Where Could The Dark Knight Go Next - Contest Winners!

Last weekend after The Dark Knight hit theaters worldwide, we decided to host a contest to see who could write the best story for a third film in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy. The challenge was to write a story that would top everything that took place in The Dark Knight. We received over 200+ entries in a few days and have finally chosen the winner of an awesome Dark Knight prize pack. All story submissions were required to be around 500 words and were judged by our resident comic guru and Batman fan Roman Chavez and contributing writer Andy Adair. Not only can you find the winner's story published below, but we've included four runner-up stories as well, just because they were all so damn good. Read on to check out a few of the stories and be sure to comment with your own thoughts on our winners.

Kicked Out of Comic-Con by Twilight Fans? This is Crazy!

This is odd! My third year here and in attempt to attend the 20th Century Fox panel in Hall H at Comic-Con, I end up getting kicked out of my seats! There is something very wrong with the way Comic-Con works. After heading in to hold my seats for the rest of our writers who were on the way in, a Twilight fan (the lady in the middle with the short spiky hair) confronted a security guard because she had been waiting and "really wanted my seats." I was then yelled at by the programming rep in Hall H and was immediately told to leave. As far as I know (and you can confirm here), seat saving is allowed but "limited". And by limited, I would imagine my writers and staff who are working with me should be included in that limit, right? Wow, there's a reason why people don't like dealing with Comic-Con!

Catch an Early Screening of Mutant Chronciles at Comic-Con

We're waiting for the full schedule for the San Diego Comic-Con to be officially released before we start listing off what's in store for this year. But we've got something we can already throw out there just in case we're not the only ones (out of the 120,000+ fans) that will be attending. Thomas Jane and Ron Perlman are presenting an exclusive screening of Mutant Chronicles, the futuristic sci-fi action film directed by Simon Hunter. We've shown you the impressive first teaser and a badass Russian trailer for the film already. I'm going to do my best to catch this screening myself, as I'm a big sci-fi nut and really want to see this. And if anyone else wants to catch it, here are the details for the Saturday night screening.

Happy 4th of July - Enjoy the Summer!

From all of us here at FirstShowing.net, we hope you have a wonderful 4th of July! If you're not from the US, then enjoy the day anyway! We're nearly halfway through the entire year and halfway through the summer. Not only is this a perfect time to reflect on the great films we've seen so far, but it's also exciting to look forward to the many more great films yet to come. And as is always the case, this time of the summer always puts me in the mood for summer classics like Independence Day, The Sandlot, Jaws, and Men in Black. Not much has changed since we ran our Best 4th of July Openings retrospective last year, since Hancock is the latest addition to that list. We certainly hope you enjoy the long weekend!

Go See Theater Hopper's Tom Brazelton at Wizard World Chicago!

You might have noticed that there wasn't a new Theater Hopper comic yesterday, and that's because the comic's creator Tom Brazelton is in attendance at Wizard World Chicago all this weekend manning his table. If you happen to be in Chicago at Wizard World as well, make sure to stop by and meet the man behind Theater Hopper! He's at table #4308 in Artist's Alley and will be there all weekend. Tom is unfortunately too busy with all mayhem of the convention out there in Chicago, so both Wednesday's and Friday's comics this week have been postponed. Theater Hopper will resume normal operation again on Monday. If you're out in Chicago at Wizard World, make sure you stop by Tom's table if you can!

FS.net Makes PC Mag's Best Web Sites for Movie Fans!

Every once in a while we've got to take a breather and pat ourselves on the back. Today is one of those days. Last year we were honored by PC Mag as one of the Top 100 Undiscovered Websites. This year we've moved up in status. PC Mag just released their list titled The Best Web Sites for Movie Fans and we're #5 on it! "Get ready for summer blockbuster season with these 15 movie sites and blogs, offering a daily fix of news, reviews, spoilers, and more." We're ranked #5 because we fall into the Movie News category, which comes after the first three sites that are part of the Movie Reviews category. You can find out direct listing in the article here. Thanks for all the support PC Mag, we truly appreciate it!

The Legendary Stan Winston Has Died!

The legendary visual effects maestro Stan Winston passed away last night. The news hasn't hit the mainstream sources yet, but Quint over at AICN confirmed it with a close friend of Winston. He was only 62 years old. Winston won the Oscar four times for his work on Aliens, Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, and AI and most recently worked on the brilliant visual effects in Iron Man. Winston was easily one of the greatest special effects visionaries to ever work in Hollywood and has created some of the most memorable special effects in cinematic history. This is truly a great loss and an incredibly sad day for Hollywood.

Indiana Jones 4 Event Recap and Scavenger Hunt!

It was the evening of May 21st, just hours before Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was set to hit theaters. We had spent weeks preparing for one of the most incredible events in FirstShowing.net history and it was all about to go down. Although it's a few weeks late, we finally have the complete event recap with photos and videos from one of the greatest events we have ever hosted. You may have seen details on our Iron Man event previously, but now it's time to focus our attention on Indiana Jones and the unforgettable evening. If you can, eliminate all bad thoughts about Kingdom of the Crystal Skull from your mind and take yourself back to the day before it came out. With that mindset, you will truly understand how exciting all of this was to experience firsthand.

Adventures in Los Angeles: Living the Life of a Journalist

I thought I'd take this opportunity to let you know why updates have been a bit staggered this weekend. Right now I'm sitting in LAX watching droves of people walk by, both coming and going. I'm waiting to catch my own flight back home to Colorado after a long weekend in Los Angeles. You may have noticed that updates as of Thursday were a bit slower than normal - that's because we're not up at the normal speed of those like Peter over SlashFilm because we've been covering press junkets, seeing movies, and dodging studio fires. That doesn't mean we won't be back up at full speed by tomorrow morning, but I thought I'd give everyone an update. In fact, I've got some great stories to tell, including interviewing Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard as well as seeing four new movies.

FirstShowing.net Presents: Indiana Jones Week!

With the release of the highly anticipated Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull this coming Thursday, May 22nd, we're officially kicking off Indiana Jones Week on FS.net today! For the next five days, we will be featuring extra posts dedicated to all things Indiana Jones, from retrospectives to contests to editorials to featurettes on the new Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and plenty more. If you're real Indiana Jones fan at heart, we're certain you're head is already buzzing with Indiana Jones hype, so we hope we can become your primary destination for all things Indiana Jones over the next few days.

The FirstShowing.net Lounge: Kicking Off the Summer in Style!

If you're not from Colorado Springs, you're probably not all that familiar with our local events. In addition to all of this wonderful coverage we provide here on the web, FirstShowing.net actually hosts midnight events at our favorite local movie theater here in Colorado. If you are from Colorado Springs, then you know we host some of the best midnight movie events you'll ever find. We give away full-size posters, shirts, hats, comic books, video games, and much more right to the fans who make it out to the midnight showings. This is what we're all about - the first showing, the midnight movie, and camping out. I thought I'd give all of you who aren't located in Colorado a small taste of what it is we do beyond the web.

April Fools Shenanigans Spread Across the Web

For whatever reason, I'm not up for playing the April Fools Day game and writing up a tricky / funny post just for the fun of it. Doesn't mean I don't like to have fun, but I'm just not all about trying to fool people with fake news. Instead, I thought I'd wrangle up all the good April Fools news articles around the web that I can find and send them your way. The least we can do is all get a kick out of the good stuff that the others have come up with! That photo above comes courtesy of Peter over at SlashFilm, who made that to represent the latest casting news - Jake Gyllenhaal will take over for Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man in the fourth film!

Bollywood Publicist Threatens Our Livelihood and Iron Man Coverage

A few weeks back I start getting numerous emails from a random publicist trying to get me to add two unknown films to our release schedule. Normally I take a good look at the films and throw them on there if I'm familiar with them in the slightest. Being in this industry, I've usually heard of every and any movie, literally. However these two I'd never heard of and I skipped the e-mail; if I catch a trailer or hear about them at another future point, I can always add them at that time. But no, that wasn't the end of this guy. After getting a phone call a few days back and declining the addition yesterday, he threatened to disallow us from covering Iron Man because they rep the "third and fourth billing actors."

Heading to SXSW and ShoWest - Fun Times!

Just letting you know that Ken Evans and I are heading out to the SXSW Film Festival today in Austin, TX and will be there for 10 days - until next Sunday, March 16th. In addition, I'll be skipping out to Las Vegas for ShoWest next week from Tuesday to Thursday before heading back to Austin to finish out that fest. Although you might not hear about all the parties we're going to, you will hear about all the movies we're seeing, interviews we're coordinating, and everything else fun that's going on in Austin and Vegas. If you're a fan of the site and happen to be in Austin, drop us a line / e-mail, maybe we'll catch some drinks and BBQ one night! We've also posted a few of the things you can look forward to hearing about below.

WonderCon / San Francisco Meet-Up Anyone?

Update: If anyone is interested, we're meeting at 8:00PM at Jillians at the Metreon right next to the convention center.

Tomorrow afternoon I'm heading to San Francisco for the weekend to enjoy the excellence that is WonderCon, the smaller brother of the San Diego Comic-Con. Peter from SlashFilm and I will have a bit of free time on Friday night, February 22nd, and we're considering catching some dinner and drinks with anyone who wants to join us. If you live in San Francisco and might want to meet-up, comment below and let us know. We're just trying to gauge interest and see how man San Franciscans might be up for enjoying some brews with the two film geeks behind FirstShowing.net and SlashFilm.com!

Reminder: AMC Best Picture Showcase Next Saturday

AMC Theatres is keeping up with their tradition of running a Best Picture Showcase on Saturday before the Oscars. The showcase features all fives of the Best Picture nominees for only $30. It's not only a pretty sweet deal, but I'll be damned if it's not an awesome experience. Most people never get to see more than one of the Best Picture nominees, and it's a damn shame, because they're all usually great movies. This year is certainly no exception and if you haven't seen all of them yet, here is your chance.

Valentine's Day E-Cards: Hellboy II and Get Smart!

Happy Valentine's Day to all of our readers out there! I'm guessing most of you are either watching the new Indiana Jones trailer, out on dates with your significant other (or wishing you were out on one), or gearing up to go to the movie theater and catch one of the four new films that open today (Definitely Maybe, Jumper, The Spiderwick Chronicles, Step Up 2 the Streets). But if you've got an extra free moment and want to send a fun lil' Valentine's Day e-card to someone, then here is your chance! Universal has put out a Hellboy II: The Golden Army e-card and Warner Brothers has put out a Get Smart e-card that you can send to your friends below.

Alex's Escape from Utah

I just arrived home from driving for 15 hours straight, no joke. And I've got the flu with a terrible soar throat. I wanted to let everyone know why there hasn't been any updates in the past 24 hours, and that's why. I'm exhausted, I feel terrible, and I can hardly breathe. However, I feel even worse leaving the site go without any updates, so I'll do my best to get caught up ASAP. I won't let this happen again - we're a reliable news source and we always make sure we're one of the first to bring you the movie news you want. I hope you can all be understanding just this once.

Didn't Get Very Far - We're Snowed In!

Apparently this Sundance adventure isn't over yet. Just as I was heading out on the road to drive home, a giant storm dumped about two feet of fresh snow all over the northern Utah / Wyoming area. Not only is I-80, the main highway in/out of Park City, entirely closed, but now I'm stuck here for one more night. That photo above, believe it or not, is the view from my car - you can barely see that other car in front of me. Just thought I'd let everyone know that posting may be a bit sporadic as I battle the storm and attempt to get home to Colorado.

Traveling to Sundance Today

In a matter of minutes I'm about to head out the door and embark on an 8-hour drive to Park City, Utah to setup camp for the upcoming Sundance Film Festival. Although it's only my second year attending, this journey has become a tradition and I will always without a doubt drive every year, because there's nothing like riding alone through the cold, barren wasteland of Wyoming, listening to music full blast, and thinking about the weeks of great independent cinema to come. So on that note, we shall be back in action later this evening coming to you live from the mountains of Utah!