The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced the 15 films that have been selected for consideration for Achievement in Visual Effects for the 84th Academy Awards.

In early January members of the Academy’s Visual Effects Branch Executive Committee will narrow the list down to 10, and then on January 19th the 5 official nominations will be selected after members view 10-minute excerpts from each film.

Here’s the list of films in alphabetical order:

“Captain America: The First Avenger”
“Cowboys & Aliens”
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2″
“Hugo”
“Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol”
“Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides”
“Real Steel”
“Rise of the Planet of the Apes”
“Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows”
“Sucker Punch”
“Super 8″
“Thor”
“Transformers: Dark of the Moon”
“The Tree of Life”
“X-Men: First Class”

The 84th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Tuesday, January 24, 2012. Billy Crystal will host the actual ceremony on Sunday, February 26, 2012.

Which movies do you think should get a VFX nod?

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We had an interesting weekend at the box office with Cowboys & Aliens and The Smurfs neck a neck. You see, Sunday estimates had them both at $36.2 million for the weekend but come Monday, Cowboys & Aliens was found to have been underestimated while The Smurfs was overestimated so the winner emerged. Other then that, Captain America took a stepper drop then expected while the latest Potter reached a new landmark.

Cowboys & Aliens debuted at number 1 with $36.4 million, softer then expected and considering the $163 million reported budget, far from a hit. Unfortunately, while a fun movie, Cowboys & Aliens combines two very specific genres that don’t turn hits all that often. Focusing on the western more then the sci-fi made this an even harder sell, regardless of the stellar cast they got going. I’m going to guess Cowboys & Aliens will finish right around $100 million and the future of this franchise is left in the hands of international audiences.

The Smurfs on the other hand performed better then expected with $35.6 million. Among other CGI-live action talking critter films, The Smurfs ranks higher then Yogi Bear ($16.4M) and G-Force ($31.7M) but lower than Hop ($37.5M) and Alvin and the Chipmunks ($44.3M). Taking into consideration the $110 million invested in this flick, a big budget for a kids movie, The Smurfs is going to need strong box office legs to make a profit. I can see this performing similarly to G-Force in the coming weeks so based on that it should finish with $120 million or so.

In 3rd place Captain America: The First Avenger took a bit of a dive, down 60.7% for $25.5 million. After 11 days Captain is neck a neck with Thor, $120.8 million versus $122.3 million. Captain lost his lead on the Norse god and is now looking like it won’t make it back so based on that, Captain America: The First Avenger is now on track for $165-170 million when all is said and done.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, the movie with the longest name in the top 10, was 4th with $21.9 million and with $318.5 million in 17 days, it passed Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone ($317.5M) thus becoming the highest grossing entry in the series. This is obviously not adjusted for inflation, otherwise Deathly Hallows Part 2 would still have a long way to go.

Rounding out the top 5, Crazy, Stupid, Love performed as expected with $19.1 million. As far as romantic comedies go, this was a good opening, higher then last week’s Friends with Benefits ($18.6M) but that had an R rating while this is PG-13.

Now on to the Potter-Transformers race for the yearly top spot. Transformers: Dark of the Moon is now at $338.8 million after 34 days while Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is at $321.8 million after 18 days. It doesn’t take a box office expert to figure out that Potter is going to pass Transformers sometime in the next 2 weeks. The autobots are on track to finish with $355-360 million while Potter should stop at around $370-375 million.

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Jon Favreau continues to prove himself as an excellent director with Cowboys & Aliens, a movie that is a good summer flick that ends up being not quite as good as the sum of its parts. It’s got a ton of energy, the cast is solid, and the effects are great, so even though the final product is missing that extra “spark,” it’s still a serviceable summer crowd-pleaser.

Favreau and his massive writing squad (Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Damon Lindelof, Mark Fergus, and Hawk Otsby) are clearly passionate fans of the western genre, and their love for the material comes through on screen. The director takes a modern approach to framing vintage character archetypes, and his history of fantastic visual effects from the Iron Man films serves him well yet again. This is much more western than sci-fi, and that’s to the film’s benefit; the characters take this alien invasion seriously, and there’s no joking tone or winking at the camera. It’s a big world, full of similar vistas, gorges, and sweeping plains that you might find in an old John Ford movie. Favreau also battled the studio when they wanted the movie shot in 3D; he held his ground and shot it on film to capture the texture of those classic westerns that came before.

Daniel Craig is stoic, rugged, and dirty throughout – in other words, he makes a great cowboy. Taking a page from Eastwood’s playbook, he lets his actions do most of the talking; his wandering amnesiac is a total badass, reminiscent (in attitude) of Kurt Russell’s Wyatt Earp in Tombstone. Harrison Ford gives one of his most inspired performances in years as the ridiculously-named Woodrow Dolarhyde, a hardass father with a good heart. The supporting cast does a good job, but ultimately their parts seb a bit undeserving of their talents. Guys like Sam Rockwell, Clancy Brown, Paul Dano, and Walton Goggins have earned a bit more than what they were given here.

The alien design is pretty by-the-numbers (although better than the atrocious designs in Battle: Los Angeles), and their excuse for invading is laughably bad. Olivia Wilde’s exposition gets a bit dreary at times, but it’s evened out by some memorable chase sequences across stark scenery via land, air, and sea. The climax also features some memorable shots, including one in particular that was clearly influenced by Neill Blomkamp’s District 9.

Listen, I liked this movie. It won’t be among my favorites of the year or anything, but the structure and predictability is exactly the kind of “turn off your brain” entertainment that most people go to the movies for in the first place. It’s well put-together, Favreau puts some style in it, and Craig and Ford go toe-to-toe in entertaining roles. But I still can’t shake the feeling that it was too predictable, the script suffers from its familiarity, and ultimately the movie just ends up coming up short. For summer fluff, Cowboys & Aliens is fine. Looking for anything more? Keep searchin’, cowboy. Until next time…

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We’ve had a number of trailers and TV spots for Jon Favreau’s Cowboys & Aliens over the past few months, and Universal will no doubt be releasing a few more as we enter July.

Today sees the release of the third trailer, which contains even more awesome looking footage. Cowboys & Aliens is a fairly unknown property compared to other movies being released next month so I can understand why Universal would want to push the marketing. I just hope they follow the Super 8 route by not revealing the mystery before its release.

You can watch the trailer below:

In the movie cowboy Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) has no memory of his past, and stumbles into the desert town of Absolution in 1800s Arizona with a mysterious shackle that encircles one wrist. As the gunslinger slowly starts to remember who he is and where he’s been, he realizes he holds a secret that could give the town a fighting chance against an invading alien force.

Cowboys & Aliens also stars Olivia Wilde as elusive traveller Ella and Harrison Ford as Colonel Dolarhyde, and will be released July 29th 2011

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At the Spike Guys Choice Awards on Friday Universal Pictures released a new extended sneak peek from director Jon Favreau’s Cowboys & Aliens. The trailer contains some new footage, including more from Sam Rockwell which is always welcomed.

Watch below:

In the movie cowboy Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) has no memory of his past, and stumbles into the desert town of Absolution in 1800s Arizona with a mysterious shackle that encircles one wrist. As the gunslinger slowly starts to remember who he is and where he’s been, he realizes he holds a secret that could give the town a fighting chance against an invading alien force.

Cowboys & Aliens stars Olivia Wilde as elusive traveller Ella and Harrison Ford as Colonel Dolarhyde, and will be released July 29th 2011

Read similar posts to Extended sneak peek at Cowboys & Aliens on Filmonic

Universal have released the second full trailer for Jon Favreau’s Cowboys & Aliens. It’s a lot like the previous trailer, just with more plot details, more of Olivia Wilde, and more footage of the aliens attacking (we don’t actually see the aliens, that’ll probably be something they save for the movie itself).

You can watch the trailer below: (Is that an alien hand we see at 1:58?)

From the trailer it looks like Favreau has delivered another fun movie, but it’ll be interesting to see how general audiences respond to this. It’s not a well known property, but has a strong cast. It could go either way.

In the movie cowboy Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) has no memory of his past, and stumbles into the desert town of Absolution in 1800s Arizona with a mysterious shackle that encircles one wrist. As the gunslinger slowly starts to remember who he is and where he’s been, he realizes he holds a secret that could give the town a fighting chance against an invading alien force.

Cowboys & Aliens stars Olivia Wilde as elusive traveller Ella and Harrison Ford as Colonel Dolarhyde, and will be released July 29th 2011

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Cowboys & Aliens director Jon Favreau today sent out a tweet informing his followers that the full 2 minute 30 second trailer for Cowboys & Aliens will premiere on American Idol Thursday night, and will then be posted online at Apple.

Last week at WonderCon Favreau said he was trying to “preserve a sense of mystery” in this film by not showing any aliens in the trailers, but “it’s very hard to convince people from a marketing background that that’s that best thing to do”. Personally I don’t mind waiting until July to see the aliens, but if Universal’s marketing department has their way we could be getting a glimpse of them later this week.

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Universal has released the Super Bowl TV spot for Jon Favreau’s Cowboys and Aliens. The ad contains plenty of new footage, include more of those aliens and a shot of Olivia Wilde naked in front of a bonfire and 500 Apache warriors.

Watch below:

In the movie cowboy Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) has no memory of his past, and stumbles into the desert town of Absolution in 1800s Arizona with a mysterious shackle that encircles one wrist. As the gunslinger slowly starts to remember who he is and where he’s been, he realizes he holds a secret that could give the town a fighting chance against an invading alien force.

Cowboys and Aliens stars Olivia Wilde as elusive traveller Ella and Harrison Ford as Colonel Dolarhyde, and will be released July 29th 2011

Read similar posts to Cowboys and Aliens Super Bowl TV Ad on Filmonic

It’s that time of year again. Movie studios are set to pay up to $3 million for a 30 second Super Bowl TV spot which will get their summer blockbusters in front of over 100 million people. This year the big game is on February 6th, and the list of movies which will be getting TV spots has been revealed.

From The Hollywood Reporter:

Paramount will have the biggest studio presence during the telecast, buying ad time to plug four films — J.J. Abrams’ alien-invasion pic Super 8, the threequel Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Marvel’s superhero pics Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger.

Disney has bought time during the game for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, while Universal and DreamWorks’ will plug the Daniel Craig-Harrison Ford sci-fi western Cowboys & Aliens.

Several studios are bypassing the game proper and airing spots during pregame festivities, when rates are substantially lower. That includes Sony, which will air spots for Just Go With It (Feb. 11), Battle: Los Angeles (March 13) and summer title Priest (May 13) in the hours leading up to the game. Paramount also will have a major pregame presence, buying time for Rango (April 4) and Kung Fu Panda 2 (May 27).

Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox appear to be sitting this year out, but that could change.

All the trailers end up appearing online soon after so if you aren’t watching the Super Bowl keep an eye on Filmonic on February 6th for a TV spot bonanza.

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If you were watching the impressive teaser trailer for Cowboys and Aliens last week and were hoping for someone to explain it to you then you’re in luck, as MTV sat down with director Jon Favreau who gives us a step-by-step explanation of what’s going on.

Favreau talks about the involvement of Steven Spielberg, the casting of Harrison Ford, and mentions that the wirework we thought we saw in the trailer isn’t actually a mistake, but is the device the aliens use to capture people.

Watch below:

Cowboys and Aliens will be released next July and follows cowboy Jake Lonergan who has no memory of his past, and stumbles into the desert town of Absolution in 1800′s Arizona with a mysterious shackle that encircles one wrist. As the gunslinger slowly starts to remember who he is and where he’s been, he realizes he holds a secret that could give the town a fighting chance against an invading alien force.

Read similar posts to Jon Favreau provides commentary for the Cowboys and Aliens trailer on Filmonic