In the wee hours of the morning Neil Patrick Harris (who just so happens to be staring in a fantastic scifi Joss Whedon web series) read off the names for those nominated for Emmys. In a wonderfully fulfilling moment Battlestar Galactica writer Michael Angeli was nominated for Outstanding Writing For A Drama Series. But as the names went on I realized that the whole BSG cast had been passed over, as well as the show itself, for Best Drama. I was pretty shocked, since Boston Legal made the list. Call me sour grapes, but I'm going to have to side with the critically acclaimed religious war epic over watching James Spader try and get laid each week. But on the flip side, Lost was nominated for Best Drama (a scifi victory). Yet Lost still got no love for writing.

And now Hollywood is trying to dash our dreams at seeing a scifi win at the Oscars. People in the know are calling the Heath Ledger Oscar buzz on the internet mere type-clicking for an over-hyped film. Although Leonard Maltin, film critic for Entertainment Tonight, agrees that Ledger's performance was great, with one phrase he casts off the hopes of a million scifi fans as those who don't matter. Says Maltin: "I assure you that the people who are spreading all this are neither Oscar voters nor (Hollywood) movers and shakers."

Other observers claim Hollywood would find a Ledger Oscar creepy. Tom O'Neil, from The Envelope.com, explains, "That's how reluctant Oscar voters are to hug the dead," O'Neil said. "These awards are all about hugs and there's something creepy about embracing the dead."

So the insiders have discredited the internet community as know-nothing buzz-generators, who don't and won't have any impact on whom Hollywood deems worthy of praise. Then they go as far to say that a vote for a well done piece of acting would just be creepy because of an untimely death. It feels like grasping for straws. I wish they'd just say what they meant, that it's an action movie and we just can't be forced to take that seriously.

When is Hollywood going to get it? Scifi writers, artists and all the other indoor kids are the ones that dream of a bigger world are the ones that bring lines to box offices. These people that you continually shove in the back table out of camera's reach at the Golden Globes are the ones who brought you different worlds, fantastic creatures, new ideas and worlds and started dialogues about our future.

When will this continual snub to the scifi industry end? Will something like Cormac McCarthy's film adaptation of The Road open the doors wider because of McCarthy's past award-winning success? Will writers burn out if Hollywood keeps turning its back on wonderfully written series like BSG? Not if J.J. Abrams' Fringe has anything to say about it. Thankfully we still have eager young minds who have found enough success to inspire future scifi contributors, Hollywood be damned.

If the star presence at San Diego's Comic Con is any indication of Hollywood treating scifi with greater respect, then at least we're on the right path. But I hope the day that Hollywood lays itself at the scifi industry's feet and says "I love you," scifi looks right into Hollywood's eyes and says, "I know."

In an interview with Superhero.com, Nolan expresses his disinterest in the 3D craze:

I’m interested in the massive canvas, seeing that larger-than-life canvas that IMAX gives you, and you create a massive quality by the clarity and the size and brightness of the images. So that gives you a great physical sense, like you would get in a 3D movie, but it doesn’t diminish the scale of it. So you’re still dealing with a huge, larger than life canvas, that I think is the best way to use that format. I also hate wearing those glasses.

Charlotte Huggins, the producer of Dragons and also producer of 3D pictures Journey to the Center of the Earth and Fly Me to the Moon called the change a challenge. "4K [IMAX] is the next challenge ... and the special venue really pushes the envelope," she said.

How many other producers and directors will be abandoning 3D craze and hefting the massive cameras required to shoot a film in 4K.

James Cameron is still intent on playing in both sides of the pool. Never officially stating that he will be releasing Avatar on IMAX but still hinting at the possibility.

So what will happen to our dear little indie house theaters? Will they go the way of the Drive-In making ways for massive IMAX screens and a plethora of strained necks, bad backs and headaches formed by overstimulated corneas? Gone will be the days of pre-drinks before the movie. Have you ever tried to watch an IMAX movie after a bottle of red? Not a good idea.

[Hollywood Reporter]

Imagi is selling shares in the company for an increase in funding that will hopefully increase its " development of four full-length feature computer graphics imagery animation movies, scheduled tentatively to be released from 2009 to 2011." Imagi is already set to release movies of the classics Astro Boy and Gatchaman. It's probably a safe bet that the other two releases designated for those years (they'll put out a movie every 8 months) will most likely be anime as well.

Hollywood is mad for live action anime remakes: Leonardo DiCaprio's production company and Warner Brothers are set to bring Akira to life, and Stephen Spielberg and DreamWorks are recreating the immensely popular Ghost in the Shell, which will also be 3-D. But I'm most excited for the re-creation of Robotech, and the mecha-warriors of the future.

I'm looking forward to a year of introducing the world of anime to the mainstream audience, I especially would like to see what everyone will think of Takashi Murakami Planting the Seeds feature film.

It's a mere matter of months until we start seeing more American live action flicks with school girl's toting around weaponry Mai HiME style, and is it wishful thinking to hope for a epic fantasy remake of InuYasha? I say the more girls in school outfits blowing up the world, the better.

On Tuesday the studios made their final offer to SAG. Of course the actors are all still mulling over the negotiations, but no word yet if there will be a strike. That being said, many movies are moving forward with filming schedules.

Terminator 4's John Connor and Dark Knight's Batman, Christian Bale didn't seem to pleased about the possibility of a strike. In an interview with ReelComix he tried to blow it off, but you could see he yearns for work, "I mean clearly I hope there is nobody out there who wants to have a strike. I hope that everybody wants to be able to make a deal. The industry has been reeling from the writers strike, people have barely recovered from that. [So] I cannot understand why anyone would be desiring a strike rather then make a deal."

Even pugnacious Hellboy star Ron Perlman hoped for peace and told the Associated Press, "I hope that cool heads prevail and that people get a chance to work...I'm hoping and praying that they find some middle ground."

I think Batman and Big Red's sentiments are shared with much of Hollywood. Didn't they punish the middle guy enough? Think of the grips, makeup artists and set designers and artists that would have to go with out movie money again. With the ever impending recession, it's no wonder that half of Hollywood isn't living in a old timey Hoovervilles anyways. But if it happens, they'll both be prevented from talking to the press or working on any upcoming projects at all. Heroes producer Tim Kring says the show's third season will be totally ruined if the strike goes forward.

Big-budget scifi films Terminator 4 and Transformers 2 have decided to push through the strike as of right now. (Although Transformers 2's filming schedule built in a "hiatus" around now to work on visual-effects stuff without any actors, in case the worst happens.) According to the New York Times both studios seem to believe it will all work out. But just in case both movies have been filming at a feverish rate (Transformers 2 almost constantly) is this a mad dash to finish what they still can before the actors whose egos are bruised cause an all out riot?

So it looks like the big scifi movies will keep burning the candle at both ends until they can't anymore, but what of our beloved Comic-Con?

Slash film speculates that we could be seeing a celebrity-free Comic-Con. Which they deem a positive thing, and I tend to agree. Why waist time standing in line for a pictures with a celebrity when you can now spend countless more hours bothering writers and producers for spoilers. Plus imagine the fan boy riots when they find out Leonard Nimoy isn't coming — priceless!

Granted, we all knew Hancock was gasping for air and floundering along when we noted it was doing middle of the night reshoots barely two months before it was going to premiere. Many of you said that this wasn't that big of a deal, but I'm guessing the studio execs that dumped millions into this movie from the beginning would beg to differ. Sorry but a big pictures like this shouldn't be changing up the roster the night before the game, it's sloppy. All of these actions speak pretty loudly about the confidence Sony has about this picture.

[Hollywood Reporter]

It's no secret that Star Wars is a cash machine. You slap a picture of a light saber on a box of Ritz crackers or a footie pajamas and you can bet I will buy (or already own it). So what happens when you take all that reputation and hard earned merchandising money and start to throw your weight around? You get your own television show that will air it's first three episodes on the big screen, called Clone Wars.

Lucas did just that with his new Star Wars baby, Clone Wars. In an article in the New York Times Lucas described how he bypassed the usual studio system for greenlighting projects.

“It’s much easier for me to just do the show I want, say, ‘Here it is, do you wish to license it or not?’ ” Mr. Lucas said. “That’s it. There’s no notes, no comments. I don’t care what your opinion is. You either put it on the air or you don’t.”

So he got exactly what he wanted, but the only catch was he had to finance it all himself. Still he managed to get his own television series (which is appearing on the Cartoon Network and TNT next fall) and a movie premiere for the first three episodes. The President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said it best,

“He does it in a way that might begin as self-serving and then of course is a bonanza for the whole industry," [he has an]“an intuition that he stubbornly sticks by.”

What is going to happen if this business model becomes a trend? It's got positive and negative sides. On the positive side, had this been institutionalized early on Blade Runner would never have had that god-awful voice-over. Same goes for loads of other scifi movies. No more tacked on studio-sappy happy endings or changing the race of a character to reach a particular demographic group. for example, Jurassic Park: The Lost World's sassy black daughter of Ian Malcolm, who was white in the book.

But then you get the flip side of this argument, like CGI gophers. You know no one else wanted CGI gophers in the new Indiana Jones just Lucas, they served no purpose other than to show people his fancy new technology. And sure I'm excited for Watchmen, no I don't want to see 3 hours of it. But if Zack Snyder imposed a "take it or leave it" clause, you can bet your last pair of Star Wars jammies studios would take it.