Wow.  My head must have been buried in the sand because, aside from a few cursory glances at a poster here and there around the net, I had been more or less unfamiliar with the new Terry Gilliam film, The Zero Theorem. Not anymore.  This new U.S. trailer is fantastic. It’s utterly striking and unique and reminds us of what Gilliam is capable of.  I’m so relieved someone gave him some money to play around with again.

The Zero Theorem stars Christoph Waltz as Qohen Leth, a computer hacker who searches for the meaning of life while being distracted by Management, a shadowy figure from an Orwellian corporation; Melanie Thierry, Tilda Swinton, and David Thewlis also star.  The film hits iTunes on August 19th and limited theaters on September 19th. Hit the jump for The Zero Theorem trailer! 

A bit of unlikely (but welcome) news broke a couple months ago, when HBO announced that it was reviving the reality series Project Greenlight for a new season with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon producing.  The show initially ran for two seasons on HBO from 2001-2003 and then for a third on Bravo in 2005, launching a contest to find up-and-coming young filmmakers.  The winning director was then followed and mentored through the pre-production, production, and post-production process on the series, giving viewers an inside look at how a movie is really made while also providing a boost to an exciting new talent.

HBO has now unveiled a promo spot for the new season of Project Greenlight, in which Affleck and Damon explain how you can enter the contest to be considered for the new season.  Submissions begin July 24th and are open through August 8th.  Watch the video after the jump.

It appears as though Ridley Scott has settled on his next project.  Back in April, we learned that Scott had entered talks to direct the sci-fi film The Martian with Matt Damon set to star.  Speaking on Jeff Goldsmith’s podcast recently (via The Playlist), producer Simon Kinberg confirmed that The Martian will indeed be Scott’s next project, and in fact the film is gearing up to start production this fall.  Drew Goddard was initially attached to direct the Gravity-esque tale of an astronaut who is stranded on Mars and must make his way home, but was forced to drop out of the director’s chair due to his Sinister Six commitments.  However, Goddard completed what Kinberg describes as an “incredible script”, and it looks like Scott will next be heading to the Red Planet to bring the project to fruition.

Hit the jump for more, including where this leaves Prometheus 2.

A couple days ago, we reported that Universal has pushed back the fifth Bourne movie from August 14, 2015 to July 15, 2016.  The assumption was that A) summer 2015 is crowded as hell (it is); and B) the August date would be a better fit for the NWA biopic Straight Outta Compton.  However, there may have been an ulterior motive to Universal kicking Bourne 5: CHEMS CHEMS CHEMS (unofficial title) to 2016.

The reason?  To bring back Matt Damon.  [Update: Maybe, maybe not.  Producer Frank Marshall has weighed in on the rumor.]  Hit the jump for more.

Paramount Pictures has released a new Interstellar trailer for director Christopher Nolan’s upcoming sci-fi drama.  The film stars Matthew McConaughey and revolves around a group of explorers who make use of a newly discovered wormhole “to surpass the limitations on human space travel and conquer the vast distances involved in an interstellar voyage.”  Even though I know most of the visual effects are still in development, I’m surprised at how much focus was on the emotional side of the film.  Like production designer Nathan Crawley said, this is really a father-daughter story, and I like the emphasis on the emotion.  But there’s also a darkness in here that the characters aren’t just leaving Earth for the sake of exploration; they’re leaving Earth because it’s a lost cause.

Hit the jump to watch the new Interstellar trailer.  The film also stars Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Casey Affleck, Michael Caine, David Oyelowo, Wes Bentley, John Lithgow, Ellen Burstyn, Topher Grace, David Gyasi, Mackenzie Foy, Bill Irwin, Timothée Chalamet, and Matt Damon.  Interstellar opens November 7th.

Though Ben Affleck and Matt Damon haven’t appeared together onscreen in starring roles for quite some time, the duo have been trying to get another project off the ground.  A few years ago, it looked as though the reunion would happen on a film based on the 1970s baseball scandal involving the swapping of wives between New York Yankees pitchers Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich.  Titled The Trade, the idea was that Damon would direct and star opposite Affleck and Casey Affleck, but their busy schedules forced the project into limbo.  Now it appears that Warner Bros. is reviving the project with a new director at the helm: Jay Roach.

Hit the jump for more, including what roles Damon and Affleck will fill in this new iteration of the project.

Project Greenlight is coming back, folks.  In the midst of the reality TV boom of the late 1990s/early 2000s, HBO got in on the fun with a filmmaker-centric reality show called Project Greenlight.  The show offered an inside look at the filmmaking process, as a contest chose a director and writer to bring an original feature film to fruition.  The brainchild of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, the series ran from 2001-2003 on HBO and then for a third season on Bravo in 2005.  After nearly a decade off the air, though, HBO, Affleck, and Damon are reviving the series for a new season.  Hit the jump for more.

Last night, we reported that Zack Snyder would get a Superman trilogy of sorts by not only directing the upcoming Batman vs. Superman (unofficial title) but the follow-up, Justice League.  This is something that makes sense, and wasn’t too surprising.  The most surprising part is that they think they can get Justice League in theaters by 2017, and even that is doable.  But because superhero movie reporting can’t let news sit for even a day, we’re now charging back into the rumor mill.

According to The Wrap, a rumor has been floating around Hollywood “for more than a year is that Affleck’s close friend and collaborator Matt Damon is being sought to play Aquaman.”  That’s a long time for a rumor that big to be kept under wraps, and I’m surprised it was there before Affleck was even cast as Batman.  The Wrap does mention that Jason Momoa has been rumored for that role (among others), and he seems like a more likely candidate.  Hit the jump for why Damon as Aquaman is probably nonsense.

A couple of days ago, we learned that The Cabin in the Woods director Drew Goddard has closed his deal to direct Sony’s Spider-Man spinoff film The Sinister Six.  However, it appears that his busy schedule has subsequently forced Goddard to back out of a different project.  The Wrap reports that Goddard has exited 20th Century Fox’s sci-fi film The Martian, which he signed on to last year.  With his impending schedule, Fox wasn’t keen to wait on the filmmaker to move forward on the project.  Not only is Goddard writing and directing Sinister Six, but he’s first running and directing Marvel’s Daredevil Netflix series, so he wouldn’t be able to move his focus back to The Martian for quite some time.

Hit the jump for more, including the potential involvement of Matt Damon.

We’ve got a couple of casting stories for you this morning.  First up, Joel Edgerton has signed back on to play corrupt FBI Agent John Connolly in Scott Cooper‘s Black Mass.  The film stars Johnny Depp as notorious Boston gangster Whitey Bulger and centers on how he amassed his power with the help of his childhood friend Connolly by turning informant on rival operations, and then being warned by Connolly when the feds were closing in.  Edgerton signed on almost a year ago, and remained when Depp dropped out, but eventually left the project as well.  Depp signed back on three weeks ago, and there was the possibility of Tom Hardy playing the Connolly role, but now Deadline reports that the part is Edgerton’s again.  Production is set to begin in two months in Boston, and Warner Bros. is eyeing an October 2015 release. [Update: Deadline adds that, since WB has picked up Black Mass, it has dropped Matt Damon and Ben Affleck's planned Whitey Bulger film, which was to star Damon and be directed by Affleck and just had a new draft of the script turned in by Terrence Winter.]

Hit the jump for the first word on Todd Strauss-Schulson‘s The Final Girls in over two years.

It’s pilot season, folks, and with that all the networks are putting together shows that they hope will make this year’s fall schedule.  Briefly, here’s some of the latest casting news:

• Alyson Hannigan (How I Met Your Mother) will stick around CBS, as the actress has joined the cast of the comedy pilot More Time with the Family, which boasts Matt Damon and Ben Affleck as executive producers.
• With the Murder She Wrote reboot now defunct, Oscar winner Octavia Spencer will lead the potential Fox drama series Red Band Society.
• Jason Isaacs will star in the six-episode event series Dig on USA from Heroes creator Tim Kring.

Hit the jump for more on the aforementioned projects.

Although they are very active as producing partners, it’s been quite a few years since Ben Affleck and Matt Damon starred in a movie together.  So it’s fun to see them banter and bicker for a charity video to help Eastern Congo Initiative and Water.org.  For $10, you can enter to win a trip to Hollywood to be Affleck and Damon’s “VIP guests to a private star-studded event.”  Affleck mocks Damon’s height, lack of Oscars, and shallow questions, but Damon has the ultimate trump card: Gigli.

Hit the jump to check out Ben and Matt (er, Matt and Ben) tease for a good cause and find out how to enter.

In his past films, George Clooney has shown himself to be surprisingly deft at working with genre and mood.  Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is a stunning directorial debut that melds comedy, paranoia, tragedy, and drama, and his following works all have a smart, sensible core (although I’ll admit his previous picture, The Ides of March is slightly shaky).  Unfortunately, his confident direction is nowhere to be found in his latest film, The Monuments Men.  The story is scattershot in structure, narrative, and tone.  The premise is fascinating, but Clooney can never seem to find the right angle, and it’s unclear if we’re watching a drama with comedic elements or a rousing World War II picture with moments of tragedy.  There’s almost a total lack of cohesion, and while Clooney is occasionally able to regain control of the picture, the best moments rely almost entirely on the performances.

Opening February 7^th, George Clooney’s exciting action drama The Monuments Men features an impressive ensemble cast that brings to life the untold but true story of courageous people who risked everything to rescue the world’s artistic masterpieces from Nazi thieves.  Set during World War II, the movie is based on the book by Robert M. Edsel with Bret Witter and centers on one of the greatest treasure hunts in history.  It also shines a light and a perspective on very well-known historical facts.

At the film’s recent press day, we participated in a press conference with Clooney, Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon, Bob Balaban, John Goodman and producer Grant Heslov.  They spoke about wanting to make an entertaining movie that also deals with a very serious subject matter, what they found inspiring about portraying their characters, their experience working in Berlin, Clooney’s evolution as a director, why he enjoys stepping behind the camera now more than acting, what Heslov and he look for in a project, how he pranked Damon by altering his wardrobe during production, the importance of protecting art and preserving our cultural legacy, the impact of this movie moving forward and how the Monuments Men are still at work today.  Check out the interview after the jump.

Sony Pictures has released a slew of new high-resolution images from George Clooney’s latest directorial effort, the WWII drama The Monuments Men.  Based on a true story, the film revolves around a group of museum directors, artists, architects, curators, and art historians tasked with rescuing the world’s artistic masterpieces before the Nazi army destroys them.  Clooney has repeatedly stated that this film is his effort at tackling less cynical material than his previous directorial projects, and he’s put together a fantastic ensemble to bring this story to life.

Hit the jump to check out the new images, and click here to watch five clips from the pic.  Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Bob Balaban, Jean Dujardin, Hugh Bonneville, and Cate Blanchett star.  The Monuments Men opens February 7th.