Trailer: ‘The Artist’ starring John Goodman, Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Béjo

The Artist: A silent movie star loses his career to the rise of “talkies,” and his lover, a rising movie star, saves him from alcoholism and poverty by encouraging him to make a comeback as a dancer.

Starring: Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Béjo, John Goodman, James Cromwell, Penelope Ann Miller
Director: Michel Hazanavicius.

In Theaters: November 23, 2011

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Trailer: ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’ starring Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy: An intelligence officer is recalled from retirement when there are signs that one of the top-ranking officers of the British Secret Intelligence Service is a Soviet mole.

Starring: Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Toby Jones
Director: Tomas Alfredson

In Theaters: December 9, 2011

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South Park’s Trey Parker and Matt Stone Crash NYU Class to Give Storytelling Tips

How come nobody this cool every dropped in on my classes when I was in college?

Trey Parker and Matt Stone went from being cable TV’s darlings to Broadway superstars after The Book of Mormon swept this year’s Tony Awards and has been sold out for every performance through the end of this year.

Of course, the South Park pair have also had hits in the cinema as well with not only the South Park movie but the War on Terror puppetry send-up Team America: World Police.  So obviously Parker and Stone could teach a lesson or two about how to succeed in the entertainment business, which is precisely what the duo did when they made a surprise appearance as instructors at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

The class of 25 freshmen were treated to a lesson on “Storytelling Strategies” by Parker and Stone, including tips on how an outlined episode of South Park should flow from one story beat to the next.  Another gem from the Food Channel obsessed Parker about writing was not to use too many ingredients (“Get one piece of salmon and cook it just right.  Boil it down to one thing”) or else you’ll risk over-complicating the story.  

Didn’t get accepted into NYU this semester?  No worries — the Parker and Stone lesson was taped for Stand In, an MTVu show in which celebrities take over a college class.  It will air on October 3, two days before the second half of South Park‘s fifteenth season debuts on Comedy Central.

You can check out a bit of the lesson below.   Read more

Mila Kunis: “It is incredibly nerve-wracking to go to work because acting is based on opinion”

Would you be surprised to find out that Mila Kunis is waiting to be fired any day now? 

The twenty-eight year old Black Swan beauty recently talked to Stylist about her career in one interesting and enlightening Q&A, where she discussed her role in Friends With Benefits opposite Justin Timberlake,  as well as where she’s headed next.

What was it about the romantic comedy that we’ve all seen so many times before that sealed the deal for Kunis?  “When I got the script it was very dated but I knew it made for a funny movie so I took a meeting with Will Gluck [the director]. Will, Justin, and myself went out to dinner and that’s when we realized we wanted the same thing for the movie. We were able to workshop it, re-write the script and tailor the characters to what we feel our generation is like now. So that’s really what attracted me most to it – to be part of a process in making a character that I was proud of.”

Kunis, who says her and J.T. didn’t exactly “hate each other,” managed to create some explosive sparks on screen in Friends with Benefits thanks to some serious one on one time together and a workshop.  “We did workshop on the script for two months before production and created these characters that were so dear and special to us because they were so much a part of us.”   Read more

4 Clips from ‘Moneyball’ starring Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Chris Pratt

Here are 4 new clips from the upcoming Brad Pitt film, Moneyball.

Opening September 23rd, it tells the story of real-life tale of Major League Baseball general manager Billy Beane, who built up a winning team despite a decreased budget thanks to his sly use of statistical data to calculate the best — and cheapest — players for his roster.

Also starring Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Chris Pratt and Robin Wright, I’ve heard some really good things about the film. I’ve also heard this is Pitt’s Oscar bait film.

Check out the clips below!

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Jennifer Carpenter credits Laura Linney’s friendship for leading her to ‘Dexter’

Dexter star Jennifer Carpenter, who plays police detective Debra Morgan in the hit Showtime series, says she wouldn’t be part of the critically acclaimed drama if it wasn’t for Laura Linney.

“We did ‘The Crucible’ together [on Broadway], and after that, she was attached to ‘[The Exorcism of] Emily Rose.’ She’s the reason I got to audition for that,” she said. “Laura Linney is responsible for me getting The Exorcism of Emily Rose,’ which led to Dexter, so I owe her everything,” 

Carpenter also shared that “she’s still a very good friend.  I’m so grateful, not only for how she’s helped me navigate my career, but also for what a really beautiful person she is. “

via Zap2It

Albert Brooks: “I’m growing into parts I never even knew I wanted to play”

Albert Brooks might be letting his role as Bernie Rose, the main villain of Drive, affect his vocabulary, as when he discussed the role with The Los Angeles Times he described his character by saying “I’ve played a few nasty guys over the years, but never one with … of steel.”

If nothing else, Brooks — typically known for his comedic roles and comedies he has directed himself — insists that Rose isn’t the typical “movie villain,” which suggests why he was cast. 

He explains, “There’s a very clichéd bad guy in American movies, and you know who he is, the blond-haired guy who talks in an accent and from the moment he’s on screen you know everything about him.  What’s great about Bernie is you don’t know who he is in the first 40 seconds. He can turn out to be 11 different things. You just know that you don’t want to cross him.”   Read more

RIP Oscar Winner Cliff Robertson

Cliff Robertson, who won an Oscar for portraying a mentally handicapped man in Charly in 1968, died on Saturday of natural causes.

It was one day after his 88th birthday.

Most of you will remember him as Uncle Ben in the Spider-Man movies but he had a long, wonderful career that lasted 60 years.  He played a young John F. Kennedy in P.T. 109 and starred in the films Gidget, Three Days of the Condor among others.

For an in-depth obituary, check out the Washington Post’s here.

Below is an interview he did a few years ago. It’s an hour-long but he talks about his entire career, the good and the bad. If you have some free time, I’d check it out.

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Former ‘Spartacus’ Star Andy Whitfield Dies of Lymphoma at Age 39

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 14:43 — 10.1MB)

Well, this is really sad news.

Andy Whitfield, the former star of Spartacus: Blood and Sand, died of non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Sunday morning in Sydney Australia.

He was 39 years old. 

Whitfield was in peak physical form when, 18 months ago, he was diagnosed while preparing for the second season of the hit Starz series. Because of the diagnosis, the network was forced to replace him with Liam McIntyre.

I talked with Whitfield before the first season of Spartacus aired and he was absolutely wonderful. Laughing and cracking jokes, he was just so happy about the show, his work and life.

I re-posted the audio-link of the interview with him and cast-mate Lucy Lawless above. If you’d like to re-read the interview, click here.

RIP Andy.

Sigourney Weaver to Aspiring Actresses: “Read Everything You Can, Understand History and Literature”

Even at age 62, Sigourney Weaver is going at her job like she’s 32 — in the past two years, she’s appeared in Avatar, Cedar Rapids and Paul; filmed scenes for upcoming flicks The Cold Light of Day and Red Lights and maintained a steady presence in the New York City theater scene.

“I don’t sort of say to myself, ‘Oh well, this year is the year I have to find some huge earth-shaking part that will win me an Oscar,’” explained Weaver in a profile piece recently published in the New York Post. “I just sort of run out and say, ‘What’s happening?’ and then I try to play in as many games as I can.”

Weaver is also reprising her starring role in 2001 play, The Guys, which centers on a journalist in post-9/11 New York, for a short run at lower Manhattan’s Museum of Jewish Heritage.

Endearingly referring to her work as “really fun,” Weaver offered some advice to the young, aspiring actresses of today. “Read everything you can. You have to understand history and great literature to bring it to the material you are offered. Otherwise, you have to rely on other people’s tastes,” she said before looking back on her own 35-year career. “No one could make me do something I knew wouldn’t work. I believed in all the projects I chose. It didn’t matter to me if they were all successful.”

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