Alex Cross follows the homicide detective/psychologist from the best-selling novels by James Patterson, as he comes up against psychopathic serial killer Picasso (Matthew Fox). This time, the story takes a younger version of Alex Cross (Tyler Perry) back to the origins of the character while the two men face off in a high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse that will push Cross to this edge of his moral limits. From director Rob Cohen (The Fast and The Furious, xXx), the film also stars Edward Burns, Cicely Tyson, Carmen Ejogo, Giancarlo Esposito, John C. McGinley and Jean Reno.

At the film’s press day, actress Rachel Nichols – who plays Monica Ashe, one of Cross’ co-workers at the Detroit P.D. – spoke to Collider for this exclusive interview about how she came to be a part of the film, why she loves playing strong women, going through training with Tyler Perry and Ed Burns, how natural the chemistry with her co-stars was, and how intense Matthew Fox’s transformation for his role was.  She also talked about her Canadian TV show Continuum, which will be airing on Syfy, that they start shooting Season 2 in January 2013, how she’d like to squeeze in another film first, and how she hopes her 2005 Fox TV show The Inside will be made available on DVD.  Check out what she had to say after the jump. 

Alex Cross follows the homicide detective/psychologist from the best-selling novels by James Patterson, as he comes up against psychopathic serial killer Picasso (Matthew Fox).  This time, the story takes a younger version of Alex Cross (Tyler Perry) back to the origins of the character while the two men face off in a high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse that will push Cross to this edge of his moral limits.  From director Rob Cohen (The Fast and The Furious, xXx), the film also stars Edward Burns, Rachel Nichols, Cicely Tyson, Carmen Ejogo, Giancarlo Esposito, John C. McGinley and Jean Reno.

At the film’s press day, actor Tyler Perry talked about what drew him to this role, what it was like to be an actor for hire, how it was to be so stripped down for a character, how he enjoyed learning Krav Maga, whether he’d consider doing more role like this in the future, doing the fight sequences with co-star Matthew Fox, and what his Madea fans might think of him in this film.  He also talked about his partnership with Oprah Winfrey for original programming on OWN, how he feels about being a mogul, if he’d ever want to direct a big-budget movie, his biggest fears, and the fact that he’s recently met with J.J. Abrams about a possible project, but he will not appear in the Star Trek sequel.  Check out what he had to say after the jump.

Movies that take place during the Civil Rights era have become their own genre and one that sometimes diminishes the characters and their stories by making everyone into a hero, a villain, or a martyr.  The Help tries to expand those roles by showing that not all southern white people in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi are vile racists, not all black people are born courageous activists, and that while the battle lines were clearly defined as right and wrong, some people had to do some soul-searching to find where they stood.  The movie stumbles when it forgets to shade its characters and by being too faithful to the book at the expense of effectively translating the story to the screen.  But despite these missteps, The Help manages to deliver some powerful emotional moments due in large part to yet another tremendous performance from Viola Davis.