Definitely one of the most anticipated movies in 2008 is The Dark Knight. Much has been said about the production - from the outstanding cast to the latest technology used in making the film, to the viral marketing blitz that has become many web users' obsession.

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While much is already known about Batman, majority of the buzz centers on one particular character - the Joker. Of course, many are intrigued about the way this colorful character is to be portrayed by the talented Heath Ledger. Go and see the Joker revealed via Empire!

Belgian top actor Jeremie Renier will soon be pitting talents with French hot property Gaspard Ulliel in the new Niki Carro film The Vintner's Luck.  Aside from this much-awaited film, Renier is also part of the international cast for In Bruges, this year's opening film at Sundance.

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But that is not all. The Dardenne Brothers, who selected the actor to star in their much-acclaimed films (L'Enfant and La Promesse) once again chose Renier for their next film entitled Le silence de Lorna. More from european-films:

"The double Palme d’Or winners Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne have started shooting on their sixth fiction feature film in their native Belgium, reports Cineuropa. The new projects is called Le silence de Lorna (Lorna’s Silence) and stars regular Dardenne leading man Jérémie Renier, Italo-Belgian actor Fabrizio Rongione and young Kosovar-Albanian actress Arta Dobroshi, who first came to attention in Kujtim Çashku’s Albanian feature Syri magjik (Magic Eye) from 2005."

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One of the films we are most looking forward to next year is Twilight, even though some of the young actors we'd wished to see in the cast are now out of the running. Gaspard Ulliel, one of contenders to play the male lead, is no longer available and French male model Jeremy Dufour is also no longer being considered. But one great piece of news that we recently heard is good enough for a celebration on its own. It's about an actress reported to be part of Twilight, Kristen Stewart!

Says cinematical:

"She has comforted herself in The Safety of Objects, she has struggled for life in the Panic Room while Jared Leto terrorized her with really, really terrible cornrows, she visited Cold Creek Manor,* and that was only her first three features. Now Variety reports that Kristen Stewart, fresh from Sean Penn's Into the Wild, has been tapped for another starring role. She'll take the lead in Thirteen writer/director Catherine Hardwicke's next movie, the young adult thriller/romance called Twilight, which I first told you about in October. Sorry Emily Browning, who was once rumored to star.

Based on the YA series by Stephenie Meyer, Twilight focuses on a 17-year-old named Bella who moves to a small town to live with her dad. Unfortunately, she falls for a pale and mysterious classmate, which can only mean one thing -- he's a bloodsucking vampire." [ read more ]

Kristen Stewart was first introduced to worldwide audiences in her outstanding performance alongside Jodie Foster in Panic Room. She will follow Into the Wild with a starring role in the independent film The Cake Eaters for director Mary Stuart Masterson, the independent film Yellow Handkerchief alongside William Hurt and Maria Bello, and a supporting role in What Just Happened alongside Robert De Niro and Sean Penn for director Barry Levinson. [ read an interview of Kristen @moviesonline ]

Some of today's most exciting young talents are reported to be joining the cast of the new Oliver Stone film called Pinkville. Says the Hollywood Reporter:

Included in the line-up are Channing Tatum, Michael Pena, Michael Pitt, Jason Behr and Cam Gigandet.

Of these young actors, Channing Tatum seems to be getting the biggest buzz. The former top male model is doing a number of high-profile projects including a leading role in the new Kimberly Peirce film, Stop Loss. He is also part of The Stanford Prison Experiment remake.

Tatum, who had a very successful modeling career, worked hard to prove himself. After receiving acclaim for his role in Dito Montiel's A Guide to Recognizing your Saint, his acting career seems to be picking up. While some may regard the young actor as potential leading man, Tatum is quite particular with the kind of roles he wish to portray. Says the actor:

"Nowadays I think that people and actors are getting too soft in general. Audiences and critics they don’t like seeing what happens in real life. Why do you think comedies make all the money at the box office?

People want to go and laugh. I can understand that. In a time of war people want to see Will Ferrell, which is what I do. I do the same thing. I want to go see him run around and go crazy. Who wants to go see someone beat the hell out of a woman, because it’s kind of forbidden and a little bit scary. I don’t know. I like intense stuff. I really do. "

That's quite impressive! More of Channing Tatum coming up in our exclusive spotlight!

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The much-awaited trailer for The Other Boleyn Girl is here! (scoop courtesy of Firstshowing.net) [ click to see the trailer ]

About the movie: The Other Boleyn Girl is a movie adaptation of the novel of the same title by British author Philippa Gregory. It is a romanticised account of the life of the 16th-century aristocrat, Lady Mary Boleyn, who was the sister of Queen Anne Boleyn and one-time mistress of King Henry VIII of England. Scarlett Johansson has been cast as Lady Mary Boleyn, while Eric Bana is Henry VIII and Natalie Portman playing Anne Boleyn. The supporting cast includes Eddie Redmayne as Mary's second husband William Stafford, Kristin Scott Thomas as Lady Elizabeth Boleyn (Mary and Anne's mother).

Aint it cool was brutally frank about their take on the film:

"Thankfully, even the most suffocating of yellows cannot undo the radiance of Ms. Portman who is, by far, the best part of this trashy, flawed yet entrancing spectacle. "

We've been big fans of Natalie Portman since she played the young girl opposite Jean Reno in Leon, and while her recent film Goya's Ghost was not quite successful, we just think Portman is one of today's most talented young stars.

If there are two cool young actors who have really caught the attention of cutting-edge filmmakers, then it has to be Anton Yelchin and Jesse Eisenberg.

While Yelchin has played in both mainstream and indie movies, Eisenberg has been more choosy with his roles. You may remember Eisenberg from The Squid and the Whale and in the recent The Hunting Party, opposite Richard Gere.

Firstshowing.net just reported on a new movie featuring Eisenberg together with another cool young actor who has been doing some great comedic work of late - Justin Bartha
[ pictured ] (National Treasure, Teachers):

"Holy Rollers is about two adolescent Hasidic Jews who become drug dealers in Brooklyn. It is part drama, but it is also part comedy. The two stars are Jesse Eisenberg, from The Squid and the Whale, and Justin Bartha, from National Treasure.

This sounds like another movie that'll go down as a stand-out comedic Jewish moment in Hollywood history, alongside of the opening scene in Snatch and The Hebrew Hammer." [ more from firstshowing.net ]

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Among the most exciting new young actors from British cinema are brothers Harry and Luke Treadaway. The Treadways gained a certain reputation as uncompromising young actors in Keith Fulton & Louis Pepe's Brothers of the Head. More of this film:

"Brothers of the Head is the story of conjoined twins Tom and Barry Howe - a freak show turned proto-punk sensation. As teenagers in the early 1970s, the Howe twins were plucked from obscurity by a music promoter who groomed them into a rock-and-roll act. Against all expectations, the boys - performing as The Bang-Bang - quickly appropriated their status as 'freaks' and spat it back in the form of searing, aggressive rock.

Grasping at the truth from an array of often unreliable accounts, the story follows the twins as they negotiate love, artistic rivalry, and the cruel suppression of their unique voice. Brothers of the Head investigates our impulse to celebrate the extraordinary, and our tragic compulsion to claim, de-mystify and destroy it. "

The film was not a big commercial success but it paved the way for Harry and Luke to make headway in the acting scene. Wanting not to be too identified with each other, Luke and Harry decided to have separate acting careers and are now being represented by different agents, going for different roles and making sure they are identified properly as unique performers. More on Luke and Harry Treadway at tMF very soon!

[ The Treadaway Brothers website ] [ Brothers of the Head @IMDb ]

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The Independent Film Channel's latest list will drive people nuts! Together with nerve, they came up with 50 of the greatest sex scenes in film. Here's an intro of sorts:

"There's a reason that any talk of sex in film comes back around to certain titles again and again. Getting two (or more) attractive actors to mash their faces together and huff and puff for the camera is relatively easy. Shooting a memorable sex scene is hard. "

[ see the full listing ]

What's the coolest news about your favorite actors? Here's what we have (for now!)

Hallam Foe's Jamie Bell and Sophia Myles received nominations in the British Independent Film Awards. David McKenzie's new film, Hallam Foe, a hit at Berlin, is one of the nominated films at the British Indie. Included in the line up for Best Picture are Control, Eastern Promises, And When Did You Last See Your Father? and Notes on a Scandal.

Bell, nominated for Best Actor, will be competing against Sam Riley (Control), Cillian Murphy (Sunshine), Jim Broadbent ( And When Did You Last See Your Father?) and Viggo Mortensen (Eastern Promises). Myles is up against Anne Hathaway for Becoming Jane, Tannishtha Chatterjee for Brick Lane, Kierston Wareing for It's a Free World and Judi Dench for Notes on a Scandal.

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Carice Van Houten is the lead in a new thriller, Dorothy Mills. Holland's rising international prospect Carice Van Houten plays a psychiatrist sent into a hostile island in Dorothy Mills, the new movie from acclaimed director Agnès Merlet of Artemisia.

"Dorothy Mills tells the story of Jane Morton, a psychiatrist from Dublin who is in deep mourning following the accidental deaths of her husband and son, who has to work on a new case: Dorothy Mills, a 15-year-old teenager in a small village who tried to strangle a baby.

After miraculously surviving a car accident, Jane discovers a village darkened by strange events and meets a very nervous Dorothy, who swears she never touched the baby. After analysing the teenager, Jane makes a diagnosis of multiple personality disorder until the day that Dorothy speaks with the voice of David, Jane’s dead son. "
[ more from Cineuropa ]

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Ben Whishaw takes on Criminal Justice! Having just completed shooting Brideshead Revisited with Matthew Goode, Hayley Atwell and Emma Thompson, Ben Whishaw is about to start filming the central lead role in Criminal Justice, a fascinating 5-part series for the BBC, to be directed by Otto Bathurst.

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Take Two! Heath takes on Terry and Terrence! We're not trying to be funny, but top actor Heath Ledger is reported to be the star in two upcoming and exciting new films from two awesome directors, Terry Gilliam and Terrence Malick.

Terry Gilliam's new film, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, has Heath as one of its leads, together with rising British star Andrew Garfield, among others. But the Hollywood Reporter also has news on the actor:

"Heath Ledger and Sean Penn are in talks to star in "Tree of Life," with River Road Entertainment finally bringing writer-director Terrence Malick's long-gestating drama to life.

Ledger would take the lead opposite an actress to be determined, with Penn in a supporting role.

The film's plot has been closely guarded, but is described by an insider as a complex drama. "New World" lead Colin Farrell was in talks to star in the feature two years ago, with about a third of the shoot set for India, but the star and location are no longer part of the project.

Penn has been a longtime Malick supporter and friend, starring in his war drama "The Thin Red Line." Ledger appears in "I'm Not There" and next summer's Batman feature 'The Dark Night.' "

Speaking of Andrew Garfield, we are thrilled to have his film Boy A in our spotlight review. Garfield is also in the new Robert Redford film, Lions for Lambs.

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Alexandra Maria Lara is Germany's brightest star! We admired her in Downfall (Der Untergang) and in Control, Alexandra Maria Lara proved that she can act and act extremely well, even with the likes of Samantha Morton sharing credits. While the frenzy over the success of Control is not yet over, along comes Lara in yet another new film, this time with Francis Ford Copolla.

Youth Without Youth, the new Copolla film, is based on the novella of the same name by Romanian author Mircea Eliade. It is the first film Copolla has directed since The Rainmaker in 1997. It was reported that after seeing Maria Lara in Downfall, Copolla sent her a letter and invited her to play one of the lead roles in Youth Without Youth.

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Amy Adams is enchanting! We first noticed this gifted actress in Catch Me If You Can, and we're sure you know how much of a delight she was in Junebug.

Now, Adams is all set to enchant us again in Enchanted, the new film also starring Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden, Timothy Spall, Rachel Covey and Susan Sarandon. More from USA Today:

"Amy Adams is a little girl's dream come true. She stars as a living, breathing Disney cartoon princess in the romantic comedy Enchanted, a musical combo of hand-drawn animation and live action that opens Nov. 21.

The actress experiences the fantasy of many an older girl as well. Her Giselle, who pops out of a Times Square sewer after being banished from the fairy-tale land of Andalasia by evil Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon), is rescued by none other than McDreamy himself — Patrick Dempsey, the hot doc of TV's Grey's Anatomy.

"I grew up watching all the classic Disney movies," says Adams, 32, Oscar-nominated for her wide-eyed optimist in 2005's Junebug. "The Little Mermaid, Cinderella, Mary Poppins. Those films are pure fun. To get to do this as an adult is a great opportunity." "

Paul Dano is drawing blood! Right after the success of Little Miss Sunshine, Paul Dano is once again part of the cast of another highly-anticipated film. PT Anderson's There Will Be Blood is being touted as one of the year's best film, if not its best.

There Will Be Blood is partially based on Upton Sinclair's novel 'Oil!'. Paul Anderson has said that in writing the script, the story deviated from the book a great deal and evolved into its own thing. The production had to be delayed for more than a year in order to clear up legal and financial issues before finally being shot in the summer of 2006. The shoot lasted about three months and took place mostly in Marfa, Texas. [ read more ]

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More of Mr. Nobody: Set in the not-so-distant future, the story follows Nemo Nobody (Leto) who, at 120 years old, is the last mortal surrounded by happy immortals as he relives his real and imaginary years of marriage.

"Nobody" is serving as the English-language feature debut for Belgian director Dormael, who has been trying to get "Nobody" to the screen for the past six years. Dormael's last film was 1996's "Le huitieme jour" ("The Eighth Day"), a Cannes Film Festival Golden Palm nominee. (Borys Kit from the Hollywood Reporter)