Disney has been furiously casting director Rob Marshall’s (Chicago) musical adaptation Into the Woods over the past few weeks, and now a couple more exciting cast members are being added.  Variety reports that Emily Blunt is in talks to play the female lead in the film, which centers on a Baker and his wife as they venture into the woods to confront the witch responsible for putting a curse on the childless couple.  Broadway actor James Corden is set to play the film’s male lead, the Baker, while Meryl Streep is set as the witch and Johnny Depp is signed on in an unspecified role.

We learned last night that Chris Pine and Jake Gyllenhaal are also in talks to play the love interests of Cinderella and Rapunzel in the film (yes, they’ll sing), and The Wrap adds that Christine Baranski (The Good Wife) is in talks to reteam with her Chicago director on the pic.  Production is expected to get underway this fall on what is turning out to be one hell of a musical ensemble.

The indie dramedy Arthur Newman tells the story of two unlikely souls for fall in love while they are exploring and discovering who they really are.  Divorced, disconnected, dissatisfied and depressed, Wallace Avery (Colin Firth) is tired of his life, so he hits the road as Arthur Newman.  On his road trip, he meets Michaela “Mike” Fitzgerald (Emily Blunt), who is fleeing from her own turmoil, and the unexpected couple learn who they can be through each other.

At the film’s press day, co-stars Colin Firth and Emily Blunt talked about what interested them in these characters, playing people who take on different personas, how they stuck to the specific tone and dialogue of the script with little improvisation, finding the voice of a character, and what audiences will make of the film.  Emily Blunt also talked about her recent experience making All You Need Is Kill with Tom Cruise, and Colin Firth said that he won’t be doing Bridget Jones’s Baby.  Check out what they had to say after the jump.

The trailer and poster have been released for the dramedy Arthur Newman.  Colin Firth stars as a has-been golfer who fakes his death, abandons his family, and takes on the new identity of “Arthur Newman”.  On his trip to become a golf pro, he meets a wayward young woman (Emily Blunt) who’s running from her own problems.  They both decide to escape from their troubles by breaking into people’s homes so they can playact the residents’ lives.  I saw the film at TIFF and found it to be the worst kind of indie, and even the trailer plays by the same generic indie trailer beats: problem, quirkiness, drama, uplift.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer and poster.  Arthur Newman opens April 26th.

Check out the latest casting announcements below:

• David Strathairn (Lincoln) is in talks to join director Gareth Evans’ Godzilla reboot, also starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen and Bryan Cranston.  Godzilla is due to open May 16, 2014.
• Emily Blunt (Looper) has replaced Emma Watson as journalist Emma Forrest in the upcoming memoir adaptation Your Voice in My Head, which previously had director David Yates attached.

Hit the jump for more.

A momentous occasion happened last night on late night television: Matt Damon finally reached a breaking point and hijacked Jimmy Kimmel Live.  Damon has been the brunt of a long-running joke on the show in which Kimmel ends each night’s broadcast by apologizing for bumping Matt Damon when they run out of time.  Damon has appeared in a few sketches here and there that tie-in with the gag, but fresh off Kimmel’s timeslot change that puts him up against Letterman and Leno, Damon hosted the entire show last night as he had “kidnapped” Kimmel.

It was a hilariously fun 90 minutes, as Damon must have picked up the phone and called all his closest friends since the broadcast was filled with the likes of Ben Affleck, Gary Oldman, Nicole Kidman, Robin Williams, Reese Witherspoon, Andy Garcia, Amy Adams, Sheryl Crow, Demi Moore, and plenty others.  Hit the jumps to watch a few highlights from the show.

Now that writer/director Rian Johnson’s Looper is now available on Blu-ray and DVD, you can check out the 22 deleted scenes that didn’t make it into the final cut.  The first of those scenes is online and it features a tense moment between Emily Blunt and Garret Dillahunt’s characters.  It’s easy to see why this particular little bit of narrative was cut, but I’m looking forward to seeing what else Johnson had to leave behind in the recycle bin. Hit the jump to check out the first deleted scene from Looper, also starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis. 

Looper will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on December 31, and many of us will be looking to the special features to untangle the intricate time travel plot.  Team Looper is ready to deliver.  There a few featurettes (“Looper: From the Beginning”, “Scoring Looper“, and “The Science of Time Travel”) and a commentary track with director Rian Johnson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Emily Blunt (that will add to Johnson’s in-theater commentary download).  But the key draw is a whopping 22 deleted scenes with commentary by Johnson and co-star Noah Segan.

Check out the press release after the jump for the full breakdown of special features.

Just yesterday some intriguing plot details for director Wally Pfister’s upcoming sci-fi film Transcendence landed online, and now it appears that the female lead has been narrowed down to three actress.  Pfister, who is Christopher Nolan’s longtime cinematographer, is making his feature directorial debut on the project which stars Johnny Depp as a scientist whose brain gets uploaded into a supercomputer with the aim of creating the world’s first machine that can think for itself.  The story also involves two other leads that are also scientists, a character named Evelyn who is Depp’s wife, and a character named Max.

Per Deadline, Rooney Mara, Emily Blunt, and Rebecca Hall (The Town) are all in the running for the role of Evelyn, with a decision due to be made on Friday.  Blunt’s dates on the Tom Cruise-fronted sci-fi actioner All You Need Is Kill are still being worked out, so the report notes that the conflict could affect her availability. These are three fine actresses with tremendous talent, so whatever the final result may be, I think Transcendence is in good shape.  Production is set to begin on March 4th.

The Avengers 2 doesn’t open until May 1, 2015, but it’s never too early for some good, old-fashioned rumor-mongering.  The Daily Mail, which is a reliable source when it comes to set photos or movies that are about to start filming, is reporting that Emily Blunt and Ruth Wilson (Luther) are being considered to play the role of Ms. Marvel in Joss Whedon‘s The Avengers 2.  I’m surprised that Marvel is already as the casting stage considering that the film probably doesn’t have a finished script yet, and that the movie preceding it, Guardians of the Galaxy, hasn’t even begun casting.  While I supposed it’s possible that Marvel and Whedon know they want Ms. Marvel, and they’ve got two front-runners for the role, I find this rumor incredibly difficult to believe.

If you’d like to know a bit more about Ms. Marvel, hit the jump.

Warner Bros. has announced that they’ll release Doug Liman‘s sci-fi action film All You Need Is Kill on March 14, 2014.  The film, based off the manga of the same name, stars Tom Cruise as a soldier in a war against aliens who relives the day of his death over and over.  His repeated battle experience hardens his resolve and makes him a better soldier.  The March 14, 2014 release date will put All You Need Is Kill up against Disney’s Maleficent starring Angelina Jolie.  Mark your calendars for March 15, 2014 when every box office report is about the “Clash of the Titans” between Cruise and Jolie.

Hit the jump for the synopsis for All You Need Is Kill.  The film also stars Emily Blunt and Bill Paxton.

For the first time, I’m writing from the comfort of my newly remodeled “mancave” or, as my wife likes to lovingly refer to it, the “nerdcave”. For a space that used to be an attached garage/dungeon, I have to say that the end result is pretty cozy. I guess there really are no living quarters that a substantial amount of time, money, and framed movie prints can’t fix. Now, if only I could find a way to fit and/or afford a mini-fridge, classic stand-up arcade games (i.e. The Simpsons, and X-Men), theater-style seating, and a projection screen that comes down from the ceiling via hand-clap command, I may finally be able to fulfill my dream of never leaving home again.

All praises of my new space aside, this week’s incarnation of the Top 5 brings a look back at our Fantastic Fest 2012 coverage, Looper interviews with writer/director Rian Johnson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Emily Blunt, The Avengers Blu-ray interviews with members of the pic’s visual effects team, The Perks of Being a Wallflower interviews with Emma Watson, writer/director Stephen Chbosky and more, and Hotel Transylvania interviews with Andy Samberg and Selena Gomez just to name a few. As you might expect, a brief recap and link to each is holding down the fort after the jump.

[This is a repost of my review from the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival.  Looper opens today.]

Sacrifice goes against our biological imperative of self-preservation. If we have a will to survive, then shouldn’t we do everything in our power to stay alive? Or is life only worth living if it’s the good life (whatever that means)? Shouldn’t we celebrate our desire to live? Rian Johnson‘s sci-fi film Looper casts a dark spell over our need for self-preservation, and bitterly twists it into a world where people would go so far as to kill themselves to live. Anchored by tremendous performances from leads Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis, Johnson manages to deliver thrills as intense as the ideas he wishes to explore. However, his quest to reach a thoughtful conclusion stumbles over new characters, plot shortcuts, and an extreme tonal shift that leaves the big ideas intact, but fractures the powerful storytelling.

With writer-director Rian Johnson‘s Looper opening this weekend, all week I’ll be running exclusive video interviews with the cast and Johnson.  The film takes place in a future where time travel exists, but it’s only used on the black market.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a “Looper”, a hitman who is contracted to kill people that are sent back in time, and then disposes of the bodies so the victim technically no longer exists.  Things go awry when his future self (Bruce Willis) is sent back in time as a target and then escapes.  The film also stars Emily Blunt, Jeff Daniels, and Paul Dano.  For more on the film, here are 4 clips and Matt’s review.

At this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, I got to speak with Emily Blunt.  We talked about the Looper script, if she’s a fan of the sci-fi/time travel genre, t-shirts, deleted scenes, and more.  In addition, with Blunt getting ready to start filming director Doug Liman‘s All You Need is Kill with Tom Cruise, I asked her what it’s about and she said it’s “Groundhog Day with strange creatures taking over the planet.”  Hit the jump to watch.

With writer-director Rian Johnson‘s Looper opening September 28, Sony has provided us with four clips from the fantastic film.  The film takes place in a future where time travel exists, but it’s only used on the black market.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a “Looper”, a hitman who is contracted to kill people that are sent back in time, and then disposes of the bodies so the victim technically no longer exists.  Things go awry when his future self (Bruce Willis) is sent back in time as an assignment and then escapes.  The film also stars Emily Blunt, Jeff Daniels, and Paul Dano.

For more on the film, here’s Matt’s review and all our previous coverage.  Hit the jump to watch the clips.

It’s a banner day for fans of “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon,” since Bill Paxton and Tom Cruise may finally star together for the first time in their thirty-year careers.  Paxton is in negotiations to join director Doug Liman’s All You Need is Kill at Warner Bros.  The sci-fi actioner based on a Japanese graphic-novel already stars Cruise as a soldier in a war against aliens who relives the day of his death over and over.  His repeated battle experience hardens his resolve and makes him a better soldier.  Paxton is in talks to play Cruise’s tough platoon leader.  Hit the jump for more on All You Need is Kill.