Filming for the upcoming Margaret, due out in America at the end of the month, finished way back at the end of 2005, and a long path filled with lawsuits and counter-lawsuits, coupled with a directorial struggle to get to the final cut, has delayed its release over the past six years.

Now, however, the final cut has been completed, and we have an intriguing first trailer and poster for the film courtesy of Rope of Silicon and IMP Awards, respectively.

Written and directed by Kenneth Lonergan, writer of Gangs of New York, the film has a pretty terrific cast, led by Anna Paquin and also starring Matt Damon, Mark Ruffalo, Allison Janney, Matthew Broderick, Kieran Culkin, Jean Reno, and Olivia Thirlby. The cast alone is enough to make me want to see it, and the trailer only furthers that wish.

Margaret tells the story of,

“a 17-year-old New York City high-school student (Paquin) who feels certain she inadvertently played a role in a traffic accident that has claimed a woman’s life. In her attempts to set things right she meets with opposition at every step. Torn apart with frustration, she begins emotionally brutalizing her family, her friends, her teachers, and most of all, herself. She has been confronted quite unexpectedly with a basic truth: that her youthful ideals are on a collision course against the realities and compromises of the adult world.”

Paquin is a brilliant actress, who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress at the young age of just eleven, and she’s had some fantastic roles since then, in both support and leading parts. This next project from her, albeit not ‘next’ in the sense that it was the last thing she filmed, looks like it will be another great leading role from her, and it’s definitely something that looks interesting. Unfortunately, it’s looking fairly likely that the film won’t get a UK theatrical release, which is a real shame, so we will probably have to hold on for the DVD release further down the line. Without further ado, here’s the great first trailer followed by the first poster for the film.

HeyUGuys brings you the latest in World Cinema film trailers in association with Film Dates UK.

Each week we’ll be showcasing some of most anticipated foreign releases as well as highlighting a few hidden gems which may have fallen off your radar. It’s no surprise that Hollywood has turned to World Cinema for inspiration in recent years with the number of remakes getting more and more popular.

Whilst it remains to be seen how many of these remakes go on to succeed or stay true to their original story counterparts, we decided it was high-time we turned the spotlight onto the next wave of foreign films to grace our screens.

This week we have 5 new trailers for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

Always Kabhi Kabhi

UK Cinema Release Date: Friday 17th June 2011

Synopsis: A story centered on four students coming of age during a year at their school, St. Marks.

Avan Ivan

UK Cinema Release Date: Friday17th June 2011

Synopsis: ‘Avan’ is played by Vishal who portrays the role of Walter Vanangamudy, while ‘Ivan’ is Arya who portrays the role of Kumbudra Saami. Having tonsured their heads for the roles (and following the director’s request to keep their startling appearance secret from the public), the two stars are playing a pair of petty thieves. Vishal is a squint-eyed hero, using con-tricks to fund local dramas, while Arya portrays his stepbrother. The director says, “Avan Ivan is a film that will make you roar with laughter for the most part. Occasionally, you may cry. But finally you will be shocked.” With music scored by Yuvan Shankar Raja, the film’s highlights include a 10-minute scene where Vishal and Arya appear together with Suriya, who makes a memorable cameo appearance!

Bheja Fry 2

UK Cinema Release Date: Friday 17th June 2011

Synopsis: Barat Bhushan is still trying to fulfil his dream of becoming a successful singer, while holding down a job as a tax inspector. His latest plan is to enter a talent competition in the hope of winning enough cash to finance the recording of his own album. Not only does he win the loot, but the prize also includes a free cruise. On board, he meets Ajit Talwar – an acid-tongued business tycoon who happens to be hiding out from the tax authorities. After a series of mishaps and a case of mistaken identity, the duo find themselves stranded on a desert island. It’s here that Ajit realises that his involuntary travelling companion is, in fact, an idiot! As they attempt to escape from the island, Barat’s stupidity begins to drive him crazy…

Potiche

UK Cinema Release Date: Friday 17th June 2011

Synopsis: In a French bourgeois province in 1977, Suzanne is the submissive wife of rich industrialist Robert Pujol, who runs his umbrella factory with an iron hand and turns out to be just as nasty and tyrannical with his workers as he is with his mistress, children and trophy wife. After the workers go on strike and hold Robert captive, Suzanne ends up managing the factory, instead of her husband, who is disowned by the staff. Distressed and in poor health, Robert goes away for a while and, to the surprise of most, Suzanne proves to be an assertive woman of action. With the help of the communist deputy, her former lover Maurice Babin, she puts an end to the strike, gets the factory running again and improves the employees working conditions. But when Robert returns from his trip in good health, the situation gets complicated. From Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Grédys eponymous play.

The Round Up (La Rafle)

UK Cinema Release Date: Friday 17th June 2011

Synopsis: 1942. Joseph is eleven. And this June morning, he must go to school, a yellow star sown on his chest. He receives the support of a goods dealer. The mockery of a baker. Between kindness and contempt, Jo, his Jewish friends, their families, learn of life in an occupied Paris, on the Butte Montmartre, where they’ve taken shelter. At least that’s what they think, until that morning on July 16th 1942, when their fragile happiness is toppled over. From the Vélodrome D’Hiver, where 13 000 Jews are crammed, to the camp of Beaune-La-Rolande, from Vichy to the terrace of the Berghof, La Rafle follows the real destinies of the victims and the executioners. Of those who orchestrated it all. Of those who trusted them. Of those who fled. Of those who opposed them. Every character in this film has existed. Every event, even the most extreme, transpired on that summer of 1942.

Check back next week for more trailers!

To celebrate the Jan 31 release of 22 Bullets on DVD and Blu-ray, we are giving 5 lucky winners a copy of the film on DVD.

22 Bullets, starring Jean Reno (Leon, Ronin) and directed by Richard Berry (The Black Box), is a thriller inspired by the real-life events in the world of the Marseille Mafia. Reno plays Charly Matteï, a man who has turned his back on his life as an outlaw. For the last three years, he’s led a peaceful life devoting himself to his wife and two children. Then, one winter morning, he’s left for dead in the parking garage in Marseille’s Old Port, with 22 bullets in his body.

Against all the odds, he doesn’t die…

22 BULLETS comes to DVD & BLU-RAY 31 JANUARY 2011. Pre-order your copy now on Amazon or rent it here.

To enter, simply answer the following question using the form below:

In which city is 22 Bullets set?

1. Madrid
2. Milan
3. Marseille

The small print:

• Open to UK residents only
• Only one entry per household will be counted
• The competition will close 31st January (release date) 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

Jean Reno and 22 Bullets producer Luc Besson have created some great slow burning, character based thrillers in their time with Reno being one of the most famous Frenchmen in Hollywood.

In their new film, directed by Richard Berry, Reno is the retired goon plugged with exactly twenty two bullets and left for dead.

Thankfully for us he survives and 22 Bullets deals with Reno’s character returning to the underworld, seeking revenge and coming to face with his past.

Our friends at Upbeat spoke to Reno to get his take on the film, which is out in UK cinemas today.

Here’s the video,

The chaps at Empire have released a brand new clip from Jean Reno’s 22 Bullets which is directed by Richard Berry who previously brought us the Liam Neeson action movie, Taken.

The movie is based on the book by Franz-Olivier Giesbert with the movie being directed by Richard Berry. As well as Reno, the movie stars Gabriella Wright and Kad Merad.

Synopsis: Inspired by true events 22 BULLETS chronicles the vengeance wrought by former Marseille mobster Charly Matteï (Reno) who having been left for dead with 22 bullets in him somehow survives and goes looking for the only man who would dare to try to kill him.

It’s set for release in the UK 3rd September.

Here’s a brand new poster for Jean Reno’s 22 Bullets which is directed by Richard Berry who previously brought us the Liam Neeson action movie, Taken.

The movie is based on the book by Franz-Olivier Giesbert with the movie being directed by Richard Berry. As well as Reno, the movie stars Gabriella Wright and Kad Merad.

Synopsis: Inspired by true events 22 BULLETS chronicles the vengeance wrought by former Marseille mobster Charly Matteï (Reno) who having been left for dead with 22 bullets in him somehow survives and goes looking for the only man who would dare to try to kill him.

It’s set for release in the UK 3rd September.

Source: Empire

Our friends at Upbeat are the chaps tasked with creating the official end of day video montages for the Edinburgh International Film Festival which is wonderful for us as they’ve just given us the entire first week of daily round up videos to share with you, our lovely readers.

In the videos, you get to see interviews with Sean Connery, Ken Russell, Jason Isaacs, Rhys Ifans, David Thewlis, Jean Reno, 2 Supervising animators from Toy Story 3, Bobby Podesta and Mike Venturini and many many more actors, directors, producers and writers.

For all our Edinburgh 2010 coverage, click here.

Edinburgh International Film Festival – Wrap Day 1

Edinburgh International Film Festival – Wrap Day 2

Edinburgh International Film Festival – Wrap Day 3

Edinburgh International Film Festival – Wrap Day 4

Edinburgh International Film Festival – Wrap Day 5

Anchor Bay have just sent us a batch of new images from Jean Reno’s new movie, 22 Bullets (or L’immortel). The movie is based on the book by Franz-Olivier Giesbert with the movie being directed by Richard Berry. As well as Reno, the movie stars Gabriella Wright and Kad Merad.

Synopsis: Inspired by true events 22 BULLETS chronicles the vengeance wrought by former Marseille mobster Charly Matteï (Reno) who having been left for dead with 22 bullets in him somehow survives and goes looking for the only man who would dare to try to kill him.

22 Bullets is released in the UK 3rd September.

Sony have sent me their latest released, Armored on Blu Ray to review. The movie is directed by Nimród Antal and has an all-star cast which includes Matt Dillon, Jean Reno, Laurence Fishburne, Milo Ventimiglia, Columbus Short, Skeet Ulrich and Fred Ward. This cast alone tells you the movie has the potential to be a good one but is it?

Well, I saw this movie in the cinema and when i reviewed it, I gave it an average rating, but one thing I did say was:

“I’d watch Armored again on DVD and would recommend you go and see it… if you like your action movies big, loud and bassy, then this one is for you!”

With that in mind, I have to say that my home viewing of Armored was spot on. With my surround sound cranked up to 11 and my beverage of choice in hand, I sat back and really enjoyed the movie. Armored is about a group of armoured car drivers / transporters who decide that it’s about time they steal the money that they’re transporting rather than just carrying from one bank to another. The only trouble is, the end goal doesn’t quite go to plan.

The DVD / Blu Ray comes with extra features which include:

• Producer and Cast Commentary
• Planning the Heist: Making Of
• Crash Course: Stunts
• Armed and Underground: Production Design

Only available on Blu-ray™

• movieIQ+sync and BD-Live connect you to real-time information on Armored’s cast, music, trivia and more while watching the movie!

Armored is the perfect boys-night-in movie with a running time of 90 minutes, big action sequences, a good storyline and a great cast and is available for release on Blu Ray and DVD now.

Flicking through one of the many dailies that are a staple part of the festival, I came across the news that Variety are announcing that French heavy-weight actors Jean Reno and Vincent Cassel will team up once more for Thomas Langmann and La Petite Reine’s adaptation of the French detective novels. The production- a near $70m 3D project- will be directed (and co-written) by Silent Hill’s Christophe Gans, will be the thirteenth movie adaptation of the infamous French villain, a run that has included five pre-war silent films.

The franchise is well known for complex plots, usually involving how Fantomas evades capture for his various malignances, and it will no doubt provide the script-writers a great deal of substance to work with, as well as the actors and director. Fantomas is generally heralded as the bridge between traditional Gothic villains, and modern serial killers, and he is a compelling literary figure to say the least with a canon of work devoted to him.

Vincent Cassel is set to play Fantomas, the titular sadistic sociopath, who is ruthless, merciless, and is loyal to none. He is a master of disguise, always appearing under an assumed identity, often that of a person whom he has murdered, and he makes use of bizarre and improbable techniques in his crimes, such as plague-infested rats, giant snakes, and rooms that fill with sand. Think of him as the complete antithesis of our own Mr Bond. The thought of Cassel playing with the Fantomas character is a unbelievably intriguing prospect, as he has already shown that he commands the right blend of evil and charm to make seemingly irredeemable villains sympathetic figures.

There is no concrete indication of who Reno will play, though there are possibilities. The most likely, and in line with a lot of Reno’s recent roles would be that of Juve, the French detective who is obsessed with the capture of Fantomas, which is where Id place my bet.

The reason I believe the news warrants further exposure is that Fantomas will finally drag Reno away from some of the roles he seems to gravitate towards these days, which sorely waste his talent- chief among them the Pink Panther remakes alongside Steve Martin. Reno was incredible as Leon, and is a great talent all round, so to see him in a big budget project that pits him alongside the excellent Cassel, in a role that is surely worthy of his time and skill is an extremely exciting prospect.

Hopefully it wont be unlucky number thirteen for the Fantomas screen relationship.

The other exciting adaptation announcement from Variety is that another French talent- Marion Cotillard- will star opposite Colin Farrell in David Cronenberg’s adaptation of Don DeLillo’s fantastic Cosmopolis, which will follow his forthcoming Keira Knightly/Viggo Mortensen/Michael Fassbender led A Dangerous Method. Possibly left-field casting for Cronenberg, who you wouldnt immediately place with Farrell, but he obviously sees something in Farrell’s uncompromising style that will translate well to the DeLillo adaptation.

So that’s two adaptation announcements for the price of one. And both look fascinating.

I saw the trailer for Armored quite a while ago and it looked like my kind of film. Action from start to finish and a really good cast, but did it live up to my high expectations? Read on to find out…..

Armored (minus the ‘U’ cos it is American after all) is directed by Nimród Antal and has an all-star cast which includes Matt Dillon, Jean Reno, Laurence Fishburne, Milo Ventimiglia, Columbus Short, Skeet Ulrich and Fred Ward. It starts off very much setting the scene from the word go and focuses around Ty (Columbus Short), an Iraq war hero who has a brother named Jimmy (Andre Kinney) who have both recently lost their parents. Ty is a good guy and takes his brother on as his legal guardian. Ty works for an armoured car company called Eagle Shield where his father used to work and since his death and has become friends with co-workers Mike Cochrone (Matt Dillon), Quinn (Jean Reno), Baines (Lawrence Fishburne), Palmer (Amaury Nolasco) and Dobbs (Skeet Ulrich). Cochrone takes Ty under his wing and ensures him that he’ll look after him ‘no matter what’.

Times are tough though and Ty is struggling to make ends meet with letters from the bank becoming more threatening and the task of looking after his teenage brother even more demanding – things are getting desperate. Cochrone comes to him with a solution that stealing $42m they are transporting is his only way out with the help of the rest of the team. Ty agrees as long as no one gets hurts, and as in all Hollywood movies, things don’t go as smoothly as they’d hope.

The first half of Armored, I got a little bored if I’m honest. I felt the plot was going on very predictably and I was by no means on the edge of my seat. The first bit of action if very early on in the movie and it was executed very well but I felt was very predictable. I wont tell you what happens incase you don’t guess! Armored is only 85 minutes long and because of that I felt the movie took ages to get going, but that said, half way through, the movie most definitely moved out of first gear.

The story changed from being predicable when the action started but the issue then was that it all became a little silly and unbelievable with secret compartments becoming evident in an armoured car and multiple other ways in which an armoured car could be penetrated + the fact that we never really understand how their initial getaway was going to work in the first place. Milo Ventimiglia turns up as the beef-eating cop to try and add some normality back into the story but soon he gets lost in the void of unrealism.

The cast all perform well but we know the calibre of Jean Reno and Lawrence Fishburne and this movie really doesn’t give them a chance to shine as they are more side-kicks than main cast. Matt Dillon does a good job playing the likeable bad guy and Columbus Short does a fantastic job as the movie’s lead when arguably he was the least known cast member. Moments of genius came from director Nimród Antal, my favourite being as Ty is running through a abandoned factory, seeing his head through hundreds of poles as the camera pans alongside him. That shot must have taken forever! The violence in the movie is mostly suggested to help keep the rating to 12a but I didn’t think this detracted from Antal getting the message across.

I’d watch Armored again on DVD and would recommend you go and see it but with Oscar season fast approaching, this one won’t be winning anything but if you like your action movies big, loud and bassy, then this one is for you!

Armored is released 22nd January (This Friday).

Here’s the new international trailer for a movie that I’ve not heard too much about since we posted the first trailer a poster a while back on HeyUGuys V1.0. It’s called Armored and it’s about a group of security workers who drive armoured trucks around. One day, one of them gets the bright idea that they could heist their own lorry and get away with the taking but it’s never that easy.

Armored has an all-star cast whic includes Matt Dillon, Jean Reno, Laurence Fishburne, Amaury Nolasco, Fred Ward, Milo Ventimiglia and is directed by

I like going to films for which I have no idea what they are about, sometimes you are pleasantly surprised and this is what I found with Couples Retreat. Peter Billingsley directs an all-star cast which includes Vince Vaughn, Jason Bateman, Jon Favreau, Faizon Love, Kristin Davis, Malin Akerman and Kristen Bell. The main plotline focuses on four couples who decide to go away to a marriage retreat together when one of the couples, played by Jason Bateman and Kristen Bell realise that they need help with their marriage. They manage to convince their 6 friends to come along with the proviso that they may have to go to some sort of couples therapy, but only if they want to! After showing them a “˜death-by-PowerPoint’ slideshow and beautiful images from Bora Bora, they manage to convince the others to go along with them. The scenery in the film is fantastic, with holiday postcard views and gorgeous hotel facilities on offer.  Throughout the entire film, you’re just left thinking, “˜I wish I was there’ ““ maybe that’s why Universal decided to send all the main blog sites off to Bora Bora for the press junket (I think our invite was lost in the post!).

Couples Retreat is trying to communicate a really important message, that of sticking together with your spouse through thick and thin. There are some very adult dialogues in the movie, so without too many sexual references, those that there are, add to the film in a very comic way!

In its attempts to portray real life, Billingsley is very successful in giving an interesting glimpse into relationships. There are some good examples of how to deal with, and how not to deal with (!) the serious temptation of adultery.  However I found it a little unrealistic that the good-looking couples could get bored with each other. In real life it’s when people let themselves go a little bit during middle age that people tend to lose that loving feeling!

The main cast work really well together, and there are some great performances by Colin Baiocchi who plays Kevin, the youngest son of Vince Vaughn and Kristen Bell. He is very cute and perhaps a star in the making! Jean Reno helps the viewer to make sense of the Retreat, playing Marcel who designed the programme the couples are following.

I liked the premise of the film, the idea that it is good to take time out of the busyness of life to reflect on how your marriage is going and what really matters. Whilst the therapy is not always easy or successful, it seems to normalise the idea of asking for help, which I thought was healthy.

Overall I really enjoyed it and found it a refreshing nod in the right direction in a throw-away consumer culture, where “˜if something isn’t working – get rid of it’. It was a funny and energetic exposition of a really serious topic, being married and how to stay together, even through the toughest of times.

If you haven’t already, check out our Couples Retreat competition here.