After Jonathan Ross announced he was leaving Film 2010 I got a nervous feeling up my spines. While I may not always agree with Wossy about films or appropriate hairstyles, having him hosting the show was a case of ‘better the devil you know.’

Then there was suddenly a vacancy and I was sure that it was going to go to a respected film critic like Mark Kermode, but no such luck. It has been announced that Claudia Winkleman will take over hosting duties when she’s not off riding one of the four horses of the Apocalypse. Okay, that’s a bit overboard but I had higher hopes for this appointment.

Mostly known for bland TV reporting, Winkleman has almost no background in film and a lot of fans are wondering how the show will change now that she has the job.

Winkleman is quoted in The Guardian as saying,

“Everyone has an opinion on film and I’m looking forward to debating the biggest news and releases with a whole variety of guests each week. I am completely over the moon about being given this enormous honour and am incredibly proud to be to be presenting the new look Film 2010. It’s an honour to follow on from the brilliant Jonathan Ross.”

Glad someone’s happy about it. Only time will tell if she’ll be a good host but until then stick to the Breadline, I’ll take care of you.

For anyone who shelled out to see Battlefield Earth, firstly, why? Could you not see that this movie was going to be utter pants?

Secondly, the writer of the movie (if you can call it that) has issued an apology.

J.D. Shapiro has publicly apologized for this cinematic turd after it was named the Worst Movie Of The Decade at this year’s Razzie awards.

The film is based on the Scientology novel of the same name and starred famed ’sci’ supporter John Travolta. Oh and Forrest Whittaker was in it as well.

In the New York Post, Shapiro wrote,

“Let me start by apologizing to anyone who went to see Battlefield Earth.

It wasn’t as I intended — promise. No one sets out to make a train wreck. Actually, comparing it to a train wreck isn’t really fair to train wrecks, because people actually want to watch those.”

We appreciate his honesty. He goes on to blame his willy for causing the whole thing in the first place because he had heard that the LA Scientology centre was ‘a great place to meet women.’ Shapiro wasn’t too bothered by the lack of attractive females as he was more upset by how his original screenplay was butchered.

“My script was very, VERY different from what ended up on the screen. My screenplay was darker, grittier and had a very compelling story with rich characters. What my screenplay didn’t have was slow motion at every turn, Dutch tilts, campy dialogue, aliens in KISS boots, and everyone wearing Bob Marley wigs.”

Ooh er. Shapiro also sent his Razzie acceptance speech to Deadline Hollywood which showed that not everybody’s mother is their biggest fan.

“And my favourite quote of all time: ‘This is the worst f**king piece of sh** movie I’ve ever seen in my entire f**king life.’ That quote was from my mother.”

In the tail-end of the award season, Empire had a good old knees up at their own award ceremony. There was booze and gongs galore as the big names of cinema were given awards based on your votes.

The Empire awards, sponsored by Jameson, has a wider range of nominees than the BAFTAs or Oscars and gave other movies a chance to get noticed amongst the Blind Sides of this year’s movies.

We all know Avatar didn’t win big at the Oscars but it looks like the fans have spoken and apparently you all went mad for James Cameron and his little blue friends. Though I may not agree with you on that, I can understand but Jude Law as hero of the year? Really?

Let’s take a look at those lucky winners.

Best Film
Avatar

Best Director
James Cameron
Do It!

After my initial excitement over the news of a Maleficent movie died down it was piqued again this morning over news that Angelina Jolie might be involved in the movie.

According to the LA Times, Jolie is interested in the project but not confirmed to play the wicked fairy from the Disney classic Sleeping Beauty. Disney first struck gold with their glamorous witches in Snow White and who could be more glam as Maleficent than Jolie?

There’s still no word on Tim Burton’s supposed involvement in the project but what a wonderful combination that would be. She doesn’t have too full a slate on her hands to make this an impossible choice either; she’s currently finishing filming on The Tourist with Johnny Depp and she’ll taking up voice-acting again with Kung Fu Panda 2.

Playing Maleficent would be Jolie’s first Disney character but could prove the point that she’s really only suited to dark, seductive roles.