Emboldened by the success of Valentine’s Day, Garry Marshall took another crack at the holiday-based all-star anthology in 2011, with similarly repulsive results. This time, though, movie-goers commendably ignored him (and hopefully quashed plans for Columbus Day or whatever the hell was coming next). Of course, it’s never a good idea to interpret the commercial failure of a terrible movie as anything more than an aberration. But in this case, there was an encouraging sense that the world had finally revolted against a sub-genre populated by cynical, bald-faced cash-grabs.

And indeed, New Year’s Eve is the romantic comedy distilled to its basest form; a film that trots out a dizzying array of A-listers and expects applause, while abandoning time-consuming chores like character, story and dialogue. Hit the jump for the full review.

It’s obvious that Gary Ross (Seabiscuit) was the right man for the director’s chair as The Hunger Games is off to a roaring start at the box office. But what would the film have looked like if it were helmed by a different director? Michael Bay, Brett Ratner and Roger Corman would certainly have emphasized the sex appeal and violence. Garry Marshall and Nancy Meyers would probably focus on the romantic side.  How would Terrence Malick, Federico Fellini and Werner Herzog have approached the source material? What about Christopher Nolan or Woody Allen? Thanks to these alternate reality movie posters for The Hunger Games, we can get a glimpse of what might have been. Hit the jump to check them out.

We’ve been provided with 12 clips from Garry Marshall’s upcoming romantic comedy New Year’s Eve to share with our readers. The film features a ginormous ensemble and tells a number of intertwining stories that all take place on New Year’s Eve in New York City. The cast includes Robert De Niro, Ashton Kutcher, Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sarah Jessica Parker, Hilary Swank, Zac Efron, Sienna Miller, Lea Michele, Sofia Vergara, Abigail Breslin, Til Schweiger, Seth Meyers, Jon Bon Jovi, Josh Duhamel, and Carla Gugino.

Hit the jump to watch the clips. New Year’s Eve opens December 9th.

A new trailer for Garry Marshall’s star-studded New Year’s Eve has been released. This trailer isn’t much different from the first one in that it’s basically a montage of all the pretty celebrities and their separate stories set to pop music, though this new look does include inappropriate Abigail Breslin flashing. If you enjoyed Marshall’s Valentine’s Day, then you probably don’t need to be sold on the pseudo-sequel, and if the February-centered first film wasn’t your thing then this New Year’s Eve trailer is probably more than a little cringe-worthy. It looks like Seth Meyers may be the only saving grace for the brave boyfriends who are forced to soldier through this one.

The cast includes Robert De Niro, Ashton Kutcher, Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sarah Jessica Parker, Hilary Swank, Zac Efron, Sienna Miller, Lea Michele, Sofia Vergara, Abigail Breslin, Til Schweiger, Seth Meyers, Jon Bon Jovi, Josh Duhamel, and Carla Gugino. New Year’s Eve opens on December 9^th. Hit the jump to watch the trailer.

The first trailer for Garry Marshall’s New Year’s Eve has been released. The follow-up to Valentine’s Day stars every actor ever in the history of acting, whom I can only assume will appear for five minutes of screen time each. The trailer is basically a montage of all the actors making their New Year’s preparations and yearning for somebody to love. Nothing groundbreaking, but if you were a fan of Valentine’s Day it’s a safe bet that this movie is probably your kind of thing.

The cast includes Robert De Niro, Ashton Kutcher, Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sarah Jessica Parker, Hilary Swank, Zac Efron, Sienna Miller, Lea Michele, Sofia Vergara, Abigail Breslin, Til Schweiger, Seth Meyers, Jon Bon Jovi, Josh Duhamel, and Carla Gugino. New Year’s Eve opens on December 9^th. Hit the jump to watch the trailer.

Josh Duhamel (Transformers: Dark of the Moon) has been added to the mega-ensemble cast that makes up director Garry Marshall’s forthcoming rom-com New Year’s Eve.  News of Duhamel’s casting came last night, courtesy of TheWrap, although no details were divulged about his role.  Considering the sheer number of actors already present in the film, it’s possible that Duhamel is just an extra and that literally every person in front of Marshall’s camera at any given moment will be a name actor of some caliber.  It’s not likely, but the other possibility is that the film will be a ten-hour epic only matched in scale by Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy.  I’ll let you decide which you think is more plausible.

To date, the New Year’s Eve cast includes Robert De Niro, Ashton Kutcher, Halle Berry, Jessical Biel, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sarah Jessica Parker, Hilary Swank, Zac Efron, Sienna Miller, Lea Michelle, Sofia Vergara, Abigail Breslin, Germany’s own Til Schweiger, Seth Meyes, Jon Bon Jovi, and…Josh Duhamel.  The film opens later this year on December 9th.

Sienna Miller has joined the ensemble romantic comedy New Year’s Eve.  According to The Playlist, the actress has agreed to join a ludicrously star-studded cast that features (take a deep breath): Robert De Niro, Jake Gyllenhaal, Ashton Kutcher, Jessica Biel, Halle Berry, Zac Efron, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Hilary Swank, just to name a few.

New Year’s Eve is being directed by Garry Marshall, who also helmed the strikingly similar Valentine’s Day only a year ago.  Katherine Fugate also returns to pen the film which isn’t so much a sequel as it is a perfectly-timed box office jackpot.  As for Miller, details of her role are currently unknown.  Given the star power she is surrounded with, here’s to hoping she can get a word in edgewise.  New Year’s Eve is scheduled to begin shooting in New York in the near future and will hit theaters later this year on December 9th.

Sofia Vergara (Modern Family) and Jessica Biel (The A-Team) are in talks to join Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Hilary Swank, Ashton Kutcher, Lea Michele, and Abigail Breslin in New Year’s Eve.  The ensemble romantic comedy is a loose follow-up to Valentine’s Day — same format, new holiday: “a group of New Yorkers as they navigate their way through romance over the course of New Year’s Eve.”  Both New Year’s and Valentine’s are credited to director Garry Marshall.

According to THR, Biel is a pregnant woman who tries to win a cash prize with the first baby of the new year.  (“Hold it in, honey!  Daddy needs a new pair o’ shoes!”)  No details are given on Vergara’s role.  Shooting will begin in New York later this month.

Even before Garry Marshall’s ensemble rom-com Valentine’s Day raked in over $200 million at box offices around the world, Warner Bros. and New Line had already made plans to celebrate New Year’s Eve with the director and screenwriter Katherine Fugate.  Now, with a December 2011 release date looming, the romance anthology is attempting to amass another huge cast for its sophomore effort.  Reports surfacing today claim that talents such as Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Hilary Swank, and Ashton Kutcher are currently zeroing in on lead roles for the project.

According to THR, De Niro would play a “bitter, dying man in a hospital” while Pfeiffer is circling an executive secretary insistent on keeping those pesky resolutions.   As for Swank, she would portray a producer on a Times Square’s “New Year’s Eve” television extravaganza, with Kutcher eyeing the ultra-versatile role of the “guy who hates New Year’s Eve.”  In case you missed Valentine’s Day earlier this year, New Year’s Eve will follow a near identical plot structure in which several story lines, all set against the backdrop of a big city, eventually intersect in an effort to recreate something that resembles romance.  Glee‘s Lea Michele and Abigail Breslin have already joined the film, which is currently looking at shooting in New York this December.  There is no word yet on whether or not Jamie Foxx and/or George Lopez will be brought back to reprise their roles as the only male ethnic minorities to live in either New York or Los Angeles.

Fresh off a “controversy” over some scantily clad photos of Lea Michele and fellow Glee castmates Dianna Agron and Cory Monteith in this month’s GQ, there are now reports that she is eyeing her film debut in Garry Marshall’s (Pretty Woman) New Year’s Eve. This film is, of course, a pseudo-sequel to the star studded Valentine’s Day, which was a fairly massive box-office success earlier this year (the same can’t be said of its critical reception).

As we previously reported, the filmmakers behind Valentine’s Day were already planning a second film even before the first had hit theaters.  Variety reports that Director Garry Marshall is expected to return, as well as screenwriter Katherine Fugate (The Prince and Me), and producers Mike Karz and Wayne Rice.  New Year’s Eve is said to be set in New York City on December 31^st (Fingers-crossed for an Arbor Day film to round out the trilogy), and some of the cast from the first flick are expected to reprise their roles. For a bit more on Michele, hit the jump.

After the success of last year’s He’s Just Not That Into You, New Line Cinema attempted to repeat the formula this year with another star-studded romantic comedy tied to a Valentine’s Day release. The resulting film, the unimaginatively titled Valentine’s Day, featured an even bigger roster of stars and proved an even bigger hit at the box office. It probably didn’t hurt that its cast included not only ms. romcom queen herself, Julia Roberts, but all the heirs to her big-hearted, wide-mouthed throne, including Anne Hathaway, Jennifer Garner, Jessica Biel, Jessica Alba and, most disconcertingly of all, Emma Roberts, the niece Hollywood keeps trying to convince us has the same appeal as her famous aunt (she doesn’t). Creatively, the film’s a bust. While He’s Just Not That Into You dared to ponder a question or two about the nature of romance in the digital age, this vacuous mess doesn’t have a single idea in its head. All it has are characters; a giant candy box of flavorless, forgettable characters. More after the jump:

I guess, these days, one bad idea deserves another.  Allow me to provide an example.  The first bad idea came when Garry Marshall announced that he was attempting to bring Laverne & Shirley, his popular Happy Days spin-off from the 1970s, to the big screen.  The second bad idea was revealed to TV Guide earlier this week.  Garry Marshall announced that Jamie Foxx was writing the script, and as we reported last month, his Valentine’s Day co-stars Jennifer Garner and Jessica Biel would star the title roles, respectively. Here’s the word from Marshall:

“Jamie and I are trying to do it. He’s writing it. It’s a whole different modern day take on how they came up on the streets during difficult times. Laverne would be this very tough girl with a big ‘L’ tattooed on her arm. Jennifer Garner would play Laverne and Jessica Biel would play Shirley.”

To me, ideas like this one seem to be the formula for a box office bomb.  However, in this situation, I wouldn’t actually mind being proven wrong. Here’s to hoping I am.

[Update: The Wrap got in touch with Foxx's agent who said there's "no truth" to the story.]

Like the eponymous holiday, Valentine’s Day hates you if you’re single.  Being single is the worst thing you can be.  It’s not really too surprising that a movie called “Valentine’s Day” wouldn’t have miserable, bitter single people moping around for two hours, but with all the storylines and characters in the film, would one cynic be too much?  I didn’t expect Valentine’s Day to warm my cold, dead heart but I also didn’t expect it to call me a sad bitch for two hours.  Thankfully, there are one or two worthwhile stories in this bargain-basement tapestry of love fairy tales.  But it is uplifting to see a movie fully explore the beauty of gorgeous straight white people finding love in a city as diverse as Los Angeles.

Earlier in the week we reported that the fast approaching Valentine’s Day may inspire a franchise of holiday-themed romantic comedies, but that may not be the only lasting effect the film has on cinema.  Valentine’s director Garry Marshall created the classic sitcom Laverne & Shirley, which starred Cindy Williams and Garry’s sister Penny Marshall (reprising their characters from Happy Days) as Milwaukee brewery workers.  Mario Lopez of Extra talked to Marshall at the premiere for his new movie, who claimed that a film adaptation may be in the works.   More after the jump:

The romantic comedy Valentine’s Day is a veritable who’s who of Hollywood, with a cast that includes Julia Roberts, Jennifer Garner, Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Jamie Foxx, Ashton Kutcher, Jessica Alba, Anne Hathaway, Topher Grace, George Lopez, Shirley Maclaine, Hector Elizondo, Taylor Swift, Taylor Lautner and Emma Roberts, just to name a few. And the man responsible for getting all that talent together is director Garry Marshall, who the all-star ensemble was excited to work with.

Following the intertwining storylines of a diverse group of Los Angelenos as they navigate their way through romance and heartbreak over the course of one Valentine’s Day, the film showcases new love, young love, long-time love, the love between best friends and the heartbreak that can result.

During a press conference for the film, co-stars Julia Roberts, Jennifer Garner, Jessica Biel, Jessica Alba, Bradley Cooper, Jamie Foxx, Ashton Kutcher and Topher Grace talked about love, romance and living in Los Angeles.

Check out what they had to say after the jump: