She reflects neither of the titular attractions of the campy Piranha 3DD, director John Gulager‘s follow-up to 2010’s surprise, $80-million-grossing Piranha 3D, but Danielle Panabaker anchors the movie nonetheless, starring as level-headed graduate student Maddy, whose visions of a happy summer working at her stepfather’s water park get dashed, in bloody fashion. It almost certainly helped that Panabaker had hearty, previous genre experience, in the form of Friday the 13th and The Crazies. I had a chance to speak to Panabaker one-on-one recently, about the movie and its production, her admirable dedication to education, and a certain T-shirt she might have liberated from the wardrobe department. The conversation is excerpted over at ShockYa, so click here for the read.
Daily Archives: June 4, 2012
Matt Bush Talks High School, Piranha 3DD, Clint Eastwood
Matt Bush made quite an impression in Adventureland, as Figo, the impish, nut-punching co-worker and torturer of Jesse Eisenberg’s character. He’s now making impressions in a less throbbing manner. Bush has a wonky, out-there leading man June two-fer, appearing in both Piranha 3DD and John Stalberg‘s High School. In the former he’s a shy guy whose balls finally descend, as he swings into action to help his longtime crush (Danielle Panabaker) battle a piranha invasion at a water theme park. The the latter, he plays Henry, a straight-laced, would-be valedictorian who, after first sampling marijuana, teams up with estranged stoner pal Breaux (Christopher Marquette) to try to throw the test results of a mandatory drug test for the entire school, and thus preserve his academic standing. I had a chance to speak to Bush one-on-one recently, chatting about both films, his own adolescent success with the ladies (or lack thereof), his fall film with Clint Eastwood, and whether he needed to conduct any chemical research for his High School role. The conversation is excerpted over at shockYa, so click here for the full read.
Red Lights Trailer Seems Mildly Insane
The trailer for Red Lights (Millennium Entertainment, July 13), from Buried director Rodrigo Cortés, is out now, and it seems a mildly insane thing, yeah? Robert De Niro is a legendary blind psychic who comes out of retirement; Sigourney Weaver and Cillian Murphy are a pair of paranormal debunkers who cross (paths with) him; and Elizabeth Olsen is the girl who no doubt moves the plot forward and speaks of ominous stuff. It at first seems like a creepy yet character-rooted cat-and-mouse psychological thriller. And then it just goes batshit crazy from the 1:30 mark, at which point it seems a lot less interesting and lot more hokey, over-the-top and Stigmata-y… which I believe was the gist of the reviews from its Sundance Film Festival bow earlier this year.