The nominations for the 2013 Independent Spirit Awards have been announced, and Oscar hopefuls Silver Linings Playbook and Moonrise Kingdom lead the pack.  Both films picked up nominations for Best Feature, Director, and Screenplay with Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper landing acting noms for SLP and Bruce Willis garnering a swell Best Supporting Actor nomination for his work in Moonrise Kingdom.  Beasts of the Southern Wild, Bernie, and Keep the Lights On round out the Best Feature nominees, while The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Safety Not Guaranteed were singled out for the Best First Feature award.  Also, Matthew McConaughey pulled double nominations for his stellar work in this year’s Magic Mike and Killer Joe, landing a Best Supporting Actor and Best Actor nod, respectively.  Notably shut out of the race entirely was Leos Carax‘s critically-lauded Holy Motors.

Hit the jump to check out the full list of nominations.  The winners of the 2013 Spirit Awards will be announced on Saturday, February 23, 2013.

Now available on DVD/Blu-ray is the romantic dramedy Ruby Sparks, from directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (Little Miss Sunshine), about a once-famous novelist named Calvin (Paul Dano), who creates a beautiful fictitious character named Ruby (Zoe Kazan) that not only brings his work to life, but actually literally comes to life.  TheDVD/Blu-ray special features include Behind the Story, Real-Life Couples: Co-stars & Directors, Be Careful What You Wish For and the theatrical trailer.

During this recent exclusive phone interview with Collider, the film’s star and screenwriter Zoe Kazan talked about how writing this feature came about, when she realized that she and her real-life boyfriend Paul Dano would be playing the roles, what writing allows her that acting doesn’t, how she originally had a different ending for the story, that she always wanted to leave the reasons for Ruby’s existence unexplained, how she just finished writing the first draft of a new project, and working with Daniel Radcliffe (the Harry Potter franchise) on The F Word.  Check out what she had to say after the jump.

Here are a couple of casting notes in brief:

• Heather Graham (The Hangover) is set to star opposite Selena Gomez in the indie comedy Feed the Dog, formerly titled Parental Guidance Suggested.
• Rafe Spall (Prometheus), Megan Park (The Secret Life of the American Teenager) and Mackenzie Davis (Smashed) will join Daniel Radcliffe in The F Word, directed by Michael Dowse (Goon).

Hit the jump for details on each picture.

A sharp, modern take on the Pygmalion myth, Ruby Sparks is the story of a novelist’s vision that inexplicably comes to life, only to prove far more complicated than even he could have imagined.  Ruby (Zoe Kazan) starts out as an idea in Calvin’s (Paul Dano) mind, but he creates her with such a strong individualistic desire to be her own person that he is ultimately forced to grow in order to accommodate her strength and evolution.  Directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris from a first screenplay by actress and playwright Kazan, the film constantly challenges the audience as it takes an unpredictable route into fantasy, identity and the ways we invent love and how love reinvents us.

At the press day for Ruby Sparks, we sat down at a roundtable interview with Kazan and Dano to talk about what happens when a writer tries to make a relationship from his imagination work in the real world.  They told us what the experience was like bringing their characters to life on screen, how they approached the film’s most physically and emotionally challenging sequences, and why Dayton & Faris were the perfect duo to direct the film.  They also revealed their next projects including Dano’s upcoming For Ellen, Looper and Twelve Years a Slave and Kazan’s The F-Word.

Daniel Radcliffe’s current career trajectory is screaming, “I will not be Harry Potter forever!”  The actor has been taking on an admirable diversity of roles ever since hanging up his wand last year.  Earlier this year, he starred in the gothic horror flick The Woman in Black, he’s playing Allen Ginsberg in Kill Your Darlings, and several days ago we reported that he would lead the supernatural fantasy-thriller, Horns.

Today, Variety reports that Radcliffe is adding an indie romantic comedy to his slate by signing on to star opposite Zoe Kazan (Ruby Sparks) in The F Word.  Michael Dowse (Goon) will direct from a Black List script by Elan Mastai (The Samaritan), which has “Radcliffe venturing to be the first male to have a successfully platonic relationship with a girl he likes (Kazan), only to find out she’s already in a relationship.”  I have no idea what this means because I’m not exactly sure how the story is measuring success.  Is he trying to escape from the friend zone?  Is he trying to be at peace living in the friend zone?  Damn you and your vagueness, loglines.  Damn you to hell.

Three bits of casting additions to finish your week off.  Here they are in brief:

• Kristen Schaal (30 Rock) will lend her voice to an animated character in Cloudy 2: Revenge of the Leftovers, along with original  returning cast members Anna Faris, Bill Hader and Andy Samberg.
• Dylan O’Brien (Teen Wolf) will join Shawn Levy’s The Internship alongside Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson.
• Ron Livingston (Office Space) is set to star in writer/director Jenee LaMarque’s The Pretty One.

Hit the jump for more on each picture.

The first trailer for Ruby Sparks, the follow-up feature for Little Miss Sunshine directors Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton, has gone online.  The film stars Paul Dano as a once-great novelist who writes his dream girl who then comes to life.  The trailer is expectedly quirky with brief touches of Stranger Than Fiction, but overall I think it looks like a lot of fun.  The premise is certainly enticing, and Dano and Kazan (a couple in real life) seem to have some great onscreen chemistry.  As a character hints in the trailer, I’m incredibly interested to see how this ends.  It’s a brilliant plot device to play around in, but I’m assuming the success of the film as a whole will hinge on how the story concludes.  In the meantime, Faris and Dayton seem to promise a follow-up not dissimilar in tone to Little Miss Sunshine.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Antonio Banderas, Annette Bening, Steve Coogan, and Elliott Gould.  Ruby Sparks opens on July 25th.

We’ve got a few new images to share with you today.  Briefly:

• Moonrise Kingdom – Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Tilda Swinton and Bill Murray star in writer-director Wes Anderson’s latest film.  The story centers on two 12-year-olds who fall in love at summer camp in 1965 and run away together.  The film opens on May 25th.
• Ice Age: Continental Drift – The fourth film in the Ice Age franchise follows the prehistoric characters during the breakup of Pangea and the splitting of the continents.  The film opens in 3D on July 13th.
• Great Hope Springs – Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones star as a married couple seeking a weekend of counseling from a therapist played by Steve Carell.  The film opens on August 10th.
• Ruby Sparks – Directors Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton’s long-awaited follow-up to Little Miss Sunshine stars Paul Dano as a creatively blocked, once-great novelist who writes his dream girl (Zoe Kazan) who then comes to life.  The film opens on July 25th.

Hit the jump to check out the new images.

We’ve got a couple of casting stories to share with you this afternoon. First up, Variety reports that Amanda Peet is the third person to join the cast of the comedy Identity Thief. Briesmaids star Melissa McCarthy plays a woman who steals a man’s identity (Jason Bateman), and hilarity ensues. Plot details beyond the basic logline are unknown, but Bateman and McCarthy make an enticing comedic pair. Throw the lovely Amanda Peet into the mix and you’ve got yourself the makings of a promising comedy.

I’ve been a big fan of Peet’s work for years, with her stint on the short-lived Aaron Sorkin series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip a standout on the show. Horrible Bosses director Seth Gordon is onboard to direct Identity Thief is set to open on May 10th, 2013. Hit the jump for casting news concerning the Black List script The Pretty One.

Directors Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton scored a huge hit with Little Miss Sunshine, but had difficulty getting a follow-up off the ground.  The duo was attached to Will, which was set to star Paul Rudd and Zach Galifianakis, but the project fell apart.  There was also the possibility of the comedy The Abstinence Teacher starring Sandra Bullock and Steve Carell, but that fizzled out.  Then Faris and Dayton were attached to try and get the long-in-development Used Guys into production, but it didn’t happen.  Last year, they finally got a new movie in front of cameras.  The film, He Loves Me, stars Paul Dano as “a once-great novelist who is creativity blocked due to heartache and loneliness, only to be turned around when he writes his dream girl (Zoe Kazan) who then comes to life.”  The movie co-stars Annette Bening, Antonio Banderas, Steve Coogan, Elliott Gould, Chris Messina, and Deborah Ann Woll.

Today, Fox Searchlight sent out a press release announcing that the title had been changed to Ruby Sparks.  The studio also revealed an official synopsis and a release date.  Hit the jump for more.

Michael Stahl-David (Cloverfield) and Zoe Kazan (Meek’s Cutoff) have joined Abigail Spencer in Brin Hill‘s supernatural romance In Your Eyes.  Written by Joss Whedon, all we previously knew about the film was that it centered on “two seemingly polar opposites who are deeply connected in ways neither could have ever imagined.”  Deadline now offers a more detailed description, and the story sounds pretty interesting:

Stahl-David stars as Dylan, a boyish-looking man who served time in jail for robbery when he refused to rat on his accomplices. Now, he is living in a trailer in New Mexico. Kazan stars as Rebecca, an attractive but skinny and slightly awkward woman, who is married to an older doctor and living in Connecticut. The two have a powerful connection, and they can hear and see each other, even though they have never met.

Color me intrigued.  Filming is set to begin soon in Los Angeles and Boston.

It looks like Annette is close to locking in her first role post-The Kids Are All Right. Variety reports that the actress is in negotiations to star in Fox Searchlight’s He Loves Me. The film stars Paul Dano as “a once-great novelist who is creativity blocked due to heartache and loneliness,” only to be turned around when he writes his dream girl who then comes to life. So it’s like Weird Science meets Mannequin, only super indie.

Dano’s real-life girlfriend, Zoe Kazan, wrote the screenplay and will star in the film as the dream girl. Bening is eying the role of Dano’s mother, a painter who’s worried about how much her son hates her second-husband, a dirty hippie (the answer is a lot. He hates your dirty hippie husband a lot). Little Miss Sunshine directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris are helming the flick, which starts filming next month.

Oscilloscope has released the first trailer for Meek’s Cutoff, an indie western set in 1845, the earliest days of the Oregon Trail.  Three families hire Stephen Meek (Bruce Greenwood) to lead them on a troubled journey over the Cascade Mountains.  Michelle Williams, Will Patton, Zoe Kazan, Paul Dano, Shirley Henderson, Neal Huff, Tommy Nelson, and Rod Rondeauxn star alongside Greenwood, a character actor I’m excited to see in a lead role.

The trailer effectively invokes a quiet, moody atmosphere.  I expect no less from director Kelly Reichardt (Wendy and Lucy).  Watch the trailer after the break.

One of the many films that premiered at last year’s Sundance Film festival was writer/director Josh Radnor’s happythankyoumoreplease.  While many might have thought Radnor only got into Sundance due to his CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, his film won the Dramatic Audience Award at Sundance last night, proving he belonged at the Festival.

Starring Radnor, Malin Akerman, Kate Mara, Zoe Kazan, Tony Hale, and Pablo Schreiber, happythankyoumoreplease is about six New Yorkers juggling love and  friendship.  Even though the story is nothing new in the world of movies, I really enjoyed Radnor’s debut film.  Also, while many Sundance movies are tough to watch, happythankyoumoreplease is a really sweet romcom that’s sure to please audiences looking for an uplifting movie about love.

With the film getting released March 4, a new poster and the first trailer have been released.  Hit the jump to check them out.  You can also watch my video interview with Malin Akerman and Josh Radnor here.  It was recorded at last year’s Sundance.

Hannover House has picked up the rights and will release happythankyoumoreplease, the Dramatic Audience Award Winner at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival on August 27 (via Variety).  Written, directed and starring Josh Radnor (How I Met Your Mother) the romantic comedy follows a New York writer and his friends who begin caring for a foster child who gets lost on the subway.

The new distributor, which is best known for its home video market, reportedly paid $1 million for the film and will open it in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Dallas before expanding it to 20 more markets on Labor Day. happythankyoumoreplease, which feels like a cousin to (500) Days of Summer and Garden State, also stars Malin Akerman (Watchman), Zoe Kazan (Me and Orson Welles), Tony Hale (Arrested Development), Kate Mara (Shooter) and Pablo Schreiber (The Wire).

At this year’s Sundance, Steve had the chance to speak with Josh Radnor and Malin Akerman, click here to watch the interview.  And here’s 3 clips from the film.