Alpha Dog on DVD & HD-DVD
(1/19/07) DVD Town

Universal Home Video will release "Alpha Dog" on DVD & HD-DVD this May 1st. The film, written/directed by Nick Cassavetes, stars Bruce Willis, Sharon Stone, Emile Hirsch, Justin Timberlake, and Dominique Swain.

Extras will include: "A Cautionary Tale: The Making of Alpha Dog featurette," and a "Witness Timeline."

Dance film stomps 'Museum' at box office
(1/15/07) Penn Live

...The weekend's other new movies had ho-hum debuts. Universal's youth drama "Alpha Dog," featuring Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster and Justin Timberlake in a tale of drugs, kidnapping and murder, opened at No. 7 with $6.1 million...

Alpha Dog (2007)
Lisa Schwarzbaum for Entertainment Weekly

As a career enhancer, Justin Timberlake's recent rendition of ''D--- in a Box'' on SNL takes the gold. But I'd give his tattooed turn as Frankie, a junior gangsta straight outta L.A.'s comfy San Gabriel Valley, at least the bronze — the guy is that charming in Nick Cassavetes' flashy bad-boy drama Alpha Dog.

Charm, though, is of little value in this noisy semi-True Hollywood Story, about Johnny (Emile Hirsch), a hotheaded drug-dealing daddy's boy who tries to put the heat on a deadbeat associate (Ben Foster, always pleasurably scary) by holding the guy's kid brother, Zack (Anton Yelchin), for ransom. Long story short, the kid — sweet, innocent — has a good time being kidnapped, and surrounded by naughty local babes, while Frankie starts to look on Zack as his own younger brother. Mistake.

Cassavetes (The Notebook) throws in everything he can recycle to grab a core-demo viewer — slutty teens making out, blaring rock music, guns, split screens. The implication is that too much video culture and too little parental supervision make Johnny a danger — and that it sure is fun to play at being Johnnies in movies. Or even Johnny's parents. Bruce Willis and Harry Dean Stanton pitch in as lowlife adults. And as Zack's histrionically distraught mother, Sharon Stone submits to a fat suit that lends her an unfortunate resemblance to Martin Short's Jiminy Glick. C

Federal Court Says 'Alpha Dog' Can Open
(1/10/07) The Columbian

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A court ruled the film "Alpha Dog," which is based on an ongoing murder case, can open Friday as scheduled, even though a defense lawyer contended it could taint the jury pool for the upcoming trial.

The movie's stars include Justin Timberlake, Bruce Willis and Sharon Stone.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an emergency request by the alleged killer's attorney to delay the release. Universal Studios had argued that doing so would be unconstitutional prior restraint of free speech.

Attorney James Blatt, who represents Jesse James Hollywood, appealed after a federal judge refused last month to stop the release.

Blatt said he was not surprised by the appellate panel's ruling on Monday.

"It's difficult to take on the First Amendment. The standard for prior restraint is so tremendously high," he said. "How do you prove you can't find 12 impartial jurors?"

Although the main character has a different name, the film is based on the suspected role of Hollywood in the kidnapping and slaying of 15-year-old Nicholas Markowitz seven years ago.

The teen's body was found in a remote Santa Barbara County camping area.

Prosecutors believe Hollywood, portrayed in the movie by actor Emile Hirsch, was the mastermind behind the murder plot. He was captured in Brazil in 2005 and has pleaded not guilty to charges that could carry the death penalty if he is convicted.

Markowitz was killed as part of a feud between Hollywood and the victim's older half-brother over a $1,200 drug debt, prosecutors contend. Four other people have been convicted in connection to the kidnap-murder.

Alpha Dog faces off-screen drama
(1/6/07) The Associated Press and MSNBC

Attorneys trying to block release of movie based on murder case

LOS ANGELES - On the big screen, "Alpha Dog" focuses on the kidnapping and murder of a Southern California teen that were inspired by actual events.

Off-screen, the movie is creating some drama of its own.

Not only is the film facing a legal challenge that could block its Jan. 12 release, but an appeals court chided a deputy district attorney for turning over confidential files to the movie's producers.

"Alpha Dog" stars Bruce Willis, Sharon Stone and Justin Timberlake, and premiered Wednesday in Los Angeles.

Attorneys for Jesse James Hollywood are trying to block its distribution because Hollywood is awaiting trial for events depicted in the movie.

Despite having the characters' names changed, Hollywood is shown in a bad light throughout the film, attorney James Blatt said, and a jury pool could be tainted, infringing on Hollywood's right to a fair trial.

Universal Studios argued that prohibiting the public from seeing the movie would violate the First Amendment.

Last month, a federal judge refused to stop the film's release but Hollywood appealed the decision. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to rule in the coming days.

"Alpha Dog" is based on the kidnapping and slaying of 15-year-old Nicholas Markowitz seven years ago. Prosecutors believe Hollywood, portrayed in the movie by Emile Hirsch, was the mastermind behind the murder plot. The teen's body was later found in a remote Santa Barbara County camping area.

Markowitz was killed as part of a feud Hollywood had with the victim's older half brother over a $1,200 drug debt, prosecutors said. Four others have been convicted in connection with the murder.

Hollywood fled after being charged with murder and was captured in Brazil in 2005. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and could face the death penalty if convicted.

Also pending is a decision by the California Supreme Court, which could reverse a lower court's ruling to remove Santa Barbara County Senior Deputy District Attorney Ron Zonen from handling Hollywood's trial.

In October, the 2nd District Court of Appeal ordered Zonen removed from the case because he shared probation reports, police files and other materials with "Alpha Dog" producers. He also served as an unpaid consultant on the film.

Zonen's "actions allowed ‘show business' to cast an unseemly shadow over this case," Presiding Judge Arthur Gilbert wrote in the court's Oct. 5 decision.

Blatt, who has seen the film, said that Zonen's involvement in "Alpha Dog" gives the public a slanted view of what happened.

Timberlake, Cassavetes And 'Alpha Dog' Crew Close Out Sundance In Style
(2/1/06) MTV

Hard-edged gangster flick is hottest ticket in town during the film festival's final weekend.

PARK CITY, Utah — The 2006 Sundance Film Festival was packed with memorable moments and happenings, including a slew of overachieving underdog films, the crush of hard-partying Hollywood stars and the emergence of new names and faces who might just shape the movie business for years to come.

But during the festival's final weekend, everything began and ended with "Alpha Dog."

"That's pretty good," Justin Timberlake said, moments before the film's world premiere, when a reporter suggested that he'd walk into the theater a singer and would walk out an actor. Grinning, he added: "I've been acting like I could sing for years."

The media avidly pursued Timberlake around Park City for days as he kicked off his acting career in style — and he obliged, doing interviews, attending screenings, dancing at the film's afterparty and taking some time to hit the couldn't-be-fresher powder on the local slopes. "I went snowboarding," he said, assuring his fans that he can handle himself. "I'm good."

During his introductory remarks at the "Alpha Dog" screening, director Nick Cassavetes ("The Notebook") pulled no punches as he prepared the audience for a hard-drinking, bong-toting, trigger-happy Timberlake unlike anything they'd come to expect from the 'NSYNC star.

"You don't watch this film," Cassavetes said, half-jokingly. "You endure it."

Earlier, Timberlake had joined his "Alpha" co-stars to discuss the brutal, emotionally powerful film based on the true story of a drug-dealing thug (played by Emile Hirsch, "Lords of Dogtown") and a group of young wannabe gangsters in way over their heads.

"I met the guy that my character is based on, and it was a trippy experience," Timberlake revealed. "I spent about three hours in an upstate California prison, and I took a lot away from it."

"It's inspired by true events, by the Jesse James Hollywood case," said Hirsch, whose character in the film is named Johnny Truelove. "It's about this teenaged drug kingpin in the valley, and all of his friends, and how one of the conflicts [he's involved with] gets him and all of his friends in trouble.

"Queenpin," corrected Timberlake, busting his friend's chops in a manner reminiscent of how the characters in the film treat each other. After the gang cracked up, they all insisted that such brotherly humor was the result of unusual Cassavetes acting and directing techniques that had them simultaneously pumping iron and dissing each other.

"We were working out in the valley, outside, in August," remembered Ben Foster ("Hostage"). "So we've got the heat, and we're lifting hot heavy things for hours and hours. And the genius of Nick Cassavetes' direction is creating an environment that allows us to explore our own relationships."

"I'm a sponge," joked Timberlake, looking at his co-stars. "I was a clown in the movie, actually."

The actors then started clamoring over one another to build on the joke, before Timberlake self-deprecatingly repeated the assertion: "I'm, literally, a clown in the movie."

"He's got a lot of makeup on, and the nose," added Foster. "It squeaks when you squeeze it."

"Justin was just downplaying it about being lighthearted," Foster continued, settling down from the roughhousing. "Justin also has an amazing emotional depth and availability, which is unusual. He's one of those rare talents who can access depth and a sense of charisma, and the idea that you can be his friend. It's not a presentation; it's who you are."

Blushing, Timberlake deflected the compliment by screaming, "So hire me!" at any Hollywood execs who might be within earshot.

Growing serious for a moment, the "Alpha Dog" stars insisted that there are some thought-provoking messages behind all the teasing.

"There's sort of this anarchist theme throughout the film," Timberlake observed. "In our culture today — I mean, God knows, they tried to blame Columbine on Marilyn Manson. They tried so hard. And it turns out the kids were just crazy."

"Or just damaged people who didn't have a way to communicate with either their parents or their friends," Foster added. "It's about being isolated, and I think this film also expresses that — although we have a group of friends and people hanging out, there isn't a whole lot of true communication between each other."

"It's fun and games; it's how kids are to kids," Timberlake observed. "When you're young and you're figuring out who you are in the world, you're very insecure and very ignorant. I remember the one day that I had when I was a young teenager, and I was like, 'Oh wait, I'm not gonna live forever,' [just realizing] that life is precious. And you watch these young people throughout this movie and that thought never crosses their minds until they're in [a serious] predicament."

Instead, the characters waste their days hanging around and knocking each other down, both verbally and physically. "That's why the film is called 'Alpha Dog,' " Timberlake said, referring to the term used to describe the strongest animal in a pack. "You could watch it on the Discovery Channel; you see two male animals in the same vicinity and they just fight [to see] who's bigger, better, faster, cooler."

This past weekend, there was little doubt that Timberlake, Foster, Hirsch and their fellow collaborators were the alpha dogs at Sundance. As the closing film of the festival, "Alpha" occupied a position of honor that was not lost on the stars.

"It's great," beamed Anton Yelchin, who plays an impressionable, kidnapped youngster in the flick. "It's very prestigious. I guess it's an important enough film to close off this festival, and people have [been waiting], I've heard, to see it. It's packed inside the theater, which is great. It makes me feel good."

"Alpha Dog" did, indeed, fill Park City theaters all weekend, through the premiere and into several secondary screenings, and the buzz only grew stronger as scores of moviegoers were turned away for lack of space. Now, the stars are looking forward to the film's April release.

"I don't think that we've actually seen the range and depth yet of Justin's musical style, or Justin's acting abilities," said Foster. "He brings in an amazing performance in 'Alpha Dog.' He is a movie star. I'm a huge fan now. I was not expecting a pop star to come in and give such a heartfelt performance. Justin is going to be around for a very long time, and I look forward to seeing his movies."

Justin Timberlake Tackles Rumors
(1/27/06) MTV

Singer/'Alpha Dog' star sets the record straight; former teen queen breaks out of 'movie jail.'

PARK CITY, Utah — As the snow fell on this city again Thursday morning, it dispatched a fresh canvas reminiscent of a blank movie screen before the lights go down. And as the 2006 Sundance Film Festival nears its end, one thing has

...Hours later and a few doors away, Timberlake and the "Alpha Dog" crew agreed, saying that Sundance was a chance to discover all kinds of films, both big and small. Jokingly referring to their highly anticipated, studio-owned flick as the "Wal-Mart" of Sundance, the co-stars added that they were fortunate to be in one of the more high-profile films of the festival, and hoped that all their media attention could help trickle down into more notice for smaller films of the "Punching" variety.

For the Record
(10/29/04) MTV.com

The first photos of Justin Timberlake on the set of "Alpha Dog" are now surfacing, showing the shirtless singer sporting temporary tattoos of the Virgin Mary on his bicep, stars on his arm and Chinese writing on his side to help him look more like the gang member he's playing in the film. Also emblazoned on Timberlake's chest is the writing "Est. 1976." Based on the life of real-life drug dealer Jesse James Hollywood, "Alpha Dog" has fictionalized the thug's tale, renaming him Johnny Truelove. Timberlake plays Truelove's best friend.

Justin to star with Bruce Willis for Alpha Dog
(10/26/04) Hollywood Reporter

LOS ANGELES- Bruce Willis is joining the cast of "Alpha Dog," a fact-based film also starring Sharon Stone, Justin Timberlake (news), Emile Hirsch and Dominique Swain.

The New Line project tells the story of Johnny Truelove (Hirsch), a young man from southern California's San Gabriel Valley whose ambition is to follow in his father's footsteps. When one of Johnny's plans goes awry, his father is forced to step in and save his son from a life behind bars. Willis will play the youngster's father.

Willis was in theaters earlier this year with "The Whole 10 Yards," and will appear in "Ocean's Twelve," which opens in December.

Justin Shooting New Movie Next Week
(10/21/04) Neil Wilkes Digital Spy UK

Justin Timberlake will start work on his next movie project next week, MTV reports today.

Fresh from filming crime thriller Edison, the singer-turned-actor will begin shooting Alpha Dog, another crime drama. Justin will play Franky Ballkowski, a fictional member of a drug gang led by Jesse James Hollywood, who orchestrated the kidnapping and brutal murder of a 15-year-old in August 2000.

The film is said to be only "loosely based" on the life of Hollywood, who still remains at large.

Also on the cast are Emile Hirsch (as Hollywood), Ben Foster, Sharon Stone, Dominique Swain, Vincent Kartheiser, Shawn Hatosy, Vincent Laresca, Shera Danese and David Thornton.

Hollywood Wants You
(10/21/04) Times Leader

Ricky Martin, Justin Timberlake, Adam Levine from Maroon 5 and Will.I.Am from the Black Eyed Peas are some of the celebrities asking whether people care about the issues in a series of new Rock the Vote public service announcements. The spots are filmed in black and white, according to the Associated Press, and cut back and forth between each celebrity saying one or two short lines. Actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Samuel L. Jackson are also shooting spots for the campaign.

Justin Timberlake to Begin His Life of Crime
(10/21/04) Jennifer Vineyard MTV.com

Justin Timberlake's new movie project, which he's set to start shooting next week, is going to find him living a life of crime. The singer has signed on for a supporting role in the drama "Alpha Dog," in which he would play a fictional member of a

drug gang led by Jesse James Hollywood, who orchestrated the kidnapping and brutal murder of a 15-year-old in August 2000.

Timberlake is slated to play a character named Franky Ballkowski, according to his spokesperson. The film is not meant to be a biopic of Hollywood and is only loosely based on real-life events, according to the film's rep, so there aren't strict parallels to Hollywood's real-life gang, all of whom are currently serving time for the crime he masterminded.

Hollywood remains at large, with a $50,000 reward offered by the FBI for information leading to his arrest.

In August 2000, the gang leader and his friends kidnapped Nicholas Markowitz from San Fernando Valley and took him to Santa Barbara, California, because the teen's older brother owed Hollywood money for drugs. In a bizarre sequence of events, Hollywood called his lawyer to find out what might happen to him for the kidnapping, and upon learning it could lead to a life sentence, decided to destroy the evidence, ordering his friends to kill the kid. Meanwhile, Markowitz, who considered the kidnapping to be a goof, spent his last days partying with his captors — drinking, smoking pot, meeting girls and swimming in a hotel pool. At times he was bound with duct tape, but mostly he was free to walk around and could have escaped, had he known his life was in danger. He was later hit in the head with a shovel and shot nine times before being buried in a shallow grave near a hiking trail.

"They were just your average 20-year-olds," said gang member William Skidmore's lawyer H. Russell Halpern. "They were upper middle class white kids. This wasn't supposed to happen in suburbia. It shocked people."

Also cast in "Alpha Dog" are Dominique Swain, Vincent Kartheiser, Shawn Hatosy, Vincent Laresca, Shera Danese and David Thornton. Emile Hirsch is slated to play Hollywood, Ben Foster the murder victim's brother, and Sharon Stone the mother of one of the leads.

Visit MTV Movies for more from Hollywood, including news, interviews, trailers and more.

— Jennifer Vineyard

Timberlake, Stone film seeks extras
(10/18/04) Nelsy Rodriguez The Desert Sun

PALM SPRINGS -- In show business, rejection is a common event; just ask any aspiring actor.

So it’s no surprise that the people behind an upcoming film starring Justin Timberlake and Sharon Stone were undaunted by the low number of people who turned out for a casting call in Palm Springs.

After a casting call for the upcoming film "Alpha Dog" came up about 100 people short of the number of extras they need, the firm On Location Casting announced it would simply host more events.

That means the call is still out for young adults between 18 and 25 to stand as extras in a Nick Cassavetes film, "Alpha Dog," starring Justin Timberlake and Sharon Stone.

The Los Angeles casting company needs about 250 extras for the film, but only about 155 teens showed up at Caliente Tropics Resort in Palm Springs on Saturday and Sunday.

Tina Kerr, extras casting director, said the company needs 1999 cars or older to establish the period.

The movie follows a young man -- not Timberlake -- who in trying to emulate his father ends up in trouble with the law, Kerr said.

Chosen extras will be paid $6.75 an hour, plus overtime if allotted, for any number of hours of work during two weeks of filming in Palm Springs.

But that minimum wage isn’t typically the reason people audition.

Stacy Wiedman, a 20-year-old Twentynine Palms woman, said she’s been trying to get in the movies since she was a young girl.

The aspiring actress doesn’t make it to many casting calls, though, because they’re usually in Los Angeles, she said.

"I want to wake up and do a job I love instead of getting paid for something (I) don’t really care to do," Wiedman said.

The experience, Kerr said, is why people answer casting calls.

After all, sultry Stone’s first role in a film was a non-speaking passing moment in Woody Allen’s "Stardust Memories."

"You never know how it could happen," Kerr said.

Newsmakers
(10/2/04) Tirdad Derakhshani Philadelphia Inquirer

...Justin goes to the dogs

The delectable and multitalented Justin Timberlake, who'll make his acting debut in the indie thriller Edison alongside Kevin Spacey and Morgan Freeman (it's due out next year), has already signed to star in his second flick. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Nick Cassavetes-helmed Alpha Dog will have Justin play the best friend of the drug dealer (played by Emile Hirsch) who became the youngest man ever to be on the FBI's most-wanted list.

The flick's name is a tad ironic. According to the New York Post, Justin may no longer be on Cameron Diaz's most-wanted list - because he's been acting like a dog. The tab says he's having a fling with "a lovely brunette" named Monica, 26. While Timberlake's rep denies the affair, we shudder with dread at the thought that Cam and Justin could be headed to Splitsville. We doubt we could survive that agony...

Quick News On Justin Timberlake...
(10/2/04) MTV

Justin Timberlake already has one movie in the can — the film "Edison," which still hasn't found a distributor — and he's already on to a new role, in a picture that might make it into theaters first. Timberlake is just about to sign on for a role in the movie "Alpha Dog," according to The Hollywood Reporter. It's a supporting part, the best friend of a real-life character called Jesse James Hollywood, a drug dealer who became one of the youngest men ever to wind up on the FBI's most-wanted list. Also attached to the project are Emile Hirsch and Sharon Stone. The film will start shooting on October 25...