As the 84th Academy Awards move closer, we’re starting to get a better sense of how things will pan out. We recently shared the 39 songs that will contend for the Best Original Song category, and now the Academy has announced the 97 original scores eligible for the Best Original Score award. AMPAS is notoriously picky when it comes to eligibility in this category, and as we feared the scores for both Drive and Attack the Block have been deemed ineligible. Also disappointing is the ineligibility of Alexandre Desplat’s mesmerizing score for The Tree of Life.

While it’s upsetting to see some of the year’s best work side-lined, there’s plenty to be happy about. I was a huge fan of Howard Shore’s work in Hugo and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s score for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, as well as The Chemical Brothers’ brilliant work in the criminally underseen Hanna. Hit the jump for the full list, as well as who I think will make the cut.

Writer/director George Nolfi’s The Adjustment Bureau is neither fish nor fowl, but is engaging enough that it may find a second life on home video. Matt Damon stars as David Norris, a promising political figure who loses his shot at being in congress, but meets Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt), who he immediately falls in love with and leads him to the best speech of his life. Nolfi adapted the Phillip K. Dick story into a fantasy love story, where Norris comes to see that there are things/people (including Anthony Mackie, John Slattery and Terrence Stamp) that control his fate. Our review of the Blu-ray of The Adjustment Bureau follows after the jump.

Paramount did not quite reach the $50 million they were hoping for with their PG toon Rango.  With an estimated $38 million from its 3,917 locations, however, the 2D animated feature did manage to top The Green Hornet to become the biggest debut of 2011 so far.

See that?  All the box office needed to shake off the stagnant was Johnny Depp!  Debuting on the same weekend the actor owned with Alice in Wonderland in 2010, the animated western Rango is on track to have the biggest debut of the year.  The PG flick from director Gore Verbinski brought in an estimated $9.5 million on Friday from 3,917 locations and appears headed for a three day total above $40 million – and that’s without a 3D price boost.  If Paramount is pleased with their Rango debut, Universal is probably just as pleased with the debut of The Adjustment Bureau.  The Matt Damon-led sci-fi thriller opened to $6.7 million from 2,840 locations.  Expect a three-day total above $20 million, or a few million more than the studio was hoping for just a two days ago.  Alex Pettyfer is back this week in CBS Films’ Beastly.  The modern fairytale took in $3.5 million on Friday and should finish the weekend just below $10 million – right about where the studio was expecting. Full details and box office analysis tomorrow.

Opening this weekend is writer-director George Nolfi’s romance/thriller The Adjustment Bureau. Based on the short story Adjustment Team by Philip K. Dick, the film centers on the apparently forbidden relationship between politician David Norris (Matt Damon) and Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt).  As the story goes, the two are kept apart by a mysterious team of adjusters who claim it’s in everyone’s best interest if they go their separate ways.  Playing members of the Adjustment Bureau are Terence Stamp, John Slattery and Anthony Mackie.  For more on the film, click here to watch 7 clips.

Anyway, I recently got to speak with the cast for our partners at Omelete and after the jump you can watch my interview with Anthony Mackie.  He talked about how he got involved in the movie, working with writer-director George Nolfi, filming in New York City, how have the last few years been since The Hurt Locker, and he gave me updates on a few of his upcoming movies like Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Man on a Ledge, Ten Year, and Real Steel:

Hollywood has not had much success adapting the work of sci-fi author Philip K. Dick.  For every Blade Runner, you get a Paycheck, a Next, and the last twenty minutes of Minority Report.  The latest Philip K. Dick story to get the feature film treatment is The Adjustment Bureau, based off Dick’s short story “Adjustment Team”.  While most Dick adaptations wink at the cleverness of their source material before ignoring it in favor of massive set pieces, writer-director George Nolfi imbues The Adjustment Bureau with a cool confidence, and with the help of his charming lead actors, he carries the film through its sillier moments and unambiguous ending.

Opening this weekend is writer-director George Nolfi’s romance/thriller The Adjustment Bureau. Based on the short story Adjustment Team by Philip K. Dick, the film centers on the apparently forbidden relationship between politician David Norris (Matt Damon) and Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt).  As the story goes, the two are kept apart by a mysterious team of adjusters who claim it’s in everyone’s best interest if they go their separate ways.  Playing members of the Adjustment Bureau are Terence Stamp, John Slattery and Anthony Mackie.  For more on the film, click here to watch 7 clips.

Anyway, I recently got to speak with the cast for our partners at Omelete and after the jump you can watch my interview with Emily Blunt.  During the interview she talked about doing press, how the film does a great job balancing the love story and the sci-fi, my t-shirt (you’ll understand after you watch), how she got cast in the film, does she ever think she’ll do a superhero movie (she explains why she hasn’t yet), and we talk about Rian Johnson’s Looper – which she’s about to start filming.

I’ve been a fan of Matt Damon’s since Good Will Hunting.  In the thirteen years since that film got released, Damon has starred in countless films and even though he is known the world over, every time that I’ve been fortunate enough to talk to him, he’s always been beyond cool and willing to answer any question.  So when I sat down to talk about his new film The Adjustment Bureau for our partners at Omelete, I figured I was in for a good conversation.  However, no matter what I was thinking when I walked in, I left the room even more impressed with Damon.  That’s because when I first walked in he told me how much he loved my Goodfellas t-shirt and then we spent a few minutes talking about Martin Scorsese and Goodfellas.  He was going to tell me a Godfather Part 2 story when I actually forced him to switch gears.  However, after telling me some great stories about making The Adjustment Bureau, Damon gave me updates on Cameron Crowe’s We Built a Zoo and Neill Blomkamp’s Elysium.

But I’ve left out the best part.

At the end of the interview, I told him I’d love to hear his Godfather Part 2 story and then he smiled and proceeded to tell me an awesome story about the making of The Godfather Part 2 which he must have heard from either Scorsese or Francis Ford Coppola.  I’m a huge fan of the Godfather films and had never heard what he told me.  If you’re a fan of Damon’s, or just want to hear an awesome actor geek out like the film nerd that he is, you definitely want to hit the jump:

Opening next weekend is writer-director George Nolfi’s romance/thriller The Adjustment Bureau. Based on the short story Adjustment Team by Philip K. Dick, the film centers on the apparently forbidden relationship between politician David Norris (Matt Damon) and Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt).  As the story goes, the two are kept apart by a mysterious team of adjusters who claim it’s in everyone’s best interest if they go their separate ways.  Playing members of the Adjustment Bureau are Terence Stamp, John Slattery and Anthony Mackie.  For more on the film, here are 7 clips.

Anyhow, I recently got to do a phone interview with Nolfi and we talked about what it was like to make his first feature, getting his cast, working with the studio, the test screening process, balancing the love story in a sci-fi setting, working with cinematographer John Toll, and a lot more.  Hit the jump to either read or listen to the interview:

Whenever a big superhero project is announced, whether it be Zack Snyder’s Man in Steel reboot, Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, or pretty much just any big budget movie involving crime-fighting and costumes, an inevitable “short-list” of actresses pops up full of names that are being considered to take on the female lead role in the film. This list usually has the same 5 or 6 actresses on it, and most of the time Emily Blunt’s name is included. Such big budget films that Blunt’s name has been attached to include Captain America: The First Avenger and Iron Man 2, just to name a few.

Steve recently had the chance to sit down with the actress doing press for her new film The Adjustment Bureau.  Towards the end of the interview, he asked her if she thinks she’ll ever be in a Marvel movie, given her frequency on their short-lists.  While some try and deflect these kinds of questions, Blunt was very honest with her answer.  For more, hit the jump:

As most of you are well aware, 20th Century Fox is getting ready to start filming director Timur Bekmambetov’s (Wanted) feature adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.  Over the past few weeks, we’ve been reporting on the casting announcements including Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Mary Todd Lincoln, Anthony Mackie as Will (Lincoln’s best friend), Dominic Cooper as Henry (“a mythic, ageless figure who turns Lincoln into an axe-throwing expert slayer of vampires”), and Benjamin Walker as Abraham Lincoln.

Anyway, last weekend I was in New York City covering The Adjustment Bureau junket for our partners at Omelete.  During my interview with Mackie, I asked him how he got the part in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and he told me how impressed he was with the script and how he’s going to prepare to play a vampire hunter.  Hit the jump for his quotes and the video.

If you skipped Super Bowl XLV but wanted to see all the movie ads, you’re in the right place.  That’s because while we already posted Super 8, Captain America: The First Avenger, Transformers: Dark of The Moon, Cowboys & Aliens, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, and Thor, the studios also aired ads for Battle: Los Angeles, Priest, Limitless, Rio, Rango, Fast Five, The Adjustment Bureau, Drive Angry 3D, and Just Go With It.  If you’d like to check them out, hit the jump:

A new featurette for Matt Damon’s upcoming romance/thriller The Adjustment Bureau has landed online.  Written and directed by George Nolfi (writer of The Bourne Ultimatum), the film is based on a short story by Philip K. Dick entitled Adjustment Team and centers on the apparently forbidden relationship between politician David Norris (Damon) and Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt).  As the story goes, the two are kept apart by a mysterious team of adjusters who claim it’s in everyone’s best interest if they go their separate ways (perhaps they’re afraid their potential children could be too attractive?).

To check out the featurette, which runs about three and a half minutes, hit the jump.  The Adjustment Bureau opens on March 4th.  In addition to Damon and Blunt, the film also stars Oscar-nominee Terence Stamp (for 1962′s Billy Budd), John Slattery (Mad Men), and Anthony Mackie (The Hurt Locker).

Universal has released a US and a UK poster for their upcoming thriller The Adjustment Bureau.  Based on a short story by Philip K. Dick, the plot centers on an ambitious politician (played by Matt Damon) who falls in love with a ballet dancer (Emily Blunt) but discovers that mysterious forces and a team of shadowy figures are trying to keep them apart.  The film also stars Anthony Mackie, John Slattery, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Michael Kelly, and Terence Stamp.

Hit the jump to check out the posters.  While the film was originally slated to open this past September, it is now set to open on March 4, 2011.

Universal has announced new release dates for its upcoming films.  The biggest change is moving the Matt Damon/Emily Blunt sci-fi-thriller The Adjustment Bureau from September 17th all the way back to March 4, 2011.  Bureau will now be squaring off against Gore Verbinski’s animated comedy Rango.

Taking Adjustment Bureau‘s September 17th release date will be the M. Night Shyamalan-produced Devil.  The horror-thriller will be going up against the animated family film Alpha and Omega, the romantic comedy Easy A starring Emma Stone, and Ben Affleck’s crime-drama The Town, which is his directorial follow-up to the fantastic Gone Baby Gone.

Hit the jump for release date news on Skyline, Kids in America, The Dark Fields, Sanctum 3D, and Paul.