This year, someone who has never won a DGA award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement will win a DGA award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement. The filed includes three first-time nominees – Darren Aronofsky for Black Swan; Tom Hooper for The King’s Speech; and David O. Russell for The Fighter – as well as two returning nominees – David Fincher for The Social Network (who was previously nominated for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and who has won several commercial directing awards from the DGA) and Christopher Nolan for Inception (who was previously nominated for The Dark Knight and Memento). None of these directors has won the award, which means the Director’s Guild of America’s pattern of celebrating new talent (even talent that’s been around a decade) will continue. In the past 25 years, the DGA has only had 4 repeat winners – Ron Howard, Steven Spielberg, Clint Eastwood and Oliver Stone. With this list of nominees, it’s guaranteed that yet another new name will join their ranks.

Does it bother you that everyone in the blogosphere and social networks are gushing over Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan but it hasn’t opened in your neck of the woods? Well, if you live in Ohio, here’s your chance to catch Black Swan for free before it opens in flyover country. Here at FSR, is helping your Natalie Portman fans out by hosting an early screening in Columbus, Ohio. If you live in the Columbus area, you can use this super-secret code that allows you to print out two tickets to the Columbus screening of Black Swan on Thursday, December 16 at the AMC Lennox at 8:30 PM.

Black Swan is a lot about filmmaking. Nearly all of Darren Aronofsky‘s films have explored the idea of striving for greatness or perfection, and most of the time it only leads to terrible results. His latest film on the competitive dance world is no different, but here it’s more so about striving for perfection in art. In this dreamlike and comedic horror film, Vincent Cassel plays Thomas Leroy. Thomas is a pushy artistic force, almost to the point narcissism. Cassel makes him an understandable and surprisingly likable guy, despite a few of his questionable antics. Cassel himself struck me as a serious actor, but not in the overly self-serious way. Cassel gave brief, but to the point and thoughtful answers in our recent phone interview. Cassel has been becoming more and more well known in the states, and I imagine Black Swan will further assist that rise in awareness for him. There was enough time to comfortably talk about Black Swan, but Cassel also talked a bit about his second collaborative effort with David Cronenberg, A Dangerous Method. Just like Black Swan, it sounds funnier than you’d imagine with its subject matter.

Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan is many things, including a dark and sexually charged drama, a cautionary tale, and even a horror film of sorts. It’s a study of madness in the guise of obsession, a look at an artist striving for perfection, and a tour de force performance by both the lead character and the lead actress. (Hell, it could even be an unofficial sequel to Mirrors 2.) But for all the beauty and brilliance on display as the film explores the idea of suffering for the sake of art, it fails to find a human heart at the center of the story. We’re dazzled and terrified, but much like beauty itself the effect is only skin deep.

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr thumbs his nose at the major studio releases like The Warrior’s Way and The Nutcracker in 3D. Not only do they look like direct-to-DVD releases at best and stinkers of the year at worst, the studios didn’t let him see any of them. So he turns his sights on some award-bait films in limited release: Black Swan and I Love You, Phillip Morris.

The landscape of cinema is full of monsters – those human, and otherwise. Many of these monsters, as we’ve seen over the years, begin as something like us and are changed somehow, transforming into a creature that is equally interesting and terrifying. This is the crux of great monster stories – we can’t look, yet we cannot take our eyes away. In his completely fresh monster story Black Swan, director Darren Aronofsky shows us a transformation for the ages – one that combines the grace and beauty of ballet with the exhilaration and terror of the classic monster tale. Visually stunning, violent and at times breath stealing, Black Swan gives us the great cinematic monster that we never saw coming: Natalie Portman in a pink tutu. Just remember to breathe.

Sometime in the next few days, I will be dropping upon you my review of Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan. Here’s a preview: “this is the movie you should see in theaters this fall.” It has something to do with the intensity that Aronofsky and his skilled cast bring to the world of high-stakes ballet. It also has something to do with the blurred lines between passion and obsession, determination and unbridled aggression. Some of those themes come through brightly in this manic music video, released last night.

The man who brought us Requiem for a Dream, The Wrestler, The Fountain, and the forthcoming Black Swan isn’t known for his sly humor. However, his next project sees him moving out of his wheelhouse a bit in order to deliver an adaptation of Machine Man – the serial and soon-to-be novel by satirist Max Barry. Aronofksy is an interesting choice for director because he has almost exclusively done thrillers and dramas, but Barry’s writing (which I was introduced to through “Jennifer Government” and the addictive, interactive game the book used as an early form of online marketing) is known for calm sarcasm and a near-constant smirk when telling tales of modernism and our new role in the corporate structure. In Machine Man, an engineer replaces his weak, fleshy limbs with strong metal ones, but it turns out other people might want to use that sort of thing for evil. Being called an “amped up pop thriller,” the novel still has that trademarked tongue in cheek attitude of Barry’s writing (or, at least, the amount of it that’s already currently online does), and it’s always exciting to see a director try something new – especially before delving back into the world of gritty drama and Wolverine. [THR]

When you pour hot water into a bucket of cold water, the temperature tends to be somewhere in the middle. Does the hot water raise the temperature of the cold or does the cold bring down the temperature of the hot? I don’t know. Nobody does. It’s science, and it’s unexplainable. However, that’s the best possible analogy for the news that Aronofsky is close to signing on with Fox as the director of Wolverine 2, a project that would see him back with his Fountain co-star Hugh Jackman. This time, with sideburns. The franchise is at a low point, and Fox man-handles their directors, but even if Aronofsky doesn’t have a perfect batting average (and what director does?) he’s still a man that takes risks and builds in challenges to overcome. So will the hot water cool, will the cold water heat up, or will the result be something in the middle? [Deadline Muncie]

The news that Natalie Portman might be in the running to play Lois Lane in the new Superman is a glimpse of hope for the franchise in a weary world. Sure, it would be fantastic. Portman can do just about anything and stands out as the rare movie star that can actually perform. The question is whether it’s worth it to get Darren Aronofsky to direct the film in order to make sure Portman takes on the role. Of course it’s not. In analyzing the possible directors, Aronofsky meets the dark criteria. However, he’s a talented but mercurial director who delivers movies that are only considered mainstream when compared to David Lynch, and he’s already proven that he can’t quite get a strong grip on an enormous scope or an enormous budget.

Combining noted geek love interest Darren Aronofsky (what can we say, the guy makes interesting films) with Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis and the promise of them getting very close in ways that our pastor would not approve of guarantees Fox Searchlight’s Black Swan one thing: it’s bound to get plenty of attention. If it turns out to be a quality film — and so far as we can tell from the newly released trailer, it doesn’t look bad — it might just land somewhere in that sweet spot of geekdom approval and Oscar favoritism. And that’s never a bad place to be, especially if your film is about ballet. The first poster has hit the web, and it brings with it a striking shot of Natalie Portman in her full theatrical ballerina garb. Excuse my ignorance on the world of ballet, but I find the red eyes to be off-putting. It’s a style choice, I know, but what happened to wholesome, potty-mouthed Natalie Portman? Then again, perhaps that’s the point. You tell me once you’ve seen the poster after the jump.

As was the case with anyone operating 5-minutes behind the rest of the blogosphere (I certainly was today), I had heard about the trailer for Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan hours prior to actually seeing the trailer for Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan. At first glance, there is something cold about it. Something stiff, held off in the distance — and not exactly in a good way. It all exists in some David Lynchian ballet nightmare, I thought casually somewhere around the half-way point. And give me a bit of Clint Mansel score any day of the week and you’ll be rewarded with my interest. But still, I was put off by this preview. Everything felt surface level and less than interesting. There must be something to the passion and excitement I’d heard from others. They spoke of the ferocity and atmosphere. Two elements I didn’t see until a second and third viewing. It raises the question: is there a great deal of rumble underneath the surface, or are my peers — as they sometimes do — projecting as a means for excitement? The decision, at this point, is yours. I remain skeptical.

And they just got a powerhouse writer on board.

Entertainment Weekly is reporting that the Noah Oppenheim script Jackie — previously rumored to be set up as a TV project for Steven Spielberg — has now fallen into the hands of Darren Aronofsky. But that’s not what’s interesting. What’s interesting is the perfect casting of his leading lady…

First Lars von Trier, now Darren Aronofsky. Interesting directors making interesting movies about the evil nature of women. Yes, that’s right: women are evil. I don’t believe it, but I suppose someone out there does. The Hollywood Reporter is talking about a new project for Aronofsky today that sounds like nothing more than an exploration of such a belief, a movie about a woman who becomes unhinged and absolutely wrecks the worlds of her husband and his illegitimate child. What’s not evil about that.

There’s no secret to the fact that MGM and director Darren Aronofsky aren’t seeing eye-to-eye on their planned reboot of RoboCop. We’ve been covering the situation since March 2008, and it is clear that as the project has evolved, the two parties have distinctly different visions for what this franchise relaunch should look like.

MGM chairperson Mary Parent needs something big to resurrect the once-great studio that is now mere days from imploding. It has to be big, steely and it must be in 3D! Of course, this doesn’t jive with everyone.

There’s been a lot of news in the past 24-hours around the next project of director Darren Aronofsky.

Darren Aronofsky is currently working on a new project: one that shows you what it was like inside one of the most audacious heists of all-time.

This week, on a very special episode of Reject Radio, we Inglouriously review the recent releases while getting Thirsty and coming up with awkward puns for the film titles. We also get voted World’s Greatest Dad or something. Seriously, I’m not even trying anymore because my attention span is so Shorts.