We’ve got a couple of quick casting stories for you this afternoon.  First up Samuel L. Jackson is set to star opposite Hailee Steinfeld in the indie, Barely Lethal.  According to Variety, “the story follows a 16-year-old international assassin yearning for a “normal” adolescence who fakes her own death and enrolls as a senior in a suburban high school. Jackson will play her mentor who trains her in the program.”  I’m curious to see how director Kyle Newman will handle his follow-up to the surprisingly enjoyable, Fanboys.  I’m also interested to see how it will compare to the recent “teenage assassin” flick, Hanna, even though this is a comedy.

Hit the jump for news on John Slattery‘s directorial debut, God’s Pocket.

Actress Frances McDormand has been trying to get an adaptation of author Elizabeth Strout’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Olive Kitteridge off the ground for years, and it looks like things are now finally moving forward.  Deadline reports that The Kids Are All Right director Lisa Cholodenko will helm a miniseries adaptation of the novel for HBO in which McDormand and Richard Jenkins will star.  The story focuses on a retired schoolteacher and the characters that surround her, as the various tales of affairs, suicide, and emotional problems in her small Maine town are told through her eyes.  McDormand will star as the schoolteacher, Olive Kitteridge, while Jenkins will play her husband.

Cholodenko had previously been attached to direct an adaptation of the childrens book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, but she recently dropped out.  Jane Anderson wrote the screenplay for the four-hour miniseries.  Hit the jump to read a synopsis of Strout’s book.

The comedy A.C.O.D., which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year to positive reviews, has been picked up for distribution by The Film Arcade and Paramount Home Media.  The title stands for “Adult Children of Divorce” and the Stuart Zicherman-directed film centers on a guy (Adam Scott) who has been caught in his parents’ (Richard Jenkins and Catherine O’Hara) ugly divorce for the past twenty years, and matters become even worse when his brother gets engaged.  Then the details of the feud are revealed in a definitive new book on children of divorce.

I caught the film at Sundance (read Matt’s review here) and it’s a solid comedy with a big heart, and as a fellow A.C.O.D. it hit really close to home for me in quite a few parts.  It also features scene-stealing performances by Catherine O’Hara and Richard Jenkins, with other nice turns from Clark Duke, Amy Poehler, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead.  The Film Arcade will be handling theatrical distribution in North America, while Paramount Home Media will manage domestic home entertainment, television licensing and digital distribution, as well as international distribution.  Hit the jump for the press release.

The first trailer for director Roland Emmerich’s presidential thriller White House Down has been released.  While the trailer (and plot) have lots of elements in common with Antoine Fuqua’s Olympus Has Fallen, our first introduction to White House Down comes through the lens of various news outlets reporting an attack on Washington, D.C. rather than centering on the heroic lead; we don’t even seen Channing Tatum until about half-way through.  Emmerich’s usual flare for the dramatic is evident, but then he goes and does something interesting by allowing silence to fill a good portion of the trailer.  It also looks like the danger will come not from an outside enemy, but from within.  There are moments that appear to be more Die Hard in nature (and a few glimpses that could be considered spoilers), but there’s just enough here to warrant some interest even after a movie with the exact same plot was just released.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Jamie Foxx, Maggie Gyllenhaal, James Woods, Richard Jenkins, Jason Clarke, Jake Weber, Lance Reddick and Joey King.  White House Down opens on June 28th, 2013.

A new trailer and poster have been released for DreamWorks Animation’s Turbo.  The story follows a snail (voiced by Ryan Reynolds) who dreams of being able to go fast, and gets his wish after a freak accident.  He then goes to pursue his dream of racing in the Indy 500.  The trailer looks cute, but I’m not sure if the movie has an antagonist.  I hope it’s salt.

Hit he jump to check out the trailer and poster.  The film also features the voices of Paul Giamatti, Michael Pena, Luis Guzmán, Bill Hader, Richard Jenkins, Ken Jeong, Michelle Rodriguez, Maya Rudolph, Ben Schwartz, Kurtwood Smith, Snoop Dogg, and Samuel L. Jackson.  Turbo opens in 3D on July 19th.

A new trailer for director Robert Redford’s thriller The Company You Keep has been released online.  In addition to directing, Redford also stars in the film as a civil rights lawyer who must go on the run when he’s outed by a young reporter (Shia LaBeouf) as being a former 1970s Weather Underground militant.  The trailer teases an engrossing thriller with a stellar ensemble cast that includes Susan Sarandon, Anna Kendrick, Chris Cooper, Terrence Howard, and Brit Marling.  LaBeouf looks to be in fine form as well as the film’s lead, and I’m eager to see how Redford expands on the plot’s themes in the full feature.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer, and click here to read Matt’s review of the film from last year’s Toronto Film Festival.  The pic also stars Julie Christie, Sam Elliott, Brendan Gleeson, Richard Jenkins, Stanley Tucci, and Nick Nolte.  The Company You Keep opens on April 5th.

In his feature directorial debut, A.C.O.D., Stu Zicherman has taken the premise for the episode of a sitcom, and turned it into a film that’s not only funny, but also surprisingly relatable for audience members represented by the title’s acronym, “Adult Children of Divorce”.  Speaking as an A.C.O.D., my parents never had the comical, over-the top fights featured in the movie, but Zicherman and co-writer Ben Karlin manage to work in a strong, emotional center to a comedy that works in broad strokes.  The movie may share the same plotline as sitcom episode, but thanks to its excellent cast and willingness to push its protagonist to emotionally unpleasant places, A.C.O.D. works for kids from broken and unbroken homes alike.

The first teaser trailer and poster for DreamWorks Animation’s upcoming racing movie Turbo have been released.  The story centers on a snail who, after miraculously attaining the power of super-speed, decides to fulfill his dream of racing in the Indy 500.  I got a kick out of the fact that The Chromatics’ “Tick of the Clock,” which was memorably used in last year’s decidedly violent Drive, opens this trailer, followed by another appropriately titled song from Cake.  This is very much a teaser trailer so we don’t see much by way of plot, but the brief bit of racing sequences look pretty impressive and Ryan Reynolds does a fine job with the snail’s comedy.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer, and click here to read Dave’s recap of the recent DreamWorks Animation presentation which included footage from Turbo.  The film also features the voices of Paul Giamatti, Michael Pena, Luis Guzmán, Bill Hader, Richard Jenkins, Ken Jeong, Michelle Rodriguez, Maya Rudolph, Ben Schwartz, Kurtwood Smith, Snoop Dogg, and Samuel L. Jackson.  Turbo opens in 3D on July 19, 2013.

Paramount Pictures has released six clips and 23 images from the upcoming Lee Child adaptation Jack Reacher. Based on the popular series of novels, the film stars Tom Cruise as a man who exists outside the law and exacts his own brand of ruthless justice. Early reviews and reactions seem to be fairly positive for director Christopher McQuarrie’s thriller, and these clips only reinforce the idea that Cruise was a swell choice to tackle the title role.

Hit the jump to check out the clips and images. The film also stars Rosamund Pike, Robert Duvall, Richard Jenkins, David Oyelowo, Jai Courtney, and Werner Herzog. Jack Reacher opens on December 21st.

A new trailer for director Andrew Dominik’s crime drama Killing Them Soflty has been released.  The film stars Brad Pitt as a mob enforcer called in to investigate the robbery of a high-stakes card game.  The film’s first trailer was pretty great, but this clip ups my anticipation level even more.  We see a bit more of the plot and character interactions, and there’s a scene set in the rain that shows off some fantastic visuals.  Dominik displayed tremendous talent with The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford, and I’m highly encouraged by what we’ve seen of his second go-around with Pitt thus far.

Hit the jump to watch the new trailer.  The film also stars Richard Jenkins, James Gandolfini, Ray Liotta, Scoot McNairy, and Ben Mendelsohn.  Killing Them Softly opens November 30th.

Some interesting casting has shaped up for debut director S. Craig Zahler’s horror Western, Bone Tomahawk.  It looks like Kurt Russell (The Thing), Peter Sarsgaard (Green Lantern), Richard Jenkins (The Cabin in the Woods) and Jennifer Carpenter (Dexter) are all on board.  Bone Tomahawk “follows a sheriff (Russell), a gunslinger, a befuddled oldster (Jenkins) and a cowboy (Sarsgaard) as they attempt to rescue a group of captives (including Carpenter) from a band of cannibalistic troglodytes.”  If you ask me, there just aren’t enough movies with troglodytes these days.  Hit the jump for more.

A new international trailer for Killing Them Softly has been released.  The film stars Brad Pitt as a mob enforcer called in to investigate the robbery of a high-stakes card game.  The domestic trailer showed us some of the other characters and plot points, but this international trailer is short, to the point, and it works.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The film also stars Richard Jenkins, James Gandolfini, Ray Liotta, Scoot McNairy, and Ben Mendelsohn.  Killing Them Softly opens November 30th.

A new trailer for director Christopher McQuarrie’s thriller Jack Reacher has been released.  Like the teaser trailer, the new trailer is predicated on whether or not you can buy Tom Cruise as a bad-ass.  Not an action hero—the character even says he’s not a hero—but as a take-no-prisoners, borderline anti-hero.  Personally, I’m just not seeing it.  I like the premise of an army investigator looking into the framing of a sniper, and I’ll show up simply to see Werner Herzog play the villain, but ultimately, Jack Reacher is looking like it will suffer from seriously miscasting its title character.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Robert Duvall, Rosamund Pike, Richard Jenkins, and David Oyelowo.  Jack Reacher opens December 21st.

The first trailer for Robert Redford’s The Company You Keep has gone online.  In addition to directing, Redford also stars in the film as a civil rights lawyer who must go on the run when he’s outed by a young reporter (Shia LaBeouf) as being a former 1970s Weather Underground militant.  Redford looks to be in full-on thriller mode here, as this appears to be more of an “on the run” story than a straight drama.  We actually don’t get much of Redford’s character in this trailer, as we instead focus more on LaBeouf’s investigation and pursuit of the truth.  The footage isn’t mind-blowing, but the unsurprisingly top-notch cast promises some great performances from the likes of Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci, Anna Kendrick and Chris Cooper.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Julie Christie, Sam Elliott, Brendan Gleeson, Terrence Howard, Richard Jenkins, Brit Marling, and Nick Nolte.  The Company You Keep will premiere at the Venice Film Festival and will also screen at the upcoming Toronto Film Festival.

Today, we’ve got a poster round-up for you, featuring some new domestic and international looks:

• Liberal Arts, stars writer/director Josh Radnor (Happythankyoumoreplease) as a thirty-something  loser who falls for a 19-year-old college student (Elizabeth Olsen) when he returns to his alma mater.  Look for Liberal Arts in wide release starting September 21st.
• Zero Dark Thirty, the Osama bin Laden picture from director Kathryn Bigelow, stars Joel Edgerton, Chris Pratt and Jessica Chastain in the revealing story of the Navy’s elite SEAL Team Six operation.  Zero Dark Thirty lands December 19th.
• Alex Cross, the adaptation of the James Patterson novel, stars Tyler Perry in the title role opposite Matthew Fox as the antagonist.  Alex Cross debuts October 19th.
• Looper, a sci-fi time-traveling actioner from writer/director Rian Johnson (Brick) and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt, opens September 28th.

Hit the jump to see the posters.