Four-time Oscar-nominated actress Annette Bening is currently in negotiations to join upcoming Fox Searchlights project, He Loves Me, Variety report.

The film is to be directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, who co-directed 2006′s Academy Award-winning Little Miss Sunshine, and will co-star Paul Dano, who also worked with Dayton and Faris on the brilliant Little Miss Sunshine.

Dano will be playing a once-great and now-struggling writer, Calvin, plagued by writer’s block following a broken heart and the consequential loneliness, who writes his dream girl into reality and she then becomes his girlfriend. Calvin’s love interest is to be played by Zoe Kazan, Dano’s girlfriend in real life, and it is she who has written He Loves Me’s script, her first script to be made.

Bening is in talks to play the role of Calvin’s mother. She is a painter that is concerned about Calvin’s new girlfriend, but who also worries about the hatred her son has for her second husband, a hippie called Mort, whose role is yet to be cast. It’s not that often that we get to see Bening on the screen; she seems to be quite a selective actress that waits for just the right roles, taking on perhaps one or two films a year or every two years. It seems to be a method that works for her, because it means that we only know her as a great actress, starring in American Beauty as Kevin Spacey’s wife  and as Nic in last year’s The Kids Are All Right, both of which earned her Best Actress nominations at the Oscars.

He Loves Me will be the first feature that Dayton and Faris will direct since Little Miss Sunshine five years ago, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what they do next. The directing pair have much more frequently worked in the music industry, directing music videos for some very well-known artists, including R.E.M., Janet Jackson, Oasis, The Smashing Pumpkins, and my personal favourite from their credits, Weezer. They showed with Little Miss Sunshine that they are clearly very capable of making films too; their take on Michael Arndt’s script for that film was excellent, and it sounds like Kazan’s script is a perfect fit for them and everyone involved.

Fox Searchlights have had some incredible success stories in recent years, being involved with producing Black Swan, Juno, Little Miss Sunshine, Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours, and (500) Days of Summer, to name but a few. Theirs are often films that don’t need a substantial budget to do very impressively at the box office, with the budget:box office takings ratio for many of their films being much, much better than that of many Hollywood blockbusters. It sounds like He Loves Me has the potential to be another success for them all, studio and cast and crew alike, so here’s to hoping that it will be.

Soda Pictures have released the official UK trailer and poster for acclaimed western-drama Meek’s Cutoff.

Directed by Kelly Reichardt (Wendy and Lucy), the film stars Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine), Brian Greenwood (Star Trek), Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine), Shirley Henderson (Marie Antoinette) and Zoe Kazan (Fracture).

It’s 1845, and Stephen Meek (Greenwood) is a boastful, rough-hewn wilderness guide who has been hired by three families who want to start new lives on the other side of Oregon’s Cascade Mountains. Meek constantly tells his charges that he knows the Oregon Trail like the back of his hand, but when they veer off for a shortcut he says is foolproof, they soon find themselves in forbidding territory, without water and with Indians on the horizon. While the men of the party travel with Meek, their wives are made to follow them in a separate wagon, and Emily Tetherow (Williams), the strong-willed wife of Solomon Tetherow (Patton), begins openly questioning Meek’s competence among the other women, especially her friend Millie Gately (Kazan). While making their way through the wilderness, the party happens upon a Cayuse Indian (Rondeaux); Meek captures the Indian and proposes they kill him, but Emily bravely speaks up for him, believing he has the right to live and perhaps the knowledge to lead them safely over the mountains.

Meek’s Cutoff will be released in the UK on April 15.

Check out the trailer and poster below:

Source: Soda Pictures

Oscilloscope, via The Playlist, have released a fresh new trailer for western-drama Meek’s Cutoff.

Starring Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Shirley Henderson, Zoe Kazan, Will Patton and Bruce Greenwood, Meek’s Cutoff is directed by Kelly Reichardt (Wendy & Lucy).

Meek’s Cutoff centers on a group of settlers traveling through the Oregon desert in 1845 who find themselves stranded in harsh conditions, and will be released in the US on April 8.

Check out the new trailer below:

Oscilloscope have released the official poster for indie-western Meek’s Cutoff.

Directed by Kelly Reichardt, Meek’s Cutoff stars Paul Dano, Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood, Shirley Henderson, Zoe Kazan, Tommy Nelson, Will Patton, Neal Huff and Rod Rondeaux.

Meek’s Cutoff premiered to mainly positive reviews at the 35th annual Toronto International Film Festival.

Settlers traveling through the Oregon desert in 1845 find themselves stranded in harsh conditions.

Check out the poster below:

Source: Moviefone

Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, the duo behind the critically-acclaimed and Oscar-nominated dramatic comedy Little Miss Sunshine, have signed on to direct He Loves Me.

Paul Dano, who starred in Little Miss Sunshine, will topline He Loves Me alongside his girlfriend, Zoe Kazan, who wrote the script.

He Loves Me tells centers on a young novelist (Dano) who achieves success early in his career but begins to face struggles. In a bid to overcome writer’s block, he is told to write the woman he thinks will love him. He winds up willing her (Kazan) into existence.

The film is still in development stage, so most likely won’t shoot until towards the end the year.

Source: LA Times

Anchor Bay, via Apple, have released a brand new poster and trailer for the ensemble comedy drama Happythankyoumoreplease.

Written and directed by Josh Radnor, Happythankyoumoreplease won the Audience Award at last years Sundance Film Festival and stars Radnor, Kate Mara, Malin Akerman, Zoe Kazan, Pablo Schreiber, Tony Hale and Richard Jenkins.

Happythankyoumoreplease opens in the US this March.

Six New Yorkers juggle love, friendship, and the keenly challenging specter of adulthood. Sam Wexler is a struggling writer who’s having a particularly bad day. When a young boy gets separated from his family on the subway, Sam makes the questionable decision to bring the child back to his apartment and thus begins a rewarding, yet complicated, friendship. Sam’s life revolves around his friends-Annie, whose self-image keeps her from commitment; Charlie and Mary Catherine, a couple whose possible move to Los Angeles tests their relationship; and Mississippi, a cabaret singer who catches Sam’s eye.

Check out the poster and trailer below:

Oscilloscope have acquired the North American distributions rights to Kelly Reichardt’s western-drama Meek’s Cutoff, which premiered in Toronto.

Meek’s Cutoff stars Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Bruce Greenwood, Shirley Henderson, Will Patton and Zoe Kazan, and takes place in 1845 on the Oregon Trail as three families hire an unreliable mountain man to lead them over the Cascade Mountains

Oscilloscope previously released Wendy and Lucy in 2008, which also starred Williams. Meek’s Cutoff is likely to be released in the first half of next year, and will be seen at the London Film Festival next month.

THR reported this one.

Here are some excellent interviews giving us a great insight into the movie, ‘Me and Orson Welles’ which stars Ben Chaplin, Claire Danes, Zac Efron, Zoe Kazan, Eddie Marsan and Christian McKay.

Our friend, James Kleinmann was able to interview the three leads from the movie and also director, Richard Linklater (The School of Rock, Before Sunset) asking him about what had drawn him to Robert Kaplow’s novel.

[gplayer href="http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/audio/me_and_orson_welles/efron_mono.mp3"] Interview with Zac Efron: [/gplayer]

[gplayer href="http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/audio/me_and_orson_welles/danes_mono.mp3"] Interview with Claire Danes: [/gplayer]

[gplayer href="http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/audio/me_and_orson_welles/mckay_mono.mp3"] Interview with Christian McKay (Orson Welles): [/gplayer]

[gplayer href="http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/audio/me_and_orson_welles/efron_mono.mp3"] Interview with Richard Linklater (Director): [/gplayer]

Me and Orson Welles is released 4th December and if you haven’t already seen it, you can see the trailer here.

Universal Pictures have just released the trailer for their upcoming movie, ‘It’s Compliated’ which stars Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin and is directed by Nancy Meyers. The supporting cast includes John Krasinski, Zoe Kazan, Lake Bell, Hunter Parrish, Pat Finn and Rita Wilson.

You can read the synopsis and watch the trailer after the jump…

Synopsis: Scheduled for release in the UK 8th January 2010, ‘It’s Complicated’ centers on Jane (Streep), who is the mother of three grown kids, and owns a thriving Santa Barbara bakery/restaurant and has-after a decade of divorce-an amicable relationship with her ex-husband, attorney Jake (Baldwin). But when Jane and Jake find themselves out of town for their son’s college graduation, things start to get complicated. An innocent meal together turns into the unimaginable-an affair. With Jake remarried to the much younger Agness (Lake Bell), Jane is now, of all things, the other woman.

Caught in the middle of their renewed romance is Adam (Martin), an architect hired to remodel Jane’s kitchen. Healing from a divorce of his own, Adam starts to fall for Jane, but soon realizes he’s become part of a love triangle.

Should Jane and Jake move on with their lives, or is love truly lovelier the second time around? It’s… complicated.