The highlight of any devoted Coen fan’s year, last weekend saw the return of the extraordinary Lebowski Fest. Currently in its seventh year, the festival, which began as just a small of gathering of wanabe-Dudes from Louisville, now commands a formidable global following.

For those not au-fait with the fest; it’s basic principle is to give fans the excuse to meet, greet, swap hilarious Coen trivia and quote Lebowski line-for-line at any given opportunity ('Shomer Shabbas!'). Spanning an entire weekend, the progamme consists of film screenings, nightlong-unlimited bowling, themed games, White Russians, Sarsaparillas, Oat Sodas, and, the climax of the festival, a costume contest. Stretching their imagination ever further beyond the straggly hair, pyjama bottoms and sandals, goateed-look, this year saw some of the most commendable efforts to date; the rug, and the pope (‘Does the pope shit in the woods?’) proving particularly popular.

If you too enjoy sipping oat sodas to the sound of crazed Coenites, you’ll be glas to hear that London also has a name for hosting such parties, although there’s no news of any planned for the near future. Hopefully this level of enthusiasm will soon be making its way to the cinema screens themselves. Nevermind 3-D, we need real spectator involvement..Everyone who has ever witnessed Sing-a-long cinema  at the Prince Charles will testify that audience participation does wonders for the cinema experience, so why not make it a real occasion with a little fancy dress or film-themed nibbles? Now theres an idea..

Charlotte Balnave

For those who haven't been keeping up with talk of various plot points for Terminator Salvation online, the following could be seen to contain spoilers. But, since it's actually debunking plot rumours, it could probably better be said to contain anti-spoilers. But we'll get to talk of that ending in a minute. If you want just that info, skip right to the last paragraph.

Last night, we were part of a crowd who got to see a world premiere of footage from Terminator Salvation, the fourth movie in the Terminator franchise. The film's director, McG, was also on hand to answer a few questions and talk up the movie (seriously, this guy could win Olympic gold in public speaking). We're not allowed to talk about specifics of the plot - partly because very few were given away and also because Sony would send round a T-800, T-1000 or Tefal sandwich toaster to cause us bodily harm - but we can say that our fears about the early brilliance of the franchise being diluted ever further were significantly reduced after seeing a few scenes.

The Story

Roughly, the fourth movie takes place after the nuclear holocaust caused by Skynet, with humans battling ever more sophisticated robots in the war that's been oft-mentioned in the series but never seen. John Connor is all growns up and looking like Christian Bale, while his future dad (Anton Yelchin) is still basically a kid and teaming up with a mysterious stranger (Sam Worthington), who has been described as the new Terminator in press material, but, frankly, we were a little confused about his origins from what we saw. Everyone involved with the film kept saying that this takes place before any of the other films, but the chronology of the series is so pretzel-like that it technically takes place both before all of them and after all of them. Don't try to think about it too much or you'll likely blow a fuse.

The Footage

Anyway, the look of the film is terrific. McG went to great lengths to explain the processes (something to do with silver), but it basically means that the visuals have a bleached out, grubby feel that works really well and makes it look related to the previous films and yet sufficiently its own thing. And the action - oh, the action. There was one chase scene shown involving a big truck and some wheeled robots that looked like it could be fantastic. We're not going to say it could rival James Cameron's masterful - and similarly bike vs truck - sequence in T2, but it could hopefully be going that way. Performance-wise, we saw little of Worthington at work, so can't fairly comment on how deserving he might be of next big thing status, but he's got the right action-hero look. Yelchin was great in the moments we saw of him, while Bale was suitably gruff and surly, using a slightly less glass-gargling version of his Batman growl. The only criticism of the footage would be that a few lines of dialogue felt a bit lumpy. However, since Jonah Nolan, who co-wrote The Dark Knight, is on board we hold out much hope. I'll freely admit to being sceptical of McG's qualification for taking on such a classic series - or at least a two-thirds classic series - but I'll happily give him the benefit of the doubt until seeing the full thing, based on what he's shown so far. With Bale, Nolan and the late Stan Winston all on board, you have to at least recognise the guy for getting the right people around him. Plus, as he pointed out, everyone thought the then unknown Cameron had no business making a sequel to Ridley Scott's Alien, until it turned out to be Aliens.

That Ending

And, ah yes, that rumoured ending. The internet was afury several months back with the story that T4 would end with a revelation that John Connor would be turned into a Terminator, making the saviour of humanity actually its worst enemy. McG said he did toy with that early on, but promised that it is NOT where the story is going. Recording equipment was not allowed, but we believe his exact words were 'John Connor a robot? No'. Phew. A story arc for two more films has been sketched out, but whether they happen will be dependent on how this film does at the box office. One final thing: McG was asked about the rumours that Arnold Schwarzenegger might cameo as the T-800. There was no confirmation, but there was also a definite lack of denial. Make of that what you will.

Olly Richards

So, the photo above has been doing the internet rounds for the past few hours puporting to be the first photo of Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland (it first turned up here). Question is, though: is it real?

Well, we can't say for sure, but it certainly isn't what we were expecting, which makes it exactly what you'd expect from Burton and Depp - if that makes any sense. It's a lot more sinister than we would have imagined, suggesting that Burton is going to be sticking very close to the rather disturbing tone of Lewis Caroll's book, rather than the larky, wholesome Disney version. And that can only be seen as a good thing.

But there's still a nagging doubt in our head that this might just be the work of a fan. Remember when The Dark Knight was in production and the 'first pics of The Joker' leaked online? Only for it to be revealed a few hours later that a fan had put them together. Well, we would be surprised if this photo turned out to be fake, but we also wouldn't be disappointed to learn that it's real.

What do you think? Real or sham?

Olly Richards

This morning, Paramount held an exclusive screening of footage from Zack Snyder's Watchmen, which we were fortunate enough to see. The director was on hand to give some background on the movie - he said that Warner Bros (which is handling the movie in the US) was keen to update the 1980s-set story and give it some major overhauls, but he nixed that - and introduce about 30 minutes of footage from the film. The clip descriptions that follow will include minor spoilers for those who haven't read the graphic novel:

Clip 1

Snyder started by showing the opening 10 minutes of his movie, which really don't mess about in getting straight into the story. We're immediately in the apartment of The Comedian, the man whose murder kicks off the narrative. He's minding his own business, watching a TV news programme about the possibility of Russian nuclear attack and the possibility that Dr Manhattan's (of whom more later) powers might be making the US more of a target, rather than less. Then a shadowy figure bursts through the door and a bloody punch-up ensues.

The punch up is terrific. It's all contained within The Comedian's very small apartment and every inch is used as a weapon. The Comedian is smashed through coffee tables, against the fireplace, through a kitchen worktop, all the time grabbing at anything he might use to defend himself. Although these characters aren't possessed of any real powers Snyder has chosen a slightly heightened reality, given them a strength that verges on super-human. So, if one of them punches a wall, the wall breaks up, rather than leaving them jumping round the room gripping their bloody fist. There's faithfulness to the graphic novel - the moment The Comedian is thrown through a window is ripped from the pages - but Snyder's inserted his own tricks and stylistic flourishes.

Then follows the best piece of footage we were shown, one completely of Snyder's invention. The opening credits act as a prologue to the story. So we begin in the late 1930s, when the first costumed crime-fighters appear. We see Hooded Justice, Silk Spectre and the rest of the Minute Men as they catch baddies and face press adoration. Then we see the public turn on them, with some retiring, some being murdered and others going mad. Nixon comes to power; Dr Manhattan is created and the group loosely known as the Watchmen assembles. All this is intercut with scenes showing the passing of time with the use of major historical events, with Watchmen characters cut in. Lesbian crime-fighter Silhouette is shown kissing a nurse in a recreation of the famous shot of a sailor embracing a nurse at the end of WWII; we learn that Lee Harvey Oswald may have had nothing to do with JFK's assassination; and the hippie movement is blasted away and the Cold War looms. It's a wordless, very visual sequence, so rather hard to describe, but it's a masterful introduction and a great primer for the many who'll be seeing this without the benefit of reading the book.

Clip 2

Next we saw the backstory of Dr Manhattan (Billy Crudup), told after he's scarpered to Mars to get away from all those darned pesky humans and their mundane ways. This sequence is very close to the comic book depiction. He starts as Jonathan Osterman, a scientist who's just met a new squeeze, who he also works with on some scientifice experiment involving a big chamber and lots of sparks. When he accidentally becomes trapped in the chamber, he's zapped with sciency rays and disintegrated. His gradual reappearance as a nervous system, a skinless musculature and then a big naked blue bloke look exactly as they did in Dave Gibbons' drawings. Oh, and for those who wondered how the film would deal with Manhattans frequent nudity: it's dealt with by just putting it all out there, swinging free. Yes, we've seen the little Doctor.

Clip 3

The final clip was much briefer, showing the second Silk Spectre (Malin Akerman) and Nite Owl II (Patrick Wilson) breaking Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley) out of prison. It's here we see how Snyder has beefed the comic book up to something more cinematic. What, if we remember correctly, was a bit of a skirmish in the book becomes a massive punch up on film, with Nite Owl II leaping in the air and kicking seven shades out of anyone in his way and Silk Spectre showing herself expert at some kind of martial art, apparently specifically designed for ladies in stilettoes and impractical PVC leotards. It's a deviation from the book, but it works. You really get the sense that the characters are pumped up on resuming their crime-fighting duties and that they overzealous fighting comes from years of holding back. The room, which included many die-hard fans of the book, lapped it up.

And that was it for the Watchmen presentation. Snyder gave a short Q&A with the comic's artist Dave Gibbons afterwards, although a lot of what they discussed was previously known. The ending has changed (we won't tell you how), but it's true to the message of the book and, says Snyder, actually made more sense for the story. Also, the film will be around 2.5 hours long, with a longer cut expected for DVD. Snyder already has a 3 hour cut and says that could swell to 3.5 hours with the Black Freighter comic book story included (that's a comic book within the comic book that echoes the themes of the larger narrative, for those new to this. However long the film turns out to be, we want to see it NOW.

Olly Richards

This isn't an announcement that Robin will appear in the next Batman movie (the release of which has to be a question of when, not if, given the boffo box office) but there's some discussion online today from the man who co-created the comic book that inspired The Dark Knight saying it might not be the worst idea. And, you know, he might not be wrong.

Much of the plot of The Dark Knight was, by Nolan's own admission, taken from The Long Halloween, a comic book written by Jeph Loeb and drawn by Tim Sale. Talking to Flavorwire, Sale discussed Dark Victory, the sequel to The Long Halloween, and why it could work as a sequel to The Dark Knight, even though it includes Robin, who is generally considered poison to Batman movies. Thing is, he might not be wrong.

The Robin of Dark Victory is not the 20-something, rubber-nippled annoyance of the Joel Schumacher movies, but a kid who represents the only tie to humanity for a Batman whose become so singular in his mission eradicate crime that he's stopped caring about anyone. That could work with the ending of The Dark Knight, where Bruce Wayne decided he would accept Gotham fearing him because it meant they could believe in someone else. He'd get the job done, he just wouldn't get the glory.

Yes, both Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale have said Robin has no part in their universe, but Sale said he needed persuading too. "Jeph had to drag me to the idea of Robin kicking and screaming," he said in the Flavorwire interview, "but then I started living with a single mom, and she had an 8-year-old boy who over the years became more Robin-ish. Jeph based Bruce and Dick’s relationship on mine with the boy, that push-and-pull. Dark Victory shows the change of Gotham from a town overrun by gangsters into a town that is governed by “freaks” (Jeph’s term). His creation of triumvirate of Batman/Dent/Gordon — what they saw happening to their city and how they were going to address it — pushed the story farther than before."

Would Robin be an easy addition to a third Batman film? No. But Nolan's taken no obvious paths in the films so far, so why not try the biggest possible challenge? Just don't put them on skates.

What do you think? Could Robin work, or would the little bird poop all over the Nolan Batmanverse?

Olly Richards