Coriolanus is due on Blu-ray and DVD May 29, and to give you a taste, we have been provided a featurette to share.  In the clip, director/star Ralph Fiennes comments on his adaptation of the Shakespeare play.  Fiennes updated the story to the modern day, but the story remains the same.  Things go awry during Coriolanus’ (Fiennes) campaign for the consulate, and he’s kicked out of Rome: “The banished hero then allies himself with his sworn enemy Tullus Aufidius (Gerard Butler) to take his revenge on the city.”  Brian Cox, Vanessa Redgrave, and Jessica Chastain also star.  Watch the featurette after the jump.

Netflix has been struggling lately against competitors like Redbox, OnDemand services, and the reluctance of major studios to license their films to the streaming service.  However, The Weinstein Company are (thankfully) going against the grain by licensing some of their latest movies to Netflix over U.S. pay TV services.  According to THR, The Artist, Coriolanus, Undefeated, as well as foreign-language, documentary, and other films will be exclusively available for Netflix streaming in the U.S.

It’s obviously a great deal for Netflix and its streaming subscribers, especially since a lot of folks probably missed some of TWC’s limited-release movies like Coriolanus and Sarah’s Key.  No date has been announced for when these movies will roll out, but since The Artist is due out on DVD and Blu-ray on April 24th, we can presumably expect it by then.

A trailer usually has less than two minutes and thirty seconds to dazzle the viewer and put a movie on his or her radar.  The Internet allows studios to go beyond this theater-mandated time limit and not only run a longer trailer, but also ones that have been approved only for the emotionally mature online community.  But no matter the runtime or how many times a character can swear, the trailer still has to grab your attention.  They can sell us on a premise we didn’t know we wanted, and can find a way to make us even more excited for a movie we were already itching to see.

Hit the jump to check out my picks for Top 10 Trailers of 2011.

As the 84th Academy Awards move closer, we’re starting to get a better sense of how things will pan out. We recently shared the 39 songs that will contend for the Best Original Song category, and now the Academy has announced the 97 original scores eligible for the Best Original Score award. AMPAS is notoriously picky when it comes to eligibility in this category, and as we feared the scores for both Drive and Attack the Block have been deemed ineligible. Also disappointing is the ineligibility of Alexandre Desplat’s mesmerizing score for The Tree of Life.

While it’s upsetting to see some of the year’s best work side-lined, there’s plenty to be happy about. I was a huge fan of Howard Shore’s work in Hugo and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s score for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, as well as The Chemical Brothers’ brilliant work in the criminally underseen Hanna. Hit the jump for the full list, as well as who I think will make the cut.

The 14th Annual British Independent Film Awards were held tonight and the brutal drama Tyrannosaur took home trophies for Best Film, Best Debut Director (Paddy Considine), and Best Actress (Olivia Colman).  Other BIFA winners included Senna for Best Documentary, Lynne Ramsay for Best Director (We Need to Talk about Kevin), Michael Fassbender for Best Actor (Shame), and Richard Ayoade for Best Screenplay (Submarine).

I thought Tyrannosaur failed to derive honest drama from its ugliness and violence, but I can understand why the movie struck a chord with most viewers.  As for the other winners, I think Ramsay is still an outsider in the Oscar race, but Fassbender, Ayoade, and Colman may have boosted their chances, although Colman will probably compete in the Best Supporting Actress category since that’s where she has a better chance for a nomination.  Hit the jump for the full list of winners.

We’ve got a batch of new posters to share with you today. First up is the extraordinary new poster for Zhang Yimou’s The Flowers of War. Poster art is definitely not dead, and this gorgeous one-sheet is proof. The film stars Christian Bale in the Chinese period pic about the invading Japanese Imperial Army taking over Nanking. The UK quad for Coriolanus is pretty great as well. Marking Ralph Fiennes’s feature directorial debut, the film is based on Shakespeare’s tragedy of the same name. The new poster for Underworld: Awakening is a bit uninspired (not to mention confusing; why does Kate Beckinsale want to shoot met?), and the poster for the hockey comedy Goon is underwhelming as well, especially when compared with the film’s previous posters.

Hit the jump to take a look at the posters. The Flowers of War opens in China on December 16th (and in the U.S. sometime in December), Coriolanus opens January 20th, 2012, Underworld: Awakening opens January 20th as well, and Goon will be available VOD February 24th, and in theaters March 30th. [Update: We've been asked to take the Underworld poster down. An official version should be released soon.]

Time to catch up with the release dates the studios have announced over the last couple weeks.  Via Box Office Mojo:

• Lionsgate pushed the Jason Statham actioner Safe from October 28 to March 2, 2012.  The move explains why we haven’t seen a trailer yet.
• Focus Features scheduled Sundance darling Pariah for December 25
• The Weinstein Company pushed Ralph Fiennes’ Shakespeare adaptation Coriolanus from December 2 to January 13, 2012.  I imagine they may sneak a limited release in before the end of the year to qualify for the Oscars, but the move suggests TWC will focus on My Week With Marilyn, The Artist, W.E., and The Iron Lady for the Oscar push.
• Warner Bros. will release the Nicholas Sparks adaptation The Lucky One, led by Zac Efron, on August 24, 2012
• Fox Searchlight booked The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel for Tom Wilkinson, Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, and Bill Nighy on March 9, 2012

More on each movie after the jump.

New posters have been released for Ralph Fiennes’ Coriolanus, Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion, and Tomas Alfredson’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.  The Coriolanus poster is one of the best I’ve seen all year and I would happily hang it on my wall (provided the film is good, and it certainly looks good).  The Contagion poster is made up of the character posters we’ve already seen.  Finally, there’s a new code-face poster for Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.  This one features Mark Strong as MI6 agent Jim Prideaux.

Hit the jump to check out the posters.  Coriolanus opens December 2nd.  Contagion opens September 9th.  Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy opens November 18th.

Before now, my reaction to Coriolanus was “Oh, Ralph Fiennes is making his directing debut by adapting Shakespeare’s Coriolanus and setting it in a modern-day battlefield.  That’s nice.”  But the UK trailer just makes me go, “This is Fiennes’ directing debut?  Holy hell.”  The dialogue and plot may be Shakespeare’s but Fiennes has clearly amped up the setting with some sweet looking action and intense drama.  I hope this all comes together because it has an outstanding cast (Fiennes in the title role and joined by Vanessa Redgrave, Brian Cox, Gerard Butler, Jessica Chastain, and James Nesbitt).

As you’ll gather from the trailer, the plot centers on a banished former war hero who plans to conquer his homeland.  Hit the jump to check out the madness.  Coriolanus will play at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.  It opens in the US on December 2nd and in the UK on January 20, 2012.

Continuing our assault of all the new movie images that hit the net this morning, we’ve got our first official looks at Steve McQueen’s Shame (starring Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan, James Badge Dale and Nicole Beharie), Fernando Meirelles 360 (starring Jude Law, Anthony Hopkins, Rachel Weisz and Ben Foster), Jamie Linden’s Ten Year (starring Channing Tatum, Rosario Dawson, Justin Long, Kate Mara, Anthony Mackie and Chris Pratt) and Ralph Fiennes’ directorial debut Coriolanus (which stars Fiennes and Gerard Butler).

While many Film Festivals hope to land a few big movies, this year’s Toronto International Film Festival is an insane lineup that’s loaded with huge actors and high profile projects.  Like the past few years, I’ll be at TIFF, so you can expect plenty of reviews/interviews during the Festival which runs from September 8-18th.  Hit the jump to check out all the new images.

In my article yesterday about the Venice Film Festival, I made some predictions on which films would make their world premiere at this year’s Toronto Film Festival and not Venice.  It turns out a few of my guesses were only the tip of the iceberg.  Moneyball, 50/50, and The Descendants are all going to premiere at TIFF.  But my lord, does Toronto have an incredible line-up this year.  I’m praying my application gets approved because when you hit the jump and check out this line-up, you’ll understand my agony if I’m stuck in Atlanta while these films are premiering.

Hit the jump for the line-up of Galas and Premieres for this year’s festival.  The 2011 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 8th – 18th.

The Weinstein Company has announced release dates for seven upcoming films including Halloween 3D (you know you want another entry in that franchise…right?), Scary Movie 5 (insert previous parenthetical here), Coriolanus, The Iron Lady, The Artist, The Bully Project, and Michelle Williams and Emma Watson’s Marilyn Monroe biopic, My Week with Marilyn. Here is a bulleted breakdown of the dates in chronological order:

• My Week with Marilyn – 11/4/11 – Stars Michelle Williams and Emma Watson
• The Bully Project – 11/11/11 – A documentary from director Lee Hirsch
• The Artist - 11/23/11 – Stars Malcolm McDowell and John Goodman
• Coriolanus – 12/2/11 – Stars Ralph Fiennes (who is also directing) and Gerard Butler
• The Iron Lady – 12/16/11 – Stars Meryl Streep
• Scary Movie 5 - 4/20/12
• Halloween 3D - 10/26/12

In addition to these dates, Relativity has also pushed back its horror pic House at the End of the Street, starring Jennifer Lawrence and Elisabeth Shue, from February 3rd, 2012 to April 20th of the same year. Hit the jump to see which films these projects may be going up against assuming they keep their most recent release times (which is certainly no guarantee).

Today brings the first images from Ralph Fiennes’ adaptation of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, a family-political tragedy set in ancient Rome.  Making his directorial debut, Fiennes transplants the action to contemporary times, which explains the modern military garb in the photos.  Fiennes stars as the titular character opposite Gerard Butler, who plays an army commander and nemesis of Coriolanus.  The cast also includes William Hurt, Eddie Marsan, Jessica Chastain, and Vanessa Redgrave.

Hit the jump for a closer look at the behind-the-scenes pics from Coriolanus.

Ralph Fiennes is making his directorial debut with “Coriolanus”, a can’t miss script from William Shakespeare (that 393-year-old dead guy is really going places). Fiennes will pull Shakespeare’s family-political tragedy (the two never seem to mix well in  Shakespeare’s plays) out of ancient Rome and into what’s being called a “contemporary version”.  Butler will play Tullus Aufidius, commander of the Volscian army from Shakespeare’s play and nemesis of Coriolanus (Fiennes).  Butler joins a cast that includes William Hurt, Eddie Marsan, Jessica Chastain, and Vanessa Redgrave. [THR]