At the end of July, we shared the poster premiere of The Secret Life of Bees. Now you can check out the trailer for the film above, courtesy of Trailer Addict.

This is the Dakota Fanning-starring film about a young girl haunted by the memory of her late mother. With her caregiver Rosaleen (Jennifer Hudson), she runs off to a South Carolina town and is taken in by the Boatwright sisters (Queen Latifah, Alicia Keys, and Sophie Okonedo), who teach her the comforts of beekeeping and honey. Unfortunately, the girl's troubled past, in the form of father Paul Bettany, finds her.

While the poster was a little sappy (or perhaps "honey" is the best word in this case) for my tastes, the trailer has a nice amount of sass mixed into the drama, as well as a great one-breath sentence uttered by Fanning. I think I just might have to see this film, which will hit screens on October 17. What about you?

Last year, bit by bit, we got casting notices for the uber-drama Winged Creatures, which collected a powerful group of actors -- Forest Whitaker, Kate Beckinsale, Jennifer Hudson, Dakota Fanning, Jackie Earle Haley, Guy Pearce, and Jeanne Tripplehorn. Now a trailer has finally hit the Internet, which you can see above.

As the trailer outlines, the film follows a group of people who suffer post-traumatic stress after a random shooting at a Los Angeles diner. Talk about a soul-sucker. The trailer alone should steal some of the wind from your happy sails, but it looks like it will be in the most worthy way. Initial buzz at IMDb has pegged the film to be a 9.1/10, so this could be one of those heavy, challenging dramas worth our time and energy. The film premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival, but a release date is yet to be set.

Cinematical has just received this exclusive poster for The Secret Life of Bees (click above image to enlarge), based on Sue Monk Kidd's best-selling coming-of-age novel. And talk about an all-star cast of top-notch female talent, Bees stars Queen Latifah, Jennifer Hudson, Dakota Fanning, Alicia Keys and Sophee Okonedo. The film, which is set in South Carolina in 1964, follows two friends (Fanning and Latifah) who run away from home in order to solve the mystery surrounding one of their mothers. Eventually, the three Boatwright sisters (Latifah, Keys and Okonedo) take the two girls in and teach them how to care for and raise bees. The book itself has a ton of fans, and I expect the film -- especially with this cast -- to win over a slew of new ones as well.

The Secret Life of Bees buzzes into theaters on October 17.

It's been so long since we discussed Hounddog that it seemed like the film had already come and gone without a whisper. Not quite. The infamous Dakota Fanning movie that caused many waves for a controversial rape scene was planning to hit theaters on July 15. Now a new press release says the film will hit theaters starting September 5, where they are hoping to get the surprisingly high gross of $15 million before hitting shelves on DVD on January 20, 2009.

But that's not all. The company says that along with cross-promotion with other titles, it will "be supported with national television and radio ads, a consumer sweepstakes, and in-store merchandising." Defamer has mused about a whole Simpsons/7-11 approach with "Hounddog Sex Shacks," but the snark is not that big of a jump.

Whether warranted or not, the film has ruffled the feathers of many people, and it seems surprising that sweepstakes and in-store merchandising are being thrown into the mix. Hell, push aside the unrest and just think about the initial response. When Kim reviewed it from Sundance way back when, she said: "Hounddog is also one of the least likeable films I've seen here at Sundance -- and not, as you might expect, merely because it has a scene of the young actress being violently raped."

How far will they take it? We'll have to wait and see.

One of my favorite films from Sundance, Phoebe in Wonderland, is set to open the 10th RiverRun International Film Festival, according to indieWIRE. The film, which stars Elle Fanning, Felecity Huffman, Patricia Clarkson and Bill Pullman, is about Phoebe (Fanning), a little girl struggling with behavioral problems and relating to others.

Phoebe finds hope through her eccentric drama teacher (Clarkson), who casts her as the lead in the school's production of Alice in Wonderland. Meanwhile her parents (Huffman and Pullman) struggle with balancing their work with their family life, and with accepting that raising their daughters to be creative and non-conformist also means accepting Phoebe as she is, and helping her navigate her way through the world.

Although I read Libertas and other conservative sites regularly, on the premise that it's a good idea to know what the barbarians are up to before they get to your gate, I rarely post about stories I read there. This piece they had up yesterday, though, is so blatantly misinformed and misguided that I felt compelled to address it.

The piece is yet another conservative rant against the liberal Hollywood machine. It starts out by linking to an article over on The Daily Standard, deemed by Libertas an "insightful piece on a disturbing trend." That alone set off my inner alarm bells, but I gamely went off to see what insights the Standard had to offer. In his piece, titled "Hollywood on the Offensive -- Child Abuse Hits the Silver Screen," Kevin Kusinitz starts out by attacking two films from Sundance 2007 -- Hounddog, starring Dakota Fanning as a young rape victim, and An American Crime, a dramatization of the murder of Sylvia Lukens in 1965, starring Ellen Page. Kusinitz then goes on to attack Page for her role in Juno thusly:

I'm a grown woman that has been a fan of Neil Gaiman for many years; and still, Coraline manages to freak me out every time I see those little button eyes. The first teaser for the big-screen version of Gaiman's fantasy is now over at MovieWeb. Granted, it would probably be a lot more exciting if it was actually in 3-D (the trailer tells you to put on your glasses, so this must be the one that will screen in theaters), but for anyone who is a fan of Gaiman's dark fairy tales, you'll be glad to know that the film seems to have gotten the tone of Gaiman's work pitch perfect.

Coraline is the story of a small girl who travels into a fantasy world where everything is familiar but nothing is quite right. There is an 'Other Mother' who is the spitting image of her own, but with the frightening distinction of having buttons for eyes. Coraline's adventure leads her to become the savior of her family and the other children trapped in this world, while hopefully getting them all back to the real world.

Teri Hatcher voices the 'Mothers', Dakota Fanning is Coraline. The cast also includes Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, and John Hodgeman (also knows as 'The PC'). Stop motion master Henry Selick directed the flick based on Gaiman's novella. Last December, Gaiman had posted a short clip on his personal site, but this is the first official trailer I've seen so far.

So, could it be a little too creepy for kids? (The tag line sounds like something from a supernatural thriller.) Maybe, but I miss the old days when children's entertainment had a little more 'bite.' Coraline is scheduled for release in 3-D format on January 18th, 2009.

Back in October, the two tow-headed cuties Elle and Dakota Fanning signed up to play siblings in My Sister's Keeper. In the first two-Fanning punch since I Am Sam, it's the story of a young girl (who would have been played by Elle) who sues her parents for divorce because she's being raised as a handy genetic match for her older, cancer-ridden sister (Dakota). Not anymore. Variety reports that the two sisters pulled out of the feature abruptly.

Why? Their sources say that Dakota refused to shave her head for the part. I guess she thought they'd fit one of those bald caps on her head, or she'd be the lucky cancer victim who miraculously doesn't lose her hair. If this source is right, at least we know where she draws the line now. She shocked many before for her involvement in Hounddog, but I guess smooth noggin is crossing the line. It might seem surprising for Fanning, who has taken on a lot of grown-up fare, but she is only 13. (She turns 14 on the 23rd.)

At least their replacements have already been picked. Although I would've tapped her to play the elder role, Abigail Breslin will take over the ticked off role that Elle vacated, while Sofia Vassilieva, from Medium, is finalizing her deal to replace Dakota. Will this be another Oscar nod for Abigail, perhaps? Or a breakout performance from Sofia?

One thing that has always impressed me about the work of Neil Gaiman -- even though the man writes fairy tales, he never sugar-coats it for the kids. Case in point: the author is now hosting a clip from the upcoming adaptation of Coraline on his personal web site, and it can probably be summed up in one word -- creepy. Based on Gaiman's Hugo award winning novella, the story focuses on a young girl who discovers an alternate world with very twisted versions of her home and family -- for starters they all have buttons sewn over their eyes. The young heroine is then charged with rescuing her family and freeing the souls of trapped children from the clutches of the "other mother."

Coraline stars the voice talents of Dakota Fanning, Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French (or as I like to call them: one of the funniest comedy duos of all time), and Teri Hatcher (Desperate Housewives) as the "other mother." The film was directed by Henry Selick, who is a stop-motion animation vet and is probably best known for directing Tim Burton's A Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach. Stop-motion animation is probably one of the most painstaking processes around, so I can only imagine how long it took to create the clip on Gaiman's site. Not to mention the fact that this film will be the first to use stop-motion animation in a 3D format. It almost makes you forgive the fact that it's going to a full year before Coraline finally hits theaters on January 16th, 2009.

[via ComingSoon.net]

Super-not-so-shocking news today: Dakota Fanning is about to sign on to play another kid with a dark life. Variety reports that she is in negotiations, along with Alicia Keys, for the upcoming drama The Secret Life of Bees -- which has already nabbed the likes of Jennifer Hudson, Queen Latifah, and Sophie Okonedo. Gina Prince-Bythewood, who wrote and directed Love & Basketball, adapted Sue Monk Kidd's bestselling novel, and will direct it when shooting begins in January in North Carolina. (I guess the South Carolinian book locale was too pricey to shoot in.)

Set in the 1964 south, the year the Civil Rights Act came to be, the film will focus on Lily (Fanning), a 14-year-old girl who lives with her abusive father and memories of her dead mother. It seems that her mom died when a 4-year-old Lily accidentally shot her during a fight with her husband. Meanwhile, her nanny Rosaleen (Hudson) gets into some trouble with some white men while going to register to vote and has to flee the Georgia town. Lily joins her and the pair run off to South Carolina, which somehow holds secrets about her mom's past. They are then taken in by the "eccentric" Calendar sisters (Latifah, Okonedo, and Keys), who make Black Madonna Honey. So, that's where the bees come in. If this slice of drama sounds interesting, the project has a quick turnaround -- Fox Searchlight plans to release it in 2008.