The Dark Knight was the evening’s biggest winner, taking home five awards including Best Action Film, Best Writing, Music, Special Effects and Best Supporting Actor for Heath Ledger.

On the television side, it was Battlestar Galactica that took home the most awards winning Best Syndicated/Cable Television Series, Best Actor on Television: Edward James Olmos, and Best Actress on Television: Mary McDonnell. Lost received the Saturn Award for Best Network Series, beating out Supernatural, Fringe, Heroes, Life on Mars, and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Battlestar was up against an odd mix of shows for Best Syndicated / Cable including The Closer, Dexter, Leverage and more predictable, Star Wars: The Clone Wars and True Blood.

Moonlight took the award for the best modern DVD with Invaders winning for retro DVD.

Several special awards were presented throughout the evening, Lance Henriksen took the Life Career Award, Jeffrey Katzenberg received the Visionary Award and Leonard Nimoy was handed the Lifetime Achievement Award.

You’ll find a full list of winners after the jump. You can find the list of nominees here at the Saturn Awards Website.

Photos by Newscom

THE WINNERS OF THE 35^TH ANNUAL SATURN AWARDS

Best Science Fiction Film: Iron Man

Best Fantasy Film: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Best Horror Film: Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film: The Dark Knight

Best Actor: Robert Downey, Jr. (Iron Man)

Best Actress: Angelina Jolie (Changeling)

Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)

Best Supporting Actress: Tilda Swinton (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)

Best Performance by a Younger Actor: Jaden Christopher Smith (The Day the Earth Stood Still)

Best Director: Jon Favreau (Iron Man)

Best Writer: Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan (The Dark Knight)

Best Music: Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard (The Dark Knight)

Best Costume: Mary Zophres (Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull)

Best Make-Up: Greg Cannom (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)

Best Special Effects: Nick Davis, Chris Corbould, Timothy Webber, Paul J. Franklin (The Dark Knight)

Best International Film: Let the Right One In

Best Animated Film: Wall-E

Best Television Series: Lost

Best Syndicated/Cable Television Series: Battlestar Galactica

Best Presentation on Television: The Librarian: The Curse of the Judas Chalice

Best Actor on Television: Edward James Olmos (Battlestar Galactica)

Best Actress on Television: Mary McDonnell (Battlestar Galactica)

Best Supporting Actor on Television: Adrian Pasdar (Heroes)

Best S upporting Actress on Televison: Jennifer Carpenter (Dexter)

Guest Starring Role on Television: Jimmy Smits (Dexter)

Best DVD Release: Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer

Best DVD Special Edition Release: Stephen King’s The Mist (2 disc Special Edition)

Best DVD Classic Film Release: Psycho (Universal Legacy Series)

Best DVD Collection: The Godfather-The Coppola Restoration

Best Series on DVD: Moonlight

Best Retro Series on DVD: The Invaders

The Life Career Award: Lance Henriksen

The Lifetime Achievement Award: Leonard Nimoy

The Visionary Award: Jeffrey Katzenberg

Post from: SF Universe

Goyer said the company is taking time to figure out a better plan for the development of these movies. They are, after all, cash cows with huge potential. The year 2008 will be remembered as a landmark year for comic book projects. Marvel Comics became the first comic company to have its own studio and came charging out of the gate with summer blockbuster Iron Man. A Samuel L. Jackson cameo at the end of that movie set up the storyline for an Avengers film. Marvel carried it on as Tony Stark showed up in The Incredible Hulk to talk about the team they’re getting together.

TM & © DC Comics.
Photo by Stephen Vaughan

But in terms of overall quality and mainstream media acceptance, 2008 was the year of The Dark Knight. Thanks to Heath Ledger’s captivating, Oscar-buzz gaining performance as The Joker, Knight was a genre-busting success. In print, DC was poised to take full advantage with the controversial Batman R.I.P storyline. Spoiler alert: Batman is not really dead.

Goyer said DC Comics was responsible for 15 percent of Warner’s profits last year, so Time Warner execs: Batman is your new boss. Maybe not quite, but he’s still really important. I can’t wait to see what comes of Warner Bros. efforts. A decent Superman movie would be a great start. Even better would be some movement on the Justice League movie that has been in development hell for years. Here’s hoping.

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As one of the biggest movies of the year, Warner Bros. expected big DVD returns with The Dark Knight and hasn’t been disappointed.The New York Times reports that 3 million DVD and Blu-Rays of the hit Batman sequel were sold on Tuesday.

Warner hopes the strong sales fuel the Oscar buzz the studio is trying to stoke for the movie. Not only is Heath Ledger a potential posthumous nominee for Best Supporting Actor, there’s also some talk of a Best Picture nomination. That would be uncharted territory for a film with mainstream comic book source material.

I can’t wait to see the nominations. Knight works on multiple levels and to call it simply a “comic book” movie would do it a huge disservice. The bar has been raised and I don’t envy anyone else adapting comic book material. I’m not even sure the next Batman movie can top this, even if all the key players like Christian Bale and Christopher Nolan return.

Image: The Dark Knight, Warner Bros., 2008

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Much of the X-Files’ problem resulted from timing. It’s been six years since the TV series went off the air. That’s tough enough for a show like Star Trek to overcome but with the number of questions a show like X-Files raises, it’s hard to maintain that interest over more than half a decade.

Also, there is the questionable decision to release the movie just a week after The Dark Knight. A lot of the X-Files’ fanbase (me included) was busy trying to see the Batman sequel a second time. Opening that closely to the biggest movie of summer gave the X-Files zero chance to open at number one.

The film reveals the alien invasion is supposed to take place in 2012, which seems to be trying to set up a sequel. But with these opening weekend numbers, I wouldn’t bet on it.

Image courtesy of 20th Century-Fox Film Corp., 2008

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The Dark Knight

The movie is benefiting from strong word-of-mouth, great reviews and repeat viewings. Experts are now giving it a shot at the $600 million record set by Titanic. No movie in the past decade has come remotely close to that mark. If any film can, Dark Knight looks to be the one.

To shatter the record held by Titanic, you need to be an event picture. This one certainly is. You need breakout performances and Heath Ledger, Christian Bale and Aaron Eckhart deliver them. Publicity is needed and boy do we have that going. Ledger’s getting posthumous Oscar buzz. Bale is the lead story on every entertainment news show because of his ill-timed legal trouble. This may be the perfect Bat-storm, comic book flick fans.

TM & © DC Comics.
Photo by Stephen Vaughan

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Sorry Spidey, another one of your records just fell to the Caped Crusader. The Dark Knight hit the $200 million mark in just five days, surpassing the eight days it took Spider-Man 2 to get there.

Now experts are speculating it could make as much as $500 million and might even have a shot at finishing just behind Titanic in all-time gross. Titanic pulled in $600.8 million domestically and $1.84 billion overall during its record run.

There is some concern that the negative publicity surrounding Christian Bale’s arrest could have a bad effect on the movie’s box office. But as the old saying goes, there’s no such thing as bad publicity.

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This is the biggest role of Han’s career and he’s ecstatic to have worked with an incredible cast including the likes of Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman and Heath Ledger.

“I was thrilled to find out I was going to be a part of this movie,” Han said. “I could never have expected something like this, it exceeds anything I could have imagined.”

Han is an integral part of Gotham’s mob dynamic in this one and he enjoyed playing in this group. There’s no honor among these thieves.

“It was a lot of fun,” he said. “It’s really become a free-for-all in Gotham between all these mobsters. It’s become an even more dangerous place to live in. The Joker adds an additional element of chaos to the mob battle. He also brings chaos to law enforcement as he causes problems for District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman and Commissioner Gordon. He’s just a wild card that neither the mobsters or the good guys really understand how to deal with.”

Like everyone else connected with this movie, Han was in awe at the character Ledger brought to the screen.

“He’s amazing,” Han said. “He gives an incredible performance. It’s like mercury, always changing. It was so hard to predict what he was going to do physically and mentally. Heath’s performance will undoubtedly go down as one of the great screen villains of all time.”

Han believes the critical praise being lauded on this one is well warranted and years from now, we’ll still be looking back at Dark Knight as a benchmark for other movies.

“I think it’s going to stand the test of time,” he said. “It’s so much more than a comic book movie. It’s a crime drama. It’s an exploration of human morality. It’s so well constructed on so many levels. I’ve heard it mentioned in the same breath as The Empire Strikes Back or The Godfather Part II. I think those are accurate references.”

Han moves right from one “event picture” to another as next he starts shooting 2012. That year brings the end of the world according to the Mayan character, so it’s a happy film. Not really.

Since it hasn’t even started shooting yet, there’s not a lot Han can say. The press materials say his character Lin Pang helps save citizens from the numerous natural disasters occurring in the movie. Han said audiences will be in for a “great thrill ride” with 2012. John Cusack and Danny Glover will be helping beat back the end of the world in this one too.

Image courtesy of Aquarius PR

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The recent events surrounding Dark Knight star Christian Bale are tinged with quite a bit of irony. After all, many folks in Gotham want the police to bring Batman in for his vigilante acts. Then, the actor gets arrested in a family dispute. Between Bale’s arrest and Heath Ledger’s death, the word curse is going to start being thrown around in connection with this movie.

I’m not about to pass judgment here, I’ve got a few family members I’m surprised I haven’t hit yet. I’m not thinking this will do anything to the movie’s second weekend take. I am a little worried about Warner Bros. overreacting because as we know, they’ll recast Batman at the drop of a cowl. At the rate the franchise was deteriorating I think Vin Diesel was in line to play Batman.

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Bat-mania reached an all-time high due to the untimely passing of Heath Ledger and his critically-acclaimed performance as The Joker. His dark, twisted villain is drawing some of the best reviews of any bad guy in cinema history.

With this being the last big film of the summer, it’s expected to have a good long run at or near the top. It’s of course the type of movie that lends itself to repeat viewings, so these numbers are only going to grow.

TM & © DC Comics.
Photo by Stephen Vaughan

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Image details: World Premiere Of "The Dark Knight" Presented by Belstaff – Inside Arrivals served by picapp.com

No less of a critical luminary than Roger Ebert has noted there’s something special going on with the comic book movie. Beginning with Spider-Man 2 and culminating (at least so far) with Dark Knight, Hollywood is being turned upside down by this movement.

It’s not a coincidence that every book anyone’s ever heard of (Captain America, Flash) is at some level of production as well as a few books most folks haven’t heard of (Caliber, Afterburn). One thing that hasn’t changed: most of these movies will probably suck. But the bar for how good they can be has gone through the stratosphere.

There really isn’t a good excuse for the likes of Elektra anymore. Remember how far the Bat franchise had fallen? Even George Clooney thought he and Joel Schumacher had killed it. To be honest, they did put it on life support.

But those bad works have been forgotten, if not undone. I’m torn. I want a Bat sequel because the first two Nolan films have been incredible. But I don’t know how Nolan can top himself. There aren’t enough superlatives to heap on The Dark Knight. I was a little sad as I left the theater. I was sure before going in nothing this summer would top Dark Knight. I left the movie wondering if anything I see this year will top it.

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