Demetri Martin, 36, has the lead role in Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock, a big part opposite Brad Pitt in next year’s “Moneyball” and his own Comedy Central television series Important Things With Demetri Martin. Not bad for a Yale-educated historian and law school dropout who says comedy remains his first love and primary interest.”
Carey Mulligan, 24, is poised to become Hollywoods new It-Girl after impressing Sundance audiences as a schoolgirl in love with a cad in the award-winning An Education. As a schoolgirl herself, her passion for acting took a lucky turn when screenwriter Julian Fellowes came to speak at her high school in England and she grabbed the opportunity to bend his ear.
Director Matt Reeves’ “Cloverfield” tweaked the monster genre for the Twitter generation and now he’s taking on beasts of another sort with “Let Me In,” a remake of cult Swedish vampire film “Let the Right One In.” I was so taken with the story and I had a very personal reaction,” he said.
Lynn Shelton’s upcoming film “Humpday” has people buzzing about the female Judd Apatow. The movie about two old college buddies explores male friendship and personal identity amid a laughable situation.
Christoph Waltz’s creepily cool performance in Quentin Tarantinos Inglourious Basterds earned the 52-year-old a best actor prize at Mays Cannes Film Festival, as well as some long-awaited international recognition.
2009 has been a good year for writer Laeta Kalogridis: her screenplay for Shutter Island” makes her the first female writer on a Martin Scorsese movie and she’s collaborating with James Cameron on Christmas’ “Avatar” plus upcoming projects Battle Angel and The Dive.
H.P. Lovecraft’s writing lives on 72 years after his death. Universal and Imagine Entertainment plan to adapt The Strange Adventures of H.P. Lovecraft, a supernatural graphic novel from Image Comics that fictionalizes the author’s life story, and director Guillermo del Toro hopes to tap into his strange brew with a film version of At the Mountains of Madness, about an expedition to the Antarctic that uncovers massive and ancient mysteries.