A new trailer for director Tom Hooper’s (The King’s Speech) musical adaptation Les Miserables has been released.  At over four-and-a-half minutes long, this behind-the-scenes featurette shows off new footage, video from the set and commentary from the cast and crew regarding the heightened emotional effect of singing live on camera.  Rather than the actors trying to match a predetermined meter for their songs, each of them sets their own pace with each and every take.  It’s damned effective (I get chills every time I hear Anne Hathaway’s part) and this new trailer will make you want to see the whole film even more.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Hugh Jackman (Jean Valjean), Russell Crowe (Javert), Amanda Seyfried (Cosette), Eddie Redmayne (Marius), Samantha Barks (Éponine), Sacha Baron Cohen (Thénardier), and Helena Bonham Carter (Madame Thénardier).  Les Miserables opens on December 25th.

Universal has released the first trailer for director Tom Hooper‘s Les Misérables and it looks fantastic.  Loaded with an all-star cast, the trailer for Les Mis features gorgeous cinematography by Danny Cohen (The King’s Speech) cut to Anne Hathaway as Fantine singing “I Dreamed a Dream.”  When I was at this year’s CinemaCon, we were shown a rough version of this trailer and told all the actors sang live on set.  While I wasn’t sure what to expect from Hooper’s film, I love the way everything looks and I think it’s a very safe bet that Les Mis is going to be a contender for all the awards at the end of the year.  Hit the jump to check it out for yourself and let me know what you think in the comments.

Les Misérables also stars Hugh Jackman (Jean Valjean), Russell Crowe (Javert), Amanda Seyfried (Cosette), Eddie Redmayne (Marius), Samantha Barks (Éponine), Sacha Baron Cohen (Thénardier), and Helena Bonham Carter (Madame Thénardier).

Les Miserables is easily in my top three most-anticipated films of the year.  I love the musical, and the film adaptation has a terrific cast featuring Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Russell Crowe, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Samantha Barks, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Helena Bonham Carter.  Today, twelve new images and four new set photos from the film have gone online.  The images give us the first look at Barks as Eponine (Barks previously played the role on stage), and Seyfried as the adult Cossette, the ward of parole-jumper-turned-respectable-businessman Jean Valjean (Jackman).  We also get some new looks at Javert (Crowe), Fantine (Hathaway), and Marius (Redmayne).  However, we have to keep waiting for a glimpse of Cohen and Carter as the Thénardiers since we haven’t seen them in set photos and videos either.

Hit the jump to check out the images and set photos.  Les Miserables opens December 14th. [Update: We've updated the article with high-resolution versions of the images and the film's first poster]

The red band trailer for the adaptation of Andrea Portes’ novel, Hick, is online.  The film stars Chloe Moretz as a 13-year-old girl who runs away from home to escape her mom’s alcoholic boyfriends and to seek fame.  She crosses paths with a troubled woman played by Blake Lively, and this red band trailer definitely promises something a bit different.  The film looks kind of chaotic and more than a little uncomfortable—my mind kept racing between Moretz’s age and how creepy Eddie Redmayne’s character was acting.  Directed by Derick Martini, the film screened at the Toronto Film Festival to a less-than-enthusiastic response, with our own Matt Goldberg calling it a “dull, ill-conceived mess” in his review.  I’m intrigued enough by this red band clip that I want to see more, so we’ll see how subsequent trailers sell the film.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Juliette Lewis and Alec Baldwin.  Hick will be available VOD on May 8th and opens in theaters on May 11th.

If you love Anne Hathaway for her long, flowing locks, you might want to look away.  Hathaway chopped off a good chunk of her hair to play factory worker Fantine in Tom Hooper’s adaptation of Les Miserables.  We’ve got set photos of her singing alongside Hugh Jackman, who stars as Jean Valjean.  Jackman has certainly cleaned himself up compared to prior photos; we also previously posted shots of Russell Crowe as Javert and Eddie Redmayne as Marius.  This appears to be the first look at a dramatically gaunt Hathaway and, for those who aren’t familiar with the story, is certainly an appropriate look for her character’s arc throughout the film.  Les Miserables also stars Amanda Seyfried, Sacha Baron Cohen, Aaron Tveit, Samantha Barks, Helena Bonham Carter, and opens December 14th.  Hit the jump to see the set photos.

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

• The Bling Ring – Emma Watson was spotted doing her best sexy socialite impression on the set of Sofia Coppola’s real-life story of a group of teenagers who robbed the homes of the rich and famous in the late 2000’s.
• Les Miserables – A new look at Russell Crowe as the nefarious Inspector Javert in Tom Hooper’s movie musical adaptation of the classic story.  Eddie Redmayne, who plays Marius, is also seen in character.  Hugh Jackman stars as Jean Valjean in the pic, and I’m not quite sure but I think he might be hiding in disguise in one of the images. The film opens on December 25th.

Hit the jump to check out the images.

Sometimes a memoir has to be taken with a grain of salt. In My Week With Marilyn, a retelling of a young man who has the time of his life on and off-set with Marilyn Monroe, things can become a bit eye-rolling. How much actually happened manages to be less important. What is essential is a small glimpse into something we may already know but remains heartbreaking nonetheless: Marilyn was an imperfect creature trying to keep from being swallowed alive by her fame. Despite not answering much of the whys and remaining mostly fluff, director Simon Curtis gives Michelle Williams the daunting task of playing Monroe near the peak of her popularity and she nails it. You can look at stills as much as you want, but the moving image allows Williams to blend into the role and become something audiences can fall in love with all over again. Hit the jump for my full review.

Tom Hooper‘s adaptation of the musical Les Miserables has added another key addition to its cast.  Deadline reports that Eddie Redmayne (Black Death) will play the role of Marius, a young revolutionary who falls for Cosette, even though he’s loved by the far more interesting and sympathetic Eponine.  Marius is kind of a bland character, although he does get the great song “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables”.  Redmayne is no stranger to period dramas having co-starred in The Other Boleyn Girl, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, the mini-series The Pillars of the Earth.  He’ll next be seen in My Week with Marilyn, where Deadline says his performance “has put him in the Oscar discussion,” even though early reviews dismissed the film entirely with the exception of Michelle Williams‘ portrayal of Marilyn Monroe.

Les Miserables also stars Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, and Russell Crowe.  The film is due out December 25, 2012.  Hit the jump to listen to “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables”.

The first trailer for My Week With Marilyn has gone online. Based on the memoirs of Lawrence Olivier’s assistant Colin Clark, the film details a week in the life of Marilyn Monroe as seen through the eyes of Clark. The trailer looks pretty great, and Michelle Williams looks to be going all out for the role of Monroe. It’s impressive to see her play the dichotomy of the public Marilyn and the private Marilyn, and Williams seems to be holding nothing back. I like the character-centric plot, and I’m interested to see where the overall arc of the film goes.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer. The film also stars Kenneth Branagh, Dominic Cooper, Julia Ormond, Judi Dench, Emma Watson, and Eddie Redmayne. My Week With Marilyn opens on November 4th.

Walkouts are common at film festivals, especially at press and industry screenings.  Why waste your valuable time watching a movie if something better could be about to start in the next auditorium?  Walkouts tend to occur for one of two reasons: 1) the film is so divisive that it offends the sensibilities of some viewers and they simply can’t continue on.  Those tend to be the good movies, or at least the ones worth seeing through to the end; or 2) the film is such a dull, ill-conceived messed that there’s no end in sight to the tedium.  Hick is latter.  I don’t walkout on movies, but I was so bored with Derick Martini’s wretched coming-of-age tale that I started counting walkouts just to stay awake.

After Kick-Ass, Chloe Moretz became the It girl of the Age 18 & Under division.  Based on tabloid presence, Blake Lively is a strong contender in the 18-28 age group.  As the co-leads of Hick, Moretz and Lively’s combined It factor is off the charts.  And we haven’t even touched on the fact that Lively is sporting a heavy Southern drawl.  The drama directed by Derick Martini premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival this week, but we have a first look (and listen) tonight.  The clip shows 13-year-old Nebraska girl Luli (Moretz) turn to the “troubled but spirited” Glenda (Lively) for help when she recognizes a drifter (Eddie Redmayne) she met one unfortunate night on the road.  The clip hints at the darker elements of the drama, but looking at the synopsis—spousal abouse, alcholism, underaged drug use, armed robbery—there’s plenty more where that came from.

Alec Baldwin, Juliette Lewis, and Rory Culkin also star.  Watch the clip after the break.

We’ve got a couple new posters for you today. First up is the stunning first poster for My Week With Marilyn. Based on the memoirs of Lawrence Olivier’s assistant Colin Clark, the film details a week in the life of Marilyn Monroe. Michelle Williams stars as the titular Marilyn and she looks absolutely perfect in this stellar one-sheet. The film also stars Kenneth Branagh, Dominic Cooper, Judi Dench, Julia Ormond, Emma Watson, and Eddie Redmayne. My Week With Marilyn opens in limited release November 4^th.

Additionally, we have the first poster for the thriller Texas Killing Fields. Based on a true story, the film centers on the tracking of a sadistic serial killer who dumps his victims’ bodies in a Texas marsh. The impressive cast includes Sam Worthington, Jessica Chastain, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jason Clarke, and Chloe Dean Moretz. The film also has a new release date, as Texas Killing Fields will open in select theaters October 14^th.

Actress Juliette Lewis (Conviction) has gained a few more co-starring roles in indie titles Hick and A Single Shot according to Variety. We’ve mentioned Hick before, an adaptation of Andrea Portes’ debut novel of the same name, telling the story of a 13 year old Nebraska girl who gets more than she bargained for when she runs away to Las Vegas. Portes herself wrote the screenplay and Derick Martini (Lymelife) will be directing. The pic will also star Chloe Moretz, Eddie Redmayne and Blake Lively, although IMDb suggests that Kirsten Dunst is no longer attached as we previously reported.

A Single Shot is described as a cat and mouse thriller between a deer-hunter and some hardened criminals out for his blood. Lewis will star alongside Alessandro Nivola and William H. Macy, Juno Temple and Emily Mortimer.  Hit the jump for full synopses.

The Black Death is spreading to American shores with the premiere of a red band trailer. The film, starring Sean Bean (Lord of the Rings), is set during the first outbreak of the bubonic plague in 14th century England. Bean plays a knight, Ulric, who is tasked with discovering the secret of a small group of villagers who can resist the plague’s effects. He is guided by a young monk, played by Eddie Redmayne (The Other Boleyn Girl). Black Death also stars David Warner (TRON) and Carice van Houten (Valkyrie), directed by Christopher Smith (Severance).

If you were a fan of fellow LotR alum Karl Urban’s brutal Viking saga Pathfinder, you’re sure to love the Dark Ages violence of Black Death. Hit the jump for the red-band trailer and full synopsis.

My Week With Marilyn has begun principal photography and the production has released the first image of Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe.  The film centers on a week Monroe’s life in the summer of 1956 on the set of the movie The Prince and the Showgirl.  My Week with Marilyn is directed by Simon Curtis (Return to Cranford) costars Eddie Redmayne, Kenneth Branagh, Judi Dench, Dominic Cooper, Emma Watson, and Julia Ormond.   Filming is scheduled to continue for the next seven weeks at Pinewood Studios and on location in and around London.  Hit the jump to check out the image of Williams as Monroe plus the full press release.