A Shangri-La Entertainment presentation in association with Fotokem of a Gato Negro Films production. Produced by Steve Bing, Sebastian Gutierrez, Richard Rosenblatt. Co-producer, Zach Schwartz. Directed, written by Sebastian Gutierrez.
With: Carla Gugino, Zachary Quinto, Danny DeVito, Josh Hartnett, Rosario Dawson, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Robert Forster, Gil Bellows, Aaron Tveit.
Anyone who has acquired a taste for writer-director Sebastian Gutierrez’s playfully naughty and archly stylized crazy quilts of colorful characters and interlocking storylines can savor “Girl Walks Into a Bar” as the cinematic equivalent of a light but tasty snack. Billed as the first major feature produced exclusively for online consumption (it’s already available on YouTube), this unevenly paced but amusing pic has the kicky, anything-goes vivacity of a collaborative project produced in a single, sustained burst of creative enthusiasm.
Set in a succession of 10 Los Angeles bars over a long evening, “Girl” charts the random connections between, among others, a resourceful ex-cop (Carlo Gugino, star of Gutierrez’s “Women in Trouble” and “Elektra Luxx”); a melancholy ex-con (Robert Forster); a criminally inclined bar owner (Danny DeVito); and the hostess (Rosario Dawson) of what likely is the only nude Ping-Pong club in Silver Lake. As usual, Gutierrez’s dialogue recalls the funny wordplay in early pics by Alan Rudolph and Hal Hartley, and his dance sequences suggest an unfulfilled longing to direct a full-blown musical. Performances are zesty — Gutierrez brings out the best in Gugino — and tech values are surprisingly polished.
Camera (color, HD), Cale Finot; editor, Lisa Bromwell; music, Grant Lee Phillips; production designer, Brian Vog; costume designer, Genevieve Tyrrell. Reviewed at SXSW Film Festival (Spotlight Premieres), March 11, 2011. Running time: 79 MIN.

Source: Variety.com

The first trailer has arrived for Robert Redford’s historical drama The Conspirator, which will debut in theaters on April 15. Click here to watch the first footage of this movie.
Against the turbulent backdrop of post-Civil War Washington, rookie lawyer Frederick Aiken (James McAvoy) reluctantly agrees to defend Mary Surratt (Robin Wright) – the lone woman charged as a co-conspirator in the assassination trial of Abraham Lincoln. When his colleagues, friends, and true love begin to desert him, Aiken must rely on Mary’s spirited daughter Anna (Evan Rachel Wood) to help piece together the events leading up to the assassination. Facing down the government he fought so heroically to defend, Aiken quickly realizes Mary may be innocent and that she is being used as bait in order to capture the only conspirator to have escaped the massive manhunt: her own son, John. Unwilling to incriminate her boy, Mary refuses to cooperate as Aiken seeks to defend her by building his case against John. With time running out, Aiken puts everything on the line in order to convince a bloodthirsty nation – and Mary, herself – to do what is right. But will this be enough to prevent the U.S. government and its people from flouting principle and exacting revenge?
The Conspirator comes to theaters April 15th, 2011 and stars Norman Reedus, James McAvoy, Robin Wright, Evan Rachel Wood, Alexis Bledel, Justin Long, Danny Huston, Kevin Kline. The film is directed by Robert Redford.

Source: MovieWeb.com

Alexis Bledel recently completed work on movie Girl Walks Into a Bar, which somehow managed to keep off the radar in terms of casting news early on! According to the production company’s release , the film “follows a series of characters in interlocking stories taking place in ten different bars during the course of one evening in Los Angeles.” The cast includes gangsters, exotic dancers and con-artists.
Girl Walks Into a Bar connects a group of apparent strangers over one night across 10 bars throughout Los Angeles. Zachary Quinto stars as a dentist who teams up with a feisty would-be assassin (Carla Gugino) to put the final touches on the plan to kill his wife. Once he makes a play for the assassin’s payment, he unknowingly sets off a chain of events that fuels a cross-town journey through the many lounges, bars, strip clubs and the occasional nudist ping pong club scattered across Los Angeles.
Though a film, Girl Walks Into a Bar was created *exclusively* for the Web. It’s the first major motion picture to be Web-only. The film will be free to watch. The cast includes Zachary Quinto, Danny DeVito, Josh Hartnett, Rosario Dawson, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Aaron Tveit, Robert Forster, Amber Valletta, Gil Bellows, Kevin Zegers, Michelle Ryan and Xander Berkeley. Alexis will play an exotic dancer. In another twist of connectedness, the film’s music is by Grant Lee Phillips (The Stars Hollow Troubadour on Gilmore Girls).

Source: GilmoreNews.com

Alexis Bledel has officially joined the cast of Violet and Daisy, Geoffrey Fletcher’s story of teen assassins, reports Variety. Bledel, best known for her role on Gilmore Girls and her filmic turns in Sin City and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, will star with Saoirse Ronan (Atonement, City of Ember) as a pair of young assassins whose assistant proves to be much more involved than they had initially planned. Fletcher previously adapted Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, winning himself an Academy award. Violet and Daisy, from his own original script, will mark his first directing gig. James Gandolfini is also attached to star.

Source: ComingSoon.net

The Conspirator. Dir. Robert Redford. Starring Robin Wright, James McAvoy, Tom Wilkinson, Kevin Kline, Alexis Bledel, Justin Long, Evan Rachel Wood.
Cinema icon Robert Redford returns to his independent filmmaking roots with The Conspirator, the suspenseful, true story of the lone woman charged in the assassination of U.S. president Abraham Lincoln, and the 28-year-old Union war hero who must defend her. With America’s most famous assassination as a backdrop, Redford tells a poignant story about loyalty and honor.
Having just returned victorious to Washington D.C. from the closing battles of the Civil War, Frederick Aiken (James McAvoy), a Union war hero and idealistic lawyer, is eager to make his name in politics. A bright-eyed nationalist, he is thrilled when he gets an audience with Lincoln’s secretary of war, Edwin Stanton (Kevin Kline), at a high society party. However, the meeting is cut short when a shot fired in Ford’s Theatre from the gun of John Wilkes Booth changes everything.
With the nation mobilized to hunt down those responsible for the assassination, the authorities arrest Mary Surratt (Robin Wright), mother of John Surratt, suspected of collaborating with Booth. A Confederate sympathizer and devoted mother, Mary refuses to reveal the location of her son. Whipped-up into an emotional fury, the public calls for her blood.

Source: CinemaBlend.com

Robert Redford talked about his upcoming film The Conspirator with USA Today, revealing the first images of James McAvoy and Toby Kebbell in the film set against the turbulent backdrop of post-Civil War Washington.
The film centers on Mary Surratt (played by Robin Wright Penn), one of the accused members of a conspiracy to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln, and in the wake of the case, the first woman executed by the US government. James McAvoy plays Frederick Aiken, a Union soldier who reluctantly defends Mary Surratt.
Redford says of the film: “There was a question of whether she was complicit, guilty by association, or even more guilty. The lawyer that defended her didn’t want to defend her. He was a Union soldier who became a lawyer.”
The Conspirator comes to theaters in 2010 and stars Norman Reedus, James McAvoy, Robin Wright Penn, Evan Rachel Wood, Alexis Bledel, Justin Long, Danny Huston, Kevin Kline. The film is directed by Robert Redford.

Source: MovieWeb