Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment have released seven clips from the upcoming animated sequel Despicable Me 2.  In the new film, Gru (Steve Carell) is kidnapped by the “Anti-Villain League”, and recruited in order to defeat a new super villain, voiced by Benjamin Bratt.  Fans of the first pic aren’t likely to be disappointed with this follow-up, as it looks to include more goofy weaponry, cute kids, and of course those adorable minions.

Hit the jump to watch the clips.  The film also features the voices of Kristen Wiig, Ken Jeong, Steve Coogan, Dana Gaier, Elsie Kate Fisher, Miranda Cosgrove, and Russell Brand.  Despicable Me 2 opens in 3D on July 3rd.

Studio Canal and BBC Films have released the first teaser trailer for writer/director Armando Iannucci’s (In the Loop) upcoming comedy Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa.  The film is a feature adaptation of the popular BBC TV series and radio character Alan Partridge, portrayed by Steve Coogan.  Patridge is a bit of a parody of sports commentators and talk show hosts, as the character is himself a radio host and television presenter on I’m Alan Partridge.  I’m quite unfamiliar with Partridge, but this teaser trailer is funny enough and I assume fans of the character will be pleased to see that the movie is finally coming to fruition.  As a fan of Iannuci’s In the Loop and his HBO series Veep, I look forward to seeing more of Alpha Papa

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa opens in the UK on August 7th.

A new trailer has been released for the dramedy What Maisie Knew. The story centers on 6-year-old Maisie (Onata Aprile), who is dealing with the divorce of her rock icon mother (Julianne Moore) and art dealer father (Steve Coogan).  Maisie’s life becomes more complicated as she’s bounced around between her parents’ new partners, Lincoln (Alexander Skarsgard) and Margot (Joanna Vanderham), respectively.  The trailer tries to go for an uplifting tone, but really it all comes off as kind of confused.  The film played at last year’s TIFF, but I didn’t hear any buzz on it, so it fell by the wayside even though I like the cast.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  What Maisie Knew opens this spring.

Real estate magnate, nudie show producer, and smut publisher Paul Raymond cared more about success than people.  It’s an obvious conclusion from a man who treated women as objects, put his own desires first, and didn’t mind doing cocaine with his daughter.  Perhaps it’s fitting that Michael Winterbottom‘s The Look of Love never bothers to look any deeper at its protagonist since Raymond never took a deeper look at the people in his life.  Nevertheless, it still makes for a deeply uninteresting biopic, and a surprisingly bland picture considering the lengths its subject went to in order to titillate his audience.

The 2013 Sundance Film Festival just announced an absolutely stacked lineup of films for their Premieres program, and we’ve got some new/first images from a few of the included films to share.  Briefly:

• The Look of Love – Directed by Michael Winterbottom, written by Matt Greenhaigh, and starring Steve Coogan, Anna Friel, Imogen Poots, and Tamsin Egerton.
• Lovelace – Directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, written by Andy Bellin, and starring Amanda Seyfried, Peter Sarsgaard, Hank Azaria, Adam Brody, James Franco, and Sharon Stone.
• Prince Avalanche – Written and directed by David Gordon Green, starring Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch.
• Stoker – Directed by Park Chan-wook, written by Wentworth Miller, and starring Mia Wasikowska, Matthew Goode, Dermot Mulroney, Jacki Weaver, and Nicole Kidman.

Hit the jump to check out the images and synopses.  The 2013 Sundance Film Festival runs from January 17 – 27th.

Steve attended the American Film Market (AFM) a few weeks back, and he was able to bring back a few promo images, posters, and synopses for some upcoming films.  Today we’ve got the first image and synopsis for the comedy The Look of Love and the first synopsis for the psychological horror film In Fear.  Directed by Michael Winterbottom (The Trip), Steve Coogan stars in The Look of Love as a legendary gentleman’s club owner and erotic publisher in London.  The cast also includes Anna Friel (Pushing Daisies), Tamsin Egerton (Huge), and Imogen Poots (Jane Eyre).

Additionally, we’ve got the first synopsis for the horror film In Fear.  Directed by Jeremy Lovering, the film stars Alice Englert (Beautiful Creatures) and is described as a home invasion film in a car.  The story plays out in real time as we follow a couple trapped in a maze of country roads with only their vehicle for protection.  Hit the jump for the image and synopses.

We previously reported that Stephen Frears (The Queen) is attached to direct Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Film, and from our interview with on the film’s stars, Benjamin Walker, it looks like that will be Frears’ follow-up to the disappointing Lay the Favorite.  The director is also the frontrunner to helm a Freddie Mercury biopic, and now Variety reports that he’s set to direct Judi Dench and Steve Coogan in Philomena.  Based on a true story, the film centers on Philomena Lee (Dench), an Irish woman seeking the illegitimate son she was forced to put up for adoption.  Coogan will play former BBC journalist Martin Sixsmith, who helped Lee locate her son.

Hit the jump for more.

In a society where half of all marriages statistically end in divorce, it’s the children of those failed unions that often get lost in the shuffle.  The premise of co-directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel’s film, What Maisie Knew deals with a young girl trapped in the wake of her parents’ bitter divorce.  While the film could easily become bleak and depressing, the trailer, at least, seems hopeful, buoyed by the effortless and carefree performance of Onata Aprile in the titular role.  It helps that What Maisie Knew sports a supporting cast of Julianne Moore, Alexander Skarsgard, Steve Coogan and Joanna Vanderham, to name a few, but your hearts will be stolen by Aprile.  Hit the jump to check out the trailer.

Lots of casting news to catch up on, so here it is in brief:

• Steve Coogan (Tropic Thunder) has been cast to voice a character in Despicable Me 2, starring Steve Carell and Al Pacino.
• Malcolm McDowell (The Artist) will star in a vignette of Tbilisi, My City.
• Kyle Gallner (A Nightmare on Elm Street) is a recent addition to Beautiful Creatures, the adaptation of the Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl novel.
• Abigail Spencer (Mad Men) will join the indie drama Kilimanjaro, starring Brian Geraghty (The Hurt Locker).
• Vik Sahay (Chuck) rounds out the cast for the werewolf film, Wer, directed by William Brent Bell (The Devil Inside).

Hit the jump for more.

On the same day that his HBO show Veep announced its renewal for a second season, writer/director Armando Iannucci (Into the Loop) has confirmed that another of his projects, Alan Partridge, is moving forward with a feature treatment.  Partridge, co-created and portrayed by  Steve Coogan (Tropic Thunder), is a radio host and television presenter on I’m Alan Partridge, a BBC show that parodies chat shows and sports reporters, among others.  The feature adaptation of the BAFTA-winning series has been stuck in development hell for some time, but all that has changed as filming is expected to occur this year with a release some time in 2013.  Hit the jump for more details on the project and to see what Iannucci had to say.

The first trailer for Ruby Sparks, the follow-up feature for Little Miss Sunshine directors Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton, has gone online.  The film stars Paul Dano as a once-great novelist who writes his dream girl who then comes to life.  The trailer is expectedly quirky with brief touches of Stranger Than Fiction, but overall I think it looks like a lot of fun.  The premise is certainly enticing, and Dano and Kazan (a couple in real life) seem to have some great onscreen chemistry.  As a character hints in the trailer, I’m incredibly interested to see how this ends.  It’s a brilliant plot device to play around in, but I’m assuming the success of the film as a whole will hinge on how the story concludes.  In the meantime, Faris and Dayton seem to promise a follow-up not dissimilar in tone to Little Miss Sunshine.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Antonio Banderas, Annette Bening, Steve Coogan, and Elliott Gould.  Ruby Sparks opens on July 25th.

Directors Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton scored a huge hit with Little Miss Sunshine, but had difficulty getting a follow-up off the ground.  The duo was attached to Will, which was set to star Paul Rudd and Zach Galifianakis, but the project fell apart.  There was also the possibility of the comedy The Abstinence Teacher starring Sandra Bullock and Steve Carell, but that fizzled out.  Then Faris and Dayton were attached to try and get the long-in-development Used Guys into production, but it didn’t happen.  Last year, they finally got a new movie in front of cameras.  The film, He Loves Me, stars Paul Dano as “a once-great novelist who is creativity blocked due to heartache and loneliness, only to be turned around when he writes his dream girl (Zoe Kazan) who then comes to life.”  The movie co-stars Annette Bening, Antonio Banderas, Steve Coogan, Elliott Gould, Chris Messina, and Deborah Ann Woll.

Today, Fox Searchlight sent out a press release announcing that the title had been changed to Ruby Sparks.  The studio also revealed an official synopsis and a release date.  Hit the jump for more.

Anna Friel (Pushing Daisies), Tamsin Egerton (Camelot), and Imogen Poots (Fright Night) have joined Steve Coogan in Michael Winterbottom‘s King of Soho.  Coogan will play real-life club proprietor, real estate developer, and porn publisher Paul Raymond and the comedy drama will focus on his business and personal life.  Per Variety, Raymond earned the name “King of Soho” because his business ventures earned him billions of pounds.  The movie will be Winterbottom and Coogan’s fourth collaboration after 24 Hour Party People, Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story, and The Trip.  Winterbottom’s latest film, Trishna, opens in limited release on May 18th.

Four clips from Our Idiot Brother have gone online.  I dug the film when I saw it at Sundance (back when it was called “My Idiot Brother”–to hell with you, Possessive Singular!) and it’s a great showcase for Rudd who is too often stuck playing the straight man.  The film’s also got a terrific supporting cast that includes Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel, Rashida Jones, Adam Scott, Emily Mortimer, Steve Coogan, Kathryn Hahn, and T.J. Miller (who steals almost every scene he’s in).

Hit the jump to check out the clips.  Our Idiot Brother opens August 26th.

A number of actors have been added to the cast of Fox Searchlight’s He Loves Me. Heat Vision reports that Deborah Ann Woll (True Blood), Steve Coogan (Tropic Thunder), Elliott Gould (Ocean’s Eleven) and Chris Messina (Vicky Christina Barcelona). The film stars Paul Dano as a struggling novelist who creates his dream girl only to have her come to life. Annette Bening stars as Dano’s mother, with Zoe Kazan playing his dream girl.

Woll will play Dano’s ex-girlfriend, but there’s no word on who the other actors are playing. Kazan wrote the screenplay and Little Miss Sunshine directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris are at the helm. Production is set to begin this month.