Category: Fanboy

Academy Fight Song.

And in another campaign news, the Oscar contenders have been announced, with RotK leading the pack:

Best Picture: Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. After three years of waiting, after A Beautiful Mind and Chicago, it’s payback time. Check out the spiffy New Line awards site, featuring some choice RotK clips.

Best Actor: What on earth is Johnny Depp doing in here? I’m a Depp fan too, but c’mon now. At any rate, I’m definitely rooting for Bill Murray for Lost in Translation, but could see Mystic River‘s Sean Penn picking it up too.

Best Actress: Haven’t seen it yet, but Charlize Theron in Monster has all the buzz, and it would take a better man than I to challenge the formidable power of best-actress-oscar-buzz.

Best Supporting Actor: Tim Robbins, Mystic River. I would’ve liked to see Sean “Samwise” Astin get a nod, but am glad that Ken Watanabe of The Last Samurai made it in.

Best Supporting Actress: Renee Zellweger, Cold Mountain, ho-hum. I’m surprised Mystic River‘s Marcia Gay Harden got a nod here after winning just a few years ago. Spread the love, people.

Best Director: PJ for RotK. The only real challenge is Sofia Coppola, and she’ll get hers in the Screenplay category.

Screenplay (Original): A la Quentin Tarantino, Sofia Coppola will win for Lost in Translation.

Screenplay (Adapted): This will probably be one of the few categories where RotK loses out (The best adaptation of the three was Fellowship, and that really should’ve won two years ago.) American Splendor, perhaps? They’re going to want to give something to City of God.

Visions to Come.

It’s been a quiet January as usual for fanboy and fangirls, and particularly in the wake of the Grey Havens last month. But lots of news out and about today: Terry Gilliam and James Cameron both discuss their next projects (The Brothers Grimm and Untitled Big Idea CGI Sci-Fi respectively), USA Today looks at a number of fantasy projects (including Lemony Snicket, Narnia, Elric, Artemis Fowl, and The Hobbit), and a longer trailer premieres for Frodo (and Charlie Kaufman’s) next project, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, also featuring Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Tom Wilkinson, Kirsten Dunst, and Mark Ruffalo (previous trailer here.) Also, we’ve got a few more new Spidey II pics, some small Episode III tidbits, and The Ring‘s Martin Henderson possibly up for Superman. (Hmm…I hope not.)

El Retorno del Rey, extendida.

And before we write off Return of the King for good, there’s still room for a little more. A Spanish LotR fan site compiles all the Return of the King extended edition pics floating around, along with their thoughts (in Spanish) on how they’ll fit back in. (Thank you, Babel Fish.)

Clobbering Time?

Lots of fanboy speculation on the web today…The Fantastic Four is still looking for a director after losing Peyton (“Bring It On“) Reed, and apparently the short list includes Steven Soderbergh and Sean Astin. According to this Astin Q&A, both could bring George Clooney to the table as Reed Richards, which is great casting. I like Naomi Watts as the Invisible Woman, but she’s going to be busy with PJ’s Kong, and I could see Soderbergh going for one of his regulars, like Mary McCormack. Orlando Bloom as The Human Torch also works, although it could just as easily be Paul Walker or some other pretty-boy. And The Thing…well, I’d expect he’d be CGI, but you’ll need a Ben Grimm. Vin Diesel? Gary Sinise? I always thought the space-ship sequences in Brian DePalma’s otherwise-terrible Mission to Mars would’ve made a great intro to FF, with Tim Robbins (Reed Richards), Connie Nielsen (Sue Richards), Jerry O’Connell (Johnny Storm), and Sinise (Ben Grimm). At any rate, if FF does go to Soderbergh, let’s just hope he doesn’t pull an Ang-Lee.

Sigh.


More news on the Hitchhiker’s front: Apparently Warwick (Willow) Davis will be playing Marvin the Paranoid Android, and this Marvin prototype suit by Jim Henson’s workshop leaks online. I really like this look for Marv, not that he really cares one way or another what a pea-brained humanoid like me finds appealing, mind you.

Starsky & Stakes.

It’s Friday, which as y’all know usually means a new batch of trailers. First up, we’ve got Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson mugging as Starsky & Hutch. Even with Snoop as Huggy Bear and that Will Ferrell cameo, I’d say the chances of me spending money on this are slim to none. Then, Kate Beckinsale continues her Underworld vamp streak in Hugh Jackman’s Van Helsing, a.k.a Raiders of the Lost Coffin. Jackman’s no Peter Cushing, but this one actually looks like goofy summer B-movie fun to me, even if some of the CGI FX here are suspect.

Tentacled.

It’s a bad day for Spidey in this collection of new images from EW’s 2004 preview, which includes shots from The Aviator, Michael Mann’s Collateral, and a ridiculous-looking Halle Berry as Catwoman, the film currently competing with The Punisher to finish what The Hulk started and end the recent comic-book-movie streak in flames.