Wes Anderson has never had much problem lining-up impressive ensembles for his movies.  Even his earlier movies have great casts albeit less famous ones.  In a recent interview with THR, Anderson revealed his next film, Grand Budapest Hotel, will have one of his best casts to date.  First, Anderson confirmed Ralph Fiennes, Bill Murray, and Saoirse Ronan were in the flick (Fiennes and Ronan are the leads).  But they’re only a small part of the large cast.  Anderson will reunite with Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, Tilda Swinton, and Jason Schwartzman. Owen Wilson might also have a small role.  The movie will also include Jeff Goldblum, F. Murray Abraham, Jude Law, and Mathieu Amalric (Quantum of Solace).

Hit the jump for more.

Open Road has released new images from Steven Soderbergh‘s Side Effects.  Rooney Mara stars as a troubled young woman who develops a dangerous love triangle between her doctor (Jude Law) and her newly paroled husband (Channing Tatum).  The trailer makes the film look like an intense psychosexual thriller but done with the unique twist Soderbergh brings to his movies.

Hit the jump to check out the images.  The film also stars Catherine Zeta-Jones.  Side Effects opens February 8, 2013.

The quirky spin on its famous characters isn’t the most interesting aspect of Rise of the Guardians.  The most interesting part of the film is how it upholds fame as the biggest power in the world.  It’s an odd subtext for almost any movie, and especially a family film.  On the surface, there’s not much going on other than some fast-moving visuals and a smattering of jokes that wear too quickly on the premise.  Director Peter Ramsay and screenwriter David Lindsay-Abaire may not have crafted a particularly thrilling adventure, but they’ve perhaps unintentionally created a fascinating value judgment.

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

Joe Wright is a gifted director. His direction is daring, inventive, captivating, and unforgettable. But that doesn’t make him a great director. A great director finds a way to take the material he’s given and bring it to its maximum potential. Joe Wright doesn’t elevate his movies; he exceeds them. Pride and Prejudice and Hanna are marvelous, but Atonement and The Soloist are terrible. Granted, any director can only do so much with a script he’s given, but Wright seems content to leave his poor stories in the dust so that we can sit in awe at his bold direction like the long take of Dunkirk in Atonement or the musical colors in The Soloist. In his new film, Anna Karenina, Wright has once again blown past his story by using a melodrama to wrap his fascinating framing device rather than the other way around. Anna Karenina is a wonder to behold, but it leaves you wondering what you’re holding.

Opening tomorrow is director Joe Wright’s adaptation of the classic Leo Tolstoy novel Anna Karenina.  The film takes place in late 19th century Russian society and stars Keira Knightley as an adulterer who questions her happiness.  In true Wright fashion, this isn’t exactly a straightforward adaptation; the director has set much of the film in a lush theater that uses over 100 interconnected sets to allow the action to move fluidly through a door and into a separate setting entirely.  The film also stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Matthew Macfadyen, Kelly Macdonald, Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, and Olivia Williams.  For more on Anna Karenina, here’s Matt’s review, five clips, and all our previous coverage.

At the press day, I spoke to Jude Law.  We talked about what it was like to collaborate with Joe Wright and his unique camera angles, how he found out Wright wanted to tell the story in an unconventional way, the status of the 3rd Sherlock Holmes movie with Robert Downey Jr., and a lot more.  Hit the jump to watch.

We’ve got a few interesting set photos to share this afternoon.  Briefly:

• The Hangover Part III – We previously knew that director Todd Phillips’ trilogy closer would at least be spending some time in Las Vegas, and this image shows Zach Galifianakis and Ed Helms filming scenes inside Caesar’s Palace.
• Dom Hemingway – Star Jude Law is looking plenty intimidating as the lead opposite Madalina Ghenea in this crime comedy about a safe-cracker who gets out of prisoner and sets out to obtain what he’s owed.
• Horns – Daniel Radcliffe stars as a young man who wakes up to find himself accused of the violent rape and murder of his girlfriend and sprouting horns on his head.  Harry Potter looks sufficiently troublesome in these set photos as fights back against a couple of cops.

Hit the jump to check out the set photos.

Five clips from director Joe Wright’s adaptation of the classic Leo Tolstoy novel Anna Karenina have been released.  The film takes place in late 19th century Russian society and stars Keira Knightley as an adulterer who questions her happiness.  In true Wright fashion, this isn’t exactly a straightforward adaptation; the director has set much of the film in a lush theater that uses over 100 interconnected sets to allow the action to move fluidly through a door and into a separate setting entirely.  Early word has praised the gorgeous framing device, and it should be fun to take it all in when the pic hits theaters later this month.

Hit the jump to watch the clips.  The film also stars Matthew Macfadyen, Kelly Macdonald, Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, and Olivia Williams.  Anna Karenina opens on November 16th.

Jude Law has joined director Werner Herzog’s long-in-development Gertrude Bell biopic Queen of the Desert.  Described as the female Lawrence of Arabia, Bell worked extensively in the middle east and was responsible for establishing what would become the modern framework for Jordan and Iraq. She worked for British Intelligence during World War I, and was key in the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire and subsequent founding of Iraq.  Robert Pattison is already onboad to play T.E. Lawrence (ie. Lawrence of Arabia), while Naomi Watts is poised to play Bell.  THR reports that production is set to begin in March 2013 in Morocco.

Ridley Scott had also been developing a Gertrude Bell biopic of his own with Angelina Jolie, but it appears that Herzog beat him to the punch.  Law is next set to film Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel and will be seen in February in Steven Soderbergh’s thriller Side Effects.

The first trailer for director Steven Soderbergh’s psychological thriller Side Effects has been released.  Rooney Mara stars as a troubled young woman who develops a dangerous love triangle between her doctor (Jude Law) and her newly paroled husband (Channing Tatum).  It’s tough to get a grasp on exactly what the film’s about from this trailer, but I was sold the minute I heard “Steven Soderbergh’s psychological thriller.”  The film also reunites the filmmaker with his Contagion screenwriter Scott Z. Burns.  Mara’s proven herself to be an incredibly strong actress, and it appears we may get some intense performances from her, Tatum, and Law.  Moreover, Side Effects may or may not be Soderbergh’s second-to-last film ever, as the Liberace biopic Behind the Candleabra is the only other film the director is set to release for the foreseeable future.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Catherine Zeta-Jones.  Side Effects opens on February 8th.

A new character featurette has gone online for director Peter Ramsey’s Rise of the Guardians.  This one centers on the movie’s version of the Easter Bunny, an Australian anthropomorph named Bunnymund and voiced by Hugh Jackman.  The featurette is narrated by Alec Baldwin, who also lends his voice to North, the film’s version of Santa Claus.  If you missed it yesterday, there’s also a character featurette on Chris Pine’s Jack Frost.

Rise of the Guardians also features the voices of Isla Fisher, Jude Law and Dakota Goyo.  It opens on November 21st.  Hit the jump to see the new featurette for Rise of the Guardians. 

A new extended TV spot for DreamWorks Animation’s Rise of the Guardians has landed online.  The story revolves around the rebellious Jack Frost (Chris Pine) teaming up with other mythical figures North aka Santa Claus (Alec Baldwin), E. Aster Bunnyman aka Easter Bunny (Hugh Jackman), Tooth aka The Tooth Fairy (Isla Fisher), and the Sandman (who appears to be a silent character) to battle the evil Pitch (Jude Law).  I was quite taken with the film’s first trailer that played up the magical tone of the story, but this TV spot leans on the more DreamWorks-y humor aspects of the pic, which are a tad less appealing.  Nevertheless, I’m still keen on the story and Guillermo del Toro’s involvement as executive producer is most definitely a good sign.

Hit the jump to watch the 90-second TV spot.  Rise of the Guardians opens in 3D on November 21st.

Focus Features has released eight posters for Joe Wright‘s Anna Karenina.  Each poster highlights a different kind of love featured in the movie, although some of them are a bit redundant like the “forbidden love” and “scandalous love” between Anna (Keira Knightley) and Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) or the “pure love” and “romantic love” between Levin (Domhnall Gleeson) and Kitty (Alicia Vikander).  Adjectives aside, Anna Karenina is a big, bold romance film, and while I wasn’t completely taken with it, I talked to plenty of people at TIFF who were.

Hit the jump to check out the posters.  The film also stars Jude Law, Matthew Macfadyen, Kelly Macdonald, and Olivia Williams.  Anna Karenina opens November 16th.

Though Robert Downey Jr. is currently busy shooting the third installment of his Marvel franchise Iron Man, he has another popular series that’s poised to get the threequel treatment at some point in the near future.  The success of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (it grossed over $540 million worldwide) spurred Warner Bros. to get working on another entry in the action sleuth series, as the studio hired Iron Man 3 scribe Drew Pearce to handle the screenplay last October.

Word on the project since then has been quiet, but Steve recently sat down with Jude Law at the Toronto Film Festival to talk about his upcoming romantic drama Anna Karenina.  Towards the end of the conversation, Law provided a brief update on Sherlock Holmes 3, expressing his excitement at the prospect of reuniting with the Sherlock team for another go-around.  Hit the jump to see what he had to say.

Three new TV spots for director Joe Wright’s (Hanna, Pride & Prejudice) adaptation of the Leo Tolstoy classic Anna Karenina have landed online.  The romance pic stars Keira Knightley as an adulterer who questions her happiness, and Wright has boldly chosen to set most of the film’s action inside a rundown theater with over 100 interconnected sets that allow the action to move fluidly through a door and into a separate setting entirely.  The stunning visuals are on full display in these TV spots, highlighting the gorgeous settings in which Knightley, Jude Law, and Aaron Johnson interact.

Hit the jump to check out the TV spots, and click here to read Matt’s review of the film from the Toronto Film Festival.  The pic also stars Kelly Macdonald, Olivia Williams, Matthew Macfadyen and Domnhall Gleeson.  Anna Karenina opens on November 9th.

Joe Wright is a gifted director.  His direction is daring, inventive, captivating, and unforgettable.  But that doesn’t make him a great director.  A great director finds a way to take the material he’s given and bring it to its maximum potential.  Joe Wright doesn’t elevate his movies; he exceeds them.  Pride and Prejudice and Hanna are marvelous, but Atonement and The Soloist are terrible.  Granted, any director can only do so much with a script he’s given, but Wright seems content to leave his poor stories in the dust so that we can sit in awe at his bold direction like the long take of Dunkirk in Atonement or the musical colors in The Soloist.  In his new film, Anna Karenina, Wright has once again blown past his story by using a melodrama to wrap his fascinating framing device rather than the other way around.  Anna Karenina is a wonder to behold, but it leaves you wondering what you’re holding.