***Sundance 2011: First Images from HOMEWORK, Starring Fredding Highmore and Emma Roberts, and MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE ***Sundance 2011: First Images and a New Poster for Kevin Smith’s RED STATE ***Sundance 2011: First Images from Vera Farmiga’s Directorial Debut HIGHER GROUND and HERE

Sundance 2011: First Images from HOMEWORK, Starring Fredding Highmore and Emma Roberts, and MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE

by Jeff Ames    Posted: December 3rd, 2010

With the Sundance Film Festival premiering in a little over a month (48 days to be exact), new images from the films in competition have begun to emerge. As such, we are pleased to bring you a few screenshots from Gavin Wiesen’s Homework, starring Freddie Highmore, Emma Roberts, Rita Wilson and Blair Underwood; and Sean Durkin’s Martha Marcy May Marlene, with Elizabeth Olsen, Brady Corbet, Hugh Dancy, John Hawkes, and Sarah Paulson.

Homework finished shooting in New York last April and marks Wiesen’s feature length debut as writer and director. Likewise, Martha Marcy May Marlene is the first for Durkin, who wrote and directed the film. Hit the jump to see the pics and for a brief synopses:

Homework (Director and screenwriter: Gavin Wiesen) – Quirky, rebellious George has no ambitions other than to cut his next class. But one day, one girl gives him the perfect reason to figure out who he really is. Cast: Freddie Highmore, Emma Roberts, Michael Angarano, Elizabeth Reaser with Rita Wilson and Blair Underwood.

Martha Marcy May Marlene (Director and screenwriter: Sean Durkin)- Haunted by painful memories and increasing paranoia, a damaged woman struggles to re-assimilate with her family after fleeing an abusive cult. Cast: Elizabeth Olsen, Brady Corbet, Hugh Dancy, John Hawkes, Sarah Paulson.
http://www.collider.com/2010/12/03/homework-movie-images-martha-marcy-may-marlene/

Sundance 2011: First Images and a New Poster for Kevin Smith’s RED STATE

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: December 3rd,

Hot off the heels of news that Kevin Smith’s upcoming horror film Red State was recently accepted into the Sundance Film Festival, new images have been revealed from the film and a new poster has been unveiled by Smith himself. The poster was released by Smith via Twitter as a “thank you” to fans who pledged $1000 to The Wayne Foundation in less than 30 minutes. The Wayne Foundation is a charity devoted to stopping pederasts, with a mission to provide young women who have fallen victim to commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking with a means of leaving the sex industry for good.
The poster unveiled by Smith features Red State actress Kerry Bishe, and is one of four posters that Smith plans to release next week starting Monday. The headline of the poster, “The Virgin”, asserts Smith’s statement on his “Red State of the Union” podcast that the film begins very much like an 80’s horror film.  Smith’s podcast has been the source of a great deal of news concerning the film, particularly his description of the flick as essentially about “sex, religion, and politics.”  The images from the film that were released showcase Smith’s stellar cast, and confirm that the film is a drastic departure from his previous catalog of films. Hit the jump the check out the poster and images, as well as a bit more on the flick.

Red State stars Michael Parks, Michael Angarano, Kyle Gallner, John Goodman, and Melissa Leo, as well as Kevin Pollak, Anna Gunn, Stephen Root, and Smith’s Hit Somebody lead Nicholas Braun. Per the Sundance release, the flick is about “a group of misfits [who] encounter extreme fundamentalism in Middle America.” Parks is said to play a Fred Phelps-type preacher who leads a family of followers. We previously brought you the first teaser poster for the film, which was created by producer Jon Gordon’s assistant Melissa Bloom. I quite like the posters released so far, and these new images have me even more excited for the film (John freaking Goodman!). Needless to say, I’m hoping the flick gets picked up quickly at Sundance so audiences will get to peep it themselves sometime next year.
http://www.collider.com/2010/12/03/red-state-movie-images-poster-kevin-smith/

Sundance 2011: First Images from Vera Farmiga’s Directorial Debut HIGHER GROUND and HERE

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: December 3rd, 2010

The slate of films premiering at the Sundance Film Festival in January were just announced, and we’ve been given a slew of images from a number of films that will have their premiere at the prestigious festival. Higher Ground, screening in the in-competition category, marks the directorial debut of Up in the Air star Vera Farmiga. The actress also stars in the film alongside Joshua Leonard (Blair Witch Project), John Hawkes (Winter’s Bone) and Dagmara Dominczyk (Kinsey). Scripted by Carolyn Briggs and Tim Metcalfe (Kalifornia), the synopsis is as follows: A frustrated young mother turns to a fundamentalist community for answers, but after years of dogma and loss, she must find the courage to ask the questions that will help her reclaim her life.
HERE, also screening in the in-competition category, is directed by documentary filmmaker Braden King and stars Ben Foster, Lubna Azabal and Narek Nersisyan. The script, written by King and Dani Valent, centers on an American cartographer who’s on assignment to create a new, more accurate satellite survey of Armenia, who forms a powerful bond with an Armenian expatriate and art photographer. Hit the jump to check out the images from both films.

Here are the images from Higher Ground. Click on an image to see it in high-resolution.  Expect a lot more Sundance articles very soon.
http://www.collider.com/2010/12/03/higher-ground-movie-images-here-movie-images-sundance/

***Kevin Smith Finds his HIT SOMEBODY Lead in Nicholas Braun ***Kirsten Dunst and Chloe Moretz Starring in HICK ***Mark Wahlberg May Star in Director Allen Hughes BROKEN CITY

Kevin Smith Finds his HIT SOMEBODY Lead in Nicholas Braun

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: November 29th, 2010

While Kevin Smith recently wrapped filming (and completed a first cut) of his horror film Red State, he’s also looking ahead to his hockey-centered film that will be his follow-up. Hit Somebody is a script that Smith has been working on for a while, that’s based on the Warren Zevon song of the same name, with lyrics written by Mitch Albom.  Via his most recent edition of his Hollywood Babble-On podcast with Ralph Garman, Smith revealed that he’s found his lead in actor Nicholas Braun, who Smith recently worked with on Red State. In fact, Smith said that he found “so much of [his Hit Somebody] cast making Red State,” so expect to see a few familiar faces once Hit Somebody rolls around (including podcast co-host and Red State cast member Garman, Smith confirms). Smith had this to say about casting Braun as his lead:

He’s this really really great actor who I love to death and he is the perfect lead for this script…he’s such a good guy, he’s a sweetheart and he’s fuckin so dope in [Red State]

Braun’s credits include Sky High and the short-lived TV series 10 Things I Hate About You. He’ll next be seen in the upcoming high-school dramedy from Disney, Prom.  Seann William Scott was previously attached to star in Hit Somebody after working with Smith on Cop Out, but chose to star in Jay Baruchel’s hockey comedy Goon instead when Smith decided to film Red State first.  For more on Smith’s upcoming projects, including more info on the plot of Red State, hit the jump.
While I’m not that familiar with Braun’s work, I like the idea of Smith casting a younger newcomer in the lead role of the flick. Fingers crossed he’ll nab a good deal of the young cast from Red State, given the pedigree of actors involved (Kyle Gallner, Michael Angarano, and Matt L. Jones). The song from which Smith’s screenplay is based tells the story of an aspiring hockey player named Buddy, who’s not the greatest when handling the puck, but has a knack for “beating people up.”  Smith said that he plans to start shooting the film in “July, August, [or] September” of 2011.
Smith recently submitted Red State to Sundance and hopes to sell the film to a distributor at the festival in January. In fact, he recently told Slashfilm that he plans to sell the flick right in the room at Sundance, auction style.  Smith is currently running a podcast mini-series on his Smodcast network specifically about Red State, on which he said the film is essentially about sex, religion and politics.  “The first 17 minutes of the movie are about sex,” Smith said, “the next 45 minutes to an hour…are about religion, and then the last third of the movie is pretty much about politics.” Entitled “Red State of the Union”, the podcast series is a self-described “film school” of sorts, wherein Smith brings on a member of the cast or crew from Red State each week to screen footage and discuss the filmmaking process on the flick. Recent guests included Red State producer Jon Gordon, and Director of Photography David Klein. For anyone interested in the ins and outs of filmmaking, the podcast is a definite must-listen.
http://www.collider.com/2010/11/29/kevin-smith-hit-somebody-nicholas-braun/

Kirsten Dunst and Chloe Moretz Starring in HICK

by Ramses Flores    Posted: November 29th, 2010

Kirsten Dunst (Spider-Man) will star in the upcoming adaptation of Andrea Portes’ novel, Hick.   ThePlaylist reports that Dunst will be joining Chloe Moretz (Kick-Ass) in the film, who will be playing a “13-year-old Nebraska girl who gets more than she bargained for when she runs away to Las Vegas.”  Derrick Martini (Lymelife) is set to direct the coming-of-age drama, which has been adapted to screen by Portes.
Dunst can currently be seen alongside Ryan Gosling in All Good Things.  She is also set to star in Walter Salles’ (The Motorcycle Diaries) adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road and earlier this year she replaced Penelope Cruz in Lars Von Trier’s (Antichrist) upcoming sci-fi disaster film Melancholia. You can hit the jump to read the full synopsis for Hick.

Here’s the synopsis via Amazon:

Portes’s chilling debut tracks a 13-year-old Nebraska girl’s hard-going life on the road. Young Luli knows losers—her “aging Brigitte Bardot” mother, Tammy, and her father, Nick, go at each other every night at the Alibi, the watering hole in hometown Palmyra, Neb. Tammy runs away one morning, and Nick soon follows, leaving Luli alone at home with the Smith and Wesson .45 her Uncle Nipper gave her. Pistol in tow, she hitches rides heading west to Vegas.
A crooked man (literally; he “looks like an italic,” says smart-alecky Luli) named Eddie picks her up briefly before throwing her out of the car. Next comes cocaine-snorting grifter Glenda, who enlists Luli as an accessory to a robbery that goes awry. Glenda takes Luli under her wing. The two cross paths again with Eddie, who rapes Luli and ties her up in a secluded motel. Glenda comes to her rescue, but the confrontation with Eddie ends badly.

http://www.collider.com/2010/11/29/kirsten-dunst-hick-chloe-moretz/

Mark Wahlberg May Star in Director Allen Hughes BROKEN CITY

by Ben Brown    Posted: November 29th, 2010

Funny thing about being a movie star–one year, you can earn nothing but complete critical and commercial success for your work, and then another…well, you don’t. Perhaps not an actor working today has ridden the ladder of ascension and descent quite as drastically as Mark Wahlberg; 2006 saw such well-regarded turns in Invincible and The Departed, the latter of which he managed to snag a Best Supporting Actor nod out of. Of course, as we all know, Wahlberg followed up his newfound success with such cinematic delights as Max Payne, The Lovely Bones, Shooter, and the grandturkey of them all, The Happening (a project he himself came to bash).
Thankfully for Wahlberg, 2010 is looking a bit more like 2006 than 2007, 2008, or 2009– aside from turning in nice comedy work in hits such as Date Night and The Other Guys, Wahlberg’s also been stirring up a bit of Oscar talk for his turn in David O. Russell’s upcoming The Fighter. And now, just to keep things interesting, it looks as if Wahlberg is eyeing a return to the land of action: in an interview with MTV, Wahlberg re-expressed his interest in the Allen Hughes-helmed Broken City. Hit the jump for more of Wahlberg’s quotes, as well as some of my brief thoughts.
Says Wahlberg to MTV:

“There’s this other thing, ‘Broken City,’ that I want to do… at the end of next year with Allen Hughes directing. It’s on the Black List. It’s one of the best unproduced screenplays… It’s an amazing piece of material that should attract amazing talents. Hopefully we’ll get that thing together.”

The script, penned by Brian Tucker, would entail Wahlberg’s Billy Taggart, an ex-cop and low-rent private investigator, being hired by a shady mayoral candidate to investigate his wife’s infidelity. As is the case with any good noir, sex, corruption and secrets ensue.
Consider me psyched. Hughes, along with his brother Albert, is the man behind both 2001’s From Hell and earlier this year’s The Book of Eli, two of the more interesting and (I would argue) rather under-appreciated genre gems of the past few years. To see as star as charismatic and likable as Wahlberg team with such a visually energetic and unique vizualist sounds…well, tantalizing, to say the least.
And come on–you have to admit this sounds a bit more interesting than that other action-fest Wahlberg just signed on to…
http://www.collider.com/2010/11/29/mark-wahlberg-broken-city-allen-hughes/