Jesse Eisenberg In for “Oslo, August 31st” Director’s English Language Debut “Louder Than Bombs”

May 9, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

Norwegian director Joachim Trier, known for 2011 drama “Oslo, August 31st”, is set to make his English language directorial debut on family drama “Louder Than Bombs” and he’s recruited Isabelle Huppert, Gabriel Byrne and Jesse Eisenberg to star in it.

Set to shoot this fall in the US and Germany, the film revolves around a late wartime photographer (Huppert) and the family she left behind. Three years after her death, on the eve of a retrospective of her work, her husband (Byrne) and two sons (Eisenberg being one of them) discover an unsettling secret from her past. Trier says his film, which he also co-wrote with long-time collaborator Eskil Vogt, “is a character-driven piece so I am obviously thrilled to have such incredible actors working with me on this. Isabelle, Jesse, and Gabriel are all actors I have wanted to work with for a long time, so having them play together as one family feels remarkable.”

Eisenberg, who earned an Oscar nomination for David Fincher’s “The Social Network”, was last seen in Woody Allen’s “To Rome with Love” and will next appear in magician heist thriller “Now You See Me.” He’s also wrapped shooting on Dostoyevsky adaptation “The Double” with Mia Wasikowska and eco-terrorist thriller “Night Moves” with Dakota Fanning.

Dave Franco and Christopher Mintz-Plasse Join Seth Rogen and Zac Efron in “Townies”

March 22, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

townies Two more funny guys are joining Nicholas Stoller comedy “Townies”, with Deadline reporting Dave Franco and Christopher Mintz-Plasse have jumped on board, joining previously cast Seth Rogen and Zac Efron.

Andrew Cohen and Brendan O’Brien wrote the screenplay for the long-gestating film, which sparked a bidding war last summer, about a family man (Rogen) who lives near a fraternity house and finds himself at odds with one of the frat brothers (Efron), whose constant partying and raucous behavior is wreaking havoc on his neighbor’s life. No word on who Franco or Mintz-Plasse will play but frat brothers would probably be a logical guess.

Franco and Mintz-Plasse are working together on a feature film for the first time here but have collaborated on a series of popular Funny or Die web videos. Franco, younger brother to James Franco, was last seen opposite Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill in “21 Jump Street” and Nicholas Hoult and Teresa Palmer in “Warm Bodies.” He’ll next star opposite Jesse Eisenberg in magician heist thriller “Now You See Me.” Mintz-Plasse just completed reprising his role as Red Mist in “Kick Ass 2″ and voiced a character in Oscar-nominated “ParaNorman.”

Up And Comers Presents: 13 Films To Look Forward To In 2013

January 3, 2013 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in Features, Lists 3 Comments

It’s always difficult to determine which of the upcoming slate of films to get excited for. It may star your favourite actor or actress, and an award-winning director may be attached, but that can never guarantee a good film. And you’re also often woefully underinformed. There may have been early festival reviews or a teaser trailer but a lot of 2013 releases – and a lot of the films on this list – have given nothing away yet, and may even still be filming.

But that’s what makes it exciting. Can your favourite actor pull off a new genre? Will the intriguing plot and acclaimed director come together to actually give you a great film? In a year’s time we may be raving about some of these films, or we may have forgotten about them completely, but that’s what makes film journalism so fun.

So in no particular order, click below to discover which films we think could light up the big screen in 2013.

Watch: Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher and Dave Franco make futuristic magic in first trailer for “Now You See Me”

November 16, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Videos 1 Comment

The first trailer for magician heist thriller “Now You See Me” has been released via Yahoo! Movies and it is not at all what I expected. Sleek, high-tech and slightly futuristic, this Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher and Dave Franco led actioner is being played out on a way bigger stage than I had anticipated.

The three, along with Woody Harrelson, are a group of world class magicians. For their final act, they tell the audience, they are going to rob a bank. They seemingly teleport a member of the audience into a bank vault, and then shower the audience with the money he brings back. This of course does not sit well with the FBI, led here by Mark Ruffalo and Melanie Laurent, and they are hot on the group’s trail. Meanwhile, Morgan Freeman believes the real trick up their sleeves has yet to be revealed.

Whew! Seems like there’s a lot of great action sequences and a complicated mystery to solve here, so count us in. Directed by Louis Letterier, “Now You See Me” has been set for release on January 18, 2013. The first trailer can be seen below.

Melanie Laurent to “Cry/Fly” with Jennifer Connelly and Cillian Murphy

November 2, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

French actress Melanie Laurent is in final negotiations to join Jennifer Connelly and Cillian Murphy in multi-generational family drama “Cry/Fly”, reports Variety from AFM.

Claudia Llosa will make her English language debut on the film, which takes place in Minnesota and northern Canada over two time periods. In the first setting, Connelly plays the mother of a terminally-ill six year old daughter and a falcon-keeper son. A “dramatic event” separates the mother from her children, and twenty years later, the son (presumably played by Murphy) is persuaded by a journalist (Laurent) to search for his now-famous mother. Filming is set to begin in February.

Laurent, a prolific actress in her native France, is best known to American audiences for her roles in Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” and “Beginners.” She recently wrapped up filming on psychological thriller “An Enemy” alongside Jake Gyllenhaal and Sarah Gadon, and has magician heist action flick “Now You See Me” with Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher and Dave Franco awaiting release.

Paul Dano and Rooney Mara out, Jesse Eisenberg and Dakota Fanning in for indie thriller “Night Moves”

August 13, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 1 Comment

There will be no “Meek’s Cutoff” reunion after all. After nearly a year, Kelly Reichardt’s eco-terrorist thriller “Night Moves” is getting a bit of a cast makeover as it moves closer to production. Peter Sarsgaard and Paul Dano had been set to play the two male leads, while Rooney Mara was circling the female lead, but now Variety reports Jesse Eisenberg and Dakota Fanning will be taking over the roles vacated by Dano and Mara.

The trio of actors will play a group of eco-terrorists who plot to blow up a dam. Eisenberg will be the ringleader, Fanning the rich young girl who funds the project, and Sarsgaard the mastermind behind the plan. Sarsgaard spoke last year of his character’s motivations: “I can understand how my character gets to the point of wanting to blow up a dam. I never want to do this, but I can understand how someone can want to do that. We have a gun pointed to our planet. We see that the demonstrations are not working because they are being tackled with pepper [spray]… so you get the radical movement. I can understand that.” Production is scheduled to begin in October in Oregon.

Eisenberg has stayed busy since getting his first Oscar nomination in David Fincher’s 2010 masterpiece “The Social Network.” After a double dose of indies in “Why Stop Now” and “Free Samples”, Eisenberg starred in Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris” follow-up, “To Rome With Love”, opposite Ellen Page. He’s currently filming “The Double”, a comedy based on Dostoyevsky’s novella, opposite Mia Wasikowska and will also soon be seen in magician heist thriller “Now You See Me” with Dave Franco. Fanning is currently filming coming-of-age drama “Very Good Girls” opposite Elizabeth Olsen and has wrapped on indies “Now Is Good” (which showed at Cannes and which we didn’t really care for) and “The Motel Life.” She’ll also have one last appearance as vampire villainous Jane in “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2″, out in November.

Sarah Gadon and Melanie Laurent join Jake Gyllenhaal in psychological thriller “An Enemy”

May 14, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 1 Comment

Jake Gyllenhaal-starrer psychological thriller “An Enemy” has added a trio of actresses, according to Deadline. Up and comers Melanie Laurent and Sarah Gadon are joining Isabella Rossellini in the Denis Villeneuve-directed film that will begin shooting next week in Toronto.

Gyllenhaal plays a history teacher living a quiet life with his girlfriend until he stumbles upon a physically identical man living nearby with a pregnant wife. He begins stalking his double until the couples’ lives become intertwined with deadly consequences. Javier Gullón adapted José Saramago’s novel “The Double”, though it appears the adaptation is loose at best.

Laurent broke out in Quentin Tarantino’s Oscar nominated “Inglorious Basterds” and was most recently seen opposite Christopher Plummer’s Oscar-winning performance in “Beginners.” She just wrapped up shooting on magician heist thriller “Now You See Me” opposite Jesse Eisenberg and Dave Franco. Gadon was a little known Canadian TV actress until director David Cronenberg gave her a double-hitter of opportunity, first casting her as Michael Fassbender’s wife in “A Dangerous Method” then opposite Robert Pattinson in the Cannes-bound “Cosmopolis.” Gadon will also be in Cannes representing David’s son Brandon Cronenberg’s futuristic sci-fi thriller “Antiviral.”

Watch: Video footage from the set of “Now You See Me” with Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher and Dave Franco

April 13, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Videos Leave a comment

Today we have the first footage from the set of one of our most anticipated upcoming movies, as Entertainment Weekly unveiled some B-Roll and interviews with the cast of magician heist thriller “Now You See Me.” Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher and Dave Franco are seen in action as big-scale, high tech magicians performing tricks that involve both high flying wire-work and traditional bunny-and-top-hat stuff. The three play members of an elite magician troupe who use their performances for corrupt businessmen to swindle their money and lavish upon the more deserving. “Like modern day Robin Hoods,” says Fisher.

Of course, noble as their intentions may be, it’s still high illegal, and hot on their trail is an FBI team led by Mark Ruffalo and Melanie Laurent, who appears to be seen in a brief chase scene with Eisenberg in the clip below as well.

Directed by Louis Letterier, “Now You See Me” has been set for release on January 18, 2013. The first video footage from the set can be seen below.

First look: Jesse Eisenberg during rehearsals for criminal magician flick “Now You See Me”

March 6, 2012 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in Images Leave a comment

Louis Leterrier’s “Now You See Me”, which revolves around a group of highly skilled magicians who pull off bank robberies during their performances, has just started filming in New Orleans – despite a promotional poster being released four months ago! – and now we have the first on-set pictures.

Oscar nominee Jesse Eisenberg stars as ATLAS, the leader The Four Horsemen, a magic super-group. In these first images Eisenberg shows off his skills of illusion, rehearsing on stage with soap bubbles that us mere audience members aren’t able to see! Other images show an audience of dummies, as well as the wire work involved in magic. All the pictures come from photographer-cum-director Alma Har’el at WhoSay.

The film stars a great selection of up and coming rising stars, including Melanie Laurent, Isla Fisher and Dave Franco, as well as Woody Harrelson, Mark Ruffalo, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine, and is set to open on January 18th 2013.

First look: promotional poster for Jesse Eisenberg’s criminal magician flick, “Now You See Me”

November 6, 2011 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in Images 1 Comment

In 2009′s “Zombieland” Jesse Eisenberg’s Columbus gains an unlikely friend in Woody Harrelson‘s Tallahassee as they team up to battle the undead. So when the news broke that they would be teaming up again, this time to outwit the FBI as criminal magicians, well, Louis Leterrier’s Now You See Me quickly became one of our most anticipated films!

Now, thanks to the American Film Market (via, once again, Collider!), we have an official synopsis of the film, as well as the first promotional poster. The film also stars Dave Franco, Melanie Laurent, Isla Fisher, as well as Michael Caine, Mark Ruffalo and Morgan Freeman, and revolves around a group of highly skilled magicians who pull off bank robberies during their performances, ending their shows by showering their audience with the stolen money.

With such a great mix of up and coming actors and established names, we can’t wait for January 18th, 2013, which is when it is due to open across America.

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