20th Century Fox has released a new trailer for director Allen Hughes’ (The Book of Eli) political thriller Broken City.  The film stars Mark Wahlberg as a private detective who is hired to identify the lover of a powerful politician’s wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones), with Russell Crowe playing the shady politician.  This trailer focuses quite a bit more on the film’s plot, teasing an enticing power play between Wahlberg and Crowe’s characters.  We also see a bit more of Zeta-Jones’ character, though her intentions aren’t entirely made clear.  The real draw, though, seems to the face-off between Wahlberg and Crowe, and I’m eager to see the two go toe-to-toe when the full film hits theaters.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer and here’s our recent interview with Wahlberg for the film.  The film also stars Jeffrey Wright.  Broken City opens on January 18th.

The first clip from director Allen Hughes’ (The Book of Eli) political thriller Broken City has been released.  The film stars Mark Wahlberg as a private detective who is hired to identify the lover of a powerful politician’s wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones).  Russell Crowe plays the morally ambiguous politician, and this first clip highlights a short scene in which Crowe asserts his power over Wahlberg’s character.  Word of warning: The politician who hires you to spy on his wife’s lover is probably not a nice guy.

Hit the jump to watch the clip.  The film also stars Jeffrey Wright.  Broken City opens on January 18th.

The first trailer for director Allen Hughes’ (The Book of Eli) political thriller Broken City has been released.  Mark Wahlberg stars as a private detective who is hired to identify the lover of a powerful politician’s wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones).  Russell Crowe plays the morally ambiguous politician with plenty of gusto, and there look to be some fun scenes where Crowe and Wahlberg go toe-to-toe.  The soundtrack on the trailer is a bit distracting and the January release date isn’t super promising, but this could be a nice little thriller with some interesting performances.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Jeffrey Wright.  Broken City opens on January 18th.

We’ve got a few poster debuts to share this afternoon.  Briefly:

• Flight – Two new posters have been released for director Robert Zemeckis’ excellent-looking character drama.  Denzel Washington stars as a commercial airline pilot who is heralded as a hero after safely landing a disabled jet, but then comes under fire for possibly operating the plane while intoxicated.  The film opens on November 2nd.
• Broken City – The first poster for director Allen Hughes’ political crime drama puts stars Mark Wahlberg and Russell Crowe front and center.  Wahlberg plays a private detective hired to identify the lover of a powerful politician’s wife who soon uncovers more than he expected to find.  The film opens on January 18th, 2013.
• Not Fade Away – The first poster for Sopranos creator David Chase’s feature directorial debut.  The pic tells the story of three best friends growing up in the New Jersey suburbs who decide to start a rock band.  The film opens on December 21st.

Hit the jump to check out the posters.

Allen Hughes (The Book of Eli) has signed on to direct a remake of the Korean crime drama A Bittersweet Life.  The 2005 original revolves around a hotel manager, Sunwoo, who doubles as the right hand man for a mob boss, Kang.  Kang turns on his former confidante after he botches a job involving a mistress, and Sunwoo must fight for his life alone against the goons sent out to kill him.  Deadline reports that Fox and New Regency are fast tracking the project, and they hired Anthony Peckham (Sherlock Holmes) to write a new draft of the script.

Albert Hughes is one half of the Hughes brothers who directed the likes of The Book of Eli, From Hell, and Menace II Society.  Hughes recently directed his first feature without his brother, Broken City, due in theaters on January 18, 2013.  Hit the jump for a trailer and full synopsis for the original Bittersweet Life.

20th Century Fox has dated Allen Hughes’ noir drama Broken City for a January 18th, 2013 release date (per THR). The film stars Russell Crowe, Mark Wahlberg, and Catherine Zeta-Jones and centers on a private detective (Wahlberg) who is hired by the mayor of New York (Crowe) to find out the identity of the mayor’s wife’s lover. The lover turns up dead, and the detective finds himself deep into a much wider conspiracy. Zeta-Jones plays the mayor’s wife. The film will square off in January against a trio of big films: Arnold Schwarzenegger’s comeback The Last Stand, the magician heist film Now You See Me starring Jesse Eisenberg, Morgan Freeman, and Woody Harrelson, and the 3D re-release of Monsters Inc. Production on Broken City begins in November in New York.

Catherine Zeta-Jones is joining the cast of Allen Hughes’ (From Hell) noir drama Broken City. The film stars Mark Wahlberg and Russell Crowe, and centers on a private detective (Wahlberg) who is hired by the mayor of New York (Crowe) to uncover the identity of the mayor’s wife’s lover. When the lover turns up dead, the detective sets out to expose a much wider conspiracy. Deadline reports that Zeta-Jones will play the less-than-faithful wife of Crowe’s character. This is Hughes’ first solo feature directorial effort, as he previously co-directed all of his films with his brother Albert. The script for Broken City was written by Brian Tucker, and will be produced by Randall Emmett, Stephen Levinson, and Wahlberg himself. Production begins in November in New York.

Zeta-Jones just wrapped Adam Shankman’s 80’s centered musical Rock of Ages starring Tom Cruise, as well as the comedy Playing the Field featuring Gerard Butler. She’ll also be seen in Stephen Frears’ Lay the Favorite alongside Bruce Willis and Vince Vaughn. Crowe is currently filming Man of Steel and is set to shoot the musical Les Miserables early next year.

Russell Crowe will star opposite Mark Wahlberg in Allen Hughes’ noir drama Broken City.  As we previously reported, Wahlberg is playing an ex-cop turned private detective who is hired by the mayor (Wahlberg) to see if the mayor’s wife is cheating on him. When the wife’s lover ends up dead, the private detective becomes embroiled in the mayor’s scandalous affairs.  Deadline reports the “scandalous affairs” involves the mayor and some shady real-estate dealings.  I don’t know why crimes involving real estate make great noir tales, but they do.  I guess it goes to a corruption of the American dream of owning property.

Wahlberg recently wrapped shooting on Contraband, which is set to open on January 13, 2012.  Crowe is playing Jor-El in Man of Steel and recently shot RZA’s kung-fu flick The Man with the Iron Fists.  No start date has been announced for Broken City.  The film is budgeted at $60 million and comes from a 2008 Black List script by Brian Tucker.

Back in November, we reported that Mark Wahlberg expressed interest in doing a film with Allen Hughes called Broken City. He said that it was “an amazing piece of material” and he hoped to shoot the project towards the end of 2011. Well now Deadline reports that Wahlberg and Hughes are in talks to actually get the film made. Emmett/Furla Films will be financing a $60 million budget for the drama. Wahlberg will play an ex-cop turned private detective who is hired by the mayor to see if the mayor’s wife is cheating on him. When the wife’s lover ends up dead, the private detective becomes embroiled in the mayor’s scandalous affairs.

The script by Brian Tucker landed on the 2008 Black List, so it’s been in the works for a while. However, that 2011 start-date may not be the plan anymore, as the report states that both Wahlberg and Hughes’ reps stress that “this is early going.” Nevertheless, it’s nice to see that things are moving along for what sounds like an intriguing project.

The live-action version of Akira may actually be happening. After Warner Bros. secured a co-financer for the $230 million pricetag (Legendary Pictures, who just recently backed out of the deal), and Harry Potter screenwriter Steve Kloves turned in a rewrite of the script that had everyone eager to get going, producers began searching for their cast. Directors the Hughes brothers have been searching for an A-lister with global appeal to star in the flick (you don’t gamble that amount of money without ensuring that you’re gonna rake in serious international revenue), but for a while it seemed like they were searching in vain.

Now, Vulture reports that Keanu Reeves is in very early talks to take on the starring role in the film. Based upon the manga and the 1988 anime adaptation, Akira centers on teenager Shōtarō Kaneda and his quest to stop his friend Tetsuo from destroying Neo-Tokyo. Hit the jump for more on the project.

[Update: Heat Vision reports that Reeves is in talks for the role of Kaneda, the gang leader.]

Warner Bros. has hired Harry Potter screenwriter Steve Kloves to do a polish on the script for the Hughes Brothers’ adaptation of the Japanese manga Akira.  For those unfamiliar with the manga and the 1988 anime adaptation, the story centers on teenager Shōtarō Kaneda and his quest to stop his friend Tetsuo from destroying Neo-Tokyo.  Per Variety, “the latest version of the script was penned by Albert Torres (Henry Poole Is Here), with earlier drafts by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby and Gary Whitta.”  The problem is that “polish” is a very flexible word when it comes to script work and there aren’t any details on what Kloves’ polish will entail.  However, since Kloves has done strong work on the Harry Potter films (he wrote all of them except for Order of the Phoenix), he seems like the right guy to take a crack at helping to condense the six-volume manga into a live-action feature film.

As we reported yesterday, Warner Bros. won’t greenlight the film until they can attach a major star to play Kaneda.  Strangely, Vulture’s story said that Warners was courting Brad Pitt for Kaneda (he passed on the role), which could mean that the script has re-tooled the character to be significantly older.

Funny thing about being a movie star–one year, you can earn nothing but complete critical and commercial success for your work, and then another…well, you don’t. Perhaps not an actor working today has ridden the ladder of ascension and descent quite as drastically as Mark Wahlberg; 2006 saw such well-regarded turns in Invincible and The Departed, the latter of which he managed to snag a Best Supporting Actor nod out of. Of course, as we all know, Wahlberg followed up his newfound success with such cinematic delights as Max Payne, The Lovely Bones, Shooter, and the grandturkey of them all, The Happening (a project he himself came to bash).

Thankfully for Wahlberg, 2010 is looking a bit more like 2006 than 2007, 2008, or 2009– aside from turning in nice comedy work in hits such as Date Night and The Other Guys, Wahlberg’s also been stirring up a bit of Oscar talk for his turn in David O. Russell’s upcoming The Fighter. And now, just to keep things interesting, it looks as if Wahlberg is eyeing a return to the land of action: in an interview with MTV, Wahlberg re-expressed his interest in the Allen Hughes-helmed Broken City. Hit the jump for more of Wahlberg’s quotes, as well as some of my brief thoughts.

“It’s a man on a mission with something that everybody wants,” Allen Hughes said of the story for The Book of Eli, his forthcoming action film starring Denzel Washington. “It’s pretty simple. One man is trying to get something somewhere.”

In late March of 2009, Collider visited the New Mexico set of the film, and we were met by torrential waves of dust and debris that filled every last nook and cranny in about five minutes. Unfortunately, we were there for about ten hours.

Hughes, who is co-directing with his brother Albert, explained how the film’s postapocalyptic world came to look quite so unhospitable. “We allude to a nuclear war, he said. “We also talk about what happened environmentally; it’s a combination of a lot of things – diseases, famine, war. It started with a war and now the whole system’s collapsed.”

Albert, meanwhile, detailed the story’s origins. “[Gary Whitta] is from the video game world, and he probably liked a lot of the post-apocalyptic movies,” Hughes said. “I thought it was interesting, the kind of spiritual or religious angle he had on it. It’s not based on any particular thing that I know of, [but] I mean, it does hint towards a lot of other movies.” When asked whether the film had a Western influence, Albert indicated that they were shying away from direct references to films, much less familiar genres.  Much more after the jump:

With the short film anthology “New York, I Love You” (a sort of sequel to “Paris, je t’aime”) set for release October 16^th, Vivendi Entertainment has released a ton of clips and I’ve posted all of them after the jump. While most film’s get four to eight clips released for promotional purposes, due to how large the cast is and how each person needs a clip when promoting the movie on a talk show, the studio has released a whopping 16 clips and it’s about sixteen minutes of the movie. So if you’ve been waiting for the film, you can see a lot of it right now. If you’re not familiar with “New York, I Love You”, the film’s got a huge cast and eleven directors telling stories about New York City and love. Take a look:

The first trailer for Vivendi Entertainment’s “New York, I Love You” has been released. This is the film that’s like “Paris, je t’aime”, but while that one had no connective tissue, somehow “New York, I Love You” ties most or all of the short films together.

While a feature film made up of a lot of short films might not appeal to all of you, the cast is ridiculous and it’s something I can’t wait to see. If you’re curious, watch the trailer after the jump. I’ve also included all the director’s involved and the full cast: