The Weinstein Co. »

Viggo Mortensen is a study in contradictions: rugged and undeniably virile, and yet thoroughly and irresistibly sensitive; the kind of man movie stars are made from, but seemingly more satisfied in a more subdued role in a smaller film. Appropriately, his latest film is both a post-apocalyptic epic and a profound character study; The Road is an adaptation of the acclaimed Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name, and Viggo plays its main character, a father desperately trying to protect his son from an unhospitable world, both physically and emotionally.

Cinematical recently sat down with Mortensen at the film's press day to discuss his work in the film, which was directed by John Hillcoat (The Proposition). In addition to talking about navigating an unforgiving landscape, he discussed the challenges of balancing fealty to source material and simply making a fulfilling movie, and revealed a few of his own fears and insecurities when facing the prospect of sustaining a career both as a movie star and character actor, often at the same time.

You can read our interview with director John Hillcoat over here.

Cinematical: Given the richness of the source material and the familiarity that audiences will have with it, do you make an effort to draw upon the text for your character, or do you have to divorce yourself from it and focus on what's in the script?

Outside of the established and expanding franchises for book series like Harry Potter and Twilight, there don't seem to be a whole lot of literary works that audiences are just dying to see adapted – except perhaps for The Road. Remarkably, Cormac McCarthy's remarkable 2006 story of a father and son making their way across a post-apocalyptic landscape has been successfully adapted for the screen by director John Hillcoat, who eschewed 2012-style spectacle in favor of a more harrowing and humanistic portrait of two people surviving in the harshest possible environment.

Cinematical recently spoke to Hillcoat at the film's Los Angeles press day, where he was wrapping up a long afternoon of roundtables and one-on-one interviews. Thankfully, he rallied for one more short conversation about The Road, and in addition to talking about the challenges of bringing McCarthy's words to life, he spoke about conceiving the scope of the film, and finding the right faces to fill its damaged landscape.

Cinematical: You obviously began with extremely rich source material when starting to adapt The Road. What was the thing you knew you had to get right and then everything else would sort of fall into place?

We learned in October that Nine was getting pushed back to a Christmas premiere. Since The Road was already slated for release on the same date, it sounded like this was nothing more than a move to make the film's box office grab as smooth as possible. But maybe it was to plan the massive marketing push.

Variety reports that the Weinstein Company have partnered with Disney/ABC Unlimited to market the film. This "megapact" will mean that Nine-flavored content will get infused into "a wide variety of shows, including ABC's Dancing with the Stars." For the dance-centric show, there will be a themed dance number on November 17 with songs and outfits from the film. The push will also work its way into the soaps on ABC -- the big trio of All My Children, One Life to Live, and General Hospital. Then there will be a "road-block" style trailer on the 22nd, making it's way onto a bunch of channels, a microsite on ABC.com, and late-night integration.

Inclusion on dancing reality shows make sense, but the rest is a little ridiculous -- both for the potential for over-saturation and this idea of market-injected content. I bet they're just ruing the fact that series get written well in advance and that they couldn't get Nine-themed fare into the likes of Grey's, Cougar Town, Lost, etc. And here we used to make fun of obvious product placement. At this rate, I wonder if we can come to expect films to be advertised in each other, like Spider-Man trying to make it to Mary Jane's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows premiere or somesuch.

Do you enjoy big marketing pushes, or does it all get real old real fast?

If you were one of the people who thought that another Scream movie was a bad idea (and who could blame you after the train wreck that was Scream 3), there might be a ray of hope...but I have to stress might. Over at Cinema Blend, their 'reliable source' is telling them that the man himself, Wes Craven, will return to direct the latest installment in the horror franchise.

It had been reported that Craven would be involved in some capacity with the film back when the project was first green lit, but you have to wonder what might have convinced him to get behind the camera. Maybe it was all down to nostalgia and he wanted to get together with the old gang, or maybe it was Kevin Williamson's spec script. One thing is for sure, the big empty spot in his schedule since finishing 25/8 probably wouldn't hurt either. (By the way, 25/8 was just re-named My Soul to Take.)

Back in July, there were hints that the film was going to be a complete reboot, but once we found out that Neve Campbell and the Arquette-Coxes would be returning, a straight remake seemed unlikely. So this all sounds like any Scream fan's dream come true, right? You've got the original director, screenwriter, and cast all involved. Well, not so fast, because according to Cinema Blend's sources (and Erik's prediction), the original cast will only be appearing in cameos, and that they will be handing the reigns over to a new group of teens/cannon fodder -- and by handing over the reigns, I mean horribly murdered before the opening credits have rolled.

Do you think there's hope for Scream IV if Craven does direct, and would you be disappointed if the original cast didn't stick around? Sound off in the comments...

Are you one of the remaining fans who contributed to the $90-million haul Scary Movie 4 brought in at the box office? If so, I hope that series star Anna Faris wasn't what drew you to the horror-spoof shenanigans, because common sense says that she's likely not sticking around for the newly announced Scary Movie 5. Cinema Blend has it on good authority that the Weinstein Company is gearing up for a fifth trip to the comedy well. Only this time around the objective appears to be orbiting Hollywood's favorite new buzzword: reboot.

Now rebooting a franchise that, by design, is a free-flow of unconnected, topical plot points from entry-to-entry means that the studio plans on getting rid of the one thing that unites all of the films together: Anna Faris as the delightfully vacant Cindy and Regina Hall as Cindy's amusingly verbose best friend Brenda. Personally I think that's a terrible idea, as Faris and Hall play so well off each other that they are, by far, the only good thing remaining about the series. But if the agenda is to reboot the franchise, then that means they've got to go.

From the business side of things it does make sense. More recognizable than Anna Faris is the Scary Movie brand name, so Joe and Jane Moviegoer are not going to be up in arms at the thought of a Cindy-less romp around familiar gags involving various bodily functions and people hitting their head on things over and over and over. All most will care about is seeing a new Scary Movie popping up in their local theater listings for the weekend, so the Weinsteins are fiscally wise to cut out the one element of the film that's going to have a fixed price tag upfront. Considering Scary Movie 5 is bound to make similar returns with another cute final gal in its lead, the currently hurting studio doesn't have much incentive to keep her around.

Only a few days after Bob Weinstein announced a whole slew of upcoming projects based on existing franchises (including a new Scream trilogy, Spy Kids IV 3D, Halloween 3D, Scanners and Hellraiser), there's now talk that Summit Entertainment (aka Home of the Twilight Saga) may be interested in acquiring either The Weinstein Co. or MGM (both of which are currently trying to dodge buckets full of money woes). Not only that, but Deadline Hollywood also reports that the Weinstein boys have decided to shelve Halloween 3D for now since they felt the production schedule (one that had them shooting in November for an August release) was too rushed, though perhaps these talks of a merger also played a part in that decision. DH claims, however, that Weinstein plans to start Halloween 3D once director Patrick Lussier is free to shoot it (he's working on another film in January, so chances are H3D won't start until sometime in the middle of next year if it happens at all).

Instead of Halloween 3D, though, The Weinstein Co. will be re-releasing Halloween 2 on Halloween -- a move that's left most fans scratching their heads, wondering why they never released a film called Halloween on Halloween to begin with. Part of that reasoning was due to not wanting to compete with the Saw franchise, and when the first Halloween killed (no pun intended) at the box office in August, it was pretty obvious the Weinstein boys would once again try their luck then instead of at the end of October. I'd be curious to see if the re-release decision pays off, and kids looking for a theme and some uneven scares will crowd the multiplex instead of spray shaving cream all over their neighbor's brand new Mercedes. What do you think?

Meanwhile, we'll be keeping a real close eye on this Summit thing ...

In what could be read as a big "nyah, told you so" press release, The Weinstein Company would like you all to know that Inglourious Basterds has not only grossed over $108M* in North America but has now out-earned Pulp Fiction, which was previously Tarantino's biggest money-maker to date.

But what's strange is that TWC is giving some of the credit to "an innovative marketing plan. The film was the first to make use of Twitter and other social networking sites in such a direct fashion, even involving Twitter in the film's LA premiere," according to the press release.

Harvey Weinstein is even quoted as saying, "It was great working with Biz Stone at Twitter on Inglourious. It took the campaign to another level."

Okay, what have I missed? How was the Inglourious campaign different from any other of the studios' use of Twitter or Facebook to promote movies through links, contests, and meet-ups? I don't even recall seeing anything on Twitter about it, other than the normal studios using Twitter to cross-pollinate coverage.

As with most of the popular-book-to-film adaptations, you can look at Youth in Revolt a couple of different ways: From the point of view of someone who has read the source material, and (of course) from the point of view of someone who hasn't. C.D Payne's epic, 499-page novel is to teenage angst what the bible is to Christianity -- and it's always sort of reminded me of what a sequel to The Catcher in the Rye might look like if it was set in modern-day (if somewhat outdated) Oakland -- and featured a 14-year-old Frank Sinatra fanatic who would literally destroy an entire city if it meant winning over the girl of his dreams.

The problem with Youth in Revolt (the book) is that it's practically impossible to smash 499 pages of dark comedic brilliance into an hour and a half on the big screen, and, as such, Youth in Revolt (the film) definitely ends up feeling disjointed and forced in some areas -- but thanks to a wickedly hilarious performance from Michael Cera (easily the best of his career), this brainy teenage sex comedy does manage to dole out a handful of great scenes, making it worthy of your hard-earned box office dollars ... but only if you promise to read the book afterwards.

The Weinstein Company's financial struggles have been pretty well publicized lately, and if you were Bob and Harvey, you'd probably look to those Shakespeare in Love Oscars, and then hunt down some sold historical stories from Great Britain. So they have gone and aquired themselves The King's Speech, a biopic about King George VI that will be directed by Tom Hooper. It will star that god of British cinema known as Colin Firth as King George VI and always wonderful Geoffrey Rush his speech therapist Lionel Logue.

Actually, the story of George VI is a pretty remarkable one. Known affectionately as Bertie thanks to being born Prince Albert Frederick Arthur George, he was the second son of George V, and not expected to assume the throne. He was plagued by ill-health, a rough Victorian upbringing, and developed a horrible stammer that made him reluctant to speak in public. He seemed destined for a life out of the spotlight, but then his golden brother Edward decided to abdicate, marry Wallis Simpson, and sympathize with Nazis. Poor Bertie was thrust onto the throne, and by his own admission, the news made him break down and sob like a child. Add in that Britain was on the verge of war with Germany, and you have to utterly sympathize with Bertie, and admire him for not just jumping out of a window.

The King's Speech will focus on George's famous speech problems (a big part of why he was sobbing at the news), and how the king sought help from Logue. He overcame his stammer, gained confidence, and became the leader England desperately needed during WWII. It's easy to sneer at as an Oscar-bait picture, but it is a good story, and has a solid cast and crew behind it. Maybe it'll prove inspirational to the Weinsteins too, and pull them out of their rut.

Upon recently re-viewing Rob Zombie's 2007 take on the classic Halloween, I felt a little bit less harsh about it. Don't get me wrong: it's still mighty tedious and nowhere near scary, but at least I got the impression this time around that the rocker-turned-auteur was trying to fashion more of a character study around boogeyman Michael Myers -- who he was, why he was -- and while diluting the mystique of our killer effectively diluted the suspense, the film still delivered on the basest level of having someone get visibly, viscerally dispatched every so often. If all you had to ask of that film was a body count, Halloween slowly but surely delivered.

But while people do die in Zombie's Halloween II, that's just not enough to make up for all that pesky in-between.