During the late 1980s, a generation of American boys went to war in Vietnam. Doing so, however, didn’t require any basic training or an actual tour of duty. Nope, all that was required was a working VCR and a VHS copy of any one of the squad of Vietnam War-era movies available at the local mom and pop video store. Seriously, I can’t remember a single birthday party from that time that didn’t involve a screening of Good Morning, Vietnam or Hamburger Hill or Platoon. But the Vietnam War movie that has always lingered strongest in my memory – the one that looked different and felt different from the others – was Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket.  Hit the jump for my review of the 25th anniversary Blu-ray.

Amidst horror films like The Apparition, The Possession and The Tall Man that are currently in theaters, director Scott Derrickson (The Exorcism of Emily Rose) must wait until October 5th to unleash Sinister.  His take on the found-footage sub-genre centers on a true-crime novelist (Ethan Hawke) who discovers that his new house played host to vicious murders and supernatural entities still haunt the walls.  If you’d like to bring a screening of Sinister to your town before its October 5th release, check out the details here.  For now, we have ten new images to share with you that should satisfy your need to be creeped the hell out.

Sinister also stars Juliet Rylance, James Ransone and Vincent D’Onofrio.  Hit the jump to check out the images.

In 1995, Will Smith starred in the first of three back-to-back films that would rocket his career into superstardom and solidify his status as a box office king.  He kicked things off with Michael Bay’s feature directorial debut, Bad Boys, followed by the large-scale sci-fi actioner Independence Day, and rounded things off with the franchise-starter Men in Black.  The third installment in the sci-fi comedy series, Men in Black 3, just opened in theaters and now Men in Black and Men in Black II have been released on Blu-ray to mark the occasion.  Hit the jump for our review of both films on Blu-ray.

The first trailer for director Scott Derrickson’s new horror film Sinister has been released.  The film stars Ethan Hawke as a true crime novelist who moves his family into a house where the horrific murder of an entire family took place, in an effort to discover his next big story.  When he finds a box of home videos in which other families are also brutally murdered, he realizes he may have made a huge mistake by moving into the house.  The trailer is a bit heavy handed when it comes to exposition, as characters state flat-out what everything means (“That’s the family that used to live here!” “That symbol is obviously a pagan demon who feeds on children’s souls!”).  That said, there look to be some genuinely terrifying scares and as a fan of Derrickson’s The Exorcism of Emily Rose, I’m game to check out what he has in store with Sinister.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Vincent D’Onofrio and James Ransone. Sinister opens on August 24th.

When last we reported on Running Scared-director Wayne Kramer’s Pawn Shop Chronicles, the picture had attached Paul Walker to star with Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst set to direct.  That’s old news.  What’s current is the casting of Elijah Wood, Matt Dillon, Brendan Fraser and Vincent D’Onofrio in the dark comedy.  The plot seems pretty much the same, which involves a local pawn shop in a small Southern town that is a link between a man searching for his kidnapped wife, two white-supremacist meth addicts and a down-on-his-luck Elvis impersonator.  Production on the Adam Minarovich screenplay is underway in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  Hit the jump for more casting news on Pawn Shop Chronicles.

You’re driving down the street, and it’s suddenly blocked off.  You notice these weird yellow signs with nonsensical letters or numbers.  There’s unusual glow lighting up a neighborhood you can’t usually see from your house.  What you might have here is a film company shooting in your town.  It happens a lot, and you never know where they might pop up…until now.

The following is a semi-comprehensive list of films currently shooting, what they’re shooting, and where they’re shooting.  We’ll be telling you where you might get to see the very famous, the kinda famous and (if all goes well) the soon-to-be famous. While we can’t list every single movie, television show, or student film in production, you’ll get a pretty good idea of what the heck is going on where all those people are buzzing about.  Want to know where in the world are Matt Damon, Harrison Ford, Sylvester Stallone, Woody Harrelson, and Leonardo DiCaprio? Hit the jump for more.

You’ll have to wait until August 17th to see Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone together again in The Expendables 2, but this video from the set visit of The Tomb should hold you over.  Production started recently in New Orleans on the Mikael Hafstrom (1408) picture that stars Sly as Ray Breslin, the world’s foremost authority on structural security who is framed and incarcerated in a prison of his own design.  In prison, Breslin meets Emil Rottmayer (Schwarzenegger), the leader of the prisoners who wants to get out just as badly as Breslin does.  In this video, Stallone and Schwarzenegger comment further on their characters in The Tomb, their work together on The Expendables and The Expendables 2, and the old-school machismo of action movies and their stars, which Sly calls, “male pattern badness.”  Written by Miles Chapman (Road House 2: Last Call) and Jason Keller (Machine Gun Preacher), The Tomb also stars Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Jim Caviezel, Amy Ryan, Vincent D’Onofrio, Vinnie Jones, and new addition Sam Neill.  Hit the jump to check it out along with some images from the set.

Some casting notes today.  Here they are in brief:

• Logan Marshall Green (Devil) will play Tennessee Williams in the upcoming pic, Lonely Hunter,  the feature film based on the life story of Southern gothic writer, Carson McCullers.
• Gina Gershon (Face/Off) and Peter Stormare (Fargo) will join the indie, Mall, replacing Chelsea Handler and Eric Bogosian due to scheduling difficulties.

Hit the jump for more.

Director Mikael Hafstrom just rounded out a great deal of his cast for the Arnold Schwarzenegger/Sylvester Stallone team-up actioner The Tomb.  Stallone stars as a structural security expert who is framed and locked up in a high-security prison that he designed, and Schwarzenegger is onboard as one of the prison’s inmates and a potential ally to Stallone.  Jim Caviezel also stars, and now Variety has added four more names to the cast: Amy Ryan, Vincent D’Onofrio, Vinnie Jones and 50 Cent.  Hit the jump for details concerning who these new additions to the cast will be playing.

New images have been released for the likely-direct-to-DVD movie Fire with Fire.  The film stars Josh Duhamel as a fireman who has to take matters into his own hands when he’s threatened by a man he’s going to testify against.  So how do I know this movie is going direct-to-DVD?  For starters, the movie stars Bruce Willis and lately his small-budget thrillers are going to stores instead of theaters (Setup and Catch .44).  Second, it co-stars 50 Cent whose last seven movies haven’t made it into theaters (as well they shouldn’t).

But hey, maybe the movie will make it to the big screen, in which case the world can once again be reminded that 50 Cent should never be in movies.  Hit the jump to check out the images.  Fire with Fire also stars Rosario Dawson, Richard Schiff, and Vincent D’Onofrio.

Some things just go together like peanut butter and jelly, spaghetti and meatballs, lamb and tuna fish. If Vincent D’Onofrio’s (Full Metal Jacket) directorial debut Don’t Go in the Woods is any indication, then the next match made in movie heaven is musical-meets-slasher flick. Somehow I don’t think that’s going to work out so well.

Don’t Go in the Woods, from Tribeca Film, is a cautionary tale told through the story of a young band who heads into the woods to find inspiration for their songs. What they find is a “nightmare beyond comprehension.”  The film releases nationally On Demand via cable VOD, iTunes, Amazon Watch Instantly and Vudu on December 26^th, with a limited theatrical release in January 2012. Hit the jump to check out the trailer.

We’ve got another round up of stuff from the American Film Market to share with you today in the way of promo posters for Ass Backwards, Thunder Run, and Carnaval. Thunder Run is the 3D motion-capture war film starring Gerard Butler, Sam Worthington, and Matthew McConaughey. Directed by Simon West (Con Air), the film centers on the 2003 capture of Baghdad. The comedy Ass Backwards stars Alicia Silverstone, Jon Cryer, Casey Wilson (Happy Endings) and Vincent D’Onofrio and centers on two best friends who head back to their hometown in an attempt to win a pageant they never won as children.

Carnaval stars John Cusack and Johnny Knoxville and centers on a sports scout (Cusack) who is forced to head down to Rio de Janeiro to recruit the world’s top soccer player. The scout’s best friend (Knoxville) comes along for the trip, and hijinks ensue. Josh Stern (Swing Vote) will direct.  Hit the jump to check out the promo posters.

We’ve got a couple of casting stories for you today. First up, Vincent D’Onofrio, Chelsea Handler and Eric Bogoslan will star in an adaptation of Bogoslan’s novel Mall, the directorial debut of Linkin Park’s Joe Hahn. Deadline reports that the film will tell the intersecting stories of five suburbanites: “a stoner teen, a restless housewife, a voyeuristic businessman, a mall security guard and a trigger-happy crystal meth addict who heads to the mall looking for trouble.” Handler will play the dark role of the housewife, D’Onofrio will take on the voyeuristic businessman, and Bogoslan is set to play a store owner. Hahn has directed a number of Linkin Park’s music videos.

Additionally, Walton Goggins (Justified) has joined the cast of the indie drama Officer Down. The film stars David Boreanaz, Stephen Dorff, Dominic Purcell (Prison Break) and AnnaLynne McCord (90210) and centers on a doctor and security guard who live out each other’s daytime lives in their dreams at night. The security guard murders his wife, but is then hit by a car and is brought in to the hospital that he doctor works at, where they recognize each other. Deadline reports that Goggins will play the prime suspect in the sexual assault of a young woman, a case being investigated by Dorff’s character. Hit the jump to read a synopsis of the novel Mall.

Anchor Bay has released a trailer and poster for their new crime thriller Kill the Irishman.  The film centers on real-life Irish mobster Danny Greene (played by Ray Stevenson) who decided to stop being a loan shark for the Italian mob and go into business for himself.  Not surprisingly, the mafia didn’t take too kindly to that career change and they tried to blow him up.  A lot.  There are about 14 explosions over the course of this two-and-a-half minute trailer.  However, the film does look like a nice showcase for Stevenson and Stevenson’s mustache.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer and poster.  Kill the Irishman also stars Vincent D’Onofrio, Val Kilmer, and Christopher Walken.  It opens March 11, 2011.

Screen Daily reports that Vincent D’Onofrio has been perfectly cast to play Harvey Weinstein in the upcoming adaptation of Peter Biskind’s Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film.  As you can guess by the title, Biskind’s book chronicles the rise in popularity of independent films in the 90′s and how Miramax (which Harvey and his brother Bob Weinstein ran) played a huge role in everything.  Kenneth Bowser, who previously directed the documentary adaptation of Peter Biskind’s Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex, Drugs, and Rock ‘N’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood,will be directing the film based off of a script by Dean Craig (Death at a Funeral) and Joshua James (Alien Uprising).  The always “trusty” IMDb also lists some interesting names like Matthew Perry, Andy Serkis, and Sally Hawkins as part of the cast.

I’ve read Down and Dirty Pictures and I can not stress enough how curious I am about this film.  I would think that making a documentary based off of the book would be the easier thing to do, since adapting the book into a film is going to require actors to play people who such as Quentin Tarantino and Kevin Smith.  Plus, there is a lot of story to be told.  One thing is certain though, it’s going to be one very interesting film whenever it comes out.