One of my most anticipated films of the year is Jeff Nichols‘ Mud. Nichols is behind one of, if not the, best films of 2011: Take Shelter. With only two pictures under his belt, he’s quickly established himself as a filmmaker to get excited about. Earlier today Nichols was kind enough to make the time for an interview to discuss Take Shelter, for the upcoming Blu-ray release. We discussed an array of topics, and Mud was briefly covered. Nichols was hard at work in the mood swing-sounding editing room when we spoke, and although he stated he’ll have clearer answers for the movie once it comes out, the writer-director shared enough details to give us a small sense of what to expect from Mud. After talking about the love-hate relationship with editing, the joy of shooting the Mississippi river with 35mm anamorphic cameras, the no bullshit (and awesome) attitude of Sam Shepard, Nichols touched upon the themes of the film:

Nearly thirteen years after The Blair Witch Project introduced the concept of “found footage” films to mainstream audiences while simultaneously harnessing the power of the burgeoning Internet to launch a massively successful viral campaign that hinged on audiences buying into the “truth” behind the film, the found fauxtage horror genre continues to chug almost unstoppably along. Unstoppably, that is, until The Devil Inside, the latest on-the-cheap pick-up from Paramount Insurge, the studio’s indie genre label formed after the massive success of the Paranormal Activity films. Like the PA films, The Devil Inside was made for little money by some scrappy filmmakers (writer Matthew Peterman and director and co-writer William Brent Bell), but unlike the PA films, The Devil Inside is almost totally void of originality, style, or even genuine scares, and we can only hope that it doesn’t spawn any of its own sequels. The film follows twentysomething Isabella Rossi (played with reasonable pluck by Fernanda Andrade), an American whose mother (Suzan Crowley) murdered three people when she was just a tot. After the murders, Maria Rossi was sent to an asylum in Italy indefinitely, a move by the government and the Catholic church that somehow never struck Isabella as questionable or weird. The Italian shuffle makes more sense, however, when Isabella’s father finally fesses up that Maria killed those three people (all clergy-people from her own church) in the middle of an exorcism. An exorcism being performed on her. Gasp. Unfortunately, within days of her pops breaking the news, [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

In The Paperboy, Zac Efron and Matthew McConaughey play reporters from Miami hired to prove the innocence of a death row inmate (John Cusack). The woman who hires them is the highly sexual Charlotte Bless (Nicole Kidman) who has fallen in love with the inmate despite never meeting him. She’s convinced he should be free, and that they should be married. The movie is based on the novel by Pete Dexter (who wrote the screenplay), and it’s being directed by Precious helmer Lee Daniels. With one Oscar-nominated film under his belt, it will be interesting to see if he shoots for a second. It will also be interesting to see if they keep the harrowing ending to the novel, because if they do, things are about to get a lot darker. A new poster for the film is making the rounds, and it’s the kind of artwork that makes most poster artists seem lazy (as if they need help). It’s a fantastic throwback style with a little too much eye-liner. Check it out for yourself:

Color me shocked. After years of famously refusing to remove his clothing for films, Matthew McConaughey has finally given in and stripped down. Magic Mike must be a hell of a project to make him betray his own ethical stance against half-nudity in film. Either that, or Steven Soderberg must have convinced him that he had to get partially naked in order to co-star. Well, I hope it was worth it, Mr. McConaughey. I hope it was worth your dignity. As you can see, Warners has released the first official image from the movie (which is also the first image ever of McConaughey without any top cover) that stars Channing Tatum, Alex Pettyfer, McConaughey and Olivia Munn. As we all know, it’s about male strippers. As we know because of this picture, it’s about patriotic strippers. And, as you can tell, we finally know why McConaughey refused to take his top off before now. Eesh.

It’s easy to bemoan casting choices - romantic comedies that feature a male and a female star that seemed to have been picked just by virtue of the fact they’ve never appeared together in a rom-com before (Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore in Music & Lyrics, I am looking squarely at you), superhero flicks that cast leads that don’t meet rabid fan expectations, that insane Bradley Cooper/Crow thing, pretty much any film that involves anyone who has ever worked on One Tree Hill, the list goes on and on. But sometimes, just sometimes, casting is almost too perfect, too spot-on, so that we can only sit back and sigh, content and pleased and sated, as if we have just eaten a full Thanksgiving dinner. Matthew McConaughey is now set to play a former stripper turned strip club owner in Steven Soderbergh‘s Magic Mike, simply because it could be no other way.

When I write this column, I typically don’t get the opportunity to write about movies from my teen years. I, like many, came into a cinephilic love for art and foreign cinema during college, and in that process grew to appreciate The Criterion Collection. Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused (1993), however, is a movie that’s followed me through various changes in my life for (I’m just now realizing as I write this) about half of my time thus far spent on Earth.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly movie news column that enjoys having Saturdays off. But it’s not Saturday yet, is it? That means it’s time for another round of the best movie-related links from around the web. So lets get on with it. We lead tonight with the first shot of Bruce Willis in Rian Johnson’s Looper, which includes a look at Willis likely eviscerating something or someone. This one comes to the world via Empire, who has promised that they will be bringing you some news from the set. I’ll read that.

As the classic soul song “Ain’t No Love in the Heart of the City” plays over the opening credits of The Lincoln Lawyer, the perfect tone is set for the movie. At its core, it’s a classical lawyer procedural thriller, but is smoothly played by its star and large cast so much so that you can’t help but be entertained for two hours. It’s a movie where the title explains it all. Mickey Haller (Matthew McConaughey, looking little older, but still with some breezy cool swagger) is a high profiled LA defense lawyer who works out of his Lincoln Town Car. As he wheels and deals throughout the day with his driver Earl (Laurence Mason), we meet the various lawyers, bail bonds men, private investigators, celebrity drug addicts, and gang members that he works with. Some of them love him, but most have some sort of card to play with him.

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr starts a new regimen of drugs that comes in a clear little pill. The guy on the street corner told him that it would unlock the full potential of his mind, and he assured Kevin it was FDA approved. Why would this guy lie to him? While waiting for the drugs to kick in, Kevin decided to take a trip across the American southwest and search for skinny little aliens with fat man voices. He knows he’s safe, even if he’s picked up by the cops, because he’s retained a dead-sexy lawyer who runs his practice out of the back of his Lincoln Town Car.

The trailer for The Lincoln Lawyer is a confounding mess of imagery. With it as the sole source of information about the film, it paints a picture of a high-priced lawyer who uses his Lincoln Towncar as a mobile office for unexplained reasons (fingers crossed for an emotional speech about his dad always driving him around in it before abandoning the family). It also flashes a few out-of-context images of Ryan Phillipe’s character being very wealthy and possibly in a dream sequence but possibly in reality raping and killing a young woman. Lastly, we’re treated to the most awkward ending to a trailer since Flight of the Navigator. Can you stare down McConaughey before getting a creepy feeling in your gut? If so, then you’re a better person than I. The synopsis promises that our hero Mickey Haller will soon find himself in danger, so maybe all the action and chase scenes are yet to come – otherwise, the whole thing sort of seems (from the trailer) like a brooding episode of Law and Order: SVU that someone wanted to expand to fit the big screen.

This week, on a very special episode of Reject Radio, co-director of the Oxford Film Festival Melanie Addington joins fan favorite Luke “Fat Albert” Mullen to discuss the prospect of being sued by Bill Cosby, the prospect of “just doing it,” and the prospect of stealing David Slade’s agent. Plus! We find some spare time to review The Last Exorcism and Make Out With Violence without devolving into a fist fight.

It seems that if you’re going to do an indie film, the premise should be daring and new. Not, say, something that stands in as the filler plot for most Mid-life Crisis Guy Fixing His Life and His Family since Liar Liar and the 100 movies that came before it. Matthew McConaughey may have gotten older, but his film’s premise stays the same age. He’s close to signing on for The Headhunter’s Calling – a movie about a ruthless businessman who has already destroyed his family and his sense of ethics after years of corporate life. His evil ways will have to end (or hilariously keep going) when he finds out his oldest child has leukemia. It’s high concept and nothing new, but the joy of indie film might be in doing something cliched like this with an innovative eye or fresh characters. Many disparage McConaughey’s acting skills, but the last time he was in an indie film, he created an iconic character. That’s not bad work. Still, it’s going to take a lot more than what’s presented here to raise any excitement for this thing – like McConaughey launching a rapping career or something. [Pajiba]

McConaughey wants to get audiences into the backseat of his ride and orate.

Way I see it, the one upside to the US endlessly perpetuating the drug war is hot people making movies about the US endlessly perpetuating the drug war.

‘Ghosts of Girlfriends Past’ is a bad movie that nonetheless interestingly (and most likely unintentionally) dissects Matthew McConaughey’s archetypal onscreen persona.

Kevin Carr reviews this week’s new movies: X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past and Battle for Terra.

The Fat Guys ring in the summer movie season with a Fat Guy Five – The Most Anticipated Films of Summer, while Kevin risks a backlash of political correctness by explaining why he thinks Obsessed with Beyonkadonk did so well last week.

There was a lot of fake movie news floating around yesterday, but there’s always a lot of fake movie news floating around. We take a look at eleven rumor stories (some true, some false) that really should have been posted on April 1st.

There are certain questions in life one puzzles over furiously. Today, we examine a tricky one by asking what the hell happened to Kate Hudson’s career? Cinema Sleuth is on the case.

How do you make a stoner comedy and forget the comedy? Having watched both Surfer, Dude and the DVD’s special features, my guess would have something to do with the cast and crew sampling the ganja used as set dressing a bit too often and succumbing to short term memory loss.