Lenny Abrahamson discusses “What Richard Did” and “Frank”

Irish director Lenny Abrahamson’s third feature, What Richard Did, made a great stateside impression when it premiered last month at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival check out our review here and is currently on a limited release here at Cinema Village. Now back in Ireland, Abrahamson took some time out of post-production on his next feature, Frank, to speak to me in further detail on What Richard Did.

Lauren Damon: How was your experience at the Tribeca?
Lenny Abrahamson: It was really good! The film, you know seemed to go down well and we got quite a lot of good press and so generally very pleased with it.

LD: Between the festival, onDemand and now this New York engagement, What Richard Did is getting all different sorts of exposure, any thoughts on that?
LA: I mean it’s a very small release but it’s great because I suppose it has a chance to grow if people like it and maybe it gets taken by arthouse cinemas in other towns and also it’ll be reviewed. So that’s all very important…I’ve made three films, this is the first one that’s had a release in the states and I think you know, it’s great. it’s such an important place to have your films seen. And I like Tribeca as a company as well, they look after you pretty well. I think it’s a good name to be associated with.

LD: Were your first two features also Irish dramas?
LA: They were dramas…and they’d been very successful over this side–certainly critically very successful..Both the first two films won British Evening Standard Film Awards and so they’ve actually done well. It’s just that they’re very–the first two films are very, in terms of like accent and demographic, they’re probably tough for an American audience and because of that you find American cinema exhibitors are really frightened of strong accents. Whereas What Richard Did is more of a middle-class milieu and that makes it I think a bit easier. But they’ve been onDemand and they’ve aired on the Independent Film Channel and that sort of stuff and you know, both were in Toronto and the first film was in Telluride. So they’ve existed in the states, they just never got distribution.
What Richard Did tells the story of a middle class teenager (played by Jack Reynor) who, in a drunken brawl, accidentally kills a romantic rival at a summer party. As Richard, Reynor does a spectacular job at playing an otherwise good-natured teen dealing with the crushing guilt of his life-altering action. This includes a tearful confession to his father.

LD: Jack Reynor told me that you made a lot of on-set decisions with the confession scene, how did that change the film?
LA: Yea, well the peak of the scene is when Richard blurts out that he’s responsible for the killing…and that was never in the script. I mean we changed a lot in the script anyway and the script itself was evolving through the writing process. But you know, once you start shooting a film you just test. You just immediately have to respond to how the stuff feels and you have to look at it. You can’t just stick rigidly to some kind of pre-existing plan and I always like to allow things to evolve. But in that scene particularly, it just felt on the day that there was something sort of bursting to get out in the scene. It happened quite organically, we just kept working on it, working on it, working on it. Shooting it, shooting it, shooting it, until we just felt that Richard had to…in the moment where his guard is down because he’s being held by his father and everything that that means, he allows himself to dissolve a little bit…he becomes more of a boy again. And so he just goes that last little bit and lets it all out in that belief that he has in the instant that this will be cathartic. But it’s not cathartic, it’s dreadful. And it just felt, on the day that felt absolutely right. I can be quite skeptical about you know, people talk about scenes that affect the crew and you know, ‘the whole set really felt something had happened’ and I always think those scenes aren’t great, you know. There’s a kind of illusion that if it feels powerful, it must be amazing and sometimes it’s not. But actually that was one case where it really did feel very strong and it translated onto screen.

LD: Then you also have Richard having a physical breakdown on his own, what was it like on set for that?
LA: We did that–there was always a scene in the script and it didn’t specify in the script really what happened, it was just talked about. I always had this image of Richard on his hands and knees having just woken up in a sort of panic. But while we were shooting we just never got a chance, just given the schedule, we never got a chance to attack that scene really properly. So I decided I would go back after we finished principle photography…Halfway through the cut we went back out to the location and we spent the day there. And I think the way we worked on it was just to develop a kind of physical shape to the scene…I’m a great believer of acting from the outside-in…So rather than talking endlessly about what he was feeling, we just got to a kind of really heightened physical state. And then that brought with it a kind of mental component and Jack found it that way. I mean some actors are different, some actors can think themselves into that state but I tend to feel that starting physically is a–it’s like you know if you kind of intensely enter into the shape of the action. Then a lot of times the kind of interior part comes with it…And we shot it about three times on two cameras, it was really exhausting for Jack. You can tell in the scene. It really felt very good and I think it’s a really important scene in the film.

LD: Did you find yourself wanting the audience to sympathize with Richard through all of this?
LA: Yeah, I mean my sort of view is that we’re all capable of doing sort of awful things and very very few of us are the sort with the kind of bravery you’d need to admit to it if you had the chance of getting away with it. So I would like them to empathize with him just like one should empathize with any other human being I would think. You know, anybody who isn’t a monster. And Richard certainly isn’t a monster. But another way of answering that question is to say I don’t think it’s the director’s job in a film like this to tell people how to feel at all. I think that the important thing is to try to render the situation as truthfully and in as much detail and as much kind of natural veracity as you can achieve…And then if you do that, you allow audiences to enter into that world and then to feel about as they do. I mean of course you make decisions when you cast somebody like Jack, you know there’s instantly kind of warm about him. But there’s also in the way that he played Richard, there are darker aspects too…It’s worth saying that audiences have and audiences will react differently to him. Some people say to me “God, you know, he was chilling and you really did that really well.” And then other people say “He was so beautiful and I cared so much about him and you did that really well” So I think all you can do is try to penetrate as kind of truthfully and deeply as you can as a director. And give as rich an encounter with that world as you can and then you let it go and you let the audience kind of position their own decision inside it.

LD: Did you audition many young actors for Richard?
LA: We did audition a lot of actors for Richard but Jack you know, he just has a certain presence. He’s just absolutely right for that part. When I saw him for the first time, I sort of knew that that would be it. And then we started to adjust the film to fit him, to fit Jack as a person so that we could allow Richard and Jack to overlap. But I didn’t, it wasn’t a hard decision to cast him. I mean it was he’s such an unusually poised young actor. He’s from the right background, he understood the story really well. He knew kids like that. He went to one of those schools. And he’s a really fine actor, I can’t imagine the film working if we hadn’t found him.

LD: Now Jack is going to be in the next Transformers film, were you around him at all when he got that part?
LA: He had said to me that you know, he got had an agent…and then that didn’t work out. He’d been out to the states and he said he was going to go back again…give it another shot. And we were in Toronto together when he was talking about that and I was trying to advise him not to! Because I thought, you know, like so many young actors he would go out there and just get swallowed up. And he had no money and he just had a place to stay just about. I was trying to persuade him he should spend more time in London, but he said to me ‘Look, my plan is to go out to Hollywood and get a three-picture deal…’ I just thought he was deluded! Not that he’s not a great actor. That just doesn’t happen. People are going out there everyday–hordes of kids are arriving there every day and it’s just the reality and the dream are very different. But yea, Jack called me and said ‘I’ve just been cast in Transformers, it’s for a three-picture deal’ and I just thought ‘Well there ya go!’ [Laughs] What do I know? And I’m really delighted for him. Aiming for an autumn release is Abrahamson’s next feature, Frank, which sees Michael Fassbender donning a cartoonish facemask to play an eccentric leader of a band alongside Domhnall 2Gleeson and Maggie Gyllenhaal.

LD: Where are you with Frank now?
LA: We’re kind of hopefully about six weeks away from locking picture and after that it’s just lots and lots of sound work and music work and that. Exciting.

LD: Is this based on the character of Frank Sidebottom?
LA: That’s the thing, the history of the project. Jon Ronson one of the writers was in the Frank Sidebottom band back in the eighties and that’s how this idea began. But actually the character in our film isn’t Frank Sidebottom anymore. So we’ve just made him up. He’s an American instead of a guy from Manchester. He’s a real musician…He’s not–the original Frank Sidebottom was a kind of alter ego, a kind of comedy persona of this guy, so they’re very different. But there is a kind of visual similarity in that Frank Sidebottom wore a head not a million miles away from the head that Fassbender wears in this film. But it’s a totally imagined film.

LD: What was the casting process like on this film?
LA: Like any film it’s a bit of an adventure when you start. I certainly didn’t anticipate–I mean I was delighted to have Michael in it, he’s fantastic. He’s such a great actor and he’s such a fascinating actor because…there’s a kind of energy, a kind of intensity that comes over. And it comes over in Frank despite the fact that he’s wearing a mask. And you still know it’s him and there’s still that kind of quality to what he does. And having him, it helped us get the rest of the cast to be so great. I mean Domhnall Gleeson who’s a superb young actor and he’s destined for really big things and then Maggie as well who’s amazing you know, really very courageous in what she’s doing in the film. So yeah, it was quite an adventure…

It was a really happy shoot and I think the cast really enjoyed it. And that’s not always the case. You know there was a great sense of camaraderie and a real community at the center of the film and I think the best thing about it is the actors really gel together like a band…What you’re going to hear in the film is what they played on the day. The music is all recorded live. So they actually do work as a band. And that was very exciting.

LD: So the cast did they’re own musical performances?
LA: They sing, they play instruments…it’s the real thing… Michael sings, he plays guitar. Domhnall plays keyboard, sings and Maggie plays crazy synthesizers and sings. And then you have Carla Azar who’s a superb drummer in a band called Autolux she plays with. She also plays with Jack White. So she’s the drummer. And then this brilliant young French actor called Francois Civil who just happens to be a great bass player as well. It made the casting really hard because we wanted to cast people who were musical and who could really play instead of having them mime to playback. Which you can tell when that’s happening by watching. So to get a bunch of people who are great actors but also musicians was a really tricky but I think we managed.

LD: Did the mask on Michael stay on throughout shooting?
LA: No! No, I think he would of died if he had to leave the head on [laughs]…It’s really funny, I’ve been cutting the film now for a while and after a while you’re just working with cut sequences. So you’re not looking at rushes anymore, you’re not looking at you know every take from the beginning to the end so I’ll go through the whole day of you know with the editor and we’ll just be looking at him with the head on but every so often we have to look back to the rushes and look for you know an alternate take or something and then you see him, he takes the head off after “cut” and you think ‘Oh Christ, yes, Fassbender!’ you know? You’ve sort of forgotten that he’s there because the character really works…You really believe the character, you forget he’s there. But yea, I think it took some getting used to and we designed the head around–you know it’s specifically designed for him, but it was hard. Visibility was really poor–and he’s running and doing all sorts of stuff in the film so it’s quite an achievement.

What Richard Did is currently on a limited NYC engagement at Cinema Village as well as onDemand. Check back with Media Mikes this fall for more on “Frank”.

Read Complete Article
Filed Under: Film Interviews, Interviews Tagged With: abrahamson, discusses, frank, lenny, richard

Julianne Moore and Michael Angarano Discuss “The English Teacher”

Craig Zisk’s new comedy, The English Teacher stars Julianne Moore as Linda Sinclair, a teacher in smalltown Pennsylvania whose quiet life is interrupted by the return of former student, Jason Sherwood. Sherwood, played by Michael Angarano (Haywire, Red State), is a failed playwright who Linda decides to redeem by mounting a production of his college thesis play at her school. Linda is helped along by the school’s drama teacher played by Nathan Lane. Moore and Angarano spoke to MediaMikes as the film made it’s debut at the Tribeca Film Fest this week.

Lauren Damon: How was it to work with this ensemble cast? You have all these Broadway veterans as well as small cameos from John Hodgman and Jim Bruer.

Julianne Moore: “That’s right! It was a pretty extraordinary cast actually. There were great, really really great people with yeah, Norbert Leo Butz and Jessica Hecht and Nathan Lane, Greg Kinnear and then yea, John Hodgeman and Jim Bruer. Jim Bruer I’d done SNL with a long time ago so I knew him from that. I mean that was my son was two months old, so that was fifteen years ago, which is crazy. But yea, we had a great cast. We were pretty lucky.”

Michael Angarano: “It was amazing, especially for me. Like I grew up watching them…Nine Months, The Birdcage, all these movies are like my family favorite movies. Like the kind of movies that you watch with your family. So for me it felt really cool and there was one scene, like other than the scenes I got to do with Julianne and Nathan and by myself which were so much fun, the scenes we would do with the whole ensemble really felt kind of like a play. Which was kind of fun to think about. I did a play when I was seven years old. I was Tiny Tim in Radio City and so I don’t have play experience. It was really fun.”

 

LD: Your last play experience was in 2006’s The Vertical Hour, is there anything that would lure her back to Broadway?

Julianne Moore: “Nothing!”

Michael Angarano: “I eavesdropped on a lot of conversations with her and Nathan where he was like ‘You know you’d be really great…’”

Moore:  “But then Nathan was like ‘I have this play’ and he’d send it to me and it’d be something that he’d like to direct and I was like ‘If you’re not gonna be in it, I’m not gonna do it!’ because directors do it and then, you know, they leave and stuff. Plays are really hard when you have children and when I did The Vertical Hour years ago, I just, I didn’t think about that. About how they wipe out your entire weekend and one day in the middle of the week where you’re not home and it’s just not worth it for my family. It’s actually easier to do a film. Because you come home at the end of the night, you’re there for dinner, you put them to bed, you get up, you go to work. You know, it’s like you’re on their school schedule and you have weekends free. But the theater is tough with kids.”

 

In that production Moore played opposite onstage boyfriend Andrew Scott who’s since went on to a MediaMikes favorite, BBC’s Sherlock.

LD: Do you keep in touch with Andrew Scott since he’s become Moriarty?

Moore: “I haven’t seen him in ages! He’s a great guy. He’s a wonderful guy.”

 

Crucial to the story of The English Teacher is the role Moore’s Linda played in inspiring Angarano’s Jason, Moore was lucky enough to have a similarly life changing teacher she spoke about:

Moore: “I had a teacher, I mean my high school drama teacher, Robie Taylor was the one who said to me you know, ‘you could be an actor’ and I was in plays after schools but I’d never met an actor, I’d never seen a real play, I didn’t think you could make a real living doing it. I didn’t know anything about the theatre. And she said ‘here’s a copy of dramatics magazine and here are different schools that you can go to’ and she kind of…I was like oh, okay! If I hadn’t met her, I don’t think I would have done that. I mean, so she really changed my life. And she knows that. I told her. I met her years later when I was in LA for a while and she was living in Arizona. And yea, she altered the course of my life.”

 

LD: Were there any special school productions that you did with her that you thought was like a turning point?

Moore: “Well she was…super ambitious in terms of what she put on. I mean the first production I put on with her was Tartuffe, Moliere’s Tartuffe. So nobody does that. They usually do Barefoot in the Park, you know? Or something. So she, I also did The Music Man with her which is a little more traditional. But I also played Madea for her. She just was very, she was like a real director, she seemed like a real theater director.”

 

LD: What drew you to the character of Linda?

Moore: “I loved Linda. I mean I was like Linda, I was the kind of kid that read all the time and went to the library and won the summer reading contest and ended up in the drama club after school because it was just another–I wasn’t athletic, I couldn’t do anything else–it was just another extension of reading. I feel like it would have been very easy for me to have been Linda if I didn’t have a high school English teacher who told me I could be an actress. So I found her incredibly relatable and I loved her. And I loved her kind of…she’s sort of an innocent, you know? And yea, I thought she was really endearing actually.”

 

LD:  A lot of these characters offer no apologies for their actions where it might be expected, can you talk about that?

Angarano: “It was kind of interesting because when we did a table read for it and when I first read Jason out loud with everybody there, it came across much angrier than I think he should have come across and I realized that there’s like this real like, kind of childishness about him that’s very annoying. You know what I mean? Like even his relationship with LInda in movie is kind of, I don’t know, he thinks that he’s this mature guy and he’s kind of projected himself to be that but he’s really just a boy. And so in the end I think it’s kind of like, you know I don’t think he really intentionally wants to hurt anybody. But he’s kind of like you know, kind of manipulative in an annoying childish, annoying kind of guy-getting-what-he-wants kind of way.”

Moore: “I think one of the nice things though about the movie too is people don’t apologize. A lot of them do some things, it’s kind one of those cause and effect things. Where at the end of the day, a lot of people are very shamed by their behavior [laughs] but there’s a kind of forgiveness that they all offer one another and a kind of looking the other way. Maybe they all weren’t their best selves at that moment but they had the best intentions. There’s a humanity I think to their recovery that’s very nice. In a sense where you know, your mother always told you ‘just let time go by and it’ll be better’ it’s true, they all kind of let a little time go by and it all sort of settles down again.”

The English Teacher is available now OnDemand and will hit theaters on May 17th.

 

Read Complete Article
Filed Under: Film Interviews, Interviews Tagged With: angarano, discuss, english, julianne, michael, moore, ...

“A Single Shot” Premieres at Tribeca

Based on Matthew Jones’s 1996 novel of the same name, A Single Shot stars Sam Rockwell as a down and out hunter who accidentally kills a young woman. Having found money in her camp, he decides to hide what he’s done and use it to try and put his life back together leading to an escalating cat-and-mouse game with the owners of the money. Having made its debut at the Berlin International Festival, the film held it’s US premiere at Tribeca on Friday April 26th.

Actress Heather Lind plays Mincy in the film whom she describes as a “free spirit, impulsive woman that tries to befriend Sam’s character and bring him out of his funk”. Lind is a familiar New York face coming from Boardwalk Empire as well as a long list of Broadway credits, I asked her what it meant to have the Film Fest in the city:

Heather Lind: “It’s a great question, I’ve been in New York for about twelve years, I grew up up in Albany but I’ve been in the city for twelve years. I just love this city, I think anything that happens, that appears in the city is a good thing. Working on this film was kind of surreal enough and then getting to come to the premiere here in New York was, you know great.”

The atmospheric film, though set in West Virginia, was shot in Vancouver, Canada. Director David M Rosenthal discussed this choice:

David M Rosenthal: “I was looking for a place to shoot that had, you know this kind of gray weather and that provided this fog layer and this mist layer. And there’s not that many places where you can find that and Vancouver has it in spades and also has great crews and great secondary actors. It seemed to make a lot of sense.

Rosenthal went on to praise his ensemble cast: “It was so wonderful for me to get all of these people together because you know, there’s so many actors in this movie that I got to work with who I absolutely revere. I’m not even talking shit, I really revere these actors like Sam Rockwell and Jeffrey Wright and Bill Macy and Jason Isaacs and Kelly Reilly. Really I just walk around feeling just blessed about the fact that I got to work with them.”

The director was particularly excited to see Sam Rockwell take on the part of John Moon: “Sam Rockwell is one of the most versatile actors in America. He’s maybe one of the very best actors of his generation. I don’t think many people could argue with that. So the list gets short when you’re thinking of someone of a specific age, it’s like ‘okay, maybe we could get x, maybe we could even get this guy, maybe we can get this guy, maybe we can get Sam Rockwell. Let’s get Sam Rockwell.’ ‘Sam Rockwell read it, he likes the script.’ ‘Really?’ Fantastic!”

British actress Kelly Reilly plays Rockwell’s wife in the film and added to Rosenthal’s enthusiasm for their lead: “I had probably six days on this movie, all-in-all and I just remember working, just having a blast with Sam. He’s such a fun down-to-Earth man. So I really enjoyed working with him.”

Considering the film begins with John Moon carrying out a murder, I asked writer Matthew F. Jones if he could see John Moon in a sympathetic light:

Matthew F Jones: “I always look to John as a very noble, upright guy in a very tough situation and part of the, I think part of the interesting of this movie…was that anyone of us could put ourselves in John situation. The life he was living and then what happens to him in a single shot and the decisions that he had to make and so…I don’t look at him as a shady character, I look at him as a noble guy in a tough situation.”

Sam Rockwell was in agreement with Jones regarding his character: “I do sympathize with him, but you know, that’s–I hope that everybody does. I think he’s really isolated and a lonely guy, he’s trying to reconnect with his family and stuff.”

Lauren Damon: Are you drawn to isolated characters like John?

Rockwell: Well, I don’t know, maybe. I’m drawn to those guys for some reason but I like them all.

LD: A lot of this movie is physically grueling, how was that?

Rockwell: Yeah, a lot of cramps! Waking up in the middle of the night with a lot of cramps and stuff.

Rockwell was also on the red carpet at TFF this year supporting other films he was in, Trust Me and A Case of You.

LD: Was it by accident you wound up with three films premiering at Tribeca?

Rockwell: Well, that was a fluke. That was a fluke.

 

You can read our review of A Single Shot here!

 

Related Content

Read Complete Article
Filed Under: Commentary, Film Interviews, Interviews Tagged With: premieres, shot, single, tribeca

Tribeca Film Festival Review “A Single Shot”

Director: David M. Rosenthal
Starring: Sam Rockwell, Jeffrey Wright, Kelly Reilly, Jason Isaacs, Joe Anderson
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 116 minutes

Our Score: 3 out of 5 Stars

 A Single Shot begins with West Virginian hunter John Moon (Sam Rockwell) accidentally shooting a woman dead while hunting deer. As if this weren’t enough cause for alarm, John discovers both a hand gun and a suspicious stash of cash in her makeshift camp. Moon hides the body and takes the money. Never the best plan. What follows is a tense backwoods cat and mouse game held together by a strong lead in a terrifying setting.

Moon, it turns out, has already been in trouble with the law as a poacher and sees the money as a means to get back his estranged wife (Kelly Reilly) and son. It doesn’t forgive Moon for his actions but reveals him as a desperate fool for thinking his plan has any chance of succeeding. He’s not unfamiliar with breaking the law, but not on the scale of the men whose threats start with phone calls and escalate. Rockwell does an amazing job at taking John through all the levels of fear. Whether he’s trying to remain calm as his phone rings in the presence of an old friend (Jeffrey Wright) or outright challenging unseen attackers in the woods, you can really feel the panic of a man realizing he’s in way over his head. The forrest surroundings John was so familiar with at the start of the film suddenly turn on him and it seems as though violence can, and in fact does, break out anywhere around him. Often shockingly so. The woods are beautifully shot in all their ominous foggy glory by Eduard Grau, and manage to seem expansive and claustrophobic at the same time.

The strong ensemble cast is perhaps too large to be sustained by a film whose focus must remain solidly on Moon’s dilemma. For example, as Waylon, the thug behind the money, Jason Isaacs isn’t given as much screen time as you would like considering he’s supposed to be the big bad of the movie. Consequently he is out-menaced early on by lackey Obadiah (a magnetic, psycho Joe Anderson) and Moon’s divorce lawyer played by William H. Macy (wearing a crime against toupees). Similarly, Moon and his wife’s relationship could have been strengthened to get at the heart of Moon more than the flirtations we wind up seeing with his neighbor’s daughter. Ultimately though this is Rockwell’s movie and there’s no doubt he’s an expert at isolation. His Moon is reason enough to wander into these woods.

 

Read Complete Article
Filed Under: Film Reviews Tagged With: festival, film, review, shot, single, tribeca, ...

Tribeca Film Festival Review “V/H/S/2”

Directed by: Simon Barrett, Adam Wingard, Eduardo Sanchez, Gregg Hale, Timo Tjahjanto, Gareth Evans, Jason Eisener
Distributed by: Magnolia Pictures
Rated: R
Running Time: 95 mins

Score: 4 out of 5 stars

V/H/S 2 is, as was its predecessor, an anthology film comprised of horror shorts by different directors strung loosely together by a framing story. The excuse for getting the tapes together this time are investigators stumbling upon the collection on a search for a missing person. Sure. So how are the tapes?

The first one, “Clinical Trials” I thought was cause for concern. A man’s new artificial eye is doubling as a recording device for its creators’ research. Of course this being a horror film, the eye brings with it the startling additional ability to see the dead. Eventually the patient links up with an eccentric female patient who can hear the dead and panic and chaos ensue. Well made and a bit slicker for having the eye-camera being so super high-tech, “Clinical Trials” just seemed a bit predictable compared to what V/H/S delivered.

If “Clinical Trials” had me worried, the second short “A Ride in the Park” brought me right back on board. A biker mounts a camera to his helmet in order to record his ride through the park when he is unfortunately attacked by zombies. But the mounted camera records regardless. From then on, we get a hilarious look at the POV of a zombie– from the uninterrupted conversion from human to undead, to his bumbling recruitment of his small zombie posse. A bloody climax at a kids’ park birthday party had me cracking up.

“Safe Haven” continued the upward climb of these stories for the sheer number of WTF moments per minute. A film crew looks to investigate a cult leader and his flock in their compound. The Indonesian guru, ominously known as “father”, is surrounded by tons of female acolytes who eventually over power the crew in a deliriously over-the-top and hellish finale. The punchline of this short was my favorite in V/H/S 2.

It’s difficult to follow the madness of “Safe Haven” but “Slumber Party Alien Abduction” does so admirably. Eventually the most serious of the bunch, it relies on a dog-mounted video recorder (he’s the tool in a prank war), to capture a terrifying batch of aliens assaulting a kids’ party. It’s a blur of panicked teens, woods, and that poor dog having to face aliens. The sounds of the alien invasion are what really sell the terror here, but having the dog camera-man makes this one the hardest to watch both for the visual shakiness and his helplessness.

Notable in this installment is often its reliance on broad sunlight over shadows which help tip the scale towards more humor than horror on occasion, while helping to showcase the gore in all its glory. Like the previous film, the setup to our watching this collection is mostly irrelevant but the payoff contains to my mind the most gruesome shot of the film. After what we’ve been through, it’s an impressive feat and a great closer to our trip through this horror funhouse.

Read Complete Article
Filed Under: Film Reviews Tagged With: 2, festival, film, review, tribeca, vhs, ...

Tribeca Film Festival Review “What Richard Did”

Starring: Jack Reynor, Roisin Murphy, Sam Keeley and Lars Mikkelson
Directed by: Lenny Abrahamson
Rated: Not Rated
Running time: 1 hr 27 mins

Our Score: 5 out of 5 stars

Eighteen-year-old Richard is the leader of his local rugby club in Dublin who’s enjoying an idyllic summer of beach house parties with his teammates and their friends. Charming and well-liked by most everyone around him, Richard easily catches the eye of Lara (Roisin Murphy), the would-be girlfriend teammate Connor (Sam Keeley). One drunken night out, tensions run especially high between the two boys causing Richard to lash out with tragic consequences. What follows is an impressive, slow-burning morality tale that I find myself continuing to think about days afterwards.

Typically being the “alpha-male” in a teen film is cause enough for an audience to condemn someone like Richard, nevermind the act upon which the title hinges, and yet Reynor manages to win us over. The interactions amongst his crew early in the film are by turns humorous, immature, and occasionally insulting (as teen boys can get) but above all things, they feel genuine. These are basically likable teens for whom things are going well. We meet Richard’s parents (Lorraine Pilkington and a brilliant Lars Mikkelsen) who are also likable and proud of their son but for the most part are hands off. This too is to the films benefit. When Richard’s underlying rashness gets the better of him, it is to his mates and girlfriend that he turns to first in dealing with the guilt. Abrahamson relies on nothing but ambient sound and hushed conversation to increase the pressure felt by all.

Watching Reynor go through all the stages of his guilt, including a stunning loss of control in Richard’s family’s beach house, is fascinating. That he manages to do it while maintaining a degree of the audience’s sympathy in an objectively awful situation is the real triumph of What Richard Did. It’s a tricky film without any easy answers.

Read Complete Article
Filed Under: Film Reviews Tagged With: festival, film, review, richard, tribeca

Tribeca Film Festival 2013 – Red Carpet Coverage & Film Reviews

The 12th annual Tribeca Film Festival is being held from April 17-28 in New York City. The festival’s mission is to help filmmakers reach the broadest possible audience, enable the international film community and general public to experience the power of cinema and promote New York City as a major filmmaking center. Tribeca Film Festival is well known for being a diverse international film festival that supports emerging and established directors. The Festival has screened over 1400 films from over 80 countries since its first festival in 2002. Since its founding, it has attracted an international audience of more than 4 million attendees and has generated an estimated $750 million in economic activity for New York City.

Check out the following link for the 2013 film schedule

A Single Shot: The writer and director join stars Sam Rockwell, Kelly Reilly and Heather Lind at the thriller’s TFF premiere. Rockwell stars as John Moon, a man caught in a tense cat-and-mouse chase after stealing money from a woman he accidentally shot while hunting in rural West Virginia. Check out our review here!

Lil Bub and Friendz : Documents the rise of cat videos on the internet as both a subculture and in some cases, a potential goldmine. Bub and owner Mike Bridavsky joined doc directors Andy Capper and Eisner on TFF’s red carpet.

Trust Me: Clark Gregg’s second directorial effort after 2008’s Choke finds the actor also starring as Howard Holloway a down on his luck agent to child stars. The film’s premiere at Tribeca included Gregg, newcomer Saxon Sharbino, and co-stars Felicity Huffman (“Desperate Housewives”) and Paul Sparks (“Boardwalk Empire”).

V/H/S 2: Follow-up to last year horror film, which is an anthology film that is comprised of horror shorts by different directors strung loosely together by a framing story. Click here for our review.

What Richard Did: Director Lenny Abrahamson joined star Jack Reynor to talk about their Irish drama which made it’s Stateside debut at Tribeca. Check out our review here!

Click each poster below for our red carpet coverage from the following films:

..

Related Content

Read Complete Article
Filed Under: Commentary, Featured Tagged With: 2013, carpet, coverage, festival, film, red, ...

Clark Gregg’s “Trust Me” Premieres at Tribeca

Clark Gregg is known the world over for acting as bad ass Agent Phil Coulson in the Marvel cinematic universe, however five years ago the actor added directing to his resumé with his wonderful first feature, Choke, based on the Chuck Palahniuk novel. This week he returns to directing as well as writing and starring in Trust Me. Described as a Hollywood Neo-noir, the movie follows Gregg as Howard Holloway, a onetime-child-actor-turned-Hollywood-agent, who allies himself with a talented rising star, Lydia (played by Saxon Sharbino). Sharbino and Gregg are joined in the cast by Felicity Huffman as a fierce producer and Paul Sparks as Lydia’s drunken father. They premiered the film at the Tribeca Film Festival on Saturday night to an audience that included Michael J Fox and Gregg’s wife, actress Jennifer Grey.

Director Gregg finished the film extremely close to the start of the festival. “Nobody’s seen the film,” he said of the impending screening, “Nobody’s seen the film and you kind of, you hope it works! And this is a lot of people in a very public way to see it. You know it’s like you’re going to the edge of the high dive, you’re kind of praying some water’s down there.” As for taking on multiple roles in the film making process, Gregg doesn’t have a preference. “No, it’s funny I love them as a whole, I don’t see them really as different. I see them parts of different jobs on the same ship. And to me there’s something about making a film that’s my voice, that I wrote using actors that I love and am comfortable with–there’s just nothing better.” Comparing acting in last summer’s mega-blockbuster Avengers to helming Trust Me, he added “You have a lot less responsibility. It feels like a lot more channeled and focused. I knew what I had to do on The Avengers and I was very glad I wasn’t Joss! And in this case, this was something that, I don’t know, I just had a deep personal connection to the script that I wrote.”

..

For actors Paul Sparks and Felicity Huffman, that script was a major factor  in attracting them to their parts.

Paul Sparks: “I really like the script. I’m like a script person. I was fascinated by the tone of the movie because it’s very funny. It’s funny and then it kind of really turns at one point and I think that’s really brave.”

Felicity Huffman: “What attracts me is good writing and good storytelling what you want to be saying, at least what I want to be saying when you read the script is ‘oh my god, what happens next?’ And that’s indeed what I was saying while I was reading this and so I loved this story. It was compelling and unique. I don’t think this story has been told.”

Relative newcomer Saxon Sharbino wasn’t familiar first with Clark Gregg as a writer-director. “I watched him in The Avengers but I didn’t really like know him really…it was really cool meeting him” she told us. As for working with all of these veteran actors–the cast also includes Allison Janney, Sam Rockwell and William H Macy–Sharbino said she learned “just to stay grounded and know who you are.”

 

 Of course, audiences can next expect to see Gregg back at it as Agent Coulson on ABC’s “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” despite his death last summer at the hands of Avengers villain Loki (Tom Hiddleston). At a recent Tribeca press day, he referred to the God of Mischief as the “Asgardian bastard” who ran him through. When I brought this up on the red carpet, Gregg was quick to reply “I don’t think I’m stepping out on a limb when I say that. I feel like a billion people saw it!” So how would a resurrected Coulson react to being reunited with his murderer? “Oh…if Coulson actually turns out to be alive in this new show, I think he and Loki have some business to settle.” And apparently not with Coulson’s trademark dry humor, “I think we’ve gone beyond snarky comments–the impaling thing kind of takes it to a new level of rancor.”

 

By Popular demand, Trust Me has added additional screenings at Tribeca. For further info, you can check out the TFF Film Guide’s page. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is expected to debut on ABC this fall.

Read Complete Article
Filed Under: Commentary, Film Interviews, Interviews Tagged With: premieres, tribeca, trust

“What Richard Did” Premieres at Tribeca

Having played in the UK,  the phenomenal Irish drama, What Richard Did, received its United States premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on Monday April 21st. Actor Jack Reynor, who plays the titular Richard, joined director Lenny Abrahamson to talk about the film on the red carpet.

The director summed up the story of the film: “It’s based on a book called Bad Day in Blackrock by an Irish writer called Kevin Power which is a book set in the world of privileged South Dublin teenagers. In Ireland they’re a well-known group, they’re very you know, urban, very well-heeled, attractive and this film focuses kind of on the boy at the center of this group. Kind of Alpha Male, beloved by his fellow team mates but also by all the girls. Liked by the parents and teachers as well, so it’s about that kid. And one of the reasons I was interested in making it is that films about teenagers tend to focus on the kid on the outside of the group. I mean that’s who most of us identify with  and therefore often the ones in center are often pretty caricatures so I was interested in taking a character at the center of the group. The one who appears to have the least complex life, the most blessed life, and look at what it’s like to be inside that person. And what it’s like particularly for what it’s like for a character who’s not used to failure or self-criticism to deal with both. You know most of us have a lifetime to come to terms with…our own failings, the things we don’t like about ourselves and the ambitions that we didn’t achieve. But with Richard we took him and we made him face, to deal with a lifetime’s worth of disappointment in the course of like a couple of weeks. ”

What’s it liked to be picked up by Tribeca Film Fest?

Abrahamson: It’s great! I mean…it’s brilliant to have distribution in the States and especially with Tribeca and for Imagine because it’s such a name that people understand and they associate with really interesting cinema so for me it’s really great. I’m delighted that it’s up in the festival and particularly the way it’s going to go on release.

 

Jack Reynor: “Oh my god, it’s just amazing to be here, it’s great. I mean to get recognition from the festival

and for them to host our film here it’s amazing. I mean it’s Tribeca!”

What was the most difficult scene for you?

Reynor: “Probably I think the most difficult and the most rewarding scene at the same time is the scene outside on the bench where Richard and his father were having that conversation on the bench. We

changed the entire film that day. We made some very critical decisions while we were on set that day and it actually shaped the movie. But that was by far the most difficult to do in a truthful way because that’s where you get your performance.

 

How did you develop your on screen relationship with Roisin Murphy as Lara?

Reynor: “We spent a lot of time together, we workshopped, we were great friends–still are. And yea, we just invested a lot of time. And we spoke–Roison and I knew eachother before the film, we knew each other from school actually so yea, I mean in that sense it was kind of natural enough.”

 

Both men were happy to talk about their exciting upcoming projects as well.

You’re in the next Transformers movie?

Reynor: That’s right!

Can you tell us anything about it?

Reynors: It’s gonna be awesome.

Can you say anything about your next film, Frank?

Abrahamson: “Yea, Frank is a comedy about a band lead by a very strange band leader called Frank–the name of the film–played by Michael Fassbender.

He’s in a giant mask, was that difficult to direct through?

Abrahamson: “It was, I mean never mind directing, tough to act in! But he’s you know, you need an actor with real character, with real charisma to play through that limitation and he does that really well. So, hope to have that finished by the end of the year.”

What Richard Did has remaining Tribeca screenings listed on the TFF film guide with a limited NY engagement set for May 10th. Also be sure to check out our review here!

Read Complete Article
Filed Under: Commentary, Film Interviews Tagged With: premieres, richard, tribeca

“Lil Bub and Friendz” Premieres at Tribeca

Lil Bub, the internet cat star owned by Indiana musician Mike Bridavsky received a red carpet welcome on Thursday night  as  the documentary she stars in, Lil Bub and Friendz, made its debut at the Tribeca Film Festival. While last year’s fest featured a feline-centric short titled “CatCam,” Lil Bub is a feature-length doc, dubbed by co-director Juliette Eisner as “the most epic cat video in the entire world”.  It also features Bub’s peers, Grumpy Cat and the man behind animated viral phenomenon, Nyan Cat. Eisner and co-director Andy Capper discussed the appeal of cat videos at the premiere.

 

So why are people so obsessed with cats?

Eisner: I mean that’s a good question. We try to kind of answer that in the film but I think it has to do with the unscripted nature of the cat video. People don’t really see cats doing strange things often because they’re not as you know, out there as a dog per se.

Capper: Dogs are just out there…cats you have to live at someone’s house for like five years til you have access.

Eisner: People just keep cat videos open at their desktop while they work every single day and it just makes them feel fuzzy inside. Fuzzy and warm. So this is an hour-long fuzzy and warm film.

 

Bub owner, Bridavsky carried Bub down the carpet as her signature physical appearance—Bub lacks any teeth, has a constant overbite due to a shortened lower jaw, extra toes and a bone condition in her legs—also causes difficulty walking.

 

How’s Bub handling the red carpet and all of this attention?

Bridavsky: It’s great, she’s just cold right now.

 

Her health is okay?

It is, she has a bone condition that makes it hard for her to walk. Sometimes her bones get inflamed and she is in some pain but I have a very good vet and specialists who take care of her.

 

How’d you choose the name Bub?

Bridavsky: I actually just, the first time I met her, I just picked her up [holds Bub aloft] and just went ‘Hey Bub!’ And that was it.

 

So not a Wolverine reference?

Bridavsky: It’s not but we’ve done stuff with Wolverine since because of it.

 

How’s fame changed Bub?

Bridavsky: It has not changed her.

 

How about you?

Bridavsky: Yea, probably.

 

In what way?

Bridavsky: I have a famous cat now!

 

As for whether or not the filmmakers are all ‘cat people’, Bridavsky has four other cats who reside in his studio, Eisner revealed in the post-screening Q&A that she had cats dubbed Brother and Sister growing up while Capper was missing his feline friend who was back home in London.

Lil Bub and Friendz will be screened tonight (4/20) as part of the free Tribeca Drive-In series with additional public screenings on Tuesday and Thursday. Information regarding tickets can be found on the Tribeca Film Guide.

Meanwhile, you can check out Bub’s official Youtube channel at youtube.com/lilbubbub

Read Complete Article
Filed Under: Featured, Film Headlines Tagged With: bub, friendz, lil, premieres, tribeca

Robert Redford, Stanley Tucci, Brit Marling and Jackie Evancho talk about new film “The Company You Keep”

Opening in New York and Los Angeles on April 5th, “The Company You Keep” tells the story of Jim Grant, a former member of radical sixties group The Weather Underground. Thirty years ago the Weathermen were involved with a bank robbery that turned fatal and Jim is brought out of hiding when another former member (Susan Sarandon) finally turns herself in. Jim must go on the run from both the authorities and a young truth-seeking journalist (played by Shia LeBeouf) to clear his name and reunite with his young daughter (Jackie Evancho). Along the way, he turns to other ex-Weatherman played by an array of veteran actors including Julie Christie, Richard Jenkins, Sam Elliot, Nick Nolte and Chris Cooper. Redford, joined co-stars Stanley Tucci, Brit Marling and Jackie Evancho at a press conference in New York this week to discuss the film.

What do you want people to take from this movie about the legacy of the Weather Underground?
Robert Redford: “There are a probably a number of things to take away. To simplify, I’d probably say the first thing would be that they would think. Some films are made not necessarily to think but it’s like eating cotton candy. You have a wonderful ride and then it’s over and that’s all you really want. And other films are designed in a way to at least make you ask a question afterwards. Or think about what’s happening and maybe start a dialogue with someone. I think maybe that’s what I’d prefer, it’s not always possible. So that’s would be the first thing and the second thing has to do with a criticism that I have for my own country. I don’t think we’re very good at looking at history as a lesson that we learn, so that we don’t repeat a negative historical experience. We’re not good at that. And looking back in time and saying ‘Well, this happened then, what can we learn from that?’ I just think it’s an American tradition to be so busy pushing forward and driving forward and doing, doing, doing. They don’t look back and say ‘Gee, what could I learn from the mistake that I made before?’ So I guess the hope, that’s all it can be, is the hope that you look back in this moment in time–which, by the way when this happened, I was of that age. I was of them in spirit. But because I was starting a career in the New York theater as an actor at that time and I was also starting to raise a family, I was obligated to that task so I wasn’t a part of it. But I was certainly empathetic to what they were doing. I thought it was a wrong war. I thought that it was a war that was going to cost unnecessary lives. It was also a war that was designed by people that had never gone to war. And it had a lot to with kind of a tragic history of the United States with the mistakes it’s made, they never seem to learn by. So that was my own personal criticism about my country and my history. So I guess I would hope that you would look back
on this time, it’s not about what happened then because it’s about thirty years later…There’s a wonderful poem by Yates, one of my favorite poems, there’s a line that says because he was so sick of what was happening to Ireland. He could see that calm Ireland was about to be disrupted by vandalism, by revolt, by revolution and that Ireland would never be the same. And so he was bemoaning that by taking a conservative stance. So he says…’The best lack all conviction, while the worst are filled with passionate intensity’. And I thought that was a nice thing for me to play with. Because people who were filled with that passion and intensity were all older and look back. They’re trapped by their past because in order to stay free from the law they go underground with a false name. But how long can you live without you true identity? And that’s what interested me to tell that story not then but now.”

Brit Marling was also intrigued by the idea of aging activists in this film:

Brit Marling: “…When I read the script I was really moved by the idea of the Weather Underground and how it’s not set back then but it’s set in present day as this group has sort of come into age of wisdom and experience and are looking back wondering about the radicalism of their youth and did they make the right choices? And would they do it differently now? Which, I think my generation is grappling with a lot of the same ideas. So I was very attracted to that part of the story.”

Redford likened his character’s thirty year evasion of the law to that of Jean Valjean in Les Miserables, a favorite story of his:
Robert Redford:  “I just thought from the time I was a little kid that was one of the greatest stories. So I saw similarities in Shia LeBeouf’s character is inspector Javert in Les Miserables and then I am Jean Valjean in the sense that I go to prison for something I’ve done that’s wrong, I escape, I take on a new identity to escape prison time, I live a clean life, I have a daughter, the daughter means everything to me…I had to give up another daughter before she meant too much for me to give up, that was painful, I don’t want to make that mistake again. So here it is, this means everything to me and yet there’s someone on my tail that might expose me in a way that makes it impossible for me to have the true love of my daughter and a clean, clear life. So that was the complexity that sparked me to make this film.”

Behind Shia LeBeouf’s reporter is his editor as played by Stanley Tucci who spoke about his role:
Stanley Tucci: Shia and I worked one day and we went and did it. But the scenes are very straight-forward. I think that, you know, he is the sort of classic curmudgeonly, exhausted editor. I think particularly in this day and age, he’s an interesting character because he’s the last of a dying breed. You’re not going to see those guys too much anymore.
Redford: …Just want to add something, he talks about the energy–Shia’s energy, which is extreme. Shia has a fast mind and a fast tongue. And for Stanley to work with that and still be the character he had to play. He had to be a man in control within an industry that was going out of control, which adds it’s own dynamic, but the fact that he could manage the energy by creating a counter-energy. As Shia got more crazed, Stanley, if you watch the film, Stanley goes the other way. So it creates a dynamic. When Shia slows down, Stanley goes for his throat. I just enjoyed watching.

The youngest star of the movie, Jackie Evancho is better known for her musical success since she was introduced on tv’s “America’s Got Talent”. Seeing her perform on TV prior to filming, Redford knew he’d found his screen daughter.
Redford:  “I said ‘Woah wait a minute, what’s this?’ because I don’t watch much television, so I look at this and then the camera–she’s singing Puccini! And I’m thinking ‘How does that work?’ And so the camera pulls back and there’s this symphony hall and there’s this huge orchestra in this symphony hall and this creature standing there just belting this music out there. It was so powerful…If somebody who has that composure, who can do that in front of that kind of an audience, with that kind of register, with that kind of complexity, maybe that could work. So anyway, to make a long story short, I contacted the agent, the casting person, I said ‘Find out who this person is, where she is.’ They find out she lives in Pittsburgh with her parents, they live a normal life except when she had to do these shows and they went out and taped her. They taped her, I don’t think they knew what was going on. Jackie can speak to that. They sent the tape back, it was clear she didn’t know what was going on and I thought, I don’t care, there’s something–I’m going to take this chance. She was hired on Tuesday, she came, we filmed on Wednesday. We filmed the first day I met her and I can only tell you, from that point on I figured I am one lucky man, because she turned out to be absolutely lovely…We just played together we just became people who could play together, who could have fun together and improvise together. So I ended up the beneficiary of a risk taken on Jackie.”
Jackie Evancho: All I can say was I was extremely honored to have a chance to actually act with you guys. That I was really really excited that I got the role and I just really had a lot of fun so, thank you.

Being only twelve years old, Jackie was asked if she was familiar with the name Robert Redford or his most famous films.
Jackie Evancho: Well, my dad, he always talked about it with his brothers he just would like goof around and stuff. So when I heard the name, I wasn’t very familiar with it, I shouldn’t say “it”! …The only thing that I knew was my dad was like ‘He played a cowboy.’ And that’s all I knew. I actually thought that it was an amazing honor.

Did you during the making of the film have any positive thoughts about the country and journalism?
Robert Redford: Positive? I don’t about positive so much as valuable. Because I consider journalism as so valuable. I would almost–I don’t want to be too much ego here–but I would almost take it personally if journalism failed itself. Because that’s the one avenue we have to the truth. So if I’m going to portray journalism in a film, it’s tricky business…Then you want to at least give it it’s due. Then describe the threats that are maybe against it. So in this case, the idea of Shia’s character was to me more interesting if it was complicated by the fact that is he going after the story for his own personal advertisement? Is he going after it for just getting the story? He should dance with that as he moves forward and what should be unmistakeable is what he learns about himself. In his pursuit about finding somebody else, what does he learn about himself that may change him? That was exciting to me but you have to be careful, I think you have to be careful about when you’re dealing with journalism… You have to test certain things and then back away and let the audience go with it. What they’re going to do with it.

Read Complete Article
Filed Under: Film Interviews, Interviews Tagged With: brit, company, evancho, film, jackie, marling, ...

Disney archivist Justin Arthur and D23's Billy Staneck talk about D23's Fanniversary 2013

D23, the official fan club of the Walt Disney Company, stopped in Newark on Saturday for Fanniversary 2013. The Fanniversary is a presentation touring ten cities in the US celebrating the milestones of all things Disney that will occur in 2013. This year’s show highlights included rarely seen concept art from unproduced short “Mickey’s Toothache” as well as bringing along a pumpkin used in the production of Tim Burton classic The Nightmare Before Christmas (which is turning twenty this year.)

As well as discussing the anniversaries reached of major properties such as Peter Pan turning sixty, the show shined a light on some more obscure Disney features and attractions. For example, the D23 audience was shown concept art from Norway attraction, Maelstrom, which is turning thirty this year having opened in Orlando’s Epcot theme park in 1983. Given the scope of the company, it was up to a small team of Disney archivists to narrow down what makes it into this ninety minute show.

Enthusiastic hosts Justin Arthur, a Disney archivist, and Billy Staneck, web editor for D23.com and writer for the

D23 Magazine talked with MediaMikes after the presentation about what goes into making the show as well as the work of the Disney archives.

BILLY STANECK: “I love the Fanniversaries because we get to celebrate all these great shows and attractions that we don’t normally get to really talk about, you know? And that also gives us the opportunity to go into the archives and open up boxes that were stowed away back in the 1970s or 1980s or even you know, just a couple years ago. We’ll open them up and start going through them and looking for things that we think our fans might like. And so that’s where we come up with these old clips and concept art…Like the concept art for Mickey’s Toothache that you today.”

MediaMikes: Was there anything that had to get cut out of today’s show?
STANECK: “We had so much content for this presentation that we had to cut and cut and cut because there’s only so much we can do– we do about a ninety minute presentation, because it is a touring show that you know, we can’t do eight hours in each city. We have enough content to do that but we had to end up cutting quite a bit. We actually had some Pirates [of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, celebrating it’s tenth anniversary in 2013] stuff in there.”

MM: Was there anything that you thought must be kept in the show?
JUSTIN ARTHUR: “One thing we didn’t have in the original show was Maelstrom, the Norway attraction, and I think it is the most bizarre, wonderful ride. I originally said ‘We need to have everybody quote it!’ but the people on the west coast may not know it…That was one I was very adamant about. I know Billy and I were both very adamant both Roger Rabbit [turning twenty-five in 2013] and Nightmare Before Christmas having plenty of stuff to show people. Because those were two of our very very near and dear favorites. And sometimes too it depends on what we have that’s cool to show. Something might be a great movie or attraction and we may not have a great clip or a really great artwork to accompany it. So it kind of depends on what we have and what we want to get out there and show.”

MM: Besides D23 presentations, what is a day-to-day task of the Disney Archives?
STANECK: “Whatever movie they’re working on at the studio, the archives is there to help them make sure that information is accurate. Like Saving Mr Banks that they’re doing with Tom Hanks as Walt Disney that’s coming out for Christmas, they all came into the archives to do research with an archivist. So stuff like that. Disney Epic Mickey [for Nintendo Wii] they went into the archives, they did a lot of research…We also have a massive photo library where people are constantly requesting images from.”

MM: With Disney’s acquisition of Star Wars & Marvel does the archive suddenly get annexed?
ARTHUR: “It kind of depends. The films as they come along, we do take in more of those things, they are our films at this point. As far as the research side of it, the book side of it…we collect everything, it just adds on to all of things that we’re looking out for…I’m a huge geek of all those things, so for that I’m very thankful!”

MM: Important fan question, what is your favorite Disney ride or attraction?
STANECK: “I love Roger Rabbit’s cartoon spin at Disneyland, it’s one of my favorite attractions, it’s unique to Disneyland and it’s just such a cool, fun ride. I love that movie.”
ARTHUR: “Oh that’s a tough one, there’s so many! Um…I love the Indiana Jones Adventure.”

MM: Another Disneyland one!
ARTHUR: “I grew up on the east coast so let me pick a Florida one too! I love Expedition Everest. I think it’s one of the coolest rides ever. It’s terrifying, it’s beautiful, it’s just kind of the perfect attraction.”

D23’s Fanniversary has two stops remaining in its tour: Seattle on Friday April 5th and San Francisco on Sunday April 7th. For more information check out D23’s official website.

Read Complete Article
Filed Under: Commentary, Interviews Tagged With: 2013, archivist, arthur, billy, d23s, disney, ...

Changing Times on "Community"

Going into its fourth season, NBC’s Community abruptly changed much of its behind the scenes creatives, including, crucially, creator and show runner Dan Harmon. At the same time, the study group on the show, headed up by Joel McHale’s Jeff, faces their senior year at Greendale University. It’s therefore fitting that when two of its stars, Alison Brie (“Annie”) and Danny Pudi (“Abed”), got together to talk about the show this year, much of the focus was on change:

Pudi: That is in some ways what we set  up for season four, embracing change, and I think specifically with the world of Abed. You see that right away, in the premiere of season four, going into his happy place especially anytime anyone mentions that it’s our senior year which is scary. And I think with Abed we’ve explored change a few different times already. In the “My Dinner with Andre” episode you know, it ends with Abed saying  that changing really isn’t his jam, you know? He’s more of a fastened lip and stoic type. And I think the thing about senior year at Greendale is that whether or not we change much as individuals, our circumstances change and our environments change. So I think that is something we have to at least address so there is part of that. And I think honestly when I look at the world around me I think most of my friends and the people I know, they’re at their core, they’re essentially the same people. You know, you do grow but in many ways the things that grow is literally just the fact that you’re a little bit older now and you have to have a job and you have kids and a family and you’re no longer living at home. Your responsibility to the world around you changes. It’s your ability to adapt to that that I think is interesting. And so I think that’s what we explore season four.

Brie: Yea I think that Annie, like all the characters, has always been changing. You know because they started out as singular beings and now they’re sort of a unit and just in terms of gaining friends like that and growing up a little, like everyone I hope, grows in college because you’re learning so much about yourself through these interactions with these other people. And Annie she started out, I always think of Annie being kind of two steps forward and one step back like in all of her growth. She started out so studious and just seemed very driven and is still driven, but we’ve seen some detours. She gets hung up on guys, she gets hung up on the friends group and trying to keep the study group together because she’s never had friends like this before. And she’s never had guys interested in her before. So we’ve see those kind of detours with Annie and this year she’s sort of returning to her studious roots and she’s discovered a new major, forensics, that she’s now interested in and feeling really passionate about it again. So we sort of see her returning to being that figure for the group. To being kind of driven and just being kind of the voice of reason for the group and that’s how she changes.

When new writers came on fans were worried that it might be less ambitious than when Dan [Harmon] was on, was that a concern for you?

Brie: I think, you know, it’s a tough thing to learn that your show runner is not coming back to the show and Dan is such a big part of the show, so I think we were a little nervous and didn’t know what to expect but that’s not really a new feeling having worked on our show for four years now. So when we met the new guys they really stressed how much they loved the show and wanted to keep it the same and some of our writers were still the same… And we all were certainly very vocal this season to sort of speak to what our characters would and wouldn’t do and the way things might go on the show and so we were all sort of working together to keep the show intact.
Pudi:… I think for us the one thing that you know we wanted to do and to make sure it comes across this year is that our genuine love for the show comes across and I think you’ll see that with us this year. Still, there’s an extra level of responsibility we had as actors to really make sure that we’re still staying true to who these people are and the world around Greendale. But there was definitely—you can’t replace Dan Harmon. He created something that’s pretty amazing and I’m forever thankful for that.
Brie: Yea, me too.

This season has already seen Malcolm McDowell guest star as a history teacher, Matt Lucas as a deranged Inspector Spacetime fan and NBC’s just announced that in the spring we will see “Seinfeld” favorite Jason Alexander as a Friendly Mountain Man.

Who is your dream guest star on the show?
Brie: I’ve always thought Jason Bateman would be this like—because we love Arrested Development here—and I’ve always thought that he would be so great on the show. Pudi: Dream would be Zach Galifrianakis. I think that would be so much fun. I think it would be amazing to see him in our world. Bruce Willis would be unbelievable. We could do like a Looper. Oh, that would be amazing!

What’re you really excited for people to see for the rest of this season?
Brie: I am really excited for the Christmas episode, that’s the one that’s Hitchcock inspired. Also we have like a Freaky Friday episode that was written by Jim Rash—who of course plays Dean Pelton, and is an Academy Award Winner for Screenwriting [The Descendents]–so that is a really fun one. And also our season finale, I am like ‘Hang in there, fans…’ I think the finale is such a special treat and it’s written by Megan Ganz and it’s one of my favorite episodes this season and I think that it has a lot of elements in it that, it’s really just made for the fans.
Pudi: In some ways it is just a little bit more of a love note.–
Brie: Because it was sort of written as if it might be our last so a lot of heart in there from all of us. And I do think that the episodes get better and better throughout the season so keep tuning in, guys!

“Community” airs Thursdays at 8pm on NBC

Read Complete Article
Filed Under: Film Interviews, Interviews Tagged With: Allsion Brie, changing, community, Danny Pudi, NBC, times, ...

Ang Lee previews "Life of Pi" Blu-Ray

On March 12th, Ang Lee’s extraordinary Life of Pi arrives on Blu-ray and DVD with many special features that delve into the making of this challenging and visually stunning film. Life of Pi tells the story of Pi Patel, a boy whose sent adrift on a lifeboat after a disastrous ship sinking with only a bengal tiger to accompany him in his struggle for survival. Life of Pi took home the most Academy Awards for a single movie at this year’s awards (for Best director, cinematography, visual effects and musical score) and director Lee joined his editor Tim Squyres and writer, David Magee in New York this past week to talk about bringing Yann Martel’s novel to the screen.

People compare the level of immersiveness in this film’s 3D with Avatar’s. At what point in the development process did you decide to do it in 3D and how did that affect the writing?
Ang Lee: In the very beginning when we think about the structure of the script, I thought of the 3D thing. Which was about six months, nine months, before Avatar was released.
David Magee: Yea we hadn’t seen Avatar yet–we were talking about 3D in our first dinner together.
Tim Squyres: We had saw a bunch of 3D movies, good ones and bad ones…
Ang Lee:  I think the success of Avatar did two things for us. One is really legitimizing 3D as a storytelling tool. I think that’s a huge jump, James Cameron really pushed that. We wouldn’t have that argument. The second thing was it helped us arguing with the studio which, they say, ‘this is literature, this is not [an] action movie, why would …you want to add like a quarter [of the budget] just to do 3D, why?’ I think our film will help film makers make the same argument such as we took it from Avatar...I really give James Cameron the credit to elevating the 3D into a storytelling tool. I think that’s a huge step and I think everybody will just add things on top of that. We learn new things. I think the way it was used was very conservative. I think we could do more but everybody’s doing what we think is good for the audience at that time…This is not a mature language yet. We’re still sort of finding it. Establishing it.

With the amount of features on the Blu-Ray sort of pulling back the curtain on the whole process, do you think this makes audiences more appreciative of what they see? Or do you think it takes a little bit away?

Tim Squyres: There’s still lots of secrets. We’re not giving everything away!
David Magee: There are also two kinds of people in the world: There are people who like to watch a magic trick and go ‘I don’t wanna know how they did that’ and there are people who like to watch a magic trick and figure out how it’s done. And I think it’s totally appropriate for either of those people–look, if you’re the one who doesn’t want to know, don’t watch those extra features. Clearly we’re going to show you how this works, just stop.
Ang Lee: I don’t mind sharing How-to. I think that’s really fun and it’s educational for young filmmakers…I think really the mystery is in the charm, the spirit of the story. In the performance. I wouldn’t share how I deal with actors. What they go through. I would share very limited of that artistic thinking, how I hold a story, how I examine that within the film’s structure. People ask me about symbolism…and I staple it. I can not tell you, I am not going there. But I think the making is fun.

While young Pi Patel was played by  new comer Suraj Sharma, the older version of Pi was portrayed by film veteran Irrfan Khan (Amazing Spider-man, Slumdog Millionaire) Did Suraj get to interact with Khan at all in order to discuss their takes on the character?

Ang Lee: A little bit, he’s still starstruck by Irrfan Khan, he’s just like the best actor taboo. So he idolized him. Not that [Suraj] ever acted before but you know, he’s a smart young man, so he knows there’s the real-deal for acting. He looked up to them. I gave him personal acting lessons and of course acting with those wonderful actors was help. I think most of all he has the ability to just believe in a situation and respond accordingly. And he has a really soulful face. There’re people that are just–I think I have a good grasp on if that works cinematically or not. That’s kind of the person, people act for him.

How was the audition process for Pi?
Ang Lee: There’s no sixteen year old movie stars, so we got to get someone new. So we know the deal. I think before we meet the boy, it’s very hard for a company to commit to a project, the expense, it would be hard for me too. Even if I already have the script, if you don’t have the boy you believe in, then you don’t have a movie, we should probably just drop it. I think I was pretty lucky…when I see Suraj, I don’t know, he looks like Pi to me…His face is full of possibilities. The deep, profound way he looks when he is thinking… I’ve done movies long enough and I think I’m also talented enough to know, to tell, to trust a thing. This is the third time in a role I’m making a movie with…a first-timer lead to carry a movie. I think it’s a matter of you believing them and then you check whether they have the ability to believe in what they’re told. I tested him. He looks right and I tested him, [his was] the most poignant reading I’d experienced with the screen test. I told him to tell the second story as if it’s for real like in his circumstances–the mother is your mother, you know, I gave some equations, it took a little while and then it just started. Halfway he’s crying–and for five minutes, eight minutes, he didn’t get out of the character. That’s tremendous talent. I don’t know what else you can–people got tears! And the casting director that’s shooting’s got tears in their eyes. When I showed that tape, that face, to the studio, they want to make the movie. One of the reasons they wanted to make the movie is we got that boy. So I don’t know what else you can trust. You gotta have some faith at some point, you got to take the leap of faith. But it’s instinct, quick impression, it’s also a quick calculation I guess. I can see that will work…He didn’t melt down, he didn’t get sick at all….The last three months we shot nothing but him. Every shot is him. We’re shooting all in order and he’s losing weight at the same time. At lunch time he’s doing crunches, we gave him a slice of apple. The last month he’s going kind of crazy!

Read Complete Article
Filed Under: Film Interviews, Interviews Tagged With: ang, bluray, lee, life, pi, previews, ...

Parks and Recreation's Amy Poehler, Adam Scott and Mike Schur chat about the big wedding episode

February 21, 2013 – Tonight’s Parks and Recreation will see the wedding of Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) and Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott) in a spontaneous ceremony put on by the Pawnee Parks department. The two stars spoke together, along with series Executive Producer and Writer, Mike Schur about the special occasion as well as Leslie and Ben’s relationship throughout the series.

 

Element of Surprise

Back in October, Ben Wyatt surprised viewers with his impromptu proposal to Leslie in one of Schur’s favorite moments of the series so far:

Mike Schur: “I like the proposal the most of the things that have actually aired because I’m of the belief that the most powerful weapon we have in tv these days after sixty years of sitcoms is surprise and that has been our goal with every relationship really and with every non-romantic story we tell on the show we just try to always be surprising to the audience. And that was the idea, we were not going to have the proposal come in the season premiere or in you know, November sweeps or you know, Christmas or whatever. We’re going to do it at a time where it just feels natural and right and that kind of takes people by surprise. That was the plan with the proposal and I think it worked.”

Everyone has to Chip in

Originally planned to take place in May, Ben’s sudden decision to hold the wedding instead at tonight’s Parks Department gala puts the entire cast to work:

Schur: “They basically have two hours to throw it together. So everybody kind of has a role to play. Tom Haverford becomes the officiant and has to get ordained online in like an hour and Donna plays a role in that for the first time we’re going to feature her beautiful and professionally trained singing voice…In order to pull this thing off, in classic Parks and Rec fashion, everyone has to chip in.

 

Will the wedding see Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari) looking for ladies?

Schur: “The wedding is really about Leslie and Ben and everyone sort of gets that. So Tom is not—Tom has a desire to kind of shine at the wedding, as he always does in any social situation that he’s in. But it’s not about ladies. It’s about him wanting to be a star at the wedding.”

 

Did Leslie miss having a big production wedding?

Amy Poehler: “Leslie…is a modern woman. So it’s not like she has these weird fantasies about marriage or of weddings necessarily. So she’s kind of a combination of her liking to be in control. And what’s cool about that moment for both Ben and Leslie—because they tend to like to control things—is that they kind of throw things up in the air.”

 

Ben Wyatt as The One

Leslie Knope has dated an assortment of men throughout the series from Louis CK to Justin Theroux, but it became clear to everyone that Adam Scott as Ben Wyatt would be the one to wind up tying the knot with Knope.

Adam Scott: “We thought that it might be—Leslie and Ben might be a couple at some point but I think it was sort of a wait-and-see sort of thing. Because if we got together and didn’t quite click as a relationship…I sort of got the sense that they were gonna try that out and see if it works and if it didn’t maybe find something else for me to do.”

Schur: “The plan was always that this was a love interest and a long-term love interest. Our initial idea for Leslie was that she was gonna have a series of relationships with different men, different kinds of men over the course of the show and that she would sort of learn something different from each of them…She learned something from Mark Brendenowicz [Paul Schneider], she learned something from Louis CK’s character, she learned something from Justin Theroux and we were kind of like oh, Adam Scott, she’ll date him for a while and she’ll learn something from him. It was certainly the plan to have him be the love interest…The first episode—in the Master Plan episode—they have a conversation in a bar and I wrote this thing into it where Ben says to her very casually ‘You want to run for office someday, right?’ and she says ‘Yeah, how did you know?’ and he just sort of blows past it. I mean he’s just kind of got her number, he just kind of gets her. He understands her and what her goals are. And the second episode that we had which was the finale that year called Freddy Spagetti, they have a conversation and Leslie smiles at him and walks off and there’s a shot of Adam looking after Leslie with a smile on his face and as soon as I saw that I kind of realized that not only were they going to get together but they were never going to break up. It became really clear in that moment that this was it.”

Poehler: “It’s chemistry baby, you can’t fight it!”

 

Pawnee after the wedding

As always with Parks and Recreation, work goes on in Pawnee right alongside the romantic plots.

Schur:“In the second episode [tonight’s 9-9:30 half of the hour]… the cold open of that episode is Leslie and Ben coming back from their Honeymoon and just sort of talking about how much fun they had on their Honeymoon but the episode is just a regular episode of Parks and Rec and Leslie and Ben are in the same story. Ben is starting a new job and it’s the first day of work and he’s sort of thrown into this new challenge of his new job and Leslie has an event that she’s planning for which is sort of a correspondent’s type of event where the politicians roast each other and stuff.

And so I think you’ll see right away that there’s sort of a blue print going forward that yea, they’re married now but you know, they also have other aspects of their lives that are very important to them and so I hope and very much feel like that will be the thing that keeps it from feeling like the ‘magic is gone.’”

Parks and Recreation airs every Thursday at 8:30pm on NBC.

Read Complete Article
Filed Under: Interviews, TV Interviews Tagged With: adam, amy, big, chats, episode, mike, ...
« sdf
Previous
Page 11 of 13
Next
Next Page »