Stephen Colbert was called, “The Biggest Tolkien geek I’ve ever met” by Peter Jackson apparently (according to Colbert), and Colbert has indeed had a self professed life-long obsession with the good folks of Middle Earth. So naturally, Peter Jackson gave him a role in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

What’s that? You didn’t see him in the film, you say? Ahh my young padawan… er… hobbit (wrong franchise), that’s because you were not looking closely enough. In fact, apparently Colbert’s whole family appears in the film, though we’ve only spotted Stephen himself for sure.

Don’t believe me?…

Top ten film lists are hard. I started this article with the intent of making a top ten list. I failed. Every single film on this list deserves to be in my top ten. But, there are twenty. What to do? Hey, maybe I just won’t be boxed into the mold of a top ten (or maybe I don’t have the discipline to trim my list, whatever). Maybe I’ll write a top twenty list instead. So that’s what I’m doing.

One item of disclosure however. I have not seen all the films that there were to see this year. Some of the films I didn’t get to see were films I wanted of almost felt I needed to. Some were not. But I…

Joss Whedon has apparently decided he can’t fool audiences twice. While he neglected to even mention Don Cheadle‘s War Machine character in The Avengers, the character had a much expanded role in Iron Man 3. That means it’s now believed Cheadle’s Col. James ‘Rhodey’ Rhodes, also known as War Machine and Iron Patriot, will play a role in Whedon’s 2015 sequel Avengers: Age of Ultron.

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UPDATE: Hitfix confirms, saying “Col. Rhodes, aka War Machine, has a key role in the conflict with Ultron that is the main focus of the sequel.”

The question then becomes, what role will Rhodes have in…

In yet another hilarious Honest Trailer video, the guys over at Screen Junkies on YouTube have done it again with their Honest Trailer for the first film in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit film trilogy, An Unexpected Journey. This is in anticipation of the second film in the trilogy, The Desolation of Smaug, which is set to release in theaters later this week. (I’ll personally be seeing a double-feature showing of both films on Thursday night!)

Both TJ and I have made our opinions on this film quite clear in various episodes of The MovieByte Podcast, but in case you haven’t listened (shame on…

For this Trekkie, there’s not much better of a way to get into the Christmas Spirit than with Captain Picard and other members of the crew singing Let it Snow! This is quite creative and clever.

Also the video game he mentions he’s working on at the end of the video looks pretty cool. I’d definitely love to check it out. Very clever.

Well, today brings with it a couple more updates starting with Vulture confirming that Bryan Singer will be back in the director’s chair for ‘Apocalypse,’ but perhaps more intriguingly, word has already surfaced on how it links to “X-Men: Days Of Future Past.” Warning: MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD.

The guys over at FirstShowing got their hands on a recent draft of ‘Days Of Future Past,’ and not only does it reveal who will be playing the entity known as En Sabah Nur, but also that the movie will tie directly to ‘Apocalypose’ in the following manner. Again, big spoilers ahead— here’s what…

“X-Men: Apocalypse” will hit theaters on May 27, 2016, thus kicking off over two years of rumors, speculation and more even before ‘DOFP’ has hit theaters. Hooray? No word on who will direct, but with Bryan Singer getting in on the announcement action it’s probably safe to say he’ll be at least producing if not more.

I’m just excited that there’s an announcement for a film that is not in 2015! WooHoo!

And too, I’m incredibly excited for any X-Men films that Bryan Singer is involved with. My wife ventured out on Black Friday because there was some stuff she needed and she wanted to get…

It turns out that the passionate kiss between Thor and Jane during the end credits of “Thor: The Dark World” wasn’t faked—because Chris Hemsworth, the actor behind the God of Thunder, was actually kissing his real-life wife, not his on-screen love interest played by Natalie Portman.

In an interview with the New York Daily News, Portman revealed that the scene was shot after primary filming had ended, and due to a scheduling conflict, the actress wasn’t able to make it back on set to reprise her role as Jane Foster. That’s when Hemsworth’s wife, actress Elsa Pataky, stepped in.

Even though…

I love these sorts of things, especially for films that were as good as Thor: The Dark World. And I always love seeing/hearing about those things that we think are probably digital, but are actually practical effects. Obviously a film like Thor: The Dark World is going to have a lot of digital stuff going on but I’m a firm believer that the more actual, real practical effects and real things we can have on film, the better the film will be. Yes, we’re getting to the point where we can digitally recreate people, but even so we can’t quite make them look real yet. I have no doubt that we’ll get…