It looks like Reese Witherspoon is quite eager to reunite with her Walk the Line crew.  The Oscar winner recently signed on to star in Walk the Line director James Mangold’s memoir adaptation Three Little Words, and now she’s joining Joaquin Phoenix in writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson’s adaptation of the Thomas Pychon novel Inherent Vice.  Set in 1970 Los Angeles, the film follows a pot-smoking private investigator (Phoenix) as he investigates the alleged kidnapping of a woman he used to date.  Deadline reports Witherspoon’s casting, but has no details regarding her role in the film.

Witherspoon is just the latest A-lister to sign on to Anderson’s The Master follow-up, as the filmmaker is assembling a stellar ensemble that thus far includes Benicio Del Toro and Owen Wilson.  As production is gearing up to begin soon, expect to hear more casting news in the coming weeks.  [Update: The Wrap adds two new cast members.  Jena Malone is expected to play a former drug addict who asks Phoenix's private eye for help—Martin Short has been cast in an unspecified role.]  Hit the jump to read a synopsis for the book.

Lionsgate has released the first trailer for director Francis Lawrence‘s (Water for Elephants) sequel, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.  The darkness and melancholy of the first film has only intensified, but this trailer only tells half the story.  We’re shown the victors’ tour, and how President Snow (Donald Sutherland) is trying to tear down the hope-inspiring image of Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) before killing her.  Only at the end of the trailer, do we hear about the second part of the story, which is the “Quarter Quell”, a special Hunger Games where past winners will be forced to fight to the death.  I assume they left this out because it’s the more effects-heavy part of the story, and that footage is moving through post-production.

The film also stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Sam Claflin, Elizabeth Banks, Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jena Malone, Jeffrey Wright, and Amanda Plummer.  The Hunger Games: Catching Fire opens on November 22nd in IMAX and traditional theaters.

The first trailer for director Francis Lawrence’s (I Am Legend) highly anticipated sequel The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is set to debut during the MTV Movie Awards later this month, and now a promo for the event has been released online that gives us our first look at footage from the film.  The video teases a look at the “Victory Tour” that Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss and Josh Hutcherson’s Peeta embark on at the beginning of Catching Fire as part of their duties as Hunger Games victors.  Liam Hemsworth will introduce the two-and-a-half minutes of footage during the MTV Movie Awards on Sunday, April 14th at 9pm ET/PT, so check back here on Collider at that time to watch the full trailer.

Hit the jump to watch the promo.  The film also stars Sam Claflin, Elizabeth Banks, Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jena Malone, Jeffrey Wright, and Amanda Plummer.  The Hunger Games: Catching Fire opens on November 22nd in IMAX and traditional theaters.

Continuing on with Lionsgate’s daily release of new posters/portraits for the characters in director Francis Lawrence’s upcoming sequel The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, two new such portraits have been released online today giving us our first look at Beetee and Johanna.  Jeffrey Wright plays Beetee, a previous Hunger Games winner from District 3 who specializes in electronics and wiring, while Jena Malone plays the highly anticipated character Johanna, another previous Hunger Games winner from District 7.  I’m incredibly impressed by the designs for these two new characters and look forward to seeing them in action.

Hit the jump to take a look at the new posters.  If you missed the previous portraits, check out Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen here, Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket and Stanley Tucci as Caesar Flickerman here, and Woody Harrelson as Haymitch Abernathy and Lenny Kravitz as Cinna here.  The Hunger Games: Catching Fire opens November 22nd.

Rejoice, The Hunger Games fans!  Production has officially started on the Francis Lawrence-directed follow-up, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.  According to their press release, the film “will shoot primarily in existing locations in and near Atlanta, Georgia.  The film will subsequently be shot on location in the beaches and jungles of Hawaii before wrapping in late December, 2012.”  Perhaps more importantly, the director has recorded a video message for fans, announcing a worldwide sweepstakes that will win some lucky fans a chance to visit the set and participate in a cast and crew Q&A!

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire stars Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson, in addition to Sam Claflin, Jeffrey Wright, Tony Shalhoub, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jena Malone, Amanda Plummer, Lynn Cohen, Bruno Gunn, Alan Ritchson, E. Roger Mitchell, Meta Golding, Elizabeth Banks, Donald Sutherland and Woody Harrelson.  Hit the jump for the video from Francis Lawrence and details on the fan set visit contest. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire opens November 22, 2013.

Jena Malone (Sucker Punch) has landed one of the major new roles in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.  The second installment in the trilogy has Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence), Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), and Hamish (Woody Harrelson) forced to compete with other previous winners in the 75th Hunger Games as punishment for Katniss’ defiance in the previous Hunger Games.  According to THR, Malone is in early talks to play Joanna Mason, another former winner from District 7 who’s forced to compete in the new fight to the death.  Mason is a fun character who wields axes and one-liners.    I’ve always been a big fan of Malone, and I’m glad she’s netted such a major role in what’s certain to be one of 2013′s biggest films.  We previously reported that Malone was in the mix for the role, and she managed to beat out model-turned-actress Zoe Aggeliki (R.I.P.D.), who was tipped as the frontrunner last week.

Malone is also starring in NBC’s new TV series, 1600 Penn, so she’ll have to balance her TV schedule with her shooting schedule on Catching Fire, which is scheduled to start filming in late September.  The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is due out on November 22, 2013.  Hit the jump for a synopsis of the novel.

The first trailer for In Our Nature has been released in advance of the March 10 premiere at SXSW.  The indie drama features two of our favorite actors from two of the best dramas of the last decade in Mad Men‘s John Slattery and Friday Night Lights‘ Zach Gilford, starring alongside Jena Malone and Gabrielle Union.  Plus, the premise is believable and fraught with potential: Gilford takes his girlfriend (Malone) up to the family country house for a romantic weekend, but runs into his estranged father (Slattery), who shows up with his own young girlfriend (Union).  From there, the trailer fails to separate itself from the pack of indie dramas about troubled families that precede In Our Nature.  (Pretty sure there’s a scene where the two young leads scream their troubles away.)  But trailers typically don’t accomplish that even if the film does, so I remain hopeful for the feature debut of writer/director Brian Salverson.

Hit the jump for the trailer and a few screencaps.

The cast has been set for the feature film adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s classic play A Doll’s House. Ben Kingsley, Jena Malone, Julian Sands (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), and Michele Martin (Assisting Venus) are set as the leads in the adaptation. Charles Huddleston (Assisting Venus) is directing the pic which will be a modern day version of Ibsen’s play. The film centers on “a young woman’s escape from an overbearing husband set during today’s recession.” Variety reports that Martin will play Nora Helmer, the young wife of a banking executive. Malone will take on the role of Nora’s friend Christine, who must choose between her loyalty to her friend or her own future, with Kingsley playing the Helmers’ friend Dr. Rank and Sands set as Nathan, “a professional in the seedy world of lending desperate people money.”

Ibsen’s Norwegian play was first published in 1879, and centers on a debt crisis. Kingsley just wrapped a role in the Sacha Baron Cohen comedy The Dictator. Malone was recently seen in Sucker Punch and is poised to play author Carson McCullers in Lonely Hunter.

Underrated actress Jena Malone (Sucker Punch) is set to play southern author Carson McCullers in the biopic Lonely Hunter.  Written, produced, and directed by Deborah Kampmeier, the film will span 35 years of McCullers’ life and show how her writing helped her cope with crippling illness and torrid marriages.  Lonely Hunter will also “feature notable figures including her best friend Tennessee Williams, her protégé Truman Capote, her roommate Gypsy Rose Lee and collaborator Ethel Waters,” so start your fan-casting!  This all sounds well and good, but I hope there’s a moment where McCullers looks directly into the camera and apologizes for the god-awful The Member of the Wedding.  If you’re thirteen and want to kill your love of reading for a solid year, pick up that novel.

Hit the jump for the full press release.  Malone’s other upcoming films include the love story Jack and Diane with Juno Temple, the indie drama For Ellen with Paul Dano, and The Wait with Chloe Sevigny.  Filming on Lonely Hunter is set to begin in spring 2012.

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.

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.

With director Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch opening this weekend, I got to sit down with most of the cast to talk about the film.  As the synopsis says, Sucker Punch is an “epic action fantasy that takes us into the vivid imagination of a young girl whose dream world provides the ultimate escape from her darker reality. Unrestrained by the boundaries of time and place, she is free to go where her mind takes her, and her incredible adventures blur the lines between what’s real and what is imaginary.” The film stars Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung, Jena Malone, Carla Gugino, Jon Hamm, Scott Glenn, and Oscar Isaac.

During my interview with Malone, Hudgens and Chung, we talked about how everyone bonded off set when they were filming in Vancouver, the training and lack of sweets and soda on set, deleted scenes, future projects like The Hangover 2, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island and Jack and Diane, and we also talked about doing karaoke (they told a great story).  Hit the jump to watch and look for a new video interview for Sucker Punch everyday this week.

Warner Bros. has released five movie clips Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch which stars Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung, Jena Malone, Carla Gugino, Jon Hamm, Scott Glenn, and Oscar Isaac.  Sucker Punch is an “epic action fantasy that takes us into the vivid imagination of a young girl whose dream world provides the ultimate escape from her darker reality. Unrestrained by the boundaries of time and place, she is free to go where her mind takes her, and her incredible adventures blur the lines between what’s real and what is imaginary.”  Hit the jump to watch the clips and look for our exclusive video interviews with the cast next week.

Warner Bros. has released the full press kit for Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch.  Included are 45 high resolution images of Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung, Jena Malone, Carla Gugino, Jon Hamm, Scott Glenn, and Oscar Isaac.  Many of the images are new.  Sucker Punch opens March 25th.  Check them out after the jump: