The ever-talented Rashida Jones makes her writing debut with co-writer Will McCormack on Celeste and Jesse Forever, which has been rapturously received at Sundance in the past few days. Our man in the States, Ty Cooper, was lucky enough to catch the film at its world premiere, and you can read his five-star review of the film here.

I was really hoping (and quietly expecting) that the film would be picked up soon following its great reception, and Collider are reporting that my hopes have been fulfilled! Sony Pictures Classics have acquired the film for distribution, granting them all North American, Latin American, and Eastern European rights to the film.

Notably, this of course leaves its UK rights with a question mark for the time being, but fear not. In the past, the vast majority of the films they’ve released in recent years have been picked up for UK distribution too, so hopefully we’ll have news on that front soon too.

Sony Pictures Classics recent credits include Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, Pedro Almodóvar’s The Skin I Live In, Jeff Nichols’ Take Shelter with Michael Sheen, Roman Polanski’s Carnage, Duncan Jones’ Moon, and many, many more films that have also received UK releases. So I’d say we can certainly (perhaps quietly, so as not to jinx anything) expect that the film will get a UK release too.

Directed by Lee Toland Krieger, and co-written by the Jones and McCormack, the film is led by Jones and Andy Samberg, with a great supporting cast that includes Elijah Wood, Emma Roberts, Ari Graynor, Chris Messina, and McCormack too. No word yet on when to expect a release, but with a bit of luck, we should be seeing this before the end of the year. I’m already excited, and am really hoping it will be coming to the London edition of Sundance in April – the first time the festival is coming to the UK. Here’s the full press release for your perusal, which includes the film’s synopsis:

“NEW YORK, NY (January 24, 2012) – Sony Pictures Classics announced today that they have acquired all North American, Latin American and Eastern European rights to the film CELESTE & JESSE FOREVER.  The film, directed by  Lee Toland Krieger (THE VICIOUS KIND) and co-written by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack, is produced by Jennifer Todd and Suzanne Todd of Team Todd and Lee Nelson of Envision Media Arts, who also financed the film. The deal was negotiated by UTA’s Independent Film Group.

CELESTE & JESSE FOREVER was one of the most talked about films at the festival and debuted in the Premiere Section of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.  The film stars Rashida Jones, Andy Samberg, Chris Messina, Ari Graynor, Will McCormack, Emma Roberts, and Elijah Wood.

CELESTE & JESSE FOREVER is about two people who met in high school, married young and are growing apart.  Now thirty, they decide to get divorced and attempt to stay best friends while pursuing other relationships.   This plan is not as simple as they had imagined.

Celeste—imperious, successful and driven– is convinced that divorcing the boyish Jesse is the right thing to do.   Jesse passively accepts this transition into friendship, even though he still is in love with her. As the reality of their separation sets in, Celeste slowly and painfully realizes she has been cavalier about their relationship. But her timing with Jesse is less than fortuitous.   While navigating the turbulent changes in their lives and in their hearts, these two learn that in order to truly love someone, you may have to let them go. The film is a humorous and honest examination of a broken heart and the long, hard road it takes to heal it.

“No recent movie is more current, more perceptive, or more fun than CELESTE & JESSE FOREVER. Lee Toland Krieger has made a major film. The cast is superlative and it is an obvious labor of love for Rashida Jones and Will McCormack that delivers on all levels. We are excited to be in business with Jennifer Todd, Lee Nelson and our friends at UTA,” said Sony Pictures Classics.

Producers Jennifer Todd, Suzanne Todd and Lee Nelson add, “We are thrilled our film has found a home with Sony Pictures Classics and are incredibly excited to work with Michael, Tom and Dylan. Their track record is unparalleled and we feel very lucky to have our film with them.””

Envision Media Arts and Team Todd have provided a set of images giving us our first look at Celeste and Jesse Forever.

Directed by Lee Toland Krieger (The Vicious Kind), Celeste and Jesse Forever stars Rashida Jones (The Muppets), Andy Samberg (Hot Rod), Emma Roberts (Scream 4), Ari Graynor (What’s Your Number), Elijah Wood (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and Chris Messina (Greenberg).

Celeste (Jones) and Jesse (Samberg) met in high school, married young, and at 30, decide to get divorced but remain best friends while pursuing other relationships.

Celeste and Jesse Forever will premiere at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in January. Check out the first look images below:

Source: The Playlist

Emma Roberts (Scream 4), Chris Messina (Vicky Cristina Barcelona) and Ari Graynor (Date Night) have signed on to star in Celeste and Jesse Forever.

The trio will star opposite Rashida Jones (The Social Network) and Andy Samberg (Hot Rod) in the long-awaited romantic comedy.

Celeste and Jesse Forever centers on a young, recently-divorced couple who decide to remain living together as they try to maintain their friendship while seeing other people.

Lee Toland Krieger (The Vicious Kind) is attached to direct from a script co-written by Jones and Will McCormack (Elf).

Production is expected to begin later this year.

Source: MovieWeb

Oscilloscope have released the first official trailer and poster for indie drama Monogamy.

Directed by Dana Adam Shapiro (Murderball), Monogamy stars Rashida Jones (My Idiot Brother), Chris Messina (Like Crazy), Meital Dohan (Weeds), Zak Orth (The Other Guys) and Ivan Martin (Fighting).

Monogamy will be released in the US on March 11.

Increasingly anxious about his impending marriage to Nat (Jones) and thoroughly bored with his day job as a wedding photographer, Theo (Messina) establishes a hobby: he’s hired by clients to clandestinely snap voyeuristic photos of them as they go about their days. Things go smoothly until a sexy new customer’s exhibitionism leads to an all-consuming obsession. As Theo shoots her day and night, the woman’s mysterious public trysts send him reeling, forcing him to confront uncomfortable truths about his sex life at home.

Check out the trailer and poster below:

Source: Apple

To celebrate TODAY’S DVD and Blu-ray release of  the M. Night Shyamalan produced movie, Devil, Universal Home Entertainment have been kind enough to give us five copies of the movie on blu-ray to give away to you, our lovely readers.

Devil is directed by John Erick Dowdle and Drew Dowdle with a cast that includes Chris Messina, Bojana Novakovic, Geoffrey Arend, Logan Marshall-Green and Bokeem Woodbine.

Synopsis: Devil, a story of horror and confession with a classic Shyamalan twist, is the ultimate ‘edge of your seat’ thriller which will see you taking the stairs for a long time to come. Featuring an up-and-coming cast including Bojana Novakovic (Drag Me to Hell, Edge of Darkness) and Logan Marshall-Green (Brooklyn’s Finest, Across the Universe), Devil is not to be missed, and can be yours to own on Blu-ray and DVD from the 24th January 2011.

To be in with a chance of winning the movie on blu-ray, all you have to do is answer the following question using the form below:

Who plays the character of Detective Bowden in Devil?

The small print:

• Only one entry per household will be counted
• The competition will close January 31st at 23.59 GMT
• The winner will be picked at random from entries received

The usual T&Cs can be found here. Good Luck!

COMPETITION NOW CLOSED

Sky Movies have released a brand new featurette that looks at the M. Night Shyamalan produced movie, Devil. It’s directed by John Erick Dowdle, Drew Dowdle and stars Chris Messina, Bojana Novakovic, Geoffrey Arend, Logan Marshall-Green and Bokeem Woodbine.

The synopsis given is short and sweet:

Synopsis: Devil is a supernatural thriller with M. Night Shyamalan’s signature touch.

Devil is released in the UK 17th September.

Yahoo have debuted a brand new clip from the M. Night Shyamalan produced movie, Devil. It’s directed by John Erick Dowdle, Drew Dowdle and stars Chris Messina, Bojana Novakovic, Geoffrey Arend, Logan Marshall-Green and Bokeem Woodbine.

The synopsis given is short and sweet:

Synopsis: Devil is a supernatural thriller with M. Night Shyamalan’s signature touch.

This new clip is called ‘Something bit me’ and makes for a rather entertaining clip. Devil is released in the UK 17th September.

Despite a fairly toxic critical reaction to Shyamalan’s recent films there is something intriguing about Devil, a film ‘from the mind’ of M. Night.

The premise is simple, some people are trapped in an lift and one of them is (or possessed by) the Devil, and the trailer we’ve seen gives an indication of the mix of paranoia and claustrophobia with the merest hint of the supernatural and it should, SHOULD, be worth watching. After the great trailer for The Happening, I’m sceptical.

The film is out in the States on the 17th of September and there’s the first official clip and a new promo spot out today to gather you all in to a frenzy. John Erick Dowdle and Drew Dowdle direct the cast which includes Chris Messina, Geoffrey Arend, Logan Marshall-Green, Bojana Novakovic, Jenny O’Hara, Bokeem Woodbine and Jacob Vargas.

Here’s the new clip which MTV thoughtfully put up,

To find out more check out this promo spot sent over to us by Universal,

Despite stories of people booing and laughing when the name of M. Night Shyamalan appeared on the first trailer for Devil, it’s looking more interesting with every new peek we get.

Directed by Drew Dowdle and John Erick Dowdle Devil tells the story of a group of people stuck in a lift with the one guy who really wouldn’t want to be stuck in a lift with. It stars Chris Messina, Logan Marshall-Green, Jenny O’Hara, Matt Craven and Jacob Vargas.

The two posters released so far are pretty great, the first one is available at the link above and the other one is here, and Universal tweeted a couple of clips out into the world they are available below.

Looks pretty nifty so far…

M. Night Shyamalan’s career seems to be spiraling downhill. The Last Airbender, his hugely anticipated adaptation of the TV series, Avatar: The Last Airbender, was panned by critics, and was a dud at the US box office.

However, last month we posted a trailer for a film known as Devil. Devil is directed by John Erick Dowdle, and comes from the corrupt mind of Shyamalan. The trailer took a lot of people by surprise, with many saying it could be the hit Shyamalan needs to re-ignite his fledging film career.

Earlier today, a brand new poster for Devil was posted online, via Empire, which, on first impression, evokes a certain level of curiosity, while teasing us with the films claustrophobic plot, and suggesting Devil may be a winning supernatural thriller.

Devil stars a host of relatively unknown actors, including Chris Messina, Logan Marshall-Green, Jenny O’Hara, Matt Craven and Jacob Vargas.

Check out the poster below:

Devil is the first The Night Chronicles trilogy, and will make it’s way into US cinemas on September 17, 2010.

Yesterday I got to attend the press conference for M. Night Shyamalan’s new movie, The Last Airbender. While there, he touched on his new movie his new movie, Devil (bits of info from that here) which has just had it’s first trailer and poster released on the Apple website.

The movie comes from the mind of Shyamalan but this is the first time one of his ideas hasn’t been directed by him. Instead, he has brought Drew Dowdle and John Erick Dowdle in to direct with a cast that includes Chris Messina, Geoffrey Arend, Logan Marshall-Green, Bojana Novakovic, Jenny O’Hara, Bokeem Woodbine and Jacob Vargas. He shopt the movie simultaneously with Airbender so hopefully that hasn’t caused it to suffer.

I’ve embedded the trailer and poster below and you can head over to Apple to view the trailer in HD.

Here’s all the synopsis of what we have so far…. which isn’t much!

Devil is a supernatural thriller with M. Night Shyamalan’s signature touch.

Greenberg is a clever, cautious and ultimately beautiful film which benefits from the twin talents of Ben Stiller and Greta Grewig under Noah Baumbach’s assured direction.

Fans of the director will find his new film replete with understated performances and a naturalistic tone, rendered here wonderfully. Equally, detractors won’t be converted, but this is not Baumbach’s film, that honour goes to one of the actors.

The overriding theme of Noah Baumbach’s Greenberg is stated and restated by Ben Stiller’s character, the titular Roger Greenberg, as he is buffeted and harrassed by friends old and new. ‘I’m just trying to do nothing right now’ is his stock response, and much of the film pivots on the cause and effect of this inaction.

It begins as Florence’s story, Greta Gerwig impressing effortlessly in every moment on screen, and it is her relationship with her employee’s brother (Stiller) which leads us through the film, from their initial awkwardness to their blossoming relationship and entwining lives. Greenberg, believing himself to have his demons bloodied and left behind him after a voluntary spell in hospital comes to realise that he is not ready to face the future, but with Florence a future presents itself.

Greta Gerwig is the star of this film, illuminating those whom she orbits. Though the painfully erosive lack of self esteem threatens to overwhelm her character at each turn it is her ability to appear completely without artifice that disarms; her nakedness is a masterclass in naturalistic acting, and her woman on the edge of nervous laughter is worth the price of the admission. Her performance as Florence is so important to the film as the merest hint of an agenda from wither Gerwig or Baumbach would shatter the illusion.

It is easy to become passive while watching this film, as its fabric is made up of the merits of an inactive life, but Greenberg’s steady momentum allows the characters to crackle and spark off each other, never losing the audience during the time they spend focusing inwards. Witness the moment old friends and one time bandmates Greenberg and Rhys Ifans’s Ivan meet up after years apart and I struggled to think of a time either actor had done better work, and this was just one moment among many.

It is only when a film like this comes along that we get a reminder of the ability that Ben Stiller has, that he is so much more than his blockbusting persona offers, and while franchise hopping will keep him solvent I hope he takes this detour again. Baumbach understands the power of an understated performance and manages to keep Stiller’s comedy rage at bay here, giving his emotional one man tug-of-war resonance which plays perfectly with Jennifer Jason Leigh (Baumbach’s co-writer and cast as Greenberg’s one that got away), Ifans and, of course, Gerwig.

It is the love story of Greenberg and Florence, but there is so much more to it than that. Baumbach and Stiller combine to make Greenberg a loathsome yet disarming character and the film is at its best when the small details of their affair are played out.

They bond over a sick dog, break up over Florence’s ‘racy’ past (a story told of an inconsequential night out which goes wrong is Gerwig’s triumph – seriously, I wanted to stop the film and have the projectionist play it back – it is that good) and their strange chemistry engages on a visual and emotional level as we watch the attraction and repelling go back and forth.

Seriously, just go and see it. It’s worth your time. If this is your first time seeing Greta Gerwig in a film you’ll fall in love, mumblecore mainstream or not, Greenberg is a treat, and sits among the towering blockbusters of this summer waiting to be discovered.

Greenberg is out in the UK tomorrow, so there’s no excuse.

Noah Baumbach’s triumphant return to the cinema sees Ben Stiller give an amazing performance as Roger Greenberg, a reclusive, introverted failed musician searching for a guiding light, whom he finds in the painfully shy Florence (Greta Gerwig).

Greenberg is their story, and is out in UK cinemas on the 11th of June, and to celebrate we’ve got some prizes to give away.

The main prize is a goodie bag which includes a t-shirt, a journal and a soundtrack CD by James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem. There are three copies of the soundtrack CD for the runners up.

To be in with a chance to win you need to become a fan of HeyUGuys and Greenberg on Facebook (if you have an account) and answer the following question using the form below.

Complete the title for this previous Noah Baumbach film: The Squid and the ______.

THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED

The small print:

• This competition is open to the UK only.
• Only one entry per household will be counted.
• The competition will close Friday 18th June at 23.59 GMT.
• The winner will be picked at random from entries received.

The usual T&Cs can be found here. Good Luck!

Here’s the synopsis for the film,

Greenberg brings actor Ben Stiller together with Academy Award-nominated writer/director Noah Baumbach (“The Squid and the Whale”) to tell the funny and moving tale of Roger Greenberg.

Roger Greenberg [Ben Stiller], single, fortyish and at a crossroads in his life, finds himself in Los Angeles, house-sitting for six weeks for his more successful/married-with-children brother. In search of a place to restart his life, Greenberg tries to reconnect with old friends including his former band mate Ivan [Rhys Ifans]. But old friends aren’t necessarily still best friends, and Greenberg soon finds himself spending more and more time with his brother’s personal assistant Florence [Greta Gerwig], an aspiring singer and also something of a lost soul. Despite his best attempts not to be drawn in, Greenberg and Florence manage to forge a connection, and Greenberg realizes he may at last have found a reason to be happy.

Here’s the new trailer for Ben Stiller’s latest movie, Greenberg which is directed by Noah Baumbach. The movie also stars Greta Gerwig, Rhys Ifans, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Chris Messina, Brie Larson, Juno Temple and is directed by Noah Baumback.

Greenberg seems to have moved away from Stiller’s usual style of comedy and has become somewhat darker than we’re used to. I’ve added the trailer below the synopsis. Let us know what you think in the comments below. You can check out this trailer in HD on the Apple website.

Greenberg (Ben Stiller) is at a crossroads in his life. Out of a job and none too interested in finding one, he agrees to housesit for his younger and more successful brother, thereby getting a free place to stay in Los Angeles. Once settled in, Greenberg sets out to reconnect with his old friend and former bandmate Ivan (Rhys Ifans). But times have changed, and old friends aren’t necessarily still best friends, so Greenberg finds himself spending more and more time instead with his brother’s personal assistant Florence (Greta Gerwig), an aspiring singer and herself something of a lost soul. As their relationship develops through a series of embarrassingly awkward romantic encounters, even someone as irascible as Greenberg might have at last found a reason to be happy.