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.

David Fincher is (in)famous for his exacting directorial methods on set; stories abound about him putting his actors through multiple takes and working his crew hard to ensure that they get every shot absolutely right. Away from the camera, though, he seems laid back and comfortable, even up for cracking a joke or two (or three or four). While making the rounds for his latest film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (which opens in theaters tomorrow), Fincher passed through New York and appeared at a press conference for the Sweden-set thriller, adapted from Stieg Larsson's best-selling book of the same time. He was joined by the movie's stars -- Daniel Craig as journalist Mikael Blomkvist and Rooney Mara as the titular hacker, Lisbeth Salander -- and two supporting players, Christopher Plummer and Stellan Skarsgård. Despite the movie's dark subject matter, all five were in fine spirits, cracking wise about everything from the movie's depiction of Sweden to a difficult stunt that literally left Craig gasping for air.

A movie literally decades in the making, The Adventures of Tintin began its trip to the big screen in 1983, when Steven Spielberg first reached out to Belgian comics artist Hergé about acquiring the film rights to his most famous creation, the intrepid journalist/adventurer Tintin. But for a variety of reasons, the project kept falling by the wayside, that is, until Spielberg teamed up with Peter Jackson in the wake of the New Zealand director's epic Lord of the Rings trilogy. Together, the duo decided that doing full justice to Hergé's comics meant eschewing a conventional live action adaptation in favor of the animation process known as motion capture, whereby live actors perform the characters on set and then computer animators translate their work onto digital models. Jamie Beard, a veteran employee of Jackson's New Zealand-based effects house Weta Digital, served as animation supervisor on The Adventures of Tintin and played a significant role in overseeing the design of the film's world and its characters. He spoke with us about bringing the motion capture Tintin (played by Jamie Bell) to life and why he sometimes made the actors walk on futon mattresses on set.

Swedish filmmaker Tomas Alfredson trades the vampires of his breakout film Let the Right One In for the business-suited bloodsuckers of the British secret service in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, a new feature film adaptation of John le Carré's seminal spy novel, previously adapted into a famous BBC miniseries starring Alec Guinness. Gary Oldman stars as George Smiley, a forcibly retired MI-6 agent brought back into the fold to ferret out a mole in the upper echelon of the organization. But who could it be? The dapper Bill Haydon (Colin Firth)? The excitable Percy Alleline (Toby Jones)? Or possibly even George himself? Alfredson, Oldman and Firth passed through New York recently and talked about the movie's various twists and turns and the legacy of le Carré's book.

After Juno catapulted them to the Hollywood A-list four years ago, director Jason Reitman and screenwriter Diablo Cody team up again for Young Adult, a pitch-black comedy about young adult novelist Mavis Gary (Charlize Theron) , who deals with a sudden case of mid-life crisis by retreating to her tiny Minnesotan hometown. There, she tracks down her former flame (Patrick Wilson) and dedicates herself to stealing him back from his wife and young daughter. She also befriends her high school's resident outcast Matt (Patton Oswalt), the only person brave -- or foolhardy -- enough to call her on her B.S. The team behind Young Adult, which opens in limited release on Friday, passed through New York recently and spoke with the press about YA fiction and the resurgence of bad girls post-Bridesmaids.

The silent film era lives again in The Artist, a loving (and entirely silent) homage to the grand Hollywood productions of the '20s. Written and directed by Michel Hazanavicius, the film follows the changing fortunes of two white-hot movie stars, silent screen legend George Valentin (Jean Dujardin, who deservedly won the Best Actor prize at the Cannes Film Festival) and rising starlet Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo). While Peppy's career takes off with the arrival of sound, George finds his prospects drying up. The movie blends dozens of silent film genres -- Chaplinesque comedy, grand melodrama and even a Rin Tin Tin rescue sequence -- into a totally enjoyable whole. No wonder The Artist has emerged as a leading Oscar contender: It's an unabashed, but entirely genuine celebration of old-school movie magic. Writer/director Michel Hazanavicius talked to us about the process of making his passion project and why he chose to shoot a black-and-white movie on color film.