James Marsden and Claire Danes will star in “As Cool as I Am,” an independent film that will shoot in New Mexico next month, TheWrap has confirmed.

Writer-director Max Mayer, who directed Danes’s husband, Hugh Dancy, in “Adam,” is directing the movie, which is based on Pete Fromm’s coming-of-age novel.

“As Cool as I Am” is the story of Lucy Diamond, the teen daughter of self-centered parents who married when they were teens. Marsden and Danes play the parents. The role of Lucy has not yet been cast.

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Jimmy and Lisa attended the Conde Nast Traveler Annual Hot List party held at Soho House in West Hollywood on April 11, 2011. I’ve uploaded 7 HQ photos from this event to the gallery.

GALLERY LINK:
Public Appearances > 2011 Appearances >[2011.04.11]Conde Nast Traveler Annual Hot List Party (HQ)

Proving that Russell Brand can successfully sell a family friendly movie, Hop, also starring former X-Men star, James Marsden, has taken the top spot at the US box office for a second week in a row. The film, which tells the story of a young Easter Bunny lost in the real world, took over $21 million this past weekend, a drop of 42.2% from it’s opening weekend but a win nonetheless.

Second place this weekend went to another Russell Brand movie, this time a remake of the Dudley Moore comedy, Arthur. Starring alongside Helen Mirren, Jennifer Garner, Greta Gerwig and Luis Guzmán, Arthur tells the story of an insulated, foppish and rather wealthy heir, having spent his life having things laid out for him, Arthur must finally stand up and fight for what he truly wants – true love (and a Batmobile). The film took $12.6 million for it’s opening weekend.

Third place went to Focus Features’ action thriller, Hanna. Starring Saoirse Ronan as a young girl, trained by her CIA father in the lethal arts of fighting and assassination, the film took just $12.3 million for it’s opening weekend and also stars Eric Bana and Cate Blanchett.

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Jimmy did a new photoshoot during a press preview for “Hop” in Universal City on March 19, 2011.

GALLERY LINK:
Photoshoot Outtakes > Photocalls > “Hop” Portraits (HQ)

James Marsden had a pretty good weekend. HOP, the new family film, opened last Friday and came in number one at the box office. Besides starring in films like Hairspray and Enchanted, Marsden is busy raising his ten-year-old boy and five-year-old daughter making doing a family film like this a pretty sweet treat. He recently sat down with a group of mommy bloggers to discuss Hop, Easter and of course the Easter Bunny.

What were some of your favorite Easter traditions growing up or with your family now? What are you going to do?

James Marsden: We did the normal traditions. We did Easter Eve, we never called it that, but the night before, we would die eggs and paint them. We didn’t do anything outlandish or too different than most. We would wake up and the baskets and the candy would be there and we would have a hunt in the backyard, which always ended up in a fight, by the way.

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“Hop” (featuring the voice of outrageous jokester Russell Brand as an Easter Bunny who poops candy) had the strongest opening weekend of any movie released thus far in 2011. The holiday-themed kids’ movie enjoyed a $38.1 million opening, which is just a hair (or “hare”?) more than the $38 million debut of “Rango” five weeks ago.

Both flicks are rated PG. “Hop,” which co-stars James Marsden (“X-Men”) in the lead human role, earned the rating for some mildly crude humor, whereas “Rango,” featuring Johnny Depp voicing a cartoon lizard, has some crude humor, a bit of cowboy action and characters who smoke.

“Rango” remains the better reviewed of the two, with 89 percent of critics finding it worthwhile, according to Rotten Tomatoes, which collects reviews from critics. “Hop” sits at just 20 percent on the Tomatometer at press time. (“Rango” was produced by Paramount Pictures, which like MTV is a subsidiary of Viacom.)

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I’ve uploaded some HQ candids of Jimmy at LAX on March 31, 2011.

GALLERY LINK:
Paparazzi Photos > 2011 Candids > [2011.03.31]LAX (HQ)

James Marsden’s new comedy, “Hop,” is a blend of state-of-the-art animation with live action. The actor, who continues to carve out a distinctive place in Hollywood with both comedic and dramatic roles, plays a 30-something out-of-work slacker named Fred who is trying to pull his life together. After he accidentally runs over E.B. (Russell Brand), the Easter Bunny’s son, while driving in Hollywood, the two develop an unusual friendship that leads Fred to discover his real purpose in life.

James sat down with us recently at a press conference in Los Angeles to talk about his new movie. He told us how he prepared for the role, what it was like working with improvisational comedian Russell Brand, and why it was challenging to shoot a film with a rabbit as his co-star. He also described how he celebrates the Easter holiday tradition with his children and why he made this film for them.

Q: You got to spend some time watching Russell do his recording sessions, how did that inform your performance and did it help being able to see what he was doing?

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A hyper-energized CG bunny voiced by Russell Brand may flit maniacally around James Marsden almost constantly in this week’s live-action/animated Easter adventure Hop, but it’s very much Marsden’s moment to shine. As Fred, a 30-year-old loser still searching for direction, the Oklahoma-born actor plays straight man to Brand’s rambunctious teenage rabbit in a PG-rated film filled with gleaming candy factories and Cute Overload-ready characters. He’s come quite a long way, and deliberately so, from his role as a disturbed husband pushed to the brink of violence in the upcoming Straw Dogs remake.

Such a drastic change of pace was necessary for mental well-being, Marsden says, but Hop also marks a few key milestones in the actor’s career: It’s his biggest leading role to date and establishes him as an actor capable of broad, slapsticky, crowd-pleasing comedy. And after struggling against typecasting early in his career — he pegs it around his X-Men days, interestingly enough — Marsden’s right where he wants to be, fast-accumulating a reputation for versatility to go with those pesky good looks.

The candid and jovial Marsden phoned Movieline to talk about cleansing the palate with Hop, battling narrow industry perceptions, the possibility of donning Cyclops’ suit once more for future X-Men films, his heartbreak over David O. Russell’s still-unfinished comedy Nailed, and how close he is to sealing the deal to play Larry in the Farrelly Brothers’ Three Stooges film. And why exactly was 27 Dresses so important to him?

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