Dustin Lance Black is a screenwriter, producer and director, having won the 2009 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Milk, the biopic of the late gay rights activist Harvey Milk starring Sean Penn. Additionally, Black wrote the screenplay for J. Edgar, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Leonardo DiCaprio which earned him a Golden Globe nomination. Black earned his chops writing on HBO’s Big Love quickly climbing the ranks from staff writer on the series to executive story editor to co-producer. Black’s newest film Virginia, which he wrote and directed, is loosely based on his own childhood experiences growing up in the South and is now playing in theatres.

Virginia stars Jennifer Connelly (Requiem For A Dream, A Beautiful Mind) in the title role as a beautiful yet unhinged single mother who struggles to raise her son Emmett (Harrison Gilbertson) while dreaming of escaping her small Southern boardwalk town. Her longtime affair with the very married, Mormon Sheriff Richard Tipton, played by Ed Harris (A Beautiful Mind, Pollock), is thrown into question when he decides to run for public office. Things are further complicated when Emmett begins a romantic relationship with Tipton’s daughter, played by Emma Roberts (Nancy Drew, Valentine’s Day). Virginia and the town – populated by Amy Madigan, Toby Jones, Yeardley Smith – are full of secrets and everyone knows Virginia can only keep things together for so long. Virginia is a funny, touching drama that looks at the American Dream and what it takes to keep it together.

I recently had a chance to sit down and chat with Dustin Lance Black about Virginia. The Director spoke about Schizophrenia, his southern Mormon upbringing, the American Dream, working with Jennifer Connelly, the exhaustive effort of researching the biopics he wrote, and his upcoming projects.

I recently had the immense pleasure of speaking with one of my all time favorite actors, Titus Welliver, about his prolific and impressive television work. But as accomplished as his TV resume is, the actor has just as distinguished of a film and stage career. Welliver first gained attention in the groundbreaking off-Broadway play “Riff Raff,” which was written, directed and co-starred actor Laurence Fishburne. He would eventually reprise the critically acclaimed role that he originated on stage as the sympathetic drug addict and part-time thief Billy “The Torch’ Murphy in the film adaptation of the play entitled Once in the Life, which also starred Fishburne and marked his feature film directorial debut. In fact, while the actor and I were chatting about the making of Once in the Life and his work in "Riff Raff," which also happens to be my all time favorite stage play, the actor happened to mention that he and Fishburne are discussing doing a revival of the show. “I have to say Laurence and I have been sort of toying with the idea of doing the play again even though it's been about twelve years since we made the film,” Welliver admitted.

While the actor is probably best known for his extensive television work that includes playing Silas Adams on HBO’s Western-based series Deadwood, the pivotal role of Kyle Hollis on the brilliant but short-lived NBC series Life, season three villain Jimmy O’Phelan on FX’s motorcycle gang series Sons of Anarchy, a recurring role on the current Fox series Touch with Kiefer Sutherland, and of course, as the Man in Black (A.K.A. the Smoke Monster) on ABC’s cultural phenomenon Lost. But he’s also appeared in many popular feature films including The Doors, Mobsters, Twisted, Assault on Precinct 13, and most recently Man on a Ledge, which opened on January 27^th and is in theaters now. But his most famous film roles have come from his collaborations with fellow actor and now critically acclaimed writer/director Ben Affleck. Welliver first appeared in Affleck’s Boston-based directorial debut Gone Baby Gone as Lionel McCready, and also appeared as FBI agent Dino Ciampa in The Town (also set in the Boston area) opposite Jon Hamm (TV’s Mad Men). Now, Welliver will achieve the hat trick by also appearing in Affleck’s upcoming third directorial effort Argo, which will be the first of his films, as a director, not set in Massachusetts.

Opening in theaters on January 27th is a new thriller from director Asger Leth (Ghosts of Cite Soleil) called Man on a Ledge. The film features an excellent cast of young and veteran actors including Sam Worthington (Texas Killing Fields), Elizabeth Banks (The Hunger Games), Jaime Bell (The Eagle), Anthony Mackie (Real Steel), Edward Burns (Newlyweds), Genesis Rodriguez (TV's Entourage), Titus Welliver (TV's Lost), Kyra Sedgwick (TV's The Closer), and Ed Harris (The Rock). 

IAR's Managing Editor Jami Philbrick recently had an opportunity to sit down and speak with actor Edward Burns about his role in Man on a Ledge. Burns discussed the new film, why he took the role, what he looks for in Hollywood scripts, playing a New York cop, collaborating with Elizabeth Banks, working opposite Titus Welliver, and what it feels like to actually walk out on the ledge of a building. 

Synopsis: From the ledge of the 25th floor of a NYC skyscraper, where one wrong step means death, a cornered Nick Cassidy (Sam Worthington) must orchestrate a dangerous plan to prove his innocence for a crime he didn't commit.

It's a tricky thing to dramatize as recent and hugely public an event as the 2008 presidential election, and attempting to do could result in a bunch of overcooked impressions and unintentional goofiness.  To avoid that fate, the makers of the upcoming HBO movie Game Change hired the very best actors to portray Arizona Senator John McCain and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, and you can see both Ed Harris and Julianne Moore in action for the first time via a new teaser trailer. 

It's got little snippets of four-time Oscar nominee Harris as McCain sprinkled throughout, building to a big reveal of fellow four-time Oscar nominee Moore as Palin, but the glue holding it all together is two-time Oscar nominee Woody Harrelson as McCain's campaign strategist and adviser Steve Schmidt.

Synopsis: An honest cop, framed for a crime he didn't commit, appears on a window ledge hundreds of feet above the street in Manhattan, following a strange plan known only to himself.

If you have cable and you're not watching the AMC original series Breaking Bad, then you're doing yourself a grave disservice.  Basically, you're doing it wrong.  While the show is tremendously well-written and technically executed to perfection, it lives and dies on its two lead performances from Aaron Paul and, even more crucially, Bryan Cranston.  Based on his phenomenal work as chemistry teacher-turned expert meth cook Walter White, Cranston has become a very busy film actor, and he's in the process of lining up a "small but notable role" in World War Z, the zombie epic starring Brad Pitt.

World War Z, the would-be epic adaptation of Max Brooks' oral history of a fictitious zombie pandemic and near-apocalypse, spent so many months in development hell that the project seemed doomed, even with the presence of director Marc Forster and International Movie Star® Brad Pitt.  Paramount Pictures finally put together a co-financing deal with Skydance Productions to cover the film's huge cost, however, and just like that, it was reanimated and dragged from the grave.  Forster continues casting, but he'll have to do without two big names who were in talks several weeks ago, as both Matthew Fox and Ed Harris will not appear in World War Z.

Just a few months back, World War Z looked moribund, despite the attachment of director Marc Forster and star Brad Pitt, along with a lauded screenplay by J. Michael Straczynski and Matthew Michael Carnahan.  With Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions co-financing the big budget adaptation of Max Brooks' novel, though, production is set to begin this month, and Forster is rapidly casting up.  Pitt and Mireille Enos are set, James Badge Dale is in talks, and Anthony Mackie is rumored for a role.  Now, Matthew Fox and Ed Harris are in talks to join the zombie epic.

The first promotional image from Game Change showed that Julianne Moore makes for a fitting Sarah Palin, and now our first look at Ed Harris in the film demonstrates his ability to channel Arizona Senator John McCain.  Both four-time Oscar nominees are playing the central figures in the HBO movie from director Jay Roach.  Palin's arguably more easily imitable figure, but Harris is the spitting image of the presidential nominee in this photo, which debuted t EW.  Check out Harris on the campaign trail right here, right about now.