While G.I. Joe certainly isn't the first movie to use Slurpee straws as a marketing tool, when you take into consideration all the bad buzz that's been following the flick around for the past several months, it's almost as if Paramount handed this joke to us all on a silver platter. Yes, those of you lucky enough to suck down your slurpee through one of these special straws will get the chance to own a limited edition G.I. Joe straw figure, complete with its own easy-to-make-fun-of awkward pose. There's four all together, and fans will get to choose from Snake Eyes, Duke, Storm Shadow and the Baroness. I actually think the Snake Eyes one is pretty cool (though Snake Eyes is always cool), but I honestly have no idea what's going on with the other characters. I mean, Duke looks like he's either praying or attempting to squeeze one out. You tell me ...

One imagines you'll be able to find these straws at your local 7-Eleven once we inch closer to the film's August 7 release date. Check out larger images of all four characters below.



[via Topless Robot]

Now that the Academy Awards have extended the best picture category to include ten nominees instead of five, you bet your bottom half we're going to start seeing some pretty bold claims when it comes to fan favorites, like Star Trek, Watchmen and the upcoming Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. With a couple weeks still to go before Half-Blood Prince finally hits theaters, Hollywood.com's Paul Dergarabedian looks to be the first to champion the film for a possible best picture nomination.

Having watched the movie at an advanced screening, he says, "... the Potter loving beast in me has been unleashed after having witnessed a film that was not only exquisite in its production values, but was also charming, funny, scary, enchanting, moving (stop me, the adjectives could go on and on) and dare I say, sexy. Brilliantly directed by David Yates (he directed 2007's "Harry Potter and the Order of The Phoenix"), "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" is a tour-de-force that combines style and substance, special effects and heart and most importantly great performances from all of the actors young and not-so-young. Not only that, half-way through I'm thinking the unthinkable - "ten academy awards nominations are available this year, hmm I wonder...."

Granted, the folks from Hollywood.com could be angling themselves for some Potter quotes in print and in future trailers, but seeing as Lord of the Rings had its time in the Oscar spotlight -- coupled with the fact that Potter is nearing his big-screen finale -- I wouldn't be surprised if Half-Blood Prince nabbed one of those ten spots. You?

Over on the website TNMC (via AICN), they have up a review of the Star Trek shooting script which picks out and describes the scenes that didn't make the final cut -- scenes that were probably shot and cut for a number of different reasons (pacing, running time, etc ..), but will hopefully arrive on the DVD. It's a shame, too, because some of these scenes seem to address my main problem with the movie: the boring villain, Nero (as played by Eric Bana). The scenes in question (which involve an entire Klingon subplot!) appear to give Nero more depth as a character, so hopefully we'll get to see them eventually. Here are a few descriptions from the site:

"The opening sequence, which sees the destruction of the USS Kelvin at the hands of Nero and his mining ship the Narada, has an extra bit we didn't see. While the Narada is trying to recover from being rammed by the Kelvin, bunches of Klingon warbirds decloak and surround it. This leads to a major subplot entirely removed from the final film."

"Next we go the Rura Penthe Klingon Prison Asteroid where Nero and his crew are being held. The Klingons catch someone trying to smuggle Federation maps to him. The Klingons begin to interrogate Nero, during which we learn that he has been there for ten years and hasn't said a word that whole time. The Klingons have a notebook of his that is full of drawings and calculations relating to Spock and his Jellyfish ship. They decide to use that slug thing we saw Nero using on Captain Pike in the finished film."

Read more at SciFi Squad

The following post contains the descriptions of two scenes in Iron Man 2 (possible spoilers), so read on at your own risk ...

In the fictional Iron Man world, Tony Stark (aka Iron Man) helps to save many lives -- but this latest bit of news actually takes place in the real world, and involves the heroics of the actor who plays Tony Stark, Robert Downey Jr. While shooting a scene involving "a group of people running away from a group of robotic villains," an extra was knocked to the ground by a stuntman in a robot suit. With chaos ensuing during the scene, Downey Jr. was the only one to realize that the man was actually injured as he called for help while on the ground. The actor then jumped into the scene and yelled "Cut! Cut!" while the cameras were still rolling, then stayed with the fallen extra until paramedics arrived. The injured man was taken to a nearby hospital where he was diagnosed with a broken hip. We here at Cinematical wish him a speedy recovery ... and, um, we're now dying to learn more about this robot villain stampede scene. [IOL]

UPDATE: Paramount contacted Cinematical to say that the above story is not true. No one was injured on the set and no one was saved.

In other Iron Man 2 news, the website Nuke the Fridge claims to know who (or what) Stan Lee will be playing in the sequel. Fans of Marvel are already well aware of the fact that Stan Lee makes a cameo in some Marvel-related movies (based on the characters he had a part in creating), and so who will he be playing in Iron Man 2? Head after the jump to find out ...

It was just last week that anime fans the world over breathed a sigh of relief that Leonardo DiCaprio's live-action Akira was no more. But, that doesn't mean Hollywood has lost its taste for anime, and there are still plenty of other reboots headed our way. So while most of them have stayed in development limbo, two of the more popular titles: Cowboy Bebop and Robotech have started to make new ground, and some of the people involved are starting to talk.

Cowboy Bebop:
When the live action film of the beloved anime was first announced, fans were not thrilled with the idea. Plus, it probably didn't help that Keanu Reeves was taking the role of Spike. But, maybe we shouldn't count out the film yet, because when it comes to the film's screenwriter, there is good news and some bad news. But, let's start with the good news. In an interview with Anime Vice, Craig was asked about whether or not he was familiar with the series, and to his credit, Craig went into full fan-boy mode, telling them about some of his favorite episodes and that both he and Reeves have been meeting with Sunrise studio (the creator of the anime) to make sure that the original 'feel' of the show remains intact. According to Craig, "they [Sunrise] were very specific about their vision for the series, and how it might convert to a live-action film." -- sounds promising, right? Well, the bad news is that Craig has zero experience with sci-fi, and made his name writing about con-men and dysfunctional families. But, I'm going to remain hopeful that with Sunrise watching over the flick, there might be a chance we get something a little better than expected.

Read the rest over at SciFi Squad

The Avengers' mighty writer Zak Penn gave a nifty little update on all things Marvel yesterday, and it completely slipped past my radar. Better late than never though, right?

SciFi Wire caught up with Penn right as he was on the verge of another Marvel meeting. With Iron Man 2 well underway, they're beginning to knit together the continuity and overlap the plotlines: "I'm taking a meeting next week with the Thor and Captain America people, and we are all going to get together, and I will see what is going to happen. I'll see where they are leaving the characters; it's pretty complicated. ... There's a board that is tracking what is happening. [We'll see] how this movie overlaps in that movie ... Marvel is autonomous now. It is night and day: Everyone has read every comic. They know how to make a cool movie." (Low wages or not, wouldn't you just love to work for Marvel?)

Every compliment Penn has for Marvel is a backhanded slap to his old parent studio, Fox. He revealed that he was frustrated while writing X-Men and X2 because he was dying to do a crossover, and bring in the Fantastic Four.
"They're doing Captain American and Thor first, and then Avengers is coming out," Penn said. "They want to see that they're all connected, not like the Fantastic Four can't come into the X-Men world, like I was told ... It is a world of difference [at Marvel]; it is a lot easier to do things like that, and they encourage it." Here I'll leave off so you can weep at the missed opportunities, and wish we lived in an Ultimate Universe where Marvel still owned their entire stable of heroes.

I have to imagine Sandra Bullock is in a pretty good mood since The Proposal gave her the strongest opening weekend of her career. Year One got off to a so-so start, with holdovers The Hangover and Up forcing the prehistoric comedy into fourth place. Here's the top five:

1. The Proposal: $33.6 million
2. The Hangover: $26.7 million
3. Up: $23.4 million
4. Year One: $19.6 million
5. The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3: $12 million

Two wildly different movie coming out this week:

My Sister's Keeper
What's It All About: When a young girl (Abigail Breslin) learns she was conceived to create a compatible bone marrow donor for her ailing sister she sues her parents for emancipation.
Why It Might Do Well: This is a smart bit of counter programming since the audience for this movie will probably not intersect with the Transformers crowd. Right now there's a 100% rating at Rottentomatoes.com, though only five reviews are in.
Why It Might Not Do Well: The plot seems pretty heavy for a Summer release.
Number of Theaters: 2,600
Prediction: $9 million

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Opens Wednesday)
What's It All About: Michael Bay directs this big budget special effects sequel about giant alien robots using Earth as their battlefield. Much of the original cast returns including Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox.
Why It Might Do Well: In addition to having all the effects, action and explosions a Summer blockbuster requires, the first film in the franchise had a $70 million opening weekend and went on to gross $319 million domestically.
Why It Might Not Do Well: A lowly 22% at Rottentomatoes.com.
Number of Theaters: 4,000
Prediction: $98 million