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Academy Award-nominated actors Annette Bening and Ed Harris, and Academy Award-winner Robin Williams will be joined by Amy Brenneman and Jess Weixler in Arie Posin.s romantic drama Look Of Love. Posin is directing the project that he co-wrote with scribe Matthew McDuffie. Mockingbird Pictures. Julie Lynn and Bonnie Curtis are producers. Principal photography begins shooting in Los Angeles on April 9.

The majority of financing for the project was found in Dallas, Texas, where Curtis and Lynn previously sourced funds for the critically acclaimed Albert Nobbs, which earned three Academy Award nominations this past season including Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role for Glenn Close.

Look Of Love is the story of a widow named Nikki (Bening) who, several years after the loss of her husband Garrett, meets a man named Tom (Harris) who looks exactly like her deceased spouse. Suddenly, a flood of old feelings rush...

Daniel Schechter always wanted to make movies and believes his desire to communicate is best served by his skills as a filmmaker. He calls "Supporting Characters" a significant departure from his previous films ("The Big Bad Swim" and "Goodbye Baby") because of its semi-autobiographical nature. While writing the script with friend and star Tarik Lowe, what started as a standard rom-com became more alive when they "kept cherry-picking moments directly from our personal lives." Schechter got his "top personal choice for every single role," including: Alex Karpovsky (HBO's "Girls"), Arielle Kebbel ("90210"), Kevin Corrigan ("The Departed"), Sophia Takal ("Green"), Melonie Diaz ("Be Kind Rewind"), Lena Dunham ("Tiny Furniture") & Tarik Lowe ("Blue Bloods"). What it's about: It's a comedy about two best friends, who are film editors in NYC,...

The 11th Tribeca Film Festival is only a few weeks away, and will feature plenty of indie movies vying for audience attention and studio distribution, so credit newcomer director Jay Gammill and Film Market for getting the word out early on their quirky comedy "Free Samples." The film stars Jess Weixler — known most notably for staging a war on penises in Mitchell Lichtenstein's 2007 horror-comedy "Teeth" — as a Stanford law-school dropout who gets stuck working in an ice cream truck for a day and is distracted by every goofy weirdo in town while she tries to figure out what to do with her life. Among those distractions is Jason Ritter (who also worked with Weixler in the 2009 romantic drama "Peter and Vandy") and Jesse Eisenberg, who could be Weixler's love interest in the movie (or could just appear in a handful of scenes).

Seeing Eisenberg as the earnest romantic isn't completely new,...

While there's more than enough new content for everyone this weekend, we're going to focus on the three more talked-about films, and try to get a sense of which flicks will cause you to open the wallet. Surprisingly, if you're down for a raunchy teen sex comedy, Summit's Sex Drive might just be your best bet come Friday night. Oh yes, I bet you didn't see that coming. Buzz on both Max Payne and W. has been lukewarm, with a lot of Twitter hate being thrown at the former. Previewing Eric D. Snider's upcoming review of Max Payne for Cinematical, he unfortunately has this to say: "I know we've often complained that these movies were All action and No substance, but this one has gone in the opposite direction. Well, except there's not really any substance, either."

Our own James Rocchi was a bit indifferent with his excellent upcoming W.

Here's one for Roger Ebert's Overlooked Film Festival. Ishai Setton's witty comic drama, The Big Bad Swim, navigated many successful laps through the festival circuit last year from Tribeca to Avignon, collecting four fest honors and critical acclaim in its wake. But the harsh reality of the film distribution business has set in: The film is now in a very small regional release throughout the nation before its DVD release next month.

To be sure, the film lacks star names, but then so does Knocked Up. "Swim's" two female leads, Paget Brewster and Jess Weixler, are bright, attractive, sexy actresses whose performances certainly appeal to men and women. In fact, Weixler made a considerable impression this year at Sundance in Teeth, causing the jury to create a special prize for her. But that film hasn't been released yet, so Swim can't build on any growing fan base for the actress.

None of which explains why such a sharp comedy didn't gain an enthusiastic distributor. There aren't that many solid comedies, whether aiming for mainstream audiences or sophisticated adults as Swim does, that they should fall by the wayside.

Setton and his writer, Daniel Schechter, cleverly situate their multicharacter story in and around a local gym's swimming pool, where terrified, water-phobic adults gingerly approach an adult-ed swim class much as the vacationers in Jaws eyed the bloody water. Among them are a cop terrified of the water, a young woman looking for a guy and a wealthy couple learning to swim so they can use their new pool.

The two main characters are the least frightened of the bunch. Amy Brewster), a high school calculus teacher, takes the class to escape the strain of a crumbling marriage to a fellow teacher. Jordan (Weixler), who somehow never got around to learning how to swim, uses the class to relax between her two high-stress jobs -- blackjack and roulette dealer at an Indian casino and dancer at a strip club.

The hunky instructor has his own issues. Noah (Jeff Branson) has undergone years of therapy, both physical and psychological, because of an athletic injury. Coming out of his shell now, he is thinking of making two major moves: getting off his meds and acquiring a dog.

Amy and Jordan wind up fast friends, exchanging confidences even as Amy experiments with a romance with a much younger gambler (Michael Mosley) she meets at the casino. Meanwhile, Noah gets a dog. Then one night he wanders into Jordan's strip club, unaware that his student works there.

Jordan's young brother and aspiring documentary filmmaker David (Avi Setton), who is enrolled in a class taught by Amy's husband, wants to make a docu about his sister's life -- and lifestyle. His partner in crime, Hunter (Ricky Ullman), has a major obsession with his big sis.

With each clever plot twist, the film maintains focus on its characters, digging out emotional truths from their interplay and behavior. Brewster, Weixler and Branson spark to the main action as believably troubled yet determined people. And the metaphors about taking the plunge and confronting your own worst fears work out neatly as the interlocking story lines unfold.

Tech credits are fine, both in and out of the water, in this Connecticut-based production.

THE BIG BAD SWIM

Argot Pictures/Setton Sun Prods.

Four Act Films

Credits:

Director: Ishai Setton

Screenwriter/Executive producer: Daniel Schechter

Producers: Ishai Setton, Chandra Simon

Executive producers: Sandy Garvin, David Raymond

Director of photography: Josh Silfen

Production designer: Valerie Green

Music: Chad Kelly, Julian Velard

Co-producers: Ryan Kampe, Elana Pianko, Sylvain Tron

Costume designer: Cara Liedlich

Editor: Ian B. Wile

Cast:

Amy Pierson: Paget Brewster

Noah Owens: Jeff Branson

Jordan Gallagher: Jess Weixler

Hunter McCarthy: Ricky Ullman

David Gallagher: Avi Setton

Martin: Todd Susman

Joanna: Darla Hill

Carl: Kevin Porter Young

Running time -- 96 minutes

No MPAA rating...