After skating the edges of the Western genre for years, with his 'urban Western' Cop Land and his country western-flavored music biopic Walk the Line, James Mangold has finally taken the plunge and made a full-on Western with 3:10 to Yuma, and the result is a success. While very faithful to the 1957 original -- some scenes are actually recreated word for word -- this film is also Mangold's own, stirring up the same ideas he's always shown interest in. If you're a Mangold fan, you know there are shadings of the classic High Noon situation in all of his films, with the good but under-pressure man standing by his principles as he's deserted by everyone around him, and 3:10 is no exception. This time, the good man is a poor, hobbled rancher named Evans, played by a typically dour Christian Bale. Evans is so broke he's about to go under when an opportunity presents itself -- he can make a fistful of cash if he's brave enough (or stupid enough) to walk a notorious and recently captured gangster named Ben Wade to the train station that will take him to prison.

Stepping into the shoes of Ben Wade is Russell Crowe, who plays the part as though he's certain that he's the film's good guy. When the film first catches up with Wade, he's sullen and bored with the criminal life, and prefers to sit up on a ridge and draw pictures of wild life, while leaving the scheming to his frustrated goons. Not that he's a pacifist -- Wade is a man capable of quick, brutal violence (even with a fork), although not prone to hatred or stupidity or any of the other dull characteristics we'd tend to associate with a man who robs and kills for a living. In fact, Crowe's (and Mangold's) decision to give Wade an abundance of good qualities to cancel out the bad ones may be a bit too much at times -- after all, we don't really want to root for this guy, do we? It's always something of a cheat when a movie tells us that the bad guy has taken many lives in the past, but doesn't really show us that side of him during the film.

Not long ago I had the chance to sit down with Gretchen Mol for an exclusive interview about her upcoming projects, including the new comedy The Ten, opening August 3rd, in which she plays a virgin librarian who is deflowered by Jesus Christ himself. If you were a fan of the MTV series The State, this is the movie you've been waiting for. It's a State movie, all the way down to a wink-wink cameo from Michael Ian Black. We also talked about the highly-anticipated Russell Crowe remake of the classic western 3:10 to Yuma, which is arriving in September, and in which she has the leading lady slot. Mol, who's about seven months pregnant at the moment, was in a pretty relaxed and reflective mood when we spoke, and among other things, talked about arriving at a comfortable place in her 30s and being able to relax a bit after the success of The Notorious Bettie Page -- she no longer feels like she's scrambling to get a major accomplishment under her belt, so to speak. Here's the interview, in full.

RS: For your character in The Ten, the glasses she wears and the whole outfit -- did they tell you to come up with your own idea of what a 35 year-old virgin should look like?

GM: No, well ... I always wanted to wear glasses, but the question was, it almost might be over the top or too obvious. But the movie kind of lends itself to these kinds of cliches -- especially my little section, I think, because it's got this torrid kind of romance novel vibe to it. So I thought the glasses would be great. And when I met with the costume designer, we were all in sync on everything.

RS: Did you watch The State's MTV Series back in the day?

GM: I'd heard of it, and since, I've seen it, but I'd seen Wet Hot American Summer. And actually, I've seen David do stand-up at the Fez Under Time Cafe years ago, so I was familiar with their stuff, and I was a huge fan of Wet Hot American Summer.

RS: So you had enough to work with, that you didn't feel the need to go back and study those old shows to get a handle.

GM: I didn't. David was very adamant about wanting people to basically play it straight, and the situation in the script, as he and Ken had written it, was just hysterical, so really it was just about taking what you know and applying it here -- just totally committing to this woman's story and her situation.

A roster of actor names has been splashed over at Filmick, alongside what may be their roles in Zack Snyder's upcoming Watchmen movie. There's absolutely no sourcing on this -- Brendan only says that the list was sent in by a Filmick regular and that around the same time, the same list also popped up on a Russian site. We all know that the words 'Russian website' are synonymous with credibility. At the very least, the source of the list appears to be up on the latest, since Keanu Reeves' name is gone from the roster and Patrick Wilson is still there. Speaking of Wilson, if this list holds any water the film may be turning into something of a Little Children reunion -- Kate Winslet's name is now at the top of the list as Silk Spectre, and there's a general consensus that Jackie Earle Haley is a shoe-in for the role of Rorshach.

Thomas Jane is on the list as The Comedian, who had much involvement in the series with Silk Spectre, so I guess that makes sense. Jason Patric is also on the list as Dr. Manhattan and Gretchen Mol is there as Janey Slater. I like all of these names so far, so this list has my blessing. There are also some lesser known names on the list, such as Jonah Hill, who may be playing Seymour and William Fichtner, who will be playing Bank Manager. Sorry, wrong casting sheet -- he's linked to the character Detective Fine. And of course, Jude Law is still hanging around as Ozymandias on the list. Let me close by saying that again, this is blatant rumor-mongering and probably fan fiction, but it sounds like a pretty good list, I think. Here's hoping it's real. Watchmen is currently in pre-production, and aiming for a release date sometime in 2008.