You can keep your Oscars; I’ll take the 39th Annual Saturn Awards in which the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films recognizes achievements in genre films, television and home video.  The official announcement of this year’s nominations will occur tomorrow, but some of them have already been made available.  Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey leads the pack with nine nominations, followed by Ang Lee’s Life of Pi with eight and Sam Mendes’ Skyfall with seven.  Hit the jump to find out more.

Last week, I admitted to being among those who become hopelessly caught up in the Olympic Summer Games. One week later and things have taken an unexpected turn for the pathetic as I now find myself legitimately concerned with the “Medal Count”. As if it has any sort of bearing on my own life in any way, shape, and/or form, I’m consistently pulling for the U.S. to overtake China not only in total medals, but also in total Gold medals. In short, whether by virtue of patriotism or just sheer boredom, living vicariously through world-class athletes is what my life has come to.

Sports talk aside, awaiting you on the other end of this week’s Top 5 are brief recaps and links to Steve’s Total Recall video interviews with Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, and more, the first full trailer for James Bond’s Skyfall, our multi-part interview with the great Guillermo del Toro, the news that The Hobbit will be a trilogy, and all of our Saturn Awards interviews including talks with writer/director Drew Goddard and Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan.

The second season of The Walking Dead truly felt like two separate shows.  The first half embracing a much more languid pace culminating in the discovery of a death long since thought known versus the second half’s uber-accelerated, major-character-culling end.  If the first half depicted the group’s somber loss of hope in this dystopian landscape, then the second half was the metaphorical retort of a middle finger.  Who needs ‘hope’ anyways?  Let’s shoot something in the head and feel better – at least for a moment or two.

At the Saturn Movie Awards, Glen Mazzara (Executive Producer/Showrunner of The Walking Dead), was on hand to pick up the award for Best Television Presentation.  While there, I had the opportunity to speak with Mazzara about the pace of the upcoming third season, more major character deaths and the ‘Prison’ storyline arc, among many other topics of conversation.  For the full interview, hit the jump.

One of my favorite movies of 2012 is director/co-writer Drew Goddard and producer/co-writer Joss Whedon‘s The Cabin in the Woods.  In fact, it’s also one of the best “horror” movies I’ve ever seen.  Without spoiling anything, let’s just say the film turns “horror” on its head, and I loved every second of it.  Make every effort to see this film!

Shortly after winning the Filmmakers Showcase Award at this year’s Saturn Awards, I was able to speak with Goddard backstage.  We talked about the success of Cabin in the Woods, whether it has led to a lot more meetings, his love of Daredevil (specifically Frank Miller‘s run), if he’s interested in writing a superhero property, and he reveals that he’s currently writing his next screenplay.  In addition, with Goddard supposedly re-writing the end of the Brad Pitt-fronted zombie pic World War Z, I asked how he got involved in the project and what exactly he’s been working on for the production.  Hit the jump for more.

At this year’s Saturn Awards, I was able to speak with James Remar on the red carpet before the show.   For fans of Dexter, we talked about the upcoming seventh season, what episode they’re filming right now, and his feelings on the show coming to an end.  In addition, with Remar playing Leonardo DiCaprio’s bodyguard in Quentin Tarantino‘s Django Unchained, we talked about what it was like to work for QT, what they did off set, the films Tarantino showed on the weekends, and more.  Hit the jump to watch.

Shortly after Dave Elsey won the Saturn Award for Best Make-Up in X-Men: First Class (which he shared with Fran Needham and Conor O’Sullivan) I got to speak with him backstage.  We talked about what it was like to work on X-Men with Nicholas Hoult, what the Saturn Awards mean to him, new characters and other rumors for the upcoming sequel to X-Men: First Class, and more.   In addition, while I’d heard screenwriter David Hayter (X-Men, X2, Watchmen) was making his directorial debut with an original screenplay called Wolves, I didn’t know much about it.  But with Elsey doing the make-up, he revealed that casting has begun, it’s filming in Toronto, a stunt arranger who works with Jackie Chan has been brought onto the project, and he said:

“It’s very violent and bloody, but it’s less like The Wolfman and actually a lot more like an X-Men kind of movie.  It’s more of a kind of action movie.  Our werewolves…one of the big differences is our werewolves speak in this and they have hopes and dreams like anybody else.”

More after the jump.

On the red carpet of this year’s Saturn Awards, I was able to get a few minutes with Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan.  While he was guarded about spoiling any of the upcoming twists and turns, he revealed there “is some crazy-ass shit coming up” and that the show gets “darker, edgier, crazier than ever.”

In addition, we also talked about the opening shots of the fifth season, does he know how the final season will play out, is there any chance the final season could be more than eight episodes, and a lot more.  Hit the jump to watch.

I love Fringe.  If you haven’t been watching, you’re missing out on a great sci-fi series that’s definitely worth your time.  And unlike The X-Files, which didn’t know how to end a storyline, every season of Fringe has focused on new ideas and mysteries.  It’s been a great ride that ends with a final 13-episode season this fall.

Shortly after winning Best Network Television Series at the Saturn Awards the other night, I landed an extended video interview with executive producer, writer, director and showrunner J.H. Wyman.  We talked about what fans can look forward to on the final season, where he is in the writing process, will the show answer all the mysteries, Comic-Con, and a lot more.  In addition, Wyman revealed that he’s writing and directing the last episode of the series and the last three episodes are all a continuation of each other, basically giving the series a three-hour finale.  Hit the jump to watch.

Shortly after MTV’s Teen Wolf won Best Youth-Oriented Television Series at this year’s Saturn Awards, I landed an extended video interview with creator/executive producer Jeff Davis backstage.  We talked about the recent twenty-four episode third season pickup, why the production is moving from Atlanta to Los Angeles, how he follows Joss Whedon’s “big bad” paradigm and how they keep the show fresh by bringing in new actors but balancing the regular characters’ appearances, and more.  In addition, Davis teases a bloody end to season two and big changes ahead for season three.  Hit the jump to watch.

The other day we premiered the trailer and first images from Universal’s Werewolf: The Beast Among Us.  Directed by Louis Morneau (Joy Ride II, Hitcher II: I’ve Been Waiting) and starring Stephen Rea, Steven Bauer, Ed Quinn, Nia Peeples, Guy Wilson, Adam Croasdell and Rachel DiPillo, Werewolf: The Beast Among Us was filmed on location in Romania and Transylvania last year.  With Universal celebrating its 100th Anniversary, Werewolf is the start of a new chapter of horror in their home video department.

The other night at the Saturn Awards I got to speak with Steven Bauer on the red carpet.  We talked about making Werewolf: The Beast Among Us and who he plays, his upcoming Showtime series Ray Donovan (which also stars Liev Schreiber and Jon Voight), and his other projects like The Truth and Last I Heard.  Hit the jump to watch.

It’s not too often you meet someone that has truly changed your life.  Having grown up on Sesame Street, Star Wars and The Muppets, getting to meet and speak with Frank Oz at the Saturn Awards last night was the highlight of my evening.  If you’re not aware of Oz’s influence on our planet, he created Yoda, Miss Piggy, Animal, Grover,  Fozzie Bear, Cookie Monster and Bert on Sesame Street, among many others.  His influence on generations of kids around the world is immeasurable.

During our interview, I asked him about working with Jim Henson, creating the voices for his iconic characters, if he kept any props from his past projects, if he saw director James Bobin‘s The Muppets and what he thought about the film, and whether he would ever be involved with The Muppets again.   Hit the jump for more.

I love Fringe.  If you haven’t been watching, you’re missing out on a great sci-fi series that’s definitely worth your time.  And unlike The X-Files, which didn’t know how to end a storyline, every season of Fringe has focused on new ideas and mysteries.  It’s been a great ride that ends with a final 13-episode season this fall.

Last night at the Saturn Awards, I was able to speak with Lance Reddick on the red carpet.  We talked about the final season and what it’s about, his feelings on the show ending, what this year’s Comic-Con was like, the Saturn Awards, and how happy he was to meet Robert Kirkman as he’s a big Walking Dead fan.  Hit the jump to watch.

At last night’s Saturn Awards, I was able to speak with RJ Mitte about the final episodes of Breaking Bad.  While Mitte was guarded about revealing spoilers, it was still great to talk with one of the stars of my favorite show.  We talked about Bryan Cranston directing an upcoming episode, the upcoming shooting schedule, if he has a favorite line from the upcoming six episodes, what it’s like when he gets a new script, and if he’ll ever eat lunch or dinner with Cranston (he’s always eating breakfast in the show).  Hit the jump to watch.

At the Saturn Awards tonight, Vince Gilligan, creator of Breaking Bad, was on hand to receive an award for Best Syndicated/Cable Television Series.  Whilst there, Hunter Daniels and I talked with Gilligan about the past seasons of the show and the ongoing fifth season.  The thirteen-minute conversation covered many a topic – the full transcript to which, I will post later.  But for now, I wanted to quickly post choice highlights: namely Gilligan’s interest in creating a real deal Western post Breaking Bad.

“I would love to do a Western.  And in fact I think of Breaking Bad as a Western in a great many senses.  We shoot in beautiful Albuquerque, New Mexico.  The enormous skies with the beautiful cumulus clouds and the stark desert landscapes make me think of ‘America’.  Indeed [Billy the Kid], one of the most famous western outlaws of American history, his stomping grounds were New Mexico.  And apparently Jesse James made his way out there at some point.  There’s also all this marvelous Western history that takes place in the Southwest and in large part in New Mexico.  I feel lucky that we shoot there and I’d love after this is all over just to do a full-out, pullout-all-the-stops Western”

For more highlights from the Gilligan talk (including his thoughts on the ’rumored’ Saul Goodman spinoff), hit the jump.

Over the past few years, we’ve written again and again about a possible Independence Day sequel.  While I never thought a sequel would happen due to the amount of time that’s passed, with Fox doing a 3D re-release next summer of the original film, I’m beginning to think it could happen.  After all, the re-release is a great way to get people excited for a sequel.

So when I got to speak with producer Dean Devlin on the red carpet at tonight’s Saturn Awards, I asked him the status of the ID42 (Independence Day 2).  He said:

“I can tell you that Roland Emmerich and I are working together for the first time in eleven years and we are working really hard to try and make this happen.”

More after the jump.