20th Century Fox has released the first trailer for director Brad Furman‘s (The Lincoln Lawyer) crime thriller Runner, Runner.  The film stars Justin Timberlake as a Princeton student who is cheated out of his tuition money playing online poker and ends up indebted to the site’s corrupt boss (Ben Affleck).  Furman’s The Lincoln Lawyer turned out to be a pleasantly surprising dramatic thriller, and Runner, Runner appears to quite similar to that pic in tone.  No one looks to be gunning for Oscar glory here, but the interplay between Affleck and Timberlake is promising and it’s fun to see Affleck taking on a more villainous role.  Moreover, the Puerto Rico locale provides a nice change of pace from the gritty, metropolis-set thrillers that populate the marketplace nowadays.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Gemma Arterton, Ben Schwartz, Dayo Okeniyi and Oliver Cooper.  Runner, Runner opens September 27th. 

New promo posters have appeared for the gambling drama Runner Runner, the animated film Epic, and Ben Stiller‘s remake of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.  Since they’re promo posters, they’re nothing more than an announcement, which is why the designer didn’t do more than simply write down the title and put it over a bland background.  There’s also a new international poster for Skyfall, which is like the recent posters except Bond is actually doing something.

Hit the jump to check out the posters.  Runner Runner opens September 27, 2013.  Epic opens May 24, 2013.  The Secret Life of Walter Mitty opens December 25, 2013.  Skyfall opens November 9th.

A couple of release date shifts have been announced.  First up, Disney has made the decision to move the 3D re-release of Monsters Inc. up from January 18th, 2013 to the incredibly crowded holiday weekend of December 19th, 2012 (per Box Office Mojo).  That date is already host to Judd Apatow’s This Is 40, the Tom Cruise actioner Jack Reacher, and Kathryn Bigelow’s war drama Zero Dark Thirty, not to mention Django Unchained, The Great Gatsby, and the Seth Rogen/Barbra Streisand comedy The Guilt Trip opening just five days later.

Hit the jump for more, including why this might be a smart move for Disney and release date news for Runner Runner.

A bunch of TV stars found their way into the movies and one Hunger Games actor saw the odds turn in his favor. Here’s your big-screen casting round-up:

• Ryan Kwanten (True Blood) will star in independent Canadian comedy Sex and Sunsets.
• Dianna Agron (Glee) will join Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer in Luc Besson’s action-comedy Malavita
• Gillian Jacobs (Community) will co-star in horror-comedy Milo
• The Hunger Games’ Dayo Okeniyi will play in Runner Runner starring Ben Affleck and indie high school drama The Spectacular Now

Hit the jump for more on all four projects.

Some quick casting updates for you today.  Here they are at a glance:

• Michael Emerson (Lost) has joined the cast of Woody Allen’s next film, an untitled picture that he plans to shoot in the US.
• Big Bang Theory co-star Melissa Rauch will join the romantic dramedy, You Are Here, the directorial debut of Mad Men creator, Matt Weiner.
• Ben Schwartz (House of Lies) joins Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake in the gambling drama, Runner,Runner.

Hit the jump for more info on each of these projects and an update on Taylor Kitsch’s status on a possible role as Finnick Odair in The Hunger Games sequel, Catching Fire.

Director Brad Furman (The Lincoln Lawyer) has settled on his female lead in the gambling drama Runner Runner.  Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake are set to star in the pic, and now Variety reports that Gemma Arterton (Clash of the Titans) has joined the cast.  Timberlake stars as a Princeton student who is cheated out of his tuition money playing online poker and ends up indebted to the site’s corrupt boss (Affleck).  Arterton will play Timberlake’s love interest, but further character details are unknown.

Anthony Mackie and Oliver Cooper (Project X) recently joined the cast, and production is slated to get underway in Puerto Rico late next month.  Timberlake more than proved his acting acumen in The Social Network and I’m interested to see where his career goes from here.  Arterton stars opposite Jeremy Renner in next March’s Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters and she’ll appear in the vampire pic Byzantium.

Some casting news to share with you today.  Check the bullets:

• Anthony Mackie (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) is in talks to join Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake in the gambling drama, Runner Runner.
• Alex Pettyfer (I Am Number Four) will topline Diamond Dogs, an English-language thriller by director Pascal Chaumeil (Heartbreaker).
• Tim Roth (The Incredible Hulk) will join Jean Dujardin (The Artist) and Cecile De France (Hereafter) in the spy-thriller, Mobius.

Hit the jump for more.

A few casting updates, hot off the press:

• The Hunger Games competitor Isabelle Fuhrman will star in David Gordon Green‘s Suspiria remake
  
• Oliver Cooper will follow up Project X, his feature debut, with a role opposite Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake in Runner Runner
• Frank Grillo will re-team with his Warrior co-star Joel Edgerton on the SEAL team that hunted down in Osama bin Laden in Kathryn Bigelow‘s untitled drama

Hit the jump for details on each project.

Here’s a safe bet for a good box office: Justin Timberlake and Ben Affleck in the same film. The suited pair will reportedly star in Runner Runner, a gambling drama by director Brad Furman (Lincoln Lawyer) from a script by Rounders scribes, Brian Koppelman and David Levien.  The New Regency picture will be set in the world of offshore online gaming and features the deteriorating relationship between a business founder and his protege.  For those of you who lack a gambling addiction, the poker term “runner runner” refers to a hand made by hitting two consecutive cards on the turn and the river.  The movie could equally have been called “backdoor,” which is another name for the same thing, but I doubt studio executives wanted to touch that one.  Deadline reports that Runner Runner will start production  this June.