It’s Sean Penn as we’ve never quite seem him before, as a fading, andogynous rock star who sounds oddly like Droopy the Dog. In the intriguing This Must Be The Place, Penn plays Cheyenne, a wealthy former rock star, now bored and jaded in his retirement, whoe embarks on a quest to find his father’s persecutor, an ex-Nazi war criminal now hiding out in the US. Learning his father is close to death, he travels to New York in the hope of being reconciled with him during his final hours, only to arrive too late. Having been estranged for over 30 years, it is only now in death that he learns the true extent of his father’s humiliation in Auschwitz at the hands of former SS Officer Aloise Muller – an event he is determined to avenge. So begins a life-altering journey across the heartland of America to track down and confront his father’s nemesis.Penn’s characters certainly makes an unlikely avenger, but screenings at Cannes suggested it’s worth a look. Click below for the new international trailer. No UK release is yet set.

It’s sort of a remake and sort of a prequel, which is probably the only way The Thing was ever going to get around the fact many would view tampering with John Carpenter’s version of the story as sacriledge. So while the 80s flick saw Kurt Russell and co. heading for an Antarctic research station only to discover a blood bath has been caused by some sort of creature (and then get attacked themselves), this time it charts the events that led up to that. A team of scientists dig a creature from the ice that seems to have been there for 100,000 years. However it turns out it was only lying dormant and soon a shape-shifting monster is on the loose. Click below to take a look. It’s currently scheduled for release in the UK on December 2nd.

Martin Scorsese has touched all sorts of genres but he’s never made a family movie before. That’s about to change with Hugo, based on the novel The Adventures Of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. The film tells the story of an orphaned boy living a secret life in the walls of a Paris train station. With the help of an eccentric girl, he searches for the answer to a mystery linking the father he recently lost, the ill-tempered toy shop owner living below him and a heart shaped lock, seemingly without a key. The trailer looks pretty good (if we ignore the totally ill-fitting music) and certainly manages to give off a slightly Harry Potter aura. Whether it can match the success of those films reamins to be seen. It’ll be in UK cinemas on December 2nd.

One of Disney’s big franchise hopes for 2012 is John Carter (formerly ‘Of Mars’), based on the classic Edgar Rice Burroughs tales, with Pixar’s Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo, Wall-E) going live action for the first time. Here’s the official synopsis: ‘From Academy Award®–winning filmmaker Andrew Stanton comes ‘John Carter’ – a sweeping action-adventure set on the mysterious and exotic planet of Barsoom (Mars). ‘John Carter’ is based on a classic novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, whose highly imaginative adventures served as inspiration for many filmmakers, both past and present. The film tells the story of war-weary, former military captain John Carter (Taylor Kitsch), who is inexplicably transported to Mars where he becomes reluctantly embroiled in a conflict of epic proportions amongst the inhabitants of the planet, including Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe) and the captivating Princess Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins). In a world on the brink of collapse, Carter rediscovers his humanity when he realizes that the survival of Barsoom and its people rests in his hands.’

It hits cinemas March 9th, 2012, but click below for the first, rather intriguing, teaser trailer.

The Inbetweeners has been very successful on TV, but whether that can translate to big screen success is yet to be seen. They’re giving it a go anyway, with a movie version due in cinemas on August 19th. Unfortunately the film relies on the old, rather lazy, standby of sending the characters on holiday, but maybe the script can overcome that tedium. A new, NSFW uncut trailer (i.e. full of swearing and sex-talk) has arrived, with Will, Neil, Simon and Jay embarking on holiday to Malia, a party town for mainly young British tourists on the Greek island of Crete. And if they felt slightly outside of mainstream teenage society in their suburban hometown, then that feeling is magnified a thousand times in one of Europe’s hedonistic hotspots. Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, James Buckley, Blake Harrison and Emily Head from the TV series all star, so click below to take a look.

While Vera Farmiga’s acting career is still on the rise, she’s decided to add directing to her CV with the movie Higher Ground. The movie’s got decent notices at film festivals and now the first trailer is here. Higher Ground depicts the landscape of a tight-knit spiritual community thrown off-kilter when one of their own begins to question her faith. Inspired by screenwriter Carolyn S. Briggs’ memoir, This Dark World, the film tells the story of a thoughtful woman’s struggles with belief, love, and trust, in human relationships as well as in God. No UK release date is yet set.