Miss Piggy and Kermit head to the Oscars!

It's official, the Oscars have added two more presenters to their list and it's safe to say that they're bigger celebrities than Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.  It's the other power couple, Miss Piggy and Kermit.  Their movie The Muppets is nominated in the Best Song category for "Man or Muppet".  I, for one, can't wait to see them at the show.  There was a formidable online campaign to have The Muppets host the Oscars which they eventually lost out to Billy Crystal.  But I have a feeling that their presence at the show will be entertaining; they usually are with Miss Piggy around.  

Around the World in Posters: Tintin, Drive, Happy Feet Two and more!

 

Gorgeous new poster showing the key characters from The Adventures of Tintin.  I'd love to have this framed on a wall.

 

Hello, hottie! Ryan Gosling in this first poster from Drive.  After seeing the trailer, I'm totally psyched for this film.

 

Cute penquins!!! Cute dancing penquins!!! That's all anyone needs to know about Happy Feet Two.

 Two very impressive young actors in Like Crazy, Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones.  I'm definitely seeing this.

How cute is it that Jason Segel and Walter the Muppet are wearing the same outfit?

Ben Stiller and his gang of misfits tries to pull off the most impossible heist in a tower...hence the name.

Trailer Time: I'm Green With Envy!!

How do you drum up interest in the upcoming Muppets movie? Release parody/spoof trailers that make us want to see the movie RIGHT NOW.

Here are the trailers, prepare yourself for Muppets attack.  

BEING GREEN TEASER



FUZZY PACK TEASER




GREEN WITH ENVY TEASER




Bottom line: It's hard to resist Kermit the Frog!

New photos from the Muppets film!

Check out these adorable new photos from The Muppets movie starring Jason Segel aka Marshall from How I Met Your Mother!  Segel is with the new Muppet Walter making his debut in this film.  

But let's not forget old favorites like Kermit and Miss Piggy too.  I cannot wait for this film.  It's going to be amazing.  

Cast Additions: J. Edgar Hoover, New Year's Eve, and Life of Pi

• Armie Hammer (The Social Network) is being considered to join Clint Eastwood's Hoover biopic, J. Edgar, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.  He would play the role of Hoover's confidante, advisor and rumored lover, Clyde Tolson.  Charlize Theron is also in talks as Hoover's personal secretary.  This will be the first time that Clint and Leo will be working together and I'm really excited to see the outcome.  This movie is going to have a lot of pretty onscreen.  I'm not complaining.
• It's time to start thinking about New Year's Eve.  But not about the upcoming holiday but rather the film.  The holiday-centric film's cast now has Jessica Biel, Jake Gyllenhaal, Ashton Kutcher, Robert De Niro, Lea Michele, Hilary Swank, and Michelle Pffeifer.  Sofia Vergara may also join the cast.  Biel and Kutcher, in Garry Marshall's previous holiday film , will not be reprising their characters from Valentine's Day as this is an entirely different film altogether.  Blame it on Love Actually for the catalyst for inter-connected stories with a huge star cast.
• Like Galadriel, could Legolas also be coming to The Hobbit universe?  Orlando Bloom fans are holding their breath.
• Harvey Weinstein can rest easy that his film, Blue Valentine, has had a mini-victory.  The harsh NC-17 rating has now been lowered to an R.   This greatly eases Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams chances at an Oscar nomination.  Common sense prevailed, yes but his other film, The King's Speech, wasn't so lucky and retained the R rating for the string of curse words stammered out by Colin Firth.
• Disney's The Muppets Movie is moving up its release date from Christmas to Thanksgiving.  It will release on November 23, 2011.  My December 2011 viewing schedule is less crowded.
• Life of Pi has added to its cast Gerard Depardieu and Adil Hussain.  Irrfan Khan will then be playing the adult Pi who tells his story of a most wondrous sea journey.

Mega Post of Movie News: Spiderman, The Hobbit, Lincoln, and The Dark Knight Rises

I've been a bit behind lately with the news posting mainly because real life has been catching up and since it's the end of the year there are many things to finish up.  Here's a massive news post of all the goings-on of note in the last month.

• Lots of news to report from the Spiderman reboot/prequel but sadly, still no title.  You're killing me here.  Decide already!  

-Dennis Leary will play the father of Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone).

-Campbell Scott and Julianne Nicholson are in talks for the parents of Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield).\

-Irfan Khan (Slumdog Millionaire, Namesake) is being considered for a 2nd villain.  Hmm, I wonder who he'll play.

• The Hobbit has its music composer: Howard Shore
• It's confirmed.  The voice cast for the new Cars 2 movie  I'm so excited that Michael Caine is voicing a character and it's an Aston Martin.  Pixar brilliance!
• My favorite director, Christopher Nolan, is set to receive the first ever Visionary Award from the Visual Effects Society (VES).
• Both Christian Bale and Chris Nolan say that the upcoming The Dark Knight Rises would be "it" for the Batman Saga.  Never say never!
• Daniel Day-Lewis will star as Lincoln in the long in the making biopic to be directed by Steven Spielberg. This coming as the same time as the other Lincoln movie, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.  Coincidence, I think not.
• Were you amazed by the gorgeous animation of "The Tale of the Three Brothers" in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1?  It was an outstanding little short film within a film and the director, Ben Hibon, is getting the recognition he deserves.  Hibon will direct Pan, a very dark take on the Peter Pan tale.  Kudos!
• This past March, Tom Hanks presented Kathryn Bigelow with Best Film Oscar for The Hurt Locker.  I'm sure he must have whispered to her backstage, Hey, Congratulations and keep in mind for your next film!" What do you know? He's in her next film.  The good stuff goes down only at the Oscars. 
• Hans Zimmer will be the composer for the new Superman: Man of Steel reboot.  It's going to be tough to top John Williams iconic score but I'm sure that Zimmer is up to the the task.  I'm actually curious as to how he'll tackle it.  
• Ricky Gervais and Emily Blunt are the newest names to cameo in the Muppets Movie.  Does anyone remember when Ricky visited Sesame Street?  Keeping my fingers crossed for a repeat.  
• The newest show to get a movie update? That would be 21 Jump Street, and the undercover cops posing as high-schoolers will be Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill.  When did this become a comedy?  
• J.J. Abrams Star Trek was a big hit and everyone is keen to find out what is the next one going to be about.  The writers reveal that they are looking to get inspiration from some old Star Trek episodes for the sequel.  

Finally, the awards update of the week, the Golden Globe nominations are already in the mail and will be announced on December 14th.  What movies and actors do you think will be named?

Article of the Day: A must-read Vanity Fair article on Johnny Depp by Patti Smith.  He discusses Jack Sparrow and how Disney executives were all nervous by his take on the character.  

First Look: The Greatest Muppet Movie Ever Made

Yay! The Muppets are back.  News has been flying fast and furious these past few weeks about all the cameos and cast additions to the movie and here come some more.  Jack Black, Alan Arkin, Billy Crystal, Zach Galifianakis, and Jean Claude Van Damme are all up for minor roles in the film where the Muppets try to save their theater by putting on a show.  We also meet a new Muppet, Walter, which you can see from the photo above.

Synopsis from Collider.com

“The Greatest Muppet Movie Ever Made is about Gary, Mary, and Walter (a man, his girlfriend, and the man’s life-long nondescript, brown puppet best friend) getting the old Muppet gang – now retired entertainers known for the same Muppet show we know them from – together to save the TV studio that the original show was shot in. A villain, Tex Richman, bent on drilling for oil underneath the studio, is due to take over the studio in weeks, and the only way to stop him? Putting on a show that draws ten million viewers.”

Remember all this started because Jason Segel wrote and played a character who wanted to make a Muppet movie in Forgetting Sarah Marshall and now it's a reality.  Simply amazing!

Movie Watch: What You'll Be Watching in 2012

A big part of being a movie fan is the wait.  Sometimes, you have to wait years for your film or series to come out.  We fans are nothing but patient.   Harry Potter fans have waited an whole extra year for the Half-Blood Prince to come out when Warner Bros. pushed it off their calendar.  Heck, I'm clearing out December for next year as all the actors and directors I like are releasing their films.

So, as I'm making my list of movies I want to see next year, there are lot of movie deals being made now that hopefully will bring these movies out soon but my guess is early 2012.  Here are the ones that I am looking forward to already.

• Another Muppet movie? Happytime Murders, directed by Brian Henson, son of Jim, is being developed by Lionsgate about a world where humans and puppets live together and yet the puppets are treated as inferior to humans.  However, when the cast of an old 80s show starts getting murdered one by one, it's up to an oddball duo of a puppet and human cops to solve the case.  I want to watch this already and I love that EW.com is labeling it as "the film noir puppet comedy aimed at adults".
• It seems that Neil Patrick Harris can do everything.  Does playing Barney Stintson really have imbibed him with "legendary superpowers"?  Because now, Harris can add director to his long resume.  He will direct his first film, Aaron and Sarah, which follows the friendship of two teenagers through high school, one a geek and the other a popular girl.  Josh Hutcherson (The Kids are All Right) and Emma Roberts (Nancy Drew) are attached to star.
• From Pixar pedigree comes two new movie deals in place.  Doug Sweetland, who directed Pixar's short Presto, is signed on to direct The Familiars with Sony Pictures Animation being produced by Sam Raimi.  The story revolves around three young wizard apprentices who are kidnapped by an evil queen and must rely on their companions, an alley, a blue jay and tree frog, to help them through it.
• And over at Dreamworks, another Pixar alum, Rodrigo Blaas is turning his award-winning short Alma into a feature length movie.  This short is amazing, you can view it here.  Guillermo del Toro will be executive producer on this and Blaas will be joining him as co-director on Del Toro's next project, Trollhunters.  That's a whole lot of awesome.
• And finally, any movie news that includes Meryl Streep is an automatic watch for me.  Word is, that Sandra Bullock and Oprah Winfrey, along with Meryl, are attached to Michael Patrick King's untitled comedy set in the world of home shopping networks.  This is win-win all around.  This even trumps Meryl's movie with Julia Roberts.  Sorry Julia!

2012 is looking great already!

December 2011: The busiest movie month?

Come next December 2011, I'm going to have to have start living on weekends at the movie theaters because it seems like every movie is releasing that very month.  At least the ones I want to see anyway.  Lets look at the evidence.

It's starts off with December 9th.  Martin Scorsese's Hugo Cabret is up first.  His first 3D venture is about a young boy, Hugo, who lives in a train station in 1930s Paris and has to solve a mystery surrounding his late father.  The cast includes Asa Butterfield as Hugo, Chole Moretz, Jude Law, Sacha Baron Cohen, Ben Kingsley and Christopher Lee.  I'm really looking forward to see how Scorsese tackles 3D.

It goes up against New Year's Eve, the followup to Valentine's Day.  It's just an excuse to see as many good-looking and famous actors in one film.  Gary Marshall will be back as director.

The weekend after that brings Mission Impossible 4 and Sherlock Holmes 2 on December 16th.  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo comes out on December 21st.  Do you know how it's been since Daniel Craig has a release, I can't possibly wait that long?  December 23 belongs to Cameron Crowe's movie with Matt Damon, We Bought a Zoo, which sounds very promising and The Muppets are back on the screen on Christmas Day with Jason Segel and Amy Adams.

And finally, my very own dilemma on December 28th, which Steven Spielberg film to watch first?  Will it be War Horse, a WWI epic about a boy and his horse or The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn.  Hate the title, though I can't wait to see the collaboration with Peter Jackson.  So long between releases and they both end up on the same day! How is that fair?

So there you have it.  This isn't counting the other films that have yet to decide their release dates but all I know is we'll be spoiled for choices unless the studios blink first and decide to change their release date.