Earlier this week I literally dreamed about The Dark Knight Rises. Not that I was in the movie. Not that I was Batman. Just that I was in the theater watching it for the first time. And I woke up with a sense of joy that followed me around for hours. Even now I can’t decide exactly what this says about me or whether it’s a good or bad thing that I’m so excited for a single moviegoing experience. Part of me is a little disappointed in my subconscious for dreaming on such a micro level. Another part is encouraged that it finds such joy in the “little things”. Regardless, those precious two hours and forty-five minutes or so on midnight of July 20th can’t get here soon enough.

All personal issues aside, this week’s iteration of the Top 5 includes the new trailer for Paul Thomas Anderson‘s The Master, Brave interviews with John Lasseter, director Mark Andrews and more, Brendan’s latest Cinemath feature, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World interviews with Steve Carell, Keira Knightley and more, and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter interviews with Tim Burton and co. The search for a brief recap and link to each concludes after the jump.

How would you react if the world was only a few weeks away from being smashed apart by a meteor?  The politically-correct answer would be: “Spend time with family and friends,” which would be true for some people.  But a more honest answer might be: “Do loads of heroin, sleep with everything that moves, and go out in a blaze of hedonistic glory.”  There are other options as well, and writer-director Lorene Scafaria attempts to explore them in Seeking a Friend for the End of the World.  The problem is that she doesn’t know how to explore them.  The film does a wonderful job putting the audience in the mindset of staring at the world’s end, but tonally the film never quite manages to balance its darker elements with an upbeat romantic comedy.  The film desperately needs an emotional anchor, but it’s sadly adrift with no chemistry between the lead actors.

A couple weeks ago, Focus Features gave us the opportunity to attend the press junket for Lorene Scafaria‘s offbeat romantic comedy Seeking a Friend for the End of the World.  The film focuses on two neighbors (played by Steve Carell and Keira Knightley) who bond during a road trip as they both try to reconnect with lost loves and family before a meteor destroys the Earth.  For more on the film, click here for seven clips.

During my on-camera interview with Scafaria, we spoke about how she came up with the diverse reactions her characters would have to the apocalypse, what we can expect to see on the Blu-ray/DVD, the experience of making her directorial debut, and what scene made her decide to direct in costume.  Hit the jump to check out the interview.  Seeking a Friend for the End of the World opens Friday.

Focus Features has released seven clips from Lorene Scafaria‘s dark romantic comedy Seeing a Friend for the End of the World.  The movie takes place a few weeks before a meteor wipes out all life on Earth, and mild-mannered Dodge (Steve Carell) strikes up a friendship with his neighbor Penny (Keira Knightley) as the two go on a road-trip to find Dodge’s true love and get Penny back home to see her parents.  Along the way, they meet a cast of colorful characters and situations as people react differently to the coming apocalypse.

Hit the jump to check out the clips.  The film also stars stars Adam Brody, Derek Luke, Melanie Lynskey, T.J. Miller, Patton Oswalt, Rob Heubel, Connie Britton, Gillian Jacobs, Rob Corddry, and Melinda Dillon.  Seeking a Friend for the End of the World opens Friday.

New images from the Keira Knightley movies Anna Karenina and Seeking a Friend for the End of the World have gone online.  Knightley plays the title character in Joe Wright‘s adaptation of Leo Tolstoy‘s classic tome about late 19th-century Russian society.  Seeking a Friend is far more light-hearted fare, and has Knightley playing a woman who sets out on a road-trip with a guy (Steve Carell) who’s trying to find his high-school sweetheart during Earth’s final days (it doesn’t sound light-hearted, but you can see from the trailer that it’s a comedy).

Hit the jump to check out the images.  Anna Karenina opens November 9th.  Seeking a Friend for the End of the World opens June 22nd

The cast for the pre-apocalyptic rom-com Seeking a Friend for the End of the World has just kind of exploded.  The film was already set to star Steve Carell as a man who is joined by a woman (Keira Knightley) to find his old high-school sweeheart before the world is destroyed by an asteroid.  Yesterday, we learned that the talented Gillian Jacobs had joined the film and now we’ve received a press release announcing that a truckload of other great actors have signed on as well.  Check out this line-up: Connie Britton, Patton Oswalt, Rob Huebel (who yesterday signed on to another apocalypse-based comedy, Rapturepalooza), Melanie Lynskey, T.J. Miller, Melinda Dillon as well as Aaron Brown (The District), Tonita Castro (The Sarah Silverman Program), Mark Moses (Desperate Housewives), and Bob Stephenson (Jericho).  And this is all in addition to the previously announced cast-members William Petersen, Adam Brody, Rob Corddry (also in Rapturepalooza), Derek Luke, and Lindsay Sloane.  How can the movie squeeze in this kind of ensemble?  It’s a road-trip picture, which means most of these folks will probably only have a scene or two, but it’s better than nothing.

Lorene Scafaria (Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist) is making her directorial debut from her own script.  Production on the film begins this week. Hit the jump to check out the press release.

[Update: We've updated the article with a couple of set photos featuring Carell and Knightley. Check them out after the jump]

Derek Luke (Captain America: The First Avenger) and Lindsay Sloane (She’s Out of My League) are currently in talks to join Keira Knightley and Steve Carell in Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. Written/directed by Lorene Scafaria (who penned Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist), the film centers on two neighbors (Knightley and Carell) who decide to go on a road trip to find Carell’s high school love prior to an asteroid ending life on Earth as we know it. Production on Seeking is expected to begin later this month.

Per Variety, Luke’s role would be as Knightley’s ex-boyfriend, a military man who is primed and ready to face the end of the world head on in his bomb shelter. Sloane would play a “friendly waitress who is rolling on Ecstasy as doomsday approaches.” In addition to the already mentioned cast, we previously reported that Adam Brody, Rob Corddry, and William Peterson are also in negotiations to join Seeking a Friend for the End of the World.

It looks like Focus Features has nabbed the U.S. rights to the comedic romance Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. Written and directed by Lorene Scafaria (Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist), the film stars Steve Carell and Keira Knightley and centers on the events surrounding an asteroid spiraling towards Earth, threatening to end all life. Carell plays a man whose wife leaves him as a result of the whole “the world is ending” news, and decides to seek out his high school sweetheart. Knightley stars as Carell’s neighbor who decides to accompany him on his journey.

We previously reported that Adam Brody, Rob Corddry and William Peterson are in talks to join the film as well. THR reports that Focus will handle U.S. distribution on the Indian Paintbrush/Mandate Pictures co-production. Filming begins in Los Angeles this month. And on a side note, previous reports had the title as Seeking a Friend AT the End of the World, but today’s acquisition reports have the “at” replaced by “for.” So, I guess this might be considered a title change, however insignificant it may be.

Steve Carell and Keira Knightley are in negotiations to star in the romantic comedy Seeking a Friend at the End of the World, which follows “a search by one man (Carell) for a meaningful connection amid the end times.”  The film will be the directorial debut of Lorene Scafaria, the writer of Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist and lover of long titles.  Scafaria is a member of the femme screenwriter collective the “Fempire” with Diablo Cody, Dana Fox, and Liz Meriwhether.  (I like the group, but I’ll chip in $20 for the word “fempire” to go away.)  THR reports that principal photography is scheduled for May in Los Angeles.

Following his departure from The Office after seven seasons, Carell looks to film Great Hope Springs and Burt Wonderstone later this year.  He will next be seen opposite Ryan Gosling in Crazy, Stupid, Love, due July 29.  Knightley recently wrapped production with Viggo Mortensen and Michael Fassbender on the Sigmund Freud/Carl Jung biopic A Dangerous Method.  Knightley is set to reunite with director Joe Wright (Atonement) for an adaptation of Anna Karenina.

Earlier today, we reported that Columbia is trying to get Ivan Reitman off of Ghostbusters III. Of course oddly enough one of their hopes was that Reitman would be too busy to direct the sequel because of his other project for Paramount, Friends With Benefits. Variety now has the scoop on that movie, which will be staring Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman. The script is being written by Elizabeth Meriwether, the youngest member of the so called “Fempire”, a group of women screenwriters including Diablo Cody (Juno) and Lorene Scafaria (Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist).

The story is somewhat the opposite of When Harry Met Sally, with two people having a purely sexual relationship which begins to blossom into something deeper. The film has a tentative release date of January 7, 2011. The film is set to be produced by Reitman’s own Montecito Picture Co., as well as Spyglass Entertainment and Cold Spring Pictures. We’ll give you more on the film as we hear of it.