Universal Pictures made its presentation to theater owners today at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, and Steve was onhand to get a look at what Universal has planned in the near future.  While he’ll have his recap of the footage online a bit later, we wanted to share a couple of news tidbits that were announced during the panel which include updates on the Snow White and the Huntsman sequel and the next Bourne film.  Hit the jump for more.

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.

Universal Pictures had a pretty impressive 2012 despite the high-profile bomb Battleship.  The R-rated comedy Ted has now raked in over $500 million worldwide, and with a sequel already in development, Universal is looking to tee up a couple of other franchises in the near future.  Universal Pictures chairman Adam Fogelson recently sat down for an interview in which he revealed that the studio is actively developing a sequel to this year’s comedy hit Identity Thief, they’re working on a Snow White and the Huntsman sequel without director Rupert Sanders, they hope to make more Bourne movies, and they’re looking to get the anticipated Fifty Shades of Grey adaptation in theaters by Summer 2014.  He also talked a bit about their approach to the Van Helsing reboot.

Moreover, a separate report has surfaced claiming that Universal is also eyeing a potential franchise for last month’s horror film Mama, though the pic’s director isn’t exactly keen on expanding the premise into a sequel.  Hit the jump to read on.

The nominations for the 85th Academy Awards have been announced, and it’s quite a whirlwind of nominees.  As expected, Lincoln landed the most nominations with 12, followed with Ang Lee’s Life of Pi which nabbed 11.  The big story here, though, is the Best Director category.  Shockingly, only two (two!) of the DGA nominees for Best Director made the Oscar cut: Ang Lee and Steven Spielberg.  The rest of the category was filled out by Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild, David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook, and Michael Haneke for Amour.  It was almost guaranteed that Ben Affleck and Kathryn Bigelow would be landing nominations for Argo and Zero Dark Thirty, respectively, but shockingly neither made the cut.  Apparently those films just directed themselves.  Based off today’s nominations, it now looks like it’s (surprisingly) down to Lincoln vs. Silver Linings Playbook for the big win.

Hit the jump to check out the list of nominees, and click here to check them against my predictions (somehow I predicted the Best Picture and Supporting Actor categories perfectly).  The 85th Academy Awards will take place on February 24th.

It’s January 1, 2013, which means that 2012 is now officially in the rear-view mirror.  Quality-wise, it was a stellar year in film, and with over a month to go before the Oscars there’s still an exciting air of unpredictability surrounding the awards contenders.  2012 wasn’t so shabby box office-wise either, and we thought today would be a nice time to take a look back at the year’s highest grossing films, lowest grossing films, and everything in between.  This year saw a few comedy surprises, the highest grossing Steven Spielberg drama in a long time, a couple of superhero megahits, and the glorious disaster that was Oogieloves.  Hit the jump to take a look at 2012’s Box Office in Review.

As Universal plans to move forward with their Snow White and the Huntsman sequel, it appears as though Kristen Stewart will return to reprise her title role. The status of the cast and crew of the sequel has been up in the air owing in part to a rumored affair between Stewart and director Rupert Sanders. Universal had optioned Stewart and co-star Chris Hemsworth to two more films: a sequel and a Huntsman spin-off, but Stewart herself recently confirmed that she will return in the sequel at least. Hit the jump to see what she had to say.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has narrowed down the contenders for the Best Makeup and Hairstyling Oscar for the upcoming 85th Academy Awards.  The shortlist includes showy stuff like Hitchcock and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, along with the more subdued work like Looper, Lincoln, and Snow White and the Huntsman.  The one to watch for the win, though, is Rick Baker’s excellent makeup effects from Men in Black 3 as Baker has previously won this award 7 times, including for 1997′s Men in Black.  Notably left out of the race is Cloud Atlas, which put makeup to heavy use in order for its ensemble of actors to play multiple roles, switching race and gender.  Response to the film’s makeup work was fairly split, but I’m surprised it didn’t at least make the Oscar shortlist.

Hit the jump to check out the full list of all seven films that remain in competition for the Best Makeup and Hairstyling trophy.  The nominations for the Oscars will be announced on January 10th, followed by the ceremony on February 24th.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has unveiled its shortlist of 10 films that will contend for the Best Visual Effects Oscar.  The films that have made the cut include The Dark Knight Rises, Cloud Atlas, Skyfall, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, and Disney’s John Carter.  The list is full of impressive blockbuster fare from 2012, but as we were reminded last year (Hugo over Rise of the Planet of the Apes) the winner of the category tends to favor a Best Picture nominee.  As Ang Lee’s adaptation of Life of Pi includes stunning visual effects and is an early favorite to land a Best Picture nomination, prognosticators would do well to keep their eye on that film as the race moves forward.  That said, there’s not exactly a lack of great work to thumb through, so this should be an interesting category.

Hit the jump to check out the full list of contenders, and leave your thoughts on the shortlist in the comments.  The nominations for the 85th Academy Awards will be announced on January 10th, followed by the ceremony on February 24th.

A few casting updates:

• Ashley Greene is in talks to join Haley Bennett in Satanic (formerly known as Kristy), a horror movie about a group of college students who are attacked in their dormitory over Thanksgiving break.
• Wendi McLendon-Covey is the first of four female leads to be cast by Tyler Perry for his next movie, Single Mom’s Club.
• Kristen Stewart suggests “there’s a strong possibility” she will return for Snow White and the Huntsman 2.

Details after the jump.

Snow White and the Huntsman is part – and in some ways a culmination – of the worst instincts of big budgets Hollywood fantasies. It tries to combine the appeal of the Lord of the Rings films with a known property, Campbellian archetypes and a more dark and serious take on fantasy material. It’s garbage, easily one of the worst films of 2012. Kristen Stewart, Chris Hemsworth and Charlize Theron lead the cast in this botched adaptation of the children’s classic. Our review of the film on Blu-ray follows after the jump.

This week on Blu-ray Kristen Stewart’s summer fairy tale hits home video, James Cameron’s epic love story gets a multi-disc upgrade, and Vampires of a different sort come home.  Briefly:

• Snow White and the Huntsman (Two-Disc Combo Pack: Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy + UltraViolet)
• Titanic (Four-Disc Combo: Blu-ray 3D / Blu-ray / Digital Copy)
• The Big Bang Theory: The Complete Fifth Season
• The Vampire Diaries: The Complete Third Season
• The Devil Inside

Hit the jump for more details.

Universal has decided to go ahead with their sequel to Snow White and the Huntsman with a lot less Snow White (Kristen Stewart) and a lot more Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth). With the departure of screenwriter David Koepp, the studio is now envisioning more of a spin-off with Hemsworth leading the charge.  There is also no confirmation one way or the other on whether director Rupert Sanders will return. Though we try to stay out of the gossip end of this business, the well-publicized affair between Stewart and the married Sanders would make it awkward at best for a reunion.  The studio declined to comment on that front.  Hit the jump for more on this developing story.  [Update: The story has prompted a response from Universal on the state of Stewart's involvement.  Hit the jump to see what they had to say.]

After winning Friday by a nose, Fox’s Prometheus slipped into second this weekend with an estimated $50 million from 3,396 locations. That gives Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted the win with a reported $60.3 million from 4,258 dates and puts overall box office receipts more than 30% ahead of 2011.

Estimates are in for this weekend’s two new wide releases and, for the moment, they have Fox’s R-rated Prometheus slightly ahead with $21.4 million compared to the $20.4 million of Dreamworks Animation’s Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted. This is great news for Prometheus which is now all but guaranteed to gross over $50 million through Sunday; this despite the fact that Fox had been hinting that $40 million would be a stretch. Why the low expectations? To begin with, Madagascar 3 had a screen count advantage: launching in 4,258 locations to Prometheus’ 3,396. Then there’s that R-rating, which is commonly held to be the harbinger of middling grosses. Instead, Ridley Scott’s Alien prequel took in $3.5 million from its midnight premieres alone – double that of last weekend’s Snow White and the Huntsman. Of course, if Friday’s estimates are good news for Prometheus they are even better for Madagascar 3. Because of the film’s screen count and more-accessible PG-rating, Dreamworks’ latest is expected to take the weekend with around $60 million.  We’ll have full details and analysis tomorrow.

While Rupert Sanders’ Snow White and the Huntsman continues to battle for more box office earnings, Universal is already moving forward with the sequel.  With the “origin” story in the Snow White franchise thus set up, it only goes to follow that the next chapter will be fast-tracked.  Universal has set David Koepp (Spider-Man) to write the script.  Hopefully, the sequel will have a more cohesive storyline, better dialogue and provide a payoff to its promises, something we discussed at length on last week’s podcast.  Sanders may or may not be back, but stars Kristen Stewart and Chris Hemsworth are optioned for two more films.  Hit the jump for more on the sequel to Snow White and the Huntsman.