Those of us expecting Oliver Stone’s Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps on April 23 will have to wait. THR is reporting that Fox has bumped its release to September 24.

The long-anticipated sequel to Wall Street is a star-studded affair, featuring the likes of Shia LaBeouf, Charlie Sheen, Michael Douglas, Josh Brolin, Susan Sarandon, Frank Langella, and Oscar darling and new favorite Carey Mulligan.

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This year Meryl Streep is up for her 16^th Oscar nomination for her work in Julie and Julia. If you read my previous article on Streep you would know I don’t support this nomination or a win. Streep has been much better before and if she truly wants a third Oscar she is going to need to be much riskier in her acting choices. The last few years we have seen the actress slumming around in middle-of-the-road comedies and Oscar bait. Her Julia Child impersonation is adequate but it is not the type of role that calls for a third Oscar.

For months it seemed Streep was unstoppable, until her tie at the Critic’s Choice Awards with Sandra Bullock. Bullock then went on to claim both the Golden Globe and SAG award for her portrayal of the do-gooding, right-wing football fanatic Leigh Ann Tuohy in The Blind Side. Much has been said about whether or not Bullock’s performance is up to par with the title of Best Actress, but when considering previous wins for Reese Witherspoon, Gwenyth Paltrow and Halle Berry it hardly seems dubious to reward Bullock. She is a very likable star who has given great performances before (her turn in Infamous is much better than Catherine Keener’s Harper Lee in Capote, but unfortunately Bullock was in the other Truman Capote movie) and achieved incomparable success this year with The Proposal and The Blind Side. If it between Bullock and Streep, I would have to go with Bullock for the sheer fact that she will probably never have another opportunity at the golden guy and to send a message to Streep that she is going to have to do more than show up to the set to earn another statue. Bullock’s film gaining a Best Picture nomination over Julie and Julia doesn’t bode well for Streep’s chances either.

Newcomers Gabourey Sidibe and Carey Mulligan gave the two best performances out of the nominees but haven’t gained enough precursor support to have a real shot at winning the award. It is possible for one of them to pull ahead if Streep and Bullock cancel each other out much like the win for Adrien Brody over Jack Nicholson and Daniel Day-Lewis in 2002. Mulligan benefits from being a demure, thin, white woman and should have no problem finding her way back into the Oscar race if she is given the right projects. I would love more than anything if the Academy would reward Sidibe, the best of the nominees, for her haunting portrayal in Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire but it is highly unlikely due the prejudices in place against someone of her race and size.

Helen Mirren’s nomination is similar to that of Charlize Theron in North Country or Jodie Foster in Nell; a recent Best Actress winner filing the fifth slot despite the quality of the work. She doesn’t stand a threat to win but serves more as a validation of her recent win. Filler nominations such as these make it hard to accept snubs of much greater work. It’s hard to believe they couldn’t find room for someone like Tilda Swinton in Julia or Michelle Pfeiffer in Cheri yet Mirren was able to squeak in with a film hardly anyone saw or seemed to have much passion for.

Will Win: Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side
Should Win: Gabourey Sidibe for Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire
Should Have Been Nominated: Tilda Swinton for Julia

Mark Romanek’s upcoming drama Never Let Me Go is definitely a project to keep you’re eye on. We know it stars Oscar nominees Carey Mulligan (An Education) and Keira Knightley (Pride & Prejudice), but plot details remain vague at this point. In more recent news on the project, /Film has brought word that Rachel Portman has been watching the film and working on an original score. Portman has had a very successful career as a composer thus far, having won the the Oscar for Emma back in 1997, and having received two more nominations since then, most recently in 2001 for Chocolat.

In addition to the promising acting and composing contributors to this film, Romanek brings an interesting resume to the plate as well. His primary work thus far has been as a music video director, although he did write and direct the twisted, but successful thriller One Hour Photo back in 2002. With such a limited filmography under his belt, it’s surprising that he’s been able to lock up these two big-time actresses, but perhaps that says something about his talent behind the camera.

Are you looking forward to Never Let Me Go? Does the addition of Portman do anything to change your feelings of anticipation?

A new international trailer for Oliver Stone’s Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps starring Michael Douglas, Shia LaBeouf, Josh Brolin, Frank Langella, Carey Mulligan, Susan Sarandon, Vanessa Ferlito and Charlie Sheen has been released at Sun TV. You can view the new trailer here.

Plot: Emerging from a lengthy prison stint, Gordon Gekko finds himself on the outside of a world he once dominated. Looking to repair his damaged relationship with his daughter, Gekko forms an alliance with her fiancé Jacob (Shia LaBeouf), and Jacob begins to see him as a father figure. But Jacob learns the hard way that Gekko – still a master manipulator and player – is after something very different from redemption.

The new trailer gives much more of the plot of the film. We see more of LaBeouf’s relationship with Gekko’s daughter which the original trailer did not give us. This trailer does get me more excited for this film. I was a huge fan of the original film and I can’t wait to see what Stone has planned for the film.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps hits theaters April 23rd.

What do you think of the new trailer?

We posted some new photos yesterday and now the trailer for Oliver Stone’s Wall Street sequel, Money Never Sleeps has crept up on IMDb. The film stars Michael Douglas, Shia LaBeouf, Josh Brolin, Frank Langella, Carey Mulligan, Susan Sarandon, Vanessa Ferlito and Charlie Sheen. Click the image below to check out the intense bass-filled, dialogue light trailer (as no embed is available yet). Read the full story

Here are some new photos from Olver Stone’s upcoming sequel Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps starring Michael Douglas, Shia LaBeouf, Josh Brolin, Frank Langella, Carey Mulligan, Susan Sarandon, Vanessa Ferlito and Charlie Sheen. Check out the pics below or go to Coming Soon’s gallery for High-Res versions:

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Recognizing five international and local actors and actresses that have inspired popular acclaim from the British public, the BAFTA Orange Rising Star Award has been running for five consecutive years. This year Carey Mulligan, Kristen Stewart, Tahar Rahim, Jesse Eisenberg and Nicholas Hoult were named as the nominees for 2010.

The nominees must have featured in a film between the 1st of January to 31st December 2009 or within the extension period from the 1st of January to the 19th of February 2010.

Mulligan is the talented star of An Education, Hoult appears alongside Colin Firth in A Single Man, Rahim is the star of A Prophet, while Stewart starred in the Twilight Saga: New Moon and Adventureland for which her co-star Jesse Eisenberg was nominated.

The list has strong contention and it is hard to decide who has the greater chance of winning. If Mulligan does not win in the Best Actresss category she will most certainly take this award for Rising Star. The category description however, seems to indicate that popularity is worth more than talent, giving Kristen Stewart’s chances a great boost in the wake of Twilight fever.

The winner will be announced at the BAFTA ceremony on Sunday 21 February at London’s Royal Opera House.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts has announced its longlist for the 2010 Orange BAFTA awards, with Lone Scherfig’s An Education ahead of the potential nominees with 17 mentions including best film, director, actor Peter Sarsgaard and actress Carey Mulligan. Read the full story

Lionsgate has released a new trailer for Jim Sheridan’s Brothers on Yahoo. The film stars Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman, Sam Shepard, Clifton Collins, Jr., Carey Mulligan, and Ethan Suplee. It is written David Benioff (The Kite Runner, 25th Hour). Check out the trailer below. Read the full story

The New York Times ( via The Playlist) had an interview with Oliver Stone in which he discussed his sequel Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps, set to start filming this week in New York City.  Stone revealed two casting tidbits that were previously unknown at the time.  The first is that Josh Brolin will be in the film as the main villain, described as the head of an investment bank in the Times article, but The Playlist describes him as the “hedge fund antagonist” for the picture.  The other piece of casting news was somewhat expected but never confirmed, that Charlie Sheen will reprise his role in the sequel as his character Bud Fox from the original in a cameo.  At the end of the first film his character helped get Michael Douglas’ Gordon Gekko be put in jail by wearing a wire, and who at the end was seen entering the courthouse for his own sentencing, one would assume that this film will clear up what happened at the end of the first, and how his cameo ties into Gekko being in the film, who according to Stone has been released from prison.

Also starring Shia LaBeouf in the lead as Jake Moore, a young man who is the fiancé of Gekko’s daughter and who is getting into the world of finance himself, its expected the movie will deal with Gekko trying to influence him in this corporate world, and how he may corrupt him.  The movie also features Susan Sarandon as Moore’s mother, Frank Langella as his mentor, and Carey Mulligan as his fiancé, and Gekko’s daughter.  The movie was written by Allen Loeb, and the will be released next year by 20th Century Fox, who distributed the original film in 1987.

I recently watched Wall Street for the first time this weekend, and I thought that the movie was fairly mediocre and felt like it wouldn’t be of much interest to those who have no knowledge of Wall Street, like myself.  I am however curious to see how a sequel would play out, especially with today’s financial crisis and the themes that the film could cultivate from that.  I think Josh Brolin is a terrific actor and I would see him in anything, and casting Charlie Sheen, even for just a cameo, could be a good way to tie the two films together, even with the already cast Michael Douglas reprising his role.  Whether Stone can make a film better than the original however remains to be seen, but in my eyes I don’t feel like it would be that difficult of a task.

What do you think of the casting news for Wall Street 2?