If you're an iTunes subscriber and a Joss Whedon fiend, you were probably giggling yesterday as most fans (like me) kept desperately refreshing and going back to drhorrible.com all day to see Act I of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Now it's up on the new server with no problems and a lot of singing goodness. Free! Some days I really, really love the Internet!

Having just watched Act I for myself, I can tell you that it is so worth the 13 minutes and 49 seconds. It starts off mellow (but still funny), and soon enough -- there are simple, yet ridiculously catchy songs, evil schemes and deeds, and that charming Captain Hammer.

Think Venture Brothers done Whedon style, and the only critique I can come up with right now is that "The Evil League of Evil" doesn't sound as cool as "The Guild of Calamitous Intent." Still, I'm happy. Neil Patrick Harris. Nathan Fillion. Felicia Day. Pure, musical awesome.

Oh yeah, and the MySpace page even has a comic!

Teaser from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog on Vimeo.

I might adore Joss Whedon, but I don't think I'm biased when I say that the above trailer for Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is the best thing since sliced bread. Check it out above. Aren't I right? Good lord, I could watch the trailer on repeat. It's further proof that with enough talent, you don't need a lot of money to make something great. Yeah, this isn't exactly a big-screen piece of cinema news, but we're talking Nathon Fillion, Neil Patrick Harris, Adam Baldwin*, Felicia Day, and Joss Whedon -- all of whom have been in films, most of whom have been in some pretty awesome films (or made them).

But to keep this on the movie track: I hereby declare that no one should make a crappy spoof movie unless Joss is involved. Watching the trailer, I kept thinking about Date Movie, Disaster Movie, and all the rest of the crap that has come out, and how Whedon could've made them monumentally better.

And one more thing: When is Nathan Fillion getting his own superhero or bad-guy role on the big screen? Look at him -- he's perfect for it!

*Unfortunately, the man with the goggle-like thing, that I mistook for Adam Baldwin, is actually (I think) Rob Reinis.

One of the best things Neil Patrick Harris ever did was star as "Neil Patrick Harris" in Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. I say NPH, and not "himself," because it's not like this is really NPH -- at least, he'd like us to believe that he's not stealing cars and having risque adventures with the ladies. While his stint as a version of himself is one of the most popular, he's not alone. Entertainment Weekly has thrown up a list of 23 famous names who have played themselves, so to speak, on the big and small screens.

There's a bunch on there you should remember, whether it's talk of superhero sex with Stan Lee in Mallrats, or Marcel Marceau getting to speak in Silent Movie. It's a pretty solid list, and has some great cinematic cameos in the mix, like two of my absolute favorites -- Marshall McLuhan in Annie Hall and Kurt Vonnegut in Back to School. Although really, I don't agree with David Bowie being the best real-life cameo in Zoolander. For me, it will always be Billy "Put a Cork in It!" Zane.

But what about you? Check out the EW list, search your memory, and weigh in below about your favorite cinematic cameos.

Everyone who took part in last week's competition, myself included, failed to foresee The Forbidden Kingdom outdoing Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but the martial arts actioner was the clear winner. Prom Night held on to third place, content in the knowledge that it had already earned back its $20 million budget last week. Here's the rundown:

1. The Forbidden Kingdom: $20.9 million
2. Forgetting Sarah Marshall: $17.3 million
3. Prom Night: $9.1 million
4. 88 Minutes: $6.8 million
5. Nim's Island: $5.7 million

Opening this week, we have:

What's It All About: Tina Fey plays an executive dying to be a mother, and when she finds out she's unable to conceive, she must turn to a flaky but fertile Amy Poehler
Why It Might Do Well: Fey is awesome on 30 Rock, and though I usually get flack for saying this, I thought the Fey/Poehler Weekend Update team on SNL was one of the best in the show's history. And with a supporting cast that includes Sigourney Weaver, Steve Martin and Maura Tierney, I am so there. The 88% fresh rating from Rottentomatoes.com is icing on the cake.
Why It Might Not Do Well: The poster is so darn zany I could just puke.
Number of Theaters: 2,500
Prediction: $18 million

So ... during a recent chat with AICN, Neil Patrick Harris said: "I'm doing a web short film that Joss Whedon is directing and wrote called DR. HORRIBLE'S SING-A-LONG BLOG. That's a musical about super villains and crossing my fingers for the next round of Dancing With The Stars. (long pause) No ..." This, of course, led to a flurry of comments over at Whedonesque, and Joss himself finally weighed in, giving us another reason to love the Internet.

Joss says: "The bag is catless. During the strike I started writing a musical intended as a limited internet series, 3 episodes of approximately 10 minutes each." He managed to get interest in the project, and this week, they started shooting. As Whedon describes it: "It's the story of a low-rent super-villain, the hero who keeps beating him up, and the cute girl from the laundromat he's too shy to talk to." I'm getting flashbacks to The Venture Brothers and 40 Days and 40 Nights, but I don't care!

Just to make it even better -- NPH is Dr. Horrible, who I presume is the super-villain, Nathan Fillion is Captain Hammer (mean ol' superhero?), and Felicia Day is Penny. Day, by the way, was the young newbie slayer Vi on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Now if only Joss could give us more, regular, moving media work.

Star Trek news is so rare that I have actually been asked by a few people "Oh wow, if you hear anything -- anything, you must pass it on." So I am trying. No snippet is too small, no evasive response too bland. I even know of one Trek fan that was sold on the new movie by just the Simon Pegg story, so there you go -- even the smallest story can change the course of the future.

This one is in a very similar vein. John Cho was interviewed over at AICN for Harold and Kumar Escape Guantanamo Bay and though he tried very hard, a few Star Trek snippets leaked out. Don't punish him, Mr. Abrams -- how can you resist both Quint and Neil Patrick Harris?

Cho was quick to defend the secrecy surrounding the film. "The reason J.J. [Abrams] wants to keep that under wraps is he just thinks that that the surprise -- he really is looking out for the audience. He feels like it's a good move, so that the audience really experiences it in a fresh way. But what I can say about it is the spirit of it feels like it's honoring what has come before it, just visually, and the script, and all of the actors he has chosen. And it just feels like it is honoring what has come before and I feel like, fingers crossed, we will garner some new fans as well."

Saturday was a very busy day here at SXSW. We were up absurdly late on Friday night, and then awakened at 8AM by a car alarm going off outside our window, followed by all four of my kids' soccer coaches calling me from OKC to let me know that today's games were canceled due to cold weather. Thanks, guys, but I'm in Austin. After the panel this morning, I grabbed lunch with filmmaker AJ Schnack (Kurt Cobain: About a Son), who also writes a very excellent blog called All These Wonderful Things.

We gabbed about documentaries, traveling for film fests, balancing work and family, and lots of other stuff; he's a supremely nice guy and it's always fun chatting with someone who's as big a dork for documentary films as I am. Our lunch ran long due to crowds at all the area restaurants, so I missed the screening of We Are Wizards and had to bump it out to a later day in the fest.

"It's gonna be like Euro-Trip, only it's not gonna suck."

Unfortunately, that's the only quote safe enough to post here, because this latest age-restricted trailer for Harold and Kumar 2 sprays profanity at you from all different directions. It's rude, crude, nude and the minute and a half (or so) trailer manages to stereotype practically every single race, religion, you name it. But holy crap is it funny. If you were a fan of Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle (some of you dug it, others not so much), then you're going to absolutely love this sequel. Based on the trailer, it appears the movie begins right after the boys get home from White Castle ... and they're in the bathroom, as you'd expect one to be after eating tons of the WC.

From there they attempt to fly to Amsterdam, only their pot-addiction gets the best of them and the boys wind up in Guantanamo Bay after their bong is mistaken for a bomb. They somehow manage to escape, travel across the country, meet up with a really hot naked chick, stay the night with a hick family (who have a kid with three eyes) and, of course, visit a whore house with Neil Patrick Harris. Does it get any better than that? Seriously. Quality entertainment, if you ask me. The only problem is you have to be over 18 to view the trailer, and those of you out of the country won't be able to see it since you need an American zip code. However, I'm sure it will show up on YouTube soon, so look out for it. The rest of you should head over to the film's official website right now and watch this sucker -- it's a friggin' riot. And kudos to any trailer that throws up the words "Now They're F**ked" in the middle. Harold and Kumar 2 is set to smoke you out on April 25 (which, for all you stoners out there, is as close to 4/20 as you're gonna get).

Austin Film Festival doesn't only show movies, but also includes a screenwriters' conference. This year, the lineup included Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, who wrote Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle and have written and directed the upcoming sequel, currently known as Harold and Kumar 2. (First they were going to Amsterdam, then they were escaping from Guantanamo Bay. Maybe next they'll be searching for a crystal skull bong.)

Hurwitz and Schlossberg sat down with moderator Josh Weiner and an audience of conference attendees to discuss both the Harold and Kumar movies, and used clips from the first movie to share various lessons they learned in screenwriting.

The first clip shown was the scene in which Harold (John Cho) encounters Maria (Paula Garces) in the elevator, both in his fantasy world and in reality. Hurwitz said the scene was pivotal to the movie because it introduced Maria as a romantic interest, which provided something for the audience to connect with in a movie that otherwise has a fairly slight storyline. In fact, the impact of the scene ultimately caused the ending to be reshot.

Guess who's back? That's right, Harold and Kumar are gearing up for another wild adventure -- except this time "they're running from the joint." The first teaser trailer for Harold and Kumar 2 (which, at one point, was called Harold and Kumar Go to Amsterdam) has arrived on YouTube (you know what that means -- catch it while you can), and based on what we see, it appears we're in store for a lot more of the same goofy humor that made the original Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle an instant cult classic.

Basically, Harold and Kumar attempt to get on a plane and go to Amsterdam, except some old lady freaks out and thinks Kumar's a terrorist. So, from there, they show us Rob Corddry behind a piece of interrogation glass cracking some joke about North Korea and Al Qaeda working together. Perhaps the greatest part of the entire teaser (and those fans of the original probably know where I'm heading with this) is the re-introduction of Neil Patrick Harris ... as himself. Yup, before the teaser cuts out, there's Harris -- behind the wheel of a car -- looking all coked up and out of his mind, as per usual. I wouldn't go touting this as a must-see comedy; I think the Harold and Kumar shtick is geared toward a particular audience (ahem, stoners), and I wouldn't expect any ground-breaking comedic moments. But the boys have their fans, and those fans will definitely be interested in seeing them up on the big screen one more time. Me? I'll be waiting for DVD ... for obvious reasons.