Ian McKellan and Andy Serkis also confirmed for The Hobbit!

Ian McKellan will return as Gandalf and so will Andy Serkis as menacing Gollum in The Hobbit.  I hate to say it but maybe Guillermo Del Toro leaving The Hobbit wasn't such a bad thing.  Especially since this is becoming LotR: Part Deux, let's bring them all back.  

Countdown to Oscars: Visual Effects Society Nominations

The Visual Effects Society announced its nominations for the best in VFX for the past year.  Inception leads the pack with four nominations.  Most of these films are still in the running for the Best Visual Effects Oscar.  

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual-Effects Driven Feature Motion Picture
Inception
Iron Man 2
TRON: Legacy
Alice In Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Feature Motion Picture
Green Zone
SALT
Hereafter
Black Swan
Robin Hood

Outstanding Animation in an Animated Feature Motion Picture
Tangled
How to Train Your Dragon
Toy Story 3
Shrek Forever After
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole

Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Feature Motion Picture
Chronicles Of Narnia: Voyage Of The Dawn Treader – Reepicheep
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 – Dobby
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 – Kreacher

Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Feature Motion Picture
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole – Digger
How to Train Your Dragon – Toothless
Tangled – Rapunzel
Megamind – Minion

Outstanding Effects Animation in an Animated Feature Motion Picture
Shrek Forever After
How to Train Your Dragon
Toy Story 3

Outstanding Created Environment in a Live Action Feature Motion Picture
Iron Man 2 – Stark Expo
TRON: Legacy – Disc Game
Inception – Paris Dreamscape
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time – Sand Room

Outstanding Models & Miniatures in a Feature Motion Picture
Shutter Island – Ward-C Int./Ext. Lighthouse Int./Ext.
Iron Man 2 – Hammer Military Drones
The Expendables – The Palace Explodes
Inception – Hospital Fortress Destruction

Outstanding Compositing in a Feature Motion Picture
TRON: Legacy
Alice In Wonderland – Stolen Tarts
Inception
Hereafter – Tsunami Sequence

Notable Links: Godzilla, Harold and Kumar, and Star Wars

• Christmas may have just ended but that doesn't mean we can't look forward to Christmas 2011.  Guess what's coming out this year? A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas.  Craziness will ensue.  See poster above.
• Gareth Edwards, who directed the surprise hit Monsters, will now direct Godzilla.  I should warn you that Godzilla is one of my favorite big monster movies, I can barely contain my excitement.  This should be fun.
• Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters!  The coolest movie title ever gets its cast.  Gemma Arterton and Jeremy Renner will be the witch hunter siblings.  I must say I'm liking the dark twisty updates the studios have planned for all these story tales we grew up reading, Red Riding Hood, Snow White and now Hansel & Gretel.
• Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann will be reprising their characters from the Knocked Up universe.  The best part of the Judd Apatow movies are the supporting characters and I'm glad this funny couple is getting a chance to shine.
• Barbra Streisand could be starring in an upcoming remake of Gypsy.  It's been years since she's done any film role.  This could be pure rumor.
• The entire Star Wars saga is coming to Blue-Ray later this year.  This makes me wish I owned a Blue-Ray player so much.  *sigh*

Trailer Time: Hanna, The Other Woman, Drive Angry 3D, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules

Joe Wright's next film is not a period film instead it's about a young assassin named Hanna played by Saoirse Ronan who's lets just say had a very unusual upbringing. Also in the film are Eric Bana as Hanna's father and Cate Blanchett, the object of Hanna's assignment. The movie has a very interesting premise if executed well and Ronan is one of the finest young actors out there. I'll be watching out for this.




The Other Woman looks like another powerful performance by Natalie Portman is this quiet but emotional trailer about a man (Scott Cohen) with a young son who remarries a colleague (Natalie Portman). It's the events that take place after the marriage that threaten this new family. Looks a like a good DVD watch. The movie releases on February 4th, 2011.



Nicholas Cage drives angry and mad in this trailer of Drive Angry releasing February 11, 2011. That's about all I could or want to glean from this. And oh yeah, it's in eye-popping 3D.



Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules is the continuing adventures of Greg, his best friend Rowley and their gang against Greg's older brother Rodrick and his attempts to humiliate Greg. Based on Jeff Kinney's popular book series, this is will sure to be hit with the elementary school crowd.

News Update: Books to Film Edition!

• I can't believe I left this out of my list of 2011 movies.  According to IMDB who has a new exclusive photo, One Day has a release date of July 8, 2011.  Rave reviews followed the book everywhere, I'm sure the movie will be good as well.
• Dan Brown will be writing the screenplay for his own novel, The Lost Symbol, and the third in the trilogy of Robert Langdon's adventures in Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code.  Looking at the speed in which the third book came out, we should prepare for a long wait.  
• Summit Entertainment went out and got the rights for the debut novel by Erin Morgenstern called The Night Circus.  There is much buzz about this book and it was a hit at the 2010 Frankfurt Book Fair.  I got very excited and wasted 15 minutes online searching for the book online only to realize the book won't be out til Fall 2011.  Bummer!  Here's the synopsis from Deadline.com:

The book is the story of two young prodigy illusionists in the 19th Century who are groomed to battle out their fathers' age-old rivalry in an enchanted circus created just for their competition. They complicate matters by falling in love.

• And finally, the followup to the Lord of the Rings Saga, The Hobbit , which spent 2010 in peril of being scrapped as a project altogether but has since picked up speed and has been adding more and more names into the mix.  After it was announced that Cate Blanchett would return as Galadriel and so might Orlando Bloom as Legolas, word comes that Elijah Wood has been confirmed as Frodo in The Hobbit.  Yes, confirmed!  It will be strange as Frodo is never in the book at all but we LotR fans don't really care.  This reunion movie of sorts is the best news!

Things You Should Know about The Social Network

So, I watched The Social Network again. This time with the curse words in it.  And it was just as good as I remembered it.  Damn those dialogues.  I was never a West Wing fan so I'll compare it to another show with fast dialogues, Gilmore Girls.  Right, where was I? Watching the film again and seeing the making of made me aware of so many things I didn't know about this feature.  Here are a few that you too might find interesting.

• Kevin Spacey (yes, I know! Even I was surprised.) is the executive producer on this.
• The opening scene and the above picture took 99 takes to get just right.  
• Armie Hammer and Josh Pence played both twins, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, back and forth for each scene.  Josh Pence actually rowed at Dartmouth and high school.
• I loved that they had multiple cameras on set to film the actors to film the fast paced dialogues and the actors reactions to them.  This is why it's so cleverly edited.  
• Sean Parker, played by Justin Timberlake, actually had a custom made clothing by Armani.  
• Both Max Mingella and especially Andrew Garfield spoke with American accents on set.  It was strange to see them speak with their British accents on the off-set camera interviews.
• For the scene where Eduardo finally confronts Mark at the Facebook offices, Andrew Garfield broke over 15 different Apple laptops.  E-waste!
• Harvard didn't really allow the crew filming permission for the movie and they were really upset about that since they wanted the film to look authentic.    

I highly recommend you watch the special features on The Social Network as it will give you more insight into how you go about about making a film about a website.  It's not as easy as they made it seem.     

Scrat's Continental Crack Up!

Blue Sky Studios presents the next saga in the Ice Age series, Ice Age 4: Continental Drift with a clever new short featuring the hapless acorn hoarder, Scrat.  His determination and insistence to chase after the acorn is very admirable and it never gets old to watch.

Presenting Scrat's Continental Crack Up!



The movie is set to release July 13, 2012.