Fox Searchlight is getting its Oscar plans in order by announcing that they’ve set Steve McQueen‘s Twelve Years a Slave for December 27th.  Based on Solomon Northup’s autobiography of the same name, Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Northup, an educated and married black man living in 1853 New York.  Northup was approached by two men about a job offer in Washington D.C., but when he showed up he was kidnapped and forced into slavery.  The film has lined up one of the best casts in recent memory.  In addition to Ejifor, the film also stars Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Paul Dano, Scoot McNairy, Quvenzhane Wallis, Paul Giamatti, Sarah Paulson, Garrett Dillahunt, Alfre Woodard, and Benedict Cumberbatch.  Fox Searchlight’s Oscar odds also go up when you consider that two films involving slavery—Lincoln and Django Unchained—grabbed Best Picture nominations last year (somehow, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter missed the cut).

The only other film set for December 27th’s is The Weinstein Company’s Oscar-hopeful Grace of Monaco starring Nicole Kidman as Grace Kelly.  I can’t wait to see Twelve Years a Slave, and I hope it will play at TIFF like McQueen’s first two features, Hunger and Shame.

Alcon Entertainment and Warner Bros. have announced the start of production of director Denis Villeneuve’s (Incedies) dramatic thriller Prisoners.  The film stars Hugh Jackman as a working-class Boston father who sets out to track down the man he believes is responsible for kidnapping his daughter and her friend. Along the way, he runs up against the big city detective (Jake Gyllenhaal) assigned to the case.  Filming is underway in Georgia, with an impressive supporting cast that includes Paul Dano, Maria Bello, Terrence Howard, and Viola Davis.

The screenplay was written by Aaron Guzikowski (Contraband), and Mark Wahlberg is onboard as one of the film’s executive producers.  Moreover, genius cinematographer Roger Deakins (Skyfall, No Country for Old Men) is handling the camera work.  Hit the jump to read the full press release.  Prisoners opens on September 20th of this year.

The upcoming Brian Wilson biopic has a lead actor.  THR reports that Paul Dano has been tapped to star as the brainchild behind The Beach Boys in Love & Mercy.  The film will be directed by Bill Pohlad, a producer on Tree of Life and Into the Wild  Additionally, Trent Reznor’s The Social Network and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo score collaborator Atticus Ross has signed on to “design the film’s soundscape.” The pic will cover several decades of Wilson’s life as he struggles with mental illness and his relationship with his wife.  For those unfamiliar, Wilson was one of the formative members of The Beach Boys and is largely responsible for the masterpiece that is Pet Sounds.  Hit the jump for more details.

[Update: We've received the press release which includes comments from Wilson himself regarding the casting.  Read on after the jump]

Now available on DVD/Blu-ray is the romantic dramedy Ruby Sparks, from directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (Little Miss Sunshine), about a once-famous novelist named Calvin (Paul Dano), who creates a beautiful fictitious character named Ruby (Zoe Kazan) that not only brings his work to life, but actually literally comes to life.  TheDVD/Blu-ray special features include Behind the Story, Real-Life Couples: Co-stars & Directors, Be Careful What You Wish For and the theatrical trailer.

During this recent exclusive phone interview with Collider, the film’s star and screenwriter Zoe Kazan talked about how writing this feature came about, when she realized that she and her real-life boyfriend Paul Dano would be playing the roles, what writing allows her that acting doesn’t, how she originally had a different ending for the story, that she always wanted to leave the reasons for Ruby’s existence unexplained, how she just finished writing the first draft of a new project, and working with Daniel Radcliffe (the Harry Potter franchise) on The F Word.  Check out what she had to say after the jump.

Warner Bros. is second-guessing its musical adaptation of Jersey Boys.  The Jon Favreau-helmed project had been on track at the studio for a January production start date and Christmas 2013 release, but Variety now reports that WB has put the project into turnaround.  The film is based on the smash hit musical and tells the story of The Four Seasons, chronicling the group’s rise in the 1960s with such hits as “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry” and “Walk Like a Man.” It’s a whole lot of fun, and having seen the show I’d liken it to a musical version of a lighter Goodfellas.

Hit the jump for more, including why Warner Bros. dropped the project and who Favreau is eyeing for the leads.

A couple of casting headlines for you today:

• Paul Dano (Looper) will join Hugh Jackman (Real Steel) and Jake Gyllenhaal (End of Watch) in the vigilante thriller, Prisoners, directed by Denis Villeneuve (Incendies).
• Ron Perlman (Hellboy) has joined the psychological thriller, Angry Little God, from director Daniel Stamm (The Last Exorcism).

Hit the jump for more on these casting assignments and the movies themselves. 

[This is a repost of my review from the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival.  Looper opens today.]

Sacrifice goes against our biological imperative of self-preservation. If we have a will to survive, then shouldn’t we do everything in our power to stay alive? Or is life only worth living if it’s the good life (whatever that means)? Shouldn’t we celebrate our desire to live? Rian Johnson‘s sci-fi film Looper casts a dark spell over our need for self-preservation, and bitterly twists it into a world where people would go so far as to kill themselves to live. Anchored by tremendous performances from leads Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis, Johnson manages to deliver thrills as intense as the ideas he wishes to explore. However, his quest to reach a thoughtful conclusion stumbles over new characters, plot shortcuts, and an extreme tonal shift that leaves the big ideas intact, but fractures the powerful storytelling.

Sacrifice goes against our biological imperative of self-preservation.  If we have a will to survive, then shouldn’t we do everything in our power to stay alive?  Or is life only worth living if it’s the good life (whatever that means)?  Shouldn’t we celebrate our desire to live?  Rian Johnson‘s sci-fi film Looper casts a dark spell over our need for self-preservation, and bitterly twists it into a world where people would go so far as to kill themselves to live.  Anchored by tremendous performances from leads Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis, Johnson manages to deliver thrills as intense as the ideas he wishes to explore.  However, his quest to reach a thoughtful conclusion stumbles over new characters, plot shortcuts, and an extreme tonal shift that leaves the big ideas intact, but fractures the powerful storytelling.

A new international trailer for Rian Johnson‘s Looper has gone online.  The film takes place in a future where time travel exists, but it’s only used on the black market.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a “Looper”, a hitman who is contracted to kill people that are sent back in time, and then disposes of the bodies so the victim technically no longer exists.  Things go awry when his future self (Bruce Willis) is sent back in time as an assignment and then escapes.  This new trailer is heavier on the action, which is the easiest element to sell, and it looks like Johnson has done a terrific job with it.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The film also stars Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, and Jeff Daniels.  Looper will open this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, and open nationwide on September 21st.

Director Rian Johnson told us in March that they were already planning the viral campaign for his September 28 movie, Looper.  The viral site has launched and invites you to become a Looper.  One catch:

There’s a stipulation in every Looper’s contract that he may someday be required to hunt down his future self, thus closing the contract, getting a huge pay-off and erasing any trace of the very illegal arrangement with his or her future employer.  This is called Closing Your Loop.  Cash out, get paid.  Live those 30 years like only a Looper can.

That doubles as the basic plot of Looper, in which Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is tasked with killing his future self (Bruce Willis) sent back in time from the future.  If you are prepared to take the risk, find out more after the jump.

A sharp, modern take on the Pygmalion myth, Ruby Sparks is the story of a novelist’s vision that inexplicably comes to life, only to prove far more complicated than even he could have imagined.  Ruby (Zoe Kazan) starts out as an idea in Calvin’s (Paul Dano) mind, but he creates her with such a strong individualistic desire to be her own person that he is ultimately forced to grow in order to accommodate her strength and evolution.  Directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris from a first screenplay by actress and playwright Kazan, the film constantly challenges the audience as it takes an unpredictable route into fantasy, identity and the ways we invent love and how love reinvents us.

At the press day for Ruby Sparks, we sat down at a roundtable interview with Kazan and Dano to talk about what happens when a writer tries to make a relationship from his imagination work in the real world.  They told us what the experience was like bringing their characters to life on screen, how they approached the film’s most physically and emotionally challenging sequences, and why Dayton & Faris were the perfect duo to direct the film.  They also revealed their next projects including Dano’s upcoming For Ellen, Looper and Twelve Years a Slave and Kazan’s The F-Word.

Four new images and a set photo from Looper have gone online.  The film, directed by Rian Johnson (Brick), takes place in a world where time travel exists in the future, it’s illegal, and it’s a great way for criminal organization to dispose of enemies.  Simply shove your unloved one into the time machine, they’ll show up in the past, and a hitman in our time, a.k.a. a “looper” will murder the target and dispose of the body, so it doesn’t exist in the future.  This is working fine and dandy for one looper (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) until he’s faced with killing his future self (Bruce Willis) and his future self escapes.

Hit the jump to check out the new images, and click here for our write-up of the movie’s Comic-Con panel.  The film also stars Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, Piper Perabo, and Jeff Daniels.  Looper opens September 21st.

A new trailer for director Rian Johnson‘s sci-fi film Looper has landed online.  For those unfamiliar with the film, it takes place in a world where time travel exists, but is only used on the black market. When the mob wants to kill someone, they send the target 30 years into the past where a contract killer (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) does the dirty work. Things are going smoothly until Gordon-Levitt’s future self (Bruce Willis) is sent into the past to be killed. The US trailer takes a different tack than the international one when it comes to presenting the film’s premise, plus it features a significant amount of new footage.  Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Emily Blunt, Jeff Daniels and Paul Dano.  Looper opens on September 28th.

While the new domestic trailer for Looper will go online tomorrow, the new international version has gone online today.  I’m not sure how different the two trailers will be, but I like what I’m seeing.  For those unfamiliar with the film, it takes place in a world where time travel exists, but is only used on the black market. When the mob wants to kill someone, they send the target 30 years into the past where a contract killer (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) does the dirty work. Things are going smoothly until Gordon-Levitt’s future self (Bruce Willis) is sent into the past to be killed.  This new trailer introduces a violent character we haven’t seen before known as the “Rainmaker”, who’s played by the brilliant Garret Dillahunt (Deadwood).  Writer-director Rian Johnson looks like he’s cooked up an intense sci-fi action flick, and the movie remains one of my most-anticipated of the year.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The film also stars Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, and Jeff Daniels.  Looper opens September 28th.

We’ve got some Little Miss Sunshine alumni casting news today: one’s an Oscar-nominated topliner and the other is a BAFTA-nominated addition to an already phenomenal cast.  Check out the headlines below:

• Abigail Breslin is set to star in the title role of Final Girl, a thriller from debut director Tyler Shields.
• Paul Dano will join the cast of Steve McQueen’s Twelve Years a Slave, a picture that already boasts Michael Fassbender, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Adepero Oduye and Brad Pitt.

Hit the jump for more on each picture.