The guys at FilmDunk/Frotcast also take issue with that decided lack of realism, and so a fan has heard their call and cut together this trailer for Warhorsey, the horse that poops. It’s a more realistic approach to War Horse and solves the issue of what happens after Joey eats all that hay. Too bad that the original release didn’t handle this subject matter. Would have swept the BAFTAs, I bet. Now this is more like it. Now get to work on a Ghost Protocol recut with a turd streaking down glass. (FilmDrunk)

So, for those unfamiliar, here’s a quick rundown of the films jousting for the title of Best Picture. Like the Highlander, there can be only one.

The Artist

The first entry here is by far the most artsy, and perhaps least accessible by wide audiences. It’s a French film directed by Michel Hazanavicius, starring Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo. I’m actively rooting against this film just so I don’t have to type those names throughout March if it wins. The film follows a male film star in the twilight of his career and a female star on the upswing. So it’s kind of like A Star Is Born, which is another film our readers probably haven’t seen.

Anyway, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that the film is in black and white. Oh. And it’s largely silent. Content and merit aside, I could see the Academy going for this guy solely to show how damn sophisticated they are.

The Descendants

While it hasn’t made a splash at the box office (many nominees fail to), this Alexander Payne (Election, About Schmidt, Sideways) film has seemed to emerge as “the Oscar shoe-in that the masses are getting on board with.” It stars George Clooney as a laissez faire dad who has to get in touch with his kids in Hawaii after their mother suffers a boating injury and falls into a coma. Like much of Payne’s fare, this film is purported to be drier than a cracker, but the film has managed to nab other nods for both Clooney and Payne, so the powers that be are digging it.

Also, the film has Matthew Lillard in it, which I thought would preclude it from being nominated, but apparently not.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Jonathan Safran Foer wrote this well-received novel in 2005, focusing on one boy’s journey to make sense of his father’s death in the September 11th attacks. The source material’s reception wasn’t as warm as Foer’s previous effort, Everything Is Illuminated, but all the problems with the can be offset by the fact that this film has Tom f*cking Hanks, so the critics can go to hell.

This movie has been divisive, with many critics railing it for its heavy reliance on saccharine subject matter (“Remember 9/11? That sucked!”) and the performance of child star Thomas Horn, who they found to be unlikeable. It sucks to go on a journey with an unlikeable person.

We can find out for sure when the film is released on Christmas Day.

6 photosNew Photos From ‘War Horse’ Have 0 Pictures Of Horses Shooting Guns

The teaser trailer for Steven Spielberg‘s War Horse is finally here and it’s as lush and sweeping as you’d expect. Here we see the titular horse run through epic WWI battles and the lives he encounters throughout the warfare. But the story isn’t just a horse running through explosions though that would be pretty metal. It’s actually about a young man named Albert and his horse, Joey, who in taken from him and sold to the cavalry. Albert is too young to enlist but still heads to France to save his four-legged friend. Just like when the dealership took back my Kia. I almost went the next town over to retrieve it.

Okay, maybe not just like.

Spielberg, who initially passed on the film in favor of his current film, War Horse, is reportedly considering Robopocalypse as his next project. The story by Daniel H. Wilson chronicles man’s fight for survival as robots turn on their former masters and humanity’s chickens come home to roost. If I were you, I’d unplug my Roomba right now and throw it off a bridge. (Vulture via First Showing)

These photos that a Collider reader snagged from Steven Spielberg‘s War Horse set will calm your Monday morning nerves. I’ve been casually flipping through them with Enya on in the background and the outside world has melted away.

We haven’t told you much about the film since its lead protagonist is an equine and SJ caters to people, but basically a horse named Joey is sold to the army during WWI and it wants to get back to the farm boy owner it left behind. It’s a love story between a man and a beast, but not a Tijuana strip club sort of way.

Grab some Earl Grey and check out the pics after the jump…

^{On-set romances always end badly.}

James Van Der Beek will soon have another poster to add to his fictitous wall. For his next project, Steven Spielberg will send a horse to war. The Saving Private Ryan director optioned Michael Morpurgo’s novel War Horse, a story about a horse on the front lines of World War I as he inspires his platoon and longs to return to the farm on which he was raised.

I’m really looking forward to the inevitable scene where the horse shows the other soldiers a photograph of the philly he’s gonna marry back home. Movies like this always have those. (Variety)