Sony Pictures has released a batch of new images from writers/directors Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s apocalypse comedy This Is the End.  The film finds Rogen, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, and Craig Robinson all playing versions of themselves as they hole up in Franco’s house when a world-ending event occurs.  The trailers, featurettes, and recent clip with Emma Watson all make the comedy look like a lot of fun, and I’m eager to see how Rogen and Goldberg fare in their directorial debut.

Hit the jump to check out the high-resolution images.  The film also stars Jason Segel, Michael Cera, David Krumholtz, Paul Rudd, Martin Starr, Mindy Kaling, Kevin Hart, Aziz Ansari, and Rihanna.  This Is the End opens on June 14, 2013.

The apocalypse scenario in This Is the End hasn’t been explained, but it looks like the film is employing more than one.  There are people being abducted by aliens, the ground opening up to swallow Aziz Ansari, monsters, and now, according to Emma Watson, zombies.  There’s a good joke in here of the guys reacting to the news, but this clip seems to be a lead-in to a better scene, and I’m excited to see how Watson plays into the comedy.

Hit the jump to check out the clip.  The film stars Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, Jonah Hill, James Franco, Danny McBride, and Craig Robinson.  This Is The End opens June 12th.

The 2013 Cannes Film Festival begins today, and new images have been released for these movies in the fest’s line-up:

• Behind the Candelabra – Directed by Steven Soderbergh, starring Michael Douglas, Matt Damon, Dan Aykroyd, Rob Lowe, and Debbie Reynolds.
• Nebraska – Directed by Alexander Payne, starring Bruce Dern, Will Forte, Stacy Keach, and Bob Odenkirk.
• The Immigrant – Directed by James Gray, starring Joaquin Phoenix, Marion Cotillard, and Jeremy Renner.
• As I Lay Dying – Directed and starring James Franco, co-starring Tim Blake Nelson, Logan Marshall-Green, and Danny McBride.

Hit the jump for the images and synopses.  The 2013 Cannes Film Festival runs from May 15 – May 26th.

A new behind-the-scenes featurette for Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s directorial debut This Is the End has landed online.  As Rogen explains it, “the end of the world happens and a bunch of friends barricade themselves together, and then all of their problems kind of come to the surface.”  It just so happens that the group of friends in question consists of Rogen, Jay Baruchel, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, and Danny McBride.  Within the featurette, the actors talk about playing versions of themselves in the film and how close they are to reality (Franco’s character is obsessed with Rogen in the pic), and we also get a look at more of the hilarity that ensues.

Hit the jump to watch the featurette.  The film also stars Emma Watson, Jason Segel, Michael Cera, David Krumholtz, Paul Rudd, Martin Starr, Mindy Kaling, Kevin Hart, Aziz Ansari, and Rihanna.  This Is the End opens on June 14, 2013.

The first trailer for James Franco’s adaptation of the William Faulkner novel As I Lay Dying has arrived.  Adapting an author as verbose and complex as Faulkner is no easy task, but Franco is tackling As I Lay Dying head on as both director and star.  Given Franco’s incredibly varied tastes, it’s tough to tell if this film is a serious adaptation or just another one of his art experiments.  The drama is certainly played straightforward in this trailer, but the appearance of someone like Danny McBride in the cast is striking.  The verdict on the pic will be in soon enough, as the film is slated to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival which kicks off this week.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Tim Blake Nelson, Logan Marshall Green, Ahna O’Reilly, and Jim Parrack.

A new Between Two Ferns is always cause for celebration, and this latest installment is among the best.  It begins like most Between Two Ferns: Zach Galifianakis makes deadpan insults towards his guest (in this case James Franco), but then it turns into the music video for the new Lonely Island single, “Spring Break Anthem”, which is appropriately in the style of Spring Breakers but also supports gay marriage.  And because The Lonely Island–which is comprised of Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone, and Andy Samberg–likes to embrace the random, Edward Norton co-stars in this excellent sketch/music video.

Hit the jump to check out the music video.  The Lonely Island’s new album, The Wack Album, will be released on June 11th.

As we all know, James Franco likes to keep busy.  He’s currently shooting on Rupert Goold‘s drama True Story, his adaptation of As I Lay Dying is set to premiere at Cannes, he’ll be seen in the summer comedy This Is the End, he might co-star in Werner Herzog‘s Queen of the Desert, and he’ll be directing and starring in The Garden of Last Days.  Now he’s got another project on the way by signing on to Wim Wenders‘ 3D film, Every Thing Will Be Fine.  According to Deadline, “Franco will play Tomas, a writer who accidentally causes the death of a child. The story examines the twelve years following the accident and its impact on Tomas, and the child’s mother.”  According to The Film Stage, Sarah Polley is attached to co-star.

Wenders tells Deadline the movie was written with 3D in mind because he’s “convinced that the medium lends itself really well to an intimate story.”  It’s tough to argue with assessment when the 3D in his previous film, Pina, was by far the best aspect of the movie.

Two up-and-comers landed roles of note tonight:

• Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) signed on to star in The Garden of Last Days.  James Franco will direct and co-star in the adaptation of the novel by Andre Dubus III that “explores family and sexual values over the course a night set in a Florida strip club.”
• Logan Lerman (The Perks of Being a Wallflower) joins Brad Pitt and Shia LaBeouf in the World War II tank thriller Fury, written and directed by David Ayer (End of Watch).

Hit the jump for more on both projects.

James Franco, who is headed to Cannes next month with his film As I Lay Dying, has signed on to direct and star in his next project, an adaptation of author Andre Dubus III’s The Garden of Last Days.  From the writer of the bestselling novel House of Sand and Fog comes a contemporary American thriller that tells the tales of three strangers whose paths intersect one September night in a Florida strip club.  Dubus III originally set the piece during September 11, 2001, but has given the okay for filmmakers to change it to a more contemporary setting in New York.  Filming is expected to start July 8th in New York. Hit the jump for more.

Director Werner Herzog is looking to get his Gertrude Bell biopic Queen of the Desert back on track.  The film has Naomi Watts set to star as Bell, who worked extensively in the middle east and was responsible for establishing what would become the modern framework for Jordan and Iraq. She worked for British Intelligence during World War I, and was key in the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire and subsequent founding of Iraq.  Jude Law had previously been set to co-star, but he subsequently left the project due to scheduling conflicts, providing quite the stumbling block for a production that was looking to start filming last month.

Now Deadline reports that James Franco is circling the project, in which he would fill the role that Law vacated.  There’s no guarantee that he’ll sign on (Franco is, to say the least, a busy guy), but if he does then that would put Queen of the Desert back on the path towards production.  Robert Pattison is also attached to star in the film as T.E. Lawrence.

Tomorrow marks an unofficial holiday that is celebrated by a certain subset of citizens, and there’s likely a rather large crossover between 4/20 observers and fans who are looking forward to the comedy This Is the End.  As part of the promotion for Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s apocalyptic comedy (which also marks their directorial debut), a new promo video has been released along with a pretty smart bit of marketing: if you buy your tickets to This Is the End on 4/20, Regal Cinemas will buy your popcorn for the movie.  Sounds like a swell deal to me.

Hit the jump to watch how Rogen, James Franco, Jay Baruchel, and Danny McBride celebrate 4/20.  The film also stars Jonah Hill, Emma Watson, Jason Segel, Michael Cera, David Krumholtz, Paul Rudd, Martin Starr, Mindy Kaling, Kevin Hart, Aziz Ansari, and Rihanna.  This Is the End opens on June 14, 2013.

A new clip from the directorial debut of Superbad and Pineapple Express scribes Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg has been released online.  This Is the End stars Rogen, Jay Baruchel, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, and many more as the actors play exaggerated versions of themselves that are trying to survive the end of the world.  The majority of the story appears to take place in James Franco’s house, which serves as the group’s default bunker, and this new clip highlight’s Baruchel’s unwillingness to die at the actor’s house.  The film still looks like it’s going to be a whole lot of fun, and if you somehow still need convincing I suggest you check out the hilarious red-band trailer that was recently released.

Hit the jump to watch this new clip, and click here for Dave’s recap of the pic’s WonderCon panel.  The film also stars Emma Watson, Jason Segel, Michael Cera, David Krumholtz, Paul Rudd, Martin Starr, Mindy Kaling, Kevin Hart, Aziz Ansari, and Rihanna.  This Is the End opens on June 14, 2013.

After the first red-band trailer debuted earlier this week, a new green-band trailer for Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg‘s This Is the End is now available.  The film definitely looks funny, but I’m wondering how long the premise of celebrity-self-parody can last.  Usually, this kind of performance is a cameo, but This Is the End is all about Rogen, Jonah Hill, James Franco, Danny McBride, Jay Baruchel, and Craig Robinson playing “versions” of themselves.  I’m assuming that as long as the quips and jokes keep coming as quickly as they do in this trailer, then the self-parody won’t wear out its welcome.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The film also stars Jason Segel, Michael Cera, Emma Watson, Paul Rudd, Mindy Kaling, Kevin Hart, Aziz Ansari, Martin Starr, and more.  This Is the End opens June 12th. 

As promised, the first red-band trailer for Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s comedy This Is the End has dropped.  It’s a more violent and foul-mouthed version of the green-band trailer they screened at WonderCon (which will debut later this week).  There’s plenty of apocalyptic story to be told in this two-and-a-half-minute trailer, but a lot of the great comedic beats and celebrity appearances/deaths are spoiled right off the bat.  The movie’s premise is already a great hook so I’m hoping that not too much more is revealed in the months to come.

Starring Rogen, Jonah Hill, James Franco, Jason Segel, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Michael Cera, Emma Watson, Paul Rudd, Jay Baruchel, Mindy Kaling, Kevin Hart, Martin Starr and more, This Is the End opens June 12th.  Hit the jump to check out the trailer.

Columbia Pictures must be very happy with Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s directorial debut This Is the End, as the studio has already tapped Rogen and Goldberg for another directing gig.  The duo will next helm the comedy The Interview, with James Franco being eyed for a lead role.  The pic is described as a “topical comedy” that revolves around a talk show host and his producer “who find themselves in way over their heads when they get involved in a plot to assassinate the prime minister of North Korea.”  Franco would potentially play the talk show host, while Rogen is poised to star as the producer.  Hit the jump for more on this possible Pineapple Express reunion.