Mt Baker is a ski resort in Washington which featured in the 1954 film White Christmas. Since the making of the film the lodge featured in the film has burnt down. White Christmas is one of the first film to bring skiing to the silver screen.

The Sylvester Stallone film, Cliffhanger features the Cortina ski resort but the film doesn’t feature a lot of skiing as it focuses on mountain climbing. Aptly then the film was shot on set in the Cortina d’Ampezzo area of the Dolomites, Italy. Further filming took place in Durango, Colorado. The film also features the most expensive aerial stunt ever performed during which a stuntman crossed between two planes at an altitude of 15,000 feet (5,000 m).

The St Mortiz ski resort in Switzerland is a popular ski resort in films as it is mentioned in the James Bond film Goldfinger starring Sean Connery and also the James  Bond film For Your Eyes Only. The opening scenes of ‘The Man Who Knew Too Much’ by Alfred Hitchcock, also features the St Mortiz ski resort.

Aspen is an extremely popular party ski resort in America and is featured in the classic Jim Carrey film Dumb and Dumber. Most of the second half of the film is set in Aspen, as Jim Carrey’s character Lloyd hunts down the girl of his dreams. Cue making snowmen and snow angels, bad skiing and getting your tongue on ski lifts, ouch!

The majority of the slapstick comedy, The Pink Panther was filmed in the Cortina d’Ampezzo ski resort which is located in a region of Italy called Veneto.  The film sees Peter Sellers as the bumbling Inspector Clouseau and Claudia Cardinale as an Indian princess. Cortina d’Ampezzo in the Italian Dolomites. The Cortina resort is famous for hosting the Winter Olympics in 1956. The resort is known for serious skiing and in well regarded as being full of posing skiers in the surrounding restaurants and bars.

Downhill Racer which stars Robert Redford is set in numerous ski resorts and prominently features the Lauberhorn at Wengen in Switzerland, and the Hahnenkamm at Kitzbühel in Austria. The film also included Megève in France and St. Anton in Austria. Filming of the sequences in Austria clashed with the making of the George Lazenby James Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

So ski resorts have featured in films about super spies, agents chasing international diamond thieves and steroid pumped up action heroes as well as bumbling comedy fools. Seems like there is a ski resort for everyone out there so strap on your skis and hurtle down the slopes!

Jonathan is a freelance writer who enjoys skiing and watching flims at home with his feet up!

The new movie, officially entitled The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of The Unicorn was shot using techniques and technology that was used in James Cameron’s Avatar.

Spielberg reportedly used performance capture techniques so that he could get as close to Herge’s vision for Tintin. Spielberg thought that a live action movie will be too stylized for the audience, what with the unique costumes. By going digital, he said it fits better with the whole look of the movie.

The motion capture stage that they used for making the movie allowed Spielberg to watch his actors in real time, but using a screen that showed them already within the digital world created.

The movie will star Jamie Bell, Daniel Craig, Andy Serkis, and Simon Pegg, among others. It will be released on December 23, 2011.

Contrary to a lot of people’s opinions, there is life outside America. And even when it comes to films, there is a lot of life in existence in other parts of the world. If all you know about are the Oscars and the Golden Globes, then it might be time for you to expand your horizons a little bit. Like, take a look at other awards such as the British Academy Film Awards. The nominations were done on Thursday and here are some of the most notable nominees, courtesy of a report by the Associated Press:

Underdog-turned-favorite “Slumdog Millionaire” picked up 11 nominations Thursday for the British Academy film awards, Britain’s version of the Oscars.

“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” which stars Brad Pitt as a man who ages backward, also was nominated in 11 categories, including best film, best actor and best director for David Fincher.

Double Golden Globe winner Kate Winslet is competing against herself in the best-actress category, with nominations for both “The Reader” and “Revolutionary Road.” She is up against Angelina Jolie for “The Changeling,” Meryl Streep for “Doubt” and Kristin Scott Thomas for the French film “I’ve Loved You So Long.”

The best-actor nominees are Patel of “Slumdog”, Sean Penn for “Milk,” Frank Langella for “Frost/Nixon,” Mickey Rourke for “The Wrestler” and Pitt — who also was nominated in the supporting-actor category for the Coen brothers’ spy comedy “Burn After Reading.”

Batman thriller “The Dark Knight” received nine nods, including a best supporting actor nomination for the late Heath Ledger.

Clint Eastwood’s L.A. noir “Changeling” is nominated in eight categories, including best director, while political drama “Frost/Nixon” has six nominations including best actor for Frank Langella and best director for Ron Howard.

In addition to “Slumdog” and “Benjamin Button,” the best-picture contenders are “Frost/Nixon,” inspirational biopic “Milk” and Nazi-themed drama “The Reader.”

In the separate category of best British film, the nominees are “Slumdog,” ABBA musical “Mamma Mia!” hit-man comedy “In Bruges,” Irish hunger-striker drama “Hunger” and tightrope-walking documentary “Man on Wire.”

One thing to note – there are a lot of duplicates from the Golden Globes. But that is to be expected. The BAFTA winners will be announced on February 8 at the Royal Opera House in London. You can also visit the web site for more information.

Downey has already given his agreement to star in the movie, which began production in October. A newly polished script from Anthony Peckham has already been submitted to the studio so this movie is going smoothly at this point.

This is going to be a more straight-forward interpretation of Holmes compared to the other Sherlock Holmes movie that is being developed by Columbia Pictures. This movie is going to be a comedy with Sacha Baron Cohen playing the role of Holmes and Will Ferrell playing his sidekick. Dr. Watson.

The movie, entitled The Man with The Iron Fist, has nothing to do whatsoever with the Marvel superhero. RZA said that he got the blessing of his “teacher” Quentin Tarantino to make the movie.

According to Roth, RZA is not only writing the movie, he will also direct it. He’ll probably do the music too, which is a great treat for his fans.

According to reports, Rodriguez will produce the new Red Sonja movie for a possible 2010 release.

McGowan is reportedly stoked about her new movie role and so is Rodriguez. The two are a real-life couple, by the way. Rodriguez has raved over his lady’s great attitude, sexiness and strong character. But then I’d probably hear that from any love-smitten guy anyway.

The previous Red Sonja movie featured Bridget Nielsen, with Arnold Schwarzenegger also appearing in the movie as Conan.

According to reports, Poulter will play Eustace in “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of The Dawn Treader.”

Poulter will play the annoying Eustace Scrubb, the cousin of the Pevensie children. Michael Apted is set to direct this sequel. The movie is expected to be released on May 7, 2010.

Universal Pictures is currently developing The Knights Templar, which is puts a fantastical spin to one of the most enigmatic and mysterious groups in history. The spec script for the possible movie is written by Adam Torchia and Justin Stanley. The producer for this is Wanted director Timur Bekmambetov, and I am hazarding a guess that he may also direct this movie.

The film puts a very unlikely combination together as the famed Knights Templar, who have just come back from the Crusades, are forced to defend themselves against a vast invading arm of vampires whose purpose is to destroy the Holy Grail.

In an interview, Silver revealed that the Wachowskis already have a good idea for a story in case they decide to do a sequel for Speed Racer. It would all depend on how the public embraces the movie. A success at the box office would most certainly assure that the sequel will be made.

What is more interesting though is that Silver also said that the Wachowskis also have a story that they can use for the Ninja Assassin sequel — a movie that has not yet started filming. The kung fu movie will star Korean star Rain (who is also in the Speed Racer movie) and Naomie Harris.

I also love the plots that Hellboy is involved with. It’s X-Files with superheroes — and that is a great combination indeed.

To whet the appetites of Hellboy fans, new pictures were released and it really gives viewers a great idea of what to expect in terms of the visuals and style.

Ashmore has declared that he has fallen in love with his role as Bobby Drake especially with the last movie, where Iceman’s full powers are revealed. This is also the movie where his full-on ice mode was first seen. He said that he would love to appear in another X-men movie but with the producers getting more focused in making the various X-men spin-offs and origin plots, he said that any chance of making a fourth installment to the successful X-men franchise is going to be far-fetched at the moment. Despite the reality that there is only a very slim chance that another X-men movie is going to be in the near futre, Ashmore said that he still hasn’t given up hope.

The star is none other than red-hot Juno actress Ellen Page. Page opted to leave the project because of scheduling problems that cropped up because of the taking-longer-than-usual preproduction phase of the movie. According to Page’s handlers, the delay will have an effect on the other projects that Page is also committed to do – this includes Whip It, a comedy to be directed by Drew Barrymore, and Peacock, a thriller co-starring Cillian Murphy.

The Drag Me To Hell production now has the unenviable task of finding another actress that would fit the role a girl who receives a supernatural curse.

Platinum Dunes and New Line Cinema has announced that the two companies will be collaborating to bring again to the big screen the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. The very obvious remake of one of the most successful horror franchises in history and the birthplace of its most iconic figure, Freddy Krueger, will be a true remake. Why? Because Robert Englund, the actor who played Freddy in all of those Elm street movies, is said to not be involved in any of the production companies’ plans.

The planned new movie is, you guessed it right, a reboot and this means they will be looking for a new actor to play Freddy. No script has been done yet because of the ongoing Writers’ strike but it looks like this is one movie that is going to be fast tracked once all the production snags have been ironed out.

One of the biggest teases for the Batman Begins sequel is the look that the designers have devised for Heath Ledger. We all know that he will be playing the role of The Joker but other than that, and a very artsy, and dimly lit closeup of his face there were no other information given to his character, much less a more detailed picture of him.

But with marketing for the movie now in full swing photos of the main stars are now slowly appearing everywhere. First, Christian Bale’s new Batman costume was seen in a number of websites. It was, for the most part, a vast departure from the previous Batman costume that Bale wore for the first movie.

But the most anticipation was for the look of Ledger himself. In one teaser website, a countdown was being made on Ledger’s picture as The Joker. But Empire Magazine pre-empted the website by providing the first look at Ledger as Batman’s arch-nemesis.

Aint’ he so cool looking as The Joker? I can’t wait to see if he is going to do justice to the character.