For such an intimidating presence, Curtis Jackson (otherwise known as 50 Cent) has a rather shy and unassuming demeanor.  His soft voice and friendly smile serves as a nice counterbalance to the villainous thugs or hard-knocks anti-heroes, he is wont to play.  In Freelancers, Jackson stars as Malo – a former street thug turned police officer – torn between the criminal underworld and ‘the law’ he’s sworn to protect.  In the bleak nihilistic view of the film – there may not be much of a difference between the two: the cops just as corrupt, if not more so, than the criminals they’re sworn to catch.  Jackson’s two-sided demeanor serves him well here – as for pretty much the entirety of the film, you’re unsure if he’s the hero or the villain of his very own film.

In the following interview with Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, he discusses the difficulty in playing both hero and villain, his screenwriting career and his role in the upcoming Schwarzenegger/Stallone film The Tomb, among many other topics of conversation. For the full interview, hit the jump.  Freelancers is now out on DVD and Blu-ray.

With director Tarsem Singh’s new film Immortals opening this weekend, Collider has been overrun with exclusive interviews with the filmmakers and cast over the past few days.  For those not familiar with Immortals (watch the trailer and clips), the film centers on Theseus (Henry Cavill), a mortal who teams up with the Greek gods in order to defeat the power-hungry King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke).  The film also stars Freida Pinto, Luke Evans, Isabel Lucas, Joseph Morgan, Kellan Lutz, and Stephen Dorff.

During my interview with producer Mark Canton, we spoke about the challenge of getting the project made, the comparisons to 300, the practical sets and the 3D, the violence, and working within the budget.  We also talked about Canton’s other projects such as the 300 sequel (300: Battle for Artemisia), Piranha 3DD, Freelancers, The Tomb and Emperor – which will be directed by Burr Steers.  Hit the jump to watch.

Fans have been itching to see a follow-up to Zack Snyder’s 2006 battle epic 300 for quite some time now. After years of wondering if and when we’d ever see a return to the blood-soaked, slow-motion infused world of 300, things are finally coming together for 300: Battle for Artemisia.  Noam Murro (Smart People) is set to direct, and the film is poised to tell the story of Xerxes’ rise to power, punctuated by the epic naval Battle of Artemisium.

Steve recently got the chance to speak with producer Mark Canton for Tarsem Singh’s upcoming Immortals, and Canton gave an update on the 300 follow-up. He commented on the screenplay, the story, and revealed the chances of seeing some of the characters from the original 300 pop up in Battle of Artemisia. Additionally, Canton talked about some of his upcoming projects, including an epic potential franchise-starter project called Emperor that tells the story of young Caesar.  Burr Steers (Charlie St. Cloud) is onboard to direct. Hit the jump for all the details.

We’ve got quite a few casting stories for you this afternoon. First up, it looks like Penelope Cruz is set to re-team with director Woody Allen. The actress won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her work in Allen’s Vicky Christina Barcelona and now EW reports that she’s set to work with the director again, presumably on his next film that is set in Rome. There are currently no plot details on the flick, which is set to start filming this summer.

Maggie Grace has closed her deal to return in producer Luc Besson’s Taken 2. There was previously some hubbub over whether star Liam Neeson would reprise his role from the first film, but everything was squared away and now Deadline reports that the film is ready to go with director Olivier Megaton (Transporter 3). Hit the jump for the casting news of Thandie Newton starring in Tyler Perry’s Good Deeds, Jay Baruchel joining David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis and Ryan O’Nan nabbing a starring role in Freelancers.

At WonderCon this weekend, Relativity Media premiered an awesome looking teaser trailer for Tarsem Singh’s Immortals.  In the film, Henry Cavill plays Theseus, a mortal chosen by Zeus (Luke Evans) to bring down the power-hungry King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke). The film also stars Isabel Lucas, Frida Pinto, Kellan Lutz, Stephen Dorff, and John Hurt.  You can read more about the WonderCon presentation here.

Earlier in the day, before the panel, I got to speak with producer Mark Canton (300) about the genesis of the project, how they got the film made and the casting process, how wide was his smile when Cavill was cast as Superman, does Tarsem’s visual style add time to the production schedule, what’s up with sequels/prequels to Zack Snyder’s 300, and other projects like Freelancers and Piranha 3DD.  Hit the jump to watch.

If you thought 50 Cent couldn’t scoop up any more great actors in his cinematic wave of destruction, you were dead, dead wrong. We’ve seen the comical trailer for the trying-too-hard drama Things Fall Apart; the trailer for Setup showed the likes of Bruce Willis and Ryan Phillippe somehow drawn into its cast. NOLA reports that Curtis Jackson’s next movie, Freelancers, locked in Robert De Niro; Deadline adds that Forest Whitaker is in negotiations to join the cast. Jessy Terrero (who brought us the forgettable Soul Plane) will helm Freelancers, the story of the son of a murdered NYPD cop who joins the police academy, graduates, and gets recruited by a group of rogue cops led by his father’s old partner (De Niro). Freelancers is scheduled to shoot four weeks in New Orleans starting in April.

Sounds interesting? Well, let’s not count our chickens before the trailer hatches.