New posters for 'Hell Baby', 'Pacific Rim', 'As I Lay Dying', and more

Hell Baby is one of the two films I saw at Sundance that I still haven't written a review for. Not because it was bad or anything, but mainly because I wrote about twenty reviews in the span of a few days and just wanted something to enjoy without thinking. It turned out to be pretty funny, even if it's basically an SNL skit stretched thin over 90 minutes. Written and directed by Reno 911! creators Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant, the film stars Rob Corddry (is he everywhere now or what?) and Leslie Bibb as an expectant couple who move into a run-down and obviously haunted New Orleans home, only to discover that the child growing within her may be the spawn of Satan. Watch out for Keegan Michael Key as the nosy neighbor, who always seems to pop up at the worst possible moment. No release date has been set, but hopefully we get that and a trailer soon.

For obvious reasons, Warner Bros. has focused their marketing energy on the robotic Jaegers in Gullermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim, but let's not forget that the human cast is just as mighty. They've released a handful of new character posters featuring my future ex-wife Rinko Kikuchi as Mako Mori, Charlie Hunnam as Raleigh Becket, and Idris Elba as Stacker Pentecost. They'll lead the human resistance against the gigantic, invading creatures known as kaiju. Pacific Rim stomps into theaters on July 12th.

James Franco's adaptation of William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying premieres later this month at Cannes (if you're going, color me jealous), and here's a new festival poster to help signal its arrival. Franco pulls triple-duty writing, directing, and starring in the film which follows a Mississippi family's troubled attempts to fulfill their matriarch's dying wish to be buried in another town. Danny McBride, Logan Marshall-Green, Ahna O'Reilly, Jim Parrack, and Tim Blake Nelson co-star, and the big question is how Franco plans to structure the material, which many have claimed is too unwieldy (15 narrators, 59 chapters) for the big screen.

An instrument of good, an instrument of evil, and an instrument of pure chaos. The latest character posters for The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones encompass all three, featuring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Robert Sheehan, and Godfrey Gao. The film version of Cassandra Clare's novel stars Lily Collins as Clary Fray, a regular teen who learns she is part of a half-angel/half-human race of Shadowhunters who protect the world from demons. With a prequel already in development, Sony and Screen Gems have some pretty high hopes this will be the next big YA craze. Not sure I agree with that assessment.  We'll find out on August 23rd, though.