Press Releases

No matter where you stand on the current immigration issues between the US and Mexico, it is difficult not to be touched in some way by the stories of immigrants on their harrowing and dangerous journeys across the border to seek a new life. It is also not difficult to relate to the stories of the landowners across whose property immigrants travel and the men and women charged with upholding the law along the border.

Trying to understand both sides serves as the background for Frontera, in which Miguel, a hardworking father and devoted husband, crosses the border illegally and is wrongfully accused of murdering the wife of a former sheriff. Miguel's pregnant wife Paulina lands in the hands of corrupt Mexican "Coyote" smugglers as she tries to help her husband, while the ex-lawman investigates his wife's death and unearths evidence that could destroy one family's future.

Imagine our world as black and white, that there is no color. Also imagine all people are basically the same, there is little to no individuality, and being different is dangerous. Imagine being assigned a job that will best serve the community and that you have no choice in the matter; if you do not conform and dare to ask questions, you will be expelled from the community. You are living in a dystopian society, a place where people lead dehumanized and fearful lives.

This is the world of the long-awaited adaptation of Lois Lowry's The Giver, a haunting story of a young man, Jonas, who is assigned the job of Receiver of Memory. When the society was formed, it was agreed that all the memories had to be banished - but they had to go somewhere. So for years, there has been just one person who would hold all the memories, good and bad. That person is known as The Giver. Not until Jonas becomes The Giver does he begin to understand the dark, complex secrets behind his fragile community.

Mark August 8, 2014 on your calendar as a day you may want to go see a movie...or two. A pair of IMTA alums have films opening: LA2000 alum Jeremy Sumpter in Into the Storm and NY2000 alum Alyson Stoner in Step Up: All In...and both are expected to do very well in the competitive summer feature film market.

Sumpter stars in the action thriller Into the Storm as a reluctant member of a storm chasing team. In the span of a single day, the town of Silverton is ravaged by an unprecedented onslaught of tornadoes. The entire town is at the mercy of the erratic and deadly cyclones, even as storm trackers predict the worst is yet to come. Most people seek shelter, while others run towards the vortex, testing how far a storm chaser will go for that once-in-a-lifetime shot. Told through the eyes and lenses of professional storm chasers, thrill- seeking amateurs, and courageous townspeople, Into the Storm throws you directly into the eye of the storm to experience Mother Nature at her most extreme.

During the years IMTA alum Aaron Paul was becoming a household name for playing Jesse Pinkman on AMC's "Breaking Bad," he was using his down time between seasons to film a number of small, independent films, playing a variety or roles that allowed him to stretch beyond his Emmy-winning role as bad-boy Jesse.

Following runs on the festival circuit, two of these films-the first filmed in 2011 and the other in 2012-are just now coming to theatres.

"Our director wanted to do a throw-back to the films that kind of started this genre, like Bullitt and Vanishing Point and Smokey and the Bandit. And back then they couldn't rely on CG, they couldn't rely on green screen, so everything you see in this movie actually happened." - Aaron Paul

IMTA alum Aaron Paul (LA97) has been working non-stop since ending his Emmy-winning role as Jesse Pinkman on AMC's hit "Breaking Bad." He filmed Hellion with Juliette Lewis, Josh Wiggins and Deke Garner, playing an emotionally absent father trying to regain custody of his young son. In A Long Way Down, he joined Pierce Brosnan, Toni Collette and Imogen Poots as four people who meet on a rooftop on New Year's Eve and form a surrogate family to help one another weather the difficulties of their lives. In Ridley Scott's Exodus, which is due out later this year, he stars alongside Christian Bale, Ben Kingsley, Sigourney Weaver, Joel Edgerton and John Turturro in the story of Moses leading the Israelite slaves out of Egypt.

"I was discovered by a local model agent in my hometown and she urged me to do this modeling contest, competition, where people go to get discovered, and it's called the IMTA. The IMTA had discovered tons of people, from Elijah Wood to Katie Holmes, Josh Duhamel, Ashton Kutcher and myself, but there have been a million people who have been discovered there."" - Riley Smith

2014 promises to be a year in which audiences will get to see NY97 IMTA alum Riley Smith in a group of very diverse roles. His upcoming projects include both TV and film and include a romantic comedy, a horror thriller, a Civil War period drama, and playing a vampire on HBO's hit "True Blood." Smith ended 2013 co-starring in the well-reviewed Hallmark holiday romance drama Christmas in Conway alongside Andy Garcia, Mary Louise Parker and Mandy Moore.

"Because I started working as an actor from the age of 8, initially on commercials, and quickly small roles on films that then developed into larger roles on film, it all happened relatively quickly. And I loved it immediately." - Elijah Wood

In spite of having starred in epic studio blockbuster movies such as The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and Deep Impact, Disney features such as Huck Finn, and the animated Happy Feet hits, IMTA alum Elijah Wood (LA89) is currently very content forging a new chapter in his career working on smaller, independent films that challenge and stetch him as an actor, while also often allowing him to control as a producer. As one reviewer put it, now when Wood makes a film, "It's because that is material that he loves, and there are no half-measures in the way he attacks a role, and he's made the transition from being a famous kid to being an adult whose body of work reflects the ecletic tastes he has."

With filming set to start in April, two IMTA alumni have been added to the high-powered cast of Fathers and Daughters which includes Amanda Seyfried, Russell Crowe, Octavia Spencer, Diane Kruger and Quvenzhané Wallis. LA97 alum Aaron Paul and NY01 alum Haley Bennett have been cast in the drama about a widowed novelist (Crowe) struggling with mental illness as he tries to raise his 7-year-old daughter, Katie.

The story flashes between past and present as it revolves around the life of the now-25-year-old woman (Seyfried) dealing with the aftermath of her troubled childhood. Paul will play a young man having an affair with the grown Katie in the present, while Bennett will play a college student who watches over the young Katie in the past.

"It's very reminiscent of those older movies and of the disaster movies I loved as a kid...so it becomes classic entertainment." - Julianne Moore

So you're on a plane 40,000 feet in the air, trying to relax during a long flight from New York to London. Everything seems fine until you receive a cryptic text message demanding a massive ransom in exchange for the safety of everyone on your flight. As if airline travel wasn't unpleasant enough these days, until the ransom is received, a passenger will be killed every 20 minutes. What do you do? This is the terrifying question facing the flight's air marshal as he decides who on the plane he can trust…and who is dangerous.

TV Stars IMTA Press Release"It is refreshing to have a bunch of people who care so much about the product that they are producing and want to make it the best it can be." - Brian Gross

The original "Star Trek" television series ran for only three years but few would have imagined that the franchise created by Gene Roddenberry would be going strong after nearly 50 years, with 12 feature films, numerous spin-off TV series, hundreds of books, comics, magazines and video games, and countless "Star Trek" conventions worldwide. It only seems logical that a group of intrepid fans, lead by actor James Cawley, would utilize technology, the internet, and a vast collection of set pieces, props and costumes from the original series to create "Star Trek: Phase II," a series described as continuing the fourth and fifth seasons of the original series, telling "the untold stories of the U.S.S. Enterprise, Captain Kirk, and his crew with the intention of filling in the missing years of the original five year mission, and bridging the gap to Star Trek: The Motion Picture."

TV Stars IMTA Press Release"I'm a licensed Auctioneer and I'll tell you what, the fast-talking came in handy because we have a significant chunk of dialogue that is spoken very, very quickly and i had to pull out those old auctioneering skills to get it without stumbling all over the words." - Christoper Gorham

IMTA alum Christopher Gorham (NY90 because a familiar face to TV watchers with guest-starring roles on many hit shows such as "Party of Five", "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "CSI," "Felicity" and "With a Trace."

Jessica Biel IMTA Press Release"I want for this movie to do so well. I want Playing for Keeps to do great in the theatres." - Jessica Biel

It may be hard to argue that there is an actress in Hollywood who has been more in the news in 2012-for all the right reasons-than IMTA alum Jessica Biel (LA94). In addition to her much publicized marriage to Justin Timberlake, helping philanthropically and on the ground with hurricane relief efforts in New York, and starring in four films released during the year, it has just been announced that another Biel project, Emmanuel and the Truth About Fishes, is one of 16 films selected to premiere in the Dramatic Competition category at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in January. The announcement comes just prior to the release of Biel's fourth 2012 film, the romantic comedy Playing for Keeps, which opens Friday.

TV Stars IMTA Press Release"I had no idea what to expect, it was so much fun. I loved meeting all the people and everyone was so nice. I felt sad when it was finished." - Dillon James Galanski

Since winning the International Modeling and Talent Association's inaugural Songwriting Competition at the 2012 IMTA New York Convention, singer/songwriter Dillon James Galanski has been steadily working on his music career, writing, recording for his debut album, preparing for an upcoming concert…and giving little thought to becoming an actor.

TV Stars IMTA Press Release"Sean was our first choice for Michael. I cannot imagine anyone else for this role. We met in Los Angeles after he read the script and it clicked. It's amazing how well Sean understands and embodies the character." - Stanley J. Orzel (Director)

After a successful showing on the international film festival circuit, Lost for Words is finally coming to mainstream theatres. NY99 IMTA alum Sean Faris stars in the film opposite Grace Huang and Will Yun Lee. Fellow IMTA alum (LA06) Breanne Racano, Faris' longtime real-life girlfriend, has a co-starring role in the film.

TV Stars IMTA Press Release"There will always be voices telling you to turn a different way, and it takes courage to stand in your center and stay true to your heart." - Rachel Boston

For fans who have been feeling a lack of love for witches since "Charmed" went off the air in 2006 after eight seasons, there is good news. The Lifetime Channel's "Witches of East End" is set to fill that void starting Sunday, and as a Lifetime series, it promises to provide strong female characters who just happen to be witches.

TV Stars IMTA Press Release"A lot of people just look at acting as a quick fix - they don't have a work ethic. This is a job; it's not all margaritas on the beach." - Jeremy Luke

When actors talk about being typecast, they usually think of it as a bad thing. But if you ask IMTA alum Jeremy Luke, who is getting a lot of buzz for his role as Danny in Joseph Gordon-Levitt's directorial debut, Don Jon, being typecast does have an up side. "Typecasting is a good and a bad thing," Luke said in an interview with the Huffington Post. "I get type-casted to play characters that are all, 'Who's got the money?' BOOM! SLAP! 'Joey's got the money!' But it gave me an angle. It gave me a way to work." He added, "But then again, I can do more than that; I've been acting for 15 years." Hopefully, opportunities for Luke to expand his range of role will be coming. But for the time being, typecasting as a Jersey boy seems to be working well for Luke, who is currently filming a starring role in Clint Eastwood's big-screen project of the stage musical Jersey Boys, which is due out next year. He also played up the typecasting in last year's SyFy Channel cult-favorite TV movie, Jersey Shore Shark Attack.