While the 85th Academy Awards will honor the very best of what 2012 had to offer in film tonight, the opposite end of the spectrum (supposedly) has been singled out this morning.  The Razzie Awards named The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 the Worst Picture of 2012, handing the film a total of seven awards including Worst Director for Bill Condon, Worst Screen Couple for Taylor Lautner and Mackenzie Foy, and Worst Actress for Kristen Stewart (she shared this award with her work in Snow White and the Huntsman).  Though I’m not the biggest fan of the franchise, if you think Breaking Dawn – Part 2 was the worst film of 2012 then you need to see more movies; the pic almost kind of works because of Condon’s direction, not in spite of it, and the final battle scene is legitimately entertaining.

Elsewhere at the Razzies, Adam Sandler was named Worst Actor for That’s My Boy and Rihanna “won” Worst Supporting Actress for Battleship.  Hit the jump to see the full list of winners.

As we await the 85th Academy Award nominations announcement on Thursday morning, we now have a look at the opposite end of the 2012 film spectrum.  The 33rd Golden Raspberry Award nominations have been announced, celebrating the very worst of what 2012′s movie slate had to offer.  Leading the pack is The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 with 10 nominations, as the film landed a nomination in every single category.  The Twilight closer will go head-to-head with Battleship, A Thousand Words, That’s My Boy, and The Oogieloves in Big Balloon Adventure for the Worst Picture title.

It’s easy to beat up on the Twilight franchise, and even though I wouldn’t go so far as to call Breaking Dawn – Part 2 a good movie, it’s in no way the worst movie of the year.  The sheer amount of beheadings alone in director Bill Condon’s climactic fight sequence is enough to make the movie worth watching.  Anyway, hit the jump to check out the full list of Razzie Awards nominations.

The Visual Effects Society has announced the nominees for the upcoming 11th Annual VES Awards.  This year’s major players include Life of Pi, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Prometheus, The Avengers, and Battleship, all of which landed nominations for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Feature Motion Picture.  The VES Awards also recognize visual effects work in more dramatic fare, singling out the impressive effects of films like Flight and The Impossible.  Duking it out for Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Feature will be the ridiculously impressive Richard Parker in Life of Pi, Hulk in The Avengers, and Gollum and Goblin King in The Hobbit.

Hit the jump to check out the full list of nominees.  The 11th Annual VES Awards will take place on February 5th.

This week on Blu-ray, a couple of this summer’s theatrical releases are already hitting home video, and the most recent seasons of a few well-loved television series get the Blu-ray treatment in anticipation of the upcoming fall TV premieres.  Briefly:

• Battleship (Two-Disc Combo Pack: Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy + UltraViolet)
• Darling Companion
• The Lucky One (Movie only+UltraViolet)
• The Pirates! Band of Misfits (Three-Disc Combo: Blu-ray 3D / Blu-ray / DVD)
• Starship Troopers: Invasion
• Think Like a Man (+ UltraViolet Digital Copy)
• Boardwalk Empire: The Complete Second Season (Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy)
• Homeland: The Complete First Season
• Sons of Anarchy: Season Four
  
• The Walking Dead: The Complete Second Season (Limited Edition)

Hit the jump for more details.

Earlier this summer, Universal invited us to go to Industrial Light & Magic, the effects studio behind Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and other classic blockbusters.  With the upcoming release of Battleship on Blu-ray, we spoke with animation supervisor Glen McIntosh and CG supervisor Willi Geiger.  Learning about the tech stuff behind the movie is such a joy, and during my interview with McIntosh and Geiger, they discussed their responsibilities on the film, creating the physicality of the aliens, lighting the CG water, how to make “something otherworldly look real,” and more.

Hit the jump to check out the interview, and click here for my interview with visual effects supervisors Grady Cofer and Pablo Helman.  Battleship hits Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital Download on August 28th.

Earlier this summer, Universal invited us to go to Industrial Light & Magic, the effects studio behind Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and other classic blockbusters.  With the upcoming release of Battleship on Blu-ray, we spoke with visual effects supervisors Grady Cofer and Pablo Helman.  When we look at visual effects, we tend to notice the in-your-face stuff, but the true magic is in effects you never see or immediately think about: the water droplets, the weight of objects, etc.  This is fascinating stuff, and in my interview with Cofer and Helman, we spoke about the challenges of animating water, how they translated the board game pegs into weapons, the sinking of the USS John Paul Jones, creating the shredder, and more.

Hit the jump to check out the interview.  Battleship hits Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital Download on August 28th.

Recently I got to sit down with Hasbros Studios president Stephen Davis at Comic-Con to discuss the future of Hasbro’s various television and film projects.  Though many are quick to deride the current trend of turning action figures, board games and other non-narrative cultural detritus into blockbuster cinema, I don’t see why it’s inherently bad.  A talented filmmaker could absolutely make a cool Oujia movie or anthology series, Candyland could be a phenomenal bit of sugarcoated existentialism, and some of Hasbro’s previous and current film and television endeavors, including Beast Wars and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, are actually very good.

With this in mind, I sat down to talk with Stephen Davis, head of Hasbro Studios.  During our one-on-one interview, we discussed the Brony movement, the various incarnations of Transformers, Stretch Armstrong, making programming for older audiences, the future of Battleship, the importance of a great theme song and more.  Hit the jump for the full interview.

Nothing came along to poison Snow White and the Huntsman. After a strong Friday launch, the Universal fantasy went on to earn an estimated $56.2 million from 3,773 locations over its first three days or almost as much as the rest of this weekend’s top five films combined. Meanwhile, Marvel’s The Avengers put another big feather (actually, two) in its cap: becoming the third highest grossing domestic and global release of all time.

Aside from one incredibly-successful major release, the domestic box office has been a rough place to launch a movie for the past month or so. No studio has had a tougher time than Universal, of course – the home of The Five-Year Engagement and the big-time bomb known as Battleship. So color the folks at Universal ecstatic that their latest release, Snow White and the Huntsman, is looking like a hit. Huntsman brought in an estimated $20.3 million from 3,773 locations on Friday, including $1.38 million in midnight grosses. That beats the $17.6 million that Men in Black 3 earned last Friday: a feat made more impressive by Huntsman’s two-dimensional/non-sequel limitations. Projections now point to a weekend in the $55 million range. That’s a bit above where long-term tracking had Snow White a few weeks back and well above the $38 million hedge that Universal started circulating in the wake of Battleship. So now the studio gets to claim a first place finish and the headline “Universal beats expectations.” It should make for a refreshing change of pace.  Details and top-ten analysis tomorrow.

We all knew that Men in Black 3 would wind up overtaking The Avengers after three weeks of record-breaking dominance. What we didn’t know was that that would wind up as MIB3’s sole accomplishment this weekend. With a huge release in 4,248 locations, and on one of the biggest movie-going weekends of the year, MIB3 is not exactly setting the box office on fire with its three-day estimate of $55 million.

For the third week in a row, The Avengers dominated the box office. Marvel’s superheroes added another $55 million to their domestic total – putting the film over $450 million in a record-breaking seventeen days. Meanwhile, the three new releases that lined up to challenge The Avengers all struggled in the blockbuster’s wake.

For the first time this month audiences had more than one new release to tempt them into theatres. Trouble is, no one seemed particularly tempted by the three titles that lined up to take down The Avengers. With an estimated $15.3 million on Friday, the Marvel superheroes are now assured their third weekend title with a projected $55 million. That won’t be a record, but who cares? At $1.048 billion worldwide, the film is already Disney’s highest-grossing release of all time. In second place, Universal’s Battleship took in an estimated $9 million from its 3,690 locations for a projected $26 million first weekend. Not only is that well below expectations for the pricey live-action boardgame, it’s also less than John Carter earned for its debut back in March. Draw your own conclusions. After opening to $4.1 million on Wednesday, Sacha Baron Cohen’s The Dictator took in an estimated $5.7 million on Friday towards what should be a $16 million first weekend. Finally, What to Expect When You’re Expecting saw an estimated $3.9 million from 3,021 locations on Friday. Not exactly what Lionsgate was, um, expecting from their ensemble comedy.  Full details tomorrow.

Opening this Friday is director Peter Berg’s adaptation of the board game Battleship.  The action-adventure pic takes place on the seas and centers on a group of Naval officers who must fight to keep an alien force from destroying our world.  Taylor Kitsch leads a cast that includes Alexander Skarsgard, Brooklyn Decker, Rihanna, and Liam Neeson.

Our partners at Omelete recently got the chance to speak with Kitsch, Skarsgard, and Decker about the film, and the actors addressed the pic’s Pearl Harbor connection, Berg’s improvisational directing style, sci-fi, chicken burritos and more.  If you missed our interview with Berg, click here.  Hit the jump to watch the interview with Kitsch, Skarsgard and Decker, but be advised that there are minor spoilers for the film.

Opening this Friday is director Peter Berg’s adaptation of the board game Battleship.  The action-adventure pic takes place on the seas and centers on a group of Naval officers who must fight to keep an alien force from destroying our world.  Taylor Kitsch leads a cast that includes Alexander Skarsgard, Brooklyn Decker, Rihanna, and Liam Neeson.

Our partners at Omelete recently got the chance to speak with Berg about the film, and the director talked about how the project was actually his idea in the first place, how he drew from a lifetime of being a history buff to develop the film, what approach he took to the alien designs, his next film Lone Survivor (also starring Kitsch), and he revealed that his biggest challenge in making the pic was keeping Rihanna from being eaten by a shark.  Hit the jump to watch the interview.

At WonderCon2012 earlier this year, Friday Night Lights writer and Battleship director Peter Berg spoke about why he wanted to craft a story around military heroes.  As the son of a Marine and Naval historian, Berg knows full well that the real heroes are not the actors playing out a role in front of a camera, but the flesh-and-blood service men and women who make sacrifices for their country every day.  In this PSA, Berg speaks on behalf of the USO, a private, non-profit organization that serves to lift the spirits of American troops and their families.  You can find out more about the USO by going to their website, where you can find ways to show your gratitude for our nation’s troops.  Hit the jump to see the PSA.