We first meet Kal-El exiting his mother’s alien vagina. It’s no different from an Earth woman’s vagina aside from, presumably, its reinforced structural walls, but the birth is of extreme importance on the dying planet of Krypton. The infant’s father, Jor-El (Russell Crowe), has accused Kryptonian politicians of dooming the planet and its people through short-sightedness and ignorance. General Zod (Michael Shannon) agrees with Jor-El, but instead of talking it out with those in power, he orchestrates a violent coup to seize control. It’s amid the ensuing chaos, both natural and man-made, that the baby boy is shipped off to Earth. More than two decades later Clark Kent (Henry Cavill) is a quiet loner, traveling the world anonymously in search of answers to who he really is and performing amazing feats of rescue along the way. His lack of identity never gets in the way of his desire to help people, but when an alien ship is discovered frozen beneath the ice, his curiosity triggers a chain reaction of events that provides him with answers while simultaneously leading to the brink of mankind’s destruction. Man of Steel is every inch a Zack Snyder/Christopher Nolan production, and there’s both good and bad in that statement. Snyder’s directorial hand ensures the film is a visual powerhouse filled with real spectacle while Nolan uses his producer powers to find the traditionally bright and colorful superhero’s darker, grittier and more angst-ridden tones, but they also bring with them a shared preference of imagery and

What is Casting Couch? It’s a gathering together of casting news from all across the Internet. Today we finally, finally know who Disney has cast as the lead of their new version of Cinderella. It seems like just yesterday Kevin Costner was playing sleazy baseball players and checking little girls for tattoos of the map to dry land, but now he’s going to be a grandfather. Deadline is reporting that the veteran actor is all set to re-team with his Upside of Anger director, Mike Binder, to star in a new film called Black and White. The story will see Costner’s character taking care of his bi-racial granddaughter after both his daughter and his wife die due to tragic accidents. If all of that isn’t already bad enough, more trouble comes along when the baby’s paternal grandmother comes along and wants to take the kid away from him. Sounds like he’s going to have to lay on some of that patented Costner charm to get through this one.

Today was basically Godzilla day on the Internet. All sorts of news regarding Legendary Pictures’ reboot of the big green guy’s film series broke, and some of it involves casting. THR broke the news that Joseph Gordon-Levitt was being looked at to star, but one of their writers, Borys Kit, was then quick to point out that his potential involvement in the film is long dead. Variety writer Justin Kroll then jumped in with the news that a few names that are still possibilities for the project are Henry Cavill, Scoot McNairy, and Caleb Landry Jones. All of this news comes with a special thanks to /Film, who compiled all the chatter into a tight little narrative. Even though things between Gordon-Levitt and Godzilla didn’t work out, don’t let that make you think that he’s going to go an entire week without being attached to a high profile project. In more Gordon-Levitt news, Deadline has word that the in-demand actor has just signed on to play a big role in Robert Rodriguez‘s Sin City sequel, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. Apparently he’s going to be playing Johnny, a role that was meant to go to Johnny Depp at one point, and that is said to be a core character in the overlapping parts of the film’s story lines. This comes at the same time as news that Gordon-Levitt’s possible involvement in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy isn’t going to end up happening, which is essential information if you happen to be exhaustively journaling all

What is Casting Couch? It’s a column that has a lot of new casting news today, so settle in. Even after only two movies, the number of aged action stars who have yet to appear in Sylvester Stallone’s Expendables series has dwindled down to a select few. So, given his age, his lengthy resume, and the way he’s linked almost exclusively to the action genre, Jackie Chan has to be seen as one of the biggest fish out there that Stallone has yet to catch. It looks like that’s going to change in The Expendables 3, however, as Chan has told Cinema Online [via Coming Soon] that Stallone has invited him to join the cast of the film, and he has agreed to appear as long as it’s in a featured part and not just a cameo. Looks like we might finally get our chance to see Dolph Lundgren get beat up with a ladder.

What is Casting Couch? It’s starting to wonder how many times Hugh Jackman can play Wolverine before his sideburns start to stick that way. Hot on the heels of the announcement that the original Professor X and Magneto, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, would be joining Bryan Singer’s X-Men: First Class sequel, X-Men: Days of Future Past, comes word that yet another actor from the original X-Men trilogy, Hugh Jackman, is also negotiating. This makes sense, of course, because Jackman’s brief cameo in First Class was the first indication we got that Matthew Vaughn’s reboot and Singer’s original films might actually exist in the same universe. Now that Singer has Stewart, McKellen, and Jackman on board, the only other actors he needs to poach from those first X-Men movies is…well, no one. It’s kind of amazing how well those movies cast these three guys and how poorly they cast every single other character. Hopefully this is the end of the colliding of worlds. [THR]

Whoever Kevin Costner‘s agent is deserves the most ostentatious, wallet-busting, heart attack-inducing gift basket on the planet because they are working hard for the money. Let’s recap. Costner, who, as of a year or so ago, everyone had pretty much sort of forgotten about other than to mention in passing, “oh, yeah, Kevin Costner, I liked that guy” came smashing back into the collective Hollywood consciousnesses with last summer’s rumor that he would co-star in Django Unchained (though that proved fruitless), used that zing to get cast in Man of Steel, then grabbed an Emmy-winning role in Hatfields & McCoys, a major part in Jack Ryan, and a starring role in McG’s next thriller. Is Costner done yet? Not by a mile. Vulture reports (via The Playlist) that Costner will now topline Ivan Reitman‘s Draft Day, an NFL-centric film that follows the manager of the Buffalo Bills (Costner’s new role) on one heck of a day: the day he’s trying to land the number one draft pick in order to make all sorts of nutty trades, made all the more complicated by personal drama (you know, draft day). Sounds fun and all, but now it seems like Draft Day may have another feather in its cap, and not just of the Costner variety.

That Kevin Costner comeback that kicked off last summer with the rumor that the actor would co-star in Django Unchained (though that proved fruitless), which then carried over to his casting in Man of Steel, an Emmy-winning role in Hatfields & McCoys, and a major part in Jack Ryan just continues to reap huge benefits for the star. As had been rumored back in August, Costner has now officially signed on to star in director McG‘s next film, “a gripping action tale” that’s been penned by Luc Besson and Adi Hasak. Currently untitled, the film has previously been referred to as Three Days to Kill, though perhaps everyone decided that moniker was just a touch too spoilery and has decided to lay off on letting everyone know how long Costner will have to, you know, kill someone. A press release from Relativity Media describes the film as such: “the thriller explores a story about Secret Service Agent Ethan Runner who discovers he’s dying and decides to retire in order to reconnect with his estranged family. But when the Secret Service offers him access to an experimental drug that could save his life in exchange for one last assignment, he soon finds himself trying to juggle his family, his mission, and the drug’s hallucinatory side-effects.” Wait, there are drugs involved in this? Is this The Bourne Legacy fan fiction? You can read the full release after the break, if you’re just that into Kevin Costner news.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s the nightly movie news column that cares… We begin this evening with an image from “Behind the Hollywood Sign,” a photo project from photographer Ted VanCleave that takes you up close and personal with Hollywood’s mountain-top moniker. It’s a gorgeous set of photos by any standard, and a great look at one of the iconic markers of the film industry.

Kevin Costner, movie star. No, it is not 1994. It is still 2012 and Costner has finally shrugged off the twin failures of both Waterworld and The Postman to face what can only be seen as one hell of a career upswing. Deadline Hollywood reports (via /Film) that Costner is being eyed for both that Chris Pine-starring Jack Ryan  franchise reboot and the Luc Besson-penned Three Days to Kill, big action roles that would join his expanding schedule, which might also include a starring role in the Disney sports drama, McFarland (though reports are now emerging that Costner, who was considered set for the film, may be out). Costner has already been offered a “co-lead role” in Kenneth Branagh‘s Jack Ryan film, a role that is a “new creation, but a close cousin to the role of CIA bigwig Admiral Greer that was played by James Earl Jones in Patriot Games.” The new character would set Costner as Ryan’s mentor and that, coupled with the tantalizing “co-lead” descriptor, make it sound like a very big deal.

Superman doesn’t look all that happy in these first two (near identical) teasers for Zack Snyder‘s Man of Steel. If you thought Bryan Singer‘s Superman was an unbearable mope, wait until you get a peak at Snyder’s, who has apparently made one of our greatest heroes in the galaxy a bearded, lonely and sad fisherman. You can’t get more “gritty” and “real” than that shocking transformation. Check both teasers out below, one with Kevin Costner narrating and one featuring Russell Crowe’s melodic grumbling.

Lloyd Kaufman is the Rodney Dangerfield of low-budget, B-level horror movies. He gets no respect. Even Roger Corman, who is notorious for cranking out genre films for profit since the 1950s, has respect of his Hollywood peers. But in Corman’s shadow is Kaufman’s exploitation studio Troma, which has been generating marginal and low-quality entertainment for years…almost 40 years, to be exact. Troma began in 1974 as a joint venture between Kaufman and his buddy from Yale, Michael Hertz. Over the years, the studio has pulled their own fair share of Cormans by featuring would-be stars in their earliest roles, including Kevin Costner in Sizzle Beach U.S.A., Billy Bob Thornton in Chopper Chicks in Zombietown, and the comedy team of Trey Parker and Matt Stone with Cannibal: The Musical. In 1985, Troma broke out with their tongue-in-cheek success The Toxic Avenger, a low-budget hit that spawned three sequels and gave Troma its poster boy for its studio. Soon, Troma became a staple in the direct-to-video market with additional hits like Class of Nuke‘Em High, Sgt. Kabukiman NYPD, A Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell, and Surf Nazis Must Die! To celebrate its upcoming 40th Anniversary in Tromaville, Troma is offering dozens of their movies for free on the Troma YouTube Channel. Films will be continually added to the line-up, but the channel is opening with the following titles:

Right from its very beginning, Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming spaghetti Western wannabe Django Unchained was a project whose casting rumors involved far more actors than could have actually been included in its cast. In addition to names being thrown around that just turned out to be wishful thinking, actors like Jonah Hill and Joseph Gordon-Levitt were said to be close to taking roles in the film, but ultimately never signed up due to scheduling conflicts. Even Kevin Costner, who had signed on to play the role of Ace Woody, eventually had to be replaced by Kurt Russell because of scheduling issues. What’s the deal with all of these scheduling issues? What does Tarantino have going on out there in the desert? There may be no hard and fast answers to that question coming, but what is clear is that, even though shooting on the film has commenced, two more names have now dropped out of the cast. The Film Stage brought to our attention that, during an appearance on Howard Stern, Sacha Baron Cohen announced that he wouldn’t be able to make his planned appearance in the film due to promotional commitments for The Dictator. Soon after, Variety’s Jeff Sneider broke the news on Twitter that Kurt Russell had also left the cast.

I’m not any sort of sports guy at all. Corner me in a bar and try to talk to me about last night’s big game and I’m going to stare back at you blankly and stupidly. Invite me to your Super Bowl party and I’m going to politely decline for fear of dying of boredom. But even I understand the appeal of baseball: the lazy pace, the fresh-cut grass, the hot dogs and peanuts, the crack of the bat. Hollywood has a long tradition of movies that have tapped into this seemingly universal love, but ever since it was released, the Kevin Costner-starring Field of Dreams has been considered by most to be the king of the mountain. And while pretty much everyone has seen Field of Dreams at some point in their lives, or at least understands that it’s the source of the, “If you build it, they will come,” quote, almost no one I know has ever seen Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s 2008 film Sugar. It got a brief release in New York and L.A., and then was shunted off to DVD without playing for anyone else. That’s a shame, because this tale about a young Dominican prospect trying to improve his station in the world by making it to the majors is my favorite film about the game.

It was recently reported that Kevin Costner was dropping out of Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming revenge Western about slaves and slave owners, Django Unchained. Costner was supposed to play a mean old snake named Ace Woody who oversees a plantation and keeps the slaves in line using not so nice methods. It seemed like a great opportunity to give Costner a meatier, or at least more interesting role than he has had in a while, and I was pretty disappointed to hear that he wouldn’t be able to work with Tarantino. Sometimes I’m astounded at how fickle I can be.

Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming spaghetti western type movie Django Unchained includes a lead role that calls for a mean man to do mean things. The character’s name is Ace Woody, and he’s a slave owning creep. Up to this point it was pretty much a lock that the role was going to be played by Kevin Costner, it was even the opinion of this writer that Tarantino might be looking to give Costner’s career a shot in the arm, much like he’s done with a couple aging actors before. But now it’s looking like Costner will be dropping out of the role, and it’s because his career doesn’t need any resuscitating after all. Deadline Chuichu is reporting that due to his duties playing Pa Kent in Man of Steel and his work in the History miniseries The Hatfields and McCoys, Costner’s schedule isn’t going to allow for him to take part in the lengthy two month film shoot that Tarantino has planned. That means Tarantino is going to need to find someone else to play Ace Woody. My unsolicited advice would be to go after either Woody Harrelson or Tom Hanks, both great actors who have lots of experience playing characters named Woody. No need to thank me Quentin. In my heart you already have.

Back in May, the illustrious Matt Patches put together a list so honest, so compelling, so original, that I had absolutely no choice but to copy it almost totally wholesale to craft my own version. Patches’s list was comprised of eight films his previous girlfriends had forced him to watch that made him who he is today (the list was, of course, titled “8 Movies My Past Girlfriends Forced Me to Watch That Made Me Who I Am Today” because we here at FSR are nothing if we are not succinct). The list, while interesting on a purely cinematic basis, also said something surprisingly deep about the nature of relationships themselves – mainly when it comes to the all-important element of compromise. Patches, a gentleman and a scholar, found some compelling honesty in his consistently sweet tales of cinematic (and romantic) discovery. My list starts off with a film that made me realize my first boyfriend was possibly also interested in other men. That’s just the sort of list this is. Here are seven movies that seven different suitors all “forced” me to watch at different points in my (admittedly still young) cinematic life. More than any individual lesson each film taught me, together the list forms one giant reminder of what I love best about going to the movies – endless possibility. Take a peek at my list after the break, and then feel free to pipe in with any films that someone made you watch that ultimately changed your

There’s already been a lot of high profile casting news for Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming Western Django Unchained. Jamie Foxx is going to be playing the lead role, an ex-slave who is going after his ex-owner to liberate his wife. Leonardo DiCaprio is going to play said slave-owning creep. Samuel L. Jackson will be his manipulative servant. And Christoph Waltz is set to play a German bounty hunter that shows Django the ropes. That’s a fine enough sounding cast right there, but strap yourself in, there’s more. Deadline Las Cruces is reporting that Tarantino is in negotiations to get Robin Hood to join the cast. That’s right, the one true Robin Hood, the Bryan Adams Robin Hood: Kevin Costner. You might also know him as that guy who drank his own pee in Waterworld. However you remember the guy, you probably can recollect that once upon a time he was a pretty big deal. And history shows that Tarantino loves to take actors who used to be a big deal and give them a chance to shine once again. If Costner signs on the dotted line, he will get a chance to do just that, as the role he is up for is that of Ace Woody, the brutal taskmaster who trains slaves to fight one another in gladiatorial battles. It’s a showy, villainous role that could very well get Costner a lot of attention, much like Waltz’s Jew hunter character did in Inglorious Basterds. As he showed in Mr. Brooks,

Every day, come rain or shine or internet tubes breaking, Film School Rejects showcases a trailer from the past. What do you do when you’re facing college graduation, the diaspora of your friends, and the threat of being drafted right into the jungles of Vietnam? You go on a road trip through Texas to find a bottle of Dom that you buried years ago. This movie is for anyone who ever reveled in the foolishness of youth, who ever had a firework fight in a graveyard, who ever jumped out of an airplane because their friends kept calling them a weenie. To those committed to committing random acts of stupidity, this one’s for you. Check out the trailer for yourself:

What is Movie News After Dark? This is a question that I am almost never asked, but I will answer it for you anyway. Movie News After Dark is FSR’s newest late-night secretion, a column dedicated to all of the news stories that slip past our daytime editorial staff and make it into my curiously chubby RSS ‘flagged’ box. It will (but is not guaranteed to) include relevant movie news, links to insightful commentary and other film-related shenanigans. I may also throw in a link to something TV-related here or there. It will also serve as my place of record for being both charming and sharp-witted, but most likely I will be neither of the two. I write this stuff late at night, what do you expect?

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr trolls around hospitals looking for a scorching hot young doctor who doesn’t want a real relationship but would rather have someone she can have copious amounts of sex with many times throughout the week. Upon returning from that fantasy land, he heads to a job-placement agency to rub elbows with laid-off corporate executives who have trouble making ends meet so they can pay the lease on their Mercedes. Kevin is handing out grades for No Strings Attached and The Company Men, and the grades are not good.