The Weinstein Company has released the first trailer for director John Wells’ (The Company Men) adaptation of Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer Prize and Tony-winning play August: Osage County.  The story follows the women of a family whose lives have splintered in many directions until a crisis bring them back to their childhood home and to the dysfunctional woman who raised them.  While a bit lighter in tone than the actual story, this trailer does a swell job of teasing the film’s absolutely terrific ensemble cast, led by a characteristically great Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts in what could potentially be her best role in years.  Given the talent involved both onscreen and behind the scenes (Argo‘s George Clooney and Grant Heslov produce), this thing is a surefire Oscar contender that also promises delectable interplay amongst the film’s incredible ensemble.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Ewan McGregor, Benedict Cumberbatch, Margot Martindale, Chris Cooper, Dermot Mulroney, Juliette Lewis, Abigail Breslin, and Sam Shepard.  August: Osage County opens on November 8th.

Some more casting news today to add to the busy day of casting that Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: Catching Fire has been having.  Here’s the news in brief:

• Juliette Lewis (The Other Sister) is in negotiations to join the family in August: Osage County, the dark comedy from The Weinstein Co. that stars Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts.
• Sam Claflin (Snow White and the Huntsman) and Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) will join producer Pierre Morel’s European car heist flick, Overdrive, starring Karl Urban.

Hit the jump for more details on each project.

Some casting news for you today.  Here’s the pertinent info:

• Juliette Lewis (Natural Born Killers) has been cast in the starring role of The Days of Mary, a re-imagining of the Oscar-winning Federico Felllini film, Nights of Cabiria.
• Ashley Hinshaw (Chronicle) and Kim Shaw (She’s Out of My League) will play the wives of racecar drivers Don “The Snake” Prudhomme and Tom “The Mongoose” McEwan in Snake & Mongoose.

Hit the jump for more on each project.

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.

On NBC’s new dramatic thriller The Firm, which takes place 10 years after the events in the film of the same name, actress Juliette Lewis plays Tammy Hemphill, the feisty, sexy receptionist for Mitch McDeere (Josh Lucas) and his law firm, as well as the on-again, off-again girlfriend of Mitch’s brother, Ray (Callum Keith Rennie). Always able to adapt to any situation and never one to conform, Tammy is leery when Mitch accepts a deal to partner with a top law practice.

During this exclusive interview with Collider, done at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour, Juliette Lewis talked about how this TV role came about for her, why she loves her character, how much fun she’s having with the wardrobe, the challenge of working with different directors who are all trying to execute the same vision, how much she loves her co-stars, her evolving interest in the type of projects she wants to do, and the roles she’s hoping to do while on hiatus, including a remake of the Fellini film Nights of Cabiria. Check out what she had to say after the jump:

The long-in-development directorial debut of Mark “the Fourth Avenger” Ruffalo, Sympathy For Delicious tells the story of a gifted DJ who’s fallen on hard times in the wake of an accident that’s left him confined to a wheelchair. Living out of his car, relying on the charity of a do-gooding priest (Ruffalo), things are pretty bleak for Delicious D (that’s his name!) until he finds that he has the power to heal the sick with a laying on of hands—a power that  cannot be applied to his own devastating malady. Further embittered by this cruel twist of fate, D nonetheless offers his healing hands to the downtrodden masses of the streets, but it isn’t long before an opportunistic indie rock band offers him a second shot at stardom if he’ll exploit his gift on-stage for a lucrative music/evangelism fest called Healapalooza. But does his salvation lie in the soulless glow of the limelight or back in the squalor of skid row?

Writer-star Christopher Thornton gets points for a divertingly quirky set-up and for treading into some intriguing conceptual territory. Unfortunately, we’ll have to dock more than a few for the flick’s overriding incoherence and the insurmountable fact that, in the end, Delicious D just ain’t all that sympathetic. Hit the jump for the full review.

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.

In the unusual drama Sympathy for Delicious, actors Orlando Bloom and Juliette Lewis play charismatic frontman The Stain and bassist Ariel, part of a band on the verge of superstardom, whose manager Nina (Laura Linney) is trying to lead them down the path to fame and fortune. When they hold auditions for a DJ to add to their band, they meet Dean O’Dwyer (Christopher Thornton), aka Delicious D, who they discover possesses the otherworldly power to heal people and they decide to incorporate his gift into their live show, with disastrous consequences.

At the film’s press day, co-stars Orlando Bloom and Juliette Lewis talked about the appeal of doing such out-there roles, how they related to and identified with their rock star counterparts, working with Mark Ruffalo on his feature directorial debut, and being a part of such a passion project for screenwriter/star Christopher Thornton. Orlando also talked about his excitement to work with Peter Jackson again, reprising the character of Legolas for The Hobbit, and Juliette talked about her desire to get back out on the road again with her own band, The Licks. Check out what they had to say after the jump:

The first trailer for Mark Ruffalo’s directorial debut Sympathy for Delicious has been released. The film tells the story of a paralyzed DJ (played by the film’s scribe, Christopher Thornton) who somehow acquires the ability to heal, though is unable to make himself walk. Judging from the trailer, Ruffalo definitely shows some promise as a director. Factor in the top-notch cast, and I’m very interested in seeing how this film plays out. The flick premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January where it took home the Special Jury Prize.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer. Sympathy for Delicious stars Mark Ruffalo, Christopher Thornton, Orlando Bloom, Juliette Lewis, Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich and John Carroll Lynch.

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.

When a movie is based on a true story, it goes one of two ways, dipping into the realm of over-sentimentality or actually portraying the events in a real and human way.  Luckily Conviction is the latter.  The film is based on the true story of Betty Anne Waters and her 18-year struggle to free her brother, Kenny Waters, after he is wrongfully imprisoned for murdering an elderly neighbor.  This film is confident that the story itself is powerful enough and doesn’t try to sprinkle too much extra on top.  After watching this movie, it reminds me again how Sam Rockwell is one of the most overlooked actors by Awards season every year.  Hit the jump for my review of the Blu-ray of Conviction.

One of the many films that premiered at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival was director Tony Goldwyn’s Conviction.  Based on the true story of Betty Anne Waters and her struggle to free her innocent brother from a life sentence in prison, the film stars Hilary Swank, Sam Rockwell, Minnie Driver, Juliette Lewis, Melissa Leo and Peter Gallagher.

While some might see this movie as nothing more than Oscar bait, I caught a screening and thought Goldwyn did a good job bringing the story to life and it was more than a made for TV movie.  Of course, with fantastic performances from both Hilary Swank and Sam Rockwell, it’s a lot easier to make any movie better.  While Sam Rockwell is still under the radar to most moviegoers, his performance in Conviction is just another reason why I think he’s one of the best actors working today.

With Conviction getting released October 15, Fox Searchlight has sent over three clips and you can check them out after the jump.  You can hear both Swank and Rockwell doing New England accents.

Considering what it represents and the amazing stuff it predates, Dominic Sena’s 1993 film Kalifornia deserves a better Blu-ray release. This bare bones disc contains only a trailer and an unrated version of the film that runs three minutes longer than the theatrical version. That’s pretty insane considering the film could be considered a precursor to Brad Pitt’s crazy roles in Se7en and 12 Monkeys, Lewis’s role in Natural Born Killers, Duchovny was just about to break with The X-Files (the movie and show premiered within a week of each other) and Sena went on to super stardom with films like Swordfish and Gone in 60 Seconds. Well, maybe not the last two. Hit the jump for more.

Warner Bros. has released their Fall/Holiday 2010 Preview and included are some new and previously released images from The Town, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, Yogi Bear, Due Date, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1.  Hit the jump for high resolution versions along with updated cast lists and synopses:

I discovered something important about myself when I watched The Switch.  I discovered that I can endure 101 minutes of pure saccharine filmmaking without catching The Diabetes.  I have no problem with earnest filmmaking that’s unafraid to wear its heart on its sleeve.  I do have a problem with transparently manipulative filmmaking that wastes the comic talents of its lead actor.  A few clever one-liners sneak past this sitcom-level humor, but The Switch stands more as an endurance test of sugary storytelling rather than a heart-warming picture.