Watch Quentin Tarantinos Brooding Hateful Eight Trailer

Quentin Tarantinos first teaser trailer for his upcoming WesternThe Hateful Eightbrings wintry dread, dark laughs and plenty of cabin fever. The acclaimed directors eighth film isset, per the films YouTube description, six or eight or 12years after the Civil War and follows bounty hunter John the Hangman Ruth (Kurt Russell) and his fugitive Daisy (Jennifer Jason Leigh) as a brutal Wyoming storm forces their stagecoach to touch down atMinnies Haberdashery en route to Red Rock.

The duo isjoined by two strangers: union-soldier-turned-bounty-hunterMajor Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson) and Chris Mannix, a Southern renegade who claims to be the towns new sheriff (Walton Goggins). The group take refuge among four fellow dwellers: Minnies temporary caretaker Bob (Demin Bichir), Red Rock hangmanOswaldo (Tim Roth), cow-puncher Joe (Michael Madsen) and Confederate General Sanford Smithers (Bruce Dern).

One of them fellas is not what he says he is, says the Hangman. And the clip adds to the mysterious vibe, showcasing typical Tarantino fireworks: gunfire, punchyline delivery and widescreen visual splendor. The Hateful Eightis out in 70mm format on December 25th before its wider release on January 8th, 2016.Composer Ennio Morricone best known for his work on iconic Westerns like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly will score the film.

Tarantino first announced Hateful Eight in November 2013 but canceled the release following a heavily publicizedscript leakin January 2014. The director considered adapting the screenplay into a novel, then held a script reading with the full cast at Los Angeles United Artists Theater.Tarantino eventually changed course, starting filming in January of this year in Telluride, Colorado.

See Denzel Washington Seek Revenge in New The Equalizer 2 Trailer

Denzel Washingtons character Robert McCall exacts revenge in the first trailer for The Equalizer 2. They killed my friend. So, Im gonna kill each and every one of them, he warns in the action-packed clip. And the only disappointment is that I only get to do it once.

In the sequel to 2014s The Equalizer, Washington reprises his role as a retired special-ops agent. The franchise is an updated take on the 1980s TV series of the same name, which starred Edward Woodward.

Directed by Antoine Fuqua, who also helmed the first installment, the sequels new trailer sees McCall venturing to Turkey, where he looks to save a little girl who was kidnapped from her American mother. The opening sequence features harrowing scenes of him violently battling enemies inside a speeding train. Meanwhile, one of his close friends has also been murdered, and he seeks blood-soaked vengeance in the clip.

Fuqua and Washington have collaborated on previous films, including 2001s Training Day, which garnered Washington an Oscar for Best Actor, and 2016s Magnificent Seven. The Equalizer 2 opens in theaters on July 20th.

National Treasure

If you cant wait for the far-off movie version of Dan Browns mega-selling The DaVinci Code, dont get crazy. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer has ripped off the plot, shifted the spiritual focus from Christ and the saints to a hunt for treasure, changed the setting from France to the U.S. (to avoid lawsuits, the French would call it an hommage) and turned a tense pageturner into rancid cinematic cheese. Nicolas Cage as Benjamin Franklin Gates, a nutjob historian who has frittered away his career much to the consternation of his daddy (Jon Voight) chasing an alleged treasure hidden by our Founding Fathers with the help of the Knights Templar, an uber-secret society which leaves more clues than a TV reality show desperate for ratings. Cages sleuth is convinced the map to the treasure is hidden on the back of the Declaration of Independence. So he steals it, and takes off on the chase with his computer nerd buddy (Justin Bartha) and a hot blonde (Diane Kruger), who just happens to be the conservator of the National Archives. Its not just hard to believe any of this, its impossible. And director Jon Turteltaub (Phenomenom) directs with robotic cheerlessness. For Cage, this is a paycheck movie. For Bartha, its an attempt to make the public forget he was in Gigli. For Kruger, who played Helen in Troy, its proof positive she cant act. For the audience, it should be torture. But I have the sick feeling it might be a hit. Bruckheimer films (Armageddon, Con Air, Gone in 60 Seconds) make seductive trailers. But you wont find any treasure in the films themselves just fools gold.

Adam Sandlers Jack and Jill Is Stupefyingly Awful and Unfunny

Both of this week's big movies feature a major male actor in drag, but only one of them is worth seeing. Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar is the better of the two, but Leonardo DiCaprio ends up fighting his own prosthetics and makeup to deliver a great performance as the eccentric director of the FBI. The other drag movie is Jack and Jill, a stupefyingly awful and unfunny comedy starring Adam Sandler as a man and his twin sister. Sandler's performance is infuriating lazy and overly dependent on fart jokes, and the movie overall is utterly despicable.

This Week's Reviews:
J. Edgar
Jack and Jill
Melancholia

A Most Wanted Man

The late Philip Seymour Hoffman will show up again onscreen in the supporting cast of the next Hunger Games. But the last full-scale Hoffman performance and its a master class in acting comes in A Most Wanted Man, Anton Corbijns tense, twisty and terrific spy thriller, based on John le Carrs 2008 novel. Hoffman, who died in February, plays Gunther Bachmann, a German intelligence operative. Since 9/11, Gunther has been heading a small-scale spy unit that tracks the Muslim community in Hamburg, where the attack on America was formulated.

Corbijn (The American), working from a tightly packed script by Andrew Bovell, relishes lighting a long fuse to maximize suspense. The focus is on Issa Karpov (Grigoriy Dobrygin), a newly arrived Chechen-Russian who hires human-rights lawyer Annabel Richter (Rachel McAdams) to collect his fathers fortune from a German bank run by Thomas Brue (Willem Dafoe). Is Issas motive greed or to fund terrorism?

Gunther wants to know. So does everyone else in the spy racket, including the CIA, in the person of Martha Sullivan (Robin Wright). The cat-and-mouse game Hoffman plays with Wright is splendidly done.

Then again, every move Hoffman makes subtly rivets attention. Theres the uncanny German accent, the boozing, the chain-smoking, the glances at his assistant (Nina Hoss), the secret life he keeps hidden and the betrayals even Gunther cant see coming. Hoffman is simply magnificent. Face it. We wont see his like again.

Da Vinci Code

Theres no code to decipher. Da Vinci is a dud a dreary, droning, dull-witted adaptation of Dan Browns religioso detective story that sold 50 million copies worldwide. Conservative elements in the Catholic Church are all worked up over a plot that questions Christs divinity and posits a Vatican conspiracy to cover up Jesus Christs alleged marriage to Mary Magdalene and to drive all things feminine from the church. Heres the sure way to quiet the protesters: Have them see the movie. They will fall into a stupor in minutes. I know it bored me breathless.

The only true controversy that remains is where you stand on the long hair Tom Hanks grew to play Robert Langdon, the Harvard prof who specializes in symbols (the movie like the book is loaded with them). Hint: Keep your eye on the Holy Grail. Theres been a grisly murder at the Louvre, which plays itself, by the way, and looks lovely. Not lovely is Silas (Paul Bettany), a crazed albino monk wholl whack a nun to get his hands on the Grail that is, when hes not whipping himself with a fervor unseen since Mel Gibsons The Passion of the Christ. Bettanys rabid overacting seems to inspire Hanks to take the opposite tack. Hanks remains disturbingly unruffled, even when he is framed for the monks crimes and goes on the run from France to England with Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou), a French cryptologist whose curator grandfather was the murder victim.

Got that? Didnt think so. But you will as the plot plods on. Da Vincis Mona Lisa offers the first of many clues as the couple tries to evade French police captain Bezu Fache (Jean Reno), a member of Opus Dei, a conservative Catholic sect with a hidden agenda. Vatican spokesman Archbishop Angelo Amato has called the book stridently anti-Christian. Hanks, in an interview, came closer to the mark by calling the fictional story hooey that is not meant to be taken seriously.

How to apportion that blame for the movies inertia? Start with screenwriter Akiva Goldsman (an inexplicable Oscar winner for A Beautiful Mind), who manages to eradicate every ounce of suspense, spirituality and erotic fire from Browns novel. Point the finger at director Ron Howard (also an inexplicable Oscar winner for A Beautiful Mind) for playing it so safe that the film feels embalmed. The acting is either hammy (Bettany) or nonexistent (Tautou, so good in Amelie, so charmless here). Even the great Ian McKellen, cast as Holy Grail expert Sir Leigh Teabing, is reduced to nonstop bloviating, only alleviated by the occasional hint of mischief in his eyes. Instead of dialogue, Goldsman has written huge globs of exposition. Sir Leigh will yak about the concept of the sacred feminine. Sophie will say, I dont follow. And Sir Leigh will pick up the thread with a slide show that reveals a mystery woman visible in Da Vincis The Last Supper. And Robert will add to the blabfest. And so on and on and on.

One of the rules of solid suspense filmmaking is: Show, dont tell. Howards film is all tell with a few car chases thrown in. In rough, grainy flashbacks he reveals glimpses of the churchs bloody history. Theres even a second of a sex ritual involving Sophies grandfather, but Howard turns the camera away as if hes prying. Has a controversial novel ever taken a more cautious journey to the screen? The books vulgar energy evaporates in holy smoke.

Also missing in action is the romantic spark between Robert and Sophie that Brown provided in the novel. All that Hanks gives Tautou is a fatherly hug and a kiss on the forehead. As the movie gets swallowed up in its own stilted verbosity, I kept thinking that it would work better as one of those audiobooks. Just dont listen to it while driving. You might get drowsy and hit a tree.

Ryan Coogler: Why I Needed to Make Black Panther

It was late 2015, and director Ryan Coogler was feeling the call of Africa.

Coogler, then 29, was just finishing up his second film, the soon-to-be-a-hit Rocky rebootCreed. He was starting to think about what came next. I was grappling with something Ive kind of been scraping at my whole life, Coogler recalls, which is my cultural identity, and what it means to be African. I was reading Ta-Nehisi Coatess work, getting ready to dive into that for personal reasons. And Id been wanting to visit Africa, he says. I had never been, and I felt ashamed that I had never been. So I was like, As soon I finish Creed, maybe [my wife] Zinzi and I can take that trip.

And then, he says, Marvel called.

As millions of fans are now very aware, the studio was calling about Black Panther, currently demolishing box-offices worldwide. The film, about the titular superhero-king of the fictional African nation of Wakanda, raked in nearly $250 million in the U.S. last weekend, the second-biggest four-day opening of all time (just after Star Wars: The Force Awakens). It has already grossed over $700 million globally, and it seems all but guaranteed to hit a billion at some point. Meaning whats next for Coogler is now: whatever he wants.

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Yet when Marvel called, Coogler was no blockbuster director, but a promising young filmmaker with just two features to his name: the aforementioned Creed, and 2013s Fruitvale Station, the powerful story of the killing of a young black man by police in Oakland, which he made for just $900,000 less than what Black Panther probably spent on catering. But the character and the world fit perfectly with the stories he always loved first as a comic-book fan growing up in Oakland, and later as an aspiring student filmmaker at USC. I wanted to tell epic stories, stories that felt big and fantastic, Coogler says. I liked that feeling as an audience member when it felt like I went on a flight and felt out of breath and I couldnt stop thinking about it days later. I wanted to make stuff that gave people that feeling but I wanted to do it for people who look like me and people I grew up with.

Still, before signing on, Coogler took the time to what he calls my due diligence with the studio. The biggest thing for me was the themes of the story letting them know where my head was at and making sure they would get on board, he says. I was very honest about the idea I wanted to explore in this film, which is what it means to be African. That was one of the first things I talked about. And they were completely interested.

And so Coogler booked a trip to Africa. His first stop was Cape Town. He didnt know anyone, but he befriended an employee at his hotel and asked if he could visit the man where he lived, in a township called Gugulethu. It was a life-changing experience, he says. I found out that his tribe he was Xhosa the rituals they do are very similar to things I do with my family. Like, almost identical. He takes out his phone and plays a video of him sitting in a circle with a bunch of South African men, taking turns chugging from a bucket of beer. Thats me at the Xhosa ritual with the elder men, Coogler notes. And if you go to our backyard, I promise it would look exactly like this. To illustrate, he plays another video, this one of his family singing at a birthday party in Oakland. You see what I mean? he says. Its the same kind of fellowship. And I realized, Oh yeah African-Americans truly are African. It takes a lot more than what happened to us to take that out of us.'

In Cape Town, Coogler also took a solo trip to Table Mountain, a 3,000-foot promontory that towers over the city. Gazing out from the peak at Africa stretching out before him, he was struck by two realizations. The first was how massive Africa is, he says. Its just limitless its one of the first places Ive been thats un-photographable. The second was more personal: I realized that this is the first place Ive ever felt like I could be buried.'

He says he started thinking about this concept of us as a people meaning African-Americans being marooned in this place that were not from. When people ask me where Im from, I tell them the Bay Area and theres a sense of pride there. But the truth is, were really from that place. The place that everybodys from.

After Cape Town, Coogler went on to Lesotho, a mountainous kingdom whose geography protected it from the worst of colonization, and then Kenya, nearer the location of the fictional Wakanda. Ryans trip informed as much about the movie as any of our comics, says Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige. Its why the movie looks the way it looks and sounds the way it sounds.

This concept of us as [African-Americans] being marooned in this place that were not from. When people ask me where Im from, I tell them the Bay Area. But the truth is, were [all] really from that place.
Ryan Coogler, director of Black Panther

Daniel Kaluuya, who plays WKabi in the film (and who was born in England to Ugandan parents) says that first trip back cant help but change you. The first time I went, I was seven years old, says Kaluuya, whos up for an Oscar for his starring role in Get Out. And going around seeing everyone is black, from the president down to the cleaner you see your blackness in a completely different way.

When he sat down to start writing his version of Wakanda, Coogler thought about the stories African-Americans often hear as children. In the diaspora, the Africa we tend to hear about is this fantasy place, he says. Because its hard to tell a child about slavery its so dire and so awful that you kind of have to balance it with something. So we get this fairy-tale version of Africa. We were kings and queens, and we walked around and ate perfect food, and everyone was free.

It becomes, he says, kind of like Wakanda.

The films version of Wakanda is a stunning place, with eye-popping costumes and dazzling, vibranium-fueled technology. (That said, Coogler tried to ensure that with all the technological advancements, you dont leave the culture out. Africa is a culture that has been colonized and oftentimes demonized, so it was about reclaiming certain things as beautiful and powerful.) Perhaps most striking are the roles of women: scientific geniuses and deadly warriors and altruistic spies and majestic queens, who wind up saving the day more often than the men. Thats African, man! Coogler says, laughing. Thats my tribes world. My wife is a black woman whos incredibly strong and smart and the more I get out of her way, the better my life becomes. I thought thats one of the things that makes TChalla brilliant. He knows how to get out of the way of amazing women in his life.

To populate his cast, Coogler hired not just African-Americans but several Africans as well Lupita Nyongo from Kenya, Danai Gurira from Zimbabwe via Iowa, John Kani from South Africa. (Not to mention black actors from elsewhere in the diaspora: Germany, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago.) Its a work environment Ive never really had in this industry before, says Kaluuya. The majority of the crew was black or [certainly] a lot more than usual. For me, it was behind the camera that was the most revolutionary. Like, Oh yeah, we can do this. This is a Marvel film, and were doing this.'

At the movies junket the day after the premiere, actor Andy Serkis, who plays the villain Ulysses Klaue, told a story about a scene he shares with fellow white Englishman Martin Freeman, who plays a C.I.A. operative. We were about to do our scene, Serkis said, and Ryan came up to us and said, You know, Ive never actually directed two white actors before.' Serkis laughed. It was kind of hilarious, [but also] tragic and kind of insane.

But when I bring the story up to Coogler the sad fact that it took three movies for a talented black filmmaker to have the opportunity to direct two white guys he disagrees with the premise. Its not a situation where people are denying me that opportunity, he says. The stories [Im telling] just havent lent themselves to me doing a scene with only white people in it. Im making the movies that I want to make.

Blank Panther star Chadwick Boseman talks his first time trying on the Blank Panther suit, googling himself and more. Watch below.

San Diego Comic-Con 2017: Your Complete Guide

Veterans of San Diego Comic-Con knows that the crowds, spectacle and jam-packed line-up of panels can make the whole experience seem overwhelming, exhausting even impossible. For you first-time conventioneers, the key to surviving the weekend is to plan ahead and to diversify your schedule. Most of the big news coming out of the weekend from Preview Night on July 19th to getaway day on Sunday the 23rd will be happening in the Convention Centers Hall H and Ballroom 20, where the blockbuster movie and big-time TV presentations are held. But anyone who wants to avoid camping out in lines overnight can still get into panels for lesser-known films and shows. Or you can spend time weaving through cosplayers among the vendor booths on the convention floor, or dig the various creative viral marketing gimmicks that tend to spread across several blocks of the citys bustling Gaslamp Quarter.

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Below is a fairly comprehensive list of what movies and TV projects will be presenting panels and taking to the streets at SDCC this year, from the already wildly popular to the new cult favorites you havent heard of yet. This is what attendees can seek out amid all the hubbub down by the Embarcadero and what pop culture junkies around the world will be reading about throughout the Con.

MOVIES
Comic-Cons emphasis has largely shifted over the past few years from movies to TV after moving away from, yknow, comics. But there are still plenty of action-adventure, fantasy, science-fiction, horror, and superhero blockbusters-to-be thatll be jostling for position in the ballrooms, conference halls and street-corners of San Diego.

Theres be no big Star Wars panel this year, which is a bit surprising given that The Last Jedi is coming soon and the young Han Solo movie following in 2018. Instead, for a nostalgic science-fiction rush, fans will have to look to Blade Runner 2049, which will be part of the Warner Bros. Hall H presentation. Itll be sharing time with Steven Spielbergs adaptation of the dystopian video game novel Ready Player One, and the next two DC Comics films, Justice League and Aquaman. Spielberg is confirmed for the RPO Q&A; Harrison Ford and Ryan Gosling will be on hand for Blade Runner. Meanwhile, Ben Affleck and Jason Momoa will be talking up their superhero pictures and trying not to act too jealous toward fellow panelist Gal Gadot, wholl still be riding high from the success of Wonder Woman.

Thats some heavy duty Hollywood firepower, packed into a single two-hour WB session. But for more Blade Runner 2049 fun, convention-goers can sneak away from the Center and seek out the films multimedia experience, set up in the Gaslamp Quarter.

Also, Warner Bros. isnt limiting its SDCC presence to just one time-slot. The studios also holding a Wednesday night advance screening of the horror prequel Annabelle: Creation, as well as a sure-to-be-wacky panel for the upcoming The LEGO Ninjago Movie. The studios action picture Atomic Blonde (released via the Focus Features subsidiary, in conjunction with Netflix) will get its own showcase as part of a special tribute to Women Who Kick Ass, featuring the movies star Charlize Theron. And Warners DC Comics division will be active too, with a panel celebrating the 10th anniversary of DC Universe Animated Original Movies, another one about the release of Batman: Mask of the Phantasm on Blu-ray, and a preview screening of the brand-new Batman and Harley Quinn.

20th Century Fox will be limiting its Hall H presentation this year to an hour, and is expected to spend much of that time touting Kingsman: The Golden Circle; although its possible that upcoming X-Men universe movies like Deadpool 2 and New Mutants could be part of the discussion. The studios keeping its plans under wraps for now like a superhero protecting a secret identity.

Marvel Studios will taking up over two hours of Hall H time to deliver one what will almost certainly be one of its typically free-wheeling and surprise-filled sales pitches. The exact participants are still classified, but almost a large portion of the program will likely cover the next two MCU movies, Thor: Ragnarok and Black Panther. Beyond that, what gets announced and who walks onto the stage to the adoring roar of the crowd will be a mystery thatll have to wait until late Saturday afternoon.

Netflixs movie division will be indulging some mystery of its own, by holding a surprise screening of an upcoming original film on Thursday night. That will happen after an afternoon Hall H session where the streaming service will tout two of its higher-profile projects: the action-fantasy Bright, and the English-language adaptation of the grim Japanese manga Death Note. The later will be represented by stars Nat Wolff and Margaret Qualley and director Adam Wingard. The former boasts the kind of panel line-up that one would ordinarily expect from a major Hollywood studio, with director David Ayer and screenwriter Max Landis joined by stars Will Smith, Noomi Rapace and Joel Edgerton, all helping to introduce an alternate universe where fairy tale creatures coexist with humans. Anyone intrigued by the Bright panel can then head over to the Netflix Experience booth at the Hilton Gaslamp, which will be providing an immersion into the movies world.

Amazon Studios is going much more modest with its panel dedicated to the upcoming Todd Haynes-directed version of Brian Selznicks YA bestseller Wonderstruck, offering a more intimate up-close-and-personal with the author, wholl talk about the process of adaptation. Another smaller-scale film to keep an eye out for in San Diego is big-screen take on Derf Backderfs terrific graphic novel My Friend Dahmer, which is about how Derf hung out with the notorious serial killer when they were high school classmates. And one of the more surprising Hall H dwellers this year is the gentle, strange indie comedy Brigsby Bear, which is brainchild of a handful of the quirkier Lonely Island and Saturday Night Live comedians. Kyle Mooney, Dave McCary and Beck Bennett are scheduled to appear, along with very special guests which could mean cast-members Andy Samberg, Claire Danes and/or Mark Hamill.

TV
CBS
Theres a lot riding on the long-awaited rollout of Star Trek: Discovery, which will be debuting on the Tiffany Network in September before becoming the crown jewel of its All Access streaming service. After production delays and some shuffling of the creative team, Trek devotees will be watching the Comic-Con panel closely to see if the early look at this prequel series set before the Kirk/Spock era will satisfy fans whove been waiting over a decade for the franchise to return to its original TV home.

If they werent fictional, the characters from CBSs The Big Bang Theory would likely be camping out all night for the Star Trek panel. Instead, the actors who play them will be geeking out in Hall H, for a tribute to the hit sitcoms 10th season. All the stars are scheduled to attend, along with the writers and producers; the networks teasing a special video presentation which, knowing this show, could be anything from a congratulatory message from Stephen Hawking to a sick burn by Will Wheaton.

NBC
A fervent save this show campaign revived the action-packed time-travel adventure Timeless literally days after NBC had decided not to bring it back for a second season. Now, the fans who kept the series alive can celebrate with a panel where the cast and creators will look back on the first years highlights, while setting up a new chapter. (The next batch of episodes wont be coming until 2018.) Con-goers can also venture into shadows of Midnight, Texas literally two days after the new shows major players appear in San Diego. That panels set for the 22nd, and on the 24th, NBC will debut its adaptation of True Blood mastermind Charlaine Harriss latest series of soapy supernatural novels.

ABC
Marvels Inhumans brings to the small screen a super-powered alien race that at one point was going to get its own movie in the MCU. Instead, the first two episodes of ABCs show will be playing in IMAX theaters for two full weeks before the series commences on TV. While they await the debut, any members of the Mighty Marvel Marching Society who happen to be in Southern California will have the opportunity to see some early footage, and to meet the actors wholl be playing Marvels strange family of out-of-this-world demigods.

Inhumans is the most-anticipated item ABC has to introduce this year, though fans of Once Upon a Time will be surely paying attention to what the team behind that show will have to say about the upcoming season, after its finale last spring seemed to wrap up multiple major storylines while pressing the plot reset button. Former Community star Yvette Nicole Brown (who voices The Little Mermaids Ursula in Disneys dense fairy tale homage) will be moderating the panel.

Fox
The original Big 3 networks dont seem that interested lately in any kind of genre fare that doesnt involve teams of rugged government agents, housed in high-tech headquarters and busting master-criminals so leave it to the perennial upstart Fox to pick up the slack, loading its 201718 TV schedule with cartoons, superheroes, spaceships, demons and ghosts.

Since every network these days apparently gets a crack at its own Marvel project, the big Fox panel this year will be the one for The Gifted, a show from writer Matt Nix (best-known for Burn Notice) and director Bryan Singer, starring Stephen Moyer and Amy Acker as parents who connect with an underground mutant community when their own kids develop super-powers. Its still unknown who from the series will appear, though given that the area around the Convention Center has reportedly been plastered with billboards promoting the series (and guiding attendees to a fake gene-testing service), its reasonable to expect that big-name talent will be in town.

Other new Fox shows in the mix include Ghosted, which stars Craig Robinson and Adam Scott as paranormal investigators, and The Orville, a comic twist on Star Trek created by and starring Seth MacFarlane. Robinson and Scott are scheduled to appear on the formers panel, while MacFarlane will be joined by his co-stars Adrianne Palicki, Scott Grimes and Penny Johnson Jerald (among others) for the latters session.

Speaking of MacFarlane: The cast of his long-running animated sitcom Family Guy will be holding court in Ballroom 20 this year, which is also where The Simpsons creator Matt Groening will offer a look at the new season alongside producers Al Jean and Matt Selman. And the funniest cast in animation the Bobs Burgers crew of H. Jon Benjamin, Dan Mintz, Eugene Mirman, John Roberts, Kristen School and Larry Murphy will be joining their boss Loren Bouchard in the Indigo Ballroom to riff about, honestly, whatever the hell they want.

Some older Fox shows will hosting their own panels, too: The Exorcist, Lucifer and Gotham. This is a trio with fervent fanbases, even if they dont get the attention they did when they launched.

FX/FXX
The fourth and final season of Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogans cult vampire series The Strain debuts a few days before Comic-Con, which should make the panel this year kind of a victory lap, celebrating the end of a horror epic thats stayed admirably weird from start to finish. Hogan and producer Carlton Cuse will be there, along with stars Corey Stoll and David Bradley.

Speaking of the impressively strange, FX will be bringing Legion to the Con, teasing another round of trippy super-mutant adventures without giving too much away about what happened to the shows dangerously powerful telekinetic hero in the first seasons cliffhanger finale. Cast-members Dan Stevens, Rachel Keller, Aubrey Plaza, Jean Smart and Bill Irwin will be answering questions alongside mastermind Noah Hawley who may have to remind the crowd beforehand not to ask him about his other brilliant FX hit, Fargo.

Lastly, while its been reassigned to sister channel FXX, the hilariously vulgar animated spy comedy Archer remains one of the Fox familys finest achievements. The cast will undoubtedly have a lot to say both about last years experimental extended film noir dream sequence and about whatevers coming next in Season Nine.

The CW
Because the CW tends to renew nearly everything it airs, theres not a lot of room for new shows from year to year which should amp up the interest in Black Lightning, the latest superhero adventure produced by Greg Berlanti. Based on one of DC Comics lesser-known characters, the series stars Cress Williams as an ex-vigilante turned school principal, who is looking for ways to make a difference in his gang-ridden neighborhood without using his electricity-controlling powers. Williams will be in San Diego with his costars and producers Salim Akil and Mara Brock Akil

Oddly, Black Lightning isnt intended to be part of Berlantis Arrowverse, which means that for now we cant expect any crossovers with Arrow, The Flash, DCs Legends of Tomorrow or Supergirl. All of those shows will be well-represented at Comic-Con, though, continuing what has now become a multi-year tradition of the CW bringing every major cast-member in their superhero franchises to the convention, to introduce fan-friendly special video presentations and to drop hints about the new seasons.

The networks other comic book shows the Berlanti-produced Archie noir reimagining Riverdale and the wildly entertaining sci-fi/horror procedural iZombie will be following a similar CW pattern, offering Comic-Con exclusive video packages during star-studded panels. And so will The 100, The Originals and Supernatural. The advantage of of sticking with more or less the same slate is that your marketing team knows what their audience wants.

Syfy
A conventioneer in San Diego could spend the entire weekend only trying to see every panel hosted by Syfy and would likely still fall short. Pretty much everything the channel airs is classic Comic-Con fare, and the people behind those shows are more than happy to come out and meet their fans. Itd take up too much space to list everyone wholl be in town repping Syfys returning series. But suffice to say that if you like 12 Monkeys, Blood Drive, Channel Zero, Dark Matter, The Expanse, The Magicians, Van Helsing, Wynonna Earp, Z Nation or any of the Sharknado movies, well there will be a place to go to hear more about whats in store.

The big Syfy news this year will be about the networks newest programs. Edgy comics writer Grant Morrison is scheduled to be at the panel for Happy!, an adaptation of his graphic novel about a drunken, violent thug (played by Chris Meloni) who begins taking the advice of a cheerful imaginary horse (voiced by SNLs Bobby Moynihan). A powerhouse cast that includes Vincent DOnofrio, Kim Coates and Meat Loaf will show footage from their supernatural thriller Ghost Wars. And by the end of the convention, expect to hear a lot of chatter about
Krypton, a fresh spin on the Superman mythology which looks back at the Man of Steels home planet nearly a hundred years before Kal-El was born.

Cartoon Network/Adult Swim
Its not quite right to refer to Young Justice as a Cartoon Network show anymore, since the new version of the sophisticated teen superhero series (which now has the word Outsiders appended to it) has been relocated to a still-in-the-planning-stages DC-branded streaming service. But since the producers are promising more of a look back at their first two seasons in their panel, it still counts as one in the CN column and will be a nice complement to the presentations for Justice League Action and Teen Titans Go!, both of which will feature much of their voice casts. (The TTG! gang will also be screening a new quadruple-length episode.)

Other Cartoon Network favorites making a Comic-Con appearance: Steven Universe and Ben 10. Fans of the former should also be interested in two new CN shows being introduced at the convention: OK K.O.! Lets Be Heroes (a video game and manga-inspired bit of futuristic whimsy about a kid training to fight evil) and Unikitty! (a LEGO Movie spin-off about a cutesy feline with a whisker-thin temper). Voice acting maestro Tara Strong the woman behind Bubbles in the original Powerpuff Girls, Raven in Teen Titans, Ben Tennyson in Ben 10, Twilight Sparkle in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and Harley Quinn in Justice League Action will be playing Unikitty. You can expect her to be sitting in on seemingly every animated shows panel this year.

Shifting from daytime to late night, Adult Swim shows will be well-represented in 2017, with Mike Tyson himself promoting Mike Tyson Mysteries and the Robot Chicken team pushing their upcoming Walking Dead special with the help of TWDs Robert Kirkman and Scott M. Gimple. The main event, however, will be the preview of the new of Rick & Morty, featuring executive producer Dan Harmon, writer Ryan Ridley and voice actors Sarah Chalke and Chris Parnell. Any cartoon that mixes speculative science and flippant nihilism as well as R&M does is prime Comic-Con material.

Disney XD
Disneys business relationship with Marvel Comics means that it has as much new MCU product to show off as any other outlet, although the XD channel is going to be fairly restrained with its promotion. Its putting together one panel for Marvel Animation in general (focusing on Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers Assemble and whatever might be covertly in the works), and one for its newest series Marvels Spider-Man (which will include the world premiere of a cartoon intended to bring the web-slinger into line with its latest movie incarnation).

In keeping with the space-saver theme, Disney XD will be hosting a combined panel for Star vs. the Forces of Evil and Milo Murphys Law, and another for Pickle and Peanut and Future Worm. The networks saving its biggest push for DuckTales, a revival of the Eighties syndicated cartoon, which now has David Tennant as the voice of Scrooge McDuck, Danny Pudi as Huey, Ben Schwartz as Dewey, Kate Micucci as Webby Vanderquack and Beck Bennett as Launchpad McQuack. All of the above-mentioned voice-cast are scheduled to appear, either to solve a mystery or rewrite history. Its a duck-blur!

Netflix
Netflix dropped the first season of Stranger Things a week before last years Comic-Con, and while the show did some viral marketing over that weekend primarily in the form of Have You Seen This Child? posters around town thats nothing compared to whats planned for 2017. The cast and creators will be addressing the massive crowds in Hall H and revealing some fresh Season Two footage, while at the Netflix Experience booth at the Hilton Gaslamp, guests can take a virtual tour of the Upside Down. Given that the rest of the world is going to have to wait until October to see anything, every new piece of info will undoubtedly be as precious and tasty as an Eggo waffle.

Netflix has a hand full of aces to play at SDCC, thanks to its association with two reliable Con favorites. Joel Hodgson and his cohorts at Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return will keep basking in the praise thats greeted the shows long-gestating revival. Meanwhile, Marvels The Defenders will give Hall H denizens a look at what happens when Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist team up for a superhero team series. Stars Charlie Cox, Krysten Ritter, Mike Colter and Finn Jones will be there to celebrate the August 18th premiere of something comics devotees have been anticipating for years.

Those three panels alone would be enough, but Netflix will also be presenting Castlevania, Voltron: Legendary Defender, and Buddy Thunderstruck, a trio of very different animated series designed to appeal to their own niche audiences and thus getting their own individual time-slots for clips and questions.

Amazon
Not to be outdone by its streaming rival, Amazon will be in San Diego with one of the years most anticipated new shows: the latest adaptation of Ben Edlunds delightfully odd superhero spoof The Tick, which has already inspired a beloved 1994 cartoon and a short-lived (but equally adored) live-action sitcom. This new take casts Peter Serafinowicz as the burly, blue-clad, antenna-sporting super-oaf. Edlund and Serafinowicz will be at the center of a panel thatll include the world premiere screening and appearances by supporting cast-members Jackie Earle Haley and Michael Cerveris. Similar to the Netflix experience booth in the Gaslamp Quarter, The Tick will have also a multi-room replica of the shows set for fans to explore. Just look for the 20-foot animatronic Tick head. (No kidding.)

Amazon also has a pair of kid-friendly animated series thatll be looking to impress the crowd at the Con: Niko and the Sword of Light is an anime-style serialized adventure about a blade-wielding boy on a quest, while Danger & Eggs features the voice of Saturday Night Lives Aidy Bryant as a headstrong youngster named D.D. Danger who relies on a brainy talking egg to supply inventions for her kooky capers. Both panels will be showing significant chunks of footage from these new toons, followed by Q&As with the casts. The ubiquitous Chris Hardwick is moderating the Danger session, while SpongeBobs voice Tom Kenny will be introducing the audience to Niko.

TBS/TNT
Turners two main channels will be showcasing a handful of returning shows, including TNTs post-apocalyptic seafaring military drama The Last Ship and two offbeat TBS sitcoms: the wry alien abduction saga People of Earth (which will be screening its Season Two premiere), and Seth MacFarlanes surreal animated satire American Dad!

American Dad! will actually have two big Comic-Con spotlights. Itll be sharing a panel with MacFarlanes Fox cartoon Family Guy; and itll be part of a special program previewing clips from TBSs latest efforts in animation, which include comedian Carson Mells absurdist character study Tarantula, the science-fiction riff Final Space and Regular Show creator J.G. Quintel quirky domestic comedy Close Enough.

HBO
Thanks to a revised production schedule, this will be the first year that Game of Thrones comes to Comic-Con while the current season is on the air, rather than after the finale. The Season Seven premiere will air a few days before Hall H hosts some fan-favorite cast members (including Gwendoline Christie and Sophie Turner) for what is bound to be a rousing hour of vague comments about episodes and events that fans havent yet seen.

Theres also likely to be a lot of hemming and hawing at the Westworld panel, as HBOs fabulous puzzle of a series teases another season of mysterious amusement park shenanigans that viewers will soon be racing to the Internet to decode. Even if the creators wont say much in San Diego, theyll at least be sitting alongside a dazzling line-up of cast-members, including Ed Harris, James Marsden, Thandie Newton, Evan Rachel Wood and Jeffrey Wright. Steering the conversation will be eccentric comedian/musician Reggie Watts a man who may himself be a robot.

AMC
After a promising first season, the ultra-violent metaphysical comedy Preacher has really come into its own in year two, which means the show has earned its prime Hall H panel placement. Just like in 2016, AMC will be trotting out its latest hits A-list roster, with producer Seth Rogen, original comic book writer Garth Ennis, recent Oscar nominee Ruth Negga and her co-stars Dominic Cooper, Joe Gilgun and Graham McTavish all set to anchor whats sure to be an especially swear-y session.

On Friday, Hall H will host back-to-back panels for AMCs The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead, stretching from the late morning to the early afternoon. Now that the Who did Negan bludgeon? mystery has been resolved, the 2017 Dead session should be more forthcoming about what we can look forward to in the fall although it will surely be followed by a Q&A where fans will hold the writers feet to the fire over its last season. Creator Robert Kirkman is also behind AMCs new docuseries Secret History of Comics, which will have its own standalone panel, in one of the smaller venues.

BBC America
There may be some Orphan Black cosplay on the convention floor this year, but with the Canadian fave coming to an end, BBC Americas presence will be reduced to panels for its two still-thriving British series: Dirk Gentlys Holistic Detective Agency and Doctor Who. The good news for anglophiles is that both shows will be stationed in Hall H, and will be bringing out stars Elijah Wood and Peter Capaldi (among others) to help fill the big room. Is it possible that San Diego will be the place where Who honcho Steven Moffat announces whos going to replace Capaldi as the 13th Doctor next year? To the TARDIS!

USA
Curiously, USA hasnt put together a panel for its buzzy cyber-thriller Mr. Robot, although brave souls who cross over the railroad tracks to the Gaslamp Quarter will find a pop-up E Corps Bank of E on 4th Street, dispensing credit cards loaded with fake digital currency. Meanwhile, back in the Convention Center, fans can look back on the recently completed second season of Colony and look ahead to a third year of the all-too-relevant dystopian drama about humanitys collaboration with invading alien overlords. And while it may not seem like a typical Comic-Con show, the cast and creators of the long-running procedural Psych will be talking about their new reunion movie, airing in December.

Freeform
The former ABC Family has lately been expanding its millennial audience by airing fantasy/adventure shows designed to appeal to folks who grew up reading novels about angsty monsters and defiant warriors. Two of those will have panels at this years con: Shadowhunters (an adaptation of the bestselling The Mortal Instruments, currently in its second season of demon-slaying teen drama), and Stitchers (now in its third season of psychic crime-solving).

Its also worth noting the two new Freeform series that dont have panels: the recently announced Marvel Comics Universe additions Cloak and Dagger and New Warriors. Perhaps both are too fresh to have any footage to show, or anything to talk about. That said, its not inconceivable that the channel will sneak some sort of preview of its Marvel plans into its two preexisting slots.

The rest
One of the unlikeliest additions to this years Comic-Con is Showtimes unapologetically arty Twin Peaks revival, which will be celebrated with a signing on the convention floor, a special advance screening of the new seasons 11th episode and a big Hall H panel featuring most of the shows main cast (including Kyle MacLachlan and Naomi Watts), moderated by Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof. Its major presence at an event like this suggests once again that the parameters of geek culture keep expanding beyond anything with swords, spaceships, or super-heroes. (See also: the panel where hip millennial comedians Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer will talk about their decidedly non-nerdy Comedy Central sensation Broad City.)

For those seeking more familiar SDCC product, Hulu is bringing Seth Rogen, Josh Hutcherson and Eliza Coupe to talk about the upcoming science-fiction comedy Future Man, about a gaming-addicted janitor who gets recruited by a shadowy organization to become a time-traveling adventurer. And the awkwardly named Audience network will be joining in the summer of Stephen King by previewing Mr. Mercedes, starring Brendan Gleeson as a detective who bends the law to bring down a psychopath who seems obsessed with him.

Other cable channels thatll be promoting and celebrating established fantasy series include Starz (whichll have the creative talent and smoldering cast of the time-hopping romance Outlander back at the con, after taking last year off), History (back with Vikings), and MTV (bidding a final farewell to the long-running lycanthropy melodrama Teen Wolf, before its last 10 episodes begin airing July 30th). And the folks behind the Nineties animated hits Hey Arnold! and Rockos Modern Life will be setting up their upcoming Nickelodeon specials. Because whats better than a trip down memory lane that ends with new memories?

and the reunions
For years now, nostalgia-fests have been a staple of the convention, bringing back stars of fan-favorite movies and TV shows to soak up applause and wax rhapsodic about the good old days. The 2017 SDCC has several of these, including panels dedicated dedicated to television classics both old (CBSs groundbreaking serialized crime series Wiseguy) and new (Syfys era-defining hit Battlestar Galactica). This year also features a special salute to the late Adam West, who remained a friend to the con-going community from his Batman days to the end of his life.

The Best and Worst Moments of the New Sound of Music

Two years ago, Bill Maher suggested on an episode of Real Time that TV would soon become one long show called CSI: Vampire Idol. Well, NBCs live production of The Sound of Music last night wasnt far off. They took one of the greatest musicals in Broadway history and paired it with two people who have benefited the most from the vampire and singing-contest crazes of late: American Idol Season Four winner Carrie Underwood (as Maria) and True Blood star Stephen Moyer (as Capt. Von Trapp). The three-hour event inspired multiple drinking games (like this one, or this one, or that one), incurred mass online confusion by the lack of marionettes during The Lonely Goatherd (this was the stage version, not the film version) and may just have brought the dirndl back into style. But was it any good?

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Depends on your definition of good. If by good you mean it engaged the Twittersphere in the kind of nonstop live tweets usually reserved for awards shows then, yes, The Sound of Music Live! can be considered a success. It was by no means a train wreck, and there were plenty of pleasant surprises (Vampire Bill can sing?), but aside from the novelty of being the first live staged musical on TV in over 50 years, this latest incarnation of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic had me yearning for Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer and the good ol days of 1965. Read on for Rolling Stones roundup of what we found to be Something Good about this particular incarnation of SOM, and what made us want to say So Long, Farewell instead.

My Favorite Things

The Broadway Veterans Ruled
It happened to Julie Andrews herself back in 1964: The accomplished stage actress is thrown over for the leading role in the film version of My Fair Lady (which she created on Broadway) in favor of Hollywood royalty Audrey Hepburn. Star power sells, and thats why Carrie Underwood was cast as Maria while seasoned Broadway pros (and Tony Award winners) Audra McDonald, Laura Benanti and Christian Borle were relegated to supporting roles. But, despite their lack of household names, McDonald, Benanti and Borle regularly upstaged Underwood and Moyer with their seemingly effortless performances. Benanti and Borle infused song back into the roles of Elsa Schrader and Max Detweiler (neither character sang in the film version of SOM), with Smash alum Borle eliciting the only (intentional) laughs of the entire production. And McDonald, as the Mother Abbess, totally earned her right to drop the mic with her rendition of Climb Evry Mountain.

Stephen Moyer can sing!
For all I know, Im suffering from the aftereffects of glamouring, but Stephen Moyer without a doubt proved to the world that hes more than just a charismatic vampire with a God complex and a syrupy drawl. Hes a damn fine singer too! Whether it was joining the Von Trapp moppets in the middle of The Sound of Music, holding his own with Laura Benanti and Christian Borle during No Way to Stop It or eliciting pathos while singing Edelweiss, Moyer gave hope to the millions of True Blood fans that Bill Compton will bust out into song sometime next season. Your move, Skarsgrd. Note to Truebies: Anyone else hoping that Eric and Godric were going show up as the SS officers escorting Capt. Von Trapp to his new naval position?

Laura Benantis slinky black ball gown
Capt. Von Trapp may ultimately prefer women who sing about raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, but I challenge anyone, male or female, whose jaw didnt drop to the floor when Elsa Schrader descended the stairs in this body-hugging number. Maria couldve at least asked the departing Elsa for some fashion tips before becoming the next Baroness Von Trapp.

My Not So Favorite Things

Carrie Underwood and the Underused Head Voice
Just because you can belt a note, doesnt mean you should. I counted a good 38 minutes into the broadcast before Underwood eased up on the chest voice and moved into falsetto for the final bars of Do-Re-Mi. Also, never try to overpower Audra McDonald in a duet. Because youll lose. Badly. There is no doubt of Underwoods talent as a singer, but as someone with no musical-theater background, she was sorely out of her league, especially in a role as demanding as Maria Von Trapp. She was out of breath by the end of Do-Re-Mi, and unlike her Broadway-caliber co-stars, her performance was dripping with visible effort.

Working Stiffs
Its a fine art, musical theater. Who cares if youre a great CMA host and can sing hilarious Christmas parodies? That doesnt automatically make you capable of carrying a three-hour Rodgers and Hammerstein production. The only time Underwood looked remotely comfortable was when the pre-recorded track came on over the speakers and she realized she could stop talking for the next three minutes. But at least she had a reason for her wooden performance shes never acted before. What was Stephen Moyers excuse? Dude, youre the star of one of the most violent, sexual and histrionic shows on TV!

Sixteen Going on Seventeen: The Pervy Version
The scene took place in the woods, Rolfe looked like he was 17 going on 40 (not to mention those short shorts) and Liesl wore a sailor dress (nowhere near as sexy as the diaphanous pink number Charmian Carr donned in the film version). The whole number screamed Hello Little Girl from Into the Woods. At least the smooch (and subsequent roll in the grass) was hotter than the quickie peck in the movie.

No Sookeh
Stephen Moyer stared at a beautiful blonde with a fondness for aprons for three hours straight and he couldnt throw the Trubies a bone?

13 Things You Need to Know About The Hobbit

Its the prequel to one trilogy and the start of another, but The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey can feel like damn near that many movies all by itself. Youre watching an adaptation of a book by J.R.R. Tolkien, which includes tons of extra material Tolkien wrote but published elsewhere, which is also a prequel to the massively successful Lord of the Rings series, and which ultimately has to be a good movie on its own terms. The conflicting buzz on all these factors can be as disorienting as leaving your 3D glasses on after you exit the theater.

Photos: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey: Inside Peter Jacksons Lord of the Rings Prequel

Sort it all out before you hit the theater with this quick and dirty guide to what to watch out for, from the controversial filming technique to the return of Gollum and Gandalf and Galadriel 13 items in all, one for each dwarf involved in the quest to reclaim their homeland from a deadly dragon. Did director Peter Jackson succeed in his quest? Answer that riddle starting here.

1. Think of The Hobbit as The Lord of the Rings Season Two

From the very first frames, all 48 of them per second, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is designed to look and sound and feel like youre picking up where The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King left off nine years ago. If youre a Rings junkie, that sense of re-entering a world you love is as pleasurable a sensation as smoking the Shires finest pipeweed. Its also a familiar sensation: its what you feel when youre watching the season premiere of your favorite prestige cable drama, nine-plus months after the last season finale. Thats why complaints about the films length and one-per-year serialization are so misguided: Each of the Jackson-Tolkien trilogies will run about as long as any given season of The Sopranos, and a decade-plus of TV dramas New Golden Age has primed our attention spans and viewing patterns accordingly.

2. This prequel doesnt look like those prequels

You know how the smooth, shiny Star Wars prequels looked so little like the weatherbeaten world of the original trilogy that Lucas had to go back in to Luke S.s adventures and add little flying robots and whatnot just to remind you they took place in the same universe? Not a problem here. Its obvious that the technology Jackson used to make his two Tolkien trilogies technology he and his team largely pioneered has greatly improved over the past decade. But everything hes using that technology to depict looks the same as it ever was. Its sharper, theres more of it, but the dwarves and elves and hobbits and orcs and castles and ruins and mountains all feel the same as they did a decade ago. If you were expecting the comparison to make this movie look too slick or the original trilogy too outdated, relax.

3. The 48fps makes it look like a video game cut scene sometimes but so what?

Director Peter Jackson infamously insisted on digitally shooting The Hobbit with double the number of film frames per second of standard cinema, in hopes that the increased clarity would enhance viewers experience of the effects, details and 3D. It worked: the level of individually discernible detail visible onscreen at any given moment is absolutely staggering to behold. Theres one clash between opposing armies of Dwarves and Orcs in particular where you can clearly make out each individual one-on-one fight, and the effect is jaw-dropping. The price you pay, particularly in shots where the characters or the camera move rapidly, is a weird crystal clarity that feels like youre watching a scene from The Hobbit: The Video Game. But this is 2012, and weve all played plenty of video games, you know? Its not the death of cinemas storytelling aesthetic its just a different aesthetic, one an increasing number of us have lived in since we were kids. Non-purists should be fine with it if it means a clearer look at Middle-earth.

4. The Hobbit was a childrens book, and it shows sometimes but so what?

Im not even talking about the juvenile bathroom humor and nut shots with which Jackson and company pepper the movie that was very much not the style of the good Professor Tolkien. But even though it was based on the imaginary mythology he concocted in the trenches of World War I and later developed into The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. wrote The Hobbit as a bedtime story for his kids. Its got a fairy-tale sense of illogical whimsy talking trolls named Bert, multiple dwarf singalongs, a pivotal scene based on a game of riddles, a tendency just to throw new creatures and characters at you and expect you to roll with it that the movie partially preserves. If youre a FANTASY IS SERIOUS BUSINESS person who thinks Man of Steel looks good because it looks dark, maaaaan, you may have a problem. But wrestling blockbuster-fantasy away from realism and back into magic is a worthy cause. And if some of the humor falls flat for you, chill out were still worlds away from Jar-Jar territory.

5. After a while, you forget the 3D is even there which means you can skip it if you want

Like James Cameron in Avatar, Peter Jackson uses 3D mainly to establish a sense of depth to his images. Depending on the POV of any given shot, mountains are really freaking mountainous, caverns are really freaking cavernous, armies really look like armies and so forth. A few gimmicky shots involving arrows and butterflies aside, what this means is that you quickly forget that what youre seeing is 3D at all. By the end of the film I was almost convinced theyd stopped using it. Its a tool, not a special effect, so while its worth seeing the movie with that tool in play, you wont actually be missing anything if you dont.

6. Gandalf = Frodo / Bilbo = the other, funny hobbits

In The Lord of the Rings, Frodo was the dreamy-eyed coming-of-age hero and his friends Sam, Merry and Pippin were the comic relief. In The Hobbit, the hero is the comic relief. Until the final reel, Bilbos storyline is almost all classic fish-out-of-water stuff, which is why a comedy guy like Martin Freeman got the part. The result is that Gandalf takes on a lot of the dramatic weight, with Ian McKellen playing him less as a sage badass and more as an aging gunslinger whos afraid he may lose his touch when it matters the most. Its a very different dynamic than the original trilogy, and it takes at least as much getting used to as the 48fps.

7. Youll remember about 2/3 of the dwarves, and batting .666 aint bad

So yeah, lotta dwarves in this one. Dwalins the first one to show up, and he looks like a biker. Balins the old wise one. Oris the young dumb one. Bomburs the fat one. Filis the hot one. Kilis the hot ones brother. Bofur has a lumberjack hat and sounds like Craig Ferguson. Thorins the leader and sounds like Sean Bean. Thats eight out of 13 dwarves youll probably be able to remember without trying, a major achievement for the film given how little Tolkien differentiated the bulk of them. All great action ensembles, from The Magnificent Seven to Aliens, are forced by the amount of screentime available to make each member of the team pop with a few brief, broad strokes: an odd accent, a striking wardrobe choice, a memorable personality, a cool weapon. Jackson took a huge, fan-alienating risk by making the dwarves such a motley crew, but it was worth it.

8. The creatures are incredible

True, most of the basic design work for the various things that try to eat our heroes was done a decade ago, when the look of the orcs and trolls and wargs and what-have-you were settled upon for LotR. But using that as a base, the team at Jacksons Weta Workshop came up with some truly inventive and weird new beasts: massive stone giants like something out of Shadow of the Colossus, a goblin king who looks like a popped zit, a seethingly malevolent and roided-out pale orc called Azog the Defiler. Theres even a tiny goblin who rides around in a basket delivering messages. If you fondly remember the fanciful arch-fantasy films of the Eighties Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, The Neverending Story, Willow, even Jabbas palace in Return of the Jedi youll dig the hell out of these creeps.

9. So are the battles

Seriously, holy shit. This is where the combination of 48fps and 3D, plus Jacksons traditional obsessive attention to detail, really pays off. Theres a shot in a flashback to the War of the Dwarves and Orcs, as the two armies clash, where you can pretty much make out every single one-on-one fight simultaneously. Its an immersive, chaotic, you-are-there sensation and it makes you wonder what a true war movie would do with this technology, and whether you could handle whatever they came up with.

10. Gollum is better than ever

Hate to repeat myself, but seriously, holy shit. Some 10 years after his introduction Gollum already remained the most convincing fully CGI character ever, by a substantial margin, but in this movie he reaches a whole new level of verisimilitude. His riddle-game confrontation with a lost and frightened Bilbo if Bilbo wins, Gollum will show him the way out of his subterranean lair; if Bilbo loses, Gollum will eat him is in many ways the films centerpiece, and its full of lingering close-ups on Gollums face as he mugs and grimaces and smiles and concentrates that are so convincing its like the movies just showing off. Please, please invent a new Oscar category for actor Andy Serkis and the team that transforms him into this tortured soul.

11. The stuff that wasnt in the book really feels that way

To flesh the relatively shortnsweet Hobbit into a full-blown epic trilogy, Jackson included a ton of material that wasnt in the original novel: backstory about the dwarves and their exile from their dragon-conquered mountain kingdom, the offscreen adventures of Gandalf and other characters that were going on at the same time as Bilbo and the Dwarves quest, stuff Jackson and his co-writers made up entirely. The result isnt exactly seamless. Taken individually, its all perfectly entertaining, but the middle section of the film in particular feels really episodic, with random orc attacks and chase scenes and visits from Gandalfs hippie/hermit fellow wizard Radagast giving it an awkward rhythm.

12. All hail Queen Cate

All of the actors who reprise their roles from the first trilogy even Flight of the Conchords dreamboat Bret McKenzie, whose non-speaking background role as an Elf in Fellowship made him fangirl-famous long before he became part of New Zealands fourth-most-popular folk duo get a big audience pop the first time they show up onscreen. But only Cate Blanchett, returning as the Elf queen Galadriel, elicited audible gasps. A stunning and otherwordly presence who moves as if shes being shot at her very own frame rate of infinity, she commands the screen like no one else in the movie. A good thing, too, considering shes the only woman with a speaking part.

13. The true enemies have yet to show their faces

Literally. Smaug, the unstoppable dragon that Bilbo, Gandalf and the Dwarves are on a mission to murk, is glimpsed only in bits and pieces a roar of flame, a slithering tail, a radiant eye. And the Necromancer, a mysterious sorcerer preoccupying Gandalf, Galadriel and the other high-and-mighty even as the Dwarves pursue their quest, shows up only as a shadow. Theres a thin line between building anticipation for the next installment and just stalling, and the final scene will no doubt elicit cries of Thats it?! same as the first time around 11 years ago. Look at it this way, though: Youve now got two more years to gird your loins for the eventual day-long six-film marathon.

Who Killed the Electric Car?

Al Gores lecture on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth, is doing boffo business this summer, so theres hope for filmmaker Chris Paines compelling, fighting-mad documentary about what happened to the EV1, the electric car (no gas, no oil, no polluting carbon-dioxide exhaust) that General Motors leased to a few lucky California customers in 1996, only to mash its fleet into scrap metal in the Arizona desert six years later. Though Martin Sheen is the films narrator, its not just the political lefties who can guess the culprits behind the plot to take the EV1 on its last ride. Part conspiracy thriller, part cautionary fable, heres an activist movie that might actually raise consciousness and do some good. Lets hope its not crushed on its way to the multiplex.

The Program

A careening crash course on the most publicly disgraced athlete since O.J. Simpson, Stephen Frears Lance Armstrong biopic is the rare film of its kind that doesnt spare even a sprinkle of sympathy for its subject. A more compelling movie may have explored the reasons behind the champion cyclists behavior, but this artless portrait of an American tragedy would rather reinforce your worst suspicions: Yes, Lance Armstrong is, in fact, a titanic asshole.

You know the story, and The Program tells it to you straight: A fiercely competitive (and frustrated) young racer istransformed almost overnight into a winner, gaining so much momentum that testicular cancer barely slowed him down. Riding the gust of an inspirational narrative, Armstrong found a new gear, founded a ubiquitous charity, and reentered cycling as square-jawed golden boy by winning the first of seven consecutive Tours de France. Who would dare accuse a survivor of using performance-enhancing drugs? What kind of person would put those chemicals into their body after enduring the horror of chemotherapy?

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Based on journalist David Walshs bloodthirsty book Seven Deadly Sins: My Pursuit of Lance Armstrong, Frears adaptation unfolds less like a character assassination like an assisted suicide. At one point, the speed demon brags about Hollywoods interest in making a movie about him, puckishly predicting that charming A-lister Matt Damon will land the role. Instead, we get unnerving character actor/dead ringer Ben Foster, whose commandingly snide performance is strong enough to keep the wobbly narrative on two wheels. He has no compunctions about stretching Armstrong so far that he turns into the Daniel Plainview of his sport the films richest moment finds him pedaling up to a competitor and threatening I have the money and the power to destroy you. If he wasnt on such a strict diet, the athlete wouldve drank everybodys milkshake.

Unfortunately, The Program seldom slows down for long enough to let Foster or his co-stars sink into their roles. The only remotely mutable character in the film is Armstrongs teammate Floyd Landis (Jesse Plemons), a devout Mennonite who falls preyto the seductive powers of the dark side. (Dustin Hoffmans turn as a swindled promoter could have been cut entirely.) And while Frears is no stranger to teasing tremendous warmth from real-life figures see The Queen and Philomena the director struggles to dramatize the vileness that compelled him to this particular subject. Melting into an endless glut of racing montages, The Program picks apartone of the greatest wipeouts in modern sports and fails to salvage anything of value from the wreckage.

Beavis and Butt-Head Return With Jersey Shore in Their Cross Hairs

A balding 49-year-old multi-millionaire in bluejeans steps up to the microphone and unleashes the inarticulate teenager lurking inside him: Uh-huh. Whoa! Uh-huh. Huh-huh-huh. This is Mike Judge, creator of the legendary cartoon Beavis and Butt-Head, channeling Butt-Head for a Jimmy Kimmel spot. You suck, Kimmel! Judge shouts, in the voice of Butt-Head. He tries the line a few more times, and then flips it around to Kimmel, you suck! Judge shakes his head. For some reason, that doesnt sound like something youd yell at the TV. Nobody challenges him: Judge may well be this nations foremost authority on people yelling at their TV.

Beavis and Butt-Head ran on MTV from 1993 to 1997, during which time it became the networks highest-rated program, was the subject of congressional debate and appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone three times. The show centered on two idiot teenagers obsessed with heavy metal and hot chicks. The best part of the show was the pair sitting on their ratty couch, discussing and misunderstanding the music videos they watched. (Butt-Head on videos with onscreen text: If I wanted to read, Id go to school.)

Judge, who voiced most of the shows characters and improvised much of the video commentary, was burned out by the end of its run. It was on every night, as many as you could possibly do without a hiatus, he remembers. So when Judge made the hit 1996 movie Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, he negotiated a release from the shows last season, moved back home to Austin, went on to create King of the Hill, which ran for 13 seasons on Fox, and wrote and directed the 1999 cult comedy Office Space. He also had some DOA projects, such as the 2006 movie Idiocracy. Sitting in an edit bay in Burbank, California, drinking a Diet Dr Pepper, Judge says he cant distinguish between his hits and flops while hes making them: I almost always feel like Ive made something horrible.

After a 14-year hiatus, Judge can better appreciate Beavis and Butt-Head. The characters pop, he assesses. Somehow, you get more out of it than you put into it. When MTV asked him to revive the show, he said yes, bringing the boys back with their worldviews unchanged. There was a conscious decision to have nobody grow or learn much, Judge says. Beavis and Butt-Head still wear their Metallica and AC/DC T-shirts, although Judge had to get permission from the bands this time around.

The biggest update has come in which videos Beavis and Butt-Head offer their This rocks/This sucks commentary on: Its now largely clips from reality shows like Jersey Shore and Cuffd. This is less because of shifting cultural mores and more because the show is now required to get advance permission to lampoon a music video. It used to be that we could do anything, Judge says, sighing. Now we have to clear everything. We were going to do a Kanye West video he wanted it on, and then somebody who owns, like, six percent of the songwriting said no.

Asked if, with age, his sympathies have shifted away from his teen protagonists and toward the adults whose lives they make miserable, Judge smiles. When the show started, I was already pushing 30, considering a job teaching math, he says. So from the get-go, I related to the teachers. But I remember thinking that I wanted to teach community college, because in high school youd have to deal with the worst little shitheads.

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This story is from the November 10, 2011 issue of Rolling Stone.

NEXT: Parks and Recreation Star Aubrey Plaza Has a Black Belt in Dead Pan Humor

Limitless

You know how science says we can access only 20 percent of our brain? Well, Eddie Morra, the blocked writer Bradley Cooper plays with bracing humor and bruised heart in Limitless, ups his ante to 100 percent. And suddenly hes a writing machine, a linguist, a lady-killer, a wolf of Wall Street and a man possessed. All thanks to a jagged little pill called NZT. Its illegal, of course, and scarce even at $600 a pop. Push it close to OD level, and chunks of your memory go poof! Try to go cold turkey, and your head will threaten to explode. Limitless hits you like an adrenaline rush that will have you saying, Ill have what hes having.

Peter Travers reviews Limitless in his weekly video series, At the Movies With Peter Travers

Thats the thing about a popcorn thriller that really pops. You access way less than 20 percent of your brain and go with the hot, hedonistic flow. Cooper comes out swinging, spreading charm and sex appeal over the monster Eddie is becoming. And director Neil Burger (The Illusionist) matches his intensity. Working from the spiky script Leslie Dixon carved out of Alan Glynns 2001 novel The Dark Fields, Burger rides this escapist fantasy hard and in high style. Robert De Niro, in an expensive haircut that doesnt quite hide a thugs smile, adds menace as Carl Van Loon (love the name), a corporate mogul who wants to know where Eddie is getting his mojo. And Abbie Cornish blends passion found and lost into one lovely package. Still, this is Coopers show, and the Hangover star treats Eddie like a role to feast on, which he does with gusto. He catches all the drab self-loathing of a New York writer infamous for his failure to launch. The NZT provided by a friend who is promptly murdered is his ticket out, as long as his supply lasts. Enter the narcs, followed by higher forces eager to exploit the next big thing. The script sets up a witty premise that a few real-world cultural wunderkinds may have their own NZT. I never said you, Mark Zuckerberg.

The Complete Archive: Over 20 Years of Peter Travers Movie Reviews Now Online

OK, Limitless does have its limits. The plot hits some nasty speed bumps, and the ending is rote. But getting there is terrific, mind-bending fun. Watching Eddie flex his brain cells delivers a kick on par with Spider-Man testing his skills with small skips and jumps until he is leaping across rooftops. Take note: The pill isnt magic, it can only bring out the smarts you already possess. The real housewives of Nip/Tuck USA will still have a struggle. That makes Limitless a potent provocation for the Age of Adderall. Its a wet dream for anyone whos ever dreamed of getting an edge on the information highway. The worst side effect is that you wont believe a word of the damn thing in the morning. Fair exchange.

Oscars 2014: Just Keep Livin, If You Call This Livin

The big winners at last nights 16-hour Oscar ceremony: Dreams. Inspiration. Heroes. So live the impossible, because thats what Jared Letos mom would want. Just keep livin, because no matter where youre from, your dreams are valid and your magic is real. Hey, movie stars, we get it nobodys against dreams, right? We are all, as Fred Durst would put it, in agreeance here? But like Matthew McConaughey says, We all need somebody to look up to, somebody to look down on, somebody to chase, somebody to love, somebody to cream on and where am I again?

Oscars 2014s 25 best & worst moments

This was the most chaotic Oscar bash of recent years, with the laid-back Ellen DeGeneres leading the way. It was a slog, wasting way too much time on stupid can-you-not montages about heroes, inspirations and wizards. But if you happen to enjoy pointless award shows, a mellow, sloppy, just-keep-livin Oscars is more fun than a stiff, uptight, punch-the-clock Oscars. Ellen kept the mood light with her pizza, her selfies, her jokes about Jonah Hills nudity. (You showed me something in that film that I have not seen for a very long time.) She made Tina and Amy seem like Statler and Waldorf. She also made the excellent decision to go New Romantic, dressing up as Adam Ant in the Stand and Deliver video.

The stars were tragically well-behaved. Nobody dressed slutty or fell over drunk. People brought their moms and talked about their dreams. Jacqueline Bisset didnt show. Even Angelina didnt unleash the thigh. (But she doesnt have toby now, Angie has becomethe thigh.) When Cate Blanchett won Best Actress and told Julia Roberts to hashtag #suckit, it was a welcome taste of Hollywood bitchcraft that was over way too soon. Ego, people. An Oscar Night without ego is like Harrison Ford without a goatee.Every time Channing Tatum keeps his clothes on, the angels cry.

Jared Leto gave a sensitive and touching speech about his mom. For those of us who enjoy making fun of him, this speech was a bitter disappointment, especially since his hair was made of magic rainbow sparkles and his blue eyes danced with the mermaids. Then Leto kept talking and talking, and thats when we started to notice his needy camera-hog brother with the neck tattoo (and bandmate in the really-didnt-need-to-be-mentioned 30 Seconds to Mars). But this was still Letos least douchey moment since his Catalano days. Dont make a habit of this, Leetzwe all love hating you way too much.

The 16 best, worst & iciest Oscar fashions

McConaughey talked a bunch about God, which isnt really the kind of subject where youd consult McConaughey, and lemon meringue pie, which is. He revealed that his whole life, his hero has been himself in ten years. Most of us would agree that our hero is McConaughey 15 years ago, around the time of his epic 1999 nude-bongos bust, but he went Wooderson at the end of his speech, throwing in a truly inspiring All right, all right, all right with a chaser of just keep livin! And all this just a week after he flashed his ass on True Detective. Well played!

Karen O stole the show with The Moon Song a great moment for arty punk rock girls everywhere. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs rock goddess sang her doo-wop Bowie ballad, dressed in Old Hollywood glam, with Ezra Koenig very Kermit on guitar. It might have been the coolest Best Song performance since Isaac Hayes did Shaft. She got introduced by Zac Efron, because. . . well, no idea, but always nice to see Zac show up anywhere. Pharrell turned Happy into a Kids Incorporated dance-off with Meryl Streep. But the Best Song award went to Let It Go, performed by Idina Menzel. Whose name isnt that hard to pronounce, John Travolta.

Darlene Love celebrated 20 Feet From Stardom by singing a McConaughey-worthy hymn to the Man Upstairs, which brought Bill Murray to his feet. U2 gave her a shout-out later by slipping her name into Ordinary Love. It was the least Bono could do, since Darlene Love did the original Christmas (Baby Please Come Home). (They both kicked ass on the anti-apartheid single Sun City back in 1985, when Mandela was still in jail and the American president was still calling him a terrorist.)

Harrison Ford managed to come across as the baked-est-looking dude in the room. (And he was in the same room as McConaughey.) Bill Murray gave an ad-lib tribute to his Stripes army buddy Harold Ramis. Lupita Nyongo knows how to give a speech, as did the French guys who won Best Live Short. Kim Novak and Liza Minnelli repped the old school when Lupita won, Liza leaped up to tackle her with the nights scariest hug. I dont know about you, but I love the blue streak in Lizas hair Ive been a fan of Lizas new wave mode ever since she made that album with the Pet Shop Boys.

Speaking of Liza, they brought in Pink to sing Over the Rainbow as a tribute to The Wizard of Oz why exactly? I would much rather hear McConaughey sing If I Only Had a Brain. And why did they ruin the In Memoriam montage by censoring the Applause-o-Meter and then bringing in Bette Midler to sing Wind Beneath My Wings with a little flapping-gull arm action? Sure, competitive applause for dead movie stars is tacky and tasteless, but thats why its a great Hollywood tradition that should be preserved.

The orchestra deserves props for knocking it off with that rude habit of interrupting the speeches maybe by now, the Oscars have figured out that the speeches are the whole reason we watch. The orchestra also did a great job with WTF song selections all night anybody know why they introduced Kate Hudson and Jason Sudeikis with Feels Like The First Time?

The E! red carpet show, a low-budget mess as always, got even trashier this year with the addition of Laguna Beachbunny Kristin Cavallari, whose awesomely inane blather kept making Kelly Osbourne bristle with rage. Apparently the only fashion experts in E!s price range are refugees from MTV reality shows. Maybe next year they can bring in Wee-Man and Justin Bobby? Over on the ABC red carpet show we got Tyson Beckford, who rates about a zero for fashion expertise but a ten for looking hot while calling Julia Roberts Jessica.

One of the nights emotional highlights: Spike Jonze won a well-deserved Best Screenplay award for Her. Somewhere, the late great Nathaniel Hornblower was so proud of Spike.

Check out our complete coverage of Oscars 2014

Big Lebowski, Ferris Buellers Day Off Added to National Film Registry

The National Film Registry of the Library of Congress has selected a new crop of movies that it deems culturally, historically or aesthetically significant enough for preservation. Among the 25 films selected are two cult-favorite slacker adventure epics: the Coen brothers The Big Lebowskiand John Hughes Ferris Buellers Day Off. The Library praised the highly quoted Lebowskis themes of alienation, inequality and class structure and for positioning star Jeff Bridges in a career-defining role, and it described Hughes first film on the registry as a career highpoint significant for its depiction of late-20th century youth.

Other noteworthy movies include Steven Spielbergs war film Saving Private Ryan, Roman Polanskis horror Rosemarys Baby, Mel Stuarts beloved fantasy Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factoryand Arthur Penns Western drama Little Big Man. The new additions bring the number of motion pictures the Film Registry recognizes, which span the years 1913 to 2004, up to 650. The full selection of movies is viewable here.

The National Film Registry showcases the extraordinary diversity of Americas film heritage and the disparate strands making it so vibrant, James H. Billington, the Librarian of Congress, said in a statement. By preserving these films, we protect a crucial element of American creativity, culture and history.

In addition to the movies cultural significance or otherwise, the film must be at least 10 years old to qualify for inclusion into the registry.The Librarian of Congress decides the titles each year after reviewing nominations from the public, Library film curators and the National Film Preservation Board. The public can vote on next years additions on the Library of Congress website.

Hello Kitty: Check Out a Hilarious Clip From Inside Llewyn Davis

Theres nothing more foolish than a man chasing his hat, says a character in the Coen brothers 1990 movie Millers Crossing. If Inside Llewyn Davis, the latest from the filmmaking siblings, is any indication, Joel and Ethan Coen have apparently changed their opinions on the subject: Theres actually nothing more foolish than a man chasing his cat.

The Coen Brothers Talk Inside Llewyn Davis

The brothers affectionate look back at the early sixties Greenwich Village folk scene comes out on DVD today, and were presenting an extended and exclusive clip of the film right here. The scene starts out with Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac, in a role that Conor Oberst auditioned for), adown-and-out folksinger couch-surfing his way around New York, being woken up by a feline roommate. After the cat bolts out an open door, Llewyn chases down his friends pet and takes the kitty on the subway before dropping it off a friends house. The musician then hits up his cranky manager for money and, finally, gets an earful from an enraged fellow troubadour played by Carey Mulligan.

After premiering at Cannes and playing the New York film festival last year, the Coen brothers musical comedy-drama opened in limited release in December 2013 and made a number of critics year-end Top 10 lists. It quickly sparked a revival of the interest in the eras folk scene that spawned the likes of Bob Dylan and Dave Von Ronk particularly the latter, who provided a loose inspiration for Davis as well as a T-Bone Burnett-produced soundtrack of folk standards featuring Marcus Mumford of Mumford and Sons, Justin Timberlake and Punch Brothers singer Chris Thile. (A Julliard-trained actor and musician, Isaac himself sings the standard Dinks Song (Fare Thee Well) in the clip above, in an arrangement credited to Dylan.) Several of the musicians on the album also played an all-star celebratory concert in honor of the films last winter, which was captured in the documentary Another Day, Another Time.

Watch Seth Rogen Talk First R-Rated, Pixar-Style Movie Sausage Party

Seth Rogenappeared on the pre-NBA Finals Game 7 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! to talk about his new animated movie Sausage Party, a demented film about sentient food. Its probably one of the craziest things weve ever done, and we almost started a war, Rogen said, hearkening back to the time his North Korea-baiting The Interviewtriggered an international incident.

Its our goal to turn children off of food, Rogen said. Its an idea weve had. We love animated movies and we thought one day, What if our food had feelings? And then we thought, Itd be super messed up because we eat our food and it would be a horrible existence for them. And thats what the birthed the movie Sausage Party. We wanted to make the first R-rated, Pixar-style [film].

Rogens Kimmel interview ended with a surprise visit from a special guest: Baby Curry, the pudgy infant in a Golden State jersey whose been a reoccurring highlight during the late-night hosts special NBA Finals mini-episodes. However, whether it was the bright lights of the studios, the overwhelming audience response or the fact that he just didnt like Rogen, Baby Curry was not happy to meet the Sausage Party creator.

Sausage Party opens August 12th.

Damn You, Oscar Nominations 2013!

The 2013 Oscar nominations are in, and Peter Travers is piping mad. He has one simple message: Damn you, Hollywood!

There are plenty of snubs this year, but perhaps the most egregious is the omission of Kathryn Bigelow, who directed Best Picture-nominee Zero Dark Thirty. What, because you gave her an Oscar? exclaims Travers of the Best Director snub, recalling Bigelows 2008 win for The Hurt Locker. The first woman to win an Oscar for directing in 78 years, you thought, you did it? Its over now? Thats the end of women, we dont need to nominate them?

The Best Movies of 2012

Theres more. Also left out of the running was Ben Affleck, who proved hes becoming a director to be reckoned with on the Best Picture-nominated Argo, as well as Christopher Nolan and his final installment of the Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises. And withJohn Hawkes stunning performance as a polio-afflicted man looking to lose his virginity in The Sessionsgetting no recognition, Travers fumes,Your stupidity is amazing when I read these! Though Hawkes was left out of the Best Actor category, the stars of Travers favorite film of the year, The Master, all received nods: Joaquin Phoenix gets nominated, Best Actor, even though he calls the Oscars B.S. and hes right! Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams were also nominated, but not the film itself, or director Paul Thomas Anderson.

Oscar Nominations Shockers

And then theres the rotten icing on this terrible cake: None of the music written for Django Unchained by artists such as John Legend and Rick Ross grabbed a nod, while Quentin Tarantino was also left in the cold for Best Director.

You are stupid! All 5,900 members of the Academy should hide their head in shame for their ignorance, sexism and stupidity! Travers cries. And thats all I have to say, and I want to hear it from everybody out there damn you, Oscar!