Monday, October 19

• Gerard Bulter and Jamie Foxx Switched Roles for Law Abiding Citizen

  Despite receiving less-than-stellar reviews, the new thriller starring Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx took the #2 spot at the box office this past weekend, bringing in more than $20 million. According to Butler, who also produced Law Abiding Citizen, a last-minute change ended up making for a very different movie.

  Law Abiding Citizen tells the story of a father (Butler) who seeks violent revenge against the criminals who murdered his family and the district attorney (Foxx) who lets them off easy. Butler, who was initially going to play the D.A., became fascinated with exploring the character arc of the father and switched roles with Foxx.

  Initially, I was playing the prosecutor and just before the movie started, I swapped over because I had such a fascination with him. But it was always my argument and my purpose that at a certain point in the movie, Clyde turns, that he goes too far, that we have to say, as an audience, that this is too much, that we can't support you anymore. The audience has to want him to be defeated. Otherwise, I think this film really surprises you in where it goes, and the fact that you question who's the good guy and who's the bad guy really works here.

  According to Foxx, the switch in roles was good for him personally and professionally, but also helped serve the needs of the movie.

  Since we live in such an Internet-friendly, camera phone, video phone world, I felt that my persona had taken a little bit of a hit.... I look at the movie 300 and I want to see [Butler] whoop ass. And in this movie, the opening scene lets him do that. When he says, "I'm going to kill everybody," that's that 300 sh*t. That's awesome. That's that motherf**ker that you wanna see go get that ass.... So I thought it worked out perfect.

  And, speaking of 300, will Butler return to the franchise that made him famous in Zack Snyder's planned prequel, or will he continue to make light-hearted romantic comedies like P.S. I Love You? Butler said that he's not sure on either account.

  Whenever I get asked that, I honestly think of romantic comedies and want to say, "Oh, definitely. Romantic comedies. Getting the chance to make people laugh and show that side of me." Then I think about action movies and I love those, but also I'm busting my bones or grinding my joints.

  
  
  Next Showing: Law Abiding Citizen is in theaters now
  

  Law Abiding Citizen - Clip

  Interview: Gerard Butler "On the experience audiences will have"

  Posted 10/19/2009 by BrentJS

  Related: Jamie Foxx | Gerard Butler | Zack Snyder | Law Abiding Citizen | 300

Friday, October 16

• Law Abiding Citizen Reviews

  Please don't let our lack of enthusiasm about this one bother you. It's a Saw-like thriller. Starring Gerard Butler. And Jamie Foxx. Did you know that Jamie Foxx once won an Oscar?

  "...one of those movies you like more at the time than in retrospect. I mean, come on, you're thinking. Still, there's something to be said for a movie you like well enough at the time."

  — Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

  "...a slick cat and mouse thriller where occasional splashes of gore substitute for any emotional depth or narrative context."

  — Bill Gibron, filmcritic.com

  "An exercise in illogic and Death Wish cribbing that lets a bunch of good actors collect big paychecks for playing way less than their A game."

  — Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

  "...a flagrantly ridiculous thriller that tries to retrofit Saw to function as a mainstream, semi-respectable vigilante picture about the failings of our justice system."

  — Scott Tobias, Variety

  "Director F. Gary Gray and writer Kurt Wimmer peddle cheap, graphic Z-grade revenge thrills dressed up as Knowing Sociopolitical Commentary — as in, the justice system's rotten, so let's blow up, then gut, then roast again the whole sumbitch and start from scratch."

  — Robert Wilonsky, Village Voice

  
  
  

  Red Carpet Video

  Gerard Butler, Jamie Foxx, and cast hit the red carpet

  Posted 10/16/2009 by reelz

  Related: Jamie Foxx | Gerard Butler | Law Abiding Citizen

Saturday, October 10

• Gerard Butler Open to 300 and Sin City Sequels

  Comic book visionary and sometimes film director Frank Miller is the creative force behind both 300 and Sin City, two of the most innovative movies of the past decade. Both films were based on Miller's Dark Horse Comics graphic novels, and both are currently the subject of speculation regarding possible sequels.

  Zack Snyder, director of the first 300, has said that he's ready to get started on a sequel — or prequel — as soon as Miller has completed work on the graphic novel that will serve as the basis for the film. And, actor Clive Owen, recently dropped the news that a "good source" has told him the Sin City sequel could begin filming as early as next year.

  Actor Gerard Butler gave a commanding performance as King Leonidas in 300, so it would be hard to imagine another round of Spartan mayhem that didn't include him. In a recent interview with MTV, Butler said that he would consider reprising the role, but that he didn't feel a sequel was necessary.

  I had an incredible time doing the first one and I think if the first one was just a stand-alone as a one-off, there's no bad thing in that.

  Butler went on to say that he could see himself working with Miller again, possibly on a sequel to Sin City.

  You know, graphic novels are things that I wouldn't do a lot of so I would have to really choose carefully before I did. I mean, at one point, [Miller] talked to me about one of the [Sin City Sequels] and we discussed that. There's a kind of cool character, I think in the third one.

  Butler is currently starring in F. Gary Gray's Law Abiding Citizen opposite Jamie Foxx.

  
  
  Next Showing: Law Abiding Citizen opens October 16
  

  Law Abiding Citizen - Clip

  Interview: Gerard Butler

  Posted 10/10/2009 by BrentJS

  Related: Frank Miller | Gerard Butler | Sin City | Sin City 2 | Sin City 3 | Law Abiding Citizen | 300

Monday, September 14

• How to Train Your Dragon Teaser Trailer

  DreamWorks Animation (Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, Monsters vs. Aliens) is teasing its next project — and second digital 3-D movie — with a quick-glimpse trailer. How to Train Your Dragon tells the story of an unlikely hero, Hiccup, heir of a Viking chiefdom.

  To pass an initiation into manhood, Hiccup embarks on a quest to hunt down and bring into submission the fiercest dragon. Voice-over actors in the movie include Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Craig Ferguson, Kristen Wiig, and America Ferrera. How to Train Your Dragon is due in theaters on March 26, 2010.

  
  

  Posted 09/14/2009 by Jim

  Related: Jonah Hill | Jay Baruchel | America Ferrera | Gerard Butler | Craig Ferguson | Kristen Wiig | Christopher Mintz-Plasse | How to Train Your Dragon

Thursday, September 3

• Who's Controlling the Gamer Girls?

  Some of the most provocative images from the sci-fi action flick Gamer have nothing to do with the combat-to-the-death Gerard Butler is all wrapped up in. It's the Gamer girls in their skimpy outfits and electric colors who have provided some of the most original eye candy from the movie. Most prominent among them is statuesque former model Amber Valletta, who is featured in some sexed-up poses and outlandish clothing in recent batches of publicity stills.

  What you don't see in the pictures, though, is that she is being played by remote control. And it really isn't pretty. The guy making her pose and do things is described as "a morbidly obese (and shirtless!) slug of a man who literally licks his putrid lips in nearly every shot he's given." How's that for contrast? Yikes.

  
  

  Posted 09/03/2009 by Bill

  Related: Amber Valletta | Gerard Butler | Gamer

Wednesday, September 2

• Gamer Featurette Highlights the Resistance to Being Used

  Although the trailer for Gamer features Marilyn Manson's "Sweet Dreams," not everyone in the movie is so thrilled with the idea of being used and abused. IGN has put together a bunch of footage (some of it new) and cast interviews in a new Gamer featurette that explores the roots of resistance to this future dystopia in which people are manipulated, abused, and even killed for the pleasure of online game players.

  In one new clip we get Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, who plays the head of the resistance, laying out for Gerard Butler just how much worse things are going to get for everyone if the nefarious people behind the games aren't stopped soon. Discussing another clip, Amber Valletta explains her character's struggle to maintain integrity even as she is exploited in the debaucherous game "Society."

  
  

  Posted 09/02/2009 by Bill

  Related: Chris ``Ludacris'' Bridges | Amber Valletta | Gerard Butler | Gamer

Friday, July 31

• Promotional Blitz for Gamer Tries to Draw You Into the Game

  Who has the biggest gun? The guy with three feet of flame coming out of the barrel, perhaps? More images from Gamer have arrived and they look a lot like promotional shots for a new first-person shooter video game. Ditto for a pair of new international posters for the movie. Gerard Butler, who stars in it as the ultimate cyber-warrior, has promised audiences a load of stylish ultra-violence, and the studio is doing its best to make this flick look like it really delivers.

  It is no surprise then that the TV spot that debuted this week blurs the lines between advertising the gladiator-style Slayers game at the center of Gamer and a promotion for the movie itself.

  
  

  Posted 07/31/2009 by Bill

  Related: Gerard Butler | Gamer

Friday, July 24

• Gamer's Future Plays on Sex and Violence

  The main plot line in Gamer involves the use of death row inmates as remote-controlled cyber-gladiators in a battle to the death. But it turns out that there is another game going on here as well. Human avatars are being played like puppets for sex as well as violence.

  In this second game, people are being paid or otherwise coerced to play out other people's most debaucherous fantasies. Sort of like Dollhouse, except that the dolls in this case are controlled by a mental link to the person who is playing with them.

  The two game lines — the sex and the violence — intersect with top cyber-gladiator Kabel (Gerard Butler), whose wife Angie (Amber Valletta) has gotten caught up in the sex-slave game.

  Lots of angles of exploitation here, and it is hardly surprising that those being played have some questions about the maturity of the people playing them. In a pretty funny new clip from the movie, we see Kable explaining to his controller Simon that the game really isn't so cool.

  
  

  Posted 07/24/2009 by Bill

  Related: Amber Valletta | Gerard Butler | Gamer

Thursday, July 23

• The Ugly Truth Reviews: Rom-Com Delivers on Modest Goals

  The Ugly Truth looks like the output of a movie factory: Put two of Hollywood's biggest stars (Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler) in a romantic comedy and set to "cute." Voila! $100M grosser!

  "The ugly truth is that it's the ultimate chick-flick cliché."

  — Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly

  "Even though the picture sputters and stumbles, it arrives at the ending that audiences crave."

  — Stephen Farber, Hollywood Reporter

  "...an arch, contrived, entirely predictable romantic comedy assembled with sufficient audience-friendly elements to put it over as both a good girls' night attraction and a date-night lure raunchy enough to leave couples in the right mood afterward."

  — Todd McCarthy, Variety

  
  

  Posted 07/23/2009 by reelz

  Related: Gerard Butler | Katherine Heigl | The Ugly Truth

Tuesday, July 21

• Gerard Butler Explains How Gamer Will Captivate Women

  In an interview over the weekend, Gerard Butler threw out a few pitches for his upcoming dystopian, cyber-gladiator movie Gamer. One of the most interesting was his response to concerns that the movie might be too depressing. Not at all, he suggests. It's really more of an entertaining mix of art and ... "guy juice":

  ...[it] won't be for every woman, but I know a lot of women who have seen it and loved it cause it's got a lot of guy juice you know, it's got that 300 thing going on, and a lot of women, liked 300 for certain reasons. But at the same time it makes 300 look like a picnic in terms of the violence. But you know, it's also in a way an arthouse action movie because it's surprisingly brave in the way it tries to paint the world and doesn't stop at anything. There's no short cuts here. It's a beautifully painted dark world that we've got into. And I don't think anyone has seen anything like that before.

  He certainly has a way with words, in any case.

  
  

  Posted 07/21/2009 by Bill

  Related: Gerard Butler | Gamer

Thursday, July 9

• Will 300 Sequel Feature Gerard Butler?

  Zack Snyder already broke the news of a 300 sequel and is patiently waiting for Frank Miller to finish the next graphic novel. The question remains, though: With the end of 300 making most of the cast, umm ... well, let's say unavailable, what would the sequel be about and who would be in it?

  Snyder previously mentioned that the sequel would follow a battle the Spartans undertook for 12 months that occurred before the events that comprise the end of 300. So the next 300 won't exactly be a sequel or a prequel, it'll be more like a near-the-end-quel. While that sounds a bit confusing, it may mean that Gerard Butler and other cast members return for the next installment.

  Producer Mark Canton isn't ruling out that possibility. "Never assume anything; never assume anything," said Canton to MTV about bringing back the original cast. "It'll be what it'll be."

  In other words, not even a movie's producer can predict what will happen in a near-the-end-quel.

  
  

  Posted 07/09/2009 by Ryan

  Related: Mark Canton | Frank Miller | Gerard Butler | Zack Snyder | 300

Monday, June 29

• The Boys of Summer: 11 Movie All-Stars

  Nothing says summer like blockbuster movies and baseball. We've taken the natural next step of combining them into one. Looking at the biggest names of the 2009 Summer Movies, we put together our roster of The Boys of Summer: 11 Movie All-Stars.

  Like all Dream Teams, there was a limited number of slots on ours. If your favorite didn't make the roster, he may still be playing AAA (minor league) or have been put on the DL (Disabled List) for the season. Perhaps he'll make the team next year.

  
  

  Posted 06/29/2009 by reelz

  Related: Brad Pitt | Christian Bale | Daniel Radcliffe | Denzel Washington | Hugh Jackman | Johnny Depp | Matthew McConaughey | Tom Hanks | Eric Bana | Gerard Butler | Ryan Reynolds

Tuesday, March 31

• A Girl's Guide to the Top 5 Comic Book Movie Hero Hotties

  

  Tory Shulman is the host of ReelzChannel TV's Movie Mob and occasionally shares her comic insights.

  You men. You love watching those thinly clad Super Heroines kick, twirl, and punch the bad guys, don't you? The less pleather, the better. Am I right? So I'm here to tell you to enjoy your slinky Catwoman and your rugged Lara Crofts. We ladies (and some men) are perfectly content to watch these five hero hotties for as long as it takes for you to realize that Halle Berry is never going to call you.

  
  

  Posted 03/31/2009 by reelz

  Related: Christian Bale | Hugh Jackman | Christopher Reeve | Robert Downey Jr. | Gerard Butler | Tory Shulman | The Dark Knight | X-Men Origins: Wolverine | Iron Man | Superman | 300