Escape from New York is awesome. 

The idea of remaking Escape from New York is distinctly less awesome.  The idea of remaking Escape from New York with an origin story for anti-hero Snake Plissken is the opposite of awesome.  The idea of remaking Escape from New York as an origin story and the first entry in a planned trilogy has absolutely nothing to do with awesomeness.

But that's nonetheless what producer Joel Silver and Studio Canal are planning to do.

Quentin Tarantino is currently shooting his next feature, Django Unchained, in New Orleans, Louisiana, and his Spaghetti Western-inspired tale of slavery, revenge and bounty-hunthing in the Antebellum South is on track for a Christmas Day release.  While we'll all be rejoicing at the sight of a new Tarantino joint, that sight will contain two fewer familiar faces, as both Kurt Russell and Sacha Baron Cohen have both exited the project.

Take a look at this, folks: The first official stills from Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino's next tale of bloody vengeance, bad language, and worse behavoir.  So far, we've just seen a stylized poster and some meager spy photos from the Louisiana set, but today, on this most auspicious of days, we have for you two actual images straight out of Tarantino's Spaghetti Western-inspired Southern epic, including a first look at the two heroes and the big, bad villain.

Yesterday, The Weinstein Company started the hype-building process on Django Unchained by unveiling the first official poster for Quentin Tarantino's latest tale of – amongst other things – revenge, bad language, and violence.  The poster was simple and stylized, evocative and cool, but didn't give much idea of what Django Unchained is actually about.  So, to follow up on that poster, there's now an official synopsis to give an eager public the lowdown on the story.

Veteran actress Christine Lahti has done it all. She has one two Golden Globes, two Emmys, and has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Swing Shift, as well as a nomination for Short Film, Live Action for Lieberman in Love, a movie that she directed. Lahti has appeared in such classic feature films as …And Justice for All, Running on Empty, and Gross Anatomy, as well as popular television series like Ally McBeal, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and the short lived Jack & Bobby. But the actress is probably best known for her role as Dr. Kathryn Austin on the award winning medical series Chicago Hope. Now, Lahti can once again be seen on the big screen opposite her Swing Shift co-star Kurt Russell in the new football themed film Touchback, which opens in theaters on April 13^th.

Touchback tells the story of Scott Murphy (Brian Presley), a very promising high school football player whose dreams of professional glory are derailed by a knee injury. Fifteen years later he has the unique opportunity to go back in time and change his own history, similar to Peggy Sue Got Married or Mr. Destiny. The movie marks the feature film debut for director Don Handfield, and in addition to Russell, Presley, and Lahti also stars Melanie Lynskey (Up in the Air), Marc Blucas (Knight and Day), and Sarah Wright (The House Bunny).

I recently had the pleasure of speaking to the lovely Christine Lahti about her role in Touchback, and her overall career. The actress discussed the new film, its inspirational theme, what she looks for when choosing projects, working with a first time director, how becoming a director changed her acting process, her character’s relationship to her son, reuniting with Kurt Russell, low budget filmmaking, sports movies and which films she’s proudest to have on her resume.

Quentin Tarantino has a new movie coming out this Christmas, and The Weinstein Company wants to make sure you're ready for it.  That why the house that Harvey and Bob built has unveiled the very first teaser poster for Django Unchained, which is currently in the middle of principal photography in New Orleans, Louisiana under Tarantino's direction.

In the especially great 'Games' episode of the fantastic public radio series Radiolab, Stephen Dubner says that sports fandom is "a proxy for all our emotions, desires, and hopes."  Who hasn't experienced the elation seeing their team pull out a miraculous win at the last minute?  Sports movies take the inherent drama of spectator sports and increase their universality, including even non-sports fans on the stakes of a game, a season, an entire sport.

This Friday, the new drama Touchback uses football to tell an inspiring and family-friendly story of regret, redemption, and inspiration.  The film, which also stars Kurt Russell and Melanie Lynsky, follows Brian Presley as a hugely promising high school athlete whose dreams of professional glory are derailed by a knee injury.  Fifteen years later, he has the unique opportunity to change his own history.

Touchback's imminent release has everybody here at IAR thinking about the cinematic gridiron, and those characters who have provided inspiration to us in a variety of different ways.  So, with Touchback in mind, we've put together the latest Rogue 10, a listing, in no particular order, of especially inspiration football players.  Whether through grit, talent, determination, or sincerity, these ten characters are football players who bring audiences to their feet.

After every Quentin Tarantino movie comes out, I hold my breath for however long it takes him to commit to his next project, hoping fervently that he doesn't repeat the six year gap between Jackie Brown and Kill Bill: Vol. 1.  The last several months have been one giant exhale as he preps Django Unchained, his Civil War-era Spaghetti Western that happens to be set in the South and follows a liberated slave on a righteous mission to find his beloved wife.  Most every story related to the film has been focused squarely on casting, but now there's concrete news on the technical side, as we know who Tarantinto has recruited to shoot and cut his latest tale.

Part of the fun of any Quentin Tarantino joint is seeing just who the director will cast to populate whatever strange, foul-mouthed world he's building on film.  He's currently knee-deep in preproduction on his next film, a Spaghetti Western set in the pre-Civil War American South, and so far, the casting on Django Unchained has not disappointed one bit, living up to both Tarantino's unique standards and his ambitious material.  With all the major roles filled, Tarantino is now assigning actors to smaller but still important parts, and the latest addition is Sacha Baron Cohen, the British comedy giant responsible for Ali G, Borat, and Bruno.

Django Unchained, the first film from writer-director Quentin Tarantino since Inglourious Basterds, is set to being production in January of 2012.  Since summer, Tarantino's often unexpected, typically eclectic casting has gotten a whole of attention, as is usually the case with whatever the man behind Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, and Kill Bill is cooking up.  As he's rounded out the supporting cast, the crucial female lead in Django Unchained has remained mysterious, with reports consistently suggesting that the auteur was looking for and unknown, but now the role of Broomhilda has been cast, and it's a familiar face.  According to Deadline, Kerry Washington has won the part, and will star alongside Jamie Foxx and Leonardo DiCaprio.