Jorge Sosa's blog

Everyone knows Halloween is Saturday, but horror fans can keep the spirit alive the following weekend at Crypticon.

'If your walls are oozing blood,
press one. If your basement
drain is now a portal to Hell,
press two.'The fourth annual Twin Cities-based horror convention takes place Friday, Nov. 6, through Sunday, Nov. 8, at the Bloomington Sheraton Hotel. This particular reporter has weekend duty that weekend (D'OH!) but hopes to sneak away on Sunday ... if his schedule allows ... to bask in the awesomeness of special guest Margot Kidder.

If you're into horror movies, you know Kidder was more than Lois Lane in the "Superman" movies of the '70s and '80s. She built a notable resume as a scream queen, starring in several bona fide horror classics including the original "Black Christmas," Brian De Palma's "Sisters," "The Amityville Horror" and most recently playing a smaller role in Rob Zombie's "Halloween 2."

In case you haven't seen it, here's the official teaser trailer for next spring's remake of "A Nightmare on Elm Street."

I usually reserve this space for intermittent blogging about movies. But it's time I shared another one of my weird obsessions with you.

Every so often, the Meeker County Sheriff's Office contains a curious report involving a cat. These kitty-related incidents usually take place far beyond the Leader's coverage area, so I never write about them.

His pupils are misaligned. Creepy.OK, anyone who thinks Johnny Depp is The Sexiest Man Alive will want to check out the picture to the right.

Still think he's hot? Yeah, that's him as The Mad Hatter for director Tim Burton's forthcoming adaptation of "Alice in Wonderland."

"Alice in Wonderland" will also star Mia Wasikowska as Alice, Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen, Anne Hathaway as the White Queen, and Matt Lucas as both Tweedledee and Tweedledum.

You can see photos of the cast here, thanks to Yahoo! Movies. At least Wasikowska and Hathaway look pretty normal. Well, Hathaway's flowing ivory looks aren't exactly normal, but they're not likely to frighten small children.

"Alice in Wonderland" is due in theaters March 5.

Don't try this at home.Russian filmmaker Timur Bekmabetov — director of 2008's "Wanted" — says a sequel is in the works and will start shooting late this fall or in the winter.

Bekmabetov, speaking to a Russian news site, said Angelina Jolie will return. So will James McAvoy, according to the folks at Coming Soon, who had Bekmambetov's interview translated.

I must confess, I haven't seen "Wanted." But it's been on my to-see list since it opened last summer. I just never got around to it. Have any of you seen it? Was it any good? C'mon. Tell me. Don't leave me hangin' here.

Lucas on the set of 'American Grafitti'Forty-seven years ago today, an 18-year-old kid from Modesto, Calif., almost killed himself. Two days before his high school graduation, young George Lucas survived a high-speed, near-fatal car crash.

At the time, Lucas dreamed of becoming a race car driver. His brush with death inspired him to choose a somewhat safer career. He eventually went to the USC film school, became a filmmaker and later created some movies you might have heard of: "American Graffiti," the "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" series. In 2005, Forbes estimated his net worth at $3.5 billion.

Perhaps a car crash is God's way of telling you slow the heck down and reconsider your purpose in life. Hmmm. Or it could be His way of telling you to stop driving like a moron.

(Jorge Sosa is a staff writer for the Hutchinson Leader. He can be reached at sosa@hutchinsonleader.com)

'When nine hundred years
old you reach, look as good,
you will not.'Yep. It's been awhile since I've blogged about movies. After the nonstop barrage of e-mails flooding my inbox, begging me to start up again, I'm giving in.

Truthfully, those e-mails were primarily hocking male enhancement drugs (actual subject line: "The vigor in your pants will be unbreakable") and notifying me I'd won the Nigerian lottery.

At any rate, here I go. I'm starting off with something on the lighter side: a kitten who looks like Yoda. She's actually a three-week-old Sphynx cat.

Known to many as "that disgusting, hairless freak of nature" or simply "EEEEW!", the Sphynx is actually not hairless. Wikipedia tells me these wrinkly cuties "may be covered with very soft hair that is often described as peach fuzz."

Peach fuzz?!? Awwww!

Yoda and Luke are all a-Twitter.Cinema is an art form that's been around for about a century. What happens when you smoosh it into the latest Internet flavor-of-the-month? Magic.

Virgin Media challenged site visitors to rewrite famous movies for Twitter. Twitter, in case you're unaware, is a micro-blogging/messaging site that requires you to constrain everything you post to a 140-character sound byte.

Hence, you get awesome and pithy summaries like this one for the original "Star Wars" trilogy: "Young boy abducted by old man, falls in love with sister, refuses family business, kills father, dances with little bears."

Ewan McGregor in 'Angels
& Demons'The official Vatican newspaper recently reviewed "Angels & Demons" and called it "more than two hours of harmless entertainment, which hardly affects the genius and mystery of Christianity."

The Associated Press quoted the reviewer as finding the film historically inaccurate but, "a video game that first of all sparks curiosity and is also, maybe, a bit of fun."

This is a far cry from the reaction church leaders had to "The Da Vinci Code," which speculated that Jesus married, had a kid and ... yadda yadda. Unless you've been under a rock the past few years, you probably already know what "The Da Vinci Code" is all about.

"Angels & Demons" opens May 15. I'll check it out, although I thought "The Da Vinci Code" was a weak movie. Having read both books, I'd say "Angels & Demons" has more action and would lend itself better to summer movie adaptation. Also, joining Tom Hanks (and his new and improved haircut) are two of my favorite actors, Ewan McGregor and Stellan Skarsgård.

Linkin Park: Music to blow sh—er ... stuff up by.According to director Michael Bay's news blog and Linkin Park member Mike Shinoda , the band has been recruited to help write the score for "Trasnformers: Revenge of the Fallen."

Linkin Park's 2007 single "What I've Done" was featured prominently in the first "Transformers" movie and Shinoda reports a new song the band has written "is being used as one of the themes, and we will be writing various interpolations on that theme, and trying out some other thematic ideas as part of the (very large) team scoring the film."