• The 35th annual Saturn Awards have been announced, honoring the best in the year’s science fiction, fantasy, and horror. The six Fantasy Film Best Picture nominees are: (1) The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, (2) The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, (3) Hancock, (4) The Spiderwick Chronicles, (5) Twilight, and (6) Wanted. But as always, I’m struck by how few contenders there are in the genre categories, making me wonder: does virtually every film in that genre get nominated? And they really had to dig for the fantasy nominees: I mean, Benjamin Button as a “fantasy” film? Hancock? Wanted? (Weirdly, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, an actual fantasy-esque film, is nominated as a “horror” film.)

• Steven Spielberg has wrapped his 32-day performance-capture directing duties on The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn (the 2010 film adaptation of the internationally famous comic book Tintin, part of a three-film franchise). In an unusual arrangement, he’s passed the film to LotR director (and Tintin producer) Peter Jackson, who will spend the next 18 months working on the special effects. Weirdly, Spielberg will get the lone directing credit. The film’s “motion capture” technology is said to be revolutionary — and impossible to describe.

• Huffington Post has pictures of Jake Gyllenhaal (shirtless) from the movie Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (coming in May 2010).

• A live-action version of the classic animated Disney film The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (from Fantasia) is in the works, starring Nicholas Cage and Alfred Molina. This might not be a terrible idea — hey, maybe they could make a great sequel to Casablanca too. But it probably is a bad idea.

• Hey, I’m interviewing Legend of the Seeker’s Craig Horner tomorrow! Have questions for him? Email me here.
  

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