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A Bushy Bearded Jake Gyllenhaal Supports a Friend's Film

Allie Merriam — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 07:05:53 PDT

Jake Gyllenhaal linked up with his actor pal Michael Shannon for a screening of the thriller Take Shelter in NYC last night. The film, in which Michael stars as a dad whose reality gets shook up by apocalyptic visions, came out in wide release in the US late last month. It's the latest movie from Jeff Nichols, who has currently been working on Mud with Reese Witherspoon and Matthew McConaughey. Michael is the star of the picture, and he's also well-known for his role on Boardwalk Empire. Jake, meanwhile, has wrapped up his role in End of Watch and is evidently enjoying growing out his hair after having to be clean shaven and bald during production. While he's between projects, he's all about stepping out for friends and even went to a Michelle Williams screening of My Week With Marilyn in October.

Michael Shannon to Villainize Superman As General Zod

Shannon Vestal — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 06:00:00 PDT

Henry Cavill is all set to play the next Superman in Zack Snyder's reboot Man of Steel, and now we have a villain for him to fear: Michael Shannon. The actor will play General Zod, Superman's nemesis, who is from the planet Krypton like the indomitable hero. I had expected that the big casting news for the villain would have been for the part of Lex Luthor, but it looks like Snyder is mixing things up. Now that the cast is really coming together, how do you feel about the latest updates?

Link Time - HBO Gives True Blood a Fourth Season!

BuzzSugar — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 13:30:58 PDT

Thanks to HBO, the True Blood vamps will feast on a fourth season - Deadline
The first official poster for The Social Network with Jesse Eisenberg - Flavorwire
American Idol lowers its minimum age requirement to 15 - PopWatch
Michael Shannon will hunt down Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Premium Rush - MTV Movies Blog
Imogen Poots joins Friday Night - Moviefone
Diva-off! Pop star Charice will give Rachel Berry a run for her money on Glee - The Ausiello Files
TV's top five summer vacation episodes - TV.com
See Shia LaBeouf and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley shooting Transformers 3 - PopSugar
The soundtrack for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World sounds incredibly cool - Pitchfork

Photo courtesy of HBO

Joan Jett, Michael Shannon, and Floria Sigismondi Talk Runaways, Rocking, and Kristen

BuzzSugar — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:30:20 PDT

I've already gotten to tell you what I think about rock biopic The Runaways, with Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning, but now it's time to hear from the stars and the others behind the scenes of the movie. Pop chatted up Kristen Stewart on the red carpet in NYC, but we also have some choice words from its inspiration Joan Jett, costar Michael Shannon, and director Floria Sigismondi.

Joan Jett on the message of the film: Ultimately, to follow your dreams. That good old cliché of following your dreams, because I really feel that people beat down other people’s dreams constantly. I see it a lot with writers, when I talk to them about this. I guess a lot of writers must be told, "You’ll never make money that way, get a real job!" A lot of writers want to write . . . To me, I just think it’s really important to try and follow your dream. And if for some reason life takes you a different way, then at least you made an attempt.
Joan on first meeting Kristen: I met her last New Year’s Eve. She came up to see a gig and I kind of just dumped on her about The Runaways for several hours and asked her if she was going to cut her hair. She said yes, and I had great faith that she was going to be able to pull this off because she seemed very dedicated and genuine and authentic. We had a few weeks before filming started to spend some time, and she picked my brain.

To read Michael Shannon and Floria Sigismondi's thoughts, just

Joan on the process of making the film: Working with the actors was great. They were brilliant. The whole process was brutal, but in general working with the actors was great.

Michael Shannon on working with so many young actresses: They’re all very nice people, and they’re all very nice to me. There’s no tension, really. Everybody was so focused on trying to do a good job, Kristen was constantly with Joan, trying to learn as much as she could and absorb as much as she could from her. Dakota was always practicing her moves and getting inside of Cherie’s frame of mind. It wasn’t a very social kind of thing.

Michael on whether the set was all work and no play: I always approached it in that way. I guess that makes me sort of boring. But you get paid a lot of money to show up and do this stuff, so I figured it should pretty much be all work, no play. I sort of wish I was more like George Clooney - sort of show up and crack jokes. But I was really intimidated by the prospect of playing Kim Fowley.
Michael on working with such vulgar dialogue: It was f-ing amazing. (Laughs.) Sorry. It was vulgar - I mean, I asked them if we could clean it up a little bit. But they said, "Well that’s not the way it happened." The bottom line is we’re trying to re-create something that actually happened, so we had to stick to those parameters. That’s the way they talked. They were comfortable talking to each other that way.
On meeting Kim Fowley with Kristen: My first day of shooting, I hadn’t met him yet. We did a scene and at the end of the day Joan and Kristen were like, "You should really meet him; you’re playing this guy." I was like, "Yeah, you’re right." So they set up a dinner. We had dinner at this Denny’s in the Valley, and he came with all these pictures and clippings, told me his whole life story in about two hours.
Floria Sigismondi on how Kristen got cast: It started with Art Linson, he’d worked with her on Into the Wild, so I saw her in that - the short amount of time she was on screen, she was so captivating. Her eyes just tell a lot. And when I think of teenagers, and these girls, too, teenagers don’t really sit there and express their feelings and talk - it’s all in the face. I really wanted someone who would emote visually, not talking that much. She’s got that kind of quality. So when I met her, I instantly knew I wanted her for Joan.
Floria on Dakota joining things: Dakota kind of became that age right at the time we started to cast, so I was writing and I hadn’t thought of her. When she was interested, I was really excited because of the fact that everybody’s grown up with her and that you would know how it would feel for a 15-year-old to do the things she did.
Floria on getting the girls ready to rock: We put them through some lessons, but [Kristen] already knew how to play guitar, but really just to have them kind of polish up - actually all the girls. And then Dakota, I actually put her in front of a live band to rehearse so she knew what it would feel like to compete against drums and big amps and really loud music.
Floria on Kristen’s transformation into Joan: I could see her change onstage when she was rehearsing with the girls - from the back, her body started to change, really, physically transform. And I think it was because she was standing like Joan does and getting that kind of arch in her shoulders and so that was really interesting to see.
Floria on how Joan’s presence on set affected Kristen: It gave her a comfort level that if she veered to something wrong, someone would say something. They had a close relationship.

Emile and Claire Take Woodstock to NYC

PopSugar — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 02:00:00 PDT

Claire Danes stepped out in NYC on Wednesday night for the premiere of Taking Woodstock. Her usual red carpet sidekick, Hugh Dancy, was off promoting his own movie Adam, but she was joined by a few other leading men. Liev Schreiber and Sebastian Stan posed for photos without their own partners, Naomi and Leighton, while Emile Hirsch brought along his lady friend Brianna. Flowers were the accessory of the evening for the hippie-era flick, as the peace and love flowed right down the red carpet.

To see more from the event just

View 20 Photos ›

Images include: Emile Hirsch, Claire Danes, Liev Schreiber, Michael Shannon, Anna Wintour, Vanessa Carlton, Brianna Domont, Maulik Pancholy, Matthew Settle, Sebastian Stan

Buzz News Roundup, 6/1

BuzzSugar — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:30:17 PDT

Better Off Ted will be back with new episodes starting June 23. - The Futon Critic
Natalie Portman will star with Danny McBride and James Franco in the comedy Your Highness. - Variety
Live Nation will eliminate all service fees on its concert tickets for one day only on June 3. - Billboard
Michael Shannon is in negotiations to play one of the lead male roles in The Runaways, the feature take on Joan Jett's 1970s rock band. - The Hollywood Reporter
This year's Emmy Awards are moving up a week to Sept. 13. - TV Week
Halle Berry is in talks to star in director Paul Verhoeven's new thriller The Surrogate. - ComingSoon
"Octomom" Nadya Suleman has signed a reality TV deal, but the show hasn't yet been picked up by a network. - Variety
The creators behind comic strip cat Heathcliff might be bringing the feline to the big screen. - Entertainment Weekly

Buzz News Roundup, 4/1

BuzzSugar — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 13:30:57 PDT

Guiding Light, broadcast's longest-running scripted show, will end in September after 72 years. - New York Times
Steve Carell is eyeing the lead role in divorce comedy Dumped, based on a novel by Andrew Gottlieb. - ComingSoon
Wanda Sykes is getting a new Saturday night series on Fox. - TV Week
Will Arnett and Oscar nominee Michael Shannon will join the cast of the Jonah Hex movie. - Reuters
The Wackness director Jonathan Levine has signed on to direct the Adventures in Babysitting-type comedy The Sitter. - The Hollywood Reporter
Mark your calendars: Pushing Daisies season two, including the unaired episodes, will be on DVD July 21. - Entertainment Weekly
Lucy Lawless has signed on to star in the fantasy-and-fighting series Spartacus: Blood and Sand from Xena: Warrior Princess masterminds Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi. - Variety
Lost, Entourage, Breaking Bad, and YouTube are among this year's Peabody Awards winners. - The Hollywood Reporter
Disney has set Julie Anne Robinson to direct Miley Cyrus in The Last Song, an adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel that Sparks wrote specifically for Cyrus. - ComingSoon

Photo courtesy of CBS

2009 Sundance Spotlight: The Missing Person, Paper Heart, Spread

BuzzSugar — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 07:30:51 PST

While I won't be heading down to the 2009 Sundance Film Festival this year, I will be sorting through the humongous pile of festival entries to share with you some of the films I think look most promising. From quirky documentaries to talented young filmmaker debuts to a potential runaway hit, Sundance is filled with entertainment possibilities. Here are today's selections:

The Missing Person
Michael Shannon is getting all kinds of attention for the creepy role he plays in Revolutionary Road, which is one of the reasons this movie is already earning some early buzz out of the festival. Also starring Amy Ryan, The Missing Person looks like a slow-boiling noir that follows "a private detective prone to sardonic wit, gin, and the endless repercussions of what happens when you mix the two." Intrigued?

You can check out the trailer for this one and see some more of my picks (which include Ashton Kutcher and cutie Michael Cera) if you

Paper Heart
What would a film festival be without an adorable Michael Cera film? This time around he's paired with Charlyne Yi (who was one of my favorite things about Knocked Up), his friend (maybe girlfriend?) who came up with the idea for this movie. The movie is semi-autobiographical and follows Yi on her quest to find the kind of love that isn't "fairy-tale love or the Hollywood mythology."

While there isn't a preview clip available just yet, check out this YouTube video of Yi auditioning for Saturday Night Live to get a sense of her comedy style:

Spread
And what would a film festival be without Ashton Kutcher? Well, normal. That is to say, he's not exactly who I think of when I think Sundance. But he'll be there this year starring in Spread, which is described thusly: "Set in modern-day Los Angeles, Spread is a hard-biting story about a high-end lethario, Nikki (Ashton Kutcher), who has slept his way into a life of privilege. He shares his secrets with us as he hosts parties and beds scores of women, all while living it up at the Hollywood Hills home of a middle-aged female attorney, Samantha (Anne Heche)." I can definitely buy Kutcher as someone women would rather sex up than talk to. This thing can either go really well for him or really badly. Check out a clip from the movie below:

Source and photos and Spread clip courtesy of Sundance

Movie Preview: Bug

BuzzSugar — Wed, 23 May 2007 07:58:09 PDT

Having seen the play on which Bug is based and knowing what Exorcist director William Friedkin can do, I'm curious to find out how Bug will adapt to the big screen. The story follows an ex-military man (Michael Shannon) and a lonely woman (Ashley Judd) as they become gradually convinced that their bodies are infested with bugs.

From what I remember of the play, the action takes place almost entirely in one room, and I've heard the same is true for the movie. This confinement works well on stage where, over the course of the play, the audience is dragged along with the characters on their descent into paranoia and madness. On screen, though, I wonder if the effect won't be too maddening. To watch the creepy trailer,

Photo courtesy of Lionsgate

What to Rent: New DVDs This Week

Lizzie Fuhr — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 03:05:00 PST

The Rum Diary

In this adaption of Hunter S. Thompson's novel, we follow the wild escapades of Paul Kemp (Johnny Depp), an American journalist who takes a job at a newspaper in Puerto Rico in the '50s. Although Paul has every intention to report on the important news of the region, he just can't say no to a good party. While the location is absolutely stunning (as is costar Amber Heard) and Depp has some seriously hilarious moments, the story doesn't satisfy. The DVD includes a behind-the-scenes featurette and a documentary.

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Take Shelter

In this drama, Michael Shannon plays Curtis LaForche, a small-town man who manages a happy family life, despite his financial struggles and daughter's disability. When Curtis starts having terrifying dreams about a storm of apocalyptic proportions, he has difficulty communicating his anxiety to his wife or community. Despite the fact that Take Shelter didn't receive an Oscar nomination, it received five Film Independent Spirit Award nominations, including one for Shannon's performance. The DVD extras include deleted scenes, a commentary track, and a Q&A with Shannon and costar Shea Whigham.

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