Sacha Baron Cohen may be the main attraction of The Dictator, but don't be surprised if everyone who sees the movie comes out raving about his co-star Jason Mantzoukas. Best known as the outrageous Rafi on the FX series The League, the Upright Citizens Brigade-trained comic actor steals almost every scene he's in as Nadal, a nuclear scientist that runs afoul of Cohen's dictator, General Aladeen, in their home country of Wadiya only to emerge as his equal when the tyrant is stripped of his identity and let loose on the streets of New York. On a recent press pit stop in Manhattan, Mantzoukas spoke with us about testing his improvising skills against Cohen, what scenes didn't make it into The Dictator and why he hopes that Rafi never gets his own spin-off series.

The secret to Sacha Baron Cohen's particular brand of comedy has always been its unpredictability. When you watch one of his signature creations -- be it Ali G or Borat or Bruno -- interact with an unsuspecting dignitary, celebrity or just a plain old Average Joe, you have absolutely no idea what he'll do or say... or what they'll do or say in response. His ability to improvise in the moment without breaking character is what makes him such a formidable talent. Even if a particular encounter doesn't yield many laughs, you have to admire the guy for his fearlessness.

As one of the founding members of the British animation studio Aardman Animations, Peter Lord has watched the company grow from a tiny two-man operation to a full-fledged cartoon factory that produces commercials, TV shows and movies using both computer animation and its signature stop-motion house style popularized in such shorts as Creature Comforts and The Wrong Trousers. Over a decade ago, Lord himself shepherded Aardman into feature filmmaking by co-directing the hit Great Escape homage Chicken Run, and now he's back behind the camera for their latest big-screen effort The Pirates: Band of Misfits, which stars Hugh Grant as a 19th-century Pirate Captain who doesn't let the fact that he isn't the sharpest cutlass in the drawer stop him from leading his crew across the seven seas. Lord spoke with TWoP about how Grant found his voice for the part and whether it's best for cartoon animals to be seen rather than heard.

Like a number of action heroes before him -- Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jean-Claude Van Damme to name a few -- Jason Statham gives (fake) fatherhood a try in his latest vehicle Safe, where he plays protector to a young girl (played by Catherine Chan) who is being pursued by the Triads, the Russian Mafia and the New York City fuzz. But don't worry, Statham fans: being in the company of a minor doesn't keep him from doing what he does best -- delivering epic beatdowns to bad guys dumb enough to stand in his way. On a recent publicity tour through New York (where Safe takes place, although Philadelphia subbed in for much of the shoot), Statham spoke to the press about the way he preps for his labor-intensive action movies, whether he's the modern-day Clint Eastwood and why he and Sylvester Stallone had tons of fun making The Expendables 2.

Helming a big-screen version of an old TV series may not seem like the most auspicious beginning to a live-action filmmaking career, but Phil Lord and Chris Miller were determined to make a 21 Jump Street movie that was more than a pale imitation of the campy '80s cop series. They've had some success adapting unlikely source material before; their previous movie was the 2009 animated feature Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, a clever take on the classic children's story that wasn't afraid to depart from the text when it served the film. And while 21 Jump Street has some subtle -- and not so subtle -- homages to the source material, it definitely stands apart as its own (very funny) movie. Lord and Miller spoke with us about their transition from animation to live action filmmaking, why 21 Jump Street had to be R-rated and what jokes eagle-eyed viewers should look for in the background.

In an alternate universe, Rob Riggle may have become a pilot in the U.S. Marine Corps. In this version of Earth though, the Kentucky-born Riggle enlisted with the Marines in 1990 only to leave the corps not long after to pursue a career in comedy (he's still a Lieutenant Colonel in the Reserve). It took about a decade, but that career move has paid off. A tour of duty with New York's Upright Citizens Brigade led to guest spots on shows like The Office followed by a high-profile stint as a Daily Show correspondent. These days, Riggle is an established scene-stealer on film and television, popping up in everything from Tina Fey's 30 Rock to Tom Hanks's Larry Crowne. This weekend, Riggle has a small, but crucial turn in 21 Jump Street, playing a kooky gym teacher named Mr. Walters, who crosses paths with two undercover cops-turned-high school students (Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum) investigating a student-run drug ring. Riggle spoke to us about impersonating a gym teacher, his sketch comedy background and why going to UCB was like attending graduate school.

It's understandable that the thought of a 21 Jump Street movie sounds like the height of Hollywood creative bankruptcy. But stars Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum made it their mission to produce a Jump Street film that's not just a wan carbon copy of the original '80s cop series that's best known for launching the careers of Johnny Depp and... um, Richard Grieco. Audiences will find out for themselves on Friday whether they succeeded in that endeavor. Prior to the film's release, Hill and Tatum turned up at a New York press conference (clad in their cop uniforms from the movie no less) and talked about the origins of the project, their on-screen chemistry and what other '80s series they'd like to remake.

Although all of the ads for the new romantic comedy Friends with Kids play up the movie's impressive ensemble -- Jon Hamm! Kristen Wiig! Maya Rudolph! Megan Fox! -- they don't indicate that Adam Scott is actually the movie's leading man. The Parks and Recreation star plays Jason Fryman, a single-and-loving-it New Yorker who decides to enter into an unusual arrangement with his best friend, Julie (Jennifer Westfeldt, who also wrote and directed the movie): they'll have a kid together and share joint custody, but since they're not actually attracted to each other, they won't bother with marriage. At first, this arrangement gives Jason the best of both worlds as he's able to experience the fun of fatherhood while also being able to indulge his single guy hormones by dating a smoking hot Broadway dancer (Megan Fox). But then... well, you'll just have to see the movie for yourself. In town for the movie's premiere, Scott spoke with us about how he scored the gig and what costume he wore for Halloween last year. (Hint: He previously donned it for a very popular episode of Parks and Rec.)

Although he made his first scary movie in 2005, writer/director Ti West didn't register on the radars of most horror fans until his retro-'80s shocker The House of the Devil premiered in 2009. Although it wasn't a Paranormal Activity-style box office smash, Devil quickly gained a strong cult following and made the 31-year-old filmmaker a person of interest in genre circles. On Friday, West's new film The Innkeepers -- a small-scale ghost story set in an old (and possibly haunted) hotel -- arrives in theaters after premiering on VOD last month. TWoP spoke with West during the New York leg of his nationwide press tour about stealing content, the ridiculousness of ghost hunting TV shows and his theory about Gus Van Sant's controversial Psycho remake.

If you only know Joe Carnahan as the director of high-octane action movies like Smokin' Aces and The A-Team, his latest film The Grey, which opens in theaters on Friday, may come as a surprise. This spare, stripped-down survival tale follows a small band of men whose plane crashes deep in the Alaskan wilderness and are forced to battle the elements -- from the harsh weather to hungry wolves -- in order to make it back to civilization. Liam Neeson plays the crew's self-appointed leader, Ottway, who is still carrying the emotional scars caused by the recent passing of his beloved wife. More in the spirit of Grizzly Man than an uplifting man vs. nature story like Alive, The Grey was Carnahan's most challenging shoot, but it resulted in one of his most fully-realized movies. The director spoke with TWoP during a recent trip to New York.