Amidst the pinky-out prestige of awards season sits the manic pixie of The People’s Choice Awards. Perhaps they can easily be dismissed by the cinephile crowd for not being nearly well-rounded or interesting enough, but looking at the nominees and the winners can provide a bird’s eye view into the abyss of mass-entertainment. With over 200 million votes cast, according to a press release, the winners included Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds as The Green Lantern, Adam Sandler‘s comedy and Bridesmaids. To put that into perspective, that’s a ridiculous amount of people. To really put it into perspective, it’s 7.6 million more people than the entire population of Brazil, and it’s 2/3rds the population of the United States. The giant, faceless wad of “the people” have made these their movie champions of 2011:

Heist movies are usually about that one big score. That one massive job that’s too risky to take on, but too enticing to pass up. In order to motivate heist movie characters to step out of their comfort zones and take big risks, whatever they’re breaking into has to have a pretty big booty. But with each passing announcement, it becomes clearer and clearer that in Louis Leterrier’s upcoming heist film Now You See Me, the most valuable thing on screen won’t be the stockpiles of cash the illusionist characters steal from the world’s banks, but the amazing cast that he has assembled to bring these characters to life. It seems like almost on a bi-weekly basis some new casting announcement is made about this film that tops the last, and the latest comes from Movie Hole, who reports that Michael Caine has become the latest actor to join an already bursting at the seams ensemble. This puts him in a group of actors including Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Morgan Freeman, Melanie Laurent, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco, and Woody Harrelson. Admittedly, Movie Hole’s accuracy rate at breaking news stories has been a little bit dubious, but The Playlist, a publication with a better batting record, has confirmed the story as well, so there must be some legitimacy to what Movie Hole’s secret source is saying. And if Movie Hole’s source knows what it’s talking about, then it raises another question about the film. Their source mentions the fact that Woody [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]

I’m not going to go on too long here. I’ve already written pages about how excited I am about the casting process for Louis Leterrier’s Now You See Me. Leterrier and company started out strong by casting Jesse Eisenberg in the lead role, then in rapid succession they added names like Mark Ruffalo, Melanie Laurent, Morgan Freeman, and Isla Fisher. This movie about bank robbing magicians has a next level cast, and it just keeps getting better. Variety is reporting that Woody Harrelson is the latest name to join the ensemble. Harrelson, one of the most delightful to watch and underrated actors in Hollywood, will be playing the role of Merritt Osbourne, a hypnotist and mentalist who can pull Jedi mind tricks on people. He used to perform for the Queen of England, but some sort of vaguely violent incident has forced him to relocate to Las Vegas where he becomes a member of the Four Horsemen, Eisenberg’s group of bank robbing magicians. Well, that about takes care of that; best movie ever.

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr decides he’s going to learn history from Hollywood. After all, why not when three out of the four major releases are based on or inspired by a true story. He learns about the true history of baseball with Moneyball (and was sorely disappointed it wasn’t called Monkeyball because a movie about monkeys playing baseball would have been awesome). Then he learns all he needs to know about marine mammals and depressed children in Dolphin Tale. Finally, he faces the cadres of screaming tweenage girls to see Taylor Lautner in ABduction. That’s based on a true story, right?

The casting process for Louis Leterrier’s upcoming heist film Now You See Me has played like a magician’s stage show up to this point. One after another, Leterrier has pulled actors I love out of his hat to fill the roles of the bank robber magicians and the government agents who will be tracking them down. But recently that process has hit something of a snag. The genie has been taken out of the bottle, because Variety is reporting that Amanda Seyfried has passed on playing the role of Henley, the master technician of the magician crew. For her sake, I hope that she isn’t passing up on this interesting sounding film to do yet another terrible movie like Red Riding Hood, but I guess we both need to just move on. Breaking up is hard. Moving on might be kind of easy though, as that same Variety article is also reporting that now that Seyfried is done sniffing around the role, the next step to finding a gadget gal for Jesse Eisenberg and his crew of bank robbing illusionists is to negotiate with Isla Fisher for the role. Fisher is charming, funny, and nice to look at, plus she doesn’t do nearly enough live action stuff, so I approve of this decision. That loss of Seyfried is going to hurt, I’m not gonna lie, but sticking a bubbly redhead in her place is a damn good way to make up for it. And more good news is that Mark [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]

I’m starting to feel a pretty strange connection to Louis Leterrier‘s upcoming heist movie Now You See Me. First he seemed to be practically reading my mind by casting all of my favorite actors in prominent roles. And now, just days after I randomly and nonsensically mentioned Morgan Freeman in an article reporting on Mark Ruffalo and Amanda Seyfried joining the cast, comes word that Leterrier is negotiating with Freeman to join the film as well. Hello? Louis? Are you in there? Can you hear my thoughts? Let’s run down the cast once more, and see where Freeman fits in. Jesse Eisenberg is set to play the leader of a group of magicians (now being referred to as “the Four Horsemen” in the Variety article) who use their powers of illusion to rob banks and then shower the audience at their magic shows with money. Mark Ruffalo will play the head F.B.I. dude intent on shutting their little crime ring down. Amanda Seyfried will be playing the technician that builds all of the magicians’ equipment. And Melanie Laurent is set to play a lead character who sits on the right side of the law.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s out of options — it must do the news. We lead tonight with the first image of Brad Pitt in the crime-drama Cogan’s Trade. He plays Jackie Cogan, a pro enforcer hired to investigate the robbery of a mob-protected poker game. He will star alongside the likes of Scoot McNairy (Monsters) and Ben Mendelsohn (Animal Kingdom), as well as Ray Liotta, James Gandolfini and Richard Jenkins. That’s a hell of a cast, folks.

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr spends a long day in the multiplex, checking out a variety of films from alcoholic romantic comedies to nature documentaries with elephants and orangutans. He drinks himself silly and hits on Greta Gerwig in Arthur, narrowly escapes being killed by ass-kicking teen assassin Hanna, narrowly escapes getting his arm bitten off by a tiger shark in Soul Surfer and peeps in on Natalie Portman undressing for a swim in Your Highness. Too bad she’s pregnant now, ‘cause Kevin just ain’t into that scene.

Every day, come rain or shine or internet tubes breaking, Film School Rejects showcases a trailer from the past. If a fresh new detective and a wizened black detective who’s getting too old for this shit get called into investigate an obese man stuffed full of spaghetti, you know things are about to turn for the worse. Today’s trailer drives us all the way out to a field and shows us our true nature. They don’t call them deadly sins for nothing. Think you know what it is? Check the trailer out for yourself:

Morgan Freeman was already a bit too old to play Alex Cross – the iconic James Patterson detective – in Kiss The Girls and Along Came a Spider, but he was still Morgan Freeman. You don’t turn that man down, and the job he did was more than capable. Now, QED wants to bring back the character to the big screen. At one point, Idris Elba was in the starring seat. Now, it’s Tyler Perry, who can’t even be described as the poor man’s Idris Elba. Perry will play the master psychologist for I, Alex Cross – based off the novel of the same name. According to Deadline Lincoln, distributors are currently being sought out, and Paramount (who released the other Cross flicks) might be interested. To say this is terrible casting is understatement. Cross is a terribly complex character – compassionate yet tough, an intellectual giant who self-imposes a life of solitude while also managing to volunteer in one of the poorest communities in DC. So far, Perry just hasn’t shown the depth to bring this character to life. There’s also always that tiny fraction of a possibility that it turns into Alex Cross-dress. Jokes aside, Tyler Perry is no Morgan Freeman. He’s also no Idris Elba, and it’s a damned shame that we won’t get to see the Elba version of Alex Cross. Perry will have to have a lot of surprises up his sleeve that he hasn’t tapped into yet in order to pull this off.

The Akira remake news train is going to keep plowing forward – so far speeding over Zac Efron, the potential audience and now veteran actor Morgan Freeman. Freeman is rumored to be circling around the role of the Colonel – a vital component in the story. He’s the closest thing to a father figure the plot has, and he does experiments on a young man that result in turning him into a giant globular monster. Warning: if you don’t like hearing negative things about Morgan Freeman, do not read on.

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr makes a complete and total jackass of himself by enjoying the hell out of Red and being more excited than he should about the prospects of Jackass 3D. He realizes that it may be the beginning of award season, but that won’t stop him from watching a movie about bodily fluids flying at the camera in 3D and getting mildly turned on by Helen Mirren firing a Gatling gun while wearing an evening gown.

It’s been a long time since a single film has featured the acting talent assembled in RED. But if there’s one thing this halfhearted action-comedy proves, it’s this: even Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren and John Malkovich (not to mention Mary-Louise Parker, Brian Cox and Ernest Borgnine) can’t enliven a story as deadly as that crafted by screenwriters Jon and Erich Hoeber, based on the Warren Ellis/Cully Hamner graphic novel. Co-opting the age old, out of retirement for one last fling blueprint, the film follows retired CIA agent Frank Moses (Willis) as he and his former colleagues are forced back into the game when government spooks try to rub them out. Heavily armed and dangerous geriatrics Joe Matheson (Freeman), the wiry and paranoid Marvin Boggs (Malkovich) and the distinguished Victoria (Mirren) assist Frank in some serious butt kicking, supplemented by quirky quips and knowing, wizened back and forth banter.

There’s a world out there where people get shot more than they get paper cuts. It’s a world where alliances change, people might be out to kill you, but nothing’s ever all that big a deal. It’s just a Tuesday, and the black ops have busted into your home to end your life. Red might just be the best romantic comedy of the year featuring Helen Mirren on a piece of heavy artillery. Frank (Bruce Willis) is a former CIA agent who’s attacked in his home just when he’s close to asking out Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker), a woman he calls the Federal Pension Program help line to speak with on a regular basis. The retired don’t know about Facebook yet. He draws her into a world of former spooks who are also being targeted, including a suave gentleman (played by Morgan Freeman), a paranoid stuffed pig enthusiast (John Malkovich) and a gorgeous lady with a penchant for wet work (Helen Mirren).

For 36 days straight, we’ll be exploring the famous 36 Dramatic Situations by presenting a film that exemplifies each one. From family killing family to prisoners in need of asylum, we brush off the 19th century list in order to remember that it’s still incredibly relevant today.
Whether you’re seeking a degree in Literature, love movies, or just love seeing things explode, our feature should have something for everyone. If it doesn’t, please don’t let your creativity cross paths with your sadistic sensibilities and disdain for sinners, because we are truly sorry and not just because you have a gun to our head.
Part 36 of the 36-part series takes a look at “The Enigma” with Se7en.

For many people Idris Elba will forever be known as ‘Stringer’ Bell on HBO’s highly acclaimed The Wire. But “many” is a relative term, because millions more know him from his multi-episode guest arc on NBC’s The Office last year. Elba can also be seen in The Losers, The Unborn, and the upcoming Marvel bomb film, Thor. As exciting as all of that is though, the one thing every actor wants is a successful franchise. And now Elba may have just found his… DeadlineMuncie is reporting that Elba has signed on to star in the upcoming film, Cross, based on the bestseller by James Patterson. The character of Alex Cross has been brought to the screen twice before in the excellent Kiss the Girls and the less impressive Along Came a Spider. Morgan Freeman played Cross in both films, but the general consensus seems to be that the man is just too damn old to continue in the role. The new film sees Cross tracking a serial rapist who may have been the one who murdered his pregnant wife years prior. Sounds like a conflict of interest to me, but I’m always down for a good revenge killing. Cross is scheduled to begin production next year. Patterson has written fifteen books featuring Alex Cross, so if audiences like what they see in the new film Elba may never have to sell drugs again. What do you think of Elba as Alex Cross?

When I visited the set of Summit Entertainment’s Red earlier this year, I had an idea that it might be sort of fun. Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Morgan Freeman and Helen Mirren (among others) playing former CIA assassins who must band together to fight against the Agency that’s now hunting them? Sure, that sounds like a blast. But it wasn’t until this new trailer — one that played to crowds at Comic-Con and has since hit the web — that I was completely sold. It’s not the dark, grim tale that Warren Ellis wrote in his comic. It’s something different. Something fun and in many ways, completely absurd. But damn, does it look fun. After the jump you can check out the new trailer, as well as a few new images from the film.

Throughout this entire week, I’ve been coming to you with a series of dispatches from my visit to the set of Red, the upcoming action-comedy release from Summit Entertainment starring Bruce Willis, Mary-Louise Parker, John Malkovich, Morgan Freeman and Helen Mirren. Based on a Warren Ellis comic, the story follows a group of former CIA assassins who are being targeted by the very Agency to which they dedicated their lives. It’s a flick that looks like a bit of fun — especially after seeing the first trailer (embedded after the jump). Along with my dispatches about each character, Summit released character posters for each of the main players. In case you missed them, I’ve assembled them into a neat little gallery, which you will find right after the jump.

As you may have noticed, we’re dedicating some serious time this week to the upcoming Summit Entertainment release Red, an adaptation of the popular Warren Ellis comic about a former CIA hit-man who is targeted by the very agency to which he gave his life. You know by now that this isn’t the grim tale that Ellis and Cully Hamner put together in book form, but more of an action comedy with a strong focus on old timers who decide to put the band back together and make a comeback. It’s a concept that I was initially skeptical of, but after seeing what the film is starting to look like, I’m starting to become a believer. With that, we continue our series of tales from the set and poster reveals with Joe Matheson, played by Morgan Freeman.

Anyone who has read the comic “RED” by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner may have a certain set of expectations for a film adaptation. Predictably, they’d think it to be dark, violent and more of a lone wolf on a mission story. For better or worse, that’s not the case for the Bruce Willis led film. Based on this trailer, it’s clearly a comedy.