Eeew! I mean: cooool! No, wait!...eeeww!

From the BBC:

"NZ FISHERMAN LAND COLOSSAL SQUID

New Zealand fishermen have caught what is expected to be a world-record-breaking colossal squid. Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton said the squid, weighing an estimated 450kg (990lb), took two hours to land in Antarctic waters.

Local news said the Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni was about 10m (33ft) long, and was the first adult colossal squid landed intact.

One expert said calamari rings made from it would be like tractor tyres.

'I can assure you that this is going to draw phenomenal interest. It is truly amazing,' Steve O'Shea from Auckland's University of Technology told local media.

The squid took about two hours to land

Colossal squid, which are found deep in Antarctic waters, are thought to be about the same length as giant squid (Architeutis dux) but are much heavier.

The species was first identified in 1925, but very few specimens have been found.

The first specimen recovered intact, a 150kg (330lb) immature female, was caught on the surface in the Ross Sea near the Antarctic coast in April 2004."

Read the rest here.

(Octopunk) I imagine this is the kind of thing that Fisheries Ministers dream of. I'm also delighted that "Colossal" is part of the thing's actual name and not headline hyperbole. Science!

What are you doing, Wilbur?

From Iwatchstuff, "With now-famous video sensations like Star Wars Kid, Numa Numa Guy, and Nintendo64 Kid (search YouTube for these if interested), sometimes the Internet can make celebrities out of the unwilling when their personal videos find their way online. Such was the case of Mr. Hands, a Seattle man who let a horse have sex with his butt on tape as his friends watched/masturbated (search disgusting places for this if interested, pervert). Rather surprisingly, the horse's forearm-size member would eventually cause serious damage to Mr. Hands' standard-size internal organs, killing him.

Though he is now gone, Hands lives on through poorly-shot video and the warning not to ram a horse's penis into your intestines, but that is not his only legacy. His epic tale has now been immortalized through film in the movie Zoo, and here is the poster.

You know in a cartoon, when someone sees a lot of money and their eyes turn into dollar signs? This is the equivalent effect for when a horse sees that he gets to have sex with some dude."

Separated at birth?

Superman Returns Leads Saturn Awards Nominations

Source: The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror films
February 20, 2007

The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror films has announced the nominations for the 33rd Annual Saturn Awards. Leading the pack is Bryan Singer's homage to the superhero mythos Superman Returns with 10 nominations. Garnering 6 nominations each, are X-Men: The Last Stand and Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth, which received its nod in the restored category of Best International Film. Following closely behind are an eclectic mix: Casino Royale, Mission Impossible III, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, and Stranger Than Fiction, receiving 5 nominations each.Warner Bros. Pictures flexed its muscles and led all film studios with a total of 21 nominations. Also with strong showings were Sony Pictures and 20th Century Fox with 15 and 13 nominations, respectively. Buena Vista plundered 11 nominations and MGM had a new license to kill with 8, followed closely by Picturehouse with 6 nominations and Lionsgate and Universal with 5 nominations each.In the television categories, "Lost" continued to find nominations, receiving a total of 6. NBC's newcomer "Heroes" burst onto the scene, earning 5 nominations, followed closely by SCI FI's "Battlestar Galactica" and Showtime's "Dexter," each garnering 4 nominations, while TNT's "The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines" discovered 3 nominations. A Special Recognition Award will be presented to the imaginative children's book "Alien Xmas" written by Stephen Chiodo & Jim Strain, and published by Baby Tattoo Books.This year marks the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films' 35th Anniversary. The non-profit organization was founded in 1972 by film historian, Dr. Donald A. Reed. The Academy is currently headed by Robert Holguin, who serves as President of the Academy.The winners will be announced at this year's 33rd Annual Saturn Awards which takes place on Thursday, May 10, 2007 in Universal City. Hosting the event will be actor Greg Grunberg and comedian Jeffrey Ross. Grunberg is one of the stars of the highly popular NBC Universal television series, "Heroes" (and is nominated for his work on the show). Jeffrey Ross is one of the leading stand-up comedians whose brand of humor shines in roasts. Special Award recipients will be announced shortly.

Click here for the full list of nominees.

More on that Indy IV rumor

From Iwatchstuff, "In the world of Indiana Jones IV news, several sites have reported that Shia LaBeouf will have a large part in the upcoming movie, probably playing Indiana's son and definitely ruining the movie. It's not that Even Stevens is such a bad actor, it's just that adding more relative characters is surely a bad sign for the series, particularly if they're also adding these member of the Jones clan:

Ohio Jones - Seldom-mentioned brother of Indiana, named not after a pet but love of the actual state, Ohio is seldom seen without his signature derby cap and length of rope. The siblings frequently butts heads over who had the better discovery: Indy finding the Ark of the Covenant or Ohi finding how much a hint of almond extract added to his famous pancake batter.

Uncle Poopy Jones - Brother of Dr. Jones, Sr., Uncle Poopy's habitual flatulence always seems to slip out at the wrong times, alerting Nazis and treasure hunters alike to his presence.

Indiana (dog) - Thanks to an ancient relic found in a Mayan temple, Indiana Jones was able to resurrect his deceased eponymous dog to aid in his adventures. Voices by Robin Williams, this CGI creation will always sniff down the treasure... unless someone puts a cat in his way!
It should be noted, I have no evidence of these other characters existing anywhere.

Don't worry, Keira remains buried in clothing in Pirates 3

Batman is two-faced

From syfyportal, "When Batman returns to the big screen, he'll not only deal with his own issues of duality, he’ll face off with his Jekyll-and-Hyde-like nemesis, Two Face.
Aaron Eckhart, best known for his roles in "Paycheck" and "Thank You for Smoking," is reported by The Hollywood Reporter to be in final negotiations to play Two-Face in "The Dark Knight," the sequel to "Batman Begins." Eckhart succeeds Tommy Lee Jones, who played Two Face in 1995's "Batman Forever."

In "The Dark Knight," Batman (Christian Bale) and Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) ally with Harvey Dent, Gotham City's youngest-ever district attorney, to stop a crime spree by the murderous Joker (Heath Ledger). Dent is a crusader for justice who is irrevocably scarred when a prosecuted criminal throws acid in his face, leaving the entire left side burned and deformed. Some speculation is that it will be the Joker who mutilates Dent in the story.

Devastated by his disfigurement, Dent's repressed anger surfaces an evil side to his personality, which fights for control with the good side of his personality. Split in two halves that are impossible to reconcile, Dent obsessively makes all decisions by flipping a coin to determine how he's going to act. On one side, he's still the good Harvey Dent, friend to Bruce Wayne. On the other, he's Two-Face, supervillain and enemy of Batman.

Dent's role in "The Dark Knight" was set up in "Batman Begins," when Gotham City’s old district attorney is killed by the League of Shadows, a secret criminal syndicate run by Ra's Al Ghul (Liam Neeson).

Christopher Nolan is back to direct from a script penned by his brother Jonathan, based on a story by Christopher Nolan and David Goyer. Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine also are reprising their roles from “Batman Begins.”

"The Dark Knight" is scheduled to be released July 18, 2008."

McDonalds cool Atari placemat

From x-entertainment, "McDonald's once used placemats merely for the aforementioned purpose of keeping loose McNuggets and fries from becoming forever linked with whatever tray grime the person who ate before you left behind. Oh sure, they wash the trays, but there's a big difference between running something through a dishwasher and running something under the vague caress of a sloppy towel, and unless you know for sure, NO, you will not eat food that touches the tray directly.

In 1982, McDonald's teamed with the time's biggest video game producers in the "Atari Scratch 'n' Win" game, where customers were given neat scratch-off cards based on one of three now-classic games: Star Raiders, Missile Command or Centipede. There were ten scratchy spots on each card, and if a player was able to reveal two identical prize symbols before landing on a game-ending "zap" symbol, he or she would win that prize, no questions asked.The interesting thing here was that every card had the potential to be a winning one. To offset that, there were far more prizes offered for "free McDonald's food" than for what people were actually playing for: Atari games, systems, computers and so forth. They even gave out full-sized Centipede arcade cabinets. The Atari Scratch 'n' Win game could also be credited with the small spike of 1982 suicides, because it was entirely possible for a customer to lose on a grand prize winning card by scratching onto a "zap" symbol before hitting the identical "BIG WINNA" symbols. Fortunately for us, it was also possible to cheat. By manipulating the cards with various bends and trick lighting, players could determine which symbols were where before going through with the no-backsies coin scratch. While this only lent most people free sodas and fries, it probably saved a few "real" winners from needing to blow their brains out.

Show I don't care about gets big screen treatment

From iwatchstuff, "This new poster for Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theatres is a great throwback to that classic swords and sorcery fantasy art that keeps you buying those old Conan novels, hoping it will somehow bring you closer to that fur bikini-clad vixen on the cover."

Foreign audiences get screwed

From bloodydisgusting, "Is 'Grindhouse' an old-fashioned double feature or two separate films?It depends on where you live.Variety reports that since the double-bill concept is alien to many filmgoers around the world, "Grindhouse" will be going out as two pics in some parts of the globe, while the U.S. and a few other English-speaking territories will see it as one singular experience.The pic -- with a finished cost of $53 million, not the much higher figure incorrectly reported last week -- consists of two segments directed by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino. It was envisioned as a salute to double- or triple-bills of the 1950s and '60s.But most non-English-speaking territories have little tradition of a grindhouse double bill. So the central conceit of the film -- two short exploitation films, separated by faux trailers for upcoming cheapies -- would be lost.When split, the two pics will be titled "Grindhouse: Planet Terror" (Rodriguez's seg) and "Grindhouse: Death Proof" (Tarantino's).With the split, some additional footage could be added to each one.Glen Basner, prez of Weinstein Co. international distribution, was at the Berlin fest discussing release patterns. The general plan is that the two films will be released three-five months apart, but there's no decision yet on which will be first.They're also weighing the logistics of the faux trailers -- what will be attached to which pic. (In the united version, the pseudo-trailers will come between the two segs.)The project was presold in a number of territories, including the U.K. (Momentum Films), Spain (Aurum), France (TFM), Germany (Senator Intl.), Italy (Medusa), Australia/New Zealand (Village Roadshow) and Thailand (Major).In the non-English-speaking areas, the split pics will allow the Weinstein Co. and the local distrib to harness income for two pics, rather than one."

Ron Howard to remake most boring film I've ever seen

By DIANE GARRETT, DIANE GARRETT, STEVEN ZEITCHIK

Howard GrazerRon Howard may unlock an American version of "Cache" for Universal.
Brian Grazer will produce the remake for Imagine, which acquired the rights from Plum Pictures, with Howard looking to direct. Plum's Celine Rattray will exec produce, along with Randy Simon, and Plum's Galt Niederhoffer and Daniela Taplin Lundberg will co-produce.
Michael Haneke wrote and helmed the French original, which starred Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche as a couple who find increasingly violent videos on their porch. Haneke won the director prize at Cannes for the film in 2005. Sony Classics released it Stateside late that year; pic, also called "Hidden," went on to earn $3.6 million at the domestic box office. Universal version, to be set in the U.S., is expected to amp up the suspense and consequences. Howard has several other potential projects in the offing. Besides "Frost/Nixon," the bigscreen adaptation of the play, there's "The Da Vinci Code" follow-up "Angels & Demons" and "The Look of Real," an examination of the garment industry that could star his daughter, Bryce Dallas Howard.

Gotham-based Plum optioned the rights to the "Cache" story in December 2005 as the pic was about to make its Stateside bow (Daily Variety, Dec. 13, 2005). Plum also produced two recent Sundance acquisitions, "Grace Is Gone," which the Weinstein Co. bought for $4 million, and "Dedication," sold to TWC and First Look for $4 million.