Mendes released his first of many “Skyfall” web blogs today, hot off the heels of yesterday’s behind-the-scenes photo featuring Judi Dench. In the new video, he talks about his relationship to the Bond franchise and what drew him to “Skyfall.”

“The roots of me doing this Bond movie start way before anybody approached me, because I — like everybody else — have my own personal relationship with Bond, which began when I was I supposes about 9 or 10 years old. So, you know, I’ve always been a fan of the movies,” Mendes explained.

Turns out that Mendes was “genuinely blown away” by the reinvention of James Bond in “Casino Royale.” He was drawn to Daniel Craig’s performance, as it reminded Mendes of what he loved about the Sean Connery 007 generation.

“It struck me that it is still possible to make a big, fabulous, escapist movie, and yet at the same time to say something about the world that we’re living in, so I thought that it would be a wonderful thing to do,” he said.

There’s not a lot of new footage in the video blog, but if you look closely enough you can spot Ralph Fiennes’ head and Judi Dench filming a scene. The video also features shots of Craig filming the same scene as the one in the previously mentioned official still.

Not much is known about the plot of “Skyfall” except that Javier Bardem plays the movie’s villain and Dame Judi Dench’s character M takes a front row seat. A recently-released plot synopsis says that Bond’s loyalty to M is tested when a secret from her past comes back to haunt her. It’s up to 007 to track down and get rid of the threat in order to protect MI6 and the world.

“Skyfall” also stars Naomie Harris, Berenice Marlohe, Ralph Fiennes, Albert Finney, Ben Whishaw, Helen McCrory and Ola Rapace. It’s set for release on November 9.

Are you looking forward to “Skyfall”? Tell us in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter!

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“Portlandia” airs on IFC on Fridays at 10/9c

First up, commenter Bonnie Nicol’s amazing tale of late night Live-Action-Role-Play:

Check out the original story below:

It was around 1 or 2 in the morning, I was hanging out by the waterfront near the Burnside Bridge. I was a little nervous…it’s not the best area to be after dark, but I was in a contemplative mood and didn’t want to go back to the hostel I was staying at. Suddenly I heard people approaching and made the fear-induced decision to leave immediately. I turned to go and behind me were two guys dressed in poorly constructed medieval garb, wielding bent and limp cardboard swords. One of them even had a crookedly cut cardboard shield. The guys were either incredibly intoxicated or incredibly high. Or a combination of both. The three of us just stared at each other for a minute, no one moving, no one sure what to do or say, then the one with the shield broke the silence with, “Be gone from here, woman! This be a dangerous place!” He had a point, so without a word, I walked around them and headed back home. Before I walked out of sight, I turned around at one point and saw the guys staggering around in an “intense” cardboard sword fight.

Nicole Georges is an illustrator, educator, and graphic novelist based in Portland, Oregon. Her self-published autobiographical zine, Invincible Summer, has been anthologized in two volumes. She teaches self publishing and autobiographical comic workshops to children and seniors, and her first graphic novel will be released this year with Houghton Mifflin. Also, she does pet portraits.

A popular alum of the Upright Citizen’s Brigade, Chris may be best known for his irreverent weekly talk show, “The Chris Gethard Show,” and his book “Weird New York.” Along with being named one of “Variety” magazine’s “Ten Comics to Watch in 2010,” Chris has been seen on Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Fallen, and Comedy Central’s “Crossballs and “Big Lake.” IFC fans will next see him as our official movie correspondent at the 2012 SXSW festival.

Matt Singer is a Webby Award-winning writer, podcaster, critic and television host. His work has appeared on television on IFC, MTV, and At the Movies and in print in The Village Voice, Spin Magazine, and Time Out New York. As of 2012, Singer is hosting Filmspotting: SVU, a podcast spinoff from website/podcast Filmspotting.

Watch Seth Rogen host the 2012 Spirit Awards on Saturday, February 25 at 10/9c on IFC. And while you’re tuning in, don’t forget to log into IFC.com chat with our movie experts LIVE via IFC Sync, presented by Capital One. See you then!

The fine folks at Warby Parker, Tretorn and Lomography are here to help you represent the Portlandia Frame of Mind in your town. Head over here to enter the sweepstakes for your chance to win big and let everyone know that you’re a fan of Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein’s hit sketch comedy show whether you’re in Portlandia or Topeka or Tuscaloosa or anywhere in between.

Ten Grand Prize Winners receive a prize package that includes:

A LomoKino Camera from Lomography
A Pair of Warby Parker Sunglasses
A $100 Gift Certificate to Tretorn.com
Cool Portlandia Swag

In short: Best. Prize. Packs. Ever. To enter, you must be 18 years or older. If that’s you, head over here to enter the Portlandia Frame of Mind sweepstakes. The sweepstakes ends on March 12th, 2012 at 11:59 pm ET and winners will be notified in March.

“We tend to think that the denizens of the film industry luxuriate in the popcorn movies they deliver to us, that they love the bombast that is now the primary reason people go to the movies. Indeed, the stereotype of the movie mogul is still a man or woman who cares more about money than prestige, and who boasts, as a writer once remarked of Columbia Pictures head Harry Cohn when Cohn said a movie wasn’t any good because he kept wiggling in his seat, that the whole world is ‘wired to his ass.’ They are us — only richer.”

Gabler believes that as the movie industry’s offerings have gotten dumber, its need for respectability has intensified. That led to the situation we have now: where, Gabler explains, the studios pump out only two kinds of movies: blockbusters and “anti-blockbusters.” These films, like “The Artist” or “Hugo” or “War Horse” don’t just steep in the world of the past, they celebrate the past in order to denigrate the present. “The Artist,” for example, is a story about the tragedy of innovation. Its hero is a silent film actor at the top of his game. When Hollywood introduces sound, and the actor — the artist! — refuses to make the transition, he is nearly destroyed. But even more importantly, the beauty of silent film was destroyed, and it’s that beauty that “The Artist” seeks to resurrect and honor.

Gabler has certainly identified a legitimate trend amongst this year’s Academy Award nominees. He’s a smart guy too; Gabler wrote “Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination,” one of the finest biographies in recent memory. But I’m not sure he’s reading this trend correctly. Is the nostalgia amongst a wide swath of 2012 Oscar nominees a reaction against mainstream Hollywood or an expansion of it?

After all, cinematic nostalgia was not simply limited to awards pictures last year: it was the predominant theme in all kinds of films. Just about everything Hollywood makes these days is indebted to something that has come before. It might be something based on an old television series or or a landmark series of books or a toy popular with children in the 1980s. Don’t forget all the prequels to sci-fi classics or comic book movies. Then there’s the big-screen adaptation of the old cartoon and the big-screen adaptation of the old cartoon and, of course, the big-screen adaptation of the old cartoon. Even so-called “original” films look like prior works, from Steven Spielberg movies to James Bond adventures. The trick is the same every time — take an existing property with a built-in fanbase and gussy it up with new effects to capture the imagination of a new audience and recapture the imagination of the old audience who loved it even before it looked good.

Gabler says that the Oscars’ “sudden burst of nostalgia” may be “a demonstration of the self-contempt of an industry that is finally tired of itself.” But the same impulse fueling a film like “War Horse” — which Gabler cites as an example of an old-fashioned anti-blockbuster — is basically the same impulse fueling a film like “Cowboys & Aliens” — a new-fangled action spectacular. Like “War Horse,” “Cowboys & Aliens” is indebted to the works of John Ford (as well as the works of other nostalgia icons like George Pal and Ray Harryhausen) — and like “War Horse” it’s also about “primal communions” between boy and father, man and horse. “War Horse” might be soppy melodrama and “Cowboys & Aliens” might be a noisy bore, but the cloth they’re cut from is not all that different. And both came from the same man: director and executive producer (respectively) Steven Spielberg.

Maybe Hollywood is full of self-loathing; in my experience, most people and most industries are. But I’m not sure the presumed popularity amongst Oscar voters of “The Artist,” “Hugo,” and others is indicative of that self-loathing. It seems equally likely that nostalgia’s Oscar dominance this year simply reflects nostalgia’s dominance across all kinds of filmmaking disciplines. Most of the nostalgic movies mentioned above were huge hits; I selected them from this list of the highest grossing films of 2011. If we looked back over the past couple years, we’d find similar results. Old is the new new. And money is still money.

What do you make of all the nostalgic films at this year’s Academy Awards? Tell us in the comments below or write to us on Facebook and Twitter.

Hunx says the chorus just came to him on that stroll, and though he never fully explored one of those well kept secrets, he does one day hope for a private room of his very own. The video was directed by Hannah Lew (of Grass Widow) and was filmed on location at the legendary Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo, CA.

Do you want a private room? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter or Facebook!

In April, the Paris-based La Gaite Lyrique music and art center is hosting a “Keep Portland Weird,” a celebration of all things Stumptownian. Of course, that means plenty of weird art –via a presentation from avant-garde audio-visualists Experimental 1/2 Hour — and a stellar lineup of music, including Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, YACHT, the Thermals, Lifesavas, Glass Candy, Grouper and Lightning Bolt (who, to my knowledge, have no Portland connection, but are awesome anyway), among several others. There will also be a lecture from novelist Jon Raymond, whose short story inspired the 2006 film “Old Joy” and who co-wrote the screenplay for 2008′s “Wendy and Lucy,” both shot in and around Portland.

To promote the event, La Gaite Lyrique put together the following five-minute video, featuring commentary from such Rose City luminaries as Quasi’s Sam Coomes, Slimkid3 of the Pharcyde, the Gossip’s Nathan Howdeshell, and my dearly departed (…to Brooklyn), Elliott Smith-loving friend, Dan. (Hey, he’s a luminary to me!)

Portland : Une vidéo et deux, trois mots. from La Gaîté Lyrique on Vimeo.

Hat-tip to Willamette Week for the heads-up, and also for dumping some of the text from the festival’s Web site into Google Translator. Personally, I think Portland should really consider rebranding itself as “The City with the Sap of Ecology in the Veins of Its Inhabitants.” Makes us sound like a city populated by environmental superheros a la Captain Planet.

PORTLAND, OREGON, United States. Musical city.

For ten years, the city name has been circulating among music lovers, like Kathmandu at the time of Hippies. Portland would be the holy grail of music “indie”, the city of treasures hiding “underground” and genies coming out of the masterpieces in secret, the musicians would find inspiration abundant and uninhibited ….

Portland, “green” city
The sap of ecology in the veins of its inhabitants for over a century. By 1912, the city put on a green urbanism and controlled. In the 1970s, Governor Tom McCall fixed geographical limits beyond which the city may not extend more: the town has to renovate the abandoned neighborhoods to best utilize the space available to it.

Portland, city nonconformist
What distinguishes the metropolis of Oregon is its people, their progressive thinking and creative. Portland is a town full of hippies the next century. A city for those who want to reinvent the world in green, a city of artists. Far from the stereotypes, imagine a little sister from Seattle with a mad passion for organic food, local, and community activity …

McG recently sat down with The Playlist and talked about his canceled project “Superman: Flyby.” Back in the early aughts, McG was tapped to direct the bold new take on the classic superhero from screenwriter J.J. Abrams, but ultimately passed because Warner Bros wanted to film the project in Australia and McG was afraid of flying.

He certainly had interesting ideas for the casting of the film, though. The Playlist said that “Flyby” would have made some major changes to the Superman’s origins, the planet Krypton and bad boy Lex Luthor, but one thing would have remained the same: Henry Cavill.

“Ironically, we liked Henry Cavill a lot, but we hadn’t cast him yet,” McG said.

But there would have been a bit of a surprise choice for the actor to play Lex. Turns out that a pre-”Iron Man” Robert Downey Jr. was the only actor locked in for the film, and he would have played Superman’s main nemesis.

“We had Robert Downey Jr. locked up to be Lex Luthor, which I think would have been extraordinary,” McG enthused.

In addition to those two, it had previously been revealed that Shia LaBeouf was on board to play Jimmy Olsen, but not officially signed. Similarly, Selma Blair and Scarlett Johansson were in talks to play Lois Lane (courtesy of /Film), but neither was cast.

Are you intrigued by “Flyby,” even though it will never happen? Tell us in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.

Everyone enjoys a pat on the back for a job well-done. But some might need that pat on the back more than others. Sure, Meryl Streep was great in “The Iron Lady” — she’s great in everything. She’s won two Academy Awards and been nominated an astonishing fifteen other times. Even if Streep deserves recognition, does she really need it at this point? If she didn’t get that record seventeenth nomination for “The Iron Lady” would she have been despondent, yelling at her handlers, trashing hotel rooms, demanding mason jars full of brown M&Ms? Probably not. Ditto George Clooney, a seven-time nominee and one-time winner; ditto Glenn Close, a six-time nominee, and Brad Pitt, a four-time nominee.

Awards are wonderful, but they’re best used to recognize the people and films who can most benefit from the spotlight that comes with those awards. The journeyman who’s worked in relative obscurity for years; the comic actress who surprised us with a range we never knew she had; the foreign superstar who showed that charm is an international language; the ingenue from a famous show business family who leapt out of her sisters’ shadow with a devastating debut. The wonderful thing about the Spirit Awards is the fact that every year Film Independent finds these sorts of mind-blowing performances and brings them to the attention of the masses. Whether these nominations were months or decades in the making, these actors’ journey to the Spirit Awards were hard-fought and richly earned.

For actress Rachael Harris, that journey took place both on and off-screen. Her nomination for Best Female Lead came in director Robbie Pickerling’s acclaimed debut “Natural Selection,” the story of a woman on a road trip that turns into a voyage of self-discovery. Harris plays Linda, a devoutly Christian woman who’s unable to conceive a child, which means her equally religious husband won’t touch her, since sex without the possibility of procreation is a sin. After an accident, Linda discovers a shocking truth about her husband, and sets off to find a man she believes holds the key to her happiness.

Fittingly, given “Natural Selection”‘s title, the role represents a major evolution in Harris’ career. A comedienne best known for her roles as uptight shrews in films like “The Hangover” (she played Ed Helms’ killjoy fiancé), Harris might seem like an unlikely choice for a sexually repressed Bible Belter, or for a film, like “Natural Selection,” that deftly blends both humor and drama. But Harris’ impressive performance contains just as many surprises as the film itself.

Speaking with Indiewire at last year’s Los Angeles Film Festival, Harris explained that she was far from Pickerling’s first choice to play Linda. Very, very far. “Originally, he didn’t want to meet me,” she said, “But he was doing meetings with back-ups in case the person he really wanted pulled out. I knew if I could get in the room I could change his perception of me, if not the casting.” Recently divorced, Harris related to Linda’s struggles and felt the character was the perfect outlet for skills she knew she possessed but had never been given a chance to utilize onscreen. Harris got in the room, and won the part — and then the film went on to win seven awards at the 2011 South by Southwest Film Festival, including the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature, and a Breakthrough Performance Award for Harris.

The road to the Spirit Awards for French actor Jean Dujardin began not in Texas but France, where “The Artist” premiered to widespread acclaim, a Best Actor award, and a distribution deal with The Weinstein Company. Like Harris, Dujardin is a comedian by trade; first as a stand-up and later as the star of TV shows and then “The Artist” director Michel Hazanavicius’ ’60s spy spoofs “OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies” and “OSS 117: Lost in Rio.” To play “The Artist”‘s silent film star George Valentin, Dujardin’s task, like Harris’ in “Natural Selection,” was to meld his comedic timing with scenes full of soul-searching emotions. George is unprepared for the transition from silent to sound film, and as Hollywood moves into the future, George gets trapped in his own past glories.

Dujardin, a well-known star in France but previously a virtual unknown in the United States, seems to share more than his characters’ charm and good looks — he might even have a bit of his self-doubt as well. Speaking with Time Out, Dujardin said that he’s his own toughest critic, and he’s at his happiest — like George — on a movie set. “[There] I’m someone else,” he added. “The mustache, the dinner jacket. It’s not me. You’re always this sort of double, and it’s liberating. Imagine being stuck with yourself… all those doubts…”

Doubts and doubles also haunt the protagonist of the fascinating thriller “Martha Marcy May Marlene.” Martha — or is it Marcy May? — wakes early one morning on an idyllic-looking farm, but something is clearly amiss. Before anyone notices, she sneaks away and calls her sister Lucy (Sarah Paulson) to beg her to come pick her up. After moving in with Lucy and her husband at their beautiful lake house, Martha struggles to come to grips with her time at the farm, which we slowly come to realize was actually a cult that routinely abused and then brainwashed its female residents. Mentally beaten-down by her time as the cult’s “Marcy May,” Martha keeps flashing back and forth between past and present, often unsure of where, or even who, she really is.

In reality, Martha is actress Elizabeth Olsen, the younger sister of famous “Full House” twins Mary-Kate and Ashley. “Martha Marcy May Marlene” director Sean Durkin cast Olsen after meeting more than 50 other actresses for the role. Coming in on the last day of auditions, she blew Durkin away with a reading that was more complex than any other actress he saw. Back in November, Durkin told me that what set Olsen apart from the pack was her ability to “convey a lot of feeling with her eyes without trying. She was totally effortless.” Durkin was nervous about casting an unknown actor, for fear that even with all her raw talent, he would have to work to pull a great performance out of her on set. Those fears were ultimately unfounded. “She was as prepared from the first take of the first scene as someone like John [Hawkes] or Hugh [Dancy],” Durkin noted.

Mexican actor Demián Bichir prepared for his journey to the 2012 Spirit Awards with an acting career than spans more than thirty years. After starting out in telenovelas while still a teenager, Bichir eventually graduated to features; his 1999 comedy, “Sexo, Pudor y Lágrimas,” is one of the most successful Mexican films in history. American audiences might recognize Bichir as Fidel Castro in Steven Soderbergh’s two-part biopic of Che Guevara; it was that performance that brought him to the attention of “A Better Life” director Chris Weitz. He told The Hollywood Reporter that Bichir’s body of work made casting him as Carlos, an illegal immigrant and gardener looking to give his teenage son a better life, “ridiculously easy.”

Bichir’s performance, which also landed him a surprise Oscar nomination in addition to his Spirit Award nod, has the longtime actor soaking in the adulation of his better-known peers. Still, this trip hasn’t been all glamour; Bichir laughs that he got so into character as this down-on-his-luck immigrant that fans who recognized him on the street in Los Angeles were worried he’d fallen on hard times. “No, no. I’m just researching a role, I promise!” he reassured them. The research paid off, as Bichir earned hugely positive reviews and helped expose the complicated reality behind a hot-button political issue to thousands of people.

Those people also include some Spirit Award voters; on February 25, we’ll find out who they chose. It might be more established stars like Ryan Gosling or Michelle Williams. Or it could be one of these remarkable newcomers. But even if these talented underdogs don’t get to take home one of those coveted trophies, it’s been a pretty amazing journey.

Watch Seth Rogen host the 2012 Spirit Awards on Saturday, February 25 at 10/9c on IFC. And while you’re tuning in, don’t forget to log into IFC.com chat with our movie experts LIVE via IFC Sync, presented by Capital One.