Garner is playing an heiress who carries her own secrets and whom Brand must marry. Nolte is her deeply religious father (THR). The story centers on a drunken playboy (Brand) who stands to lose a wealthy inheritance when he falls for a woman (Gerwig) his family doesn’t like.

Principal photography will begin soon if they plan on releasing the film in 2011 as projected. Producing is Chris Bender, Chris McCormick and Larry Brezner with Warner Bros Pictures handling distribution.

Gerwig is the newest addition to the cast that includes not only Russell Brand playing the title role but Helen Mirren. Jason Winer is directing the project from the script written by Steve Gordon and Peter Baynham. The remake takes on the same story line of a drunken playboy (Brand) who stands to lose a wealthy inheritance when he falls for a woman (Gerwig) that his family doesn’t like. No word on when filming is set to begin, but the feature is poised to be released sometime in 2011 under Warner Bros Pictures.

Gerwig is in the middle of production at the moment for the Ivan Reitman directed comedy formerly titled Friends with Benefits which stars Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher.

Elizabeth Meriwether put together the script that centers on two people who have a no-strings attached relationship that turns a bit more complicated once one of the two starts falling for the other. Thirlby would play Portman’s sister in the film, says The Wrap. Initial filming is set to start next month, with the feature under the Montecito Picture Company, Cold Spring Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment.

Thirlby recently was reported to be announced to the Chris Gorak directed picture The Darkest Hour with Emile Hirsch. She next appears alongside Anna Paquin in the Kenneth Lonergran film Margaret.

Those already a part of the cast include Natalie Portman, Ashton Kutcher, Kevin Kline, Ben Lawson and Ophelia Lovibond. The Elizabeth Meriwether script centers of the question of whether two long-term friends can have a purely sexual relationship without falling in love.

Gerwig will play a brainy friend of Portman’s character who is the first to recognize signs that Kutcher’s character has become smitten with her friend (Variety). Principal photography is expected to start in May with Montecito Picture Company, Spyglass Entertainment and Cold Spring Pictures.

You can still watch Greta Gerwig in the Noah Baumbach feature Greenberg still playing in theaters, but be sure to check your local listings first for it.

The cast also includes Rhys Ifans, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Juno Temple and Brie Larson. Greenberg comes out in theaters on March 26th. Look at the new clips below and let us know what you think. If you like what you see, make sure you sign up on the official Facebook page.:

“The Thing About You Kids” clip:

“Musso and Frank” clip:

“How Long Do We Wait” clip:

The picture stars Ben Stiller as Roger Greenberg who’s a singe, forty-ish and at crossroads in his life. He finds himself in Los Angeles, house-sitting for six weeks for his more successful/married-with-children brother (Chris Messina). In search of a place to restart his life, Greenberg tries to reconnect with old friends including his former bandmate Ivan (Rhys Ifans). But old friends aren’t necessarily still best friends, and Greenberg soon finds himself spending more and more time with his brother’s personal assistant Florence (Greta Gerwig), an aspiring singer and also something of a lost soul. Despite his best attempt not to be drawn in, Greenberg and Florence manage to forge a connection, and Greenberg realizes he may at last have found a reason to be happy.

Greenberg comes out in theaters on March 26th. Watch the brand new featurette below from Yahoo! Movies. If you want to keep up to date with all things pertaining to this film, make sure you follow the Focus Features Twitter or Facebook page.:

February 2, 2010

Jason Bene: Alot of people are calling The House of the Devil an homage, but I see it as more of a period piece with a nod to Roman Polanksi and Hammer Films To The Devil a Daughter.

Ti West: I agree with you. I don’t see it as an homage as much as I see it as a period piece. You are correct in your assessment that it’s an accurate period piece, more accurate than we had anticipated based on how many people have responded to it. As far as inspirations I wouldn’t say it’s a nod to Polanski; but Repulsion, The Tenant, and Rosemary’s Baby were subsconsciously big influences for me.

Jason Bene: How does it feel to be in a horror film?

Jocelin Donahue: It feels great. I have been really lucky to have done two horror films (The House of the Devil, The Burrowers), both period pieces, both different than the kind of slasher films that I read for. I feel lucky to have been able to do these intellectualized art horror movies.

Jason Bene: You worked with Tom Noonan before on The Roost and he’s such a brilliant actor. It was probably a no-brainer to bring him back for The House of the Devil.

Ti West: It was actually. He e-mailed me wanting to do it as I was looking to cast Jocelin’s role. I hadn’t even got to that role yet and Tom was in my head but I hadn’t really put it together. I got a call from Tom saying he wanted to do the movie and I said great. It was real easy.

Jason Bene: Are you a fan of horror films?

Jocelin Donahue: I am now. Originally I would of said I kind of avoid the violence and gore kind of stuff because I’m a little squeamish. Ti introduced me to a lot of the classics horror films in preparation for this role and now I’m really into early Polanski, The Changeling, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Don’t Look Now. The genre is great because it really allows a big range of performance and theme.

Jason Bene: The marketing on this film has been incredible. The posters look like they were torn from a movie theater back in the late 70′s/early 80′s.

Ti West: I have nothing but amazing things to say about Magnolia Pictures as a distributor and as a group of people who are collaborative in wanting to see this film do well. I have never encountered anyone as great as they are. That’s a testament to them.

Jason Bene: The movies you mentioned before are great because they are not overly violent, they are cerebral, more of a thinking man’s horror film. And that is what Ti is going for with this film.

Jocelin Donahue: I think he did a really good job. It was fun to do the 80′s thing because we got to recreate another time period, not just in wardrobe and art direction but also in tone and sentimentality.

Jason Bene: My two favorite posters are the one with Jocelin in the window, which reminded me of Wes Craven’s Deadly Friend and the one with the hand reaching out of the house which evoked Amityville 3-D.

Ti West: The reason we went with the one with the house on fire is because it’s the most evocative of the film, we couldn’t let the other ones go and we had to release them online. I have to agree those are awesome.

Jason Bene: Are you still doing The Haunting in Georgia?

Ti West: That’s not happening yet but we are working on the script. I’m attached to that and those guys are great, Gold Circle Films has been fantastic.

Killer Film would like to thank Ti West and Jocelin Donahue for taking time from their busy schedules and giving such an informative interview. And make sure you hit Amazon to get the exclusive The House of the Devil release that comes with a VHS copy! If you look really close you can see the Gorgon Video logo on the tape.

Roger Greenberg (Ben Stiller), single, fortyish and at a crossroads in his life, finds himself in Los Angeles , house-sitting for six weeks for his more successful/married-with-children brother. In search of a place to restart his life, Greenberg tries to reconnect with old friends including his former bandmate Ivan (Rhys Ifans). But old friends aren’t necessarily still best friends, and Greenberg soon finds himself spending more and more time with his brother’s personal assistant Florence (Greta Gerwig), an aspiring singer and also something of a lost soul. Despite his best attempts not to be drawn in, Greenberg and Florence manage to forge a connection, and Greenberg realizes he may at last have found a reason to be happy.

The cast also includes the talents of Jennifer Jason Leigh, Chris Messina, Brie Larson and Juno Temple. Want to know more about Greenberg? Well if you go and sign up on the official Facebook page you can be completely up to date with the feature that’ll include more pictures, videos and what have you.

The Film:

The latest film to come out of the sub-genre of independent films dubbed “mumblecore” is Nights and Weekends, a collaborative effort between “mumblecore” darling Greta Gerwig and director Joe Swanberg. The two worked together in 2007′s Hannah Takes the Stairs, and now they share the tasks of writer, director, and actor in this portrait of a long distance relationship.

The genre is defined by 20-something urban hipsters – art school grads who, well, mumble their way through relationships. Consider Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage, and add a few “likes” in the script here and there. In theory, it’s not a horrible idea – but, the genre’s limitations have been thoroughly explored by consistently dull works too ambitious for their own Converse kicks.

James (Joe Swanberg), a video game designer based out of Chicago, and Mattie (Greta Gerwig), a nursing school student from New York, attempt to keep their relationship afloat despite living many hours apart. They certainly make the most out of every moment together – it’s not long after the opening credits that we catch a glimpse of an aroused James strip and make love to Mattie on the floor. Their dates include an amalgam of activities constructed to make the film as quirky as can be – attending photoshoots, buying plastic elephants, prancing around Chicago’s bean in the rain.

The film, documenting over a year in a relationship, paints a portrait of both the things that keep couples together and the things that pull them apart. The problem, however, is that James and Mattie only seem to care about sexual attraction. Neither of them have anything interesting to say, and their conversations are the sort that you have with your friends once you’ve exhausted literally every other talking point.

Now, I don’t have any gripes with naturalism – in fact, I very much admire it. To use a contemporary example, consider “Rachel Getting Married”. That film had similar “raw” moments to heighten it’s realism, but director Jonathan Demme and writer Jenny Lumet were able to draw a distinct line between artful monotony and purely tiresome drivel. Do we really need to see Greta Gerwig wipe herself while on the toilet?

When the “mumblecore” genre drops it’s gag-inducing self-aware quirks and finds something interesting to say, it could be an exciting movement. These are obviously not dumb kids, and some of them are, in fact, quite talented – Gerwig, for instance, is an enormously charming screen presence. But I simply don’t buy that a film like Nights and Weekends is revealing of the small gestures that make or break a relationship – James and Mattie are constructed so one-note and lifeless that it’s impossible to assume that they feel anything at all. There’s talent on display in the film, but these filmmakers continue to tread water with a sub-sub-genre that, despite their best efforts, has yet to light the world on fire.

The DVD:

Audio/Video: The picture looks fine given the film’s budgetary limitations. There’s a healthy coat of grain throughout, and only in some of the darker scenes does the image begin to look bad. The audio track, like the video, is about what you’d expect from the resources the filmmakers had available.

Audio Commentary: The audio commentary is provided by producers Dia Sokol and Anish Savjani. The track is very dry, pausing for great lengths of time only fifteen minutes into the film. It would have been nice to hear Swanberg and Gerwig discuss their improvisation, but the track instead focuses on the mechanical production concerns.

Joe Swanberg Teasers: This five minute feature is comprised of three short scenes of Swanberg and Gerwig, in character, having conversations about their relationship. It almost serves as a series of deleted scenes – but I can’t say that I was craving more whispered pseudo-intellectual mumblings.

Test Short: Again, after eighty minutes of similar material, another five minutes of this couple arguing is the last thing I needed. The feature runs about six minutes, and takes place entirely in bed.

Trailer: The trailer is almost identical to one of the “teasers” on the disc. There’s nothing more to say – it’s baffling that both would be included to pose as separate special features.

Conclusion: Nights and Weekends is a competent addition to this indie movement, but the problem is that the filmmakers have continued to castrate themselves from anything of actual interest. The film feels ambitious, in a way, and perhaps as a treatment it would look highly appealing – but, take that same treatment and have it adapted by an eighth grade girl and you have the mumblecore genre in a nutshell. This isn’t Woody Allen, it’s a MySpace blog entry.

The Film: Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
The DVD: Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Greenberg (Ben Stiller) is at a crossroads in his life. Out of a job and none too interested in finding one, he agrees to housesit for his younger and more successful brother, thereby getting a free place to stay in Los Angeles. Once settled in, Greenberg sets out to reconnect with his old friend and former bandmate Ivan (Rhys Ifans). But times have changed, and old friends aren’t necessarily still best friends, so Greenberg finds himself spending more and more time instead with his brother’s personal assistant Florence (Greta Gerwig), an aspiring singer and herself something of a lost soul. As their relationship develops through a series of embarrassingly awkward romantic encounters, even someone as irascible as Greenberg might have at last found a reason to be happy.

Greenberg comes out on March 12th, 2010 in theaters everywhere.

Greenberg First Trailer