The Weinstein Company has released the first trailer for director Lee Daniels’ (Precious, The Paperboy) historical drama The Butler.  Based on a true story, the film stars Forrest Whitaker as Cecil Gaines, a butler who served at the White House from 1952 to 1986.  The trailer plays up the film’s awards prospects as we see a flash of famous faces playing the many notable persons who walked the halls of the White House throughout this period (Alan Rickman is particularly striking as President Reagan), and that’s balanced with an overview of Gaines’ life in a racially tense America.  While the film certainly looks like it has the potential to be powerful, cautious optimism is key whenever Lee Daniels is involved.

Hit the jump to watch the debut trailer.  The film also stars Oprah Winfrey, David Oyelowo, Mariah Carey, John Cusack, Jane Fonda, Cuba Gooding Jr., Terrence Howard, Minka Kelly, Lenny Kravitz, Melissa Leo, James Marsden, Alex Pettyfer, Vanessa Redgrave, Liev Schreiber, and Robin Williams.  The Butler opens on October 18th.

Universal has released the first trailer, poster, and a few new images for director Baltasar Kormakur‘s (Contraband) actioner 2 Guns.  The film is based on the graphic novel of the same name and stars Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg as operatives from competing government bureaus who are disavowed and forced to go on the run together after a mission goes wrong.  I’m happy to see that the pic doesn’t take itself too seriously, as there’s a nice sense of humor blended in with the more action-geared aspects of the story.  Washington and Wahlberg have some very promising chemistry, and 2 Guns looks like it could be a nice breath of fresh air in a sea of gritty, dark, and unrelenting action films that populate the marketplace.  Also, Bill Paxton as the villain?  Yes please.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer, poster, and some new images.  The film also stars Paula Patton, James Marsden, and Edward James Olmos.  2 Guns opens August 2nd.

We’ve got a few casting stories to share this evening.  Briefly:

• As production gears up to begin next month, James Marsden has joined the cast of Anchorman 2 as a rival anchor and nemesis to Ron Burgundy.
• Michael Biehn has been tapped to topline the Canadian MMA horror thriller Severed Connection.
• Tony nominee Jeremy Jordan (Joyful Noise) is set to star opposite Anna Kendrick in writer/director Richard LaGravenese’s musical The Last Five Years.

Hit the jump for more information on the aforementioned casting stories.

James Marsden has signed on to star opposite Elizabeth Banks in the comedy Walk of Shame.  The story follows “a high-strung news anchor (Banks) who, after a wild night out, finds herself locked out on the street with no phone, money, ID or car, and embarks on a series of misadventures as she finds her way to the most important job interview of her life.”  Steven Brill (Mr. Deeds) wrote and will direct.  Tom Rosenberg, Gary Lucchesi, and Sidney Kimmel are producing.  Banks and Marsden ought to be a nice comedic pairing, so while the logline doesn’t hook me, the casting does.

Hit the jump for details on Gregg Sulkin‘s starring role in 1990.

The upcoming sequel to last year’s excellent X-Men: First Class is shaping up to be one hell of a superhero movie.  X-Men and X2 director Bryan Singer recently signed on to replace Matthew Vaughn in the director’s chair for X-Men: Days of Future Past after Vaughn abruptly opted to step back to producer role, and we recently learned that a few actors from Singer’s X-Men films will be reprising their roles in the sequel.  Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan are poised to return as Professor X and Magneto, respectively, and late last week Hugh Jackman entered talks to reprise his role as Wolverine.

It’s not exactly a surprise, then, as word now comes that Singer plans to bring back even more original trilogy castmembers for Days of Future Past.  Hit the jump for more, including how all these characters will fit into the story. 

While rumors continue to swirl around Disney’s Star Wars, Marvel is busy looking for their Star-Lord. A shortlist of actors is reportedly being tested for the lead role in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, directed by James Gunn (Super). Included on that list are Joel Edgerton (Warrior), Jack Huston (Boardwalk Empire), Jim Sturgess (Cloud Atlas), Lee Pace (Lincoln) and Eddie Redmayne (My Week with Marilyn). The leader of the Guardians, Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord, was born of a human mother and alien father. He’s a master strategist and combat expert who wears an ability-enhancing suit and pilots a psychically-linked ship. Sounds like a fun role for any one of these guys to make their own, but there have been even more names thrown into the competition. Hit the jump to check them out.

Universal Pictures has released synopses for their upcoming films 2 Guns and Identity Thief.  Briefly, 2 Guns is an action flick that stars Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg as operatives from competing government bureaus who are disavowed and forced to go on the run together after a mission goes wrong.  As for Identity Thief, the comedy stars Jason Bateman as a man who goes to great lengths to get his identity back from a con artist (Melissa McCarthy).

Hit the jump to check out the synopses.  2 Guns opens August 16, 2013.  Identity Thief opens February 8, 2013.

We’re happy to host an exclusive clip from debut director Leslye Headland’s Bachelorette as part of the virtual tour in anticipation of the film’s release.  While the footage we’ve seen so far highlights the film’s raunchy humor, this clip touches on a somewhat dramatic moment between Kirsten Dunst and James Marsden.  

Bachelorette, also starring Lizzy Caplan, Isla Fisher, Rebel Wilson, Adam Scott and Kyle Bornheimer hits theaters September 7th.  Hit the jump to check out the exclusive video along with the red-band and green-band trailers.

Direct from the ongoing shoot in New Orleans comes the first look at Forest Whitaker in costume as Eugene Allen, the man behind the title role in director Lee Daniels’ The Butler.  We also have some new set photos of James Marsden and Minka Kelly in costume as John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jackie Kennedy.  The ensemble drama about the life of the White House servant who looked after eight first families was based on Wil Haygood’s 2008 Washington Post article about Allen.  The picture also stars Oprah Winfrey, David Oyelowo, John Cusack, Alex Pettyfer, Aml Ameen, Alan Rickman, Jane Fonda and Robin Williams.  Hit the jump to check out the images. [Update: The set photos have been removed at the request of the pictures' owners.]

[This is a re-post of my review from the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.  Robot & Frank opens in limited release today.]

Not even ornery old men can resist the lure of a special robot friend. Robot & Frank‘s hook is in its title, but it goes beyond what could have been the premise for a weekly sitcom. Instead, the film puts together a strong juxtaposition between a man who’s started to forget everything and a robot who can remember anything. It’s a familiar story about memory being tied to personality, but Robot & Frank throws in the importance of teaching and passion as a way to keep remembering (if only for a little while longer). With the exception of a confused epilogue, director Jake Schreier and screenwriter and Christopher D. Ford have managed to build a warm, funny, and charming movie around a thoughtful premise.

A red-band trailer has gone online for the thriller The Loft.  The film centers on five friends who have a loft where they can go to cheat on their wives.  Their perfect locale hits a bit of a snag when they find a woman brutally murdered in the loft, and they don’t know who’s responsible.  I first thought that this would be a claustrophobic film where the five friends would be turning on each other since they each have a key to the loft.  Instead, they start suspecting their wives to be jealous murderous who discovered their husbands’ secret.  It’s an odd approach, although it makes sense since the guys seems sleazy enough to distrust the woman they’ve wronged rather than the dishonest guys in their company.  The only question is whether or not we’ll care what happens to the five adulterers, and if we’d rather see them get their comeuppance than solve the mystery.

Hit the jump to check out the red-band trailer.  The impressive cast features Karl Urban, James Marsden, Wentworth Miller, Eric Stonestreet, Rachael Taylor, Rhona Mitra, Valerie Cruz, and Isabel Lucas.  The film currently has no release date.

The red-band trailer for the R-rated comedy Bachelorette has gone online.  The film stars Kirsten Dunst, Lizzy Caplan, and Isla Fisher as three deeply self-centered bridesmaids who go on a hunt to repair their friend’s wedding dress after they ruin it.  I caught the film at Sundance, and thought it was at its best when it was being unapologetically mean-spirited.  However, the movie loses its momentum when writer-director Leslye Headland tried to explain why her characters are such horrible people.  The tame all-audiences trailer didn’t do a very good job of selling the film, but the red-band does a better job of show off the humor, especially the jokes from Caplan.  It still doesn’t want to show how bitter and angry the characters are, which is fine.  Why spoil some of the best jokes?

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The film also stars Rebel Wilson, James Marsden, and Adam Scott.  Bachelorette hits VOD on August 10th, and hits theaters in limited release on September 7th.

The first trailer and poster for the comedy Bachelorette have landed online.  The film centers on four high school friends who reunite when the least popular of the group gets engaged to one of the most eligible bachelors in New York City.  It’s impossible not to draw comparisons to Bridesmaids based on this trailer, but the promising cast—including a much welcomed Party Down reunion between Lizzy Caplan and Adam Scott—provides quite a few laughs throughout.  Kirsten Dunst looks to be the centerpiece, but it’s Rebel Wilson who once again steals scenes left and right.  Matt caught the film earlier this year at Sundance and praised the candidly despicable portrayal of the main characters (you can read his review here).

Hit the jump to watch the trailer and check out the poster.  Written and directed by Leslye Headland, the film also stars Isla Fisher and James Marsden.  Bachelorette will be available on iTunes on August 10th and hits theaters on September 7th.

The first unofficial images of Denzel Washington, shiny of tooth and spiffy of hat, on the set of 2 Guns have made it to the Web.  Based on the pulpy Steven Grant comic, it stars Washington as Trench (a DEA agent) and Mark Wahlberg as Steadman (a naval officer), who team up to rip off the mob.  Neither realizes the other is undercover nor that they’re actually being set up to steal from the CIA.  Wahlberg’s Contraband director Baltasar Kormakur is helming the pic, which is described (in the novel, at least) as “a light-hearted crime romp in the vein of Ocean’s Thirteen and The Italian Job.”  The solid supporting cast includes Edward James Olmos as a villainous drug lord, Paula Patton as Washington’s fellow DEA agent and love interest, Bill Paxton as a high-ranking CIA operative and James Marsden as a naval commander. The script comes from Blake Masters (Showtime’s Brotherhood). Hit the jump to check out the pics.

Here are some recent casting additions at a glance with more information after the jump:

• James Marsden (X-Men) will board Universal’s 2 Guns, joining Mark Wahlberg and Denzel Washington.
• James Woods (Casino) and Ron Eldard (Sleepers) join the Steve Jobs indie biopic jOBS, starring Ashton Kutcher.

Hit the jump for more on each picture.