Seth Rogen made a bold decision in his directorial debut This is the End (which he co-wrote and co-directed with Evan Goldberg) that could have just as easily blown up in his face.  He stars as himself, as do his friends/co-stars Jay Baruchel, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Danny McBride and Craig Robinson in this comedy about what happens when actors survive the rapture.  My review of the Blu-ray of This is the End follows after the jump.

Sony Pictures has released some new high-resolution images from two of the studio’s most highly anticipated 2013 releases.  First up, a new image from director Neill Blomkamp’s sci-fi pic Elysium teases an intense showdown between Matt Damon and Sharlto Copley.  I saw a bit of this sequence at Comic-Con last year and it is absolutely brutal; you will be shocked at just how badass Copley is with this character.  The film opens on August 9th.

Additionally, Sony has released a handful of images from Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s directorial debut This Is the End.  We see Rogen, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Danny McBride, Jay Baruchel, and Craig Robinson handling an apocalyptic event in a variety of ways, but the images also give us new looks at the film’s other supporting characters (ie. more actors playing themselves) including Emma Watson, Michael Cera, Rihanna, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse.  The film opens on June 12th.  Hit the jump to check out images from Elysium and This Is the End.

While the 85th Academy Awards will honor the very best of what 2012 had to offer in film tonight, the opposite end of the spectrum (supposedly) has been singled out this morning.  The Razzie Awards named The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 the Worst Picture of 2012, handing the film a total of seven awards including Worst Director for Bill Condon, Worst Screen Couple for Taylor Lautner and Mackenzie Foy, and Worst Actress for Kristen Stewart (she shared this award with her work in Snow White and the Huntsman).  Though I’m not the biggest fan of the franchise, if you think Breaking Dawn – Part 2 was the worst film of 2012 then you need to see more movies; the pic almost kind of works because of Condon’s direction, not in spite of it, and the final battle scene is legitimately entertaining.

Elsewhere at the Razzies, Adam Sandler was named Worst Actor for That’s My Boy and Rihanna “won” Worst Supporting Actress for Battleship.  Hit the jump to see the full list of winners.

The first clip and poster for Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg‘s directorial debut, the apocalypse comedy This Is the End, has been released online.  It’s perfect timing, as tomorrow may or may not be the end of the world as we know it, so keep in mind that this could be the only piece of footage from This Is the End that your eyes will see before an unholy Mayan apocalypse engulfs us all.  It’d be a shame if the world did end tomorrow, though, because This Is the End looks fantastic.  Rogen, Jay Baruchel, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, and Danny McBride all play themselves in the aftermath of the apocalypse to hilarious results, with plenty of self-referential comedy to go around.  McBride in particular is excellent in this clip, and if this is any indication of what the full film is like, then This Is the End will be the must-see comedy of next summer.

Hit the jump to watch the clip which features a timely introduction by Rogen and Franco, and to check out the film’s poster and a new image.  The film also stars Jason Segel, Michael Cera, Emma Watson, David Krumholtz, Paul Rudd, Martin Starr, Mindy Kaling, Kevin Hart, and Rihanna.  This Is the End opens on June 14, 2013.

It seems Rihanna isn’t going to let one leaky blockbuster sink her fledgling acting career. Today comes word that the pop singer will join with Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory) to star in DreamWorks Animation’s Happy Smekday!. It’s an adaptation of Adam Rex’s children book The True Meaning of Smekday, which finds a group of aliens invading earth on Christmas Eve (renaming the holiday “Smekday”) after being booted from their own planet by a villainous race called the Gorg. The story takes the form of an essay written by main character Tip, an 11-year-old human who travels cross-country with the alien that inadvertently put Earth on the Gorg’s radar. It will be helmed by Antz co-director Tim Johnson. Hit the jump for more.

Seth Rogen is currently making his co-directorial debut with writing partner Evan Goldberg on the apocalypse comedy The End of the World (aka The Apocalypse), and with this first batch of set photos it’s clear that they weren’t messing around when they said they wanted a lot of celebrity cameos.  The main cast includes Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, Jonah Hill, James Franco, and Craig Robinson, and the story finds the aforementioned actors attending a party at Franco’s house (playing himself) when the apocalypse begins.  We recently learned that Emma Watson, Jason Segel, David Krumholtz, Michael Cera, Aziz Ansari and Rihanna would be cameoing in the pic, and these set photos feature all but Krumholtz, with Paul Rudd thrown in for good measure.  The film is based on a short that Rogen and Baruchel made a few years ago in which they essentially played themselves, so I’m inclined to believe that everyone might be playing themselves in this feature version.

This is a pretty epic cast as far as comedy goes, and I’m incredibly excited to see how everyone will interact.  Moreover, it should be fun to see how some of the aforementioned actors perish during the apocalypse.  Hit the jump to check out the set images.  The film is slated to open on June 14th, 2013. [Update: We've removed the unofficial images.]

You’re driving down the street, and it’s suddenly blocked off.  You notice these weird yellow signs with nonsensical letters or numbers.  There’s unusual glow lighting up a neighborhood you can’t usually see from your house.  What you might have here is a film company shooting in your town.  It happens a lot, and you never know where they might pop up…until now.

The following is a semi-comprehensive list of films currently shooting, what they’re shooting, and where they’re shooting.  We’ll be telling you where you might get to see the very famous, the kinda famous and (if all goes well) the soon-to-be famous. While we can’t list every single movie, television show, or student film in production, you’ll get a pretty good idea of what the heck is going on where all those people are buzzing about.  Want to know where in the world are Matt Damon, Harrison Ford, Sylvester Stallone, Woody Harrelson, and Leonardo DiCaprio? Hit the jump for more.

For the third week in a row, The Avengers dominated the box office. Marvel’s superheroes added another $55 million to their domestic total – putting the film over $450 million in a record-breaking seventeen days. Meanwhile, the three new releases that lined up to challenge The Avengers all struggled in the blockbuster’s wake.

Production is slated to begin on Fast and Furious 6 (that’s the working title for now) soon, and director Justin Lin looks to be adding a strong female presence for his Fast Five follow-up.  We learned last week that MMA fighter/Haywire star Gina Carano has entered talks to join the car-enthusiast ensemble, and now The Daily Mail claims that Rihanna is set to take on a villainous role in the pic.  It’s important to note that The Sun is a somewhat less-than-reputable source, so this casting news should be taken with a grain of salt for the time-being.

The artist stars in this summer’s Battleship, but we haven’t seen much of her acting ability in the trailers so it’s hard to judge this casting choice, should it turnout to be true.  Remember Samantha Mumba in The Time Machine?  Oh, you don’t?  Dwayne Johnson told Steve that they’ll be filming Fast and Furious 6 in London and Berlin, so we can look forward to an international vibe for the upcoming actioner.  The film is slated to open on May 24th, 2013.

A new featurette for Battleship has gone online, giving us a better idea of the story and of what to expect from the action pic. Some new footage is sprinkled throughout, with Taylor Kitsch, Rihanna and director Peter Berg talking about the basic idea behind the film. The more I see of the aliens from Battleship, the more I’m convinced that this movie will actually be kind of fun. We’re not exactly gonna get high minded art from a board game adaptation, but Berg’s involvement gives me hope that he’s crafted a fun action/sci-fi film that isn’t as visually exhausting as Michael Bay’s eye raping Transformers series. The director describes this batch of aliens in Battleship as on a “sort of recon mission,” so it’s safe to assume that even if Tim Riggins and Co. blow this group all to hell, a full-scale invasion might be in store for Battleship 2: We’re Fucked.

Hit the jump to watch the featurette. The film also stars Liam Neeson, Brooklyn Decker and Alexander Skarsgard. Battleship opens May 18th.

The epic action-adventure Battleship, from director/producer Peter Berg, is about a fleet of ships forced to do battle with an armada of alien origins, in order to discover and prevent their destructive goals for the planet. Kicking off the summer blockbuster season, the movie opens on May 18^th.

After their panel presentation at WonderCon 2012 (click here for our recap), model-turned-actress Brooklyn Decker and Peter Berg talked about the decision to start revealing more glimpses of the aliens and the machinery in the film, the fact that the aliens don’t act unless acted upon, the balance between the action and the love story with Taylor Kitsch and Decker’s characters, the Naval warfare aspect and what went into the decision of which ships to use, the process of designing the aliens, how much the board game is actually an inspiration for the film, Steve Jablonsky’s score, and the mini Friday Night Lights reunion, with both Kitsch and Jesse Plemons in the film. Check out what they had to say after the jump.

Here at Wonder-Con 2011, Universal Pictures was kind enough to stop by with some new footage from their upcoming action film, Battleship. The recently released new trailer was just the tip of the iceberg as director Peter Berg came loaded with two new clips highlighting drastically different tones of the film. We got to see another side of Taylor Kitsch’s character as well as a good look at the alien menace in Battleship known as the Regents. We also got a very fine look at Brooklyn Decker and man how I’ve been waiting for that (she’s a supermodel, for God’s sake. Use her in your marketing!) Alexander Skarsgard also told a funny story about being shot in the face with a 25-foot-long air cannon. Just another day at WonderCon.

Director Peter Berg’s Battleship, starring Taylor Kitsch, Liam Neeson, Alexander Skarsgard, Brooklyn Decker and Rihanna opens May 18th. Hit the jump for more.

A new trailer for Battleship has arrived. This is the third such trailer for the feature film adaptation of the popular board game, and it features the most footage we’ve seen yet. The movie still looks fairly ridiculous, but this latest clip highlights the massive amount of explosions/destruction/havoc that graces the screen; at this point, Battleship could easily pass as Transformers 4. We also get a look at some action on land, as it appears we won’t be spending the entirety of the movie on the ocean (paving the way for the sequel Battleship: Land Ho!). Oh, and they tease the alien creatures quite a bit too.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer. The film stars Taylor Kitsch, Liam Neeson, Rihanna, Brooklyn Decker and Alexander Skarsgard. Battleship opens May 18th.

Four new international character posters from Battleship have gone online. The movie looks pretty ridiculous, and at this point all I’m hoping for is a good time watching water robots fight battleships. These new character posters highlight Liam Neeson, Rihanna, and Alexander Skarsgard (we saw the Taylor Kitsch one last week), as well as one of the aliens that’s sure to wreak havoc on said actors. I’m assuming the alien isn’t Darth Maul dressed up as Master Chief, but this character poster begs to differ. It’ll be interesting to see if we get a look at the creatures outside their spacesuits (Oxygen is apparently an alien invader’s worst enemy), but for now we’ll have to settle for suited-up extraterrestrials.

Hit the jump to check out the posters. Battleship opens May 18th.

We have three new posters from three big movies for you today. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I’ll be brief and let the artwork speak for itself:

• First up is a new poster for Men in Black 3 featuring Josh Brolin, Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. The film, by director Barry Sonnenfeld, opens in 3D on May 25^th.
• Next is an up-close-and-personal look at star Taylor Kitsch in his second of three 2012 releases, Battleship. Also starring Liam Neeson, Alexander Skarsgard, Brooklyn Decker and Rihanna, Battleship opens May 18^th.
• Saving the best for last is the Mondo poster that is supposedly being given away at special IMAX screenings of John Carter. Starring Taylor Kitsch, Willem Dafoe, Mark Strong, Ciaran Hinds and Bryan Cranston, John Carter opens March 9^th.

Hit the jump to check out the posters.