Sinister
Directed by Scott Derrickson
Written by C. Robert Cargill
Starring Ethan Hawke, Juliet Rylance, James Ransone, Vincent D’Onofrio
Summit Entertainment
Rated R | 110 Minutes
Release Date: October 12, 2012

From the producer of Insidious and Paranormal Activity, and the director of The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Sinister stars Ethan Hawke as Ellison Osborne, a true-crime novelist hell-bent on uncovering the mysterious circumstances regarding a family’s grisly murder.

Sinister opens with Super 8 footage of a family standing under a tree, their hands and feet bound, with bags over their heads and nooses around their necks. Slowly, the family of four is lifted by their necks and strangled, their legs kicking for life, until they are dead.

Months later, Osborne moves into the murdered family’s home with his wife, Tracy (Juliet Rylance), and their two children Ashley (Clare Foley) and Trevor (Michael Hall D’Addario). While his family has no knowledge of their new home’s trouble past, Ellison has strategically moved there to fully investigate the crime scene, as he plans on using the family’s murder as the basis for his new book.

The Woman In The Fifth
Amazon Instant Video | DVD
Directed by Pawel Pawlikowski
Starring Ethan Hawke, Kristin Scott Thomas, Delphine Chuillot, Joanna Kulig and Samir Guesmi
Release Date: June 15, 2012

Ethan Hawke has become a regular sighting on the Parisian streets. He charted the narrow cobblestone streets endlessly while in intimate and deep conversation with his co-star Julie Delpy in Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, two films remarkably adept at capturing the many facets love is capable of possessing. Seeing him stroll idly and lonely around the not-so touristic venues in The Woman In The Fifth is welcomed and appreciative in the sense that it strips away all romantic notions attached to love and replaces them with disquieting notions that paint love and romance in a negative and perverted light. Though not apparent initially, the film, through Hawke’s character, navigates through a throng of squalid and empty relationships.

Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski (he also wrote the film’s screenplay based on Douglas Kennedy’s book) shows us a Paris that is extremely contrary to the one that has been conventionally conveyed in an infinite number of hapless films. Cafes are decrepit, some apartments are illusory, and others exude grotesqueness. This extreme break allows audiences to be unaware of where this film will finally end up. Constantly unfamiliar with the dilapidated Parisian surroundings this film presents, audiences then expect a different kind of narrative to unravel about love and loss.

Not much has been heard or seen about the remake of Total Recall directed by Len Wiseman (Underworld) with Colin Farrell in the role Arnold Schwarzenegger played in the 1990 Paul Verhoeven-directed sci-fi action smash since it went into production last year, outside of a few promotional and behind-the-scenes photos and a presentation at the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con. With the movie scheduled for release later this summer, the lack of even a teaser trailer or poster is troubling for the latest cinematic adaptation of Philip K. Dick‘s short story “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale.”

Today, we have an international promo video featuring snippets of footage from the new Total Recall. You can watch it here below.

The Total Recall remake is still over a year away, but the cast and crew were on hand in hopes of building a solid buzz for the movie early. Director Len Wiseman comes out, joined by stars Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, Bryan Cranston, Jessica Biel, and John Cho.

Wiseman says they’re only halfway through filming (and probably shouldn’t be showing anything off yet), but they’re going to show off something anyway. Hooray for pleasing the masses!

Continue reading for more from the panel and descriptions of the footage shown.

Are you interested in the Total Recall remake yet? It sounded like the worst idea in the world at first, but the cast keeps growing and growing and now it’s hard to ignore and not be at least a little intrigued by.

Three new names have now joined the cast, including Kate Beckinsale (whose husband, Len Wiseman, is directing) and Jessica Biel, who were said to be in talks for roles around the same time Ethan Hawke was cast in a small cameo role. At the time, I personally assumed that Beckinsale would best fit the role of Melina (played by Rachel Ticotin in the 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger version), and that Biel would be better suited to the role of Lori (originally played by Sharon Stone). As it turns out, however, this assumption was wrong and the actresses will be playing the opposite roles.