AmandaPeet Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Not too terribly long after Sony Pictures decided to shuffle rom-com The Ugly Truth back a couple of months from April to July, we get word from the Hollywood Reporter that they've opted to similarly relocate disaster flick 2012 from its July date to a mid-November spot. Were Roland Emmerich and his tidal waves scared off by Gerard Butler and Katherine Heigl's opposites-attract antics?

No, probably not, but while Sony insists that the film could've been completed as originally scheduled, they're willing to capitalize on the weekend that served their Bond franchise so well in its past two outings. (Hey, who wouldn't kill to have four more months of post-production on their effects-heavy film?) One's willing to interpret the dual moves as the studio's efforts at making the most of a slate left light by that writer's strike a while back, just as Warner Brothers had by moving back Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince from last November to this July.

Starring John Cusack, Amanda Peet, and Oliver Platt -- it's a Martian Child reunion, y'all! -- 2012 is now scheduled to open on November 13th (until it gets moved back once more to the actual year of 2012, in what may either turn out to be the best or worst marketing move of all time).

So Erik-with-a-k covered the coming comedies of 2009, Scott was all over the horror picks (though his inclusion of Race to Witch Mountain still boggles my mind), Eric-with-a-c nabbed the family-friendly fare, and Elisabeth went over the geek fodder that awaits. But while I respect their calendar years and made-up math alike, I've opted to divide my list of 2009's action and adventure flicks into four categories: Action Flicks I Couldn't Care More About, Action Flicks I Couldn't Care Less About, Action Flicks That I Hope Surprise Me, and Those Which Fell In Between. Enjoy!

Action Flicks I Couldn't Care More About: First and foremost -- Watchmen (March 6th). It's one hell of a graphic novel and looks to be one hell of an adaptation (with or without the Giant Blank), but the only problem is it may not hit theaters on time if 20th Century Fox has anything to say about it. Both Fox and Warner Brothers are fighting over who actually owns the rights, and if a judge favors Fox comes January 20th (when the court date is set), we're looking at a delayed release and a whole ton of angry fans. Then there's Public Enemies (July 1st), which has me sold on not the subject matter, but sheer pedigree: Michael Mann directs Johnny Depp and Christian Bale as '30s gangsters. (It doesn't hurt that the earliest word ranges from damn good to great.) On the skimpier side, I can only hope that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (July 17th) streamlines its source material as the previous one had, and I can only hope that Crank 2: High Voltage (April 17th) lives up/down to the depravity of its predecessor. There's one last action movie that I couldn't care more about because, well, I've already seen a version of it. The international cut of Taken (January 30th, though reportedly opening with some R-dodging trims) is about as brisk and butt-kicking as one might hope out of a man-on-a-mission kidnapping thriller, and if you disagree, I'll send Liam Neeson to change your mind.

Gallery: Watchmen

The first teaser trailer for Roland Emmerich's 2012 has just arrived online, courtesy of Moviefone, and from the looks of it the director has returned to his most successful end-of-the-world form for this film about the Mayan prophecy that predicts the world will end in the year 2012. Starring John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Thandie Newton, Woody Harrelson and more, 2012 will follow a group of survivors as they deal with the catastrophic events occurring on their planet as the world as they know it slowly comes to an end. In addition to this teaser, you can Google 2012 and surf through tons of information about the prophecy -- including this site, Institute for Human Continuity, which allows users to register for a lottery number to ensure their chance of survival once that dreadful day arrives.

2012 is due in theaters on July 10, 2009, and you can find out more about the film over on its official website (which just launched with this teaser). Watch below, or over on Moviefone in glorious HD. Thoughts?

Six years have passed since "The X-Files" went off the air after nine seasons; fans agree that it left with a whimper rather than a bang, and ten years have passed since the first and only feature film. So the question of the day is: why a sequel? Why now? But perhaps a better question is "why not?" The fact is that FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) always had vats of chemistry; they arguably outstripped and outranked any other male-female couple in the history of television. Their pairing was perfect: Mulder believed -- or wanted to believe -- in the supernatural while Scully was a scientist, a doctor and a Catholic who believed in God but looked for reasonable, logical explanations in everything. In each episode, the team was called in to investigate some kind of paranormal activity, and they debated and discussed the various possibilities behind each. In the end, hardly anything was ever proved or disproved.

The X-Files: I Want to Believe offers the viewer many mysteries to contemplate -- and only one of them is on-screen; as David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson return to roles and a franchise that last graced our TV screens in 2002 (and was last on the big screen in 1998), your mind swirls around the behind-the-scenes facts as fiercely as it does around the events playing out before your eyes. As reclusive, retired ex-FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully (Duchovny and Anderson) help the FBI with an abduction case, you're not following the plot as such; instead, you're thinking things like Hey, didn't this show get canceled six years ago? Haven't Duchovny and Chris Carter, the star and director of this film, both sued the studio behind it? Who, out in the movie going audience, is really clamoring for this movie? If you're an X-Files fan, is this film's freestanding creepy tale, with no link to the weird and convoluted mythos Carter came up with for the show, going to satisfy whatever itch you may still have for the franchise? And if you're not an X-Files fan, is the idea that this film stands alone enough reason to come to the franchise now?

At this point I'm starting to think that Roland Emmerich must be in possession of some pretty serious blackmail material, because there is no other explanation why accomplished actors are so ready and willing to star in his films. MTV now reports that Woody Harrelson has joined the cast of Emmerich's end of the world thriller, 2012.

The story is based on an ancient Mayan prophecy about the end of the world, but Emmerich's film is no ode to Apocalypto. Instead, John Cusack stars as an academic who opens up a portal to a parallel dimension (don't you hate it when that happens?) in an attempt to contact his double and prevent the apocalyptic prophecy from happening. Harrelson will play what he calls a "modern day Cassandra" who has seen the writing on the wall and has been predicting the disaster for years.

According to Harrelson, he will "play a guy who's been talking for a long time, the whole world thinks he's crazy. But he's been talking that there's gonna be hell to pay for what's been going on ecologically and everything." Perhaps this is Emmerich's idea of a little in-joke considering Harrelson's activist leanings. In the meantime, fans of Harrelson's work will probably prefer his upcoming thriller, Transsiberian. But who am I to judge? I guess sometimes a pay check can be its own reward.

2012 is scheduled to begin filming on location in Vancouver and is slated for release in July, 2009.

When is the news of an actor you really like joining the cast of a high-profile new movie bad news? When you wish that actor were doing other things with his time, that's when. In the case of Thomas McCarthy -- whom you may remember from his masterfully detestable performance as weaselly reporter Scott Templeton in the final season of The Wire -- I wish he were writing and directing another film as brilliant and deeply moving as The Visitor, which at this halfway point is my favorite movie of 2008. I'd even settle for something with the wry, quiet charm of his lovely 2003 debut The Station Agent.

Instead -- ::sigh:: -- he's gone and taken a supporting role in Roland Emmerich's disaster flick 2012, playing Amanda Peet's boyfriend. C'mon, Tom: anyone can do that. Only a handful of people have your behind-the-camera chops. Quit messing around.

I'm being mean, and in this Hollywood Reporter piece McCarthy makes a valiant effort at defending the choice in terms of how working with directors who make different kinds of films helps him with his own work. (The article also mentions that McCarthy moonlights as an uncredited studio script doctor, which I didn't know, and which makes perfect sense given the natural, effortless flow of the films he's written.) Okay fine. But direct something else please.

I was trying to think back to when Amanda Peet had her last high-profile starring role, and I realized: she doesn't do them very often. It's surprising, because she seems so ubiquitous, but it's true -- outside of tiny projects like Nigel Cole's A Lot Like Love, she's mostly done lots and lots of (often significant) supporting parts. She's making a somewhat dubious attempt to remedy that by taking the female lead role opposite John Cusack in Roland Emmerich's sci-fi epic 2012. Peet and Cusack will head a cast that includes Chiwetel Ejiofor, Thandie Newton, Danny Glover (as the President) and Oliver Platt.

2012, which was written by Emmerich with his 10,000 BC writing partner (and, uh, composer) Harald Kloser, posits that the end of the Mayan calendar in 2012 will herald the end of the world. Cusack's character must open a portal into a parallel universe and enlist his double in the struggle to prevent said apocalypse. The concept is right up my alley, but Emmerich's films -- especially his and Kloser's 10,000 BC -- are not. On the other hand, the two leads are immensely likable, and John Cusack rarely signs on for a genuine stinker, so we'll see.

The movie is scheduled for a July 10, 2009 release barring an actor's strike. Peet, of course, will also appear in a (surprise!) supporting role in this year's The X-Files: I Want to Believe.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Since Fox has refused to reveal virtually any plot details about this summer's The X-Files: I Want to Believe, I've endeavored to translate the still-cryptic but slightly more informative Russian trailer that hit the interwebs yesterday. It would seem that the story will involve a priest named "Father Joe" (that's the Billy Connolly character) who has nightmarish visions of a woman in trouble that he claims come from God. (In other words, this unofficial summary seems to have been on the money.) We also learn that Mulder is roped into the investigation by Amanda Peet's character, Dakota Whitney.

I had fun translating the cheesy dubbing; you hear bits of this dialogue in the American trailer, but a lot of it is new. Check out the translation after the jump.

Word about Nicole Holofcener's still-untitled new film hit back in December, when Catherine Keener, regular Holofcener star, was circling the project. Now The Hollywood Reporter posts that the film has been picked up by Sony Picture Classics, and three players have been added to the roster -- Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, and Rebecca Hall.

Written by Holofcener, the film focuses on a New York couple (Keener and Platt) who own the next-door apartment, which is occupied by a "cantankerous, elderly woman." The pair want to reclaim the apartment, so they're anxiously waiting for the woman to die so they can grab it back. It's not the most charming plan, but certainly understandable in a morbid way. But then their impatience is complicated by the presence of the woman's two granddaughters, who the couple befriend (Peet and Hall) -- it's not so easy to itch for death when the whole scenario becomes more real.

The film is scheduled to begin production in mid-May, with plans to wrap before that looming, potential SAG strike. In the meantime, a number of roles still need to be cast -- namely the grandmother who won't die, and the couple's daughter.