Dark Knight gets 11 Saturn nods

The Dark Knight has been nominated for 11 prizes at the annual Saturn Awards, set up by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror.

It will compete with Changeling, Gran Torino, Traitor, Valkyrie and Quantum of Solace, in the best action, adventure and thriller category.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Iron Man scored nine and eight nominations, respectively.

Valkyrie received seven nominations and the latest Indiana Jones film had six.

Christian Bale, who plays Batman, was nominated for best film actor, where he will be up against a strictly A-list group which includes Tom Cruise, Robert Downey Jr, Harrison Ford, Brad Pitt and Will Smith.

Cult series Lost led this year's television nominations, featuring in 11 categories, followed by Heroes, which appeared in six.

Battlestar Galactica and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles received four nominations each.

The annual awards, which were founded in 1972, will be held on 25 June.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7936576.stm

'Dark Knight' sweeps People's Choice Awards

Holy, People's Choice Awards, Batman! "The Dark Knight" soared away with every trophy it was nominated for Wednesday at the 35th annual fan-favorite CBS ceremony. The caped crusader flick won five awards, including favorite cast, superhero, action movie and on-screen matchup for Christian Bale's Batman and the late Heath Ledger's Joker.

"On behalf of all of the cast from the movie, thank you very much to the fans," said Bale. "Here's to Heath."

The CBS ceremony was hosted by Queen Latifah and returned to the Shrine Auditorium for its typical star-studded live show format, following last year's writer's strike-friendly, pre-taped program. Stars such as Adam Sandler, Kate Hudson, Robin Williams, Hugh Laurie and Reese Witherspoon showed up to accept thier awards at the slightly subdued ceremony.

"It's such a great way to start the new year," Witherspoon, the "Four Christmases" star who won an Oscar in 2005 for portaying June Carter Cash in "Walk the Line," said as she accepted her award for favorite female movie star. "A couple years ago, I won a great award for singing in a movie. This year, I won an award for having a baby throw up on me."

Other recipients selected by Internet voters in categories spanning movies, television and music included "Dancing With the Stars" as favorite reality show, Carrie Underwood as favorite female singer, "House" as favorite TV drama, Brad Pitt as favorite leading man, Angelina Jolie as favorite female action star and Ellen DeGeneres as favorite talk show host.

"I wish I could share this with you," DeGeneres told the audience while clutching her trophy on stage. "I could throw it on the ground and smash it into a million pieces, and give each one of you a little piece of it, but that's violent, and that's probably why you voted for me, because I'm not violent." - AP

Top 10 Box Office Movies of 2008

In 2008, superheroes, spies, and animated animals dominated the box office, with moviegoers flocking to theaters to see a little bit of everything, from new heroes to old favorites. Here are the top ten highest grossing films at the domestic box office this year.

10. HORTON HEARS A WHO
Total Gross: $154,529,439

Featuring the voice talents of Jim Carrey and Steve Carell, and based on Dr. Seuss' storybook classic, the computer-animated Horton hit it big in March with one of the top spring opening weekends ever.

9. QUANTUM OF SOLACE
Total Gross: $166,800,000

Picking up where 2006's "Casino Royale" left off, Daniel Craig returned to action as 007 and raked in a cool sum in ticket sales, making James Bond the second most successful movie franchise behind "Star Wars."

8. TWILIGHT
Total Gross: $176,815,000

Fueled by an enthusiastic fanbase, Stephanie Meyer's hit literary phenomenon jumped from the page to the big screen to take a bite out of the annual box office, grabbing the number 9 spot during the last weeks of the year.

7. MADAGASCAR: ESCAPE 2 AFRICA
Total Gross: $176,934,000

In the sequel to 2005's animated animal hit, Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra and the rest of the zoo crew crash landed in uncharted territory, and "moved it, moved it" at the box office, kicking off the holiday movie season.

6. KUNG FU PANDA
Total Gross: $215,434,591

Armed with all the right moves and an all-star voice cast, DreamWorks' unlikely kung fu hero battled his way to box office greatness, nabbing the animation studio one of its biggest, fattest, fuzziest hits yet.

5. WALL-E
Total Gross: $223,749,872

The animation wizards at Pixar rocketed to critical and box office success again with the biggest family movie of the year, an out-of-this-world tale of a lonely little robot with a really big heart.

4. HANCOCK
Total Gross: $227,946,274

Once again, Will Smith proved to be king of Independence Day, starring as a high-flying superhero with some really bad public relation problems, and smashing his way to his biggest summer opening weekend ever.

3. INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL
Total Gross: $317,023,851

Nearly twenty years after his last Crusade, Harrison Ford returned as everyone's favorite whip-cracking archaeologist to don the famed fedora once more, raiding a large trove of box office treasure but falling short of record-breaking expectations.

2. IRON MAN
Total Gross: $318,313,199

Director Jon Favreau and star Robert Downey Jr. brought Marvel Comics' popular armored superhero to the big screen, kicking off the summer blockbuster season, defying expectations and blasting off all the way to the number two spot.

1. THE DARK KNIGHT
Total Gross: $530,917,814

Christian Bale faced off against Heath Ledger for the highly-anticipated, action-packed follow-up to 2005's "Batman Begins," conquering the box office with not only the biggest movie of the year, but also the second highest-grossing movie of all time -- behind "Titanic" -- sending the Joker laughing all the way to the bank.

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