The American Film Institute (AFI) announced their picks for the ten best films for 2007. The list is as follows, but is not actually a ranking:

1. Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead.
2. Into the Wild.
3. Juno.
4. Knocked Up.
5. Michael Clayton.
6. No Country for Old Men.
7. Ratatouille.
8. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
9. The Savages.
10. There Will Be Blood.

This is the AFI’s 40th anniversary.

Bam Margera, skateboarder and star of MTV’s Jackass and Viva La Bam, is planning on opening a theatre in his hometown of West Chester, PA. The theater will have a screen but also feature musical acts and comedians. Opening is sometime in Spring 2008.

Atonement, a ‘love and war’ drama starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy, scored seven Golden Globe nominations late last week, but has stiff competition for best dramatic picture. Nomination categories include best actor (male and female), best supporting actress, and best director. The movie was directed by Joe Wright. Knightley did not win a nomination for the “actress most likely to take her top off for a photo shoot if you ask her” category.

Will Smith’s new horror zombie/ vampire movie, I am Legend – where’s he’s the last man on earth – hit a record $76.5 million in box office take, beating out the old December opening record by Lord of the Rings in 2003.This is Smith’s seventh straight hit movie. Despite all this, Smith was recently declared one of the most overpaid actors – with Nicole Kidman at the top of the list.

The Sweeney Todd movie, starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, is based on an older Stephen Sondheim opera/ play about a barber, Benjamin Barker, who returns to London after false imprisonment in Australia. Informed that the judge who sent him away took advantage of his wife, who then poisoned herself, Barker, decides to get even by shaving those responsible and then slitting their throats. (Sacha Baron Cohen also appears as a rival barber, and later as part of a meat pie.)

The movie is directed by the fun-horror master himself, Tim Burton, who convinced Depp to try singing – an important part of the role. Depp was very reluctant about his abilities at first – even scared – but his voice turned out to be not too bad. Not opera performance, but not bad.

Forbes’ list of Hollywood’s most influential infants seems about as accurate as the list that had Kevin Federline as one of the most influential people under 45. This list declares Shiloh Pitt – the one mom Angelina Jolie declared an outcast amongst her mixed-race adopted siblings – as the most influential. Does this mean I should send my screenplay ideas to Shiloh?

Today is the birthday of the following actors, actresses, directors, writers/ playwrights, etc. (Information comes from IMDB ‘birthday’ feed.)

• Xander Berkeley, 52. Current: numerous TV and movie appearances; 2008: Cook County, The Toe Tactic.
• Benjamin Bratt, 44. Current: Love in the Time of Cholera (2007); 2008: Trucker, Guerilla, The Andromeda Strain, The Argentine, The Cleaner. (The Andromeda Strain is based on a very early novel by Michael Crichton of Jurassic Park fame.)
• Steven Bochco, 64. Upcoming: Raising the Bar (2008, TV).
• Miranda Otto, 40. Past: Lord of the Rings; current: The Starter Wife TV mini-series; upcoming: How to Change in 9 Weeks (2008).
• Liv Ullmann, 69.
• Philip K. Dick (born 1928, died 1982). Upcoming: Radio Free Albemuth (2008), The Owl in Daylight (2009).
• Noel Coward (born 1899, died 1973).
• Jane Austen (born 1775, died 1817). A number of TV mini-series and movies are in post- and pre-production, based on her novels and letters.

The Producers Guild of America is giving the 2008 Stanley Kramer award to Oprah Winfrey and other producers for the movie The Great Debaters, starring Denzel Washington and Forest Whitaker. The award is given each year to a film that focuses on social issues.

The movie, which opens in theaters on Dec 25th, takes place in Marshall, Texas, where Washington was recently to promote it.

Here’s the latest in The Dark Knight poster series, showing Heath Ledger’s Joker portrayal.

These are some of the DVD and/or Blu-ray movie and TV releases for the week of Sun Dec 9th – Sat Dec 15th, 2007.

1. Beverly Hills 90210: Third Season.
2. Blade Runner: Final Cut. This is the version director Ridley Scott favors.
3. Bourne Ultimatum. This is the movie representing the third book in author Robert Ludlum’s “Bourne” novels.
4. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. This is the fifth in the series, and is available in multiple versions, as well as both DVD and Blu-ray. [Note: Some "defective" copies of the special 5-disc Blu-ray edition that contains all 5 movies actually contain HD DVD format discs.]
5. High School Musical 2. Includes bloopers and music videos.
6. Lost: Complete Third Season.
7. Pirates of the Carribean: At World’s End. Has  two discs that include commentary and bloopers.