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Interview: Ben Wheatley Talks The Dark, Twisted & Hilarious 'Sightseers,' Says 'Freakshift' Is Next & Casting Soon

  • By Jordan Hoffman
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  • May 8, 2013 3:57 PM
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  • 1 Comment
Ben Wheatley, Sightseers
Interviews
After a very successful run on the festival circuit Ben Wheatley's dark and somewhat ghastly comedy “Sightseers” is finally making itself available to theater-goers in hip cities and VODers across the country. It is, in my opinion, the most assured work from the British director of “Kill List” and “Down Terrace”, a very funny vacation-comedy about pair of social misfits/lovebirds visiting mundane historical sites and leaving a trail of corpses in their wake. Written by its co-stars Alice Lowe, Steve Oram and Wheatley's frequent collaborator (and wife) Amy Jump, “Sightseers” also boasts an executive producer stamp from Edgar Wright.
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More: Sightseers, Ben Wheatley, Freakshift, Two For Hell, Interviews, Interviews

Interview: Mark Romanek Talks Making 'One Hour Photo,' What Happened With 'Cinderella' & What Might Be Up Next

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
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  • May 7, 2013 1:01 PM
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  • 1 Comment
Interviews
Even before Mark Romanek yelled action on "One Hour Photo," his debut feature film, he was already a trailblazer behind the camera. The filmmaker had made a name for himself as a music video director, helming iconic spots for Lenny Kravitz ("Are You Gonna Go My Way"), Nine Inch Nails ("Closer"), Madonna ("Bedtime Stories"), Michael Jackson ("Scream"), Fiona Apple ("Criminal"), Johnny Cash ("Hurt") and much, much more. His videos were bold and found Romanek easily able to switch genres musically and stylistically without batting an eye, delivering evocative spots that both defined Romanek and the artists he worked with. But when it came to his feature film, he largely kept the flashy stylization at bay.
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More: Mark Romanek, Cinderella, Interviews, Interviews, One Hour Photo

Interview: Kaya Scodelario On 'Emanuel & The Truth About Fishes,' Sean Durkin's 'Southcliffe' & Her Return To 'Skins'

  • By Oliver Lyttelton
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  • May 7, 2013 11:01 AM
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  • 2 Comments
Interviews
Every year (at least in the last few), it seems there's at least one actress who, while already on many radars, comes to Sundance with a performance that launches her to true stardom. Carey Mulligan, Felicity Jones, Jennifer Lawrence, Elizabeth Olsen, Mia Wasikowska and Quvenzhane Wallis all went to Park City as complete or relative unknowns, and left at the top of casting wish-lists. This year, perhaps the most notable Sundance starlet to break out was Kaya Scodelario.
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More: Interviews, Interview, Kaya Scodelario, Emanuel And The Truth About Fishes, The Maze Runner, Southcliffe

Interview: Sarah Polley Talks The Ethics Of 'Stories We Tell,' Adapting 'Alias Grace' & Revisiting 'Take This Waltz'

  • By Charlie Schmidlin
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  • May 6, 2013 12:16 PM
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  • 2 Comments
Interviews
Halfway into Sarah Polley's genre-swapping documentary, “Stories We Tell,” the actor/director takes a break from shooting “Mr. Nobody” with Jared Leto to take a phone call. Still dressed in Neanderthal costume and make-up from the scene, she walks outside, sits on a bench, and reads an email on her Blackberry. Its contents are the makings of a news story -- one that Polley had just intimately lived herself and one that comprises the focus of her stunning, humanistic look at family and memory.
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More: Interviews, Interviews, Take This Waltz, Stories We Tell, Alias Grace, Sarah Polley

Hurt People Hurt People: Neil LaBute & Alice Eve On The Intricate Roleplaying Of ‘Some Velvet Morning’

  • By Kristin McCracken
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  • May 3, 2013 12:03 PM
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  • 0 Comments
Some Velvet Morning, Alice Eve, Neil LaBute
Interviews
Since his award-winning debut feature “In the Company of Men” in 1997, Neil LaBute has developed a diverse career that spans writing and directing for both the stage and screen. Depicting unsettling and often cruel relationships between men and women, his work can be difficult to stomach, but there is no denying his unique voice. Over the years, LaBute has experimented with directing other people’s work, venturing into the horror (“The Wicker Man”), thriller (“Lakeview Terrace”) and comedy (“Nurse Betty,” “Death at a Funeral”) genres, to varying degrees of critical success. At the same time, he is a prolific playwright, with “The Mercy Seat,” “Fat Pig,” “reasons to be pretty,” and “The Shape of Things,” among others, making theatrical waves.
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More: Neil LaBute, Alice Eve, Stanley Tucci, Some Velvet Morning, Interviews, Interview, Tribeca Film Festival, Star Trek Into Darkness, Interviews

Interview: Lake Bell On Her Love Of Movie Trailers & Her Directorial Debut 'In A World...'

  • By Oliver Lyttelton
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  • May 2, 2013 2:25 PM
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  • 0 Comments
Lake Bell
Interviews
Sundance London was something of a homecoming for actress/writer/director/producer Lake Bell. Though born in New York, Bell began her career studying acting at London's Rose Bruford College, a stone's throw away from the O2 complex where the festival was taking place. And what better place could there be for the international premiere of the feature directorial debut from the star, who's consistently impressed both in TV roles like "How To Make It In America" and "Children's Hospital," and on the big screen in the likes of "It's Complicated" and "Pride & Glory."
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More: In A World..., Lake Bell, Interviews, Sundance London, Interview

Interview: Lynn Shelton On 'Touchy Feely,' Improvisation & Having Catherine Keener As A Casting Director

  • By Oliver Lyttelton
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  • May 2, 2013 1:06 PM
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  • 0 Comments
Interviews
It's exciting at the moment to see some of the names who broke out of the independent scene in the middle of last decade -- the filmmakers often lazily grouped under "mumblecore," people like Mark and Jay Duplass, Joe Swanberg, Ry Russo-Young, et al. -- getting to play on bigger canvases with big name actors and more robust budgets than when they were starting out. And it's particularly exciting when it comes to Lynn Shelton.
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More: Interviews, Touchy Feely, Lynn Shelton, Your Sister's Sister

Director Jeff Nichols Talks 'Mud,' Writing For Matthew McConaughey & The Ending Of 'Take Shelter'

  • By Drew Taylor
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  • April 30, 2013 11:04 AM
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  • 8 Comments
Interviews
Last weekend, "Mud," a charming story about a couple of young kids who help an escaped murderer (played by Matthew McConaughey), opened in limited release. The movie is the third feature written and directed by Jeff Nichols, who made a splash with his gritty debut "Shotgun Stories" and then followed through on that initial promise with "Take Shelter," a wry psychological thriller that starred Michael Shannon (who also appears the director's other two features). "Mud" continues along the path that the earlier movies established – they're all hardscrabble genre films to one degree or another, set in a Deep South so tangible you can practically reach out and squeeze the hanging Spanish moss.
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More: Jeff Nichols, Interviews, Interviews, Mud, Take Shelter

Interview: 'Lords Of Salem' Director Rob Zombie Talks Making The Film, Studio Expectations, 'Broad Street Bullies' & More

  • By Drew Taylor
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  • April 29, 2013 6:14 PM
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  • 7 Comments
Lords Of Salem, Rob Zombie
Interviews
There are few genre filmmakers working today who are as exciting and unpredictable as Rob Zombie. The rock musician (he continues to make music – he just dropped a new album, Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor) has a singular love for all things horror, particularly the down-and-dirty chillers from the seventies and early eighties, augmenting these earlier films with bold stylistic experimentation and a kind of gleeful willingness to push the envelope when it comes to sex and violence. His latest film, "Lords of Salem," produced by Blumhouse Productions and distributed by Anchor Bay, was released last week. A bold stylistic departure for Zombie, it's a leisurely paced descent into madness more akin to Roman Polanski's apartment trilogy than anything involving Texas, chainsaws, or massacres.
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More: Rob Zombie, Lords Of Salem, Broad Street Bullies, Interviews, Interviews

Zoe Kazan Talks Twin Roles Of "The Pretty One' & How 'In Your Eyes' Is "Like Joss Whedon Does Nicholas Sparks"

  • By Kristin McCracken
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  • April 25, 2013 5:50 PM
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  • 0 Comments
Interviews
After winning the Best Actress Award at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival for Bradley Rust Gray’s “The Exploding Girl,” Zoe Kazan added a big-budget rom-com (“It’s Complicated”) and more indie dramas (“Meek’s Cutoff”) to her resume, starred on Broadway (“A Behanding in Spokane”) with Christopher Walken, and wrote the charming (and underrated) screenplay for “Ruby Sparks,” in which she starred with her longtime partner Paul Dano.
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More: Zoe Kazan, The Pretty One, Jake Johnson, Jenée LaMarque, Interviews, Interviews, Interview, The F Word, In Your Eyes

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