Collette McVeigh seems to be a fairly normal little girl, creating beaded necklaces and bribing her younger brother into running a quick errand for their father that she does not want to do herself. Unfortunately, this errand ends in tragedy, with her brother getting shot and killed. As her mother weeps over his body and her father fixes in on her with a look that could kill, Collette stands frozen, devastated. Shadow Dancer focuses on the life of a now grown-up Collette (Andrea Riseborough) who has a son of her own and is tied up in the “family business” (the IRA), rooted in taking down the English government which cost their brother his life.

One big action release on DVD and Blu-ray this week features Jason Statham, Robert De Niro, Clive Owen and Clive Owen’s mustache. The film Killer Elite is based on a true story about a secret agency that arranged assassinations in the early 80s. It also features a lot of 80s porno-era facial hair, which should be a treat for everyone. While the film misses the chance to have Jason Statham and Clive Owen have a street race to see whether the Transporter or BMW’s The Driver is better behind the wheel, but at least it gives “tough guy” movie fans a chance to see some icons together on the same screen. For everyone else, it offers a great chance to participate in a drinking game.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly collection of things you’ll want to read, even if they didn’t originate on this website. We know, we know, all the good stuff can only come from Film School Rejects. But every once in a while (at least 8 times per day), other websites strike gold. And we’re here to celebrate their modest victories. We begin tonight with an image from Tim & Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie, one of a number released today by Magnolia Pictures. It features Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim as… well, I have no idea what’s going on in this picture. But apparently people find this funny. Having watched numerous episodes of their show, I’m not convinced that they’ve ever been funny. But who am I to argue with the masses? Oh right, I do argue with the masses. Seriously, guys, this stuff isn’t funny. At all.

Clive Owen is an actor who has impressed me in the past with both his inherent charisma (in movies like Closer) and the level of his dramatic chops (in things like Children of Men). I like seeing him in roles where he really gets to show off and make some bold choices with his performance. So it’s been disappointing to me that recently he’s been playing stone faced soldiers, secret agents, and hit men in things like Killer Elite and The International. All of these tough guy action roles just kind of blend together in my mind and unfortunately Variety is reporting that Owen has just signed onto another one that you can throw onto the pile.

Killer Elite begins by stressing that what on the surface appeared to be little more than a run-of-the-mill Jason Statham-Clive Owen action flick is in fact a serious evocation of the chaotic geopolitical scene circa 1980, and based on a true story. Naively, I felt a twinge of eager anticipation. Could this actually be a serious globe-trotting thriller, a chance for Statham to showcase some dramatic range? Not so much.

It’s true that Robert De Niro, Jason Statham and Clive Owen make a type of dream team when it comes to action movies, especially ones that involve kidnapped mentors and the promise/threat of revenge. At the very least, it’s a ridiculous line-up for a first time feature director. To that point, here’s co-writer/director Gary McKendry explaining very briefly what it was like getting the gig and hearing who he’d be working with:

This morning, Robert Fure felt a great shift in the universe during his daily viewing of Pumping Iron. That shift, was the trailer for Killer Elite – a streamlined trailer with zero plot and a hell of a lot of action. If you like deadpan one-liners delivered before watching a dude tied to a chair backflip onto his captor, you’re about to shed a single tear. If you don’t like those things, why not? Have you gotten treatment for it yet? Oh, and the dude in question is Jason Statham. That’s right. Statham. Clive Owen. Robert De Niro. The Scorpions. This is a lesson on how to build an action movie.

What is Movie News After Dark? Only the most high-octane dose of movie news you could possibly have in the middle of the night. Everything in here is worth reading, friends. Except for my commentary. You could probably take or leave that, depending on your mood. The image above marks the first official image from Fright Night, the Craig Gillespie remake 3D remake of the 80s horror film of the same name. In this shot, Colin Farrell plays the vampire next door, and he appears to be looking to start a diet comprised completely of Anton Yelchin. Over at Cinematical (which I feel dirty linking to…) they have shots of Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Imogen Poots, who has one of the more adorable names ever.

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr recovers from a full day of watching Armageddon back-to-back to crawl back to the multiplex. He re-lived the last eight minutes of Source Code over and over, thoroughly confusing himself. Then he stumbled into the theater next door to learn about the true meaning of Easter from Russell Brand and James Marsden. Things take a decidedly creepy turn when he watches Insidious and wets himself more than once. This led to a very unfortunate scene while he watched the sexual-predator cautionary tale Trust. No one would believe him it was just wee wee.

When most people hear David Schwimmer’s name, the first thing they think of is his bumbling character Ross on NBC’s mega-hit Friends. Sure, there’s a couple fans of Simon Pegg that will stampede to his directorial debut of Run Fat Boy Run, but we all know that most will think of his television work. Well, Schwimmer is distancing himself further from situation comedies with his new film Trust, which opens in limited release on April 1. Trust takes a darker angle than the bulk of Schwimmer’s body of work, telling the story of a teenage girl who is targeted by a sexual predator online. Finding the right star for a film like this is as challenging as getting a story about such a sensitive subject made. For the role, Schwimmer turned to then-14-year-old Liana Liberato to play the teenage lead of Annie. Liberato took some time to speak with Film School Rejects about how she handled such an emotionally challenging role.

Many of us remember David Schwimmer from the television series Friends, but he has since dipped his toes into directing. His second feature, following up the comedy Run Fat Boy Run, is the drama Trust, which deals with online predators. Starring Clive Owen, Catherine Keener and newcomer Liana Liberato, Trust tells the story of a fifteen year old girl who is targeted through text messages and social networks. One of the first cities in which Trust will open is Columbus, but FSR will be giving away free tickets to an early screening of the film before it opens anywhere else. If you live in the Columbus area, you can get your hands on a ticket that allows you into a super-secret screening of Trust on Thursday, March 31 at the AMC Lennox at 7:30 PM.

Things are going hot and heavy with that new crush you’ve formed online. You ignored Hard Candy and Catfish, but maybe you won’t ignore Trust. Directed by David Schwimmer, it seems to be a different brand of online anonymity heartbreak. The trailer looks heady and emotional, and you can’t go wrong with Clive Owen, Catherine Keener, and Viola Davis. Check it out for yourself:

As the only literate Reject, it’s my duty to find the latest, the greatest and the untouched classics that would make great source material for film adaptations. I read so you don’t have to. This week, Print to Projector presents the story of a man buried alive buried alive in his car trapped in space stuck between two boulders stranded in between two highways on a small grass island where his survival and sanity depend on a few cases of wine and the sheer will to live.

I don’t actually know for sure that Clive Owen’s character is interested in sodomizing the predator in question, but judging by the man’s past roles I have to imagine he’s weighing the option. Trust features Owen and Catherine Keener playing parents to a precocious teenage girl who likes to chat online with strangers. Silly girl. One of the teen’s cyber pals turns out to be a violent pedophile who buggers her without asking permission and shatters the family’s false sense of security. This upsets Owen, and I don’t think the rapist is going to enjoy what happens next. The trailer is below and sadly looks pretty generic… aside from one thing. Watch the screen at the 1:35 mark and be prepared for the trailer’s (and probably the film’s) biggest surprise. Check after the jump to watch the trailer for Trust…

I’ve mentioned this a few times, but it’s worth saying again: I’ve got a great feeling about The Killer Elite. The Garry McKendry directed thriller is the story of former British special forces members, led by Clive Owen, who are being hunted down by assassins. To their rescue comes a former Navy Seal played by Jason Statham. This week, the production added the likes of Robert De Niro, Dominic Purcell and Adrian Young. It also added Chuck star Yvonne Strahovski. That works.

You can have The Expendables, a collection of notable badasses spewing fire-power from celluloid. But if that doesn’t work out — and it might not, who knows — there will be other opportunities to see notably bad (in the good way) dudes take to killing each other and everyone else.

Trained assassin Columbus deals with a beautiful Italian woman, his usual case load of targets and the new sensation of having a price put on his head by a powerful unknown source who wants him dead.

Here’s a pretty bad-ass pairing of badasses: Clive Owen and Jason Statham. The former has signed on — according to Variety — to the upcoming actioner The Killer Elite.

A post-apocalyptic future where the rantings of a divorced cab driver have become the basis for a major religion. Who wouldn’t want to see that on the big screen?

Producer Greg Brenman talks about the new Clive Owen film The Boys Are Back, available on DVD from Miramax.