Fox Searchlight has released the first trailer for the coming of age comedy/drama The Way, Way Back.  The film marks the directorial debut of The Descendants co-writers Nat Faxon and Jim Rash and centers on a 14-year-old boy (Liam James) who spends his summer vacation bonding with the manager of a water park (Sam Rockwell) while staying with his mother (Toni Collette) and her overbearing boyfriend (Steve Carell).  The Adventureland-esque pic looks to be a nice little summer film with a healthy mix of comedy and drama, and there’s a refreshing lack of cynicism in this trailer.  Rockwell and Allison Janney are always swell, and the two are most definitely the comedic highlights here.  Matt caught the film at Sundance and was rather mixed in his review, but I find this debut trailer to be promising.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Maya Rudolph, Rob Corddry, Zoe Levin, AnnaSophia Robb, and Amanda Peet.  The Way, Way Back opens on July 5th in limited release.

Today’s latest casting news:

• Jim Sturgess (Could Atlas) is set to star opposite Kate Beckinsale in the psychological thriller Eliza Graves, directed by Brad Anderson (The Call).

• Toni Collette (Fright Night) and Jean Reno (Alex Cross) join Hector and the Search for Happiness, a romantic comedy directed by Peter Chelsom.

Hit the jump for more on both casting stories.

Laika and Focus Features are teaming up once again for The Boxtrolls.  Their third production will be the 3D stop motion and CG hybrid animated adaptation of Alan Snow’s “Here Be Monsters.”  The story centers on a posh Victorian-era town of people obsessed with finery and stinky cheese, but are plagued by an underground society of foul monsters who steal their children…and cheese.  Similar in themes to their previous productions Coraline and ParaNorman, the under-dwellers are not exactly what the citizens’ legends say they are.

Directed by Anthony Stacchi (Open Season) and Graham Annable (a story artist on Coraline and ParaNorman), The Boxtrolls features an impressive voice cast featuring Ben Kingsley, Isaac Hempstead-Wright, Elle Fanning, Toni Collette, Jared Harris, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Richard Ayoade and Tracy Morgan.  The Boxtrolls is due out October 17, 2014.  Hit the jump to see the full synopsis along with the first concept image from the film.

In their directorial debut, The Way, Way Back, writers Nat Faxon and Jim Rash show they’re incredibly adept at humor.  They know how to tell a good joke, push the envelope without being mean-spirited, and find the right actors to deliver the comedy.  Unfortunately, a film has to put story and characters before comedy, and the film fails where it matters most.  Faxon and Rash put a painfully bland character at the center of their movie, and then try to convince us that anyone would help the uninteresting protagonist.  Surrounded by one-dimensional characters and a predictable plot, The Way, Way Back can tell a joke, but has difficulty doing anything else.

A new international trailer for Hitchcock has gone online.  While this trailer centers on the drama revolving around the making of Hitchcock’s Psycho, that’s not really the thrust of the movie.  It’s more of a backdrop to the film’s central (and less interesting) conflict between Hitchcock (Anthony Hopkins) and wife/partner Alma Reville (Helen Mirren).  This trailer shows only a hint of the marital tension between the two characters, which serves as the basis for most of the movie.  Going into Hitchcock thinking you’re about to see a riveting tale about the making of Psycho is a recipe for disappointment.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The film also stars Scarlett Johansson, Danny Huston, Toni Collette, Jessica Biel, Michael Stuhlbarg, James D’Arcy, Michael Wincott, Richard Portnow, and Kurtwood Smith.  Hitchcock opens in limited release on November 23rd.

Fox Searchlight has released 8 new images from the upcoming drama Hitchcock.  Directed by Sacha Gervasi, the film stars Anthony Hopkins as legendary director Alfred Hitchcock and chronicles the development and production of Psycho, specifically focusing on Hitchcock’s strained relationship with his wife and collaborator Alma Reville (Helen Mirren).  These new images give us fresh looks at the prolific couple as well as the Psycho cast: Scarlett Johansson as Janet Leigh, Jessica Biel as Vera Miles, and James D’Arcy as Anthony Perkins.  The film received a mixed-to-positive reception following its world premiere at AFI Fest, though Mirren’s performance as Reville has drawn near universal praise.

Hit the jump to check out the images.  The film also stars Toni Collette, Michael Stuhlbarg, Danny Huston, and Kurtwood Smith.  Hitchcock opens on November 23rd.

The first trailer and a new poster for director Sacha Gervasi’s Hitchcock have been released.  The film looks absolutely fascinating, with killer performances from stars Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren as the legendary director and his wife.  The story chronicles the troubled production of Psycho, but there’s a great deal of humor sprinkled throughout this trailer to balance the more dramatic material.  The chemistry between Hopkins and Mirren is palpable, and the makeup work on Hopkins is simply stunning.  Though the fall movie season is already packed with some fantastically promising films, this swell first trailer has rocketed Hitchcock towards the top of my most anticipated list.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer and check out the poster.  The film also stars Scarlett Johansson, Jessica Biel, Toni Collette, Danny Huston, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Kurtwood Smith.  Hitchcock opens on November 23rd.

Filming has commenced on director Pascal Chaumeil’s (Heartbreaker) adaptation of the Nick Hornby novel A Long Way Down.  The story revolves around a group of strangers who coincidentally meet on the top of a London skyscraper on New Year’s Eve where they individually had gone to commit suicide.  The four strangers make a pact to stay alive until Valentine’s Day at least, and the story follows this group of unlikely friends “as they try to pull back from the brink.”  The ensemble cast includes Pierce Brosnan, Toni Collette, Aaron Paul, and Imogen Poots, with Sam Neill and Rosamund Pike (Pride and Prejudice) also signing on.

The four central strangers are played by Brosnan, Collette, Paul, and Poots, who are set as a once-beloved TV personality, single mother, failed musician turned pizza-delivery boy and a “sassy teen” respectively.  Hornby is the author behind such great works as High Fidelity, About a Boy and Fever Pitch, so the source material is a solid foundation.  Jack Thorne (How I Live Now) wrote the screenplay and production is taking place in England and Spain.  Hit the jump to read the full press release (which includes a synopsis) and to check out the first image.

RoboCop and Nicole Holofcener have nothing in common… until now!

• The Wire breakout star Michael Kenneth Williams is in talks to join Joel Kinnaman, Hugh Laurie, Samuel L. Jackson, Gary Oldman, Jay Baruchel, Abbie Cornish, and Jackie Earle Haley in the Robocop remake.
• Holofcener cast Catherine Keener, Toni Collette, Ben Falcone, and Eve Hewson in supporting roles in her next movie.  Julia Louis-Dreyfuss and James Gandolfini star.

Hit the jump for details on both projects.

A couple of heavy hitters in casting news today.  Here are the headlines at a glance:

• John Cusack may join Elijah Wood in the indie thriller, Grand Piano.
• Jude Law will star in the title role of Richard Shepard’s Dom Hemingway.
• Liam James joins Steve Carell and Toni Collette in indie drama, The Way, Way Back.

Hit the jump for more on each project.

We’ve got a couple of casting stories to share this afternoon.  First up, Toni Collette and Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire) have joined the cast of the thriller Defiant.  The film is based on the true story of a double honor killing in India.  Muslim men are allowed to marry non-Muslim women per Islamic law (in order to “take over the reproductive capabilities of the enemy), but Muslim women are not allowed to marry non-Muslim men.  In May of 2011, two Muslim women allegedly killed their daughters because they had eloped and married migrant Bihari Hindu laborers.

Deadline reports that Patel will play Hari, “a young man who is, along with his girlfriend, trying to escape vengeful parents who want to kill the lovers to stop them marrying.”  Colette will play a journalist covering the story who is drawn into danger.  Bill Bennett is set to direct, and the project will be shopped to buyers at Cannes.  Collette is currently filming Hitchcock and Patel stars in Aaron Sorkin’s new HBO series The Newsroom, which premieres this summer.  Hit the jump for casting news regarding Richard Jenkins.

There’s a reunion of sorts happening for Steve Carell and Toni Collette, who last starred together in 2006 Oscar-winner, Little Miss Sunshine.  Carell and Collette will join Jim Rash (Community) and Nat Faxon’s (Bad Teacher) directorial debut, The Way, Way Back.  Their script landed on 2010′s Black List, and after earning an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay of their effort for The Descendents, I’m sure we can look forward to much more from the duo.  The Way, Way Back is an indie drama about a dysfunctional family, but that’s where the similarities to Little Miss Sunshine seem to stop.  The plot centers on a teenage boy on summer vacation who is coming to grips with his emotionally-distant mother and his cheating step-father.  The parental roles will be played by Collette and Carell, while the film also stars Sam Rockwell, Allison Janney and Annasophia Robb. Hit the jump for more.

Sacha Gervasi‘s Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho has picked up a new title, and begun principal photography.  The film will now simply be entitled “Hitchock“, which is probably better since the previous title sounds more fitting for a documentary.  Hitchcock is being billed as a love story between the legendary director (played by Anthony Hopkings) and his wife and partner Alma Reville (Helen Mirren).  The movie also stars Scarlett Johansson, Jessica Biel, Toni Collette, Danny Huston, Michael Stuhlbarg, Kurtwood Smith, Wallace Langham, Richard Portnow, and Michael Wincott.

Hit the jump for the press release.

Earlier today we learned that Jessica Biel will be playing Vera Miles in the star-studded real life pic Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho, and now four more thesps are lined up to join the project. Anthony Hopkins is set as the famous director, Scarlett Johansson is playing Psycho scream queen Janet Leigh, Helen Mirren is set as Hitch’s wife, and James D’Arcy is up for the role of the uber creepy Anthony Perkins. Now Variety reports that Toni Collette, Danny Huston (X-Men Origins: Wolverine), Michael Stuhlbarg (A Serious Man) and Michael Wincott (The Crow) are in negotiations to take on supporting roles. Hit the jump for more.

The first trailer and poster for the comedy-drama Jesus Henry Christ have gone online. The film centers on a child genius who sets out to find his biological father, only to discover the he was the result of a sperm donation. Toni Collette plays the boy’s mother, while Michael Sheen plays the “father.” The film was directed by Dennis Lee (Fireflies in the Garden), but the trailer looks like a complete rip off of a Wes Anderson movie; the framing seems almost identical. The premise is a good enough starting point, but I can’t help but shake the feeling that the whole thing plays like one of those Redbox knock-offs that looks like a real movie, but is actually just a watered-down imitation of the real thing. Sheen and Collette are immensely talented so I’d be more than happy to be proven wrong, but this trailer isn’t doing it for me.

Hit the jump for the trailer and poster. The film also stars Jason Spevack and Samantha Weinstein.