Oscar-nominated writer-director Whit Stillman returns after more than a decade’s absence since his last film with Damsels in Distress, which was chosen for the closing night of Venice Film Festival last year and has already been very well received.

We got the colourful first poster for the film last week, and now the first trailer has just gone online, courtesy of Yahoo Movies, and it’s definitely promising.

“A trio of beautiful girls set out to revolutionize life at a grungy American university – the dynamic leader Violet Wister, principled Rose and sexy Heather. They welcome transfer student Lily into their group, which seeks to help severely depressed students with a program of good hygiene and musical dance numbers. The girls become romantically entangled with a series of men – including smooth Charlie, dreamboat Xavier, the mad frat pack of Frank and Thor – who threaten the girls’ friendship and sanity.”

With a cast led by the likes of Greta Gerwig (Greenberg), Adam Brody (The O.C.), and Analeigh Tipton (Crazy, Stupid, Love.), it looks like Stillman is very much on top of his game, and after seeing Tipton in Crazy, Stupid, Love. last year, I’m really looking forward to seeing her again in a few months’ time alongside Gerwig and Brody.

Damsels in Distress is set to be released in the US on 6th April before coming to the UK a few weeks later on 27th April. Whilst that date sets it up against The Avengers, which isn’t really a film anyone really wants to be running in competition with, I’m hoping that Damsels in Distress will find the wide audience that it looks like it deserves. Here’s the trailer to give you a great first taste of the film.

Sony Pictures Classics have released a colourful new poster for Damsels in Distress.

Written and directed by Whit Sillman (The Last Days of Disco), Damsels in Distress stars Greta Gerwig (Greenberg), Adam Brody (Scream 4), Analeigh Tipton (Crazy Stupid Love), Megalyn Echikunwoke (The 4400), Hugh Becker (The Assault) and Carrie MacLemore (Gossip Girl).

Three beautiful girls—Violet Wister (Gerwig), Rose (Echikunwoke) and Heather (MacLemore)—set out to revolutionise life at a grungy American university by forming a group which strives to help depressed students by advising them about good hygiene and teaching them musical dance numbers. After welcoming new student Lily (Tipton) into their group, the girls become romantically involved with a series of men who threaten the girls’ friendship and sanity.

Damsels in Distress premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival late last year to wide acclaim. It’s scheduled to hit U.K. cinemas on April 20.

Source: Collider

The adaptation of Jonathan Franzen’s critically acclaimed 2001 novel, The Corrections, has long been in the making, and has recently transitioned from its initial expected film adaptation to be turned into a series for HBO.

We heard late last year that the brilliant Ewan McGregor had signed on to join Chris Cooper and Dianne Wiest for the project, which is being co-written by Franzen and the Oscar-nominated writer-director Noah Baumbach.

Now comes the excellent news, via The Playlist, Deadline, and the Daily Mail, that the already terrific casting continues with Maggie Gyllenhaal, Rhys Ifans, Greta Gerwig, and Bruce Norris all in talks to join the project too.

Courtesy of Waterstones, the original novel’s plot looks a little like this:

“From the author of ‘Freedom’, a panoramic vision of America at the beginning of the 21st century, seen through the turbulent lives of the Lambert family. The Corrections is now seen by many as one of the greatest American novels of the last decade. The Lamberts — Enid and Alfred and their three grown-up children — are a troubled family living in a troubled age. Alfred is ill and as his condition worsens the whole family must face the failures, secrets and long-buried hurts that haunt them if they are to make the corrections that each desperately needs. Stretching from the Midwest in the mid-century to Wall Street and Eastern Europe in the age of globalised greed, ‘The Corrections’ brings an old-time America of freight trains and civic duty into wild collision with the era of home surveillance, hands-off parenting, do-it-yourself mental healthcare, and New Economy millionaires. It announces Jonathan Franzen as one of the most brilliant interpreters of American society and the American soul.”

Cooper and Wiest are set to play the parents of the Lambert family; McGregor is to play Chip, the middle son; and Gyllenhall is in talks for the role of Denise, the youngest child, a bisexual Philadelphia chef. Ifans would be taking a cameo as a Lithuanian gangster drawing Chip into his world; Norris would play the eldest son, Gary; and Gerwig would play Chip’s film producer girlfriend.

The exact nature of the project until now has been kept under wraps, but it seems that the intentions are now becoming clear, with a two-hour pilot planned under Baumbach’s direction, and then if all goes well and everyone is impressed, a further four seasons each made up of ten hour-long episodes, which is certainly a significant adaptation. Franzen’s original novel is quite a long book at more than five hundred pages, but a four season-long adaptation suggests that the intention is to add more to the characters’ stories than is in the Franzen’s original, which I’m really excited about.

I’m a really big fan of Gyllenhaal’s, so the news that she’s in talks to join the already brilliant cast is definitely exciting. Getting to see her, McGregor, and the whole cast for four full-length seasons of HBO quality (you can’t deny HBO’s impeccable programming) is a prospect almost too good to be true. More news as we get it.

We all know Dudley Moore’s infamous performance as Arthur in the 1981 original. He was a spoilt, rich, man-child who had no grasp on the real world, and this is exactly what Russell Brand’s character, Arthur, in the 2011 version of this film is like. Unfortunately, because we’ve already seen this character 20 years ago, the fondness to Brand’s acting isn’t there. The reason the original will always override the remake is because you’ve experienced the exciting magic of a new character before. But this doesn’t make the 2011 version a bad film, it just makes it less appealing.

Brand has this incredible way to hold an audience. He’s intriguing to watch and mesmerising to listen to. He’s perfectly English with a cockney twist, and suits the role as Arthur perfectly. However, as you’re watching him, you can only feel it is an impression of Moore’s performance. It is a nice break from seeing Brand play a drug/alcohol addict though. He’s childlike persona is fun and carefree, and when put against the other characters in this film, it’s a strong presence on screen.

Speaking of other characters, they are what turns this film from bad to bearable. Helen Mirren (Hobson) is beautiful, elegant, charming and completely charismatic. She and Brand blend so smoothly together, and as they say, opposites do attract. From watching these two play off each other, you can see the chemistry and fun they must have had on set. Greta Gerwig (Naomi) is also lovely to watch. She’s the right balance between kooky and smart to make her the perfect co-star to Brand. To have these two characters in Arthur’s life, they balance out his dominant persona, keep him grounded and provide other levels to this relatively carefree film. What also provides this is Jennifer Garner’s (Susan) naughty yet sophisticated character who frankly wants money and will do anything for it, which makes Arthur seem almost sensible.

The levels of comedy vary from Arthur’s obvious punchlines, Jennifer’s slapstick approach, and the typical foreign man not understand things from Bitterman (Luis Guzman). We also watch as Gerwig and Brand have a knowledge of vocabulary speak-off with each other, making their conversations golden. We are given ridiculously childish scenes, which are extended in the special features on the DVD. We watch as Arthur puts on various fancy dress costumes, see as Naomi discovers the opposite worlds between her and Arthur, and cringe at statements made towards Hobson.

But it’s not all fun and games, there is a strong sentimental bond between Arthur and his two girls which shows his dependability. The final few scenes prove Brand’s acting abilities, giving him a sentimental touch which almost brings a tear to the eye. It ends with a nice conclusion as you would imagine, bringing the whole experience to a relatively satisfying end.

It’s not groundbreaking or as good as the original, but it’s still a light-hearted fun watch. If you’re a Brand fan you’re bound to be pulled in by the cover of the DVD, and then be pleasantly surprised with the outcome. If you’re not, then maybe you might want to just watch the original.

Arthur is available to buy and rent here.

***~~ (3/5)

Emmy-nominated actress Rose Byrne (Insidious) has signed on to co-star in crime drama The Place Beyond the Pines.

Bryne, who replaces Greta Gerwig (Greenberg), will star opposite Ryan Gosling (Blue Valentine) and Bradley Cooper (Limitless). Gerwig was forced to drop out due to a scheduling conflict.

A motorcycle stunt rider (Gosling) considers committing a crime in order to provide for his wife and child, an act that puts him on a collision course with a cop-turned-politician (Cooper).

The film, which is Derek Cianfrance’s follow-up to Blue Valentine, began production two weeks ago in Schenectady.

Byrne can currently be seen in the smash-hit R-rated comedy Bridesmaids.

Source: Vulture

With his latest film, Midnight in Paris, coming out of Cannes with a healthy critical buzz the prolific filmmaker is already in pre-production for his next stop on his European jaunt with a stop in Rome for The Bop Decameron and today the latest iteration of the famous Allen Ensemble cast was revealed.

Some of the actors on the list were already rumoured to have signed up, and Allen himself confirmed Judy Davis, a frequenter co-star of Allen’s who last appeared for Allen in his 1998 film Celebrity, was set to star but the full list has some choice surprises.

Here’s the full cast, culled from Deadline, to whom we owe thanks.

Woody Allen, Alec Baldwin, Roberto Benigni, Penélope Cruz, Judy Davis, Jesse Eisenberg, Greta Gerwig and Ellen Page. Co-stars include Antonio Albanese, Fabio Armiliata, Alessandra Mastronardi, Ornella Muti, Flavio Parenti, Alison Pill, Riccardo Scamarcio and Alessandro Tiberi

Yes. That’s Ornella Muti from Flash Gordon. Greta Gerwig is another very interesting addition to the cast. She has done some exceptional work of late, and she has an incredible screen presence so I’m hoping she’ll have more than a passing role here. I’ll happily watch anything Allen produces and it’s good to see the director reuniting with some of his co-stars of old as well as casting some of the more interesting young actors around.

As for the film’s plot we can do no better than quote the fine folks at Cinema Blend who quoted Allen at the recent Cannes press conference. He said thie film will be:

a broad comedy, not a romantic comedy, of various tales interwoven. I’m one of them, in one of them. All the parts are quite significant, there are no cameos. There just happened to be a part that I could play. I can’t play the love interest anymore, which is tremendously frustrating. My wife and myself go to Rome because our daughter is going to marry an Italian boy that she met there, and we go over to meet him and meet his family, and what ensues. The film is very broadly funny.

Oh Woody, you had me at Decameron…

Following on from our interview with co-star Greta Gerwig yesterday, we also (briefly) sat down with director Jason Winer to discuss his big-screen debut of the famed 80’s comedy, Arthur.

Winer (who is also an actor and comedian) is perhaps best known for being one of the directors on the award-winning ABC US series Modern Family (which is shown over here on Sky).

We asked him about how he tackled updating the material for a new, modern audience.

The remake of 80’s comedy Arthur is out now in cinemas and we were lucky to grab a couple of minutes to chat with rising star and Russell Brand’s love interest in the film, Greta Gerwig.

The film marks her second role in a big, mainstream Hollywood comedy (she featured in rom-com No Strings Attached earlier this year), but Gerwig is also known for her work within the independent ‘mumblecore’ film movement in the US, where, as well as appearing in front of the camera, she’s also performed writing and directing duties. She talks a little bit about this other side to her career (below).

If you’ve seen the original Arthur, there’s not much (if any) point in seeing this remake. Unless, of course, you’re a diehard Russell Brand fan.

Perhaps the most complained about problem with Arthur, besides the fact that it’s starring Russell Brand, is the tagline “Meet the world’s only lovable billionaire.” A couple of valid points have been made by others and are worth repeating here: firstly – the fact that his mother threatens that Arthur will lose his inheritance of $950 million (note the M for MILLION), and secondly, even if he were a billionaire he’s certainly not the *only* lovable one – what about Bruce Wayne, or that woman that wrote that about a boy who finds out he’s a wizard?

Arthur (Brand) is a wealthy, unemployed alcoholic working his way through his trust fund feeling quite content that he won’t have to work a day in his life, spending his days avoiding his mother (Geraldine James) and being looked after by Hobson (John Gielgud in the original, a role now gender swapped to Helen Mirren) and his chauffer Bitterman (Luis Guzman). Tired of his womanising ways his mother tells him he must settle down and marry ex-girlfriend Susan (Jennifer Gardner) or face losing his inheritance but finds himself falling in love with a beautiful tour guide/writer named Naomi (Greta Gerwig).

It’s always better to go into a film with low expectations and be pleasantly surprised than have high expectations and be thoroughly disappointed. This is something to definitely keep in mind for Arthur.

It’s decent enough to provide some good laughs, but it rarely differs from the original and you’ve got to actually like Russell Brand if you intend to remotely enjoy the film, a task which some people find impossible to achieve.

I did think Helen Mirren was absolutely wonderful and often saved most scenes, in particular a distinctly awkward Alcoholics Anonymous scene and the first time Arthur tried to cook her breakfast is a charming and lovely scene of Arthur for the first time trying to take care of someone other than himself.

However the pros cannot outweigh the cons. Being a fan of Alias I used to like Jennifer Gardner, but now I feel like her choice in films doesn’t quite suit her and I’m a bit tired of her playing the kooky/quirky/a little bit crazy character as can be seen in the “cat sex” scene where she purrs and preens herself. Greta Gerwig is charming but a little too 2D for me to believe and everyone just trails along behind Brand’s one man show to the point that when the film tries to touch upon a serious and emotional point it feels very out of place and not within the tone of the rest of the film at all.

You could pick a worse film to see at the cinema, and if you like Russell Brand or want to watch how to get drunk and drive a Bat mobile you’ll get a few laughs, but otherwise I wouldn’t recommend rushing to the cinema to see it.

***~~ (3/5)

Usually when London is on the world stage for any movie premiere or event, it’ll be freezing cold, windy and raining but it seems that someone paid a pretty penny to have the sun shining down on London’s O2 area. last night for the European Premiere of Russell Brand’s new movie Arthur.

This footage comes from our friends at Upbeat who got to speak with all the main cast which as well as Brand includes Helen Mirren, Greta Gerwig, Luis Guzman, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Garner and is directed by Jason Winer.

Check out the interviews and footage from last night’s premiere in the video below. The movie hits UK cinemas this Friday, 22nd April.

Yahoo have released this new clip from Russell Brand’s new movie, Arthur which is a remake of the Dudley Moore film from 1981. Arthur is directed by Jason Winer and also stars Helen Mirren, Jennifer Garner, Greta Gerwig and Nick Nolte.

Synopsis: Irresponsible charmer Arthur Bach has always relied on two things to get by: his limitless fortune and the good sense of lifelong nanny Hobson to keep him out of trouble. Now he faces his biggest challenge — choosing between an arranged marriage that will ensure his lavish lifestyle or an uncertain future with the one thing money can’t buy, Naomi, the only woman he has ever loved. With Naomi’s inspiration and some unconventional help from Hobson, Arthur will take the most expensive risk of his life and finally learn what it means to become a man.

If you’ve missed the previous trailers or other coverage for Arthur, you can catch up here.

From what we can find, Arthur us released in the UK on 22nd April.

While we were sleeping last night, Warner Bros. Pictures released the second trailer (first here) for the remake of the 1981 Dudley Moore movie, Arthur which this time sees Russell Brand take on the lead role. Arthur is directed by Jason Winer and also stars Helen Mirren, Jennifer Garner, Greta Gerwig and Nick Nolte.

Synopsis: Irresponsible charmer Arthur Bach has always relied on two things to get by: his limitless fortune and the good sense of lifelong nanny Hobson to keep him out of trouble. Now he faces his biggest challenge — choosing between an arranged marriage that will ensure his lavish lifestyle or an uncertain future with the one thing money can’t buy, Naomi, the only woman he has ever loved. With Naomi’s inspiration and some unconventional help from Hobson, Arthur will take the most expensive risk of his life and finally learn what it means to become a man.

This second trailer gives us a much better insight into the storyline of the movie showing the love interest Greta Gerwig who gets in the way of the marriage between Arthur (Brand) and Garner’s character, Susan Johnson.

From what we can find, Arthur us released in the UK on 22nd April.

Paramount’s latest rom-com is parading itself in UK cinemas as from tomorrow, and there’s no better time to sit down with the man Natalie Portman wants to get physical with in Ivan Reitman’s film.

Cary Elwes, Lake Bell, Kevin Kline, Olivia Thirlby and Greta Gerwig star alongside Kutcher and Portman, and you can read what we thought of the film here.

Synopsis: A guy (Kutcher) and girl (Portman) try to keep their relationship strictly physical, but it’s not long before they learn that they want something more.

James Kleinmann caught up with Kutcher to talk all things rom and all things com,

No matter the type of journey, rom-coms follow the same pattern: meet-cute, have fun together, disruption/problem occur, time passes, then they meet again,  realise they love each other and get together again.

No Strings Attached tries to deviate from usual rom-com routine but unfortunately the final conclusion still remains the same. Natalie Portman plays Emma, an emotionally unavailable woman who doesn’t understand the need to be in a relationship when you can just have fun and be happy. Ashton Kutcher’s character, Adam, is the opposite, but desperate to be with Emma he agrees to a no strings attached/friends with benefits/fun buddies/sex buddies/f**k buddies relationship. However as time goes by they find themselves falling in love with each other and Adam must convince Emma that a relationship is worth the risk.

No Strings Attached opens strong by showing us the first time Emma and Adam meet as teenagers at a summer camp, and shortly after we cut to a scene five years later when they finally meet again. After a series of random meets they exchange numbers, and on an alcoholic fuelled night out Adam drunk dials Emma and wakes up in on her sofa naked, only modestly covered by a tea towel. Adam, having recently got out of a relationship, and Emma who recently started working at the hospital, decide that relationships complicate things so agree to just be friends with benefits.

The problem is that even if it wasn’t a rom-com with preview screenings over Valentine’s Day, everyone sat in the cinema already knows the outcome. It simply isn’t possible to have a lasting friends with benefits relationship. It can work for a short amount of time, ie between relationships or whenever they’re in town. Even if you go into the relationship with no romantic feelings for the other person as time goes by you either realise that kind of person they are and terminate the relationship, or start to develop feelings for them.

In its defence the first half of the film is very good; great dialogue and supporting cast, Natalie Portman is fantastic and beautiful as ever, and it provided more than a few laughs. When Adam does eventually convince Emma to go on a date with him he brings her handful of carrots instead of flowers and hands her a date itinerary complete with a google map.

The character of Adam’s dad I spent the entire film trying to decide if I liked or not. He started off in an ‘American Pie Dad’ way of trying to be cool, smoking weed, and embarrassing his son by still trying to be young and sexy which instantly annoyed me. However there were parts of his character that worked very well; dating Adam’s ex girlfriend and the wonderful Birthday song scene. Lake Bell and Jake M. Johnson were fantastic supporting cast deserve a lot more credit than they’ll probably get and were as enjoyable to watch as Portman and Kutcher.

Overall No Strings Attached is certainly better than most might expect, although if you take a date to this film on Valentine’s Day be weary of what message you want to send. But at the end of the day if it looks like a rom-com and sounds like a rom-com, it’s a rom-com.

***~~ (3/5)

So, with the release date of the 22nd of April hovering ominously on the horizon I think it’s time we had another look at Jason Winer’s remake of Arthur, don’t you?

The film updates the 1981 film, replacing Dudley Moore with Russell Brand and John Gielgud with Helen Mirren, but keeps the same premise, that of a hapless moneybags having to grow up and find love, himself and a Batmobile.

The trailer came along and was pretty much as you’d expect and if you were a fan of the Dudley Moore film then the sight of Russell Brand usurping your hero may be a little hard to get over, but Helen Mirren should provide the perfect foil to the lanky playboy.

Still no sign of Greta Gerwig, and I’m still not happy about that.

Seven production stills escaped and we’ve got them here, the last one is an tender on set moment.

Pics below – ready your eyes.

Filmofilia had the pics, apart from the last one, which came from Nerve

Warner Bros. have just sent us this brand new poster for their new movie Arthur which accompanies the trailer which we posted last week. The new poster shows Russell Brand in his kingly chair flanked by Hellen Mirren and Jennifer Garner who also star in the movie. I’ve placed a couple of original 1981 posters below too. Hopefully we’ll see some parody posters released if we’re lucky!

Arthur also stars Greta Gerwig and Nick Nolte and is directed by Jason Winer. The 2011 version of the movie is a remake of the classic 1981 Dudley Moore movie and no doubt we’ll see plenty of nods to the legendary actor.

Synopsis: Irresponsible charmer Arthur Bach has always relied on two things to get by: his limitless fortune and the good sense of lifelong nanny Hobson to keep him out of trouble. Now he faces his biggest challenge — choosing between an arranged marriage that will ensure his lavish lifestyle or an uncertain future with the one thing money can’t buy, Naomi, the only woman he has ever loved. With Naomi’s inspiration and some unconventional help from Hobson, Arthur will take the most expensive risk of his life and finally learn what it means to become a man.

From what we can find, Arthur is released in the UK on 22nd April.

We’ve just been sent the first trailer for Russell Brand’s new movie, Arthur which is directed by Jason Winer and also stars Helen Mirren, Jennifer Garner, Greta Gerwig and Nick Nolte.

Arthur is a remake of the classic 1981 Dudley Moore movie and no doubt we’ll see plenty of nods to the legendary actor.

Synopsis: Irresponsible charmer Arthur Bach has always relied on two things to get by: his limitless fortune and the good sense of lifelong nanny Hobson to keep him out of trouble. Now he faces his biggest challenge — choosing between an arranged marriage that will ensure his lavish lifestyle or an uncertain future with the one thing money can’t buy, Naomi, the only woman he has ever loved. With Naomi’s inspiration and some unconventional help from Hobson, Arthur will take the most expensive risk of his life and finally learn what it means to become a man.

From what we can find, Arthur us released in the UK on 22nd April.

Love this trailer! Shows how silly the movie is going to be and seeing Helen Mirren in a movie like this looks fantastic! I also want that batmobile!

Bing have debuted a new clip from No Strings Attached which stars Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman and I think it has to be one of the strangest clips from a movie that I’ve ever seen! We get to see three women currently on their period looking uber depressed but it’s all OK as Ashton Kutcher has made them all a ‘Period Mix’ tape. How romantic indeed!

No Strings Attached is directed by Ivan Reitman and also stars Cary Elwes, Kevin Kline, Olivia Thirlby, Lake Bell, Ophelia Lovibond. It’ll be with us 25th February.

Natalie Portman seems to be in everything at the moment! We’ve been inundated with posters, trailer and clips from Black Swan, then of course she’s currently filming Thor and she has another movie coming out called No Strings Attached which had a trailer released a week or two ago.

Latino Review have got a new clip from the movie which is directed by Ivan Reitman and also stars Ashton Kutcher, Cary Elwes, Kevin Kline, Olivia Thirlby, Lake Bell and Ophelia Lovibond.

Synopsis: A guy (Kutcher) and girl (Portman) try to keep their relationship strictly physical, but it’s not long before they learn that they want something more.

It would appear that Noah Baumbach clicked creatively with the star of his previous feature, Ben Stiller (so good as the whiney misanthrope Greenberg in the director’s film of the same name). The two are already in the process of putting together a new project.

Vulture is reporting that the two are working on a comedy called While We’re Young, which look’s to also include another co-star from Greenberg (Mumblecore queen Greta Gerwig) along with newly-announced Oscar co-host James Franco and Cate Blanchett.

Little is known about the script other than it’s a relationship tale about two twenty-something’s who forge a bond with an uptight documentarian and his wife, inspiring them to live it up a little, which inevitably, goes drastically wrong.

Scott Rudin (who has produced Baumbach’s last two features) is back onboard for this one too.