Stories Covered

• Gorillaz Plastic Beach [Buy from Amazon.co.uk]
• Plan 9 Form Outer Space
• the Angry Video Game Nerd
• Green Lantern Casting
• Why Josh Hasn’t Watched Predator
• 3Inches
• Hackers Soundtrack Love
• Muppet Movie News
• Legend of the Seeker
• Sparticus Blood & Sand
• Your Bond, Doctor, and More
• Big Finish Productions
• Warehouse 13
• Predators
• Caprica Gets Second Season
• Shows With Long Breaks
• the Pacific
• Alice Feedback
• Ultramarines Film
• Stargate Universe Trailer
• Smurf Movie

OK, so i was excited for the featurette, i was over the moon at the idea of more Predators… I made no qualms about sharing with you all my unnatural Predator love.  My passion for all things with mandibles… is like a fire that burns deep within my soul… and loins.  And then mere days later we are presented with the trailer. Ok, so we’ve seen a fair bit of it in the featurette, but now we can see it in context!

Royce, a mercenary who reluctantly leads a group of elite warriors who come to realize they’ve been brought together on an alien planet… as prey. With the exception of a disgraced physician, they are all cold-blooded killers mercenaries, Yakuza, convicts, death squad members human “predators” that are now being systemically hunted and eliminated by a new breed of alien Predators.

Predators is slated to hits theaters on July 7th, 2010.

Trailer

[See post to watch Flash video]

And NECA are making the toy along with Hot Toys…. i may need to be alone for a while… just talk amongst yourselves….

This week we celebrate St Patrick’s Day with the 1991 film set in Ireland: The Commitments

Tracks Covered

• Mustang Sally
• Take Me to the River
• Chain of Fools
• Destination: Anywhere
• Try a Little Tenderness
• Treat Her Right
• Bye Bye Baby
• In the Midnight Hour

I make no bones about the fact that i am a HUGE Predator nerd, i have figures, i have played the games, i have watched all the fan films, all the feature films and even forgiven certain films simply because they had a Predator in them… I have wished i had dreadlocks just so i could wear a fishnet bodysuit and armour. I have built and painted the bloody model kits!!! I LOVE ME SOME PREDATORS!!!

And so does Robert Rodriguez and Nimrod Antal!  Finally, only a few of months before it’s due for release we have seen our first behind the scenes and actual footage of the new film in the now 4 film long Predator film franchise and it looks pretty damn awesome! We see some Laurence Fishburne, some Adrien Brody and a hint of a couple of Predators and even a Predatorpooch! Enough of me, go watch it!

Trailer

[See post to watch Flash video]

SO, do you want me to whisper “turn around” and “anytime….” in our ears while we wait for the full trailer? What do you think, does it bleed?  Can we kill it?  Feedback ya bunch of slack jawed F@&&*ts!!! Feeding back will make you a goddamn sexual tyrannosaur!!!! LIKE ME!!!

Lots of news to catch up on, including the official name of the PS3 motion controller! Read on!

Multiplatform news

Now Playing: March 15-21, 2010 – Joystiq: Notable this week: Metro 2033 and some DLC…

BioShock 2’s First DLC Already On Disc – Slashdot: “Trouble is brewing in Rapture. The recently released Sinclair Solutions multiplayer pack for BioShock 2 is facing upset players over the revelation that the content is already on the disc, and the $5 premium is an unlock code.”

Haven’t we already been through this? BAD 2K! You should have learnt from Capcom’s error with Resident Evil 5!

Battlestar Galactica Gets Its Own Massively Multiplayer Game – Kotaku: “The battle for the fate of humanity continues this fall, when NBC Universal and Bigpoint launch Battlestar Galactica Online, a massively multiplayer browser-based game set in the universe of the award-winning Syfy television series.”

I wonder if they’re only going to let 12,000 or so people play it?

This could either be really cool, or really bad...

Lady Gaga Must Be A Command & Conquer Fan – Kotaku: “A deadly cocktail of nerd poisons, featuring the toxic element from EA’s Command & Conquer series combined with a few equally sly Dune and Star Wars references, as seen in Lady Gaga’s (slightly NSFW) “Telephone” video.” Neato!

Kneel Before The Hardcore Gamer’s IQ Test – Kotaku: This is the coolest thing EVER! Prove your worth as a hardcore gamer by identifying all of the characters and/or games in the cool image accessible in large format via the link.

Use the DeviantArt image to try to ID things, or your eyes will start bleeding...

Dead Space 2 Asks Fans to Plan the Perfect Kill – Kotaku: “The makers of Dead Space 2 have put out a call for gruesome dismemberment ideas to be included in the game. The top submission not only will be rendered in the full release, its creator will be, too.”

You have til March 26 — get crackin’!

Crysis 2 Footage Looking As Nice As Expected – Kotaku: “Crysis 2 is at the Game Developers Conference, seemingly there not just for its own ends, but to help developer Crytek shill its engine, CryEngine 3. It’s doing a very good job.”

Is Crysis 2. Is CryEngine 3. Is pretty.

Monkey Island 2 Special Edition Hits this Summer – Kotaku: “Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck’s Revenge is coming to the iPhone, iPod Touch, Mac, PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 this summer.”

Xbox 360 news

Rumor: Gears of War 3 in April 2011 – Joystiq: “Edge says a source has put a pin in April 2011 as the release window for the third entry in Epic’s series — and we should expect the first teaser trailer next month, on April 8, with a full-on reveal at E3 in June.”

AWESOME! Can’t wait — I love a bit of chainsaw gun.

Microsoft’s Game Room for Xbox ‘rewinds’ the hits in our hands-on demo – Engadget: A virtual environment on your 360 where you can relive retro classics…and rewind mistakes. Perfect!

“Not only does it nicely emulate inserting coins and even entering in codes on a virtual keypad, but when playing games in the non-ranked classic mode there’s a “rewind” function accessible at any time with the tug of the left trigger. The screen gets those VHS-style wavey lines and you can mend your errors instead of losing a valuable life or having to start from the beginning.”

The Games Room rewind in action. Die no more!

Zune HD2 Will Be Like iPod Touch for Windows Phone 7 (Read: Apps! Also, Zune HD Is For Suckers) – Gizmodo: “Sorry, everybody who bought a Zune HD! You screwed up. It won’t be a part of the XNA Game Studio 4.0 party—meaning it won’t play those new mobile Xbox Live games for Windows Phone 7—unlike the Zune HD2.”

Gaming on Windows Phone 7 – Joystiq: “We already broke out the news you’re looking for: Each of the Windows Phone 7 Xbox Live-infused games will offer its players 200 Gamerscore points. You’ll be able to boost your Xbox rep in significant chunks without having to hunker down in front of a big screen for long stretches. You’ll never again have to go so long without hearing that satisfying “Achievement unlocked” sound. The world, as you know it, has changed.”

I might have to abandon my BlackBerry…

Windows Phone 7 Achievement Unlocked. I need a tissue.

Bungie Promises Teabagging Support for Halo: Reach – Kotaku: “I’m disappointed they caught it now. I would have much rather written about the game lacking teabagging support, hordes of angry gamers vowing boycotts and reprisals, flopsweat half-apologies and then, finally, “Teabagging patched into Halo: Reach.”"

John Cleese Voices Fable III’s Butler – Kotaku: “Cleese will play the role of a butler that you encounter when you press the start button in the game. In Fable II you’d take that action and get a 2D menu. In Fable III, your character will appear in a room full of his clothes, potions and a table representing the world map. Cleese will be in there to add some humor.”

Meet your new butler.

Sony PlayStation3 and PSP News

PlayStation Move: Everything You Need To Know – Kotaku: “Yesterday, Sony took the wraps off the PlayStation Move, which some people will call Sony’s next big thing in video gaming, and others will call a shameless Wii Remote rip-off. Here’s everything you need to know about it.”

Did I say this was going to be called Arc? Oops! Meet Move.

The Must-Play Magic Of PlayStation Move Involves… A Foam Finger? – Kotaku: “Don’t snicker at Move Party. It is the game most squarely targeted at families among the motion-sensitive games showcased today at Sony’s PlayStation Move event. It is the most magical game here.”

PlayStation Move Gets Its First Wii Port – Kotaku: “Warner Bros let us know today that The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest, a game previously headed for the Wii (and DS), will now also be making an appearance on the PlayStation 3, “with full support for PlayStation’s upcoming motion controller technology”.”

Clearly, the best usage of motion controllers I've seen yet.

Gran Turismo 5 ‘Nights’ trailer is appropriately unlit, pretty – Joystiq: “It’s been a while since we last saw images from Polyphony Digital’s Gran Turismo 5 — at least ones that were capable of moving whilst being accompanied by high-octane trance music. Such moving pictures were released earlier today, likely in an attempt to remind us just how pretty the game really is. (Here’s a refresher course: It’s super pretty.)”

Rumor: Final Fantasy XIII PS3 Has Freezing Issues – Kotaku: “In the West, role-playing game Final Fantasy XIII is a multi-platform game, getting a release on the Xbox 360 and the PS3. While the PS3 version might look better, individuals are claiming that there are freezing issues.”

Oh noes! Say it isn't so!

Nintendo Wii and DS news

Metroid: Other M Might Have Been On-Rails, If Not For Team Ninja – Kotaku: Or, this article could have been titled “Don’t Let Nintendo make their own business decisions”.

“Yoshio Sakamoto, the Metroid co-creator and WarioWare producer, says that his latest game, Metroid: Other M, was originally planned to be an on-rails adventure. If that sounds like Metroid sacrilege to you, thank co-developer Team Ninja for changing Sakamoto’s mind.”

Free roam in Other M? Yes, please!

The fine print

This is by no means meant to be a comprehensive roundup of the entire week’s news. All stories are chosen for no other reason than that they got my attention and might capture yours. If something you think is more important, chime in on the feedback; we’d love to hear comments and have a conversation about it.

• By Simon Petrie
• Published By Peggy Bright Books

This here is a strange piece of goods. Mostly when you meet a collection of short stories — particularly from a writer who favours genre fiction, as Petrie does — the book aims to have some kind of a theme, or a cohesive timeline, or somesuch. Maybe it’s a ‘best of’. Or maybe it’s ‘all new work’, or perhaps ‘the collected stories set in the land of Spunt’, or whatever. This particular book is no such thing: two hundred and seventy-five pages (in PDF) carrying no less than forty-one titles in the TOC. Forty-two if you count the humorous introduction, putatively written by an alien professor with a really difficult name.

Forty-one titles is a lot. Half that is a decent sum for an anthology. Forty-one leaves you wondering exactly what set of filters have been used, what stories were chosen, and more importantly, what was left out.

Looks can be deceptive, though. A very significant number of the forty-one pieces in Rare Unsigned Copy are short: one-page, even half-page pieces.  ‘Guy Walks Into A Bar (Theme and Variations)’ is actually four distinct pieces, of no more than a few paragraphs each, all revolving around the old joke standby of the Man Who Walks Into The Bar. They’re not too bad, either: snappy little half-sized ideas, given exactly the space they really need. It’s interesting.

‘Snappy’ is one of the things Petrie does well. If I had to summarise the best elements of his work here, I’d say ‘short, funny, and clever’. All of those are good things in their own way, so my own response to the collection has intrigued me, and sent me back to the drawing board to think about  it, because the book didn’t engage me as much as I’d like to have been engaged, and I didn’t understand why. In the end, I concluded that it was the ‘short’ thing.

I love short stories, and have done all my reading life. Novels are fine, but a well-crafted short is a gem, a thing of beauty. Yet even though this classic form is described as ‘short’, it’s still long enough to draw you in with nifty characters, vivid, economical dialogue, cool settings and sharp plotting. The author is definitely capable of these. His tongue-in-cheek ‘locked room’ mysteries, devolving around the long-suffering Gordon Mamon and his jack-of-all-trades status in a hotel which is actually a space elevator are fine examples of the short story form. Not only do they have the dialogue, the setting, the characters and the plotting firmly in place, they’re also riddled with Petrie’s patent wordplay and sly cultural references. “Captain Kurtz, she’s dead,” says a crewman in ‘Single Handed’. And if I tell you that the crewman works aboard a spacecraft called ‘The Dart Of Harkness’ and you still don’t get the reference or the joke — well, there’s a lot of Petrie’s material which will go right over your head, I’m afraid. (But I laughed aloud.) His stories are peppered with stuff like that; clever little in-jokes that made me smile with every one that I caught.

In fact, Petrie’s stuff is clever enough that for once, I’m going to raise a warning finger and suggest that perhaps the writer is leaving a little too much to the reader. I did, in fact, work out the twist in ‘Horse Of Wood’, but I had to read quite carefully, and that’s saying something. Clever story, clever idea — perhaps just a shade too cleverly executed. Another example: ‘A Mole of Stars’ is the last title in the book. It’s a nice little piece, in the form of a note from a civilisation of a vanished universe, passing knowledge and a philosophy along to the inhabitants of the universe which follows. It has a good tone. It feels good. But… what the heck is ‘A Mole Of Stars’?

The answer is simple, if you remember high school chemistry. A ‘mole’ is a specific number of atoms or molecules, described by Avogadro’s number, which as everyone knows is 6.02 x ten to the 23rd power. You didn’t know that? Shame on you! Petrie certainly did, and he incorporated it into one of the most gently poetic pieces in the book. Which, obviously, can be a little jarring if you aren’t as scientifically fluent and literate as the author — but it’s actually a really cool image, which draws upon the smallest elements of the universe to describe the very largest, and manages to bring a human scope to the vastness of existence. Clever indeed.

Overall, this is a very interesting collection. It’s well worth the money: the scattershot approach ensures that it’s got something for everyone. There’s plenty of science fiction, fantasy, a little horror, even some straight-up non-speculative fiction, and oodles of half-page instant punchline pieces. I won’t give away the joke in ‘Sudoku for Psychics’, for example, but it’s quick and light and easily digested.

But so much of it is so short! As I said before, I found that the pieces I enjoyed most in this book were the longest, and that the quickfire shift from piece to piece, idea to idea to idea, didn’t engage me as much as I hoped. And I find that a little worrying. Not for Mr Petrie, but for myself, because I suspect this book is The Shape Of Things To Come — if not exactly Future Schlock. (Sorry. That’s what happens to me when I read somebody with a distinctive style… it rubs off.)

I note that his table of contents explicitly references Internet culture in at least two places, with ‘Podcast’, and ‘Dragonblog’. I also note that the shortness of many of his pieces means they can be published and distributed by mobile phone, or as the flashiest of flash fiction, for pocket computers and wrist-sized screens, and I think that this anthology may in fact be the precursor of a new thing. Simon Petrie, I think, with all of his crackling wit and clever, referenced humour, his short, punchy tales and his classic idea-as-hero SF approach, may well be the first author I’ve yet seen who has been polished and sharpened into a true creation of the Internet era. ‘Rare, Unsigned Copy’ is an anthology which I read very easily from the tiny screen of a netbook computer, and somehow, it seemed all the more right to be doing so.

In other words, I suspect that this approach — and particularly, the prose, humour and style of Simon Petrie — is very likely the beginning of an avalanche, an uber-meme: the Way Of The Geek In Print.  And if you consider yourself net-savvy; if you enjoy mixing and mashing between video and movie and music and computer-game, you should definitely buy ‘Rare, Unsigned Copy,’ because Simon Petrie is very much One Of Us… and it will be very interesting to see where the author goes next.

When terrorists threaten nuclear catastrophe, the world’s only hope is to reactivate decommissioned Universal Soldier Luc Deveraux.

• Director: John Hyams
• Writer: Victor Ostrovsky
• Year of Release: 2010
• Actors: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren, Andrei Arlovski
• Genre: Action, Sci-Fi
• Country of Origin: USA

Trailer

[See post to watch Flash video]

• Directed by Enzo G. Castellari
• Starring Fabio Testi, Vincent Gardenia, Glauco Onorato, Joshua Sinclair, Orso Maria Guerrini, Renzo Palmer and Salvatore Borghese

I’d never seen a Poliziotteschi film before, but it’s a genre that I’ve become aware of due to several podcasts that cover genre/cult films, so when I decided to take the plunge it was nice to have a few leads as far as directors and actors went. This film was one I’d heard reviewed positively on at least one show, and it comes up frequently as being a well regarded example of the genre, so it seemed as good of a place to start as any.

Nico (Testi) is a police inspector building a case against the local protection rackets, following them about their daily collections, taking note of their methods and routines, looking for the higher ups to cut off the mob at the top.  He follows the foot soldiers to a meeting with Rudy (Sinclair), their boss, who looks a great deal to me like Kevin Kline with his little mustache.  Nico is spotted watching them and Rudy commands his minions to take care of him, which involves them overturning his tiny European car and sending it flipping down a hill with Nico inside!  I have to give it to Fabio Testi on this one, he looked to be getting mouthfuls of dirt and broken glass every few seconds as this car rolled again and again and it is pretty wince-inducing to watch.

Nico naturally lands in the hospital after this altercation (this being the 70’s though, he’s still able to smoke in his room so he’s cool with that…), but he instructs his right hand man Salvatore (Borghese) to keep tailing their suspects.  Once out of the hospital, Nico approaches the store-owners and businessmen under the thumb of the racketeers, hoping that even one of them will have the guts to come forward and testify, but they’re all too cowed by the criminals to get involved.  Restaurant owner Luigi (Palmer) eventually agrees to testify, but his teen daughter is kidnapped and raped by the thugs while her father is at the police station signing his complaint, further scaring the other businessmen away from helping the police.  Nico is eventually dropped from the case as the Feds move in to take over, but he continues to keep tabs on the situation, following Rudy to a meeting with a shady night club owner named Mazzarelli (Onorato), who Rudy is trying to strong arm into letting him take over his drug trade.

The battle between Mazzarelli and Rudy’s crews ends with the night club owner being run down by Rudy’s car, leaving him a broken man.  Rudy’s foot soldiers continue their reign of terror with the local businesses, this time under the guise of political outcry and their destruction is categorized as violence associated with protests rather than a criminal syndicate, muddying the waters of any case brought against them.

Nico has a chance meeting with an old criminal acquaintance named Pepe (Gardenia), who he talks into ingratiating himself with Rudy’s crew to gain some inside information, which leads to a large scale battle between the cops and the gang.  Amid the chaos of it all we meet Gianni (Guerrini), a man who is returning from a hunting trip at the nearby train station, who suddenly whips out his hunting rifle and steps in to help out the cops.  How awesome is that? I had no idea you could do this! He’s hailed as a hero in the news; you gotta love the 70’s.  The cheering quickly fades when he’s targeted by the gang for revenge, and Nico finds himself pushed further and further by the escalating violence, until he moves outside the law in his quest for justice.

I really enjoyed the film a lot, Castellari has an interesting flair with the camera, framing many shots through an item in the foreground to spice things up visually: Nico enters a room visible through the broken bottom of a canister of laundry detergent, things like that.  He also stages an interesting gun battle, of which there are several as Nico and company do battle with numerous cannon fodder in addition to the four main antagonists.

Testi reminded me a great deal of Dirty Harry-era Eastwood in this one, and he’s a charismatic figure on-screen, though I have to admit that his nemesis Rudy (which is a stunningly un-imposing name, BTW) doesn’t exactly measure up as a crime boss, but not everyone can be The Godfather, now can they?

Oh, and there’s a great scene where Pepe and Nico stage a casual meeting in public to exchange information, during which Pepe casually pretends to read from what looks like a porno mag while they surreptitiously discuss the case, it’s very bizarre.  I’m just wondering where this park is, because I’d like to avoid it and its many attendants carrying their favorite stroke mags.

All in all, this was a very watchable film, and if this is any indication of the genre itself, this won’t be the last Poliziotteschi that I check out.

Give it a rental.

Trailer

[See post to watch Flash video]

Think Fabio Testi could take Clint Eastwood any day of the week? Let me know which Poliziotteschi I should watch next in the comment section!

A reporter in Iraq might just have the story of a lifetime when he meets Lyn Cassady, a guy who claims to be a former member of the U.S. Army’s New Earth Army, a unit that employs paranormal powers in their missions.

• Director: Grant Heslov
• Writer: Peter Straughan, Jon Ronson
• Year of Release: 2009
• Actors: George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey, Stephen Lang, Robert Patrick
• Genre: Comedy
• Country of Origin: USA

Trailer

[See post to watch Flash video]

Sarah Palin shopping Alaska reality show
The former Alaska governor is teaming with uber-producer Mark Burnett to shop a reality series about her home state, network sources confirm. Palin and Burnett made the rounds at at least three of the major broadcasters (NBC, ABC and Fox) while in Los Angeles. Palin and her family would be followed on-camera in the show, which one network executive described as “‘Planet Earth’ meets Alaska meets her family,” referring to Discovery’s high-definition nature hit.

Obama to mark ‘Most Wanted’ anniversary
President to discuss show’s impact in its 22-year history
President Barack Obama is going to help TV’s “America’s Most Wanted” mark the milestone broadcast of its 1,000th episode. Obama will be interviewed by the show’s host, John Walsh, on the episode airing 9 p.m. ET Saturday on Fox. The president will discuss the show’s impact in its 22 years as well as his administration’s anti-crime initiatives, including those involving white-collar crime.

Ice dancing reality series planned for ABC
Format would be similar to ‘Dancing with the Stars’
BBC Worldwide Productions is planning an ice dancing reality series for ABC, the production company announced. The “Dancing With the Stars” production company is planning a format that’s very similar to its current ABC hit, with six celebrities paired with professional skaters.

‘Who Do You Think’ watched NBC’s new show?
After a pair of fairly successful series launches this week (and, in the case of “The Tonight Show,” a re-launch), NBC’s midseason efforts had a mixed outcome on Friday night with the debut of “Who Do You Think You Are?” This new reality show (6.9 million viewers, 1.6 preliminary adults 18-49) shows celebrities their ancestral past, with last night’s debut featuring Sarah Jessica Parker learning a relative was accused of witchcraft. A 1.6 demo rating is not a number any network covets for a series premiere, but given the ever-lowering bar for success on Friday nights, “Who Do You Think” was only a tenth of a point behind time-period winner “The Ghost Whisperer”

Brooke Burke to co-host ‘Dancing’
Show alum begins new season March 22
ABC has tapped Brooke Burke as the new “Dancing With the Stars” co-host. The seventh season “Dancing” winner and longtime TV personality has also hosted TV Land’s “She’s Got the Look,” E!’s “Wild On” and CBS’ “Rock Star.”

More Horsemen

• History Channel eyeing ‘Pawn Stars’ spinoffs
• ABC books return dates for ‘Wipeout,’ ‘True Beauty’
• NBC re-ups with Miss Universe, USA
  
  

TiVo launching new set-top box
$300 Premiere to feature music, films as well as TV
With new set-top boxes that include the first major overhaul of its iconic user interface, TiVo is pushing Internet videos, music, feature films and other content to the forefront, right alongside traditional TV fare. Its new product line, dubbed TiVo Premiere, also marks the first set-top boxes to be built on an Adobe Flash platform, allowing for easy development of third-party applications.

Movie exhibitors’ stocks seeing big gains
Shares up thanks to 3D films and their premium ticket prices
Shares in exhibition companies have risen sharply since the last Academy Awards. In some cases, one-year gains exceed 100%. Cinemark set a 52-week high, following similar spikes by Regal Entertainment Group and Imax. Carmike Cinemas, which focuses on smaller and midsize markets, hit a 52-week high in late 2009. By contrast, exhibs were trading near 52-week lows last March. Since then, enthusiasm for 3D movies and their premium ticket prices has driven boxoffice to seasonal and annual records, helping to popularize exhibition stocks.

Viacom will sue bloggers who post unauthorized ‘Daily Show’ clips
Hulu announced yesterday that Comedy Central was pulling “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” from the popular video website. The decision will impact the many downstream websites that have relied on Hulu’s embedded player to gain access to these shows. Fox says bloggers are free to use Comedy Central’s embedded player to post clips, but they’ll be restricted to the network’s choices. If the network chooses not to post a particular clip, a viewer would be out-of-bounds to post their own digital copy.

Imax, Netflix shares take a tumble
Drops due in part to concerns about competitive pressures
Recently trading at decade highs, Imax fell 10% to $12.86, while Netflix dipped 2% to $67.55. Imax investors may have been spooked by a research note from Merriman Curhan Ford analyst Eric Wold, who reiterated a “sell” recommendation based on AMC Entertainment’s intent to expand the number of non-Imax giant-screen auditoriums in its domestic circuit. Netflix has had a remarkable run since going public eight years ago, with its shares trading near an all-time high of late. The stock rose 260% during the past six months. But the trio of analysts suggested that Netflix shares have risen too high in light of competitive threats from the Internet delivery of feature films.

RealNetworks ordered to pay in DVD lawsuit
The MPAA won its legal battle over a disc-copying product
The MPAA on Wednesday declared victory in its legal battle with Internet software company RealNetworks over a DVD-copying product. Under terms approved in federal court, RealNetworks also will abandon its claims against the studios and pay $4.5 million to reimburse them for legal fees and costs incurred in litigation. The resolution includes a permanent injunction by U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel, barring RealNetworks from manufacturing or marketing RealDVD or any similar product.

Minutae

• Media firms starting to pay dividends again; Companies rewarding investors
  
• TiVo destroys Dish in latest patent ruling

Planet of the Odd

Sarah Polley pulls name from ‘The Heart’
Director says Oscar short might market brand of margarine
“In December 2009, I made a film to be aired during the Academy Awards that I believed was to promote the Heart and Stroke Foundation,” Polley said in a statement. “I have since learned that my film is also being used to promote a product. Regretfully, I am forced to remove my name from the film and disassociate myself from it. I have never actively promoted any corporate brand, and cannot do so now.”

Zanuck: ‘George Lucas is the Thomas Edison of our time’
“He’s the only person with the exception of Sam Goldwyn who literally put his own money in; Sam financed and owned 100% of all those great pictures he made, and no one else has ever done that, not like he did. George put it back into ILM and Skywalker Ranch and THX sound. He put it into the greatest equipment, all of it up-to-date… He’s the only one who ever gave back to the industry in terms of the technology investment. And I guess James Cameron, now, but that’s on a different scale. He’s really been an innovator like nobody else. He’s the Thomas Edison of our time,” says producer Richard D. Zanuck.

The Mad Hatter prevails! Author Frank Beddor sizes up an icon
Bestselling author Frank Beddor knows the landscape of Wonderland as the creator of the “Looking Glass Wars” series of novels and the “Hatter M” graphic novels. Today, as Disney basks in the glow of a $210-million opening weekend of Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland,” Beddor considers the pop-culture persistence of the Mad Hatter.

The story behind Oscar’s “Kanye moment”
We talk to the two filmmakers whose personal fight became one of the ceremony’s weirdest moments Video
Bigelow vs. Cameron? Streep vs. Bullock? Forget it. The most riveting face-off during Sunday’s Oscar ceremony came early: When producer Elinor Burkett wrestled the microphone away from director-producer Roger Ross Williams after their film, “Music by Prudence,” won for best documentary short.

19 arrested for trespassing during Oscars ceremony
Los Angeles police arrested 19 people on suspicion of trespassing at the Kodak Theatre during the  Academy Awards ceremony, officials said Monday. Those arrested Sunday included two men from Texas who jumped a barricade outside the event and nine students “on holiday” who used fake MTV credentials to gain access to the red carpet. Also arrested was a Berkeley man in his late 60s who was intoxicated and wearing “a sparkly getup,” a police report said. Another half-dozen people were arrested after the ceremony as the theater was being cleaned, LAPD officials said.

Bits and Pieces

• James Cameron at TED: ‘Curiosity is the most powerful thing you own’

The Fine Print

This is by no means meant to be a comprehensive roundup of the entire weeks’ news. All stories are chosen by me for no other reason than that they got my attention and might capture yours. If something you think is more important chime in on the feedback; we’d love to hear comments and have a conversation about it.

‘The Crazies’ Director Says His ‘Flash Gordon’ Movie Is ‘Not A Remake’
“It’s definitely based on the Alex Raymond strips from the ’30s and ’40s, told from the point of view as if he was redoing the strips today,” said director Breck Eisner. “The audience that was reading the strips back then was a very different audience that today’s audience. It’s an action-adventure, very dynamic, aggressive, with a really strong central character.”

Warner Bros. bulks up for ‘Superman’ litigation
Court battles continue to rage over the scope of termination and how much money might be owed. Warners won a trial court ruling in July saying that DC Comics, not Warners, should account to the Siegels, but both are owned by parent Time Warner. In 2013, the Shuster estate effectuates its own termination on Superman — at that point, as attorney Marc Toberoff recently bragged, “Neither DC Comics nor Warner Bros. will be able to exploit any new Superman works without a license from the Siegels and Shusters.” That’s one reason Warners is reportedly moving forward with a franchise reboot with help from Batman vets Christopher Nolan and David Goyer. Toberoff says that if a production isn’t started by 2011, he’ll sue to recover damages.

Darick Robertson On ‘The Boys’ Movie: ‘I Feel Very Confident’
“We’ll get a draft of that to read soon, but they were very open to me saying I’d like to be involved,” he explained. “I feel very confident — especially when we discussed the screenplay — that it’s faithful and they really are happy with it. They wanted it to be faithful and the writers seem to have delivered. When they told me stuff that was in the script, it was all scenes from the comic.”

Former ‘X-Men: First Class’ Writer Josh Schwartz Explains His Exit
“I finished my draft,” Schwartz said. “Bryan Singer came onboard the movie, who’s the best possible guy to direct the ‘X-Men’ movies, and he wanted to make a very different kind of movie. He’s Bryan Singer. If he wants to make an X-Men movie, they make his X-Men movie,” said Schwartz. “But it was a great experience and it was an honor to work on it.”

Stephen Lang Offered The Role Of Khalar Singh – The Main Villian In Conan!
Stephen Lang (the main villian in AVATAR) has been offered the role of Khalar Singh, the main villian in Marcus Nispel’s “CONAN.” According to a casting breakdown that leaked online last October… Khalar Singh is in his 40s to 50s, Asian or Middle Eastern, Central Asian, Mongol, Turkish, or Persian, open to all ethnicities; commanding in size and manner, a warlord and formidable warrior, brilliant, cruel, weathered and tanned by the many campaigns he has waged and won. He is driven in his quest to find the Queen of Acheron and has been building an empire to do so.

Excellent news! Looks good for Human Target, Fringe renewal
Great news for fans of Fox’s Human Target, which returns with new episodes next Wednesday, and Fringe, which comes back April 1: Fox honcho Kevin Reilly has said the network would like to bring both back next year. Yay! Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter’s Live Feed blog, Reilly, president of entertainment at Fox, said that “I’d like to bring [Human Target] back next year” and that the network will renew its Thursday-night block of scripted programming, which includes the sci-fi Fringe.

Fox Picks Up The Shadow
Latino Review’s notorious trusted source ‘Pinche Taco’ got some new information about the project.  One, it’s no longer at Sony Pictures and he also mentions who they are looking at to direct the film: “Emma Watts at Fox is paying a MILLION DOLLARS to pick up The Shadow.  She may not realize what she is buying.  And get this, ninos- Raimi is no longer going to direct.  Word is he is looking at David Slade to direct the film.

Disney’s Domain Name Purchase Hints at Possible Ant-Man Movie
Today it has been learned that Disney has purchased a new batch of internet domain names. The most interesting domain in the batch is a domain for an Ant-Man movie: ANT-MAN-THEMOVIE.COM. Now, this doesn’t confirm anything… but Disney doesn’t usually purchase domain names without reason. Looks like they are considering an Ant-Man movie.

Wolverine Japan Adventure Is a Go
The next episode of the Hugh Jackman starrer is ready for a start next January. Christopher McQuarrie, of “X-Men” and “Valkyrie” fame, has finished the script that THR reported he was starting last August. No director has been signed. And the script is a little different than originally thought. Based on a story cycle by Frank Miller and Chris Claremont, Wolverine’s adventures in martial arts will be a love story featuring a Japanese actress, I am told. “It’s a beautiful story,” says a source, “and will be very different than the first film.”

Disney’s ‘Avengers’ Animated Series Arrives In Fall 2010
“The Avengers” will debut this Fall on Disney XD to prime younger audiences for 2012’s live-action “Avengers.” A previously planned “Hulk” animated series was reportedly shelved to allow Marvel to focus on the “Avengers” animated series; which may incorporate stories and characters from that series as well. “The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” is currently slated for 26 half-hour episodes.

Michael Shannon On His ‘Jonah Hex’ Role And Potential Sequels
“I play a fellow named Doc Cross Williams,” said Shannon. “In the comic book, or graphic novel, he’s kind of one of those old vaudevillian… He has a traveling show where he has cock fights and dog fights and strange creatures, and he’s a snake-oil kind of guy.”

Confirmed: “Smallville” On For 10th Season
The Superman-based drama “Smallville” will return for a tenth season next fall, a representative of The CW confirmed. Anchored by star Tom Welling, the drama has survived many changes as well as ups and downs in its nine-year run, surviving the change of a network and the departure of many original cast members from Michael Rosenbaum to Kristen Kreuk. However, “Smallville” has also adapted to meet the changes thrown at it. While earlier seasons focused on the trials and tribulations of teenage Clark Kent coming of age in the titular Kansas town and fighting teen threats mutated by “meteor rock” chunks of Kryptonite, today’s “Smallville” is much closer to a straight superhero drama set against the backdrop of the city of Metropolis.

Rachel Nichols Cast As Tamara in Conan
Rachel Nichols, the hottie who played Scarlett in G.I. JOE and the red headed Orion woman Cadet Gaila in Star Trek looks like she got the Tamara gig in Marcus Nispel’s “Conan.”  Nichols would be the 2nd G.I. JOE cast member to join Conan – Leo Howard, who played young Snake Eyes booked the young Conan gig as we first reported here. Nichols edged out other contenders like Cloverfield’s Jessica Lucas and the L Word’s Sarah Shahi.

Patton Oswalt Adds A New Chapter To ‘Firefly’ Universe With ‘Serenity: Float Out’
In June, actor/comedian Patton Oswalt will add yet another chapter to the “Firefly” universe with a one-shot comic titled “Serenity: Float Out,” picking up where the 2005 film left off. Written by Oswalt with interior art by Patric Reynolds and a cover by “Buffy” artist Jo Chen, “Float Out” explores how the end of one character’s life spins out into the beginning of a new chapter in the “Serenity” universe.

Plot Synopsis Revealed for Marvel’s Thor
Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment present the epic adventure, “Thor,” which spans the Marvel Universe from present day Earth to the realm of Asgard. At the center of the story is the mighty Thor (Chris Hemsworth), a powerful but arrogant warrior whose reckless actions reignite an ancient war. Thor is cast down to Earth by his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) and is forced to live among humans. A beautiful, young scientist, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), has a profound effect on Thor, as she ultimately becomes his first love. It’s while here on Earth that Thor learns what it takes to be a true hero when the most dangerous villain of his world sends the darkest forces of Asgard to invade Earth.

Meanwhile, Back at The Hall of Justice…

• Director Samuel Bayer Would Not Return for Nightmare on Elm Street Sequel; Hints at Comic Book Adaptation
• First Draft Of ‘Avengers’ Script Completed
• ‘Nightmare On Elm Street’ Director Wants To Take On ‘The Boys’ Movie
• ‘Priest’ Director Discusses Film’s ‘True Blood’-Meets-’Twilight’ Casting
• Official: “Green Lantern” Will Debut in 3D
• Wesley Snipes Explains What He’d Like To See In ‘Blade 4′
• BEHIND BUFFY SEASON 8: Meltzer Talks “Twilight”
• David Alan Mack on “Farscape: Scorpius”
• Olivia Wilde Describes Jon Favreau’s ‘Cowboys And Aliens’ Movie ‘Mashup’
• ‘Spider-Man’ Director Confirms Meeting With ‘Avatar’ Team, ‘Casting A Wide Net’ For Peter Parker
• Interview with Norwalk’s ‘Conan’ star Jason Momoa

The Fine Print

This is by no means meant to be a comprehensive roundup of the entire weeks’ news. All stories are chosen by me for no other reason than that they got my attention and might capture yours. If something you think is more important chime in on the feedback; we’d love to hear comments and have a conversation about it.

Stories Covered

• Men in Black 3
• Christopher Nolan Breaks His Silence
• Ghost Recon Short Film
• Corey Haim
• Alien Prequel
• A Gaming Voice
• Jim Henson Biopic
• Mark Miller & Scottish Movie
• The Boat that Rocked [Buy from Amazon UK]
• Police Academy Relaunch
• Caprica
• Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
• FFXIII
• Tron 2
• Felicia Day As Red
• Hulu
• ABC Premiere Dr Who iView

Its getting to the point where you can’t turn around without running into another adaptation from a comic book!  It used to be that you could safely scour the shelves of a bookstore, alight upon a bestseller and be pretty sure it would be soon making its way to the big screen, now you need to go to the comic shop down the road! The Losers pulls together a geek friendly cast (including Watchmen’s Jeffery Dean Morgan and Star Trek and Avatar’s Zoe Saldana), bases itself on a popular comic book series by beloved comics scribe Andy Diggle and then lets rip with the big gun and explosions!

Having not read the book, the premise sounds astonishingly close to that of the other big budget explosion filled movie of the year, The A-Team. It does look like a lot of fun though and i’d go see it just for Jeffrey! (And not in gay way… not that there’s anything wrong with thatsomeofmybestriendsaregay…..)

Trailer

[See post to watch Flash video]

Is it everything you could hope for in a comic to movie translation?  Have you read the comic?  What’s it like?  Feedback and please god let us know!

Nathan Fillion Hints At More Than Just A Sequel For ‘Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog’
“I’ve heard some of the lyrics for one of the new songs,” Fillion said. “I’ve heard a title for the sequel, and I’ve heard some great ideas. I’ve also heard of some kind of other accoutrements that are coming out aside from a sequel that we’re planning on. So… exciting things. ‘Dr. Horrible’ [is] far from dead,” he added.

HBO greenlights ‘Game of Thrones’ to series
HBO has greenlighted highly anticipated fantasy series “Game of Thrones,” the series based on the George R.R. Martin novels. The premium network has picked up the project for a first season debut next spring. Nine episodes plus the pilot have been ordered. Production will begin in Belfast this June. The sprawling tale set in the mythical land of Westeros tells the story of the noble Stark family who become caught up in high court intrigue when patriarch Eddard (played by Sean Bean) becomes the king’s new right-hand man. The four-and-counting books in the series would each be used as one season of the series.

V will reveal more spaceship! Lizard skin! Anna’s true face!
Andrew Orloff, executive creative director/visual-effects supervisor for Zoic Studios, the visual-effects team behind V’s spaceships and aliens, revealed his studio’s work on the upcoming episodes. “It’s just more,” Orloff said. “If you’re a fan of the show, you see the engine room of the ship in the last episode. We’ll keep continuing to open up and explore different rooms and parts of the ship that’ll be, I think, interesting for the viewers. It’ll drive the story forward, and for us, … since the entire interior of the ship is virtual, that means more visual effects work for us, for sure.”

Matt Stone & Trey Parker Are Not Your Political Allies (No Matter What You Believe)
Both men were adamant that the show has no political affiliation. “I would never want the show to be a Democrat show or Republican show, because for us the show’s more important than that. It isn’t for everybody else in the world, but it is for us. We don’t want you to come to it thinking, ‘These guys are going to bash liberals,’” Matt explained. “I look at it like this,” Trey added. “I have a cat, I love my cat and it’s like someone coming in and saying, ‘Hey, is that cat a Republican or a Democrat?’ He’s my fucking cat, leave him alone.”

Disney Channel developing ‘Tron’ series (and why the franchise reboot is outdated)
Disney Channel is developing a “Tron” animated series to follow the upcoming theatrical release of “Tron: Legacy.” The news was part of Disney’s upfront presentation Tuesday evening to media buyers and clients, which included a preview of the “Tron” series. Geared towards kids age 6-14, the plan is to precede “Tron” with another project, a 10-part “Tron” micro-series premiering in fall 2011 on Disney XD.

Firefly’s ‘Kaylee’ will guest on Warehouse 13
Browncoats rejoice! Our favorite cargo ship engineer, Jewel Staite (Kaylee of Firefly/Serenity fame), will appear in an upcoming episode of Syfy’s Warehouse 13. (She also played Dr. Jennifer Keller on Syfy’s Stargate Atlantis.) Staite tweeted the news herself: “Got offered a lovely role on Warehouse 13. Wish I could tell you more. All I can say is, you Browncoats are gonna freak.

Kill all humans! New Futurama is coming in June!
New episodes of the sci-fi animated show will arrive on Comedy Central in June. Comedy Central sources confirm that Thursday, June 24, at 10:00 p.m. is currently set to be the premiere of the first new half-hour episode of “Futurama” since 2003.

NBC renews ‘Office,’ ‘Community,’ ‘30 Rock’
NBC has renewed the rest of its Thursday comedies for next season — “The Office,” “Community” and “30 Rock.” The network previously picked up “Parks & Recreation.” “We are happy to give these early pickups to these critically acclaimed, incredibly funny comedies,” said NBC entertainment president Angela Bromstad.

‘Lost’ Returnees, ‘Brothers & Sisters’ Renewed
“Lost,” won’t come to an end without bringing back a few favorite characters. Desmond, Penny, Charles Widmore, and the French doctor, Rousseau, are all on their way back to the island. That means we’ll see Henry Ian Cusick, Sonya Walger, Alan Dale and Mira Furlan, respectively, all returning.

HBO series ‘Rome’ may finally be headed to the big screen
Multiple sources have confirmed that a big-screen sequel to the sword-and-sandals series is well underway. Rome creator/executive Bruno Heller — who went on to create CBS’s hit The Mentalist — has finished a script for Morning Light Productions, which financed the development and will produce the film.

‘Fringe’ picked up for a third season
Fox has picked up Fringe for a third season. Though the show isn’t exactly blowing the roof off of Nielsen — it’s been averaging just 7.6 million viewers and is ranked No. 50 in the all-important adults 18-49 demographic this season — it managed to survive in a tough new time period on Thursdays. The show returns with new episodes — and the promise of more visits from Leonard Nimoy and to the parallel universe — on April 1.

‘Third Watch’ actor joins ‘Burn Notice’
Coby Bell will play a cocky counterintelligence expert
“Third Watch” alum Coby Bell is joining USA’s flagship series “Burn Notice” as a regular. He will play Jesse Garcia, a cocky and sarcastic counterintelligence expert with a chameleon-like ability to assume different cover identities and an intense desire to see bad guys get punished. After his career ended under suspicious circumstances, Jesse is committed to finding out who burned him and tracks down the one person in Miami he has something in common with … Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan).

James Marsters on CAPRICA, And, Well, Everything Else
“I love anybody who has convictions enough to make mistakes because only people who make mistakes get into enough trouble to be called drama, I think…So, you know, I’m playing the character so actually I feel like I understand why he’s doing what he’s doing. He’s living in a time which is coming apart at the seams just like the Roman Empire did.  And…in his world people are committing human sacrifice and mass executions and mass orgies, friends are shooting each other in the head for fun.  And, you know, in Rome it was called the Coliseum and on Caprica it’s called the V-Club.”

Felicia Day comes to Syfy in fantasy tale Red
Felicia Day (The Guild, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog) will portray a werewolf-hunting descendant of Little Red Riding Hood in the new Syfy Saturday Original Movie Red, which is slated to premiere in 2011.

Matt Frewer Cast as Pestilence on Supernatural
Matt Frewer (Dawn of the Dead (remake), “Max Headroom”) has joined the cast to portray the third of the Four Horsemen to appear during Season Five: Pestilence.

But Wait, There’s More…

• ‘The Pacific’ actor, Jon Seda, joins ABC’s ‘Cutthroat’
• Michael Imperioli joins ABC drama pilot’187 Detroit’
• Jason Isaacs to star in Fox drama pilot ‘Pleading Guilty’
• Comedy Central orders ‘Workaholics’ series
• ABC shortens ‘Forgotten’ run
• Jason George joins ‘Off the Map’
• Lost spoilers: Jacob’s plan, Sideways Ben, Jack’s baby mama?
• How Fringe promises to shock you in its 2nd-season finale
• Trio joins Matt LeBlanc series ‘Episodes’ for Showtime/BBC comedy
• A glimpse of the new worlds of Caprica
• Blair Underwood joins NBC pilot ‘The Event’
• ‘Body of Evidence’ seeks Dana Delany
• ‘Friday Night Lights’ alum Scott Porter tapped as ‘Nomads’ lead
• Has Caprica Season Two Been Given The Green Light?
• Ryan Devlin will star opposite William Shatner in CBS’ ‘Shit My Dad Says’
• ‘Ugly Betty’s’ Ana Ortiz joins ‘True Blue’
• Q&A: NBC’s Angela Bromstad, president of primetime entertainment, on fall pilots, ‘Chuck,’ ‘Heroes’
• Q&A: Fox’s Kevin Reilly, president of entertainment, talks fall pilots, ‘24,’ ‘Target,’ Cowell
• Q&A: Steve McPherson, president, ABC Entertainment Group, on ABC’s comedy block, fall plans
• Q&A: CBS’ Nina Tassler, entertainment president, on O’Loughlin, Shatner, diversity
• Q&A: CW’s Dawn Ostroff, president of entertainment, talks pilots, ‘Vampire Diaries’ and more
• NBC sets ‘100 Questions,’ ‘Persons Unknown’ premieres
• Jeri Ryan cast in ABC’s ‘Body of Evidence’
• Caprica’s Esai Morales answers YOUR questions
• ‘Almost Famous’ star Patrick Fugit joins ABC comedy pilot
• ‘Worst Week’ star, Kyle Bornheimer, joins CBS comedy pilot
• Breckin Meyer, Mark-Paul Gosselaar join TBS’ ‘Franklin & Bash’
• Boone fans: Somerhalder to appear again on Lost. Maybe
• Rob Morrow cast in ABC’s legal drama ‘Truth’ pilot
• Brittany Snow joins David E. Kelley pilot
• Kevin Dunn, Nick Nolte in Milch/Mann HBO pilot
• ‘Heroes’ actress joins ‘Entourage’; ‘Hung,’ Sons of ‘Anarchy’ expand
• What’s Next for Dexter? How Is Michael C. Hall Doing? The Cast and Creators Tell You
• Sendhil Ramamurthy to co-star in new USA series ‘Covert Affairs’
• Jean Smart to ‘Hawaii Five-O’; Tom Cavanagh tapped as lead in ‘Edgar’

The Fine Print

This is by no means meant to be a comprehensive roundup of the entire weeks’ news. All stories are chosen by me for no other reason than that they got my attention and might capture yours. If something you think is more important chime in on the feedback; we’d love to hear comments and have a conversation about it.

‘Germ of an idea’ for fifth Indiana Jones film
“Steven [Spielberg] and George [Lucas] and I are sort of agreed on a germ of an idea and we’re seeing what comes of it. The process works like this,” Harrison Ford said. “We come to some basic agreement and then George goes away for a long time and works on it. Then Steven and I get it in some form, some embryonic form. Then if we like it we start working with George on it and at some point down the line it’s ready and we do it.”

What works, what sucks and what’s coming for 11 horror remakes!
Sequels notwithstanding, the studios are churning out one remake, reboot or “re-imagining” after another of familiar and not-so-familiar horror movies and franchises, the latest of which is The Crazies, Breck Eisner’s update of the 1973 George Romero movie of the same name. While the jury’s still out on A Nightmare on Elm Street—which probably qualifies as the Holy Grail of horror remakes—here’s a closer look at some of the other classic horror films that will return to the screen in the not-so-distant future and why the originals deserve to stand on their own.

Video game incursion into Hollywood could continue with Space Invaders
With a movie version of Missile Command essentially set up at Fox and an adaptation of Asteroids in development at Universal, it was only a matter of time before a studio decided to take on the grandfather of all video games, Space Invaders. Warner Bros. is negotiating to acquire feature rights to the landmark shooter from Taito, the Japanese company that originally manufactured the game.

Director Catherine Hardwicke to Wage DOT WAR
Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke is attached to helm Dot War, an action-adventure that’s described as a mix between Real Genius and War Games.  According to Pajiba, the film is about, “video-game programmer who is trained by the government to fight terrorist using virtual technology.”

GILLIGAN’S ISLAND Movie being Scripted by Wild Hogs Writer
Warner Bros. and Atlas Entertainment have brought on screen-writer Brad Copeland (Wild Hogs, Arrested Development) to script a big-screen adaptation of the iconic 1960’s CBS sitcom Gilligan’s Island. After a terrible storm, during what was supposed to be a three-hour tour, the passengers of the S.S. Minnow — Gilligan, the Skipper too, a millionaire and his wife, a movie-star, the Professor and Mary Ann — become stranded on an an uncharted and uninhabited island in the Pacific after their boat is shipwrecked.

Mickey Rourke Confirmed to Play Villain in WAR OF THE GODS
Mickey Rourke was in negotiations to play the villain in Relativity Media’s War of the Gods, which follows a young warrior Theseus who leads his men into battle with the immortal Greek gods to defeat evil and the powerful elder gods of the Titans in order to save mankind. It is confirmed that Rourke has been cast opposite Henry Cavill (The Tudors), who is playing Theseus, Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire) has been cast as Phaedra, an oracle priestess who must join Theseus on his quest to prevent the cataclysmic war from erupting. Rourke will play the part of King Hyperion, the ruler of Ancient Greece who does battle with the divines.

Warner Bros. is Releasing Sundance Hit SPLICE on June 4, 2010
One of the best films from this year’s Sundance Film Festival was director Vincenzo Natali’s Splice.  Starring Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley as genetic scientists that create a new life form with severe consequences, the film is original, dark, twisted, and it looks like a Hollywood produced film.  Basically, it’s a perfect film for a studio to buy and release on thousands of screens around the world. And that’s exactly what Warner Bros. is going to do as they’ve set a June 4 release date.

Guy Ritchie Attached to Direct Excalibur
Warner Brothers has put a production into development. But this one is not a remake of the Boorman film, it’s a big-screen adaptation of Warren Ellis’ Excalibur treatment . Now, the fact that Warren Ellis is working on a Excalibur movie isn’t new — he announced it on his own blog last July. The news here, actually, is who is angling to direct this version of Excalibur: Some dude named Guy Ritchie.

RIDLEY SCOTT’S ALIEN PREQUEL WILL OF COURSE BE IN 3D
When asked about if the new film could resurrect the franchise, art director Roger Christian seemed convinced. “I do,” he said. “Ridley told me some of his ideas when we were here in Toronto. He has a very clear understanding of where this should go. They kind of stopped dead one of the greatest horror franchises there’s ever been, and it had legs to go on. So I’m hoping he’ll revive another three. The world certainly wants it, and the fans want it – everybody. ”

Universal taking another ‘Midnight Run’
Robert De Niro will produce and star in comedy sequel
The studio is developing a sequel to “Midnight Run,” the 1988 action comedy that starred De Niro as a bounty hunter who must bring back an embezzler, played by Charles Grodin, across the country. Timothy Dowling, the writer behind Universal’s comedy “Role Models,” is being brought on board to pen the script that would bring back De Niro’s character, Jack Walsh, and pair him with a younger comedic foil.

30th Annual Razzie Award Winners Announced
The Golden Raspberry Award Foundation have announced the “dis-hours” for the year in film that was 2009. Michael Bay and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was the big “winner”, taking home three awards: Worst Screenplay (Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci must be proud), Worst Director and the not so coveted “Worst Picture of 2009″. Sandra Bullock, who is up for a Best Actress Oscar at this year’s Academy Awards for the movie The Blind Side, takes home two dishonors: Worst Actress (for her performance in All About Steve) and Worst Screen Couple (shared with Bradley Cooper for, yes, All About Steve).Bullock had said that she would accept her award in person if she won, and was true to her word. You can watch a video clip of Bullock’s acceptance speech embedded after the jump.

God Stars In 3D Book Of Genesis Bible Tale
The world’s oldest story is on a collision course with cutting-edge Hollywood technology. Paramount Pictures and former Walden Media co-founder Cary Granat producing with Reel Fx are mounting In The Beginning, a 3D telling of the creation story. The film is using The Book of Genesis as its primary resource. A script has been written by John Fusco (Hidalgo), and directing will be TV vet David Cunningham.

Amanda Seyfried Confirms Involvement with RED RIDING HOOD
Last year word broke that Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way banner is developing a Gothic reimagining of Little Red Riding Hood and that Orphan screenwriter David Leslie Johnson was going to write the script. Shortly after the film was announced Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke was brought on board to develop the film, which would be titled The Girl With the Red Riding Hood, the movie is being described as a werewolf movie, with a teenage love triangle at its center. It was rumored that Warner Bros. was looking at Amanda Seyfried to take on the lead. Last night on the red carpet she confirmed her involvement and gave a few thoughts on the project saying, “It’s amazing. It’s gothic. It’s dark. It’s beautiful. You get to play someone that’s unlike you…It’s a period piece and it’s going to be amazing.”

Liam Hemsworth to star in ‘Arabian Nights’ adventure movie
The actor is in negotiations to star in Inferno Entertainment’s 3D adventure directed by Chuck Russell. Written by Russell and Barry P. Ambrose, the period epic centers on a young commander (Hemsworth) who, after his king is murdered in a coup, joins forces with Sinbad, Ali Baba and the Genie from the magic lamp to rescue the queen, Scheherazade.

Muppet Update: Michael Gracey Sought to Direct Jim Henson Biopic, Fraggle Rock Goes Pop
The Henson company and Walt Disney appear to have come to an agreement and seem to be pressing ahead with the picture together. They have reportedly even agreed on the director they’d most like for the job. His name is Michael Gracey and this would be his debut feature after a slate of music videos and commercials, most famously the Evian spot with somewhat off-looking roller-babies that went atomic as a viral video. Gracey’s other work can be seen at the Partizan website.

The Cutting Room Floor

• ‘Princess and the Frog’ May Be Last Tune for Disney
• Cameron’s Fantastic Voyage script is done, who will direct?
• Transformers 3’s Optimus, Bumblebee getting makeovers
• Dustin Lance Black Scripting a J. Edgar Hoover Biopic
• Dracula tale ‘Demeter’ has ‘Counterfeiters’ director circling
• Martin Scorsese Says Even Films Like Precious Should Be in 3D
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt replaces James McAvoy in Seth Rogen cancer comedy
• ‘Hurt Locker’ producer banned from Oscars show
• Tim Burton to produce ‘Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter’
• THE CHUD INTERVIEW: ROBERT HARRIS (THE GHOST WRITER)
• Helena Bonham Carter gets a royal proposal from Tim Burton (to star in ‘Alice’)
• Justin Timberlake cast in ‘Bad Teacher’ with Cameron Diaz
• Cameron Crowe May Direct ‘We Bought a Zoo’
• DON’T CALL IT NOISE: A CHAT WITH AN OSCAR WINNING SOUND DESIGNER
• Woody Allen’s ‘Tall Dark Stranger’ lands at Sony Pictures Classics
• Harry Hamlin on ‘Clash of the Titans’ remake: ‘I’m sure it will be better’
• Michael Sheen’s research for ‘Wonderland’? ‘I lived with a family of rabbits.’
• Neil Patrick Harris Will Be Lead Smurf
• Danny Elfman Exclusive Interview ALICE IN WONDERLAND – Talks WOLFMAN, Composing, More
• Rachel McAdams joining Woody Allen film
• Johnny Depp and Tim Burton Interview ALICE IN WONDERLAND
• Fast & Furious 5 Taking Place In Brazil?
• Video Interview With Don Hahn & Peter Schneider For ‘Waking Sleeping Beauty’
• ‘Pet Sematary’ redo taps ‘1408′ scribe
• New Line reviving ‘Police Academy’
• INTERVIEW: ANTOINE FUQUA (BROOKLYN’S FINEST)
• ‘Tron: Legacy’ director: ‘We are on a new server now’
• Fox buys ‘Premature Maturation’ pitch from Cole-Kelly and Pitman
• Oliver Stone Plots Drug Cartel Drama
• Director Chris Weitz Interview THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON DVD – He Answers What Happened to the Deleted Scenes and the Commentary with Rob, Kristen and Taylor
• Is Keanu Reeves Returning To Bill and Ted?
• Lars and the Real Spook: Craig Gillespie likely to direct ‘Fright Night’ remake
• Vincenzo Natali’s SPLICE is Getting Edited Before its June 4th Release
• ‘Sopranos’ creator to direct coming-of-age film

The Fine Print

This is by no means meant to be a comprehensive roundup of the entire weeks’ news. All stories are chosen by me for no other reason than that they got my attention and might capture yours. If something you think is more important chime in on the feedback; we’d love to hear comments and have a conversation about it.

This week we take a look at Ian Softely’s 1995 film Hackers and all the great music that was featured on the first soundtrack.

Tracks Covered

Twenty eight years ago a film happened. Lets not say it came out, lets not even say it was released… it happened and for some of it blew our fragile little minds. That film was TRON, the first to use computer generated scenery and images to create an entire world. Bruce Boxleitner and Jeff Bridges took us on a journey through the computer world of Tron and introduced us to such awesome visual treats as the Light-bike racing and the bizarre death-frisbee game. It may have had a story… i can’t rightly recall, i was four. But TRON has become a part of our collective pop-culture memory and has been referenced in so many different ways through the years that it has almost become legendary. (I mean when Regurgitator do a video clip in TRON style you’ve crossed a line somewhere.)

Now we’re gearing up for the long talked about sequel… still nine months before it is released.  The first footage was released over a year ago, and it has been in development for a year or more prior to that! We’re still almost in teaser territory with this trailer, but its got a bit more to it… It looks AMAZING…. so go watch it!

TRON:LEGACY is a 3D high-tech adventure set in a digital world that’s unlike anything ever captured on the big screen. Sam Flynn (GARRETT HEDLUND), the tech-savvy 27-year-old son of Kevin Flynn (JEFF BRIDGES), looks into his father’s disappearance and finds himself pulled into the digital world of Tron where his father has been living for 25 years. Along with Kevin’s loyal confidant Qora (OLIVIA WILDE), father and son embark on a life-and-death journey of escape across a visually-stunning cyber universe that has become far more advanced and exceedingly dangerous.

Trailer

[See post to watch Flash video]

I want to be digitized and sent to Tron please… i don’t know if it will make me look all sleek and sexy in my light up suit, but it’s worth a shot.  What do you think?  Do you want to be a Light-cycle or one of the cool new Light-cars? FEEDBACK version 2.0

We’re back to the ‘Roundup,’ folks! How about a big hurrah for consistency?

Here’s what’s making gaming news this week.

Multiplatform news

Now Playing: March 8-14, 2010 – Joystiq: Check out an amazing list of titles available to buy this week. I’ll give you a hint: there’s Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition, some game called Final Fantasy XIII (never heard of it, have you?), and not much else.

Report: FFXIII On 360 “Isn’t Anywhere Near As Impressive” As PS3 Version – Kotaku: The gist of it? The gameplay looks the same, the framerate is better on the Xbox 360, but the cinematics on the PS3 version are far superior.

Which is which? I can't tell the difference...

Aussie ratings board to discuss an R 18+ rating at April meeting – Joystiq: “Adelaide Now says that the Australian National Classification Scheme could finally take a look at the ratings issue when it meets in April of this year.”

The problem with this? If Attorney-General Michael Atkinson keeps his job after the SA elections this month, the meeting will serve no real purpose. He’ll block changes.

NHL 2K11 skips Xbox 360 and PS3, only coming to Wii – Joystiq: Take it from (Cool) Shite’s resident hockey fanatic: you’re not missing anything. EA’s NHL series is infinitely better.

Batman: Arkham Asylum GOTY Edition not coming to North America – Kotaku: For once, Australia gets something cool and joins Europe and Asia as the only countries that will get a neat new 3D-compatible GOTY edition of Arkham Asylum.

First Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light Screens, Details – Kotaku: Tomb Raider it ain’t! Check out the first screens from Lara’s latest adventure here. It’s retooled and looking good!

Ooh, Tomb Raider-y! BUT NOT TOMB RAIDER!

Ex-Infinity Ward heads claim “Orwellian” moves by Activision – Joystiq: Where to begin with this one? Activision releases the two heads of Infinity Ward. The heads claim they were released unfairly. Let the legal drama begin!

Portal 2 confirmed for Mac, most likely also for PC and Xbox 360 – Gizmodo: After changing bits and pieces in Portal, including the game’s ending, Valve went ahead and announced its sequel will be on Mac. Also, Steam will be fully supported on Macs as well. Friggin’ cool!

Xbox 360 news

Halo: Reach Beta Footage Looks Like A Blast – Joystiq: Halo: Reach. Do I need to say more? Check out the video in the link.

Heavy-handed assassinations. Cooool.

ESRB outs ‘Lips: I (Heart) the 80s‘ – Joystiq: As if you didn’t have enough add-ons already, the ESRB have confirmed that Microsoft will soon bring out the fourth title in the Lips series.

Microsoft demos platformer across Xbox 360, Windows Phone, and PC – Joystiq: Imagine playing a game on your PC, saving, then heading to your Xbox 360 and playing from the exact point you left off. Now, transfer that game to the PC or your Windows 7 Series phone and keep going. Sound cool yet?

Sony PlayStation3 and PSP News

God of War III Review: Olympic Glory- Kotaku: “Bombastic, titanic, brutally imaginative and even occasionally subtle, God of War III is the latest, best reason for a gamer to save money and skip action movies. The better thrills are on a disc on my PlayStation 3.”

It's not a God of War clone because it IS God of War!

Happy Birthday PS2! – Joystiq: Can you honestly believe the PS2 has been around for 10 years and is still going strong?

Nintendo Wii and DS news

With The Help of Friends, Blind Man Beats Legend of Zelda – Joystiq: If you can only read one story this week, read this one. It’s so heart-warming you’ll be smiling for hours.

Game on, dude.

PC, iPhone, and other news

Portal updated with extended ending – Joystiq: If you can’t be bothered going to Steam and replaying the game, the link has the original the new endings. Just sayin’.

Is Portal. Is ominous.

Rumor: Ubisoft’s New DRM Scheme Already Torpedoed By Pirates – Kotaku

Ubisoft’s New DRM System Falls Down, Locks Out Paying Customers – Kotaku

Denial of Service Attack Kills Ubisoft DRM, Your Assassin’s Creed II Playtime – Kotaku

What a circus. Read through the above three articles and draw your own conclusions as to how Ubisoft’s latest DRM scheme is working.

The fine print

This is by no means meant to be a comprehensive roundup of the entire week’s news. All stories are chosen for no other reason than that they got my attention and might capture yours. If something you think is more important, chime in on the feedback; we’d love to hear comments and have a conversation about it.

• By Paul Haines
• Published By The Mayne Press.

I’ll be honest: I’ve been avoiding this review. Not because the book isn’t good. Quite the contrary, in fact. It’s rather too good. It’s a collection of short stories; mostly horror, a little SF, a little fantasy, but all of it brazenly, uniquely Paul Haines.

And there’s the problem, you see. I don’t know Haines up-close-and-personal, but in the close-knit world of Australian speculative fiction, it’s hard to be  a stranger from your fellow writers. Truth is, what I know of Paul I quite like. He’s got a wicked sense of humour, cool tastes in music, a sharp mind, we share some very good friends,  and he’s touchingly devoted to his family. He is, in fact, a Nice Guy.

At least, that’s the way it seems. But reading “Slice Of Life”, it’s completely impossible to reconcile the man I know of with the sly, savage, creepy, salacious sociopath who must have written this book. And that is very bloody disturbing.

It’s all in the tricks, of course. Haines frequently writes in first person, and uses his own name for the protagonist. “Spot Of Liver”, the story that ends the book, is one such. The Haines we get here is urbane, articulate, an oenophile with a fine palate, and something of a gourmand. He is also a cannibal, a relentless sociopath who is accompanied by what is either a seriously deranged hallucination, or an alien from a race intent on invading Earth with Haines’ help, and the son of a mother who appears to be considerably more horrible than this (hopefully fictional) Haines.

Tricks. Writing a version of himself into the narrative, Haines takes advantage of easy vernacular, deep point-of-view and effortless characterisation to make the Haines-on-paper horribly, skin-crawlingly believable. It’s like sitting next to an affable bloke on the train, talking about the weather and then having him suddenly, easily, frankly reveal himself as  a neo-nazi who thinks Hitler didn’t go far enough, a man who wants to offer frank details of how the Jews and the niggers and the slants should be disembowelled and fed to their own cats…

Tricks, maybe. But the effects are fucking unnerving. The ‘Haines’ stories include some of the best and creepiest in the book: ‘Slice Of Life’ itself of course, but more subtly, ‘The Devil In Mr Pussy’ which Haines acknowledges to contain rather a lot of autobiographic material.

This is Haines the writer doing what he does best: fucking with your expectations. Speaking frankly and casually of masturbation and deviant sexual desires. Turning a slightly off-beat incident in a cut-rate tour of Outer Pakistan into a tense, fraught fable of morality, terror and terrorism. Greeting you with an affable smile and a friendly wave while the knife slides under your jawbone and his cock slides up your arse as you fade into bewildered death.

These are Not Nice Stories. But they are very, very good. I’m not a  horror fan. I find most of it contrived, repetitive and predictable. From time to time, the best writers can produce something that keeps my attention: King, Bloch, a handful of others. But none of them have ever put together a collection of stories like this. Slice Of Life made me feel dirty, somehow complicit as I read it. It turned me into a grinning voyeur, a kind of drooling hillbilly sidekick to the demented psychopath making Ned Beatty squeal like a pig. I wanted a long shower when it was done, and quite honestly, I doubt I’ll ever be completely relaxed in Paul Haines’ company again.

Favourites? I don’t think that’s the right word. But I loved ‘Necromancing The Bones’, and what it does to conventional fantasy. The characters are solid, real, believable and altogether horrible ˆ and the story itself is a riot of depraved sex, murder, and vilely funny comedy of a shade much deeper than black. Haines’ introduction tells me there are at least two more stories around these characters. I must find them and read them.

Overall, this is a remarkable book by a writer whose deceptively clean and easy style masks real depth, and the kind of truthfulness that makes his version of horror visceral, nasty, and yet as fearsomely compelling as the sight of a shrouded corpse beside a wrecked car on the verge of the road. This is really strong work, and if you like horror, or dark speculative fiction, you owe it to yourself to get a copy.

Just don’t blame me if you feel the need to go to confession afterwards.

• Buy the book here: http://www.themaynepress.com/books.php?isbn=9780980615906

Released in the wake of Hollywood’s night of nights, Jon Favreau’s follow up to his stupidly successful superhero flick looks like its gonna kick our collective asses seven ways from Sunday. While not being quite as heavily action based, this trailer certainly gives us a bit more of the story and sets up some of the relationships between the characters. Oh and it has a fair bit of shooty-shooty bang-bang and lots of Downey Jr. being a suave mother-lovin’ iron suit wearing bad ass!  There is some nice stuff with Scarlett Johansson, and we finally get to see Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer and his big old army of roboty awesomeness!

One thing you know about Iron Man though; he will always have some new cool tech stuff, this trailer sure as hell delivers on that! It may not be Shakespeare, but as far as superhero films go it’s Othello and The Merchant of venice with big frakkin’ fight sequences!

Trailer

[See post to watch Flash video]

Are you like me? Do you want Iron Man to marry you? Feedback, let us know…. maybe we can have a group wedding…. i’ll be blushing down the front thought!

FROM THE DIRECTOR OF ‘OLDBOY’

Sang-hyun (played by top Korean star Song Kang-ho, of The Host) is a priest who cherishes life; so much so, that he selflessly volunteers for a secret vaccine development project meant to eradicate a deadly virus. When the virus ends up taking the priest, an emergency blood transfusion unwittingly delivers infected blood and turns him into a vampire.

Sang-hyun is now conflicted between the carnal desire for blood and his faith, which forbids him to kill. When a childhood friend’s wife, Tae-ju, comes to him asking for his help in escaping her life, Sang-hyun soon plunges into a world of sensual pleasures and sin.

• Director: Chan-wook Park
• Writer: Chan-wook Park, Seo-Gyeong Jeong
• Year of Release: 2009
• Actors: Kang-ho Song, Ok-bin Kim, Hae-sook Kim, Ha-kyun Shin, Dal-su Oh
• Genre: Drama, Horror
• Country of Origin: South Korea

Trailer

[See post to watch Flash video]

‘Our Little Genius’ subject of FCC probe
Mark Burnett pulled the show in January
The Federal Communications Commission probe was prompted by a complaint received in December from the father of a young whiz slated to compete on the Fox show, which has been shelved. It features children between the ages of 6 and 12 answering questions to win cash. The father’s name was redacted from the compliant that was obtained by the Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act. He alleged his child was coached by Mark Burnett Prods. employees.

MTV pushing out ‘cynical’ Generation X
“We’re pushing Generation X out,” Toffler said. “We’re slaves to our different audiences, for MTV that’s millennials, who are vastly different than Generation X; they’re definitely less cynical — they’re more civic minded.” As evidence of the fine taste of this benevolent new generational breed, MTV Networks president Van Tofflercited … “Jersey Shore.”

Canada shoots for its own ‘Wipeout’
ABC series already airs on Global Television
ABC’s reality TV stunt series “Wipeout” is coming to Canada. As part of a format deal with Disney, the Canadian distributor of “Wipeout,” indie producer Lone Eagle Entertainment is to produce a Canadian version of the reality contestant series.

E! renews ‘Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami’
E! is renewing “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” spinoff “Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami” for a second season. The duo will return to South Beach for 10 episodes this summer. The series has the sisters dealing with management issues at their DASH Boutique.

Buzz Aldrin to be on ‘Dancing With the Stars’
Buzz Aldrin. Apollo astronaut. Second man to walk on the room. Great storyteller. And now Aldrin will be “Dancing with the Stars.” There’s a pun there somewhere. Perhaps a million of them. Also in ABC’s just-released cast list for the new cycle premiering March 22: Pam Anderson, Erin Andrews, Shannen Doherty, Kate Gosselin, Evan Lysacek, Niecy Nash, Chad Ochocinco, Jake Pavelka, Nicole Scherzinger and Aiden Turner.

More Horsemen

• Craig Robinson to host ‘Last Comic Standing’
• NBC renews ‘Sing Off’, a cappella singing competition
• Miss America gets dumped again. TLC jettisoning franchise

Business of the Business

E1 Entertainment goes down under
Teams with Beyond Home Entertainment for DVD releases
Canadian producer E1 Entertainment has pacted with Beyond Home Entertainment to release DVD titles in Australia and New Zealand under the E1 brand. The E1 International Television division will also market Canadian TV series to local Australian and New Zealand TV networks.

Look out Netflix, Walmart is getting Vudu
Retail giant Wal-Mart will now enter the internet movie delivery world currently dominated by Netflix, by purchasing Santa Clara, CA based Vudu within the next couple weeks. With the acquisition, Wal-Mart will now be in direct competition with Netflix who offers movies by mail, internet on PCs, and streaming to your HDTV.

New TV pilot deal language putting a squeeze on residuals
TV studios and broadcast networks are insisting on new talent concessions to shave off-the-top costs like residuals. The test deals, which set the terms of employment for both the pilot and series, are tough for talent reps to negotiate because they must be signed before an actor auditions — when he or she has little leverage to extract concessions. Several studios now are including non-negotiable language allowing residuals for a first primetime rerun to be considered a “prepayment” of a regular’s series compensation. For instance, an actor who makes $30,000 an episode as a regular on a broadcast series usually might make $2,500-$3,500 more when that episode (depending on its length) is rerun for the first time. Under several new test deals, the residual already would be included in that actor’s salary.

STUDY: 50% OF INDECENCY COMPLAINTS DIRECTED AT FOX; CNN’S ‘SITUATION ROOM’ TOPS CABLERS
Members of the “tea party” don’t like MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow’s use of the word “teabagging.” According to FCC records obtained and analyzed by SNL Kagan, viewers have filed 1,239 indecency complaints connected to the phrase. Of course, NBC and CNN don’t even come close to the amount of ire directed at a March 2009 episode of Fox’s “Family Guy” in which a baby drank horse semen with his breakfast cereal. That episode generated a whopping 188,368 complaints.

Outlook for studios depends on hits, cuts
Weak DVD sales continue to affect companies
The film biz tends to be so volatile that more than one year of results is needed to draw broader conclusions about studio performance. But the data for 2009 provide the most recent financial snapshot of an industry marked by such disparate trends as layoffs, the folding of specialty labels and weak DVD sales on one side and boxoffice records, enthusiasm for 3D films and growth in electronic sell-through on the other.

Minutae

• ABC News layoffs announced, changes coming to ‘GMA,’ ‘World News’
• DreamWorks Animation’s 4Q beats predictions
• Cablevision trying out PC-to-TV relay service; send computer content to TV channel
• U.S. ad spending fell 9% in 2009

Planet of the Odd

Variety Will Kill a Bad Review of Your ‘Mediocre’ Movie For Just $400,000
Last month, Variety panned a thriller called Iron Cross. But the review has been disappeared from Variety’s web site, which probably has something to do with the $400,000 Iron Cross’ producers paid to Variety for an awards campaign.

Marie Osmond’s son committed suicide, police say
The death of Marie Osmond’s 18-year-old son has been classified as a suicide, police said Sunday. Los Angeles Police Department spokeswoman Karen Rayner told CNN she could not release further information because the death is a Los Angeles County coroner’s case. The coroner’s office said the case was on “security hold” and nothing further would be released Sunday.

Andrew Koenig found dead
Father says former ‘Growing Pains’ star killed himself
Missing U.S. actor Andrew Koenig, who starred in the 1980s television comedy “Growing Pains,” killed himself, his distraught father said Thursday after police located his body in an isolated area of a park. “Our son took his own life,” Walter Koenig, who portrayed Lt. Pavel Chekov in the original “Star Trek” TV series, told reporters at a late-afternoon news conference. Andrew Koenig, 41, was last seen Feb. 14 when he left the Vancouver apartment of a friend he had been visiting, and he was reported missing four days later after his father, in Los Angeles, received a despondent letter from his son.

STUDIO MUST PAY FOR DESTROYING JESUS CHRIST
A lawyer for Brazil’s Catholic Church has gone public with a dispute over the destruction of Rio de Janeiro’s famous Christ the Redeemer statue in November’s global hit “2012.” Seems the church didn’t enjoy the scene as much as we did, prompting archdiocese attorney Claudine Dutra to tell the AFP that Columbia didn’t get a proper copyright license to depict the country’s most famous statue.

Gary Coleman has seizure on ‘Insider’ set
Actor received immediate treatment from Drew Pinsky
Gary Coleman suffered a seizure on the set of “The Insider” and received immediate treatment from Dr. Drew Pinsky, who happened to be on set as well. “The Insider” says on its Web site that Coleman was taken to a hospital in stable condition.

Bits and Pieces

• Charlie Sheen leaves ‘Two and a Half Men’ for rehab
• Italy considers “Avatar” 3D glasses a hygiene risk
• Coolest school mascot ever? University of Mississippi wants Admiral Ackbar

The Fine Print

This is by no means meant to be a comprehensive roundup of the entire weeks’ news. All stories are chosen by me for no other reason than that they got my attention and might capture yours. If something you think is more important chime in on the feedback; we’d love to hear comments and have a conversation about it.

In Paris, a young employee in the office of the US Ambassador hooks up with an American spy looking to stop a terrorist attack in the city.

• Director: Pierre Morel
• Writer: Adi Hasak, Luc Besson
• Year of Release: 2010
• Actors: John Travolta, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Kasia Smutniak, Richard Durden
• Genre: Action
• Country of Origin: France

Trailer

[See post to watch Flash video]

I’m A Cyborg But That’s OK is the story of a young woman in a mental health facility. She was placed there because she believes she is a cyborg and electrocuted herself trying to “power up”. While in hospital, she meets a young man who thinks he’s a master thief. This works out for her because she needs him to steal her sympathy. It seems to be stopping her from killing all of the doctors who took her Granny away from her.

Over the past three months since I started writing movie reviews I’ve learned that there are different processes that result in reviews. Sometimes you watch a film already thinking that you might review it or sometimes you’re required to do so (i.e. if you’re sent to a screening, etc). And sometimes it’s evident within the first half hour of watching that you will most definitely be reviewing that movie. They’re the most fun to write, and usually the most fun to read.

When I sat down to watch Chan-Wook Park’s I’m A Cyborg But That’s OK it didn’t take long for me to decide that it deserved reviewing. Park is one of the cleverest filmmakers I’ve seen, making use of colours and textures to give the setting a very Sci-fi feeling. On top of this, I absolutely love the humour Park brings to each film he does (yes, even Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance). He’s quickly becoming one of my favourite directors.

The film itself is adorable in its madness. Sometimes displaying the patients’ delusions as they would see them, sometimes displaying what is actually happening, it makes no judgment. The backgrounds of these incredibly interesting characters are slowly explored and offer small suggestions on the possible causes of their delusions, but not questioning what made the characters prone to them to begin with.

The point of the movie is not trying to state that people should be left alone in their madness, in fact the destructive nature of Cha Young-goon is clearly illustrated by her refusal to eat. But it does seem to suggest that true understanding can only come with experience. The support offered to Cha Young-goon when she does eventually eat is genuinely touching.

The film is South Korean so obviously you shouldn’t bother if you don’t like subtitled films, otherwise everybody should do themselves a favour and watch it. It’s enlightening, and hilarious, cute and poignant. I loved it.

Trailer

[See post to watch Flash video]

Need a house call for your rice-megatron? Think I totally missed the point of this great little film? Think it isn’t great or little? Leave a comment, yo’!

New comic-based films spotlight undead cops and a superhero CIA
How does one follow up writing for Zeus, Athena and Medusa? Screenwriters Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi are giving undead police and violent superheroes a shot. The writing team of Hay and Manfredi have a pretty exciting year ahead of them. Their rewrite of The Clash of the Titans hits screens April 2, and they are already knee-deep in three new projects. Along with writing the comedy Staycation for Hangover director Todd Phillips, Hay and Manfredi are adapting two comic properties, Peter Lenkov’s R.I.P.D. and Garth Ennis’ The Boys.

Shane Black to Direct DOC SAVAGE
Columbia Pictures went out and got themselves a great director to take on the adventures of Doc Savage. Shane Black is known for directing films such as Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang and writing Lethal Weapon, so the guy has got some skills creating fun action adventure films, which is exactly what Doc Savage is all about. Savage is one of the most popular characters in the pulps of the 1930s and ’40s, the character was also popularized on radio, film and TV. Trained since birth to be nearly superhuman in every way, Doc Savage uses his skills and powers to fight evil all over the world.

Grant Morrison, Paul McGuigan And Stephen Fry Team Up For Scotland-Based Television Series
“It takes place over seven days around an event that happens in Scotland,” said “Push” director Paul McGuigan. “It’s a modern take on an old fable or fairy story. If you know [Grant's] work you might have an idea of what it will be like. It’s like Twin Peaks meets Brigadoon! It’s off the wall and smart but in a watchable commercial way. It’s still in the early stages but I’m very excited about it.”

Jon Hamm Responds To Fans Campaigning For Him To Play A Superhero
“Well, it’s interesting. I’m a huge comic book fan, first of all,” Hamm told MTV News. “I’ve collected them, I’ve read them since I was a kid. I am a big fan of the classic comics and also the darker ones that have sort of predominated in the last 10-15 years….I think what people are finding with the success of things like “Batman Begins,” “The Dark Knight,” “Iron Man,” it’s much more interesting to talk about the person behind these heroic personae rather than the flying, shooting fire and lasers and all this other stuff,” continued. “Although it has been interesting to see the evolution of the comic book film, because technology has essentially caught up with the ability to tell those stories.”

Captain America contenders: Krasinski, Crawford, Vogel, more
About seven actors have moved to the front of the super soldier serum testing line and have either tested or are expected to screen test this week and next at Marvel’s Manhattan Beach headquarters. Those known to be on the list with Krasinski include Michael Cassidy (who appeared in”Smallvile” and who tested for the Superman movie when McG was going to direct it), Patrick Flueger (one of the stars of “The 4400″ who most recently appeared in the Tobey Maguire movie “Brothers”), Scott Porter (TV’s “Friday Night Lights”), Wilson Bethel (“Generation Kill”) and Mike Vogel (“Cloverfield”).

Indian comicbook teams with Turner
Network to produce two toon features on Hindu mythology
Indian comicbook creator Amar Chitra Katha Media and Animagic Studios have tied up with Turner to produce two toon features and 26 half-hour episodes based on Hindu mythology. The films will air on the Cartoon Network in India later this year. First up is “Tripura: The Three Cities of Maya,” about the battle between the gods and the demons over the three cities of Maya.

Sean Hood Hired To Rewrite ‘Conan’ Screenplay
Sean Hood has been hired to rewrite the script for Conan, which starts filming on March 15th, directed by Marcus Nispel. Hood wrote a screenplay with similar themes for the same producers, Joe Gatta and Boaz Davidson at Millennium Films, called Hercules, which is currently looking for a director. The producers will focus on Hercules once Conan is finished.

The Director Of The Flash Is…
WB is lining up a director for another high profile DC character; Greg Berlanti is the leading contender to helm “The Flash”. The name should ring a bell or two, Berlanti wrote “Green Lantern” with one my favorites Marc Guggenheim and was once attached to direct the film before WB settled on Martin Campbell.

Angelina Jolie Says No to Wanted 2, Killing the Sequel
The actress has pulled out of the planned Timur Bekmambetov-directed sequel at Universal, and the studio has pulled the plug rather than recast the film. As for Jolie, she is now intent on starring in Warner Bros.’ Gravity, a space thriller to be directed by Children of Men’s Alfonso Cuarón from a script he wrote with his 28-year-old son, Jonás.

Mark Millar Updates ‘American Jesus’ Movie Status, Calls It A Sequel To ‘Passion Of The Christ’
“People were sniffing around ‘American Jesus’ and everybody wanted to do it, but they were really nervous about the subject matter,” continued Millar. “And genuinely, somebody [said] to me ‘Is there anyway we can do ‘American Jesus’, but maybe take Jesus out of it?’ I loved that,” laughed Millar. “It had to be the most brilliantly Hollywood thing I’ve ever heard [because] Jesus is in every scene in that book and its about the second coming. And they were saying ‘can we make it some kind of analogy of Jesus? Or maybe call him David?’ I was like ‘No, it’s got to be ‘American Jesus.” They said ‘ I just don’t know if anybody would go and see a movie with Jesus in it.’ And I [said] ‘Well, ‘The Passion’ made $650 million!’”

Big Plans For Superman, Batman & Co.
OK. So we know David Goyer and Jonah Nolan are writing The Man of Steel and Batman 3. We’re hearing outta Burbank a key reason behind Chris’ “Godfather” role is to help out li’l brother Jonah. “Why’s that?” you ask. Because latest rumblings peg him to sit in the director’s chair for the Superman reboot.

Eric Powell Says ‘The Goon’ Movie Is ‘In Good Shape,’ David Fincher ‘Won’t Just Be A Figurehead
“I think as soon as Fincher is finished working on the film he’s on now, they’re going to try and get this thing up and going,” said Powell. “It’s in good shape. We’re slowly grinding forward, but all the blocks have to be in place first…I fell into a perfect situation with guys who really get the comic,” he added. “You have to change things to make it fit in a format like this — especially with ‘The Goon,’ because the comics were such self-contained stories and so episodic. You can’t do it like ‘Sin City’ and do a linear telling of the comic.”

Kat Dennings Interview – Talks DEFENDOR, THOR, Twitter, DAYDREAM NATION, More
“I mean my brother had all those comic books and he had action figures and I grew up with that stuff. So yeah, it’s almost like wanting to be a Princess. It’s like you want to be a superhero, too. It’s incredible. It’s such a dream. I really can’t believe I’m in this movie.  I’m so excited. I’ve been thinking about it. It’s almost like when little kids know they’re going to Disneyland and they get really excited and start counting the days. That’s how I am.”

Jim Henson Company Confirms ‘Dark Crystal’ And ‘Labyrinth’ Comics Following ‘Fraggle
“Those will be attacked next,” said Melissa Segal, senior vice president of global consumer products at Jim Henson Company. “We haven’t gotten into real development, but we definitely have that in our agreement with Archaia to pursue. Segal said both companies are currently focused on their “Fraggle Rock” books for the 2010 calendar year, but they definitely have an idea of when their next release window will be. “If not late this year for the first issue, it will be early next year,” she said.

This summer’s cinematic trend is the light-hearted ensemble action thriller
The most promising film…is The Losers, based on a comic book by British writer/artist team Andy Diggle and Mark Simpson, aka “Jock”; the first few issues are available now in a collected edition. An old, forgotten franchise that the pair rebooted for the 21st century, it features a CIA Special Forces team, who escape an assassination attempt and exact revenge on the clutch of baddies that planned their deaths: a topical mixture of fictional stand-ins for Halliburton, Blackwater and the Bush White House. Stallone, by contrast, is still fighting anachronistic battles: Rambo IV replaced Vietnam with Burma, now The Expendables sees its star exchanging fire with South American dictators, a plot line that belongs in the 1980s – along with most of the cast.

Meanwhile, Back at The Hall of Justice…

• Mickey Rourke to play Conan’s father
• Shad Gaspard Describes His ‘Conan’ Audition
• IDW Launches Star Trek Movie Adaptation Comic
• How Much Does Brian K. Vaughan’s Early ‘Y: The Last Man’ Screenplay Differ From The Comic?  [SPOILER]
• BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD Video Game Has Been Announced
• ‘Iron Man 2′ Actress Describes Robert Downey Jr.’s Improv And Scarlett Johansson’s Russian
• David Goyer to help shape next Superman film?
• ‘True Blood’ Author’s Harper Connelly Series Gets Comic Book Adaptation
• ‘Thor: Tales of Asgard’ Concept Art Arrives Online
• Mark Millar Defends ‘Superman’ Pitch Allegations, Endorses David Goyer
• Bob Sapp Cast As Ukafa In Conan!
• ‘True Blood’ Creator Next Subject Of ‘Female Force’ Bio Comics
• David Hayter Talks What Happened to Marvel’s ‘Black Widow’
• ‘Crazies’ director talks plausibility, government mistrust and ‘Flash Gordon’
• Edgar Wright Explains Where ‘Scott Pilgrim’ Movie And Comics Diverge
• Mark Millar: Wanted 2 will go ahead without Angelina Jolie
• Jessica Alba Looks Back On Her ‘Fantastic Four’ Experience, Isn’t Involved In Reboot

The Fine Print

This is by no means meant to be a comprehensive roundup of the entire weeks’ news. All stories are chosen by me for no other reason than that they got my attention and might capture yours. If something you think is more important chime in on the feedback; we’d love to hear comments and have a conversation about it.