Director David Gordon Green is just about to wrap shooting on The Sitter, which means we’re due for the first image from the set of star Jonah Hill in costume.  Hill plays a college dropout who agrees to babysit three mischievous children, played by Max Records (Where the Wild Things Are), Kevin Hernandez, and Landry Bender.  The night takes a turn for the worse when Hill loses the cocaine of drug dealers of Sam Rockwell and J.B. Smoove (Curb Your Enthusiasm), leading Hill and his charges on a chase through New York City.

The Sitter opens on July 15, 2011.  Hit the jump to check out the image.

Back in September we reported that The Fountain composer, Clint Mansell, was to score Duncan Jones’ new film, Source Code, a logical choice given the success of their collaboration on Moon. However, there has been a change of plans, as Mansell has an issue with scheduling.  Duncan Jones reported on his twitter that:

“unfortunately we weren’t able to work out a schedule so Clint could do the score in the end. He has been a very busy bee.”

In Mansell’s place, Jones has hired Chris Bacon, “a very talented young guy”, who has been working scoring films for some time but is largely unknown. A 70 piece orchestra is recording the soundtrack over the course of three days. Epic. Hit the jump for more.

Universal is hoping to dominate the sci-fi genre with it’s new company, Syfy Films, a collaboration between Universal Pictures and the TV network, Syfy Ventures. The new organization will focus on utilizing Syfy’s experience of science fiction and fantasy with the aim of releasing two movies per year by 2012, branded by the Syfy label but distributed by Universal. According to Deadline, a statement from Syfy president, Dave Howe reads, “We know there is an incredible consumer appetite for genre content as proven by the top grossing box office films…our combined expertise and resources [will allow us] to create commercially successful quality films that have the potential to become great franchises.” Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 is acting as the model for the new company, a movie that cost about $30 million to make, but grossed over $200 million world wide.

Hit the jump for more on the Uni-Syfy hybrid.

Paramount is backing a script by Mark Carter based on David Prill’s novel, Serial Killer Days. THR report that the story takes place in a town that celebrates the annual arrival of a serial killer with a parade and a pageant. Carter has been hoping to get the book to the big screen for some time, and for a brief period it was thought that Jason Reitman was going to direct it back in 2008 but it dropped off the radar and didn’t resurface until now. Assuming Carter’s new draft impresses, the likelihood is that he will also direct, making it his first feature film. Producer Dan Dubiecki (Thank You for Smoking) is also on board. Hit the jump for more.

Director Michael Mann (Heat) has hired Sheldon Turner, the screenwriter partly responsible for Clooney comedy Up In The Air, to write his new crime thriller, Big Tuna. The movie will be a biopic of Chicago crime lord Tony Accardo, and his young protege Sam Giancana, who eventually replaced him. For Michael Mann, this will be his second attempt at a gangster biopic, the first being the disappointing Public Enemies last year, which starred Johnny Depp as notorious bank robber, John Dillinger. Variety reports that Mann’s chosen scribe, Sheldon Turner, is a wanted man himself at the minute, attached to numerous high profile projects including his directorial debut, By Virtue Fall, starring Colin Farrell and Eric Bana, and as producer for rom-com, Kiss and Tell. Hit the jump for more on Big Tuna and both men involved.

It’s definitely not our usual story, but this is just too cool to pass up. Want to prep your home for the next generation with style? A step-by-step guide to installing air powered sliding doors, as seen on Star Trek, has surfaced over at Instructables. The doors are normal in appearance (presumably to appease the designers wife), and maintenance free. They function using a hidden air compressor, a nifty concealed control panel, and a switch to activate the air. Hit the jump for a video of the futuristic doors in operation.

Legendary actor Robert Duvall has condemned “the great Stanley Kubrick” as an “actors enemy”.   The fiery exclamation came  during a round table interview with THR after it was revealed that director David Fincher frequently took around fifty takes to get the perfect shot whilst filming The Social Network. Fellow interviewees Mark Ruffalo and Jesse Eisenberg laugh (perhaps with disdain?) as Duvall compares Fincher to Kubrick. No doubt a comparison like that would normally be considered flattering, but Duvall continued, dismissing the performances in such classics as The Shining and A Clockwork Orange as “the worst performances I’ve ever seen in movies”. Hit the jump for more.

Shooting has begun on writer-director Randall Cole’s Hitchcockian thriller 388 Arletta Avenue . Don’t be put off by the annoying smiley, the film is described as a “wickedly smart mystery-thriller” by executive producer Vincenzo Natali (Splice), which sees a slight change in direction for Cole, who usually helms comedies (he directed Real Time in 2008 and the disappointing rom-com 19 months in 2002). The film plays with ever present fears surrounding the use and abuse of technology, specifically CCTV, and details a scenario in which a deadly stalker is able to constantly spy on and manipulate a couple using hidden cameras. It’s not a particularly star studded cast, but then horrors never are. The film features Nick Stahl (Sin City), Mia Kirshner (Vampire Diaries) and Devon Sawa (Final Destination) and will be produced by Splice producer Steve Hoban, and Mark Smith (The Spine). Hit the jump for the full synopsis and more.

After his debut as a director in 2008 with the short film ‘X‘, Josh Brolin seems to have acquired a taste for the job and is hoping to step behind the camera again to direct his first feature film: an adaptation of the highly-acclaimed play by Dominique Cieri, Pitz & Joe. The Warner Bros. production is based on Cieri’s personal experiences, and is apparently a “two character drama about a young woman and her brain-damaged brother”. Although initial reports suggested that Brolin might also be writing the adaptation, according to The Playlist, the screenplay will be penned by Maya Forbes (Monsters vs Aliens) and will instead see Brolin starring in addition to directing. Hit the jump for more.

Fans of the classic novel The Grounding of Group Six by Julian F. Thompson, will be overjoyed to learn that three time Emmy Award winning writer, Tom Sheppard, has optioned the motion picture and TV rights to the book. It’s taken some time to make it to film, almost 30 years after it’s original publication, but according to THR, Sheppard has negotiated a deal with Thompson’s reps and hopes to both write and direct the project. First published in 1983, The Grounding of Group Six is a truly original book. It details the harrowing experiences of five high schoolers at Coldbrook Academy boarding school, where it transpires that they were sent by their parents not to be taught, but to be killed. Hit the jump for more.

The trailer to Frankie & Alice, Halle Berry’s latest psychological drama is now online. It’s not an unfamiliar genre to the Bond girl having starred in both Gothika and Perfect Stranger. This time she stars as a young woman in the 70s affected by multiple personality disorder, struggling to keep her racist white alter ego at bay. The movie is directed by Geoffrey Sax (Stormbreaker) and also features Stellan Skarsgård, Phylicia Rashad and Chandra Wilson, although no doubt it’ll be Berry hoping for the Oscar nod. Frankie & Alice is screening for Academy members and opens in New York and LA on December 17th.  It opens in limited release on February 4, 2011.  Hit the jump to check out the trailer.

Columbia Pictures has another “superstar cameo” up their sleeves for Zombieland 2, the sequel to Ruben Fleischer’s hilarious 2009 zom-com. The news is tantalisingly sparse but hints that the studios are searching for another famed movie icon to briefly feature in the new film and presumably echo the hilarity of the mind-blowing surprise cameo in Zombieland. Also, we’ve news that in their second undead-bashing misadventure together, zombies aren’t the only blight for Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg to combat, as the script requires a ‘lead villain’ who’ll inevitably cause some trouble, and Harrelson’s character finds himself in hot competition with a “hunky rival”. Is it possible that this rival may transpire to be the ‘love interest’ we heard talk of in the past?

Hit the jump for suggestions of who might cameo. Spoilers and speculative spoilers follow.

UPDATE: Screenwriter Rhett Reese has denied the Zombieland 2 cameo rumors.  Hit the jump for more.

Following on from our recent interview with Mila Kunis about her exciting role in upcoming psychological thriller Black Swan, we’re excited to offer a new clip from the movie. It’s just shy of a minute long, but it certainly conjures some serious intensity as Natalie Portman get’s the heebie jeebies during a wardrobe fitting. Anyone unsure of the tone of the movie will be left in no doubt after watching this – it’s an excerpt that’ll have you clamoring for the whole film. Sadly you’ll have to wait a few weeks.  Black Swan opens on December 3rd. The film also stars Vincent Cassel and Winona Ryder.

Hit the jump for the clip and further coverage of the film.

The first trailer is online for writer-director Rowan Joffé’s Brighton Rock, the second silver screen adaptation of the acclaimed novel by Graham Greene. Brighton Rock is Joffé’s first feature film as director, although he is already renowned as a screenwriter for 28 Weeks Later and The American, and is said to be a re-imagining of the book rather than a remake of the 1947 film.  Brighton Rock depicts the curious relationship between a young British gangster and a tea room waitress who witnessed a crime he committed. Sam Riley, whose last big feature was his breakout role as Ian Curtis in Control, stars as main character, Pinkie, alongside Andrea Riseborough (Made In Dagenham) as his love interest, Rose. Andy Serkis, Helen Mirren and John Hurt also star.

Hit the jump for the trailer.  Brighton Rock is to be released in the UK on February 4, 2011, but there’s no word yet on when it opens in the US.

Excitement surrounding the Coen Brothers’ latest film, True Grit, is building up a head of steam and we’ve now got four new character banners and the international poster. The new posters feature Josh Brolin, Matt Damon and Jeff Bridges looking badass, armed and dangerous, and newcomer Hailee Steinfeld, looking not-so-dangerous. For those not yet up to date, the movie sees Bridges as a hardened US Marshal helping a young girl (Steinfeld) track down her father’s killer (Brolin).

Hit the jump to check out the banners and poster.  True Grit opens December 22nd.