Just yesterday we posted the very first TV spot for Oliver Stone’s upcoming crime drama Savages, and now a number of images and behind-the-scenes photos have gone online.  The official images were taken using Instagram (naturally), but the behind-the-scenes photos are actually the more intriguing set.  We see Taylor Kitsch and Aaron Johnson doing prep work at a shooting range with Stone, Blake Lively with blood-soaked hands, and more.  For those unaware, Kitsch and Johnson play two Laguna Beach marijuana kingpins who encounter a world of trouble when their shared girlfriend (Lively) is kidnapped by a Mexican drug cartel.

Hit the jump to check out the images. The film also stars Benicio Del Toro, Salma Hayek, Demian Bichir, Emile Hirsch, Uma Thurman, and John Travolta.  Savages opens July 6th.

The first TV spot for director Oliver Stone’s Savages has gone online.  The film stars Taylor Kitsch and Aaron Johnson as two Laguna Beach marijuana kingpins who encounter a world of trouble when their shared girlfriend (Blake Lively) is kidnapped by a Mexican drug cartel.  Though Stone’s recent output hasn’t exactly been stellar, Savages looks to put him back in Platoon/Natural Born Killers territory and I’m eager to see his version of a large-scale action pic.  This TV spot does a fine job of setting up the plot, but I’m not the biggest fan of song choice.  Nevertheless, I like the footage we’ve seen thus far and the very talented Kitsch deserves to have at least one successful release this year.  Here’s hoping for the best.

Hit the jump to watch the TV spot.  The film also stars Benicio Del Toro, Salma Hayek, Demian Bichir, Emile Hirsch, Uma Thurman, and John Travolta.  Savages opens July 6th.

Adam Sandler has added fellow SNL co-star, Cheri Oteri (Liar Liar) and Happy Madison mainstay, Nick Swardson (Just Go With It) to the cast of Grown Ups 2.  Featuring the return of Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, Rob Schneider, Salma Hayek and Maya Rudolph, Sandler’s first ever sequel will feature newcomers Taylor Lautner, Oliver Cooper and David Henrie as fraternity brothers who antagonize Sandler and Co. Dennis Dugan will also return to direct the sequel for Happy Madison and Sony.  Hit the jump for details on Oteri and Swardson’s characters.

After yesterday’s brief teaser, the full trailer for Oliver Stone‘s Savages has gone online.  The film stars Taylor Kitsch and Aaron Johnson as two Laguna Beach marijuana kingpins who encounter a world of trouble when their shared girlfriend (Blake Lively) is kidnapped by a Mexican drug cartel.  The movie looks like a fun change of pace for Stone, and a bit of a throwback to Natural Born Killers, but without the muddled message on violence and media.  I wouldn’t be surprised if Stone has worked in a comment on America’s War on Drugs, but at least it looks like he’s surrounded it with a slam-bang action flick.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The film also stars The film also stars Benicio Del Toro, Salma Hayek, Demian Bichir, Emile Hirsch, Uma Thurman, and John Travolta.  Savages opens July 6th. [Updated: We've updated the article with a new image from the film]

Twilight’s Taylor Lautner has apparently outgrown vampires and is now interested in comedies.  Enter Adam Sandler’s first-ever sequel, Grown Ups 2.  Lautner is reportedly in negotiations to star opposite Sandler in a role that would allow him to go “toe-to-toe” with the veteran comedian.  Details are in short order at the moment, but reports specify this only as a “fun” role for Lautner, who is looking for another big movie to hang on to. Since The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 will be closing out the franchise when it hits theaters November 16th, and even with the lackluster box office response to Lautner’s Abduction, the young star might just strike gold in Grown Ups 2. The original film about a reunion of childhood friends grossed over $160 million domestically. Hit the jump for more on the sequel.

Earlier this week, we showed you the first poster for Oliver Stone‘s crime-thriller Savages.  Today, teaser footage from the film has been released.  The film stars Taylor Kitsch and Aaron Johnson as two Laguna Beach marijuana kingpins who encounter a world of trouble when their shared girlfriend (Blake Lively) is kidnapped by a Mexican drug cartel.  You won’t gather any of that from the 15-seconds of footage, but you will pick up that Stone has taken a page from Tony Scott‘s playbook of sweaty characters and over-saturated cinematography.

Hit the jump to check out the footage.  The film also stars Benicio Del Toro, Salma Hayek, Demian Bichir, Emile Hirsch, Uma Thurman, and John Travolta.  Savages opens July 6th.

The first poster for Oliver Stone’s adaptation of Don Winslow’s crime novel Savages has gone online.  The pic stars Taylor Kitsch and Aaron Johnson as two Laguna Beach marijuana kingpins who encounter a world of trouble when their shared girlfriend (Blake Lively) is kidnapped by a Mexican drug cartel.  I was already intrigued by the impressive cast Stone assembled, then Universal moved the film to a prime summer release date after apparently being wowed by a test screening.  This poster hints at an epic and entertaining crime saga, and I’m eager to see Stone have some fun.  I haven’t been wowed by the director’s recent output but when he’s on, he’s on, and I’m hoping Savages is a summer crowd-pleaser.

Hit the jump to check out the poster.  The film also stars Benicio Del Toro, Salma Hayek, Demian Bichir, Emile Hirsch, Uma Thurman and John Travolta. Savages opens on July 6th.

The Shrek film series has been pretty terrible for a while now. When the first film came out it was exciting and new, and seemed to suggest a Looney Tunes approach to the newfangled trend of CG animation. Alas, subsequent entries were terrible. They’ll probably go back to the Shrek well again, but until then, they’ve given us Puss in Boots, which is better than (though indebted to) the Shrek sequels by a wide margin. Antonio Banderas stars as the titular Puss, a womanizing feline who’s known as a great thief. Here he partners with Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek) and Humpty Dumpty (Zach Galifianakis) to plant the beanstalk seeds owned by Jack and Jill (Billy Bob Thorton, Amy Sedaris). Our review of the Blu-ray of Puss in Boots follows after the jump.

Sony Pictures’ The Pirates! Band of Misfits have launched a new interactive site with lots of visual goodies for fans of The Pirates! and Aardman Animation. If you’re not familiar with the name, you’ll probably still recognize their previous works, such as Wallace & Gromit, Chicken Run and Flushed Away. Aardman has a unique and appealing animation style that Steve got to take and up-close-and-personal look at when he visited the set.

Directed by Peter Lord and Jeff Newitt (Chicken Run), The Pirates! Band of Misfits stars Hugh Grant, in his first animated role, as the luxuriantly bearded Pirate Captain who is trying to win the Pirate Of The Year Award with the help of his rag-tag crew (Martin Freeman, Brendan Gleeson, Russell Tovey, and Ashley Jensen).  To win, Pirate Captain must contend with a diabolical queen (Imelda Staunton) and bitter rivals like Black Bellamy (Jeremy Piven) and Cutlass Liz (Salma Hayek). The Pirates! Band of Misfits opens April 27th. Hit the jump to meet the pirates. 

Oliver Stone‘s adaptation of Don Winslow‘s crime novel Savages has been moved up from September 28th to July 6th.  Deadline reports that Universal changed the date after a test screening late last week.  The film centers on two Laguna Beach marijuana kingpins (Taylor Kitsch and Aaron Johnson) who encounter a world of trouble when their shared girlfriend (Blake Lively) is kidnapped by a Mexican drug cartel.  The film’s impressive cast also features Benicio Del Toro, Demian Bichir, John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Salma Hayek, and Emile Hirsch.

Hit the jump for an official synopsis and what Savages will be up against at the box office.

A new trailer for Aardman Animation’s The Pirates! Band of Misfits has gone online. This trailer maintains the delightfully goofy tone we’ve seen from past trailers, and delves a bit more into the plot. The story centers on a pirate captain named Pirate Captain (voiced by Hugh Grant) who’s on a quest to win the Pirate of the Year award. We also get a look at the character voiced by Jeremy Piven here. This trailer didn’t grab me as much as the last two, and it kind of feels like a more Americanized version targeted at audiences here in the States. Nevertheless, I’m still very excited to see the finished film, as Aardman’s next picture Arthur Christmas has been rounding up some very positive reactions.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer. The film also features the voices of Salma Hayek, Brendan Gleeson, David Tennant, Imelda Staunton, and Martin Freeman. The Pirates! Band of Misfits opens in 3D on March 30th, 2012.

In Puss in Boots, the adorable little creature with the deep voice who became a fan favorite in the Shrek films gets to go on his own adventure. A notorious fighter, lover and outlaw, Puss (Antonio Banderas) sets off with the tough and street smart Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek) and his childhood best friend Humpty Dumpty (Zach Galifianakis), in search of magic beans to grow a beanstalk that will lead them to the fabled goose that can lay golden eggs. Making things rather difficult for them is the notorious Jack and Jill (Billy Bob Thornton and Amy Sedaris), who will do anything to see that the trio does not succeed.

At a press conference for the film, Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek talked about how lucky and proud they are to be a part of the film, working without a script ahead of time as the story was developed along the way, and how the got the unusual opportunity to do a voice recording session together. Check out what they had to say after the jump:

Puss in Boots is an adventure movie, but the advertising and the film’s first act would like you to believe otherwise.  The filmmakers can’t be held responsible for DreamWorks Animation’s marketing campaign, but they can take the blame for setting up their movie as an action-comedy before choosing to drop the jokes and shifting into a rote adventure film that takes no chances, makes dated references, and short-changes its title character.  Ironically, the technical aspects of the movie are full of passion, but the story is as soulless and calculated as they come.

The international trailer for The Pirates! Band of Misfits has been released. This may be my favorite trailer for the film yet, as it delves more into plot and maintains that delightfully goofy tone that Aardman (the studio behind Wallace & Gromit) does so well. We also get some good stuff from the character Charles Darwin (yes, that Charles Darwin) and lots of kooky pirates. The story centers on a pirate captain named Pirate Captain (voiced by Hugh Grant) who’s determined to win the Pirate of the Year Award. This one is definitely high on my most anticipated list for 2012.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer. The film also features the voices of Salma Hayek, Brendan Gleeson, David Tennant, Imelda Staunton, Martin Freeman, and Jeremy Piven. The Pirates! Band of Misfits opens in 3D on March 30th, 2012.

After getting bumped up from November 4th to October 28th, Puss in Boots now has a final trailer and poster.  While I didn’t even bother with Shrek Forever After, I’m getting pretty psyched for the spin-off.  The trailers have been funny and charming, the story looks fun (Puss goes off to find the Goose that Lays the Golden Eggs), and there’s no cynical ogre and his irritating donkey sidekick in sight.  The new poster isn’t as good as the one with Puss walking away from an explosion, but it gets the job done.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer (which still says the movie is coming out November 4th, but they clearly cut it before the date was changed) and poster.  The film features the voices of Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Zach Galifianakis, Amy Serdaris, and Billy Bob Thornton.