John Krasinski enters the director's chair in "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men" (Media Round-Up)

John Krasinski keeps surprising me. He came out of nowhere five years ago as bored paper salesman Jim Halpert on NBC's The Office and his star has been rising ever since.

In 2006 Krasinski had small roles in a number of high profile films; among them: Jarhead, The Holiday, and Dreamgirls. The next year he got his first starring role opposite Mandy Moore and Robin Williams in License to Wed. The film wasn't great, but Krasinski proved appealing, regardless. Last year he starred in George Clooney's Leatherheads with George Clooney, and now, fresh off Away We Go and still a cast member in The Office, Krasinski is taking a stab at everything. He's writing, directing, producing, and acting in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, which is adapted from a novel of the same name by David Foster Wallace.

Many seasoned actors eventually choose to write or direct or produce, but Krasinski is doing all three and playing a role on screen; he's not even 30 (yet). He's gone from 0 to 60 very quickly, leading me to wonder what is driving his interest in this project. He spoke with a flurry of publications last week when Brief Interviews with Hideous Men went into limited release. I've taken the liberty of compiling a few after the jump. Enjoy.

In this audio interview with Cinematical Krasinski discusses why he chose to direct the film and the influence of The Office on his career. Listen below.

And now that you're intrigued, here's the trailer.

The storyline goes something like this:

After her boyfriend mysteriously leaves her with little explanation, a doctoral candidate in anthropology at a prestigious East Coast university Sara Quinn is left looking for answers as to what went wrong. Directing all her energies into her anthropological dissertation, Sara conducts a series of interviews with men in an effort to uncover the secret thoughts that drive their behavior. She thinks she can remedy both her heartache and her academic challenges with a new research project and begins conducting a series of interviews with men. As she records the astonishing and disquieting experiences of various subjects, Sara discovers much more about men and herself than she bargained for. - IMDB

Hulu.com caught up with Krasinski on the set of the film. Here's a behind the scenes look. The casting looks very strong. Julianne Nicholson, Ben Shankmen, Will Forte, Timothy Hutton, and Will Arnett are among the cast.

Here are a few exclusive clips from the movie on IGN, Comingsoon.net, and MakingOf.com. MakingOf also has a good on-set video feature as well.

Though the film entered limited release September 25, only a few critics have reviewed the movie so far, and they appear completely mixed. Some critics think the story is too stiff, uneven, and lacking the depth of the book. Others applaud Krasinski's ambition and sense for direction. I'm hoping the film will actually come to Lansing, MI soon so I can check it out. If you've seen it, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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