Rex Sikes' Movie Beat chats with director Rod Lurie

Rod Lurie wrote and directed the widely praised Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominated political thriller “The Contender,” starring Joan Allen, Jeff Bridges, Gary Oldman and Christian Slater. The film was also honored by the Broadcast Film Critics with the first-ever Alan J. Pakula Award.  His latest film, “Straw Dogs,” is a remake of the 1971 classic, starring James Marsden, Kate Bosworth, and Alexander Skarsgard, and was released in September, 2011. Lurie’s other most recent projects include “Nothing But the Truth,” starring Kate Beckinsale, Alan Alda, and Matt Dillon, “Resurrecting the Champ,” which starred Samuel L. Jackson and Josh Hartnett, the ABC drama “Commander in Chief,” a show centered on the first female President of the United States starring Geena Davis and Donald Sutherland which he created and executive produced, the military prison thriller “The Last Castle,“ which starred Robert Redford, James Gandolfini, Mark Ruffalo and co-star Brian Goodman, who was part of the cast of “Line of Fire,” the one-hour FBI drama that he Executive Produced for ABC. Lurie made his film writing and directing debut in 1998 with the dramatic short “Four Second Delay,” which won the Best Short Film award at the Atlanta Film Festival and the Crested Butte Reel Fest.  The film also won the Prix du Jury at the Festival of American Cinema in Deauville, France. Lurie followed in 2000 with his first feature film “Deterrence,” a drama about America coming to the brink of nuclear war, starring Kevin Pollak and Timothy Hutton. Before he segued to filmmaking,   Stay tuned to Rex Sikes Movie Beat for other great archived interviews, cast and crew listings, events, festivals, premieres, and more at rexsikes.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.