'Devil Inside' Writer And Director Talk Success, Controversy

'More than anything, we're just excited that people are talking about the movie,' writer Matthew Peterman tells MTV News.
By Kevin P. Sullivan


Bonnie Morgan in "The Devil Inside"
Photo: Paramount

Director William Brent Bell and writer Matthew Peterman defied all expectations when their new film, "The Devil Inside," broke January box-office records. The horror movie grossed $35 million domestically in its opening weekend for Paramount, whose parent company, Viacom, owns MTV.

Since the film's surprise success and subsequent controversy, Bell and Peterman have found themselves at the center of a lot of talk around Hollywood. The writer/director duo took time to speak with MTV News about the film, the audience reaction and the controversial ending.

MTV: What has your week been like since the release?

Matthew Peterman: It's really exciting. It's just exciting for the movie business that it reinvigorated the marketplace a little bit, so it's nice to be a part of that to some degree.

MTV: What were your expectations going into the release?

Bell: When we made the film, we made it completely independently and outside the studio system. It was me, Matt [and] our producing partner Morris Paulson, who independently financed the film. We went off to Europe and shot the movie, came back here with it and just worked on it for about a year. We brought on Steven Schneider and Lorenzo di Bonaventura. We worked on it with them for a while and then presented it to Paramount. We had been working on the film since its first inception, over five years at that point, but a year and a half of actually shooting and editing and all the good stuff.

Peterman: I think our expectations were to make the best film we could. Hopefully, everything else would just take care of itself. We didn't have an idea that it would do anything like this. There were no expectations for that.

MTV: What do you think of the audience reaction?

Peterman: I think, more than anything, we're just excited that people are talking about the movie. We know it's a polarized audience. That's kind of the cool thing that movies do, because we took a lot of chances. We kind of see it in the way people are talking about it.

Bell: We're just excited people are talking about it. We're excited there are a lot of people who do like the movie. It is very interesting and cool to have a polarizing movie out there that people can get into the heat of discussion about. That's actually interesting. The more people are interested, the better it is for the film.

Peterman: It's a lot better, man, than just putting a movie out there that's just forgotten. We have our fair share of fans. We have our fair share of naysayers. It's cool to see people getting into healthy discussion about a film.

MTV: How different was your experience this time compared to your first film, the video game-themed horror movie "Stay Alive"?

Bell: It was 180 degrees different. It kind of started off the same, but it very quickly changed. The budget was 10 times this, depending on how you look at it. We did it kind of independently but not really, because it had such a big budget. We shot in America with a huge union crew. It was a much more standard Hollywood kind of experience and one I didn't enjoy very much.

Peterman: There were huge companies involved in that film. "The Devil Inside" was a completely independent project in every sense of the word. We enjoyed "Devil Inside" much better.

Bell: It was released by a studio that really didn't understand those types of films. You know the typical story where you destroy the movie in editing and you turn it from an R-rated film to a PG-13 film, and the result is something really unsatisfying. This time, we got to do what we wanted to do, pretty much.

MTV: What are you going to take away from "The Devil Inside"?

Bell: We really love this. You can call it "found footage." You can call it "mock-doc" or "faux-doc" or whatever, depending on how you tell the story. We love this whole space, because you can work with really talented people and aren't beholden to a great deal of money and take more chances. There are only so many stories you can tell, so to be able to tell a story in a unique way, this kind of documentary style allows us to do that. We certainly want to continue down that path. It gives audiences something different.

Peterman: It allows you to do unconventional things. We did those on "The Devil Inside" for sure.

MTV: Is horror a genre you want to stay in?

Bell: I think it will be for a while. We've written a lot of projects that we've set up at different studios that kind of span different genres. We have a project now that's more of a straightforward thriller. It's in the pipeline. Certainly the next project and maybe the next two projects will stay in that space. We have a really exciting horror project that we hope to be shooting really soon. It's a real departure from this one, but then again, there are also some similarities, the techniques we're using.

[Spoiler ahead!]

MTV: The film's ending frustrated many moviegoers. What were your thoughts on the URL at the end of the film?

Bell: That was something different. When that idea came up, we thought that could fit. It's a very interactive concept.

Check out everything we've got on "The Devil Inside."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1677115/devil-inside.jhtml

Dominique Swain Jamie Chung Mia Kirshner Krista Allen Kristin Cavallari

Dance Moms 'Not Very Grateful,' Abby Lee Miller Says

'You would think that the mothers would see things a little clearer now,' outspoken instructor tells MTV News about Tuesday's season-two premiere.
By Jim Cantiello


Abby Lee Miller of "Dance Moms"
Photo: MTV News

Abby Lee Miller is just as eager to see the second-season premiere of "Dance Moms" as the rest of us. Although she's the star of Lifetime's runaway reality hit about a tough-love dance instructor and the meddling moms that get in her way, she doesn't see the show ahead of time.

"I see [the episodes] when you see them," Miller told MTV News. "People are asking me questions about future episodes, and I'm just like, 'I don't remember what happened. Sorry!' "

But once the titular dance moms are brought up in conversation, Miller has no problem recalling her ongoing drama with the cast. (Buckle up, readers. She's got a lot to say about everyone!)

"They're just not very grateful," Miller whispered. "You would think that the mothers would see things a little clearer now, now that they're on a television show and now that they do have fans, that they [wouldn't] be a little more respectful of me. I just think that they don't want to recognize the fact [that] if it wasn't for Abby Lee Miller and the Abby Lee Dance Company and having their children enrolled in my studio that they would be on a show," Miller said.

A lot of the drama in season two — premiering Tuesday night (January 10) at 9 p.m. — stems from the inflated egos of the newly famous cast. "[Dance mom Kristi] went behind everyone's back and hired a publicist," Miller sighed. "Kristi has this bizarre twisted imagination that they would have just picked [daughter] Chloe up in any dance studio in the Pittsburgh area. How would that have happened? That's not the way that it came to be."

Still, even with the spotlight brighter than ever, the lady in charge insists that nobody "turns it on" for the camera. "I think why the show always works is there's that underlying original story or characters, if you will, that had these original problems before Lifetime, before [production company] Collins Avenue, before [producer/creator] John Corella and I ever put this together and he ran with it and made this all happen," Miller said. "Those things like grown adult mothers being jealous of [child dancer] Maddie — that's still there."

One of Abby Lee Miller's biggest pet peeves is the "favoritism" accusation thrown her way in regards to Maddie, the award-winning dancer often perched on top of Miller's achievement pyramid over classmates Chloe and Paige. "Bull!" Miller screamed. "[Maddie]'s paying for one-on-one lessons. At registration in August, guess who wasn't there [to sign up for one-on-one lessons]? I don't know if I'm allowed to say," Miller trailed off, hinting at future season-two plot-points.

"These moms, this is their first child that they've had involved in this. This is my 3,000th child I've had involved in this. So I've done this all before. I can take you back 30 years and give you two names just like Maddie and Chloe. Another five years? Another two kids. Another five years? Another two kids. There's always two kids in that studio that are vying for the top spot. There's all those other kids who are in the group [too]. Some of those [other] kids are on Broadway right now. It's not always the one who was really good and winning everything when they were little that ends up with a career. Bodies change, interests change, passion changes. You never know. I mean, look at Paige; she's stunning. She's a beautiful child. When she's 18, it's all going to come together. She's gonna fill out, she's still gonna be beautiful. The dancing's gonna click. You don't need to do the steps that Maddie's doing to be in a Broadway show or to be a Rockette."

Another hot topic is Holly's inability to see her daughter Nia perform at a dance competition due to a work commitment. It's a fight that kicks off season two and it still remains a contentious issue, long after the second season wrapped taping. "[Holly]'s a principal of a school. She's a hotshot. Leave early! Come on! She just got in trouble two days ago for me. Didn't show up again at a competition, and it was a Saturday. Now what? And her husband's a really good-looking, nice guy with a big job. Hire an assistant! Do whatever you have to do!"

But nobody gets Abby Lee Miller's blood boiling quite like Cathy Nesbitt-Stein, rival dance coach at Candy Apple's Dance Center in Ohio. Miller accused Cathy of stealing a bumblebee costume Miller leant to her daughter. "I think they're stealing a lot of things," Miller joked, referencing a tricked-out video-screen pyramid PowerPoint that fans will see Cathy use at Candy Apple's in the season-two premiere.

"I went to the [Apple store] in Pittsburgh and I said, 'I want this and I wanna throw [the girls' pictures onscreen] like "CSI." ' And then I told my producers at Collins Avenue, 'I need this! This is the way it has to be.' And then they stole that idea and gave it to [Cathy]. You can't trust anybody in this business," Miller said.

Watch Abby Lee Miller be "always right" and never get the respect she deserves when the drama-filled second season of "Dance Moms" premieres Tuesday night at 9 on Lifetime.

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1677056/dance-moms-abby-lee-miller-ungrateful-moms.jhtml

Olivia Munn Mía Maestro Foxy Brown LeAnn Rimes Kylie Bax

Dr. Conrad Murray: You Want Me to Pay, Too?!


Dr. Conrad Murray wants the judge in his criminal manslaughter case to deny Michael Jackson's family restitution, arguing that MJ was responsible for his demise.

Murray was convicted and sentenced for involuntary manslaughter already. That is set in stone. However, he is still fighting the restitution the star's family seeks.

Murray is asking for evidence the defense never received during the trial - evidence he claims could show Michael self-administered the fatal dose of Propofol.

Conrad Murray Photo

Murray's lawyer, J. Michael Flanagan, argues that - guilty verdict aside - in deciding how much restitution the family gets, the victim's responsibility matters.

So Murray will concede he's partly to blame (he can't argue otherwise because of the conviction) but he still wants to prove that Jackson caused his own death.

The prosecution is asking for around $100 million in restitution, but the judge hasn't decided on a figure. The level of culpability will ultimately play into that.

Once the figure is set, if Flanagan gets his way and the judge were to decide MJ was 50 percent responsible, the judge would reduce restitution by 50 percent.

Also complicating matters? Murray is pretty much broke, and if anything, Jackson's family has profited from his death. So ... the judge has a lot to ponder.

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/01/dr-conrad-murray-you-want-me-to-pay-too/

Katharine Towne Paige Butcher Karolína Kurková Liz Phair Melissa George

Andy Cohen Defends Inclusion of Russell Armstrong on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills


Andy Cohen faced the press/fire this week at the Television Critics Association, answering questions about the new season of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and, specifically, why Russell Armstrong has been featured despite his suicide in August.

Photo of Andy Cohen

"He was given the option to not come back or come back and he chose to come back," Cohen said. "He had spoken to producers a lot vocally about how it had helped his business being on the show, so you know, I can't speak to that."

In an interview prior to the new season airing, Armstrong referred to the show as phony BS, warning that producers edit every action and every conversation.

Did they ever considering cutting him entirely from the show, following his death?

"We had many discussions, as you can imagine, for a long time about how to do the serious discussions," said Cohen. "And I think what emerged is the story of a woman trying to extricate herself from a bad, broken marriage in which she was unhappy and in which domestic violence played a part. And that was the story that wound up emerging from the season."

That, and very high ratings, of course.

[Photo: WENN.com]

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/01/andy-cohen-defends-inclusion-of-russell-armstrong-on-real-housew/

Aubrey ODay Vanessa Hudgens Lorri Bagley Christina Ricci Olivia Munn