The first trailer for director Stephen Sommers’ adaptation of the Dean Koontz novel Odd Thomas has made its way online.  The story centers on a short-order cook who can commune with the dead, with Anton Yelchin starring as the titular character.  It’s a uniquely “small” film for Sommers following the director’s previous tentpoles like Van Helsing, The Mummy, and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, but he appears to be delving in similar territory as the more supernatural aspects of Odd Thomas are grounded by a healthy dose of humor and charisma from Yelchin.  The pic looks to strike a vibe similar to Men in Black or Beetlejuice, and it’s a bit too early to tell if it succeeds or not, but Yelchin’s starring turn sure is promising.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Willem Dafoe, Addison Timlin, Nico Tortorella, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and Patton Oswalt.  Odd Thomas opens in theaters later this year.

The first set photos and video from Wes Anderson‘s Grand Budapest Hotel have leaked online.  Details about the film are scarce, but we know it takes place in 1927 in a Hungarian hotel and has Ralph Fiennes and Saoirse Ronan in the lead roles. Plot details are scarce, but the movie is reportedly in the vein of the films of Billy Wilder (The Apartment) and Ernest Lubitsch (The Shop Around the Corner).  The impressive cast also includes Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman, Owen Wilson, Jeff Goldblum, F. Murray Abraham, Jude Law, and Mathieu Amalric.  In addition to showing off the setting, the images also show us the colorful costumes (I like the purple coats) and Goldblum’s commanding facial hair.

Hit the jump to check out the set photos.  Grand Budapest Hotel should arrive some time next year.

Wes Anderson has never had much problem lining-up impressive ensembles for his movies.  Even his earlier movies have great casts albeit less famous ones.  In a recent interview with THR, Anderson revealed his next film, Grand Budapest Hotel, will have one of his best casts to date.  First, Anderson confirmed Ralph Fiennes, Bill Murray, and Saoirse Ronan were in the flick (Fiennes and Ronan are the leads).  But they’re only a small part of the large cast.  Anderson will reunite with Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, Tilda Swinton, and Jason Schwartzman. Owen Wilson might also have a small role.  The movie will also include Jeff Goldblum, F. Murray Abraham, Jude Law, and Mathieu Amalric (Quantum of Solace).

Hit the jump for more.

We’ve got a couple of casting stories for you this morning.  First up, Willem Dafoe and Udo Kier are set to re-team with filmmaker Lars Von Trier for his upcoming erotic drama Nymphomaniac.  Charlotte Gainsbourg stars as Jo, a self-diagnosed nymphomaniac who recounts her life story to Seligman (Stellan Skarsgard), an old, charming bachelor who finds Jo beaten up in an alley.  THR has no details on Dafoe or Kier’s roles, but they’ll be joining an impressive cast that also features Shia LaBeouf, Jamie Bell, Uma Thurman, Christian Slater, and Connie Nielsen.  As we previously reported, Nymphomaniac will be a duology released in both hardcore and soft-core versions.

Hit the jump for casting news on the dramedy Posthumous.

Principal photography has begun on Anton Corbijn‘s adaptation of John le Carre‘s A Most Wanted Man.  The plot revolves around a near-dead half-Chechen, half Russian man on the run in Hamburg’s Islamic community, and looking to recover his father’s ill-gotten fortune, which attracts the attention of German and U.S. security agencies.  We previously reported that Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams, and Robin Wright were on board, and the press release has announced that Willem Dafoe is attached as well.  The press release also lists the German actors co-starring in the production.  Among them is rising star Daniel Brühl, who is starring opposite Chris Hemsworth in Ron Howard‘s upcoming Formula One racing drama, Rush.

Hit the jump for the press release.

Jamie Bell and Connie Nielsen have boarded Lars Von Trier‘s upcoming two-part feature, Nymphomaniac.  Per THR, “Charlotte Gainsbourg will star as Joe, a self-diagnosed nymphomaniac. Stellan Skarsgard will play Seligman, an old, charming bachelor who finds Joe beaten up in an alley. He takes her home to care for her and Joe recounts to him the story of her erotic life, from birth to the age of 50.”  The movie also stars Shia LaBeouf and Danish actors Nicolas Bro (Warhorse), Jesper Christensen (Quantum of Solice) and Jens Albinus (Idiots), Sweden’s Shanti Roney (Together) and German actor Severin von Hoensbroech (Ruhm).  Nicole Kidman and Willem Dafoe have been rumored for supporting roles.  THR currently doesn’t have any details on who Bell or Nielsen’s will be playing.

LaBeouf has said that all of the sex scenes will be for real, but the producers explain they “will be performed with the help of body doubles and visual effects.”  According to THR, Von Trier plans to release the films in both hard-core and soft-core versions with an eye towards a 2013 release.  The 11-week shoot in Gemany begins tomorrow.

With Moonrise Kingdom still in theaters, quirky director Wes Anderson is already putting together a dream cast for his next film.  The as-of-yet-untitled picture would feature an ensemble that could include Johnny Depp, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Edward Norton, Jude Law, Jeff Goldblum, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe and Angela Lansbury. Murray and Norton currently star in Moonrise Kingdom, while Wilson is a regular in the director’s films.  Depp, Law and Lansbury would all be first time additions to an Anderson picture.  Brody starred in The Darjeeling Limited and Dafoe previously voiced a character in Anderson’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox.  Details, via Twitch, are short at the moment and it’s unclear as to what state any of these casting negotiations are currently in.  We will update as more news becomes available.

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.

John Carter is coming to Blu-ray and DVD on June 5, and I hope it finds a second life in home release.  I don’t know what it would take to justify a sequel, but for the sake of ambitious, lush science fiction like this, it would be unfortunate if the lasting legacy was that of a flop.  The expansive universe, as designed by Edgar Rice Borroughs, is really built for serialization.  We have seen this potential realized on screen in the many properties that were inspired by John Carter of Mars.  Jon Favreau points to Star Wars and Superman as two indelible franchises that benefit from the Mars mythos in the featurette, “Influence of John Carter,” which will appear on the Blu-ray.  We were provided a one-minute clip from the featurette, with supporting remarks by Willem Dafoe (the voice of Tars Tarkas in the movie), and we’d like to share it with you after the jump.

The Martin Scorsese who put out The Last Temptation of Christ is not the Martin Scorsese we know today. He had yet to make Goodfellas, and though Raging Bull netted Robert De Niro an Oscar, Scorsese spent much of the 1980’s in the wilderness, making niche films which were considered disappointments, only to secure financing through directing a for-hire hit movie (The Color of Money). Christ was most notable for the controversy it engendered, as it was protested by a number of religious groups, which kept it out of most big chain theaters. Vanya of 42^nd Street is a project that transcends its set-up, and acts as a follow-up to Louis Malle’s My Dinner with Andre. It reunited Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn with a cast (that includes Julianne Moore) that performed Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya on the fly for years. Both have come out from Criterion on Blu-ray, and our reviews of both follow after the jump.

Some big name casting news for you today.  Here are the headlines:

• Willem Dafoe will join Christian Bale and Casey Affleck in the dramatic thriller, Out of the Furnace, written and directed by Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart).
• Rooney Mara (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) will star in the 1950s period piece, Brooklyn, adapted from Colm Toibin’s best-selling novel about a woman torn between her family in Ireland and her new found love for an American.

Hit the jump for more on both projects.

There’s a special place in my heart for big, bold adventure movies like John Carter.  In an age where detached irony seems to permeate every recess of our lives, John Carter throws out names like “Zodongan”, “Therns”, “Tharks”, and “Barsoom” and doesn’t blink an eye.  This is the world of John Carter and co-writer/director Andrew Stanton mostly lets the world open up at its own pace.  The conflicts are laid out cleanly, the lead characters are compelling, and eventually you’re not wondering about the difference between Zodongans and Heliumites and how a guy from 19th-century Earth was drawn into their conflict.  You’re too enraptured by the majesty of the red planet.  You’re also too busy laughing at the good-natured humor and being sucked into the exhilarating action.

I’ve heard good things about John Carter from people who have seen it, but sadly the film’s marketing has been a mess.  A recent featurette finally showed off the film’s scope and so does the final trailer.  But none of the trailers (except one that was fan-made, and far better than any of Disney’s trailers) took a single moment to explain who John Carter is, how he got to Mars, and why he has special powers.  Does any audience member who is unfamiliar with the source material, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novel A Princess of Mars, know anything about the character beyond “Shirtless Dude Who Fights Weird Creatures”?  The movie is titled “John Carter” and Disney never took the time to tell us anything about him.

Hit the jump to check out the final trailer.  The film stars Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Samantha Morton, Mark Strong, Ciaran Hinds, Dominic West, James Purefoy, Daryl Sabara, Polly Walker, Bryan Cranston, Thomas Haden Church, and Willem Dafoe.  John Carter opens in IMAX and 3D on March 9th.

Disney has released a new clip and featurette for director Andrew Stanton’s John Carter that will satisfy your need for action and romance respectively. First up is a clip that shows the titular hero, played by Taylor Kitsch, as he battles for his life in the Barsoomian (ie Martian) version of gladiatorial games. Alongside Carter is a badly wounded Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe), a Martian warrior who is being tested for signs of weakness by pitting him against the ferocious White Apes. Those of you who prefer the softer side of John Carter will be interested in the new featurette that highlights the relationship of Carter and the Martian princess, Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins). If none of the above makes any sense to you, might I suggest you check out some posters, images, trailers, behind-the-scenes footage and set visit interviews. Better yet, just get caught up on everything here. John Carter releases in 3D on March 9^th. Hit the jump to see the new clip and featurette.

Seeing as how Armageddon and Deep Impact are almost 15 years old now, it’s apparently time for movies to tackle the apocalypse again. This time, however, the apocalypse-centered films are more interested in understated drama than exploding your eyeballs. The Steve Carell dramedy Seeking a Friend for the End of the World opens this May, and today the first trailer for the drama 4:44 Last Day on Earth hit the web. The film stars Willem Dafoe and looks to be quite the downer, as the story takes place the night before the world is set to end at 4:44 am. The protagonists of the film aren’t trying to find a means of escape or a way out, but have wholly accepted the fact that they will cease to exist in one day’s time. It’s heavy stuff that should make for an intriguing cinematic experience, but I may be in need of a hefty pick-me-up once the credits roll. Space Jam watch party, anyone?

Hit the jump to watch the trailer. 4:44 Last Day on Earth opens in limited release and VOD on March 23rd.