The Winners

Just call her the giant slayer. Kathryn Bigelow and her modest little Iraq War drama The Hurt Locker beat out the behemoth box office champ Avatar for best picture, best director, best original screenplay, best editing, best sound editing, and best sound mixing. Bigelow made history, becoming the first female ever to win the award for directing.

James Cameron and company (Avatar) left with a total of three trophies: best visual effects, best art direction and best cinematography. The cinematography award seemed a little odd. After all, most of this film was computer generated, wasn’t it?

There were no real surprises in the acting categories. Best supporting actress went to Mo’nique for Precious, best supporting actor Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds, best actress was Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side, and Jeff Bridges finally won for Crazy Heart.

Up won best animated feature and best original score, while El Secreto do Sus Ojos (Argentina) won best foreign picture. The Cove won best documentary. For an expanded list of major category winners, scroll to the bottom of the article.

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There’s a lot of interesting stuff on the radar this week. An Avatar alumni could face off against Conan, Modern Warfare developers bring a fight to Activision, and director Guy Ritchie may be breathing new life into the heroes of Camelot.

Fox finds its shadow for $1 million and David Slade may be the man

Fans of the comic book series The Shadow rejoice as it seems the reboot continues to move forward.  While it was thought Sony and director Sam Raimi (Spider-Man, Army of Darkness) would bring a new version of the character to the big screen things have changed somewhat.

After Raimi began shopping the property around Fox decided to purchase the rights. Sadly, it sounds like Raimi may no longer direct, possibly replaced by David Slade.  Slade directed the vampire film Thirty Days of Night which, unfortunately, felt just that long in the theater. Here’s hoping he can put a little more adrenaline into The Shadow.

How I Met your…Smurf?

Neil Patrick Harris will be venturing to the land of blue, three apples tall creatures in Smurfs: The Movie.  The How I Met Your Mother star won’t be playing a Smurf though.  As this film will be a mix of live action and animation, Harris will be playing the lead live action character.  Too bad, I would have liked to know just which Smurf he’d play.  ”Awesome” Smurf maybe?  Let us know your picks in the comments.

‘Wolverine 2′ starts shooting next January

X-Men Origins: Wolverine was pretty good, but it was missing one thing: ninjas!  Hopefully that will be rectified in the sequel which is set to begin shooting next January.  Delving into Wolvie’s Japanese mythos the script follows stories penned by two pretty big names:

“Based on a story cycle by Frank Miller and Chris Claremont, Wolverine’s adventures in martial arts will be a love story featuring a Japanese actress, I am told. ‘It’s a beautiful story,’ says a source, ‘and will be very different than the first film.’”

Okay, I’m not really sold on the “love story” angle but considering the number of women that went to see Wolverine (pretty much for mutant hunk, Hugh Jackman) at least this will be one you can take your girlfriends to.

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Are you a fan of the hit Fox series Glee? Do you live near Phoenix, Los Angeles, New York, or Chicago? If so, you just may be in for a rare opportunity to catch some of your favorite stars and songs from the show live, as Fox and creator Ryan Murphy present a special live Glee tour for those major cities in the U.S.

From the Fox press release:

Beginning Wednesday, May 18 at the Dodge Theatre in Phoenix, Arizona, “Glee” stars Lea Michele (Rachel), Cory Monteith (Finn), Amber Riley (Mercedes), Chris Colfer (Kurt), Kevin McHale (Artie), Jenna Ushkowitz (Tina), Mark Salling (Puck), Dianna Agron (Quinn), Naya Rivera (Santana), Heather Morris (Brittany), Harry Shum, Jr. (Mike) and Dijon Talton (Matt) will perform in a singing and dancing celebration of the Golden Globe Award winning show.

The four-city exclusive engagement, “Glee Live! In Concert!,” is a unique concert experience conceived by Murphy that will include live performances of some of the show’s most memorable musical numbers including its anthem “Don’t Stop Believin,” fan favorites “Somebody To Love” and “Jump” and hits “Don’t Rain on My Parade” and “Sweet Caroline.”

Tickets will be available on March 12th for the Phoenix show, and March 13th for the shows in LA, New York, and Chicago. A special presale to American Express cardmembers will be available this Friday, at ticketmaster or gleetour2010.com. Check out the official concert dates after the jump.

Glee returns with it’s second season on Tuesday, April 13th at 9/8C on Fox and will feature loads of new guest stars such as Neil Patrick Harris, Olivia Newton-John, and more.

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With Glee getting nominated for tons of awards since it’s premiere last spring, they’ve delivered time and time again with performances and guest spots. Many feel that the Kristen Chenoweth guest appearance last year was one of the best episodes of the season, and it may get even better next season.

E! Online is reporting that Neil Patrick Harris has been confirmed for a guest stint on the upcoming season, and with his ever growing popularity of Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog, you can expect his appearance on the Fox series to be a memorable one. From E!

Hold on to your track pants, Sue Sylvester! ‘Cause one solid Glee insider tells me that Neil is playing a character who is “really funny and really mean.” I’m told he will be “much more of the Dr. Horrible variety than Doogie Howser, M.D.”

So not only will we get the How I Met Your Mother star to sing and dance on the show, but he’s going to be evil like Dr. Horrible? Not sure how this could get any better. The Glee writers are currently penning the episode, so expect more details to hit soon.

Glee returns to Fox on April 13th.

‘Tis the Season, kids! Which is why we’ve decided to pick this fresh new web video for Fan Film Friday. Though the name insinuates that these are all made by fans, today’s clip kind of walks the line between “pro” and “amateur,” seeing as how it was done by CBS.

For those who are a fan of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, they more than likely tune in for three names: Neil. Patrick. Harris. The man has won the hearts of nerds everywhere with Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog, and gets us to laugh just about every week as the irreverent best friend Barney on the situation comedy.

Some sly editors over at CBS decided to help promote the show, as well as a special airing of Frosty the Snowman by doing a mash-up of the two, combining NPH’s dialogue from the show with clips from the TV movie. Hence, “Frosty the Inappropriate Snowman.”

Check out the clip after the jump. Be sure to catch Frosty The Snowman on CBS, Friday December 18, at 8PM/7PM Central, and How I Met Your Mother every Monday at 8PM/7PM Central.

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Fans of Dr. Horrible rejoice! If you have been laying in bed at night, unable to sleep at the prospect of one day hoping to hear Neil Patrick Harris belt out some more power chords as a devious super villain, then look no further than last week’s episode of Batman Brave and the Bold.

For those who don’t watch the show regularly, Brave and the Bold is a different, younger take on the DC animated universe. The show’s creators have managed to take elements from the Silver Age of comics, such as a young Green Arrow, and the Modern Age, such as the new Blue Beetle. The animation also borrows and references styles from the Bruce Timm animation to the undertone of the Adam West Batman series.

In the episode, Mayhem of the Music Meister, NPH guest stars as the villain Music Meister, who has the power of hypnosis through the sound of his voice. Much like in the musical episode of Buffy, the characters all succumb to song and dance due to the villain, which makes for an easy one-shot story.

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This week on The Flickcast your favorite trio celebrates a milestone episode 25 and discusses a whole bunch of new topics including the Emmy Awards, Neil Patrick Harris’ hosting performance and Dick Cook stepping down from Disney. They also take on topics such as Christopher Nolan’s plans for a Dark Knight sequel, Johnny Depp’s future as Jack Sparrow and the future of the Pirate’s franchise, the Kirby family lawsuit, the season premiere of Heroes and a whole lot more.

Also, the team makes another set of great picks this week including Christina’s favorite CW show Gossip Girl, Matt’s pick of the web series The Legend of Neil and Chris’ pick of The Big Bang Theory, his favorite show involving four geeky physicists, the hot girl across the hall, Star Trek, robot wars and Comic-Con.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques or offers of sponsorship, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter and at Facebook, MySpace or via email.

Thanks for listening.

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Hey, remember the Emmys last year when five different reality show hosts tackled the duties of hosting the show?  Yeah, me either. Dismal ratings required a change of course, and this year the Emmys were…dare  I say it…entertaining! Thanks in large part to Neil Patrick Harris’s impeccable charm and wit, the 2009 Emmy Awards were enjoyable start to finish.

A dapper Neil Patrick Harris (let’s call him NPH for brevity’s sake) was the perfect host.  He started off the show with a musical number that was not awful, and kept the show going at a steady clip throughout the night. His performance garnered accolades from Ricky Gervais and John Stewart, along with millions of us watching at home.  A few highlights from the evening:

Awards were presented in categories.  A genre had all its awards given out before moving on to the next.  Comedy, Drama, Miniseries, Reality and Variety were all represented.  The show producers definitely pushed a comedic theme this year. Hilarious pre-taped clips of  nominees showed them  giving advice or answering a question.

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Don’t be so quick to write this movie off as conventional kiddie-fare. Smart, beautiful and prescient, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs is bound to become an animated classic. It tackles the timely topic of obesity and our insatiable appetite for consumption with grace and wit. The story is adapted from the children’s book of the same title that was originally published in 1978.

Flint (Bill Hader)  has been an aspiring inventor his entire life. More often than not, his whimsical inventions go awry, irritating the put-upon inhabitants of Swallow Falls. They have plenty to be irritable about, as they subsist mainly on sardines,  the town’s only claim to fame. They understandingly don’t embrace his rat/bird hybrid or other misbegotten inventions. Flint’s father (James Caan), a fisherman, is disgusted that his son doesn’t fall in step and help run his tackle shop. He can’t express himself without using fishing metaphors, and his eyes are hidden behind a bushy unibrow.

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