KerryWashington Tagged Articles at Cinematical

In his decade in the storytelling business, Rodrigo García has made a name for himself not only as a notable television director (Carnivale, Six Feet Under, and In Treatment), but also as a filmmaker intensely interested in the lives of women and the intricacies of smaller, often interconnected story lines. It started with Things You Can Tell Just By Looking at Her and Ten Tiny Love Stories, but García really made his mark with 2005's Nine Lives. When he followed it up with the television movie Fathers and Sons, it was inevitable that he would one day take that same theme and apply it to the female characterizations he loves so much. It wouldn't be in the form of Mothers & Daughters, as Carl Bessai* brought that very film to TIFF in 2008. But with a slightly different title, Mother and Child, García jumps leaps and bounds beyond Bessai's take and has created a well-crafted web of female characters and universally engaging storytelling.

*Who, by the way, has his own Fathers & Sons on the way.

Cinematical has just received this exclusive clip from Life is Hot in Cracktown, which looks to be a pretty intense ensemble drama about a group of people trying to survive on the drug-infested inner-city streets. Based on Buddy Giovinazzo's novel (he also wrote and directed the film), Life is Hot in Cracktown sports an impressive cast that includes Kerry Washington, Brandon Routh, Victor Rasuk, Lara Flynn Boyle, Evan Ross, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Ileana Douglas, RZA ... and I can keep going.

In the clip below (which may be a smidge NSFW for partial nudity), we meet Marybeth (Kerry Washington), a pre-op transsexual working as a prostitute who lives with her lover Benny (Desmond Harrington), a small time burglar. Aside from following this not-so-ordinary couple while they do their best to live an ordinary life, we also infiltrate the lives of a number of other characters -- from a welfare hotel worker to a street tough to a homeless family -- as they struggle to stay afloat in Cracktown.

Life is Hot in Cracktown hits theaters on June 26.

While the Internet was frantically reporting that Megan Fox was at the head of the line to play the Amazon superheroine, Beyonce was quietly meeting with representatives from Warner Bros and DC trying to nab the role for herself.

Hero Complex sat down with the megastar, who gushed about the recent superhero trend, noting that "they're not corny at all," and how badly she would like to be a part of them. "I want to do a superhero movie and what would be better than Wonder Woman? It would be great. And it would be a very bold choice. A black Wonder Woman would be a powerful thing. It's time for that, right?"

Her one misgiving is the costume which, despite her fantastic figure, she admits is incredibly unforgiving. "I would definitely have to keep it right for that costume. The way that Lynda Carter wore it, she was so fine. She was amazing. I saw her costume at the Met. Her waist was unbelievable. It was pretty crazy, actually, her proportions. But I love Wonder Woman and it'd be a dream come true to be that character. It sure would be handy to have that lasso. To make everybody tell the truth? I need that. It would come in very handy."

At one end of his career, Neil LaBute was an up-and-coming talent to be reckoned with. He earned a reputation as intelligent Mamet-like artist of uncompromising vision with movies like In the Company of Men and Your Friends & Neighbors, harsh, cynical films that looked under the rock of humanity and found icky, squirmy things. At the other end, there's The Wicker Man, a genuine, "what was he thinking?" movie, and the curious dud The Shape of Things, which couldn't quite reconcile LaBute's stage hat with his cinema hat. In the middle we have Nurse Betty and Possession, two exceptional Hollywood entertainments with gleaming surfaces and dark souls. As with David Gordon Green and his delightful, mainstream comedy Pineapple Express, this type of "compromise" may represent LaBute's real calling.

With his seventh feature Lakeview Terrace, LaBute has once again managed to take a surface thriller and use it to work through some of humanity's ugliest and most hateful issues. It begins with a picture of suburbia, USA. Single father Abel Turner (Samuel L. Jackson) struggles to get his kids up in the morning and off to school, but struggles even harder in relating to them. He knows how to boss them around, but doesn't understand them. (He makes his son change basketball jerseys to reflect "their" favorite team.) Later, he peers out the window and watches the new neighbors move in. He's clearly perturbed that it's a clean-cut white guy, Chris Mattson (Patrick Wilson), married to a beautiful black girl, Lisa (Kerry Washington). We eventually learn that he has his reasons, his own emotional wounds, to explain why and how his buttons have been pushed, but it launches an all-out battle of wills.

Cinematical has received these exclusive photos from the new flick Lakeview Terrace, starring Samuel L. Jackson, Patrick Wilson, and Kerry Washington. The film is a thriller about an interracial couple (Wilson and Washington) who move into their dream home in California; their California dreamin' becomes a nightmare when their next door neighbor, a high-strung cop (Jackson), takes issue with having an interracial couple in the neighborhood. Jackson, the self-appointed neighborhood watchman, increasingly (and intensely, if we know Jackson) harasses them, until the newlyweds decide to fight back.

Take a look at the pics, and let us know what you think about Jackson getting his mean-and-scary on in the flick.

Cinematical has just received this exclusive poster for Lakeview Terrace, starring Samuel L. Jackson, Kerry Washington, and Patrick Wilson. Oh, the watchful eye of Jackson. This time around, he plays one of the creepiest types of bad guys -- a cop who can't be stopped. While a neighborhood like Lakeview Terrace sounds great and all, it becomes anything but when an interracial couple (Washington and Wilson) move next door to Jackson's racist cop. The man in blue starts off subtly -- an annoying light here, an awkward scare there, and then goes into full-on creepy neighbor to get the couple to hit the road. But Wilson will have none of that and crazily decides to take on the imbalanced cop.

Lakeview Terrace will hit theaters on September 19.

...and here is another round of Variety casting bites:

Last July, Canadian actress Laura Vandervoort nabbed herself a super gig as the role of Supergirl in Smallville. Now it seems that she's heading for the seas. She's scored a lead role in Into the Blue 2. Vandervoort will play a girl on a professional scuba team who get hired to find Columbus' hidden treasure. I guess there was more to the story than the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria.

Meanwhile, that Scott Caan-written story Mercy has got itself a leading lady. Wendy Glenn, who recently played Isabella in The L Word (who played Bev in Lez Girls), will play the title role, who is the love interest of Caan's character. The story is about a cynical writer who writes about love, but doesn't believe it until ... Mercy.

Lastly, there's Kerry Washington. She played Della Bea Robinson in Ray, Jasmine in Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Alicia Masters in Fantastic Four, and Kay Amin in The Last King of Scotland. Now she gets to be married to a doomed husband. She's signed on to play Eddie Murphy's wife in the comedy A Thousand Words. Her character wants her husband to settle down and spend more time with the family, but I doubt he'll have much to say about it, since the guy finds out that he'll die after he utters his next one thousand words.

If you'll permit me to embarrass myself for a moment: I'm the guy who liked Neil LaBute's redo of The Wicker Man. Well, maybe I'm not the only one -- if I recall correctly, Weinberg didn't hate it either. But I'm pretty sure that's it. Any movie where Nicolas Cage dropkicks Leelee Sobieski and then dons a bear suit for an extended stretch is okay by me, but most people seemed to think that LaBute was out of his element in the supernatural thriller genre. In that case, his next project finds him back in his wheelhouse: generating suspense by manipulating and exaggerating everyday social tensions. Lakeview Terrace involves an interracial couple (Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington) who find an enemy in their new next-door neighbor (Samuel L. Jackson), an LAPD cop who disapproves of their relationship and becomes determined to drive them away.

A trailer for Lakeview Terrace has surfaced on the film's official website, and the movie looks like squirmy, uncomfortable fun -- the kind of material LaBute is most comfortable with. In addition to the racial angle, it looks like the film is going to explore another touchy subject: the near-omnipotence that comes with a police uniform. It takes some guts to make a cop the bad guy without also providing a virtuous foil (e.g. Ethan Hawke offsetting Denzel Washington in Training Day). But if anyone can pull it off, it's Neil LaBute.

[via Comingsoon.net]

Project Greenlight producer Chris Moore is already busy with his directorial debut, Killers, but now The Hollywood Reporter posts that he's also executive producing a miniseries and feature-length documentary based on A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn. First published in 1980, the book follows the history of the United States from Columbus and Native Americans right through the twentieth century. However, instead of your ordinary historical book, Zinn critically looked at both the triumphs and tyranny of the country.

The project is titled The People Speak, and it's looking like it could be a pretty successful documentary, if the collaborators are any indication. The history will be brought together by music and readings that focus on the country's war, class, race, and women's rights struggles. Actors like Matt Damon, Viggo Mortensen, Marisa Tomei, Danny Glover, David Strathairn, Kerry Washington, and Josh Brolin will perform, while the likes of Eddie Vedder and John Legend will add some music into the mix. This collaboration will be topped off by Zinn himself, who will give introductions and historical contest to the pieces of the film.

As Moore describes it: "It's going to be a great piece of entertainment, but more importantly, something people can watch and learn and remember how great this country has been and how individual people have changed the course of history. It's going to make them think, laugh, and cry and be proud to be American." Yet the cynic in me is waiting for those people who will say all of this is anti-American. Hopefully, it will just be a well-received, good, accurate film that teaches as well as entertains. But what do you think?

Well kids, first let me congratulate you ... you did it. Redemption is yours as 300 is a huge hit. But, I see a relapse comin on as I fear many of you will make the same mistake I did ... thinking Chris Rock is still funny.

Chris Rick isn't funny anymore, and I'm not exactly sure why. I think it's partly because he thinks that the jokes he told ten years ago and recycles today are as funny and edgy as they were then. I think it's partly because he laughs the hardest at his own jokes. I think it's partly because the comedians working today are much more edgy so it makes it harder for him to stand out. Maybe it's because he spends more time producing now and less time developing as a comedian. Well, whatever it is, all I know is that until he shows me something new, I'm out. Speaking of out, let's talk about his super lame new movie.

Yes, he directs and stars in I Think I Love My Wife.

Rock plays a high powered investment banker with a beautiful wife and wonderful children. But he's not getting any at home and he fantasizes about pretty much every other woman he sees. And when the lovely Nikki (played by Kerry Washington) pursues him, will he be able to keep it in his pants?

The reel deal, this movie is SOOOOO not funny ... or well written ... or directed ... or acted. It's like he took a bunch of stand-up jokes and tried to edit them into a movie. And guys, if you're dopey enough to take your wife or girlfriend to see this movie ... and she's laughin' ... she's SOOO not laughin'. If she is, it's that "You ain't getting any for a couple week" sort of laugh. You know what I'm sayin'? I'm Out.