Taylor Lautner and Robert Pattinson taped an interview with Ellen DeGeneres today. And while the actors were not besieged by male strippers – as happened to Miley Cyrus during the same talk show visit – the topic of exposed crotches did come up. See, Robert never remembers to zip his fly. Seriously. Ellen provides proof of this odd, sexy slip in the following hilarious clip: Taylor Lautner and Robert Pattinson on Ellen Elsewhere, as if Pattinson could possibly get any more adorable, the trio talks about his adopted dog Bear. Watch them do so below: Robert Pattinson Ellen Interview
Let’s not bother talking about how Alexa Vega went from 13-year-old Spy Kid in 2001 to a hot hitwoman wearing only a bra and chaps in the forthcoming Machete Kills in the blink of an eye (yes, you’re old, and that was over a decade ago). Or that Robert Rodriguez , who directed the 24-year-old Vega through adolescence into her teen years in three Spy Kids pics, is probably not pervy at all despite casting his former child actress as a sexy body-baring femme fatale in his tongue-in-cheek action sequel. If anything it’s you and I who are the pervs, sitting here unable to stop our brains from instantly juxtaposing this first-look image at Vega (via Vega’s Twitter account ) as Killjoy in Machete Kills with fuzzy memories of her from those bygone Spy Kids days. (It’s even worse if you remember Vega’s first film role, as Icebox’s cousin Priscilla in Little Giants . ) Nooooooo ! MAKE IT STOP, ROBERT RODRIGUEZ!!! The thing is, any child actress growing up in the business has to deal with this sort of thing at one point or another, and Vega has been steadily working in the indie world for a good decade-plus. Why shouldn’t she get to flaunt it? It’s the association with Rodriguez that gets that cognitive dissonance firing, but I suppose that might only help her performance as a Rodriguez Femme Fatale a la Salma Hayek , Michelle Rodriguez , Rose McGowan , and Jessica Alba – the kind of screen siren whose sultry sensuality is her most lethal weapon, aside from her actual lethal weapons which in this case appear to include guns and cars on fire. Hats off to Rodriguez for going there, I guess. If you need me I’ll be in the corner wrapping my brain around this madness, watching the internet explode in “Alexa Vega Is All Grown Up, WINK WINK HEHE” headlines. [via @ AlexaVega ]
Starlet had its premiere at AFI Fest this week and is set for a limited theatrical release beginning this weekend. Movieline picked up an exclusive clip from the film, which stars model-turned-actress Dree Hemingway , Besedka Johnson, Stella Maeve ( The Runaways ) and James Ransone ( Red Hook Summer ). In the clip, Ransone’s character Mikey leads roommates Jane (Hemingway) and Melissa (Maeve) down a staircase for a big surprise. They’re not quite dressed for a party, though their panties set aglow with the strip-club interior Mikey unveils. They don’t look terribly impressed, but Mikey has plans to cash in on the new interior. Starlet centers on an unlikely friendship between 21 year-old Jane and Sadie after Jane discovers a hidden stash of money inside an object at Sadie’s yard sale. Starlet , co-scripted with Chris Bergoch by writer-director Sean Baker ( Prince of Broadway ), screens at AFI Fest again tonight and opens in limited release on Friday. Follow Brian Brooks on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Also in a round-up of news briefs on this U.S. election day, Jared Leto is returning to acting with a Matthew McConaughey starrer; Jonathan Demme to be feted by Cinema Audio Society and Virginia Madsen starrer is headed to theaters. Long Time Gone Heads to Theaters The film by Sarah Siegel-Magness follows Augusta (Virginia Madsen), whose idyllic life in Connecticut is thrown into disarray when she discovers her husband’s extramarital affair. Augusta suffers a nervous breakdown after her husband leaves, and her good-hearted stoner son is determined to comfort her with the help of his estranged older brother (Zach Gilford) and live in girl-friend (Amanda Crew). Phase 4 Films picked up U.S. and Canadian rights to the feature and plans a Spring 2013 release. Around the ‘net… Nicolas Cage Expendables 3 Reports False, Says Sylvester Stallone Stallone said he has no knowledge of Cage joining Expendables 3 . Several news outlets reported yesterday that Stallone had confirmed Cage for the next Expendables 3 movie, citing either a Stallone fan Facebook page purporting to be the actor’s own or comments by Stallone that appeared in Spanish daily El Pais earlier this year, Deadline reports . Jared Leto Eyes Dallas Buyer’s Club He’ll join Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Garner in the AIDS drama by Canadian director Jean-Marc Vallee. This will be his first time in front of the camera in three years, THR reports . Cinema Audio Society to Honor Jonathan Demme The filmmaker will receive the Cinema Audio Society Filmmaker Award at the 49th CAS Awards on February 16 at Millennium-Biltmore in Los Angeles. Demme’s career spans 40 years as a writer-director-producer, and his credits include The Silence Of The Lambs, Philadelphia, The Manchurian Candidate, Married To The Mob and Neil Young: Heart Of Gold , Deadline reports . Election Day Pick: For Spacious Sky And on this election night, check out short film For Spacious Sky on YouTube as you watch the returns. Inspired by actual events and set on Election Day 2008 against the sweeping landscape of rural America, For Spacious Sky is the inspiring story of three lost brothers finding their way back to each other – one from hate, one from addiction, and one from discrimination. Eli, an ex-con white supremacist struggling to start his life over, and Clay, a gay novelist, must set aside their differences for the day to bring their drug-addicted younger brother, Kevin, to rehab.
Uhhhhhhhh…. Chris Brown Covers Prestige Magazine Chris Breezy recently sat down with the folks at Prestige Magazine to speak on his love of art and his Symphonic Love Foundation. Here is some of what he had to say: Via Presitge Hong Kong What do you want the world to know about who you are and what you stand for? As a 23-year-old young entertainer, I want the world to see my art and hopefully be inspired by it, promote positivity with what I do now – with painting, with fashion, with directing, with creativity as far as videos and cinema. I want to have people admire that and hopefully have people follow in my footsteps. What are you having the most fun at right now? Honestly, my day-to-day life is the most fun right now because I get a chance to not focus on “the artist” Chris Brown. Going through the regular things, like going to the grocery store. I’m also running a label right now, so I have different artists, four or five different acts, shooting videos that I’m directing and coming together. Tell me about your painting. I’ve been painting secretly since I was a kid. A lot of people didn’t know that it was my hobby. I focused on doing the bad stuff at first with graffiti and vandalising as a kid. But as you get older, you start studying art books and sketchbooks in the libraries. I started getting better, like maybe three or four years ago. I met Ron English and Kid Zoom [Ian Strange] and they were just teaching me different techniques for painting. So my art started growing and I started doing it on my own. I finally got people to recognise it and I did a couple of art galleries – one in LA and one in New York – and I sold four out of my seven paintings. You know, I’m new. But my feet are in the water and that’s all it takes. I don’t think I want to conquer painting. It’s just something I love to do. Acting is something else you do well. Was that something you discovered later in life? Acting is just something that comes natural. I used to look in the mirror all the time, make funny faces, trying get my face right. Looking at Jim Carrey, looking at a lot of different movies. The key is that you pick up what you see all the time. That’s kind of where I got my Michael Jackson inspiration, my charisma. I did a couple of acting lessons, but when it comes down to it, I learned more from the actors on set, their energy and timing. Breezy also took a minute to talk about the kids: What’s Symphonic Love all about? Symphonic Love does programmes in schools, like with my school back home. Musical programmes and helping kids with disabilities. I do a lot of stuff with Best Buddies that coexists with that. The name comes from a tattoo that I’ve got [runs hand across his chest] – something that’s over my heart right now. So my heart is where it’s at. The tattoo “symphonic love” encompasses the positivity of what I’m trying to do – uplifting humanity. Is there something that fans would be surprised to learn about you? Just how involved I am with everything. I think a lot of people, a lot of artists, they get the glamour and glitz and everything else is already set for them. You see it and you say, “Oh man, it’s perfect.” But everything is already written. For me, it’s all just straight from thin air. I hear a song [claps his hands] – that’s my concept. When you hear my records, it’s really me writing. It’s really my emotions. It’s really me behind the cameras, directing those videos. It’s me making the decision on what singles we put out. Being the CEO. A real businessman at 23. That’s what I want to show my audience. The generation that we’re in – we’re a lazy generation. The kids in my generation are not as hyper. The work ethic isn’t there. The attention span is short. But I think if they can see me do it at 23 and have all this stuff going on – and still have fun while I’m doing it – who’s to say they can’t? Chris Brown is for the kids y’all… Hit the flipper to see more pics from Breezy’s photoshoot.
Oscar hopeful Beasts of the Southern Wild and Artifact , actor Jared Leto ‘s documentary — he’s credited as Bartholomew Cubbins — about his band 30 Seconds to Mars, are among the five films that have made it to the final round of IFP’s Gotham Independent Film Audience Award contest. Beasts, which was directed by Benh Zeitlin , turns out to be the only non-documentary nominated: The other three contenders include Kirby Dick’s Invisible War , about rape in the military; Burn , Brenna Sanchez and Tom Putnam’s documentary about Detroit firefighters, and Jonathan Kalafer’s Once in a Lullaby: The PS 22 Chorus Story , which tells the story of how the fifth-grade chorus at a Staten Island public school came to perform at the 2011 Oscars. The first round voting took place from October 18 – 31, during which 31 audience award-winning films from the top 50 US and Canadian film festivals were narrowed through online voting to the five films with the highest number of votes. Round two of voting will take place until Nov. 18, and the winner will be announced at the Gotham Awards in New York on Nov. 26. Filmgoers can vote online for their favorite film . Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Oscar hopeful Beasts of the Southern Wild and Artifact , actor Jared Leto ‘s documentary — he’s credited as Bartholomew Cubbins — about his band 30 Seconds to Mars, are among the five films that have made it to the final round of IFP’s Gotham Independent Film Audience Award contest. Beasts, which was directed by Benh Zeitlin , turns out to be the only non-documentary nominated: The other three contenders include Kirby Dick’s Invisible War , about rape in the military; Burn , Brenna Sanchez and Tom Putnam’s documentary about Detroit firefighters, and Jonathan Kalafer’s Once in a Lullaby: The PS 22 Chorus Story , which tells the story of how the fifth-grade chorus at a Staten Island public school came to perform at the 2011 Oscars. The first round voting took place from October 18 – 31, during which 31 audience award-winning films from the top 50 US and Canadian film festivals were narrowed through online voting to the five films with the highest number of votes. Round two of voting will take place until Nov. 18, and the winner will be announced at the Gotham Awards in New York on Nov. 26. Filmgoers can vote online for their favorite film . Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Kristen Stewart has a big Grauman’s Chinese Theater Hollywood premiere this weekend and vampires are no factor. That didn’t stopping legions of teens to line Hollywood Blvd to catch a glimpse of Stewart (and who knows who else) who is starring along with Garrett Hedlund , Sam Riley , Kirsten Dunst , Amy Adams and Steve Buscemi in Walter Salles ‘ stunning On the Road , screening as a Centerpiece Gala at AFI Fest where it is having its U.S. premiere. In the film version of one of the most celebrated works of 20th Century American literature written by Jack Kerouac, Stewart plays the unconventional free-spirit Marylou, the former wife and still frequent lover of Dean Moriarty, a fast-talking charismatic with an insatiable libido. Dean and best friend Sal (Sam Riley), a young writer whose life is shaken after Dean’s arrival, take to the road. Marylou frequently accompanies Sal and Dean’s travels across the country in adventures fueled by sex, drugs and the pursuit of the ” It ” – a quest for understanding and personal fulfillment. Stewart spoke with ML during the Toronto International Film Festival where the film had its North American premiere. She shared thoughts on her character’s “hard love,” how she grew herself being a part of the film and how this was the “biggest experience” she’s felt on a set. So what was your road to On the Road ? I was 14 or 15 when I first met Walter Salles. I spoke to him when I was 17, I think I may have shot the first Twilight , I’m not sure – possibly I was about to go do it. At first I was talking about playing another part, so it’s been a long time coming. I don’t know how I was able to get around that kind of energy, but to convey that I loved this thing in the way [Walter Salles] does and as soon as you get around that energy it passes between you, nothing really needs to be said. I got the job on the spot, and I drove away just vibrating. I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ Plus I was very young, I wasn’t quite old enough for the part yet. When I read the book many years ago, I found it sprawling and didn’t seem to have elements that would make it translatable to the screen – at least I remember thinking that at the time. What did you think of the book when you first read it? I was reading it for school, so I had to read it. I did independent study when I was in high school. I remember, I took so long to read the book. All I had to do was read it and write a report, it wasn’t like I had to do an intensive study of the book, and it took me months and months – I was late. But, I think my teacher was OK with it because I think ultimately the paper was good. But, people say it’s different when you read it at different ages – but for me at the time, it was fun! At that age you start realizing you have a choice in who you surround yourself with. Up until that point, you’re just around circumstantially who you’re with – your family or whatever – but at that point you can start choose your family – and I’ve got a great family by the way – but I mean just the people you decide to surround yourself with. I don’t want to sound cliché, but people should pull something out of you that would otherwise remain unseen. And when I read the book I thought, ‘gosh I need to find people like that.’ I’m definitely not [my character, Marylou’s] type. As I continued reading it and got older, the weight of it started to mean more. I was totally enamored by the colors and the way he wrote it and jumped over words and how it read like a song. Then when I did the movie, to play a part like Marylou – she’s very vivid. She’s very colorful and interesting and on the periphery so you don’t know how and why she can do the things that she does. By the time it came to bring it to life, I didn’t want to play just a crazy, wild sexy girl. I wanted to apply all the whys and get to know the people behind the characters. There’s a weight to it. It’s not easy to live a life like that. That’s what makes these people kind of remarkable. It’s a give and take. There’s no way to have this without pain, but they’re not frivolous, they can feel it… Marylou’s a forward thinking progressive soul, but she’s also surrounded by this situation with her ongoing yet ever-changing situation with her ex-husband, Dean, who is still an emotional roller coaster, both for himself and her. Did you ever judge her in respect to why she’d tolerate him for so long? No, I never had done so. I always wondered how she could take it. How deep is that well? How much can you give and how much can you let be taken from you? What I found about her is that she’s very unique to her time, but nowadays she’d be something else. Her capacity to see everyone’s flaws and appreciate them is really unbelievable. Any interview we did with anyone who was involved with them [before doing the movie] always said the same thing – that she was such a wonderful woman. She’s infectiously amazing. So, no I didn’t judge her. So then, how would you describe the relationship between your character, Marylou and Dean? They really are simpatico. It’s tumultuous. It’s hard to love like that. But they’re so in love with each other. You don’t know this from reading the book, but they stayed lovers until the end of his life. He kind of raised her and she always had a place in his heart, though I think the capacity was so enormous that there were also others in that heart, but she was at the center. And the same goes the other way around. I think they helped each other grow up and they raised each other. How do you hope your Twilight fans will approach seeing this movie? Undoubtedly some will be curious to see you doing something outside of Bella and this may be for many their first chance. How do you hope they’ll approach seeing this film? Well, I mean you just walk into a theater [laughs]… I think if I can have anything to do with just one person that would not have otherwise read On The Road , then that would be incredible and I’m very happy to be a part of that. I think that if you have any inclination of seeing this being a Twilight fan, I have to say I don’t have much control over the things that I choose because I do need to feel compelled to do the roles that I do. I very rarely tactfully think about my career and how people are going to perceive it and I think that’s what people appreciate and if that’s not the case, then it’s kind of like – um, that’s not going to go away. It’s a false thing. I think people will really like it and if you didn’t like the book, then don’t watch the movie. You know what I mean? However anyone wants to interpret it is all good with me. People describe On the Road as a “watershed moment” in American culture in that it upended the strict conservative culture that prevailed in the 1950s in the U.S. So from your perspective as a 20-something, how do you see it as relevant culturally today? I think this is a good time to see this story visually because most people can watch it and not be shocked by it as they might have before. Back then, it would have been so shocking to see people doing drugs and having sex that they wouldn’t have seen the spirit behind it – the message behind it would have been [diluted]. Though, maybe it would have been good because it would have forced people to look. But maybe they weren’t able to yet. There’s always going to be conflicting intuitions that might not even go together, but these are people who have the strength to be OK with people disagreeing. At that stage of your life, there’s so much ahead of you – at least it feels that way. The reach is so important even if something is unbeknownst to you, but you feel compelled to find out what it is… Don’t ignore it! At that age, it’s important to have a faith in feelings you can’t articulate because at some point you need to hold onto them. And these guys found a word for that, it’s the ” It ” and I don’t think that’s ever going to go away. So what is that ” It “? How would you describe the It ? [Laughs] Trust me, we’ve talked about that so much… It’s the pearl . It’s that thing that makes your life bounce. I think if we knew it… I honestly think it’s an individual thing, but if something is funny to you and you’re alone you can smirk at it or whatever, but suddenly if you’re with a lot of people that also find it funny, you can be hysterically laughing. There’s something about life that you can’t completely describe. It also goes along with not ignoring that burn and going, ‘OK, I’m content right now to be smart and conservative and hold onto what I’ve got.’ I just think it’s important to keep going for it. How has your experience playing Marylou or in On the Road generally influenced your life professionally or personally? You said you’ve been a part of this project for a long time, so you’ve had quite a turn at experiencing this culture even as you took on other roles including, of course, Twilight . It was the most time I’ve ever spent feeling. Twilight was a good five years and was a very indulgent creative experience. [Most projects] are usually only about five weeks, three months or six months tops. But because I was attached to On the Road so long, the build up and pressure inside by the time we go there was just bigger than anything I’ve ever felt on a set. We had four weeks of proving that we were so thankful and happy to be there because we’re all fans of the book, but we had put in the work and we knew the purpose and the weight of it and how so important it is to so many people. It’s all to Walter [Salles’] credit, but if anything, what this has taught me is that if you stop thinking and just breathe through it, you’re such a better actor. You just have to put in the initial work and then not become too analytical because you have to trust that you’ve already done it all. So it’s opened me up in a way that’s appropriate to my age. I’m just a bit less inhibited. Just being able to not think so much before you speak is good. It has helped me in that way. It’s not being less shameful, it’s just being so much more unabashedly myself. I think that all started when I was 15. I can be around people and say what I think and have a conversation with a stranger and it’s all good.
If you weren’t around for the premiere of Late Night with David Letterman in 1982, then chances are you’re not aware how much he — and the team of writers, producers and comic talent that put on the show five nights a week — changed the face of late-night TV. Dave challenged and, in some cases, blew up the conventions of the talk-show genre and rewrote the playbook that Conan O’Brien , Craig Ferguson and the Jimmys — Kimmel and Fallon — are using today. Now on CBS, Letterman is still going strong, and, in 1991, his success begat Worldwide Pants Inc, which has produced the television series Everybody Loves Raymond and Ed. The company’s CEO Rob Burnett began as an intern on Late Night in 1985 and rose to become executive producer of the current CBS incarnation of Letterman’s show as well as the co-creator, with Jon Beckerman, of Ed and Knights of Prosperity . Although Worldwide Pants made its first foray into film production with the 2005 indie feature Strangers with Candy , Burnett has expanded the company’s presence in the medium with two projects that also involve him personally. In September, he made his directorial debut with We Made This Movie , a funny, unsentimental coming-of-age comedy that he co-wrote with Beckerman. Worldwide Pants is a producer of that film as well as Burnett’s next picture, which was announced in mid-October: an adaptation of Jonathan Evison’s novel, The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving . Movieline spoke to Burnett about his move into film, which, as you might expect from someone who cut his show-business teeth on Dave’s groundbreaking NBC show, has been anything but conventional. Working with a miniscule budget and determined to remain true to the film’s do-it-yourself plot, Burnett and Beckerman worked with a cast of unknowns and crowd-sourced the music through Red Bull Soundstage. They also orchestrated an online premiere via an alliance with SnagFilms , which Burnett talks about in the interview. There’s also the plot of We Made This Movie. Available via iTunes and other digital formats, it is not your mother’s coming-of-age movie. The film follows the exploits of Eric “LeBron” James and his crew of high-school friends in fictional Buckstown, NY, who plan to escape the drudgery of working in their local chicken-processing plant by making a Jackass -meets- Sacha Baron Cohen -style movie that will make them famous. LeBron’s hare-brained plan involves getting the movie into the hands of hometown hero Bill Pullman , who makes a memorable cameo in the movie, but even before that happens, there’s a little catch. Like so many teens looking for fame in the age of YouTube, they have cameras but no talent, and their attempts to film comedy skits that, for instance, involve one character performing celebrity impressions while sitting on a toilet, and LeBron donning a chicken suit and walking through town with what looks like a massive erection end up being funny for all of the wrong reasons. But as you watch the teens’ screen dreams bite the dust, another accidental — and realistic — movie emerges about friendship and coming of age in a small town. Movieline: Tell me about your next project first. I read that you just bought the rights to an interesting book. Rob Burnett: It’s this lovely little book called The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving that I’m hoping to adapt into a film. It’s by Jonathan Evison, and I just fell in love with it. It’s a beautiful little story about this guy who has suffered a great tragedy in his life. He gets a job as a caregiver and starts taking care of this kid with Muscular Dystrophy. The guy is emotionally paralyzed, and the kid is actually paralyzed. It’s very touching, but what I responded to is it’s not maudlin at all. It’s a kind of a buddy movie where they go on the road to find this kid’s father. If I can find a way to do it justice in writing a good script, it could be a nice little movie. I’m really excited about it. That’s what I really like about We Made This Movie . In the way that good comedy tells the truth, this movie is unsentimental about dreams. It absolutely is about dreams. There’s this adolescent energy about LeBron. He doesn’t want to go work at that chicken plant. He’s got big dreams. We’re living in a world right now where, in terms of making a movie, anyone can do it. But just because you can doesn’t necessarily mean you can. [Laughs]. You know? LeBron and his friends are very naïve. Even their plan is naïve: they’re going to get their movie in the hands of Bill Pullman, who’s from their hometown. And that alone is going to make them famous. I’m not sure Bill Pullman himself can get a movie made. What we love about the movie is that they try and they persevere. Jon Beckerman and I wrote this together, and there’s a lot of similarity between this and Ed , the show we did on NBC for four years. There’s a real bittersweet quality to the movie. What these characters don’t realize is the thing they really have is each other. They have friendship. They have these high school bonds with each other. And in the end, that’s largely what their movie becomes about. They don’t realize that. They don’t set out to do that. Jon and I have always been very interested in doing a coming of age movie. I love that time of life. Those memories you have; the bonding that goes on there. Your life is still wet cement. But we never quite found an access point until we got the idea: what about a group of kids who are trying to make a comedy film but accidentally make a coming-of-age movie? Some of the early scenes of the movie, where, for instance, the kids film the ‘Chicken with a Boner’ man-on-the-street segment and put up all those index cards with dubious ideas on them, seem to be inspired by ‘Late Show’ segments. That could have been Chris Elliott in a chicken suit instead of LeBron. We actually shot some of the stuff Letterman remote style. We were out on the street shooting with real people. So, yeah, a lot of it was influenced structurally by the way we do Letterman. But what we thought was interesting was that, unlike Dave or Chris Elliott or Sacha Baron Cohen, our kids aren’t good at what they’re doing. If Chris Elliott were ever to do Chicken with a Boner, he would do it ironically because he’d be making fun of it. These guys are doing Chicken with a Boner as if it’s the funniest thing in the world. In that scene where LeBron is suggesting that they shit into a taco and eat it, it’s so misguided. The thing is, it’s not that far away from the guys at Jackass might do, but whatever you think of the guys at Jackass , they’re really, really good at doing Jackass. LeBron and his friends aren’t even good at that. They’re not fearless, and they’re really not funny. I really liked the scenes where LeBron and some of the other guys show up at their friend Smitty’s house and find him with his sick mother. To me, Smitty is the stand-up comic of the group and those scenes show that comedy often does not come from a pretty place. The interesting thing and the challenging thing about the movie is we’re telling an accidental story. The kids are making a movie that they don’t know they’re making. So, in a different movie, if you’re telling the story of a character who’s taking care of a sick mother, at some point, you just cut to him with his sick mother. We couldn’t do that in this movie. Smitty, in some ways, sums that up. He’s kind of a bastard. He’s screwing up the movie and not taking it seriously from the very first scene. But then we see that not only is this kid taking care of his sick mother, he’s taking care of his brothers, too. Clearly, the father is gone, and he’s holding this all together without a word. You start to see where all of this deep cynicism comes from. That’s kind of the trick of this whole movie. And I think to some extent Smitty’s character sums it up better than any of the other characters. Where did you find such a funny cast of unknowns? The cast is phenomenal. They’re all brand new, really. Arjay Smith, who played LeBron had done some television here and there. And Michael Charles Roman, who played Smitty, had done a lot of commercials as a kid. But the rest of them literally had to join SAG to be in the movie. We auditioned hundreds of kids for these roles. I had open casting calls at NYU. I auditioned 300 kids in one day. We did have casting directors in a traditional way. Barbara McNamara on the East coast, and Bonnie Zane , who cast Ed for us, found Arjay on the West coast. We wanted kids that were funny and could think on their feet, but who could also be a fresh brand that no one had seen before. Given the idea of the movie, we didn’t want to have famous people in the cast. And that was kind of a guiding thought for everything we did. If you look at the direction, I didn’t use any dollies or cranes. The camera is always justified by being held by one of the characters. The movie is intended to have the look and feel of something the kids in the cast would have done themselves. And I think by and large, this is what it would have looked like had they done it themselves. They’re convincing as friends. How did you get them to bond? We shot this movie in 21 days. Holy shit. Seriously? Yes, that’s the appropriate reaction. And when you’re going to shoot for 21 days, you don’t have the luxury of time. If it takes four days to bond on the set, that’s 25 percent of your movie. So, I literally took all of these kids, and I had them live at my house for a week before we shot the movie. Translation: My wife is a saint. They all came to my house in Connecticut, and we also spent some time out at the beach in Long Island. And these kids, as only kids in their early 20s can do, became the best of friends very quickly. In fact, I distinctly remember the first morning of the first day of shooting. We were living in a Holiday Inn Express in Shelton, Conn. God bless the people of Shelton. That’s all I’ll say. We had all moved to this Holiday Inn Express, and we were going to be there for 21 days. The first morning before we went to set, I looked over and I saw one of the kids fart in front of the other kids and not care. The other kids were cracking up about it, and I’m like, we’ve done our job. They’re bonded. Let’s go to work.
Folks like Steven Soderbergh know it can be a long, long road to retirement. But there are still (at least) two titles to come, including Side Effects . With this year’s box office lauded strip down Magic Mike as well as his other 2013 shoot Behind the Candelabra on the make, his segue out from the director’s chair may linger a year or two. There are promo obligations post-post production after all… And retirement is proving to be good business, anyway. After cashing in with $130 million for this year’s The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel , a second one is in the offing . Maybe after Soderbergh is finished with these, he can really embrace the retirement thing with a Best Exotic Marigold Hotel 3 ? Starring Rooney Mara, Channing Tatum, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Jude Law (many of whom are Soderbergh-vets), Side Effects revolves around a young woman who relies on prescription drugs to deal with anxiety as her husband heads home from prison. As might be expected, there’s also more going on as the trailer suggests, with the pulse of anxiety hitting a crescendo. The film is due out February 8th. Thoughts, Movieliners? Should Soderbergh cancel his retirement plans?
