On Monday, gaming fans lined up in front of electronics and gaming stores to await the midnight launch of Diablo III, Blizzard Entertainment’s latest action role-playing game in the series that kick-started the genre back in 1996. Gamers had been waiting more than 12 years since the last installment descended upon PCs and devoured the lives of millions, so what was another 12 or so hours?

People wait in line outside the Best Buy electronics store at Bay and Dundas Street in downtown Toronto at around 11:00 pm. Many near the front of the line sat patiently in their lawn chairs. The line stretched to the street corner and around the bend, slowly growing south down Bay Street.

Angelo Kiustenglou entered the line at 12 noon, fully dressed as a Necromancer from Diablo II. It’s his first-ever cosplay. Best Buy (and the Future Shop up the street) offered contests exclusive to people who made the effort to show up in costume. Plus, Angelo says, “it’s the one chance I get to stand in the middle of downtown with a suit of golden armour on.”

Angelo’s 15-year-old brother Frankie came dressed as a Barbarian, and spoke entirely “in-character” with a growl and the occasional guttural warcry. As he shouted during our short chat, passersby shouted in reply, and it became an impromptu Waaaagh!-off in the middle of the city.

When asked how the wait had been outside, shirtless no less, he described it as “painful,” although that might have had more to do with his not having the game in his hands yet more than anything.

“And I’m kind of hungry. But, you know, I’m committed here.”

This Demon Hunter was called out of line for photographs almost constantly, thanks to her fantastic costume. In case you were wondering, those are special contact lenses, not camera red-eye.

These two cosplayers were part of Best Buy’s launch party crew, which included people giving away mousepads, posters and energy drinks to those waiting in line.

First in line were Oscar “Cayo” Gonzalez, left, and Tad Yuan. If Cayo looks familiar, that’s because he was at the front of the line at the very same store at the Starcraft II midnight launch in 2010.

While both are die-hard Blizzard fans, Yuan is in line specifically for the $100 Collector’s Edition. “I just want the collector’s edition. I got a Starcraft II collector’s edition, and a WoW [World of Warcraft] collector’s edition.”

“So you’re collecting…collector’s editions?” says Cayo.

“Yeah,” replies Yuan, sheepishly.

Why do they love the Diablo games enough to wait in line for 12 hours? “The replayability, and the random nature of the game,” explains Cayo. “And the loot, man. The loot.”

Best Buy’s entrance was adorned by a display from graphics company AMD, including Diablo III trailers, mousepads, and headsets, along with the Health and Mana-coloured light-boxes.

We’re not sure why DiRT 3 was loaded on the main computer. If they were trying to promote the upcoming DiRT Showdown, it fell on deaf ears.

Outside the Future Shop at Yonge and Dundas Streets, the lineup stretched west past the future site of the Silver Snail comic store, all the way to Gould Street and Ryerson University.

A man on a bike passes by. He asks: “Yo, what’s everyone lining up for?”

“Diablo III!” answers one man.

“Oh, shiit!” the cyclist replies.

Left to right: Shanker, Tyler, Eric, George and their friend Michael (not pictured, holding the fort on the lawn chair behind them) arrived between 6 and 7 am Monday morning to make it to the front of the line. The group works at the same company. They booked off vacation time to wait in line.

They’ve been in line for the entire day, as the store opened and closed for its regular hours. “We were here before the store opened. We watched people walk to work, and then laughed at us when they were walking home from work,” said Tyler, who also plays Starcraft II competitively.

“Blizzard owns us,” said George, on behalf of the entire group of Diablo veterans. “We’ll do anything they say.” They described the plan to come to the midnight launch, including coming in a large enough group to get food while others keep their place in line.

Anton Richter showed up dressed as the archangel Tyrael, including a garb that completely obscured his face and possibly scared the heck out of a few pedestrians.

The 18-year-old was introduced to Diablo II by his father, and his love of the games grew from there. “I’ve just been a fan of Blizzard games for a while, I really like the Diablo games, and I just felt like doing something for this.”

At the new EB Games store closer to Yonge and Queen Streets, the doors were wide open well before midnight. Clerks clocked in the sales ahead of the actual launch. At 12:00 am, those who had already paid needed only to show their receipt, get a stamp and pick up the game.

The two-tiered launch system had worked out for EB in the past. According to several of the associates and supervisors working the midnight event, this allowed them to move roughly 500 copies of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 during its midnight launch last November.

The EB Games store five minutes to midnight. Fans, their receipts in hand, slowly filed to the resigter area for a second time to pick up their copies of Diablo III. They then walked up and down the streets, carrying their bags and purchases proudly.

Of course, had they known the ensuing days would be plagued with server errors and downtime, perhaps some of them might not have made the trek for the launch. But for the moment, it was a coming together of fans and die-hards for the most pre-ordered PC game of all time, and something surely to be remembered.

The TIFF Bell Lightbox has not only been a home to some of the best cinematic offerings in the city of Toronto, but also home to some truly great programming for children and young adults who will hopefully bloom into cineastes ready to take up the flag for a new generation. The Toronto International Film Festival’s old children’s festival (formerly known as Sprockets) now finds itself divided into two different age appropriate festivals, the first of which – TIFF Kids, geared towards the 3-13 demographic – kicks off at the TIFF hub on Tuesday, April 10^th and runs until Sunday, April 22^nd. (Teenagers will get their own mini-festival via the Next Wave program later this spring.)

The festival features the Canadian Premiere of Disney’s Chimpanzee on the 13th, the latest offering from their newly minted Disneynature subdivision. Directors Mark Linfield and Arthur Fothergil follow the exploits of Oscar, a young and playful primate who becomes separated from his family and learn to trust anew. The film (narrated by Tim Allen) opens formally in theatres on April 20^th to coincide once again with Disney’s traditional Earth Day releasing of nature documentaries, but festival audiences will get a nice ten day jump on the rest of the country.

Another big name title for the festival is the long anticipated effort from Aardman Animation, the creators of Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run. The Pirates! Band of Misfits 3-D finds Hugh Grant in his first ever animated feature as the head of a ragtag group of high seas bandits. Director Peter Lord will also be on hand to interact with the audience at the Canadian premiere of his film.

Other major titles from around the world included in line-up of 35 features include The Crocodiles: All for One (the third entry in the popular German series about child detectives), First Position (a documentary about child ballet dancers that was the runner-up for the Cadillac People’s Choice Award for Documentaries at last years “adult” TIFF), War of the Buttons (which recently garnered a lot of buzz from this past week’s CineFranco festival about two groups of warring children in 1960s France), and the animated Sky Force 3-D (a Hong Kong import about a group of elite fighter pilots).

In addition to the feature films and two packages of animated shorts called Loot Bags, the festival will be taking over almost the entirety of the Lightbox for various family friendly events from a Kidz Bop dance party, to the Jump Cuts Programme showcasing films made by kids and for kids in two different age brackets, to a number of free craft and learning exercises to keep the kiddies busy.

Adults will also probably get a kick out of watching two really fun TIFF initiatives. The Tutu Project, co-sponsored by the National Ballet of Canada, on April 14^th and 15^th from 10am-4pm, will allow children to colour and decorate plain, clear leader film that will be assembled together to form a tutu that will be on display at the Four Seasons Centre later this summer.

But the part that we’re most excited for would easily be the gleefully nerdy digiPlayspace that will take over the TIFF gallery with numerous interactive art installations and video games from around the world that blend cutting edge technology and innovation with good old fashioned silly fun.

For more information, a full list of features, showtimes, and tickets, visit tiff.net/tiffkids.

Entering it’s 15^th year, this year’s CineFranco film festival continues its mandate of bringing many lesser known titles in French language cinema to audiences in English speaking Canada. The Toronto based festival – which kicks off this Friday, March 23^rd and goes on until Sunday, April 1^st at the TIFF Bell Lightbox – showcases over 25 feature films and documentaies and two shorts packages to bring these films not only to a place where they might not see release under normal circumstances, but to also bring these films to students of the French language and to the city’s own Francophone population. Even if you don’t speak a word of French, don’t fret. Everything is (obviously) subtitled in English.

The festival opens with a screening of La Sacree (March 23^rd, 7pm), the story of an impotent con artist who buys a defunct brewery to help restore his virility, his relationship, and his bank account. Following that at 9:15 on opening night is director Sophie Desmarais’ Trash (Decharge), a drama about a former junkie and garbage man trying to save the life of a young woman he sees making the same mistakes he once did. Both films will feature their respective directors on hand.

Many other films throughout the week will also have special guests in attendance, including a pair of notable documentaries. Director Annabel Loyola will be on hand to talk about La Folle Enterprise (March 29^th, 6:30pm), a documentary about Jeanne Mance, the often overlooked female co-founder of Montreal. Later that same evening at 9pm, director Stéphane Goël introduces Prud’hommes, an inside look at the famed Swiss court which has previously never allowed cameras into their chambers.

On the narrative side of things, director Marc Bisaillon and members of his cast will join him for the English Canada premiere for La Verite (March 30^th, 6pm), a true life story of teenagers who accidentally cause a person’s death while vandalizing a house.

The festival’s short’s programmes can be seen over the weekend on March 24^th and 25^th at 11am and feature films about a wide range of topics from alcoholism (Patsy, screening Saturday) and commentary on our ADD viewing habits (Apersona, Saturday) to immigration (Courts metranges and Mandala My Love, both Sunday) and our relationship to first person shooter video games (Mauser, Sunday). Consider these shorts as a French buffet-styled brunch this weekend.

The festival closes on April 1^st with two films that couldn’t be any more different. The North American premiere of Les Tuche is a broad comedy about a quirky family who moves from their poor shanty town to Monaco after winning the lottery. At 6:30pm with a screening of Philippe Lioret’s Toutes nos envies, a social drama about a pair of judges struggling with monetary and emotional debts that threaten to destroy their personal and professional relationship.

Tickets can currently be purchased in person or online through the Lightbox. For more information and a full list of titles and showtimes, visit the CineFranco website.

Just after opening their brand new flagship theatre, the Hot Docs International Documentary Festival used the new/old building to announce their slate of 189 films for their 2012 festival. This year’s festival, running from April 26th to May 6th features documentaries in 11 different programs from over 50 countries.

The festival kicks off on the 26th with two screenings of American director Alison Klayman’s Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry. at the Bloor Hot Docs cinema (at 6:30pm and 9:30pm). The film takes an intimate look at Chinese activist and designer Weiwei, who served as a consultant for the design of Beijing’s 2008 Olympics and was branded by ArtForum as being the most influential designer in the world. All of this while he remains an outspoken rabble rouser in his own country and following his subsequent arrest and detainment.

The Special Presentation programme brings some nerdy appeal with the Canadian premiere of the much buzzed about Sundance hit Indie Game: The Movie. Also of note in the high profile programme are director Bart Layton’s The Imposter (about a long missing teenager with a dark and unusual secret) and Kevin McDonald’s long anticipated, lengthy, and comprehensive Bob Marley documentary, Marley.

The Canadian Spectrum features some of the country’s finest filmmakers going around the globe in search of interesting stories, including Christy Garland’s The Bastard Sings the Sweetest Song, a tale of a Guyanese man and his relationship to his alcoholic mother, and The Frog Princes, an inspiring tale of one man with down syndrome determined to pull off directing a stage production of The Frog and the Princess.

The World Showcase and International Spectrum comes stacked with some of the best documentaries from around the world with an entire third program devoted specifically to films from Southeastern Europe. There’s also the Rise Against programme for the more politcally inclined, which includes Brian Knappenberger’s look at hacktivists We Are Legion.

The more fun loving crowds will likely flock to the music and art minded Next programme and the late night Nightvision programming. The Next series features films about LCD Soundsystem (Shut Up and Play the Hits), Rick Springfield fans (An Affair of the Heart), and James Brown impersonators (Charles Bradley: Soul of America), while Nightvision includes chilling looks at Jeffrey Dahmer (Jeff) and James Franco’s inexplicable time on General Hospital (Francophrenia (Or Don’t Kill Me, I Know Where the Baby Is)).

There’s also a classic doc screening series looking at movies about making movies called Documentary Plays Itself. It’s a rare chance to watch the unmaking of Terry Gilliam’s Don Quixote in Lost in La Mancha on the big screen, alongside Phie Ambo’s Nicholas Winding Refn profile piece Gambler, and the wonderful Los Angeles Plays Itself, about how the city of angels comes across on film.

For more information on films and ticketing for on one of Toronto’s greatest festivals, head on over to hotdocs.ca.

When TIFF announced earlier this year that A Song of Ice and Fire author George R. R. Martin would be coming to the Bell Lightbox in Toronto for a speaking engagement, fans of his novels – and the HBO series that it spawned – were elated. The “In Conversation…” event sounded great, but we knew that a simple visit would not be the only thing that the film fest group had in store for Game of Thrones fans. And boy, did they not disappoint.

TIFF has teamed with HBO Canada and Random House to produce Game of Thrones: The Exhibition, a free exhibition that includes a number of props, weapons, and costumes from the HBO series, as well as a wealth of behind-the-scenes photos and video. The titular Iron Throne, focal point for all that novelized and televised drama, will anchor the exhibit. Fans of the series will even be able to sit on the throne made from the swords of the defeated.

Some of the other highlights include the red priestess Melisandre’s costume from season two, one of Daenerys’ dragon eggs, Ned Stark’s “Hand of the King” badge, and the King Robert Baratheon’s stag crown. TIFF has also announced another event featuring Martin, a “Higher Learning: Master Class” with the author, designed for academics and post-secondary students.

It sounds like TIFF has a pretty awesome slate of Game of Thrones-related programming lined up for March. Sadly, admission to the exhibition will not get you access to either of the Martin talks. The “In Conversation…” event sold out extremely quickly. Obviously the icing on the cake would be an early screening of the season two premiere at the Lightbox with Martin in attendance, but nothing like that has been announced. Oh well, a dork can dream.

Game of Thrones: The Exhibition runs March 9 – 18 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. Free tickets will be available starting February 27.

Season two of HBO’s Game of Thrones kicks off on April 1.

This morning, DC Comics officially unveiled their upcoming slate of Watchmen prequel comics. The series/graphic novel, originally created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, remains one of the most successful and acclaimed works of comic book fiction in history. Fan reaction to the notion of anything new not being created by the original team is pretty well documented: They do not want it unless it was written by Alan Moore. So DC, being clever, has decided to do what they did with Jack Kirby’s Fourth World Characters not so long ago and release new content that will not directly affect the tone or the message of the original masterpiece… or “cash cow” as it has become known as of late. To quote Alan Moore from the New York Times, “I tend to take this latest development as a kind of eager confirmation that they are still apparently dependent on ideas that I had 25 years ago…I don’t want money,” he said. “What I want is for this not to happen. As far as I know, there weren’t that many prequels or sequels to ‘Moby Dick.’”

Hilariously ironic comments from Moore aside, let’s look at these Watchmen prequels as a chance to get some truly awesome work from great creators. While I agree to a degree with Moore’s statement about the company being dependent on 25 year old ideas, I also remember the idea of playing in your friend’s sandbox. They have all the cool toys and you can use them while you’re there, but at the end of the day they have to go back into your friend’s house. Unless they sell those toys at a garage sale, your awesome adventures are solely in their hands. Which is why comic fans shouldn’t be upset about what happens to any of their beloved characters. DC owns the characters, not Alan Moore. And given the success of Zack Snyder’s movie, this move should come as no surprise.

We get to see some of the best creators on the planet (and J. Michael Stracynski) work on one of the most cherished comic properties out there. Darwyn Cooke, Amanda Conner, Jae Lee, and JG Jones are all amazing, but when was the last time you saw them complete regular series work that lasted more than three issues? Everyone wins. These are not just challenging works for the creators, but challenging works for fans, which makes Before Watchmen an exciting project to be around for.

Do I like that DC had to pull from a 25 year old story? Not really, but that’s the nature of the business. Success sells, and while yes I would love those creators to be creating new and original content for the company, I am happy that I get to see them flex their muscles with interesting characters like the Watchmen. I just hope that this does not turn out to be like the disaster that was the All-Star Line.

What say you? Leave a comment below or share this in the social media realm.

BEFORE WATCHMEN includes:

RORSCHACH (4 issues) – Writer: Brian Azzarello. Artist: Lee Bermejo
MINUTEMEN (6 issues) – Writer/Artist: Darwyn Cooke
COMEDIAN (6 issues) – Writer: Brian Azzarello. Artist: J.G. Jones
DR. MANHATTAN (4 issues) – Writer: J. Michael Straczynski. Artist: Adam Hughes
NITE OWL (4 issues) – Writer: J. Michael Straczynski. Artists: Andy and Joe Kubert
OZYMANDIAS (6 issues) – Writer: Len Wein. Artist: Jae Lee
SILK SPECTRE (4 issues) – Writer: Darwyn Cooke. Artist: Amanda Conner

Nicolas Coppola began his career with bit parts in his uncle’s 80s output like Rumble Fish and Peggy Sue Got Married, but eventually took a stage name to avoid familial connections. Like virtually every young actor in the 80s, he starred in a high school rom-com. His assignment in the cornball genre was Valley Girl (screening January 28^th at 10pm), a film that, particularly in hindsight, is a campy delight. These days, Cage can chew enough scenery at will to turn a bland role into a hilarious lunatic, but was a little more controlled back then. He developed a reputation as a nutso character actor before audiences got used to his schtick. He managed to find a few movies suited to his magically misplaced intensity like the Coen Brothers’ live-action cartoon Raising Arizona (still his best movie in a conventional sense, screening February 25^th at 10pm), David Lynch’s perverted fairytale Wild At Heart (February 11, 10pm), and the so insane you have to see-it-to-believe it Vampire’s Kiss (April 7, 10pm, the only movie in the line up in which he eats a live cockroach).

People who followed Cage’s development from the beginning knew the man was a titanic force of overacting at the time, but he plunked together enough prestigious projects amongst the silly movies that he also had some serious critical appreciation brewing. That peaked with an Oscar win in 1995 for Leaving Las Vegas. Now, when any actor picks up that trophy, they briefly become in control of their own destiny in La-La Land. While most mortals would try to turn that opportunity into a string of prestigious roles, little Nicky went another route. Unlike the rest of the world, Cage saw himself as an action star and within two years unleashed The Rock (February 4, 10pm), Con Air (February 18, 10pm), and Face/Off (March 3, 10pm) onto the world. They were all monster hits and suddenly Cage was a superstar. While all three of those movies were pretty damn great, Con Air holds special distinction. That tale of a renegade plane full of prisoners is one of the funniest movies of the 90s. Every scene is either deliberately or indeliberately hilarious. With Cage hysterically miscast as a spurned former army officer with fists classified as lethal weapons, long stringy locks of hair that defied the realities of a receding hairline, and a smooth Southern drawl, it kicked the camp phase of his career into high gear.

Yep, two years after Oscar glory, Cage was playing such absurd roles with a ludicrous level of commitment that brought him into William Shatner territory. It was never 100% clear if he was doing it on purpose, but given how hysterical he could be in flicks like Brian DePalma’s Snake Eyes (March 17, 10pm the only film that allows Cage to overact for thirteen unbroken minutes in a luscious tracking shot) it didn’t matter. As one of the biggest movie stars on the planet, Cage had the right to go insane and thankfully did it onscreen as well as off. He managed to take his screaming shenanigans to new heights in The Wicker Man (March 10, 10pm), a film that bombed theatrically, but soon became a viral video phenomenon with all it’s bee-stinging, lady-punching glory and of course, that goddamn honey.

Critical opinion seemed to wane on Cage during this period, but he popped up with a few surprises. First there was the Spike Jonze/Charlie Kaufman oddity Adaptation (March 24, 10pm) in which he gave an excellent performance as the neurotic/wild man Kaufman twins (perhaps because he finally got to co-star with his favorite actor). Then came his amazing collaboration with Werner Herzog on the bizarro sequel/remake Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call: New Orleans (March 31, 10pm). Cage’s performance as an out-of-control cop for Herzog took his manic insanity to heights I doubt even he dreamed possible. The dark comedy was so hilarious that it seemed to suggest Cage was in on the joke and deliberately stepped over-the-line in some of his most reviled works. Granted, some of the unfortunate flicks that followed may have put that theory into question, but the Nicolas Cage crap-shoot is part of the fun of following his career. Every time you buy a ticket to ride Cage train, you have an equal shot of seeing the best or worst movie of the year (okay, maybe not equal, but he does make some gems).

The question that has filled many a geeky message board remains, is Nicolas Cage a good actor or a bad actor? I can’t pretend to know the answer, but I would respond with a resounding, “who cares?” This is a man who has provided us with some of the best and worst performances of the last thirty years. Every time he swaggers onto a screen a little tired and a little wired, you can guarantee to be entertained. Frankly, what more could you want from a movie star? Cage may run the gamut from gold to shit in a single scene at times, but he could never be accused of being boring. With Toronto’s million dollar movie Mecca offering hours of Cagey goodness over the couple months, it’s a good time to be a cinephile with a sweet tooth for trash and the perfect way to kill time before the next Nic Cage epic is released on the usual three-month cycle.

Bangkok Dangerous: The Cinema of Nicolas Cage kicks off January 28 at 10:00 PM with Valley Girl.

Related video: Nicolas Cage Losing His Shit

The nominees for this year’s Can-Oscars, better and more formally know as the Genie Awards (now entering its 32nd year of existence), have been announced, and while there aren’t necessarily many surprises in what’s included there’s always room to complain about it.

Leading the pack with 13 nominations, including nods for best picture and director, is Quebecois director Jean-Marc Vallee’s Café de Flore, a mind bending and somewhat divisive journey through sight, sound, and the lives of a modern day divorced jet setting DJ and a 1960s French single mother trying to raise a son with Down syndrome. The film, which was also recently named to TIFF’s Canada’s Top Ten, also scored notices for supporting actress Vanessa Paradis, supporting actor Marin Gerrier, and for Vallee’s original screenplay, amongst a slew of technical notices.

Following close behind with 11 nominations was the arguably not all that Canadian A Dangerous Method. While directed by stalwart director David Cronenberg (who is also up for best director alongside Vallee for another best picture nominee), the film features only some Canadian talent in front of and behind the camera and was largely filmed and financed in Europe. Also receiving nominations for the film are actors Viggo Mortensen and Michael Fassbender for their work as scholarly rivals Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, respectively.

Joining Café de Flore and Dangerous Method in the race for Best Picture are the heartbreaking TIFF 2011 Best Canadian Feature Monsieur Lazhar, the crowd pleasing Quebecios surrogate father slacker comedy Starbuck, and, somewhat surprisingly, last summer’s Rachel Weisz starring political thriller The Whistleblower.

While four of the five nominees for best picture also secured spots for their directors, Starbuck director Ken Scott found his place in the category taken by first time feature director Steven Silver for his work on the photojournalist drama The Bang Bang Club. While not up for a best picture nomination, Silver’s film also received notices for Vancouver’s Taylor Kitsch for best supporting actor and for his adapted screenplay from Greg Marinovich and Joao Silva’s best selling book.

Possibly the most glaring omissions from the best picture category belong to Nathan Morlando’s well received debut feature Edwin Boyd, about the famed Toronto bank robber and folk hero, and Sarah Polley’s latest film, Take This Waltz. While Morlando was even shut out for his work on Boyd’s screenplay, lead actor Scott Speedman, supporting actor Kevin Durand, and supporting actress Charlotte Sullivan were all recognized for their efforts.

Polley’s film, on the other hand, which still doesn’t open for a couple of months, seems to be losing a lot of its curiosity since TIFF with only two nominations: one for lead actress Michelle Williams and the other for makeup.

Outside the margins of the major categories, the fight for Best Documentary Feature looks to be a very strong one with Jay Cheel’s delightfully funny Beauty Day going head to head with Julia Ivanova’s indelibly powerful Family Portrait in Black and White. That’s to say nothing of the political intrigue of The Guantanamo Trap, David York’s stellar Wiebo’s War, and Isabelle Lavigne’s La Nuit. Despite the star power in the other categories, the documentary contingent holds the greatest number of “must see” films. Any one of these five could’ve had a chance at besting some of the actual best picture nominees. This might be the most interesting category to see play out of the night.

The 32nd annual Genie Awards will air on CBC on March 8th. For a full list of nominees, head to genieawards.ca.

Trent Reznor and his Nine Inch statue

Of course with Spielberg releasing two films this year we got two scores from the legendary John Williams, at least one of which he’ll surely see a nomination for. Considering that critics can’t seem to find enough top 10 lists to put The Artist on, a film in which the score makes up the entire soundscape, Ludovic Bource will likely see a nomination along with many of the other artists who worked on this film.  Fincher’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo would have been unwatchable without the score provided by last year’s winners Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, so we should expect to see their names on the nomination list again this year. Another safe bet would be Canada’s own Howard Shore for his work on Hugo. Since James Horner and Hans Zimmer don’t seem to be in the running this year, I can only confidently predict 4/5 of the nominations (assuming Williams only gets one), that being said I’m gonna throw established composer Thomas Newman’s name out there for The Help. So what do you think, did I nail it?

Danny Elfman is another vet whom people love, but since the films he provided scores for this year (Real Steel and Restless) probably won’t show up in many other categories, his chances for recognition diminish. I don’t know why, that’s just how the Academy rolls.

Confirmed guests include Paul McGillion (Stargate: Atlantis, Star Trek), Eisner Award Hall of Fame writer Marv Wolfman (DCU Online, Crisis on Infinite Earths), and artists Mike Deodato Jr. (Amazing Spider-Man, Wonder Woman), John McCrea (“Hitman, Transmetropolitan) and Barry Kitson (Uncanny X-Force, FF”). More guest announcements are sure to be made over the coming months.

“Wizard World Toronto Comic Con has grown tremendously in its first two years, making this move to the Metro Toronto Convention Center a natural,” said John Macaluso of the Wizard World Board of Directors. A larger venue with the more convenient and accessible location? This move sounds like a win-win for both Wizard World and Canadian convention goers. Dork Shelf will be there with bells on. And no, that doesn’t mean we’re dressing up like Khal Drogo.

The 2012 Wizard World Toronto Comic Con is set to take place April 14-15 at the MTCC. More information here.

The Toronto After Dark Film Festival has announced the first wave of feature films slated for this year’s event. The Canadian genre fest features some of the best and most off-beat horror, sci-fi, action and cult cinema from around the world. Some of the highlights from the recent announcement include creature wrestling feature Monster Brawl, Canadian splatterfest Father’s Day, claustro-pocalyptic The Divide, full-throttle anime Redline and horror anthology The Theatre Bizarre.

The sixth annual edition of After Dark has a new date and a new venue, a move that will likely please fans. TADFF will officially return to the Halloween season this year, running from October 20-27. The fest has also left its long time home at the Bloor Cinema (due to ongoing renovations) in favour of the entirely suitable Toronto Underground Cinema.

You can get a taste of this year’s offerings in this awesome sizzle reel put together by Toronto After Dark.

Toronto After Dark 2011 runs October 20th – 27th. For ticket info and to see the full list of announced films, be sure to visit the official Toronto After Dark Film Festival website here.

King’s Bounty: Legions, the Facebook free-to-play version of 1C Company’s role-playing game, opened the doors to its beta realm this week. From early impressions of Legions, the free browser-based version proved surprisingly robust, and might be the best video game using the Facebook platform to date.

In King’s Bounty, you build an army to serve local barons who need bandits scattered or library basements cleaned of spiders (seriously). The format closely resembles the Heroes of Might & Magic games: battles are fought on a grid, and your units’ numbers are just as important as their current HP level – the more troops you have per unit, the stronger they are. The battles are faithfully recreated in Legions, with most music, graphics, and abilities transferred over. Magic is pared down to single-use scrolls instead of the large list of spells that were upgradable using magic crystals, but you’ll find the battles simple enough that you don’t need them to simply survive. In fact, the difficulty curve has been pared down overall, which is a relief considering the sadistic nature of Armored Princess especially.

Some Facebook-centric features, such as sending your troops on patrol to earn experience points while you’re offline, have been added, but micro-transactions and connecting with friends for the sake of progress are thankfully pushed to the periphery. There’s even a full-screen function to help those in denial that they’re even playing on the same platform as Farmville.

The trademark King’s Bounty humour seems intact, as well. My training session was run by a stern man named Instructor Paincraft, and the first main storyline quest was called Very Important Secret Assignment (capital letters are crucial here). No zombie wives yet, although I hold out hope.

King’s Bounty: Legions is playable on Facebook right now! 2009′s KB: The Legend and its expansion/sequel KB: Armored Princess are available on Steam for PC.