August 2008 News Archive (Page 17)

In The Rocker, Rainn Wilson stars Rob "Fish" Fishman, the drummer in '80s hair metal band Vesuvius. He's unceremoniously booted as the group signs a big record deal, is out of the music world for 20 years - and then receives a second chance with his nephew's band.

Below, The Office star speaks with ComingSoon.Net about the role...

CS: How did you go about finding your inner drummer to play the character?
Wilson: The first thing I started was to take drum lessons and that totally opened my mind to who this guy was when you start drumming. I play a little guitar and I've played in orchestras and stuff like that so to me music was more of a cerebral exercise. But when you drum, you're just loud and you're just pounding away.

This drum coach I was working with was all about putting on a show behind the kit. When you get into the mindset of the drummer with the sweat and the pounding and the ugly face and the whole thing, Fish (the character) just became totally clear to me. He was about letting it all loose. It's an incredible workout and it's not even of your body but about concentration. It requires an amazing amount of focus.

CS: Did you ever have rock star dreams like Fish?
Wilson: I got to thankfully live through a little bit of a rocker nightmare which was my shortest lived high school band ever. I did two gigs with my band Collective Moss; I wish I still had that flyer. We played two gigs, one for a bunch of 11 year-olds who ended up stealing our patch chords in a church basement. Then our second gig was an audition for the Battle of the Bands, which we didn't get into. That's how bad we were; we were not even in the top six bands at New Trier High School (in Illinois). I was the singer.

Today is also Halle Berry's birthday.

While we wish that Oscar winner the best, we wanted to single out a different birthday girl.

Mila Kunis, a rising cinematic star, turns 25. The former sitcom actress is expanding her career to the big screen. She was gorgeous in Judd Apatow's Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

Look for Mila Kunis in Max Payne this fall.

Just as Woody Allen's latest movie, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, is set to his theaters, we have an update on the director's next movie.

The neurotic writer has penned a role for Curb Your Enthusiasm star Larry David.

According to JSOnline reports, the collaboration will be called Whatever Works. It's described as a “blackish comedy,” where David plays the love interest of 20-year-old Evan Rachel, who Allen commended for a “great” performance, despite being a young actress working with such well-known stars.

Whatever Works is set to be released in early 2009. Speaking on the film's star, Allen said:

“He's got a great, sarcastic, sour, wonderful, no nonsense sense of humor. I think I'm more illusory than him. He's a stronger personality. I'm more of a schlemiel, a dope. I would be the guy they would plant the microfilm on and I would never know it, and I would be out there wondering why people are shooting at me. Larry has a different quality. It was fun to write this for him."

As for the movie itself, the director said:

“There is sex in the movie. It's a comedy, a romantic comedy.”

It's a super hero showdown!

In a new interview with Moviehole, Robert Downey Jr. went off on The Dark Knight. It's safe to say that the man behind the suit of this summer's other major comic book film, Iron Man, thinks the latest Batman chapter is overrated.

“My whole thing is that I saw The Dark Knight. I feel like I’m dumb because I feel like I don’t get how many things that are so smart. It’s like a Ferrari engine of storytelling and script writing and I’m like, ‘That’s not my idea of what I want to see in a movie.’

I loved [Christopher Noalan's] The Prestige, but didn’t understand The Dark Knight. Didn’t get it, still can’t tell you what happened in the movie, what happened to the character and in the end they need him to be a bad guy. I’m like, ‘I get it. This is so high brow and so fucking smart, I clearly need a college education to understand this movie.’ You know what?

Fuck DC comics. That’s all I have to say and that’s where I’m really coming from.”

Robert Downey Jr., seen here in character in Tropic Thunder, holds nothing back in his critique of The Dark Knight.

The next starring vehicle for Tom Cruise, Valkyrie, has been pushed back to next year. It's set to open on February 13, 2009.

Here's a look at Cruise in the movie's starring role, Claus von Stauffenberg, the man who leads a plot to assassinate Hitler...

Rumors of Arnold Schwarzenegger popping up in Terminator Salvation have died down.

But fans are now wondering about whether or not Linda Hamilton will make a cameo in the remaking of this franchise.

According to TheArnoldFans.com, the famous Polaroid picture of Sarah Connor will appear in the film for certain. It will, of course, bear Hamtilon’s likeness.

The website reportedly spoke to someone involved in Terminator Salvation at Comic Con who told them they’ll indeed be using the Hamilton photo in the film.

"Linda is the only way to go to honor the original Terminator films and to tie our films together," the source said. “We're big fans of The Sarah Connor Chronicles, but we're either going with Linda or shooting the actors holding a picture. The audience is smart enough to realize what they are looking at. We just need to contact Linda still."

Well... a couple of weeks have passed and a representative for Hamilton says no one has spoken to the actress yet.

As soon as she knows if she's involved with the film, we'll let you know.

With Tropic Thunder coming out in theaters today, we thought we'd feature Jack Black as our fifth installment of Reel Movie Stars.

Jack Black was born in Redondo Beach, California in 1969 and decided he would become an actor after a game of Freeze after a Passover seder as a kid. After attending Crossroads School where he excelled in drama, he went on to attend UCLA until he dropped out to persue his career in acting.

It appeared his decision paid off as he was cast in small roles in movies such as Demolition Man and Waterworld and with television roles on shows such as Mr. Show and The X-Files.

Black's acting career really broke through with his role in the 2000 John Cusack romantic comedy, High Fidelty. Shortly after, Black became a leading man with roles in Shallow Hal, Orange County, and School of Rock. Now, as a full-fledged A-lister, it seems Black is unstoppable with big time roles in Kung Fu Panda and Tropic Thunder this year.

Jack Black is considered a member of the Frat Pack and appears in numerous of their movies and is also well known for his comedic rock band, Tenacious D.

Now for some cool Jack Black facts you may not know?

• Both of his parents were rocket scientists. His mother worked on the Hubble Space Telescope.
• Met his wife, Tanya Haden, in high school. They married after dating less than a year.
  
• Has one son, Samuel Wyatt, born on June 10, 2006. His wife is expecting their second child.
  
• Often competes with Philp Seymour Hoffman for roles, considers Hoffman his nemesis.

Get ready to laugh as you check out the following photo montage of Jack Black and be sure to check out his full bio and filmography on our site.

On August 20, Rainn Wilson is ready to rock!

He stars as Robert Fishman in the comedy The Rocker. A handful of critics around the nation have weighed in with their opinion on the upcoming movie...

- It's modestly entertaining, occasionally funny, and generally agreeable. I just don't think Wilson should quit his day job yet... -- Robert D. Snider

- Rainn Wilson has already been typecast as "that weird, crazy guy" in every role he plays, but he seems capable of more... ReelzChannel

- It’s exactly the kind of film that I’ll forget having ever seen by the time Summer is over and that’s too bad as I do love the premise of the film and I’m a fan of Rainn Wilson... Film Threat

- This is pre-packaged entertainment, a product designed to give bored teenagers something to watch on a Friday or Saturday night when steamy summer nights are getting longer and Labor Day is just around the corner... -- ReelViews

It's already know that Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes production company has plans to remake Wes Craven's horror classic A Nightmare on Elm Street.

The new version is unlikely to include Robert Englund in the iconic role of Freddy Krueger. So, who could replace the actor in the film

As JoBlo reports: How about Oscar-winning actor Billy Bob Thornton?

The website reports that Englund is supportive of Thornton in the role - and Billy Bob does have an existing Michael Bay connection from Armageddon. Can you see him as Freddy Krueger?

Woody Allen's latest movie, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, opens this weekend.

The A.V. Club recently sat down with the veteran, beloved director to discuss the film:

AVC: There's a really critical scene in the film where Javier Bardem propositions Rebecca Hall and Scarlett Johansson and convinces them to travel with him. Could anyone but Bardem have pulled that off?
Woody Allen: That's what I was thinking before. There probably are not a lot that could. There are some that could, but you really do have to have that kind of brooding, complicated, charismatic personality to not come off like a boob, and for women to be provoked by his proposal and to think actually that it might be interesting. If I didn't have Javier to play that part, and I was making the film in Spain, I don't know if I could've found someone.

I don't really know, because I'm not familiar with the Spanish cinema, so I don't know if there's another who knows enough English, and also has that kind of complexity to him.

AVC: It's a romantic film, but would it be fair to characterize it as being ultimately pessimistic about love? One woman desires stability and the other desires passion, but both seem to be heading for different kinds of trouble.
Woody Allen: I would say the film is quite a sad film. The basic cosmetics of the film, as you watch it, are not sad, and so as you watch it, you're seeing a beautiful city and hearing wonderful music, and seeing these beautiful women and this charming guy.

So hopefully you would enjoy yourself, and there are some laughs and some moments you're interested in. [Mild spoilers follow and continue through the end of this exchange. —ed.] But when it's all over, and you tally up, you find that Javier and Penélope can't live with each other and they can't live without each other, so they're kind of tortured in their relationship.

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