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Tag: los-angeles

  • 25 Best Movies of All Time Set In Los Angeles

    25 Best Movies of All Time Set In Los Angeles

    A scene from 1988's 'Die Hard'. Photo: 20th Century Fox.
    A scene from 1988’s ‘Die Hard’. Photo: 20th Century Fox.

    Los Angeles, also known as the “City of Angeles’, has appeared in many classic movies.

    From comedies like ‘Swingers‘ and ‘Fletch‘, to heist movies like ‘Den of Thieves‘ or ‘Heat‘, noir films such as ‘Chinatown‘ and ”The Long Goodbye‘, futuristic sci-fi like ‘Blade Runner‘ or ‘They Live‘, and even holiday films such as ‘Die Hard‘ (Yes! ‘Die Hard’ is a Christmas movie!), LA has a long history of being featured in Hollywood movies.

    The latest film to be set in Los Angeles is ‘Crime 101‘, which stars Chris Hemsworth and Halle Berry, and opens in theaters on February 13th.

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    In honor of the new film and Tinseltown, Moviefone is counting down the top 25 movies of all time that are set in Los Angeles.

    Let’s begin!

    Related Article: Chris Hemsworth and Halle Berry Talk New Crime Thriller ‘Crime 101’

    25. ‘They Live‘ (1988)

    (L to R) Roddy Piper and Keith David in 'They Live'. Photo: Universal Pictures.
    (L to R) Roddy Piper and Keith David in ‘They Live’. Photo: Universal Pictures.

    A lone drifter (Roddy Piper) stumbles upon a unique pair of sunglasses that reveal aliens are systematically gaining control of the Earth by masquerading as humans and lulling the public into submission.

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    24. ‘Swingers‘ (1996)

    After 6 years together, Mike’s (Jon Favreau) girlfriend leaves him, so he travels to LA to be a star. Six months on, he’s still not doing very well— so a few of his friends try to reconnect him to the social scene and hopefully help him forget his failed relationship.

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    23. ‘Mulholland Drive‘ (2001)

    Blonde Betty Elms (Naomi Watts) has only just arrived in Hollywood to become a movie star when she meets an enigmatic brunette with amnesia (Laura Harring). Meanwhile, as the two set off to solve the second woman’s identity, filmmaker Adam Kesher (Justin Theroux) runs into ominous trouble while casting his latest project.

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    22. ‘Hail, Caesar!‘ (2016)

    When a Hollywood star (George Clooney) mysteriously disappears in the middle of filming, the studio sends their fixer (Josh Brolin) to get him back.

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    21. ‘The 40 Year Old Virgin‘ (2005)

    Andy Stitzer (Steve Carell) has a pleasant life with a nice apartment and a job stamping invoices at an electronics store. But at age 40, there’s one thing Andy hasn’t done, and it’s really bothering his sex-obsessed male co-workers: Andy is still a virgin. Determined to help Andy, the guys make it their mission to de-virginize him. But it all seems hopeless until Andy meets small business owner Trish (Catherine Keener), a single mom.

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    20. ‘La La Land‘ (2016)

    (L to R) Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling in 'La La Land'. Photo: Lionsgate.
    (L to R) Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling in ‘La La Land’. Photo: Lionsgate.

    Mia (Emma Stone), an aspiring actress, serves lattes to movie stars in between auditions and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling), a jazz musician, scrapes by playing cocktail party gigs in dingy bars, but as success mounts they are faced with decisions that begin to fray the fragile fabric of their love affair, and the dreams they worked so hard to maintain in each other threaten to rip them apart.

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    19. ‘Yes Man‘ (2008)

    Carl Allen (Jim Carrey), a guy whose life is going nowhere, signs up for a self-help program based on one simple covenant: say yes to everything…and anything.

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    18. ‘Collateral‘ (2004)

    Cab driver Max (Jamie Foxx) picks up a man (Tom Cruise) who offers him $600 to drive him around. But the promise of easy money sours when Max realizes his fare is an assassin.

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    17. ‘Blade Runner‘ (1982)

    In the smog-choked dystopian Los Angeles of 2019, blade runner Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is called out of retirement to terminate a quartet of replicants who have escaped to Earth seeking their creator for a way to extend their short life spans.

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    16. ‘L.A. Story‘ (1991)

    With the help of a talking freeway billboard, a “wacky weatherman” (Steve Martin) tries to win the heart of an English newspaper reporter (Victoria Tennant), who is struggling to make sense of the strange world of early-90s Los Angeles.

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    15. ‘Nightcrawler‘ (2014)

    (L to R) Jake Gyllenhaal and Rene Russo in 'They Live'. Photo: Open Road Films.
    (L to R) Jake Gyllenhaal and Rene Russo in ‘They Live’. Photo: Open Road Films.

    When Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal), desperate for work, muscles into the world of L.A. crime journalism, he blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story. Aiding him in his effort is Nina (Rene Russo), a TV-news veteran.

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    14. ‘The Long Goodbye‘ (1973)

    In 1970s Hollywood, Detective Philip Marlowe (Elliot Gould) tries to help a friend who is accused of murdering his wife.

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    13. ‘Training Day‘ (2001)

    On his first day on the job as a narcotics officer, a rookie cop (Ethan Hawke) works with a rogue detective (Denzel Washington) who isn’t what he appears.

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    12. ‘Boyz n the Hood‘ (1991)

    In the middle of the Los Angeles ghetto, drugs, robberies and shootings dominate everyday life. During these times, Furious tries to raise his son Tre (Cuba Gooding Jr.) to be a decent person. Tre’s friends, on the other hand, have little regard for the law and drag the entire neighborhood into a street war…

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    11. ‘Fletch‘ (1985)

    When investigative reporter Irwin “Fletch” Fletcher (Chevy Chase) goes undercover to write a piece on the drug trade at a local beach, he’s approached by wealthy businessman Alan Stanwyk (Tim Matheson), who offers him $50,000 to murder him. With sarcastic wit and a knack for disguises, Fletch sets out to uncover Stanwyk’s story.

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    10. ‘Kiss Kiss Bang Bang‘ (2005)

    (L to R) Val Kilmer and Robert Downey Jr. in 'Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.' Photo: Warner Bros.
    (L to R) Val Kilmer and Robert Downey Jr. in ‘Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.’ Photo: Warner Bros.

    A petty thief posing as an actor (Robert Downey Jr.) is brought to Los Angeles for an unlikely audition and finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation along with his high school dream girl (Michelle Monaghan) and a detective (Val Kilmer) who’s been training him for his upcoming role.

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    9. ‘L.A. Confidential‘ (1997)

    Three detectives (Guy Pearce, Russell Crowe and Kevin Spacey) in the corrupt and brutal L.A. police force of the 1950s use differing methods to uncover a conspiracy behind the shotgun slayings of the patrons at an all-night diner.

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    8. ‘The Big Lebowski‘ (1998)

    Jeffrey ‘The Dude’ Lebowski (Jeff Bridges), a Los Angeles slacker who only wants to bowl and drink White Russians, is mistaken for another Jeffrey Lebowski (David Huddleston), a wheelchair-bound millionaire, and finds himself dragged into a strange series of events involving nihilists, adult film producers, ferrets, errant toes, and large sums of money.

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    7. ‘Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood‘ (2019)

    Los Angeles, 1969. TV star Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), a struggling actor specializing in westerns, and stuntman Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), his best friend, try to survive in a constantly changing movie industry. Dalton is the neighbor of the young and promising actress and model Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie), who has just married the prestigious Polish director Roman Polanski (Rafał Zawierucha).

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    6. ‘Beverly Hills Cop‘ (1984)

    Fast-talking, quick-thinking Detroit street cop Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) has bent more than a few rules and regs in his time, but when his best friend (James Russo) is murdered, he heads to sunny Beverly Hills to work the case like only he can.

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    5. ‘Den of Thieves‘ (2018)

    (L to R) Maurice Compte and Gerard Butler in 'Den of Thieves'. Photo: STXfilms.
    (L to R) Maurice Compte and Gerard Butler in ‘Den of Thieves’. Photo: STXfilms.

    A gritty crime saga which follows the lives of an elite unit of the LA County Sheriff’s Dept. and the state’s most successful bank robbery crew as the outlaws plan a seemingly impossible heist on the Federal Reserve Bank.

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    4. ‘Die Hard‘ (1988)

    NYPD cop John McClane’s (Bruce Willis) plan to reconcile with his estranged wife is thrown for a serious loop when, minutes after he arrives at her offices Christmas Party, the entire building is overtaken by a group of terrorists. With little help from the LAPD, wisecracking McClane sets out to single-handedly rescue the hostages and bring the bad guys down.

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    3. ‘Drive‘ (2011)

    Driver (Ryan Gosling) is a skilled Hollywood stuntman who moonlights as a getaway driver for criminals. Though he projects an icy exterior, lately he’s been warming up to a pretty neighbor named Irene (Carey Mulligan) and her young son, Benicio (Kaden Leos). When Irene’s husband (Oscar Isaac) gets out of jail, he enlists Driver’s help in a million-dollar heist. The job goes horribly wrong, and Driver must risk his life to protect Irene and Benicio from the vengeful masterminds behind the robbery.

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    2. ‘Chinatown‘ (1974)

    Private eye Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) lives off of the murky moral climate of sunbaked, pre-World War II Southern California. Hired by a beautiful socialite (Faye Dunaway) to investigate her husband’s (Darrell Zwerling) extra-marital affair, Gittes is swept into a maelstrom of double dealings and deadly deceits, uncovering a web of personal and political scandals that come crashing together.

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    1. ‘Heat’ (1995)

    (L to R) Robert De Niro and Val Kilmer in 1995's 'Heat.'
    (L to R) Robert De Niro and Val Kilmer in 1995’s ‘Heat.’

    Obsessive master thief Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) leads a top-notch crew on various daring heists throughout Los Angeles while determined detective Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) pursues him without rest. Each man recognizes and respects the ability and the dedication of the other even though they are aware their cat-and-mouse game may end in violence.

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  • Tom Cruise Plans Stunt for Paris Olympics Closing Ceremony

    Tom Cruise plays Ethan Hunt in 'Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning - Part One 'from Paramount Pictures and Skydance.
    Tom Cruise plays Ethan Hunt in ‘Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning – Part One ‘from Paramount Pictures and Skydance.

    Preview:

    • Tom Cruise will help bridge the Paris and Los Angeles Olympics.
    • He’s already shot the L.A. portion, which also features James Corden.
    • The event will be part of the closing ceremony for Paris on August 11th.

    Tom Cruise, it would seem, rarely misses a chance to pull off an audacious stunt. The actor, who has become famous for the death-defying action of the ‘Mission: Impossible’ movies in particular, has now pitched the International Olympic Committee about a stunt sequence to bridge the gap between the current Paris Olympics and the next summer event, to be held in Los Angeles in 2028.

    While the planned ceremony already includes the more traditional handing off of the Olympic Flag from Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo to L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, it will also now feature the 62-year-old actor in a stunt sequence to celebrate the transition between two cities as part of the closing ceremony in Paris on August 11th.

    It’s perhaps not the biggest surprise from Cruise, who might naturally be expected to help celebrate LA, and the fact that he’s a big Olympics fan, attending the opening ceremony in Paris and several events.

    Related Article: 35 Best Tom Cruise Movies of All Time!

    What is involved in Tom Cruise’s Olympic stunt?

    Tom Cruise in Paramount Pictures' 'Mission: Impossible - Fallout.'
    Tom Cruise in Paramount Pictures’ ‘Mission: Impossible – Fallout.’

    According to TMZ, the plan for the upcoming Closing Ceremony involves Tom (or possibly a stunt double, as negotiations for this segment are still underway) rappelling down from the top of Stade de France, landing on the stadium field and carrying the official Olympic flag.

    We will then cut to pre-recorded footage of Cruise shot in March, jumping out of a plane to skydive down to the Hollywood sign in the company of former ‘Late Late Show’ host James Corden.

    After that, it’ll apparently show Cruise passing the flag to Olympians –– including a cyclist, skateboarder and volleyball player –– as they make their way around the next host city for the Summer Games.

    We’re told to expect a “major Hollywood production”, though given Cruise’s presence, that perhaps comes with the territory. And might it signal that his regular collaborator Christopher McQuarrie –– who has also been attending events with his friend –– could oversee the opening ceremony for the L.A. event as fellow filmmaker Danny Boyle did for London in 2012? We’d doubt it; McQuarrie’s schedule is already jam-packed with movies, including finishing the latest ‘Mission: Impossible’ outing for release next year.

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    When will the Los Angeles Olympics happen?

    Olympic flag.
    Olympic flag. Photo: Olympics.com.

    The next Summer Olympics are due to be staged in Los Angeles between Friday, July 14th and Sunday, July 30th, 2028.

    L.A. will likely kick off the Games of the XXXIV Olympiad at a venue built for the 1932 event: the Coliseum. It will be part of what LA28 organizers are calling the Downtown Sports Park, a collection of venues that includes Crypto.com Arena, the Convention Center, the L.A. Football Club Stadium, USC’s Galen Center and the Peacock Theater.

    Tom Cruise in 'Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One' from Paramount Pictures and Skydance.
    Tom Cruise in ‘Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One’ from Paramount Pictures and Skydance.

    Tom Cruise Movies:

    Buy Tom Cruise Movies on Amazon

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  • Melissa Leo Knows Funny … Just Don’t Ask Her to Do Standup

    Premiere Of Showtime's 'I'm Dying Up Here' - ArrivalsMelissa Leo admits that, while she can be downright hilarious on occasion, she’s no comedian.

    The Oscar-winning actress is acutely aware of the vast difference between making her friends laugh with some tossed-off one-liners here and there and getting up in front of a live audience armed with nothing but a sharpened wit and leaving them howling, especially after being part of the ensemble of the Showtime series “I’m Dying Up Here,” which explores the beginning of the boom days of standup comedy in Los Angeles during the late 1970s.

    Leo’s Sunset Strip comedy club-owning character, Goldie, draws loose inspiration from the legendary Mitzi Shore, whose hotspot The Comedy Store served as an epicenter of the standup explosion, launching the careers of David Letterman, Jay Leno, Garry Shandling, and Jim Carrey (who executive produces the new series), and, four decades later, continues to cultivate some of today’s funniest performers.

    But as Leo tells Moviefone, Goldie’s a more complex creation — the kind of character work she wins acting trophies for. Just don’t ask her to do standup.

    Moviefone: What was fun in the preparation for this role, and digging into how this world — not just the comedy world, but of this very specific era — was going to portrayed.

    Melissa Leo: Oh my God, so many things to say in answer to that! First of all, I’m lucky in that when I got the call to do the pilot, I, a handful of days later, was on a plane out here and shooting it, so I didn’t have a lot of time to figure out what was I in.

    I was very blessed with the people that I was working with: Christie Wittenborn, our costume designer, comes sweeping first to my mind in that way. The scene with the cocaine, I couldn’t have done it without her landing on this perfect costume for me to do it. She also dresses me from my skin out, so literally, I have built a character in playing Goldie. Most of it from the scripts, and a little bit from understanding the book — I try to move away from those ideas, because I am not playing the woman in the book. I’m playing this other woman.

    The woman in the book is, in the true sense of the word, a unique human being. There wasn’t anybody else female doing what she was doing. There wasn’t anybody else male doing what she was doing.

    Really, it was kind of terrifying. I was delighted they had asked me, but I was like, “You want me to play Goldie? Okay.” So the costuming and the kinds of languages. In that first episode, there’s the speech about the grandmother in Treblinka. I’m such a goy. I was like, “How do I make this woman be Jewish?” I bleached my hair. Her name helps me. The accent then helped me. I thought, okay, so from Vaudeville, New York stage, Yiddish theater. I fancy she’s a New Yorker who came out here and bleached her hair.

    I began to find ways. I needed the person in the story to be her grandmother, because Judaism is passed through the woman. So it’s a long, roundabout way of saying the way that working with [Executive producers David] Flebotte and [Michael] Aguilar on what it was. Flebotte totally shaped the whole thing. We got to do a little final forming to it. I would say all the actors probably feel that way about the characters. Eventually they’re written more and more tailored to the people playing them.

    What was fascinating about that era? To look at it now and to kind of get the inside story of standup’s big evolutionary moment? What strikes you as being the most interesting facets of it?

    I think that it’s interesting, because the kind of kitsch of the ’70s is what tends to be thought of as the ’70s. Having been a person who is coming of age in that time, and having come up in the East Village in the ’60s, the ’70s were kind of dull. Like, what was the music? The clothing seemed a cheap imitation of the kind of Bohemian wear that had exploded in the ’60s, in certain sections. Then as they become sort of ready to wear market of those clothing, and sort of cheap imitations of an idea of “flower power.” That’s my experience of the ’70s.

    I really remember being a youth going, “Of all the times, this is when I get to be 18? In 1978?” It’s a great time for our show to be set, because it was a time where we didn’t know where we were going and how we were going to get there. There was not the kind of collective movement that there had been in my younger years in the ’60s. What was it going to be?

    It was also a time when pop culture was getting a little junky. There was disco and that era. Even the great ‘70s movies and progressive TV shows were starting to die out and give way to the blockbuster mentality, standup comedy had this electric quality, and we saw it continue on into the ’80s. What did that mean to you to explore that side of it, why comedy was flourishing at the moment in time?

    That’s a very exciting part of the show for me, because I had never spent a moment in a comedy club. I’m a serious actor. Comedy — I’m not a goer-outer to begin with, so the first time I went to an up-and-running comedy place was when we went to The [Comedy] Store with the guys from the show when we started shooting.

    I keep on thinking of court jesters and fools, and that ability to tell the king the truth, because he’s just joking. I think in the ’70s, people weren’t just up there for the entertainment value of it. They were up there, like Lenny Bruce before, with the safety of it just being a joke, to say the truth. It’s a fascinating part of it. I think that was part of my experience of the ’70s. Again, I was in Vermont. I was in London. Where it was happening was in the comedy clubs. That’s what I realized doing the show. That’s exactly where it was happening. And we see the result of it today.

    I had wondered if you had ever attended standup, because so many performers try different avenues starting out. Was there something scary about comedy for you?

    Terrifying! I was invited to The Improv in New York — now, this is probably early ’80s — to an improv class. “Oh, I can’t afford to do that.” “No, no, no — I’m inviting you, come. Just come and attend. We want you to be there.” I went one day to that class, and I knew: I am not going to be able to do this.

    I think that I have an ability to see the humor in something. I think I have the ability in which funny things comes to my mind when I’m talking, and friends say, “Oh, you’re so funny.” But that’s not comedy. That’s a whole other thing. And to get up there in that Improv and be funny …

    Do you feel like we’re at a point where comedy is going to be as important as it was then? Is comedy going to be a way for people to cope through this polarized moment in history with our politics that we’re at right now?

    As you ask the question in that way, I think it’s a damn good time that the show happens to be coming out, and that the hope of some kind of greater resurgence in comedy — and that it doesn’t necessarily also have to be like bigger and more extravaganza. That there’s a way to just stand, a single human being, on a stage, with a spotlight and a microphone, and change the world. If only for that moment.

    Who makes you laugh?

    Laugh? Like I’m really laughing? Because I don’t laugh at much of it. I can go, “Oh yeah, that’s funny. That’s kind of like Goldie.” I’m kind of like Goldie that way. “That’s funny.” “No, no, that’s a riot, believe you me.”

    I spent a little bit of time, I am so lucky, with Robin Williams. I worked with him three times. He could sit at the end of a dinner table and get every single executive stick-up-his-ass rolling off of his chair in laughter. I’ve seen him do some standup on tape or whatever — I never saw it live — but that ability to hear something out of the corner of your ear, and roll it into truth, after truth, after truth, that nobody can not respond to.

    That’s an amazing thing to be around. Being around Homicide” was the same thing, too. We’d be grousing or whatever. He would just come up with a one-liner that was like, “Oh my God,” and the whole world shifts.

  • ‘Nobodies’ Is the Melissa McCarthy-Powered Meta-Comedy You Need Right Now

    2017 Winter TCA - PortraitsAbout two decades ago, a group of six friends found one another while honing their comedy skills at the legendary improvisational troupe The Goundlings in Los Angeles. All of them found their creative niches in Hollywood, but one of them became a comedy superstar. And now she’s trying to help elevate her pals from “Nobodies” into somebodies.

    That’s the story both behind the scenes and in front of the camera with TV Land’s new series “Nobodies,” produced by comedienne MADtv”) and starring their friends, Larry Dorf, Rachel Ramras, and Hugh Davidson, who, in a meta-turn play longtime friends of the power couple who hilariously struggle with just how to harness McCarthy’s success to help enable their own showbiz ambitions.

    In real life, Dorf, Ramras, and Davidson have enjoyed solid on-camera work and a lucrative career writing, producing and voice acting in TV animation (all three have worked on “The Looney Tunes Show” and “Mike Tyson Mysteries,” among others) as their friends scaled to even more dizzying heights in film and television. But career strata aside, at the core they’re all devoted friends who’ve been by each others’ sides at every level of the Hollywood game who’ve finally found a clever way in to working together, as the group revealed to Moviefone in a freewheeling conversation.

    Moviefone: I was curious: Is this is a little “Waiting for Godot” kind of thing? Is Melissa going to be a presence that’s talked about but we don’t see until some key moment?

    Larry Dorf: She appears quicker than you think.

    Melissa McCarthy: They didn’t want me to, but I just kept showing up on set.

    Hugh Davidson: Maybe a high school version of “Waiting for Godot,” then she makes an appearance.

    How much of an actual documentary is “Nobodies”? How much did you twist Melissa’s arm to get you three on television?

    McCarthy: It’s a dream. We’ve all known each other for about 18 years. Wouldn’t you say that’s right? I bet it is 20 — God almighty! Probably 20 years we have all been a part of The Groundlings and each other’s lives. When three of your dear friends come with a really funny, great idea, and they can execute it, that’s a crazy gift.

    Tell me what it means to be able to execute it, to have friends come with you on something creative and say, “Hey, I think we can make that happen.”

    Ben Falcone: They brought it to me at a lunch, and I said, “I think it’s a great idea.” I believe what I told them is, “I’m happy to give it a try.” Also, what was going to make the show was them playing themselves.

    We didn’t want to go and have a situation where they’re going to be like, “OK, we’re the writers, and then we’ll go get so-and-so to play Hugh, and so-and-so to play Larry …” Sometimes networks, or even if, for whatever the reasons might be, they’re comfortable with somebody on their lists, and that wasn’t something that I was interested in doing. I know they weren’t as well, and Melissa wasn’t.

    We said, “Let’s go some place that was going to let us do the show how it’s supposed to be.” So we went to TV Land, and they said yes. I’d never guaranteed. The short answer is, I wasn’t like, “Hey guys, come on over, it’s going to happen!” It was sort of like, “I’ll try.”

    McCarthy: I think it’s a challenging thing when you see how good something can be, and you know the people that can execute it, and then trying to link up with a partner that will let you actually execute the show that we all envision. The great thing is, we all saw the same thing in terms of tone.

    It’s very autobiographical. They’re dipping into their own lives, and histories, and everything. To really get somebody to let us play it out that way is really exciting. We’ve all been doing this a lot time, and we all write. So to get to execute something in the humorous tone it was intended is like a dream.

    For the leads, where do you end and your characters start? Where does the comedy version of you kick in?

    Dorf: They’re heightened versions of ourselves.

    McCarthy: Are they? [Laughs]

    Rachel Ramras: They’re slightly heightened. What’s a fun thing to do is, like, Hugh and I can describe everything that’s funny about Larry as a source of comedy, and I bet Larry could do it about Hugh, and they could do it about me. You can sort of take your ego out of it and just mine yourself for as much comedy.

    Davidson: I didn’t know at all what was funny about me. I still kind of don’t when I watch it.

    McCarthy: That’s why you’re great.

    Davidson: It looks like every day of our lives.

    Falcone: What’s funny about you is that you’re an 85-year-old Texan in a 43-year-old body.

    McCarthy: And you have been since you were in your twenties.

    Davidson: It is weird. The whole thing’s weird. To answer your question, it’s all true.

    I think if you live in L.A. long enough, you do have that experience where someone you know gets a rocket ride into some kind of success. To see it happen to your friends, what was that like for you? Did you sort of say, “Oh, maybe we can work together one day if the timing is right”?

    Dorf: We’ve all worked together so much, from Groundlings. Ben and I have had a few pilots together, and the three of us have written, I don’t know how many episodes of television —

    Falcone: Animated.

    Dorf: But at first, we were writing …

    Falcone: Qualify it!

    Dorf: … an animated show. I oversell and under-do. The part that’s true is we were writing on a kids’ animated show that no one watched, no one really cared about.

    Davidson: I think children did. But no one that we knew.

    Dorf: And that was right about the time “Bridesmaids” had come out. It seemed like all of our friends were nominated for an Oscar. We’re all from the same place, and it’s like, “But we’re all the same. We’re all from the Groundlings. We’re the same as them!” So that was sort of the germ of the whole thing.

    Ramras: I have to say, because I’ve been a TV fan, and a fan of things for so long. So I remember when Melissa got on “Gilmore Girls,” my mom came to visit, and we got to go to the set. I have a picture of me and my mom in Rory’s bedroom and it just felt like the neatest thing in the world. Then Saturday Night Live,” and I love Hugh Laurie. He hosted, and she sent me a picture of him from “Saturday Night Live.” So I think I was also just a fan of my friends.

    McCarthy: Rachel, you sort of are still a fan.

    Ramras: Oh yeah. “That’s Melissa McCarthy, right there!”

    Davidson: We’ve known all these people for 20 years, whatever it is. And Rachel, every once in a while, she’s starstruck by Melissa. And I’m like, “Jesus Christ, we’ve known her for 100 years. What are you talking about?” I can see Rachel, like, somewhere in her mind —

    Ramras: “Our friends are so talented.”

    Dorf: That was a big thing. Melissa, she is in an episode. Watching Melissa, acting with Melissa, because we’ve known Melissa for so long, it was a moment of like, “Oh my God. This is Melissa McCarthy!”

    McCarthy: WHAT?

    Dorf: But it’s a thinking of like, “Well, this is why she is a movie star.”

    Ramras: While we were shooting that scene, Larry was just checking his phone.

    Any of that’s better than, “You’ve changed, man …”

    McCarthy: I’m waiting. One of these days I’m going to change.

    Dorf: I’m going to be the first one to change.

    Falcone: I was just going to say that.

    Ramras: I can feel him morphing right now on this couch.

    You have “friends” in Hollywood, and you have real friendships. So what’s kept this group together? What specifically do you think has kept you bonded at everybody’s various stages of success?

    Davidson: Political viewpoints.

    Dorf: We vote as a block.

    Davidson: I think because we were at Groundlings together. Groundlings is like the forge. You’re there, and you’re there on a Wednesday night, late, for no money, because there’s no money in it, unless you’re having to teach. You’re just all there, and you’re bringing your own costumes in, and you borrow wigs from each other. So it’s like we were all in a car wreck together a number of years ago. We survived that. Yeah, we were in some kind of traumatic situation.

    Falcone: We’ve seen each other at our best and at our worst. I bombed …

    Ramras: Many times.

    Falcone: I haven’t bombed with Michael yet, but I bombed for Michael.

    McCarthy: Michael was our director, and one of the first things he said is, “Get off the stage!” Something so foul, I can’t say. And he goes, “Why do you want people to hate you?” And I said, “It’s such a funny idea. He goes, “It’s not. Go sit down.” I thought it was a really original “office scene” — which I’ve since seen every new student write the exact same scene that I thought I was being very original — and he just told me to sit my unoriginal self down. That became our love affair.

    McDonald: That was a very nice cleanup of what I really said.

    Falcone: But if you bond together, as comedians, it’s different than standup, where your friends watch you bomb. I had bombed with all these people, on stage, sweaty, very weird, you start to feel cold, but then you start to sweat. When you’ve done that, and then of course, we’ve had our share of successes as well.

    McCarthy: It’s the bombing. I think you’re right. Bombing together.

    Falcone: Also, it’s unlike standup — that’s competitive. That’s always competitive.

    McDonald: I will say this: They’re also all very talented and very funny.

    McCarthy: Oh, Michael. Don’t make it weird.

    McDonald: When you know somebody’s funny, that breeds respect.

    Dorf: And if you had to rank us … ?

    McDonald: You’re not going to come out well in this.

    McCarthy: And your work ethic. I think there’s something … That’s always back to Groundlings, but to me, I barely attended the year and a quarter I was technically paying for college. But Groundlings, I felt like you get in there, and you had to work really hard to get in there. You had to work your butt off just to keep your head above water with this type of caliber of people.

    You knew everybody there was working really hard, and had everybody else’s back. There’s a camaraderie there that I had ever had before. It’s like summer camp that lasted 18 years. It’s like after that, you are really, truly, bonded for life.

    For all of you, have you ever had an experience where you’ve name-checked a famous friend for career reasons, and maybe you regretted it, maybe you didn’t, but you felt weird after you did it?

    Ramras: We probably have.

    Davidson: I think we’ve been tempted.

    Ramras: Maybe we were tempted.

    Davidson: I doubt we did it.

    Falcone: I bet you schemed it and wanted to do it, and talked it through, and chickened out.

    Davidson: If there’s three people, then at least …

    Dorf: There’s a conscience?

    Davidson: Right. Someone out of the three is holding the conscience, and then that person is saying, “I think we shouldn’t … “

    Dorf: And that’s usually Hugh, in our triad.

    McCarthy: I feel like, years ago, I had [an idea], and I just found it recently, a pile of papers. I came up with some show I did that I was going to pitch. By the way, I had no one to pitch it to because no one would see me, and I didn’t have any way to get into an office. But I realized, it all kind of was in the balance based on Noah Wyle, who I did not know in any capacity. He told a story on, like, “The Tonight Show” that gave me an idea, and literally, I just found a huge pitch based on a gentleman that I don’t know at all. I couldn’t get into a room to even talk about the guy I didn’t know, but boy, did I type it up, guys!

    Davidson: And saved it.

    Have you met him since?

    McCarthy: No, I haven’t. I just found it like two weeks ago.

    If this show hits, he’ll call and want a meeting.

    McCarthy: “Woo, do I have an idea for you, Noah!”

    What’s the realest thing we see in the show? The realest situation where you’re like, “Yeah, that actually is pretty much how it happened.”

    McDonald: Probably Larry being cheap.

    Falcone: He’s changing though.

    Dorf: I am changing.

    Falcone: He made strides. Melissa forcibly took the tip calculator out of his wallet. She cleans out his wallet.

    McCarthy: I cleaned out Larry’s wallet, because it literally was about six inches thick.

    Dorf: It was a card, like credit card size, and it said, “tip computer” on it. And it told you how much to tip.

    McCarthy: And I took it — and then you took it back out of the garbage, didn’t you?

    Dorf: I had it for many years, yeah, but now I don’t have it. I don’t have it anymore.

    McCarthy: I think there’s a tremendous amount that is ripped right from real life. A tremendous amount. You just feel something when you’re watching the show that you’re like, there’s a quality to it. First of all, I think the dynamic between these three, they have really been writing partners, and we’ve all been friends for so long. But so much of it dips into reality, and it’s like, how much do you amp it or not? But there’s a lot based in truth, and I think that’s where they get the quality.

    Falcone: They all love each other. They love each other in real life, and two of them love each other super special style.

    McCarthy: Two of them are married.

    Falcone: But I think that comes through in the episodes, that kind of chemistry. Mike can speak more to that, because he deals with the dynamic, and that’s what they explored when they were all kind of writing it and coming up with the stories together. That to me is the main thing that’s real.

    McDonald: It’s also, I think, some of the funnest stuff is … Melissa and Ben are very prominent characters in the show, and they’re very, very funny, and shiny bright objects, along with Kristen Wiig, and many, many other fun guest stars. But one of the things that I like just being is an observer, I’ve seen the show really all the way through, in my mind — I’ve watched it unfold on camera, and one of my favorite things is seeing their real, true relationship get mined for what it is, which is a really messed-up, loving triad.

    When the show succeeds, which one of these three people will be destroyed by its success?

    McDonald: I think Larry. It’s just the closest to the quick.

    Tell me now that you got to have this experience, and hopefully will have it for seasons to come, what was the greatest thing looking back and making the show, about being able to work together as friends at this stage in your lives?

    McCarthy: Oh my God, getting to do it together!

    McDonald: We were just walking arm in arm away from a photoshoot. These three were behind us, and Hugh’s here. We were just going, “Can you believe it? Can you believe it?” That’s the thing I keep thinking of.

    McCarthy: It’s a surreal feeling. Even the times I was shooting, or the times I was just there watching, it’s like, this is what we did anyway. So to get to do it, and get to have the support, and to get to do it on such a great level, it still makes my head spin.

    “Nobodies” premieres tonight (March 29) on TV Land.

  • ‘Training Day’ Stars Bonded Over Real-Life Street Gang Encounters

    2017 Winter TCA PortraitsThey’re not exactly playing a buddy-cop dynamic in their new CBS police drama “Training Day,” but Bill Paxton and Justin Cornwell have already bonded off-screen after some edgy ride-alongs with real-life cops and a shared love of classic films.

    The relationship between screen veteran Paxton — who plays the morally ambiguous, ends-justify-the-means detective Frank Roarke in a street-level LAPD crime unit — and emerging star Cornwell — whose rookie cop Kyle Craig has been assigned to infiltrate Roake’s team — is hardly the uneasy alliance their characters share. Off screen, the two actors enjoy a relaxed chemistry they cultivated in both the back seats of police cars and shooting the breeze about their favorite movies in between scenes.

    Paxton and Cornwell showed just how simpatico they are in a freewheeling chat with Moviefone, in which they recalled sharing some of their tensest moments researching in the streets of Los Angeles, and those performers that inspire them both — including original “Training Day” film star Denzel Washington.

    Moviefone: As actors, you do these ride-alongs with police to prep for roles like these. Tell me about those experiences — not even necessarily for the research, but just what you’re going through when things get a little freaky.

    Justin Cornwell: For me, it was just keeping my wits about me and not showing any of that fear. I feel like if you’ve got that, they’ll know it. I didn’t want to be like, “Oh, I’m afraid to talk to this person because he’s tatted out and he looks like he might …”

    Bill Paxton: This guy, Bob Deemer, he’s been working out of Newton division for 28 years. I went out with him a few times. He knows everybody. First thing, he pulls us into a park, and there are these OGs there, hang out in the park, play dominos, drink those 40s and stuff. They all knew me from films and stuff like that.

    Cornwell: “Weird Science“!

    Paxton: Yeah, “Weird Science.” We start talking to them, and then we went down another street, and there were these guys sitting out in front of a classic Hollywood stucco court. And he was saying, you know, “They did a drive by here. They shot about 100 rounds here. You can still see all the bullet holes and everything.” You see this one guy, and Bob’s in the car, he goes, “Yeah, man, you can tell: somebody’s marinated.”

    Cornwell: “Baked”?

    Paxton: Yeah, “He’s baked.” I don’t know what he said — whatever he said, it was weird. But it was weird because he was talking as if looking at this guy in the third person in a weird kind of way. Then he wants us to talk, and this guy wouldn’t talk to us at all. We’re seeing the other guys are kind of wary like, “What the hell is this?” And Bob tells them, “We’re not here to roust you or bust you or anything. They’re just actors and they want to talk to you.” I was like, “Oh hey, Mr. Gangster! Me and my partner, we’re actors.”

    “Help us workshop a scene.”

    Paxton: That makes me uncomfortable. I’m more the kind of guy that just kind of wants to just be the fly on the wall. I don’t want to interact with these guys. It was interesting. Bob was using my celebrity in terms of breaking the ice. But he knows everybody there. These guys spend all their professional lives — well, this guy did: 28 years in the same community. It’s a big area. It’s finite to them after a while. It was strange, but interesting stuff. Then we went over and those guys gave us those funky food, remember? Those Cambodian guys.

    Cornwell: Yeah. Beef jerky.

    Paxton: Yeah. That stuff was nasty! You’re trying to eat it, kind of look like they’re bonding with you. Again, it was cool that these Cambodian guys, ended up in this Bloods controlled neighborhood, and how they initially fought it out, but then earned each other’s respect. Now they all interact. Some of the Cambodian guys are in Blood gangs and stuff like that. It’s a whole other culture out there. It’s tough. It’s a hard part of town, man. Everything’s barred. It’s tough. I can’t imagine what it would be like to be a cop every day like that.

    How do you take what you see out there and apply it?

    Paxton: This is what you do as an actor. You’re asked to take on a role, so you’ve got to go out and see how that role in the real world exists and how it works. So it’s skill of observation and research, then you add your imagination to that, and you build a character. And at the end of the day, you might find all kinds of stuff, great stuff, but that’s not what they’re doing in the show.

    Cornwell: Sometimes, also, going back to script stuff, you said, “Hey man, I heard this really great piece of lingo that they use. We could use that in the show,” and then it becomes a little more authentic.

    Paxton: Yeah. “Hey, how’d that cop say that when he made that call?” That’s the kind of stuff I’m making notes of. Just that stuff.

    Cornwell: Devil’s in the details.

    Paxton: Yeah. That work helps give the actor conviction of character. When you’re watching it, you believe that guy’s in that world. Everybody works differently.

    What’s interesting about this take on “Training Day” is that there’s so much middle ground to cover: It’s not a story of Justin’s character, Kyle, getting corrupted or Bill’s character, Frank, getting redeemed just yet. They’re sort of meeting in the middle, and we’re going to see where this goes. Tell me what that means to you, to be able to go in any different direction at this stage in the game.

    Cornwell: It’s fun for me. I love being able to take a character and find out what he’s doing. This is a brand-new situation for me. I’ve always done theater where my characters had a completed arc. You can imagine what they did, but you never really explored it. Here we get to explore that. We get to imagine what could happen.

    Paxton: Look, it’s a heightened reality. But we have to ground it so it’s not so heightened that it’s just like, “I can’t buy this.” Obviously, if we shot off that many rounds, and had that many round shot at us, I was saying, we would be not only Swiss cheese, but we’d be completely suspended or banned from working near any police force on any planet.

    It’s exciting stuff. It’s Jerry Bruckheimer bringing that kind of “Top Gun” sensibility to an hour drama on CBS. I think, for CBS, it’s kind of pushing the envelope a little bit. The networks, they’ve got to compete with a lot of good cable shows now that they never had to years ago. But when I said, I said something in there, I started to go off on it, I dig the idea of being in a populist show that is going out to places where they know they don’t get any kind of elite TV package or anything. They can’t afford it.

    It’s free TV stuff. Yeah, we’re going to be selling a lot of Viagra and everything else. It’ll get out there. These stories, at the end of the day, they have a moral. A lot of it is rough justice, but you have to sometimes fight fire with fire, and you have to stand up, and you’ve got to look out for the people who are your family. It’s about loyalty and compassion, but also having to do the hard thing … Here we’ve got a show that I feel is fun, it’s entertaining, there’s some moral issues involved, and let’s go.

    I’m sure you didn’t imagine, when this project got off the ground, how polarized this country was going to be by the time the show comes out. Here we are now, and I’m watching the show thinking there’s going to be a lot of people watching the show that are 100% with Bill from the first episode — “You’ve got to get the job done” — and the others are 100% with Justin going, “You’ve got to play by the rules.”

    Cornwell: I tell you, I saw the polarization. I’ve seen it my whole life.

    Paxton: I’m sure you have. He came from Louisville, Kentucky. He’s seen polarization.

    Cornwell: So I felt like the show was doing something where it could service a lot of different communities. It wasn’t just serving one side of that pole.

    Paxton: You’re right. These guys are integrating. They really are. They’re working in an integrated world, which a lot of people need to get with the program. Look, not getting into politics and all that. At the end of the day, is it entertaining? Is it at all informative? Is there a moral to it? It is a weird time. It sure as hell is.

    Is there a moment when you guys realized you found your level together? You’re going to be in this for the long haul, presumably.

    Cornwell: I know the moment, for me. The exact moment. We were at the table reading. It was the first time I met you. We didn’t test. We didn’t do any camera reads. It was at the table read, and I had memorized this speech, it was from the audition. And so I gave it to you off book at the table read, and you kind of had memorized your response, and you gave it to me back. And we had a moment where we had another line we forgot to look at the page. We had connected. That was the moment for me. I was just like, “This is going to be fun.”

    Paxton: Yeah. We’ve become good friends from this experience, because it’s an intense experience. You either bond fiercely, or it’s like, “Just let me out of here!” He’s a first class guy. He really is. He comes prepared to work, he wants to do a good job, there’s no bullshit, actor bullshit. It’s, how do we make this better? That’s all I’m about man, at the end of the day. We want to make good work, and that’s it.

    Bill’s got some pretty classic movies of his own on his resume. Justin, did you have a thought or feeling about Bill in your head that you had to get over the first time you met him?

    Cornwell: I told him a lot on the pilot that it was a big honor to work with him. Every single day, working on the show was a big honor. But you have to understand, being the movie-head that I was and that my family is, it was like doing a job with your uncle or something you’ve been watching your whole life.

    Paxton: Very quickly, too, he could see. I struggled to get through my day as far as trying to get it right.

    Cornwell: Demystified himself!

    Paxton: Yeah, I completely demystified myself pretty quick. Some of these speeches are tough. You’re trying to find them and doing them. But one thing is that he got from me — and we never talked about this — is you see I never throw in the towel. I keep going. And he does too. It’s a hard schedule. Just getting your rest and being ready for the next day. Obviously, if you’re rubbery on the stuff, it’s going to be a hard day for you.

    Cornwell: It’s a fight. But those days, some days when you’re on, I’m on, it’s just a great day. Smooth day, we got rest the night before. I think that’s the hardest part is sleep.

    Bill, who was somebody that was an icon in your head that you worked with or encountered that was like, “Whoa!” And then you got to see what he or she was as a person?

    Most of them I never really got to see what they’re really like. Jack Nicholson was the guy that I boiled down from. Jack — and why he’s so entertaining to watch — was he doesn’t just portray the character, but he relishes the portrayal. And in that relish, you as the audience are kind of relishing it, too. I try to bring that relish to Frank.

    And Denzel of course. Nobody can shuck and jive and f*ck around [like him] — and I worked with Denzel on “2 Guns” a couple years ago. I do my biggest scene in the movie with Denzel my first day. I was ready. It was a movie part, so I had time to prepare the role. But again, this guy would throw stuff into the scene as we started improvising a little bit. And boy, he’s quick. He’s fast. His mind is agile.

    Do you remember the first time you saw the movie “Training Day”?

    Cornwell: Yes!

    Paxton: That’s, like, his second favorite film.

    Tell me how it hit you. I’ve seen a million movies, but that hit me like a freight train.

    Cornwell: I watched it with my family for the first time. Being movie people, my family is the kind of family that watches all the movies. It doesn’t matter what’s in the movie. We’ll sit down as a family and watch that movie. When we watched it as a movie, it was just like, “Oh my God, did not see that coming!” Denzel, to African Americans, to anybody really, is this heroic guy. He automatically becomes a hero when you put him on screen. It’s like, “Oh my God, there’s Denzel.”

    Paxton: I hear you.

    Cornwell: That’s what it is. So once he’s on the screen, “Yes, Denzel … What’s he doing? No!” That’s what it becomes. You felt like you were betrayed by everybody who made that movie. Then you had to watch it again. Then you realize that this is a masterpiece.

    They knew what they were doing when they cast Denzel. Not only was he a great actor, he was an actor that people had already loaded their preconceived conceptions of what he does and who he plays inside of him. So when he comes into this character, they see it’s Denzel, but they didn’t have to suspend disbelief, by the end of the movie, you forget it’s Denzel. It becomes Alonzo Harris.

    That’s the magic trick, to be in front of somebody and be somebody else. And Denzel can do that, even when he’s already Denzel. He already has so much weight on him, already an Oscar for “Glory” and all these other movies. He can still take it off and put it back on.

    “Training Day” airs Thursdays on CBS.

  • Disney’s Live-Action ‘The Jungle Book’: What You Need to Know

    mowgli and baloo in disney's THE JUNGLE BOOKThe first in-depth look at Disney‘s “The Jungle Book” was unveiled in Los Angeles last month, at a special presentation hosted by Walt Disney Studios and director Jon Favreau. We were able to exclusively experience the advanced 3D tech the film was being shot with and get a sense of how the adaptation of the beloved Disney classic aims to stand apart from the original.

    Held at Hollywood’s El Capitan theater, the event’s emcee was none other than the director himself. Favreau introduced a selection of preview clips and delivered insight into what made now the right time to remake “The Jungle Book.” As it turns out, producer Alan Horn grew up on the Mowgli books by Rudyard Kipling, and Favreau grew up a fan of Walt Disney‘s animated classic. Together, they wanted to collaborate on a project to push technology forward and agreed that “The Jungle Book” had the characters, emotion, and music to make it the best option.

    “Alan said, ‘Look at the technology, look at “Life of Pi.” Why not use the technology to make a whole world that transports you? Why be limited by going off and shooting plates?’ Let’s really embrace this technology and see what we could do if we push it to its limit.” – Jon Favreau

    THE JUNGLE BOOK - Director Jon Favreau presents a sneak peek from Disney's THE JUNGLE BOOK to select press on January 13, 2016 at The El Capitan Theater in Hollywood, CA. Photo by Alberto Rodriguez/Getty Images. ©2016 Disney. All Rights Reserved.Dolby Extended Dynamic Range Laser Projection is the state-of-the-art technology that Disney and Favreau are using to bring “The Jungle Book” to audiences. It boasts photo-real imaging to recreate textures and environmental detail. Favreau’s adaptation seeks to bring a tangible cinematic world as far as our eyes can perceive. In the test footage we got to see, the CG (computer generated) elements, like water, lighting, and even wind, were astounding. It was hard to tell a rendered scene apart from real-life images. The process is advancing with animals as well, as now fur and skin can be recreated with near photo-realistic perfection.

    Immersing an audience — and an actor — in a believable CG world has it’s challenges, but Disney uses an effective technique that is part practical and part optical illusion. The way the shots are set up goes something like this: Neel Sethi (Mowgli) performs in an active foreground on a practical set (i.e. real life), then the CG animators work to make the background and animal characters fully realized through the technology, seamlessly blending the real with the imaginary.

    “If there was a giant we were standing on the shoulders of it was ‘Avatar.’ The first time I saw ‘Avatar,’ I got it, what this whole big screen 3D format thing was about. I got why I had to go to the movies to see that. I don’t know if anyone’s ever outdone the way the 3D was done there. So we shot native 3D using the PACE system, the system that Jim (Cameron) had been a part of developing and we used simulcap and all this technology that people haven’t really been using.” -Jon Favreau

    THE JUNGLE BOOK - Director Jon Favreau presents a sneak peek from Disney's THE JUNGLE BOOK to select press on January 13, 2016 at The El Capitan Theater in Hollywood, CA. Photo by Alberto Rodriguez/Getty Images. ©2016 Disney. All Rights Reserved.The sights and sounds of the jungle previewed showed off how far the tech has really come since James Cameron‘s “Avatar.” In a scene in which Shere Khan (Idris Elba) begins to sniff out Mowgli’s presence, Sethi’s presence among the CG characters and environment is hard to discern. The way that Favreau places physical set pieces around the actor creates a sense of real space. Meaning, if he hides behind a rock, the rock is actually there.

    “So if the kid’s walking 12 feet in the cut of the movie that we have, we built 12 feet of jungle. Each set was built for a shot. The art department or production designer would wheel in one set. We’d film that and across the street in Downtown LA we’d have the other set being prepped. We’d go back and forth and back and forth. It was a very cool efficient process” – Jon Favreau

    In a scene in which Shere Khan chases Mowgli through a ravine, the mud the young actor runs through is real. So the trick to blurring the lines between a real and a CG space is in having the actor be affected by the environment, like the mud caked on his feet as he hops on a CG animal and escapes.THE JUNGLE BOOK (Pictured) SHERE KHAN ©2016 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.The ability to really sell these scenes to an audience is a testament to young Sethi’s acting skills. He completely embodies Mowgli with charisma and real, child-like wonder. There’s a reason he was the kid — out of 2,000 who auditioned — to get the part.

    “You need the personality and the humor and the charm and the emotion of the characters. That’s really what ‘Jungle Book’ represents. People don’t think about action, it’s fun to have it but really what you think about is the characters and the relationships. Neel really seems to capture for me what I remember of Mowgli in the film. He wasn’t just a cookie-cutter kid. He had spunk and a little swagger. He’s just a great kid and I loved working with him.” -Jon Favreau

    Sethi’s acting further elevates the CG techniques Disney and Favreau are pushing to advance. Keep moving forward is a Disney mantra Favreau lives by, and he believes that, if Walt were alive today, he, too, would be experimenting with new, cutting-edge tech.

    “I love film, love what Chris Nolan and ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Hateful Eight’ are doing. I don’t want to see film go away. But, at the same time, I think we have to push technology as far as we can because there are other things that digital art is better for. When it comes to such complicated visual effects and putting all these elements together, I want to continue to see digital continue to grow. I don’t want to see anything eliminated; I want to see everything perfected, including film.” – Jon Favreau

    THE JUNGLE BOOK - Director Jon Favreau presents a sneak peek from Disney's THE JUNGLE BOOK to select press on January 13, 2016 at The El Capitan Theater in Hollywood, CA. Photo by Alberto Rodriguez/Getty Images. ©2016 Disney. All Rights Reserved.We also got a small glimpse of Bill Murray‘s work as the voice of Baloo, singing his signature tune and nailing the lovable bear’s endearing slyness. As Favreau explained, the key to using music in “The Jungle Book” this time around is to only use it when it makes sense for the movie. Favreau consulted with composer Richard Sherman, but no songs beyond “Bare Necessities” were confirmed to be in the movie.

    “You’re trying to honor the memories of the people who grew up with this stuff but you’re also trying to make a movie that will appeal to the full audience. There is music but it’s not a musical.” -Jon Favreau

    But how can you not have Christopher Walken, who will be playing King Louie, sing? In the last clip presented, we got our first real look at Mowgli meeting the King of the Monkeys. The reveal of the gentle giant hilariously balances action with comedy. Of course, Walken is a riot.

    “Because this character lives in the ruins of man, there was a magical quality to him anyway. Who do you pick to play that character? It has to be Chris Walken.” -Jon Favreau

    A fun tidbit Favreau shared is their solution to Louie being an orangutan in the animated film, which is inaccurate since, well, orangutans don’t live in India. This time around, they made Louie a mythical creature believed to have inhabited India; he’s basically a Sasquatch with orangutan-like qualities. Animators took special liberties with Walken’s mo-cap performance to imbue the character with the actor’s expressions. It can be a bit eerie, but it works really well.Jon Favreau and Rob Legato at the el capitanNear the end of the presentation, Favreau was joined on-stage by visual effects supervisor Rob Legato, who had previously worked on “Avatar.”

    “In this particular project, which was really exciting, is that we’re creating a total photo-real world that we could recognize is real. We’ve all seen pictures of animals. We’ve all seen how they move, how they walk and how they talk. The really fun portion of this and why it was great to work with Jon is that we had the same sensibility. To actually create a real movie where the suspension of disbelief is easier to let go of because it looks like it could be conventionally filmed.” – Rob Legato, Visual Effects Supervisor

    From what we’ve seen so far, Disney’s “The Jungle Book” is shaping up to be a must-see. Let’s be clear: Walt Disney Studios’ adaptation won’t be a shot-for-shot remake of the original, but uses the animated classic as a foundation, expanding Mowgli’s story through Kipling’s original tales in a stunning new format.

    You can see for yourself when Disney’s “The Jungle Book” opens April 15th, 2016.
    Disney's The Jungle Book (2016) - Trailer No. 2


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  • The 25 Best Los Angeles Movies

    %Slideshow-362343%Jesus is flying over Rome, a statue hoisted by a helicopter, in the opening shot of Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita.” In the opening shot of Steve Martin‘s “L.A. Story,” which debuted 25 years ago this week (on February 8, 1991), instead of Jesus, it’s a giant prefab frankfurter.

    And that may be all you need to know about how the movie industry portrays its hometown on screen. In the movies, at least, Los Angeles is a city of jarring contrasts — artifice and practicality, glittering dreams and prosaic reality, sunshine and drought. Though it’s a comic fantasy, “L.A. Story” paints as effective a portrait of Los Angeles as any movie, but as the list here makes clear, there are lots of L.A.s, each with its own screen story.

  • Moviefone Presents Street Food Cinema 2015 in Los Angeles

    Street Food Cinema 2015Summer is here (well, technically it starts June 21st), which means lots of sun, beach-going, and outdoor movie-viewing. Yeah, you read that right. The traditional movie-going experience is great and all, but being cooped up in a theater means missing the beautiful weather outside — including sunsets, cool breezes, and starry skies.

    Luckily, Moviefone and Street Food Cinema are taking you out of the theater and onto the moonlit fields of Los Angeles’s amazing parks with a 2015 outdoor screening series featuring some pretty incredible titles, like “Bridesmaids,” “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” “Jaws,” and many, many more.

    The annual outdoor movie festival gives Los Angeles-area residents (or anyone visiting L.A. this summer) the chance to watch a diverse line-up of iconic movies and contemporary classics in the fresh summer air. While the centerpieces of the festival are the films, the event also features gourmet food trucks and music from L.A. musicians, along with a few surprises here and there. Tickets to the event are $12 for adults, which includes access to the food, music, and live entertainment.

    You can check out the full Street Food Cinema 2015 schedule here, and find out plenty more on Street Food Cinema’s official site.Street Food Cinema 2015 %Slideshow-280626%