The P3 Update Magazine Blog

By Iain Blair

Canadian actor Eric McCormack got his big break in 1998 playing Will Truman in NBC’s hit series “Will & Grace,” a role that earned him five Golden Globe nominations and the Emmy for Leading Actor in a Comedy. Now, McCormack – whose credits include “Lonesome Dove: The Outlaws Years,” “The Andromeda Strain,” and “The Music Man” on Broadway – stars in the new retro sci-fi thriller Alien Trespass.

In Alien Trespass, McCormack plays dual role: Ted Lewis, a nerdy science teacher, and the charismatic alien Urp who takes over Ted’s body. Did they pay him twice? “I guess they should have. Except that when I’m Urp, I’m inside Ted’s body, so I think they looked at it that way,” he laughs. This was the film debut for his director Bob Goodwin, who worked on “The X-Files.” Did that make him nervous? “No, because I’ve worked with a lot of directors who’ve done a lot of things and it doesn’t necessarily make them any better,” he told me. “And often a first-time director brings a tremendous amount of enthusiasm and desire. They’re not jaded.” I asked Eric about the actors strike, and he said the same thing so many people have told me – “I think it’d just be suicidal right now, with the economy the way it is.”

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By Iain Blair

Was chatting with Shawn Levy – the ultra-successful director whose next film Night at the Museum 2 looks likely to be another huge hit when it opens on Memorial weekend. He called me from the Fox lot where he was busy finishing post. Although a lot of people don’t know who he is, Shawn is very hot thanks to such hits as What Happens In Vegas, which starred Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher (the film grossed over $160 million worldwide to date), and the blockbuster Night at the Museum, starring Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, Owen Wilson, Ricky Gervais, Dick Van Dyke and Mickey Rooney, which grossed over $580,000,000 worldwide. He’s also turning into a top producer, currently developing several films through his production company, 21 Laps Entertainment, which is based at Fox. These projects include Matchbreaker, Father Figure, Devil You Know, The Seems, and Back Magick for Fox; Me, Me, Me at New Line; and Overachievers and The Talent Thief for Universal. 21 Laps also produced the Fox release The Rocker, which stars Rainn Wilson (“The Office”). I asked him, “Does all this mean that you’re moving more into producing now?”

“Not really, I like producing, but mostly when it’s projects I direct myself, as then I’m really able to control the film and reduce any meddling!” he laughed.

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By Iain Blair

Just got a call from a friend at Sony who’s excited because British comedian Ricky Gervais is teaming up with the studio to shoot The Men at the Pru, which he’s co-writing, producing and directing with his “The Office” partner Stephen Merchant. Ricky will also play a small role in the coming-of-age tale about insurance men set in the ‘70s; and the film is set to start shooting later this summer on the lot. The busy Brit is also starring in Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian with Ben Stiller, Amy Adams, Jonah Hill, Bill Hader, Hank Azaria, Owen Wilson, and Steve Coogan, and has his directorial debut, This Side of the Truth, set for a September release by Warner Bros. Now, if he could just find time to host the Oscars next year, he could single-handedly bring it back to life…

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By Iain Blair

Bumped into a reporter from Reelz Channel who wasn’t too happy about his company’s recent decision to relocate from LA to Albuquerque. “It’s all down to money,” he said. “We shoot the show at LA Center Studios which is very convenient for covering everything in Hollywood, but the governor of New Mexico made us offer that they couldn’t refuse, so now we’ll be based at the Albuquerque Studios instead.” While he told me that the facility is “great,” he said, “There’s just nothing to do in Albuquerque.” He noted that because New Mexico’s big tax breaks are siphoning off shows and movies from LA, California will finally try and enact its own tax breaks – “but it’s too little too late,” he said.

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By Iain Blair

I was chatting with Dennis Quaid, an underappreciated actor who’s still going strong after over 30 years in the business. He was honored at the 2009 ShoWest Convention as “Male Star of the Year” and when you look down his long list of credits, you realize how accomplished is as an actor – notable roles include his emotional turn as a closet homosexual in 1950’s New York in the critically acclaimed 2002 film, Far From Heave; the title role of a high school baseball coach in Disney’s box-office hit The Rookie; Doc Holliday in the Western Wyatt Earp; an astronaut in the Oscar-nominated space epic, The Right Stuff.

“You just keep working and adapting – that’s the key in this business,” he told me, “You have to change.” Dennis, who’s always loved music (and gave a memorable performance as Jerry Lee Lewis in “Great Balls of Fire”), says he still plays with his band The Sharks “when I get the time – but I’ve been too busy working recently.” No wonder – he has 4 big new films due out this year. He recently finished production in Berlin for the horror film Pandorum, a story about a pair of crewmembers aboard a spaceship who wake up with no knowledge of their mission or their identities. Overture Films will distribute Pandorum in September. He also stars in the upcoming Legion – directed by Scott Charles for Sony Screen Gems – a dramatic thriller about a group of strangers stuck in a diner after a biblical apocalypse descends upon the world. He’s also one of the stars in the ensemble cast in the Paramount Pictures’G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra, an action adventure feature by director Stephen Sommers. Quaid plays General Hawk, the head of an elite military unit comprised of special operatives known as G.I. Joe. G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra is due out in August.

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By Iain Blair

I’ve talked to Michael Caine many times over the years, been to his Beverly Hills home when he lived here, and always found him to be one of the most entertaining people in the biz. He called me at home the other day for a piece I’m doing on him, and we caught up. He was at home in Box Hill, England, and told me it was “still too cold” to be out gardening – one of his passions. At an age – he just turned 76 – when most of his contemporaries have long since retired, Sir Michael – he was knighted in 2000 – is still going strong and has two big new projects; Is There Anybody There and Harry Brown coming out soon. He told me that he has “no intention of retiring” and says that acting is more fun for him now, “because I’ve got to an age where I don’t get the girl anymore, I get the part! So you no longer have the constraints of being a movie star, the part’s gotta be this big, I’ve gotta get the  girl. Now I can do what I like, and I only do things that I really enjoy.” With a career spanning over half a century and encompassing more than 100 films, the star is a two-time Academy Award winner - he won his first Oscar, for Best Supporting Actor, for his work in Hannah and Her Sisters, for which he also received Golden Globe and BAFTA Award nominations. He took home his second Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in The Cider House Rules, also winning a SAG Award and earning Golden Globe and BAFTA Award nominations. But although he’s worked almost non-stop throughout his career, he has had some down times, he told me. “ I took a long time off when I wrote my autobiography, and then I got lazy and I didn’t want to come back,” he admits. “Then when I wanted to come back nobody knew who the hell I was, I couldn’t get a job. Then finally I got Blood and Wine with Jack Nicholson, and Bob Rafelson, and that got me back.” And he hasn’t looked back since.

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By Iain Blair

For the past year or so a filmmaker friend, Justin Guerrieri, has been telling me about his debut feature project, a horror film titled Trail Of Blood. Now it’s almost done. Justin made it with his brother Joseph Guerrieri, a film instructor at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College and Ventura College, They shot on the Red One camera, which the filmmakers chose for “its film-like 4k capabilities and its flexibility and ease of use in the field,” says Justin.  The Guerrieri Brothers edited the film, which they co-wrote and co-directed, at full resolution on their Mac in their home studio and sent the VFX shots to another old friend and ex-college roommate, Chris Redmann, now an assistant professor in Drexel Univeristy’s Digital Media Program where he’s using students to finish up the VFX. The indie, starring Robert Picardo (“Stargate: Atlantis,” “Star Trek: Voyager”) and Executive Produced by Joe Dante (MASTERS OF HORROR, GREMLINS, THE HOLE) is being produced by Matthew Hsu and Vero Shamo-Garcia. The film is scheduled to be released in 2009.

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By Iain Blair

Thanks to the huge success of Slumdog Millionaire — $125 million US domestic take so far — the British film industry is really kicking ass these days. Now The Weinstein Company (TWC) has acquired Nowhere Boy, the John Lennon coming of age story directed by Sam Taylor-Wood, starring Aaron Johnson, Kristin Scott Thomas, Thomas Sangster, David Morrissey and Anne-Marie Duff. It tells the never before seen story of John Lennon’s (Johnson) childhood on the streets of Liverpool. Principal photography started this month on location in Liverpool and at Ealing Studios. The script was developed with the support of the UK Film Council’s Development Fund and the film will be produced by Robert Bernstein and Douglas Rae for Ecosse Films (Brideshead Revisited).

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By Iain Blair

Natasha Richardson’s skiing accident and death was so tragic. I interviewed her several times over the years and she always was charming and fun to be around. She leaves behind a legacy of great performances on stage and in movies. Coincidentally, when I was in the Rocky Horror Show in London in the ‘70s, her mother Vanessa used to hang out backstage a lot, and then later when I moved to the U.S. and California, it turned out that Lynn Redgrave was our neighbor in Topanga. I’d often run into her on the trails hiking, before her marriage ended in a very nasty divorce and she moved back to England. What a terrible loss for the whole family…

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By Iain Blair

Caught an early screening of the terrific, sexy, new romantic caper Duplicity, from writer/director Tony Gilroy, whose debut directorial effort Michael Clayton was seven-time Oscar-nominated. It stars Oscar winner Julia Roberts and Clive Owen as spies-turned-corporate operatives in the midst of a clandestine love affair, and their on screen chemistry gives the film its juice. Duplicity reunites Gilroy with key members of the behind-the-scenes team from Michael Clayton—including the great Academy Award-winning director of photography Robert Elswit (There Will Be Blood, Syriana); production designer Kevin Thompson (Birth, Stranger Than Fiction); editor and co-producer John Gilroy (Pride and Glory, Narc); and composer James Newton Howard (The Dark Knight, Defiance). Being a spy caper, Duplicity also takes you on a great trip around the world, to Dubai, Rome, Miami, London, Cleveland and Zurich.  Principal photography for Duplicity began in Manhattan, before moving the company to the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas for one week of shooting.  It spent the final week of production in Rome, and all the real locations pay off big time in this highly entertaining movie. (There’s a great secret driving the entire convoluted plot, and the password is  – HAIR!  I’m not talking about the ‘60s musical…. You’ll understand when you see it.)

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