Film

Arriving at Tuesday’s advance screening of Guardians of the Galaxy, the latest superhero summer popcorn movie from Marvel Studios, two-time Oscar nominee Djimon Hounsou didn’t duck out for dinner with studio reps once the lights went down. Instead, Hounsou donned his 3D glasses, and settled into a seat with a large bottle of water and a bag of popcorn to watch the two-hour intergalactic comic book come to life. Hounsou is part of an ensemble cast that includes Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, The Walking Dead’s Michael Rooker, Lee Pace, John C. Reilly, and Glenn Close. Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel lend their voices to the flick, portraying mutant, mouthy raccoon Rocket, and Groot, a walking, talking tree with a severely limited vocabulary.

At some point, I suppose, it will stop being a surprise that movie folks ask Atlanta to stand in for so many other places. Odd enough that Woodruff Park was a facsimile of seventies-era NYC complete with overflowing garbage cans and yellow cabs for Anchorman 2. But today, while strolling around our neighborhood, my husband and I came across a crew hard at work constructing a faux Rhode Island streetscape on a long-vacant lot at the corner of Kirkwood Avenue and Pearl Street in Cabbagetown, about the most quintessentially Southern pocket of Atlanta you could hope for.

If you don’t get the Sportsman Channel (and even if your cable carries it, you still may not get it), you probably don’t know that onetime Braves star Chipper Jones has traded his bat and uniform for a compound bow and camo as star of outdoors show Major League Bowhunter. We immediately wondered how No. 10 would fare against two famous, if fictional, archers who shoot (arrows and film) in Georgia.

If the financing comes through on his next acting project, former Agatha's: A Taste of Mystery actor and writer Gary Anthony Williams might just be flexing his improv skills again later this year. For three seasons now, the former "Malcolm in the Middle" actor has given voice to comic strip creator Aaron McGruder's outrageous Uncle Ruckus character on "The Boondocks," the popular Cartoon Network Adult Swim animated series.

Revisit cinematic classics and enjoy family favorites with these summer films. It’s not quite the same as going to a drive-in, but it beats sitting on the couch, glued to Netflix.

Thanks to a pair of Facebook fan surveys and a few long overdue arm wrestling bouts with Midtown parking purveyors, the Fox Theatre’s 2013 Coca-Cola Summer Film Festival could be the Atlanta landmark’s most ambitious movie series in years. When discounted advance tickets go on sale Friday morning at 10 via the Fox’s website, movie fans will see a more stream-lined line up: Friday nights will be devoted to action flicks, Saturday offerings will be date night and family friendly with Sundays reserved for revered classic films.

His middle initial, "R," may as well stand for “Renaissance Man.” After leading the Dawgs in receptions last season, Christian Conley decided to lead his campus in the production of a Star Wars fan film, titled Retribution. And according to his Twitter bio, he’s also a lover of Christ and aspiring writer. Plus, he can carry a tune quite better than most. I think the only thing this guy doesn’t do is wear jorts. “Yeah, I wouldn’t be caught in those,” he said when we talked about the surprise response to his film.

Last summer, before an inch of film was ever shot on the set in Mississippi, the actor who played Jackie Robinson in 42 met up with the director of The Help in Atlanta, they rented a car and road tripped it together to Augusta. Getting the most minute details of James Brown’s life right was a top priority for Get on Up director Tate Taylor and actor Chadwick Boseman, who plays The Godfather of Soul in the new biopic opening in theaters today. With the tsunami of lawsuits and arguments that swirled after the soul pioneer’s 2006 Christmas Day death in Atlanta, it probably didn’t hurt to have the support of the Brown estate either.

As he welcomes an interviewer to his table at The Mansion on Peachtree, "Beginners" director-writer Mike Mills has a request: "May I film your handwriting? It's very nice. I'd like to do an entire documentary just on how people write."

When last we left Piz in the finale of the cancelled-too-soon series, he was dating Veronica—and had just been beaten up by Logan, her ostensible soul mate.