While the film lover in me might be happy to see Matt Damon branching out with roles that don't trade on his looks, the red-blooded girl in me is happy to see Damon back in fighting form. Empire has the first still from the Iraq drama, The Green Zone, and he's back to the Matt Damon that we all know and love.

Zone is based on the 2006 book Imperial Life in the Emerald City, by journalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran. Damon stars as Chief Officer Roy Miller, a soldier stationed in Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein charged with the task of locating weapons of mass destruction. During the investigation, Miller begins to suspect that the WMDs may not exist, and then things really get dangerous. Amy Ryan also stars as a NYT correspondent, along with Jason Isaacs and Brendan Gleeson as fellow military men.

Studios might have a 'complicated relationship' with Iraq war films, but there is no chance that Zone is going to fall into the same trap of preaching to audiences. Damon made it pretty clear to Empire that Zone is strictly a Hollywood affair: "[We're] not trying to make a statement, particularly with a movie that costs $80 or $90 million. Hopefully this will feel like an accurate portrayal of what things were like for these guys. You can't do a polemic – you should be blogging if that's what you want to do." Maybe it's for the best, but I happen to think there is nothing wrong with mixing a little politics into your entertainment -- how about you?

Green Zone is expected to arrive in theaters in 2010.

I'm not exactly sure how the act of delivering silly little video games translates into tickets bought at the multiplex, but I suppose it works like this: Sony created the tie-in games, and now I'm telling you about them. So ... I guess the method works.

Anyway, it's a slow holiday weekend, which means you might have some time to waste on clicky little browser-based video games that are based on a pair of upcoming comedies. Click here for the Donkey Kong-esque misadventures on The Pineapple Express, or click here for the "whack-a-mole" game starring Step Brothers Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly.

I'm definitely looking forward to both comedies ... but I'll just stick to my beloved Zuma, thanks. (Good luck making a movie out of that game.)

Empire has been given an exclusive new photo from the highly anticipated remake of The Wolf Man. Click the photo to the right to see the whole thing, and then feel free to begin eagerly anticipating April even more than you already are. (Woohoo, April!) The pic respresents the first official non-lupine look at Benicio del Toro as Lawrence Talbot. And, costume nerd that I am, I'm in love with his Gothic cloak. This movie promises to make me drunk on Victorian drapery.

It also provides the first look at Emily Blunt and Anthony Hopkins, both of whom are nearly unrecognizable. Blunt is so stripped of make-up that she looks straight out of a tintype. She plays Gwen Conliffe, the fiancee of Talbot's recently deceased brother, whom the werewolf-to-be begins developing an affection for her. Hopefully, it's for her personality, and not as a late night snack. Wait, that didn't sound right.

Hopkins, of course, plays the senior Talbot, who is estranged from Lawrence long before he turns lycanthropic. If Empire and IMDB didn't tell me otherwise, I would argue that it was Richard Briers in the photo and not Sir Anthony. Really, everyone but del Toro is unrecognizable in this photo, so kudos to the make-up and hair department.

The Wolf Man is set to be released April 3rd, 2009. I still wish they would release this in the fall, but perhaps a copious amount of bloodshed is just what springtime needs.

The rule of thumb in this film blogging world of ours is, what goes up must come down. In other words, any trailer that finds itself premiering on YouTube can only find itself taken down from YouTube. So, for now, let us offer you what appears to be the teaser for this winter's big-budget remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still, in which an alien visitor (Keanu Reeves) gives us Earth denizens a hefty heads-up that if we don't straighten up our act, he and his giant robot friend will do it for us ...

Now, I may or may not be entering spoiler territory with this following paragraph, so feel free to skip it (in that case, long story short: also stars Jennifer Connelly and due in theaters on December 12th) -- BUT, from what I can recall reading at one point, our main man's angle this time around is not concerns of nuclear warfare (that's SO 1951!), but rather more environmentally-fixated priorities. Who knew that between this, WALL-E, and The Happening that the big H'wood cared so much about the state of our planet.

On the other hand, pitched properly, green can only equal more green in their eyes.

[thanks to Film Web]

(UPDATE: the Quicktime trailer appears to have gone up.)

UPDATE: Here's the trailer in Quicktime quality.

Of all the films I'm looking forward to this fall, Blindness ranks fairly high up there. Canadian distributor Alliance has just made available a full trailer that proves to be fairly intriguing, as an optometrist (Mark Ruffalo) and his seemingly immune wife (Julianne Moore) cope with an inexplicable epidemic of sight loss.

I'm a sucker for most anything vaguely apocalyptic, and while this very well could turn out to be akin to watching the first act of Children of Men through a milk-filled mask (which I've done, mind you), the prestige behind the project* says otherwise. We have acclaimed screenwriter Don McKellar adapting Nobel-Laureate José Saramago's novel, with Academy Award nominee Fernando Meirelles directing a cast that also includes Danny Glover, Gael Garcia Bernal, Alice Braga, and Sandra Oh.

I must say, going off that taste and last spring's teaser, I still like the look, sound, and feel of this one, especially Moore's little retort (you know the one), and that's not to mention that any trailer which employs John Murphy's underrated score from last year's Sunshine to set a rightfully ominous tone is always fine by me. We'll get to see (sorry) what trials and tribulations await the world on September 19th.

*Not to mention Rocchi's review of the film from its Cannes world premiere.

A brand new trailer for The Wackness has touched down over at Rotten Tomatoes, and it basically covers a lot of what we've already seen from the film. I tell you, a lot of marketing is going into a flick that's opening up on six screens this Friday (all in NY and LA), so here's hoping you remember this puppy when it eventually expands to your city. It's a fun summertime flick, and with the kids now out of school and Fourth of July weekend upon us, this is the kind of movie you want to chill out with in a darkened, air-conditioned theater. Trust me. You'll dig it.

Additionally, I know we've talked tons about the music featured in the film, so here's what the soundtrack looks like. Kids of the '90s should eat this sucker up -- I know I will.

01. "The What" - Notorious B.I.G. feat. Method Man
02. "You Used to Love Me" - Faith Evans
03. "Flava in Your Ear" -Craig Mack
04. "Summertime" - Fresh Prince
05. "Can't Ya See" - Total
06. "I Can't Wake Up" - KRS-One
07. "The World is Yours" - Nas
08. "Can I Kick It?" -A Tribe Called Quest
09. "Heaven or Hell" - Raekwon
10. "Bump and Grind" - R. Kelly
11. "Just a Friend" - Biz Markie
12. "Tearz" - Wu Tang Clan
13. "Long Shot Kick the Bucket" - The Pioneers

Bonus Tracks (only on iTunes)
14. "All the Young Dudes" - Mott the Hoople
15. "Season of the Witch" - Donovan

Not three weeks ago, I made first mention of a brief and bland teaser for the forthcoming horror film, Mirrors. Now, along comes IGN Movies with a red-band trailer that, at first, didn't do much for me. Blah blah blah, Jack Bauer as security guard for old department store, blah blah, former guard grew obsessed with surrounding mirrors, blah blah -- look, even Amy Smart is yawning after all that exposition.

Oh, did I say 'yawning'? I meant 'tearing off her own jaw'. Yes, while we still seem to be saddled with a fairly ridiculous premise that's seen better and worse days, there's modest comfort to be taken that the R rating ain't exactly being shied away from. Let's face facts here, people: all it takes sometimes is a couple of nifty death scenes to make movies like this that much easier to stomach (well, some might argue the opposite).

Directed by Alexandre Aja and starring Kiefer Sutherland, you can see Mirrors (bah-dum-cha!) on August 15th.