The nerd in me wants this edition of FanToys on my shelf right now. Pictures of these beauties came straight out of New York Comic Con (the collage above was put together by the guys at /Film). These aren't the official toys, but more like prototypes, but the real deal won't be too much of a departure. These are 12" figures each character being equipped with different ghost busting accessories. If you want to look at these closer-up and in better resolution head on over to Toy News International who broke the pictures earlier today. I really can't wait to get my hands on these. Unfortunately there aren't any pics of Venkman or Winston, but if they look half as good as Stanz and Egon then we shouldn't have any doubts.

FanToys is a regular column dedicated to bringing you the best of the best collectibles, clothing, toys, and all around goodies that have anything and everything to do with the big and small screen. There's plenty of junk out there, but our job is to tell you about the junk that you really NEED!

This is just an epic week for celebrity flip outs! First Christian Bale packs some serious anger on set, and then very genuinely apologizes. But now Tracy Jordan (star of such hit movies as Who Dat Ninja, Death Bank, and Honky Grandma Be Trippin')is having NO NONSENSE on the set of his series The Girlie Show. Apparently some smart ass is pointing a camera at Tracy while he is trying to act. This is just unacceptable. How unprofessional can you be? Everytime Tracy Jordan is acting someone is pointing a camera at him. It's f*cking distracting.



In case you don't watch the NBC series 30 Rock, this is not real.

Well after all the outrage, laughs and posts about Christian Bale's fit of anger on the set of Terminator: Salvation, the man himself called into the famous Los Angeles radio station KROQ to set the records straight, and deliver a very classy apology and encouraging people not to judge him by this one incident alone and don't let it ruin the chance of seeing the movie when it comes out later this summer.

Bale said, "It’s been a miserable week for me. I know I have a pottymouth, everybody knows that now...I was out of order beyond belief, I was way out of order. I acted like a punk, I regret that and there is nobody that has heard that tape that has been hit harder by it [than me]. I make no excuses for it, it is inexcusable and I hope that is absolutely clear.”

This is definitely what everyone wanted to hear, but Bale dove into it even further, “One thing that has really disturbed me throughout this is I’m not familiar or comfortable with this notion of being a movie star. I’m an actor and I don’t quite know how to handle the movie star thing. The thing that disturbs me so much is that I’ve heard a lot of people saying that I seem to think I’m better than anybody else. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I’m a lucky, I don't want to swear here, but I never forget that and that is why I put so much into what I do and I care so much about it . Sometimes that enthusiasm just goes awry.”

It takes a lot for the guy to take this in stride and he even admits to having some laughs from the guys at KROQ during this whole debacle. If you'd like to listen to the whole phone call, which if you can't tell is very apologetic and a genuinely embarassed guy just trying to put this all behind him, you can check it out at KROQ right here. Finally, put to rest.

After seeing the Super Bowl spot for Will Ferrell's Land of the Lost, I wasn't extremely excited, but I thought it looked like decent family fare with Ferrell's trademark comedy flare. Adding Danny McBride (a new favorite amongst Ferrell, Adam McKay and the Apatow crew) into the mix really makes me hopeful too.

Below we've embedded the new full length trailer, and it's not much of a departure from the Super Bowl spot, but with a longer Today Show introduction featuring a couple good moments with Matt Lauer, and a better delivery of Will Ferrell's cursing of Matt Lauer later in the trailer. I think one of the cool factors in this movie is going to be how the time warp has affected this lost land, and see the world the characters find themselves stuck in. Check out the trailer below.

Warner Bros. just released a brand new poster for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth installment in the billion dollar franchise. The imagery is right in line with a lot of the other poster art for the series, but I think that HP6 logo is kind of awkward looking. The HP has been used plenty of times before, but I think it's the number 6 that just looks weird in that font style, probably since numbers have never been seen in that title font before. Anyway, aside from this there are two other posters that were released. One features Harry armed with his wand and the other features Albus Dumbledore looking just as poised for battle. Thanks for Internet Movie Poster Awards for the images.

Here's a rumor that has traveled a long way and from an awful source. But the rumor is interesting, and we've got some exclusive information on this story so I'm going to bring some attention to it.

This rumor apparently originated from an InTouch gossip magazine, was picked up by JustJared and then spread like wildfire across the interwebs. Rumor has it that this long talked about Farrelly Brothers film following the infamous comedy team known as the Three Stooges (Moe, Larry and Curly with varying other awful replacement stooges) is looking to pick up Johnny Depp and Sean Penn for the roles of Moe (left) and Larry (right) respectively.

Film Drunk apparently picked some info from a source that said "Billy West (famous voice actor from Futurama and Ren & Stimpy, among other things) is meeting with Sean Penn today and tomorrow to help him prep his Larry impression."

Well keeping up with the exlcusive info, I have it on good authrority that while this meeting may have taken place, currently Sean Penn is not comitted to any projects right now and does not have anything on his schedule regarding filming at the moment.

While this is to be taken with a grain of salt, I have to say that if these casting choices were more realistic, it would make for an interesting film, but only if the Farrelly Brothers weren't involved. Their track record has been terrible and they haven't produced anything of worth since There's Something About Mary (maybe Me, Myself and Irene, but that's being generous). I would like to see somebody like Milos Forman attack this film after his stellar job blending comedy and drama when directing the Andy Kaufman biopic Man on the Moon. Or even Jerry Zucker the man who was behind comedies like Airplane! and The Naked Gun, but still cranked out Ghost.

Either way, I loved the Stooges as a kid, and would love to have a biopic do them some justice. They were a group of guys who were moreso recognized for the role they played as the Stooges, rather than respected, versatile actors, and while the success was remarkable, their story isn't all glamour. But for now, I won't geet my hopes up, or even regard this rumors as being close to true, no matter how fun it might be.

After scripting what is probably the best parody to come out of Hollywood in the past decade, Variety reports Tropic Thunder writer Etan Cohen (not to be confused with Ethan Coen of the Coen Brothers) is set to adapt the childhood board game Candy Land into a feature length film with Kevin Lima (Enchanted) set to direct. BRAVO!

All right, we've had our surprise successes in the past. Whether it's turning an amusement park ride into an international box office money machine (Pirates of the Caribbean) or turning a beloved children's toy into a plethora of explosions and action (Transformers) there's been some surprise hits to come out of the most unlikely of sources. But I don't know if I can get behind this one.

Now I can see where this might be fun for a family film. Kids get stuck in a game or something along those lines a la Jumanji (not the best movie, but enjoyable for kids and parents alike). But it just seems like studios are struggling to find the most nostalgic items from our childhood and turn them into feature films. This movie definitely sounds better than the supposed Ridley Scott film based off everyone's favorite real estate trading game Monopoly (yes that's true). I just don't know if people are ready to see such dynamic characters as King Kandy, Mama Ginger Tree or Lord Licorice brought to the screen.

Personally, if anything this gets me excited for other board-game-to-screen adpatations. My favorite being the suspense thriller focusing on a surgeon who's racing against the clock to perform several very dangerous and invasive surgeries on an ailing mob boss or the mafia will kill his family. Yeah that's right...it's a movie based around Operation. You're welcome.

The last time we saw a Martin Campbell directed film was when he brought James Bond back from the depths of campy spy-movie hell by directing the stellar respawn of everyone's favorite member of Her Majesty's Secret Service, the 2006 film Casino Royale. Now (as Variety reports) it looks as though Campbell may be at the helm of starting a new franchise in the DC Comics screen version of The Green Lantern.

If you're unfamiliar with the hero, that's fine because there's actually more than one Green Lantern. "Each Green Lantern possesses a power ring that gives the user great control over the physical world as long as the wielder has sufficient willpower and strength to wield it." The last time we heard about Green Lantern was when the character was involved in the live action Justice League movie (and set to be portrayed by rapper turned actor Common) which has since been tabled. And then again in 2007, writer and director Greg Berlanti was said to be helming a big screen adaptation with other writers Michael Green (Heroes) and Marc Guggenheim (comic book writer). Since then not much has gone forward.

But now with negotiations between Campbell and Warner Bros. it looks like we may be seeing the power of the ring sooner than we expected. This seems like a good choice. Campbell did wonders with James Bond, and I'm really interested in seeing what he does with source material that's much more fantastical than the Bond that he directed on-screen. We'll be keeping our eye on this one. What do you guys think? Excited for Green Lantern or is there another hero you're dying to see jump to the big screen?

People certainly will always complain about the current cast of Saturday Night Live. It doesn't matter how many good sketches there are, there's always dismay and longing for the good ol' days, some long lost time when comedy wasn't in short supply and laughs were a dime a dozen. I'm a big believer in that this sentiment is always unfounded, and the quality of SNL's product (like a good president) can't be seen until years after it's in the can.

A couple years ago there was a very in depth retrospective about the cast and seasons of SNL during the 90's. My favorite commentary in this look back came from producer Michael Shoemaker when he looked back on the ratings free fall that took place in the mid 90's when there was a huge drop of cast members followed by an influx of fresh meat. This new talent consisted of future SNL favorites and now multi-million dollar comedians Adam Sandler and Mike Myers. But there was still backlash and criticism and a blasting New York Magazine cover story didn't make things any easier. Shoemaker points out "Now people look back and say, 'Those were the good times; it's this bunch I don't care for.' And it's always that way."

Having said that, despite some break out hits, this is once again one of those times. The cast is full of young new talent like Bobby Moynihan, Abby Elliot, Michaela Watkins and Casey Wilson, and even the veteran players are young in their own right, especially Andy Samberg. But personally, I think the show is as good as it's always been, but people are blinded by continually seeing only the good sketches from the infamous "good ol' days." Luckily the release of the full seasons of SNL on DVD put things in perspective and we can see that the sketch comedy show has always had it's highs and lows.

But there's been one recent part of SNL that has been as consistently funny as the staple Weekend Update segment. I'm talking of course about the SNL Digital Short. Brought to the table by Andy Samberg and his comedy troupe known as The Lonely Island, this has become a staple of every episode of SNL. Modern classics like Lazy Sunday, and D*ck in a Box (as well as the very recently popular Jizz in My Pants) border on Weird Al Yankovic kind of comedic musical brilliance. Lucky for us The Lonely Island has decided to release an entire album of their outrageous and vulgar musical stylings (including the aforementioned hits). Collaborators on the album include Jack Black, Justin Timberlake, Norah Jones and more. Even professional rapper T-Pain gets in on the action in the newly released single of the forthcoming album Incredibad hitting stores next Tuesday, February 10. The single is "I'm on a Boat" and takes aim at the glamorous cash money lifestyle represented so fruitfully in today's musical culture. We've embedded the audio below, and I anxiously await a proper video...maybe even on Saturday Night Live.

Well it's official Congress has delayed the switch of U.S. television signals from February 17 to June 12. The reason for the delay being that many rural and elderly households don't have the converter boxes. That's right grandma come June you might miss Wheel of Fortune, and the farmers? The Weather Channel would go broke... or at least have to show more episodes of When Weather Changed History. Although I'm not sure that show is to factual, because I'm pretty sure Hitler didn't have a weather machine...

The biggest impact has to be with the e-bayers of the world, of which I am one. I have an entire storage space full of converter boxes and now I have to wait til June when they run out in stores to list them? Not cool Congress, not cool at all.

It's been a slow news week, and Cinematical found just the thing to help pass the time. The industry is all abuzz with Oscar talk after the nominations were announced a little while back. With the Oscars just over two weeks away, nominated pictures that were in limited release are maaking their way to wide releases. But what if you don't have the time to become familiar with the nominees by catching all these flicks?

Here we have a very simple YouTube based game similar to the childhood Sesame Street segments asking us to figure out which thing doesn't belong? The video will tell you an Academy Award nominee, and then show you a set of two pictures. The left picture is the original still, and the right picture has something changed within. The modified picture is divided into nine segments allowing you to click where you think the change is, and progressing you through the game via YouTube. It's a clever little game and it's easy at first (as you can see below), but then becomes a mind numbingly tedious process of noticing every minute detail of the still. There are thirty levels. We've embedded the first below. Good night, and good luck.

Well the uproar about Christian Bale's tirade on the set of Terminator: Salvation certainly turned some heads and got pretty much everyone's attention. Whether you think his behavior is justified or not, the fact is we don't really know the entire story of what happened on set (But by golly Ain't It Cool is going to tell us the OFFICIAL story and let us know that they have too much credibility to post about it other than to post about the fact that they didn't post about it and... zzzZZZzzz.)

The fact is stuff like this won't matter in the long run. People will still go see Terminator, they will still like Christian Bale's movies and fanboys will still be mad that The Dark Knight wasn't nominated for Best Picture. It was just a great bit of distraction during a slow news day that if anything brought about some laughs, and even inspired some new ones.

Below what we have is a list of a few of the gems that came out of this Christian Bale freakout fiasco, and after this last laugh we're going to bury the hatchet, or axe if you will.

The Remix - This will be played in clubs for years to come

The T-Shirt - "You and me are done professionally, man."

The Soundboard - Now you can call your co-workers and ask them what they don't f*cking understand and if McG has something to say about it.

And finally, my personal favorite, is this mash-up of the classic Bill O'Reilly flip out with Christian Bale and the result is nothing short of astounding. If only we could get these two in a room together.

With the return of many high profile shows, like NBC's Chuck and Heroes, viewers are now faced with a new dilemma. What do I watch? For those out there without the benefit of Tivo, or a DVR, the networks have really done a job of making us pick and choose what we want to watch. Scheduling episodes of Chuck against House, and Heroes against 24 it is causing problems with how people want to enjoy their downtime. It doesn't stop on Monday nights either, Tuesday features ABC's Scrubs up against FOX's Fringe.

Which brings me to my gripe... why? The networks see that these shows are popular, if not the most popular (stupid American Idol...) but they feel the need to set them in gladiatorial fights to the death in prime-time battles with the big loser being the viewing audience. Playing musical chairs with shows has been a favorite past time in recent years for the networks, it makes one nostalgic for the TGIF days. You'd always know that the Tanners and Urkel weren't going anywhere.

But somewhere along the way the survival of the fittest mentality got warped at the networks, and now here we all sit, remote in hand knowing that we're going to have watch the show that we decide not to watch at work tomorrow on your computer. So the fall of the American work ethic can be squarely blamed on the television networks. And worst yet the problem is simple, just get rid of the crappy reality shows and we wouldn't have this problem, and Detroit would probably be in better shape...

Now I'm someone who really hates the gossip and bad mouthing of celebrities based on their personal life. I can't stand hearing people talk about Tom Cruise and his support and belief of scientology. With the littlest bit of information and very meticulously shaped soundbytes people disregard others without any real understanding. I totally agree with Dave Chappelle in his statement from Inside the Actor's Studio, "The worst thing to call somebody is crazy, it's dismissive, 'I don't understand this person, so they're crazy' - that's bullshit. These people are not crazy, they're strong people, maybe their environment is a little sick." I hate the obsession with celebrity in our culture. That might seem weird coming from a film/TV news blog, but my interest is professional, and focused on the production and craft of filmmaking, television production, acting and writing. Nothing on here will ever deal with disgusting tabloid gossip and paparazzi.

Having said that, I have to reference the disgusting tabloid gossip organization TMZ (And I refuse to link to their actual website) because of their snag of something outrageous that happened on the set of Terminator: Salvation. This is something obviously worthy of tabloid gossip, but I'm posting it because it shows some of the darker and not so entertaining side of the film production.

In an audio clip posted by TMZ, we can hear Batman himself, Christian Bale yelling like crazy at the director of photography on set. What appears to have happened is either during an actual shoot (or more than likely a rehearsal since a DP wouldn't change lighting mid-shot unless intentionally trying to botch a take) director of photography Shane Hurlbut needed to adjust a light, and apparently this distracted Mr. Bale during his scene with co-star Bryce Dallas Howard. The audio clip begins mid-rant and continues on for an awkward and painful length of time. There's plenty of yelling and f-bombs abound, and even a time when it sounds like Bale almost went to fight the DP. It's really embarrassing and disappointing to see (or rather hear)from an actor who has really had a stellar career be so unprofessional on set

Anyway, this really makes me wonder how difficult some actors can be to work with, when something so inconsequential that not even the director notices happens on set. Christian Bale obviously has a temper, and it definitely takes away from his professional credibility.

Here we have the first poster for the Ben Stiller family comedy sequel Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. Not much exciting work here, just a traditional cast line-up slapped on the familiar door archway background from the first Night at the Museum poster art. You can see new cast members like Bill Hader and Hank Azaria, as well as old favorites like Owen Wilson and Steve Coogan. As we've commented before, the film blogger buzz about this film is lackluster, but from the trailer we posted, I'm personally looking forward to this as much as I can to a family comedy. The first one was enjoyable, and the additional cast has only heightened its potential for my enjoyment.

Well yesterday we premiered what seemed to be a Super Bowl spot for Year One, and then all of a sudden we get surprised by a completely different promotion. This one isn't as impressive as the extended clip we posted, but it still does a decent job. We even get a glimpse at Christopher "McLovin" Mintz-Plasse. I think we can count on this one being one of the better comedies of the year when it comes out this June, but only time will tell as we see more footage.

The teaser for Angels and Demons has been making the rounds theatrically for awhile now, and tonight we got our look at some more footage via this Super Bowl TV spot. This prequel to the blockbuster, but lackluster "thriller" The Da Vinci Code brings Tom Hanks back as symbologist Robert Langdon as he gets caught up in another conspiracy plot this time involving the infamous Illuminati, an anti-Christian secret society that has infiltrated many political, economical and religious institutions. My interest in this film peaks at the involvement of Ewan McGregor. He's always been a favorite actor of mine, and it will be fresh to see him in a film where he doesn't have a director who forces him to dumb down his acting skills (I'm looking at you George Lucas *exclusive secret interview link*). Check out the TV spot embedded below. What says you guys?

And now, what might be the final Super Bowl spots that I actually care about (maybe the 3-D Monsters vs Aliens spot) have hit the net. Disney/Pixar's Up has two spots for the Super Bowl, and while one is simply a condensed version of the trailer we posted a little while ago, the other is an all new clip. The more I see of this film, the more interested I become. There is a great character dynamic between Russell and Carl that will make this adventure just as memorable as all their others.

Here is the trailer:


And here is the clip, Animal Calling with Carl and Russell:

After J.J. Abrams foray into Star Trek there won't be many people who will be able to make fun of it anymore. This spot looks intense and more and more like an action movie in science fiction clothes. Abrams already got the Mission: Impossible franchise to go back to its roots with a team of agents working together, and not just a Tom Cruise vehicle, and it looks like he's bringing back Star Trek too. Enterprise crew is full of young talent and Simon Pegg's presence on the bridge is all the more reason for plenty more people to check this one out this summer. Trailer is embedded below. Are you going to boldly go where 10 films have gone before?

First of all, before you read anything other than this lead-in, watch the Super Bowl TV spot for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen below. We'll wait.



And this is how you market your film during the Super Bowl. This TV spot teases and wows with shots of everything that made people love the first Transformers: GIANT F*CKING ROBOTS! There's an awesome shot of some new Autobot performing the signature transformation mid-air, and the last shot is just awe-inspiring. How big is that last Transformer? Originally people were thinking that this was Devastator (who is supposed to be ridiculously huge and actually is made up of a bunch of smaller Transformers known as Constructicons), but apparently /Film did some digging and found that the huge Transformer at the end (the one who is throwing Optimus Prime from screen left to screen right and is about 5 times his size) isn't Devastator but simply one of the Constructicons. Just. One. So what does that mean? That means Devastator is going to be unfathomably ginormous and robot fighting will not be in short supply this summer. I'm definitely being a little fanboy right now, but this film knows what it is, and knows how get the hype machine started. By no means is the Transformers franchise the epitome of good filmmaking, but it's just too fun to pass up. And if it's good enough maybe people will get mad when it's not nominated for Best Picture. Too soon?