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The 2009 People’s Choice Awards are right around the corner, and now that the nominees have officially been announced, we can pick our own favorites!

Winners will be revealed during the live broadcast of The 35th Annual People’s Choice Awards, which will be hosted by Queen Latifah from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009 at 6:00 pm Pacific time.

The first awards show of 2009, The People’s Choice Awards will honor fan favorites in television, movies and music. Voting begins today at pcaVOTE.com.

Here are the nominees: (Which include Heath/The Dark Knight)

Favorite Movie

1. The Dark Knight
2. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
3. Iron Man

Favorite Action Movie
1. The Dark Knight
2. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
3. Iron Man

Favorite Cast
1. The Dark Knight
2. Mamma Mia!
3. Sex and the City

Favorite On-Screen Match-Up
1. Christian Bale & Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)
2. Tina Fey & Amy Poehler (Baby Mama)
3. Harrison Ford & Shia LaBeouf (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull)

Christian Bale was Nominated in the following categories:

Favorite Leading Man
1. Christian Bale
2. Brad Pitt
3. Mark Wahlberg

Favorite Superhero
1. Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman
2. Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man
3. Will Smith as John Hancock

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Photos of Heath Ledger in his last and unfinished onscreen appearance as Tony in “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” due out in 2009, have hit the ‘net.

Ledger died Jan. 22, 2008 of an overdose of prescription medicine halfway through filming and Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law all stepped in to play different incarnations of his character.

A third of the movie was filmed in Clerkenwell in London. Ledger died three days after finishing that portion of the filming and the company was about to head to Canada to film.

The film involves a supernatural mirror that takes people into different dimensions and the fantasy device was used by director Terry Gilliam to switch actors.

As chilling as the Joker was, this should be on par in terms of weirdness, to see an actor who burned so bright do so one last time.

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SYDNEY (AFP) — Heath Ledger’s two-year-old daughter Matilda Rose will inherit the late Australian actor’s entire estate, estimated to be worth 20 million dollars (16.6 million US), a report said Sunday.

The 28-year-old actor, who died in New York in January from an accidential overdose of prescription drugs, had named his parents and sisters as the beneficiaries in his will, Perth’s Sunday Times reported.

The will, which has been probated behind closed doors at the Supreme Court in Perth, was made before Matilda was born, and there had been speculation that the child’s mother, actress Michelle Williams, would lodge a claim.

But Ledger’s father Kim has put an end to such speculation, revealing that Matilda will inherit the lot.

“There is no claim. Our family has gifted everything to Matilda,” he told the News Ltd paper.

Ledger’s will listed just 145,000 Australian dollars in assets and cash when it was drawn up in 2003, but the Hollywood star’s estate is now believed to be worth more than 20 million dollars, the Sunday Times said.

The Perth-born actor gained international stardom and was nominated for an Oscar for his role as a gay cowboy in the 2005 film “Brokeback Mountain”.

Critics have hailed his performance as the deranged Joker in the recent Batman film sequel, “The Dark Knight”.

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HOLLYWOOD - The New York residence where late Hollywood actor Heath Ledger was found dead has been put back on the market for rent.

Ledger was found in the downtown Manhattan apartment in January 2008, after an accidental overdose of prescription drugs.

The SoHo loft flat has been listed for $26,000 a month, $4,000 more than the actor paid before his tragic death.

Ledger moved into the loft in September 2007 after finishing work on his role as The Joker in his last completed film, Batman sequel The Dark Knight.

According to the New York Post, the apartment was quietly being shopped around in February 2008.

A New York real-estate broker told the newspaper at the time: “You don’t wait around in a hot rental market like this. As ghoulish as it sounds, people will rent that place in a heartbeat.”

The apartment includes three bedrooms, two-and-a-half bathrooms, an office, laundry room, gourmet kitchen, sprawling balcony and wood-burning fireplace. The apartment’s agent at New York’s Corcoran Group did not return calls on the listing.

As WENN went to press, the building’s owner, Donald Burns, could not be reached.

Source:Hollywood.com

Before his death, Heath Ledger wanted to open up a restaurant/bar in Brooklyn. His partner and longtime friend Jud Mongell says Heath was really hands-on in getting the doors open.

He says, “He drew the floor plans and thought of the name — BrightSide — because it’s on the bright side of McCarren Park.”

The space has a nautical theme, and is scheduled to open by the end of the summer. As expected, it will include a lot of personal touches from Heath, like a chessboard being engraved into the tables because he loved the game.

Jud says, “Heath was a big chess player.The whole idea was to make it a spot for us. We wanted to make it our own space to hang out. He specifically talked about having a place for him and his family to sit. It was great working with Heath. He was the most unassuming guy.”

BrightSide sounds like a great place and such a nice dedication to the late Heath Ledger. Make sure to stop by if you’re in the area!

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Mary-Kate Olsen was never interviewed by police regarding her involvement in the death of actor Heath Ledger, despite the fact that Ledger’s masseuse bizarrely alerted Olsen of Ledger’s lifeless body before she called the police, and the fact that Olsen’s bodyguards may have arrived at Ledger’s apartment three minutes before paramedics did. Now, the New York Post reports that federal drug agents are trying to get Olsen to cooperate in their investigation into how Ledger managed to finagle a bottle of the painkiller Oxycotin—also known as “hillbilly heroin”—but that Olsen is refusing to talk unless she’s granted immunity from prosecution.

Ledger, who died after accidentally overdosing on a cocktail of prescription drugs, had prescriptions for all the pills from two physicians except for the Oxycotin. One possible theory for Olsen’s refusal to talk to the cops is that Ledger’s masseuse called Olsen after discovering her name on the bottle of Oxycotin, prompting the diminutive actress to dispatch her bodyguards to the scene to clean up any evidence. (Olsen’s people never actually called the police themselves, which doesn’t particularly help her case.)

The Post has called for Olsen to be interviewed ever since the NYPD denied the paper’s scoop that the former Full House star received a series of frantic calls from the masseuse. “We confirmed this story with an impeccable source inside the NYPD, and we stand by our reporting,” the paper’s editor Col Allan said in the aftermath, adding, “we find it odd that the chiefs at the NYPD appear to be terrified of 4-foot 11 inch, 90-pound Mary Kate Olsen.” (In a separate editorial, Andrea Peyser claimed to be “astonished” that the “Teflon midget” has been given a free pass.) Given the paper’s thirst for justice in this matter, is it any surprise that the feds leaked them the story? Could M-K be the victim of a vicious case of press harassment because a paper blew a scoop? Whether her refusal to talk without immunity is simply her lawyer’s call, or if it’s because she is actually hiding something, remains to be seen.

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Photo:Ledger, Olsen  (Photo: Getty Images)

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As “The Dark Knight” took off overseas, Warner Bros. Pictures International became the third major international distributor to surpass $1 billion in foreign boxoffice revenue.

This is the eighth year in a row and the 10th time overall that WBPI has hurdled the industry benchmark.

Warner Bros. said that the Caped Crusader’s opening blast of $40 million from only 20 markets “pushed” the company “over the $1 billion mark in international boxoffice.”

Overcoming the disappointing performance of its early summer tentpole, “Speed Racer,” the company’s other summer releases — the newest Batman entry, “Get Smart” ($65 million) and returns from key selected markets of New Line’s “Sex and the City” — made up for the let down.

Strong contributions came earlier in the year from “I Am Legend” ($210 million in 2008 for total of $328 million), “10,000 BC” ($174 million), “Sweeney Todd” ($100 million), “The Bucket List” ($81 million), and the German film “Keinorhasen,” which took in $49 million in 2008 for a total of $63.5 million.

Paramount Pictures International passed the $1 billion benchmark June 16 and Fox International followed July 8.

Last year, for the first time in industry history, five of the six MPA companies topped $1 billion by the end of July; a sixth studio joined by the end of 2007.

Source:Hollywood Reporter

HEATH LEDGER deserves all the credit for THE DARK KNIGHT’s massive box office haul, according to the movie’s director CHRISTOPHER NOLAN.
Ledger plays The Joker in the movie, the last full film role he completed before his death in January (08) from an accidental drug overdose. And Nolan insists Ledger made the movie a hit.
Speaking at The Dark Knight’s Japanese premiere on Monday (28Jul08), the British filmmaker said, “(He was) what The Joker in our film would need to be.
“(We were) looking for an actor with the fierceness, excitement and teeth to do our version of the Joker.”
Christian Bale, who plays Batman in the record-breaking film, also found time to praise Ledger, telling a press conference, “It’s satisfying to see people celebrating the incredible talent of Heath. I just want him to be recognised.”
In just 10 days since the film’s release in America, The Dark Knight has taken an astonishing $440 million (GBP150 million) at movie theatres worldwide, breaking almost every box office record in the U.S.

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Sorry Spidey, but the Caped Crusader is the new king of the box office.

“The Dark Knight” opened with record-breaking numbers this weekend, taking in an astounding $158.3 million from Friday – Sunday, knocking “Spider-Man 3” from atop the box office record books.

In 2007, the third installment in the Spider-Man franchise opened with $151 million.

But that wasn’t the only record “The Dark Knight” claimed in its opening weekend. In fact, a total of eight records now belong to Batman and friends.

The film, starring Christian Bale and the late Heath Ledger, also posted the biggest single day ever at the box office, taking in a whopping $67 million on Friday alone – another record previously held by “Spider-Man 3.”

Here is a complete breakdown of the eight box office records “The Dark Knight” now holds after its opening weekend:

- Largest number of opening theaters with 4,366 (Previous record: “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” opened in 4,362 theaters in 2007).

- Biggest midnight preview gross with $18.4 million in 3,040 theaters (Previous record: “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith” and its $16.9 million in 2,915 theaters in 2005).

- Biggest IMAX midnight previews, setting a new record with $640,000 (included in the $18.4 million preview number).

- Biggest single-day gross in box-office history with $67.8 million (Previous record: bests the $59,841,919 set by “Spider-Man 3” in 2007).

-Biggest opening weekend gross in box office history with $158.3 million (Previous record: beats the $151,116 million set by “Spider-Man 3” in 2007).

-Biggest opening weekend gross for an IMAX release in box office history with $6,214,061 million in 94 theaters with $66,107 per theater. (Previous record: $4.7 million set by “Spider-Man 3” in 2007.)

- Biggest opening weekend of 2008 with $158.3 million (Previous record: “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” with $101.1 million from May 23-25, 2008)

- Biggest July opening ever (Previous record: “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” with $135,634,554 on July 7, 2006).

Source - Access Hollywood

Don’t get carried away with all of the Oscar buzz for Heath Ledger in “The Dark Knight” that you see in USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, everywhere. Remember: Only one star has won an Oscar from the grave (Peter Finch, “Network”) and roles like the Joker are rarely even nominated.

Maybe this next Oscars factoid may help to put things in more clear perspective. After the beloved Spencer Tracy died in 1967 after giving a dynamic, heartfelt performance in best picture nominee “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” he was widely expected to win best actor, but lost to Rod Steiger (”In the Heat of the Night”). However, Tracy’s de facto widow Katharine Hepburn won best actress for a rather tame turn with little screen time in “Dinner.”

Bottom line: Oscar voters wanted to bestow a hug after losing Tracy, yes — but they just didn’t want to hug the dead guy.

When Peter Finch passed away, the situation was very different from Tracy’s and Ledger’s. The latter stars died more than six months before the Oscarcast. Finch died from a heart attack just two weeks before the Golden Globes while he was actively campaigning to stop that juggernaut Robert DeNiro (”Taxi Driver”), who’d swept the film-critics’ awards. Oscar and Globe voters were still stunned by Finch’s loss when they inked their ballots and they couldn’t resist checking off his name.

Heath Ledger bears a striking similarity to James Dean. Both were heartthrob thespians whose promising careers were cut short by tragedy.  Dean had two posthumous Oscar nominations. The first — for “Giant” — came nearly half a year after Dean died in a car wreck. The next year he was nommed for “East of Eden” and he lost both times.

When Oscar nominations come out next January, Heath Ledger will have been dead for a year. Given all of the Oscar hubbub he’s generating now, I’m sure he’ll be on that list of contenders, but can he really win?

Oscar voters aren’t wild about campy villain roles in popcorn flicks like “Dark Knight.” The only time one got nominated was Al Pacino as Big Boy Caprice in “Dick Tracy” (1990). Jack Nicholson’s widely celebrated Joker in “Batman” (1989) — the same role now played by Heath Ledger — was nominated for a Golden Globe, but not an Oscar, which is odd considering how nuts academy members are for Jack. (Nicholson holds the records for most nominations and wins among male actors.)

And Oscar voters don’t usually like villainous roles unless the actor rides to victory atop a best-picture sweep like Anthony Hopkins in “The Silence of the Lambs.”

But — wait — that old trend may be changing. Just this past year we saw the trophies for best actor and supporting actor go to stars portraying bloodthirsty monsters: Daniel Day-Lewis and Javier Bardem.

And maybe the whole world, even Hollywood, is different today than it was when those other posthumous Oscar examples occurred. If so, then maybe this joker can get the last laugh.

(Warner Bros.)

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