Happy New Year everyone

A belated Happy New Year to you all (yesterdays posts were all prescheduled as I wasn’t near a computer).

Did you all have a good time? Drink too much? Make resolutions that you have already broken.

We had a quiet one. Put our 2 year old daughter to bed then Catherine, my son and I watched Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (I enjoyed it more seeing it the second time now that the anticipation for it had gone – still full of faults but an enjoyable romp) before turning over to Jools Holland on BBC2 and welcomed in the New Year. Then it was in bed for about 00:15!

I just want to thank everyone who has visited this little site since it started back in the middle of last year. It’s been a fun few months since Chisholm said to me, “You should do a film blog and post reviews for us to read.” Since then people from all over the World have found it and seem to like it. Big thanks to you all and to all the regulars to the site and the forum. I’m also blown away by the fact I’ve had a couple of proper interviews with some film makers and an favourite author of mine. Hopefully there will be more interviews to come in this year.

What was your film highlight of 2008? What are you looking forward to in 2009? I can’t wait to see Zack Snyder’s Watchmen (although I have a horrible feeling the court case will just delay it’s release). I also want to see Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino, Milk, Slumdog Millionaire and many other things.

Once again thanks. Now go out and tell a couple of friends about the site. Let’s spread the word people.

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The Random – Avatar: The Last Airbender, Clash of the Titans, Eric Roth does Sci-Fi, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, The Dark Knight,

Noah Ringer, Jackson Rathbone (“Twilight”), Nicola Peltz (“Deck the Halls”) and singer Jesse McCartney have been cast in M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Last Airbender,” a live-action adaptation of his popular Nickelodeon anime-inspired series “Avatar” reports Entertainment Weekly.

Cultura y Espectáculos reports that the archipelago off the coast of North-West Africa is set to be used for portions of the filming on the Louis Leterrier-directed remake of 1981′s Clash of the Titans. Other location shooting on the $80 million project is expected to take place in Ethiopia, Iceland and London. Around a month of the twenty week shoot will take place on the islands around May-June next year.

Eric Roth (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) says that he’s keen on doing a big sci-fi feature in the future. “I’m going to do a big space…I don’t want to say odyssey…that’s been done, but a space movie for Warner Brothers and I want to start like in…I don’t know…sometime next year” he tells Collider. Roth says its an original ideas of his and wants to mix “the intelligence of “2001” and the mythology of “Star Wars”…I don’t want to make it so intellectual that it’s confounding, but on the other hand I’m not so sure I can write the kind of wonderful fantasy that Lucas does.”

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen director Michael Bay says that the first trailer will hit either on the Superbowl or in early February. Here’s the latest update from his official blog: “Back from Egypt and Jordan – we had a wonderful shoot over there… Our Trailer for Transformer you have been asking about – First there will be a teaser poster soon after the new year, and the teaser trailer will be out either in the theaters early Feb. or on the Superbowl. Cannot decide yet. I’m going to release some set stills on this site in a few weeks.”

The Duplass Brothers, more commonly known as Mark Duplass and Jay Duplass, have announced the cast for their next feature film. Tentatively titled Safety Man, the story centers on a recently divorced man, played by John C. Reilly, who meets the woman of his dreams, played by Marisa Tomei. However, she has a teenage son, played by Jonah Hill, who has no interesting in sharing his mother with a new man. The Duplass Brothers have a very unique brand of comedy, part of which involves shooting all the scenes in the film in sequence, as opposed to out-of-order like most other films.

The Los Angeles Film Critics had awarded WALL-E “Best Picture of the Year”, a first for an animated film.

The New York Film Critics Circle announced their yearly award winners – Josh Brolin (Milk) edged out Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight) for the Best Supporting Actor award

Nikki Finke is reporting that The Dark Knight has broken the record for the most Blu-rays sold in just one day of release. The Dark Knight sold over 600,000 copies on Tuesday alone, while the previous record holder, Paramount’s Iron Man, sold 400,000 Blu-ray copies in one week. The Dark Knight also sold 3 million copies on good old DVD. No word yet on how many *ahem” copies have been sold in pubs!

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Oscars – What do you think will win Best Picture

I recently posted the ad that had been taken out to promote The Dark Knight for Best Picture at next years Oscars.

That got me thinking about what could possibly win The Best Picture. On my wanders around the World Wide Web there are a few films that seem to be in the running for Best Picture. They are as follows:

Australia - Nicole and Hugh get it on in the outback.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Brad Pitt ages backwards.

The Dark Knight – Bale growls as The Batman, Ledger does a magic trick and there are two Aaron Eckharts but I didn’t see any jousting.

Doubt - Meryl Streep and Amy Adams are nuns. Is it a porno? Philip Seymore Hoffman wishes.

Frost/Nixon – The head Lycan dude fron Underworld interviews Dracula.

Gran Torino – Clint Eastwood plays a rascist and has a nice car.

Milk - Sean Penn play a big gay bottle of semi-skimmed or a politician or something.

Nothing But the Truth – Kate Beckinsale outs a CIA agent with hilarious consequences.

Rachel Getting Married – Rachel is getting married and her sister does drugs

The Reader – Kate Winslet is a Nazi who likes to have bedtime stories read to her. Ahh isn’t that sweet!

Revolutionary Road – Kate Winslett and Leonardo DiCaprio set sail on the Titanic while living in 1950′s Connecticut and argue a lot or something. I could be wrong. Not sure how Kate got the part in the film directed by her husband? Is Billy Zane in it?

Slumdog Millionaire – Indian kid wins Who Wants to be A Millionaire. Danny Boyle still goes on about 28 Days Later wasn’t a zombie film.

The Wrestler – Mickey Rourke is a washed up has-been. In this film he plays a wrestler.

WALL-E – CGI Pixar fest with a cute little robot.

Sadly I’ve only seen a couple of them (Dark Knight, WALL-E) although a fair few of them have yet to be released so it’s not that bad a thing. I do want to see Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Gran Torino, Milk and The Wrestler and the others I’m all a bit meh about. I personally think Benjamin Button will win the best picture Oscar purely from all the buzz and reviews I’ve been reading about it.

Which film do you see winning Best Picture? How many of the above list have you seen and what are you looking forward to seeing? Which ones will you avoid? What films should be on the list? Will Billy Zane win best actor?

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The Random

Aussie actress Teresa Palmer has been added to the cast of John Eyre’s “The Last Warrior”.

Indie company Werc Werk Works will finance and co-produce “The Turin Horse,” a new movie from Hungarian filmmaker Bela Tarr that will use the story of a farmer and his horse as an existential metaphor… (full details)

Danny Boyle admits that he shot “Slumdog Millionaire” with a PG-13 rating in mind, despite the film landing an R from the MPAA. He also admits that he tried to appeal the rating but doesn’t seem to have had any success… (full details)

‘W.’ screenwriter Stanley Weiser talks about his “Wall Street” sequel treatment that he penned a while ago and is being ignored by “21” scribe Allan Loeb who’s penning the upcoming project entitled “Money Never Sleeps“… (full details)

Despite a press release indicating Michael Bay had approved the upcoming Transformers theme park ride, Bay himself has just announced he isn’t happy with what they have presented him… (full details)

Legendary Pictures (“Batman Begins,” “Superman Returns”) is in negotiations to acquire Epic Games (“Gears of War,” “Unreal Tournament”) – the first film financing company to start investing money in video games… (full details)

Real life couple Christopher Lee and Fann Wong are in advanced talks to star in Singaporean romantic comedy “The Wedding of the Year.” The dark story deals with a marriage between two celebrities whose fans have been tracking their romance and rooting for nuptials. Pic will be released in Singapore by Golden Village in time for Chinese New Year in late January… (full details)

Mirovision is developing a third remake of Korean helmer Kim Ki-young’s 1960 masterpiece thriller “The Housemaid“…The story follows a maid who ruins a family. Gina Kim (“Never Forever”) penned and is attached to direct the $2.5 million Korean-language remake… (full details)

Danny and Oxide Pang (“Bangkok Dangerous,” “The Eye”) will next direct the horror feature “Child’s Eye” for Universe Intl. Holdings. Shooting is scheduedl to start in April or May… (full details)

Joss Whedon has revealed that his original pilot for the new Fox series “Dollhouse” was thrown out completely and several characters were removed from the show… (full details)

Jackson Rathbone tries to defend the Donnie Darko sequel S. Darko: “Look at the original Donnie Darko. When it was first released, did anybody like it? No, it was a year later. Through people talking, people got it. We’re in an opposite boat, because people loved the first one after a while. Maybe they’ll warm up to this, too. Or, they’ll hate the idea of it, but once they see it, I think they’re going to turn around. It takes the idea of the film and it goes beyond, answering and delving into more questions than Donnie Darko did. A lot of people are pissed that Richard Kelly is not involved, but he did sell the idea. He did give the license to do it. So it’s not like he’s opposed to it.” [Shock]

Danny Elfman is developing a broadway show based on the life of Harry Houdini and he also might be doing a Cirque Du Soleil show at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood in 2010. [Collider]

The Playlist takes a look at the soundtrack for Kevin Smith’s Zack and Miri Make a Porno.

Universal is giving Pride and Glory director Gavin O’Connor another chance, a Vince Vaughn comedy film called Sunny and 68. [Variety]

The Wackness hits DVD and Blu-Ray on January 6th 2009. [movieweb]

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso complains that he doesn’t have enough time to read comic books: “It’s hard to read comic books as my time is now restricted.” [boingboing]

Cinema Blend has 26 new photos from Gus Van Sant’s Milk.

Gus Van Sant, he will be directing an adaptation of 1968 Tom Wolfe’s book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. [Reuters]

Rob Cohen is trying to get xXx: The Return of Xander Cage into production by late spring, for a Summer 2010 release. [collider]

Colin Firth, Julianne Moore and Matthew Goode will star in Tom Ford’s directorial debut, an indie drama titled A Single Man. [Variety]

Universal has preemptively bought Mike Sobel’s disaster-action pitch Skyscraper. [CS]

Natalie Portman is set to star with Scott Cohen and Charlie Tahan in Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, a Don Roos-directed adaptation of an Ayelet Waldman novel. [Variety]

Amy Adams will star in the indie drama Daughter of the Queen of Sheba, Karen Croner’s script based on Jacki Lyden biography. [Variety]

To promote Anaconda 3 on DVD, Sci-Fi Channel has launched an online game called Snakes on a Babe featuring David Hasselhoff.

Neil Gaiman is producing a live-action adaptation of his new New York Times best-seller The Graveyard Book. [MTV]

Netflix will offer HD streaming to XBox Live members first. [/Gamer]

Adrien Brody will become The Courier for Russell Mulcahy. [FirstShowing]

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Posters – Milk, Front Runners, Labor Pains

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