Walk On, Fanboy, Walk On

I thought Fanboys was completely locked and ready for release, ahead of it's January (or possibly-December-but-probably-January-actually) release, but apparently not.

Apparently some shooting is yet to take place, because the Weinstein company are offering geeks and fanboys a chance to win a walk-on part in the film. Maybe they're just going to shoot a few inserts of nerds, dweebs and poindexters sitting queuing at a signing or something.

The contest is the typical 'upload a video of you being a geek' business. Come on Lightsabre Kid - you know you wanna, you know you can make this bad situation work to your advantage.

Disney's Martial Arts Snow White Finally A Go

Francis Lawrence has signed on to direct Disney's long-gestating martial arts take on the Snow White story. The working title has Snow and the Seven for some time though this has long been earmarked for replacement.

According to new and old reports, the lead character, Snow, is a member of British aristocracy raised in China. She leads seven Shaolin monks into battle against an evil 'force' (read: wicked witch). Rumour has it that Natalie Portman has the part already in the bag, but these don't seem to be very credible rumours. Finding the seven Shaolin monks shouldn't be too hard - maybe this is the perfect excuse a Shaolin Soccer reunion?

Yuen Woo Ping is choreographing the fights and acrobatics. That's a very good thing.

Movie Minesweeper - The Gloria Is An Odd Song Edition

Uwe Boll, Steve Martin, Baby Mother, Petra Nemcova, Olivier Gondry, David Cronenberg, Eastern Promises, London Film Festival, Wesley Snipes, 18-1-08.

- The New York Post are suing Uwe Boll for infringing on their copyright.

- Steve Martin has a cameo in Baby Mother.

- Petra Nemcova is the third subject of Olivier Gondry's HP ad series.

- David Cronenberg's Easterm Promises is to be the opening night film of this year's London Film Festival. Hurrah! of course, it goes on general release little over a week later... when tickets will be cheaper... and audiences less sickneingly sycophantic. I can't make up my mind if I love or hate film festivals.

- Leon Ichaso wants to cast Wesley Snipes as Thelonius Monk.

- Did you know you can turn the pictures over on the 18-1-08 site? Click on the picture and wiggle your mouse VERY quickly.

Who's The Daddy?

I know a couple of people either close-ish to Indiana Jones IV or very close to people very close to Indiana Jones IV but, by and large, they're not talking. And when they are talking, they are talking pretty cryptically and with strict non-disclosure terms attached. There's no other way to put it: it sucks.

But I can read between the lines, and I can tell certain things for myself, and I can make the odd educated guess and... sometimes, I can get lucky and hear something nobody knows I heard though it's typically about white goods or some such trivia.

But, honestly, compared to the sources Chud have, say, I've got nothing. Zilch. Nada.

Which makes it all the more amazing to me that I have the little crumb I'm about to offer you.

John Hurt has been playing coy about his role in the film. I think I know why. Now, it seems that Hurt is playing Abner Ravenwood, the father of Karen Allen's character - not as otherwise rumoured, Albert Einstein.

Was all of this Abner Ravenwood action in the script just a few months ago? Doesn't look like it. So, what happened? Where did he get such a decent part from?

As far as I can tell from the silly grins, non committal comments and constant hushing, Abner Ravenwood has been given all of the material originally intended for Henry Jones Sr. I'm not sure if he even existed before the contingency was cooked up to ensure the film would survive a Connery refusal.

John Hurt is, quite literally, the daddy now.

I'm going to keep asking questions, and see what else I can dig up. One of you will break... won't you? Please?

Overnight

Thanks to all of you e-mailing me the evidence, but it seems we've just been beaten by Peter Sciretta.

It looks like Cloverfield/1-18-08 is going to be called...

...drum roll, if you will...

...Overnight.

SlashFilm have a fresh piece up presenting most of what I've been told. And, as I've said before, I believe what I'm told. Check it out over there - I don't want to step on Peter's toes.

There's only one problem major problem that I've spotted so far: the really good Overnight domain names are gone - partly because of the 2003 film Overnight, the documentary about Troy Duffy acting like a selfish ass, by turns making me laugh out loud and other times hold my head and beg for it all to stop.

Both overnightthemovie.com, overnight.com, are gone.

And none of the other alternatives I tried were yet registered... unless I'm missing something.

Kevin Smith

Kevin Smith. Plain and simple. That's the only title I can give this post. You'll see why.

When the current poll expires tomorrow, I'm replacing it with a Kevin Smith poll, because I have a question and I'm genuinely interested in seeing it answered. Come back to see the question and vote, please do. I have no idea what the answer will be.

At Comic-Con this weekend, Tim Kring announced that Kevin Smith will be writing and directing one of the Heroes Origins episodes. My immediate thought was: Who will care? Now, that's not a statement that nobody will care but a genuine question. Who will care?

Maybe I'm being blind, but Smith seems to have suffered a serious drop-off in interest over the last few years. Emphasis on the seems. Maybe its just in my circle, or the areas of the web I frequent, but it looks to me like nobody has anywhere nearly the amount of interest in Kevin Smith that they used to. Nobody likes him as much; nobody dislikes him as much.

Is Kevin Smith now just part of the geek furniture? And is this furniture getting unfashionable as well as slightly uncomfortable?

I didn't much care for Clerks 2 at all. It struck me as somewhat forced, overly familiar if not exactly cliched, and smacking of amateurism. I was tempted to buy the DVD because, for whatever reason, I absolutely love DVD special features and Smith and Co are really pretty good with those. In fact, I still might. I'm far more interested in seeing the special features on a Smith DVD than the film itself - and I'm also not entirely sure that's a bad thing.

While Zack and Miri sounds rather uninspiring, and the much-distributed script excerpt didn't so much wash over me as wander past me, on the other side of the street in a crowd of anonymous, faceless passers by, I do have some hope for Red State. Forced to step out of his cinematic comfort zone much more than usual, Smith might actually deliver soemthing fresh (though still quite undernourished in many ways, I'd expect, and hardly perfectedly crafted in any audio-visual technical sense).

Judd Apatow is delivering more of what Smith promised in each film than Smith has managed in four of his films combined.

Chasing Amy is, for my money, Smith's best work - it has his voice, it sustains an interesting argument, it has a argely untroubled narrative flow, the cast are, on average, the best he's had. Clerks I definitely enjoyed - though I felt it suffered from a Christmas every-day disease, where you could loop it, have a mobius strip of Clerks, and no matter where you started watching, you'd find it very funny for twenty or thirty minutes then find, in fact, it was grinding you down somewhat. Score another point for Smith on DVD - Clerks in small doses is all the more viable.

And my next favourite of his films? Jersey Girl. Not a popular choice - it is somewhat underrated. But mark my words - my selection wasn't going to be any of the others. Least favourite: Dogma, which is barely a film, but an illustrated radio play and a droning, unsubtle one at that, perfunctorily illustrated and not making full use of the wonderful potential of radio at all.

Let alone the potential of film.

So, are you excited that Kevin Smith will be 'doing' Heroes? Why? And should I be?

Second Blu-Ray Special Edition Of 300 Is Coming

Deborah Snyder let slip to several open ears at the DVD launch for 300 that another Blu-Ray special edition is coming some time later on down the line. There was no news on what it might contain, but still, an interesting little snippet. She specifically mentioned Blu-Ray with no reference to DVD or HD-DVD - perhaps everybody is starting to accept the ultimate dominance of the Blu-Ray format? Behind the scenes if not in front of them?

I always though Blu-ray would 'win'. For ten minutes, at least, until we're all just downloading everything. And much of it in 3D.

Free Withnail And I

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Withnail and I, Channel 4's '4OD' service are offering free downloads of the film. What are you waiting for? Go and get it while you can. Thank me later.

If you somehow need persuading, try downloading a brilliant clip from the film or, if you have that on DVD already - and you really should do - there's a two part interview (one, two) with Richard E Grant that needs watching.

(And yes, I know they're all in the wrong aspect ratio. What can I do about it? Rest assured that the 4OD download is not.)

Bruce Robinson, the screenwriter and director of Withnail and I, is the man adapting The Rum Diary. Safe hands.

Movie Minesweeper - The You're Not Welcome Here Edition

Virginity Rocks, Fired Up, Mardi Gras, Beach Party at the Gates of Hell, Sanjay Dutt, Max Makowski, Shinobi, Carice van Houten, Lena Headey, Malcolm McDowell, Keira Knightley, Iron Man, Fanboys, Blu-ray, Hatchett, 30 Days of Night, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Creature Comforts America, Carl Franklin, Nikki Blonsky, Ally Sheedy, Neil Gaiman, The Colour of Magic, Henry Bean, Shark Swarm, Orlando Bloom, Giselle Bundchen, Tom Hanks, Angels and Demons, Sex and the City, Milla Jovovich, Francis Ford Copolla, The Godfather Part 4, Luke Cage, Black Panther, Hulk, Pirate Master, Saturday Night Live.

- Maxim magazine is teaming with Screen Gems for three pictures, Virginity Rocks, Fired Up and Mardi Gras. I'd die laughing if one of them actually turns out to be a masterpiece - come on, Maxim, hire some actual talent to write, direct and appear in these films. Give us another Fast Times. It won't hurt your bottom line.

- Meanwhile, National Lampoon have picked up Beach Party at the Gates of Hell, for a theatrical release in the autumn. I'm getting a strong '80s flashback vibe off of this one (and, indeed, from most of National Lampoon's recent acquisitions and productions).

- Sanjay Dutt is in prison again, for a six year sentence. He was found guilty of posessing weapons used in a series of 1993 'terror attacks'.

- Max Makowski has been hired by universal to write and direct a remake of Shinobi.

- Carice van Houten has joined the cast of Vivaldi, alongside Joseph Fiennes, Malcolm McDowell, Lena Headey and Gerard Depardieu. Is her dance card now getting too full for a quick foxtrot with Bond? DId Forster pass on her? We'll know soon, I'm sure.

- Keira Knightley is to play The Duchess is Saul Dibb's film about Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire.

- Jon Favreau seems to be suggesting that, actually (SPOILER!) The Mandarin will not be prominent in the Iron Man film. Instead, it sounds like Jim Rhodes and Obadiah Stane will be Tony Stark's biggest problems.

- Fanboys might be out before Christmas. Or not.

- Talking of Jesus' official birthday and all, Target are to carry only Blu-ray players over the Christmas period - not HD-DVD.

- The BBFC have given Hatchett an 18 certificate for the UK - notable in part because of the MPAA U-turn on the film in recent months. Here's the BBFC's mildly-spoilerish reasoning: The BBFC’s Guidelines at ‘15’ state that ‘violence may be strong but may not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury …the strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable’. The strongest scenes include full gory detail of bodies being torn apart and eviscerated - entrails being pulled out of victims as they are still alive, decapitations and blood spurting from every part of the body. There is considerable focus on the extreme pain and suffering of the unfortunate victims. Therefore ‘18’ is the most appropriate category for the gore and violence in this film. Hatchett also contains infrequent use of strong language, moderate sex references and some sexualised nudity in the form of two women who frequently bare their breasts to one of the tourists believing they're auditioning for a real movie.

- Sam Raimi talks 30 Days of Night and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

- Creature Comforts America is due on R1 DVD this October.

- Carl Franklin is directing Snitch, a true-story affair about an undercover drugs bust. The story has previously been featured on an epsiode of Frontline.

- Nikki Blonsky - superb in Hairspray, though no replacement for Rikki Lake - has joined the cast of Harold. Ally Sheedy and Colin Quinn are another pair of new additions.

- Jonathan Ross snogged Neil Gaiman at Comic-Con this weekend, and video of this beautifully tender scene has made it's way online. Aaahhh!

- Sky's next Terry Pratchett adaptation is The Colour of Magic. Vadim Jean is once again directing, and David Jason, Tim Curry, Sean Astin and Christopher Lee have all been confirmed as being onboard.

- Henry Bean is scripting and will direct Down By the River from Charles Bowden's novel.

- Criterion's Johanna Schiller has paid tribute to Ingmar Bergman.

- Shark Swarm sounds pretty bad, but... well... you never know. The three-hour running time is interesting.

- Tom Hanks, Giselle Bundchen and... Orlando Bloom? The Angels and Demons cast sounds quitte daffy to me - but I bet the film is played as absolutely straight as The Da Vinci Code.

- Kim Cattrall may yet derail the Sex and the City movie.

- 100 Milla Jovovich clones running around to promote a movie? Hmmm. Sounds awfully like something I was writing once upon a time. Which reminds me - anybdoy out there looking to fund development and scripting of a funny, smart action thriller? Didn't think so.

- Francis Ford Copolla wanted to make a fourth Godfather just so Mario Puzo could leave his kids the money.

- Will John Singleton first direct Luke Cage or Black Panther? My money is on Cage.

- Some sites have a fairly nice image of the new Hulk.

- A contestant on Pirate Master mentioned the reality show's bad reviews in her suicide note.

- There are to be more Saturday Night Live season sets on DVD.

Direct Download Link For The Prince Caspian Video Podcast Blog Thing

Narnia, eh? Only today was I walking past the Eagle and Child where Lewis and Tolkien used to quaff ale with their lesser known, similarly spoddish chum who must have had a name but you know how to use Wikipedia and if I did it for you it would only dilute my point.

When it comes to Oxford authors of the fantastic, I'm a Carroll man all the way, I'm afraid.

The Prince Caspian video 'podcast' is alive. Download the latest installment in lego-like flv.

Movie Minesweeper - The Indian Food Made Easy Edition

So much stuff I couldn't possibly summarise it. Take a punt and check out this little lot...

- Sam Raimi has told Empire magazine that a writer is still to be appointed to Spider-Man 4. My money is on a new writer, fresh to the series at least; in fact, I expect a new director, new stars, new beginning. And, perhaps, the numbers dropped from the title. Amazing Spider-Man, anyone?

- Expect a second Simpsons movie.

- Jenna McGrath is adapting Bentley Little's horror novel The Store.

- The Rum Diary is on again. Hurrah!

- Bobbi Banks has been reelected for her second term as president of the Motion Picture Sound Editors Club/Gang/Posse/Academy/Guild.

- The Comic-Con crowds were crazy for Pushing Daisies.

- Stephen Soderbergh will finally start filming The Informant on April 15th next year. Matt Damon is still set to star. Rejoice! Less positively, it might prevent him from appearing in Paul Greengrass' Imperial Life in the Emerald City.

- Ridley Scott has credited MTV with encouraging him to press ahead with the Blade Runner Final Cut.

- NPR have a nice piece on Guerrilla Drive-Ins.

- Variety's Elizabeth Guider is to be the new editor of The Hollywood Reporter.

- Joss Whedon and Drew Gooddard have collaborated on a horror script called Cabin in the Woods. What's that about, I wonder? Whedon called it 'The horror movie to end all horror movies. Literally"

- We all know how similar Frank Darabont's Indy IV script is with Jeff Nathanson's 'final' version... but how dissimilar is it? Darabont has told MTV all about the comparisons.

- Paris Hilton has taken a key role in Repo! The Genetic Opera. I expected it was likely to turn out a bit of a turkey, now I'm 99% convinced.

- Tyrese Gibson and Joan Allen have been cast in Paul Anderson's Death Race remake. Yep. Joan Allen.

- Jessica Simpson was offered a role that she was told would win her an Oscar. She turned it down. Why? The part was that of a porn star - as in, she'd be playing a porn star in a movie, rather than acting in a porn movie. What's her excuse for turning it down, I wonder? And if she does have some criteria - any criteria - for selecting films to be in/not be in, how come she ended up in a Steve Miner film?

- Patrick Tatopoulos is to direct Underworld 3, or whatever it is finally called. The film is planned as a prequel - largely to avoid questions about Kate Beckinsale's no-show, I'd imagine. I'm expecting a direct-to-DVD release.

- A special No End in Sight chat application has been set up so that the public can discuss the issues raised by the film.

- In case you weren't paying attention every time he told us previously, Eli Roth has Cell on hold. He's expecting to get to work on Trailer Trash first.
- Nick Cassavetes is to direct a movie version of My Sister's Keeper. Jeremy Leven wrote the script, making this something of a Notebook reteam. The stars this time out are set to be Cameron Diaz and Anton Yelchin.

- Ben Garrant and Thomas Lennon are busy writing a Night at the Museum sequel which they 'promise' will feature both existing and new characters.

- Clint Eastwood appears to have retired from acting.

- I hope that New Line's Croc vs. Shark film ends up being called Croc vs. Shark - but maybe Snakes on a Plane has rendered that impossible.

- The new Bravia ad will be shooting in New York over the next few weeks.

- The Comic-Con Star Trek poster is a wee bit snoresome.

- ComingSoon have an audio interview with Andrew Stanton. Listen!

- A trailer for the Lego Indiana Jones videogame is online. Should be fun.

- Uwe Boll is the master of a two-way sewer. After years of turning videogames into bad films, he's now getting involved in turning bad films into videogames.

- A UK DVD of 'Grindhouse trailer classics'? Surely that'll have an Emily Booth appearance someplace. Yep - there's a featurette with her on there. Directed by Jake West? I wouldn't be surprised.

- Ratatoing is an ugly, offensively exploitative rip-off of Ratatouille headed straight to DVD. It's only 45 mins long, too, which makes it even more of a con. Heart breaking to think some kids will get sucked in and even fall in love with it.

- Spielberg is taking a stance over Sudan and threatening to quit his association with the Beijing Olympics.

- Hostel is getting it's second US DVD release on October 23rd - the same day Hostel 2 is unleashed on disc for the first time. Apparently this double dip for the first film will finally give us a look at the original ending.

- Derren Brown has recieved good reviews from The New York Post and Times and The Boston Globe for his US show.

- There's been some vicious in-fighting at FilmRot.

- The Hurt Locker has a poster.

- Sebastian Faulks' Birdsong is finally edging closer to a film interpretation.

- The shoot for Death and Me now appears to be set for next spring, and in London, as I told you.

- Another story has gone missing from Latino Review. This one promised a picture of The Joker in his car but... click over and there's nothing there.

Cut Straight To The Chase With The Red Band Resident Evil Trailer

If you're old enough, watch the Resident Evil: Extinction trailer in a red band edit.

Could this be the beginning of a Russel Mulcahy comeback?

Direct Download Links For Clips From Blade Runner's Final Cut

Download clip one, two and three from Blade Runner's Final Cut or the Dangerous Days trailer, for posterity or cleaner, clearer viewing. Looks great, doesn't it?

Right click and rename the file something like gogogothamcity.wmv to ensure it works.

House Alone

Here are 5 pics from the 4th season premiere of House. The episode is titled Alone - which will be very interesting to anybody who read my big House spoiler last week.

Direct Download Link For Standalone Death Proof Trailer

The US R1 DVD is out before Death Proof reaches most of the UK's cinemas. That's not good.

You can download the trailer for the standalone Death Proof cinema release.

Casting Call For The Young Victoria

Direct Download Link For The Red Band 30 Days Of Night Trailer

Download the new 30 Days of Night trailer in all it's red band glory.

Waterwork

Here's the second of the films made by my students during the OASP Summer Course 2007. This one, Waterwork, is around three minutes long.

I think Cecilia, the director, genuinely has a future in film when she's older - but be patient if you're waiting for her first feature, she's still a couple of years away from going to University. Besides, she might chose to be a lawyer instead. Or a doctor. Or an austronaut.

The whole group did great work and I think you'll enjoy the performances a lot. Remember - these were students aged between 15 and 17 and they had only 15 workshop hours to take their film all the way from conception to completion, learning a lot of theory as well as writing, shooting and editing along the way. They had no previous experience but were expected to really step-up and do the best job possible.

I'm incredibly proud. Leave your constructive criticisms in the comments below.

Direct Download Link For Impressive Step Up 2 The Streets Promo Trailer

Not a frame of Step Up 2 the Streets has been shot yet, but there's a promo clip online now. It showcases some very impressive, seemingly gravity-defying, dance movies. And it promises to make stars of MySpace users.

Ingmar Bergman's Big Hard Cock

Ingmar Bergman has died.

Remember all of that nonsense in Fight Club about splicing pensies into films? You know - the bit where most geeks heard the term 'cigarette burn' for the first time and then pretended they'd known the term all along? The film promises us an erect penis, spliced in, as some act of subversion. When the 'flash cut' comes, not only is it obvious and painfully laboured, it's also a limp penis. How appropriate.

But this wouldn't have done for Bergman. Ingmar Bergman spliced an actual erect penis into his film Persona (in the opening, with the bloody lamb, the nail being driven into the hand, the spider...)

That says it all, really: Bergman offers the penis up, unannounced, but part of an incredible sequence; Fincher promises it, then never delivers.

Persona also features one of the best perversions of film time through sound and image I've ever seen/heard and , later, what is surely the most suspenseful series of close ups ever committed to celluloid in the scene with the broken glass.

Go to your copy of Persona now - and if you don't have one, buy one - then freeze frame it on the erection and screen cap it, or take a picture with a camera, and upload it to the web. A 21+ cock salute for one of the masters of cinema. Link your images in the comments here, if you wish.

Goodbye, Ingmar.

Direct Download Links For Resident Evil: Extinction Trailer

Choose from 480p, 720p and 1080p zombies. In Vegas. With knobs on.

Movie Minesweeper - The Rapid Eye Movement Edition

Machete, Frank Darabont, Stephen King, Wall-E, Richard Kelly, Southland Tales, Steve Martin, The Lotus Caves, Rpin Suwwanath,

- Dread Central seem to think Machete will happen. I'd like to think they were right.

- Frank Darabont has two more Stephen King adaptations in the works - The Long Walk and The Monkey.

- Kung Fu Rodeo have scanned some beautiful Wall-E promo postcards. Gorgeous. If you picked any of them up, be sure and mail me one, eh?

- Richard Kelly has explained his tactics for polishing a poop. So to speak.

- Steve Martin had a surprise wedding.

- Walden's film of The Lotus Caves is to be directed by Rpin Suwwanath, pre-viz artist.

Incredible Hulk Rewritten By... Edward Norton?

According to SlashFilm, who might just have misheard this, Edward Norton wrote the script for The Incredible Hulk. I'm assuming this was a rewrite of Zak Penn's draft - if indeed, it happened at all. Across a crowded Comic-Con hall, amongst all of the hoo-ha, perhaps 'read' just sounded too much like 'wrote'? Or was it just a joke gone awry?

It's hard not to like Norton, to love him, even, but he certainly makes some odd choices from time to time. He's in plenty of bad films, and he's fought plenty of battles I, personally, would have taken the other side in, but he has strong beliefs, there's no doubt of that.

This face-paced new Hulk film apparently has a new take on the Hulk's origin, not upfront int he plot but 'unspooled' throughout the narrative. Interesting.

Edward Norton vs. Tim Roth. I can think of countless more appealing ways to stage that face-off, but I'll settle for a Hulk film, for now.

One Poll Ends, Another Begins

As the new film ick poll begins (look to the column on your right), here are the results of the last.

Direct Download Links For Return To The House On Haunted Hill Trailer And Featurette

IGN have the trailer for Return to the House on Haunted Hill. It explains the special treat for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD owners: the film has multiple branching points allowing viewers to change the plot, select who lives and who dies - and even how.

Apparently, there's 96 different combination outcomes.

Wall-E At Cooked Art

The Cooked Art blog have a great report from the Wall-E panel at Comic-Con. You really should read it.

Here's an excerpt:

Ben Burtt (the legendary sound designer) then went on to talk about how there is no dialogue in the film in a normal sense, showing a great featurette using pastels and digital paintings and sound to evoke the moods that would be felt while watching Wall-E.

Then, using a piano, went on to demonstrate the range of sounds that Wall-E and his wanted companion, Eve, could make. With these same range of sounds they displayed Wall E and Eve both in their own animation scene (unrendered, but very well animated).

To contrast Wall E, who is essentially a cube with binoculars and treads (which can fold up into his body so he's then essentially a cube), EVE is based on circles and ovals - EVE's head is a floating sphere and its body is an upside-down teardrop. Wall-E is rustic and worker class, EVE is sleek, white, and smooth. Stanton said that Wall-E's design was inspired by Luxo, but he didn't feel Luxo's design could hold an audience, so he wanted to play around with eyes, and during a baseball game, saw some binoculars and made it into Wall E.

They also break down a 10-minute sequence with a fair amount of detail.

The 100 Greatest Films Of All Time... Not According To Me

Three of film ick's writers - myself, Sledge and Martin - took part in a recent poll to decide upon 'The Online Film Community's Top 100 Films'. As expected, the list is broadly splattered with films any single individual amongst the contributors would likely be appalled by. That includes at least two of the film ick contingent.

Here's the official banner of the 'community list', in my preferred green style, followed by the final list itself. If you want to visit the home of the list, you can find out a little more about the whys, hows and wherefores. And at the bottom of this post, I'll raise my eyebrows a little and chip in a few opinions on the final rundown.

100. Nosferatu (Murnau, 1922)
99. Cinema Paradiso (Tornatore, 1988)
98. On the Waterfront (Kazan, 1954)
97. Blue Velvet (Lynch, 1986)
96. Reservoir Dogs (Tarantino, 1992)
95. His Girl Friday (Hawks, 1940)
94. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Jackson, 2003)
93. Toy Story (Lasseter, 1995)
92. Notorious (Hitchcock, 1946)
91. The 400 Blows (Truffaut, 1959)
90. Ghostbusters (Reitman, 1984)
89. 8 ½ (Fellini, 1963)
88. Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Herzog, 1972)
87. Leon (Besson, 1994)
86. Touch of Evil (Welles, 1958)
85. Modern Times (Chaplin, 1936)
84. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Capra, 1939)
83. To Kill a Mockingbird (Mulligan, 1962)
82. The Manchurian Candidate (Frankenheimer, 1962)
81. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Cameron, 1992)
80. North by Northwest (Hitchcock, 1959)
79. King Kong (Cooper/Shoedsack, 1933)
78. Manhattan (Allen, 1979)
77. Ed Wood (Burton, 1994)
76. American History X (Kaye, 1998)
75. The Maltese Falcon (Huston, 1941)
74. Groundhog Day (Ramis, 1993)
73. The Conversation (Coppola, 1974)
72. The Bicycle Thief (De Sica, 1948)
71. The Graduate (Nichols, 1967)
70. Network (Lumet, 1976)
69. Halloween (Carpenter, 1978)
68. The Rules of the Game (Renoir, 1939)
67. Do the Right Thing (S. Lee, 1989)
66. Heat (Mann, 1995)
65. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Jackson, 2001)
64. Aliens (Cameron, 1986)
63. Silence of the Lambs (Demme, 1991)
62. The Incredibles (Bird, 2004)
61. A Clockwork Orange (Kubrick, 1971)
60. The Apartment (Wilder, 1960)
59. The General (Keaton/Bruckman, 1927)
58. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer, 1928)
57. Unforgiven (Eastwood, 1992)
56. L.A. Confidential (Hanson, 1997)
55. 12 Angry Men (Lumet, 1957)
54. The Shining (Kubrick, 1980)
53. M (Lang, 1931)
52. Memento (Nolan, 2000)
51. The Bridge on River Kwai (Lean, 1957)
50. Double Indemnity (Wilder, 1944)
49. The Big Lebowski (J. Coen, 1998)
48. Sunset Blvd. (Wilder, 1950)
47. This is Spinal Tap (Reiner, 1984)
46. Run Lola Run (Tykwer, 1998)
45. Goodfellas (Scorsese, 1990)
44. E.T. (Spielberg, 1982)
43. Singin’ in the Rain (Donen/Kelly, 1952)
42. The Searchers (Ford, 1956)
41. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Leone, 1966)
40. Raging Bull (Scorsese, 1980)
39. Once Upon a Time in the West (Leone, 1968)
38. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Forman, 1975)
37. The Princess Bride (Reiner, 1987)
36. The Usual Suspects (Singer, 1995)
35. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Gilliam/Jones, 1975)
34. Fight Club (Fincher, 1999)
33. Brazil (Gilliam, 1985)
32. Annie Hall (W. Allen, 1977)
31. Back to the Future (Zemeckis, 1985)
30. Die Hard (McTiernan, 1988)
29. The Third Man (Reed, 1949)
28. The Matrix (Wachowski/Wachowski, 1999)
27. The Wizard of Oz (Fleming, 1939)
26. Schindler’s List (Spielberg, 1993)
25. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Gondry, 2004)
24. Lawrence of Arabia (Lean, 1962)
23. Fargo (Joel and Ethan Coen, 1996)
22. It’s a Wonderful Life (Capra, 1946)
21. Apocalypse Now (Coppola, 1979)
20. Seven Samurai (Kurosawa, 1954)
19. Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958)
18. Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960)
17. Rear Window (Hitchcock, 1954)
16. The Shawshank Redemption (Darabont, 1994)
15. Taxi Driver (Scorsese, 1976)
14. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968)
13. Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (Lucas, 1977)
12. Chinatown (Polanski, 1974)
11. Pulp Fiction (Tarantino, 1994)
10. Alien (R. Scott, 1979)
9. Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (Kershner, 1980)
8. The Godfather Part II (Coppola, 1974)
7. Jaws (Spielberg, 1975)
6. Blade Runner (R. Scott, 1982)
5. Casablanca (Curtiz, 1942)
4. Raiders of the Lost Ark (Spielberg, 1981)
3. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Kubrick, 1964)
2. Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941)
1. The Godfather (Coppola, 1972)

Now, you can probably tell which titles in this list I have no truck with. More importantly, perhaps, is the list of films I find notable by their absence. I'll single out Vanilla Sky. Come back to me and 50 years and tell me I was right - it was indeed the most subversive American film made between Vertigo and the end of the 20th century (indeed, until 2007, the time of writing).

That Brazil is next to Fight Club gave me a giggle. My most beloved film and the one I am the most angered by, only a slot apart. At least they weren't in the other order.

Curious to see The Godfather beat The Godfather 2. I thought the world was pretty much agreed that part 2 is better than part 1. I certainly am, even if I'm only agreeing with myself.

Good to see Holy Grail take precedence over Life of Brian for once.

I'd feared that Goodfellas would top the list, and I was very glad to see it had not. if it hadn't turned up in the entire 100 I might have cracked open a bottle of something fizzy, but as it is, I'll stick with something flat.

Actually, I might leave it in the fridge alltogether... Jaws and Raiders of the Lost Ark? Testament to Spielberg's Ringo Starr status: Lawrence Kasdan - check, Verna Fields - check, early ILM- check, Spielberg himself - big Family Fortunes er-err noise. Not a popular opinion, I know.

By and large, though, this is a list of films that people should seek out and see, for good or bad, if they haven't caught them all yet. Anything in this 100 that has eluded you so far is pretty much an essential - if only so you can disagree with this consensus.

I'm grateful that all of the participants bothered and that the organisers did such a good job of collating the results, and quickly too. Good work, fellows. Let's do it again sometime.

Direct Download Link For International Beowulf Trailer With More Material

The international trailer for Beowulf has footage not in the US cut. Enjoy.

See The Iron Man Comic-Con Clip Now!

The Comic-Con Iron Man clip has popped up online. See it before it's too late. And if anybody has a direct download link to share, all the better.

[EDIT: I found the clip on Rapidhsare as an Mpeg. Hurrah!]

My nephew is being christened today. Busy day for me. But I'll try to keep checking in.

38B

Here's the first of two short films I'm going to be uploading over the next day or so. They were made by my students on a Film Workshop at a Summer School.

Each group had only 15 hours of workshop time to complete their film - from conception to a locked final cut. They were aged between 15 and 17, and there was a total of 27 students across the two groups - some who were very involved, others not so.

This film, 38B, is the shorter of the two. Please leave your constructive comments for the students' benefit. They are reading them.

From San Diego To South West London To You

If you're interested in the goings on at Comic-Con, there's one page you should bookmark and keep bookmarked for the next couple of days.

And, if there's a nice bit of downtime, check out a nice little singalong from the same perpetrator. It needed a bouncing ball lyric line, but other than that (and the Ace of Spades) it's about perfect.

New Zhora Chase Online

You can now stream the revised Zhora chase from Blade Runner's Final Cut over at Yahoo. They also have a trailer for the over-three-hours-long Dangerous Days documentary (which I cannot wait to see) and a brief snippet with the infamous haskey-masked dancers.

I'm hoping that decent Quicktime versions of these clips pop up soon, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

Direct Download Link For American Orphanage Trailer

Download the trailer for The Orphanage. Good, isn't it?

Movie Minesweeper - The Hazelnut Edition

Indiana Jones, The Mist, Get Smart, The Eye, great DVDs coming later this year, Wall-E, BuyNLarge, Eddie Izzard, Jeremy Piven, Blade Runner, Iron Man, Hatchet, Doomsday.

- The Indiana Jones IV panel from Comic-Con, more or less, is now online.

- The Mist has a poster, and ShockTilYouDrop have put it up online.

- Hymie the robot and Agent 13 will both be in Get Smart.

- A couple of stills from The Eye have turned up and... meh.

- So many exciting DVD releases coming: Kubrick special editions, a 2-disc edition of Face/Off, Twilight Zone: The Movie. I need to start investing in some lottery tickets.

- USA Today have a beautiful new Wall-E still. Also note that Gar-E, Sall-E, Wend-E and Nanc-E can be met, for the first time, over at the official site of BuNLarge.

- Eddie Izzard has replaced Jermey Piven in Igor. Or, to be more accurate, Eddie Izzard's voice has replaced Jeremy Piven's voice.

- Sorry that I missed this detail off of an earlier report: the Blade Runner Final Cut will be in cinemas from October 5th. Go!

- Tony Stark drives the Audi R8 Supercar and goes to bed with Leslie Bibb.

- Dee Snider introduces the Hatchet trailer on the MTV Movies Blog website. I can't access it, or even get a direct download link, because I'm outside of the US. Who can get the direct link for me?

- The Doomsday official site makes the film look like a cross between a cheap BBC rip off of classic 80's dystopian films like Blade Runner and Road Warrior and a naff hobby video made by weekending members of a Dr. Who fan club trying to be 'dark'. Which is very possibly exactly what the entire film will feel like

Direct Download Links For The Things We Lost In The Fire Trailer

See Halle Berry, David Duchovny, Benicio del Toro and John Carroll Lynch - to a greater or lesser extent, all folk in film ick's good books - in the trailer for Susanne Bier's Things We Lost in the Fire.

If you have to, there's a standard def option, as well as 480p, 720p and 1080p high-definition alternatives.

Rename the file cryingoverspilledmilk.mov or similar.

Movie Minesweeper - The 3,500,000 Candle Power Edition

Seth Rogen, Green Hornet, Frank Miller, Sin City 2, JLA, Miss/Guided, Moonlight, Indiana Jones IV, Wekly World News, Watchmen, Whiteout, Hellboy 2, Mummy 3, Hulk, Tim Blake Nelson, Guy Ritchie, The Stranded, Virgin Comics, Futurama.

- Seth Rogen has stressed that his Green Hornet movie will not be played for laughs but will be an action film.

- Frank Miller has blamed the Sin City 2 'delays' on the Weinsteins. I honestly doubt the film will ever get made. I know: I'm a broken record. I honestly doubt the film will ever get made.

- Aint It Cool spread a JLA/OMAC rumour. OMAC? What's OMAC?

- Rob Thomas has left Miss/Guided, while Mark Hudis becomes showrunner and Todd Holland remains an executive producer; over at CBS, David Greenwalt has left Moonlight. Bad news all round.

- A photo from Comic-Con at Aint It Cool confirms an Indiana Jonex IV rumour. Well, I'd say so anyway. Shy of spoilers? Skip ahead. Yep - it looks like Henry jr. is once again looking for the ark of the covenant. I'm pleased by this. I just wish a better writer was responsible for the final script. And don't even get me started on the director...

- The Weekly World news is folding. The last issue will be on shelves this Friday, August 3rd. Will John Landis' Batboy musical ever see the light of day? I do hope so.

- Matthew Goode as Adrian Veidt was not confirmed at the Watchmen panel, but Stephen McHattie as Hollis was. Snyder namechecked Se7en, which is troubling, and also pledged to match shot composition to the comic panels, which struck me as dumb, not least because a) one is designed to be still, the other to move and b) they are completely different shapes.

- A rough and unfinished looking Whiteout poster turned up at Comic-Con. Unsurprisingly, it aped the cover art.

- Hellboy 2 has been pulled forward, Mummy 3 pushed back. Suits me.

- Tim Blake Nelson has joined the Hulk cast as Samuel Sterns, aka The Leader. Don't expect any big brain Leader action, this is looking like Sterns all the way.

- Guy Ritchie is to direct the film version of his Virgin Comics title The Gamekeeper. Joel Silver will produce. However low your expectations are, lower them further. No - further than that. And again.

- Mike Carey is to write the Sci-Fi Channel and Virgin Comics' The Stranded. Standard issue aliens on earth on the run from their deadly past stuff. Might be alright. Might be great.

- The first of the Futurama movies will be released on November 27th. Bender's Big Score features Sarah Silverman, Coolio and, once more, Al Gore in cameo roles. The three remaining films should be out in 2008 before the re-edited versions roll out on TV.

Direct Download Links For Golden Compass Preview

An extended Golden Compass trailer was unveiled at Comic-Con, and now you can download a nice, clean version of it for your self. Choose from 480p, 720p and 1080p versions.

Remember to right click, choose save and then rename the file something like saveourboatyard.mov to make it work.

Direct Download Links For Two Trailers - Alvin And The Chipmunks And Horton Hears A Who

Take this Alvin and the Chipmunks trailer. Please.

Standard def, 480p, 720p and 1080p.

And the Horton trailer isn't anything to get excited about either, sadly, despite some lovely soft texturing.

I can only offer the high-def options: 480, 720 and 1080, all p, y'all.

Movie Minesweeper - The One Mouthful At A Time Edition

Our Stories, Saw IV, Metamorphosis, Michael Haneke, The Heart is a Dark Forest, Dark Shadows, Johnny Depp, Jon Favreau, performance capture, The Lovely Bones, Vince Vaughn, Reese Witherspoon, Blade Runner, Star Trek, Leonard Nimoy, Ed Burns, Virgin Comics.

- Saw IV has been given an NC-17 rating. If you think for one second they won't cut if for an R, you're sorely mistaken.

- The Ford Motor Co. has forged an alliance with Bob and Harvey Weinstein's Our Stories set up. Ford will place cars in the films as well as promoting the finished products. It's all an attempt to 'crack the urban market'. Sigh.

- Daniel Bruhl, Anna Paquin and Stephen Rea are to star in a movie of Kafka's Metamorphosis. No news on who will write or direct, or how the bugification will be handled. The same Variety piece announces Michael haneke's next, The White Tape or the Teacher's Tale, and Nicolette Krebitz' The Heart is a Dark Forest. A cheerful little set of films, no doubt.

- Dark Shadows is being adapted for the big screen... with Johnny Depp starring. What're the odds on him bringing Tim Burton along?

- Paul Sorvino and Alexa Vega have been (re)confirmed for roles in Repo! The Genetic Opera. The film has 55 different musical compositions, apparently spanning a wide variety of styles and genres.

- Three more performance capture films are coming up the the pipe at Imageworks - Maximum Ride, Jon Favrea's Neanderthals and an untitled action epic derived from Japanese mythology.

- Peter Jackson has cast Susan Sarandon as Susie Salmon's grandmother. It's one of the best roles in the Lovely Bones film and, again, Sarandon's casting has taken me by surprise. But I like it.

- Not only will Zachary Quinto be playing young Spock, old Spock will be reprised with Leonard Nimoy in the ears once again. According to JJ Abrams, there's still hope that Shatner will appear - essentially once they work out how to shoehorn him in. Clearly, there was a reason for an older Spock to pop up in the script, but not an older Kirk. Rejigging just for a Shatner appearance seems like quite a bad idea.

- Four Christmases has it's stars: Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn. They play a couple trying to visit all four divorced parents on Christmas day. A neat conclusion would have our protagonists themselves driven to divorce by this horrendous holiday... neat yes, but not commercial.

- Ed Burns' effort for Virgin Comics is to be a 1920s gangster piece, Dock Walloper. The role Mad Dog Madden will be created for Burns himself to play in any eventual feature film adaption.

- The Blade Runner DVD set is due to hit stores on December 18th. That only gives my favourite Christmas gift giver one week to do the right thing. Apparently, the hefty documentary included will run to three hours. I had been hoping for six or seven. Here's a look at what you'll receive, at least materially.

Why So Serious?

There's been a lot of Dark Knight action in the last 24 hours or so. Flash mobs, teaser trailers, stills and chat. The still is below and you can either stream or download the trailer from an official site, but the flash mobs, well, if you want one now, you'll have to organise your own.

Direct Download Links For The Beowulf Trailer

You can finally see how Beowulf struts his stuff.

Take a big standard def version for now, with HD coming imminently. In the meantime, I have to go, quickly...

[EDIT: Here's the HD platter for you. 480p, 720p, 1080p]

[EDIT: Thanks to those of you who added links in the comment section]

Jeffrey Dean Morgan Is The Comedian

The Watchmen names bandied around over the last couple of days have all been confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter, with one extra inclusion: Jeffrey Dean Morgan is to play The Comedian.

I don't know much about Morgan at all, but Richard LaGravanese cast him PS - I Love You, so I'm not too perturbed. I'm certainly not shaking my head the way I did about Malin Akerman.

I'm going to bet that this Watchmen is rather badly received. Not that it will be bad, mind - just that it will be badly received.

Movie Minesweeper - The Little Bits Of Movie News Edition

Women in Animation, Chinatown, The Two Jakes, Southland Tales, Charlie Bartlett, Saw IV, Joel Schumacher, Johnnie To, Iron Man, Bertrand Tavernier, Avatar, Machete.

- The Women in Animation events were recorded and are now downloadable as MP3s. Feed your iPod well for a day or two. I saw the link at Cartoon Brew.

- Special edition DVDs of Chinatown and The Two Jakes are imminent.

- Southland Tales is to be released to North American cinemas on November 9th.

- Meanwhile, Charlie Bartlett has had its release date snatched back.

- As much as I don't like the Saw IV poster, it is easily the most intriguing one in the whole series. Infact, it asks some real questions and makes the plot seem a lot more interesting that I bet it actually turns out to be.

- Joel Schumacher is to remake Johnnie To's Breaking News. As it was with The Departed, this will probably make me appreciate the overrated original a whole lot more.

- Empire have a new Iron Man picture on their new cover.

- Bertrand Tavernier is writing a DVD blog. About French DVDs. In French. A must read for me, really, because it has so little competition that I'm aware of.

- Will Machete ever see the light of day? I sincerely doubt it, but the Babysitter Twins have been talking it up all the same.

- Ubisoft will be behind the Avatar videogame.

Delany And Fillion Officially Desperate, And Breaking Lost News

At the television press tour, ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson, after making the required Kevin Reilly joke (he won't be able to compete on Dancing with the Stars, ha ha), confirmed that Emmy winner Dana Delany is joining the cast of Desperate Housewives this season. He wouldn't go into detail but there have been constant reports that Delany would be playing the sister of Bree (Marcia Cross), a woman who's even more conservative than her sibling but still harbors her own secrets, not to mention a much younger husband (Firefly's Nathan Fillion, also confirmed by McPherson).

P.S. Not for nothing, McPherson is getting some heat from the gathered reporters for teasing them about big announcements regarding Lost that won't be revealed until tomorrow at the ComiCon genre convention in San Diego. Why are the fanboys who have to pay money to get into that event better than those whose job it is to report the news about the upcoming television season. It probably didn't help for McPherson, in a piss-and-vinegar move, joked that the Lost announcement was that Don Imus would be joining the cast. Pitchforks and flames may be in play soon.

P.S.S. OMG OMG OMG! The brass at ABC just literally went to Damon Lindelof (or Lindelof called them up) to give permission to McPherson to reveal that Harold Perrineau will be returning to Lost next season. That's it? That's the big announcement he was guarding with his mortal soul? Wow, that was a bit anticlimatic. But yeah, Michael will be back on the show. Hurrah!

The LA Times Talk Beowulf

Two Beowulf pictures have turned up in a new LA Times piece. I'll pop them at the bottom of the post.

[EDIT: And now better versions have turned, up so I put them even further down. These new versions seem to show Zemeckis' framing, which was quite a thrill. Thanks to all of you who mailed them over]

The LA Times discuss the film at length, though defininetly not from the viewpoint of having seen the whole thing because it's some ways from being complete. Here's a hit-list of their intriguing tidbits (not all new news, and many of the points probably not quite true, but it is nice to see them compiled) and, sadly, it isn't all good news:

- The film is "a minimum of PG-13". Honestly, the script was definitely R-rated, so I was surprised and disappointed to hear "the producer and director purged the script of foul language, used an array of blood colors ranging from crimson to green and dreamed up gravity-defying nude scenes." Gaiman misses the swearing, and says so.

- Grendels mother's feet appear like "sharp stilettos merged with bestial hooves".

- Beowulf battles Grendel in the nude but "Beowulf's naughty bits are obfuscated by random objects in the foreground", a la Austin Powers, but not for (deliberate) laughs.

- The characters age from teenagers to septugenarians, courtesy of the CG skins on their motion captured skeletons.

- Neil Gaiman said of Crispin Glover's casting: "Then we got on the subject of Crispin. Bob said he would never work with him again because he never hit his mark and didn't understand how scenes cut together. But as he went on, you could see Bob realizing that was completely irrelevant if Crispin was in a motion-capture suit covered in dots, every move recorded."

- Oh, and mentioned here only as a curiosity, we learn that Ray Winstone's character in Indiana Jones IV is called Mac.