The Weinstein Company has released the first trailer for director John Wells’ (The Company Men) adaptation of Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer Prize and Tony-winning play August: Osage County.  The story follows the women of a family whose lives have splintered in many directions until a crisis bring them back to their childhood home and to the dysfunctional woman who raised them.  While a bit lighter in tone than the actual story, this trailer does a swell job of teasing the film’s absolutely terrific ensemble cast, led by a characteristically great Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts in what could potentially be her best role in years.  Given the talent involved both onscreen and behind the scenes (Argo‘s George Clooney and Grant Heslov produce), this thing is a surefire Oscar contender that also promises delectable interplay amongst the film’s incredible ensemble.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Ewan McGregor, Benedict Cumberbatch, Margot Martindale, Chris Cooper, Dermot Mulroney, Juliette Lewis, Abigail Breslin, and Sam Shepard.  August: Osage County opens on November 8th.

Lionsgate has released the first trailer for director Gavin Hood’s anticipated adaptation of the Orson Scott Card novel Ender’s Game.  The film tells the story of Andrew “Ender” Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), a young boy sent away to Battle School to hone his military skills and, hopefully, save the world from an impending alien invasion.  I plan to read the book before I see the movie, but was someone who is unfamiliar with the material, nothing in this trailer really leaps out at me.  It feels like they’re pushing a Hunger Games-vibe (putting a heavy burden on young adults) plus a lot of CG.  Also, Harrison Ford sounds really bored even though his narration is about trying to save humanity from annihilation.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Hailee Steinfeld, Abigail Breslin, Viola Davis, Khylin Rhambo, Moises Arias, and Ben Kingsley.  Ender’s Game opens on November 1st.

The Call marks a serious turning point for child-star Abigail Breslin (that cute girl from Little Miss Sunshine and Signs). Breslin stars as Casey Wilson, a naive teenager, who after taken hostage by a madman, slowly comes into her own as a woman. Much like Casey’s arc in the film, Breslin herself seems poised to transition from the cherub-cheeked roles of yesteryear to more serious adult fare. Just one look at her upcoming slate of films is ample evidence: Ender’s Game, Final Girl, Haunter, August: Osage County… With such an eclectic mixture of big budget, Oscar-bait, indie and genre horror films on the horizon, Breslin seems more than up for such a challenging transition.

In the following interview with Abigail Breslin, she discusses transitioning to more adult roles, the difficulties of acting in a trunk and her upcoming parts in both the big budget Ender’s Game & the indie horror Haunter. For the full interview, hit the jump.

Ghosts aren’t all bad.  Some of the time, they’re just depressed, and you would be too if you had to float around for the rest of whatever.  There’s monotony, but the desire to reach out, whether you’re alive or dead, remains.  In haunted house movies with a benevolent/misunderstood specter, that need for connection becomes essential, and Vincenzo Natali‘s Haunter uses an intriguing premise to show ghosts reaching out across the ether to either save or condemn.  Unfortunately, a slow start eventually dooms the film as the mystery overshadows the characters, and what should be a tense, puzzling picture becomes a convoluted and corny mess.

A new trailer for director Brad Anderson’s (The Machinist) upcoming thriller The Call has been released online.  The film stars Halle Berry as a 911 operator who, after taking a life-altering call from a teenager (Abigail Breslin) that’s been kidnapped, realizes that she must confront a killer from her past in order to save the girl’s life.  This trailer is a bit more intense and less plot-driven than the first one, and it’s quite effective.  Anderson looks to have crafted a surprisingly involving and potentially frightening thriller, and I’m getting a strong “twisted villain” vibe from this trailer.  Here’s hoping the full film delivers.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Morris Chestnut, Michael Eklund, and Michael Imperioli.  The Call opens on March 15th.

TriStar Pictures has released the first trailer for the upcoming thriller The Call (previously titled The Hive).  Directed by Brad Anderson (The Machinist), the film stars Halle Berry as a 911 operator who, after taking a life-altering call from a teenager (Abigail Breslin) that’s been kidnapped, realizes that she must confront a killer from her past in order to save the girl’s life.  Though the premise is fairly straightforward, the trailer is actually pretty interesting and makes The Call look like it could be a neat little thriller.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Morris Chestnut, Michael Eklund, and Michael Imperioli.  The Call opens on March 15th.

For a project that has the epic scope of Ender’s Game, it’s only fitting that the film be released in IMAX.  Fans can look forward to seeing the adaptation of the beloved Orson Scott Card novel in IMAX format when it debuts in theaters November 1st, 2013.  The sci-fi film from director Gavin Hood (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) follows Andrew “Ender” Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), a boy trained at a military battle school in the hopes that he’ll develop a strategy to defeat the alien menace known as the Formics.  This will make two big features for Lionsgate being released in the same month (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire releases November 22nd), two properties the studio hopes will continue to bear box-office fruit.  But before Catching Fire can sweep Ender’s Game aside, the sci-fi film will have three weeks to build up a big payday and, hopefully, a bigger following.  Hit the jump for more updates on Ender’s Game from the film’s production blog. 

We have a few new casting additions to share with you today.  Here they are in brief:

• Vanessa Hudgens (Journey 2: The Mysterious Island) is the latest addition to Machete Kills, the sequel  directed by Robert Rodriguez and starring Danny Trejo.
• William Hurt (The Incredible Hulk) will join Akiva Goldsman’s directorial debut, Winter’s Tale.  The adaptation of the Mark Helprin novel stars Colin Farrell and Downton Abbey’s Jessica Brown Findlay.
• Margo Martindale (Million Dollar Baby) joins the family in August: Osage County, based on the Tracy Letts play and starring Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts and Chris Cooper.

Hit the jump for more on each project.

Emboldened by the success of Valentine’s Day, Garry Marshall took another crack at the holiday-based all-star anthology in 2011, with similarly repulsive results. This time, though, movie-goers commendably ignored him (and hopefully quashed plans for Columbus Day or whatever the hell was coming next). Of course, it’s never a good idea to interpret the commercial failure of a terrible movie as anything more than an aberration. But in this case, there was an encouraging sense that the world had finally revolted against a sub-genre populated by cynical, bald-faced cash-grabs.

And indeed, New Year’s Eve is the romantic comedy distilled to its basest form; a film that trots out a dizzying array of A-listers and expects applause, while abandoning time-consuming chores like character, story and dialogue. Hit the jump for the full review.

By popular demand, our latest casting update:

• Josh Holloway will join Liam Hemsworth, Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman, Amber Heard, and more in the thriller Paranoia
• Abigail Breslin will star opposite Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep in August: Osage County

Hit the jump for details on both projects.

You’re driving down the street, and it’s suddenly blocked off.  You notice these weird yellow signs with nonsensical letters or numbers.  There’s unusual glow lighting up a neighborhood you can’t usually see from your house.  What you might have here is a film company shooting in your town.  It happens a lot, and you never know where they might pop up…until now.

The following is a semi-comprehensive list of films currently shooting, what they’re shooting, and where they’re shooting.  We’ll be telling you where you might get to see the very famous, the kinda famous and (if all goes well) the soon-to-be famous. While we can’t list every single movie, television show, or student film in production, you’ll get a pretty good idea of what the heck is going on where all those people are buzzing about.  Want to know where in the world are Matt Damon, Harrison Ford, Sylvester Stallone, Woody Harrelson, and Leonardo DiCaprio? Hit the jump for more.

We’ve got some Little Miss Sunshine alumni casting news today: one’s an Oscar-nominated topliner and the other is a BAFTA-nominated addition to an already phenomenal cast.  Check out the headlines below:

• Abigail Breslin is set to star in the title role of Final Girl, a thriller from debut director Tyler Shields.
• Paul Dano will join the cast of Steve McQueen’s Twelve Years a Slave, a picture that already boasts Michael Fassbender, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Adepero Oduye and Brad Pitt.

Hit the jump for more on each picture.

Harrison Ford reportedly called Ender’s Game, “one of the most emotional science fiction movies he has ever seen.”  If you’re a fan of Orson Scott Card’s award-winning novel, this article should let you breathe a little easier about the upcoming Gavin Hood adaptation.  While I was a bit leery about Hood’s attachment to my beloved property (see X-Men Origins: Wolverine), the Ender’s Game production blog has been shedding some interesting light on the filmmaker’s approach.  Hood and producer Roberto Orci (Star Trek) really seem to get the gist of the novel; that should elicit a sigh of relief followed quickly by a jolt of excitement from fans.  Orci recently participated in a Q&A on the blog in which he commented on the tone of the picture, the relationship between Colonel Hyrum Graff (Harrison Ford) and Ender (Asa Butterfield), as well as his favorite scenes.

Ender’s Game tells the story of Andrew “Ender” Wiggin, a young boy sent away to Battle School to hone his military skills and, hopefully, save the world from an impending alien invasion.  Also starring Abigail Breslin, Sir Ben Kingsley, Hailee Steinfeld, Nonso Anozie and Viola Davis, the picture opens November 1st, 2013.  We’ve also got some images from the production, so hit the jump to check it out!

Inventions dreamed up in science fiction novels have preempted the availability of practical technology numerous times (ie submarines, military drones, the internet); Ender’s Game is no exception.  Author Orson Scott Card wrote about multimedia tablets, the power held by the written word on the internet and electronic monitoring devices in his 1985 novel.  These things are, more or less, commonplace today.  So it’s fitting that these new images from the Ender’s Game film production show this technology not as obtrusive, but as practical.  One of the understated but necessary devices is “the monitor,” an implant that connects Andrew “Ender” Wiggin to his overseers.  We’ve got a first look at that piece of technology, as well as more images from the production for you to check out.  Ender’s Game, starring Asa Butterfield, Abigail Breslin, Harrison Ford and Sir Ben Kingsley and directed by Gavin Hood, opens November 1st, 2013.  Hit the jump to check out the new images.

Principal photography has begun on director Vincenzo Natali’s (Splice) ghost movie Haunter.  The film stars Abigail Breslin as a teenage girl who died with her family in 1986 under sinister circumstances.  In the present, Breslin much reach out “from beyond the grave” to help her living counterpart, Olivia, avoid the same fate she suffered.  In addition to Breslin, the cast also includes Stephen McHattie (Immortals), Peter Outerbridge (Silent Hill: Revelation), Michelle Nolden (Red), and David Hewlett (Rise of the Planet of the Apes).  Production is underway in Toronto and Brantford and the film is slated for release sometime in 2013.

Breslin recently wrapped a role in Gavin Hood’s adaptation of Ender’s Game, and is said to be eyeing the starring role in an adaptation of Kristin Hannah’s The Things We Do For Love.  Hit the jump to read the full press release regarding Haunter.