Premiering on Direct TV April 3rd is the new crime drama Rogue from creator Matthew Parkhill (Primeval). The series stars Thandie Newton (Crash, Mission: Impossible II), as well as Marton Csokas (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter), Leah Gibson (Watchmen), Philip Granger (Tucker and Dale vs. Evil), and W. Earl Brown (HBO's Deadwood).

IAR's Managing Editor Jami Philbrick recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Thandie Newton to talk about her work on the new series Rogue, as well as her upcoming film Half of a Yellow Sun. The beautiful actress discussed her new series, why she wanted to do it, working in episodic television as apposed to film, being the lead in a series, her character, what she looks for when choosing projects, playing Condoleezza Rice in W., Eddie Murphy's thee roles in Norbit, her upcoming film - Half of a Yellow Sun, working with actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, and why she is so proud of the movie. 

Arnold Schwarzenegger is a movie star. 

Actors disappear into their characters and the world of their films.  Riding their charisma, movie stars dictate both and are, to a certain extent, themselves onscreen.  The almost eight years Schwarzenegger spent as the improbable Governor of California meant that he was limited exclusively to brief cameo roles, but now that his gubernatorial tenure is over and he's kept his head low after a public scandal, Arnold Schwarzenegger is once again properly starring in action movies.

In The Last Stand, Schwarzenegger plays a small town sheriff who wrangles the town's eccentrics to stop a wanted drug lord from making it to the U.S./Mexico border.  IAR's Jami Philbrick participated in the movie's press conference, and we'll have plenty more The Last Stand goodies coming your way closer to its January 18th release.  Today, we're looking further into the future.  While promoting his first cinematic vehicle since Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Schwarzenegger shed some light on his new Conan adventure, the Twins sequel Triplets, and even the possibility of teaming up with fellow muscle-mountain Dwayne Johnson.

After a respite of several months in which there was no discussion of the Academy Awards, your Oscar sense might just be tingling right about now.  That's not because of some ballyhooed performance or shoo-in period drama – mercifully, we won't start hearing that kind of noise until the fall – but because it looks like the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has selected Jimmy Fallon to host the 85th Annual Oscars.

This weekend saw the addition of three new wide releases to the movie marketplace, one an expensive would-be franchise starter, one a thriller remake built around a cinematography novelty, and one family-friendly vehicle from an erstwhile stand-up comedian with a predilection towards leather outfits.  Of these three, none were able to really make an impression commercially, and last week's number one movie, The Lorax, once again stood atop the box office heap grooming his Wilfred Brimley-style mustache.  Disney's John Carter, a movie whose budget has been the subject of much hemming and hawing, debuted in second place.

Synopsis: Jack McCall (Eddie Murphy), can't stop talking and will say anything to anyone to get his own way. ButJack is gonna lies to the wrong guy, who puts a curse on him giving him A Thousand Words that he can speak before he dies...

Cast: Eddie Murphy, Cliff Curtis, Kerry Washington, Clark Duke, Allison Janney, Terence Bernie Hines

Director: Brian Robbins

Genre: Comedy

Release Date: March 9, 2012

In last year's ensemble comedic caper Tower Heist, disgruntled employees in a luxury building decide to embark on a criminal enterprise evening the score after their ultra-wealthy boss cons them all in a massive Ponzi scheme.  In the spirit of the film, which arrives on Blu-ray and DVD this week, a sampling of the abundant bonus features from Tower Heist are available online now, after being successfully heisted from the Blu-ray (heisted with the explicit permission of Universal Pictures, of course).

This week we've had several reminders of the fact that we are indeed smack dab in the middle of awards season thanks to three batches of nominations from professional guilds.  To cap off the work week, though, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has gone ahead and released the first trailer for the 84th Annual Academy Awards.  The trailer clocks in at just about a minute, and it's an intentionally-cliche ridden mock epic that has Transformers stars Megan Fox and Josh Duhamel hunting down an elusive figure known simply as "The Host."  Along the way, the intrepid duo (a trio if you count Duhamel's mustache) encounter a couple familiar figures who help on their quest.

Comedian Greg Proops may just be The Smartest Man in the World, or at least he pretends to be on his extremely funny and popular podcast of the same name. Proops is an improvisational comedian that is best known for his work on both the UK and US versions of Whose Line is it Anyway?. But he’s also appeared on such shows as Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn, Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Chelsea Lately, Drew Carey’s Green Screen Show and Flight of the Conchords, as well as lending his voice to popular films like The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. But now the comedian, who is constantly on the road making appearances, has truly found his voice with his groundbreaking weekly podcast The Smartest Man in the World.

The podcast is recorded in front of a live audience each week and usually takes place during one of Proops’ sold out shows. I recently had a chance to speak with the comedian right before he took the stage in Cleveland for one of his performances. The interview was only supposed to last ten minutes but because he is such a fascinating person to talk to, and very gracious with his time, Proops and I ended up chatting together for almost an hour. It would be impossible for me to include everything we talked about in this article, but I have attached the audio below so that if you’d like to hear the entire interview, you can. We discussed an assortment of topics in addition to his podcast including stand-up comedy, politics, the Republican debates, Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Sarah Palin, The Ohio Players, the Oscars, Eddie Murphy, Ellen DeGeneres, Star Wars, George Lucas, Winter’s Bone, comic book adapted movies, romantic comedies, Judd Apatow, Wes Anderson, Zach Galifiankis, and the trappings of success.

In the wake of Eddie Murphy's departure from his previously announced gig as the host of 84th Academy Awards Ceremony yesterday, the one idea for a replacement host that seemed to make a whole lot of people happy was the notion that The Muppets could do it.  That was, in all likelihood, never a viable option for a multitude of reasons, mostly practical, but now the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has decided on a willing replacement.  If Murphy was an interesting, potentially bold, choice, and The Muppets were unfeasibly bold, then the actual host for 2012 is a few notches in the other direction, since it's not Billy Crystal's first time as the clown at the Oscar rodeo.

Much like a junkie who swears he's coming back for just one more hit of that sweet, sweet black tar, The Muppets can't stop releasing new little parody-style trailers.  Two weeks ago, what was supposed to be the last one disappeared up its own meta-hole and even poked fun at Paranormal Activty 3, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Puss in Boots, and Happy Feet Two.  Now though, yet another parody trailer entered the world today, and it shows The Muppets going a little bit Bollywood, with many of the film's copious musical moments playing out to some thoroughly Indian musical accompaniment.  And as a bonus: NPH himself, Neil Patrick Harris, makes an appearance.  At this rate, Kermit and the rest of Jim Henson's puppet cadre will probably still be showing up in trailers after the movie actually hits theaters, perhaps randomly in trailers for other movies.