A handful of new pics from upcoming films has landed in the pages of Entertainment Weekly over the past few weeks. We've rounded up some of them here for your viewing pleasure. First up is "This Is 40," Judd Apatow's quasi-sequel to "Knocked Up," starring Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann alongside Apatow and Mann's real-life kids. Apatow has been veering more towards drama lately, and this looks like another step in that direction, with the pic centering on Mann's Debbie as she turns 40 and finds renewed energy to raise her kids right, fix the problems in her relationship and remain fit and attractive. The trailer was very promising, and the December 21st release is surely a sign of studio confidence.
Also due out this Christmas is the return of Quentin Tarantino with "Django Unchained," the slavery Western he's been talking about for years. Here we have the two leads, Christoph Waltz as German bounty hunter King Schultz and Jamie Foxx as the titular Django, who form an unlikely team on the hunt for a pair of brothers and Django's wife. Standing in their way, though, is Francophile plantation owner Calvin Candie, which promises to be a fun, villainous turn from Leonardo DiCaprio. And one more treat for your eyeballs: the trio on the cover of the French edition of Premiere magazine (via ComicBookMovie).
Also arriving is a new photo of Russell Crowe as villain Inspector Javert who is out to ruin the life of Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) in Tom Hooper's adaptation of "Les Misérables." The strong cast includes Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Sasha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter, and in the recent pages of Empire, Hooper promised he is not going for camp, and that "Les Miserables" will be a straight-up drama. That's probably a good thing in the end.
Another grizzled old-timer on the hunt is Liam Neeson who returns as cult favorite Bryan Mills in "Taken 2." The sequel switches things up a little as shit hits the fan when Mills and his ex-wife (Famke Jansen) are captured by the the father of one of the guys Mills killed in the first film, forcing his daughter (Maggie Grace) to do her father proud. Rest asssured, we don't doubt there'll be some Neeson badassery, with our interest lying in how they'll top the phone exchanges from the first film.
Neeson goes bananas on October 5th while "Les Misérables" will hit theaters December 14th for what we assume will be another Oscar run for Hooper, the Academy Award-winning director of "The King's Speech."
