Lionsgate has released the domestic trailer for Drift, the Australian surf drama directed by Ben Nott and Morgan O’Neill.  Set in 1970s Austrailia, Drift centers on two brothers (Xavier Samuel and Myles Pollard) who launch a surf gear business, selling merchandise out of the back of their van.  Sam Worthington co-stars as a surf photographer and filmmaker.  The trailer suggests the film quickly transitions from the easygoing surfer vibe to an intense thriller.  If that fails, it looks like Nott and O’Neill captured some solid surfing footage.

Robyn Malcolm, Lesley- Ann Brandt, Aaron Glenane, Steve Bastoni, and Maurie Ogden co-star.  Drift opens August 2.  Watch the trailer after the break.

Before going off to Romania to shoot his next film, The Keeping Room, about a Civil War soldier who has broken off from the Union Army encounters a group of women who have been left to fend for themselves, Collider got the opportunity to chat with actor Sam Worthington about the surf drama Drift, which is available on demand July 2nd and in theaters everywhere August 2nd.

While we will post what he had to say about that film in June, we did want to share what he had to say about some of his other upcoming projects.  During the interview, he talked about how different his character in The Keeping Room is, how working with director David Ayer on the action thriller Ten was the best experience, what it was like to work with someone as iconic as Arnold Schwarzenegger, that James Cameron will start shooting the Avatar sequels whenever he’s ready, and how he doesn’t think there will be a third Clash of the Titans films.  Check out what he had to say after the jump.

We’ve got a couple of casting stories to share this evening.  First up, Deadline reports that Sam Worthington has joined the cast of the Civil War drama The Keeping Room.  Set in the final days of the Civil War, the story centers on three southern women—two sisters and one African American slave—who are forced to defend their home against an onslaught of soldiers who have broken off from the approaching Union Army.  Brit Marling (Sound of My Voice), Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit), and Nicole Beharie (Shame) are set to star as the female leads, with Marling filling the elder sister role that was previously occupied by Olivia Wilde.

Daniel Barber (Harry Brown) is directing from a script by Julia Hart, and production is set to get underway in June.  Details regarding Worthington’s character aren’t given, but the actor most recently wrapped David Ayer’s thriller Ten.  Hit the jump to find out who may be toplining the remake of The Crow instead of Tom Hiddleston.

Sam Worthington is lining up another thriller.  THR reports that Worthington is set to star in the action-thriller For the Dogs, based on the Kevin Wignall novel of the same name.  Philip Noyce (Salt) is onboard to direct the film, which centers on a solitary assassin who helps a young college girl seek revenge for the murder of her parents and brother.  The script will be written by Oren Moverman (Rampart), and the project is currently being shopped to buyers at the European Film Market in Berlin.  Worthington will produce alongside Anthony Rhulen and Navid McIlhargey from FilmEngine Entertainment, Josh Schwarz and Michael Schwarz from Full Clip Productions, and Paul Leyden.  Hit the jump to read a synopsis for the book.

Director David Ayer’s (End of Watch) upcoming action thriller Ten just nabbed a release date, but those itching to get a look at the film anytime soon will be sorely disappointed.  Open Road Films announced today that Ten will be released on January 24, 2014, which for you mathematicians out there is about 13 months away.  The film is loosely based on Agatha Christie’s classic mystery Ten Little Indians, as it centers on a DEA task force who heists a drug cartel safe house, only to start getting picked off one-by-one by an unknown assassin.  The impressive ensemble cast is lead by Arnold Schwarzenegger, with Sam Worthington, Joe Manganiello, Harold Perrineau, Terrence Howard, Josh Holloway, Max Martini (Revenge), Olivia Williams (Anna Karenina), and Mireille Enos (The Killing) rounding things out.

Currently no other film is slated for that same weekend in January 2014, but Open Road has also released a slightly new image from the film.  It’s incredibly similar to the first image of Schwarzenegger that was previously released, but this photo shows the actor striking a different (though no less intimidating) pose.  Hit the jump to read the press release and to take a look at the new image.

The first trailer has been released for the surfing-crime-drama Drift.  The Australian-set film takes place in the 1970s and centers on two brothers (played by Xavier Samuel and Myles Pollard) who start building a business selling surfboards and wetsuits, but then get mixed up with a local drug dealer.  Sam Worthington co-stars as a travelling bohemian surf photographer and filmmaker who becomes involved in the brothers’ lives.  Judging by this trailer, I wish we had a new Point Break on our hands, but I’m not sure what to make of Drift.  While the latest surfing flick, Chasing Mavericks, tanked hard, that doesn’t mean there’s no interest in the genre, so hopefully Drift will have a story to back up cool scenes of riding waves.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The film also stars Lesley-Ann Brandt.  Drift is due out in 2013.

Thanks to social networking, we now have the first image of Arnold Schwarzenegger in director David Ayer’s new film, Ten.  Schwarzenegger tweeted the image earlier today, one that shows off a new look for the former Governor as he’s sporting a new haircut and a variety of new tattoos.  He’s also armed to the teeth and ready for battle in a police-issue bullet-proof vest, complete with knives, ammo and at least three guns.  Back when it was titled Breacher, Ayer said he wanted to “reinvent Arnold” during an interview with Steve.  You’ll have to decide for yourself whether or not he succeeded.  Hit the jump to check out the first image and for more on Schwarzenegger’s character.

Ex-cop Nick Cassidy gambles with his life in order to prove his innocence in Man on a Ledge, an action mind bender from director Asger Leth. Though it stars a fairly good ensemble and flirts with a daring concept, the film, much like Nick’s threats of ending his own life, is nothing more than talk that doesn’t go anywhere.  Hit the jump for a review of the Blu-ray.

 Check out the latest casting news in brief below:

• Kevin Zegers (Dawn of the Dead) has been cast The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, the first in a series of adaptations of the best-selling Cassandra Clare books.  Directed by Harald Zwart, the film also stars Lily Collins, Lena Headey and Jamie Campbell Bower.
• Terrence Howard (Iron Man) and Dawn Olivieri (The Vampire Diaries) are in talks to join Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sam Worthington in Breacher, formerly known as Ten.  The picture, directed by David Ayer, follows ten DEA agents who begin to die off one by one after pulling a heist.

Hit the jump for more casting details.

Terminator: Salvation star Sam Worthington may soon be teaming up with the Terminator himself.  Variety reports that Worthington is now in early talks to star alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in director David Ayer’s (Harsh Times) actioner thriller Ten.  The film is an action take on Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians and centers on a DEA task force who heists a drug cartel safe house, only to start getting picked off by an assassin.  Hit the jump for more.

Though 20th Century Fox ensured that James Cameron’s next film after Avatar would be a sequel to the highest grossing film of all time, the director has been taking his sweet time getting the project going.  Cameron’s been busy diving to the ocean’s deepest point and documenting it in the film Deepest Challenge, but it appears he’s finally getting ready to return to Pandora.  We previously heard that the director would probably be filming Avatar 2 and 3 at the same time, and latest word from the filmmaker was that he was “in the Avatar business period,” meaning he’s only interested in making Avatar films from here on out.  At the same time, Cameron first dropped word about a possible Avatar 4, and now star Sigourney Weaver claims that the director will film all three Avatar sequels at once.  Hit the jump for more.

After more than a decade of directing for television, Ami Canaan Mann (Friday Night Lights, Morning) returns to feature films with the dark crime drama Texas Killing Fields.  The script was first commissioned a decade ago by her father, director Michael Mann (Heat, Public Enemies), who acts as producer here.  At one time director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 127 Hours) was attached to the film, but he backed out, stating that the film was too dark to ever get made.  The film stars Sam Worthington, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jessica Chastain, and Chloe Grace Moretz.  Hit the jump for my review of the Texas Killing Fields Blu-ray.

Financials have been squared away for the all-computer-generated, 3D action thriller, Thunder Run, starring Matthew McConaughey, Gerard Butler and Sam Worthington.  Brian Presley’s Freedom Films was able to secure a P & A arrangement, just prior to the start of Cannes, in a deal that shares the financial burden between Freedom and Fred Malmburg’s Paradox Entertainment.  A good thing, since VFX work has already begun on the ambitious project, an adaptation of a non-fiction  book by Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent, David Zucchino. “Thunder Run – The Armored Strike to Capture Baghdad” tells of the capture of the Iraqi capital by American forces at the onset of the Iraq War in April of 2003.  Zucchino’s novel was adapted by Academy Award-winner Robert Port (Twin Towers) and Black Hawk Down screenwriter, Ken Nolan. Hit the jump for more on Thunder Run.

Last week presented me with the first opportunity I’ve had in a while to catch two movies in a theater within 24 hours of one another (cue the scoffing of real cinephiles). While I’ll sure that I’ll be hammered for that previous statement when it comes time to renew my movie blogger certification, the truth is that, in the small market I call home, only the most mainstream of the mainstream films ever make it to the silver screen. So, with that said, I’d just like to thank the creative forces behind 21 Jump Street and The Hunger Games for giving me the opportunity to spend 1/6 of a day at the movies with films that, while drastically different in almost every conceivable metric, were solid from beginning to end.

Moving on, in this week’s installment the Top 5 is offering modest coverage of Anchorman 2‘s forward progress, Wrath of the Titans interviews with Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, director Jonathan Liebesman and more, the debut of our new podcast, The Collision, The Dark Knight Rises trailer in Lego form, and a recap of some of the week’s top trailers. Per usual, you can find a brief recap and link to each after the jump.

2010′s Clash of the Titans was an absolute mess.  The story made no sense, the movie wasted its cast, and the film was clearly cut to hell with perhaps a more interesting tale left on the editing room floor.  The problems were compounded by thoughtless action scenes and atrocious 3D.  Wrath of the Titans solves the confusing-story problem by making the plot stolid and obstinate.  The action scenes are just as big but even more pointless, and the 3D looks fine but adds nothing to the experience.  There are some brief, glorious moments where strong performances peak through, and we get a glimpse at some imaginative designs.  These few moments help the sequel barely clear the low bar set by its predecessor.