Like all Pixar films, Toy Story 3 features a short film before the feature. The new short is called Day & Night. The short is hard to describe -- it's the first Pixar film to include any hand-drawn 2D animation, though in this case there are two 2D characters with 3D worlds inside them. There's a visual explanation in the clip below: Have you seen Day & Night? What did you think? I haven't seen the whole thing yet, and frankly the clips above seem a little baffling, though I've heard rave... READ ON

Remember the computer in Minority Report, the one which Tom Cruise manipulated by tossing objects around on a virtual screen? Well, apparently that computer is real. John Underkoffler was involved in designing that computer system and the gestural language used to communicate with it, and has been working on related research for quite a while. In a recent TED Talk, he showed demos of actual, current, working computer systems that do the Minority Report stuff -- and he does it onstage in front of an... READ ON

I'm a Stanley Kubrick fan, but the only film of his that I saw in the theater was Eyes Wide Shut. Which led me to wonder -- what were the trailers for his movies like? Short answer: friggin' nuts. Enjoy. (I'll start with my two favorites, then go in reverse chronological order.) A Clockwork Orange (1971) Do not watch if you're prone to seizures. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) Perhaps a precursor to the A Clockwork Orange trailer, with its... READ ON

Born and raised in California, I am a huge fan of my home state's ecological diversity. The movie industry loves this variety too, which is part of the reason they found such a great home in Los Angeles. This map is a great visualization of how Paramount Studios broke down the local ecosystems for filming back in 1927. I bet you never knew that Spain, Mississippi, Siberia and New England are all hidden within the Golden State. Of course, now they usually travel to make movies more authentic. But then... READ ON