David Cronenberg‘s latest film, Cosmopolis, picked up some positive buzz last week when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.  Now the director is looking to reunite not only with that film’s star, Robert Pattinson, but with frequent collaborator Viggo Mortensen.  And while we previously reported that Pattinson was looking to team up with Cronenberg for a movie set in France, apparently Cronenberg’s next movie, Maps to the Stars, will be set in the good ol’ U.S. of A.

Hit the jump for more.

Though it’s certainly one of the more high profile indie projects to come along in quite some time, the first feature film adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s seminal tome On the Road has only now secured domestic distribution. IFC Films and Sundance Selects have acquired the distribution rights to director Walter Salles’ adaptation, with a theatrical release planned for sometime this fall.  Kristen Stewart, Garrett Hedlund, and Sam Riley front the all-star cast that also includes Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst, Amy Adams, and Elizabeth Moss.

I was a big fan of the first trailer, so I’m eager to check the full film out later this year.  On the Road will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival next week, so we’ll have the first reactions/reviews soon.  Hit the jump to watch the trailer for the film.

David Cronenberg is one of the greatest working directors, of that there is little question. But for those who’ve been following his work since the beginning, his career has taken a turn for the respectable. It’s easy to suggest that he’s holding back the weird for the sake of possible Oscar glory (which was denied him here) watching something like A Dangerous Method. But there’s enough perversity and intelligence in the film to mark it as a Cronenberg movie, even if it doesn’t go all out. Michael Fassbender stars as Carl Jung, who takes in Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley) under the suggestion of Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen). From there, things get weird. Our review of the Blu-ray of A Dangerous Method follows after the jump.

The first feature film adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s classic novel On the Road is finally slated for release this year, and now a new batch of images from the film has gone online.  The studio has been releasing some nifty character posters over the past few weeks, but this group of images gives us a better idea of what to expect from the adaptation.  I was quite a fan of the film’s trailer, and director Walter Salles’ (The Motorcycle Diaries) involvement is encouraging, so hopefully we’re in for a faithful iteration of Kerouac’s story that celebrates the spirit of the book.

Hit the jump to check out the images.  The film stars Kristen Stewart, Garrett Hedlund, Sam Riley, Tom Sturridge, Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst, Amy Adams, Elizabeth Moss, Alice Braga, and Danny Morgan.  On the Road is currently without a U.S. release date, but its slated to screen at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival in May.

Two more fantastic actors may be joining the revenge drama Out of the Furnace. I was already high on the project given that it serves as the follow-up to writer-director Scott Cooper’s swell drama Crazy Heart, then Christian Bale signed on to play the lead. Bale plays a man who is released after serving four years in prison only to find that his younger brother has been brutally murdered. He sets out to avenge the death and track down the killer. Casey Affleck is onboard as Bale’s brother, Zoe Saldana is set as Bale’s ex-wife, and we previously heard that Viggo Mortensen was circling the villain role.

Buried in a different story (thanks to The Playlist for the find), Deadline now notes that Billy Bob Thornton is eyeing the villain role instead of Mortensen, and Forest Whitaker is circling the role of a sleazy bookie. Both Mortensen and Thornton are terrific, but the prospect of Thornton tackling a gritty villain opposite Bale is incredibly enticing. No deals have been made with Thornton or Whitaker, but Cooper is assembling an incredible cast for what’s shaping up to be one hell of a movie. Production begins this spring.

We’ve got a few new posters to share with you today. Briefly:

• On the Road—Kristen Stewart, Garrett Hedlund and Viggo Mortensen star in the first feature film adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s classic novel. The film premieres at the Cannes Film Festival, and you can watch the trailer here.
• Killer Joe—Matthew McConaughey, Emile Hirsch and Juno Temple star in this NC-17-rated story of a brother and sister who hire a contract killer to murder their mother in order to get her insurance policy. The film is currently awaiting a release date. Read Matt’s review here.
• The Perfect Family—Kathleen Turner stars as a suburban mother and devout Catholic running for the Catholic Woman of the Year title. Jason Ritter and Emily Deschanel also star. The film opens on May 4th.

Hit the jump to check out the posters.

Although Jack Kerouac’s novel On the Road was published more than fifty years ago, there has never been a film adaptation of it. All that changed when producer Francis Ford Coppola and The Motorcycle Diaries director Walter Salles signed on, adding Garret Hedlund (Tron: Legacy) as the starring role of Dean Moriarty. Now we have a look at the first trailer from the film, which is set to open in France this May with a possible domestic distribution pick up if and when the film premiers at Cannes (May 16th – May 27th). The Beat generation road trip film also stars Kristen Stewart, Sam Riley, Amy Adams, Kirsten Dunst, Viggo Mortensen, Tom Sturridge, Danny Morgan, Alice Braga and Elisabeth Moss. Hit the jump to check out the trailer.

Just over a week ago, we learned that Christian Bale was looking to make writer/director Scott Cooper’s (Crazy Heart) revenge drama Out of the Furnace his next project. Now Variety reports that Zoe Saldana (Star Trek) is in talks to join the production. The story centers on a man who is released after serving four years in prison only to find that his younger brother has been brutally murdered. He sets out to avenge the death and track down the killer. Robert Duvall is expected to play Bale’s uncle, and Viggo Mortensen is circling the villain role.

Should she sign on, Saldana would play Bale’s ex-wife, a waitress who’s now married to the town sheriff. A number of actors are circling the role of Bale’s brother, including Casey Affleck, Taylor Kitsch, Garrett Hedlund, and Channing Tatum. I loved Cooper’s Crazy Heart, and it looks like he’s assembling a stellar cast for his long-awaited follow-up which is said to be “a gritty throwback to 1970s movies.” No deals have been made and the studio still hasn’t greenlit the project quite yet, but they’re looking to start filming this spring as Bale is shooting two Terrence Malick films back-to-back starting this summer. Saldana is currently filming the Star Trek sequel, and is expected to return for James Cameron’s Avatar 2 and 3 whenever he gets around to actually filming them. [Update: Variety has updated their story to say that Casey Affleck is now the certified frontrunner to play Bale's brother.]

After hanging up the Batman cowl for the last time, Christian Bale is now looking towards the future. Heat Vision reports that Bale is now in negotiations to star in writer-director Scott Cooper’s (Crazy Heart) revenge drama Out of the Furnace. Previously titled The Low Dweller, the film centers on a man who is released after serving four years in prison only to find that his younger brother has been brutally murdered. He sets out to avenge the death and track down the killer. We previously reported that Bale was considering the pic as a post-Batman project last August, but it appears he’s now settled on starring.

I was a huge fan of Cooper’s Crazy Heart so I’m eager to see his follow-up. The film was sought after by directors like Rupert Sanders and Ridley Scott before Cooper signed on, and Bale actually flirted with the project back when Sanders was attached. The intent is for Robert Duvall to star alongside Bale, but no deals have been made. Cooper wrote the script and Bale plans to shoot Out of the Furnace this Spring before moving on to The Dark Knight Rises press commitments and two Terrence Malick projects. He’ll shoot Malick’s Knight of Cups this summer, followed by Lawless this fall. [Update: Variety reports that Cooper is assembling a top-notch supporting cast, with Viggo Mortensen wanted for the villain role and Casey Affleck, Taylor Kitsch, Garrett Hedlund, and Channing Tatum circling the role of Bale's brother]

Ryan Murphy is having a very good year. His smash-hit Fox series Glee is currently enjoying its third season, his horror anthology series American Horror Story broke ratings records on FX, and just yesterday we reported an impressive cast featuring Mark Ruffalo, Julia Roberts, and Alec Baldwin will star in his next feature directorial effort The Normal Heart. Now, Variety reports that Murphy is set to pen an untitled sci-fi/horror project for Sony Pictures with Apollo 18 scribe Brian Miller.

Absolutely no details regarding the project are given beyond the fact that it’s a sci-fi/horror movie, and it’s not clear if Murphy will also direct.  Apollo 18 didn’t exactly break box office records, and critical reception was lackluster, so this isn’t exactly the most exciting news ever. Murphy has a knack for coming up with fantastic concepts, but his execution is incredibly hit-or-miss. That said, hopefully we’re in for at least a cool concept. Production on The Normal Heart is set to begin this summer, and Variety’s report notes that Murphy’s eyeing Viggo Mortensen for a role in the pic, which is based on the Tony Award-winning play of the same name.

We’re all pretty excited about the upcoming LEGO sets based on The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.  LEGO is now starting up their marking push for the sets, which will begin to roll out this summer.  Today, LEGO has released a poster featuring LEGO Aragorn in his The Return of the King poster pose.  That’s right, kids: Viggo Mortensen in LEGO form.  That’s happening.  Let us rejoice.

Hit the jump to check out the poster.  Look for more LEGO Lord of the Rings images in the weeks ahead.

Ah, November. Leaves are falling, colder weather is here (depending on where you live), and the 2011 movie season is coming to a close. While angry shoppers and red Starbucks cups generally mean it’s time to start preparing for the many awkward/tense family encounters that are sure to come, it’s also time to start thinking Oscar. We’ve seen a few contenders throughout the year, but a plethora of heavyhitters will be opening over the next 5 weeks.

To aid in your Oscar polls (or to quench your curiosity) we’ve compiled a state of the race preview as of this lovely Thanksgiving week. Granted, a lot can change from now until February, but a good portion of the major players have already been screened and we’re starting to get a sense of how it could all play out. We’ll be examining all the major categories over the next four days, kicking things off with the infamously unpredictable Best Supporting Actor and Actress. Hit the jump to see where things stand.

[This is a reprint of my review from the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival.  A Dangerous Method opens tomorrow in limited release.]

Psychoanalysis is a funny profession. Its doctors aren’t like cardiologists or gastroenterologists. Your heart is your heart, your intestines are your intestines, and so forth. Psychoanalysis, on the other hand, attempt to impose rationality on the irrationality of emotions. It works from a vague definition of “normal” and then tries to determine why a behavior deviates from that unspecified norm. Sigmund Freud believed it was not the place of psychoanalysts to simply point out the abnormality, while his protégé Carl Jung thought that the practice was worthless if it couldn’t be advanced to help those in need. These two figures illustrate the clash of the ego, id, and super-ego in David Cronenberg‘s A Dangerous Method, a film which brilliantly explores Freudian concepts and how we wish to indulge our base emotions but instead build a wall of reason and science to imprison our desires. However, in attempting to convey this blockade, A Dangerous Method inadvertently cuts off its emotional connection to the audience.

Last month, we received confirmation that David Cronenberg had written a sequel to his 1986 classic horror film, The Fly.  At the time, Cronenberg explained “The Fly is not exactly a remake, it’s sort of a sequel, kinda. Yeah, that was a thing. I’ve written a script of that, and I don’t know if that’s going to really happen, but that has to do with Fox.”  According to The Playlist, Fox has made their decision and that decision is to pass on the movie.  This doesn’t mean Fox won’t remake The Fly at some point, but if they do, it probably won’t be with Cronenberg.  On the one hand, it frees him up to visit new territory, but it also opens the door that some hacky director could come in and deliver a pointless new version (e.g. The Thing).

However, Cronenberg isn’t moving on to completely new material.  Hit the jump for an update on Eastern Promises 2.

Three new clips from David Cronenberg‘s A Dangerous Method have gone online. The movie focuses on the real-life relationship between doctors Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) and Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) and the complicated patient between them (Keira Knightley).  These clips show the growing relationships between the characters, but they also demonstrate the sterile conversations between the characters.  All emotions are house in clinical terms, which is the point, but I found it created too much distance between the audience and the characters.

Hit the jump to check out the clips.  A Dangerous Method opens in limited release on November 23rd.