Movies

Portugal. the Man Want to be a Pop Act -- Like the Beatles, David Bowie or Tom Petty
George Clooney & Stacy Keibler Speed Around Italy
EXCLUSIVE: Director Robert Lieberman Talks The Tortured
Another New International Television Spot For THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
Make Your Own Version Of The Beach Boys Album Cover
Prometheus Behind-the-Scenes Photos Reveal Huge Alien Spoilers!
Peter Buck, '10 Million BC': Ex-R.E.M. Guitarist Goes Solo With Fuzzy Garage Tune -- Listen
Justin Bieber on Song 'Maria,' His Slam on Baby Daddy Accuser
New Snippets Of Footage From THE DARK KNIGHT RISES Revealed
John Lasseter Gives His Thoughts On A Possible Marvel/Pixar Movie
The Amazing Spider-Man International TV Spot
Exclusive Video: The Baby Daddy Stars (Attempt to) Compete in a Playpen Challenge
Joan Rivers on Octomom: 'The Size of Her Uterus Scares Me'
TV listings: June 17-23
Forgotten Friday Flick - 'Night Shift'
Spotted: Leonardo DiCaprio Biking With Erin Heatherton In NYC
COMICS: First Look At SPIDER-MEN #3; Peter And Miles Take On Mysterio
Hot Problems Alert! Double Take's Latest Video 'Like A Princess'
Chris Brown vs. Drake: New Details in Bar Fight
Latest Great TV Spot From THE DARK KNIGHT RISES!

Portugal. the Man Want to be a Pop Act -- Like the Beatles, David Bowie or Tom Petty

Posted: 15 Jun 2012 02:00 PM PDT

Filed under: Concerts and Tours, News, Exclusive

Atlantic

To some, pop music is a way of life. To others, it's the dirtiest of dirty words. Portugal. the Man bassist Zachary Carothers knows which side of that fence he's on. Discussing the band's most recent release, In the Mountain in the Cloud, Carothers minced no words:

"We do want to make pop music," he told Spinner.

Not just any pop music, mind you.

"We want it to be good," he explained. "We do want to make pop music, but we want it to have substance, and art, and have meaning."

George Clooney & Stacy Keibler Speed Around Italy

Posted: 15 Jun 2012 11:00 AM PDT

It seems like George Clooney and Stacy Keibler are still together. We spotted the couple scooting around Lake Como on a motorcycle in Italy today.

Read More >

EXCLUSIVE: Director Robert Lieberman Talks The Tortured

Posted: 15 Jun 2012 10:47 AM PDT

Director Robert Lieberman discusses his thriller The Tortured, debuting in theaters June 15

Robert Lieberman is a director who definitely can't be pigeonholed into any particular genre. He's done sci-fi (Fire In The Sky), family sports drama (D3: The Mighty Ducks), episodes of hit TV series (Dexter, Eureka, Nikita), and everything in between. The filmmaker returns with the taut thriller The Tortured, debuting in limited release on June 15. I recently had the chance to speak with the director about his new project, which centers on a young couple (Jesse Metcalfe and Erika Christensen) who take extreme measure to exact justice on the man who kidnapped and murdered their only son.

Here's what he had to say.

Can you talk about your early encounters with the writer, and how it all started coming together?

Robert Lieberman: Well, it was a first draft script when I signed on to it. You've got to put it in the perspective that it's brought to you by the people who brought you Saw. They had a certain expectation of what the film should do, as far as the horror genre. I had a certain expectation, as far as the movies that I make, which are really human-based, whether they be science-fiction or horror or just straight drama or comedy. My movies are always imbued with as real a story about the human condition or human behavior as possible. It was my thesis that most science-fiction and horror and genre films broadcast themselves as being what they're going to be, right from the get-go. It gives the audience the chance to insulate themselves and prepare themselves for the worst, whereas, if you catch them with their guard down, and have them buy into the humanity of a real dramatic movie, but the people are real. I did a movie called Fire In The Sky, and I kept telling people that I wanted it to be like Midnight Cowboy, and what happens if a flying saucer lands in Midnight Cowboy? You've already invested in all those characters, and believed it was really New York and really Ratso Rizzo, and all these characters. Then, all of a sudden, it would be hard to divest yourself of, in this case, in The Tortured, the horror that you will now have to face. You've bought into the characters, you've bought into the premise, now there's nowhere to hide. It becomes rather frightening. The idea was to really create a couple that was very real, and had the really idyllic, bucolic life going. He's a doctor and has this little boy who's adorable, and that's very important. Then, they suffer this loss and suffer this indignity of injustice at that loss. It seemed to me that, initially, with their impulses to try to even the scales of justice, what the film ultimately says is that you can't.

I really loved the twist, but even if the twist wasn't there, you know that this couple is already scarred, just by doing it.

Robert Lieberman: Correct. I changed the title of the film from Tortured to The Tortured, because, I felt that the couple was easily as tortured as the people they were torturing.

Yeah, absolutely. I thought that was a great double entendre.

Robert Lieberman: Thank you.

Can you talk a bit about landing Jesse Metcalfe and Erika Christensen? I love their work. Can you talk about the level of intensity that you were looking for?

Robert Lieberman: Yeah, sure. I had seen Erika in Traffic as Michael Douglas' daughter. I had seen her in a couple of other things, and I thought she's getting to the age where she's looking to make the next step from ingenue to young mother, which would be a good thing. This is such a complicated deal. It's so complicated for the actors, emotionally, and for the story. The morality of it is questionable. I probably had more conversations with actors on this than any other film I've ever done. You walk a very fine line, as an actor. There are only a couple of things that they gave me solids for in making this film. One of them was he was a doctor, because, as a doctor, you're insulated against the gore and horror. It becomes very pragmatic, cutting people open, but the average guy on the street, it would scare us, and we wouldn't be able to do it. For a doctor... eh, it's work as usual. That helped me believe they could do this. Where I came at odds with the producers, at some point, was I felt that when does the victim become the perpetrator? When have you crossed the line? I always held that they were completely justified in kidnapping this guy and killing them. I have kids, and if somebody did that to my kid, I would probably kill them, and then I'd probably kill myself because I wouldn't want to spend the rest of my life in prison. Once you stuck a screwdriver into a man's leg and seen him scream... it's like 'I'm not sure I want to keep doing this anymore. I'm not sure it's much fun or satisfying.' The producers felt pretty committed, and we walked down that line very carefully. In my heart, I believe that this couple is really coming off the rails. It starts out as a very moralistic position, to avenge the death of my child, and then it becomes a very immoralistic issue, as you put somebody through that kind of pain, knowing what kind of pain you put them through. Is it really satisfying, once you put them through it once or twice? I just felt they were off the rails, they committed to it, and now they were just as nutty as he was, basically.

There are all these instances where one wants to stop, but the other convinces the other to keep going. I liked how you played with that

Robert Lieberman: Thanks. I think that is really important. Every one of those conversations had to do with a moral issue that was brought up. One of them was can you punish someone for doing something that they can't even remember doing? What's the point? I felt very strongly that the end twist was what gave the whole piece the raison d'etre, that, whatever you thought you were doing, on another plane, you made it worse. You can't do it.

Can you talk about where you actually shot this, and what you were looking for in the locations? The abandoned house was really perfect.

Robert Lieberman: I shot it in Vancouver, British Columbia, which is where you're talking to me right now from. I'm doing another film here. It's a pretty gray place to be. It's overcast most of the time, it rains a lot up here, so that kept in style with the filmmaking. The house they start in, I wanted it to be very bucolic, eclectic, like a young couple that would just throw some stuff in, an old house that had warmth through it and charm on a beautiful street. Now, in contrast to that, the house they bring him into, it's an abandoned, cold, dark, drab house. The house has to embody the horror that's going to take place inside it. That farmhouse worked particularly well for me, because I wanted them to live above him, and for them to go down in the basement. This house had a great basement, and, you actually never see it in the film, but there is great access from the outside to the basement, so you can get into the basement, and then plug it up and it only looks like you can get in from downstairs. There were storm doors that went right in to the outside. The property was very secluded, so we could use the other buildings that were in it and around it. It's just really creepy.

Can you talk a bit about IFC Films picking this up? They have a very diverse slate of programming and midnight horror programming.

Robert Lieberman: I'm not keenly aware of what their programming is, so it's kind of unfair for me to comment on it. I think this probably does fit into their pattern of midnight horror screenings. My films, very often, become cult-ish. They aren't necessarily the largest box office movies. I've had the good fortune, and the bad fortune, of being able to make films in almost every genre, and keep my brand undefined, which is the bad news. If you have your brand extremely well-defined, then it's easy for them to slot you and and get more of it. I've kept my brand open. Last year, I did a movie called Breakaway in Canada, which is about Canadian hockey players. There's no rhyme or reason to what I do. I did an action picture with Steve Austin, I did D3: The Mighty Ducks, I did Fire In The Sky, a sci-fi movie. This is the first real, flat-out horror movie I've done, and I think this fits in with their idea of bringing in interesting, smaller works, that would otherwise not get the studio, 5,000-screen release.

Is there anything you can say about the project you're shooting now in Vancouver?

Robert Lieberman: We're in preparation right now. I've been in prep for about a week, and I've got another four weeks of prep. It's a four-hour mini-series called Dark Universe. It's about a particle accelerator gone wild. It's another sci-fi piece, and it's like a sci-fi/disaster movie.

Will it air on Syfy?

Robert Lieberman: There's no distribution as of now, except for in Europe. We're making a series of these with a company called Sonar, which used to be RHI. They're making five of these mini-series', and each one is a different disaster. They're going to package them up.

Great. Well, that's my time. Thank you so much. It was great talking to you.

Robert Lieberman: It was nice talking to you too. Thank you for your interest.

Robert Lieberman's The Tortured arrives in theaters June 15 in limited release.

The Tortured was released June 15th, 2012 and stars Erika Christensen, Jesse Metcalfe, Bill Lippincott, Bill Moseley, Fulvio Cecere, Thomas Greenwood, Stephen Park, Samantha Gutstadt. The film is directed by Robert Lieberman.

Another New International Television Spot For THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN

Posted: 15 Jun 2012 10:39 AM PDT

The Amazing Spider-Man stars Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Denis Leary, Rhys Ifans, Martin Sheen, and Sally Field, the films swings into theaters July 3, 2012 in 3D!

Make Your Own Version Of The Beach Boys Album Cover

Posted: 15 Jun 2012 10:41 AM PDT

Take time to check out this cool Facebook application created for The Beach Boys. It lets you custom color your own version of the album cover for "That's Why God Made The Radio" (that's our creati...

Read More >

Prometheus Behind-the-Scenes Photos Reveal Huge Alien Spoilers!

Posted: 15 Jun 2012 10:40 AM PDT

This movie has been out for a few days. None the less, not all of you have seen it, so be warned. There are huge spoilers ahead!

A new batch of behind-the-scenes photos has been released from Prometheus that reveal the Elder Engineer and a space jockey capsule from director Ridley Scott's sci-fi thriller. Take a look at the photos, and read on to see what the filmmaker had to say about this 'God-like creature' who resides behind that iconic Space Jockey mask.

Director Ridley Scott recently opened up about the engineers, who he compares to the dark angels in John Milton's poem Paradise Lost.

"So I always had it in there that the God-like creature that you will see actually is not so nice, and is certainly not God. As she says, 'This is not what I thought it was going to be, and I think we should get the Hell out of here or there won't be any place to go back to.'

That's not necessarily planted in the ground at the tail end of the third act, but I knew that's kind of where we should go, because if we've opened up this door -- which I hope we have because I certainly would like to do another one - I'd love to explore where the hell [Dr. Shaw] goes next and what does she do when she gets there, because if it is paradise, paradise can not be what you think it is. Paradise has a connotation of being extremely sinister and ominous. In a funny kind of way, if you look at the Engineers, they're tall and elegant ... they are dark angels. If you look at [John Milton's] Paradise Lost, the guys who have the best time in the story are the dark angels, not God. He goes to all the best nightclubs, he's better looking, and he gets all of the birds."

clickHere to read the full interview with Ridley Scott.

Prometheus was released June 8th, 2012 and stars Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Guy Pearce, Logan Marshall-Green, Sean Harris, Rafe Spall. The film is directed by Ridley Scott.

Peter Buck, '10 Million BC': Ex-R.E.M. Guitarist Goes Solo With Fuzzy Garage Tune -- Listen

Posted: 15 Jun 2012 01:30 PM PDT

Filed under: News, New Music

Gus Stewart, Redferns

Peter Buck is a master of both jangle and fuzz, and with "10 Million BC," the first song to surface from the R.E.M. guitarist's forthcoming solo debut, he focuses on the latter. As Spin reports, the track premiered yesterday on the WFMU show "Diane's Kamikaze Fun Machine," where Buck's good buddy Steve Wynn was the guest.

The tune is an aptly named slice of primitive garage rock, and as the website Slicing Up Eyeballs rightly points out, it sounds very much like something the Cramps would have done. That makes sense, since Buck has impeccable taste in music, and since that seminal punkabilly band was once signed to I.R.S. Records, R.E.M.'s pre-Warner home.

Justin Bieber on Song 'Maria,' His Slam on Baby Daddy Accuser

Posted: 15 Jun 2012 10:49 AM PDT

It's Bieber Fever in the Big Apple!

"Extra's" AJ Calloway spoke with Justin Bieber at the Sirius XM studios before his huge "Today" performance for 8,000 screaming fans. (Watch a clip!)

New Snippets Of Footage From THE DARK KNIGHT RISES Revealed

Posted: 15 Jun 2012 09:41 AM PDT

Enter The Contest By Clicking Here! Download The Graphics By Clicking Here! Download The Audio Clips By Clicking Here! Download The Video Clips By Clicking Here! Warner Bros. Pictures' and Legendary Pictures' "The Dark Knight Rises" is the epic conclusion to filmmaker Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy. The screenplay is written by Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan, story by Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer. The film is produced by Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan and Charles Roven, who previously teamed on "Batman Begins" and the record-breaking blockbuster "The Dark Knight." The executive producers are Benjamin Melniker, Michael E. Uslan, Kevin De La Noy and Thomas Tull, with Jordan Goldberg serving as co-producer. The film is based upon characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by Bob Kane. The Dark Knight Rises opens in theaters July 20th. The film stars Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Joseph Gordon Levitt

John Lasseter Gives His Thoughts On A Possible Marvel/Pixar Movie

Posted: 14 Jun 2012 08:13 PM PDT

We all love Toy Story, Cars, and Monsters Inc., and virtually everything else that Pixar has made so far, but could you imagine what would happen if any given Marvel superhero stepped into Pixar territory? Fans have been wanting a crossover since Disney aquired Marvel. John Lasseter, co-founder of Pixar and director of Toy Story and cars was asked that very simple question that has been on everyone's minds: Will there be a crossover film between Marvel Studios and Pixar? See what Lasseter had to say below. Information courtesy of Collider. "Well, I can't say anything about that because Marvel just got—[they've] been a couple years as part of the Disney company, we've been six years as part of the Disney company. And at Pixar, we stay focused on making original films. Even our sequels are kind of created internally and we come up with ideas [on our own].

The Amazing Spider-Man International TV Spot

Posted: 15 Jun 2012 08:54 AM PDT

Sony Pictures has released an international TV spot for The Amazing Spider-Man, director Marc Webb's upcoming 3D reboot that gives us a fresh take on Peter Parker's origin story. We also have video from a sneak preview shown at Wal-Mart stores last night, featuring Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield) stopping a car thief before being chased by the cops. Take a look at these new videos from this web-slinging adventure.