As the 84th Academy Awards move closer, we’re starting to get a better sense of how things will pan out. We recently shared the 39 songs that will contend for the Best Original Song category, and now the Academy has announced the 97 original scores eligible for the Best Original Score award. AMPAS is notoriously picky when it comes to eligibility in this category, and as we feared the scores for both Drive and Attack the Block have been deemed ineligible. Also disappointing is the ineligibility of Alexandre Desplat’s mesmerizing score for The Tree of Life.

While it’s upsetting to see some of the year’s best work side-lined, there’s plenty to be happy about. I was a huge fan of Howard Shore’s work in Hugo and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s score for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, as well as The Chemical Brothers’ brilliant work in the criminally underseen Hanna. Hit the jump for the full list, as well as who I think will make the cut.

The film adaptation of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged has been a massive undertaking.  It’s difficult to condense Rand’s 1200 treatise on the value of being a selfish prick, so the folks behind the movie have decided to break the book up into parts.  The trailer for Part 1 of the adaptation has been released and I half-expected a title card that read “From executive producer Glenn Beck”.  It doesn’t feel like it’s a trailer for a real movie because characters are just espousing Rand’s beliefs in casual dialogue.  There are other bits of comic goodness scattered throughout and I have to admit I want to see this train wreck (pun intended) out of morbid curiosity.  I also like that they basically took the marketing campaign for Salt and simply changed the “S” to a “G”.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The film is due out on April 15th, as a “suck it” to Tax Day even though Tax Day was moved back to April 18th because of Emancipation Day.  But it’s good that a film is pointing out this tyrannical holiday because I hate paying for roads and fire departments.  Give me traveling on dirt and burning buildings or give me death!