By: Dove
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On February 11, 2012, the multi-talented Kevin Smith will unleash his latest stand-up special Burn In Hell exclusively on EpixHD, with access for Epix On Demand and Xbox 360 and Roku Epix app users. Filmed in Austin, Texas, Burn In Hell is flooded with the type of candor Smith’s fans expect from the quick-witted Jersey Gen-Xer.

Smith’s first comedy special with Epix, Too Fat for 40, was actually a Q&A with fans released in October 2011. Smith often does daily Q&A with fans via his twitter page (@ThatKevinSmith), and had a lot to talk about last year after his beef with Southwest airlines, so taking it all to the stage made perfect sense.

You can get updates on Burn In Hell before the premiere at Facebook.com/EpixHD or on Twitter @EpixHD. Take a look at the uncensored clips below for a sneak peek!

The Game of Thrones Season 2 sneak peeks have been good for a tease thus far, but we finally have a bit more of a trailer – with just over a minute of thrills! Will you be tuning in to HBO on April 1, 2012 for the season premiere?

CLICK HERE for more info on Game of Thrones Season 2 at HBO.com

This time around, the mother-daughter team have decided to keep their reality show more in the “real”, following every aspect of their daily lives from home to work. Thankfully, as intense as these strong-minded women can be at times, they are equally as hilarious and fun to watch. The debut episode is full of laughs, but also offers up some truly touching moments that we hope will continue throughout the season!

Check out the Season 2 trailer below:

CLICK HERE to watch more clips, and find out how you can win a trip to Los Angeles and $1,000 on the Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best page at WeTV.com!

By: Dove
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Actor/writer Ron Eldard is one of those rare talents who can play to the most delicate aspects of any character he takes on. Whether he’s appearing in action films like Deep Impact, Black Hawk Down and Super 8; or taking on more uncomfortable themes like Bastard Out of Carolina or House of Sand and Fog, there is no doubt that Eldard is a master of his craft.

In his latest film Roadie, Ron Eldard takes on the life of down-and-out Gen-Xer Jimmy Testagross – a guy who has spent the past two decades on tour with Blue Oyster Cult, only to find himself suddenly out of a job. As he returns home, Jimmy is forced to face the challenged relationship with his mother (played by Lois Smith), and his former high-school flame Nikki (Jill Hennessy) who is now married to his nemesis Randy (Bobby Cannavale).

UrbLife.com recently spoke with Ron Eldard about his work on Roadie, which was directed by Showtime’s Homeland writer/director Michael Cuesta, who also co-wrote the film with his brother Gerald. In this exclusive interview, Ron discusses his ability to bring compassion to difficult roles, and how he’s avoided being stereotyped in Hollywood.

What would you say are some of Jimmy Testagross’s flaws, like the inability to accept the reality of his life?

Ron Eldard: I think, without sounding too douche-y actor-y, I play really bad characters that do horrible things, but you just can’t play them that way. You have to always find the good in them, you have to find at least a flash of humanity in people otherwise people write you off, and they can dismiss you as not human.

I don’t think that he’s so different, most people that I know are this way. There are some people that are quite a bit older and part of another generation, they had to grow up and they don’t do any of that shit. There’s less and less of that now in the world period. His flaws, I actually kind of went the other way. I was very adamant [with the Cuesta brothers] and they complied very quickly, that you had to play his dignity.

You can be a roadie, there’s nothing wrong with being a roadie and having that life, but he doesn’t have a life outside of being a roadie. He’s not being honest with himself and he’s spinning out of control. I just wanted him to have dignity, I didn’t want the joke to be on him.

The script is written so well that his come-up is going to happen. He has to come clean in this at some point, to some degree. He’s going to get slapped in the face and he’s going to eat some shit. For me it was about a guy trying to keep his dignity. Yeah he’s lying and sucking up, but he’s not killing anyone. Who hasn’t done that themselves to varying degrees? I think this one is you catch him at a 24-hour period, his heightened moment. Mostly it was about keeping him dignified.

Why didn’t Jimmy see his mom for 20 years?

RE: First of all let me say, there are some redeeming qualities, he’s very good at his job. They totally screwed him over. It’s like having a girlfriend for 20 years and she leaves you a [break-up] post-it note. In the original script, he knocks on all of the doors of the hotel. He goes down and orders them their breakfast and waits for them in the restaurant and they don’t show up. Then the waitress finally says, “Oh no they left an hour ago.” He doesn’t do anything intrinsically shitty.

I think the reason that he hasn’t been home in all of those years, one reason is he had a rough relationship with his father. He’s a guy, like many people, that has problems that come from your childhood in one way or another. Whether your parents are great or awful, everyone fucks up. At a certain point you have to decide to take responsibility for your own stuff, he hasn’t quite done that yet. He didn’t have great friends back at home. He wasn’t the popular guy, he wasn’t the least popular but he struggled.

If he doesn’t come back a champion, for him, he comes back a total failure, and he hasn’t been completely honest about who he is. Because he’s coming back with no job, it’s a sore situation. He’s just backpedaling. I don’t think he’s so awful. Bobby [Cannavale] has a completely rough character. [Randy] is great at being really charming and really an asshole.

Do you feel that Jimmy just got so stuck, and that’s why he didn’t pursue music like he really wanted to?

RE: He did play and the story that he tells his mom is absolutely true. His father absolutely took his guitar and smashed it and broke it. You’re just a kid who saves up your money for this guitar and your dad just smashes it. In the movie you see some stuff that we shot on the road, where you see me as a roadie.

As we were shooting, we found out that Blue Oyster Cult was playing in Long Island, and I asked Michael [Cuesta] to contact their people and ask [if I could] come load in their show and treat me like a roadie; we would just shoot it with two cameras. So that’s really me loading in the Blue Oyster Cult show. The guy who’s next to me is the real roadie, he is my character. The guy that was the roadie, he plays sometimes. He would play backup, he would sometimes have to do the cowbell. There was always this idea, he plays guitar really well, he does sound checks for all of the guitars, he’s a real musician. I think Jimmy is a musician.

I went to school with an actress, the best actress I’ve ever seen and pound for pound, that only got one professional job in her entire life. I don’t know what she does now. Having talent is very little – it’s what you do with it, and you have to be willing to take a beating. I don’t know if [Jimmy] was built for that beating. I think he holds on to being beat down, at a certain point you have to grow up. Then you get inside this life – it must have been really great for this long stretch. Traveling the world, meeting interesting people and sexy women, whoever the band doesn’t want you get, parties, first class hotels… for a guy from Queens, that’s not a bad life.

You’ve expressed that you’re “really good at playing really bad guys.” Do you feel that you have been typecasted for playing the bad guy, or do you just feel that it’s a challenge that you enjoy taking on?

RE: I think I have not been typecast in a way that has been good, and not so good, because much of show business works on hiring people to do the same thing over and over again. That’s how you get an audience and blah, all that show business stuff. That would be a very boring life for me. It’s weird, whatever scene that I’m performing, that’s what [the audience] usually thinks I am, which in a way is a complement.

When I first started studying acting, I did lots of comedies, stand up. I thought everyone was going to think that I’m the funny, comic actor. Then I thought that I had to do something else, I was just a kid, and I also thought that you couldn’t be blonde and taken seriously. I remember thinking, “Who’s a great actor that’s blonde?” I thought as a kid they only let actors with dark hair be serious actors. I thought that I had to dye my hair and play serious.

I’m very proud of what I did. I did a sitcom and a couple of other shows, single camera comedies. I feel blessed. Also because I grew up in New York and also Utah, I can be a country boy, I can be a very serious city boy.

I almost don’t look at them as bad guys. I played a character [Glen in Bastard Out of Carolina] where I’m raping and beating my 11-year-old stepdaughter, and I think of him as a really troubled guy, but when you watch this piece and the feedback, you can’t write this guy off as just a monster. He really is human, which makes him more of a monster. He’s awful, don’t get me wrong, that’s an awful thing to do, but you just can’t write him off.

I think that when you get really good characters that have darkness in them, they’re definitely more interesting to play. I played an astronaut that saved the world [in Deep Impact], that toothy strong jaw guy, but that director and it was with a bunch of great actors. None of them are going to do the stereotype thing, then I could do something close to that. I definitely don’t fit into one box too easily. In the long run, that would be better.

If you could go back in time and redo any movie and put yourself as the lead, what movie would that be?

RE: Back to douche-y actor talk, I’m not a fan of redoing movies, it bothers me. I met a director that was redoing a foreign film that I loved. I’m a pretty honest guy, so the first question I asked was, “Why are you redoing this movie?” He was like, “What do you mean?” I was like, “Why are you making it – is this for money? The original was just so great.” Of course, I did not get that job.

I did a Broadway version of On the Waterfront, and to redo that movie might be really great. Or like Raging Bull, how great would that be?

Where can we find you next?

RE: Right now I am writing something. You’ll find me in my backyard writing.

Find out more about Roadie at MagPictures.com/Roadie

By: Dove
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The award-winning series The Game is back for Season 5 on BET! Tia Mowry (Melanie), Pooch Hall (Derwin), Coby Bell (Jason), Hosea Chanchez (Malik),  Wendy Raquel Robinson (Tasha) and Barry Floyd (Tee-Tee) are all back, however Brittany Daniel (Kelly) will not be on the show this season.

Special appearances will include Brandy Norwood (as Jason’s new love interest), comedian D-Ray (as D-Ray) and Real Housewives of Atlanta‘s very rich Nene Leakes. In the video interviews below, the cast discusses new adventures coming for their characters, and scoops on some behind-the-scenes antics.

The Game Season 5 will debut Tuesday, January 10 at 10:00pm EST! Will you be tuned in?

Watch: The Game cast talks new characters and storylines

The Game cast snitches on each other!

The Game Season 5 teaser trailer

CLICK HERE to watch more exclusive interview clips with The Game cast at BET.com

By: Dove

The Hobbit trailer is finally here! There is not much to say about this one… most of us read the books (I read The Hobbit twice as a kid, and had nightmares about Bilbo down in that cave!) and by now anyone with basic cable has seen the Lord of the Rings trilogy. And now we’ll only have to wait one year for Bilbo’s adventures!

The cast is all back with director Peter Jackson – Ian McKellen as Gandalf, Elijah Wood as Frodo, Andy Serkis as Gollum, as well as Cate Blanchett, Orlando Bloom, Ian Holm, Christopher Lee and Hugo Weaving.

The fresh faces in the pack include Martin Freeman (Love Actually), who plays the young Bilbo Baggins, Luke Evans (Clash of the Titans, Immortals) as Bard, Richard Armitage (Captain America) as Thorin, Benedict Cumberbatch (Atonement, War Horse) as Smaug, and Lost‘s Evangeline Lily who portrays Tauriel.

For those of you who may not have read the book and need some crib notes, here is the synopsis:

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey follows title character Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor, which was long ago conquered by the dragon Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the wizard Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo finds himself joining a company of thirteen dwarves led by the legendary warrior, Thorin Oakensheild. Their journey will take them into the Wild; through treacherous lands swarming with Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs and Giant Spiders, Shapeshifters and Sorcerers.

Although their goal lies to the East and the wastelands of the Lonely Mountain first they must escape the goblin tunnels, where Bilbo meets the creature that will change his life forever … Gollum. Here, alone with Gollum, on the shores of an underground lake, the unassuming Bilbo Baggins not only discovers depths ofguile and courage that surprise even him, he also gains possession of Gollum’s “precious” ring that holds unexpected and useful qualities … A simple, gold ring that is tied to the fate of all Middle-earth in ways Bilbo cannot begin to know.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will be in theaters December 2012! Check out the trailer:

Shouts to Collider!

By: Dove
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Sexy Sam Worthington returns to the big screen March 2012 in Legendary/Warner Bros.’ Wrath of the Titans, reprising his role as Perseus, one of Zeus’s many children. This time around – ten years after he defeated the mighty Kraken – the goodie two-shoes demigod Perseus hits the underworld to save Zeus from being killed by his other offspring, Ares and Hades.

Also back from Clash of the Titans are Liam Neeson as Zeus, Ralph Fiennes as Hades and Danny Huston as Poseidon. New faces include Edgar Ramirez (Domino, The Bourne Identity) as Ares, Rosamund Pike (Surrogates) as Perseus’ wifey Andromeda and Bill Nighy as God of Fire Hephaestus.

And the beasts… wow! Here is the new poster featuring the Minotaur, Chimera, Makhai and Kronos… yikes!

Will you give Wrath of the Titans a chance? Check out the trailer and let us know your thoughts!

The cast includes Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle aka Catwoman; Joseph Gordon-Levitt as police officer John Blake; Marion Cotillard as Miranda Tate, a board member of Wayne Enterprises; Gary Oldman as Commissioner Jim Gordon; Morgan Freeman as the head of Wayne Enterprises; and Matthew Modine as Nixon. Michael Caine reprises his role as Batman’s trusty butler Alfred.

You also see several members of the Pittsburgh Steelers in this clip – all real players!

Award-winning director Chris Nolan returns to finalize this amazing trilogy. The Dark Knight Rises will hit theaters July 2012 via Warner Bros. Pictures. Check out the trailer below!

For more info on The Dark Knight Rises, go to TheDarkKnightRises.com

By: Dove
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I’ll admit, I wasn’t a huge fan of the 2009 Sherlock Holmes movie with Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law and Rachel McAdams. Even with Guy Ritchie at the helm, and all kinds of award nominations and whatnot, I was bored to tears with the movie. However, because I’m such a huge fan of these four people alone, I decided to give Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows a fair shot. And guess what? I really liked it!

After trying to figure out why I disliked the first film so much, I have to chalk it up to a little too much talk and not enough action. Some may beg to differ, but I felt like Holmes just ran his mouth too much the first time around. I love an uber-smart, snarky, drug-happy hero at almost any turn, but sometimes the action does speak louder than the words.

In A Game of Shadows, Guy Ritchie gives us a bang-up good time with plenty of juicy fight scenes, explosions, shootings, assassinations, stabbings, bombings, poisonings and everything else that you’d want for a good time in the theater. Ok, so maybe it’s just me, but I do love to escape, and while the witty banter between Holmes and Watson is on point, it’s not dominating the movie to a fault.

The synopsis of this Warner Bros. film is simple enough, with some good twists and turns for the mystery lovers in the crowd. Watson (Jude Law) is newly married and trying, unsuccessfully, to enjoy his honeymoon phase. Rachel McAdams‘ crafty Irene Adler brings the expected 19th century mean girl action, while Swedish actress Noomi Rapace (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) joins the cast as a fierce fortune teller with some big family problems. [Whatever you do, do NOT read the Wikipedia page for the film before you see it because someone posted the entire story, ending and all!]

And yes, the scene in the forest is truly as remarkable as it appears to be in the trailer!

When all is said and done, I’m going to give kudos to the new screenplay writers – husband and wife team Kieran and Michele Mulroney. They don’t have a lot under their belts in Hollywood just yet, but this movie should bring a lot more opportunities their way. The story is fast-paced and funny without being too full of itself, giving Robert Downey Jr. just the right edge to fuel Holmes’ wacky ways.

Fortunately, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is more than enough RDJ fix to get us through until The Avengers hits theaters next Summer!

That said, I do recommend this for a good holiday flick! There are a LOT of loud scenes, so those with sensitive ears may need earplugs. But for those of us with enough club days in our past for premature hearing loss – bombs away!

Brothers Michael and Gerald Cuesta may not agree on everything, but they can definitely concur that their careers are heating up! Their first independent feature film L.I.E. was produced in 2001, and since then Michael has directed and/or produced episodes for critically acclaimed series like HBO’s Six Feet Under and True Blood; CBS’s Blue Bloods; Showtime’s Dexter, and most recently Showtime’s political stunner Homeland.

Meanwhile, Gerald was busy developing ideas for the likes of zombie adventure Babylon Fields (which, as they explain, was slated to be the first undead television experience “by a couple of years”), and the brothers’ latest collaborative effort, Roadie.

Starring Ron Eldard (Super 8, Freedomland), Jill Hennessy (Luck, Crossing Jordan) and Bobby Cannavale (Blue Bloods, The Other Guys), Roadie is an exceptional look into a man’s stagnated life… a man who has spent over two decades chasing a dream by being the best roadie he can be with legendary band Blue Oyster Cult. Once he’s dropped from his job in a most unpleasant way, he’s forced to face the past he’d left behind.

Gerald and Michael Cuesta recently got ‘In the Cut’ with UrbLife.com to discuss their work on Roadie, why they feel the Gen-X characters in the film have so many challenges accepting adulthood, and much more! Was Roadie meant to be a sad film? What goes in to creating such complex characters? What is it really like working with your brother? Read on!

When you were writing these characters for Roadie, were you drawing on any personal experiences or people that you know?

Gerald: Yeah a number of people that we knew and know, as well as ourselves, in situations that we’ve been in and feelings that we had.

Michael: With the whole Gen-X thing that speaks to us, there is a point our lives where you start to feel like you haven’t realized all of the things that you thought you were going to realize, as in your dreams. This movie is about that, and coming to terms with the fact that you may not ever get there. I think that it is an incredibly universal experience. That’s why the idea of a “roadie” appealed to us.

Gerald: Being roadies, for so many years being on the road, you kind of live in a bubble and you don’t have to grow up. That’s one of the reasons that we picked that kind of career path for this. There is an aspect of extreme Peter Pan syndrome where you keep holding on to the things of your youth, to the point where it’s not only holding you back but dragging you down. Once they’re not working their magic anymore, you kind of feel lost.

Have you guys been around any rock musicians to see the way that they struggle to become something in their small town?

Michael: My brother and I had a band back in the late 80s and played a couple of places. I played guitar and he was a drummer, he played in the band. I don’t have any firsthand experience with that scene and people like that, but I do believe in this whole idea of being stuck in a time warp and never seeing where you are, and forgetting that you’ve been doing this for the last 20 years. It may not work out. I think that’s a universal experience.

Being in the film business, which we both are, we still have those feelings. I think viewing it through the music context with telling that story, I think it makes it more entertaining. It allowed us to also express our passion for music of that era.

The movie Roadie is kind of sad overall. Is that how you wanted people to feel, did you want them to be sad with these characters?

Michael: I thought that it was kind of funny… If it’s going to be sad to some people and we got a few reviews and that’s what people have said, like “if you think Michael’s first one was sad, wait until you see this one.” I so don’t see it that way. I don’t find it sad, I find it healing, and I find it real and relatable.

So for me, my intention was to never ever to make it sad in anyway. I guess when I do stuff that’s how it comes out. I guess I’m that guy. It just comes out that way, that’s the kind of thing that I like to work on for eight months of my life.

As an artist, I have no interest in one-liners and slapstick. I get bored. I make a living executive producing and directing TV shows. I’ve done a studio film where I didn’t have control over the movie, where I did things that I did not enjoy and did not want to do. When you make a little movie like this, you put your blinders on and you do it. If sticks, it sticks. If it doesn’t connect with everyone, then so be it. I got to make it.

Michael, all of the shows that you work on have such complex characters and story development. With Roadie, it felt like the characters didn’t know that they were complex. What were some of the subtleties that you want people to know about these characters?

Michael: We were just discussing how so much could happen in a 24 hour period, where there are not a lot of incidents but a lot of emotions that anyone could [relate to] walking a day in their life… Not being home in a long time, and to keep encountering what you were encountering. I really enjoy directing films and capturing all of the nuances of many emotions for many characters like Jimmy can go through in a day. I find that visually stimulating and intellectually stimulating, and really interesting to piece together.

It’s funny, because I grew up trained as a graphic and visual artist. You would think that my films would be prettier or visual, but I like to use that field to capture more psychology and more behavior.

How do you two work together? What is the process of your writing as a team?

Gerald: Well we did L.I.E. together, and there was another writer involved in that as well. There is Roadie of course. [There was] a pilot for CBS called Babylon Fields, that was shot and Michael directed, but unfortunately was never put on the air. It would have been the first zombie TV show by a couple of years if it would have gotten on the air. It’s a big budget Fox/CBS pilot that did not get picked up.

Michael and I have also written a couple of pilots for CBS and we’ve adapted a book a number of years ago. With L.I.E. and mostly Roadie… with Roadie I wrote a character and a situation. I’ve written in a broader, Hollywood comedy and I gave it to Michael. About two years later, he called me and said that he was looking at the script and didn’t like it but really liked the character, this guy Jimmy and the first 25 pages with him going home.

He was like, “Let’s take it apart, re-outline it, and base it off of his first day going home without all of the other stuff around it.” That happens a lot with our writing. With L.I.E., there was a character that I had written a certain way and Michael was like, “Let’s take the character this way,” and he had a loose story to put around him and that came out of that. We go back and forth.

I usually take the first half, and after we get down what we want to do, then Michael goes and sweetens it up and changes some things and works it out. We get together on the phone and go back and forth, and then I may go back and do the final pass to make sure all of our I’s are dotted and T’s are crossed.

What are you guys working on next?

Michael: To be honest, I’m taking a little time off. I just come off of this Homeland series, so I’m pretty tired and I need to empty my mind and find a project. I would love to do another small film and co-write that with Gerald. At the moment, I don’t have anything in the pipeline. We’ll probably, just for professional reasons, write another TV pilot sometime next year I’m sure.

Gerald: We have an open scripting deal with 20th Century Fox, so we’ll probably do something like that. We don’t have any specific projects in the hopper. I probably should, but I’ll be generating a lot of thoughts and sending them Michael’s way. And he’ll send them back to me saying, “Sorry, not now.” [laughs]

Watch the Roadie trailer

For more information on Roadie, go to the Magnolia Films official page at MagPictures.com

Watch the full pilot for Babylon Fields

Watch the trailer for L.I.E.