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Friday, June 19, 2015

Latest Movie News From Moviefone

Latest Movie News From Moviefone

'Inside Out' Director Pete Docter Talks Disney Easter Eggs, Theme Park Plans

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Pete Docter has done it again.

The writer/director, who crafted genuine classics "Monsters, Inc." and "Up," is back with "Inside Out," a brand new Pixar masterpiece.

The film is just as imaginative as his earlier features, but instead of a world populated by monsters or floating houses, Docter takes us inside the mind of an 11-year-old-girl, where personified emotions scramble to maintain equilibrium. It's ingenious and gently surreal, and Docter has pulled it off with aplomb. Recently, we sat down with Docter at Pixar and talked about Bing Bong, the amazing imaginary friend character (voiced by Richard Kind), the challenges the filmmaker faced developing the story, and his dreams for the movie to appear in the Disney parks.

Moviefone: It seems like making this movie was really difficult. Was there ever a point where you said, "You know, maybe 'Monsters, Inc.' does need another sequel?'"

Pete Docter: [laughs] It was really hard! But it was always fun. If anything, there would be moments of fear because I thought: "We have so much potential with this movie, and if we stumble and we don't take advantage of it, and if we go through the whole film and don't explore why songs get stuck in your head -- or déjà vu, or where dreams come from... Those are all really cool things to think about and if we mess it up, then bad on us. So there was a lot of pressure to make it as fun and interesting as we could.

What was the breakthrough?

There was a time where we working towards our fourth screening. And that's a time when you're hoping to get some approvals - you want parts of the film to move on into production and become final footage. But going into that, I knew that parts of it were working and there were fun little bits but as a statement, I didn't know what we were saying. What is Joy's journey? What does she learn on this? And I walked away that weekend thinking: "What if I quit? What if I get fired?" You really go into that pit. I said, "What am I going to miss if I leave?" And I thought, "I'm going to miss my friends."

I had this realization that the friends that I have the closest attachment to are the ones that I've had good times with, but I've also been pissed off at and gone through sad times with and been scared for. I realized, those are the emotions ... responsible for the most important things in our lives. So that allowed us to reformat the film and work towards the ending -- but that was a real turning point.
What's interesting about the opening of the movie, and most of the first half is, it's very narration-heavy, and there's a lot of jargon and terminology -- versus the beginning of "Up," which had no dialogue at all.

Yeah, I struggled with that. There are a number of things that I now realize I was pretty wrong about, and I was dead set on there being no narration. We were going to do the hard work of showing everybody and not telling. And it ended up that, since this whole world is made up, the characters are not things that you see walking around; they're kind of abstract concepts that are visualized. But in the end, after working at it for maybe two years, we distilled it into maybe the core things that we needed to say. And more than one person has told me it's their favorite part of the film, just the fun of getting to meet these guys and seeing the concepts that we're dealing with.

Another thing that makes that opening so powerful is Michael Giacchino's score. Can you talk about the sound of the mind?

Having worked with Michael on "Up," we didn't really consider anybody else because he's such a great collaborator and brought so much to the film. But we did talk about how different this one is than "Up." "Up" was nostalgic - ["Inside Out"] needed to be more psychological and the things that felt right were like playing with time, you're playing little bits of instruments backwards or samples.

The way Michael likes to work is -- he watched the film and he went off and said, "This might be wrong, but this is how I feel about the movie," and he then played an 8-minute suite that brought us all to tears. It was absolutely beautiful and so perfectly connected to the feeling of the film.
The character of Bing Bong, he's going to be everybody's favorite.

His origins came from being part of this group of disused imaginary friends that Riley came up with when she was there. There was Mrs. Scribbles and kids will always draw the quarter sun that will float down, and that's all he was, this quarter sun. And Bing Bong was an imaginary friend, an amalgam of animals that Riley came up with, made of cotton candy. But as we redesigned the story, we came up with the idea that the rest of the guys aren't really relevant, but Bing Bong could be a mirror to Joy.

Joy's thing is, she's trying to hold on to childhood and preserve the happiness of life and we took that to an extreme. This is a guy who was big in Riley's life, but he's been out of a job since she was three, so he's wanting Riley to go back to the good ol' days, which if you get into it is kind of insane and delusional. So that can help Joy on her journey on what she has to learn.

There are a bunch of great Easter Eggs, but my favorite was a nod to the Haunted Mansion. How did that happen?

Well, when [producer] Jonas Rivera and I really started working together, we bonded over our love of Disneyland. So as soon as we had this idea of doing a nightmare, we had an idea of using the music from Haunted Mansion.

You know what got replaced, but was in for a while? This came from research - we learned that when you go to sleep, all the short-term memories are redistributed to long-term, which has a lot more space. That's why if you stay awake for 3 days you can't remember stuff, because so much space is taken up already. So during non-REM sleep, all of those are shuffled down. That made us design that kinetic sculpture of the memories, and for a long time we used the noise of "It's a Small World."

Speaking of Disneyland, there are certainly a number of elements that could be retrofitted for the parks. What would you want to see?

There are a number of different things. I would love to visualize Imaginationland, although that might be too obvious. I think, from the beginning, when we came up with this, Jonas said, "Oh, this should be in EPCOT Center." The characters could have a great ability to talk about things in a pseudo-science -- but also entertaining -- way, talking about how your mind works and things like that. It would be fun.

"Inside Out" is in theaters now.

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14 TV Dads We Want to Be Adopted By

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Where would we be without the wisdom of our beloved TV dads? Dead, probably. Whether they're making us laugh, cry, or forcing us to realize that sneaking out of the house is wrong, we're always learning. (Our real dads are also helpful, but no one makes a dad joke like Phil Dunphy.)

These are the 14 dads that we wouldn't mind getting adopted by.

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11 Original TV Show Titles That Just Wouldn't Have Been the Same

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Choosing a title for a TV show is tricky business. A name has to basically sum up the entire concept of the series and be compelling enough to make you want to give it a try. You don't want a "Cougar Town" or the soon-forgotten "It's Like, You Know..." on your hands. Some of the most popular TV shows of all time could have been known as something else, and we understand why most of these titles didn't make the cut... Find out what could have been and learn some titles that were in the running for 11 TV shows we know and love.

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Julia Stiles Joins Matt Damon for New 'Bourne' Movie in 2016

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Yes! Cue another round of Moby's "Extreme Ways" 'cause Jason Bourne is back -- and he's bringing an old friend with him. According to Deadline, Matt Damon is not only back as Bourne for his fourth movie (the third with director Paul Greengrass) but Julia Stiles is confirmed to return as Nicky Parsons. They are the only official cast members so far, although Deadline said Alicia Vikander was being sought for a major role and Variety said Viggo Mortensen may or may not play an assassin. Deadline also said -- and we agree -- that they hoped Joan Allen would return as Pam Landy.

The first movie, "The Bourne Identity" came out in 2002, followed by more Damon dominance in 2004's "The Bourne Supremacy." Damon returned again for "The Bourne Ultimatum" in 2007, but then the focus shifted to Jeremy Renner's Aaron Cross in "The Bourne Legacy." That one was directed by Tony Gilroy and it only kinda sorta counts because it didn't feature Matt Damon. So this new movie will go back to basics.

Back in November, Matt previewed the new movie to E! News: "It'll be in 2016 when the movie will actually come out. Paul Greengrass is going to do another one and that's all I ever said. I just needed him to say yes." According to Variety, the movie is scheduled to open July 29, 2016.

So far this new project is just being called Universal Pictures' Untitled Next Bourne Chapter, but expect it to end up with a title like "The Bourne Resurgence" or maybe "Bourne Ready," which feels inevitable. Maybe suggest your own title now, while you can?

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Words of Wisdom From Our Fave TV Dads

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In honor of Father's Day, we would like to take some time to celebrate some of our favorite TV dads.

Beloved characters like Phil Dunphy, Homer Simpson, and Coach Taylor feel like they're almost family themselves sometimes, and their memorable quotes and gems of advice have stuck with us over the years. Sure, their guidance isn't always the soundest, and at times things can get a tad awkward, but we appreciate the effort, guys... Check out some memorable quotes from TV dads we love.

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'Game of Thrones' Season 6: Stars Share Theories on Arya, Sansa, Theon

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Warning: "Game of Thrones" spoilers referenced ahead from "A Song of Ice and Fire" series.

This is arguably the most exciting but nerve-racking time for "Game of Thrones" fans because so much is unknown about Season 6. Season 5 ended last weekend with the biggest audience yet, and 2015's 10 episodes featured the most changes from the source material, author George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" books. Most (but not all) of the material from the fifth book, "A Dance with Dragons," was used up in Season 5, with a few teases thrown in from the yet-to-be-published sixth book, "The Winds of Winter."

One storyline that jumped ahead a bit was Arya Stark's in Braavos. In a sample chapter from "Winds of Winter" called "Mercy," Arya kills Raff the Sweetling in a scene somewhat similar to how she took down Meryn Trant in the Season 5 finale. But Season 5 ended with Arya rendered blind. In "A Dance with Dragons," Arya was made temporarily blind as part of her training, but she was given her sight back before getting her first big assignment. So now what?

Maisie Williams talked to Entertainment Weekly about the newly blind Arya:

I don't want to wear these crazy contacts for the rest of my time on Thrones! I don't know how ... that will impede her life. She's going to become very vulnerable thanks to that. It's exciting and scary. So I'm worried about next year."

We're not used to a truly vulnerable Arya, so it'll be interesting to see how she copes.


EW noted that Season 6 production doesn't even start until July, so no one really knows what's going to happen to their characters. (Kit Harington previously said Jon Snow was dead and he wasn't coming back next season, but we don't believe his story is really over. Could he sit out Season 6, though, and only be revived in Season 7?)

Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark) talked to Entertainment Weekly about her character's Season 5 storyline, which ended with Theon Greyjoy (Alfie Allen) saving Sansa and the two looking poised to escape Winterfell:

I don't want to know [what happens, from the showrunners], but Alfie and I have been talking about it a lot. We reckon Theon and Sansa will get away, but then Sansa will sell Theon out and be like, 'Screw you,' and go out on her own. Or Ramsay will come and chase them down. But I don't think the two of them will stay together as buddies, though that would be kind of cool."

(What would really be cool is if Sansa were given a storyline where she saves herself and leads the charge to avenge her family.)

Those stories are very different from the page too. In the book, Sansa and Petyr Baelish are still in the Eyrie, with Littlefinger planning to wed her to someone not named Ramsay, and Theon escaped Winterfell with Jeyne Poole (who was posing as Arya) and they were taken to Stannis Baratheon's camp. So it's anyone's guess what's ahead. Will Theon and Sansa make it to The Wall to connect with ... well, not Jon Snow anymore, unless Melisandre revives him. Maybe Sansa will find Bran and Rickon; Bran should still be north of the Wall and Rickon and Osha have to be somewhere. We haven't seen them in ages, but the timing seems right to fix that.

What are you looking forward to seeing in Season 6?

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The Meteoric Rise of the TV Anti-Heroine

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anti heroine tv The age of the TV anti-hero may be drawing to a close, but the TV anti-heroine is just getting started.

This week, as we welcome back Piper Chapman and her fellow prison inmates (with binge-viewers catching up with the third-season launch of Netflix's "Orange Is the New Black" last Friday), and as we're introduced to Ani Bezzerides -- Rachel McAdams new morally ambiguous cop on Season 2 of HBO's "True Detective," debuting this Sunday -- TV viewers are becoming fully invested in dramas whose female leads are every bit as complicated, fascinating, charismatic, dangerous, and messily human as the Don Drapers and Tony Sopranos of the recent past.

The end of "Mad Men" last month seemed to mark the end of an era, and not just the 1960s as
experienced by the ad gurus at Sterling Cooper. With the departures from our screens in recent years of Don Draper, Jax Teller ("Sons of Anarchy"), Raylan Givens ("Justified"), Rust Cohle (of the first season of "True Detective") and Walter White ("Breaking Bad"), it seemed that TV programmers were closing the book on a certain kind of anti-hero, the kind who'd reigned supreme since "The Sopranos" kicked off the current so-called golden age of TV in 1999.

The creative freedom offered by cable had finally matured into quality dramas as good as anything any other pop culture medium had produced. And all those early quality dramas -- including "The Shield," "Deadwood," "The Wire," and "Dexter" -- seemed built around similar anti-heroes: macho guys who lived by their own code, who often did terrible things, but who were also heroic, if only because they lived in moral universes where everyone else was so much worse. They were men who were capable of great tenderness one moment and brutal violence the next. Critics could read into their complexity any number of things -- critiques of American masculinity, allegories of American financial and military power, muckraking exposés of corruption in American institutions.

But the most radical thing about these new anti-heroes, in TV terms, was that they didn't waste time trying to be likable. They weren't unambiguously good, and their good deeds didn't necessarily redeem all the wrong they had done. They were often not handsome or sexy. They might be charismatic or even admirable at times, but viewers were never allowed to forget that they were being persuaded to care about men who often behaved monstrously.

And for a long time, these anti-heroes were always men. Women protagonists didn't have the luxury of being unlikable, unsexy, or unredeemable.

That began to change about a decade ago with a wave of anti-heroine series, many of them on Showtime. Long before Walter White went from suburban parent to drug kingpin, Nancy Botwin pioneered that career path on "Weeds." Showtime was soon full of similar anti-heroines, mothers and wives who were both competent and reckless, women who were often brazenly sexual and refused to apologize for being so, women who lived by their own rules, even if such behavior occasionally caused harm to themselves or people close to them, striving matriarchs who tried to build a better life for their husbands or children but who also jeopardized that better life with the chaos and drama they created through their own headstrong behavior. Women like Jackie Peyton on "Nurse Jackie," Cathy Jamison on "The Big C," Vanessa Ives on "Penny Dreadful," Alison Bailey on "The Affair," Virginia Johnson on "Masters of Sex," and Carrie Mathison on "Homeland."

In the last few years, the anti-heroine has spread beyond Showtime to the rest of cable and even to the networks. HBO has comic anti-heroines: Selina Meyer on "Veep" and all four leads on "Girls." (Not to mention a raft of anti-heroines on "Game of Thrones," including Arya Stark, Brienne of Tarth, Margaery Tyrell, and Daenerys Targaryen.) FX has Elizabeth Jennings on "The Americans" and every character Jessica Lange has played on "American Horror Story." (It also had Patty Hewes on "Damages.") Tatiana Maslany plays several anti-heroines on BBC America's "Orphan Black." Fox has one of this year's biggest breakout characters in Cookie Lyon of "Empire." And ABC has the other with Annalise Keating on "How to Get Away With Murder" -- joining a network roster that already included Olivia Pope on "Scandal," Juliette Barnes on "Nashville," and Emily Thorne on the recently-wrapped "Revenge." And of course, there's Netflix, with Piper and the rest of the "OITNB" convicts, along with Claire Underwood on "House of Cards" and both title characters in "Grace and Frankie."

Why so many anti-heroines? Part of it seems a natural corrective to the testosterone-heavy anti-hero dramas. Part of it is the increase in women TV series auteurs, from Shonda Rhimes ("Scandal," "HTGAWM") to Lena Dunham ("Girls") to Jenji Kohan ("Weeds," "OITNB"). Part of it is that TV has always been friendly to women (at least, more so than film), to the extent that sponsors recognize who controls the household purse strings and are willing to support programming that appeals to women by showing strong female characters. Part of it is the caliber of actresses eager to do TV work, especially now that TV is as prestigious as movies and offers meatier roles for women (especially older women) than film does.

Still, anti-heroines -- and the actresses who play them -- face some obstacles that their male counterparts don't. TV still prefers women to be likable and have certain body types. It expects them to be sexy and sexual -- but not too sexual. It's okay with flamboyant, larger-than-life behavior and dialogue (which make for compelling drama, after all), but it would prefer to have women apologize for, or at least justify such behavior if it harms others. It expects anti-heroines to feel the occasional twinge of guilt for putting career ahead of family, sex ahead of love, themselves ahead of others. There's a fascinating discussion over at the Hollywood Reporter among several anti-heroine actresses (and likely Emmy contenders), including Viola Davis ("HTGAWM"), Taraji P. Henson ("Empire"), Jessica Lange ("American Horror Story"), Lizzy Caplan ("Masters of Sex"), and Ruth Wilson ("The Affair"), where the stars talk about how far TV has come in permitting characters like theirs to flourish, and how treacherous the minefields are that they still have to navigate.

Audiences, programmers, and sponsors who are used to female characters who are likable or sexy or both are only now learning to accept shows featuring anti-heroines who may be neither of those. It will be interesting to see how viewers respond to McAdams' "True Detective" sleuth. But even if they reject her, there'll be more anti-heroines on the way. Maybe we'll get sick of them, or they'll run their course, just as the male anti-heroes have. Right now, however, TV anti-heroines are in full flower. Love them, hate them, love to hate them, but enjoy them while they're here.

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Critics Hate New Christian Grey Book: 'As Arousing as the Diary of a Sex Offender'

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Yikes. "Fifty Shades of Grey" author E.L. James just released her new book, "Grey," telling the story from Christian Grey's perspective. To say it was not well-received by critics would be an understatement, but it would also fail to mention the best part: The reviews are hilarious. That sound you hear is another critic cracking his or her (usually her) knuckles in preparation of a new online takedown. They are having too much fun with these scathing reviews, but so be it. The fans will read it no matter what, the haters love to hate no matter what, and two more movies are coming out in the "Fifty Shades" franchise no matter what. So ... no harm, no foul?

Entertainment Weekly compiled a list of not-so-friendly "Grey" reviews. Perhaps the best is the Telegraph of the U.K.'s critique, titled, "'Mr Darcy with nipple clamps': Bryony Gordon reviews EL James's Grey: The latest installment in the Fifty Shades series is as manipulative as its sadistic hero."

Here's the intro:

Grey, the fourth book from EL James, is about as sexy as a misery memoir and as arousing as the diary of a sex offender. It is Fifty Shades from the point of view of its leading man, a sort of XXXXXXXXXXX-rated version of the book that has launched a thousand floggers and sold a trillion copies. In Fifty Shades - narrated by Anastasia Steele, the young virgin who finds herself entering Christian Grey's Red Room of Pain - the billionaire businessman comes off as enigmatic and mysterious, with a hint of damage under his expensively pressed suits.

But here the look is that of a desperate sexual predator. Within moments of meeting Miss Steele, Grey has decided he needs to "fetter, f--- and flog" her; he then imagines what it would be like to shove some peeled ginger root up her behind. This, then, is the best the 21st century can come up with in terms of romantic literary heroes - a cut-price Mr Darcy in nipple clamps."

Peeled ginger root up the behind!

The Economist (not sure why they jumped in on this) was no kinder. In a review titled "I'm a creep," they wrote:

...It will surprise no one that Christian Grey doesn't improve upon greater acquaintance. He is still a mean, moneyed misogynist with recherché sexual tastes and an insatiable appetite for control. [...]

Here the flesh strung between the narrative bones reveals Mr Grey to be an even more deeply unpleasant, insecure a**hole than your correspondent had previously imagined. And no more three-dimensional. [...] Most chapters begin with dream-vignettes of his abusive childhood (with the exception of one hideous wet dream about two thirds of the way through). But if these were meant to help give him depth and excuse his less savoury behaviour then they resoundingly fail. We learn that Mr Grey can add bitchiness-"His handshake is limp, like his hair"-and vanity-"One glance at the louche fucker in the mirror"-to his roster of character flaws, but far more unsettling are the depth and extent of the ones we already knew he had.

His tendency to control and stalk read like passages from a psychological thriller. The background check is ordered seconds after he first meets Ms Steele, and when she breaks up with him he first runs and then has his driver slowly cruise past her house. Othello-like, he continually imagines her having sex with other men. In fact, he really does just hate women-continually, if silently, belittling them. "Women rarely make me laugh," he muses as he leeringly assesses her ass in the hardware store a few pages in. A little later: "It's two strikes against her: incurable romantic who only wears jeans...I like my women in skirts. I like them accessible." But will any of this matter a jot to the aforementioned fans? Probably not."

Most of the comments we've seen so far have been from non-readers who can't believe anyone likes the "Fifty Shades" series anyway, so these critics may just be preaching to their own choirs. But here's part of a review from an actual fan of the "Fifty Shades" books ... and she didn't like "Grey" either, bashing it in a post titled "I read the new Fifty Shades of Grey and it was less sexy than an eye test":

...The way he sees women is so consistently irritating, especially his employees. I'm a feminist; I see sexism, street harassment and chauvinism wherever I go. And yet until this morning, not once has misogyny got in the way of my sex life. I woke up embarrassingly enthused to read Grey's version of the story for an hour or so, until my partner's alarm went off - at which point I had every intention of jumping him. Only, an hour later and a quarter of the book down Christian Grey's attitude to women left me pondering: "what is the polar opposite of arousal?" [...]

Grey seems to think women are child-like commodities who have to be told when to eat, what to wear and even forced into blow drying their hair. Despite running a billion dollar empire apparently still labours under the misapprehension that you can get ill from having wet hair.

This morning I was cock-blocked by Christian Grey. The new Fifty Shades is supposed to be a fantasy. The book isn't just successful because of the sex: we like the cars, the wine, the music, the restaurants, the apartments, the hotels and the clothes. It's supposed to be a magical, seductive world. It's Disney for grown ups.

So could someone please let EL James know, that it's time to ditch the sexism? There should be no room for it in the real world, let alone in our fantasies."

Whew! What do you think? Anyone out there want to defend Christian Grey and "Grey"?

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'Inside Out' Producer Jonas Rivera Reveals Versions of the Movie You'll Never See

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From intern to Oscar nominee, Jonas Rivera has certainly made a mark on Hollywood.

Rivera was hired as Pixar's first intern, in the final year of production on "Toy Story," and he's worked on every Pixar movie since. He even earned an Academy Award nomination for his work as a producer on "Up," directed by his good friend and close collaborator.

Rivera and Docter's latest collaboration is "Inside Out," a film that's as deeply brilliant and highly emotional as "Up" (seriously, bring some tissues: the last thirty minutes will give you all the feels.) It's the story of Riley, a precocious 11-year-old girl, who is going through some big life changes, and the emotions that live in her head: Joy (Amy Poehler), Disgust (Mindy Kaling), Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Bill Hader) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith). It's challenging at first to wrap your (no pun intended) head around it, but the film gives off the vibe of being a new classic by the time the final credits roll.

We recently sat down with Rivera to discuss "Inside Out's" long development process, the origins of Bing Bong (Riley's imaginary friend played by Richard Kind), and several iterations of the movie that audiences will (sadly) never see.

Moviefone: You've been working on this movie a long time.

Jonas Rivera: Yeah, 5 years...

We heard that the story went through some crazy changes in development.

Yeah, I mean, all of these movies go through changes. In some ways "Up" took even stranger turns than this. This was at least always grounded in the concept of being a story about a little girl and her emotions. She's more "the setting" than the main character. There were even versions where Joy would come outside of the headquarters and sit on Riley's shoulder like a conscience. I guess the biggest change was the external story of Riley. We always had this idea, because of Joy, [she'd] be steered into a social storm. In other words, Joy was going to hang on to youth for too long and it was going to cause some sort of emotional damage. I think at one time it was [going to be] a performance, like a school play. I'm trying to remember... And Riley was so excited about it, but all the other girls lost their excitement about it. But with Joy steering and being so exuberant, she ends up embarrassing herself. So there was always some trigger like that. It was a school play, it was birthday party invitations, sometimes the stakes were so low as who was going to sit next to her at lunch.

It wasn't until two or three screenings in that we came up with moving. It was high enough stakes and not something that she would be hurt from, because it had to be emotional stakes.
What was the strangest turn that the story took during those early days?

I think that was probably it from the outside. On the inside, it was the struggle with Joy as a character - that was really mysterious and elusive. Her name is Joy, so she's got to be happy. But two things started to happen - one was that we had this character named Riley, who if she's being steered by Joy and we steer her into some kind of social storm, either you're not going to like Joy or she's going to be too sweet and saccharine and you won't like her. So those two things were tremendously hard to harmonize and it took a lot of changes and moves and screenings to try and find the right tone. It was a combination of external stakes, the big move, and Joy's optimism and how she was going to handle it, and Amy Poehler being cast a year before the movie was finished -- which helped us thread that needle of likability to antagonism.

In the footage we saw, there's a lot of jargon in this movie and worlds to set up; you've got to explain everything. Was that also a fine line to walk?

It was a tall order. When you start developing this movie, there's no point of reference. Everything was based on what Pete wanted it to feel like, which is very tricky when you've got a crew that has to turn that into models and objects and sets and characters. So the world became this exercise in - what does this story need? So then we would design Headquarters. We knew we needed someplace where they worked. But what does the world look like? How big is it? What are they trying to get back to? What is the geography of it?

As the story kept developing, Pete's big discovery was what's at stake. That's what we always ask ourselves with these movies: What's at stake? This was a little harder to find. Was Riley at stake? Is she going to die? That doesn't really work. But what we came upon was her personality, who she is. That started to inform the world and what it needs represent. That's where the [personality] islands came from - they were things that you could see that are physical as well as visual. So what was happening to Riley on the outside of the storytelling was predicating the world and what we needed and how it could geographically function.
One of the big surprises in this movie is Bing Bong, Riley's imaginary friend. Was he always a part of the story? He's amazing and makes things so much weirder.

No, he wasn't always there. He came about in one of the drafts, which I still think was a pretty funny idea, but there was this hobo camp or refugee camp where fragments of her mind and imagination were almost in a jail. It was almost like Riley's drawings as a kid - there was Mrs. Scribbles and a sun with a face that would float around and that's where they lived. Bing Bong was an imaginary friend and he lived in there. So there's a scene that didn't really work.

But the idea that an imaginary friend, who has been out of work for a while since she's 11, did a couple of things: One, it was fun and two, he would know his way. He would be the literal map.

Is that why he has the hobo gloves?

Yeah that's sort of the last surviving element of that. He also had a cane.

"Inside Out" is in theaters now.

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Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg Fight for Fatherhood in 'Daddy's Home' Trailer

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Who's your daddy? If you're very lucky it's both Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, like the kids in "Daddy's Home." The comedy comes out this Christmas, but the first trailer was (wisely) released just in time for Father's Day, pitting a tough-guy divorced dad (Wahlberg) against a mild-mannered new stepfather (Farrell).

Linda Cardellini plays Wahlberg's ex, with Farrell as her new husband. The trailer shows the dads competing for the kids' affection -- including bribing them with cash, which never fails. Things get increasingly out of hand, of course, in the manner of all hilarious man-child comedies, but at least this preview gives us a few shots of Wahlberg shirtless with slicked-back hair. (Shallow. Not sorry.) It doesn't look like the "Freaks and Geeks" alum has much to do besides react to the two guys, but hopefully that's just the deception of the trailer.

Here goes:


What do you think so far?

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What to Watch to Fill the 'Game of Thrones'-Sized Void in Your Life

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What to Watch When You've Finished 'Game of Thrones' Season 5
All caught up on "Game of Thrones" and trying to fill that Daenerys Targaryen sized hole in your heart? Check out these television shows and movies that will help you pass the time until next season starts.

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'Big Brother 17' Has First Transgender Houseguest: Tearful Julie Chen Asks for 'Compassion'

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Audrey Middleton looks like she's going to be a fascinating "Big Brother" houseguest, and not because she's the first transgender contestant in the CBS reality show's history. We weren't even supposed to know that about her before the big two-night June 24-June 25 premiere of BB17, but the news was leaked to TMZ, then host Julie Chen addressed it in an earnest and ultimately tearful discussion on "The Talk."

During "The Talk" chat, Julie had them play a clip from Audrey's pre-show interview with "Big Brother" alum Jeff Schroeder. He asked the 25-year-old Georgia native if she thinks she'll be seen as a hero or a villain, Audrey said, "I think there's a chance that I could be a misunderstood hero. But I'm gonna be a hero." Then Julie revealed to "The Talk" audience that Audrey is the show's first transgender houseguest, thanking the crowd when they clapped. The hosts discussed the news for a while, name-dropping Caitlyn Jenner in the mix, and the four-minute clip ends with this emotional request from Julie:

For me personally, for anyone watching, I just want to say I hope you watch with compassion and an open mind to learn something about a community that you may not be familiar with. This is Audrey's story to tell and I'm looking forward to hearing it next week."

Check it out:


It's good to hear Julie request compassion, since "Big Brother" houseguests and fans aren't always known for being kind. The HGs themselves can be quite vicious -- see but actually please avoid the racism of BB15 -- but hopefully Audrey will be judged by her actions and gameplay, not her status as the first transgender HG.

More than anything, Audrey just sounds like a firecracker with a real gamer's spirit. Audrey told Zap2it she's a super fan whose strategy is "to be really dynamic socially" and she admitted she's inspired by Showtime's Dexter Morgan. "I want to have my own collection of organized blood slides of every fallen houseguest I've had a hand in dismantling," she joked. "I don't want to kick people while they're down, but if they get in my way I'm going to have to push them out."

Love it. Here's her Zap2it interview:


Good look to all the BB17 houseguests. Watch them in action this Wednesday, June 24 at 8 p.m. on CBS.

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'Indiana Jones 5' May or May Not Be Coming in 2018

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Another day, another set of rumors surrounding the "Indiana Jones" series. This time, the controversy centers around whether or not Disney has slated a fifth film in the franchise for release in 2018 -- or if any conversation about such a film ever took place.

A pair of conflicting reports from Ain't It Cool News and Slashfilm suggest that not even Disney can keep straight whether or not "Indiana Jones 5" is in the works. Rumors flew earlier this year that Chris Pratt -- who's currently the box office king of the world, thanks to "Jurassic World" -- would be donning the titular adventurer's hat and whip for a reboot of the franchise. Pratt has since denied that possibility (at least, no one's approached him yet, though that could change thanks to the wild success of "World").

But whether or not Pratt is involved, Ain't It Cool News reports that a "long-time and trustworthy source" has said that Lucasfilm has just scheduled "Indy 5" to drop sometime during the fourth quarter of 2018. AICN suggests that it could very well be "World"'s domination that inspired new talk about "Indy," since the former film was a sequel to a 22-year-old flick that nevertheless reinvigorated the story and connected with audiences. Everyone loves a redemption story, and Disney knows there's more money to be made from "Indiana Jones."

Of course, AICN's report flies directly in the face of Lucasfilm producer Frank Marshall himself, who told Slashfilm in no uncertain terms that Disney has never discussed "Indy 5." The key exchange from that interview:

[Slashfilm:] So that's just Internet rumor?

Frank Marshall: Yeah. I mean, we've had no discussions on Indy 5 to date.


Slashfilm notes that that interview was actually conducted last week, before "World"'s debut, and it's possible that AICN's report was accurate, if those discussions rapidly came together as soon as word spread about the film's success. Still, such a strong denial is enough to keep the rumor mill from churning at full speed. It seems, as ever, that nothing should be considered official until word comes directly from Disney.

Stay tuned. This story is nowhere close to finished.

[via: Ain't It Cool News, Slashfilm]

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Watch Jon Stewart's Powerful 5-Minute Diatribe on the Charleston Church Shooting

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"This one is black and white. There's no nuance here..."

"The Daily Show" host Jon Stewart was made for times like this. He's the hero we both need and deserve. So of course he's leaving. Sigh. When Jon stops joking and gets on a soap box, people listen -- and he cut through the BS last night, kicking America a new one for more than five minutes in the wake of the Charleston, South Carolina church massacre. Jon's speech really hit home and was powerful enough to keep him trending on Twitter the next day.

Jon launched the diatribe in a way that left the audience unsure of what was happening, but they appreciated the message by the end. Here are highlights:

I have one job and it's a pretty simple job. I come in in the morning and we look at the news and we write some jokes about it. And then I make a couple faces and a noise, and then it's just ka-ching and I'm out the door. But I didn't do my job today, so I apologize. I got nothing for you in terms of jokes and sounds, because of what happened in South Carolina. And maybe if it wasn't so near the end of the run, or this wasn't such a common occurrence, I could have pulled out of the spiral - but I didn't. So I honestly have nothing, other than just sadness, once again, that we have to peer into the abyss of the depraved violence that we do to each other, and the nexus of a gaping racial wound that will not heal, yet we pretend doesn't exist. I'm confident, though, that by acknowledging it, by staring into that and seeing it for what it is, we still won't do jack sh-t. Yeah. That's us. And that's the part that blows my mind."

This is the best part:

What blows my mind is the disparity of response between when we think people that are foreign are going to kill us and us killing ourselves. If this had been what we thought was Islamic terrorism, it would fit into our -- we invaded two countries and spent trillions of dollars and thousands of American lives and now fly unmanned death machines over like five or six different countries to keep Americans safe. We've got to do whatever we can - we'll torture people! -- we've got to do whatever we can to keep Americans safe. Nine people shot in a church! What about that? 'What are you going to do? Crazy is as crazy is, right?' That's the part that I cannot for the life of me wrap my head around. And you know it. You know it's going to go down the same path: 'This is a terrible tragedy'. They're already using the nuanced language of lack of effort for this. [...] I heard someone on the news say, 'Tragedy has visited this church'. This wasn't a tornado. This was a racist. This was a guy with a Rhodesia badge on his sweater. So I hate to even use this pun, but this one is black and white. There's no nuance. And we're going to keep pretending like, 'I don't get it, what happened? There's one guy lost his mind.' But we are steeped in that culture in this country and we refuse to recognize it, and I cannot believe how hard people are working to discount it..."

Just watch it all:


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Amy Poehler Facts: 14 Things You (Probably) Didn't Know About the 'Inside Out' Star

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Amy Poehler has been bringing joy into our lives for years, so it's no surprise that she was cast to bring the emotion to life in "Inside Out." The woman is a comedy hero, but she also proves she can tug on some heartstrings in Pixar's new animated movie.

From her topless writing habit to her stoner stage, here are 14 things you probably didn't know about Amy Poehler.

The Hasty Pudding Theatricals Honor Amy Poehler As 2015 Woman Of The Year[Sources: IMDB, "Yes, Please"]

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See Nick Run in the New 'Fear the Walking Dead' Teaser

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fear the walking deadA new teaser trailer for "Fear the Walking Dead" introduces viewers to one of the main characters, and introduces the notion that there's plenty to run from in this new, zombie-riddled world.

The short clip centers around Nick (Frank Dillane), who plays the son of Madison (Kim Dickens). The wordless promo features the terrified young man seemingly running for his life, bolting from a house, around a fence, and sprinting down the street, clearly trying to get away from...something. Just what that something is, unfortunately, remains unseen, though whatever it was (perhaps a Z-word?) posed enough of a threat that Nick could barely get himself dressed -- and needs to hitch up his sagging pants -- before attempting to escape.

Though the clip doesn't actually tell us a whole lot about Nick -- just that he's a fast runner, and easily spooked -- co-creator Robert Kirkman spilled some details in an interview with Entertainment Weekly earlier this month. According to Kirkman, Nick is "pretty much a parent's worst nightmare," who's "flunked out of college, had a lot of trouble, got mixed up in some bad elements, and is definitely the problem child."

Kirkman also told EW that Nick is constantly at odds with his super-smart, seemingly-perfect sister, Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey), which causes a lot of tension in their household. Sounds like there will be plenty of drama on "Fear" that doesn't revolve around zombies.

Check out the teaser below. "Fear the Walking Dead" debuts on AMC sometime this August.

Photo credit: YouTube

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'Inside Out': Meet Pixar's Secret Weapon, Ralph Eggleston

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Amongst animation fans, Ralph Eggleston is something of a legend.

Pixar hired Eggleston in 1992, when the studio was in full swing on the first "Toy Story" and he has served as a production designer, storyboard artist, writer and director. (In 2000, his short film, "For the Birds," won an Academy Award.) He has contributed substantially to every Pixar film and this week's "Inside Out" is no different.

For the brilliant new film that takes place inside the head of an 11-year-old girl, Eggleston served as Production Designer. And it's a pretty unbelievable task, conjuring forth worlds as vast as the human mind (including the subconscious, Dreamland Studios, where dreams are made, the Train of Thought, and, of course, Headquarters).

We sat down with Eggleston and talked about the film's lengthy development and production process, being part of the fabric of Pixar, and what he's got coming up next.

Moviefone: You talked about working on "Inside Out" for a long time and just realizing that it wasn't working. What was the breaking point where you said, "We have to do something else?"

Ralph Eggleston: Well, that was every day almost. The idea was always there. It was always about Riley and her emotions. Variations on that were what took place. The real world component of the film, for example, ... Riley's grandmother died and they moved to New York City and Riley's grandmother was a hoofer in the follies in the 1920's and Riley wanted to be like her grandmother. The idea was a big fish in a small pond moves to a big pond and she's a small fish. And the whole mind world was based on the catwalks, all the way to the sublevels of a theater. That was a take. And that lasted for a couple of weeks, I'm sure. But the idea was always Riley and her emotions. Pete [Docter] didn't want to spend too much time with Riley initially. And of course, the film has come back around to that, which is totally cool. The problem, for a little while, was that you didn't care about the emotions or the journey they went on unless you cared about Riley and understood enough about her.
What was the hardest thing to lose?

Oooh, that's a hard one. This didn't go very far, but there was an idea for a concept of what the mind was that was much more based on a fractal. It was the idea that the further you zoomed in, the further you zoom in. It was never ending. There is this thing called a Mandelbrot cube fractal, which is a three-dimensional fractal. And they always look weird and hippy dippy ... But it looks like a cube and you zoom in and it looks like an H.R. Giger painting, except in 3D.

But the idea was interesting - the further you zoomed in, it was infinity. But also that if you were on one set, say you were outside headquarters, which is in the middle of everything, and you got on the Train of Thought, it could go like this [he starts contorting himself] and then you're looking like this, and these little dots are there and up is there. It was so intriguing. I remember having lunch with Brad Bird somewhere in this process and I pitched him that and he stared at me and said, "That would be awesome." If the story had been much more advanced in terms of the push and pull of the elements, maybe we could have done it.

Where did the design of Headquarters come from?

To be honest, a lot of it had to do with the brain, finding elements of the physicality of a brain or a body - cellular structures, elements of hypothalamus, DNA. We would sit there and draw. We got macro-photography books of cells and body parts and we would just sit and doodle and abstract. And it was also a bonding experience for us.
And you've been here for a long time.

Well, Pixar started in 1985. I got here at the tail end of 1992.

You've worked on all of these things. Do you have any ambition to do a project of your own?

Well I have, it's called "For the Birds."

What about a feature?

I've pitched several things here. I'll go wherever they want me to go. That's always been the truth. So many people here go home and do their own thing. That's not me. I am somebody who likes to do the work with groups. I don't care where I fit in. It's such a collaborative effort. That's the most fun part of this job. So directing, I don't know that I would want that pressure. I would rather fit in with a particular director and I've been lucky enough to fit with each one of the directors I've worked with... My job is to make their job easier.

Do you look in on other productions?

We always do. We share a lot here. The only stuff they keep away, not from people in the company but anybody else, in the most general sense, is the stuff in the early stages of development. If there's something in production, and we have several things in varying states of production, any technical person or staff person from any phase in production can go in and do whatever they want.

And you said "Inside Out" was the most difficult thing you've ever worked on?

It was. Mainly because of the enormity of the possibilities -- It was incredibly daunting.

Can you talk about what you're working on next?

Yes -- Driving home!

"Inside Out" is in theaters now.

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The 9 Sexiest Bald Celebrities

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Congratulations, HBO: you just got us to care about football.

HBO's new football dramedy "Ballers" premieres this Sunday, and, in case you hadn't noticed, it stars one sexy hunk of a bald man: Dwayne Johnson. While we tirelessly perused promotional images of Dwayne (for work, we swear), it got us thinking about some of Hollywood's other hot, follically-challenged celebrities.

Here, then, are nine Hollywood hotties who prove that you don't need hair to be sexy.

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Sorry, But Lady Gaga Won't Sing on 'AHS: Hotel'

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Songwriters Hall Of Fame 46th Annual Induction And Awards - Arrivals"American Horror Story" is known for showcasing its stars' talent for singing. But according to series creator Ryan Murphy, the most high-profile singer in the new cast won't be participating in any musical numbers this season.

In an interview with Deadline, Murphy said that Lady Gaga, who's joined upcoming season "Hotel" in an undisclosed role, will not be singing a note. And she's not the only one: Murphy said that none of the cast members -- including fan favorites Kathy Bates and Sarah Paulson and newcomers like Max Greenfield -- would participate in any numbers this season, despite clamoring from fans for more music.

"The interesting thing is we cast a lot of singers this season but I like that singers, for the most part, are always great actors because they know how to sell a story through song, through a scene," Murphy told Deadline. "I'm excited about that and I think that's why Gaga was excited about it; it's not something that she's ever done before. It's a pure acting part. I think people expect that she's going to be sitting in a bar in a white silk gown sort of singing songs - she is not."

While we now immediately want that image to happen, we sort of understand where Murphy's coming from. After all, the show has "horror" right there in the title, and it's hard to suspend disbelief about lurking danger when someone's warbling a show tune onscreen.

In fact, Murphy said, "AHS" will be delving deeper into its horror roots this season, and fans should prepare themselves for some seriously dark stuff.

"The upcoming season that we're doing is much more horror-based; it's much more dark," the showrunner told Deadline. "It's about a theme and an idea that's very close to my heart that I've always wanted to do that's a little bloodier and grislier I think than anything that we've done before; it's straight horror this year."

"American Horror Story: Hotel" debuts this October on FX.

[via: Deadline]

Photo credit: Getty Images for Songwriters Hall Of Fame

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'BattleBots' Is Back: Here's Your Season Premiere Sneak Peek

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BattleBots - Season Premiere Preview
"BattleBots" is all set to return this Sunday at 9 PM on ABC, and it looks like the competition is stiffer than ever. 24 of the best builders from around the globe will compete over 6 weeks to build the ultimate fighting machine. Get a sneak peek at some of the competitors and bots right here in this intense preview of the new season. Plus, take a look at some behind-the-scenes action with the new bots, below.

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Alexandra Daddario's 5 Favorite Movies

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Alexandra Daddario wrapped up being a badass in the disaster movie "San Andreas," and now she's taking on a more laid-back role in "Burying the Ex." She plays a completely alive person (as far as we know) whose boyfriend is trying to get rid of his crazy ex, who just so happened to come back from the dead.

To celebrate the release of her new zombie flick, Alexandra shared her five favorite movies ever.

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Tom Hanks May Play Capt. Sully Sullenberger in Clint Eastwood's Biopic

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SeriousFun Children's Network's New York City Gala - ArrivalsFresh off the announcement that he was tackling the life of Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, director Clint Eastwood appears to have already found his leading man.

Deadline reports that Eastwood has tapped Tom Hanks -- an American hero in his own right -- for the high-profile role of the pilot, who safely landed a failing plane in the Hudson River in 2009, saving the lives of all 155 passengers on board. Eastwood is adapting Sullenberger's book, "Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters," for the as-yet-untitled flick, with a screenplay written by Todd Komarnicki.

According to Deadline, Hanks is still hammering out a deal, and Eastwood and studio Warner Bros. are eager to work with the actor. This seems like perfect casting, as Oscar winner Hanks has shown a knack for playing high-profile, real-life heroes in the past (most recently in the title role in "Captain Phillips"), and already possesses the geniality that Sullenberger became known for following his swift maneuvering.

With Hanks on board, this film should easily soar. Stay tuned.

[via: Deadline]

Photo credit: Getty Images

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'Jaws': 40 Things You (Probably) Didn't Know About Spielberg's Classic

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On its 40th anniversary, the first summer blockbuster ever is still one of the best films ever made.

"Jaws," Steven Spielberg's iconic classic, turns the big "4-0" this week on June 20 -- and four decades is a long time for a movie to reign over pop-culture. To celebrate the milestone, here are 40 facts you may not know about the No. 1 reason it will never be safe to go back in the water.

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Watch Robin Williams in the Heartbreaking 'Boulevard' Trailer, His Final Onscreen Role

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robin williams, boulevardIt's jarring to see Robin Williams in a movie trailer, so long after the actor's August 2014 death. And he's front and center in the new promo for "Boulevard," his final onscreen film role (he also voices a dog in the comedy "Absolutely Anything," out later this summer), spouting the sort of lines that are imbued with new meaning in the wake of his passing.

Williams plays Nolan, a 60-year-old closeted man stuck in a marriage he doesn't want, working a dead-end bank job for more than 25 years, and wondering how his life got so far from happy.

"Nothing turned out the way I thought, I guess," he says.

One night on the way home from work, Nolan takes a sudden detour down an unfamiliar road, and ends up picking up Leo (newcomer Roberto Aguire), a young hooker who Nolan pays for companionship rather than sex. He's drawn into Leo's life, which includes dinners and defending him from a beating; naturally, his wife (Kathy Baker) and friends (Bob Odenkirk) start to notice something's different, and soon, Nolan is ready for the change he so dreaded before.

"Maybe it's never too late to start living the life you really want," Odenkirk's character tells Nolan, another line infused with bittersweet context.

"Boulevard" is due in theaters on July 17.

Photo credit: YouTube

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8 Times Pixar Movies Made Us Ugly-Cry

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Movies can make us laugh. Or cry. Pixar's films do both -- especially the latter.

As their latest, "Inside Out," sends us reaching for all the tissues, here are 8 times Pixar made us get our ugly-cry on.

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Best of Late Night TV: Colin Farrell's Confession and Taylor Schilling's Sex Accident

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If you're like us and value your sleep, you probably nodded off into your Ambien dreamland before the party started on post-prime time TV. Don't worry; we've got you covered. Here's the best of what happened last night on late night.

"True Detective's" second season starts this Sunday on HBO, so obviously the cast is making the rounds on Late Night. You know what that means: Colin Farrell and Vince Vaughn stopped by "The Tonight Show," and Jimmy Fallon had them sit down for a game of True Confessions (basically Two Truths and a Lie, only a little different). What did we learn? For starters, Colin Farrell was a murder suspect. Oh....


Calling all "Orange Is The New Black" fans! Taylor Schilling stopped by "Late Night" to talk about getting injured during a sex scene. Apparently she got "very excited," took her shirt off, and scratched her face. Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "please practice safe sex."


Meanwhile, Jack Black visited "Jimmy Kimmel Live," and proceeded to break out his massage skills. Don't worry, he's simply started a service where people can get massaged by their favorite celebs, no bigs.

Over on "Conan," Josh Hutcherson mused on how he went to Bonnaroo and easily avoided fans due to how...well... high they all were. Apparently, his devotees are an easily influenced bunch, bless their hearts.

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