On this day in the year 1990, Kristen Jaymes Stewart was born in Los Angeles to a script supervisor mother and father who works in television. Who’d have guessed that she’d grow up to become the highest earning actress in Hollywood before she was old enough to drink? Thanks to the Twilight films, Stewart’s star rose in the blink of an eye (okay, four years and soon to be five movies), but she also deserves credit for racking up indie cred between bouts of vampire swooning. On the occasion of her 22nd birthday — and with 22 features to her name to date — let’s name Stewart’s finest onscreen moment. Stewart began her career with a few uncredited appearances in kids flicks ( The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas , anyone?) before launching a steady stream of child acting roles ( Catch That Kid , Panic Room , Cold Creek Manor ). By her early teens she was already balancing indie dramas with mainstream films ( Catch That Kid and Undertow in 2004; Fierce People and Zathura in 2005), continuing to keep a foot in both worlds even after 2008’s Twilight . Over the years she’s robbed a bank, adventured through space, battled a debilitating neurological disease, rocked out as Joan Jett, and hooked the mean streets of New Orleans; played daughter to Jodie Foster , Dennis Quaid , Robert De Niro , Meg Ryan , and Diane Lane ; and romanced Jesse Eisenberg , Emile Hirsch , Jamie Bell , Adam Brody , Eddie Redmayne , and, of course, Robert Pattinson . (This year she’ll be seen Snow White and the Huntsman , On the Road , and the franchise-ender The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 .) But reach back to 2001 and you’ll find fine work from an 11-year-old Stewart playing tomboy Sam in the ensemble indie The Safety of Objects . Rose Troche’s suburban drama featured a natural, instinctive turn from Stewart, who shared scenes with Patricia Clarkson and Timothy Olyphant a full year before mainstream audiences saw her in Panic Room . Watch little Kristen Stewart below and chime in below.
Deadline reports that Paula Patton is in talks to star with Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg in 2 Guns , a crime pic directed by Contraband ‘s Baltasar Kormakur based on the graphic novel by Stephen Grant “about a DEA agent and an undercover naval intelligence officer who unwittingly investigate each other as each steals mob money.” Patton will play Washington’s love interest, though I feel like they’ve already been here before… or maybe I just have DEJA VU . HONK! Yeeeeah . Sigh. [ Deadline ]
It’s hard to believe it’s been 13 years since Jason Biggs first made sweet, sweet love to that apple pie, but with this week’s American Reunion the gang is back, three sequels and four subpar spin-off movies later, to catch up and wax nostalgic about the good old days. Marinate on where all those years went while you catch up with the American Pie gang in Movieline’s Then and Now gallery and inevitably decide — as we all do on occasion while wine-drunk, yearbook in hand — which among them aged the best over the years. The whole gang is back in American Reunion , which sees the return of Biggs, Alyson Hannigan, Chris Klein , Mena Suvari , Shannon Elizabeth , Thomas Ian Nicholas , Seann William Scott , Tara Reid , Natasha Lyonne , Eugene Levy, Jennifer Coolidge, and yes, The Shermanator. More than a decade after their first outing I’d say the entire American Pie cast is looking good. Especially you, Eugene Levy . Rrrawr. Click to launch the time warp to 1999 gallery!
The Triplets development saga just gets better, thanks to Arnold Schwarzenegger: “I can see a poster… A billboard with us three. ‘They found another one!’ ‘ Triplets !’ ‘Only their mother can tell them apart!’ I would do that in two seconds, because that’s real entertainment. You come out with that movie for Christmas, like December 5th or something like that, and you’re home free.” [ Coming Soon ]
Mirror Mirror is about as postmodern as a postmodern version of a fairytale gets these days – “It’s been focus-grouped!,” the prince protests, as the princess defies tradition and sets out to save him. So why is it so very white? It’s especially jarring when Indian director Tarsem Singh ends the movie with a Bollywood-inspired dance number – it’s a Technicolor celebration of cultural diversity by a cast that doesn’t seem to have any, save a dwarf or two who barely stand out from their pack. A fairytale about a heroine named “Snow White” is always going to require imagination, or daring, in casting for diversity, but I was surprised at how little Singh and his studio bothered trying to push the envelope. Not that they’re alone – most of Mirror Mirror ’s competitors in the current fairytale fad , from last year’s Beastly to this spring’s dueling Snow White and the Huntsman , have shown very little imagination about race. (Brownie points to Catherine Hardwicke, who let Shiloh Fernandez win the affections of her Red Riding Hood last year.) In the interests of avoiding further whitewashing – and maybe seeing some updated fables with real edge – here are four ways Hollywood should rethink diversity in all these postmodern fairytales. 1. Paying lip-service to feminism is no longer enough. I love seeing movies with strong roles for women and heroines who actually get to do things. And yes, it’s great that Lily Collins’s Snow White learns to defend herself and beats Armie Hammer at flirty swordplay, and that Chris Hemsworth is going to teach Kristen Stewart how to fight the evil queen in her version of Snow White . All of this would be way more impressive if Drew Barrymore hadn’t done the same thing fourteen years ago in Ever After . If you want to be edgy, Hollywood, let’s move beyond grudging admissions that women can stick up for themselves and find something new to say about race or sexuality or all of those other Gender Studies words the Brothers Grimm didn’t have to deal with. I liked some of Mirror Mirror ’s lopsided efforts to give its dwarves separate characters – one has a crush on our heroine while another wants to help her pick out a fabulous wardrobe – but maybe the next round of big-budget Snow White movies could even explicitly acknowledge why seven unrelated men might live together in a rustic lodge and get freaked out by the appearance of a girl. 2. Stop appropriating culture without showing the people who made it. (Otherwise known as: Every rant I have stored up about Chinese tokenism in Joss Whedon’s Firefly .) The color in Mirror Mirror is amazing, but it’s not even skin-deep. For much of the movie, the brilliant costumes and set designs hide the fact that there are very few nonwhite people wearing Eiko Ishioka ’s crimson peacock dresses and gumdrop courtier costumes and black accordion stilts – which makes the final scene stand out all the more. The Bollywood homage is a fun break from tradition on one level, but it’s also deeply weird considering how little evidence there is that any non-WASPs actually inhabit this magic kingdom. Which is a missed opportunity: Like Snow White and the Huntsman , like Red Riding Hood , like next year’s Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters ( yes, really ), we are talking about stories that can be set anywhere, any time – including somewhere completely imaginary. It’s not like directors and studios have much room to hide behind the excuse of casting for “historical accuracy.” Which brings me to… 3. Think outside the casting box. I saw Mirror Mirror a few days after racists came out of the woodwork for The Hunger Games , which dared to cast black actors to play characters who were originally described as “dark-skinned.” As Anna Holmes pointed out at The New Yorker , that ugly reaction highlighted how many movie viewers expect characters to be white until explicitly proven otherwise – and Hollywood reinforces those expectations all too often, even when casting fantasies about imaginary lands where, you would think, anything goes. But no, it’s still sticking to the sidekick sidelines. The dwarves provided Mirror Mirror with pretty much its only diversity; at the very least, the movie could have included more people of color among the speaking courtiers and villagers and downtrodden castle servants. Snow White and the Huntsman , from its latest trailer , is going even more pasty-Eurocentric with its crowds of faux Crusaders. That’s not even considering the television variations; despite its modern setting and larger cast and serialized format, ABC’s Once Upon a Time has made room so far for only one regular non-white character. (NBC’s rival Grimm is doing a little bit better.) Just think what could happen if Hollywood got really radical and reconsidered how it casts its fairytale leads. In fact… 4. Dare to rethink who’s the “fairest of them all.” It could be problematic and somewhat predictable to cast a person of color as the main villain in a fairytale, especially if all of the heroes are white. (Though I think Michelle Yeoh or Angela Bassett could mop the floor with Julia Roberts.) Future fairytale filmmakers could also consider looking for a prince who’s slightly less Caucasian than Armie Hammer – he’s charming and nice to look at, but I suspect there are plenty of attractive young actors out there capable of handling a role where the heavy lifting entails imitating a puppy. But the most interesting possibility, and the one I’d most like to see the next big-budget, postmodern Hollywood fairytale attempt, would be to cast a young woman of color as Snow White or Belle or Red or any other virginal, virtuous, smart and beautiful heroine, especially if she’s a character whose beauty has traditionally been defined by the paleness of her skin. These stories have been told for centuries, and by now they’re desperately in need of some real reinvention. Challenging their most outdated assumptions about who and what is beautiful would be the easiest – and most interesting – way for Hollywood to make its next round of adaptations far more worthwhile. Maria Aspan is a writer living in New York whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Reuters and American Banker. She Tweets and Tumbls .
In a new interview over at The Hollywood Reporter , Jeremy Renner gets real about his on-the-brink career and personal life — like, so real you’ll want to give him a hug and then buy all the tickets for Bourne just to help him on his humble way towards megamillionaire action hero status. He’s either a calculatedly brilliant PR strategist or a walking country song. Either way, this dog-loving, single dude, does-his-own-stunts part-time house-flipper is sure to endear himself to all four quadrants with this profile-boosting piece. Oh Jeremy Renner, don’t be so sad! This moment in time is what historians years from now might consider a turning point in Renner’s career; hot from his breakout roles in The Hurt Locker and The Town , he landed supporting turns in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol and the upcoming Avengers , and will soon debut two of his own starring vehicles: 2013’s Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters and this summer’s The Bourne Legacy , taking over from franchise star Matt Damon . All in all, Renner seems like a fairly well-adjusted guy who’s only now having to deal with fame and all that comes with it. But you know what? Renner’s puppy passed away last month, man, and he is so lonely he refers to his loneliness twice in the same interview. Get the Kleenex ready, people. This shit gets dark. For starters, Renner and bars don’t have the best history. He tells the story of how, on Christmas Eve a few years back, when he was with his family in a bar, “This guy chokes me with the scarf I was wearing. He called me a fag ’cause I was wearing a scarf! Then he shoved my sister and I got behind him and I choked him out — put him to sleep.” Without a trace of irony, he adds, “I’m not violent.” Although, he says, “I’d have gone to prison” if he’d been present when a family member recently was raped. Oh. For that matter, Renner’s pals and bars have it pretty bad, too. And what about that much-reported knife fight in Thailand in January? “It was a silly, tragic accident that happened to this guy,” explains Renner, noting that he had gone to Phuket for a break when an acquaintance made a comment and “got attacked in a bar fight at 4 in the morning. He was saying stuff, and 20 people jumped on him. I was in flip-flops. I don’t do bar fights. Did he deserve to get stabbed and almost murdered by 20 people? F– no.” (Six local men were arrested.) Phew. Time out for some unexpected getting-to-know-youness: Jeremy Renner isn’t just a sometimes house-flipper, he also loves macro photography! In other news, Jeremy Renner has had long-term relationships, but both of them ended. Sadface. As to his long-term involvements, he says he had one five-year relationship with a woman while in his 20s and another that ended two years ago after 4-1/2 years… He met that girlfriend, Jes Macallan — who, as her Twitter account reveals, married actor Jason Gray-Stanford (Monk) on March 17 — when she was 23 and working at a film festival in Florida; subsequently, she decided to go into acting. “That was part of the issue,” says Renner. “I was going through the Hurt Locker campaign and she’s like, ‘Where do I get headshots?'” Are we losing the dudes? Here’s a masculine tidbit to keep the male demo: Renner isn’t one of those sissypants action stars — he does his own stunts! (And pays the price.) On Bourne, “I got injured kicking a table and missing and hyper-extending my leg! I had to get an MRI.” He also hurt his arm, which “will be f–ed up for a while. I can’t really grab anything” with one hand. But forget torn muscles and strained ligaments — the most painful thing to endure on-set is probably the loneliness, which Renner blames for his break-down while shooting The Hurt Locker . “Pure loneliness, that’s what it came down to. It was a whole rainbow of good and bad.” Talking about losing his puppy last month, though, brings the tears. Most recently came the death in March of his 8-month-old French bulldog, Franklin, of a heart attack. For a moment, Renner’s eyes go moist because the puppy touches on the singular problem that has most bedeviled him the past two years. Says Renner, “He was my solution for being so lonely.” Goddammit, Renner. You’re gonna make me cry. The Bourne Legacy is in theaters August 3. Let’s buy up all the tickets so Renner doesn’t feel so alone. Let our box office dollars wash over him like a giant group hug. [ THR ]
“The King of Twitter is now the King of Apple, as Two and a Half Men star Ashton Kutcher is attached to play Steve Jobs in the indie pic Jobs , which Joshua Michael Stern ( Swing Vote ) will direct from a script by Matt Whiteley. The film will chronicle Steve Jobs from wayward hippie to co-founder of Apple, where he became one of the most revered creative entrepreneurs of our time.” Not to be confused with the other movie about Steve Jobs, which is no doubt courting Jim Parsons as we speak. [ Variety ]
David Lynch has debuted the video for the title track of his album Crazy Clown Time , a thoroughly sick, depraved, tuneless, NSFW, barely watchable/listenable seven-minute romp through the filmmaker-cum-songwriter’s mental miasma. It’s the most literal-minded music video I’ve ever seen, which, with lines about pouring beer on people and lighting one’s hair aflame and running around the backyard, makes for some arresting imagery. As in, I almost can’t believe Lynch made this without getting arrested. Anyway. It’s no ” Firecracker ,” but what is? [via The Playlist ]
MTV News brings you a timeline of all the obstacles that once stood in the way of the now-greenlit sequel. By Fallon Prinzivalli Will Ferrell in “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” Photo: DreamWorks Pictures Movie fans were overjoyed by Will Ferrell ‘s announcement Wednesday night that “Anchorman 2″ is finally happening . The long journey since the release of the first film left us doubting whether a sequel would ever happen. With our doubts cast aside and our excitement on the rise, we’ve compiled a timeline of all the obstacles the team overcame to arrive at the ultimate destination. August 14, 2008 : Paul Rudd tells us he thinks ” Anchorman ” director Adam McKay and actor Will Ferrell were interested in doing a sequel. “Last I heard they were starting to write [‘Anchorman 2’],” Rudd says. The setting? Possibly the ’80s or the moon . May 27, 2009 : Ferrell tells Aussie radio DJs Jono & Dana that he’ll be meeting with the “Anchorman” creators to “figure out when and how” to get a sequel in the works. August 28, 2009 : In an interview with Empire magazine, “Anchorman” producer Judd Apatow suggests that in “Anchorman 2,” Ron Burgundy, Brick Tamland and Brian Fantana will return as elderly men. “Those anchormen sometimes have their jobs until they’re 75 years old,” Apatow says. September 1, 2009 : Director McKay says that, due to the cast and crew’s busy schedules, the sequel won’t be available for another two years . He adds, “But we are definitely doing it.” Whew. April 6, 2010 : Steve Carell confirms to our very own Josh Horowitz that the “Anchorman” cast “want[s] to do another one,” but there is no script. “I don’t think they’ve [even] decided on a story line yet,” Carell says. April 8, 2010 : On the red carpet for his movie “Date Night,” Carell lies about everything. He says “Anchorman 2” has already been shot in “just two days” while the cast was drunk. When asked if it was any good he says, “It’s fantastic!” Honestly, with the talent in these comedians, we wouldn’t be surprised if it was. April 27, 2010 : Adam McKay reveals that, aside from the actor’s schedules, another holdup in the sequel is payment . Since the cast went on to become even more famous after the first movie, “Everybody’s prices went up.” Graciously, the cast agreed to take a pay cut, which is almost unheard of in Hollywood. April 29, 2010 : McKay dashes all our hopes and dreams in a single tweet : “So bummed. Paramount basically passed on Anchorman 2. Even after we cut our budget down. We tried.” May 3, 2010 : Hope is restored! As it turns out, Paramount is eager to film the sequel. Deadline reports, however, the “Anchorman” team is forced to regroup as they have a budget gap of $30 million to overcome. June 6, 2010 : With financial issues in the way, Paul Rudd jokes that if “Anchorman 2” doesn’t happen, “We’ll look to do ‘Anchorman 3.’ ” July 19, 2010 : Yet again, it seems as if “Anchorman 2” is never going to happen. The saddest part? Neither is the proposed “Anchorman” musical . A few days later, Christina Applegate says she feels let down by the news. May 2, 2011 : All hope is officially lost when Ferrell tells Collider that the sequel “is a brick wall right now” and they’re “playing around with the idea” of a “Step Brothers” sequel instead. And suddenly… March 28, 2012 : Ferrell announces on “Conan” that “Anchorman 2” is officially happening with the original director, Adam McKay, and most of the principal castmembers, including Steve Carell and Paul Rudd. The stars have aligned. It’s finally happening. Cue celebration! Check out everything we’ve got on “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com .
‘Jack still dies,’ director says of the 3-D re-release which he says ‘reinvents’ the 1997 flick. By Kevin P. Sullivan James Cameron Photo: MTV News When “Titanic” hits the big screen again on April 4, the ship will be changing course and heading directly into the audience. Director James Cameron has been one of 3-D’s biggest proponents for years now and has suggested in the past that any film is open for a three-dimensional makeover. It only makes sense, then, that he put his money where his mouth is and converted his own “Titanic.” Cameron spoke with MTV UK about the process and why the real reward of the re-release is the chance to see his blockbuster on the silver screen again after 15 years. The director insisted that the movie remains as it was back in 1997, except for the added dimension. “It ends the same way. The ship still sinks. Jack still dies. Oops, I hope I didn’t spoil it,” he said. As Cameron has said before, he believes that the 3-D element of the re-release plays a supporting role. He simply wants people to see “Titanic” as it was meant to be seen: in a theater. “I think the first thing you should think of, the most important thing, is that you’re going to see it in a movie theater, which is really fundamentally different for anyone who is under a certain age. It hasn’t been in a theater for 15 years, so people know it from video. But they haven’t taken that ride where you commit to the three hours, and you’re going to go on that emotional rollercoaster, and you’re going to come out of the end of the movie in a certain mental, emotional state. It’s very different.” That isn’t the say that the 3-D doesn’t add anything. Cameron sees the conversion as a way to reinterpret the experience. “The 3-D is a kind of way of doing that, a way of reinventing the film, and the 3-D does add something to the experience that was never there before, an immediacy, even an intimacy, which is interesting.” Luckily for Cameron, he had originally shot “Titanic” in a way that was conducive to a 3-D conversion. “Even though I wasn’t shooting it as a 3-D movie 15 years ago, my particular style is to use wider lenses and to wrap the actors in the scenery,” Cameron said. “Because the ship — I don’t like to use the term that it was a character — but the environment was constantly informing what was happening, the elegance, the beauty of the ship, the gilt-edged luxury juxtaposed with steerage third class. All those themes are really manifested in the physicality of the ship. The style of seeing all of that when you convert it to 3-D, it just has this lucidity. You just feel like you’re there.” Are you planning on seeing the 3-D re-release of “Titanic”? Leave your comment below! Check out everything we’ve got on “Titanic.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com .
