Early yesterday, the LA Times blog released quotes from Atlas Shrugged Part 1 writer/producer John Aglialoro which indicated that he was throwing in the towel on making Part 2 and Part 3. The reason, of course, was that the film just didn’t make its money back. Aglialoro spent a reported $10m of his own cash on the production, and a second week drop off hurt the independent flick considerably. The movie has currently only made $3.2m at the box office. It started with an impressive per screen average, but as with other films which zero in on an audience, everyone who wanted to see the movie saw it opening weekend. The numbers dropped, and an expansion was scrapped. Aglialoro very specifically blames critics and what he believes is a collective “fear of Ayn Rand” amongst them for the movie’s failings. So much for personal responsibility. However, it’s his ire and hatred of the critical response that has caused an about-face. Aglialoro now claims that, while he was once defeated, he now stands ready to proceed with making Atlas Shrugged Part 2 and Part 3. Like all misunderstood artists, he should.

As I expressed earlier in the week as our 2010 Year in Review began, I take it as a great honor that I am able to put together my list of the Best Films of the Year as part of my Editor’s Picks entry. And while I’m a massive fan of my own perspective and opinions, I’m an even bigger fan of the writing and ever-diverse tastes of the Film School Rejects reviewing staff. These are the folks who, through their sensational (and often divisive) review-writing, keep you coming back for more each and every day. They travel the world and brave the crowds at festivals, conventions, preview screenings and special events to bring you some of the industry’s sharpest, most honest film coverage. And I for one am honored to have them all on this team. Just as I did last year, I couldn’t wait to see which films each writer would put on their Top 5 lists as the best films of the year. And just as they did last year, they didn’t disappoint with their unique, ever-fascinating selections. So read on dear reader, as we present the crown jewel of our 2010 Year in Review: The Staff Picks.

Being a heavy horror fan is a tough gig. Most producers look at horror as a quick buck genre, a franchise to be used, abused, ridden hard and put up wet to make a profit. They don’t really care too much about putting out quality product, instead they just opt for product. Or at least that’s how it seems. 2010, to me at least, felt like one of the weakest years on record for horror. I thought last year was bad, but then the past 350 some odd days happened. I’m pretty confident I could say that this is the worst year for horror since the birth of Film School Rejects. It felt that bad. Regardless of my own disappointment in the movies this year, and in myself for missing a few releases, I scrapped the bottom of the barrel barren and plucked out ten (plus one!) [that means 11] horror movies that aren’t complete wastes of your time. Then again, you might just be better off buying all the Roger Corman Cult Classics for sale from Shout! Factory.

When the calendar page turns to October, we Rejects have only one thought: horror. To celebrate this grandest and darkest of months, we’ll cover one excellent horror film a day for the entirety of the month. That’s 31 Days of Horror and 31 Films perfect for viewing on a dark, chilly, October night. If you, like us, love horror and Halloween, give us a Hell Yeah and keep coming every day this month for a new dose of adrenaline. Synopsis: A small town is turned upside down when a military spawned virus is accidentally released into their water supply, turning them into raging, blood thirsty crazies with little regard for human life. With no way of stopping the assault, Sheriff Dutton attempts to lead a small group of survivors out of town. Killer Scene: Things get pretty intense inside of a car wash and people you’ve picked to survive drop like flies throughout the story, though the best scene for my money is the ending scene. Sheriff Dutton and his wife have finally made it to the military rendezvous point and discover just how the government planned on dealing with any survivors. While deciding what to do, the group is attacked by three crazed bikers leading to an epic battle in a trucking garage.

A couple of times each year I like to take a moment to just look at how horror is coming along in the year. Take a look back and what we’ve seen this year so far and gaze into the future of what’s still to come. Thus far, 2010 has been fairly underwhelming overall, and the horror scene has been no different on the big screen. We got, as usual, a bunch of remakes – at least four theatrical so far come to mind – and very few standouts. Perhaps the biggest news of the year in terms of horror was the remake of Nightmare on Elm Street being critically panned by everyone except me, but performing well enough to merit sequel considerations. On DVD, Roger Corman has been thrust back into the spotlight with Shout! Factory’s re-releasing of his massive library.

June was a rough month for This Week in Blu-ray. Only a few of you actively missed it, judging by the emails, but I’m sure that even more of you felt a hole in your very souls due to the lack of weekly Blu-ray buying advice. By my count I am four weeks behind as of today, four weeks that each had worthy releases — some of which you may have purchased already. So in an effort to be brief, I’ve selected the most prominent releases and mixed them in with the Blu-rays hitting shelves this week. It’s my way of smashing four weeks of release together and wiping away the blood. In the end, it should give you a good road map for what you should have been doing all along.

On a recent trip to Ogden Marsh, we drank the water, lost our minds, and reviewed the Blu-ray of one of 2010s Best Horror Films – The Crazies, starring Rob Hunter’s boyfriend Timothy Olyphant.

A town full of Crazies and a standoff between Red and Blue! Someone built a time machine out of a hot tub! Who stole the baby Hamm? Kuchar is a surname not a place! An award-winning White Ribbon! Percy Jackson and the cumblemore road-trip!

This week, on a very special episode of Reject Radio, we talk for three full hours about God Knows What (and The Oscars).

Robert Fure goes nuclear over the use of nukes as the government’s one stop solution for cleaning up messes.

Well, the best opening weekend for director Kevin Smith still wasn’t enough as Cop Out was nosed out by Shutter Island for its second straight winning weekend at the box office.

Early this morning — about 10 am, which is early to any movie blogger — I sat down with director Breck Eisner to talk about The Crazies. It was a unique situation for both of us. I had spent 4 of the last 12 hours of my life running a crash-course on the 27-year existence of The Crazies, watching both George Romero’s 1973 original and Eisner’s remake seemingly back-to-back. For Eisner, today is opening day.

Kevin Carr sits his chubbiness down weighs in on Cop Out and The Crazies.

Kevin and Neil celebrate the end of the February movie season by barely seeing any movies. Neil copped out on Cop Out and neither of the Fat Guys were able to see The Crazies before recording.

Welcome to another Reject Report, where the big question this weekend is whether Bruce Willis, Tracy Morgan and Cop Out can help the movie-going audience escape from Shutter Island.

In some regards, Breck Eisner’s new film The Crazies is the horror genre’s The Hurt Locker. What exactly do I mean by that boldly nonsensical statement? We’ll get to that in a minute. But first I want to talk about a few horror film cliches that crop up in the final half-hour…

We have one (1) prize pack of four original George Romero film including – Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Season of the Witch and the original The Crazies. Who wants it?

It’s Friday, and that means that it is time to take a look at This Week in Movie Posters. This week we have lost art for Inglorious Basterds, Kick-Ass, Russell Brand, creepy kids and a fascinating look behind the scenes of poster creation.

In early February, we debuted three exclusive new photos from the upcoming Breck Eisner directed remake of George Romero’s The Crazies. In fact, I noticed that more than a few sites debuted photos over the past few weeks. There were a lot of images floating around, but they all resided in different places around the web. Now that Overture Films has released their final press kit, we have all of the photos from The Crazies — in one place. Now you can see some of the scary ones, the funny ones and the ones with the ever-lovely Radha Mitchell. The Crazies is in theaters February 26, 2010.

Hey everyone, we survived the January doldrums! And it wasn’t too bad either, cinematically speaking… Daybreakers and Youth In Revolt were both great fun anyway. So what types of films does February have in store for us? Pretty much a bit of everything actually…