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Is it crazy to say ” 2012 ” — a film about the fire- and tsunami-strewn obliteration of planet Earth as we know it — was one of the most fun theatrical experiences of the year? The audience at the screening I caught in mid-February was hooting and hollering at each successive catastrophe , gleefully ignoring the cataclysmic loss of life because the whole thing was just so darn fun. Was it kinda silly? Sure. But chuck away any sense of realism and it was an amazing big screen spectacle that had to make you smile. The rest of the world certainly agreed . Director Roland Emmerich’s disaster-film-to-end-all-disaster-films grossed almost $770 million worldwide. With the “2012″ DVD arriving in stores on Tuesday (March 2), Emmerich gave MTV News a call to chat about the challenges of CGI filmmaking, an alternate ending he almost inserted in the final cut and the kooky conspiracy theorists he met while promoting the film. MTV News: There were so many huge CGI set-pieces in the film. Is there one that you’re particularly proud of or that took the most work to pull off? Roland Emmerich: The most fun was the earthquake scene, because it was the most complex. Or maybe because I live in Los Angeles and I’m always afraid of earthquakes. MTV News: You mean the scene in the beginning, when John Cusack is driving his family through LA in a limo while the entire city basically disintegrates around them? Emmerich: Yeah, we shot with nothing there but the limo. And when you think about that — that everything was completely created — it was quite impressive. At first we wanted to shoot stuff in real and we realized pretty fast that in an earthquake everything is buckling, everything is cracking and you really can’t use any real things. We had to build everything in the computer and put it together. MTV News: Did you look at footage from actual earthquakes? Emmerich: We did, but there is not much there. There is some footage from video surveillance cameras, but it’s rare. What you can see is the aftermath and then you imagine what happened. MTV News: Have you put any cool deleted scenes onto the DVD? Emmerich: There is very little in this movie that was cut out. We have an alternative ending, which is quite interesting. Two characters who die in the final cut are actually alive. The two jazz musicians survived. At the end you see their cruise ship on top of a mountain. For us it was always a Noah’s Ark symbol. But it didn’t work because it put everything in question. Why did we have to build these huge ships to rescue hundreds of thousands of people in the first place? And anyway, the ending felt kind of long. It went on and on and on, and when we took that ending out, it was all of a sudden streamlined. MTV News: You traveled all over the world promoting the film. Did you have some wacky interactions with 2012 conspiracy theorists? Emmerich: Oh yeah, they’re everywhere. It’s quite funny. I always said I don’t believe in aliens even though I did “Independence Day.” In the same way, I have the same attitude toward 2012. It’s an interesting theory, maybe it will happen and maybe not, but no one can say what really will happen. But some people really believe and they come up to you and either they’re really pissed they say, “This shouldn’t be a disaster, it’s a new rise of human consciousness” or they’re like, “You’re so right, this is going to happen,” and they tell you where to go to escape it. They say, “You should be very thankful!”

In December of 2008, shortly after receiving a Golden Globe nomination for his turn as hirsute studio chief Les Grossman in ” Tropic Thunder ,” Tom Cruise revealed that he and the film’s writer/director/star Ben Stiller were kicking around ideas to do another project with the Grossman character. “Ben and I are always talking about what we can do with Les,” Cruise told MTV News at the time. “Do we do some viral video with Les?” We haven’t heard any movement on this possibility, so when we had a chance to speak with Stiller while he was promoting his upcoming indie, “Greenberg,” we put the question to him. Anything shaking with the Grossman project? “We’re playing around with ideas for a Les Grossman something,” Stiller said. “Maybe a movie, maybe some Internet stuff. I love that character and Tom, I think, is just insanely funny doing that guy. And I think he’s game for it too.” Is this just idle talk from Stiller? Or have their ideas for Grossman morphed from a few Internet shorts to an actual theatrical spin-off? We’ll remain cautiously optimistic and simply be happy knowing that Stiller and Cruise are still keeping alive the idea of resurrecting the classically pompous and foul-mouthed Grossman character a year and a half after “Tropic Thunder” opened.

While on a recent swing through South Korea, Rihanna told MTV Asia that she’s desperate to crack some jokes on the big screen. “I want to do comedy,” she said. “I enjoy watching funny movies and hanging out with funny people.” Sounds good to us. But there are many pitfalls on the way from a career as a recording artist to one as a genuine Hollywood funnywoman. If Rihanna wants to make us laugh, she’d be wise to follow these five simple steps. 1. Cameo As Yourself Start off slowly. Hook up with an established Hollywood player like Judd Apatow, Adam Sandler or Todd Phillips — just as Billy Idol, Eminem and Mike Tyson have — and set yourself up for the cameo everyone will be talking about. You’ll show that you don’t take yourself too seriously and can deliver a line or two. Getting that first laugh from an audience might be the most difficult step, and once you’re no longer a comedy virgin, you’ll be on your way to Step #2. 2. Follow Beyoncé’s Lead In 2002, Beyoncé joined up with Mike Myers at the height of his box office prowess for “Austin Powers in Goldmember.” She essentially played herself, albeit a version of herself with super high hair and a handgun, but that is exactly what Beyoncé needed at that point in her film career. The role didn’t require very much in terms of acting chops, exposed her to a wide theatrical audience and gave her the chance to get comfortable in front of the camera. Myers got the laughs and Beyoncé benefited from simply sharing the frame as he unleashed his zingers. Similarly, Rihanna should go in for a zany comedy where an emphasis on acting is secondary to laughs and where she doesn’t have to play a character too far outside her happy place. Possibilities include Apatow-approved people like Seth Rogen, a veteran funnylady like Maya Rudolph or Dave Chappelle in the midst of a too-long-delayed comeback. 3. But Avoid Jessica Simpson’s Missteps Just as Beyoncé made all the right moves, Jessica Simpson made all the wrong ones, and Rihanna should heed those mistakes. In the midst of Simpson’s MTV “Newlyweds” fame, the singer signed up for the iconic role of Daisy Duke in a big screen version of “The Dukes of Hazzard.” Not only did the role ask far too much of her in terms of comedic delivery, but she was predictably compared unfavorably to the woman who pioneered the part over two decades earlier. Simpson followed up that stinker with a plain Jane role in “Employee of the Month,” and her big screen career has never recovered. The lesson for Rihanna is to stay in her comfort zone and let an established star like Mike Myers do the heavy lifting. 4. Circle Back Around To Taylor Swift Now that she’s followed Beyoncé’s lead, Rihanna should take a page from Taylor Swift’s comedy playbook. That means hosting “Saturday Night Live” and taking a role in an ensemble comedy like “Valentine’s Day.” A couple good sketches is all you need to leave the general impression that you succeeded on “SNL,” and if Swift can pull of that feat, who can’t? The ensemble comedy will give Rihanna a chance to expand her range while not asking her to hold an entire film. But it’ll be one more step in the evolution. 5. Go Out On Top Okay, Rihanna now that you’ve conquered comedy, it’s time once again to follow Beyoncé’s example and bail. After her turn in the surprise hit “Pink Panther,” Beyoncé next appeared in “Dreamgirls” a critical hit that received eight Oscar nominations and cemented her status as a true Hollywood player. Rihanna could go drama, she could go action (another genre she said she wants to explore ), she could go horror. The key is just to go.

Don’t get too excited (or angry) yet, nothing has been officially decided. In fact, this isn’t even the first time we’ve heard this. Back in early February, it was stated in a trades story that Michael Bay has been debating with Paramount and ILM about going 3D for Transformers 3 (due in July of 2011 ). As we already know, Hollywood is going 3D crazy right now thanks to Avatar , but it looks like Bay is doing the smart thing and testing out 3D before deciding whether that’s really the route they want to go with the sequel;. Bay himself has even said that he’s not a big fan of 3D, which is why I’m actually surprised that this is what he’s doing. Bay appeared on Starz’ “In the House” last night and MTV transcribed what he said about Transformers 3 . “It’s a process we’re testing with some ‘Transformers’ scenes,” he said. “How successful it is with my movie in terms of a lot of real stuff coming out of the frame, real dirt, real complicated little particles coming towards the lens, because hopefully that process will work. I’ve seen some tests that look great on other movies. I just want to see how it looks on my footage.” Peter from SlashFilm brings up a good point – Bay uses the term “process” (multiple times), not something like “technology”, which sounds like they’re testing a post conversion process, not the idea of shooting it in 3D from the start. Unfortunately, we already know that’s a very bad idea . I hope his tests show that it’s not a good idea if that’s what they’re planning to do. I don’t understand why studios won’t just support shooting with 3D cameras? On Transformers , it may be that Bay’s shooting style is too chaotic and crazy to actually use 3D cameras, since they’re a bit bigger and require more equipment. As for what else to expect in this? “We’re adding a lot of new elements. We’re adding new characters. We’re adding a lot of twists .” Oh joy! Discover More: Hype , Movie News , Opinions

So I’ve been milking this whole “Eric is a Hollywood superstar” thing for a couple days, based on my seconds-long cameo in ” The Crazies .” But now as the horror flick, about a town accidentally infected with a government-engineered bio weapon that turns everyone into crazy-eyed killas, opens on Friday, it’s time to tell the true story of my time on set. Last April I flew down to Atlanta at the behest of Overture Films, who’d offered me the chance to stop covering film for a day and actually be in one. From there I took a two-hour drive south to Peach County, Georgia, otherwise known as No, Seriously, It’s The Middle of Nowhere Y’all. If you happened to be under the illusion that being an actor is a glamorous profession, I am here to disabuse you of that notion: it is slow, repetitive and, if you happen to be filming in rural Georgia during an unseasonably winter-like chill, really cold. To begin, I spend three hours in a trailer with makeup effects guru Robert Hall and his three assistants. After donning a wide-necked t-shirt and having my hair pinned back, they set to work gluing on latex strips to mimic bulging veins and bloody protrusions. The “Crazies” infection is modeled on the real world effects of Ebola and tetanus, which lots of blood, puss and general gruesomeness. With the latex in place, the artists begin airbrushing on color, painting veins, applying fake blood, dirtying my teeth and nails. The finishing touch is an enormous yellow contact lens. “I want more puss!” I joke to Hall when I finally look in the mirror. He doesn’t seem to think I’m kidding, and gets a big smile on his face as he gifts me with some seriously bloody boogers and a lovely streak of blood streaming down my ear and across my neck. A quick visit to wardrobe, where I’m given a shirt caked with the nastiest boogers in the history of snotty noses, and a visit with a hair stylist and I’m ready for my close-up. The scene takes place in a high school that’s been commandeered by the government in an attempt to institute a military quarantine on the infected town. I play one of the infected Crazies, locked away in a classroom as star Radha Mitchell is brought in. Yup, to my great pleasure, I learn that Radha and I will be sharing a scene. We actually end up sharing a moment, you might say, as she is whisked by on a gurney and I scream like a banshee at her. We lock eyes. It is movie magic. But it took a while to get there. Seven takes, in fact. Before the first take, director Breck Eisner comes in and tells me I need to throw myself against a glass window, yell a line at the top of my lungs and vomit some fake blood before a guard in a hazmat suit pulls me away. A stunt coordinator stops by to teach me how to fake an impact without breaking any bones. Production folks communicating via in-ear devices tell me to get ready. And….action! I don’t scream, I hit the window, I drool out some fake blood and collapse. Total disaster. Breck comes back and tells me to remember to yell a line. “What line?” I ask. “Just make up something cool!” he tells me. Second take: I unleash a wicked series of f-bombs. Breck comes back. “Easy there, Samuel L. Jackson. Tone it down just a bit.” Third take: I decide on my line: “Let me go! Let me out of here!” Only problem is I’m late making it to the window and the camera’s already passed me by. The crew seems to be getting antsy. I can only imagine what Radha is thinking as she has to suffer through take after take. It’s 2 a.m. and there’s a long night still ahead and I’m the amateur making everyone’s life more difficult. I apologize. I apologize some more. Breck comes in asking for more blood. A makeup guy pours what feels like a pint of fake blood into my mouth. It is syrupy and sweet and by now it’s starting to make me nauseous. But I push forward, because I am a professional actor. And I count myself lucky. The makeup guy is super helpful, wiping away the blood with a tissue after each take and even moistening my yellow contact lens from time to time. But I feel horrible for the guy playing the guard in my scene. He’s been wearing this green hazmat suit with a giant hood and plastic mask for hours. He can’t hear, can’t breath and is sweating like a pig. For his sake, I want to nail the scene and let the guy get some fresh air. Fourth take: I spew blood like a geyser. “Maybe less blood,” Breck suggests. The rest of the takes go smoothly. Breck ushers me over to a monitor to watch the money take. “Dude, pretty sweet,” he says as I head back to the makeup chair for the hour it takes to return me from Crazy to MTV Movies writer. For one last look into Eric’s transformation from MTV staff writer to prima donna Hollywood movie star, enjoy the special MTV interview with the man, the myth, the legend, Mr. Eric Ditzian, below:

Liev Schreiber spoke with MTV’s Josh Horowitz recently about his current gig performing on Broadway in Arthur Miller’s “A View from the Bridge.” While chatting, the “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” star mentioned that he’s already thinking ahead to what will be next, and the news might surprise you. Have you ever heard of Chuck Wepner? “The Bayonne Bleeder”? He’s a former heavyweight boxer from Bayonne, New Jersey. He won 35 out of 51 fights during his career, 17 of which were knockouts. He faced George Foreman, Sonny Liston and Muhammad Ali during his years in the ring and he’s also been named as Sylvester Stallone’s inspiration for fictional boxer Rocky Balboa. Well Schreiber’s plan is to bring Wepner’s story to the big screen. “There’s a guy named Chuck Wepner, the Bayonne Bleeder. He’s the guy that ‘Rocky’ was based on,” Schreiber said. “He went 15 rounds with [Muhammad] Ali in 1974 and it’s this wonderful story of what happened to that guy as a result of his rise to fame.” Schreiber didn’t talk timetables or casting or anything like that, but he did name “The Devil and Daniel Johnston” director Jeff Feuerzeig as the man who will helm it. “That’s the next thing I’d like to do,” the actor said. “It’s just a remarkable, hilarious film and I hope we get to make it.” Wepner challenged Ali for the Heavyweight title in 1975. He spent eight weeks training in the Catskills — montage! — to prepare for the March 24 fight, which took place in Cleveland. He ultimately lost to the champ of course, but he managed to send Ali to the mat in the ninth round before receiving a broken nose and more than a few facial lacerations. When asked beforehand if he thought he could make it through the fight alive, Wepner reportedly said, “I’ve been a survivor my whole life… if I survived the Marines, I can survive Ali.” [cue Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger"] As the story goes, Stallone watched the fight at home and was so inspired by Wepner’s courageous challenge that he wrote “Rocky.” In a possible further connection to the Italian Stallion’s long-running franchise, Wepner went on to fight professional wrestler Andre the Giant in 1976. This mirrors a plot point in “Rocky III,” in which Balboa agrees to a charity match with a professional wrestler, played by Hulk Hogan. Wepner certainly presents a compelling real-life story, and if Schreiber’s really passionate about telling it then I can’t wait to see how the talented actor delivers. Boxing fans, are you familiar with Wepner? Is this a good subject for a biopic?

Yesterday brought the really, really ridiculously good news that ” Zoolander 2 is in the making, with Ben Stiller and Justin Theroux writing, and Theroux directing. We obviously know roughly squat about the story for the upcoming sequel, but it’s safe to at least speculate that some time will have passed between the events of the first and the second movies. Hell, we see as much of Derek’s future in the final scenes of “Zoolander.” It’s been almost 10 years since the late-September 2001 release of the original, and the world has changed a great deal since then. Being an international superstar, we’ve no doubt that Derek has managed to keep busy during the intervening years. But how? We’ve sketched out a few possibilities thanks to the Photoshop wizardry of MTV’s exceedingly talented Sohyung Kang. Click the image below to check out more hilarity in our Derek Zoolander flipbook gallery .

FROM MTV.COM: Oscar campaigning took a dark turn earlier this week when it was revealed that ” The Hurt Locker ” producer Nicolas Chartier e-mailed a group of industry players in an appeal for Best Picture votes. And rather than touting the quality of the Kathryn Bigelow-directed, Oscar nomination-leading Iraq War story, Chartier based his plea on his film’s indie roots, indirectly but quite obviously slamming ” Avatar ” in the process. Chartier called for the e-mail’s recipients to tell their “friends who vote for the Oscars,” and to have them tell their friends, to support “The Hurt Locker” instead of “a $500M film,” according to the Los Angeles Times . He went on to say that “we need independent movies to win,” making no mention of Bigelow, star Jeremy Renner or any of the other people involved in making the film. Continue reading ‘Hurt Locker’ Producer Apologizes For Dissing ‘Avatar’

Following a tad slowly on the heels of ” Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief ” and the upcoming ” Clash of the Titans ” remake is another blockbuster involving Greek mythology: ” War of the Gods ” (aka “Dawn of War”), a sword-and-sandals epic being helmed by visionary filmmaker Tarsem (“The Fall”) that will tell the story of Athens founder and legendary Minotaur-killer Theseus. Henry Cavill (Showtime’s “The Tudors”) will star as the hero, and now joining him, according to Variety , is Indian actress Freida Pinto (“Slumdog Millionaire”). Pinto will play Phaedra, “an oracle priestess” and (future?) wife of Theseus, who joins him in the quest to stop the titular war — pitting the younger Olympian gods against the elder Titan gods — from beginning. The character has been portrayed many times on screen, mainly in adaptations of plays by Euripides and Jean Racine, the most recent of which starred Helen Mirren in the part. No past depiction of the tales of Theseus, Phaedra or the Greek myths in general will likely compare to Tarsem’s version though. Still unfortunately best acclaimed for his MTV Award-winning video for R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion,” and likely still best paid for his “Gladiator”-inspired Pepsi commercial starring Britney Spears and Beyonce, the India-born filmmaker has directed only two feature films so far, “The Cell” and “The Fall” (he also did second unit shooting on “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”). Both were lacking on the writing side but featured gorgeous visuals. For something like this, though, eye candy is really all we need. We don’t typically expect a strong script with this kind of film, produced purely for spectacle, so while Universal and the overseers of “War of the Gods” (including “300″ producers Gianni Nunnari and Mark Canton) are likely focused on spectacular effects, they might as well also employ a filmmaker with an eye for spectacular shots and cinematography. As for Pinto, she’ll definitely be contributing to the beauty of the film as well. Since making her debut in “Slumdog,” she has been a coveted actress. So far she’s worked with Julian Schnabel, on “Miral,” and Woody Allen, on “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger” (Cavill also just recently worked with Allen, in “Whatever Works, so the two may have some things to talk about). Are you familiar with Tarsem’s work? Do you agree he’s a great choice to direct a myth-based epic? And what about Freida Pinto? Aren’t you dying to see her in something besides “Slumdog Millionaire” already?

FROM MTV.COM: When MTV News caught a screening of Kristen Stewart ’s ” The Runaways ” at the Sundance Film Festival in January, we came away impressed by how the 19-year-old actress “physically embodies the role [of rocker Joan Jett] and curses and growls as the part demands.” What did it take for KStew to embody so movingly a real life ’70s rock-and-roll icon? A keen sense of observation, a willingness to study hard and simply good casting. That’s how ex-Runaways guitarist Jett explained it in an Interview magazine story. Continue reading Joan Jett Says Kristen Stewart ‘Nailed’ ‘Runaways’ Role