In Darling Companion, the new film from Lawrence Kasdan, a mother and daughter played by screen legend Diane Keaton and Mad Men's Elizabeth Moss are speeding down the freeway when they discover a helpless stray dog.  The pup, appropriately named Freeway, becomes a part of the family.  When he runs away, the ensuing search effort illuminates the relationships between a cast of characters played by the likes of Keaton, Moss, Kevin Kline, Richard Jenkins, Mark Duplass, Sam Shepard, Lindsay Sloane, and Ayelet Zurer.

The lighthearted drama is based on real experiences that the director and co-writer – whose credits include The Big Chill and Raiders of the Lost Ark – shared with his daughter and co-writer Meg Kasdan.  Even with all that talent behind and in front of the camera, the film is built around and dependent upon Freeway the Dog, which got us thinking.

Unless you're allergic or one of those misguided souls who believes that affection for cats and dogs is an either/or mutually exclusive deal, odds are you're partial to the charms of man's domesticated best buddy.  Whether we're talking about a towering Great Dane or a shivering Chihuahua, there's a breed for everybody.  So for your enjoyment, and with a nod to the release of Darling Companion this Friday, April 20th, our latest edition of the Rogue 10 compiles, in no particular order, ten of our favorite cinematic canines.

Opening in theaters on April 20th is a new film from veteran director Lawrence Kasdan (Silverado, Grand Canyon) called Darling Companion. Kasdan co-wrote the film with his wife Meg, and it is was loosely based on an event from their own lives. The film stars an all-star cast of actors that features three Academy Award-winners and two former nominees including Kevin Kline (A Fish Called Wanda), Diane Keaton (Annie Hall), Dianne Wiest (Bullets Over Broadway), Richard Jenkins (The Visitor), and Sam Shepard (The Right Stuff). Rounding out the cast are actor/director Mark Duplass (Jeff, Who Lives at Home), Ayelet Zurer (Angels & Demons) and Elisabeth Moss (TV's Mad Men).

IAR's Managing Editor Jami Philbrick recently had a chance to speak with Mark Duplass, and Ayelet Zurer about their work on Darling Companion. They discussed the new film, their character's unexpected attraction to each other, what Duplass learned as a director from working with Lawrence Kasdan, Zurer's character's true intentions, and what it was like to be part of a cast of actors that includes three Academy Award-winners and two former nominees. 

Opening in theaters on April 20th is a new film from veteran director Lawrence Kasdan (Silverado, Grand Canyon) called Darling Companion. Kasdan co-wrote the film with his wife Meg, and it is was loosely based on an event from their own lives. The film stars an all-star cast of actors that features three Academy Award-winners and two former nominees including Kevin Kline (A Fish Called Wanda), Diane Keaton (Annie Hall), Dianne Wiest (Bullets Over Broadway), Richard Jenkins (The Visitor), and Sam Shepard (The Right Stuff). Rounding out the cast are actor/director Mark Duplass (Jeff, Who Lives at Home), Ayelet Zurer (Angels & Demons) and Elisabeth Moss (TV's Mad Men).

IAR's Managing Editor Jami Philbrick recently had the pleasure of sitting down and speaking with accomplished director Lawrence Kasdan, as well as his wife and co-writer Meg Kasdan about their work on Darling Companion. The two filmmakers discussed their new movie, the real life incident that inspired the film, working with longtime collaborator Kevin Kline, casting Oscar-winner Diane Keaton, and making their first independent film. 

Opening in theaters on April 20th is a new film from veteran director Lawrence Kasdan (Silverado, Grand Canyon) called Darling Companion. Kasdan co-wrote the film with his wife Meg, and it is was loosely based on an event from their own lives. The film stars an all-star cast of actors that features three Academy Award-winners and two former nominees including Kevin Kline (A Fish Called Wanda), Diane Keaton (Annie Hall), Dianne Wiest (Bullets Over Broadway), Richard Jenkins (The Visitor), and Sam Shepard (The Right Stuff). Rounding out the cast are actor/director Mark Duplass (Jeff, Who Lives at Home), Ayelet Zurer (Angels & Demons) and Elisabeth Moss (TV's Mad Men).

IAR's Managing Editor Jami Philbrick recently had the pleasure of sitting down and speaking with Oscar-winner Kevin Kline about his work on Darling Companion. The seasoned actor discussed the new film, his initial reaction to the premise of the film and the true story it is based on, working with his longtime collaborator and friend Lawrence Kasdan, his character's relationship to his wife played by Diane Keaton, working with the film's canine star, as well as looking back at two of his best but little known films: Silverado, and The January Man. 

Even John Milton, who dictated one of the finest works of poetry ever composed in the English language after literally years of serious work, would probably agree that Casey Affleck knocked it out of the park in his Oscar nominated leading turn in Gone Baby Gone, as directed by his older sibling Ben Affleck.  So assuming he's still alive almost 350 years after the poem's publication, Milton's probably pretty stoked that Affleck is in negotiations to play an angel loyal to god in Paradise Lost, a 3D action epic based on his truly classic work.  Not only that, but the gorgeous Camilla Belle is also likely to join the project as a certain apple-loving young lady who causes humanity's expulsion from the Garden of Eden.

In this strange online culture of ours, it seems that, more often than not, those individuals blessed with a surplus of wit are more inclined to use their cleverness for snarky, mean-spirited writing that tears a piece of entertainment (perhaps deservingly) to pieces.  It's refreshing then, that producer and screenwriter Damon Lindelof has used his loquaciousness to pen an articulate and heartfelt love-letter to Raiders of the Lost Ark, praising the Steven Spielberg-directed, George Lucas-produced, Harrison Ford-starring adventure for the bona-fide masterpiece that it is.  Lindelof has geek credibility to days, having executive produced Lost and produced the Star Trek reboot.  His upcoming projects include Ridley Scott's Alien quasi-prequel Prometheus and Star Trek 2.

The entertaining, funny essay was written for Hero Complex, and it it's accompanied by an explanatory introduction that begins with the line, "I remember with great clarity the last time I peed my pants."  Lindelof goes to explain the intent of his love-letter to, "one of the most perfect movies ever made."  Seriously, read on, enjoy, and notice that by the time you're done, you'll be feeling a distinct urge to whallop some Nazi faces alongside your old buddy Indy.

Seventeenth Century poet John Milton aspired to write an epic poem, in English, which would rival the likes of the Aeneid and Odyssey.  To do this, he meticulously created a unique, humbling syntax to approximate reading the language of angels and god, dictating his poem well after he himself was completely blind.  Of course, what he probably had in mind was that, four hundred years down the line, someone would make a 3D action movie out of it.  So it is that Alex Proyas is developing Paradise Lost, and now Djimon Hounsou has joined a cast that so far includes Bradley Cooper and Benjamin Walker.

Bradley Cooper is all set to play Lucifer in Paradise Lost, an effects-filled blockbuster based on one of the finest epic poems ever written in the English language.  Since the prideful fallen angel is, at best, an anti-hero, though, he'll be butting heads with the Archangel Michael, a reciprocal other who is more obedient to God the Creator and less gung-ho on the whole hubris thing.  Deadline reports that Benjamin Walker, who just finished filming his role as the titular 16th President/supernatural avenger in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, is in talks to play Michael.  Not only that, but Mike Fleming managed to get plenty of new insight from Paradise Lost director Alex Proyas.

In order to create Paradise Lost, arguably one of the finest achievements in English literature of all time, John Milton spent years composing his epic poem, tirelessly striving to create a syntactic style that read like the language of god and his angels.  Dictating well into his old age and blindness, Milton's resulting poem, first published in 1667, accomplished his ambitious goal and created a text of apparently limitless depth.  For the first time, a film adaptation is looking to capture the epic story of angelic war, the creation of man, and anti-hero Lucifer's hubris and fall to Hell.

Alex Proyas (The Crow, I, Robot, Dark City) has signed on to direct an adaptation of Paradise Lost, based on the classic 17th-century poem by John Milton. Legendary Pictures' (The Dark Knight, Watchmen) Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni will produce the possibly 3D project with Vince Newman.  The project is expected to fall under Legendary's co-production and co-financing  agreement with Warner Bros., which will distribute the film worldwide.