Actor/comedian/musician Bret McKenzie recently earned his first Oscar nomination for writing the song "Man or Muppet" from The Muppets, which was nominated for Best Original Song at this year's Academy Awards. This marks the first time that a Muppet film has been nominated for Best Original Song since '1981s The Great Muppet Caper. This year also marks the first time that the Academy has decided to only nominate two songs in this category, which usually includes three to five nominations. McKenzie's sole competition comes from musical legend Sergio Mendes who wrote "Real in Rio" from the movie Rio.

Before being hired as the music supervisor for The Muppets, McKenzie was best known as one half of the Grammy Award winning musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchords along with his partner Jemaine Clement, who incidentally also wrote music for Rio. The two New Zealand natives eventually went on to make a name for themselves in the United States with their extremely popular HBO series, aptly titled Flight of the Conchords. The multi-talented performer will next be seen as the elf Lindir in fellow New Zealander Peter Jackson's highly anticipated Lord of the Rings prequels The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, and The Hobbit: There And Back Again. 

IAR's Managing Editor Jami Philbrick recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Bret McKenzie on the Disney lot in Los Angeles to discuss his work on The Muppets and his Oscar nomination for "Man or Muppet." The talented musician discussed working on the film, composing its music, what it feels like to suddenly be an Oscar nominee, why he thinks it was nominated over other songs from the film, his inspiration for the Oscar nominated song, why he's glad there are only two nominees in his category this year, what his Oscar performance would have been like had the Academy not decided to cancel the musical performances from the television broadcast, his favorite Muppet and why, who is the most difficult Muppet to work with, and adapting his Flight of the Conchords style of music for The Muppets.

What happens when the sequel to the most successful R rated comedy of all time is released on Memorial Day Weekend?  The Hangover Part II happens, earning an estimated $86.48 million over three days, accounting for the biggest weekend ever for a live-action comedy.  Kung Fu Panda 2 followed in second place, not quite living up to its predecessor, with Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides in third place.  It's an unusual weekend though, as both Hangover and Panda opened on Thursday, and will continue making it rain through Monday.

Back in the days before audiences really gave a rat's ruby starfruit about box office grosses, conventional wisdom held that the sequel game was generally one of diminishing returns, with each new entry earning less money than the film that preceded it.  Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, the fourth installment of the franchise, opened with an estimated $90.1 million in its first three days.  That haul qualifies the Johnny Depp vehicle as the biggest debut weekend of 2011 so far, but it also established that the Pirates series has been performed somewhat more like an old-fashioned franchise. 

The last few weeks have seen big summer movie debuts, with Fast Five pre-emptively cracking open the season and Thor following up with a respectable opening for a an arguably second-tier superhero.  With very little competition from other beefy superheroic types, Thor held on to the top spot for a second week, earning an estimated $34.5 million.  The big surprise this weekend was Bridesmaids; the raunchy wedding-themed comedy from Kristen Wiig exceeded all expectations in second place, with a projected $24.4 million opening gross.

As the first superhero film of the season, Thor officially kicked off summer this weekend, and the Norse God brought a moderate amount of box office thunder.  The Kenneth Branagh film debuted at number one with an estimated gross of $66 million, which is right in line with the expectations for the cinematic debut of the character.  After its big opening, Fast Five naturally fell to second place, with two new romantic comedies well behind in third and fourth place.

The marketing for Fast Five assured moviegoers that this year's summer movie season would begin in April, and based on its estimated gross, that assurance proved apt.  Not only did the fifth entry in Universal's improbably enduring franchise typify the summer movie style of over-the-top action, but its estimated weekend gross of $83.6 million broke the record for an opening weekend in April.  The previous record holder was, not coincidentally, 2009's Fast & Furious, which debuted with $71 million.

Each week the Rogue 5 spotlights the five coolest things happening in entertainment that you need to check out this week! We cover everything entertainment related including movies, TV, music, DVD & Blu-ray, Comic books, the Internet, and more. 

It's a good year to be an animated film.  If studio estimates prove accurate, then 20th Century Fox's Rio will have claimed the top spot for the second week in a row, pulling in a projected $26.8 million over the holiday weekend.  Tyler Perry's Madea's Family Reunion, meanwhile, nipped at Rio's animated heels with $25.7 million in estimated receipts.  This weekend was the second in a row that has exceeded the grosses from the same weekend last year, with another new release, Water for Elephants, adding $17.5 million to the overall box office.

The reign of family-oriented films continues, with Rio making what is estimated to be the biggest opening of the year so far with a projected $40 million haul over the weekend.  Not only that, but the animated musical led the pack in what was the first weekend of 2011 to see an increase over the corresponding weekend last year.  Rio accounted for the lion's share of the roughly 11% increase over the same three-day window in 2010, with the attempted horror franchise restarter Scream 4 earning an estimated $19.3 million, well below expectations.

I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t want to take a trip to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. By all accounts it is one of the most beautiful and fun cities in the entire world. That is exactly the premise that 20^th Century Fox is banking on with their latest 3D computer-animated film Rio, which opens in US theaters today. In fact, the film opened internationally last weekend and has already earned $54.9 million worldwide. The movie is a dream come true for Ice Age 2: The Meltdown director Carlos Saldanha who was born and raised in Brazil and has been working on this project for a very long time. The film promises to be more of a musical than the Ice Age series was and will attempt to capture the magic, the culture, and the music that makes Rio the incredible destination that it is.