Nicolas Winding Refn is alread reaching back in the history of cinema for a future project with a remake of Logan’s Run in the works with Ryan Gosling attached to star. But now it sounds like the director is reaching further back into the past for a new project, this time for the small screen. Refn is currently working with Martha De Laurentiis, wife of the late great producer Dino De Laurentiis, to turn the classic 1968 sci-fi movie Barbarella starring Jane Fonda into a TV series. The film itself was based on a graphic novel by Jean-Claude Forest and followed a sultry vixen tasked with finding and stopping the evil Durand-Durand, an evil weapon inventor. So how exactly will the director of Drive be involved? Hit the jump to find out.

Regular readers of our site know that we all loved Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive and would jump at the chance to see the director  return with star Ryan Gosling for a possible sequel.  The original centered on an LA stunt driver who moonlighted as a wheelman for criminals.  Now that the second book from Drive author, James Sallis, has been out on the shelves for a couple of months, he’s been kind enough to give some updates on the sequel’s progress.  Driven, the follow-up to the sure-to-be cult classic, is admittedly in the earliest of stages of development.  The good thing is that the plot of the sequel takes place seven years after the original, which would hopefully be more than enough time to get a second film off the ground (the first took six years all told).  Hit the jump to see what Sallis had to say about Gosling, writing the sequel and more on Driven.

Director Nicolas Winding Refn is currently busy in post-production on his Drive follow-up, Only God Forgives, but apparently he’s eyeing a graphic novel adaptation as a future project.  Deadline reports that Refn is in talks with DreamWorks to direct Button Man, based on the graphic novel Button Man: The Killing Game by John Wagner and Arthur Ranson.  The story centers on “a hired gun who’s offered a fortune to take part in a game organized by bored millionaires that sets trained killers against one another in a fight to the death.”  When the protagonist becomes disgusted and decides he wants out, he realizes that his only escape may be to kill the millionaires who are funding the competition.  Hit the jump for more.

A batch of new images featuring a battered and bruised Ryan Gosling in director Nicolas Winding Refn’s Only God Forgives has gone online.  Gosling stars as a man who’s been living in exile in Bangkok for the past ten years after killing a cop. He manages a Thai boxing club as a front for a drugs operation and finds himself in hot water after his brother is killed for murdering a prostitute. The boys’ mother arrives in Bangkok to collect her son’s body and instructs Gosling to take revenge and “raise hell.”  For fans of Gosling and Refn’s previous collaboration, Drive, this premise should induce a fair amount of anticipation.

The images show a beat-up Gosling pulling off “battered dapper” in his suit, but some footage was shown at the Cannes Film Festival last week and we’ve got a brief description of what went down as well.  Hit the jump to check out the images and footage description.

He’s directed drug-dealers in Pusher, an infamous inmate in Bronson, a Norse warrior in Valhalla Rising and a stunt driver in Drive…what’s left for Nicolas Winding Refn? How about producing (and possibly directing) the prequel of 1980s cult horror movie, Maniac Cop?  If you’re not familiar with the original (which featured Bruce Campbell), the premise centered on a lunatic in a police uniform that was randomly killing people in New York.  The original writer/director pair of Larry Cohen and William Lustig are back on board as producers and reports have it that Refn has recently signed on with them.  Hit the jump for more on the project and Refn’s involvement.

We were all big, big fans of director Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive here at Collider last year, so it’s with eager eyes that we’ve been watching Refn’s follow-up, Only God Forgives, unfold. The film stars Ryan Gosling as a man who’s been living in exile in Bangkok for the past ten years after killing a cop. He manages a Thai boxing club as a front for a drugs operation and finds himself in hot water after his brother is killed for murdering a prostitute. The boys’ mother arrives in Bangkok to collect her son’s body and instructs Gosling to take revenge and “raise hell.”

Refn recently spoke a bit about the making of the film and even touched on his next project, a horror movie/sex thriller called I Walk with the Dead starring Carey Mulligan. Hit the jump to see what he had to say.

First of all, no, that is not the new image of Ryan Gosling from Nicolas Winding Refn’s Only God Forgives. But hold on! We’ve kept the new image after the jump since it’s a little spoiler-y. The above image is the first one we brought to you in February and trust me when I say that Gosling looks much worse off in the new shot. It only makes sense, since the violence of Only God Forgives has been reported to surpass that of Gosling and Refn’s previous collaboration, Drive. In this film, Gosling plays Julian, the owner of a Thai boxing club that has strong connections within the criminal underworld. The film also stars Kristin Scott Thomas (The English Patient) as Gosling’s mob-boss mother. Hit the jump to see the new image and read up on the official synopsis of Only God Forgives.

It’s obvious that Gary Ross (Seabiscuit) was the right man for the director’s chair as The Hunger Games is off to a roaring start at the box office. But what would the film have looked like if it were helmed by a different director? Michael Bay, Brett Ratner and Roger Corman would certainly have emphasized the sex appeal and violence. Garry Marshall and Nancy Meyers would probably focus on the romantic side.  How would Terrence Malick, Federico Fellini and Werner Herzog have approached the source material? What about Christopher Nolan or Woody Allen? Thanks to these alternate reality movie posters for The Hunger Games, we can get a glimpse of what might have been. Hit the jump to check them out.

Look, it’s not much.  But based on the informal poll I never took, Drive was the consensus #1 movie of 2011 here at Collider.  So when Ryan Gosling appears in an electric red still image framed by Nicolas Winding Refn from their next collaboration, Only God Forgives, we’re going to pay attention.  Gosing plays Julian, a fugitive who owns a Thai boxing club that serves as a front for a drug smuggling operation.  He steps in the ring to fight a retired cop known as the “Angel of Vengeance” in the hope of finding redemption.  The full synopsis—featuring Kristin Scott Thomas as Julian’s mother/”the head of a powerful criminal organization”—is actually even crazier.  You can find it after the jump along with the image and news of the distribution plan.

Jean Dujardin must have been just as surprised as everyone else when he didn’t hear his name being called out as they announced the Best Actor award at tonight’s César ceremony in Paris. The Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma opted instead for Omar Sy, who stars in Untouchables, the biggest box-office smash of 2011 in France. A choice that many question.

“Jean Dujardin will win an Oscar for best actor but not a César. How embarrassing…” tweeted (in French) @Les_Cesar_fake, a sentiment that was shared by many others.

Shortly after winning Best Actor, Omar Sy’s Wikipedia page was updated and said that he had won the best actor award “even though he didn’t deserve it.” The comment was removed five minutes later… Another running joke is “Omar m’a tuer” (Omar killed me), in reference to the film of the same name. Maybe the Académie did not want to overcompensate Dujardin… or maybe this was their way of telling the Oscars, “We can do out own thing just to annoy you and everyone else.”

The Artist nevertheless won six of the ten awards it was nominated for, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress.  Hit the jump for a recap of the evening and a full list of winners.

A few days ago, we reported that Luis Prieto‘s English-language remake of Nicolas Winding Refn‘s Pusher had been picked up by The Weinstein Company’s VOD label, Radius-TWC.  The film centers on Frank, a drug dealer (Richard Coyle) who gets busted by the cops and has to throw away his product.  When he returns to the mob boss (Zlatko Buric reprising his role from Refn’s trilogy) without the unsold drugs or the money to pay for them, Frank frantically tries to find a way to repay the mobster.  A trailer has now gone online and I like the look of it.  Perhaps Refn’s executive-producer blessing make the remake more palatable, but I like what I’m seeing from Coyle, and it looks like Prieto has certainly delivered on the intensity of the drama.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The film also stars Agyness Deyn, Bronson Webb, and Paul Kaye.  Pusher is due out in the US later this year.

Before there was Drive, there was director Nicolas Winding Refn’s Pusher trilogy. The 1996 original followed Frank (Kim Bodnia), a drug-dealer who finds himself on the wrong end of a botched deal. The film that launched Refn’s career is going through an English-language remake by director Luis Prieto, starring Richard Coyle (Prince of Persia), Agyness Deyn (Clash of the Titans), Bronson Webb (Kingdom of Heaven) and Paul Kaye (Match Point). The remake has recently been picked up by The Weinstein Co.’s Radius-TWC, a VOD-oriented label that snagged the US and Caribbean rights. They are planning a release later this year. Hit the jump for more on Pusher including a trailer for the original trilogy.

While most of us are still reeling from the fact that Drive, one of the best films of the year, nabbed a grand total of one Oscar nominations (for Best Sound Editing, no less), director Nicolas Winding Refn seems undeterred. The Danish filmmaker is hard at work on his follow-up, the Thailand-set Only God Forgives starring Ryan Gosling, and he seems keen on using his newfound success to further (pardon the pun) drive his career forward. The director recently gave a brief interview in which he was asked about the possibility of a sequel to Drive. While I all but expected the director to outright state that he has no intention of continuing Driver’s story, his answer took me a bit by surprise. Hit the jump to see what he had to say.

As we cruise through awards season, eventually all of the Oscar categories will firm up.  Four nominees will be certain and there will be a little debate concerning who gets the fifth slot.  Some of those choices will be correct and others will be boring and predictable.  After the jump, I’ve put forward my picks for best actor, actress, supporting actor, supporting actress, director, cinematography, animated film and documentary.  I’ve also thrown in my choices for non-Oscar categories for Breakthrough Performance, “A Very Good Year”, Best Villain, “Who’s a Good Boy?”, Best Quote, Best Kill, Best Surprise, and Biggest Disappointment.  I hope that one day the Academy will recognize the validity and necessity of a “Best Kill” Oscar.

Hit the jump to check out my miscellaneous “Best of 2011″ picks.

Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve taken a look at the awards prospects of The Muppets and Bridesmaids; two films that, while critically and commercially successful, aren’t necessarily your typical awards season fare. Today we thought we’d consider the awards status of another impressive film from 2011: Drive. Director Nicolas Winding Refn’s violent genre pic premiered as a little independent film at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. The movie blew audiences away, and Refn nabbed the Best Director prize.

The film finally opened to general audiences this past September with plenty of advanced buzz and stellar reviews. While Drive didn’t exactly break box office records, critics and cinephiles fell in love with the peculiar drama, and now the film is headed into a very crowded awards stretch. Hit the jump to see our take on how Drive will fare during this year’s awards season.