MTV chatted with Avatar star Stephen Lang about playing warlord Khalar Singh in the upcoming Conan movie.

Clark Kent says: More on his thoughts after the jump.

VIA SHH:

He specifically mentioned how the movie would incorporate supernatural elements. You can check out the interview segment using the player below!

The Marcus Nispel-film also stars Jason Momoa, Rachel Nichols, Bob Sapp, Leo Howard, Ron Perlman, Said Taghmaoui and Rose McGowan.

Clark Kent says: Check out what Khalar has to say below and share your thoughts in the comments section:

Clark Kent says: The reviews are already coming in on M. Night’s latest attempt at getting back his movie street cred — but you can wait till Friday to see if it’s truly worth your $30 bucks (if you get snacks). See an exclusive clip from ‘The Last Airbender’ after the jump.

VIA BB:

The clip is exclusive to Facebook and has been received very well by fans, as it offers a sneak preview at a couple of the most anticipated characters from the movie. It also includes a sneak peak at Momo, a much-adored flying lemur that fans have been unable to view until now.

Clark Kent says: Facebook fans and foes alike — enjoy the clip by clicking right HERE! Will you be going to see if Shyamalan can get his chops back? He’s already catching flak about his casting. See what he has to say about it below:

MTV has confirmed a Latino Review scoop that Avatar star Stephen Lang will play the villain Khalar Singh in director Marcus Nispel’s Conan.

VIA SHH:

“I’ve accepted the role of Khalar Singh,” he said. “I have no idea how I’m going to do it. First I’m going to find out how I’m going to sound. I’m going to get back on a Mongolian pony and ride like the wind. I’m going to flash my scimitar. I’m going to cut the nuts off Conan and his father.”

A casting breakdown described the character as follows:

Khalar Singh is in his 40s to 50s, Asian or Middle Eastern, Central Asian, Mongol, Turkish, or Persian, open to all ethnicities; commanding in size and manner, a warlord and formidable warrior, brilliant, cruel, weathered and tanned by the many campaigns he has waged and won. He is driven in his quest to find the Queen of Acheron and has been building an empire to do so.

His goal is to find the Queen whose blood will bring life to the demonic minions of Acheron while making himself king of this hellish power. With this power, Khalar will protect his legacy against the onslaught of master sorcerer, Thoth-Amon so that his weak son, Fariq may rule after his death. While riding into a Cimmerian village to recruit his old comrade, Corin, his large collection of mercenaries slaughters them to the last soul when Corin refuses to join them. The village’s only survivor was young Conan. When Khalar’s search has finally narrowed to the likely discovery of the queen at a monastery of female monks, he also learns Conan is older and hungry for revenge…

Clark Kent says: ‘Conan’ stars Jason Momoa as the legendary barbarian. Stay tuned as more develops on this!

Rumours that firmware update that will make PS3 fully 3D-ready is just around the corner.

VIA MCVUK:

A firmware update that will transform Sony’s PS3 into a full 3D-gaming capable machine will arrive on June 10th, according to rumours reported by TheSixthAxis.

Once updated, consoles will be able to display compatible Blu-Ray films in 3D as well as the upcoming generation of 3D games, though users will need a compatible TV (which will begin arriving at UK retail in June) and a pair of compatible 3D specs.

What certainly is true is that debug PS3 consoles – the units sent to developers and some journalists – already offer a 3D option in their menus.

To date Ubisoft’s Avatar is the only game to offer a 3D mode, though the upcoming Batman: Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition will also offer a limited selection of 3D levels.

If the technology catches on beyond the current enthusiasm being shown by cinemagoers, expect a few more 3D-compatible titles to arrive on shelves this Christmas.

Clark Kent says: If Sony has an extra 3-D Bravia it’s not using, I’d be glad to take it off their truck – er, I mean hands [laughs].

If you haven’t noticed, there’s a huge surge at the box office for stereoscopic 3D movies these days. Gone are the days of migraine-inducing blue and red 3D glasses and instead, movie goers are enjoying the likes of James Cameron’s Avatar in spectacular 3D. Sony’s prepping a free firmware update to enable 3D processing on the PlayStation 3 which according to PCWorld will be made available in the near future.

VIA GS:

Clark Kent says: Truly a weird time we’re living in I believe, but check out the excerpt and share your thoughts in the comments section:

“PS3 users worldwide will only need to upgrade the PS3 system software via the internet and there is no need to repurchase the system to enjoy 3D games,” said Nainan Shah, vice-president of new platform, planning and development at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, the branch of Sony under which the PlayStation falls.”

Other 3D services from the likes of the UK’s Sky TV are prepping to launch over the next few months too. However, the rather large catch is that you’ll need to buy a 3D Ready TV to be able to take advantage this new tech. And those won’t be coming cheap.

Art direction guru Roger Christian (Star Wars, Alien) has revealed to Shadowlocked.com that the upcoming Alien prequel/reboot will be comin’ atcha in 3D.

VIA E:

“Ridley’s doing the next Alien in 3D,” he says. But there’s more: “Ridley told me some of his ideas. He has a very clear understanding of where this should go. They kind of stopped dead one of the greatest horror franchises there’s ever been, and it had legs to go on. So I’m hoping he’ll revive another three.”

Shadowlocked made much of that “another three” business, although it sounds to us as if a trilogy is a casual hope on the part of the speaker, and not a plan by Sir Ridders. But whatever, whether or not you still think 3D is a gimmick, the prospect of the technology being put to use on the Alien is an enticing one. For the most part we’ve had a big, bright, colourful 3D so far. We’ve certainly not yet seen it used on a Giger-ish nightmare.

As a tentpole sci-fi 3D project, Alien 5 has the potential to be a sort of Avatar in negative. The immersive possibilities that come with the perspective depth of the new 3D, as well as the boo! potential of the audience getting a facehugger in the face, has got us very interested indeed.

Christian isn’t actually involved in the film (yet), but says “if ever I went back to designing, the only film I would ever want to design is Alien, if Ridley re-did it,” which sounds a bit like an application. “3D is brilliant for horror,” he concludes.

Clark Kent says: What do you think? Is 3-D brilliant for horror? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

Avatar producer Jon Landau revealed to MTV that director James Cameron is going to write a prequel novel that may hit stores by the end of the year.

VIA CS:

“It would be something that would lead up to telling the story of the movie, but it would go into much more depth about all the stories that we didn’t have time to deal with — like the schoolhouse and Sigourney [Weaver's character] teaching at the schoolhouse; Jake on Earth and his backstory and how he came here; [the death of] Tommy, Jake’s brother; and Colonel Quaritch, how he ended up there and all that,” Landau explained.

Landau added that other mediums could also be used to tell the stories that are set before the movie opens and after. “There might be opportunities in publishing to tell some of the backstory, tell some of the Earth war stories, what went on in Jake’s life before the movie. And we’d have that lead up to the sequel that might take place on Pandora several years after our movie closed.”

Clark Kent says: If ‘Avatar’ the book can pull in the type of revenue that the movie did, then someone give this guy a Nobel prize. What do you think?

James Cameron’s record-breaking blockbuster Avatar, plus the war films The Hurt Locker and Inglourious Basterds led the way at Tuesday (February 2) morning’s announcement of the nominees for the 82nd Academy Awards.

Clark Kent says: Who will win? Who will walk out? Who will tune in? All this and more after the jump.

VIA HF:

With the Academy Awards expanding its Best Picture field to 10 nominees this year, the expectation was that a few more popular hits would enter the mix, but “Avatar,” on its way to becoming the top-grossing film of all time by most non-inflation-adjusted measures, would have made the short-list anyway. Cameron’s film is joined by hits including “Inglourious Basterds,” “District 9,” “The Blind Side” and “Up.” Rounding out the list are “An Education,” “The Hurt Locker,” “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire,” “A Serious Man” and “Up in the Air.”

While the Best Picture field grew to 10, the Best Director field stayed steady at five, with Cameron, Kathryn Bigelow (“Hurt Locker”), Quentin Tarantino (“Inglourious Basterds”), Lee Daniels (“Precious”) and Jason Reitman (“Up in the Air”) earning nominations.

Interestingly, of the 10 Best Picture nominees, eight also earned screenplay nominations, with the only exceptions being “The Blind Side” (bumped in the Adapted Screenplay field for “In the Loop”) and “Avatar” (bumped in Original Screenplay for “The Messenger”).

“Avatar” still has plenty to be happy for on Tuesday, with nine nominations in total, also picking up nods for art direction, cinematography, editing, original score, sound editing and mixing, plus visual effects.

That left “Avatar” with nine nominations total, tied with “The Hurt Locker” for most of the year. “Inglourious Basterds” was close behind with eight nominations.

In addition to the Best Picture, directing and screenplay nods, “The Hurt Locker” was recognized for editing, sound editing and mixing, score, cinematography and leading man Jeremy Renner.

Joining Renner in the Best Actor field are Jeff Bridges (“Crazy Heart”), George Clooney (“Up in the Air”), Colin Firth (“A Single Man”) and Morgan Freeman for “Invictus.”

Although “Invictus” missed out on an expected Best Picture nod, it also got a nomination for Matt Damon in the Best Supporting Actor field, where he’s joined by “Basterds” star Christoph Waltz, Stanley Tucci (“The Lovely Bones”), Woody Harrelson (“The Messenger”) and Christopher Plummer (“The Last Station”).

Plummer’s “The Last Station” co-star Helen Mirren is up for Best Actress against Gabourey Sidibe (“Precious”), Carey Mulligan (“An Education”) and favorites Sandra Bullock (“The Blind Side”) and Meryl Streep (“Julie & Julia”).

Leading the way in the Supporting Actress category is award season juggernaut Mo’Nique (“Precious”), “Up in the Air” co-stars Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick, last year’s winner Penelope Cruz (“Nine”) and “Crazy Heart” co-star Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Clark Kent says: Stay tuned as I’ll be doing my Oscar Winner predictions here soon!

Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win the DGA award for Feature Film Directing since the awards were launched in 1948.

Clark Kent says: She didn’t just only beat her ex-booski, James Cameron… Find out who else was on the list after the jump.

VIA JB:

Bigelow beat out some big names in the category including her ex-husband James Cameron and Quentin Tarantino (Jason Reitman and Lee Daniels rounded out the nominees). According to attendees, Bigelow’s win was met with rapturous applause at the ceremony, including Cameron who was expected to be her closest competitor.

The DGA awards are almost always a correct predictor of who will win the Oscar with only six exceptions in its 60-plus years. Should she continue her success through the Academy Awards she would also be the first woman to win the Oscar for Best Director (Sofia Coppola, Jane Campion and Lisa Wertmuller were previously nominated).

Clark Kent says: Bigelow faces her ex and Quentin Tarantino for the big prize — the Oscars. Can she become the first in a new decade of firsts? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

It’s starting to look a lot like 1998 all over again for James Cameron. The director, who’ll soon be needing a mantelpiece extension, has followed up Avatar’s Golden Globes success by winning Filmmaker of the Year at the Richard Attenborough Film Awards and looks a lot like exceeding Titanic’s mega-haul of prizes.

Clark Kent says: Be scared when the DVDs start rolling out for ‘Avatar’ — Cameron can I borrow a dollar, holmes?!

VIA E:

The awards, voted for by the UK’s regional media, also showered glory on Pixar’s Up, which won Film of the Year, and Up In The Air’s writing team of Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner, who collected Screenwriter of the Year. That singular ‘writer’ might prove contentious, we think, bearing in mind rumours of bickering over the script’s genesis.

While James Cameron’s mighty Avatar continues to serenely hoover up box-office takings and awards like some kind of giant blue hoovering thing, a high-calibre sci-fi of more modest means, Duncan Jones’ Moon, is also receiving richly-deserved awards recognition. As a possible (but sadly, unlikely) precursor to Oscar nomination, Sam Rockwell won Best Actor for his magnetic turn as lost-in-space miner Sam Bell.

Carey Mulligan, meanwhile, won Best Actress for her terrific performance as teenage ingénue Jenny in An Education, while there was a special gong for the man who gave the awards their name, Richard Attenborough, who was honoured with the modestly-titled All Time Legend award.

Clark Kent says: To see the full list of winners for the night, click on the link here!