Quite the impressive ensemble is being assembled for director Jake Paltrow’s (The Good Night) upcoming futuristic thriller Young Ones.  Variety reports that Nicholas Hoult, Michael Shannon, Elle Fanning, and Kodi Smit-McPhee (Let Me In) have signed on to star.  The story centers on a 14-year-old boy forced to use his wits to survive and “is set in a violent near-future where water has become the most precious—and fastest-dwindling—resource on the planet.”  Paltrow wrote the script and will direct, with production already underway in South Africa’s Northern Cape desert.

This isn’t Hoult’s first go at apocalyptic landscapes, as he recently wrapped director George Miller’s sequel Mad Max: Fury Road.  He recently scored a hit in his first leading turn with Warm Bodies, and also plays the title character in next month’s Jack the Giant Slayer.  After Young Ones, he’ll report to the set for the sequel X-Men: Days of Future Past.  Since the lead in the film is a 14-year-old, though, one assumes Smit-McPhee is playing the main character.

Laika and Focus Features are teaming up once again for The Boxtrolls.  Their third production will be the 3D stop motion and CG hybrid animated adaptation of Alan Snow’s “Here Be Monsters.”  The story centers on a posh Victorian-era town of people obsessed with finery and stinky cheese, but are plagued by an underground society of foul monsters who steal their children…and cheese.  Similar in themes to their previous productions Coraline and ParaNorman, the under-dwellers are not exactly what the citizens’ legends say they are.

Directed by Anthony Stacchi (Open Season) and Graham Annable (a story artist on Coraline and ParaNorman), The Boxtrolls features an impressive voice cast featuring Ben Kingsley, Isaac Hempstead-Wright, Elle Fanning, Toni Collette, Jared Harris, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Richard Ayoade and Tracy Morgan.  The Boxtrolls is due out October 17, 2014.  Hit the jump to see the full synopsis along with the first concept image from the film.

Ginger & Rosa (opening wide in March) looks at the lives of two teenage girls – inseparable friends Ginger (Elle Fanning) and Rosa (Alice Englert) – growing up in 1960s London, and the pivotal event the comes to redefine their relationship as the Cuban Missile Crisis looms.  Recognized for her remarkable and emotionally moving work as Ginger, actress Elle Fanning was honored with a Virtuosos Award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF). Collider was there to cover and attend the event, and we’ve compiled the highlights of what the actress had to say, both on the press line and during the Q&A.

While there, Elle Fanning talked about how excited she was to be recognized for her work in this film, how she was able to relate to this character, getting a feel for the 1960′s, how being involved with a story like this made her think about her own life, how incredible it was to work with work with Annette Bening, what she thought of her red hair, and how she would love to do a movie musical.  Check out what she had to say after the jump.

A few clips to share with you today.  Choose wisely:

• Paranormal Activity 4, starring Katie Featherson and Kathryn Newton, opens October 19th.
• Fun Size, from debut feature director Josh Schwartz, stars Victoria Justice, Jane Levy, Thomas Mann, Johnny Knoxville and Chelsea Handler.  Fun Size opens on October 26th.
• Ginger & Rosa, Sally Potter’s drama starring Elle Fanning, Alice Englert, Annette Bening, Christina Hendricks and Alessandro Nivola opens in the UK on October 19th.

Hit the jump to watch the clips. 

The first trailer for Orlando director Sally Potter’s Ginger & Rosa has gone online.  The film centers on the title characters, played by Elle Fanning (Super 8) and Alice Englert (8) respectively, as they grow up in London in the early 1960s.  Their adolescent interests in boys and hairstyles quickly become marginalized with the advent of the Cuban Missile Crisis looming over their heads.

Ginger & Rosa, also starring Annette Bening, Christina Hendricks and Alessandro Nivola opens in the UK on October 19th.  Hit the jump to watch the trailer.

More casting bits to share with you today.  Here they are in brief:

• Carey Mulligan (Drive) is in negotiations to star in the dark comedy thriller, Nancy and Danny.  James Marsh (Man on a Wire) is on board to direct from a Brad Ingelsby script.
• Elle Fanning (Super 8) is set to star in Olive’s Ocean, an adaptation of Kevin Henke’s 2004 Newbury Award-winning young adult novel by the same name.

Hit the jump for more details on both projects.

Director Robert Stromberg just took a major step forward in assembling his cast for Disney’s live-action fantasy Maleficent.  Angelina Jolie is already set as the titular lead in this retelling of the Sleeping Beauty tale from the villain’s point of view, and we recently learned that District 9 star Sharlto Copley had joined the cast as the male lead.  Now it appears that Imelda Staunton (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix), Miranda Richardson (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), Kenneth Cranham (Hot Fuzz), Sam Riley (On the Road), and Lesley Manville (Another Year) have been added to the roster.  Hit the jump for more.

[Update: Variety adds that India Eisley (The Secret Life of the American Teenager) will play a younger version of Jolie's character in the opening sequence of the film.]

Elle Fanning (Super 8) and Olly Alexander (Enter the Void) have signed on to star in God Help the Girl, a musical written and directed by Belle & Sebastian frontman Stuart Murdoch.  The band released a concept album titled God Help the Girl as a precursor to the film under the conceit of a “girl group” sound.  Eve, the main character sung by Catherine Ireton on the album, has yet to be cast.  According to Variety, Alexander will play “a cynical guitarist who accompanies Eve’s singing and becomes a mentor to Cass (Fanning), an American teen who tags alongside the duo as she learns to play the guitar.”  Producers Barry Mendel, Carole Sheridan, Chris Curling, and Phil Robertson raised more than $100,000 on Kickstarter to finance the movie.  HanWay Films will package the international rights to shop around at Cannes.  Murdoch will begin filming in Glasgow in June before Fanning moves on to shoot Disney’s Sleeping Beauty re-imagining Maleficent.

Hit the jump for a taste of the music, plus new casting details for Stand Up Guys.

We recently reported that Angelina Jolie had settled on Disney’s Maleficent as her next movie, and now it looks like producers have found their protagonist. Jolie has long been attached to play the powerful villain in the pic, and now Twitch reports that Elle Fanning is in talks to Princess Aurora, “the young beauty sent into a lengthy slumber in the classic tale.” Jolie no doubt has a meaty character to dive into, but I think Fanning is an inspired choice for the princess. The actress has come into her own as of late with turns in Cameron Crowe‘s We Bought a Zoo and Francis Ford Coppola‘s Twixt, but I was particularly impressed by her work in Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere. She has a youthful innocence that goes hand in hand with her emotional maturity, and it’ll be interesting to see her stretch in the fantasy film.

Robert Stromberg is making his feature directorial debut on the project, but his resume as a production designer on films like Avatar, Alice in Wonderland and Oz the Great and Powerful promise that he’s got a vast imagination to bring to the table. Not many plot details are known about the project other than the fact that it tells the Sleeping Beauty story from the villain’s perspective. If Fanning signs on, expect more casting announcements soon.

Update: THR reports that Maleficent will start shooting this June in London.

Director Cameron Crowe hasn’t directed a non-documentary feature since his 2005 flop Elizabethtown.  His new film, We Bought a Zoo, shows not much has changed in the interim.  Crowe is still painfully earnest with his adult characters who give big speeches and wear their hearts on their sleeves.  There comes a point where earnestness can become overbearing, and the movie becomes nothing but soul-bearing conversations with only another terrific Matt Damon performance to reign it in.  Crowe still hasn’t learned how to say more with less, which is a shame since most of the movie is so amiable that he doesn’t have to say much at all.

JJ Abrams—the mastermind of such mint television shows as LOST, Alias, and sci-fi geek favorite Fringe—has earned the bulk of his following through work on television, but over the past half-decade, the dude’s also been involved with some pretty mint films, as well:  Mission: Impossible 3 (which many consider the most mint of the Mission: Impossible films), Cloverfield (which Abrams didn’t direct, but had a strong hand in), and—most recently—this summer’s Super 8, the mint story of six amateur-filmmaker kids caught up in a mysterious alien-coverup in Smalltown, America.  The film earned just as many fans as it did detractors when it debuted a few months ago, and I was curious to find out if the film played better (or worse) at home.  Keep on reading to find out what I learned from the Super 8 Blu-ray, after the jump.

We’ve got a few casting stories to share with you this evening. First up, Luke Wilson and Kevin Connolly have signed on to Elvis & Nixon. The indie drama centers around Elvis’ infamous meeting with President Richard Nixon. The film documents the culture-clash between Elvis and Nixon when the rock and roll superstar asked to be made a “Federal Agent-at-Large” in the bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. Eric Bana is onboard as Elvis and Danny Huston will be taking on the role of Nixon. THR reports that Wilson will play one of Presley’s “Memphis Mafia”, and Connolly will take on the role of a limo driver. It’s a fairly insane premise, and one that could only be brought to life by the directorial debut of Cary Elwes.

Hit the jump for casting news regarding Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln and the drama Bomb.

20th Century Fox will be giving sneak previews Cameron Crowe‘s family film We Bought a Zoo in over 800 theaters on November 26th to take advantage of Thanksgiving weekend.  The previews are well in advance of the film’s December 23rd release date, but Fox has a lot of confidence in the movie following reactions from test screenings in both major cities and the heartland.  The sneaks will give the movie a chance to build up buzz and possibly be a stronger contender during awards season, especially since it has to share its December 23rd weekend with The Adventures of Tintin, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, War Horse, The Darkest Hour, and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.

We Bought a Zoo stars Matt Damon as “a single dad who wants to give his family a new start and moves to a home that’s smack in the middle of a down-and-out zoo. Together, he and his two children try to restore the zoo to its former glory.”  The movie also stars Scarlett Johansson, Thomas Haden Church, Elle Fanning, and Patrick Fugit.  Hit the jump to check out the trailer. [Update: We've been sent the full press release, which is now included after the jump.]

Straight from the American Film Market, we’ve got the first promo poster for the sci-fi pic Young Ones. The film is director Jake Paltrow’s (yes, the brother of Gwyneth) first since his 2006 feature directorial debut The Good Night. While info on the pic is scarce, the film is said to have Elle Fanning attached to star in a story set in the not too distant future where water is a scarce commodity (per Ion Cinema). The film centers on a cowboy grieving over the death of his father when he finds out that his father’s killer has just moved in with his sister. Greenberg and The Squid and the Whale writer-director Noah Baumbach may or may not be producing the pic, which sounds like an intense character drama highlighted by touches of sci-fi. The promo poster boasts the tagline “Not all children have a childhood” and features a young boy carrying a gun, against a desert-like landscape augmented by what looks to be a large robot/machine. Hit the jump to check it out.

Francis Ford Coppola’s Twixt wants to take pot shots at every kind of horror story by working under the guise of being a bad horror movie.  Coppola mocks Edgar Allan Poe, Steven King, vampire stories, and 3D but his criticism is rarely playful.  Twixt wants to keep things silly and fun in the “real” half of the story but then wants act superior when it comes to the ethereal aspects of its tale.  The result is a film that’s always campy, somewhat lazy, and more than a little tiresome.