Oscar, briefly: Inception takes VFX, Portman Best Actress

There were few surprises at tonight’s Oscars: Lone genre Best Picture nom Inception was awarded mostly in technical categories (including Visual Effects… Sorry, ILM.) And Natalie Portman did indeed win Best Actress for Black Swan.

For the rest, The King’s Speech cleaned up with 4 awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Colin Firth. Batman Jesus Christian Bale took home Best Supporting Actor for The Fighter. But perhaps most mind-blowing to this former teen of the 90’s: Trent Reznor now has an Oscar (for The Social Network score.)

As for the ceremony itself… It was pretty standard; All the real fun was (of course) partaking in all the snark on Twitter. I did greatly enjoy the auto-tune, though.

And yes, Irvin Kershner did make the In Memoriam reel, as did modelmaker Grant McCune.

Drive-by movie news: Fanboys, Christian Bale, Avatar, sequel news good and bad

fanboys posterThe Fanboys cometh. Director Kyle Newman interviewed at StarWars.com and Sci Fi Wire, while Billy Dee Williams talks to SciFi Scanner.

Meanwhile, TFN has the final theater count and a Chicago premiere report. And for those of us who are going to have to wait, Newman tells us what to expect on the DVD.

  • Bale’s short fuse. A recording of Christian Bale cussing out a crew member on the set of Terminator Salvation proved embarrassing for all involved, except maybe the guy who made it into a kicking techno remix. (And these guys.) Harry Knowles defended the actor, which might mean more if it was coming from someone other than Harry “Is Hollywood watching? Are they impressed?” Knowles.
  • Slumdog Millionaire star joins Airbender. M. Night Shyamalan’s Avatar adaption has a new ZukoDev Patel. Fan reaction has been mixed – folks are happy to see more diversity, but many are bothered about the implications of the film’s only Asian actor playing the villain.
  • Someone too committed to Sparkle Motion. There have been rumors floating around of a Donnie Darko sequel. Now, io9 has word of the direct-to-DVD S. Darko. Honestly, I have a hard time believing this isn’t a prank…
  • Bloop. No WALL-E sequel in sight. Phew.

Dr. Horrible, The Dark Knight, and Heroes rack up People’s Choice Awards

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog has won the People’s Choice Award for Favorite Online Sensation, in the 35th Annual People’s Choice Awards, beating out other such online sensations as “Paris Hilton’s response to McCain ad”. In the other geeky categories, Heroes nabbed the spot for Favorite Sci-Fi/Fantasy Show, Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman got favorite superhero, and Christian and Heath beat out Harrison and Shia for Favorite On Screen Match Up. The Dark Knight beat out Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Iron Man for both favorite movie and favorite action movie.

Sorry, the RPF is in another castle

There is no Christian Bale fan fiction here. We like him and all, but not that much. ClubJade.net might come up in Google for it (okay, I can’t find it, but I guess someone did) but all our fanfic is old and about the fictional people of Star Wars.

Answerer 3: It’s called Real Person Fiction, and it does indeed exist. There have been some actual fandoms devoted to the stuff. Sorry.

But since you clicked, have a consolation prize.

This year’s trend: Magicians

You know how Hollywood is; they love to repeat themselves. Now, (almost) everyone loves a sequel, but the worst trend is when two studios have competing versions of almost the same exact kind of movie. This year it’s magic, or rather, Victorian era stage magic that may be the real thing! Gasp! Yawn!

Your choices: Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige, staring Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman and Scarlett Johansson or The Illusionist with Edward Norton, Jessica Biel, Paul Giamatti and my ever-evil Hollywood boyfriend Rufus Sewell.

To their credit, the trailers do make the films look as different as, say, Elizabeth and Shakespeare in Love turned out to be. We can hope.