I’ve been a little busy these last few days so this is going up later than I had hoped. Still, it’ll be here for ye to laugh at in the morning.

The 79th Academy Awards take place tonight - well Monday morning if I’m being precise - at about 01:00. It will be shown live on Sky Movies 1 and there will be highlights on both Sky One and RTÉ tomorrow night.

Here are my predictions. I’ve put them in order with the winner first and the next most likely after that.

Best Picture
The Departed
Babel
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen
Letters From Iwo Jima

Best Director
Martin Scorsese - The Departed
Clint Eastwood - Letters From Iwo Jima
Paul Greengrass - United 93
Alejandro González Iñárritu – Babel
Stephen Frears - The Queen

Best Actor
Forest Whitaker - The Last King Of Scotland
Peter O’Toole - Venus
Will Smith - The Pursuit Of Happyness
Leonardo DiCaprio - Blood Diamond
Ryan Gosling - Half Nelson

Best Actress
Helen Mirren - The Queen
Meryl Streep - The Devil Wears Prada
Kate Winslet - Little Children
Penélope Cruz - Volver
Judi Dench - Notes On A Scandal

Best Supporting Actor
Eddie Murphy - Dreamgirls
Alan Arkin - Little Miss Sunshine
Mark Wahlberg - The Departed
Jackie Earle Haley - Little Children
Djimon Hounsou - Blood Diamond

Best Supporting Actress
Jennifer Hudson - Dreamgirls
Cate Blanchett - Notes On A Scandal
Abigail Breslin - Little Miss Sunshine
Adriana Barraza - Babel
Rinko Kikuchi- Babel

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Departed
Children Of Men
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Notes On A Scandal
Little Children

Best Original Screenplay
Little Miss Sunshine
Babel
Letters From Iwo Jima
The Queen
Pan’s Labyrinth

Best Cinematography
Children Of Men
Pan’s Labyrinth
The Illusionsit
The Black Dahlia
The Prestige

Best Art Direction
Pan’s Labyrinth
Dreamgirls
The Prestige
The Good Shepherd
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

Best Original Song
Listen - Dreamgirls
Love You I Do - Dreamgirls
Patience - Dreamgirls
I Need To Wake Up - An Inconvenient Truth
Our Town - Cars

Best Original Score
Notes On A Scandal
Babel
The Good German
Pan’s Labyrinth
The Queen

Best Editing
Babel
The Departed
Children Of Men
United 93
Blood Diamond

Best Documentary Feature
An Inconvenient Truth
Iraq In Fragments
Deliver Us From Evil
My Country, My Country
Jesus Camp

Best Documentary Short
Recycled Life
Rehearsing a Dream
Two Hands
The Blood Of Yingzhou District

Best Foreign Language Film
Pan’s Labyrinth
Water
The Lives Of Others
Days Of Glory
After the Wedding

Best Animated Short
The Little Matchgirl
The Danish Poet
Lifted
Maestro
No Time For Nuts

Best Live Action Short
The Saviour
Binta and the Great Idea (Binta Y La Gran Idea)
Éramos Pocos (One Too Many)
Helmer & Son
West Bank Story

Best Sound Editing
Blood Diamond
Flags Of Our Fathers
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
Letters From Iwo Jima
Apocalypto

Best Sound Mixing
Dreamgirls
Blood Diamond
Flags Of Our Fathers
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
Apocalypto

Best Animated Feature Film
Cars
Happy Feet
Monster House

Best Visual Effects
Superman Returns
Pirates Of The Caribbean - Dead Man’s Chest
Poseidon

Best Make-Up
Pan’s Labyrinth
Apocalypto
Click

Best Costume Design
The Queen
Curse of the Golden Flower
The Devil Wears Prada
Marie Antoinette
Dreamgirls

[Edit - It turns out the picture below is a fake. With the WB logo and all I fell for it. Apologies to all and thanks to Al for spotting it. Hopefully the real images will be as good though!]

I’m not sure that this should be a separate post but I’m so impressed with this picture that I had to make a whole new post for it.

Not sure how it got under my radar until now, but it’s here now.

Ladies and gentlemen…may I present to you…The Joker!

So it appears the Indiana Jones IV project is to start filming in 2007 and looks like it’s going to happen. While I’d happily watch another film as good as the original trilogy, I doubt a 4th film can do anything but take from the memories of the originals in much the same way as the Star Wars Prequels took from the original trilogy. For starters Harrison Ford isn’t getting any younger and who wants to see anyone else play the part?

To add to my fears for this project there has been a persistent rumour that Indy is to get another family member. The most persistent of these rumours has been that he has a son by Marion, his love interest in 1981’s Raiders Of The Lost Ark. There was talk at one point that Karen Allen would reprise her role. No casting has been confirmed or even openly negotiated so nobody really knows yet.

Moriarty at Ain’t It Cool says he read a recent draft of Indy IV and that there were no additional family members in it. He goes on to say that the draft he read has since been thrown out and that David Koepp has written a new one that Dreamworks are happy with (the Indy franchise was always a LucasFilm project so I wonder about the Dreamworks link. Maybe it’s both?).

The son rumour has gathered credibilty now and Shia La Beouf has been strongly linked to the part. I had no idea who he was either but he’s working on a few high-profile projects (two of which are Spielberg productions) at the moment so it looks like somebody likes him. At 20 going on 21 he’s about the right age for the part.

Hopefully either Ford, Spielberg or Lucas will have scheduling problems and the project will be terminated. After all, Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade was called that for a reason!

In a follow up to an earlier report it has emerged that Aaron Eckhart is in discussions to play Harvey Dent in the next Batman film The Dark Knight.

I haven’t been overly impressed with the casting decisions since Christopher Nolan took over the Batman franchise - although I am a fan of his work, especially Memento and Insomnia. Christian Bale wouldn’t have been my choice for Batman - but I think he did a decent job, Michael Caine is no Alfred, Katie Holmes isn’t somebody I’d cast in many roles, and the news that Heath Ledger is to play the Joker is mildly upsetting. Having said that I did like Batman Begins (sure, it could have been better but I feel that way about 99.999999999999% of films I see).

The news that Harvey Dent was to appear in The Dark Knight did please me, as he’s one of my favourite Batman villains, and I hated Tommy Lee Jones‘ portrayal in Batman Forever. Mind you, I hated everything about Joel Schumacher’s Batman movies.

There is a good chance that we won’t see Two-Face until the 3rd of Nolan’s Batman films as The Dark Knight already has it’s primary antagonist in The Joker. This means that even when, sorry if, Ledger messes up the Joker I can still look forward to the the 3rd installment.

As you may have guessed by now I’m happy with the choice to give Harvey Dent to Aaron Eckhart. He is an actor who has been knocking on the door for some time now and I’m not sure Hollywood knows what to do with him. He’s not quite the leading man and yet he’s too memorable to be a bit part player. The anti-hero could be the way to go and there’s an element of that to Harvey “Two-Face” Dent. If they build up the Dent/Wayne relationship in The Dark Knight and then unleash Two-Face at the end or in the next movie this could be great.

Eckhart definitely looks the part of Harvey Dent DA. Just look at the picture above. I’m also glad they didn’t opt for a name with a higher profile. Expect an official statement confirming his casting soon.

From the makers of Shaun Of The Dead comes what looks like it might just be the best thing to come out of England since Keira Knightley. Check out the trailer below. It opened yesterday and I for one will be going to see it this weekend.