Francis Ford Coppola is returning to his “Godfather” roots

No, the legendary director isn’t making a sequel or prequel or reboot. But he will be writing and directing a new, decades-spanning Italian-American saga.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the movie will be “a coming-of-age story that focuses on a boy and girl in their late teens” and will be set from the 1930s through the 1960s.

Since “The Godfather” series ended in 1990 with the poorly-reviewed third film, Coppola has directed but rarely. He helmed “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” with Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder in 1992, then worked with Robin Williams in the critically-reviled “Jack.” His last big movie was 1997′s “The Rainmaker,” based on the book by John Grisham.

In the last decade, Coppola has stuck to the arthouse world, making indie movies “Youth Without Youth,” “Tetro,” and “Twixt.”

Perhaps the Coppola patriarch was inspired to keep up with his two surviving children, Roman and Sofia, who are both directors; her “Bling Ring” is in theaters June 14.

[via THR]

Can the world possibly be more in love with Joseph Gordon-Levitt? Why, yes — yes, they can. Just watch the trailer for his directorial debut, “Don Jon.”

The ever-charming JGL himself introduces the trailer “I’m really proud of it,” he says with a crinkly-cute smile. “I hope you like it.”

His character, “Don Jon” Martello, declares, “There’s only a few things I really care about in life: my body, my pad, my ride, my family, my church, my boys, my girls, and my porn.” We see cuts of him GCLing (gym, clean, laundry) and living a regular life until he meets The Girl — Barbara (Scarlett Johansson), “the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”

But their love story has one major complication: Jon’s addiction to porn.

“Movies and porno are different, Jon. They give awards for movies!” Barbara screams after finding him “checking his email.”

“They give awards for porn, too!” he replies.

“Don Jon,” which received rave reviews at the Sundance Film Festival, also stars Julianne Moore, Tony Danza, and Brie Larson (with cameos by Channing Tatum and Anne Hathaway in a movie-within-the-movie).

Fall in love with JGL all over again when the movie fist-bumps theaters October 18.

‘Don Jon’: Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Porn-Filled Directorial Debut Is About Love

Lights, cameras, and fast cars.

The stars of “Fast & Furious 6″ were ready to party last night at the movie’s premiere in L.A. VIn Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Cris “Ludacris” Bridges, and Tyrese Gibson were all on hand to celebrate the latest “Fast” installment, and celebrate they did. Actors/musicians Gibson and Ludacris not only walked the red carpet, they performed at the event, along with rapper Wiz Khalifa.

But they weren’t the only cast members who put on a show — Diesel joined them on-stage, while Rodriguez deejayed at the after-party.

In the latest adrenaline-pumping “Fast” installment, Agent Hobbs (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) enlists Dom (Diesel) and his team to bring a rival gang, led by Owen Shaw (Luke Evans), to justice in exchange for a blank slate (aka no criminal record). Sounds like a good deal!

Check out the photos below. “Fast & Furious 6″ speeds into theaters May 24.

This weekend it all comes to an end as the “Hangover” franchise closes in grand fashion with “The Hangover, Part III” — which might just be the best entry in the bunch. This installment sees the Wolfpack — Alan (Zach Galifianakis), Stu (Ed Helms), and Phil (Bradley Cooper) — first travel to Tijuana and then to Las Vegas (the scene of the crime) in an attempt to get their friend Doug (Justin Bartha) back from a villainous mobster (played by John Goodman).

We got to chat with Ed Helms about the movie while he was in Las Vegas for the junket. We’re not sure what went down out there, because, as we all know, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, although he did tell us what he wanted from the third installment, how his relationship with Zach’s character evolved, and his thoughts about the end of the franchise.

How’s Vegas?
Good ole Vegas… It’s like a second home to me.

You should just live on the Strip.
I practically do, I spend so much time here.

Did you have anything specific that you really wanted to do in this third “Hangover?”
That’s a really interesting question. If anything, and for Stu in particular, I just wanted a sense of closure for the whole “Hangover”/Wolf Pack world. And then if I got a few good jokes in along the way, I’d be happy.

It seemed like the relationship between you and Zach was even more antagonistic this time around. Was that something that you two developed or was that in the script?
You know, it kind of became this running joke what a punching bag Stu is. And Zach, and as a consequence Alan, kind of picked up on that. Alan has always seen Stu as a threat to his bromance with Phil. So there’s a natural animosity there. Even though I really believe, underlining all of it, these guys would do anything for each other, including Alan, as tweaked as he is. He makes fun of Stu because it gives him a little sense of power or makes him feel cool. But he’s ultimately more vulnerable than anybody.

I know I’m not supposed to say this because the film is supposed to be edgy, but this one does have a nice sweetness.
Come on it’s hard! It’s so punk rock!

You’ve got two huge parts of your life missing, with both “The Hangover” and “The Office” coming to a close. Is it bittersweet to have these things ending at the same time?
Super duper bittersweet. It’s very very sad. I love both of these things so much and yet in both cases it just feels like the right time and the right step for both. I can’t even begin to describe how much both “The Office” and “The Hangover” have impacted my life. It’s been a hell of a ride. The best analogy I can think of is when you get on a rollercoaster and it’s so fun and there’s peaks and valleys, there’s scary parts, there’s exciting parts, there’s a lot of laughs and screams along the way. And then when you finally pull into the station at the end of a rollercoaster ride, you’re bummed. You don’t want to get off. But you realize if you stayed on the rollercoaster you’d probably get hurt or sick or something. It’s time marching on. It’s life evolving. And it’s very poignant and very exciting.

It must have been fun too because you probably didn’t think, “I’m signing on to a long-running show” or “This is going to be the highest grossing comedy franchise of all time.”
That’s part of the peaks of the rollercoaster. It’s like Space Mountain at Disneyland. It’s dark, you can’t really see where you’re going… and I’m going to stop with the rollercoaster analogy. You can’t know. All you can do is, when you’re in a creative situation like that, just put it all out there and leave it all on the court. Which I really think everybody in “The Office” and “The Hangover” did. And you hope that people respond and they did. I’m just so grateful to have been a part of both things.

When you set out to make “The Hangover, Part III” did you look to anything in particular? There aren’t many third entries in a comedy series but did you set out to make it different or special in a specific way?
Well it had to be different. The first two follow the same template and it just wasn’t going to work; you can’t do that again. So the question became “How do you do it and what do you focus on?” And what I love about this third one is that, in the same way that a great serial TV show will be constantly mining its previous episodes for the structural tidbits to build future episodes, that’s how this narrative came together. There’s so many ghosts from one and two that haunt this story in such a cool and fun and organic way. I really think it all fits together. This is a great closer. I’ll say on top of that, Alan in screenwriting terms has kind of been the inciting incident or the precipitating factor to all the chaos, so it also makes sense for this third one to really explore Alan a little bit more and get into what that character is about. He’s so fascinating.

Was there anything that you didn’t get to do that you wanted to do?
Hmmm… Hmmm… Well I wish that between “Hangovers 2″ and “3,” Stu got really fit, like super buff with washboard abs. That way Warner Bros would have had to put me on some crazy diet and hire a personal trainer and I would have been a total bad-ass. But that didn’t happen. Zach and I laugh about that — that we wish a movie would take responsibility for our health. But honestly I couldn’t ask for anything more than what’s in these movies. What an incredible journey to be on and an incredible team to be a part of.

So if Todd Haynes called you tomorrow you’d be down to collaborate again?
I would throw myself in front of a train if it meant working with Todd again. If Todd told me audiences would laugh, I’d throw myself in front of a train. So many of these horrible things Stu goes through I’ve just had to trust Todd. I have these kneejerk reactions — I am not a dark, edgy comic and a lot of this stuff pushed me out of my comfort zone. I just realized: don’t fight it. And I’m always glad I did.

Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke have been together for 18 years — well, on-screen that is.

The stars of Richard Linklater’s “Before” trilogy stepped out last night to celebrate the premiere of “Before Midnight,” the conclusion to the drama- and romance-filled series, in L.A.

Delpy looked radiant in a red, lace-embroidered dress, accessorized with matching red lips, while Hawke wore a classic navy suit and button-down shirt.

As mentioned, “Before Midnight” is the final installment of writer-directer Linklater’s story about Celine (Delpy) and Jesse (Hawke), two strangers who met, and fell in love, on a train to Vienna almost two decades ago in the film “Before Sunrise.” The sequel to “Sunrise,” “Before Sunset,” caught back up with Jesse and Celine nine years later in Paris, after Jesse had written a book about their encounter. In “Before Midnight,” we find the couple in their early 40s, in Greece, taking on the hurdles of marriage and parenthood.

Hawke and Delpy not only star in the movie, they also co-wrote it with Linklater.

Check out the photos below. “Before Midnight” opens May 24.

Summer is almost upon us, which means lots of sun, beach-going, and movie-viewing (of course). The traditional movie-going experience can have you couped up in a theater for hours, which means you’ll miss the beautiful weather outside.

Luckily, Moviefone is taking you out of the theater, and into the sunshine (and under the stars) with this year’s Street Food Cinema.

The annual outdoor movie festival gives Los Angeles-area residents (or anyone visiting L.A. this summer) the chance to watch a full and diverse line-up of films in the fresh summer air of Exposition Park. The event also features gourmet food trucks and music from emerging L.A. musicians. Tickets to the event are $10, which includes access to the food, music, and live entertainment.

Check out the full schedule below, and find out more information at the official Street Food Cinema website.

SCHEDULE
May 25th – STAND BY ME w/ Corey Feldman
June 1st – RISKY BUSINESS 30th ANNIVERSARY
June 8th – FAMILY NIGHT: ESCAPE FROM PLANET EARTH
June 15th – PITCH PERFECT
June 22nd – ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW w/ Live Cast Sins O’ The Flesh
June 29th – BFF DOUBLE FEATURE: ST. ELMO’S FIRE & REALITY BITES
July 6th – JAWS – Exposition Park, Downtown PURCHASE TICKETS
July 13th – SHAUN OF THE DEAD & HOT FUZZ
July 20th – MEAN GIRLS
July 27th – MONTY PYTHON & THE HOLY GRAIL
Aug 3rd – SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK
Aug 10th – SWINGERS
Aug 17th – SKYFALL

The grand finale of the “Hangover” trilogy is upon us.

“The Hangover Part III” — which, apparently, is more insane crime-infused action flick than substance-abuse comedy — hits theaters May 23. To celebrate, here are ten things you probably didn’t know about all three “Hangover” movies.

1. During casting for “The Hangover”, Lindsay Lohan was offered the part of Jade, the stripper, but turned it down because she wasn’t into the script and thought the movie would bomb. Heather Graham nabbed the role instead, and appears again in Part III. Lohan later admitted to regretting her decision.

2. Ed Helms didn’t need a special mouthpiece for his character Stu’s missing tooth. In real life, Helms has a tooth implant because his adult incisor never grew in. He simply removed his dental implant for filming.

3. Sean Penn and Robert Downey Jr. were reportedly considered for John Goodman’s role in “The Hangover Part III.”

4. Former U.S. president Bill Clinton visited the set of “The Hangover Part II” in Bangkok, Thailand. Unfortunately, he didn’t film a cameo.

5. The role of the tattoo artist in “The Hangover Part II” was originally intended for Mel Gibson, but that plan was axed after protests from the cast and crew. Liam Neeson played the role instead; but later, director Todd Phillips wanted to reshoot the scene, and Neeson was filming “Wrath of the Titans” at the time. Finally, Nick Cassavetes took on the role, and that’s who ended up in the movie.

6. Zach Galifianakis made an alternate music video for Kanye West‘s song “Can’t Tell Me Nothing,” which is featured in “The Hangover” soundtrack. It was filmed on Zach’s actual farm in North Carolina, and it is hilarious.

7. The original baby from the first “Hangover” movie, Grant Holmquist (pictured above), also appears in “The Hangover Part III.” Director Todd Phillips said, “We called up the mom and said hey we’re doing another one and we would love to see how Grant is doing. Then they came to my office and he was great and we had so much fun seeing him again.” According to People, Grant is very fond of costar Zach Galifianakis. (But who isn’t?!)

8. Speaking of kids, Ken Jeong brought his children to the set to watch him film scenes for “Hangover Part III.”

9. During production of the first “Hangover,” a beat-up Mercedes being used during filming was stolen from the lot. It was recovered the next day when a someone on the production staff spotted the car in traffic while they were filming driving sequences.

10. The release date for “The Hangover Part III” was reportedly moved up a day (to May 23) to avoid direct competition with “Fast & Furious 6,” which, arguably, has a very similar audience.