
Paramount Vantage has released the first trailer for Jeff, Who Lives at Home, the latest from Jay and Mark Duplass (Cyrus). Jason Segel stars as the titular character searching for the meaning of life: “A series of comedic and unexpected events leads him to cross paths with his family in the strangest of locations and circumstances.” As expected, the movie looks excellent. Segel has been poised for a breakout dramatic role for a while now, and he looks expertly cast in this “dramedy” from the immensely talented Duplass duo. Ed Helms seems to be in fine form as Segel’s slightly more successful brother, and the two have their fair share of dramatic and comedic moments. I’m very encouraged by what this trailer shows of Segel’s performance, and I can’t wait to see more.
The film also stars Judy Greer and Susan Sarandon. Jeff, Who Lives at Home is scheduled for release on March 2, 2012. Watch the trailer after the jump.

With our continuing coverage of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival’s Spotlight line-up, we’re bringing you some early looks at next year’s films. Hit the jump for synopses and images from writer-director Julie Delpy‘s 2 Days in New York, starring Delpy and Chris Rock; writer-director Nicholas Jarecki‘s Arbitrage, starring Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon and Tim Roth; writer-director Leslye Headland‘s Bachelorette, starring Kirsten Dunst, Isla Fisher and Lizzy Caplan; and writer-director Josh Radnor‘s Liberal Arts, starring Radnor and Elizabeth Olsen.
The 2012 Sundance Film Festival runs from Thursday, January 19th to Sunday, the 29th. Click here for all our coverage.

Actress Susan Sarandon is currently in negotiations to join the action thriller Snitch. Ric Roman Waugh (Felon) is directing, and Dwayne Johnson is set to star as a father whose teenage son is hit with a 30-year prison sentence due to mandatory minimum drug laws. Johnson takes matters into his own hands and goes undercover to take down a senior drug dealer in order to reduce his son’s sentence. The story is based on a Frontline documentary, and Waugh rewrote Justin Haythe’s script himself.
Heat Vision reports that Sarandon will be playing “an ambitious U.S. attorney who believes that a drug bust can help her political career.” The role was originally envisioned as male, but pairing The Rock with Susan Sarandon was presumably too awesome to turn down so the part was reconfigured. Sarandon recently wrapped the Adam Sandler/Andy Sandberg comedy I Hate You Dad and is currently filming the Wachowskis’ adaptation of Cloud Atlas and Robert Redford’s The Company You Keep.

The Duplass Brothers’ Jeff, Who Lives at Home opens on a terrific note by bashing the silliness of M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs. Unfortunately, that’s about as hilarious and insightful as Jeff gets. While the lead performances are solid and there are some funny jokes along the way, the film is saddled with a weak sub-plot and an even weaker subtext. Jeff, Who Lives at Home ends up revering what it originally mocked.

The Wachowski Siblings and Tom Tykwer’s audacious adaptation of David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas has been long in development but it will finally go before cameras in mid-to-late September. Mitchell’s novel spans six different lifetimes across six different eras. The film stars Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving, Susan Sarandon, Ben Whishaw, and Jim Broadbent. If you’re wondering about the ambition of the project, Weaving said back in May that he was playing six different characters, which sounds like each actor won’t be playing just one character in one time period.
However, the project will also be working with less money. Producer Stefan Ardnt tells THR that the budget for Cloud will be “definitely lower” than then rumored $100 – $120 million, which isn’t too surprising. Speed Racer was a flop and Tykwer has never worked with $100+ budget. However, the production has gotten significant tax breaks by shooting about 80% of the movie in Babelsberg, Berlin and the surrounding area. The film is also getting made due to a unique financing arrangement from Berlin bank IFB and German regional film funding body, the Medienboard. Hit the jump for more details on Cloud Atlas.

Robert Redford continues to fill out the cast for his next directorial project, as Susan Sarandon, Julie Christie and Richard Jenkins are the latest to join The Company You Keep. Redford will direct and star in the film that also features Shia LaBeouf, and recent additions Nick Nolte and Brit Marling. Based on the novel of the same name by Neal Gordon, the story centers on a wanted former Weather Underground militant (Redford) who goes on the run after an ambitious young reporter (LaBeouf) exposes his true identity.
Deadline reports that Sarandon and Christie play ex-Weather Underground members, while Jenkins will play a college professor who is a link to other members in hiding. While the cast is pretty great, I’m hoping Redford tries a decidedly less heavy-handed approach than his last directorial projects. Hit the jump to read a synopsis of the novel.

A number of actors have signed on for the family comedy Robot and Frank. Liev Schreiber, Liv Tyler, James Marsden, and Jeremy Strong join previously announced Susan Sarandon and Frank Langella in the Jake Schreier-directed indie. The comedy marks Schreier’s feature directorial debut. The script, by Christopher Ford, is set in the future and centers on an aging curmudgeon (Langella) whose kids (Marsden and Tyler) give him a caretaker robot (voiced by Schreiber), sparking an unlikely friendship with the lonely man. Sarandon plays a librarian who serves as Langella’s only friend.
Hit the jump to read the full press release. The film is currently shooting in New York.

Mark and Jay Dupplass are looking to continue their path towards more mainstream fare after last year’s dramedy Cyrus, starring Jonah Hill, opened to wildly positive reception. The writer/director duo will unveil their next film, the stoner comedy Jeff Who Lives at Home starring Jason Segel and Ed Helms, and produced by Jason Reitman, later this year, and now the pair are shopping the script for their next project, a dramatic thriller. 24 Frames reports that the new film, titled Pitchfork, centers on “the middle-aged mother of an indie rocker who, after her son is killed in a car accident, seeks vengeance on an online blogger who had peddled snark about her son [on the music site Pitchfork].” Things take a turn, however, when the bully turns out to be a teenager (which doesn’t necessarily count as a surprise).
Apparently Susan Sarandon is being sought to take on what is most certainly a very meaty role as the mother, and Hill has talked with the brothers Duplass about possibly playing the blogger. The pair broke onto the scene with 2005’s indie The Puffy Chair, and their subsequent films have been deemed part of the “mumblecore” aesthetic (low-budgets, improvised dialogue, etc.). Jeff Who Lives at Home currently doesn’t have a release date, but is expected to hit theaters later this year.

We’ve got quite a few casting stories for you today. First up, Susan Sarandon has joined the cast of the Adam Sandler/Andy Samberg comedy I Hate You Dad. The comedy revolves around a father who moves in with his son and his son’s fiancé just before they’re about to get married, with Leighton Meester set to play Samberg’s fiancée. THR reports that in addition to Sarandon, Will Forte, Milo Ventimiglia, Eva Amurri (Californication), Blake Clark, Meagan Fay (Party Down), Tony Orlando, Dan Patrick and previously announced James Caan are all in negotiations to join the Sean Anders-directed comedy. Sarandon will play a sexy teacher who is the mother of Samberg’s character.
Additionally, Jennifer Hudson is the latest actor to join the cast of the Farrelly brothers’ The Three Stooges. The film stars Will Sasso as Curly, Sean Hayes as Larry, Chris Diamantopoulos as Moe, Jane Lynch, Larry David, Stephen Collins and Craig Bierko. Deadline reports that Hudson will play Sister Rosmary at the orphanage that the Stooges are raised. Lynch and David play two other (presumably evil) nuns at the orphanage. The Three Stooges is currently filming. Hit the jump for the casting news of Johnny Knoxville and a lot more in Fun Size and Seth Green, Michelle Trachtenberg, Katee Sackhoff, Harold Perrineau and Billy Baldwin in Sexy Evil Genius.

Yesterday, we reported some casting news for The Words and The Wachowski Siblings/Tom Tykwer’s adaptation of Cloud Atlas. Turns out those films weren’t quite finished in the casting department. Producer Cassian Elwes has tweeted [via The Playlist] that Zoe Saldana will star alongside Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Irons, and Dennis Quaid in The Words. The drama centers on a celebrated writer (Cooper) who must pay the price for stealing the work of another author (Irons). I imagine the price is somewhat higher than the lawyer’s fees for the litigation that would most likely occur in a less-interesting movie.
In other casting news, ScreenDaily reports that Susan Sarandon and Jim Broadbent are in talks to join Tom Hanks, Hugo Weaving, Ben Whishaw, and Halle Berry in Cloud Atlas. The movie is based on David Mitchell’s acclaimed novel that spans the progress of a soul across six separate existences across several centuries. Shooting is planned to begin this September. Hit the jump for a synopsis of the novel.

A trio of actors are now in negotiations to star in Rosanna Arquette’s next directorial effort. Susan Sarandon, David Arquette and Adam Brody are in talks to star in the dramedy Hemlock Drive. The Wrap reports that the film centers on an eccentric mother in Connecticut who learns she is dying and brings her three adult children back home for a weekend.
Sarandon is in talks to play the mother, while David Arquette is eyeing the role of a man who owns a nearby bar. Brody is negotiations for the part of Sarandon’s son. The script was written by Jennifer Carta and Mandy Steckelberg, and marks the narrative feature directorial debut of Rosanna Arquette, as she previously helmed the documentaries Searching for Debra Winger and All We Are Saying. Given the Terms of Endearment-esque nature of Hemlock Drive’s plot, it’s easy to see Arquette’s attraction to the project. Shooting begins this September in Louisiana.

A “red-band” trailer (it’s from the Motion Picture Association of Antigua, Inc.) for the Beastie Boys inspired short Fight For Your Right – Revisited. The trailer is long on swears and stars but short on laughs. The story seems to be that the young Beastie Boys (played by Seth Rogen, Danny McBride, and Elijah Wood) meet their future selves (John C. Reilly, Jack Black, and Will Ferrell) and have a dance off, which seems like a fun premise. But even though the short film also features Will Arnett, Stanley Tucci, Susan Sarandon, Ted Danson, Rainn Wilson, and plenty of other famous faces, there aren’t many laughs to be had. Watching Will Ferrell break out a cowbell or Arnett shout “Come on!” feel like stale attempts at humor. Hopefully the short comes together better than the trailer.
Hit the jump to check out the trailer. The 30 minute short will debut alongside the release of the Beastie Boys new album “Hot Sauce Committee Part 2″ on May 3rd.

We have a couple of quick casting stories for you this afternoon. One of the break-out stars from this year’s indie film scene is actress Brit Marling. She has played critically acclaimed roles in Zal Batmanglij’s Sound of My Voice and Mike Cahill’s Another Earth and now she tells Movieline that she’ll co-star in Nicholas Jarecki’s Arbitrage. The film stars Richard Gere stars as “a troubled hedge fund magnate desperate to complete the sale of his trading empire makes an error that forces him to turn to an unlikely person for help.” The film also stars Eva Green and Susan Sarandon. Filming is expected to begin in April. Marling, who co-wrote Another Earth and Sound of My Voice, also says she plans to reunite with Batmanglij and Cahill for future projects.
Hit the jump for casting news regarding Gabriele Muccino’s Playing the Field.

Thelma and Louise is 20 years old, and to celebrate, 20th Century Fox has released a 20th anniversary edition of Ridley Scott’s epic female-empowerment movie. Despite the fact that Thelma and Louise is part of the pop culture vernacular, I’d never actually sat down and watched the film from beginning to end. Would Thelma and Louise live up to two decades worth of hype? Would its iconic ending be as effective in 2011 as it was in the early 90′s? Would Brad Pitt deliver a butt-shot? Find out the answers to all of these questions after the jump:

Teen-actor-turned-hip-hop-star Drake may soon be returning to his former profession. The former Degrassi: The Next Generation star is currently in talks to join writer/director Nicholas Jarecki’s (The Informers) financial thriller Arbitrage. If the deal goes through, Drake (whose full name is Aubrey Drake Graham) would join a solid cast that already features Eva Green and Susan Sarandon.
According to TheWrap, Arbitrage will center on a hedge fund magnate who is “desperate to complete the sale of his shady trading empire before his fraud is revealed.” As the story goes, an unexpected turn of events causes him to look for help from an unlikely source. The film is currently scheduled to begin shooting this March in New York. As for Drake, he has a previous film credit due to a minor role in 2007′s Charlie Bartlett. [Update: This story has been revised to reflect our understanding that Al Pacino is no longer attached to star. ]
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