You might remember the post I threw up in October, letting you know that the one Oscar won by the epic film Citizen Kane was about to go on the auction block. The event had been a long time coming. As the story goes, Orson Welles had given the statue to a cinematographer as payment. He held it in secrecy, and all thought it was lost until it popped up at a Sotheby's auction in 1994. Welles' daughter threw a fit, sued the man and the auction house, and got the Oscar back. She then tried to sell it herself, and was sued by the Academy through their attempts to keep the statues off the market. She finally won the case, sold the auction to a foundation, and they then made a new deal with Sotheby's.

Rumor had it that the statue would sell for something like $800,000 to $1.2 million. Yeah, not quite. The BBC has reported that the famed statue didn't even sell. I wonder if the Dax Foundation is getting a little nervous over their investment. I imagine they purchased the statue thinking they could then get even more for it at auction, but visions of dollar signs and raining cash have most likely been replaced by visions of empty money bags. Unfortunately, all the Citizen Kane money for the day went to Welles' own personal working script for the film, which sold for $97,000.

So the auction didn't turn out as expected. Any thoughts as to why? Has movie memorabilia finally hit its monetary ceiling?

In 1937, nine year old Moyer "Sonny" Bupp was the highest paid male child extra in Hollywood. That was the year he co-starred as a crippled boy in the well-known Three Stooges short Cash and Carry. The same year he appeared in minor roles in Frank Capra's Lost Horizon, Busby Berkeley's Hollywood Hotel and the movie debut of Ronald Reagan, Love Is on the Air, in which Bupp also sings "London Bridge is Falling Down" and shares the screen with his older brother Tommy.

A few years later, Sonny Bupp played his most famous character, Charles Foster Kane III, son of the title character of Citizen Kane. In 1943, he appeared in his final film, Eyes of the Underworld (aka Criminals of the Underworld), then according to his death notice in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, he served in the army during World War II -- although he must have been only 17 by war's end. His death notice says he went on to work as an automotive warehouse manager, while the IMDb claims he was an executive at Ford Motors. Either way, it is sad news that Bupp passed away November 1, in Henderson, Nevada, leaving behind no more known remaining survivors of Kane.

Bupp, along with brother Tommy and sisters June and Ann, became child actors when their family moved from New York City to California in the early years of the Depression with some intentions of getting the kids into showbiz (a fifth sibling, Paul, never ended up getting in). Sonny and Tommy had the greatest success, and in addition to Love Is on the Air, they both appeared in San Francisco with Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy, Swing Your Lady with Humphrey Bogart, When Tomorrow Comes with Irene Dunne and Kid Millions, which also featured Ann. Aside from his recognizable roles in Cash and Carry and Citizen Kane, Bupp may also be familiar for playing President Lincoln's terminally ill son Willie in 1940's Abe Lincoln in Illinois, as well as for a significant role in Three Faces West with John Wayne. He appears as an extra in other major films, including Sergeant York, San Francisco, The Devil and Daniel Webster and Angels with Dirty Faces. He was profiled in Tom and Jim Goldrup's book Growing Up on the Set: Interviews with 39 Former Child Actors of Classic Film and Television, in which he's quoted as saying, "I never liked being a child actor in films. In fact, I dreaded seeing [his agent] Mr. Olynick's car parked in front of our house, knowing it meant going on another interview for a movie part ... There is no camaraderie at all in motion pictures."

You can see his few moments as little Charlie Kane in this section of Citizen Kane:

What is there left to say about Citizen Kane? It was not only Orson Welles' masterpiece, but it is also considered to be one of the best movies of all time. Charles Foster Kane, wonderfully played by Welles himself, was inspired by William Randolph Hearst -- the head of my favorite celebrity family. While many would put no film above it, Citizen Kane only scored itself one Oscar, for screenwriting, which Welles shared with Herman J. Mankiewicz. It lost all of its other Oscar nods, which just goes to show you that the gulf between moviegoers and the Academy is nothing new. Now Reuters is reporting that the one-of-a-kind statuette is about to be auctioned by Sotheby's.

It has been a long battle to get the Oscar on the auction block. The award was thought to be lost until it popped up at an earlier Sotheby's auction in 1994. A cinematographer who had once worked with Welles received it as payment, and had held it in secrecy until the auction. Welles' daughter Beatrice, however, sued the man and the auction house, and eventually got the Oscar back. But then she tried to sell it herself, and the Academy sued her in their efforts to keep the statuettes off the market. However, it wasn't until 1950 that the first right of refusal deal was made, so Citizen Kane's big award was in the clear.

She sold it to the Dax Foundation in 2003, and now they're finally bringing it back to Sotheby's without the legal issues. Estimates say that the award will probably be sold somewhere in the ballpark of $800,000 to $1.2 million. Considering the fact that Gone with the Wind sold for over $1.5 million in 1999, it might just go for even more. If you're rich, or you have lots of money-laden friends and family, you've got until December 11 to pull together the funds.

What do you get when you cross Citizen Kane with Ruthless People? Something that sounds like the greatest movie ever, right? Well, we'll see if that's really what we get when Peter Berg makes a movie about the kidnapping of teenage heir J. Paul Getty III. According to Variety, the actor/director is developing a project based on John Pearson's book "Painfully Rich: The Outrageous Fortune and Misfortunes of the Heirs of J. Paul Getty" (with that title, it sounds like another Bette Midler movie is thrown into the mix, too). For those who don't know the story, 16 year old Getty III was abducted in Rome and the kidnappers demanded $17 million. But his miserly grandfather -- the founder of Getty Oil -- initially refused to pay up. At first everyone thought the kid was pulling a prank. Eventually the poor teen's ear was mailed to the family. Finally, gramps paid, though he only did so with the assurance he'd be paid back by Getty II (his son) ... with interest. As for Getty III, well he became totally screwed up, turned to drugs and his life was ruined forever. Thanks grandpa!

The trade doesn't mention whether or not Berg, whose new film, The Kingdom, is now in theaters, will direct the pic; he's currently shooting the washed-up superhero movie Hancock, starring Will Smith, and then he's linked to a few other projects, including the true Navy SEAL story Lone Survivorr, the racehorse drama Gone Like the Wind, the Cheung fo remake The Mission and the fantasy Bran Mak Morn. He will definitely be involved in producing the Getty film, through his company Film 44, along with Working Title's Chris Clark (Catch a Fire). The adaptation of Pearson's book is being written by Robin Shushman, an apparent newbie (no IMDb listing) who is also currently writing the script for The Contortionist's Handbook. Hopefully she will make the thing twisted enough, and possibly add in some relevance to how good today's spoiled heirs have it.

I was a fan of The Simpsons back when they were still on The Tracy Ullman Show. But back then, I was a fan of anything on television. Those old shorts weren't even that funny. A few years later, though, when I grew out of watching TV, I remained loyal only to The Simpsons. Why? Because it got funnier, but also as a movie geek, I couldn't get enough of the series' constant homages to cinema. It seemed there were references in every single episodes. Some were little throwaway bits, either verbal or visual winks, while others were more blatant, full-on tributes or parodies. In both cases, there are sequences using near-exact shot duplication -- something only an animated show could do so well -- and these are the kinds of nods that kept me a fan for years and years and years (I did kind of abandon the series in its regular run after about 12 years, though).

There have been a number of guides and websites to The Simpsons that provide lists of movie references and parodies. However, none of them are visually comprehensive. Coming close, though, are a few sites that place side by side a Simpsons still and its corresponding reference. Here, we can really see how dead-on some of those frames are, and how loosely adapted some others are. So, in preparation for the soon-to-be-released Simpsons Movie DVD, a blog titled The Adventures of Accordian Guy in the 21st Century (aka JoeyDevilla.com) put up a decent collection of these comparison shots over the weekend. He admits he found the images, but his spread is appreciated, nonetheless. He also doesn't list the movies, so I'll take a second and list the ones included: The Shining; Vertigo; The Graduate; Citizen Kane; Miracle on 34th Street; A Clockwork Orange; The Godfather, Part II; Goodfellas; Tom Jones; The Karate Kid; Psycho; Full Metal Jacket; The Longest Day; Apocalypse Now; Stripes; An Officer and a Gentleman; The Ten Commandments; North by Northwest and Saboteur. Additionally, the blog has posted small, individual sections on Simpsons tributes to Raiders of the Lost Ark; Citizen Kane; Midnight Express; It's a Wonderful Life; 2001: A Space Odyssey; The Pride of the Yankees; One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest; How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Steamboat Willie.

Obviously there are countless more movies the blog doesn't include (commenters mention some good ones), as well as a number of shots and references within his list that are excluded. But we must understand that a comprehensive project would take a long, long time. However, if you know Spanish (or even if you don't), you could take a look at Actualidad Simpson's movie reference section, which is apparently where the blog got the images (I couldn't tell you if they took them from elsewhere), and where there are lots, lots, lots more (with titles).

It's getting to the point where one could make a list of the "Top 100 Movie Lists Released in 2007," and still have some left over. Yet another one hit the net this weekend, "The Online Film Community's Top 100 Movies." Here's how the list was formed: over 50 movie website writers (you can see the list of participants on the site) were asked for an unranked list of their top 100 movies. The list could include any feature-length film, in any language, including documentaries. From there, the list of nominees was narrowed to 502 films. Then all the contributors were sent the nominee list, picked and ranked their top 100 choices, and those choices were "scored according to placement on each list as well as factoring in the amount of lists it appeared on." Got all that? The final collection they came up with skews a bit more modern, a bit more "genre film" heavy, and a lot more action-packed than most similar lists.

The major change here is that, for once, Citizen Kane is not the highest ranked film. The Godfather is in the number one spot here (don't worry Kaners, it's #2). No documentaries made the cut, and foreign films are in fairly short supply. The only two animated films on the list are Pixar -- Toy Story and The Incredibles. We all love the classics, but what sets this list apart is how many oft-neglected recent films made it. I would imagine that is due to the younger age of the average online writer. On the action side, it's great to see films like Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Heat, Aliens, and the glorious Die Hard make the grade. As far as comedies go, happy to see Back to the Future, The Big Lebowski, Groundhog Day, Ghostbusters and Ed Wood get some love. As for dramas, hooray for L.A. Confidential, Blue Velvet, Do the Right Thing, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I've got some grievances, of course. Fight Club a better movie than Goodfellas? Ridonkulous! Run Lola Run superior to Unforgiven? Unforgivable! But it's a really solid collection, and one I'd imagine will find more support from Cinematical readers than, say, the AFI's recent ranking.

"This list...is an absolute good." Well, it's an absolute "pretty good." As I told you yesterday, the American Film Institute has refreshed its "100 Years ... 100 Movies" list. From a master list of 400 films, a panel that included directors, screenwriters, actors, editors, cinematographers, critics, and historians, selected their top 100 choices. The original list came out in 1998, and last night's special taught us that apparently not many great films have been released since then! The new poll allowed voters to select movies released between 1996 and 2006 for the first time. Of the newly eligible films, only Titanic, Saving Private Ryan, The Sixth Sense, and Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring were added. Steven Spielberg was the director with the most films on the list, with five. Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, and Billy Wilder each had four. James Stewart and Robert DeNiro were the most represented actors, with five films apiece. You can check out the list for yourself here.

I can sit and watch these things for hours. I don't care how many times I hear about the shark not working, I still love it. But to be honest, last night's special was a bit dull. These lists tend to be painfully predictable, and this was no exception. Citizen Kane was ranked #1 yet again, and the only major additions to the Top 10 were Raging Bull (jumping from #24 to #4) and Vertigo (jumping from #61 to #9). New to the 2007 list are the following films: The General, Intolerance, Nashville, Sullivan's Travels, Cabaret, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Shawshank Redemption, In The Heat of the Night, All the President's Men, Spartacus, Sunrise, A Night at the Opera, 12 Angry Men, Swing Time, Sophie's Choice, The Last Picture Show, Blade Runner, Toy Story and -- a special cheers to this one -- Do the Right Thing, though it came in at a pretty weak #96.

Titles that were removed from the 1998 list are: Doctor Zhivago, Birth of a Nation, From Here to Eternity, Amadeus, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Third Man, Fantasia, Rebel Without a Cause, Stagecoach, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Manchurian Candidate, An American in Paris, Wuthering Heights, Dances With Wolves, Giant, Mutiny on the Bounty, Frankenstein (1931), Patton, The Jazz Singer, My Fair Lady, A Place in the Sun, Guess Who's Coming To Dinner and Fargo. Make of those additions and subtractions what you will, but show me one person who'd rather watch Intolerance than Fargo, and I'll show you someone who is no friend of mine.

Well, I know what I'll be doing tonight! The American Film Institute is announcing its new "100 Years...100 Movies" list this evening, and as much as I tend to disagree with their annual lists, I can't wait. The special airs at 8PM on CBS, and will be hosted by...you guessed it, Morgan Freeman. Yes, they already did this list once before, in 1998. Tonight's special marks the 10th anniversary, and there was an entirely new vote conducted this time out. The previous list caused quite a controversy because of what it included (British films on an American list?) and what it left off, specifically films by black or female directors (the snub of Do the Right Thing still stings). 1998's top ten were as follows: 10) Singin' in the Rain, 9) Schindler's List, 8) On the Waterfront, 7) The Graduate, 6) The Wizard of Oz, 5) Lawrence of Arabia, 4) Gone with the Wind, 3) The Godfather, 2) Casablanca, 1) Citizen Kane. It's hard to imagine tonight's top ten list will change drastically, although I'd expect Schindler's List to drop a few spots.

As limited in scope as these lists can be, I eagerly look forward to every one. I can recall excitedly printing out the 1998 list and seeking out the few I hadn't seen. The lil' film fans of today need this sort of thing to know where to start with an appreciation of American film. The AFI intends to "refresh" the list once a decade -- 43 newer movies are in contention this time that weren't last time around, including The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Finding Nemo, L.A. Confidential, Fight Club, Spider-Man 2, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Brokeback Mountain, Chicago (Oh please), Crash (Oh please!), and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (Oh, puh-leeeeease!!!). Over at AFI.com, you can watch videos of stars talking about their favorite movies, as well as download a ballot for yourself, select your favorite 100, and see how well you match up tonight.

Firstshowing.net has Part One of a two-part guest post by Jason Kaleko on whether we are living in the Age of the Sequel, and if originality in Hollywood is dead as a doornail. Jason cites the AFI 100 and notes that only one film in the entire list is a sequel. True enough, but true also that a lot of them were based on existing source material -- they were not completely original ideas. Just looking at the Top Ten of that list: Casablanca was based off a play, Everybody Comes to Rick's; The Godfather was an adaptation of Mario Puzo's novel; Lawrence of Arabia was based off the writings of T.E. Lawrence, a British officer who spent time in Arabia from 1915-1918; and Gone With the Wind, Wizard of Oz, The Graduate, Schindler's List were all book adaptations. The only truly original works in the Top Ten are Citizen Kane, On the Waterfront, and Singin' in the Rain -- which is not to say that the other films aren't good. It's certainly as much of an art form to adapt an exisiting work as it is to write from scratch.

I don't think there was really any more originality in Hollywood back in the "good old days" than there is now. Studios bought the rights to books, they hired screenwriters (or used underpaid screenwriting staff) to pen adaptations, they made the film. Perhaps it just seems more glaringly bad at the moment because of Hollywood's current love affair with comic-book adaptations and sequels of comic-book adaptations; that trend too, as all Hollywood trends must, will eventually have its end. In the meantime, there's still plenty of original film being made, even it most of it comes out of the indie world. We'll have to check back with First Showing next weeked to see what Jason has to say in Part Two; it feels like he's segueing into talking about indies.

In the meantime, though, what do you film fans and fanatics out there think? Is originality really dead in Hollywood? Or has the death of originality been greatly over-exaggerated?

If you live in Japan and love classic movies, you are in luck. Actually this luck is probably old news to you. You probably are already aware that over 200 Paramount titles are available on DVD for low, low prices thanks to First Trading Corp., which releases films whose copyrights have expired. But now your luck is legally going to continue since a Japan court ruled in favor of First Trading's right to sell the DVDs, which go for as low as 500 Yen ($4.40) and include favorites Citizen Kane, Casablanca and Roman Holiday.

So why are we Americans still paying full price? Well, in 2004, a law extended the copyright on films an extra 20 years. Therefore we can't get Casablanca for cheap until 2012. But apparently Japan is interpreting the extension differently than us. Paramount Pictures went to the Japan court in May with an injunction request to stop First Trading's distribution of their titles, but on Tuesday Judge Makiko Takabe denied their claims. He said the extension law should not retroactively include films who went into public domain before the law was passed. Therefore First Trading has free reign on all titles released in and before 1953.