Title: For Ellen Director: So Yong Kim Cast: Paul Dano, Jon Heder, Jena Malone and Margarita Levieva Sometimes a film is trying too hard to be interesting and insightful. Sometimes a film is trying too hard to be something else. Sometimes a film is trying too hard to make a point in an engaging way. In the case of the new film by filmmaker So Yong Kim, “For Ellen,” it just tries too hard with a gain a great sense of direction, movement or character, which is something I know the movie is trying too hard to strive for. “For Ellen” follows the story of Joby Taylor (Paul Dano), an…

I’d like to bet there’s a gift for everyone in this Movie News Cheat Sheet because this week’s edition is packed with a particularly eclectic selection of material. My favorite industry present? Starship Troopers is set to return! Ender’s Game fans will be happy to know that the incredibly talented Hailee Steinfeld was offered the role of Petra Arkanian in the big screen adaptation while those who hold the Where’s Waldo books near and dear to their hearts will be thrilled to find out that the feature production is moving forward with screenwriter Todd Berger. We’ve also got a nice sized package of first looks including images from Wrath of…

Director Paul Weitz’s official first trailer for Being Flynn has hit the web. The movie is an adaption from Nick Flynn’s memoir, published in 2004, that was titled Another Bullshit Night in Suck City. The big screen feature includes well known actors Robert De Niro, Julianne Moore, Paul Dano and Olivia Thirlby. Set to open in the spring of 2012, Being Flynn chronicles one writer’s discovery of his absentee father, who he encounters years later, homeless and living in a shelter. According to the cast line-up Paul Dano will play the central character with Robert De Niro on board as the homeless father. Julianne Moore will play Dano’s mother, and…

“Cowboys & Aliens” will saddle up to be released on Blu-ray and DVD December 6, just in time for Christmas. The special features on the DVD and Blu-ray include “Igniting the Sky: The Making Of ‘Cowboys & Aliens’, a featurette which includes interviews with Jon Favreau, Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, visual effects companies Legacy Effects and ILM as well as stars Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig and Olivia Wilde; “Finding the Story–’Cowboys & Aliens,’ which features the filmmakers, writers and cast explaining how the film found its voice on screen; “The Scope of the Spectacle,” a look at the camerawork for the film and stuntwork by Terry Leonard and…

Title: Cowboys & Aliens Directed By: Jon Favreau Starring: Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Paul Dano, Adam Beach, Sam Rockwell, Noah Ringer, Keith Carradine, Walton Goggins If you’re going to make a movie called Cowboys & Aliens, there better be some cowboys and aliens. In combining the two genres, the filmmakers had two options, miraculously create some sort of scenario that feels raw and believable or just go all out, embracing absurdities of both. Forget the fact that the former would have been a near impossible achievement; who wants to watch some schmaltzy drama about cowboys fighting aliens? The filmmakers not only go for the latter option, but they…

If there’s another young actress you should be watching, it has to be Olivia Thirlby. She’s been popping up in all sorts of different feature films left and right, even recently with “Solitary Man” to “No Strings Attached.” The young actress has landed herself a nice new main role in the now-titled “Another Bullshit Night In Suck City” perched over at Focus Features. Thirbly will be sharing the big screen alongside Robert De Niro and Paul Dano. The story is based off the memoir written by Nick Flynn. Paul Weitz will not only be directing the production but will be adapting “Suck City” for the big screen. Weitz’s previous written…

Actor Paul Dano, who has appeared in such movies as ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ and ‘There Will Be Blood,’ is currently negotiating a deal to join the cast of  ‘Looper,’ Slashfilm.com is reporting. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt are already on board to star in the sci-fi thriller. It will be helmed by Gordon-Levitt’s ‘Brick’ director, Rian Johnson. The film, which is set in the future, will follow a group of killers, called loopers, who work for a crime syndicate. They send people back in time to kill for them and dispose of the bodies. Gordon-Levitt portrays Joe, a looper in the past who is forced to go on…

Magnolia Pictures sent us this brand new movie poster from the upcoming film “The Good Heart” written and directed by Dagur Kari. It has a running time of 95 minutes. Magnolia Pictures will release “The Good Heart” on VOD April 2 and in theaters on April 30. Synopsis: Brian Cox stars as Jacques, the curmudgeonly owner of a gritty New York dive bar that serves as home to a motley assortment of professional drinkers. Jacques is determinedly drinking and smoking himself to death when he meets Lucas (Paul Dano), a homeless young man who has already given up on life. In the hopes of keeping his legacy alive, Jacques deems…

Paul Dano (“There Will Be Blood,” “Where The Wild Things Are”) is set to star in the upcoming indie drama “For Ellen.” So Young Kim (“In Between Days”) is directing based on his screenplay, about a struggling indie rock musician who returns to the small Midwestern town he came from to deal with a divorce after a horrific car accident. Jon Heder is also onboard to play a supporting role. Jen Gatien and Bradley Rust Gray are producing the project, which will begin shooting this month in upstate New York. Dano, alongside Dave Berlin and Tricia Quick, will be executive produciong “For Ellen.” Stay tuned for more on “For Ellen”…

Check out a few more really cool photos from the fantasy film “Where the Wild Things Are” by director Spike Jonze (Jackass Number Two) and starring Forest Whitaker (The Expendables, Street Kings), Paul Dano (There Will Be Blood), Catherine Keener (Hamlet 2, Capote) and James Gandolfini (The Sopranos). Click Here for more photos, news and videos from Where The Wild Things Are. Synopsis: “Where the Wild Things Are” is an adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s classic children’s story, where Max, a disobedient little boy sent to bed without his supper, creates his own world–a forest inhabited by ferocious wild creatures that crown Max as their ruler. Stay tuned to Shockya.com for…