“Think they pay you to drive? They pay you to be terrified.”

It’s the line that inspires the title. Four men behind the wheel of two trucks without shock absorbers or any special balancing mechanics and driving across unpaved terrain for hundreds of miles with everything in their path from two-ton boulders in the middle of the road to rotten wood acting as their road extension to pivot over a precipice…all while each truck lugs enough nitroglycerine to reduce mountains to piles of pebble. With the prevention of that much destruction contingent on such undisturbed sensitivity a boulder in the middle of the road is the least of their concern to stay alive. In a case like that a large rock is no match for an invisible pothole that need only be inches deep to separate all of you from the rest of you.

As we all already knew, Peter Pan is a monster who swoops down, breaks into bedroom windows, and takes children deep into the night to never, never return. Now, filmmakers are catching up to that fact and developing a story that reflects the grisly, real-world terror of Pan. According to Dark Horizons, Aaron Eckhart has signed on to play Captain Hook – a former police detective haunted by the ghosts of his past, hunting down a kidnapper (who probably wears green tights). AnnaSophia Robb will play Wendy, a victim who survived and has joined in the manhunt. Plus, Sean Bean is on board to play Smee – the only person on the police force helping Hook. All of these things are good things. The propensity to go darker for our children’s stories is a trend I can fully get behind, because it means revealing a much more human side to tales usually filled with glitter and fairy dust. On that note, there’s no word yet as to whether Tinkerbell will be a much-needed prostitute with valuable information. Animation director Ben Hibon will make his directorial debut here from a script written by newcomer Benjamin Magid. It’s good to see some new blood pumping through the system aided by some solid acting talents and a strange premise. Of course, this isn’t the first dim project for the boy who wouldn’t grow up (not to mention the four or five hundred Snow White and Red Riding Hood and Hansel & Gretel projects [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]

Joel Schumacher jumps around from genre to genre whether he succeeds in them or not, but some of his best work is in the world of thrillers. Movies like Flatliners, The Client and A Time to Kill are at the top of his personal best list, so hopefully finding that tension again will churn out a winner. According to Variety, Schumacher is attached to direct The Hive. Written by Thirteen Ghosts screenwriter Richard D’Ovidio, the story focuses on a 911 operator who has to confront a killer from her past in order to protect a little girl. Schumacher may have struggled to find the plot in the past few years – with Twelve and Blood Creek (starring Superman!) – but his forthcoming Nic Cage-starring Trespass is set for release this September, so we’ll get to see if he’s still got what it takes to make a solid thriller. Statistically speaking, he’s bound to be due a good one soon, right?

On the surface, Hanna is just the latest action flick centered on a petite, butt-kicking young woman and the sinister world she inhabits. Yet, were that all it was, the new film from director Joe Wright (Atonement, The Soloist) would be a tired, forced enterprise, arriving in theaters a mere two weeks after Sucker Punch and just about one year following Kick-Ass. Fortunately, Wright is too sharp a director for that. His keen visual eye and knack for character-driven nuance turns the story of highly-trained teenage killing machine Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) into an engagingly twisted fairytale/coming of age drama. With a soundtrack fueled by electronica wizards The Chemical Brothers, tightly coiled supporting work from Cate Blanchett and Eric Bana and a schema that offers a world of out-sized colors, foreboding shapes and demented villains, the Focus Features release is an offbeat, engaging blend of David Lynchian and kinetic action tropes. We spoke with the acclaimed filmmaker about his latest directorial effort.

When a young man is dumped by his long-time girlfriend, he suspects the source of their collapse lives in his very own city. He knows she was communicating in a chat room with a blond Lothario so he has a female acquaintance get in touch with the same blond man to find out where he lives. The acquaintance, having been invited to the blond man’s house for some romantic entanglements, is greeted by a rather nasty surprise.

Every day, come rain or shine or internet tubes breaking, Film School Rejects showcases a trailer from the past. Today’s trailer is truly thrilling. It helps that it’s for an insanely brilliant movie, but since movie marketers today can’t seem to sell the hard stuff, maybe this spot can teach a few lessons in doing it right. William Hurt teams up with Ken Russell to do a few experiments on himself in a sensory deprivation tank that ends up unlocking the millions of years of mankind’s memories stored DNA. It causes his arm to do some pretty strange stuff at any rate. Such a great movie. Such a great trailer. Think you know what it is? Check the trailer out for yourself:

Every day, come rain or shine or internet tubes breaking, Film School Rejects showcases a trailer from the past. The 80s were an interesting decade in movies that were aimed directly at children and meant to be scary. This movie is no exception. It stars a child actor that would go on to be in Brick and Inception, but he got his start being locked in a school closet, witness a decade-old murder, and trying to solve it and get revenge. Think you know what it is? Check the trailer out for yourself:

Every day, come rain or shine or internet tubes breaking, Film School Rejects showcases a trailer from the past. It’s the Old Ass Movie today, and this movie was also up for an Academy Award back in 1945 (but it lost, just like its director always did). Speaking of that director, his famous cameo is featured heavily as the hook of this trailer. Forget about Ingrid Bergman. Forget about Gregory Peck. Just remember that portly fellow coming out of the elevator smoking a cigarette. Think you know what it is? Check the trailer out for yourself:

Every Sunday in February, Film School Rejects presents a nominee for Best Picture that was made before you were born and tells you why you should like it. This week, Old Ass Movies presents the story of a brilliant psycho-analyst, an impostor, some trademark Hitchcock, a little aiding and abeting, and the dreams of Salvador Dali. All of these elements are wrapped up in an Oscar nominated movie (that did not win) that Scientologists probably banned from their video library.

Louis Leterrier gets a bad rap in this world where your latest work is all that matters. He’s never been a groundbreaker, but the Transporter flicks were a lot of action-y fun, and he improved on the big green menace known as Hulk even with a ton of production trouble. None of that makes up for Clash of the Titans or the ophthalmology bills its 3D caused, but his next two projects sound pretty solid. We already knew about Now You See Me which sees the world of bank heists meeting the world of trick-doers magicians illusionists. Now, according to Heat Vision, Leterrier will be directing the sci-fi thriller G which features a father trying to track down his son in a world that’s stop spinning and has no gravity. A quick science digression: those two elements may not be related, but if the movie explains that the earth’s ceasing to spin is what caused the lack of gravity, foreheads will meet palms, and there will be a new movie for NASA to complain about. Producer Guymon Casady (The Expendables) is responsible for the high concept, and the production is currently looking for a screenwriter. No word yet on whether the movie will feature a McDonald’s tie-in called the McG.

If your interest was piqued when we talked about Carancho last fall during Fantastic Fest, or if you’re just a Ricado Darin fan from his turn in The Secret in Their Eyes, you’ll definitely want to check out this exclusive clip we got our hands on by following it around town until it got hit by a car. The movie is the story of an immoral lawyer who earns his bread by chasing down accident victims and somehow being at a few before they even happen. He meets a junkie nurse, the two start sharing a few wistful glances from across the stretcher, and a strange love blooms amongst the twisted metal. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people that want our anti-hero lawyer dead. The scene here is a two-minute-long tracking shot that shows off just a fraction of the subtle artistry in the camera work, and a snapshot of the developing romance. Check it out for yourself:

Why Jaume Balaguero would even want to step foot inside another enclosed apartment complex after delivering REC, REC 2, and steadily working on two other films for that franchise, is beyond reason. Those movies were enough to make me happy to be in a house where it’s nice and safe (except for all the masked and un-masked, tennis shorts-wearing strangers that keep coming by to torture me and my family for no discernible reason). The point? Damn, the REC movies are scary. So when I saw that Twitch had a teaser for Balaguero’s forthcoming Sleep Tight – the day was made. Check it out for yourself, and never look at your doorman the same way:

The first images of the X trailer are scintillating. They’re seductive. Co-writer/Director Jon Hewitt follows up his serial killing blackmail thriller Acolytes with a new flick about the dangerous, tawdry world of prostitution and call girls. It looks absolutely gripping, and the promise of violence will undoubtedly be kept with Hewitt at the helm, but watch out for this trailer. As soon as it slips off its little black dress, it pulls a gun on you.

Hope springs eternal. As we round the bases of another year, it’s important to let the average and outright crappy slough off and realize that we’re all standing on the precipice of another year of movies. The future stretches out before us full of possibilities. That cheesy trailer you saw last week could end up producing your favorite film of the year. That epic blockbuster you’ve been waiting for could be bigger than you ever imagined. There’s hope for everything, but there’s also expectation, which is why Rob Hunter, Neil Miller and Cole Abaius painstakingly put together our list of the 30 Most Anticipated Films of 2011. It’s the stuff we’re most looking forward to this year, put together when our hope and optimism is at its peak.

Behind the Walls has an important claim to fame: it’s the first ever live-action French movie filmed in 3D. That’s a lot like being the first ever Polish high jumper to clear 10 feet on a sunny day when the wind was blowing easterly, but it’s a claim to fame nonetheless. Perhaps this new concept art (especially the giant rat) will help that fame along. Of course, having international super model Laetitia Casta doesn’t hurt either. The film focuses on a woman who sequesters herself in order to write a novel who finds a sealed room in the house and begins having nightmarish hallucinations. Basically, it’s the plot from I Spit on Your Grave without the rape. Check out the beautiful concept art for yourself:

Writer/Director Chris Kentis and Producer Laura Lau brought something wholly new to the world of horror when they released Open Water in 2004. Six years later, they are hitting Sundance with a new thriller called The Silent House that features a young girl and her father spending the night in a house where a mysterious noise continues to grow louder and louder. It’s an English-language remake of the little-seen 2010 film of the same name, and while it will have a lot to prove to audiences in Utah, the simplistic concept is a great draw. The possibilities for something like this are endless, and like every other film of the modern time, adds the hook of being “based on true events.” [STYD]

There are several names that look perfect together, but for some reason, have never made it anywhere near each other. When those names happen to be brought together near the phrase “horror thriller,” it’s like learning you can have oatmeal cookie ice cream with your chocolate peanut butter cups. Hopefully the ice cream being made by Francis Ford Coppola and Val Kilmer will have some blood in it. According to Deadline Warrenville, Coppola is “quietly working” on a flick (which means they’re using inside voices) called Twixt Now and Sunrise (subtle candy product placement there) in which Kilmer plays a horror novelist. Elle Fanning and the incredible Bruce Dern are also involved, and that’s all it takes to generate some excitement. It’s great to see Coppola picking up steam again (and hopefully taking a break from grapes), and it’s promising to see him return to some horror roots with a talent that deserves more than direct-to-video fare. It’ll be fascinating to see what these two can come up with together.

If someone made a movie that combined The Fugitive, The Game, and Taken, would that pique your interest? Of course it would. And, of course it will. The new trailer for Unknown (which apparently isn’t called Unknown White Male anymore) shows a very confused, very pissed off, very revenge-fueled Liam Neeson as a man whose identity seems to have been stolen. The world that opens up is one of deception and conspiracy, and the coma he was in probably doesn’t add much to his credibility. The bottom line: this trailer is intense and promises a complex film with plenty of asses being kicked.

There are too many books and movies out there using the destruction of mankind as a theme. There are dozens that are good. There are only a handful that are iconic. “The Day of the Triffids” is one of the icons. It’s been adapted several times before, but always in the UK (and during times when that stuff didn’t necessarily make it over in broad strokes to our shores (like 2009)). The 1962 version is perhaps the most famous, but even it diverges from the book in a few significant ways that neuter the story’s impact. Fortunately, it looks like (after a bidding war where Mandate came out on top) Sam Raimi is going to have a go at it. Yes, there’s a subtlety to it all that Raimi will have trouble finding while a tree rapes a woman, but overall the guy is a talented filmmaker who certainly has passion for the genre and the title itself.

If you need to make a quick buck, head to Argentina, follow an ambulance around, and leave your ethics at the door. Sure, you can stay here in the United States and do that, but where are you going to get some delicious alfajores for those long work days? Exactly. Argentina is the way to go. Plus, if Carancho is to be believed, you can find something resembling love amongst the wreckage. Ricardo Darin (who starred in The Secret in Their Eyes) plays Sosa, a lawyer who makes a living by chasing down many of the traffic accidents that kill 8,000 people annually in the country. He meets Lujan (Martina Gusman), a junkie doctor, and begins seeing her on dates where someone ends up on a stretcher. Of course, as they try to build a relationship, Sosa’s taking on the power of attorney for a case becomes an issue for his rivals. The kind of rivals that carry baseball bats and send messages with them.