First poster for "Jane Eyre" (2011)

The first poster for Cary Fukunaga's Jane Eyre, and it's surprisingly simple (in a good way). The film is a big departure in terms of subject matter from Fukunaga's last film, the immigration thriller Sin Nombre. One of the great things about having so many adaptations of works like Bronte's is that there are so many different ways directors and actors can impact the way the story is told, and Fukunaga could prove a surprising fit for the material. The film is also notable for its casting, namely Mia Wasikowska as the titular Jane. Wasikowska has been slowly making herself a name in the States, starting with a role on the first season of In Treatment, and then moving on to Alice in Wonderland earlier this year, which made bucket loads but did little to advance her status as an actress. Then came The Kids Are All Right, in which she actually got a chance to act, despite being overshadowed by her adult cast members. Should the film play well, it could be the big critical break that Wasikowska has been looking for, even if it is coming out in the dreaded month of March. Along for the ride are reliable actors Judi Dench, Jaime Bell (Billy Elliot), Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds, Hunger), and Sally Hawkins (Happy-Go-Lucky).

**Actually, it kind of reminds me of the first poster for Blue Valentine, certainly not a bad thing.

Epic first poster for Julie Taymor's "The Tempest"

I know it sounds silly to say that a poster has "energy" to it, but I really like the feeling that this poster gives off. I'm pretty enamored with Taymor's previous big screen treatment of the Bard (Titus), so here's hope that she brings the same sense of controlled chaos to her creativity. As a play, "The Tempest" is one of Shakespeare's fastest plays in terms of the time it covers (several hours at most). So while I don't expect the film to unfold in some sort of 24-esque real time, I'd love it if the film's editing contains as much fire as the poster. The ensemble is terrific (despite Geoffrey Rush and Jeremy Irons' departures from the cast), led by the generally reliable Helen Mirren. Mirren is just about everywhere this year on screen, so here's hoping that this is one of the projects that sticks when it arrives in theaters this December.

You want dark and grim? You've got it.

Clip from "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger"

There isn't a lot of personality in the clip, which was the opposite of when clips from Vicky Cristina Barcelona made their way to the internet, but I'm still interested in seeing this. Obviously Allen loves his neurosis-ridden protagonists, but I hope the film isn't 90 minutes of Watts and Banderas stammering awkwardly to each other. A little of that goes a llllllooooooooooooooong way. And is it wrong the the single-take-conversation shot sort of reminds me of this? Very different in tone, but something struck me as oddly similar...

New, character-filled "Iron Man 2" poster

Except for Sam Rockwell, because Hollywood apparently hates him...

New poster for Stallone's "The Expendables"

Or as many of us like to refer to it: that movie with every major action star from 1980 to the present.

New "Clash of the Titans" TV spot

Final poster for "Prince of Persia"

4 Clips from "Howl" starring James Franco, Jon Hamm, David Strathairn, and Mary Louise Parker

Unfortunately the sound is out of sync on the second clip, but the film looks interesting. With only a running time of 86 minutes, it'll have to make its points in a crisp, effective manner with little room for narrative flab.

More info from Collider.com

Every Sundance, there are always a few movies everyone is talking about before the Festival. You know…the ones with buzz. One of the movies at this year’s Fest that people are talking about is Howl. The reason…it’s filled with an all star cast consisting of James Franco, Jon Hamm, David Strathairn, Treat Williams, Bob Balaban, Alessandro Nivola, Mary Louise Parker and Jeff Daniels. Also, you’ve got Franco playing a young Allen Ginsberg and as the synopsis says, “it’s a legal drama, a character study and an animated trip into the magic and madness of the modern world.”

With Sundance set to begin later this week, we’ve landed the first footage from Howl and it’s four clips from the film. If you’d like a sneak peak at one of the big films from this year’s Fest…take a look. Also, the film plays this Thursday night in Park City, so reviews will be everywhere on Friday.

Beautiful poster for Jordan Scott's "Cracks" starring Eva Green

Source: FirstShowing.net

"Set at an all-girls boarding school in 1934, Cracks sees the one-time Bond girl playing Miss G, an enigmatic-yet-alluring teacher who inspires fanatical loyalty within the small clique of girls in her diving team. However, when the arrival of a Spanish girl (María Valverde) as a new boarder throws their cosy world into flux, all manner of nastiness ensues and a new side of Miss G emerges."

First poster and official image from Clint Eastwood's "Invictus"

First look at "Leaves of Grass" starring Edward Norton

Source: Slashfilm.com

The first production photos from Leaves of Grass have premiered on the Toronto Film Festival website. The firlm is written, directed and produced by Tim Blake Nelson, starring Edward Norton as Bill Kincaid, an Ivy League classics professor, who “returns to rural Oklahoma to bury his dangerously brilliant identical twin brother, only to discover that the brother he believes to have been murdered has lured him home to involve him in a doomed plot against a local drug lord. Before Bill can flee, he’s implicated in a murder, and his life has become completely unraveled, suggesting that no rational philosophy can protect us from life’s twists and dangers.

Bill Kincaid, an Ivy League classics professor, who returns to rural Oklahoma to bury his dangerously brilliant identical twin brother who had remained in their native state to grow hydroponic pot. The official plot synopsis says that “Leaves of Grass is a fast-paced comic film that contrasts two distinct approaches to life.” You will see in the photo above that Norton plays both of the twins. The film co-stars Susan Sarandon, Keri Russell, Melanie Lynskey, Maggie Siff and Richard Dreyfuss.

Charlize Theron could headline "Atlas Shrugged" mini-series...or movie?

Interesting...veeeeery interesting. I kind of love/hate the mini-series idea. On one hand, if it's a mini-series, then more of the story can be fleshed out, but on the other hand, "Atlas Shrugged" even in its gargantuan length (1100 pages) always seemed like it would be so much more impressive on the big screen, even if lots of plot had to be simplified or cut out entirely....

Source: Slashfilm.com

When the economic crisis went into full swing, bookshops started to notice an odd trend: people who hadn’t read much more than a Grisham or Clancey novel in the last decade were suddenly rabid Ayn Rand fans. Atlas Shrugged, with its message of capitalism unfettered by government control, blasted back onto bestseller charts in the last year, making the long-gestating film adaptation seem a lot more likely. NowCharlize Theron is seriously interested, says the Risky Biz Blog, and because she and the producers are concerned that simply making a feature film wouldn’t do justice to the novel’s epic length (1100+ pages) it may instead become a miniseries for Epix, the new pay-cable network that Lionsgate is setting up with MGM and Viacom.

Theron was one of a small group of actresses (among them Anne Hathaway and Julia Roberts) that expressed interest in heroine Dagny Taggart a few months back. Theron’s commitment to the project remains a grey area, though it is said she’s been driving development on the project in recent months.

This is only the latest chapter in an effort to film the novel that is becoming almost as epic as the book itself. Loads of talent have been involved over the past four decades, and Angelina Jolie has been the prime mover on the film for quite some time. For a while director Vadim Perelman was attached. Or so the trades said, and so he said in many interviews. But in June of last year Jolie claimed he’d never been part of the project. Now, appropriately, it seems like she’s taking a back seat in the development. James Hart and Braveheart writer Randall Wallace have both written drafts (Hart’s said to be longer and more ‘mini-series friendly’) but any adaptation of the gigantic, didactic novel (really, this thing is more of a sprawling Rand manifesto than a narrative) is going to be problematic. If adapted as a mini-series, one whole episode could be that damned long speech by John Galt, the mysterious guy who leads a secession of creative and innovative minds from society.

Beyond the current surge of interest in the book there’s one more reason to get this going sooner rather than later: if a film doesn’t go into production by the end of next year, the book option reverts back to the Rand estate. At that point, you can bet that the price to renewing it will skyrocket.

Jane Campion's "Bright Star" finally gets a poster

New images from 2009 Comic Con: "Iron Man 2", "Alice...", "Zombieland", and "Kickass"

Source: Slashfilm.com

In a way, we've seen that "Iron Man 2" picture before, only in much lower quality. That "Alice" picture however...WOW.

First poster for critically hailed British indie "An Education"

New teaser banner for "Avatar"

We have our next superhero: Ryan Reynolds cast as The Green Lantern

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

And then there was one.

After an intense months-long search, Warner Bros. has settled on Ryan Reynolds as its choice to play “Green Lantern,” the studio’s live-action tentpole based on the DC Comics hero. The film is being directed by Martin Campbell and produced by Donald De Line and Greg Berlanti.

Reynolds and his camp entered negotiations for the part Friday, after the studio held two rounds of screen tests, along with actors Bradley Cooper and Jared Leto. Justin Timberlake also did a screen test.
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The studio had holding options on the actors, but, except for Reynolds, those expired Monday. Reynolds’ option would have expired end of day Friday.

One reason for the long search was De Line, Campbell and the studio each had a different favorite among the finalists, making it difficult to come to a consensus.

If the deal is completed, it would make Reynolds the only actor to have played heroes for both Marvel and DC. He recently starred in a comic book movie, Fox's "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," where he played "the merc with a mouth" Deadpool. The character is now being developed for a spin-off to which Reynolds is attached. He also played Marvel’s vampire hunter Hannibal King in “Blade: Trinity.”

“Lantern” is actually Reynold’s second stab at a DC Comics hero. A few years ago, he was attached to play the comic company’s speedster “The Flash.”

First pictures from "Le dernier vol de Lancaster"(2009) starring Marion Cotillard

IMDb gives the following premise: A woman goes on a journey to find her missing husband after his plane disappears in the Sahara.

Natalie Portman signs on for Darren Aronofsky's "Black Swan"

Source: Slashfilm.com

Aronofsky became attached to Black Swan in early 2007, but the film was put into turnaround by Universal. The project is apparently making the rounds to studios and specialty divisions, with Portman as part of the CAA package. Mark Heyman, co-producer of The Wrestler, has done a rewrite of the original script by John McLaughlin.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Portman would play a veteran ballerina who finds herself “locked in to a competitive showdown with a rival dancer, with the stakes and twists increasing as the dancers approach a big performance.” But it isn’t as simple as that — the big twist is that Portman’s character is not sure whether her rival is a supernatural apparition or if she is having delusions. Sounds like a genre-thriller with award potential.

I’m not immediately sold on the short logline, but with exceptional talent like Portman and Aronofsky involved, I’m sure it will be great. Aronofsky could make a film about an empty white room, and I’d be in line opening day to pay $15. And hey, I’m sure a lot of people had no interest in seeing a film about an aging professional wrestler…

I find it hard to imagine that a studio won’t jump immediately at this project, especially with Aronofsky coming hot off a critically acclaimed and award nominated film, complete with Portman locked in as part of the package. If a sale happens soon, Swan could be in production by year’s end.

Aronofsky was also developing a reboot of Robocop for MGM, which the studio originally hoped to have in theaters for 2010. MGM recently moved expectations to 2011. And maybe one of the reasons I’m not so-sold on the project is because I’ve been waiting to see what Aronofsky could do with a big high concept project likeRobocop, or one of his more original stories. I very much hope he gets the chance to make Noah’s Ark one of these days.