The Screening Room

Stuck in the office today? Counting down the minutes until tonight's big party? When you get bored obsessing about tonight's outfit, flip through this collection of "The End" title cards over at Flickr. See if you can match the card to its movie. Or if you want to be a big cheater, click on "Show info" at the top right of the screen to see the answer.

(Via today's Very Short List)

From the Associated Press:

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- An attorney for 20th Century Fox says the studio will continue to seek an order delaying the release of Watchmen.

U.S. District Court Judge Gary Feess last week agreed with Fox that Warner Bros. had infringed its copyright by developing and shooting the superhero flick, scheduled for release March 6.

Feess said Monday he plans to hold a trial Jan. 20 to decide remaining issues.

Fox claims it never fully relinquished story rights from its deal made in the late 1980s, and sued Warner Bros. in February. Warner Bros. contended Fox isn't entitled to distribution.

Warner Bros.' attorney said Monday he didn't know if an appeal was coming, but thinks a trial is necessary and a settlement unlikely.

I guess teen Twilight heartthrob Robert Pattinson finally heard our lamenting over his hair hygiene. The good bloggers over at People.com's Style Watch Off the Rack blog shared this photo of his new 'do.

What do you think: Is it better or worse?

Even in this tough economy, it looks like moviegoers found the time and the coin to head out to the theaters this holiday weekend:

Audiences wanted to see pretty much everything over the holiday weekend. Revenues had plunged the previous two weekends, but Hollywood ended the year on a high note as the top 12 movies took in $182.5 million, up 8 percent from the same weekend in 2007.

(Read the rest of the story here.)

There were a lot of big hitters this weekend: The family-friendly Marley and Me; a fanboy's dream with The Spirit; the romantic and fantastical The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Did you go? What did you see? What did you think? C'mon, you know you want to talk about it.

• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (B+)
• Marley and Me (B+)
• Bedtime Stories (D+)
• The Reader (A)
• Valkyrie (B-)
• Gran Torino (B-)
• The Spirit (C-)

OK, so I'm watching the David Letterman show on Monday night, when the guest is Dustin Hoffman, who's appearing in the new movie Last Chance Harvey. He tells a great story about the time he played a woman for the movie Tootsie (best comedy ever), for which he won the Oscar as Best Actor. He was dressed up in drag and found himself on an elevator near the Russian Tea Room in New York City. Legendary actor Jose Ferrer happened to be on the same elevator. Mr. Hoffman, who decided to remain in character, started a conversation with Mr. Ferrer, leading up to an obscene remark, which was of course bleeped from the Letterman show. But before then, he, or rather she, kept telling Mr. Ferrer how she had learned to act while doing shows in Dallas. Don't you love these local connections?

Photo: Dustin Hoffman

In my business, we're always looking for the local connection. So, it was quite a kick to come across it twice in recent days (see entry above as well). I got a chance to see the fabulous new movie The Wrestler, in which Mickey Rourke plays a broken-down professional wrestler. For my money, Mr. Rourke deserves to win an Oscar for Best Actor. It's an incredible performance. At one point, the wrestler is working in a butcher shop, which bores him to tears. A guy comes in to buy some meat. The wrestler pretends he's a quarterback and asks the customer to go out for a pass. He hurls the wrapped-up meat, which makes a perfect landing in the guy's shopping cart. "How 'bout them Cowboys!" the wrestler shouts. See, I told you there was a local connection.

Photo: Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler

• The Tale of Despereaux (B)
• Seven Pounds (C)
• Yes Man (B)
• A Secret (A-)

From The Associated Press:

NEW YORK (AP) -- How snotty: Scarlett Johansson blew her nose on a tissue, and now the tissue is being sold on eBay.

Johansson appeared on NBC's "Tonight" show Wednesday to promote her new movie, "The Spirit." The actress said she'd caught a cold from co-star Samuel L. Jackson, and felt her illness had value because it had been passed down from one celebrity to another.

Host Jay Leno then handed her a tissue, and Johansson announced she would sell it on eBay to raise money for the hunger relief charity USA Harvest. She blew twice, depositing some lipstick and mucus.

As of Thursday morning, the dirty tissue had snagged more than 60 bids, with the highest bidder putting up $2,050. The online auction ends Monday.

Wanna bid?

Planning is already under way for the next Batman film -- with Eddie Murphy as the Riddler. Which leaves the question of whether Murphy, who has been more miss than hit for quite some time, can reinvent himself with this role.

Certainly Heath Ledger proved that a remarkable actor can plumb unexpected depths in what had been traditionally been the cartoon villain. Meantime, here's hoping that Ledger gets his much deserved Oscar for his Batman turn. Still can't get over the loss of so much talent when he just kept getting better and better.

When I hadn't heard anything about this film until a few days before it opened, I figured it would flop. But this? This is a little impressive:

From the Chicago Tribune:

A philosophical question: If a film bombs at the box office, but almost no one is there to see it, is it still a bomb?
The answer is "yes" if that movie is Delgo, a stiffly animated fantasy in the storytelling tradition of Lord of the Rings. The film secured a special place in cinema history this week as the least-attended film ever to open on more than 2,000 screens.
Only two people -- including this reporter -- attended the 1:50 p.m. showing of Delgo on Tuesday at AMC Loews 600 North Michigan 9 in Chicago. The other patron snored through half the film, obscuring the vocal talents of Freddie Prinze Jr., Jennifer Love Hewitt, Chris Kattan and the late Anne Bancroft.
The film took in $511,920 in 2,160 theaters in its opening weekend, according to Media by Numbers. That translated to an average of two patrons per showing, according to Yahoo! movie writer Jonathan Crow.
Thus, Delgo entered the Hollywood lexicon as shorthand for "animated stinker," joining the ranks of Ishtar and Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space as movie punch lines.
The flop heard 'round the multiplex can partly be blamed on limited advertising, B-list actors and characters reminiscent of the original Sea-Monkeys advertisements. Stilted animation doesn't help.
"It just completely got lost in the holiday shuffle," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers.

First a new director, now a new release date. Will the same weekend in November be the charm again for the Twilight sequel, New Moon? The movie, which has not yet started filming, is already set to premiere Nov. 20.

Let's just hope director Chris Weitz is up to speed -- and yes, we mean that literally. Maybe a little vampire bite would help him the way it did the vampires in their Twilight baseball game -- still one of my fave scenes from the first flick.

Well, the die has been cast, undead fans. Variety reports that Chris Weitz, the director of About a Boy and The Golden Compass, has been tapped to direct the Twilight sequels in lieu of the the ignominiously dumped Catherine Hardwicke.

Word has it that he has the support of author Stephenie Meyer, too.

So what say you, Twilight fans? Does he have your confidence?

(Click below to read the story from Hollywood Reporter.)

Rotten Tomatoes has the trailer for X-Men Origins: Wolverine. All I can say is: Is it May 1 yet?

From The Associated Press:

NEW YORK -- It's another boy for Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber.

A representative for Watts tells People magazine the couple welcomed their second son on Saturday.

The Australian actress and her actor boyfriend are also parents to Alexander Pete Schreiber, born in July 2007.

They have been dating three years and co-starred in the 2006 drama The Painted Veil.

Representatives for Watts and Schreiber did not immediately return phone and e-mail messages seeking further details.

From the Associated Press:

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Batman epic "The Dark Knight," the political biopic "Milk" and the gritty drama "The Wrestler" were among critical favorites that landed on the American Film Institute's list of the year's 10 best movies.

Also on AFI's list, released Sunday, were the animated "Wall-E," Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino," the superhero blockbuster "Iron Man," the indie dramas "Frozen River" and "Wendy and Lucy," the adapted play "Frost/Nixon," and the Brad Pitt epic "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."

Unlike other film honors, the institute does not rank films or pick one as the year's best. The filmmakers behind the top 10 choices will be honored at a luncheon Jan. 9.

Many of the films on the list picked up Golden Globe nominations last week and are expected to compete for Academy Awards. Oscar nominations are to be announced Jan. 22.

Among Globe best-drama nominees were "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," David Fincher's drama about a man who ages backward, starring Pitt and Cate Blanchett; and Ron Howard's "Frost/Nixon," based on the Peter Morgan play about the famous TV interview of Richard Nixon by David Frost, starring Frank Langella and Michael Sheen.

The AFI also released a top 10 list of TV shows for 2008, featuring "Breaking Bad," "In Treatment," "John Adams," "Life," "Lost," "Mad Men," "The Office," "Recount," "The Shield" and "The Wire."

The top 10 lists were chosen by two 13-member panels, one each for movies and television. Members included writer Mark Harris, filmmaker Robert Towne, and critics Leonard Maltin, Elvis Mitchell and Richard Schickel.

For those of us who graduated from Southern Methodist University, and maybe even for those who didn't, it was cool to see the strong presence of SMU alumni in the new movie Revolutionary Road. Oscar winner Kathy Bates (class of 1969) plays a real estate agent and one of the finest character actors alive, Dylan Baker (class of 1981), plays one of Leonardo DiCaprio's frustrated business colleagues. Ms. Bates also appears in the current remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still. Mr. Baker was one of many drama students at SMU whose mentors included Margaret "Peggy" Loft, the mother of award-winning playwright Amy Freed (class of 1979). Ms. Freed wrote The Beard of Avon and a bunch of other wonderful plays, including Freedomland, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1998. Revolutionary Road opens in Dallas on Friday, Jan. 2.

Photo: Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in Revolutionary Road

For those who would like to watch a trailer of Revolutionary Road, click here:

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Luke Skywalker's light saber has been on Star Wars fans' Christmas lists for more than 30 years.

On Thursday, one fan spent $240,000 to get the real thing: the prop that Mark Hamill used in the first two movies in the original "Star Wars" trilogy.

The light saber highlighted several Hollywood memorabilia sold at an auction in Los Angeles by Profiles in History. The auction house said it sold about $3.5 million in memorabilia.

The droid helmet worn by Anthony Daniels to play C-3PO sold for $120,000, and the costume Marlon Brando wore in the "Superman" movie went for $72,000.

The first British edition of "You Only Live Twice" inscribed by Ian Fleming sold for $84,000. Roald Dahl's handwritten screenplay for the film of the same title sold for $96,000.

• Doubt (B+)
• The Day the Earth Stood Still (D)
• Frost/Nixon (B)
• Nothing Like the Holidays (C-)
• How About You (C+)
• Dark Streets (D+)
• Delgo (D)

Once a year, Americans pay close attention to what a small group of foreigners have to say. That time is upon us again with the announcement of the Golden Globe nominations. Treated as the Thanksgiving before the Oscars Christmas, the Golden Globe nominations are treated as the opening bell of the Awards season and have acquired a reputation for being a harbinger of what the Academy Awards may bring. Let's take a look and see what their sooth-saying says about the coming trophy season.

PICTURE, DRAMA: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, The Reader, Revolutionary Road, Slumdog Millionaire.

PICTURE, MUSICAL OR COMEDY: Burn After Reading, Happy-Go-Lucky, In Bruges, Mamma Mia!, Vicky Christina Barcelona.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE PICTURE: Baader Meinhof Complex, Everlasting Moments, Gomorrah, I've Loved You So Long, Waltz With Bashir.

DIRECTOR: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire; Stephen Daldry, The Reader; David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon; Sam Mendes, Revolutionary Road.

DRAMATIC ACTOR: Leonardo DiCaprio, Revolutionary Road; Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon; Sean Penn, Milk; Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler.

DRAMATIC ACTRESS: Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married; Angelina Jolie, Changeling; Meryl Streep, Doubt; Kristin Scott Thomas, I've Loved You So Long; Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road.

ACTOR, COMEDY OR MUSICAL: Javier Bardem, Vicky Cristina Barcelona; Colin Farrell, In Bruges; James Franco, Pineapple Express; Brendan Gleeson, In Bruges; Dustin Hoffman, Last Chance Harvey.

ACTRESS, COMEDY OR MUSICAL: Rebecca Hall, Vicky Cristina Barcelona; Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky; Frances McDormand, Burn After Reading; Meryl Streep, Mamma Mia!; Emma Thompson, Last Chance Harvey.

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Tom Cruise, Tropic Thunder; Robert Downey, Jr., Tropic Thunder; Ralph Fiennes, The Duchess; Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt; Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Amy Adams, Doubt; Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona; Viola Davis, Doubt; Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler; Kate Winslet, The Reader.

ANIMATED FILM: Bolt, Kung Fu Panda, Wall-E.

SCREENPLAY: Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire; David Hare, The Reader; Peter Morgan, Frost/Nixon; Eric Roth, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; John Patrick Shanley, Doubt.

ORIGINAL SCORE: Alexandre Desplat, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Clint Eastwood, Changeling; James Newton Howard, Defiance; Hans Zimmer, Frost/Nixon; A.R. Rahman, Slumdog Millionaire.

SONG: Down to Earth (performed by Peter Gabriel, written by Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman), Wall-E; Gran Torino (performed by Clint Eastwood), Gran Torino; I Thought I Lost You (performed Miley Cyrus and John Travolta, written by Miley Cyrus and Jeffrey Steele), Bolt; Once in a Lifetime (performed by Beyonce), Cadillac Records; The Wrestler (performed by Bruce Springsteen, written by Bruce Springsteen), The Wrestler.

Nominees for television

From The Associated Press:

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Police cleared a woman arrested in the shooting death of actor Mark Ruffalo's younger brother after being shown evidence that the wound was self-inflicted, the result of playing with a gun, her attorney said Wednesday. Police records confirmed that Shaha Mishaal Adham, 26, left the Beverly Hills jail, where she'd been held without bail since surrendering Monday afternoon on an attempted-murder arrest warrant.

Attorney Ronald Richards said he presented evidence to detectives during a five-hour meeting Tuesday night that proved Ms. Adham did not shoot Scott Ruffalo. He said Mr. Ruffalo's gunshot wound to the head on Dec. 1 was self-inflicted - that Ms. Adham was essentially a witness to a game of Russian roulette. Another person who had been wanted for questioning, Brian B. Scofield, was released after turning himself in for questioning Monday.

They'll never do it, but the Golden Globe skit I'd most like to see is Meryl Streep in her nun habit from Doubt forgetting in the midst of a quietly intense tirade with Philip Seymour Hoffman what movie she's in and breaking into a song from Mamma Mia!, preferably "Mamma Mia, here I go again..."

I mean, if you're trying to save time in the telecast, wouldn't that be a fun way to combine mention of her nominations for Doubt and Mamma Mia!?

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Screen Actors Guild says it will send strike authorization ballots to its 120,000 members on Jan. 2.

The votes will be counted on Jan. 23, which will not be in time to potentially disrupt the Golden Globe Awards like the writers' strike did last year.

Approval by 75 percent of members is required to pass the measure. If approved, the SAG national board can call a strike.

Read more.

From the Associated Press:

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) -- The brother of actor Mark Ruffalo has died a week after he was shot in the head, police said Tuesday.

Scott Ruffalo, 39, died late Monday night at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills Police Sgt. Renato Moreno said.

A phone message left early Tuesday for a Mark Ruffalo publicist wasn't immediately returned.

Two people wanted for questioning about the shooting had surrendered themselves to police earlier Monday.

Shaha Mishaal Adham was suspected of shooting Scott Ruffalo, and authorities had issued an attempted murder arrest warrant for the 26-year-old. Brian Scofield was being held on a misdemeanor traffic warrant.

Jail records didn't indicate whether the pair have hired attorneys, but showed that a court date for Adham had been tentatively scheduled for Wednesday.

Scott Ruffalo, a hairstylist, was found with a gunshot wound to the head in Beverly Hills on Dec. 1. Police haven't discussed a motive.

Mark Ruffalo, 41, has appeared in the films "Zodiac," "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," "You Can Count on Me" and "Blindness."

I think this speaks for itself, yes? Well, I'll let SpookyDan have his intro:

Twilight the Puppet Saga The most highly anticipated vampire puppet film EVER!

You have read the books; you've seen the movie, now you can watch TWILIGHT THE PUPPET SAGA! Stephenie Meyers Twilight has now been Spook-ified! I hope you dig the latest in my series of Puppet adaptations. Feel free to embed and post it all over, leave comments and rate the film!

I guess I should warn that plot points from the film will be revealed. But people -- It's TWILIGHT. With PUPPETS. (Thank you, io9.)

You would think the Twilight folks would all be glad-handing and high-fiving each other after the movie's big debut. But no...according to Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood Daily blog, director Catherine Hardwicke has already been canned from the sequels. The next one is New Moon and evidently the studio is considering making it back to back with Eclipse to cut costs.

Nikki speculates that this could be bad for Summit (by upsetting the show's female fans?) if they choose a male director instead -- what do you think? I was not enamored with the direction, but you would think that a $160 million on a low budget flick would generate a little more love or, at least, a gentler letdown.

Story.

• Cadillac Records (C+)
• Punisher: War Zone (D)
• Nobel Son (C-)
• Repo! The Genetic Opera (D)

From the Associated Press:

The National Board of Review has picked Slumdog Millionaire as the year's best film.

The board's picks, announced Thursday, are considered the first major harbinger of the Academy Awards. The win boosts the awards hopes for Slumdog, which is viewed as the independent film most likely to follow Juno and Little Miss Sunshine in Oscar contention.

Read more.

So what do you think: Have you seen Slumdog Millionaire? Does it earn the designation? What you you have picked?

Dear Santas, holiday shoppers and movie/TV/DVD lovers,

DeepDiscount.com is offering a buy one, get one free deal. It appears to be only Fox and MGM titles, but the prices are discounted and shipping and handling is FREE.

And heaven knows we like free stuff.

Steven Soderbergh calls it 'Viva Las Vegas Meets Tommy.'

Read the story on MTV.com's movies blog.

First, I am a sports fan. I get tense and teary watching Miracle, The Replacements, even Racing Stripes. If you've got a movie about sports, I'm in.

So msnbc.com's Top 5 movies for non-sports fans caught my eye. (Mainly because I question the existance of non-sports fans, but that's just me.)

Take a look at the list and weigh on your favs.

CLEVELAND (AP) -- Fans of the holiday classic "A Christmas Story" are celebrating the film's 25th anniversary with a convention and trips to the house where the movie was made.

The 1983 film, an adaptation of Jean Shepard's memoir of a boy in the 1940s, was set in Indiana but largely filmed in Ohio. The movie starred Peter Billingsley as Ralphie Parker, a young boy determined to get a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas.

The film was a modest theatrical success, but critics loved it. It eventually joined "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Miracle on 34th Street" as a Christmas cult classic.