The two co-stars of Baby Mama talk about how the film came about and what makes a funny film work.

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It was not the sport, but the people behind the sport that inspired David Mamet to write and direct his latest film, Redbelt.

"I've studied Jiu-Jitsu for many years, but what really interested me were the people who decided to study it -- writers like myself, women who want to learn to protect themselves, officers of special forces, stunt guys," said the writer-director. "I thought it's a spectacular world to reach out to and write about."

Convincing Sony Pictures Classics to take on a film about Jiu-Jitsu was not as hard as he expected. "I called them up, told them the idea and they said, 'OK.' It was great," Mamet recalled.

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A fan of Sin City? So is Clive Owen.

As part of the festival's Filmmaker Talk series, Owen spoke last night about how blown away he was by the special effects and the performances when he finally saw Sin City on the big screen instead of the green screen. When one audience member described it as an action film, Owen responded by saying he didn't see himself as an action guy -- with the exception of Shoot 'Em Up -- and added that he thought Sin City was more of a verbal film. "He's a brilliant writer of dialogue, Frank Miller," he said. "It's easy to not appreciate it when it's in graphic novel form, but the guy writes amazing noir dialogue."

Good writing is paramount for the film star, in town to shoot writer-director Tony Gilroy's new thriller, Duplicity, with Julia Roberts. "I loved the script," Owen said about the film. "The minute, literally, I finished the last page, I called my agent." Owen signed on to Duplicity before even seeing Gilroy's Michael Clayton.

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At the 25th anniversary of Thriller, director John Landis explains how Michael Jackson's landmark music video came into existence.

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The stars came out to celebrate the opening night of the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival. AMC spoke with Chazz Palminteri, Sigourney Weaver, Tina Fey, and Amy Poehler on the red carpet.

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On the verge of the premiere of Idiots and Angels at Tribeca, Oscar-nominated animator Bill Plympton talks about embarking in a new direction and cutting a deal with Tom Waits.

Q: What was your inspiration for Idiots and Angels?

A: All I can recollect is that I was in France about three years ago, walking down the street with a guy. He asked me what my next film was. I said, "Some a--hole guy who grows wings and he doesn't like it because the wings make him do good things." All that night I started doing sketches and plotting ideas and doing character designs.

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At the premiere of Baby Mama last night, co-star Tina Fey said she was ready to re-enter society and attend a few of the films at the Tribeca Film Festival, "We are wrapped on 30 Rock so I may actually be able to be a human being and go and see a movie," she said.

Her film's debut -- which opened the seventh annual festival -- could have easily been mistaken for a Saturday Night Live reunion. SNL alums Chevy Chase, Molly Shannon, Chris Kattan, Rachel Dratch and Jimmy Fallon were among the hundreds of guests who crowded into the Ziegfeld Theatre, only to wait 45 minutes for the Universal release to begin.

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The programming changes year to year (this year brings about 25% fewer feature films) but the presence of big names at the Tribeca Film Festival remains constant.

Guests can expect red carpet arrivals for Baby Mama and Speed Racer, an assemblage of Michael Jackson look-alikes at Thriller Night, and a chance to ask Clive Owen questions at the Apple store. While critics say Sundance turned its back on the little guy, Tribeca never pretended to be anything but a celebration of film that would bring as many people as possible to New York City's downtown.

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Check out movie stills from David Mamet's much-anticipated Redbelt, Tina Fey's Baby Mama, and the Wachowski brothers' Speed Racer plus more films premiering at this year's Tribeca Film Festival.

The 2007 edition of the Tribeca Film Festival not only slimmed down -- to 159 features and 85 shorts -- but also premiered the 2008 Academy Award-winning documentary Taxi to the Dark Side. It was another notch in the festival's belt, particularly it's well-respected non-fiction catalog, which includes Jonestown: The Life and Death of the People's Temple and Jesus Camp. Despite that victory, Tribeca's 2007 edition was highly criticized.

Ticket prices spiked to a record $18; screenings were held well beyond the namesake neighborhood as far out as the outer boroughs. And despite the trimmer slate, the schedule was still jam-packed, perpetuating the criticism that the festival is a place where emerging filmmakers get lost in the shadows of Hollywood: Who paid attention to Taxi to the Dark Side when they could go to see Spider-Man 3 or, even the Drew Barrymore and Eric Bana romance Lucky You.

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