If you have been reading the trades then you know that Australian actor Joel Edgerton has for a long been connected to the untitled Osama Bin Laden film with Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal attached. Edgerton, who is best known for starring in the Warrior has made it official – he has signed on to star.

According to the trades, Edgerton has been the number one choice since as early as May; but he had some scheduling conflicts and dealings with an unfinished script. Since Edgerton bowed out of Warner Bros. sequel to 300 and the script is now done, he’s joined the Bin Laden film, which also includes Jason Clarke.

Bigelow will direct the film from Boal’s script. The story focuses on the Navy Seal team that tracked and eventually killed Osama Bin Laden. Boal and Bigelow are well-known for their Hurt Locker collaboration – winning the Oscar for best movie.

The film is scheduled to go into production in February with a release date set for December 19, 2012.

Several roles are still open for casting. One role involves a female reporter entrenched with the Navy Seal team. Variety reports that Rooney Mara had been a possible choice, but her The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo promotion schedule ended that bright idea.

The Aussie has made a name for himself with such films as Animal Kingdom and Warrior. His next big film is The Great Gatsby, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Carey Mulligan.

Starring Linda Cardellini, Michael Shannon and John Slattery and directed by Liza Johnson, Return is an edgy film about returning to the States after combat duty. But, it’s not a husband or dad returning. It’s Kelli (Cardellini) who is a wife and mother.

When she returns home from war, she expected to slowly but surely settle back into her life with her husband (Shannon) and kids in the small town she grew up in.

Instead, she gradually realizes that the life she left behind is no longer there waiting for her. The trailer is very tight and tense as we see Kelli’s struggle to find her place in a life she no longer recognizes.

Cardellini’s vivid performance in this trailer  is worth seeing. You can see it over at Apple.  As an independent film, shown at Cannes Film Festival 2011, Directors Fortnight, Return will open in select theaters on February 10, 2012 and will be available on VOD on February 28th.

Sequels keep the heart of Hollywood beating strong and steady. Some say that is not a good thing; but it brings money to the studios. Paramount studio is developing another Paranormal Activity feature – fourth one within four years.

The studio announced the plan for the fourth sequel yesterday while also announcing Paramount as the No. 1 studio with worldwide grosses in 2011 — scoring best ever at $5.17 billion. If you do the math, In North America the studio brought in $1.96 billion and $3.21 billion internationally. That’s quite a showing in North America.

The fourth installment is listed as part of the studio’s 2012 lineup, which also includes G.I. Joe: Retaliation, World War Z and The Dictator.

It’s hard to imagine what more Paramount can milk out of the supernatural storyline. The last two installments were pretty much similar as prequels to the original. The combined $581 million in worldwide grosses is, obviously, the key factor for making a fourth. The first movie opened as a limited release, whereas the next two sequels went into wide release the weekend before Halloween.

The original Paranormal Activity, written and directed by Oren Peli, was a phenomenon – costing only $15,000 to produce. Peli used the infamous “found footage” technique. The storyline centered on a young couple haunted by a supernatural presence.

Paranormal Activity 3 was directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman from a screenplay by Christopher B. Landon. The fourth installment producers, director, writer and release dates have not been announced yet.

Redbox, the Blu-ray and DVD kiosk renter, announced with a little fanfare their movies that were rented the most, by genre, during the course of last year. You will notice that most of the popular rentals were not award winners or box office stand outs.

Here are the results announced via a 5-minute video presentation by Redbox:

•Most Rented Action Movie: Green Hornet
•Most Rented Family Movie: Rango
•Most Rented Horror Movie: Insidious
•Most Rented Comedy Movie: Just Go With It
•Most Rented Drama Movie: The Tourist

Looking at the Redbox’s tally for individuals, we start with Natalie Portman who is honored with the most-rented actress of 2011, due to Black Swan, Your Highness, No Strings Attached and Thor.

Your Highness

Next is Kevin James who took the praise as lifetime achievement award for entertaining Redbox users year-after-year. His Paul Blart: Mall Cop (2009) is the fastest Redbox DVD to reach the one millionth mark.

Thus, it’s hard for me to believe, the most rented Redbox film of 2011 was Just Go With It. The silly comedy stars Adam Sandler and Jennifer Anniston. Anniston was even honored with a bonus award for her other comedy role as the sex-crazed dentist in the dark-comedy Horrible Bosses.

Just Go With It

You may be asking yourself why relatively unsuccessful box office movies, like Green Hornet, are so popular at Redbox. It’s easy to surmise that movie goers wait for the box office duds to arrive on the disc rental market to rent them. If you do the math, box office money makers stay in the theaters longer, such as Fast Five, Kung Fu Panda 2, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, and their Blu-ray and DVDs counter-parts are purchased by movie goers – instead of rented — whereas less-popular movies are rented via kiosks or Netflix.

The Redbox results indicate the older releases have better records because titles like Harry Potter and Pirates of the Caribbean, arrived closer to the end of the year. Still, not a single one of the award winners takes a position on the current Redbox Top 20.

It will be interesting to watch Redbox during 2012 because from the looks of it, see the above graphic, the kiosk movie renter is sure to expand even more.

This holiday season the BBCAmericaShop.com invites you to discover the perfect gift from DVDs to traditional U.K. Holiday collectibles and to enter for a chance to win a pair of $500 Gift Cards for you and a friend.

Screenhead and BBC American Shop joined up to promote the holiday special with an ultimate BBC prize package to be offered as a giveaway on Screenhead:

BBC Holiday Gift Set (DVD) BBC Holiday Drama Collection (DVD) Being Human: Season 3 (DVD) Planet Earth: Special Edition (DVD) Top Gear 16 (DVD) BBC Holiday Comedy (DVD)

We picked our winner: Pauline M.  She is one lucky BBC viewer, and we hope Pauline enjoys the rest of the holidays watching these television series.

Boy Wonder – already an underground cult hit that has garnered 15 awards and been critically acclaimed during a limited theatrical run and at film and pop culture festivals across the country.

We picked a winner for our giveaway. The winner is Britney House, who says, “I love movies like this.”

In this riveting and gritty film, a young boy witnesses the brutal murder of his mother during a Brooklyn car-jacking … leaving him to be raised by his alcoholic father (Bill Sage). Now a 17-year-old loner, Sean Donovan (Caleb Steinmeyer) is relentlessly haunted by his past and obsessed with finding his mother’s killer.

Drawn into a nocturnal urban underworld, Sean’s consuming rage is vented one night, defending himself from a chaotic attack by a drug dealer. Thus begins his life as a quiet, straight-A student by day and a self-appointed hero at night.

Investigating a series of vigilante murders, hot-shot new homicide detective Teresa Ames (Zulay Henao) – broken by her own troubled life – takes an interest in Sean and his case. Yet the closer Teresa gets, the more suspicious she becomes. Engaged in a twisting game of cat and mouse, Sean and Teresa become allies by day … and enemies by night.

But what is a real hero? Who decides what is right or wrong? As the boundaries between justice and vengeance blur, Sean’s dual life wears on his psyche and his two worlds careen dangerously close to colliding.

What a fun movie to watch with the whole family. A Christmas Wedding Tail is an adorable upcoming holiday film from Anchor Bay Entertainment.

The winner for our giveaway is Hoa Le, who says, “Thanks for the giveaway!” You are welcome! It is Screenhead’s pleasure to giving away one copy of the Hallmark movie to you. Happy Holidays!

The heartwarming new DVD has a “top dog” cast, including the ever-popular Jennie Garth, Brad Rowe, Tom Arnold and Catherine Hicks – as well as real life husband and wife team Jay Mohr and Nikki Cox, playing the voices of two passionate pooches who fall head over tail in love. The DVD debuts nationwide on December 6, 2011.

A Christmas Wedding Tail is the story of a pair of passionate pooches, Labrador Rusty and Poodle Cheri. The two smitten pups conspire to get their respective owners, Susan and Jake to wed. Despite Susan’s and Jake’s compatibility, their new blended family turns out to be more than Rusty and Cheri had bargained for. Now, the calculating canines must channel their pooch powers to keep their family from ending up in the dog house.

Great trailer and needs no introduction; it tells it all. I am excited. It is freezing here in Northern California, but watching this trailer warms me up. I can feel summer coming. May 25th is when Men In Black 3 hits the theaters.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is a visual experience that immerses people in the video, music and photography of the film. Through these pages, written passages from the original novel are brought to life and complimented by imagery and video to create a seamless blend of book and film.

We held our giveaway and have picked our winner — April Brenay.  April says, “Love this movie.”

The story is about growing up in 19th century China, Lily (Bingbing Li, The Forbidden Kingdom) and Snow Flower (Gianna Jun, My Sassy Girl) are brought together in a Laotong friendship—a lifelong bond between two women who rely on each other for companionship and comfort. Amid the civil unrest and gender discrimination of the era, the pair deals with life’s hardships together until they are separated by marriage and childbirth. As sworn sisters, however, the women continue to communicate through the secret Chinese language of nushu, hiding their stories and messages within the folds of delicate silk fans.

In present day Shanghai, the Laotong’s descendants Nina (also played by Li) and Sophia (also played by Jun) struggle to maintain the intimacy of their own childhood friendship in the face of demanding careers and complicated love lives. Drawing on lessons of the past, the two modern women must understand the story of their ancestral connection or risk losing one another forever. What unfolds are two stories, generations apart, but everlasting in the notion of love, hope and friendship.

This holiday season the BBCAmericaShop.com invites you to discover the perfect gift from DVDs to traditional U.K. Holiday collectibles and to enter for a chance to win a pair of $500 Gift Cards for you and a friend.

Screenhead and BBC American Shop joined up to promote the holiday special with an ultimate BBC prize package to be offered as a giveaway on Screenhead:

BBC Holiday Gift Set (DVD)
BBC Holiday Drama Collection (DVD)
Being Human: Season 3 (DVD)
Planet Earth: Special Edition (DVD)
Top Gear 16 (DVD)
BBC Holiday Comedy (DVD)

To enter the giveaway, post your name and we will pick the winner December 22, 2011.

U.S. Residents Only