Tag: Nicole Sperling

Josh Hutcherson thinks he’s in Dallas, though all he’s seen is an airport, a hotel and a mall. It’s 16 days before the opening of “The Hunger Games,” and though the 19-year-old actor has been performing since he was 9 — in films as diverse as “American Splendor,” “Journey to the Center of the Earth” and “The Kids are All Right” — the reaction to co-starring in the adaptation of the Suzanne Collins novel is unlike anything he’s ever experienced. It’s also the first cross-country mall tour the young actor has jumped aboard, hence the reason for his location confusion. In the last week, the actor has been in giant shopping centers in Chicago, Minneapolis, Seattle and Dallas, signing posters and books for throngs of screaming fans who have shown up to get a glimpse of the young man playing ...

For a guy knee-deep in post-production on one of 2012’s most highly anticipated films, Gary Ross exudes an unnatural calm. It’s mid-December and despite the 1,200 visual effects shots that need to be completed in the next month, not only is the hyper-articulate director of “The Hunger Games” willing to show a journalist around his sprawling edit bay in Hollywood, but he’d also probably show off the whole unfinished movie if only the studio would allow. Clues to Ross’ jovial-yet-serene disposition lay all around. His iPhone boasts a screen-saver picture from the set of the Lionsgate film — leading lady Jennifer Lawrence is wiping her nose on Ross’ sleeve while the two are standing in the middle of a North Carolina forest. Walk down the hall to editor Stephen Mirrione’s office and he quips how Lawrence “makes everyone’s life a ...

For Bill Condon, director of “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn,” Comic-Con 2011 was all about the art of the reveal. The director, who made his maiden voyage to the San Diego geek fest to debut footage for the second-to-last “Twilight” movie, which will open in November, had to be very selective with what he showed the screaming fans. “Once we decided that we didn’t want to show the wedding dress and once we decided we didn’t want to show her pregnant, we were limited to the honeymoon,” said Condon, who has been tasked with chapter of the “Twilight Saga” in which heroine Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) marries her vampire boyfriend Edward (Robert Pattinson), has a baby and is turned into a vampire herself. “Then the question was do we want to show the sex, which would have been crazy and ...

With great power comes great responsibility, and maybe that’s why Andrew Garfield’s expression alternated between somber and seasick an hour before he faced the spotlight glare of Comic-Con International. “We all know how big a deal this is,” said the 27-year-old British-bred actor who will wear the mask in “The Amazing Spider-Man” next summer as Sony Pictures tries to reboot the franchise that has earned close to $2.5 billion at the box office. “We don’t need to talk about it. We know what is at stake. We know the fans are everything.” That’s the potential burn — and signature sizzle — of Comic-Con, the annual, four-day San Diego pop culture expo that concluded Sunday. Dating back four decades, the event has grown from its scruffy comic-book swap meet beginnings into an extravaganza attracting 120,000 people, and Hollywood has come to ...

“Snow White and the Huntsman,” the fairy tale project that begins shooting next week in the United Kingdom with Kristen Stewart as the lead, has some tough hurdles to overcome. It’s competing with another “Snow White” project from Relativity Media that has already begun filming and features Julia Roberts as the evil queen. It’s also set to come out June 1, three months after Relativity’s “Snow White” movie will debut and close to two months before a Comic-Con International audience will be back in Hall H. What’s a studio to do? How about recruit fans at Comic-Con 2011 with some stills of the cast in costume, a charming British director with an impressive commercial reel and a crew of good-looking lead actors? That’s what Universal Pictures did Saturday afternoon during a  panel featuring Stewart, evil queen Charlize Theron, Chris Hemsworth ...

Footage from Sony’s upcoming slate of films — including a sequel to “Ghost Rider,” the comedy “30 Minutes or Less” and a remake of “Total Recall” — was all entertaining but served primarily as preamble to the main event at Sony’s Comic-Con panel Friday: “The Amazing Spider-Man.” After the teaser trailer was released this week to lukewarm reception, Sony was charged with wowing audiences with its reboot of the web-slinger franchise, this time directed by Marc Webb (“(500) Days of Summer”). The studio introduced its most precious brand with great theatrics: The music rumbled, emcee Ralph Garman from radio station KROQ-FM (106.7) encouraged everyone to put on their 3-D glasses, and then the audience started clapping as the room slowly darkened to unveil footage of one of Comic-Con’s biggest heroes. The trailer played well to the packed room, but it was ...

“Immortals” is the latest big-budget action movie looking for love from the audience at Comic-Con International, but unlike most of the other films being pitched here in San Diego, it’s not based on a comic-book, graphic novel or video game. “Immortals,” which opens  Nov. 11,  is an original screenplay — based albeit on Greek mythology. Director Tarsem Singh (“The Fall,” “The Cell”), a self-proclaimed atheist from the age of 9, says the idea for the project grew out of a conversation he had with his deeply religious mother. She had asked him how he would account for his success if it weren’t for his mother’s prayers? “I was interested in a guy like me dying, going to heaven, only to have the gods say, ‘You schmuck, why didn’t you listen?’” Singh said. Singh, and Mark Canton, the veteran producer of ...

Colin Farrell and Anton Yelchin in a scene from “Fright Night.” (DreamWorks) Lest any “Twilight” fans were still lurking about in Hall H of the San Diego Convention Center on Friday afternoon, Shawn Phillips of Yahoo Movies had some words of caution. “This is not the sparkly vampire movie panel,”  he began,  introducing the panel discussion for the upcoming DreamWorks film “Fright Night 3D.” No, this, he said,  was the ”bad-ass, bloodthirsty vampire panel.” A cheer went up from the audience, indicating maybe the “Twilight” fans had, indeed, scattered after the Thursday event for their movie. Colin Farrell, who plays vampire Jerry, was greeted with lots of love, especially when director Craig Gillespie asked him to go off stage when he called him out too early. Farrell retreated off the stage, walking backward. “He’s good. He’s better in reverse,” quipped Gillespie. Fellow cast ...

John Cusack really got into the role of Edgar Allan Poe for his part in James McTeigue’s upcoming thriller “The Raven,” due out next year and named for the landmark poem. The film, which is set in the last five days of Poe’s life and centers on a serial killer who’s using Poe’s writings as inspiration for his murders, was on display Friday during the Relativity panel in Hall H, and Cusack wowed the audience with his knowledge about the writer: “I saw some of Hunter S. Thompson in Poe — his unflinching ability to delve into the abyss and come back. He reminded me of Hunter in that way.” He told stories of Poe’s antics: “He was invited to the White House, got drunk, was kicked out.” And of his tragic life: “Poe’s mother died of tuberculosis. Poe’s first ...

The Twilight saga’s “Breaking Dawn” is the conclusion of the incredibly successful and beloved vampire book franchise. With all the anticipation for the film version, which will be divided into two parts (the first half hits theaters in November), there are also a lot of questions. Fans — many of whom had been waiting in line at Comic-Con International since Monday afternoon — are eager to see the wedding and honeymoon of their favorite couple, Bella and Edward (Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson) and the subsequent birth of their half-vampire, half-human baby. Director Bill Condon and cast were on hand at Comic-Con on Thursday morning, presenting the first panel in the San Diego Convention Center’s massive Hall H to share some details of the final two movies — though few surprising secrets were actually revealed. “This movie is all third ...