We’re big fans of director Nicolas Winding Refn and in particular his previous effort Drive. Now he’s back with a new film, again featuring Ryan Gosling, and we’ve got a trailer for it to share with you today.

The Bangkok-set crime pic stars Gosling as the scion of a drug-smuggling family who runs a Thai boxing club and is sent on a quest for vengeance by his mother (Kristin Scott Thomas).

Whatever, we’re in. Check out the trailer for Only God Forgives after the break.

At 5:30 AM Pacific Time on Tuesday, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences revealed their nominations for this year’s Oscars.

Hugo leads with 11 total nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. The Artist scored 10 nods.

Some of the nominations were a big surprise, especially in the Best Picture catagory. While films like The Artist and The Descendants were a shoe-in, especially after their performance in the Golden Globes, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and The Help were also recognized. Also curiously, there were only nine pictures nominated as opposed to ten, which we’ve seen the past two years.

Best Director is chock full of veteran Oscar nominees. Woody Allen, Terrance Malick, Alexander Payne, and Martin Scorsese have earned almost 40 nominations all together. Michel Hazanivicus, however, is up for his first nomination.

Most notably absent from several catagories was Drive, for Best Picture, Best Actor for Ryan Gosling’s spectacular performance and Best Supporting Actor for Albert Brooks. It dig snag a nomination for Sound Editing, but I would have liked to see it recognized a bit more.

The Oscar buzz continues until the Academy Awards ceremony airs on Sunday February 26th. You can see the full listing of nominees after the jump, and let us know what you think of the nominations!

The worlds of rock and roll and film composing have been intertwining for a few decades now. Most people know the history of Danny Elfman who transitioned from Oingo Boingo front man to film music legend, and of course the recent notoriety of Daft Punk and Trent Reznor, have ushered in a whole new generation of film music fans.

Most people, however, don’t know of composer Cliff Martinez’s history in rock and roll. The Drive composer spent the better part of the ’80s as a drummer for several bands, and when conflicts rose during the early years of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers he stepped in. Cliff Martinez was the drummer for the band during their first two albums and associated tours, and now as the Red Hot Chili Peppers are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame so too is Martinez.

While he didn’t stay with the band long, original drummer Jack Irons was free of other commitments and returned after the second album, he was a part of the history of the band. Shortly after his stint with the Chili Peppers Martinez got his start in composing with a job writing music for an episode of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse.

If you are a general movie fan (let’s be honest: if you’re here, you probably are) then you are probably aware how casting works for most films. Directors and producers seeks out the stars, or soon-to-be stars, that they really like for the roles and either build a film around them or make them work into their project.

But what if time and space folded in on itself, causing films like Inception and Drive to get made in the film era of Bela Lugosi and James Dean? Or if John Wayne actually got the part to play Superman instead of George Reeves?

These are questions that digital artist Peter Stults thought would be cool to explore, as he takes popular films and drops them into different eras and genres, with the farthest possible actors taking on the iconic roles.

After the jump, you can take a look at the whole slew of them, which include Sean Connery in The Fifth Element, Fritz Lang’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, and our personal favorite: Leonard Nimoy in Die Hard.

As is the usual practice almost anywhere were column inches or post counts matter, writers such as myself take to their keyboards and make lists. I am no exception and, with a great deal of difficulty and toil, have managed to cobble together a list of what I think are some of the best things of 2011.

I don’t really want to bore you with a lot of explanations as to why I picked what I did. Suffice it to say these picks are mine and mine alone. Also, they are not in any particular order, mostly because I find it hard to rank them that closely. Or, I was just too lazy.

Either way, here you go.

Movies

Drive
The Artist
Attack the Block
X-Men: First Class
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
The Descendants
Thunder Soul
13 Assassins
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2
Hugo

The nominations for the 2012 Film Independent Spirit Awards are out. These awards highlight the best in independent cinema and have often helped Academy Awards voters who don’t see indie films realie there’e more to life than what they get at the local multi-plex. Not that Academy Awards voters actually ever go to a multi-plex either.

Looking over the list we can guess what you’re thinking: where’s Michael Fassbender’s nomination for Shame? We don’t know either. We are, however, very happy to see Ryan Gosling, Nicolas Winding Refn and Albert Brooks get nods for their work on Drive. Great movie and great performances.

Here’s all the nominees:

BEST FEATURE
50/50 Producers: Evan Goldberg, Ben Karlin, Seth Rogen
Beginners Producers: Miranda de Pencier, Lars Knudsen, Leslie Urdang, Dean Vanech, Jay Van Hoy
Drive Producers: Michel Litvak, John Palermo, Marc Platt, Gigi Pritzker, Adam Siegel
Take Shelter Producers: Tyler Davidson, Sophia Lin
The Artist Producer: Thomas Langmann
The Descendants Producers: Jim Burke, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor

BEST DIRECTOR
Michel Hazanavicius The Artist
Mike Mills Beginners
Jeff Nichols Take Shelter
Alexander Payne The Descendants
Nicolas Winding Refn Drive

Welcome to another edition of On the Radar where we delve into all corners of the entertainment, tech and geek Internets for news, views and whatnot that may have escaped our regular coverage during the week. Let is know if we missed something interesting.

• Want to geek up your next romantic evening? Make it so with the Lightsaber Candlesticks.

• It’s the 90s all over again as Beavis & Butthead make it back to the airwaves. here’s another trailer to get you ready.

• Speaking of retro, here are some of your favorite current games done like the were old NES games. A God of War side-scroller would actually be pretty awesome…

• Paying respects to the man himself, here’s a collection of Apple products depicting the late, great Steve Jobs.

• Love everything about the film Drive? Then you’re going to have to get one of the scorpion jackets from the film. Just drive safely.

• AMC’s Walking Dead makes its triumphant return to TV in just a few weeks, so why not check in with the world of zombies with their original webisodes.

Director Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive is a film I enjoyed very much. It’s stylish, almost absurdly violent and immensely entertaining.

It’s what movies should be. Well, it’s what drama/action movies should be at the very least, Don’t get me wrong, it’s also got a brain.

But what makes this movie so cool are the visuals and the anti-hero played by Gosling. He’s a man of few words who lets his actions speak for him.

In the film Gosling plays “Driver,” a Hollywood stunt performer who moonlights as a wheelman that will take any job and not ask questions. All is well until that fateful day he discovers a contract has been put on him after a heist goes wrong. And oh boy does it go wrong.

Because I enjoyed it so much I want to do whatever I can to help get the word out. Like we’ve already done. Now, We’ve got even more from the film to share with you.

This time around it’s a bunch of videos including some behind-the-scenes stuff as well as a few scenes from the film itself. You can check them out after the break.

In addition to Gosling, Drive stars Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks, Ron Perlman, Oscar Isaac, and Albert Brooks. It hits theaters this Friday. See it.

Drive is an interesting film. I have not seen it yet, but I can tell that by its trailers, promotional one-sheets and now its score. The music strikes a very interesting tone that fits in with the minimalistic, and down right retro style we have seen from the movie thus far.

The film features a score by Cliff Martinez, an early Steven Soderbergh collaborator who has since developed an interesting filmography. The Martinez portion of this score is pretty solid across the board. I enjoy the retro, almost electronic sound the score boasts.

It is almost like a minimalist version of the Tron: Legacy score, My only reservation of his music is that it is pretty one note. I don’t know that I could pick one track from another if I wasn’t looking at a track list.

The other major portion of this soundtrack is a selection of tracks by several different artists. This portion of the sound track was very enjoyable during the first couple tracks, but became mildly repetitive as it moved along. Really shining a light on the real problem on this who soundtrack, repetitiveness. I love the general sonic landscape this score is selling, but as an album I don’t know if it stands well on it’s own.

Let me just say, for the record, I enjoyed director Nicolas Winding Refn’s film Drive immensely. I’m going to do a full review of the film down the road, but for now, let’s just say the movie had an influence on me that few movies have of late.

Because I enjoyed it so much I want to do whatever I can to help get the word out. So, to that end, we’ve got some new stuff from the movie to share with you today.

In case you’re not familiar with Drive, it stars Ryan Gosling as “Driver,” a Hollywood stunt performer who moonlights as a wheelman that will take any job and not ask questions. However, as is often the case (especially in the movies), he discovers that a contract has been put on him after a heist goes wrong.

And seriously, it goes really wrong. They are not kidding.

Drive features a great cast who, to a man or woman, do a superb job. It includes Ryan Gossling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks, Ron Perlman, Oscar Isaac, and Albert Brooks.

Check out the video and some stills after the break. Drive hits theaters September 16, 2011.