Park Chan-Wook’s (Old Boy) American debut Stoker, an odd little film if ever there was one, has the Asian auteur taking on Hitchcock.  Ostensibly a remake/reimagining/updating of Hitch’s own Shadow of a Doubt, Stoker centers on a young pubescent girl, whose father has recently died under ‘mysterious’ circumstances.  Enter an equally ‘mysterious’ long lost uncle (Mathew Goode), a series of murders, a distant never-present mother (Nicole Kidman) – and Park has all the ingredients he needs to make a pretty damn efficient thriller/melodrama.  Ol’ Hitch would be proud.

Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland) is the standout here.  As India, the fatherless young woman who comes to suspect her ‘Uncle Charlie’ is a murderer, Wasikowska deftly uses her delicate features as a counterbalance to her character’s darker and more perverse proclivities — for the film is less a mystery about who Uncle Charlie is and more so who India really is.  In the following interview with Wasikowska, she discusses working with Park Chan Wook, India’s ‘self-discovery’, a potential sequel to Alice in Wonderland and her upcoming vampire Jim Jarmusch film Only Lovers Left Alive.  For the full interview, hit the jump.

New images have been released for Michael Bay‘s Pain and Gain and Jim Jarmusch‘s Only Lovers Left Alive.  Pain and Gain is based on a true story, and stars Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne Johnson as two bodybuilders who get caught up in an extortion ring and kidnapping scheme that goes terribly wrong.  I wish this image was larger so I could turn it into desktop wallpaper.  As for Only Lovers Left Alive, it’s a crypto-vampire love story love story between Adam (Tom Hiddleston) and Eve (Tilda Swinton), two vampires who have been in love for centuries.”  Indiewire adds that when they’re reunited, “their idyll is soon interrupted by Eve’s wild and uncontrollable younger sister Ava (Mia Wasikowska).”  Now imagine if these films switched directors.  That would be movie magic.

Hit the jump to check out the images.  Pain and Gain also stars Anthony Mackie, Rob Corddry, Ed Harris, John Turturro, and Rebel Wilson.  Only Lovers Left Alive also stars John Hurt and Anton Yelchin.

We’ve got a couple of casting stories regarding three very promising projects to share this afternoon.  Briefly:

• Anton Yelchin has been cast in director Jim Jarmusch’s vampire film Only Lovers Left Alive.
• Alfre Woodard joins the impressive ensemble cast for Twelve Years a Slave.
• Alessandro Nivola has scored a pivotal role in the West Mempis Three film Devil’s Knot opposite Colin Firth and Reese Witherspoon.

Hit the jump for more on each actor’s casting.

Tom Hiddleston had an awesome 2011 with roles in The Avengers, Midnight in Paris, The Deep Blue Sea, and War Horse.  Now he’s replacing the only guy who had a better 2011, Michael Fassbender, in Jim Jarmusch‘s Only Lovers Left Alive.  Jarmusch said back in May that the film is a “‘crypto-vampire love story’, set against the romantic desolation of Detroit and Tangiers.”  THR adds that the horror drama is “described as an unusual love story between two vampires who have been in love for centuries.”  With Jarmusch at the helm, you may as well toss out any expectations or pre-conceived notions you have regarding a vampire movie.

Tilda Swinton, Mia Wasikowska, and John Hurt are still on board to co-star.  Only Lovers Left Alive will shoot in Germany later this year.  Hiddleston will next be seen reprising his role as Loki in The Avengers, which opens in 3D on May 4th.