The events of September 11, 2001 had a profound effect on the United States of America that forever changed us as a nation.  We live in a post-9/11 world, and it is impossible to go back to “the way things were before.”  Though it’s been a decade since the event, in the scope of things we’re still living in the immediate aftermath of the most devastating domestic terror attack in history.  Filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow has now dealt with these effects in two films, as she previously focused on the events of the Iraq War with her 2008 Best Picture winner The Hurt Locker, and her brilliant 2012 drama Zero Dark Thirty masterfully chronicles the decade-long hunt for the man responsible for the 9/11 attacks: Osama Bin Laden.  The result of the latter is a taut procedural thriller that not only entertains, but also provides a difficult and introspective look at America’s place in the post-9/11 world.  Hit the jump for my review of Zero Dark Thirty on Blu-ray.

Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights), who has seemingly been in every movie that came out in 2012, could be returning to the small screen this year for Showtime’s drama pilot The Vatican.  The series gained some extra interest this winter when it was announced Ridley Scott (Prometheus) would be directing the pilot, continuing a trend of film directors setting their sights newly on television (which is great news for TV fans).  The Vatican will (unlike the network’s other Vatican-related series, The Borgias) take place in modern times, and has been described as a “thriller” that will focus on both the politics and spiritual aspects of the modern day Catholic church.  Hit the jump for more on the potential series, as well as Chandler’s much-anticipated role.

“Live in the moment” is a nice platitude and a crappy life philosophy.  Vivacity is all well and good.  We should appreciate the present, but we can’t live only for the present.  We have to think about tomorrow because we’re probably going to be there.    In his wonderful new film The Spectacular Now, director James Ponsoldt explore the live-for-the-moment mentality with an authentic and earnest look at high school emotions, anxiety about the future, and first love.   Led by extraordinary performances from stars Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley, The Spectacular Now is a thoroughly charming and surprisingly powerful coming-of-age story about the fear of looking ahead and the seductive safety of living in the present.

Director Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty has stirred up quite a lot of awards buzz lately, thanks in part to Jessica Chastain’s performance. Chastain is front and center in this final trailer for the picture. There’s plenty of new footage to go around in addition to the reveal of more side-plots, since we already know how the operation to kill Osama bin Laden worked out. The added musical accompaniment of a children’s choir singing Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters” puts this thing over the top; I wish it was in theaters right now.

Written by Mark Boal, Zero Dark Thirty also stars Kyle Chandler, Chris Pratt, Mark Strong, Scott Adkins, Joel Edgerton and James Gandolfini.  The film opens in limited release on December 19th, then expands nationwide on January 11th. Hit the jump to watch the powerful final trailer. 

Director Kathryn Bigelow’s drama about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, Zero Dark Thirty, has been a major topic of discussion in the past few days following its first positive critics screenings, and today the first clip from the film has been released.  We’ve heard plenty of great things about Jessica Chastain’s lead performance as a CIA analyst whose obsession with capturing bin Laden led to his eventual assassination, and this clip puts her promising work front and center.  We see a tense conversation between Chastain’s character and a CIA head played by Kyle Chandler as the two argue over what’s more important: thwarting terrorist cells on American soil or going after bin Laden.  It’s promising stuff, and I can’t wait to see the full film once it hits theaters.

Hit the jump to watch the clip.  The film also stars Chris Pratt, Mark Strong, Scott Adkins, Joel Edgerton, and James Gandolfini.  Zero Dark Thirty opens in limited release on December 19th, then expands nationwide on January 11th.

A batch of new images from director Kathryn Bigelow’s upcoming drama Zero Dark Thirty has been released online.  The film documents the decade-long hunt for Osama bin Laden, culminating in the now-famous SEAL Team Six operation.  We only recently became aware that Jessica Chastain plays the lead in the film, a CIA operative spearheading the manhunt, and these new images feature the actress front and center.  We also get a look at Kyle Chandler, who I believe plays Chastain’s superior at the CIA.  It’s like Homeland, but with considerably less crazy.

Hit the jump to check out the images.  The film also stars Chris Pratt, Mark Strong, Scott Adkins, Joel Edgerton, and James Gandolfini.  Zero Dark Thirty opens in limited release on December 19th, then expands nationwide on January 11th.

Oscar season must be getting closer, as couple of interesting awards-related stories have surfaced today.  First up, Lionsgate’s comedy Stand Up Guys is getting an awards-qualifying run in New York and Los Angeles on December 14th, per THR.  The film stars Al Pacino, Christopher Walken, and Alan Arkin as retired gangsters who reunite for one last epic night where, naturally, everything goes to hell.  I’m not sure how strong the chances are of generating a nomination or two for some of the cast, but it can’t hurt for Lionsgate to try.  The pic opens wide on January 11th.

Additionally, it looks like Sony may be rethinking their release strategy with the highly anticipated “kill Bin Laden” drama Zero Dark Thirty.  Hit the jump for more. 

Paramount Pictures is looking to stay in the Martin Scorsese business, as the studio behind Shutter Island and Hugo has picked up the director’s latest film, The Wolf of Wall Street, for domestic distribution.  Based on the memoir of Jordan Belfort, the pic stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a hard partying, drug addicted stockbroker who was indicted in 1998 for security fraud and money laundering and served a 22-month federal prison stretch.  The fantastic supporting cast includes Jonah Hill, Kyle Chandler, Matthew McConaughey, Jean Dujardin, Margot Robbie, Joe Bernthal, and Rob Reiner.

Given the film’s pedigree, it’s no surprise that Deadline reports Paramount is planning a fourth-quarter 2013 release date.  That puts Wolf of Wall Street in prime awards season placement, so the film should be a significant player in the 2013 Oscar race.

A new trailer for director Kathryn Bigelow’s (The Hurt Locker) thriller Zero Dark Thirty has been released.  The film documents the decade-long hunt for Osama bin Laden, culminating in the now-famous SEAL Team Six operation.  The new cut is heads above the first trailer, in which a war room speech presided over the trailer with scenes of covert operations taking place.  This time around, we actually see the words being spoken in the war room as well as the soldiers in the thick of it, with their boots on the ground.  And the sense of tension here is much more palpable, as it should be.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film stars Jessica Chastain, Chris Pratt, Mark Strong, Scott Adkins, Joel Edgerton, James Gandolfini, and Kyle Chandler.  Zero Dark Thirty opens on December 19th.

Six clips from director/star Ben Affleck’s thriller Argo have been released.  The film, based on a true story, centers on a CIA agent (Affleck) who attempts to rescue six Americans trapped in the home of the Canadian ambassador during the 1979 Iranian Revolution.  The rescue mission was to go in under the auspices of filming a science fiction movie entitled “Argo”.  The pic screened to a wildly positive response at the Toronto Film Festival (read Matt’s review right here), and earned a spot on our “Most Anticipated” list for the fourth quarter of 2012.

Hit the jump to check out the clips.  The film also stars John Goodman, Alan Arkin, Bryan Cranston, Kyle Chandler, Kerry Bishe, Tate Donovan, Victor Garber, Chris Messina, Titus Welliver, Zeljko Ivanek, and Taylor Schilling.  Argo opens on October 12th.

A large batch of new images from director/star Ben Affleck’s Argo has been released.  The film, based on a true story, centers on a CIA agent (Affleck) who attempts to rescue six Americans trapped in the home of the Canadian ambassador during the 1979 Iranian Revolution.  The rescue mission was to go in under the auspices of filming a science fiction movie entitled “Argo”.  The film’s trailer and TV spots look fantastic and it screened to a highly positive response (read Matt’s review right here) at the Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals, so I’m really looking forward to this one.

Hit the jump to check out the images.  The film stars Affleck, John Goodman, Alan Arkin, Bryan Cranston, Kyle Chandler, Kerry Bishe, Tate Donovan, Victor Garber, Chris Messina, Titus Welliver, Zeljko Ivanek, and Taylor Schilling.  Argo opens on October 12th.

If the buzz out of Telluride is to be believed, then Ben Affleck’s Argo may be the director’s best effort yet.  We previously brought you the trailer for the film, but if that wasn’t enough to get you interested, we now have the first TV spot to share with you.  Plus, we’ll take a look at some of the early reviews of the film and relay them.

Argo, starring Affleck, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman and Alan Arkin, centers on an exfiltration specialist at the CIA who concocts a complicated scheme to rescue six Americans trapped overseas amidst the Iranian revolution.  The film opens October 12th.  Hit the jump to see the new TV spot and early reviews. 

A new teaser trailer and images from The Hurt Locker-director Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty have gone online. The military drama looks to tell the story behind the story of Osama bin Laden’s death on May 2, 2011 during an operation by the Navy’s SEAL Team Six.  The trailer hints at a more intimate breakdown of the events leading up to bin Laden’s death rather than making it a more distant political thriller.

Zero Dark Thirty, written by Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker) and starring Chris Pratt, Jessica Chastain, Mark Strong, Scott Adkins, Joel Edgerton and Kyle Chandler opens December 19th.  Hit the jump to see the teaser trailer and images, and click here to read what Bigelow and Boal have to say about the film’s controversy, history, and characters.

Kyle Chandler, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Bob Odenkirk, and Andre Royo have joined James Ponsoldt‘s indie flick The Spectacular Now.  The quartet of talented actors has joined a rapidly expanding cast that also includes Shailene Woodley, Miles Teller, Brie Larson, Kaitlyn Dever, Masam Holden, and Dayo Okeniyi.  The coming-of-age story is based on the novel by Tim Tharp, and follows a live-for-the-moment high school senior (Teller) who develops a relationship with a “mercurial introvert” (Woodley).  At first, it sounds like the painful garbage of stuff like The Art of Getting By and Restless, but then the synopsis gets interesting: “As their relationship deepens, the lines between right and wrong, friendship and love, saving and corrupting, become inextricably blurred.”  It sounds like this movie could go to some dark, interesting places that quirky coming-of-age indies avoid like the plague.  Then again, screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber‘s (500) Days of Summer was twee beyond belief, and was only saved by Marc Webb‘s direction and Joseph Gordon-Levitt‘s performance.

Hit the jump for details on who the new cast members will be playing.

Director Martin Scorsese is putting together one hell of a cast for his next project, The Wolf of Wall Street.  Based on Jordan Belfort’s memoir, Leonardo DiCaprio stars as a hard partying, drug addicted stockbroker who was indicted in 1998 for security fraud and money laundering and served a 22-month federal prison stretch.  Oscar nominee Jonah Hill recently joined the cast as Beflort’s close friend and business partner, and now Deadline reports that Friday Night Lights star Kyle Chandler is signing on to play the FBI agent who built the case against Belfort and took him down.

Chandler has landed some fantastic roles after wrapping the final season of FNL (for which he won the Best Actor Emmy).  He’s currently filming Kathryn Bigelow’s drama about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden, Zero Dark Thirty, he stars opposite Mark Wahlberg and Russell Crowe in Broken City, and he’ll be seen later this year in Ben Affleck’s very promising period drama Argo.  It’ll be interesting to see if Scorsese makes good on his promise to use 3D on all his post-Hugo projects, but either way he’s lining up a fantastic cast for The Wolf of Wall Street.  Hit the jump for a synopsis of the book.