In Los Angeles, California on the eighth the winners of the ninth annual Golden Trailer Awards were unveiled. All trailers, TV spots, and posters from 2007 were considered and over fifty awards were handed out, with the most notable listed below (The rest of the awards are listed at the GTA site):

• Best Action – The Dark Knight
• Best Animation/Family – Enchanted
• Best Comedy – Tropic Thunder
• Best Documentary – Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?
• Best Drama – No Country for Old Men

This weekend was particularly sad for Warner Bros. as their big-budget project Speed Racer finished in second with a mere $20 million. With a budget in excess of $160 million, it will be notoriously difficult for the studio to actually break even on the movie. Unlike last week, which all but confirmed an Iron Man sequel, this week puts any rumors to bed of a second Speed adaptation.

Iron Man, of course, stayed in the lead for a second straight week with another $50 million in tickets, bring it’s total gross up to an estimated $177 million, which eclipses the production budget by over $30 million. Following Iron Man and Speed Racer was the Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz comedy What Happens in Vegas which made $20 million in third place, $15 million short of the budget, but sure to make money in the coming weeks. Rounding out the top five was Made of Honor with $7.6 million in its second week and the Tina Fey comedy Baby Mama with $5.7 million.

The entire top ten is listed below (Box Office Mojo has the full chart):

1. Iron Man – $50,500,000 (Week 2)
2. Speed Racer – $20,210,000 (Week 1)
3. What Happens in Vegas – $20,000,000 (Week 1)
4. Made of Honor – $7,600,000 (Week 2)
5. Baby Mama – $5,766,000 (Week 3)
6. Forgetting Sarah Marshall – $3,778,000 (Week 4)
7. Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay – $3,155,000 (Week 3)
8. The Forbidden Kingdom – $1,900,000 (Week 4)
9. Nim’s Island – $1,325,000 (Week 6)
10. Redbelt – $1,140,000 (Week 2)

These numbers are merely studio estimates. The actual results of the weekend will be released on Monday afternoon.

An obvious homage to the original poster for The Breakfast Club (Which can be found here), this teaser for the upcoming documentary American Teen perfectly recreates that classic image with the main characters of its own story. It works so well because of accurately it reproduces the poster. Even most of the text at the top of the poster is word for word, including the last three lines: “Before the year was over, they broke the rules. Bared their souls. And changed in ways they never dreamed possible.” Yahoo! has the trailer available at their site in both flash and HD.

Michel Gondry’s latest cinematic effort pits Jack Black and rapper turned actor Mos Def together in a story revolving around two video shop owners recreating favorite moments from movies with their handheld video cameras. The poster for the film is in a classic style with the two actors surfing on a video tape like something out of an old 60′s image, cheesy and cliched and very fun. The trailer is available everywhere, as the movie was released to praise a couple months back, for the best HD version check with Apple.

While this is not the basic poster for the movie seen in theaters, Charlie Bartlett’s variant has a unique presentation of the credits and title in a form that looks like something from the Woodstock era. The color combo of red and black also works to enhance the unique quality of the image, giving it a distinctive look. While the movie only received a luke-warm reception (53% rating at Rotten Tomatoes), the poster highlights the beginning of the year. Apple has the HD version of the trailer in a variety of resolutions.

One of the most popular films of this year was Cloverfield and its poster is equally popular. The poster features a controversial image of the Statue of Liberty beheaded that is equally shocking in its simplicity. No further explanation is given, only a date resides at the bottom of the image with a subtle path of destruction in the background. Just like the trailer, this poster helps build the mystery behind the look of the monster which could cause such destruction. Fans of the movie, of which there are many, will no doubt be purchasing this for months to come.

No doubt one of the most anticipated films of the year, The Dark Knight, just like Batman Begins, is gaining a lot of attention for its many excellent posters. Only one could be chosen, or else this would be a feature of all the movie’s posters, and it’s incredible for its subtlety. Fans of the character of Harvey Dent will understand the many meanings behind the button and how it is covering a certain side of Dent’s face. The full-length trailer was released not too long ago and can be found at one of TDK’s many viral sites.

Easily Luc Besson’s most popular film, The Fifth Element combined a great cast (Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, Milla Jovovich), special effects, direction, and script into one of the best summer blockbusters ever. Set 250 years into the future, a corporation of evil (Literally, Great Evil), sets to destroy humanity with the help of the industrialist Zorg. An ex-soldier turned cab-driver named Korben Dallas uses a woman who falls from the sky, dubbed the fifth element, to stop them.

Newly re-released in high-definition, The Fifth Element looks and sounds best on the Blu-ray format. Unfortunately for extras, one can’t look to this edition, as it includes absolutely none. The Ultimate Edition on DVD, however, includes a number of featurettes, trailers, and other bonus material.

Basic information (IMDb Profile):

• Director: Luc Besson
• Writer: Luc Besson
• Producer: Patrice Ledoux
• Cast: Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Gary Oldman, Ian Holm, Chris Tucker
• Cinematographer: Thierry Arbogast

”Movie of the Day” highlights a specific film of importance with a release date that coincides with the current date.

While not the first of Ian Fleming’s novels in the series (Casino Royale takes that title), Dr. No was James Bond’s first appearance in modern cinema. Investigating the murder of a fellow agent, Bond is sent to Jamaica and later the island of Dr. No, who’s attempting to destroy the US space program. In the process he meets Felix Leiter, who appears in other films in the franchise, including Casino Royale.

The Bond films are notorious for their releases and re-releases on DVD, but the James Bond Ultimate Collection is the definitive choice, particularly the fourth for Dr. No (Tomorrow Never Dies, Moonraker, and You Only Live Twice round out the set). Aside from featuring a stunning restored image and audio track for the film, the collection includes various documentaries, trailers, TV spots, and photo galleries.

Basic information (IMDb Profile):

• Director: Terence Young
• Writers: Richard Maibaum, Johanna Harwood, Berkely Mather
• Producers: Albert R. Broccoli, Harry Saltzman
• Cast: Sean Connery, Ursula Andress, Joseph Wiseman, Jack Lord, Bernard Lee, ANthony Dawson, Zena Marshall, John Kitzmiller
• Cinematographer: Ted Moore

“Movie of the Day” highlights a specific film of importance with a release date that coincides with the current date.

Yahoo! Movies today posted a video clip of the first seven minutes of Speed Racer, which is set to open in theaters tomorrow. Available to view on the site in flash format, or downloadable at the following links (Right-click, save, and rename “playlist.dll” as a .mov file):

• 1080p (564 MB)
• 720p (374 MB)
• 480p (150 MB)

Nominated for the Best Documentary award at the Oscars in 2004, Super Size Me is today’s pick for Movie of the Day. Morgan Spurlock stars in this chronicling of a man’s journey to eat nothing but McDonald’s fast food for 30 days. Only items listed on McD’s menu are accessible to Spurlock during the span of time and every bit is accounted in this popular documentary that helped launched Spurlock’s career. His next film, Where in the World is Osama bin Laden?, got a limited release in the states on April 18th.

For Super Size Me on DVD, there’s only one option. While the video and audio options aren’t great, the disc comes with some interesting bonus features. A commentary track by Spurlock and his girlfriend Alex highlight the extras, with four deleted scenes, six interviews and a couple featurettes rounding out the DVD.

Basic information (IMDb Profile):

• Director: Morgan Spurlock
• Writer: Morgan Spurlock
• Producer: Morgan Spurlock
• Cast: Morgan Spurlock, Daryl Isaacs, Lisa Ganjhu, Dr. Stephen Siegel, Alexandra Jamieson
• Cinematographer: Scott Ambrozy

“Movie of the Day” highlights a specific film of importance with a release date that coincides with the current date.

Subscribers of the Criterion Collection newsletter received the following e-mail moments ago:

Dear Criterion Collection Newsletter subscriber,

We’ve got some exciting news for this fall, and we wanted you to hear it first.

Our first Blu-ray discs are coming! We’ve picked a little over a dozen titles from the collection for Blu-ray treatment, and we’ll begin rolling them out in October. These new editions will feature glorious high-definition picture and sound, all the supplemental content of the DVD releases, and they will be priced to match our standard-def editions.

Here’s what’s in the pipeline:

The Third Man
Bottle Rocket
Chungking Express
The Man Who Fell to Earth
The Last Emperor
El Norte
The 400 Blows
Gimme Shelter
The Complete Monterey Pop
Contempt
Walkabout
For All Mankind
The Wages of Fear

Alongside our DVD and Blu-ray box sets of The Last Emperor, we’ll also be putting out the theatrical version as a stand-alone release in both formats, priced at $39.95. Our Blu-ray release of Walkabout will be an all-new edition, featuring new supplements as well as a new transfer; we will also release an updated anamorphic DVD of Nicolas Roeg’s outback masterpiece at the same time.

As a special thank you to our newsletter subscribers, we’d like to offer you all $10 off any order of $60 or more placed on on criterion.com through Monday, May 26. Just use the code OFBT and you’ll also qualify for free shipping.

Enjoy spring!

After Toshiba gave up the high-definition war months ago, many fans of the DVD label wondered when they would finally make the jump to HD. Well, here’s the answer.

It’s late, but it’s here: May 6′s selected movie is Crash, the second and most infamous film by Paul Haggis, writing and directing this effort, who had his big start on Walker, Texas Ranger. This tale of the interwoven lives of outstanding people, with racism on their minds, won three Oscars in 2006, with Best Picture being the most prominent (Editing and Original Screenplay were the others).  Winning the last award of the night came as a big shock to most as Brokeback Mountain, starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, was the favorite, having won Best Director, Best Music and Best Adapted Screenplay.

To date, many dislike Crash even more for its “undeserved” Oscar despite its fully formed cast, including the great Don Cheadle, Terrence Howard, and Ryan Phillippe (Breach is another example of his ability). The writing, in particular, is pointed out as too elaborate and unrealistic, making the claim that everyone is racist in some form.

Even though the movie is only a couple years old, it’s already been double-dipped with a second version on DVD. The Director’s Cut includes the extra material from the original release (DVD Intro with Haggis, behind the Scenes featurette, commentary with Haggis, Cheadle, and Bobby Moresco, and a few trailers) but with some new bonuses: Eight deleted scenes with commentary, three featurettes (One on Haggis, one called “Unspoken” and the other on LA), music montages, script to screen comparisons, storyboard to screen comparisons, and a music video by Bird York called “In the Deep”.

Basic information (IMDb Profile):

• Director: Paul Haggis
• Writers: Paul Haggis, Bobby Moresco
• Producers: Don Cheadle,  Paul Haggis, Mark R. Harris, Bobby Moresco, Cathy Schulman, Bob Yari
• Cast: Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Tony Danza, Matt Dillon, Jennifer Esposito, Brendan Fraser, Terrence Howard, Thandie Newton, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Ryan Phillippe
• Cinematographer: J. Michael Muro
• Composer: Mark Isham

“Movie of the Day” highlights a specific film of importance with a release date that coincides with the current date.

USA Today reports that Marvel, after this weekend’s success of their first production attempt Iron Man, announced their future movie plans for 2010 and 2011, with release dates for three projects and more general terms for the other two.

A mention of Avengers means Marvel is probably going to try and get the stars of Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Captain America, Ant-Man, Thor, and possibly even Spider-Man into one movie, which will be an interesting challenge. DC Comics tried last year and early this year to pull together plans for a Justice League adaptation, with an all-new cast, but the idea fell through.

Here’s the list:

• Iron Man 2 – April 30, 2010
• Thor – June 4,  2010
• The First Avenger: Captain America – May 6, 2011
• The Avengers – July 2011
• Ant-Man – No release date