Sony Pictures has given Silver Linings Playbook director David O. Russell’s next film a prime awards season release date later this year.  The untitled project (formerly known as American Bullshit) will hit theaters in limited release on December 13th before going wide on Christmas Day.  The pic is based on a real-life undercover sting operation called Abscam, which was set up in the 1980s by a con artist working for the FBI who rooted out corruption in Congress.

The cast reads like a “Best Of” from Russell’s filmography, as Bradley Cooper and Christian Bale are set in the leads with Amy Adams, Jennifer Lawrence, Louis C.K., Jeremy Renner, and Alessandro Nivola (Face/Off) rounding out the ensemble.  Hit the jump for more.

A new magazine cover featuring Man of Steel stars Henry Cavill (Immortals) and Amy Adams (The Fighter) has been released online.  Zack Snyder’s take on Superman finds Clark Kent (Cavill) deciding on whether to use his abilities to promote peace or to conquer.  Whatever he decides, he must protect those he loves from a new threat.

The film also stars Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Michael Shannon, Laurence Fishburne, Antje Traue, Ayelet Zurer, Christopher Meloni and Russell Crowe.  Man of Steel opens June 14th.  Hit the jump to check out the new image. [Update: We've updated the article with high-resolution versions of the covers.]

With the 85th Academy Awards looming closer, we here at Collider thought now would be a good time to take a look back at Oscar race thus far.  It’s been a wild and somewhat nutty 12 months, as we’ve seen numerous contenders rise and fall (and some rise back up again) in the contentious hunt for Oscar gold.  We’ve already run down the ebbs and flows of the Best Supporting Actor category, and today we’ll be taking a look back and how the race played out for Best Supporting Actress.

It’s been about ten months since the last episode of Funny or Die series Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis, but I guess to make up for the delay, they’re breaking out all the stars.  In the first of a two-part “Oscar Edition”, the show’s guests include Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook), Naomi Watts (The Impossible), Christ of Waltz (Django Unchained), Anne Halfway (French Movie), and Amys Adams (The Master).  Watching these brief interviews, I wish they were expanded out into full segments, but I’ll take as much of Between Two Ferns as I can get.

Hit the jump to check out the latest episode of Between Two Ferns.

The feature film adaptation of Jonathan Tropper’s novel This is Where I Leave You is picking up some steam.  The project was initially gearing up to begin production last spring under director Adam Shankman with an ensemble cast that included Jason Bateman, Zac Efron, Goldie Hawn, Leslie Mann, Malin Akerman, and Jason Sudeikis, but Shankman subsequently exited the project and casting deals were never completed, so movement stalled.  Shawn Levy came onboard to direct last fall, and now Bateman is back on the project as the search to fill out the rest of the cast begins in anticipation of a May or June production start date.

The book tells the story of a dysfunctional family that is forced to reunite when their father requests they sit Shivah for seven days following his death, and the feature film adaptation has attracted a great deal of talent, with Harry Potter director David Yates previously flirting with the project.  Hit the jump to find out which actresses are currently testing for roles opposite Bateman.

In Man of Steel, Amy Adams will be the third Lois Lane to hit the big screen following Margot Kidder and Kate Bosworth.  Considering that Adams is a four-time Oscar nominee, she was a bit of great casting.  However, Lois Lane has rarely evolved past the sharp-witted reporter (who can’t figure out that her co-worker is a superhero)/damsel-in-distress in Superman’s world, so I’m curious to see screenwriter David Goyer and director Zack Snyder‘s take on the character.  Their emphasis on a “real-world” adaptation should extend past beyond making Superman sad.

Hit the jump to check out the image.  The film also stars Henry Cavill, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Michael Shannon, Laurence Fishburne, Antje Traue, Ayelet Zurer, Christopher Meloni, and Russell Crowe.  Man of Steel opens in 3D on June 14th.

A momentous occasion happened last night on late night television: Matt Damon finally reached a breaking point and hijacked Jimmy Kimmel Live.  Damon has been the brunt of a long-running joke on the show in which Kimmel ends each night’s broadcast by apologizing for bumping Matt Damon when they run out of time.  Damon has appeared in a few sketches here and there that tie-in with the gag, but fresh off Kimmel’s timeslot change that puts him up against Letterman and Leno, Damon hosted the entire show last night as he had “kidnapped” Kimmel.

It was a hilariously fun 90 minutes, as Damon must have picked up the phone and called all his closest friends since the broadcast was filled with the likes of Ben Affleck, Gary Oldman, Nicole Kidman, Robin Williams, Reese Witherspoon, Andy Garcia, Amy Adams, Sheryl Crow, Demi Moore, and plenty others.  Hit the jumps to watch a few highlights from the show.

Writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson’s perplexing drama The Master was certainly one of the most thought-provoking films of 2012, and now you can continue to (attempt to) unravel the puzzle at home with the Blu-ray and DVD release.  The Weinstein Company announced today that The Master will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on February 26th.  The combo pack’s special features include “Back Beyond,” which is a collection of outtakes and additional scenes edited to music by composer Johnny Greenwood, “Unguided Message,” which is an 8-minute short/behind-the-scenes look at the film, and a group of teasers and trailers which as we all know included footage not shown in the film.

As a bonus, an additional special feature will be added to the combo pack by way of John Huston’s fantastic 1946 documentary about WWII veterans Let There Be Light.  Hit the jump to check out the full press release and cover art.

The nominations for the 85th Academy Awards have been announced, and it’s quite a whirlwind of nominees.  As expected, Lincoln landed the most nominations with 12, followed with Ang Lee’s Life of Pi which nabbed 11.  The big story here, though, is the Best Director category.  Shockingly, only two (two!) of the DGA nominees for Best Director made the Oscar cut: Ang Lee and Steven Spielberg.  The rest of the category was filled out by Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild, David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook, and Michael Haneke for Amour.  It was almost guaranteed that Ben Affleck and Kathryn Bigelow would be landing nominations for Argo and Zero Dark Thirty, respectively, but shockingly neither made the cut.  Apparently those films just directed themselves.  Based off today’s nominations, it now looks like it’s (surprisingly) down to Lincoln vs. Silver Linings Playbook for the big win.

Hit the jump to check out the list of nominees, and click here to check them against my predictions (somehow I predicted the Best Picture and Supporting Actor categories perfectly).  The 85th Academy Awards will take place on February 24th.

At last, Oscar is upon us.  Back in November I shared a look at the early awards season race by way of our 2013 Oscar Preview articles, and now nearly two months later there’s still quite a bit up in the air.  This truly is one of the more exciting awards races in recent years, as 2012 is so stacked with quality that there are a surprising number of uncertainties this close to the Academy Awards ceremony.  Nevertheless, I am once again foolishly going to attempt to predict how the Oscar nominations will shake out when they’re announced tomorrow morning, January 10th.  Hit the jump to check out my predictions.

Trouble with the Curve came out in late September and died a quick death, not helped by Clint Eastwood’s performance at the Republican National Convention. But though Eastwood was front and center in selling the picture, he didn’t direct it. No, it was helmed by Robert Lorenz, a longtime Eastwood associate who wanted his turn behind the camera. This suggests he won’t get another chance. It’s a modestly charming formula movie that plays like something better suited for old people and television viewings. Amy Adams and Justin Timberlake co-star and our review of the Blu-ray follows after the jump.

[This is a re-post of my review from the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival.  On the Road opens today in limited release.]

Jack Kerouac‘s On the Road is a novel that inspired a generation of restless young men and women to break free from their comfort zones, broaden their horizons, and look to the majesty of America. Walter Salles‘ On the Road is a film adaptation that will inspire a generation of lazy high school kids to watch the movie instead of reading the book. Salles snaps up the words of Kerouac’s novel, but not their spirit. The movie shouldn’t simply regurgitate the book because adaptation should be a work of inspiration and not imitation. But there’s nothing inspired about Salles’ picture. It’s safe where it should be dangerous. It’s lugubrious when it should be explosive. It’s derivative when it should be daring. Despite glimmers of an emotionally moving story, On the Road rarely has the energy to get up and bravely venture forth beyond the plot constraints of a book that’s not driven by its plot.

Warner Bros. has released a new trailer for Zack Snyder‘s Man of Steel starring Henry Cavill as Superman.  Rather than focusing on the action, the trailer tries to sell us on what would happen if Superman really existed on our planet and would people really accept someone with God like powers.  Of course towards the end of the trailer, we get a good look at some of the big action set pieces and Amy Adams as Lois Lane and Michael Shannon as the villain Zod.  But the fact is, every big budget Hollywood movie has action.  Without a strong story and characters you care about, the action means nothing.  Thankfully, everything I’ve seen thus far on the Man of Steel tells me Snyder has crafted a great Superman film that will deliver everything the fans want and more.  It’s easily one of my most anticipated films of 2013.  Hit the jump to watch the new trailer and then be prepared to start counting down the days to June 14.

Man of Steel also stars Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, Antje Traue, Ayelet Zurer, Christopher Meloni, and Russell Crowe star.  Man of Steel opens on June 14, 2013.

Director Kathryn Bigelow’s drama Zero Dark Thirty continues its dominant critics awards path, as it has picked up two more Best Picture wins from the New York Film Critics Online and Boston Society of Film Critics groups, adding to its previous wins from the New York Film Critics Circle and National Board of Review.  Bigelow also won Best Director from both organizations, while Daniel Day-Lewis took home Best Actor for Lincoln.  Emmanuelle Riva won Best Actress from New York and Boston, while she shared the award in a tie with Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook in the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.

Los Angeles broke from the mold a bit by naming director Michael Haneke‘s devastating French-language film Amour the Best Film of the year.  They also awarded Paul Thomas Anderson Best Director for The Master and Beasts of the Southern Wild’s Dwight Henry the Best Supporting Actor honor in a couple of pleasant surprises.  Hit the jump for the full list of winners from all three critics groups.

Oscar season is in full swing, folks.  2012 has been a fantastic year in film so far, and with merely weeks to go before 2013 begins there are still a couple of highly anticipated films that have yet to be seen.  Just like last year, I’ll be running down a preview of the upcoming Oscar race during this fine Thanksgiving week, giving readers a look at what the state of the race looks like right now.  To be clear, this isn’t a personal list but rather an objective look at how things look to be shaping up.  I’ve divided each category into frontrunners, likely to be nominated, and other contenders in order to parse out where things stand at the moment.  There are multiple strong contenders in nearly every category, so this is looking to be a rather heated run to the finish line.

We’ll be looking at a couple of different major categories each day over the next four days, and we’re kicking things off with the Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress categories.  Hit the jump to read on.