TRAILER AND IMAGES FROM INTO THE WOODS

Aaaaand here it is. The trailer for Into the Woods at last! I'll be there for Stephen Sondheim's music, and to see Meryl Streep and Emily Blunt reunited!! But otherwise, it's a musical, so I've fuck all idea what it's gonna be like, and I'm quite happy that way. Out in the US on Christmas Day (hey, remember the last time a Rob Marshall movie opened on Christmas?!) and in the UK on the 9th of January, cos we're a right bunch of scrooges. Pretty pictures after the cut!

OBIT - HARUN FAROCKI

The groundbreaking German filmmaker, Harun Farocki, has died, aged 70. Active in filmmaking since the 1960s, he was particularly prominent in the documentary sphere of the industry, and was hailed by many film enthusiasts as one of the foremost experimental documentarians in the history of cinema. He was working most recently on two 2013 films, Sauerbruch Hutton Architekten and Kullaketrajad, and also as a collaborator on the screenplay for Christian Petzold's Barbara. He also taught at UC Berkeley in the '90s, and received several honours throughout his career, including two German Film Critics awards and a Special Jury Prize from the Locarno International Film Festival in 2007.

NEW, LONG, SEXY SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR TRAILER

This red-band trailer (could it be anything else?) for Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez's Sin City: A Dame to Kill For is damn cool, as it ought to be. It's the third trailer for the crime noir, following on from this one and this one. It's out on the 22nd of August in North America and on the 25th in the British Isles.

IMAGES FROM HONG SANG SOO'S HILL OF FREEDOM

Hong Sang Soo's latest drama has been selected to show at both Venice and Toronto film festivals later this year. He's a festival fave, though resolutely not a fave of mine, as you might have noticed from my reviews for his last two films, Nobody's Daughter Hae Won and Our Sun Hi. Here are some stills from Hill of Freedom.

NEW TRAILER AND POSTER FOR BIRDMAN

Add this to the already excellent trailer and poster for Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's new comedy, and Birdman unquestionably looks to be one of the films of 2014. Let's hope that the film, which has been selected to screen in major gala premieres at both Venice and New York festivals, lives up to this early hype. An awards season release in the US suggests that Fox Searchlight thinks it certainly will.

20TH SARAJEVO FILM FEST REVEALS GUEST LIST

The 20th annual Sarajevo Film Festival takes place in the Bosnian capital between the 15th and the 23rd of August. It's regularly one of the calendar's most acclaimed festivals, revered by filmmakers, critics and cinephiles the world over. Their guest list has just been announced.

The festival will bestow three Hearts of Sarajevo. The first will go to Gael Garcia Bernal, who will also be the first guest to appear in Sarajevo and will present a screening of one of his breakthrough films, Amores Perros. Designer and director Agnes B. will also receive a Heart alongside a screening of her new film Je m'Apelle Hmmm... And the country's most successful director of his time, Danis Tanovic, will receive the third Heart.

Michael Winterbottom will hold several interviews as a part of the 2014 Tribute to... programme, of which he is the subject. And Bosnian composer Arsen Dedic will also receive a tribute.

Other guests will include Cristi Puiu, Vladimir Perisic, Aida Begic, Marc Recha, Angela Schanelec and Isild Le Besco, presenting their omnibus film Bridges of Sarajevo, Michel Hazanavicius and Berenice Bejo, Jasmila Zbanic alongside Ariane Labed, Ermin Bravo, Leon Lucev and Ada Condeescu, Diao Yi Nan and Gwei Lun Mei, Mike Leigh, Simon McBurney, Pawel Pawlikowski and Kornel Mundruczo. Bela Tarr will chair the jury.

NEW TIFF ADDITIONS

TIFF Docs, Masters, Midnight Madness and Vanguard are four of the most interesting sidebars at the Toronto International Film Festival, and they've just announced their lineups. Among them, they'll showcase the new works from filmmakers such as Frederick Wiseman, Andrey Zvyagintsev, Michael Winterbottom, Hong Sang Soo, Jean-Luc Godard, Peter Strickland and Miike Takashi. The full details are right here:

TIFF Docs

Beats of the Antonov (Hajooj Kuka)

I Am Here (Fan Xi Lin)

Iraqi Odyssey (Samir)

The Look of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer)

Merchants of Doubt (Robert Kenner)

National Diploma (Dieudo Hamadi)

National Gallery (Frederick Wiseman)

Natural Resistance (Jonathan Nossiter)

Red Army (Gabe Polsky)

Seymour: An Introduction (Ethan Hawke)

Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait (Ossama Mohammed and Wiam Simav Bedirxan)

Sunshine Superman (Marah Strauch)

Tales of the Grim Sleeper (Nick Broomfield)

This Is My Land (Tamara Erde)

The Yes Men Are Revolting (Laura Nix and The Yes Men)

Masters

1,001 Grams (Bent Hamer)

The Face of an Angel (Michael Winterbottom)

The Golden Era (Ann Hui)

Goodbye to Language 3D (Jean-Luc Godard)

Hill of Freedom (Hong Sang Soo)

Leviathan (Andrey Zvyagintsev)

A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (Roy Andersson)

Revivre (Im Kwon Taek)

Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako)

After the cut, the Midnight Madness and Vanguard lineups, which both look very promising.

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD - TERRIFIC FIRST TRAILER AND POSTERS

Here's the brilliant first look at George Miller's new Mad Max film, Mad Max: Fury Road. The franchise gets a welcome, if unnecessary, kickstart, which doesn't just come with a seal of approval from the original series' creator, it actually comes directly from him. It also comes with my John Seale of approval. Appropriately wacko posters after the cut.

BOX OFFICE REPORT: LUCY IS BESSON'S BEST STATESIDE

Universal Pictures may be trailing Fox in terms of total gross thus far in 2014, but they tie for the number of films atop the box office, and more impressive about Universal's achievement is that all five of their first placers are original stories, and four of them are R-rated, including this weekend's Lucy. Box office remains significantly down on the same time last year, continuing a hugely disappointing season, financially, for the big American studios.

1. Lucy ($43,899,340)

Scarlett Johansson's brand has gone up sharply since impressing mainstream audiences in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and arthouse ones in Under the Skin. This is a very strong opening for Lucy, which is an R-rated film from Luc Besson, a director with a very spotty box office history in America. The action film, which is performing above Angelina Jolie's Salt (rated PG-13), looks set to fall off on this gross over the coming weeks, but it's already a hit for Universal.

2. Hercules ($29,800,263)

The Legend of Hercules, with Kellan Lutz, was a major, though not unexpected, bomb earlier this year. With a better budget, marketing campaign, release date and lead, Brett Ratner's Hercules has already out-grossed that film in just three days, though this is still a poor figure that reflects very badly on Paramount's decision to spend $100 million on a sword-and-sandals action film. The genre has seen a slight resurgence in recent years, though one which was already fading by Wrath of the Titans, and looks set to decline further following this lacklustre gross.

3. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes ($16,767,260)

4. The Purge: Anarchy ($10,482,760)

5. Planes: Fire and Rescue ($9,529,656)

6. Sex Tape ($6,052,050)

7. Transformers: Age of Extinction ($4,702,553)

8. And So It Goes ($4,642,329)

Posting a marked increase over upstart distributor Clarius Entertainment's last nationwide release, Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return, this paltry tally for Rob Reiner's comedy, starring Michael Douglas and Diane Keaton, confirms that big names are never enough to sell a movie that people don't want to see. Some will be dismayed to see such talents degraded by such a dismal opening weekend gross. Some will say they deserved it.

9. Tammy ($3,454,221)

10. A Most Wanted Man ($2,686,526)

Roadside cannily shifted this thriller into 361 theatres, giving it just the right moderate push for a modest product, not quite well-reviewed enough to generate major arthouse buzz, not nearly high-profile enough to ignite the interests of general moviegoers. The decent promotional job also ensured that people were aware of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman's presence. A Top 10 placement is definitely a win for Roadside, as it's their first time opening so high on the chart.

REVIEW - BOYHOOD (RICHARD LINKLATER)

Life in the blink of an eye. Richard Linklater's Boyhood is caught between knowing its place and longing for it, between appreciating the fleeting futility of human existence on this planet and seeking greater depth and meaning within it. Linklater is sage enough to understand this dichotomy, reminding us of our own inescapable mortality while accepting that we might as well seek more meaning within our lives, since they're all we've got. He's not sage enough to grasp the position of his players within their lives, though, addressing their thoughts and their concerns with utmost trust and sincerity. His film is determinedly subjective, and while that provides the viewer with a vast expanse on which to build our personal interpretations, it does make Boyhood feel a little more pat than it wishes to be. As skilled as he is in expressing them, Linklater's messages are simplistic and unoriginal. Boyhood is extremely easy to watch, however, its depiction of one boy's maturation a fascinating thing to behold in this perfectly-judged space of time - precisely the right length of film to capture both the individual moments in time and their collective significance. Remarkably, his cast slips into character seamlessly with each installment in the narrative, and their performances have an amiable, unforced timbre. Sporadic strains at poignancy feel like schematic jolts, purposeless in context; Boyhood is at its most touching when it surrenders to the simple passing of time as it is experienced. It's in the subjectivity that we bring to watching it that we understand this life, in the blink of an eye.

FIRST OFFICIAL IMAGE FROM THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES

Meh. I stand by what I thought when I saw both An Unexpected Journey and The Desolation of Smaug. They're both OK movies. The Battle of the Five Armies (oh plz) is released in the British Isles on the 12th of December, and in the US on the 17th.

JLAW IN TEASER FOR MOCKINGJAY PART 1

You can't stop me from legitimately wanting to see this, because I liked The Hunger Games and I liked The Hunger Games: Catching Fire even more. Not even this boring trailer, nor the hilarious one before it, can stop me. All confirmed release dates so far for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 have it coming out between the 19th and the 21st of November, with North America and the British Isles receiving it on the 21st. Hey look! That's Julianne Moore! And that's all she needs for an Oscar nomination for Maps to the Stars after her Cannes success. Yes ma'am.

POSTERS FOR THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ELEANOR RIGBY

Ned Benson's romantic drama, which will be available for viewing in three unique versions (Them, Him and Her), comes out in the US on the 26th of September. TWC will surely be hoping for strong buzz and a good box office performance to help the film maintain positive hopes on a successful awards season bid a few months after. You may remember The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby from TIFF last year, or from Cannes this year! Check out my girl Sasha Stone's quote and credit on both posters!

TRAILER FOR THE NOVEMBER MAN WITH PIERCE BROSNAN

Like it or not, Pierce Brosnan is apparently still enough of a box office draw to be helming action thrillers. That doesn't bother me, even if Mamma Mia! did. Bond meets Bourne meets itty-bitty budget in the above trailer. It's disappointingly male-centric, with Olga Kurylenko playing a sexpot who supposedly needs protected. Bored already. But wait! Roger Donaldson is the director, so there's that, and I'll watch Kurylenko in anything, and so should you. The November Man is released in the US on the 27th of August, after Relativity shuffled it into the much-troubled Jane Got a Gun's prospective release slot.

ALAN ALDA AND AMY RYAN JOIN TOM HANKS IN SPIELBERG'S NEXT

Steven Spielberg's as-yet untitled Cold War spy thriller is taking shape, with a newly expanded cast. Tom Hanks will reunite with his director on Saving Private Ryan and The Terminal, as we already know, alongside Mark Rylance, and will be joined by new cast members Alan Alda, Eve Hewson, Billy Magnussen and Amy Ryan. Shooting commences in September; the Fox / DreamWorks co-production is set for release in the US for an awards-friendly date on the 16th of October 2015, a similar fall release to Spielberg's last, the highly-successful Lincoln. The Coen brothers are currently working on a script rewrite.

JAKE GYLLENHAAL IN NIGHTCRAWLER - TEASER TRAILER

I didn't know much about Dan Gilroy's directorial debut Nightcrawler before watching this trailer, and I still don't know much about it after watching it. Jake Gyllenhaal couldn't open a movie if it was The Avengers vs. Titanic, though, so my hopes aren't up. Who ordered a Drive rip-off? Before a US opening on the 17th of October and a UK one on the 14th of November, this is heading to TIFF.

TIFF WILL OPEN WITH THE JUDGE

As if to confirm that they intend to follow in last year's footsteps by opening with a gigantic turd (it was The Fifth Estate then, remember?), the TIFF organisers have decided to open their 2014 festival with David Dobkin's The Judge. No, rly. TIFF begins on the 4th of September this year, and Warner Bros. is releasing RDJ's self-appointed ticket to Oscar (k sure) in the US on the 10th of October and in the UK on the 24th. Brace yourselves.

REVIEW - THE SIGNAL (WILLIAM EUBANK)

One could look so frequently to science-fiction movies to observe examples of 'style over substance' that it has somewhat become a staple feature of that genre, a touchstone upon which directors can validate their own shallow exercises in sci-fi filmmaking. William Eubank's The Signal is a puzzle of a plot that slowly forms into a rather dissatisfying picture, and then falls apart entirely with a naff twist ending that's so self-consciously meta it's even scored to dubstep. As stupidity goes, it's a cut above the rest of this film, which presents silliness as momentousness, but generally has the viewer on side, as we await the eventual explanation that will confirm the purpose of what Eubank has designed. His explanation fittingly denounces all that has been before as futile, though is itself a throbbing beacon of futility. Though lacking in any tangible substance, yes, The Signal is a stylish sci-fi film, as conventional entries into the genre ought to be. On a small budget, Eubank administers some effective CGI, and the film has a slick aesthetic. None of it is particularly revolutionary, despite Eubank's insistent portentousness, and confirms the derivativeness of so much of The Signal, right down to its basic visual conception. It marks a distinct disappointment that, even in this most vital regard on which the film supposedly thrives, The Signal is lacking in original thought or surprise. A feeling of disenfranchised fatigue settles in, and the mind-fuck final shot doesn't jolt one out of it, it actually reinforces that feeling.

REVIEW - SUPERMENSCH: THE LEGEND OF SHEP GORDON (BETH AALA AND MIKE MYERS)

A frothy documentary, full of humour and pep, but devoid of any particular incisiveness at any time, Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon paints a picture of a man that all involved with the creation of it would likely herald as a definitive account of his life. Like Shep Gordon, it overlooks the whys and often the whats, and concentrates on the whom, which is fun and engaging for a time. As a film, it's basically just a roster of famous names and faces, like the list of Gordon's clients before the end credits, like a big, colourful sign reading "LOOK AT HOW SUCCESSFUL I AM!", with no depth, no subtext, no reasons. One feels there were no questions asked either - we hear of Gordon being described, fairly convincingly too, as an exceedingly pleasant man, but there are aspects to his character that go wholly unexplored yet lodge themselves in the minds of the more attentive viewers: the evidence suggests he's a vacuous misogynist, but that's of no consequence to Mike Myers' film, alas. Maybe that capacity for vacuousness exists in all of us, though. It certainly exists in me, as I find that a retro soundtrack and a barrage of celebrity contributions is more than enough to appease me, at least for an hour or so. Supermensch takes on the character of the ultimate rock bio-doc, ticking off boxes of requisite markers in the genre with a combination of gusto and haste. It's as high-octane as documentaries get, but that haste results in only intriguing us, rather than involving us - we want to learn more, but aren't afforded the opportunity to do so.  And the fast pace becomes tiring, meaning that the film feels considerably longer than its mere 85 minutes. Supermensch leaves you feeling curious, but not fascinated, like you suppose you ought to feel.

TRAILER FOR RIO, I LOVE YOU

The latest city-based, love-fuelled anthology, after those for Paris and New York, premiered earlier this year at Cannes to, um, little fanfare. Put it this way: no, I wasn't at Cannes, and yes, I was kinda snowed under posting reviews for films showing there, but I kept up to date on just about any film of note, yet I missed this one entirely. Wasn't even aware it had screened there til I checked a few seconds ago on IMDb. Naturally, it doesn't have either US or UK release dates yet.

CAMERON CROWE'S NEW MOVIE PUSHED BACK FIVE MONTHS

After Cameron Crowe's We Bought a Zoo failed to capitalise on the awards potential Fox obviously felt it possessed (though, after Elizabethtown, goodness knows why), Columbia has balked on releasing his upcoming rom-com in an awards-friendly Christmas slot. It has been pushed back to the 29th of May, 2015, opening next to Insidious: Chapter Three and Monster Trucks, neither of which pose a serious threat to the film, which stars Bradley Cooper, Rachel McAdams and Emma Stone.

THE DEBATE RAGES OVER THIS THE IMITATION GAME TRAILER

Does this trailer for The Imitation Game, the second to be released online this week, paper over Alan Turing's homosexuality? Or does it do even worse, and insinuate that he was anything but? Make your own mind up when you've seen the trailer. I think there are arguments either way, but whomever edited this trailer ought to be having a wee think imo. Morten Tyldum's film will premiere at TIFF 2014.

FIRST FULL TRAILER FOR DEAR WHITE PEOPLE

Dear America: go to see Dear White People on the 17th of October. Dear world: watch this trailer. It's even better than this trailer. The Sundance success, and festival award-winner at two separate gigs looks like one of the films of the year from this distance!

FIRST FIFTY SHADES OF GREY TRAILER

I've been banging on about Helene Cattet and Bruno Forzani for ages now, but it only struck me when I saw this trailer: they'd be the perfect choice for the Fifty Shades of Grey adaptation, not Sam Taylor-Johnson, pretending to have artistic integrity cos she was once an 'artist'. Nowhere Boy went just about nowhere, artistically, it was on an emotional level that it succeeded. Bound for release on the 13th of February 2015.

VENICE FESTIVAL SELECTIONS UNVEILED

The Venice lineup has been announced. From the 27th of August to the 6th of September, the world's oldest film festival will screen dozens of the most hotly-anticipated and culturally important films of 2014. Festival season kicks off with the triple blow of Venice, Toronto and Telluride, getting underway in just over a month. Expect in-depth coverage from Screen On Screen throughout that period. This comes hot on the heels of the first slew of titles announced from Toronto.

Competition

3 Hearts (Benoit Jacquot)
99 Homes (Ramin Bahrani)
Anime Nere (Francesco Munzi)
Birdman (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu) - opening night film
The Cut (Fatih Akin)
Le Dernier Coup de Marteau (Alix Delaporte)
Far from Men (David Oelhoffen)
Fires on the Plain (Tsukamoto Shin'ya)
Il Giovane Favoloso (Mario Martone)
Good Kill (Andrew Niccol)
Hungry Hearts (Saverio Costanzo)
The Look of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer)
Manglehorn (David Gordon Green)
Pasolini (Abel Ferrara)
A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (Roy Andersson)
The Postman's White Night (Andrey Konchalovskiy)
La Rancon de la Gloire (Xavier Beauvois)
Red Amnesia (Wang Xiao Shuai)
Sivas (Kaan Mujdeci)
Tales (Rakhshan Bani-Etemad)

After the cut, Venice Horizons, Venice Days and Out-of-Competition screeners.

FIRST WAVE OF TIFF SELECTIONS ANNOUNCED

TIFF 2014 will run from the 4th to the 14th of September. The 39th edition of the festival has just announced a slate of films set to screen at the high-profile event, many of which will aspire to use the fest as a launching pad for their awards campaigns later in the year. Here are the films which have been confirmed to screen in Toronto:

World Premieres

American Heist (Sarik Andreasyan)
Before We Go (Chris Evans)
Black and White (Mike Binder)
Breakup Buddies (Ning Hao)
Cake (Daniel Barnz)
The Dead Lands (Toa Fraser)
The Drop (Michael R. Roskam)
Eden (Mia Hansen-Love)
The Equaliser (Antoine Fuqua)
The Gate (Regis Wargnier)
The Good Lie (Philippe Falardeau)
The Judge (David Dobkin)
Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet (Roger Allers, Gaetan Brizzi, Paul Brizzi, Joan C. Gratz, Mohammed Saeed Harib, Tomm Moore, Nina Paley, Bill Plympton, Joann Sfar and Michal Socha)
The Keeping Room (Daniel Barber)
The Last Five Years (Richard LaGravenese)
Learning to Drive (Isabel Coixet)
A Little Chaos (Alan Rickman)
Love & Mercy (Bill Pohlad)
Mary Kom (Omung Kumar)
Men, Women and Children (Jason Reitman)
Miss Julie (Liv Ullmann)
My Old Lady (Israel Horovitz)
Ned Rifle (Hal Hartley)
The New Girlfriend (Francois Ozon)
Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy)
Pawn Sacrifice (Ed Zwick)
Phoenix (Christian Petzold)
The Reach (Jean-Baptiste Leonetti)
The Riot Club (Lone Scherfig)
Samba (Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano)
A Second Chance (Susanne Bier)
Still Alice (Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland)
The Theory of Everything (James Marsh)
This Is Where I Leave You (Shawn Levy)
Time Out of Mind (Oren Moverman)
Top Five (Chris Rock)
While We're Young (Noah Baumbach)

Check beneath the jump for a bunch more premieres!

FIRST TRAILER FOR BERTRAND BONELLO'S SAINT LAURENT

I don't care what the Cannes critics said, I'll follow Bertrand Bonello anywhere, and his Yves Saint Laurent biopic looks worthy of being followed. Saint Laurent comes not long after Jalil Lespert's insipid biopic, and I've no doubt that Bonello has done a much finer job of translating the maverick designer's life to the big screen, with his trademark emphasis on sex and glamour. This joins a previously-released, and brief, clip from the film.

BOX OFFICE REPORT: PURGE OF THE PLANET OF THE SEX TAPES

The summer's best-reviewed blockbuster yet is also its best-holding yet, as Dawn of the Planet of the Apes fends off considerable competition with ease. Three major new releases all disappointed in one way or another, though prospects for only two of the three look at all positive. As July begins to wind up before a hefty first weekend in August, the month's box office trails last year's by a whopping 30%.

1. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes ($36,254,310)
A drop of 50% on last weekend's haul is impressive for Fox's sequel, as it continues to shape up into one of the season's strongest performers. Good word-of-mouth seems to be materialising, as the franchise's first film, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, dipped a similar 49% on its second weekend on a lower opening figure.


2. The Purge: Anarchy ($29,816,675)
Universal might not be too pleased that their sequel to last year's breakout hit failed to match its opening weekend gross, but signs for Anarchy aren't so bad. The film held better through the weekend than The Purge, posting stronger numbers on its first Sunday, and is thus gaining ground. Strangely, it gained first place on Friday over Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, draining that film's grosses somewhat, to the extent that it managed a remarkable surge on its second Saturday. The lower opening gross than the first film can be attributed to the negative reaction that it was so poorly-received by audiences; if Anarchy continues to hold better than that film, it could out-gross it.

3. Planes: Fire and Rescue ($17,509,407)
Last summer's Planes movie was a spin-off of Pixar's Cars, which itself had a badly-performing sequel. It was intended to go straight to DVD, but pulled in decent grosses in cinemas, so this further spin-off was also rolled out onto the big screen. As has proven to be the case with many animated sequels in recent years, it has failed to match its predecessor's opening - down 21%, in fact. With an extremely high proportion of the audience being families, and a very light slate for family fare this summer, expect this to hold decently over the coming weeks, though a further sequel looks unlikely, and not even How to Train Your Dragon 2 could capitalise on the lack of competition, so don't get your hopes up for this one.

4. Sex Tape ($14,608,152)

Sony obviously knew they were holding a giant bomb with Sex Tape: its marketing was lighter than usual for a major Cameron Diaz comedy. Bad reviews precluded this bad gross, which is less than half that of stars' and director Jake Kasdan's Bad Teacher, and even lower than another comedy flop from earlier this season, A Million Ways to Die in the West. Without a lot riding on it, this dismal performance will be swiftly forgotten by most, though there's a fair chance this fails to even recoup its budget of $40 million domestically.

5. Transformers: Age of Extinction (9,845,720)
6. Tammy ($7,402,208)
7. 22 Jump Street ($4,703,353)
8. How to Train Your Dragon 2 ($3,904,709)
9. Earth to Echo ($3,267,824)
10. Maleficent ($3,238,213)

TRAILER FOR STEPHEN DALDRY'S TRASH

There's a fairly good argument that a documentary of Stephen Daldry's actual trash just lying in a bin for two hours would be better than his last film, Extremely Long and Incredibly Shit. On the basis that each of his films has been considerably weaker than the last, things aren't looking good for Trash. On the basis that it's hard to find many films weaker than ELAIC, things are looking a little better. Let's all just remember that this happened, though, before getting too optimistic. Out in the UK on the 31st of October, which is a notorious day for scary things occurring, I'm told. Richard Curtis wrote the screenplay. Look him up. It's not pretty.

LIV ULLMANN'S MISS JULIE - TRAILER

The first we've heard from Liv Ullmann as a director for 14 years, Miss Julie will screen later this year at TIFF. Some iffy Fermanagh accents (Fermanagh's hitting the big time, fuck yeh!) are wisely drowned out by a delicious soundtrack score. The acting from Jessica Chastain, Colin Farrell and Samantha Morton looks excellent, though, as does Ullmann's direction and scripting, and The Return cinematographer Mikhail Krichman's photography. Very much looking forward to this.

CHEERY TRAILER FOR KIM'S ONE ON ONE

A delightful little scenario plays out in the trailer for Kim Ki Duk's One on One. Kim has taken to making whatever movies he wants, in whatever style he wants these days, a process which has served him quite well with his recent festival successes, Pieta and Moebius.