James McAvoy & Jessica Chastain Fall Out of Love in 'The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby' Trailer

For his directorial debut, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, Ned Benson has done something rather special. He's giving audiences as many ways to see the film as possible, each presenting the same love story from a different perspective.  There are the two 95-minute versions titled The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her and The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him, which played the festival circuit last year. And then there's the combined 2-hour version The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them, which opens this fall. The hope is that audiences will be so invested they'll want to see all three, and the new trailer makes a pretty good case why they should.

James McAvoy and Jessica Chastain are at the heart of this one, playing a married couple who have lost what they once had for one another. As their relationship deteriorates the story goes back to the beginning to find out where things went wrong. So basically this reads, and occasionally looks, a lot like Blue Valentine with many of the same joys and pains explored. William Hurt, Viola Davis, Nina Arianda, Bill Hader, Isabelle Huppert, and Jess Weixler make up a supporting cast more than capable of keeping up with the two stars.

The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them opens September 26th with the other movies arriving later this year.

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New Trailer for 'Rob the Mob' with Michael Pitt, Ray Romano, and Andy Garcia

A few years ago director Raymond De Felitta made a minor ripple throughout the art house scene with City Island, an easy little family comedy that felt like a throwback to the indie ensembles of the 1990s. It featured a great lead performance by Andy Garcia as a cop/wannabe actor, and apparently it worked out pretty well because he's starring in De Felitta's follow-up, the unusual crime film Rob the Mob.

The first trailer has arrived and the reason this is "unusual" is the casting, which includes Michael Pitt, Broadway star Nina Arianda, and Ray Romano in a rare dramatic role. The story is pretty compelling  as well, set in 1992 and based on the true story of a Queens couple who robbed mafia-owned establishments repeatedly until they found something huge and became targets themselves.

Looks pretty solid, and that cast should keep things interesting since it's unlikely we'll see this mix ever again. Rob the Mob opens next year on February 21st.

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Viola Davis, Bill Hader, Isabelle Huppert and more join 'The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby'

Already boasting a unique two-film premise that tells the same story from differing perspectives, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby is looking like one of the more unique movies we'll see in 2013. Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy are set to play the husband and wife couple at the center of the story, and now as production kicks off, the rest of the cast has been filled out with some major names coming aboard.

Written and directed by Ned Benson, the film has now been joined by Viola Davis, William Hurt, Isabelle Huppert, Bill Hader, Ciaran Hinds, and Jess Weixler(Teeth), making for one incredibly strong cast that promises this will be an actor's showcase. Nina Arianda, who recently snagged the lead in Sean Durkin's Janis Joplin biopic, is set to play the couple's therapist, but we don't know anything about the other roles yet. The story is set in New York City, and has Chastain playing a wife who makes the surprising decision to return to college, while McAvoy is her restauranteur husband. Doesn't sound all that thrilling on the surface, but there must be something more to it with so many eager to be a part of it.

The two movies are said to be totally stand-alone, but make up one complete story when put together. It's an ambitious story, but with a cast like this that shouldn't be a problem nailing it just right. [ScreenDaily]

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Sure Shots: Chris Cooper; Cole Hauser; Janis Joplin

* John Wells and vaunted character actor Chris Cooper recently worked together on the downsizing drama, The Company Men, and they must have hit it off like gangbusters. Cooper is the latest to join the writer/director's adaptation of August: Osage County, based on Tracy Letts' acclaimed stageplay. Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts are starring in the film, about the estranged Weston women, who come back home to Oklahoma when a family crisis arises.  Streep will play the hard-drinking matriarch, while Roberts is her contentious older daughter. Andrea Riseborough is in talks to play the youngest daughter, while Cooper be Streep's brother-in-law. [Variety]

* With Radha Mitchell just having come aboard Antoine Fuqua's White House thriller, Olympus Has Fallen, the latest to try and save the day is Cole Hauser. Usually a bad guy, Hauser will actually play a Secret Service agent in the film, which has Gerard Butler as the hard luck ex-agent who comes to the rescue when the White House is taken over by North Korean terrorists. Aaron Eckhart and Angela Bassett are co-starring. Hauser just recently wrapped up playing the villain in A Good Day to Die Hard.  Don't be surprised if Hauser's character turns out to be a traitor or something. [THR]

* After years of various filmmakers trying to put together a biopic on the life of singer/songwriter Janis Joplin, it looks like one is finally going to happen, and the talent is pretty impressive. Sean Durkin(Martha Marcy May Marlene) is set to direct Joplin, with rising star Nina Arianda taking on the difficult task of emulating Joplin's presence. Arianda recently appeared in Tower Heist and played Michael Sheen's wife in Midnight in Paris. She's also a Tony Award winning stage actress and nearly landed a role in Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty. Producer Peter Newman has the rights to Joplin's songs with her band, Big Brother and the Holding Company, as well as the biographies chronicling her life. The film will follow the last six months of her life, before she tragically died of a drug overdose in 1970. Arianda will do all the singing herself, and the small budget film will be done for roughly $20M. Filming is set to begin early next year. [Deadline]

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