Watch: Elizabeth Olsen finds “Peace, Love and Misunderstanding” in first trailer

April 27, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Videos Leave a comment

The last time Elizabeth Olsen ended up in upstate New York at a new age commune, it didn’t work out so well. But thankfully, the hippies who occupy “Peace Love and Misunderstanding” look much less sinister than the ones who terrorized her in “Martha Marcy May Marlene.” Here, Olsen plays daughter to Catherine Keener’s soon-to-be-divorced mother, who drives her kids (Nat Wolff plays Olsen’s younger brother) to grandma Jane Fonda’s house in Woodstock, New York. There, the three generations deal with family drama as well as relationship woes and Olsen finds some relief from writer’s block in the form of Chace Crawford.

The Bruce Beresford film was actually Olsen’s feature debut and premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last September. “Peace Love and Misunderstanding” will open in limited release on June 8th. Watch the first trailer below.

“What to Expect When You’re Expecting” cast adds a “True Blood” werewolf and a couple of “Bridesmaids”

July 14, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

Joe Manganiello, Rebel Wilson and Wendi McLendon-Covey are the three newest actors to jump on board ensemble romantic comedy “What to Expect When You’re Expecting”, reports THR and EW. The three play supporting characters (read: none of them are expected to spawn a child in the film) and join a cast that already includes Jennifer Lopez, Elizabeth Banks, Cameron Diaz, Brooklyn Decker, Anna Kendrick, Chace Crawford, Rodrigo Santoro, Rob Huebel and Chris Rock.

The Kirk Jones directed film, based on the international best-selling advice books, follows four couples preparing for the arrival of a new child. The expectant mothers are presumably played by Lopez, Banks, Kendrick and Decker. “True Blood” werewolf Manganiello plays Davis, a ladies-man photographer whose travels and child-free lifestyle is the envy of a dads-only support group led by Rock. Wilson, the hilarious British roommate to Kristen Wiig in “Bridesmaids”, will play an employee at Banks’ baby store “The Breast Choice” while her co-star McLendon-Covey will play a friend and co-worker of Lopez’s.

Manganiello was recently shortlisted for Zack Snyder’s Superman reboot “The Man of Steel” and continues his increasingly more visible role as werewolf Alcide Herveaux on HBO’s “True Blood”, now in its fourth season. McLendon-Covey will continue her series regular role as Liz on hit CBS sitcom “Rules of Engagement”. Aussie Wilson recently completed her native country’s answer to “The Hangover”, “A Few Best Men” starring “Twilight” star Xavier Samuel, and also has a role in Tom Hardy-Chris Pine-Reese Witherspoon action/romantic comedy caper “This Means War.”

“What To Expect When You’re Expecting” is expected to shoot in late summer for a May 11, 2012 release date.

Chace Crawford to impregnate Anna Kendrick in “What To Expect When You’re Expecting”

July 12, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 5 Comments

I have a feeling we’re going to run out of clever headlines before casting is completed on “What to Expect When You’re Expecting”, the newest in a recent string of ensemble romantic comedies featuring interweaving stories of a large group of loosely connected people. Today Chace Crawford becomes at least the eighth star to join the cast that already includes Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez, Elizabeth Banks, Brooklyn Decker, Chris Rock and Rob Huebel.

In the Kirk Jones film based on the internationally best-selling pregnancy advice book, Crawford’s screentime will be primarily shared with Anna Kendrick, and together they play old flames who cross paths again when their respective food trucks become engaged in a turf war. After a bit of reconnecting, she unexpectedly becomes pregnant. Well, duh.

Prior to this questionable decision, Crawford had been taking dark, interesting and unexpected film roles in between his commitment to the long-running CW show “Gossip Girl”. He recently wrapped “Peace, Love and Misunderstanding” opposite Sundance breakout Elizabeth Olsen and recently signed on to play an ex-babysitting charge and new love interest to Katie Holmes in dark comedy “Responsible Adults”. And while financing is still being ironed out and no start date is in sight, Crawford is also attached to South African political drama “The House Gun”. It remains to be seen when and how he will fit all these new projects into his schedule, as filming the fifth season of “Gossip Girl” is already underway in New York City.

“Gossip Girl” star Chace Crawford goes political in indie drama “The House Gun”

June 12, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

Chace Crawford is still trying hard to prove he’s not just a pretty face. The “Gossip Girl” star, who’s not given much to work with on the long-running hit CW series, routinely takes darker material when he does films on his summer hiatus and continues that trend now with indie political drama “The House Gun”, reports The LA Times.

In the film, based on the novel from Nobel Prize-winner Nadine Gordimer, Crawford plays a young South African man accused of murder, with Pierce Brosnan playing his father, an architect who is convinced of his son’s innocence. The father and son duo hire a black lawyer for their defense and unravels “a story of morality and race in post-apartheid South Africa”. No director has yet been set and financial backing for the independent film is still being worked out.

Crawford is just one of several “Gossip Girl” stars hoping to break out on the big screen, though the TV-to-movie success rate is not great, particularly on a teen oriented network like The CW. However, with Blake Lively taking one high profile movie after another, Leighton Meester staking a claim on the comedy side and Ed Westwick recently wrapping Clint Eastwood’s “J. Edgar”, “Gossip Girl” is turning out to be quite a launching pad for potential future movie stars. Crawford has wrapped “Peace, Love and Misunderstanding” opposite Sundance breakout Elizabeth Olsen and recently signed on to play an ex-babysitting charge and new love interest to Katie Holmes in “Responsible Adults”.

Katie Holmes to play Chace Crawford’s ex-babysitter … and new love interest?

May 11, 2011 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in Casting Leave a comment

Deadline have today confirmed that Katie Holmes (Batman Begins, Go) and Chace Crawford (TV’s Gossip Girl) will be starring in the romantic-comedy Responsible Adults, to be directed by Jon Poll (Charlie Bartlett).

Kirk D’Amico, CEO at Myriad Pictures who are pre-selling the rights this week at Cannes, said “Katie Holmes and Chace Crawford are appealing actors around the world …We are really pleased to help bring Responsible Adults to the big screen.”

Holmes will be playing “30-year-old-med student Liz Quinn, who meets charming 22-year-old Baxter Wood (Crawford). Their chemistry is electric until she realizes they have already met – she was his babysitter 15 years ago. But Baxter isn’t going to give up that easily on the one person he always felt knew him better than anyone else.”

Yikes. It may just be us but doesn’t that sound a little bit … creepy? It’s not the most appealing of storylines if you ask us, but we are interested to see where this is taken!

Elizabeth Olsen: V Magazine’s New Ingenue

January 7, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Interviews, Lists 3 Comments

Elizabeth Olsen steps out from the shadows of older sisters Mary-Kate and Ashley and poses for a feature in V Magazine’s “The Discovery Issue”, nominated as the “New Ingenue” by feature debut “Peace, Love, & Misunderstanding” co-star Chace Crawford. Eschewing her older sisters’ child-acting road to success and refusing the many built-in connections that would get her to the top through the “who you know” route, Olsen took the high road. She did children’s theater and school plays, studied acting at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and even studied abroad at Russia’s Art Theatre School in Moscow. Her professional work before this year revolved around understudying parts on and off Broadway.

She tells V, “If I could live a parallel life, I would live in Russia. “The [stage combat] teacher and I got along even though he didn’t speak English. He was trying to demonstrate something and asked for a guy. I kind of scoffed and raised my hand, because he didn’t ask any of the chicks to volunteer. And we did this exercise where you have to block someone from slapping your head. It was funny, though, because he wasn’t letting me down easy; I actually had to work to avoid getting hit.”

All her hard work is now paying off as she starts off her debut year as a film actress with no less than three films already under her belt: “Peace, Love and Misunderstanding” opposite Crawford, Catherine Keener and Jane Fonda, the horror film “The Silent House” in which she stars almost exclusively and the indie “Martha Marcy May Marlene”.

Sounds like Olsen will have no problem getting people to see her as more than just Mary-Kate and Ashley’s little sister.

chace crawford