Film Friday (1/30): This Week's New Movies & Trailers

Opening this weekend

. A Most Violent Year R DRAMA/THRILLER Trailers Expands nationwide. The National Board of Review's pick for best picture of 2014, director J.C. Chandor's follow-up to All Is Lost stars Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain in a story set in New York City during the winter of 1981, one of the most violent years in the city’s history. David Oyelowo, Albert Brooks, Alessandro Nivola, and Catalina Sandino Moreno have supporting roles. Nationwide releases . Project Almanac PG-13 SCI-FI/THRILLER Trailers [PICTURED] What would a group of teenagers do if they were able to travel in time? Dean Israelite’s long-delayed feature directorial debut tries to answer that question, though it does so with only mixed success, according to critics. Jonny Weston, Sofia Black-D’Elia, Sam Lerner, Allen Evangelista, and Ginny Gardner star. . Black or White PG-13 DRAMA Trailers Returns to theaters. Originally titled Black and White when it premiered at TIFF, where it received mixed reviews, this drama stars Kevin Costner as an attorney drawn into a custody battle over his 7-year-old granddaughter (Jillian Estell) after the deaths of his wife and daughter spur the girl’s paternal grandmother (Octavia Spencer) to bring a case against him with the help of her nephew, a lawyer played by Anthony Mackie. . The Loft R THRILLER Trailers The dead body of an unknown woman shows up in the penthouse loft shared by five friends for use during their extramarital affairs. Which one is responsible for the death? Karl Urban, James Marsden, Wentworth Miller, Eric Stonestreet, Matthias Schoenaerts, Isabel Lucas, and Rachael Taylor star for director Erik Van Looy (The Memory of a Killer). Critics did not get to see The Loft in advance, so you can fill in the blanks. Notable limited and/or VOD releases . Timbuktu NR FOREIGN/DRAMA Trailers An Oscar nominee (from Mauritania) for best foreign-language film, Abderrahmane Sissako’s follow-up to 2006’s Bamako examines the impact of Jihadists and their enforcement of sharia law on the people of Timbuktu in Mali. . Girlhood NR FOREIGN/DRAMA Trailers No, it's not a sequel to Boyhood, but it is another critically acclaimed drama. Water Lilies and Tomboy director Céline Sciamma’s latest French-language coming of age tale stars a much-lauded Karidja Toure as Marieme, a teenage girl in the suburbs of Paris who falls in with a gang and struggles to find her own identity. . Wild Card R ACTION/THRILLER Trailers Critics are unimpressed by this loose remake of the 1986 film Heat (itself an adaptation of William Goldman's 1985 novel) that finds Jason Statham taking on the Burt Reynolds role of a bodyguard for hire in Las Vegas who tangles with a mob boss. Simon West (The Expendables 2) directs. Additional limited and/or VOD releases (in alphabetical order) . Above and Beyond NR DOCUMENTARY   . Alien Outpost NR SCI-FI/ACTION/THRILLER   . Amira & Sam NR ROM-COM/DRAMA iTunes Amazon . Backstreet Boys: Show 'Em What You're Made Of NR DOCUMENTARY iTunes Amazon . Buen Día, Ramón PG-13 FOREIGN/DRAMA   . The Devil's Violinist R DRAMA iTunes Amazon . Hard to Be a God NR FOREIGN/SCI-FI   . My Name Is Hmmm... NR FOREIGN/DRAMA   . Running Man NR FOREIGN/ACTION   . Suburban Gothic R HORROR/COMEDY iTunes . Supremacy NR DRAMA iTunes Amazon . Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast NR ANIMATION/FAMILY

All movies now in theaters... | Recent DVD/Blu-ray releases...

New trailers and updates for upcoming films

Fantastic 4.0 This is not Tim Story’s Fantastic Four or Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. (And it's certainly not the unreleased 1994 low-budget disaster.) This fourth Fantastic Four film is Josh Trank’s take on the beloved comic book heroes, skewing a bit younger like his debut feature, Chronicle. And with this youthful take comes a new cast: Miles Teller as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, Kate Mara as Sue Storm/the Invisible Woman, Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm/the Human Torch and Jamie Bell as Ben Grimm/the Thing. They go up against Victor von Doom, played by Toby Kebbell (Koba in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes), who is not seen in the trailer. That first trailer is below, followed by another with commentary by Trank and co-writer Simon Kinberg. The Fantastic Four hits theaters August 7th.

Ted 2

After taking a drubbing from critics (and at the box office) for A Million Ways to Die in the West, Seth MacFarlane returns to the more comfortable, modern confines of foul-mouthed puppets with a sequel to his hit Ted. In Ted 2, MacFarlane is once again writer, director and voice star, while Mark Wahlberg and Jessica Barth (as Tami-Lynn, now Ted’s wife) also return for a story about Ted’s fight for equality. New to the comedy are Amanda Seyfried as a lawyer who defends Ted, John Slattery as an opposing lawyer, plus Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson, and Dennis Haysbert. Find Ted 2 in theaters beginning June 26th.

Child 44

Daniel Espinoza (Safe House) directs Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Noomi Rapace, Vincent Cassel, Joel Kinnaman, Jason Clarke, and Charles Dance in this adaptation of Tom Rob Smith’s novel, Child 44. Scripted by Richard Price (Clockers, The Wire), the story takes place in Stalin’s Soviet Union and follows security officer Leo Demidov (Hardy) as he tries to capture a child killer but finds the state standing in his way. Supported by his wife (Rapace), Leo eventually joins forces with Oldman’s General Mikhail Nesterov over the protestations of his rival, Vasili (Kinnaman). Child 44 hits theaters on April 17th.

5 to 7: Happy hours?

Writer-director Victor Levin’s feature directorial debut 5 to 7 details an affair between Brian (Anton Yelchin), an aspiring novelist and Arielle (Berenice Marlohe), a very French and very married woman. As designated by her arrangement with her husband (Lambert Wilson), who’s having an affair with Olivia Thirlby’s Jane, they meet between the hours of 5-7, but their affair becomes more complicated as their feeling grow stronger. How could this not end happily? With supporting turns by Frank Langella and Glenn Close as Yelchin’s parents, 5 to 7 comes to theaters April 3rd and to VOD a week later.

Wild Canaries

In the screwball comedy/murder mystery Wild Canaries, writer-director Lawrence Michael Levine (Gabi on the Roof in July) and his wife, producer Sophia Takal, star as the recently engaged Noah and Barri. When their elderly downstairs neighbor dies, Barri suspects foul play and decides to investigate. Alia Shawkat, Kevin Corrigan, Jason Ritter, and Annie Parisse co-star in this February 25th release.

Who’s the DUFF?

In the latest of a long line of high school transformation stories, Mae Whitman (Arrested Development’s Ann Veal, aka Bland, Egg, and Plant) stars as Bianca, a Designated Ugly Fat Friend to her prettier, more popular friends played by Skyler Samuels & Bianca Santos. But Bianca (and moviegoers) know She’s All That, and she’s ready to prove it by enlisting Robbie Amell’s Wesley to help reinvent herself before her senior year is a total flop. Bella Thorne, Alison Janney, Romany Malco and Ken Jeong round out the cast of Ari Sandel’s directorial debut. The DUFF hits theaters on February 20th.

Madame Bovary’s return to the big screen

Mia Wasikowska stars as Emma Bovary in the latest adaptation of Gustave Flaubert’s oft-filmed 1856 novel about the affairs of a doctor’s wife. Henry Lloyd-Hughes plays her husband, and gentleman callers with varying degrees of success include Rhys Ifans as a local merchant, Logan Marshall-Green as the dashing Marquis, and Ezra Miller as Leon. Sophie Barthes (Cold Souls) directs from a script co-written by producer Felipe Marino. Madame Bovary is scheduled for release sometime this summer.

October Gale

Patricia Clarkson plays a recently widowed doctor whose return to her isolated cottage off the Canadian coast turns into a struggle to survive when a storm strands her with a mysterious gunshot victim (Scott Speedman) who claims to be the target of some local baddies (including Tim Roth). October Gale is a complete change in tone from Clarkson’s last collaboration with writer-director Ruba Nadda, the delicate love story Cairo Time, but slightly more in line with Nadda’s last film, Inescapable Look for this thriller on VOD February 27th and in theaters March 6th.

Short takes: Big game edition

Hot Tub Time Machine 2, Tomorrowland, The Divergent Series: Insurgent, Terminator Genisys, Minions and Avengers: Age of Ultron (plus Ted 2 and others) have all paid the multi-million-dollar tab to air ads during the Super Bowl this Sunday. But why wait? Here are previews for a few of them:

News and notes

• Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones will star in Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters reboot, coming to theaters on July 22, 2016. HitFix and /Film have more information. - Heat Vision
• Mission: Impossible 5 has moved up from a December 25th release date to July 31st.
• Will Smith’s NFL drama, Concussion, will open on Christmas Day.
• Emma Watson announced that she will be playing Belle in Disney’s new live-action Beauty and the Beast.
• The cast for Adam Sandler’s first Netflix movie Ridiculous 6 will include Nick Nolte, Taylor Lautner, Blake Shelton, Whitney Cummings, Steve Buscemi, Rob Schneider, Dan Aykroyd, Will Forte, Jon Lovitz, Nick Swardson, Luke Wilson, Steve Zahn, Danny Trejo, Chris Parnell, Terry Crews, and Vanilla Ice. (Yes, that's more than 6.) - TheWrap
• Middle of Nowhere and Selma director Ava DuVernay and star David Oyelowo will work together for a third time. The film will be an intimate story that takes place during Hurricane Katrina. - Variety
• Disney wants Johnny Karate Chris Pratt to reboot the Indiana Jones franchise. - Deadline
• Dakota Johnson, Leslie Mann, Rebel Wilson, and Dan Stevens are in negotiations to join Alison Brie in How to Be Single. - Variety & THR
• Chris Weitz (About A Boy, The Golden Compass) will write the next draft of Gareth Edwards’ Star Wars stand-alone movie due in 2016. Gary Whitta exited the project earlier this month. - Heat Vision
• Liam Hemsworth is in talks to star in the Independence Day sequel. - TheWrap
• James Marsh (The Theory of Everything) will direct Colin Firth in an untitled film about British amateur yachtsman Donald Crowhurst’s attempt to win the Golden Globe Yacht Race of 1968. - Variety
• Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game) is in talks to direct the sci-fi love story Passengers from Prometheus and Doctor Strange writer Jon Spaihts. - Deadline
• Akiva Goldsman (Winter’s Tale) will direct Frank Grillo in the horror-thriller Stephanie. - TheWrap
• Harvey Weinstein told Deadline that Quentin Tarantino has changed the last chapter of The Hateful Eight.
• Dave Franco and Emma Roberts will star in Nerve, an adaptation of Jeanne Ryan’s YA novel by director Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman (Catfish). - Variety
• Australian actress/model Abbey Lee has joined Elle Fanning in Nicolas Winding Refn’s next movie, The Neon Demon. - Deadline
• Rosamund Pike and Joel Kinnaman will star in The Bends. Jean Luc Herbulot (Dealer) will direct the story about a mysterious ocean discovery by an ex-Marine who’s indebted to the mob. - THR
• Marcel Langenegger (Deception) is in talks to direct the sequel to The Strangers. - TheWrap
• Warner Bros. wants to make a Jetsons movie. - Deadline
• Tate Taylor (Get On Up) will direct a movie based on the USS Indianapolis sinking and shark attacks. Here is the short version. - TheWrap
• Bobby Farrelly will make his solo directing debut on the comedy One Night Stan. - THR
• Director Charlie Stratton’s (In Secret) period biopic, Seacole, will star Octavia Spencer as Mary Seacole, a Jamaican doctor who battled prejudice to play a key role in the Crimean War. - THR
• Kevin Spacey will play a businessman who gets trapped in a cat’s body (could happen to anyone, really) in Barry Sonnenfeld’s comedy Nine Lives. - TheWrap
• Brad Pitt is in talks to play Richard Leakey in Africa, a biopic of the famous archaeologist written by Eric Roth and directed by Angelina Jolie. - TheWrap
• Karl Urban will replace Michael C. Hall in director David Lowery’s Pete’s Dragon adaptation. He joins Robert Redford, Bryce Dallas Howard, Wes Bentley, and newcomer Oakes Fegley as Pete. - TheWrap
• John Wick directors David Leitch and Chad Stahelski are in talks to direct Chris Pratt in Cowboy Ninja Viking. - Variety
• CBS Films announced that Olivia Wilde, Alan Arkin, Anthony Mackie, John Goodman, Ed Helms, Diane Keaton, Marisa Tomei, Amanda Seyfried, and June Squibb will star in Let It Snow, the story of a family’s annual Christmas Eve gathering. Jessie Nelson (I Am Sam) will direct from a script by Steven Rogers (P.S. I Love You).
• Caitriona Balfe (Outlander) has joined George Clooney, Julia Roberts, and Jack O’Connell in Jodie Foster’s Money Monster. - THR