Killing Them Softly is set to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, that annual cinematic extravaganza on the French Riviera.  In advance of the premiere, today we have the very first clip from the new feature by director Andrew Dominik, the man behind the excellent Chopper and The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford.

Just yesterday, Disney announced that Maleficent, the live-action retelling of the Sleeping Beauty story starring Angelina Jolie as the eponymous villain, would arrive in theaters on March 14, 2014.  Before she moves into the realm of a fantasy origin tale, though, Jolie might just join a very different type of project for a brief spell.  That would be The Counselor, the next film from Ridley Scott that is attracting attention from very famous people and a potential distributor.

Particularly when you're talking about potential franchise-starters, studios put a lot of consideration into release dates for their big releases.  After all, choosing a strategically inopportune date could cripple not just that film, but negate what otherwise would've been a profitable series.  Paramount Pictures has made adjustments to two major releases, World War Z and One Shot, and also set their live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot for Christmas 2013.

Way back last May, we saw the first image from Cogan's Trade, starring International Movie Star® Brad Pitt as the title character, Jackie Cogan.  Since the protagonist is a professional dealer in violence as a mafia enforcer, Pitt looked appropriately unscrupulous, sporting a greasy sorta-pompadour, tough guy leather jacket, and a giant shotgun. 

After months of hearing nothing about film, several new images from the film have emerged online today.  One eliminates the threatening shotgun but goes in closer on Pitt's profitably handsome face, while another provides our very first look at Ray Liotta playing the card game that forms the crux of the Cogan's Trade plot.  Yet another offers the first look at James Gandolfini wearing some sweet tea-shades.

With its famous traffic, ubiquitous smog, and abhorrent city planning, Los Angeles tends be a bit of a punching bag for the rest of the country, from the Midwest to New York City.  While one could argue the cultural and aesthetic value of the city all day, it is without a doubt the premiere city in America for moviegoing.  There are, of course upscale theaters like the Arclight or the Landmark, and there are unparalleled revival houses such as the New Beverly, the Aero, and the the Silent Movie Theater. 

In addition to this embarrassment of riches, there's the cinematic programming at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Wilshire Boulevard.  Film Independent, the very same non-profit organization that puts on the annual Independent Spirit Awards celebrating the best in independent film, has a year-round weekly film series curated by critical luminary and KCRW's The Treatment host Elvis Mitchell.

A year ago, it looked unlikely that World War Z would get made.  The adaptation of author Max Brooks's fictitious oral history of a nearly-apocalyptic global zombie infestation was stuck in development with a price tag big enough that Paramount Picture wasn't willing to roll the dice, even with bestselling source material, Brad Pitt attached to star and produce, and Marc Forster set to direct.  Now, with the film in post-production for a release in December of this year, it looks like Paramount is keen on turning the film it almost didn't make into a franchise, with the World War Z story spanning three films.

As an actress, Angelina Jolie certainly doesn't need much introduction.  One of the most famous and bankable stars in contemporary film, Jolie won an Academy Award for her incendiary supporting turn in 1999's Girl, Interrupted and was nominated almost a decade later based on her work in Changeling, directed by Clint Eastwood.  Her credits include performances in films as varied as A Mighty Heart, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Wanted, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Salt, and The Good Shepherd.  As a fixture on the covers of magazines adorning supermarket checkout aisles, she arguably needs even less introduction, thanks to being one-half of one of the most famous couples on the planet.

Already a multi-hyphenate, Jolie is adding writer and director to her her resume, as her first produced screenplay is also her feature directorial debut.  In the Land of Blood and Honey, which opens in limited release on December 23rd, is reflective of Jolie's well-documented global humanitarian efforts, particularly her status as a Goodwill Ambassador United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.  The takes place in Sarajevo during the Bosnian War of 1992-1995.  The film centers on two fictitious characters, a Bosnian solider played by Goran Kostic and Zana Marjanovic as a Bosniak woman with whom he had a connection before the war.  While chronicling the brutality of war and ethnic cleansing, the story shows how these two characters and their relationship are changed by the incredible and horrific circumstances surrounding them.

With the release of In the Land of Blood and Honey imminent, Angelina Jolie is promoting the feature extensively.  IAR's managing editor Jami Philbrick recently had the rare opportunity, along with other select members of the press, to sit down and speak with the Jolie about her directorial debut.  Jolie discussed how the film came about, directing for the first time, the difficulties of making a modern war movie in two different languages, and the responsibility to depict these events with the appropriate honesty and force.

Several months from now, when we're totally tired of talking or thinking about movie awards while cancer researchers go unheralded, we'll look back on the days before awards season began.  Those days were pretty much yesterday, as today seemed to mark a shift into full-on awards craziness.  There were last night's Gotham Awards (The Tree of Life and Beginners both received Best Picture adulation), then this morning, Film Independent announced its 2012 Independent Spirit Award nominees.  Now, we have the full list of New York Film Critics Circle winners for 2011.

Love letter to silent film The Artist, which is also a Best Picture nominee at the Spirit Awards and seems destined to be an Academy Award favorite, won the top prize, and its writer and director Michel Hazanavicius took home the prize for Best Director.  Brad Pitt nabbed the actor award for his work in both Moneyball and The Tree of Life, while prestige-machine Meryl Streep was similarly recognized for playing Margaret Thatcher in the upcoming The Iron Lady.  The supporting categories were more interesting, with Albert Brooks deservedly winning based on his menacing turn in Drive and Jessica Chastain continuing The Year of Chastain with a win for The Tree of Life, Take Shelter, and The Help.

In 2008, Warner Bros snagged up the rights to Katsuhiro Otomo's legendary manga and with it, the right to make a live-action version of his even more well-regarded 1988 anime Akira.  The studio envisioned the futuristic dystopian tale, thoroughly rooted in cyberpunk coolness, Japanese post-WWII psychology, and general weirdness, as a big Americanized tentpole action film.  In the three years since, however, they've had plenty of trouble getting Akira off the ground.  It would seem those troubles have been sorted out, as Akira has reportedly been given the green light under Spanish helmer Jaume Collet-Serra, and both studio and director are already keen on an actor to play one of the leads.

We didn't really need any further confirmation, but this weekend provides even more proof that America loves its cinematic robots, particularly when they're fighting each other.  After Transformers: Dark of the Moon showcased an almost fetishistic dedication to robot-combat over the summer, Fall has its own robo-pummeling film with Real Steel.  One of only two wide releases over the weekend, the family-oriented, science fiction-tinged boxing drama debuted in first place, almost tripling the estimated gross of the weekend's other new release, George Clooney's considerably more low-key political drama The Ides of March.