ESCAPE ROOM tells the story of a half-dozen strangers trapped in a series of rooms who need to figure out why they’re there and/or discover a way out. Also, the rooms are trying to kill them. We’ve seen this before (CUBE and MAZE RUNNER come to mind) and while ESCAPE ROOM sometimes plays like a bloodless, young-adult version of the SAW films, it’s an interesting PG-13 attempt at something a little different. Despite the generic promises of its title, ESCAPE ROOM is not as stale a take on the convention as you might expect. It begins with a nice Twilight Zone-style vibe to it, but the story tips its hand too soon, runs out of ideas, and fails to sustain suspense.
ESCAPE ROOM is a cash-in in on those interactive adventure games that have popped up in strip malls. Places where folks pay to solve a series of puzzles and riddles using clues, hints, and strategy to complete objectives and get out “alive” within a set time limit. That’s basically this film’s plot and it’s what Jason (Jay Ellis), Zoey (Taylor Russell), Danny (Nik Dodani), Amanda (Deborah Ann Woll), Mike (Tyler Labine), and Ben (Logan Miller) think they’re getting into as the story begins, but they soon learn that it’s no game and that the rooms have murderous intentions.
ESCAPE ROOM is a decent thriller, its plot structured to keep the audience guessing, and it does take these six strangers and the story to imaginative places. It’s ambitious enough and it held my attention with its pretzel-logic plot, at least for the first half. A big problem with the script is that these rooms become less and less interesting as the story progresses. The sequence in the first room, a seemingly normal den that begins turning into an oven, is clever and exciting. Room 2 isn’t a room at all, but an exterior near a frozen pond, a scene that seems to go on forever. Room 3 is an inverted pool hall, which makes for some eye-popping visuals but the sequence also seems to run on. At about the one hour mark, ESCAPE ROOM runs out of steam and starts revealing secrets about these characters and why they’re there. It turns out they all share a certain trait, but it’s not a particularly compelling twist. The story eventually enters CABIN IN THE WOODS territory, with a showdown with the game-masters behind the curtain, which spells out too much and seems anti-climactic. Though never for a moment original, ESCAPE ROOM forges ahead with the kind of conviction and energy that may keep horror junkies entertained, at least for a while. While the strength of ESCAPE ROOM is some early tension, the weakness in is the dialogue, which sometimes turns remarkably trite. The cast is comprised of attractive actors that young viewers may recognize from TV shows, but nobody stands out. Keep your expectations low and you may find ESCAPE ROOM just crafty enough to warrant your time.
Six strangers find themselves in circumstances beyond their control, and must use their wits to survive! It’s THE ESCAPE ROOM and it opens everywhere January 4th.
Enter for your chance to win two free passes to the St. Louis advance screening of THE ESCAPE ROOM . The theatrical sneak preview will be on December 18 at 7pm at The Gravois Bluffs Theater.
Just leave your name and email address in the comments section below and we’ll contact you soon.
THE ESCAPE ROOM stars Taylor Russell, Logan Miller, Deborah Ann Woll, Jay Ellis, Tyler Labine, Nik Dodani with Yorick van Wageningen
Academy Award®-nominated star Melissa McCarthy headlines THE BOSS as a titan of industry who is sent to prison after she’s caught for insider trading.
When she emerges ready to rebrand herself as America’s latest sweetheart, not everyone she screwed over is so quick to forgive and forget.
McCarthy is joined in THE BOSS by an all-star cast led by Kristen Bell, Peter Dinklage and Kathy Bates. Directed by Ben Falcone (Tammy), the comedy is based on an original character created by McCarthy and written by McCarthy and Falcone alongside their Groundlings collaborator, Steve Mallory.
The film opens nationwide on Friday, April 8.
WAMG invites you to enter for a chance to win a pass (Good for 2) to the advance screening of THE BOSS on Tuesday, April 5 at 7PM in the St. Louis area.
We will contact the winners by email.
Answer the following:
Bridesmaids, The Heat, Tammy, Spy – what is your favorite Melissa McCarthy film and why?
TO ENTER, ADD YOUR NAME, ANSWER AND EMAIL IN OUR COMMENTS SECTION BELOW.
OFFICIAL RULES:
1. YOU MUST BE IN THE ST. LOUIS AREA THE DAY OF THE SCREENING.
2. A pass does not guarantee a seat at a screening. Seating is on a first-come, first served basis. The theater is overbooked to assure a full house. The theater is not responsible for overbooking.
3. No purchase necessary.
THE BOSS has been rated R for sexual content, language and brief drug use.
In the hilarious new romantic comedy SOMEONE MARRY BARRY, a trio of childhood friends scheme to find a wife for their socially inappropriate pal Barry (Tyler Labine, “Monsters University”). Their plan completely backfires when his new girlfriend Melanie (Lucy Punch, “Bad Teacher”), turns out to be just like him.
We here at WAMG love a good wedding, so to celebrate the possible upcoming nuptials we are giving away a SOMEONE MARRY BARRY prize pack. Enter now!
One lucky winner will receive a poster signed by the director & cast, as well as a credit to watch the film for free on iTunes. What are you waiting for? Enter now!
TO ENTER:
1. YOU MUST BE A U.S. RESIDENT WITH A U.S. SHIPPING ADDRESS. NO P.O. BOXES.
2. PLACE YOUR NAME, A VALID EMAIL, AND ANSWER TO THE QUESTION BELOW IN THE COMMENT SECTION OF THIS POST.
3. What is your favorite romantic comedy?
WINNERS WILL BE CHOSEN THROUGH A RANDOM DRAWING OF QUALIFYING CONTESTANTS. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. PRIZES WILL NOT BE SUBSTITUTED OR EXCHANGED.
The raunchy comedy SOMEONE MARRY BARRY features Damon Wayans Jr. (“Happy Endings”) and Hayes MacArthur (“Bachelorette”).
AVAILABLE ON CABLE VOD & DIGITAL OUTLETS FEBRUARY 13TH (iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Cable Movies On Demand, Google Play, Xbox Video, Sony Playstation, Cinemanow and Vudu)
Josephson Entertainment, Madrose Productions, and Straight Up Films announced today that digital entertainment curator FilmBuff will release the hilarious and irreverent romantic comedy SOMEONE MARRY BARRY in theaters and on VOD on February 13, 2014.
Written, directed and produced by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Rob Pearlstein (“Our Time Is Up”) the film stars Tyler Labine (Tucker and Dale vs Evil), Damon Wayans Jr. (The Other Guys, “Happy Endings”), Lucy Punch (Bad Teacher), Hayes MacArthur (Bachelorette, She’s Out of My League), Thomas Middleditch (The Campaign, “CollegeHumor Originals”), Lauren Miller (For a Good Time, Call…) and Joe LoTruglio (Superbad).
SOMEONE MARRY BARRY is a raucous comedy following three childhood friends who plot to get rid of their socially inappropriate friend Barry (Labine) by finding him a wife. But when Barry finally meets a woman, she turns out to be even worse than he is, and now the guys have to deal with not one but two “Barrys.”
“Everyone has that one inappropriate friend,” says Rob Pearlstein. “And if you don’t, it’s you. I’m looking forward to working with FilmBuff and discovering exactly who on their team is that person.”
“We are thrilled to be working with Rob on this hilarious and thoroughly original romantic comedy,” says Steven Beckman, FilmBuff’s Head of Content Partnerships. “We fell in love with Barry and Mel and know that audiences will as well.”
FilmBuff will releasethe film in theaters and across all leading Video On Demand platforms in the U.S. on February 13, 2014, including iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Cable Movies On Demand, Google Play, Xbox Video, Sony Playstation, Cinemanow and Vudu.
The film was produced by Barry Josephson (Enchanted), Rob Pearlstein, Marisa Polvino and Kate Cohen (Transcendence) and executive produced by Jeremy Bailer. Creative Artists Agency and Marc H. Simon, who also served as an executive producer, negotiated the deal on behalf of the production with FilmBuff’s Steven Beckman.
Pearlstein also has his original screenplay TRUE NORTH in development at Warner Brothers with Imagine producing and Ed Helms set to star. Pearlstein is represented by Resolution and Ziffren Brittenham.
Theapocalypse is coming to theaters and on VOD today in the form of RAPTURE-PALOOZA. Only this time, Craig Robinson, Anna Kendrick, John Francis Daley, Rob Corddry, Paul Scheer, and many more are along for the ride.
Recently, I sat down with stars Rob Corddry and Rob Huebel to talk with them about the film, as well as some other random topics. Check out our little chats about clipping your toenails in IHOP, mustaches, and who the better doctor really is below.
When the Apocalypse actually happens and a billion people are raptured up to heaven, Lindsey (Kendrick) and her boyfriend Ben (Daley) are left behind in suburban Seattle. The young couple try their best to lead a normal life surrounded by talking locusts, blood rain showers, and pot-smoking wraiths. But when the Anti-Christ (Robinson) makes his home base in their neighborhood, Lindsey finds herself the object of his affection. With the help of her family, friends, and a lawn-mowing zombie neighbor, the young couple set off to stop the Anti-Christ from taking her as his bride… and just maybe, saving the world in the process.
(We’ll preface this with them asking me where I am from, which is originally St. Louis.)
RH: Isn’t Nelly from St. Louis?
He is.
RH: Come on guys.
RC: We’re big fans.
RH: Huge. Put that in your article.
You have the Anti-Christ, religion, sarcasm…
RH: THERE’S SARCASM IN THIS MOVIE?! (Laughs)
NO WAY!
RH: If there’s sarcasm in this movie, I’m out!
RC: You’re fu- You’re reading into that.
… so what was it that attracted you to this project?
RC: Uh, Rob Huebel.
RH: I heard that he (points to Corddry) was going to be in it.
You guys have never worked together before… ever…
RH: We were actually both really attracted to Craig. We’re like “Oh, Craig’s doing it. Yeah.”
RC: I don’t remember exactly how it happened, but I assume because Craig’s a producer – that’s why we’re here. I probably owe him a thanks.
RH: I think Craig was like “I’m producing this movie. Let’s get these guys.”
RC: “Let’s get my buddies in.” (Laughs)
RH: “We’re gonna shoot this in Vancouver? Those guys would be fun to drink beer with.”
Because your both have worked together so many times, what’s the dynamic like on set? Do you know what to expect at this point?
RH: I think it depends. I mean, we know it’s going to be comedy GOLD! (Laughs) Don’t we? We try to leave room to improvise some stuff. I think this script was funny to us. You had more written – I think I had, like, 4 lines written in the script. And then when we got there they were like “Yeah, just say whatever you want.”
RC: (Laughs) So we created a whole relationship.
RH: Yeah, we created a whole relationship between us.
RC: … and Scheer too! Like, I had that whole scene with Scheer too. Same exact thing.
RH: So, if you’re lucky, when you do a movie like this, you can get people who can improvise and try to make it funnier, and develop the characters a little more. But, yeah, we’ve worked together a lot, so we feel pretty comfortable together.
RC: Yeah. It’s also like… being an actor, it’s always kind of your first day. You know, your first day in the office is always uncomfortable. (Laughs) “Where’s the coffee machine? Can I leave for lunch or…?” But, being able to work with people that you’ve worked with before, who you are friends with, it’s just… it rarely feels like the first day anymore because it’s all familiar faces.
RH: Yeah, and I think, comedically, we’ve worked together before, so we’ve kind of developed a shorthand with each other – where I sort of know what he might be going for in something. Like, if he’s going down some weird road and he’s improvising, I sort of know what I can be to help him bounce that off of me.
RC: And, Huebel and I… I think I’ve worked with you the longest of anyone in Children’s [Hospital]. We’ve been improvising together since, like, 97’. So, I think you and I always have the most satisfying improv. (Laughs) At least once a season something that happens
RH: … some sort of banter between us… (Laughs)
RC: … that I just get insanely proud of… (Laughs)
RH: It could also only be funny to us.
RC: Totally.
If “The Rapture” were to take place tomorrow, which of the plagues would you be most afraid of?
RH: Wait… do you know the plagues? Like, there’s locusts…
… there’s blood rain…
RC: That doesn’t sound too bad to me.
RH: Blood rain?
RC: Blood rain.
RH: There’s also famine… there’s a lot of plagues.
A lot of people got killed by fiery meteors in this film.
RC: Pestilence. Pestilence would be tough.
RH: What is that? Is that disease?
RC: I don’t know. I don’t know what that is… (Laughs)
RH: I would say locusts. I would not want locust all over me…
RC: No! That sounds terrible…
RH: … and in my face.
RC: … any sort of bugs…
RH: Yeah, bugs in general. You don’t want mosquitos. You don’t need all that.
[To Rob Corddry] How long does it take you to grow a mustache? You had a pretty great stache in this one…
RC: God… (sigh) … it took me about 10 minutes in makeup.
RH: 10 minutes to success.
Oh… they glued it on? Because that’s comfortable…
RC: I swallowed about 8 or 9 of them during the course of making this.
RH: I will say that you look…
RC: (Laughs…)
RH: … so much like a pedophile with a mustache.
(Laughs)
RC: Seriously… (laughs)
RH: I would say you look exactly like a pedophile… and I know a lot of pedophiles.
RC: Also, it immediately ages me, like, 10-15 years. (Laughs)
RH: I think that’s why they did it. How are you going to be John Francis Daley’s dad… I mean, let’s do the math on that.
RC: I know. I know. I had him when I was like, 13.
Craig Robinson has been known to be very musical on set. I noticed the piano in the film. Was there a lot of music going on behind the scenes?
RH: Oh man. We were always hanging out on set just…
RC: … jammin’…
RH: … just jammin’…
RC: … and man, how we’d get so high…
RH: … so high…
RC: … and just jam…
RH: … and just jam R&B songs…
RC: … and that’s when the good stuff happened..
RH: … Oh, that’s where the magic is
(Laughs)
RH: No. That was someone’s house. What you see in the movie… that belongs to some billionaire guy in Vancouver. That was his house. So we didn’t really loiter around there too much.
RC: Also, every interior is in that house. I don’t even know if they dressed it. It’s like “Oh, this dude had a piano so Craig had a piano.” (Laughs) “We don’t have a lot of money to do the movie, so lets use what we have.”
[To Rob Corddry] You just had a film you worked on by Michael Bay come out. What is it like to work on a Michael Bay set?
RC: Same thing… Lotta improv…
RH: Just magical…
RC: Easy peasy… (Laughs)
RH: Just easy peasy…
RC: It feels like the first day of work. It’s different. Say what you will about his reputation, but what I found was that he’s the hardest working man in the room, and demands that of the people around him by actions. You know what I mean? Like, you immediately just want to please him. You wanna do good. You wanna work hard because he’s working hard. We’re always working on stuff that is low-budget, so it’s always moving fast… but I’ve never been on a set that moves so fast.
RH: Really? Even on a big budget project like that…
RC: It wasn’t even that big budget. I mean, 26 million is big budget to us, right? But to him…
RH: That’s nothing to him…
RC: … that’s nothing.
RH: That’s what that movie was?
RC: 26. Yeah. Nothing.
RH: That’s not a lot. By the way, that’s about 25 million more than what we used to shoot this movie.
RC: Exactly! (Laughs) He was telling us that he shot this one scene where The Rock [Dwayne Johnson] is on his knees in a hotel room really high, and Bar Paly, his girlfriend, is talking nonsense to him, and he can’t understand her. And he goes “Watch that scene. I shot it in 17 minutes. We got in, shot it, and had to get out of the location.” He shot it, and it’s gorgeous. It’s amazing. So, he thrives, I think, in that environment. I think he really likes solving problems, and he’s really good at it. He’s a really good director.
RH: We should get him to direct some Children’s Hospital. Why wouldn’t he ever want to.
I think that’s a great idea!
RC: Why wouldn’t he ever want to? (Laughs) He’s gotta be sick of money at this point!
RH: He’ll do it as a fuck you to himself.
(Laughs)
RC: Fuck you, me!
[To Rob Huebel] You tweeted today that “IHOP is a great place to meet people who like to clip their toenails while you eat your pancakes.”. Does this come from experience? Have you actually ever seen someone do this?
RH: Yeah. I had spent the night in Palm Springs last night, and was driving back this morning, and stopped at an IHOP… and there was someone clipping their toenails in the booth next to us.
RC: Gross.
That is so gross.
RC: I think it’s rude. I think it’s rude when people clip their toenails alone in their own bathroom. That’s disgusting.
RH: Disgusting.
Did you say anything???
RH: No, it’s IHOP. You’re allowed to do that.
RC: No! Because that person is obviously insane! Don’t mess with that person!
RH: That person has…
RC: Don’t talk to that person…
I can’t imagine a sane person doing that…
RH: No, that’s their target market – is people…
RC: You know what I hated too… and not to sidetrack…
No, you’re good!
RC: … we lived in New York forever, and people would clip their fingernails on the subway.
RH: Ohhh..
Oh, no!
RC: All the time! Like, you’re always hearing “tink, tink” and…
RH: Ugh.
RC: … it’s, like, a thing. A lot of people will wait. That’s their time.
RH: Then it’s like their bathrooms.
RC: It’s so fucking disgusting to me. Biological waste is just flying everywhere.
I’m horrified right now.
RC: It’s horrifying!
I half expected that to be a farce. I didn’t expect that tweet to be real.
RH: Everything I tweet is real.
RC: Nothing! He never lies!
Well, that kind of answers my next question. I’ve been surprised lately by how many celebrities have other people tweeting for them. That is actually you guys tweeting.
RH: Yeah. We tweet…
RC: Imagine if you had someone tweeting that – my favorite Huebel tweet ever is something like… and I’m paraphrasing… “Never go running in the park with rapist written on your forehead.” or something, and – can you imagine if you had your publicist doing something like that? (Laughs)
RH: I know a few entities… like I got asked to do the twitter page for a movie that was coming out that I was not involved with at all…
RC: Oh, that’s weird.
RH: I was not involved in the movie. I know the director, so he asked me “Do you mind running the twitter page?” and I politely said “No thank you.”.
RC: (Laughing) It’s like “Yeah, I kinda so mind actually”.
RH: “Yeah, if you put me in the movie!”
RH: It’s kind of strange that an individual would have someone else tweet for them.
RC: You can tell though. Like, Tom Cruise has never typed anything into twitter, and stuff like that… I don’t think he would, but there’s a lot of people like that who probably don’t. But for us, we can tweet anything and it’s just a joke. For guys like that, everything they say is put under a microscope. We just go like “satire” and everything goes away.
RH: You can literally tweet anything…
RC: Anything…
RH: The only time I’ve been burned is – there’ve been a couple of times where I’ve woken up and I didn’t look at the news to see what was going on, and it’s been the day of, like, a major national tragedy, or something like that, and I’ll get on there and be like “Oh man. These tacos gave me diarrhea.” and people are like “How dare you! This plane just crashed!”.
RC: Hahaha! Oh god…
RH: “Oh, I didn’t know.”
[To Rob Corddry] WARM BODIES had a really nice reception. Are we looking forward to a sequel?
RH: Oh. I wanted to see WARM BODIES. I didn’t even get to see it. Where can I see it?
RC: Jesus Christ dude…
RH: I didn’t…
RC: Don’t…
RH: Come on…
RC: I can get a private screening.
He knows a guy…
RC: I know a guy. I just heard today, from a journalist, that Isaac Marion is writing a sequel. Maybe he’s writing the book sequel.
Would you be down for a sequel?
RC: Yeah! Hell yeah! I pretty much don’t say no to a lot of stuff. (Laughs)
RH: Who’s the guy in that? Who’s the kid? Cause he’s big now, right?
RC: Nicholas Holt.
Isn’t he like a superhero now?
RC: Yeah. Nic Holt. He’s in X-Men. He’s the Beast. He’s great, and he’s awesome in it. They’d be silly, probably, not to make another one. I always look at it realistically, like, how is my character going to figure into it… I don’t know. Who knows. I’ll do it. Yes. The answer is yes! (Laughs)
Children’s Hospital has been picked up for a fifth season. What can we look forward to? Also, who do you think is the better doctor?
RH: The best doctor?
RC: That’s a great question!
RH: Well, the fan favorite is me… Dr. Owen Maestro.
RC: I would say a lot of the doctors that aren’t really characters on the show. I mean, it’s a hospital. There has to be a hundred more doctors in that hospital. They’re probably better…
RH: The best doctor, if you mean the most skilled physician is probably…
RC: Josh Weingard. (Laughs) We haven’t seen him yet.
RH: Dr. Rosenberg.
RC: We actually have a scene – we just finished shooting the fifth season, and we’re editing it now. There is a scene where one doctor – you think he gets killed, and you turn him over and it’s somebody that just looks like him, and it’s like “Oh god! It’s Josh Weingard, our best surgeon!”, and then we have an argument over a dead body about “Is he the best?”
“Someone Marry Barry” follows three friends who plot to get rid of their socially inappropriate friend Barry by finding him a wife. But when Barry finally meets a woman, she turns out to be just like him, and now the guys have to deal with not one but two “Barrys.” Through their tribulations with this uncensored duo, the guys learn some truths about the nature of friendship and love.
“Rob Pearlstein is a truly gifted comedy writer/director and his script for ‘Someone Marry Barry’ is as inappropriate and outrageously funny as the main character of Barry – it really delivers big laughs! Also, I have a socially inappropriate friend that’s haunted me since high school; perhaps when he sees Rob’s film he’ll leave me alone… oh, and yes, that’s the bonus for us producing ‘Someone Marry Barry!’ says Josephson.
“The funniest, most outrageous characters are often relegated to the role of sidekick,” says Pearlstein. “We’re bringing those characters front and center and giving them their own love story. But the movie is also a love story between the friends, and at its heart, it’s about how friendship endures against all odds.”
Rob Pearlstein is currently writing his original feature comedy “True North” for Warner Brothers with Imagine producing and Ed Helms set to star. His writing/directing debut, “Our Time Is Up,” received an Oscar Nomination for Best Live Action Short Film. Rob has written screenplays for Universal, Focus Features, Working Title and Spyglass as well as TV pilots for NBC, USA, FOX, ABC, CBS and CW. He wrote, directed, produced and starred in the Comedy Central web series “Matumbo Goldberg,” which also starred Anthony Anderson in the title role. Pearlstein has directed commercials for clients like Mastercard, Twix and Samsung and was a copywriter for agencies including TBWA Chiat/Day, Fallon and BBDO.
Tyler Labine established a following with the cult favorite television series “Invasion,” “Reaper” and “Mad Love.” He stars in the upcoming NBC series “Animal Practice.” His feature film credits include “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” the comedy “A Good Old Fashioned Orgy,” starring Jason Sudeikis, Leslie Bibb, Will Forte, Lucy Punch and Lake Bell, “Lumpy,” with Justin Long, and the horror-comedy “Tucker & Dale vs. Evil,” which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Midnight Movie Award at the SXSW Film Festival. His upcoming films include the comedies “Cottage Country,” also starring Malin Ackerman and Lucy Punch, and “Rapturepalooza,” starring Anna Kendrick, Ken Jeong, John Francis Daley, Thomas Lennon and Rob Corddry, directed by Paul Middleditch.
Labine also produced the film “Everyone” in 2004, which won the Best Film Award at the Montreal Film Festival. He and his brother Cameron co-wrote the film “Control Alt Delete,” in which Tyler starred and produced and Cameron directed. Labine executive produced, wrote, co-directed and starred in the mockumentary “Extreme Walking.” A talented music producer and MC, Labine is part of two bands. He formed the hip hop band Self-Dep with his brother Kyle Labine, Jef Gustafson and Ryan Robbins and the electo/indie/pop band Demons are Real with his other brother Cameron.
Damon Wayans, Jr. is a series regular on ABC’s critically acclaimed show “Happy Endings,” from creator David Caspe, which was picked up for its third season. Following his breakthrough role playing the lead in Paramount’s “Dance Flick,” he was featured in Sony’s “The Other Guys” opposite Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg for director Adam McKay. He recently finished shooting the pilot episode of Keenen Ivory Wayans’ “In Living Color.” In 2006, Damon appeared in the Showtime television series, “The Underground” and served as a writer on that sketch comedy series. At the young age of 20 years old, Wayans was hired as a staff writer on the ABC hit, “My Wife and Kids.” At the time, he was the youngest staff writer on any television show.
Variety named Lucy Punch one of its “Top 10 Actors to Watch” in 2010. A native of Great Britain, Punch has appeared in such motion pictures as Woody Allen’s “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger,” Jay Roach’s “Dinner for Schmucks,” opposite Steve Carell, Paul Rudd and Zack Galifianakis and Jake Kasdan’s “Bad Teacher,” with Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake. She also stars in the upcoming films “Cottage Country,” Nick Cassavetes’ “Yellow,” with Sienna Miller, Max Thieriot and Ray Liotta, and Nigel Cole’s “The Wedding Video.”
Hayes MacArthur recently starred in the upcoming feature films “Bachelorette” starring Kirsten Dunst, James Marsden, and Isla Fisher; and “The Motel Life” opposite Dakota Fanning and Emile Hirsch. He also appeared in the Warner Bros. feature film “Life As We Know It,” starring Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel, as well as in the DreamWorks comedy “She’s Out of My League” opposite Jay Baruchel and as a lead in the Disney feature “The Game Plan” opposite Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
In television, MacArthur recently wrapped the Fox pilot “Rebounding” opposite Will Forte and Amanda Walsh. He also starred in the NBC comedy “Perfect Couples,” which aired in fall 2010. His additional television credits include guest starring on the critically acclaimed CBS comedy “Worst Week”, as well as guest stars roles on “How I Met Your Mother,” “Pushing Daisies” and HBO’s “Entourage”. Hayes also starred in the FBC pilot “The Adventures of Big Handsome Guy and His Little Friend,” which Hayes wrote, produced and in which he starred.
“Someone Marry Barry” marks Thomas Middleditch’s fifth collaboration with Rob Pearlstein – he appeared in Pearlstein’s web series “Matumbo Goldberg,” as well as in commercials he has directed for Twix and Samsung. One of Variety’s 10 Comedians to Watch last summer, Thomas Middleditch is on fire as of late, having recently finished filming Jay Roach’s upcoming film “Dog Fight,” starring Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis. He also shot one of the lead roles in Josh Schwartz’ feature comedy “Fun Size” for Paramount, as well as a supporting role alongside Robert DeNiro, Julianne Moore and Paul Dano in Paul Weitz’s “Being Flynn.” He recently beat out every comedy actor in town and was cast in the title role of Nardo in “Road to Nardo,” to be directed by Scott Armstrong. Prior to that, Middleditch played the lead role in the independent comedy “Splinterheads,” opposite Rachael Taylor and played a supporting role in the Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg action-comedy “The Other Guys,” directed by Adam McKay. As a writer, Thomas has created and is voicing the roles to an animated pilot “Worst Friends Forever,” which is currently in development with John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky producing. Additionally, Thomas is one of the founding members of The Improvised Shakespeare Company and is a frequent collaborator with College Humor and Funny or Die.
Frankie Shaw portrayed cheerleader Mary Jo Cacciatore on Spike TV’s “Blue Mountain State. She appeared in Katie Aselton’s comedy “The Freebie” and in Joshua von Brown’s cult satire “Altamont Now.”
Amanda Lund stars in Nicholas Stoller’s upcoming untitled comedy for CBS, along with Michael Angarano, Adam Campbell, Christopher Nicholas Smith and Randall Park. She has appeared in several short films, including “How to Train Your Pet” and “LAPD: Pregnant Detectives,” which ran on funnyordie.com.
My boy Labine has been cast in Kevin Smith’s new movie Zack and Miri Make a Porno. I assume this is from Kevin Smith directing the pilot episode of the reaper(a show which Labine plays the funny friend/sidekick). I am excited about this because I think he is a great actor, just done alot of one and done tv shows.
