Even though we don’t really care all that much who or what wins an Academy Award, the rest of Hollywood does. It’s also likley many of you care as well.

So, in that spirit, here’s a list of the nominations that were announced this morning. There’s a lot of them and, to put it bluntly, not that many surprises. The movies and performances that seem “Oscar-worthy” were nominated. It was kinda a no-brainier year.

Of course, there’s also a few regulars who made the cut, like Meryl Streep, you would expect to see on the list. One notable exception is Tom Hanks, who seemed to be a shoe-in for a nomination for his role as Captain Phillips. He got nothing.

I guess every Oscar nominations list needs at least one surprise, just to try and keep it interesting and prove the Oscar voters don’t just vote for whomever or whatever wins a Golden Globe. Of course, Hanks didn’t win the Golden Globe either, but I’m sure it was just a pleasure to be nominated.

Anyway, here’s the nominations list (stolen from the folks at Deadline):

This first trailer for The Wolf of Wall Street actually came out last night, but that’s okay. We still feel it’s important enough to bring to you.

That mostly because its Martin Scorsese teaming up with Leonardo DiCaprio again. They seem to do pretty well together before. Check out The Departed if you don’t believe us.

In this one, a biographical crime pic based on the memoir by Jordan Belfort, DiCaprio plays the hard partying “boiler room” stockbroker who scammed $200M from investors and was indicted for securities fraud in 1998.

Also in the film are Matthew McConaughey, Jonah Hill, Jean Dujardin, Rob Reiner, Kyle Chandler, Margot Robbie and Jon Bernthal. Look for this one to hit theaters on November 15.

Check out the first trailer after the break.

I’ve had, for some time, the suspicion that the current comedy troop of Rogen, Hill, Cera, and Franco would eventually get to the point where, instead of a script, they would just sit around and talk. Now we have This Is the End, and if this isn’t the logical conclusion of the gang’s comedy, it’s damn close.

The premise is that Jay Baruchel is in LA to visit his friend Seth Rogen. Their friendship has been on the skids, and Rogen’s insistence that they attend a party at James Franco’s house instead of, I don’t know, hang out and smoke weed. doesn’t help. At Franco’s they meet up with Craig Robinson, Jonah Hill, and several others within or slightly out of their group’s ever-expanding radius, such as Aziz Ansari, Mindy Kaling, Martin Starr, Chritopher Mintz-Plasse, and now, I guess, Emma Watson.

Freak disruptions start to occur all over the place — sinkholes swallow up many of the party-goers, others are lifted to heaven in columns of blue light, fires explode across Hollywood, and the five find themselves barricaded in Franco’s house — until Danny McBride shows up and makes their sixth.

April Fools Day is usually a day that brings tons of fake news, including trailer releases (like that Legend of Zelda trailer that will never be made into a movie *sadface*). But this year, April 1st was the release date of the red band trailer for the unbelievably star-packed action comedy This Is The End starring James Franco (who has had an already packed 2013 with the release of Spring Breakers and Oz The Great and Powerful), Seth Rogen, Emma Watson, Jonah Hill, Danny McBride, Jay Baruchel, Craig Robinson, and that’s just the supposed “main cast.” From just watching the trailer, expect appearances by Michael Cera, Rihanna, Kevin Hart, Aziz Ansari, Jason Segel, Paul Rudd, Mindy Kaling, and more. Holy freaking casting!

The main plot of the movie is simple: James Franco is throwing a kick-ass party and invites all his friends (because celebrities always party with tons of other celebrities) to have a crazy good time. Until the apocalypse happens. Los Angeles is engulfed in fire and brimstone, monsters and aliens are running rampant, people are looting and killing, mass hysteria basically.

Eventually, the main cast barricade themselves in what’s left of Franco’s house and try to survive. At one point, Emma Watson breaks in with an ax (a freaking AX) to try her hand at some looting, which looks to be successful based on the apparent self-testimonial video that is shot by the guys who are documenting what’s going on during the end of days.

I’d almost forgotten that the last time Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn teamed up was in 2004’s Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, and if you asked me why I like that movie so much and am pretty indifferent on The Watch, I’d be hard-pressed to explain why. Both have very simple premises, feature largely improv performers, and The Watch has the added benefit of Jonah Hill — playing a younger, more broad version of Walter Sobchek.

Then again, Dodgeball had cleverer jokes, Vaughn in the lead (instead of Stiller), and Rip Torn, who trumps pretty much everything in the universe. It also seemed to be having a lot more fun. The Watch, on the other hand, is kind of like the unpopular kid at the playground that’s consigned itself to the tilt-a-whirl: functioning on autopilot and trying to find bits of entertainment when they come. Even the trailer has no qualms revealing the twist of aliens coming to earth, and since there’s not much else after that, for the first half hour or so, we follow Stiller around waiting for the movie to get going.

Like any good Tarantino script, a very large number of quality actors wanted to be apart of it. This leads to lots of people expressing public interest in taking roles only to have to bow out  when schedules do not align. As was the case early on in production when Jonah Hill reportedly was cast in the film.

Well things have finally come full circle as Deadline reports that Hill has indeed joined the cast after all:

The Weinstein Company has set Jonah Hill to play a role in Django Unchained, which is in production. I’m trying to find out who he’ll be playing, but am told it won’t be Scotty Harmony, the kid who loses Django’s slave wife Broomhilda to Calvin Candie… Hill was eyed for the role early on, but had to turn it down because his schedule was so busy. He’s back in another role.

Good for Hill and good for the movie to add another seasoned actor in what might be a bot part. Often times you hear people knock a film for ‘wasting’ a skilled actor in a smaller role. I actually take the opposing stance, the better the actor you can get for any role only enhances the movie.

Django Unchained hits cinemas on Christmas Day.

While Marvel may be raking it in and giving every other alien invasion movie a run for their money, Fox is definitely turning the genre on his head by way of Jonah Hill, Ben Stiller, & Vince Vaughn in the upcoming comedy The Watch.

Originally titled Neighborhood Watch, now shortened to The Watch, the film accentuates the one thing that most other alien invasion films are missing: dick jokes. Here’s the premise, for those who need that sort of thing.

A group of friends (Stiller, Vaughn, Hill, and Ayoade) form a neighborhood watch group for their suburb to allow them time to bond and escape from their families. However, when the group discovers a plot that threatens the entire world, they are forced to confront it head on.

Take a look at the trailer after the jump, and catch The Watch in theaters on July 27th.

There is some good, some awesome, some sad and some well excepted news in this weeks box office results.

Coming in at number one for the weekend, 21 Jump Street makes a splash with $35 million, and it’s very good news. To see a successful TV adaptation that proves you can be R-rated, have a completely unexpected tone and still work is a wonderful trend starter for the industry.

Hollywood is a copy cat industry and if remakes and reboots have to happen, the only way you can maintain some artistic credibly is to bring something fresh to the table. Hopefully this success can grease the wheels with other creative folks and deliver something unexpected with these name brands. It will be interesting to see how the zany Dark Shadows is received in the wake of this win.

The well expected news comes in the form of our second place finisher, The Lorax. This Suess adaptation is performing well above initial expectations and is proving to have strong legs as it fell another soft 40ish percent to nearly $23 million. The Lorax will take a hit next week, but is well on it’s way to crossing the $200 million bar.

Moneyball was a great film and it was very interesting to watch Jonah Hill stand toe to toe with Brad Pitt and deliver Aaron Sorkin dramatic dialogue like a pro. So the news that he has signed on to a new dramatic feature is exciting.

Deadline is reporting that Jonah Hill will be joining forces with James Franco, himself another actor fully capable in drama or comedy, for the upcoming film True Story. A film about a New York Times journalist who’s identity had been stolen by a wanted murder while on the run from authorities.

Like Moneyball, this is another opportunity for Hill to veer from his comic persona. He will play Finkel, who was a writer at The New York Times Magazine in 2002 when he learned that Christian Longo was captured in Mexico after a long stint on the FBI Ten Most Wanted List for killing his family. The strange part was that he had been living under the identity of Finkel.

The very next day, the real Finkel was fired by the editors of The Times, right after they ran an editor’s note declaring that he had falsified parts of an investigative article. His career seemed over, until Longo (who’ll be played by Franco) declared that the real Finkel was the only journalist he would talk to. 

Sounds very interesting, hopefully we are just getting to meet a whole new side to Jonah Hill.

There’s a breezy charm to Jonah Hill. His nervousness is not on the level of Michael Cera, nor is he as biting a social observer as Seth Rogen. He just eases into the world, fires off some quips, and seems perfectly happy to stay where he is—good enough is good enough, and that’s just fine. Though that’s the roles he plays, I can’t speak much for the guy himself.

Nevertheless, The Sitter recognizes that and enjoys putting him in every situation possible to make him squirm. Jonah plays Noah (both biblical names, and both would be appropriate to describe the character), a 20-something jobless slacker with priors living at home with his single mother. If that weren’t enough, his something of a girlfriend Marisa (Ari Gaynor) refuses to, uh, toss him a lifejacket when he goes swimming below the equator (that’s so vague I’m not sure I even get it). And he’s dad’s a crook who ran away with Noah’s sitter, fathered another child, and runs a successful diamond business while neglecting to pay alimony. Damn.

Through a series of events (what the hell—his mom has a double date, the other couple’s sitter cancels, and Noah’s guilted into filling the role), Noah ends up as sitting for some friends three children, whose personalities range from closeted homosexual (not really a spoiler, since it’s announced in the kid’s first scene), trash-diva-in-training, and Danny Trejo’s illegitimate child—Slater (Where the Wild Things Are‘s Max Records), Blithe (Landry Bender), and the adopted Rodrigo (Kevin Hernandez), respectively.