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HollywoodChicago.com publisher Adam Fendelman interviews "A Mighty Heart" director Michael Winterbottom in Chicago on June 14, 2007.

CHICAGO -- Move over, Superman. This lush, high-octane playboy never tasted so good.

CHICAGO - As a testament to its set design, it wasn't immediately clear if certain structures were naturally part of the Strawdog Theatre space or if they were fabricated specifically for the "Old Town" production.

"Hoop Dreams" filmmakers Steve James and Peter Gilbert are bringing "At the Death House Door" to Chicago for a one-week engagement at the Gene Siskel Film Center starting on May 10, 2008 at 8 p.m.

CHICAGO - I interviewed actor and director Denzel Washington on Dec. 6, 2007 on the topic of "The Great Debaters," which is the second film he has directed. We spoke about the difference between what he wants for his films and what the studio wants.

CHICAGO - Don't be fooled by its formulaic, Hollywoodspeak tagline. "The truth can be adjusted" is the "Michael Clayton" way of saying this film has rammed in a whole hell of a lot more than you might first presume.

CHICAGO - With his aloof character panache and colorful imagery, Wes Anderson is one of those directors you either love dearly or loathe dreadfully.

CHICAGO - In 1967, author Arthur Koestler wrote the non-fiction book "The Ghost in the Machine". The title has come full circle with Friday's release of "The Kingdom" whereby the ghost must be extricated from his clandestine machine of terrorists.

CHICAGO - Jodie Foster reinvents herself and plays a vigilante flung galaxies out of character in "The Brave One," which opened on Friday.

CHICAGO - This statement is a shrill testimony of one soldier's stance on his time spent fighting Bush's war in Iraq: "We should just nuke it and watch it all turn back to dust."

CHICAGO - Had you asked me to tag "3:10 to Yuma" before I screened it, you'd think me a bumbling idiot because I had absolutely no clue what to expect.

CHICAGO - While Johnny Depp's portrayal of the demon barber of Fleet Street in the 2007 film iteration sells you on his fiendish ways, actor and singer David Hess in the musical bobbles more in purgatory rather than living hysterically in hell.

Short-range Bluetooth technology, which to date has most prevalently inundated the market of mobile headsets, wasn't solely designed for cell phones. What's next beyond what's already here and who's promising to deliver these new killer apps?

CHICAGO -- Some 9.7 million people weighed in to FHM Magazine on who they deem to be the planet's most sexy women. At 21 years old, Megan Fox was unveiled behind a virtual velvet curtain as the Earth's finest. But why?

CHICAGO - For a raucously good time, "Shoot 'Em Up" is a visceral experience you won't soon forget. Under the guise of a hardcore action gun flick, this film surprisingly has baby undertones.

CHICAGO - On the "you probably haven't heard of this film but you'd do well to learn about it" front, "Ladrón Que Roba a Ladrón" is the Spanish-speaking telenovela surprise of the weekend.

CHICAGO - Thank you. Try again. When your sell is entirely dependent on being utterly hi-lar-ious, you'd better trigger unruly body spasms. Otherwise, for instance, you're left with a film like "Balls of Fury" because you only served up a subpar gag show.

CHICAGO - While the environment is a bitterly divisive topic with people of all politics often worlds apart, there's one thing we can all agree on: Our world is changing.

CHICAGO - Though not billed as a comedy, "Illegal Tender" is one of those yawningly generic films that tries too hard to be taken seriously and ends up making you laugh. If you haven't heard of the film by now, it's better to keep it that way.

CHICAGO - When the outakes are the best part of a film, you know something's seriously backward. Here's "Rush Hour 3" succinctly described in one word: Meh.

CHICAGO - "Becoming Jane" is slow, stuffy - as it should be in that time period - but beautifully acted and scripted. Anne Hathaway as pre-fame Jane Austen entirely steals the show.

CHICAGO - Matt Damon as Jason Bourne never thinks. He just does. Bourne's always armed with the right devices and brainwaves to foretell his next move.

CHICAGO - "If you didn't watch the film and looked at people watching it, you'd see they're constantly ducking and grabbing at things," said IMAX Filmed President Greg Foster. "IMAX 3D is at the bridge of your nose."

CHICAGO - "Evening," which failed to materialize in two previous attempts, was finally filmed in the hands of Hungarian director Lajos Koltai.

CHICAGO - Haunted by the non-fictional ghost he was portraying, Steve Zahn - who previously had been typecast by Hollywood as a comic reliever - lost 40 dead-serious pounds for "Rescue Dawn" to walk the same footsteps of a POW four decades earlier.

CHICAGO - "Playing out extreme or unusual characters in the straightest of ways is what makes deadpan serious so funny," said "Eagle vs. Shark" director Taika Waititi. "It is the antidote to slapstick."

CHICAGO - Emma Roberts as "Nancy Drew" is nice but nobody's fool.

Paramount Pictures on April 21, 2008 released a flood of new production stills for the highly anticipated film "Iron Man" with Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges, Samuel L. Jackson, Hilary Swank, Leslie Bibb and Stan Lee.

CHICAGO - After being blitzed by an onslaught of attention-demanding advertising that begged the question "who is Sarah Marshall?" even before you realized it's a film, anticipation was ravenous.

Chicago film critic and HollywoodChicago.com publisher Adam Fendelman interviews "The Spiderwick Chronicles" writer and co-executive producer Holly Black about her first feature-film fantasy adaptation, why she loves fairies so much and how she developed the film's unique characters.

Legendary writer, director, editor and producer George Lucas ("Star Wars") spoke in Chicago on Dec. 3, 2007 at the Economic Club of Chicago. In this podcast, Adam Fendelman and colleague Brad Spirrison discuss the keynote address and why industry change is in the air.

This is a 10-minute audio interview with "Stardust" director Matthew Vaughn conducted by Chicago film critic Adam Fendelman of HollywoodChicago.com. This interview was published on Aug. 10, 2007.

CHICAGO - "It's the difference between hunting a lion and a deer." Eli Roth, director of "Hostel: Part II," articulated in an interview with Adam Fendelman that view of his "Hostel" men as weighed against his "Hostel: Part II" women.

Chicago - When Hurricane Katrina rocked New Orleans in 2005, Chicago filmmaker Alex LeMay became fixated on the soul behind the ruin.

CHICAGO - To thwart his fate of being royally screwed ("mommy, what does that mean?"), the ornery ogre who smells like the shallow end of a swamp has unwavering resolve to crown someone else as proxy for his kingdom's recently croaked king.

CHICAGO - Having sold so many on a first film that's watertight in warranting a second, a sequel answers to a much higher authority. The reincarnation's lifeblood ultimately is designed not to disappoint. It must surprise by making something great unquestionably better.

CHICAGO - "Lucky You" undoes what "Rounders" did right. In the 1998 masterpiece, Matt Damon and Edward Norton exquisitely depict all that is divine about the game of Texas Hold 'Em for rookies and old hands alike.

CHICAGO - This is why wrestlers wrestle and actors act. "The Condemned" tobogganed downhill the second it splashed the WWE on an introductory screen.

CHICAGO - Anthony Hopkins returns with his unparalleled eyes of terror in "Fracture" for a sly brain battle with Ryan Gosling.

CHICAGO - "CGI is getting hampered by being defined as a 'kiddie' medium," said "TMNT" writer/director Kevin Munroe in an interview with Adam Fendelman.

CHICAGO - Sex appeal from burgeoning silver-screen stars has evolved. "It's my abs," Adam Brody declared following grave reflection about his magnetism. "People like abs cut from stone. I do the work and it pays off."

CHICAGO - "I have a lot of nervous energy in my head. I always have to be working on something," said actor - and now entrepreneur - Billy Bob Thornton in a Chicago interview with Adam Fendelman.

CHICAGO - At the heart of every great film is a good conflict. In Spidey's third advent, his heart is venomously conflicted and so is the film.

CHICAGO - To purely document the life of a street-singing busker, "Once" director John Carney didn't engage actors. He married musicians.

CHICAGO - I recently tagged "Illegal Tender" as the must-miss movie of the year. I stand corrected. That unconquerable 2007 cake now goes to "Sydney White," which opened on Friday.

CHICAGO - It's all the rave today to exhume an epic from long, long ago and bring it back on the monster screen bigger, better and with more grandeur than ever fathomable before.

CHICAGO - It's just a twist of fate, of course. I know the CGI wizards at The Weinstein Co. can't command the weather in the real word, too. But - wow - what providence.

CHICAGO - The best quality about the fourth "Rambo" is its "Rambo" authenticity. The worst quality about the fourth "Rambo" is its "Rambo" authenticity.

CHICAGO - Tasked with the tall order of bringing to life Ray Bradbury's classic anthology "The Martian Chronicles," director Kristina Schramm wasn't bested by the oddity of the undertaking.

CHICAGO - Haunted by the non-fictional ghost he was portraying, Steve Zahn - who previously had been typecast by Hollywood as a comic reliever - lost 40 dead-serious pounds for "Rescue Dawn" to walk the same footsteps of a POW four decades earlier.

CHICAGO - The plight of the people in the hard-hitting Brazilian film "City of Men" is akin with its plight to make you aware it even exists.

CHICAGO - Lauded playwright Neil LaBute was fixated on testing these human limits and exploring our different styles of conflict resolution when he minted the three-person play "In a Dark Dark House".

CHICAGO - Three of the planet's most examined scribes of all time are resurrected in the meticulous Chicago production of "Brontë" from illustrious playwright Polly Teale.

Poster art for ''My Blueberry Nights'' with Natalie Portman, Jude Law, Rachel Weisz, Norah Jones and David Strathairn has been released for the new film, which will open in limited U.S. theaters on April 4, 2008.

The Weinstein Company's new film 'Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?' by Morgan Spurlock from ''Super Size Me'' fame has released final poster art for the new documentary, which opens on April 18, 2008.

CHICAGO - I'm flummoxed. I know "Smart People" was supposed to be comedic drama with a splash of romance. Instead, I have been misled. It's not a comedy. It's not a tragedy. It's not even a tragicomedy.

CHICAGO - Diablo Cody fittingly ushered in her Chicago "Juno" junket in classic Diablo Cody style: The night prior, she blogged with brevity where she'd be kicking back and when.