The inaugural ShoWest/NATO Freedom of Expression Award goes to Director-producer Ang Lee and Focus CEO James Schamus. Both have collaborated on films like “Lust, Caution” and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”

Both receive the honor presented on March 11 at the Opening Day Luncheon, which shines the spotlight on independent and specialty films, at the Paris hotel in Las Vegas.

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I just opened my Fedex package and found “Automaton Transfusion” DVD.  The box cover scares me.  Horror fans, if that’s what they are called, will love this movie. 

Apparently, “Transfusion” is one of the best zombie films in decades per Bloody Disgusting.com. Yikes!!!

The DVD box says the film features the leanest, meanest and fastest zombies ever filmed.  It’s just to grusome – ripping jaws, snapping bodies and devouring men, women and child. 

Please post your name at this site, and I will draw the winner from the pool of names. Hurry!!  These zombies are fast.

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Basketball spoof “Semi-Pro” starring Will Ferrell marks the final standalone New Line released from Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne’s. The comedy is a sure winning of this box office weekend even though it has an R rating.

The other big openers are targeted for the female crowd. “The Other Boleyn Girl,” period film starring Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson as sisters hostile toward each other for the love of King Henry VIII.

The modern-day fairy tale “Penelope,” starring Christina Ricci, Reese Witherspoon and James McAvoy, which has been promoted extensively at Screenhead is the other big opener. The film is about a young heiress who is born with a pig nose. I am voting for “Penelope” to have the number one spot this weekend.

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“Spiderwick Chronicles” star Freddie Highmore is to voice the lead character in 3-D animation “Astro Boy.”The lonely robot tale is a $50 million adaptation of a classic comic-book story created by manga supremo Osamu Tezuka that is in production with Hong Kong-based Imagi Studios.

Directed by David Bowers, the movie is set release worldwide in 2009 by Warner Bros. and the Weinstein Co.

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Variety reported today that the groups are facing pressure to start contract talks as soon as possible, SAG has announced it won’t start formal negotiations with the AMPTP until April at the earliest.In a message sent to members, SAG Web Site, Thursday, SAG president Alan Rosenberg and national exec director Doug Allen said SAG plans to stress the issues of new media, compensation for middle-class actors and forced endorsement on product integration.

In the message, Rosenberg and Allen repeated their previous insistence that the guild needs to complete its process of holding “wages and working conditions” meetings to work out the details of its proposal and said that process would conclude March 31. They also retiterated that they need to complete discussions with AFTRA over the SAG-AFTRA joint bargaining arrangement before setting a date for talks.

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New Line’s 40-year run as an independent studio ended Thursday when Time Warner said it would fold the company into Warner Bros.

New Line will become a unit of Warners, maintaining separate development, production, marketing, distribution and business affairs operations.Co-toppers Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne are leaviong but are in talks to continue some business relationship with Warners.

Unfortunately, we will hear about “pink slips” and lay offs.

Check back at Variety.com for updates.

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MANKIND HAS AN EXPIRATION DATE….The DOOMSDAY website has fully launched and is loaded with new R- Rated clips, 3D games and much more!  To get to the all-new RESTRICTED content on the killer website visit: DOOMSDAY.

In the action-packed new thriller DOOMSDAY, from writer/director Neil Marshall (The Descent, Dog Soldiers), authorities brutally quarantine a country as it succumbs to fear and chaos when a virus strikes.  The literal walling-off works for three decades—until the dreaded Reaper virus violently resurfaces in a major city. An elite group of specialists, captained by Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra), is urgently dispatched into the still-quarantined country to retrieve a cure by any means necessary.  Shut off from the rest of the world, the unit must battle through a landscape that has become a waking nightmare.

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Leatherheads, starring George Clooney, Renée Zellweger, and John Krasinski!   Charge over to the site at Leatherheads to view NEW web features:  

• Meet Dodge, Lexi, and the Bullet :   get down and dirty with character photos and info!
• Download the Leatherheads Football Facts widget to get daily football facts and trivia
• Sneak a peak at pages from the official “Bulldogs’ ” playbook
• Watch the ”Leatherhead to Head”  clip, SuperBowl TV spot and full trailer
• Get an inside play-by-play on the film by learning more about the story, viewing new images and downloading buddy icons and screensavers

Leatherheads hits theaters April 4, 2008! Stay tuned for MUCH more! 

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Disney plans for another 3-D movie and will proceed with its hit dance franchise “Step Up,” tentatively titled “Step Up 3-D.”

The movie becomes the latest 3-D live-action film from the Mouse House, with “Step Up 2 the Streets” director Jon Chu in talks.

The above picture is a scene from Chu’s “Step Up 2 the Streets.” According to New York times a character in the movie scoffs, “This ain’t High School Musical.”

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Christopher Nolan, who directed 2005’s “Batman Begins” and the upcoming ”The Dark Knight,” will be honored as director of the year at ShoWest 2008.

Nolan broke his teeth directing debut 1999’s “Following” and drew attention with his second feature, 2001’s “Memento.”

“Memento” is a fabulous movie. I just love it — very unique, full of twists. I’ll never look into the mirror with out thinking about tattoos. 

Nolan will be honored March 13 with gala set to close the exhibition confab.

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