Director/co-writer Ariel Vromen’s The Iceman opens this weekend in limited release.  The drama is based on the book by Anthony Bruno that chronicles the life of Richard Kuklinski (played by Michael Shannon), a professional hitman who kept his work secret from his family.  The contract killer received the nickname “The Iceman” because he froze the bodies of his victims in order to disguise their time of death and throw the authorities off track.  The film also stars Chris Evans, Ray Liotta, Winona Ryder, Robert Davi, and Danny Abeckaser.  For more on The Iceman, watch the trailer.

At the recent Los Angeles press day, I landed an exclusive interview with Winona Ryder.  We talked about making The Iceman, the way she prepares for a role, her most challenging role, if she still has to audition, her obsession with The Wire and The Big Lebowski, and a lot more.  Hit the jump to either read or listen to what she had to say.

A new trailer for the thriller The Iceman has landed online.  The film stars Michael Shannon and chronicles the life of Richard Kuklinski, a professional hitman who kept his work secret from his family. The contract killer received the nickname “The Iceman” because he froze the bodies of his victims in order to disguise their time of death and throw the authorities off track.  This trailer makes the film feel a bit more dramatic than the action-oriented first trailer, but it looks like it might reveal a tad too much of the film’s plot.  Matt caught the film at the Toronto Film Festival and was not impressed by director/co-writer Ariel Vromen’s shallow take on Kuklinski, saying the pic is “about a hitman and nothing else.”

Hit the jump to watch the new trailer.  The film also stars Chris Evans, Ray Liotta, Winona Ryder, and James Franco.  The Iceman opens on May 3rd.

If you’ve followed the Top 5 for any amount of time you’ve probably already deduced that I like to use the opening paragraph in an anecdotal fashion. Whether I’m spinning a recap of my latest pop-culture excursions or using the latest wedding I’m attending as a gateway for complaining about the pop-culture excursions I’d rather be partaking of, I try and keep this space at least loosely based around entertainment. That said, this week is no different as I finally had the chance to sit down with writer/director David Ayer‘s End of Watch last night. I won’t do the film the disservice of reviewing it in two sentences, but I will say that I found Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña‘s chemistry to be excellent and the action to be consistently suspenseful/captivating. Is the script’s attempt to tie nearly every encounter the partner’s undertake into an interconnected climax a little bit of a stretch? I think so. Nevertheless, End of Watch is still a cop drama that pushes almost all of the right buttons.

But enough of my reviews in 100 words or less, in this week’s trek down memory lane is the first official image and trailer for A Good Day to Die Hard, Taken 2 interviews with Liam Neeson, Famke Janssen and more, a recap of all our James Bond / Skyfall coverage from the past week, Frankenweenie interviews with Tim Burton, Winona Ryder and more, and finally a look at some classic video games that we feel deserve an HD remake.

Frankenweenie, from director Tim Burton and screenwriter John August, is a charming, macabre and heartwarming tale, about Victor (voiced by Charlie Tahan), a young boy who, after unexpectedly losing his beloved dog Sparky, harnesses the power of science to bring his best friend back to life, but quickly faces unintended and sometimes monstrous consequences for his actions.  The voice cast also includes Catherine O’Hara, Martin Short, Martin Landau, Winona Ryder and Atticus Shaffer.

At the film’s press junket, actress Winona Ryder talked about what it was like to reunite with Tim Burton again (it’s been 22 years since Edward Scissorhands), how she found the experience of doing voice-over work, the messages that she connected to in the story, her impressions from the first time she worked with Burton on Beetlejuice, and why she’s always gravitated towards dark films and characters.  Check out what she had to say after the jump.

Director Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie is set to open in theaters on October 5th, but we have some previews to share with you today.  Two new clips have gone online for Disney’s stop-motion animated film that was based on Burton’s original idea and 1984 short film.  One of today’s clips shows young Victor Frankenstein (voiced by Charlie Tahan) in the process of resurrecting his deceased pet dog, Sparky (Frank Welker).  The second clip reveals that Victor’s secret is out, when classmate Edgar (Atticus Shaffer) pops by to share in Victor’s success.  The behind-the-scenes featurette is a bit spoilery and spotlights a good amount of plot points, but it does show some interesting puppetry work behind the camera.  Hit the jump to check it all out.

Heather, my love, there’s a new TV show in town. Not wishing to be left behind in the scripted TV game, Bravo is adding a bevy of new, original programming to its development slate, including a kind of reboot / sequel to the 1988 dark comedy cult hit Heathers, which starred Winona Ryder and Christian Slater as two teenagers who rebel against the reign of the Heathers (Shannen Doherty, Kim Walker and Lisanne Falk) in their high school.

The series was envisioned by Jenny Bicks (The Big C), who wants to update the story by setting it 20 years after the first film, where Veronica (Ryder) returns to Sherwood with her daughter who herself must go up against the reigning high school clique – except this time instead of the Heathers it will be the Ashleys (who are actually the daughters of the surviving Heathers).  For more on angel dust, switchblades, and sexually perverse photography (i.e. the project), hit the jump.

Have you ever wanted to set foot on a movie set without having to deal with all the pesky credentials like education, experience and talent? Well, you’re in luck, because Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie has all new interactive tours that give you a 360-degree view of a working set.  The virtual tours are guided by some of the production’s creative team who are kind enough to explain the process of animating a stop-motion film.  If you look closely, you’ll even notice some new characters and creatures in the film that haven’t been revealed before.

Writer/director Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie, featuring the voices of Charlie Tahan, Winona Rider, Martin Short, Martin Landau, Christopher Lee and Catherine O’Hara, opens October 5th.  Hit the jump to take the tour!

The first trailer for the thriller The Iceman has been released.  The film chronicles the life of Richard Kuklinski, a professional hitman who kept his work secret from his family. The contract killer received the nickname “The Iceman” because he froze the bodies of his victims in order to disguise their time of death and throw the authorities off track.  “Michael Shannon as a hitman” was really all I needed to hear to get me in the theater, but the film looks to have some great scenes between Shannon and Ray Liotta.  Moreover, Chris Evans is nearly unrecognizable in dirty long hair as Kuklinski’s mentor.  James Franco was originally slated to play that role before Evans took over, but it appears that Franco is still in the film as a supporting character.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  Directed by Ariel Vromen, the film also stars Winona Ryder.  The Iceman recently premiered at the Venice Film Festival and is slated to play at the Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals.

Winona Ryder (Black Swan) is in negotiations to star in Homefront, an actioner written by Sylvester Stallone. Ryder would star alongside Jason Statham and James Franco. The plot, based on a book by Chuck Logan, centers on an ex-DEA agent, Phil Broker (Statham) who moves his family to a small town in hopes of a quieter life.  Instead, he runs afoul of a meth-pushing kingpin by the name of Gator (Franco).  Homefront, directed by Gary Fleder (Kiss the Girls), starts production in New Orleans September 24th.  Hit the jump for more on Ryder’s role and additional casting for Homefront.

Lionsgate has released a trailer for The Letter, formerly titled The Stare.  Winona Ryder stars as a playwright who starts to lose touch with reality: “She is plagued by dreams and visions of being watched, while also falling under the spell of her charismatic new leading man (James Franco).”  Josh Hamilton, Marin Ireland, and Katherine Waterston co-star in the feature written and directed by Jay Anania (Shadows & Lies).

There is no release date scheduled, but it looks like The Letter will premiere on VOD.  The movie looks terrible in this clip, but I may be blinded by the ultra-low production values, so check out the trailer for yourself after the jump.

The full track listing for Tim Burton’s upcoming stop-motion animated feature Frankenweenie has been announced, and it features a few obvious choices (Robert Smith of The Cure) as well as a couple of curveballs (Winona Ryder?). Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs has contributed an original song titled “Strange Love” that will play over the credits, and the 14-track album also includes cuts from Neon Trees, Mark Foster of Foster the People, Grace Potter featuring The Flaming Lips, Plain White T’s, Passion Pit and more.

Hit the jump to check out the full track list.  The album will be available September 25th, while Frankenweenie opens in 3D on October 5th.

Some new character posters from Tim Burton’s upcoming stop-motion animated film, Frankenweenie, have gone online.  As we talked about in our Comic-Con panel recap, the film’s characters feature unique looks to differentiate them from each other.  The following posters give a good look at just how odd they are.  Frankenweenie, starring Charlie Tahan, Christopher Lee, Martin Short, Catherine O’Hara, Winona Ryder and Robert Capron, opens October 5th. Hit the jump to check out the posters.

A new full-length trailer for Tim Burton’s stop-motion animated feature Frankenweenie has been released.  The pic is a feature-length adaptation of Burton’s 1984 short film of the same name, which centered on a boy who takes a page from Frankenstein and brings his dead dog back to life.  This trailer is actually really great, and has me hoping that Frankenweenie might be a return to form for Burton.  The director’s recent output has been a bit, shall we say, lacking, but Frankenweenie promises the mix of creepy and goofy that he so expertly displayed with Beetlejuice (though I said the same thing about early trailers for Dark Shadows and we know how that turned out).  I’m really loving the quietly strange tone, and the visuals are gorgeous in black-and-white.  Between Frankenweenie and ParaNorman, hopefully we’re in for some truly original and offbeat stop-motion animated features in the next couple of months.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film features the voices of The film features the voices of Winona Ryder, Martin Short, Catherine O’Hara, and Martin Landau. Frankenweenie opens in 3D on October 5th.

A slew of character images and corresponding character info from Tim Burton’s upcoming stop-motion animated film Frankenweenie have gone online.  The pic is a feature-length adaptation of Burton’s 1984 short film of the same name, which centered on a boy who takes a page from Frankenstein and brings his dead dog back to life.  This new batch of images along with character info gives us a better idea of what to expect storywise, and also gives us a chance to marvel at the impressive character designs.

Hit the jump to check out the images and character info.  The film features the voices of The film features the voices of Winona Ryder, Martin Short, Catherine O’Hara, and Martin Landau.  Frankenweenie opens in 3D on October 5th.

The black and white, stop-motion animated 3D film Frankenweenie, from director Tim Burton and based on the ideas in his 1984 live-action short, is a heart-warming tale about a boy and his beloved dog.  After unexpectedly losing Sparky, young Victor (voiced by Charlie Tahan) sews him back together and harnesses the power of science to bring his best friend back to life, but quickly faces unintended and sometimes monstrous consequences for his actions.  The voice cast also includes Catherine O’Hara, Martin Short, Martin Landau, Atticus Shaffer and Winona Ryder.

During an early press day for the film, in which we got the chance to preview nearly 30 minutes of the film, director/producer Tim Burton talked about expanding the original story from his short, where the idea originally came from, casting actors that he hadn’t worked with in a while to voice some of the characters, how the stop-motion medium has changed over the years, his hope that younger audiences will want to explore the monsters that he’s paying tribute to in the film, and post-converting to 3D.  He also talked about the fact that Seth Grahame-Smith is working on writing Beetlejuice 2 and that he might be interested in getting involved depending on what he thinks of the script, the rumor about him doing a Pinocchio movie with Robert Downey Jr., and that Big Eyes is in the works, but that you never know what will be ready to go next.  Check out what he had to say after the jump.