Over the past 30 years, PaleyFest has held panel sessions and screenings that connect the worldwide community of television fans with the casts and creators of their favorite TV shows.  One of the drama series celebrated this year were the folks behind HBO’s The Newsroom, and Collider was there to get the updates on Season 2.

After giving a sneak peek at 10 minutes of the first episode of Season 2, airing sometime this summer, creator/writer/executive producer Aaron Sorkin, executive producer Alan Poul and actor Jeff Daniels spoke during the panel about why cable news was the right setting for this show, how much pressure it is to do a Sorkin monologue, how the show has polarized critics, and the unique way in which the show is shot, along with giving tidbits about the news stories they’ll be covering in the second season, more of the Don (Thomas Sadoski) and Sloan (Olivia Munn) relationship, and that Will McAvoy (Daniels) and MacKenzie McHale (Emily Mortimer) possibly getting together won’t kill the show.  Check out what they had to say after the jump.

[This is a repost of my review from the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival.  Looper opens today.]

Sacrifice goes against our biological imperative of self-preservation. If we have a will to survive, then shouldn’t we do everything in our power to stay alive? Or is life only worth living if it’s the good life (whatever that means)? Shouldn’t we celebrate our desire to live? Rian Johnson‘s sci-fi film Looper casts a dark spell over our need for self-preservation, and bitterly twists it into a world where people would go so far as to kill themselves to live. Anchored by tremendous performances from leads Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis, Johnson manages to deliver thrills as intense as the ideas he wishes to explore. However, his quest to reach a thoughtful conclusion stumbles over new characters, plot shortcuts, and an extreme tonal shift that leaves the big ideas intact, but fractures the powerful storytelling.

With writer-director Rian Johnson‘s Looper opening September 28, Sony has provided us with four clips from the fantastic film.  The film takes place in a future where time travel exists, but it’s only used on the black market.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a “Looper”, a hitman who is contracted to kill people that are sent back in time, and then disposes of the bodies so the victim technically no longer exists.  Things go awry when his future self (Bruce Willis) is sent back in time as an assignment and then escapes.  The film also stars Emily Blunt, Jeff Daniels, and Paul Dano.

For more on the film, here’s Matt’s review and all our previous coverage.  Hit the jump to watch the clips.

Sacrifice goes against our biological imperative of self-preservation.  If we have a will to survive, then shouldn’t we do everything in our power to stay alive?  Or is life only worth living if it’s the good life (whatever that means)?  Shouldn’t we celebrate our desire to live?  Rian Johnson‘s sci-fi film Looper casts a dark spell over our need for self-preservation, and bitterly twists it into a world where people would go so far as to kill themselves to live.  Anchored by tremendous performances from leads Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis, Johnson manages to deliver thrills as intense as the ideas he wishes to explore.  However, his quest to reach a thoughtful conclusion stumbles over new characters, plot shortcuts, and an extreme tonal shift that leaves the big ideas intact, but fractures the powerful storytelling.

If you have been on the edge of your seat for the last 18 years hoping for a sequel to 1994′s Farrelly Brothers‘ comedy Dumb and Dumber, your time has come.  Maybe.  And you should consider getting out more. The Brothers Farrelly have long expressed a desire to make a follow-up to their original film, which starred Jim Carrey (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and Jeff Daniels (The Newsroom) as good-natured but moronic friends Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne.

One of the major holdups in getting the project rolling was Jim Carrey who, perhaps rightly, expressed too much hesitation at the idea of a sequel at all (after his experience with Ace Venture: When Nature Calls, Carrey did not appear in sequels for his other projects).  As more details surfaced, though, it appeared that Carrey’s hesitation had more to do with studio compensation for the sequel rather than the overall idea of a follow-up.  With the Farrelly Brothers themselves set to write and direct and Jeff Daniels already expressing interest, it seems the project is back on.  For more on the potential plot, hit the jump.

A new international trailer for Rian Johnson‘s Looper has gone online.  The film takes place in a future where time travel exists, but it’s only used on the black market.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a “Looper”, a hitman who is contracted to kill people that are sent back in time, and then disposes of the bodies so the victim technically no longer exists.  Things go awry when his future self (Bruce Willis) is sent back in time as an assignment and then escapes.  This new trailer is heavier on the action, which is the easiest element to sell, and it looks like Johnson has done a terrific job with it.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The film also stars Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, and Jeff Daniels.  Looper will open this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, and open nationwide on September 21st.

Before he starred in Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom, Jeff Daniels was best known as the dumb (or dumber) half of Harry and Lloyd from Dumb and Dumber.  It’s nice to see that Daniels has embraced his intellectual side as well as his absurdly ignorant side, but it’s looking like he might return to form alongside Jim Carrey in a Dumb and Dumber sequel next year.  At a recent Television Critics Association panel for The Newsroom, Daniels addressed the progress of the sequel, why there has been a delay and when the project might shoot.  Hit the jump to see what he had to say.

Four new images and a set photo from Looper have gone online.  The film, directed by Rian Johnson (Brick), takes place in a world where time travel exists in the future, it’s illegal, and it’s a great way for criminal organization to dispose of enemies.  Simply shove your unloved one into the time machine, they’ll show up in the past, and a hitman in our time, a.k.a. a “looper” will murder the target and dispose of the body, so it doesn’t exist in the future.  This is working fine and dandy for one looper (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) until he’s faced with killing his future self (Bruce Willis) and his future self escapes.

Hit the jump to check out the new images, and click here for our write-up of the movie’s Comic-Con panel.  The film also stars Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, Piper Perabo, and Jeff Daniels.  Looper opens September 21st.

A new trailer for director Rian Johnson‘s sci-fi film Looper has landed online.  For those unfamiliar with the film, it takes place in a world where time travel exists, but is only used on the black market. When the mob wants to kill someone, they send the target 30 years into the past where a contract killer (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) does the dirty work. Things are going smoothly until Gordon-Levitt’s future self (Bruce Willis) is sent into the past to be killed. The US trailer takes a different tack than the international one when it comes to presenting the film’s premise, plus it features a significant amount of new footage.  Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Emily Blunt, Jeff Daniels and Paul Dano.  Looper opens on September 28th.

While the new domestic trailer for Looper will go online tomorrow, the new international version has gone online today.  I’m not sure how different the two trailers will be, but I like what I’m seeing.  For those unfamiliar with the film, it takes place in a world where time travel exists, but is only used on the black market. When the mob wants to kill someone, they send the target 30 years into the past where a contract killer (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) does the dirty work. Things are going smoothly until Gordon-Levitt’s future self (Bruce Willis) is sent into the past to be killed.  This new trailer introduces a violent character we haven’t seen before known as the “Rainmaker”, who’s played by the brilliant Garret Dillahunt (Deadwood).  Writer-director Rian Johnson looks like he’s cooked up an intense sci-fi action flick, and the movie remains one of my most-anticipated of the year.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The film also stars Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, and Jeff Daniels.  Looper opens September 28th.

Hot off the one-two punch of The Social Network and Moneyball, Academy Award-winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin made his return to television last night with the debut of his new HBO series The Newsroom.  The premiere came with lofty expectations from The West Wing creator, and early screener reactions were passionately mixed-to-positive.  I’m an out and out Sorkin fan and, despite the show’s familiarity to the scribe’s other series (specifically the super similar “stock” characters), I really enjoyed the pilot.  Yes, everyone speaks in eloquent soliloquies with insanely profound and accurate statistical arguments rolling off their tongues as if they were reciting a recipe, but Sorkin’s romanticism and wit is just too damned enticing for me to be bothered.

The pilot sparked quite a bit of lively conversation on Twitter last night, and now HBO has put the full 73-minute episode online for free.  Whether you’re a Sorkin fan or not, I highly suggest you give the pilot a whirl and decide for yourself what you think of the show rather than buying into the pre-lash sight unseen.  Hit the jump to watch, then head to the comments with your reaction.

We often hear of Hollywood films having to be cut and/or censored in order to be shown in more lucrative international markets, but in the case of Rian Johnson’s upcoming sci-fi film Looper, scenes are actually being put back into the movie for its Chinese release.  The film takes place in a future where time travel exists, but is only used on the black market. When the mob wants to kill someone, they send the target 30 years into the past where a contract killer (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) does the dirty work. Things are going smoothly until Gordon-Levitt’s future self (Bruce Willis) is sent into the past to be killed.

Johnson’s original script apparently had quite a few scenes set in Paris, but the location was changed to Shanghai in order to entice Chinese entity DMG, who ended up providing some financing for the film.  Now Shanghai-set scenes left on the cutting room floor are being reinserted into Looper for its release in China.  Hit the jump for more.

A new trailer for Aaron Sorkin‘s The Newsroom has gone online.  This new trailer hits the point that the show will use real news events as the basis for the episodes.  The audience will know more than the characters, and I’m not sure if that will be an advantage or disadvantage for the show (in a recent interview, Sorkin says it will be “fun” for viewers).

Hit the jump to check out the trailer along with 16 images. The show stars Jeff Daniels, Emily Mortimer, John Gallagher Jr., Thomas Sadoski, Dev Patel, Olivia Munn, and Sam Waterston.  The Newsroom premieres June 24th on HBO at 10/9c.

The first official poster has been released for Aaron Sorkin’s new HBO drama, The Newsroom. The series stars Jeff Daniels as the primary anchor of a failing 24-hour news network who is ready to break the monotony of cable news and go back to the roots of informing his audience. We already saw his character have a fantastic (and much publicized) outburst in the first trailer.  Then, The Newsroom followed up with a series of additional trailers that developed a bit more of the storyline and also introduced us to the rest of the cast:  such as Daniels’ character’s new executive producer (Emily Mortimer), his newsroom staff (John Gallagher, Jr., Alison Pill, Thomas Sadoski, Dev Patel, Olivia Munn) and their boss (Sam Waterston).  Now, we have the first look at the official poster (in addition to some shorter trailers, in case you’ve missed the previous ones).  Hit the jump to check out the slick official poster for HBO’s The Newsroom, which debuts Sunday, June 24th at 10PM.

A new trailer for Oscar-winning screenwriter and The West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin’s latest series, The Newsroom, has gone online.  This builds on the basic set-up introduced in the previous two trailers gets a bit more into what the plot may look like in the first few episodes beyond the pilot.  Jeff Daniels stars as the primary anchor of a floundering 24-hour news network who’s ready to break the monotony of lazy and gutless cable news.  I’m a self-professed Sorkin nut so I may be a bit biased, but I really like what we’ve seen from the series thus far.  My only concern is that the show could become too much of a soapbox for Sorkin’s worldviews a la Studio 60, but hopefully his knack for snappy dialogue and romantic characters reigns the preach-factor in a bit.  Moreover, this new trailer has 100% more David Krumholtz which is almost never a bad thing.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer (complete with Dave Krumholtz cameo!), and count down the days until The Newsroom premieres on June 24th on HBO.  The show also stars Emily Mortimer, Sam Waterston, Jane Fonda, Alison Pill, Olivia Munn and Dev Patel.