Oscar winner Steven Soderbergh is sharing the first five minutes of Haywire exclusively on Hulu.  The clip clearly shows how much power MMA superstar Gina Carano can kick.  Watch the first five minutes of the adrenaline inducing clip of Carano kicking Channing Tatum’s butt.

The film also stars Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Antonio Banderas, Bill Paxton, Michael Douglas and Michael Angarano.

Director Baz Luhrmann is currently hard at work adapting F. Scot Fitzgerald’s famous novel The Great Gatsby, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio. We’ve gotten the first image of DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby, in a shot with co-stars Carey Mulligan and Tobey Maguire. The Great Gatsby is scheduled for release later this year.

British actor Benedict Cumberbatch, a fairly unknown face here in the States, but a well-known and highly regarded character actor in the UK, has been cast as the villain of the upcoming Star Trek sequel, scheduled for release in 2013. Cumberbatch has appeared in such films as Atonement, War Horse, and will appear in the upcoming The Hobbit as well.

Star Trek was one of the most successful films of 2009, and a big part of its success came from its cast: a batch of young, talented actors, aided by seasoned veterans like Eric Bana and Simon Pegg. Much of the original cast will be returning for the sequel: including Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Seldana, to name a few.

The Star Trek sequel, helmed by J.J. Abrams, is in production now and is scheduled for a Summer 2013 release.

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.

Screenhead has joined up with Warner Bros. to help promote the release of the final Harry Potter movie. We’ve included this Harry Potter Widget and DVD contest.

The final face-off between good and evil is finally upon us as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is now available, just in time for the holidays! Join Harry, Ron and Hermione as they do battle against Voldemort in the epic conclusion to the film series!

Screenhead has a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 to giveaway.

To enter the giveaway, post your name and take The Harry Potter Trivia Quiz and share their results in the comments section on your Facebook or Twitter page! We will pick the winner November 29, 2011.

Opening in select theaters December 16, 2011 and starring Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz and John C. Reilly, the movie based on the play “God of Carnage” by Yasmina Reza is directed by Roman Polanski.

Carnage is a dark-comedy. The likes I haven’t seen Polanski do ever, unless I am mistaken. The list of talented actors alone drives me to want to see this movie. The premise of the movie — bullying — is prevalent to our culture.

The movie is being billed as a razor sharp, biting comedy centered on parental differences. After two boys duke it out on a playground, the parents of the “victim” invite the parents of the “bully” over to work out their issues. A polite discussion of child rearing soon escalates into verbal warfare, with all four parents revealing their true colors. None of them will escape the carnage.

The trailer is brilliant, enjoy!

The Blu-ray/DVD release of Water for Elephants from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment will hit the streets today. Screenhead has two copies of Water for Elephants to giveaway.

Take a journey back in time with the romantic tale based on Sara Gruen’s New York Times #1 Best-Seller novel of the same name, “Water for Elephants”, on Blu-ray and DVD.

Starring Academy Award-winner Reese Witherspoon (Walk The Line), Robert Pattinson (Twilight series) and Oscar-winner Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds), the film presents an epic tale of forbidden love in a magical place filled with adventure, wonder and great danger.

Showcasing the decadence of a bohemian circus and the majesty of its animals against the backdrop and beauty of a bygone era, Water for Elephants makes the ideal holiday gift idea for your favorite film buff, fashionista or book-lover!

To enter the giveaway, post your name and we will pick the winners* November 15, 2011.

U.S. Residents only

Short Film Spotlight is our ongoing series of insights into the world of short films. This week, we bring you an interview with Japanese-American actor and producer Hideo Sato, who recently finished his short film Welcome To The End.

Screenhead: Tell us about your acting background

Hideo Sato: I’ve been mostly in theater my whole life, almost ten years now, five years in Japan and five years here in the US.

That’s a long time without testing the waters of film and TV?
I’ve been in a few short prodcutions in Japan and I did some TV commercial work, but nothing compares to the stage, performing on front of a live audience. You don’t get that rush when it’s filmed.

But you are moving into films?
Not completely. I still do theater, and I’ve been adding film work now. It’s a different road you take when it’s filmed, the auditions are different, the selection is different. After enough failed auditoins here in LA, I started a production company with my brother who operates from Japan, we’ve got some funding and are starting to do our own thing. We’ve gotten some commerical directors on board to expand to commercials and TV spots. We’ve already done half a dozen commercials for Japanese companies.

How difficult is it to get off the ground with a new production company?
There are a few aspects. There’s always the money aspect, trying to get funds and so on. And then there’s simply getting your work out there. It’s always possible to get funding, but what you do with the money is what matters. Hopefully Welcome To The End will get us noticed, both the produciotn company and myself as an actor. We have another short film lined up, Hiro, which we’ll shoot later this month in Japan.

You star and produce Welcome To The End.
Yes, and we fund it, too. It’s our first real production, and it’s exciting to be involved from the very beginning to the end. And I wanted to be involved, it’s in my nature, even in theater production, I’d bring my ideas in terms of set design, wardrobe, etc. It’s not always welcomed by the crew, but you’re roll the dice and take your chances.

What’s the reception been like?
Wonderful. We’ve already screened it twice in front of around 100 people each time at Sunset Gower Studios last week and it was awesome, people were really into it. Most of them were our friends and people we knew, but still, it’s a great feeling. Just seeing it on the big screen, you feel a sense of accomplishment.

You play the Yakuza gangster and the double, how difficult is it for an actor to play two roles?
I wouldn’t call it difficult, rather, it’s very time consuming when it comes to the set ups and you have to be very prepared. The crew have to know how exactly how it will be cut in the editing room, and you definitely need to watch out for continuity errors — we’ve had a few of those that we luckily managed to cut around in post.

Any plans to turn this into a feature? It seems that many short films these days are meant as a “promo” for a bigger project.
We have a different feature in mind, a Hitchcock-thriller called Hatsukoi, which we are currently in pre-production with. It’ll be our first feature film. We didn’t intend for this short to be anything than a short, an interesting story that we can showcase at smaller festivals, to use as a calling card for all of us.

Finally, what advice would you give to young actors and those looking to get into shortfilms:
For actors, reach out to filmmakers and someone with a common interest. You can spend weeks, months, years looking for the perfect script with the perfect character, even if it’s a short film. It’ much easier and better to just reach out to filmmakers and say “Hey, I have this idea about a short, let’s meet and talk about it”. Just get involved, start brainstorming, find an interesting story you want to tell. And then cast yourself (laughs).

The Heart Specialist has hit the streets and is now available wherever DVDs are sold. I happen to have an extra copy of the DVD for a giveaway. And I picked the winner for the giveaway.

The winner is Jim W. and he says, “I’m Jim.” Well, thanks for letting us know who you are Jim — makes it easy to figure out the winner’s name.

Smooth-talking lothario* Ray Howard (Brian J. White), a young Harvard Medical School graduate, arrives for his internship at a hospital in South Florida to pursue his ex-girlfriend Valerie (Grammy Award®-winner Mya) who can’t forgive his womanizing ways.

When his supervisor, Dr. Sidney Zachary (Wood Harris), discovers that Ray has put the moves on his own girlfriend, nurse Donna (Zoe Saldana), the two conspire with the rest of the hospital staff, patients, and friends to teach Ray a lesson—not just about medicine, but also about true love.

The Heart Specialist features stellar supporting performances from Marla Gibbs, Leon Robinson, Method Man, Thomas ‘Nephew Tommy’ Miles, Jasmine Guy, Scott Paulin, Kenneth Choi, Terrence J and comic legend Ed Asner.

*a man who obsessively seduces and deceives women.

When a new television series announces that it’s “from the team behind Arrested Development”, I get skeptical. After all, Arrested Development was easily one of my favorite shows, and anything trying to capitalize on that is a low blow. But then, when you get a former actor from Arrested Development, Will Arnett, otherwise known as Gob Bluth, to play the lead, well, now I don’t know whether to be amazed or skeptical. But that was what I was going to find out with Running Wilde: Season One, a copy of which the folks at Lions Gate sent out for review. And thankfully, my skepticism was wholly unwarranted, because this is some terrifically funny stuff.

Running Wilde follows Steve Wilde, self-centered rich dullard, who’s decided to try and recover his childhood sweetheart’s affection. Trouble is, said childhood sweetheart is a dirt-poor econaut out to save the world who’s sufficiently econaut to name her daughter Puddle. Oh, and did I mention old Steve’s family made their fortune in oil? That’s going to be quite the comic mismatch, or so the series hopes.

The thing about Running Wilde is that it only lasted thirteen episodes, and on Fox, the network that was dumb enough to shut down Arrested Development in the first place. And frankly, Running Wilde will be every inch as hilarious as Arrested Development, largely because of the Arrested Development alums involved here. It’s not just Will Arnett, but also David Cross (the former never-nude Dr. Tobias Funke) shows up. The sheer amount of great comedy here, in the grandest Arrested Development tradition, is enough to get anybody interested. Frankly, I laughed on a variety of occasions, and when a DVD makes me laugh, I know it’s going to be a big deal indeed.

It’s a shame it didn’t last longer, and I can only hope that this will one day get the Futurama treatment and be brought back elsewhere. It’s probably the closest thing you’re going to get to new episodes of Arrested Development. There are more than enough wild situations here that revolve around Steve’s relative naivete and his massive ego despite same to make most anyone laugh. David Cross and Will Arnett’s interactions are also terrific fun.

The Screenhead Ten Scale can hardly believe it’s doing this, but for the second time this week, Running Wilde gets a full ten out of ten. It’s simply too funny to pass up.