The 26th Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, which is also known as Outfest 2008, is wrapping up today, but the cinematic winners of this year's fest have already been announced during an awards ceremony last night in Hollywood. In the list of winners, there are some familiar names, plus some other films that might be worth keeping an eye out for.

The awards were led by Were the World Mine, which won Outstanding US Dramatic Feature. The film focuses on an all-boys school production of A Midsummer Night's Dream (and for those Twin Peaks fans out there, the crazy Nadine, Wendy Robie, pops up). On the international side of things is the excellent XXY, which I reviewed from TIFF last year. It is no surprise that this film nabbed the Best International Dramatic Feature prize, to add to its ever-growing list of nominations and wins. It's really, really worth your time.

Other winners include Hamlet 2, Sex Positive, Dream Boy, and Countertransference. To check out more of the winners, head to The Hollywood Reporter for a run-down.

Not long ago I gave Sony Pictures Classics props for the way they handled promotion on The Wackness, and I'm about to do the same for Focus Features, who've been pimping out Hamlet 2 like there's no tomorrow. Not only will Hamlet 2 have a major presence at this year's San Diego Comic Con (we're still giving away tickets to that private screening, by the way), but they're also sending around these sweet Hamlet 2 goodie bags and have put together a sing-a-long video for the film's hit song, Rock Me Sexy Jesus.

You can check out that video above, and below we put together a gallery of photos from the film, as well as of the official 2008 Comic Con Survival Kit, with a Hamlet 2 bag, a couple t-shirts, some wristbands, coffee, a book called Reading Comics and a whole bunch of candy (including these really addictive Bazooka bubble gum nuggets). I'm not sure what me lady will say when she arrives home and I'm wearing a Rock Me Sexy Jesus t-shirt (especially since I'm Jewish), but I like to keep her guessing; relationships are more fun that way.

Hamlet 2 hits theaters on August 22.

Will you be attending San Diego Comic Con later this month? Would you like to check out a super secret screening of Hamlet 2 AND take home a bunch of groovy movie merch? Cinematical is happy to officially launch this Hamlet 2 Comic Con Contest where ten lucky fans will win a pair of tickets to the aforementioned sneak screening of Hamlet 2, as well as the t-shirt pictured above, Hamlet 2 wrist bands and a Rock Me Sexy Jesus doll ... for those times when, well, you really need a Rock Me Sexy Jesus doll.

The actual screening will take place on Saturday July 26th in San Diego, and the only way to get in is to either win tickets or by finding a Sexy Jesus walking around at Comic Con. (Note to self: Get photo with Sexy Jesus while at Comic Con.) Please be aware that you will need to be in the immediate San Diego area on July 26th in order to win these tickets, so do not leave a comment on this post if you will not be in San Diego on the day of the screening. Your tickets, assuming you win a pair, will be mailed to you prior to the convention.

To enter, leave a comment telling us why you want to attend the Comic Con screening of Hamlet 2. Check out the official rules for this contest after the jump ... and good luck!

Hamlet 2 dances its way into theaters on August 22.

To be, or not to be Hamlet 2? I was a really bummed when James Rocchi gave Hamlet 2 an iffy review from Sundance this year. I love Shakespeare, and I love Steve Coogan, so the project seemed like a wacky* dream come true. I'm still holding out hope that I'll respectfully disagree with him when the film hits theaters on August 22, but either way, I will always have Steve Coogan's sexy Jesus.

You might remember Erik mentioning "Rock Me, Sexy Jesus" in April. Yes, this is a musical number in the film, which is part of the crappy drama teacher's (Coogan) politically incorrect sequel to Hamlet. And now Yahoo has got most of the song available to check out -- from Be Kind Rewind's Melonie Diaz and her co-actresses singing on a bed, to Jesus coming down from the ceiling and getting his groove on. Seeing Coogan dance around in a white tank and tight jeans is just plain wonderful.

What do you think of Coogan's rockin' sexy Jesus?

*Edited

While I'm still not convinced that North American audiences are ready for the strange genius that is Steve Coogan, at least they will get the chance to have a little taste. The first poster for Andy Fleming's comedy Hamlet 2 has arrived in our inbox (see to the right, and click to enlarge). So in case anyone was confused, the poster (and R-rated trailer) makes it clear that this movie is going to be packed to the brim with poop jokes.

Coogan stars as a hapless drama teacher in danger of losing his job. In an attempt to drum up some interest in his drama class, he writes the sequel to Hamlet. Now, as any good English student knows, everyone dies at the end of Hamlet (oops, 400-year- old spoiler alert), so where can you go from there? It turns out you make a politically incorrect musical with numbers like Rock Me, Sexy Jesus.

Joining Coogan in the cast are Catherine Keener, David Arquette, and Amy Poehler. With comedy talent like that, how can you go wrong? A cut of the film screened at Sundance back in January, and earned the film the highest bidding price since Little Miss Sunshine. But unlike Sunshine, something tells me Hamlet 2 won't be grabbing an Oscar nod.

Hamlet 2 is scheduled for wide release on August 28th.

This week I've got a quintet of trailers for movies that recall other movies. It's Echoes of Movies Passed on this week's Trailer Park.

House Bunny
I can imagine the pitch meeting for this one starting with a suggestion to remake Legally Blonde, but without all that annoying charm and wit. That theory actually might hold water when you realize the screenplay for this one was written by the same team behind the Legally Blonde script. Anna Faris stars as a Playboy Bunny who, at the age of 27, finds herself kicked out of the Playboy mansion for getting too long in the tooth. With nowhere else to go, she takes a job as house mother to a sorority full of nerds/geeks/dorks, and everybody learns something important (I guess). If there's anything worthwhile here the trailer keeps it well hidden. Here's what Jessica thought.

One of the more buzzed-about flicks coming out of Sundance this year was Hamlet 2, starring the very funny Steve Coogan as a drama teacher who, with no other ideas, attempts to rally his Tucson, Arizona students around a politically incorrect musical sequel to Shakespeare's Hamlet -- featuring a song called (I kid you not) "Rock Me, Sexy Jesus." Hamlet 2 also marked one of first and biggest sales at the festival, with Focus Features snatching it up for a reported $10 million. Was it worth that amount?

Well, Moviefone just debuted an R-rated (aka Red Band) trailer for Hamlet 2 that, truth me told, looks kinda funny. Unfortunately, I did not have the chance to see it at Sundance, so all I have to go on is James' not-so-nice review, AICN's very nice review and word of mouth, which, so far, seems to be fairly positive (see more praise from Entertainment Weekly and Rolling Stone). Hey, any film that features the Devil making out with the President of the United States during a wacky theatrical production of a sequel-ized Shakespeare play is okay in my book. Hamlet 2 stars Coogan, Catherine Keener, David Arquette and Melonie Diaz. It was directed by Andrew Fleming and it's due out in theaters on August 22.

Whatcha think?

Hamlet 2 was one of the first -- and biggest -- sales at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, claimed by Focus Feaures for a reported $10 million. And after finally seeing it -- at a press screening added to the schedule near the close of the fest by virtue of the buzz and the biz -- I had one of those moments where one feels totally disassociated from the second half of the phrase 'show business.' Maybe it was late in the fest, and I was overloaded; maybe Hamlet 2's comedy, if I had seen it at a public screening, would have gained mass and momentum from the presence of a more mixed audience instead of my seeing it with the rag-tag remnants of the press corps who saw it Friday afternoon. Maybe Focus have bought themselves the next Little Miss Sunshine, a wacky, sprawling-cast comedy that will have a lively, lucrative life after the festival. But after watching Hamlet 2 -- a shoddy and indulgent mass of bits from other movies with a shapeless, shameless performance by British comedic actor Steve Coogan as its unfixed center -- I wasn't thinking of Little Miss Sunshine or Once or any of the other Sundance success stories of the recent past. I was thinking of Happy, Texas -- the most recent and memorable example of a big-money Sundance sale where the excitement about the film crumpled as the movie descended from the elevations of Park City.

Directed by Andrew Fleming (Dick, Nancy Drew) and co-written by Fleming and Pam Brady (South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, Hot Rod), Hamlet 2 revolves around Tuscon, Arizona drama teacher, Dana Marszh (Coogan). Marszh is a fairly silly man as written -- name-dropping his time on the set of Mrs. Doubtfire in a futile attempt to impress his students, staging film-to-theater productions like Erin Brockovich, oblivious to the fact his marriage to his wife Brie (Catharine Keener) is crumbling under the featherweight burden of his own meaninglessness. Coco Chanel said that one of the secrets of style was to take one thing off before you leave the house; I wish someone had applied that maxim to Coogan's performance. Dana roller-skating around Tuscon because he can't afford a car is potentially amusing; Dana roller-skating around Tuscon in a caftan -- so as to improve his fertility, as Brie wants a baby -- takes Dana from 'potentially amusing' to 'definitively over-the-top.'

For many people, Sundance can be defined as edgy, difficult, dysfunctional, and dramatic. But for distributors looking for films they can sell in a tight marketplace for specialty fare, Sundance evidently now means "lighter, funnier."

In the third big Sundance deal of the day -- all involving comedies, to one degree or another -- Focus Features has acquired Hamlet 2, according to Lou Lumenick of New York Post. (And confirmed a few minutes later by Anne Thompson of Variety). The film stars Steve Coogan as an "ex-actor, ex-user, relentless dreamer, and sometimes-delusional high school teacher" who stages his own unusual adaptations (e.g. Erin Brockovich). Facing budget cuts and student rebellion, he decides to go for broke and mount his most ambitious production: his self-penned sequel to Hamlet.

Anne Thompson fleshed out the story with the purchase price ($10 million) and the specific rights (worldwide). She says the deal was closed "in the wee hours Tuesday morning ... after an intense bidding war." As she points out, the figure is quite high for Sundance, putting Hamlet 2 in the exclusive neighborhood previously occupied only by titles like Spitfire Grill (a bomb) and Little Miss Sunshine (a hit).

Monika gushed a few days ago about director Andrew Fleming's Threesome, which debuted at Sundance back in 1994, but his career since then has been mixed. Most recently, he made Nancy Drew and before that, the very flat remake The In-Laws. However, the concept for Hamlet 2 sounds funny, Steve Coogan can be a very funny actor, and other members of the cast (Catherine Keener, Amy Poehler, David Arquette) make me optimistic about the film's prospects.