The nominations for the 2012 Film Independent Spirit Awards are out. These awards highlight the best in independent cinema and have often helped Academy Awards voters who don’t see indie films realie there’e more to life than what they get at the local multi-plex. Not that Academy Awards voters actually ever go to a multi-plex either.

Looking over the list we can guess what you’re thinking: where’s Michael Fassbender’s nomination for Shame? We don’t know either. We are, however, very happy to see Ryan Gosling, Nicolas Winding Refn and Albert Brooks get nods for their work on Drive. Great movie and great performances.

Here’s all the nominees:

BEST FEATURE
50/50 Producers: Evan Goldberg, Ben Karlin, Seth Rogen
Beginners Producers: Miranda de Pencier, Lars Knudsen, Leslie Urdang, Dean Vanech, Jay Van Hoy
Drive Producers: Michel Litvak, John Palermo, Marc Platt, Gigi Pritzker, Adam Siegel
Take Shelter Producers: Tyler Davidson, Sophia Lin
The Artist Producer: Thomas Langmann
The Descendants Producers: Jim Burke, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor

BEST DIRECTOR
Michel Hazanavicius The Artist
Mike Mills Beginners
Jeff Nichols Take Shelter
Alexander Payne The Descendants
Nicolas Winding Refn Drive

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Woody Harrelson has had an interesting revitalization in the past few years with films like Zombieland and 2012, but now it’s time for him to take on another meaty lead a la The People vs. Larry Flynt. Except this time you can expect a better film with Rampart.

The film’s got a pretty star-studded cast with Harrelson being joined by Ned Beatty, Ben Foster, Anne Heche, Ice Cube, Cynthia Nixon, Sigourney Weaver, Robin Wright, and Steve Buscemi, but that’s not even as good as the story itself. Here’s the synopsis.

Los Angeles, 1999. Officer Dave Brown (Harrelson) is a Vietnam vet and a Rampart Precinct cop, dedicated to doing “the people’s dirty work” and asserting his own code of justice, often blurring the lines between right and wrong to maintain his action-hero state of mind. When he gets caught on tape beating a suspect, he finds himself in a personal and emotional downward spiral as the consequences of his past sins and his refusal to change his ways in light of a department-wide corruption scandal seal his fate.

Brown internalizes his fear, anguish and paranoia as his world, complete with two ex-wives who are sisters, two daughters, an aging mentor dispensing bad advice, investigators galore, and a series of seemingly random women, starts making less and less sense. In the end, what is left is a human being stripped of all his pretense, machismo, chauvinism, arrogance, sexism, homophobia, racism, aggression, misanthropy; but is it enough to redeem him as a man?

Take a look at the trailer below to see the film in action, and catch Rampart in limited theaters on November 23rd.

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Even though I’m not all that enthusiastic about the upcoming big screen adaptation of The Hunger Games, I know some of you are. And because I love and respect all our diligent readers, we’ve got brand new character posters from the film to share with you today.

The poster collection includes some of your favorite citizens of Panem: Rue (Amandla Stenberg), Cato (Alexander Ludwig), Haymitch (Woody Harrelson), Effie (Elizabeth Banks), Cinna (Lenny Kravitz), Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence), Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) and Gale (Liam Hemsworth).

In case you never read the book, here’s some info on the story:

Every year in the ruins of what was once North America, the nation of Panem forces each of its twelve districts to send a teenage boy and girl to compete in the Hunger Games.  Part twisted entertainment, part government intimidation tactic, the Hunger Games are a nationally televised event in which “Tributes” must fight with one another until one survivor remains.

Pitted against highly-trained Tributes who have prepared for these Games their entire lives, Katniss is forced to rely upon her sharp instincts as well as the mentorship of drunken former victor Haymitch Abernathy.  If she’s ever to return home to District 12, Katniss must make impossible choices in the arena that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

The Hunger Games opens in theaters everywhere March 23rd, 2012. Click through for some larger versions of the posters after the break.

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Big book franchises are all the rage these days, obviously. Harry Potter is now out of theaters, Twilight only has another year left in it, and now it’s time for a brand new franchise to take over Hollywood, in the shape of kids fighting to eat in a post-apocalyptic world.

For those who aren’t aware, here’s the film’s synopsis, based on the first book in the trilogy by Suzanne Collins.

Every year in the ruins of what was once North America, the nation of Panem forces each of its twelve districts to send a teenage boy and girl to compete in the Hunger Games. Part twisted entertainment, part government intimidation tactic, the Hunger Games are a nationally televised event in which “Tributes” must fight with one another until one survivor remains.

Pitted against highly-trained Tributes who have prepared for these Games their entire lives, Katniss is forced to rely upon her sharp instincts as well as the mentorship of drunken former victor Haymitch Abernathy. If she’s ever to return home to District 12, Katniss must make impossible choices in the arena that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

The first teaser trailer doesn’t give us much (just a “tease”, if you will), but it’s certainly enough to get us excited for the film’s release on March 23rd, 2012.

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Being a fan of film, you get tired of seeing the same Hollywood tricks and stories retold over and over. There are only so many Adam Sandler or Ben Stiller canned comedies that one can take before becoming jaded. Then a film like Bunraku comes along to shake everything up.

Said to be the stylistic cousin of Sin City, this Russian-made, Romanian-shot, American-cast film sounds about as crazy as the synopsis can write it.

In a world where firearms have been outlawed, and hand-to-hand combat and swordplay have made a comeback, two drifters; a cowboy (Josh Hartnett), and a sword-less samurai (Gackt) wander into a town ruled by warlord Nicola (Ron Perlman) and his chief henchman Killer No. 2 (Kevin McKidd). Both have a score to settle, and are aided by a bartender (Woody Harrelson) with ties to Nicola’s lover (Demi Moore).

It’s films like these, or 2009′s Shoot ‘Em Up that give independent filmmakers hope. If they have a compelling enough script, they can literally get anyone to star in their crazy film. Don’t believe us? Check out the trailer after the jump and judge for yourself.

No word on a release date just yet, but you can expect this film to pick up a considerable amount of momentum next month at South by SouthWest.

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The Thin Red Line (1998) marks the triumphant return of American film maker Terrence Malick’s return after a twenty year hiatus from the studio system. Anyone who was anyone in Hollywood circles jumped on the production of the film, even if it was just a brief walk on role. In fact, many A -list talents like Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Bill Pullman, Leonardo Dicaprio, Brad Pitt, Peter Berg, Dermot Mulroney, Edward Burns, William Baldwin, Edward Norton, Matthew McConaughey, Nicolas Cage, and Johnny Depp were very interested in joining the cast or were either cut from the film due to editing and budget constraints.

Malick was best known for two films in the 1970s which were Badlands (1973) and Days of Heaven (1978) which were renowned for their breathtaking cinematography and for Malick’s ability to capture magnificent exterior shots much like John Ford’s sweeping westerns Stagecoach (1939), and The Searchers (1956). The beautiful cinematography of the film is credited to John Toll who is an absolute genius.

Malick wrote the screenplay based on author James Jones 1962 novel which chronicles his experiences during the campaign. Pvt. Fife (Brody) is actually Jones who serves as the main character in the book, yet in the film is reduced to a minor character.

The film stars some of Hollywood’s most celebrated actors such as Sean Penn (1st Sgt. Edward Welsh), Adrien Brody (Pvt. Geoffrey Fife), Jim Caviezel (Pvt. Robert Witt), Ben Chaplin (Pvt. John Bell), George Clooney (Capt. Charles Bosche), John Cusack (Capt. John Graff), John Savage (Sgt. McCron), John Travolta (Brig. Gen. Quintard), Arie Vereen (Pfc. Charlie Dale), Kirk Acevedo (Pvt. Tella), Mark Boone Junior (Pvt. Peale), Woody Harrelson (Sgt. Keck), Elias Koteas (Capt. James Staros), Tim Blake Nelson (Pvt. Tills), John C. Reilly (Sgt. Storm), and Nick Nolte (Lt. Col. Gordon Tall).

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This week sees the release of several new movies and TV shows, some for the first time ever on Blu-ray. Of the ones coming out this week, we’re excited for a few of them in particular.

These esteemed examples of entertainment include A Nightmare on Elm Street, Pirate Radio, the debut of Voltron Beast King Golion, the thirteenth season of Dallas, the DVD release of the very funny Defendor and the 15th Anniversary Blu-ray of Apollo 13 (pictured above with Bill Paxton, Tom Hanks, Gary Sinise and Kevin Bacon).

Check them out:

Movies

A Nightmare on Elm Street ~ Heather Langenkamp, Johnny Depp, Robert Englund, John Saxon (Blu-ray)

Apollo 13 (15th Anniversary Edition) ~ Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon, Gary Sinise (Blu-ray)

Creature of Darkness ~ Devon Sawa, Sanoe Lake, Matthew Lawrence (Blu-ray and DVD)

Defendor ~ Woody Harrelson, Kat Dennings, Sandra Oh, Elias Koteas (DVD)

Final Storm ~ Luke Perry, Lauren Holly (Blu-ray and DVD)

Gone With the Wind (The Scarlett Edition) ~ Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh (Blu-ray)

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Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire won Best Feature and a total of 5 awards last night at the 25th Annual Film Independent Spirit Awards. Comedian Eddie Izzard served as Master of Ceremonies at the late-night show at LA Live’s event deck in downtown Los Angeles.

Here are all the winners:

BEST FEATURE
Producers Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness, Gary Magness for Precious

BEST DIRECTOR
Lee Daniels for Precious

BEST FIRST FEATURE
Scott Cooper, Robert Duvall, Rob Carliner, Judy Cairo, T Bone Burnett for Crazy Heart

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD for Best Feature made for under $500,000
Lynn Shelton for Humpday

BEST SCREENPLAY
Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber for 500 Days of Summer

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
Geoffrey Fletcher for Precious

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This week sees more new film and TV releases on Blu-ray and DVD. Among the ones we’re more interested in this week are The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, Ponyo, The Neverending Story, the Syfy miniseries Alice , Kurt Russell in Elvis, and the original Clash of the Titans (with Sir Laurence Olivier, pictured above).

Check out all the new releases below.

Film

Bitch Slap (Unrated) ~ Debbie Lee Carrington, Michael Hurst, Kevin Sorbo (DVD)

Clash of the Titans ~ Laurence Olivier, Harry Hamlin, Maggie Smith (Blu-ray and DVD)

Cold Souls ~ Paul Giamatti, Boris Leskin (Blu-ray and DVD)

Curious George 2: Follow That Monkey ~ Curious George (DVD)

Gentlemen Broncos ~ Jermaine Clement, Sam Rockwell (Blu-ray and DVD)

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Back in September, we brought you word of an indie superhero flick out of Canada making some waves at the Toronto Film Festival. It looks like the film has now grown in popularity and moved South, as it’s getting an official DVD release with Sony Pictures, and a limited theatrical run as well.

The film stars Woody Harrelson as a mentally disturbed man named Arthur Poppington who decides to take justice back in his city and fight crime as the masked avenger, The Defendor. The film also stars Kat Dennings, Sandra Oh, and Elias Koteas, which rounds out the cast to a pretty decent level.

Either way, Harrelson’s performance has gotten rave reviews, and will be hitting New York and Los Angeles in a few months to coincide with it’s April 13th release date on DVD.

The studio amped up the marketing with a new trailer, which you can check out after the jump, thanks to our pals at Trailer Addict.

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Zombieland was one of the most entertaining films I saw in 2009 and I was eagerly awaiting its arrival on Blu-ray this week. Unlike the George Romero zombie films of the past, Zombieland is a unique blend of “The Odd Couple meets the zombie apocalypse.” Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin have great chemistry together as the last few remaining humans in a world gone zombie.

As a die-hard fan of apocalyptic films such as The Last Man on Earth, The Omega Man and The Quiet Earth, Zombieland takes you into a world that has only recently fallen into chaos and shows how those would react when hordes of flesh eating ghoules are waiting for you around every corner.

As I scrolled through the special features on the Blu-Ray disc, I was excited to see that they had added several features that made the disc worth adding to my vast collection. The first feature is “Beyond the Graveyard” which allows the viewer to access picture in picture commentary throughout the feature to learn more about the scenes and special effects associated with them.

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February is in full swing and this week brings a host of new movies and some great classics hitting Blu-ray for the first time. This week’s releases include the first time on Blu-ray Casablanca, Unforgiven, Gangs of New York, Pan’s Labyrinth and The Godfather I and II.

There are also several Dr. Who TV movies, a couple seasons of TV’s Dynasty, Volume 3 of Batman: The Brave and the Bold and the Blu-ray release of Zombieland with Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin (pictured above).

Check out this week’s new releases:

Movies

Adam ~ Hugh Dancy, Peter Gallagher, Amy Irving (Blu-ray and DVD)

Amelia ~ Hillary Swank, Richard Gere (Blu-ray and DVD)

Casablanca ~ Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains (Blu-ray)

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas ~ Johnny Depp, Benicio Del Toro, Tobey Maguire (Blu-ray)

Gangs of New York (Remastered) ~ Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day Lewis, John C. Reilly (Blu-ray)

Planet Hulk ~ (Blu-ray and DVD)

Love Happens ~ Jennifer Aniston (Blu-ray and DVD)

Mystic River ~ Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon (Blu-ray)

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