This week on The Collision, we look back at the highs and lows of summer 2012, reflect on summer 2011, and look ahead to summer 2013.  We also talk about John Hillcoat‘s Lawless, and finish up with our recommendations.

Click here to listen to the new episode of The Collision, click here for the previous episode (“Sacred Franchises and Premium Rush“), click here to add the podcast to your RSS, and click here to find us on iTunes. To keep up to date with The Collision, you can follow us on Twitter at @MattGoldberg, @AdamChitwood, and @DrClawMD (Dave Trumbore). Hit the jump to check out the trailers for this week’s recommendations.

Post-No Country for Old Men, was there any chance they wouldn’t adapt Cormac McCarthy’s Oprah-approved best-seller The Road? Well, they did, and The Weinstein Company produced it, and if you had read the book, you’d know why this was a tough sell, and eventually flopped (on top of being released by the struggling Weinstein Company). The story of a father (Viggo Mortensen) and his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) trudging through a post-apocalyptic wasteland as they fend off cannibals and encounter strange people (including cameos by Robert Duvall, Guy Pearce, and Michael K. Williams) as they cling to staying alive and keeping their souls, The Road is a heavy experience. My review of The Road on Blu-ray after the jump.

As if the folks at Summit Entertainment didn’t have enough to be thankful for after the record-breaking debut of The Twilight Saga: New Moon last weekend, the vampy drama also dominated the holiday frame. New Moon passed the $200 million mark on Friday and ended its second weekend in theatres with over $230 million domestically. The only day out of the past five that New Moon didn’t own? Thanksgiving Thursday. That belonged to Warner Brothers’ surprise-hit The Blind Side which nearly tied for first place thanks to a nice jump in ticket sales over its first weekend. Between these two holdovers, new releases like WB’s Ninja Assassin and Disney’s Old Dogs had to fight over box office table scraps.

We’re going to need a word which is harsher than “bleak”.  The word “bleak” does not do justice to The Road, John Hillcoat’s faithful adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s novel.  Set in an apocalyptic wasteland of nothing but ugly grey, “Man” (Viggo Mortensen) and his son “Boy” (Kodi Smit-McPhee) struggle with survival where the only point is to survive, and that’s not much of a reason.  When suicide is the best thing in the world and the best use of a bullet is to kill your son to make sure he isn’t eaten alive by cannibals, you come to understand that “bleak” just doesn’t get the job done as far as adjectives go.  Neither does “hopeless”, “grim” or “dismal”.  But perhaps the greatest flaw of The Road isn’t its inability to conjure up dark adjectives, but that Hillcoat completely embraces the journey of his characters: pointless.

The Weinstein Company has released a new poster for The Road and A Single Man.  While I liked the previous poster for The Road, I understand using a huge quote saying how great the movie is as a way to help sell the movie.

However, the new poster for A Single Man is just perfect.  Just like the movie, the poster is elegant, and it sells the relationships of the film.  Colin Firth is looking at whatever is holding his interest (most likely Matthew Goode) and Julianne Moore is looking at what she wants most, but can’t have.  While I haven’t yet raved about A Single Man on Collider, the film is an amazing first feature from director Tom Ford and I’ll have more in the coming weeks.

Finally, Magnet has released the first poster for District 13: Ultimatum.  This is the sequel to the Luc Besson written D13.  The poster sells exactly what it should…the action.  Check them out after the jump:

Viggo Mortensen has consistently earned acclaim for his work in a wide range of films, including most recently Eastern Promises, A History of Violence and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. In 2008, he starred again with and was directed by Ed Harris in Appaloosa.

We sat down with him this past weekend to talk about his new movie, The Road, the highly anticipated big screen adaptation of the beloved, best-selling Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Cormac McCarthy, who also wrote No Country for Old Men. Mortensen leads an all-star cast featuring Charlize Theron, Robert Duvall, Guy Pearce and young newcomer Kodi Smit-McPhee in this epic post-apocalyptic tale of the survival of a father (Mortensen) and his young son (Smit-McPhee) as they journey across a barren America that was destroyed by a mysterious cataclysm.

Directed by John Hillcoat, The Road is an adventure story, a horror story, a road movie and ultimately a love story between a father and his son and a man and his wife. It’s also a celebration of the inextinguishable will to live, a thrilling evocation of human endurance and an unflinching examination of people at their worst – and at their best.  Read our interview with this great actor after the jump:

Australian director John Hillcoat creates a bleak universe on film and brings it to life with an incredible cast in his latest film, The Road, an epic post-apocalyptic tale about the survival of a father and his young son as they journey across a barren America destroyed by a mysterious cataclysm. Based on the best-selling Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Cormac McCarthy, The Road stars Academy Award-nominee Viggo Mortensen, Charlize Theron, Robert Duvall, Guy Pearce and young newcomer Kodi Smit-McPhee.

While The Road is a tough movie to watch, it’s an incredible story and something worth your time.  We recently had the pleasure to speak with John Hillcoat and our interview is after the jump.  He talks about making the film, casting, film stock, why did he shoot in Pennsylvania, working with Viggo, and a lot more.  It’s a great interview so take a look:

The new trailer for John Hillcoat’s “The Road” is the clearest example yet that Dimension Films has absolutely no idea how to market this movie.  They’re trying to show the bleakness of the post-apocalyptic world and then show rousing hope as if to say, “Look!  You can see this movie on Thanksgiving weekend!  It’s a feel good movie!  It’s about the love between a father and son and you won’t even notice that most of the world is an empty wasteland populated with corpses.”  I’m looking forward to the film, but since I try not to read reviews for movies I haven’t seen I don’t know if the film is this schizophrenic or if it’s just the marketing.  I’m hoping it’s the latter.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  “The Road” opens on November 25^th.

The new poster for “The Road” wants you to know that you can stand up to the apocalypse with a revolver and a love for your son.  Also, don’t forget to wear layers.

While Dimension has slapped it around the calendar countless times, it looks like we’ll finally get to see John Hillcoat’s (“The Proposition”) adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s movie on November 25^th.  For families, it’s going to be a tough decision of whether they go see this or “Old Dogs”.  While it may not have Robin Williams and John Travolta getting into wacky situations, “The Road” has a stronger tie-in to Thanksgiving because in this poster Mortensen is looking at the world’s last butterball turkey.  Hit the jump to see the poster and think of ways you can trick your family members into seeing “The Road”.

While I get to interview a lot of people for Collider, I rarely get nervous or excited. But when I found out I’d be speaking with Viggo Mortensen at this year’s Toronto Film Festival for his new movie “The Road”, I was practically jumping up and down like a kid after too much soda. What can I say…I’m a huge fan of this amazing actor and I’d always wanted to meet him. Thankfully, the interview went great and I even got him to address the rumors that he’s retiring from acting. Don’t worry…he isn’t!

But the reason I got to speak with him was for “The Road”, and after the jump you can learn more about the movie and also watch the interview:

At this year’s Toronto Film Festival, I had the chance to speak with director John Hillcoat about his upcoming movie “The Road”.  The film is based on Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and it stars Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Charlize Theron, Robert Duvall, and Guy Pearce. While the film doesn’t get released till November 25th, I’ve decided to post the interview now as I really enjoyed the movie and want to help it get some positive buzz. If you aren’t familiar with the story, it’s definitely not what I would call a fun movie, but I fell for the world John Hillcoat put on screen and think it’s a film deserving of your time. Anyway, after the jump is my interview with John.

The first full trailer for “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” is frustrating.  It’s frustrating because if you didn’t pay attention to any of the narrative stuff and just turned the sound off, you’d have a visually impressive film.  Director Chris Weitz and cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe (who also shot John Hillcoat’s “The Road” which hits theatres five days later so as far as DP work goes, that’s a fun juxtaposition) have made a film that completely blows away Catherine Hardwicke’s all-blue-filter, all-the-time style of the first “Twilight” film.

But then there’s the story and you have a girl who has become so dependent on a boy that instead of just having normal teenage sadness about a break-up, she makes attempts at suicide through reckless behavior.  What’s worse is that as the trailer continues the messages appears to be, “Don’t be a strong, independent woman,” as much as it’s, “My boyfriend needs me and I have to save him or else I’ll be lonely and weak again!”  But I’m sure that the “Twilight” fans have ignored all my commentary and skipped straight to the trailer after the jump.  “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” opens and feminism suffers on November 20^th.

Yesterday I wrote about how I feel really bad for “The Green Hornet”. If there is one other film that I feel just as bad for, it’s “The Road”.  The film has had a long journey, just like it’s two lead characters, to getting to the theater.  Things were finally looking good for the film but now we get news that the film has now been pushed back (again) to a November 25th release date.  I don’t know what the Weinstein brothers are thinking with this plan but you can read why this might be terrible for the film when you hit the jump.

Earlier today I did an article on new posters for “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans”, “Sorority Row” and Spike Jonze “Where the Wild Things Are”. I figured that would be it for new posters today. I thought wrong.

That’s because as soon as I walked out my door, five other posters premiered online and like I did before, I’ve grouped them all in one place. Also, how much can you really say about new posters? They’re less about words and more about the visuals. So after the jump take a look at new posters for “The Road”, “2012″, “Couples Retreat”, “The Fantastic Mr. Fox”, and “The Descent Part 2″.

Director John Hillcoat’s adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road” is finally getting screened for critics as it’s playing at the Venice Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival. While the film is getting mixed reviews, I don’t care. This is a film I cannot wait to see no matter what people say. Also, I’m a huge fan of Viggo Mortensen and he’s the lead. Anyway, the Weinstein Company has released 5 clips from the film and it totals 12 minutes of footage from the movie. Since I will be seeing the movie within a week, I didn’t watch any of the clips. But if you want to check out some of the footage, it’s after the jump – along with the synopsis. Take a look: