Jonah Hill & James Franco Set for True Story

It appears Moneyball wasn't a fluke. Jonah Hill is serious about changing the course of his career. Good on him. "TOLDJA" reports in lieu of his Oscar nomination and new lease of life, sticking with the weight loss (Friend of mine told me he ate nothing but vegetables during the 21 Jump Street shoot and refused to eat meat!) he's attached to True Story with fellow Judd Apatow-alum James Franco, based on the book True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa.

Here's the official synopsis of the originating book courtesy of Coming Soon:

"On February 2002, New York Times Magazine writer Michael Finkel received a startling piece of news: a young man named Christian Longo, wanted for killing his entire family, had been captured in Mexico, where he'd taken on a new identity: Michael Finkel of the New York Times.

The next day, on page A-3 of the Times, came another troubling item: a note from the editors explaining that Finkel, having falsified parts of an investigative article, had been fired. Nonetheless, the only journalist Longo would speak with was the real Michael Finkel, and so Finkel placed a call to Oregon's Lincoln County jail, intent on getting the true story. So began a bizarre and intense relationship—a reporting job that morphed into a shrewd game of cat-and-mouse. Part mystery, part memoir, part mea culpa, True Story weaves a spellbinding tale of murder, love, and deceit with a deeply personal inquiry into the slippery nature of truth."

Hill will play the actual Michael Finkel and Franco as Logo for director Rupert Goold and producer Brad Pitt via his Plan B production company.

Oscars 2012 or How The Artist Surprisingly Didn't Win Everything

A night full of expected wins, expected shtick from host Billy Crystal and what might go down as one of the great upset victories in the form of Meryl Streep besting Viola Davis in the "Best Actress" race. Streep was destined for a third Oscar that we can all agree. But who saw this coming? Rise of the Apes losing "Best Visual Effects" to Martin Scorsese's Hugo and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo taking "Best Film Editing" were the other surprises win of the night.

About the only other thing noticeable about last night's ceremony was the lack of a real sweep for The Artist, which in fact tied the night in wins against the afore-mentioned Hugo. Both period-piece homages to the silent film era claimed five wins with the former claiming the top prizes.

An evening as boring as we all anticipated; so much so I turned over to The Walking Dead after the half-hour mark. I figured more Rick-Shane-Lori baby-daddy drama and flesh-eating zombies were worth my time more. Dare I beg someone to differ?

Here's the full list of winners:

• Best Picture: The Artist
• Best Director:  Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist
• Best Actor: Jean Dujardin – The Artist
• Best Actress: Meryl Streep – The Iron Lady
• Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer – Beginnings
• Best Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer – The Help
• Best Animated Film: Rango
• Best Foreign Language Film: A Separation
• Best Adapted Screenplay: The Descendants
• Best Original Screenplay: Midnight in Paris
• Best Film Editing: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
• Best Cinematography: Hugo
• Best Art Direction: Hugo
• Best Costume Design: The Artist
• Best Score: The Artist
• Best Original Song: "Man or Muppet" – The Muppets
• Best Makeup: The Iron Lady
• Best Documentary – Feature: Undefeated
• Best Documentary – Short: Saving Face
• Best Short Film – Animated: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
• Best Short Film – Live Action: The Shore
• Best Sound Editing: Hugo
• Best Sound Mixing: Hugo
• Best Visual Effects: Hugo

First Star Trek Sequel Set Pictures Surface

The first pictures from the Star Trek sequel (Still no title, Abrams?) set have surfaced courtesy of MTV. Both entailing our first look at Benedict Cumberbatch and judging by his face downs with Spock and Uhura he's definitely the baddie, as Variety reported.

But who is he? Your guess is as good as mine, but we can rule him out as a Vulcan or Klingon and he doesn't particularly look like Khan...

Second Wrath of The Titans Trailer Is As Forgettable As Its First

They should have cut to the chase and called this The Guy From Avatar Vs. Monsters.

Here's the second trailer for Wrath of the Titans, settling for less plot (besides the "Titans are breaking free!" exposition from Liam Neeson) and more monsters, mayhem and Sam Worthington's bad acting. Oh, and prepare for the oblivion, until Smackdown of the Titans in 2014, of course.

New Brave Trailer

The third trailer for Disney/Pixar's Brave takes a queue from The Devil Wears Prada (the most recent example unless someone can point to something sooner) of highlighting a scene from the finished film instead of the tried-and-true practice of cutting clips together throughout the narrative to tell the crux of its story in three minutes. You can check it out at iTunes or below.

Somebody Named Jai Courtney Is Playing Bruce Willis' Son/Sidekick in Die Hard 5

Trying to figure out who Jai Courtney is, and then it dawned on me. Who cares? It's Die Hard 5 (AKA: A Good Day to Die Hard) and it's all about Bruce Willis. Whomever he trades one-liners with is irrelevant. I mean, did it matter that none of us had heard of Mary Elizabeth Winstead when she was cast as John McClane's daughter and she turned out fine.

Eh, well Courtney, who according to the press release Fox sent out along with a picture taken from his screen-test is best known for appearing in Spartacus: Blood & Sand, will co-star alongside Willis' as Jack McClane in the fifth Die Hard installment. Can't you tell by his standing next to Willis and holding a gun how badass he's gonna be?

Edgar Wright Helming The Night Stalker for Johnny Depp

Edgar Wright will direct The Night Stalker, the big-screen version of the 70s supernatural mystery series starring Darren McGavin, for Disney "TOLDJA" reports. The project is expected to be a star vehicle for Johnny Depp, who will also produce.

When this was announced last July, I groaned. Oh look another retro-centric property for Depp to hone his "colorful weirdo" crap, as I like to call it, we've had an overabundance with the Jack Sparrows, Willy Wonkas, Sweeny Todds and Mad Hatters on screen. But getting a director with the skill of Wright? This I like.

Too soon to get fully invested and there's still the matter of actually having to contain Depp's shtick (If there's a fight between Depp and Wright over say direction, guess who wins? The guy whose oddball characters have made billions of dollars for the Mouse), but congratulations, Night Stalker, you now have my attention.

Sacha Baron Cohen Threatens to Make Oscar Ceremony Interesting; Academy Balks

At this rate, this Sunday's Oscar telecast will be one of the lower-rated in years.

Wonderful as The Artist may be (It is), nobody wants to spend 5 hours watching it win every award imaginable while all the celebrity presenters yuck it up about how awesome they are and kiss each other's asses. Hell, this is the first time in, well ever, that even I am seriously contemplating not watching myself. If I do, it will be back and forth when The Walking Dead comes on and that one takes priority. Sorry, Oscar!

But there has to be some kind of controversy. How else can the ceremony get ink without anyone yawning? Sacha Baron Cohen would like to spice things up a bit by walking the Red Carpet, as his character from The Dictator Admiral General Alladeen. He must suspect a snooze-fest in the making too, and hey, this also gives him a chance to plug his forthcoming, and so far unfunny looking, comedy while doing something legitimately unpredictable and thus interesting for us television viewers. A win-win, right? Sure, but the Academy hates that idea. God forbid they make fun of themselves.

And they seriously wonder every year why more and more people (Many of those the Academy makes fun of during the telecast about being stupid red-staters) tune out?

The Hunger Games Invading Your Mall

Four years ago, before the Internet decided it was cool to hate Twilight and it was just a low-budget, book adaptation from Catherine Hardwicke and a cast full of unknowns with pale skin and freaky hair, Summit arranged a series of mall tours. Drum up interest for the then-forthcoming Twilight by having the lead actors meet and greet the fans. You know how the rest of the story turned out.

Well, Lionsgate, soon to merge with Summit, knows a good idea when they see it and are doing the same for The Hunger Games, a potential franchise (That remains to be seen until its March 23^rd opening) long-touted as "the next Twilight" wrong as that statement is.

If you're in the following big cities over the next couple of weeks, you too can meet Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth:

"Saturday, March 3rd - LOS ANGELES
Fan event at the Westfield Century City
Talent: Gary Ross, Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth

Tuesday, March 6th - ATLANTA
Fan event at JW Marriott Atlanta Buckhead
Talent: Liam Hemsworth, Leven Rambin, Dayo Okeniyi, Amandla Stenberg and Jack Quaid

Wednesday, March 7th - PHOENIX AND CHICAGO
PHOENIX
Fan event at the Scottsdale Fashion Square
Talent: Liam Hemsworth, Leven Rambin, Dayo Okeniyi and Jack Quaid

CHICAGO
Fan event at the Westfield Fox Valley
Talent: Josh Hutcherson, Isabelle Fuhrman and Jacqueline Emerson

Thursday, March 8th - MIAMI AND DALLAS
MIAMI
Fan event at the Westfield Broward
Talent: Jennifer Lawrence, Alexander Ludwig and Amandla Stenberg

DALLAS
Fan event at Galleria Dallas
Talent: Josh Hutcherson, Isabelle Fuhrman and Jacqueline Emerson

Friday, March 9th - MINNEAPOLIS
Fan event at the Mall Of America
Talent: Jennifer Lawrence, Alexander Ludwig, Amandla Stenberg, Josh Hutcherson, Isabelle Fuhrman and Jacqueline Emerson

Saturday, March 10th - SEATTLE
Fan event at the University Village
Talent: Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson"

Sam Mendes’ First Skyfall Video Blog

We all have our "personal relationship with Bond," as Sam Mendes put in his first video blog chronicling the making of Skyfall, the 23^rd James Bond installment and third starring Daniel Craig.

They won't be a regular feature here because I remember the days of nerdgasming to Blue Tights and Kong is Kong, seeing video blogs focusing on the crew, usually the director, producers, writers and their underlings telling us, "Hey, it's fun to make a big-budget blockbuster!" and showcasing the tiniest morsel of actual footage. Without the benefit of a trailer, the filmmakers hype up the production with little they can show of actors in costumes with their backs turned to the camera or shooting at vague locations, like that glass building with neon-colored Oriental writings on the wall. Gonna reserve judgment on which blog installments to post based on its content, you will always get one or two that's a whole bunch of nothing.

But sometimes, it's hard to resist, and I've been waiting patiently since the "James Bond Will Return" text closing out Quantum of Solace to see Craig walking through that gun-barrel again. I'm ready for November 9^th to get here and see what the Broccolis and Mendes have in store for Bond based on that title and that plot synopsis of "Bond's loyalty to M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her."