Ron Livingston, Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King
Some actors possess an Everyman quality that gives them the versatility to take on any role. Ron Livingston is that type of guy. After gaining notoriety as a member of Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn's crew of Swingers, he went on to play a conflicted World War II captain in HBO's Band of Brothers. This fall the Iowa native gets his first opportunity to play a series lead on Fox's hostage-negotiator action-drama
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Paul Giamatti in Lady in the Water; Amazing Screw-On Head
Paul Giamatti's latest one-of-a-kind performance can't be seen in theaters and not even on TV, but on SciFi.com's Pulse broadband channel, which is currently offering a first look at Amazing Screw-On Head, the outrageous animated adventures of a disembodied robotic head (Giamatti) dispatched by President Abraham Lincoln (yes, that Abe Lincoln) to "suit up" and fight evildoers. The Amazing twist: Sci Fi wants immediate fan feedback on whether the pilot should go to series. (The pilot airs on Sci Fi Channel July 27.) TVGuide.com spoke with Giamatti about his small-screen world-saving as well as the many, many films —
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Paul Giamatti in Lady in the Water; Amazing Screw-On Head
Paul Giamatti's latest one-of-a-kind performance can't be seen in theaters and not even on TV, but on SciFi.com's Pulse broadband channel, which, starting today, is offering a first look at Amazing Screw-On Head, the outrageous animated adventures of a disembodied robotic head (Giamatti) dispatched by President Abraham Lincoln (yes, that Abe Lincoln) to "suit up" and fight evildoers. The Amazing twist: Sci Fi wants immediate fan feedback on whether the pilot should go to series. (The pilot airs on Sci Fi Channel July 28.) TVGuide.com spoke with Giamatti about his small-screen world-saving as well as the many, many films —
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What, if anything, do Star Wars, Mission: Impossible, and Jaws have in common?
What is the formula for blockbuster-movie success? And how does it differ from the recipe for disaster? Boffo! Tinseltown's Bombs and Blockbusters, an HBO documentary premiering tonight at 9 pm/ET — and based on the new book Boffo! How I Learned to Love the Blockbuster and Fear the Bomb, by Variety editor-in-chief and former studio exec Peter Bart — explores those much-asked questions by way of A-list talking heads and fantastic clips from films both great and... so-so.
Bart says that — especially as cohost of AMC's Sunday Morn
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What, if anything, do Star Wars, Mission: Impossible, and Jaws have in common?
What is the formula for blockbuster-movie success? And how does it differ from the recipe for disaster? The new book Boffo! How I Learned to Love the Blockbuster and Fear the Bomb, by Variety editor-in-chief and former studio exec Peter Bart, explores those much-asked questions, as does an accompanying HBO documentary, Boffo! Tinseltown's Bombs and Blockbusters, premiering June 29 and featuring almost as many A-list talking heads as fantastic clips from films both great and... so-so.
Bart says that — especially as cohost of AMC's Sunday
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Jon Stewart
The 78th Annual Academy Awards 8:01: The opening scene just demonstrates why we love Jon Stewart: No one does self-deprecation so funny. Not even George Clooney. I think my dog would look great in a Steve Martin wig.
8:05: At first, the Hollywood royalty aren't laughing quite as hard as I am at Jon's jokes — especially not at the one about the suffering caused by movie piracy. But nothing brings people together like a Bjork joke. (She was trying on her gown and Cheney shot her!) And then the gay Western montage. Not even Stewart knows how to follow up that hilarity, so I'm not even gonna try. Brilliant.
8:16: Nicole Kidman's weird intro for the best-supporting-actor nominees has me thinking right away that Clooney will win. And then he does; self-deprecation keeps working wonders. "So I'm not winning director." The music starts after about 10 sec
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In the latest round of fall-season pilot casting, Bruce McGill (Cinderella Man) has been tapped to play a Chicago crime boss in the ABC drama Enemies... Sean Bean (The Lord of the Rings) will play a federal prosecutor who infiltrates an underworld organization in Fox's Faceless... Jennifer Westfeldt (Kissing Jessica Stein) has joined ABC's Notes from the Underbelly... and Julie Hagerty (Airplane!) is the title character's mom in Fox's Becoming Glen. Also of note: Milo Ventimiglia (Gilmore Girls, and a star of WB's forthcoming The Bedford Diaries) has joined NBC's Heroes, Eric Mabius (The O.C.) plays a fashion-mag boss in ABC's Ugly Betty, and Jaime King (Kitchen Confidential) has the lead in Fox's The Worst Week of My Life.
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The big winners at the 11th Annual Critics' Choice Awards, broadcast Monday night on WB, were Brokeback Mountain (for best picture, director Ang Lee and supporting actress Michelle Williams [tied with Junebug's Amy Adams]), Capote's Philip Seymour Hoffman (best actor) and Walk the Line's Reese Witherspoon (best actress). Cinderella Man's Paul Giamatti was named best supporting actor.
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Before the Screen Actors Guild and Directors Guild award nominations come out today, let's quickly recap all of the kudos handed out on Wednesday by two other biggies. The Producers Guild of America has Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Good Night, and Good Luck, Crash, and Walk the Line vying for best-picture honors, while the Writers Guild gave nods to Crash, Good Night, and Good Luck, Cinderella Man, The 40 Year Old Virgin, and The Squid and the Whale in the original-screenplay category, and Brokeback, Capote, The Constant Gardener, A History of Violence, and Syriana in the adapted-screenplay competition.
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Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain, which this past weekend posted the highest per-screen average ($13,599 per theater versus, say, $9,305 for King Kong) of any film in release, has been awarded top honors — including best picture, director, screenplay and cinematography — by the Florida Film Critics Circle. Capote's Philip Seymour Hoffman and Walk the Line's Reese Witherspoon were named best actor and actress, while Cinderella Man's Paul Giamatti and Junebug's Amy Adams won the supporting categories.
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