New Year’s Eve has always been a great time to set a movie in. Here are some of our favorite cinematic ringing-ins of the new year.

When Harry Met Sally (1989) – New Year’s Eve is a very symbolic holiday. It is the event when we ring out the old and ring in the new. It is also a very romantic holiday, where you celebrate a year spent with the one you love or one where you are reminded of your pathetic loneliness. While When Harry Met Sally isn’t exclusively a New Year’s Eve movie, the holiday plays a role in the plot in the symbolic and romantic sense. Here is a Spoiler Warning for anyone who has yet to see the film, all two of you — the ending is going to be discussed. Harry and Sally are best friends for years, defying the belief that a man and a woman can’t be friends without sex getting in the way. When Harry hooks up with a vulnerable Sally and then bails, that belief seems to be confirmed. However, it takes one lonely New Year’s Eve night for the pair to realize that they really love each other and were meant to be together. – William Gatevackes

After The Thin Man (1936) – When the first of five sequels to the classic mystery comedy The Thin Man was released Frank Nugent of The New York Times hailed it by saying “and William Powell and Myrna Loy still persuade us that Mr. and Mrs. Nick Charles are exactly the sort of people we should like to have on our calling list on New Year’s Day.” And some seventy years later, that assessment remains true. Powell and Loy’s performances are as crisp as in their predecessor films and Hackett and Goodrich’s script, from a story by Thin Man novelist Dashiell Hammett, is equally satisfying as both a mystery and as a comedy. Returning to their home in San Fransico following their Christmas adventures of the previous film, Nick (Powell) and Nora (Loy) Charles find a swinging New Year’s Eve party going on in their home. The problem is that they don’t know any of the partiers! But an escape to a rather more staid and stuffy dinner at Nora’s affluent family is no better as the meal ends with a murder and Nora’s cousin (Elissa Landi) looking like the guilty party. A fun, twisty mystery, After The Thin Man is also one of the first roles for a young Jimmy Stewart, who plays a character a bit different from the type of roles that built his career. – Rich Drees

The Poseidon Adventure (1972) – It has been said that Steven Spielberg’s Jaws was so terrifying to moviegoers that it actually impacted beach tourism for a few years after its release. I have to wonder if this disaster film classic, in which an ocean liner’s New Year’s Eve party is interrupted by a “rogue tidal wave” that flips the ship upside down, had a similar effect on cruise lines. Coming right in the midst of the disaster film boom of the early 70s, The Poseidon Adventure’s ensemble cast boasts five Oscar winners – Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Shelley Winters, Jack Albertson and Red Buttons. And while ultimately, The Poseidon Adventure is nothing but big-budgeted B-movie fun, but it still managed to snag eight Academy Award nominations , winning for the “The Morning After” as well as receiving a Special Achievement Award for Visual Effects. Avoid the sequel Beyond The Poseidon Adventure as well as the 2005 remake. – RD

200 Cigarettes (1999) “Where is everyone? Are they just out walking the streets out there?” cries Martha Plympton in her spacious, but empty SoHo loft of her missing-in-action New Year’s Eve party guests. Of course, that’s exactly what they are doing, with the movie cutting back and forth between pairs of characters trying to work out their love lives while wandering the streets of 1981 downtown Manhattan and trying to avoid making the most unforgiveable of social faux pas, arriving first at a party. I suppose this could be the indie predecessor of this year’s New Year’s Eve and like the more recent film, 200 Cigarettes is not entirely successful. What it does have is an ensemble cast of (at the time) up and coming indie actors including Ben and Casey Affleck, Paul Rudd, Christina Ricci, Courtney Love, Jay Mohr and Janeane Garofalo with the likes of Dave Chappelle, David Johansen and singer Elvis Costello popping in small supporting bits, all of whom are worth watching. A bonus is the film’s soundtrack which is virtually wall-to-wall hits from 1980 and 1981. – RD

The January Man (1989) A young woman is murdered in her apartment coming home from a New Year’s Eve party, the latest victim of a New York City serial killer. Under extreme political pressure, the Chief of Police (Harvey Keitel) is forced to reinstate Nick Starkey (Kevin Kline), his genius detective brother who had resigned from the force years earlier amidst a scandal. Starkey seems to be at least as equally interested in annoying his brother and the Mayor (a scenery chewing Rod Steiger) as he is in solving the case. Joining him on the case are his anti-social artist friend Ed (Alan Rickman playing against the type) and the Mayor’s daughter (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio). While some of the relationship backstory between the main characters is a bit soapy, Kline’s performance as the delightfully quirky Starkey carries the film. And extra points for the script’s incredibly bizarre method of how the killer chooses his victims. – RD

Don Sharp, the director who helped revitalize England’s Hammer Studios as the premier producer of gothic horror cinema in the mid-1960s, died on December 25. His passing was announced by the studio, though they did not elaborate with a location or cause. He was 89.

Hammer Studios first burst onto the horror film scene in the mid-1950s, thanks in large part to the acting of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing and the directorial talents of Terrence Fisher. However, as the 1950s gave way to the 1960s, Fisher seemed to have gotten tired of the genre. Following the poor reviews and dismal box office that greeted his 1962 adaption of The Phantom Of The Opera for the studio, executives turned to Sharp to inject some new blood.

Although he had allegedly never even seen a horror film before, Sharp’s first assignment, Kiss Of The Vampire and its story of a young couple honeymooning in Bavaria and getting involved with a vampire cult, was very well received by the critics. Studio executives were also pleased that Sharp had hired relatively inexpensive television actors to round out his cast.

Born in Tasmania, Australia, Sharp served in the Australian Air Force during World War Two before immigrating to Great Britain to pursue a career as an actor.

Sharp would direct two more films for Hammer – The Devil-Ship Pirates (1964) and Rasputin: The Mad Monk (1966), with starred Christopher Lee as the bearded, wild-eyed, notoriously hard-to-kill Russian. Sharp would work with Lee again on The Face of Fu Manchu (1965) and The Brides of Fu Manchu (1966) with the actor playing novelist Sax Rohmer’s titular arch-villain under makeup.

Other films on his resume include Witchcraft (1964) with Lon Chaney Jr., The Curse Of The Fly (1965) and a 1978 adaption of the John Buchan espionage novel The 39 Steps which was praised for being a true adaption of the source material while still not rising to the level of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 adaption.

One of the sad parts of the end of the year is looking back at the great talents film fans lost over the preceding 12 months. Usually these remembrances are done early in the following year during awards shows, but time constraints invariably mean that some people will be left out of the tribute. The folks over at Turner Classic Movies are under no such constraints and have put together a beautiful video honoring all the actors, writers, directors and other behind-the-scenes talents who contributed so much to so many films.

With titles stretching across American cinema history from the silent comedy short A Cure For Pokeritis (1912) to Forrest Gump (1994), the Library of Congress announced the 25 titles to be added to the National Film Registry today.

The list of 25 films has been released annually since 1989 and is composed of 25 films selected from nominations received by the general public. The aim of the registry is to preserve American films of artistic, cultural or historic significance. This year 2,228 films were nominated. Copies of each film named to the Registry will be stored at the Library of Congress’ cold-storage vaults at the Packard Campus of the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center near Culpeper, Va. This year’s group of 25 films brings the number of films in the registry to 575.

As always, the titles cover a wide range of topics and comprise not only of popular movies of their day and features we now consider classic, but also lesser known works that nevertheless hold some importance culturally with classics like Charlie Chaplin’s first full-length feature silent comedy The Kid and the 1945 drama The Lost Weekend sharing space with experimental films such as Jordan Belson’s five minute short Allures (1961).

The addition I am most excited by is The Nicholas Brothers Family Home Movies. The Nicholas Brothers were one of the greatest dance teams during the Golden Age of Hollywood – a great example of their work can be found in 1943′s Stormy Weather – and the footage that they shot over 20 or so years includes the only footage shot inside the Cotton Club and of famous Broadway shows like Babes in Arms as well as home movies of an all African-American regiment during World War II and films of street life in Harlem in the 1930s.

Interestingly, there are some echoes across the centuries among the titles. The 1912 documentary The Cry Of The Children has been credited with helping the pre-World War One child labor reform movement while 1979′s Norma Rae was a dramatization of another labor-related struggle. Walt Disney’s Bambi, a classic of hand-drawn animation shares space on the list with one of the first computer animation test pieces, 1972′s A Computer Animated Hand.

The complete list of titles that were named is as follows-

A Cure for Pokeritis (1912)
The Cry of the Children (1912)
The Kid (1921)
The Iron Horse (1924)
Twentieth Century (1934)
Nicholas Brothers Family Home Movies (1930s-40s)
Bambi (1942)
The Negro Soldier (1944)
The Lost Weekend (1945)
The War of the Worlds (1953)
The Big Heat (1953)
Porgy and Bess (1959)
Allures (1961)
Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (1963)
Faces (1968)
Growing Up Female (1971)
A Computer Animated Hand (1972)
Hester Street (1975)
I, An Actress (1977)
Norma Rae (1979)
Fake Fruit Factory (1986)
Stand and Deliver (1988)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
El Mariachi (1992)
Forrest Gump (1994)

The 1950s Blacklist era of Hollywood has always been a shameful blot on American and cinematic history with dozens of citizens being called before a Congressional committee to answer questions pertaining to even the slightest affiliation to any organization its rabid members may have considered communistic. Several in the movie business refused to answer these questions and as such either faced prison time or found that they could no longer publicly work in the Hollywood studio system, studio executives too afraid of the bully power of Congress to let them work.

One such talent was screenwriter Dalton Trumbo and after he refused to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee, he was imprisoned and upon his release, found that he could not openly be credited for his work. Instead, he submitted screenplays through a “front,” who would take the credit for the work. Over the years, he has retroactively had his name restored to many of the films he wrote while in Blacklist exile. In 1975, he was awarded the Academy Award that his 1956 script The Brave One earned for Best Original Screenplay and in 1993 he was posthumously awarded a second Oscar for writing 1953’s Roman Holiday.

However, despite the awarding of the Academy Award for Roman Holiday in 1993, it took until just recently for the Writers Guild of America, West to finally recognize and restore Trumbo’s credit to the film.

The Guild made the announcement in the latest issue of their Written By magazine.

After being Blacklisted by HUAC, Dalton moved to Mexico to continue writing. His friend and fellow screenwriter Ian McClellan Hunter volunteered to be Dalton’s front and submit screenplays to the studios for him. One such script was for the romantic comedy Roman Holiday, which introduced the world to Audrey Hepburn. But when it came time to share in the glory of winning an Oscar for the film, Trumbo could not publicly receive any accolades.

(It wouldn’t be until 1960 when Otto Preminger and Kirk Douglas would publicly give Trumbo credit for writing the epics Exodus and Spartacus that the power of the Blacklist would first be challenged and ultimately swept away.)

The process to get the Writers Guild to acknowledge Trumbo’s work started in 2010 when his son Christopher joined with Hunter’s son Tim petitioned the Guild to set the record straight. The guild responded with an investigation which ultimately lead to the change in credits. The film’s writing credits now officially read “Screenplay by Dalton Trumbo and Ian McLellan Hunter and John Dighton, Story by Dalton Trumbo.”

It does appear that the Writers Guild publication is mum on the subject as to why the Guild made no apparent moves to restore Trumbo’s credit to Roman Holiday in between the time that the Academy awarded him the Oscar in 1993 and when his son Christopher approached them in 2010. But their feet dragging aside, it is nice to see that the record has finally been set straight.

Via Deadline.

You may recognize a number of members of the Broken lizard comedy troupe in the below trailer for the upcoming comedy The Babymakers, but it isn’t really one of their own films per se. Although the group’s Jay Chandrasekar is directing, the film was written outside of the group and Broken Lizard are merely serving as producers and supporting players for the story of a married man (Paul Schneider) who discovers that he is currently unable to conceive a baby with his wife (Olivia Mund), so he decides to steal back the last remaining batch of semen he donated years previously to a sperm bank. In addition to the members of Broken Lizard, though, fans may see a few familiar faces from the group’s films.

Whoever posted the trailer referred to it as a Red Band Trailer although there is no evidence that it has actually been reviewed and labeled as such by the MPAA. But there is some language and a flash or two nudity enough to at least consider the three minute clip as Not Safe For Work.

The film has been tentatively scheduled for a 2013 release, so it does seem rather odd for a trailer to be out this early.

Life Magazine has long been famous for the quality of the pictures its photographers brought back from around the world. One such photographer accompanied Humphey Bogart, Katherine Hepburn and director John Huston when they traveled to the Belgian Congo and the Ruki River to shoot the now classic The African Queen. Although some of the photos he shot were published, a number of stunning images remained in the magazine’s archives until late last week when they released 29 of them on their website on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the film’s release. Below is just a small sample of this amazing look at what has been considered one of the most grueling location shoots in cinema history. Follow the link over for more.

It’s that time of year again when studios start promoting their various films for Academy Awards consideration. And if you like to read screenplays, that means getting access to the scripts that are being pushed for possible nomination in the Best Original and Best Adapted Screenplay categories through the studios various “For Your Consideration” websites. Well, most studios, as Paramount is being a bit stingy and have restricted access to the website that holds their screenplays.

Here are links to the awards sites and screenplays that we have already found, sorted by studio. All screenplays are available in .pdf format, so you can download them to virtually any e-reader that Santa may have brought you this year.

Dreamworks Pictures
The Help
War Horse

Focus Features
Beginners
The Debt
Hanna
Jane Eyre
Pariah
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Fox Searchlight
The Descendants
Margaret
Martha Marcy Mae Marlene
Shame
Win Win

Lionsgate
Warrior

Relativity Media
Machine Gun Preacher

Roadside Attractions
Margin Call

Universal
Bridesmaids

Walt Disney/ Pixar
Cars 2

The Weinstein Company
The Artist
Coriolanus
The Iron Lady
My Week With Marilyn

1. War Horse (Touchstone, 2,376 Theaters, 146 Minutes, Rated PG-13): Steven Speilberg, like Daniel Craig, is hedging his bets this week. Like Craig, he has two films hitting theaters within days of each other.

The film is adapted from a children’s book by Michael Morpurgo, with elements from the play adapted from the same book (which is currently playing on Broadway and from what I heard is terrific in both a technical and quality perspective). The story takes place during World War I and centers on a young boy who’s favorite horse is sold to the army. He enlists in the hopes of being reunited with the animal.

2. The Darkest Hour (Summit Entertainment, 2, 324 Theaters, 89 Minutes, Rated Pg-13): This has to be counter programming at its finest. Who wants to see films about family men buying zoos or Belgian cartoon boys seeking adventure over Christmas? You want action, right? But not too dark like that one about the girl and the Swedish serial killer. You want sci-fi armageddon!

Yeah, this seems pretty darn out of place for the holiday, doesn’t it? Who knows? It might work.

The film centers on five people in Russia who fight back against an alien invasion. Why Russia? Who knows. But I’m sure the fact that Timur Bekmambetov is producing it has some role to play in the location.

Alan Taylor has received a Christmas gift from Marvel Studios in the form of the director’s chair for their upcoming Thor 2.

As reported a couple of weeks ago, Taylor was one of two directors that the studio was looking at to oversee the sequel to the one of their two hit superhero films from this past summer following the departure of their initial pick for the job, Patty Jenkins.

Taylor was in competition with Daniel Minahan for the position. Both have a number of television directorial credits on their resume including the popular HBO fantasy Game Of Thrones. But the fact that Taylor also has some feature film credits, including 1996′s Palookaville, may have given him the edge needed to win the job.

Marvel is still looking for a screenwriter to take another pass at the script already turned in by Don Payne. Among the candidates for the job are John Collee (Master And Commander: Far Side Of The World), Robert Rodat (Saving Private Ryan) and Roger Avary (co-writer with Quentin Tarantino on Pulp Fiction). All fine choices, though I have to admit that I am rather curious as to what an Avary-scripted Thor movie will be like.

Currently Marvel has Thor 2 scheduled for a Nov 15, 2013 release, six months after the release their Iron Man 3.

Via Hollywood Reporter.