Breaking announcement today via theonering.net:

Guillermo Del Toro announced today that he is no longer directing the two movies based on J.R.R Tolkien’s “The Hobbit”, but will continue to co-write the screenplays. Out of respect to the legions of loyal Tolkien fans, both Guillermo and Peter Jackson wanted to break the news to The One Ring first. They are both committed to protecting The Hobbit and will do everything in their power to ensure the films are everything that the fans want them to be.

“In light of ongoing delays in the setting of a start date for filming “The Hobbit,” I am faced with the hardest decision of my life”, says Guillermo. “After nearly two years of living, breathing and designing a world as rich as Tolkien’s Middle Earth, I must, with great regret, take leave from helming these wonderful pictures. I remain grateful to Peter, Fran and Philippa Boyens, New Line and Warner Brothers and to all my crew in New Zealand. I’ve been privileged to work in one of the greatest countries on earth with some of the best people ever in our craft and my life will be forever changed. The blessings have been plenty, but the mounting pressures of conflicting schedules have overwhelmed the time slot originally allocated for the project. Both as a co-writer and as a director, I wlsh the production nothing but the very best of luck and I will be first in line to see the finished product. I remain an ally to it and its makers, present and future, and fully support a smooth transition to a new director”.

Read the entire story at theonering.net.

Seeing as how my cheeky mock-up of Chris Hemsworth as Thor using Sideshow’s LSB back when the news first broke inexplicably continues to send folks to this site via the googles and bings, and even prior to that– a mock-up with Kevin Mckidd, it’s only fitting to update with the conclusion of all this, what we’ll see on screens next year with Kenneth Branagh’s Thor.

Almost hilariously, people are already complaining about the armor (‘it looks too plasticky!’). From what can be seen I like it a lot. I expected as much that they would modernize it in order for it not to look completely ridiculous next to Iron Man and gang. It works.

On display: Optimus Prime, Bumblebee (Camaro), Ironhide (GMC Topkick) and Sideswipe (Corvette Stingray Concept) from the motion picture, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

• See our other film prop galleries

If the title of this entry was to be really truthful, it’d have a GIANT question mark at the end.

See, IGN is holding a sweepstake for District 9, where the prize includes airfare/hotel to San Diego and a meet and greet with PJ (producer) and Neil Blomkamp (director) at SDCC 09. Yes, I recognize that I have a snowball’s chance, but it’s one of those situations where the prize is so cool that it’s worth the hail mary.

I noticed right away that men and women have different entry deadlines, which I thought mildly odd (why even have distinctions at all?). Peculiarities aside, as I went on my merry way completing this flash entry form, when I noticed something even more distressing- I could not check the ‘male’ box for gender. It states that the men’s deadline is July 22, so that couldn’t be it. And a quick try confirms that the women’s checkbox does work (but does not allow you to uncheck it once it’s checked, ugh, poor coding, anyone?)

A quick google search found something mighty revealing: the contest was originally open to males only. “You are not welcome here” indeed.

This totally explains the odd double entry periods and partially explains why the contest form is broken. The story has gotten some play around the blogosphere for its sexist restrictions and the powers that be have since rectified the situation, but as you can gather- rather haphazardly. Nice going!

While I’m glad the ladies now have a rightful chance at the goods, it still leaves me with a conundrum now that the roles are comically reversed: how the hell do I enter? Refreshing the page to clear the female checkbox, I wanted to see if it would allow an entry with neither checked. It did. I figure if I did win as a female, I would be disqualified pretty quickly. So I did the right thing and am now entered as a genderless human being.

Yay for that!

Avatar is like a unicorn. Us film geeks are simply salivating at James Cameron’s return to the big screen since his last film a decade ago. And yet I compare it to a mythical creature because even now, half a year out (film opens December 18), all we’ve glimpsed of Avatar were through hushed secondhand rumors and a handful of concept drawings- and even those only surfaced about a week ago.

Now, it’s finally beginning to feel real. And it’s getting exciting. The director appeared at Ubisoft’s (who are making a tie-in video game) E3 press conference yesterday to talk quite at length about Avatar. It’s really a bit surreal that this is the venue in which it’s happening, but if Paul and Ringo can re-unite onstage for a video game, anything is possible. Do however, consider that the Avatar video game is being demoed (and will be released pre-film) before we have seen a single frame of the film yet.

Quite funnily, much has been made about the rambling nature of his presentation (and it kind of is), but I was absolutely fascinated:

I wrote the treatment for this thing 14 years ago, and I took it in to my team at Digital Domain where I was the CEO and said, ‘Well what do you think guys?’ And they broke it down and said, ‘If we make this, we’re doomed. It can’t be done. The technology doesn’t exist’. So I put it way in the back of the drawer for about a decade.

And then I started to see things in movies, examples of photo real CG characters like Gollum in The Lord of the Rings and said maybe it’s time to dust this thing off….

You can check out his entire 14 minute long speech at G4.

On display: Hydrobot from the motion picture, Terminator: Salvation

• See our other film prop galleries

On display: Screen worn costumes from J. J. Abrams’ 2009 motion picture Star Trek

• See our other film prop galleries

I’m going to show some restraint and not put some quip about “Kirk’s daddy” somewhere in the title, which no writer has seemingly been able to resist thus far. But it appears that Chris Hemsworth, who’s just earned considerable geek cred recently as George S. Kirk in J.J. Abram’s Star Trek, is now anointed as everyone’s favorite Asgardian, Thor.

And here’s something you probably haven’t seen- Hemsworth in a mocked-up Thor costume (base image via Sideshow’s Thor Legendary Scale bust):

Hemsworth has also been cast as the lead in a remake of Red Dawn. Kind of a good month for the guy.

In related news, Tom Hiddleston has been cast as Loki. Kenneth Branagh’s Thor will hit screens in 2011.

And for old time’s sake, don’t forget our similar send-up of Kevin McKidd back from 2007 (goodness gracious, has it really been that long?)

On display: Screen worn costumes of Silk Spectre II (Malin Åkerman), Nite Owl II (Patrick Wilson) and Ozymandias (Matthew Goode) from the motion picture Watchmen

• Read the Watchmen panel transcript from SDCC 08
• See our other film prop galleries

Everybody wants a piece of “The Best Superhero Film Ever”, and naturally every retailer is voraciously after your Dark Knight dollar.

This film may in fact, have the most home video variations ever. Here at the Collectiblog, we help you sort out what really matters– the swag! And where to get it!

Amazon
Batpod (Blu Ray only)

Best Buy
Joker Mask (DVD and Blu Ray)

Wal-Mart
Two-Face Coin (DVD only)

Futureshop (Canada)
Steelbook (DVD and Blu Ray)

HMV (Not sold online. UK, Canada)
Batman Cowl (DVD and Blu Ray)