You’ll have to wait until August 17th to see Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone together again in The Expendables 2, but this video from the set visit of The Tomb should hold you over.  Production started recently in New Orleans on the Mikael Hafstrom (1408) picture that stars Sly as Ray Breslin, the world’s foremost authority on structural security who is framed and incarcerated in a prison of his own design.  In prison, Breslin meets Emil Rottmayer (Schwarzenegger), the leader of the prisoners who wants to get out just as badly as Breslin does.  In this video, Stallone and Schwarzenegger comment further on their characters in The Tomb, their work together on The Expendables and The Expendables 2, and the old-school machismo of action movies and their stars, which Sly calls, “male pattern badness.”  Written by Miles Chapman (Road House 2: Last Call) and Jason Keller (Machine Gun Preacher), The Tomb also stars Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Jim Caviezel, Amy Ryan, Vincent D’Onofrio, Vinnie Jones, and new addition Sam Neill.  Hit the jump to check it out along with some images from the set.

Of the many vampire projects in development, at least one has to be good, right?  Maybe it will be the untitled pitch screenwriter Jason Keller (Mirror Mirror) just sold to Sony.  According to Deadline, the studio paid high six figures against seven for “a period origin story on the Dracula mythology.”  Thank goodness.  No one’s doing that except for Dracula: Year Zero, Harker, and The Last Voyage of the Demeter.  And that’s not even mentioning all the non-Dracula vampire projects in development.  For a refresher on those, hit the jump.

With the fall film season now in full swing, I’m 100% ashamed to admit that I’ve yet to see two of my most anticipated fall films: Moneyball and 50/50. Now, I have every intention of ending this charade at some point this weekend but, for now, I hope you’ll give me a pass. If I’ve still yet to check them out when we meet here next week, I’ll understand if you choose to revoke my “mildly credible film blogger” credentials. In the meantime…

…In this week’s “Top 5″ installment, you can find all of our Fantastic Fest 2011 coverage. After that, interviews abound with the cast of Jonathan Levine’s dramedy 50/50, the cast, creators, and real-life inspiration for Machine Gun Preacher, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance director Brian Taylor, and Thor/The Avengers‘ Tom Hiddleston. Check out a brief recap and link to each after the jump.

At this year’s Toronto Film Festival, I was able to speak with Sam Childers and screenwriter Jason Keller about director Marc Forster’s Machine Gun Preacher.   The movie is based on the real-life story of Childers (played by Gerard Butler), a former drug-dealer who turned his life around and now devotes his time to saving kidnapped and orphaned children in Sudan.  The film also stars Michelle Monaghan and Michael Shannon.  It’s a hell of a story and one that I’m glad got told.  You can watch some clips here.

During the interview, they talked about how much is based on real events and how much was Hollywoodized, the way they worked together to get everything right, the current status of things in Sudan, and the way regular folks can help out.  Hit the jump to watch.

We’re in the midst of a war, people. A Snow White war, mind you, but a war nonetheless. There are currently no less than 87 films in production that have “unique” takes on the classic fairy tale, but the two furthest along (read: the two butting heads) are Universal’s Snow White and the Huntsman and Relativity’s Untitled Snow White Project. Recently, screenwriter Jason Keller spoke quite frankly about the latter, explaining what motivated Relativity to make the film in the first place, how quickly the film went into development, and how different their project is from Huntsman.

Apparently Relativity made no secret of the fact that they were producing their Snow White film in direct opposition to Universal’s, asking Keller “How do we beat that other project?” Hit the jump for the full details.

[Update: Relativity has informed us that Keller began working on the script in October 2010, based on a draft previously begun by Melisa Wallack in May 2010]

Screenwriter Jason Keller has been hired to come aboard director Matt Reeves’ (Let Me In) adaptation of Justin Cronin’s novel The Passage. The film was originally to be directed by Ridley Scott, with a script by John Logan, but Reeves boarded the project in April and decided he would oversee a rewrite. The story takes place in the future, where a government attempt to cure cancer has turned people into vampires.

Heat Vision reports that Keller will perform the rewrite for the flick, which is the first in a proposed trilogy. The screenwriter recently penned Marc Forster’s upcoming Machine Gun Preacher, as well as Relativity’s untitled Snow White project (the one with Julia Roberts). Hit the jump to read a synopsis of Cornin’s novel.

Bruce Willis is in talks to star in Summit Entertainment’s prison escape drama The Tomb, with Antoine Fuqua (Shooter, Training Day) in talks to direct.  According to Deadline:

Willis would play Ray Breslin, the world’s foremost authority on structural security.  After analyzing every high security prison and learning a vast array of survival skills so he can design escape-proof prisons, his skills are put to the test. He’s framed and incarcerated in a master prison he designed himself. He needs to escape and find the person who put him behind bars.

The script was written by Miles Chapman and rewritten by Jason Keller. Robbie Brenner and Mark Canton are producing.  More after the jump:

We have three pieces of casting news for you today in one handy article.  Variety reports that Paul Dano has signed on to co-star with Jon Heder in the upcoming indie drama For Ellen. Written and directed by So Young Kim (In Between Days), the film “centers on a struggling indie rocker who, after nearly wrecking his car during an overnight long-distance drive, arrives in a small Midwestern town to deal with his impending divorce.”  Dano will next be seen starring along side Kevin Kline in The Extra Man, which will debut at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Hit the jump to learn about Gerard Butler in Machine Gun Preacher and Johnny Depp and Salma Hayek in Wild Roses, Tender Roses.