With Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opening this weekend, I recently got to interview some of the cast and filmmakers in New York City and every day this week I’ll be posting an exclusive interview.  Yesterday I posted Andy Serkis and today it’s Richard Armitage, who plays Thorin Oakenshield, son of Thráin, son of Thrór, King Under the Mountain.

During the interview, Armitage talked about his reaction to seeing The Hobbit for the first time, what it was like to transform his physical appearance, what’s been the biggest surprise making The Hobbit trilogy, whether or not he is looking forward to the additional filming next year, and a lot more.  Hit the jump to watch.

Richard Armitage:

• Is he enjoying being anonymous even when standing next to a Hobbit poster with Thorin on it.  Also talks about transforming his physical appearance to play the character
• Talks about his reaction to seeing the film for the first time
• What’s been the biggest surprise making The Hobbit trilogy
• Is he looking forward to the additional photography for the 3rd Hobbit movie next year. Talks about how it takes 10 weeks to grow back the beard
• Which does he like filming more: the big action scenes or the intimate character moments

Peruse all our recent coverage of The Hobbit below:

• First image from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.
• Dave’s review of the film.
• 6 clips from the film.
• 20-minutes of behind-the-scenes footage.
• First Image from The Hobbit: There and Back Again Features Orlando Bloom and Luke Evans
• Steve’s set visit round-up and 70 things to know.
• Peter Jackson on-set interview.
• Ian McKellan on-set interview.
• Martin Freeman on-set interview.
• Richard Armitage on-set interview.
• Weta Workshop head Richard Taylor on-set interview.

Richard Armitage Talks THE HOBBIT, Transforming into the Dwarf Leader, Thorin, and Filming Additional Footage for the Sequels

Source:collider

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While we’re all waiting for Community to come back on the air, star Gillian Jacobs has been busy padding out her movie schedule. The latest addition for the comedienne is writer/director Steven Brill’s Walk of Shame, a picture that already boasts Elizabeth Banks, James Marsden and Ethan Suplee. The picture centers on a news anchor (Banks) who finds herself out on the street after a drunken one-night stand with no money, identification or means of travel. Her shameful trek across Los Angeles is fraught with misadventures as she attempts to make it to a career-changing job interview. Jacobs will play the protag’s best friend. Hit the jump for more.
THR reported that Jacobs will star in Walk of Shame along with other cast members Willie Garson and Bill Burr. She recently wrapped the horror comedy Milo from writer/director Jacob Vaughan, which centers on a man plagued by a demon living in his intestines. Her other recent features include the dark comedy Teddy Bears and the Don Scardino comedy, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, starring Steve Carell, Jim Carrey, Steve Buscemi and Olivia Wilde. Jacobs is currently filming the indie crime thriller, The Lookalike, starring Justin Long, Jerry O’Connell and Gina Gershon.
Jacobs and the rest of the Greendale crew will be seen on the small screen when Community returns to NBC starting February 7th.

Gillian Jacobs Joins WALK OF SHAME Starring Elizabeth Banks and James Marsden
Source:collider

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Oscar-winner Nicole Kidman and likely-Oscar-winner Colin Firth are in negotiations to star in Stoker.  The film is the English-language debut of Oldboy director Chan Wook-Park.  As we reported a couple weeks ago, Mia Wasikowska has signed on to play the lead role of India Stoker, “an eccentric teen whose enigmatic and estranged uncle returns to the family after the death of the girl’s father.”  Jodie Foster was set to play the girl’s mother, but dropped out.  Now it looks like Kidman will play the mom while Firth will play the uncle.

The way the shooting schedule is shaking out, it looks like Stoker will be Firth’s first film (say that five times fast) since The King’s Speech became the Oscar front-runner and scored at the box office.  While he’s also signed on to star in the remake of Gambit, 24 Frames reports that Stoker is likely to go in front of cameras first.  As for Kidman, she’ll next be seen in the hostage drama Trespass with Nicolas Cage.

Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman in Talks to Join STOKER

Source:collider

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Matthew Goode (Watchmen) is in talks to land the male lead in director Chan-wook Park’s (Oldboy) drama Stoker. Already starring Nicole Kidman and Mia Wasikowska, the project was penned by actor Wentworth Miller (Prison Break) and centers on a young girl (Wasikowska) who encounters her mysterious uncle while mourning her father’s death. Variety reports that Goode’s negotiations are for the role of said “mysterious uncle,” a part previously courted by the likes of Colin Firth, James Franco, Michael Fassbender, and Joel Edgerton. Stoker is housed at Fox Searchlight and will mark the English-language debut for Chan-wook Park. Tony and Ridley Scott will produce the pic under their Scott Free moniker. As for Goode, “Ozymandias” himself can next be seen in the “romantic dramady” Burning Man from director Jonathan Teplitzky.

Matthew Goode in Talks to Join Nicole Kidman in STOKER

Source:collider

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We’ve got a few casting stories for you this evening. First up, Deadline reports that Academy Award-nominee Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom) is set to star in Fox Searchlight’s thriller Stoker. Directed by Chan-wook Park, the film centers on a young girl who encounters her mysterious uncle while mourning the death of her father. Weaver joins Nicole Kidman, Matthew Goode and Mia Wasikowska. The script was penned by actor Wentworth Miller (Prison Break) under his pseudonym Ted Foulke, with Ridley and Tony Scott producing.

Additionally, Sarah Wright has landed the lead role in the R-rated comedy 21 and Over. Marking the directorial debut of The Hangover writers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, the film centers on two friends who take their buddy out for his 21^st birthday, which naturally spirals into an all-night adventure. The friends must ensure that the birthday boy makes his all-important med school interview the next day. Wright joins Skylar Astin, Justin Chon and Miles Teller in the cast. Hit the jump for the casting news of On the Seventh Day.

Actors Blair Underwood, Pam Grier, Nicole Beharie, Sharon Leal, Jaqueline Fleming and Bruce Gerard Brown Jr. have joined the indie thriller On the Seventh Day. Showblitz reports that the plot centers on a couple whose past secrets come back to haunt them when their six-year-old daughter is kidnapped. Underwood and Leal will play the couple, with Grier taking on the role of a detective. Neema Barnette is directing.

Casting Call: Jacki Weaver to Star in STOKER, Sarah Wright Joins 21 AND OVER, and Blair Underwood, Pam Grier and More in ON THE SEVENTH DAY

Source:collider

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Hot off the heels of the success of AMC’s latest series, The Killing, star Mireille Enos is now in talks to join the cast of Paramount’s big-budget zombie pic World War Z. Directed by Marc Forster (Quantum of Solace), the film stars Brad Pitt and is based on the book of the same name which details the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse from the perspective of survivors as varied as mercenaries, US government officials, and impoverished Palestinians.

Heat Vision reports that Enos is in talks to join the cast as Pitt’s wife, and the mother of his two children. Pitt will portray a U.N. worker. The fate of World War Z was in doubt for some time because of the hefty $125 million price tag. However, Paramount was able to find other investors and now production is set to start this June in London, Malta, and other various locations around the world. Hit the jump for a synopsis of the novel.

Here’s the synopsis for Max Brooks’ World War Z:

“The end was near.” —Voices from the Zombie War

The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years.

Ranging from the now infamous village of New Dachang in the United Federation of China, where the epidemiological trail began with the twelve-year-old Patient Zero, to the unnamed northern forests where untold numbers sought a terrible and temporary refuge in the cold, to the United States of Southern Africa, where the Redeker Plan provided hope for humanity at an unspeakable price, to the west-of-the-Rockies redoubt where the North American tide finally started to turn, this invaluable chronicle reflects the full scope and duration of the Zombie War.

Most of all, the book captures with haunting immediacy the human dimension of this epochal event. Facing the often raw and vivid nature of these personal accounts requires a degree of courage on the part of the reader, but the effort is invaluable because, as Mr. Brooks says in his introduction, “By excluding the human factor, aren’t we risking the kind of personal detachment from history that may, heaven forbid, lead us one day to repeat it? And in the end, isn’t the human factor the only true difference between us and the enemy we now refer to as ‘the living dead’?” [Amazon]

THE KILLING Star Mireille Enos in Talks to Join Brad Pitt in WORLD WAR Z

Source:collider

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We have a couple quick casting stories to report this morning.  First up, rising star Brit Marling (Another Earth) has chosen between Robert Redford’s The Company You Keep and the Tom Cruise action flick One Shot and cast her lot with the former.  Variety reports that Marling will co-star with Redford and Shia LaBeouf in the flick which centers on a former Weather Underground militant (Redford) who goes on the run when his identity is revealed by an ambitious reporter (LaBeouf).  Nick Nolte will also star in the flick but there’s no word on what role he or Marling will play.  Marling is also committed to reunite with her Sound of My Voice director Zal Batmanglij for the thriller The East.

In other casting news, Matt Dillon will join Kristen Wiig and Annette Bening in Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini’s Imogene.  Wiig plays a playwright who fakes suicide in order to win back her ex but ends up in the custody of her Jersey Shore-esque mother (Bening).  Deadline reports that Dillon will play Bening’s love interest and “he claims to be in the CIA, but his behavior suggests he just might be crazy.”

Casting Call: Brit Marling and Nick Nolte THE COMPANY YOU KEEP; Matt Dillon to Co-Star in IMOGENE

Source:collider

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