- Interviews: Imperial City Online talks to Drew Karpyshyn, while EU Cantina caught up with KOTOR II designer Chris Avellone.
- Upcoming: Publisher’s Weekly has a roundup of movie and TV tie-in books for the summer, and gives us a few titles and authors for some of The Clone Wars tie-ins for the younger set. (via)
- Upcoming, again: Meanwhile, McE over at TFN pontificates on some stuff found at Amazon.co.uk.
- Eisner Awards: Offer congrats to the Dark Horse folks on the Clone Wars Adventures nomination on their boards.
Clone Wars Adventures, Red 5, Buffy all up for Eisner Awards
The Eisner Awards are the ‘Oscars’ of comic books, and several familiar names have shown up on the 208 nominee list: Chiefly, the Clone Wars Adventures, edited by Jeremy Barlow, has been nominated for for Best Publication for Kids. Another familiar nominee is Red 5’s Atomic Robo with two, Best Limited Series and Best Coloring. Meanwhile, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8 was nominated for for four awards, including Best New Series and Best Continuing Series. Joss Whedon and Brian K. Vaughan are both up for Best Writer.
And the Oscar goes to…
The Golden Compass took the VFX Oscar. Sorry, ILM. Needless to say, that was pretty much the only genre win of the night, but you can check out the rest of the winners at Oscar.com.
Ring Around the Saturns
Awards season continues with the announcement of awards that geeks can get behind: the Saturn Award nominations. (Although does anyone find their definition of just what is in the sci-fi, fantasy or horror genres just a wee bit broad?)
Seth Green wins Annie
Not the redheaded orphan or the whiny Padawan, but an award presented by The International Animated Film Society. Green won for directing the Robot Chicken: Star Wars special.
ILM dominates VES with giant robots, tentacles
Industrial Light & Magic was the big winner at the Visual Effects Society awards Sunday. They received six awards: Four for Transformers and two for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.
Transformers got Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Motion Picture, Best Single Visual Effect of the Year (for the Desert Highway Sequence,) Outstanding Models or Miniatures in a Motion Picture, and Outstanding Compositing in a Motion Picture. At World’s End took Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Motion Picture (for Davy Jones) and Outstanding Created Environment in a Live Action Motion Picture (for the Maelstrom.)
Other genre winners included Battlestar Galactica – Razor (Outstanding Visual Effects in a Broadcast Miniseries, Movie or Special) and Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix (Outstanding Special Effects in a Motion Picture.)
In the News: Wednesday morning reading list
- Leia abandons Padme and Chewie! Luckily, zookeepers stepped in to save the pair of critically endangered tamarin monkeys babies.
- Geek Gestalt celebrates ILM and Skywalker Sound’s Oscar noms, while StarWars.com has quotes and the complete lineup.
- Homeland Security channels the Death Star with a military grade throwable digital camera.
- Cleveland firm restores stained glass at Skywalker Ranch.
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.
Movie News: Razzies, Cloverfield, Jumper
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.
- Come fall, you’ll be able to unleash the Cloverfield monster on your unsuspecting toy collection.
- At Sundance, Bill Pullman is down with Grand Moff Tarkin.
- Oni is offering a 23-page preview of their Jumper’s comic-book.
- Head on over to NCC-1701.com for some Trek viral goodness.
- William Hurt talks Hulk, Iron Man.
- Eye Candy: Prince Caspian pictures!
In the news: Monday morning reading list
- Cloverfield smashes January box office records, including the one held by the ANH Special Edition.
- Lightsaber named top movie weapon in 20th Century Fox poll. (Huh.) The Death Star and Indiana Jones’ whip also made the list, and Luke Skywalker and Indiana Jones are among the favorite weapon-wielding heroes.
- Skywalker Sound up for BAFTA for There Will Be Blood.
- AICN has a report from the cancer-free Fanboys.
- Ewan McGregor claiming Trainspotting had more influence than Star Wars prequels. On his career, perhaps.