Darren Aronofsky, director of the 2000 hit Requiem for a Dream, is back with his next project, Black Swan.

Black Swan is a supernatural thriller that follows dancers within the New York City Ballet. In particular, the film centers on Nina, a veteran of the stage who must fight to keep her place in the spotlight for a production of Swan Lake. Nina’s biggest rival is a dancer named Lilly, but here’s the kicker: Nina isn’t sure if Lilly is real, a delusion, or a supernatural apparition.

Casting details have been released, and Aronofsky has himself a cast that’s sure to deliver. Natalie Portman will be starring as Nina, with Mila Kunis playing the part of Lilly. Joining them on stage will be Winona Ryder, Vincent Cassel, and Barbara Hershey.

Ryder will be playing the role of Beth, a dancer coming to the end of her career, whose place in the company Nina and Lilly are competing for. Cassel will be the director of Swan Lake, and Hershey will take on the role of Nina’s mother.

The script for Black Swan was originally written by John McLaughlin, but the final product was rewritten by Mark Heyman, who co-produced Aronofsky’s The Wrestler.

Black Swan is set to start filming in a couple of weeks, with Fox Searchlight likely taking on distribution rights.

A couple days ago, we brought to you the news that Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle had signed on for his next project, 127 Hours, a film that will tell the true-life story of Aron Ralston, the mountain climber who spent 5 days trapped by a boulder before finally amputating his own arm.

One big detail of how Boyle will shoot the film has now been revealed, and it’s a fairly daring move on Boyle’s part.

Boyle plans to keep the movie as realistic as possible, which means shooting the first hour entirely free of dialogue, since Ralston was completely alone while trapped. Unlike Castaway, which also followed a character stranded by themselves, 127 Hours will not give the actor cast as Ralston any external monologue or prop to talk to.

Because the first hour will consist of a solitary character and no speaking, it will be a challenging role for whoever is cast in the part. Facial expressions, sighs and moans, and other physical acting will have to be spot on.

The film currently has no budget, or even the official go-ahead, but Simon Beaufoy, writer of Boyle’s award-winning Slumdog Millionaire, is attached to write the screenplay. Boyle hopes to start shooting 127 Hours in March, to be released by Fox Searchlight by the end of next year.

Director Danny Boyle (28 Days Later, Sunshine, Slumdog Millionaire) has found his next project with Fox Searchlight: 127 Hours, which will tell the true story of mountaineer Aron Ralston.

Simon Beaufoy, the screenwriter who won the Oscar for Slumdog, will take over writing duties for the film. Variety has the scoop on just what is so dynamic about Ralston’s story:

“Ralston’s right forearm got pinned for nearly five days under a boulder during a climb in Utah in May 2003. He used a dull knife to amputate the limb, then scaled a 65-foot sheer wall and hiked out before running into a family that gave him water and food. He was finally rescued by helicopter.”

I remember that happening, and remember thinking it was pretty horrifying. But enough material for a feature film? Well, if anyone can pull it off, it would be Boyle.

The casting process has begun for Ralston, who will be alone for most of the running time of the film. You can expect to see 127 Hours in late 2010.

(500) Days of Summer is really one of the best films of the year. It’s the type of indie movie that follows the beat of it’s own drum but doesn’t pummel you with it’s quirkiness. Forget crap like The Ugly Truth, and The Proposal, this is THE romantic comedy to beat this year. It’s a nice script featuring the best female performance of the year (so far) from Zooey Deschanel and an equally as good job from Joeseph Gordon-Levitt. Credit should be given to Marc Webb who does an excellent job giving the film it’s own style and never succumbing to most of the traps first time directors usually do.

The fine folk over at Film School Rejects have posted the release dates and cities for when you can see this film. Strongly, strongly suggested you should but what do I know? I’m just that “road block on the speeding highway” of reviews or something retarded like that.

Check out when and where you can see this greatness below.

Friday, July 17th

• Boston
• Chicago
• Dallas/Ft. Worth
• Los Angeles
• San Diego
• New York
• San Francisco
• Seattle
• Toronto
• Washington, D.C.

Friday, July 24th

• Atlanta
• Austin
• Baltimore
• Cleveland
• Denver
• Detroit
• Houston
• Indianapolis
• Madison
• Milwaukee
• Minneapolis
• Montreal
• Philadelphia
• Phoenix
• Portland
• St. Louis
• Vancouver

Friday, July 31st

• Albany
• Albuquerque
  
• Ann Arbor
• Boca Raton/West Palm Beach
• Buffalo
• Calgary
• Charlotte
• Cincinnati
• Columbus
• Edmonton
• Fresno
• Halifax
• Hartford/New Haven
• Honolulu
• Kansas City
• Kitchener
• Miami/Fort Lauderdale
• Nashville
• New Orleans
• Orlando
• Ottawa
• Pittsburgh
• Richmond
  
• Rochester
• Sacramento
• Salt Lake
• San Antonio
• St. John
• Tampa/St. Petersburg
• Tucson
• Victoria
• Winnipeg

Friday, August 7th

• Anchorage
• Asheville
• Baton Rouge
• Birmingham
• Boise
• Champaign/Decatur/Springfield
• Charlottesville
• Colorado Springs
• Corpus Christi
• Dayton
• Des Moines
• El Paso
• Fort Myers
• Gainesville
• Grand Rapids
• Harrisburg, PA
• Ithaca
• Jacksonville
• Knoxville
• Lansing
• Las Vegas
• Lexington
• Louisville
• Memphis
• Norfolk/Newport News
• Northampton/Springfield
• Oklahoma City
• Omaha
• Portland, ME
• Providence
• Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill
• Reno
• Sarasota
• Santa Fe
• Spokane
• Syracuse
• Tallahassee
• Tulsa

Legendary writer of Fight Club also gave us a lesser known book named Choke. Check out the trailer for the new movie.

Synopsis: Actor-turned-director Clark Gregg shows he is as adept behind the camera as in front of it with Choke, a wickedly colorful dark comedy about mothers and sons, sexual compulsion, and the sordid underbelly of Colonial theme parks.

Victor Mancini, a sex-addicted med-school dropout, keeps his increasingly deranged mother, Ida, in an expensive private mental hospital by working days as a historical reenactor. At night he runs a scam where he deliberately chokes in upscale restaurants to form parasitic relationships with the wealthy patrons who “save” him. When, in a rare lucid moment, Ida reveals that she has withheld the shocking truth of his father’s identity, Victor must enlist the aid of his best friend, Denny, a recovering chronic masturbator, and his mother’s beautiful attending physician, Dr. Paige Marshall, to solve this mystery before the truth of his possibly divine parentage is lost forever.

Adapted from the acclaimed novel by Chuck Palahniuk, Choke tickles the funny bone as it dives into darker areas of human behavior. At the heart of the film is yet another staggering performance by Sam Rockwell as Victor. He fully inhabits the character and nails both the comedic and dramatic aspects with indelible timing and delivery. A delicious blend of fresh writing, juicy performances, and sharp directing, Choke is actually quite easy to swallow.

The trailer can be found here.

Starring: Sam Rockwell, Anjelica Huston, Kelly Macdonald, Clark Gregg, Heather Burns, Brad William Henke, Joel Grey, Gillian Jacobs

Director: Clark Gregg

Screenwriter: Clark Gregg

Studio: Fox Searchlight