in such high demand that she's got two studios vying for her franchise attention. According to THR, both Lionsgate and Fox want to shoot sequels for "The Hunger Games" and "X-Men: First Class," respectively, this fall, with Fox holding the inside track on her services. Does that mean J.Law won't get to play Katniss in "Catching Fire"?

LOLz. Not even close! Despite the fact that "Catching Fire," the follow-up to "The Hunger Games," will shoot toward the end of the summer, and the "X-Men" sequel will start in early fall, it's believed both studios will work around Lawrence's availability. "They are both making accommodations for her," said a representative for Lawrence to THR.

"I actually can't wait to go back," Lawrence told Moviefone exclusively about playing Katniss Everdeen in "Catching Fire," Suzanne Collins's "Hunger Games" sequel. "It's a character I would love to revisit."

"The Hunger Games" arrives in theaters on March 23. "Catching Fire" is due out on Nov. 22, 2013.

[via THR]

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]]> 2012-03-15T15:13:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/03/15/jennifer-lawrence-hunger-games-sequel/ <![CDATA['Avengers' Japanese Trailer: They'll Avenge The Earth, Even In A Foreign Language]]> 20591822 The full-length trailer for "The Avengers" featured almost everything -- "Inception" horns, "Transformers" worm robots, and, y'know, the Avengers. What was missing? Well, dialogue from Jeremy Renner and Cobie Smulders, for starters. Thankfully, that slight has been rectified in the new Japanese trailer for "The Avengers," which includes not just Renner and Smulders actually talking (and in English, despite the Japanese narration), but also Samuel L. Jackson firing a bazooka.

With the release of the Japanese trailer, you can probably expect another phase of "Avengers" marketing to arrive Stateside soon enough. The highly anticipated blockbuster kicks off the summer movie season when it arrives in theaters on May 4.

[via Movies.com] ]]> 2012-03-15T09:42:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/03/15/avengers-japanese-trailer/ <![CDATA[SXSW 2012: 'Safety Not Guaranteed' Stars Mark Duplass And Aubrey Plaza On Bringing Emotion To A Meme]]> 20591824 "Wanted: Someone to go back in time with me," read an infamous 2005 classified ad that quickly became an Internet meme. "This is not a joke. You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed. I have only done this once before." Those 36 words might not seem like enough to adapt as a concept for a feature film, but don't tell that to director Colin Trevorrow, who turned the goofy help-wanted posting into the heartfelt festival sensation, "Safety Not Guaranteed."

Hitting theaters on June 8, the indie dramedy -- which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, and screened again at South By Southwest in Austin -- focuses on Darius, a young magazine intern (Aubrey Plaza) who tracks down the ad's author, Kenneth (Mark Duplass), and slowly begins to fall in love with his vast, and potentially dangerous, eccentricities. Filled with deadpan humor and genuinely moving pathos, "Safety Not Guaranteed" strikes a balance of emotions that recalls Wes Anderson at his best -- and that's not just because co-star Jake Johnson pays homage to one of Anderson's best creations, "Rushmore's" Herman Blume, in the film.

"My inclination was never to do anything broad," Duplass told Moviefone after the film's SXSW screening this week. "The comedy inherent on the page with the quirky dialogue, with the nature of Kenneth's mullet and the jean jacket. That was all there. My job was to bring the heart and try to find a genuine connection with Darius and build something that was hopefully sweet. Bring that non-cynicism that is the essence of Kenneth into the movie. Try to -- lack of a better word -- infect Darius with it and bring her my way."

Kenneth does, making "Safety Not Guaranteed" the rare indie love story that features a Manic Pixie Dream Boy, one that pushes the female lead out of her comfort zone. That arc gives Plaza the chance to play the many facets of Darius's personality, and not just her patented "Parks and Recreation" perma-scowl.

"At that time I was looking to do a movie where I could kind of exercise different muscles that I don't get to use all the time, and tackle something totally different," Plaza told Moviefone about the role, which screenwriter Derek Connolly wrote with her in mind. "It just seemed like a really organic way to get into that -- to play a character that starts off closed, sad and depressed and a zone I'm very familiar with, and have to break out of it slowly."

Of course, beyond the touching lead performances from Plaza and Duplass -- plus the break-out supporting turn from Johnson -- "Safety Not Guaranteed" is a film that gets by on its increasingly believable "what if?" premise. That being: can Kenneth actually time travel?

"[I]t has this great air of mystery to it," Duplass said. "The fact that someone truly believes they could time travel. That person you would immediately assume is joking or crazy, and then when you meet them and you find out they really do believe. [...] That is one of the big questions of the movie: This guy's [absolutely] crazy, sure. But, maybe he's not?"

For more on "Safety Not Guaranteed," check out Moviefone's chat with co-stars Johnson and Karan Soni. The film hits theaters on June 8. ]]> 2012-03-15T08:33:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/03/15/sxsw-2012-safety-not-guaranteed-mark-duplass-aubrey-plaza/ <![CDATA[SXSW 2012: 'Sleepwalk With Me,' Mike Birbiglia's Directorial Debut, Impresses In Austin]]> 20591841 Remember the movie you thought Judd Apatow wanted to make when he directed "Funny People"? Picture if he had gotten the tone right, swapped out Seth Rogen's whining with some Woody Allen-style meditations on modern romance, and used Mates of State as a key music cue instead of Ringo Starr. The result might look something like "Sleepwalk With Me," comedian Mike Birbiglia's very funny -- and very honest -- new film, which screened to a packed house at the South By Southwest Film Festival on Tuesday night. That stuff you read after "Sleepwalk With Me" debuted at Sundance about how it's one of those festival favorites not to be missed? It's all true.

(Thankfully, IFC picked up "Sleepwalk With Me" for theatrical distribution, so you'll actually have a chance to see it sometime soon.)

Based on Birbiglia's one-man off-Broadway show of the same name (which has spawned an award-winning book and comedy album), "Sleepwalk With Me" follows Matt Pandamiglio (Birbiglia), a struggling Brooklyn-based comic in the throes of twin life-crisises: After eight years together, his girlfriend Abby (Lauren Ambrose) wants to get married, and -- in a perhaps-related twist -- he's developed an REM behavior disorder that makes him prone to very active bouts of sleepwalking. Naturally, neither issue fits into Matt's schedule: He jokes that he doesn't want to marry Abby until he's sure "nothing else good could happen in [his] life," and he won't go to the doctor for his sleepwalking because his growing stand-up career has him traveling from Vermont to Ohio for low-paying gigs on the regular.

If Matt sounds like a selfish jerk, well, he's not: Birbiglia has an everyman charm that belies any of Matt's more inconsiderate transgressions, and the film has Mike-as-Matt narrating things from the "present," a fourth-wall breaking trick that Allen used so effectively in "Annie Hall." As Matt says to the audience after his past-self makes one particularly bad decision, "I know. I'm in the future, too."

After the screening of "Sleepwalk With Me," Birbiglia talked about the editing tricks of his film -- done by award-winning editor Geoffrey Richman ("The Cove," "Sicko") -- most of which were performed out of necessity.

"We just didn't have the time," Birbiglia said about the brisk independent shoot. "Sometimes, on really key scenes, we'd get, like, two takes, and we'd have to move on or we were gonna get kicked out of the location. When we were in the edit room, Geoff, to his credit, found creative solutions to scenes that I, at certain points, was like, 'I don't know if this scene is gonna make it out alive!'"

Not that you could tell there was any editing-room turmoil from what's onscreen. As a director and writer, Birbiglia has the polish of someone who has been making indie dramedies for years; there's a genuine professionalism and ambition to "Sleepwalk With Me" that you wouldn't expect from someone in their directorial debut. Birbiglia's camera follows Matt into a La Quinta Inn, for instance, and it doesn't cut as he goes from the lobby to his room on another floor. It's a camera trick you'd be more likely to find in the next Martin Scorsese movie, not one that uses Park Slope's Union Hall as a major location. (Birbiglia did mention "Goodfellas" as an influence after the screening, which makes sense, if you think of the La Quinta tracking shot as his Copacabana scene.)

If "Sleepwalk With Me" has a chance of breaking out of whatever indie-ghetto great festival films go into after screening around the country, it's because of a pretty impressive cast. In addition to Birbiglia and Ambrose, the film features appearances from Marc Maron, Carol Kane, David Wain, Kristen Schaal and "This American Life" host Ira Glass, who co-wrote the "Sleepwalk With Me" script with Birbiglia, Mike's brother, Joe, and Seth Barrish. (Glass featured Mike's real story of REM behavior disorder on an episode of "TAL.")

"What was it like working with Ira Glass? Awful," Birbiglia joked after the screening. "No, Ira is extraordinary. He's really a story Jedi, he kind of thinks in story and he's very particular about what he thinks is working and what he thinks is not working. That's really good person to have on your team."

Much like his character in "Sleepwalk With Me," Birbiglia has an easy-going demeanor, and is wildly funny just by being himself. You root for him to make it both as a character onscreen and as a filmmaker behind the scenes. He achieves both in "Sleepwalk With Me" without ever straying from what makes you like him in the first place.

For more on SXSW, click here. ]]> 2012-03-14T11:20:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/03/14/sxsw-2012-sleepwalk-with-me-mike-birbiglia/ <![CDATA['One Shot' Release Date: Tom Cruise Thriller Moves To Christmas 2012]]> 20591843 If you were looking forward to seeing Brad Pitt fight zombies -- as well as Leonardo DiCaprio, times two -- in theaters this holiday season, some bad news: "World War Z" has been shifted to June 21, 2013, where it won't have to go up against Christmas heavy-hitters like the DiCaprio-led films, "The Great Gatsby" and "Django Unchained," as well as "The Hobbit." The good news? Paramount has moved another A-lister into Brad's vacated spot: Tom Cruise's "One Shot" will now hit theaters on Dec. 21, 2012.

Based on the best-selling Jack Reacher series by author Lee Child, "One Shot" was initially set to arrive in theaters on Feb. 8, 2013. After Cruise's success last December with "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" (that Paramount release has earned the studio $688 million worldwide to date), executives seem to feel the megastar is back in the audience's good graces -- at least enough to compete with the likes of DiCaprio and J.R.R. Tolkien.

In other release news, Paramount has set the reboot of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" for Christmas 2013. Unfortunately, Tom Cruise does not appear in that one.

[via Variety] ]]> 2012-03-14T10:23:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/03/14/one-shot-release-date-tom-cruise/ <![CDATA[SXSW 2012: 'Gimme The Loot,' 'Beware Of Mr. Baker' Take Top Honors]]> 20591846 With the film portion of the South By Southwest Film Festival slowly winding down -- and with those crazy music-only people seemingly turning Austin into a deleted scene from "Southland Tales" -- what better time to give out some festival awards! SXSW did just that on Tuesday night, honoring the graffiti drama "Gimme the Loot" and the rock documentary "Beware of Mr. Baker," about Cream drummer Ginger Baker. Fun! Other winners included Richard Linklater's "Bernie" and even "X-Men: First Class"? Sure thing.

Narrative Spotlight, Documentary Spotlight, Emerging Visions, Midnighters, 24 Beats Per Second, SXGlobal and Festival Favorites Audience Awards will be announced separately Saturday, but for now, check out these SXSW winners.

Feature Film Jury Awards

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION Grand Jury Winner: "Beware of Mr. Baker" Director: Jay Bulger

NARRATIVE FEATURE COMPETITION Grand Jury Winner: "Gimme The Loot" Director: Adam Leon

Special Jury Recognition for Performance: Jamie Chung - "Eden" Besedka Johnson - "Starlet" Nico Stone - "Booster"

Feature Film Audience Awards

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE Winner: Bay of All Saints Director: Annie Eastman

NARRATIVE FEATURE Winner: "Eden" Director: Megan Griffiths

Short Film Jury Awards

NARRATIVE SHORTS Winner: "The Chair" Director: Grainger David

DOCUMENTARY SHORTS Winner: "CatCam" Director: Seth Keal MIDNIGHT SHORTS Winner: "Don't Hug Me I'm Scared" Directors: Rebecca Sloan & Joseph Pelling

SXGLOBAL SHORTS Winner: "The Perfect Fit" Director: Tali Yankelevich

ANIMATED SHORTS Winner: "(notes on) biology" Director: Danny Madden

MUSIC VIDEOS Winner: Battles, "My Machines" Director: DANIELS

TEXAS SHORTS Winner: Spark Director: Annie Silverstein

TEXAS HIGH SCHOOL SHORTS Winner: Boom Director: Daniel Matyas & Brian Broder

SXSW Film Design Awards presented by iStockphoto

EXCELLENCE IN POSTER DESIGN Winner: "Man & Gun" Designer: Justin Cox

Special Jury Recognition: "Pitch Black Heist" Designer: Andrew Cranston

Audience Award Winner: "The Maker" Designer: Christopher Kezelos

EXCELLENCE IN TITLE DESIGN Winner: "Les Bleus de Ramville" Designer: Jay Bond, Oily Film Company Inc.

Special Jury Recognition: "X-Men: First Class" Designer: Simon Clowes, Prologue Films

Audience Award Winner: "Bunraku" Designer: Guilherme Marcondes, Hornet Inc. SXSW Special Awards

SXSW WHOLPHIN AWARD Winner: "The Black Balloon" Director: Benny Safdie & Josh Safdie

SXSW CHICKEN & EGG EMERGENT NARRATIVE WOMAN DIRECTOR AWARD Winners: Megan Griffiths for Eden and Amy Seimetz for "Sun Don't Shine"

LOUIS BLACK "LONE STAR" AWARD Winner: "Bernie" Director: Richard Linklater

Special Jury Recognition: "Trash Dance" Director: Andrew Garrison

KAREN SCHMEER FILM EDITING FELLOWSHIP Presented to: Lindsay Utz

For more on the films, head to SXSW.com. ]]> 2012-03-14T08:34:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/03/14/sxsw-2012-gimme-the-loot-beware-of-mr-baker/ <![CDATA[SXSW 2012: 'Wonder Women!' Pushes Hollywood To Bring Wonder Woman To The Big Screen]]> 20591852 From Joss Whedon to David S. Goyer to Nicolas Winding Refn, filmmakers have repeatedly tried to resurrect Wonder Woman for today's audiences. The problem? It seems no one can actually get a feature film based on the iconic DC Comics character off the ground. That's alarming for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that Hollywood has released superhero movies based on little known comic-book characters like Jonah Hex.

The new documentary "WONDER WOMEN! The Untold Story of American Superheroines" -- which has screened to packed houses at South By Southwest this week -- deals with how the character, first created by William Moulton Marston in 1941, has influenced women over the last seven decades. Containing interviews with Gloria Steinem, Lynda Carter and the most adorable fourth grader you've seen onscreen this year, "WONDER WOMEN!" makes a strong case that Wonder Woman should be reborn on the big screen.

"How many really sub-characters in terms of the male, like Thor [have been made into films]?" said director Kristy Guevara-Flanagan after the Tuesday afternoon screening in Austin. "The trilogy is Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, and she has yet to get her due."

Of course, it hasn't been for a lack of trying -- at least on the part of people like Whedon. The "Avengers" director -- and the man responsible for turning Buffy the Vampire Slayer into a modern-day Wonder Woman for young girls -- was interested in making a feature film about the goddess with Cobie Smulders in the lead role.

"I in no way want this to be a slam on Warner Bros., but the fact of the matter is, it was a waste of my time," he told EW back in 2007. "We never [wanted] to make the same movie; none of us knew that."

"Drive" director Refn hopes he has a bit more luck with the studio; Refn wants to make Wonder Woman with Christina Hendricks as star.

"She's mature, which I think Wonder Woman has to be, because it's a very complex character," he told Vulture about Hendricks. "You know, the whole Wonder Woman concept is 'What if women were more powerful than men?' And I certainly can't come up with a more ideal choice to play that, both consciously because she's very smart but also because of her sensibility and her physicality, so -- for me -- she's the perfect choice [...] I certainly don't know anybody of both sexes who doesn't find her extremely attractive."

Whether Refn gets his chance to make Wonder Woman remains to be seen, but after David E. Kelley's very public flame-out with bringing Wonder Woman back to TV, don't hold your breath. To Guevara-Flanagan, however, not taking another shot would be a mistake.

"If you look at them in other cultures -- like Japan, where manga is really popular -- boys and girls are reading [comics] equally. I think that's because they're written for both of them. So I guess we've kind of trapped ourselves here -- and those particular companies have trapped themselves out of an audience."

For more on "WONDER WOMEN!" check out the film's website. ]]> 2012-03-13T18:14:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/03/13/sxsw-2012-wonder-women-documentary/ <![CDATA[SXSW 2012: '21 Jump Street' Directors Chris Miller And Phil Lord On Making Channing Tatum An Underdog]]> 20591859 As Sony had hoped, the world premiere of "21 Jump Street" at the South By Southwest Film Festival in Austin on Monday night provided the new comedy with just the right kind of buzz. Audience members went nuts for the film, and that kind of enthusiasm could make "21 Jump Street" an R-rated hit in the vein of "Bridesmaids." If that does happen, here's guessing you won't find two people happier than co-directors Chris Miller and Phil Lord.

The young filmmakers (Miller is 35, Lord is 34) made their feature directorial debut with the kids' film "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs," so it was a given they would follow that up with an R-rated comedy like "Jump Street." (It's not?) Loaded with course language and extreme (and extremely funny) violence, "21 Jump Street" is an ostensible reboot of the late '80s television series that launched Johnny Depp to stardom. In this version, though, the cops going undercover as high school students are played by Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, and the school's big drug dealer is a nerdy honor student (Dave Franco). Wildly funny with action that recalls "Hot Fuzz," "Jump Street" could find itself fighting an uphill battle with general audiences, some of whom have reacted the way Miller and Lord did upon first hearing about the reboot: "That can't be a good idea."

Moviefone caught up with the directors just before "21 Jump Street" debuted in Austin to discuss how they convinced Sony to let them make this movie, and why Channing Tatum could be your next big comedy underdog.

I know Jonah had been working on "21 Jump Street" for five years. When did you guys come onboard? Chris Miller: In the winter of 2009. There was a script that Jonah and Michael Bacall had been working on, and we had just come off doing "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs," and we wanted to do something...

Phil Lord: That was the exact opposite.

Chris Miller: At first we thought, "21 Jump Street" that can't be a good idea. As everyone assumes! It's good to have a little inherent skepticism in life. But we read the script and it was crazy. It was really hard-R, as you can imagine, and we thought, "Wow, that would be crazy for us to do a hard-R action comedy." We were big fans of Jonah; we knew him socially and think he's really talented. So we decided we would try to convince everybody that they should let the guys who made the family film do this movie [laughs].

Was there any push back from the studio at the idea of you guys doing something so different? Phil Lord: There wasn't push back, but they didn't call us.

Chris Miller: It was the same studio [Sony] -- they liked us and trusted us from "Cloudy" -- and then we made this presentation to show everybody. We were like, "Here's what we think the tone of the movie should be. It' a very delicate balance. Here's what we think the look of the movie should be, and here are some ideas we think can make the script even better." Everybody liked that, which was good. We took several meetings and showed everybody and sold everyone on the idea of us chuckleheads making the movie, and they foolishly trusted us [laughs]. Then we worked on the script with Jonah and Michael for a year. Kept developing it. We did a lot of research; we went on ride-alongs with police officers, we went to a high school to talk to kids, we went to a Santa Monica prom. We were trying to find what the differences were with kids today from when we went to high school 800 years ago.

One of the things I love about the film is how well you balance the action and the comedy, which is a difficult line to walk. Phil Lord: We knew it was a comedy, first and foremost, and you had to make sure the action was a bonus. It was going to help you serve the broader story. That always helps. One of the complaints I have about action movies is when you feel like, "I'm seeing a bunch of cool stuff blow up, but I don't really care." It made us work harder because none of these sequences would stay in hte movie if they weren't serving the overall story.

Chris Miller: We also didn't want to do a big tonal shift, where we do a big action scene in the middle of a comedy.

Phil Lord: I think you would laugh then, not on purpose.

Chris Miller: We thought, "Every time we do an action scene, it needs to have a strong comic idea." Then we'll try to fill it with as many jokes as possible. Obviously you have to storyboard action and plan it out -- otherwise you're spending a lot of money -- but within those confines we wanted there to be the same level of spontaineity that we had in the rest of the movie. We tried to allow for that and have the guys react the way they would in that situation and see what happens. It was a really tricky balance.

Channing Tatum is a breakout star in this film -- so unexpectedly funny and perfect. Was he your first choice from the start? Phil Lord: We looked all over the place for what kind of person that was, and ultimately -- Jonah felt strongly and we agreed -- that it should be someone different than him. We had seen a lot of guys that had looked like the two of us do comedy.

Chris Miller: A couple of nerdy guys as cops!

Phil Lord: We thought, "Man, it's so refreshing to see someone who is strong and handsome be put in that situation and be uncomfortable."

Chris Miller: Often times, we had been talking about it -- the three of us and Bacall -- and going, "It's kind of a Channing Tatum-type." Finally, Jonah was like, "Let's just ask Channing Tatum to do it." And we were like, "We should do some research on this guy first." We knew him from "Step Up" but we didn't know much about him. But we found this online short that he did with Charlyne Yi, where they recreated a scene from "Dirty Dancing" and he was Patrick Swayze, and he played it totally straight. We were like, "Wow, he totally gets it; he gets how to do comedy without trying to be funny. How come no one's ever used him like this?"

Phil Lord: It's weird. Underdogs aren't the same as they used to be. Anthony Michael Hall in "Sixteen Candles" is the old model, and it's awesome, but now I feel bad for jocks. They don't get respect. We went to visit high school and we saw all these kids with glasses like mine and weird hair and weird shoes and skinny jeans with hot girlfriends. I was like, "Wow, first of all, I was born in the wrong era. But like the jocks have gotten [screwed]." He's worked so hard at baseball or some other sport for his whole life and thought there was going to be some awesome payoff later and now he's the butt of everybody's joke. The nerds kind of won. So if you're looking for an underdog to be an authentic voice for comedy you have to look elsewhere.

PHOTOS: "21 Jump Street" World Premiere

Gallery | Celebs At SXSW On Monday

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]]> 2012-03-13T13:30:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/03/13/sxsw-2012-21-jump-street-chris-miller-phil-lord/ <![CDATA[SXSW 2012: Jake Johnson, 'Safety Not Guaranteed' Star, Is Ready To Break Out]]> 20591863 If Lizzy Caplan is the early frontrunner for It-Girl of 2012, then consider Jake Johnson her male counterpoint. The 32-year-old actor, who has broken out on the hit Fox series "New Girl," has a brief appearance in this weekend's "21 Jump Street," and will next be seen onscreen in "Safety Not Guaranteed." The indie romance -- which earned rave reviews at the Sundance Film Festival back in January, and was equally well-received at SXSW in Austin when it screened on Sunday -- gives Johnson the type of meaty supporting role you might expect to see Bill Murray inhabit in a Wes Anderson movie.

Directed by newcomer Colin Trevorrow (from a script by Derek Connolly), "Safety Not Guaranteed" focuses on three Seattle magazine workers (Johnson and two interns, played by Aubrey Plaza and Karan Soni) who travel into the Washington suburbs to investigate a classified ad promising the person who replies the chance to time travel. (If this sounds familiar, that's because you might remember the Internet meme the film is based upon.) The ad writer, Kenneth (Mark Duplass), proves to be an interesting eccentric, and the film focuses on his relationship with Plaza's Darius, something that's handled with great care and a complete lack of cynicism.

On a parallel track is Johnson's Jeff, a grumpy reporter on the cusp of a mid-life crisis. He hopes to reconnect with an old flame, all while reminding Arnau (Soni) that youth is wasted on the young.

Moviefone caught up with Johnson and Soni at SXSW this week to discuss their outstanding new film (FilmDistrict will release "Safety Not Guaranteed" on June 8) and which Bill Murray character Johnson was hoping to replicate with Jeff.

Your character, and the relationship he has with Karan, reminds me so much of "Rushmore."

Jake Johnson: Yes! You're the only person who's brought it up. This moment [raises his hand up] was my [homage to the end of "Rushmore"]. I'm saying, "I respect you." Herman Blume, that character to me -- I've never seen a better character. I understand the great characters [Bill Murray] has played -- but for what I think is funny, I've never seen a greater character. From start to finish in that movie, I think he is pitch-perfect. How mean he is, but how funny he is; how sad he is -- everything. This character, Jeff, I thought: this is obviously not in the same league as Herman Blume, but there's something there that has that same kind of "Fuck you" bite. The way he jumps off the diving board! Everything. I asked Colin, at the end, can I do one take where I do the [hand up]?

Karan Soni: People love it, every time.

This film does a great job of balancing real melancholy with genuine humor. It's a tight-rope walk that gets increasingly more narrow as the film moves along. Was that in the script, or did you guys have to really work on establishing that tone as actors?

Jake Johnson: I'll tell you, there was a lot on the page. To give credit where credit is due on it, there's a lot going to our director, Colin, where he would allow us moments as actors to connect. The scene where my character goes to Karan's character to get him to go be with girls. On page, it was good, but it didn't show who these guys were. It was Jeff kinda still being a bully. Like, "Come on!" He literally like shoved him in the room and closed the door.

Karan Soni: [In the film] it was more gentle and more like real friends.

Jake Johnson: In the script it was less that Jeff and Arnau really liked each other. In real life, Karan and myself really grew to like one another. There was no denying that we really had fun with each other. Because the movie was the three of us and then [Aubrey and Mark]. When they were doing the two of them, we spent a lot of time together. In the moment like that, we were like, "If I'm Jeff and you're Arnau, and we're near these guys, I'm not going to shove you in."

Karan Soni: It felt wrong. We shot that toward the end of the shoot, anyway, so by then we already knew each other.

Jake Johnson: Colin really let us, in certain moments, go. In other moments it was really tight.

The film has this break-neck pace that really provides some great energy to the proceedings. Was the shoot incredibly brisk?

Jake Johnson: We had 24 shooting days.

Karan Soni: 30 locations.

Jake Johnson: The woman who played my girlfriend in it, Jenica Bergere, her entire thing was in one day. She flew in at night...

Karan Soni: She worked all day.

Jake Johnson: She got in 7 at night, we met in the hotel. Rehearsed with Colin. Sat in my hotel room, drank some wine. We literally read the lines; Colin tried to tell her what the tone of the movie was. The next morning, 7 a.m., we drive to this house; we shoot from 7 until 7. Literally the next morning, she was gone. It's insane.

That is insane, especially because your chemistry with her feels so developed over the course of the film. Were you worried it wouldn't work?

Jake Johnson: It started tripping me out, because that was the story. When Colin told me it was one day, I was really mad because it's a story that I really cared about. Let's say we have a bad day -- then Jeff's out of the damn movie! I'm like, '"Oh, man!" If that doesn't work -- if they put it together and they're like, "That day, Jake was being really broad." Or, let's be honest, I didn't sleep the night before and had a bad day. We all have them! If that day happened to not work, I thought, "I've never had this where literally an entire story would be cut." I go to Colin, "I don't think this is realistic, man. I think we need two or three days." He was like, "Not only is it realistic, it's the way we're doing it. We have no choice. Just bring it that day and stop crying about it."

Were you surprised how well the film came together?

Jake Johnson: To be perfectly honest, the other movies I've done, I've been involved in post-production more. Not giving my opinion, but just being around. I've seen cuts. Family-friend screenings. But because of "New Girl," I couldn't on this. I was in Seattle when I found out "New Girl" was back. I did this movie, then a month later, I started "New Girl." I've been going non-stop -- I'm still going, I've got four episodes left. So I kinda stopped thinking about it, which was the best thing I've ever done. I went to Sundance, and I hadn't seen it. I hadn't seen any cuts. I hadn't seen any footage. Colin and I hadn't talked a lot about it. So I got to watch it with an audience. I had that moment of -- apart from my opinion, because my opinion doesn't matter, because I'm in it -- "These people seem to like it! What do I think about the movie? What these people think!"

Karan Soni: For me it was the complete opposite. It's my first movie. I just graduated college. I had this dead, free-time. I would think about it a lot. We didn't hear a lot about what was happening. When we shot it, it was so fast, it was hard to tell what was going to be what. How it was going to piece together. All I knew was he was very confident in his job. He'd be like, "Got it." And I was like, "What?"

Jake Johnson: He was super confident.

Karan Soni: He's like, "Got it -- one take. This is gonna look great." You could see the wheels turning but I was like, "I hope they're good wheels turning." You just don't know! I was like, "I'm just going to be onboard with him." It was either gonna be a hit or a miss; I don't know what his vision is. But I personally love it, it's right up my alley of movies. So i feel like if we ever work with him again, I'll be like, "Anything you say!" I'm never gonna question him.

Jake, you mention "New Girl." Jeff is a total opposite of Nick, which is probably good for you at this point in your career. Do you have to worry about finding diverse roles now that you're on a popular television show?

Jake Johnson: I'll be honest with you, I never thought about it because I've just been a grinder actor. The jobs I've had, I've been able to do such weird stuff. I kinda thought that's how it's always going to be. I just auditioned for the "New Girl" pilot because [series creator] Liz Meriwether said, "You should come out for this." I never thought of it going; I never thought it was going to get picked up. Now that I'm on episode 21, I'm starting to think -- I love the show, but I'm like, "I have to start thinking about this stuff!" When I go out and people know me as that character. I just view it as one job -- it's a long job -- but I'm like, "Oh, you guys only know this! You haven't seen anything else." I didn't realize that one becomes the most prominent. So, strategically, I hadn't thought of it. I hope this one hits and then I get to be like, "Guys, I can do two things!" ]]> 2012-03-13T11:13:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/03/13/sxsw-2012-jake-johnson-safety-not-guaranteed/ <![CDATA[SXSW 2012: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Lena Dunham, Judd Apatow Invade Austin (PHOTOS)]]> 20591870 Monday was a great day to be a Judd Apatow fan at South By Southwest -- especially if you happened to be near the Paramount Theater. In the afternoon, the Austin-based festival premiered "Girls," the new HBO series from wunderkind Lena Dunham, which Apatow produced with his "Undeclared" cohort, Jennifer Konner.

Following the debut of "Girls" -- three episodes screened to wild praise and applause -- the Paramount was home to the world premiere of "21 Jump Street," featuring Apatow regular Jonah Hill. (Apatow did not produce "21 Jump Street," though with its dick jokes and bromantic leanings, you'd be forgiven for thinking he did.)

Below, check out photos of the big Apatow-centric evening at SXSW; come back to Moviefone for more on both "Girls" and "21 Jump Street" this week.

PHOTOS:

Gallery | Celebs At SXSW On Monday

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]]> 2012-03-12T22:00:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/03/12/sxsw-2012-jonah-hill-channing-tatum-lena-dunham/ <![CDATA[SXSW 2012: Stars Spotted In Austin On Sunday]]> 20591888 South by Southwest is populated by more than just bearded hipsters and cool kids; the Film, Music and Interactive legs of the annual Austin fest also feature stars. They're just like us! Aimlessly walking around hotel lobbies and/or contending with chatty screening attendees (couple sitting next to Willem Dafoe at the U.S. premiere of "Marley," looking at you). Ahead, ten celebrities spotted around SXSW on Sunday (nine of which I'm positively sure of).

1. Willem Dafoe 2. Carla Gugino 3. David Carr 4. Bradley Whitford 5. Minnie Driver 6. Tom Colicchio 7. Dave Franco 8. Deepak Chopra 9. Robert Horry 10. Mary-Louise Parker (I think)

PHOTOS: Stars At SXSW

Gallery | SXSW 2012

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]]> 2012-03-12T00:14:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/03/12/sxsw-2012-stars-in-austin/ <![CDATA[SXSW 2012: Seth MacFarlane, Mark Wahlberg Debut 'Ted' Footage]]> 20591889 For his feature film directorial debut, Seth MacFarlane didn't play it safe with a "Family Guy" movie; instead, he wrote an R-rated, live-action-cum-animation hybrid about a man and his talking teddy bear. In the packed Vimeo Theater inside the Austin Convention Center at SXSW on Sunday morning, MacFarlane and surprise-guest Mark Wahlberg unveiled the first public look at "Ted."

Out July 13, "Ted" follows John Bennett (Wahlberg), a Boston-bred man who, as a kid, wished that his teddy bear, Ted (voiced by MacFarlane), would come alive. Surprise! He did, and -- when the initial shock wears off -- he and John grow up to be besties-in-arms, smoking pot and watching "Flash Gordon" on the regular. Unfortunately, John's girlfriend (Mila Kunis) isn't pleased with their co-dependent relationship, and John must mature -- much to the consternation of Ted.

MacFarlane and Wahlberg debuted the first eight-minutes of "Ted," which sets up the initial premise: that Ted can walk and talk. The funny prologue -- featuring "Family Guy" star Alex Borstein as John's mom -- wisely puts "Ted" in the real world; the living teddy bear is featured on news broadcasts around the country and even makes an appearance on "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson." When things shift to the present day, Wahlberg has an easy rapport with his foul-mouthed furry friend, something made all the more impressive since he was mostly acting to nothing.

"It's a very challenging role, in a lot of ways," MacFarlane said. "It's a comedy, but you're interacting with empty space. One of the great things when we finally got [the effects done], was that Mark was so good and so convincing. When we finally put the bear in, it felt so organic and so real. It would sink or swim on whether you believe these two guys were together."

MacFarlane would run lines with Wahlberg off-camera -- which no doubt helped the star get comfortable -- but no amount of line-reading could make a scene like John's hotel-room brawl with Ted work. The second clip of the presentation highlighted this scene, which comes across as all the more impressive when you consider Wahlberg was fighting himself, a la Edward Norton in "Fight Club."

"The goal with that fight from the start was to make it as real and as raw as if two guys were fighting in one of the 'Bourne' movies," MacFarlane told Moviefone after the presentation. "Whatever Mark was tapping into, performance wise, while we were shooting this movie, is in full-force in that scene."

As for Wahlberg -- who said he would act opposite either a stuffed bear or "a stick with two dots on it" -- he welcomed not having to deal with any other co-stars.

"I absolutely fell in love with the idea of not working with actors," he said to laughs during the panel. "I just did a movie with a bunch of Academy Award winners, and I was like, 'These guys are so overrated.'"

MacFarlane and Wahlberg also debuted the red band trailer for "Ted," which does a great job of setting up John's romance with his girlfriend. It also features plenty of heavy-duty wordplay, something that will immediately please "Family Guy" fans.

"He memorized all that," MacFarlane told Moviefone when asked about a scene where Wahlberg is forced to rattle off dozens of names in rapid succession. "I would be dead if I tried to memorize all that. He was like, 'Oh, no. I got it.'"

As for why MacFarlane decided to make "Ted" his first feature, instead of a "Family Guy" film, the director says it was a matter of needing a little repose from the characters.

"I thought a break from 'Family Guy' would be a good thing," he said after the panel. As for when fans can expect to see Peter Griffin and family on the big screen, MacFarlane says "eventually."

"We have an idea," he told Moviefone, "but it's sort of on the back-burner."

For more from SXSW, click here. ]]> 2012-03-11T17:09:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/03/11/sxsw-2012-seth-macfarlane-mark-wahlberg-ted/ <![CDATA[SXSW 2012: Lizzy Caplan Steals 'frankie Go Boom']]> 20591891 Not that you needed further proof that 2012 was going to be the year of Lizzy Caplan, but the actress steals her scenes in "frankie go boom" with the fervor of someone trying to become your next favorite indie queen. She manages to lift what could have been a rote comedy of sibling rivalry and escalating embarrassment into something heartfelt and human.

"frankie go boom" (title intentionally lowercase), which had its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival on Saturday night, is one of those movies you'll stumble upon at 1 a.m. on Showtime and wonder how director Jordan Roberts managed to get everyone you love into the same movie. There's Caplan as Lassie, the female lead, Charlie Hunnam ("Sons of Anarchy") as the titular Frankie, Chris O'Dowd ("Bridesmaids") as his ne'er-do-well brother, Bruce, and Chris Noth and Ron Perlman -- as a manic Hollywood star and a transgender ex-con, respectively. Toss in supporting turns from Whitney Cummings, Nora Dunn and Sam Anderson (Bernard from "Lost"!), as well as a brief cameo from Adam Pally ("Happy Endings") and "frankie go boom" is almost always enjoyable, if only because of the cast's considerable charm and chemistry.

If it doesn't amount to much else, that's because the story is somewhat disjointed: it revolves around a missing sex tape, Bruce's desire to become a director, and Frankie's push to overcome his biggest fears. Where the film shines is in the little moments between Lassie and Frankie, two damaged souls who become bound together by the various forms of humiliation, both big and small, they experience throughout the film.

"I wanted to make a comedy about a second chance in love, a second chance at whatever thing you got slapped down in. I was fascinated by humiliation, and by overcoming humiliation," Roberts said during the post-screening Q&A. "I love comedies that are grounded in the real world; it's a broad comedy but we really wanted to make it feel emotionally real."

Good thing he cast Caplan, then, who is tasked with handling a lot of that emotion. Best known for her role on "Party Down" (and for playing Janis Ian in "Mean Girls"; suck on that!), Caplan made a splash at the Sundance Film Festival in January for her performances in "Bachelorette" and "Save the Date." (Vulture called her a contender for Sundance "It-Girl.") In "frankie," she takes what could be another variation on the Manic Pixie Dream Girl -- Lassie literally runs into Frankie while drunkenly riding her bike one night -- and makes her into someone three-dimensional. There's a scene at the end of the first act, where Lassie -- through tears -- must explain why she's biking-while-intoxicated; it's both heartbreaking and hilarious, and Caplan nails the tonal subtleties with ease.

"What Lizzy does in the backseat of that car, in that early scene, is so extraordinary to me," Roberts said. "She threw herself in, 100 percent."

Judging from her recent run of choices and performances, that seems par for Caplan's course.

For more on SXSW, click here. ]]> 2012-03-11T11:16:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2012/03/11/sxsw-2012-lizzy-caplan-frankie-go-boom/