U.S. Poster For "Mental"

Set in the fictional town of Dolphin Heads, MENTAL is written and directed by PJ Hogan and produced by Jerry Zucker, Janet Zucker, Todd Fellman and Jocelyn Moorhouse. It stars Golden Globe® Winner Toni Collette (United States of Tara, Little Miss Sunshine, About A Boy, The Sixth Sense) in a film that re-unites her with PJ Hogan for the first time since the iconic Muriel’s Wedding seventeen years ago.

The Moochmore girls are all certain they suffer from some sort of mental illness, because if they’re not crazy they’re just unpopular. The combination of Shirley’s five rambunctious daughters and her philandering husband Barry becomes too much for her to bear and she is committed to a mental institution.

Barry, a small time politician is left to take care of five girls who he barely knows. Overwhelmed, he impulsively picks up Shaz, a colorful hitchhiker on the side of the road, and installs her as the girls’ nanny. Shaz is charismatic, hot tempered, inspiring, and completely nuts. However she proves to be exactly what the Moochmore family needs.

THE PLAYLIST

"Into The White" Trailer

At the beginning of World War II a hostile chance encounter in the skies above the harsh Norwegian wilderness leaves two aircraft – one British, one German – shot down in a remote and isolated region. By strange coincidence the crews seek shelter in the same cabin. They must battle to survive the brutal winter in order to get back to the war – and to fighting one another. Although war has made them enemies, as the days go by animosity proves hard to maintain. Mutual need leads to unlikely friendships, and the rules of war must be put aside.

Legendary Pictures Starts Casting Godzilla, I Yawned

While Frank Darabont continues to pound away on the keyboard developing the latest draft of Godzilla Legendary Pictures is in talks with Elizabeth Olsen & Bryan Cranston to star. According to Variety, Aaaron Johnson is also negotiating with the studio to come aboard the project which is scheduled to stomp it's way into theaters May 16, 2014.

I'm still flabbergasted that the Legendary Pictures is willing to throw a monstrous amount of money into a Godzilla movie. I really can't picture this film doing well with the general public. Kids aren't playing with Godzilla toys and no teenager has a Godzilla poster on their wall. Nostalgia isn't going to help build a box office foundation and I'm not sure a monster smashing things is going to translate to dollar signs by default.

Maybe a cameo by King Kong?

New "Mud" Poster Featuring Matthew McConnaughey

MUD is an adventure about two boys, Ellis (Tye Sheridan) and his friend Neckbone (Jacob Lofland), who find a man named Mud (Matthew McConnaughey) hiding out on an island in the Mississippi.  Mud describes fantastic scenarios—he killed a man in Texas and vengeful bounty hunters are coming to get him. He says he is planning to meet and escape with the love of his life, Juniper (Reese Witherspoon), who is waiting for him in town. Skeptical but intrigued, Ellis and Neckbone agree to help him.  It isn’t long until Mud’s visions come true and their small town is besieged by a beautiful girl with a line of bounty hunters in tow.

EW INSIDE MOVIES

Bruce Willis Says Die Hard In Space Is Coming

It's a ridiculous state of affairs when a Die Hard parody from twenty years ago looks less silly than A Good Day to Die Hard. The film just looks stupid and the usage of CG is on an obese level of over-reliance.

The age thing is a non-issue. While Arnold and Sly took time off from ass-kicking, Bruce Willis never stopped. He wisely focused his energy elsewhere with the Twelve Monkeys, Sixth Senses, Unbreakables and so forth whilst his late 80s, testosterone-fuelled brothers fizzled out with the changing times.

Speaking to the BBC program One Show (via Bleeding Cool), when asked if we would be yet another return of John McClane, Bruno simply said, "Yes." He was cautious to get into full details other than to confirm the title as A Good Space to Die Hard and that McClane would go orbit.*

*Not really. But isn't this where it’s headed?

In Russia, Movie Bans You!

I was under the impression films weren't banned anymore. That kind of shit is barbaric. Plenty of filmmakers I despise and subject matters I won't waste my time over. But it's my right to do so. If the folks don't want to see your good or crappy production, it should be their call to make. Besides telling them "YOU CAN’T SEE THIS," only makes matters worse. Brings more attention than the offending banners want. But what does my idiot ass know?

The Chinese censored one of the crucial A-plots in Cloud Atlas (the doomed love story between Ben Whishaw and James D'Arcy) and the Aussies outright banned The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence).

Apparently Russia has banned the thriller A Lonely Place for Dying starring James Cromwell (also serving as a producer) and Michael Wincott. The official plot synopsis doesn't scream controversial:

"It is 1972. An abandoned Mexican prison sits alone in the dusty Chihuahua desert. KGB mole Nikolai Dzerzhinsky waits for his contact from the Washington Post. Dzerzhinsky holds explosive evidence against the CIA; information he will trade for asylum in the United States. Special Agent Robert Harper must obtain this evidence and kill Dzerzhinsky or risk the end of his CIA career. As the two men hunt each other they discover that the sins from their past destined them for this deadly confrontation."

I guess the Russians are thin-skinned to criticism? History has shown that isn't exactly breaking news. But I thought we were past that nonsense. Come on, Russia, release the damn movie. You're really gonna shit a lung over what sounds like direct-to-video material?

Star Wars Spin-Offs Are About Li'l Han Solo & Boba Fett

Remember when fanboys complained George Lucas did too much explaining and connecting-the-dots in the Star Wars prequels? If you don't react the same way to this, you may officially shut the Hell up forever.

Entertainment Weekly reports the first two planned standalone Star Wars films (aiming for release alongside the sequel trilogy) are centered on a young Han Solo and Boba Fett.

Solo films (No pun intended) giving back-story for both isn't exactly the best idea. We saw how much fans soured to the "Boba was a clone little kid!" origin of the intergalactic bounty-hunter in Attack of the Clones. And telling us where Captain Solo came from? We're talking about two characters that thrive in their mysteriousness. Giving us the details of them learning to walk and shoot a laser-gun for the first time takes away from that.

One thing you have to hand them. Going this route allows for the return of Darth Vader. Don't know how they're going to overcome that obstacle for Episode VII.

The Amazing Spider-Man Sequel Title Sucks - Everything Else Sounds Fine

The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

I was hoping for something cooler.

• The Web of Spider-Man (Easy to see why that wouldn’t fly with its director Marc Webb)
• The Spectacular Spider-Man
• The Ultimate Spider-Man
• Peter Parker: Spider-Man
• Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man
• Spider-Man: It's Better Than the Reboot We Swear

You get the idea. Just plain old slapping a number behind The Amazing Spider-Man sucks. Sony also sent out the official plot synopsis and it reads perfectly fine, crappy title notwithstanding:

"In The Amazing Spider-Man 2, for Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield), life is busy – between taking out the bad guys as Spider-Man and spending time with the person he loves, Gwen (Emma Stone), high school graduation can't come quickly enough. Peter hasn't forgotten about the promise he made to Gwen’s father to protect her by staying away – but that’s a promise he just can't keep. Things will change for Peter when a new villain, Electro (Jamie Foxx), emerges, an old friend, Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan), returns, and Peter uncovers new clues about his past."

The "old friend" add-on for the new Harry Osborn is intriguing. His presence in the reboot might have helped ease the characterization of Parker as a brooding, self-centered, immature brat. Hopefully Garfield's Spidey nuts up with his pal-cum-eventual-frenemy tagging along.

Knock on wood, Webb & Co. learned from their short-comings first time out. I get the vibe they did. Good on them for listening.

First Footage of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Coming This March

This time during the early aughts, we'd be anticipating The Lord of the Rings hitting DVD in its theatrical form. Followed by the Extended Edition in the fall all the while building up to the latest installment of the trilogy for its theatrical release that Christmas. It was fun. The right amount of time to get it out of our system, cooling off and then readying for more.

Warner Brothers is wise in following that same strategy for The Hobbit. The theatrical version of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey hits shelves March 19 with the Extended Edition (I know, I know... Wasn't the one in theaters the Extended Edition?!) closer to the holiday season. So where is the preview for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug?

As opposed to relegating it to the home video release, we'll have the opportunity of footage online here. Sunday March 24 is the date for the live first look hosted by Peter Jackson. If you miss it good reader, it'll leak pretty soon after if it isn't officially released.

Hopefully Jackson doesn't dick around and avoid Smaug. He's the selling point of the second Hobbit entry and since Benedict Cumberbatch's star status is closely creeping towards supernova it would be wise to utilize him. Nobody wants to see Bilbo fall down some more (as great as Martin Freeman is in the role) or the dwarfs singing or farting.

The Hitman Reboot You Didn't Ask For Is Coming

Fox threw darts at a board six years ago and made a Hitman movie based on the supposedly popular video game (If it ain't Nintendo, I know nothing of it... and even then it's still foggy). A pre-Justified Timothy Olyphant starred and it made some coin. Not enough for Tom Rothman to trudge ahead on another one so it languished into nothingness.

But reboots are the rage. It's all the kids talk about at the playground besides how criminally underused Girls is treating Zosia Mamet. Reboots haven't 100% caught on (Movie-goers were initially confused at how Batman Begins wasn't a prequel to Tim Burton's Batman) but they're on their way, and I guess Fox figures why not try it out on the video game movie sub-genre?

A new Hitman restart is underway with a title, to their credit, that might help avoid any upfront "Huh?" from the folks: Agent 47. And they're getting a more recognize actor to shave his head in Paul Walker. He hasn't carried a picture by himself. Fox figures the Fast & Furious popularity is enough (You guys see the Fast 6 trailer and Super Bowl spot? Holy Mother of God is that gonna make bank!)

Filming starts this summer overseas. Don't worry. It'll still probably suck.