As you already know, Robert Downey Jr. has signed on to star as Sherlock Holmes in Guy Ritchie’s upcoming action-tinted adaptation of the classic detective. The Sun is now reporting a rumor that Russell Crowe might be in line to play Holmes’ sidekick Dr. Watson. According to the report, when Ridley Scott’s Nottingham was put on the back burner, a spot opened in Crowe’s schedule. A movie insider told the Sun:

“Russell wants the part, Guy wants Russell. All they’ve got left to do is dot the i’s and cross the t’s.”

Again, let me remind you that The Sun doesn’t exactly have a great track record when it comes to the rumor department. But every once in a while they get something juicy. Watson appeared in 52 of the 56 original short stories and all four novels, as a friend, assistant and biographer of the great detective.

Discuss: What do you think about Russell Crowe as Dr. Watson?

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The latest Watchmen legal update comes via The New York Times:

“The report also outlined conflicting requests for a trial date: as early as next June, if Fox has its way, or April, if Warner prevails.”

A count injunction and a June start date could possibly delay the release of Watchmen until 2010. Even the April start date that Warner Bros is pushing for would probably delay the film’s release until Summer 2009 at earliest. And if Fox wins the court case, who knows if we’ll ever see the film at all (yeah, this is rather unlikely, but Fox’s official stance on the matter is to prevent the film from being released altogether).

I’m not a lawyer, so I won’t pretend to be one. All I know about this case is what I’ve read in various newspaper reports and from what I could understand from the court filing. Ad looking over all the publicly released claims has me worried. The fanboy attitude is to attack Fox, but it looks to me like Warner Bros might be at fault. It’s a shame that the studio didn’t try to work this out before the film went into production, before a trailer was released, and before millions of fans got excited. Hopefully we’ll be able to see Watchmen on the big screen sooner rather than later. I’m guessing (and hoping) that this suit might be settled out of court before March.

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We’ve seen R2-D2 Projectors, and R2-D2 Ice Buckets, but how about an R2-D2 mini-fridge? Geekalerts found an awesome R2-D2 compact refrigerator which was created in 2002 as a promotional prize for Attack of the Clones. Apparently only 1,000 of these guys were produced for the 7-11 promotion, so it isn’t the easiest item to find. ToyEast is selling one for a whopping $1070. Ouch. I wonder why George Lucas hasn’t created an officially licensed version of the fridge.

Cool Stuff is a daily feature of slashfilm.com. Know of any geekarific creations or cool products which should be featured on Cool Stuff? E-Mail us at orfilms@gmail.com.

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Fantastic Fest has announced the final batch of features for this year’s fest, a list which includes special sneak previews of Fanboys and Repo. Check out the official press release below.

We are proud to announce the final slate of feature film programming for the 2008 edition of Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas. With over 100 films representing over 30 countries, Fantastic Fest is the largest festival of its kind in the United States. The 2008 schedule will be announced online on Thursday, September 4, 2008. If you are planning on coming to Fantastic Fest and have not yet secured a badge. Act quickly as we only have 30 film badges left and expect to be sold out by the end of the week!

FINAL BATCH: FANTASTIC FEATURES:

Alien Raiders
Special Advance Screening / dir. Ben Rock / USA / 2008 / 85 min
Director Ben Rock live in person!
A squadron of trained gunmen lay siege to a supermarket at closing time. What first appears to be a robbery soon takes on otherworldly dimensions.

Astropia (Dorks and Damsels)
North American Premiere / Dir. Gunnar Gudmundsson / Iceland / 2008 / 93 min
Director Gunnar Gudmundsson and screenerwriters Otto Borg and Johann Grimson live in person!
Hildi, a high-society socialite, is left bankrupt and alone after her corrupt husband is whisked off to prison. With no other prospects, she gets a job selling role-playing games and accessories at Astropia, the town’s geek Mecca.

The Burrowers
US Premiere / Dir. J.T. Petty / USA / 2008 / 97 min
Director J.T. Petty live in person!
A cross-country manhunt searches for an abducted woman and a marauding Indian tribe, but the real villains don’t ride horses… they burrow from beneath the ground.

The Chaser
North American Premiere / Dir. Hong-jin Na / South Korea / 2008 / 123 min
A serial killer is preying on call-girls from various escort agencies. In the midst of police indifference and incompetence, Jung-Ho (Yun-Seok Kim), an ex-cop-turned-pimp must dust off his old flatfoot skills to find the killer and save the life of one of his girls who has gone missing.

Fanboys
Special Advance Screening / Dir. Kyle Newman / USA / 2008 / 90 min
Director Kyle Newman, producer Matt Perniciaro, screenwriter Ernie Cline and star Jaime King live in person!
Desperate to see STAR WARS EPISODE 1: THE PHANTOM MENACE, five high school friends break into Skywalker Ranch to steal an early cut of the film.

The Good The Bad and The Weird
Regional Premiere / Dir. Ji-woon Kim / South Korea / 2008 / 139 min
Directed by Ji-woon Kim (A BITTERSWEET LIFE, A TALE OF TWO SISTERS) and setting an all-time Korean box office opening weekend record this year, THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE WEIRD, an homage to Leone’s similarly named classic, is one of the year’s most anticipated genre titles.

Just Another Love Story
Regional Premiere / dir Ole Bornedal / Denmark / 2007 / 100 min
JUST ANOTHER LOVE STORY is not as benign as the title might suggest. A mild mannered forensics photographer is involved in a traffic accident with a young woman. Curious, he visits her in the hospital only to be mistaken as her boyfriend. When she awakens blind and suffering from mild amnesia, he continues his charade. As you might expect, things don’t turn out so well.

Late Bloomer
Regional Premiere / dir. Gô Shibata / Japan / 2004 / 83 min
In Gô Shibata’s controversial film, Masakiyo Sumida, a severely disabled mute, is driven to madness and violence by his loneliness and isolation.

Left Bank
Dir. Pieter Van Hees / Belgium / 2008 / 75 min
A young woman moves in with her new boyfriend on the fashionable “left bank” in Antwerp only to discover that the building may have a very disturbing past.

Repo! A Genetic Opera
Special Advance Screening / Dir. Darren Bousman / USA / 2008 / 98 min
Director Darren Bousman and star/co-writer Terrance Zdunich live in person!
Darren Bousman, director of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th installments of the wildly popular SAW franchise, pulls a “what-the-f…” 180 degree turnaround to create a very personal, very demented, bloody goth rock opera about organ repossession with lead performances by Paul Sorvino, Paris Hilton and Ogre from Skinny Puppy.

Sauna
US Premiere / Dir. Antti-Jussi Annila / Finland / 2007 / 93 min
While mapping the new border between Russia and Finland after the war, the joint task force stumbles upon a mysterious sauna in a remote swamp, a sauna that allegedly has the power to wash away all sins.

The Wild Man of the Navidad
Regional Premiere / Dir. Duane Graves and Justin Meeks / USA / 2008 / 86 min
Directors Duane Graves and Justin Meeks live in person!
Purportedly based on actual events, THE WILDMAN OF THE NAVIDAD tells the story of a small Texas community along the banks of the Navidad river who were terrorized for years by a mysterious creature.

The Wreck
World Premiere / Dir James Koya Jones / USA / 2008 / 79 min
Director James Koya Jones live in person!
A very pregnant woman and her husband are trapped in the woods in a demolished sedan and her water has just broken. They are in a really bad situation, and it gets a LOT worse.

The complete festival schedule including our patented secret screening times will be posted online on Thursday, September 4 at www.fantasticfest.com

IMPORTANT FESTIVAL DATES:
Important dates have been announced for the 4th Annual Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas.

Thursday, September 4, 2008: Final schedule announced
Sunday, September 14, 2008: Fantastic Fest online begins
Thursday, September 18, 2008: Fantastic Fest begins
Saturday, September 20, 2008: 2009 Festival Badges go on sale
Monday, September 22, 2008: 2008 Fantastic Fest Awards Ceremony

For more information about Fantastic Fest, please visit our official website: www.fantasticfest.com.

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL:
Fantastic Fest is the largest genre film festival in the United States featuring over 100 films from over 30 countries. The event highlights the best new sci-fi, horror, fantasy and genre films, as well as choice classic and obscure cult titles from all over the world. The festival director and head programmer is Tim League (Alamo Drafthouse Cinema), with additional programming by Harry Knowles (Ain’t It Cool News), Todd Brown (Twitchfilm.net), Blake Ethridge (Cinema is Dope), Karrie League (Alamo Drafthouse Cinema), Zack Carlson (Alamo Drafthouse Cinema) and Lars Nilsen (Alamo Drafthouse Cinema). Fantastic Fest is a supporting member of the prestigious Melies European Fantastic Film Festivals Federation and a founding member of the North American Fantastic Festival Alliance. Fantastic Fest is sponsored in part by Gamecock Media, AMD and Fosters, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment and Fox Walden.

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Gremlins vs. Batman, The Goonies, The Exorcist, Indiana Jones

The Pitch: Sacha Feiner created this incredible alternative fan sequence using the Gremlins 2 Film break scene. Created over two months using computer enhanced puppets. Sacha writes: “I made a new mold out of a hard cast of one of the original sculptures from the production. I created a batch of new foam puppets especially for this project. Their performances are enhanced by computer effects, which makes them able to do nearly anything, from running to jumping or facial expressions. The entire shooting takes place in a bluescreen studio, arranged in my basement, in order to superimpose the gremlins in the chosen movies.” … “This is a fan, non profit project. I did everything alone, from the filming to the compositing. I only had assistants for the puppeteering. The overall budget, including the purchasing of the original sculpture, the HD and studio equipment, the molding and painting of the puppets and the editing, was about US $3000.” Thanks to the Movie Blog for the tip.

Watch More Cool Videos Here!

Video of the Day is a daily feature of /Film showcasing geekarific video creations. Have a video we should be feature on VOTD? E-Mail us at orfilms@gmail.com.

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