“I’m more of a stream of consciousness kind of guy.”
– David Arquette
David Arquette made a name for himself in the Scream trilogy and since then has had a long career in television and film. But for his directorial debut, The Tripper, Arquette has gone back to the horror genre, this time infusing it with political overtones. The Tripper is about a Ronald Reagan-obsessed serial killer that targets a bunch of hippies.
While some may be surprised that Arquette may be stepping into directing, it is no shock because he comes from one of the most talented and prolific Hollywood legacies ever. The Arquette family in show business started with Cliff Arquette, better known as Charley Weaver and spawned Lewis Arquette and Davids sisters Patricia and Rosanna. Most recently Arquette stepped back into television with the sitcom In Case of Emergency and co-producing Courteney Coxs show Dirt. I got a chance to talk with the first time director after his long grassroots bus tour promoting The Tripper.
“I would have a problem with having kids.”
– Thora Birch
Thora Birch has been entertaining us for ¾ of her life, from kids films like Monkey Trouble and Hocus Pocus all the way up to her breakout roles in American Beauty and Ghost World. Now Birch concentrates on smaller films with strong character roles and her latest is the horror film Dark Corners where her character wakes up one day as a different person being stalked by terrifying creatures.
“Your movie can get fucked in one night”
– Diego Luna
Diego Luna has long been one of Mexicos favorite actors but it wasnt until Y tu mama también became an international hit that he started working in America. Since then hes had some great success with the conman film Criminal and the Steven Spielberg directed The Terminal. But for his own directorial debut Luna has looked back to his native country and created a documentary about one of his heroes, the legendary Mexican boxer Julio Cèsar Chávez. The documentary is showing at New Yorks Tribeca Film Festival and I got a chance to talk with Luna on his very busy first day of press about the film.
“Human beings are always trying to solve the problem”
– Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Juan Carlos Fresnadillo really impressed me with his debut feature film Intacto nearly five years ago. He also caught the attention of esteemed filmmaker, Danny Boyle, who had just finished his post-apocalyptic ode to the zombie genre, 28 Days Later. When it came time for Boyle to hire someone to direct the sequel 28 Weeks Later it seems that Fresnadillo was high on his list.
Fresnadillo has directed 28 Weeks Later with grand aplomb and has created a fast paced thriller that combines what 28 Days Later did with new unexpected elements. Robert Carlyle plays a man who in the wake of the rage virus spreading across England was able to hide in a safe house with his wife. When the infected break into their refuge, he makes a split second decision and leaves his wife to be infected. The story picks up again 28 weeks later, the infected have all starved to death and the US military have set up a safe haven in the middle of London. Carlyle’s character is safe in the green zone and is able to have his children fly back into the country and the family can be reunited. But his wife has been discovered to be a Typhoid Mary type with the rage virus and she is brought into the safe zone with dangerous results.
The release of X-Men: First Class is just days away, marking the second of four major super hero movie releases to come this summer. In a recent YouTube viral video, A Toast To Green Lantern, all the super heroes with their own movies harassed Hawkman as he tries to get his own film. As it turns out, the joke was on the makers of the video as Warner Bros. has a Hawkman movie in the works. The current logline listed on It’sOnTheGrid is:
I’ve had a crush on Sandra Bernhard ever since her spread in Playboy years ago. But even before that I loved her comedy and her work in films like Hudson Hawk (Ball! Ball!) and her great role on Roseanne. But Bernhard is best known for her acerbic comedy showcased in the many CDs she has released. Her latest is Everything Bad and Beautiful, and it’s her best yet.
“It was an important film to be made.”
– Chris O’Dowd
Chris O’Dowd’s breakthrough role was playing uber geek Roy Tenneman in the Emmy Award winning British sitcom The IT Crowd. His character is well endowed in the information technology department but not so blessed when it comes to social skills. It’s safe to say, however, that in real life the exact opposite is true.
The highly personable Irish actor, who’s starring in three upcoming films – The Boat That Rocked (written by Richard “Bridget Jones” Curtis), Hippie Hippie Shake (with Sienna Miller and Derek Jacobi), and Gulliver’s Travels (with Jack Black and Emily Blunt) – displayed a distinct lack of prowess when it came to dealing with digital phone technology during SuicideGirls protracted attempt to interview him.
The first time Chris called in, he’d just embarked on a hike in the cell phone black hole that is Hollywood’s Runyon Canyon park. Thus our conversation was unintentionally aborted just as it had begun. It would take a total of five phone calls, including two more entirely aborted ones, before our interview was complete.
