Lionsgate has released the first trailer for director Francis Lawrence‘s (Water for Elephants) sequel, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.  The darkness and melancholy of the first film has only intensified, but this trailer only tells half the story.  We’re shown the victors’ tour, and how President Snow (Donald Sutherland) is trying to tear down the hope-inspiring image of Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) before killing her.  Only at the end of the trailer, do we hear about the second part of the story, which is the “Quarter Quell”, a special Hunger Games where past winners will be forced to fight to the death.  I assume they left this out because it’s the more effects-heavy part of the story, and that footage is moving through post-production.

The film also stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Sam Claflin, Elizabeth Banks, Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jena Malone, Jeffrey Wright, and Amanda Plummer.  The Hunger Games: Catching Fire opens on November 22nd in IMAX and traditional theaters.

The first trailer for director Francis Lawrence’s (I Am Legend) highly anticipated sequel The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is set to debut during the MTV Movie Awards later this month, and now a promo for the event has been released online that gives us our first look at footage from the film.  The video teases a look at the “Victory Tour” that Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss and Josh Hutcherson’s Peeta embark on at the beginning of Catching Fire as part of their duties as Hunger Games victors.  Liam Hemsworth will introduce the two-and-a-half minutes of footage during the MTV Movie Awards on Sunday, April 14th at 9pm ET/PT, so check back here on Collider at that time to watch the full trailer.

Hit the jump to watch the promo.  The film also stars Sam Claflin, Elizabeth Banks, Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jena Malone, Jeffrey Wright, and Amanda Plummer.  The Hunger Games: Catching Fire opens on November 22nd in IMAX and traditional theaters.

Continuing on with Lionsgate’s daily release of new posters/portraits for the characters in director Francis Lawrence’s upcoming sequel The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, two new such portraits have been released online today giving us our first look at Beetee and Johanna.  Jeffrey Wright plays Beetee, a previous Hunger Games winner from District 3 who specializes in electronics and wiring, while Jena Malone plays the highly anticipated character Johanna, another previous Hunger Games winner from District 7.  I’m incredibly impressed by the designs for these two new characters and look forward to seeing them in action.

Hit the jump to take a look at the new posters.  If you missed the previous portraits, check out Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen here, Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket and Stanley Tucci as Caesar Flickerman here, and Woody Harrelson as Haymitch Abernathy and Lenny Kravitz as Cinna here.  The Hunger Games: Catching Fire opens November 22nd.

20th Century Fox has released four clips from director Allen Hughes’ (The Book of Eli) upcoming political thriller Broken City.  The film stars Mark Wahlberg as a private detective who is hired to identify the lover of a powerful politician’s wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones), with Russell Crowe playing the shady politician.  Wahlberg and Crowe look to be having a lot of fun with the roles, so hopefully the full film delivers.

Hit the jump to watch the clips.  The film also stars Jeffrey Wright.  Broken City opens on January 18th.

20th Century Fox has released a new trailer for director Allen Hughes’ (The Book of Eli) political thriller Broken City.  The film stars Mark Wahlberg as a private detective who is hired to identify the lover of a powerful politician’s wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones), with Russell Crowe playing the shady politician.  This trailer focuses quite a bit more on the film’s plot, teasing an enticing power play between Wahlberg and Crowe’s characters.  We also see a bit more of Zeta-Jones’ character, though her intentions aren’t entirely made clear.  The real draw, though, seems to the face-off between Wahlberg and Crowe, and I’m eager to see the two go toe-to-toe when the full film hits theaters.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer and here’s our recent interview with Wahlberg for the film.  The film also stars Jeffrey Wright.  Broken City opens on January 18th.

The first trailer for director Allen Hughes’ (The Book of Eli) political thriller Broken City has been released.  Mark Wahlberg stars as a private detective who is hired to identify the lover of a powerful politician’s wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones).  Russell Crowe plays the morally ambiguous politician with plenty of gusto, and there look to be some fun scenes where Crowe and Wahlberg go toe-to-toe.  The soundtrack on the trailer is a bit distracting and the January release date isn’t super promising, but this could be a nice little thriller with some interesting performances.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Jeffrey Wright.  Broken City opens on January 18th.

Rejoice, The Hunger Games fans!  Production has officially started on the Francis Lawrence-directed follow-up, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.  According to their press release, the film “will shoot primarily in existing locations in and near Atlanta, Georgia.  The film will subsequently be shot on location in the beaches and jungles of Hawaii before wrapping in late December, 2012.”  Perhaps more importantly, the director has recorded a video message for fans, announcing a worldwide sweepstakes that will win some lucky fans a chance to visit the set and participate in a cast and crew Q&A!

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire stars Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson, in addition to Sam Claflin, Jeffrey Wright, Tony Shalhoub, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jena Malone, Amanda Plummer, Lynn Cohen, Bruno Gunn, Alan Ritchson, E. Roger Mitchell, Meta Golding, Elizabeth Banks, Donald Sutherland and Woody Harrelson.  Hit the jump for the video from Francis Lawrence and details on the fan set visit contest. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire opens November 22, 2013.

Tony Award-winning actor Jeffrey Wright is the latest addition to the cast of the sequel The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.  Lionsgate announced today that Wright will take on the supporting role of Beetee in the Francis Lawrence-helmed adaptation of the second novel in Suzanne Collins’ trilogy.  It’s really tough to talk about this movie without getting into spoilers, but the incredibly smart Beetee hails from District 3 and is known for his electronics expertise.

Tony Shalhoub was previously mentioned as a possibility for the role, but I think Wright is a more inspired choice.  Beetee has quite a few scenes with the character Wiress, another District 3-native who will be played by Amanda Plummer.  Wright and Plummer join a fairly impressive list of newcomers that now includes Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jena Malone, and Sam Claflin. Hit the jump to read the press release.  The Hunger Games: Catching Fire opens on November 22nd, 2013.

A large batch of new images from the upcoming drama Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close has been released. The film is based on the novel by Jonathan Safran Foer and tells the story of a nine-year-old boy who sets out to find the lock that fits a key left to him by his father, who perished in the 9/11 attacks. I’m a big fan of the book so I’ve been looking forward to this one for quite a while. The cast is great and director Stephen Daldry has a pretty nifty track record, so I’m hoping everything comes together well. The pic has already started screening, but it’s under a strict embargo after the whole Girl with the Dragon Tattoo fiasco (plus Scott Rudin is also the producer of Extremely Loud).

Hit the jump to check out the images. The film stars Thomas Horn, Sandra Bullock, Tom Hanks, Max von Sydow, Viola Davis, Jeffrey Wright, and John Goodman. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close opens in limited release on December 25th, then expands nationwide on January 20th.

In last week’s “Top 5″, I painfully admitted to not having seen either Moneyball or 50/50. Moreover, I put my credentials as “mildly credible film blogger” up as collateral in the case that I hadn’t checked both out by this week. Sadly, I’ll have to forfeit my title as I’ve only managed to catch 50/50 so far. On the bright side, I thought that film was great and is definitely one of my favorites of the year thus far. As for Moneyball, well there’s always this week.

In spite of my lack of mild credibility, I hope you’ll still choose to check out this week’s “Top 5″ where you’ll find new hi-res images from The Avengers, the return of Arrested Development, our In Time set visit coverage, and interviews for George Clooney’s political drama The Ides of March and Shawn Levy’s robot boxing extravaganza Real Steel. Hit the jump for a brief recap and link to each.

[This is a re-print of my review from the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival]

We’re not inherently jaded about politics. You can’t have your idealism torn down if nothing was built in the first place. The 2008 election of Barack Obama promoted that idealism and gave people hope (the giant posters emblazoned with the word “Hope” may have had something to do with it). But we were all deceived when reality came crashing in and The Ides of March lays the blame not on our political system or even our politicians but on us. And when we realize that we can’t do anything larger than ourselves, we begin to think only of ourselves. Director George Clooney (who also co-wrote the screenplay and co-stars in the film) avoids being preachy or heavy-handed, but his light-touch fails to leave a lasting impact.

George Clooney, Ryan Gosling, Paul Giamatti, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jeffrey Wright: that sounds like a very realistic hypothetical list of Best Actor Oscar nominees some year, but no, these are the male stars of The Ides of March.  Femme things up with Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood, and Clooney has himself helluva cast for his latest directorial feature.

Sony has released the first trailer, which highlight’s Gosling’s moral struggle as an up-and-coming press secretary.  It’s clear this is going to be an acting clinic, and likely a major Oscar contender.  Can’t wait.  The Ides of March opens on October 7.  Hit the jump for the trailer and a new poster.

Source Code is a fast-paced thriller in which the military can transport a soldier into the final 8 minutes of a dead man’s memory to gain access to a crime scene that has come and gone. This time-travelling plot device is more than vaguely familiar, as it is a culmination of concepts previously seen in Groundhog Day, Déjà vu, and the Quantum Leap TV series, but, when blended with a Twilight Zone-meets-Hitchcockian adventure vibe, this effort feels wholly original in a year swamped with sequels.

While not as intellectually compelling as director Duncan Jones’ Moon, it wasn’t designed to be. Where Moon was contemplative of its themes and sported a career-high turn from Sam Rockwell, this strong sophomore effort’s goal was to entertain and excite, and it fully succeeds on both counts. Duncan Jones proves he is still a talent to keep close tabs on. After living its first days on the screenplay blacklist, Source Code now finds itself readily available to the widest audience possible on home video. Hit the jump to read my review of the Source Code Blu-ray.

With his 2009 film Moon, director Duncan Jones demanded that audiences sit up and take notice of smart science fiction.  Audiences then wondered why everything was so quiet, slow, and moody and became impatient for stuff to start blowing up real good.  For his second feature, Source Code, Jones has made a more accessible sci-fi that delivers on fast-paced action, lots of explosions, sharp dialogue, while still using sci-fi as a means to explore powerful themes about identity and sacrifice.  Even when the story steers towards a forced “happy” ending, it still comes up with enough ambiguity to make the trip worthwhile.

Summit has put the first five minutes of Duncan Jones’ Source Code online for your viewing pleasure.  I would advise you to not watch it.  Jones does such a great job of building momentum and helping launch you into the movie that while you’ll definitely want to see what happens next, that impulse will be diminished when you end up seeing the film since you’ll know what to expect.  Source Code is inventive, thoughtful, and thrilling and it’s best if you just go in cold.

However, if you must see parts of this movie now, then you can check out the first five minutes of the film plus four clips.  The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Vera Farmiga, Michelle Monaghan, and Jeffrey Wright.  Source Code opens April 1st.