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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.

A sequel to the 2010 comedy Grown Ups is gearing up in order to meet its release date next summer.  As you'd expect, the ensemble cast of the first film is expected to return, with Adam Sandler leading the comedic cast who will once again play childhood friends reuniting as adults and facing their own maturity or lack therof.  The supporting cast, though, is being rounded out as you read, and today there's word that Taylor Lautner is likely to appear in Grown Ups 2.

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.

Puss in Boots is up for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film next week but this Friday, February 24th, it arrives on Blu-Ray and DVD. Puss in Boots director Chris Miller is a man of many talents. He worked his way up the ladder at DreamWorks, cutting his teeth as a story artist on Shrek (2001) while also writing additional dialogue and providing the voices for such characters as the Magic Mirror and Gepetto. For Shrek 2 (2004) Chris served as head of story production, which allowed him to work amongst different departments interfacing with the directors, writers, and the story department. He co-directed Shrek the Third before helming the franchise’s spin-off, Puss in Boots.

Puss in Boots is a prequel to the Shrek series that focuses on the character Puss in Boots (voiced by Antonio Banderas) and his adventures prior to his appearance in Shrek 2. Accompanied by his sidekicks, Humpty Dumpty (voiced by Zach Galifianakis) and Kitty Softpaws (voiced by Salma Hayek), Puss attempts to steal magic beans from the murderous outlaws Jack (voiced by Billy Bob Thorton) and Jill (voiced by Amy Sedaris).

The movie will be accompanied on the BluRay/DVD release by a 13-minute short film, entitled Puss in Boots: The Three Diablos. The short is directed by Raman Hui, Chris Miller’s co-director from Shrek the Third and will pick up where the film left off. The Three Diablos focuses on Puss’s quest to recover a Princess’s stolen ruby from the notorious French thief, The Whisperer. In order to help the Princess, he teams up with three little kittens, Adorable, Fuzzy, and Deadly, who prove they might be more of a hindrance than an asset.

I recently had a chance to speak with Chris Miller about Puss in Boots. The director discusses his new film, getting a creative boost from executive producer Guillermo del Toro, collaborating with his crew, the importance of his past jobs at DreamWorks, working with his wife, his philosophy on narrative-driven comedy, and a Puss in Boots sequel.

A new behind the scenes featurette for this summer's The Pirates! Band of Misfits serves as a three-and-a-half minute reminder that the stop motion animation process is really, really difficult.  Moving a puppet tiny fractions of an inch one frame at a time is time-consuming and meticulous work, and this new video will instill in anyone whose never considered a fuller appreciation for the old fashioned technique. 

With Arthur Christmas and Flushed Away British studio Aardman Animation has branched out into digital features, but thankfully, the institution behind Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run still work in stop-motion as well.  The Pirates! Band of Misfits looks to be very much in the Aardman wheelhouse, with no shortage of lovably odd characters, absurd humor, ingenious animation, and dose of British wit.

Just last week the first image from Savages arrived online, showing Benicio Del Toro rather menacingly blowing smoke into Blake Lively's face.  It was probably an appropriate introduction to the new film from Oliver Stone, one which follows a battle of wills and probably over the top violence between a trio of California pot-dealers and a vicious drug cartel.  Now there's a visual representation of the movie, and it looks like Universal is pretty confident in Savages, as the studio has moved the release date into prime summer territory.

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.

When Shrek hit theaters in 2001, the winkingly self-aware comedic fantasy tale announced DreamWorks Animation as a unique rival to Disney, which dominated the animation game for decades.  Audiences loved the adventures of Shrek, Donkey, and Princess Fiona, voiced respectively by Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, and Cameron Diaz, and the film was a huge hit.  DreamWorks pretty much immediately got to work on a sequel that would expand their fairy tale world and keep the clever references coming for the grown-ups in the audience.  When Shrek 2 debuted in 2004, it quickly became the most successful animated film of all time, a record it maintained until 2010, when Toy Story 3 finally unseated it.

While Shrek 2 introduced a whole mess of new characters, the most popular of them – and almost certainly the most popular element of the film itself – was Puss in Boots, a swashbuckling feline voiced by Antonio Banderas.  With his sword-swirling heroism and overzealous ladies' man charm, Puss in Boots is sort of a combination of Errol Flynn and Pepe Le Pew, with plenty of Latin suavity and kittenish adorability thrown in as well.

After four films, the Shrek franchise has retired, but Puss in Boots lives on his third theatrical adventure, Puss in Boots, a spin-off feature arriving in theaters this Friday.  Shrek the Third co-director Chris Miller directs the prequel, which follows Puss on a quest to find the mythical goose capable of laying golden eggs, a quest that leads him to his appearance in Shrek 2.  Originally conceived as a direct-to-DVD release, the project is now a 3D, family-friendly blockbuster poised to kickstart the new movie season.  IAR's Managing Editor Jami Philbrick was on hand at the Puss in Boots press conference in Los Angeles, where voice actors Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Zach Galifianakis, Billy Bob Thornton, and Amy Sedaris discussed their roles, fairy tales, and vocal acting.

Opening in theaters on October 28th is the new DreamWorks animated film Puss in Boots, which is based on the furry breakout character from the Shrek franchise. The movie was directed by Chris Miller (Shrek the Third) and executive produced by Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth). Actor Antonio Banderas (The Skin I Live In) reprises his role as the voice of the title character, and is joined by a talented cast of performers including Salma Hayek (Grown Ups), Zach Galifianakis (The Hangover Part II), Billy Bob Thorton (Faster), and Amy Sedaris (Tanner Hall). 

IAR's managing editor Jami Philbrick recently had a chance to speak with director Chris Miller about Puss in Boots. The director spoke candidly about the new film, the beloved character, Antonio Banderas' performance, casting Selma Hayek, and Guillermo del Toro's influence on the film.