Three first-time directors and a Brett Ratner did some casting today:

• Annette Benning and Bobby Cannavale (Boardwalk Empire) are in negotiations to star opposite Al Pacino in Imagine, the directorial debut of writer Dan Fogelman (Crazy, Stupid, Love).
• Leighton Meester (Gossip Girl) and Gillian Jacobs (Community) star as two opposites in a co-dependent friendship in Life Partners, the directorial debut of Susanna Fogel.  Adam Brody, Gabourey Sidibe, Abby Elliott, and Beth Dover co-star.
• Sarah Gadon (Cosmopolis) is in negotiations for the female lead in Dracula. Luke Evans stars in Gary Shore‘s directorial debut.
• Ingrid Bolsø Berdal (Chernobyl Diaries) landed the female lead in Ratner’s Hercules.  Dwayne Johnson plays the titular Greek hero.  Ian McShane and Joseph Fiennes co-star.

Hit the jump for more on each project.

Three new images have been released from Woody Allen‘s upcoming film, Blue Jasmine.  The romantic comedy is described as “the story of the final stages of an acute crisis and a life of a fashionable New York housewife.”  Details on the plot remain scarce, but Allen, as always, has amassed an incredible cast.  For Blue Jasmine, he’s got Cate Blanchett, Sally Hawkins, Alec Baldwin, Bobby Cannavale, Louis C.K., Andrew Dice Clay, Peter Sarsgaard, and Michael Stuhlbarg.  Wow.  Clay really sticks out like a sore, misogynistic thumb in that line-up.

Hit the jump to check out the images.  Blue Jasmine is due out July 26th.

The world wanted to possess Linda Lovelace.  Celebrity always involves an aspect of ownership (it’s why we feel justified in judging the lives of famous people even though they’re personally strangers to us), but Lovelace was treated as a possession by her family, her husband, and ultimately the world as she became famous not for any aspect of her personality, but because she had one particular talent.  In Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman‘s biopic Lovelace, the filmmakers change the narrative of Lovelace from sex icon to victim of domestic abuse.  The movie finds a tenuous connection between the public and private possession of Lovelace, but the narrative’s strength comes from stars Amanda Seyfried and Peter Sarsgaard taking a mature approach to domestic violence, which helps Lovelace rise above its melodrama and poor structure.

Today, we’ve learned that Woody Allen‘s upcoming film will be entitled Blue Jasmine.  As we previously reported, the romantic comedy apparently centers on a woman whose “posh New York City lifestyle” comes crashing down so she makes a move to San Francisco.  The press release adds, “It is the story of the final stages of an acute crisis and a life of a fashionable New York housewife.”  As per usual, Allen has lined up a superb cast for his latest feature, which includes Alec Baldwin, Cate Blanchett, Bobby Cannavale, Louis C.K., Andrew Dice Clay, Sally Hawkins, Peter Sarsgaard, and Michael Stuhlbarg.

Hit the jump for the press release.  Sony Pictures Classics will distribute Blue Jasmine, which is the sixth Allen picture for the studio.  No word yet on the release date, but I’m willing to bet we’ll see it later this year since Allen manages to get out one new movie per year.

The comedy omnibus Movie 43 has something for everyone with its enormous, star-studded cast: Emma Stone, Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Naomi Watts, Terrence Howard, Halle Berry, Jason Sudeikis, Gerard Butler, Kristen Bell, Chloe Moretz, Josh Duhamel, Johnny Knoxville, Elizabeth Banks, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Richard Gere, Anna Faris, Justin Long, Liev Schreiber, Uma Thurman, Seann William Scott, Kieran Culkin, Leslie Bibb, Jimmy Bennett, Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, Kate Bosworth, Patrick Warburton, Tony Shalhoub, Chris Pratt, Jack McBrayer, Aasif Mandvi, Bobby Cannavale.

Movie 43 opens on January 25, 2013, so Relativity sent over an exclusive TV spot.  If you can handle jokes about homeschool incest and inappropriate uses for hot sauce, watch it after the jump.  And make sure to check out the red band trailer.

If you like your movie trailers short on plot, heavy on the ad-libbing and redder than a Romney state, then you’ll love this new red-band effort from Movie 43.  The Peter Farrelly ensemble comedy stars everyone you’ve ever heard of in Hollywood and even some you haven’t.  Movie 43 has released another red-band trailer previously, but the new one mostly focuses on a stream of improv from Jason Sudeikis who is admiring Kristen Bell’s crotch.

Starring Elizabeth Banks, Kristen Bell, Halle Berry, Leslie Bibb, Kate Bosworth, Gerard Butler and everyone else, Movie 43 opens on January 25th, 2013.  Hit the jump to see the new red-band trailer.

A new trailer for the upcoming third season of HBO’s drama series Boardwalk Empire has been released.  I’ve only ever seen the first season of the show, but I’m aware of how last season ended and it looks like things will be decidedly dark when the show returns.  The trailer also teases the new character played by Bobby Cannavale, but it’s sadly light on Michael Shannon.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The third season of Boardwalk Empire premieres on HBO Sunday, September 16th at 9pm.

Woody Allen looks to have finalized the cast for his next film, and a few exciting additions have been announced.  We already knew that Sally Hawkins and Cate Blanchett would be leading a cast that also includes Alec Baldwin, Michael Emerson and Bobby Cannavale, and now Variety reports that Louis C.K., Peter Sarsgaard and Andrew Dice Clay will round out the cast.  Bradley Cooper was mentioned as a possible addition at one point, but he may have run into some scheduling issues.  Max Casella and Alden Ehrenreich are also listed in the announced cast.

Though story details are under wraps, Louis C.K.’s casting is interesting for a number of reasons.  First off, C.K. has great comedic timing as well as dramatic talent so he’s a welcomed addition, but he’s also been hailed as a bit of a successor to Allen with his New York-centric, critically hailed series Louie.  I’m beyond eager to see how he fits into Allen’s next film, and the writer-director has assembled an unsurprisingly impressive ensemble for his next effort.  The untitled film will shoot this summer in San Francisco and New York City.

We’ve got a few casting stories to share this afternoon.  Briefly:

• Multifaceted writer/director/actor Mark Duplass has been added to the already-in-production drama about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden, Zero Dark Thirty, directed by Kathryn Bigelow.
• Rapper T.I. joins Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy in the comedy Identity Theft.
• Bobby Cannavale has been added to the cast of Woody Allen’s untitled next film.

Hit the jump for more details on each casting addition.

After cycling through hosts of women on his previous show Two and a Half Men, Charlie Sheen is on to new ventures and a new network with FX’s comedy series, Anger Management. Starring opposite Sheen will be, Selma Blair (Hellboy), in the form of a therapist/love interest for Sheen’s character, Charlie. Blair is one of two female roles on the show (the other being Shawnee Smith (Saw) who will play Charlie’s ex-wife) which has an initial 10-episode order from FX. Hit the jump for more from Anger Management, as well as details on Bobby Cannavale’s character in season three of HBO’s Boardwalk Empire.

As the two competing Linda Lovelace biopics continue to race toward the finish line, one moves closer to release as production on Lovelace began today.  Variety reports that Hank Azaria, Bobby Cannavale (Win Win), Chris Noth (Sex and the City), and Robert Patrick have all joined the cast of the now in-production indie. Directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (Howl), the film has Amanda Seyfried set to star as the titular porn star, with Peter Sarsgaard in place as Lovelace’s husband (whom she claims for coerced her into pornography). But that’s not all, as James Franco is also apparently in talks to appear in the film as one Hugh Hefner. Franco was initially eyed to take on Sarsgaard’s part, but the thought of Franco playing Hefner in full force is almost too good to be true.

Franco’s role would be little more than a cameo, as the Hefner sequence simply involves Lovelace and her husband attending a screening of Deep Throat at the Playboy mansion. Hit the jump for more on the project.

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.

One of the best films I saw at Sundance was Tom McCarthy’s Win Win.  The film centers on a struggling lawyer (Paul Giamatti) who inadvertently ends up housing a young teenage wrestler (Alex Shaffer). While the film is somewhat lighter than McCarthy’s previous films (The Station Agent and The Visitor) it still hits strong emotional beats without coming off as cloying and dodges the indie comedy trap of being quirky for the sake of being quirky.  Instead, McCarthy rests Win Win on honest performances of strong, well-written characters.

Hit the jump to check out the clips and click here for my full review.  Win Win also stars Amy Ryan, Bobby Cannavale, Melanie Lynskey, Burt Young, and Jeffrey Tambor.  It opens in limited release this Friday.

One of the best movies I saw at Sundance this year was Tom McCarthy’s Win Win.  The film is warm, touching, and incredibly funny.  Fox Searchlight has now released a trailer for the flick and I think it does a fine job of selling the picture without giving too much away.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer and click here to read my review of the film.  Win Win stars Paul Giamatti, Amy Ryan, Melanie Lynskey, Jeffrey Tambor, Bobby Cannavale, and Alex Shaffer.  It opens March 18th.

I still have plenty of movies left to see at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, but I don’t know if any will leave me smiling as much as Tom McCarthy’s Win Win.  The movie a gigantic ball of warmth filled with terrific performances, smart humor, and genuine emotions.  Even a glaring narrative question doesn’t slow the film down because you’re too busy caring about the characters and their journey.  Everything in Win Win is earned, from the laughs to the sentiment, and the payoff is tremendous.