Bowing to the inveitable, I herewith give you the Bella and Edward Twilight action figures from Tonner. They will undoubtedly fly off the shelves next spring, no matter what the price-tag.

[Hat Tip: Collider]

Slumdog Millionaire's awards momentum continues to build with Thursday's National Board of Review announcement. Remember, this not particularly illustrious group is helpful for just that--building a list of winners who keep on winning. Being left off is no badge of shame, but it can be a telltale sign of weakness. Also, this group tends to reflect movies that were screened early, and carries a certain New York bias.

For example, I would say that Clint Eastwood's Changeling is losing steam at this stage just as Gran Torino gains some heat (while Eastwood won an NBR best actor nod, the film has met a mixed reception from some critics; UPDATE: here's Todd McCarthy.)

Anne Hathaway's bid for a best actress Oscar slot is gaining traction, while Melissa Leo and Richard Jenkins had to settle for "Spotlight" also-ran status. And it's unlikely that, as worthy as it is, the Coen brothers comedy Burn After Reading is going to get far with the serious-minded Academy (maybe screenplay). The Wrestler is most likely a Mickey Rourke best actor play, while Wall-E, which will probably get closer to a best picture nomination than any animated film has since the Academy added the animation category, may be overlooked by many live-action-oriented branches, most crucially, the actors.

Artier entries Revolutionary Road, The Reader, and Happy-Go-Lucky are more likely to be championed by critics groups and actors. (Despite the ensemble award and breakthrough artist prize for Viola Davis for Doubt, this is not a good day for producer Scott Rudin.) Ed Zwick's Holocaust drama Defiance gets a much-needed boost from the NBR. For now the list solidifies the leading Oscar contenders at this stage: Slumdog Millionaire, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Dark Knight, Milk, and Frost/Nixon. In fact, it's not beyond the realm of possibility that they will in fact wind up as the Oscars' Top Five for best picture.

The full list of winners is on the jump:

Twilight stars Rob Pattinson and Kristen Stewart top IMDb's STARmeter, which measures weekly rankings of who gets the most hits on the site, which is visited by 57 million visitors each month. Twilight stars have taken over the top ten: Edward, Bella, Rosalie, Carlisle, Alice, Jasper, Jacob, Emmett, James, and Charlie. Amazing.

1 Robert Pattinson
2 Kristen Stewart
3 Nikki Reed
4 Peter Facinelli
5 Ashley Greene
6 Jackson Rathbone
7 Taylor Lautner
8 Kellan Lutz
9 Cam Gigandet
10 Billy Burke

Needless to say, Summit is wasting no time moving ahead with the sequel, New Moon.

UPDATE: The question of whether or not Catherine Hardwicke will direct it is still up in the air. Negotiations are in progress. She is the director of the biggest opening ever for a woman director. Her agent is trying to get her paid: will it be what a man would get after delivering the successful launch of a huge franchise? Summit also has to calculate, if they are willing to walk away from Hardwicke, how upset the fans will be if she leaves. Apparently, there is some debate as to how to focus the second movie, which focuses more on werewolves than vampires and deals with Bella's depression after Edward leaves her. One issue will be how to get more Pattinson into the film.

Here's the trailer for Pattinson's next, Little Ashes:

It was a one-night only charity fund-raiser at UCLA as Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson hosted a performance of Kaufman and Hart's classic You Can't Take it With You. Jon Hamm scored with the crowd, natch, as the hunky leading man, opposite Mila Kunis.

Director Nora Ephron said backstage that Hamm and Kunis turned out to be “very very charming together” as Tony Kirby and Alice Sycamore, the play's young lovers. Hamm's role was originated by Jimmy Stewart in the original John Ford Frank Capra film. When asked about the idea of playing Superman, Hamm suggested that he might be too old.

Check out these videos:

For those of you hardy enough to embrace more than four hours of Steven Soderbergh's exhaustive biopic of Che, this trailer gives a taste of the riches in store. I'd actually send cinephiles to the first one, The Argentine, which I prefer to the second, Guerilla, which takes a more cinema verite approach to Che's tragic Bolivian campaign, but becomes repetitive. In any case, Benicio del Toro deserved his best actor award in Cannes. Which does not change the fact that a best actor Oscar nom this year is a long shot. Being pragmatic about this doesn't mean that Oscar-watchers are committing a crime against art cinema.

Todd McCarthy talks to Sundance Film fest director Geoff Gilmore about the Sundance 2009 competition feature, documentary and world cinema line-ups. One can only hope that given the current economic climate, last year reps the attendance peak of a fest that desperately needs to scale back anyway; if a lot of companies and folks can't make it this year, I'm going to be greedy and selfish and say, "all the more for us!"

Even during the frantic party swag-hog years, it was always possible to tune out Main Street in favor of the movie theaters, where what we could see was always choice. I suspect that as newspapers scale back on critics, there will also be fewer press in attendance, which is too bad. However, Gilmore told me there's been "no drop whatsoever" in the avalanche of submissions. "It boggles the imagination," he said. The economy "hasn't effected that part of the universe. I can't imagine that it won't. Maybe it will take place down the line."

This leads me to suspect that micro-budget emerging filmmaking will continue unabated. (There may be fall-off at the higher-budget level, with stars etc.)

What about fest attendance itself? "We haven't had a real drop in the level of passes sold," he said. "We're at last year or the year before. We'll see if there's an effect on the end of the festival." Sponsorship has been affected, he admitted. As for the impact of a possible anti-Mormon post-Prop 8 Utah boycott hitting Sundance, Gilmore said "a lot of people in the film community have articulated what Sundance has done for the gay community and film culture. A lot of people don't view Sundance as a target."

The full Sundance competition line-up is on the jump:

It's worth noting that several of the films getting singled out for kudos consideration this season are from directors who have played hard ball with the studios but have figured out that in many ways, indie is better.

They include Jonathan Demme, who went from the mediocre The Manchurian Candidate and The Truth About Charlie to the more vital and nourishing Rachel Getting Married; Milk's Gus Van Sant, who has clearly sided with the indies since the days of Finding Forrester and Psycho; and Darren Aronofsky, who went from the $30-million The Fountain at Warners (arguably, as close to an indie film as any studio would ever make) to the $6 million The Wrestler.

Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire) has long sworn off studio big-budgets, ever since The Beach. And it's heartening to hear Waltz with Bashir director Ari Folman admit that while he has been ardently wooed by Hollywood ever since Cannes (including some people who haven't even seen his movie), he recognizes that he has more freedom and control raising his own money abroad. (His movie was a hit in Israel and France.)His next animated feature is shaping up: it's based on a cool story by Stanislaw Lem about a movie star who as she starts to lose her looks, sells her digital image rights; the movie tracks her 20 years into the future.

We're in the thick of the award season now.

Today's Indie Spirits noms were largely predictable. (The biggest surprise was the inclusion of Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker, which debuted at Toronto, but won't be released until 2009.) Some movies got a much-needed boost in the awards derby, while others didn't get helped at all. Waltz with Bashir was a surprising omission from foreign film. Elegy and Adam Resurrected came up empty-handed.

Slumdog Millionaire was deemed ineligible for best feature as a foreign film, but it is three-quarters in English, so didn't make it into the foreign category either. But the Fox Searchlight/Warner Bros. film doesn't need help from the Spirits anyway, and neither does Focus Features' Milk, which scored for four noms, including best actor Sean Penn and supporting actor James Franco, but not best feature or director. It's also odd that Fox Searchlight's The Wrestler landed best feature and actor (Mickey Rourke) but not director or writer.

Sony Pictures Classics led the fray with 18 noms and looked to make good on its goal to land best actress noms this year for Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married) and Melissa Leo (Frozen River), and best supporting actress for Married's Debra Winger and Rosemary DeWitt. Laurent Cantet's The Class was among the foreign nominees.

IFC landed 11 noms for its plethora of year-end movies, including foreign entries Hunger and Gomorra. Overture's The Visitor scored a welcome nod for Richard Jenkins for best actor, as well as best director for Tom McCarthy.

Newcomer Oscilloscope scored noms for best feature (Wendy and Lucy) and best actress (Michelle Williams). This is what needs to happen for Williams to gain traction in the best actress race. And Lance Hammer's critic's fave Ballast scored amazing six noms even though he distributed the movie himself. Some films that have already been released theatrically will benefit from awards attention via DVD sales and Netflix rentals.

Charlie Kaufman (also winner of the Robert Altman award and nominated for best first feature) and Woody Allen got boosts for their original screenplays for Synecdoche, New York and Vicky Cristina Barcelona, respectively. Vicky Cristina's Penelope Cruz also added a notch to her belt for supporting actress.

Two popular docs on the Oscar short list grabbed additional attention with Spirit noms, Werner Herzog's Encounters at the End of the World and Man on Wire, the story of Philippe Petit's tightrope walk between the Twin Towers.

The full list of Indie Spirit nominees is on the jump.

[Posted by Tatiana Siegel]
Although the Sundance Film Festival won't unveil its full lineup until tomorrow, rumors are circulating that John Krasinski's helming debut, Brief Interviews With Hideous Men, will be making the trek to Park City. The film, a passion project for The Office star, is significant because it marks the only bigscreen project ever derived from the sizable literary library of the late David Foster Wallace. Krasinski also wrote and starred in Hideous Men, which is based on a short story by Wallace, who committed suicide in September. Krasinski was editing the film, which he shot two years ago in New York, when he learned of the author's death.

Though the film, which also stars Bobby Cannavale, Max Minghella and Christopher Meloni, is the first Wallace project to hit the screen, it won't likely be the last. Producer Jason Kliot (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room and recent Toronto fest hit American Swing) is developing Wallace's Infinite Jest, the author's most famous work, with Keith Bunin penning the screenplay.

Here's my original story.

For those of you getting ready to compile your year-end ten-best lists, a complete alphabetical list of movies that were theatrically released in the U.S. is on the jump, from Able Danger and Adam Resurrected to Zack and Miri Make a Porno and Zombie Strippers.

The late entries in the award screening derby are Stephen Daldry's The Reader, which started unspooling last week, Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino, which screens Monday night, and Will Smith-starrer Seven Pounds, which starts screening this week. Their distribs are scrambling to get the movies seen before The National Board of Review announces its list Thursday; the L.A. Film critics vote on Tuesday, December 9; the NYFCC on December 10; and the Hollywood Foreign Press makes its Golden Globes announcement on December 11. That's not even to mention all the guild nomination deadlines coming up.

The Weinstein Co. will be playing a bit of catch-up with The Reader. While the film is beautifully written, shot and acted, it is as carefully constructed and calibrated as a delicate souffle that could collapse at any moment. (Here's Todd McCarthy's review.) Kate Winslet gives a precise, moving performance as the damaged, secretive 30ish Hanna, who conducts an intense, sexual affair with a 15-year-old German boy (David Kross).

It's too bad that Winslet is competing with herself for best actress this year; Revolutionary Road is likely to gain her the Oscar nom. It's hard to imagine her role in The Reader being considered for supporting actress when she is clearly its name star: Ralph Fiennes and Kross split the second lead role as teen and adult. Lena Olin could be a candidate for supporting, in two fierce dramatic scenes as an older Holocaust survivor and later, her daughter. UPDATE: The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, at least, decided to go the Weinstein Co.'s way, putting Winslet in the supporting catgeory.

MGM/UA hasn't screened Valkyrie widely for critics, who are crucial drivers of year-end awards, although the few who have seen it are spreading good buzz. MGM/UA is taking the initial Warners approach to Martin Scorsese's The Departed: let them come to us. Last year Warners started out pushing Ed Zwick's Blood Diamond over The Departed, but changed direction as the movie picked up awards steam. For now, MGM/UA is selling the movie, which stars a strong ensemble led by Tom Cruise, as a commercial thriller.

Sony, on the other hand, is campaigning for Smith in Seven Pounds before most have even seen it. The studio has scheduled a massive number of upcoming screenings for the late arrival, which opens December 19. The Hollywood Foreign Press saw the film November 19th; invites are going out to guilds and critics this week. The National Board of Review, which announces its votes Thursday, saw the film Monday. The DGA will screen it Tuesday. The press junket will be held this week. "We're screening the movie like mad," said one Sony PR exec.

Sometimes when so many things are going wrong, some things do go right:

Like retail holiday sales getting off to a robust start.

Like a strong holiday weekend at the boxoffice, well up from last year.

Like the best-reviewed two movies, Milk and Slumdog Millionaire, doing great in limited release over the weekend. Like Slumdog and Hunger picking up three awards apiece at the British Independent Film Awards.

Like Australia playing well enough with adults so that studios like Fox won't regret taking risks like that on other crazy-bet movies. We want studio co-chairman Tom Rothman to keep hosting Fox Legacy, my current fave TV show, where he actually gives intelligent and often passionate background analysis of what made some of the studio's classics so great. It's hard to imagine the studio green-lighting movies like Love is a Many-Splendored Thing or Gentleman's Agreement these days. But by golly they did make Australia, which is in itself a many- splendored thing.

Before the American Cinematheque starts off its tribute evening to Samuel L. Jackson Monday night, board chair Rick Nicita will present the inaugural Sydney Pollack Award to Sundance Film Fest director Geoff Gilmore, who is currently prepping his 19th fest.

Cinematheque director Barbara Smith wanted to create a lasting memorial to the late producer-director, who as a long-term board member and one-time board chair had kept the wolf from the door many times over the years. The award will be presented each year to someone "who has been of critical importance and continuing influence in non-profit film exhibition, film preservation and/or independent film promotion and distribution – people whose work Sydney supported and found to be so valuable, who are not often recognized for their efforts," the Cinematheque said. It takes one to know one.

Several of the songs on the rockin' Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack are by M.I.A, including Paper Planes:

As Frost/Nixon played well to the Academy crowd last week, producer Brian Grazer and director Ron Howard have started their award season rounds.

Here's their chat with Peter Bart both in print and on Shootout:

As Patrick Goldstein rightly points out, Frost/Nixon is first and foremost the creation of writer Peter Morgan, who adapted his own play. Morgan tells Goldstein why he's attracted to these power duels between younger and older, more powerful figures--as in The Queen and The Last King of Scotland. Morgan is well on his way to his second Oscar nomination.

At the Frost/Nixon premiere, we asked Morgan if he plans to complete the trilogy begun by The Deal (Tony Blair vs. Gordon Brown) and continued by The Queen (Blair vs. Queen Elizabeth). Next he was supposed to write The Special Relationship (Blair vs. George W. Bush). But he's writing about Blair and Bill Clinton, Morgan says. Michael Sheen, who plays David Frost to Frank Langella's Nixon both on stage and screen, is set to return as Blair. In the meantime Sheen stars in Morgan's very British story about a famed soccer coach in The Damned United, directed by Tom Hooper (John Adams). UPDATE: Morgan is also writing the thriller Hereafter for DreamWorks, with Clint Eastwood in talks to direct.

At the Frost/Nixon premiere after-party, Howard was in good spirits. Not only is he in the Oscar hunt for this movie (along with Morgan and Langella), but he's pleased with how the sequel turned out to The Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons, which he recently screened for Sony. He admits that he had more freedom on Angels and Demons, and was less constrained by the religious material that had to be handled so somberly on the first one. Hanks could have more attitude. This one is more of a rollicking fun adventure, Howard says.

Here's the Angels and Demons trailer:

Writer-director Tony Gilroy, who worked on several Bourne installments before he made his directing debut with Michael Clayton, turned next to one of my fave genres, the romantic heist caper. Duplicity reunites Closer stars Clive Owen and Julia Roberts as two ex-spies who may or may not be in love. Is it more Trouble in Paradise or Prizzi's Honor? We'll find out when Universal opens it in March, 2009.

All those teens in love with Rob Pattinson as the dishy Edward Cullen in Twilight may be in for a surprise when they see his next: the arty Bohemian romp Little Ashes, in which he stars as the young painter Salvador Dali--in love with poet Federico García Lorca (Javier Beltran). MTV has a photo gallery on the film, due in 2009.

Here's an early clip: