Looper

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Emily Blunt took the Comic-Con stage today for their sci-fi movie Looper, in which Gordon-Levitt plays a character in 2072 who makes a living as a hit man, killing people who are sent back from the future (where it's much tougher to kill people, apparently). He comes up against a problem when his next victim shows up, and it's himself, 30 years later, played by Bruce Willis. The character is tough to kill, but for Gordon-Levitt, the challenge was sounding and looking like Willis (who was shooting a film and couldn't make it to Comic-Con). Find out what Gordon had to say about that, and more details about the film below.

• The director is Rian Johnson, who's a longtime friend of Gordon-Levitt's after they worked together on the 2005 movie Brick. Gordon-Levitt revealed that Johnson had written the character specifically for him — the first time that's happened for him.
• We saw a bit of footage from the movie beyond what's in the trailer, and Gordon-Levitt's voice sounds completely different because he's trying to mimic Willis. But he clarified that he's not impersonating Willis, but rather "tried to internalize him." He said that he watched all of Willis's films and then took audio from his movies and put it on his iPod to listen to. Gordon-Levitt expressed a lot of admiration for Willis, and said that he learned the most from hanging out with the actor, calling him a sweetheart and declaring what a fan of Willis's he's always been.
• If Gordon-Levitt looks a little different in the movie, then it's because he's wearing prosthetics to look more like Willis. Johnson said that after they cast Willis, he realized, "Uh-oh, they don't look anything alike," so they chose "a couple of key features; a little bit to the nose, a little bit to the lips." He thinks that Gordon-Levitt isn't just doing his best Willis imitation, but rather he's "really giving a performance."
• Blunt was cagey about what exactly her role was, but in the footage, she seemed to be a love interest of Joe's (Gordon-Levitt's character). She did say that she and her family get "embroiled in this mess when Joe is a p*ssy" and lets Bruce go." The cheeky actress added that she thinks Looper is "the best movie I've been apart of."

Costars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Emily Blunt were joined by their Looper director, Rian Johnson, to talk about their new sci-fi flick at a press conference before their panel at Comic-Con. If you've seen the Looper trailer, then you know the mind-bending flick stars JGL as a younger version of Bruce Willis, who's sent back in time to be assassinated by himself. At the press conference, Gordon-Levitt talked about how exciting it was to share a character with Willis and how the prosthetics for the film even fooled his own mother. Here are highlights:

On the biggest challenge of playing a young Bruce Willis:
Joseph Gordon Levitt: "The thing I focused on most was his voice. The voice is what I look for, first and foremost, with just about every character I play. Bruce was really open and collaborative; he recored himself reading some of my voiceover lines which I thought was really cool. But mostly it was just hanging out with him, getting to know him, having dinner."

On whether or not the screenplay is a confusing read:
Emily Blunt: "I read about 30 pages of the script and I was already like, 'Get me in this movie!' because I loved it so much. It's so rich in complexity, and conceptually it's so exciting, but also emotionally it is too. I needed a few reads of it for sure."

On being attracted to the role:
EB: "I think it's the same for a lot of actresses, that you look for female roles that aren't objectified. I think it's harder to find that in these more sci-fi movies. And this character had such a singular voice, and she had a really rich past to delve into. She was a really tough cookie, a tough nut to crack. I enjoyed the nuances."

On action movies:
JGL: "I have a pretty eclectic taste in movies I like to watch and movies I'm inspired to work on. I don't think action for action's sake is so fun, but when it helps tell the story, I love doing a good fight scene."

On the first time Willis saw Gordon-Levitt wearing prosthetics to look like him:
JGL: "That's one of the highlights of the whole thing, was Bruce seeing me for the first time and tripping out a little bit. Because he's a sweetheart, but he's hard to rattle. So to get any reaction out of him his pretty exciting. There was one point when we were shooting one of our scenes together and really quietly he said, 'You sound like me.'"

On Gordon-Levitt fooling his mother with his prosthetics:
JGL: "My mom said, 'When you stand next to me and I don't look at you, you're like yourself, who I know. But when I look at you, you're not my son anymore.'"

Photo courtesy of Sony

Jeff Daniels only gets one line in the trailer for Looper, but it basically sums up how I feel about the preview: "This time travel crap just fries your brain." The mind-bending film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Joe, an assassin who takes out criminals who are sent from the future. Called "loopers," Joe and his colleagues seem to have a pretty sweet life: they get tons of money, and all their targets are basically hand delivered to them. But Joe is thrown for a loop (see what I did there?) when the man he's supposed to eliminate is an older version of himself (Bruce Willis).

From there, the trailer turns into a slick game of cat and mouse that also involves Emily Blunt toting a gun of her own. Trying to figure out the logistics is already hurting my brain, but I'm excited to see if this one can live up to the intriguing premise. My only gripe is that Gordon-Levitt's sporting a strange accent and some seriously distracting contact lenses that are a little too reminiscent of those aliens in The Host. The film hits theaters Sept. 28, but you can watch the trailer when you read more

OK, I know it's Monday, but see if you can keep up with this: in Looper, Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as a mob killer who takes out people sent from the future. However, his job gets foiled when one of his hits (Bruce Willis) turns out to be his older self. His future persona is trying to track down and murder a young boy who is detrimental to his own survival.

Still with me? Now, add Emily Blunt to this messy web. The actress has signed on for the sci-fi action flick, as said boy's protective mother. That's all we know about her character at this point, but the role sounds rife for running scared — something the actress already has experience with.

• Zoe Saldana is in talks for the vigilante drama Colombiana — PopWatch
• Napoleon Dynamite is being turned into an animated series for Fox – TV Squad
• Bruce Willis joins Joseph Gordon-Levitt for Looper — Deadline
• One film I will not be seeing: Marilyn Manson and Evan Rachel Wood to star in a slasher flick together — Spinner
• Harry Potter declared the most successful film franchise of all time — Cinematical
• Fox announces its lineup, including a shorter American Idol show — TV.com
• Hilary Swank to star in post-Iraq war flick Dreams of a Dying Heart — Screen Daily
• Robert De Niro, Jason Statham, and Clive Owen join The Killer Elite — Examiner
• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia meets The Bachelor for this spoof — Vulture
• The women of Sex and the City discuss filming the new movie! — PopSugar

If you're a fan of the adorably geeky side of Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Tom Hansen, anyone?), you might not want to hold your breath for the latest news in the land of JGL. The actor is circling two new movie roles — but they're both thrillers. The first is called Premium Rush, where Gordon-Levitt would play a bike messenger who finds himself in the middle of a police chase when he picks up a suspicious package. The second is a futuristic sci-fi called Looper, with JGL as an assassin sent back in time to kill — wait for it — himself.

I count myself among the many fans of Gordon-Levitt, so I'm all for seeing more of him any way I can. That said, I'm kinda skeptical of his future as an established action star when he shines even brighter when he can really showcase his acting talent. If wanting to see JGL pursuing more serious dramas (or, you know, singing and dancing) is wrong, then maybe I don't want to be right.