Last summer, Chris Hemsworth entered the American cultural consciousness as the title character in Marvel's Thor, but his younger sibling, Liam Hemsworth, is on track to match or exceed his brother as a bankable movie star here in the States.  Liam Hemsworth is playing romantic co-lead Gale Hawthorne in this spring's The Hunger Games and its inevitable sequels, and he's the youngest rough-and-tumble member of Sylvester Stallone's mercenary team in this summer's The Expendables 2.  Now, he's signed on to show his full dramatic potential in Timeless, an emotional adventure to be directed by Phillip Noyce.

On Monday, the internet was thrown into a royal tizzy when it was revealed (spoilers, I guess) that The Dark Knight Rises, the final installment of Christopher Nolan's Bat-saga, will take place a full eight years after the second film, The Dark Knight.  The unexpected tends to cause a whole lot of nervousness amongst eager fans, but it's an interesting choice.  Batman Begins showed Bruce Wayne taking up his Bat-mantle, The Dark Knight had him accepting that it isn't a short-term kind of gig, and now The Dark Knight Rises will take him somewhere entirely new and different.  Though he doesn't go into specifics, Christian Bale has briefly discussed Bruce, Batman, and his three-film journey.

After The Fighter became a huge critical and commercial success last year, director David O. Russell found himself in a good position for his next project, but what that project would be took a little while to pin down.  The man behind Three Kings, Flirting With Disaster, and Spanking the Monkey was attached to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, but he departed that shamblefest and is currently making The Silver Linings Playbook, a dramatic comedy centered on a broken man who moves in with his mother after spending a few years in an institution.  An official synopsis has made its way online, along with the first official images from the film, featuring Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro, and Jacki Weaver.

A new extended television spot for the upcoming family-friendly boxing tale Real Steel plays up the two things that seemingly every movie set in the business of pugilism must incorporate: an underdog story and some appropriately bruising boxing sequences.  It does the first by establishing Hugh Jackman as a washed up prizefighter who gets his ass kicked and is generally having a bad run of luck.  It does the second with lots and lots of very expensive visual effects depicting eight foot tall robots engaging in metal-on-metal action, as sports in the future of Real Steel are dominated by a boxing league in which the combatants are not sweaty humans, but are instead remote-control robots roughing each other up for the entertainment of America.

Netflix's streaming Watch Instantly service is fast becoming America's favorite way to watch movies. The library of available titles is so vast and mutable that you, the avid instant watcher, could no doubt use a guide as you navigate the streaming frontier.

Luckily for you, we'll be here every Tuesday to update you on the latest titles available for instant-watching, as well as bringing attention some gems and even some enjoyable calamities out there in the instantly watchable wilds.

After his success with The Fighter last year, director David O. Russell made a surprise move by signing to Sony's videogame adaptation Uncharted: Drake's Fortune.  Though he brought frequent collaborator Mark Wahlberg with him, fans of the game were irked by liberties Russell was looking to take with the property, and eventually he left the project due to creative differences.  According to Variety, Sony has found their new Uncharted director in Neil Burger, who most recently directed this spring's hit Limitless.

One of the things that sets the MTV Movie Awards apart from other, more staid and self-congratulatory awards shows is that the frequently unconventional categories are actually fun and unique.  Best Scared As Sh*t Performance, for example, is not a category you'll find at the Golden Globes.  The Best Fight competition this year is of particular interest, and has inspired me to advocate for one specific entry: Amy Adams versus the seven unstoppable Ward/Ecklund sisters in David O. Russell's The Fighter.  Allow me to break down exactly why The Fighter deserves your vote.

Mark Wahlberg has accomplished the rare feat of transitioning from a hip-hop frontman and underwear model to Oscar nominated actor and credible leading man.  Now, with credibility to burn, it appears that the erstwhile Marky Mark might just facilitate Justin Bieber's inevitable move into acting, as Wahlberg and Bieber are in negotiations with Paramount to co-star in an untitled drama about street basketball.

Mark Wahlberg's in a good place these days.  The erstwhile Funky Bunch leader's passion project, The Fighter, which he spent years laboring on, was a critical and commercial success.  Last summer's The Other Guys, in which Wahlberg bickered to comedic effect with Will Ferrell, didn't do too badly, either.  He's currently involved in the action thriller Contraband and the comedy Ted, which will be the live action debut for Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane.  Now, it looks like Universal is also developing an action-comedy titled Bait and Switch for Wahlberg to star. 

It's official, director Zack Snyder has tapped three-time Academy Award nominee Amy Adams to play Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane in his upcoming reboot of Superman. The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Snyder called Adams yesterday from Paris, where he is promoting his latest film Sucker Punch, to give her the good news. "There was a big, giant search for Lois." Snyder said. "For us it was a big thing and obviously a really important role. We did a lot of auditioning but we had this meeting with Amy Adams and after that I just felt she was perfect for it."