Last week, we reported that Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller‘s Sin City 2 had finally secured financing, and that filming was due to take place this summer.  The sequel, officially titled Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, has now lined up its first two actors by bringing back Sin City stars Mickey Rourke and Rosario Dawson.  Since A Dame to Kill For is actually a prequel, it allows room to bring back popular tough guy, Marv (Rourke), and prostitute dominatrix, Gail (Dawson).

Hit the jump for more.

Diego Luna, Gael Garcia Bernal, and Pablo Cruz started developing a Cesar Chavez biopic at their Canana Films nearly two years ago.  Chavez is a legendary activist and Latino icon, revered for his efforts in the American labor movement, so his portrayer must be chosen with care.  Two years later, Canana came up with an inspired choice: Michael Pena.  I’ve noticed Pena most visibly in recent years creating distinct comic characters in lighter fare like Observe and Report or 30 Minutes or Less.  But the actor made is name in heavier dramas like Crash and World Trade Center.  Pena is versatile, and you need an actor who can tap into both sides of the craft to play an iconic figure who is a true leader of men.

Luna stepped behind the camera in 2010 to direct Abel, and has decided to make the biopic Chavez his second narrative feature.  Luna cast Rosario Dawson as Dolores Huerta, Chavez’s partner in activism and co-founder of what eventually became the United Farm Workers.  America Ferrera will play Chavez’s wife Helen.  Hit the jump for more, including comments from Luna on the importance of Chavez’s message.

New images have been released for the likely-direct-to-DVD movie Fire with Fire.  The film stars Josh Duhamel as a fireman who has to take matters into his own hands when he’s threatened by a man he’s going to testify against.  So how do I know this movie is going direct-to-DVD?  For starters, the movie stars Bruce Willis and lately his small-budget thrillers are going to stores instead of theaters (Setup and Catch .44).  Second, it co-stars 50 Cent whose last seven movies haven’t made it into theaters (as well they shouldn’t).

But hey, maybe the movie will make it to the big screen, in which case the world can once again be reminded that 50 Cent should never be in movies.  Hit the jump to check out the images.  Fire with Fire also stars Rosario Dawson, Richard Schiff, and Vincent D’Onofrio.

People tend to freak out a little when it comes to their ten year high school reunion.  They see it as a chance to make up for past regrets, prove how well they’re doing (even if they’re not), and regress a bit to the meaningless drama of our teenage years.  Jamie Linden’s Ten Year gets the meaningless drama part.  Following a group of male friends and their female appendages, Ten Year features redundant storylines, a dearth of humor, an almost total lack of creativity, and a waste of a perfectly good cast.

New images have gone online for the upcoming action flicks The Expatriate and Fire with Fire.  The Expatriate stars Aaron Eckhart as a former CIA agent who moves to Belgium with his estranged 15-year-old daughter (Liana Liberato) and takes a job as a security consultant at a multinational corporation.  But then he discovers that his co-workers are gone, the corporation no longer exists and his assistant is actually a trained operative trying to kill him.  Upside: great dental program.  Olga Kurylenko co-stars as Eckhart’s former lover/CIA partner tasked with tracking him down.

As for Fire with Fire, the film stars Josh Duhamel as a fireman who has to take matters into his own hands when he’s threatened by a man he’s going to testify against.  Hint: he does it with fire.  The film also stars Rosario Dawson, Bruce Willis, 50 Cent, Vinnie Jones, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson.  It could end up in theaters, but my gut tells me this is headed straight to DVD with maybe a cursory stint on VOD.  Hit the jump to check out the images.  No release dates have been announced for The Expatriate or Fire with Fire.

A few weeks ago we posted the first official image from director Jamie Linden ‘s Ten Year when the film got announced as part of this year’s Toronto Film Festival.  Now, thanks to Voltage Pictures website, we’ve got a number of new images and the first poster.  Starring Channing Tatum, Ron Livingston, Justin Long, Rosario Dawson, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Chris Pratt, Kate Mara, Lynn Collins and Oscar Isaac, Ten Year is about a group of friends returning home for their ten year high school reunion.  Hit the jump for more. [Update: We've removed the posters at the request of the studio.]

Danny Boyle has found two more leads for his heist-thriller Trance.  Deadline reports that Rosario Dawson and Vincent Cassel will join James McAvoy in the film which centers on an art heist that goes sideways when its mastermind (McAvoy) gets amnesia and can’t remember where he stashed the loot.  Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson were previously rumored for the other lead roles, but now it looks like Cassel will play the leader of the heist team while Dawson will play the hypnotist tasked with recovering the mastermind’s memories.  The modestly-budgeted and harder-edged picture will be more in line with Boyle’s earlier films Trainspotting and Shallow Grave.

Filming on Trance is set to begin in September and then will be put on a shelf while Boyle directs the summer Olympics.  He’ll pick it back up again in August 2012 for editing and then release it in March 2013.  Both Dawson and Cassel will next be seen at the Toronto International Film Festival with Ten Year and A Dangerous Method, respectively.

Continuing our assault of all the new movie images that hit the net this morning, we’ve got our first official looks at Steve McQueen’s Shame (starring Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan, James Badge Dale and Nicole Beharie), Fernando Meirelles 360 (starring Jude Law, Anthony Hopkins, Rachel Weisz and Ben Foster), Jamie Linden’s Ten Year (starring Channing Tatum, Rosario Dawson, Justin Long, Kate Mara, Anthony Mackie and Chris Pratt) and Ralph Fiennes’ directorial debut Coriolanus (which stars Fiennes and Gerard Butler).

While many Film Festivals hope to land a few big movies, this year’s Toronto International Film Festival is an insane lineup that’s loaded with huge actors and high profile projects.  Like the past few years, I’ll be at TIFF, so you can expect plenty of reviews/interviews during the Festival which runs from September 8-18th.  Hit the jump to check out all the new images.

With director Frank Coraci’s (Click, The Wedding Singer) Zookeeper opening July 8, we’ve been sent six clips from the film.  Starring Kevin James in a remix of Night at the Museum (instead of a museum, he’s at a zoo), the pic is probably going to make a boat load of cash for Sony if James’ track record is any indication.  In case you don’t pay attention to box office numbers, James is pretty close to a sure thing.  While many thought Paul Blart: Mall Cop was a joke, it went on to make $183 at the worldwide box office.  Even Grown Ups, which got beaten with a club by critics, went on to make $271 million worldwide.  So, even though you couldn’t pay me to watch Zookeeper, I know kids are going to love it and it’s going to make a lot of coin.  Hit the jump for the clips and full synopsis.  Zookeeper also stars Rosario Dawson and Leslie Bibb and it features the voices of Cher, Nick Nolte, Adam Sandler, and Sylvester Stallone.

There are lots of movies I’m looking forward to and I’m happy when I get to report on films like Rampart or The Wettest County in the World.  But the site isn’t simply about the films I like.  Sometimes I have to report on films that crumple up my soul and chuck it in a waste bin of sadness.  With that in mind, the trailer for Zookeeper has gone online.  The “family film” stars Kevin James as a zookeeper who discovers that animals can talk and that they’ll help him win back the girl of his dreams (Leslie Bibb) even though he’s clearly going to end up with a fellow zookeeper played by Rosario Dawson.  Oh, and the animals are voiced by celebrities like Cher, Nick Nolte, Adam Sandler, and Sylvester Stallone because of course they are.

Hit the jump to see the trailer filled with slapstick and uncomfortable production placement for TGI Friday’s.  Zookeeper opens July 8th, but maybe go see something else instead, like paint drying.

Sony Pictures has offered Kate Beckinsale  the role of Lori opposite Colin Farrell in their Total Recall remake.  Diane Kruger, Kate Bosworth, and Jessica Biel have each read for the part of Lori.  This is the first time Beckinsale has been linked to the film, though her involvement is no surprise: Beckinsale is slightly married to the director, Len Wiseman.  They previously collaborated on the Underworld movies.

If Beckinsale accepts, Biel has a backup; early reports suggested the actress is after the role of Melina.  Yet that may prove yet another dead end for Ms. Biel.  Deadline hears Eva Mendes and Rosario Dawson are “the serious contenders” for the role.  Bryan Cranston is confirmed to play villain Vilos Cohaagen in the remake.  Read more on the story after the jump.

Doug Liman first set up Luna with Jake Gyllenhaal at DreamWorks in 2007, then with Paramount, then put it on hold for a couple years to direct Jumper and Fair Game.  Liman was actively working on a Three Musketeers adaptation before Paul W.S. Anderson beat him to the punch.  So he turned his attention to All You Need Is Kill, a spec sci-fi script with plenty of heat behind it.  However, All You Need Is Kill has reportedly lost steam, and Liman has returned his focus to Luna (now “Untitled Moon Project”).  But Gyllenhaal has since moved on, so Liman is meeting with a bevy of young Hollywood stars to fill the role.  Heat Vision indicates the director has already spoken with Rosario Dawson, Megan Fox, Rachel McAdams, Eva Mendes, Zoe Saldana, Olivia Wilde, Andrew Garfield, Emile Hirsch, and Chris Pine, and plans to meet with more names in the coming week.

Details on the project after the break.

Tony Scott is one of those directors where you have no idea if he’s going to deliver a modestly successful studio film, or something out of its mind. Top Gun, Enemy of the State, Spy Game suggests a director who knows how to deliver what studios want.  Butt then sometimes, like with True Romance, or Domino he takes a chance and goes for broke in ways that either work great or are nigh unwatchable. Then you have a film like Man on Fire that’s both a studio picture, and a borderline experimental movie. Unstoppable is Scott in studio picture mode, but it’s unmistakably a Tony Scott film. Such is his filmmaking. Denzel Washington stars as Frank, an older guy in the train business who’s been recently partnered with Will (Chris Pine), a rookie with the right last name to get ahead. They start a gruff working relationship, but they’re forced to get along and do their jobs when they have to stop a runaway train with the destructive force of a missile the size of the Chrysler building… or at least that’s what controller Connie (Rosario Dawson) says. My review of the Blu-ray of Unstoppable follows after jump.

The trailer for Girl Walks into a Bar has gone online.  The film has an impressive cast that includes Carla Gugino, Zachary Quinto, Danny DeVito, Josh Hartnett, Rosario Dawson, Alexis Bledel, and Robert Forster.  Based solely on the trailer, I have no idea was to what the movie’s about.  But Girl‘s hook doesn’t seem to be it’s cast or its story, but rather its distribution method.  Girl Walks into a Bar will be presented by Lexus and YouTube for free, exclusively on YouTube.  The money quote in the press release comes from Lexus VP of Marketing Dave Nordstrom:

“It seems fitting to support this initiative as we launch our most unconfined vehicle yet—the CT 200h hybrid —in a space that we know will reach an unconventional, sophisticated audience.” (emphasis mine)

Clearly, Mr. Nordstrom has never been on YouTube.  Hit the jump to check out the trailer, four images from the film, and the full press release.  Girl Walks into a Bar goes online March 11th.

Tim McGraw (The Blind Side) is in talks to star opposite Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds in Safe House.  The action thriller follows “the only surviving agent of an attack on a CIA safe house (Reynolds) as he tries to get a lethal prisoner (Washington) to a second safe house before being taken out by violent forces that want them both dead.”  According to Heat Vision, McGraw will play Reynolds’ mentor at the CIA, who may not be all he appears to be.”  Daniel Espinoza (Snabba Cash) will direct from a script by David Guggenheim, which recently landed on the 2010 Black List of the top unproduced screenplays in Hollywood.

Hit the jump for details on Rosario Dawson (Unstoppable) and Lynn Collins (True Bloods) in Ten Year, plus Jack Huston’s upgrade to regular status on Boardwalk Empire.