Are you looking for the perfect date movie for Valentine’s Day?
Then look no further than the new romantic-thriller Safe Haven, which opens in theaters on Thursday February 14th and is from Academy Award-nominated director Lasse Hallstrom (The Cider House Rules, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?), best selling author Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook, A Walk to Remember) and Relativity Media, the same team behind the box office smash Dear John.
Safe Haven revolves around a young woman named Kate (Julianne Hough) with a mysterious past. When Kate arrives in the small town of Southport, North Carolina, she bonds with a widower named Alex (Josh Duhamel) with two small children of his own. Reluctant to build any ties in community, Kate and Alex eventually begin a relationship that will be threatened by the dark secrets of her past. In addition to Hough and Duhamel, the film also features performances from Cobie Smulders (The Avengers), David Lyons (NBC’s Revolution), Noah Lomax (Playing for Keeps), and newcomer Mimi Kirkland.
Last summer, I had the pleasure of traveling to Wilmington, North Carolina (along with several other members of the press) to visit the set of Safe Haven and talk with some of the cast and crew. While on set, I had a chance to speak with acclaimed director Lasse Hallstrom, and actors Julianne Hough and Josh Duhamel, as well as witness filming, which included a staged fire and even a complete fireworks show.
It's Archer-palooza, folks.
Not only is Season Three, which saw the FX series ascending to new heights of absurdity and irreverence, now available on extras-packed Blu-ray and DVD, but Season Four premieres on the cable network at 10:00 pm Eastern and Pacific on Thursday, January 17th.
Created by Adam Reed, Archer takes place in the familiar world of stylized, movie-style espionage, following the unabashedly selfish, vain, libidinous, and inconsiderate staff of the International Secret Intelligence Service (ISIS). Foremost among them is the title character, Sterling Archer, codename: Duchess. It's a one of a kind series with a unique wit, lovably unlikable characters, and a propensity towards genuinely surprising turns.
In order to promote the new Blu-ray and the upcoming fourth season, the minds behind Archer brought the animated series to the people with Archer Live!, a four city tour that found the show's voice cast and executive producer putting on a delightfully anarchic, riff-heavy show for devoted Archer fans, who turned out in droves. IAR was lucky enough to cover the inaugural performance of Archer Live! earlier this month at the Echoplex in Los Angeles.
The hit horror-thriller House at the End of the Street is now available on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital download, providing audiences with the opportunity to see ascending superstar and acclaimed young actress Jennifer Lawrence redefining feeble notions of just what it means to be a "scream queen."
More than probably any other single city, Los Angles represents the cultural dream that is a California: a bright, endlessly sunny paradise of populated by pretty people living the life on the farthest edge of what was once an unexplored, wild continent. Gangster Squad, opening nationwide this Friday, January 11th, sleekly evokes this unreal LA with a vision of the city's past while also telling a propulsive action story inspired by 20th Century criminality.
Loosely based on the book by Paul Lieberman, Gangster Squad takes place in a neon-soaked notion of Los Angeles, 1949. Brooklyn-born criminal Mickey Cohen tightens his vice-like grip on the postwar city, bringing East Coast-style organized crime to the Pacific, where his illicit empire becomes a corrosive influence on the LAPD. In order to combat Cohen, a team of incorruptible cops are recruited to stand outside the law and take down Cohen by any means necessary.
Working from a screenplay by former LAPD cop Will Beall (Justice League), Ruben Flesicher (Zombieland, 30 Minutes or Less) directs the film as a two-fisted adventure that uses real-life historical figures to tell a pulpy tale of good guys battling gangsters for the soul of a city. His cast is led by Josh Brolin (No County for Old Men, Men in Black 3) as the squad's leader, with Ryan Gosling (Drive, Blue Valentine), Michael Pena (End of Watch, Observe & Report), Anthony Mackie (The Hurt Locker, Real Steel), Robert Patrick (Safe House, Terminator 2: Judgment Day) and Giovanni Ribisi (Ted, Saving Private Ryan) as the titular team. In addition to Nick Nolte (Warrior, 48 Hrs.) as Chief Parker, along with Sean Penn (Milk, Dead Man Walking) as Mickey Cohen and Emma Stone (The Amazing Spider-Man, The Help) as Grace Faraday, Cohen's ladyfriend.
Last month, Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, and Emma Stone sat down with a group of entertainment journalists on the Los Angeles press day to answer any and all Gangster Squad-related questions. IAR Managing Editor Jami Philbrick was in attendance to hear the actors discuss playing characters based on real people, working together, the most difficult scenes in the film, wool costumes, and the movie's unexpected tone.
Quentin Tarantino made a name for himself with his 1992 debut, Reservoir Dogs and has continued to engage audiences with his unique writing and direction since. Opening Christmas Day is his latest film, Django Unchained, which stars Jamie Foxx (Ray, Miami Vice), Christoph Waltz (Inglorious Basterds, Carnage), Leonardo Dicaprio (Inception, The Basketball Diaries), Kerry Washington (Ray, Last King of Scotland), and Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction, The Long Kiss Goodnight).
The film focuses on Django, played by Foxx, a slave living in the Deep South after having been separated from his wife Broomhilda, played by Washington. When Django is held for a slave auction, Dr. King Schultz (Waltz), a German bounty hunter who uses his former profession of a dentist as a cover, frees Django from his vicious masters and gives him the option of helping him hunt down and kill the Brittle Brothers, a ruthless gang of killers whom only Django has seen. In return, Schultz will free Django from slavery completely and help find and rescue Broomhilda from the charming but brutal Calvin Candie (DiCaprio), who owns Candyland, a plantation where male slaves are trained to fight for sport and female slaves are forced into prostitution.
A press conference was recently held in New York City in which filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, joined by Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson, Kerry Washington, Christoph Waltz, and Don Johnson discussed their new film, Django Unchained.
We're currently neck deep in the holidays, that magical time of the year when millions of citizens engage in a mass migration to stuff ourselves in homes with their extended families, groups of people we know so well and so little. Our often strange familial relationships are made even more dramatic by seemingly irreconcilable generational differences.
In Parental Guidance, arriving at a theater near you on Christmas Day, those generational differences are the basic for family-friendly comedy.
Directed by Andy Fickman (Race to Witch Mountain, The Game Plan), Parental Guidance stars Billy Crystal (When Harry Met Sally, City Slickers) and Bette Midler (The Rose, Beaches) as Artie and Diane, two thoroughly old school grandparents uncomfortable with the fabulous technological age in which they find themselves.
The couple agrees to babysit their trio of grandparents when their overbearing, type-A parents, played by Marisa Tomei (My Cousin Vinny, The Wrestler) and Tom Everett Scott (That Thing You Do!, TV's Southland) go on vacation. Out of touch with the unruly youngsters, Artie and Diane must get beyond the iPhones, Twitter, and Facebook to relate to their grandchildren.
While promoting Parental Guidance, Billy Crystal, Bette Midler, and Marisa Tomei spoke to a group of international entertainment journalists about making the comedy, working with young actors, messy comedic gags, feeling out of touch, and looking back on illustrious careers.
2007's Knocked Up extracted a lot of genuine comedy and emotion from the impending parenthood of a young couple played by Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl, finding the humor in their anxious, unconventional pregnancy. That hit's secret weapon, however, was from further along the domestic spectrum. As Pete and Debbie, Paul Rudd (Anchorman, Role Models) and Leslie Mann (The Change-Up, 17 Again) represented a possible future for the principal couple, one filled alternately with domestic strife and tumult.
Now, writer and director Judd Apatow (The 40 year Old Virgin, Funny People) has brought Pete and Debbie back for This Is 40, the "sort-of sequel" to Knocked Up hitting theaters nationwide this Friday, December 21st. The film picks up five years later, as the parents both continue to struggle with raising their two daughters, tolerating one another, and owning their own businesses, all while facing the milestone birthday that is forty. Though the characters undoubtedly love another, This Is 40 captures just how difficult it can be to spend a life with the person you love.
The central duo are joined once again by Apatow and Mann's real-life daughters, Maude Apatow and Iris Apatow, playing Pete and Debbie's kids, Sadie and Charlotte. The film's packed ensemble cast also features a whole lot of notable actors such as Albert Brooks (Drive), John Lithgow (The Campaign), Megan Fox (Transformers), Jason Segel (The Muppets), Charlyne Yi (Paper Heart), Chris O'Dowd (The IT Crowd), Lena Dunham (HBO's Girls), Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids), Robert Smigel ("Triumph the Insult Comic Dog"), and Annie Mumolo (Bridesmaids).
At the Los Angeles press day for This Is 40, IAR was one of several entertainment outlets on hand to discuss the new movie with Judd Apatow, Paul Rudd, and Leslie Mann. With abundant good humor, the director and stars of This Is 40 talked about the inspirations for the film, how they relate to their characters, making it through comedic scenes without laughing, glazing ham, improvising, and getting older.
It’s been nine years since the last Lord of the Rings installment hit theaters but this Friday, December 14th we can finally return to Middle Earth with the debut of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. The film, directed by Peter Jackson, is the first part of trilogy of films adapting the enduringly popular masterpiece The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien. The three films tell a continuous story set in Middle-earth sixty years before The Lord of the Rings which Jackson and his filmmaking team brought to the big screen in the blockbuster trilogy that culminated with the Oscar-winning The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
The adventure follows the journey of title character Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome Dragon Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the wizard, Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo finds himself joining a company of thirteen Dwarves led by the legendary warrior Thorin Oakenshield. Their journey will take them into the wild, through treacherous lands swarming with Goblins and Orcs, as well as a mysterious and sinister figure known only as the Necromancer.
Ian McKellen (The Lord of the Rings, X-Men) returns as Gandalf the Grey with Martin Freeman (Hot Fuzz, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy) in the central role of Bilbo Baggins, and Richard Armitage (Captain America: The First Avenger, Robin Hood) as Thorin Oakenshield. Also returning to the cast are Elijah Wood as Frodo and Andy Serkis as Gollum.
At the New York City press day for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, I was among the entertainment journalists lucky enough to speak with director Peter Jackson, producer Philippa Boyens, senior visual effects supervisor Joe Letteri, along with stars Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Freeman, Elijah Wood, and Andy Serkis.
Available to purchase on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital Download beginning December 11th is the box office hit The Bourne Legacy, which is the forth chapter in The Bourne Identity series that has earned over $1 billion worldwide and is based on the popular novels by author Robert Ludlum. Academy Award-winner Matt Damon (Good Will Hunting) takes a break from playing Jason Bourne so the series can focus on Aaron Cross (Academy Award-nominee Jeremy Renner), another member of the dangerous Treadstone program.
In addition to Renner, the new film also stars Academy Award-winner Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener), Academy Award-nominee Ed Norton (American History X), and Stacey Keach (Cellmates), as well as returning Bourne Franchise cast members Academy Award-nominee Joan Allen (The Contender), Academy Award-nomine Albert Finney (Erin Brockovich), Academy Award-nominee David Strathaim (Good Night, and Good Luck), and Scott Glenn (Silverado). The movie was co-written by Dan Gilroy and director Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton), who wrote the entire Bourne film series as well as helming The Bourne Legacy.
Batman is back!
Available for purchase on Blu-ray Combo Pack, DVD and Digital Download beginning December 4th is The Dark Knight Rises, the third and final chapter in director Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Trilogy. Following the success of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, Academy Award-winner Christian Bale (The Fighter) returns once again as the Caped Crusader defending the streets of Gotham from a whole new crop of bad guys.
In addition to the return of Bale in the dual role of Bruce Wayne/Batman, the film also welcomes back Oscar-winner Michael Caine (The Cider House Rules) as Alfred Pennyworth, Oscar-winner Morgan Freeman (Million Dollar Baby) as Lucius Fox, and Oscar-nominee Gary Oldman (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) as Commissioner Gordon, as well as new cast members such as Oscar-winner Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose) as Miranda Tate, Oscar-nominee Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married) as Selina Kyle, Tom Hardy (Warrior) as Bane, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Looper) as John Blake. The film also features cameos from Batman Begins actors Cillian Murphy (Red Lights) as Dr. Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow, and Oscar-nominee Liam Neeson (Schindler’s List) as Ra’s al Ghul.
While Batman Begins was loosely based on Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One, and The Dark Knight took its inspiration from seminal Batman stories such as Batman: The Killing Joke by Alan Moore, and Batman: The Long Halloween by Jeph Loeb, The Dark Knight Rises seems to take its lead from Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, as well as Batman: Knightfall by Chuck Dixon, which first featured the villain Bane.
