The Oscar leads aren't terribly surprising this year with the Revanant leading with a whopping 12 nominations and Mad Max close behind with 10, some films managed to make an impact where it counted while others seemed to be left behind entirely. Despite the power of The Martian, director Ridley Scott somehow was over looked for a nomination. Carol was met with early rave reviews and while both Kate Mara and Cate Blanchett received nominations for best supporting and best actress, Carol was left out of the running for picture of the year as well as a director nomination for Todd Haynes. The delightfully sweet Peanuts movie missed out on animated feature and both Aaron Sorkin (who took home an award this past Sunday at the Golden Globes for best screen play for Steve Jobs) as well as controversial Hateful Eight director Quentin Tarantino both are missing from the best screen play categories. Creed saw another nomination for Sylvester Stallone while snubbing actor Michael B. Jordan and director Ryan Coogler. At the end of the list of shockers is Academy bait Joy by David O' Russel. While the film was met with mixed reviews, it was surprising to see the third film by O' Russel and one of this years best actress nominees, Jennifer Lawrence, only receive 1 nomination. Some surprises were the nomination for the summers blockbuster hit, Straight out of Compton, Star Wars: The Force Awakens received six nominations but was also left out of the running for movie of the year, Ex Machina is also nominated for best original screen play and Eddie Redmayne see's another nomination for The Danish Girl. Take a look at the entire list here and get ready for the madness to happen when the Academy Awards air live on February 28th, 2016.
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Legendary screen and theater actor, Alan Rickman, has passed away at the age of 69. The sudden loss of the beloved celebrity has apparently been reported due to cancer that he had concealed but has now been confirmed by the family. Rickman, best known as Professor Snap in the Harry Potter series has a filmography dating back to the late 70's with his last credited role as the voice of Absolem the caterpillar in 2016's Alice Through the Looking Glass. Thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends at this sad time.
The next Star Wars spin off film is moving forward and there's apparently a short of actors who might take on the role of an iconic Star Wars hero. According to Variety, a small handful from the 2500 actors who reportedly auditioned for the role have been selected including Fantastic 4 and Whiplash Star, Miles Teller, Divergent series Ansel Elgort, Dave Franco, Macbeth star Jack Reynor, Scott Eastwood, Logan Lerman, Emory Cohen and Blake Jenner. While the film is just a year from star date, it wouldn't be surprising if we here more names thrown into the mix and others removed before Disney makes their final decision. While it's hard to imagine anyone occupying one of Harrison Ford's most popular roles, Miles Teller or Logan Lerman (the latter of whom was apparently over looked for Marvel's new Spiderman) would be interesting in the role of the young bounty hunter. Disney could always go forward with a lesser known actor all together but until we know for sure, we'll just have to speculate with the names we have now.
The Goldne Globes have concluded and tonight came with more than a few surprise winners. Pictured above is Taraji P. Henson winning best actress in a Television series - Drama. Lady Gaga took home a globe for her role as the countess in FX's American Horror Story, While Christian Slater for I, Robot and Jon Hamm were early favorites. New comer CW series My Crazy Ex Girlfriend's Rachel Bloom as well as Gael Garcia Bernal from the new series Mozart in the Jungle were among some of the surprises this year. For the big screen, Matt Damon and The Martian picked up a few nods while The Revenant picked up best actor for a drama with Leonardo Dicaprio as well as best director for Alejandro Iñárritu, Sylvester Stallone won an award for Creed while Jennifer Lawrence picked up another award for the David O'Russel directed Joy. Sam Smith managed to win an award for his controversial bond song and even Kate Winslet and Aaron Sorkin won for the looked over Steve Job's biopic. Brie Larson managed to snag an award for The Room and while Carol was nominated in 5 categories it sadly lost out on all of them. While The Martian was a strong lead for sweeping the Academy Awards later this year, it looks like Revenant might give it a run for its money. Until then, we'll just have to wait and see! Did your favorite films win awards this years? For a full list of winners, you can take a look here.
The annuanl tech event known as CES has brought with it a lot of news but one of the most talked about stories to come from the event this week is the price around the Virtual Reality headset, Oculus Rift. While it's nothing new, the virtual reality headset has been announced at a retail price much higher than people expected with a $600 price tag. Some argue that the first generation headset cost too much and "more than an actual gaming console," while others believe this is a totally reasonable price for a VR headset. In reality, it's only a fraction of the price of some gaming consoles and cheaper than most smart phones at retail price. Whether this will push competitors to join the VR market or backfire and drive consumers away is to be seen but you can pre-order the Oculus Rift now with a ship date of March 28th, 2016. You can watch a small video on the Oculus Rift courtesy of CNN below. Bethesda's upcoming Doom, formerly Doom 4, may have had it's release date leaked earlier this week thanks to Amazon France. The game was listed on the retailing site for a planned release date of June 30th across all platforms. The game, shown at last years E3, hasn't given us too much information since but if this rumored release date is true, that would put the 4th entry in this big horror-action franchise right in the middle of the summer, which isn't necessarily a bad thing seeing as they're so many titles released later in the year pre-holiday season. This also makes sense since it was announced that the title would arrive within the first or second quarter of 2016. While it's nothing new for an online retailer to accidentally announce a games release date, Doom will arrive on Xbox One, Ps4 and PC sometime this year so until then, we'll just have to be on the look out.
Marvel's ready to get back to Hell Kitchen and Neflix has dropped the official teaser trailer for one of it's best series! Take a look at the Daredevil season 2 trailer and get ready for the series second season to debut March 18 2016! Earlier last year Nintendo announced plans to create a new console that would combine elements of a handheld device with a console and aside from their partnership with mobile gaming company, DeNA, we've yet to hear anything substantial until now. Junko Yamamura of Nomura Securities gave us a few details on when we might be hearing more about the new console. Apparently, Nintendo's plan is debut the device in the early half of 2016 with a projected shipment of at least 20 million units by the end of 2016. The rumored debut window would land the console right before holiday season in either October or November but, would certainly hurt the sales of the current 3DS and Wii U consoles our right now. In response to such, Nomura Secutiries lowered it's projected sales because "3DS sales have been weakening a little recently, particularly in terms of software, as the machine enters its sixth year, and to factor in a harsher competitive climate and what happened to other existing consoles when new machines were launched in the past." A concept for the console should be announced from Nintendo between March and May, prior to June's E3 press conference so be on the lookout for some big and exciting news from Nintendo as we look at their plans for 2016.
The british-american drama film, Carol, has been making waves since it received a reported standing ovation at it's Cannes Festival Premiere and has since only been applauded for a number of reasons. Carol, is a story about a love that happens too fast and too deeply but, in a time where this love is even more forbidden than today, trouble finds Cate Blanchett's Carol and her budding relationship with the young Rooney Mara who plays Therese Belivet. The problem with this movie is that while the film is named after Carol, she's really one of the least interesting characters. From Mara's inability to turn people down despite her obvious discomfort, Kyle Chandler who plays her borderline explosive ex-husband, or even her sometime brash childhood friend and former partner Abby played by American Horror Story's Sarah Paulson, are all a bit more interesting than the mysteriously poignant Carol. The hardest part of this film comes down to Therese "just go with it," attitude. In an attempt to run away from a life that's unfulfilled and the pressure to sail overseas and marry a man she has no real interest in, Carol represents a fantasized escape from her melodramatic day to day or less than stellar relationship and working retail. Through her "giving in," she experiences a new relationship with a woman for the first time, which sadly for them both cost Carol her young daughter as her husband, Harge, adopts a "if I can't have you, no one will, attitude," through an ugly divorce. The movie is aesthetically pleasing and Blanchett disappears completely into her character with such grace that you can't deny her ability as an actress but this film moves from one pretty but not very believable moment to another thus ultimately walking you by the hand to a cliff you'd want to jump off but it's not quite high enough from the ground to make the fall exciting. Either way, the film will most certainly see some Academy nods come this February but if you're looking for a rainy day film with not a lot of substance than this might be the one for you.
The most recent Bond film villain wants in on more James Bond but, there's a catch. According The Mirror, Academy Award winner Christoph Waltz is willing to return to the Bond franchise for two more films under the stipulation that he plays against current bond, Daniel Craig, which may or may not be a possibility given Cragi's outspoken remarks about the character and his disdain to reprise the role. While Craig was originally signed to a rumored 7 motion picture contract, hopefully the success of Spectre and Waltz's offer to return will get the current Bond back on the big screen for two more spectacular films. Until then, we'll just have to keep an eye on the franchise and see whether Craig and Waltz will meet again, will we have a new villain or a brand new Bond altogether.
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