The film will release nationally on April 13th and features Chris “Thor” Hemsworth and a group of “teens” who go for a leisurely trek to a (insert title here). What looks great about this movie is that it plays with many of the conventions of the genre, turning them on their head to give us a most unexpected journey. The trailer released earlier was cut so that the intro looked as regular and cliché, only to then start blowing minds at about the half-way point.

One final note: Although we’ve been referring to it (and will continue to) as Joss Whedon’s CABIN IN THE WOODS, the film is actually being directed by Drew Goddard, who’s been writing and producing for J.J. Abrams and Joss Whedon projects (LOST, ANGEL, BUFFY, ALIAS). This is his directorial debut. But given that the story is a Joss Whedon creation and that Mr. Goddard has worked with different series that excelled in blowing minds, I think this will shape up to be one of the more notable entries in the 2012 release calendar.

Check out the trailer from our previous post here.

Do you feel that shiver slithering up your spine? That’s because the trailer has just hit for THE CABIN IN THE WOODS, the long-anticipated ‘slasher to end all slashers’ directed by CLOVERFIELD screenwriter Drew Goddard and produced by BUFFY creator Joss Whedon. The film was shot in 2009 with a cast including Chris Hemsworth, Jesse Williams, Kristen Connolly, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, and Richard Jenkins. There’s been a lot of mystery surrounding the story and what makes this script really tick, and now with the first trailer released from Lionsgate, we get our first clue…

A group of five friends going on a quiet cabin retreat scratch the surface of something so massive and horrific that they can only begin to fathom what might possibly be going on just as time quickly runs out.

This trailer is packed with a LOT of tantalizing images, but without the context I think there’s still a lot of secrets left. If anything, it only asks more questions. How do you feel about the film? Will you be seeing it when it comes out next April on Friday the 13th? I know I will.

That’s what makes this new teaser poster for THE CABIN IN THE WOODS that much more gratifying.  CABIN was directed by Drew Goddard, written by Goddard and AVENGERS director Joss Whedon, and stars Chris Hemsworth before he went and became one of the most recognizable heroes on the planet with THOR.

We know very little about this movie, which I would argue works in its favor.  And as you can see from the poster below, that dearth of information isn’t about to change anytime soon.  It kinda reminds me of the first teases we got of INCEPTION, images of contorted cityscapes and spiraling hallways yet no inkling as to the actual meat of the story.  Check it out, courtesy of Ain’t It Cool News:

From the poster, it would appear to be one of those films with an awesomely twisty plot, a welcome change from the standard  horror film.

Henry Knowles also has an interesting interview at the link, where he talks to Whedon and Goddard basically about how mysterious the movie is with them playing very coy about giving away actual plot details.

It looks like we’ll have to wait until April 13, 2012 to learn the truth about THE CABIN IN THE WOODS.

Set in the aftermath of an apocalyptic robot uprising, Steven Spielberg’s next film, ROBOPOCALYPSE – a Drew Goddard-scripted adaptation of Daniel H. Wilson’s epic novel – is such a big deal that it will be co-financed by both DreamWorks and Fox.

According to Deadline, this isn’t the first time Fox and DreamWorks have tried to get together. HARVEY, back in 2009, similarly had both studios and Spielberg attached, but the project dried up when Spielberg withdrew due to, among other things, difficulties with finding an actor to play Elwood P. Dowd, James Stewart’s character back in 1950.

Hopefully this time around everything will work out and all involved can surmount any speed bumps along the way to the ROBOPOCALYPSE.

Unfortunately, the wait to finally gain some insight into the film was achingly prolonged when distributors announced that its February 2010 release date would be pushed back a full year in order to upscale the film to the 3-D format. Thankfully, although its creators have been mum about plot specifications, actors always love to talk. One of the film’s stars, Amy Acker (Angel, Alias), let slip at this past weekend’s WonderCon in San Fransisco that Cabin in the Woods is a creature feature.

Reported by SciFi Wire, the actress was quoted as saying, “There’s a lot of scary monsters,” in a group interview while promoting the upcoming ABC series, Happy Town. “It’s a scary movie.”

So while that doesn’t give you a whole ton to go on, it at least introduces an intriguing new element. More monsters can never be a bad thing. In other good news, Acker also revealed that the film production process has officially finished, leaving only the 3-D conversion to go.

“I got an e-mail yesterday that it was finished,” Acker said. “The cut is finished, so they’ve got it all, well, ‘in the can’ I guess is what the terminology was.”

While Acker hasn’t seen the cut yet, her showrunners at Happy Town apparently have. “These guys are all friends with Drew from Alias, and they saw it and said that it was awesome,” she said. “So that’s good.”

After letting slip the detail about monsters, Acker chose to play the rest of the interview a bit more coyly. “It is about a cabin in the woods,” Acker confirmed. “You’ve figured it out. Yeah, it’s about a cabin in the woods. It does take from the sort of formula of the horror movie of this group of young kids who go away to a cabin in the woods for the weekend, and everything that happens and what you think is supposed to happen.”

The Cabin in the Woods is due in theaters Jan. 14, 2011.

Richard Jenkins (The Broken) and Bradley Whitford are moving to The Cabin in the Woods. Jenkins is on board and Whitford is in final negotiations to star in the mystery-shrouded MGM/UA horror project written by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard, who also is directing. Whedon is producing.

Much like Cloverfield, which Goddard scripted, the Cabin story line provides a new twist on a classic scenario — in this case the young-people-stranded-in-the-woods horror trope.

“It’s really just your basic typecasting: When you need two actors to run through the woods in low-cut nighties, you immediately think of Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford,” Goddard joked. Whedon said the casting signals what kind of movie they are hoping to make. “They’re the first proof that though The Cabin in the Woods is a classic horror film, it isn’t one you’ve seen before.”

While the studio and filmmakers were loath to provide character details, it is understood that Jenkins and Whitford will play white-collar co-workers with a mysterious connection to the cabin.

The UA production is prepping for a spring shoot and will open wide February 5, 2010, with MGM distributing.