Normally, a premise as hackneyed as this one — two brothers go off to war and when one is suspected of being dead his widow falls for the living brother — has about as much chance of being a decent flick as it does a Lifetime Original.

But the talent behind this picture is too huge to ignore. Director Jim Sheridan is back to challenging, emotionally human interest drama (we’ll forgive him his paycheck cashing 50 Cent gangster flick) with the talents of Natalie Portman, Jake Gyllenhaal and Tobie Maguire in front on the camera.

In Columbia Pictures’ Salt, Angelina Jolie stars as Evelyn Salt, a CIA officer who swore an oath to duty, honor, and country. When she is accused by a defector of being a Russian sleeper spy, Salt goes on the run to clear her name and ultimately prove she is a patriot. Using all her skills and years of experience as a covert operative, she must elude capture and protect her husband or the world’s most powerful forces will erase any trace of her existence.

This movie was originally written with Tom Cruise starring as Evan Salt (or something like that) but when he dropped out it was rewritten for Jolie.

Salt hits theaters on July 23, 2010.

First official trailer for Mike Newell’s big-screen adaptation of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. The film, which stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, and Ben Kingsley, is due in theaters May 28, 2010.  And you know what?  I had my doubts but this looks to be another solid Jerry Bruckheimer summer blockbuster.  Sure, you’ll forget it 20-minutes after leaving the theater, but man those two-hours sure will be fun.

Just a month until the movie comes out, John Hillcoat’s adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road gets a second, much better trailer.  The movie, and story, is a hard sell because, um, not to ruin it for people who haven’t read this book (wait, what?  Seriously run out and read this book now!) yet, but it’s not exactly uplifting.  It’s dark and bleak and to polish the humanity contained within the grime is often difficult.  It’s not for the faint of heart, nor is it for those that like tidy, shiny boxes to unwrap.

John Lennon as a young man.  I’m glad they didn’t just go with bland, look-a-like actors, but it’s a bit strange that Paul McCarthy looks nothing like he did as a young man.  Also?  How come John is the only Beatle that gets any love when it comes to feature films?  C’mon Hollywood give me a George Harrison biopic.  Pretty puh-lease.

This is a much better trailer, at least now I get the gist of the story and it’s not so much “oh look at me and my fancy CGI” which was all the last trailer wanted to do.  I might be sold with this one — even if Cameron did plagiarize his story from an old pulp novel.

If you’re going to make a movie about Nelson Mendela, it’s pretty much a given that Morgan Freeman would play the South Africa president. So it’s no surprise, then, that he shows up here in Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-baiting flick about Mendela’s early moments as President, in which he attempts to unite a post-apartheid country through the national rugby team.

Matt Damon shows up as leading player, Francois Pienaar. Of course, the team captain guides his team to the 1995 World Championship and everything in South Africa has been peaches and cream since then. Or something like that. Expect nominations aplenty when this is released on December 11.

Am I worried that director Paul Greengrass has turned an adaptation of Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s book Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone into a $100 million Bourne-esque action picture for Universal? 

Absolutely. This is a fairly standard cut action trailer. But that doesn’t make me want to see this movie any less.  Greengrass is, afterall, the Irish madman behind both kinetic Bourne movies and the politically charged  United 93  and Bloody Sunday.

“It’s great, I’ve seen it. They’re finishing some of the effects, and it’ll be ready for March. We got a $100m Iraq movie, so we’ll see!,” Damon said in an interview with Empire Magazine. “I do have high hopes for it, though. I think it’s really good. I know the Iraq movies haven’t been particularly popular so far, but hopefully this will find an audience. It’s a thriller, really, set against the canvas of Iraq in 2003.”

Universal needs to sell this movie (hence the straight forward trailer), but I’m guessing Greengrass has something far better and deeper up his sleeve than this trailer is letter on.

Okay, it’s been a little bit since we were first introduced to Benecio del Toro’s Wolfman. And I’m not sold on director Joe Johnston, but I’ll admit this looks good. I might even be able to overlooked the strange decision to cast Anthony Hopkins as del Toro’s dad. You know? Genetics and all, they look nothing alike. And I should be able to forgive Emily Blunt from marrying Jim Halpert. [via]

When you woke up this morning, you probably said to yourself, “you know? I think I really want to watch a superhero movie about a car.” Welp, your dreams have come true thanks to Wanted’s Timur Blackmambatov and directers Alexandr Voitinsky and Dmitriy Kiselev.  The $8 million dollar movie comes to us courtesy of Mother Russia and though I don’t understand what’s going on since it’s in the native tongue, I do have the foggy notion that it seems to be a sweet mashup between Transformers and Spider-Man, can you dig it? [via]

It seems that Mel Gibson, who hasn’t acted in a movie in seven years, couldn’t be bothered to perfect his Boston accent.  Not that I’m complaining, because it’s a mercurial thing, the boston accent, something most native Bostonians spend a lifetime running away from.  Well, the educated anyways. 

This thriller, where Gibson sees his daughter murdered on the steps of his home and that MacGuffin leads to shady corporate coverups, looks like standard material.  But I’m interested!

Martin Campbell (Goldeneye, Casino Royale) directs the movie, which is a remake of the very highly regarded UK mini-series from 1985 – also directed by Martin Campbell.

Goddamn, if I didn’t shed a tear with Randy Newman singing over the montage of Andy growing up.  Men of a certain age and time have been there when the difficult decision to put away childish things comes, and yet, we hold on to toys and action figures and recycle our memories into sugar-coated summer movies in the hopes of feeling a fleeting moment of happiness that we felt then.

It’s obvious this one, written by Oscar-winner Michael Arndt, is aiming for the themes of homelessness and abandonment and finding a place in the world as it prepares to leave you behind.

Thomas Jane making his directorial debut with what looks to be a fairly creepy, fun movie.  It’s going straight to DVD, which means you can look for it on torrent sites within the next few months.

Geek Tyrants said it, “hearkens back to classic Twilight Zone and film noir elements, rides the dark edge of comedy, and feels like an old DC Comic book that you can reach in to… and often times it feels like it will grab you right back.”