Cinematical

Avatar isn't being released until December 18th, but if you're already sick of hearing about it, you better plug up your ears. The hype machine for James Cameron's magnum opus has been hard at work leaking details, images, snippets, and trailers since way before this year's San Diego Comic-Con or the extensive profile in October's New Yorker. Cameron, who has never been one to bite his tongue, told Playboy, "We know from the exit polling that the response [to Avatar] was 95 percent ecstatic. Most of the five percent negative response is from the fanatic fans who imagined the movie in their minds but now have to deal with my movie." Also, that when it comes to giving birth to a movie, he's crowning. Yum!

Bon mots from Cameron aside, Avatar could be a real game-changer as far as 3D films go – and hell, it's a refreshing change of pace from the sequels, prequels, remakes, and re-imaginings we're forced to sit through. (Plus... giant blue cat people!!!). It's definitely in the running for numerous Oscars. In fact, Oscar experts at In Contention currently have the film for consideration in eight categories, including Best Picture and Best Director.

Not only that, Variety reported that James Cameron, stars Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana, and producer Jon Landau will be doing a live webcast on December 3rd that will allow fans the chance to ask questions of the crew and sneak peeks at previously unseen footage from the film. The webcast will be broadcast on MTV two days before Avatar hits screens.

So, are you a betting man or woman? How much do you think the Avatar exposure will pay off opening weekend? Will Na'ivish become the new Elvish? Let's start with under $20 million. Going once, going twice... Vote below!

The appropriately named prog rock band Goblin is most famous for their collaboration with Dario Argento on his gory giallo films, especially Suspiria, arguably Argento's most well-known and best film to date. Goblin provided Argento with unforgettable soundtracks to Tenebre, Phenomenon, and Deep Red, as well as Argento's 2001 film Sleepless, which brought the band back together again after 22 years. I'm ashamed to say I have not yet seen Sleepless, but after sitting through Argento's more recent movies like Do You Like Hitchcock? and even Mother of Tears, I'm a little wary.

Goblin also supplied soundtracks to other Italian horror movies, as well as giallo and soft porn director Joe D'Amato's Beyond the Darkness. They did the soundtrack to George Romero's Dawn of the Dead, aka Zombi, under the name The Goblins; much later, Shaun of the Dead used one of the songs from the soundtrack in their film as one of many sly nods to the zombie classic.

When I first saw The Fall, I was trying to slink out of the theater afterward without anyone noticing my red eyes and nose. Too bad someone caught me and asked me if I was okay. "Uh, sure," I stammered, and ran for the subway. Today when I revisited the movie on an airplane, I warned my seatmate that I would be sniffly and not to worry. About midway through, he took pity on me and handed me some napkins.

The Fall, directed by Tarsem Singh (he prefers to go simply by his first name), takes place in a hospitals in California in the '20s. Lee Pace plays Roy, a stuntman who had an accident that left his paralyzed from the waist down; his girlfriend left him for the smarmy star so he's broken-hearted as well. His costar is Catinca Untaru, who plays a mischievous, smart, adorable little girl named Alexandria, who has chubby cheeks and a broken arm from working in the orange groves. Untaru isn't an actor, and she's so young she's missing her two front teeth for most of the movie. She's also Romanian, and combined with how young she is, the way she talks is a pastiche of baby talk and broken English.

Roy begins to tell her a story about bandits who have been done wrong by the horrible Governor Odious and seek revenge against him at any cost. The magical scenes she imagines were filmed in real places around the world, and she pictures each bandit as people she knows or has seen in real life. The story starts out like an exciting tale but soon we all realize it reflects Roy's real-life story and deep depression.

Oh, The Crow! I loved you so! I had the poster, the comic book by James O'Barr, the T-shirt, and the unrequited crush on Brandon Lee, whose tragic death only fanned the flames of my teenage desire. I even went to see the sequel, The Crow: City of Angels, which featured the spectacularly bad line, "F*ck you, bird d*ck!" uttered by none other than Iggy Pop. (I did, however, forget to light a candle for its 15th anniversary earlier this fall. Sniff.)

As previously reported, there is a relaunch being written by Stephen Norrington, who will also direct, that might not even include Eric Draven, the main character (sacre bleu!). The last time that Norrington took a crack at directing a beloved comic book was the 2003 stinker The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but as io9.com reported, so far the script is getting good reviews. Meredith Woerner at io9.com coaxed some details from producer Ryan Kavanaugh (Nine, Brothers, Zombieland), and while he wouldn't reveal which actor is going to be smearing himself with makeup to wreak vengeance on those who violated and murdered his beloved, he did say it will be "a whole relaunch of the franchise, much more of a dark superhero type" and starring an already-established actor.

"Team Jacob!" roars a trio of dudes in a bar. Drinks are flowing fast. "A typical horrible Monday just became amazing," gushes a woman who's about to go see a private screening of Twilight: New Moon. The crowd moves from the bar to what looks suspiciously like a high school theater to get amped up for some muscle-bound shirtless werewolf action.

"C'mon, get out of your seats! Are you ready?" The fans, who are all most certainly of drinking age, are definitely out of their seats and screaming. They're so ready!

"Too bad!" cackles the emcee, and the curtains part to show a young comedian named Skyler Stone who's there to stage an intervention, via FunnyorDie.

"Ladies and gentlemen, you are not going to see Twilight: New Moon tonight." For some reason (I think it has to do with alcohol), the audience is still cheering, but this statement brings a solitary "NO!" Stone continues, "This is a vampire intervention because you clearly don't know what the f*ck a vampire is!" Is that male laughter in the background? Wooing begins. Is this real or is it fake? Stone berates the audience and insults Rpatz with aplomb. Still, the cheering continues!

"Why are you cheering?!" he yells at them. "Do you understand you're not seeing Twilight tonight?"

Will there be a riot? Bloodshed? Will Stone leave the theater intact? Find out what happens after the jump.

Netflix knows where it's at when it comes to the rental biz; more and more, folks want to stay at home and watch movies instantly. We don't even want to wait for those happy little red envelopes any more. Nope, if it's not on our Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, or computer, we get all squirrelly. (Okay, maybe that last part is just me.) And IFC is also on the cutting edge of home entertainment in its steadily growing on-demand offerings, including their IFC Festival Direct program, where you can watch a selection of movies that have played during recent festivals, and the In Theaters + On Demand program, which offers at-home viewers the chance to see indie flicks the same day they premiere in what's usually limited release.

Now Netflix and IFC have sealed the deal for a partnership that gives Netflix access to 53 IFC releases to be streamed online to whichever platform you like, starting today.

I would guess that if this experiment takes off, we'll be seeing more IFC goodies on Netflix, but for now, you can see docs like The Thing Blue Line and Gates of Heaven; international films from Catherine Breillat, Christophe Honoré, and Alfonso Cuaron; and Joe Swanberg; and plenty of other flicks like The Brother from Another Planet, Nights and Weekends, and more. Check back later for the full list and more details on the launch of this new project.

Have you watched any of the IFC On Demand offerings, especially if they're for releases not otherwise available in your area? Do you think this is another death knell for the indie video store, or a really, really good idea to help spread the word about otherwise underseen independent films in a struggling market? Or both?

Jennifer Hudson, the multitalented performer who was once a finalist on American Idol and is now a sought-after Oscar winner, will be starring in a biopic about Winnie Mandela, based on the book Winnie Mandela: A Life. Mandela, the ex-wife of South African President Nelson Mandela, is a controversial figure; although she's a stalwart activist against apartheid, with some calling her the Mother of the Nation, she has also been embroiled in several scandals, both of the personal and political nature. Perhaps most controversial was her association with a former bodyguard who was charged with the murder of a kidnapped 14-year-old. She was also charged with bank fraud in 2001; as the New York Times wrote, "there is no doubt that the woman who was once celebrated as a heroine of the anti-apartheid struggle has become mired in a particularly sticky set of financial and political troubles."

According to Variety, the movie will be directed by Darrell J. Roodt, a South African who directed Cry, the Beloved Country, which stars James Earl Jones.

Hudson said, "I was compelled and moved when I read the script... Winnie Mandela is a complex and extraordinary woman and I'm honored to be the actress asked to portray her. This is a powerful part of history that should be told."

New York's Museum of Modern Art is hosting a retrospective for Tim Burton that spans the artist's career so far, from doodles on paper, Polaroids, sketches, full-blown paintings, sculptures, and, of course, movies. The MoMA will be showing 14 of his films, and Burton himself curated a collection of films that inspired him, aptly titled "The Lurid Beauty of Monsters." Burton was on hand to talk to the press, comparing his joy at the show to "an out-of-body experience." He said, "In my life, I've had many surreal, great things happen -- meeting my idol, Vincent Price; being able to make movies; and this one, I think, tops it in the sense that it's the most amazing and surreal, and that's what you look for in life, is these great and incredible [experiences]."

The MoMA's Ron Magliozzi, Assistant Curator, and Jenny He, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Film, worked feverishly to uncover work from the artist's 27-year career, even touring his house to find art for the show. Burton also created seven new statues for the exhibit.

The show opens November 22nd and ends April 26th, 2010. You can see a selection of the art on display in the gallery below.

Cinematical: What's the most personal piece in the collection for you?

Tim Burton: Well, it could be any of a number because I noticed the ones that freaked me out so much that I can't look at, which is a lot of it, I think it's a lot of that early stuff. Stuff that I didn't even know I had. I don't even know where they found some of that really early stuff. 'Cause it's, as they [Ron Magliozzi and Jenny He] pointed out, it was all just kind of personal and private, so there's a lot of that in there. Mainly, the early stuff, I'd say. Stuff that – I don't know where you actually found stuff that I actually got decent grades on! Because I don't remember that at all! [Laughs]

Once upon a time, there was a Twilight massively multiplayer online role-playing game being developed called Twilight Online. Think World of Warcraft but for Twihards. They were shut down (one would imagine by Summit, who is making oodles of cash from tie-ins -- have you been to your local Blockbuster and picked up your very own couch pillow with Jacob's face on it?) and the developer is now working on something called "Nebulous Blood." (Read more about Twilight Online over at Geekologie since the details of the game are no longer on its official website.)

The first Twilight video game, one of many that's sure to come, is a trivia game that's part of the "Scene It?" game series. It is currently available as an iPhone app and a DVD game, and now even Wii and Nintendo DS players will be able to give their Twilight skillz a workout as well on November 24th. The console games are from Konami, a pretty damn solid game publisher that's behind great games like the Metal Gear Solid series, Silent Hill, Dance Dance Revolution, and even the recent Saw game.

Twilight game deets are hiding on the other side of the jump.

Despite all the jokes about Roland Emmerich's love for blowing up cities, how the hell Lloyd Dobbler will save the world, and of course, the infamous line "Download my blog," 2012 earned $225 million worldwide in its opening weekend.

I dislike adding "porn" or "-sploitation" to descriptive phrases (torture porn, poorsploitation, etc. etc.), but if anything could be called an exploitation of our natural fear of an upcoming worldwide crisis, it would be 2012. Eerie shots of crowds praying en masse and major landmarks crumbling are juxtaposed with smaller stories, like the family struggling to stay together, a personal crisis set off by an ethical conundrum, and, of course, the prophet-kook in the woods who's happy to see his greatest suspicions verified.

Orson Welles's radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds sent Americans running for their bomb shelters in 1938, and once everyone realized it was just a radio show (and recovered from their terror), a new type of horror was born: the fear of massive worldwide destruction.

Every US generation thinks it's going to be the last. If it's not the Cold War, it's the Middle East, and if it's not aliens, it's the ice caps. But it's also a reality; it's mind-boggling to turn on the news and see footage of a tsunami that's killed about 230,000 people and injured and displaced so many more.