Dan Stevens of 'Downton Abbey' plays an evil charmer in 'The Guest'

The departure of Matthew, played by Dan Stevens, from "Downton Abbey," felt cruel to many fans of the popular series. After we saw the character nursed back to health (spoiler alert), Matthew dies just as his heir is born. Stevens in fact jumped ship, eager to turn his starring role in the series into a movie career.

He now has now filmed three roles in as-yet unreleased movies, and signed on for a starring role in a fourth, The Guest. The busy actor played a supporting role in The Fifth Estate, which focuses on the Wikileaks scandal. Another BBC vet, Benedict Cumberbatch of "Sherlock," stars as Julian Assange, Stevens will also appear in the Liam Neeson-led detective picture A Walk Among the Tombstones. Back in "Downton Abbey" territory, he filmed a role as one part of a love triangle in Summer in February, a period piece about an artists' colony at the turn of the century. 

Now Stevens has a starring role in The Guest, which will film this summer. He will play a man who returns from a tour of duty and befriends a family. They are unaware that he has other intentions besides just friendship--as well as a secret past. The dark role will be a nice way for Stevens to diversify his star image. He will play a charming man--but an evil one. In a recent article in The Atlantic, "The Rise and Fall of Male Charm," writer Benjamin Schwarz dissects the star image of so-called charmers like Cary Grant and George Clooney. He also highlights Orson Welles' role in the noir The Third Man. As "a man who knew just how to exploit his immense charm," Welles is enthralling when he uses his powers for evil, not good. "We...know that Welles is an evil
opportunist...Never mind, because even
as Welles charmingly, openly confirms all that, he forever wins us over." Cary Grant also played on his charming persona, using it to play shady characters in the Hitchcock movies Suspicion and Notorious. In choosing such a role, Stevens has made a wise choice tread by the many charming actors before him. With so many roles in films that have yet to be released, it's likely at least one of the performances will stick, broadening Stevens' star image beyond the soapy intrigue that is "Downton Abbey."

Reese Witherspoon lines up romantic comedy 'The Beard'

On a recent plane ride, I caught a few minutes of the in-flight movie, this year's Valentine's Day dud This Means War. The high-concept love triangle involving two spies (Chris Pine and Tom Hardy) and the woman they love (Reese Witherspoon) bombed at the box office. Although I closely followed Reese Witherspoon's early career, since she won an Oscar for Walk the Line she hasn't had a quality film by my measure (positive reviews + great box office) since. This Means War: case in point. Walk the Line was, in fact, a whole decade ago, and she made a number of so-so films in that wake, including the romances Just Like Heaven, Four Christmases, How Do You Know and Water for Elephants. The latter two could have been good, since they had James L. Brooks and literary

Reese Witherspoon at the Cannes' premiere of 'Mud'

success, respectively, behind them, but neither earned accolades from critics or audiences. Witherspoon needs another good project, stat, and it looks like she finally has a few more projects that might just do that.

 

On the "may actually break $100 million, but probably won't get great reviews" side is The Beard, the star's most recent announcement. Witherspoon will play a woman who is a beard for a gay man (as in makes him appear to be straight to the public/outsiders), a situation that gets complicated when she actually falls in love. I see this working best if she really has a genuine affection and sincere friendship with this guy, but ends up being torn between that and her love of someone new. If there are celebrities involved, I definitely envision a scene where she is branded a cheater when in fact she's really just pursuing love for the first time. The Chernin Entertainment production comes courtesy of a spec script by TV writer Becca Greene. I can't really imagine this project being set anywhere other than Hollywood, where there are constant whispers of stars serving as each other's beards. But couldn't this blow the whole lid off this allegedly common Hollywood practice? I'm sure this will end up leaving countless readers of Us and People more cynical after realizing the lies they may have been told.

The Beard may be Witherspoon's comedy comeback, but the projects I'm most excited about are her dramas. The Southern-born star has turned back to her roots for a couple of her upcoming projects, something that will serve her well.

I was extremely impressed with writer/director Jeff Nichols' debut Take Shelter. Witherspoon has a small role in Nichols' follow-up project Mud, which centers on two boys' attempts to reunite a convict (Matthew McConaughey, also a star redefining his image) with his long-lost love (Witherspoon). I like that she's in a small, independent film. She showed up at the Cannes Film Festival to support the movie, though she reportedly has just a small role in the project. I think she'll need to have a bigger part in such a film in order to help her break out of the same-old.

That role might be in Devil's Knot, an adaptation of the West Memphis Three case that has been explored in documentaries like Paradise Lost. In Arkansas, three teens were falsely accused of killing three boys in a satanic ritual and sent to prison. Witherspoon is listed as playing Pamela Hobbs, the mother of the victim Stevie Branch. Her husband, the boy's stepfather, was accused by some of committing the murder. Atom Egoyan, the respected indie director of projects like The Sweet Hereafter, is directing.

Witherspoon's IMDB list includes plenty more questionable projects, including a role in the adaptation of Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus and a starring role in Wish List, in which a thirty-something career woman finds all her childhood wishes have come true. I worry that these projects seem trite and stereotypical. Witherspoon rose to fame because of one-two punches like Election and Legally Blonde, and I know she's capable of more than her recent films have shown.

 

TV stars flock to the big screen

By Sarah Sluis

Where better to draw supporting cast members from than some of the hottest televisions shows? Christina Hendricks, known as the voluptuous head secretary Joan Holloway in AMC's "Mad Men," signed on to Life as We Know It, a romance-drama that will start filming this fall. Katherine Heigl (who herself rose to fame through "Grey's Anatomy") will star with Josh Duhamel. The movie follows a romance that develops between Heigl and Duhamel when they are named caregivers of their friends' children when the couple dies in a car accident. Because Hendricks is playing the mutual best friend of Heigl and Duhamel, chances are she'll be playing the dead wife, which means we'll mainly be seeing her before or in flashbacks.

Blake Lively from "Gossip Girl" is joining actor/director Ben Affleck's production The Town. The crime thriller, an adaptation of the novel Prince of Thieves, will center on Affleck but has assembled a big supporting cast, including another actor from "Mad Men," Jon Hamm, a.k.a. Don Draper. Lively will play Affleck's ex-girlfriend, who is also the sister of a member of his gang (Jeremy Renner). The production also starts filming this fall, so both of these projects should appear on the silver screen sometime in 2010.

I remember seeing Blake Lively in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and thinking, this girl is jumping off the screen. Within the ensemble cast, which included already established stars like Alexis Bledel ("Gilmore Girls") and America Ferrera (Real Women Have Curves), she stood out with effortless charisma. There was no doubt in my mind she was going to be cast in some big project. She made a few lackluster films, and has since achieved fame as the star of "Gossip Girls." I'm pleased that she has been cast in this role, as I suspect she has some deeper acting talent that's just waiting for the right role. Likewise, Christina Hendricks has worked almost exclusively--and regularly--in television for the past decade, including roles in niche favorites like "Firefly" and "Undressed." While both of these women are A-listers in (my) television world, these supporting roles could lead to a starring project that I'd happily buy a ticket to.