Focus Features has released a large batch of new high-resolution images from the upcoming comedy-drama Admission.  Directed by Paul Weitz (About a Boy), the film stars Tina Fey as an admissions officer at Princeton University whose life is thrown for a curve when she runs into an old friend (Paul Rudd) while visiting an experimental New Hampshire high school.  The simple idea of Fey and Rudd together sounds like a pitch-perfect comedic pairing, and the trailers hint at some strong dramatic material as well.  Hopefully the full film delivers on both fronts.

Hit the jump to check out the new images.  The film also stars Lily Tomlin, Michael Sheen, Wallace Shawn, Nat Wolff, and Gloria Reuben.  Admission opens on March 8th.

The first trailer for the comedy-drama Admission has been released.  Directed by Paul Weitz (About a Boy), the film stars Tina Fey as an admissions officer at Princeton University whose life is thrown for a curve when she runs into an old friend (Paul Rudd) while visiting an experimental New Hampshire high school.  Based on the casting of the two leads one might assume that this is a straight comedy, but the trailer refreshingly shows a much more nuanced and dramatic side of Fey that we’ve yet to see played to its full potential.  Weitz struck a wonderful chord with About a Boy, and I’m hoping a similar tone runs throughout Admission.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Lily Tomlin, Gloria Reuben, Wallace Shawn, and Michael Sheen.  Admission opens on March 8, 2013.

Disney-Pixar premiered the new Toy Story short, Partysaurus Rex, when they released Finding Nemo 3D last month.  The short features Rex (Wallace Shawn) getting a chance to cut loose and be a party hero to bath toys.  A couple nights ago, the short debuted on the Disney Channel, and now it has gone online.  I didn’t get a chance to see the short in theaters, but after watching it online, I wish I had.  It’s bright, loud, and colorful.  It’s also pretty funny.

Hit the jump to check out Partysaurus Rex.

The first trailer for Clueless director Amy Heckerling’s vampire comedy Vamps has landed online.  The film stars Alicia Silverstone and Krysten Ritter as two eternally young vampires navigating the dating world.  Though the premise doesn’t exactly have the most appealing logline, the trailer looks like the movie could be kind of fun.  Heckerling’s Clueless-style goofiness is put to good use with the vampire stuff and Silverstone and Ritter have some great chemistry.  Moreover, the supporting turns by Justin Kirk, Wallace Shawn, and Richard Lewis look pretty promising.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Sigourney Weaver, Dan Stevens, Marilu Renner and Kristen Johnston.  Vamps will open in select theaters on November 2nd and hits Blu-ray and DVD on November 13th.

A clip has gone online for the upcoming Toy Story short film, Partysaurus Rex.  In the short, Rex (Wallace Shawn) gets to shed his nerdy persona as he becomes a party star after saving bath time for some tub toys.  Like the other Toy Story shorts, this one looks cute, and it’s nice seeing the beloved characters get to interact with toys you wouldn’t think of, like in the previous short film where Buzz was in a support group with discarded Happy Meal toys.  Steve caught Partysaurus Rex said it was fun, and has a few Easter eggs in it.

Hit the jump to check out the clip.  Partysaurus Rex will be attached to Finding Nemo 3D, which opens September 14th.

Pixar has released the first images from their upcoming Toy Story short film, Partysaurus Rex.  The third “Toy Story Toons” sees Rex (voiced by Wallace Shawn) pulled into Bonnie’s bath time, which allows the neurotic dinosaur to finally cut loose.  “If you’re a bath toy you get really intense playtime. It’s like a party,” director Mark Walsh, an animator on Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, and Ratatouille, tells Entertainment Weekly.  “What I was going for was, you move to a new town and make new friends, and suddenly you think you have this chance where you can reinvent yourself,” says Walsh. “I love that Rex, in his sweetness, thinks he can reinvent who he is in the image of a party animal.”  His reinvention gets some help when he manages to save the other bath toys from being stuck at the bottom of the tub since he’s the only one with arms (short as they may be) and can turn the water back on to get the party going again (with dance music by Grammy-nominated electronica musician BT).

Hit the jump to check out images from Partysaurus Rex.  The short will play in front of Finding Nemo 3D, which opens September 14th.

Production commences this week on About a Boy director Paul Weitz’s dramedy Admission.  Tina Fey stars as an admissions officer at Princeton University whose life is thrown for a curve when she runs into an old friend (Paul Rudd) while visiting an experimental New Hampshire high school.  The full synopsis, included in the press release, elaborates a bit more on the plot of the dramedy and I can assure you that it’s much more than a one-note romantic comedy.  Additionally, the announcement notes that Lily Tomlin has joined the cast that also includes Gloria Reueben, Wallace Shawn, and Michael Sheen.

I’m a big fan of About a Boy, and I’m eager to see the chemistry between Fey and Rudd.  Both are undeniable comedic talents, but Rudd has more experience on the drama side of things so it’ll be interesting to see Fey get a bit more serious.  Hit the jump to read the press release, which includes the synopsis.

Director Jonathan Demme has had a fascinating career thus far, crossing genres and subjects as varied as Philadephia, The Silence of the Lambs, and Rachel Getting Married. For his next project, Demme will be helming a reunion of sorts from the team behind 1981’s My Dinner with André. The New York Times reports (via The Playlist) that Demme will helm Wally And André Shoot Ibsen . The film will be adapted from Henrik Ibsen’s play The Master Builder and will star Wallace Shawn (The Princess Bride) and André Gregory. The film will be shot on a single location on a budget less than $1 million, and Demme describes the film thusly:”It’s like a Hitchcock movie with a vein of humor running through it.”

If you’re a fan of Community and My Dinner with André sounds familiar, that’s because the TV series paid homage to the intimate drama with the season two episode “Critical Film Studies” in which Jeff and Abed shared a dinner together while the gang planned a Pulp Fiction surprise party for Abed. Filming on Ibsen is set to get underway in a few weeks, so hopefully we’ll get to see the film soon. Demme is also working on an adaptation of Stephen King’s time travel thriller 11/22/63. Hit the jump to watch the trailer for My Dinner with André.

When it first arrived in theaters 24 years ago, The Princess Bride was well short of a box office smash. According to Prince Humperdinck, played by Chris Sarandon:

“They couldn’t quite figure out how to market it. They didn’t really know what they had.”

What they had was the definition of a cult classic, an inconceivably-well-put-together movie that would stand the test of time. There was a giant name Andre, a six-fingered man, princes and princesses, pirates and R.O.U.S.’s, miracle workers and albinos. What’s not to like? After more than two decades of having fans force them to repeat their famous lines, the cast of The Princess Bride reunited recently to reminisce. Hit the jump to check out what they had to say. Or don’t. As you wish.

Four delightful actors have joined the cast of Amy Heckerling’s vampire-romantic-comedy Vamps.  The film stars Alicia Silverstone and Krysten Ritter (She’s Out of My League) as a pair of vampires enjoying the New York nightlife until “love enters the picture and each has to make a choice that will jeopardize their immortality.”  Sigourney Weaver also stars as the vampire queen Cisserus.

The gents joining the movie are Wallace Shawn as Dr. Van Helsing, a well-known vampire expert and hunter; Justin Kirk (Weeds) as Vadim, a Russian vampire always on the prowl for a good time; Dan Stevens (The Turn of the Screw) as Joey Van Helsing, a college student smitten with Stacy (Ritter) and; and Barry (The Wrestler) will portray Ivan, loyal assistant of blood-thirsty vampire Cisserus’ (Weaver).  I repeat: Wallace Shawn is Van Helsing.  I must see this movie now.  Hit the jump for the full press release.

With Toy Story 3 getting released next weekend, we’ve been given 5 clips and 18 high resolution images from the film.  Also, Matt was just at Pixar to do interviews with the voice cast and the filmmakers, so you can expect a lot more Toy Story 3 coverage next week.  Until then, check out the clips and images after the jump.

It was less than fifteen years ago that Toy Story debuted for the Holiday season of 1995. At the time Disney was taking a chance with an entirely computer animated film, especially after their amazing resurgence and recent run of cel animated films – they were only a year off of The Lion King. Now, Pixar essentially runs Disney animation and cel animation is the experiment – completely out of fashion in part due to Disney ruining the brand name (and to some extent DreamWorks making equally mediocre films). But you can’t blame Pixar for being good, and it was the wild success of the Toy Story films that helped cement their legacy. They tell the story of Woody (Tom Hanks), a cowboy doll who is ousted from his position as the sole favorite toy by Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), and how the two go on an adventure in the real world. The sequel has the duo facing a toy kidnapper (Wayne Knight), who wants to send Woody to Japan with the toy line he originally came from while Woody confronts his own mortality. My review of Toy Story and Toy Story 2 on Blu-ray after the jump.

A new trailer for Toy Story 3 has been released and as you might expect from the company that only makes amazing movies (Pixar), the trailer makes me wish TS3 was in theaters this weekend.  Loaded with funny scenes and action, the trailer is a perfectly cut piece of awesome.

And unlike the first clips that have been released from Toy Story 3, this one starts to show what the movie is really about and how some of the new toys are not so friendly.  I promise you want to watch this trailer.  Also, I’ve posted 10 new high resolution images that show the new characters in greater detail.

Pixar will be unveiling a new trailer for Toy Story 3 tomorrow.  But if you can’t wait till then, 30 seconds of the trailer has already hit the net and it’s after the jump.  Featuring some of the new characters in the film, the spot is definitely worth watching.  Also, points to Disney/Pixar for finding a way to make us cover the movie twice.  After all, we’re posting the full trailer tomorrow as soon as it’s online.  Toy Story 3 gets released June 18 and the official website has been updated.

Hit the jump for the full synopsis and the 30 second clip:

On New Year’s Eve, before the clock struck midnight, director Lee Unkrich tweeted, “Enjoying the last day I can say ‘Toy Story 3′ doesn’t come out next year’”.  Indeed we have entered 2010, the year of the latest update in the Toy Story franchise, and today a clip that introduces a crucial new character, pretentious thespian hedgehog Mr. Pricklepants, has hit the net.  The sequel will follow the toys we know and love (Buzz, Woody, Hamm, Rex, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, Slinky Dog, and more) plus a few new playthings (Lotso and Mr. Pricklepants) when they head to a daycare center as owner Andy heads off to college.  Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Don Rickles, and Estelle Harris will reprise their roles, while Ned Beatty and Timothy Dalton will voice new the aforementioned new toys.

Look for the clip of Unkrich talking about Toy Story 3 and Mr. Pricklepants after the jump.