This Monday, which coincidentally happens to be Halloween, Earth's human population is expected to actually hit seven billion living, breathing, eating people.  Rather than contemplate the seemingly inevitable Malthusian catastrophe that this staggering figure might just presage, let's all agree to focus on what's really important: weekend box office estimates.  The last weekend before an unfortunate Monday Halloween saw three new wide releases hitting theaters, and according to the estimated grosses, Dreamworks Animation's Shrek spin-off Puss in Boots handily and predictably earned the greatest amount of the three.  The science-fiction allegory In Time opened in third, while Johnny Depp's passion project The Rum Diary kept it low key in fifth place.  All in all, a pretty quiet weekend.

Opening in theaters on October 28th is the new sci-fi thriller from Gattaca writer/director Andrew Niccol called In Time. The film stars an excellent cast of young actors including Justin Timberlake (The Social Network), Amamda Seyfried (Dear John), Cillian Murphy (Batman Begins), Olivia Wilde (Tron: Legacy), Matt Bomer (TV's White Collar), Alex Pettyfer (I Am Number Four), Johnny Galecki (TV's The Big Bang Theory), and Vincent Kartheiser (TV's Mad Men). 

At Comic-Con International in San Diego earlier this year, IAR's managing editor Jami Philbrick had a chance to speak with director Andrew Niccol, as well actors Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried about their new film In Time. The two actors and the director discuss the new film, it's intricate plot, fast paced chases, Seyfried's natural talent, Timberlake's reasons for making the movie, and its close relationship to Gattaca.   

Fourteen years ago, Andrew Niccol made a class-conscious science fiction allegory with Gattaca, which envisioned a future divided between those who've been genetically modified and those who haven't.  His next class-conscious sci-fi tale is In Time, and it'll be arriving theatrically in less than two weeks.  It's set in a near future where nobody ages past 25, but from that point on, they're living on borrowed time within a system that has replaced money with time.  The poor die young, the rich life forever. 

All this conceptual information is conveyed in one of two new clips from the film.  In the first, Justin Timberlake gambles with Vincent Kartheiser, who spouts a whole lot of on-the-nose information, and in the second, Timberlake kidnaps Amanda Seyfried, punches a bunch of nameless guards, and gets into a car chase.  Basically, the two clips form a comprehensive two-part argument to see the movie, first with the concept and second with the promise of action.

Since San Diego Comic-Con, a few official trailers have made their way online promoting In Time, the upcoming stylish science fiction action picture starring Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried.  A brand new international trailer debuted today, and it's the best of the bunch, basically rolling the previous trailers, with their differing emphases on concept and action, into one very promising mega-trailer.

The preview nicely conveys the premise of a near future in which money has been replaced by units of time.  Everyone is youthfully good-looking, since they're genetically engineered not to physically age past the age of twenty-five (this is why, just this once, Olivia Wilde can convincingly play Justin Timberlake's mom, despite being several years younger than him), but after they hit that quarter-century mark, everyone is on borrowed time.  The poor earn minutes and hours at a time, while the wealthy live forever with stashes of hundreds of years.

Synopsis: When Will Salas is falsely accused of murder, he must figure out a way to bring down a system where time is money - literally - enabling the wealthy to live forever while the poor, like Will, have to beg, borrow, and steal enough minutes to make it through another day.

Just a few days ago, 20th Century Fox released a trailer for In Time online, putting the oh-so attractive cast front and center and allowing us to glory in the genetic magnificence that produces good-looking people like Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, Olivia Wilde, and Cillian Murphy.  While it was a solid trailer, it subsequently disappeared without a trace.

Good news, though, as it has been replaced by an even better trailer that more effectively lays out the rules of writer-director Andrew Niccol's clever riff on Logan's Run.  Basically, in his future, nobody ages above 25 years old, but all time after that has to be earned like a currency, meaning that the rich essentially live forever at their physical peak while the poor die early. 

At Comic-Con International in San Diego on Thursday the cast and crew of In Time appeared in Hall H to discuss their new film. On hand were the film's stars Justin Timberlake (Bad Teacher), and Amanda Seyfried (Dear John), as well as director Andrew Niccol (Gattaca). 

IAR had a chance to catch up with Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, and director Andrew Niccol after their panel on Thursday to discuss the upcoming film.

At San Diego Comic-Con last week, 20th Century Fox rolled out the first trailer for the science fiction actioner In Time, starring Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried.  The trailer laid out the concept of a future in which money has been replaced by units of time, so after the age of 25, the time-rich can live forever, while everyone else scrabbles and works to make enough time to stay alive.  Timberlake's normal guy character stumbles into a possession of an ungodly amount of time and ends up on the run, and a new trailer released today contains plenty of action, while introducing Olivia Wilde as Timberlake's mother and the weirdness of everyone having little green clocks on their forearms.

If you’ve never heard of director Will Gluck, then learn his name now because he is one filmmaker that you will be hearing from for a very long time. Gluck first made a name for himself as a feature film director last year with his sophomore outing Easy A starring Emma Stone, which went on to become both a critical and box office success. His recent release Friends with Benefits, has received positive reviews and earned almost $20 million in its debut last weekend despite opening opposite Captain America: The First Avenger on the second weekend of Potter-mania. All things considered, Gluck is well on his way to becoming one of the most interesting and unexpected mainstream directors working in the industry today.

Will Gluck began his career on TV writing for such short-lived but popular shows as Grosse Pointe, and Andy Richter Controls the Universe, as well as creating series like Luis, and The Loop. He made the jump to the big screen by helming the collegiate comedy Fired Up in 2009 before producing and directing Easy A, and eventually Friends with Benefits. His newest outing, the “will they or won’t they” comedy Friends with Benefits starring Justin Timberlake (The Social Network), and Mila Kunis (Black Swan), hit theaters on July 22nd and features the two sexy stars as platonic friends who engage in the age old experiment to see if acquaintances of the opposite sex can sleep together with out letting their emotions get in the way of their friendship.

Some things that are enjoyable about the latest red band trailer for Friends with Benefits, in no particular order.  1. Two sexy people (Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake) not infrequently being sexy together.  2. An abundance of casual expletives.  3.  An even greater amount of even more casual sexy talk, sometimes dirty, sometimes euphemistic, sometimes both at once.  4. Woody Harrelson going way over the top while engaging in behavior established in number 3.  5 and 6.  Emma Stone and Andy Samberg in what are sure to be brief but funny roles, with Stone in particular going amusing crazy on the subject of John Mayer's "Your Body is a Wonderland." 

Despite these enjoyable aspects, Friends with Benefits does look as though it will adhere rigidly to a romantic comedy formula, but I suppose that for many people, the predictability of the genre can actually be a plus.  Either way, enjoy the film's second red band trailer, which is quite different from the first one released many moons ago.