With Warner Bros. Ninja Assassin set for release next week, the studio held a press day this afternoon here in Los Angeles.  While I’ll have plenty of video interviews for you to watch over the next few days, the first one I’d like to share is with producer Joel Silver.  Also, since Silver is producing tons of other projects like Sherlock Holmes, The Losers, Sgt. Rock, Lobo, Unknown White Male, and The Book of Eli, I figure his interview is the first one I should post.

While I didn’t get any major scoops, I did find out what’s up with Lobo and what does he think of Jeffrey Dean Morgan for the role.  Also, we talked about how Francis Lawrence landed the directing job on Sgt. Rock and does he think it might get made next year.  Of course many other subjects were talked about so watch the interview after the jump:

While not quite as massive as the thousands of films the Starz deal provided to Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” service last year, IFC Films has signed an exclusive streaming deal with Netflix for 53 of IFC’s films.  Among the 53 films are John Sayles’ The Brother From Another Planet and Return of the Secaucus Seven; Christopher Nolan’s first film, Following; James Toback’s When Will I Be Loved?; the Errol Morris’ documentaries Gates of Heaven and The Thin Blue Line; Susanne Bier’s Brothers (which is the original version of the upcoming Tobey Maguire/Natalie Portman/Jake Gyllenhaal movie of the same name); and Alfonso Cuaron’s first feature film, Solo con tu pareja.  The press release doesn’t say whether or not any IFC Films beyond the 53 they’re adding today will become available on “Watch Instantly”.

For those who don’t know, Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” service allows Netflix subscribers who have at least the $8.99/month plan to watch as many streaming movies as they want online-provided that the film is available in their streaming service.  There is a strong selection of movies (I currently have 184 films in my “Watch Instantly” queue), but it can be frustrating to keep checking the “Watch Instantly” page and no new films have been added.  Then again, I already have 184 films I could watch now so I’m not sure why I’m complaining.

It’s unnecessary to poke fun at Twilight and The Twilight Saga: New Moon because both films are funny (albeit unintentionally) enough on their own.  However, parody of these silly movies is always appreciated.  Earlier this week, Conan O’Brien had a very special message for parents as he warned them of some of the risqué behavior in New Moon.

Today, Brandon Routh (Superman Returns) and Martha MacIsaac (Superbad) have a goddamn hilarious send-up of an overlooked question of the Twilight series as well as other vampire-human romance stories: wouldn’t menstrual blood drive vampires insane?  And how could you keep your dumb romance alive if your vamp boyfriend literally wanted to kill you during your period?  The painfully hilarious answers to these questions are after the jump.

I didn’t really understand what Season of the Witch was about beyond being a test case for the credulity of a Nicolas Cage hairpiece.  Now that the first full trailer for the film has appeared online, it looks like 3:10 to Yuma but instead of a posse being besieged by bandits while trying to take an outlaw to a train station, this movie is about a band of warriors besieged by the forces of hell while trying to take a witch to an abbey.  But if you ignore the Rob Zombie music, the dull color palette, and failed attempts at creepy imagery, you still have Ron Perlman kicking ass and getting billed alongside Nicolas Cage and that’s why you should check out this trailer after the jump.

Season of the Witch hits theaters on March 19, 2010.

Earlier this week we brought you the international trailerfor the upcoming greek gods by way of Harry Potter action-adventure flick, Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief.  While that trailer was good, the domestic trailer just went online and it is even better.  It’s action heavy and I have to say that the action looks fantastic.  This trailer give you the plot of the film (Percy Jackson discovers he’s a demigod and must retrieve the bolt of Zeus-played by Sean Muthafuckin Bean-in order to prevent a war), and it has me excited for the film.  I’m not saying it’s the next Harry Potter or anything like that, but I certainly have more interest in the film after seeing this trailer than I did before, which is what a good trailer is supposed to do.

Check out the domestic trailer after the jump.  Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief hits theaters on February 12, 2010.

Mia Wasikowska (Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland) and Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds) seem to be on their way to becoming two of the biggest rising stars out there right now.  Both actors are now teaming up with director Cary Fukunaga (Sin Nombre) in bringing another adaption of the classic novel Jane Eyre to the big screen.  I don’t know if anyone was really hoping for another one, but the talent involved definitely has me interested now. You can read the details after the jump.

If you are a fan of The Twilight Saga, I don’t have to tell you what a big day this is. It’s probably been circled by a red heart on your day planners since, um, last November. For box office reporters, however, this is a big day for another reason. The release of New Moon at 12:01 am this morning had the potential to overturn the midnight box office record set by The Dark Knight back in July of 2008.  New Moon already had the record for midnight presales so the only question left to ponder was how high Bella and Edward would go. No official numbers from Summit are yet available but it looks like that $18.4 million record The Dark Knight claimed has indeed fallen.

According to Variety, estimates for the 3,514 North American New Moon theatres put the film’s midnight total at $26.3 million.  This means that The Dark Knight opening day record of $67.1 million is in danger of succumbing to Twilight mania. We all knew it would be huge, but huge enough to beat The Dark Knight? That’s a horse of another color. A huge horse.  We’ll keep you updated as the weekend numbers start to come in.

A couple of weeks ago we reported that Nicole Kidman was going to co-star with Robert Pattinson in his next film, Bel Ami.  We then found out a little bit later that this wasn’t true and that Kidman was definitely not attached to the project.  However, tonight we have news that Kristin Scott Thomas (The English Patient) has joined the cast and that Uma Thurman will now be taking the role that Kidman passed on.  To find out what this “erotically charged story of ambition, power and seduction.” is all about, just hit the jump.

While many fans of The Twilight Saga just want to hear Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson talk about the mega-successful franchise, the person who can give you the news you really want is producer Wyck Godfrey.  Stewart and Pattinson star in the film, but they aren’t the ones making the big decisions about the franchise, and they definitely aren’t the ones who can tell you if Breaking Dawn is going to be two movies, or if the teaser trailer for Eclipse will be on New Moon.  But Wyck Godfrey can.  And that’s why at The Twilight Saga: New Moon press junket, I specifically requested an interview to talk with him.

After the jump is my extended conversation with the man bringing the Twilight movies to the big screen.  We talked about the constant demand by fandom for knowing everything now, could David Slade or Chris Weitz be brought back for Breaking Dawn, does he think Breaking Dawn could be two movies (”it’s certainly possible,” he says), is the Eclipse trailer on New Moon, piracy talk, and if he and the other producers already have plans for Comic-Con 2010.  It’s cool if you love hearing from Pattinson and Stewart, but this interview with Godfrey is the one that Twilight shouldn’t miss.

We’re getting another Underworld movie and there’s no way around it.  I dropped out after the first movie, but it did teach me a valuable lesson: Kate Beckinsale in black leather spandex wielding two guns does not a good movie make.  Also (and I fail to understand this in New Moon as well), why are werewolves and vampires fighting?  I know that there’s some back story explaining it but what makes these two groups inherently in conflict as opposed to any other monster?

Maybe John Hlavin, a writer on The Shield, which is one of my all-time favorite shows, can explain it to me, or at least bring me back to the series.  Thankfully, Hlavin says he aims to do just that (while not alienating the precious fans who must be appeased lest the world suffer their wrath).  Hit the jump for details and wonder if you can include a note on every page saying “Please do not shoot this with a blue filter.”

If you’ve seen The Wire, you know that Idris Elba is a ridiculously talented actor who has yet to become a massive success stateside.  But now that’s just a matter of time as he already appeared last season on The Office (which didn’t really utilize his talent but a lot of folks watch it, myself included), will appear next year in the comic book action flick The Losers and now he’s landed a role in Kenneth Branagh’s upcoming adaptation of Marvel’s Thor.

Show some respect to Stringer Bell and hit the jump for details.

With Avatar less than a month away, Fox has released a new featurette that has James Cameron talking about the science and hardware that can be found in the film.  As much as I am trying to avoid any spoilers, I do think it’s a must watch.  You really start to get a sense of just how detailed and well thought out the world of Pandora is.  Plus, the small glimpses we get of the action scenes don’t hurt. You can see the clip after the jump.

While director Richard Linklater is having problems getting his “spiritual sequel” to Dazed and Confused off the ground, that doesn’t mean he isn’t working.  In fact, last week he was filming some of his secret 13 year project with Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette as a divorced couple.  Haven’t heard of the film yet? According to Linklater, good.

The reason I say that is when I spoke to Linklater during a roundtable interview a few days ago, he said he wished IMDb hadn’t listed the project.  Because now that it’s on the site, everyone is asking about a project that’s still being written and worked on.

But when I sat down to speak to him during my exclusive interview, when we finally got to talking about the project, he opened up a lot more than I expected him to.  Saying that, since I knew he wanted to keep a lot of the project under wraps, I didn’t press him for info.  But he still told me a lot about it and if you’re curious, hit the jump for what he said:

Opening on November 25^th is director Richard Linklater’s Me and Orson Welles.  Based in real theatrical history, the film is a coming-of-age story about a teenage actor (Zac Efron) who lucks into a role in Julius Caesar as it’s being re-imagined by a brilliant, impetuous young director named Orson Welles (Christian McKay) at his newly-founded Mercury Theater in NYC, 1937.  Claire Danes co-stars as Sonja Jones, the unapologetically ambitious assistant to Welles whom Richard tries to woo.

While the film premiered at last year’s Toronto Film Festival, it took awhile for someone to purchase the film for domestic distribution.  While a delay might be a sign of a problem, I saw Me and Orson Welles a few weeks ago and thought it was great.  While all the performances are really good, Christian McKay as Orson Welles is another level.  He absolutely disappears as Welles and his performance alone makes this film worth seeing.  Also, this was McKay’s first movie, and when you factor that in, it makes his performance even more memorable.

So to help promote the film, we’ve been given two movie clips and the trailer.  Check them out after the jump and look for our interviews with the cast very soon.

It seems someone let the cat out of the bag a bit early.  Thanks to William Goss spotting Jackass 3D on Paramount’s 2010 schedule, it seems the adventures of Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera and Steve-O are going to continue on movie screens….but this time we’re going to get them in 3D!  While I thought the first Jackass movie was an amazing cinematic achievement, I didn’t think the second movie was worth anyone’s time and most of it played like a long deleted scene.  Of course I’ll be the first one in line for a 3D Jackass movie…but after my recent experiences on a movie shooting in 3D, I’m not 100% sold this is really happening.   My explanation after the jump:

The Twilight Saga: New Moon, like last year’s Twilight, is critic-proof.  We film critics don’t get it, this film isn’t for us, and the fans will love it.  However, none of that means New Moon isn’t worthy of humorous derision or concerned analysis of the disturbing subtext.  New Moon is a bad movie which fails on nearly every level, but that doesn’t mean it’s not fascinating.  The series is one of the most popular young adult stories of the last decade yet the movie, which wouldn’t dare make radical changes to the book, lacks so much: a strong female protagonist, subtlety, joy, a positive message to young women, and above all, shirts.  The men of New Moon need shirts.