There’s an interesting pairing schematic to this week’s Tyler Perry produced comedy Peeples. Craig Robinson and Kerry Washington star as a seemingly perfect couple… The only hitch: she’s yet to introduce her beau to the family (David Alan Grier & S. Epatha Merkerson). Both Robinson and Grier are primarily thought of as comedians, the former – a utility player in pretty much every comedy of the past five years, the latter – a founding member of one of the great sketch comedy shows: In Living Color. Their other halves however are played by dramatic actresses: Washington – the elusive object of affection in Django Unchained, Merkerson – the longest running cast member of Law & Order. The intermingling of drama and comedy performers lends the film a strong balance as a ‘dramedy’. Sure Peeples is a familiar riff on Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner/Meet the Parents; but it’s also a surprisingly charming film – and that can all be attributed to the cast and their interplay within.

In the following interview with Robinson and Washington, the duo discuss how Peeples allowed them to branch out from their comfort zones and how they choose film projects given their heavy television schedules. Robinson also discusses his penchant for playing children’s teachers (the comedian has a background in education) and gives a brief update on the status of Hot Tub Time Machine 2. For the full interview, hit the jump.

Every year, Jimmy Kimmel Live follows the Oscars with a star-studded sketch.  Last year, audiences were treated to a trailer for Movie: The Movie, which featured dozens of movie stars parodying every film genre and cliché.  Naturally, every hit needs a sequel, and JKL has delivered with Movie: The Movie 2V.  I’ll let you be the judge between which trailer is better, but I would say the sequel surpasses the original when it comes to the obligatory Matt Damon joke.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  Movie: The Movie 2V opens Arbor Day.

A new batch of presenters has been announced for the upcoming 85th Academy Awards ceremony, and we figured now would be a good time to round up all of the presenters announced thus far in one handy story.  It was announced today that Jane Fonda, Kristen Stewart, Jennifer Garner, and Kerry Washington have joined the rather long list of presenters for the ceremony, which will be hosted by Seth Macfarlane.

We already learned that Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Renner, and Mark Ruffalo from The Avengers will be presenting together, and Macfarlane has put together a tribute to movie musicals from the past decade that includes Dreamgirls’ Jennifer Hudson, Chicago’s Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Les Miserables’ Hugh Jackman, Amanda Seyfried, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Eddie Redmayne, Aaron Tveit, Helena Bonham Carter, and Samantha Barks.  Hit the jump to take a gander at the entire list of presenters, and click here to catch up on all of our recent Road to Oscar series.  The Oscars will be held this Sunday, February 24th, at 7pm EST on ABC. 

With the 85th Academy Awards looming closer, we here at Collider thought now would be a good time to take a look back at Oscar race thus far.  It’s been a wild and somewhat nutty 12 months, as we’ve seen numerous contenders rise and fall (and some rise back up again) in the contentious hunt for Oscar gold.  We’ve already run down the ebbs and flows of the Best Supporting Actor category, and today we’ll be taking a look back and how the race played out for Best Supporting Actress.

While Jamie Foxx plays the title character in Django Unchained, Leonardo DiCaprio steals the show as the villainous plantation runner and slave owner, Calvin Candie.  This new featurette shows director Quentin Tarantino and cast members Foxx, Kerry Washington and Samuel L. Jackson commenting on the amazing performance by DiCaprio.  It interesting to see how the veteran actor approached the difficult subject matter and to hear the actors talk about his transformation.  The featurette also highlights some footage from the movie, so if you haven’t seen Django Unchained yet, this may have a few spoilers for you.  Otherwise, hit the jump to watch the video.

Legendary director Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained is exactly what the trailer promises – exciting, violent, satirical, vengeful, and shocking – for the entire 2 hour and 45 minute run time.  Jamie Foxx stars as Django, a newly freed slave who sets out with an unlikely partner, dentist-turned-bounty-hunter Dr. King Schultz, (Christoph Waltz) to find and rescue Django’s wife (Kerry Washington).  Django Unchained follows the duo as they track her to a plantation owned by vicious playboy Calvin Candie (a ferocious Leonardo DiCaprio), whose long time family slave, Stephen (an almost unrecognizable Samuel L. Jackson), is also out for blood.  Fans of the director will not be disappointed; this film is everything we hoped for and more.  Click here to watch three clips, Matt’s review, here’s all our previous coverage.

When we spoke to Foxx and Washington at the recent NYC press junket, they talked about how they got involved in the film, their initial reactions to the news they got the parts, Foxx’s process of writing a song for the soundtrack with Rick Ross, and deleted scenes they were sad to see go, including a scene between Jackson and Washington, and a longer scene with DiCaprio.  Continued after the jump.

When people speak of America’s great history, there should be an asterisk involved.  This is a great country with a rich history, but it’s a history that also involves genocide of Native Americans and the enslavement of Africans.  But we considered it civilized, and no country wants to recognize its barbaric behavior (even Barbarians probably thought they weren’t so bad).  In the classic western, we see American West mythologized with heroes and villains.  In the spaghetti western, we see how a foreign country (Italy) reexamined the values of our westerns.  In his new film, Django Unchained, writer-director Quentin Tarantino takes the western to the American South of 1858, and reconsiders the civility of our “great history.”  At turns painfully hilarious and explosively violent, Django Unchained doesn’t have the narrative tightness of Tarantino’s previous features, but it retains all of the thoughtfulness and style the filmmaker has become known for.

A new trailer for Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained features a track from hit recording artist, John Legend. We also get a little bit of new footage that shows Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) training up Django (Jamie Foxx) in the ways of gun-fighting and bounty-hunting.

The film also stars Kerry Washington, Leonard DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson, M.C. Gainey, Walton Goggins, Garrett Dillahunt, Dennis Christopher, Gerald McRaney, Laura Cayouette, and Tom Savini.  Django Unchained opens on Christmas Day. More information on the Django Unchained soundtrack can be found right here. Hit the jump to watch the new trailer and listen to Legend’s track, “Who Did That To You?”

The final trailer for Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained has landed and it’s punctuated with gun shots and one-liners. There’s not much here you haven’t seen already but that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable. And if you liked the song that accompanied the trailer (Rick Ross’ “100 Black Coffins”), you’ll be happy to find the full soundtrack listing and info on how to pre-order it after the jump.

Starring Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Kerry Washington, Leonard DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson, M.C. Gainey, Walton Goggins, Garrett Dillahunt, Dennis Christopher, Gerald McRaney, Laura Cayouette, Don Johnson, and Tom Savini,  Django Unchained opens on December 25th. Hit the jump to watch the trailer and find out more about the soundtrack.

New 60-second TV spots have been released for Django Unchained.  For those unfamiliar with the film, Jamie Foxx stars as the titular Django, an escaped slave who goes to rescue his wife (Kerry Washington) from sadistic plantation owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio) by teaming up with bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz).  These TV spots are in line with all the other ads we’ve seen, and it looks like The Weinstein Company is just about done showing off new footage, which is fine by me.  While other potential Oscar-contenders like Zero Dark Thirty and Les Miserables have already begun to build buzz, Django still remains under wraps, although with yearly awards from critics’ groups closing in, the silence will break soon enough.

Hit the jump to check out the TV spots.  The film also stars Samuel L. Jackson, M.C. Gainey, Walton Goggins, Garrett Dillahunt, Dennis Christopher, Gerald McRaney, Laura Cayouette, Don Johnson, and Tom Savini. Django Unchained opens on December 25th.

Oscar season is in full swing, folks.  2012 has been a fantastic year in film so far, and with merely weeks to go before 2013 begins there are still a couple of highly anticipated films that have yet to be seen.  Just like last year, I’ll be running down a preview of the upcoming Oscar race during this fine Thanksgiving week, giving readers a look at what the state of the race looks like right now.  To be clear, this isn’t a personal list but rather an objective look at how things look to be shaping up.  I’ve divided each category into frontrunners, likely to be nominated, and other contenders in order to parse out where things stand at the moment.  There are multiple strong contenders in nearly every category, so this is looking to be a rather heated run to the finish line.

We’ll be looking at a couple of different major categories each day over the next four days, and we’re kicking things off with the Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress categories.  Hit the jump to read on.

The website for Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming Django Unchained has recently been relaunched, and subsequently a batch of new goodies have also been released.  Included in the grab bag is a handful of character-centered wallpapers and a new 60-second preview that features a few flashes of new footage.  The images give us new looks at the cast (Walton Goggins!) and serve to only increase some already high anticipation for the pic.  Moreover, the new website is a lot of fun to play around with, so I highly suggest checking it out.

Hit the jump to take a look at the new wallpapers along with the preview.  The film also stars Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, Don Johnson, and Samuel L. Jackson.  Django Unchained opens on Christmas Day.

New images have surfaced for Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained and they show off our first looks at co-stars Walton Goggins (The Shield) and Don Johnson (Miami Vice) in costume.  Goggins stars as Billy Crash, a ruthless overseer of Cavin Candie’s (Leonardo DiCaprio) plantation and trainer for slaves who will be pitted against each other in a fight to the death.  Johnson is expected to star in the film as Spencer Gordon Bennet, a fellow slave owner who encounters Django (Jamie Foxx) and Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) whilst they are in pursuit of their bounty.

Django Unchained, also starring Kerry Washington, Samuel L. Jackson and Franco Nero, opens in the U.S. on Christmas Day.  Hit the jump to see the new images. 

As we close in on Quentin Tarantino‘s Django Unchained (only two months away!), another trailer has popped up online.  While the latest domestic trailer was pretty good, this new international trailer is absolutely terrific.  It provides our best look at the film yet with plenty of new footage (some could argue a little too much), plot details, and character motivations.  And all of it looks amazing.  Also, it’s pretty easy to win me over when your spaghetti western-style movie leads off its trailer with the theme from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The film stars Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, M.C. Gainey, Walton Goggins, Garrett Dillahunt, Dennis Christopher, Gerald McRaney, Laura Cayouette, Don Johnson, Tom Savini, and Samuel L. Jackson.  Django Unchained opens December 25th.

Five character posters for Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained have been released.  For those unfamiliar with the film, Jamie Foxx stars as the titular Django, an escaped slave who goes to rescue his wife (Kerry Washington) from sadistic plantation owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio) by teaming up with bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz).  I hope these are only the first of a slew of character posters with each one featuring someone from the gigantic cast.  Take a page from Warner Bros., Weinstein Company.

Hit the jump to check out the posters.  The film also stars Samuel L. Jackson, M.C. Gainey, Walton Goggins, Garrett Dillahunt, Dennis Christopher, Gerald McRaney, Laura Cayouette, Don Johnson, and Tom Savini. Django Unchained opens on December 25th.