Today the nominations for the 82nd Academy Awards were announced, and as expected Avatar picked up quite a few in a number of categories. Sandra Bullock, Christoph Waltz, Jeremy Renner, Morgan Freeman, Carey Mulligan and Meryl Streep also recieved nominations for their acting.

You can see the full list of nominations below:

Best Picture
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up in the Air

Actor in a Leading Role
Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart
George Clooney – Up in the Air
Colin Firth – A Single Man
Morgan Freeman – Invictus
Jeremy Renner – The Hurt Locker

Actor in a Supporting Role
Matt Damon – Invictus
Woody Harrelson – The Messenger
Christopher Plummer – The Last Station
Stanley Tucci – The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds

Actress in a Leading Role
Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side
Helen Mirren – The Last Station
Carey mulligan – An Education
Gabourey Sidibe – Precious
Meryl Streep – Julie & Julia

Actress in a Supporting Role
Penelope Cruz – Nine
Vera Farmiga – Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal – Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick – Up in the Air
Mo’Nique – Precious

Animated Feature
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of Kells
Up

Art Direction
Avatar
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
Sherlock Holmes
The Young Victoria

Cinematography
Avatar
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The White Ribbon

Directing
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
Up in the Air

Music (Original Score)
Avatar
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Hurt Locker
Sherlock Holmes
Up

Visual Effects
Avatar
District 9
Star Trek

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
District 9
An Education
In The Loop
Precious
Up in the Air

Writing (Original Screenplay)
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The Messenger
A Serious Man
Up

The winners will be revealed on March 7th in a ceremony presented by Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin.

A few days ago we heard that Christoph Waltz from Inglourious Basterds would be joining The Green Hornet as the villain after Nicolas Cage dropped out of the role last week. But why did Cage drop out? Was it money reasons? Other filming commitments? Nope. Apparently he didn’t like the character.

From Yahoo:

Cage says he “wasn’t interested in just being just a straight-up bad guy who was killing people willy-nilly.”

He says Rogen and Gondry “had a different take on the character” and there wasn’t enough time to develop the script.

“‘The Green Hornet’ was something that I wanted to do, I think Michel Gondry is very talented and I had hoped it would work but I think Seth Rogen and Michel had a different take on the character,” said Cage, who starred in 2007’s supernatural comic book film, “Ghost Rider.”

“I had to have some humanity and to try to give it something where you could understand why the character was the way he was but I don’t think there was enough time to develop it.”

From his recent career choices (The Wicker Man springs to mind) it seems Cage has lost the knack to spot out the good roles from the bad ones, although I’ll admit Kick-Ass does look quite good. I’m actually glad Cage dropped out as it enabled Christoph Waltz to come aboard and he will probably do a better job.

If you’ve seen Inglourious Basterds then you will know who Christoph Waltz is. He stole the show as Col. Hans Landa, and is getting quite a lot of Oscar buzz for the role. Whenever there’s buzz surrounding an actor they always get a lot more movie offers, and according to Deadline Hollywood Waltz has accepted one of them. Apparently he will be playing the villain in The Green Hornet, the same role that Nicolas Cage dropped out of playing last week.

Up until now I haven’t been that interested in The Green Hornet, but now I am. It’s amazing how good actors can influence your decisions like that. Filming for Hornet is currently under-way, so Waltz will probably get to work in the upcoming days or weeks.