As promised on Monday, the first trailer for Oliver Stone's Savages has arrived online, following up the nicely executed poster that debuted at the beginning of this week.  Narrated by Blake Lively, the trailer lays out the basic story, which starts with a pair of Orange County entrepreneurs whose with a thriving marijuana concern that ends up bringing them to the attention of the Mexican Baja Cartel.

After a reportedly wondrous test-screening earlier this year, Universal Pictures rescheduled Savages from September to smack dab in the middle of summer.  Accordingly, marketing for the action-thriller directed by Oliver Stone should be getting underway in earnest shortly.  A trailer is set to arrive this Thursday, April 5th.  The first one-sheet for Savages has arrived online today, and it gives a feel for the story, but mostly highlights the ensemble cast with a nifty vertical design.

Most any avid user of one of America's favorite illicit substances knows that it is a good and charitable thing to be euphemistically smoked out, but the first image from Savages makes the term look altogether threatening.  The film is co-written and directed by Oliver Stone, a filmmaker comfortable with violence, but even if you didn't know that, you'd know something unsavory is going on between Blake Lively and Benicio Del Toro, with the latter blowing smoke into the former's face in an entirely uncharitable manner.

Much of marketing for Sylvester Stallone's hyper-macho 2010 actioner The Expendables included the promise of the erstwhile Rocky and Rambo sharing the silver screen with his fellow top-tier 1980's action icons, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis, best known to action aficionados as The Terminator and John McClane, respectively.  In the film, however, the trio shared just one dialogue scene that relied heavily on winking to the audience at the novelty of these three together at last.  Last month, Willis and Schwarzenegger were confirmed for The Expendables 2, and, perhaps sensing the sensing the collective sigh of indifference at their first cameos, the sequel promised more "substantial" roles for both actors.

The Expendables 2 is now in production in Bulgaria, from whence former California Governor and world class philanderer Schwarzenegger took the opportunity to tweet a photo of himself, Stallone, and Willis.  Stallone is definitely in costume as Barney Ross, while Willis and Arnold seem to be rocking their looks at Church and Trench whilst hanging out on an airfield.

It would appear that The Expendables 2 has found its first next generation actor, as Variety reports that Liam Hemsworth has officially joined the cast.  While the first film was built around the novel premise of uniting a cadre of older action stars whose ass-kicking days seemed behind them, Sylvester Stallone has been intimating for some time now that the sequel would involve some younger Expendables.  Even as recently as last week, he said, "We also need some new blood in there, a Navy Seal-type, because with the Expendables none of them have 20-20 vision anymore. They need some help, man.” 

Based on 2010's The Expendables, the sequel set for next summer will certainly contain a number of elements, such as plentiful automatic weapons fire, inflated biceps, berets, blood-splatter, and an ensemble of actors oozing testosterone all over the place.  The big question so far has been just who will join Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, and the rest of the gang in The Expendables 2.  Last week, we learned that Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger will have more substantial roles than their meager appearances in the first film, and also that Jean Claude Van Damme and Chuck Norris might just high-kick along with them.  Today, we have confirmation of Van Damme and Norris, as well as word that Nicolas Cage and John Travolta are still potential new recruits.

Emile Hirsch is the latest actor to join the already-stacked cast of Savages, the adaptation of Don Winslow's novel from director Oliver Stone.  Blake Lively, Taylor Kitsch, Aaron Johnson, John Travolta, Salma Hayek, Uma Thurman, and Benicio del Toro are all starring in the film, as well, leading one to wonder if they've seen any of the films Stone has directed since 1995.

Last week, the filmmakers behind the true-life mafia film Gotti: Three Generations, which has John Travolta signed to play John 'The Teflon Don' Gotti, held a press conference in New York, where The Godfather was invoked a number of times.  Though she was not officially on board, Lindsay Lohan attended, and she was revealed as being in talks for an unspecified role that was clearly Victoria Gotti, with whom Lohan attended.  On Monday this week, director Nick Cassavetes left the project, and now EW reports that Lohan will not be appearing in Gotti: Three Generations.

Less than a week after attending a press conference talking up the true crime ensemble Gotti: Three Generations, director Nick Cassavetes has exited the project.  The film, a chronicle of the relationship between Gambino crime family head John 'The Teflon Don' Gotti and his son John Gotti Jr, has John Travolta attached to star as the elder Gotti, along with Joe Pesci as his right-hand man.  Lindsay Lohan is also in talks to play an unspecified role that is almost certainly reality television personality Victoria Gotti. 

If you're making a fact-based crime movie in which John Travolta plays notorious real-life Mafia Don John Gotti, why not shoot for the stars when casting the Don's right-hand man Angelo Ruggiero?  At a press conference in Manhattan yesterday, director Nick Cassavetes revealed that he has recruited Mafia-movie all star Joe Pesci for Gotti: Three Generations.  That's not all, but Lindsay Lohan is also in negotiations to play an unspecified role that is widely assumed to be Gotti's daughter Victoria.