Constantin Film announced today that production is underway in Toronto on the romantic comedy Love, Rosie.  Based on author Cecelia Ahern’s novel Where Rainbows End, the film stars Lily Collins (Mirror, Mirror) and Sam Claflin (Snow White and the Huntsman) as best friends since school “who find that life often gets in the way of love but, true love just like true friendship, never dies.”  Complications in their relationship ensue, causing the prospect of a romantic life together to be thrown into question.  Christian Ditter is directing from a screenplay by Juliette Towhidi (Calendar Girls), and the cast also includes Jaime Winstone, Christian Cooke, Suki Waterhouse, Tamsin Egerton, Jamie Beamish, Ger Ryan and Lorcan Cranitch.

Hit the jump to read the full press release and to check out an image of Collins and Claflin working together alongside Ahern.  Love, Rosie is being produced by Robert Kulzer (The Mortal Instruments), and Simon Brooks (White Noise).

The adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith‘s novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies has inspired countless undead puns with its talent troubles.  Natalie Portman was originally attached to star, but dropped out (she is still producing).  Since then, the lead role has been offered to the likes of Anne Hathaway, Mia Wasikowska, Scarlett Johansson, Emma Stone, and Blake Lively—no takers.  Meanwhile, David O. Russell, Mike White, and Craig Gillespie all signed on to direct at one point before they eventually departed the project.

Panorama Media recently came on board to produce and finance the picture.  First step: Drop the first “and” so it’s just Pride, Prejudice and Zombies.  Next step: Sign a director and star.  Variety reports that Burr Steers (Charlie St. Cloud) is set to direct and Lily Collins (Mirror Mirror) is in talks to play Elizabeth Bennet.  Much as I like Collins, it’s clear the producers have lowered their sights a bit from the Russell/Portman days—hopefully Steers and Collins will be easier to handcuff to the project.  Read the book synopsis after the jump.

The indie dramedy The English Teacher tells the story of Linda Sinclair (Julianne Moore), a 40-year-old, unmarried high school English teacher in small town Pennsylvania.  With no children and no relationships to speak of, her life is uncomplicated, which is just how she likes it.  Her greatest passion and her biggest fulfillment comes from helping her impressionable young students discover their own creative voices, until a former star student (Michael Angarano) returns and threatens to undo it all.

During this recent exclusive interview with Collider, actress Lily Collins (who plays teen ingénue Hallie Anderson) talked about what drew her to this film, wanting to work with Julianne Moore, who she’s admired since she was little, why she loves the independent film world, how much fun it was to be encouraged to improvise, shooting the play with a real audience of 300 people.  She also talked about the overwhelming fan reaction to The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, in which she plays the film’s lead Clary Fray, that she’s willing to really fight for the roles that she’s passionate about, and how much she’s looking forward to getting to use her real natural accent for her next film, the British romantic dramedy Love, Rosie.  Check out what she had to say after the jump.

Set in contemporary New York City, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones tells the story of Clary Fray (Lily Collins), a seemingly ordinary teenager who discovers that she is the descendant of a line of Shadowhunters, a secret organization of young half-angel warriors in an ancient battle to protect our world from demons.  Adapted from the book by Cassandra Clare, the action-adventure fantasy also stars Jamie Campbell Bower, Kevin Zegers, Jared Harris, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Lena Headey, CCH Pounder and Aidan Turner.  For more on the film, watch the new trailer.

At last weekend’s WonderCon, I landed an exclusive video interview with Lily Collins.  We talked about how she’s seen a rough cut of the movie and what she thought, the adaptation process from book to film, collaborating with director Harald Zwart, things she learned during the production, and more.  In addition, she also talked about her next project Love, Rosie and what it’s about.  Hit the jump to watch.

The first trailer for director Craig Zisk’s comedy The English Teacher has been released online.  The film stars Julianne Moore as a high school English teacher whose life takes a turn when one of her favorite students (Michael Angarano) returns to his hometown as a failed playwright.  The teacher convinces her former pupil to stage the unproduced play at her school, but all does not go according to plan.  The comedy appears to be of the screwball variety, with plenty of pratfalls and physical comedy on full display in this here trailer (plus a solid David Mamet joke thrown in for good measure).  There does seem to be a strong emphasis on character, though, and it should be interesting to see how the numerous relationships teased in this clip play out in the full film.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Greg Kinnear, Lily Collins, and Nathan Lane.  The English Teacher opens on May 17th.

A new trailer for director Harald Zwart’s The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones has gone online.  I got to check out this particular trailer at the WonderCon panel and I was impressed by the caliber and amount of action on display.  I’m sure that fans of the source material will pick up on a lot more of the mythology than a novice like myself, but it’s got a cool aesthetic that actually looks rather inviting.

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, based on the Cassandra Clare novel, stars Lily Collins, Lena Headey, Robert Sheehan, Jamie Campbell Bower, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Kevin Zegers, Kevin Durand, Jared Harris and CCH Pounder. The film opens on August 23rd, 2013.  Hit the jump to view the trailer. 

The first trailer has been released for director Josh Boone’s comedy/drama Stuck in Love.  Formerly titled Writers, the film stars Greg Kinnear as a famous novelist obsessed with his ex-wife (Jennifer Connelly) even though he’s sleeping with his friend Tricia (Kristen Belly), who’s trying to help him get over his ex.  The story also follows Kinnear’s daughter (Lily Collins), who is being pursued by a fellow writing student (Logan Lerman) despite her promiscuity.  It’s tough to hone in on which story is the primary one in this trailer, but there’s a strong Crazy, Stupid, Love. vibe and the impressive ensemble cast is certainly promising.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer and to check out the poster.  The film also stars Nat Wolff and Spencer Breslin.  Stuck in Love opens on June 14th.

The first images from director Craig Zisk’s (The Big C) comedy The English Teacher have been released.  The film stars Julianne Moore as a high school English teacher whose life takes a turn when one of her favorite students (Michael Angarano) returns to his hometown as a failed playwright.  The teacher convinces her former pupil to stage the unproduced play at her school, and all does not go according to plan.  The film sounds like a nice character-centric piece, and I’m interested to see what kind of tone Zisk has settled on when a trailer comes our way.

Hit the jump to take a look at the images.  The film also stars Lily Collins, Greg Kinnear, and Nathan Lane.  The English Teacher opens on May 17th.

Screen Gems has released batch of new character images from director Harald Zwart’s adaptation of the Cassandra Clare YA novel The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.  The story follows Clary Fray (Lily Collins), a teenage girl who discovers that she’s descended from a sect of half-angel warriors who protect the world from demons.  These images give us a number of new looks at the supporting characters in the film, as well as principals Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower, and a rather intense-looking Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

Hit the jump to take a look at the images, and if you missed any of Steve’s set visit coverage check out 35 things to know about the film and his interviews with Lily Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower, Jared Harris, director Harald Zwart, author Cassandra Clare, and producers Don Carmody and Robert Kulzer.  The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones opens on August 23rd.

Before I dive headfirst into what could be considered overselling to the “nth degree”, I have a disclaimer: I’m a total sucker for nostalgia-inducing, high school-centric, coming of age films. With that out of the way, I cannot recommend enough that you watch author/writer/director Stephen Chboksy‘s adaptation of his own novel, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, as soon as possible. The pic hit Blu-ray/DVD this past week and over the course of 24 hours I rented it, watched it, loved it, returned it (yes, somehow late fees are still a thing…), and purchased it for my own collection. I could go on and on about the emotional note the movie hit for me at every turn but I’ll spare you the fanboy torment. Suffice to say that I’ll be looking back fondly on this one for quite a while.

My “Blu-ray/DVD pick of the week” aside, this week’s installment features a week of Die Hard that includes Matt revisiting the entire franchise and A Good Day to Die Hard interviews with Bruce Willis and more, coverage from Steve’s visit to the set of The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, a slew of video interviews from this year’s VES Awards including talks with Ang Lee and Wally Pfister just to name a few, Beautiful Creatures interviews with Emmy Rossum and more, and a healthy amount of images from the floor of Toy Fair 2013. Yep, you guessed it, a brief recap and link to each of the above can be found on the other side.

Valentine Morgenstern (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is holding Clary Fray (Lily Collins) down on a long wooden table.  He’s angry, and getting more frustrated with each passing second.  Standing close by is Jace Wayland (Jamie Campbell Bower), who is covered in tattoos, and he looks concerned.  After some time passes, Valentine screams “I want my cup!” A second later, he slams Clary’s head onto the table and turns around and hits Jace.  Immediately Jace says, “you said you wouldn’t hurt her!” and then grabs a long wooden staff to go in for the attack.  A second later, I hear director Harald Zwart call cut.

But let me back up a second.

About four months ago, I got to visit the set of The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones with a few other reporters when the production was filming in Toronto.  While on set I participated in group interviews with the cast and filmmakers, watched a few scenes get filmed, and saw firsthand how Cassandre Clare’s extremely popular young adult series was being brought to life.  And from what I saw on set, if you’re a fan of the series, I think you’re going to be extremely happy.  Hit the jump for more.

While Lily Collins has been involved in The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones for over two years, almost everything else has changed along the way.  Whether it be the director, the script, or the studio, Mortal Instruments has been a challenge to get made.  However, when I visited the set last year with a few other reporters, Collins made it seem like all the script changes were for the best.  She described the film and the changes:

“It’s a full-blown action/adventure fantasy film that is based in reality that has this romance in it. I think from the first draft to now, it’s definitely got a lot more of that, kind of propelling-you-forward, less of a romantic kind of teen flick. It also has a lot more humor than the first draft because Cassandra’s writing.  That’s the beauty of the writing, is that you end up giggling when you’re reading it because of something Simon said or Jace is so cocky, you’re like, “Did he really just say that?” They’ve added some of those lines back in, so there is a comedic tone to these dark moments that kind of makes the audience relax for a second. And they are witty, so we have a lot more of Cassie’s voice back into it.”

In addition to describing script changes, Collins talked about how she was first cast, her reaction to the practical sets, her chemistry test with Jamie Campbell Bower, the differences between The Mortal Instruments and Twilight or The Hunger Games, and a lot more.  Hit the jump to either read or listen to what she had to say.

Unlike some authors that sign away the film rights and then are left out of the movie making process, author Cassandra Clare is an active participant in bringing The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones to life on movie screens.  She explains that it started during casting:

“I called Constantin (the production company) and asked if I could talk to the casting director.  They gave me her number and we got really close, so we would talk about casting and then we would talk with Harold the director about it, and then [producer] Robert (Kulzer) would weigh in so that everything became a group decision.”

During a group interview on set last year, Clare also talked about how the book originally got optioned, making sure key moments from the book made it on screen, her reaction seeing Jaime Campbell Bower and Lily Collins at the auditions, her relationship with the fans, and so much more.  Hit the jump to either read or listen to what she had to say.

Though they each starred in separate Snow White movies last year, Sam Clafin and Lily Collins are set to team up onscreen for an upcoming adaptation of the Cecelia Ahern novel Where Rainbows End.  Variety reports that Claflin and Collins will front Love, Rosie, which will be directed by Christian Ditter (The Crocodiles).  The screenplay adaptation was penned by Juliette Towhidi (Calendar Girls) and centers on a young girl whose plans to attend college in the U.S. with her best friend (Claflin) are thrown into question when she becomes pregnant after a night out with the most popular boy in school.

The story takes place over the course of 12 years as the friends maintain their connection, and production is set to get underway in May.  Hit the jump for more, including casting news concerning Queen of the Night.

Screen Gems has released the first trailer for the adaptation of Cassandra Clare‘s young adult novel The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.  The story follows Clary Fray (Lily Collins), a teenage girl who discovers that she’s descended from a sect of half-angel warriors who protect the world from demons.  As a teen drama with ties to the occult, The Mortal Instruments will draw comparisons to Twilight.  But the trailer—specifically the sword fights and flamethrowers within— suggest more ass-kicking.  There is a big world and dense mythology here to explore, and the visuals help sell it better than the synopsis ever could.  It helps when you have Mad Men‘s eloquent Jared Harris to deliver the exposition in what sure looks like the “Giles” role.

Jamie Campbell Bower, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Lena Headey, Kevin Durand, CCH Pounder, and Kevin Zegers also star.  Directed by Harald Zwart (The Karate Kid), The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones opens August 23, 2013.  Watch the trailer after the jump.