Three first-time directors and a Brett Ratner did some casting today:

• Annette Benning and Bobby Cannavale (Boardwalk Empire) are in negotiations to star opposite Al Pacino in Imagine, the directorial debut of writer Dan Fogelman (Crazy, Stupid, Love).
• Leighton Meester (Gossip Girl) and Gillian Jacobs (Community) star as two opposites in a co-dependent friendship in Life Partners, the directorial debut of Susanna Fogel.  Adam Brody, Gabourey Sidibe, Abby Elliott, and Beth Dover co-star.
• Sarah Gadon (Cosmopolis) is in negotiations for the female lead in Dracula. Luke Evans stars in Gary Shore‘s directorial debut.
• Ingrid Bolsø Berdal (Chernobyl Diaries) landed the female lead in Ratner’s Hercules.  Dwayne Johnson plays the titular Greek hero.  Ian McShane and Joseph Fiennes co-star.

Hit the jump for more on each project.

In what may be the most dysfunctional family holiday film since the Griswolds took on National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, a new red-band trailer for The Oranges has landed.  Directed by Julian Farnio (Entourage), The Oranges centers on two suburban families who are the best of friends and the most boring and predictable of people.  That all changes when the daughter of the Ostroffs starts an affair with the father of the Wallings.

Starring Hugh Laurie, Catherine Keener, Oliver Platt, Allison Janney, Adam Brody,  Alia Shawkat and Leighton Meester, The Oranges opens October 5th.  Hit the jump to check out the red-band trailer.

The first trailer for the family comedy The Oranges has been released.  The film centers on two families who are both best friends and neighbors.  Their tight relationship is strained when it’s discovered that the father of one family (Hugh Laurie) is having an affair with the grown daughter of the other family (Leighton Meester).  The film looks like a pretty great comedy, and Allison Janney is unsurprisingly fantastic.  The cast—which includes Catherine Keener, Oliver Platt, Alia Shawkat. and Adam Brody—has great chemistry, and director Julian Farino appears to have crafted a solid comedy.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The Oranges opens later this year.

The raunchy and outrageous comedy That’s My Boy tells the story of Donny Berger (Adam Sandler), an aimless loser who knocked up his smoking hot teacher when he was a teenager, and was left to raise their love child even though he was completely unprepared to be a parent.  Now, 30 years later, Todd (Andy Samberg) is all grown up and a successful Wall Street executive who hasn’t seen his father in years.  But, with Donny owing tens of thousands to the IRS, he figures that tracking down his son will not only give him the chance to ask for the money he needs to stay out of jail, but to also finally bond with his son.

At the film’s press day, writer/director Sean Anders talked to Collider for this exclusive interview about what made Adam Sandler and Andy Samberg the perfect pairing for this film, what he’d like to see on the DVD, and the collaboration he had with Sandler both in reworking the script and on set during filming.  He also talked about signing on to write and direct Three Mississippi (with partner John Morris), about two Philadelphia neighbors whose annual Thanksgiving game of tackle football has become extraordinarily heated, the possibility of a Will Ferrell and Adam Sandler pairing for the film, and the status of the Dumb and Dumber sequel with Jim Carrey.  Check out what he had to say after the jump.

There are two incredibly infuriating things about Adam Sandler: First, he makes movies that aren’t very good but they make boatloads of cash.  Second, he could make better movies, but he chooses not to since they might not make boatloads of cash.  It’s for these reasons that critics largely brush off Sandler’s movies even though they’re screened for press (which is more than I can say for the films of Paul W.S. Anderson).  There are brief times when Sandler will wander off the beaten track to do something “respectable” like Funny People or Punch-Drunk Love, but everything he does feels like a cynical calculation where he’ll inevitably come back to the safe confines of a lowest-common-denominator comedy.  That’s My Boy, his first R-rated feature since Punch-Drunk, shows brief glimmers of the Sandler we knew at the beginning of his film career, but those moments are drowned out by the lazy comedy for which he’s become infamous.

A couple of new trailers for the upcoming R-rated comedy That’s My Boy have gone online.  The first is a fairly straightforward red-band trailer for the film, and the second is a really funny trailer cut by Andy Samberg himself.  The red-band trailer actually has a few genuine laughs, and it reveals that Adam Sandler, who plays Samberg’s estranged father, pretends to be Samberg’s friend throughout some of the film because Samberg told his soon-to-be-in-laws that his dad was dead.  More fun, though, is a special trailer for the film that Samberg himself cut.  It almost plays like a fake trailer from Funny People, and Samberg appears to know exactly what That’s My Boy looks like from an outside perspective.  Though I’m cautious with every Sandler project nowadays given his recent output, I have to admit that these two trailers actually make That’s My Boy seem somewhat appealing.

Hit the jump to watch both NSFW trailers.  The film also stars Leighton Meester, James Caan, Milo Ventimiglia, Will Forte and Vanilla Ice.  That’s My Boy opens on June 15^th.

Eight clips from the new comedy That’s My Boy have gone online.   The film stars Adam Sandler as rich party animal who tries to avoid going to jail for tax evasion by getting his estranged and independently-wealthy son (Andy Samberg) to front him the cash to pay back the IRS.  What’s more, the dad decides to make this play during the son’s upcoming nuptials.  The film marks Sandler’s first R-rated film since 1996’s Bulletproof, and features a supporting cast that includes Leighton Meester, James Caan, Milo Ventimiglia, Will Forte and Vanilla Ice.

Hit the jump to watch the clips.  That’s My Boy opens on June 15^th.

The first trailer for the comedy That’s My Boy arrived last week in the form of a red-band trailer. The film marks the first R-rated Adam Sandler comedy since 1996’s Bulletproof, and while the idea of a Sandler/Andy Samberg team-up was appealing, I wasn’t exactly thriller with the red-band trailer; it seemed like Sandler yelling “fuck” was the punch-line for nearly every joke. That said, I actually laughed quite a bit more at this new green-band trailer. It reveals why, despite being father and son, Sandler and Samberg’s characters are so close in age, and features a few funny gags that Samberg sells really well.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer and check out the new poster. The film also stars Leighton Meester and James Caan. That’s My Boy opens June 15th.

The red-band trailer for the R-rated comedy That’s My Boy (previously titled “I Hate You Dad“) has gone online.  The film stars Adam Sandler as rich party animal who tries to avoid going to jail for tax evasion by getting his estranged and independently-wealthy son (Andy Samberg) to front him the cash to pay back the IRS.  The jerk-off dad decides to make this play during the son’s upcoming nuptials and chaotic hilarity ensues.

There are two surprising things about this trailer.  First, this is Sandler’s first R-rated comedy since 1996′s Bulletproof.  Second, I chuckled a few times during this trailer, which doesn’t make sense since I can’t remember the last time an Adam Sandler movie made me do that.  Hit the jump to check out the red-band trailer.  The film also stars Leighton Meester and James Caan.  That’s My Boy opens June 15th.

Wrapping up our coverage of new images from movies premiering at the 2011 Toronto Film Festival (at least for now since I’m sure more are on the way), we have the first images from Julian Farino’s The Oranges (starring Hugh Laurie, Leighton Meester, and Adam Brody), Lasse Hallstrom’s Salmon Fishing in Yemen (starring Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt), and Pawel Pawlikowski’s Woman in the Fifth (starring Kristin Scott Thomas and Ethan Hawke).

Hit the jump to check out all of the images.  We’ve also provided the synopses.  The 2011 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 8th – 18th.  For all the new TIFF images we’ve posted, click here.

20th Century Fox has released seven clips for its upcoming tween “comedy” Monte Carlo. Co-written/directed by Thomas Bezucha (The Family Stone), the film stars that one girl from Disney (Selena Gomez) with the chick from that “horror” film The Roommate and CW’s Gossip Girl (Leighton Meester), and that guy who was on The Partridge Family‘s daughter (Katie Cassidy). While I can’t say that I’m in any way excited about checking out Monte Carlo, I will admit those three make for an attractive trio.  Andie MacDowell, Cory Monteith, and Brett Cullen also star in the pic which centers on one of the aforementioned trio members getting mistaken for a British heiress and the inevitable romantic hilarity that ensues.

Hit the jump to check out the clips. Monte Carlo hits theaters on July 1st.

The first trailer for the romantic comedy Monte Carlo has hit the web. The film stars Leighton Meester, Selena Gomez, Katie Cassidy, Cory Monteith, Andie MacDowell and Brett Cullen. Co-written and directed by Tom Bezucha (The Family Stone), the flick tells the story of three young American girls who take a trip to Paris and, after the trip turning into a disaster, one of the girls gets mistaken for a British heiress and the three are wrapped up in a “hilarious” whirlwind of celebrity. The trailer looks like the film was tailor-made for the tween crowd, who I’m sure will love the flick. The similarities to a Disney Channel Original Movie are striking, and I had to double check to make sure the film was actually coming out in theaters and I wasn’t just watching a preview for a TV movie.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer. Monte Carlo hits theaters July 1^st.

In Minka Kelly’s first leading role in Screen Gems The Roommate, she plays a freshman at the fictional University of Los Angeles, whose roommate (Leighton Meester) quickly reveals herself to be a psychopath. The actress, who is mainly known for her work on the television series Friday Night Lights, proves to be a very likeable on-screen presence.

I was fortunate to speak with Kelly last Saturday where we discussed: her excitement at her first leading film role, how filming on two university campuses (Loyola Marymount and USC) gave the film believability, how a final fight scene in the movie was physically and emotionally taxing, and finally her recount of how shooting Friday Night Lights on location gave the cast a focused mentality.  Hit the jump to see the interview.

Cam Gigandet has a history of playing the bad guy—Twilight, Never Back Down, and my personal favorite, as “Volchok” on The O.C. In his new film The Roommate, out Friday February 4^th, Gigandet plays the heroic drum-playing boyfriend to Minka Kelly’s character, who is being terrorized by her college roommate (played by Leighton Meester).  Gigandet takes a fairly conventional role and legitimately makes his character funny. He and his cast mates manage to make this film actually very entertaining.

As tempted as I was to reminisce about The O.C, I resisted. During the interview we talk about his continued loathing of press junkets, how working with Leighton and Minka allowed the dialogue to feel spontaneous, how Leighton genuinely freaked him out, and lastly how he feels about supporting versus leading roles.  Hit the jump to check out the video.

I’m of the opinion that Gossip Girl truly works because of  the depth Leighton Meester gives to her character, Blair. She is hilarious as the quick-witted Queen Bee, but then affectingly vulnerable in other scenes. She brings this same duality to each role she plays, and in particular, elevates what’s would be a standard teenage horror flick into a much more character driven movie, in her latest work, The Roommate.

I had the opportunity to briefly talk with her last Saturday after seeing the film the night before. During the interview we talk about: her personal scariest horror movie, her process of relating to her character, how the director crafted fear through what’s not said, what influences her in choosing roles, and lastly what advantages she sees to filming her television show in New York.   The Roommate, co-starring Minka Kelly and Cam Gigandet and directed by Christian Christensen, is in theatres this Friday, February 4^th.  Hit the jump to watch the interview.