Open Road Films has released new images and the first trailer for the Jason Statham actioner Killer Elite.  It has everything a man could want: guns, explosions, a bikini butt closeup, “Rock You Like a Hurricane,” Clive Owen’s mustache… the list goes on.  I kid, mostly — the trailer is a blast.  Killer Elite looks like a treat for fans of pure action.

Statham plays an ex-special ops agent lured out of retirement to rescue his mentor, played by Robert De Niro: “To make the rescue, he must complete a near-impossible mission of killing three tough-as-nails assassins with a cunning leader (Owen).”  Yvonne Strahovski and Dominic Purcell also star.  Directed by Gary McKendry, Killer Elite hits theaters on September 23.  Hit the jump for the trailer and images.

We have four pieces of quick casting news for you today.  First up, Sigourney Weaver has been cast in Red Lights. the next film from Rodrigo Cortés (Buried).  According to Bloody Disgusting, Lights is “about how the brain does not give a true picture of reality.”  BD also reports that Weaver will play “Margaret Matheson in the film that follows a para-psychologist who attempts to debunk a very reputable psychic who has just returned to the limelight after 30 years.”  Weaver can next be seen this September in the comedy You Again.  She’s also playing a vampire queen in Amy Heckerling’s Vamps.

Hit the jump for casting news regarding Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje in The Thing prequel, Octavia Spencer in The Help, and Grant Bowler in The Killer Elite and City of Gardens.

Clive Owen may not have landed the James Bond gig a few years back, but he hasn’t stopped showing his stuff in his growing resume of action films. Director Gary McKendry’s The Killer Elite will add Owen, according to Variety, and join action star Jason Statham. With shooting set to begin next month in Australia, things are moving fast for the film. Additionally, landing these two actors in lead roles is an impressive feat for a director without a feature length film to his credit, so it will be interesting to see how this turns out.

For more on the film, including the roles of both Statham and Owen, hit the jump.

Like Patton Oswalt, I am officially Gay-tham for Jason Statham.  Except that I’m a girl so I guess I’m straight-tham for Statham?  The point is that I’m a fan and, as such, I am always happy to report on upcoming projects from my favorite professional bad-ass.

The word form Variety is that Statham will be headlining a British thriller called “The Killer Elite”.  It has ‘killer’ in the title so I’m sold – but just for fun I’ll give you some details:

“Killer Elite” is based on the book “The Feathermen” (I think we can all see why that title needed to be changed) by Ranulph Fiennes, aka “the world’s greatest living adventurer.”  I’m not kidding. His Wikipedia page says that Fiennes is indeed the world’s greatest living adventurer.  And here you thought I had just forgotten to run my spell-check…

The film will tell the tale of a group of former British Special Forces members who are being hunted by assassins. Statham will play a former Navy Seal who is forced out of retirement to save his closest friend.  Variety says that the book was based on “real events” and, if true, I have to say that the whole “world’s greatest adventurer thing” sounds legit.

The “Killer Elite” deal was announced Wednesday night in Cannes and word is that the pic will begin filming this fall in London, Paris and Australia.