It probably needs no explication, since his first feature as a writer-director was titled Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane, but Joe Carnahan makes masculine movies.  His latest movie, The Grey, is currently the number one movie in America, having made an estimated $20 million in its opening weekend, and now that Carnahan has put Liam Neeson in a fistfight with vicious wolves, where does he go from there?  It looks like might venture into Bronson territory, as he's apparently on board to write and direct a remake of Death Wish, the 1974 revenge tale starring the one and only Charles Bronson.

"If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you."  With those lines in 2008's Taken, Oscar-caliber actor Liam Neeson began a new phase in his career as a leading man who can carry and action movie.  With his gravitas and imposing 6' 4" physicality, he'd played formidable figures before, but now he's a straight-up actionhero.  The Grey, which is more commonly known as "That movie where Liam Neeson fistfights wolves," continued his strong showing, debuting in first place this weekend.

Opening in theaters on January 27th is the new action-packed, wilderness-survival thriller from director Joe Carnahan (The A-Team) called The Grey. The movie features an exceptional cast of veteran actors including Liam Neeson (Taken), Dermot Mulroney (Abduction), Frank Grillo (Warrior), James Badge Dale (Shame), Dallas Roberts (3:10 to Yuma), Joe Anderson (The Crazies), and Nonso Anozie (Conan the Barbarian).

IAR's Managing Editor Jami Philbrick recently had an opportunity to sit down with actors Dermot Mulroney, Frank Grillo, James Badge Dale, and Dallas Roberts to discuss their work on The Grey. The exceptional group of actors talked about the new film, their characters' arcs, working with director Joe Carnahan, the movie's physically taxing demands, and why Frank Grillo actually got himself arrested to research his role.

Opening in theaters on January 27th is the new action-packed, wilderness-survival thriller from director Joe Carnahan (The A-Team) called The Grey. The movie features an exceptional cast of veteran actors including Liam Neeson (Taken), Dermot Mulroney (Abduction), Frank Grillo (Warrior), James Badge Dale (Shame), Dallas Roberts (3:10 to Yuma), Joe Anderson (The Crazies), and Nonso Anozie (Conan the Barbarian).

IAR's Managing Editor Jami Philbrick recently had an opportunity to sit down with director Joe Carnahan to discuss his work on The Grey. Carnahan talked about the new film, why he chose to depict the wolves as abnormally large, human nature's willingness to adapt and survive, reuniting with Neeson after The A-Team, and the production's extremely difficult weather conditions. 

With just a few days until the film actually hits theaters, a new trailer for The Grey has made its way online.  This trailer is notable for two things, being an age-restricted red band deal, and also being thoroughly badass.  It quite effectively exploits several very basic fears both modern and instinctual, from the fear of being in a place crash to the fear of freezing to death to the altogether more immediate fear of getting eaten by f*cking wolves. 

Opening in theaters on January 27th is the new action-packed, wilderness-survival thriller from director Joe Carnahan (The A-Team) called The Grey. The movie features an exceptional cast of veteran actors including Liam Neeson (Taken), Dermot Mulroney (Abduction), Frank Grillo (Warrior), James Badge Dale (Shame), Dallas Roberts (3:10 to Yuma), Joe Anderson (The Crazies), and Nonso Anozie (Conan the Barbarian).

IAR's Managing Editor Jami Philbrick recently had an opportunity to sit down with Academy Award-nominated actor Liam Neeson to discuss his work on The Grey. Neeson talked candidly about the new film, human nature's willingness to survive, his character's own sudden desire to live; the mantra that kept him going, what Neeson learned about himself from making the movie, and why in his opinion Joe Carnahan was the only man capable of directing the film. 

Synopsis:  In The Grey, Liam Neeson leads an unruly group of oil-rig roughnecks when their plane crashes into the remote Alaskan wilderness. Battling mortal injuries and merciless weather, the survivors have only a few days to escape the icy elements and a vicious pack of rogue wolves on the hunt before their time runs out.

Cast: Liam Neeson

Director: Joe Carnahan

Genre:  Action & Adventure | Drama

Release Date: January 27th, 2011

If you're a film fan in Los Angeles, then you no doubt have an unapologetic love of the New Beverly, a wonderful revival theater that excels in scheduling films obscure, beloved, bygone, and everywhere in between.  If you're a film fan virtually anywhere on the planet Earth, then you no doubt have an unapologetic love of Edgar Wright, the director and (in all cases but one) co-writer of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and Spaced.  Not just a filmmaker of unique, once-in-a-generation gifts, Wright is also a sentient film encyclopedia who has brought his love of film to the New Bev with two previous scheduling seasons, is hosting yet another, and for the Wright Stuff III, he's exploiting gaps in his knowledge. 

The Wright Stuff III, starting this Friday, is a week of movies Edgar Wright has never seen, all shown in the spirit, "that you can’t be late to a party if the party never stops."  The eclectic collection of films include a few of my favorites (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg!), but even if you're not familiar with them all, you'll be treated to appearances by not just Wright himself, but the likes of Peter Bogdanovich, Rian Johnson, James Gunn, Joe Carnahan, John Landis, Elvis Mitchell, and Patton Oswalt.

Three new images from The Grey have popped up online today, and if you're wondering what The Grey is exactly, it's the movie where Liam Neeson fights a feral wolf, using only a little knife and some jagged mine booze bottles affixed to his fist.  Sadly, these images do not contain Neeson engaging in fisticuffs with a wild animal, but they do remind us that The Grey is also a tense survival thriller about a group of oil-drilling roughnecks who find themselves stranded in the remote Alaskan wilderness following a plane crash.  And because that situation isn't quite horrific enough, they're being picked off by a pack of rogue wolves who presumably love the taste of roughnecks.  So check out the pictures below, knowing in your heart that once The Grey will include an  Oscar caliber actor wrasslin' with a wolf.*

Pop quiz time, kids.  You're designing a poster for an action movie that stars a very recognizable actor.  How do you incorporate said actor while also informing audiences that he's starring in an action movie?  According to time-honored tradition, you make the movie star the central ingredient of the poster and be certain that he's conspicuously holding a gun.  That's the case with the new poster for Contraband, starring Mark Wahlberg as a former criminal who must get back in the smuggling game to protect his family.  That poster leads off a One-Sheet Roundup that also includes The Grey, a survival thriller in which Liam Neeson leads a bunch of grizzled oilmen against feral wolves after a crash in the Alaskan wilderness.  And lastly, there's the latest poster for 11-11-11, the upcoming apocalyptic horror tale from Saw II-IV director Darren Lynn Bousman.