If you’re among the folk who believe the Academy Awards are too stodgy, too reluctant to embrace sci-fi, fantasy, and horror — the Saturn Awards are for you.  Sure, Best Picture nominee Inception led the field with nominations, but Let Me In and Tron: Legacy (just one Oscar nomination between them) fall close behind with 7 Saturn nominations apiece. Hereafter, Alice in Wonderland, Black Swan, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1, Never Let Me Go, and Shutter Island all landed 5 or more nominations.

The Walking Dead racked up the most television nominations with 6, followed by Breaking Bad, Fringe, and Lost with 5 each.  Hit the jump for the full list of nominees and a breakdown of the number of nominations by film/series.

I won’t deny the vanity of year-end lists.  Most professional critics will sit through over 100 new films per year and the year-end list is a badge of honor that says, “These are the films I appreciated the most.  Behold.”  Despite the vanity, I continue to think that the year-end Top 10 provides a valuable service to the average moviegoer.  Most folks don’t have the time, cash, or inclination to see every movie released in a given year and a Top 10 list says, “Here are the must-see films from the past 365 days.  Netflix them or something.”  I didn’t get to see every film that could have potentially made this list, but I feel confident in my choices.  So forgive my indulgence and hit the jump for my Top 10 films of 2010.

In my profession, there are two very important things you must do: watch movies and keep notes.  I did an alright job with the first one, but admittedly fell short on the latter.  While last year I was able to confidently provide what I thought were the best kills and quotes, this year I didn’t do a good job with record keeping and so I’ve omitted those categories.  Next year I’ll be more meticulous and make it a point to see movie where people get destroyed while saying witty things.

However, I did see enough movies to confidently make a list of the folks I thought were the best actors, directors, and other miscellaneous greats.  Hit the jump to check out my picks.

It’s been exactly two years since Christopher Nolan made box office history with The Dark Knight. Though we’ve known for months that Inception wouldn’t measure up to TDK in terms of grosses, that hasn’t stopped Nolan’s fans from speculating about how much money the director’s follow-up might take in. Well speculate no more! From its 3,792 locations the PG-13 mind-bender took in an estimated $21.3 million, including $3 million from midnight previews.  That’s solid for a non-remake/non-comic-based property and well above the $14 million Shutter Island made on its opening this February. But that’s not a fair comparison. In fact, because of Nolan’s reputation and his insistence on keeping his film’s concept under wraps, you would have to look all the way back to August 2002 for a film that feels comparable. Back then a hot director named ‘Shyamalan’ opened Signs with $20.8 million on Friday on its way to a weekend worth $60 million (not adjusted for inflation). As with everything concerning Inception, weekend projections have been all over the map; but I’m guessing that $60/$65 million is about right. We’ll have details tomorrow.

As impressive as it was on the big screen, Shutter Island was made for Blu-ray. Directed by Martin Scorsese from a book by Dennis Lehane, this psychological thriller looks amazing, sounds even better, and demands that you watch it more than once. Not that it can’t be enjoyed on a single viewing but, after that, having a Blu-ray rocks because a viewer can go back and look at the incredible layers each and every person in the film has considered. And though the disc lacks the plethora of extras that seem to be standard these days, it makes up for a lack of quantity with top-notch quality. Hit the jump for more details and a spoilerific discussion on the film.

With Martin Scorsese’s adaption of his novel Shutter Island being released on DVD and Blu-ray next week, I had the chance to interview author Dennis Lehane by phone yesterday.  Lehane is the best-selling author of 10 novels, including Gone, Baby, Gone and Mystic River.  He was also a staff writer on David Simon’s The Wire from seasons 3 to 5 and is currently working on adapting his short story Animal Rescue for Fox 2000.

Since Lehane’s direct involvement in bringing Shutter Island to the big screen was fairly limited, we spent a lot of time talking about other subjects, including:

• How THR erroneously reported last week that he was writing a script with Paul Tamasy (Air Bud)
• Why he doesn’t ever want to adapt his own novels for the screen
• His golden rule for dealing with Hollywood
• Which novel made him decide to become a writer
• Why he prefers TV to movies and what his favorite shows are
• Why we’ll never see the movie he wrote and directed in the 90s

All this and more after the jump!

Audiences have not yet tired of paying 30% more to see a mediocre movie in three dimensions, but if last night’s box office estimates are to be believed the novelty is fading fast. Dreamworks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon opened with $12.2 million from 4,055 theatres and seems destined for a weekend in the $45 million range. That’s significantly under the $40 million Alice in Wonderland opened with on a Friday three weeks back and is even under the $14 million Martin Scorsese’s dimensionally-challenged Shutter Island opened to in February. Considering the big theatre count and the higher prices, this is a disappointment for Dreamworks. And speaking of disappointments, it looks like MGM can’t count on Hot Tub Time Machine to pull them out of their death spiral. The comedy debuted with $4.5 million on Friday and is now expected to come in at around $14 million for the weekend. Full three day details when you check back tomorrow.

For the second weekend in a row, Shutter Island is the number one film in the country – a victory tempered only by the soft overall attendance on this last week of February, by the continuing bad weather on the East Coast and by the lack of any strong competition offered by Kevin Smith’s new release Cop Out. But hey, a win is still a win, right?

Despite a seemingly unending string of promotional appearances by stars Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan over the past week, the $5.9 million collected by Warner Brothers’ Cop Out fell short of securing the number one spot on Friday’s box office estimates. That honor went to Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island instead, with an estimated $6.7 million earned on its second Friday in release. Things may have gone down differently if Kevin Smith had been able to leave the word “Dicks” in his film’s title, but I guess now we’ll never know. Though playing on 600 fewer screens than Cop Out, the horror remake of The Crazies also debuted with an estimated $5.9 million, which means that this could be the first weekend since last August to see three R-rated films leading the top ten. And yes, that’s about as exciting as we can expect on the last weekend of February. Full weekend box office results when you check back tomorrow.

Russ Fischer of /Film, Curt Holman of Creative Loafing [Atlanta], and I have recently started up Running Dialogue a podcast where we talk about movies, which is appropriate seeing as we all write about them on a regular basis.  In our second podcast we talk about Shutter Island, Martin Scorsese’s career and influence, our film recommendations, and then near the end of the podcast we talk about Shutter Island but with spoilers.

We don’t want to take up too much of your time so this podcast only runs 42 minutes, so give it a listen on your ride to work, at work, in the shower, on a boat, or where ever you enjoy listening to people talk about movies.  Please leave your feedback in the comments section so we know what we’re doing right and what we could do better.

Click here to give Running Dialogue a listen or right click on the link and hit “Save Link as…” to save it to your computer.

To no one’s surprise Shutter Island, director Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio’s latest collaboration, claimed the number one spot on the domestic box office chart this weekend. What may have been a bit of a surprise, however, was just how well the thriller actually did.

Tongues wagged when Paramount pulled Shutter Island from its Oscar-qualifying release date last October. Turns out, the studio made the right call. Who needs another Best Picture nod anyway? The fourth collaboration between director Martin Scorsese and actor Leonardo DiCaprio, Shutter Island has been a disappointment to many critics – which means multiplex audiences naturally loved it. In fact, the noir thriller has given Scorsese his best opening day ever with an estimated $14 million from its 2,991 play dates. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Shutter Island has this weekend all to itself and that last weekend’s three new releases have all experienced precipitous declines. Check back tomorrow to hear Paramount execs say “I told you so” even louder.

Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island is not about solving a mystery. It’s about solving madness.  The legendary director’s latest film is a gothic horror that intrigues without deception, scares without shocks, and weaves a beautiful tapestry of haunting insanity without ever relying on twists and last-minute reveals.  Once again, we see that Martin Scorsese cannot be predicted beyond an expectation of crafting a great film.  By combining breathtaking technical work with memorable performances, Scorsese has added yet another film to his list of cinematic achievements.

Dennis Lehane has previously provided the source material for the critically acclaimed Mystic River and Gone Baby Gone as well as the upcoming Shutter Island and The Given Day.  Now Variety reports that he’s finally going to adapt one of his own stories because other writers shouldn’t have all the fun.  Lehane will adapt his short story Animal Rescue for Fox 2000 through Peter Chernin’s production company, Chernin Entertainment.  The story, via Variety, “revolves around a killing that results from a lost and contested pit bull. The story appeared in the Akashic Books anthology Boston Noir, which Lehane also edited.”

Lehane has been approached in the past to adapt his own work, but this is the first time he’s done it and it will also be his first feature film.  His only previous work for the screen were for three episodes of The Wire, so I don’t think there’s much to worry about as far as his screenwriting talent is concerned.

During tonight’s Super Bowl, a bunch of commercials for upcoming movies were shown.  In case you missed the game, they showed ads for Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood, Joe Johnston’s The Wolfman, Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island, Mike Newell’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, The Crazies, Antoine Fuqua’s Brooklyn’s Finest, and M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender.  If you missed the game or just want to rewatch the ads, they’re all after the jump, along with the synopses.