Entertainment Express: Matthew McConaughey, Nine Inch Nails, Venice Film Festival, Sigourney Weaver, Gilbert Taylor

Hello! It’s the 50th Anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s I Have A Dream speech, so here is a playlist of songs commemorating the ideals captured within those immortal words.

* A rake-thin Matthew McConaughey, an almost unrecognizable Jared Leto in drag and a little bit of Alabama Shakes makes up the Dallas Buyers Club trailer. The word ‘Oscar’ has followed the clip in practically all the stories written about this film. Based on a true story about the Texas electrician Ron Woodroof who fights the medical establishment when he’s diagnosed HIV-positive in 1986, this one will premiere in Toronto next month, and I’m looking forward to it.

* Nine Inch Nails is streaming their new album Hesitation Marks on iTunes, a week before the scheduled release. The album is co-produced by Trent Reznor, who has, since the band’s last album in 2008 (The Slip), added the title ‘Oscar-winner’ to his name.

* The Venice Film Festival opens today with Alfonso Cuaron’s sci-fi thriller Gravity, starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock. The fest takes place for the next 11 days, celebrating its 70th edition. Nicolas Cage, Matt Damon, Zac Efron and Scarlett Johansson are among the other stars expected on the Venice Lido.

* Three-time Oscar nominee Sigourney Weaver has signed on to join Ridley Scott’s biblical epic, Exodus. The actress, who launched her film career with Scott’s 1979 sci-fi classic Alien, will play mother to Joel Edgerton’s Ramses. Breaking Bad‘s Aaron Paul may also join the cast, which includes Christian Bale as Moses. The film starts shooting next month.

* He helped create a galaxy far, far away – so the movie world is paying tribute to Gilbert Taylor, the influential Star Wars cinematographer, who died late last week at the age of 99, according to the British Society of Cinematographers.