For the record, Chris O’Dowd and Aziz Ansari, I was totally onto you.  Appropriately, the comedy duo serves as Epic’s comedic relief, Grub (O’Dowd) the snail and Mub (Ansari) the slug. When Grub isn’t dreaming of joining the ranks of the Leaf Men and Mub isn’t hitting on Mary Katherine (voice by Amanda Seyfried), the pair is in charge of keeping a very special little pod moist. It sounds like a silly job, but if that pod doesn’t bloom in the moonlight, the entire forest could wilt at the hands of the leader of the Boggans, Mandrake (voiced by Christoph Waltz).

When Ansari wasn’t rising to the challenge and seeing how many times he could squeeze Ice Age 4: Continental Drift into a single interview, we discussed how they fleshed out their characters while the animators put the world of Epic together, to Ansari’s amusement, how working on Epic compared to Ice Age 4: Continental Drift, a Michele Bachmann namedrop, and whether or not they got the opportunity to improvise. Moving on to their upcoming films, O’Dowd was cryptic or perhaps honestly uninformed about his Thor: The Dark World cameo and Ansari touched on the difficultly of getting his own scripts into production. Hit the jump to watch the interview.

Opening in limited release this weekend is one of the best films you’re going to see this year: Before Midnight, director Richard Linklater’s follow-up to Before Sunrise and Before Sunset.  The new film takes place 18 years after Before Sunrise and 9 years after Before Sunset, and sees Celine (Julie Delpy) and Jesse (Ethan Hawke) navigating married life on a trip to Greece.  Like the previous films, it’s a lot of walking and talking, but it absolutely works because of the intimate and lived-in chemistry between the lead actors, who also co-wrote the film with Linklater.  I can honestly say this is one of the best films I’ve seen in a long time, and even if you haven’t seen the previous films, you should see it when it comes to a theater near you.

The other day, I landed an video interview with Hawke and Delpy here in Los Angeles.  We talked about whether they were more nervous writing the 3rd installment than the previous films due to fan expectations, deleted scenes, how they once tried to improvise and failed miserably, did they make any radical changes to the story during the writing process, the reasons why they filmed the sequel with little fanfare, and a lot more.  Hit the jump to watch.

The moment you’re famous enough that your voice becomes recognizable, the animated movie offers must come pouring in, but even after years of being in the spotlight, Epic only marks Amanda Seyfried’s very first foray into the world of voice work. She plays Mary Katherine, the daughter of Professor Bomba (voiced by Jason Sudeikis) who’s essentially given up everything for an obsessive pursuit to prove that there are tiny warriors living in the forest. Like everyone else, MK isn’t buying it, but when Queen Tara (voiced by Beyonce Knowles) has no choice but to shrink MK down to Leaf Man size so she can help save the forest, MK realizes her father’s been right all along.

With Epic on its way to a May 24^th release, Seyfried sat down in New York City to talk about making the film and more. We ran through what drew her to the project, her love of the forest, the challenge of tapping into her imagination while in a sound booth, the physicality involved in doing voice work, how voicing an animated character compares to singing live on set, and the awkwardness of non-dialogue voice work. Seyfried also offered an update on her upcoming projects including Lovelace and Z for Zachariah. Hit the jump to watch.

With Star Trek Into Darkness now playing around the world, our partners at Omelete recently sat down with Chris Pine.  During the interview, he talked about his favorite thing about the franchise and what it means to him, where he thinks Star Trek should go next, the challenges of shooting the sequel, the friendship between Kirk and Spock relative to the relationships with his fellow actors, and a lot more.  Hit the jump to watch.

Star Trek Into Darkness  also stars Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, Anton Yelchin, John Cho, Bruce Greenwood, Peter Weller, and Alice Eve.  The film is now playing in IMAX 3D and in 2D and 3D.

Opening in limited release this weekend is one of the best films you’re going to see this year: Before Midnight, director Richard Linklater’s follow-up to Before Sunrise and Before Sunset.  The new film takes place 18 years after Before Sunrise and 9 years after Before Sunset, and sees Celine (Julie Delpy) and Jesse (Ethan Hawke) navigating married life on a trip to Greece.  Like the previous films, it’s a lot of walking and talking, but it absolutely works because of the intimate and lived-in chemistry between the lead actors, who also co-wrote the film with Linklater.  I can honestly say this is one of the best films I’ve seen in a long time, and even if you haven’t seen the previous films, you should see it when it comes to a theater near you.

The other day, I landed an extended video interview with Linklater here in Los Angeles.  During our wide ranging conversation we talked about the challenges of getting Before Midnight made, premiering at Sundance, his thoughts on Kickstarter and if would he use the service for a future project, an ‘80s comedy he hopes to shoot this fall, if he’s registered the name “Before Dawn,” if they’re doing anything special for the 20th anniversary of Dazed and Confused, the possibility of a “Before” Trilogy Blu-ray box set, the status of Growing Up (a movie he’s been working on since 2002 with Ethan Hawke), if he would consider making some of his projects on TV, some of the other scripts he’s been working on for years, and so much more.  I promise if you’re a Linklater fan you’ll enjoy either reading or watching this interview.

With director Shawn Levy’s The Internship opening June 7th, I recently landed an exclusive video interview with Dylan O’Brien.  If you’re not familiar with The Internship, the film reteams Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn as two out-of-work salesmen who attempt to reinvent themselves by competing against young up-and-comers for an internship at Google.  The film also stars Max Minghella, Rose Byrne, and Jessica Szohr.  For more on The Internship, here’s my set visit and on set interviews with Levy, Wilson and Vaughn.

During the interview, he talked about making the film, what it was like to have the freedom to say and do anything, who broke the most while filming, and more.  In addition, O’Brien talked about why he wanted to be part of The Maze Runner (getting ready to film in Louisiana) and the chances he’ll go to Comic-Con this year.  Hit the jump to watch.

After all these years, it’s surprising Colin Farrell has yet to lend his voice to an animated character, but turns out, waiting served him well because his character, Ronan, is featured in the “achingly beautiful” world that drew Farrell to Epic to begin with. Ronan is the leader of the Leaf Men and when Mandrake (voiced by Christoph Waltz) and the Boggans threaten to destroy the forest, he joins forces with the formerly human-sized Mary Katherine (voice by Amanda Seyfried), a renegade young Leaf Man, Nod (voiced by Josh Hutcherson), and a slug and a snail, Mub and Grub (voiced by Aziz Ansari and Chris O’Dowd), to ensure a very special little pod stays safe, giving them a chance to keep the terrain lush with greenery and life.

While in New York City celebrating Epic’s May 24^th release, Farrell sat down to talk about how director Chris Wedge and his team of animators first reeled him in, the challenge of working in a sound booth for the first time, Ronan’s backstory, and about how he felt seeing his voice coming out of a completely different body. And before wrapping up, Farrell also spoke a bit about Saving Mr. Banks and Winter’s Tale. Catch it all in the video interview after the jump.

Filmmaker Richard Linklater is no stranger to unique narratives.  Dazed and Confused follows a number of characters on the last day of school in 1976, and Before Sunset plays out essentially in real time as Ethan Hawke’s Jesse and Julie Delpy’s Celine spend a couple of hours together in Paris.  However, Linklater’s most ambitious film to date has actually been in production for the last decade.  Growing Up (aka Boyhood) stars Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette as a divorced couple raising their son, and Linklater and his actors have been shooting scenes for the film every year since 2002, as the story traces the boy’s life from first grade to 12th grade.

Steve recently spoke with Linklater in anticipation of the release of Before Midnight, and the director provided a promising update on the status of Growing Up.  Linklater said that he’s actually mulling over a 2014 release for the film, revealing that the production process is nearly complete.  Linklater also talked about how closely the finished product resembles his intial plan and how long the pic’s runtime will be.  Hit the jump to read on.

Epic is a 3D family adventure comedy that reveals a fantastical world hidden from the human eye.  In the forest, there is an ongoing battle between the forces of good, who keep the natural world alive, and the forces of evil, who wish to destroy it.  When a teenage girl (voiced by Amanda Seyfried) finds herself magically transported into this secret universe, she teams up with the Leafmen, led by Ronin (voiced by Colin Farrell), and a cast of odd-ball characters, who must work together to save both their world and ours.  From Ice Age director Chris Wedge, the film also features the voices of Beyonce Knowles, Josh Hutcherson, Christoph Waltz, Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler, Chris O’Dowd, Jason Sudeikis, Aziz Ansari and Armando “Pitbull” Pérez.

At the recent L.A. press day, Collider got the opportunity to chat with superstar music artist Pitbull about what made him want to voice a character in an animated movie, what made Epic the right project, and what kind of a frog his character is.  He also talked about his upcoming concert tour with Ke$ha and what he loves about performing live.  Watch the video or read the transcript after the jump:

As you’re probably well aware if you follow director Bryan Singer on Twitter, production is currently underway on the highly ambitious sequel X-Men: Days of Future Past.  While the film is very much a sequel to 2011’s X-Men: First Class, it also bridges the gap between the younger versions of the X-Men characters and their grown-up counterparts that were seen in the previous three X-Men films.  The story of Days of Future Past involves time travel and alternate realities, and Singer has amassed an all-star ensemble of actors that includes a large amount of the original trilogy cast in addition to the First Class stars.

One of the returning characters in DOFP is Ellen Page’s mutant Kitty Pryde, who was last seen in X-Men: The Last Stand.  Pryde plays a pretty substantial role in the comics storyline for DOFP, and so Pryde is expected to be a crucial character in Singer’s film.  Steve recently spoke with Page in anticipation of the upcoming thriller The East, and the actress talked a bit about returning for Days of Future Past, Singer’s propensity for sharing character first-looks on Twitter, shooting in 3D, and more.  Hit the jump to see what she had to say.

With Star Trek Into Darkness opening soon around the world, our partners at Omelete recently sat down with director J.J. Abrams.  During the interview, they talked about what Star Trek mean to him, where he thinks Star Trek should go next and what he’s accomplished, and more.  In addition, with Abrams preparing to direct the next Star Wars movie, he talked about who shot first, his feelings on the Star Wars prequels, and what’s his favorite Star Wars movie.  Hit the jump to watch.

Star Trek Into Darkness  stars Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, Anton Yelchin, John Cho, Bruce Greenwood, Peter Weller, and Alice Eve.  The film is now playing in IMAX 3D and in 2D and 3D on May 17th.

The Tyler Perry name-brand provokes an impulsive knee jerk response. Either you’re on the bandwagon or you’re vehemently against. This Friday’s Peeples presents quite the conundrum for the Perry-less faction of viewers. While the film sports Perry’s name on the one sheet, the man didn’t direct the film instead serving as producer. The credit here belongs to Tina Gordon Chism, the writer behind the much-better-than they-ought to-be Drumline and ATL. Peeples – her first stab as writer/director – is no exception to this norm. I’ll admit a certain amount of trepidation before the lights dimmed; but within the first reel, I was quickly won over by the film’s quick and gentle wit.

Much of the film’s merit can be laid onto its game cast – in particular David Alan Grier (In Living Color)and S. Epatha Merkerson (Law & Order) as the patri/matri-arch to potential son-in-law Craig Robinson. In the following interview with the duo, Merkerson and Grier talk acting opposite film-legends Melvin Van Peebles and Diahann Carroll and reveal the art in using comedy to deal with serious subject matters. In addition Grier discussed the planned reboot of the classic sketch-comedy In Living Color and why ultimately it failed. For the full interview, hit the jump.

While their previous filmography is rather diverse (Crazy/Beautiful to Clash of the Titans), screenwriters Matt Manfredi and Phil Hay tackled a whole new genre with the upcoming R.I.P.D.—a buddy cop movie.  The film is based on the Dark Horse comic of the same name and stars Ryan Reynolds as a newly deceased cop who joins a group of undead officers in the “Rest In Peace Department” to help combat a rising force of nefarious corpses.  Reynolds is introduced to the world of the dead by an R.I.P.D. veteran played by Jeff Bridges, and what follows is a buddy cop film of sorts with a supernatural bent as gleaned by the pic’s recent trailer.

With the film hitting theaters July 19th, I recently sat down with Manfredi and Hay for an extended interview.  During our wide ranging conversation they talked about how they started writing together, how Crazy/Beautiful happened, R.I.P.D., Ride Along, The Boys, Big Man Japan, their writing process, and so much more.  Hit the jump to watch.

With Star Trek Into Darkness opening soon around the world, our partners at Omelete recently sat down with Zoe Saldana.  During the interview, she talked about what kind of personal challenges the sequel brought to her character, Uhura’s relationship with Spock, the pressure of playing such an iconic character, the level of humor in the sequel, working with the whole team again, and more.  Hit the jump to watch.

Star Trek Into Darkness also stars Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, Anton Yelchin, John Cho, Bruce Greenwood, Peter Weller, and Alice Eve.  The film opens in IMAX 3D on May 15th and in 2D and 3D on May 17th.

There’s an interesting pairing schematic to this week’s Tyler Perry produced comedy Peeples. Craig Robinson and Kerry Washington star as a seemingly perfect couple… The only hitch: she’s yet to introduce her beau to the family (David Alan Grier & S. Epatha Merkerson). Both Robinson and Grier are primarily thought of as comedians, the former – a utility player in pretty much every comedy of the past five years, the latter – a founding member of one of the great sketch comedy shows: In Living Color. Their other halves however are played by dramatic actresses: Washington – the elusive object of affection in Django Unchained, Merkerson – the longest running cast member of Law & Order. The intermingling of drama and comedy performers lends the film a strong balance as a ‘dramedy’. Sure Peeples is a familiar riff on Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner/Meet the Parents; but it’s also a surprisingly charming film – and that can all be attributed to the cast and their interplay within.

In the following interview with Robinson and Washington, the duo discuss how Peeples allowed them to branch out from their comfort zones and how they choose film projects given their heavy television schedules. Robinson also discusses his penchant for playing children’s teachers (the comedian has a background in education) and gives a brief update on the status of Hot Tub Time Machine 2. For the full interview, hit the jump.