Filming is underway on Alejandro González Iñárritu’s black comedy Birdman.  Fox Searchlight and New Regency announced today that principal photography has begun in New York City on Birdman, which centers on an actor who once played an iconic superhero, and now faces troubles with his ego and family as he prepares to mount a Broadway play in a bid to reclaim past glory.  Michael Keaton stars as the struggling actor, and he’s surrounded by a fantastic ensemble cast that includes Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, Emma Stone, Zach Galifianakis, Amy Ryan, and Andrea Riseborough.

Iñárritu co-wrote the original script alongside Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, and Armando Bo, and is also producing the film with John Lesher.  Hit the jump to read the full press release.

We’ve got a couple of exciting casting stories to share this afternoon.  First up, Robert Duvall is signing on to co-star with Robert Downey Jr. in the dramedy The Judge.  The folks at Variety report that Duvall is in final negotiations to play Downey Jr.’s father in the pic, which centers on an attorney who returns home for his mother’s funeral where he learns that his estranged father, a judge who suffers from Alzheimer’s, is suspected of murder.  Last fall we heard that Warner Bros. was attempting to coax Jack Nicholson to take on the father role and Tommy Lee Jones was apparently also in the mix, but Duvall won out in the end.

Hit the jump for more, including who’s in the running for the female lead and casting news for Alejandro González Iñárritu’s star-studded comedy Birdman.

The family drama genre is one that’s very easy to get wrong, and it’s rare to find a film of this kind that is genuinely moving without feeling overly manipulative or sappy.  Writer/director Drake Doremus took the Sundance Film Festival by storm in 2011 with his young love drama Like Crazy, and he returns in 2013 with an intimate take on the family drama genre that marks a major step forward for the filmmaker.  In chronicling the story of a foreign exchange student who causes a deep and devastating rift in a close-knit upstate New York family, Doremus’ Breathe In completely wraps the viewer up in the emotions of its characters and doesn’t let go for 98 captivating, intense, and ultimately heartbreaking minutes.

It looks like Larry David’s comedy feature set up to debut on HBO finally has a name: Clear History.  More important than that oddly ambiguous title is the all-star cast that David and director Greg Mottola (Superbad) have lined up.  We previously reported that Jon Hamm (Mad Men) and Michael Keaton (Batman) were attached to star, but a slew of others have joined the production.  Clear History will also feature Kate Hudson, Bill Hader, Amy Ryan, Eva Mendes, JB Smoove, Danny McBride and Phillip Michael Hall.  Hit the jump for more on Clear History.

We’ve got a couple of casting stories to share this afternoon.  First up, Bill Paxton is lining up a big project to follow the success of his History Channell miniseries Hatfield & McCoys.  Variety reports that Paxton is in talks to join the crime actioner 2 Guns.  Based on the graphic novel by Steven Grant, the film stars Mark Wahlberg and Denzel Washington and centers on a DEA agent and an undercover naval intelligence officer who unknowingly investigate each other as each is stealing money from the mob.  Contraband director Baltasar Kormakur is onboard to direct, and we recently learned that Paul Patton is also in talks to star.  Paxton will apparently play a high-ranking CIA operative.

Hit the jump for promising casting news concerning the West Memphis 3 film Devil’s Knot, starring Reese Witherspoon and Colin Firth.

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.

You’ll have to wait until August 17th to see Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone together again in The Expendables 2, but this video from the set visit of The Tomb should hold you over.  Production started recently in New Orleans on the Mikael Hafstrom (1408) picture that stars Sly as Ray Breslin, the world’s foremost authority on structural security who is framed and incarcerated in a prison of his own design.  In prison, Breslin meets Emil Rottmayer (Schwarzenegger), the leader of the prisoners who wants to get out just as badly as Breslin does.  In this video, Stallone and Schwarzenegger comment further on their characters in The Tomb, their work together on The Expendables and The Expendables 2, and the old-school machismo of action movies and their stars, which Sly calls, “male pattern badness.”  Written by Miles Chapman (Road House 2: Last Call) and Jason Keller (Machine Gun Preacher), The Tomb also stars Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Jim Caviezel, Amy Ryan, Vincent D’Onofrio, Vinnie Jones, and new addition Sam Neill.  Hit the jump to check it out along with some images from the set.

Up until the past 15 years or so, television series were firmly episodic.  Serialized TV (outside of mini-series) risked alienating viewers since it stopped anyone from coming in mid-season.  However, with the rise of DVDs, OnDemand, and digital downloads, serialized TV series have become firmly established.  Some shows still retain an episodic nature, but some series—particularly dramas—have been built around telling one long story over the course of an entire season.  Our new feature, Seasoned, will review a TV series by season rather than by episode.

Hit the jump for my review of the fourth season of The Wire.  Click on the corresponding links for my reviews of Season 1, Season 2, and Season 3.

Production is officially underway in New Orleans on the action-thriller The Tomb. Sylvester Stallone stars as Ray Breslin, the world’s foremost authority on structural security. Breslin is framed and incarcerated in a prison of his own master design, and must now figure out how to break out.  Stallone is joined by Arnold Schwarzenegger, who plays a fellow inmate (and likely accomplice in said jail break), as well as Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Jim Caviezel, Amy Ryan, Vincent D’Onofrio, Vinnie Jones, and new addition Sam Neill.

In an interesting turn, Caviezel will be playing the warden of the prison, with Jones set as his head of security.  Mikael Hafstrom (The Rite) is onboard to direct, and I’m really looking forward to watching a Stallone and Schwarzenegger prison break pic.  Hit the jump to read the full press release, which has details regarding the other characters in the film.

Up until the past 15 years or so, television series were firmly episodic.  Serialized TV (outside of mini-series) risked alienating viewers since it stopped anyone from coming in mid-season.  However, with the rise of DVDs, OnDemand, and digital downloads, serialized TV series have become firmly established.  Some shows still retain an episodic nature, but some series—particularly dramas—have been built around telling one long story over the course of an entire season.  Our new feature, Seasoned, will review a TV series by season rather than by episode.

Hit the jump for my review of the third season of The Wire; here are my reviews for season one and season two.

Up until the past 15 years or so, television series were firmly episodic.  Serialized TV (outside of mini-series) risked alienating viewers since it stopped anyone from coming in mid-season.  However, with the rise of DVDs, OnDemand, and digital downloads, serialized TV series have become firmly established.  Some shows still retain an episodic nature, but some series—particularly dramas—have been built around telling one long story over the course of an entire season.  Our new feature, Seasoned, will review a TV series by season rather than by episode.

Hit the jump for my review of the second season of The Wire, and click here for my review of season one.

Director Mikael Hafstrom just rounded out a great deal of his cast for the Arnold Schwarzenegger/Sylvester Stallone team-up actioner The Tomb.  Stallone stars as a structural security expert who is framed and locked up in a high-security prison that he designed, and Schwarzenegger is onboard as one of the prison’s inmates and a potential ally to Stallone.  Jim Caviezel also stars, and now Variety has added four more names to the cast: Amy Ryan, Vincent D’Onofrio, Vinnie Jones and 50 Cent.  Hit the jump for details concerning who these new additions to the cast will be playing.

In the seventh season of The Office, the writers of the long-running NBC comedy series had two big tasks ahead of them. First, the staff had to deal with the impending exit of manager Michael Scott (Steve Carell) which included giving him a worthy exit and finding him a strong replacement, but also proving that the show would be able to survive without the presence of Carell on-screen. Sadly, this season proved to be one of the weakest, and seems to be proof that the series, just like its former star, might be on the way out. However, the seventh season of The Office still contains some truly great episodes, genuinely touching moments, and one marathon of a fantastic performance from Steve Carell (who should’ve won the Emmy over Jim Parsons last month). For more of my impressions of the DVD release of the seventh season of The Office, hit the jump.

Drake Doremus has spent the last couple years building capital at Sundance, with Douchebag in 2010 and Like Crazy in 2011.  Like Crazy was the breakout hit of the festival–even before it won the Grand Jury Prize, Paramount picked up the romantic drama right after the premiere for an October release.  Doremus has parlayed the buzz into two new features: an adaptation of the sci-fi romance novel Through to You and an untitled drama.  The untitled project is up first with an impressive cast in tow.  Guy Pearce stars as a high school teacher who is tempted to cheat on his wife (Amy Ryan) with one of his students (played by Like Crazy star Felicity Jones).  Variety reports two more have joined the cast.  Newcomer Mackenzie Davis will maker her feature debut as Pearce and Ryan’s daughter.  Nico Tortorella (Scream 4) will play a swim team jock/misogynist who sleeps around.

I haven’t seen a frame shot by Doremus, but I will always root for a fresh young voice in the filmmaking community.  Doremus is working on both this script and the adaptation of Through to You with his Like Crazy writing partner Ben York Jones.  I think of that as a promising sign unless you, like Matt, didn’t fall head over heels for Like Crazy.

Win Win is easily one of the best-reviewed films of 2011.  The film’s success is especially impressive, given that it rests so heavily on the performance of a teenager whose only prior acting experience came in a high school class and a small role in his 6^th grade production of The Pirates of Penzance.  17-year-old Alex Shaffer delivers a strikingly assured film debut opposite three Oscar nominees: (Paul Giamatti, Amy Ryan and Burt Young), an Emmy winner (Bobby Cannavale) and a 6-time Emmy nominee (Jeffrey Tambor).  Luckily for the film, which continues its national rollout this weekend in a host of new cities and theaters, Alex wasn’t phased.

Shaffer filled Collider in on how much his life has changed since he went to the fateful audition that he had to be hassled into attending by a friend.  Hit the jump for the audio and transcript of our lively exchange, including stories of why he had a hard time staying awake on set, whether he’d still pick wrestling over acting and which famous actor had him tongue-tied at Sundance.