Sony Pictures Classics has announced that they’ve acquired the rights to Mike Leigh‘s upcoming untitled film currently referred to as “Untitled Mike Leigh 13“.  The film will focus on English artist J.M.W. Turner (1775 – 1851).  Per Wikipedia, “Turner was considered a controversial figure in his day, but is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivaling history painting.”  The untitled film will reunite Leigh with Timothy Spall (Secrets & Lies and Topsy Turvy).  Production begins this spring for a 2014 release.

Hit the jump for the press release.

Gary Oldman wrapped up his 3-day, 7-film retrospective at New York’s Landmark Sunshine Cinema with a fun, extended Q&A after Wednesday night’s screening of his Oscar-nominated performance in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

The first time Academy Award nominee fielded questions from a theater filled with hundreds of his fans with nearly an hour.  Oldman also hung around for autographs, pictures and additional questions.  Hit the jump for stories from the set of The Dark Knight Rises, his paralyzing doubt on Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and what he thought while watching Heath Ledger as The Joker.

They come sporadically, but are instantly identifiable: Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront, Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver, Samuel L. Jackson in Jungle Fever. Roles that launch actors into the upper echelons of master thespians, roles that reward the audience with the sense of seeing something terribly unique and profound, roles that could have only been played by one person to create such stunning results. And for David Thewlis — who’d been acting on screen since 1985 — it was Mike Leigh’s 1993 Naked that gave him such a role, a role that made much of the world stand up and notice. Our review of Naked on Blu-ray follows after the jump.

If you’re attending this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, you may want to take some time to seek out Mike Leigh’s Another Year.  It doesn’t have the star-power of films like The Town or Black Swan, but it looks like a sweet little movie.  It also received positive notices when it played at Cannes earlier this year.  The film centers on “A happily married, middle-aged couple who are visited by a number of unhappy and lonely friends who use them as confidantes. When an unmarried friend falls for their young son, they watch as events unfold.”

The film stars Jim Broadbent, Ruth Sheen, and Lesley Manville.  Hit the jump to check out the international trailer and the official description.  The Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 9 – 19th.  Another Year opens in limited release on December 29th.

Steve went to the American Film Market (AFM) today.  AFM is where film buyers go to pick up some of the biggest movies that are in development or already completed.  The film sellers use promo art and synopses to entice buyers.  It also enticed Steve to land some the first images and full synopsis for some of the biggest upcoming films of 2010.  We’ve got the goods for The American starring George Clooney, Eagle of the Ninth starring Channing Tatum, Greenberg starring Ben Stiller, and Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere starring Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning, and much more.

Looking at the images and reading the synopsis should really get you excited for these films so hit the jump and check it all out.