Paul Dano

TOP 5: WATCHMEN Prequel Comics, CHRONICLE Interviews, 16-Bit BREAKING BAD, DR. SEUSS’ THE LORAX, Sundance 2012 Interviews

by Jason Barr    Posted: February 4th, 2012 at 10:33 am

This past week brought us a story that is near and dear to me. While I briefly give my own thoughts regarding DC Comics’ Watchmen prequel comic series after the jump, I want to use the “Top 5′s” opening paragraph space to invite readers to voice/type their own opinions on the announcement in the comments section. As a fervent fan of the series, I’m always interested to hear fellow fans’ take on Watchmen adaptations, prequels, and the like. So, with that said, what do you think? Does the creative talent involved interest you? Is it the best idea ever? The worst? Somewhere in between? Sound off in the comments.

In addition to DC’s Before Watchmen announcement, this installment of the “Top 5″ includes interviews with the cast and director of superhero/found-footage pic Chronicle, a “What If?” look at a 16-Bit Breaking Bad RPG, ten things to know about Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, and Sundance 2012 video interviews with Bradley Cooper, Paul Dano and more. A brief recap and link to each follows after the jump.

Poster and New Images for BEING FLYNN Starring Paul Dano and Robert De Niro

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: February 3rd, 2012 at 10:06 am

Focus Features has released the poster and new images for Paul Weitz‘ dramedy Being Flynn.  Paul Dano stars as a young writer who takes in his estranged father (Robert De Niro) when he finds him at a homeless shelter.  The film is based on Nick Flynn‘s memoir Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, and also stars Julianne Moore, Lily Taylor, and Olivia Thirlby.

Hit the jump to check out the poster and images.  Being Flynn opens in limited release on March 2nd.

Paul Dano Talks FOR ELLEN, LOOPER, BEING FLYNN, HE LOVES ME, NIGHT MOVES, and More at Sundance 2012

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: February 1st, 2012 at 5:50 pm

One of the many films to premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival was writer-director So Young Kim‘s (In Between Days) For Ellen.  Led by a fantastic performance by Paul Dano, the film’s about a struggling musician trying to keep custody of his very young daughter even though he’s never been around.  The film also stars Jon Heder, Jena Malone, Margarita Levieva, and Shay Mandigo.

Shortly after seeing the film I got to sit down with Dano for an extended interview.  We talked about being at Sundance, how he got involved in For Ellen, what it’s about, who he plays, how much fun he had playing a “narcissistic prick,” what it’s like to be in almost every frame of the movie,  and if more people want to talk to him about The Girl Next Door, Little Miss Sunshine, or There Will Be Blood?  In addition, with Dano involved in so many other projects, we also talked about Rian Johnson‘s Looper, Being Flynn with Robert De Niro, director Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris‘ He Loves Me, and how he’s hoping to do a film called Night Moves with Meek’s Cutoff director Kelly Reichardt.  Hit the jump to watch.

D.J. Cotrona, Logan Marshall-Green, Toby Kebbell and Others Test for AKIRA’s Tetsuo Role

by Dave Trumbore    Posted: November 19th, 2011 at 9:16 am

With two of the three major roles cast for Jaume Collet-Serra’s adaptation of Akira, Warner Bros. is set to shore up the role of Tetsuo before Thanksgiving. The Unknown director already has Garret Hedlund (TRON: Legacy) and Kristen Stewart playing Kaneda and Kei respectively, but will hold screentests this Sunday and Monday for Tetsuo, the young man who channels the powerful Akira. Set to test are D.J. Cotrona (Detroit 1-8-7), Logan Marshall-Green (Devil), Toby Kebbell (RocknRolla), Richard Madden (Game of Thrones), and Rami Malek (Larry Crowne). Retesting for the role will be Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine) and Alden Ehrenreich (Twixt). Hit the jump for more on Akira.

First Trailer and Poster for BEING FLYNN Starring Robert De Niro and Paul Dano

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: November 14th, 2011 at 1:42 pm

The first trailer for the drama Being Flynn has gone online. The film is an adaptation of Nick Flynn’s acclaimed memoir Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, written and directed by Paul Weitz. Paul Dano stars as a writer who takes a job at a homeless shelter, only to run across his long-absent father (Robert De Niro) who is seeking a bed. The story is neat, and the trailer plays pretty well. Dano and De Niro are both capable of great performances, but I can’t tell if Being Flynn will play as an insightful drama, or a heavy-handed soap opera. Weitz was responsible for About a Boy which gives me hope, but his last three films (American Dreamz, Cirque du Freak, and Little Fockers) give me pause. I’m hoping for the best though, as the trailer reminds me a bit of Wonder Boys which is definitely not a bad thing.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer. The cast also includes Julianne Moore, Olivia Thirlby, Dale Dickey, and Lili Taylor.

Rumor: Shortlist of Actors to Play Bruce Willis’ Son and Possibly Inherit DIE HARD Franchise Includes Aaron Paul and Ben Foster

by Dave Trumbore    Posted: October 13th, 2011 at 5:34 pm

The casting of John McClane was never in question, even if the fifth installment in the Die Hard franchise did struggle with landing a director (they settled on John Moore). But McClane can’t keep dodging bullets forever; sooner or later his son will have to inherit the famous one-liner. The shortlist for actors to fill Bruce Willis’s shoes is rumored to be as follows: Ben Foster (The Mechanic), Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine), Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad), Milo Ventimiglia (Heroes) and Paul Walker (Fast Five). All of the above actors are expected to test with Willis, except for Walker, who Fox has a strong interest in. Plot details are thin at the moment, though we do know the film will be set in Russia and will involve some father/son crime fighting. To see why this will probably be the first Die Hard to make me cry, hit the jump.

Paul Dano is Karl Rove in COLLEGE REPUBLICANS, Richard Linklater Set to Direct

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: August 30th, 2011 at 6:55 pm

While word has been quiet on College Republicans, the film that tells the story of Karl Rove’s dirty campaign for College Republican chairman, for a quite some time now, the project is moving forward in a big way. The Wrap reports that not only is Paul Dano set to play Rove, but Richard Linklater is now officially attached to direct. Shia LaBeouf had previously been interested in playing Rove, but it looks like Dano ultimately took the role. No word on whether or not LaBeouf will be taking on a different part.

Maya Browne will be producing the film through her Bratt Entertainment. She says the flick centers on the meeting and subsequent relationship between Rove and Lee Atwater in college, where they discovered “dirty tricks” for campaigning. Atwater went on to become chairman of the Republican National Committee, and Rove (aka Turd Blossom) was of course the senior advisor for President George W. Bush. Linklater always makes interesting choices, and Dano certainly has chops, so it’s exciting to see them tackle this material. College Republicans begins shooting this November in Austin, Texas.

COWBOYS & ALIENS Review

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: July 28th, 2011 at 3:21 pm

Jon Favreau’s Cowboys & Aliens is the equivalent of putting chocolate and peanut butter together and getting a rice cake.  Westerns can be great, sci-fi can be wonderful, and yet the attempt to bring them together has resulted in a bland, flavorless movie.  The script is a mess, all of the storylines are uninteresting, the action is flat, there’s not much room for lead actors Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford to do much beyond growl and grimace, and the usually inspired cinematography of Matthew Libatique is a grand disappointment.  Despite all of these problems, the movie does nothing outright offensive other than waste two hours of your time.

COWBOYS & ALIENS Video Roundup: 4 Clips, 7 Minutes of Behind the Scenes Footage and 2 Featurettes

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: July 15th, 2011 at 10:24 pm

With director Jon Favreau’s Cowboys & Aliens on the verge of hitting theaters, Universal has released the EPK (electronic press kit) which includes 4 movie clips, 2 featurettes (A Look Inside and Western Meets SciFi) and over seven minutes of behind the scenes footage from when they were making the movie (B-Roll).  If you’re trying to stay spoiler free, I’d advise you to avoid watching these videos.  However, if you want to see a lot of cool looking footage from a movie I can’t wait to see, hit the jump.

Annette Bening in Talks to Join Paul Dano in HE LOVES ME

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: June 16th, 2011 at 1:21 pm

It looks like Annette is close to locking in her first role post-The Kids Are All Right. Variety reports that the actress is in negotiations to star in Fox Searchlight’s He Loves Me. The film stars Paul Dano as “a once-great novelist who is creativity blocked due to heartache and loneliness,” only to be turned around when he writes his dream girl who then comes to life. So it’s like Weird Science meets Mannequin, only super indie.

Dano’s real-life girlfriend, Zoe Kazan, wrote the screenplay and will star in the film as the dream girl. Bening is eying the role of Dano’s mother, a painter who’s worried about how much her son hates her second-husband, a dirty hippie (the answer is a lot. He hates your dirty hippie husband a lot). Little Miss Sunshine directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris are helming the flick, which starts filming next month.

New COWBOYS & ALIENS Trailer

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: June 11th, 2011 at 3:08 pm

A new trailer for Jon Favreau’s Cowboys & Aliens has hit the web. This one debuted at last week’s Spike Guys’ Choice Awards, and features a lot of the same footage from previous trailers, but also includes a couple new shots as well. We get our first look at Paul Dano’s character, and we also get a peek at some sort of alien structure. Personally, I’m thrilled that Favreau isn’t giving the whole film away in the marketing. Everything I see from this flick just makes me more excited to finally see it. Starring Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell, and Paul Dano, Cowboys & Aliens hits theaters on July 29th.

Hit the jump to check out the new trailer.

WonderCon 2011: COWBOYS & ALIENS Presentation

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: April 2nd, 2011 at 2:52 pm

There are two major summer blockbusters making the rounds at this year’s WonderCon.  There was yesterday’s Green Lantern, which has name recognition, decades of history, and the easy classification of “Superhero Movie”.  The other is Jon Favreau’s Cowboys & Aliens, which has a goofy name, comes from a 2006 cult comic, and is a sci-fi western hybrid and both of those genres are being played completely straight.  Green Lantern has aspects that make it a tough sell, but it’s a cakewalk compared to how Cowboys & Aliens will need to connect with audiences.

But if anyone knows how to work a room at a comic convention, it’s Favreau.  Funny, insightful, and incredibly gracious, Favreau explained why they wanted to show the movie at WonderCon and then proceeded to blow the audience away with some footage from the film, including a first look at the aliens.  Hit the jump for my recap of the Cowboys & Aliens presentation.

Lili Taylor and Dale Dickey Join Paul Weitz’ Untitled Adaptation of ANOTHER BULLSHIT NIGHT IN SUCK CITY

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: March 8th, 2011 at 2:21 pm

Production has begun on Paul Weitz’ adaptation of Nick Flynn’s 2004 memoir Another Bullshit Night in Suck City.  Obviously, the film won’t be called that so the challenge is to find a title that is somehow more bland than Weitz’ 2004 film, In Good Company.  The plot Another Bullshit Night centers on a writer (played by Paul Dano) who takes a job at homeless shelter and runs into his long-absent father (Robert De Niro) who is seeking a bed.  Olivia Thirlby will play a worker at the shelter while Moore will play the mother of Dano’s character.

In addition to clarifying Moore’s role, the press release from Focus Features also announces that Lili Taylor (Six Feet Under) and Dale Dickey (Winter’s Bone) have joined the cast, but doesn’t specify which roles they’ll play.  Hit the jump for the full press release.  I want to have hope for this film, but Weitz has done his best to extinguish that hope by making American Dreamz, Cirque du Freak, and Little Fockers.

Julianne Moore and Olivia Thirlby Join ANOTHER BULLSHIT NIGHT IN SUCK CITY

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: March 3rd, 2011 at 12:02 pm

Julianne Moore and Olivia Thirlby have joined the cast of Paul Weitz’ adaptation of Nick Flynn’s memoir Another Bullshit Night in Suck City.  Paul Dano will play a young writer who runs into his homeless father (played by Robert De Niro) while working at a Boston shelter.  The Film Stage discovered that Moore was in the film by coming across as casting call for the actress’ stand-in.  Meanwhile, Deadline reports that Thirlby will play the love interest who helps Dano get a job at the shelter.

Julianne Moore recently signed on to the vampire thriller Innocence with Abigail Breslin.  As for Thirlby, she recently wrapped shooting on the sci-fi action flicks Dredd and The Darkest Hour.

Trailer for MEEK’S CUTOFF Starring Michelle Williams

by Brendan Bettinger    Posted: February 26th, 2011 at 11:10 am

Oscilloscope has released the first trailer for Meek’s Cutoff, an indie western set in 1845, the earliest days of the Oregon Trail.  Three families hire Stephen Meek (Bruce Greenwood) to lead them on a troubled journey over the Cascade Mountains.  Michelle Williams, Will Patton, Zoe Kazan, Paul Dano, Shirley Henderson, Neal Huff, Tommy Nelson, and Rod Rondeauxn star alongside Greenwood, a character actor I’m excited to see in a lead role.

The trailer effectively invokes a quiet, moody atmosphere.  I expect no less from director Kelly Reichardt (Wendy and Lucy).  Watch the trailer after the break.

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