News From the Lake: Ron Howard on Twitter, Voice Your Choice Winners, Drew Barrymore on the Essentials

Welcome back to another edition of News From the Lake.  In this series of news, we’ll be discussing a special opportunity to converse with director Ron Howard, the winners of Fox’s Voice Your Choice series are revealed, and Drew Barrymore is all prepped for another round of The Essentials.  Let’s see what’s going on!

It’s only 25 years old, so it might not be classic film eligible, but where else will you get a chance to chat via Twitter with Ron Howard and Warwick Davis?  In honor of the 25th anniversary of Willow, the director (Howard) and star of the film (Davis) will be talking to fans on March 12th from 2-2:30pm (Pacific time).  Want to get in on the chat, simply send them a message at their respective names (@RealRonHoward and @WarwickADavis) with the hashtag #WillowChat.  I have quite a few friends who adore Willow, the movie, and this could be a fun, simple way to interact with these acclaimed members of Hollywood.  Unfortunately, I’ll be in class, but if anyone sends questions that the stars answer…let me know!  Willow, the 25th Anniversary Edition, will be available on Blu-Ray and DVD on March 12th, as well.

About a month ago, I detailed 20th Century Fox‘s “Voice Your Choice” program; wherein, people could vote for a Blu-Ray release of a film that didn’t hadn’t received the treatment yet.  Each decade had a series of nominees, and Fox plans on putting out several of these throughout the year.  According to the finished numbers, over 42,000 people cast 80,000 votes, and due to demand they’ll be releasing the winner and runner-up of each decade.  The movies will be released December 3rd, with Cavalcade (which received the most write-ins) being released August 6th.  A second vote, with all new titles, is planned for later in the year.  Here are the list of titles, which you can pre-order at http://www.foxconnect.com.

Jesse James (1939)

Call of the Wild (1935)

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)

Black Swan (1942)

Carmen Jones (1954)

Desk Set (1957)

North to Alaska (1960)

Undefeated (1969)

Cavalcade (1933)

And finally, our friends at TCM want everyone to know that a new season of The Essentials, with hosts Robert Osborne and Drew Barrymore, returns with a new season this Saturday.  (The first film of the new season is Grand Hotel).  There’s an excellent array of films selected this year, and I recommend everyone head over to the TCM site to see what you should be staying home and watching.

That’s all from the Lake this week.  See ya next time!