Thursday, May 14

• Whatever Works' Evan Rachel Wood in the Spotlight

  Evan Rachel Wood is turning a lot of heads lately. She plays a woman who gets caught up in a quirky May-December romantic entanglement with the much older Larry David in Woody Allen's Whatever Works. The parallels between this and the director's own scandalous past are obvious.

  But age gaps are hardly new ground for the 21-year-old Wood either, who's rumored to be involved with 56-year-old Mickey Rourke, according to one source, and considering getting back together with 40-year-old rocker Marilyn Manson, according to another. To top it off, she's slated to guest star as the 500-year-old Queen of Louisiana on HBO's True Blood.

  And in the May issue of GQ, she gets even more exposure, posing in lingerie and tied up in a chair, as she discusses what it was like working with Woody Allen. The experience was, she says, "nerve-racking," because he didn't audition her and gave her almost no direction. He just decided she was perfect for the part and let her do whatever she wanted.

  What role her Lolita rep had in all of this is anyone's guess, but from the photos in GQ, it is evident that it's an association she's not running away from.

  
  

  Posted 05/14/2009 by Bill

  Related: Evan Rachel Wood | Whatever Works

Saturday, May 9

• Irony on Display in Trailer for Woody Allen's Whatever Works

  "This is not the feel good movie of the year," says the curmudgeonly Boris Yellnikoff (Larry David) early on in the new trailer for Woody Allen's Whatever Works. Indeed it isn't. It is chock full of clever one-liners though -- and an extra helping of irony.

  At its center is the romantic entanglement between the 60-something New Yorker Boris and a cheerfully naive 21-year-old girl from the south (Evan Rachel Wood), an unlikely pairing that mirrors Allen's own scandalous relationship with Mia Farrow's adoptive daughter. Not so surprising perhaps, except for the fact that Allen penned the script for the movie more than 30 years ago, long before the scandal -- so long ago, in fact, that he originally had the late Zero Mostel in mind for the role of Boris.

  From what we can see in the trailer, it does seem like classic Allen though, with his philosophy of life front and center: praying for forgiveness does you no good, so you might as well try whatever works. And enjoy the laughs along the way.

  
  
  Next Showing: Whatever Works opens June 19, 2009

  Posted 05/09/2009 by Bill

  Related: Woody Allen | Larry David | Zero Mostel | Evan Rachel Wood | Whatever Works

Wednesday, April 22

• Sucker Punch Cast Changes

  When the original cast of ZackSnyder's Watchmen follow-up Sucker Punch was announced it looked like a powerhouse cast of young starlets, from indie darlings Evan Rachel Wood and Abbie Cornish, to teenage movie stars Emma Stone and Vanessa Hudgens, all surrounding lead Amanda Seyfried, who was fresh from the box office success of Mamma Mia. Then things changed. First Seyfried departed and was replaced by The Uninvited's Emily Browning, and now Stone and Wood have left due to "scheduling conflicts" and have been replaced by Dragonball Evolution's Jamie Chung and Jena Malone (Pride & Prejudice). Still a talented cast, just not quite the same box office cache.

  Malone will play Cornish's younger sister, while Chung will play a big-hearted country girl. Both characters will still be inmates in a mental institution in the 1950's in what is described as a "all-female action fantasy."

  Sucker Punch opens October 8, 2010.

  
  

  Posted 04/22/2009 by Ryan

  Related: Amanda Seyfried | Jena Malone | Evan Rachel Wood | Emily Browning | Zack Snyder | Abbie Cornish | Emma Stone | Jamie Chung | Watchmen | Sucker Punch | Mamma Mia! | The Uninvited

Wednesday, April 1

• Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch Finds a New Babyface

  A week ago, Amanda Seyfried was forced to drop out of Suckerpunch, Zack Snyder's follow-up to Watchmen, due to her commitment to HBO's Big Love. Emily Browning (The Uninvited) has taken over the role of Babyface, the focal point of the surreal and violent prison movie.

  Browning will join a cast of young Hollywood starlets that includes Vanessa Hudgens, Emma Stone, Evan Rachel Wood, and fellow Aussie Abbie Cornish when filming commences in September.

  
  

  Posted 04/01/2009 by Ryan

  Related: Amanda Seyfried | Evan Rachel Wood | Emily Browning | Zack Snyder | Abbie Cornish | Emma Stone | Vanessa Hudgens | Sucker Punch | The Uninvited | Watchmen