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Heath Ledger dead at 28

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.

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Oscar nominations!

Yeah, I wrote that movie post at 4am knowing full well that the Academy Award nominations were coming out today. Clearly, I fail.

Anyway, some surprises. The one that knocked me over was Johnny Depp and Viggo Mortensen both up for Best Actor (For Sweeney Todd and Eastern Promises, respectively.) Cate Blanchett is up for both Actress categories for The Golden Age and I’m Not There. In Animated Feature, Ratatouille and Persepolis are going head to head.

As for actual genre releases, The Golden Compass is up for Art Direction, as well as battling ILM’s Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End and Transformers for Visual Effects. Transformers also got a Sound Editing nod, while At World’s End is up for Makeup.

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Gate Geek – Here there be treasures….

Let’s face it. Our intrepid Mistress of the Web, Dunc, doesn’t get Stargate. And that’s okay, really. But I’m always excited when we’ve apparently seeped into her brain enough for her to find something for us. Warms my tiny little heart, it does!

Could you imagine wandering through a scrapyard and finding a bit of Stargate gold? Any guesses as to what this was used for? Let this blogger know.

Other treasures include:

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Movie News: Razzies, Cloverfield, Jumper

IMAGE: Razzies!2007 must have been good for sci-fi, because the only genre films to get Razzie nods were known crudfests Ghost Rider (Nicolas Cage, Worst Actor,) Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (Jessica Alba, Worst Actress, Worst Screen Couple with three of her co-stars, including Hayden Christiansen for Awake and F4’s Ioan Gruffudd.) and Alien vs. Predator: Requiem (Worst Prequel or Sequel, Worst Excuse for a Horror Movie.) And let’s not forget poor Orlando Bloom (Worst Supporting Actor) in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. Cinematical has the full list.

Those looking for something with less pointing and mocking can check out the 9th Annual Golden Tomato Awards, where Harry Potter and Stardust lead the best-reviewed sci-fi films of 2007.