The Wolf of Wall Street, a new Martin Scorsese film based on Jordan Belfort's memoir of the same name, will see Jonah Hill joining Scorsese-fav Leonardo DiCaprio in the cast.

The book, which chronicles Belfort's tumultuous rise and fall as a stock broker, also served as inspiration for the 2000 film Boiler Room, which helped launch the careers of Vin Diesel and Giovanni Ribisi (check out the red band trailer for Ted, Seth MacFarlane's upcoming film co-staring Ribisi).

This version of the story figures to stay truer to the memoir than Boiler Room. Hill will play Danny Porush, who Belfort convinces to join him at the brokerage firm.

While you wait for shooting to begin in August, be sure to catch Hill in the summer comedy The Watch. View The Watch red band trailer for a closer look.

The new Dark Shadows trailer focuses on the love-hate relationship between Johnny Depp's and Eva Green's characters, Barnabus Collins and Angelique Bouchard. From the looks of it, love between vampires can be a messy and dangerous endeavor, and I bet they think that makes them stand out from humans. Little do they know... (am I right? Ladies?)

Dark Shadows Trailer: Centuries-Old Love

The film, a remake of the cult-classic TV show, is directed by frequent-Helena-Bonham-Carter-collaborator-and-domestic-partner Tim Burton and hits theaters May 11.

For a closer look at the Collins family, check out this Dark Shadows featurette.

Mark Duplass, most known for his work writing and directing Cyrus and Jeff, Who Lives at Home with his brother Jay, is breaking out as an actor. Thanks to his work in Lawrence Kasdan’s Darling Companion, the world is looking at Duplass a little differently these days. He and his onscreen love interest, actress Ayelet Zurer, are visiting with Movie Fanatic for an exclusive video interview. We’ve seen Zurer in films as varied as Angels and Demons and Munich (soon to be seen in Man of Steel) and she reported that it was such a joy to pair with Duplass on Kasdan’s latest film. In what may be the most fascinating part of our interview, Duplass talks about what he took away from working with the writer-director who gave us Raiders of the Lost Ark, Empire Strikes Back and The Big Chill.

Mark Duplass and Ayelet Zurer Exclusive Interview

Marvel Studio Head Kevin Feige has wanted to make a The Avengers movie for what seems like years now. His dream is now a reality as the film is out in theaters worldwide.

“This has been my whole life,” Feige told Movie Fanatic. “I’ve been a nerd my whole life and wanted to see this movie made for my whole life. The real answer, though, is towards the end of production of Iron Man, when Sam [Jackson] was gracious enough to spend three hours on a Saturday to break into Tony Stark’s house, wearing an eye patch, and tells him and the world, 'You’re part of a bigger universe, you just don’t know it yet.' When that movie succeeded, we realized that we actually had the opportunity to do it.”

The process began with meticulous patience as he laid out the characters he wanted in the superhero conglomerate film and introduced them to audiences, one at a time. First there was Iron Man (and Iron Man 2), a few Hulk movies, Captain America and Thor. “The only challenge was to try to make all the movies live on their own, even if we weren’t leading towards an Avengers movie,” he admitted. “If they’re all just interconnected puzzle pieces, that’s not as fun. They need to be movies, beginning to end. That was the biggest challenge.”

Then, he had to find the perfect visionary to bring them all into the same movie. Feige found it in Joss Whedon. “Looking at Joss’ body of work and the scripts that he’s written and his TV shows, the characters never, ever get lost. In fact, those are the moments that shine. That was, to me, why he was, by far, the best choice to mount this,” Feige said. “We’re confident in our ability to handle a production of this size. We want a helmsman to come in and steer it in unexpected ways, and to guide that tone, which is what Joss has done so well.”

The Avengers Assemble Teaser

His largest concern arose from the fact that he wondered whether the entire thing was simply too big to ever get right. “One of the only big fears I had with this was that the whole thing would collapse under its own weight. We’d spend so much time with costumes and superpowers and special effects that these characters and these actors wouldn’t get the chance to shine,” he said.  The studio head, who is also the executive producer on The Avengers, insisted that the magic from this latest movie come from the collection of characters and the potential they had for ensemble magic. “My biggest interest in The Avengers is the interaction between these people.”

James Bond is back and in the first of two new photos from the Skyfall set, we see Daniel Craig back in action as the iconic action hero. That first still features Craig aiming his weapon with the fiercest of looks. That glare below is one reason why we feel Craig is one of the best at the character since Sean Connery. There is a brutalness to Craig's portrayal that truly fits what author Ian Fleming had in mind.

The second photo features Oscar-winning helmer Sam Mendes directing Judi Dench in what is rumored to be her last go-around as M.

Check out our thoughts on the Skyfall sizzle reel we witnessed at the recent CinemaCon.

As the Hulk does in The Avengers, the superhero movie did to the competition: It smashed! The Marvel Studios and Walt Disney film banked a record $200.3 million in its first week of release. It broke the previous opening weekend record held by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 ($169 million). That wasn’t the only record made by the film featuring Iron Man, the Hulk, Captain American, Thor and their fellow superheroes.

The Avengers also broke records for: The fastest movie to reach $100 million, $150 million and $200 million. It also now owns the record for the highest-grossing single Saturday and Sunday ever with $69.7 million and $50 million respectively. Speaking to how universal the success of the film was, it also shattered the record for most cash brought in per theater: $46,000 per screen.

The film also has the rare distinction of having an audience-rated CinemaScore of A+.

The rest of the top 10 hardly matters given the financial disparity between one and two... but last week's number one -- Think Like a Man -- came in second, adding $8 million to its total haul of $73 million. The Hunger Games bounced back up the charts, landing in third with $5.7 million. Its total is now a staggering $380.7 million. The Lucky One came in fourth with $5.5 million and fifth belonged to the animated The Pirates! Band of Misfits with $5.4 million.

Something that warmed Movie Fanatic's heart is how well DisneyNature's Chimpanzee is doing. The film landed in ninth place, banking $2.4 million. Its total is now $23 million, some of which goes to protecting the adorable creatures.

Box office top 10:

1. The Avengers, $200.3 million
2. Think Like a Man, $8 million
3. The Hunger Games, $5.7 million
4. The Lucky One, $5.5 million
5. The Pirates! Band of Misfits, $5.4 million
6. The Five-Year Engagement, $5.1 million
7. The Raven, $2.5 million
8. Safe, $2.47 million
9. Chimpanzee, $2.4 million
10. The Three Stooges, $1.8 million

Tim Burton and Johnny Depp have been making beautiful music together since they first paired in Edward Scissorhands. After talking with the two this weekend, it’s easy to see why they have such great collaborative success. They speak each other’s language. They finish each other’s sentences. It’s kind of spooky, actually. But the benefit all goes to the audience because this filmmaking tandem have made some of the most indelible films in recent memory and are back together with the big screen version of Dark Shadows.

In honor of that film’s arrival on screens May 11, we have a question for our esteemed readership:

What is your favorite Johnny Depp/Tim Burton movie?

Two new trailers in the style of political ads for the upcoming comedy The Campaign hit Facebook today. The ads highlight the hilarious characters of Cam Brady and Marty Huggins, played by Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis, who both also appeared in this year's Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie.

The Campaign - Vote For Marty

The Campaign - Vote For Cam

The Campaign follows the efforts of Brady and Huggins as they compete for a U.S. congressional seat for a small North Carolina district. You can't help but see a bit of Ferrell's George W. Bush in Brady, with lines such as "Schools is this nation's backbone" clumsily spit out in a somewhat-Bushy drawl.

As for Huggins, super-fans of Galifianakis--you know, the ones who can spell his name correctly on the first try--will recognize a bit of Zach's "twin brother" Seth Galifianakis in the naively sweet Southern character.

The Campaign will surely vie for the title of Summer's best comedy, and we've put it at number 10 in our list of the Top 10 Summer movies. And with the presidential campaign coming to a head near the film's August 10 release date, the movie might give us a welcome bit of relief from the real-life political news cycle.

Character posters for all the main characters in The Expendables 2 cast have dropped! And they're all in strikingly similar poses (Click thumbnails to enlarge).

I think this movie may - may - involve some gunplay. While you're waiting for the action-packed sequel to come out on August 17, why not print out these character posters and act out the movie yourself. We already know it features death, revenge, and a Villain named "Jean Vilain" (first choice was "Monsieur Badguy," but producers thought it was too obvious). So have at it!

Which Expendables 2 character are you most excited to see kick some butt in the upcoming film? To get a better look at the action, check out the Expendables 2 trailer.

A new red band trailer for The Dictator shows General Aladeen trying to blend in. After being unbearded and stripped of his money and clothes, Sacha Baron Cohen's North African dictator character is no loner recognizable.

The Dictator Red Band Trailer

The trailer features some extended footage of Aladeen working in a health-food co-op, aiding (if you can call it that) in a birth, and accidentally scaring some tourists into thinking he's a terrorist.

The Dictator in question is clearly used to being revered, as evidenced in these General Aladeen portraits, so being stripped of his power throws his entire world upside down.

The Dictator comes out May 16, and it's not the only political comedy this summer. Today also saw the release of two new political ads for The Campaign, starring Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis, opening August 10.

Arnold Schwarzenegger has been announced to star in the upcoming David Ayer action movie Ten. The action-thriller revolves around an elite group of DEA agents as they raid a drug cartel operation.

The former California governor is clearly back in action. In addition to Ten, Schwarzenneger is featured in the cast of The Expendables 2, opening August 17.

David Ayer, a prolific writer-director of law enforcement dramas including Training Day and S.W.A.T., has another cop movie coming out this summer, End of Watch, which stars Jake Gyllenhaal. In that film, as evidenced by the End of Watch trailer, Ayer takes a distinctly found-footage approach to directing.

Perhaps Ten will have a similar look. Who would you like to see play alongside Schwazenegger as a DEA operative?

42, a new Jackie Robinson biopic set to start production this month, has added John C. McGinley, who played Dr. Cox on Scrubs, to its cast. McGinley will play iconic Brooklyn Dodgers broadcaster Red Barber.

The filmed, named after Robinson's uniform number, will chronicle his tumultuous journey to become Major League Baseball's first African American player. It will arrive in theaters in 2013.

Chadwick Boseman will play the inspirational ballplayer, with Harrison Ford to play Dodgers General Manager Branch Rickey, and Christopher Meloni to play suspended Manager Leo Durocher.

Not only will Meloni appear next year in a film about the man who broke the color barrier, he'll also be featured in a film about a man who can break the sound barrier. Meloni will play Colonel Hardy in the upcoming Superman flick, Man of Steel.

The Avengers broke box office records this past weekend with its astounding $207.1 million in three days. It smashed the previous best weekend opening record of $170 million, set by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. We here in Hollywood knew the Marvel Studios film would rock, but we had no idea it would rock so much! Why?

5. Fantastic Reviews
The critic reaction to The Avengers (including our review) was almost universally positive. Rotten Tomatoes had it “certified fresh” with an astonishing 93-percent. Now, if the critics adore something that the wider public will most likely enjoy, that adds up to a blockbuster. But a $207.1 million opening weekend blockbuster? There was much more to it. Specifically…

4. Cinemascore
Audiences chime in with exit polls taken of them when they leave the theater. The Avengers scored the rarest grade of A+, which means every person polled believed that Joss Whedon’s film was the absolute best of the best. And that gives us…

3. Word of Mouth
Audience members read the critics’ reviews, then if they too hear from fellow viewers (i.e. Cinemascore and friends who have also seen it) that the film is a don’t miss, then that puts more people in the seats. With ticket prices being so high, people are less willing to plop down their hard-earned dollar for something that may be a niche film. The Avengers could have been a niche film, what with its superhero-centered storyline. But, it managed to grab wide appeal through the universal themes it presented of fighting for freedom, answering one’s calling and how when we work together, there is nothing we cannot achieve.

2. Bandwagon
The term “Bandwagon” is usually used to describe an advertising method. The “come on, everybody’s doing it” mentality is immensely powerful when hawking a product. In the case of The Avengers, bandwagon was a key to its success in people not wanting to be left out of the popular culture discussion of the day. With the film dominating the news cycles over the weekend, millions turned out to see the film so if nothing else, they could join in the conversation around the proverbial water cooler come Monday morning.

The Avengers Trailer: Iron Man

1. Marvel Studios’ Patience and Joss Whedon’s Hiring
Marvel Studio head Kevin Feige has had the utmost of patience with the players in his Avengers wheelhouse. By first rolling out two Hulk movies, two Iron Man films, Captain America and Thor last summer… slowly but surely he has built a fan base that would turn out for a film featuring all of them. Yet, fan passion can only take you so far -- certainly not to the extent that The Avengers scored in its first weekend. The first half of our final argument why the film scored so high is that patience, but the second part has to do with the studio’s hiring of director Joss Whedon to write and helm the project. No other filmmaker could have managed to get so many ensemble pieces into one film so congruently without sacrificing action, drama and character development. Toss in the fact that Whedon wrote his film for a fan crazy audience, yet also for those moviegoers who had never before seen a Marvel film, and it’s appeal was beyond universal.

A new featurette has been released for the upcoming film People Like Us. The film, which premiers June 29, tells the story of Sam, played by Chris Pine, who, after his father's death, discovers the existence of an estranged sister, played by Elizabeth Banks.

The featurette presents footage from the film as well as an interview with Writer/Director Alex Kurtzman.

People Like Us Featurette

Banks, a seasoned veteran of both comedy and drama, can also be seen in the upcoming film, What to Expect When You're Expecting (see the What to Expect When You're Expecting trailer here).

The featurette also gives us a glimpse of Michelle's Pfeiffer's role as Chris Pine's mother. You can catch Pfeiffer starting this weekend, playing another mother as part of the Dark Shadows cast.

Edgar Wright tweeted a not-so-cryptic photo over the weekend that suggests an Ant-Man movie may be close to a done deal. The caption on the photo read: "Received this in the mail. What can it mean?"

Wright's twitter followers had no problems guessing what it meant: "Men have two legs and goal-posts for arms. Ants have six legs and three body segments. Ant-Men look like men, except with cool antennae on their helmets. An Ant-Man movie is coming!"

The director has long been rumored to be working on an Ant-Man film, so this may come as no surprise to some. Can a movie about a guy named Ant-Man do as well as one about a guy named the much-more-awesome Iron Man? Maybe not, but Ant-Man, aka Dr. Henry Pym, is a very fun and likable character, and was noticeably absent from The Avengers movie (at least to dedicated fans of the superhero team of which Pym is a founding member).

And heck, if The Amazing Spider-Man can be "amazing," why can't Ant-Man too? Just because the bug that inspires his persona has two fewer legs, no web-shooting abilities, and is the very symbol of insignificance? Nonsense!

Other lesser-known, tiny bug-themed superheroes include Gnat Guy, The Larva, and The Mighty Mite.

Movie Fanatic caught up with visionary director Tim Burton recently at CinemaCon in Las Vegas to talk about two of his upcoming films in 2012: Frankenweenie and Dark Shadows. The helmer finds it astounding that a full-length version of his first short film, Frankenweenie, and the big-screen adaptation of a show he loved as a child, are both arriving this year.

Burton tells us also about the magic of working with his frequent collaborator Johnny Depp in Dark Shadows (what’s your favorite Depp-Burton movie?) and how he found the right tone to bring the cult soap opera to the silver screen.

Movie Fanatic: What took so long to make Frankenweenie, your first short film, into a full-length feature?

Tim Burton: Oftentimes these projects take a lot of time. I remember Nightmare Before Christmas took almost 10 years to get made. [Laughs] There seems to be a 10-year moratorium on idea things or something. It’s mounting a stop motion animated movie, the process itself takes a lot of time. It’s also a rarified medium -- you want to make sure you get the right people and the right animation and the right animators. It’s such a personal project, it was important to have all those right pieces in place.

Movie Fanatic: Did you think you would still be using this medium after 20 years?

Tim Burton: I was lucky to do the short when I did. I think if I did it now, I’d be changing it so much -- it would never get done [laughs]. I’m glad that it happened this way. I’ve done enough stop motion movies now to where I just feel that this is the right project for me, right now. Something about the Frankenstein story told through stop motion animation seemed like a right fit for right now.

Movie Fanatic: You, and I, adored the original Dark Shadows TV series. But you’ve made a film for all audiences. How do you achieve that balance?

Tim Burton: I don’t know [laughs]. That’s the thing, I think people see it and go, “They are making fun of it.” But, that’s not the case. The reason I did it is because I loved the show. Johnny loved it, Michelle Pfeiffer loved it. The three of us on the movie that knew Dark Shadows, none of the rest of the cast did. I didn’t show it to them, because I thought that would affect things. It was great to have those two, Johnny and Michelle, who got the vibe of it. They helped the rest of the cast get the right spirit.

Movie Fanatic: Was it tough to find that right tone on Dark Shadows?

Tim Burton: It was weird. We were trying to capture that movie soap opera acting and things. We just treated it, even though there’s humor in it, we treated it seriously. We treated it like it was a real melodrama. It is a strange tone to go for, it was quite organic. We just went on our instincts, right or wrong.

Movie Fanatic: What does it mean to you that in 2012 you have Dark Shadows, a film celebrating something you adored from your youth and Frankenweenie, your first film effort brought to life for the big screen 20 years after you made it? How is it that both are coming out in the same year?

Tim Burton: It’s strange [laughs]. I wouldn’t have planned it that way. Projects seem to have a life of their own. Especially with stop motion, you do it when the elements are right. That’s been in the works for several years. It just happened like this.

Movie Fanatic: Now that it’s happened, how does it feel?

Tim Burton: It’s a bit too much [laughs]. I’m sick of me already! 

Movie Fanatic: How has your collaboration with Johnny Depp changed over the years?

Tim Burton: It really hasn’t. It’s funny. The first time we met on Scissorhands, we really connected. It’s been the same ever since. I love working with him. He tries to be different in every movie. Each time I work him, it’s like the first time.

A new Snow White and the Huntsman clip debuted on The Tonight Show last night. In it, Kristen Stewart's Snow White fends off a troll with her porcelain features.

Snow White and the Huntsman Clip: Troll!

Snow White uses the fairy-tale equivalent of flirting with a cop to get out of a parking ticket, while the supposed Huntsman, played by Chris Hemsworth, chooses running as the most heroic option. Good thing the fair maiden he was protecting has some street smarts, huh?

Snow White and the Huntsman, also starring Charlize Theron and Ian McShane, opens June 1. Until that time, Hemsworth can be seen as part of The Avengers cast, playing less-of-a-huntsman-more-of-a-god Thor.

As for Stewart, the trailer for On The Road, which comes out May 23, features her as the young Marylou.

Children's author Maurice Sendak, best known for his 1963 book Where the Wild Things Are, died today at the age of 83.

Where the Wild Things Are marked a renaissance of sorts in the world of children's literature, as it rejected the idea that children should only be exposed to the cleanest, most saccharine of stories. Sendak allowed a bit of the darkness of the human condition into the nuanced worlds of his books, while at the same time remaining sweet and thoughtful.

In 2009, Spike Jonze directed a live-action/CG adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are, which captured beautifully the provoking visual style of the book.

Ah, the kilt. History's hilarious prank on the Scottish Highlanders. A new ad from Pixar's upcoming animated film Brave, pokes a little fun at the Tartan manskirt.

Brave: Kilt Video

The video presents a fake ad for a new line of kilts from "Ruff McLauren" that asks viewers "Are you brave enough to wear one?"

No. I'm not. I spend most of my day standing on top of subway grates. Nobody wants to see that.

But people do want to see Brave, which stars Kelly Macdonald, Emma Thompson, and Billy Connolly, and hits theaters June 22. It's already been named one of our Top 10 Movies of the Summer!

The latest Men In Black 3 TV spot features perhaps the best answer in film history to the assertion that there's no such thing as time travel: "Well, there is."

Men In Black 3: Time Travel TV Spot

It's that easy. Once you start getting into the specifics of how it works, you're going to encounter a conundrum. Let's just leave it at "it's possible."

The new trailer also shows off some more of Josh Brolin's endlessly-baffling Tommy Lee Jones impression, and reveals about a second and a half of Brolin and Will Smith at Shea Stadium. In addition to Brolin, Jones, and Smith, Emma Thompson, Alice Eve, and Bill Hader (as Andy Warhol) round out the Men In Black 3 cast.

Catch Men In Black 3, which made our list of the Top 10 Summer Movies, in theaters May 25.