20th Century Fox has released the first trailer for director Brad Furman‘s (The Lincoln Lawyer) crime thriller Runner, Runner.  The film stars Justin Timberlake as a Princeton student who is cheated out of his tuition money playing online poker and ends up indebted to the site’s corrupt boss (Ben Affleck).  Furman’s The Lincoln Lawyer turned out to be a pleasantly surprising dramatic thriller, and Runner, Runner appears to quite similar to that pic in tone.  No one looks to be gunning for Oscar glory here, but the interplay between Affleck and Timberlake is promising and it’s fun to see Affleck taking on a more villainous role.  Moreover, the Puerto Rico locale provides a nice change of pace from the gritty, metropolis-set thrillers that populate the marketplace nowadays.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Gemma Arterton, Ben Schwartz, Dayo Okeniyi and Oliver Cooper.  Runner, Runner opens September 27th. 

Some weekend casting news for you:

• Oscar Isaac (Drive) has landed the lead in Lincoln Lawyer director Brad Furman’s Pablo Escobar biopic.
• Glenn Close, Taryn Manning (Hustle & Flow) and Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers have been confirmed to join Low Down, a 1960s-set drama about a jazz musician (John Hawkes) struggling with addiction.
• Nicolas Cage will star in horror-thriller Hotel 33, based on a “real-life” mass-vanishing that took place at a Pennsylvania hotel.
• Timothy Olyphant looks set for the role of a border-town sheriff dealing with the aftermath of a cartel deal gone bad in Gonzalo López-Gallego’s crime thriller The Man on Carrion Road.

Hit the jump for more on each project.

Earlier this week, Fast & Furious 6 director Justin Lin confirmed that he would not be returning to helm a seventh installment of the high-octane franchise.  Though the sixth entry has yet to hit theaters, star Vin Diesel has suggested that production on the next film could start shooting as early as this summer, meaning that Universal needs to find a new director ASAP.  While there are likely plenty of takers for the job, three individuals have emerged at the top contenders: Jeff Wadlow (Kick-Ass 2), Brad Furman (The Lincoln Lawyer), and Harald Zwart (The Karate Kid).  Hit the jump for more on each of the directors, as well as my pick for gig.

A couple of release date shifts have been announced.  First up, Disney has made the decision to move the 3D re-release of Monsters Inc. up from January 18th, 2013 to the incredibly crowded holiday weekend of December 19th, 2012 (per Box Office Mojo).  That date is already host to Judd Apatow’s This Is 40, the Tom Cruise actioner Jack Reacher, and Kathryn Bigelow’s war drama Zero Dark Thirty, not to mention Django Unchained, The Great Gatsby, and the Seth Rogen/Barbra Streisand comedy The Guilt Trip opening just five days later.

Hit the jump for more, including why this might be a smart move for Disney and release date news for Runner Runner.

Director Brad Furman’s adaptation of Michael Connelly’s novel The Lincoln Lawyer was a sizeable hit when the thriller opened last year, and given that Matthew McConaughey’s character of Mickey Haller appears in subsequent Connelly novels, many were hoping we’d be seeing more of Haller in future films.  Lionsgate Vice Chairman Michael Burns revealed last December that a sequel to the film was in the works as well as a television series, and now we have an update from McConaughey himself on the status of the follow-up.

Steve got the chance to speak with McConaughey earlier today for his upcoming thriller Killer Joe, and the actor spoke a bit about the Lincoln Lawyer sequel including his eagerness to return to the character and what the follow-up would entail.  Hit the jump to see what he had to say.

Director Brad Furman (The Lincoln Lawyer) has settled on his female lead in the gambling drama Runner Runner.  Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake are set to star in the pic, and now Variety reports that Gemma Arterton (Clash of the Titans) has joined the cast.  Timberlake stars as a Princeton student who is cheated out of his tuition money playing online poker and ends up indebted to the site’s corrupt boss (Affleck).  Arterton will play Timberlake’s love interest, but further character details are unknown.

Anthony Mackie and Oliver Cooper (Project X) recently joined the cast, and production is slated to get underway in Puerto Rico late next month.  Timberlake more than proved his acting acumen in The Social Network and I’m interested to see where his career goes from here.  Arterton stars opposite Jeremy Renner in next March’s Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters and she’ll appear in the vampire pic Byzantium.

Some casting news to share with you today.  Check the bullets:

• Anthony Mackie (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) is in talks to join Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake in the gambling drama, Runner Runner.
• Alex Pettyfer (I Am Number Four) will topline Diamond Dogs, an English-language thriller by director Pascal Chaumeil (Heartbreaker).
• Tim Roth (The Incredible Hulk) will join Jean Dujardin (The Artist) and Cecile De France (Hereafter) in the spy-thriller, Mobius.

Hit the jump for more.

Here’s a safe bet for a good box office: Justin Timberlake and Ben Affleck in the same film. The suited pair will reportedly star in Runner Runner, a gambling drama by director Brad Furman (Lincoln Lawyer) from a script by Rounders scribes, Brian Koppelman and David Levien.  The New Regency picture will be set in the world of offshore online gaming and features the deteriorating relationship between a business founder and his protege.  For those of you who lack a gambling addiction, the poker term “runner runner” refers to a hand made by hitting two consecutive cards on the turn and the river.  The movie could equally have been called “backdoor,” which is another name for the same thing, but I doubt studio executives wanted to touch that one.  Deadline reports that Runner Runner will start production  this June.

Hollywood has long wanted to tackle the life of legendary Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar.  In recent years, Oliver Stone led the effort with a biopic titled Escobar, while Joe Carnahan was attached to direct an adaptation of the Mark Bowden book Killing Pablo.  Both those projects are now on hold, but yet another Escobar project is moving forward at Stone Village Pictures.  Brad Furman (The Lincoln Lawyer) is in negotiations to direct the untitled feature from a script by Matt Aldrich (Cleaner).  Scott Steindorf, who collaborated with Furman on The Lincoln Lawyer, will produce with his Stone Village teammates Dylan Russell and Scott LaStaiti.

Hit the jump for quotes from the filmmakers, including Steindorff’s claim, “This is the Latino Godfather.”

A few days ago, we reported that Arnold Schwarzenegger was planning to return to the Terminator franchise with Fast Five director Justin Lin at the helm. However, acting robotically on purpose won’t be Schwarzenegger’s first post-governorship gig.  Vulture reports that Schwarzenegger has signed on to star in the drama Cry Macho for director Brad Furman (The Lincoln Lawyer).  The film, based on the novel the late N. Richard Nash (who also wrote the screenplay before he died in 2000), would see Schwarzenegger as “a damaged-goods horse trainer who’s just been ignominiously put out to pasture by his feckless boss. In exchange for some retirement money, the broken — and broke — horseman agrees to kidnap the boss’ 11-year-old son from his rich Mexican ex-wife. Things take an unexpected turn, however, when the ex-wife is all too glad to be rid of her juvenile delinquent.”  Oh, good.  Schwarzenegger will be acting opposite a kid.  Those movies always turn out so well.

Hit the jump for more on Cry Macho and Schwarzenegger’s other projects.

The majority of Matthew McConaughey’s filmography for the last decade could be charitably described as “less-than-good” and uncharitably described as “an abomination”.  Even McConaughey seemed unengaged from the material in a way that seemed to say, “Yeah, these movies are crap, but I’ve got a million-dollar smile and unlike most men, I look even hotter when I’m sweaty so the ladies love me.  Enjoy Fool’s Gold.”  There’s a greasy charm to the majority of his performances and his rom-com “appeal” (I use that term loosely) has overshadowed his genuinely good work in more dramatic films like Lone Star and Frailty.

And yet it’s McConaughey’s smug huckster attitude that elevates The Lincoln Lawyer from a forgettable legal drama to a breezy, exciting thriller that’s ironically only slowed down when McConaughey lessens his bravado to take a swing at the story’s more dramatic beats.

Darren Aronofsky is no stranger to drugs and movies coming together; his 2000 drama Requiem for a Dream is one of the most haunting portrayals of drug addicts ever seen on film. 24 Frames is now reporting the acclaimed director is returning to the world of drugs in a new movie he’s producing entitled Intricate. Brad Furman, the director of the upcoming thriller The Lincoln Lawyer, has been tagged to direct the film, which is based on a true story about a college basketball star who falls into the seedy underbelly of New York’s drug world in the 1990s. Protozoa Pictures, Aronofsky and Black Swan producer Scott Franklin’s production company, will be helping to fund the movie.

[Update: Franklin now tells 24 Frames that while he gave notes on the project and introduced Furman to a screenwriter, Protozoa is not currently attached to produce.]

Lionsgate has released a new trailer for The Lincoln Lawyer, an adaptation of the best selling novel by Michael Connelly.  Matthew McConaughey stars as Mickey Haller, “a Los Angeles criminal defense attorney who operates out of the back of his Lincoln sedan.”  Ryan Phillippe, Marisa Tomei, William H. Macy, Josh Lucas, John Leguizamo, Michael Pena, and Bryan Cranston also star.  Brad Furman (The Take) directs from a script by John Romano (Nights in Rodanthe).  Check out the new trailer after the jump.

More Lincoln news! Okay, not really. This one involves the towncar. Lionsgate has released the first teaser trailer for The Lincoln Lawyer, based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Michael Connelly.  The film stars Matthew McConaughey giving off a bit of an A Time to Kill vibe, along with Ryan Phillippe, Marisa Tomei, John Leguizamo, William H. Macy, Josh Lucas, and Michael Peña.  The plot revolves around a successful criminal defense attorney who does business from the back of a Lincoln Towncar.  He gets involved with a high profile case concerning a wealthy realtor from Beverly Hills (Phillippe).  Tommy Lee Jones was previously attached to direct and star in the film but dropped out over creative differences. Brad Furman (The Take) now directs from a script by John Romano (Nights in Rodanthe).  The Lincoln Lawyer will be released on March 18^th, 2011. Hit the jump to check out the trailer.

Back in October, we heard that Tommy Lee Jones and Matthew McConaughey were teaming up for an adaptation of the Michael Connelly novel The Lincoln Lawyer, with Jones set to direct.  Sadly, Jones bowed out a month later (those darn “creative differences”), but the cast is shaping up nicely regardless.  According to Variety, Lionsgate just picked up the domestic distribution rights for Lawyer after the flick recently recruited Marissa Tomei, William H. Macy, and Ryan Phillippe to co-star alongside McConaughey.

Brad Furman (The Take) will replace Jones in the director’s chair for the July production.  The adapted script from John Romano (Intolerable Cruelty) outlines a legal thriller centered around a defense attorney whose Lincoln Town Car doubles as an office.  You’ll find a full plot synopsis for Connelly’s novel after the break.