The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has announced that Gerard Butler, Sophia Vergera, Woody Harrelson and Hollywood Foreign Press Association president Aida Takla-O’ Reilly will be revealing the nominations for the 2012 Golden Globes tomorrow December 15, live from the  ballroom at the Beverly Hilton hotel. There are 25 categories in film and television, so the presentation should go a little longer than that for the SAGs. (Judy Greer’s mike was still live when she said, “That’s it? Why’d we have to get up so early?” She’ll probably get a boatload of flack for it, but it was hilarious and spot on.)

The Golden Globe Awards will be presented on January 15 at a liquor soaked ceremony hosted once again by Ricky Gervais.  

I’m taking the fact that Gerard Butler was asked to read the announcements as a sign that he will indeed score a nomination for Machine Gun Preacher. *fingers crossed* (Just as I expect Woody Harrelson to get one for Rampart and Sophia Vergara to make the cut for “Modern Family”.)    

This calls for pics!

We have some new images from The Hunger Games to share. We’ve already gotten a few other images and a slew of posters for a movie that’s still filming. I think that’s pretty generous of Lionsgate, all things considered. It’s probably easier to give in and give out and try to control the flow, as opposed to trying keep everything contained on a film that’s this hotly anticipated. Even Ridley Scott is starting to get the idea, with the images he gave Empire this month. His trailer for Prometheus still leaked, although after the debacle with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo bootleg trailer, every studio is going to be suspect. The Hunger Games is being directed by Gary Ross and stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Elizabeth Banks and Woody Harrelson, among others.

Synopsis: In a not-too-distant future, the United States of America has collapsed, weakened by drought, fire, famine, and war, to be replaced by Panem, a country divided into the Capitol and 12 districts. Each year, two young representatives from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games. Part entertainment, part brutal intimidation of the subjugated districts, the televised games are broadcasted throughout Panem as the 24 participants are forced to eliminate their competitors, literally, with all citizens required to watch. When 16-year-old Katniss’ young sister, Prim, is selected as the mining district’s female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her male counterpart, Peeta, the son of the town baker who seems to have all the fighting skills of a lump of bread dough, will be pitted against bigger, stronger representatives who have trained for this their whole lives.

Check out the pics below of Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss , Liam Hemsworth as Gale, Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket and Amandla Stenberg as Rue. The Hunger Games is due for release March 23, 2012 everywhere.

Oren Moverman's Rampart  stars Woody Harrelson, who earned an Oscar nomination in Moverman's last film, The Messenger. Harrelson plays arguably the worst, most corrupt cop you’ve ever seen on screen. Certainly the worst since Denzel Washington earned an Oscar for playing Alonzo Harris in Training Day. Harrelson is being mentioned in the same breath as Oscar for his role as Dave Brown. The script is co-written by Moverman and one of my all-time favorite writers, James Ellroy (the novels "LA Confidential", "The Blue Dahlia"-but don't hold the movie against him- among many others). Joining Harrelson and Moverman is Ben Foster, who should have been nominated for The Messenger.

Official synopsis: Based on a true LAPD scandal from the 1990's, Rampart is the genre-bending police drama/family story of Dave Brown, a a cop long ago unleashed from the rules of the LAPD, whose past is catching up with him. Roving the streets, he governs and punishes at will. His home life is a riddle. He has fathered children with two sisters (Anne Heche and Cynthia Nixon). Somehow he still lives casually with them both, slipping in and out of a family life thats as tangled as his long career on the force. {This reminds me of The General with Brendan Gleeson-also based on a true story} Years ago, Brown may have killed a rapist and gotten away with it. The shadow of the incident still haunts him, so when his Rampart division gets caught up in a corruption scandal, Brown makes an easy target. As the controversy seeps through the department and into city hall, this hardened, reckless officer finds himself at the center of a sordid L.A. story with a D.A. and an investigator on his trail, a lover who may or may not be on his side and fighting for his sanity and survival.

The cast is impressive. In addition to Harrelson, Foster, Heche and Nixon, Rampart stars Robin Wright, Sigourney Weaver, Steve Buscemi, Ned Beatty, Ice Cube, Jon Foster and Jon Bernthal.  Following a successful tour on the festival circuit, Rampart has been picked up for release by Millennium Entertainment. It will open in NY and LA for awards qualification, then go wide January 27.

Can you say HOT HOT HOT? That’s what the excitement level has been for The Hunger Games since it was announced that Lionsgate would be making a big screen version of Suzanne Collins’ wildly successful trilogy of novels.  Everything from the casting to the locations to the costumes have been debated down to the last detail.  We’ve been given a few sporadic images that have been devoured hungrily by the faithful. Now we have the first trailer! How will it be received?

The synopsis: Set in a future where the Capitol selects a boy and girl from the twelve districts to fight to the death on live television, Katniss Everdeen volunteers to take her younger sister's place for the latest match.

Not being an aficionado of the books, all I have to go by is what I see. It looks to me that they’ve tried to give everyone a good sampling of what’s to come. We seem to have been at least visually introduced to all of the major players, including Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence), Gale (Liam ‘Drippy Chin’ Hemsworth) and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson). We also see Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket, Woody Harrelson as Haymitch Abernathy  and Lenny Kravitz as Cinna.

The Hunger Games takes over the world on March 23, 2012.

Like an official with a starter’s pistol, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences kicked off the awards season in earnest last night by holding the Academy’s 3^rd Annual Governor’s Award Dinner in the Grand Ballroom at the Hollywood & Highland Center.  Admittedly it's a rather slow start as the event is generally for *ahem* "old school" Hollywood and those hoping to make an impression with Oscar voters. Potential nominees Glenn Close, Woody Harrelson, Gary Oldman, Tilda Swinton, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer were all there. Academy President Tom Sherak took the podium in a Darth Vader costume (in tribute to Jones) and opened with “How was your week?” 

And the first Oscar goes to…James Earl Jones.

Jones received an honorary Oscar from Sir Ben Kingsley for his long career in film. He accepted his Oscar via satellite because he’s in London starring in “Driving Miss Daisy” opposite Vanessa Redgrave at London’s Wyndham Theatre. Sir Ben Kingsley presented him the award for which Jones said he was “deeply honored” and “mighty grateful”.

In LA Oprah Winfrey and famed makeup man Dick Smith were given awards at the dinner; Smith for his long career spanning sixty five films including Little Big Man, The Godfather & The Godfather II, The Exorcist and Amadeus. Oprah was given the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. (Despite the fact that she earned three standing 'O's to close the night, I'm pretty sure she'll still make a speech during February's three plus hour long telecast). Apparently there were a lot of heartfelt speeches for all of the recipients, attendees calling this year's gala the most emotional yet.

Part two of the event will be held tonight in London as Meryl Streep, Ralph Fiennes and James Earl Jones are scheduled to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences tribute to Jones’ costar Vanessa Redgrave’s 50-year career. (I hope they don’t think this is in place of giving her a nomination for Fiennes’ Coriolanus! She’s been nominated six times, but has only won once: Best Supporting Actress for Julia in 1978) 

Enjoy the pics of the arrivals at last night’s event! (Is it me or did John Travolta look more vampire-y than Edward?) They're just starting to roll in so I may be back with more goodies!!

Have you heard about this new heist slash magic movie, Now You See Me? Love the cool new poster. We haven’t had a good movie about magic and magicians since the one two punch of The Prestige and The Illusionist back in 2006. Both of those were set in the past when it took far less to dazzle an audience. Now You  See Me is set in the here and now and makes use of all sorts of modern technology.

Synopsis: “The Four Horsemen, a magic super-group led by the charismatic ATLAS (Jesse Eisenberg), perform a pair of high-tech magic shows, first astonishing audiences by robbing a bank on another continent, and then exposing a white-collar criminal and funneling his millions into the audience members’ bank accounts.

FBI Special Agent DYLAN (Mark Ruffalo) is determined to make the magicians pay for their crimes—and to stop them before they pull off what promises to be an even more audacious heist. But he’s forced to partner with ALMA (Melanie Laurent), an Interpol detective about whom he is instantly suspicious. Out of desperation he turns to THADDEUS (Morgan Freeman), a famed magic debunker, who claims the bank heist was accomplished using disguises and video trickery. One thing Dylan and Alma agree on is that the Horsemen must have an outside point person, and that finding him (or her) is key to ending the magicians’ crime spree. Could it be Thaddeus? Or Alma? Or could it really be…magic?

As pressure mounts and the world awaits the Horsemen’s spectacular final trick, Dylan and Alma race to find an answer. But it soon becomes painfully clear that staying one step ahead of these masters of illusion is beyond the skills of any one man—or woman.”

Now You See Me sports a really fine cast. In addition to the marquee names above, it also includes Isla Fisher (We love her), Woody Harrelson, Michael Caine and Dave Franco. It’s directed by Louis Leterriere which some are seeing as a positive sign but I’m not so sure. He’s got the action cred but he made such a mess out of the Clash of the Titans reboot that I can’t get excited about how he’ll handle the plot (especially considering there are about six writers credited with the script.) We’ll see. Now You See Me is scheduled to open January 2013. 

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Check the freaky, comic-booky new poster for The Darkest Hour. Filmed on location in Russia, the film follows five young people who find themselves stranded in Moscow, fighting to survive in the wake of a devastating alien attack.  

I really liked the trailer and it did leave me with the impression this could be a lot of fun. As I said before, it may or may not have anything to offer the ever expanding 'alien-invasion genre', other than "the classic beauty of Moscow", but that might just be enough.

The Darkest Hour stars Emile Hirsch, Olivia Thirlby, Max Minghella, Rachel Taylor and Joel Kinnaman (who is breaking in the US in a big way) and many Russians. It's scheduled for a December 23 release in the US and 13 January in the UK.

The focus of the new Rampart poster is clearly on Woody Harrelson and from what I’ve heard, that’s as it should be. His Dave Brown is completely psychotic and over the top and Harrelson gives a bold, brash performance and owns the movie. Based on a true LAPD scandal from the 1990's, Rampart is a genre-bending police drama/family story. Brown is a cop long ago unleashed from the rules of the LAPD, whose past is catching up with him. Roving the streets like his personal fiefdom, he governs and punishes at will. He has children with two sisters (Anne Heche and Cynthia Nixon) and somehow still lives casually with them both, slipping in and out of a family life that’s as tangled as his long career. {This reminds me of The General with Brendan Gleeson-also based on a true story} Years ago, Brown may have killed a rapist and gotten away with it. The shadow of the incident still haunts him, so when his Rampart division gets caught up in a corruption scandal, Brown makes an easy target. As the controversy seeps through the department and into city hall, this hardened, reckless officer finds himself at the center of a sordid L.A. story with a D.A. and an investigator on his trail, a lover who may or may not be on his side and fighting for his sanity and survival.

The rest of the cast is impressive: Ben Foster, Heche, Nixon, Robin Wright, Sigourney Weaver,  Steve Buscemi, Ned Beatty, Ice Cube, Jon Foster and Jon Bernthal all star.  After TIFF, Rampart was picked up by Millennium Entertainment. Faith in Harrelson’s performance is so strong that they’re doing a limited release November 23 in NY/LA before opening wide January 27.

Another poster for Contraband, this one showcasing a bit more of the cast and less of Mark Wahlberg’s torso.  Contraband is a remake of an Icelandic film called Reykjavik-Rotterdam. While I didn't see the original, the trailer for this one looks like it kicks all kinds of ass.

The synopsis: A security guard with financial troubles considers a return to his smuggling ways when an associate offers a potentially lucrative opportunity.  That's not even half the story though. It's another one of those tales where like Michael Corleone said in Godfather 3, "just when I think I'm out…they PULL me back in", only this time it's family man Mark Wahlberg who gets sucked back into 'the life' thanks to his ne'er do well brother. Kate and the kids are in all sorts of danger. Ooooo.

The cast of Contraband includes the excellent Giovanni Ribisi, the equally excellent Ben Foster (again), J. K. Simmons, Lukas Haas, Caleb Landry Jones, Diego Luna and Marky Mark's older brother, Robert Walhberg. Contraband opens January 13 in the US and 16 March in the UK.

Last but definitely not least, we have another new poster for David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I’m about to cry ‘uncle’ on this one. Enough with the teasing and the trailers and spooky websites and viral videos. You win Fincher! I’ll see your remake. Give me the damn movie already! I need my Daniel Craig fix! *shakes fist*

Sigh… I’m sure there will be more “surprises” before we’re finally allowed to see the thing.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo FINALLY opens in theaters December 21 in the US and Canada and 26 December in the UK. (The date on the bottom is the German and Turkish release date although the poster is in English. Curious)

Oren Moverman's Rampart is yet another film that I cannot believe was not on my radar. It stars Woody Harrelson, who earned an Oscar nomination in Moverman's last film, The Messenger and the script is co-written by Moverman and one of my all-time favorite writers, James Ellroy (the novels "LA Confidential", "The Blue Dahlia"-but don't hold the movie against him- among many others). Joining Harrelson and Moverman is Ben Foster, who should have been nominated for The Messenger.

Official synopsis: Based on a true LAPD scandal from the 1990's, Rampart is the genre-bending police drama/family story of Dave Brown, a cop long ago unleashed from the rules of the Los Angeles Police Department, whose past is catching up with him. Roving the streets, he governs and punishes at will. His home life is a riddle. He has fathered children with two sisters (Anne Heche and Cynthia Nixon). Somehow he still lives casually with them both, slipping in and out of a family life that's as tangled as his long career on the force. {This reminds me of The General with Brendan Gleeson-also based on a true story} Years ago, Brown may have killed a rapist and gotten away with it. The shadow of the incident still haunts him, so when his Rampart division gets caught up in a corruption scandal, Brown makes an easy target. As the controversy seeps through the department and into city hall, this hardened, reckless officer finds himself at the center of a sordid L.A. story with a D.A. and an investigator on his trail, a lover who may or may not be on his side and fighting for his sanity and survival.

THR had some exclusive first clips to share. In the first scene Brown attempts to rationalize his behavior to a psychologist (Sigourney Weaver). In the second, he interacts with a fellow vet who is now homeless and mentally disturbed (Ben Foster). And in the third, he flirts with a woman whom he has met at a bar (Robin Wright): 

The cast is impressive. In addition to Harrelson, Foster, Heche, Nixon, Wright and Weaver, Rampart features Steve Buscemi, Ned Beatty, Ice Cube, Jon Foster and Jon Bernthal.  It was one of the most hotly anticipated films to screen while still seeking distribution, going into TIFF without a release date. This will soon change.

Enjoy the stills. And, in my never-ending quest to bring you updates on every single movie playing TIFF this year, here are a few pics from the premiere as well.

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