Since I'm not the biggest fan of 'swords and shields' styled fantasy (i.e. The Chronicles of Narnia), you'll understand why I'm kind of relieved to discover that the new crop of young fantasy flicks are going to be just a little more 'steam punk.' The Hollywood Reporter announced that Shekhar Kapur (Elizabeth) has signed to direct the feature film version of the youth fantasy novel Larklight for Warner Bros. Kapur will be working with Eastern Promises scribe, Steven Knight to adapt the novel for the big screen.

Larklight is the first book in a series by Phillip Reeve with illustrations provided by David Wyatt. The story is set in an alternate Victorian-styled universe where since the time of Sir Isaac Newton, humanity has been relentlessly exploring the solar system. The protagonists are Arthur Mumby (called Art), his sister Myrtle and their father Edward. The three live in a rambling mansion called Larklight and in the first book of the series, the three get into a series of scrapes with giant spiders from outer space.

The Sunny D-drinking Juno might not have gotten any Genie nomination love, but that left the door wide open for two other Canadian pictures, both of which swept the Genie Awards last night. Sarah Polley's Away From Her and David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises led the evening, with each picking up seven honors. But it was the young, new director who really stole the spotlight.

I'm happy to say that while Sarah Polley didn't get any winning Oscar love, she did score the biggies last night -- Best Motion Picture, Achievement in Direction, and Adapted Screenplay, while star Gordon Pinsent won for best actor, Julie Christie for best actress, and Kristen Thomson for best supporting actress. With Polley's Claude Jutra Award, that's seven. So, while the number of wins might have been even for both Polley and Cronenberg, Sarah made an impressive impact on the ceremony.

Eastern Promises, meanwhile, picked up Genies for cinematography, editing, original score, supporting actor for Armin Mueller-Stahl, overall sound, sound editing, and original screenplay. There was also a little love for flicks like Fido and Silk in the few awards that remained once the other two cleaned house. Things might have been a bit different if Juno was in the running, but I'm thrilled to see Polley's film sweep all the big awards. How about you?

Continuing awards season, Canada's film awards, The Genies, announced their nominees last night. It's no surprise that David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises is leading the charge with 12 nominations, an honor it is sharing with Roger Spottiswoode's Rwandan Dallaire drama Shake Hands with the Devil. The other Canadian biggie, Sarah Polley's Away From Her, only scored itself 7 nods, which is a bit of a bummer. Regardless, there's a lot of great CanCon in there, and it should make for a difficult decision come March 3rd.

Catch some of the big nominees below, and the rest after the jump:

Best Motion Picture -- Away From Her, Continental, a Film Without Guns, Eastern Promises, Days of Darkness, Shake Hands with the Devil

Achievement in Direction -- Sarah Polley (Away From Her), David Cronenberg (Eastern Promises), Denys Arcand (Days of Darkness), Roger Spottiswoode (Shake Hands with the Devil), Bruce McDonald (The Tracey Fragments)

Actor in a Leading Role -- Gordon Pinsent (Away From Her), Viggo Mortensen (Eastern Promises), Marc Labreche (Days of Darkness), Claude Legault (The 3 Little Pigs), Roy Dupuis (Shake Hands with the Devil)

Actor in a Supporting Role -- Gilbert Sicotte (Continental, a Film Without Guns), Armin Mueller-Stahl (Eastern Promises), Guillaume Lemay-Thivierge (The 3 Little Pigs), Danny Glover (Poor Boy's Game), Michel Ange Nzojibwami (Shake Hands with the Devil)

Actress in a Leading Role -- Julie Christie (Away From Her), Beatrice Picard (My Aunt Aline), Ellen Page (The Tracey Fragments), Anne-Marie Cadieux (You), Molly Parker (Who Loves the Sun)

Actress in a Supporting Role -- Kristen Thompson (Away From Her), Fanny Mallette (Continental, a Film Without Guns), Marie-Ginette Guay (Continental, a Film Without Guns), Laurence Leboeuf (Ma fille mon ange), Veronique Le Flaguais (Comment survivre a sa mere)

Best Actor (Drama)

Nominees:

George Clooney -- Michael Clayton

Daniel Day-Lewis -- There Will Be Blood

James McAvoy - Atonement

Viggo Mortensen -- Eastern Promises

Denzel Washington --American Gangster

Predicted Winner: Daniel Day-Lewis -- There Will Be Blood

Not much of a race here. The Cinematical staff (indeed much of the film-watching world in general) thinks that Mr. Day-Lewis is a dead-solid lock to win the Globe, the Oscar, and even the vaunted People's Choice. (As if "the people" want to see a three-hour movie about oil.) Even if There Will Be Blood (somehow) leaves you cold, there's no denying that DDL's performance is a thing of thespianic beauty.

Now it's your turn to vote ...

DVD hounds know that Tuesday is normally DVD release day. With Christmas falling on a Tuesday this year, though, release schedules have been blown up; some releases moved up to Sunday, and others have been delayed until Wednesday.

In what appears to be an inspired bit of seasonal counter-programming, the DVD debut of David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises has been heavily advertised on TV the past week ... which is kinda weird, because I don't remember very much advertising for the theatrical release. Selective memory on my part, or is it more cost efficient for distributor Focus Features? Sad to admit, but I missed this when it played in cinemas a short time ago, so I'm looking forward to catching it now. Cinematical's Ryan Stewart appeared to like it, but not as much as the director's previous film, A History of Violence. The DVD includes two features on the making of the film.

I can't believe I'm recommending a Hong Kong film that's reminiscent of Three Men and a Baby, but it's a very thin week for new indie releases and besides, it's not as bad as it sounds. Jackie Chan stars in Robin B Hood (retitled from its original English title, Rob B Hood) as one of a trio of irresponsible burglars who must take care of a baby and grow up in the process.

As I wrote when I reviewed it for another site early this year: "It must be acknowledged: Jackie Chan moves with more agile grace, and subjects his body to greater punishment, than any other 52-year-old multi-millionaire in the entertainment industry. The problem here, though, is the same one that has often dragged down his films -- the non-action scenes." If you're an action junkie, though, it's worth a rental for some of Chan's best stunt work in years. The DVD includes two features, two interviews, and an audio commentary by director Benny Chan.

One of my favorite times of the year is seeing what will pop on for Canada's Top Ten. Every year, Cinematheque Ontario releases the films they believe are the country's top 10 of the year, and tops off great selections with panel events with filmmakers and stars. It's the series that introduced me to Guy Maddin, while letting me relish quintessential Canadian talent like Sarah Polley and Calum Keith Rennie. Being outside of the big-studio system, the 10 are also pretty diverse, interesting, and challenging. In the last few years alone, they've screened the likes of Away from Her, C.R.A.Z.Y., Ryan, The Saddest Music in the World, Ararat, and Ginger Snaps.

Now it's time for this year's selections, and along with the features released yesterday in a press statement, the collection includes short films -- all of which will screen from January 25-February 5 at Cinematheque Ontario. Without further ado, here are the lucky films:

Features

L' Âge des ténèbres -- Denys Arcand
Amal -- Richie Mehta
Continental, un film sans fusil (Continental, a Film Without Guns) -- Stéphane LaFleur
Eastern Promises -- David Cronenberg | TIFF Review
Fugitive Pieces -- Jeremy Podeswa
My Winnipeg -- Guy Maddin | TIFF Review
A Promise to the Dead: The Exile Journey of Ariel Dorfman -- Peter Raymont | TIFF Review
The Tracey Fragments -- Bruce McDonald | Berlinale Review, Cannes Review
Up the Yangtze -- Yung Chang
Young People F*cking -- Marin Gero | TIFF Review

Shorts

Code 13 -- Mathieu L. Denis, The Colony -- Jeff Barnaby, Dust Bowl Ha! Ha! -- Sebastien Pilote, Farmer's Requiem -- Ramses Madina, Les Grands -- Chloe Leriche, I Have Seen the Future -- Cam Christiansen, I Met the Walrus -- Josh Raskin, Madame Tutli-Putli -- Chris Lavis, Maciek Szczerbowski, Pool -- Chris Chong Chan Fui, Terminus -- Trevor Cawood

Panels will include the likes of Bruce McDonald, Richie Mehta, Robert Lantos, David Weaver, and Jamie Travis.

No huge surprises in last weekend's box office returns. Jodie Foster's new thriller took the lead with slithery CGI serpents bringing up the rear at number five. Superbad is definitely getting some McLovin' after being in the top five for five weeks now. Here are the numbers from last weekend:

The Brave One: $13.4 million
3:10 to Yuma: $8.9 million
Mr. Woodcock: $8.7 million
Superbad: $5.1 million
Dragon Wars: $5 million

This weekend we've got three new releases, plus two more flicks going into wider release. Check it out:

Good Luck Chuck
What's It All About: Dane Cook plays a man cursed. Every woman he has ever slept with has found true love with the next person they meet after dumping him. Now that he's in love with a woman played by Jessica Alba he has to find a way to break the curse.
Why It Might Do Well: Judging from the trailer, Ms. Alba spends at least part of the film in her underwear. Not a bad thing.
Why It Might Not Do Well: The plot synopsis and all the pratfalls in the trailer remind me way too much of Three's Company.
Number of Theaters: 2,500
Prediction: $10 million

Resident Evil: Extinction
What's It All About: Milla Jovovich returns as Alice, kicking zombie butt in the Nevada desert and taking on the evil Umbrella Corporation in this third installment of the video game-based franchise.
Why It Might Do Well: Halloween's success at the box office showed that people are up for a good scare, and for my money I'll take a zombie flick over a slasher movie any day of the week. I'm even willing to overlook my lukewarm feelings about Resident Evil: Apocalypse.
Why It Might Not Do Well: The list of crappy movies based on video games is a long and sad one.
Number of Theaters: 2,700
Prediction: $22 million

Sydney White
What's It All About: Amanda Bynes stars in this modern take on Snow White, playing a college student who after being rejected by the sorority she hoped to join is taken in by seven dorks.
Why It Might Do Well: Bynes has a great sense of comedic timing. If you thought The Amanda Show was just for kids, you might be surprised at how intelligent the humor was.
Why It Might Not Do Well: It's basically a teen comedy, and Superbad is a tough act to follow.
Number of Theaters: 1,900
Prediction: $7 million

And, although these next two opened last weekend, they're both spreading out into a greater number of theaters:

Across the Universe
What's It All About: A musical love story that takes place in the turbulent 1960s set to the music of The Beatles.
Why It MIght Do Well: It looks downright trippy, and it's got Beatles tunes. What's not to love?
Why It Might Not Do Well: It's not a huge release so this won't make the top five.
Number of Theaters: 400
Prediction: $2.5 million

Eastern Promises
What's It All About: David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen, the director and star of A History of Violence, re-team for this thriller. Naomi Watts plays a London midwife who comes into possession of a diary that could be dangerous for Russian mobsters.
Why It MIght Do Well: After their last collaboration, I'm dying to see what Mortensen and Cronenberg come up with.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Oh, don't be so negative.
Number of Theaters: 1,325
Prediction: $8 million


Here's how I'm betting things will go this coming weekend:
1. Resident Evil: Extinction
2. Good Luck Chuck
3. The Brave One
4. Eastern Promises
5. Sydney White

And here's how our little competition went last week:
1. Josh: 13
2. Matt: 11
2. Anna07: 11
2. Porcalina: 11
3. Ness265: 9
3. drklrdbill: 9
4. Lee: 8
4. Max: 8
4. Brad: 8
5. Ray: 7
6. peter: 6
7. ABIRD0006: 4
7. MikeJM79: 4

Here's how the competition works:
Please post your prediction in the comments section below before 5:00PM on Saturday. One point for every top five movie correctly named, two points for every correct placement, and one extra point for the top movie.

Another gory mafia story from David Cronenberg, this time set not in America's heartland but in the Russian immigrant community of London. Eastern Promises stars Viggo Mortensen as a limo driver and hired muscle for the mob whose life gets very complicated when a young woman is raped and murdered, but not before she leaves behind some crucial evidence that could tie the crime to the mob -- her newborn baby. She also leaves behind a diary, which falls into the hands of a London midwife, played by Naomi Watts. Whereas A History of Violence had a strong forward momentum and a relatively streamlined story, Eastern Promises is sprawling, with more characters to juggle, crosses and double-crosses to keep straight and the kind of attention to detail -- there's a whole Russian mafia 'making' ceremony, for example -- that some will find interesting and others will find tedious. It's a dense, tightly-wound and plotty picture that stops here and there for a bit of blood-curdling violence that will have undoubtedly some audience members on the verge of throwing up.

The film's cast does a uniformly fine job, with Viggo Mortensen never letting his accent slip. Even though we know intellectually that he's putting it on, we can still persuade ourselves to buy him as a Russian import from a tougher, more heartless culture where being the least-talkative person in the room is always some kind of sign of good sense. I especially liked his habit of plunking down his cigarettes wherever he finishes them, which says more about his underlying character than a lot of the dialogue he's given. Among the rest of the cast, Vincent Cassel is a standout as Kirill, the boss's son who thinks he can slap around anyone he wants with impunity and expects to inherit his father's empire. Cassel has been turning in good performances for years and doesn't get nearly as much credit as he deserves, but hopefully more roles in high-profile films like this one will fix that. As for Naomi Watts, she has a more or less thankless role as the straight woman reacting to events around her and trying to protect the baby.

It might just be me, but Viggo Mortensen always struck me as the kind of actor who was just better suited for dark and heavy material. I'm sure he's nowhere near that tortured in his day-to-day life, but for me, the man is built for drama. MTV Movies Blog spoke with the actor about his latest collaboration with Canadian director David Cronenberg, Eastern Promises, (you can catch James' TIFF interview with the director here) and Mortensen clued them in to what his next role might be. He tells MTV that he's close to signing to star in the film version of the Pulitzer prize-winning novel The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. According to the actor, "They're going to make a movie of that and the people making [it] have expressed interest [in me]. Visually, it's going to be a very beautiful movie. It's a very good story". News of the adaptation surfaced last November, when Nick Wechsler purchased the rights to the novel and hired The Proposition's John Hillcoat to presumably direct.

The novel centers on a father and son who are survivors of a "doomsday" scenario, traveling towards the coast while battling other survivors who have turned cannibal. Released in 2006, the book was an Oprah book club selection (but try not to hold that against it) and spent some time on the best-seller list. Back in April Joe Penhall was hired to adapt the book, which will the be the latest in a series of adaptations of the authors work with The Coen's No Country for Old Men, followed by Ridley Scott's Blood Meridian in 2009. Having read the book, I can speak from experience that it's a harrowing story that does a spectacular job of showing you the nobility and the depravity we are all capable of in the name of survival. Mortensen is still working on the period drama Good, and will also appear in the Ed Harris Western drama, Appaloosa. So while nothing is official, I would assume that if Mortensen is already spilling the beans to MTV, then it would seem all that's left to do is sign on the dotted line.

Somehow, and with a surprising minimum of fuss, David Cronenberg went from being Canadian cinema's most notorious bad boy to being one of its elder statesmen. Mention this to Cronenberg and he laughs. "I don't think I've changed at all." Cronenberg's latest, Eastern Promises, explores many of the same themes as his last film, A History of Violence -- it's a exploration of morality and memory, wrapped in the cut-and-thrust clothes of a crime thriller. A London midwife (Naomi Watts) delivers a child to a dying mother -- and in the search for the child's surviving family, begins translating her diary; Viggo Mortensen plays the thuggish driver and Russian emigre tasked with getting the diary back at all costs. Cinematical had the pleasure of speaking with Cronenberg on a pre-Toronto press stop in San Francisco about working with Viggo Mortensen again, London's bustling modern cityscape and why it's not so much that he's moved past making horror films than it is how the genre's fallen behind. You can listen directly here at Cinematical by clicking below:



You can listen to the interview by clicking here.