SamRockwell

Sam Rockwell may not have gotten a fancy teaser poster for his character like Mickey Rourke did, but he's still a major bad guy in Marvel's upcoming Iron Man 2. He plays unscrupulous industrialist Justin Hammer -- sort of the anti-Tony Stark -- and the details of his involvement with the film's plot have been scarce.

Apparently, he creates an army of Iron Man-like drones to battle the hero and his new sidekick War Machine. It's not exactly a spoiler -- you can see Iron Man and War Machine fighting back-to-back against hordes of something in the trailer. Those somethings are the Hammer Drones, whose designs, as far as I know, haven't been revealed by the filmmakers.

The Hammer Drones can be seen for the first time in upcoming Iron Man 2 Mini-Mates toyline, in a slightly disproportionate form, in keeping with the line's Lego-like look. Figures.com has pictures of the first wave of Iron Man 2 Mini-Mates, which also include Pepper Potts and a cute, squatty rendition of War Machine.

Iron Man 2 arrives in theatres on May 7.

Surely we all know by now that Duncan Jones' Moon is not only a great science fiction film, but a great film, period. Moon has more on its mind than about, oh, 98% of the other films released this year (maybe even the last couple years) and it's proof that science fiction can be created on a tiny budget without looking like a Sci-Fi Channel (still refusing to call it SyFy) production. I cannot sing enough praise for Moon, but I'm preaching to the choir at this point, right? Right?

I'm surely preaching to the British Independent Film Awards, who awarded Moon with Best Film and Best Debut Director on Sunday. I can't speak to the BIFA's track record on the subject, but considering that general lack of awards recognition for genre filmmaking from any organization with the power to hand out statuettes, this should be seen as a fist-pumping, "Hell yeah!" moment of triumph for one of the best films of the year.

Will this be as high as Moon flies? As much as I support the ongoing campaign to secure Sam Rockwell a much-deserved Oscar Nomination for his work in the film, that is Moon's only shot at potential Oscar gold (and even a nomination is looking slim).We can take solace in the increasingly obvious fact that most awards are irrelevant and would rather give recognition to more "important films." You know, the ones full of racists who learn that they're terrible people and such.

In the meantime, congrats to Moon and to Duncan Jones (who has proven his talent so fully that I don't even have to mention that he is the son of David Bowie...oops) and kudos the to BIFAs for fighting the good fight in the war on bad taste.

(via Variety)

It's no secret that War Machine was going to rear his metallic, butt-kicking head in Iron Man 2 (presumably to shoot missiles at Mickey Rourke and crack wise), but now that Yahoo has debuted the first poster for the highly-anticipated film, we can stop wondering what War Machine is going to look like and start complaining about what he looks like. Such is the way of the internet!

My layman's knowledge of the Iron Man universe prevents me from going into extensive detail about this particular exoskeleton-o-destruction, but I'll go on the record with saying it looks pretty cool. Far bulkier than the sleek, agile Iron Man armor, it looks ready to karate chop it's way through a tank while on the way to throw a boat at a terrorist (and with that gatling gun arm, War Machine certainly ain't got time to bleed).

Of course, new toys and armors aside, it's important to remember that Don Cheadle will be inside the suit and unless he's murdering the British accent alongside George Clooney, Cheadle is always a joy to watch perform (I have a gut feeling that no one is going to miss Terrence Howard in the role). It's funny to think that a tentpole summer release will feature Cheadle, Robert Downey Jr., Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell all trying to destroy/one-up/defeat each other...with a cast as talented as that and with armor as cool as this, Iron Man 2 has a lot of high quality ingredients on its plate. I expect nothing less than greatness come summer 2010.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, MTV News has decided that two of the entertainers they are most grateful for are J.J. Abrams and Chris Pine for Rebooting Star Trek.

The piece asks some basic questions about the Star Trek (2009) casting and production, as well as the silly questions, including whether or not Pine has practiced his "Khan" scream. I get the feeling Pine is a fun interview. It'll be a hard read if you're on one particular side of the Trekkie/Trekker controversy, . They even go so far as to say Star Trek is now cooler than Star Wars. As much as I liked the original Star Wars trilogy, I have to say that forced to choose between the two, I'd choose Star Trek.

The thanks also include a list of other films, filmmakers, and actors MTV News is grateful for, including Sam Rockwell for Moon. It would be nice if they thanked Duncan Jones as well, but I guess we can't have everything.

By Elisabeth Rappe

I'm going to sound like a broken record with all the "Oh my gosh, he / she was so nice" remarks, but the happy truth is that all the ComicCon talent I encountered this year was ridiculously nice. Sam Rockwell was no exception. He's exactly as you think he would be: quiet, friendly, low-key. One of my finest moments was having my druthers enough to compliment him on Moon, and he was so flattered it was if he had never been complimented on it before. Call it good acting, call it being humble, whatever. He's a cool guy, and I feel so bad for being leery of him after his creepy turn in The Green Mile.

Coming up is Don Cheadle and Jon Favreau, so keep reading, they should be up by midweek.

[On whether or not it was fun to be out in Hall H and part of Iron Man 2 -- not sure which, impossible to hear. Sorry readers.]

No, it's exciting to see that trailer, you know? That's an exciting thing, because we just wrapped a week ago.

So you haven't seen dailies or anything?

No, it was really wild to see that. It was really exciting.

One of the cool things looking at this cast, and the people who are making this movie, is that everybody comes from a sort of indie background. I don't want to disparage, but it's real actors and real filmmakers working on this. Does that create a definite vibe on set, a sort of small, indie environment as a result?

It is. It really feels like you're a part of the All-Stars, you really feel like you're there to do something cool. You're right, it's not just a big studio movie with thrills and chills. It's very actor friendly, and cinematically it's just phenomenal. It's big filmmaking, and yet it is very accessible to actors in a way that independent film is. It's very actor friendly for sure. It's cool.

Read the rest at Cinematical

One of the most common complaints around Cinematical / SciFiSquad HQ has been "Hey, jerks! I don't live in New York or Los Angeles and I want to see this Moon movie you keep talking about! I love good science fiction and I want to ensure that Moon doesn't become another one of those 'great but overlooked' flicks that you love talking about so much. Jerk." So in the immortal words of Hubert Farnsworth, I say this: GOOD NEWS, EVERYONE! Moon is expanding, big time!

It's a pretty big list, so we'll tuck it away post-jump. And seriously, if you like smart, compelling science fiction and you don't think we get enough of it -- take a break from the Terminators and Transformers and go see Moon. You can thank me later.

In case you're not already aware, a very awesome (and tiny) sci-fi psychological thriller hits screens this weekend in limited release called Moon. It's only arriving in theaters in New York and Los Angeles, but it will expand to more cities in the next few weeks. (See this post for which cities and when.) In the film, Sam Rockwell stars as an astronaut nearing the end of a three-year stint working on the moon. As he makes preparations to return to earth, however, something goes terribly wrong ... and then, well, things just get freaky and fun.

Cinematical interviewed Moon director Duncan Jones earlier this week as he was getting ready to watch his first feature fly off toward movie theaters across the country -- and during that interview, we asked the man to give us his five favorite sci-fi flicks of all time. That info you can only read here (call it our first exclusive on SciFi Squad -- yay!), so check out the deets below.

After the Jump: Moon director Duncan Jones on his five favorite sci-fi films of all time ...

And speaking of Moon, our good pals at Moviefone released a brand new clip from the film today and we have it right here to show you, alongside some additional cities where the film will be expanding to real soon. I caught Moon when it premiered at Sundance, and it's certainly this year's freaky little engine that could, in terms of sci-fi movies. It's hitting theaters in between two giant sci-fi flicks in Terminator Salvation and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, but I honestly believe you true genre fans will enjoy it more than either of those two behemoths.

Without spoiling anything, Moon stars Sam Rockwell as an astronaut who's nearing the end of his three-year stint working on the moon. While making his preparations to come home, however, some really weird sh*t begins to happen ... and we'll leave it at that. Stay tuned for our upcoming interview with Moon director Duncan Jones (who's the nicest guy by the way), as well as a special surprise treat that we'll reveal within the next 24 hours.

Check out the new clip -- along with the cities the film will be expanding to -- after the jump.