Club Jade

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.

It’s a wee bit too early for holiday shopping, no matter what the store decorations say. Still, Amazon is right this minute offering the Disney / Pixar Ultimate Collection for $109.99, 54% off list price. The DVD set contains every major Pixar release from Toy Story through Ratatouille, so I’m sure we all know someone who would appreciate it. (via)

While I don’t doubt there were still plenty of Star Wars fans still roaming around Saturday and Sunday, with most of the panels being on Friday there wasn’t much new floating around. Well, except for the Mandalorian wedding. (Oye vey.) And Cinematical posted a brief review of Fanboys. And the official site has more pictures, of course, while Rebelscum continues exhaustively documenting the booths and products of every licensee.

• The Dollhouse panel featured Joss Whedon, Eliza Dushku and Tamoh Penikett.

• SPOILERS: They showed the entire first episode of Heroes S3. That’s so not cool. Well, for us, anyway.
• Sorry Paula, but they just won’t shut up about Battlestar Galactica.
• Video: The Movie Blog nabs a few minutes with Paul Ens; Naomi Novik gets a gift from a fan; See a teaser for Pixar’s next, Up.
• Also: Neil Gaiman’s new project, Lost, Futurama, Terminator Salvation, and The Sarah Conner Chronicles

The New York Times may have gotten George Lucas, but the Los Angeles Times has Ben Burtt… The Star Wars sound designer is also responsible for the voice of Pixar’s Wall-E. (Which, in addition to great reviews, ruled the box office this weekend.)

Is this or is this not the most amazing staircase ever?

The typography of Pixar. An interview with film designer Susan Bradley.

It’s spreading… Steampunk Justice League.

Top ten geeky cufflinks. Also: Stormtroopers.

Hilarious science fair experiments. Crystal Meth: Friend or foe?

Slashfilm has been posting video of some of the movie ads that debuted today: Prince Caspian, WALL-E, and Iron Man.

(They also have some new Iron Man production photos… Is that the blonde chick from Popular?)

• 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.

Those funny folks at Pixar. There’s always so much going on that it’s hard to see everything they put in there.

But never fear! Jim Hill Media has rounded up all the cross-references in their movies.

Makes you wanna dust off those DVD’s doesn’t it?

Pixar plans to take on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom. They want first film – of a trilogy – to be out before 2012. Pixar and classic sci-fi? Why not?

Also…

• Warner Brothers denies that they’re no longer going to be making movies with women as leads; film bloggers still skeptical.

• TrekMovie.com interviews Roberto Orci, co-writer and executive producer of the upcoming Star Trek.
• Everquest apparently still popular enough for a movie.
• New trailer for The Golden Compass, again with the narration from Captain Exposition. Also, they’ve cast some voices, including replacing the original voice of Iorek, which, as talented as McKellen is, seems completely counterproductive to me.