The Playlist

The obsessives' guide to contemporary cinema via film discussion, news, reviews, features, nostalgia, movie music, soundtracks, DVDs and more.

Interviews

'Hitchcock' Star Jessica Biel Talks Playing Vera Miles & Upcoming Projects 'Truth About Fishes' & 'Deep Blue Sea'

By Jen Vineyard
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November 26, 2012 3:40 PM
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News

As Vera Miles in "Hitchcock," Jessica Biel doesn't get to demonstrate a lot of range -- this isn't the Hitchcock film that dwells on how the famed director tormented his actresses, particularly in Miles' case, how he worked her to exhaustion. (For that, go no further than "The Girl" on HBO, which claims Hitch sexually harassed and physically abused Tippi Hedren while making "The Birds" and "Marnie.") This version lets Miles off easy -- if slightly bitter that Hitch was a control freak who wouldn't forgive her getting pregnant before "Vertigo," requiring her role to be recast with Kim Novak. Despite this, Biel thinks it was harder to be a serious actress in Hitchcock's heyday, and sometimes even more so now.

By Charlie Schmidlin
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May 22, 2012 11:25 AM
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News

In a film exploring a recently widowed man’s daily grief, one might think of a soundtrack filled with Leonard Cohen or Michael Giacchino strings to accompany the story. But recently at Cannes, director Bill Purple revealed that one of the biggest pop music superstars on the planet will supervise and score his latest project.

By Kevin Jagernauth
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April 21, 2011 5:26 AM
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Planning To Adapt Stage Play 'All New People' Into A Feature FilmFor a moment there, the world seemed be his oyster for Zach Braff. The "Scrubs" star wrote and directed the mega indie hit "Garden State" which not only did gangbusters at the box office, but also spawned a best-selling soundtrack that suddenly had music supervisors everywhere looking at independent labels to find the music for their films. And then...Braff seemed to fade into the background a bit. He returned to his hit show and outside of "The Last Kiss" didn't do too much film work and found his sophomore directorial effort tough to get off the ground. But it looks like this year, Braff is going to be coming back in a big way. He stars in "The High Cost Of Living" which is now available on VOD and he's lining up a couple of more films, both of which are news to us.