Last night I had the opportunity to check out a late showing of Pain & Gain during which I encountered a few thoughts that I couldn’t shake: 1) I wish Michael Bay would make more films like this and less of the transforming car variety. 2) Why can’t Dwayne Johnson be in every movie? 3) This is probably the craziest “Based on a True Story” movie I’ve ever seen. I’ve heard Bay say that some of the most extreme elements of the plot are also the most true to the original story. This is good to know because had someone written a lot of what shows up in the film I would likely call it too farfetched for my suspended disbelief to withstand. Make no mistake, this is a wild, entertaining ride that utilizes layers of action, crime, comedy, sex, and even a touch of sadism to keep you invested from beginning to end.

My mini-review aside, this week’s Top 5 includes the first trailer for Thor: The Dark World, Pain & Gain interviews with Michael Bay, Mark Wahlberg, and more, a recap of our visit to Pixar for Monsters University, news that Zack Snyder could take the helm of Justice League pending Man of Steel‘s success, and the first entry in a new interview series from Steve: “Breaking Down the Movie” with The Place Beyond the Pines director Derek Cianfrance. As is customary, a brief recap and link to each of the above is ready and waiting after the jump.

It was the only game in town, so Oblivion’s first place finish this weekend didn’t come as a shock. Universal’s sci-fi release had a solid debut – earning an estimated $38.1 million from 3,783 locations, or just under what G.I. Joe: Retaliation managed three weeks back. Oblivion also topped its initial domestic projection of $35 million, though the real strength of the Tom Cruise vehicle is overseas.

As the only new release of the week, it should be no surprise that Oblivion took first place at Friday’s box office. The sci-fi feature, starring Tom Cruise, earned an estimated $13.3 million from 3,783 locations yesterday, though it is unclear if that includes the $1.1 million it made from Thursday and midnight previews. Oblivion is expected to take in $38 million through Sunday. That number is slightly ahead of the film’s pre-release forecasts and would stand as Tom Cruise’s highest opening since Mission: Impossible III, if realized.

The Place Beyond the Pines expanded from 514 to 1,542 theatres on Friday. The Derek Cianfrance drama fell just short of the top five and is on track for a $5 million three-day total.  We’ll have full details and analysis tomorrow.

Over the past eight years I’ve interviewed a lot of directors, and I’ve always wanted to shake up the format.  After all, almost every interview you read in print or online consists of a lot of the same questions and answers, and I wanted to offer the readers of Collider something different.  After a bit of brainstorming, I decided to do an interview series that allows a director to talk about what they do in greater detail: directing.  Instead of focusing on the basic questions (why they cast a certain actor in a role or how tough it was to land financing) this new interview series – which I’m calling “Breaking Down the Movie” – will showcase a director speaking at length about specific footage from their movie and explaining how and why they made key decisions on set.  And for episode 1 I landed The Place Beyond the Pines director Derek Cianfrance.

During the interview Cianfrance breaks down a few clips from his film and talks about how he likes to shoot a scene, the amount of improv, how many takes were used, the look of Ryan Gosling‘s character and how that affected his performance, the benefit of shooting out of chronological order and shooting a take without dialogue, trying to shoot with real people in the background, future projects, and a lot more.  Hit the jump to watch.

[This is a re-post of my review from the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival.  The Place Beyond the Pines opens tomorrow in wide release.]

Writer-director Derek Cianfrance‘s The Place Beyond the Pines is a rich, multi-layered narrative dripping with fatalism, guilt, honor, and no easy answers. It is an epic family saga that defies easy explanation, and rebels against the structure of a traditional narrative. His gripping tale shows split-second connections that last lifetimes, and old sins that reach across generations. Cianfrance has created a remarkable work that reaches a grand ambition with an intimate tale. And I have to tell you why it works without divulging the twists and turns of its razor-sharp script.

Opening this weekend in New York and Los Angeles is one of the best films you’re going to see this year: director Derek Cianfrance’s The Place Beyond the Pines.  The pic centers on a professional motorcycle rider turned bank robber (Ryan Gosling) and a rookie police officer (Bradley Cooper).  Saying more would be detrimental to your enjoyment of the film, and I would encourage you to be very careful when reading about it.  Pines also stars Eva Mendes, Bruce Greenwood, Dane DeHaan, Ray Liotta, Ben Mendelsohn, and Rose Byrne.   For more on the film, here’s images, clips, and everything we’ve previously posted on the film.

At the recent New York City press day, I got to speak with Cianfrance.  We talked about what it’s been like waiting for the film to come out after premiering at Toronto International Film Festival, if he made any changes, why he wanted to go with Focus Features, deleted scenes, and more.  Hit the jump to watch.

Focus Features has released a new poster and images for Derek Cianfrance‘s The Place Beyond the Pines.  The film centers on a generational conflict involving two fathers: one a pro-motorcycle rider and bank robber (Ryan Gosling) and a rookie cop on the rise (Bradley Cooper).  This was one of my favorite films at TIFF 2012, and I’m glad that general audiences are very close to seeing it.

Hit the jump to check out the poster and images.  The film also stars Eva Mendes, Ray Liotta, Ben Mendelsohn, Rose Byrne, Emory Cohen, and Dane DeHaan.  The Place Beyond the Pines opens Friday in limited release.

We’ve got some new images, a clip and TV spot from Derek Cianfrance’s The Place Beyond the Pines to share with you today.  The film stars Oscar-nominated actors Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook) and Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson) as two fathers on opposite sides of the law.  The film also stars Eva Mendes, Ray Liotta, Rose Byrne and Dane DeHaan.  The Place Beyond the Pines opens in limited release on March 29th.  Hit the jump to check out the clip, TV spot and new images.

Quite the “crowd-pleasing” team-up is in the works for director Derek Cianfrance’s (Blue Valentine) new film Chef.  Two actors from two incredibly popular 2012 films (Silver Linings Playbook and The Intouchables) are looking to topline the project, as Variety reports that Bradley Cooper and Omar Sy are in talks to lead the culinary comedy.  Cooper will play “a disgraced chef who, after losing his Michelin-rated restaurant in Paris, decides to bring his crew back together in an attempt to create the best restaurant ever in London.”  Cooper has experience in the world of the culinary arts, as he previously starred on the short-lived Fox sitcom Kitchen Confidential.

Production on the Weinstein Company project isn’t expected to begin for some time, and neither Cooper nor Sy have officially signed on.  It sounds like an interesting change of pace for Cianfrance, though, coming off the rather dark Blue Valentine and the upcoming epic crime drama The Place Beyond the Pines, which also stars Cooper.

The first trailer for director Derek Cianfrance’s The Place Beyond the Pines has gone online. The film centers on two fathers: one is a pro-motorcycle rider and bank robber (Ryan Gosling) while the other is a rookie cop on the rise (Bradley Cooper). Though the two leads are instantly set on a collision course, it’s hard to know who to root for with such compelling actors in their respective multi-dimensional roles. You can also check out two clips from the film here and read Matt Goldberg’s review from TIFF.

The Place Beyond the Pines also stars Eva Mendes, Ben Mendelsohn, Rose Byrne and Ray Liotta. The film opens March 29, 2013. Hit the jump to watch the trailer. 

The Toronto Film Festival is widely considered to be the place where a majority of the buzz for so-called “awards films” begins, and this year one of the biggest surprises was Derek Cianfrance’s (Blue Valentine) crime drama The Place Beyond the Pines.  The pic stars Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper and centers on the intense feud between a professional motorcycle rider turned bank robber (Gosling) and a rookie police officer (Cooper).  The film premiered to an enthusiastically positive response at TIFF, with heavy praise given to the film’s scope and impact; our own Matt Goldberg called it an “epic family saga” in his positive review.

Focus Features acquired the film for 2013 distribution, and many figured the drama would be poised for an awards season release sometime in the fall.  Now Box Office Mojo reports that we’ll see the pic much sooner than expected, as The Place Beyond the Pines has been dated for a limited release on March 29th, 2013.  This is great news for those of us eager to see what everyone was buzzing about back at TIFF, but it’s a little surprising that Focus is dropping this one so early in the year.

One of the many films to premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival was The Place Beyond the Pines.  Written and directed by Derek Cianfrance (Blue Valentine), the pic centers on a professional motorcycle rider turned bank robber (Ryan Gosling) and a rookie police officer (Bradley Cooper).   Pines premiered to a rapturous response (read Matt’s glowing review here and here’s two clips), and Focus quickly snapped it up for a planned 2013 release.   The pic also stars Eva Mendes, Bruce Greenwood, Dane DeHaan, Ray Liotta, Ben Mendelsohn and Rose Byrne.

The day after the premiere, I landed an extended video interview with Cianfrance.  We talked about his first feature–Brother Tied–and if it’ll ever be released, the genesis of The Place Beyond the Pines, premiering at TIFF, editing (he shot 400 hours of footage), deleted scenes, and more.  In addition, Cianfrance talked about his HBO project Muscle, which is based on Samuel Fussell’s memoir Muscle: Confessions of an Unlikely Bodybuilder.  Hit the jump to watch.

Dane DeHaan is having a great year.  After appearing on TV series like In Treatment and True Blood, DeHaan starred this year in Josh Trank‘s Chronicle, then acted alongside Shia LaBeouf and Tom Hardy in Lawless, and now he’s one of the leads in director Derek Cianfrance‘s much buzzed about new film, The Place Beyond the Pines, which premiered to glowing reviews at this week’s Toronto International Film Festival (watch two clips here).  In addition, he recently wrapped on director John Krokidas‘ Kill Your Darlings, where he starred alongside Daniel Radcliffe and Elizabeth Olsen.

Shortly before the premiere of the film at TIFF, I sat down with DeHaan for an extended interview.  We talked about the past year, how he prepares for his roles, what it was like to work for Cianfrance and make The Place Beyond the Pines, who he plays in Kill Your Darlings and what its about, and what he might have coming up.  Hit the jump to watch.

Hot on the heels of the news that Focus Features has acquired the extremely well received crime drama The Place Beyond the Pines, the first two clips from the film have landed online.  Written and directed by Derek Cianfrance (Blue Valentine), the pic centers on the intense feud between a professional motorcycle rider turned bank robber (Ryan Gosling) and a rookie police officer (Bradley Cooper).  Pines premiered at the Toronto Film Festival late last week to a rapturous response (read Matt’s glowing review here), and Focus quickly snapped it up for a planned 2013 release.  These two clips feature a peroxided and tattooed Gosling planning a bank robbery and Cooper’s cop character being questioned in a hospital bed by Bruce Greenwood.

Hit the jump to check out the clips.  The film also stars Eva Mendes, Ben Mendelsohn, Rose Byrne and Ray Liotta.

Writer-director Derek Cianfrance‘s The Place Beyond the Pines is a rich, multi-layered narrative dripping with fatalism, guilt, honor, and no easy answers.  It is an epic family saga that defies easy explanation, and rebels against the structure of a traditional narrative.  His gripping tale shows split-second connections that last lifetimes, and old sins that reach across generations.  Cianfrance has created a remarkable work that reaches a grand ambition with an intimate tale.  And I have to tell you why it works without divulging the twists and turns of its razor-sharp script.