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."

Trailer for 'The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug' offers peek at Tauriel character

Warner Bros.' Man of Steel is coming out on Friday, so it only makes sense that the distributor would release a trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug to play before showings of the tentpole. The trailer for the next Hobbit released on the web today, and it promises more of the same pleasures as the first film, while also suggesting a slight darkening in tone, as the team led by Bilbo Baggins takes on Smaug, the dragon voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch (who's also the villain in this year's Star Trek Into Darkness)

The biggest surprise in the trailer is the presence of another female character, the elf warrior Tauriel, played by Evangeline Lilly. J.R.R. Tolkien was a man of his times, and his books are completely devoid of female characters. The absence of an entire gender feels particularly stark when you compare it to the fantasies of a modern generation--J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series and George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones. Turns out that Tauriel is actually an invention by Peter Jackson and his wife and producing partner Fran Walsh, who take liberties with Tolkien's non-gendered reference to an "elven guard."

One of the things I liked about The Hobbit was the fact that it wasn't as dark as the Lord of the Rings
series. If anything, the lightness and child-friendly feel helped
contextualize the blockbuster Lord of the Rings trilogy by expanding the scope of Middle-earth. But that also seemed to be part of what left some viewers
cold--that and the dragged-out scenes that helped expand a single book
into three movies. The first Hobbit earned over $1 billion worldwide. The question for Smaug, which will come out this December, is if this middle child of a film can sustain the curiosity of viewers.

'The Purge' doubles the opening of 'The Internship'

Thanks to savvy marketing that pulled in both horror fans and those who perfer lighter thrillers, The Purge landed on top with $36 million this weekend. Horror fans liked the idea of seeing a family fend off a violent attack in their home, while others were drawn in by the fact that a futuristic government has made this kind of behavior legal--at least for 12 hours a year. Back in 2002, Panic Room, another home invasion movie that also had more of a thriller than horror vibe, opened to $30 million. The picture performed well among Hispanic audiences, which accounted for a third of ticket sales, as well as women, who bought 56% of the tickets.

In contrast, Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn couldn't excite audiences about The Internship. The comedy opened in fourth place with $18.1 million--and it cost far more than the reported $3 million for The Purge. That $18 million total is half the opening of Wedding Crashers, and it's also not a good showing for Shawn Levy, whose directing credits include the $100+ million comedy Date Night. Many critics felt uneasy with the heavy Google tie-in, which came across more like an advertisement than a lampoon, and audiences may feel the same way. In coming weeks, word-of-mouth will make this one sink quickly or coast through a bit longer.

With major blockbusters releasing since the beginning of May, plenty of pictures put in strong holdover weekends, dropping just a third from the previous weekend. Fast & Furious 6 kept its decline to 43%, which still gave the car chase movie $19.7 million. Down 33% in its second weekend, Now You See Me closely tailed Fast & Furious, posting returns of $19.5 million. Further down the list, Epic, Star Trek Into Darkness, Iron Man 3 and The Great Gatsby all dropped in the mid-30% range. There were a couple of losers, though: After Earth plummeted 59% in its second weekend, while The Hangover Part III lost 55% of its audience.

Joss Whedon's foray into Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, averaged $36,000 per screen in five locations, for a total of $183,000. Next week, the low-budget adaptation, set in present day, will expand into a few hundred theatres. The documentary Dirty Wars, which reveals how the "Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) has been fighting a secret
war against terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan," had a strong debut, averaging $16,500 per screen in four theatres.

On Wednesday, the apocalyptic comedy This Is the End will hit theatres, followed by superman's return in Man of Steel on Friday.

'Internship' and 'Purge' fight for first in quiet summer weekend

Going into the weekend, The Internship (3,365 theatres) would seem like the frontrunner. The comedy stars Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, whose Wedding Crashers opened to $33 million in 2005. Yet the story about technologically clueless sales guys finding a niche at Google has been receiving terrible reviews, with our Nick Schager calling the movie a "fawning tribute to Google." What starts out as a fun fish-out-of-water premise, a la Legally Blonde, devolves into a boring intern competition that was a lazy, tired way to organize a script, at least from my point-of-view.  Because of the poor reviews (only a third of Rotten Tomatoes critics are coming in "fresh") and the fact that workplace comedies are often a tough sell even without the branded entertainment feel, The Internship won't be coming in first in the class--in fact, it may not exceed $20 million.

The little speculative thriller that could, The Purge (2,536 theatres), may go over $20 million and grab first place this weekend. The premise is this: The government decides to allow a 12-hour period once a year where all crimes will go unpunished. One year, a security consultant who has profited from protecting people during the crime spree finds himself in hot water, in part because his kids don't quite understand the risks (and reasoning) behind the one-night rampage. Although The Purge has only slightly better reviews than The Internship, the picture will benefit by drawing in both horror fans and those who prefer broader suspense. It also has people in really creepy masks, the better to create goosebumps among viewers.

Writer/director Joss Whedon goes from The Avengers to Shakespeare in Much Ado About Nothing (5 theatres), to which both critics and Whedon fans have alighted. "While cleaving away some of
Shakespeare’s more dragging plot points, Whedon hews to the
original text," critic Chris Barsanti reports. "This refusal to juice
the material with gimmickry pays out handsomely, as Whedon’s
crackerjack cast, drawn mainly from his troupe of TV actors, spins
as fine a web of delicate comedy as will grace movie screens this
year."

Also in the mix this week is Tiger Eyes (13 theatres) an adaptation of Judy Blume's novel about a teen recovering after the sudden death of her father. Directed by Blume's son Lawrence, Tiger Eyes surprisingly has some clumsy screenwriting, according to critic Marsha McCreadie, but a great message about "going home again" and a focus that is "unquestionably a film about family."

On Monday, we'll see if the novelty of The Purge won over the branded comedy of The Internship.

Carey Mulligan may play a young Hillary Rodham Clinton in 'Rodham'

I never thought I would say there was a resemblance between Carey Mulligan and Hillary Rodham Clinton, but so there is. With a strategic prosthetic or two, Mulligan could easily play the former

Secretary of State and First Lady. While deals are still in the works, Mulligan may play the young Clinton in a biopic entitled Rodham. It focuses on the lawyer's participation in a committee focused on President Richard Nixon's impeachment proceedings, as well as more personal matters--her relationship with future husband, Bill Clinton. The script by Young Il Kim made the 2012 Black List of unproduced films, with the fourth-highest number of votes. Here was the logline:

"During the height of the Watergate scandal, rising star Hillary Rodham is the
youngest lawyer chosen for the House Judiciary Committee to Impeach Nixon, but
she soon finds herself forced to choose between a destined path to the White House
and her unresolved feelings for Bill Clinton, her former boyfriend who now teaches
law in Arkansas."

Since Clinton is rumored to be in contention for the presidency in 2016, the biopic has an added relevance that it might not have otherwise. There's also a chance this movie will offer a take on the sacrifices women often make in the name of their families, a debate that's still raging--consider the response last year to the article "Why Women Still Can't Have It All" in The Atlantic, written by an advisor to Clinton. Rising director James Ponsoldt (Smashed, The Spectacular Now) has signed on to helm, and it looks like this script will join fellow 2012 Black List scripts, including Draft Day and The Judge and The Fault in Our Stars, that are moving forward into production.

Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley cast in 'The Imitation Game'

Anyone who grew up in the era of The History Channel's old-school, World War II-heavy programming must remember the Enigma, the coding machine that made appearances in a number of the channel's documentaries. The Enigma was a complex typewriter that transmitted coded messages without ever repeating a letter. The British mathematician Alan Turing was key in figuring out the meaning of oft-repeated phrases, like "Heil Hitler!" Even then, it took other breaks, like having Enigma materials seized on a German U-Boat, to help the Allies decode the messages and turn the tide of the war. The Imitation Game, a modestly-budgeted indie, is tackling Turing's life. Post-war, it had a sad end. He was prosecuted in the U.K. for being gay and forced to take female hormones as a form of chemical castration. He committed suicide not long after, in his 40s. This isn't the first time Turing's story has been dramatized. BBC showed "Breaking the Code," a TV movie about Turing, in 1996.

Benedict Cumberbatch, the star of BBC's "Sherlock" and the villain in Star Trek Into Darkness, will play Turing. Keira Knightley, continuing her passion for period work, will play Turning's close companion, a woman who came from a conservative background but supported him through his physical and mental trials. Graham Moore, who wrote the script for the still-gestating adaptation of the nonfiction bestseller The Devil in the White City, will adapt the screenplay from the biography Alan Turning: The Enigma. Morten Tyldum, the director of Headhunters, will helm.

The Hollywood Reporter writes that the budget will be $15 million, which sounds like a sweet spot for a historical, socially aware indie that will try to catch fire with specialty audiences. The project sounds winning because it will combine the thrills of cryptography and wartime spying with a personal story that's particularly tragic to modern sensibilities. I doubt even socially conservative people against gay marriage would support prosecution and chemical castration for being gay. Cumberbatch has one project in pre-production in his schedule, Guillermo del Toro's Crimson Peak, while Knightley's projects listed on IMDB are all in post-production, so I suspect the project will shoot sometime this year.

'Now You See Me' pulls off magic trick, beats 'After Earth'

Going into the weekend, most predictions had After Earth opening above $30 million, and Now You See Me languishing in the teen-million range. But the predictions were wrong. Now You See Me exceeded expectations, landing in second place with a $28 million opening. After Earth underperformed with just $27 million over the weekend. The fact that Now You See Me wasn't a tentpole worked in its favor, as the feature drew younger audiences (52% under 30) who liked the idea of a light, magic-driven heist movie. The casting of popular star Morgan Freeman also contributed to the bottom line. In contrast, After Earth suffered from poor reviews and a tepid "B" CinemaScore. The original sci-fi concept also didn't entice audiences the way other pre-sold Will Smith and Jaden Smith properties, like MIB 3 and The Karate Kid, did.

Bollywood movies often debut in the top twenty, but it's rare for a feature to open in the top ten. But that was the case for Yei Jawaani Hai Deewani, which landed in ninth place with $1.6 million, posting a $10,000 per-screen average. The romantic coming-of-age story stars Ranbir Kapoor, the fourth generation of an action family who have been dubbed "Bollywood royalty."

Eco-thriller The East debuted with the highest per-screen average of the week, earning $18,900 in each of its four locations. Fellow indie The Kings of Summer was right behind, averaging $14,500 per screen in its four-screen opening weekend. Before Midnight had an excellent second weekend as it expanded from five to 31 locations. The travelogue romance averaged $13,000 per screen and earned $431,000. With $800,000 in total, the Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy starrer should pass $1 million by week three.

This Friday, Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson sign up for The Internship with Google, and those in search of scares can check out the speculative thriller The Purge.