Felicity Jones (The Tempest), Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone) and Guy Pearce (Memento) have signed on to star in director Drake Doremus’ as-yet-untitled next film.

Filming on the Indian Paintbrush production is expected to commence next month in upstate New York, and is said to be about “love, fidelity, marriage and music”.

Doremus’ latest film, Like Crazy, was a hit at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, and stars Jones, Anton Yelchin (Fright Night) and Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone). It will be released later this year.

Source: Deadline

Win Win‘s credentials are truly promising: writer-director Tom McCarthy has made two acclaimed indie features (The Station Agent and The Visitor), and the film’s marvellous leads Paul Giammati and Amy Ryan are ably served by a great supporting cast, but in the end the film doesn’t equal the sum of its parts. It’s not a bad film by any means, as all involved are too good for it to be a complete waste of time, but it just doesn’t satisfy in the way that this meeting of talent should.

Mike Flaherty (Giammati) is a typical suburban dad, a lawyer with a struggling practice and financial worries that he hides from his wife Jackie (Ryan). Mike’s clients are the elderly, and an opportunity presents itself for Mike to stay financially afloat: all he has to do is become the guardian of Leo (Burt Young), a client suffering from dementia, for which he will be paid a monthly stipend. Mike’s real passion is wrestling, and he wants more than anything to build a winning team at his local high school, aided and abetted by a friend with whom he shares office space, CPA Stephen Vigman (Arrested Development‘s Jeffrey Tambor). Leo also help Mike with his wrestling conundrum (the team is terrible) in an entirely indirect way when his troubled grandson Kyle (Alex Shaffer), whose mom is in rehab, arrives on Mike’s doorstep looking for his grandfather, whom he’s never met. Kyle, Mike soon discovers, is a champion wrestler who turned his back on the sport, and Mike manipulates Kyle just as he has manipulated his grandfather, persuading him to live in his house (over his wife’s protests) and enrol in school so that he can wrestle and hopefully give Mike’s dream a shot at becoming reality.

One would hope that a director with as deft a touch as McCarthy would take this all too obvious set-up and confound our expectations, but unfortunately he doesn’t, and the path of Mike’s and Kyle’s redemption is clearly signposted, but while the story’s payoffs disappoint, there is much to like in the performances and interplay of the cast. Newcomer Alex Shaffer is a very believable conflicted teenager who simply wants a semblance of a family to belong to, and the relationship that develops between Alex and Amy Ryan’s Jackie is lovely to watch unfold, as she moves from feelings of distrust to tenderness. McCarthy’s previous films have centred on odd relationships between unlikely parties, and their’s is another to add to that canon. Bobby Cannavale, whose friendship with Peter Dinklage was the heart of The Station Agent, is endearing as Mike’s successful but embittered best friend Terry, a man desperately seeking to be part of something (a family, a wrestling team) that can help pull him out of his post divorce anger and loneliness.

Paul Giammati’s face is a wonder of contemporary cinema; hangdog, happy, bemused or bewildered, he utilises a subtle arsenal of expression that is tremendous fun to watch. Amy Ryan is also an actor of great expressiveness who knows how to use the camera, and their portrayal of marriage feels more emotionally truthful (particularly in her unspoken, loving acceptance when she knows that he is not being entirely honest with her) than many screen marriages.

Engaging performances aside, one is left with the feeling of having watched a lot of major talent at work in a very minor entry in the current wave of sentimental, gently affirmative American comedy-dramas.

**½~~ (2.5/5)

20th Century Fox have just sent over this brand new and exclusive clip from their new movie which is out this Friday 20th May. It’s directed by Thomas McCarthy and stars Paul Giamatti, Alex Shaffer, Amy Ryan, Jeffrey Tambor and Bobby Cannavale.

Synopsis: Disheartened attorney Mike Flaherty (Giamatti), who moonlights as a high school wrestling coach, stumbles across a star athlete through some questionable business dealings while trying to support his family. Just as it looks like he will get a double payday, the boy’s mother shows up fresh from rehab and flat broke, threatening to derail everything.

You can keep track of all our Win Win coverage here including an exclusive interview with one of the stars, Amy Ryan.

Amy Ryan is an actress who is possessed of impeccable instincts about her choice of roles on television (The Wire, The Office) and in features (Gone Baby Gone, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead). She co-stars with Paul Giamatti in director Tom McCarthy’s Sundance hit Win Win, which opens in the UK this Friday, and in July she appears with Philip Seymour Hoffman in his assured directorial debut Jack Goes Boating. I spoke with Ms. Ryan recently about Win Win, her career to date, and what interests her when choosing parts.

HeyUGuys: Win Win director Tom McCarthy was a fellow cast member in the final season of The Wire, and he also plays your employer, the creepy Dr. Bob, in Jack Goes Boating. You were also neighbours at one point in Greenwich Village, and I read that he wrote the part of Jackie with you in mind. Had you discussed working together on one of his films in the past?

AR: When I first saw The Station Agent I knew this was a director that I wanted to work with, and I think I just mentioned that in passing to Tom at one point when I was congratulating him on the film. It was unexpected to get a phone call from him one day saying that he was writing something that had a part he had me in mind for, and I just thought ‘great!’ before I even read it. When I did read it I was very excited about it, and about Tom’s process, which is truly collaborative. He gave me an early version of the script and we had a lot of contact as the character evolved; he’s very inclusive with that. That was a fulfilling way to work.

HeyUGuys: You’ve played a mother in the past (including a particularly bad one in Gone Baby Gone, a film I adore), but you were actually a very recent first time mother when you worked on Win Win. Do you feel that effected your portrayal or brought something to your understanding of parenthood you might not have had before?

AR: It had to have. When I started filming my daughter was 6 months old, so the hormones alone had to help the performance, even just in making me very protective of the younger girls, played by twins, on set. Between their nap and food schedules, I knew why they were crying, and I would never have known that before. Maybe in the past I would have thought that being a good mom is the boring part, but it’s actually very fulfilling. I have a new appreciation for those roles. That said, in Tom’s script he wrote a really active character who is a big part of the story, she’s not just a witness to Mike’s (Giammati’s) journey in the film.

HeyUGuys: As a parent myself I found the arc of your relationship with Kyle very believable, moving as it does from suspicion and distrust, which is a protective impulse towards your daughters, to feelings of maternal tenderness for him. Did you work on developing that emotional change and growth in advance, or did that just emerge from the script when you were shooting?

AR: A little bit of both, and a lot of it was in the script. I remember Tom and I talking for a long time about the lock, that moment when she tries to lock him (Kyle) in the basement. Why would there be a lock on the outside? Well, you put those locks on because you don’t want the kids to be able to open the door when they’re smaller. I think that moment is so true because she IS a protective mother, and she’s right in the beginning; she doesn’t know who this kid is, and she has small kids of her own, she’s right to be nervous and skeptical. She’s not perfect, locking someone in a basement is a fire trap, but that’s her instinct, to protect her own first. I think I’d do the same.

HeyUGuys: Alex Shaffer who plays Kyle had never acted before, and perhaps that is why his character seems as 3 dimensional as he does; there is none of the self-conscious artifice about him that there is with many teen actors. Does working with very green young actors make the process of building sincere on screen relationships quite different than working with much more experienced actors?

AR: One of the big differences is the time spent. Alex needed more time when the cameras were on him in close-up because he had to be reminded of certain technical things, like not overlapping dialogue, or holding your prop in the correct hand so that it matches the master. He still brought the same devotion and dedication as a more experienced actor, and he was very serious and passionate about it. The difference when working with someone like Paul Giammati is that we would do a scene faster, I mean it’s Paul, he’s a different kettle of fish. Alex was so deeply impressive though, he was never intimidated and was always enthusiastic. The big thing about him being a teenager is that he listens, I think that’s a big reason why he is so good in the film. He really listened to Tom and his direction, and I think Tom did a beautiful job with getting him to simplify and to throw things away and trust his instinct.

HeyUGuys: Having watched many of your performances I feel that you communicate a lot of emotion with your eyes and I think that forms a big part of how you play off Mr. Giammati in Win Win and how the audience reads you. Jackie clearly knows something is amiss with him but as in a lot of marriages she asks him about it gently and he reassures her that all is fine, and she doesn’t force a confrontation with him. Is that a fair reading on my part?

AR: I think so and again I think that’s credit to Tom as well, who allows for those moments that aren’t necessarily written on the page. That human interaction is what excites me and is what I enjoy.

HeyUGuys: I interviewed director Ken Loach recently, and he made an interesting observation when I asked him about genre films, something which he very definitely doesn’t make. He said that he strongly dislikes genre films and their conventions as he feels they dehumanise actors’ performances and make the characters far less believable. I think it’s safe to say that even when you have appeared in things which can be said to belong to a specific genre (The Wire is a police procedural, The Office is a sitcom) they are usually things which have a fresh take on it. Do you deliberately seek out these kinds of more inventive projects that have fresh takes on old tropes?

AR: Definitely. For me it’s the writing; if it’s not on the page there’s no way, no way, that it’s going to get on the screen. You might find moments that you can make interesting but as a whole, if it’s not on the page, no way. I read something Jane Fonda said about this, which was interesting. She said that when you play 2 dimensional characters in something that’s poorly written, it hurts your body, it hurts your 3 dimensional self to shove it into a 2 dimensional role. And it’s true, you start feeling insecure and not as good an actor. Ultimately, it’s bullshit, it’s just following a formula. In the worlds of Ken Loach, Mike Leigh, Jack Goes Boating and this film, they take equal time in telling a story and letting it unfold and also allowing air in, just enough air where it’s not indulgent but enough air for those human moments that make an audience go ‘oh, I remember that’. That’s the moment that pulls an audience in, as opposed to just letting an audience sit back on the back foot and simply being told something or just being entertained. Those moments of air pull them in and make them an active part of the story.

Win Win is out in cinemas 20^th May

Here’s the nice shiny new trailer for a movie called Win Win which we should have a review up for in the coming days / weeks. The movie is directed by Thomas McCarthy and stars Paul Giamatti, Alex Shaffer, Amy Ryan, Jeffrey Tambor and Bobby Cannavale.

Synopsis: Disheartened attorney Mike Flaherty (Giamatti), who moonlights as a high school wrestling coach, stumbles across a star athlete through some questionable business dealings while trying to support his family. Just as it looks like he will get a double payday, the boy’s mother shows up fresh from rehab and flat broke, threatening to derail everything.

Win Win hits UK cinemas 20th May.

Here’s a clip from Thomas (the Station Agent) McCarthy’s new comedy film, Win Win (courtesy of Movieweb).

Starring everyone’s favourite down-trodden Hollywood everyman, Paul Giamatti, and co-starring Gone Baby Gone’s Amy Ryan, this is actor/director McCarthy’s third feature, following the critically acclaimed 2007 film, The Visitor.

Here’s the official synopsis:

Disheartened attorney Mike Flaherty (Giamatti), who moonlights as a high school wrestling coach, stumbles across a star athlete through some questionable business dealings while trying to support his family. Just as it looks like he will get a double payday, the boy’s mother shows up fresh from rehab and flat broke, threatening to derail everything.

The film played at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and goes on general release in the US on the 18th March. We’ll let you know when a UK date has been locked-down.

Fox Searchlight have released the first official poster for indie comedy Win Win.

Tom McCarthy’s directorial debut premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this week and stars Paul Giamatti, Amy Ryan, Melanie Lynskey, Jeffrey Tambor, Bobby Cannavale and Burt Young.

Win Win will be released in the US on March 18.

Disheartened attorney Mike Flaherty (Giamatti), who moonlights as a high school wrestling coach, stumbles across a star athlete through some questionable business dealings while trying to support his family. Just as it looks like he will get a double payday, the boy’s mother shows up fresh from rehab and flat broke, threatening to derail everything.

Source: Vulture

Here’s the brand new and first trailer for Jack Goes Boating, which not only stars Philip Seymour Hoffman but also serves as his directorial debut. The trailer (courtesy of Apple) looks deep, emotional and funny and I can’t wait to see it. It’s set for release in the US 17th September (no UK release that I can find as yet) and from early indications on IMDb, it’s going to be a firm 9/10 but I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Jack Goes Boating also stars Amy Ryan, John Ortiz, Daphne Rubin-Vega.

Synopsis: Jack Goes Boating is a tale of love, betrayal, friendship and grace centered around two working-class New York City couples, which Variety describes as The film stars John Ortiz (American Gangster), Daphne Rubin-Vega (Broadway’s “Rent”), Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone) and Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote), with Hoffman making his feature directorial debut. Bob Glaudini (“A View From 151st Street”) adapted his acclaimed Off Broadway play for the screen. Essentially, Jack (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Connie (Amy Ryan) are two single people who on their own might continue to recede into the anonymous background of the city, but in each other begin to find the courage and desire to pursue their budding relationship.

In contrast, the couple that introduced them, Clyde (John Ortiz) and Lucy (Daphne Rubin-Vega), are confronting unresolved issues in their marriage. Jack is a limo driver with vague dreams of landing a job with the MTA and an obsession with reggae that has prompted him to begin a half-hearted attempt at growing dreadlocks. He spends most of his time hanging out with his best friend and fellow driver Clyde and Clyde’s wife Lucy. The couple set Jack up with Connie, Lucy’s co-worker at a Brooklyn funeral home. Being with Connie inspires Jack to learn to cook, pursue a new career and take swimming lessons from Clyde so he can give Connie the romantic boat ride she dreams of. But as Jack and Connie cautiously circle commitment, Clyde and Lucy’s marriage begins to disintegrate. From there, we watch as each couple comes face to face with the inevitable path of their relationship.

Today we get to see the release of the latest movie from the guys behind The Bourne Trilogy. Director Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon join forces again to bring us a high action thrill ride that is Green Zone.

Universal Pictures have sent us 23 lovely new high resolution images, from both in front of and behind the camera. Most of I’ve not seen before and I’ve embedded them below the synopsis for your viewing pleasure. Today is the last day to enter our Green Zone competition which you can enter here or check out our review here.

Green Zone also stars Greg Kinnear, Amy Ryan,Brendan Gleeson, Jason Isaacs and Khalid Abdalla.

Synopsis: Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, United 93) re-team for their latest electrifying thriller in Green Zone, a film set in the chaotic early days of the Iraqi War when no one could be trusted and every decision could detonate unforeseen consequences.

During the U.S.-led occupation of Baghdad in 2003, Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (Damon) and his team of Army inspectors were dispatched to find weapons of mass destruction believed to be stockpiled in the Iraqi desert.  Rocketing from one booby-trapped and treacherous site to the next, the men search for deadly chemical agents but stumble instead upon an elaborate cover-up that inverts the purpose of their mission.

Spun by operatives with intersecting agendas, Miller must hunt through covert and faulty intelligence hidden on foreign soil for answers that will either clear a rogue regime or escalate a war in an unstable region.  And at this blistering time and in this combustible place, he will find the most elusive weapon of all is the truth.

This week we get to see the latest release from the men behind the Bourne Trilogy in the form of director Paul Greengrass and lead actor, Matt Damon.  This new featurette looks at the collaboration between the 2 men and opens with an intro into The Bourne Ultimatum.

If you’d like to find out more about the movie from the man behind the camera himself, Paul Greengrass will be in the Regent St. Apple Store from 5PM. The address of the store is: 235 Regent Street London, W1B 2EL. He’ll be discussing the new movie in detail so if you’re a big fan, get down there early to get a space.

Synopsis: During the U.S.-led occupation of Baghdad in 2003, Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (Damon) and his team of Army inspectors were dispatched to find weapons of mass destruction believed to be stockpiled in the Iraqi desert.  Rocketing from one booby-trapped and treacherous site to the next, the men search for deadly chemical agents but stumble instead upon an elaborate cover-up that inverts the purpose of their mission.

Spun by operatives with intersecting agendas, Miller must hunt through covert and faulty intelligence hidden on foreign soil for answers that will either clear a rogue regime or escalate a war in an unstable region.  And at this blistering time and in this combustible place, he will find the most elusive weapon of all is the truth.

If you’re excited to see Green Zone, you don’t have too much longer to wait as it’s released in UK cinemas this Wesnday 10th March. Our review can be read here and we currently have a competition running to win merchandise from the movie which you can enter here.

Check out the new featurette below.

Clearly the only way to really promote Green Zone was to use the word Bourne in as many places possible, in the trailer, on posters in interviews and of course it’s the best way to promote Green Zone because the lead character looks him and according to the trailer acts like him but it’s just the familiar look where the similarities between this and Bourne end. Which is a good thing.

United 93 and Bourne Supremacy/Ultimatum director Paul Greengrass takes us on a more political adventure and explores the aftermath of the Iraq invasion that is based on the of Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s novel Imperial Life in the Emerald City. Greengrass and screenwriter Brian Helgeland use Chandrasekaran’s story as the basis for the story of an officer who joins forces with a senior CIA officer to unearth evidence that weapons of mass destruction are not actually located in Iraq.

Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (Matt Damon) leads a team charged in locating WMD’s using supplied Intel in Iraq, but as they visit from one resistance filled location or booby trapped site to the next finding nothing they soon stumble across evidence of an elaborate cover up due to bogus information received from an unknown source that is vouched for by a member of the Pentagon Special Intelligence called Clarke Poundstone (Greg Kinnear), Miller however finds a sympathiser in Martin Brown (Brendan Gleeson) a CIA officer who encourages Miller to dig deeper.

Miller searches for answers that are made ever more elusive by faulty intelligence and a separate special forces unit lead by Major Briggs (Jason Isaacs) who’s brought in to prevent Miller from finding the truth which adds gravitas to the situation as now Miller is up against his own country as well as the surrounding war.

Miller befriends an Iraqi who becomes his translator and leads Miller and his men to the “Jack of Clubs” of Sadam’s men who escapes and is then uncovered that he is pivotal to the outcome of the war as the truth he holds becomes the most valuable weapon of all, are there Weapons of Mass Destruction?

Green Zone looks absolutely stunning from start to finish and Matt Damon is again as watchable as ever as he seeks the truth. The locations look authentic and with some excellent added CGI to show landmarks of Iraq you get a real sense of ‘filmed on location’ for the entire movie. Brendan Gleeson and Greg Kinnear play their roles nicely and Jason Isaacs adds a wonderful menacing presence and obstacle to Miller’s hunt.

Amy Ryan co-stars as a New York Times foreign correspondent who travels to Iraq investigating the US government’s allegations about weapons of mass destruction being the reason for invading but is really underused but equally only really needed to add a friendly media ear to Miller’s discoveries to let the action and story progress.

The action was enjoyable when it came with some tense and very exciting moments that Greengrass is famed for and the plot, although slightly confusing at times, was superb and thought provoking as the WMD’s issue is deep in a lot of peoples thoughts and is extremely well presented to us although in a very political attack at the war which I and many others will agree with

I think the only real issue I had was SHAKY-CAM overdose that made it hard to watch during faster paced scenes but added that tint of a documentary feel to the movie. The opening scene is splendid example of the realistic feel to the film with fleeing high ranking Iraqi officials going into hiding in all directions and the camera pulls up to show the shock and awe bombing that took place to start the war and it really sets the scene nicely.

I have to say the more I’ve thought about the film the more I really enjoyed it, The Bourne tag is never going to be shaken which is a shame as it’s a very interesting film on its own and well worth a watch.

Green Zone is out this Wednesday, 10th March.

Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon have proved to be a formidable team in their two Bourne films and while news of a fourth Bourne outing flies between prequels and reboots Universal’s Green Zone should suffice.

This new trailer is a formulaic affair but it sets up the main players and hints at the film’s explosive set pieces, and we get to see Brendan Gleeson which is always a good thing. Universal must be pleased to get Greengrass and Bourne back together but this film will probably look to distance itself from the Bourne identity in order that it is effective on its own terms.

Synopsis: Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller is a rogue U.S. Army officer who must hunt through covert and faulty intelligence hidden on foreign soil before war escalates in an unstable region.

Sound like fun? The film is out in the UK on the 12th of March and the new trailer can be seen by clicking here.

Philip Seymour Hoffman is making his directorial debut in Jack Goes Boating, which (lapsing into synopsis speak for a moment) is: a tale of love, betrayal, and friendship set against the backdrop of working-class New York City life.

The film is being adapted from the 2007 play by writer Bob Glaudini, and many of the original cast, including Hoffman, are reprising their roles. There’s no word on a UK release just yet, but anything with Hoffman in it perks my interest.

This poster is from Collider, and very nice it looks too. Have a look why don’t you?

A brand new ‘look inside’ Green Zone has been released by Universal Studios / Working Title via Apple and includes interviews with star of the movie, Matt Damon and director, Paul Greengrass plus footage we’ve not see yet in any trailers. If you’ve not seen anything on Green Zone, you must check out the domestic trailer that was released a while ago and the International one gives you a much better look at the movie’s storyline.

This is one of the movies in 2010 we can’t wait to see. Green Zone also stars Greg Kinnear, Brendan Gleeson, Amy Ryan, Khalid Abdalla, Jason Isaacs and is released 12th March. You can view the featurette below or head over to Apple to view in HD.

Here’s a couple of new images from Matt Damon’s Green Zone. If you didn’t catch our news about it a couple of days ago, both the Domestic and International trailers were released 12 hours apart from one another which caught us all by surprise as they were completely different in their content. We have them both on HeyUGuys for your viewing pleasure – click the links above to view. The international trailer gives you a much better idea of the story but they’re both worth a watch.

In the meantime, we have these new images (click them below to enlarge) from the movie which is set to blow your socks off March 12th. As well as Damon, Green Zone stars Greg Kinnear, Amy Ryan, Brendan Gleeson, Jason Isaacs, Khalid Abdalla.

Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, United 93) re-team for their latest electrifying thriller in Green Zone, a film set in the chaotic early days of the Iraqi War when no one could be trusted and every decision could detonate unforeseen consequences.

Yesterday we posted the new domestic trailer for Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass’ new movie ‘Green Zone’. We all thought it look awesome but little did we know that 12 hours later, MSN UK would release the International trailer and it’s LOADS better than the trailer that Yahoo debuted yesterday!

More action, more explosions and more of Matt Damon running around trying not to get killed! Check it out below!

Green Zone also stars Amy Ryan, Greg Kinnear, Antoni Corone and Nicoye Banks and it’s out 12th March in the UK.

More Matt Damon news for you! Here’s the brand new trailer for Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass’ new movie, Green Zone. The Universal Studios  / Working Title release is the first time they’ve worked together since The Bourne Ultimatum and looks like they’ve still got it!

Synopsis: Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller is a rogue U.S. Army officer who must hunt through covert and faulty intelligence hidden on foreign soil before war escalates in an unstable region.

Green Zone also stars Amy Ryan, Greg Kinnear, Antoni Corone and Nicoye Banks and its out 12th March. I can’t wait to see it! Check it out in HD on Yahoo.