Director Chris Landreth was the sole Canadian Oscar winner this year for his short animated film, “Ryan”. The film is based on the life of Canadian animation pioneer Ryan Larkin, who produced some extremely influential animated films at the National Film Board of Canada 30 years ago. Nowadays however, Larkins lives on welfare and panhandles for change on the streets of Montreal. A true artiste if you will. “Ryan” mixes audio from real interviews with Larkins and strange, abstract 3D characters and imagery. You can watch the entire animated short at the link below in Windows Media, Quicktime or Realplayer format. For more info check out www.nfb.ca/ryan.

The Movie Network brings another interesting HBO original program to Canadian cable TV viewers this week with the comedy series “Unscripted”. Coming from Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney’s production company Section Eight (makers of the political fact meets fiction drama K Street), the show is a humourous look at the reality of what it takes to make it in Hollywood. With improvised situations based on real-life experiences, 3 young actors played by Krista Allen, Bryan Greenberg and Jennifer Hall struggle to land roles and make a living in the show biz world. The first season of Unscripted features 10 half-hour episodes, the first of which premieres on Sunday March 6th at 8:30 pm on TMN. For more info check out the official HBO site below.

Evil Dead star Bruce Campbell has another book in the works, and this one is sure to get the nerds and fanboys all worked up. Entitled “Make Love The Bruce Campbell Way”, it is sort of a fictionalized look at romance in Hollywood, told from the point of view of Campbell who claims to know absolutely nothing about relationships. I suppose it could be funny, although the fact that it does not draw on any personal experiences whatsoever begs the question… why Bruce Campbell? The book hits stores on June 1st.

It didn’t take long, but the next Splinter Cell game is almost upon us. Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory for the PC, X-Box, Gamecube and PS2 will ship on March 29th, but for now you can satisfy your curiosity with a single-player mission from the game and a handful of tutorial videos. The PC demo is now available on Gamespot DLX (free registration required) and the mission included takes place around a lighthouse in Punta Blanco, Peru. The game will also include the same unique multiplayer mode as Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow did, and a new co-op multiplayer mode. You can probably expect a second demo showcasing these elements of the game to be released in the near future.

A new Gauntlet game is due out later this year, and it looks like someone may finally have done a good job adapting this classic series for the current generation. Entitled “Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows”, the game is being produced by former id Software designer John Romero and Josh Sawyer of Icewind Dale fame. The game seems similar to the Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance series, that is, an action game with RPG elements, and for the first time it is supporting 4 player co-op mode online. Can’t wait. Check out a whole bunch of trailers for the game over at GameTrailers.com.

We all know that in the years between Quentin Tarantino’s movies, he does very little aside from sitting around smoking pot and watching TV. He is one of the biggest TV junkies known to man. So it only makes sense that he would eventually want to try his hand at directing some TV episodes. In the past he directed an episode of E.R., and now it looks like he is set to direct the season finale of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Little is known about the episode’s premise, but Tarantino reportedly pitched the idea himself. The episode will air on May 19th. In another attempt to attract a younger demographic, skateboarding legend Tony Hawk will guest star on an upcoming episode of CSI: Miami. In the episode he plays Jake Sullivan, a skater/video game tester who may have been murdered. The investigation will lead them into the wacky world of video game production.Sounds uhh… creepy? This episode will air on Monday, March 21st.

Space Junk Radio comes a day early this week, so get your download while the downloadin’s good. This week we cover a variety of topics including a review of Keanu in Constantine, a discussion about advertising in video games, and information about monkey brain controlled robot arms. Plus music from A.C. Newman, The Go! Team and so much more! Click below to download the MP3 now.

We heard a while back that Paul Schrader’s ill-fated version of Exorcist: The Beginning would be seeing a theatrical release sometime this year. (Paul Schrader had a clause in his contract stating that his version of the film had to be screened at least once.) Apparently it will premiere at the Brussels International Festival of Fantastic Film in Belgium on March 18th. More to the point though, the Exorcist: The Beginning DVD that is due out on March 1st reportedly includes a trailer for Paul Schrader’s prequel, and a scooper on Bloody-Disgusting.com has received an early version of the DVD. So naturally, the only thing to do is to share with the rest of the internet! The trailer is online now at the link below, and the strange thing is, it seems pretty similar to the trailer we originally saw for Renny Harlin’s cut. No word on when the movie may be screened in North America however.

You’ve probably seen Kirstie Alley’s commercials for Jenny Craig on TV recently and wondered how the hell she got so big. Well, after a few years of ridicule in the media, she finally decided to put her newfound girth to good use as a gimmick for a new TV series. On March 7th, her new show “Fat Actress” will premiere on Showtime in the U.S. and TMN in Canada. The show is mostly unscripted and finds her playing a fictional version of herself, ie. an overweight actress in Hollywood trying to find work. But what happens when Jenny Craig helps her shed the pounds? Suddenly she’ll have no gimmick and she’ll be out of work again. What a shame.

In the 80’s cartoon department, one animated series that a lot of people have been waiting for on DVD is Thundercats. From the sounds of it, they will soon get their wish. In a recent announcement, WB revealed that Batman: The Animated Series Vol. 3 and Superfriends: Season 2 would be coming to DVD on May 24th. Also in that announcement they state that “Thundercats: Season One, Volume One (3-Pack)” will be trailered on the Batman set. While there aren’t many more details other than that, the Thundercats DVDs are expected to be released sometime around June. More info on this as it develops.