Saturday Hot Links
Welcome to another installment of Saturday Hot Links served up piping hot with a side of potato knishes.
Today: The Unusual Muppet Video Edition! Starting with a 12/31/1965 appearance on “The Tonight Show”:
Now that production is wrapped on The Dark Knight Rises, Christian Bale reflects back on his tenure as the Caped Crusader.
Online education is booming! But I’ve known that for years.
Pass the bong: Grateful Dead movie “Across the Universe” in development.
National Board of Review names Hugo as Best Picture.
Does science ruin the magic of life? [video]
20th Century Fox head honcho Tom Rothman confirms sequels in the works for X-Men: First Class and Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
TotalFilm: 50 worst Christmas movies.
Martin Scorcese is a 3-D convert.
Remember this post I did on Ryan Kavanaugh, head of Relativity Media? Well, this is an interesting $200M wrinkle.
Richard Nixon had a speech prepared in case the astronauts of Apollo 11 didn’t return from the Moon. You can read it here. HT to @BittrScrptReadr for the link.
If you missed the announcement earlier this week of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival lineup, here is a link with all 110 entries.
Early Walt Disney drawing to be auctioned this week.
NYT: 100 notable books of 2011.
And while we’re at it, here is Publisher Weekly’s list of 2011’s best nonfiction books.
Manager-producer Dan Halsted inks first-look deal with Fox TV Studios.
“Intelligence Squared U.S. Debate”: Would the world be better off without religion?
There are rags-to-riches stories. Then there are rich-to-richer ones: Wealth managers win $254M lottery jackpot.
Have you heard of Project Gutenberg? It’s an amazing online resource for free eBooks.
This just in: Guy Ritchie say marriage to Madonna was a “soap opera”. Trivia: My son Luke was born at Cedars-Sinai Hospital one day before Rocco Ritchie was born there — in the room next to ours.
Experts say pay TV will fade as young people look for cheaper alternatives.
In jurisprudence news, Tobey Maguire pays $80K to settle lawsuit over illegal high-stakes poker games / ponzi scheme.
In the yin to Maguire’s yang, Jesse Eisenberg sues Lionsgate for $3M over the movie Camp Hell.
More Hollywood legal as investment group sues Paramount: “deliberately inflated losses and underreported gross receipts.”
And more ‘order in the court’ Tinseltown style: Harlan Ellison drops lawsuit over In Time.
Wait there’s more: A Texas comic book artist is suing Universal Pictures over the movie Cowboys & Aliens.
Believe it or not, there’s legal stuff outside Hollywood: Feds bust 150 web domains selling counterfeit goods.
Meanwhile the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who apparently aren’t suing anybody, announce new 2012 North American tour dates.
Pixar top dude John Lasseter to receive inaugural Brittania Award.
Just in time for Christmas: You may now buy Dunder-Mifflin paper products. No, really.
TotalFilm: 50 things we learned from Harry Potter.
Richard Cosgrove sent along this about the generally awful writing that goes on in video games [video].
Bert and Ernie’s first appearance on “Sesame Street” in 1969:
In screenwriting news, the Hero Complex with a feature on Neil Gaiman and his upcoming TV miniseries “Neverwhere.” Plus “Graveyard Book” as a movie?
Marti Noxon (Fright Night) to write “Quija” for Hasbro and Platinum Dunes.
Max Werner (“The Colbert Report”) to script rom-com for Columbia based on a “This American Life” segment with Ira Glass producing.
Tony Peckham (Invictus) to rewrite the movie remake of Twilight Zone
Daniel Radcliffe trying his hand at screenwriting [video].
David Ayer (Training Day) hired to reboot Scarface.
Anthony Tambakis (Warrior) inks deal for his novel “Swimming With Bridgeport Girls”.
Todd Berger (“The Happytime Murders” — Black List script) lands the OWA for Where’s Waldo for MGM.
Holy crap! David Milch to adapt multiple William Faulkner-penned projects for HBO? I hope he does “Light in August,” one of my favorites.
Kevin Smith has a few choice Twitter words for the Spirit Awards shutting out Red State.
And it’s that time of year again when we find out what movies are not eligible for the WGA Best Original and Best Adapted Screenplay awards. I get the logic. It’s still awkward.
Is Facebook really worth $100B?
Three agents at CAA are disinvited from work.
Nicholas Cage’s “Superman” comic fetches $2.1M at auction.
THR’s actors roundtable featuring Brooks, Clooney, Plummer, Nolte, Oldman and Waltz. [video]
Daniel Day Lewis photos as Abraham Lincoln hit the web. Hey, where are the vampires? Oops, wrong Lincoln movie.
Martin Scorcese talks Hugo [video].
And here is a list of movies Scorcese had his Hugo cast and crew watch before shooting the film. [HT to @AmosPosner for the link]
Celebs tap into social media — social networks, virtual worlds and online games — and makes lots of $$.
Speaking of online, Yahoo shutters four entertainment blogs.
Remember the big spec script sale for All You Need is Kill? Project has its lead actor… and it’s a big name.
TotalFilm: 50 greatest Disney movie moments.
TV ownership drops for the first time in Nielsen history.
Interested in creating an interactive app? Might want to check out.
Finally Walter, the new Muppet, tells all: Kermit the Frog is a short, green Tom Hanks.
Here is Big Bird singing “It’s Easy Being Green” at Jim Henson’s memorial service:
Screenwriting Master Class tip of the Week: It’s the last SMC course of our inaugural year and it begins Monday, December 5th. A one-week online screenwriting course with the first and perhaps last word on character introductions. Hence its title: “Craft: Character Introductions.” Your script may have 10, 15, 20 or more characters. Are you armed with the full arsenal of tools to write entertaining and memorable introductions to your story’s characters? In this class you will learn: Editorializing, Core Essence, Physicality as Personality, Narrative Voice, and how to use Dialogue, Action and Objects to make your characters come to life the moment they enter the narrative. Seven lectures you can read at your leisure, forum discussions you can enter on your time frame, and one live teleconference, all with me as your humble host and instructor. For more information, go here. And for GITS readers, there’s a 10% discount. When you enroll, enter the code: Discount10. I look forward to the opportunity to work with you!