Nominees for the 28th Annual Spirit Awards were announced today and in many of the categories, some familiar names seem to be recurring. Best Feature nominees are Beasts Of The Southern Wild, Keep The Lights On, Moonrise Kingdom and Silver Linings Playbook.

Sean Baker’s Starlet will receive the Robert Altman Award, given to a film’s director, casting director, and ensemble cast. Among distributors, Searchlight leads the way with nine nominations, followed by Music Box with seven and IFC Films, Focus and Sony Pictures Classics with six apiece. Winners will be announced at the ceremony on February 23.

The full list of nominees follows:

BEST FEATURE
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Michael Gottwald, Dan Janvey & Josh Penn (producers)
Bernie
Liz Glotzer, Richard Linklater, David McFadzean, Dete Meserve, Judd Payne, Celine Rattray, Martin Shafer, Ginger Sledge, Matt Williams (producers)
Keep the Lights On
Marie Therese Guirgis, Lucas Joaquin, Ira Sachs (producers)
Moonrise Kingdom
Wes Anderson, Jeremy Dawson, Steven Rales, Scott Rudin (producers)
Silver Linings Playbook
Bruce Cohen, Donna Gigliotti, Jonathan Gordon (producers)

BEST DIRECTOR
Wes Anderson, Moonrise Kingdom
Julia Loktev, The Loneliest Planet
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
Ira Sachs, Keep the Lights On
Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild

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Wes Anderson is a fantastic filmmaker. He has a such a flare for visuals, and a knack for beautiful symmetry that is unparalleled among working directors today. However, since his style has a very distinct look and feel, he is usually on the fringes of the mainstream.

That was until the master of indy quirk joined forces with the master of main stream quirk for his next film. Deadline is reporting that Anderson just landed a very notable new star:

Johnny Depp will star in The Grand Budapest Hotel, the next film that Wes Anderson wrote and will direct. Anderson is going right back into business with his collaborators on Moonrise Kingdom, which is heading toward a $40 million gross to be among this summer’s art house hits. 

It seems a rather obvious choice really, and one that is sure to excite hipsters and Depp-ites the world over. As for the rest of us it is exciting to see Anderson get some possible main stream traction, and for Depp to fall back from the blockbusters into a more interesting role.

It is not often Hollywood provides you with a win-win scenario for the filmmakers and the audience, but that seems to be what we have here.

Stay tuned to The Flickcast for the inevitable announcement of four more Pirates films to offset this arty choice for Depp.

I originally was going to write that Moonrise Kingdom was, at 94 minutes, among Wes Anderson’s shortest films, but after researching the running times of his previous work, it actually is right in the middle–shorter than The Life Aquatic (119 minutes) and The Royal Tenenbaums (109 minutes), but longer than Rushmore (93 minutes) and Bottle Rocket (92).

I think the difference is in the pacing (though all of Anderson’s films seem longer to me when they’re not on the big screen), because it didn’t feel lagging at any point. As good as Bottle Rocket and Rushmore are, I felt both started strong and then quickly slowed down, only to start rolling again in the third act. Moonrise is funny, engaging, and delightful all throughout.

The time is 1965, the place is a secluded New England island where the narrator (Bob Balaban) gives us a quick rundown of its history and the typical way of life–nothing much happens, and the mail is flown in every so often via waterplane. The inhabitants are the Bishops: Walt (Bill Murray), Laura (Frances McDormand), their sons, and their daughter Suzy (Kara Hayward); and the Khaki Scouts, something like the Junior Woodchucks but without the guidebook.

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There aren’t that many current directors who have a laser-pointed style that can be seen from a mile away. Thankfully, Wes Anderson is one of those directors. You can spot a film like The Royal Tenenbaums or Life Aquatic from space and know that they came from the retro dreams of Anderson. Now, he’s at it again.

This time, in his film Moonrise Kingdom, he’s adding new names like Ed Norton, Frances McDormand, and Bruce Willis to his regular cast of players that includes Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman. Take a look at the fantastically twisted premise below.

Set on an island off the coast of New England in the summer of 1965, MOONRISE KINGDOM tells the story of two twelve-year-olds who fall in love, make a secret pact, and run away together into the wilderness. As various authorities try to hunt them down, a violent storm is brewing off-shore — and the peaceful island community is turned upside down in more ways than anyone can handle. Bruce Willis plays the local sheriff. Edward Norton is a Khaki Scout troop leader.

The flick is set to hit theaters on May 25th, and you better believe that Anderson is going to pull out the stops with his indie band connections for what should be a stellar soundtrack. Take a look at the trailer after the jump.

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While internet pioneers have yet to find an exact science to viral videos, there seems to be a pretty simple algorithm for highly successful fan films. Basically, spoof a distant classic video game, TV, or film franchise, or spoof something so new, that it’s already top of brain.

What happens, however, if you combined a spoof of a classic video game with a modern film, however? Fan film magic.

We present to you College Humor’s The Fantastic Mr. Starfox, in which Wes Anderson is the focus of satire, and the classic arcade game Starfox is the vehicle of funny.

In it, we get some great references to the classic 1983 Atari game and its following sequels, as well some pretty hilarious realizations about Anderson’s one-note directing style and how laughable the premise of The Fantastic Mr. Fox was, when looked at from a distance.

Check out the fan film after the jump, and hope that this doesn’t spark some studio’s interest in rebooting the Starfox franchise.

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Since the dawn of the Internet, everybody with a handheld camera and an imagination has been throwing together testaments to their favorite piece of fiction in what we love to call “fan films.” Since then, the term has gotten a bit of a bad rap, which conjures up this gritty, poorly shot piece with worse acting and editing than your uncle’s home videos. However, this newest piece is an example of how, in some cases, those rules have completely gone out the window.

From the people who brought us Inglourious Plummers, a Tarantino-esque spoof of both Inglorious Basterds and The Super Mario Bros., comes this brand new trailer for God Of War. The best part is that it’s nothing like the God of War you’re used to. This trailer is done in the same vein of a Sam Mendes or Wes Anderson film. Purely indie, even down to the use of the song Home by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros.

We can’t figure out what it is we love about this trailer. Whether it’s the fact that our hero rocks an Adidas track jacket and tennis rackets (his “Blades of Chaos”) or the fact that the song makes the whole thing. Either way, it’s pretty awesome, and definitely worth a watch for both fans of movies and video games.

Check out the trailer after the jump and of course this begs the question when we’ll get to see another trailer. Perhaps Gears of War done as a romantic comedy?

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Here at The Flickcast, we’re very curious about Wes Anderson’s upcoming The Fantastic Mr. Fox, and we’ve dug up all the news we could for you. We brought you the first Fantastic Mr. Fox trailer back in July and a featurette earlier this month, but Ain’t It Cool News has just brought to our attention a new trailer that just hit the web!

While the first trailer gave us a glimpse into the furry world of Mr. Fox, this trailer is a little bit more intimate, giving us a sneak peek at the quirky, zippy dialogue we’ve come to know and love from Anderson’s writing, the amazing ensemble cast he’s assembled, and  a really detailed look at just how beautiful this film is going to be.

The Fantastic Mr. Fox, filmed completely using stop-motion animation and featuring the voice of Meryl Streep, Owen Wilson, Michael Gambon, Bill Murray and George Clooney as Mr. Fox, creeps into theaters November 15. You can watch the newest trailer right after the jump. Enjoy!

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We here at The Flickcast have been reporting everything to you on Wes Anderson’s adaptation of the children’s classic Fantastic Mr. Fox we can find. After giving you the first look at some production stills and the first trailer, we now have an Apple featurette on the making of the film which was brought to our attention by the folks at Ain’t It Cool News.

The featurette explains how Wes Anderson, the writer and director of the film, lived and wrote in the same place Roald Dahl did when he wrote The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Anderson’s experience helped him learn more about Dahl himself and how the character Mr. Fox was based on Dahl. He was also able to work that into his film adaptation. There, Anderson also found inspiration for what would become the universe and set of the film.

It’s really cool that this was released before the film comes out rather than as a special feature on a DVD release, similar to the Where the Wild Things Are featurette we showed you during Comic-Con. The more we see from Fantastic Mr. Fox the more excited we become, and we hope you do too.

The Fantastic Mr. Fox, featuring the voice of Meryl Streep, Owen Wilson, Michael Gambon, Bill Murray and George Clooney as Mr. Fox, creeps into theaters November 15. You can watch the new featurette right here.

Wes Anderson’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox has picked up quite a lot of marketing steam in the past few weeks since the first images popped up online. Now, the very first trailer has hit the web, and it already looks to be a new direction into the world of stop-motion animation from the Anderson camp.

The film stars George Clooney in the titular role of Mr. Fox, where he must outwit three mean-spirited farmers who try relentlessly to take out Fox and his family. The story was originally adapted from the Roald Dahl children’s book and also stars Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep, Willem Defoe and a few Anderson favorites such as Bill Murray, Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman.

The film hits theaters November 13th, and you can catch the first trailer after the jump.

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Wes Anderson’s highly anticipated adaptation of Roald Dahl’s classic children’s book, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, has been kept quiet and under wraps. But as the film’s release date creeps closer, it seems like we’ve been getting nothing on this film… until right now! Ain’t It Cool News posted the first photos from the movie we’ve seen! They look absolutely amazing. In case you’re not familiar with the book, the story follows Mr. Fox and his family who are targeted by wealthy, angry farmers after the fox steals their chickens, ducks and turkeys.

Hopefully some more photos, and maybe even a trailer (fingers crossed!) will be revealed at Comic-Con next week. The Fantastic Mr. Fox, featuring the voice of Meryl Streep, Owen Wilson, Michael Gambon, Bill Murray and George Clooney as Mr. Fox, creeps into theaters November 15.