Max Landis’s Death and Return of Superman is a very long sketch. No, it’s a really funny short film. No, you know what it’s like? It’s like, after a long night of gaming, when you’re hanging with your best nerd friends having a laugh, debating movies and video games and all things geeky. Tie all that together into a 17 minute short film and you’ve got The Death and Return of Superman.

Screenwriter Max Landis (Chronicle) decided to film his late night nerd philippic and brought some familiar friends along for the ride.

Death and Return of Superman, affectionately dubbed DAROS, cuts back and forth between Landis recounting the story of Big Blue’s demise directly to the camera and live-action re-enactments by actors using Landis’s voice (much in the style of the Drunk History series).

The star-studded short features Mandy Moore, Morgan Krantz, Elijah Wood, Elden Henson, Dustin Romero, Matt Bennett, Zach Cregger, and Jimmi Simpson in key roles. Sharp-eyed viewers can also spot cameos by Simon Pegg, Sarah Shahi, Whitney Moore, Chloe Dykstra, Micah Sloate, Chris Hardwick, and Ron Howard. 

Check out the full film, which was released for free on YouTube Friday, after the jump.

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• Robots are badass, and that’s just what we get from Paul Oakenfold’s newest music video for “Beautiful Machine“.

• Who doesn’t love profanity? That’s why this collection of 100 best uses of the word F*ck from films is right down our dirty alley.

• The internet may just be popular, as Cartoon Network’s MAD managed to cram tons of memes into this spoof titled ThunderLOLcats.

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Up yours, Snow White! Fans of dwarves and fantasy alike will be pleased to see the latest photo from Peter Jackson The Hobbit, featuring all 13 dwarves doin’ their dwarf thing.

From the left, they’re Jed Brophy as “Nori,” Dean O’Gorman as “Fili,” Mark Hadlow as “Dori,” James Nesbitt as “Bofur,” Peter Hambleton as “Gloin,” Graham McTavish as “Dwalin,” Richard Armitage as “Thorin Oakenshield,” Ken Stott as “Balin,” John Callen as “Oin,” Stephen Hunter as “Bombur,” William Kircher as “Bifur,” Adam Brown as “Ori,” and Aidan Turner as “Kili.” [Not pictured: Wilford Brimley as “Groin,” Brian Cox as “Drunky,” and Rip Torn as “Farty.”]

Reprising their roles from the Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy are Ian McKellen, Andy Serkis, Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, Ian Holm, Elijah Wood, and Orlando Bloom. Martin Freeman (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) will star as Bilbo Baggins.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is scheduled for release December 14^th, 2012; The Hobbit: There and Back Again December 13^th, 2013.

Click through for a larger version of the pic.

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What do Will Ferrell, Danny McBride, Elijah Wood, Jack Black, John C. Reilly, Will Arnett, Susan Sarandon, Rainn Wilson, Seth Rogan, Ted Dansen, Stanley Tucci, and a whole bunch of other named celebrities have in common?

They’re all in a brand new semi-biographical, semi-science fictional short film by The Beastie Boys, about The Beastie Boys, titled Fight For Your Right-Revisited.

The film is done in conjunction with the trio’s highly anticipated eighth album, “Hot Sauce Committee Part Two”, and has got Ferrell, McBride, Black, Reilly, Rogan, and Wood playing both the Beastie Boys from the past and the Beastie Boys from the future.

Expect zany, wacky, convoluted awesomeness when the 30-minute film hits DVD (as well as the the web) when Hot Sauce Committee Part Two hits music stores on May 3. In the meantime, check out the star-studded trailer after the jump.

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If you’re looking forward to Shane Acker’s upcoming film 9 as much as we are, then you’ve probably already seen the cool website, the posters, clips and other ways the filmmakers are getting the word out about the movie around the Internets. And now there’s a new way you can experience and join in all the 9 adventure yourself — and maybe even help make a bit of history along the way. How is this possible? Read on to find out.

The Talisman is a key component in the story of the movie 9 and is a device integral to the film’s “Stitchpunk” characters. Now you can create your own Talisman to share your pictures and thoughts with friends. To make this happen, check out the film’s website and “dive into the World of the Talisman” Once on the site, user pics from around the world can be viewed in an “infinite zooming” gallery.

You can then “create your Personal Talisman by uploading your own photos, which can then be shared via email, blogs or social networks. Once you upload your Talisman, your memories will be preserved forever.” After you’ve created your Talisman, the site will give you a personalized URL that you can share with friends. There’s also a widget version of this you can stick on your profile at MySpace, Facebook or the social networking site of your choice. Cool, right?

9, which features the voice talents of Elijah Wood, John C. Reilly, Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau and Jennifer Connelly, hits theaters on 9.9.09.

Who says there’s nothing good to watch tonight? Well don’t worry, we’ve got you covered — at least for a few minutes — with this brand new clip from the highly anticipated film 9, directed by Shane Acker and Exec. Produced by Timur Bekmambetov and Tim Burton.

In this new clip, we’re treated to a pretty cool scene where the Stitchpunk Beings are being attacked by “The Winged Beast” which, by the looks of it, is something you really don’t want to be attacked by. Before you take a look at the clip and just in case you’re not familiar with the film, it concerns the character 9, who finds himself in a post-apocalyptic world where all humans are gone. It is only by chance he discovers a small community of others like him taking refuge from fearsome machines that roam the earth trying to destroy his kind.

9 convinces the others that hiding will do them no good. They must go on the offensive to survive, and they must discover why the machines want to destroy them in the first place. As they’ll soon come to learn, the very future of civilization may depend on them.

I don’t know about you, but I think that sounds (and so far looks) pretty awesome. 9, which features the voices of Elijah Wood, John C. Reilly, Jennfer Connelly, Martin Landau and Crispin Glover, hits theaters on 9.9.09. Check out this cool new clip from the film after the jump.

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While the summer blockbusters are still going strong, there’s one film that just misses the “summer” requirement but is still making a name for itself. The film is Shane Acker’s 9, which is based on his award-winning animated short from a few years back, and is produced by Tim Burton. The film is out this September and the marketing team has just released a series of character posters, showing off the animated cast of the film.

In the film, a group of numbered “people” are given the task of saving a post-apocalyptic world from destruction of giant robotic creatures. If you’re thinking “this sounds like every other movie out this summer”, then you should watch the original short that the film will be based on, because it’s got just enough of the Tim Burton fantasy-feel to make it a great movie.

The new posters show off the pretty big ensemble cast, with Christopher Plummer playing 1, Martin Landau as 2, John C. Reilly as 5, Crispen Glover as 6, Jennifer Connoly as 7 and Elijah Wood as the main character 9. Check out the character posters after the jump. 9 hits theaters September 9th.

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