Razzies!

By DAVID GERMAIN

LOS ANGELES (AP) - At least someone was happy Sharon Stone reprised her notorious femme-fatale role with "Basic Instinct 2."

The box-office bomb received seven nominations Monday for the Razzie Awards that mock the bottom of Hollywood's barrel, among them worst picture and worst actress of the year.

Also receiving seven nominations was the Wayans brothers comedy "Little Man," about a thief posing as a baby, including worst picture and director for Keenen Ivory Wayans.

Shawn and Marlon Wayans shared a worst-actor nomination, while sisters Hilary and Haylie Duff shared a worst-actress nomination for "Material Girls."

"We stuck the siblings together to allow room for more dreck," said Razzies founder John Wilson.

The other worst-picture nominees were the fantasies "BloodRayne" and "Lady in the Water" and the thriller "The Wicker Man."

Winners will be announced Feb. 24, the day before the Academy Awards.

Joining Stone and the Duffs in the worst-actress category were Lindsay Lohan for "Just My Luck," Kristanna Loken for "BloodRayne" and Jessica Simpson for "Employee of the Month."

Stone previously won a Razzie as worst-actress for 1994's "The Specialist" and "Intersection."

"She's what we call a Razzie repeat offender. Perhaps even a recidivist," Wilson said.

"Basic Instinct 2" also had a nomination for worst screen couple for Stone's "lopsided breasts." Also nominated were co-star David Thewlis for worst supporting actor and the movie's director, Michael Caton-Jones.

Along with the Wayans, "Little Man" co-star Rob Schneider had a worst-actor nomination. The other nominees were Tim Allen for "The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause,""The Shaggy Dog" and "Zoom"; Nicolas Cage for "The Wicker Man"; and Larry the Cable Guy for "Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector."

The Razzies added a new category, worst excuse for family entertainment. The nominees were "Deck the Halls,""Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties,""RV,""The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause" and "The Shaggy Dog."

The big surprise for Wilson was that all-time Razzies champ Sylvester Stallone's "Rocky Balboa" was not nominated. Stallone, who has 30 Razzie nominations and 10 wins, surprised many skeptics by delivering a sequel that was well received by audiences and earned better-than-expected reviews.

"At the first of the year, you could not have convinced me it wasn't going to be a Razzie contender," Wilson said. "I would like to publicly say that Stallone has made a good movie."

I'm on a Trek roll today

Mego Star Trek Commercial

Actually, "Balok" was the "puppet" and diminutive alien. The Keeper was the lead Talosian torturing Pike. But the figure certainly resembles the "false" Balok more than a Talosian.

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Data says fans ruined Star Trek

'If blame is going to be tossed around about why "Star Trek: Nemesis" was such a huge failure, you need to start with the fans.
At least that's what Brent Spiner, who played Data in "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and the subsequent movies, told the official Star Trek Magazine, as reported by TrekMovie.com.

"We worked on the story with the intention of making it for the fans," Spiner said. "With every Star Trek movie prior to that, we tried to find a way to bridge the gap between the fans and the general public. With 'Nemesis' we said, 'Forget that! Let's make a movie for the fans, because that's the people who actually go to see the films.' And what happened? They didn't go!

"Usually the films opened big, even if they had a lot of competition, but 'Nemesis' didn't even do that. That was a message from the fans that they were done with us."

"Star Trek: Nemesis" opened on Dec. 15, 2002, just days before "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" opened. The film made $18.5 million on opening weekend, and did a total American box office of $43.1 million.

In comparison, the previous movie -- "Star Trek: Insurrection" -- had an opening day box office of $22 million in 1998, going on to gross $70.1 million.

Spiner says he's all for restarting the Star Trek franchise, however, despite his previous comments on J.J. Abrams' idea for Star Trek XI.

"I think they're right to start a new movie franchise that will hopefully spawn a new series that will spawn new movies," Spiner said.'

Battlestar Galactica season 3 spoilers

From syfyportal, "The following story contains MODERATE SPOILERS for Season 3 of "Battlestar Galactica."

When fans find out which popular character from "Battlestar Galactica" is going to vanish from the ragtag fleet, they'll not only be shocked, they'll be angry.

"In the second half of this season, you can expect many stunning surprises and revelations," show producer David Weddle told SyFy Portal's Michael Hinman. "We will experience the devastating loss of a much loved character who is central to 'Galactica,' and it will shake the crew to the core."

Speculation has centered around the departure of Katee Sackhoff from the show, at least temporarily, taking her character of Kara "Starbuck" Thrace with her. Weddle, however, wouldn't deny or confirm which character would be taken out except that the ripple effects through the rest of the crew will be startling.

"I imagine many fans will be outraged and screaming for our heads," he said. "But others may take comfort in the fact that every time we upset the chessboard and scatter the pieces, it opens the door to many new provocative and exciting stories in the season to come."

How much these changes will enthrall fans will most likely be reflected in the ratings. And while it appears most people connected with the show expect a renewal by SciFi Channel, Weddle says he's not taking any chances.

"The renewal of the show depends on the ratings this January and February," he said. "If you care about this show, browbeat your friends who are not yet fans to watch it. Often, people are resistant because of the title to invest in the show. But I find that if you can get them to watch a few episodes, they almost always get hooked."

Weddle says moving the show to Sundays, beginning this week at 10 p.m. ET, should be a tremendous benefit to the ratings bottom line.

"I am OK with the move to Sundays," he said. "I know many people who have not watched the show on Friday nights because they are out socializing. There will be more available eyeballs on Sunday nights, which is a good thing. But it is also a much more competitive night. We just have to hang tight and hope we draw a decent audience."

There is interesting competition for "Battlestar Galactica" on Sunday night. On cable alone, FX airs its new series "Dirt." As for the networks, they are airing new episodes of popular shows including "Brothers & Sisters" on ABC and "Without a Trace" on CBS. Also, NBC is airing "Crossing Jordan" as well.

Deciding to DVR the other shows and watching BSG live instead could pay off, Weddle said.

"We will learn shocking secrets about several other characters," he said. "Some of the story threads set into motion at the start of the season will be resolved, but in unexpected ways."

"Battlestar Galactica" returns right after the series premiere of "The Dresden Files" Sunday at 10 p.m. ET on SciFi Channel."

Spider-Man 4?

From Darkhorizons, "Superhero Hype reports that Sony Pictures are so excited about the early cut they've seen of "Spider-Man 3" that they want to push forward with another film and have approached (but not signed) scribe David Koepp about the project.

Koepp's credits include the first "Spider-Man", "Jurassic Park", "Mission: Impossible", "Carlito's Way", "Panic Room", "War of the Worlds" and the upcoming "Indiana Jones IV". Sam Raimi and his brother Ivan wrote the third "Spider-Man" film."

and this little tidbit (very minor spoiler),

While promoting his new series "Drive" on Fox, actor Dylan Baker was happy to talk with iF Magazine about his role in "Spider-Man 3" and the talked about fourth film.

Baker has played Dr. Curt Conners in the past two films, a small role but one many have been waiting to see turn into the villainous The Lizard.

Baker confirms that "I am in SPIDER-MAN 3, and my wife Becky Ann Baker is also in the movie, she plays James Cromwell's wife and Bryce Dallas Howard's mother".

Don't expect the Lizard to show up this time though - "In this one I am still in my business suit and that's all I'll say. I'm kind of the guy that Peter Parker needs to come to whenever he has those quandaries about what's going on... All I can say is we're going to see a lot more of [me] at some point if what Sam says is true, and Sam is the guy who knows, so I am sticking with him."

Would he be up for playing the Lizard? "Oh yeah [I'd be up for that]. I'm friends with Alfred Molina and I just saw him the other day and he had so much fun doing Doc Ock, that for me it's a no-brainer. So, put it in [the movie] and let's go".

The first bad sign of Indy 4

Sorry, I hated the Henry Jones character. From Dark Horizons, "Sir Sean Connery has confirmed he is considering returning to the silver screen to reprise one of his most popular roles in Indiana Jones 4.

The actor told UK Teletext he will read the script for the fourth movie and, if he likes what he sees, will appear once more as Indiana's father, Dr Henry Jones.

Connery said: "At the moment there's nothing decided. I haven't got the script. Everything depends on the script."

"We are writing him in whether he wants to do it or not," Lucas said on an American TV show recently."

King talks 1408

From Moviesonline, "Dimension just let us know that their new horror thriller 1408 has been pushed back to July 13th. Lilja had an opportunity to sit down and talk to Stephen King about the new movie and whether or not he thought it would do the film justice. Quote:
No, I’m not concerned about that at all. [Whether the film does well or not] [laughs]

The books are still always there. It’s like what James M. Cane said, the book doesn’t change and the movies… you know… 1408 is done and the trailer is terrific and… it looks like The Shining only hot instead of cold so maybe it’ll be a great movie and everybody will make money and everybody will be happy. John Cusack’s in it and I love him as an actor, I respect him very much. Samuel L. Jackson is the hotel manager. He looks terrific and the hotel looks terrific so all those things but… so maybe it’s a success and that’s terrific. But suppose it’s junk.


Then it’s gone in two weeks. And that’s the end of it. But I’m always just interested. I approach it as a fan and I know that there are writers who, what can I say, they kind of hover over things, the book is their little baby and in some cases I can understand that. It’s like Charles Frazier who wrote…you know…the book and then it became a movie with Nicole Kidman and…Cold Mountain.
Its a truly fascinating interview and well worth reading the whole thing.Adapted from the terrifying short story by suspense master, Stephen King. Renowned horror novelist Mike Enslin (Cusack) believes only in what he can see with his own two eyes. But after a string of bestsellers discrediting paranormal events in the most infamous haunted houses and graveyards around the world, he has no real proof of life…afterlife.
But Enslin’s phantom-free run of long and lonely nights is about to change forever when he checks into suite 1408 of the notorious Dolphin Hotel for his latest project, "Ten Nights in Haunted Hotel Rooms.” Defying the warnings of the hotel manager (Jackson), the author is the first person in years to stay in the reputedly haunted room. Another bestseller may be imminent, but like all Stephen King heroes, first he must go from skeptic to true believer – and ultimately survive the night.e Dolphin Hotel."

Silver Bells

From AICN, "with what is certainly one of the strangest AICN posts ever (and that says quite a bit).

Earlier this afternoon, a reader sent in an image highlighting what he claimed was the Silver Surfer's chromy nut sack. He said this screen grab came from the currently posted trailer for FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER.

Initially, I had my doubts -- who wouldn't? It HAD to be fake. I mean, the notion of Surfer cruising around with his metallic junk swinging in the wind just didn't make a whole lot of sense.

Finally, curiosity got the best of me (it wasn't the homo-erotic kind of curiosity...not that there's anything wrong with that), so I jumped to the QuickTime HD version of the trailer and started frame-by-framing through the scene in question.

And, sure enough, there it was...the Silver Surfer's shiny package!

At first, no one believed me. But then I showed Harry -- and suddenly the potentially mad rantings of a crackpot reader with way too much Photoshop on his hands became post worthy. I then showed it to a close friend at another site, who was amazed that the story was so easily corroborated.

You can see for yourself (you know you want to) HERE! Shows up 'round 1:02-1:04 on the timecode -- it's when the Surfer is fly-surfing towards us in the first part of the tunnel sequence.

Testicular attributes are not evident in the rest of the Silver Surfer sequences we've seen thus far, so I'm assuming this matter is akin to the infamous "Jessica Rabbit has no panties" frames in WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? I.e. something animators sneaked in (momentarily) just for kicks...and just to see if anyone would notice. If you're not familiar with what I'm talking about, HERE'S MORE INFORMATION (scroll down to the "Additional Information" header for some hot frame grabs..."grabs" seems like the wrong word in this context).

All of this happened as Harry and I were debating an another e-mail, sent by a long time reader named BLooD-HuNTER.

BLooD-HuNTER sent along some pictures of the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-14 motorcycle Ludacris paid around $120,000 to customize. BLooD-HuNTER says no one's seen this motorcycle yet except for Ludacris, and the people who put it together for him.

We were debating if this was "cool news" in the AICN sense...and then the balls happened...so I'm not sure a final determination was made about Ludacris' ride. But, in a reality where the Silver Surfer's stuff gets its own headline...why the hell not?

I guess now we know what they mean by "Rise" of the Silver Surfer!? I'm sorry...but somebody had to say it."

Sunshine trailer

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