Club Jade

No big shockers here: The late Heath Ledger received Best Supporting Actor and WALL-E Best Animated Film. Less predictable was The Curious Case of Benjamin Button winning Best Visual Effects over The Dark Knight and Iron Man. Button also took Art Direction and Makeup, while The Dark Knight nabbed Sound Editing.

Slumdog Millionaire was the night’s biggest winner, with Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, both music awards and several others.

Per usual, not too much for genre fans to get excited about. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which I suppose could classify as fantasy, sort of, had the most nods this year, including Best Picture and Actor. Heath Ledger is up for Best Supporting Actor for The Dark Knight, but the movie failed to get any other major nominations. It is up for the usual throw-them-a-bone categories of Cinematography, Film Editing, Makeup, Sound Editing, and Sound Mixing.

Wall-E did pretty good – it failed to get a Best Picture nod as many were hoping for, but it is up for Animated Film (duh,) Original Screenplay, Original Song, and several technical awards.

The Visual Effects category puts Benjamin Button up against The Dark Knight and ILM’s Iron Man.

UPDATE: StarWars.com has a full listing of all ILM and Skywalker Sound Oscar nominations, as well as BAFTA and VES nods.

Fans up in arms over casting: M. Night Shyamalan is making a movie version of Nickelodeon’s animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender, and the first casting choices were announced last week. The problem? Well, Avatar is set in an Asian-inspired world, with a multiethnic cartoon cast, and the live-action choices thus far are entirely caucasian. Naturally, fans are pissed.

(And since y’all would probably stone me if I didn’t include this, let’s not forget Avatar’s primary Star Wars connections: The Clone Wars’ Dave Filoni directed several episodes, while Mark Hamill voiced Fire Lord Ozai, the show’s ultimate antagonist.)

• It’s beginning to look a lot like ‘best of’ time. John Scalzi’s sci-fi hits and misses for 2008.

• Another day, another Bat-rumor. Rachel Weisz as Catwoman? Meow. (But wait! There’s more!) Meanwhile, check out these fanmade posters lobbying for a Ledger Oscar.
• When fanboys attack. AICN source compares The Spirit to Battlefield Earth. Ouch.
• This is the worst idea ever. Second Life: The Movie. Well… I guess it could be worse. It could be Everquest.

• The Dark Knight website posts a memorial to Heath Ledger.

• Disney to re-release Toy Story in 3-D.
• Writer’s Strike: Lionsgate and Marvel are latest to make interim deals with the WGA.
• The title of the new James Bond film is Quantum of Solace. Uhh… okay!
• Eye Candy: New Iron Man sure to make awesome action figures.

The actor was found dead this afternoon of a possible drug overdose.

Heath Ledger first became a blip on fandom radar in the short-lived fantasy series Roar. Ledger was able to move past that with roles in numerous films; including an Oscar-nominated turn in Brokeback Mountain.

What had fandom really geeked out was his upcoming role as The Joker in The Dark Knight. Initial discussion on the news channels discussed a recent interview he gave in which he said that playing The Joker disturbed him so greatly that he was suffering from insomnia. He said that the character was a sociopath and lacked any redeeming qualities.

In what is sure to become the stuff of legend, the actor had turned to sleeping pills in an attempt to get control over the insomnia that had plagued him since filming of that movie.

Raising the envy of Wantons everywhere, Michelle Williams not only scores Heath Ledger in her private life, but gets to star alongside both Hugh Jackman and Ewan McGregor in the upcoming film The Tourist.

It’s about a man who is seduced into joining a wild sex club and then framed for murder.

Vegas refuses to take bets on the odds that Ewan will end up naked in this one.

Warner Brothers announces the official title of the next Bat-flick will be The Dark Knight, and Heath Ledger is confirmed to play the Joker. Slashtastic! (And you folks complaining about Ledger’s turn in Brokeback Mountain damaging the franchise may want to rent Velvet Goldmine.)

Rumor says they want Philip Seymour Hoffman for the Penguin, and Ryan Phillippe is a possibility for Harvey Dent/Two-Face.

Rumor mill says Heath Ledger is the new Joker. I have no opinion on this development.

ETA: Word from Comic-Con is that it’s true.