The red band trailer for the adaptation of Andrea Portes’ novel, Hick, is online.  The film stars Chloe Moretz as a 13-year-old girl who runs away from home to escape her mom’s alcoholic boyfriends and to seek fame.  She crosses paths with a troubled woman played by Blake Lively, and this red band trailer definitely promises something a bit different.  The film looks kind of chaotic and more than a little uncomfortable—my mind kept racing between Moretz’s age and how creepy Eddie Redmayne’s character was acting.  Directed by Derick Martini, the film screened at the Toronto Film Festival to a less-than-enthusiastic response, with our own Matt Goldberg calling it a “dull, ill-conceived mess” in his review.  I’m intrigued enough by this red band clip that I want to see more, so we’ll see how subsequent trailers sell the film.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Juliette Lewis and Alec Baldwin.  Hick will be available VOD on May 8th and opens in theaters on May 11th.

We’ve got a few release dates to share with you today. Briefly:

• Welcome to People – The directorial debut of screenwriter Alex Kurtzman starring Chris Pine and Elizabeth Banks is dated for June 29th.
• Hick – The adaptation of Andrea Portes’ novel starring Chloe Moretz and Blake Lively hits VOD on May 8th and theaters May 11th.
• For a Good Time Call… – The Sundance comedy centering on phone sex operators opens September 14th.

Hit the jump for more on each film.

In further acquisition news, U.S. and Canadian distribution rights for director Derick Martini’s Hick have gone to Phase 4 Films. The pic, starring Chloe Grace Moretz (Let Me In) centers on a 13-year-old girl (Moretz) who runs away from home to escape her mom’s alcoholic boyfriends and to seek fame. On the road, she meets a moody drifter (Eddie Redmayne – Black Death) and a free-spirit (Blake Lively – Green Lantern) who becomes a surrogate mom. The pic also stars Juliette Lewis and Alec Baldwin.

Director Nick Cassavetes (Alpha Dog) had his dark comedy Yellow picked up by Seven Arts Entertainment and GFM Films LLC in their first acquisition for distribution. Similar in tone to Cassavetes’ Alpha Dog and She’s DeLovely, Yellow follows a woman coming to terms with her family’s shadowy past. The pic stars Sienna Miller, Melanie Griffith, Gena Rowlands, Ray Liotta and debuts Heather Wahlquist. Hit the jump for more on both projects.

Walkouts are common at film festivals, especially at press and industry screenings.  Why waste your valuable time watching a movie if something better could be about to start in the next auditorium?  Walkouts tend to occur for one of two reasons: 1) the film is so divisive that it offends the sensibilities of some viewers and they simply can’t continue on.  Those tend to be the good movies, or at least the ones worth seeing through to the end; or 2) the film is such a dull, ill-conceived messed that there’s no end in sight to the tedium.  Hick is latter.  I don’t walkout on movies, but I was so bored with Derick Martini’s wretched coming-of-age tale that I started counting walkouts just to stay awake.

After Kick-Ass, Chloe Moretz became the It girl of the Age 18 & Under division.  Based on tabloid presence, Blake Lively is a strong contender in the 18-28 age group.  As the co-leads of Hick, Moretz and Lively’s combined It factor is off the charts.  And we haven’t even touched on the fact that Lively is sporting a heavy Southern drawl.  The drama directed by Derick Martini premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival this week, but we have a first look (and listen) tonight.  The clip shows 13-year-old Nebraska girl Luli (Moretz) turn to the “troubled but spirited” Glenda (Lively) for help when she recognizes a drifter (Eddie Redmayne) she met one unfortunate night on the road.  The clip hints at the darker elements of the drama, but looking at the synopsis—spousal abouse, alcholism, underaged drug use, armed robbery—there’s plenty more where that came from.

Alec Baldwin, Juliette Lewis, and Rory Culkin also star.  Watch the clip after the break.

If you’re a movie fan, today is a great day.  That’s because thanks to the Toronto International Film festival announcing some of their 2011 schedule, we’ve been inundated with a tremendous amount of new movie images for some of the biggest films arriving later this year.  And continuing our coverage, after the jump you can check out the first images from Derick Martini’s Hick (which stars Blake Lively, Chloe Moretz, Alec Baldwin, Juliette Lewis, Eddie Redmayne and Rory Culkin), Jay Duplass and Mark Duplass Jeff, Who Lives at Home (which stars Jason Segel, Ed Helms, Judy Greer and Susan Sarandon) Francis Ford Coppola’s Twixt (starring Val Kilmer, Bruce Dern, Elle Fanning and Ben Chaplin) and the first clip and images from Killer Joe (which stars Matthew McConaughey, Emile Hirsch, Juno Temple, Thomas Haden Church and Gina Gershon).

In my article yesterday about the Venice Film Festival, I made some predictions on which films would make their world premiere at this year’s Toronto Film Festival and not Venice.  It turns out a few of my guesses were only the tip of the iceberg.  Moneyball, 50/50, and The Descendants are all going to premiere at TIFF.  But my lord, does Toronto have an incredible line-up this year.  I’m praying my application gets approved because when you hit the jump and check out this line-up, you’ll understand my agony if I’m stuck in Atlanta while these films are premiering.

Hit the jump for the line-up of Galas and Premieres for this year’s festival.  The 2011 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 8th – 18th.

New unofficial set photos from the dark coming-of-age indie Hick and George Clooney’s political drama The Ides of March have gone online.  Hick stars Chloe Moretz as a runaway teen who flees her neglectful parents in Nebraska and tries to make her way in Las Vegas.  The film also stars Blake Lively, Eddie Redmayne, and Juliette Lewis.

As for Clooney’s latest directorial feature, The Ides of March stars Ryan Gosling as a young press spokesman who falls prey to backroom politics.  Clooney will play the candidate who apparently has no problem re-appropriating Shepherd Fairey’s famous Obama sign.  The film also stars Paul Giamatti, Marisa Tomei, and Evan Rachel Wood.  The Ides of March is set for release on October 14^th.  Hit the jump to check out the set photos.

Actress Juliette Lewis (Conviction) has gained a few more co-starring roles in indie titles Hick and A Single Shot according to Variety. We’ve mentioned Hick before, an adaptation of Andrea Portes’ debut novel of the same name, telling the story of a 13 year old Nebraska girl who gets more than she bargained for when she runs away to Las Vegas. Portes herself wrote the screenplay and Derick Martini (Lymelife) will be directing. The pic will also star Chloe Moretz, Eddie Redmayne and Blake Lively, although IMDb suggests that Kirsten Dunst is no longer attached as we previously reported.

A Single Shot is described as a cat and mouse thriller between a deer-hunter and some hardened criminals out for his blood. Lewis will star alongside Alessandro Nivola and William H. Macy, Juno Temple and Emily Mortimer.  Hit the jump for full synopses.

Since her dark turn in Ben Affleck’s The Town, Hollywood has started to see Blake Lively as more than just a pretty face, and it looks like she’ll take on yet another dark role in Hick. Adapted from the Andrea Portes novel of the same name, Hick tells the story of young Nebraska girl who runs away to Las Vegas from her neglectful parents. Derrick Martini (Lymelife) is set to direct the coming-of-age drama, with Chloe Moretz attached to star as the young girl. Lively broke the news that she’ll portray the thirteen year-old’s meth-addicted mother. Kirsten Dunst recently signed on for the project, but it’s not yet known if Livley is replacing her or if Dunst is simply playing another role in the film.

In the same interview with ITN, Lively confirmed earlier reports that she will not be playing a young Carrie Bradshaw in a Sex and the City prequel, contrary to previous rumors. Hit the jump for the synopsis of Hick.

Kirsten Dunst (Spider-Man) will star in the upcoming adaptation of Andrea Portes’ novel, Hick.   ThePlaylist reports that Dunst will be joining Chloe Moretz (Kick-Ass) in the film, who will be playing a “13-year-old Nebraska girl who gets more than she bargained for when she runs away to Las Vegas.”  Derrick Martini (Lymelife) is set to direct the coming-of-age drama, which has been adapted to screen by Portes.

Dunst can currently be seen alongside Ryan Gosling in All Good Things.  She is also set to star in Walter Salles’ (The Motorcycle Diaries) adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road and earlier this year she replaced Penelope Cruz in Lars Von Trier’s (Antichrist) upcoming sci-fi disaster film Melancholia. You can hit the jump to read the full synopsis for Hick.

When actress Chloe Grace Moretz says that she’s not just a normal 13-year-old girl, it’s very easy to believe her. Having begun her entertainment career at the age of five, as a model in New York City, she moved with her family to Los Angeles and has been booking acting jobs non-stop ever since.

After various television and film roles, she was brought to the attention of adult audiences with her role as Hit Girl, a ferocious, potty-mouthed 11-year-old in Kick-Ass, the action-packed adaptation of Mark Millar’s comic book of the same name. She then decided to follow up that memorable performance with her current feature, the haunting horror film Let Me In, in which she plays the eerie and mysterious 12-year-old Abby, who turns out to be a vicious vampire that needs blood to survive.

While doing promotion on that film’s opening weekend, Chloe Moretz spoke to Collider in this exclusive phone interview about relating to a character like Abby, doing her own physical stunts and being very proud of her work in the film. She also talked about her work in the psychological thriller The Fields, the experience of shooting in 3D with Martin Scorsese for Hugo Cabret, her first two leading roles in the upcoming features The Rut and Hick (she says Kirsten Dunst is in talks for this), bringing the popular goth character Emily the Strange to life in live-action form and the chance of a Kick-Ass 2 ever happening. Check out what she had to say after the jump.

Hollywood’s new favorite adolescent Chloe Moretz (Kick-Ass) has signed on to star in an adaptation of the Andrea Portes novel Hick.  Variety reports that Portes also penned the script, which “tracks a 13-year-old Nebraska girl who gets more than she bargained for when she runs away to Las Vegas.”  Derrick Martini (Lymelife) is set to direct the coming-of-age drama.

Before becoming a hick, Moretz will next be seen as a child vampire in Let Me In, and draped in 1930s garb in Martin Scorsese’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret.  Hit the jump for a full synopsis of the Portes novel.