EmmaStone Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I always seem to start these pieces the same way: "I don't normally do set visits," given my general distaste for air travel and a frequent disinterest for movie sets, but once in a while ... something fun and easy comes along, and I go for the ride. The friendly folks at Sony invited me to visit the set of a flick called (wait for it) Zombieland! Come on! If you know anything about me, then you know "Zombieland" is a place I want to visit, even if it is just a movie set! (Oh, and the flight was from Philadelphia to Atlanta, and that really helped to seal the deal.)

So I arrive in the surprisingly quiet but very charming section of Atlanta (a city I'd love to revisit soon) and am greeted by several gracious colleagues -- and ... what's this? Mr. James Rocchi, an old friend to Cinematical and one of my very best buddies? He was here for the Zombieland set visit too? Toss in a quick beer with some of my Signal pals ... and this turned out to be a smart trip.

But here's where I'll let you in on a little secret. Gather 'round, movie geeks. Ready? Here it is: movie sets are really boring! No, it's true! It's like wandering through a stunningly orchestrated construction site that also has a tiny little stage play taking place in a corner somewhere. If you're interested in the crafts of photography, fashion, carpentry, or electrical engineering, then a movie set could be pretty fascinating. (But you'd keep getting bumped into, believe me.) Luckily for us, "set visits" are just a bit more elaborate than a normal day on the set...



(Much) more right here at HorrorSquad!

Just when it seemed that October might be super-serious with its horror and dramatic offerings -- Shutter Island to Sorority Row, The Stepfather to Saw VI -- we get our first look at the fun-looking Zombieland, an action-horror-comedy in which Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone (!) and Abigail Breslin all team up in the post-apocalyptic wasteland and whoop some undead ass.

The tone of at least the trailer (I could see the narration carrying over to the film) strikes me as something like Shaun of the Dead crossed with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and I for one don't think that intersection's a bad place to be.

Read the rest over at Horror Squad ...

Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch has been a revolving door of casting and schedule conflicts. Last month, the film lost Amanda Seyfried but quickly replaced her with Emily Browning. Now, he's cast Jena Malone and Jamie Chung, who have stepped in to replace Evan Rachel Wood and Emma Stone, respectively.

Wood and Stone were both forced to drop out due to schedule conflicts and as of now, only Abbie Cornish and Vanessa Hudgens remain out of the original line-up, which was always in negotiation anyway.

But don't despair, because every casting report gives us a bit more of its grindhouse plot. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Malone will be playing Cornish's younger sister, both of whom have the unfortunate luck to be locked in this hellish mental institution. Chung will be playing Annie, "a country girl with a big heart." (I want to add "as big as all Texas" but I'm not going to jump to geographical conclusions. Maybe she's from West Virginia or Tennessee.)

There's not much more to say about the casting, except that I'm glad to see a little diversity by way of Chung, and I'm uncertain about Malone. She's certainly a very respectable young actress (and co-producer these days) but she always comes off so brittle and humorless. Maybe all she needs is a part like this where she can cut loose and have fun ... and how can you not have fun with a film like this? It's a laugh just writing about it.

Losing your lead actress might daunt some directors, but not Zack Snyder. Snyder doesn't sleep, he waits -- and he already has a replacement for Amanda Seyfried. Entertainment Weekly reports that Emily Browning will take on the role of Baby Doll in Snyder's upcoming Sucker Punch.

You probably best remember the Australian-born Browning as the young Angelina Jolie lookalike in A Series of Unfortunate Events -- and if you're a guy, you've probably been counting the days for her to grow up, which she did in this year's The Uninvited.

I haven't seen enough of Browning to say if she's a better lead than Seyfried or not. She's definitely dabbled more in the Gothic than Seyfried, who was an appealing pick precisely because she hadn't played dark and violent yet. She's the kind of girl who shouldn't land in a mental institution, whereas Browning (and I'm going purely off Unfortunate Events) looks as though she might expect it.

Shooting is still set to begin in the fall, and EW is still reporting that Evan Rachel Wood, Vanessa Hudgens, Abbie Cornish, and Emma Stone remain "in talks," so we could still see some faces come and go. Schedule conflicts are really killing off the cool casting this year.

It looks like we've got our next Emma-style revamp, only this time, it's led by an Emma, rather than being a Clueless adaptation of Jane Austen's novel. Variety reports that Emma Stone, Jonah Hill's cute paramour in Superbad, is going to star in Will Gluck's new comedy called Easy A -- the next film to turn the classics loose in the halls of a modern high school. The latest piece of literature on the chopping block: Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter.

A New York playwright named Bert V. Royal adapted the classic into the story of a girl in high school who finds that her life is reflecting the infamous Hester Prynne's, "after she pretends to be the school slut in hopes she'll benefit from the notion she's promiscuous." Get the title? The scarlet "A" for adultery mixed with the notion of grades? They definitely get an A for the effort of connecting the two works in the title.

As for the film, it's all up to what Gluck (Fired Up) brings us, and whether he can make a flick that will fall into the ranks of Clueless and Emma, or Cruel Intentions and Dangerous Liaisons. However, do we really need another account of a clueless girl who makes bad decisions and gets shunned for them? More importantly, yet more films where the girl thinks that sleeping around, real or imaginary, is a benefit? Methinks Juno should pay her a visit and set her straight.

Shortly after Watchmen's second weekend in theaters, word began to spread that because the film was a financial failure, Warner Brothers would stop making R-rated superhero movies (even though Watchmen wasn't really a "superhero movie") and start concentrating more on PG-13 superhero movies, like The Dark Knight (which should've been R-rated). Confused yet? But that's not stopping Warners from taking wild chances on other R-rated material, like Zack Snyder's $100 million all-female "Alice in Wonderland with machine guns," Sucker Punch -- due to begin production this fall (with an October 2010 release date), starring Evan Rachel Wood, Vanessa Hudgens, Abbie Cornish, and Emma Stone

So they can't make an R-rated Batman movie, but line up an all-female cast on an original script set in the 1950s with no established audience and, heck, Warners will throw a good $100 million at it. Why not? The NY Observer says they'd be "shocked" if the studio actually moves ahead on this project, now that lead Amanda Seyfried has dropped out -- coupled with the fact that the last time they gave Snyder over a hundred million, he gave them a film that won't even come close to making that money back. Is Sucker Punch really that much of a gamble, or will the idea of hot young starlets kicking ass bring the horny teenage fanboys (and girls) to theaters in droves?

Personally, I like that Warner Bros. is taking these risks. And maybe they can afford to with The Dark Knight cleaning house and three more Harry Potter films on the way, but if we're not going to get our hardcore R-rated superhero movies, then there needs to be a happy medium. They need to satisfy that audience with something cool and flashy, like Sucker Punch.

What do you think? Is Sucker Punch a risky investment considering what happened to Watchmen? Or do you think the all-female action film will be too hot to resist?

Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch just lost its Baby Doll, according to Entertainment Weekly.
Amanda Seyfried had been tapped to play Baby, the unlucky girl whose sleazy stepfather locks her up in a mental institution and schedules her for a lobotomy.

The reason is one that seems to be damning a few actresses this spring -- schedule conflicts. Sucker Punch was scheduled to shoot in the fall, the same time as the fourth season of HBO's Big Love. HBO won't release her from her commitment, and apparently doesn't want to work around it. (There's a joke about fundamentalist Mormons and compounds here, but I'm not going to make it.)

It's a shame, as Seyfried really fits the "Alice in Wonderland with machine guns" theme Snyder's film is aiming for, and she's one of the most promising young actresses around. She's been picking smart scripts lately, and the idea of seeing her dabble in action was a pretty cool one.

There's no word on who might step up to replace her. Just about every other young up-and-comer (Evan Rachel Wood, Vanessa Hudgens, Abbie Cornish, and Emma Stone) were negotiating to join, so the pickings are slim. One of them might be able to angle for the lead now that Seyfried is gone. Or maybe Snyder should look to someone even younger -- is Emma Watson free?

Not one to take a breather, Zack Snyder is immediately launching into his next project (and his first original script), Sucker Punch.

I don't want to get all gushy and fangirly, but this might just be a film for the girls who identified with this. It might even be a film that embodies the Bechdel Rule. It's an R-rated, $100 million dollar action movie set in the 1950s, and it centers on a girl imprisoned in a mental institution by her evil stepfather. Due to be lobotomized, she loses herself in a fantasy world where she dreams about escaping with her fellow inmates. Or, as Snyder describes it, it's "Alice in Wonderland with machine guns."

Entertainment Weekly reports that Amanda Seyfried is in negotiations to play the lead, and that Evan Rachel Wood, Vanessa Hudgens, Abbie Cornish, and Emma Stone are also in talks. Production doesn't start until fall, so we could see a few of these faces shift, but I'm liking the line up so far.

But seriously, how cool is this? It's the exact opposite of the chick flicks we've been inundated with of late -- and while I don't think violence and ass-kicking automatically make a film feminist, it's a step in the right direction.
Even Snyder is cheekily aware of that: "I already did the all-male cast with 300, so I'm doing the opposite end of the spectrum."

If nothing else, it might just help Warner Bros reconsider that whole "no female leads" stance they took in 2007.

A brief, sum-it-all-up-in-one-line description of The House Bunny would probably go something like this: Imagine if a sequel to Legally Blonde and a sequel to Clueless had a child and it was adopted by a sequel to Revenge of the Nerds. That's The House Bunny. Thankfully, a strong and very funny performance from Anna Faris -- as well as decent-enough turns from Emma Stone and Kat Dennings -- save this late summer slacker from flunking out of theaters completely. It's familiar, it doesn't make you work for a laugh and, heck, for some it might be a nice way to cap off a long, dark, foul-mouthed summer full of superheroes, stoners and sequels.

To Shelley Darlingson (Faris), living in the Playboy Mansion is a fairytale come true. Sure, she's not a centerfold ... yet ... and was only featured in a few pictorials (Girls with GEDs, Girls with Charlie Sheen), but that doesn't stop her from bringing half-naked cheer and joy to anyone within shouting distance. Things take a turn for the worse, however, when Shelley's told that Hef doesn't want her in the mansion anymore -- that 27 is, like, 59 in Bunny years. With nowhere to go, a suitcase full of skimpy outfits and the rusty, beaten-up station wagon she arrived in, Shelley wanders the streets until eventually she stumbles upon a whole bunch of mansions that look just like home ... only they're fraternity and sorority houses ... but good ol' Shelley don't know the difference.

(We're re-posting our CineVegas review of The Rocker to coincide with the film's theatrical release today)

I like the premise of The Rocker so much -- middle-aged wannabe rock star insinuates himself into his teenage nephew's band -- that I'm inclined to go easy on it solely out of good will. It's likable enough, a lightweight rock 'n' roll comedy punctuated by several belly laughs -- but those laughs are all in response to the one-liners, and mostly from one minor character (more on that later). The story, the central personalities, and the uninspired slapstick are bland.

The title wannabe is Robert "Fish" Fishman, played by Rainn Wilson (of TV's The Office) in his first major film role. Fish was the drummer for Vesuvius, a mid-'80s heavy-metal band, but was kicked out on the eve of the group's success. Now, two decades later, Vesuvius is huge and Fish is a bitter has-been (or, rather, never-was).