With only a week until the release of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, a new poster has been released online, now emphasising the film’s two Oscar nominations for Best Film and Best Supporting Actor for Max von Sydow.

Adapted from Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel of the same name, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is an upcoming drama starring Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock as the parents of a ten-year-old amateur inventor.

Focusing on the young boy, Oskar (Thomas Horn), the film isn’t your every day family drama as it deals with the World Trade Center attack on September 11th 2001, after Oskar’s father (Hanks) is killed in the attack. Finding a key that belonged to him, Oskar becomes obsessed with figuring out what the key opens, as his search brings him into contact with others around the city, played by the likes of Max Von Sydow, Viola Davis and Jeffrey Wright.

The new poster shows a still from the film with Oskar happily sat with his parents before the tragedy, taglined: “This is not a story about September 11th, it’s a story about every day after.”

Directed by Stephen Daldry, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close looks like it’s going to be a great film, and is set to be released on 17th February.

Here’s the new poster in full, via IMP Awards.

Oscar Nominated “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” starring Academy Award® winners Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock is in cinemas everywhere from 17^th February. Adapted from the acclaimed bestseller by Jonathan Safran Foer “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”   tells the story from inside the young mind of Oskar Schell an inventive eleven year-old New Yorker.

Oskar’s discovery of a key in his deceased father’s belongings sets him off on an urgent search across the city for the lock it will open.  A year after his father died in the World Trade Center on what Oskar calls “The Worst Day,” he is determined to keep his vital connection to the man who encourages him into confronting his wildest fears.

To celebrate the release, we are giving you the chance to win a beautiful digital photo frame courtesy of Prezzybox.com!

The star of the film Oskar saves photographs to remember his journey, so to celebrate this release we have teamed up with Prezzybox.com to offer you a fantastic Digital Photo Frame to store your favourite photos and memories. Prezzybox.com have 1000′s of unusual, comical and quirky, yet extremely useful presents for all of the family.

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We’ve just been sent these two new posters for Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock’s new Oscar nominated movie, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. It comes to UK cinemas 17th February, is directed by Stephen Daldry and co-stars John Goodman, Viola Davis, Jeffrey Wright and Max von Sydow.

If you’d like to see a trailer for the movie, fear not as we have one for you right here!

Based on the acclaimed novel of the same name, “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” tells the story of one young boy’s journey from heartbreaking loss to the healing power of self-discovery, set against the backdrop of the tragic events of September 11.

Eleven-year-old Oskar Schell is an exceptional child: amateur inventor, Francophile, pacifist.  And after finding a mysterious key that belonged to his father, who died in the World Trade Center on 9/11, he embarks on an exceptional journey—an urgent, secret search through the five boroughs of New York.  As Oskar roams the city, he encounters a motley assortment of humanity, who are all survivors in their own ways.  Ultimately, Oskar’s journey ends where it began, but with the solace of that most human experience: love.

Check out the posters below and click to enlarge.

We’re used to the Razzie Awards taking place just before the Oscars paying tribute to the worst movies of the past 12 months but the organisers this year have moved the coveted award ceremony to April Fools’ Day, April 1st.

Previous winners include Sandra Bullock for the truly 2010 dreadful movie, All About Steve which co-starred Bradley Cooper and 2004 winner Halle Berry who won the award for Catwoman.  In the year Bullock won, she also won the Oscar for Best Actress for he Blind Side which made it all rather amusing! Maximum respect had to go to both actresses who both turned up at the Razzie awards to pay tribute to the tripe they’d created! I’ve placed YouTube clips below with the acceptance speeches.Love Berry’s speech who mocks her own speech that she gave at the 2002 Oscars when she won Best Actress for Monster’s Ball.

According to organisers, the awards has moved to April to give the voting members more time “to see the drek they will eventually nominate”.

“John Wilson and Mo Murphy, co-owners of the Razzies, saw a unique opportunity to do something they’ve wanted to do since their awards were created in 1980: emphasise [its] comedic intent by unveiling the “winners” of Tinsel Town’s Tackiest Trophy on April Fools’ Day.”

The nominees will be announced on Oscar Eve, 25th February. Adam Sandler is tipped to win loads this year for his latest contributions in Just Go With It, Bucky Larson and Jack and Jill.

Source: BBC

I love the word canoodle, so was very happy to see this new clip from Stephen Daldry’s adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close appear.

Sandra Bullock and Tom Hanks are joined by Thomas Horn to tell the tale of Oskar, an young boy who loses his father in the 9/11 attacks and then goes on a journey of discovery, following clues he believes his father left him.

Steel yourself for a synopsis so moving there may be tears,

Nine-year-old Oskar Schell​ is an inventor, amateur entomologist, Francophile, letter writer, pacifist, natural historian, percussionist, romantic, Great Explorer, jeweller, detective, vegan, and collector of butterflies.

When his father is killed in the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Centre, Oskar sets out to solve the mystery of a key he disovers in his father’s closet. It is a search which leads him into the lives of strangers, through the five boroughs of New York, into history, to the bombings of Dresden and Hiroshima, and on an inward journey which brings him ever closer to some kind of peace.

Here’s your clip, all the way from The Sun, thanks Sun! (in case the clip doesn’t work – it’s a little tempremental – click the link above to see it.

A handful of new photos for Stephen Daldry’s adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close have been released this week, an upcoming drama starring Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock as the parents of a ten-year-old amateur inventor.

Focusing on the young boy, Oskar (Thomas Horn), Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close isn’t your every day family drama as it deals with the World Trade Center attack on September 11th 2001. When Oskar’s father (Hanks) is killed in the attack, he becomes obsessed with figuring out what a key belonging to his dad opens, as his search brings him into contact with others around the city, played by the likes of Max Von Sydow, Viola Davis and Jeffrey Wright.

After a limited release in the US over Christmas, the film is set to be released on 17th February.

(Source: Empire)

Judging by the first and second trailers that we’ve seen for Tom Hanks’ next film, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, we’re certainly due for a powerful cinema experience when this comes to our screens early next year.

Directed by Stephen Daldry (The Reader, Billy Elliot), the film is an adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel of the same name by Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), led by the young Thomas Horn, Tom Hanks, and Sandra Bullock, with a supporting cast that includes Max von Sydow, John Goodman, Jeffrey Wright, and Viola Davis.

“Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” tells the story of one young boy’s journey from heartbreaking loss to the healing power of self-discovery, set against the backdrop of the tragicevents of September 11. Eleven-year-old Oskar Schell is an exceptional child: amateur inventor, Francophile, pacifist. And after finding a mysterious key that belonged to his father, who died in the World Trade Center on 9/11, he embarks on an exceptional journey–an urgent, secret search through the five boroughs of New York. As Oskar roams the city, he encounters a motley assortment of humanity, who are all survivors in their own ways. Ultimately, Oskar’s journey ends where it began, but with the solace of that most human experience: love.

Yahoo Movies have now got five new clips from the film to share with us, entitled ‘Strawberry Fields’, ‘Amateur’, ‘Swings’, ‘Odd’, and ‘My Story Is My Story’, respectively. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close will be with us on 3rd February next year, after getting a Christmas Day release in the States this month, setting itself up for the 2012 Oscars in February. Until then, here are the new clips to enjoy. There really is no other actor quite like Tom Hanks.

Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock head up Stephen Daldry’s adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer’s powerful novel of a young boy who loses his father in the World Trade Center attacks and searches the greiving city of New York for a message he believes his father left for him.

This is a far more emotionally involving trailer than we’ve seen before. Not least the shots of the Twin Towers cloaked in smoke and the phone call that is made. Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock look to be on fine form here, though it is the relationships between Oskar (the young boy played by Thomas Horn) and the disparate people he meets on his sad journey through the film which are of more interest.

Check out the trailer and synopsis below,

“Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” tells the story of one young boy’s journey from heartbreaking loss to the healing power of self-discovery, set against the backdrop of the tragicevents of September 11. Eleven-year-old Oskar Schell is an exceptional child: amateur inventor, Francophile, pacifist. And after finding a mysterious key that belonged to his father, who died in the World Trade Center on 9/11, he embarks on an exceptional journey–an urgent, secret search through the five boroughs of New York. As Oskar roams the city, he encounters a motley assortment of humanity, who are all survivors in their own ways. Ultimately, Oskar’s journey ends where it began, but with the solace of that most human experience: love.

The mighty Apple cart have a shiny HD version or you can suffer in SD below,

Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side) is in early talks to star opposite Clint Eastwood (Gran Torino) in Warner Bros. Pictures’ Trouble with the Curve.

Penned by Randy Brown, Trouble with the Curve will tell of a veteran baseball scout (Eastwood) who journeys to Atlanta with his daughter (Bullock) to see a talented player.

Robert Lorenz, who’s served as first assistant director on a number of Eastwood’s directorial efforts, will make his directorial debut with the drama, which is expected to film early next year.

Bullock will next be seen in the heavily buzzed-about Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, which is due to open in the U.K. on February 3, 2012.

Source: The Playlist

Stephen Daldry’s adaptation of the celebrated novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer has got itself a trailer today.

It’s a little less idiosyncratic than I expected but the combination of Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, the tragedy of the World Trade Center and a child suddenly lost in the world is a powerful one, though sticking U2 over the top seemed a touch unecessary.

Also appearing is the epic talent of Mr. John Goodman who joins Viola Davis​, Jeffrey Wright, Max Von Sydow​ and James Gandolfini​ in supporting roles.

The book sees Oskar travel the city meeting various lost souls, each taking him a little closer to his father. Thomas Horn is the actor chosen as Oskar and his is no easy task, but Daldry knows what he is doing with young actors, Billy Elliot being the obvious example, and I’m hoping there’s more of Oskar’s personality carried over in the final film.

Pray silence please for an imminent synopsis,

Nine-year-old Oskar Schell​ is an inventor, amateur entomologist, Francophile, letter writer, pacifist, natural historian, percussionist, romantic, Great Explorer, jeweller, detective, vegan, and collector of butterflies.

When his father is killed in the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Centre, Oskar sets out to solve the mystery of a key he disovers in his father’s closet. It is a search which leads him into the lives of strangers, through the five boroughs of New York, into history, to the bombings of Dresden and Hiroshima, and on an inward journey which brings him ever closer to some kind of peace.

Moisten those heart-strings and ready your tears to be jerked -  Trailer time…

MSN Movies graciously bequeathed this to the world and thanks be to them.

Warner Bros. have released this first look image from Tom Hans’ new movie, Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close. In the image, we get to see Hanks giving a piggyback to his co-star, Thomas Horn. The movie is based on the book by Jonathan Safran Foer and i’ll let the Amazon synopsis tell you more:

Nine-year-old Oskar Schell is an inventor, amateur entomologist, Francophile, letter writer, pacifist, natural historian, percussionist, romantic, Great Explorer, jeweller, detective, vegan, and collector of butterflies.

When his father is killed in the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Centre, Oskar sets out to solve the mystery of a key he disovers in his father’s closet. It is a search which leads him into the lives of strangers, through the five boroughs of New York, into history, to the bombings of Dresden and Hiroshima, and on an inward journey which brings him ever closer to some kind of peace.

The movie also stars Sandra Bullock (who plays Hanks’ wife), John Goodman, Viola Davis, Jeffrey Wright, Max Von Sydow and James Gandolfini.

Fantastic cast and one I’m very much looking forward to seeing. No release date as yet but look like it might be out early 2012.

Source: The Playlist

Disney really are a sucker for those based-on-real-events, inspirational tales. Their latest subject matter to fall into that category is the late Texas high school theatre teacher Lynn Shaw.

What’s more, they’ve managed to secure a scriptwriter who is taylor-made for the project, given her past track record. Susannah Grant (who wrote perhaps the ultimate in triumph over adversity, feel-good porn, Erin Brockovich) will bring the story of Shaw’s transformation of a derelict drama department at J.J. Pearce High School in Texas, into one of the country’s top theatre programs, to the big screen.

On producing duties are Hollywood’s modern day equivalent to Simpson and Bruckheimer, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. A director has yet to be chosen.

On the casting front, surely Sandra Bullock’s agent must be counting down the seconds until his/her phone rings with details of an offer for the actress.

Via Variety

The Stephen Daldry adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close has a new cast member and there are few names more enticing to add to a cast list than that of John Goodman.

He’ll be playing a doorman in the big screen version of the 2005 novel dealing with the emotional fallout of the 9/11 attacks focusing on one young boy, nine year old Oskar Schell, who loses his father in the World Trade Center and tours the grieving city looking for answers after finding a key in his father’s possession.

Goodman joins Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock in the cast, along with young unknown actor Thomas Horn who will play Oskar. His role sees him as the doorman for Oskar’s apartment building is one of the many people the young boy enlists in his search. It’s lining up to be a pretty amazing cast surrounding this unknown actor, and Daldry knows how to get the best out of his young actors. Can’t wait.

THR reported this.

Way back on the first of April when news broke that Billy Elliot director Stephen Daldry had signed on to bring Jonathan Safran Foer’s celebrated Post 9-11 novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close to the big screen the main question mark on my mind was the casting of the novel’s central character, nine year old Oskar Schell.

Today THR have the news that the role has gone to a young unknown named Thomas Horn, who will take to the screen with the not inconsiderable talent of Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock. The novel centres on Oskar’s discovery of a key in his late father’s belongings which sets him on a journey to find out all he can about his father and New York in the shadow of the terrorist attacks.

I was a huge fan of the book, and of Oskar himself and Daldry will have to coax a fantastically compelling performance from the young actor if they are to do justice to the character and the novel.

Alfonso Cuaron’s spacebound survival movie Gravity has lost its leading man, as THR reports that Robert Downey Jr. has left the project.

After a number of leading ladies first attached, then drifted away from the project (Angelina Jolie and Natalie Portman to name just two) Sandra Bullock stepped up to take the main role of the film, at the time to star opposite Downey Jr.

Telling the story of the immediate consequences of a space mission caught in a meteorite storm the female character Bullock is due to play has most of the film to herself, and while the role Downey Jr. was set to play will surely be recast this project needs to get have some good luck before it falls out of the sky completely.

The report indicates that Downey Jr. is heading for a Fox production based on a book about talking to girls, written by a nine year old called Alec Greven, titled How to Talk to Girls. Charm and homespun philosophy are sure to collide with consequences both ‘hilarious’ and ‘sweet’ and the project is set to be a family friendly film in the vein of Big according to producer Shawn Levy. Let’s hope it too goes down, down baby, down by the roller coaster, sweet, sweet baby…

It was reported last week that an offer had been made to Natalie Portman – on the back of her acclaimed performance in Black Swan - to star in Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity, after Angelina Jolie turned down the role, twice.

While Portman has yet to read the script and accept the offer, it seems studio executive from Warner Bros. already have an actress on hold in case Portman, like Jolie, eventually declines.

Sandra Bullock, who won an Oscar for her acclaimed performance in The Blind Side, is reportedly waiting in the wings as a possible replacement, according to Collider

Warner Bros. are seemingly worried that Portman doesn’t have the star quality to carry such an expensive production, and would prefer to see an actress of Bullock’s stature headline the project.

Personally I feel Portman, in the many years she’s been acting, has proved herself to be a much more viable, prominent and versatile actress than Bullock. I’m not knocking Bullock, she really did put in an impressive performance in The Blind Side, but I don’t feel she’s got the background required for such a demanding role.

What do you think? If Portman does pass on Gravity, who would you like to see in the lead role?

Deadline is reporting that Hollywood’s Mr and Mrs Everyman, Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock are “circling” the adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

The book (released in 2005) focuses on a nine-year-old boy who, having lost his father on 9/11, discovers a key belonging to him in a vase. This inspires the child to search Manhattan for information about his discovery and this journey draws him into the lives of strangers throughout the five boroughs of New York and beyond.

As well as having the two A-list leads attached, this proposed adaptation also has serious weight behind the camera too, having been scripted by Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, The Insider) for director Stephen Daldry and producer Scott Rudin (both have been developing this since the book was first published).

With the exception of Daldry (who’s been nominated three times), all these guys are previous Oscar winners. Warner Bros and Paramount (potential co-producers on the project) must be looking forward to having the possibility of both a big earner and awards-friendly production on their slate.

More as we get it.

Bejeweling the true story of Michael Oher’s metoric rise to NFL fame with Sandra Bullock was a smart move as the Oscar winning turn as Leigh Anne Tuohy elevates what could have been a fairly mundane biopic to something more satisfying.

Despite the focus on Oher’s rags to riches story this is Bullock’s film, and her homespun philosophy fires from her like a roman candle and she makes up for the rest of the characters in the film who fall in line as their relationship to her dictates. Therefore her family are Supportive Husband, Huffy Teen Daughter and Irritating Kid Brother who each play out their designated reactions to the decisions of Bullock’s character and the arrival of Oher in their lives.

Yet for the lack of dimension inherent in the background players Bullock’s sassy, smart mouth matriarch stands out, riding the line between irritant and engaging with great support Quinton Aaron as the deprived young man.

Andy reviewed The Blind Side for HeyUGuys and we talked the film over on Mouth Off and I can only add that on Blu-ray the film works very well and perhaps feels more attuned to the home audience as there is an almost Movie of the Week touch which a fiery Bullock performance belies.

The special features on the disc are exactly what they should be for a film of this sort, and the tagline of ‘Based on an Extraordinary True Story’ begs for a deeper look and the featurettes focusing on the real life characters and Bullock’s transformation are good fun. The deleted scenes add very little but they all help flesh out what is a fun, though perhaps slightly mawkish, look at this inspirational story.

Here’s the list of special features to illuminate the Blind Side,

Special Features:
• Acting Coaches: Behind The Blind Side
• The Story of Big Quinton
• Sidelines: Conversations on The Blind Side with Sandra Bullock and Leigh Anne Tuohy
- Tuohy On Set
- First Meeting
- Becoming Leigh Anne
• Sidelines: Conversations on The Blind Side with director John Lee Hancock and author Michael Lewis
- Why The Blind Side
- Sandra and Leigh Anne
- Michael Oher
- Miracles
- Meeting Leigh Anne
- Gender Identity
- Finding
- Book to Screen
• Deleted Scenes
• The Real Michael Oher: An exclusive interview

In 2007 Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, directors of the hugely successful, and Oscar-winning film, Little Miss Sunshine, announced their plans to develop a big-screen adaptation of Tom Perrotta’s novel, The Abstinence Teacher, which centres on a sex education teacher who comes into conflict with the conservative members in her town who criticise her teaching style, and support of sex before marriage.

The project slipped into limbo when Warner Bros’ independent division closed it’s doors in 2008. However, three year’s on it seems the project has come back to life, with Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa, Polly Johnsen signing on to produce, and the studio in talks with Steve Carell (Date Night) and Sandra Bullock (The Proposal) to take the lead roles. Carell would take on the role of Tim Mason, while Bullock would portray Ruth Ramsey.

The full synopsis, courtesy of Production Weekly, is embedded below:

Stonewood Heights is the perfect place to raise kids. It’s got the proverbial good schools, solid values and a healthy real estate market. It’s the kind of place where parents are involved in their children’s lives, where no opportunity for enrichment goes unexplored. Ruth Ramsey is the human sexuality teacher at the local high school. She believes that “pleasure is good, shame is bad, and knowledge is power.” Ruth’s younger daughter’s soccer coach is Tim Mason, a former stoner and rocker whose response to hitting rock bottom was to reach out and be saved. Tim belongs to The Tabernacle, an evangelical Christian church that doesn’t approve of Ruth’s style of teaching. And Ruth in turn doesn’t applaud The Tabernacle’s mission to take its message outside its doors. Adversaries in a small-town culture war, Ruth and Tim instinctively mistrust each other. But when a controversy on the soccer field pushes the two of them to actually talk to each other, they are forced to take each other at something other than face value.

The match could potentially be very enjoyable, especially as both actors have been in a wide range of genre films, which will stand them in good stead for this project, a mix of comedy, drama and adult elements.

Even if Bullock and Carell don’t accept their respective offers, the film has a lot of potential, especially with two highly skilled directors at the helm. Two of Tom Perrotta have already been adapted, in the form of Todd Field’s Little Children and Alexander Payne’s Election.

Dayton and Faris announced earlier this year their intentions to direct a film called Will,  based on a script written by Demetri Martin. The film is set to star Zach Galifianakis and Paul Rudd. A start date for filming, however, has not yet been revealed, but it’s likely this will come before The Abstinence Teacher.

The Playlist reported this one.

So, enough of you enjoyed the team of Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds in The Proposal last year to warrant the two stars throwing themselves together again in a new action comedy film for Universal.

Most Wanted not only brings back Bullock and Reynolds, who admittedly made good with the comedy last time around, but the team behind the camera are set to return too. Anne Fletcher will return to direct a script from Pete Chiarelli and David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman are on production duties with Reynolds pulling on his exec producer trousers too.

Here’s the project outlined by THR, who had the story first. And see if it sounds at all similar…

The story sees Bullock as a woman on the run with Reynolds as an agent who is supposed to be handling her. The project is described as having a tone similar to that of “Midnight Run,” Universal’s 1988 action comedy starring Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin.

So, I guess this blows the All About Steve sequel out of the water then? Shame.