We told you yesterday that this weekend was on track to become the lowest-grossing frame of the year and the lowest-grossing frame since September 2008. Unfortunately, nothing came along to change that gloomy portrait after Sunday’s estimates were released. No film, including first-place holdover The Possession, managed to break ten million and only one new film reached half that amount.

Generally speaking, I try and keep the Top 5 opening paragraph as topical as possible (i.e. films, television, posters, etc.). This week that protocol is easier than ever to follow as I recently got my first chance to check out director Gareth Evans‘ The Raid. Keeping this short and sweet, if you’ve yet to partake in The Raid and have ever derived any joy from watching action fare, martial arts, and the like, then you have a giant favor to do for yourself. Quickly find a way to check out this actioner and try to keep a smile from forming across your face while watching.

Movie recommendations aside, this weekend brings you a recap of all of our 2012 Toronto International Film Festival thus far, the first trailer and poster for Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, video interviews with the cast and director of Bachelorette, the inaugural installment of our Hollywood! Adapt This feature spotlighting Disney’s Gargoyles, and The Words video interviews with Bradley Cooper, co-writer/co-director Brian Klugman, and more. A brief recap and link to each awaits on the other side.

And you thought last weekend was weak. With Friday estimates in, it appears that no film will reach $10 million by Sunday – a box office calamity that has not been equaled since Bangkok Dangerous debuted at number one with just $7.7 million in September 2008.  Unfortunately, this weekend’s new releases will fall short of even that sorry benchmark; leaving Lionsgate’s The Possession to hold down the top spot for a second week with a projected $9.3 million. CBS Films’ The Words, with Bradley Cooper, was third on Friday with an estimated $1.6 million from 2,801 locations. That’s a landslide compared to fellow newcomer The Cold Light of Day. With just $637,00 from 1,511 runs, the action/thriller failed to break Friday’s top ten altogether. Also outside the top ten (but with nothing to be ashamed of), was Raiders of the Lost Ark. Returning for a limited release in 267 IMAX theatres, the 1981 classic took in another $438,000 on Friday to bring its lifetime domestic total above $245 million.  Full details and analysis tomorrow.

The last quarter of 2012 is shaping up to be the biggest (and hopefully the best) for moviegoers, so we have a big gallery to share with you that highlights some of the films coming out in the next few months.  After the jump, you’ll find new images from Django Unchained, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Looper, The Master, Hyde Park on Hudson, Red Dawn, Skyfall, Seven Psychopaths and many more!  It’ll be easier to enjoy these images than to see all the films they come from as there are over 40 of them! Hit the jump to take a look.

The Words is an actor’s film.  It’s a picture that relies heavily, not so much on story or radical plot developments, but on a simple terse look, a wayward glance, an unspoken conversation.  Bradley Cooper stars, in one of three interlocking stories, as Rory Jansen – a struggling, good-but-not-good-enough writer, who discovers an unused manuscript that could be the next great American novel.  He, of course, then attempts to pass the book off as his own and the resulting tribulations threaten to tear him and his life apart.  Cooper’s never been better than he is here – and one can’t help but think that must in some small way be attributable to writer/director Brian Klugman.  Klugman and Cooper have been friends for years – and there’s an honesty and vulnerability to Cooper’s work here that can only come from complete trust in one’s director.

In the following interview with Klugman and Cooper, I attempt to get to the bottom of their actor-director relationship, discuss the influence of Ernest Hemingway and challenge the balance between reality & fiction in the film.  For the full interview, hit the jump.

In The Words, Ben Barnes (The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian) has the most unenviable task of playing the younger version of Jeremy Irons’ character. Irons, beyond versatile, commands each scene he’s in with nary more than a look. Emulating that type of presence is no easy feat.  Add onto that – most of Barnes’ performance is physical with little to no dialogue (Irons narrates over) and that he’s playing a period World War Two Vet.  It’s like Barnes’ took up the trifecta of acting challenges.  But Barnes handles himself nicely here – more than matching Iron’s ferocious presence and doing more with a glance than a page monologue would elicit.

In the following interview with Barnes, he talks studying Irons mannerisms, working with no dialogue and the differences acting for film and theater.  For the full interview, hit the jump.

A new trailer for the drama The Words has been released.  For those unfamiliar with the film, it’s three stories nested inside each other with the central story focusing on an aspiring writer (Bradley Cooper) who plagiarizes a manuscript he finds in an old briefcase.  He becomes an overnight success when the book is published, but then he encounters the manuscript’s true author (Jeremy Irons).  This trailer plays like a truncated version of the first trailer, with a few bits of new footage thrown in towards the end.  The premise has the basis for a great story, and I really like what we’ve seen so far.  Matt caught the pic at Sundance and was a big fan (read his review here), so here’s hoping it delivers.

Hit the jump to watch the new trailer.  Written and directed by Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal, the film also stars Dennis Quaid, Ben Barnes, Olivia Wilde, and Zoe Saldana.  The Words opens on September 7th.

A new featurette for The Words has gone online.  For those unfamiliar with the film, it’s three stories nested inside each other with the central story focusing on an aspiring writer (Bradley Cooper) who plagiarizes a manuscript he finds in an old briefcase.  He becomes an overnight success when the book is published, but then he encounters the manuscript’s true author (Jeremy Irons).   I was quite taken with the movie when I saw it at Sundance (the featurette pulls quotes from my review), and this featurette does a slightly better job than the trailer of breaking down the plot and selling the picture.

Hit the jump to check out the featurette.  The film also stars Dennis Quaid, Ben Barnes, Olivia Wilde, and Zoe Saldana.  The Words opens September 7th.

Two new posters have arrived for a pair of September releases that I’m really looking forward to. First up is a new poster for The Words, a romantic drama from debut directors Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal that stars Bradley Cooper, Zoe Saldana and Jeremy Irons. Cooper plays a young writer who passes off another author’s work as his own and deals with the consequences that inevitably arise. The Words opens September 7th. 

A second poster comes to us today for director Jake Schreier’s Robot and Frank.  The buddy comedy stars Frank Langella as a retired jewel thief who seeks to resume his criminal ways with the help of a companion robot, voiced by Peter Sarsgaard.  Robot and Frank opens August 24th.  Hit the jump to check out the new posters.

We’ve got a couple of release date shifts to share this afternoon.  Briefly:

• Cosmopolis – David Cronenberg’s twisted thriller starring Robert Pattinson has been set for release on August 17^th.
• Playing the Field – The Gerard Butler-fronted soccer comedy has been moved off of its Christmas release date to December 7^th.
• The Words – The drama starring Bradley Cooper and Zoe Saldana has been moved up to September 7^th.

Hit the jump for more on each film.

The first trailer for The Words has gone online.  I really dug the film when I saw it at Sundance, but this trailer doesn’t do a good job of getting to the drama of the central conflict, which is about a writer (Bradley Cooper) who becomes famous off a plagiarized manuscript, and then has to face his actions when he meets the original author (Jeremy Irons).

Hit the jump to check out the trailer, and try not to be turned off from the use of the horrible song at the end (it isn’t in the movie, in case you were wondering).  The film also stars Dennis Quaid, Olivia Wilde, Zoe Saldana, and Ben Barnes (who should have gotten a credit in the trailer since he plays a major character).  The Words opens September 21st.

CinemaCon begins on Monday in Las Vegas, but Steve is already in Sin City snapping photos of some cool promo posters, standees, and banners.  For those unaware, CinemaCon is a convention put on for all the major theater owners in order to get a look at what the studios have to offer for the rest of the year; it’s basically Comic-Con for theater owners.  Steve came across the first poster for Martin McDonagh’s (In Bruges) dark comedy Seven Psychopaths and the second poster for Bradley Cooper-fronted drama The Words.  Here’s the first poster if you missed it.  The promo poster for the latter rightly highlights the outstanding ensemble cast.

Hit the jump to check out the posters, and be sure to check back over the next few days for all our coverage from CinemaCon 2012.  The Words is set for release on September 21st and  Seven Psychopaths opens on November 2nd.

UPDATE: We’ve come across a Seven Psychopaths promo banner.  It’s been added after the jump.

Release dates have been announced for Gambit, Seven Psychopaths, and The Words.  Briefly, here they are:

• Michael Hoffman‘s heist-comedy Gambit, written by the Coen Brothers and starring Colin Firth and Cameron Diaz, is set for January 11, 2013.
• Martin McDonagh‘s dark comedy Seven Psychopaths, starring Colin Farrell, Woody Harrelson, Christopher Walken, and Sam Rockwell, is due out November 2nd.
• The plagiarism drama The Words, starring Bradley Cooper, Zoe Saldana, Dennis Quaid, Olivia Wilde, and Jeremy Irons, will open September 21st.

Hit the jump for more on all of these flicks and their competition at the box office.  [Release dates via Box Office Mojo]

One of the best films I saw at this year’s Sundance Film Festival was writer-director Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal‘s first feature, The Words. The film stars Bradley Cooper as a writer who, after discovering an extraordinary lost manuscript, passes the work off as his own and receives overwhelming critical acclaim.  Jeremy Irons plays the man who originally wrote the manuscript, and the film weaves multiple narratives to tell the story.  The Words also stars Zoe Saldana, Dennis Quaid, Olivia Wilde, Ben Barnes, and JK Simmons.  CBS Films bought the film after its first screening and they plan to release it later this year.  It’s definitely a film you should be excited to see.  For more on The Words, here’s Matt’s review.

Shortly after seeing the film, I did an extended interview with Bradley Cooper and co-writer-director Brian Klugman.  We talked about being at Sundance, how the project came together and how it changed along the way, deleted scenes, how the two of them became friends (they’ve known each other for decades), karaoke, film versus digital, and a lot more.  In addition, Klugman talked about his early draft of Tron: Legacy, and Cooper talked about what it was like to work on director Derek Cianfrance‘s The Place Beyond the Pines, and the status of Paradise Lost (it’s hopefully filming this June).  Hit the jump to watch.

Like I did last year, I had a great time at the Sundance Film Festival.  It’s tough to complain about weather conditions or getting around when you have the privilege to watch and discover new movies all day.  Even better, plenty of Sundance 2012 films turned out to be pretty damn good.  For me, there weren’t any quite as excellent as Martha Marcy May Marlene or Project Nim from last year, but those movies set an incredibly high bar.  Many of my peers felt they saw something truly special with Beasts of the Southern Wild and I can understand the love even if it didn’t hit me with as much emotional impact.  Most of my peers also loved Liberal Arts and Sleepwalk With Me, and I’m sorry I missed those.  But all in all, the festival ran as smoothly as last year, the volunteers (especially those in the press tent) were awesome, and it’s always a joy to hang out with people from other movie websites.

Hit the jump for my festival scorecard where you can see an organized list of my ratings for the movies I saw (although I highly encourage you to read the full review rather than just glance at a letter).  While this is my wrap-up, Steve will be posting his Sundance interviews throughout the week so keep an eye out for those.