We’ve got a couple of rather interesting casting stories to report this evening.  First up, Wally Pfister has added another familiar face to the cast of his directorial debut Transcendence.  Pfister previously worked as a cinematographer, most notably collaborating with Christopher Nolan on all of his films, and now Batman Begins and Inception star Cillian Murphy has been tapped to play one of three male leads in Transcendence.  The film stars Johnny Depp and is rumored to concern a scientist whose brain gets uploaded into a supercomputer, but confirmed plot details are being kept under tight wraps.

News of Murphy’s casting comes courtesy of Latino Review, but further details regarding his character are unknown.  Morgan Freeman, Rebecca Hall, Paul Bettany, and Kate Mara also star.  The film is due out April 25, 2014.  Hit the jump to find out which Seinfeld alum has been cast as Master Splinter in the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles redo.

A new trailer for the drama Broken has been released online.  Directed by Rufus Norris, the film stars Tim Roth as the father of an 11-year-old girl living in North London who witnesses a violent attack which changes the way she looks at the world around her.  Cillian Murphy also stars, and judging by the trailer the film looks to be an intense little character drama with a strong performance from newcomer Eloise Laurence.  It’s not exactly clear what the full story entails, but the trailer does a nice job of teasing this dark story without really giving much away.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  Broken opens in the UK in Spring 2013.

Although some found being trapped in a box with Ryan Reynolds for 90 minutes a bit much, Rodrigo Cortés‘ claustrophobic thriller Buried garnered critical acclaim following its premiere at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. His follow-up film, the paranormal thriller Red Lights, shows much more promise for Cortés’ as a writer and director – even if it fumbles in the third act. Featuring a strong cast and fantastic visuals from cinematographer Xavi Giménez, Red Lights tackles a slew of weighty themes like perception, reason, and faith while remaining firmly grounded in reality. If only it could have stuck the landing. Hit the jump or my full review of Red Lights on Blu-ray.

Cillian Murphy (Inception) is set to star in an upcoming six-part BBC2 miniseries, written by Steven Knight (Eastern Promises).  The immensely talented Irish actor Murphy will be playing a ruthless gangster (Cillian Murphy playing a bad guy? Ya don’t say!) in the period drama, called Peaky Blinders, which sounds more like an exposé on Peeping Toms than anything.

Apparently though, the title is a reference to the gangster family’s penchant for sewing razor blades into the peaks of their caps.  Murphy will play Tommy, the leader of a gang of brutal brothers who rule the post-war slums of 1919 Birmingham, England, while returning soldiers, revolutionaries and criminals fight to survive.  For more on the project, hit the jump.

The dramatic thriller Red Lights, from writer/director Rodrigo Cortes (Buried), follows a pair of top paranormal researchers facing their greatest challenge, as they set out to discredit a powerful psychic.  Dr. Margaret Matheson (Sigourney Weaver) and her partner, Tom Buckley (Cillian Murphy) are the world’s foremost investigators of paranormal phenomena.  When legendary blind psychic Simon Silver (Robert DeNiro) comes out of retirement after 30 years, Tom becomes determined to discredit the seemingly genuine showman, regardless of the consequences.

At the film’s press day, actor Cillian Murphy talked about creating this character and the world he lives in, how skeptical he personally is of paranormal activity, working with his esteemed co-stars, how his nationality affects him as an individual, and the type of work that he looks to do.  Check out what he had to say after the jump.

Today, we have an exclusive clip for Rodrigo Cortes‘ thriller Red Lights. The story focuses on two physicists (Cillian Murphy and Sigourney Weaver) who investigate hoaxes, but must wrestle with the possibility of the supernatural when they encounter renowned psychic Simon Silver (Robert De Niro).  In this clip, we see Silver talking up his audience before he performs some seemingly supernatural healing ability, but what the clip really showcases is how De Niro can still turn in a strong performance when he wants to.

Hit the jump to check out the clip, and click here for my film review from Sundance.  The film also stars Elizabeth Olsen as a student who joins Murphy and Weaver’s characters.  Red Lights opens July 13th.

Following the release of these character posters earlier this week, a new trailer for director Rodrigo Cortes’ supernatural thriller, Red Lights, has gone online.  The picture stars Cillian Murphy and Sigourney Weaver as two paranormal investigators with a long track record of debunked psychics, faith healers and outright frauds.  One such mystic who has escaped their deductive logic is the blind psychic, Simon Silver (Robert De Niro).  When Silver comes out of retirement, the junior investigator sees a chance for a big win for science and recruits his star pupil (Elizabeth Olsen) to help, even while being warned to back off by his partner.  The new trailer features a bit more footage than the previous one and highlights the stand-off between Murphy and De Niro.  As a bonus, it’s introduced by the lovely Ms. Weaver.  Hit the jump to check it out.

Millennium has released four character posters for Rodrigo Cortés‘ supernatural thriller Red Lights.  The story focuses on two physicists (Cillian Murphy and Sigourney Weaver) who investigate hoaxes, but must wrestle with the possibility of the supernatural when they encounter renowned psychic Simon Silver (Robert De Niro).  I dug almost the entire film when I saw it at Sundance, but the ending really leaves a bad taste in the mouth, and I’m hoping Cortés will have tweaked it when the film opens this summer.

Hit the jump to check out the posters.  The film also stars Elizabeth Olsen and Toby Jones.  Red Lights opens July 13th.

The UK trailer for Rodrigo Cortes‘ Red Lights has gone online.  The film stars Cillian Murphy and Sigourney Weaver as scientists who investigate paranormal activity, and who find a dangerous challenge when controversial psychic Simon Silver (Robert De Niro) comes out of retirement.  I caught the movie at Sundance and thought it was terrific up until the ending, which not only leaves the movie on a sour note, but undoes a lot of what was accomplished earlier in the picture.  There’s a chance the ending has been changed (most of the people I spoke to at Sundance also had a problem with it), but we’ll have to wait and see.  The UK trailer does a fairly solid job of selling the film, although it should play up the paranormal investigations from the first half of the movie since those are the best parts.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The film also stars Toby Jones and Elizabeth Olsen.  Red Lights opens in the UK on June 22nd and in the US on July 13th.

Director Rodrigo Cortes’ (Buried) thriller Red Lights now has a release date.  According to a Wall Street Journal piece (via STYD), the supernatural pic will hit theaters on July 13th.  The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and stars Cillian Murphy and Sigourney Weaver as two physicists who debunk claims of paranormal activity, but they run up against a man (Robert De Niro) who may actually have special powers.  Matt caught the film at Sundance and really liked most of it, but he had issues with the ending.  It’s worth noting that filmmakers often make tweaks to their movies following festivals and prior to wide release, so Cortes may have made some changes to the film’s conclusion.

I think the trailer looks pretty solid and I like the cast, so I’m interested to check the thing out this summer.  I’m assuming the pic will get a limited release on that July 13th date, but the wide releases opening that weekend include Seth MacFarlane’s comedy Ted and Ice Age: Continental Drift. Hit the jump to watch the trailer for Red Lights.

Over the years, Andrew Niccol has proven himself to be a more-than-capable director of commercially risky films interested in the idea of “identity”.  More of than not, these are sci-fi films (in the cases of Gattaca and S1m0ne), but sometimes they’re borderline dark-comedies (as in The Truman Show and The Terminal) and sometimes they’re just the second-best thing Nic Cage has done in ten years (Lord of War).  Niccol’s latest film—In Time—seeks to turn Justin Timberlake into the star of an action/sci-fi hybrid.  Does he pull it off?  Should you pick up In Time on Blu-ray?  Find out after the jump, folks.

An English-Language trailer for Rodrigo Cortes’ Red Lights has gone online.  For those unfamiliar with the flick, it stars Cillian Murphy and Sigourney Weaver as two physicists who debunk claims of paranormal activity, but they run up against a man (Robert De Niro) who may actually have special powers.  I dug almost all of the film when I saw it at Sundance, but the ending needs to be reworked since the execution undermines the power of what came before.  The new trailer sells the movie as a straight-up supernatural thriller, and while that’s technically true, the trailer also makes the film look generic and forgettable.  There’s more personality and fun in Red Lights than what’s on display here.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  Millennium picked up Red Lights for U.S. distribution, but no release date has been announced.

It’s been a bit of a wait for the follow up to Cristian Mungiu‘s terrific 2007 feature 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, but it looks like a festival release for his next film is on the horizon.  Deadline reports that Wild Bunch has reteamed with Mungiu for the new film, which is “set in an Orthodox convent in Romania,” and “centers on a young woman’s descent into madness, her subsequent exorcism and the police investigation it sparks.”  I’m sick to death of exorcism movies, but I’ll make an exception for Mungiu.  Wild Bunch’s Vincent Maraval says that the movie “has elements of 4 Months, but with a much more intense twist.”  Hopefully, that twist does not involve sending the audience to a website.

Pre-sales on the untitled film will go down in Berlin, with a possible release at Cannes in May.  Wild Bunch is also planning to submit Rufus Norris‘ Broken, which centers on “the father of an 11-year old girl living in North London who witnesses a violent attack which changes the way she looks at the world around her.”  The film stars Tim Roth, Cillian Murphy, Rory Kinnear, and Bill Milner.

Although the release date for The Raven has been pushed back a month, that’s allowed Relativity to give us more looks at the property, like this new poster. It’s not quite as ink-soaked or blood-soaked as previous efforts and resembles more of a phoenix than a raven, but it’s stylish nonetheless. Here’s what you need to know about the posters we’ve rounded up today:

• Director James McTeigue’s The Raven stars John Cusack as Edgar Allan Poe, who joins a detective (Luke Evans of Immortals) to stop a killer who’s committing crimes based on Poe’s works.
• The Imposter, a documentary film by director Bart Layton (Locked Up Abroad) that follows a young Frenchman who posed as a Texas family’s 16-year-old son who had been missing for three years
• From director Rodrigo Cortes (Buried) comes Red Lights, a paranormal thriller that questions the supernatural and whether a world-renowned psychic is actually gifted or just a charlatan. The film stars Robert De Niro, Cillian Murphy, Sigourney Weaver and Elizabeth Olsen.

Hit the jump to check out the full-size posters.

Mysticism and superstition can provide hope.  If there’s something beyond our world, something we can’t see, then perhaps there’s a shortcut, a fount of secret knowledge, anything that can provide a solution when the real world doesn’t have one we like.  That’s where con artists come in and appeal to our desire for a great beyond.  These frauds carry themselves as the special people who will use their gift (and a curse! It’s always a blessing and a curse with these things) to heal the body and/or soul.   Rodrigo Cortés supernatural thriller Red Lights puts us on the side of skeptical scientists who aren’t opposed to the paranormal, but have yet to see any evidence of it.  Dr. Margaret Matheson (Sigourney Weaver) and her assistant Dr. Tom Buckley (Cillian Murphy) use the power of science rather than the supernatural to debunk these phony mystics.  But in its second half, Red Lights makes a major narrative turn, shifts the tone, draws the viewer deeper into the possibility of the paranormal, and has its characters struggle to keep a hold on reality.  However, the film ends in a serious backfire where a clumsy execution breaks the spell.