One more casting addition has been made to Seth MacFarlane’s second live-action directorial project, the Western comedy A Million Ways to Die in the West.  Universal Pictures and Media Rights Capital announced the film’s official release date today, and within the press release is the film’s release date and news that Neil Patrick Harris has joined the cast.  MacFarlane leads the ensemble, which also includes Charlize Theron, Liam Neeson, Amanda Seyfried, Sarah Silverman, and Giovanni Ribisi.  Here’s the official synopsis:

After a cowardly sheep farmer backs out of a gunfight, his fickle girlfriend leaves him for another man.  When a mysterious and beautiful woman rides into town, she helps him find his courage and they begin to fall in love.  But when her husband, a notorious outlaw, arrives seeking revenge, the farmer must put his newfound courage to the test.

MacFarlane co-wrote the script with his Ted scribes Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild, and in addition to starring he will also produce and direct.   A Million Ways to Die in the West opens on May 30, 2014, opposite Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur.

Liam Neeson is adding yet another crime thriller to his slate of upcoming projects.  The actor is attached to star in a remake of the 2011 French crime thriller A Gang Story, per Deadline.  Safe House director Daniel Espinosa is attached to direct the Thunder Road production with a script by David Scarpa (Daredevil reboot).  The original film centers on a former organized crime member who, as he nears the age of 60, is trying to put his crime life behind him and tend to his wife, children, and grandchildren.  The tables are turned when his former cohort—who has done nothing to give up the crime life—comes back into the picture.

There’s no word on when production might begin, and Neeson and Espinosa both have very crowded dance cards at the moment.  Neeson next shoots Seth MacFarlane’s comedy A Million Ways to Die in the West and is also attached to star in Run All Night and is being eyed for the depression-era drama Highwaymen, while Espinosa is gearing up to helm the thriller Child 44 and is attached to the Yakuza film The Outsider and the John Grisham adaptation The Racketeer.

Director John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side, The Alamo) has long been circling the director’s chair on the drama Highwaymen, and now it looks like the project is finally coming together. Hancock has signed on to helm the pic, which centers on the manhunt for infamous bank robbers Bonnie & Clyde during the Great Depression.  The protagonist of the story is Texas Ranger Frank Hamer, a lawman with quite the reputation (he survived 100 gunfights and killed 53 people) who was coaxed into putting together a team of Rangers to finally take down Bonnie & Clyde following an embarrassing Texas prison break headed up by Clyde Barrow.

Hit the jump for more on the project, including which actors Hancock is eyeing to lead the film.

John Carpenter’s 1981 post-apocalyptic thriller Escape from New York is the latest property to get a face-lift.  The original starred Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken, an eye-patching wearing, bank-robbing convict tasked with venturing into the maximum security prison that has become Manhattan in order to rescue the President (Donald Pleasence) and gain his freedom.  A reboot was attempted a few years ago but New Line let the rights lapse.  Now, Joel Silver’s Silver Pictures and Studio Canal are teaming up to bring a new look (and a new face) to the franchise with plans of an origin story and eventual trilogy.  Hit the jump for more.

Cross Creek Pictures has announced that production is underway on writer/director Scott Frank’s (The Lookout) crime thriller A Walk Among the Tombstones.  Filming is taking place in New York on the pic, which stars Liam Neeson as an alcoholic ex-cop who investigates the kidnapping of a heroin drug lord’s wife, teaming up with a heroin trafficker and his brother to hunt down the men responsible for the crime.  Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey) and Boyd Holbrook (Milk) star as the trafficker and his brother, respectively, and Ruth Wilson (Anna Karenina) is also onboard as Neeson’s former colleague.

The film is based on one of a series of Matt Scudder crime novels by author Lawrence Block. David Harbour (End of Watch), Mark Consuelos (American Horror Story), and Astro (The X-Factor) round out the cast. Hit the jump to read the full press release, which includes the official synopsis.

Get ready for a double-barrel shot of casting for Seth MacFarlane’s A Million Ways to Die in the West!  Word has it that Liam Neeson (Taken) is in negotiations to play the film’s nefarious outlaw whose wife teaches a cowardly farmer the ways of gun-fighting in order for him to win back his lady love.  Giovanni Ribisi (Gangster Squad) is also on board the comedy Western as the protag’s equally-spineless best friend.  A Million Ways to Die in the West also stars Charlize Theron (Prometheus) and Amanda Seyfried (Les Miserables), making the principal cast just about set.  Hit the jump for more.

This year will go down in history not only for the amount of attention that an animated raccoon is getting, but for the fact that there is more than one such voice-acting spot available.  While we’re still waiting for news on who will voice Rocket Raccoon in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, we have word today that perennial badass Liam Neeson (Taken) will bring a villainous raccoon to life in The Nut Job.  The feature-length film is based on director Peter Lepeniotis’ short film Surly Squirrel and is planned for release later this year.  Hit the jump for more.

A new batch of presenters has been announced for the upcoming 85th Academy Awards ceremony, and we figured now would be a good time to round up all of the presenters announced thus far in one handy story.  It was announced today that Jane Fonda, Kristen Stewart, Jennifer Garner, and Kerry Washington have joined the rather long list of presenters for the ceremony, which will be hosted by Seth Macfarlane.

We already learned that Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Renner, and Mark Ruffalo from The Avengers will be presenting together, and Macfarlane has put together a tribute to movie musicals from the past decade that includes Dreamgirls’ Jennifer Hudson, Chicago’s Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Les Miserables’ Hugh Jackman, Amanda Seyfried, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Eddie Redmayne, Aaron Tveit, Helena Bonham Carter, and Samantha Barks.  Hit the jump to take a gander at the entire list of presenters, and click here to catch up on all of our recent Road to Oscar series.  The Oscars will be held this Sunday, February 24th, at 7pm EST on ABC. 

Back in November, we reported that Liam Neeson was in talks to star in the Warner Bros. thriller The All Nighter (a.k.a. Run All Night).  According to Deadline, the title has reverted to Run All Night and Neeson is confirmed to star.  Neeson will play an aging hitman who, in order to protect his wife and son, must take on his former boss in a single night.  He then finds himself on the run from the mob and authorities with his estranged son in tow.  Although Run All Night comes from a spec script by Brad Ingelsby, it sounds slightly similar to the excellent 2011 French thriller Sleepless Night, which centers on a man who must spend a night avoiding the mob and cops as he tries to rescue his son (Warner Bros. owns the English-language remake rights for Sleepless Night).

Deadline also reports that Jaume Collet-Serra might sign on to direct.  Collet-Serra previously directed Neeson in Unknown and the upcoming airline thriller Non-Stop, which sees Neeson playing an Air Marshal trying to protect a plane that’s been taken hostage.

With the musical Les Miserables making a big splash this Christmas, older versions of the story inevitably find their way to Blu-Ray at about the same time. There have been a lot of takes on this story, after all: at least a dozen, not counting concert videos of the stage musical. Not least among them is Bille August’s straight-laced production from 1998. It strips the story down to the bones and removes a lot of juicy elements in the process. But bolstered by a strong pair of leads, it also makes for a reliable introduction to the story: a sort of cinematic Cliffs Notes to get you up to speed quickly. Hit the jump for the full review.

We’ve got a first look at perennial badass Liam Neeson in the new Jaume Collet-Serra (Unknown) film, Non-Stop.  While it looks like Neeson has an entire plane held hostage at gunpoint, methinks maybe there’s someone nefarious just off screen.  Non-Stop also stars Michelle Dockery, Julianne Moore and Scoot McNairy.

We’ve also got some lovely shots of stars Channing Tatum and Rooney Mara in Steven Soderbergh’s Side Effects.  While the couple looks happy in these images, the pharmaceutical-slanted plot suggests that feeling may not last.  Also starring Jude Law and Catherine Zeta-Jones, Side Effects opens February 8th.  Hit the jump to check out all the images.

Liam Neeson is adding yet another crime thriller to his resume.  The Wrap reports that the Taken actor is currently in negotiations to topline the thriller The All Nighter (aka Run All Night).  Should he sign on, Neeson would play “an aging hit man who, in order to protect his wife and son, must take on his former boss in a single night.”  He then finds himself on the run from the mob with his estranged son in tow.  The story isn’t exactly a Taken ripoff, but I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t like to see Neeson branch out more (he was fantastic in The Grey).

It appears that the project is currently without a director, but Brad Ingelsby’s spec script was acquired early this year for a large sum.  Neeson is currently filming a role in Crash director Paul Haggis’ ensemble drama Third Person, after which he’ll reteam with Unknown director Jaume Collet-Serra for the airplane thriller Non-Stop.  He’s also set to star in Scott Frank’s actioner A Walk Among the Tombstones and he recently committed to voicing a role in the animated feature Lego: Piece of Resistance.

The voice cast for Warner Bros.’ Lego: Piece of Resistance is growing.  Written and directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, 21 Jump Street), the 3D film takes place in a world made of Legos and centers on Emmet (voiced by Chris Pratt), an “instruction worker” who is mistaken for the Master Builder.  The Lego crew then embarks on a quest to prevent an evil tyrant from gluing the universe together.  Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, and Morgan Freeman are all onboard, and now Deadline reports that Will Ferrell, Liam Neeson, Nick Offerman, and Alison Brie are joining the top-notch voice cast.

Ferrell will play the film’s antagonist, President Business (brilliant), with Neeson onboard as his henchman, Bad Cop (also brilliant).  Offerman will play “a craggy, swaggering pirate obsessed with revenge on President Business” while Brie is set as a member of Emmet’s team who harbors a powerful secret.  Lego: Piece of Resistance opens on February 7th, 2014.

Last week, Steve attended the American Film Market (AFM) and was able to bring back some first images, posters, and synopses for a handful of upcoming projects.  One such film happens to be the Liam Neeson-fronted action thriller Non-Stop, for which we now have the first detailed synopsis.  The story takes place during an international flight on which Neeson is an Air Mashal.  His character begins to receive a series of text messages from someone who threatens to kill a passenger every 20 minutes until $150 million is transferred into a secret account.

Neeson reunites with Unknown director Jaume Collet-Serra for the pic, which is described as a mix of a mystery, actioner, and a Hitchcockian thriller.  Moreover, Collet-Serra has assembled a surprisingly top-notch cast that includes Julianne Moore, Scoot McNairy, and Michelle Dockery.  Hit the jump to read the full synopsis, which includes more detail.

Despite receiving mostly negative reviews, the action sequel Taken 2 scored big with audiences this past weekend.  The Liam Neeson-fronted action film took in $50 million at the box office opening weekend, and a success of that magnitude in this moviegoing climate means one thing: more sequels!  A recent interview with Taken 2 scribe Robert Mark Kamen reveals just that, as he talked frankly about the likelihood of making another follow-up in the wake of Taken 2’s success.  Hit the jump to see what he had to say.