Tugg, the web-based platform that allows you to bring fan-selected films to a theater near you, has added an extensive list of features from The Weinstein Company.  Now available are Best Picture Oscar-winners, The Artist and The King’s Speech, along with award-winning films Inglourious Basterds, The Reader and more.  Boasting over 500 titles, Tugg allows fans to relive the theatrical experience of some of their favorite blockbusters and sought after indies. Hit the jump to read the full press release.

Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech won the Academy Award for Best Picture this year, but that’s not to say that it was the most popular film at the box office in 2010.  In fact, of the films nominated in that category at this year’s Oscar’s, it’d probably be fair to say that The King’s Speech wasn’t amongst the top three or four most-seen films.  The problem is that The King’s Speech looks like it might be a chore to sit through:  you’ve got stuffy British people, an “underdog beats the odds” plotline that many of us have already seen, and a lead actor that isn’t known for being the most electric on-screen presence in Hollywood.  All of this may have kept people from checking the film out when it hit theaters.  But now that it’s won the “Best Picture” Oscar and landed on store shelves, should you give The King’s Speech a chance?  Find out after the jump, folks…

Universal’s Hop has just earned 2011’s highest debut weekend – if today’s estimate of $38.1 million from 3,579 locations proves accurate. For now the three-day estimate for the live-action/CGI-animated comedy stands less than one million ahead of Rango’s record from five weeks back.

Ouch.  Though it seemed likely after Friday’s figures were announced, the fact that Fox’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules so easily topped the flashier Sucker Punch has still got to hurt the folks at Warners this morning.

In what easily had to be one of the most painful, unfunny Oscar ceremonies in recent memory, The King’s Speech finally reached the end of its inevitable march to Best Picture.  It was the first Best Picture winner to win less than five Oscars (it won four, including Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay). [Correction: Crash, which won Best Picture in 2006, only won 3 Oscars]  Does that make it more or less unworthy of the Best Picture crown?  I don’t know.  I don’t care.  I’m drained after live-blogging the awful show and 50 minutes of terrible pre-show.

Hit the jump for the full list of winners.

Like any good Oscar ceremony, the 83rd Academy Awards will most likely drag on unto infinity.  Categories will blend together and you’ll find yourself waiting to see who wins “Best Costume Design for a Live-Action Short Starring Winter’s Bone“.  I’m trying to stop myself from being on auto-snark and hoping that the show is genuinely entertaining.  I find hosts Anne Hathaway and James Franco to be charming so hopefully they’ll have some good material.  Last year, I didn’t expect much from Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin and I thought they did a terrific job.  While the Oscars are a show for rich people to congratulate themselves on a job well done, the host doesn’t have to tear the room down to make us poor slobs at home feel better.  There’s a balancing act and hopefully Hathaway and Franco can pull it off.

So get your Oscar ballots ready and hit the jump as I live-blog the 83rd Academy Awards.  Also, you can click here for my predictions.

Oh, the irony.  On the very day that Hollywood will fete its highest achievements of the past year, we are here to consider releases that reside in its creative basement.  After a Friday win, newcomer Hall Pass could not hold off holdover Gnomeo and Juliet. After two weeks at number three, the all-ages animated film won the weekend with an estimated $14.2 million. Sad for Hall Pass but it could have been worse: Drive Angry 3D now holds the record for the lowest opening ever for a 3D wide-release.

I will be so happy once Oscar season is over.  I won’t have to hear about who’s up, who’s down, who deserves to win, and how Best Picture nominee A is more historically accurate than Best Picture nominee B.  For all the needless pomp and circumstance, the awards do serve a purpose.  Sure, studios like the kudos, but they really like the big business an awards film can generate.  Audiences like the awards because it’s a way of telling them “There were so many great movies last year, but here’s the one you must see because Hollywood agreed it was the ‘best’.”

But since the awards show appeals to our competitive spirit, I’ve decided to give my predictions for this year’s winners along with who I think deserves to win among the nominated films.  As a reminder, I will be live-blogging the Oscars, which air Sunday, February 27th, at 8pm on ABC.  Hit the jump for my semi-educated guesses.

The King’s Speech producers Iain Canning and Emile Sherman are likely to take home Oscar statues on Sunday, and folks are naturally curious how you follow up an awards-season hit.  Apparently, you do it with a fairly lame-sounding rom-com.  According to THR, Ian Iqbal Rashid (Touch of Pink) will write and direct American English for the producers.  The film centers on a woman from New Jersey who moves to London, falls in love, and tries to hide the fact that she’s from New Jersey.  That needless charade becomes more difficult when her mother comes to visit.  American English is slated to shoot later this year.

Canning and Sherman are also producing the far-more respectable Shame through their London-based See-Saw Films.  Shame will reteam Hunger director Steve McQueen with star Michael Fassbender.  Fassbender will play a Manhattan office worker who is dealing with sex-addiction.  The film also stars Carey Mulligan and James Badge Dale.

The Oscars are mere weeks away, and as such, award season is just about over. However, that doesn’t mean we’re bereft of award-inspired artwork just yet. The BAFTAs (British Academy Film Awards) were held last week, where The King’s Speech all but swept most of the categories. Included in the brochure for the ceremony was some outstanding original artwork by Adam Simpson depicting each of the five nominees for Best Picture: Black Swan, Inception, The King’s Speech, The Social Network and True Grit. Hit the jump to check out the individual illustrations for yourself.

The BAFTAs (British Academy Film Awards) were held today and The King’s Speech nearly pulled off a clean sweep with seven wins, including Best Film and Oustanding British Film. Generally considered the British version of the Oscars, the BAFTAs are usually a fairly accurate gauge of how things will turn out at the Academy Awards (on February 27th). Natalie Portman won Best Actress for Black Swan and the unbeatable Colin Firth took home the Best Actor prize. Providing a glimmer of hope for The Social Network fans, David Fincher took home the Best Director trophy. The Social Network also won Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Editing. Inception took home three trophies including Best Visual Effects. Hit the jump to see the complete list of the winners.

I’m a huge fan of Guy Pearce.  If you’ve seen his work in such films as Memento, L.A. Confidential, The Hurt Locker, Animal Kingdom, The Proposition, and The King’s Speech (he play’s Colin Firth’s brother), I’m sure most of you agree that he’s a hell of an actor.

Anyway, I recently talked with him on the phone and we discussed how he got involved in The King’s Speech, what’s the last few years been like for him, and he talked about a few of his upcoming projects like Luc Besson’s sci-fi action-adventure Lockout (Besson produced it) and Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark – which was produced by Guillermo del Toro.  Hit the jump to either read or listen to the interview:

Super Bowl weekend is not known for its huge debuts – 2010 being the notable exception.  And with much of the country still dealing with their endless winter nightmares and the rest transfixed by the game, this weekend has a good excuse for its low numbers.

Producer Harvey Weinstein lost his battle with the MPAA to get The King’s Speech‘s rating lowered from an “R” to a “PG-13″.  The film received an “R” rating because of one scene where Edward VI (Colin Firth) says “Fuck” a lot and as we all know, if anyone under the age of 17 hears the word “fuck” more than once in a movie, they will turn to a life of prostitution.  Last week, we reported that Weinstein was going to respond to the MPAA’s stupid decision in kind by re-cutting the movie.  Now it looks like he’s might be planning to out-moron the MPAA by “bleeping” the film.  Director Tom Hooper tells EW, “I wouldn’t support cutting the film in any way. I think we looked at whether it’s possible to bleep out the f—s and stuff, but I’m not going to actually cut that part.” And star Helena Bonham Carter says, “I think they said they were going to put the bleeps.”

Hit the jump for why I think this may be one of Weinstein’s clever marketing ploys.

The Screen Actors Guild handed out awards for the 17th time tonight with The King’s Speech and The Fighter each taking home two wins.  Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech won awards in the “Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture” (more or less, SAG’s equivalent to the Academy’s “Best Picture” category ) and “Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role” for Colin Firth.  Meanwhile, David O. Russell’s The Fighter dominated the supporting categories by landing “Outstanding Performance in a Supporting Role” awards for both Christian Bale and Melissa Leo.  In what should be (in my opinion, at least) an open-shut case for the Academy, Natalie Portman was awarded “Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role” for her stellar work in Black Swan.

For those wondering what, if any, effect the SAG Awards may have on the eventual Academy Awards, it’s important to note that the event is believed to be a better gauge of Oscar winners than its most recent predecessor (the Golden Globes).  This is because the Screen Actors Guild is comprised mostly of American actors (the largest branch of the Academy) as opposed to the Globes which is made-up of a smaller group of foreign journalists known as the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.  Long story short (though certainly not etched in stone), look for The King’s Speech to take home Best Picture next month.

Hit the jump to check out the complete list of winners (television included) from the 17th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards.