Michael Cera on "Nick & Norah"

"Only the bashful Michael Cera would hesitate to label his return to the Toronto International Film Festival a triumphant one. Last year, the Brampton, Ont., native was making the rounds for the Oscar-bound Juno. This year, he's back as a headliner in the romantic comedy Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, which will be showcased as the festival's Special Presentation on Sept. 6 before it opens theatrically on Oct. 3.

But please hold off on the celebratory applause. Cera, 20, isn't even sure he can embrace the homecoming theme, since he still lives in Brampton and Los Angeles when he isn't filming on location.

"I don't really feel awkward or comfortable about it", Cera says of his return to TIFF. "Downtown Toronto feels like just as foreign a place to me as any other big city."

What he is overwhelmingly enthusiastic about is Nick and Norah, which plays to the strengths of all those involved, including director Peter Sollett, who made his debut with Raising Victor Vargas, and Kat Dennings (as Norah), best remembered as Catherine Keener's emotionally distraught teenaged daughter in The 40-Year-Old Virgin.

In the film, Cera portrays Nick, an anxious teen member of a band called the Jerk Offs. When he gets unceremoniously dumped by his girlfriend, he heads out into the New York club world with his new-found friend Norah, searching for something to heal his heartbreak.

The droll dialogue and the pop music scene-setting seem like a good fit for Cera. After all, he managed to define the ultimate awkward teenager playing roles in Arrested Development, Juno and last summer's big hit, Superbad.

But there was more behind his interest than the dialogue and the rock 'n' roll backdrop. Director Sollett was the main attraction.
"I was a big fan of his movie", Cera says of Raising Victor Vargas. "It was so authentic capturing the lives of kids in the Lower East Side of New York. And I thought he could bring that to Nick and Norah."The actor's bond with Dennings turned out to be a bonus, but they worked hard to make the relationship seem as relaxed as it does onscreen.

"It was pretty easy the whole way," Cera says of the New York shoot. "We rehearsed a lot before doing the filming, so we felt pretty good going into it. And I knew Pete [Sollett] would rectify any of my bad acting choices in the editing."

Talk about modesty. Cera's been acclaimed since his high-profile introduction as the painfully hesitant George Michael Bluth in Arrested Development. That role led to a string of well-received portrayals.

Instead of embracing his inner movie star, Cera merely shrugs off his string of successes and good reviews. "I think it's more about me spotting things I know I wouldn't be good in," he says.

Cera is taking a well-earned break this autumn and winter after his promotional duties at the filmfest and for Nick and Norah's theatrical opening in October.

Then fans will have to wait until next year for more of his patented comedy. He's the co-star in a trailer trash farce called "Youth in Revolt", which is set for a spring release, and he teams up with Jack Black in the Harold Ramis "period piece" comedy "Year One", which will be ready for a summer, 2009, release. "Jack is Zed who goes on his journey to find an answer to life", Cera says, "and my character follows him."His next film will keep him closer to home cooking. He's scheduled to start filming the Edgar Wright fantasy comedy Scott Pilgrim vs. the World in Toronto early next year.

What he won't be doing any time soon is a movie version of a certain quirky TV show. He hasn't heard of any plans for an Arrested Development film.

"I don't think I would want to see a movie of the series if I was a fan, anyway," Cera says. "And I don't really see a need for it if you can get the three seasons on DVD."
Source: www.nationalpost.com/arts

Kat Dennings on "Nick & Norah"

-"How has it been to work with Michael Cera?

-KD: Oh God, he's the cutest thing in the universe. We're about to go do some reshoots and I'm so excited I feel like I'm going to Disneyland. When we shot the film it all takes place at night so it was all night shoots. We'd get up at 3 in the afternoon, go to set and by the time we got out of the make-up trailer it was dusk and we'd work through until the sun started to rise.

It was like the most fun camp ever. You're with your friends and you're having so much fun and you're just roaming New York. It was amazing and I made some really good friends there. Ari Graynor, this girl who plays my best friend Caroline in the movie, has become one of my very best friends in the world so we get to go back and play best friends again except this time we are best friends! It's going to be so much fun, I can't wait.

For those unfamiliar can you tell us what it's all about?-KD: It's based on a book by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan and it's been embraced by all sorts of people, not just teenagers. It's not overtly teenager-y. Teenagers don't say 'like' a lot -- well, I do, but most don't, and they don't talk in quips and aren't typically dumb. The male author wrote the Nick's chapters and the female author wrote the Norah's chapters.

Every chapter alternates between their points of view and it's their takes on the same scenes. It was really an interesting thing to shoot and I think it really turned out well. I haven't seen the whole thing yet, but bits I have seen have made me want to see it when it's finished!-How does that work in the film, the way it alternates between the two?

-KD: We tried it with narration from me and Michael and I don't know whether that'll stay in the final film, but the creators and the authors are very involved in this so it's going to do it justice. They're trying to figure out the best way, in terms of making it comprehensible to the audience; how best to tell this between the two of them. I think it's going to be visual, I don't know if they're going to use the voiceovers, so I think you're going to see the scenes from Norah's point of view and then from Nick's or visa-versa".

Source: www.rottentomatoes.com

Reese's look

"Neither like me nor dislike me Reese, but with this informal look trying to pass unnoticed at the airport won me and that´s why I am going to copy it".

Source: betrendymyfriend.blogspot.com

Cera in The Facebook Movie?

"The Facebook Movie has a very unofficial casting call — Yesterday, top Hollywood screenwriter Aaron Sorkin let it be known he was working on a movie about the high-flying social network. Here’s a (rather entertaining) formulation of which actor might play which geek role. Yes, Michael Cera (a co-star in Juno) would be Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg".

Source: venturebeat.com
"With a working title of Face Off, the plot concerns Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's soured relationship with early Facebook executive Eduardo Saverin, who appears to have been in close contact with Mezrich for the book, while they were both undergraduates at Harvard. The proposal described Zuckerberg and Saverin getting caught up in Silicon Valley excess, partying like celebrities all over the world, until a showdown between them turned ugly.

Sources close to Zuckerberg's Harvard days have indicated to CNET News that the scant detail available in the book proposal is of questionable veracity; one went so far as to say the content contained "some real bull****." At the time, it wasn't even clear that the book proposal was legitimate, since neither Mezrich nor his publisher, Doubleday, are willing to confirm it, but sources who spoke to 02138 seem to indicate that it's a done deal.

02138 has occasionally faced off with Facebook: last year, the magazine published a scathing piece about Zuckerberg that exposed extensive personal details about the young founder's life, leading to a brief legal spat.

In other news, readers of gossip blog Valleywag seem to agree that Mark Zuckerberg should be played onscreen by Arrested Development star Michael Cera".
Source: news.cnet.com

"West Wing" creator Aaron Sorkin is still in the research phase of his Facebook: The Movie project, but we thought Valleywag's readers could help cast the lead role. Take your pick from our list, below.

Who should play Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg?Superbad's Michael Cera is leading on this poll, Shia Labeouf on the set of "Transformers 2".
being the second one Transformers' Shia LaBeouf".
Source: valleywag.com

Feels like Jake if you concentrate

"I hit the Kitten on Wednesday, and I've been having such fun with my new non-toxic vibrator, which looks like a giant rubber Twizzler and feels like Jake Gyllenhaal if you really concentrate. (I kid.) Everything that's been written 'bout the Kitten is right on: the place looks like a clean, airy upscale boutique and the merchandise is artfully displayed. I especially liked the strap-on harnesses gracing the wall as nonchalantly as the Super-Flex-Ipex-Teflon-Kevlar bras at Victoria's Secret".
Source: blogs.citypages.com/dcody

Highschool lovers Video

Pilgrim updated

"If ever there was a pairing to hipster fan-boys everywhere; it is Michael Cera and Edgar Wright. Think about it, Cera made a name for himself being the awkward hero, and who can write an unlikely hero better than the man who helped write the Blood and Ice Cream trilogy? In an interview with Wizard Universe, Wright got the chance to update the status of his indie-comic feature, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (if you have also been waiting with bated breath for news on his Ant Man adaptation, there are a few tidbits to be had as well). So if you were worried that Pilgrim would fall by the wayside in the light of some of Wright's other projects, fear not, all is well in Pilgrim-land.

The original series was about a young Canadian and wannabe-rock star who falls for an American girl with the memorable name of Ramona V. Flowers (aka, the perfect girl). But in order to win the lady fair, our slacker must defeat her seven evil ex-boyfriends in hopes of winning a date with his dream girl. Cera plays Pilgrim, the bassist for the terribly titled band, Sex Bob-Omb, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead will star as Ramona. Wright isn't counting on making any more sequels the film as the comic was originally a 6-part series. Instead, Wright told Wizard that, "The script that we've written essentially covers all six. If it was at the level of Harry Potter we might be able to talk about doing six films but in this case our film is very much an adaptation of the entire six."Wright tells Wizard, "We're hopefully going into production later this year. We've been doing a lot of work on it in a conception level and getting into casting and crew and stuff." Wright and company have been making the rounds in Toronto scouting locations for the flick. But it probably makes Wright's job a lot easier considering most of the locals in the comic were based on actual locations (not to mention; it will be fun to see my hometown on-screen without The Hulk ruining the view).

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is expected to start filming later this fall, and should arrive in theaters in 2009".
Source: www.cinematical.com