Opening in theaters on April 12th is the new drama Disconnect from documentary filmmaker Henry Alex Rubin (Murderball), which marks his narrative feature film debut. The film stars an excellent cast of actors including Jason Bateman (Identity Thief), Hope Davis (Reel Steal), Frank Grillo (The Grey), Andrea Riseborough (Never Let Me Go), Paula Patton (Jumping the Broom), Michael Nyqvist (Abduction), Alexander Skarsgard (Battleship), Max Thieriot (House at the End of the Street), and fashion designer Marc Jacobs making his acting film debut.

IAR's Managing Editor Jami Philbrick recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Alexander Skarsgard to talk about his work on Disconnect. The popular True Blood actor discussed his new film, collaborating with first time narrative feature filmmaker Henry Alex Rubin, working with castmates Frank Grillo, Paula Patton, and fellow-Swedish actor Michael Nyqvist, and the film's cautionary message about using the Internet. 

The Visual Effects Society, which consists of well over 2,000 professional magic makers and is also known as VES, has announced its full list of nominees for the 11th Annual VES Awards, acknowledging visual effects excellence in 24 categories across live-action and animated feature films, television series, video games, and commercials.

Two wildly different movies opened in theaters across the nation this weekend.  On the one hand, there was Prometheus, an R rated science fiction prequel filled with slippery horror and musings about the nature of creation.  On the other, there was Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, a family-friendly animated sequel following a quartet of anthropomorphized zoo animals in a circus touring the titular continent. 

Welcome to June, everybody.  If the 94 degree temperature wasn't enough to make it unequivocally clear that summer is in full-swing, then the proliferation of movies with $150 million + production budgets and marketing budgets bigger than the gross domestic product of many nations confirms the season.  The latest tentpole release to erect itself in theaters is Snow White and the Huntsman, and the Universal release opened at the top, well ahead of last week's Men in Black 3 and the reigning king of summer so far, The Avengers.

Both Adam Sandler and Will Ferrell came to nation prominence as players on Saturday Night Live, albeit in different eras of the show during the 1990s.  Both rose to international movie-stardom subsequently, and now they're probably teaming up as co-stars in a major motion picture for the first with football comedy Three Mississippi.  With Sandler joining the movie, though, the bad news is that Ferrell won't be reuniting with his The Other Guys cohort Mark Wahlberg, as Sandler's in talks to replace the busy actor.

"If we can't retain the number one spot at the box office forever, you can be damn sure we'll avenge it."  After breaking many a record and reigning atop the domestic earnings charts for three consecutive weekends, The Avengers has ceded the number one spot to Men in Black 3, a sequel that has avoided the potential for a financial disaster by doing perfectly adequate blockbuster business.  In limited release, meanwhile, the latest offering from Wes Anderson did phenomenally well in only four theaters.

Prepare for many, many headlines making terrible puns about sinking, as this weekend's new releases couldn't manage to compete with Marvel and Disney's superhero team-up.  The Avengers continues to dominate the domestic box office, according to the estimated grosses, while wide releases Battleship, The Dictator, and What to Expect When You're Expecting all basically had to settle for also-ran status.

Back in March, director Peter Berg (The Kingdom) previewed Battleship at WonderCon 2012 and the director had a lot to answer for as the film has been surrounded by criticism practically since it went into production. The new film is, of course, based on the popular Hasbro board game of the same name and opens in theaters everywhere on May 18th. In addition to the somewhat ridiculous idea of basing a movie on a board game, it has also received criticism for its cast, which includes non-actors Rihanna, and Brooklyn Decker, as well as the alien invasion aspect of the film that has nothing to do with the original source material it is based on.

After a successful WonderCon presentation and panel, which included co-stars Alexander Skarsgard (HBO’s True Blood), and Brooklyn Decker (Just Go with It), director Peter Berg took some time out of his busy schedule to speak with IAR and several other members of the press about the upcoming film, its controversial cast, the origins of the project, and of course … aliens.

Synopsis: Inspired by the Hasbro board game, this story follows a U.S. Naval Fleet on routine exercises in the Pacific Ocean.  When an extraterrestrial force arises from the seas to invade Earth, it's up to the military servicemen to fight off the technologically advanced alien villains.

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