Ever since the fairly spectacular Michael Clayton, I’ve been eagerly awaiting Tony Gilroy’s next directorial project, Duplicity. Honestly, how could you not get excited about a film that reunites Closer stars Clive Owen and Julia Roberts, and includes Tom Wilkinson (who should seriously consider hitching his wagon to every Gilroy script), and Paul Giamatti? Clayton proved that Gilroy had the directing chops to match his screenwriting prowess—which is saying something given that he’s written all the Bourne films thus far.
Owen and Roberts play a pair of corporate spys who’ve fallen into a steamy relationship and devise the ultimate plan to rip off their respective employers—competing pharmeceutical companies run by Wilkinson [...]

Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr addresses his concerns about the announced superhero team-up movie The Avengers in a new interview with MTV:
“If we don’t get it right, it’s really going to suck. It has to be the crowning blow of Marvel’s best and brightest, because it’s the hardest thing to get right. It’s tough to spin all the plates for one of these characters,” Downey tells MTV, later adding: “The danger you run with colliding all these worlds is that Jon was very certain that “Iron Man” should be set in a very realistic way. Nothing that happened in Iron Man is really outside the realm of possibility. Once [...]

Making a Twilight sequel isn’t going to be cheap. Stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, who were each paid $2 million for the first film, will be getting enormous pay raises. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Pattinson and Stewart will be paid $12 million each for the sequel, New Moon. It’s worth noting that the first film was made for only $37 million. Sounds like the budget will be upped considerably for the sequel. I think I’m going to be sick.

AICN has an exclusive slightly remixed version of the Star Trek trailer. The huge difference is the addition of Leonard Nimoy as Old Spock, making his first big screen appearance as the character since 1991. How very epic! You can watch the three second clip below, but head on over to AICN to see the reedited trailer in High Definition with a couple little changes.
Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.
[Javascript required to view Flash movie, please turn it on and refresh this page]

document.getElementById(”player2″).style.display = “”;

var s2 = new SWFObject(”http://www.slashfilm.com/wp/wp-content/plugins/flv-embed/flvplayer.swf”,”player2″,”470″,”216″,”7″);
s2.addParam(”allowfullscreen”,”true”);
s2.addVariable(”height”,”216″);
s2.addVariable(”width”,”470″);
s2.addVariable(”file”,”http://bitcast-a.bitgravity.com/slashfilm/trailers/spockclip.flv”);
s2.addVariable(”image”,”http://bitcast-a.bitgravity.com/slashfilm/trailers/spockclip.jpg”);
s2.addVariable(”backcolor”,”0xb5d5ea”);
s2.addVariable(”lightcolor”,”0xebebeb”);
s2.addVariable(”link”,”http://www.slashfilm.com”);
s2.addVariable(”fsbuttonlink”,”http://www.slashfilm.com/wp/wp-content/plugins/flv-embed/fullscreen.php?f=http://bitcast-a.bitgravity.com/slashfilm/trailers/spockclip.flv%26r=http://www.slashfilm.com/2008/11/25/first-look-leonard-nemoy-as-old-spock-in-jj-abrams-star-trek/”);
s2.write(”player2″);

More reviews for David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button have begun to hit the interwebs., which means its time for another Early Buzz roundup:
Kris Tapley of In Contention: “I didn’t fall in love like so many in the crowd did.  However, I couldn’t help but sense the innovation on display, not just below the line, but in the way we tell stories.  This is a brilliant yarn, probably Roth’s finest screenplay to date, in a career that has seen some fine work.” … “I think there is no argument against Cate Blanchett being nominated for Best Actress, and again, I think she takes this award in a [...]

Production Weekly is reporting that David Fincher is now attached to direct Keanu Reeves in a film about a Chef. I would love to tell you more, but unfortunately no other information is available at this time. One would assume that the chef might be a serial killer or be involved in some scheme which is extremely dark yet still slightly comical. The project is set-up at Sony.
/Film reader Eli G points out that in 2001 he was supposed to be working with Brad Pitt on SEARED. The movie was going to be based on Anthony Bourdains book Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, which was later turned into [...]

According to a scooper at AICN, the I Am Legend prequel might no longer be a prequel. The original idea was for the film to take place “several years before the original film” and follow Will Smith’s character Robert Neville as he fails to save a small pocket of survivors. I’ll admit, I was never a huge fan of the prequel idea, because we know where it will eventually end up. But Warner Bros was insistent in making the movie with Will Smith, and that was the idea he developed. But now rumor has it that the film will be a direct follow-up to the original film. Problem is, [possible [...]

FirstShowing is reporting that JJ Abrams’ Star Trek will be converted for IMAX theaters when it is released on May 8th 2009. But with Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian, also an IMAX release, due only two weeks later, Trek won’t have too much time on the huge screen. And I don’t expect any special features to be announced (for instance, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is expected to have more than 20 minutes in 3D, and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen shot some action sequences using IMAX cameras) but Trek might be worth seeing in IMAX regardless. Especially with the big space battles which might [...]

Warner Bros has put Alexandre Desplat’s entire score for David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button online on their For Your Consideration Awards site. Here is the complete tracklisting:
1. Postcards
2. Mr. Gateau
3. Meeting Daisy
4. A New Life
5. Love in Mourmansk
6. Meeting Again
7. Mr. Button
8. Little Man Oti
9. Alone At Night
10. It Was Nice to Have Met You
11. Children Games
12. Submarine Attack
13. The Hummingbird
14. Love Returns
15. Sunrise On Lake Pontchartrain
16. Daisy’s Ballet Career
17. The Accident
18. Stay Out of My Life
19. Nothing Lasts
20. Some Things You Never Forget
21. Growing Younger
22. Dying Away
23. Benjamin and Daisy
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button soundtrack two-disc CD set hits stores on December 16th 2008. You [...]

The Departed co-star Vera Farmiga has been cast in Jason Reitman’s adaptation of Walter Kirn’s novel Up in The Air. George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, a guy with a simple goal: to accumulate one million miles in his frequent flyer account. Here is more information from the book’s cover synopsis:
“Bingham’s job as a Career Transition Counselor has kept him airborne for years. Although he has come to despise his line of work, he has come to love the culture of what he calls “Airworld,” finding contentment within pressurized cabins, anonymous hotel rooms, and a wardrobe of wrinkle-free slacks. With a letter of resignation sitting on his boss’s desk, and [...]

Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire just might be the best film of the year, it’s certainly in my top 10 (you can read David Chen’s review here). That said, there is absolutely NOTHING good about the latest Slumdog Millionaire international movie trailer. It feels like a 1980’s film advertisement, complete with cheesy voice over, an upbeat song, and the best moments from the film edited into the worst possible order. But please, don’t let this poor excuse for a movie advertisement influence your decision. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend checking out the much better domestic trailer.
Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.
[Javascript required to view Flash movie, [...]

USA Today has an exclusive clip from Fox Searchlight’s upcoming Notorious B.I.G. biopic, Notorious. The clip features newcomer Jamal Woolard as Chris Wallace who proposes to Antonique Smith as Faith Evans, after knowing her for only nine days. Woolard says the central question of the movie is — is Biggie a “bad guy trying to be good, or a good guy trying to be bad?” Your thoughts in the comments below!

Recently, Variety reported that Universal Pictures has aquired the exclusive rights to Jason Bourne character and has inked a first-look deal for other Ludlum novels. This new deal “paves the way” for future Bourne installments. The fourth Bourne film is currently scheduled to be released in summer 2010, with Paul Greengrass directing Matt Damon as Bourne, with a script by George Nolfi.
Jeffrey Weiner, chariman-CEO of Ludlum Entertainment, will now be an active participant in developing the projects. Worth noting is that the Ludlum estate will have contractual approval on screenplays, characters, and actors for the new films, which seems to indicate that any new movies will hew closely to the [...]

Warner Bros has publicly begun its push with this Variety advertisement for Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight for a Best Supporting Actor nomination. Academy Award ballots are mailed on December 26th, polls close on January 12th, and the nominations are announced on January 22nd.

Discuss: Should Heath Ledger be nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award?
He will have to contend with Michael Shannon in Revolutionary Road, Philip Seymour Hoffman in Doubt, John Malkovich in Changeling, Ralph Fiennes in Duchess, John Malkovich and Brad Pitt in Burn After Reading and Robert Downey, Jr. in Tropic Thunder. Will the Academy recognize an outstanding performance in a “comic book movie”?
source: BOF

A new international trailer has been released for David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button which I don’t believe I’ve ever seen before. Check it out below, or click on through to Bad Taste for the High Definition sized version. Is it just me or does every new trailer just get better and better? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.
[Javascript required to view Flash movie, please turn it on and refresh this page]

document.getElementById(”player4″).style.display = “”;

var s4 = new SWFObject(”http://www.slashfilm.com/wp/wp-content/plugins/flv-embed/flvplayer.swf”,”player4″,”470″,”220″,”7″);
s4.addParam(”allowfullscreen”,”true”);
s4.addVariable(”height”,”220″);
s4.addVariable(”width”,”470″);
s4.addVariable(”file”,”http://bitcast-a.bitgravity.com/slashfilm/trailers/benjaminbuttontrailer4.flv”);
s4.addVariable(”image”,”http://bitcast-a.bitgravity.com/slashfilm/trailers/benjaminbuttontrailer4.jpg”);
s4.addVariable(”backcolor”,”0xb5d5ea”);
s4.addVariable(”lightcolor”,”0xebebeb”);
s4.addVariable(”link”,”http://www.slashfilm.com”);
s4.addVariable(”fsbuttonlink”,”http://www.slashfilm.com/wp/wp-content/plugins/flv-embed/fullscreen.php?f=http://bitcast-a.bitgravity.com/slashfilm/trailers/benjaminbuttontrailer4.flv%26r=http://www.slashfilm.com/2008/11/22/international-trailer-the-curious-case-of-benjamin-button/”);
s4.write(”player4″);

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button hits theaters on December 25th 2008.