Clive Owen was seen brandishing a gun and riding around on the back of a motorcycle and…gasp… smoking (that last was a joke. This is a judgment-free zone.) while shooting scenes for his new action movie Blood Ties in the Green Point section of Brooklyn.

Set in Brooklyn during the 1970’s, Owen plays an ex-con and Billy Crudup plays the  younger brother who has to ask Owen to go back into the underworld to help out the family.

A pair of brothers end up heading down two different paths in life–one as a police officer, the other as a criminal. Blood Ties is a remake of Jacques Maillot's Les Liens Du Sang.

The crime thriller that will be the English-language debut from Guillaume Canet, the Cesar award-winning director of acclaimed thriller Tell No One, which starred Kristin Scott Thomas.

Canet, who co-wrote the film with James Gray (We Own the Night), has cast his life partner, Oscar winner Marion Cotillard, as one of the film’s love interests, along with Mila Kunis. Zoe Saldana and James Caan have also been cast. The Hollywood Reporter announced a couple of days ago that a young actor called Austin Williams will play Owen as a teenager. Williams made his debut in Robert DeNiro’s The Good Shepherd playing Matt Damon as a youngster.

Filming has just begun on Blood Ties and it has no confirmed release dates other than “2013”. We’ll bring you more as we get it.

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Yesterday we filled your Easter basket with new posters. Today, while you’re still gnawing the heads off your chocolate bunnies, we’ve got pics for you to peruse, including two first looks and two new images from films we’re looking forward to.

First up, a pic from Wes Anderson’s eagerly awaited Moonrise Kingdom, the film set to open the Cannes Film Festival next month. In the style of a family reunion or class picture, it gives us a look at all of the major characters, all in one place. (thanks to IndieWire)

Set on an island off the coast of New England in the 1960s, as a young boy and girl fall in love they are moved to run away together. Various factions of the town mobilize to search for them and the town is turned upside down — which might not be such a bad thing.

Moonrise Kingdom stars Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Frances McDormand, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Harvey Keitel, Jason Schwartzman and Bob Balaban. It opens for us regular folks in the US and the UK on May 25.

Rust & Bone is writer/director Jacques Audiard’s first film since 2009’s BAFTA,Cesar and Cannes Film Festival Grand Jury Prize winning, A Prophet and stars Marion Cotillard. Rust & Bone is an adaptation of a collection of short stories by Craig Davidson, said to be take place in a savage world populated by fighting dogs, prizefighters, sex addicts, and gamblers.

The film’s synopsis is in French:

Ça commence dans le Nord. Ali se retrouve avec Sam, 5 ans, sur les bras. C’est son fils, il le connaît à peine. Sans domicile, sans argent et sans amis, Ali trouve refuge chez sa sœur à Antibes. Là-bas, c’est tout de suite mieux, elle les héberge dans le garage de son pavillon, elle s’occupe du petit et il fait beau. A la suite d’une bagarre dans une boîte de nuit, son destin croise celui de Stéphanie. Il la ramène chez elle et lui laisse son téléphone. Il est pauvre ; elle est belle et pleine d’assurance. C’est une princesse. Tout les oppose. Stéphanie est dresseuse d’orques au Marineland. Il faudra que le spectacle tourne au drame pour qu’un coup de téléphone dans la nuit les réunisse à nouveau Quand Ali la retrouve, la princesse est tassée dans un fauteuil roulant : elle a perdu ses jambes et pas mal d’illusions. Il va l’aider simplement, sans compassion, sans pitié. Elle va revivre.

This is what I was able to pull out of that.

This begins in the North. Ali meets with his 5 yr old son Sam, whom he barely knows. Homeless, broke and friendless, Ali finds shelter with his sister in Antibes. Over there, it is right away better, his sister, Stephanie Marion Cotillard) let’s them stay in her garage she is in charge of the baby and weather is nice. Following a fight in a nightclub, Stephanie(Cotillard), a whale trainer in Marineland, ends up in a wheelchair.  Stephanie, Ali and Sam will need each other, without pity, to get through the ordeal.

Audiard is an extremely talented filmmaker and I am very sure there is MUCH more to it than that. The official list of films showing at Cannes won’t come out for ten more days, but it’s a pretty safe bet Rust & Bone will be on it. No US or UK release dates are yet known.

The Campaign stars Will Ferrell (because we need as many Will Ferrell movies as we can possibly get**) and Zach Galifianakis. Directed by Jay Roach, responsible for the Austin Powers and Meet the Parents franchises, this is amazingly enough, his first collaboration with Ferrell.

Ferrell and Galifianakis are two rival North Carolina politicians with presidential aspirations. Really, what more needs to be said after that? The entire movie just played in my head and it only took about sixty seconds.

The Campaign does have a very good supporting cast including Jason Sudeikis, Brian Cox, Dylan McDermott, John Lithgow and Dan Ackroyd, so I guess there are reasons to see it and it could have some surprises in store. Since this is only the first look, I’m sure there will be much more to come before it is released August 10 here in the US and 28^th September in the UK.

Here’s another look at Colin Farrell and Kate Beckinsale in Len Wiseman’s remake of Total Recall. The trailer we got last week was pretty impressive, in my humble opinion and I’m looking forward to seeing more. thanks to Lebanese Cinema Movie Guide via ComingSoon)

The plot this time adheres closer to Philip K. Dick’s short story, “We Can Remember it for You Wholesale” than the 1990 Paul Verhoeven version.

As the nation states Euromerica and New Shanghai vie for supremacy, a factory worker (Farrell) begins to suspect that he's a spy, though he is unaware which side of the fight he's on.

Also starring Jessica Biel, Beckinsale, Bryan Cranston, Bill Nighy, Ethan Hawke, John Cho and Bokeem Woodbine, Total Recall opens August 3 in the US and 22^nd August in the UK.

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New Year, new movie: This one doesn’t have a title but it’s written and being produced and directed by James Gray and stars Marion Cotillard and Joaquin Phoenix in one of his first starring roles since he got the train back from Crazy Town.  This is Phoenix’s fourth collaboration with Gray after The Yards, We Own the Night and Two Lovers. (That last might have been what bought him the ticket to Crazy Town in the first place.) In any case, what is currently known only as Untitled James Gray Project is currently filming on location in Brooklyn.

The basic plot of the film involves an innocent immigrant woman (Cotillard) who is tricked into a life of burlesque and vaudeville until a dazzling magician (Jeremy Renner) tries to save her and reunite her with her sister who is being held in the confines of Ellis Island.

Since Renner is playing the romantic hero (Orlando the Magician), we can assume that Phoenix’s character (Bruno Weiss) will be the one who seduces Cotillard’s Sonya Cybulski. Is it too soon to say “I’m in”? I love the idea of Renner playing this type of character. He’s got a look about him that is both youthful and lived in, and Phoenix can do melodramatic villain very well. Remember his Commodus in Gladiator? If he’d have had a mustache he’d have twirled it. I think the same will probably be said of Bruno Weiss. (This is, of course, all conjecture based on the brief synopsis and the pics we’ve gotten from the set.)

Speaking of pics, I’m loving Phoenix’s bowler and Cotillard’s vaudeville costume, especially the velvet wrapper she’s bundled up in. It must have been very cold in Brooklyn the past few days. Even with the velvet, Cotillard is alternately swaddled in a blanket or someone’s down coat between takes. There’s no information currently available on Untitled James Gray Project’s release date, but hopefully we’ll have a title when there is.

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Fresh from its debut in Venice, Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion opens in theaters in the US this Friday, September 9. Ahead of the opening, thanks to DreadCentral.com, we’ve got some short interviews with some of the major players.

Contagion is an action-thriller centered on the threat posed by a deadly disease and an international team of doctors contracted by the CDC to deal with the outbreak.

The first is with Marion Cotillard who talks about her director and how she came to be a part of the film:

Laurence Fishburne talks about his character, Dr. Ellis Cheaver:

Kate Winslet talks about the script and screenwriter Scott Z. Burns:

Jennifer Ehle talks about her character, Dr. Ally Hextall and the realistic nature of the film:

Contagion opens in the UK on 21 October.

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A few weeks ago we were treated to the first official shot of Tom Hardy as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises. This weekend, he’s all over the web as shooting has begun in earnest in Pittsburgh, PA.

We’ve got lots of pics of Bane as well as a shot of Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon and Marion Cotilliard as Miranda Tate. We also see Christian Bale, who looks to be rehearsing for a scene involving either a prison break or a jail-house riot. There were a lot extras walking around in orange jumpsuits with “Gotham H.O.C.” on the back. There’s also a shot of a pretty cool ATV apparently called a “tumbler” painted in desert camouflage. I have no idea what that’s about, since not only are they filming in an urban setting, but it’s supposed to be mid-winter. Piles of fake snow have been spotted along the streets and the actors were bundled up while filming. They quickly shed the coats once cameras stopped rolling. I don’t see how they do it in July heat without sweating their make-up off.

Tom Hardy Talks About Christopher Nolan & The Dark Knight Rises

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to know too much about this movie, at least in terms of plot. Director Christopher Nolan is notorious for playing things close to the vest and divulging secrets only when he wants to divulge them. I have no problem with that. These people aren’t perfecting cold fusion or formulating biological weapons or even members of Congress shaping public policy. They’re making a movie for our future entertainment. Know too much and on the one hand, expectations go through the roof in terms of the finished product (eg: Cowboys & Aliens) or you risk disappointing the rabid fan-base who may or may not agree with your choices.

I say, “relax”. The Dark Knight Rises already has a locked in release date of July 20, 2012. All things considered for a movie of this size and scope, that’s not very far away at all, especially when they’re still shooting the thing. I’m willing to let Nolan and company surprise me.

Many more pics can be found at Wick Photography.

Oscar winning actress Marion Cotillard is pregnant with her first child long time love Guillaume Canet her rep has confirmed exclusively with US Weekly.

The 35 year old actress met her baby’s daddy on the set of their 2003 French film Love Me if You Dare. She has been with him for three years.

No word on when the baby is due. 2010 ended with lots of divorce/separation announcements and 2011 is starting with lots of engagement and baby news.

Congratulations to the happy couple.

Olivia Wilde is elegant and gorgeous as she attended last night’s 19th Annual BAFTA Britannia Awards at the Hyatt Regency in Los Angeles.

Christopher Nolan and Michael Sheen were honoured at the festivities that saw a number of celebrities in attendance:

• Carey Mulligan
• Marion Cotillard
• Jane Lynch
• Betty White
• Valerie Bertinelli
• Dakota Fanning
• Rosario Dawson

Past honorees of this prestigious event include:  Clint Eastwood, Tom Hanks, Helen Mirren, Robert De Niro, Steven Spielberg and Elizabeth Taylor.

Pictures after the break

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Leonardo DiCaprio and the gorgeous Marion Cotillard are in Paris to premiere at the Gaumont Champs Elysees. Leonardo took time to sign some autographs for his lucky fans.  This guy never ages.  He has such a baby face I want to slap him. And baby face Leo is BUSY. In addition to promoting this movie, he has two films in production and 21 films in development!

That is most impressive, as is his love life with having relationships with some of the most gorgeous women in the world (think Gisele Bundchen and Bar Rafaeli)!

Also at the premiere were some of the other stars of the film:  Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Michael Caine

Inception hits theatres July 16.

Pictures after the break

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