Merry Christmas!

Hope you're all enjoying your holidays.

As you may have noticed, we're taking a little break here at Hollywood Lost and Found to enjoy the holidays and get caught up on "real life." But I wanted to continue our tradition of recommending a few slightly off-center Christmas films that you may not have thought of...



"The Nightmare Before Christmas" (1993) Always at the top of my list for Halloween AND Christmas.


"Trading Places" (1983) "Hello, security? Merry Christmas!" Who can forget a drunken Dan Aykroyd as Santa, pulling a fish out of his beard?


"Citizen Kane" (1941) The Orson Welles classic has a brief Christmas moment. If you don't blink. Hey, anything I can do to get more people to see the film...


"Fantasia" (1940) Okay, okay - it's not technically Christmas-themed. But the film features, of course, Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite, which has forever been associated with the holiday - and which keeps a certain dear ballerina friend of mine gainfully employed every winter season.


"1941" (1979) Steven Spielberg's chaotic epic had a great moment that never made the final cut, featuring Director John Milius in a cameo as Santa Claus running into the street like Bigfoot caught in traffic. Check out the DVD!


"Gremlins" (1984) And finally, I can't resist again mentioning the film that Director Joe Dante even described as "'It's A Wonderful Life' meets 'The Birds.'" A favorite twisted Christmas film of mine.


Happy Holidays to all!

Hollywood stories for Monday, 10 December 2007

Happy Monday, everyone... Here are a few Hollywood headlines from around the internet...



As you can see, the official one-sheet for "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" has arrived... and USA Today has published a few more details about the film.

The Writer's Strike begins its sixth week, with talks stalled for the moment. Hollywood workers are pleading for them to begin again.

Costume designer Marit Allen has died.

Warner Bros. is releasing a great collection of Oscar-winning animated shorts.

Here's a question I've weighed in on previously - how historically acurate should movies really be? A discussion was held recently on that very topic.

Have a good week!

Hollywood stories for Monday, 3 December 2007

Happy December everyone... I'm a little late, but here are a few headlines from Hollywood on the internet...

The Writer's Strike begins its fifth week, with both sides meeting again today. Keep an eye on Nikke Finke's "Deadling Hollywood" for the latest news.

An exhibit of original Star Wars props and memorabilia, including Luke Skwalker's lightsaber that was aboard the space shuttle, has started at Space Center Houston.

Anyone catch the billboard for "Batman vs. Superman" in the background of the movie "I Am Legend"?

Will Johnny Depp play bank robber John Dillinger?

Casting director Mali Finn, who helped assemble the actors for "Titanic," "L.A. Confidential" and "The Matrix," has died.

Chris Kattan and Amy Sedaris will star in "Tanner Hall," a feature film originally written as a UPN pilot.

Enjoy your week!