While Robert Pattinson fans have been waiting in vain for the domestic release of his new film Bel Ami, ten minutes of scenes from the pic have now hit the web with Pattinson’s lady-wooing skills on full display. The film is an adaptation of the 1885 Guy de Maupassant novel and stars Christina Ricci, Uma Thurman, and Kristin Scott Thomas. This Bel Ami tease comes by way of a sizzle reel intended to pique interest at the Berlin Film Festival where the film is premiering. If Bel-Ami nabs distribution at the fest, the film will finally get a US release date. It’s currently set to open in the UK in March.

Hit the jump to check out the Bel Ami scenes.

Ralph Fiennes directorial debut, Coriolanus, was a remarkably confident and well-made first feature, and absolutely worth your time despite the rushed ending sending the film out on a sour note.  Screen Daily reports that he’ll follow it up with the period drama The Invisible Woman, which will reunite him with his The English Patient co-star Kristin Scott Thomas.  The film centers on the secret love affair between Charles Dickens (Fiennes) and his mistress Nelly Ternan (Like Crazy‘s Felicity Jones).  Thomas will play Ternan’s mother.  Abi Morgan (Shame) wrote the screenplay, and shooting is set to begin in the UK on April 23rd.

The plot seems a little bland (I’m not sure why Dickens having a mistress is a big deal), but Fiennes earned my trust with Coriolanus, and Invisible Woman has a solid supporting cast.  As for Fiennes’ non-directing projects, he’s playing Magwitch in Mike Newell‘s adaptation of Dickens’ Great Expectations, and he has a highly-secretive role in the new James Bond movie, Skyfall.  Fiennes will be seen in theaters next month reprising his role as Hades in Wrath of the Titans.

When the Palm Springs International Film Festival starts on January 5^th, the honor of being the opening film will fall to Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. The film, by Oscar-nominated director Lasse Hallstrom (The Cider House Rules) and Oscar-winning writer Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire) is an adaptation of the Paul Torday award-winning novel of the same name. The plot follows a sheik (Amr Waked) who desires to bring salmon fishing to the Yemen, a wild idea that is facilitated by a fishing expert (Ewan McGregor) and a PR consultant (Emily Blunt) with the urgings of the Prime Minister’s press secretary (Kristin Scott Thomas). While Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is set to open the festival, the German comedy Almanya, Welcome to Germany will close it out on January 15^th. Hit the jump for more on Salmon Fishing in the Yemen.

A new trailer for the period drama Bel-Ami has gone online. Based on Guy de Maupassant’s 1885 novel of the same name, the story centers on a poverty-stricken soldier who climbs the social ladder in Paris by manipulating a number of mistresses. The trailer is basically Robert Pattinson bedding a bunch of involved women, then being surprised at the fact that his “Imma sex every girl in Paris” attitude brings him trouble. His conquests include Uma Thurman, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Christina Ricci. I haven’t read de Maupassant’s novel, but the story doesn’t exactly look all that appealing based on this trailer.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer. Directed by Declan Donnellan and Nick Omerod, Bel-Ami opens in the U.K. on March 2nd and is currently awaiting a domestic release date.

The first trailer for Salmon Fishing in the Yemen has gone online.  The story centers on a fishing expert (Ewan McGregor) and PR consultant (Emily Blunt) who are thrown together to bring salmon fishing to the Yemen at the behest of a sheik (Amr Waked) and the Prime Minister’s press secretary (Kristin Scott Thomas).  I found the film surprisingly witty and funny when I saw it at the Toronto Film Festival, but those qualities are almost non-existent in this trailer beyond Thomas’ scene-stealing performance.  Instead, the trailer plays up the romantic, life-affirming aspects in a heavy-handed, saccharine fashion.  It’s also probably not the best idea to finish up your trailer with a character saying, “I don’t have a sense of humor, as you recall.”

Hit the jump to check out the disappointing trailer.  Salmon Fishing in the Yemen opens March 2, 2012.

Ryan Gosling and director Nicolas Winding Refn delivered one of the year’s best films with Drive and the two re-teamed for the remake of Logan’s Run and the indie drama Only God Forgives.  Not much was known about Only God Forvies, and a previous synopsis and logline provided conflicting information, but Steve went to the American Film Market (AFM) earlier today and was able to pick up an official logline and synopsis.  Here’s the logline:

Only God Forgives is a fast, powerful, high-profile, action and violent revenge story with Ryan Gosling and Kristin Scott Thomas, never seen before, as a merciless and terrifying mafia godmother.

After the jump, you can read all of the previous synopsis and logline, and then read the new synopsis.  Only God Forgives also stars Luke Evans, and reteams Refn with his Bronson cinematographer Larry Smith and editor Matthew Newman.

For the past decade, seeing director Lasse Hallström’s name attached to a film hasn’t inspired much confidence. His work has ranged from middling (The Hoax) to the saccharine (Dear John) and I worried that his latest film, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, would be both. Instead, it’s a peppy, quick-witted British comedy filled with great performances, clever dialogue, and the mature development of a romantic relationship. The film staggers a bit getting to the finish line, but it’s a fun trip most of the way.

Mixing historical realities with a fictional modern discovery is a difficult combination to pull off. Writer/director Gilles Paquet-Brenner is helped along by thrilling source material that is based around a little known event in France’s grim times under the occupation of Nazi control in the heat of World War II. Sarah’s Key is bolstered by an engrossing turn by Kristen Scott Thomas and a swift kick of an ending that will leave audiences with sincere emotion. The film also keeps much of what made Tatiana de Rosnay’s novel so alluring with the back and forth between the present and the past, and the result is pulled off with absolute confidence. Hit the jump for my full review.

Wrapping up our coverage of new images from movies premiering at the 2011 Toronto Film Festival (at least for now since I’m sure more are on the way), we have the first images from Julian Farino’s The Oranges (starring Hugh Laurie, Leighton Meester, and Adam Brody), Lasse Hallstrom’s Salmon Fishing in Yemen (starring Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt), and Pawel Pawlikowski’s Woman in the Fifth (starring Kristin Scott Thomas and Ethan Hawke).

Hit the jump to check out all of the images.  We’ve also provided the synopses.  The 2011 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 8th – 18th.  For all the new TIFF images we’ve posted, click here.

We at Collider have been thinking a lot about Robert Pattinson in the last couple days thanks to Twilight‘s presence at Comic-Con.  If I may borrow your attention for a second, the trailer for another Pattinson project, Bel Ami, is now online.  The logline says it all:

Bel Ami is the story of Georges Duroy (Pattinson), who travels through 1890s Paris, from cockroach ridden garrets to opulent salons, using his wits and powers of seduction to rise from poverty to wealth, from a prostitute’s embrace to passionate trysts with wealthy beauties, in a world where politics and media jostle for influence, where sex is power and celebrity an obsession.

Uma Thurman, Kristin Scott Thomas, Christina Ricci, and Colm Meaney also star in Bel Ami, directed by Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod.  Watch the trailer after the jump.

We have a few pieces of casting news to report this afternoon.  First up, Luke Evans and Kristin Scott Thomas have joined Nicolas Winding Refn’s independent drama Only God Forgives.  There’s no word yet on which roles the Evans or Thomas will play, but according to Cineuropa [via The Playlist], the plot centers “on a Thai police lieutenant whose rivalry with a gangster sees the two settling their differences in a Thai boxing match.”  International rights to the film will be sold later this month at Cannes.

Refn recently directed the Ryan Gosling thriller Drive—which will premiere at Cannes and open in the U.S. on September 16th—and he plans to shoot Only God Forgives before moving on to direct a remake of Logan’s Run which will also star Gosling.  Presumably, shooting on Only God Forgives would take place this summer and then Refn and Gosling would shoot Logan’s Run in the late fall or early winter in order to accommodate Gosling’s shooting schedule on Gangster Squad.  Hit the jump for casting news regarding Armie Hammer and Frank Grillo.

We’ve barely dipped our toes into the first weekend of the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival and we’re already bringing you news in regards to film purchases.  Yesterday, The Weinstein Company preemptively bought all U.S. rights to the French film Sarah’s Key (or Elle s’appelait Sarah) starring Oscar nominee Kristin Scott Thomas (The English Patient).  Helmed by co-writer/director Gilles Paquet-Brenner (Pretty Things), the film is an adaptation of the New York Times best-selling novel of the same name by Tatiana De Rosnay.

According to the press release, Sarah’s Key spans a period of almost seventy years and tells the story of an American journalist (Kristin Scott Thomas) who is investigating the 1942 Vel’d'Hiv’ Roundup of Jewish families in Paris.  For more details on the buy, hit the jump for the full press release and a synopsis for the film.  Sarah’s Key will screen in Toronto on three separate occasions beginning next Thursday, September 16th.

The first official images from Bel Ami starring Robert Pattinson, Uma Thurman, Kristin Scott Thomas, Christina Ricci and Colm Meaney have been released and we’ve got them in high resolution after the jump.  The film which also stars Philip Glenister and Holliday Grainger was shot on locations in and around London and Budapest during an eleven week shoot. Shooting wrapped on April 22nd.

Directed by Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod, the film is an erotically charged story of ambition, power and seduction. Georges Duroy (Robert Pattinson), travels through 1890s Paris, from cockroach ridden garrets to opulent salons, using his wits and powers of seduction to rise from poverty to wealth, from a prostitute’s embrace to passionate trysts with wealthy beauties, in a world where politics and media jostle for influence, where sex is power and celebrity an obsession.  Hit the jump for more:

Over the last few months, pre-production on Robert Pattinson’s Bel Ami has been charging forward as we’ve covered the casting of Christina Ricci and Uma Thurman/Kristin Scott Thomas.  Now that the casting of the major players has been completed, we’ve been told principal photography on Bel Ami is scheduled to begin February 7 and they’ll be filming in London and Budapest.  Here’s the synopsis:

Bel Ami is the story of Georges Duroy (Robert Pattinson), who travels through 1890s Paris, from cockroach ridden garrets to opulent salons, using his wits and powers of seduction to rise from poverty to wealth, from a prostitute’s embrace to passionate trysts with wealthy beauties, in a world where politics and media jostle for influence, where sex is power and celebrity an obsession.

Based on the synopsis, I think Pattinson’s female fanbase is going to be very happy watching this movie.  Hit the jump for more:

A couple of weeks ago we reported that Nicole Kidman was going to co-star with Robert Pattinson in his next film, Bel Ami.  We then found out a little bit later that this wasn’t true and that Kidman was definitely not attached to the project.  However, tonight we have news that Kristin Scott Thomas (The English Patient) has joined the cast and that Uma Thurman will now be taking the role that Kidman passed on.  To find out what this “erotically charged story of ambition, power and seduction.” is all about, just hit the jump.