The Weinstein Company has released the first trailer for director John Wells’ (The Company Men) adaptation of Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer Prize and Tony-winning play August: Osage County.  The story follows the women of a family whose lives have splintered in many directions until a crisis bring them back to their childhood home and to the dysfunctional woman who raised them.  While a bit lighter in tone than the actual story, this trailer does a swell job of teasing the film’s absolutely terrific ensemble cast, led by a characteristically great Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts in what could potentially be her best role in years.  Given the talent involved both onscreen and behind the scenes (Argo‘s George Clooney and Grant Heslov produce), this thing is a surefire Oscar contender that also promises delectable interplay amongst the film’s incredible ensemble.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Ewan McGregor, Benedict Cumberbatch, Margot Martindale, Chris Cooper, Dermot Mulroney, Juliette Lewis, Abigail Breslin, and Sam Shepard.  August: Osage County opens on November 8th.

It’s been awhile since we’ve had an update regarding Glee and American Horror Story creator Ryan Murphy’s feature film adaptation of the Tony Award-winning play The Normal Heart, but some firm news has surfaced today.  The autobiographical drama written by Larry Kramer, who also wrote the feature script, chronicles the rise of HIV/AIDS among New York’s gay community in the 1980s and features an impressive cast lead by Julia Roberts, Mark Ruffalo, and Matt Bomer.

HBO announced today that the film will debut as an HBO movie, with production set to get underway later this year for a 2014 debut.  Alec Baldwin and Jim Parsons were previously attached to the project, but they don’t appear in this latest press release.  This isn’t Murphy’s first foray into features, as he previously helmed Eat Pray Love and Running With Scissors.  Murphy follows in the footsteps of Steven Soderbergh, who opted to debut his upcoming Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra, starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon, on HBO rather than going the theatrical route.  Hit the jump for the full press release.

Some major casting announcements to make today.  Here they are in brief:

• Ewan McGregor (Salmon Fishing in the Yemen) will join the stellar cast of John Wells’ August: Osage County, which already touts Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep and Chris Cooper among others, with George Clooney producing.
• Christian Slater (Broken Arrow) has been cast in Lars Von Trier’s pornographic duet, Nymphomaniac, two full-length features which will both be released in softcore and hardcore versions.  The pictures star Charlotte Gainsbourg in the title role along with Shia LaBeouf, Stellan Skarsgard, Jamie Bell and Connie Nielsen.

Hit the jump for more info.

With 2012’s Battle of Snow White more or less over, the time has come to argue about who won (he says without a trace of irony). Opinions vary – and no one over at the Walt Disney Company has lost any sleep – but I’m backing the one that didn’t have Kristen Stewart mumbling her way through a half-assed version of the Crispian’s Day Speech. Mirror, Mirror benefits from a riotous sense of fun – something Snow White and the Huntsman utterly disregarded – and from playing with our expectations instead of simply ignoring them. Hit the jump for my full review of Mirror, Mirror on Blu-ray.

We have a few new casting additions to share with you today.  Here they are in brief:

• Vanessa Hudgens (Journey 2: The Mysterious Island) is the latest addition to Machete Kills, the sequel  directed by Robert Rodriguez and starring Danny Trejo.
• William Hurt (The Incredible Hulk) will join Akiva Goldsman’s directorial debut, Winter’s Tale.  The adaptation of the Mark Helprin novel stars Colin Farrell and Downton Abbey’s Jessica Brown Findlay.
• Margo Martindale (Million Dollar Baby) joins the family in August: Osage County, based on the Tracy Letts play and starring Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts and Chris Cooper.

Hit the jump for more on each project.

Today’s cast additions include two White House themed pictures for the price of one:

• James Woods (Casino) is in early negotiations to join Roland Emmerich’s White House Down, starring Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx.
• Chris Cooper (American Beauty) is in talks to board the John Wells‘ adaptation of August: Osage County, with Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts.
• Cole Hauser (Good Will Hunting) has joined the Antoine Fuqua actioner, Olympus Has Fallen, opposite Gerard Butler and Aaron Eckhart.

Hit the jump for more details on each picture.

Nothing came along to poison Snow White and the Huntsman. After a strong Friday launch, the Universal fantasy went on to earn an estimated $56.2 million from 3,773 locations over its first three days or almost as much as the rest of this weekend’s top five films combined. Meanwhile, Marvel’s The Avengers put another big feather (actually, two) in its cap: becoming the third highest grossing domestic and global release of all time.

Surprising no one, The Hunger Games stayed in first place for a second week in a row with an estimated $61.1 million, or a decline of 60%.  Meanwhile this weekend’s new releases – Wrath of the Titans and Mirror, Mirror – had to settle for second and third, respectively. And, again, we’re back to being really, really not surprised.

We’ve been provided with four clips and some behind-the-scenes footage from Tarsem Singh’s Snow White film Mirror Mirror. The tone is still incredibly light, but it’s a bit less “farce” than what we saw in the trailers.  The best way I can describe Mirror Mirror (based on these clips) is that it’s like a classic Disney animated film has been magically transformed into live-action; the actors and environments are real, but it retains all the dialogue, costumes, and action/movements from its previously animated iteration.  I would imagine the film wouldn’t appear near as ridiculous if everything was animated, but when you have actors wearing goofy hats and spouting corny line after corny line, it all seems bizarre.  That said, I do think Mirror Mirror comes off quite a bit better in these clips than it did in that atrocious first trailer.

Hit the jump to check out the clips for yourself, along with some behind-the-scenes footage. The film stars Lily Collins, Julia Roberts, Armie Hammer, and Nathan Lane. Mirror Mirror opens on March 30th.

A few new images from director Tarsem Singh’s take on Snow White Mirror Mirror, have gone online. The film still looks really, really bad and unendingly silly, as we see Nathan Lane wearing some sort of antennae hat in this batch of photos. I’m not exactly sure what Singh was going for, but the movie just looks beyond ridiculous. Those worried about the fact that we have two Snow White movies coming out this year can rest easy; Mirror Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman couldn’t be more different.

Hit the jump to check out the new images. Mirror Mirror opens on March 30th.

We’ve got a few new posters to share with you today. First up is the debut one-sheet for the sci-fi action pic Lockout. The first couple of international trailers for this film had me surprisingly excited, as they showcased a wise-cracking Guy Pearce and a strangely goofy execution. Then the domestic marketing kicked in. This poster echoes the US trailers that scream “This is a big action movie with explosions that’s like Taken but not!” I’m still hoping that the actual tone skews more on the strange side, and the US marketing materials are simply the studio trying to sell the movie to teenage boys eager for more eye violations courtesy of Michael Bay.

Additionally, we’ve got a new international poster for the very light and fluffy Snow White pic Mirror Mirror, as well as a first poster for Kevin Macdonald’s (The Last King of Scotland) documentary Marley. Mirror Mirror continues to look like a farce, and this poster plays up the cutesy aspect of the pic, but Macdonald’s Marley poster is spot on. Hit the jump to check out the posters. Both Lockout and Marley open April 20th, while Mirror Mirror opens March 16th.

It’s been over a year since we last heard about the feature adaptation of the Pulitzer/Tony-winning play August: Osage County.  But with two stars like Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts attached, you knew The Weinstein Co. would circle back to the project eventually once schedules could be aligned.  The studio and director John Wells (Company Men) are moving forward on August with a fall start date in mind.  Tracy Letts‘ play follows “the women of a family whose lives have splintered in many directions until a crisis bring them back to their childhood home and to the dysfunctional woman who raised them.”  Streep will play the pill-popping matriarch; Roberts will play her daughter.  More after the jump:

Seeing as it’s already February and that little furry rodent has predicted six more weeks of winter, we thought we’d take a look ahead to some March movie releases. Coincidentally, three big March movies have recently released new posters. First up is Disney’s March 9^th release, John Carter, starring Taylor Kitsch as a Civil War vet transplanted onto Mars, in an Andrew Stanton-directed picture. Next is the Phil Lord and Chris Miller-directed 21 Jump Street, a March 16^th release starring Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum as two screw-up cops who infiltrate a local high school drug ring. Finally, we have a new poster from the Tarsem Singh project, Mirror Mirror, a Snow White adaptation featuring Lily Collins and Julia Roberts which opens March 30^th. Hit the jump to see the new posters.

After we reported that Relativity Media was pushing its Snow White project Mirror Mirror back until March 30th, the studio decided to release a new international trailer. While it’s still nowhere near as mature or action-filled as the Universal counterpart Snow White and the Huntsman starring Kristen Stewart and Chris Hemsworth, it’s heads above the horrendous first trailer. This is more along the lines of what I was expecting from director Tarsem Singh as I can at least pick up on his presence here.

Mirror Mirror stars Lily Collins, Armie Hammer, Nathan Lane and Julia Roberts as the Evil Queen. Hit the jump to check out the new trailer.

The creator of Glee, Nip/Tuck and American Horror Story has a feature film project in the works and is stocking it with an all-star cast. Ryan Murphy’s adaptation of Tony Award-winning play, The Normal Heart, can now count Julia Roberts and Alec Baldwin among its stars that will join Mark Ruffalo. The autobiographical drama written by Larry Kramer, who also wrote the feature script, chronicles the rise of HIV/AIDS among New York’s gay community in the 1980s. Roberts will play wheel-chair bound doctor, Emma Brookner, who is one of the city’s few physicians who acknowledges the severity of the disease. Baldwin will play the brother to Ruffalo’s Ned Weeks. Matt Bomer (White Collar) and Jim Parsons (Big Bang Theory) are also joining the cast. Hit the jump for more on The Normal Heart.