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

• Michael Caine and Jennifer Garner have boarded the aging rock star film Imagine, joining Al Pacino, Annette Bening, and Bobby Cannavale in the cast.
• Samuel L. Jackson will play the President of the United States in the actioner Big Game.
• Jennifer Jason Leigh (Weeds), David Thewlis (Harry Potter), and Tom Noonan (Heat) will reprise their roles from the stage play version of Charlie Kaufman’s Anomalisa in the animated feature film adaptation, which Kaufman is co-directing.

Hit the jump for more on each of these projects.

If poetry doesn’t broaden our view of our world and force us to push the boundaries of our lives, then it’s pointless.  Poetry cannot always tap into the chaos and beauty of life if it must be constrained by meter, verse, and rules set down centuries ago.  Poetry, when wielded by genius, can seduce, defend, condemn, and most importantly, transform.  Words are powerful enough to change the world, but even in the hands of the most gifted writers, they can be futile against our frailties, insecurities, and desires.  In his magnificent debut feature, director and co-writer John Krokidas has created a moving, exhilarating, and heartbreaking film in Kill Your Darlings.  Led by breathtaking performances by stars Daniel Radcliffe, Dane DeHaan, and Ben Foster, Kill Your Darlings watches the greatest writers of a generation push the boundaries of modern American culture only to find that even the best words, the most well-spoken words, the most honest words, can fail when spoken to a shattered heart.

After the explosive shocks, twists and revelations in the finale of Revenge, Season 2 of the popular ABC drama series, premiering on September 30^th, is sure to heat things up even more.  With everything that occurred in Season 1, including the fate of some of the characters left in question, Emily Thorne (Emily Van Camp) will be back, colder and more determined than ever to exact her revenge.

During a set visit that was held as part of the TCA Press Tour, show star Emily Van Camp talked about Jennifer Jason Leigh joining the cast to play her mother, how the mother-daughter dynamic will affect her character, just where she’ll draw the line when it comes to what she’ll do for revenge, whether or not she can ever make peace, who she thinks her character is destined to end up with, what she’s learned from past mistakes, why she thinks people root for her character, and the fun of getting to play the campy side of the show.  Check out what she had to say after the jump.

You’re driving down the street, and it’s suddenly blocked off.  You notice these weird yellow signs with nonsensical letters or numbers.  There’s unusual glow lighting up a neighborhood you can’t usually see from your house.  What you might have here is a film company shooting in your town.  It happens a lot, and you never know where they might pop up…until now.

The following is a semi-comprehensive list of films currently shooting, what they’re shooting, and where they’re shooting.  We’ll be telling you where you might get to see the very famous, the kinda famous and (if all goes well) the soon-to-be famous. While we can’t list every single movie, television show, or student film in production, you’ll get a pretty good idea of what the heck is going on where all those people are buzzing about.  Want to know where in the world are Matt Damon, Harrison Ford, Sylvester Stallone, Woody Harrelson, and Leonardo DiCaprio? Hit the jump for more.

The John Krokidas project Kill Your Darlings continues to add quality cast members. The thriller, based on the lives of writers who sparked the Beat Revolution, already stars Daniel Radcliffe, Ben Foster, Elizabeth Olsen, Dane DeHaan and Jack Huston. Now, Kill Your Darlings has added Michael C. Hall, Kyra Sedgwick and Jennifer Jason Leigh. The film follows the friendships of Allen Ginsberg (Radcliffe), Jack Kerouac (Huston) and William S. Burroughs (Foster) and how their relationships are tested by the murder of Burroughs’ friend, David Kammerer. Hall is reportedly playing Kammerer. Production is scheduled to start March 19^th at Columbia University in New York. Hit the jump for more.

Universal has been releasing Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Dazed and Confused together for a while now. I guess it makes sense. They’re both “party” films in that it’s hard to imagine Fast Times having the impact it did without Sean Penn’s Jeff Spicoli character, and Dazed and Confused second half is virtually one long party. Universal has embraced that, often selling both with pot jokes. Fast Times follows a group of teens (including Jennifer Jason Leigh, Phoebe Cates, Penn, Judge Reinhold and more) as they look for love and deal with sex in high school, while Confused follows a set of juniors (including Jason London, Ben Affleck, Parker Posey and Adam Goldberg) as they are about to become seniors and become rulers of the school. Our reviews of both Fast Times and Dazed and Confused on Blu-ray follow after the jump.

Opening March 19, in limited release, is Noah Baumbach’s (The Squid and the Whale) Greenberg.  Starring Ben Stiller, Greta Gerwig, Rhys Ifans, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Chris Messina, Greenberg is about trying to find your way in Los Angeles.  I saw a screening recently and loved it.  While the performances were great all around, it was the script and direction by Noah Baumbach that really got me.  He’s crafted an honest film populated with believable people and real life situations.  The movie actually feels more like a documentary than  a piece of fiction.  Trust me, it’s great cinema and something absolutely worth seeing.

This weekend I’m in NYC and got a chance to speak with the cast earlier today.  While I’ll have the interviews online closer to release, I was given 5 clips from the film and a bunch of high resolution images and wanted to share them with you tonight.  Hit the jump to check everything out:

Focus Features has released a featurette from Noah Baumbach’s (The Squid and the Whale) Greenberg.  Starring Ben Stiller, Greta Gerwig, Rhys Ifans, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Chris Messina, Greenberg is about trying to find your way in Los Angeles.  While the movie doesn’t get released until March 26, I recently saw a screening and loved it.  While the performances were great all around, it was the script and direction by Noah Baumbach that really got me.  He’s crafted an honest film populated with believable people and real life situations. Since I don’t know how much more I can say…just know this is a film you should definitely be looking forward to.  Watch the featurette after the jump to learn more.  I’ve also provided the synopsis.

Along with Dexter, Weeds has established the brand of Showtime in its ambition to match the success of fellow pay cable station HBO with original programming.   The show’s success has undoubtedly informed the development of the network’s other comedies, namely The United States of Tara, Nurse Jackie, and the upcoming The Big C, all of which center on strong but flawed female characters (I have no explanation for the thoroughly misogynistic Californication).  In season four, Weeds left its sunny California suburb for a small town on the border between San Diego and Tijuana which, while no less sunny, proved a much darker setting for the Botwins.  In season five, creator Jenji Kohan expanded on these bleak themes to fashion Weeds into the very blackest of comedies.

For a review of season five of the increasingly polarizing Weeds, hit the break.