20 Weeks To Oscar
Faster Oscarcat, Award, Award
by David Poland

It's looking like The Bookend Oscars this year... tune into see who gets Best Supporting Actor, take a three hour nap, then wake up to check out Best Picture. Nothing else seems terribly interesting... with due respect to the many whose hearts will be leaping out of their chests all day on Oscar day, regardless of how locked in many of the winners seem to be.

The Oscar Chart Quiz
1. Will Larry talk?
2. Could still pull the upset.
3. More nods to come.

MCN DVD Wrap-Up
Rent

It took 10 years for Rent to make the leap from Broadway to Hollywood, but only a month to disappear from the megaplexes. More >>

MCN Review: If Rent: The Movie was cut by 30 minutes, since somehow, on film, the rent battle becomes truly uninteresting, it might have been really terrific.

Pride, Unprejudiced: Chris Columbus says Rent is the movie he was born to make.

Plus: Wallace and Gromit, Domino, North Country, Rent, Zathura, All The President's Men, Emmanuel's Gift, Grey's Anatomy, The Journey, Just Like Heaven, La Bete Humaine, Midnight Cowboy, MirrorMask, Nine Lives, The Pretender, Proof, Significant Others, The Thing About My Folks, The Dick Cavett Show

___________________________

It's Oscartown, Jake
Romance, Passion
& A Murder Most Foul
by Kristopher Tapley

The imagination of Tim Burton is as identifiable as it is in the greatest of auteurs. From Beetlejuice to Big Fish, the sense that "this is a Tim Burton film" is incredibly potent with each passing frame. The director's films have warranted ten Oscar nominations and two wins since the 1985 release of his feature debut, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. But this is the first year in which Burton himself has received a nomination for his efforts.

The Weekend Report
by Leonard Klady

There was no chill in weekend movie going as the Arctic adventure Eight Below led the frame with an estimated $25.2 million. Close behind was the teen spoof Date Movie with $22.3 million and the remarkably resilient The Pink Panther at $21.5 million. The session’s other national debut Freedomland posted an unimpressive $6.9 million to rank seventh. Among the new niche entries, the Russian blockbuster Night Watch posted a dizzying $36,100 average from three venues.
Weekend Estimates (Full List)
Domestic Market Share

The Gurus Look At Oscar's Closest Races This Year, And Clooney Moves A Little Further Out In Front The Close Races The Big Eight First Impressions: All Categories

The Ultimate DVD Geek
Cinderella Man
by Doug Pratt

It's a great story. Martin Scorsese has probably poisoned boxing movies forever with the revelation that most boxers are violent, pig-headed lugs, but Braddock was genuinely good-natured and emotionally stable. As a result, however, Howard may have replicated the family scenes as accurately as if he'd found film from a camera hidden in the walls of the original Braddock apartment, and yet the movie can't shake the sense that the scenes away from the boxing ring are somehow false or artificial, because everyone is so nice. But the fights are thrilling—most viewers will duck and bob right along with the fighters—and the film is as honorable in its intentions as it is rousing in its dramatic arc.
MCN Review
Dretzka's DVD Review
The Hot Button

Five short documentaries about the number 12… What did you want to be when you were 12? Did you ever see a 12-toed cat? People—and animals—will always surprise you.

Updated throughout the day
Updated: 4:46 pm

International Trailering
Paul McGuigan's Lucky Number Sleven
Tom Tykwer's Perfume

The Truman Behind Capote

Lucky Number Sleven's International Trailer

Redford's Sundance Diagnosis
"It's gotten to the point now — almost to a breaking point — where there's a fever that has taken over the festival."

Oscar, Schmosker - It's Really About The Gift Bag

Quiz: Do You Know Your Remakes?

The Battsek Also Rises

Dennis Lim Goes To Rotter-Rotter-dam-dam-dam

Elaine May Gets Recapped In NY

Worth1000's Movie Mating... From Raylien To Saving Napoleon Dynamite

Sidney Lumet Looks At The Truth Of Network 30 Years Later
"To borrow from the NRA, TV doesn’t corrupt people; people corrupt people.”

The Howard Stern Film Festival - "The Next Generation Of Weird But Brilliant Filmmakers A Festival They Can Call Their Own"

The Paper Of Record Has The Oscar Pneumonia And The BuyMoreAdsNow Flu

The L.A. Times Starts Yet Another Blog To Combat The Evil Of Blogs... Including One Blog Entry Linking To Page Six About - You Guessed It! - Blogging

Peter Howell Grills Himself Over His Susceptibility To Oscar Hype

Aussie Papers On the Next Luhrmann
Here | And Here | And Here

Just When You Thought The Stupidest University Study On Movies Had Been Done, Duke And 2 Other Schools Find A New Bottom

Are You Ready To Look Back At Hiroshima 60 Years Later In The Mushroom Club?

Traditional Media Announces The Death Of The Blog

More Media Consolidation
Fox To Start A Second Network To Suck Up The Stations Left Behind By The UPN/WB Merger

"I'm an excellent driver."
Fast Eddie Havens Jerks Around The Oscar Stats In Some Remarkable Ways

Bowles Looks At The Impact Of Brokeback

Nick Broomfeld Returns To South African Racist, The Subject Of His First Doc, To Come Full Circle

Lestat, The Wedding Singer, And Johnny Cash All Heading To Broadway(link now working!)

Teen Queen Lindsay Lohan Doesn't Want To Be Called A Teen Queen

Hello Dean, It's The Contagious Film Festival

The Death Of Wellspring As A Theatrical Distributor Is Finally Official

Josh Horowitz Tracks Down Whit Stillman And Tries To Figure Out How He Got Slower Than Malick

Mark "Pop-O-Matic" Caro Asks Readers To Rank Bad Movie Titles

Well, At Least They Are Still Harrison Ford Crazy Down Under

Unknown White Male Under Million Tiny Little Attacks

King Kong Arrives On DVD Just 100 Days After Release

Charles Dickens And Crash .. Roger Ebert Draws The Parallels

Disney's Latest Direct-To-Video Sequel, Bambi II (aka Fiery Nemo) Beats Wallace, Gromit, The Rock & Reese

Where The Skeleton Key & Zathura Fight For Top Awards... The Saturn Award Nominations

The Paper Of Record Continues Its Slow And ShockingShocking Discovery Of The Decades Old Direct-To-Video Business

The Case Of The Lazy Sunday Short From Saturday Night Live Sheds Light On The Locked Down Future Of Every Piece Of Entertainment Being Monetized

C-3PO & R2D2 In Brokeback Star Wars

Forbes' Latest List... Top Ten Movies About Money

ACE Awards Eddies To Editors Of Crash & Walk The Line

The BAFTAs Love Brokeback Mountain .. Winning Four, (Film, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Supp Actor) While Losing Five... Crash Surprises With Supp Actress & Original Screenplay...Memoirs Of A Geisha Wins 3, Walk The Line 2, And Constant Gardener Surprises By Winning Only For Editing

From Herbie: Reloaded To An Oscar Nomination In The Same Year

Richard Bright (The Godfathers' Al Neri) Hit By Bus In NYC At 68

The World Tour...Of Movie Locations

And Now, After Showing Excellent Second Weekend Legs, This Story Has A Lot Of Legitimate Merit
Earlier - Claudia Eller On The Long Road To The Pink Panther Release... Which Will Actually Mean Something If The Film Has Legs, But Is, For Now, Just The First Not-Unkind Piece About Sony In A While After A Job Well Done By The Studio In Getting The Film Out There And Sold To Kids

Stacey Snider Rumors, Reported First Here At MCN, Turn Into Claudia Eller-Written Snider-Driven Detail... ParaWorks Strategic Positioning Aside, The Snider Era At Universal Is Over
Anne Thompson On Same

Michael London Gets $50 Million And $50 Million Credit To Self-Greenlight, Succeeding Strongly Via The Rule Of Three (Thirteen/ Sideways/ Family Stone) And Before The Stench Of The Illusionist Or The Turmoil At Paramount Can Slow Him