The Informant! brings together Matt Damon with Steven Soderbergh for a small character drama that proves an actor’s showcase for its leading man. In true would-be seventies fashion it’s a character study of the real life Mark Whitacre, who gives up his company to the FBI because he thinks that it’s the right thing to do. But something is off with Whitacre, and the further the case goes along, the more evidence there is that his business dealings aren’t 100% above the level. Scott Bacula, Joel McHale, Melanie Lynskey and Tom Wilson co-star, and my review of The Informant! is after the jump.

The Playlist reports that Steven Soderbergh, the hardest working man in show business, has once again lengthened his to-do list.  Soderbergh will re-team with The Informant! scripter Scott Z. Burns for Contagion, an “action-thriller about the outbreak of a deadly virus.”  The film doesn’t have a distribution deal yet, but with such heavy hitters as Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, and Marion Cotillard attached to star, you can expect a bidding war for the rights.  More on the origins of Contagion and the rest of Soderbergh’s slate after the break.

Despite Hollywood’s September slowdown, studios are still sending plenty of movies into theatres.  Few of this year’s fall freshmen are connecting with audiences, however.  Like Tyler Perry’s “I Can Do Bad All By Myself” one week ago, this weekend’s box office had room for only one hit out of four attempts – Sony Animation’s “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”.  The CGI adaptation of the popular children’s book brought in an estimated $30 million in its first three days for over $9,000 per screen.  When measured against competing titles like “Jennifer’s Body” and “Love Happens” that’s damn near a landslide of cash.

Of this weekend’s four new films, there wasn’t much doubt about who was going to claim the top spot on Friday.  In the wake of the R-rated revolution of August, Sony’s family-friendly “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” had a good shot at a great opening weekend even without the added attraction of the toon’s 3D format.  The studio was hoping for a weekend total around $20 million but, after adjusting their expectations as Friday’s numbers rolled in, it looks like the final 3-day tally will be closer to $30 million.  20^th Century Fox also had to adjust their expectations after Friday’s debut of “Jennifer’s Body”.  The long-awaited Megan Fox/Diablo Cody horror-hybrid debuted with a truly dismal $2.8 million… not quite the second place finish that many predicted.  Second went instead to Steven Soderbergh’s “The Informant!”, though at only $3.6 million no one at Warner Brothers is doing back-flips.  And the news wasn’t much better for Jennifer Aniston and Aaron Eckhart in “Love Happens”.  To watch Hollywood’s A-listers suffocate further under Sony’s falling food, check back tomorrow.

A feature film about a true, global price-fixing scheme for a corn product is not the sort of fare that inspires interest and laughs. In fact, it would probably inspire the very opposite. But if you can grasp at tendrils of insanity in the story, running fictionally wild, and put it in the hands of an incredibly able actor, you might have something like “The Informant!” Hit the jump to learn about the insane world of “The Informant!”

While it’s been kind of quiet on the giveaway front of late, I’ve got some cool stuff to giveaway to help promote the release of Steven Soderbergh’s “The Informant!” So if you’re interested in getting a free t-shirt, a video camera pen, caps, mugs, coasters and more, hit the jump to see pictures and how you can enter. Also, if you were debating seeing “The Informant!” this weekend, here’s Matt’s review which tells you why you should go.

Catching liars is fun.  Watching someone lie badly is funny.  Watching someone lie badly when you know the truth is funnier.  Realizing you’ve been lied to isn’t funny at all.  Lies can be a valuable tool when you’re the dumbest guy in the room and when you manage to get away with lying to everyone else, it makes you the smartest guy even though the truth will out.  Director Stephen Soderbergh’s latest film, “The Informant!”, is built entirely out of lies but not in a surreal/everything’s subjective-kind of way.  It’s a film about the usefulness of lies and how like anything that’s fun, it can become addicting and it can be abused.  It’s a heavy theme but carried with the lightness Soderbergh brought to the “Ocean’s” movies, “The Informant!” is absolutely delightful.

Opening tomorrow is the new Steven Soderbergh movie “The Informant!” The film is based on the true story of the highest-ranking corporate whistleblower in U.S. history and the film stars Matt Damon, Scott Bakula, Joel McHale and Melanie Lynskey. While I’d love to go into detail about the film, it’s one of those movies the less you know the better, so I’ll just say I really liked the movie and I recommend checking it out this weekend. Especially if you enjoy surprises….

Anyway, a few days ago I got to speak with Scott Bakula about playing FBI Special Agent Brian Shepard and working for Steven Soderbergh. Of course I also worked in some “Star Trek” and “Quantum Leap” questions, and I also asked him about being on “Chuck” last season and if he might be coming back. If you’re a fan of Scott’s work, I promise you’ll like this interview.

Matt Damon is having a big week.  Not content with appearing on every talk show known to man in support of his new movie “The Informant!”, or with announcing that he will reteam with “Informant!” director Steven Soderbergh for his new “Liberace” biopic, Damon is also getting some play in the trades for a project that has nothing to do with Soderbergh for a change.  Damon will next star in “Hereafter”, a supernatural thriller from director Clint Eastwood that is set to film this fall.  To give Matt Damon another topic to discuss at press junkets, hit the jump.

Just a few minutes ago I attended a press conference for Warner Bros. “The Informant!” here in Toronto. After the press conference ended, I managed to ask Matt Damon some questions about the possibility of a 4^th “Bourne” movie. Since he’s been giving the same answer for the last few weeks about needing to find the right story to justify making the film, I wanted to know if he’d actually read any of the drafts that the studio has been developing and what he thought. According to Matt, he hasn’t. But that’s not the big news, as Matt told me in a few weeks he’ll be meeting up with director Paul Greengrass in New York City to finally discuss making the 4^th movie! More after the jump:

Right on the heels of his upcoming Matt Damon comedy “The Informant!”, director Steven Soderbergh has jumped onto a new project of a different sort. “Knockout” tells the story of a girl from the slums who is given a second chance at life in the ring, although it will be more akin to a James Bond film than “Million Dollar Baby”. Gina Carano of mixed martial arts fame is set to star. More on her and the project after the jump.

Warner Bros. has released a preview of their upcoming 2009 movies. In the preview, they’ve got updated synopsis’ along with new images from “Whiteout”, “Ninja Assassin”, “The Invention of Lying”, “The Informant!” and a few others. So if you’d like to see the new images and read what’s coming later this year (it’s a lot of great stuff), it’s all after the jump:

I need to create an ongoing series called “Matt Is Bad At His Job” when major facts about movies just go completely off my radar.  This would be one of those instances as I had no idea that Stephen Soderbergh’s upcoming film, “The Informant!” was a comedy.  I thought it was a film in the vein of “The Insider” instead of a film that would be a comedic companion piece to the “The Insider”.  I didn’t even know that the title includes an exclamation point.

But sometimes being bad at your job yields nice surprises and this new trailer for “The Informant!” is certainly one of them.  Matt Damon, being one of the best and most versatile actors working today, is getting to really indulge his comedic timing here and he looks to be completely fantastic.  It looks like Soderbergh may be delivering one of the year’s best films and one of his most fun films that doesn’t start with the word “Ocean’s”.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer. “The Informant!” hits theatres this September.