One of the funniest films I saw at SXSW was Jacob Vaughan‘s Milo.  The juvenile comedy centers on a man (Ken Marino) whose stresses at home and at work causes him extraordinary gastric distress, which isn’t helped by the fact that he has a gremlin-like creature living in his colon.  Today, Magnet has announced that they’ve picked up the film for distribution.  Magnet is definitely a good fit for the film, and I assume the company will go their normal route of releasing the film on VOD before giving it a limited theatrical release.  No release date has been announced, but hopefully audiences will get to see the movie later this year.

Hit the jump for the full press release.  Milo also stars Gillian Jacobs, Patrick Warburton, Mary Kay Place, Peter Stormare, and Stephen Root.

Some new images from Tommy Wirkola’s Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters have cropped up.  If you caught the latest red-band trailer for the flick, you know that Jeremy Renner (The Avengers) and Gemma Arterton (Prince of Persia) are seeking to exterminate witches with their own brand of gratuitous vengeance.  These new images give a good look at the characters and their weapons (is that Looper’s Blunderbuss?) as well as co-stars Peter Stormare (Fargo) and Thomas Mann (Project X).  Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters opens on January 25th.  Hit the jump to check out the new images.

In case you couldn’t tell from the above image, Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters will be coming at you in 3D! We have a new Brazilian poster to share with you today, one that puts you front and center for writer/director Tommy Wirkola’s darkly comic spin on a classic fairy tale. Jeremy Renner (The Avengers) and Gemma Arterton (Quantum of Solace) star as the titular siblings who travel the world to track and kill witches, but quickly find themselves being hunted in turn. Get a taste of the action by checking out the red-band trailer here.

Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters also stars Peter Stormare, Famke Janssen, Thomas Mann and Zoe Bell, and opens January 25, 2013. Hit the jump to check out the new poster.

The sheriff of a small border town stands in front of a notorious drug cartel leader, blocking his path across the bridge that will take him safely out of the country.  Wanting to avoid a physical confrontation with the much larger man, the cartel leader attempts to buy him off. The sheriff responds by discarding his gun belt and shedding his jacket, dropping it to the ground.  The men rush each other.  They trade blows, neither getting the upper hand until the sheriff lifts the man into the air and prepares to slam him to the asphalt.  Director Kim Jee-Woon calls cut and sheriff Ray Owens (Arnold Schwarzenegger) slowly lowers cartel leader Gabriel Cortes (Eduardo Noriega) to the ground with the assistance of the actor’s stunt wires.

It’s late October 2011 and we’re on set of The Last Stand, Schwarzenegger’s first starring role since leaving the governorship of California and his triumphant return to the big screen.  While we’ll have interviews with the cast and crew of the film later on this week, you can hit the jump right now to view our “20 Things to Know” for The Last Stand.  Also starring Forest Whitaker, Rodrigo Santoro, Johnny Knoxville, Jaimie Alexander, Luis Guzman, Peter Stormare, Zach Gilford and Genesis Rodriguez, The Last Stand opens January 18th, 2013.

A new full-length trailer for director Kim Jee-Woon‘s actioner The Last Stand has been released.  The film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as the old sheriff of a sleepy border town who’s called to action when a drug kingpin flees an FBI prisoner convoy, and tries to make his way to Mexico.  This trailer gives us a better look at the action outside of the border town involving Forest Whitaker‘s law enforcement character and also highlights some of the lighter aspects of the pic.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Eduardo Noriega, Rodrigo Santoro, Johnny Knoxville, Jaimie Alexander, Peter Stormare, Zach Gilford, and Genesis Rodriguez.  The Last Stand opens January 18, 2013.

A few big names in today’s casting round-up:

• Matt Damon (Good Will Hunting) is set to re-team with The Brothers Grimm director, Terry Gilliam, for a small role in his upcoming film, The Zero Theorem.
• Kevin Kline (The Ice Storm) is set as the lead of Errol Flynn in Quinceañera directors Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland’s indie, The Last of Robin Hood.  Susan Sarandon (Thelma & Louise) will co-star.

Hit the jump for much more on both films. 

An international trailer for Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters has gone online, and gives us our first look at the movie.  The action-fantasy flick stars the eponymous fairy tale characters all grown up (played by Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton), and looking to take down witches everywhere.  Part of me really wants to give this movie the benefit of the doubt and hope it will be some goofy dumb fun, but the trailer just makes it look dumb minus the fun.  The film was supposed to come out this past March, but was delayed to January 2013, and this trailer kind of explains why.  The effects look shoddy, the dialogue is cringeworthy, the story sounds rote, and it just seems like it’s trying way too hard to be cool.  Yeah, your movie has gatling guns even though it takes place before gatling guns were invented.  My mind remains intact.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The film also stars Famke Janssen and Peter Stormare.  Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters opens in 3D on January 11, 2013.

[Update: The film's official U.S. trailer is also now online along with a poster, both of which are now included after the jump.]

The first trailer for Kim Jee-Woon‘s The Last Stand has gone online.  Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as the old sheriff of a sleepy border town who’s called to action when a drug kingpin flees an FBI prisoner convoy, and tries to make his way to Mexico.  It’s a good premise for nice little action-thriller, but Schwarzenegger seems totally miscast.  He’s just not really meant for small movies because he’s a big persona.  There’s nothing subdued about him.  So when a huge guy with a thick Austrian accent is wandering around a small town like it’s no big deal, he seems horribly out of place.  Maybe it will work better in context, and I really like the action on display from Kim Jee-Woon.  It’s a nice break from the shaky-cam antics other directors may have brought to the picture.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The film also stars Forest Whitaker, Eduardo Noriega, Rodrigo Santoro, Johnny Knoxville, Jaimie Alexander, Peter Stormare, Zach Gilford, and Genesis Rodriguez.  The Last Stand opens January 18, 2013.

You’ll see a little bit more of Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Expendables 2 than you did in the first film, but once The Last Stand rolls in next January, the whole screen belongs to the former Governor.  We previously brought you the first image from the film, but now we’re happy to share an official synopsis and poster.  The actioner from director Ji-woon Kim stars Schwarzenegger as the aging sheriff of a border town, which happens to be the last hope of keeping a drug cartel leader from fleeing the country.  The Last Stand, also starring Johnny Knoxville, Forest Whitaker, Eduardo Noriega, Rodrigo Santoro, Jaimie Alexander, Peter Stormare, Genesis Rodriguez and Zach Gilford, opens January 18th.  Hit the jump for the official synopsis and poster.

Two more bits of casting news this evening.  Here they are in brief:

• Yancy Butler, who appeared as Angie D’Amico in Kick-Ass, is set to return in the same role for the Jeff Wadlow-directed sequel.
• Jonathan Daniel Brown (Project X) is set to join the cast of the horror comedy Milo, also starring Ken Marino, Gillian Jacobs and Peter Stormare.

Hit the jump for details on both projects.

Some casting notes today.  Here they are in brief:

• Logan Marshall Green (Devil) will play Tennessee Williams in the upcoming pic, Lonely Hunter,  the feature film based on the life story of Southern gothic writer, Carson McCullers.
• Gina Gershon (Face/Off) and Peter Stormare (Fargo) will join the indie, Mall, replacing Chelsea Handler and Eric Bogosian due to scheduling difficulties.

Hit the jump for more.

From Uli Kunkel in The Big Lebowski to Slippery Peter in Seinfeld to Gaear Grimsrud in Fargo and Jeff in Dancer in the Dark, the versatile Peter Stormare has turned in many unforgettable performances while working with some of the world’s top directors. In his latest movie, the futuristic sci-fi action thriller Lockout, he plays Secret Service chief Scott Langral who offers a falsely convicted ex-government agent (Guy Pearce) a chance at freedom if he will undertake the dangerous mission of rescuing the daughter (Maggie Grace) of the U.S. President when things go horribly wrong during a humanitarian mission to an experimental maximum security prison in outer space.

We sat down with Stormare at a roundtable interview to talk about the unusual film co-written and produced by Luc Besson. He told us what it was about the script that drew him to the project, why he prefers the old school style European filmmaking that Besson exemplifies to the Hollywood paint-by-number action formula Michael Bay is best known for, and how he believes good storytelling is all about building characters, using the imagination and inviting an audience to fantasize. He also discussed what it was like working with master filmmaker Ingmar Bergman, how he would like to do a film with Terrence Malick, and why Close Encounters tops his list of all time favorite films.

Luc Besson‘s production company EuropaCorp has released the first five minutes of their latest slick action movie, Lockout.  The clip highlights two of the three things I want from the movie.  It’s funny and full of great action, often at the same time.  However, for a movie set at a maximum security prison in outer space, this clip is sadly earthbound.  You can see more science fiction-y action in previously released clips here, or hit the jump to watch the first five minutes.  Guy Pearce, Maggie Grace, Vincent Regan, Joseph Gilgun, Lennie James, and Peter Stormare star, directed by James Mather and Stephen St. Leger.  Lockout opens on April 13.

Featuring producer Luc Besson (the writer behind Taken) and Maggie Grace (the daughter who was Taken), the high-octane outer space thriller Lockout made an appearance at WonderCon 2012 today. This time, the man with a particular set of skills is no longer Liam Neeson, but Guy Pearce (Memento), playing Snow, a man wrongly accused of conspiracy to commit espionage. His one chance at a pardon comes when he is tasked with rescuing the president’s daughter from a maximum security outer space prison facility when the inmates take control. Lockout also stars Peter Stormare (Constantine) and is the feature directorial debut of James Mather and Stephen St. Leger. The film opens April 13th. Hit the jump to check out our WonderCon panel recap.

Small Apartments deserves credit for getting inside your head through force of strangeness alone, and it has enough going on to merit at least some kind of interpretation.  You can argue with yourself to no end about whether or not director Jonas Åkerlund has made a subversive slam against trying to find human connection when our own baggage shuts us off from the world, or if he’s delivered a pat, mawkish ending that doesn’t fit with previous moments of derision towards sentiment.  Rather than leave your head spinning, Small Apartments just leaves your head aching.