The cast of the long-in-development adaptation of the 1980s TV series The Equalizer is starting to come together.  Denzel Washington has been set for quite some time in the lead role of a former covert operations officer who dedicates his life to helping people in trouble.  The production has seen both Nicolas Winding Refn and Rupert Wyatt enter and exit the director’s chair over the past couple of months, but Washington’s Training Day helmer Antoine Fuqua is now firmly set to bring the film to fruition.  As they move towards a production start date later this year in anticipation of an April 11, 2014 release date, Fuqua has now cast his female lead, and it’s a bit of a surprising choice: Chloe Grace Moretz.

Hit the jump for more, including information on the Taxi Driver-esque character that Moretz will play and a continuation of the original character in book form. 

A few new images from director Kimberly Peirce’s (Boys Don’t Cry) adaptation of the Stephen King novel Carrie have made their way online.  For those unfamiliar, the film revolves around a young girl (Chloe Grace Moretz) who discovers she has telekinetic powers and who is abused at home by her ultra-religious mother (Julianne Moore) and tormented at school by her peers.  Matching the quality of Brian De Palma’s previous film adaptation is a tall order, and the recent full trailer for Carrie promised that Peirce isn’t holding back on the intensity of the story.  It remains to be seen if this adaptation can confidently stand alone, but the prospect of some epic stand-offs between Moretz and Moore is certainly promising.

Hit the jump to check out the new images.  The film also stars Judy Greer, Portia Doubleday, Ansel Elgort, Alex Russell, and Gabriella Wilde.  Carrie opens on October 18th.

Here are today’s latest casting announcements:

• Jennifer Garner (Alias) is in negotiations to join Kevin Costner in Draft Day, a sports dramedy directed by Ivan Reitman.
• Chloë Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass) is in talks to star opposite Charlize Theron in Dark Places, an adaptation of the Gillian Flynn novel from writer/director Gilles Paquet-Brenner. 

Hit the jump for more on both casting stories.

Director Lynn Shelton is rounding up a rather impressive cast for her next film.  Deadline reports that Anne Hathaway, Chloe Moretz, Sam Rockwell, and Mark Webber (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World) are in negotiations to star the Touchy Feely and Your Sister’s Sister filmmaker’s dark comedy Laggies.  The story centers on a 28-year-old woman named Megan who is unable to cope with the pressures brought on by her boyfriend’s recent marriage proposal. In turn, she escapes into the comfort of adolescence by befriending a group of high schoolers.  Recent Oscar-winner Hathaway will lead the film as Megan, with Moretz eyed to play 16-year-old Annika, Webber in talks to play Megan’s boyfriend, and Rockwell set as an older character named Craig.

Andrea Seigel wrote the screenplay for Laggies, and the film marks the first time Shelton will direct something she hasn’t also written.  She most recently directed the drama Touchy Feely, which debuted at Sundance earlier this year.  This is one hell of an ensemble that Shelton has put together, and I look forward to checking out the finished product.

An international trailer for Kick-Ass 2 has been released.  The red-band trailer focused on the plot of the film where we saw heroes banding together against the threat of The Motherfucker (Christopher Mintz-Plasse).  The international trailer mostly ignores all that (there’s no Motherfucker to be found), and shines a light directly on Hit-Girl (Chloe Grace Moretz).  That’s not too surprising when you consider she was the most popular character in the first film, and Moretz looks like she’s even better this time around.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  There’s also a new character poster for Jim Carrey‘s superhero, Colonel Stars and Stripes.  The movie co-stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Clark Duke, Donald Faison, John Leguizamo, and Olga Kurkulina.  Kick-Ass 2 opens August 16th.

The first red-band trailer for the sequel Kick-Ass 2 debut this morning, and now Universal has released a batch of high-resolution images and the first poster for the film. Jeff Wadlow takes over from the first film’s director Matthew Vaughn this time around, and the story finds Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Kick-Ass and Chloe Grace Moretz’s Hit Girl inspiring a new wave of masked superheroes that join in their fight against evil.  On the flipside, Christopher Mintz-Plasse has now become a supervillain named The Mother Fucker and is assembling his own masked evil league.

Hit the jump to check out the images and poster.  The film also stars Morris Chestnut, John Leguizamo, Donald Faison, and Jim Carrey.  Kick-Ass 2 opens on August 16th.

Universal has released the first red-band trailer for director Jeff Wadlow‘s sequel Kick-Ass 2.  The trailer opens with a fight/dialogue scene between Aaron Johnson‘s Kick-Ass and Chloe Moretz‘s Hit Girl that brings us right back into the Kick-Ass world, and it sure does feel good to be back.  The plot appears to revolve around the preparations for a showdown between Kick-Ass/Hit Girl and Christopher Mintz-Plasse‘s newly minted “The Motherfucker,” as both sides are building up their own armies of heroes/villains.  Mintz-Plasse looks to have gone delectably full-evil in the follow-up, and I’m really looking forward to seeing how his character progresses throughout the film.  The CGI is pretty iffy in places, but the fight scenes and performances look great, with Jim Carrey essentially unrecognizable as Colonel Stars and Stripes.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Clark Duke, Donald Faison, John Leguizamo, and Olga Kurkulina.  Kick-Ass 2 opens on August 16th.

The marketing for Kimberly Peirce‘s upcoming remake of Carrie has been all about showing its eponymous troubled protagonist (Chloe Grace Moretz) drenched in blood, and a new image from the film continues that trend.  Moretz has got the crazy eyes going in this new image, which is good because otherwise she would look like an intact zombie.  For those unfamiliar with the story, it revolves around a young girl with telekinesis who is abused at home by her ultra-religious mother (Julianne Moore) and tormented at school by her peers.  It does not go well for the people who mess with Carrie.

Hit the jump to check out the full image.  The film also stars Judy Greer, Portia Doubleday, Alex Russell, Gabriella Wilde, and Ansel Elgort.  Carrie opens October 18th.

Earlier this month, we got our first official look at Kick-Ass (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Colonel Stars and Stripes (Jim Carrey) in Jeff Wadlow‘s Kick-Ass 2.  Today, the latest issue of Empire Magazine has revealed new images of Hit-Girl (Chloe Grace Moretz) along with a glimpse of the Colonel’s “Justice Forever” headquarters.  When the sequel’s story picks up, Kick-Ass has inspired a wave of superheroes led by Colonel Stars and Stripes.  When the group becomes the target of Red Mist’s (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) fury—now going by the name of “The Motherfucker”—only Hit-Girl can save them.

Hit the jump to check out the images.  The film also stars Clark Duke, Donald Faison, John Leguizamo, Olga Kurkulina, and Nicolas Cage.  Kick-Ass 2 opens June 28th.

2009: Catherine Hardwicke is set to direct the adaptation of Gayle Forman‘s young adult novel If I Stay.  2010: Hardwicke is out, Heitor Dhalia is in as director.  Dakota Fanning enters talks to star as Mia, an accomplished 17-year-old cellist destined for Julliard before a car accident sends her into a coma.  2013: Dhalia and Fanning are no longer on board.  Instead, Chloe Moretz is attached to star and RJ Cutler (Nashville) is in talks to direct his first narrative feature, according to Variety.

The book has a neat hook, using the out-of-body perspective and recollections of Mia while she’s in the coma.  I don’t know if this is the iteration that will push If I Stay out of development, but keep your eye out for more casting announcements soon—particularly the “punk rock boyfriend.”  Read the book synopsis after the jump.

There are so many big movie stars in Movie 43 that it’s borderline ridiculous, so a new featurette aims to clarify some things with a little game of “Six Degrees of Separation.”  You can check out 55 images from the movie here and see how Emma Stone, Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Naomi Watts, Terrence Howard, Halle Berry, Jason Sudeikis, Gerard Butler, Kristen Bell, Chloe Moretz, Josh Duhamel, Johnny Knoxville, Elizabeth Banks, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Richard Gere, Anna Faris, Justin Long, Liev Schreiber, Uma Thurman, Seann William Scott, Kieran Culkin, Leslie Bibb, Jimmy Bennett, Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, Kate Bosworth, Patrick Warburton, Tony Shalhoub, Chris Pratt, Jack McBrayer, Aasif Mandvi and Bobby Cannavale are all connected after the jump.  Movie 43 opens January 25, 2013. 

Tim Robbins (The Shawshank Redemption), Michelle Pfeiffer (Scarface) and Chloe Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass) are attached to star in the dysfunctional family comedy, Man Under.  From screenwriter Ann Cherkis (The Secret), Man Under centers on a Yonkers-based family whose lives turn upside-down when New York City’s Museum of Modern Art displays photographs of them and turns them into overnight celebrities.  Robbins, himself an Oscar-nominated director, will helm the pic.  Hit the jump to get caught up with the talent.

We’ve already seen countless photos and videos from the set of the in-production sequel Kick-Ass 2 (many courtesy of director Jeff Wadlow himself), but now the film’s official synopsis has been released, giving us a peek at the film’s plot.  When the sequel’s story picks up, the bravery of Aaron Johnson’s titular hero has inspired a wave of superheroes led by Colonel Stars and Stripes (Jim Carrey).  When the group becomes the target of Red Mist’s (Christhoper Mintz-Plasee) fury—now going by the name of “The Mother F%&*^r”—only the incredibly deadly Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz) can save them.

Hit the jump to read the full synopsis which includes some further details, and if you missed it check out Steve’s video interview with Moretz from last week’s New York Comic-Con.  The promising ensemble cast also includes Clark Duke, Donald Faison, John Leguizamo, and Olga Kurkulina.  Kick-Ass 2 opens on June 28th, 2013.

One of the films to premiere footage at this year’s New York Comic-Con was director Kimberly Peirce‘s (Boys Don’t Cry) remake of Carrie.  Based on the book by Stephen King, Screen Gems says Carrie is “a reimagining of the classic horror tale about Carrie White (Chloë Grace Moretz), a shy girl outcast by her peers and sheltered by her deeply religious mother (Julianne Moore), who unleashes telekinetic terror on her small town after being pushed too far at her senior prom.”  While many were nervous about the remake, Matt was very impressed with the footage.  Read his recap here and here’s the first trailer.

Shortly before the Comic-Con panel, I did an exclusive interview with Chloë Moretz.  We talked about her experiences with comic-con, why she prefers the PS3 to the XBox 360, video games, how she got the role in Carrie and the audition process, the challenges Hit-Girl faces in the Kick-Ass sequel, whether Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) will make an appearance, what she has planned next, and more.  Hit the jump to watch.

The first trailer for director Kimberly Peirce’s remake of Carrie has been released and it’s a doozy!  The ending of the original Brian De Palma picture is famous in its own right, not to mention everyone who has read the Stephen King novel on which the films are based.  But clearly Peirce knew that the stakes had been raised.  As a disembodied voice sings over scenes of devastation, we hear bits of dialogue from the film, the speakers referring to the source of the destruction just as the camera inexorably races toward it.  When we see her, we realize, this ain’t your Mama’s Carrie.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film stars Chloe Moretz, Julianne Moore, Judy Greer, Alex Russell, Portia Doubleday, Ansel Elgort, and Gabriella Wilde.  Carrie opens on March 15th, 2013.