Here’s the problem with this 50/50, the marketing sets it up for failure. They’re so busy trying to get people into the theaters by making them think that it’s a comedy, that they’re setting up the wrong expectations and therefore forcing the film to be unable to achieve its goal — telling a true to life story. There are some laughs, some love, some beautiful moments, some sadness, fear, all the things that go into real human life, which is what makes it so great. So avoid the ads and go into this film knowing you’re getting a solid drama with a few chuckles…

The Player:

• Director: Jonathan Levine
• Writer: Will Reiser
• Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard

The Plot:

A 27-year-old guy gets diagnosed with cancer and turns to his friends and family who all provide him with a variety of different kinds of support.

The Good:

• Levitt: He’s on a roll and with this film he keeps on rolling. He’s at his best in film’s of this nature, as opposed to Inception, where yes he looked good and did well, in this film he’s open, vulnerable, he’s so raw that you never know what he’ll do next and you care about him throughout everything he does. You not only follow his journey with eyes wide open, but care about him the entire way.
• The Women: Anna Kendrick is absolutely adorable, the chemistry between her and Levitt is honest and real, overall she brought some much needed light to this film and was a joy to watch. Bryce Dallas Howard, I hated, which is a testament to her acting and how well she played the character. She played the kind of woman that we all hate and did it so damn well. It was a risk and it paid off. Having Anjelica Huston stop by is never a bad thing either. Nicely done ladies!
• Skeletor: These are one of those small, but important moments of humor and it’s fantastic.
• Relationships: From parents to son, boyfriend to horrible girlfriend, guy to guy, to patient to therapist, there’s a number of interesting relationships in this film that though only on screen for a limited time, really show you the heart of what loving someone, in a variety of different ways means, and how pretending to do that, never works.

So So:

• Rogen: There were times where he played up the slap-stick side of comedy a bit too much. He needs to move away from the heavy, asshole comedian, because when he settles, he’s laying up the comedy a little bit too much!

The Bad:

• Not Much: There was very little to complain about coming out of this film. Though I didn’t love it, it had a number of great qualities and is an easy film to appreciate.

Overall:

It’s a touching, poignant film that deals with a difficult topic in a very palatable way. It’s the not the feel-good film of the year, the comedy of the year, or the drama, but there’s something about it that’s honest, that you can relate to, that makes it one of the most human films of the year.

Rating: 7/10

50/50 hits theaters September 30th.

Photo Gallery:

What did you think of the film?

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Racism is still a hot button issue in America, and though the civil rights movement was a previous generation’s struggle, it’s hard to address those issues cinematically and still make an entertaining film. 2011′s The Help comes at a time when issue pictures are out of fashion, and so it seems slightly fresher than it might have had it come out in any other decade. And yet, it’s the same sort of empowerment movie as we’ve seen before. The bottom line is that the film is fun and has good performances from performers like Emma Stone, Viola Davis and Bryce Dallas Howard. But as a commentary on the issues of race in America, it’s decidedly lacking. Check out our review…

The Players:

• Writer / Director: Tate Taylor
• Actors: Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jessica Chastain, Sissy Spacek, Allison Janney
• Cinematography by: Stephen Goldblatt
• Music by: Thomas Newman

The Plot:

Skeeter (Stone) returns from college looking to be a writer, and finds a fitting subject matter in the black women who raise the children in the neighborhood. At first she wants to talk to her mother’s maid Aibileen (Viola Davis), but her quest also leads to Minny (Spencer). Minny was the help for Hilly Holbrook (Howard) until they have a huge fight. Minny moves on to Celia Foote (Chastain), who’s considered the town’s tramp. Skeeter faces pressure to conform to Hilly’s ways, and Hilly’s is the film’s face of racism. She’s leading a campaign to get all help “separate but equal” bathrooms. As Skeeter listens to Aibileen and Minny, she realizes the story is bigger than the two.

The Good:

• Cast: Tate Taylor seems to love his redheads (the cast is stocked full of them), but more than that he loves female performers. Every performer gets to have fun with it and deliver at least one memorable scene. This may be a simple story about complex issues, but the performers make it interesting. Even Jessica Chastain’s character – who might be defined by her breasts – is fun to watch flail on screen. But when you have powerhouses like Spacek and Janney, you know they’re going to have a couple good scenes, and because it is an ensemble you never have to stay with one section for so long you can’t enjoy – say – watching Howard play against type as a terrible person.
• The Good of the Good for You : When going about making films like this, there’s often a desire to put sugar on the top, and perhaps pat the audience on the head. “You see that racism and a culture of oppression is bad, so feel good about yourself for not living in that time.” This film falls into that trap, but it also addresses the relationship between black women maids and their white children – some of whom think of their “mammies” as their real mothers. It also means that it features some scatological jokes as tasteless as anything conceived of by John Waters, but is done in a way that wouldn’t offend a grandmother.It’s a feel good movie, and on those terms the movie works.
• The Slight Circumvention of the White Lead Conceit: One of the biggest problems with this sort of narrative and films like it is that they cast a white avatar to deal with issues that really aren’t about them. And so Emma Stone is the lead of the picture in a film about black maids. But one of the things the film does to sneakily refutes those other “Thank God for White People” movies is that it starts the film with Aibileen’s narration and ends with her, which then makes it her story. And though Skeeter is the conduit, it never feels like she’s saving the main characters (even if she’s giving them a voice). If it is Aibileen’s film, I don’t know how long she would have gone on about Skeeter, but then that raises a question outside of the narrative. To tell this story, are there any bankable middle-aged Africian-American actresses who can make that feasible, and can you sell that to an American audience that is still majority white? Tyler Perry, as successful as he’s been, has a ceiling. Is it good enough for a major motion picture to address an issue even while its main focus is entertainment, or does it have to dig deeper?

The Bad:

• The Sticky Wicket of Race Relations: On some level, it’s good for a film to address social issues that America – as a culture  – is still dealing with, regardless of who is president. But as a feel-good movie on the subject of race relations in the South in the 1960′s, the film lacks much gravitas. Everything that is fascinating about the relationship between servants and masters, and what it means to be raised by a black woman is visible, but never the focus. Because of writer/director Tate Taylor and author Kathryn Stockett’s background, there is an authenticity here, but you still have very talented African-American actresses playing the roles they were relegated to in the 1930′s. Is this progress that two of the biggest roles for African American women all summer long are roles as maids? The questions are more interesting than the film’s answers, and for that I think the film is worth chewing on, but the question then becomes “if a film can’t end racism (which it can’t), how should it deal with it, and does it have to be super-serious in doing so?” Ultimately, the answer is probably not “by focusing the narrative on ineffective villains and concerned white people” but still there is a lot to unpack in America and the South, and their strained race relations. And it’s hard not to think about those things when watching The Help.

Overall:

The Help may be as full of it as the pie Minny bakes for Hilly, but it goes down easy, and in a summer of films that are about less than anything, it’s nice to see a mainstream movie – if not tackle – at least be about something important and interesting, and the view of how black women raised a lot of white children in the South is a great subject matter. This may not be the best film of it, but it works on its own merits.

Rating: 7.0/10

Photo Gallery:

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In The Help, Bryce Dallas Howard’s Hilly Hollbrook is the villain, a woman who insists that the Black maids who help raise their children and feed their families should have their own toilets as to not infect the white people. This is her cause, and it’s easy to root against her, but Howard makes her character fascinating, in spite of our modern understandings of how wrong she is. In person, Howard is nothing like her character (as to be expect) and at the time of the interview she was pregnant and glowing. Check it out…

Your character is kind of the villain of the piece. How did it feel like being in that skin?

Hilly didn’t fulfill any kind of fantasy where it’s like “Ah, I just want to be a racist.” (Laughs) So it wasn’t fun in the same way as if you were playing a bad girl or a mischievous character. But I think there is a freedom to playing someone who’s not likable and unappealing – you don’t have to worry about those things through the movie. I’ve had characters in the past where you need to consider those things and it’s as freeing of an experience. But I think because the movie also has so much humor in it — there are scenes where she is being totally absurd and those were the best.

Did you have to find anything to like about her?

I didn’t find anything that I liked. (Laughs) But I eventually got to a place where I realized that, in terms of the psychology behind her beliefs, she truly was ignorant and thought what she was doing was right. She thought she was protecting her children, her way of life, her future and her community. That was one of the most terrifying realizations that I had doing this character because in rehearsals I played her like Cruella DeVille – where she’s sort of this stock villain. Then I realized “wait a second, there were real women who were actually like that. Why?” Then I thought “Oh my gosh, she really thought she was right” and then she became a real person. While it was scary, it was a really important realization to have.

Did it bring to light just how bad things were in a way that you hadn’t really considered before when you dug into this time period?

Obviously from history books, from talking to people who lived through the civil rights movement, I knew it was really bad. But to actually play one of the bad guys, and to realize how much they thought they were right was really scary. You think about stuff now – I’m privately a political person but not publicly one – and so often I’ll be like ‘What on EARTH is going on here? I mean what is the problem, what is the issue!?’ And after playing this character, realizing the people who are against certain civil rights things that we’re facing right now, actually think they’re right is so scary because how can you argue with that? You just have to be stronger. You just have to win and that’s why, in the civil rights movement in the sixties, it got to the point where people were sacrificing their life. Not just their well-being but people were dying because that was the only way for there to be change and that was so scary. At the end of the day, as an actor, my job is to have a good story well-told.

The character fits into the story in a really interesting way because she stirs the pot so much to keep the different developments happening, but she’s also a focal point to the revenge on those we’re rooting for. It had to be kind of tricky finding where to play her so you could make her believably bad but also someone we could laugh as some of the bad things happen to her.

The thing that I wanted, that was most important for me, was believing that her and Skeeter actually had a friendship. That was the hardest thing for me and the ways in which Hilly stood up for her. I wanted that to be believable that she would and what you see in this movie is the rift of a friendship. And that was tricky because Skeeter’s progressive, Hilly’s not, so how would they ever be friends? Speaking from experience, and I’m sure you’ve all experienced this, but when you’re a young person, and they became friends when they were very young, they grow apart. When I look now at the friends I was with when I was six, seven, eight, or a young teenager, how crazy was it that they were my friends? They’re so incredibly different now. Skeeter went away to college for four years and my rationale behind this is that she changed a lot. It wasn’t that she was like Hilly at all but she was more demure and quiet, didn’t kind of speak up in the way that she does when she returns to Jackson.

Are you still friends with some of those wildly divergent people?

(Laughs) They’re not wildly divergent, it’s not like I had troubled friends or anything like that. You look back and you’re not necessarily going for the same kinds of things and it’s kind of interesting.

It seems that childhood friends are often based on proximity more than anything else. Was there any note in the script that your character had a ‘shit-eating grin’?

(Laughs) No, I don’t think so.

It sounds like the author was on set quite a bit and the director is from the South. How careful were you in modulating your performance and how much did you work with them in regards of ‘Is this too hard? Is this too soft?’

I worked really closely with Tate (Taylor). He had such an intimate understanding of this character that was so accurate that in moments where I was a little off, I would go to him and say ‘You just tell me exactly what I need to do.’ He was always dead-on. Kathryn (Stockett) was just incredibly supportive. She was on set a lot but she was mostly there just to be really graceful, lovely, warm, kind and supportive. If she said stuff to Tate (Taylor) behind the scenes we would’ve never had known. It wasn’t like “Kitty wants you to do it this way.”

Tate (Taylor) said earlier “Whenever she came on set she just went into the house and then she fell asleep.”

I saw her on the couch taking a nap. One time I was walking past her, and I produced a movie that’s coming out later this year that’s called Restless. We in an intense moment in post-production while we were shooting The Help. So in between takes I was the person over in the corner of the house whispering ‘So what’s the next edit?’ Kitty went up to me once and said “Bryce, you never relax. You never have fun! I always see you working, working, working.” I was like “You are so balanced!”

You had your moment where Hollywood sort of discovered you. Emma’s kind of hitting that right now. What is it like seeing that for somebody else?

First of all, my discovery does not even remotely compare to what’s happening with Emma (Stone). I completely understand. One of my friends yesterday saw Crazy, Stupid, Love and said ‘Oh my gosh, it was the best movie. I was like “Emma, my friend loved your movie” and she was like “Yeah, it’s okay.” I’m like “Emma, why are you only in good movies?” (Laughs) So if you see her name in the front of a film you know it’s going to be a good movie. I felt really excited when I was cast in The Village and got the chance to be in a movie from drama school. The fact that it kind of kept happening, that I got the chance to work, it was something that I’m still amazed by. But with Emma, the thing that’s so incredible with what’s happening right now is that someone like her who’s so solid in her talent and as a human being, being acknowledged in the way that she is just right. It’s absolutely right and she’s going to be one of the greats, she just is. She’s going to be a female Bill Murray and Tom Hanks. She’s got it in her to do Meryl Streep performances, she’s just ridiculously talented and she can handle any kind of attention.

When this movie was kind of coming together and people were auditioning for this movie that everyone wanted to be in, did you ever get a sense of competition? Or did you just go in, do your thing and see what happens?

I never got any sense of competitive. I’ve never actually had any sense of competition in the ten years that I’ve been working, and I think that’s fortunate. I’ve heard other people say other stories and I definitely don’t want to invalidate that but I think I’ve been lucky. I’ve just stayed away at the right moments. It’s been pleasant.

Can you talk a bit more about working with the rest of the cast like Octavia (Spencer), Viola (Davis) and the others? How was that like?

You know the whole story with Octavia? She’s one of their closest friends and the character of Minnie was based on her. I think Octavia being in the movie represents some of the elements around this movie, which is that there’s an authenticity to the experience. The fact that Tate (Taylor) directed this movie and that Kathryn (Stockett) stood by him, making sure that was going to happen. DreamWorks gave him a lot of support and he was absolutely the right director. Could a more well-known director had directed this, they could had but not as well as Tate (Taylor) was going to. Viola is just an absolute powerhouse. She’s the best actress who could’ve played the role of Aibileen. She brought a level of artistic credibility that is incredibly meaningful and made us want to do our best because she’s unreal.

There’s the saying ‘If you run against a faster runner it makes you run faster.’ Is that the same on films where you can see what the level of — if someone’s bringing it then it brings you up and if nobody is bringing it… have you ever had an experience on the bad version of that?

I’ve never really had an experience where no one’s been apathetic. I’m pretty lucky that I’ve worked with people that are ridiculously passionate. A piece of advice my dad gave me was in the form of a story. He said that he loves basketball, he still plays basketball and has been on those dorky dad teams. When I was in high school they’d say “Your dad’s in the gymnasium” and I was like “Oh my gosh.” But when he was in high school he had a chance of being captain of the basketball team or a starter on varsity. He chose to be captain, a part of the starting line-up and he thinks that’s one of the biggest mistakes he’s ever made because “I’m not as good of a ball player because I did that. Because I didn’t choose to be a smaller guy on varsity.” In terms of working, you’re always going to grow when you’re with people who are more talented than you are. You’ll always grow. He’s told me that story at least forty times (Laughs) so I’ve always pushed myself to being in groups of people who were smarter, more-talented and I’ve even done that in sports as well. I’m not an incredible athlete but I did get on the varsity basketball team and I definitely was the worst player.

Have you taken roles just to be with other actors?

Yeah, I mean it’s never just like that. That’s something that’s always very enticing and exciting about a project, but for me it has a lot to do with the director, because the director becomes the storyteller after the writer is done with the script. Of course it has to do with the role, it has to do with what’s being said and if there’s astounding actors then that’s very important. If other elements are in place then usually really great actors are drawn into the piece. So that’s taken care of.

The Help opens August 10. Check it out.

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Bryce Dallas Howard is taking the next big step in her career — directing! The actress is the daughter of former child star, actor, producer, and director Ron Howard, so to say there might be some pressure would be an understatement. She’s been developing a screenplay over the past two years called The Originals, which she’s using to jump start her directorial career.

The Originals was co-written by Howard and her partner Dane Charbonneau. She describes it as The Breakfast Club for her generation. The actress is turning 30 this year, which means a lot of actors in her age range are being courted to star. Howard revealed to Showbiz 411 that she wrote one part with a specific actress in mind. “So far, I wrote a part for Zoe Saldana. But there are so many good choices out there.”

Hmm, Saldana eh? She should go and scoop the entire cast of the here today gone tomorrow film The Romantics. It was like The Breakfast Club, but 10 years later, and on a beach. Throw in Elijah Wood, maybe Shawn Hatosy, and possibly Anna Paquin for good measure. Who do you think should be cast?

What do you think of Howard shifting to directing?

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Clint Eastwood has reunited with his Invictus star Matt Damon for the supernatural film, Hereafter. It asks the question of: what happens after you die? And it places a microscope on the legitimacy of psychics and mediums. With an international cast including actors from England and France, the director pulls together 3 stories that focus on one major theme: life after death. Check out the review…

The Players:

• Director: Clint Eastwood
• Screenwriter: Peter Morgan
• Cast: Matt Damon, Cécile De France, Frankie McLaren, George McLaren, Jay Mohr, Thierry Neuvic, Bryce Dallas Howard
• Cinematography: Tom Stern
• Original Music By: Clint Eastwood

The Plot:

Hereafter weaves together the story of a famous French news anchor, Marie LeLay (De France), a psychic turned factory worker, George Lonegan (Damon), and a young British boy named Marcus (McLaren). After vacationing off the coast of an island Marie finds herself in the middle of a tropical storm where she’s severely injured and drowns only to come back to life several minutes later. After experiencing such an event, she begins to have visions of the “other side,” which causes her to become an outsider amongst her professional and personal peers.

George is a San Francisco man who previously used his special abilities for profit but felt the pressure and fame had become too much. Then there’s Marcus, a boy whose twin brother is struck down by a car and killed. Left as an only child, he’s taken out of the custody of his drug addicted mother and put into foster care. It’s there that he goes on a search to find a medium who can help him reach the other side so he can talk to his dead brother one last time.

The Good:

• Frankie and George McLaren: The young actors who play the twins Marcus and Jason did an amazing job. To say that they stole the film would be an understatement. They had to display so many different emotions such as sadness, fear, shock, and they did it all flawlessly.

The Bad:

• The Music: Eastwood once again had a hand in the music for this film, which was a bad choice. At times, the score seemed out of place. There were also scenes when it was too loud and overbearing, most notably at the end, when Damon’s character has a revelation. The violins swell up to a deafening peak that make a rather serious moment seem cheesy.
• The Narrative Structure: There are 3 storylines and unfortunately, I didn’t care about any of them. Two of them have an obvious connection but you have to wait a while for the third to come around, and when it finally does, you’re not really interested.
• The Story: The story is boring. Perhaps on paper the concept of Hereafter sounds amazing but it doesn’t translate well onto the screen. It’s not visually interesting. The only thing that catches your attention is the opening scene that features a huge tidal wave engulfing a town. Other than that, yawn.
• The Pace: It takes entirely too long for this movie to find its point. Out of the 3, Marcus’ story was the worst. You could see George and Marie slowly inching towards each other, and when they finally do meet, Marcus gets thrown in like an after thought.

Overall:

Hereafter is not entertaining at all. The performances are decent but the story never gets off the ground.

Rating: 4/10

Hereafter opens in theaters on October 22nd.

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Trailer:

Do you plan on seeing Hereafter this weekend?

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Last week we brought you the first photo from Clint Eastwood’s upcoming drama, Hereafter. The film reunites the director with his Invictus star Matt Damon and has an unconventional premise. According to THR, Hereafter will mark the director’s fourth feature to play at the New York Film Festival with his latest closing the event.

The film co-stars Cecile de France, Jay Mohr and Bryce Dallas Howard and is scheduled to open for general audiences on October 22nd. Prior to that, it will debut at the New York Film Festival, which runs from September 24 to October 10th. Hereafter will follow in the footsteps of Eastwood’s previous festival debuts Bird, Mystic River, and The Changeling.

“As so beautifully evident in ‘Hereafter,’ Clint Eastwood continues to make the most daring, provocative films in America. With his returned appearance here in the New York Film Festival, the director has showcased an opening night film, a centerpiece film and now this year’s closing night with ‘Hereafter,’ a ‘hat trick’ of which we are especially proud,” Richard Pena, selection committee chair and program director, the Film Society of Lincoln Center, said.

In the film, Damon plays a psychic who can’t connect to his girlfriend (Howard) or anyone else around him. It’s not exactly the most uplifting premise but we’re sure there’s more to the story. Damon as a psychic alone has our interest.

Do you think Hereafter is the right choice to close the festival?

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We’ve found a couple photos for two highly anticipated films from three Oscar winning directors. We have the first official image from the Coen Brothers True Grit adaptation featuring Jeff Bridges and Hailee Steinfeld and a shot of Matt Damon and Bryce Dallas Howard in Clint Eastwood’s Hereafter. Check out both photos below…

As you can see, Bridges is rocking the infamous eye patch that John Wayne made so famous in the original. The story of True Grit centers on a U.S. Marshal (Bridges), his sidekick (Damon), and a 14 year old girl named Mattie (Steinfeld) who tags along as they try and track down her father’s killer. The original film’s point of view was taken from that of  Cogburn, while the Coen’s remake we will follow the vantage point of the young girl. The cast also includes Josh Brolin and Barry Pepper in supporting roles. The film is scheduled for release on December 25, 2010.

Another Matt Damon film that’s scheduled to hit theaters this year is Hereafter. It reunites the actor with his Invictus director Clint Eastwood for the tale of a psychic who can’t connect to his girlfriend or anyone else around him. His love interest is played by Howard, who looks pretty great in this photo. She’s quite beautiful when she’s not wearing that horrible wig from Twilight (yeah, I went there). Hereafter opens in theaters on October 22nd.

What do you think of the photos? Which film are you interested in seeing?

Source: EW, In Contention

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We have a brief little highlight reel with interviews with some of the lesser but still important members for the Twilight: Eclipse cast including the three of our “bad” vamps: Dakota Fanning, Bryce Dallas Howard, Xavier Samuel and the Cullen Family: Ashley Greene, Nikki Reed, Jackson Rathbone, Elizabeth Reaser and Peter Facinelli. All of these had amazingly positive things to say about the film, check it out below…

We will have more videos available on our YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/screencrave of the entire press conference and our written interview up the week before the films release!

And some other highlights from the press conference for you die hard fans with Dakota Fanning, Bryce Dallas Howard and Xavier Samuel that didn’t make the cut for our video….

Dakota, you are so very evil in this. What is it like? You were a fan of the books coming into this. And for Bryce, how is it coming into this world for just one time?

Dakota Fanning: This is the first time I’ve gotten to play the same character in a different film. It was really great. I love playing this character, it’s a fun character to get to play and being a part of all that is Twilight is such an honor and still kind of surreal for me. I feel so lucky to be a part of it.

What do you like about her?

Dakota Fanning: She’s obviously not the nicest person but it’s kind of fascinating to be able to play someone that takes pleasure in hurting people, that’s kind of a weird thing to get to do and obviously something I’ve never done before.

Bryce, your fight scene with Rob, he said you were being careful with him and he was a bit nervous about pushing you around. How did you put that aside and go for it?

Bryce Dallas Howard: There was a lot of fight training that happened to prepare for it. Actors are always nervous about not only hurting each other but maybe perhaps hitting each other’s face and ending one’s career. So there was a lot of preparation that made us feel more comfortable, certainly. I just knew that if I rustled his hair perhaps millions of young women would want to kill me so I was quite cautious for that reason. It was fun. There’s a point at which you’re wrestling for six consecutive hours that it just becomes absurd. You just kind of, you can’t help yourself but laugh. It ultimately was great, yeah it was a really good job.

When you entered into the Twilight franchise do your family and friends who are big Twilight fans grill you about what happened on set, what’s so and so like, are these two together? Do you have to figure out what you can tell people close to you?

Bryce Dallas Howard: I want to know what your experience is like because you’re in high school

Dakota Fanning: You get the normal questions but I think that people that are close to me especially in school are kind of used to it by now so it’s not such a big deal. They kind of forget that I’m even in the movies. So I haven’t really had to deal with a lot of that. No.

Bryce Dallas Howard: Since I was sort of the resident Twi-hard in my group, kind of what I was talking about before, I was ridiculed for it. And now it’s like, ‘Ha!’ Now they fully need to embrace it and support it.

Xavier Samuel: My mother has made it her personal mission to monitor all the information about me on the Internet.

Bryce Dallas Howard: She really has

Xavier Samuel: But I’ve had a few strange requests, like, if you could bring back a plastic cup that Rob sipped on or maybe if you could sneak up to him quickly and take a lock of his hair…but no, other than those odd requests

Xavier, you’re new to the franchise, who was the most welcoming and how were you welcomed? Was there a hazing ritual?

Xavier Samuel: I guess playing a bad guy and kind of an outsider and a foreigner in an already established family you’re a bit intimidated but I’m so grateful to be accepted so warmly into the whole family. Everyone’s extremely down to earth. And also Bryce, who I’ve become very good friends with, we kind of locked eyes at the airport and you go ‘OK, there’s someone here that, you know…” but no stunts, no initiation or anything like that. Just a lot of fun and great to hang out with those guys.

Most challenging scene you had to do

Dakota Fanning: My one scene. Because I am in such a small part of the film, it kind of adds to, pressure is the wrong word but the only word I can think of right now, just to get that one part right and do the best that you can. In that little moment that you’re in the film, make it the best it can be and the scariest it can be and the coolest it can be.

Bryce Dallas Howard: The most challenging part, again pressure…I think it is the right word because there’s so much build up to the moment and for the end, there’s so much training that went into the choreography of this final battle sequence that I didn’t want to mess it up and I certainly didn’t want to punch Robert Pattinson in the face.

Xavier Samuel: I know it has so many devoted fans and with that comes a great deal of responsibility of really delivering your very best. So that’s the kind of challenging thing, to always be on your A-game. But also it’s kind of hard to act with a piece of fur on the end of a stick. All that green screen stuff was kind of interesting. You have to create that world in your head as opposed to actually having it there. And then being bounced around on wires like a puppet.

And if you like what you read, there’s PLENTY more where that came from….

Further Reading:

• Official Twilight Saga: Eclipse Trailer Online
• Read our Twilight: Eclipse Movie Review
• Vote for your Favorite Twilight Trailer!
• Twilight and New Moon – Double Feature! Run!!!
• Melissa Rosenberg Talks Blood and Sex for Twilight Breaking Dawn
• Video: Robert Pattinson Talks Twilight: Eclipse
• Video: Kristen Stewart Talks Twilight: Eclipse
• Video: Taylor Lautner Talks Twilight: Eclipse
• Robert Pattinson Talks Breaking Dawn, Bel Ami, Water for Elephants and More!
• The Twilight Saga: Eclipse Sneak Peek

Related Posts

• Interview/Video: Melissa Rosenberg Talks Twilight (1)
• Twilight Eclipse Clip: Edward and Bella Swap Spit, Jacob Watches in Horror (0)
• Video: Kristen Stewart Talks Twilight: Eclipse (4)
• Video: Taylor Lautner Talks Twilight: Eclipse (4)
• Twilight Eclipse: Missing TV Spot (0)
• Twilight Eclipse Clip: Dakota Fanning as Jane (2)
• Eclipse: Live Video Chat and New HD Trailer (2)

Two new scenes have been released from The Twilight Saga: Eclipse and they feature Edward, Bella, and Jacob in an uncomfortable situation. How would you feel if you had to watch the love of your life swap spit with your blood enemy? That’s what happens to Jacob in this sneak peek, which is followed by a clip of Victoria trying to evade capture by the Cullens. You can watch both videos below…

It looks like Edward finally said what we were all thinking, does Jacob own a shirt? Besides that little crack this entire scene was awkward. The constant push and pull between these three is starting to get redundant. What’s up with Jacob’s opening line, “Hey beautiful?” It sounded kind of corny coming from him.

How is it that tiny, flighty Victoria can toss Emmett Cullen’s chunky ass to the wind? This woman outmaneuvers an entire family of vampires without missing a beat. She’s beyond superhuman. Nice try Cullens. Your hearts were in the right place but your execution was off.

The Twilight Saga Eclipse debuts in theaters on June 30, 2010.

What do you think of the two clips from The Twilight Saga: Eclipse?

Source: MTV

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Tonight at 8:15 PM ET / 5:15 PM PT Summit will be conducting a live video chat with Bryce Dallas Howard, Nikki Reed & Julia Jones (which you can watch live below!) in conjunction with the HD trailer reveal for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. You can see a non-HD version with an intro from Dakota Fanning now on Oprah now.

Check out the HD trailer and the live chat below…

New HD Trailer:

You can watch a recording of the live event here…

Stream videos at Ustream

Sadly, all of your favorite stars Kristen Stewart (Bella), Robert Pattinson (Emo Vampire 1), and Taylor Lautner (werewolf-boy) are not schedule to attend the love chat, but someone might talk about them. Yay?

The film is directed by David Slade and is scheduled to hit theaters on June 30th.

You excited for the new trailer?

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Gus van Sant is in negotiations to develop and direct Restless, an original screenplay by first-time screenwriter Jason Lew that will be produced by Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Bryce Dallas Howard (THR).

It does seem like a rather “friendly” film, with the two Howards involved, and is only furthered when you realize that the screenwriter, Lew, went to college with Bryce Howard and the two acted in plays together.

Although some may be accusing them of helping a friend out, none of the talent that’s getting involved would come on board without there being something for them to work with. With Van Sant fresh off Milk‘s success, I can’t wait to see what he’ll do next. Van Sant and the Howard’s both like to work on films that pull on the heart-strings, although their styles are very different. It will be interesting to see how they all come together.

Sadly, the description of the film has not been released. All that we know that it is a “contemporary and distinctive take on young love.” Well, that could mean almost anything.

The intent is to shoot the movie in Oregon for around $15 million.

What do you think about Lew working with the Howard duo? And do you think Gus van Sant is the right man for the job?

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Yesterday we reported on the replacement of Twilight actress Rachelle Lefevre with Terminator Salvation star Bryce Dallas Howard in the saga’s upcoming installment. According to reports there was a serious “scheduling” conflict that would make it impossible for Lefevre to reprise her role in the second sequel Eclipse. From that point the actress was recast, and we thought everything was fine. Unfortunately, Lefevre has released several statements clarifying her abrupt departure from the franchise and Summit Entertainment.

According to Lefevre, she was stunned that her role had been recast. Over at CNN, she stated that she was totally committed to the Twilight saga. The main cause of the recast had to do with the actresses inability to balance her Eclipse schedule with other projects, which she adamantly denies.

“I was happy with my contract with Summit and was fully prepared to continue to honor it,” she adds. “Summit chose simply to recast the part. I am greatly saddened that I will not get to complete my portrayal of Victoria for the ‘Twilight’ audience.” She also said she turned down “several other film opportunities” and accepted only roles with short shooting schedules to make time for “Eclipse.”

Yeesh, that sucks. Well Twilight fans it’s time for you to fill me in on the importance of this character in the series. I haven’t seen the first film, so I’m not sure if the role should be recast or not.

Do you think Howard is a good replacement for Lefevre? Would you prefer the original actress stay in the role?

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