The 2013 Cannes Film Festival begins today, and new images have been released for these movies in the fest’s line-up:

• Behind the Candelabra – Directed by Steven Soderbergh, starring Michael Douglas, Matt Damon, Dan Aykroyd, Rob Lowe, and Debbie Reynolds.
• Nebraska – Directed by Alexander Payne, starring Bruce Dern, Will Forte, Stacy Keach, and Bob Odenkirk.
• The Immigrant – Directed by James Gray, starring Joaquin Phoenix, Marion Cotillard, and Jeremy Renner.
• As I Lay Dying – Directed and starring James Franco, co-starring Tim Blake Nelson, Logan Marshall-Green, and Danny McBride.

Hit the jump for the images and synopses.  The 2013 Cannes Film Festival runs from May 15 – May 26th.

Every year, I’m angry I don’t get to go to Cannes, but this year has really me pissed off.  The incredible line-up includes Inside Llewyn Davis, Only God Forgives, The Congress, The Bling Ring, As I Lay Dying, Blood Ties, All Is Lost, and more.  Nebraska, the new film from Alexander Payne (The Descendants), will be playing in competition, and the first clip has only added to my jealousy of this year’s festival-goers.  The plot enters on an aging alcoholic father (Bruce Dern) who decides to take a road trip from Montana to Nebraska to collect what he believes to be a million dollar Publisher’s Clearing House prize.  His estranged son (Will Forte) reluctantly agrees to accompany his father in order to keep him out of trouble.  There’s grimness to this clip where one of the father’s “friends” (played by Stacy Keach) tries to extort some money, and the son ends up learning an ugly truth.  Payne’s films have always had humor, but I’m curious to see how much it will factor in to his latest picture.

We’ll find out when the film screens at Cannes and the buzz begins.  Nebraska is slated to open in limited release on November 22nd.

The first official image from director Alexander Payne’s upcoming film Nebraska has landed online.  The film marks Payne’s follow-up to 2011’s The Descendants and centers on an aging alcoholic father who decides to take a road trip from Montana to Nebraska to collect what he believes to be a million dollar Publisher’s Clearing House prize.  His estranged son reluctantly agrees to accompany his father in order to keep him out of trouble.  Bruce Dern and Will Forte star as father and son in the black-and-white road trip film, and Payne shot the entire pic on the road in Nebraska, Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota—where the film’s story takes place.

Hit the jump to check out the debut image.  Nebraska will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival later this month and is slated to open in limited release on November 22nd.

We’ve got a number of new release dates and changes to share this afternoon.  In chronological order:

• Fruitvale Station – The Weinstein Company has moved up the limited release of this tearjerking Sundance smash from July 26th to July 12th.  The pic stars Michael B. Jordan and Octavia Spencer.
• Nebraska – Director Alexander Payne’s black-and-white road trip drama starring Will Forte and Bruce Dern will arrive in limited release on November 22nd.
• Inside Llewyn Davis – The highly anticipated new film from writers/directors Joel and Ethan Coen will hit theaters in limited release on December 6th, just in time for awards season.  Taking place in the 1960s folk scene, the pic stars Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, and Justin Timberlake.
• A Haunted House 2 – The unnecessary Marlon Wayans horror-spoof sequel hits theaters on March 28, 2014.
• Tammy – The road trip comedy starring Melissa McCarthy (who also co-directs with Ben Falcone) has been slated for a prime July 2, 2014 release date opposite Disney’s Maleficent and the Jason Segel comedy Sex Tape.
• Beware the Night – Director Scott Derrickson’s (Sinister) horror thriller has been given a January 16, 2015 release date.  The film stars Eric Bana, Olivia Munn, and Edgar Ramirez.

The full lineup for the 2013 Cannes Film Festival was announced today, and it looks like a really great group of films will be screening in the south of France later next month.  Official selections include Steven Soderbergh’s Behind the Candelabra, Joel and Ethan Coen’s Inside Llewyn Davis, Nicolas Winding Refn’s Only God Forgives, Alexander Payne’s Nebraska, Roman Polanski’s Venus In Fur, and James Gray’s The Immigrant (previously titled Low Life).  Additionally, the Robert Redford man vs. nature film All Is Lost will premiere out of competition, and Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring, James Franco’s As I Lay Dying, and the Sundance hit Fruitvale Station (previously titled Fruitvale) will screen Un Certain Regard.

A number of these titles are early awards contenders, and I’m particularly interested to hear the reaction for the Coens’ Davis and Payne’s The Descendants follow-up Nebraska, which is a black-and-white road trip movie starring Will Forte and Bruce Dern.  Hit the jump to read the full lineup.  The 2013 Cannes Film Festival runs from May 15 – 26th.

Let’s take a look at some recent casting additions:

• Demian Bichir (Savages) and Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) have joined Jude Law (Sherlock Holmes) in Dom Hemingway, director Richard Shepard’s crime comedy about the titular safe-cracker who’s out of prison and seeking what he’s owed.
• Devin Ratray (Buzz from Home Alone) has been cast as a villain in Alexander Payne’s black-and-white drama, Nebraska.  The picture stars Bruce Dern (Monster) as an alcoholic father to his estranged son (Will Forte) as they embark from Montana to Nebraska to claim a million-dollar Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes prize.
• Up-and-comer Boyd Holbrook (Milk) will topline the indie drama Little Accidents, a feature adaptation of writer/director Sara Coangelo’s award-winning short film by the same name which centers on a coal-mining town left devastated by a mining accident.

Hit the jump for more details on each film.

With Bruce Dern and Will Forte set as the leads for his black-and-white road trip film Nebraska, director Alexander Payne is now filling out his supporting cast. The film centers on an aging alcoholic father who decides to take a road trip from Montana to Nebraska to collect what he believes to be a million dollar Publisher’s Clearing House prize. His estranged son reluctantly agrees to accompany his father in order to keep him out of trouble.  Omaha.com (via The Film Stage) reports that Mr. Show alum and Breaking Bad standout Bob Odenkirk and veteran actor Stacy Keach (The Bourne Legacy) have now joined the cast.  The site also notes that June Squibb (About Schmidt) is being eyed for a role.

Odenkirk will play Forte’s older brother while Keach is set as one of Dern’s colleagues.  The most recent batch of Breaking Bad episodes was rather Saul Goodman-lite, so Odenkirk’s involvement in Nebraska is welcome news.  Production on Payne’s The Descendants follow-up is set to begin on October 15th, and we can expect to see the film sometime next year.

Following a bit of a bumpy road, director Alexander Payne’s drama Nebraska is now firmly on track and headed towards a production start.  The film centers on an aging alcoholic father who decides to take a road trip from Montana to Nebraska to collect what he believes to be a million dollar Publisher’s Clearing House prize. His estranged son decides to accompany his father in order to keep him out of trouble.  Payne was considering a number of esteemed actors for the lead and tried hard to coax Gene Hackman out of retirement, but we heard in May that Payne had his eye on Bruce Dern for the father role and Will Forte for the son.

Now Deadline reports that deals are being closed with Dern and Forte for the $13 million black-and-white film as Payne finally has the greenlight from Paramount.  The Descendants was a swell entry to Payne’s oeuvre, but I’m highly intrigued by this small-scale yet ambitious drama.  Forte is an immensely talented comedic actor and I have no doubt that he’ll nail Payne’s balance of drama and comedy. With deals closing and the picture a go, production begins this October for an awards season 2013 release.

Having racked up awards buzz and a rather tidy box office sum with The Descendants, director Alexander Payne is set to ease back into his road-movie wheelhouse with Nebraska. Production on the project has been delayed a couple times in the past months, as Payne worked on the script and searched for the right leads. After names like Robert Duvall, Jack Nicholson and Robert Forster were bandied about, now comes news that the helmer has set his sights on Bruce Dern to play a cantankerous alcoholic and SNL alum Will Forte to occupy the role of his estranged son. The dramedy will see the two taking a car trip to collect on the father’s apparent sweepstakes win. At the moment, offers have not been made to either actor. Hit the jump for more on Nebraska.

In The Descendants, director Alexander Payne (creator of the Oscar-winning Sideways) follows the unpredictable journey of an American family at a crossroads. Set in picturesque Hawaii, Matt King (George Clooney), husband and father of two girls, is forced to re-examine his life when his wife is incapacitated in a boating accident. While attempting to repair his relationship with his 17-year old daughter Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) and 10-year-old Scottie (Amara Miller), he learns things about his wife and his family that he was never even aware of, but that send him down the path toward rebuilding his life.

At the film’s press day, Alexander Payne talked about wanting to bring such a human story to life, how happy he was to get to work with George Clooney on this film after deciding that he wasn’t right for Sideways, what led him to cast Shailene Woodley, and what draws him to atypical love stories. He also talked about having his next two projects lined up – a film about a father-son road trip from Montana to Nebraska, tentatively called Nebraska (scheduled to shoot in May 2012) and an adaptation of a Daniel Clowes graphic novel, called Wilson (scheduled to shoot in late 2012 or early 2013). Check out what he had to say after the jump:

Writer-director Alexander Payne has a likely Oscar-contender on his hands with The Descendants, his first movie since 2004′s Sideways.  We shouldn’t expect another seven-year absence from Payne since he’s gearing up for an April start date on his next movie, Nebraska. The film will shoot in black-and-white and is searching for a respected veteran actor to play the lead role of an aging alcoholic father.

Empire reports that Payne is already planning his follow-up to Nebraska by adapting Daniel Clowes‘ graphic novel, Wilson.  We reported last year that Fox Searchlight had acquired the book as a directing vehicle for Payne.  The movie follows “a middle-aged misanthrope who’s left floundering after the death of his father and tries to reconnect with his ex-wife and the teenager daughter he’s never known.”  Clowes (Ghost World) wrote the screenplay and the movie will be set in Oakland, California.  Hit the jump for a synopsis of Wilson.  I haven’t read the book yet, but I’m interested to see anything Payne does.  The Descendants opens in limited release on November 16th.

Alexander Payne’s first film in seven years, The Descendants, has been gathering some very high praise from the film festival as it heads towards its November release date, but the writer-director has run into a bit of trouble on his next project. We reported back in January that Payne had chosen to make the drama Nebraska his next film. The pic centers on an aging alcoholic father who decides to take a road trip from Montana to Nebraska to collect what he believes to be a million dollar Publisher’s Clearing House prize. His estranged son decides to accompany his father in order to keep him out of trouble.

Payne was planning on beginning production in April, but Paramount had some issues. Primary among them was Payne’s insistence that the film be shot in black and white. Hit the jump to see where things stand now, including what actors are being considered to play the lead and my choice of who should land the role.

Sideways director Alexander Payne Payne recently finished up with The Descendants starring George Clooney and is now turning his attention to the drama Nebraska.  According to The Playlist, the story centers on,

“an aging alcoholic father who thinks he’s won a million dollar Publisher’s Clearing House sweepstakes prize. He is unbowed when his family tries to dissaude him from making the long trip from Montana to Nebraska to cash in his winnings. So his estranged 20-something son—who doesn’t believe the ticket is a winner—is forced to go along with him for the ride to keep him out of trouble, providing an opportunity to bond with his father after years of separation.”

Hit the jump for more details Nebraska.  The Descendants is due to be released later this year.