The world wanted to possess Linda Lovelace.  Celebrity always involves an aspect of ownership (it’s why we feel justified in judging the lives of famous people even though they’re personally strangers to us), but Lovelace was treated as a possession by her family, her husband, and ultimately the world as she became famous not for any aspect of her personality, but because she had one particular talent.  In Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman‘s biopic Lovelace, the filmmakers change the narrative of Lovelace from sex icon to victim of domestic abuse.  The movie finds a tenuous connection between the public and private possession of Lovelace, but the narrative’s strength comes from stars Amanda Seyfried and Peter Sarsgaard taking a mature approach to domestic violence, which helps Lovelace rise above its melodrama and poor structure.

The first trailer has been made available for The Smurfs 2. This time around, it looks as if Gargamel (Hank Azaria) is making his own version of Smurfs called “Naughties” in the hopes of bottling the powerful “Smurf-essence.” Poor Smurfette (voiced by Katy Perry) gets caught up in the plan and runs the risk of turning into one of the Naughties herself, unless the other Smurfs can rescue her.

The Smurfs director Raja Gosnell returns to direct the sequel, starring Neil Patrick Harris and Jayma Mays, and featuring the voices of Sofia Vergara, Jonathan Winters, Alan Cumming, Fred Armisen, George Lopez, Anton Yelchin and John Oliver. The Smurfs 2 will debut in theaters on July 31, 2013. Hit the jump to check out the first trailer.

As the two competing Linda Lovelace biopics continue to race toward the finish line, one moves closer to release as production on Lovelace began today.  Variety reports that Hank Azaria, Bobby Cannavale (Win Win), Chris Noth (Sex and the City), and Robert Patrick have all joined the cast of the now in-production indie. Directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (Howl), the film has Amanda Seyfried set to star as the titular porn star, with Peter Sarsgaard in place as Lovelace’s husband (whom she claims for coerced her into pornography). But that’s not all, as James Franco is also apparently in talks to appear in the film as one Hugh Hefner. Franco was initially eyed to take on Sarsgaard’s part, but the thought of Franco playing Hefner in full force is almost too good to be true.

Franco’s role would be little more than a cameo, as the Hefner sequence simply involves Lovelace and her husband attending a screening of Deep Throat at the Playboy mansion. Hit the jump for more on the project.

The adorable singing and dancing penguins of Antarctica are back for Happy Feet Two. In the 3D animated feature, Erik, the tiny son of master tap dancer Mumble (voiced by Elijah Wood) and the vocally gifted Gloria (voiced by Pink), runs away and encounters The Mighty Sven (Hank Azaria), the only penguin who can fly. When violent shifts in the glacial landscape threaten the survival of the entire Emperor penguin community, Mumble and Erik must rally all creatures, both great and small, to save them.

During a press conference to discuss the film, voice actors Elijah Wood, Robin Williams (who voices both Ramon and Lovelace), Hank Azaria and Common (who makes his animation debut as Seymour) talked about the joy of getting to work together for the recording process, developing the voice they wanted to use for their characters, and being able to improvise and bounce things off each other. Check out what they had to say after the jump:

A new trailer has gone online for George Miller’s Happy Feet Two. I know I’m not the target audience for these movies but I find penguins adorable.  Theoretically, I should be willing to give the Happy Feet flicks the benefit of the doubt on that alone.  But the animators for the Happy Feet films made a serious error when they decided to give the penguins human eyes.  The characters all exist in a weird middle ground between trying to have animated expressions and still remain realistic-looking.  The movies are made worse by the having penguins squeak out hip-hop songs. But none of that matters because the movie will probably make hundreds of millions of dollars.  Hooray.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer, which doesn’t tell you what the movie is about (Mumble and his son have to find an escape route when the penguin population is covered in ice). The film features the voices of Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Hank Azaria, Alecia Moore (P!nk), Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Sofia Vergara, Hugo Weaving, Richard Carter, Common, Magda Szubanski, and Anthony LaPagila.  Happy Feet Two opens in 3D on November 18th.

The network was pretty pleased with Whitney and Up All Night when they made full-season orders earlier this week, but their third freshmen comedy series apparently wasn’t as impressive. Deadline reports the network has pulled the plug on Free Agents, the romantic comedy series starring Hank Azaria and Kathryn Hahn. Honestly, this wasn’t a hard cut to see coming. Not only were the ratings low, but the show just didn’t pack much of a comedy punch despite someone like Azaria in the lead and some decent supporting performances from comedians Al Madrigal and Natasha Leggero. This is NBC’s second cancellation after axing their hour-long period drama The Playboy Club earlier this week. Stay tuned as more networks continue to clean house and figure out which new series will stick around for the full season.

I guess AMC isn’t the only network having problems negotiating with their highest profile series. Word is coming from The Daily Beast that Fox has come to a bit of an impasse in negotiations with the five lead actors of The Simpsons that may result in a halt of production on the long-running animated series after the 23rd season concludes next spring. Dan Castellaneta (Homer, Grampa Simpson, Krusty the Clown, and others), Julie Kavner (Marge, her sisters and others), Nancy Cartwright (Bart and more), Yeardley Smith (Lisa), Hank Azaria (Moe Szyslak, Chief Wiggum,  Apu Nahasapeemapetilo, and more), and Harry Shearer (Mr. Burns, Principal Skinner, Ned Flanders, and others) have all been told that they need to take a 45% pay cut, or risk being replaced with sound-alike actors after this season. More details on this worrisome issue after the jump.

Recently, I had the immense pleasure of talking to Hank Azaria (The Simpsons) for his upcoming film The Smurfs. The film follows the adventures of six Smurfs who are accidentally transported to modern-day New York City. In the film, Azaria (heavily aided by make-up and a hair piece) plays the villain, Gargamel, who also travels to New York to seek out the Smurfs. I actually had a lot of fun with the movie and kids will definitely love it.

During my exclusive interview, we discussed bringing life to a character’s first live action iteration, acting opposite imaginary Smurfs, roaming New York in costume and performing karaoke as one of his iconic characters from The Simpsons. We also spoke at length about his upcoming NBC show Free Agents. The Smurfs hits theaters this Friday, July 29. Hit the jump to watch the interview.

Following up on the poster we saw earlier today, Warner Bros. has released a new trailer for Happy Feet Two.  The new trailer reveals more about the story than the first, but still makes time for the snippets of the adorable penguin versions of “Mama Said Knock You Out” and “Sexy Back.”  About that story: “Mumble (Elijah Wood) and Gloria (Pink) now have a son of their own, Erik (EG Daily), who is struggling to find his own particular talents in the Emperor Penguin world.”

Robin Williams, Sofia Vergara, Hank Azaria, and Brad Pitt also provide voices in the sequel directed by George Miller.  Happy Feet 2 is slated for 3D release on November 18.  Watch the trailer after the break.

A few weeks ago, I attended a Smurfs movie presentation at Sony Studios in Culver City, California. While there I got to watch a number of clips (some were in 3D) and I watched an interesting and informative behind the scenes presentation by Sony Pictures Imageworks visual effects producer Lydia Bottegoni, visual effects supervisor Rich Hoover, director Raja Gosnell and producer Jordan Kerner.  They explained the challenges of bringing Smurfs to the big screen and the technical hurdles they had to overcome.  While I love learning about new movie technology, I know most of you just want to know about the footage.  My quick answer is kids are going to love the movie and I thought the 3D looked great.

Shortly after the presentation ended, we went to a small conference room and we were able to conduct a small roundtable interview with director Raja Gosnell & producer Jordan Kerner (watch it here) and then we spoke to Jayma Mays and Hank Azaria. Mays plays Neil Patrick Harris’s wife and Azaria plays Gargamel.  During the interview, they each talked about bringing their characters to life, the improv, the challenges of working with characters that will be added in post production, filming in New York City, and a lot more.  Hit the jump to watch.

Is there only one joke in The Smurfs?  We get it: the Smurfs use the word “Smurf” as a substitute for other words and that can be applied to swearing.  And while I love Neil Patrick Harris, this looks like an absolutely terrible movie.  But I’m not going to fly into a rage over it.  I’ll just calmly acknowledge this movie wasn’t made for me but for gullible children and their nostalgic parents.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The film also stars Jayma Mays, Sofia Vergara, Anton Yelchin, Jonathan Winters, and Hank Azaria.  The Smurfs opens in 3D on July 29th.

Oliver Platt is like a terrible curse. Platt is a great actor – he’s one of the best working actors in the world – but often he’s in great movies that no one sees (The Ice Harvest) or is the best thing in bad movies that either make money (2012) or don’t (Year One). Love and Other Drugs didn’t find its audience, but like always Oliver Platt is one of the best things in it.

Alas, the movie – which stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway – is two bad movies for the price of one. One half is a drippy, slightly period romantic comedy, and the other is a disease of the week film. Together they equal a rather terrible effort that will always have an audience because of the nudity that will across in Google searches for people looking to see Hathaway naked. My review of the Blu-ray of Love and Other Drugs follows after the jump.

Will Sasso ($h*! My Dad Says) joined the endless casting discussion surrounding The Three Stooges earlier this week.  Yet unlike other Stooges reports, it actually led to something substantial.  THR reports that Sasso is the first official Stooge — the bald, rotund actor will obviously play Curly for the directing Farrelly Brothers.

Filming was once scheduled to begin in March, so at some point 20th Century Fox needs to stop the revolving door and hire a Moe and a Larry.  Hank Azaria (Love and Other Drugs) and James Marsden (Death at a Funeral) are the latest actors to be linked to the role, but I don’t recommend you let that register until a more official report.  More about the project after the break.

Universal Pictures has released seven clips from director Tim Hill’s (Alvin and the Chipmunks) CG/live-action family film, Hop.  The film, which comes from Illumination Entertainment (the same company that made Despicable Me), stars James Marsden (Enchanted) as a slacker who finds himself taking care of the Easter Bunny (voiced by Russel Brand) after he accidentally injures him.  Hop also stars (or features the voice of) Kaley Cuoco, Gary Cole, Elizabeth Perkins, David Hasselhoff, Chelsea Handler, Hank Azaria and Hugh Laurie.  Hit the jump to check out the clips:

The trailer for Columbia’s 3D family flick The Smurfs has landed online and has no problem using “smurf” as an interchangeable verb. Directed by Raja Gosnell (Beverly Hills Chihuahua), The Smurfs stars Neil Patrick Harris, Glee‘s Jayma Mays, Hank Azaria, and voice acting from George Lopez, Jonathan Winters, Alan Cumming, Paul Reubens, Kenan Thompson, and Katy Perry among others. Considering there is a great chance I’m nowhere near the target demographic Columbia is aiming for, I’ll simply say that the trailer makes the film look like it could be a good time for kids a la 2007′s Alvin and the Chimpmunks.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer for yourself. The Smurfs hits theaters this summer on August 3.