From TV star to movie star and back again, Kristen Bell is keeping busy. After breaking out as the beloved TV heroine Veronica Mars, Bell has tackled film roles like “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “When In Rome” while continuing to dabble on the small screen now and again. In the past, most actors shifted from TV to features and never looked back, but the landscape is changing and Bell is happy to take advantage. Her new Showtime series opposite Don Cheadle, “House Of Lies,” debuted earlier this month to very positive reviews and her latest film role, as reporter Jill Gerard in Ken Kwapis’ political comedy, “Big Miracle,” is hitting theaters this Friday. She also just finished up Dax Shepherd’s second directorial effort “Outrun,” which she describes as “in the vein of the Burt Reynolds movies of the ‘70s” and plays Supergirl opposite Justin Long’s Robin in one of the comedy shorts from the upcoming “Movie 43.”

Bell was on hand in Santa Monica, California this month to speak with The Playlist about her role in “Big Miracle” and everything else she has on the horizon, including the possibility of a “Veronica Mars” feature.

Stepping into the shoes of a reporter
In “Big Miracle, Bell plays Jill Jerard, a reporter on the rise who views the story of three grey whales trapped in an ice patch in the Arctic Circle as a possible chance to fast track her career. “Miracle” is based on true events, but Bell’s character is an amalgam of the countless press that descended upon Barrow, Alaska in 1988 to cover the international story.

The daughter of a TV news director, Bell has been around press most of her life. She’s also had plenty of press encounters in recent years she could draw from. “I’ve had enough encounters with reporters who I either did or did not want to converse with,” Bell tells us. “I feel like I had a good enough idea of how they are to act when they want to get the story. Sometimes it’s manipulative, sometimes it’s completely genuine. I kind of had Jill ride that line. I wanted her to have a fierce dedication to her work. It wasn’t that she was meant as the villain, it was just that the whales weren’t on her priority list. Getting a news anchor job and getting noticed at work was her one and only priority.”

Director Ken Kwapis also prepped the actress for the part by showing her footage from the actual coverage. “Ken was an unbelievable database. He would send us news clips of journalists reporting on the whales. There were also some circulated videos on the internet, like when Dan Rather got a hold of it and it caught fire,” Bell said.

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While Bradley Cooper has used his post-”Limitless” and “The Hangover Part II” career to take a step upward with parts in Derek Cianfrance‘s “The Place Beyond The Pines,” David O. Russell‘s “The Silver Linings Playbook,” Alex Proyas’ “Paradise Lost” and possibly even Warner Bros.’ “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,” he’s not above doing favors for friends. Even if it means starring in a movie directed by Dax Shepard.

With the American Film Market heating up, Exclusive Media Group are going to be shopping “Outrun,” written, starring and set to be co-directed by Shepard (along with David Palmer) with his gal Kristen Bell, Tom Arnold (!?) and Cooper also to feature. The premise is pretty straightforward following an ex-getaway driver (Shepard), who is in the Witness Protection Program, but flaunts the rules in order to drive his girlfriend (Bell) to L.A. so that she can get her dream job. But it isn’t long before the fuzz and his old gang led by Cooper are on his tail.

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The first trailer for “Big Miracle”, originally titled Everybody Loves Whales, has just been released. The movie is set to be released on February 3, 2012!

Alaskans involved in the production of the big-budget studio film “Everybody Loves Whales” — or maybe just those startled to see Drew Barrymore in an Anchorage coffee shop — shouldn’t look for a movie under that title to see their name in the credits. The movie, which stars Barrymore and John Krasinski and revolves around the real-life story of the rescue of three gray whales trapped by sea ice in the Arctic Ocean, has been retitled “Big Miracle,” according to a post from the Alaska Film Office’s Facebook page. The film will likely see some popularity in the 49th State after the cause celebre surrounding the project’s $30 million budget and use of Alaska locales. The movie is slated to release on Feb. 3, 2012, so any Alaskans wondering if they’re house shows up in the background can check it out then.

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There is a new release date for the film “Everybody Loves Whales”. The film has been pushed back from January 2012 to February 3, 2012! The film is about a news reporter who works with a Greenpeace activist to save a family of gray whales trapped by ice in the arctic circle, and how their quest even caused the Soviet Union and the United States to momentarily put their conflict on hold during the Cold War.

The Untitled Farrelly/Wessler Comedy will be released on April 13, 2012!

Following in April, comes the Untitled Farrelly/Wessler Comedy which boasts the greatest cast ever assembled in the most dangerous comedy ever made. The star-studded cast includes Johnny Knoxville, Gerard Butler, Anna Faris, Seann William Scott, Hugh Jackman, Richard Gere, Uma Thurman, Halle Berry, Emma Stone, Naomi Watts, Kate Bosworth, Kate Winslet, Terrence Howard, Liev Schreiber, Elizabeth Banks, Justin Long, Kristen Bell, Patrick Warburton, Josh Duhamel, Jason Sudeikis, Chloe Grace Moretz, Stephen Merchant, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Jack McBrayer, Kieran Culkin and Chris Pratt in a series of interconnected stories, each one more outrageous than the last.

The film is being produced by Peter Farrelly (Something About Mary), Charles Wessler (Dumb & Dumber), GreeneStreet Films’ John Penotti (In the Bedroom) and Relativity Media’s Ryan Kavanaugh (Immortals). Executive producers are Tim Williams (Swimfan) of GreeneStreet Films and Tucker Tooley (Immortals) of Relativity Media. Co-producers are Tom Gormican and Marc Ambrose. Rocky Russo and Jeremy Sosenko also serve as associate producers.

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Kristen Bell has signed on to a new film titled “Safety Not Guaranteed” – here’s some information about the project!

Safety Not Guaranteed, a new movie starring Aubrey Plaza, Mark Duplass, Jake Johnson, and Kristen Bell, will be filming in and around Seattle from May 1st through June 1 and they are looking for extras for a high school football scene being shot on May 7.

The comedy, about two magazine employees who head out on an assignment to interview a guy who placed a classified ad seeking a companion for time travel, is seeking unpaid extras willing to participate in a football game scene.

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I have just added 209 DVD quality captures of Kristen Bell from the film “Burlesque” into our photo gallery! We’re pleased to be one of the first Kristen fan sites with these captures, so we hope you enjoy them!

Thanks to our friend Holly for the captures!