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Well, it’s official: Crazy Britney is back, and in full uniform. Here she is rekindling her love affair with Daisy Dukes Wednesday afternoon, and I’m starting to think going to Target has become this year’s aimlessly drive around until… …read full story
So Randy Quaid had that little “mishap” with the hotel or whatever, but apparently those are the least of the problems. Enter the IRS:
Last week out on Santa Monica pier Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, director Ruben Fleischer and the two writers of the film Rhett Reese and Paul Wernic all got together once again (check out the videos from the press conference at Comic-Con) to talk about Zombieland! I kind of wish they would have had some people, better yet, children like the one above dressed as zombies to jump out and scare the journalists. Sadly, that never happened, although they did talk about killing them some zombies, Harrelson’s plea to Hostess to make a healthy Twinkie, their most cathartic moments in making it, and of course, the mysterious CAMEO which shall go un-named… for now.
Check out what the group had to say about making a comedic zombie film…
Woody, did you have some input into your character’s wardrobe?
Woody: I’ve never worked so hard on the outfit before. That’s the stuff I usually don’t put so much time into, but there were so many fittings and attempts to get that right. Ruben and I almost endlessly went back and forth on how much color to put in this or that, and I liked the way it turned out.
Ruben: Woody was incredibly specific about his wardrobe and designed it all pretty much himself.
Can you talk about working and casting Abigail Breslin?
Ruben Fleischer: It was scripted as a 12-year-old con-artist little girl and the whole time we thought it would be great if we could get Abigail Breslin for this, but there’s no way. We ended up auditioning a lot of other actress, but she’d read it and liked it and I think was excited about the opportunity about doing something different from things she’s done recently along the lines of Kit Kittredge and Nim’s Island, more geared towards like a youth audience. I think they were excited about the parallel in sensibility between this and Little Miss Sunshine and we were very fortunate to have her. I think all of us appreciate the talent of that little girl, but I know Woody, that scene where she had to cry, you were just so impressed by her ability to — take after take, to like summon the tears and be so real in that moment. She’s super talented.
Woody : That doesn’t even say it. Not only did she summon the tears every time you shot that scene, but when the camera wasn’t on her she still did it. When the camera was on us, she’s still summoning tears. Amazing!
Emma: She was just amazing. You couldn’t ask for anybody better to play your little sister. We go along so well. I felt really lucky. She’s not just a cool kid, she’s like a really cool person. She’s like a small person, it seems like she’s incredibly developed, but she also really liked Twilight and The Jonas Brothers so she’s still normal. Every chance I got to hang out with her, it was fun and a blast. I was incredibly lucky.
Is there like zombie movie codes you have to respect and when do you decide to break away from the normal?
Paul: Ironically this zombie movie, which is based on The 47 Rules for Surviving Zombieland, started with no rules. We threw out all the rules, all the exposition of how the zombies started out, how they became and I think that’s what makes the movie so fresh and exciting because we didn’t have any rules to begin with. That’s the fun of the genre, as people know where they came from, people understand it that these guys are bloody, their moist and mean and they’re going to try and kill you. That’s all that everyone needs to know to get the movie.
Can you talk about the music?
Ruben: The music was one of the funnest parts in the post-production process and I got super fortunate to work with this guy called David Sardy, who scored the whole movie, and he’d only done one other movie as a composer, but he has four grammy’s for producing rock bands. I think he’s worked a lot with Oasis, Johnny Cash, Slayer, and I think the score that he made for our film is rocking, but Metallica was a late entry to the opening title sequence. We had another song in there for a long time, but it didn’t end up working out and Metallica, as soon as we put it in, we knew, you can’t do any better than For Whom the Bell Tolls, at the beginning of a Zombie movie.
During your opening voiceover, you mention a virus which seems very timely given what’s been in the news lately. Was that something that was planned?
Jesse Eisenberg: We actually planned the swine flu to coincide with the movie. You know, there’s some collateral damage but ultimately we’ll have a big opening weekend.
Was that in mind, or did that come in towards the final of production?
Rhett Reese: It really wasn’t in mind, but I think these feel like post-apocalyptic times and I think that could probably be said of any moment in history. Those [post-apocalyptic] movies are almost always relevant in a society were things can and do go wrong. There was a swine flu in 1918 also, so these things recur.
Woody, do you have a fondness for Twinkies yourself, or was that just in the script?
Woody: I’m not a big Twinkie lover. They made up a bunch of Twinkies that were actually edible for a guy like me, meaning without dairy and sugar, and all that nonsense. They were cornmeal. They were really delicious, good Twinkies. There is the possibility that Hostess could do a healthy Twinkie. It’s a thought. Maybe this movie could spark a revolution.
If a zombie attack happened right now and you had to sacrifice somebody, who would it be?
Jesse: Well, there are two writers.
Woody: We’ve gotta keep Ruben. We have to protect him at all cost.
Ruben: I would hide behind Woody because obviously he can handle the zombies when they attack.
Woody: I think I might be more scared than my character was.
Emma, were you attracted to this because of all the action you got to do in the film? Was that aspect of it fun?
Emma: I’m terrible at action. I really am. I’m just bad at action movies. But, it was definitely interesting. It was something I had never done before. I loved the character, but I just can’t run to save my life — literally. I did not limber up, or do cardio. I hurt my muscle. I had to do some ultrasound physical therapy while we were shooting. After every take, I was crying and in so much pain, and it was nice of Ruben to be like, “You’re not cut out for this! That looked horrible!” But, it’s true that I’m horrible at it.
If you were to do a sequel, where would you like to see your characters go? Is there anything you’d like to see them do?
Jesse: If god wills a sequel, I say we go to New York.
Emma: Let’s go to New York!
Jesse: It’s such a short trip.
Woody: Or, maybe Paris or something.
Emma: Let’s go international! Let’s take this overseas.
Jesse: The producer wants the Caribbean because it’s there. Haiti. That’s where it began. Zombieism.
Woody: The point is to get to a place where there aren’t going to be zombies. Then, maybe they show up on a boat or something.
Jesse, what can you tell us about your character, Mark Zuckerberg, in The Social Network? In preparing for that, what have you learned about the whole Facebook revolution?
Jesse: I’m learning more about the creation of it than about the site itself because I haven’t been on it yet. But, the story is really remarkable – like the creation of the website and the legal aftermath. It’s a really fascinating story. I supposed if I say anything else, I’ll be sued probably by the movie company and the internet company, but it’s a fascinating story. There’s a book that was written about it, if people are interested, called The Accidental Billionaires that details the story pretty thoroughly.
Woody, tells us about your character in 2012?
Woody: In 2012, my character is a radio DJ who believes that the world is gonna come to an end, and he has an attitude about how it’s gonna happen. Of course, a lot of people think he’s nuts, but he turns out to be not so far off.
How much fun was it for you guys to smash up the tourist shop?
Woody: I think all of us can attest to the fact that it was really cathartic to come in and just smash the s*** out of that place. With respect and reverence to all the items in there, I thought it was helpful for all of us, emotionally, to just get that out.
Emma: I agree.
Ruben: We built that from scratch. There was a couple of buildings and we put in the giant indian and the neon. Filled it completely so that we could smash it. One of the funny things is that between and after takes, Woody and the rest of the gang would still smash things as well. It wasn’t just on camera. There was so much joy in smashing.
Woody, can you talk about your friendship with Paul McCartney? Is he eager to see the movie?
Woody: I don’t know how psyched he is about seeing the movie. I haven’t asked him. Naturally, I’ve sent him trailers and one-sheets — No. But, I did actually take Emma over for dinner with him, one night. That was fun.
Emma: Yes, it was. It was f***ing awesome!
Do you guys ever listen to music to get into character and, if so, what’s on your playlists?
Emma: A lot of Paul McCartney.
Woody: The new Paul McCartney album. To get fired up for something, there’s almost no better album to listen to than U2’s Pop. That’s probably their least popular album, but to me, it’s their best and most under-rated album. It just rocks!
Ruben, were you able to use the elements from previous work?
Ruben: As a music video director, I think it’s a pretty visual medium. The opening credits sequence is something that I’m very proud of. I feel like it’s almost a music video for that Metallica song. The combination of the song with these stunning visuals is pretty cool. I wanted to make sure we satisfied the zombie audience so there’s a lot of blood in there.
Emma, how did you identify with this character?
Emma: I felt more like I was living vicariously through her. I just tried to key into that one part of me that feels brave and like a bad-a**, in a situation where you feel out-of-control. I tried to key into that and do that constantly, instead of just as a fleeting feeling in me. There were also parts of her that were vulnerable and scared and human. She wasn’t brave all the time. There was a lot about her that I could relate to, just as a human being.
Did you enjoy reloading the two guns on the counter?
Woody: I think that was already in the script like that. That is a really hard thing to do, which is why my stunt double did it.
What about shooting the guns while you were going down the roller coaster?
Woody: That was a lot of fun. We had to do the roller coaster ride quite a bit, and shoot one person after the other. Good times! It was cathartic.
As writers, did you change a lot of things, with the actors? Or the director?
Paul: We were on the set because of Ruben. He fought for us to be there, he’s so collaborative and so inclusive, and he allowed us on set, which is just a dream come true for us. It was like going to film school everyday. In terms of us rewriting on set, we did some rewriting. Actors would come to us and a line wouldn’t work here or there. Or Ruben would have some things that he would want to address and we would dive in. There was also some improvisation on set. We didn’t spend our entire time there rewriting, but we were there when asked and when needed. A lot of the script that we went out there to shoot got shot.
Ruben, action and comedy share one thing that is very important for a director. What was the most difficult?
Ruben: I had the good fortune of getting to work with extremely talented people from the cats to the crew on set. One of the most talented people that I worked with was our editor Alan Baumgarten and he elevated the comedy and the action. I learned a lot in the editing room myself. It’s been really rewarding getting to see the movie with an audience and hear the laughs. When you’re all alone in the editing room, you’re just going on instinct. My favorite thing in the world is to hear the laughs.
Woody and Emma, which scene was the hardest for you do to with a straight face?
Emma: Woody always keeps a straight face. I never keep a straight face, ever. I constantly break, all the time. I should not be in comedies, or action movies. I just shouldn’t be doing movies. Anytime anybody does improv, I laugh. Anytime a joke is funny, I laugh. I’m like an audience. You should just bounce it off of me. If it’s gonna be funny, I will laugh. Woody doesn’t break.
Woody: No, I did. During our mysterious celebrity cameo, it was real hard to keep it together. In fact, I think we probably lost some good jokes of his because he was framed with us in it, and they couldn’t use it because we were laughing so hard, which was really unprofessional, but understandable.
Woody, your character is very particular about his car in this movie. How are you in real life?
Woody: I’m particular, in the sense that I either ride a motorcycle, or electric or bio-diesel vehicles, pretty much exclusively.
If you’re to lazy to read, watch or listen to the videos from the press conference. Or if you’re looking for more on the film, check out the photos from the set, the red band or international trailer now.
Zombieland will be in theaters October 2nd! Don’t miss it!
LOS VEGAS — There are a few lures to the Palace Station Hotel & Casino, located just far enough from the Los Vegas Strip that you have to pay for a cab.
I mean, it’s dank, old, a little sketchy, and has more cigarettes going at once than a high-stakes bingo parlor. But the railroad-themed casino features table games, including craps. That’s good. The cowboy bar has good service — bartender Chris was very friendly. Oh, and you can tell people you stayed at the same casino that O.J. Simpson got arrested at for that sports memorabilia robbery. It also hosts fun UFC parties. Vegas has a distinct lack of sports bars.
One thing in particular really made the Palace Station worth the trip: The Bonkerz Comedy Club. That’s where I met comedian Chris Edgerly.
Edgerly headlined a show one night, doing a routine of impersonations and funny observational bits. While his name might not be familiar yet, his work probably is. He was Nick Diamond on “Celebrity Deathmatch,” and he has voiced an unbelievable amount of video games including Alpha Protocol, G.I. Joe, Godfather II, Ninja Blade, Lord of the Rings Conquest, Ma** Effect, Halo 3, Kingdom Hearts II, Final Fantasy XII, SWAT 4, Yakuza (with Eliza Dushku) and several dozen more.
He currently provides the voice talent for Peter Potamus on the Adult Swim animated series “Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law.”
Here are some questions and answers with Edgerly:
BLAST: How did you get your start in comedy? Why comedy?
Chris Edgerly: I was in college, October of ‘90. A buddy told me about a group of comedians who did stand-up once a month at this local pizza place in the basement downstairs. I met with them that night, and the next night I was onstage in front of a packed house. It was exhilarating. I had been doing some acting as a drama minor at the university (UGA) but nothing could quite match the thrill of doing your own material in front of an audience.
BLAST: You’ve done a lot of voice acting — what do you like about that side of entertainment?
CE: Two things about voice acting rule: One, you don’t have to worry about how you look or how old you are. It is egalitarian — if you can do the job (and have a good agent that believes in you), you’ll get work. Two, it’s constantly changing, so you never get bored. I audition five days a week, and the scripts are incredibly varied, from video games with aliens and zombies, to commercials involving friendly announcer-type voices, to voice-matching a-list actors for movies to animation involving just about any kind of character you could imagine. This week I’m doing ADR (automated dialogue replacement) work to provide the English voice for a character in a Japanese anime series. It’s a constant challenge to my imagination to see what I can do with a script.
Blast: Comedy or acting, which would you rather be doing?
CE: Impossible to choose. On the one hand, it’s more fulfilling to perform in front of a live audience, especially when you write the material and have ultimate creative control over how it’s delivered. On the other hand, getting to read someone else’s words and interpret them can be a treat, not to mention some of the famous people I’ve gotten to work with over the past few years. And it pays a hell of a lot better, and I can sleep in my own bed and don’t have to be on the road half the year.
Blast: How often do you come out to Vegas to perform? Any plans for an East Coast (Boston?) jaunt?
CE: Haven’t done Vegas often. I don’t like to leave L.A. if i can help it since work never stops in the voice-over world. It would have to take a very special occasion to come to the East Coast, but if things click with the Men’s Club Comedy Tour (the current project I’ve been doing with my three buddies), anything could happen.
Blast: How would you cla**ify your comedic style? I’m sorry to ask this cliche, but who are your influences?
CE: I don’t know how I would cla**ify my style. Above all, I try to be entertaining without insulting the intelligence of the audience. I have a few voices, some wry observations, some longer, more monologist type bits sprinkled in there as well. I like to gently subvert the audience’s expectations of where a bit will go. Above all, it is about giving the audience a good time that stays with them afterward. I’ve been inspired by so many comedians in my life: Cosby and Pryor and Carlin and Rich Little as a kid, Jim Carrey (his physical comedy more than anything), Dennis Miller’s incredible way with words, Bill Maher’s ease with commentary, even Johnny Carson’s way with an audience — the way he could take them anywhere he wanted to go, even when a joke didn’t work. How he could take them by the hand and lead them back whenever he chose. Contemporary comics — Patton Oswalt (a great wordsmith and imagist), Dave Attell (gets you to love lechery), Todd Barry (nobody does wry like him) and Chris Rock (back in ‘96, his HBO special “Bring the Pain” was the best I’d ever seen from a stand-up and still is, in my opinion.)
Blast: What does a comedian do when he’s not on stage? Are you always “on” or do you have people/friends that you can just be off/yourself around?
CE: When I’m not onstage I get up at the crack of 10 a.m., go to my agency and record my auditions, come home and surf the web for fun and ideas, get lunch, exercise, work on the act or anything creative I have on the docket for a little while, etc., spend time with my girlfriend, catch my favorite shows on TV, you name it.
Unexciting and yet highly pleasurable, because my life is my own. My schedule my own. It took years to get to that point but I’m enjoying the hell out of it. That’s probably why you wouldn’t suspect I was a comic if you met me away from a club. I’m not “on” very often . When I’m around my actor and comedian friends, sure. We’re all “on” in one way or another because we understand how we all think and the jokes come fast and furious. But otherwise I’ve been described by my “civilian” friends as laid back, philosophical and — gasp — mature. The opposite of the insecure kid that started years ago, thinking he had to make everyone laugh to prove to himself that he could do it as a career. You know, pretty textbook stuff.
We have a trapeze showcase in October. The last one was actually July of last year, if you can believe it, and it’s kind of neat to look back and see the progress I’ve made since then.
I remember being so stressed, so anxious about looking like an idiot, missing my music cues, or just messing up. Everyone turned out to be feeling like that. Eventually one of our group gave all of us a wake up call. He reminded us that we’re not in Cirque du Soleil so why should we have been feeling like we needed to have these A-list performances? After that, we ended up having fun, and that helped make the second evening go so much better (because the first night didn’t go so well as a result of my being anxious). So now we have fun when we perform.
That’s what I’m looking forward to next month. It’s nice being so confident and not caring as much, and just having fun.
The big news? Steve might actually get up and do short performance during the night. He’s new to the trapeze thing and hates any kind of public speaking (much less a performance involving tights) but the owners of the school are working him. We’ll see how it goes.
Oh, and there won’t be any Kylie Minogue music this year (though we are seeing her this Sunday at the Hollywood Bowl– praise God). I’m going to perform to Sonny J’s “Can’t Stop Movin’.” I’m thinking of an old fashioned Electric Company or Sesame Street style costume. But how will I show my arms? I’ll figure it out, I’m sure…
News spread today to shocked friends and fans that local musician Amy Farris had died over the weekend. As a member of Dave Alvin and the Guilty Women, Farris played the fiddle, viola and sang harmony vocals. An Austin, Texas native, Farris moved to Los Angeles in 2003 to record a solo album produced by Dave Alvin. She also played backup for a number of musicians including Exene Cervenka, Stan Ridgway, Brian Wilson, Peter Case and Ray Price.
According to newspaper Austin 360, Farris was found dead in her Los Angeles home. Suicide is suspected, but the cause of death is still being investigated. Farris was 40 years old.
Photo by Loren Minnick
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Megan fox has covered a glorious miles in the Hollywood films. Started her career at the ripe age of 15, has now sky rocketed her career in the blockbuster movie Transformer and the Transformer part two: The Revenge of the Fallen. Brianna Wallace was her first character in the film called Holiday in the Sun. She also did many television serials like what I like about you. Later on she did TV serial like Two and a Half Men and played a lead role on Hope and Faith. In the year 2004, Megan Fox launched her film career. She starred opposite to Lindsay Lohan in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen. It was not until 2007 when Fox got a major breakthrough with the role Mikaela Banes in the blockbuster film Transformer. She was nominated for her movie Transformer and won various awards under different sections.
She also won Teen Choice Awards for having the greatest number of pa**ionate fans longing for her wide across the globe. Then the second movie which was the sequel of the blockbuster movie Transformer: Revenge of the Fallen. Fox stunned the entire Hollywood industry with her mesmerizing role, proving the critics wrong who called her “one film wonder”. Now regarded as a great actress with a pool of talents many producers have already signed her in their coming films.
Presently, in year 2009 she will be seen in the horror movie film called Jennifer’s Body. The Transformer beauty Megan Fox will be seen topless in this film. She has played the role of a cheerleader possessed by a demon who feeds upon boys in a small Minnesota farming town. In her very recent film “Jennifer’s Body” through some of the leaked photographs, Megan Fox is seen topless coming out of the lake. It appears that someone on the sets of Megan Fox movie Jennifer’s Body, possessed a camera which was supposed to be, and took some still pictures when she was coming out of the lake , topless. But closer examination reveals that she is not completely topless. Almost invisible, still Megan Fox was wearing silicone stickers which are of the tone of skin color and are really covering some of the important details of her body which could have been revealed otherwise.
Megan Denise Fox is considered to be the most frequent appearing celebrity in men’s magazines “Hot lists”. She is voted as the “Sexiest Woman on Earth” by FHM and Maxim.
So this is it. Chris Brown’s official first comeback single. “I Can Transform Ya” features rapper Lil’ Wayne and producer Swizz Beatz. The track is the debut single from his upcoming third album Graffiti, set to drop sometime early next year. It’s interesting to see how well this single and the album will do considering all of the negative press Chris has been getting ever since that big fight with Rihanna back in February 2009.
But so far, radio stations all over are reporting that the song is getting a great reception and a lot of positive feedback, despite Brown’s troubled past.
Greenville, South Carolina’s Hot 98.1 began playing the song as soon as it was available, and operations manager/ program director Steve Crumbley said the response so far has been overwhelmingly positive. “The audience loves it,” he said. “The response has been phenomenal, plus you have Lil Wayne on it, so you can’t miss.” According to Crumbley, the recent unsavory headlines surrounding Brown don’t appear to have slowed his career. “You mean because of the Rihanna thing? I didn’t think not playing a man’s record had anything to do with what he did,” Crumbley said when asked whether he’d hesitated to spin the tune. “I’m not making light of abuse. That is terribly wrong and he had to deal with that, but if the man’s got a good song, he’s got a good song.” Crumbley said he’s had not a single negative call about the song so far.
I posted a link about the “So You Think You Can Dance” vagina flasher in the quickies today, but TMZ only had the one disappointingly censored picture of Contestant #22036’s crotch. There’s where I step in with a full sixteen seconds of slow motion audition video of what may or may not be a black person, possibly a Pacific Islander, flashing the judges as she wallows in the floor. Granted, she could just be wearing a brown thong or cursed with the kind of booty fat that hangs down low and gives the appearance of being labial in nature. I don’t know. I’ve watched it three times now and I still don’t see it. But that doesn’t mean that I won’t keep trying! That’s just my strong work ethic for you.
Bank of America Corp. Chief Executive Kenneth D. Lewis announced his resignation, effective by the end of the current year, on Wednesday (September 30). The 62 year-old, who has been on the position since 2001, is reportedly fed up with the criticism related to the takeover of Merrill Lynch & Co.
“Bank of America is well positioned to meet the continuing challenges of the economy and markets,” Mr. Lewis said in a statement released by the company. “The Merrill Lynch and Countrywide integrations are on track and returning value already. We are in position to begin to repay the federal government’s TARP investments.”
BOA still doesn’t have a successor but a**ured they would select a successor by the time Lewis steps down December 31, 2009, which indicates the company’s board did not expect Lewis’ decision at this time.
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