The financial collapse of 2008 was brought about by many factors — including governmental deregulation and lack of proper oversight — but make no mistake, there were plenty of flat-out crooks involved. And were it not for the staggering scale of Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff‘s deception, Marc Dreier and his $750 million fraud would likely be the name most lastingly associated with American white collar crime. Filmed over the last two months of Dreier’s house arrest, leading up to his prison sentencing, the documentary Unraveled unfolds in unique fashion, offering up a rare first person reflection on scamming of this scale and sort. Even more unique, however, is the fact that the film’s director, Marc Simon, himself had a personal connection with his subject. I recently had a chance to speak one-on-one to Simon (no relation), about his movie, chasing a “Rosebud” moment in relation to Dreier, and his own thoughts on the criminal sentencing of his one-time boss. The conversation is excerpted over at ShockYa, so click here for the full read.

In comedies like Confessions of a Shopaholic and She’s Out of My League, Krysten Ritter showcased her skill with quick-witted dialogue and a bitchy quip. In her new film L!fe Happens, however, she gets to inhabit a much more fully developed and no less endearing and amusing character, as a single mom living under the same roof with two friends. Co-written by Ritter and her good friend, the movie’s director, Kat Coiro (above right), over three-and-a-half years, and then shot in Los Angeles in 17 days with a pulled-together cast populated with loads of known faces (including Kate Bosworth, Rachel Bilson, Geoff Stults and Justin Kirk in prominent roles, plus Jason Biggs and Kristen Johnston in great supporting turns), it’s a fun, robust flick honestly rooted in characterizations instead of merely sitcom contrivance. I recently had a chance to chat with both Ritter and Coiro, about the long road traveled in getting the movie to the screen, their pool skills, and the solicitation of Chamillionaire’s “Ridin’ Dirty” for the soundtrack. The conversation is excerpted over at ShockYa, so click here for the full fun read.

Since bursting onto the scene (and out of his jeans) with the self-torturing Super Size Me, for which he ate nothing but McDonalds for an entire month, documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock has shown a knack for selecting zeitgeist-friendly subjects for his nonfiction explorations. In his latest movie, Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope, he turns his attention to the annual San Diego-set celebration of comic book culture that has grown into a full-fledged pit-stop/forced blind date for Hollywood studios and the eager genre film fans they wish to court. I recently had a chance to speak to Spurlock one-on-one, about comic books, the direction of Comic-Con, the unusual focus of his next project, and the diminishing sentimental value of physical objects. He’s a talker, don’tcha know, and the conversation is excerpted over at ShockYa, so click here for the full read. For a review, click here; for more on the movie, meanwhile, including its VOD options, click here.

A true Southern belle, Carrie MacLemore was born in Mississippi and raised in Alabama, but now resides mostly in New York, where she twice moved to try her hand at acting. In charming, demure tones, she admits she escaped her homeland without an affinity for country music or NASCAR (“Which means I didn’t quite feel like I fit in when I was little”), and says she feels most Southern when she’s out of the South, and her accent helps render her a delightful curio. With but a few television credits to her name, MacLemore was hand-picked by director Whit Stillman for her film debut in his fourth feature film, Damsels in Distress. In the very mannered, quirky, college-set comedy, MacLemore plays Heather, a polite do-gooder who has some unique theories regarding the relationship between physical characteristics and human behavior. The day after her 25th birthday, I had a chance to sit down and talk with the recently married MacLemore about acting, her debutante past and what she wanted so badly that she was down on her knees for (get your mind out of the gutter). The conversation is excerpted over at ShockYa, so click here for the full read.

Millions of fans came of age vicariously through Adam Brody on the small screen via his roles Gilmore Girls and especially The O.C., where he displayed a penchant for neurosis-infused quips. But the 32-year-old actor has also crafted a surprisingly diverse and hip, quirky filmography, which he adds to with writer-director Whit Stillman’s latest movie, Damsels in Distress. In the very atypical college comedy, Brody, opposite Greta Gerwig and Analeigh Tipton, co-stars as Charlie Walker, a suave young businessman who might well be exercising a loose relationship with veracity in attempting to create some romantic shortcuts. I recently had a chance to sit down and talk with Brody one-on-one, about both Stillman’s peculiar style and tone, as well as his career overall. The conversation is excerpted over at ShockYa, so click here for the full read.

She’s only 23 years old, but Elizabeth Olsen’s big screen one-two punch is a no-foolin’ trumpet blast heralding the arrival of a major new movie talent. If, bafflingly and sadly, her debut Martha Marcy May Marlene failed to crack $3 million at the domestic box office last fall, it certainly won over plenty of critics; she was co-honored, along with her collaborators, with the New Generation Award by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, among several other prizes. Her new film, Silent House, not just confirms Olsen’s talents, but immediately showcases her ability to anchor a movie — quite literally. She’s in every frame of co-directors Chris Kentis and Laura Lau‘s psychological thriller, which unfolds in real time as Olsen’s character, Sarah, finds herself sealed in and under siege in her family’s secluded lake house. I recently had a chance to chat with Olsen at her film’s press day; the conversation is excerpted over at ShockYa, so click here for the full read.

Owing equally to a skin-tight body suit and unnerving thousand-yard stare, Kristanna Loken made quite an impression in 2003’s Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. While she didn’t quite skyrocket up the ranks of Hollywood demand from there, she’s nevertheless worked steadily — including in a fair amount of genre material, as with Uwe Boll‘s BloodRayne and In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale. Her latest movie is The Legend of Awesomest Maximus, a decidedly bawdy, National Lampoon’s-minted spoof of 300, Gladiator and other mythology-laden, sword-and-sandal action epics. Loken co-stars opposite Will Sasso and Sophie Monk, playing the former’s gold-digging, politically-minded wife Hotessa, who, while trying to goad her oafish husband into action, may also be carrying on an affair behind his back. I recently had a chance to chat one-on-one with Loken about Awesomest Maximus location filming in conservative Utah, sex scene spoofs, and her efforts to expand upon and control her own career, via the formation of her own production company. The conversation is excerpted over at ShockYa, so click here for the full read.

Iranian director Asghar Farhadi‘s A Separation sucked up a lot of the oxygen regarding the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar submissions heading into the ceremony a couple weeks ago, and, indeed, ended up taking home the Academy Award. But writer-director Joseph Cedar’s Footnote, the official Israeli entry, and one of the final five nominees, is an equally stirring work. The winner of the Best Screenplay award at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, the movie locates the universality in an incredibly specific arena, telling the story of a latent rivalry between father and son professors, each of whom has dedicated their lives to different branches of Talmudic study. I recently had a chance to chat one-on-one with the 43-year-old award-winning filmmaker, talking with Cedar about comparisons of his movie to A Separation, life inside the Oscar bubble and reverse immigration. The conversation is excerpted over at ShockYa, so click here for the full read.

Husband-and-wife filmmaking tandem Chris Kentis and Laura Lau made a splash, both figuratively and literally, with 2004’s Open Water, which unfolded almost entirely in the ocean, and could very loosely be described as the Blair Witch Project version of Jaws. Telling the story of a pair of stranded divers, it was a nervy, low-budget movie that tapped into fear in a visceral, primal way. It was also very profitable, raking in $54 million internationally against production costs that were less than one percent of that. So it’s been a surprise that the pair have been away so long.

That was not by design, said Kentis at a recent press day for Silent House, their much buzzed-about new thriller which straddles the intersection between home invasion flick, paranormal/haunted house film and psychological drama. Two films in particular — a passion project on the downing of the USS Indianapolis during World War II, and American City, a drama set in post-Katrina New Orleans — kicked around in development hell for many years, never coming to fruition. Lau and Kentis also dutifully worked up one new screenplay each year, but nothing gained final traction.

It was only after a producer familiar with Open Water, Agnes Mentre, ran into the pair’s lawyer, Sue Bodine, and inquired about Kentis and Lau that they finally found the sliver of luck they needed to get a movie back on the big screen. Mentre had secured remake rights to the Uruguayan film La Casa Muda, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival as part of its Director’s Fortnight line-up and would eventually go on to be that country’s official Oscar Foreign Film submission, and sensed that the pair would be a good match with the material, which unfolds in streamlined, real-time fashion, mimicking a single take.

The film is a heady experiment anchored by a star-confirming turn from Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene), and its release this weekend stands poised to test Olsen’s burgeoning “It Girl” status, as well as help disrupt — along with holdover box office champion The Lorax — the supposed theatrical dominance of Disney’s ballyhooed John Carter. I had a chance recently to sit down and chat one-on-one with married co-directors Kentis and Lau, so for the excerpted conversation, over at ShockYa, click here.

A lot of military stories ladle on audio-visual artifice, in an attempt to create impactful audience identification with the disorienting nature of war or its psychological after-effects. Return, however, is a subjective document that plays out against the banality of everyday existence, wherein crisis unfolds in slow motion, and sometimes almost imperceptible strokes. The film stars Linda Cardellini as Kelli, a Rust Belt supply line soldier who comes back from a tour of duty and experiences a vague, free-floating sense of dislocation from her plumber husband Mike (Michael Shannon) and two young girls, and in the din of domestic homecoming dramas, it’s a striking, humane, low-fi offering. Speaking recently by phone with director Liza Johnson from her home in Brooklyn, I had a chance to discuss the 25-day shoot of her narrative debut effort, as well as her path to filmmaking, her planned next project, and the secrets of playing drunk on screen. The conversation is excerpted over at ShockYa, so click here for the full read. For a review of the movie, click here.

While many directors are all too content to mine a seam, German-born filmmaker Wim Wenders (Wings of Desire, The Buena Vista Social Club, Paris, Texas, the ambitious Until the End of the World) has enjoyed a delightfully diverse career, jumping back and forth between narrative and nonfiction works. His latest film, the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar-nominated documentary Pina, taps into his decades-long friendship with the late, lauded choreographer Pina Bausch, imaginatively exploring her work in 3-D by utilizing the dancers of her Tanztheater Wuppertal ensemble. In a wide-ranging half-hour chat — with Dave Matthews Band, the Yeah Yeahs and other light rock tunes unfolding at a remove in the background of the lush outdoor trappings of a Hollywood hotel — I had a chance recently to talk to Wenders about his friendship with Bausch, the challenges of capturing dance on film, what he learned from a terrible working experience with Francis Ford Coppola, how he’s ready to start thinking in 3-D, and what comment from Mel Gibson he wishes had gotten stuck in the actor’s throat. The conversation is excerpted over at ShockYa, so click here for the full read.

Relations between the countries of Iran and the United States may be ill at ease, but Iranian cinematic import A Separation — just off its Golden Globe Best Foreign Language Film win and a Best Screenplay feting by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the first such honor from the organization for a foreign film — is deservedly capturing the hearts and minds of plenty of American cineastes. The movie is a multi-layered familial drama about a married couple (Peyman Moadi and Leila Hatami) attempting to resolve elder care issues, their teenage daughter’s needs and the potentiality of a divorce when a misunderstanding turned legal problem with their new maid renders these problems secondary. Sophisticated and yet immediately knowable, the rapturously engaging A Separation belies cliched notions of how a foreign film must connect with American audiences in staid, formal tones. I recently had a chance to sit down one-on-one with writer-director Asghar Farhadi, to discuss (with the assistance of a translator) his award-winning movie, as well as life in general and his personal filmmaking future in Iran. The conversation is excerpted over at ShockYa, so click here for the read.

Possessing crack comedic timing, beauty and yet still a sympathetic visage and demeanor, Lindsay Sloane exudes girl-next-door goodness, a quality which has kept her steadily employed in a variety of mostly sunny roles in both movies and television. It’s exactly these traits which writer-directors Peter Hyuck and Alex Gregory wished to deploy in subversive manner by casting Sloane in their bawdy comedy A Good Old Fashioned Orgy, just out on DVD last week. I had a chance to sit down and chat with Sloane about the uniquely titled ensemble movie, as well as her off-screen thoughts on its subject matter and what exactly the “orgy cut-off number” is that makes her uncomfortable. She also drops a Bad Boys reference, which is pretty damn cool in my book. For the full read, over at ShockYa, click here.

Actor Michael Biehn has had a long and varied career, but to hear him tell it, his experience shooting his new film The Divide and other events surrounding its production may have marked a change in his professional attitude and outlook. In addition to starring as ex-firefighter turned survivalist Mickey in the post-apocalyptic thriller, which finds a group of New York City neighbors trapped together in the basement of their apartment building in the aftermath of a possible nuclear strike, Biehn has also turned his attention to life behind the camera. With Jennifer Blanc-Biehn, his wife and producer/costar, Biehn’s recently completed directorial debut, The Victim, just sold to Anchor Bay Films, and will now see a release later this year. On Friday, I had a chance to participate in a press day for The Divide, talking with Biehn about his instincts for “polishing a turd,” his reasons for finally jumping behind the camera, and the incredible on-set tension on The Divide. Oh, and ousted Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi also came up. The interview is excerpted over at ShockYa, minus Biehn’s thoughts on the current state of hip hop, so click here for the full read.

Elizabeth Mitchell is the sort of actress whose statuesque beauty (she’s 5’9″) has allowed her to be cast both by and against type. She made out with Angelina Jolie in the HBO movie Gia, made a much more unsettling impression in Wayne Kramer’s creepy Running Scared, and then enjoyed a healthy run as Dr. Juliet Burke on the small screen smash hit Lost. She’s now moved on to V, and is also part of the ensemble cast of writer-director Matthew Leutwyler’s Answers To Nothing, in which she plays a woman trying to get pregnant with a husband (Dane Cook) that she doesn’t know is cheating on her. I recently had a chance to chat with Mitchell, one-on-one and in person, about the film (which is in theaters and also currently available on VOD), her necessarily quick connection with costar Julie Benz, life in small town Washington and more. The conversation is excerpted over at ShockYa, so click here for the read.

On November 27, DreamWorks Pictures presented an advance screening
of Steven Spielberg’s War Horse in New York City. The after-event featured
a 55-minute Q&A session with the filmmaker, which was streamed live on
MSN to people in over 120 countries. Now it’s on YouTube, for those who missed it; Spielberg talks about the emotional language of the movie, the inspiration of John Ford, and exactly how many “Joey”s there were.

A political drama as well as a story of remarkable spousal support, devotion and understanding, director Luc Besson’s The Lady stars Michelle Yeoh as Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, the democratically elected leader of Burma who spent years imprisoned by her native country’s military junta. While Yeoh is better known for the sort of physicality she’s put on display in more straightforward genre films, The Lady masterfully showcases her quiet and controlled side, to often heartrending effect. I recently had a chance to speak to Yeoh one-on-one in person, about her exacting research for the movie, the challenges of embodying a well known public figure, and more. The conversation is excerpted over at ShockYa, so click here for the full read, in which Yeoh passingly reveals that she used to read… Mad Magazine?

Julie Benz has been dead for a couple years now — well, to a lot of people who follow Dexter religiously. Thankfully, in real life, the 39-year-old actress has kept busy even after her shocking fourth-season offing from the hit Showtime series, popping up in roles on Desperate Housewives and No Ordinary Family, amongst other projects. In co-writer-director Matthew Leutwyler’s new film, Answers to Nothing, she plays Frankie, a hard-charging Los Angeles police investigator working to solve a case involving a missing little girl. I recently had a chance to sit down and talk to Benz one-on-one, about Answers to Nothing and the extremely short preparation time she had for the project, as well as what sort of reactions she gets from Dexter fans. The conversation is excerpted over at ShockYa, so click here for the read.

He can’t spill the beans on the in-the-works Entourage movie, but fans will still be seeing plenty of Jeremy Piven in the time it takes for his character, Ari Gold, to wind his way to the big screen. The actor’s latest film, available on VOD and hitting big screens this week, is Mark Pellington’s I Melt With You, the story of four wildly disillusioned old college friends (including Rob Lowe, Thomas Jane and Christian McKay) who reunite for an annual summer bacchanal, and start to entertain a suicide pact from their teenage years. Piven plays Ron, a financial services hotshot facing impending ruin stemming from corruption and fraud charges. I had a chance to sit down and talk to the actor one-on-one recently, about the film, his work methods, one of the things he thinks causes cancer, and his unlikely pairing with Miley Cyrus. The conversation is excerpted over at ShockYa, so click here for the read.

I was doing some e-cleaning recently, and stumbled across an old interview I did with Robert Hall, the co-writer and director of horror flick (in case the title didn’t tip the fact) Chromeskull: Laid to Rest 2. Well… sort of. The main reason I never got around to posting the thing was because Hall was apparently completing some sort of decathlon whilst chatting with me, and so the sound quality was shitty to the point of near-indecipherable. Oh, and we also got cut off five times in the span of 15-plus minutes. My over-under on such shenanigans is typically four, but since I’d already transcribed a portion of it, here are a couple questions and answers, I guess, courtesy of my compulsion for pointless over-extension and completion:

Brent Simon: With a lot of the most memorable horror villains, there’s a visually iconographic element to them — be it Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees or Pinhead from Hellraiser. Chromeskull certainly has that; he’s visually arresting. What was the inspiration?

Robert Hall: I wanted him to represent technology without being super-gadgety or super Saw-like. I designed it in a heavy metal-influenced kind of way, which is ironic because [the character] wouldn’t be listening to heavy metal, he’d be listening to pretentious jazz or something. I knew that he would be set against this backdrop of decay. I thought that would be a nice juxtaposition. It’s been a long process. I spent a really long time designing the look of Chromeskull, and it changed so much from the first film to the second.

BS: On the DVD you give away some of the secrets [of certain shots], which blend practical and prosthetic effects with digital work. Does that combination immediately come to mind in writing some of these kill sequences, or do you say, “Here’s an idea, and I’ll worry about we achieve it later”?

RH: That’s usually how I work — I try to think of something that would be difficult first. I sort of work backwards, trying to think of something outrageous and incredible.

BS: You also talk about writing parts with specific actors in mind.

RH: Yeah, Brian [Austin Green] and I were friends, and had talked before. He came to the premiere of the first movie, kind of jokingly said if I ever did a sequel he’d be game for it, and I then thought some about how I could use him. It became obvious to me that he could be the impetus or catalyst that would bring the whole thing together and make the whole thing gel and work. In a lot of ways he’s the man behind the scenes who’s just no more than a simple clean-up guy who gets a taste of the work Chromeskull does and then thinks that he can [get involved]. His… [past work] didn’t matter to me. Even myself, I’m pigeon-holed all the time.

To purchase the Chromeskull: Laid to Rest 2 DVD via Amazon, click here.

It’s a busy time for Odette Annable (formerly Yustman), who’s jumped onto the eighth season of House as a series regular, while also juggling impending duty on another returning series, Breaking In. I recently had a chance to speak to Annable one-on-one, about the aforementioned hit Fox series; her new film The Double, with Topher Grace; memories from both Kindergarten Cop and Cloverfield; and more. The conversation is excerpted over at ShockYa, so click here for the read.

Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar’s stylish output is such that he’s almost a genre to himself. His latest movie, The Skin I Live In, is not only his first film with star Antonio Banderas in many years, but it also marks a certain return to provocative form, so deliciously warped are its plot pivots. At the core of it, though, is a stirring performance from Elena Anaya, who plays Vera, the mysterious captive of Banderas’ rich surgeon, Dr. Robert Ledgard. Revelations about the depth and nature of their relationship are a big part of what drive the movie, but it suffices to say that Vera’s situation is rife with layered trauma, making for a character with never clearly telegraphed motivations. I recently had a chance to speak to Anaya one-on-one, in her charmingly accented English, about some of the spoiler-ish specifics of her role, the comfort of her skin-tight costume and discovery of yoga for production, and more. The conversation is excerpted over at ShockYa, so click here for the read.

The Twilight films may set teenage hearts aflutter, but the HBO series True Blood is the franchise by which a lot more diehard vampire fans swear. For Stephen Moyer, it’s a dream gig — heck, it even landed him on the cover of Rolling Stone. In the new espionage thriller The Double, British-born Moyer swaps out his accent to play an imprisoned Russian spy/assassin, Brutus, who comes face to face with the man (Richard Gere) who put him in prison. I recently had a chance to participate in a press day for the film, and chat with Moyer about his small screen hit, his new film, the challenges of shooting out of order, and the exciting insanity of his producing debut, starring True Blood castmate and offscreen wife Anna Paquin. The conversation is excerpted over at ShockYa, so click here for the read.