Rick Mele

Just How Great Is The Great Gatsby?

2013-05-10T11:05:31-04:00

For almost 90 years, The Great Gatsby has confounded filmmakers looking to bring F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic work of American literature to the big screen. So you can't fault Baz Luhrmann for trying something different with his attempt to crack the supposedly "unfilmable" novel. Which, in this case, means shooting in 3D and adding Jay-Z to the soundtrack. Because, clearly, that's what was missing from the last four adaptations.

Here's a quick refresher on the plot, for those of us who haven't read the book since high school: Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) arrives in New York in the spring of 1922, landing next door to mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio), whose ability to host lavish parties is pretty much the only concrete thing anyone seems to know about him. Nick is fascinated by his neighbour's extravagance, and Gatsby in turn by Nick's relation to Daisy (Carey Mulligan), his lost love now living not-so-coincidentally across the bay with her old-money husband (Joel Edgerton).

But while Fitzgerald's iconic novel may be required reading for most English classes, should Luhrmann's flashy update be required viewing for audiences this summer? To help you decide, I broke down what's great and what's not so great about Luhrmann's reimagining.

Great: The Visual Spectacle
Nobody throws parties like Jay Gatsby, and no filmmaker does over-the-top extravagance like Luhrmann. And while it's easy to look at the director's choice to turn a Great American Novel into a sensory-overloading 3D carnival ride and cry sacrilege, it does work. Sure, hearing Jay-Z mashed-up with ragtime is anachronistic, and Luhrmann's camera can't seem to sit still for longer than two seconds, but the filmmaker's trademark style ends up fitting the material far more than it distracts from it. At one point, Gatsby asks if he's gone overboard decking out a tiny living room to impress Daisy. "It's how you wanted it," replies Nick. The same holds true for Luhrmann. His film may be an extravagant spectacle, but it's never too much.

Great: DiCaprio's Gatsby
If Luhrmann takes Fitzgerald's novel over-the-top, DiCaprio brings it back down to Earth. After starting out as a near-mythic figure whose on-screen introduction is accompanied by fireworks, DiCaprio's Gatsby slowly morphs into something far more relatable and tragic. It's a performance with a remarkable amount of depth and restraint in a movie otherwise marked by style over substance, and it helps keep The Great Gatsby grounded. The rest of the cast hit their marks with equal accuracy, especially Edgerton as Gatsby's rival for Daisy's affection, but make no mistake, this is Leo's party.

Great: The Soundtrack
Much has been made of Jay-Z's involvement in the film (he's credited as an executive producer), but setting period melodrama to a modern soundtrack has been Luhrmann's MO long before Gatsby. Featuring songs by everyone from Jack White to Florence + The Machine and Lana Del Rey, the anachronistic soundtrack fits fairly seamlessly into Luhrmann's modern reimagining, underpinning the movie's numerous pulsating party scenes. In fact, there's only one contemporary tune that feels distractingly out of place: "Crazy in Love." Sorry, Jay-Z.

Not So Great: The Film's Bookends
Whether the novel's "unfilmable" rep got into Luhrmann and co-writer Craig Pearce's heads or they just thought it was a clever addition, The Great Gatsby chooses to explain Nick's narration by setting him in a sanitarium (named after Fitzgerald's editor Max Perkins). There, he's encouraged to work through his "morbid alcoholism" by writing down his account of the summer he met his old friend. It's a dumb, hokey framing device, and adds to the film's pacing problems by pointlessly cutting away from Gatsby's lavish world to stale shots of Maguire hunched over a typewriter. For some reason, asking us to accept that a fictional character is simply narrating a story is too much of a leap, but the idea that he's writing an iconic work of literature under the offhand suggestion of his shrink isn't.

And when all's said and done, we're treated to a shot of Nick taking a pen and amending "The Great" to his now-finished novel's title page. I wish I was joking, but this really does happen. And it's the stuff Razzies are made of.

Not So Great: It's "Literary"
Which is to say, we see Maguire type, and then those words appear and float across the screen as he narrates. With a novel as beloved as Fitzgerald's "Gatsby," more renowned for its prose than its plotting, it's understandable to want to work in the book's more iconic lines, but unfortunately, it's done in the least elegant way possible here, capturing the words but not their meaning. And for all of Luhrmann's visual flourishes and modern touches, and DiCaprio's commendable performance, it's these curiously outdated elements and glossy superficial sheen that keep this Gatsby from being truly great.

The Great Gatsby opens in theatres on May 10.

Thomas Dekker, Shawn Linden Talk 'The Good Lie' and Campfire Tales

2013-05-07T10:56:49-04:00

According to writer/director Shawn Linden, part of the inspiration for his new film "The Good Lie" came from childhood, when he and his friends would swap increasingly outlandish stories around a campfire, each trying to outdo the last. And Linden clearly put all that practice to good use in "The Good Lie," because we're guessing his friends (and just about anybody else, for that matter) would be hard-pressed to top the central tale in the filmmaker's sophomore effort.

Starring Thomas Dekker as Cullen Francis, "The Good Lie" is framed by a group of friends and a similar campfire tradition. But Cullen's story, which is slowly revealed in between these vignettes, is guaranteed to be far more twisted than anything his friends can come up with -- because it revolves around his recent discovery that the man who raised him (Matt Craven) isn't his real dad, a revelation that led Cullen on a quest to track down his biological father, the man who raped his mother 21 years earlier.

Part campfire tale, part emotional drama and part thriller, "The Good Lie" resists easy classification. Moviefone Canada spoke to Dekker and Linden about those formative campfire stories, including one that didn't make the cut, getting on the same page, and what to expect from a movie that defies expectations.

Moviefone: Cullen is a pretty demanding role for an actor. When did you know you'd found him in Thomas?
Shawn Linden: There wasn't really an audition, because I was looking for a personality that matched the character. So just talking to him personally reinforced what I'd thought before, that he's capable of doing this, of portraying this person who's the product of a really positive force and a really negative one.

Thomas Dekker: I guess that's me. [Laughs]

Does that sound accurate?
Dekker: I mean, any role that's a good one, that I want to do, my whole interest is in duality. So I never want to play something that's just good or bad. Because I think that's just more realistic of how people are. So this movie was perfect, because it's somebody who was grappling between rage and anger and frustration and sensitivity and sadness.

Linden: Physically too. Like, look at his face. He looks like an angel and a devil had a one-night stand.

Dekker: [Laughs] There is that shot in the mirror where I look pretty f**king evil in this.

Linden: Yeah, your face has the capacity to look almost childlike and innocent and ... the opposite of childlike and innocent.

Dekker: [Laughs] Well, thank you, Shawn. I take that as a compliment.

Interview continues after trailer!

Was that quality at the top of your casting list for the role?
Linden: Absolutely. It was the number one thing that it needed. And it needed to go beyond just appearances.

Dekker: That was a really funny thing though: before anybody'd seen the film, and before I would tell them anything about the plot, I'd be like, "It's about me and my father." And they'd be like, "Who plays your father?" And they'd always go, "Matt Craven? Really? He plays your father? They thought you guys look alike?" I'm like, "No, no, no, no, no, that's the whole thing, you gotta wait for it."

You've mentioned that you and Matt lived next to one another during shooting. Was that intentional?
Linden: Oh yeah, for sure. We wanted them to be housed together. And by the end of it, they did pretty much get something close to a father/son relationship.

Dekker: We bonded very quickly.

Linden: Alcohol, it just makes things gel.

Since a story like this could have ended up coming across melodramatic, how did you make sure you avoided that?
Linden: We were trying to keep the pace of a thriller or a mystery as opposed to a drama, and because of the melodramatic elements, particularly in the beginning of the story, we were really trying to be careful to keep the clip up, and to keep things moving.

It's almost like there's two different movies going on here, with the campfire scenes and the thriller elements.
Linden: I think the campfire stories add a nice counterbalance to the soberness of the main story. We were allowed to be completely unrestrained morally and artistically with these stories. And the more we did that, the better. To me, it was like salt and pepper on the rest of the story. To have gotten just a straight-on story of a young man who goes off to find...

Dekker: It would've been too much.

Linden: Yeah, it would have been a bit of a downer. It would've been more of a "Canadian" movie.

Dekker: You know, it's funny, I had a little screening party for it back home in LA, and half the people, when it gets to the last campfire story were so excited it was back, because that was their favourite part of the movie, and then the other half yelled at the TV, "No!" Because they wanted to see what was going to happen with the main storyline.

Linden: [Laughs] Those are both perfect responses.

Dekker: Yeah, it was great. But I love the stories, and that last one is actually my favourite.

What about you, Shawn, do you have a favorite of the campfire stories?
Linden: I actually don't.

Dekker: There was a great one that we never even shot, right?

Linden: Yeah. I guess that one's my least favourite, the one that we didn't get to shoot. But I go through phases. Like, we've had this conversation before, and everybody else who'd been working on the film, we'd have to name our favourite. And it would literally go like, "My favourite's the vegetarian, no ... no, wait, it's the dog one. No, no, no, it's the nun one. No, no, no, no, for sure, it's the lumberjack one. Yeah, but the veterinarian one was pretty good ..." So I think that's good that there was no favourite, it just means all four of them wound up working out well.

What was the one that you ended up having to cut?
Linden: It was a story about an exploding fox. About two boys who jam a stick of dynamite up a fox's ass and let it go in a field, and it just takes a turn around and runs right back after them. So they're running from this flaming fox. And they jump in their pickup truck, and the fox runs under it, and it explodes. It blows them both up. Or it blows one of them up.

Dekker: That would've been a little pricey, that one. [Laughs]

Linden: And I'm pretty sure that's the only one that was based on a true story. I think that actually sort of, might've happened at some point in time in the southern United States.

What inspired you to come up with the rest of the story?
Linden: It was inspired by my own family, and by my own friends. My friends and I grew up going to the woods and trying to impress each other with how funny we can be, and how gross we can be. But the main story is about my family. My mother is adopted, so my grandparents are not my biological grandparents. But they were people who I grew up idolizing and fearing. They were the most impressive people that I've ever known, and the fact that they're not related to me by blood means zero. They are a piece of me as much as anybody by blood could be. And they define me as much as anybody else could.

So it was kind of playing with that idea. It gave rise to this story, and I was discussing the premise of it to my grandmother when she was on her deathbed. We had a big, long talk about the story and she'd said, "Well, when we were picking your mother out, that was quite a common occurrence, that they'd find that there's rape babies out there." And I'd thought that it was really rare, but she was like, yeah, it happened all the time back when my mother was younger. And you know, we got into talking about the story and developing it, and the next day she died, and suddenly everything that she had said, it got that shimmery resonance. That was the drive that got the script made.

The movie takes some pretty unexpected turns. Thomas, what was your first impression when you got the script?
Linden: Br-rilliant!

Dekker: [Laughs] I loved the narrative structure. When it got me was when the first campfire story happened. Because I thought up until that point that I'd really figured out what this movie was gonna be like. And it just threw me, like, "What the f**k?" And then when it got these horror/thriller elements near the end, I was just like, "This is so original and interesting." So, that's why I think we spoke for three hours when we first did, because I was asking questions and saying what I thought about it. And everything I was saying, you said it was pretty accurate. So I figured I knew what the movie was going to be.

"The Good Lie" opens in Toronto and Winnipeg on May 10.

Just How Painful Is Michael Bay's 'Pain & Gain'?

2013-04-26T10:25:19-04:00

Let's be honest here: Michael Bay's last couple movies may have made big gains at the box office, but they've also been pretty painful to watch. So his new movie "Pain & Gain" is being billed as a "change of pace" for the blockbuster director since it only features small-scale mayhem instead of entire cities being leveled, getting Bay back to his "Bad Boys" action/comedy days and away from the loud but dumb special effects spectaculars he's delivered these last few summers.

To do so, Bay turns the clock back to 1995 (coincidentally, the same year "Bad Boys" was released) with a stranger-than-fiction true story about a trio of Miami bodybuilders and their bumbling criminal enterprise. Led by Mark Wahlberg as Daniel Lugo, Paul (Dwayne Johnson) and Adrian (Anthony Mackie) kidnap a local businessman (Tony Shaloub) in order to steal everything he has, because it's all part of the "American dream," according to Daniel. It's a typical rags to riches and back to rags tale, only on steroids.

The type of movie you'll either love or hate, "Pain & Gain" is already dividing critics. So which is it: painfully stupid, or a brilliant comedy about idiot crooks? I broke down the movie's various elements to help you decide.

Pain: The movie's runtime
At 2 hours and 10 minutes, Bay's new movie is painfully long. And while there's certainly a lot of story to tell when it comes to the Sun Gym gang's increasingly bizarre crime spree, "Pain & Gain" ends up feeling bloated, dragging considerably in the middle, even with most of the gang's post-score success edited down into one big montage. Bay should've taken a page from his bodybuilders and trimmed some of the fat, because less would've been more when it comes to "Pain & Gain." Instead, it's a movie that becomes more exhausting than entertaining by the final act.

Gain: Mark Wahlberg's performance
The runtime isn't the only part of "Pain & Gain" that's noticeably beefed-up; Wahlberg put on a seemingly impossible amount of muscle to play the gang's delusional bodybuilder ringleader. Obsessed with being a "doer" instead of a "don't-er" and reminiscent of "Boogie Nights'" Dirk Diggler, only with giant biceps instead of a giant, well, you know, Wahlberg plays this type of overly confident idiot extremely well. And it's a credit to him that Lugo remains compulsively entertaining even as his actions become increasingly harder to watch.

Story continues below slideshow

Gain: The rest of the cast
From Tony Shaloub as the world's least sympathetic kidnapping victim to The Rock playing a born-again ex-con who falls off the wagon and sports a seriously impressive collection of Jesus-themed T-shirts, the cast is the movie's biggest asset. Rebel Wilson continues her scene-stealing ways, aided by a potentially breakout performance from her sparring partner Mackie, and Ed Harris shows up towards the end of the movie presumably to remind audiences what a decent, mentally capable human being looks like.

Gain: Bay's sense of style
From his constantly moving camera to frenetic editing, Bay's signature style is definitely on display again in "Pain & Gain," but rather than devolving into the sensory overload of the "Transformers" trilogy, all the bright colors and chaotic flair plays far better here. And in spite of his downsized budget, the director deploys every trick he can think of to ramp up the movie's style, from freeze frames and slow-motion to constantly switching between film and HD cameras, and employing competing voiceover narration from all the movie's principal players. Meanwhile, title cards pop up occasionally to hammer home jokes, like a laundry list of the side effects of cocaine, or to remind us that "This is still a true story" in the middle of some increasingly outrageous action. And somehow it all works.

Pain: Bay's sense of humor
That said, a sophomoric sense of humor is as much a Bay trademark as explosions, and it too pops up from time to time in "Pain & Gain" to remind us that "This is still a Michael Bay movie," in spite of all the clever rapid-fire dialogue. Ultimately a movie like this comes down to balancing the tone properly, and it swings wildly here. Asking us to laugh at the misadventures of idiotic criminals is fine when they're merely bumbling through torturing a mouthy, unsympathetic multi-millionaire, but when it turns to real-life murder, it's slightly more difficult to smile along at the irreverent one-liners.

Of course, far more acclaimed directors than Bay have had similar difficulties when it comes to managing twisted dark comedies. And considering this is riskier territory than anything the blockbuster director's done in the past 10 years, there are enough positives to "Pain & Gain" to make us wish he'd concentrate on beefing up his resume by directing more scripts like this and fewer that are based on kids' toys.

Moviefone's Baseball Movie Starting Lineup

2013-04-12T12:34:17-04:00

Baseball season may be officially underway, but with April weather notoriously unpredictable, it's not exactly prime time to be spending an evening at the ballpark. Fortunately for movie fans, there's a more climate-controlled way to get your spring baseball fix: "42," which arrives in theaters this Friday.

Starring relative unknown Chadwick Boseman as the Dodger legend, "42" follows Jackie Robinson's barrier-breaking journey from the Negro Leagues to his first season with the Brooklyn Dodgers. And while the film's admittedly a little hokey at times, threatening to take a genuine real-life hero and reduce him to a formulaic icon, as a beginner's guide to one of sport's most rousing stories, it's hard not to root for "42."

Besides, it's also the perfect excuse to play armchair GM and reflect on some of our favorite fictional ballplayers to ever lace up a pair of cleats. The ground rules? No real-life players, and no more than two names from the same movie. So in honor of "42," here's who cracked Moviefone's starting lineup. Feel free to nominate your own in the comments below.

Evil Dead: Will You Be Able To Handle It?

2013-04-05T13:28:06-04:00

The poster claims Evil Dead is "the most terrifying film you will ever experience." At SXSW, there were reports of audience members seeking shelter in the theater lobby midway through the premiere. And recent trailers show night-vision footage of audiences recoiling in fear, a marketing tactic used by a great many horror movies looking to prove their pants-soiling cred.

So just how scary is the new Evil Dead, directed by first-timer Fede Alvarez with the blessing and backing of original masterminds Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell? Well, it's probably safe to say it's not the most terrifying movie ever made. But after all the hype, if you're wondering if you'll be able to handle the 91 minutes of bodily dismemberment and geysers of blood, I put together a handy guide to help you decide whether to line up or run away.

1. Are you a fan of the original Evil Dead films?
Alvarez's remake ditches the campiness of Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness, instead going for a more straightforward retelling of Raimi's original, not exactly a laugh-a-minute tale of five friends trapped in a remote cabin and tormented by the ancient evil they unleashed. Nods to the original film abound, but prior knowledge isn't necessary.

2. Would you consider demonic possession to be a compelling allegory for drug addiction?
The lone major new wrinkle from Alvarez and co-writer Rodo Sayagues is the reason our heroes opt for seclusion: to help Mia (Jane Levy) kick her heroin habit. Which means when she starts seeing things in the woods, it's conveniently explained away as withdrawal symptoms. At least until she develops a husky demon voice and starts blood-vomiting on people, at which point we've officially left any allegory behind.

3. Do you expect your movie characters to be fully fleshed-out?
If so, Evil Dead's ultra-violence is going to be the least of your worries; you might not even make it through the relatively blood-less first act. Because while horror movies aren't typically known for their three-dimensional characters, the ones in Evil Dead exist solely to be de-fleshed in increasingly graphic ways.

4. Do you find hanging dead cats from the ceiling really spruces up a room?
Then not only will you enjoy Evil Dead's grimy aesthetic, but you might also have a future as a horror movie set decorator. When Mia and her brother (Shiloh Fernandez) return to their now-rundown family cabin, they find their fruit cellar decked out with goodies from the Martha Stewart Satanic Ritual Collection. (Bonus points if you've always thought human skin would make for a fine dust jacket.)

5. Are you terrified by expository dialogue?
If nothing's scarier to you than listening to characters recap pertinent information and spout unprompted dramatic backstory, expect to spend most of Evil Dead cowering in your seat and covering your ears. It's enough to make you wonder if a character cut her own tongue in half in protest.

6. Have you ever wondered how a person's forearm would hold up against a nailgun, crowbar, and/or shotgun?
Well, get ready to find out, because for some reason, the characters in Evil Dead seem to think that their forearms make for an indestructible shield against all manner of weapons. And that's to say nothing of the electric carving knife, hypodermic needle, boxcutter, and mirror shard that join the iconic chainsaw in Evil Dead's arsenal.

7. Do you believe dumb horror characters deserve what's coming to them?
Don't confuse the new Evil Dead with a modern meta horror movie like Cabin in the Woods. These characters do increasingly dumb things -- like open a book wrapped in barbed wire and ignore multiple warnings written in blood, or crawl into confining spaces as an escape route -- not because they're being ironic or self-aware, but because it moves the plot along. Expect to root for justice to be served.

8. Have you always thought an air-raid siren would make a good musical instrument?
Evil Dead's full-scale sensory assault doesn't just stop at graphic self-mutilation and buckets of blood, it also extends to the movie's score, which makes use of an air-raid siren in several key scenes. It's enough to make the Inception "brahm" seem subtle by comparison.

9. Do you trust the MPAA?
The new Evil Dead doesn't just push the boundaries of the R-rating, it practically obliterates them. And with each graphic full-frontal dismemberment or disturbing image of self-performed oral surgery, you can practically hear the cries of horror from every director who ever had to clip down a sex scene to avoid a dreaded NC-17.

10. Do you find gore scary?
Getting back to the movie's superlative boast, Evil Dead isn't exactly terrifying in the same way a good ghost story is. Apart from a few requisite jolts, this isn't a movie designed to make you jump as much as recoil in disgust. Instead, what it lacks in creepy atmosphere it makes up for in sheer volume of blood until, by the end, the movie's literally raining the red stuff. And where the Raimi original (and significantly more so, its sequels) mixed horror with a sense of humor, the only tension-relieving laughs come from just how absurdly over-the-top the nonstop blood and guts becomes. The new Evil Dead is certainly epically disgusting and hard to watch at times, but as far as horror movie scares go, it's actually surprisingly tame.

Evil Dead opens in theaters on April 5.

[WARNING: Graphic images and some spoilers ahead!]

'How To Live With Your Parents': Brad Garrett, Elizabeth Perkins Talk TV Marriage, Parenting

2013-04-04T13:44:12-04:00

Dysfunctional families and embarrassing parents have always made for prime sitcom fodder, but for "How to Live with Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life)"creator Claudia Lonlow, the inspiration for her new show hit a little closer to home. That's because almost 16 years ago, Lonlow and her young daughter moved back in with her parents.

And that's precisely what happens to Sarah Chalke's Polly, who, along with her daughter, moves in with her mom Elaine (Elizabeth Perkins) and stepfather Max (Brad Garrett) for the foreseeable future, thanks to a divorce and the pressures of a lackluster economy. But it's a decision Polly immediately regrets thanks to her parents, who have a much more laissez-faire approach to child-rearing than she does.

Of course, while much is made of Polly's frustrating parents, Garrett and Perkins see things a little differently -- it's Polly who's imposing on them. HuffPost TV recently spoke to the comedic duo about their no-longer empty nest, their instant chemistry, and their advice to parents in similar situations. The show premiered on April 3, yet Garrett and Perkins are already finishing each other's sentences like the old married couple they portray.

HuffPost TV: So what was it that appealed to you about the show? Had you always been interested in doing something with a twelve-word title?
Elizabeth Perkins: [Laughs] I was looking more for eleven or ten.

Brad Garrett: Yeah, it was longer. They trimmed it. Seriously, that's not a bit. But well, I wanted to work with two beautiful women who wouldn't call the authorities on me, and that was Sarah [Chalke] and Ms. Perkins. The pilot script really resonated with us.

Perkins: Thank you. It's a very interesting premise that I think is very relatable right now in today's economy. There are a lot of people getting out of college who can't afford to live on their own. In our case, our daughter Polly, who's played by Sarah Chalke, goes through a divorce and can't afford to live on her own. So she and her young six-year-old daughter move in with us, and we've been kind of loving our empty nest.

Garrett: Yeah, we love our empty nest. It's like, "What's going on?"

Perkins: Suddenly, there she is for the rest of our lives.

Garrett: With a needy kid. She's wonderful, but we have a life.

Perkins: We were enjoying the peace and quiet.

Since the show is based off creator Claudia Lonlow's real-life, did you two ever meet her parents?
Perkins: Oh yeah. [Laughs]

Garrett: Ironically, her dad is one of the co-owners of the Improv Comedy Club in Los Angeles, so I've known him for literally going on 30 years. And yeah, he doesn't like me, I don't think. But that's OK.

Perkins: [Laughs] And Claudia's mother, who was a former actress and a stand-up comedian, I got to spend a lot of time with her and base a lot of Elaine on her energy and her spirit. It was great to have them around.

Garrett: Yeah, it was a lot of fun. They're very eccentric...

Perkins: Very.

Garrett: And you know, they do a lot of things in the buff. Which has to stop.

Perkins: Yeah, they've got to stop that. And Claudia still lives at home, so...

Garrett: Yes, and her daughter's off to college. She's been there this whole time, and still isn't leaving.

Perkins: She's got her own little wing over there in the house. The parents are going to leave before she does. [Laughs]

When you know that your character's inspired by a real person, how do you make them your own? Is that a difficult process at all, especially after you've met them?
Perkins: No, you just gotta take poetic license. You just gotta let 'er rip, because you know, you're never gonna be exactly who that person is. And luckily, with Claudia's parents, they're very giving and very cool, and love what we're doing. And have nothing but positive things to say.

Garrett: And my guy in real-life is very boring. So I had to bring my B-game, for sure.

Perkins: Yeah, you definitely are more interesting. [Laughs]

Do you guys enjoy getting to play characters with seemingly no filter?
Perkins: Yeah, because we have such big filters in real life. [Laughs]

Garrett: Especially in real life. I'm kind of known for not having a filter, I'm doing pretty good now though.

Perkins: And I'm learning to be filter-free.

Garrett: Yeah, it's fun to play people that really have no boundaries.

Perkins: Right, because you can just sort of have a good time.

Garrett: Yeah, and what's fun on the set is comedically we all try things and swing for the fences. And Sarah Chalke is so wonderful to work with, comedically fearless, so I think that helps. Especially when you're discovering your character early on in the show.

Obviously the chemistry between you two is a big key to the show. Was it easy for you to develop that?
Garrett: You know, it was interesting. When I came along, I really wanted the role, and Ms. Perkins and obviously Sarah were already on board. And I did a chemistry read with Ms. Perkins to see if, you know, and it was just immediate that there was just something there.

Perkins: Yeah, we just clicked.

Garrett: She's a very generous, talented actor...

Perkins: Aw, so's he! We get along like a house on fire!

Garrett: But you have to be very transparent comedically as an actor, especially for a good ensemble.

Perkins: Especially when you're playing people who've been married as long as our characters have been married, there just has to be a shorthand.

Garrett: And I love how we're not picking on each other. We accept each other. We like each other. Sure, we have our little things, but...

Perkins: We're not this bickering old couple.

Garrett: Yeah, you know, there are people that are married a long time that dig it. I don't know of any, but they're there.

Did the idea that you'd be playing grandparents take some getting used to at first?
Perkins: Well, they're grandparents, yes, but in a lot of ways they're almost younger-acting than Polly, Sarah Chalke's character. They're almost more free-spirited, they like to have more fun, they like to go out and do more things. They're more adventurous, more outspoken. So they don't really feel like "grandparents" to me.

Garrett: Yeah, nor do we like the term.

Perkins: No, I'm not a granny.

Garrett: Yeah, which is kind of fun, because as Polly moves home, she's the one who's more parental and all uptight. And that's kind of the twist on everything that we're trying to do.

When you're playing over-the-top characters like Max and Elaine, is it important to still find ways to identify with your characters?
Perkins: Well, you know, I just like to get high ...

Garrett: No, he doesn't mean in real life. He means in the show.

Perkins: [Laughs] There's a lot I can identify with in Elaine and a lot that I can't. I mean, I'm definitely not as outrageous as she is. But maybe I am a little bit.

Garrett: Well, I think we have to. You know, comedy, if I can for a moment...

Perkins: Please do.

Garrett: Is almost like a small flame. A small flame. And how much are we going to ignite it, and what are we going to add to it? Still, we are eccentric people, but we need to be grounded and believable so we can go that way, so we don't end up sketch-y or worse.

Perkins: Yeah, I can't really show up high.

Garrett: Yeah, she can't. I can, she can't.

Do you have any advice for parents if their kid wants to move back in?
Garrett: "No."

Perkins: Yeah, say "No." [Laughs] No, of course not.

Garrett: Listen, we're kind of helicopter parents in real-life. So, who could say no? I mean, how can you not be there for a kid?

Perkins: Yeah, I couldn't say no. I don't know of any parent who could, but that doesn't mean that it isn't a difficult situation. And you get through it the best you can. And sometimes there's a lot of humor involved, which I think is what our show's about.

Catch "How To Live With Your Parents (For The Rest Of Your Life)" on Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m. ET on ABC in the U.S. and City in Canada.

'Orphan Black': 10 Things You Need To Know

2013-03-28T13:36:59-04:00

It's happened to all of us before: you see someone on the street you swear you know. But what if you recognized that person not because they look like a friend, but because they look just like you? That's the mind-bending premise of "Orphan Black," the new sci-fi series premiering on Space and BBC America on March 30.

And while good science-fiction always grounds its more out-there elements in something familiar, like a shared personal experience or universal theme, "Orphan Black" takes the idea of identity crisis and multiplies it. That's because the series star Tatiana Maslany doesn't just play one leading role in the new show, she plays enough to necessitate the use of a cheat sheet.

It all starts when Sarah (Maslany) witnesses a woman who looks just like her, Beth (also Maslany), jump in front of a train. And looking for a way out of her own less-than-perfect life, Sarah assumes her dead doppelganger's identity. But what was supposed to be an easy score becomes a lot more complicated when Sarah discovers a deeper mystery, and even more women who bare an eerie resemblance to her. And we're not talking long-lost twins.

With clones, secret identities and dangerous conspiracies, the buzz is building around "Orphan Black" as the next breakout sci-fi hit. HuffPost TV visited the show's set in Toronto while they were wrapping up filming for their initial 10-episode season. And while everyone was careful not to spoil any surprises, here are 10 things you need to know about the highly anticipated series. Think of it as your "Orphan Black" crib notes.

Everything's A Secret
I showed up to the "Orphan Black" set to watch an afternoon of filming and chat with the show's stars while they were shooting Episode 9 in the lower level of a working hospital. And when I got there, I was warned that I might see and hear a few things I wouldn't be able to write about. Turns out, no one had to worry, because the crew clearly received the "no spoilers" memo.

Even though the clone concept is already out there (following a strong buzz-building panel during the Winter Television Critics Association Tour in January), everyone was careful not to reveal too much about the show's central mystery, which meant even seemingly innocuous questions about prep work were potentially fraught with spoilers.

"I read a lot of books on ... well, I can't even tell you or talk about that either. I am cloaked in secrecy," laughed Dylan Bruce, who plays Paul, the boyfriend who Sarah assumes along with the dead woman's identity. "I think I would be giving away too much if I told you the prep for the role. But there was some serious prep that I took for the role that maybe I'll reveal a little later on in the series." Which means you just know that his initial role as Sarah/Beth's dutiful boyfriend grows significantly more complicated as the story unfolds.

Article Continues After Slideshow!

Including The Scripts
According to Bruce, the cast was kept guessing as well: "I kind of had a basic idea of what my character was gonna do and who he was from the beginning, but I had no idea that they were going to take it to the place that they took it." He continued, saying, "That's why it's so exciting for us to get the scripts when they come out, because we want to know what's gonna happen next."

Maslany explained the process, saying, "We get the scripts like a day before we shoot them, which is ridiculous, but I always trust that it's going somewhere cool."

"They turn me into a fan," said Kevin Hanchard, who plays Art, a homicide detective who's also Beth's (former) partner. "You're going down a certain line and then boom, there's that sharp left turn that no one saw coming."

It's a process that ensures the cast is kept on their toes and more importantly, don't unknowingly telegraph future reveals, according to Jordan Gavaris, who plays Sarah's foster brother Felix. "I know that they always say, 'Don't let them think that you don't know!' But the reality is, and for good reason, part of the magic behind the 'Orphan Black' universe is the fact that we're discovering things all the time," Gavaris explained. "The characters don't know, they are going down the proverbial rabbit hole with everyone else, the audience included."

But John Fawcett, the show's co-creator (along with Graeme Manson), said it was still crucial to make sure the actors weren't completely in the dark. "I found it was important to give them enough coming up that they could be prepared for it," said Fawcett. "A lot of the time, the big ticket item they do know about in advance. Because I think it's important for them to get their head around where the character ultimately is going to go."

The only one he was more judicious with was Maslany, reasoning that she had more than enough on her plate already. "Her head was just swimming with everything," laughed Fawcett. "It's like, you don't want to give her more information. She was just trying to keep so much in her head as it was."

Tatiana Maslany Is Poised To Break Out
Despite all the on-set secrecy, one thing everyone could tell me is how impressed they were with Maslany, and the sheer amount of work that went into not only leading the series, but playing its various clones.

"She's a savant when it comes to doing accents, and altering her mannerisms for each one of her characters. She's pretty wonderful. And I think that the audience is really going to fall in love with this girl," Bruce said of his co-star. From the sounds of it, the rest of the cast already has.

"It's extremely precise and technical, there's a huge amount of marks and stuff to cover," gushed Maria Doyle Kennedy, who plays Sarah's foster mother Mrs. S., and is an award-winning actor herself. "But every time she manages to deliver a performance I'm absolutely gobsmacked. I must say, I'm really, really properly impressed, and I like nothing, so..."

"She puts us all on her back and is basically carrying the show. And without her, the show wouldn't work," agreed Bruce. And Fawcett predicted, "She's going to blow your mind through the course of this season."

"If nothing else, even if you go, 'Well, I don't know, this show kinda went off the rails,' she will blow your mind, I promise," continued Fawcett. "She is the one that will make you come back and keep watching."

The Part Almost Went To Ellen Page Instead
Still, Fawcett told me that "Orphan Black" came close to starring another young Canadian actress instead: "When it came down to casting that character, you know who my two choices to cast that character were? It was between Tat and Ellen Page."

They had a similar style, and a similar background, but even though Page is the bigger name, Fawcett just kept coming back to Maslany, who the director had previously cast in "Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed," the follow-up to his cult classic Canadian werewolf movie. Still, he wasn't ready to just hand her the role outright. He wanted to make sure she worked for it first.

"This is not a role that you can just offer to somebody. I refused to do that," Fawcett said. "Not to badmouth anybody, but then it's going to turn into "Ringer," right? You're gonna just offer it to somebody, you're not gonna know whether they have the capability to pull this off or not. You know, we're talking about multiple different accents, multiple characters."

So he and his producing partner Manson embarked on an arduous audition process. "It took me a long, long time. And even though I knew pretty early on about Tat, I knew that I wasn't gonna stop until I had basically seen everything and proved to myself 100 percent that this was the person."

Multiple clones meant each hopeful had to audition for multiple roles at once, and the trick was finding someone capable of playing them all equally well. "It was really hard, finding someone who you'd say, 'Oh wow, this person did it all, all of it.' Just across the board, all the different characters," explained Fawcett.

"And in the end, she annihilated everybody," Fawcett said of Maslany. "There really was no choice."

Mick Jagger Helped Get Jordan Gavaris the Job
As Felix, Jordan Gavaris is an integral part of the supporting cast. He's Sarah's confidante and a character who becomes embroiled in the series' central mystery along with her. But if it weren't for a certain Rolling Stones frontman, the role of Felix might have also gone to a different actor.

Gavaris explained that on the eve of his third audition, a friend of his called with some bad news. He remembers being told, "I've got to be honest with you, you're not going to get this role. They think you're way too young, and when you go in for the test tomorrow, just be prepared, it's not gonna happen."

But instead of resigning himself to defeat, Gavaris dug deeper. "I stayed up all night, I re-read the script, I kept looking for more," he said. "I thought, it can't just be a repeat of my two other auditions. I need to give them something more."

And he found his inspiration in an old music video. "I found this video of Mick Jagger and David Bowie doing 'Dancing in the Street.' And I thought, this was it! Mick Jagger had this wonderful, loose, sexually-ambiguous attitude," explained Gavaris. "I found this power for this character, who was sort of leading with his pelvis. And it worked!" he laughed.

But much like Johnny Depp and Jack Sparrow, Gavaris didn't stop at the Stones, mixing in a cartoon character for good measure. "I was reading it and rehearsing it with a friend and I was like, 'Felix the Cat, Felix the Cat, why can't I stop thinking about a cat?' And then I was like, 'Oh! A cat! ...You know, he is only nice about half the time. And he's kind of a bitch the other half,' " laughed Gavaris.

The Show is a Group Effort
As "Orphan Black" progressed, Fawcett and Manson began to see Maslany as more then just their main star, but also as a creative partner. "I just feel very, very, very fortunate to have her in this show with me," said Fawcett. "She's kind of become a collaborator of Graeme and I's."

"I've never led a series before," Maslany said. "I've never been in the prep stages of a series either, so I've never gotten to develop characters with directors and producers, and the hair and makeup team." But it's obvious from even the few hours I spent on set just how quickly she took to it, and how much input is encouraged from her and the rest of the actors.

Watching the cast and crew run through a particularly complicated scene involving clones and stand-ins, Maslany jumped from chair to chair, working through multiple angles at once, and offering suggestions for how the scene could play out for both of her characters.

When I sat down with Gavaris afterwards, he raved about the working environment, saying, "You saw the vibe in there, it's so collaborative, it's so inclusive. And even down to the finest details, we are making creative decisions, down to body positions."

And while you might think opening the floor up to all those different opinions would slow the production down, it actually seems to help speed things up. Every clone scene takes extra time, extra prep work and extra attention to detail before they can even think about filming. Which means detailed rehearsal and blocking saves valuable time later on.

"On a TV schedule, it's really not easy," explained Fawcett. "Because you're basically shooting a scene in layers, with costume changes. You have to have something that you're gonna do with your crew while there's a big costume change going on."

And according to Fawcett, what I saw was nothing compared to other episodes. "In the finale, I shot a very complex scene with three girls. Three girls and a moving camera," he reminisced, when I spoke to him a few weeks after the season had wrapped. "But it's such a great scene. I knew that I really had to do something exciting in the finale with three clones in a room, for the audience."

But the logistical challenge (some might say nightmare) excited Fawcett too. "I just wanted to do it for myself as well. I wanted to see these three moving around in space and interacting. It's what got me excited about the show," he explained. "The idea that one actor was going to play multiple roles, and that there were going to be these scenes where she was playing various characters within the same scene."

A Clone By Any Other Name
So, just how many different characters does Maslany play? Well, getting back to that secrecy thing again, I never got an exact number. "We can say three, but there's way more than that," the actress teased.

And if you're having a hard time keeping track at home, just think about the poor actors. "Today, I'm doing three characters," Maslany told me. "So I started the day as so-and-so, and then now I'm this one, and then at the end of the day I'm..." She trailed off, either to avoid risking spoilers, or confusing herself any further.

"It's a very bizarre thing to keep track of, but the thing is, the writing is such that these characters' voices are so clear on the page, I can hear them, I can see them," Maslany explained. Still, this show involves some serious mental gymnastics.

"I have to compartmentalize my brain a bit, and be like, 'OK, where is this person at, and how much do they know? And what do they know that that person doesn't?' And then technically, playing scenes opposite myself is a nightmare-slash-hilarious-slash-the weirdest shit ever," she laughed.

It was tricky for some of the other actors too, at least at first. "It can get confusing," admitted Gavaris. "It was much more confusing in the beginning. Sometimes there were a lot of questions like, 'Who are you in this one right now?' "

"It's absolutely outrageous. I only did my first clone work about a month ago," said Doyle Kennedy. But she credits Maslany for making it work. "She's so good, you're just reacting to another character. You're just thinking about the character that you're with."

Gavaris agreed, "What really amazes me the most is Tat's ability to fall so freely into each person. And they're not just Sarah and the clones. Each clone has its own identity. You take any clone in the show and it could lead the series."

And despite the added confusion, the cloning angle came with one major benefit for the rest of the cast, as far as Bruce was concerned. "With the cloning concept, if someone gets killed, there's always a possibility to bring him back as a clone, right?" he laughed. "So that's good for an actor to know as well. A little bit of job security."

"Orphan Black" Was a Decade in the Making
When "Orphan Black" finally premieres on March 30, it'll have been a long time coming. Fawcett told me he first came up with the initial premise of a woman watching her double jump in front of a train as far back as 2002. But while he'd originally conceived it as a feature film, he and Manson just couldn't crack the story. So instead, it sat on the back-burner while the two went off to other projects, until they hit on the idea of turning the concept into a TV series instead.

"I think because of the nature of the premise of "Orphan Black," we realized that it was such a complicated idea that we couldn't solve it in a two-and-a-half hour format," explained Fawcett. "We sat down and we went, 'OK, if this were a series, do you think we could finally come up with the answer?'"

Fawcett credits shows like "Lost" and "Battlestar Galactica" for helping show him the way, saying, "It had never really occurred to me to make a television series before. But things changed in the last decade, and I found that a lot of the things that I was being inspired by were television."

You Haven't Seen Anything Like This...
Despite the sci-fi influences, both the cast and crew believe they've hit upon a formula that's unique enough to stand out in the crowded marketplace. "It's so different than anything I've ever come across or seen. I don't think it relies on gimmicks or tricks or anything like that at all," said Hanchard, "There's a lot of really cool shit that happens in this show."

Maslany was drawn to the human drama as much as the sci-fi aspect, saying, "Just the complexity of the characters and the way the script is written, it's entertaining, it's funny, it's dark as hell, and it's bizarre." Fawcett agreed with that sentiment, saying, "I think the thing that people are gonna be surprised by is the sense of humour that our show has."

Gavaris elaborated, saying that in spite of the sci-fi premise, "Orphan Black" is rooted in a gritty realism. "There's drugs, there's sex, there's lying, there's murder, there's cheating, there's death. There are all the recipes for a disaster, and we don't apologize for any of it," he explained. "And you basically either take the characters for who they are and you like them, or you don't. They're not heroes, they're anti-heroes. But in the end, because they're just surviving, there is a sympathy there."

And The Possibilities Are Endless
But for Bruce, the biggest plus of "Orphan Black" is where it can go from here, thanks to its central premise. "It's just like a Pandora's box of great ways that we can take the show," he said. "It's only been opened a little crack, so there's so many different ways that the writers can really explore this theme."

"It's a universe unto itself and the rules are dictated by the writers and the directors and the creators, so it's kind of a cool free-for-all," agreed Maslany.

And Fawcett acknowledged already having worked out with Manson where a second season could go, even if that changed a bit over the course of filming. "We certainly know where Season 2 wants to go, and that is good. But I think that it's a little bit more complicated now. We added some paint to our corner at the end of [Episode] 10 that we need to figure out how to get past."

It's a challenge Fawcett and Manson are up for though, if given the chance. "Obviously, there's also a bigger picture to the whole thing, which is a question of, 'How long are we gonna [run], will we get another season, will there be a Season 3?' " Fawcett said. "It's fun to think about though, because it's a concept that expands rather than contracts."

For his part though, Fawcett is confident in the show's prospects, saying, "I feel the show does have that thing in it that I know makes it exciting. Because I've been excited about it for the last 10 years."

We're about to find out if audiences agree.

"Orphan Black" premieres on Saturday, March 30 at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT on Space Channel in Canada and at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT on BBC America in the U.S.

Leslie Mann on Why 'This Is 40' Is Nothing Like Her Real Life

2013-03-21T16:25:50-04:00

When you make one movie with your family, it's a cute story, not to mention a cheap source of labor. But when you make three and counting, people start confusing your fictional creations with autobiography, as Judd Apatow and Leslie Mann are beginning to find out.

With "This Is 40," Apatow had Mann, his real-life wife, and their two daughters Maude and Iris, reprise their "Knocked Up" roles alongside Paul Rudd for a "sort-of sequel" about the lovably dysfunctional family coping with the mid-life milestone. And because of the casting, many people assume the film is essentially a big-budget dramatization of what happens in the Apatow household. But Mann would argue that couldn't be further from the case when it comes to Debbie and Pete.

With "This Is 40" set for Blu-Ray/DVD release tomorrow, Moviefone spoke to Mann about working with the ageless Paul Rudd, her newfound aversion to yelling, and the only way she would return to play Debbie for a third time.

Moviefone: Am I at the beginning of a long day of press, or somewhere in the middle?
Leslie Mann: You're the first one. So you'd better make it good.

Nice, so I get to ask you the same questions as everybody else, but I get to do it first. I guess I'm going to start with my most hard-hitting question then...
"What was it like working with your children?" [Laughs] "Now, how was it working with Judd? And does it feel like..." [Laughs] I could run them all for you right now, if you want.

I was planning on getting to those later. What I wanted to ask was, does Paul Rudd have a portrait of himself that's aging in his attic somewhere, like Dorian Gray? It's like he's aging backwards, it's so weird.
[Laughs] I know, he looks really good, doesn't he? It's crazy. I don't know what's happening, and we're all aging around him. That's where you're supposed to say, "No, you look like you're aging backwards too."

That was my follow-up question. Was it easy getting back into it with Paul?
Yeah, it was super easy. We're very comfortable with each other, he's like my brother. We had a lot of time to rehearse together and just talk everything through. And you know, we see Paul and his wife Julie all the time. So yeah, it was really comfortable and easy.

At what point did you start to think there was enough to Debbie and Pete to continue their story with a spin-off?
Well of course there would be. But I guess when Judd said to me that he wanted to make a movie about the characters from "Knocked Up," Pete and Debbie. And then it was like we couldn't stop talking about it. We had endless ideas and stories and it was just fun to talk about. For years, we had so much fun talking about it. So that's how we knew that there's more to say.

When you're making a movie with your family like this, does that development stage just sort of stretch 24/7, or do you try and set barriers between family time and work time?
No, for some reason, we don't. Well, because it's so fun to talk about, and it's fun for the girls too. And you know, we're doing what we love doing, so it's not like a job, where we're not having a good time talking about it. We're actually enjoying ourselves. So it was fun, because we're always working on something, but it's working on the thing that we love doing. So, yeah, we didn't have any boundaries with work and then family time, it all bled together.

Is it more fun working with your kids now that they're a little older?
It was. I mean, it was fun when they were little also, but now it seems like Maude understands acting on a different level. Before, she just kind of did what we told her to do, and now this time around, she really she wanted to do a good job and cared about learning about it, and doing the best she could. So that was fun to watch. And then watching her kick ass was fun, really fun. And Iris is so funny, so yeah, it's fun to watch them grow and be such great little actresses.

What's more cathartic for you -- getting to fake yell at your own kids, or getting to yell at someone else's kid?
[Laughs] You know what? I don't like yelling, so neither one feels good. It gives me pressure in my head. But I don't like it. I used to like it, I used to feel a little sense of relief or release after yelling at someone, but now it just hurts my head, so neither. I don't like yelling, period.

But you're so good at it. Why do you think you end up having to yell in these movies so much then?
Am I yelling a lot? Tell me where I yell, and I'll tell you why.

Well, obviously you're yelling at the kid, Joseph.
That's not really yelling yelling ... well, because it's funny. That's what people dream about doing, when somebody's mean to your child. Parents fantasize about going up to that kid who's mean to their child and telling them to f**k off. That's the truth. And every parent will tell you that they wish that they could tell off the bully. So that's just like a fantasy. And it's funny, people love that. So people can live vicariously through Debbie in that scene. [Laughs]

Do you think people overstate the autobiographical element of the movie just because you and your kids are in it?
Yeah, definitely. But I've realized that no matter what I say, people kind of have their own opinion about it, and their opinion doesn't usually change. They're going to think what they think and it's fine. It doesn't really bother me. It did at first, because I watched the movie, and I don't feel like it's my life at all. I think there are similarities just in the way that every couple who's been together for a long time or who have children, they struggle with a lot of the same things that Pete and Debbie are struggling with. But I think we took it to the extreme for the movie, or I guess comedy's sake, and so then it's not really my life at all. I can relate to some of the ideas, but no, it doesn't feel autobiographical. This is definitely fictional. [Laughs]

Would you have any interest in checking back in with this family in another five or 10 years, or are you done with Debbie and Pete?
I feel like I'm done with Debbie and Pete. Maybe if I divorce Pete and marry someone else, that could be interesting. [Laughs] But as of now, no, I'm good. We had fun, but yeah, not right now.

"This Is 40" will be available on Blu-Ray/DVD on March 22, 2013.

Steve Carell vs. Jim Carrey: Who's More Incredible?

2013-03-15T11:50:46-04:00

Steve Carell and Jim Carrey square off as rival magicians who find Las Vegas isn't big enough for both of their supersized egos in The Incredible Burt Wonderstone. From longtime 30 Rock director Don Scardino, the film stars Carell as the title hero who, together with his partner and childhood friend Anton Marvelton (a perfectly-cast Steve Buscemi), has been at the top of the Vegas magic scene for the past decade. Now though, Steve Gray (Carrey), a Criss Angel-style street magician, is threatening their dominance and making their act look stale. (Those spangled velour jumpsuits don't help.)

Bruce Almighty marked the last time Carell and Carrey went up against one another, but for this rematch, Carell's the headliner and Carrey the foil. So which comedy heavyweight comes out on top in The Incredible Burt Wonderstone? To find out, I broke down which of the film's two main acts deserves top billing.

Venue:
For the past ten years, Burt and Anton have been packing capacity crowds into their own personal theater with their names in lights out front as headliners at Bally's, former home to Vegas acts like Dean Martin. Steve Gray, meanwhile, takes his popular cable show, "Brain Rapist," to the Vegas streets, former home to thousands of drunk tourists sleeping one off. But both are looking for upgraded digs in the brand-new casino of Vegas mogul Doug Munny (James Gandolfini). Still, I'm giving this one to Gray, because what street magic lacks in prestige, it makes up for in low overhead.

Winner: Carrey

Costumes:
Watching The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, you can't help but feel for Carell, who's forced to brave the desert heat in varying combinations of velour and rhinestones for Wonderstone's decidedly old-Vegas costumes. But at least he gets to take the jumpsuits off from time to time, unlike his perma-spray tan. The worst Carrey has to wear was a pair of leather pants, and while I doubt they breathe much better, Carrey ought to be thanking his agent that his character's wardrobe was inspired by Criss Angel and not Siegfried and Roy.

Winner: Carrey

Repertoire:
As Gob Bluth would say, these aren't tricks, they're illusions. But whatever you call them, Wonderstone and Gray's styles couldn't be more wildly different. Carrey's Gray is a mashup of Criss Angel and David Blaine, and his repertoire mainly involves feats of masochism that play to Carrey's own bag of tricks: it's all big stunts and showy slapstick, like spending a night on hot coals or holding his pee for a week. Burt and Anton's act may be more old school, but it's also better developed, thanks to some special consulting from David Copperfield. Acts like Hangman and the Burt Locker might actually be something an audience would pay to see. Not to mention, Burt's slight of hand is much more useful when it's time for the movie's obligatory sex scene, even if you'll spend half of it wondering just how Carell managed his biggest magic trick of the whole movie: getting Olivia Wilde to film a sex scene with him.

Winner: Carell

Assistants:
Carell's Wonderstone has an ego so big he needs to sleep in a bed built for 12; either that, or he's just a man who likes having company. Because at various stages of the movie Carell gets to partner up with Buscemi, who's perfectly-matched as Burt's "magical friend," the aforementioned Wilde, unwittingly thrust into the role of their assistant, and Alan Arkin as Burt's childhood hero Rance Holloway. All three help keep Wonderstone's pompous act from getting stale or overplayed, though it would've been nice to see more from the underused Buscemi and Wilde. And all Carrey gets to work off of is a team of extras and nameless assistants there to hand him props and otherwise get out of the man's way.

Winner: Carell

Showmanship:
Admittedly, Wonderstone's routine is a little dated, and that's not just referring to using the Steve Miller Band's "Abracadabra" as Burt and Anton's theme song. After a decade doing the same show over and over again, Burt's just going through the motions at this point. And that could've just as easily described Carell lately. So after years of sad-sack film roles, it's fun to watch the comedian act like a self-important ass, even if he's just doing a budget Ron Burgundy imitation. Still, watching Carell attempt to roll through an evening of Burt and Anton's Magical Friendship sans Anton is a reminder of the man's A-list comedy talent.

Carrey plays to his strengths as well, and his face is no less elastic now than it was in his prime. But much like Carell's Wonderstone, Carrey's star doesn't shine quite as brightly as it used to, and his personal brand of over-the-top slapstick doesn't play as well as it did back when he was headlining movies like Bruce Almighty, a problem The Incredible Burt Wonderstone ultimately suffers from as well.

Winner: Carell

Final Tally: 3-2, in favor of Carell. His movie may not be all that incredible, but Burt Wonderstone still comes out on top.

Canadian Screen Awards Winners: 'War Witch,' Martin Short Come Up Big

2013-03-04T10:37:30-05:00

With all the awards shows competing for our attention this time of year, it can seem like one gala event bleeds into the next. But to anyone starting to feel awards season fatigue, the newly-minted Canadian Screen Awards offers an antidote to that glut, combining the year's best of film, TV and digital media for a massive one-night celebration of Canadian screen talent. The inaugural awards show, which merges the previously separate Genies and Geminis, was held in downtown Toronto Sunday evening, drawing Canadian stars from both the big and small screen.

And with Martin Short as the evening's emcee, there was no Oscar-style drama to be found on stage at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts, especially not with "War Witch" (also known as "Rebelle") completing a near sweep of the film categories and "Flashpoint" landing a pair of major TV honours for best actor and best drama series.

"War Witch" Cleans Up
Though it may have come up empty at the Oscars last week as Canada's official foreign film nominee, the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television clearly felt differently about writer/director Kim Nguyen's acclaimed French-language film. So much so that Sunday night's show could've been named the first annual "War Witch" Awards considering the sheer number of trophies the film took home. The Congo-set child-soldier drama turned out to be a big winner on its home turf, picking up honours early and often, winning a stunning 10 of the 12 Screen Awards it was up for.

In addition to Best Picture, Nguyen won for both his original screenplay and directing and called the evening "really overwhelming," saying. "I'm completely aware that this film is a challenge for the audience, and that this subject is so tough that not everybody wanted to go see this film." So Sunday's accolades meant a lot to Nguyen, who reflected on the film's eight-year-long journey by saying, "It's been an amazing ride."

Cinematographer Nicolas Bolduc agreed, calling winning big at home "so much more fun. Winning somewhere else, it's not the same feeling, it's not the same sort of energy." Hearing your film called to the stage 10 times presumably helps.

One Night Is Better Than Two
Meanwhile, the Academy hopes that Sunday night's festivities are the start of their own exciting journey, as the inaugural Screen Awards look to celebrate Canadian talent in one star-studded night as opposed to two separate events. And so the 90-minute telecast took turns alternating between honouring Canadian film and TV, though additional television awards were handed out during an industry gala held last Thursday.

Still, while combining the two industry celebrations into a single event might sound like an odd idea to some, it's just good business sense, according to Kevin O'Leary of "Dragon's Den," a Best Reality Show winner. "The more we can focus the light on Canadian media, the better it is for the country, the content we create, and hopefully makes us more globally competitive," said O'Leary. "This is certainly one of the biggest events I've ever been to in Canada, and that's great."

Martin Short had his own reasoning as to why the pairing was a good idea, joking, "After a season of awards shows in the United States, one wonders, isn't it a good idea to combine some of these?"

But for CBC's George Stroumboulopoulos, the real benefit will be felt five years from now, when TV and film talent that met at events like the Canadian Screen Awards begin to collaborate. He called Sunday night's red carpet one of the most exciting he's been on, saying, "Look at the star power that's out there. Big names, cool names."

Canada's Got Talent
Those big names included everyone from Sandra Oh and Kristin Kreuk to "Bachelor Canada" Brad Smith, who was on the receiving end of a few of Short's digs. Metric singer Emily Haines was on hand to accept the award for Best Original Song for her contribution to the "Cosmopolis" soundtrack, even though David Cronenberg's latest film didn't manage an invite to the ceremony for either the filmmaker or a certain "Twilight" star.

It wasn't an entirely Canadian affair however, as James Cromwell showed up to accept the Best Actor award for his starring role in Canadian drama "Still Mine," and Bollywood actress Seema Biswas won for Deepa Mehta's "Midnight's Children." Still, the evening was all about celebrating the best in Canada's homegrown talent, like Sarah Polley, who won best documentary for "Stories We Tell," or Jay Baruchel, who earned multiple nominations for his hockey comedy "Goon."

Short Earns Good Reviews
But the evening's biggest star had to be Martin Short, who brought his trademark manic energy as the show's host, from flying in on wires for his opening number to hopping into Glenn Healy's arms and pretending to be a set of bagpipes for reasons yet to be determined. He also took a dig at recent Oscar winner "Argo," quipping, "I flew in on Air Canada. Or as Ben Affleck calls it, American Airlines."

Short was quick to defend fellow awards show host Seth MacFarlane, however, saying, "I thought Seth was fantastic, he was adventurous and himself. I think it's really a daunting thing. You don't want to be too bland, you don't want to [go] too far."

Stroumboulopoulos, last year's Genies' host, thought that Short nailed that delicate balance. "I think Martin's doing a great job," he said. "Martin's fearless out there, and I like the fact that he's taking runs at everybody. I think that's really fun, it's what he should do."

The press room clearly agreed, cheering Short during his post-show press conference. But despite the good reviews, the beloved actor isn't sure if he'd come back next year if asked, joking, "I can only fly so many times. That harness chafes."

'21 and Over': By the Numbers

2013-03-01T10:53:51-05:00

With "The Hangover," co-writers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore helped turn four hard-partying idiots and one crazy night into a billion dollar (and counting) franchise. So it only makes sense that they'd follow a similar formula for their directorial debut, "21 and Over," which is another feature-length ode to drunken debauchery, only set at college instead of Vegas.

It all starts when Casey (Skylar Astin) and Miller (Miles Teller) show up to surprise their high school buddy Jeff Chang (Justin Chon) and take him out for his 21st birthday. The only problem is, he has an important med school interview the next morning, and a seriously intimidating doctor dad (Francois Chau) who's more interested in pressuring his son into following in his footsteps than celebrating his birthday.

But because one quick beer and a midnight curfew wouldn't make for much of a movie (let alone a 21st birthday), the trio's semi-responsible evening soon turns into a marathon night of bar-hopping, which makes a seemingly easy task like taking a passed-out Jeff Chang home into an epic quest.

So just how wild did the guys' night get? And can "21 and Over" possibly reach the debased heights of "The Hangover"? To find out, I crunched the numbers.

(As always, like Jeff Chang's memory the morning after, the following math may be a little fuzzy.)

Favors Dr. Chang had to call in to get Jeff his interview: A lot
Air horn blasts it takes to convince Jeff Chang to come out: 4

How many drinks Jeff Chang agrees to have: 1
How many drinks Jeff Chang actually has: 5 or more pints, 3 body shots, 3 regular shots, and the better part of a bottle of whiskey

Bars legally entered: 8
Parties attended: 2
Sororities infiltrated: 2
Campus hospitals and jails visited: 2

Time of Jeff Chang's important interview: 8 a.m.
Time Dr. Chang is picking him up: 7 a.m.
Time his friends promise he'll be home by: 12 a.m.
Actual time he arrives home: 6:51 a.m.

Screen time Jeff Chang spends conscious: 20 percent
Screen time Jeff Chang spends unconscious: 80 percent

People who know where Jeff Chang lives: Jeff Chang
People who don't know where Jeff Chang lives: Everyone else

Times characters refer to Jeff Chang by anything other than his full name: 1

Bouncers humiliated: 4
Drinking games played: 7
Shots downed: At least 10
Shots fired: 1
People trampled by a buffalo: 4
Number of windows Jeff Chang gets thrown out of: 2
Number of windows your "best friends" should throw you out of: 0

Instances of nudity (female): 3
Instances of nudity (male): 5
Spankings administered: 4
Brandings administered: 2
Tube socks worn in a way they weren't intended: 2
Circumcisions performed via stuffed animal: 1
Feminine hygiene products eaten: 1
Innocent bar-goers urinated on: 7-10
Projectile vomits: 1

Time it takes the characters to figure out the movie's "big reveal": Over 85 minutes
Time it takes the audience to figure out the movie's "big reveal": Under 15 minutes

Bad decisions made: Countless
Total alcohol consumed: Enough to fell the average adult buffalo

"21 and Over" opens in theaters on March 1.

Ashley Bell on Bending Over Backwards For 'The Last Exorcism: Part II'

2013-03-01T10:24:06-05:00

One look at the creepy poster for "The Last Exorcism: Part II" and you know that Ashley Bell is tough -- not only did she literally bend over backwards for that painful-looking pose, the stunt sent her to the doctor afterwards and she still came back for more.

It was all worth it for Bell though after the Eli Roth-produced original "Last Exorcism" proved to be her breakout role, earning Bell praise for her natural acting as much as her unnatural contorting as the possessed 16-year-old Nell Sweetzer. And after an Independent Spirit Award nomination and an "Oscar-worthy" label bestowed by The New York Post, Ashley is back at it for "Part II," which picks up a few months after the first movie left off. Now broken and traumatized, Nell can't remember much of what happened to her as she attempts to put her life back together. But the evil that once possessed her isn't done with Nell just yet.

With "The Last Exorcism: Part II" hitting theaters Friday (and "The Marine 3: Homefront," also starring Bell, coming to DVD March 5th), Moviefone spoke to the up-and-coming actress about continuing Nell's story, what drives her to push her body to such extremes, and the possibility of a Part III.

Moviefone: After the first movie became such a fan favorite, have you been hearing a lot from fans about the sequel?
Ashley Bell: People are really excited, yeah. There's been such a huge response to the trailer and the poster, because everybody thought it would be a found footage film. And the fact that it's gone from found footage to straight narrative is really getting people excited. It was something they didn't expect. And I think that's what audiences are going to see when they finally see the film. There are some twists and turns in it that people won't see coming.

At what point did you know you were going to make a second movie?
I hoped to step back into my Doc Martens again. But it was a while before I got the phone call that there was a sequel in the works, because Eli Roth wanted to make sure there was a really strong story. And what's exciting about "Part II" is it's Nell's story. It's a continuation of the first film, and we see this girl that's just shell-shocked, she doesn't remember anything. And here she is, she's thrown into New Orleans, she's thrown into Mardi Gras, there's temptation everywhere. And she has to choose between good and evil.

How was it moving from a more supporting role to the lead?
Oh, it was very exciting. It was a huge honor to get the call and to hear the script was the continuation of Nell's story. But then in going to do it, I really wanted to try to one-up myself from the first one, especially physically. You know, the back-bend was a huge part of the first film. And for "Part II," if you've seen the trailer, there's this levitating back-bend, which was just a huge day to film. It was a day where the whole crew was on set to make the rigging of it possible, and there was a stunt team on set, and I was only OKed to do it eight times and we did it about twenty times. And Ed [Gass-Donnelly], the director, conducted it almost like a piece of music, it was just this huge swell of a moment. It was very exciting to be in the center of it.

Did they give you any CGI help this time around to take some of that physical load off you?
Everything that I do is me. That is all me. No CGI for me. [Laughs] I managed to pull it off myself.

How much of a toll does that take on you?
Well, you know, it's funny. I actually have a stress fracture in my vertebrae. I went to my doctor and he's like, "Have you done any gymnastics or any contorting or hyperextending?" And I said, "Well, one thing comes to mind..." So I have the X-rays to prove it. That being said, it is a stress fracture, it's not a trauma fracture, so I can continue to do this intense physical work, I just need to be put back together again.

How much input do you have when it comes to those scenes? Do you develop them together with Ed in terms of figuring out what stunts you'll be doing?
He was so interested in being true to the character of Nell, and would ask me if something didn't feel right or what would she maybe say instead. And then certainly for the backbend, there was a conversation about what things I could do, where do we wanna take it, how far do we wanna push things? And being a part of those conversations, it's always just such an honor as an actress, to be asked, "What do you think?" I never thought I would get asked that question. It surprises me every time somebody asks me my opinion, and to be able to collaborate like that is really a rarity.

Does actually doing the contortions and back-bends yourself help you get into a scene more?
It does, very much. It's so funny that people use the word contorting, because I never even knew I could do any of this stuff. For the [original] callback, I got asked to be exorcised in the room, but in terms of physically doing things, I didn't know what was going to be required of me for the first film, so I just prepared for everything. And Daniel Stamm ["The Last Exorcism" director], the night before the exorcism scene asked if I had any ideas and I said, "Well, I can do this," and I did the back-bend. And he said, "Okay! I'm going to change some stuff." And I had no idea it would be this poster image for both films.

I'd imagine your co-stars must appreciate it as well, getting to play off that.
Yeah, you know, it's funny. It took two days to film the main exorcism scene for this film. And everybody knew what was going to happen in the script. Everybody learned their lines, everybody was ready to go. But then in the room when it's all happening live, you get into the moment of imagining that the whole battle is going on inside you emotionally and spiritually and you're acting it out... [Laughs] It takes it to a whole new level! And everybody had something to play off of, yeah. I would start bringing it up, and then they would start screaming and trying to control the environment as their lines are coming out, they're trying harder and harder, which would only provoke me to go more and more. And it just keeps on building. So those scenes are really cool, they're exhilarating to be a part of.

How much does a role like this stick with you after you're done filming?
As much method as I've studied, I'm not method in that sense. Otherwise I think they would have to hire a real exorcist to come on set, I would torture the crew. [Laughs] But this one did hang with me a little bit more. Physically, I guess I got that stress fracture, which I'm kind of proud of. I think of it as a war wound. [Laughs] And also, the demands of the character were different, because in this one Nell's going through so much shock, she's so broken. So I took a lot of ballet to prepare for the role, but also to get that very gaunt look that she has. She's had everything taken away from her and just she's riddled with anxiety, so I wanted to inhabit that look. And it was very physical. I could lose weight while filming and everything was due to the nature of the role, it was just very demanding. But you know, that's where things get fun. I always dread when they yell cut on the last scene. For me, working is fun. It's the times in between that are work.

Would you be up for doing a third movie if this one does well?
Well, at the risk of giving a spoiler, I think there's always another dance to be had with the Devil.

I know that Eli Roth has said that they have an idea of what a third one could be. Has he discussed that with you at all?
I'm so happy Eli said that. [Laughs] Yes, I do know what a third one could be. I think this one, the surprise at the end of this film, the twist that it takes, I don't think audiences will see coming. It's a turn that only Eli Roth could pull off, and I would be very excited to see what more trouble Nell could get into.

"The Last Exorcism, Part II" opens in theaters Friday, March 1.

'21 and Over' Star Jonathan Keltz on Working With 'Hangover' Writers, Channeling Bradley Cooper

2013-02-28T11:16:40-05:00

As Randy in "21 and Over," Jonathan Keltz gets shot at, gored, takes both a dart and a baseball bat to the face, and gets his phone, van, and girlfriend stolen -- and he's the bad guy in "Hangover" writers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore's directorial debut.

As rough as Randy's night turns out, things go even worse for Casey (Skylar Astin) and Miller (up-and-comer Miles Teller) after they visit their childhood friend Jeff Chang (Justin Chon) on the eve of an important med school interview. And what was supposed to be one quick beer to celebrate Jeff's 21st birthday turns into an epic night complete with drunken debauchery, male nudity, and a rampaging buffalo.

With "21 and Over" coming out this Friday, Moviefone sat down with Keltz in Toronto to talk about being misunderstood, how he celebrated his own 21st birthday, and who was scarier to work with, the buffalo or Miles Teller.

Moviefone: So they really beat you up in this movie...
Jonathan Keltz: Yeah, see, the thing is, everyone talks about Randy being the villain, but really, he's just having a bad night. It is just a bad night. Everything that can go wrong, does. Does Randy probably misbehave? Yes, I think that he certainly has a resting place of quite a bit of aggression, but yeah, I'm set up for a nice Spring Break, nice everything. It's going to be great. And then graduating, who knows? Now I'm probably disfigured permanently. Potentially arrested. Definitely sporting some bruises. But I do have some new friends by the end of it there.

And you didn't have to take your clothes off.
And I didn't have to take my clothes off, which is good. Yeah, I'm the lucky one there.

What made you want to play Randy?
On the page, the character is very cartoony, he's big, he's a larger-than-life screamer. And so the thing that was fun was trying to figure out a way to ground that. I definitely was inspired by what Bradley Cooper was able to do in "Wedding Crashers," that guy that you just hate and are rooting against, but there's just something so cool about him.

I had a lot of fun playing with these guys. The trio -- Skylar, Miles and Justin -- are just awesome. It was great getting to improv with them, I really was pumped to work with this whole crew. We were up in Seattle, I was up there for about four weeks. And then on top of that, the guys that are my posse, Danny Booko and Russ [Mercado], they're hysterical [with] the free reign that we had to improvise or ad-lib. Then of course the directors would come up, and these guys are comic geniuses. So because of something you've said, they then come up with like four different alt lines that just, they kill, they slay. So it was a blast.

Is it difficult to get amped up to play such an intense character like Randy?
It can be. I certainly did my fair share of push-ups on the set of this movie. And then, the bonfire stuff, we were just running around. That was getting crazy because we're running and screaming and there's literally 700 people there running and screaming. But that was just a blast. I don't know how much I can talk about it, but taking a baseball bat to a room is pretty much a dream of mine. [Laughs] So I enjoyed that. That'll jack you up.

Was that a real buffalo they used during the bonfire scene?
That was a real buffalo. There was a real buffalo on set, and there was a fake one going around as well for some more aerial shots of things. But we had a real buffalo, who is the most placid, calm guy. And then they get him riled up and they start running him at people. That was a crazy night, because the fire, it was set up bigger than this room. And they'd light it up and it would just burn, and there were about 700 revelers there, so it was a big scene.

So what was more unpredictable then, working with the live buffalo or doing the improv?
[Laughs] I would say that it's much more terrifying working with Miles Teller than working with the buffalo. The buffalo was totally cool. And they had wranglers and trainers and everything. Nah, it was fun, and the thing that was cool about my character is I'm sort of sporadically in the movie, but all the times I show up are the moments that move the plot forward, that develop it and add that next layer. So although we did get to play around and have some fun, there was probably the most crucial amount of information that [we] had to get across in those scenes.

What's the atmosphere like on set on a movie like this?
Honestly, it was so much fun. Everyone's attitude was just about doing everything they could to get it all on the screen and to have it all come together. I was there at the beginning and I was there at the end of the shoot, which was awesome, and the tone that Jon [Lucas] and Scott [Moore] set was fantastic, just because it was always so relaxed. No matter what was going on, no matter if we were behind or what was happening, it was just completely cool. And they were just so on point. It was my first time working for a directorial duo like that and I enjoyed it, everyone was just having so much fun. I had a number of days that I wasn't shooting while I was up there and I was going and hanging out on set anyway. Even on night shoots, I'd be there until 3:00, 4:00, 5:00 a.m. just to hang out. I love being on set, but it was just great getting to watch everybody at work. Those three guys, they're fantastic. Just being able to watch them riff together and everything, it was a great experience.

So what was your 21st birthday like?
My 21st birthday was awesome. I was in LA, and it was great. I had a bunch of friends that came out. The night ended up in a completely different direction than we thought it was going to go. We went to this one place that said, "Oh yeah, it's gonna be fine, you guys can all come in, there'll be room for you." We show up and the place is completely packed, and it's like, what are we gonna do? And then this girl I know, who had just been showing up to go into that bar, she's like, "Oh, I've got a limo, you guys should hop on in." So I brought a cigar, at this point, I'm smoking a cigar, chilling in the limo, I'm like, "This is gonna be good." And then it was shortly after that that the blackness set in... [Laughs] And the rest of the night is a bit fuzzy. But we had a blast.

"21 and Over" opens in theaters on March 1.

'Dark Skies' Actor Josh Hamilton on Horror Movies and What Scares Him

2013-02-22T15:05:50-05:00

In "Dark Skies," Josh Hamilton plays Daniel Barrett, a character instantly familiar to anyone who's watched a horror movie lately -- for some reason, no matter how well-meaning, it's always the dad that's the last one to piece together exactly what evil is terrorizing his family.

In Barrett's case, it's a group of extraterrestrials known as "the Greys" who begin visiting his house and his family with increasing frequency and sinister intentions. Together with his wife Lacy (Keri Russell), Daniel has to figure out what they want and how to stop them before they harm their two young sons. From writer/director Scott Stewart ("Priest," "Legion") and the producer of similarly-themed films like the recent "Insidious" and "Sinister," "Dark Skies" ends up being a remarkably effective and creepy thriller, mostly because the Barretts' quiet suburban existence feels so normal and relatable. At least until, well, terrifying aliens show up.

With 'Dark Skies' hitting theaters this Friday, Moviefone spoke to Josh about relating to his character, comparing "horror movie dad" notes with Ethan Hawke, and the inherent terror of the suburbs.

Is horror an intimidating genre to take on as an actor?
It is in theory, yeah. It requires a ton of imagination, I guess like any summer movie these days. But the history of horror movies goes back a long way ... of people trying to convincingly be terrified when looking at a piece of tape on the side of the camera box. I have a whole new respect for it. But this film in particular wasn't that way so much. The way Scott Stewart talked to us about it, what we were all trying to think about was not thinking of this necessarily as a horror film while we were doing it, but just thinking of it as a family drama -- this family struggling to figure out and deal with these things that are happening to them. It's really the last resort to accept that there are malevolent dark forces in the universe coming at you.

Would you say that realistic grounding helps you buy in?
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, Scott didn't want any "horror movie acting," I'm not sure what that is. [Laughs] But I think he just wanted this to feel like a real family that's struggling with things. What attracted me to the script is that the things that these people are dealing with, they're all fears that I think are very relatable to people. And ultimately, I feel like most horror films or scary films deal with people's fears of things they can't control, fear of the unknown, but also specific things that I think are very relatable right now. You know, like my character not having a job, being out of work, fear of not being to provide for your family and trying to protect your children from forces you can't control. It's certainly a very primal thing that anybody can relate to.

Did being a father yourself help you relate to Daniel at all?
Oh, of course. I think having children in general is always very helpful for acting. The fear of losing something like a child is one of the strongest feelings there is, and so yeah, that was very instrumental to playing Daniel. Keri and I both have two children, somewhat similar in ages, so we talked about that a lot. It made for a shorthand. You immediately just go towards anything happening to your child and you're right there.

So how much do you have to trust your director in a movie like this?
Oh, hugely. And I feel like you have to trust your director in any film. With Scott, it was very easy. He's an incredibly smart man. Especially for someone coming from an effects background, it's very rare to have someone who is as good at that as he is, and also able to talk to actors in such a good way. Yeah, he was incredibly helpful, and I trusted him implicitly the entire time.

This movie seems to share a couple similarities to a movie that recently came out, "Sinister" with Ethan Hawke. And I believe you've worked with Ethan a few times before.
I have, yeah. Many times.

Did you two ever share notes on playing dads in horror movies?
We did talk about it actually, yeah. I mean, we're both fathers and so I think that's the thing that immediately grounds you. Ultimately they're about families or people trying to protect their families from whatever outside forces there are. In his case, it was a serial killer. It's interesting, because in that film, his character is certainly much more complicit in the results of what happened. It was his own ambition that put his family in harm's way. And it's an interesting thing, because in that one, it was much more explicit, but there is something that touches upon [that] in this film too. The parents have to question like, "Am I somehow bringing this on?" All you want to do is help your children and protect them, and then when things start going badly, it's hard not to somehow blame yourselves for the difficulties. But aside from that, the characters are just so different.

Why do you think so many horror movies find terror in the suburbs?
Because the suburbs are terrifying. [Laughs] The whole idea of the suburbs was to create these family-friendly places where people could flock and have more control over their existences, and keep things very controlled and placid and keep outside forces at bay. Whether it be violence or drugs or whatever people are scared of. And of course, as you know, there is a huge underbelly to any seemingly perfect scenario, and I think that's why so many stories and filmmakers try to get at the flipside of that seemingly-perfect façade.

So what would you say the scarier part of "Dark Skies" is for you, the aliens or the suburbs?
Actually, this is how I feel about horror films: there's enough scary things that happen in day-to-day life. Sometimes just going and getting the mail is scary, when you open your bills. And so, sometimes I feel like scary movies are just tapping into those anxieties and magnifying them. I think they definitely serve a real purpose in our society. As sort of a little ideological safety valve to let people experience their fears, and whether there's a communal aspect, or somehow just knowing that other people are experiencing the same fears is a useful, helpful experience. I don't mean to make it sound like a self-help movie. [Laughs] Just getting together with a bunch of people on a Friday night and screaming together, you walk out, maybe a little shaken, but I think it feels good too. Like a good cathartic experience.

This movie rests as much on the kids' shoulders as you and Keri, how was it working with the two of them?
They were both incredibly professional kids. They're impressive in that they're kids and they show up and they know their lines and they are really good. But then the fun part is that you realize in between takes, you're just kicking the ball around, that they're just kids too. They weren't like scary, automaton "actor kids," they're both very real kids. They were pretty great to work with.

As a father yourself, do you feel protective of them at all when it came to filming some of the more terrifying elements of the story?
Yeah, there were definitely takes where I'd sort of look at Scott like, "Oh my God, what are we putting these kids through?' But they seemed to have a pretty good grasp on it. And in a way, they're much closer to it because that's what they do as children, is play make-believe. It's less of a stretch for them. We get a little bit conditioned out of it as we get older.

"Dark Skies" opens in theaters on February 22.

'Escape From Planet Earth' A Labour Of Love

2013-02-15T18:53:27-05:00

For Cal Brunker, when his directorial debut "Escape from Planet Earth" hits theaters this Friday, it'll have been a long time in the making.

It's been almost seven years since the project first got underway at The Weinstein Company, and two and a half since Cal came onboard the 3D animated film with his longtime friend and writing partner Bob Barlen. And for Vancouver animation studio Rainmaker Entertainment, where the film was produced, "Escape from Planet Earth" marks the Canadian company's own major theatrical debut.

With a cast that boasts big name like Jessica Alba, Brendan Fraser, Sofia Vergara, and William Shatner, the movie follows hot-shot astronaut Scorch Supernova (Fraser), the undisputed hero of Planet Baab, and his brother Gary (Rob Corddry), Scorch's underappreciated partner back at Mission Control. But when Scorch gets caught in a trap after responding to an S.O.S. on the notoriously dangerous Dark Planet (otherwise known as Earth), it's up to Gary to step up to the plate and rescue his brother from the evil General Shanker (Shatner).

Moviefone Canada recently spoke to Brunker and Barlen about their writing process, working with animation first-timers like Alba and Corddry, and what it was like for two self-proclaimed huge sci-fi fans to write for William Shatner.

Obviously this is a different take on alien encounters than we're used to seeing. What appealed to you about the idea of flipping the way that movies traditionally portray aliens, and making them the heroes and us the bad guys?
Cal Brunker: For me, the exciting thing was to try and tell a story that was really universal for the audience. The aliens are very similar to humans in terms of how they relate to each other and their family structure. So trying to set up a family unit that we could identify with very quickly, and find ourselves rooting for the aliens very quickly. That was important to me, because I think that, while we have a huge love for sci-fi movies, I think these films work better -- especially animated films -- when it's about characters that you relate to immediately, and you don't get too caught up in the minutia of the sci-fi. Otherwise, it just doesn't translate well to the family audience.

I'd read that this project has been in the works for a pretty long time, almost seven years. At what point did you two come onto it?
Brunker: Bob and I jumped on the film about two and a half years ago, and like what happens with a lot of animated films, they're in development for a long time, exploring it, going down a bunch of paths that don't work for one reason or another. And what happened is, Harvey [Weinstein] wanted a fresh take on the movie. So I got a chance to pitch him where I thought it should go and hear how he felt about the movie. And then as soon as they got behind that, I called my long-time collaborator and writing partner Bob, and he flew out to Vancouver and we've been on it ever since. And couldn't be happier about sharing it with the world.

What was the appeal of staying in Canada and working for a local outfit like Rainmaker?
Brunker: Unfortunately, usually to work on films of this scale, you need to leave the country. And I did that, and had a chance to work with some great studios on some great films as a story artist. And for me, one of the things that was really exciting about this project is we had the best of both worlds. We're able to team up with the Weinstein Company, who have a track record for making incredible films, and have unbelievable relationships with talent and actors, so we were able to put together this amazing cast.

But on the flip side, we're able to leverage all of this Canadian talent that's been hungry to live at home, or at least on Canadian soil and make a movie. So Rainmaker did an unbelievable job as a studio. This is their first big wide theatrical feature. And with the support of the Weinsteins, I think we've got the best of both worlds. And we've really shown we can make movies of this size here. We don't need to all flee south of the border to work on movies that are going to reach an audience in this way.

I noticed that you included a little Pixar joke in the film. How important is it for you two to show with this movie that there's room for others in the animation game?
Brunker: Bob and I couldn't be bigger Pixar fans. I mean, that's the mothership when it comes to animation and we're huge fans of [Pixar head John] Lasseter and everything that they've done at that studio. And a lot of how we feel about animation and the things we love comes from the work that they've done. But I think even they'd be the first to tell you that more voices in animation is a good thing. And it's fun to be able to do a film that's able to approach it from a new point of view.

What's the appeal for you of working in animation?
Brunker: The beautiful thing about making an animated film is it's a very iterative process. You write the script, you storyboard it, you bring it into the computer, you watch it again, if something isn't working you can fix it. One of the scary things about live action is once you shoot things, they're there, and it's very expensive to build a new set or close down a section of the city again to reshoot this sequence. So we've got the ability to kind of go over things again and get them right, which is wonderful.

I'd imagine that gives you a little more freedom during the writing process as well.
Bob Barlen: Absolutely. One of the amazing things about animation, and one of the reasons we love it so much, is you can do anything in an animated film. And it really gives you a chance to just let your imagination go wild. We have these big aliens and we're able to basically write and work with them, come up with funny stuff for them to say.

Brunker: And I think that the chance to see it up on its feet and respond to it, and if it's not getting a laugh or it's not connecting emotionally, go back and rework it is a real gift. It's a great way to get better at filmmaking as well, because you get a chance to try things that are a little bit scary that might be out of your comfort zone and see if they work. And if they don't work, you've got the safety net of getting a chance to redo it and make it great.

Was 3D always in the plans for this movie?
Brunker: 3D was always in the cards, at least ever since I was involved with the film. For me, the 3D, it's really important that it serves the story. So the primary objective for the 3D is to put you in the space with the characters, let you feel the size of this launch bay on the alien planet, or the scope of outer space, or feel the claustrophobia of being in a prison in Area 51. So serving story first, but when we have those really fun, goofier moments in the film -- we've got a huge food fight in the middle of the movie -- we pull out all the stops and we're going to have as much fun with the 3D as we can at that moment, and throw some food into the audience, and hopefully have them ducking in their seats.

Working with actors like Jessica Alba and Rob Corddry who hadn't done an animated movie before, did you do anything to help them get acclimated to the process?
Brunker: Especially in animation, you've got to create an environment where they can feel safe to try stuff and go too far, and feel like that's not going to get committed to tape right away, or people aren't going to jump on it, overanalyzing it. And so we tried to really create an environment where they felt free to experiment, and so that's one thing.

The second thing, for people who haven't done animation before, the biggest thing was trying to get them to keep their energy level high enough that ... you have to push a little bit harder in an animated film from a voice performance than you do in live-action because you've got all the subtlety of the human face. Animation's a little bit broader, so primarily, it was just trying to help them find the right pitch and energy level. And Jessica Alba, for example, seemed to love the process. Some people who have done it a lot just want to be alone in the booth, and get themselves there. Other people really treasure the chance to react off another actor, so we try and do that when that's helpful.

It's really great seeing William Shatner play the villain in this. As sci-fi fans, what was it like writing for him?
Brunker: The great thing about Shatner is that he really opened the character up for us. Originally, it was a little bit more of a straight-laced villain, the character of Shanker. And when he came on board, he really opened our eyes to how much fun you could have with this guy. The way he plays it is a little bit more whimsical than we were imagining it from the beginning, and that was a real pleasure. He's got a keen eye for comedy and how to bring entertainment to something that would potentially be less dimensional than it was when he came on board.

And for him, I think what he was really aware of is trying to create a film that he could take his grandkids to and the villain wouldn't be so terrifying that they went running out of the theatre. And he's really happy with the film.

"Escape From Planet Earth" opens on February 15.