Take This Waltz is the latest effort from Sarah Polley who last directed the fantastic film Away From Her in 2006.  Take This Waltz is a funny, bittersweet and heart-wrenching story about a woman struggling to choose between two different types of love.

The film stars Michelle Williams and Seth Rogen as a couple struggling with said fidelity; it also has Sarah Silverman playing Rogen’s sister.  Look for a June 29th limited release and watch the trailer below:

Here’s the first trailer for My Week With Marilyn an upcoming drama starring Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe, Kenneth Branagh as Sir Laurence Olivier and Eddie Redmayne.

Based on two books by Colin Clark, it depicts the making of the 1957 film The Prince and the Showgirl, which starred Marilyn Monroe and Laurence Olivier. The film focuses on the week in which Monroe spent time being escorted around Britain by Clark, after her husband, Arthur Miller, left the country.

As you will see in the trailer, Michelle Williams embodies the icon so well that you already can’t imagine any other actress in the role.  It’s strange, about a week ago I unknowingly was on some Williams kick watching Wendy and Lucy, Shutter Island and  Blue Valentine in a few days of each other.  She’s up there as one of my favorite actresses and this is now definitely on my radar.

The film hits November 4th in limited release, watch the trailer below:

• Keanu Reeves has passed on playing the lead (Kaneda) in the big screen adaptation of  ‘Akira’, is it because he is white? [JoBlo]
• Michelle Williams is the Good Witch in Sam Raimi’s ‘Oz, The Great And Powerful’ – good, she’s a peach that one is. [showblitz]
• Bloodsport is getting “a reinvention”, and might be good with Phillip Noyce (Salt) directing and Robert Mark Kamen (Taken) writing.  Brick not hit back. [screendaily]
• Mel Gibson is in talks for “Sleight of Hand,” opposite Kiefer Sutherland, Gerard Depardieu and Thomas Jane.  Don’t do it Mel, it will ruin your reputation. [variety]
• Warner Bros acquired ‘Turkey Bowl’ for Will Ferrell-Mark Wahlberg to re-team and give being funny another try. [deadline]
• The Scream series is far from over, says producer/big talker Harvey Weinstein. [mtv]

TV Trailer for CHARLIE’S ANGELS Reboot:

The press release after the jump.

Friday 8th October, London.  Trademark Films and The Weinstein Company have announced that principal photography has started on My Week with Marilyn for 7 weeks at Pinewood Studios and on location in and around London.  Michelle Williams plays the iconic Marilyn Monroe alongside a fantastic British cast including Eddie Redmayne, Kenneth Branagh, Judi Dench, Dominic Cooper, Emma Watson and Julia Ormond.  The film chronicles a week in the life of Marilyn Monroe in which she escapes the shackles of her Hollywood career and embraces British life with Colin Clark.  Directed by Simon Curtis and produced by David Parfitt, the film is based on Colin Clark’s diaries and has been adapted for the screen by Adrian Hodges.

In the early summer of 1956, 23 year-old Colin Clark, just down from Oxford and determined to make his way in the film business, worked as a lowly assistant on the set of ‘The Prince and the Showgirl’, the film that famously united Sir Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe, who was also on honeymoon with her new husband, the playwright Arthur Miller.

Nearly 40 years on, his diary account ‘The Prince, the Showgirl and Me’ was published, but one week was missing and this was published some years later as ‘My Week with Marilyn’ – this is the story of that week.  When Arthur Miller leaves England, the coast is clear for Colin to introduce Marilyn to some of the pleasures of British life; an idyllic week in which he escorted a Monroe desperate to get away from her retinue of Hollywood hangers-on and the pressures of work.

**This is a SPOILER FREE Review**

It’s safe to say that the partnership between DiCaprio and Scorsese has been a productive one for the famed director – Gangs of New York got 10 Oscar nominations, The Aviator got 11 nods (and 5 wins), and The Departed got 5 nominations and won 4, including Best Picture and Marty’s long-coveted Best Director Oscar [video].  So when it was told that the team was going at it again for Shutter Island, this fan was going to be first in line.  Did it live up to my own hype? It sounded like perfect thriller material, straight out of the third act of Scorsese’s Cape Fear remake, and an ideal fit for the legendary filmmaker.  I am glad to say I was first in line, last to leave and very satisfied.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Writers: Laeta Kalogridis (screenplay) Dennis Lehane (novel)
Cast: Leonardo Dicaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams
Synopsis: From Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese, Shutter Island is the story of two U.S. marshals, Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), who are summoned to a remote and barren island off the coast of Massachusetts to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a murderess from the island’s fortress-like hospital for the criminally insane.
[Trailer]

The last thriller Scorsese delivered was the fantastic re-make of Cape Fear starring his other muse, Robert DeNiro.  With Shutter Island he proves once more that you don’t need jump out shockers or high octane action scenes to make you squirm in your seat.  Just ask my girlfriend who had her hand over her eyes – peeking in to see what was going to happen.  There are no clichés in this film, there is no rushed ending that will leave half the audience feeling cheated.  This film builds up to a strong conclusion of a twisted journey.

The gothic atmosphere and reality-shifting sequences were mesmerizing.  Bravo to Robert Richardson who made such a dark film as beautiful as can be with his cinematography.  The CGI effects are well crafted and don’t seem forced on us at all.  Add on the loud ominous score by Robbie Robertson that seemed to use the speakers to their max level, eerie as hell.  My favorite role for DiCaprio before this was that of Howard Hughes in the Aviator.  Another frazzled character.  He plays Teddy Daniels in Shutter Island much like he did that of Hughes; paranoid and alone.

The movie has a twist, this is not a spoiler.  From the moment they get on the Island you will be looking for it.  Do yourself a favor and don’t.  Let the film take you to this island and you will be glad you didn’t try to ‘beat the movie’ when it is all said and done.  I myself will be seeing this film again, and I know it will have new a meaning and resolve for me.  Don’t miss Scorsese’s latest, from every note of music to every frame of film and each performance, this picture brings a terrifying tale to screen that will stick in your mind for days.

4.5 Burned Matches Out Of 5