mary elizabeth winstead Tagged Articles at Cinematical

After that rush of casting announcements, Scott Pilgrim VS the World is underway, and Edgar Wright is having a lot of fun teasing us from his MySpace blog. He's been quietly posting pictures of his cast this week.

The first was the Ramona Flowers photo I posted yesterday, and it's been joined by a proper photo of Mary Elizabeth Winstead all dressed up and ready to film. Now I'm seeing the dream girl worth fighting seven exes for. (And I apologize for being unimpressed with the original photo -- look at how well her eyes match her inked counterpart!)

We also got a glimpse of Knives Chau, played by the equally lovely Ellen Wong, and an action shot of the first evil ex Scott must do battle with -- Matthew Patel, who will be played by Satya Bhabha. The Street Fighter (at least, it looks like Street Fighter) screen grab behind him is a very nice touch. So far, I'm really loving the secondary casting -- and that said, where's our Michael Cera photo?

All of the shots are available in our brand new Scott Pilgrim gallery below. I predict it will expand a lot more in the weeks to come, courtesy of Wright's MySpace.

If ever there was a pairing to hipster fan-boys everywhere; it is Michael Cera and Edgar Wright. Think about it, Cera made a name for himself being the awkward hero, and who can write an unlikely hero better than the man who helped write the Blood and Ice Cream trilogy? In an interview with Wizard Universe, Wright got the chance to update the status of his indie-comic feature, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (if you have also been waiting with bated breath for news on his Ant Man adaptation, there are a few tidbits to be had as well). So if you were worried that Pilgrim would fall by the wayside in the light of some of Wright's other projects, fear not, all is well in Pilgrim-land.

The original series was about a young Canadian and wannabe-rock star who falls for an American girl with the memorable name of Ramona V. Flowers (aka, the perfect girl). But in order to win the lady fair, our slacker must defeat her seven evil ex-boyfriends in hopes of winning a date with his dream girl. Cera plays Pilgrim, the bassist for the terribly titled band, Sex Bob-Omb, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead will star as Ramona. Wright isn't counting on making any more sequels the film as the comic was originally a 6-part series. Instead, Wright told Wizard that, "The script that we've written essentially covers all six. If it was at the level of Harry Potter we might be able to talk about doing six films but in this case our film is very much an adaptation of the entire six."

We've already tossed out some more familiar names like Ryan Gosling, Tom Welling, Jennifer Connelly, Christian Bale and Brandon Routh, but it looks like Warner Bros. and director George Miller are beginning to head in another direction as far as casting goes on the much-hyped Justice League of America live-action movie. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Miller flew in from his home in Australia over the weekend to check out 35-40 young actors who were brought in to test for roles like Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Aquaman, Green Lantern and the Martian Manhunter. A lot of these folks are still somewhat familiar, just on a smaller teen-actor scale.

Among the fresh young faces invited to the table were Adam Brody, Joseph Cross, D.J. Cotrona, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Michael Angarano, Teresa Palmer, Max Thierot and the rapper Common. Those of you following the Justice League flick on Cinematical might remember how we (along with our readers) put Common on the JLA wishlist (which you can see below) as Green Lantern. Perhaps folks from Warners were listening to our cries ... Apart from those already listed, it seems some kids from the cast of NBC's Friday Night Lights were also in attendance, including Minka Kelly, Adrianne Palicki and Scott Porter. Could our JLA cast be born out of this list? It's still too soon to tell, but Miller was itching to go in this direction because he wanted actors and actresses that could "grow into their roles over the course of several movies." That right there indicates Warners has plans in place for a lot more than one JLA film, not to mention they will most likely use these same folks for spin-off movies.

Personally, I feel this is the right way to go. While I still feel now is not a good time to rush out a JLA flick, I do think we need a fresh crop of faces to take on the roles. It's better that way, and there's less of a chance the film will hinder future stand alone Batman and Superman films. But what do you think of the direction they're heading in? Would you rather more well-known actors in the cast?

Is it time to start referring to the "Teen Dance Movie" as its own genre of film? It's alarming how many of these movies are being announced, never mind that they all have roughly the same plot. And now The Weinstein Company is interested in suckling the teen dance teat. They have just bought the North American rights to Make It Happen, which starts shooting next month. The film is described as "a dance movie set in the world of burlesque." I'll admit, my interest in the film went from zero to ten by the time I reached the end of that sentence. It's amazing how just one word can change my opinion of a movie. They're shrewd, these Hollywood types. It seems like a sure way to double the box office -- dancing and romance for the ladies, half naked women for the gentlemen.

As we told you earlier, Make It Happen will star the lovely Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Grindhouse) as "a small-town woman who moves to Chicago with dreams of entering the Chicago School of Dance but winds up working in a burlesque club." The club "proves to be a place of conflict and self-discovery." Sadly, I don't think the filmmakers and I are on the same page with the phrase "self-discovery." Winstead is currently in theaters playing John McClane's daughter in the surprisingly solid Live Free or Die Hard, and I have a feeling Mr. McClane wouldn't approve of her new role at all. Make It Happen co-stars Riley Smith and Tessa Thompson, who played Jackie Cook on Veronica Mars. Darren Grant (Diary of a Mad Black Woman) will direct the film. Duane Adler wrote the script -- he also wrote Save the Last Dance and Step Up so it's clear the guy can tackle any genre. Teen dance movies, movies about dancing teens, films involving people between the ages of thirteen and nineteen who move their feet rhythmically -- Adler can do it all.

Well, it looks like the studios are hoping to cash in early on the buzz surrounding big-budget musicals like Hairspray and are snagging any property with so much as a single dance number. Variety is reporting that Mary Elizabeth Winstead has just signed to star in the dance film Make It Happen. Written by the same man who brought us Save the Last Dance (or as I liked to call it, White Girls Can Jump) and Step Up, the pic will be directed by Darren Grant (Diary of a Mad Black Woman) and will tell the story of a small town girl (Winstead) who heads to the big city for a professional dancing career only to wind up working a Burlesque house. But since the film will be aimed at teens, I'm guessing the burlesque will be more like a Pussycat Dolls routine than anything R-rated.

Winstead's career has been building steam over the past couple of years after some relatively high-profile roles -- including supporting parts in Bobby, Black Christmas, Factory Girl, and Grindhouse -- and while she didn't have the biggest role in Tarantino's Death Proof, I'm sure the sight of her in a cheerleader outfit managed to stick in the minds of a few of the audience members. Winstead will also be back in theaters this summer as John McClane's daughter in Live Free or Die Hard. You may remember that, at the Grindhouse junket, Winstead revealed to us that she'd have some ass-kicking to do in the film -- she won't just be a damsel in distress. Make It Happen looks to be Winstead's first foray into dancing but since she is a child star I'm sure there have been some dance lessons somewhere in her past. Production on Make It Happen is set to start this July, plenty of time to brush on a few steps if need be.

The CGI car bouncing neatly over the heads of McClane and his young tag-along still looks horribly fake. It's a textbook example of how poorly conceived CGI effects can detract from, not add to the action quotient of a movie. And the whole 'driving a car into a helicopter' thing still doesn't really do it for me, either. The only possible reaction I could have to that is 'Wow, 20th Century Fox has a lot of money to burn.' Also, this trailer sort of confirms that sinking feeling I've had that Justin Long would have no other role than to be a constant, annoying sounding board for McClane's quips. Nevertheless, I did find a few things that I, as a McClane fan, could like in this brand new, fairly long, plot-heavy trailer for Live Free or Die Hard.

First of all, its villain-centric and gives us our first-ever look at Timothy Olyphant in bad-ass mode. He's even sporting a little grey hair, which gives him the look of a 40-year old math genius professor at Harvard or something. Also, there's a rock version of Beethoven's 9th thrown in there as a bone to fans (that was sort of Hans Gruber's victory theme in the first time.) Also, it looks like Mary Elizabeth Winstead was telling us the truth when she said that her character would be involved in action scenes -- the trailer gives away enough to show us that she gets kidnapped by Olyphant's terrorist character. Now, about the yippee-kai-yay. McClane says about three-quarters of the line in the trailer, and if I had to guess, I'd say we'll probably hear the whole thing, but that reminds me of the big rumor that's been floating around about Die Hard 4 for a while now -- that Fox wants to sneak it in as PG-13. Who knows. We'll find out.

Austin held a regional premiere of Grindhouse on Wednesday night, and I was there on the red carpet to meet and shoot photos of the celebrities in town for the event. (That's Quentin Tarantino in the above photo, in case you've been living under a rock.) I'm not the world's best photographer, and I used a digital camera that I bought mainly for its ability to fit in my purse. But I had a lot of fun in front of the Paramount as the actors, actresses and filmmakers each made their way down the red carpet. It was so crowded and noisy that I didn't have the chance to ask many questions, but fortunately Cinematical's Kevin Kelly attended the Grindhouse junket earlier this week and posted a two-part report that tells you just about everything you want to know about the movie. Check out my photos after the jump.

Young up-and-comer Mary Elizabeth Winstead turned up at this past weekend's Grindhouse junket, where Cinematical's crackerjack reporter Kevin Kelly was stationed to pick up even the tiniest bits of news. While talking up her role in the film, Winstead was asked to drop some info about her other upcoming, high-profile project, Live Free or Die Hard, or as the non-Americans of the world know it, Die Hard 4.0. She didn't have much to say, but when asked directly if Bonnie Bedelia would be turning up for any kind of role in the film, Winstead confirmed what was already pretty much common knowledge -- that Bedelia will be a no-show once again. "She's not [back], no," was Winstead's answer. "I kind of take over that role as 'the family member' who is kind of taking care of herself, but also needs a little help from John McClane, too."

Winstead also said that her character, Lucy McClane, will get to have some kind of fight scenes in the film. When asked if Lucy is a 'damsel to be rescued,' Winstead replied: 'Kind of, but not really, because I'm a McClane, so I get to throw some punches. I get to kick a little butt, which is fun." Is villain Timothy Olyphant targeting McClane's daughter? Doesn't he have bigger fish to fry, like shutting down the whole country, or something? Anyway, I'm not going to be satisfied until we find out that Reginald VelJohnson's character has actually been the mastermind behind all of John McClane's troubles since 1988.

Okay, so a couple of interesting little moves have been made by the folks behind Live Free or Die Hard (aka Die Hard 4). First off, it appears as if Jeffrey Wright will not be playing the main villain in the franchise's fourth installment. Instead, that role has gone to Timothy Olyphant who, according to the Hollywood Reporter, will play John McClane's (Bruce Willis) nemesis. Now, there's still a chance Wright might play some sort of mastermind behind the whole "computer virus takes over the world" plan, but that remains to be seen. Personally, I wish they would have gone with Wright. Olyphant? Eh?

Also, early rumors suggested McClane's daughter would have a major role in the flick and -- gasp -- Jessica Simpson was rumored to be circling the role. Things soon changed, and suddenly it was McClane's son. However, when Justin Long was cast as McClane's sidekick, we figured producers decided to scrap the offspring idea and instead have Willis pair up with someone a lot younger than he is. Guess what -- McClane's daughter will indeed be in the film, and hottie Mary Elizabeth Winstead has nabbed the part. Phew. Thank God it wasn't Simpson. Production on the sequel is currently in full swing, with Live Free or Die Hard scheduled to crash into theaters next summer.