Good news awaits fans of FX’s comedy series The League. Coming off of strong ratings for season four, the network announced today that they have ordered a 13-episode fifth season of the heavily improvised show.  Quality-wise the series has showed no signs of slowing down, and the stellar ensemble of Mark Duplass, Stephen Rannazzisi, Nick Kroll, Paul Scheer, Katie Aselton, and Jon Lajoie continue to kill it week after week, not to mention those glorious way-too-brief appearances of Jason Mantzoukas’ Raffi.  The show’s fourth season wraps up tonight with back-to-back episodes, while production on season five will begin next summer for a fall 2013 debut.  Hit the jump to read the full press release. 

A trailer has gone online for Katie Aselton‘s horror film Black Rock.  The film focuses on three old friends (played by Kate Bosworth, Lake Bell, and Aselton) who attempt to reconnect on a camping trip to a deserted island only to find it not-so-deserted.  Once there, a series of unfortunate events leads the trio of women on a fight for their lives.  When I saw the film at Sundance earlier this year, I thought it had an interesting hook, but then Aselton and co-writer Mark Duplass took the film to a familiar place that drained all tension from the picture.  I’ll also say that if you’re looking forward to this movie, there’s a point in the trailer that strongly hints at a spoiler.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  Black Rock opens May 17, 2013.

Slashers are classified as horror, but they’re really more about the thrills.  There’s nothing truly horrifying about the situation because in all likelihood, our camping trip is not to end up with everyone getting slaughtered.  Truly horrifying events happen in our world.  It’s the all-too-common horror we become desensitized to.  Women are beaten and abused and raped every day but we don’t want to stop and dwell on that.  It’s too awful to confront if it’s not happening to you or someone you know.  In her new film Black Rock, director Katie Aselton makes us face that horror head-on and then she steers away to the safety of the hunter-hunted thriller we’ve seen countless times before.  The film can only muster horror in its violence, but then it negates that horror through clichés.

Actress Katie Aselton is set to direct and star in the thriller Black Rock. Lake Bell and Kate Bosworth have signed on to co-star in the film which was conceived by Aselton and written by Mark Duplass (Cyrus). The story centers on “three childhood friends who embark on a weekend getaway to the isolated island of Black Rock, only to discover that they are not alone.” While that may sound like your standard thriller, with indie-staple Duplass writing the screenplay you can pretty much bet on it being something wholly original.

As an actress, Aselton has worked on FX’s The League and appears in the upcoming Paul Rudd indie comedy Our Idiot Brother. Submarine is handling U.S. and international sales at Cannes, with a portion of the film’s funding being crowd-sourced through Kickstarter. Hit the jump to read the full press release.

The League’s based on a premise unimaginable only a couple years earlier. No, The League has nothing to do with superpowers, it’s a fantasy football league that Pete (Mark Duplass) has won for three years straight. But, regardless of the thing that brings them together, the idea of men getting together to compete and act stupid is timeless and The League has assembled some crack comic performers and improv vets to pull it off, including Paul Scheer, Nick Kroll, Stephen Rannazzisi, Jonathan Lajoie and Katie Aselton. The results show more promise than actual results in the first year (often the case with comedies), but there’s enough here to think that the show might come together eventually, there’s no lack of talent, and it regardless of if you play fantasy football or not. My review of The League follows after the jump.

Up until a few years ago, FX was home to dramas, action movies and re-runs. Then It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia came along and changed the whole equation. Last summer FX ordered pilots for three new comedy series’: Archer, Louie, and The League. All were successful enough to warrant second seasons but it was The League that was most talked about. Take a subject all guys love (fantasy football), mix in adults acting like teenagers, add some hilarious improvised banter, throw in some more football references for good measure and you have The League. Continue reading for my review of the first season as well as information about the DVD and special features. Season 2 of The League currently airs Thursdays at 10:30 on FX.

The theatrical trailer for The Freebie starring Katie Aselton (who also directed the film), Dax Shepard, Bellamy Young, Ross Partridge, and Sean Nelson has landed online.  An official selection at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, the low-budget drama tells the story of Aselton and Shepard, who play a husband and wife who agree to allow each other a single one-night stand free of consequence.  As you might expect, when put to the test, the “free of consequence” part doesn’t quite hold up.  After watching the trailer, I’ll admit that I’m intrigued to see Shepard step outside of his proverbial comedic comfort zone as he looks to be quite capable of holding his own with the dramatic material featured here.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer as well as a synopsis.  The Freebie will enjoy a limited theatrical release starting August 27th.