Interview

Director, Producer, Screenwriter

HBO Teases Westworld & Amy Schumer Live at the Apollo

It almost looks like a conventional western, which wouldn’t be a bad thing for HBO considering the last time they tackled the genre they gave us Deadwood. Only Westworld is hardly a proper western, as many of those cowboys and cowgirls aren’t actually human.

HBO dropped the teaser right before the True Detective finale last night, and it’s a creepy little number. Loosely based on the 1973 film written and directed by Michael Crichton,

By  |  August 10, 2015

Interview

Actor, Screenwriter

The Deadpool Trailer is Finally Here

When Wade Wilson goes in for his surgery, the one that will turn him into Deadpool, an anti-superhero with Wolverine-like healing powers, he’s told “one thing that never survives this place is a sense of humor.” That this isn’t close to true is one of the things that has fans salivating for the release of Deadpool. As this trailer proves, this film will have, among the usual accoutrements of the superhero genre, along with a huge heaping of very blue humor.

By  |  August 5, 2015

Interview

Director, Screenwriter

The Intern Trailer: Using Humor to Tackle Ageism

Warner Bros. Pictures just released the second official trailer for The Intern by Oscar-nominated and award-winning writer/filmmaker Nancy Meyers. Meyers, the highest-grossing female director, with a body of work which includes hits like It’s Complicated, Something’s Gotta Give, and Private Benjamin, has that rare ability to use humor to subtly guide her audiences to confront their attitudes about vital societal issues. At 65,

By  |  August 3, 2015

Interview

Director, Screenwriter

A Look Alex Gibney’s Steve Jobs Doc The Man in the Machine

While people are understandably excited about director Danny Boyle’s upcoming Steve Jobs, starring Michael Fassbender and based on a script by Aaron Sorkin, there’s another Jobs film you might want to set a reminder for on your iPhone (or Apple Watch): Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine. A new trailer, and the pedigree of the director, should pique your interest.

Directed by Academy Award winning documentarian Alex Gibney (Going Clear,

By  |  July 27, 2015

Interview

Screenwriter

Paper Towns Screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber

When I originally met screenwriter Michael Weber, he was doing publicity for a small-budget 2013 film entitled The Spectacular Now that he co-scripted with his writing partner, Scott Neustadter. That film, which had been languishing in development for years, went on to receive critical acclaim and helped shoot its two stars— Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley— into superstardom.

Weber and Neustadter earned raves for that successful adaption of Tim Tharp’s novel.

By  |  July 24, 2015

Interview

Actor, Director, Screenwriter

Woody Allen’s Philosopher Fetish in Five Films

Woody Allen’s latest film, Irrational Man, is likely to elicit groans or worse from Allen’s detractors. The movie stars Joaquin Phoenix as Abe Lucas, a floundering philosophy professor for whom things get better after he enters into a relationship with a student, Jill Pollard (Emma Stone). He also considers murdering a judge — who, at least, is corrupt — which also lifts his spirits. Murder and May-December relationships aside, the film’s biggest non-surprise is that Allen finally put a philosopher,

By  |  July 23, 2015

Interview

Director, Screenwriter

Jane Anderson on her Moving HBO Doc Packed in a Trunk

Writer-director Jane Anderson’s career has spanned film, theater and television. She never planned to make a documentary, let alone figure so prominently in one. But for nearly half her life, Anderson, most recently Emmy-nominated for her adaptation of Olive Kitteridge for HBO, has yearned to bring the artwork and the story of her great-aunt, Edith Lake Wilkinson, to the public.

That has happened with Packed in a Trunk: The Lost Art of Edith Lake Wilkinson,

By  |  July 20, 2015

Interview

Actor, Director, Screenwriter

Comic-Con 2015: Suicide Squad‘s Bad Girls & Guys Wow Crowd

"Oh, I'm not gonna kill you," says Jared Leto's joker, whose wears less makeup and more bling in his teeth than Heath Ledger did in his iconic performance in the role in 2008's The Dark Knight. "I'm just gonna hurt you really, really bad." After watching the first look at David Ayer’s Suicide Squadwe're pretty sure Warner Bros. won't be hurting when they release this film in a little over a year.

By  |  July 14, 2015

Interview

Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Comic-Con 2015: Star Wars: The Force Awakens Panel

There were a ton of major moments for film and TV fans at Comic-Con, but it's inarguable which panel was the most hotly anticipated. So fans got to properly freak out in Hall H when Star Wars:The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams, producer and Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy and writer Lawrence Kasdan sat down to dish some dirt on the film, bringing the cast up on stage—Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Domhnall Gleeson,

By  |  July 13, 2015

Interview

Director, Screenwriter

Writer/Director Patrick Brice on the Late Night Intimacies in The Overnight

Over the years, plenty of films have featured over-the-top parties that slowly spiral out of control, but there have been few movies like Patrick Brice’s new comedy The Overnight.

The film tells the story of two sets of parents who come together for a pizza party in a Los Angeles home. The couple played by Adam Scott and Taylor Schilling have recently moved to L.A. from Seattle and are looking for new friends in the neighborhood.

By  |  July 2, 2015

Interview

Actor, Director, Screenwriter

New Creed Trailer is a Mike Tyson-in-his-Prime Knockout

“A great fighter once said, ‘it ain’t about how hard you can hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.’”

This reference to the 2006 film Rocky Balboa by the eponymous protagonist Adonis Johnson Creed says it all about the future of the “Rocky” franchise. This first Creed trailer has come out swinging and is definitely moving forward. The music, the first rate editing,

By  |  July 1, 2015

Interview

Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Maya Forbes on her Highly Personal, Illuminating Infinitely Polar Bear

Behind the scenes, writer/director/producer Maya Forbes has helped directors and filmmakers tell a lot of stories, but in her directorial debut Infinitely Polar Bear, she’s telling her own.

Her new drama chronicles the eighteen months that Forbes and her sister lived with their bipolar father in Boston in the 1970s while their mother attended graduate school in New York. Although that period was sometimes tumultuous, it also gave her a lot of beautiful memories about her dad—

By  |  June 29, 2015

Interview

Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Dana Nachman on the Phenomenon of her Doc Batkid Begins

When Miles Scott told the Make-A-Wish Foundation that he wanted to be “the real Batman” no one could have predicted how epically his dream would be fulfilled. The documentary Batkid Begins, which premiered at this year’s Slamdance Film Festival, goes back to November 15, 2013, when, with the help of the Mayor, the Chief of Police and thousands of volunteers, San Francisco became Gotham City, to the delight of a five-year-old boy battling leukemia.

By  |  June 24, 2015

Interview

Actor, Director, Screenwriter

Thomas Haden Church Talks War Dogs, More in Max

Here’s a little known fact about actor/director/writer Thomas Haden Church: Following memorable turns on television (Wings) and in film (Free Money), he stepped away from acting in late 2000 and left Los Angeles for his 2,000-acre cattle ranch in his native Texas. It was director Alexander Payne who lured him back to the screen with a plum part in 2004’s sleeper indie hit Sideways,

By  |  June 23, 2015

Interview

Director, Screenwriter

Dope Debuts in Theaters After Smashing Sundance Premiere

One of the buzziest crowd-pleasers to come out of Sundance, Dope tells the story of Malcolm, a 90s hip-hop obsessed geek from Inglewood with dreams of studying at Harvard. After a wild night there’s suddenly a backpack of drugs standing in his way and only his two nerdy friends to help him offload them. (Hint: their plan involves bitcoin).

We talk to writer-director Rick Famuyiwa, who grew up in Inglewood,

By  |  June 19, 2015

Interview

Screenwriter

How Inside Out Writer Meg LeFauve Created An Emotional Battle Inside The Mind

Inside Out comes with all the classic marks of a great Pixar movie. An all-ages storyline? Check. Beautiful animation paired with an unexpected, off-kilter premise? Check. Tears? Check and check.

The story takes place inside the mind of Riley, a pre-teen girl whose family moves from Minnesota to San Francisco, a transition that unleashes a flurry of upheaval among her five main emotions: Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust.

By  |  June 18, 2015

Interview

Actor, Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Aligning Past, Present & Future in Terminator Genisys

Director Alan Taylor and writers Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier had a lot to juggle when they went to work on Terminator Genisys. With the four previous Terminator films and their corkscrewing stories, the filmmakers had to find a way to honor the universe the franchise has already built while setting off on their own, singular path. At what part of the saga of man's battle with machines would they pick up,

By  |  June 15, 2015

Interview

Actor, Director, Screenwriter

Melissa McCarthy Continues Tradition of Screwball Spy Comedies in Grand Fashion

In writer-director Paul Feig’s Spy, Melissa McCarthy takes the reins as the latest bumbling protagonist in that tried and tested movie genre: the spy comedy. McCarthy plays CIA desk-jockey Susan Cooper who is unexpectedly called up to go undercover in the field. (See our interview with stunt coordinator J.J. Perry here about turning McCarthy into a proper, butt-kicking spy.)

Unlike the slick, womanizing James Bond, who navigates his way through each world-saving assignment improbably unruffled,

By  |  June 4, 2015

Interview

Actor, Screenwriter

From Rolling Stone To Aloha: The Odyssey of Cameron Crowe

The story of Aloha is, to grossly simplify it, about a man torn between a woman he thought he had moved beyond and a woman who might be his future. Military contractor Brian Gilcrest (Bradley Cooper) returns to Honolulu, Hawaii, which is the site of his greatest career triumph, and reconnects with a former love (Rachel McAdams). Because he’s at a military site, he’s assigned an Air Force minder (Emma Stone), who he begins to fall for.

By  |  May 29, 2015

Interview

Director, Screenwriter

Writer/Director Garrett Bradley is an Artist to Watch

If you haven't heard of director Garrett Bradley, you're probably not alone but you will be if eventually, as this is one young director you want to keep an eye on. Bradley’s very powerful debut, Below Dreams, is a haunting homage to the beauty and spirit of New Orleans’s underside and the passion of those with dreams, both great and small.

Below Dreams is a narrative in the neo-realism style that melds fiction with reality.

By  |  May 26, 2015