First Looks & New Photos: Clooney’s ‘American,’ Mike Leigh’s Untitled New Project, David O. Russell’s ‘The Fighter’

So yes, Collider has a ton of new photos and synopsis’ from films that were at the American Film Market recently. We’ll try not to just regurg all of them, but there are some first looks and new photos from several projects were interested. Not a lot of new details we don’t know, but the photos are pretty cool.

So we now have new shots of David O. Russell’s “The Fighter” starring Mark Wahlberg, Amy Adams and Christian Bale. The story is about the early years of Boston boxer “Irish” Micky Ward (Wahlberg) and his brother (Bale) who helped train him before going pro in the mid ’80s. Adams plays Wahlberg’s girlfriend and Bale’s character looks emaciated because he’s a former boxing-pro turned thief and drug addict. Melissa Leo (“Frozen River”) plays Bale and Wahlberg’s mother (there’s also another shot of Wahlberg over at Collider, but not much different from what we’ve already seen).
Even a new “synopsis” of the new Untitled Mike Leigh film reveals nothing. So far, all we know is that it’s just another film that uses Leigh’s trademark methods of improvisation featured in films like, “Happy Go-Lucky,” “Naked,” “Secret & Lies” and many, many others).

However we do know that the film stars Leigh-mainstays Jim Broadbent (“Topsy Turvy”) and Imelda Staunton (“Vera Drake”). Pictured here appears to be on the right, Lesley Manville (Leigh’s “All or Nothing”) and on the left, we have no clue, but Karina Fernandez, who played Sally Hawkins’ best friend in “Happy Go-Lucky” is also in the picture. All we know is that it’s an “intimate portrait of people’s lives,” but that’s vague and like every Mike Leigh film. Oh well, we can wait.
Lastly, we have a new shot of Anton Corbjin’s “The American,” formerley titled “A Very Private Gentleman,” starring George Clooney which is currently shooting in Italy. Again, not a ton of new information. As already reported, the film is a creepy psychological suspense story that follows an assassin (Clooney) to a rural village in southern Italy where he poses as a quiet artist who paints miniatures of butterflies. He has one more assignment to carry out, but of course romantic entanglements and local friendships complicate his task. The casting has no other names really. Thekla Reuten — who appeared “In Bruges” as the pregnant, Belgian hotel owner caught in the middle of a gunfight — is the love interest and the rest of the cast are character actors or European names: Bruce Altman, Paolo Bonacelli and Violante Placido.

No word on when any of these films will arrive, but our guess is “The American” won’t hit any earlier than the fall as it’s probably still lensing or just finishing soon, but all these films seems like they’d be better off in the autumn awards season of 2010.