Disney has hammered the last nail into the coffin of longtime independent producer and distributor Miramax Films. The company's New York and Los Angeles offices will be closing, putting its approximately 80 employees out of work.

Formed in 1979 by Bob and Harvey Weinstein, Miramax made a name for itself in the early 90's producing and distributing low-budget independent films, before being acquired by Disney in 1993. The Weinstein brothers decide to leave the company in 2005, when they founded The Weinstein Company. Several months ago, Disney announced that Miramax's output for production and distribution would be greatly reduced.

"I'm feeling very nostalgic right now," Harvey Weinstein told the site yesterday. "I know the movies made on my and my brother Bob's watch will live on as well as the fantastic films made under the direction of Daniel Battsek. Miramax has some brilliant people working within the organization and I know they will go on to do great things in the industry."

While the company is still best known for classic indie hits like Pulp Fiction, recent films from the studio have won great acclaim, like 2007's There Will Be Blood and No Country For Old Men.

The Weinsteins have expressed interest in purchasing the company name, but so far Disney has not responded. Bob Iger has said he would be willing sell Miramax outright, however, to the tune of $1.5 billion.

"Someone reminded me I once said 'Greed is Good'... now it seems it's legal," blurts Michael Douglas in the trailer for Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.

Oliver Stone's sequel to his 1987 hit Wall Street picks up over 20 years after the events of the first film, and sees Gordon Gekko just now being released from prison. The beginning of the trailer takes some funny jabs at the character's now decades-old style as he is given his late 80's personal effects back before being released as a free man.

The film, however, seems to be a more serious sequel, seeing the now-disgraced Gekko teaming up with his daughter's boyfriend to warn Wall Street of impending doom and solve a murder. What? Yes, not only has Stone seemed to have turned the ultimate 80's antagonist into a good guy, but he's also giving him some sleuth skills as well.

Check out the trailer below, and see our Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps pictures in the gallery!

Opening on February 5th, From Paris With Love shows the zanier side of John Travolta.

Travolta plays Charlie Wax, a wisecracking, fast-shooting, high-ranking U.S. agent who has been sent to Paris to stop a terrorist attack. Sporting a bald head and a bad attitude, Wax is the bane of straight man Jonathan Rhys Meyers, a low-ranking intelligence operative working in the office of the U.S. Ambassador in France who gets partnered with the unorthodox agent.

See just how nuts Travolta is in the clip below, and see more craziness in the From Paris With Love trailer!

[video url="http://www.reelmovienews.com/videos/from-paris-with-love-domestic-mail-clip/" title="From Paris WIth Love "Domestic Mail" clip"] [/video]

When in Rome hits theaters this Friday, and the cast is hot on the PR trail.

An ambitious young New Yorker (Kristen Bell), disillusioned with romance, takes a whirlwind trip to Rome where she defiantly plucks magic coins from a "foolish" fountain of love, inexplicably igniting the passion of an odd group of suitors: a sausage magnate (Danny DeVito), a street magician (Jon Heder), an adoring painter (Will Arnett) and a self-admiring model (Dax Shepard). But when a charming reporter (Josh Duhamel) pursues her with equal zest, how will she know if his love is the real thing?

See video interviews with Kristen Bell, Josh Duhamel, Will Arnett, Jon Heder, and Dax Shepard below, and don't forget to check out our When in Rome photos gallery!

When in Rome Cast Interviews

After M. Night Shyamalan pissed off Disney execs with his maneuvering on The Lady in the Water, and the subsequently unintentionally hilarious dreck that was The Happening, I'm not exactly looking forward to a new film from him.

However, The Last Airbender is not a "personal" project of Night's, but based on the popular Nickelodeon show Avatar: The Last Airbender, which makes my ears prick up. Not because I like the Nick show, but because this is the first project Shyamalan has undertaken that he hasn't had absolute control over from inception to post.

Paramount pictures has released two new banner posters for The Last Airbender, which opens in theaters on July 2, 2010.

Click on the thumbnails to view larger versions, and see all of our Last Airbender pictures in the gallery!

Opening February 5th, 2010, John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers team up in From Paris With Love, a new action-thriller from the director of Taken. 

Jonathan Rhys Meyers plays a low-ranking intelligence operative working in the office of the U.S. Ambassador in France who takes on more than he bargained for when he partners with a wisecracking, fast-shooting, high-ranking U.S. agent (Travolta) who has been sent to Paris to stop a terrorist attack.

Travolta is definitely in better form here than he was in the lukewarm comedy Old Dogs, appearing even more hard-edged than he did in The Taking of Pelham 123.

From Paris With Love trailer

Sherlock Holmes was a huge success for Warner Bros. this holiday season, despite playing second fiddle to Avatar. But hey, when you're second to only the biggest movie ever made, you can still claim $389 million dollars worldwide!

Basically, Warner Bros. wants to fast track a sequel to Holmes, and to do that, Guy Ritchie is going to set aside directing Lobo, the extra-crazy 1980's DC comics anti-hero.

Producer Joel Silver, who is overseeing both Lobo and Holmes 2, spoke to the Los Angeles Times about Ritchie's involvement:

"I don't think he's going to do it now," Silver said of Ritchie directing Lobo. "The studio wants us and Guy to focus on making another 'Sherlock Holmes'... So we're trying to see if we can do something quickly with another 'Sherlock Holmes' movie. We have some ideas and some good story points." Silver added that they'll likely go with another director for Lobo."

Silver was also asked about the possibility of Brad Pitt playing Holmes' nemesis, Professor Moriarty, in the next film.

"Well, I mean, we talked about that at one point, but you know as of right now we're not sure what we're going to do. We'll see what happens."

Opening January 29th, Disney presents Kristen Bell and Josh Duhamel in the romantic comedy When in Rome.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall's Kristen Bell plays Beth, a young, ambitious New Yorker who is completely unlucky in love. However, on a whirlwind trip to Rome, she impulsively steals some coins from a reputed fountain of love and finds that she is being aggressively pursued by a band of suitors- men whose coins she stole from the fountain.

Check out the trailer below, and take a look at our When in Rome photos in the gallery!

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, Oliver Stone's sequel to his popular 1987 corporate drama Wall Street, hits theaters on April 23.

20th Century Fox has released some new photos from the set of the upcoming sequel, which sees the return of Michael Douglas to one of his most infamous characters: Gordon Gekko. However, from the synopsis, it sounds like we'll be getting a good guy Gekko this time:

"As the global economy teeters on the brink of disaster, a young Wall Street trader partners with disgraced former Wall Street corporate raider Gordon Gekko on a two-tiered mission: To alert the financial community to the coming doom, and to find out who was responsible for the death of the young trader's mentor."

Check out the photos below! Click on the thumbnails to view larger versions, and see all of our Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps photos in the gallery!

It's official: Avatar is the highest grossing film of all time!

James Cameron's latest and greatest creation has beaten the previous title holder for worldwide box office receipts, Cameron's own Titanic. Avatar has earned $1,858,866,889, besting Titanic's $1,843,201,268. An impressive feat, considering Avatar has only been in theaters for 39 days.

This past weekend, Avatar was still the number 1 film, pulling in another $36 million domestically. Other films didn't fare as well- Legion, the religious sci-fi actioner starring Paul Bettany and Dennis Quaid, pulled in about $18 million in its opening weekend, while The Book of Eli dropped to third with only $17 million.

20th Century Fox issued this statement addressing Avatar's tremendous box office performance:

"We are deeply gratified that so many millions of people around the globe have embraced 'Avatar.' Its success results from the efforts of literally thousands of people, who, over the course of several years, worked to bring James Cameron's vision of Pandora to life. The themes of protecting the environment, respecting life, and yearning for a peaceful planet have united moviegoers worldwide. We're very proud of, and grateful to, James Cameron, his amazing and dedicated team, and all the many people at Fox, who worked so long and so hard to achieve this milestone."

Still can't get enough Avatar? Check out our Avatar photos and Avatar quotes!