Harrison Ford and Zac Efron are in negotiations to star in the psychological thriller You Belong to Me, which Rob Reiner will direct.  Ford would play a psychiatrist struggling with the recent suicide of a patient.  He bonds with the patient’s brother (Efron), but learns to regret that bond when the young man begins seducing the psychiatrist’s wife and daughter.  Producers Richard Lewis, Alan Greisman, and Mark Damon are currently presenting You Belong to Me to buyers at the American Film Market.  According to The Wrap, the filmmakers are planning for a March 2013 start date.

I am definitely intrigued, in part because Reiner has not directed something of this ilk since 1990′s Misery.  Reiner previously explained the appeal, “They are hard to make well, but this one has a deep psychological bent to it and a big twist in the end that I didn’t see coming.”  No one among Ford, Efron, and Reiner, however, guarantee quality at this stage in their careers—so there is a considerable measure of caution mixed in with that intrigue.

Paramount Pictures is looking to stay in the Martin Scorsese business, as the studio behind Shutter Island and Hugo has picked up the director’s latest film, The Wolf of Wall Street, for domestic distribution.  Based on the memoir of Jordan Belfort, the pic stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a hard partying, drug addicted stockbroker who was indicted in 1998 for security fraud and money laundering and served a 22-month federal prison stretch.  The fantastic supporting cast includes Jonah Hill, Kyle Chandler, Matthew McConaughey, Jean Dujardin, Margot Robbie, Joe Bernthal, and Rob Reiner.

Given the film’s pedigree, it’s no surprise that Deadline reports Paramount is planning a fourth-quarter 2013 release date.  That puts Wolf of Wall Street in prime awards season placement, so the film should be a significant player in the 2013 Oscar race.

For director Rob Reiner, bringing the quirky story and interesting characters of The Magic of Belle Isle to the big screen was a labor of love inspired by something he’d started exploring in The Bucket List – the idea that no matter what curveballs life throws your way, you have to find a way to live your life until you die because you only get one shot. The comedy-drama reunites Reiner with Morgan Freeman, who plays Monte Wildhorn, a famous Western novelist whose struggle with alcoholism has sapped his passion for writing. When he takes a lakeside cabin for the summer in picturesque Belle Isle, and befriends the family next door – an attractive single mom (Virginia Madsen) and her young daughters, he suddenly finds the inspiration to reconnect and embrace life once again.

At the recent Los Angeles press day, I was able to speak to Reiner at a roundtable interview about making the film. He talked about how he went about finding the right cast and location, how the script changed once Freeman came on board, how he varied his directorial approach with each actor to get the best performance, and how improvisation played a role in the romantic direction the film took at the end. He also discussed his childhood and what it was like growing up in the shadow of his father, Carl Reiner.  Hit the jump for the full interview.

Rob Reiner is reportedly set to direct You Belong to Me, a psychological thriller in the vein of Cape Fear. Written by David Murray, You Belong to Me follows a psychiatrist who breaks a golden rule of doctor-patient interactions: he talks about his personal life openly.  It’s been a while since Reiner ventured into thriller territory, with his last foray being the 1990 adaptation of Stephen King’s Misery. Heat Vision reports that Reiner commented on that fact by saying:

“They are hard to make well but this one has a deep psychological bent to it and a big twist in the end that I didn’t see coming.  That’s why I decided to take a whack at this one.”

Casting will begin immediately for the four leads: the psychiatrist, his wife and daughter, and the patient.  Production is scheduled to start in New York this fall.

With production looming closer on director Martin Scorsese’s next project, The Wolf of Wall Street, he’s continuing to fill out an unsurprisingly impressive cast.  Leonardo DiCaprio is set as the lead in the adaptation of Jordan Belfort’s memoir, as the story follows the hard partying, drug addicted stockbroker who was indicted in 1998 for security fraud and money laundering, and served a 22-month federal prison stretch.  The supporting cast already includes last year’s Best Actor winner Jean Dujardin, Jonah Hill, Kyle Chandler and Jon Bernthal (The Walking Dead), with Margot Robbie recently set as the film’s female lead.

Now THR reports that actor/director Rob Reiner is in talks to join the production as DiCaprio’s father.  The script was written by Terrence Winter (The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire) and production begins this August in New York.  Hit the jump to read a synopsis of the book.

Here are today’s casting notes at a glance:

• Dan Aykroyd will join Michael Douglas and Matt Damon in Steven Soderbergh’s Liberace picture, Behind the Candelabra.
• Robin Williams (Good Will Hunting), Shirley MacLaine (The Apartment) and Oliver Cooper (Project X) will star in the ensemble comedy, A Film by Alan Stuart, from writer/director Andy Bergman.
• Evanna Lynch (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) will join Gary Oldman, Malcolm McDowell and Dominic Monaghan in Monster Butler.

Hit the jump for more on each picture.

The first trailer and poster for Rob Reiner’s drama The Magic of Belle Isle have gone online.  The film stars Morgan Freeman as a famous Western novelist whose struggle with alcoholism has sapped his passion for writing. He takes a lakeside cabin for the summer in Belle Isle, where he befriends a single mom and her daughters who (naturally) help him to feel inspiration once again.  Though this is the same director as A Few Good Men and Stand By Me, Reiner’s recent output has leaned heavily toward Hallmark fare with pics like The Bucket List and Flipped, and The Magic of Belle Isle is no exception.  That said, I can say without hesitation that my mom will absolutely want to see this.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Madeline Carroll, Fred Willard, Kenan Thompson, and Kevin Pollak.  The Magic of Belle Isle will be available on iTunes on June 1st and opens in theaters on July 6th.

The 2012 Sundance Film Festival just ended and the Berlin Film Festival is about to get underway, so don’t expect the acquisition stories to slow down. As such, we’ve got two fresh acquisitions to share with you today. First up, IFC Films has picked up the Sundance documentary Room 237. The film examines the numerous theories surrounding the “real meaning” of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. The doc was a big hit at the fest (you can read Matt’s review here), but many questioned the logistics of releasing it theatrically due to the fact that it’s comprised of footage from The Shining, which could possibly lead to legal entanglements. IFC’s acquisition is great news and I’m glad to see that us common folk will get a chance to check out the flick sometime soon.

Deadline reports that the film may screen in the New Directors/New Film series in New York, and it’s a likely bet for the Cannes Film Festival. IFC plans on releasing the pic domestically later this year through a day-and-date theatrical and VOD release. If you haven’t surmised from our previous acquisition stories, VOD is all the rage at the moment and is a likely staple in the future of film distribution. Hit the jump for acquisition news concerning Rob Reiner’s The Magic of Belle Isle.

Oscar-nominee Virginia Madsen (Sideways) and SNL‘s Kenan Thompson are in the midst of negotiations to join director Rob Reiner’s (When Harry Met Sally) drama Summer at Dog Dave’s. Already starring Morgan Freeman, the film tells the story of a disabled author (Freeman) whose love of the sauce is reducing his creative output. According to Variety, Madsen would make a turn as Freeman’s new neighbor, a single-mother of three who befriends the author and inspires him to, well you can probably guess the outcome (hint: he starts writing again). As for Thompson, the report claims he is in talks to take on the role of Freeman’s “helpful nephew.” Apparently not helpful enough to help him overcome alcoholism, but helpful nonetheless. Production on Summer at Dog Dave’s is set to begin in New York this July with the film aiming for a 2012 release.

Director Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity) has signed on to direct a drama based on the life of Morris Abraham “Two Gun” Cohen.  Cohen was a World War I veteran who move to China in 1922 and trained the army of Sun Yat-sen, a revolutionary who played an instrumental role in throwing over China’s last imperial dynasty.  Cohen taught Sun’s army boxing and shooting, which was impressive considering that Cohen didn’t speak Chinese.  He then went on to become Sun’s main bodyguards and later went on to fight for China against Japanese invaders in the 1930s.

Hit the jump for more on the project.

It looks like Paramount is in the mood for a good old fashioned soap opera flick. And by good old fashioned, I mean a remake of that one soap opera movie. Paramount is getting the ball rolling on a remake of the 1991 comedy Soapdish and they’ve hired actor/writer Ben Schwartz the write the screenplay. The original took place behind the scenes of a daytime soap opera and featured an all-star cast that includes Robert Downey Jr., Kevin Kline, Elizabeth Shue, Teri Hatchter, Garry Marshall and a pre-daytime TV personality Whoopi Goldberg.

THR reports that Allen Greisman, who was one of the producers of the original, is on board to produce the remake alongside Rob Reiner. Schwartz has appeared in The Other Guys and Parks and Recreation, and is responsible for writing some episodes of Robot Chicken and Hugh Jackman’s opening number for the 81^st Academy Awards, for which he won an Emmy. Schwartz is also working on Would You Rather? with producer Brian Grazer for Universal and will next been seen as an actor in the family comedy Peep World.

This year will be my first time attending the Sundance Film Festival and as a fan of documentaries, I couldn’t be more excited for some of the films that will be premiering.  Today, we have the first images from the documentaries These Amazing Shadows, Granito, and The Interrupters.  These Amazing Shadows is about the history and importance of the National Film Registry.  Granito centers on the turbulent history of Guatemala.  And The Interrupters is about ex-gang members who are now protecting their communities from gang violence.  I’m particularly excited for The Interrupters because it’s from Steve James, the director of the incredible 1994 documentary Hoop Dreams.

Hit the jump to check out the images.  The 2011 Sundance Film Festival runs from January 20 – 30th.

There used to be a rumor that William Goldman was the true screenwriter behind Good Will Hunting, rather than Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, who won an Oscar for that script.  As Goldman himself put it in his denial of the rumor, “People don’t want to think those two cute guys wrote it.“  But it turns out Affleck and Damon actually had help from another film legend: Terrence Malick.  Malick happens to be best friends with Affleck’s godfather, so Damon and Affleck visited the director in Boston while they were writing the film.  Damon recalls:

“We had it in the script that my character and Minnie’s left together at the end of the movie. Terry didn’t read the script but we explained the whole story to him, and in the middle of the dinner, he said, ‘I think it would be better if she left and he went after her.’ And Ben and I looked at each other. It was one of those things where you go: of course that ‘s better. He said it and he probably doesn’t even remember that he said it.”

Hit the jump for more quotes from Damon on the evolution of the Good Will Hunting script.

Rob Reiner gave an interview on CBS Sunday Morning News prior to the theatrical release of his latest film Flipped in which he candidly admitted to host Charles Osgood: “I basically tell the same love story over and over. The girl in the story is always much more emotionally mature… the boy is always running around like an idiot trying to catch up, trying to figure out what’s going on.”

Indeed, one need only look at the director’s resume to find validity in that statement. The man has long told stories about relationships (1989’s When Harry Met Sally … for example), but never quite as pleasantly as he does in Flipped, a familiar but plucky love story of boy meets girl, who loves boy, who doesn’t love girl, who soon grows tired of boy, who suddenly loves girl. The film is easily one of the director’s best efforts since 1997’s The American President.  Continued after the jump:

With the coming-of-age romantic comedy Flipped, director Rob Reiner tells the story of Bryce (Callan McAuliffe) and Juli (Madeline Carroll), as they make the discoveries that will define who they are, as well as who they are to each other. Following them from grade school to junior high, the two characters live through triumph and disaster, family drama and first love, all while Juli waits for Bryce to finally come to his senses and see things her way.

Casting the right actors for the leading roles was very important to the filmmaker, whose casting search reached as far away as Australia, where they found their Bryce in Callan McAuliffe. Now 15 years old, it was the actor’s first American audition and he was thrilled for the opportunity.

During a phone interview with Collider, Callan McAuliffe talked about how badly he wanted to be in an American film, how grateful he was to work with Rob Reiner and how he would love to model his career after Johnny Depp. He also spoke about his next role in the upcoming sci-fi/action film I Am Number 4, directed by D.J. Caruso and produced by Steven Spielberg and Michael Bay. Check out what he had to say after the jump: