Hick, directed by Derek Martini , stars Blake Lively, Chloe Grace Moretz and Eddie Redmayne. Redmayne was of course in Oscar nominated My Week with Marilyn and Moretz is just everywhere, in fact on the day that Hick comes out, May 11, she can also be seen in Dark Shadows .

“When 13-year-old Luli gets fed up with her mother’s love of high drama and men who drink too much, she leaves Nebraska and takes to the road, going west to follow her dreams of stardom. Along the way she meets Eddie, a drifter with an attitude, and a troubled woman named Glenda. With the help of these new friends and the strength of her dreams, Luli protects herself from the unpredictable people she meets in her new life.”

When last I mentioned Hick, Moretz had just been offered the lead in yet another remake of Stephen King’s Carrie and I pleaded with her not to do it. Much like everyone else I know, she didn’t listen to me and has signed on. Oh well. She’s scary-talented and I’m sure her career will survive. Watch these trailers. Moretz is damn near perfect as a corn-fed, white-trash Lolita.

I think what makes this trailer “Red Band” is that the main cigarette smoking, gun-toting, c*ck teasing character is only thirteen years old. Otherwise, far worse and more hard core has been deem suitable for “all ages” to see. 

Watch the two back to back and there’s very little difference other than scenes of Chloe Grace Moretz actually brandishing the gun. (Greenband via Movieweb)

Hick will get a limited US theatrical release on May 11 and hit VOD the same day.

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This ought to kick start your weekend! Delivering on the promise of the first image we had a couple of months ago, here’s the first poster but more importantly, the first trailer for Oliver Stone’s Savages with Taylor Kitsch, Aaron Johnson and Blake Lively!

Three-time Oscar®-winning filmmaker Oliver Stone returns to the screen with the ferocious thriller "Savages," featuring the all-star ensemble cast of Taylor Kitsch, Blake Lively, Aaron Johnson, John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Benicio Del Toro, Salma Hayek, Emile Hirsch and Demian Bichir. The film is based on Don Winslow's best-selling crime novel that was named one of The New York Times' Top 10 Books of 2010. 

Laguna Beach entrepreneurs Ben (Johnson), a peaceful and charitable Buddhist, and his closest friend Chon (Kitsch), a former Navy SEAL and ex-mercenary, run a lucrative, homegrown industry—raising some of the best marijuana ever developed. They also share a one-of-a-kind love with the extraordinary beauty Ophelia (Lively). Life is idyllic in their Southern California town…until the Mexican Baja Cartel decides to move in and demands that the trio partners with them.

When the merciless head of the BC, Elena (Hayek), and her brutal enforcer, Lado (Del Toro), underestimate the unbreakable bond among these three friends, Ben and Chon—with the reluctant, slippery assistance of a dirty DEA agent (Travolta)—wage a seemingly unwinnable war against the cartel. And so begins a series of increasingly vicious ploys and maneuvers in a high stakes, savage battle of wills.

(edit: thanks to Playlist everyone can see this!)

Taylor Kitsch continues to impress me, but what’s surprising here (along with the fact that Blake Lively might just deliver on all of the faith big directors have placed in her in the past and give an actual performance) is that Oliver Stone seems to have managed to make Aaron Johnson sexy.

Savages costars Benicio Del Toro, Uma Thurman, John Travolta, Salma Hayek, Emile Hirsch and Demian Bichir. It opens in the US on July 6 and 28^th September in the UK. I’m in, are you?

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thanks to HeyUGuys and FirstShowing for the heads up. Poster courtesy of Joblo

Here’s a first poster for a film we haven’t heard a peep about since TIFF last September (where it received mixed reviews). Hick, directed by Derek Martini , stars Blake Lively, Chloe Grace Moretz and Eddie Redmayne. Two of those names have gotten a lot of ink lately for their acting (and not publicly canoodling with Ryan Reynolds). Redmayne was of course in Oscar nominated My Week with Marilyn and Moretz is just everywhere. The latest is that she has been offered the lead in yet another remake of Stephen King’s Carrie. (Note to CGM: Please don’t do it!) While some may see this as a good move because an appearance in a King based film has done so much for others careers in the past (Spacek, Bates, Freeman etc etc) –this is a remake of a classic, something that was tried to disasterous effect ten years ago.)

“When 13-year-old Luli gets fed up with her mother’s love of high drama and men who drink too much, she leaves Nebraska and takes to the road, going west to follow her dreams of stardom. Along the way she meets Eddie, a drifter with an attitude, and a troubled woman named Glenda. With the help of these new friends and the strength of her dreams, Luli protects herself from the unpredictable people she meets in her new life.”

Hick will get a limited US theatrical release on May 11 and hit VOD the same day.

Ted is the feature film directorial debut from Family Guy mastermind Seth McFarlane. It stars Mark Wahlberg as a man whose childhood teddy bear comes to life. It  also stars Mila Kunis and was filmed here in Boston last summer. That poster makes it look like some high-brow stuff, huh?

A story centered on a man and his teddy bear, who comes to life as the result of a childhood wish.

Director McFarlane voices Ted and the stellar cast also includes Giovanni Ribisi, Patrick Warburton, Joel McHale and Jessica Stroup. Ted comes to theaters July 13 in the US and 3^rd August in the UK.

Last week we showed you a first trailer for David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis with Robert Pattinson and it looks as bizarre, violent, drug and sex fueled as anything the gonzo director has ever done, let alone anything anyone’s seen Pattinson in. This first poster gives us a brooding Pattinson as billionaire Eric Packer.

Riding across Manhattan in a stretch limo in order to get a haircut, a 28-year-old billionaire asset manager's day devolves into an odyssey with a cast of characters that start to tear his world apart.

Pattinson needed to take  a walk on the wild side in order to shake the shadow of Edward Cullen. (He had a lot of Belle Epoch sex with a lot of women in Bel Ami, but even that was nearly safe for the Twi-hards. Cosmopolis most certainly is not.)

Cosmopolis will be released in the US and the UK sometime after its probable appearance at Cannes.  France has a firm date of May 23.

Last but not least, we have a new poster (out of Russia) for mind-bending love story Upside Down with Jim Sturgess and Kirsten Dunst.

“Adam is a seemingly ordinary guy in a very extraordinary universe. He lives humbly trying to make ends meet, but his romantic spirit holds on to the memory of a girl he met once upon a time from another world, an inverted affluent world with its own gravity, directly above but beyond reach… a girl named Eve. Their childhood flirtation becomes an impossible love. But when he catches a glimpse of grown-up Eve on television, nothing will get in the way of getting her back… Not even the law or science!”

No firm dates are known as yet, just a vague “2012”. I’m predicting a TIFF appearance for this one, by which time it will have been in the can for two and a half years.

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Here’s your first look at Blake Lively and Benicio Del Toro in Oliver Stone’s Savages. This movie has a crazy good cast. In addition to Lively and Del Toro, it includes Demian Bichir (better known as the actor who got Michael Fassbender’s Oscar nomination), John Travolta, Taylor Kitsch, Aaron Johnson, Salma Hayak, Uma Thurman and Emile Hirsch

Based on a novel by Don Wilson, which Stone purchased the rights to before it was even published, the plot line for Savages is deceptively simple: Pot growers Ben (Aaron Johnson) and Chon (Taylor Kitsch) face off against the Mexican drug cartel who kidnapped their shared girlfriend (Lively). This is Oliver Stone. I'm sure the image above only hints at the harrowing brutality involved.

The Official Universal synopsis:

Three-time Oscar®-winning filmmaker Oliver Stone returns to the screen with the ferocious thriller "Savages," featuring the all-star ensemble cast of Taylor Kitsch, Blake Lively, Aaron Johnson, John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Benicio Del Toro, Salma Hayek, Emile Hirsch and Demian Bichir. The film is based on Don Winslow's best-selling crime novel that was named one of The New York Times' Top 10 Books of 2010. 

Laguna Beach entrepreneurs Ben (Johnson), a peaceful and charitable Buddhist, and his closest friend Chon (Kitsch), a former Navy SEAL and ex-mercenary, run a lucrative, homegrown industry—raising some of the best marijuana ever developed. They also share a one-of-a-kind love with the extraordinary beauty Ophelia (Lively). Life is idyllic in their Southern California town…until the Mexican Baja Cartel decides to move in and demands that the trio partners with them.

When the merciless head of the BC, Elena (Hayek), and her brutal enforcer, Lado (Del Toro), underestimate the unbreakable bond among these three friends, Ben and Chon—with the reluctant, slippery assistance of a dirty DEA agent (Travolta)—wage a seemingly unwinnable war against the cartel. And so begins a series of increasingly vicious ploys and maneuvers in a high stakes, savage battle of wills. 

 

Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy , Garrett Hedlund and James Franco were all considered for Ben before Johnson was cast and Blake Lively replaced Jennifer Lawrence who left when she was cast in The Hunger Games, only after Olivia Wilde, Abbie Cornish, Amber Heard and Teresa Palmer were also considered.

I'm not a Lively fan (especially after The Town and The Green Lantern) but I'll give her the benefit of the doubt since she beat out some really talented actresses. If she whiffs this, I'm out.

Savages is set to open in the US and the UK on September 28, but there is talk of it going to Cannes in May and I think this is another one that we’ll see in the TIFF lineup in the Fall, possibly even Venice.

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There is no denying it now. Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively are totally hooking up. There have been pictures circulating the internets of her doing the walk of shame from his apartment at times and now there is proof of them making out. I have to say they make a gorgeous couple. 

TMZ has MORE photos of these two together. He seems VERY smitten, doesn't he? Do you like  these two together?

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After a five-month relationship, Blake Lively 24 and Leonardo DiCaprio 36 have split their reps have confirmed to US Weekly. And of course the pair will remain friends (don't they all) according to their reps. I suppose in Hollywood years 5 months is a couple of years in real life, no?

For their friends, the split will come as a surprise because Leo seemed very 'smitten' by this relationship and in fact friends thought these two would eventually announce their engagement. Who knows maybe it's one of those things where this couple splits a lot and gets back together a lot.

However I am beginning to think that Leo is like George Clooney in that he's a confirmed bachelor. He's had some incredible women in his life (think Gisele Bundchen and Bar Refaeli) but they never seem to last. 

Are you surprised by this split, or no?

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MTV has an exclusive clip of another film that’s going to get its premiere in Toronto in the next week or so, Hick. Directed by Dereck Martini, whose only other feature was 2008′s Lymelife (for which he managed to snag a cast of well-known New Yorkers), which won the Int’l Critics Award at TIFF that year, Hick stars Blake Lively, Chloe Moretz, Eddie Redmayne, Juliette Lewis, Ray McKinnon and Lymelife co-stars Rory Culkin and Alec Baldwin.

The story follows a 13-year-old Nebraskan girl named Luli (Moretz), and her rough-going life on the road after she runs away from her neglectful parents to be taken under the wing of hard-living grifter Glenda (Lively in a role that originally had been cast with Kirstin Dunst).

Now, I’m not much of a Blake Lively fan…well, not at all actually, but I am a Chloe Moretz fan. This kid is preternaturally talented and if she manages to survive her teens in Hollywood unscathed, she’ll have an amazing career ahead of her if she wants it. Not sure what’s going on in this clip and I’m not sure if I can take two hours of Lively’s accent, but I’ll know more when we get a full length trailer. Hick could be fun. Could be painful. After TIFF, the only release date listed is a vague “2012″.

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Blake Lively New Ink

Blake Lively got herself some new ink.  I never thought of Blake as an inky kind of girl.  But she’s all about it.  And I am guessing that her on and off again boy toy, Leonardo DiCaprio is into the stuff as well.

Blake has added a couple of butterflies and some wrap around bands on her forearm.  Totally sexy hippie, right?

What do you think?  Dig Blake with or without the ink?

Photo: Flynet