With director Louis Leterrier’s (The Incredible Hulk) magician-centered thriller Now You See Me opening May 31st, I recently went to New Orleans to interview the cast.  For those unfamiliar, the story follows an FBI squad on the heels of a team of bank-robbing magicians who share their profits with the audience, and the pic boasts an impressive ensemble cast that includes Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Mark Ruffalo, Michael Caine, Melanie Laurent and Morgan Freeman.  For more on the film, watch six clips, or check out all our previous coverage. 

During my interview with Dave Franco, he talked about how much fun he had making the movie, what he learned about magic, what it was like working for Louis Leterrier and  his always moving camera, and more.  In addition, he talked about if he’ll be in the 21 Jump Street sequel, and reveals Nicholas Stoller‘s Townies features tons of male nudity.  Hit the jump to watch.

Though his AMC series The Killing was just resurrected for a third season, star Joel Kinnaman isn’t leaving features behind anytime soon.  The actor most recently wrapped the starring role in the RoboCop reboot, and now Heat Vision reports that Kinnaman is in negotiations to join Tom Hardy and Noomi Rapace in the thriller Child 44.  The film is based on the book of the same name by Tom Rob Smith and takes place in the 1950s, where it centers on a security officer in the Soviet Union who finds himself demoted and exiled while investigating a string of murders.

Kinnaman is in talks to play Hardy’s “ambitious and murderous nemesis.”  Should the deal go through, Kinnaman would be reuniting with his Snabba Cash director Daniel Espinosa on the project.  Espinosa is coming off the success of last year’s Safe House, and Child 44 boasts Ridley Scott and Michael Costigan as producers.  Filming is hoping to get underway this summer.  Hit the jump for casting news concerning Rose Byrne joining Tina Fey/Jason Bateman and Seth Rogen/Zac Efron in a couple of upcoming projects.

Warner Bros. is keen on ramping up its animated features division.  The studio is forming a creative consortium “that’s aimed at delivering one ‘high-end’ film per year.”  Said consortium includes John Requa and Glen Ficarra (Crazy, Stupid, Love., Cats & Dogs), Nicholas Stoller (The Muppets, Forgetting Sarah Marshall), Phil Lord and Chris Miller (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, 21 Jump Street), and Jared Stern (Mr. Popper’s Penguins).  Apparently the filmmakers will work both individually and collectively in order to generate animated fare, but they’ll also continue to write and direct live-action films.  Hit the jump for the details on what kinds of films are in development.

One of my favorite films of last year was director James Bobin‘s The Muppets.  Not only was the film a huge commercial hit grossing almost $160 million worldwide, The Muppets averaged an amazing 96% on Rotten Tomatoes and also won the Academy Award for Best Original Song (Bret McKenzie‘s “Man or Muppet”).  While it might have been a while before Disney decided to release a further Muppets movie, the new film’s success led the studio to greenlight the sequel quickly and it currently has a December 20, 2013 release date (via IMDb).  As we’ve previously reported:

• The Muppet sequel is going to be a comedy caper set in Europe.
• The first film’s screenwriters Nicholas Stoller and James Bobin have been writing the sequel, with Bobin returning to the director’s chair.
• The sequel will introduce new Muppets.
• Jason Segel told me he won’t be in the film even though Stoller mentioned he might cameo. 
• Christoph Waltz is set to play an Interpol agent.

With the release date almost a year away, I figured filming must be starting soon.  I was right.  The other night I attended a Lionsgate/Summit holiday party where I ran into Muppet producer Todd Lieberman (he produced The Muppets with David Hoberman) and he gave me an update on the sequel.  Hit the jump for more.

It’s been a while since we’ve had some Muppets news, but it now appears that we’ve learned who may be playing the new film’s villain.  We know that The Muppets director James Bobin has been working on the script for the sequel with Muppets co-writer Nicholas Stoller, and now Variety’s Marc Graser reports via Twitter that Oscar winner Christoph Waltz is set to play an Interpol agent in the film.  Stoller previously revealed that the film will be a caper, and Graser adds that the story will find the Muppets “running around in Europe.”

It’s a minor bit of news with few details, but Bobin, Stoller, and Jason Segel knocked last year’s redo out of the park so I’m eager to see where they take the characters in the sequel.  Segel won’t have a hand in the script this time around, but it’s possible that he’ll make a cameo in the follow-up.  Hopefully we hear more Muppets 2 news soon.

Though we’ll see Ben Stiller and Jonah Hill team up for next month’s sci-fi comedy The Watch, the duo is already planning another project together.  THR reports that Stiller and Hill are attached to star in the comedy pitch Aloha, with Night at the Museum director Shawn Levy set to helm.  Plot details are under wraps, but the story is described as an island-set comedy.  Hill hatched the idea for the project himself, which was then further fleshed out by Hill, Stiller, and Levy on the set of The Watch (which Levy produced).  Hit the jump for more details.

Coming off of his latest feature, The Five-Year Engagement, director Nicholas Stoller is lining up his next project.  THR reports that Stoller is now in negotiations to helm the R-rated comedy Townies.  Universal snatched the project up last summer and set Seth Rogen to star as a regular guy who lives near an alpha male fraternity house and has to contend with a raucous member of the fraternity (Zac Efron) who wreaks havoc on his life.  The casting made the project interesting to begin with, and now the addition of Stoller—known for his strong infusion of heart and comedy—makes the project even more intriguing.

Five-Year Engagement wasn’t exactly a box office hit, but Universal must be happy with the pic as they’ve tapped the Forgetting Sarah Marshall director to helm Townies.  The script was written by Andrew Cohen and Brendan O’Brien, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Stoller and/or Rogen take a pass.  In addition to Five-Year Engagement, Stoller co-wrote last year’s The Muppets with Jason Segel and is currently scripting a sequel alongside Muppets director James Bobin.

I want to send a big “Thank You” to my colleagues Matt, Adam, and Dave for inviting me to be a part of our new podcast, The Collision, last week. I had an excellent time chatting it up with Matt and Adam and I give those guys and Dave a ton of credit for using what might otherwise be well deserved time off (i.e. Sunday nights) in the name of continuing to offer our readers additional original content. In case you missed it, I encourage you to click here to listen to Episode 4 and click here to add The Collision to your RSS feed.

In this week’s Top 5, you’ll find a slew of new assets for G.I. Joe: Retaliation, video interviews with Jason Segel, Emily Blunt and more for The Five-Year Engagement, the first images from Django Unchained, a stellar first trailer for Lawless, and a recap of all of our CinemaCon 2012 coverage. Check out a brief recap and link to each after the jump.

The Cult of Judd Apatow needs to learn that sometimes you have to cut a scene even if it’s funny.  The refusal to learn this lesson has resulted in movies where every scene will get some laughs, but the pacing falls into a rut.  The 40-Year-Old Virgin managed to escape this fate, but writer-director Nicholas Stoller has repeatedly fallen prey to the belief that he can sacrifice pacing for a few more jokes.  It happened in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, it happened in Get Him to the Greek, and it happens in his new film, The Five-Year Engagement.  Apatow has produced all of Stoller’s films and never thrown up a stop sign.  The Five-Year Engagement may be Stoller’s biggest offender to date as the wonderful performances and great humor are constantly at war with a narrative that struggles to move forward even when it’s jumping ahead in time.

Opening this Friday, April 27th is director Nicholas Stoller’s comedy The Five-Year Engagement.  The film reunites Stoller with his Forgetting Sarah Marshall star Jason Segel and follows a couple (played by Segel and Emily Blunt) through the ups and downs of their extended engagement.  The excellent ensemble cast also includes Chris Pratt, Alison Brie, Rhys Ifans, David Paymer, Mimi Kennedy, Jacki Weaver, Jim Piddock, Kevin Hart, Brian Posehn and Mindy Kaling.  For more on the film here’s the red-band trailer and five clips.

I got to visit the set earlier this year where I previously spoke with Alison Brie and Chris Pratt, but recently I sat down with Brie again to talk about the film for our partners at Omelete.  During the course of our interview, Brie talked about how the film features characters that are funny but still real, how the project changed during filming and improv on set, whether more people want to talk about her work on Hannah Montana, Born or The Coverup, and her upcoming projects like Get a Job and Adventures of the Dunderheads.  Hit the jump to watch.

Opening this Friday, April 27th is director Nicholas Stoller’s comedy The Five-Year Engagement.  The film reunites Stoller with his Forgetting Sarah Marshall star Jason Segel and follows a couple (played by Segel and Emily Blunt) through the ups and downs of their extended engagement.  The excellent ensemble cast also includes Chris Pratt, Alison Brie, Rhys Ifans, David Paymer, Mimi Kennedy, Jacki Weaver, Jim Piddock, Kevin Hart, Brian Posehn and Mindy Kaling.

I got to visit the set earlier this year where I previously spoke with Stoller and producer Rodney Rothman, but recently I sat down with Stoller again to talk about the film and much more.  During the course of our interview, Stoller talked about how well women have been responding to the movie, basing the characters on real life people, improv vs. sticking to the script, whether he’ll release an extended director’s cut on the Blu-ray/DVD, deleted scenes, the status of The Muppets sequel and whether they’ll introduce new Muppets, his new TV pilot, and his favorite movie, actor and director.  Hit the jump to see what he had to say.

The comedy The Five-Year Engagement, from co-writer/director Nicholas Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Get Him To The Greek) and producer Judd Apatow takes a look at romance in a very real, funny and often awkward way.  When engaged couple Tom (Jason Segel) and Violet (Emily Blunt) keep postponing their wedding, two people who once dreamed of the perfect day just keep spiraling further apart.  Meanwhile, Tom’s best friend Alex (Chris Pratt) spontaneously marries Violet’s quirky sister, Suzie (Alison Brie), and they have two kids, all before Tom and Violet even set a wedding date and the two begin to wonder if their relationship is even right.  For more on the film, here’s the new red-band trailer, 5 clips, and 24 images.

At the film’s press day, Nicholas Stoller and Judd Apatow talked about how hard it is to make a final cut for a film when you have so much great material, what aspects of their personal life they brought to the relationships in the film, how the Elmo and Cookie Monster fight between Alison Brie and Emily Blunt came about, and maintaining pacing for a two-hour comedy.  Check out what they had to say after the jump:

A red-band trailer for The Five-Year Engagement has gone online.  The film follows Jason Segel and Emily Blunt through the ups and downs of their prolonged engagement.  Segel reteams with Forgetting Sarah Marshall director Nicholas Stoller on the film, and I’m a big fan of what we’ve seen thus far.  This red-band trailer focuses on some of the dirtier jokes we were expecting from a Judd Apatow-produced comedy, with a fairly great sex scene between Segel and Blunt thrown in for good measure.  It’s also nice to see The 40-Year Old Virgin scene-stealer Kevin Hart back in an Apatow comedy.  I love the ensemble cast that Stoller has put together and I’m excited to watch everyone play off of one another in the finished film.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer, and don’t forget to check out Steve’s set visit coverage including 20 things to know about the film and bunch of on set interviews.  We also posted 24 images and five clips.  The film also stars Chris Pratt, Alison Brie, Rhys Ifans, David Paymer, Mimi Kennedy, Jacki Weaver, Brian Posehn, and Mindy Kaling. The Five-Year Engagement opens on April 27th.

It’s hard to believe that a few years ago, The Muppets weren’t a priority for Walt Disney Studios.  How the times have changed.  That’s because after director James Bobin, co-writer and star Jason Segel, and co-writer Nicholas Stoller delivered both a critical and commercial hit (The Muppets made almost $160 million worldwide not counting home video or merchandise), the studio decided to bring back Bobin and Stoller for the sequel.  However, while we knew that Segel wouldn’t be coming back (read why here), not much was known about the sequel and the status of the script.  So when I sat down with Stoller earlier today at The Five-Year Engagement junket for our partners at Omelete, I asked what’s the status of the film.  Thankfully, Stoller gave me some big updates:

• The Muppet Sequel is going to be a comedy caper.
• Disney really wants the sequel and they want it as soon as possible.  Stoller says Disney wants to release it summer 2013 but he doesn’t think that’s realistic.
• Jason Segel might cameo.
• The sequel will introduce new Muppets.
• Bobin and Stoller started writing the script yesterday. They wrote 13 pages after outlining the entire movie over the past few weeks.

Hit the jump for more.

Universal has released 24 images from director Nicholas Stoller‘s (Get Him to the Greek, Forgetting Sarah Marshall) The Five-Year Engagement.  If you’re not familiar with the film, The Five-Year Engagement “looks at what happens when an engaged couple, Jason Segel and Emily Blunt, keeps getting tripped up on the long walk down the aisle.”  The film stars also stars Chris Pratt, Alison Brie, Rhys Ifans, David Paymer, Mimi Kennedy, Jacki Weaver, Jim Piddock, Kevin Hart, Brian Posehn, Mindy Kaling, and many other familiar faces.  I did a set visit last year and listed twenty things to know about the film.  In addition, here’s a bunch of on set interviews.  Hit the jump for the images and full synopsis.  The Five-Year Engagement opens April 27.