1. The rather excellent looking new Wes Anderson movie, Moonrise Kingdom, will kick off this year’s Cannes Film Festival on May 16th before opening in the US on May 25th. Can you believe that this will be the auteur’s first time screening one of his films there? [via Vulture]

2. Apparently Britney Spears has been offered $10 million to join the second season of The X-Factor as a judge. She’s probably crazy enough to fill Paula Abdul’s shoes and a much more relevant choice than Janet Jackson, right? [via Deadline]

3. Action No. 1, a new movie based on the true story of a group of nerds who stole Nicolas Cage’s incredibly rare and valuable copy of the first Superman comic, will not star Nic. Apparently Jason Statham is being eyed for the role, but we’d like to suggest the obvious choice here: Andy Samberg. [via The Playlist]

4. E! Online is exclusively reporting that Glee is currently shooting a tribute episode to Whitney Houston that will include eight of her songs, and focus on the show’s “graduating seniors having a real hard time letting go.”

5. Finally, just a friendly reminder that tickets for this year’s Pitchfork Festival, which takes place at Chicago’s Union Park July 13th – 15th, go on sale today at 1pm CST. So far the announced lineup includes Vampire Weekend, Feist, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Hot Chip, AraabMUZIK, A$AP Rocky, the Field, Liturgy, Kendrick Lamar, Grimes, Cloud Nothings, Tim Hecker, and Willis Earl Beal.

Bonus Buzz: Introducing Ratatouille, The Snowboarding Opossum

Step aside, Shep. There’s a new game in town, and just in time for the 2012 presidential election. According to its website, the Obama Poster Project formed “when a group of artists came together like Voltron, guided by a simple goal: to make some great posters and t-shirts with the theme, Movie Posters x Obama.” So far they’ve debuted the delightful homage to The Life Aquatic by an illustrator named Cloxboy pictured here, with similar odes to film favorites like Captain America, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Ghostbusters, Drive, and The Avengers all planned for release in the weeks to come. Need more convincing that this a great idea? A portion of the proceeds from these posters and tees will go toward the President’s re-election campaign. Sold! [via ANIMAL]

We’ve previously pointed out many of the big name directors who got their start on the small screen directing commercials for everything from alcohol and computers, to high-end fashion designs and public television stations. As commercials become more cinematic and complex, we’ve been seeing renowned filmmakers making adverts for TV just ‘cuz — and one of those directors is Wes Anderson. You probably caught his Hyundai commercials during Oscar breaks last night. SlashFilm shared the whimsically charming shorts, which we’ve posted for you past the break. There’s definitely a little Life Aquatic in “Talk to My Car,” while “Modern Life” shares the director’s signature retro set stylings. Oh, and that voice you hear in “Talk to My Car?” It’s none other than Jeff Bridges.

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Tower Heist, Brett Ratner’s late-fall heist picture, is out this week on DVD, so our latest video essay takes a look at this durable genre via a step-by-step examination of how to put a big heist together — according to the movies, anyway. We grabbed pieces from over two dozen heist movies, from here and abroad, from the 1950s to the present, and put them together to show, in seven easy steps, how to pull that one big score. (Bonus points if it’s your last big one before retiring somewhere warm.)

We’ll show you how it’s done with the help of some of our favorite directors, including Martin Scorsese, Steven Soderbergh, Stanley Kubrick, Quentin Tarantino, Wes Anderson, Michael Mann, John Frankenheimer, Bryan Singer, John Huston, David Mamet, Peter Yates, Jean-Pierre Melville, Jules Dassin, Sidney Lumet, John McTiernan, Jim Henson, and Frank Oz. And check out our all-star cast: Robert DeNiro, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Gene Hackman, Robert Redford, Marlon Brando, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Edward Norton, Julia Roberts, Michael Caine, Charlize Theron, Pierce Brosnan, Harvey Keitel, Val Kilmer, Don Cheadle, Matt Damon, Steve Buscemi, Mark Wahlberg, Kevin Spacey, Samuel L. Jackson, Ray Liotta, Danny DeVito, Michael Madsen, Stellan Skarsgård, Tom Sizemore, Vincent Cassel, Owen Wilson, Joe Pesci, Luke Wilson, Sean Connery, Guy Pearce, George Segal, Sam Rockwell, Delroy Lindo, Seth Green, Sterling Hayden, Chris Penn, Mos Def, Lawrence Tierney, Jason Statham, Jean Reno, the Muppets, and many, many more. Find out “How to Pull the Perfect Movie Heist” after the jump.

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It seems like the internet is embracing a weirdly specific trend: supercuts of signature Wes Anderson film techniques. Recently, we watched an awesome collection of Anderson’s much-loved overhead shots, and now we’ve discovered another great supercut, this time a collection of all of his emotional slow-motion shots, put together by Slacktory. And instead of the usual indie rock Anderson usually pairs them with, they’re all set to different Ja Rule songs, which we were highly skeptical of at first, but actually totally works. Trust us, you’ll see. Click through to watch the video, and let us know which Anderson editing or shooting technique you want to see get the supercut treatment next in the comments.

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We hope Laura Dern has a wild at heart and weird on top kind of birthday. The actress celebrates tomorrow, but we’re stealing our slice of cake a day early by taking a look at Dern’s relationship with director pal David Lynch. While the star has been busy filming Paul Thomas Anderson’s scientology-inspired drama The Master, her early career days were spent with the king of strange, Lynch. Dern’s appeared in three of the director’s films — keep in mind he’s only made 10 features since starting out in the late ’70s — and has been a unique, expansive female character in his canon, as this article from The Awl has also pointed out. It’s clear that there’s a depth to Dern’s dramatic allure Lynch greatly admires. While we hope to see the director take up with his muse once more, we thought it’d be a perfect time to celebrate a few other inspired collaborations. Click on to see some of our picks, and tell us yours, won’t you?

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Wes Anderson is one of those directors with an extremely distinctive visual style — so distinctive in fact, that plenty of people have pointed out that the trailer for his upcoming film Moonlight Kingdom plays like a borderline self-parody (not that we personally mind that one bit). Admittedly, the Anderson hallmarks are there, from the saturated primary colors to the weird characters to an almost holy reverence for all things twee in the detailed production design. But here’s something that we never noticed about the auteur’s fancy camerawork before: the man really has a thing for capturing images of his actors’ hands from above. Click through to watch a fantastic compilation of 46 of these overhead shots in 40 seconds by Vimeo user kogonada, the same guy who put together that artful montage of POV clips from Breaking Bad not too long ago.

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Welcome to “Trailer Park,” our regular Friday feature where we collect the week’s new trailers all in one place and do a little “judging a book by its cover,” ranking them from worst to best and taking our best guess at what they may be hiding. We’ve got seven new trailers for you this week; check ‘em all out after the jump.

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It has been way too long since we’ve been treated to a live action Wes Anderson movie — so long, in fact, that we’re going to jump the gun on tomorrow’s weekly “Trailer Park” feature to alert you that the teaser for the director’s Moonrise Kingdom arrived online this afternoon. And it looks pretty wonderful! Not only are we working with a stellar cast (Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, and Jason Schwartzman), but the setting — a New England summer camp in the mid-60s — is the perfect match for Anderson’s nostalgic aesthetic. Does it look like we’re seeing anything new from the auteur here? Not really, but we don’t really mind. For our money, there’s no one who tells a twee coming-of-age story quite like he does. Even if the plot ends up being a totally bizarre mess, we’ll relish watching the film for the cinematography alone. Well that, and the scene with Bill Murray going to chop down a tree in his underwear. Click through to check out the trailer now, and let us know in the comments what you think of it.

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In retrospect, last week’s gift guide for movie geeks was seriously lacking in one important element: it needs more Criterion. The Criterion Collection, as you presumably well know, is the preeminent home video label for film nerds, lavishing their second-to-none skills of restoration and supplementation on titles both well-known and obscure. So yes, a week-late addendum: if you’re shopping for cinephiles, a title or two from the Criterion Collection should do the trick.

Alas, which titles? At 600+ films (and growing monthly), sifting through the collection is a daunting task. Thankfully, the label is more than happy to help out; one of the most enjoyable time-killers on their site is their section of Top 10s, in which film fans from across the spectrum — directors, screenwriters, actors, cinematographers, comedians, critics, etc. — select their ten favorite Criterion titles, often with concise mini-reviews for each. After the jump, in a bit of meta list construction, we’ve picked out ten of our favorite folks from that page, and a few of their recommendations as well. Read More »