Few leading male actors have followed the roundabout career trajectory of Josh Hartnett. Though indisputably tall, dark and handsome, Hartnett still manages to avoid the pratfalls of typecasting by landing roles in strange projects with questionable appeal. While this choice comes at the expense of a quality resume, his performances can lend barely competent films at least one redeeming ingredient: I could give or take Wicker Park, Resurrecting the Champ, and even the good intentions of The Black Dahlia, but each benefits from Hartnett's expressive glare, furrowed brow and whispered delivery. He's an instant generator of gravitas.

Although August, director Austin Chick's second feature after the relationship drama XX/XY, doesn't qualify as Hartnett's best movie, it's certainly one of his meatiest roles – right up there with his work in the unfairly maligned Lucky Number Slevin. As the crudely pompous CEO of the mysterious start-up company Landshark in New York City during the summer before 9/11, Hartnett offers a maddened, garrulous anti-hero replete with dark humor and sustained by a surge of baseless confidence. The movie follows the audacious entrepreneur, Tom, as his fifteen minutes begin to run out – and it concludes with him facing off against a freakishly powerful David Bowie as the icy corporate foil. Despite the age gap, both men exude an eerie amount of restraint – which is not the case for the film. August adds up to less than it aspires to be, but it's populated with enough curiosities to keep you watching.

Cinematical has just received this exclusive clip from the film August, starring Josh Hartnett, Adam Scott, Naomie Harris and ... David Bowie! Directed by Austin Chick (XX/XY), August tells of two brothers who fight to keep their dotcom start-up company afloat in August 2001, one month before the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In the clip above, Hartnett looks to be meeting with some of his advisers after his company's stock takes a massive hit and drops below a dollar. Running out of options, he may have to risk a lot more than the money in his wallet to save this puppy. But will he? August originally premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year before making stops in Seattle, Brooklyn and eventually Manhattan, where it opens on July 11.

Cinematical has just received this exclusive poster for the upcoming comedy Step Brothers (click on the image for a larger version), and damn it if I'm not ridiculously excited about this film. Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly re-team with director Adam McKay (Talladega Nights) for a flick that just tugs at the heart strings inside all of us. I'd say it's inspiring -- almost earth shattering -- but then again, I don't want to get your hopes up too much. They should be up, though, but at a level where you can still reach them -- kinda like a cookie jar. Step Brothers tells the tale of pampered best friends whose single parents fall in love and decide to get married. Admit it, you know you secretly dreamt of that happening to you growing up -- except in my fantasy, my best friend was Alyssa Milano and, well, use your imagination.

Co-starring Adam Scott, Mary Steenburgen and Richard Jenkins, and produced by some dude named Judd Apatow, Step Brothers arrives in theaters on July 25.

Brittany Snow hasn't made a huge name for herself yet, but she's been in the biz for ages. (And heck, maybe she's known, but not well-known because she isn't a young actress barreling towards a solid brick wall.) As a wee young thing, she was in SeaQuest DSV. That was soon followed with Guiding Light, American Dreams, and then some mainstream fare like John Tucker Must Die and Hairspray. Now, while she's just wrapped production on some independent fare -- Finding Amanda -- Snow is signing up for her next indie feature.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, she will star in a new film called Vicious Kind, from writer/director Lee Toland Krieger. Snow will star as "a woman targeted by the obsessed older brother of her boyfriend after he brings her home for Thanksgiving." So this is yet another reason not to meet the family. It's just too much hassle.

Adam Scott will play the older, creepily obsessed brother named Caleb. You might recognize him from one of his many television stints, from Party of Five to Tell Me You Love Me, or in flicks like Art School Confidential and Knocked Up. The dumb boyfriend who gets Snow into this mess hasn't been cast yet, but he should be soon as production is scheduled to begin on March 1.

Imagine graduating from high school, making a few short films and music videos in Omaha, Nebraska, and then deciding to write a feature. So far, it seems completely plausible. Now, imagine that you write one with Oscar winner Martin Landau in mind for the lead. Still, it can happen, although it's a pretty optimistic endeavor. Top that off by imagining that he actually agrees to do it, and then you score one hell of a cast to go along with him. It sounds like a fanboy fantasy, but according to The Hollywood Reporter, it's come true for one luck Nebraskan filmmaker.

Nik Fackler wrote up Lovely Still, a "holiday fable," about this old man who works as a bagger in a grocery store when he finally finds his first love. He scored himself a meeting with Landau, spent hours convincing him that he was worth it, and things went on from there. Landau got Ellen Burstyn involved, who will play his paramour, and then Elizabeth Banks (the future porno-making Miri) signed on to play her daughter, and Adam Scott (the jerky husband on Tell Me You Love Me) signed on to play the store owner. Fackler is even getting a score from Nathaniel Walcott and Michael Riley Mogis of Bright Eyes. Talk about a killer first-feature gig. Producer Lars Knudsen says: "It's a testament to his talent, that at such a young age he has wooed actors like Martin and Ellen; he's one of those naturals who never went to film school." Knudsen also wonders if Nik will follow in fellow Omaha native Alexander Payne's footsteps. They're currently filming over there in Nebraska.

I'm completely sold. How about you?

It's been quite awhile since we first and last heard about Adam McKay's Step Brothers, an R-rated comedy that will reunite the director's Talladega Nights duo, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly (cementing Reilly's placement in the "Frat Pack") and will be overseen by that film's producers, Judd Apatow and Jimmy Miller. Joining the leads, according to The Hollywood Reporter, is Adam Scott, who recently played the male nurse in Apatow's Knocked Up and Oscar-winner Mary Steenburgen, who co-starred with Ferrell in Elf.

In Step Brothers, Ferrell and Reilly play -- what a shocker -- immature guys who become stepbrothers and best friends when their parents marry. Scott has been cast as Ferrell's younger, more successful brother and Steenburgen is their mom. Still no word on who plays Reilly's father, who I assume will be marrying Steenburgen's character. Other cast members reportedly include Andrea Savage (Comedy Central's Dog Bites Man) as Ferrell's therapist, and someone named Katherine Hahn (could it be Knocked Up costumer Catherine Hahn?) as Adam Scott's character's wife.

Steenburgen seems way too young to play mother to Will Ferrell, who is only 14 years her junior, but this won't be the first time such close-age parental casting has occurred (the craziest was Angela Lansbury and Laurence Harvey -- two years apart -- in The Manchurian Candidate). Still, the actress is one of my favorite motherly actresses, mainly thanks to Parenthood and even Back to the Future III -- her schoolmarm character seems like a mom even if she isn't, at least not until the animated series. Now if Apatow could just get her Parenthood husband, Steve Martin, to play Ferrell's step-dad, I could really get behind this movie. Apatow could be just the guy to re-boost Martin's once-funny career.

The indie drama Who Loves the Sun, which screened at AFI Dallas last weekend, is a good example of a low-key relationship movie, with just five characters and a single large setting -- an island where the family of characters has its summer home. The Canadian island setting is so lush and varied that you forget at times that this is a low-budget film limited to one location.

Will (Lukas Haas) returns to the Bloom family home after being away -- in fact, it turns out that he simply vanished five years ago and Mary and Arthur Bloom (Wendy Crewson and R.H. Thomson) don't know why. They persuade their son Daniel (Adam Scott), a successful NYC magazine editor who was formerly Will's childhood friend, to come for a visit, but the guys just bicker and yell like brothers gone sour. Then Will's wife Maggie (Molly Parker) turns up and we learn that before Will disappeared after catching Maggie and Daniel in flagrante. Now the trio needs to reconcile with one another, including figuring out which guy will end up with Maggie (if any). Mary and Arthur are inevitably drawn into the situation as well.