Opening next Friday is writer/director Richard Kelly’s “The Box”. The movie is set around a deceptively simple moral dilemma.  An average couple is offered an opportunity to get themselves out of financial difficulty: a million dollars, in exchange for the knowledge that their acceptance of this gift will result in the death of one person somewhere in the world - someone they don’t know.  The big question is, “What will they do?”  But writer/director Richard Kelly is also asking, “What would you do?”

So to help promote the film, we’ve been provided with five clips from the movie.  If you want to stay spoiler free, I strongly suggest not watching these clips.  But if you’d like a taste of Richard Kelly’s next film, hit the jump and take a look.

Finally, hypothetically speaking…if I were to have seen “The Box”…I might say it’s infinitely better than “Southland Tales” and it’s worth checking out next week.  Hypothetically speaking of course…

Previously known as “Witchita” and once known as “Trouble Man”, the upcoming Tom Cruise/Cameron Diaz film will now be titled “Knight and Day”, which sounds like a title Kenneth the Page would come up with when pitching a sitcom about a medieval knight transported to modern times and falling in love with a woman with the last name “Day”.  Hit the jump for details on the film and why its potential success may have little to do with its lead actors.

Earlier today, I attended the Los Angeles press day for “An Education”. The film is a coming-of-age story about a teenage girl (Carey Mulligan) in 1960s suburban London and how her life changes after meeting a man nearly twice her age (Peter Sarsgaard). It’s a great movie and something worth checking out.

Anyway, towards the end of my interview with Peter, I asked what he’d be doing next. He revealed he’s about to leave for Boston to be in director James Mangold’s “Wichita” opposite Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. When I asked what character he’d be playing, he’d only say he was Tom Cruise’s foil. Does that mean he’s the villain? I don’t know. But I do know he hadn’t been announced as part of the cast yet. Watch what he said about “Wichita” after the jump:

Yesterday we showed you a behind-the-scenes look at an action scene being filmed right now for Michel Gondry’s “The Green Hornet” starring Seth Rogen, Jay Chou, Cameron Diaz, and Christoph Waltz.  We’ve also shown you the van from Joe Carnahan’s “The A-Team” looking like, well, a van.

But today we’ve got some must see behind-the-scenes shots from “The Green Hornet” and “The A-Team”.  Someone took some great photos of Rogen (and it’s definitely Rogen because you can see his stunt guy in the background) and Chou in their hero get-ups and Rogen’s weight-loss really paid off because that suit suits him fine.  As for “The A-Team”, the first shot of the team together has landed online and it’s a bit surreal to see Liam Neeson with white hair or Sharlto Copley standing next to Bradley Cooper.  Hit the jump and see these exciting set photos from both films. [Update: We've added some more photos from the A-Team]

One of the more interesting things that happened this past week in movie news was the news that Nicolas Cage had dropped out of playing the villain in “The Green Hornet” even though filming had already begun. http://www.collider.com/2009/09/08/nicolas-cage-flies-away-from-the-green-hornet/ The actor was then replaced a couple of days later by “Inglourious Basterds’”‘ Christoph Waltz http://www.collider.com/2009/09/14/inglourious-basterds-christoph-waltz-is-playing-the-villain-in-the-green-hornet/ and the internet was happy.  It was being rumored that Cage had dropped out because of money issues but the actor has now cleared up everything.  To find out why Cage dropped out just click on the jump.

I feel really bad for “The Green Hornet”.  I know that it’s just a movie and that it has no emotions what so ever, but I can’t help but feel bad for the poor ol’ film. I’m sure you guys have been following the problematic production for the past year or so and now that things finally looked like it was going to get better, we now get news that Nicolas Cage, who was set to play the film’s villain, has dropped out.  This doesn’t look too good for the film since the film just started principal photography last week.  You can read more details when you hit the jump.

With all of the setbacks and delays that have hit the Seth Rogen/Evan Goldberg adaptation of “The Green Hornet” over the past year I was beginning to believe that the film was an urban legend of some sort - or an elaborate prank.  Luckily a bunch of photos appeared online this weekend that prove that the “The Green Hornet” movie is no joke.  What else can be gleaned from the photos?  Hit the jump to find out.

While many thought “The Green Hornet” would never get made due to all the problems finding a director and Kato, thanks to a press release from Columbia Pictures, we know filming has actually begun!

I know some of you aren’t excited to see “Green Hornet” and to those…I’m sorry. Because any film directed by Michel Gondry is worth seeing and this is going to be the biggest budget he’s ever had. Come on…aren’t you a little bit curious? Anyway, I’ve posted the press release after the jump so take a look:

Anyone who’s followed the progress of the big screen adaption of pulp hero and cult icon, “The Green Hornet” knows that the property has been repeatedly beset by hurdles and setbacks, from Kevin Smith abandoning the project a few years ago, to the more recent departure of Stephen Chow, first from the director’s chair and finally from the role of driver/sidekick, Kato. Well word has it that the flick has yet again been delayed as its July 7, 2010 release date has been moved back five months to December 17, 2010. More after the jump:

First she was shot in the gut on “Lost’ and then she got “Taken” from Liam Neeson, now Maggie Grace is set to make Cameron Diaz look old and matronly in the new spy thriller from director James Mangold.  Grace has been cast as Diaz’s sister in the feature film which co-stars Tom Cruise… always assuming he doesn’t drop out at the last minute.  He does that a lot lately.  Find out more about the film that was once called “Wichita” after the jump.

Warner Bros. has released a preview of their upcoming 2009 movies. In the preview, they’ve got updated synopsis’ along with new images from “Whiteout”, “Ninja Assassin”, “The Invention of Lying”, “The Informant!” and a few others. So if you’d like to see the new images and read what’s coming later this year (it’s a lot of great stuff), it’s all after the jump:

Now that we know who will be playing Kato in Seth Rogen’s masked crime-fighter flick, “The Green Hornet”, director Michel Gondry is turning his attention to the film’s supporting cast.  According to Hollywood Snitch, one of those (as yet unspecified) supporting roles will be played by Edward James Olmos of “Battlestar Galactica” and “Stand and Deliver” fame.  “Hornet”, which co-stars Nicolas Cage and Cameron Diaz, begins shooting this month for a planned July 2010 release date.  We’ll fill you in as we learn more.

The trailer for “The Box” has kind of sold you wrong on the film.  They make it look like writer/director Richard Kelly has taken a simple, “Twilight Zone”-esque story and once again, over-reached as he did with the poorly received “Southland Tales”.  But watching the presentation today from Hall H, I think he’s done exactly the opposite.  It looks like he’s learned from “Southland Tales” and gone back to a simple premise (a man brings you a box with a button; press the button and you get a million dollars but someone in the world who you don’t know will die) and built outwards from there.  This was a really fun panel and a good way to let the audience catch a bit of a breather before the back-to-back onslaught of “Jonah Hex” and “Sherlock Holmes”.

Hit the jump to hear about the footage they screened and the Q&A with Kelly and stars James Marsden and Cameron Diaz.

With director Michel Gondry supposedly just days away from beginning principal photography on “The Green Hornet”, Variety is reporting that Nic Cage is in talks to play the film’s villain opposite Seth Rogen as the titular masked crime fighter.  Let’s hope they talk fast.  No news on the name or nature of this villain so that means that we still don’t know much about “The Green Hornet” other than its title and the fact that it was written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. That would have been enough to ensure its awesomeness a year ago but a lot of weird has happened to the production since then.  More after the jump…

The final poster has just been released for director Richard Kelly’s “The Box” and it’s after the jump.  As a fan of “Donnie Darko”, I’m really hoping this is a return to form for the filmmaker as his last film (”Southland Tales”) did absolutely nothing for me. In fact, it was a red hot mess. But I’ve been told “The Box” is a more straightforward mainstream release and I’m really hoping that’s true.

Anyway, with Comic-Con next week, I think he’s planning on showing some footage from the film, so we’ll know a lot more soon. Until then, check out the poster.

Entertainment Weekly is currently reporting that Cameron Diaz is in early negotiations to play the female lead in Michel’s Gondry’s upcoming adaptation of “The Green Hornet” starring Seth Rogen and Stephen Chow.  The film is set to start filming in the next few weeks with a planned release date of July 9th, 2010. Hit the jump for my thoughts on casting Diaz.