Blockbusters dominate the summer movie season, and some will definitely be worth your time.  You’ll pre-order your ticket, get together with friends for the earliest possible screening, and probably have a grand time.  But there are some smaller films this summer that shouldn’t escape your attention.  I’ve compiled a list of ten worthwhile indie films I saw at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival, the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, and SXSW 2013.  The list includes coming of age comedies, moving romances, brutal dramas, and more.  There are other smaller films this summer that might be worth a look such as The Bling Ring and Blue Jasmine, but I haven’t seen them yet.  I can vouch for these ten.  Hit the jump for the list.

While The Avengers 2 is still very much in the pre-production stage and we haven’t heard much movement recently on the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series, everyone will have their Joss Whedon fix very soon.  The UK trailer for his new movie, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, was just released, showing a bit more of the film than the first trailer.  Much Ado tells the story of two stubborn individuals, Beatrice and Benedick, and their haphazard journey to finding love with each other that involves a ridiculous amount of deception and wit.  This one gives glimpses into the interwoven drama with jabs of comedy Whedon is more known for, and I for one am very excited to see him take on an updated but understated version of this classic.  I like that he’s kept the original text, but is playing with the tone and creating a new feel for it.

The cast includes many of Whedon’s mainstays, such as Amy Adams, Alexis Denisof, Clark Gregg, Sean Maher, Nathan Fillion, Fran Kranz, Tom Lenk, Reed Diamond, and Ashley Johnson.  I love seeing Whedon bring back his beloved roster of actors, and I have no doubt that the combination of the cast he’s chosen and his distinctive style of filmmaking and directing will provide something fun and entertaining.  The film is set for a June 7th release.  Hit the jump for the trailer.

We’ve got a few new posters for your viewing pleasure.  Briefly:

• The Bling Ring – Sofia Coppola‘s film is based on the true story of a group of teenagers who robbed the homes of the rich and famous.  I really like this poster, and I think they should make keep the PerezHilton.com watermark part of the official poster due to the shared obsession with celebrities.  The film opens on June 14th and stars Emma Watson, Taissa Farmiga, Israel Broussard, Katie Chang, Claire Julien, and Leslie Mann.
• Violet & Daisy – The directorial debut of Precious screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher also has a great poster.  The film stars Alexis Bledel and Saorise Ronan as a pair of perky teenage assassins who have second thoughts about their latest job.  Click here for my review from TIFF 2011.  The film also stars Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Danny Trejo, and James Gandolfini.
• Much Ado about Nothing – A bland poster, but there’s not much you can do with a film that cost nothing to make and the spark is in performances rather than individual images.  The one featured here is one of the few memorable shots.  Click here for my review from TIFF 2012.  The film opens on June 7th and stars Amy Acker, Alexis Denisof, Nathan Fillion, and other actors who have previously worked with director Joss Whedon.

Hit the jump to check out the posters.

Joss Whedon brought his version of Shakespeare’s classic comedy Much Ado about Nothing to WonderCon in a special presentation.  Much of the cast of the impromptu production joined Whedon on stage in order to screen the recently-released trailer and two exclusive clips from the film.  The panel also shared behind-the-scenes anecdotes about how Whedon recruited them for the film, the experience of contemporizing Shakespeare and just how many of them were drunk during filming (off-screen…of course).

Much Ado about Nothing stars Amy Acker, Alexis Denisof, Fran Kranz, Jillian Morgese, Clark Gregg, Tom Lenk, Ashley Johnson, Reed Diamond, Riki Lindhome, Sean Maher and Nathan Fillion and opens in limited release on June 7th.  Hit the jump for our panel recap.

The full lineup for WonderCon 2013 has been released, and it’s a pretty solid slate of film and TV fare.  Among the highlights of this year’s convention are panels for Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim, director James Wan’s horror film The Conjuring, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s star-studded directorial debut This Is the End, the YA adaptation The Mortal Instruments: The City of Bones, Joss Whedon’s Shakespeare pic Much Ado About Nothing, as well as TV panels for Eli Roth’s Netflix series Hemlock Grove, CBS’ Stephen King adaptation Under the Dome, BBC’s Doctor Who, and much more.

Hit the jump to check out the schedule.  WonderCon 2013 runs from March 29 – 31.  Be sure to come back to Collider later this month for our extensive coverage from the convention.

The trailer for Joss Whedon‘s Much Ado about Nothing has been released.  For those unfamiliar with William Shakespeare‘s play, it follows the trick to bring the bickering Beatrice (Amy Acker) and Benedict (Alexis Denisof) together, and the deception to tear apart the enamored Claudio (Fran Kranz) and Hero (Jillian Morgese) apart.  I caught the film at TIFF, and I was charmed by Whedon’s low-budget exercise in trying to tell a comedy without using his own snappy dialogue.  This trailer makes the film look a little more intense, but it’s understandable when trying to sell Shakespeare to a modern audience.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The film also stars Clark Gregg, Tom Lenk, Ashley Johnson, Reed Diamond, Riki Lindhome, Sean Maher, and Nathan Fillion.  Much Ado about Nothing opens in limited release on June 7th.

Earlier this month, we reported on the first wave of SXSW 2013 films, which includes The Incredible Burt Wonderstone and Evil Dead.  Today, the full line-up has been announced, and it feels like Sundance all over again when it comes to plenty of unknown films.  The chance of discovering a gem is high, and I look forward to hearing the buzz that arises from some these movies.  There’s also a second chance at festival films I missed like The Act of Killing (from TIFF) and Pit Stop (from Sundance).  I thought Toy’s House would make it in to SXSW, but I’ll see it eventually since it picked up distribution.

Hit the jump for the full line-up.  The 2013 SXSW Film Festival runs from March 8 – 17th.

Director Joss Whedon’s next film has just landed a prime summer release date, but it’s not exactly another Avengers-style blockbuster.  Roadside Attractions announced today that they will be releasing Whedon’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing in limited release on June 7, 2013, where it will square off against M. Night Shyamalan’s After Earth, the Vince Vaughn/Owen Wilson comedy The Internship, and the ensemble magician heist pic Now You See Me.  Whedon shot Much Ado in 12 days immediately after wrapping The Avengers, and the Shakespeare film features a host of familiar faces from Whedon’s past work including Alexis Denisof, Amy Acker, Clark Gregg, Fran Kranz, and Nathan Fillion.  Click here to read Matt’s review from the Toronto Film Festival.

Steve walked the floor of the American Film Market (AFM) earlier this morning, and he was able to snap some shots of a few promo images and posters that were on display.  One such poster belongs to writer/director Joss Whedon’s adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing.  Whedon famously (and secretly) shot the film over the span of a few days after he wrapped Marvel’s mega-budget The Avengers.  The modern-day adaptation stars a number of Whedon regulars, including Alexis Denisof, Amy Acker, and of course Nathan Fillion.  This promo poster features Denisof and Acker front and center against the backdrop of a neat title treatment.

Hit the jump to check out the promo poster, and click here to read Matt’s review of the film from TIFF.  The film also stars Clark Gregg, Reed Diamond, Fran Kranz, Sean Maher, and Jillian Morgese.

Around this time last year, we found out that Joss Whedon (The Avengers) had completed an entire movie in secret; that movie was a contemporary adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.  The film recently screened at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival (you can read Matt’s review of it here) and scored a big prize when it was reported that Lionsgate had acquired the film, along with sister company, Roadside Attractions.  The micro-budget film was completed in just twelve days in Santa Monica and features such Whedonesque regulars as Amy Acker (The Cabin in the Woods), Nathan Fillion (Firefly) and, now, Clark Gregg (The Avengers).  Hit the jump for more on the acquisition and to see what Whedon himself had to say about it.

With a few exceptions, William Shakespeare‘s trips to the big screen have been sumptuous affairs.  The plays favor an expansive vision by the director, so we get films like Julie Taymor‘s Titus and Kenneth Branagh‘s Hamlet.  But one of the many beautiful things about Shakespeare is how flexible it is in terms of setting.  You can set it on a modern battlefield (Ralph Fiennes‘ Coriolanus), in a high school (Tim Blake Nelson‘s Othello adaptation, O), or in the case of Joss Whedon‘s Much Ado about Nothing, in an upper-class home.  Whedon’s Much Ado is a bold challenge for the director not because of fancy costumes or complex staging, but because he removes two of his greatest assets: his dialogue and a budget.  Of course, nothing Whedon (or anyone else) could write would surpass the Bard, but it’s an entertaining exercise seeing the director speak only in a visual language, and then having his budget limit what visuals he has available.  With no money and another author’s work, Whedon finds his film’s strength in the superb cast, clever staging, and an expert understanding of dialogue.

The line-up for this year’s Toronto International Film Festival has been announced and it is a doozy.  The festival will play host to some of the year’s biggest world premieres including Rian Johnson‘s Looper (which will be the festival’s opening night film), The Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer‘s Cloud Atlas, Ben Affleck‘s Argo, David O. Russell‘s The Silver Linings Playbook, Derek Cianfrance‘s The Place Beyond the Pines, Joss Whedon‘s Much Ado About Nothing, Noah Baumbach‘s Frances Ha, and Neil Jordan‘s Byzantium.  Films making their International/North American debuts (which means that they’ll like show up at the Venice Film Festival first) include Terrence Malick‘s To the Wonder, Joe Wright‘s Anna Karenina, Robert Redford‘s The Company You Keep, and Billy Bob Thornton‘s Jayne Mansfield’s Car.

Hit the jump for the first wave of announced films.  The 2012 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 6 – 16th.

I am one of those stupid people who goes to Comic-Con and knows very little about comics.  I apologize for my ignorance, but if you came to Collider for comics coverage, you’re in the wrong place.  Movies are our specialty, so at Joss Whedon’s panel for his comics label Dark Horse, I took note of everything he said that related to the cinematic arts, including the reveal that he is actively working on Dr. Horrible 2.  Even without the comics, there’s still a lot to talk about.  Ninety percent of the hour left Whedon up on stage alone to answer questions from fans who mostly have the same interests I do.  Hit the jump for a bullet point recap.

This weekend Hero Complex in association with The Los Angeles Times hosted the third annual Hero Complex Film Festival. Highlights to which included a screening of Shaun of the Dead with Edgar Wright, Wall-E with director Andrew Stanton, A Clockwork Orange with Malcolm McDowell, and Robocop with Peter Weller.

Joss Whedon’s cult-favorite Serenity closed out the festival Sunday night.  Star Nathan Fillion was on hand to discuss the film and its short-lived television predecessor Firefly.  (I still maintain that show’s season/series finale “Objects in Space to be the finest piece of writing Whedon’s ever done.)  In the post screening Q&A, Fillion reflected on reuniting with the cast for the film, reciting Whedon’s particular cadences and previews his role in another Whedon project/film: Much Ado About Nothing.  For all this and more, hit the jump.

As we come within mere days of the North American premiere of The Avengers, the anticipated marketing A-bomb has officially detonated and is in the process of spewing tiny chunks of promotional material across the globe for all to see. We’ve got special edition cola cans, fancy micro-sites, and even pint-sized LARPing…and, of course, your standard behind-the-scenes TV specials. While this one, from CBS News, is mainly a rehash of stuff we already know/have seen before, it would still be worth watching, if only for the chance to have director/geek god Joss Whedon utterly disarm you with his affable wit, as he discusses his career to date.

But here’s another reason to take a look: it features our first glimpse of Much Ado About Nothing, the self-financed, sub-independent Shakespeare adaptation Whedon shot entirely at his Santa Monica home over a period of 12 days just after The Avengers wrapped. Hit the jump to check it out.