Sony has announced that The Amazing Spider-Man 2, directed by Marc Webb, has officially entered the production phase and has released the film’s official synopsis. The studio also confirmed a couple of new casting additions, one of which we reported on just days ago. Hit the jump to check out the plot description and the two new casting additions.

Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, and Sally Field all return to reprise their respective roles. Jamie Foxx, Dane Dehaan, and Shailene Woodley will join them in the highly anticipated sequel. In addition to those three, Paul Giamatti, who is rumored to play The Rhino, has been confirmed. Colm Feore (Chronicles of Riddick and Thor) also joins the cast.

Django Unchained
Directed and Written by Quentin Tarantino
Starring Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, Samuel L. Jackson
Official Web Site
Rated R | 165 Minutes
Release Date: Dec 25th, 2012

It’s been about 3 years since Quentin Tarantino gave us his greatest masterpiece (he even stated it in the movie), Inglorious Basterds. The big question we all have, could he follow that up with another great film in Django Unchained?

I have no previous experience with the Django series, although I am tempted to head down to Chicago, as the Music Box Theatre is showing the original this weekend as a midnight show. But I am not sure it is needed to fully appreciate it, just going to miss out on little nods throughout the movie. But that was my Harry Potter experience, and I was still able to enjoy it.

2012 was a fantastic year for movies. Films like The Dark Knight Rises and Marvel’s The Avengers entertained audiences with blockbuster action sequences and the ultimate in childhood wish fulfillment, while movies such as Drew Goddard‘s Cabin in the Woods and Gareth Edward‘s The Raid: Redemption will long be remembered as putting the nail in the coffin of their respective genres.

We saw new films from acclaimed directors like Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, Ridley Scott, Christopher Nolan, Ang Lee, David O. Russell, Paul Thomas Anderson, William Friedkin, Steven Soderbergh, Ben Affleck, Sam Mendes, and Kathryn Bigelow. Not to mention the latest offerings from Rian Johnson, Joss Whedon, Richard Linklater, and newcomers Colin Trevorrow, Benh Zeitlin, and Stephen Chbosky.

So many memorable characters – so many great lines delivered by talented actors inhabiting their roles. Here are some of the best (and a few of the worst) film quotes from 2012. Feel free to include your own in the comments! You can also check out my Top 25 Films of 2012 here!

Django Unchained
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
Written by Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, Walton Goggins
The Weinstein Company
Rated R | 165 minutes
Release Date: December 25, 2012

“I need a hundred black coffins for a hundred bad men / A hundred black graves so I can lay they ass in.” – Rick Ross

Inspired by Django, the 1966 Italian film directed by Sergio Corbucci, Django Unchained is Quentin Tarantino‘s seventh feature-length film: a Spaghetti Western set in America’s Deep South.

The film blends Sergio Leone-style filmmaking and Tarantino’s signature themes of revenge and fetishized violence with fairytale fantasy to create Once Upon a Time in the South.

1863. Texas. Django (Jamie Foxx) is a freed slave on a mission to rescue his wife, Broomhilda, from the clutches of the deplorable Monsieur Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). His companion is Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz), a German-born bounty hunter with a salt-and-pepper beard who travels the American South collecting rewards on outlaws and other such nefarious individuals.

Waltz is best known for playing the insidious Colonel Hans Landa aka “The Jew Hunter” in Tarantino’s 2009 film, Inglourious Basterds. In many ways, Django Unchained is the spiritual sequel to that film, which provided the ultimate in revenge fantasy by having Jewish-American soldiers machine gun Hitler’s face off. Here, Waltz is not a despicable foil but rather a vigilante who serves as the Yoda to Django’s Luke Skywalker, teaching him the bounty hunting business so he can track down his wife and free her from the shackles of her master.

Her master, Calvin J. Candie, is a cruel-but-charming Francophile (who can’t speak a word of French) with an affinity for Mandingo Fighting. At his Candieland Plantation, Candie orchestrates brutal fights to the death between slaves. At this castle built of blood and cotton, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) is a house Negro – whored out to Candie’s guests seeking the finest in African flesh.

The soundtrack to Django Unchained, the much-anticipated new film by the wunderkind of classic exploitation, alpha male laden films by numbers Quentin Tarantino, was released today on CD ($9.99) and MP3 (for only $5!).

Like other prior Tarantino productions and soundtracks which accompanied them, this one is no exception with its eclectic, ironic, tongue planted firmly in cheek and fist punched firmly in face track listing. For a limited time, the film’s soundtrack will be streaming for FREE online and you can listen to it all here below.