Since its release in 2011, The Help has generated a number of mixed reviews from critics and the general public, and analysis of the film has only increased over the past few months. Not only have film analysts been critical of the movie, but even some members of its cast have questioned its merits. Viola Davis has been particularly vocal about the film and has admitted that she regrets taking on the role of maid Aibileen Clark. Now, the Oscar-winning actress is doubling down on why she wishes she hadn’t joined the project.

Viola Davis recently reflected on her role in The Help and explained that she initially took the role in her hopes to take a larger step in her career, which was only developing at that point. Ultimately, Davis doesn’t believe anyone actually finds the film to be entertaining and regrets joining a production that wasn’t ready to fully tackle issues of race and social class:

During her wide-ranging interview with Vanity Fair, Davis also expressed her gratitude to The Help’s cast and crew but still stressed that believes telling the truth is most important when it comes to any film:

Set in 1963, Tate Taylor’s The Help centers on a young, white aspiring journalist who, after seeing the mistreatment of the Black maids in her hometown, decides to write a book exposing the racism they face. She eventually forms a friendship with two Black maids and draws from their experiences and other’s to write her book.

The Help initially received mostly positive reviews, with much praise being aimed at the performance of Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer. Both would receive Oscar nominations, Spencer would ultimately win for Best Supporting Actress. Despite this, the film also had its fair share of detractors when it opened, as many noted it for glossing over deeper themes of race and using a white protagonist to convey the experiences of Black characters.

In the months following George Floyd’s death, many have been seeking out films to better educate themselves on systemic racism. Early on, The Help actually emerged as go-to film and became a top trending film on Netflix. Following this, many -- including The Help’s own Bryce Dallas Howard -- have encouraged the public to seek out films from Black creators that more accurately depict Black stories.

Viola Davis has never been one to mince words, and she certainly echoes the sentiments of a number of film critics and audience members. It’s also hard to argue with her wanting a film to depict every aspect of a story. Following her comments and those of others, it’ll be interesting to see how many people continue to seek out The Help as time goes on.

Tate Taylor’s Ma is a clear-cut high-concept film. Octavia Spencer stars as Sue Ann, a lonely woman with a traumatic past who sees an opportunity for popularity when she is approached by a group of kids in search of alcohol – but things turn terrifyingly sour when the group starts to find her a bit overbearing and obsessive. On its feet it’s a classic setup for a horror movie… but that just makes it all the more surprising how much it actually changed through its development.

As I recently learned during an interview with the film’s director, while some of the ideas for the story were in place from the start, it’s a project that really didn’t come together as we see it in its final form until both he and Octavia Spencer got involved. Originally it was more of a serial killer story, featuring a white woman luring teenagers to a horrific fate, butt in the hands of the long-time collaborators it ultimately became much more.

I sat down with Tate Taylor earlier this month during the Los Angeles press day for Ma, and it was when I asked about how much the movie changed from the first draft of the script to the final cut in the editing room that I learned just how much it evolved thanks to the creatives developing it. It started with a bit of “crazy” serendipity, with the director simply taking a meeting with producer/studio head Jason Blum, who presented him with a screenplay that he admitted still needed quite a bit of workshopping. Said Taylor,

But just because the early draft of the script was written specifically for a white woman didn’t stop Tate Taylor from seeing it as a potential vehicle for his best friend, former roommate, and longtime collaborator – with whom he has worked now on four of his five features as a director.

Coming out of the meeting, Taylor’s first instinct was to call Octavia Spencer and gauge her interest in making the movie with him – and while she was initially hesitant about taking on a horror project because one of the more significant and outdated tropes of the genre, she quickly got more interested when he started to describe what kind of role he had in mind for her:

That simple hook was apparently enough to draw Octavia Spencer to Ma, but Tate Taylor further stressed that what he had in mind for the project was a lot more than just having her as a psychotic serial killer who murders teens for essentially sport. And in that sense, the script needed a lot of work. It was a crumb of an idea that he enjoyed for nostalgic reasons, fondly remembering his time as a kid hanging out in front of liquor stores trying to get adults to buy booze for him and his friends, but where his interest really took hold was in exploring Sue Ann as a real character and giving her not only real motivation, but an in-depth backstory.

According to Taylor, none of that was present in the Ma script he originally got from Jason Blum, which was apparently had a lot more focus on body horror than it did on character and drama. Said the director,

To explain the exact beats that were ultimately injected into Ma and its backstory for Sue Ann would be giving away too much prior to the film’s release, the film really did become something much different than what was initially envisioned before Tate Taylor and Octavia Spencer became involved. And while the project evolved to become the first horror feature developed by them as a director/actor duo, the work really did become more familiar to them as the themes and proper story developments emerged. Taylor explained,

Like any film, Ma took months of work to become what it was ultimately meant to be, but now audiences will be able to experience it all for themselves. The movie, which co-stars Diana Silvers, Juliette Lewis, Luke Evans, Missi Pyle, Allison Janney, McKaley Miller, and Corey Fogelmanis, arrives in theaters this weekend – and be sure to stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for more about the film from my interview with Tate Taylor!

Horror is having a pop culture moment where it is being accepted like never before as the wonderful art form that it is. Sure, the reality is that incredible quality has always existed in the genre, and all that’s really changed is mass perception, but it’s still amazing to see audiences understand its legitimacy and the power of the storytelling. Not only is it allowing the spotlight to shine on projects that otherwise might be ignored, but people are opening their eyes to the depths present in the themes and the potential emotional weight of the work.

Of course, not every horror movie has to be welcomed as a form of “high art,” and just as valid as ever are the examples of the genre that are wildly free to be as pulpy, raw, and fun as they can be. It’s in this particular realm that Tate Taylor’s Ma exists, and it’s in the way the film revels within its categorization that it succeeds. While still making you care about its characters – including, surprisingly, its titular antagonist – it’s a flick that works because of its wonderful self-awareness and crowd-pleasing weirdness, ultimately making it simply a very entertaining big screen ride.

Based on an original screenplay by Scotty Landes, Ma begins centered on Maggie (Diana Silvers) – a teenager who moves with her mother (Juliette Lewis) from San Diego to the small, suburban town where her mother grew up. Rather than being a new kid outcast, she winds up making friends (McKaley Miller, Corey Fogelmanis, Gianni Paolo, and Dante Brown) fast, and also has a lot of time to spend with them because of her mom’s busy work schedule at a local casino. Because kids will be kids, this includes a good bit of partying and underage drinking – but those kinds of adventures, of course, come with the challenge of finding an adult who will buy them alcohol.

This primarily involves hanging around outside the liquor store and just hoping to encounter a friendly grown-up – a process that includes a lot of rejection and patience – but that’s when they meet Sue Ann (Octavia Spencer). At first it seems like they’ve hit the teenage jackpot, as she is not only willing to buy them booze, but also offers up the basement of her house as a spot open to parties and all kinds of crazy shenanigans. It’s a lot of fun, and Maggie has the chance to grow closer with her new friends, but things start to take a sinister turn as Sue Ann becomes more clingy, controlling, and obsessive. The reality is that the woman casually known as “Ma” has a special connection to these kids, and things get dangerous as they start to understand her true intentions.

Ma is a movie that completely lacks any kind of pretension or self-seriousness, and instead puts them both aside in favor of gonzo weirdness and an engaging tone. Rather than focusing on tension or terror, it’s a film for fans that get that special joy that comes from seeing things go totally sideways in horrific fashion, and while it’s not exactly a “horror comedy,” it is built to purposefully make you laugh just as much as it makes you yelp (courteous of a handful of knowing jump scares). While there certainly is a degree of escalation in the plot, things get ridiculous super fast as it quickly lays out all its cards following Sue Ann’s introduction, but it’s all table setting for wonderful “what the fuck” moments and some surprisingly novel and vicious ideas.

At the same time, though, what’s weirdly engaging about the film is the way in which it also makes you care about the characters – and shockingly enough that’s especially true when it comes to Sue Ann. The smartest move that Ma makes is the way in which it layers in its eponymous villain’s backstory, which makes her a far more sympathetic figure than you’d ever expect walking into the movie with an impression based on the trailers. While details are kept mysterious to the group of teens, moviegoers get to legitimately understand where Sue Ann is coming from, and it adds levels to the storytelling in unexpected ways – backed by the charm and charisma of Octavia Spencer, who is clearly having a ball. At the end of the day there definitely is no way to fully legitimize the actions that she takes, but there is also much more to it than her simply being lonely and crazy.

Without proper preparation (which hopefully you now have thanks to this review), it takes a second to adjust to what Ma is trying to do, but once you understand it becomes a movie that’s very easy to fall into. It’s an entertaining, yell-at-the-screen/see-it-with-a-crowd cinematic experience that doesn’t pretend to be anything it isn’t, and audiences are going to have a lot of fun.

A few weeks ago, the upcoming Jessica Chastain-led action movie Eve found itself in a bit of hot water. While Australian director Matthew Newton was attached to take the helm, many complained about his personal history, specifically a 2007 incident that saw him plead guilty to assaulting his then-girlfriend. Response led Newton to leave his job, but now news has come down the wire that a replacement has been found.

Tate Taylor, who previously worked with Jessica Chastain on the Oscar-winning 2011 film The Help, has now come aboard to direct Eve as his first action movie. To date the filmmaker's work has been more in of straight comedy (Pretty Ugly People) or drama (The Help, Get On Up, The Girl On The Train) variety, but this will give him an opportunity to show what he can do with a different style of shooting.

Presumably still working with the original script written by Matthew Newton, Eve will star Jessica Chastain as the titular heroin - a talented female assassin - but not much else is known about the movie's plot. Not only that, though, Chastain is also working behind the scenes as well, and is producing the feature through her personal banner, Freckle Films.

What's unclear is exactly when the movie is going to really start moving forward. Jessica Chastain is currently a touch busy reuniting with another previous collaborator, Andres Muschietti, on IT: Chapter Two, which should keep her busy for a while. Meanwhile, Tate Taylor has his on material brewing as well, as he is currently in post-production on Ma, a Blumhouse horror movie starring Luke Evans, Allison Janney, Missi Pyle, Juliette Lewis, and Octavia Spencer. Eve isn't even the only film that Chastain and Taylor are developing together, as the trade report adds that they are collaborating on The Eyes of Tammy Faye - a film that is presumably based on the documentary of the same name about Tammy Faye Messner a.k.a. Tammy Faye Bakker.

Thanks to this movie's mysterious timeline, we're not sure exactly when we'll be able to see the finished product right now, but at the very least we will see a new action movie starring Jessica Chastain in the coming months. Though the real name of her character has yet to be revealed, she is set to play the central villain in Simon Kinberg's upcoming X-Men: Dark Phoenix which was originally scheduled to be released in November, but is now going to come out on Valentine's Day in 2019. Hopefully it will provide a nice ass-kicking preview that will give us a sense of what to expect from the action potential in Eve.

This is a project that definitely has our curiosity, so stay tuned for more updates on CinemaBlend.

SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for The Girl On The Train. If you have not yet seen the film, and don't want to learn details about the ending, we recommend clicking away to another one of our wonderful articles.

In Tate Taylor's The Girl On The Train, Luke Evans' character, Scott, spends a whole lot of time looking seriously guilty. More than just "the husband did it" often being a very accurate conclusion to draw, the guy is also very clearly an emotionally abusive jerk who seems like the number one candidate to kill his wife and hide the body. In fact, Scott often looks so much like a murderer in the movie that even Luke Evans was shocked to find out the true identity of the killer when he finished reading the script for the first time.

Earlier this month, prior to The Girl On The Train's theatrical release, I had the pleasure of hopping on the phone with Luke Evans to talk about his latest movie, and part of that conversation was dedicated to spoiler talk about the ending of the film and the identity of the killer. Curious about his perspective on the matter, I asked about Evans' first reaction the first time he got to the end of the script -- and he explained that he really didn't see the big reveal at the end coming. Said Evans,

Following up, I asked Luke Evans who it was that he at first thought was the real killer of Haley Bennett's Megan in The Girl On The Train. He explained that he definitely felt Scott was high on the suspect list, but also thought that perhaps another key character was responsible for the death:

It turns out that the real killer is Rachel's ex-husband, Tom (Justin Theroux), who has been gaslighting Rachel for years, and making her think that her alcoholism has caused much greater problems than it has. It's an ending that shocked readers when they were going through Paula Hawkins' novel for the first time, and apparently Luke Evans can be counted amongst those who never saw it coming.

Were you like Luke Evans and found yourself shocked by The Girl On The Train's ending? Hit the comments below with your thoughts.

SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for The Girl On The Train. If you have not yet seen the film, and don't want to learn details about the ending, we recommend clicking away to another one of our wonderful articles.

When books hit the silver screen, not everything in the story stays the same. History is filled with plenty of adaptations that changed key elements from the source material -- and generated controversy as a result. This was a situation that director Tate Taylor found himself looking at when starting his work on the making of The Girl On The Train, deciding what he would change from the book and what would remain. When it came to the ending, he learned from his experience making The Help that there's no reason to alter the material, basically because you shouldn't mess with perfection.

Earlier this month I had the pleasure of chatting with Tate Taylor over the phone about his new film, and now that The Girl On The Train is in theaters, I can dive into the spoiler-y material that he discussed. Acknowledging that the ending in the movie is very similar to the ending in the book, I asked the director if there were any talks about changing elements or doing things differently in the adaptation. Referencing a certain notorious desert in his 2011 movie, Taylor said,

For those that haven't seen The Help or don't remember the details of the ending (how could you forget?), the "shit pie" is a literal pie made with shit that is served by Octavia Spencer's Minny Jackson to Bryce Dallas Howard's Hilly Holbrook. One can see Tate Taylor's perspective on this one, as it is a bit "blue," but most would agree that it's one of the best moments in the film, and certainly the most memorable (seriously, how could you forget?).

As for The Girl On The Train, the ending is definitely a strength borrowed from writer Paula Hawkins, with the big twist revealing that Emily Blunt's Rachel has been a victim of gaslighting at the hands of her ex-husband, Justin Theroux's Tom. In addition to being something that fans of the book very much enjoyed, it's also worth noting that it would have been very hard to remove from the adaptation, just because it's so built into the narrative up until the reveal. Basically, it's for the best that Tate Taylor made the move that he did.

Do you agree with Tate Taylor that the ending of The Girl On The Train needed to stay exactly the same as its source material? Hit the comments section below with your thoughts.

If Hollywood has one really reliable rule, it's "success deserves a sequel." It doesn't really matter if a movie needs a sequel, so long as there is a potential audience to demand it. With the hot buzz surrounding The Girl On The Train going into this weekend, it's a reasonable question to wonder if might ever see a Girl On The Train 2... but according to director Tate Taylor, it's not something for which you should hold your breath.

I had the pleasure of talking on the phone with Tate Taylor last week to talk about his latest movie, and after a long discussion about the ins and outs of The Girl On The Train, I took the opportunity to ask if we might ever see a sequel get, or if he would be interested in making one. The filmmaker explained why he didn't really think it would be a great idea, noting that he basically thinks the story of the characters in the novel adaptation have really been told. Said, Taylor,

Unlike many popular books that get turned into movies these days, The Girl On The Train isn't the first in a longer series that could potentially be adapted in the future - which is evidence that perhaps there really isn't any need to find some material for a second film. That being said, not having a sequel novel has done absolutely nothing to stop chatter about a potential Gone Girl 2, so who knows what could happen in the future.

SPOILER WARNING: The rest of this article contains spoilers The Girl On The Train. If you have not yet seen the film, you may want to think about clicking away to another one of our wonderful articles.

Tate Taylor does make a very good point about there not being a great deal more to say with the select characters in The Girl On The Train - given that each of the main players get pretty satisfying conclusions. Emily Blunt's Rachel, now no longer a subject of gaslighting, has stopped drinking and is starting to live a better life; Justin Theroux's Tom is set to jail, Rebecca Ferguson's Amy is freed of Tom's oppressiveness; and Luke Evans' Scott gets closure about the death of his wife. Yes, there are certainly complex creative ways that these characters could come back together in a story years later... but why not just tell an original story instead?

For those of you who have seen The Girl On The Train, would you like to see a Girl On The Train 2, or is the movie best left as a one-off? Hit the comments section below with your thoughts.

Making a film adaptation of a popular mystery novel is tricky business. One of the most entertaining elements of the genre is the big "whodunit" reveal -- but the fact that so many people read the book before the movie was made means that there is already a big section of the audience that already knows how things turn out. This was something very much on the mind of director Tate Taylor in the making of The Girl On The Train, but it led him to an important decision: that he doesn't really mind if people already know the ending before they go to see the movie.

I had the pleasure of recently talking on the phone with Tate Taylor, and my first question out the gate was about the security of the central mystery and the use of both hints and red herrings throughout the narrative. The director explained his approach in this regard, noting that he constructed the film so that its characters and themes would be just as engrossing as the mystery of The Girl On The Train, allowing the movie to still work even if you go in already knowing how it all plays out. Said Taylor,

While it wasn't discussed in the interview, it's worth mentioning that this approach really strengthens the longevity and rewatchability of The Girl On The Train. If the movie entirely hangs on the ending and doesn't have anything interesting to offer beyond it, nobody is ever going to buy it on home video or ever feel the desire to give it another watch.

Further explaining his philosophy in this matter, Tate Taylor continued by adding that the casting of Emily Blunt wound up being quite vital to the making of The Girl On The Train. After all, she is a complete and total mess, but the actor makes her one that the audience ultimately cares about and wants to see get better. Or as the director put it,

With The Girl On The Train coming out this week, the internet will surely be a-buzz with spoilers about the film -- so hopefully these comments from Tate Taylor will calm those who are worried about the movie being ruined for them. There's still a fun, entertaining movie with great performances to be seen.

In its time through production and leading up to release, director Tate Taylor's The Girl On The Train has been constantly likened to David Fincher's recent Gone Girl - and the comparisons aren't totally unfounded. Both are fall thrillers that are based on highly-successful, pulpy crime novels written by women, and both explore the dark underside of modern married life while constantly having the audience question the trustworthiness and presumed innocence of the central protagonist. Ultimately it's a semblance that works in Fincher's movie's favor, thanks to coming first and being the better movie - but it's no reason to dismiss The Girl On The Train, as the film does manage to build as a compelling mystery driven by a truly fantastic lead performance.

Adapted from the book of the same name by Paula Hawkins, The Girl On The Train centers on three different women with interconnected lives -- the eponymous character being Emily Blunt's Rachel Watson. A serious alcoholic still reeling from the failure of her marriage, she rides the rails every morning, and spends her time fantasizing about the lives of a couple (Hayley Bennett and Luke Evans) she sees every day from her seat. Unfortunately, this routine winds up taking a dramatic turn when Rachel believes she witnesses the woman cheating on her husband with another man (Edgar Ramirez).

Unable to cope with the idea of this beautiful young woman seemingly throwing her perfect life away, Rachel is driven to a hardcore bender -- which winds up making things a hell of a lot worse. It's bad enough that she wakes up in her bed covered in blood and vomit, but things get a certain shade darker when it's revealed the young woman is both missing, and that she has been working as the nanny for Rachel's ex, Tom (Justin Theroux), and his new wife, Anna (Rebecca Ferguson). With no clear memory of what happened, and the police looking into her very closely, Rachel begins an investigation of her own, both to try and figure out what really happened during her blackout, and establish her own innocence.

Going any deeper into plot details is a nice stroll through a spoiler minefield, but that should give you a taste of the twisty mystery that fuels the narrative and, mostly successfully, keeps the audience guessing. Screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson's adaptation of Paula Hawkins' novel is well-built, both in its three-perspective structure that paces out all the hints and clues, and in its character construction, which builds on those elements by making you question what is presented as even the most blatant fact. Without explaining too much, I do feel it is important to note that I managed to outpace the script as far as the larger mystery is concerned, figuring out the ending before the central figures did -- but it speaks to the quality of the movie that you can still enjoy the ride to the end.

A big part of that enjoyment stems from Emily Blunt's presence, as the actress gives a magnificent performance in The Girl On The Train that arguably ranks as the best of her career to date. Beautiful as Rachel may be, she is an ugly, ugly drunk, and Blunt brings her to life so vividly that the smell of booze practically permeates the screen. She is a complete mess with an aura of pure melancholy, but Blunt keeps her charismatic and fascinating along with the character's evolving arc -- as Rachel finally finds a purpose in life when actively trying to prove her own innocence in the central mystery. Even in the films slower, more obvious moments, Blunt remains utterly compelling and is truly what will keep audiences invested.

The Girl On The Train doesn't break any new ground, push any envelopes, or devastate any emotions -- but it is what you want on the surface: an engaging, legitimately thrilling mystery that plays with interesting unreliable narrator brought to life with a phenomenal performance. It's the exact kind of high-profile drama for which Hollywood has basically built the fall season, and it's worthy of your box office dollar.

The Girl On The Train is a novel that was just released at the beginning of the year, but it’s already caught Hollywood’s eye, and the film adaptation is moving forward. The first batch of casting announcements was already putting high-quality actors into place, but the newest reports are just piling more great actors on top of the already fantastic cast in this project.

Directed by Tate Taylor, the film will tell the story of a recently divorced woman who commutes on the train to work and every day passes the same perfect house with a seemingly perfect couple inside it. She fantasizes about what their life might be like. However, as you might expect, appearances can be deceiving, and the woman finds herself involved in a mystery regarding the "perfect couple." According to Variety the two male leads are currently in talks, which would round out the film’s main cast. It’s an absolutely packed cast, so let’s take a closer look at some of the stars, shall we?

First things first, the actress who will be the literal Girl On The Train is none other than Emily Blunt, starring as Rachel. The "dramatic thriller" is one of the few genres of film that Blunt has not been attached at the hip to in recent months. She’s transitioned from her role in Into the Woods into being the top choice to play the new Mary Poppins, making her a go-to actress for all your musical needs. If you need a kickass action woman instead, however, Blunt is still a top choice. The Edge of Tomorrow star will next be seen in the sequel to Snow White and the Huntsman, and can currently be found in theaters in the tense, action-packed Sicario.

One of the newest additions to The Girl On The Train, Chris Evans is currently in talks to play the role of Tom. Tom is Rachel’s ex-husband who is now remarried to Anna. This role looks to be about as far from Captain America as Evans can get, which may be the point. While it’s one thing to be known as the perfect boy scout in an entire film franchise, Evans likely is interested in playing other roles as well, as joining this project demonstrates.

Anna, Tom’s new wife, will be played by Rebecca Ferguson. The Swedish actress is coming off of her role as Ilsa Faust in the summer hit Mission:Impossible - Rogue Nation. She also had a role in The Rock’s Hercules film, but we’re not going to talk about that. Instead, we’ll focus on where she’s headed, since she’s been rumored as one of the frontrunners for the lead role in Marvel Studio’s Captain Marvel.

Jared Leto is in talks to portray the male half of the perfect couple who is idealized by Blunt’s character. Leto is one of the actors who doesn’t really have a type of film, or type of character. He’s pretty much played everything at one point or another – and completely disappeared into parts while doing so. Whether playing the newest incarnation of The Joker, a transgender AIDS sufferer or anything else he comes up with, Leto always brings something special to his roles. We fully expect the same from him in The Girl On The Train.

Joining Jared Leto, the female half of The Girl On The Train’s (not so) perfect couple will be portrayed by Haley Bennett. Her name may not be one that you recognize right now - unless you specifically remember her from The Equilizer - but by the time this movie hits theaters you likely will. She has a role in Terrence Malick’s new movie, and she’ll also be in the remake of The Magnificent Seven.

This looks like one heck of a cast to put together. It certainly makes us excited to see Girl on a Train make it to theaters soon.

As famously recounted in Quint's dramatic monologue in Steven Spielberg's Jaws, the fate of the USS Indianapolis is one of the most horrific tales of World War II. It's a story of capsize, starvation, dehydration, shark-attacks and death, and while there was ultimately a light at the end of the tunnel, that doesn't make the events any less brutal. Now those events will be getting brought to cinematic life courtesy of producer Robert Downey Jr. and director Tate Taylor - though they will be unfolding through the filter of a young boy looking to find justice for a hero in the whole mess.

The Wrap has the news out of Sundance at that the helmer of the Oscar-winning The Help and last year's Get On Up is now set to direct the USS Indinapolis-centric film, which does not yet have a title. The main story in the movie will be set in 1996 and follow an 11-year-old boy as he works to complete a school assignment about the famous sinking ship. During his research, he winds up discovering some strange inconsistencies, and quickly finds himself both trying to discover the truth about the disaster, and clearing the name of Captain Charles McVay - who was court-martialed after the incident.

For those unfamiliar with the story of the USS Indianapolis, in 1945 the ship was on a mission between Guam and Leyte, planning to deliver crew for training exercises, but was impeded when it was struck by two torpedoes launched by a Japanese submarine. Of the 1,196 people on board, 300 died as the vessel sank - but that was only the beginning of the nightmare. Navy command was unaware of the ship sinking, and as a result the men that had survived were left in the water for three and a half days. In this time, a vast majority of the men died from a laundry list of causes, including salt poisoning (from drinking the sea water), hypothermia, shark attacks, and suicide. Ultimately only 317 members of the Indianapolis crew survived the ordeal.

We actually first heard about this project all the way back in 2011, but it's somewhat surprising that we actually didn't hear more about this film moving forward last year. This is because 2015 marks the 70th anniversary of the USS Indianapolis sinking, and this movie sounds like it could actually be a great title to commemorate the events and pay respect to those who lost their lives. If filming started up last year, we could have seen the movie come together in time. At the same time, though, it's entirely possible that the script just hasn't been ready until now, and this is subject matter that definitely shouldn't be rushed.

As of now, we're not entirely sure when we might be seeing this project head towards the big screen. In the meantime, though, Tate Taylor's Get On Up is now available on Blu-ray and DVD, and Robert Downey Jr.'s first effort as an executive producer, The Judge, is currently in the Oscar race thanks to a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Robert Duvall. And, of course, you'll next be able to see Downey Jr. on screen once again playing Tony Stark/Iron Man in Joss Whedon's The Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Racial harmony in the U.S. has seen a lot of ebbs in the past few months, and part of that conversation will presumably be making its way to TV in MGM Television’s remake of the Oscar-winning film In the Heat of the Night. Showtime, a network known for shows filled with controversy, has joined in on developing this hopefully honorable adaptation.

This version of In the Heat of the Night, at least the pilot, will be written and directed by Tate Taylor, best known for 2011’s The Help and this year’s James Brown biopic Get On Up. We can assume this tale will skew a little darker than both of those films. Taylor will executive produce with Warren Littlefield, one of the guys behind Fargo’s success at FX, and John Norris, who is better known for his visual effects producing on movies like Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. This is a solid creative team who could do a lot of good with this, but the story has to have some weight.

While details about the project are slight, THR describes it as “an exploration of character and race set in modern-day Mississippi, which happens to be Taylor’s home state.” (The Help was also set there.) The 1967 movie, directed by Norman Jewison, centered on a racist white Mississippi police chief (Rod Steiger) who ends up working with a black detective (Sidney Poitier) to solve a murder. Doesn’t exactly paint the South in the best of lights, to say the least. Check out the trailer below and pretend people are using smartphones and talking about gluten allergies.

TV audiences are probably also familiar with the previous small screen version of the story, which starred Carroll “I was already pretty prejudiced on All in the Family” O’Connor and Howard Rollins filling in for the leads. The show lasted for eight seasons, jumping from NBC to CBS at one point, and then shifting from episodes to made-for-TV movies. You’d think at this point, Showtime could have just created an original show about a racist cop in a difficult partnership and had people just say it was merely similar to In the Heat of the Night. It’s not like a bunch of shows haven’t done that already.

While not quite in the same realm of TV pickups, Showtime made huge waves a couple of days ago by announcing they would be bringing David Lynch and Mark Frost’s wacky drama Twin Peaks back to audiences. Do you guys think that network is a good fit for In the Heat of the Night, and how long before somebody turns 227 into a murder mystery?

It's a risk to option a book that hasn't even hit shelves yet, but it's one that paid off for The Help director Tate Taylor, who picked up the option for Kathryn Stockett's book before it became a hit. When it comes to authors putting out a popular book, Stephen King's probably a pretty safe bet. But on the other hand, adapting one of King's books for the big (or small) screen is a lofty task, and we've seen varying degrees of success in those adaptations, from Dreamcatcher (don't judge that book by its movie) to the more successful adaptations like The Green Mile and Shawshank Redemption. Where will Joyland fall on that scale? It looks like we'll eventually find out.

Deadline says Taylor has been granted an option by Stephen King to adapt and direct the upcoming novel, which is set to hit shelves in June. The story is set in a small-town North Carolina amusement park in 1973 and tells the story Devin Jones, a college student who takes a summer job at the park and ends up confronting "the legacy of a vicious murder, the fate of a dying child, and the ways both will change his life forever."

Taylor captured the Civil Rights era in the 1960's rather well in The Help. It'll be interesting to see how he does with the 70's. Period piece aside, there's definitely a genre shift here for the director. And for the readers, if this book turns out to be half as scary as some of King's past novels, those of us who feared clowns after reading It (or seeing the miniseries) may have to worry about what this story will do to our perception of amusement parks.

Deadline points out that Taylor has some other projects in the works, including a James Brown biopic, however King is known to option his books for little money, "but with a ticking clock," which might mean this one will be pushed up to the front burner for the director.

Among the other King adaptations coming up is Kimberly Peirce's Carrie adaptation (due out October 18) and Brian K. Vaughan's Under the Dome series, which premieres on CBS next month.

As we reported when Joyland was first announced, it will not be available on eBook right away. King's preference for paperbacks apparently led to this decision and as he put it, "Folks who want to read it will have to buy the actual book." I'm thinking a lot of people will, even those of us who are partial to our Kindles (or other eReaders). Amazon has the paperback available for pre-order for the low price of $7.39. It's out June 4.

Despite winning plenty of critical acclaim for his Academy Award winning film The Help in 2011, director Tate Taylor hasn't really been cooking up much in the way of in-development projects. In April it was reported that he was in talks to helm an adaptation of the British miniseries The Jury, but we haven't heard anything about it since. Now, however, things are starting to get interesting for the filmmaker - as they do when one's name is mentioned in the same headline as Mick Jagger.

Deadline has gotten word that Taylor is now in talks with Imagine Entertainment to direct the long-awaited biopic about The Hardest Working Man in Show Business himself, legendary performer James Brown. What's more, Mick Jagger, very much a musical legend in his own right as the lead singer of The Rolling Stones, has made a deal to join Brian Grazer as a producer on the project. They already have a script written by Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth, so the next step will be to find a studio to distribute the project and find the perfect actor to play James Brown.

The biopic will chart Brown's life in full, from his childhood living in "extreme poverty and violence" to become one of the most popular entertainers of all time. Brown died at the age of 73 in 2006, but was actively working with Grazer at the time to make the movie.

Obviously there's a lot to digest with this story. Do you think having Jagger attached will help add realism to the film? What do you think of having Taylor as the director? Who should be the star? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Actor-turned-filmmaker Tate Taylor broke through in a major way last year directing the Oscar-winning adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's The Help. The drama, which centered on the struggles of women--black and white--in 1960s Mississippi, was both critically heralded as well as a box office sensation, earning more than $200 million worldwide. This resounding success has studios clamoring to work with Taylor, who not only helmed The Help, but also wrote its screenplay.

Surely he's been flooded with pitches for novel adaptations of every design, but only a few possibilities have surfaced. First, Warner Bros. approached him to adapt another 1960s-set bestseller, Peace Like a River. Then came talk that Tate might helm the Melissa McCarthy vehicle Tammy for New Line. But Taylor's proven extremely selective when it comes to his Help follow-up, and it seems both deals have since been rejected. Now, Deadline reports Taylor has entered into negotiations with Fox 2000 to write and direct a movie adaptation of the British mini-series The Jury.

Fox originally purchased the property in 2007 with lined up Marc Forster (The Kite Runner) to direct and Ides of March playwright/screenwriter Beau Willimon attached to adapt the script. However, this project never got any traction, and so Forster moved on to Quantum Solace and Fox shelved The Jury until now.

Written by Peter Morgan, whose penned such heralded dramas as Frost/Nixon and The Queen, the six-episode mini-series centered on the jury of a murder trial wherein a Sikh boy is accused of murdering a classmate who had long tormented him. Dealing with taboo topics like race and prejudice, the story is still woefully relevant, and it seems likely The Jury movie would shift the setting from the U.K. to the U.S., to play better to audiences Stateside. Between the subject matter and the source material's character-driven and ensemble nature, this project seems a good fit for Taylor's sensibilities. Hopefully he'll sign on soon.

Tate Taylor and Melissa McCarthy are enjoying incredibly productive years – he for his work directing The Help and she for her scene-stealing turn in Bridesmaids, as well as her Emmy-winning work on the television sitcom Mike & Molly. The idea of the two of them reuniting on a road-trip comedy for New Line -- Taylor directed McCarthy in the 2008 comedy Pretty Ugly People -- had several people in the industry excited. But alas, it’s not to be.

Variety confirms that Taylor has decided not to direct Tammy, a comedy based on a concept McCarthy hatched as a potential starring vehicle. The comedian will play a woman who, after losing her job at a fast food restaurant, learns her husband is cheating. Caught in a spiral of anger and depression, she embarks on a road trip with her foul-mouthed grandmother. Get me Betty White and Cloris Leachman on the phone, stat!

Consider this a bump in the road for a comedy that’s bound to get made eventually. McCarthy has far too much clout right now to let this bit of news derail her project, and now we’ll just wait to see who she and co-writer Ben Falcone next approach.

The same goes for Taylor, who might be wise to play the waiting game before selecting his next project. Depending on whom you trust, Taylor’s The Help could be a major player in this year’s still-developing Oscar race. And a select few Oscar trackers are saying the film’s pull could drag Taylor into the Best Director race as a result. If that’s the case, he suddenly could have his pick of a series of prestige projects, so there’s no need to jump on a film just yet.

It would seem that Melissa McCarthy likes hanging out with the other breakout movie stars of 2011. A few months after making audiences laugh til they cried in Bridesmaids, the comedian signed on for a role in Judd Apatow's next film, in which she will largely be working with Ryan Lee, one of the best parts of J.J. Abrams' Super 8. Now she's teaming up with yet another big name from this year in movies, however instead of an actor, this time it's a director.

According to Deadline, McCarthy may be getting to work with director Tate Taylor, who helmed the massively successful The Help, on a film she wrote titled Tammy. The director is currently in negotiations to helm the project, which will star the actress as a woman who experiences a bunch of terrible events all at the same time and decides to just hit the road with her "foul-mouthed diabetic grandmother." The film is just one of many that McCarthy has in development, as she is also working on Identity Thief with Jason Bateman; an untitled comedy with Bridesmaids writer Annie Mumolo about a woman who tries to steal the Stanley Cup; a romantic comedy with Jon Hamm for Paul Feig; and the aforementioned Apatow joint. Taylor has also been setting up new projects, as he is attached to adapt Peace Like A River.

I actually really like the idea of breakout stars working together. They all have something to prove with their next efforts, so why not work together to produce the best work that they can? Taylor proved that he can handle strong lead female characters with The Help, so Tammy seems right up his alley.

Seeing so many bad movies come from great books, I have to think that any author would be hesitant to let their work fall into the hands of Hollywood. The Great Gatsby, considered by many to be the greatest book of all time, has been adapted three separate times and not a single one has been comparable. In some ways Kathryn Stockett took a similar risk when she sold the movie rights to her book, The Help, even before it came out, but she had one leg up: the man she sold it to and who would end up both adapting and directing the film is her best friend, Tate Taylor.

A couple weeks ago I had the pleasure of sitting down with the filmmaker one-on-one to discuss his newest film, which comes out this Wednesday. Check out the interview below in which Taylor talks about working with Kathryn, how he came to know and cast Octavia Spencer and filming down in Mississippi.

The first question I want to ask is, I know that you actually auctioned this book to become a movie and you had a great relationship with Kathryn. I’m curious, when did you start seeing potential in the book as a film?

Literally halfway through reading the manuscript. Kathryn gave me the manuscript, she had no agent or publisher, we were in New York and she said, “Oh I want you to read it. Just tell me what you think, no one wants it.” I started reading it on a plane to LA about somewhere over Ohio I started to get this tingle. I didn’t finish it of course, it’s only a five hour plane ride, but I called her and I was like, “Kathryn, I don’t know the publishing world, but trust me, someone’s going to wise up. It’s beautiful.” She’s like, “I know, I don’t know. I gotta get comfortable if no one’s going to make it.” I said, “Let’s talk about it,” and that’s when the dialogue began. I knew over Ohio.

She mentioned earlier that she’s not too familiar with the film world, how involved was she? Like when you were working on the script, how involved did she become with that process?

Not really involved, she didn’t want to be. She’s like, “I don’t understand movies, I don’t understand scripts.” I just told her, “When I outline the whole thing before I began writing dialogue, I want to sit with you and tell me what you think.” So we met up in Central Park about a month after that and I went over what I planned to do, what wasn’t going to be in the movie, and she’s like, “That makes sense.” Then I let her read the final copy and she really liked it. Then she came to Mississippi out of support and just wanted to watch it. There was never a monitoring situation, she just loved everybody, she can tell all just genuinely love each other.

Just listening to the cast talk, when you’re sitting in the rooms and hearing people in the hallways, you really get the sense that you established this family atmosphere.

It’s like summer camp. We all, we had the best time. We all rented houses and stuff. We would all be over someone’s house having dinner and then we’d have too much to drink, we would be talking and someone would say, “I just want to stay at your house tonight.” “Okay!” It was just crazy, it really was a family atmosphere.

Sissy Spacek mentioned that it’s actually your father that gets together with at the end.

Yeah. The nightcap. That’s my dad.

I heard that actually there were some other people that you knew too.

Oh gosh, yeah. I peppered the movie with friends and family. The woman that raised me with my mom, Carol, is in the movie. Kathryn’s daughter plays the young Skeeter in the flashback, my mom is in the movie. Remember one of the first bad dates Skeeter has, “There’s Lieutenant, let’s go say hi,” and they come over there, that’s my mom who plays the Lieutenant’s wife. And my dad was in it, yeah it was fun.

Did you find that that kind of, just that personal touch kind of added to that whole atmosphere?

Not really that, it was just fun for me, from my nostalgic point of view, to know that I can go back in time when I’m older, at the end of my days, and watch the movie. It just makes it fun to have faces in there that you can remember conversations with.

I know that, on that same kind of note, Octavia mentioned that you were her roommate. I’m curious, how did you approach her? Because I also learned that the character was based on her, but how did you approach her, or did she approach you about playing a character in the movie?

It was just understood. We really are best friends. We were both PAs together on A Time To Kill, came to Mississippi, became buddies, and moved to LA together in 96. So I don’t know, when you have someone that close in your life that you share everything with, it was just, “Oh!” It was more getting Dreamworks to let me do it. Because that was the worry, she had no big credits and everybody wanted to be in this movie. Especially when there’s not so many roles for African Americans. Then I said I’d like to see Octavia do the part, so I took her down to my casting director. She went on and did a scene, showed it to everybody, they went, “She’s amazing.”

On that same kind of note, you mention that there aren’t that many great roles for African Americans, there aren’t a lot of, for women in general. Was that kind of, did you feel it was almost an active mission? Because this film really does, it has an incredible female cast and it uses every single one so brilliantly, I’m just wondering, was that an intention?

Like a goal? It was not. I’ve always been attracted to female characters, as an audience member, so I can just tell you that I was excited to mind, you noticed, which I appreciate, the possibilities, and draw out every ounce of opportunity from each of the characters of this book into the script. I didn’t want anybody just to be a, “This person is Leeroy, Minny’s husband,” and in the book you meet him and you know what he looks like and he has scenes. You know who he is. He’s the wife, he’s drunk, and so I don’t need to know him. I’d rather have more room for these women that I like.

That actually leads me to another question. Obviously this is a four hundred-plus-page book, you’re not going to be able to put in everything, and also it comes from three different perspectives. I’m just curious, for starters, the breakdown of the point of view, in the book it’s separated into Minny, Aibileen, and Skeeter, in the film you have the narration only done by Aibileen. I’m curious, was that always the case?

I knew from the start that I wanted only one person to tell the story. I said, what made this book special to me and what makes it special, period? And I realized, it was because the subject matter was dealt with and told through the eyes of the most important person, the African-American, during this time period. And I’m like, no one has really thought to do that, and that’s what it should have been the whole time. So it was a no-brainer. It’s Aibileen’s movie. That’s why I had to add Skeeter near the end, she just kind gracefully...I didn’t need, it’s Aibileen’s story.

DYou see so many movies where you have stories about minorities that are only told through the eyes of a white person. I love that this film actively goes against that.

What I’ve loved hearing some people say, we screened for a mainly African American audience in Chicago a while back and they went, “It’s so great, usually these are about civil rights leaders, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, but this is about normal, everyday African American women doing something.” So I think that resonated too.

There is, obviously, there are tie-ins to the real world. We have the assassination, I’m curious, how, in addition to working out the book, did you do external research about the time? How schooled in it were you before taking on the project?

I’ve went and talked to people. Only just to hear them talk. A really touching thing, and she’s since passed away, I met this woman who was a hundred, this housekeeper, a hundred years old, I interviewed her. She just told me about her whole life, she’s like, “I can’t read, I can’t write, I can tell you who I was working for, and I can tell you the year, but who was president?” It was so cool. But she shared with me a story, loosely, I put a thing in the movie about it. You know when the maid tells Skeeter about the man who bought the land so she could walk to the water tower? She told me the story. I thought that was so special. It was like, in the twenties. It was a white man. I wanted to get that in there, that there were moments of taking care of each other. So I researched that way.

All of the actresses mentioned that you basically handed out copies of Eyes on the Prize. I’m curious, what was it about that documentary that you thought was so important for them to see?

Because I included, you study this during high school, and listen, you’re just trying to get through the day. I thought the images, and having it all refreshed in our heads again, would just be powerful. It’s easy to forget history or give it a cliff notes. The cliff notes of history. But mainly, so much of what happens in Eyes on the Prize happened in Jackson, Mississippi. Jackson, Mississippi isn’t really known for any other touchstone to the movement, other than Medgar Evers being killed. There were sit-ins and riots and atrocities. I just wanted them to know so they would wear it on their skin when they went back there. I also knew that it would make it kind of eerie to go there.

It definitely was a hotspot, so I’m curious, would you have made the film if you couldn’t have made it in Mississippi?

Well, once we were green-lit, of course, I would have done it. No, but I think, it would really, I think the film would have suffered. Not what it ended up as, but what it could have been. I just knew, I knew. Again, it goes back to Dreamworks and Chris Columbus and all of those guys, if it aint broke, don’t fix it. Nobody tried to fix something that didn’t need fixing. It just didn’t. It worked, I mean I know it sounds like it’s made up. It was just a great experience.

When we were talking to Chris Columbus earlier, he was talking about when they first did a location pass, and how they were able to find the location that they wanted to use in a day and a half. So what was your reaction when you found these places that you were going to film?

Well I went and found all of the locations myself before we even had financing or a studio. I knew I wanted to film in Greenwood, I knew it was going to be a struggle to get people to come to Mississippi. So I got Mark Ricker, my production designer who wasn’t even hired yet, and I brought Brunson Green, the producer, and I said, “Guys, I think I know where we’re going to film the movie.” Mark’s like, “Who’s paying for it?” “Oh, it’s not set up! No one even knows about it. But I think we need to go here and present a look book.” So we went, and we found, I grew up among a lot of those homes, so we photographed it and Mark Ricker made a book explaining the character of Mississippi. So when I met with Steven Spielberg and he’s like, “Where do you want to film it?” I went, “Here’s the book,” and I handed it to him. He was like, “Wow.” So that’s kind of, I knew I had to do that. That was one of the things I knew. I knew I had to write a good screenplay to be taken seriously, and I knew I needed to present Mississippi on visuals instead of just saying, “Hey I wanted to film it in Mississippi.” It would seem like it was a hometown boy just wanting to be home.

Did you find that as you were filming Mississippi really bled into the film?

Oh gosh yeah. I love what Mark Ricker and [Stephen] Goldblatt, my DP did. I said, “Guys, we’ve got to make it a character.” Whenever we can, how do we put Mississippi in here. Steven came up with that amazing shot, when Skeeter goes home, with the crane pulling up and her going up the stairs. Then Mark realized he was doing the shot, and they all talked about different things to place. Yes, it was a huge character.

Just the production design, I mean obviously you’re setting the movie in a different era. Just looking at now versus the sixties, we’re in a completely different universe. Were there any, was it difficult setting that up? Or did the town actually do a lot for the work for you?

No, the town didn’t do any work. Again it goes to tireless dedication from Mark Ricker, our production designer. He designed everything. I mean, those houses were in place, but what happens with the south was, every home felt like it was a set already, but all the sets looked alike. It’s all antiques. So he had the challenge of differentiating these grandson homes to fit each character, which, in a contemporary film, you just have a lot of crazy art. Or something dark, black. But you can’t here. You have to do this very surgical, precise way of differentiating. He did an amazing job.

You go to some sets where the production design is absolutely impeccable, every single inch is covered with something. They just have little notes scribbled on a wall, it’s like a post it on a corkboard, but when you see the final film, so much of that is cut out because it’s not given any focus. When you’re given such incredible production design, which this film certainly has, do you find that you’re actually specifically trying to focus on those smaller aspects?

Well, we don’t, it was never, there’s really no inserts at all in the movie. There’s the shot of the pie when Hilly looks at it, but we were very careful not to do that. We wanted to make people go there and just be in Mississippi. I knew I loved Steven Spielberg when he was like, “Please don’t do close ups and don’t do all that close, I don’t want to because you’re gonna be great.” And he didn’t. A lot of things played wide, and then you’re seeing this home. You can just feel kind of voyeuristic instead of doing that TV, choppy, blah, blah, blah. You just go there. It’s not intrusive. Unless we try to do them, which is often if not always.

This obviously comes from the book as well, but the tone of the film, obviously there are some moments that are absolutely hysterical, but at the same time, it also has some dedrama, and it is dealing with a very serious subject matter. When you were writing the script, how, was it difficult to find the proper balance between that?

I think again, I had the upper hand because I’m a southerner. In the south, we tell stories. We tell stories if you’re in a sales position, if you’re in a retail position, you lure your customer by telling a story. You just do. If you were to bargain from a retailer, you tell a story. So we all just have this way of talking, and often for a southerner to be affected, you create highs and lows that are back to back, just to kind of have people, you don’t want to rip them. So I just kind of knew that would be important. If you have a piece of material that could potentially be message-y or medicine-y, always love a reversal in writing. Like when, and I think it works, when Mae Mobley’s on the toilet in the yard, and it’s so funny, and then in four seconds, she’s having her ass beat by her mother. The audience just went, “UGH!” That’s what you’ve got to do. I think it’s your job as a writer, to not let the audience get ahead, or feel a rhythm. So it’s kind of the way we talk as southerners, and it’s also, I think, your duty as a screenwriter.

Also, when you’re working, as you mentioned in talking about the book, there’s obviously going to be some stuff that you cut out. Was there anything that you really wanted to hold on to but you had to eventually let go of?

There were just scenes that I didn’t need. There’s a scene where Hilly kicks Skeeter out of the Junior League, that’s in the book, and I shot it. It’s a great scene, it’s one of Bryce’s strongest performances. But we knew already, once she put the toilet in the yard, you just know their friendship is over. So when I took it out, and then Skeeter eating alone in the drugstore and all of her friends come in and she’s not included, that’s so much more painful as an audience member, to imagine that conversation to have happened and to see the aftermath versus, “You’re kicked out. I can’t believe you did that to me.” And that’s a great scene, I hated to lose that one. Just because Bryce was so good, she was really upset and vulnerable. Ultimately it wasn’t efficient.

I keep saying this, and I mean to say it in the greatest way possible, but to talk about Bryce Dallas Howard's Hilly Holbrook, when it comes to characters that you really just want to punch in the face, I haven’t felt this way since Election. What’s great about it is that you never let her get too cartoony, it never gets to some stereotypical place. I’m curious, what was the relationship, how did you work with Bryce Dallas Howard’s character?

She is one of the most fearless and un-sensitive people in the world. When I met her she says, “Tate, I don’t get sensitive. Beat me up. Don’t sugarcoat anything.” So we had this great, great banter back and forth. When I’d want to try something, she’d want to try something. But really, she did so much in so many different ways. In each take, it was embarrassing to cut together. We didn’t really, she’s so smart. She has a mother from Louisiana so she has a touchstone in the world, too. I just couldn’t believe her body language, I don’t know where she went and learned it when she showed up with it. Her hands and everything, and Sissy’s so smart, she copied her. That was all, when they walk out, Sissy saw her, and it’s like Mas. They’re just great actresses, I take no credit for that.

Do you know, what are you working on now?

I’ve got some irons in the fire, I’m writing an original screenplay now, just to do it.

What’s it about?

It’s a dark comedy.

Female driven?

Actually, as usual, it is female driven.

It's 95 degrees in New York City today, which makes today kind of perfect to revisit my trip to the set of The Help, which was shooting last August in Greenwood, Mississippi under the sweltering conditions that are typical for the area but no less unbearable. You may have already caught my conversations with stars Emma Stone, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer from the set; today I've got the film's director, Tate Taylor, plus Bryce Dallas Howard, who plays the film's villain Hilly Holbrook.

But in a movie like The Help, the term "villain" is a little tricky-- she's not exactly cut and dry evil like Lord Voldemort or Captain America's Red Skull. Based on Kathryn Stockett's bestselling novel, The Help stars Stone as Skeeter Phelan, a recent Ole Miss graduate returning to her hometown of Jackson, Mississippi in the summer of 1963 and chafing at the strict social structure for women of her class. Hilly Holbrook, Howard's character, has been Skeeter's best friend since childhood, but whereas Skeeter thinks things like the Junior League and bridge games are a little shallow, they are Hilly's entire world. Hilly has also bought wholesale into the deep racism of the period, leading an initiative for white families to build separate, shoddy bathrooms for their African-American "help" to use, and demeaning most of the black women she comes in contact with, which includes maids like Aibileen (Davis) and Minny (Spencer).

Hilly gets her own in the end, though, as Skeeter decides to write a book telling the experience of these African-American maids, and of course, the Civil Rights movement starts taking hold around the country at the same time. On the set I joined a group of other journalists talking to both Howard and Taylor about that historical resonance, plus the experience of shooting on location in Mississippi-- Taylor, a native of the state, was right at home, while Howard used her mother's experience growing up in Louisiana to get into the time period. Check out what they both had to say below, and see The Help in theaters on August 10.

Tate Taylor

Did you have to fight hard to film in Mississippi and not stay in Louisiana for the tax breaks and all that kind of stuff?

Being from Mississippi, I grew up coming to Greenwood and Greenwood kind of stopped in time in '63. Besides wanting to film in my state and give back and bring money to it, I knew we would be basically living on a backlot, which is what it feels like. I knew that for the characters it would be good to kind of be thrown into a communal throwback to the time. We had to fight for it. We took pictures and we put together a ‘look book’ of all the houses we found so when I we went to DreamWorks, they’re like "Oh, where do you want to film it? Vancouver? Shreveport?" I said "No, here!" I literally gave it to Steven Spielberg and he went, "Wow!" Not DreamWorks, but all studio--if they’ve filmed somewhere before, if it’s not broke don’t fix it. They’re afraid of somewhere new. But now everybody’s thrilled.

What do you think people don’t understand about Mississippi that they will understand when they see this movie?

My whole life I’ve been asked if we have malls here. People just don’t know. They just don’t. It’s just that people are extremely friendly and we have all the necessities of life and then some. But I kind of like that, when people come here with an understandable ignorance and they come down here and it’s been so fun to watch everybody.

Can you talk a little bit about creating the period: I know that the town hasn’t moved on a lot but still the homes have microwaves and everything like that.

Mark Rikker, our production designer, he and I started off as production assistants in New York. We used to be P.A.’s on J. Crew catalogue photo shoots together. We would be in the Hamptons, going out looking for oatmeal cookies for a hundred bucks a day. He’s got such an eye and he's from the South. As he’s been coming up in the ranks, he’s been doing some great work. He and Stephen Goldblatt [the director of photography] worked together on Julia and Julia’ and that was this period and it looked so great and that was in Brooklyn. Brooklyn for Paris. They did such a great job. I wanted to hire all friends that we’ve all come up together with.

You're also adapting a book written by your friend. You’ve got to try to make a movie that’s good while staying true to the book and honoring what your friend has made. How hard is that to get yourself in director mode and be able to change things? You have to change something.

We have a great relationship, Kathryn and I. It could have gone poorly, but when I outlined the movie from the book, we met in New York and I said this is what I’m going to do. There was only one thing she didn’t agree with and she was right.

Can you tell us what it was?

I didn’t think we should talk about the Jim Crow Laws because I felt like people know what that is and she told me when she wrote the novel, her editors in New York -- highly educated people -- had no clue about Jim Crow Laws. I go, are you kidding me? I know, I swear. You think people know. They don’t, so she goes I’m telling you put it in and I did. I thought, being a southerner, it was too much. Oh really? Of course there’s Jim Crow Laws. That was the one thing.

What are the challenges of taking a book that is all voices and all kind of internal and making it cinematic?

Nothing’s hard about making her book cinematic. It’s just which things to cut out or to cut down. Mainly I had to get the first two hundred pages into thirty pages of a screenplay. That was the toughest part. But the first two hundred pages of the book was when Minny talks and Aibileen talks and them talking, describing their lives a lot. So I got to figure out, we can see this, we can see that, we can understand this. I just had to whittle down and then get to what they were saying that needed to be said. It took two years, but that’s what I did.

Bryce Dallas Howard

Have you adjusted to seeing yourself this way in costume, like when you walk by a mirror?

It’s really weird. And also just ‘cause the character’s so despicable there’s a couple of times that I’ve gone to watch playback, like, to watch the scene over again, just to see a gesture that I did so that I can match it, and I literally, I, like, kinda cringe, like I don’t really want to look at it. What’s interesting is when you start doing a role, at first the image of the character is really shocking but then you play the character, like, 18 hours a day.

Oh, so you’re more shocked by the real you now.

Yeah, because proportionally, you’re more hours the character than you are yourself.

How easy is Hilly to slip into because she’s not a nice woman.

No, she’s really not a nice woman. But it’s really fun to be such a terrible character and I think that the feeling on set is so joyful. In reading the book – and the script is the same way – it’s a really salacious read, it’s really juicy, but it does at moments get really quite heavy. I think Tate has created this environment on set of making everyone feel really playful so that in those moments where it’s really intense and obviously incredibly loaded given our history as a country, that we don’t fall into this lull as actors of just being like "Oh my gosh, this is too much.” Normally for a character like this I would not be able to sleep at night and all of that kind of stuff, but I think because of the feeling that Tate’s created on set, it’s just when she’s evil, it’s really, you know, it’s more fun than it is scary.

Can you talk a little bit about working on the accent? And is the accent not just a matter of place but also of time, is there a different accent in the 60s than now?

Definitely. Nadia, the dialect coach, has been really specific and she’s recorded a lot of people whose dialect would be pure according to the time period. So, people who have retained their accent from the 60s and, you know, were part of the Junior League and just a part of, like, the social circles that these women would’ve been a part of.

Are accents easy for you?

It’s really fun, I really love it and I look forward to it and I enjoy it, but I really appreciate and need the support of a dialect coach. I wouldn’t know where to begin in terms of the nuance of the accent. I would be able to do probably, like, you know, a broad Southern accent but--

It might be the wrong city, the wrong time.

Exactly. Like the only other time I’ve done a Southern accent, I played a character in the 1920s from Memphis. And, so of course there are similarities but there are some pretty distinct differences as well that Nadia pointed out when I first started doing it.

And what’s the trick of, like, playing kind of the snake in the grass? Like in this scene, we’re watching you be really friendly and open but there’s still, maybe because we’ve all read the book, but we still sense kind of the darkness in the there too. It’s gotta – they’ve gotta be there at the same time.

Right. She’s kind of this duplicitous character in that way. I was doing sort of like more of this arch villain thing at first and someone said, “Bryce, you really – you have to protect these women and this time in all this devastating honesty." Most women were definitely not like Hilly, Hilly’s a particular person, clearly. But it is really important to play that she’s not just a two-dimensional character. I mean, she, she believes in certain things and, and obviously it’s, it’s not only misguided, I mean, it’s evil, it’s – her beliefs are evil, but there is an origin for her beliefs. It’s important to really kind of understand the psychology behind it.

Did you do a lot of research, outside of reading the book, to figure out this time period?

The research that I did was fascinatingly personal because my mom was raised a lot in the South in Louisiana. She was born in the 50s so in the 60s and 70s, she was at times ostracized and called “the Northerner." She actually started reading The Help and had to put it down because it was so intense for her to read it. And now she’s picked it up again and she was like, “I can read Stephen King before bed, I can read Anne Rice before bed, but I have to read The Help during the day,” because it rattles her. And so I spent a lot of time talking to her just about her experiences and what was normal and what wasn’t.

I was a little biased in my anticipation for The Help during the DreamWorks presentation at Cinema Con yesterday. Not only had I visited the set in sweltering Mississippi summer heat (more on that later this year), but I had read the best-selling Kathryn Stockett novel on which it was based, thanks to a recommendation from my mother who had since sent it on to all of her friends. The Help is already a phenomenon in the literary world, and the movie with a dynamite cast and a director who grew up with the author seemed to have everything going with it to be great.

Obviously a sizzle reel of clips and behind-the-scenes footage cut together for an industry convention is no demonstration of whether the movie is good or bad, but I wasn't the only one impressed by what we saw from The Help. Emma Stone stars in the film as Skeeter Phelan, a 22-year-old returning from college to her Mississippi hometown in 1963 while she tries to start her career as a journalist. When challenged to write about something that makes her uncomfortable, she turns her sight to the lives of the African-American women who work as "the help" in the homes of her town's wealthy white people, including Skeeter's childhood best friend Hilly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard). Skeeter enlists two of these women in particular, played by Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer, to help her write a book that exposes what their lives are really like-- all of this at the very beginning of the Civil Rights Movement.

The reel they cut together for the presentation focused a lot of the drama-- lots of tears, lots of hints at the civil rights importance of what Skeeter does, and some beautiful photography of small-town Mississippi where they shot the movie. But when they took the stage the four stars emphasized the film's comedy, something that probably will be unavoidable with comedic talents like Stone, Spencer and even Allison Janney in the cast. More than anything the clips we saw seemed to carry the feel of the deep South in midsummer-- the lush greenery, the incredible humidity, even the sight of sweat on the faces of the actresses, who were also layered down in period clothing, wigs and at least one remarkably lacquered hairdo.

I caught up with the four leads after the presentation for a quick interview and asked them about that sweat-- Howard, for one, did not hesitate to talk about exactly what kind of sweat you'll be seeing in the film. We also talked about what we can expect from the movie-- the actresses all saw it earlier this week-- the resonant truths they see in the film, and which of their co-stars they expect to totally steal the film out from under them. I also talked to director Tate Taylor and producers Brunson Green and Chris Columbus on the red carpet, asking them how they'll sell a movie starring all women as a summer film (yes, the video is terrible, but it's quick and the audio is at least worth hearing). Check out that and the transcript of my conversation with the leads all below. The Help opens August 12; in the meantime do yourself a favor and read Kathryn Stockett's book so we can all be excited for this one together.

It seems like all the sweat you guys put into working on this movie on location in Mississippi is really showing up on the screen.

Emma Stone: Literally. There's so much sweat in the movie.

Bryce Dallas Howard: Crotch sweat.

Viola Davis: Underarm.

Does it feel a little bit weird to show up at Cinema Con amid all the bigger 3D summer movies, going "Please, enjoy our classy literary adaptation with social themes?" Did that feel like a disconnect?

Viola Davis: No, it makes us feel special.

Bryce Dallas Howard: There was some quote that I read somewhere [from Chekhov], where enormous things can happen in a living room. In the past, films like this were these event movies. I hope Tate didn't take it take it as an insult the first time I started seeing some footage -- I'm like, "You made a '90s movie!" It's one of those films that are incredibly powerful and heartwarming, but very true. You can watch them over and over and over again, because they take you through this journey.

Emma Stone: This movie is visually stunning. If you're looking for visually stunning, Stephen Goldblatt was the DP and Tate has an incredible eye. It's a beautiful movie. Even if you're into 3D, this will still be --

Octavia Spencer: It will feel satisfying.

Viola Davis: I also think those are the movies we can quote from. Hopefully they will be quoting Skeeter, Aibileen, Minny lines 10 years from now. Bryce Dallas Howard: No one will ever say anything that Hilly Holbrook ever says again. [Note: Hilly, a stuck-up and racist socialite, is something like the villain of the movie] Viola Davis: Yes they will. They will, they will: trust me, they will.

Saying this is a 90s movie-- do you feel like it is a throwback in doing things that major studios don't bother to do anymore?

Emma Stone: Isn't it a shame that you say that?

Bryce Dallas Howard: My dad saw the film with all of us on Sunday. That's something he was really struck by, because those are the kinds of movies he wants to make and platformed his career, in a way. He wrote Stacy [Snider, chair of Dreamworks] being like, "You made one of them. How'd you do that?" She was his boss over at Universal, when she was over at Universal. She wrote back saying, "Whenever I hear about a certain genre being dead, I laugh. It's ridiculous. This is storytelling. Who's to say what's the more successful genre of storytelling? You need to do it really, really well." I think to do this kind of movie well takes a lot of effort, and I think you can in some ways justify a considerable amount of effort when you're building something that's technologically groundbreaking. When you're having trouble with a script, or when you're having trouble with working a scene, people maybe prematurely give up, and nobody gave up on this film. There were so many incredible minds behind this process, and there was so much support that I'm really excited that there is a film that can represent that and is being sold as that in a way that I think is very successful.

Emma Stone: I was wondering if it's modern culture, and the fact that kids' schools are being changed to pass/fail and why people don't want to work as hard to make something that really is --

Viola Davis: Everything is quick.

Emma Stone: There is quick and not earned as much anymore.

Viola Davis: And what I've realized, even watching plays and movies, is the biggest issue is people don't trust the story. People don't trust a good story. Actors don't trust a good story sometimes. They don't trust a good character. They all resort to gimmicks and gadgets -- anything to distract you from the fact that they don't really want to go there. I think it takes an extraordinary amount of courage for an actor to delve into truth, and it takes an extraordinary amount of courage for a filmmaker to say, "You know what, let me tell you a really great story. Let me take my time telling it. Let me cast the people in it that will tell it the best. I will trust that you will keep your butts in the seats." That's what this film does, and it makes me feel special to be a part of it, because I think it's going to last through time.

What would you to say some hypothetical moviegoer who wouldn't want to see this movie because it's set in the 60s?

Octavia Spencer: Because if you don't know history, you're destined to repeat it. The truth of the matter is, it is what's happening in the rest of the world. This is what I say to my nieces and nephews:My mother made sure we knew history. I knew history, but I really didn't appreciate it until I had to walk in these shoes. That is the difference: you have to understand what people went through just to make this passé, the fact that they don't need to care, quote-unquote. I think if you don't understand the contributions that other people made -- whether it's through film, whether it's through literary work -- you have to understand what people contributed in order to really appreciate that contribution. I do understand, now.

Viola Davis: King says, "If you feel like you have no stake in a culture, you will just destroy it." We take for granted that we're sitting next to black people, Hispanic people in class. We take for granted we can even get an education. We don't know the people who died to get our behinds in a classroom.

Emma Stone: To be sitting here right now.

And films like this can make that difference between past and present even more obvious.

Bryce Dallas Howard: In a very entertaining way. That's the thing that's very distinctive, I think, about this particular genre of filmmaking: it's not grueling. You're not watching miserable people living their miserable lives in Miserabletown, USA. These are people who are really trying, it's hilarious, it's emotional. It's all the things you would want out of an escapist experience, but it's actually connecting you back into what is true. That's what's good about it.

Octavia Spencer: You always go back to those people that are the luminaries, and Ron Howard and Steven Spielberg. They still say, "I wanna be Steven Spielberg. I want to be Ron Howard," because those are the movies that move them.

Since you've seen the movie, which of your co-stars are going to steal the movie out from under you?

Octavia Spencer: Every last one of them.

Bryce Dallas Howard: Sissy, Jessica Chastain.. It's unreal what she does. And Ahna O'Reilly is beautiful.

Octavia Spencer: Mary Steenburgen, Chris Lowell, Aunjanue Ellis. Let me tell you, my very first day working with Sissy, who is an idol -- my call time was 11 o'clock, and I went to bed at 6 PM the night before, like, "I got to calm myself down." Same thing with Viola, I'm like, "I got to calm myself down. I'm working with these people." You're going to enjoy the performances.

The Help will finally start shooting later this summer in Mississippi, which means I can finally stop wringing my hands over how director Tate Taylor plans to adapt his friend Kathryn Stockett's book and simply wait to see the results. You may remember I've been closely following the casting process, cheering when Viola Davis signed on and scratching my head when three redheads were cast as the central young white female roles. Now, at least, Taylor has thrown me a bone by making a casting decision pretty much no one can argue with.

According to EW, Allison Janney has signed on to play the small but pivotal role of Charlotte Phelan, mother of the main character "Skeeter" who will be played by Emma Stone. Skeeter is a young woman learning to test the boundaries of her restrictive upper-class life in 1960s Mississippi, while Charlotte, coming from another era, worries mainly about her daughter getting married to a suitable man and about keeping the status quo.

Janney thrilled a bunch of Lost fans when she showed up unexpectedly as Jacob's mother near the end of the final season, but it's really been since Juno that she had a good, meaty, mainstream role. For all my worries that The Help might not live up to the book it's based on, having Janney on board is nothing but a step in the right direction. ,

Tate Taylor clearly has a thing for redheads. The actor-turned-director is next adapting The Help, the novel by his childhood friend Kathryn Stockett, and he's already cast Emma Stone and Bryce Dallas Howard in key roles in the film, about rich white women and the black women who serve them in 1960s Mississippi. With shooting set to begin this summer Taylor is rounding out his cast with yet another redhead-- THR reports that Jessica Chastain has been cast as Celia Foote.

I've been following the casting process of The Help with some interest, both because I liked the book and, as a Southerner, I get very protective when Yankee actors try to step in and do Southern accents. I'm still skeptical about Stone and Howard in their lead roles, though the casting of the black characters has been spot-on so far, with Viola Davis and Taylor's friend Octavia Spencer signing on in the main roles. Chastain is definitely a wild card-- her main acting credit so far is Terrence Malick's highly anticipated Tree of Life, in which she co-stars with Brad Pitt. Since no one has seen that film yet, we basically just have to trust that Malick plucked her out of relative obscurity for a good reason.

Though the Celia Foote role is less prominent than the others, it's pretty meaty-- she's a poor white trash girl who gets completely over her head when she marries a rich local businessman, and stays at home every day with only the maid Minny (Spencer) to help her pull herself together. The character is both comic and tragic, and would be a great opportunity for Chastain to put herself out there as Malick dithers over Tree of Life at his usual slow pace. As for the fact that the three lead white actresses all have red hair? It's bizarre, but for now we can just assume Taylor has something planned.

If you've been keeping up with our coverage of the movie adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's novel The Help, you've probably realized that no one else in the movie blogosphere is as invested in this thing more than I am. I loved the book and I'm rooting for the movie's success, but there have been some red flags. You can read about most of them here, where I puzzled over the decision to cast Bryce Dallas Howard as the key villainous character Hilly Holbrook. The book is set in early 1960s Jackson Mississippi and follows young Skeeter Phelan (to be played by Emma Stone), a white woman who decides to write a book documenting the true experiences of black domestic workers, a.k.a. "the help."

With Viola Davis on board to play one of the housekeepers interviewed, the next big casting job was for Minny, the outspoken and younger housekeeper who works for Howard's Hilly and has trouble holding back her disdain for the snobby and condescending white people who employ her. It's a tough role, but director Tate Taylor seems to have struck on some perfect casting-- EW reports that the role will be played by Octavia Spencer, the actress and childhood friend of Stockett's who inspired the character of Minny to begin with.

Taylor is also a friend of Stockett's and Spencer's, which raises the question of why it took so long for him to cast her to begin with. Regardless, Spencer will at least be perfect at embodying the character she inspired, which may make up for some of the iffy Southern accents and mannerisms that the rest of the cast may bring (Emma Stone, I have my eye on you).