Hollywood.TV is your source for celebrity gossip, news, and videos of your favorite stars! bit.ly – Click to Subscribe! Facebook.com – Become a Fan! Twitter.com – Follow Us! Josh Brolin is a ladies man! Fans went crazy over the famous actor as he greeted fans outside of Jimmy Kimmel Live. Josh rocking his signature laid-back style took pictures, signed autographs, and chatted with his fans! Good job Josh! Hollywood.TV is the global leader in capturing celebrity breaking news as it happens. Launched in 2008, we capture all the latest news, exclusive celebrity interviews, star videos and hot celebrity gossip from around the world every minute of everyday. HTV is on the streets 24/7, at all the industry events and invited by the stars to cover their every move in Hollywood, New York and Miami. Hollywood.tv is currently the third most viewed reporter channel on www.youtube.com YouTube with almost 400 million views, and our footage is seen worldwide! Tune in daily for all the latest Hollywood news on www.hollywood.tv and http like us on Facebook! 344D34E0 Continue reading →
Following skepticism about Kutcher’s ability to pull off playing Apple founder, photos of the actor in costume have surfaced. By Kevin P. Sullivan Ashton Kutcher Photo: Dr. Billy Ingram/ WireImage It may have been difficult to picture practical joker Ashton Kutcher portraying Steve Jobs after it was announced he would lead an upcoming biopic about the former Apple innovator. Some comparison photos certainly helped, but now TMZ has the first shots of Kutcher in full Jobs regalia, mock turtleneck and all. The paparazzi snapped a few pictures of Kutcher outside of a Starbucks in what is reportedly his full costume for the tentatively titled movie “Jobs: Get Inspired.” In addition to the signature black mock turtleneck, Kutcher is wearing loose-fitting jeans and cross trainers, an outfit anyone familiar with Jobs would recognize as his style. Kutcher joined the film back in April to a decidedly mixed response, but after a comparison image with side-by-side photos of a long-haired Kutcher and Jobs from the 1970s started to pop up on the Web, the resemblance was hard to deny. Directed by “Swing Vote” helmer Joshua Michael Stern, “Jobs” will examine the Apple founder’s life and innovations from the 1970s to the end of the 20th century. “Book of Mormon” breakout Josh Gad signed on a few weeks after Kutcher to play Jobs’ partner and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. The role comes at a tumultuous time for Kutcher. After a very public breakup from wife Demi Moore, Kutcher stirred controversy twice with comments made about former Penn State coach Joe Paterno’s firing and, more recently, a Pop Chips ad that featured the actor made up to appear Indian and adopting a mock accent. “Jobs” is set to be released sometime next year. For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com .
‘Between the two of us, we probably got five or six records,’ T.I. tells ‘RapFix Live’ about possible joint album with Jeezy. By Rob Markman, with reporting by Sway Calloway T.I. on “RapFix Live” Photo: Natasha Chandel/ MTV News After the success of Jay-Z and Kanye West’s Watch the Throne, fans are excited at the thought of two favorite MCs working in tandem. There’s been talk of a Lil Wayne and Drake LP, a Rick Ross and Drake mixtape, and whispers of a T.I. and Young Jeezy full-length collaboration. We haven’t received any updates from Wayne, Drake or Rozay in a minute, but Tip says he and the Snowman already have songs in the stash. “I got a few albums that I’m workin’ on: the Man and the Martian project with B.o.B; me and Jeezy been talkin’ about doin’ this project for a minute,” T.I. told Sway when he held court on “RapFix Live” on Wednesday. “It wouldn’t take us long to do. We got records already in the can and it don’t take us no time to put it together. It’s just a matter of when they would be released.” Right now Tip is focused on Trouble Man , his eighth solo album, which is slated for a September 4 release. Then there is the tag-team LP with B.o.B — considering that Bobby Ray is signed to T.I.’s Grand Hustle label, the pair’s Man and the Martian album is more than a fantasy project. When it comes to a project with Jeezy, the King of the South says that the studio work isn’t the problem: Getting the album out in stores is the tricky part. “It’s not the recording, the recording is easy. It’s a matter of when we would have time to market and promote ’em and release ’em,” T.I. said. “We got maybe 30 or 40 [percent done]. Between the two of us, we probably got five or six records.” How interested are you in a T.I. and Young Jeezy project? Let us know in the comments! Related Videos T.I. Brings The Grand Hustle To ‘RapFix Live’ Related Artists T.I. Young Jeezy
‘I still love her as a human being,’ MTV Movie Awards host tells Ellen DeGeneres. By Jocelyn Vena Russell Brand and Katy Perry Photo: Charley Gallay/ WireImage Russell Brand has only the kindest words for his pop-star ex, Katy Perry. The actor chatted with Ellen DeGeneres on an episode of her talk show airing Thursday (May 17), and when asked about the split, Brand said that while they are no longer together, he still loves and respects her. “I still love her as a human being,” the comedian said. “But sometimes when you’re in a relationship, I suppose it doesn’t work out, does it? But that doesn’t mean I regret it or anything. I was very happy to be married with her. She’s such a beautiful human being and I just have only love and positivity for her. “You can’t absolutely make everything the way you want it to be in life,” he added. “Sometimes things are just different and then you have to just move with that and try and remain in contact with what is beautiful about yourself and with each other with any situation.” Brand and Perry announced their split in December 2011, after a year of marriage. During the interview, he added that she’s “a person I still consider to be beautiful. … I have nothing but positivity for her. She is [an amazing person].” The actor/comedian is now poised for a busy June. Brand is set to host the 2012 MTV Movie Awards , which will air live from the Gibson Amphitheatre on Sunday, June 3, at 9 p.m. ET/PT. This marks the third time he’s hosted an MTV awards show, having hosted the Video Music Awards in 2008 and 2009. And it seems that his signature cheeky humor will be in full force at the show. “MTV Movie Awards incorporates two of my favorite things: movies and awards. If somehow group sex could be involved, it would be the greatest night of my life,” Brand said. In addition to his MTV Movie Awards hosting gig, his new flick, the big-screen adaptation of “Rock of Ages,” opens June 15. Head over to MovieAwards.MTV.com to vote for your favorite flicks now! The 21st annual MTV Movie Awards air live Sunday, June 3, at 9 p.m. ET. Related Videos Russell Brand’s Greatest MTV Moments So Far Related Photos Russell Brand’s Greatest MTV Moments So Far Lovebirds: Katy Perry And Russell Brand Related Artists Katy Perry
The late Robin and his brothers helped define a genre and topped the charts in the process. By Gil Kaufman The Bee Gees in the 1970s Photo: Bee Gees Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/ Getty Im Just days after the world lost Queen of Disco Donna Summer , another one of the genre’s royal family, Bee Gees member Robin Gibb, died after a long battle with cancer. Robin, 62, and his brothers Barry and Maurice began their musical career in 1963 and scored a number of hits with sentimental ballads such as “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart” and “I Started a Joke” and their first top 20 single, “New York Mining Disaster 1941.” But it was their work in the late 1970s that would forever cement their memory in music history. After a string of successful albums and singles in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the brotherly trio hit the hard time early in the decade, including a brief period where Robin left the band to go solo because he felt Barry was being pushed to the forefront at his expense. It wasn’t until they revamped their sound on 1975’s Main Course that they hit upon a formula that would make them international superstars and help sell more than 200 million albums over the course of their career. That record turned away from earnest folk and pop to a sound laced with a more soulful, dance-oriented groove, epitomized by the #1 hit “Jive Talkin’.” They followed up with the soundtrack to the hit movie “Saturday Night Fever,” which held the record for the best-selling album of all time until the release of Michael Jackson’s Thriller. With such smashes as “Night Fever,” “How Deep Is Your Love,” “You Should Be Dancing,” “Stayin’ Alive” and “More Than a Woman,” the soundtrack won the Grammy for Album of the Year and sold more than 15 million copies in the United States alone. Though they weren’t even tapped to work on the soundtrack until after the movie had already wrapped, producer Robert Stigwood asked them to try and whip up a few tunes for the film that would soon define the disco era. They dashed most of the additional songs off in just over one weekend, and the rest, as they say, is history. In the years since, the album, whose cover prominently features the trio in their signature white disco suits just above a dancing John Travolta, has sold more than 40 million copies and stands as one of the top five best-selling albums of all time. Robin often sung the lead on the early songs, even though it was Barry who was the ostensible leader of the group later in their career. The siblings’ allegedly testy dynamic was turned into a bizarre recurring skit on “Saturday Night Live” from 2003 to 2011 by Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake called “The Barry Gibb Talk Show.” Though Fallon once told Howard Stern that he really didn’t know how the idea came to him to play Barry as an out-of-control rage-aholic hosting a public affairs show about the day’s news, the comedic combination of the monosyllabic Timberlake as Robin and the pair singing the trio’s falsetto harmonies made for some of the show’s funniest moments. Born in 1949 on the Isle of Man off the British Coast, Robin and his brothers grew up in Manchester, England, but moved to Australia as children. They got their start there performing on television shows as the B.G.’s. It was after the family returned to England in the 1960s that the trio began to score international attention with their melodic three-part harmonies and emotional songwriting. Robin released a trio of solo albums in the 1980s, but neither he nor the group would ever reach the “Fever” heights again. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. Earlier this year, Robin released a classical piece called The Titanic Requiem, recorded with his son, Robin-John, but was too ill to attend an April 10 performance with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Robin’s death is the latest heartache for the family, which has suffered a string of misfortunes, including the 1988 death of youngest brother Andy, 30, and the 2003 passing of Robin’s twin, Maurice, 53. More than 30 years after their global breakthrough, the music created by Robin and his brothers remains a cultural touchstone for each successive generation. Everyone from Eric Clapton to Destiny’s Child, the Cure’s Robert Smith, the Flaming Lips, Elton John, Al Green, Cher, Diana Ross, Tina Turner and Celine Dion have recorded their songs over the years. Please share your condolences for Gibb’s family, friends and fans in the comments. Related Photos The Bee Gees’ Robin Gibb: A Career In Photos
You could buy nearly seven million pair of Bulgari Bono sunglasses with the cash. By Gil Kaufman U2’s Bono Photo: D. Dipasupil/ WireImage U2 singer Bono was already an obscenely wealthy man before Friday’s (May 18) Facebook IPO . But thanks to the 2.3 percent stake in the social networking site held by his Elevation Partners investment group (it is unknown how much of the Facebook take is directly held by Bono) it was reported that his nest egg could grow exponentially when Friday’s first day of trading on the company’s stock is over. The total haul? More than $1.5 billion , which is not bad for a day’s work. If those figures are true, he may become the richest rock star on Earth, sitting on a massive pile of green that could allow a man who already had the world at his fingertips to push into a rarified stratosphere that’s the envy of the many one-percenters he already counts as friends. According to Rolling Stone the singer, who cannot sell all his shares at once, has pledged to use much of the money raised from his investments to aid charity work in Africa. 1.3 million Bono has always made charity a big priority and one of his biggest pushes in recent years is the One Campaign and associated clothing and accessories lines (RED) and EDUN, which help stimulate trade with poverty stricken countries. With the Facebook cash, you could buy more than 13 million of the (RED) edition $1,109 Bugaboo Donkey Twin strollers . But if one person were to obtain that windfall, what could $1.5 billion buy you? We broke it down, by-the-numbers: Bono addressed the rumors of his (alleged) impending money bomb while speaking to MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Friday morning. “Contrary to reports, I’m not a billionaire or going to be richer than any Beatle — and not just in the sense of money, by the way; the Beatles are untouchable — those billionaire reports are a joke,” he said. “In Elevation, we invest other people’s money — endowments, pension funds. We do get paid, of course. But, you know, I felt rich when I was 20 years old and my wife was paying my bills. Just being in a band, I’ve always felt blessed. I got interested in technology because I’m an artist, I’m interested in the forces that shape the world, politics, religion, the stuff we’ve been talking about today. Technology is huge, I wanted to learn about it. People might say that’s odd, but I think it’s odd if artists aren’t interested in the world around them. I’m always chasing that. Facebook are an amazing team, a brilliant team. It’s a technology that brings people together.” 6.9 million Famous for his signature Bulgari shades, if Bono were to get his hands on the full stash, he could hit the Amazon.com marketplace and get nearly seven million pair for cheap at $215.77 a piece. 12.5 The giant claw stage that U2 schlepped around the world for their record-setting 360 Tour was insanely expensive. With each of the three structures they built coming in at $40 million a piece, Bono could build nine more with the Facebook loot. 300,000 Speaking U2 tours, on their famous 1992 Zoo TV outing, one of the highlights were the blinged-out Trabant cars that were hung from the lighting rigs. The famously low-budget East German cars were never expensive, but if Bono were ever thinking of expanding his car collection, he could snatch up more than 300,000 1989 models for the money. 39.4 million : In the recent documentary, “From the Sky Down,” U2 basically admitted that they’d gotten a bit full of themselves by the time their 1988 ode to Americana, Rattle and Hum , was released. If Bono is feeling especially embarrassed about all the cowboy hats and blues discovery of that era, he could try to wipe out some trace of it by buying nearly 40 million Blu-Ray copies of the DVD from Amazon . Related Artists U2
Cot-DAMN!! Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg To Make $20 Billion From IPO According to TMZ reports : Mark Zuckerberg just rang the NASDAQ bell … opening a trading day in which the 28-year-old is expected to make more than 20 BILLION DOLLARS. In case you haven’t heard, the Facebook stock officially begins trading today — the largest Internet IPO in history. Zuckerberg performed the bell-ringing via satellite … from the Facebook offices in Menlo Park, CA. Of course, he was wearing his signature hoodie and the kind of smile you’d have on your face if you were in his flip-flops. The stock price debuted at $38 dollars per share, quickly rose to $42, and then began leveling off. According to CNBC, 82 million shares were traded in the first 30 seconds. It’s not just Mark who’s set to rake in a fortune today — according to reports, more than 1,000 people will become overnight millionaires due to the initial public offering. It’s a damn good day to be a Facebook employee! Image via AP Hit TMZ to read more about Money Makin’ Mark’s big day
Joshua Ledet just misses out on the big showdown. By Adam Graham Jessica Sanchez and Phillip Phillips on “American Idol” Photo: Michael Becker/ Fox The “American Idol” finale is set, and Joshua Ledet didn’t get an invite. Phillip Phillips and Jessica Sanchez will compete in next week’s season finale after Ledet was voted off the show Thursday (May 17). Ledet, the 20-year-old from Westlake, Louisiana, who was continually praised as one of the best contestants to ever grace the “Idol” stage , received the lowest number of votes from the 90 million votes cast, according to “Idol” host Ryan Seacrest. Ledet set a record for standing ovations from the judges this season on “Idol”; barely a week went by when he didn’t get the judges on their feet after one of his stellar performances. Ledet performed James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” at the close of the show Thursday, repeating a song that became one of his signature moments. Show mentor Jimmy Iovine took partial blame for Ledet’s performance Wednesday, saying by choosing Mary J. Blige’s “No More Drama,” he didn’t give him a song with enough of a melody to captivate the audience and generate votes. “There was something missing, and I know it was the material. In fairness, I gave him a song that didn’t have enough melody. Joshua needs melody, [and] I take 100 percent responsibility for that,” Iovine said. Still, he thought Ledet deserved to compete for the “Idol” crown next week. “Does Joshua belong in this finale? 100 percent, he should be in anyone’s finale,” he said. Ledet’s elimination gives Sanchez a shot at being the first female “Idol” winner since Jordin Sparks back in season six. At the onset of the season, it was said to be the women’s year on “Idol,” and four of the top six contestants were female. But three women were picked off in a row — Elise Testone, then Skylar Laine, then Hollie Cavanagh — threatening the show’s girl-power contingent. Now Sanchez is carrying the torch for the ladies. Iovine, in summing up Wednesday’s performances, also blamed himself for picking a bad song for Sanchez, but said Phillips won the night with his version of Bob Seger’s “We’ve Got Tonight.” “Hands down, it was the best performance he’s done in the entire contest,” he said, calling it “flawless.” (In fairness, Iovine also said Phillips’ version of Matchbox Twenty’s “Disease” was “a total snooze-fest.” Regarding Sanchez, Iovine said, “She has to have the most magical moment she’s had so far” in order to win it all. “If she gets in the finale,” he said, “It’s about the songs.” Before Ledet’s elimination, Jackson said the final contestants were “three of the best we’ve ever had” and said all three have “big careers” ahead of them. Also on Thursday’s show, Adam Lambert dropped by to perform “Never Close Our Eyes,” and Lisa Marie Presley (huh?) performed her new single “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet.” What did you think of “Idol” on Thursday? Did the right contestants make the finale? Let us know in the comments! Get your “Idol” fix on MTV News’ “American Idol” page , where you’ll find all the latest news, interviews and opinions. Related Photos ‘American Idol’ Season 11 Performances Most Shocking ‘American Idol’ Exits
‘Boyfriend’ remixers have nothing but praise for teen crooner and comparisons to their ‘Wait (The Whisper Song).’ By Jocelyn Vena Ying Yang Twins Photo: Evan Agostini/ Getty Images Justin Bieber ‘s “Boyfriend” got the remix treatment from rap duo the Ying Yang Twins this week. The twosome dropped their take on the singer’s single late Wednesday, amping up the song’s sexiness with their signature sense of innuendo. Playing on the song’s title, the Twins (D-Roc and Kaine) note on their verses that while Bieber is offering up his services as your boyfriend, they’re a little older and a little wiser and want to be your older sister’s man. When MTV News spoke to D-Roc on Thursday (May 10), he talked a little bit about wanting to have fun with the Mike Posner/ Mason Levy-produced track. “He want to be your boyfriend, but I want to be your man. I’m grown. I’m good and grown,” he said. “I’ve been through that boyfriend/girlfriend stage, but you know, he’s going through that, so that’s what complemented the track too. It’s like, ‘OK, I want to be your man. I don’t want to be your boyfriend. I’m bigger than the boyfriend.’ But that’s Justin Bieber, so if you got a little sister, Justin Bieber want to be her boyfriend.” D-Roc was also inspired to remix the track after many music fans had noted comparisons between Bieber’s song and the Twins’ 2005 hit “Wait (The Whisper Song).” “Before Justin Bieber actually had dropped the song, the hype around it, everybody was calling me saying, ‘Hey, man, did y’all hear the Justin Bieber song?’ I was so amped up to hear the song too. When I actually did, I listened to it and I was like, it sounded like us. He complimented us,” he said. “So I wanted to compliment him by getting on it. “It was there,” he added of the comparisons. “But the thing about it is, for him to step out for the first time rapping and we was the first compliment that he gave, I felt like that young man is on job. And he did it well. It made a statement to me like, ‘OK, he just trying to grow up,’ and with him growing up, like, he want y’all to take him as he’s grown. ‘I’m 18. I’m grown now. I can do my own thing.’ And what better lane, and he picked us, and I feel like that was a compliment and to compliment him back, I wanted to do the remix.” While D-Roc has yet to meet the singer, he has high praise for him. “He’s a very talented young man,” he said. “Like, to have as many talents as he knows how to do, you know, it’s like he’s a threat. He’s gonna come in, and they better watch out for the young man, ’cause the young man got something to bring to the table.” Bieber will drop his highly anticipated album, Believe, on June 19. “Boyfriend” is the lead single, and last Thursday, he dropped the video for the hit. What do you think of the Ying Yang Twins’ remix? Let us know in the comments! Related Videos Frame By Frame: Justin Bieber’s ‘Boyfriend’ MTV First: Justin Bieber Related Artists Justin Bieber Ying Yang Twins
In this week’s The Raven , John Cusack brings 19th century author Edgar Allan Poe to life in a mystery-thriller that envisions Poe locked in a battle of wills against his biggest fan: a serial killer murdering in the style of Poe’s most twisted stories. The piece is a paradox in itself, literary-minded meta-meditation masquerading as a pulpy mainstream entertainment; between genre beats and moments of Sherlock Holmesian heroism, Cusack and director James McTeigue leave provocations to be found or ignored, depending on your inclination. Whether or not audiences choose to dive in, Cusack just hopes they take the film on its own merits: “If you want a very different, quiet, Masterpiece Theater version of this, someone will go make that movie. But this is what we made. We made a dream about Poe.” To play the enigmatic and complex author, poet, and critic — who died of still-unknown causes at age 40, days after being found delirious on a park bench in Baltimore in 1849 — Cusack went deep into his life and work, attempting to understand the psyche of the man who loved (and tragically lost) the women in his life, bitterly fought his foes, yearned for recognition and celebrity, and yet carried such deep melancholy. “He was definitely an artist who was famous and wanted fame and wanted recognition,” Cusack mused. “He wanted to destroy the other poets of the day. He really was crazy, in an interesting way. He was such a lunatic!” And yet much of The Raven plays on the audience’s expectation, or perceived demand, for sensational storytelling — R-rated kills, gruesome murders, suspense. As Cusack explains, that is entirely the point. “[Poe] was satiric and fucked-up and pop-pulp, and he was also totally rarefied. So the movie is both of those things.” [Movieline’s chat begins with a round of My Favorite Scene in which Cusack picks Sidney Lumet ‘s The Verdict . More on that here .] I think when you watch [films] you just get affected by them and you let them wash over you. When you’re watching something good, you’re not thinking about anything, the story is taking you over. But then as you try to think back about the technique behind why it works, then you can dissect it a little bit. As I watched it I thought, you can’t do that anywhere but on a big screen. A novelist can’t do that because it’s an actor and [Paul] Newman’s whole life — all of the actor’s life and the character’s life, the character and the actor blur — a mature man at 65 with all the regrets, this conscience, these ethics. All into a moment, a cinematic moment. And in those three words you have everything. It’s just what washes over his face, what the camera sees. It’s beautiful. Have you always watched and read films so closely, so analytically? That’s what I do, and I’m a filmmaker too. I make films and, you know — the stuff that I’ve done that’s worked, I think it’s done by feel but then you look back on it… I don’t believe too much in technique, I think technique can sort of get in the way. I think there’s a way technique can liberate you by simplifying things. How conscious are you of the mechanics of a scene when you’re giving a performance, and how a director is going to bring the performance and the camera and the script together? It’s a collaboration and a conversation that you have with the director and the cameraman. It’s a conversation you have. Does that collaboration factor heavily into your decision to do a project or not? Yeah — I’ll say, too, if I’m working with James and we’re working on this and I see the shots he’s set up, and if I see something or a way to do something, I tell him. It’s very collaborative. If I say, “Are you going to be in here for this?” We’ll have a shorthand and he’ll go, “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” So you start to tell the same story together. James is a very sophisticated guy and a great filmmaker so by the end of the movie we were finishing each other’s sentences. But of course you have ideas. I saw the set, we were on a huge set, and I was talking with James — it was this opera hall and I said, “Wouldn’t it be cool if we had Poe standing up top, kind of like a raven looking down?” And James was like, “And maybe we’ll put him over here…” So you come up with these things that have that language. I think it’s still in the movie, the scene where he’s watching the ball. Yes, it is. In that shot he’s perched above watching his lady from afar and there’s such a sadness in his face. That was a shot we came up with on that day, me and James. What drew you to Poe to begin with, and then to this project? The film is obviously being sold to audiences as a thriller and a mystery but it’s also got a lot of interesting ideas about what it means to be an artist, to be be an artist who needs and wants an audience… I’m so happy you see all of that! It’s nice that you are picking up on that. Were those themes always there when the project first came to you, or did you help develop them along the way? James had the structure and the script was terrific, but I worked when I came onboard to try to elevate the language and texture of Poe’s vernacular and his idiom, because I thought it was so specific, and so textured and rich, that it has to really be at the very highest level. So there are some times in the script — because Poe was a mixture of esoteric, intellectual, rarefied air and pulp – Saturday afternoon thrillers, ‘I’m going to scare the audience and play on their fears, I’m going to give you a cliffhanger, I’m going to have a forensics detective thing where the killer is an orangutan with a razor – he was satiric and fucked-up and pop-pulp, and he was also totally rarefied. So the movie is both of those things, and creates that genre. It absolutely is. How do you think that will be received? So if you’re looking for The King’s Speech or some very serious, ultra-important movie, maybe you can make that movie. But that’s not really Poe! If you know Poe, that’s not really Poe; he was both. And so I thought the convention of Poe becoming a character in one of his own stories — the circular thing, the dream within the dream, very Poe-like — and within that we had the responsibility to make him as real as possible. Having now played him, what’s your take on Poe himself? He was famous, he was vain, he was at war with the world, he was theatrical. He went to West Point, he did all those things. He was an alcoholic, he loved his women, but I think he loved the women almost religiously, I don’t think it was sexual. He said, “I could not love except where death mingled his with beauty’s breath.” Just because of his past, with his mother and stepmother and his wife all dying in his arms, he was like an alchemist in that he was taking all of his misery and turning it into this great new art form. But he was totally fucked up by the deaths of all these women, and he revered them. I don’t think he played around. He wasn’t a playboy. But he loved the company of women and he loved to be revered by women. He hated men. I think he was only friends with a couple of men, and they were brief friendships. So he was definitely an artist who was famous and wanted fame and wanted recognition, he was competitive with other artists, he put them down — he said, “I don’t intend to put up with anything I can put down.” He wanted to destroy the other poets of the day. He really was crazy, in an interesting way. He was such a lunatic! A man of contradictions and extremes. A total paradox. And that, I think, is where you have to understand that about Poe to understand at least the premise of this movie. So if you want The King’s Speech , this isn’t that. This isn’t sort of measured and reverential. You’ve clearly done a lot of research into Poe’s life and work and complications, but do you feel like you related to him as well, personally, in any of those ways? Yes. I think Jung said that there’s a shadow archetype and in movies, or in art, we have these characters that become archetypical and I think it’s because they represent a part of our collective consciousness. So Poe, I think, was this pioneer into the underworld and into the subconscious and he housed all of our collective shame and fear and sorrow and expressed it so deeply that the image of him became sort of an archetype. So I think he was like a shadow figure, a figure now of your subconscious and your dreams. He’s like the raven – the raven was a harbinger to another world. Now Poe, for us, is sort of like the raven, sitting at the door of us, trying to say “You know, in your imagination and your subconscious is stuff that can frighten you and make you more in awe of anything you can imagine.” He was straddling both worlds artistically. So I think if you have a character like that, it allows you to tap into that in you. I can go use the Poe character to tap into my crazy stuff, you know — good and bad. So I don’t know if you feel you relate to Poe personally as much as you can find him in you. The Raven makes a number of amusing jabs at critics — Poe’s literary critics and rivals and enemies, at least one of whom meets a poetic end. Is the intent behind that to send a message to film critics reviewing this film about the film itself or how it might be perceived? My attitude is around what we’ve just been talking about, which is if you don’t like the conceit of the movie… review the movie that we shot. If you want a different version of a Poe movie, if you want a very different, quiet, Masterpiece Theater version of this, someone will go make that movie. But this is what we made. We made a dream about Poe. Our dream about Poe. Lou Reed made his album , and it was his dream about Poe. So this is me and McTeigue. But I think if they really know his writing, they’re going to really respect that we’ve done our homework. The Raven is in theaters Friday. John Cusack is on Twitter! Check him out here . Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
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