Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science voters, lend us your eyes. Your attention is demanded!

In a Summer movie season dominated by gigantic science fiction and fantasy movies like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and Terminator Salvation, two much smaller sci-fi films from lesser-known foreign directors were the ones who stole all of the spotlights. Those two films were Neil Blomkamp’s District 9 and Duncan Jones‘ Moon.

Now that all of these movies have come, said their piece, and gone, it does not mean it has to be the last we hear of them. One fan of Moon has taken that a step further, and has begun a campaign to get Academy voters to take notice of Sam Rockwell‘s performance and give it the attention it deserves, hopefully resulting in a Best Actor nomination. The movie, director Duncan Jones, and Rockwell have all been praised numerous times for the film, and it’s difficult to over-look the performance as it is right up on par with Tom Hanks’ nominated work on Cast Away. Rockwell has been around a long time and has given a lot of memorable performances, including some that were the only watchable part of certain films that we’ve seen over the years. So whether he wins a spot on the ballot or not, the man absolutely deserves to be considered. [...]

Battlestar Galactica‘s Tricia Helfer has posed for PETA and bared all for Playboy. Now, Helfer is baring some more, along with her BSG co-star Grace Park, for the November issue of Maxim magazine.

The lovely ladies, both of whom made their mark playing sexy, yet deadly human-looking Cylons on the hit SCI FI Channel series, star in Battlestar Galactica: The Plan, the upcoming BSG prequel movie due out October 27, 2009 on DVD and Blu-ray. The uncensored 90-minute feature will combine previously aired scenes from the series, which ran four seasons, with new footage which will show the events of the series from the Cylons’ point of view.

And as far as that Maxim cover goes — wow. As I mentioned, the DVD version of The Plan is an uncensored DVD, which I assumed meant strong language and heavy action. In the Maxim issue, which hits newstands on October 20, Helfer confirms that there will be more “explicit action” and talks about how she refuses to use a body double. “You will see a little bit of skin from me as the Six character,” Helfer said, adding that there will also be “a new character you’ll see in some very intense sex scenes.”

Park goes further to say, “Yeah, there’s going to be a T & A version. Though maybe I should say T, C & A, because it’s not just girls this time…” Whoa!!!

Check out some more photos we were sent from the Maxim photoshoot here [...]

Sam Raimi has been talking a lot of Spider-Man 4 with MTV lately. Recently, they discussed the topic everyone wants to know about: villains. As it has always been, there is still no idea who the villain will be, but it appears that they are leaning toward a few prospects. Raimi was also asked by [...]

The Twilight Saga: New Moon Soundtrack CD is out today and the album has been streaming pre-release for free on MySpace for the last few days.

Now, Amazon is offering up the MP3 version as their MP3 deal of the day for only $4.99.

That’s means, no waiting — get it right this minute!

The soundtrack features songs by Muse, Death Cab For Cutie, Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, The Killers, and more.

Grab this deal while you can, these usually last one day only [...]

The Monty Python comedy troupe are currently celebrating the 40th anniversary of the first broadcast of their 1969 BBC TV series Monty Python’s Flying Circus and tonight the surviving members — John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam, and Michael Palin — reunited at the Ziegfeld Theatre in NYC. A video of the event is now online, which you can watch here below — and I suggest you do so! It’s great stuff, seeing the gang together again, talking about their experiences and creating the sketches for the show, basically just answering questions from the audience. Seriously, watch now!

Also, there’s two new clips online from the documentary Monty Python: Almost The Truth: The Lawyers Cut, a 3-disc DVD — due out on DVD and Blu-ray on October 27, 2009 — with new interviews with the fabulous British comedians as well as other celebrities, along with tons of clips from pre-Python material, the original Flying Circus TV series and the films. Watch the two clips here below: one of John Cleese talking about writing the “Cheese Shop,” the other of comedian Steve Coogan (Tropic Thunder) doing “The Undertaker” skit. From October 18-23, IFC will be airing the documentary in six parts, so you can catch it ahead of time (though the DVD will have more material in it) [...]

Jordan Mechner and John August posted a cool little video on their blogs recently. The video is a collection of clips from Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time that were specially edited together back in 2003. The purpose of this was to convey his vision of what a movie version of the game should be like, and was used in his pitch to Jerry Bruckheimer and The Walt Disney Company. Most just paint a picture with their words when making a pitch, but Mechner figured what better way to paint a picture than to use key elements from the actual game, and he was right — Bruckheimer bought the pitch and six years later, the movie is set for official release on May 28, 2010.

Mechner is the creator of the Prince of Persia video game series and August is best known for his work as writer on Tim Burton movies like Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Corpse Bride. The duo wrote the script for The Sands of Time movie together. [...]

Entertainment Tonight was able to visit the set of the gritty and realistic Ridley Scott version of the tale of Robin Hood, which stars Russell Crowe. With their visit we get a lot of fantastic new looks at the sets and settings, the actors in costume, and a subtle idea of the tone we can expect. Along with these cool new looks, you’ll of course get all of the really important stuff from ET, such as asking Cate Blanchett if she was able to kiss Crowe in the movie, but that’s the stuff you just block out. The video below is a promo for the spot, which sounded very much like it was supposed to air this past Monday, but is nowhere to be found. The full video will be here as soon as it is available, but for now, the promo shows a lot and is worth watching.

While searching for the full ET video, it quickly became obvious that this was not the first video on the set of Robin Hood, but that there were many. [...]

Of all of the Marvel superhero movies that will fuse into each other on May 4, 2012 when The Avengers is released, Jon Favreau‘s Iron Man (and soon to be Iron Man 2) is probably the universal favorite. The director’s careful handling of the character and wonderful job of adding a sense of realism for us all to relate to made him the unanimous choice of fans worldwide to take up the reigns and direct The Avengers, and it was one of the big questions in recent times. Favreau recently spoke to MTV about the whole thing, and confirmed that he would unfortunately not be directing the ultimate superhero movie, and also about the task of bringing all of these larger-than-life characters together in one movie.

While in Bora Bora for a Couples Retreat junket, Favreau made it quite clear that he would not be directing Avengers because he will not be available to do it. No word on exactly what he’s doing that will be taking up his time in 2012 (though that end of the world thing may take up some schedules), but one has to imagine that as a director, he doesn’t want to get stuck in one genre forever. [...]

Yes, that’s right, Sirius XM Radio will be starting a brand new channel on Friday, and it will be 100% fully dedicated to the many works of Monty Python. The channel will start the day after the five remaining members — John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin — are in New York to receive their Outstanding Contribution to Film and Television award from BAFTA (Read: Monty Python’s Flying Circus Officially Turns 40).

The new channel is being put on the air for the comedy troupe’s 40th anniversary celebration, and it will feature 24-hour a day Python songs and clips from their many different skits and popular movies. Members of the gang will show up from time-to-time to reflect on their many classic contributions to comedic history, and some of the clips and songs aired will be introduced by different celebrity fans.

Sadly, good things never last forever, and fans of Monty Python will have to get their fill. The Monty Python channel will only be available for a depressingly short 10-day period. [...]

Once upon a time, someone somewhere created a sleeping bag re-creation of the Tauntaun corpse that Luke Skywalker used for warmth in that classic scene from Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. This someone was greatest online store ever created (proclaimed by I, anyway), ThinkGeek, and it was actually just a little April Fools silliness. Well, the gag was so popular, that people were called, papers were rustled, and ThinkGeek was given permission by George Lucas and Lucas Films to actually produce the sleeping bag, and you…yes, YOU can go and own one soon.

The sleeping bag (seen above, click to go large) is made of a nice, soft Tauntaun fur, and the inside is over-flowing with the natural comfort of intestinal embrace. Better yet (and my personal favorite touch) is the inclusion of a little lightsaber zipper, that allows you to cut open your desperate escape from the freezing cold winter every single time you use it! [...]

When I wrote about special one-hour “Niagara” episode of NBC’s The Office, in which Jim and Pam finally tie the knot, I said I wouldn’t wait to see the episode’s deleted scenes on the DVD release.

Now, ahead of the DVD, NBC has posted some deleted scenes from the episode, which you can watch here below.

In Video #4, Jim and Pam keep the guests waiting at the church long after the ceremony should have started — this is more of the reactions from the Dunder-Mifflin gang as they get impatient. What’s nice about the clip, which runs for a minute and a half, is that you get a little bit each from a lot of the workers. Be sure to pay close attention to what Phyllis says [...]

Back in July, it was announced that Sam Raimi would be directing the long-rumored movie adaptation of MMO powerhouse, World of Warcraft. This along with Spider-Man 4 presented two gigantic and time-consuming projects for the Evil Dead and Drag Me To Hell director, and it is still uncertain which will be coming first.

It was first assumed that the WoW movie would be based on a spinoff novel that was written within the game’s world called Arthas: Rise of the Lich King, but it is now confirmed via an interview with MTV that the movie will be an original story set in the world and involving its characters. It was also confirmed that the movie is being written by Saving Private Ryan scripter Robert Rodat and that it will likely be simply titled Warcraft.

Turning a game like Warcraft into a movie is probably about as difficult as it could be to turn a game into a movie. Being an MMO, there is a story, but the game is never-ending and the story isn’t the selling point, so you have to pick and choose what you want to use and construct a story out of these countless elements, settings, and characters. The challenge becomes even greater knowing the track record of video game based movies, as we all are well-aware of, so the mountain for Raimi is large. [...]

Some more Twilight Saga news today, this time regarding the New Moon soundtrack, the first image from Eclipse, and images and video from star Taylor Lautner‘s Rolling Stone magazine shoot. First up, is the big breaking news from Twilight on Twitter…

“Due to overwhelming demand, THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON soundtrack is being released this Friday!”

NICE!!! I’ve already pre-ordered it so be sure to check out my review shortly after its release. You can pre-order The Twilight Saga: New Moon – Soundtrack right now!

Also, The Twilight Saga New Moon: The Score, composed by Alexandre Desplat, will be released on November 24th and is available for pre-order now for $16.99.

Now, 39 days before the premiere of New Moon, a first look at Eclipse is out in the form of a People magazine New Moon special edition issue [...]

A new video has been posted online of the Gag Reel from the upcoming two-disc Special Edition DVD and Blu-ray release of 2009′s Star Trek.

Check out the over 6-minute video here below.

JJ Abrams‘ Star Trek film was my ultimate favorite movie of this year, so I really got a kick out of this gag reel, which shows the cast flubbing lines, goofing around, and dancing (yes, lots of dancing). There’s also parts of the deleted scenes.

Star Trek will be released on DVD/Blu-ray on November 17, 2009. Check out the details of the release here [...]

On last night’s How I Met Your Mother, Marshall and Lily go overboard trying to get Barney and Robin to be their new “couples” friend. We learn that what has succeeded in chasing off every other potential couple is Marshall’s post double-date photo montage, complete with original songs from Marshall.

I don’t know about you, but I’d LOVE it if I had a friend that did this!

Anyhow, Marshall’s tribute to his and Lily’s Best Night Ever with Robin and Barney is now online for all to see. Check out the video here below of a special online version of Marshall’s music video — a collaboration with Extreme’s Nuno Bettencourt that’s a take on Extreme’s “More Than Words.” [...]

Who can’t get enough Twilight Saga info? ME, yes, I’m unashamed to admit it. And now, I can get my information from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.

Summit Entertainment launched their official Twilight Twitter page yesterday and already it’s causing major buzz amongst the many Twilight saga fan pages and blogs across the net.

New Moon director Chris Weitz made the inaugural post yesterday afternoon saying “Hi! Welcome to the official New Moon twitter account. This is my first ever tweet so be gentle with me.” But the squeee-inducing highlight of the day for this Twitard came soon after when an exclusive movie still from New Moon of Bella and Jacob, with the ever emo (and, let’s face it, hotter than hell) Edward in the background. Seriously, it made my day.

Look at it here, no, really, look at it, now (click image for larger, full view!). Oh, and in case you’re interested…official run time for New Moon is 2 hours and ten minutes (another juicy tidbit culled from this faboo source)… plan the evening of November 19, 2009 accordingly [...]

The IT Crowd
The Complete Season One
Written and Directed by Graham Linehan
Starring Chris O’Dowd, Richard Ayoade, Katherine Parkinson, Chris Morris
MPI Home Video
Available now

‘That’s the sort of place this is, Jen. A lot of sexy people not doing much work and having affairs.’

At the high-rise headquarters of Reynholm Industries beautiful people go about their work in clean, bright office areas. On the 34th floor everyone is friendly and smiling and happy. The man in charge, Denholm Reynholm (Chris Morris), hires pretty, red-haired Jen (Katherine Parkinson) as a new head of department after being impressed with her glowing CV. Jen falls in love with her new workplace, adoring the stunning London views and fawning at the sight of unisex toilets ‘like Ally McBeal!’

But this is not where Jen will be working. The department she will be heading is not on the stunning, sunny 34th floor. She will be riding the elevator down to the depths of the building to become a part of The IT Crowd.

In this surreal sitcom world, the basement is the domain of Roy (Chris O’Dowd) and Moss (Richard Ayoade), Reynholm Industries’ resident computer nerds. As typical of such men, their work area is a mess, crammed with geeky paraphernalia. It is obvious that Roy and Moss are vital to this company as Jen, and everyone else, knows nothing about computers [...]

The trades are reporting that 20th Century Fox has made a deal to acquire a pitch that would see the story of Moses from the Bible being retold using the highly-visual green screen styles that were used in the filming of Zack Snyder’s 300. The movie is expected to cover all of the chapters of the life of Moses, including almost dying as an infant, standing up to the Pharaoh, freeing the Hebrews from slavery, the plagues, and of course, the parting of the Red Sea.

The script is being written by Adam Cooper and Bill Collage, who recently wrote a new take on the classic tale of Moby Dick with a graphic novel vibe to it that is being developed for Wanted director Timur Bekmambetov.

The question now becomes: is this the start of a popular new trend in taking classic and biblical stories and giving them the graphic novel flavor? [...]

It was an exciting day when the first teaser trailer for Toy Story 3 was released, but that trailer didn’t show us too much in terms of story and such. It was clear that the real moment of magic — not counting the day we can see it in theaters on June 18, 2010 — would be when we were able to watch the full theatrical trailer…and that moment is right now. The official Toy Story 3 trailer has been released to the masses and can be seen here below!

The trailer is wonderful, as you fairly might have assumed, and it whisks you right back to that world, complete with all the glorious nostalgia you possess there. It opens up with a nice, warm little re-introduction to the young boy Andy and his childhood with everyone’s favorite toy box before shooting us to present day where Andy — now 18-years-old — is off to college and trying to figure out what to do with his old toys. We find out that they’re shipped off to a daycare center where a rather humorous segment of rampaging toddlers tears through the bunch. This sets up the main story of the crew attempting a daring escape from the daycare and their adventure to find home. [...]

Back in June, Bryan Singer did an interview where he was asked about the X-Men franchise and whether he would ever return (Read: Is Bryan Singer Itching To Do More ‘X-Men’ Adventures?). He revealed that the four hours that it takes us to watch X-Men and X2: X-Men United took six years of his life, and so he is “eternally intertwined” with the franchise and would love to return.

While at the Pusan International Film Festival recently, Singer once again spoke about the possibility of retaking the helm for X-Men 4. He confirmed the previous interview statement that he would like to get back into that universe, and that he has actually been talking to 20th Century Fox about this return. Singer spoke about how he loves Hugh Jackman and the rest of the cast, and especially how much he loves the ability to tackle real-world issues through the fun of science fiction and fantasy movies such as the X-Men films. [...]