When he’s not being overly experimental with his stories, there’s no amount of heart that director Gus Van Sant can’t deliver. He’s proven such abilities time and time again with films like Good Will Hunting, Finding Forrester and most recently with the biopic Milk. Van Sant has never been bad at finding the humanity in his stories, so it shouldn’t surprise that his latest team-up with Matt Damon finds plenty of humanity and heart as well. And it’s not just a matter of being set inside the economically ravaged American heartland, where such stories litter the once flourishing agricultural landscape. With Promised Land, Van Sant once again finds his safe zone. And when combined with a cast of seasoned veterans, he also finds himself the director of yet another engaging human story.

This contest is now closed. Thanks for entering! Director Gus Van Sant and star (and co-writer!) Matt Damon haven’t worked together since 1997′s star-making Good Will Hunting, but the duo are back together for Promised Land, a new contemporary drama that stars Damon and co-writer John Krasinski as two very different men who descend on a small town when Damon’s big business fracking company attempts to purchase the drilling rights to a town in serious decline. It sounds simple. It’s not. To get you ready for another finely-tuned Van Sant/Damon outing, we’re giving away one (1) prize pack from Promised Land to one (that is 1) lucky winner. The prize pack includes: a $25 Visa gift card, Good Will Hunting on Blu-ray, and “Focus Features’ 10th Anniversary: A Collection of Film Score” soundtrack on CD. To win one (1) prize pack from Gus Van Sant’s Promised Land, all you have to do is jump down into the comments section and let us know just what your favorite Matt Damon film is. Not a Damon fan? (First of all, what?) You can name your favorite John Krasinski film instead. Please also provide your email address in your comment. This contest is only open to U.S. residents. The contest will close on Thursday, January 4th, at 8:00PM PST. The winners will be chosen at random to receive one Promised Land prize pack as described above. After the break, check out the film’s poster and trailer.

While discussing his new film Promised Land and how boring he is, Matt Damon told Playboy (don’t click if you dislike looking at a lot of butts) about the experience of filming in a massive trash dump for Elysium and got humble about the roles he missed out on. “Having to say no to Avatar was tough because I particularly wanted to work with James Cameron, and still do, because he’s fantastic,” Damon said. “He knew he was the star of that movie and that everyone was going to go see it anyway. When he said, ‘Look, I’m offering it to you, but if you say no, the movie doesn’t need you,’ I remember thinking, Oh God, not only do I have to say no because of scheduling, but he’s going to make a star out of some guy who’s going to start taking jobs from me later.” Damon also talked about missing out on Milk and Brokeback Mountain, but ultimately concluding that Josh Brolin and Heath Ledger were the right actors for the parts because of how stellar they portrayed their respective characters.

Things get perhaps a bit zippy and drippy and cliched at the end of this first trailer for Gus Van Sant‘s Promised Land, but there’s just so much good stuff before all that upbeat music and hackneyed professions of maybe-wonder to sink it. Originally slated as Matt Damon‘s directorial debut, Promised Land does still feature Damon in front of the camera and behind its script, as he’s co-written this one with co-star John Krasinksi (of note, this is the sort of pairing dreams are made of), who first conceived of its story with author Dave Eggers before Matty and Johnnycakes (as we like to refer to them) penned the script. Details have been slim about the project, but we have known that it would center on “a salesman [who] experiences life-changing events after arriving in a small town” and that it would possibly involve fracking. It looks like both those nuggets have proven to be true, as Promised Land looks like a mix of Erin Brockovich and Michael Clayton, set in a small town that Damon’s natural gas conglomerate is trying to convince to sell off their drilling rights. Things get messy when some of the townspeople start to revolt against ol’ smoothy Damon and his company, and that crisis isn’t helped by a potential love triangle that also involves Krasinski and the lovely Rosemarie DeWitt. Take a look:

Oh, hello there. You like movies, right? And seeing them, correct? Then what could possibly be more pertinent to your interests than knowing when not one, not two, not even seven, but a full fifteen movies are slated to hit a theater near you? What if I told you that three of them (not as impressive as fifteen, and for that we apologize) would be hitting your local multiplex this year?  You simply wouldn’t believe your good fortune, would you? What if I told you that you’ll be getting Chris Pine for Christmas next year? Sold now, aren’t you? And with that, let’s dive into another installment of Release Date Round-Up, this time featuring Pine, 3D dinosaurs, and Melissa McCarthy ruining Jason Bateman‘s life.

Consider this a bit of friendly advice – get on the Scoot McNairy train now. The actor has been steadily working in Hollywood for over a decade, with roles in film and television projects as varied as Herbie: Fully Loaded and The Shield, but he’s best known for his break-out role in Gareth Edwards’s 2010 indie gem, Monsters. Since then, McNairy has collected a series of interesting roles from a variety of filmmakers that should (and, if Hollywood has any sense, will) make a household name out of him. McNairy will next be seen in Andrew Dominik’s Killing Them Softly (the project formerly known as Cogan’s Trade) and Ben Affleck’s Argo. Not too shabby, right? Let’s just go ahead and add two more high profile roles to McNairy’s resume – Deadline Mexico City reports that he’s signed on for a supporting role in Gus Van Sant‘s Promised Land and the lead male role in Lynn Shelton‘s Touchy Feely. All aboard the McNairy Express.