The Latest on DVD: Still Standing

With a spiffy cover like that, if someone were to mistakenly pick up this two-disc special edition of the science fiction masterpiece The Day the Earth Stood Stillthinking it was the upcoming Keanu Reeves remake (which looks as noisy as the original is elegant), they shouldn't be disappointed.

In addition to the Robert Wise-directed classic (starring Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal and ... Frances Bavier!), the new set (available on both standard DVD and high def Blu-ray today) also includes featurettes on the film's most famous phrase ("Klaatu Barada Nikto") and "The Mysterious, Melodious Theremin", among many other bonus features.

Check out the Latest on DVD widgets located in the sidebar for more of this week's new DVD releases available today from Amazon.com.

Cinematic Crush: Josh Holloway

Crush object: Josh Holloway, actor.

- He began his career as a model ... perhaps you saw him mugging his way through this Old Navy commercial or mugging Alicia Silverstone in the Aerosmith "Cryin'" video.

- Appropriately, his first television role was as "Good Looking Guy" on an episode of Angel. Other early work includes guest spots on everything from Walker, Texas Ranger to CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

- But his real breakout was as James Ford, better known as Sawyer, the sexy Southern con man with a heart of gold and a soft spot for classic literature (not to mention freckles and nicknames) on the modern TV classic Lost (catch up before it returns next month with its complete fourth season, on DVDnext Tuesday).

- His film roles have been scarce so far (including the little seen thriller Whisper), but he will co-star in the upcoming comedy Stay Cool as "Wino", a ne'er-do-well tattoo artist.

- In the meantime, you can enjoy the view of these two recent ad campaigns he is featured in, from Magnum Ice Cream and Davidoff's "Cool Water" fragrance.

Awards Watch: Annie Nominations

The nominees for the International Animated Film Society's 2008 Annie Awards have been announced ... and a panda shall lead them. DreamWorks' hit Kung Fu Panda leads the field with a butt-kickin' 16 nominations, plus 8 more for its video game and Secrets of the Furious Five spin-offs.

That leaves only seven for the expected front-runner, Disney/Pixar's WALL-E, which found itself surprisingly left off the list for its screenplay and score. Both films were nominated for the big prize, Best Animated Feature, along with Disney's Bolt, the stop motion $9.99 from Australia and the toon doc Waltz With Bashir from Israel. See the comments section below for a quick look at all the film nominations. The final awards will be presented on January 30.

Interestingly enough, the IAFS website lists their sponsors, and what-do-you-know, DreamWorks is listed as "Silver", while Disney and Pixar are only "Bronze". I guess Jeffrey Katzenberg got what he paid for ...

Awards Watch: The Race Begins

Depending on which Oscar pundit you pay attention to, the "official" start of the 2008 movie award season is either tomorrow (when the Independent Spirit Award nominations are announced) or this Thursday (when the National Board of Review unveils their winners). Regardless, there are a few early entrants into this year's race, with the Annie Award nominations (for animated productions) planned for later today and the International Press Academy's nominations for their 13th Annual Satellite Awards announced yesterday.

As I mentioned last year, the Satellites are what one might call the "red-headed step child" of Hollywood awards; nobody pays that much attention to them and (as you can see in the full list in the comments section below) their nominations can be all over the place, naming movies that you may not have heard of and probably never will again. In any event, some observations:

• Australia received the most nominations, with nine, but none in any of the major categories. Baz Luhrmann will receive the vague "Auteur Award", which must be a consolation prize of some sort.
• Milk got six nominations, including Best Picture - Drama and acting nods for Sean Penn and James Franco. James Brolin was nominated (in the comedy category!) for W.
• Meryl Streep (Doubt, Mamma Mia!) and Mark Ruffalo (What Doesn't Kill You, The Brothers Bloom) were both nominated twice in the lead acting races, one each for drama and comedy or musical.
• Heath Ledger received his first of what will probably be many posthumous nominations for his Joker in The Dark Knight.
• The Quantum of Solace theme "Another Way to Die", which received mostly mixed reviews, was nevertheless nominated for Best Original Song.
• The animated documentary Waltz With Bashir was nominated in both categories.
• Four of the group's "top ten movies of 2008" were left out of their Best Picture categories, with Ballast receiving no nominations at all.

The Satellite Awards will be handed out December 14.