SHAWSHANK REDEEMED

THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION VOTED NATION’S FAVOURITE BEST PICTURE OSCAR® SNUB IN SKY MOVIES HD POLL

Director Frank Darabont's uplifting 1994 prison drama The Shawshank Redemption starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman has been named the best Oscar nominee to miss out on the prestigious Best Picture award according to new research carried out to launch the dedicated Sky Movies Oscars® / HD channel.

Sky Movies HD asked over 1,000 film fans across the UK & Ireland to vote on the 'Best Picture' Academy Award nominees that never won the Oscar to mark the launch of the channel, which will show Oscar winners 24 hours a day from Monday 11th February through to the channel's exclusive live UK broadcast of the 85th Academy Awards® on Sunday 24th February.

The Shawshank Redemption beat the same director's 1999 adaptation of The Green Mile starring Oscar favourite Tom Hanks, pulling in 13.1% compared with the second place 10.6%. Both dramas were adapted from original material from author Stephen King.

Despite being the biggest grossing film of all time, James Cameron's 2009 3D science fiction film Avatar failed to take away the 'Best Picture' award on the night. The film was however named in third place with voters with 6.5%, followed by Steven Spielberg's 1998 acclaimed graphic World War II drama Saving Private Ryan, fourth with 5.4%.

Spielberg's globally loved 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was voted in fifth position (4.9%), edging ahead of George Lucas' original 1977 game-changer Star Wars (sixth place with 4.5%), which would go on to begin the phenomenal franchise of sequels and prequels.

The 1964 London based Disney classic Mary Poppins starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke was highly commended by the UK public who voted the film in seventh place in the list (3.7%).

The remainder of the top ten list of ‘Best Picture’ Oscar Snubs tied in eighth place were Brit director David Lean's 1965 epic romance Doctor Zhivago, Quentin Tarantino's 1994 cult mobster film Pulp Fiction and Robert Mulligan’s classic 1962 adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird, all bringing in 2.9% of the votes.

The Best 'Best Picture' Oscar Snub, as voted by the UK & Irish public for Sky Movies HD are:

1. The Shawshank Redemption (lost out to Forrest Gump in 1995) – 13.1%
2. The Green Mile (lost out to American Beauty in 2000) – 10.6%
3. Avatar (lost out to The Hurt Locker in 2010) – 6.5%
4. Saving Private Ryan (lost out to Shakespeare in Love in 1999) – 5.4%
5. E.T. the Extra Terrestrial (lost out to Gandhi in 1983) – 4.9%
6. Star Wars (lost out to Annie Hall in 1978) – 4.5%
7. Mary Poppins (lost out to My Fair Lady in 1965) – 3.7%
8. = Doctor Zhivago (lost out to The Sound of Music in 1966) – 2.9%
= Pulp Fiction (lost out to Forrest Gump in 1995) – 2.9%
= To Kill a Mockingbird (lost out to Lawrence of Arabia in 1963) – 2.9%

Director of Sky Movies Ian Lewis said, “Arguably the most prestigious accolade in the film industry, competition is fierce when it comes to the Academy Award® for Best Picture and as we’ve found even some of the nation’s best-loved movies of all time were pipped to the post in this category.

This year’s Oscars® promises yet another close race in this category and once again Sky Movies is thrilled to be bringing the ceremony exclusively to its customers live on the night. We’re also very excited that our customers can enjoy a fantastic selection of the Academy®’s most decorated movies all in one place in the lead up to the big night itself on Sky Movies Oscars® / HD, On Demand and on the move with Sky Go and Sky Go Extra.”

The Sky Movies Oscars®/HD channel line-up boasts 10 of last year’s 12 Oscar-winning feature films - including the 5-time Oscar-winning silent film sensation The Artist – as well as a vast array of previous winners including Forrest Gump, Girl, Interrupted, Philadelphia, Kramer vs. Kramer, Pulp Fiction, Boys Don’t Cry and The King’s Speech. The season will also be available On Demand and on the move with Sky Go and with the recently launched Sky Go Extra, which allows customers to download TV from Sky to watch offline, wherever they are.

The Oscars 2013: Red Carpet Live will air from 1130-0130 on Sky Living / HD and Sky Movies Oscars / HD and The 85th Annual Academy Awards will air live exclusively on Sky Movies Oscars / HD from 0130 until 0400 across Sunday 24th and into Monday 25th February.

Veto Valentine's with NOW TV

In association with

ROOFTOP FILM CLUB @ THE ROOF GARDENS, KENSINGTON

Wednesday 13th February 2013

NOW TV have teamed up with Rooftop Film Club to Veto Valentine's this year, by offering you the chance to tweet for a seat at an exclusive Anti-Valentine's Day film screening next Wednesday 13th February.

The films we’re screening are a secret and will be announced on the night. We can tell you we will be screening two awesome films from the latest and greatest catalogue at NOW TV. To give you a hint we’ve put an Anti-Valentine's collection together here.

Tickets are only available by visiting http://bit.ly/nowtvvip and guessing which of our Anti-Valentine's films we’ll be showing on the night. Tweet your answer along with #NOWTVVIP for your chance to win a pair of tickets.

We’ll be reading every tweet using the #NOWTVVIP hash tag and will be picking winners from Thursday 7th February right up until the event on 13th February. We’ve got 200 tickets to give away, so get tweeting! First tickets will go to those who answer correctly, any remaining tickets will be given away at random. Winners will be notified via Twitter.

But, have no fear. If you're not in London and you still want the chance to Veto Valentine's you can create your own Anti-Valentine's Day Film club by Tweeting to win your own mini projector and popcorn maker. Follow @confusedCoyote on Twitter to find out more...

Identity Theft

I have to say this. This film looks dreadful! However if you like the films mentioned on the poster and in the synopsis then this is the film for you.

Horrible Bosses’ Jason Bateman and Bridesmaids’ Melissa McCarthy lead the cast of Identity Thief, an all-star comedy in which a regular guy is forced to extreme measures to clear his name. With everything to lose after his identity is stolen, he’ll find out how crazed you can get trying to settle a bad credit score.

Unlimited funds have allowed Diana (McCarthy) to live it up on the outskirts of Miami, where the queen of retail buys whatever strikes her fancy. There’s only one glitch: the ID she’s using to finance these sprees reads “Sandy Bigelow Patterson"... and it belongs to an accounts rep (Bateman) who lives halfway across the U.S.

With only one week to hunt down the con artist before his world implodes, the real Sandy Bigelow Patterson heads south to confront the woman with an all-access pass to his life. And as he attempts to bribe, coax and wrangle her the 2,000 miles to Denver, one easy target will discover just how tough it is to get your name back.

In cinemas March 23, 2013

© 2013 Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved.

Olympus Has Fallen

When the White House (Secret Service Code: "Olympus") is captured by a terrorist mastermind and the President is kidnapped, disgraced former Presidential guard Mike Banning finds himself trapped within the building. As the national security team scrambles to respond, they are forced to rely on Banning's inside knowledge to help retake the White House, save the President, and avert an even bigger disaster.

Olympus Has Fallen explodes into UK cinemas April 19, 2013 from Lionsgate

The Croods get a new poster and other things

The Croods is a prehistoric comedy adventure that follows the world’s first family as they embark on a journey of a lifetime when the cave that has always shielded them from danger is destroyed. Travelling across a spectacular landscape, the Croods discover an incredible new world filled with fantastic creatures -- and their outlook is changed forever.

In cinemas March 22, 2013.

Pacific Rim gets more images

When legions of monstrous creatures, known as Kaiju, started rising from the sea, a war began that would take millions of lives and consume humanity’s resources for years on end. To combat the giant Kaiju, a special type of weapon was devised: massive robots, called Jaegers, which are controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge. But even the Jaegers are proving nearly defenseless in the face of the relentless Kaiju. On the verge of defeat, the forces defending mankind have no choice but to turn to two unlikely heroes – a washed up former pilot (Charlie Hunnam) and an untested trainee (Rinko Kikuchi) – who are teamed to drive a legendary but seemingly obsolete Jaeger from the past. Together, they stand as mankind’s last hope against the mounting apocalypse.

Ripping into UK cinemas July 12, 2013

Fast & Furious 6

The first trailer for the next instalment in the Fast & Furious series. Fast & Furious 6. I'm sure that this will get a name change closer to the release date as that happened with the last film in the series.

Vin Diesel, Paul Walker and Dwayne Johnson lead the returning cast of all-stars as the global blockbuster franchise built on speed races to its next continent in Fast & Furious 6. Reuniting for their most high-stakes adventure yet, fan favourites Jordana Brewster, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Sung Kang, Gal Gadot, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges and Elsa Pataky are joined by badass series newcomers Luke Evans and Gina Carano.

Since Dom (Diesel) and Brian’s (Walker) Rio heist toppled a kingpin’s empire and left their crew with $100 million, our heroes have scattered across the globe.  But their inability to return home and living forever on the run has left their lives incomplete. 

Meanwhile, Hobbs (Johnson) has been tracking an organisation of lethally skilled mercenary drivers across 12 countries, whose mastermind (Evans) is aided by a ruthless second-in-command revealed to be the love Dom thought was dead, Letty (Rodriguez). The only way to stop the criminal outfit is to outmatch them at street level, so Hobbs asks Dom to assemble his elite team in London. Payment? Full pardons for all of them so they can return home and make their families whole again.

Building on the worldwide blockbuster success of Fast Five and taking the action, stunts and narrative to even greater heights, Fast & Furious 6 sees director Justin Lin back behind the camera for the fourth time. He is
supported by longtime producers Neal H. Moritz and Vin Diesel, who welcome producer Clayton Townsend back to the series.

Coming to UK cinemas 2013

© 2013 Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved