James Cameron’s Avatar has been collecting awards by the bucketful, and the film landed yet another six trophies over the weekend when it dominated the Visual Effects Society’s eighth annual VES Awards.

The Oscar-nominated film scored nominations in 11 categories and won six of them, including the prize for Best Single Visual Effect of the Year and Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Feature.

Cameron also received an award – the VES Lifetime Achievement Award – during the sceremony.

Other winners included Sherlock Holmes, Up and District 9.

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24: The Movie has moved a step closer to reality after 20th Century Fox drafted in Billy Ray (Flightplan, State of Play) to write the script.

With the latest day in Jack Bauer’s life currently being played out on TV screens around the world it isn’t yet known whether Day 8 will mark the end of the hugely successful series but a decision on its future is likely to be made in the next few weeks.

However, the man who plays Jack – Kiefer Sutherland – is keen to make the jump from small screen to large with the series and Variety reports that although still in its infancy, the project’s future depends on the decision surrounding the TV show.

This means that even if Fox decide not to run with Season 9, there is still the chance it could appear elsewhere and until all options are exhausted, the film version will continue in the pipeline.

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Drew Barrymore's Facebook Status

A recent Mashable post by columnist Stan Schroeder showed a Facebook status update in which the actress showed her relationship status as ‘engaged’. However, other sources online claim the actress is not ready to tie the knot, so who is right?

As Stan points out in his article, social networks are becoming the first point of contact for an increasing number of celebrities, and it is entirely believable that the evergreen Ms Barrymore has updated her status before informing showbiz sources in the mainstream media.

Or is it another case of hacked Facebook account?

(Image via Mashable)

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SciFiNow has been running a poll in recent months to discover the greatest sci-fi film of all time. With industry writers having whittled the list down to a top 10, the magazine has opened the final stages to the public to choose the best.

The nominations, in no particular order, are:

• Alien (1979 – Ridley Scott)
• ET: The Extra Terrestrial (1982 – Steven Spielberg)
• 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968 – Stanley Kubrick)
• Planet Of The Apes (1968 – Franklin J. Schaffner)
• Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977 – George Lucas)
• Blade Runner (1982 – Ridley Scott)
• Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991 – James Cameron)
• Forbidden Planet (1956 – Fred M. Wilcox)
• Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980 – Irvin Kershner)
• The Matrix (1999 – The Wachowski Brothers)

My own personal favourite, ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’ – the 1951 original, not the Keanu Reeves turkey – didn’t make the final cut. Was it even considered?

There are a few glaring omissions I would have classed above some of those which made the final ten.

Let us know your favourite sci-fi films in the comments, or your thoughts on the top ten list above! Or, to cast your vote in the poll, you can do so via email, through the comments thread on the SciFiNow website or on SciFiNow’s forum.

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The ‘Conan The Barbarian’ remake will feature Jason Momoa – Ronon Dex in Stargate: Atlantis – in the lead role.

An article in Digital Spy claims the Hawaiian-born actor will step into the leather-skin boots which made a global star of Arnold Schwarzenegger after shooting test scenes with the film’s director, Marcus Nispel.

Momoa, who has a part in HBO’s ucoming series ‘Game of Thrones’ beat off ‘Twilight’s Kellan Lutz and Jared Padalecki (Supernatural) for the role and will begin filming next month in Bulgaria.

In other ‘Conan’ news, Latino Review claim Mickey Rourke has been offered the role of Corin – Conan’s father.

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George Lucas’ ‘Star Wars’ trilogy – the original one, not the prequel trilogy – has been remastered and re-released almost as often as Slade’s ‘Merry Christmas Everybody’ and now Lucas wants to release it again – this time in 3D.

Totalfilm.com report that Lucas has apparently spent several years looking for the best 3D conversion method, but up until now technology has scuppered any plans to remaster the film in 3D. However, with the release of James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ Lucas believes his vision for Star Wars could now become reality.

“I can appreciate what he [Cameron] went through to do it,” said Lucas. “[I'm] happy it’s so successful, and worked very well in 3D. [I] haven’t been a big fan of 3D, but that movie definitely improves in 3D.”

“We’ve been looking for years and years and years of trying to take Star Wars and put it in 3D. But, (the) technology hasn’t been there. We’ve been struggling with it, but I think this will be a new impetus to make that happen.”

While the thought of Luke, Han, Chewie, Obi-Wan and the rest might sound exciting; equally the thought of Jar-Jar Binks in 3D, however, doesn’t.

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Hollywood veteran Dennis Hopper’s dying wish is to be divorced from his wife of 14 years.

Hopper, who has starred in more films that you could shake a stick at, has reportedly less than a month to live after being diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Court reports in America show that 73-year old Hopper has filed for divorce from Victoria Duffy, 41. Hopper has offered to pay her support but wants to share legal and physical custody of Galen, their six-year old daughter.

Hopper’s fortune is believed to be at the crux of the divorce, after Duffy discovered her inheritance from Hopper would not pay out any more than her prenuptial agreement according to a report published in the Daily Mail.

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Tobey Maguire has announced he is quitting as Spiderman and the actor will not be reprising the role of Peter Parker/Spiderman. He follows director Sam Raimi in quitting the Spiderman franchise after clashing with the film’s producers over the script for the fourth film.

Sony Pictures, who are making the movie insist that despite losing both Raimi and Maguire, the project will go ahead but the release date has been pushed back to 2012, instead of next year as was originally planned.

A Peter Parker prequel has been mooted as an alternative, which would depict the life of the Daily Bugle photographer as a teenager, which would mean no casting slot for Mary Jane Watson – played by Kirsten Dunst.

Would a prequel detailing Peter Parker’s life before he became Spiderman work? Who will replace Maguire as the new Spiderman? Let us know in the comments…

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A series of administrative blunders by the UK government has resulted in the revelation that the 1984 Video Recordings Act was never officially sanctioned by the EU.

Although the law, which prevented the sale or rental of age-sensitive materials such as video games, films and DVDs to minors, was passed by the British parliament it was never formally sanctioned by the European Union – something which has to happen in order to be passed as official law. Officials in the Home Office had failed to notify the European Commission of the existence of the Act as they were required to do so under an EU directive.

The oversight by the government only came to light when the law was reviewed during plans to update the law to introduce a new classification system for video games, although it had been missed on two previous reviews in 1993 and 1994.

Barbara Follett, Minister for Culture and Tourism, is quoted in The Times, saying: “Unfortunately, the discovery of this omission means that, a quarter of a century later, the Video Recordings Act is no longer enforceable against individuals in United Kingdom courts.”

The blunder means retailers can now legally sell age-limited material to minors without fear of prosecution while the loophole remains open. However those who have previously been prosecuted under the act will remain convicted with no right to have their penalties/fines or sentences reduced. In the meantime, Police and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs are to be told to stop bringing any prosecutions until the Government brings in emergency legislation to re-enact the 1984 Video Recordings Act.

Until then people will be able to sell videos, including violent and pornographic ones, to under-18s without fear of prosecution.

As the squeaky presenter explains at the start of the clip the movie is based around events that happen after mankind forces some insectoid aliens to stay on Earth. A government agent is exposed to their bio-technology and then more aliens show up. What could possibly go wrong?