Octo's Next Job!

Tim Burton is directing a stop motion version of The Addams Family.

Which is probably the most appropriate idea I've ever heard for a feature version of The Addams Family.

OK, I'm all gussied up for my anniversary dinner with our very own Octopunk! We're going out to the restaurant where we got hitched.

10 Minor Star Wars Characters With Completely Unnecessary Backstories

5) Lumpy


From toplessrobot, I hate Lumpy. About 98% of Star Wars fans hate Lumpy. He's Chewbacca's kid from the Holiday Special (and don't try to tell me that the Holiday Special was good, you hipsters, just because you enjoy it in an ironic way) and his only two responsibilities in it are to shriek at things and stare at things. If he were relegated to the abysmal TV show and forgotten about that would be fine, that would prove that God is forgiving, but he's appeared in more novels than Captain Nemo, Jason Bourne, and Jack Ryan combined. He's even had four names, Lumpawarrump (birth name), Lumpy (nickname), Lumpawaroo (adult name), and Waroo (nickname based off his adult name). Like nearly every character in the Star Wars universe, he's had to rescue Han Solo in the past.

See the rest here

Bryan Singer Spills Details On X-Men: First Class

Though he isn't directing the film, Bryan Singer is still very much involved with the production of X-Men: First Class. In addition to serving as producer for the Matthew Vaughn superhero film, he also holds a story credit. With all of the casting news in recent weeks (I would link to them but, frankly there are just too many), speculation about the project has been running wild, but Singer has now taken a moment to clear some things up

AICN had a chance to speak with Singer and the X2 director spilled the following information:

Go here for possible spoliers

Two moons on 27th August 2010

27th Aug the Whole World is waiting for.............

Planet Mars will be the brightest in the night sky starting August. It will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. This will cultivate on Aug. 27 when Mars comes within 34.65M miles off earth. Be sure to watch the sky on Aug. 27 12:30 am. It will look like the earth has 2 moons.

The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287.

Share this with your friends as NO ONE ALIVE TODAY will ever see it again.

Expendables still kicking ass

From ew, With the help of a stronger-than-expected Saturday, The Expendables held on to first place for the second weekend in a row, beating out five newcomers that were trying to dethrone the aging action stars. Earning another $16.5 million, the Sly Stallone project fell 53 percent from its opening weekend, pushing its total gross to close to $65 million. The film that got the closest to the top was Twentieth Century Fox’s Twilight spoof Vampires Suck, which grossed $12.2 million over the three-day frame. (It has grossed $18.5 million since its Wednesday opening.) The rest of the new releases struggled, most failing to crack $10 million for their opening weekend.

In its second weekend, Eat Pray Love held in pretty well in theaters. The Julia Roberts-starrer dropped 48 percent for an additional $12 million. The globe-trotting piece has now grossed $47 million after ten days in release. Lottery Ticket landed in the fourth spot for the weekend and seemed to generate good will with audiences. The Bow Wow-starrer earned $11.1 million plus an A- from exit pollster CinemaScore, which portends a strong hold for the movie going forward. The Other Guys rounded out the top five for the weekend with an additional $10.1 million in its coffers. The Mark Wahlberg, Will Ferrell action-comedy has now earned $88 million since its opening three weeks ago.

Spot six went to the much-hyped, rarely viewed R-rated B movie, Piranha 3-D. Bowing to $10 million, the over-the-top bloody mess didn’t score that well with audiences, earning only a C from CinemaScore. Nanny McPhee Returns opened to slot seven. The sequel grossed $8.3 million but since it’s already earned north of $63 million from its international run, the kids flick (which had a $35-million budget) will end up in the black. And families seemed to respond well to the Emma Thompson-starrer, giving it an A- on the exit polls.

Despite the star power of Jennifer Aniston, The Switch bowed in eighth place. This romantic comedy didn’t receive as wide of a release as her movies usually get and earned only $8.1 million. Audiences weren’t in love with the flick either, scoring it with a middling B, according to CinemaScore.

Rounding out the top ten were two very different holdovers. Inception, in its sixth weekend of release, earned $7.6 million for a total cume of $261 million, making it one of summer’s biggest successes. Meanwhile, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World grossed only $5 million its second weekend in release, marking one of summer’s biggest box-office disappointments. The well-reviewed flick starring Michael Cera just isn’t working with audiences and in its second weekend, it dropped 53 percent for a meager cume of $20.7 million. It’s a shame since the Edgar Wright-directed flick is one of the most original to hit theaters in a long time.

Happy Birthday, JPX!

Yes, that's right. Our resident Horrorthon co-founder and blog guru JPX is turning (cough cough cough) this very day!

As an extremely old person, JPX won't understand your birthday wishes if you send them via Facebook or Twitter. This will just cause him to angrily bang the top of his TV -- despite the fact that it's in a different room from his computer and is currently turned off -- and then he'll inflict that extra irritation on the kids he yells at for being on his lawn. So do his TV and those kids a favor and slap some birthday wishes in a comment here on the blog. And don't worry! JPX can navigate the blog quite well, as some time ago I replaced his standard mouse & trackpad interface with a series of clunky, Frankenstein-lab-style levers that he can understand.

Happy birthday, you old basterd! Get yourself a toy!

I think I might have gone with Scarlet Johannson.

Here you go, Jordan. Angelina is playing Marilyn Monroe in an upcoming biography, based on a book. The story is told through the eyes of Marilyn's dog.

So do you think we get to see the dog hump a leg or what?

Trailer for Skyline: giant people suckers

If, like me, you're tired of seeing Ben Pukeface Stiller, then why not watch this trailer. If you wait through the ominous newscasts you will be rewarded with a scene of the vehicular lovechildren of Eric Bana's Star Trek space ship causing a ruckus in downtown LA.

Everything I need to know about Little Fockers

Haiku Hump Day: Henchmen

Inspired by Catfreeek's Villains topic from [insert number] weeks ago, today we study the villains' trusty minions! These enthusiastic employees have a thankless job, being routinely picked off by vastly more competent good guys and then their own bosses for letting them down.

Sometimes a henchman will stand out due to special skills, like homicidal hat-throwing.

Sometimes being a midget is enough.

A small band of misfits can also suffice.

Then there are the super-specialized arms of the operation.

And of course the raging hordes.

Today you are my henchmen, and together we battle the non-existence of haikus on the subject. Give me your poemly-formatted brain thoughts!

Fly, my pretties, fly!

LOL: Living Stormtrooper Prank

EMBED-Living Stormtrooper Prank Scares Girl - Watch more free videos

From slashfilm, A man decides to scare his girlfriend by replacing the mannequin underneath the Stormtrooper armor costume in his living room, with a person. As Break.com puts it:
“We’re going to have to question the validity of this video on the grounds that he has Star Wars Stormtrooper armor and a girl in his apartment, simultaneously. Impossible.”