The 2013 Cannes Film Festival begins today, and new images have been released for these movies in the fest’s line-up:

• Behind the Candelabra – Directed by Steven Soderbergh, starring Michael Douglas, Matt Damon, Dan Aykroyd, Rob Lowe, and Debbie Reynolds.
• Nebraska – Directed by Alexander Payne, starring Bruce Dern, Will Forte, Stacy Keach, and Bob Odenkirk.
• The Immigrant – Directed by James Gray, starring Joaquin Phoenix, Marion Cotillard, and Jeremy Renner.
• As I Lay Dying – Directed and starring James Franco, co-starring Tim Blake Nelson, Logan Marshall-Green, and Danny McBride.

Hit the jump for the images and synopses.  The 2013 Cannes Film Festival runs from May 15 – May 26th.

Fresh off the release of an extended 12-minute featurette, a new UK trailer and a batch of new images from director Steven Soderbergh’s upcoming Liberace film Behind the Candelaba have landed online.  The plot centers on the tempestuous relationship between the musician (Michael Douglas) and his lover Scott Thorson (Matt Damon) throughout their secretive five-year love affair that began in 1977.  This UK trailer goes deeper into the film’s story, as we see the beginnings of the relationship and start to see some of the great interplay between Douglas and Damon. You can go ahead and wrap up Douglas’ Emmy right about now.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer and to see the new images.  The film also stars Rob Lowe, Debbie Reynolds, Scott Bakula, Dan Aykroyd, Cheyenne Jackson, Paul Reiser, and Boyd Holbrook.  Behind the Candelabra will premiere on HBO on May 26th at 9pm/8c.

HBO has released a new extended featurette for director Steven Soderbergh’s upcoming Liberace film Behind the Candelabra.  The 12-minute video takes us behind-the-scenes of Soderbergh’s possibly final feature film, as we get an intimate look into how the filmmaker crafted his chronicle of the tempestuous relationship between Liberace (Michael Douglas) and his lover Scott Thorson (Matt Damon) throughout their secretive five-year love affair that began in 1977.  Much of the featurette’s focus is on the insane costume and production design of the film, but we also get some footage of Sodbergh operating the camera himself and of a nearly unrecognizable Rob Lowe as Liberace’s plastic surgeon.

Hit the jump to watch the featurette.  The film also stars Debbie Reynolds, Scott Bakula, Dan Aykroyd, Cheyenne Jackson, Paul Reiser, and Boyd Holbrook.  Behind the Candelabra will premiere on HBO on May 26th at 9pm/8c.

The full lineup for the 2013 Cannes Film Festival was announced today, and it looks like a really great group of films will be screening in the south of France later next month.  Official selections include Steven Soderbergh’s Behind the Candelabra, Joel and Ethan Coen’s Inside Llewyn Davis, Nicolas Winding Refn’s Only God Forgives, Alexander Payne’s Nebraska, Roman Polanski’s Venus In Fur, and James Gray’s The Immigrant (previously titled Low Life).  Additionally, the Robert Redford man vs. nature film All Is Lost will premiere out of competition, and Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring, James Franco’s As I Lay Dying, and the Sundance hit Fruitvale Station (previously titled Fruitvale) will screen Un Certain Regard.

A number of these titles are early awards contenders, and I’m particularly interested to hear the reaction for the Coens’ Davis and Payne’s The Descendants follow-up Nebraska, which is a black-and-white road trip movie starring Will Forte and Bruce Dern.  Hit the jump to read the full lineup.  The 2013 Cannes Film Festival runs from May 15 – 26th.

After a couple sneak peeks, a full trailer has been unveiled for Steven Soderbergh’s Behind the Candelabra.  The film stars Michael Douglas as the famous musician Liberace and Matt Damon as his lover Scott Thorson.  The plot centers on the tempestuous relationship between the two throughout their secretive five-year love affair that began in 1977.  Judging by the new trailer, the story seems to be heavily from Thorson’s perspective as he took a unique relationship with Liberace.  It’s intriguing.  Not quite as intriguing as Rob Lowe‘s hairstyle, but close.

Hit the jump to check out the full trailer.  The film also stars Dan Aykroyd and Debbie Reynolds.  Behind the Candelabra premieres on HBO on May 26th at 9/8c.

Before tonight’s season premiere of Game of Thrones, HBO aired a brief new trailer for Steven Soderbergh‘s ultimate film before retirement, Behind the Candelabra.  The film stars Michael Douglas as the famous musician Liberace and Matt Damon as his lover Scott Thorson.  The story centers on the tempestuous relationship between the two throughout their secretive five-year love affair that began in 1977.  Like the teaser trailer, the tone is fun, but this time we’re getting our first footage from the picture, and I like the look of the flamboyant hair and costumes.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  Behind the Candelabra airs on HBO on May 26th at 9/8c.

HBO has released the teaser trailer for Steven Soderbergh’s final film before retirement, Behind the Candelabra.  The film stars Michael Douglas as the famous musician Liberace and Matt Damon as his lover Scott Thorson.  The story centers on the tempestuous relationship between the two throughout their secretive five-year love affair that began in 1977.  Judging by the teaser trailer, there’s a fairly cheeky tone, which isn’t too surprising when you consider Liberace’s flamboyant personality and charm.

Hit the jump to check out the teaser trailer.  Behind the Candelabra premieres on HBO on May 26th.

While Steven Soderbergh has made a number of movies over the past few years, for whatever reason, I’d never had an opportunity to speak with him.  So when I was offered a possible interview for his latest thriller, Side Effects, I sent an email saying I’d like to do it and figured it would never happen.  Thankfully, I was wrong.

At the Los Angeles press day, I was given 45 minutes with Soderbergh (he only does 45-minute interviews), and we talked about a wide variety of subjects like his his post-retirement plans, Twitter, comic book movies, his preferred digital camera, whether digital can ever match IMAX quality, 48fps, the success of Magic Mike and the sequel, his work as second unit director on The Hunger Games, championing Christopher Nolan before the world knew who he was, his filmmaking process, editing while shooting, why he cut 45 minutes out of Contagion and why you’ll probably never see the footage, Kickstarter, and so much more.  If you’re a Soderbergh fan, I promise you’ll dig this interview.  Hit the jump to either read or listen to what he had to say.

Over the past few days, we’ve been sharing portions of Steve’s recent lengthy interview with director Steven Soderbergh.  The two sat down in anticipation of the filmmaker’s psychological thriller Side Effects, which opens this Friday, but the conversation covered a wide-range of topics.  If all goes according to plan, Side Effects will be Soderbergh’s penultimate feature film, with the HBO Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra, starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon, serving as Soderbergh’s last hurrah this summer.

For this final portion of the interview, Soderbergh talks about his plans post-film retirement, painting, his presence on Twitter and how he approaches the social media site, Behind the Candelabra, comic book movies, and he briefly talks about vouching for Joe and Anthony Russo as the directors of Captain America: The Winter Soldier.  Hit the jump to read on.

Director Steven Soderbergh’s psychological thriller Side Effects opens in theaters this Friday, but the filmmaker also has another (possibly final) film set for release in 2013 as well: the Liberace movie Behind the Candelabra.  HBO has now unveiled the first official image from the pic, giving us a look at Michael Douglas as Liberace and Matt Damon as his lover Scott Thorson.  The story centers on the tempestuous relationship between the two throughout their secretive five-year love affair that began in 1977.  We’ve yet to see a trailer, but I’m inclined to say that Candelabra will be a lot of fun given the talent both onscreen and behind the camera.

Hit the jump to check out the image and an official synopsis, and if you missed any portions of Steve’s recent interview with Soderbergh, click here.  Behind the Candelabra will premiere on HBO in May.

From director Gus Van Sant, the small town drama Promised Land tells the story of Steve Butler (Matt Damon), a corporate salesman who has been dispatched to the rural town of McKinley with his sales partner (Frances McDormand) to see if the two can get the citizens to sign over the drilling rights to their properties.  But, when an environmental activist (John Krasinski) arrives in town, the residents start to question what’s best for themselves and their community.  For more on Promised Land, here are seven clips and the trailer.

At the film’s press day, actor Matt Damon talked about how quickly they shot the film, having a rough cut done four weeks ahead of schedule, how he came to collaborate on the script with Krasinski, their process for writing together, working with McDormand, what made Van Sant the right director when he decided he wouldn’t be able to take that on himself, and why this was an important story for him to tell.  He also talked about kissing Michael Douglas in Behind the Candelabra, an HBO movie about the relationship between Liberace and his younger live-in lover, and whether he’d ever consider returning to the role of Jason Bourne.  Check out what he had to say after the jump.

We’ve got an odd assortment of images for you to check out today, starting with Matt Damon and Michael Douglas in costume for Behind the Candelabra, the Liberace biopic from director Steven Soderbergh.  Douglas stars as the late pianist and vocalist while Damon plays his lover, Scott Thorson.  The picture, produced by Jerry Weintraub, will debut on HBO before moving to a theatrical release.  The picture also stars Rob Lowe, Dan Aykroyd, Debbie Reynolds, and Scott Bakula.

We’ve also got a new shot of Richard Armitage (Captain America: The First Avenger) in costume as Thorin Oakenshield, the leader of the dwarves in the upcoming The Hobbit trilogy from director Peter Jackson.  Hit the jump to check out all the images.

The first image from the set of what may or may not be Steven Soderbergh’s last film has a director has landed online.  His pre-sabbatical pic is a biopic of famed artist Liberace that he’s been developing for quite some time, and we now get our first look at Michael Douglas as the flamboyant pianist and Matt Damon as his lover Scott Thorson in Behind the Candelabra.  The scene in question seems to be from Liberace’s earlier years given Douglas’ hair color, but the two actors definitely have the 70s look down.

Produced by Jerry Weintraub, Behind the Candelabra is skipping the theatrical route and will make its debut on HBO.  The impressive ensemble cast includes Rob Lowe, Dan Aykroyd, Debbie Reynolds, and Scott Bakula.  I’m eager to see what kind of tone Soderbergh has settled on and whether we’re in for a straightforward biopic or something a bit different.  Knowing Soderbergh it’s most likely the latter, which is a very good thing.  Hit the jump to check out the image.

After a long career making movies, some directors take on an increasing producer capacity (Steven Spielberg) while others go to their garage to tinker with passion projects (George Lucas).  Then there’s Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh, who currently has the male stripper movie Magic Mike out in theaters and two more projects on the horizon (Bitter Pill and Behind the Candelabra).  That last feature may be telling, as it will debut on HBO before opening to a theatrical audience.  And now it seems as if Soderbergh’s career intentions are leaning more towards the small screen in the future.  Hit the jump for some quotes from Soderbergh himself as to his potential move to television.

Here are a few recent casting notes at a glance:

• Max Minghella (The Social Network) is in talks to join Shawn Levy’s The Internship alongside Wedding Crashers alumni, Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn.
• Taylor Schilling (The Lucky One) has boarded the indie drama, Stay.
• Brie Larson (21 Jump Street) is the latest addition to The Spectacular Now, with Shailene Woodley (The Descendants) and Miles Teller (Project X).
• Tom Papa (The Marriage Ref) has joined Steven Soderbergh’s Liberace biopic, Behind the Candelabra.

Hit the jump for more on each film.