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Will Smith is deeply remorseful about The Slap; Rebecca Hall tells us how she sold the outlandish premise of her new horror thriller Resurrection; BJ Novak explains how John Mayer ended up in Novak’s directorial feature debut, Vengeance — and what “Your Body Is a Wonderland” has to do with it.
But First: Everyone caught our list of the Best Film Schools in the U.S. and Canada, right?
Out Today: Resurrection, the new Andrew Semans thriller with a surprise you will never, ever, ever, ever see coming, and Vengeance, the directorial debut of The Office star B.J. Novak.
A Talk With B.J. Novak: He told us about his weird relationship with Texas, where the film takes place. (Novak plays a New York writer who makes a podcast about a local woman he was hooking up with.) He also told John Mayer superfan Margeaux Sippell how John Mayer ended up in the opening of his movie. It involves some legal wrangling over Mayer’s lovely tune “Your Body Is a Wonderland.”
A Talk With Rebecca Hall: The writer-director of Resurrection, Andrew Semans, acknowledges that the film has an “outlandish premise.” It stars Rebecca Hall as a woman tormented by a man (Tim Roth) with whom she shares a ludicrous and horrific secret that we won’t reveal here. We talked with the always-excellent Hall about how she sold the outlandishness to the audience — especially in a seven-minute uninterrupted monologue that powers the whole film. You can watch here:
More Rebecca Hall: Whether or not audiences buy into the big reveal, Hall says, “they’re not gonna forget it.” She’s absolutely right.
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Also Also: Remember that thing that happened at the Oscars four months ago? No, not CODA winning Best Picture, the other thing. Will Smith addressed it on-camera for the first time this morning, in a kind of Q&A with the whole entire internet. In response to the question,”Why didn’t you apologize to Chris in your acceptance speech?,” Smith answered: “I was fogged out by that point. It is all fuzzy. I’ve reached out to Chris and the message that came back is that, he’s not ready to talk. When he is, he will reach out. I will say to you, Chris, I apologize to you. My behavior was unacceptable and I am here whenever you are ready to talk.” He also issued a lot of other apologies, including to his wife. You can read them here or just watch:
Main image: BJ Novak in Vengeance
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