The Treatment

Actor and writer Simon Pegg ( Spaced, Shaun of The Dead, Hot Fuzz ) has found a way to integrate his pop-culture obsessions into movie and  TV projects. His latest feature film is How to Lose Friends and Alienate People ...

You probably know Clark Gregg as an actor from  The New Adventures of Old Christine  or  Iron Man . You should also know him as a writer-director...

Elvis Mitchell hosts actor-director-writer-producer Ed Harris ( The Right Stuff, The Truman Show, Pollock ) whose latest film as screenwriter, director, actor and producer is Appaloosa , starring Viggo Mortensen, Jeremy Irons and Renée Zellweger.

Stuart Townsend is best known as an actor. For his writing and directing debut, Battle in Seattle , he chose the 1999 WTO conference as his source.

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: Director Wayne Wang ( Joy Luck Club ) not only moves from studio films such as Maid in Manhattan to indies such as Smoke , but also blurs the line between truth and fiction. That's the heart of his new film, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers .

Six Feet Under and his Oscar-winning screenplay for American Beauty established Alan Ball 's interest in the underside of American life. His feature directorial debut, Towelhead , and the HBO series True Blood furthered his interest in the outsiders under the same roof.  

You know director Edgar Wright from his films Hot Fuzz and Shawn of the Dead , but his partnership with actor Simon Pegg precedes them. They also worked together on the smart, action-packed and emotional British comedy series, Spaced ...

Elvis Mitchell hosts actor Don Cheadle ( Oceans Eleven, Oceans Twelve, Oceans Thirteen, Crash, Hotel Rwanda ) whose latest starring role is in the film Traitor .

Paranoia, hostility and patience -- not exactly the stuff of war dramas. The seven-part mini-series, Generation Kill , focuses on just that. Susanna White ( Bleak House, Jane Eyre )  directed four of seven episodes and talks about getting her "ground attack" together.

Ben Stiller ( Zoolander, Meet the Fockers, The Cable Guy, Reality Bites ) is a director, producer and writer. But he's first and foremost an actor who's done comedy and drama on the stage and on the screen.

Elvis Mitchell hosts writer-director Courtney Hunt whose debut feature film, Frozen River , won the Grand Jury Prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival.

The suburban dealer-mom of the cable series Weeds has moved her act to the beach and Mexico. Weeds ’ executive producerss Jenji Kohan and Roberto Benabib hit us with the ideas they use to keep this comedy-drama fresh – and seedless.

Christopher Nolan makes films in which the protagonists' emotional chaos is mirrored in the physical world around them. His second Batman film is the pinnacle of that.

What do you get when you bring Ben Kingsley, Method Man, Josh Peck and Mary-Kate Olsen together? Besides the dream episode of Access Hollywood, you get writer-director Jonathan Levine 's first, film, The Wackness .

WEB EXCLUSIVE: 2008 has been quite a year for director Alex Gibney ( Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room) . Two documentaries he was involved with were nominated for Oscars, and his film, Taxi to the Dark Side , won. His new doc, Gonzo , takes us into the heart and soul of Hunter S. Thompson.  

Animated films have had many stars: animals, fish, toys, bugs, cars... WALL-E is the first with a lead with no face. It's a trash compactor. Is this the future of cartoons? We ask WALL-E director Andrew Stanton ( A Bug's Life, Finding Nem o)

In the 1930's and 40's, comic books were as popular as movies -- and more influential. So much so that serious steps were taken to stop them. Writer David Hajdu ( Lush Life, A Biography of Billy Strayhorn, Positively 4th Street ) examines this controversy in his new book, The Ten-Cent Plague , and illustrates it.  

Some Like It Hot, The Magnificent Seven, In the Heat of the Night , the original Pink Panther . If you're lucky, you've seen these films. Walter Mirisch produced them. I Thought We Were Making Movies, Not History is his new book.

For writer-director Michael Patrick King ( Will and Grace, Murphy Brown ) every season of Sex in the City was about changing expectations, which means he had his work cut out for him with the Sex in the City movie. See if the shoe fits.

What's crazier than Austin Powers or Meet the Fockers ? The 2000 presidential vote count, perhaps. It's the subject of Jay Roach 's new film, Recount . Count yourself in when Elvis Mitchell speaks with Roach.  

As a writer, Henry Bean is responsible for films about self-destructive protagonists who skirt justice in Deep Cover Internal Affairs . With his directorial debut, The Believer , he took that character one step further. Now with his newest film, Noise , he moves into the realm of fable.  We discuss his holy war: the brain versus the heart.  

Documentary filmmaker Doug Pray manages to nose his way into outcast societies -- de facto families -- with his films. Hype , on the 90's Seattle music world, and Scratch on the DJ culture. His latest, Surfwise , is about the most exclusive family, father Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz, who turns his nine kids into champion surfers. It's all about tribal rights.  

Jon Favreau understands power. As an actor, he broke through by writing a roll for himself in Swingers . Then he made the move behind the camera as the director of Zathura and Elf and, now, the box-office smash Iron Man .  

If you were creating an indie comedy about two London boys coming into their own in the 80's, the last title you'd use is Son of Rambow – unless you're writer-director  Garth Jennings ( The Hitchkikers Guide to the Galaxy ).

There are few figures in American culture as with as potent a step as David Mamet ( American Buffalo, House of Games, Heist ), first as a playwright, then as a filmmaker. With his new movie, Redbelt , he takes on a new frontier, the action film. We hear how he came to climb that mountain.