We are taken with Taken 2 star Liam Neeson. The action star appeared on Ellen yesterday and got nearly naked, stripping down to his pink skivvies in the name of a very important cause: breast cancer research. On the program, a cancer-surviving audience member was chosen to try and nail a target with a ball, dropping a bucket of water down on the actor’s head and dropping $20,000 into the hands of a charity. Watch the sexy, helpful events unfold now: Liam Neeson Strips!
Webb joins Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone as returning players for the ‘Amazing’ follow-up, swinging into theaters in May 2014. By Josh Wigler Andrew Garfield as “The Amazing Spider-Man” Photo: SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT INC.
Police are investigating the death of 28-year-old actor Johnny Lewis, whose credits include AVPR: Aliens vs Predator – Requiem , The Runaways , Lovely Molly , TV’s Drake & Josh , The O.C. , and American Dreams following the apparent murder of his elderly landlord in Los Angeles. Lewis was best known for playing Kip ‘Half Sack’ Epps on Sons of Anarchy . The body of 81-year-old Katherine Chabot Davis was found inside her Los Feliz home, where Lewis was renting a room. Per reports, Lewis fought with at least two people at the site before taking a fatal fall. According to TMZ, authorities believe “Lewis was either on PCP or meth at the time of the murder. The two people who fought Lewis before he fell to his death from a roof told cops the actor exhibited ‘superhuman strength.'” More details of the sad, bizarre incident here . [ TMZ ]
Hitman Joe ( Joseph Gordon-Levitt ) is confronted with his future self — in the form of a time-traveling Bruce Willis — in Rian Johnson’s Looper , the writer-director’s third feature and one of the freshest original science fiction tales in years. Before debuting the September 28 release at Fantastic Fest over the weekend, Johnson spoke with Movieline about the pre- Brick short script that gestated into Looper , the film’s dark streak and the 1970 soul ballad that serves as “the heart of the movie.” Take me back to the beginning – the idea for Looper began as a short story in your notebook around the time of Brick , right? Before I made Brick . It was a script for a short film, and it was a few years before we made Brick , during a time when we were spending all of our time looking for money to make Brick – Steve [Yedlin], my cinematographer, and I. We realized we were just driving ourselves crazy and to alleviate the pressure we decided to start making some shorts, and we made a few but this was one that I wrote but we never ended up shooting. What was the original seed of the idea that started it? It’s funny, at some point after the release I’m going to put the three-page script up on the internet but it started with the same voice over that the feature starts with. It explains the guy and his job, and when his older self shows up, it was a foot chase between the two of them across the city, then it ended when they caught up with each other. It has a similar ending to the feature which is why I don’t want to put it out too soon. I had been reading a ton of Philip K. Dick and was in a period when I had just discovered his books, so I think my brain was full of sci-fi ideas. Were you feeling super existential? I must have been going through one of those existential phases we all go through, continuously. The honest answer is it was ten years ago and I don’t exactly remember. Ten years ago I was 28. The quarter-life years or so. It’s true, my God. Now I’m going through an existential crisis, thanks a bunch! I’m sorry! One thing I like about the concept is that it’s so much about identity, our past selves, our future selves, how we see ourselves and the potential to change the future. And our relationship with this kind of character, our future self, our notion of what we’re going to turn into and our ideas of how our lives are going to go. That’s usually personified in your relationship with a mentor or parent, someone who’s indicative of a path you could take in life and whether you want to or not, that’s kind of the interesting question. I found the film to be quite romantic. Nice! And that was not something I was really expecting. That song you use, Chuck and Mac’s “Powerful Love,” is so beautiful and perfect. Isn’t it incredible? It’s such a beautiful song. I literally picked up blind, I think on vinyl on the Twinights [album]. Listening to that song just sticks, then the lyrics somehow attach themselves to the meaning of the whole thing and it ends up jamming in your head and it becomes a really obvious choice, you know? Actually, in pre-production I sent an mp3 of that song to Bruce [Willis] right when he signed on and told him this song is the heart of the movie, and he got really excited about it. I was listening to that song over and over while we were shooting it. That and a lot of Sam Cooke. A soul connection. I’m really happy that you felt that from the movie. There is a real deep heart of romance in the movie, and not just boy-girl romance but romance with a capital R. Love. Yeah – love in the sense that love can somehow fix things. I hope that that’s baked into it. As dark and as bleak as the movie can get at times, the reason I feel comfortable having it go there is I hope that it gets to a really hopeful and redemptive place at the end. Do you see Looper as dark and bleak? I think it goes to some pretty dark, bleak places and shows these characters, even the ones who are supposed to be good guys, doing some terrible things. I think it shows the dark side of everybody and gets to some spots where you wonder if it’s all going to be okay, but I hope it shows you that people can change and people can make decisions for the right reasons. I was really surprised to be crying as the credits rolled. Yes! I was trying to make you cry. That makes me really happy. My little sister cried! That’s what we were going for, that kind of rush of emotion at the end. Your films have been quite different, playing in different genres. When you decided Looper would be your next feature did you have any trepidation about tackling the time travel aspect knowing the geekosphere would scrutinize it? Well, yes – especially because I’m part of the geekosphere and I’m one of those guys. The thing is, I’ve never had time travel inconsistencies in a movie deny me the pleasure of enjoying a movie. For me those are two separate things. And that’s something I can’t understand. I can’t understand someone who says “I didn’t like that movie because that, that, and that…” For me it’s like, wow, that’s a cool movie with a well-told story that was awesome, and this didn’t make sense and that’s fun to dive into and pick apart. But every time travel movie that’s ever been made, if you really dig into it you’re going to hit bedrock where paradoxes kind of hit each other and it doesn’t make sense. The important thing is that the storytelling works and that it has a consistent set of rules that it plays fair by. But I was mostly terrified just because time travel is a tough thing to work into the fabric of a story. It’s a tough thing to put into a story and still have the whole thing tick – it can be like pouring grape jelly into a clockwork watch. It’s a messy ingredient that’s hard to tame. As your films have gotten bigger and your career has gone from indie to increasingly more mainstream audiences, how do you feel your trajectory has evolved? I guess the movies have gotten bigger, one by one – I still haven’t worked with a studio. Sony’s putting this out and have been awesome and I would love to work with a studio someday, but so far we’re doing each of these independently. I guess I’ve crept up in scale with each one, but at the end of the day they’re all motivated by the same thing; they all start with a story that I care about that I want to tell. It is fun to see how broad a canvas we can accomplish; even with the next step I think it would be really fun to do something bigger, working on a broader canvas and reaching a bigger audience. But it can never come from that place. It’s so much work to make a movie, and for me it has to get me off my butt. To get me actually writing you have to strike something inside, you have to hit a power main to get the energy. You have to strike something you care about. Have studios approached you a lot more in recent years with projects? Not so much after Brick – I got anything that was dark and had to do with high school. Not so much after Brothers Bloom . In the lead up to Looper there have been more people calling… but the thing that’s interesting to me is if this group, this little family that we have that we’ve made these movies with, can tell one of our stories on that scale – and that doesn’t just mean doing something, I think you have to be conscious of the size of the canvas that you’re working on, the amount of money you’re spending, and the audience you’re trying to reach and you have to adjust your storytelling. I think that’s part of your job as a storyteller. You mention this “family” of filmmakers and collaborators, from using Joseph Gordon-Levitt again to working with Nathan Johnson on the music. You named Noah Segan’s character after his own nickname. Even Joe’s character is named Joe. I was really lazy with these names! [Laughs] When it comes to working with this group of people again and again, how do you synthesize all this? Did you write these characters with their personalities or capabilities in mind? Their capabilities more than their personalities, their strengths. This is a unique case with Noah and Joe, but usually I don’t have any idea who’s going to play [my characters]. It’s not like when I’m writing these characters I’m picturing my friends. You’re creating a completely new character and hiring somebody to play to that and against it and shatter your expectations of what that character could be in some ways. With Joe for instance, the way that Joe loves transforming himself on film and the way that he loves disappearing into his role I knew was specifically suited to something where he was going to have to sell himself as a younger version of an older actor. And there’s just something about Noah that’s inherently likeable and I knew that’s a trait I wanted to shine through with this weird little pathetic villain character – I wanted there to be something where you could see the little boy in him who’s trying to be a cowboy. That’s the sort of thing you know from your friends that you can hopefully use to your advantage. How much do you think our world will be like the world of Looper by the year 2044? I think that our world will be much nicer. I’m an optimist, actually. I think everything’s going to get better. I think we’re evolving. Looper is in theaters Friday. Read more from Fantastic Fest! Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Colin Firth won an Oscar playing Britain’s King George VI in the 2010 historical drama The King’s Speech . And Dame Helen Mirren won her Academy Award playing the current U.K. monarch Queen Elizabeth II back in 2006 for her role in The Queen . Now both are set to wear their crowns again in two separate projects. Firth played Elizabeth II’s father, George VI in the Tom Hooper-directed feature about the WWII-era king who ascended the throne after his more dashing older brother abdicated in order to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson in a scandal that rocked the British Empire even as the clouds of war gathered in Europe. Also starring Helena Bonham Carter as his wife, Elizabeth, the film focused on the shy George VI, known to relatives and close friends as Bertie, who overcame a severe speech impediment to help lead his country to face the Nazi threat. The Press Association U.K. said that the new film is in the “very early stages,” but Bonham Carter and fellow King’s Speech co-star Geoffrey Rush are also likely to return. In this follow-up, Firth will return as George VI during the dark days of the Blitz, in which Buckingham Palace along with much of London during frequent night raids. Along with a Best Actor win for Firth, The King’s Speech won Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. Mirren, meanwhile, will take on the role of George VI’s heir, Queen Elizabeth II in a new stage play written by The Queen author Peter Morgan, according to The Guardian. Stephen Daldry will direct The Audience , which will explore her confidential meetings with her long line of British Prime Ministers from her first as a young Queen, Winston Churchill, to the current office holder, David Cameron. In The Queen , she meets with ’90s-era P.M. Tony Blair (played by Michael Sheen) around the time of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales capturing a period of great tumult for the British royal family. Appearing on Saturday Night Live shortly after her first stint playing Elizabeth II, Mirren famously said, “I’d like to say something for the record, although I played the Queen I am nothing like her. I may have been appointed Dame of the British Empire, but I am not all scones and teacups, I’m more biscuits and D-cups.” [ Sources: The Press Association , The Guardian ]
The Fiona Apple arrest story continues to get better and better. First, the singer was booked on charges of hashish possession in Texas last week. Not a huge deal, right? But then she went off on a bizarre public rant regarding the incident (below), telling concert goers she’ll make the arresting officers “f-cking famous” as a punishment for their actions. Fiona Apple Rants About Drug Arrest Now Rusty Fleming – the Hudspeth County Sheriff’s Department Public Information Officer – has penned a letter to Apple in which he absolutely, positively lays into the artist. “First, Honey, I’m already more famous than you, I don’t need your help. However, it would appear that you need mine,” Fleming writes , adding: “Two weeks ago nobody in the country cared about what you had to say… now that you’ve been arrested it appears your entire career has been jump-started. Don’t worry Sweetie, I won’t bill you. “Next, have you ever heard of Snoop, Willie or Armand Hammer? Maybe if you would read something besides your own press releases, you would have known BEFORE you got here, that if you come to Texas with dope, the cops will take your DOPE away and put YOU in jail. “Even though you and I only met briefly in the hallway, I don’t know you but I’m sure you’re an awesome and talented young woman and even though I’m not a fan of yours, I am sure there are thousands of them out there, and I’m sure that they would just as soon you get this all behind you and let you go back to what you do best… “So my last piece of advice is simple: just shut-up and sing.” Fiona Apple? OWNED.
In his upcoming autobiography, Arnold Schwarzenegger talks more candidly than ever about the lies and the actions that destroyed his marriage. One new detail revealed in Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story ? Schwarzenegger only admitted his affair with housekeeper Mildred Patricia Baena after Maria Shriver asked him about it. In therapy. “The minute we sat down, the therapist turned to me and said, ‘Maria wanted to come here today and to ask about a child – whether you fathered a child with your housekeeper Mildred,'” the actor writes of an early January 2011 session. “I told the therapist, ‘It’s true.'” Schwarzenegger then started to beg. He says he told Shriver he had “screwed up” and she was the “perfect wife,” adding that he remained “turned on” by her. It didn’t work, of course, as Shriver filed for divorce later that year. But rumors sprung up in March that the pair might get back together , and Arnold makes it clear that his dream scenario. “You can call this denial,” he writes of an eventual reconciliation. “But it’s the way my mind works.” Schwarzenegger’s memoir comes out on October 1. Will you buy it? Yes, it sounds fascinating! No, why would I support him?!? View Poll »
Congratulations are in order for Modern Family star Jesse Tyler Ferguson. The multiple-time Emmy Award nominee announced today that he’s engaged to Justin Mikita. “It’s true, I popped the big Q!” the actor says in the following TietheKnot.org video, with his now-fiancee jumping in to exclaim: “I said yes!” We send our best wishes to the couple, we can’t wait for the Modern Family Season 4 premiere on September 26 and we encourage readers to watch below:
Actor Michael Peña is set for what is likely his biggest starring role to date in director David Ayer ‘s End of Watch . In the pic opening this weekend, he plays opposite Jake Gyllenhaal as a pair of good-guy but rough-and-tumble L.A. cops who face the complicated mean streets of the city’s gang-ridden South Central neighborhood. At the Toronto International Film Festival where the film debuted earlier this month, Peña recalled his life growing up in a similarly rough are of Chicago, crediting sports and a former girlfriend who landed him a job at a bank for keeping the lure of gangs at bay. And, he hinted that his ego may have also played into his decision for a different life, which quickly took him to Hollywood. “I never wanted to be in a gang,” said Peña. “I didn’t want to follow anybody’s orders. I thought of myself as an individual ever since I was little.” He said that growing up in what he described as “the ghetto” was different than what his co-star Jake Gyllenhaal or others were used to, though taking on this role brought back memories of certain defense mechanisms. [ Related: Jake Gyllenhaal’s Life-Changing End Of Watch Prep: ‘Someone Was Murdered In Front Of Me’ ] “I grew up in the ghetto, and the thing is when there were problems, I knew when to get away. But police go to the problems,” he said. “I didn’t do that growing up. Seeing it through Jake’s eyes, it re-ignited what I always knew, but I guess I had buried it. I’ve been living in Hollywood for the past 15 years. And reality just smacks you in the face – that feeling of potential danger everywhere.” Peña worked at a bank after his girlfriend at the time helped him get the job. He later went to an open casting call for Peter Bogdanovich’s To Sir, with Love II , which gave him his first acting gig. He then took a few months of wages he saved and headed to Hollywood, getting a number of television and movie roles. But End of Watch will likely propel the actor to the next level. In the film that begins its theatrical run this Friday, Gyllenhaal and Peña play LAPD officers Brian Taylor and Mike Zavala. The action unfolds on screen through the P.O.V. of hand-held cameras implanted on police officers with more footage “shown” by gang members, surveillance cameras, dish cams and citizen-caught images in the line of fire. While there are moments peppered throughout the feature showing moments of levity between the their characters that prompted outbursts of laughter during the film’s premiere in Toronto, the scenes quickly turn to present a mosaic of dark violent streets, human trafficking, gang confrontation and a barrage of shoot-outs. Key to the story was a sense of brotherhood between Gyllenhaal and Peña’s characters, something that took some time to develop, according to Peña. The two actors had not met before coming aboard the project and Peña said there’s a difference between portraying two people who are like brothers as opposed to simply work partners. “It took three months to click,” said Peña. “There’s a lot of pressure to play like brothers. We had to spend a lot of time together to opening up to each other as well as tactical training, rehearsing. Three months later we had a good rapport and we put that in the movie.” Peña said that he believes Latino characters are becoming much more a part of the fabric of Hollywood, giving credit to filmmakers and actors Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal and their 2001 hit Y Tu Mamá También in large part for narrowing the racial gulf. (Incidentally, Peña is set to play agricultural workers activist Cesar Chavez in a feature being directed by Luna, which also stars Rosario Dawsom and America Ferrera who also appears in End of Watch ). “The script for [End of Watch] was written for actors like Jake Gyllenhaal and me – a Latin dude. It had to be a Latin dude, there is so much Latin [material] in it. Ten years ago, I don’t know if that would have been the case. I don’t know if it would have been so easy to do.”
