Here are some of the latest casting additions:

• Patrick Stewart (X-Men), Carla Gugino (Night at the Museum) and Matthew Lillard (Scooby-Doo) will star in director Stephen Belber’s Match, a drama centering on an eccentric Julliard grad and a young couple who wish to interview him.
• Dylan McDermott (American Horror Story) will star in the action-thriller Freezer, directed by Mikael Salomon (Hard Rain).  The picture finds McDermott’s character locked in a freezer by Russian thugs who demand he return their missing money, which he has no knowledge of.

Hit the jump for more on each project.

Production has completed on the neo noir caper Hotel Noir, and the first image from the film has been released.  Snakes on a Plane screenwriter Sebastián Gutiérrez tries his hand as a director at the noir genre in the 1950s-set film that centers on a detective holed up in a downtown hotel waiting for assassins to kill him.  We follow the detective through the night as he meets and converses with various characters who have haunted pasts of their own.  This being a Gutiérrez film, it’s described as a “sexually charged” crime film.  The cast is fairly impressive and includes Rufus Sewell, Carla Gugino, Danny DeVito, Rosario Dawson, Malin Akerman, and Robert Forster.  The pic is currently without distribution, but it will be shopped to international buyers in Cannes.

Hit the jump to read the press release and to check out the first image from the film.

We’ve got a couple of television casting stories to share with you today. First up, the incredibly funny Will Forte has been tapped to lead the Fox comedy pilot Rebounding. Deadline reports that Forte will play Danny in the uplifting comedy which centers on “a man recovering from the death of his fiancée with the help of the idiots on his pickup basketball team. It’s not exactly MacGruber: The Series, but I could definitely see Forte having fun with the premise. The single-camera pilot comes from writers/executive producers Joe Port and Joe Wiseman (The IT Crowd), executive producer Steve Levitan (Modern Family), and director Jason Winer. Forte has an excellent recurring role on 30 Rock, and while a part of me would genuinely love to see MacGruber turned into a TV show, I’m glad to see Forte is getting the chance to lead a series of his own.

Hit the jump for casting news concerning USA’s Political Animals.

We’ve been provided with 12 clips from Garry Marshall’s upcoming romantic comedy New Year’s Eve to share with our readers. The film features a ginormous ensemble and tells a number of intertwining stories that all take place on New Year’s Eve in New York City. The cast includes Robert De Niro, Ashton Kutcher, Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sarah Jessica Parker, Hilary Swank, Zac Efron, Sienna Miller, Lea Michele, Sofia Vergara, Abigail Breslin, Til Schweiger, Seth Meyers, Jon Bon Jovi, Josh Duhamel, and Carla Gugino.

Hit the jump to watch the clips. New Year’s Eve opens December 9th.

A new trailer for Garry Marshall’s star-studded New Year’s Eve has been released. This trailer isn’t much different from the first one in that it’s basically a montage of all the pretty celebrities and their separate stories set to pop music, though this new look does include inappropriate Abigail Breslin flashing. If you enjoyed Marshall’s Valentine’s Day, then you probably don’t need to be sold on the pseudo-sequel, and if the February-centered first film wasn’t your thing then this New Year’s Eve trailer is probably more than a little cringe-worthy. It looks like Seth Meyers may be the only saving grace for the brave boyfriends who are forced to soldier through this one.

The cast includes Robert De Niro, Ashton Kutcher, Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sarah Jessica Parker, Hilary Swank, Zac Efron, Sienna Miller, Lea Michele, Sofia Vergara, Abigail Breslin, Til Schweiger, Seth Meyers, Jon Bon Jovi, Josh Duhamel, and Carla Gugino. New Year’s Eve opens on December 9^th. Hit the jump to watch the trailer.

The first trailer for Garry Marshall’s New Year’s Eve has been released. The follow-up to Valentine’s Day stars every actor ever in the history of acting, whom I can only assume will appear for five minutes of screen time each. The trailer is basically a montage of all the actors making their New Year’s preparations and yearning for somebody to love. Nothing groundbreaking, but if you were a fan of Valentine’s Day it’s a safe bet that this movie is probably your kind of thing.

The cast includes Robert De Niro, Ashton Kutcher, Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sarah Jessica Parker, Hilary Swank, Zac Efron, Sienna Miller, Lea Michele, Sofia Vergara, Abigail Breslin, Til Schweiger, Seth Meyers, Jon Bon Jovi, Josh Duhamel, and Carla Gugino. New Year’s Eve opens on December 9^th. Hit the jump to watch the trailer.

Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch hit theaters in March earlier this year, but it’s road to theaters felt like watching a train hit the emergency break. The year before it came out, the film wowed comic-con audiences, and Warner Brothers had set visits – Snyder was still seen as a wonder boy, even if Watchmen didn’t take it home. But by the week of release, Warners couldn’t hold it in the bag: Sucker Punch is a weird movie that doesn’t totally work for a number of reasons.

It’s one of the great “I made a big hit movie, I’m going to go make my art” films that fails in interesting ways. And now there’s a director’s cut, which hopes to solve some of those problems. Emily Browning plays Babydoll, a girl with a traumatic past who’s put in an insane asylum with a bunch of other girls, and leads a fantasy life that transposes her inmates and doctors into dancers and pimps. My review of the Blu-ray and director’s cut of Sucker Punch follow after the jump.

Your kids are probably going to love Mr. Popper’s Penguins.  I saw it an audience filled with kids and their parents, and the kids laughed throughout.  They laughed when the penguins farted.  They laughed when the penguins pooped.  They laughed when the penguins fell down.  They laughed when Jim Carrey made a funny face.  The movie easily walks beneath the low bar set by what passes for family films and if you want to keep your kids amused for two hours and can’t find a shiny object, then Mr. Popper’s Penguins fits the bill.  There’s nothing I can say against this film that makes it any less of a joy to kids who ask nothing more than funny faces, fart jokes, and slapstick.  Instead, I’m fascinated by the film’s unsettling subtext..

As I said yesterday when I posted my interview with Jim Carrey, I’ve learned that if I wear my Goodfellas t-shirt during an on camera interview, I should expect whoever I’m speaking with to talk about the movie.  This happened when I wore the shirt for my The Adjustment Bureau interview with Matt Damon, where he ended up talking about Scorsese’s gangster classic, and again when I spoke with Carrey.

Anyway, the reason I’m talking about my Goodfellas t-shirt is that I recently interviewed Carla Gugino for her new family film, Mr. Popper’s Penguins.  Based on the 1938 children’s novel, Gugino plays Carrey’s ex-wife and  she watches as her former husband starts to change after  he inherits some penguins from his kooky father.  During the interview, Gugino talks about her love for Martin Scorsese’s Casino and Goodfellas, what it was like to work with Carrey, and how she got involved with Mr. Popper’s Penguins.  Hit the jump to watch.  And you can watch the trailer here.

20^th Century Fox has released 8 new clips from their upcoming family film Mr. Popper’s Penguins.  Based on the children’s book of the same name, the film centers on a divorced New York real estate developer who inherits some penguins from his kooky father. Directed by Mark Waters (Mean Girls) the film stars Jim Carrey, Carla Gugino, Angela Lansbury, Clark Gregg and Madeline Carroll.  Hit the jump to check out the clips.  Mr. Popper’s Penguins hits theaters on June 17^th.

20th Century Fox has released a new trailer for the family film Mr. Popper’s Penguins.  Jim Carrey stars as divorced New York real estate developer: “for years he has been out of contact with his ‘kooky’ father, who leaves him with an unusual inheritance: a penguin.”  Carla Gugino, Angela Lansbury, and Madeline Carroll also star.  Mark Waters (Ghosts of Girlfriends Past) directs from a script by Jared Stern (The Princess and the Frog) and screenwriting team Sean Anders and John Morris (Hot Tub Time Machine), based on the 1938 children’s novel.

Mr. Popper’s Penguins opens June 17.  Watch the trailer after the break.

Last summer we reported that Eric Bana and Colin Farrell were in talks to co-star in By Virtue Fall, the directorial debut of Up in the Air screenwriter Sheldon Turner.  Farrell eventually dropped off the project but Bana has signed on and according to 24 Frames, he’ll be joined by James Spader, Ryan Phillippe, and Carla Gugino.  The story concerns “two ATF agents who find themselves on opposite sides of the friendship divide after one sells out the other.”

Bana tells 24 Frames that he hopes to make By Virtue Fall his next project after finishing the thriller Blackbird with Olivia Wilde.  He’ll be seen in theaters this week alongside Cate Blanchett and Saoirse Ronan in Joe Wright’s Hanna.

For the premiere of Zack Snyder’s fantasy thriller Sucker Punch, the stars of the film gathered under a tent housing the black carpet, in order to escape the rain and keep their gowns dry. The film’s leading ladies – Emily Browning, Vanessa Hudgens, Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone and Jamie Chung – were ultra-glam, as they came out to support the Watchmen and 300 director, who will next be taking on Superman: Man of Steel.

Joining the film’s main cast, co-stars Carla Gugino, Jon Hamm, Scott Glenn and Oscar Isaac, mingled at the Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood with Watchmen star Malin Akerman, Diane Lane (seen next as Martha Kent), Red Riding Hood star Max Irons, Scream 4 star Emma Roberts and Juno Temple, who will be in The Dark Knight Rises. Check out all of the exclusive photos after the jump:

Imagination does not exist in a vacuum.  We’re inspired by experiences both internal and external.  We build our dreams on the dreams of others and if we possess a brilliant imagination, then we can transform these ideas into something fresh and new.  With his new film Sucker Punch, director Zack Snyder shows he not only misunderstands how imagination works, he also has no understanding of inspiration, empowerment, or joy.  The movie swims through the wet dreams of a teenage boy but pretends at higher aspirations of thoughtful escapism and transcendent determination.  For a movie where dragons battle fighter jets and teenage girls in skimpy outfits take down samurai golems, Sucker Punch is a surprisingly dull and self-serious affair that can’t be bothered to develop its heroine, but wants a round of applause every time she defeats a CGI monstrosity.  Despite all of the energy put into the stunning vistas and designs, nothing in Sucker Punch‘s visuals comes close to the majesty of its delusions of grandeur.

20th Century Fox has released the first trailer for the family film Mr. Popper’s Penguins.  Jim Carrey stars as divorced New York real estate developer: “for years he has been out of contact with his “kooky” father, who leaves him with an unusual inheritance: a penguin.”  Carla Gugino, Angela Lansbury, and Madeline Carroll also star.  Mark Waters (Ghosts of Girlfriends Past) directs from a script by Jared Stern (The Princess and the Frog) and screenwriting team Sean Anders and John Morris (Hot Tub Time Machine), based on the 1938 children’s novel.

Mr. Popper’s Penguins opens on June 17. Watch the trailer after the jump.