Production on Ralph Fiennes’ directorial debut, Coriolanus, is due to begin next week, with shooting taking place in Belgrade, The Guardian is reporting. Read the full story

The final trailer for Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois‘ How To Train Your Dragon has been released via Yahoo. The DreamWorks animation features the voices of Gerard Butler, America Ferrera, Jay Baruchel, Kristen Wiig, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Craig Ferguson. This is from the team that brought us the great Lilo & Stitch as well as one of my favorite documentaries of all-time, Heima. I actually got a bit of an Avatar vibe with the whole Banshee training, but this definitely has it’s own style. The early buzz has also been quite good. Check out the full trailer below or in HD over on Yahoo. Read the full story

Despite the lackluster critical acclaim of his two 2009 films (The Ugly Truth and Law Abiding Citizen), Gerard Butler confirmed his (momentary) stardom with their financial success. Now it seems he’s getting a little more passionate in his project selection, as evidenced in recent news that he’s collaborating with director Marc Forster to make Machine Gun Preacher, and “tell the story of Sam Childers, a former drug-dealing biker tough guy who found God and became a crusader for hundreds of Sudanese children who’ve been kidnapped and pressed into duty as soldiers” [Deadline Hollywood].

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Here, courtesy of Yahoo, is the new trailer for the action rom-com The Bounty Hunter, starring Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler. Butler’s a bounty hunter asked to collect his ex-wife, Aniston, and bring her to prison. Crazy antics ensue.

Get a taste below:

Overture Films | USA | 108 mins

Warning: This review contains spoilers.

It’s a good thing one man revenge stories are in these days (see amnesiac hitmans and Jigsaws for reference), because this schlocky, overwrought, sloppy, patronizing, unintelligent, non-factual, blood-soaked, wrong-sided bastardization of a film will (and already has) made a killing at the box office (pun only halfway intended).

All this critic wanted upon entering the theater Friday night, having paid my $8.75 to see F. Gary Gray’s latest, Law Abiding Citizen, a Blacklist screenplay from Kurt Wimmer, was something fun even if it was a little silly. After all, the film’s been brewing for a few years now, with talent the likes of Frank Darabount attached at one point or another.

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Overture Films | USA | 108 mins

Warning: This review contains spoilers.

Law Abiding Citizen is a preposterous and lucrative revenge story filled with nonstop cliches. There is nothing more than a generic story and pure cheesiness, and yet it still maintains it’s fun garbage tone. It does cross the point of genuine badness at times, but counters with moments of pure excitement. This isn’t a particularly good film and is even downright cringeworthy during certain moments, but even those moments are fun due to their ridiculousness.

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Lionsgate | USA | 95 minutes

With a depiction of a distant future that seems all too possible and enough explosions and mayhem to make even Michael Bay blush, Gamer provides its audience with a brilliantly executed scifi/action/thriller, not to mention some really thought-provoking social commentary. The writer/director team behind the extremely graphic and cult-popular Crank films, Neveldine/Taylor, is back and have brought their gritty style to a “bigger” budget and deeper story. The film will remind viewers of some of the classic Paul Verhoeven films like Robocop and Starship Troopers; a balls-to-the-wall action film with a much deeper meaning behind it. In the case of Gamer, a look at the dangers of a media-infested world, of nonstop advertisement and of the future of youth in a world with ever expanding interactive technology.

The film’s plot centers around a company run by billionaire Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall), who’s created a game known as “Slayers.” The game gives its players full control of a living, breathing, death row inmate. If the inmate survives 30 sessions of the game they are set free. The star of the game is Kable (Gerard Butler), who has made it through 27 sessions and is on the fast track to reaching 30, which is unusual since no one else has ever made it past 10. When Castle realizes this he sets out on a mission to make sure that Kable never reaches the 30 mark.

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Entertainment Tonight has released the trailer for F. Gary Gray’s latest film Law Abiding Citizen. The film stars Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler. It is “a thriller about a brilliant sociopath who orchestrates a series of high-profile murders that grip the city of Philadelphia – all from inside his jail cell – and the prosecutor assigned to his case who realizes he is the only one who can end the reign of terror.”

Check out the trailer after the jump >>

The Ugly Truth is one of the average cliche romantic comedies that isn’t funny and is more so annoying. Its predictable story is at the level of The Proposal, except that film had two likable leads and a decent sense of humor to make it at least mildly entertaining. And while this film isn’t the worst film of the year, it’s one of most formulaic and contrived.

The story revolves a hopelessly romantically-challenged morning show producer named Abby, played by Katherine Heigl. Throughout her life she has been unable to meet “Mr. Perfect.” She’s a control freak, neurotic and purely hopeless. After her boss hires a misogynistic, but honest, TV show host named Mike Chadway (played by Gerard Butler), she must fight to maintain the integrity of her show. Mike soon starts to get on her good side by helping her get with her neighbor. Shockingly (note sarcasm), the more she gets to know Mike during this process she soon comes to like him.

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When 300 was released in March 2007 to enormous box office success, Hollywood decided to be Hollywood.  Even though (spoiler alert) essentially all 300 Spartans were killed at the end, news of a possible sequel began to emerge.  Details remained miniscule for the time being, with only the idea it would be based off of a new graphic novel to be written by Frank Miller himself, and may be a hybrid of a sequel/prequel.  Otherwise, little was and continues to be known, but some new facts have emerged from producer Mark Canton himself.

Speaking to MTV Splash Page, Canton said that work is being done by Miller, presumably on the follow up graphic novel.  Snyder himself hinted that it’ll take place between the final Spartan’s death and the film’s last scene.  And as to whether Leonidas, 300’s main character played by Gerard Butler returning, Canton said “Never assume anything; never assume anything”.  While some people attacked 300 for playing fast and loose with historical facts, it’s hard to imagine they would blatantly fudge history to have the star return, but at this point who knows.

To me a sequel to 300 seems like an odd idea.  300 as a movie felt like a very singular experience, similar to Snyder’s last movie Watchmen, and a sequel feels like it would be a pointless endeavor, with the exception of financial reasons.  I also don’t necessarily see Zack Snyder returning, as he has six projects lined up in addition to a possible follow-up.  And lastly, many feel that writer Frank Miller has definitely gone down a steep slope in terms of quality in the last decade or so, and if a new movie decides to be as reverent to the upcoming book as the last one was to 300, for all we know that could hurt the movie greatly.  And the last time Frank Miller was given total control, we got this.

What do you think of the idea of a sequel to 300?