Who will have “Sex on the Moon”? Ten guys we could see as daring NASA thief Thad Roberts

March 1, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Features 5 Comments

The team behind the massive critical and commercial success “The Social Network” are at it again. Producers Scott Rudin and Dana Brunetti have teamed up with author Ben Mezrich – whose book “The Accidental Billionaires” was the basis from which the Oscar-winning film was made – for another film. Mezrich’s new book, “Sex on the Moon”, is another true story that’s no less juicy and scandalous and filled to the brim with young, morally ambiguous and party-hard geniuses, and the filmmakers have fittingly set “Easy A” helmer Will Gluck to direct.

Our lead character, Thad Roberts, is a 25-year-old upstart working in NASA’s highly selective co-op program, with very real ambitions to go to space one day (as “the first man on Mars” to be exact). But Roberts is no nerdy rocket scientist. In order to prepare for space, he is in tip top physical shape, and has earned a pilot’s license. With effortless charm and cool, Thad becomes a leader amongst his fellow students and stages elaborate adventures to take them on. When he meets and falls in love with beautiful fellow co-op student Rebecca, his next adventure becomes even more daring – and a lot more illegal, as the two conspire to lead a small team on a mission to steal and sell priceless moon rocks from NASA’s seemingly impenetrable facilities.

Ambitious, competitive, charming, rebellious, beyond intelligent, and madly in love. No small task, but here are ten young actors we think would thrive in this role.

Oscar Spotlight: Jean Dujardin Finds His Voice

February 25, 2012 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in Awards, Features Leave a comment

In our new Oscar Spotlight series we take a look at four rising stars who have this year become Oscar nominees for the first time. In a year filled with incredible performances, only one of our chosen actors was a shoo-in. The other three were all (welcome) surprise nominees. Taken from each of the four acting categories, we present …

Jean Dujardin Finds His VoiceThe biggest surprise on Oscar nomination day would have come if Jean Dujardin had not been nominated for Best Actor, considering the French actor had been winning nearly every award for Best Actor since “The Artist” premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.

But “The Artist” very nearly wasn’t made, and Dujardin’s journey to potential Oscar glory was not an easy one.

Nicknamed “France’s George Clooney”, Dujardin was, and let’s face it still is, very much an unknown in Hollywood. He began his career on French TV as a a comic actor before transitioning into film with the 2005 spoof surfer movie, “Brice de Nice” in which he played a dead-beat surfer obsessed with Patrick Swayze’s character Bodhi in “Point Break.” Director and frequent Dujardin collaborator Michel Hazanavicius had wanted to create a silent film for years but, according to Hazanavicius, no one would take the film seriously and help finance it. When the director and star began to gain commercial success in France with a series of Bond spoofs “OSS 117″, producers started to pay attention – and soon Hazanavicius, Dujardin and Berenice Bejo were filming in Los Angeles.

Oscar Spotlight: Jonah Hill Gets Serious

February 24, 2012 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in Awards, Features Leave a comment

In this new series “Oscar Spotlight” we take a look at four rising stars who have this year become Oscar nominees for the first time. In a year filled with incredible performances, only one of our chosen actors was a shoo-in. The other three were all (welcome) surprise nominees. Taken from each of the four acting categories, we present …

Jonah Hill Gets Serious

As Melissa McCarthy captures her first Academy Award nomination for a comedic performance, for funny man Jonah Hill it took playing against type to garner his first nomination.

Hill got his big break working with producer/director Judd Apatow in 2005, in a small supporting role in “The 40 Year Old Virgin“. They worked together again in “Knocked Up”, so it was perhaps unsurprising when Apatow upgraded Hill to play the lead opposite Michael Cera in a little movie you may have heard of called “Superbad”. Hill’s ability to mix crass high school humor with a serious coming-of-age friendship won over audiences and critics alike, and Hill began to get his pick of comedic roles, going on to work with Russell Brand in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and the sequel “Get Him to the Greek” and then with Apatow again in 2009′s “Funny People”.

In 2010, Hill worked with John C. Reilly and Marisa Tomei in “Cyrus”, a film about a mother and son’s unconventional relationship. Though it garnered mixed critical reception, it was perhaps a bit of foreshadowing that something more serious was in Hill’s repertoire. Even so, Hill flew in the face of all of our expectations by successfully taking on the role of Peter Brand, a genius number cruncher who helps Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) recruit baseball players on a budget for the Oakland A’s in Bennett Miller’s “Moneyball”, a film that had been in development hell for years, going through three rewrites and three different directors. It was worth the wait for the filmmakers though: “Moneyball” garnered a total of six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.

Oscar Spotlight: Melissa McCarthy And How The Academy Gained A Sense Of Humor

February 23, 2012 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in Awards, Features 2 Comments

Melissa McCarthy And How The Academy Gained A Sense Of Humor

It’s rare for the Academy to nominate, let alone vote for, a comedy (it’s a known fact that if you put any of the following together – mental illness, the Holocaust, overcoming adversity or a biopic on Someone Important - you’re looking at a film jostling for an award). So when the crude laugh-out-loud film “Bridesmaids” began to gain serious traction on the awards circuit, and then garnered two Academy Award nominations including one for Best Supporting Actress, it was one of the biggest eyebrow-raising surprises of the morning.

For Melissa McCarthy, awards recognition has come suddenly, after a long and celebrated career on the small screen. Between 2000 and 2007, McCarthy played Sookie St James, the scatter-brained best friend of Lorelai Gilmore in The WB’s “Gilmore Girls”, but it wasn’t until 2011 that she won her first Emmy, as one half of CBS sitcom “Mike and Molly.”

And just a few months later, Oscar came calling too.

Oscar Spotlight: The Rise And Rise Of Rooney Mara

February 22, 2012 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in Awards, Features 1 Comment

The rise and rise of Rooney Mara

On January 24th 2012, actress Jennifer Lawrence and Academy President Tom Sherak announced the 2012 Academy Award nominations. Sherak began to call out the Best Actress nominees, “Glenn Close .. Viola Davis … Rooney Mara … ” and for those who had followed Mara from the beginning, it was finally deserved and well-earned recognition.

Born in April 1985, Mara began her career on television in 2005, and by 2009 had landed her first film role, opposite Emma Roberts in “The Winning Season”. The young actress went on to film Michael Cera’s “Youth In Revolt” and the remake of horror film “The Nightmare on Elm Street” before winning the most important role of her career – as Erica Albright, Mark Zuckerburg’s girlfriend in David Fincher’s “The Social Network”.

Let’s Stay Together: Five recent onscreen couples we would like to see reunited ASAP

February 17, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge and Rebecca Lewis in Features 2 Comments

We’ve said it before, but there is certainly a trend happening right now amongst the rising stars in Hollywood, and we, for one, love it. Great chemistry is like capturing lightening in a bottle, so it stands to reason that when you pair up two actors who have that elusive indefinable quality, you should hold onto it. There used to be a good ol’ Hollywood tradition of popular, iconic screen couples reuniting again and again to the delight of audiences and we would welcome it back with open arms.

Lawrence and Cooper, Gosling and Stone, Hedlund and Stewart, Edgerton and Chastain, they’re all bucking with recent industry playbooks and reuniting on screen almost immediately after doing one movie together. Who says you have to wait 10+ years like DiCaprio and Winslet?

In that spirit, we present five other recent onscreen couplings that we loved and that we are already eagerly anticipating reunions for.

Vanity Fair Hollywood Issue spotlights Jennifer Lawrence, Rooney Mara and 9 more “thoroughly modern actresses”

January 31, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Features, Lists 4 Comments

It’s one of our favorite annual traditions and it’s here! Every March, the Vanity Fair Hollywood Issue introduces, celebrates and spotlights some of the hottest rising actors around (so you see why we love it so much) and this year is no different. Choosing to go all-female (unlike last year), the new issue features eleven of our favorite young actresses, who are everywhere at the moment – or soon will be. Rooney Mara, Jennifer Lawrence, Mia Wasikowska and Jessica Chastain take the front panel and are joined on the inside fold-out cover by Elizabeth Olsen, Adepero Oduye, Shailene Woodley, Paula Patton, Felicity Jones, Lily Collins and Brit Marling.

The girls gracing the front cover have certainly earned their spots this year. Two (Mara and Chastain) recently earned their first Oscar nominations, and one (Lawrence) was nominated last year. Mara and Chastain burst onto the scene in 2011 from virtual anonymity, Mara in the transformative role of Lisbeth Salander in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and Chastain in, well, just about every other movie (“The Tree of Life”, “The Help”, “Take Shelter”, just to name three). Both Wasikowska and Lawrence are Hollywood Issue cover repeats, but both have come a long way since their last covers. Wasikowska, featured on 2010′s cover, had broken out in “Alice in Wonderland” but in 2011 proved she had gravitas as a serious leading actress, putting her on many people’s wishlists for the Best Actress Oscar for her performance in “Jane Eyre.” Lawrence, on the other hand, traveled something of an opposite path. She featured on last year’s cover after scoring an Oscar nod for tiny Sundance indie “Winter’s Bone” but 2012 she’ll give blockbuster franchise a shot as she leads “The Hunger Games”, tipped to be the next teen sensation a la “Twilight.”

Up and Comers Presents: Our Top 10 Movies of 2011

December 31, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge and Rebecca Lewis in Features, Lists 3 Comments

As with all such year end lists, the hardest part may be choosing only a few from many worthy contenders. It’s a fun problem to have, but it can also make writers fickle. Such is the case here with our top 10 movies of 2011. Those of you who listened to our podcast a few weeks back may be slightly befuddled. Yes, indeed, both of our top 10 lists have changed somewhat in the weeks since.

Our lists still remain delightfully different, with 17 movies represented between our two lists of 10. Check them out below and let us know what your favorite movies of the year were!

Click here for Linda’s Top 10 | Click here for Rebecca’s Top 10

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THR names Next Gen 2011: Lily Collins, Armie Hammer, Elizabeth Olsen, Jeremy Irvine and more

November 2, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Features, Lists 2 Comments

Just like last year, in our estimation THR has picked some great names for their Next Gen Class of 2011. From indie darlings to future superheros and fairy tale princesses, THR has cast their vote for the fastest rising stars of the moment.

Indie stars represented are up from last year, and in a year that saw the stunning arrivals of Sundance breakouts Elizabeth Olsen, Felicity Jones, Adepero Oduye and Shailene Woodley, it’s well deserved. They each did one tiny little indie movie and find themselves, at year’s end, on the tip of the industry’s tongue, often in conjecture with the word “Oscar.” The movies are small, intimate and really showcase the impressive talent contained within these new performers. On the other, more “traditional” end of the spectrum, Lily Collins, Armie Hammer, Henry Cavill and Jeremy Irvine are tasked with carrying million/billion dollar franchises on their young, untested shoulders, and the real test of their A-List movie star potential remain on the horizon.

Do You Hear the People Sing? Our votes for who should join Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe in “Les Miserables”

September 20, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge and Rebecca Lewis in Casting, Features 4 Comments

Hands down, one of our most highly anticipated upcoming movies is the long-gestating big screen adaptation of worldwide blockbuster musical “Les Miserables”. Australian actors Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe – both acting and singing heavyweights, well done, Tom Hooper – have been officially set for the lead roles of Jean Valjean, a reformed escaped convict and Javert, the by-the-numbers police inspector relentlessly on his tail, but there are plenty of other crucial roles to be cast.

As Jean Valjean journeys through 19th century France with Javert hot on his heels, they meet plenty of new friends and foes along the way. Who will be the tragic symbol of the plight of the poor, Fantine? Her lovely daughter Cosette? The student revolutionaries Enjolras and Marius? There are rumors abound for most of these roles, including the likes of Helena Bonham Carter and Geoffrey Rush for Monsieur and Madame Thenardier, the crowd-pleasing, hilariously greedy innkeepers tasked by Fantine to take care of Cosette, but one fact remains crucial: Whoever joins the cast must be talented in both acting and singing at the level that Victor Hugo’s classic story and Claude-Michel Schönberg’s libretto demands. Here’s a few actors that fit the bill who we would love to see join Jackman and Crowe in the film.

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