Screen Gems has released batch of new character images from director Harald Zwart’s adaptation of the Cassandra Clare YA novel The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.  The story follows Clary Fray (Lily Collins), a teenage girl who discovers that she’s descended from a sect of half-angel warriors who protect the world from demons.  These images give us a number of new looks at the supporting characters in the film, as well as principals Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower, and a rather intense-looking Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

Hit the jump to take a look at the images, and if you missed any of Steve’s set visit coverage check out 35 things to know about the film and his interviews with Lily Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower, Jared Harris, director Harald Zwart, author Cassandra Clare, and producers Don Carmody and Robert Kulzer.  The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones opens on August 23rd.

Screen Gems has released the first trailer for the adaptation of Cassandra Clare‘s young adult novel The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.  The story follows Clary Fray (Lily Collins), a teenage girl who discovers that she’s descended from a sect of half-angel warriors who protect the world from demons.  As a teen drama with ties to the occult, The Mortal Instruments will draw comparisons to Twilight.  But the trailer—specifically the sword fights and flamethrowers within— suggest more ass-kicking.  There is a big world and dense mythology here to explore, and the visuals help sell it better than the synopsis ever could.  It helps when you have Mad Men‘s eloquent Jared Harris to deliver the exposition in what sure looks like the “Giles” role.

Jamie Campbell Bower, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Lena Headey, Kevin Durand, CCH Pounder, and Kevin Zegers also star.  Directed by Harald Zwart (The Karate Kid), The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones opens August 23, 2013.  Watch the trailer after the jump.

Although the release date for The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones is still about a year away, we have a production update to share with you.  Along with a new promotional image, we have a fully updated cast listing for the Harald Zwart-directed adaptation of the best-selling Cassandra Clare novel. The fantasy series follows a teenage girl who discovers that she’s descended from a sect of half-angel warriors who protect the world from demons.  Hit the jump for the most up-to-date casting info and a new promotional image.

A bit of casting news to share with you today.  Here are the important bits:

• Jonathan Rhys Meyers (Match Point) is in negotiations to join The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, the adaptation ofCassandra Clare’sYA fantasy novel.
• Xavier Samuel (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse) will join Emily Browning and Cam Gigandet in Catherine Hardwicke’s indie thriller, Plush.  

Hit the jump for more details on each picture.

 Check out the latest casting news in brief below:

• Kevin Zegers (Dawn of the Dead) has been cast The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, the first in a series of adaptations of the best-selling Cassandra Clare books.  Directed by Harald Zwart, the film also stars Lily Collins, Lena Headey and Jamie Campbell Bower.
• Terrence Howard (Iron Man) and Dawn Olivieri (The Vampire Diaries) are in talks to join Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sam Worthington in Breacher, formerly known as Ten.  The picture, directed by David Ayer, follows ten DEA agents who begin to die off one by one after pulling a heist.

Hit the jump for more casting details.

Tonight brings casting notices for a pair of actors I always enjoy:

• Adam Brody will star in the indie drama All the Wrong Reasons alongside Kevin Zegers, Sarah Gadon, and Emily Hampshire.
• Anna Kendrick has signed on to lead the indie comedy Drinking Buddies, the latest from writer/director Joe Swanberg (Hanna Takes the Stairs).

Hit the jump for details on both projects.

Laurence Fishburne and Kevin Zegers are in final negotiations to star in the sci-fi thriller The Colony.  I think you’ll like the logline: “A group of underground survivors after the next Ice Age fending off an invasion of feral cannibals.”  God gifted Fishburne that beautiful baritone voice to lend gravity to exactly this type of movie. Jeff Renfroe will direct from a script he co-wrote with Patrick Tarr, Pascal Trottier and Svet Rouskov.  Paul Barkin, Colin Brunton, Matthew Cervi, Pierre Even and Marie-Claude Poulin are producing.  THR hears shooting on the $16 million independent production begins in Toronto next week.

Hit the jump for details on Gillian Jacobs‘ role in the Burt Wonderstone.

The trailer for Girl Walks into a Bar has gone online.  The film has an impressive cast that includes Carla Gugino, Zachary Quinto, Danny DeVito, Josh Hartnett, Rosario Dawson, Alexis Bledel, and Robert Forster.  Based solely on the trailer, I have no idea was to what the movie’s about.  But Girl‘s hook doesn’t seem to be it’s cast or its story, but rather its distribution method.  Girl Walks into a Bar will be presented by Lexus and YouTube for free, exclusively on YouTube.  The money quote in the press release comes from Lexus VP of Marketing Dave Nordstrom:

“It seems fitting to support this initiative as we launch our most unconfined vehicle yet—the CT 200h hybrid —in a space that we know will reach an unconventional, sophisticated audience.” (emphasis mine)

Clearly, Mr. Nordstrom has never been on YouTube.  Hit the jump to check out the trailer, four images from the film, and the full press release.  Girl Walks into a Bar goes online March 11th.

One of the many films to premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival was Japanese writer/director Shunji Iwai’s Vampire which stars Kevin Zegers, Amanda Plummer, Adelaide Clemens, Rachael Leigh Cook, Kristen Kreuk, Trevor Morgan and Keisha Castle-Hughes. Here’s what the Sundance website has on the film:

Simon seems like a fairly normal, average young man who’s devoted to his teaching job and ailing mother. Underneath the surface, however, things are not what they seem. Simon hunts through online chat rooms and message boards, searching for the perfect girl: beautiful, shy, and suicidal. Simon has a particular condition: he is compelled to drink blood.

Anyway, the other day I got to interview Rachael Leigh Cook and Adelaide Clemens about working on Vampire here at Sundance.  They talk about how Vampire is different from the Twilight films, their characters and the freedom that director Shunji Iwai gave them on set, the language barrier, upcoming projects, and a lot more.  Hit the jump to watch:

One of the many films to premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival was Japanese writer/director Shunji Iwai’s Vampire which stars Kevin Zegers , Amanda Plummer, Adelaide Clemens, Rachael Leigh Cook, Kristen Kreuk, Trevor Morgan and Keisha Castle-Hughes. Here’s what the Sundance website has on the film:

Simon seems like a fairly normal, average young man who’s devoted to his teaching job and ailing mother. Underneath the surface, however, things are not what they seem. Simon hunts through online chat rooms and message boards, searching for the perfect girl: beautiful, shy, and suicidal. Simon has a particular condition: he is compelled to drink blood.

Anyway, the other day I got to interview Kristen Kreuk and Trevor Morgan about working on Vampire here at Sundance.  We talked about what the film is about, why they got involved in the project, being at Sundance, why are vampire’s so popular right now, what other projects they’re working on, and a lot more.  Hit the jump to watch

Last week, we showed you the first images from Shunji Iwai’s Vampire.  Today, we’re pleased to bring you an exclusive clip from the film.  In the clip, Renfield (Trevor Morgan from Mean Creek) processes the discovery that his friend Simon (Kevin Zegers from Frozen) is a vampire.  The film also stars Rachael Leigh Cook (She’s All That), Keisha Castle-Hughes (Whale Rider), Adelaide Clemens (X-Men Origins: Wolverine), and Kristin Kreuk (Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li).

Hit the jump to check out the clip along with the synopsis.  Vampire will be playing at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, which runs from January 20th – 30th.  Click here for more of our Sundance 2011 coverage.

We’ve been bringing you the first images from films that will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in a few weeks, and today we have images from the film Vampire. From Japanese director Shunji Iwai (New York, I Love You, All About Lilly Chou-Chou), the film stars Kevin Zegers (Dawn of the Dead), Rachael Leigh Cook (She’s All That), Keisha Castle-Hughes (Whale Rider), Adelaide Clemens (X-Men Origins: Wolverine), and Kristin Kreuk (ABC’s Snow White).

The film tells the story of a normal-seeming young man who spends his time searching internet message boards and chat rooms for the perfect girl…..in order to drink her blood. To read a full synopsis and check out the images from the film (as well as wax nostalgic over those 90’s teen comedy days when you catch a glimpse of Leigh-Cook), hit the jump. The 2011 Sundance Film Festival runs from January 20 – 30th.

The simple concept, well executed: Something of a holy grail for the indie auteur and something that Adam Green (Hatchet) managed to pull off with Frozen.

Too-handsome Dan (Kevin Zegers), his too-sweet-and-innocent girlfriend Parker (Emma Bell) and lifelong/douchey best friend Joe (Shawn Ashmore – who played Iceman in the X-Men movies (and whom you can go ahead and make your own jokes regarding that)) are low on cash and visiting a rundown New England ski resort.  Joe holds some resentment toward the new couple but that certainly won’t be the focus of character drama later, so don’t worry about it. The handsome/douchey guys convince Parker to get them onto the ski lift for free and, through a surprisingly plausible series of events, the trio end up trapped on the ski lift in the dead of night, fifty feet in the air and with the ski lodge closed for the next five days.

Oh, and there are wolves.  So, they’re fucked. Hit the jump for more:

Though he took a notable pay cut, Tom Cruise will return to the Mission: Impossible franchise for installment number four come December 2011.  Paramount is in the process of firming of Cruise’s support team: Ving Rhames will reprise his role in the franchise as Benji Dunn, M:I3 co-star Simon Pegg is in talks to return, and the studio has met with Swedish sensation Noomi Rapace.   Now it looks like Keven Zegers, Christopher Egan, and Anthony Mackie are likewise under consideration for Mission: Impossible IV.  More after the jump:

A trailer for Frozen, a Sundance 2010 “Park City at Midnight” selection, has just been released. The film follows three skiers that are stranded on a chairlift who are “forced to make life-or-death choices that prove more perilous than staying put and freezing to death.” Frozen was scripted and helmed by Adam Green, (writer/director of Hatchet) and stars Shawn Ashmore, Emma Bell, and Kevin Zegers as the three skiers.

The film looks as though it could be an interesting exercise in minimalist horror, and I am curious to see the other “life-or-death” choices referenced in the plot synopsis. Frozen was recently screened at Aint It Cool’s Butt-Numb-A-Thon to a positive reaction, including high praise from Harry Knowles himself, who is quoted in the trailer saying, “Scary and intense. I loved it.”   You can also check out the one-sheet and stills we posted here. Check out the trailer after the jump and look for Frozen in theaters February 5, 2010.