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http://www.aintitcool.com/node/46303

According to Mr. Cusack himself, he will be playing Edgar Allen Poe in an upcoming flick called The Raven. He doesn’t explicity say that The Raven he will be in is the one James McTeigue (V for Vendetta) has been ramping up for some time now… but it’s a safe assumption.

If it is The Raven we think it is, the flick will be a fictional account of a serial killer in 1850′s Baltimore that uses Poe’s stories as his murder methodology. The killer then taunts Poe to figure out his clues before he kills again.

Cusack is rad. Let’s hope he can go dark enough… and grow some creepy Poe-ish hair… to nail this. He was great in 1408 and Identity… I have faith I suppose. THANK GOD it’s not Johnny Depp.

http://www.ibelieveinadv.com/2010/08/mcdonalds-macfries-pedestrian-crossing/

Executed in Switzerland during the biggest street festival of the year. The restaurant was afraid of independent vendors stealing their customers during the festival…so they took advantage of the fact that streets are closed down during the festival with this very creative placement.

http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/24-wonderful-photographs-in

I just discovered this type of photography thanks to a lovely little iPhone App called Pro HDR. The whole point of HDR photography is to take what normally would be a very high contrast photo and caputre all parts in beautiful detail. Normally, when you take a photo of the coast at sunset or take a photo through a window, you get some really bright light from the sun and everything else is really dark… not the case with HDR.

Check out some examples below… I’ll start with one I took (in a less primitive fashion than the pros) on my iPhone 4:

And now the pros:

These all feel super Annie Leibowitz-ish to me…. anyone agree? I wonder if she uses this technique a lot.

I reported on this back in May when angry white dudes flipped out over the anti-Arizona Cinco de Mayo trailer for the film, but the thought that Robert Rodriguez’s Machete will inflame the powderkeg of tension surrounding immigration in the US is continuing… so I thought I’d revisit it with a link to Hollywood Reporter’s article from today:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i53445ccba5e5906e5c10395f3b2c1933

Not quite as extreme as the angry white dudes in May, but it’s still an interesting topic to think about.

It is expected that the best damn movie of this year, Toy Story 3, will cross the $1 billion worldwide gross mark some time today. That will make TS3 the #7 worldwide grosser of all time and will make Disney the only studio to have 2 films hit the $1 billion milestone in 1 year (Alice did it earlier this year…yuck).

http://thefutoncritic.com/news/2010/08/26/tlc-confirms-the-final-season-of-little-people-big-world/20100826tlc01/

Let me start by patting myself on the back for that completely misleading title.

TLC has announced that the upcoming second half of the 6th season of Little People, Big World will be the final episodes of the show. The dad is about ready to die, the mom is annoying and the twins aren’t entertaining anymore because they’re 20… so yah, I agree… let’s move on. (but I do want to visit their pumpkin farm)

The most excellent graphic artist, Tyler Stout, has debuted a poster he made for the most excellent film, Let the Right One In. To be clear, this is for the original flick that came out a couple years ago… not the new one starring Hit Girl that will hit theatres later this year.

http://www.tstout.com/welcome

While we’re on the subject of the Hit Girl reboot of this wonderful film, here’s the new trailer for the film that I believe premiered in front of Pirahna 3D… definitely worth a watch… the trailer that is… not Piranha 3D… but Piranha 3D is kinda cool… if you like pulpy remains of chewed off body parts and LOTS of nudity.

http://joblo.com/mission-impossible-4-isnt-mission-impossible-4

Yesterday news hit the web suggesting that Hurt Locker star Jeremy Renner would be sharing lead billing on the 4th installment of Mission Impossible:4.

Now it looks like that might only be partially true. According to smart web writer people, Renner WILL star alongside the couch jumper in the flick BUT the film won’t be called Mission Impossible: 4. Instead, Paramount is looking to use the film as a sort of reboot for the franchise and will do what we all assumed they were doing with Shia LeBeouf in Indiana Jones and the Stupid Glass Aliens… passing the torch to the younger guy for a new set of installments.

Renner will reportedly share equal screen time in this Mission Impossible flick with Tom Cruise, but in future installments Renner would take top billing and Cruise would slip into more of a mentor capacity.

The title for the new film will likely follow the path of the Batman series and use a title completely unrelated to previous naming conventions (i.e. The Dark Knight).

I feel like this whole Renner Fever following The Hurt Locker is a little ridiculous. He wasn’t THAT great in that movie… calm the hell down Hollywood.

Below are some pics I took at the 2 panels I was willing to wait in line for (OK…I lie… I had a special person pass so I didn’t even have to wait in line for 1 of them… and I kinda didn’t really have to for the other… but I had really shitty seats… so back off)

WOMEN WHO KICK ASS

The first panel was called “Women Who Kick Ass” and featured

• Jena Malone (Sucker Punch)
• Anna Torv (Fringe)
• Elizabeth Mitchell (V & Lost)
• Ellen Wong (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World)
• Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Scott Pilgrim)

I was a tad disappointed because the original list of attendees included Chloe Moretz (Hit Girl). I think it would brought a much better dynamic to the panel if she would’ve shown up. It ended up being a competition between Jena Malone and Elizabeth Mitchell for who could talk more… Jena Malone won… and did so with rock star analogies that put that grown-ups on the panel to shame.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead

Anna Torv

Jena Malone

Elizabeth Mitchell (she likes to hear herself talk a lot)

Ellen Wong

TRUE BLOOD

Right after the Women panel, the True Blood panel started up.  Most of the cast was there, except for Eric (Alexander Skarsgard), Jason (Ryan Kwanten), Franklin (James Frain)…but he showed up to party later, and a few of the othewr supporting people. Nothing ground-breaking came out of the panel, but I must say that anna Paquin is a whole lot cooler than her character on the show would lead you to believe.

Below are some pics from the panel, a few from the Wired Cafe (they built a Merlotte’s bar for the weekend), and a few photos of True Blood actors at the Maxim The Other Guys cast party.

THE PANEL

Making up for the absent Eric

MERLOTTE’S AT THE WIRED CAFE

Sam (Sam Trammell) and Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll)

THE PARTY

Sheryl and Franklin (James Frain)

Addy and Franklin

Sheryl and Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis)

Below are photos from my wanderings around the exhibit halls and outside of the San Diego Convention Center during Comic Con.

“Lionel Richie Fan Club”

Sheryl loves her some David Boreanez

My favorite baby, carlos, safe from the nerds behind a barrier of plexi