Call it the Fast and Furious effect, but this new trailer for Ron Howard‘s Rush certainly seems far sexier and speedier than the last look we got at the fact-based racing tale. Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl face off in the film as Formula 1 drivers James Hunt and Niki Lauda, talented and celebrated drivers who became mired in one of sport’s greatest rivalries back in the seventies. While the first trailer made no bones about the drama of the film – Lauda was the victim of a horrific race crash that nearly claimed his life, burnt his body, and sent him into a coma, and he still came back to race Hunt – this new look is all fast cars, fast cuts, and even a glimpse of a couple of stars getting it on in the shower. The film also stars Olivia Wilde, Alexandra Maria Lara, Stephen Mangan, Christian McKay, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Jamie de Courcey, Pierfrancesco Favino, and Natalie Dormer so, like we said, sexy. After the break, check out the pulse-pounding new trailer for Rush.

I really expected to hate Kenneth Branagh’s Thor. He’s a fine director, and Marvel had shown even by that point that they knew what they were doing, but the idea of a movie based on a Norse god as superhero just sounded terrible. Happily though I was wrong, and the film ended up being an entertaining entry that managed to make both its hero and villain extremely likeable. Now that we’ve entered Marvel’s Phase Two, their post-Avengers plan is ready to roll out with sequels and new content. Shane Black’s Iron Man 3 is first out of the gate this summer, but hot on its heels will be Thor: The Dark World. Branagh has been replaced with TV veteran Alan Taylor. While it may seem like a risk tasking a television guy with crafting an epic, big screen adventure take comfort in the fact that some of the series on his resume are equally ambitious and well respected including Oz, Homicide, The West Wing, Deadwood, The Sopranos, Mad Men and, wait for it… the somewhat apropos Game of Thrones. If that doesn’t do it for you though you can just check out the teaser for Thor: The Dark World below.

Okay, Ron Howard, this will do just fine. For his first post-The Dilemma directorial outing, Howard has returned to his dramatic roots with another true life story that should fit in quite nicely alongside Apollo 13 and Frost/Nixon. Howard’s Rush centers on one of sport’s greatest rivalries and one of the most wrenching comebacks in the history of athletics. The fact-based film stars Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl as Formula 1 drivers James Hunt and Niki Lauda, respectively. Hunt and Lauda were long-standing rivals on the F1 circuit, a rivalry that was both shaken and reinforced by Lauda’s 1976 crash that left him with extensive facial burns, damage to his lungs and blood, and in a weeks-long coma. Despite the heavy Hemsworth presence in this trailer, Rush is ostensibly focused primarily on Lauda’s life and his amazing comeback, with that action framed up against his rivalry with Hunt. Only six weeks after his horrific accident, Lauda returned to racing with an intent to beat Hunt and win the F1 title (one determined by a point system). The first trailer for Rush looks absolutely stunning, and if the final film lives up to this new bit of marketing, we’re in for one hell of a treat. Not sold yet? Did we mention that Olivia Wilde co-stars? Buckle up and check out the first trailer for Rush after the break.

Now this is a great cinema-related Valentines’s Day Gift. Variety reports that director Michael Mann is returning to feature films after almost four years away from the big screen (his last directorial outing was with 2009′s Public Enemies) with a new untitled thriller. Mann is attached to direct the film for Legendary Pictures from his own script, which he has reportedly been working on for over a year with co-writer Morgan Davis Foehl (an editor-turned-scribe who is also writing the Mass Effect film for the studio). Still better? Chris Hemsworth is already attached to star in the new project. Details on the feature are predictably slim, but the outlet does pass on that it “takes place in a world of cyber threats and attacks.” Someone tell me this is the The Net remake we’ve all been begging for. Now let’s all go celebrate VD in the traditional way – by watching Collateral and marveling at Tom Cruise’s steely gaze (and hair).

When I first heard there was going to be a Red Dawn remake, I didn’t see the need. Even in a post-9/11 world, in which we have experienced a foreign attack on U.S. soil — unlike when the 1984 original could tout its related tagline of “In our time, no foreign army has ever occupied American soil. Until now.” — we don’t have the sort of Cold War worries of being taken over by an enemy superpower, regardless of the plausibility. We’ve entered a different kind of era of fear, of terrorists striking rather than foreign armies invading. In the last 20 years it has made more sense to see alien invasion films like Independence Day and War of the Worlds, because extraterrestrials seemed the more likely foreigners to conquer America if any. And to an extent — especially given a certain ID4-ish plan involving defeating the invaders via their own communications system — the producers could have just changed the enemy in the Red Dawn remake from Chinese to aliens rather than to North Koreans. For one thing, it would remove any claims of racism or direct xenophobia on the part of the film. For another thing, we once saw aliens often employed as stand-ins for our “red” enemies and could just reference that as logic for how it could still be “Red Dawn” but now be science fiction (actually, the original Red Dawn is a kind of sci-fi). More than anything, though, it just doesn’t matter who the

Editor’s note: we first reviewed the new Red Dawn back at Fantastic Fest, so please enjoy a re-run of that review, originally published on September 27, 2012, no guns necessary. Possibly the biggest challenge in creating a Red Dawn remake is that the original was such a product of its time. By 1984, tensions from the Cold War were at their peak and Red Dawn deftly played on and exploited those fears. While it got bogged down a bit in melodrama, our national xenophobia gave it more impact than it may have had otherwise. Fast forward to 2012 and despite perhaps a mild fear of another attack from Middle Eastern extremists, we’re not particularly afraid of a full scale invasion. In fact, the plausibility is so up in the air that the invading army was changed from China to North Korea in post-production. We don’t live in a culture of fear like the one that existed during the Cold War, but the sight of planes dropping bombs on your neighbors and soldiers parachuting into your town is still a terrifying one, and the new Red Dawn handles that sequence well. While it may not play on legitimate fears like the original, the remake does a decent job of creating chaos and tension if not outright terror.

“A city in Washington state awakens to the surreal sight of foreign paratroopers dropping from the sky – shockingly, the U.S. has been invaded and their hometown is the initial target. Quickly and without warning, the citizens find themselves prisoners and their town under enemy occupation. Determined to fight back, a group of young patriots seek refuge in the surrounding woods, training and reorganizing themselves into a guerilla group of fighters. Taking inspiration from their high school mascot, they call themselves the Wolverines, banding together to protect one another, liberate their town from its captors, and take back their freedom.” It’s hard not to feel like we’ve heard this one before. Then again, we have. But that was the first time Red Dawn was a movie. Now it’s another movie. And instead of Russians, we’re being invaded by Asians. Somewhere our own Rob Hunter is being questioned as an enemy sympathizer. Here though, we’ve got a fancy new exclusive clip for the release of Red Dawn, which invades your local cineplex on November 21. Just in time for that ultimate American invasion holiday, Thanksgiving.

What is Casting Couch? It’s a news roundup that’s jam-packed with updates about big star doing big things. Look at this list of names! There’s barely a second-stringer on there. When you shoot as many people in the head and blow as many things up onscreen as Sylvester Stallone, every once in a while it’s nice to take a break from all of the insanity and do a quiet little indie drama. So, according to Variety, that’s exactly what he’s doing with his next film, Reach Me. Written and directed by Stallone’s Cobra co-star John Herzfeld, Reach Me is an ensemble piece about a group of characters who were all touched by a self-help book that was written by a reclusive football coach. There isn’t yet any word on what role Stallone will be playing, but, for the sake of his old knees, let’s hope it doesn’t involve any running. Those hobbling away from the explosion scenes in the Expendables movies are starting to look pretty painful.

If you’re looking for a movie about cyborgs that has a creative team with a good amount of solid, robot-related sci-fi experience under their belt, then Amped might be the project for you. THR has word that this is going to be the next film for director Alex Proyas, who first captured film fans’ attentions with things like The Crow and Dark City, and later went on to make his robot bones with 2004’s I, Robot. Proyas isn’t the only robot-friendly name with a hand in the creation of this project, either. Amped comes from a Daniel H. Wilson novel of the same name; and if you don’t know who Wilson is, he’s a contributor to “Popular Mechanics” as their “resident roboticist,” and he wrote the novels “How to Survive a Robot Uprising,” “How to Build a Robot Army,” and “Robopocalypse,” which is serving as the source material for Steven Spielberg’s next film. The guy knows his robots. But what, exactly, is the story that Proyas’ eye for sci-fi visuals will be bringing to the big screen? Let’s let the original novel’s Amazon description fill us in:

Since audiences feasted their eyes on The Cabin in the Woods earlier this year, many have waited for the day they could listen to the commentary. To hear Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon wax nostalgic on horror and let us in on the secrets behind the making of this highly inventive movie would truly be a joy. Now, the DVD/Blu-Ray has been released for this film that’s sure to be on a number of top 10 lists, and not just those of horror fans. So sit back, click off the lights – your computer should light up enough so you can read – and check out all the things we learned listening to this commentary for The Cabin in the Woods. Cue the harbinger.

Oh, K-Stew! How could you do it to us? You have tarnished the good name of Snow White and the Huntsman with your predictable affair with director Rupert Sanders! If you caught yourself saying this a few weeks ago, you probably aren’t interested in a drinking game about this movie and should crawl back into your Twi-hole. (You’re probably too young to drink, anyway, so off you go.) But if the tabloid news surrounding this film made you somewhat curious to see it (or even revisit it since its release this past summer), you can use these rules to enhance the experience, now that the movie is available on DVD and Blu-ray.

We’re still expecting at least one more wave of announcements concerning the upcoming film slate at this year’s Fantastic Fest, but the festival’s closing night film is no longer a secret. The Chinese Koreans will invade Austin on September 27th for the world premiere of Red Dawn! The oft-delayed remake sees a group of not-so youthful looking youths forced to fight an incursion of Korean soldiers who somehow made their way into the United States and took control of the Midwest. It stars Chris Hemsworth, Josh Hutcherson, Josh Peck, Adrianne Palicki, Isabel Lucas, Connor Cruise and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. My money is on Hutcherson peeing in the radiator. Check out the trailer below to prepare for the invasion.

UPDATED: Deadline Hollywood has issued a special message from Universal Co-Chairman Donna Langley: “We are extremely proud of Snow White And The Huntsman and we’re currently exploring all options to continue the franchise. Any reports that Kristen Stewart has been dropped are false.” Like any rumor, we’ll just have to wait and see if Stewart pops up in the SWATH sequel that may not even happen. Oh, Tinseltown. Well, this is awkward. THR reports that Kristen Stewart (you know, Snow White) has been dropped from the first Snow White and the Huntsman sequel (again, she played Snow White in the film), with Universal reportedly shelving its planned traditional sequel “and is instead focusing on a solo Huntsman movie starring Chris Hemsworth.” Not clear enough just yet? The outlet also reports that Stewart “will not be invited to return if the follow-up goes forward.” The sequel is now being “reconceived as a spinoff movie” for the Huntsman, something that had been hinted at months ago but seemed to have been put on the back burner. Further proof of that? Screenwriter David Koepp, who had been tasked with writing the film’s originally-planned sequel is now also out of a job, “as the project is being transformed into something other than the movie that Koepp had been hired to write.” Sources also tell THR that “the original plan…was to make two films featuring the Snow White character and a third film spinning off the Huntsman, similar to how Fox’s X-Men series has spun

Despite the fact that we’re no longer in a cold war that’s creating easily exploitable cold war paranoia, Hollywood has decided to reboot one of the greatest cold war paranoia films of all time, Red Dawn. Sure, the story of a foreign menace invading U.S. soil isn’t likely to resonate with audiences as much in 2012 as it did in 1984 (especially seeing as film audiences are now more global), but at least it gives us a chance to watch things blow up real good. And, if the first trailer for the reboot assures us of anything, it’s that this new Red Dawn is going to have lots of explosions. If you’re noticing that the film’s stars, like Chris Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson, are looking a little younger than they did the last time you saw them play Thor and Peeta, that’s because Red Dawn has been sitting on the shelf for a little while due to the MGM bankruptcy and some nasty business where the bad guys were digitally changed from being Chinese to North Korean (once again, global audience). What the delay of the release doesn’t explain though, is why the action of the trailer is set to a Filter song, as this thing has only been shelved for a couple of years, not since the late ’90s.

Much like the impending invasion of the United States by Liechtenstein’s armed forces that we all know is coming, the long-shelved remake of the eighties classic Red Dawn is destined to hit screens later this year. After much hemming and hawing throughout MGM’s financial woes the film was rescued and made ready for our collective consumption. It was also diddled with a bit… The film follows a group of young adults forced to band together when their homeland, Americuh, is invaded by the North Korean military. Yup. North Korea. The original film cast the interlopers as a Russian/Cuban collaboration, and the remake originally changed them to Chinese. After filming wrapped someone in a position of power (and stupidity) decided labeling the Chinese as bad guys was bad for business so they did some digital manipulation to change the Chinese flags, emblems and grimaces to North Korean. Our country’s future rests in the hands of Chris Hemsworth, Josh Hutcherson, Josh Peck, Adrianne Palicki, and Isabel Lucas. Yahoo! Movies has just debuted the poster, and it does a fantastic job…if that job was as recruitment for your local militia. Check below for the full poster in all of its glory

The Red Dawn remake has been a long time in the making, specifically because it was made and then taken back into the deep bowels of production and post in order to change the main villain. That’s a daunting task when you’re replacing a bad guy, but it’s an insane job when you’re replacing hundreds of them. The plot to this one is the same as the plot to the 1984 John Milius joint where foreign invaders take over a small, rural community that happens to be loaded for bear. The high school kids grab weapons, lose some innocence and fight back the baddies. In these first photos, it’s clear that Chris Hemsworth, Josh Peck and Josh Hutcherson will be battling with guns and cold, steely stares. After losing to them in a staring contest, check out the second image below:

Given his prominent roles in both The Avengers and Snow White and the Huntsman, which have been two of the biggest financial successes so far this summer, actor Chris Hemsworth finds himself being in the enviable position of looking like a box office commodity. Basically, he’s the anti-Taylor Kitsch (sorry Tim Riggins, but it’s true). Given all of this newfound star power and perceived money drawing ability, Hemsworth’s name is the perfect asset to be used to bring a once-shelved project back from the brink. Or, at least, that’s what producers Joe Roth, Paula Weinstein, Will Ward, and Palak Patel are hoping. They’ve just attached him to star in a film called In the Heart of the Sea, which was originally being developed by Intermedia back in 2000, and has been slipping in and out of developmental hell ever since. In the Heart of the Sea is an adaptation of a Nathaniel Philbrick book of the same name, which tells the true story of a whaling ship named the Essex that was stalked and destroyed by an evil, vindictive sperm whale back in 1820. If that story sounds a bit familiar (and shame on you if it doesn’t!), that’s because this is the same disaster that inspired Herman Melville’s literary classic, “Moby Dick.” The difference between this text and that is that Philbrick’s book is a much more fact-based account of the tragedy which stemmed from his reading of little-known documents chronicling the tragedy as well as a written account

Despite somewhat middling reviews and critics and pundits everywhere asking “who the hell is this film for?,” Universal’s Snow White and the Huntsman has proven itself to be a force to be reckoned with (or at least looked at). The film has so far made nearly $120m in worldwide receipts in the last week and a half, and it opened to a surprising $56m first weekend in the U.S. alone. The studio set screenwriter David Koepp to pen a sequel back in April, but it’s still been a bit of a wait-and-see as to whether the studio would actually charge ahead with a new installment. Now Deadline Dark Forest reports that Universal is indeed plunging back into the thick of the gritty revisionist fairy tale, with the studio “making all the moves that indicate another chapter is in the offing, and on a fast track.” Koepp is still on the screenwriting beat, and Universal is reportedly interested in bringing back Rupert Sanders to direct (the film was the commercial director’s first feature). While Sanders has yet to commit, he’s apparently “interested” in the job, though he does have the same kind of optioned deal that would bring him back for another go – not like the actors from the film, who do (though Kristen Stewart and Chris Hemsworth are clearly part of that package, it’s unclear if Charlize Theron is).

For those of you who didn’t dig on Tarsem Singh‘s giddy Mirror Mirror, here is what you thought you wanted. Do not expect characters to be joking around or having a good time in Snow White and The Huntsman, as all that fun stuff is simply not cool and edgy enough for this grim universe. Mirror Mirror was for the sophisticated and playful child version of you, while talented commercial director Rupert Sanders‘ dark modern take is for that goth High School you, the person who prefers everything — even the kiddiest of things — to be dragged through an edgy, gritty filter. Dour Snow White and The Huntsman certainly is. In a fifteen minute cliff notes introduction, we’re quickly, and yet slowly, introduced to the reactionary Snow White (Kristen Stewart) as a child. We’re told she’s best friends with a boy named Will, who later pops up as a runner in the competition for most disposable character of the year. We’re told she’s famed for her beauty. We’re told her kingdom is dying. We’re told far too much, while hardly ever being shown. After the death of her sickly mother and the murder of her father she’s banished to a jail cell by the evil Queen: the bird heart-eating Ravenna (Charlize Theron).

If you weren’t a fan of the kiddie nature of Mirror Mirror, screenwriter Evan Daugherty has helped craft the film for you, in a near 10-year process. Daugherty began Snow White and the Hunstman as a pure labor of love. While fellow NYU students were most likely telling the same tales about a struggling artist, Daugherty began to write his epic and serious take on the tale of Snow White, with complete control and freedom, in his dorm room. What he ended up with is a dark and atmosphere-oriented take on the Snow White tale, thanks to the twisting and spinning of the staples of the story we all know. Snow White and The Hunstman, at times, even bridges on becoming a horror film, clearly showing this isn’t your grandfather’s Snow White. Here is what screenwriter Evan Daugherty had to say about the visual wonders and horrors of the Dark Forest, director Rupert Sanders‘s painterly approach, the power of simplicity, and the genesis of this very, very serious Snow White: