Screenhead

The Prince of Wales stately knights Sir Christopher Lee, who is also known as Star Wars’ Count Dooku and of course – Dracula, received a knighthood for his services to drama and charity. 

Lee is 87-years-old and is easily one of cinema’s most productive actors He appeared in more than 250 films over the course of a career to date has spanned 61 years.

Lee not only has been in Star Wars Prequels, but has started in The Wicker Man and the James Bond film The Man With the Golden Gun.

He will next be seen in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland.

(Source)

Sir Dracula…

No song and dance man — Hugh Jackman will not host the Oscars a second year in a row.  

The actor, who’s starring on Broadway with Daniel Craig in the drama “A Steady Rain,” quietly turned down the job sometime during the past few weeks.

I liked Jackman as the song and dance man of the Oscars. He drew praise from others as well. He says he’ll host the Oscar show again in the future, but is not certain.

After his Broadway run, Jackman plans to take time off and prepare for The Real Steel, the Shawn Levy-directed DreamWorks drama that starts production in the spring.

(Source)

Twilight buffs take note, and I know there are a LOT of you–you’ll be extraordinarily happy to know that at Spike’s 2009 Scream Awards, you’ll be getting a special first look at some footage from the newest movie in the Twilight saga, New Moon.

Members of the cast will also apparently be in attendance that evening, though if it’s anything like the MTV movie awards you can look for Rob Pattinson and Kristen Stewart to have run off and left Taylor Lautner holding a massive freaking bag once again.  I bet they exchanged some choice words after that debacle, I tell you what.

Anyway, that’s not the only thing going into the Scream Awards–you’ll also get a farewell tribute from some of the cast of Battlestar Galactica, plus some of the cast of True Blood, which is a pretty decent show in its own right, will also be in attendance.

So you’ll definitely want to be on hand, for one reason or another, when the fourth annual Scream Awards hit Spike October 27th.

The Chiller Eyegore Awards, part of the Halloween Horror Nights festival (we just finished a couple weeks ago covering all the various short films that will be involved in the proceedings) just announced a couple of its special guest appearances.

If you ever wanted the chance to see the embodiment of a franchise and a complete disaster in filmmaking in the flesh, you’ll get your chance at the Chiller Eyegore Awards as both Tobin Bell and Rob Zombie will be making appearances.

The contrast is impressive, of course–with the representative of a major flagship title that’s only starting to look a bit long in the tooth (let’s face it, after six installments ANYTHING starts to look a BIT frayed around the edges.  Don’t get me wrong–I enjoyed Saw V plenty, but the point remains) standing alongside a guy whose career never really produced much but fake blood and bombast.

Still, it should be an interesting show, no matter how it ends up.

Roman Polanski can’t seem to get a break. The notoriously intense film director, who made films such as Chinatown and The Pianist, was on his way to Switzerland last Saturday to receive a lifetime achievement award at the Zurich Film Festival, only to be nabbed by the authorities. Why? Well, it seems to be due to a very old yet still publicised incident in the US. Polanski famously fled Hollywood after he was accused of raping a 13-year old girl. He has yet to return. The arrest warrent is still out and despite having travelled to Switzerland many times before, someone decided to uphold the warrent and arrest him. Polanski now faces extradition to the US and he may even spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Read the rest of this entry »

Last night’s Emmy awards must have seen bookies sitting back and relaxing, with many of the clear favourites nabbing the prestigious TV award. It’s no surprise that 30 Rock won Best Comedy Series (and it’s hard to contest- the other nominess are all mediocre or else shadows of their former selves), and it was a delight to see the taut period drama Mad Men nab best drama series (Note: the Emmys actually use the word Outstanding to such an extent that it makes the word redundant). Of course, the only real surprise is the question of whether the quality of recent TV shows is so poor that the winners of last year’s comedy and drama series award have to win the same thing a year later!

Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston and 30 Rock’s Alec Baldwin also both won for the second year in a row. In fact, they may as well have repeated last year’s broadcast if it wasn’t for Toni Collette nabbing an award for Best Actress for  United States of Tara, in which she convincingly pulls off a suburban mom with a multiple personality disorder. It was nice to see fellow countryman Brendan Gleeson win an award (for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in Into the Storm), and Michael Emerson’s award for Lost was a little suspect. The full list is here, though I imagine after such an unimaginative ceremoney most of you aren’t that bothered.

SUMMER UNDER THE STARS GIVEAWAY!

Turner Classic Movies’ (TCM) ultimate movie star showcase:  SUMMER UNDER THE STARS.  Returns for its seventh year, the festival dedicates each of its 31 days to one of Hollywood’s most enduring personalities. This is an opportunity for you to enjoy a varied selection from each star’s body of work, and at best the films are uncut and commercial free. 

More than half of the month’s actors and actresses featured in this year’s SUMMER UNDER THE STARS are first-timers to the festival.  The 17 memorable performers include six Oscar winners:  James Coburn (Aug. 4), Gloria Grahame (Aug. 13), Yul Brynner (Aug. 26), two-time winners Gene Hackman (Aug. 21) and Fredric March (Aug. 24), and honorary recipient Harold Lloyd (Aug. 5).  Other stars getting their first showcases include James Mason (Aug. 2), Marion Davies (Aug. 3), Dirk Bogarde (Aug. 10), Red Skelton (Aug. 19), Miriam Hopkins (Aug. 20), Sterling Hayden (Aug. 22), Merle Oberon (Aug. 25), Ida Lupino (Aug. 27), Jean Arthur (Aug. 30) and Claire Bloom (Aug. 31). 

This year’s SUMMER UNDER THE STARS also features 42 feature films making their premiere on TCM, nearly twice as many as last year.  Movies making their first appearance on TCM during the festival include The Grapes of Wrath (1940), An Affair to Remember (1957), Les Miserables (1935), Mississippi Burning (1988) and Good Morning, Miss Dove (1955). 

What I love best about this giveaway program is the remake of the movie posters. Here we have The Magnificent Seven starring Yul Brynner.  There are a number of posters to view at TCM.

Turner Classic Movies is so excited about their Summer Under the Stars program that they have asked Screenhead to offer three giveaway packages that includes six mini (18”X12”) posters of the following films (listed below) and a Robert Osborne bobble head.

o        The Magnificent Seven

o        The Big Heat

o        Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde

o        The Servant

o        The Letter

o        High Society

Post your name and Screenhead will pick 3 winners August 31, 2009. Please keep in mind the TCM Summer Under the Stars programing runs through the month of August. 

From the annals of Duh Magazine: A Journal For Halfwits, this issue includes such pieces as “Bib Vs. Cup: How To Catch Your Drool”, “The Sun Is Hot”, and of course, “Twilight Wins Big At Teen Choice ‘09 Awards”.

I know, I’m being all facetious again, but seriously, who didn’t see this coming?  The big winner at the Teen Choice Awards, which aired just last night but were over on Sunday, was the sparkly vampire feast, which took home Choice Movie Drama, Choice Movie Liplock, Choice Movie Villain, and a slew of other equally vapid choices.

Seriously, check out how they stack the deck on Choice Movie Villain:

Cam Gigandet – Twilight
Liev Schreiber – X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Eric Bana – Star Trek
Ken Jeong – The Hangover
Hank Azaria – Night At The Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

You can’t be serious.  Your idea of nominations for “choice movie villain” are a Simpsons voice actor, a Kim Jong-Il knockoff and a vampire from Twilight??  No wonder the kids today are so messed up–they wouldn’t know a proper villain from their own ass in the dark with both hands, a flashlight and a head start!

Why no love for Jason Voorhees?  You had him on the horror movie list, and I guarantee you that if you lock James in a room with Jason Voorhees and wait about three minutes, Jason’s gonna break down that door and the only thing left in that room will be VAMPIRE PASTE.

Jason Voorhees has walked away from an outboard motor to the HEAD.  It took better than three thousand rounds of small arms fire and a hand grenade JUST to kick off Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday, and they’re handing the nod to a sparkly vampire?

I’m already hanging my head with shame, but I can at least take hope knowing that they didn’t try to hand this godawful mess a horror award.  If that would’ve happened I think I would’ve had to flee the country.

LVIFS Logo

Las Vegas International Film Summit has been created by a group of experienced film-makers, top business executives and marketing professionals, committed to the development and promotion of the art and craft of filmmaking. This yearly mega event will cover every aspect of the motion-picture production process in a seven day tradeshow and an international film competition, being held at the Sands Expo, The Venetian and the Palazzo Casino Resorts of Las Vegas, Nevada, from March 29th to April 5th, 2010.

“Our mission is to use Las Vegas spectacular hotels and infrastructure to host the most influential film festival in the United States, and with that, contribute to the development of Las Vegas as an international cultural capital for the growing industry of cultural tourism”, said Joaquin Rodriguez, the festival coordinator. Las Vegas International Film Summit will be open to all industry professionals and film enthusiasts alike. For more information visit www.lvifs.com

MTV’s Awards program premiered exclusive clips from various movies coming out this year. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is my favorite of all. I can’t wait until July 15, 2009 when the movie hits all the theaters.