The filmmaker formally known as Guillermo del Toro, now referred to ubiquitously as Guillermo “I’m making The Motherf****** ‘Hobbit’” del Toro, appeared tonight at the Director’s Guild of America in midtown Manhattan as part of The New Yorker Festival series of talks. During the conversation withNew Yorker staff writer Daniel Zalewski, the director of such modern genre masterpieces as Pan’s Labyrinth and the “Hellboy” series talked up some of his future projects, including the aforementioned two-film Tolkien adaptation as well as a new version of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein.”

Currently at the beginning of pre-production on The Hobbit, del Toro discussed his process of gathering ideas, or “feeding his brain,” in order to conceptualize his own vision of Middle Earth unique from where Peter Jackson went in his “Lord of the Rings” trilogy…

(Coming Soon)

ReelzChannel’s Nando Velasquez sat down with Larry Charles and Bill Maher to talk about their documentary, Religulous. Charles directed the movie, in which Maher travels around the globe interviewing people about God and religion.

(Reelz Channel)

A good interview, from the filmmakers’ point of view, is one where the press walks away more interested in the project than when they came in. While I’m not planning to be first in line for the videogame adaptation Max Payne when it opens in October, I’m definitely curious. Part of that comes from the charisma of Mark Wahlberg and director John Moore, who at least talk a good game when it comes to this crime saga.

(CHUD)

In his native England, Steve Coogan is a big star, known for his hilarious portrayal of nitwit radio presenter Alan Partridge, among other characters.

He also has appeared in the United States as a guest on such TV shows as Curb Your Enthusiasm, as well as in Night at the Museum and other films.

But it’s hard to imagine a bigger couple of weeks for Coogan. He appears as the desperate director in the huge comedy Tropic Thunder and has the lead role in the decidedly smaller (but still hilarious) Hamlet 2, about a failed actor, now teaching drama in Tucson, who writes a sequel to Shakespeare’s masterpiece to save the school’s drama department.

(Arizona Republic)

Only a few hours before I sat down at a roundtable with Jason Statham to talk about Death Race at Comic Con, I had left the Masters of the Web party, been thrown out of a Hard Rock Hotel room (with a bunch of other people; San Diego’s Hard Rock is the weak sister of that hotel chain) and eventually had a fully insane man threaten to cut my face off before claiming to be a cop. That led to me and Devin jumping in a cab to get out of dodge while Ryan Rotten watched our back. 

Hell of a night. 

With little chance to rest, I had to meet a bunch of the same people that had been busted at the hotel earlier, in a parking lot under a pop-up tent, to talk about movies. Not the worst job, really. It’s worth mentioning that while he hadn’t been in the last suite (and he didn’t threaten me) Jason Statham had been at the same party with us, and probably drinking much harder. (It was his birthday.) 

He sat down with a handful of hungover editors, peering at us from behind massive shades, and, like a pro, gave it a shot.

(CHUD)

War, as the song goes, may be good for absolutely nothing but war movies are another matter entirely. In Ben Stiller’s frequently hilarious new comedy,Tropic Thunder, a group of spoilt Hollywood actors are pitched from the movie set of their Vietnam War epic into the jungle of the Golden Triangle, where they’re mistaken for American soldiers by the local opium syndicate.

Both Tropic Thunder and the faltering blockbuster within it provide plenty of opportunities for references to the canon of Hollywood war movies, with the actors - who include egocentric action star Tugg Speedman (Stiller), lowbrow comic Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black) and Oscar-winning Australian method actor Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey jnr) - often re-creating the somewhat more serious intent of their predecessors.

(The Age)

During Comic-Con this past weekend, I got a chance to catch up with David Gordon Green, the director of the upcoming comedy Pineapple Express. I first took an interest in his work two years ago when I saw Snow Angels at Sundance, a phenomenal heart wrenching drama that he wrote and directed. Now he’s joined Judd Apatow’s team and is bringing us the funniest stoner comedy of this decade.

As he mentions multiple times, David’s a huge nerd, just like all of us, and loves writing and making movies and it’s refreshing to hear from such a talented filmmaker who just enjoys having fun in everything he does. We talked about working with Judd Apatow and his influences on the project, the math of comedies and figuring out how to make an audience laugh, his hate for credits, and so much more, so read on!

(First Showing)

Rob Cohen has been battling mummies and dragon emperors from the director’s chair as of late!  

He took some time during the press day for the film with the IESB and a group of journalists to talk about his experience taking up the franchise!

Plus he weighs in on a few other projects he may have in the pipeline! 

(IESB)

We go cape to cape with the caped crusader Christian Bale and talk The Dark Knight! In the follow-up to the action hit “Batman Begins,” Bale returns to the dual role of Bruce Wayne/Batman and reunites with writer/director Christopher Nolan in their third collaboration together.

“Batman Begins” opened a new chapter in the Batman film franchise by taking the legendary character back to his origins, re-imagining why and how the billionaire industrialist Bruce Wayne became the enigmatic crime fighter known to the world as Batman. In “The Dark Knight,” the character is fully formed.

Christian Bale is a terrific actor and we really appreciated his time. Dressed in a dark shirt and slacks and sporting a buzz cut for “Terminator Salvation” which he’s currently filming, here’s what he had to tell us about “The Dark Knight”.

(Movies Online)

We sit down with the ying to Batmans yang… Maggie Gyllenhaal who plays Rachel Dawes! MoviesOnline had the pleasure of talking to Maggie Gyllenhaal at the Los Angeles press day for her new film, “The Dark Knight.” In this latest installment of the Batman franchise, Gyllenhaal plays assistant district attorney Rachel Dawes who now works for the new Gotham City DA, Harvey Dent.

(Movies Online)