AMC’s unveiled a four minute trailer for The Walking Dead, it’s adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s comics series of the same name. On top of that, we’ve got a firm premiere date of October 31st at 10pm. That’s right, Halloween night. Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, The Mist) is the man spearheading the long-form tale of the zombie apocalypse. The show stars Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes), Jon Bernthal (Shane), Emma Bell (Amy),  Steven Yeun (Glenn), Sarah Wayne Callies (Lori Grimes), Chandler Riggs (Carl Grimes), Jeffrey DeMunn (Dale) and Laurie Holden (Andrea).

The premiere will be an extended 90 minute episode written and directed by Frank Darabont with five additional episodes making up the first season. Episode 2 is written by Darabont and directed by Michelle Maxwell MacLaren. Episode 3 is written by Darabont, Chic Eglee and Jack LoGuidice and directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton. Episode 4 is written by comics creator Robert Kirkman and directed by Johan Renck. Episode 5 is written by Glenn Mazzara and directed by Ernest Dickerson while the sixth episode is written by Adam Fierro and directed by Guy Ferland. If the initial season is successful we should expect to see season two expanded to a full thirteen episodes.

Given what we’ve seen in this trailer, Frank Darabont’s involvement, the cool plotting of the comics and the great casting, I think we’re in for a treat come Halloween.

Disney has set a firm release date of June 8th, 2012 for John Carter of Mars, the adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ stories, specifically A Princess of Mars. The film marks the live-action debut of Andrew Stanton, director of Pixar’s Finding Nemo and WALL-E, though it will make heavy use of performance capture and CGI. Stanton wrote the script with Mark Andrews and Michael Chabon. Michael Giacchino (Lost, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Up) will provide the score.

The date is somewhat weird since it’s just one week before Pixar’s Brave (formerly known as The Bear and the Bow). Glancing at the known release dates for that summer, a lot of the weekends are already taken by big sequels and better known licensed properties, but there are still a couple weekends in May and June yet to be staked out. I suppose the two movies have significant enough different demos to support the move, but it leaves Disney doing heavy promotion for two big films at the same time. At the same time, I don’t really care when they come out, as long as they’re great and I have faith on that count.

The original novel, A Princess of Mars, began its serialization in 1912 and spawned eight other novels and several shorter tales over the following thirty years. A Civil War veteran of the Confederate side, John Carter finds himself taking refuge in a cave after an Indian attack when he is mysteriously transported to Mars. Due to the lower gravity, Carter has superhuman strength on the planet, which helps win him favor among the Tharks, a tribe of Green Martians made up of four-armed warriors twice the height of humans. When these people capture Dejah Thoris, princess of the humanlike Red Martians, Carter plots to save her and her people from their oppressors while winning her love along the way.

The film’s quite excellent cast is made up of the following:

• Taylor Kitsch (John Carter) – Confederate veteran of the Civil War.
• Lynn Collins (Dejah Thoris) – A Red Martian princess.
• Willem Dafoe (Tars Tarkas) – High ranking warrior member of the Tharks, one of the Green Martian tribes, who ultimately allies with Carter.
• Samantha Morton (Sola) – The daughter of Tars Takas, who has an unusually soft side for her species and must hide it.
• Dominic West (Sab Than) – The prince of the Zodangans, which is a tribe of the Red Martians.
• Polly Walker (Sarkoja) – A tyrannical Green Martian who delights in having Dejah as a prisoner.
• Thomas Haden Church (Tal Hajus) – An ambitious Thark, one of the tall four-armed Martians, waiting for his chance to be ruler.
• James Purefoy (Kantos Kan) – A Red Martian captain of a floating warship.
• Mark Strong (Matai Shang) – Ruler of the Therns (descendants of the White Martians) with godlike status.
• Ciarin Hinds (Tardos Mors) – Grandfather of Dejah Thoris and leader of their tribe.
• Bryan Cranston – A fellow veteran of the Civil War accompanying John Carter at the story’s beginning.
• Daryl Sabara (Edgar Rice Burroughs) – Fictionalized nephew of John Carter.

I really want to get some thoughts down on Rubicon‘s first two episodes before the third airs, so this might be a bit rushed and random. I’m loving the show, however, and hope to comment on it weekly provided I have the time. To quickly gloss over the premise, the show centers around Will Travers (James Badge Dale), an analyst at the American Policy Institute in New York City, a federally contracted intelligence agency. The teams and individuals here receive analysis assignments from the CIA and are given the available relevant data and then must find the patterns and draw conclusions in order to aid policy and presumably operation decisions. Will stumbles upon a string of identical questions and answers – one involves four-leaf clovers – in several newspaper crossword puzzles which hint at some kind of fourth branch of government (no, not the media). He informs his immediate superior and father of his late wife, David Hadas, who knows something about the crosswords but doesn’t reveal that to Will. Soon enough, David is presumably killed. Shortly before these events, a wealthy New England patriarch named Tom Rhumor commits suicide upon finding a four-leaf clover in his newspaper, leaving his wife Katherine (Miranda Richardson) to discover some of his secrets. Will soon takes over David’s job and we also learn that APL’s apparent boss is part of a group involved in instigating the suicide. Conspiracy and paranoia are afoot!

So, in a general sense I love the setting and atmosphere of the show. I love stories that let us see passionate people at their jobs, and while Rubicon hasn’t gotten too involved in any specific assignment given to Will and his team, we do get Will obsessing over the crosswords pattern and what it might have to do with David’s death. We also get a glimpse at another analyst, Miles, and his inability to deal with the apparent ignoring of work he did foreseeing bloody conflict in Nigeria. Prior to the series opening, we get the sense that Will enjoyed the puzzles and patterns for their own sake, as a challenge and a distraction from his grieving over his late wife and child, but then a pattern emerges that affects his mentor and father-in-law. Suddenly the work means something. Meanwhile, Miles is too obsessed with the aftermath and results of his work to function properly on current assignments. He actually cares about the analysis he’s doing. The fairly abstract problem solving at the heart of the job proves compelling when the characters (and performances) are so passionate and involved in it.

On top of the crosswords puzzle, Will sees indications that he’s being followed after his first day on the job. As an audience, we know he’s being followed and watched so his paranoia and caution is completely justified for us. We also know that there is some sort of conspiratorial group of men with some sort of controlling agenda. We also see that the analysts have limited control over what data they receive for their assignments and again, what their analysis is or is not used for. As the personalized note on David’s chessboard said, these people are pawns. They’re small players in the grand scheme of things. Important perhaps, but also expendable and replaceable (as we see in David’s apparent death and even Tom’s). I’m extrapolating a bit, but we see that David has a host of superstitions that he acknowledges are silly but he still obeys them fully. This is David finding a way of exerting a sense of control over his life. The second episode provides a glimpse that Will might unconsciously see value in the same path, gripping the rabbit’s foot while being tailed through the streets and demanding that David’s broom (purchased to help avoid a curse) is returned to the office. A key theme of the show, it would seem, is the stifling and dehumanizing nature of an analyst’s job. They live secret lives far away from the levels of government with actionable power. Their purpose is to solve puzzles, find patterns, analyze the data and pass the conclusions on up the hierarchy. What happens before and after that, and even during to a certain extent, is beyond their control. Miles sees that sometimes this is all a fruitless exercise with the Nigeria situation, but cannot unconcern himself with it. Tanya takes to drinking after just two weeks on the job. Ed Bancroft’s mind was allegedly broken by the work. David took to controlling minute elements of his life through superstitious beliefs. Will has taken to a potentially dangerous investment in the crosswords puzzle and perhaps to a little superstition himself. What are these people doing to themselves, and for what?

At this point I have to highlight a recurring visual motif that I particularly appreciate. A couple times we see individuals dwarfed by highly geometric pieces of architecture. When Will first leaves the office before finding himself being followed, he walks passed a large building front with cross-cutting steel beams. The shots are composed with Will as a smaller figure at the bottom of the frame with the large metal pattern everywhere above him. At the end of the episode, even the men spying on Will are shown to be tiny figures compared to the large repeating window panes hiding the empty floor in which they’ve set up their stakeout. We get the sense that the conspiracy is vast and pervasive and pawns can be found on every side. To get ahead of the game, these pieces of architecture could also withstand the removal of one its elements without catastrophe. The same seems to be the case for the conspiracy.

It’s about time. The second half of the fourth season of The Venture Bros premieres on September 12th and Adult Swim has been kind enough to release a trailer with a good chunk of footage. The half season will consist of eight episodes and the finale will be an hour long. Check out the trailer below or over at Adult Swim.

Previous to this video we knew a few details about what’s coming up, including King Gorilla’s release from jail, another appearance from Professor Impossible and a Fantastic Voyage scenario. Of course, there’s certain to be tons of new SPHINX stuff seeing as that’s the current drive of the mythology. The trailer shows off a few new enticing tidbits, like the return of Hank and Dean’s past selves (read: clones). Oh, and Dr. Mrs. The Monarch will gargle and spit.

It all looks insane and ridiculous and hilarious as usual, so I can’t wait.

Meanwhile, The Venture Bros: Season 4 Vol. 1 will be hitting DVD on October 26th. There won’t be a Blu-ray until around March when the full season is released on disc.

Here’s the trailer for Dexter‘s fifth season. Dexter’s aggressive involvement with Arthur last season and his general sloppiness in concealing his inner demons catch up with him in combination with the investigation into last season’s cliffhanger. If you haven’t seen Season 4 yet, you have no business watching this trailer.

The 5th season won’t have a ‘big bad’ like John Lithgow or Jimmy Smits but that doesn’t mean there aren’t new guest stars. The big two are Peter Weller (Robocop, Fringe‘s “White Tulip”) and Julia Stiles (10 Things I Hate About You, The Bourne Ultimatum), along with Johnny Lee Miller, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Shawn Hatosy and April Lee Hernandez.

Dexter returns to Showtime on September 26th.

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia will return to FX on September 16th at 10pm EST for its sixth season. I can’t say I’ve seen any details on any specific things the new season will feature, but I’d expect Charlie, Mac, Dennis, Dee and Frank to terrorize Philadelphia with more offensive antics.

Here’s the big new trailer for TRON: Legacy that Disney has unveiled at Yahoo to coincide with its San Diego Comic Con presentation. It’s fairly impressive though the special effects of de-aging Jeff Bridges are a bit iffy.

Tron Legacy picks up a nearly three decades after the original with 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. Bruce Boxleitner returns as his character, and is joined by Olivia Wilde, Michael Sheen, John Hurt, Beau Garrett and James Frain. Joseph Kosinksi is making his directorial debut on this one. Daft Punk is notably composing the film’s score.

TRON: Legacy will be in theaters on December 17th.

Circle of Confusion, the production company seemingly kicking ass at bringing The Walking Dead to AMC, has revealed it is also adapting Chew, the comics series written by John Layman. Anyone who’s been reading it can probably tell how it could be a fantastic show on cable or premium television, mixing police procedural elements, sci-fi/supernatural concepts and a whole lot of wacky mythology. Oh, and it’s often really funny. Deadline also reports that Stephen Hopkins is set to executive produce the series and direct the pilot. He’s previously done pilots for 24, Californication and The Unusuals along with movies like Lost in Space, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers and The Reaping. As of now there’s no word on where the show would potentially air.

Here’s the blurb for Chew: Vol. 1:

Tony Chu is a detective with a secret. A weird secret. Tony Chu is Cibopathic, which means he gets psychic impressions from whatever he eats. It also means he’s a hell of a detective, as long as he doesn’t mind nibbling on the corpse of a murder victim to figure out whodunit, and why. He’s been brought on by the Special Crimes Division of the FDA, the most powerful law enforcement agency on the planet, to investigate their strangest, sickest, and most bizarre cases.

If you’re wondering how the FDA became so powerful, Chew takes place in a universe where the avian flu killed millions of people, which leads to the FDA having to enforce a prohibition on chicken. Of course, there might be more to this than meets the eye.

I’ll also join in with many others and ask for Ken Leung (Miles from Lost) to be cast as Tony Chu. It’s just so perfect.

Here’s a spiffy new photo for The Walking Dead featuring the whole main cast that debuts on AMC in October. The series follows a group of people struggling to survive in the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse over the course of weeks, months and years. From left to right the characters and actors in the publicity photo are Emma Bell (presumably Amy), Jon Bernthal (Shane), Steven Yeun (Glenn), Sarah Wayne Callies (Lori Grimes), Chandler Riggs (Carl Grimes), Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes), Jeffrey DeMunn (Dale) and Laurie Holden (Andrea).

Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Mist) is spearheading the project. He’s directing the first episode and writing the first three. Per AICN the other directors are Michelle Maxwell MacLaren, Gwyneth Horder-Payton, Johan Renck, Ernest Dickerson and Guy Ferland. The other contributing writers are Chic Eglee, Jack LoGuidice, Robert Kirkman (creator of the comics), Glen Mazzara and Adam Fierro.

The Walking Dead is based on the comics series. The first season will consist of six episodes and premieres in October. Everything about this looks and sounds fantastic, and the comics are quite good in their own right (though Kirkman’s dialogue is a definite weakness), so zombie fans should be in for a real treat in a couple months.

Here’s a look at the Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Odin (Anthony Hopkins) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) from Marvel’s upcoming live-action film Thor. It’s like Batman and Robin meets the new Clash of the Titans. Marvel and Paramount are going to have their work cut out for them in selling this to the masses, between the costumes and the whole Norse gods thing. I’m pretty sour on Marvel’s movies thus far, especially with the obnoxious drive towards The Avengers, but I’ll wait for a trailer before writing this off. The talent involved is pretty solid after all.

Kenneth Branagh is directing Thor with a cast that also includes Natalie Portman, Stellan Skarsgård, Rene Russo, Kat Dennings, Ray Stevenson, Idris Elba, Colm Feore, Jaime Alexander and Clark Gregg.

At the center of the story is the mighty Thor, a powerful but arrogant warrior whose reckless actions reignite an ancient war. Thor is cast down to Earth by his father Odin and is forced to live among humans. A beautiful, young scientist, Jane Foster (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.

Thor will hit screens on May 6th, 2011. In select theaters it will feature post-conversion 3D, for those who care about that one way or another.

I’m often intrigued by murder mysteries and thrillers, even bad ones, because the whodunit elements and frequent dark material can stimulate me on multiple levels. It’s rare, however, those pieces coalesce into a story with something to say or a film that earns its mystery and suspense. Unfortunately, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, based on the popular Swedish novel by Stieg Larsson which I have not read, doesn’t transcend those typical failings. It’s kind of a mess with muddled logic, low stakes and an infusion of superficial edginess.

The story begins with popular investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) being convicted of libel against a large corporation. It’s insinuated that he was set up, but that’s not very important. In six months’ time he’ll go to jail for a short while. This has little to do with the film except for forcing the character to resign from his magazine and suddenly find himself with six months of free time. That’s the perfect opportunity for an old business mogul, Henrik Vanger, to hire Blomkvist to investigate the apparent murder of his niece, Harriet, some 40 years ago. For various reasons, the likely culprit is a member of the Vanger family, which includes some former (?) Nazis. Coincidentally, Blomkvist had been babysat by Harriet as a child, which serves as a fairly obnoxious excuse for bad flashback glimpses of the two of them (in fact, all of the flashbacks are strangely but consistently poorly acted and blocked). Presumably these are meant to add some stakes to the investigation and humanize the victim, but they accomplish little on that front. They do contribute to a major clue late in the film, but this feels cheap as it’s so revealing but also so removed from 90% of the investigative work Blomkvist and the film put in.

Parallel to Blomkvist’s story is that of Lisbeth Salandan’s (Noomi Rapace). She’s an introverted hacker with a gothic asthetic who begins her strained involvement in the plot by checking out Blomkvist’s background for Henrik Vanger. She clears him as a reliable investigator who was probably set up, but for inexplicable reasons she continues to keep tabs on him even after the job is over. There is never any logical reason behind this besides being a necessary plot point to get the two characters together. Eventually her personal story and the main mystery will share thematic similarities, but the impetus for her getting involved doesn’t make a lick of sense. For that matter, I’m not sure she belongs in the movie at all. She’s often just a walking plot point with her set of skills turning up copious amounts of evidence and relative material whenever needed or to otherwise bail out Blomkvist from any challenge sent his way.

Lisbeth, despite being 24 years old, is required to have a legal guardian as a result of some previous issues. As the movie begins, her guardian has croaked and she’s assigned to another, who turns out to be a twisted sexual predator. He leverages his control over her limited freedom and finances in order to gain sexual favors, and later force violent sexual acts. This plot ends up resembling a much more graphic and disturbing version of Hard Candy, where the victim ultimately gains control of the situation and has her own form of revenge, in this case violent sodomy and blackmail. I’ll take this moment to point out that an earlier scene involved her being assaulted by a group of young men in a subway station and that the main murder mystery also involves sexual violence. We also learn that Lisbeth’s family was abusive to her mother. The Swedish title for the novel and movie  Men Who Hate Women. It’s not clear, however, what this all adds up to. Is the movie trying to say something about males in Sweden? Hard to say considering the film has no shortage of positive male characters. There’s a pattern of Lisbeth punishing the story’s predators with sexual violence and/or death, but there’s no attempt to really justify this policy. In one case it’s somewhat understandable and in another it’s obscenely over-the-top and sick. To a certain extent, all of this sexual violence comes off superficially edgy, controversial and titillating instead of helping construct an interesting character. It feels quite exploitative. Lisbeth is pretty impenetrable, an almost immaturely quiet and closed off presence to both the other characters and to the audience. Maybe the two sequels are needed to give her substance, but here there’s little to define her outside of the sexual violence enacted upon and enacted by her. This results in a whole lot of wasted screentime.

Anyway, Lisbeth keeps remotely looking at Blomkvisk’s computer to check his status on the investigation, and eventually can’t resist piecing some clues together for him. Soon enough, they’ve met and are working together for the second half of the film. The basic murder mystery elements get a little clumsy here, with Blomkvist becoming thick and slow-witted in order to allow certain plot points to happen. For a supposed nationally famous investigative journalist, it’s disappointing when he’s often slower than the audience. At the same time, some important clues found in Harriet’s belongings lead to a much bigger mystery, but it never really makes any sense how or why Harriet figured any of it out in the first place. A couple brief action scenes are really awkwardly edited, for reasons that I believe to involve the gaps in diegetic time between shots and what the editing and shot types are telling us. The latter indicates to me that I’m watching an unbroken progression of time, but the former produces a weird effect of these scenes being rushed through. That was my impression anyhow. It’s difficult to keep track of the large extended Vanger family that the investigation involves, along with a variety of other small undeveloped plot tidbits thrown in, which is possibly a cause of the adaptation process.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo fails because it has no apparent philosophy. It’s not saying anything, at least not cohesively. There are several abusive, sexually violent men in this film, but there’s nothing concretely stated about these circumstances, nothing linking these predilections to a larger point. Lisbeth’s own personal story has real impact on the primary mystery, nor does Blomkvisk’s libel case, which comes back into play for an extended epilogue. The mystery of Harriet’s disappearance, which is the meat of the plot, is just a diversion from other poorly and shortly developed subplots for Blomkvisk and Lisbeth. They have no stakes in what they’re doing, and thus I don’t particularly care beyond a love of mysteries and puzzles. Unfortunately, even that element proves a mess with pieces that don’t completely fit together. It’s a mess of a mystery thriller spiced up with disturbing yet meaningless violence.

* Buy The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo from Amazon.com

Back at the end of the Nintendo 64 era, Nintendo and Treasure (Gunstar Heroes, Ikaruga) teamed up for an on-rails shooter called Sin & Punishment: Successor of the Earth featuring a sci-fi anime aesthetic and a nonsensical story to match. The game was wildly popular with those who got to play it, and eventually the game found its way onto the Nintendo Wii’s Virtual Console in 2007. More people got to play it, and one thing became very clear: it’s gameplay would benefit greatly from Wii controls. Thankfully, these two companies have delivered the Wii sequel fans wanted, even though it really doesn’t fit Nintendo’s branding at all. This isn’t a game for ‘casual’ players; even easy mode can be pretty damned tough. There’s no handholding or tips during boss fights, just a very basic tutorial in the beginning. Memorizing patterns, experimenting with attack techniques and good ol’ trial and error are necessary to figure out how to proceed. All of this, combined with the again incomprehensible anime story, can be a bit of a shock in contrast to modern game design, but it’s also a hugely fun throwback for those of us who grew up on this kind of design in the NES era.

The core Sin & Punishment: Star Successor gameplay is akin to Star Fox where the player, in this case one of two characters who can fly, progresses forward through the environment automatically, while the player shoots everything that moves and avoids obstacles and enemy fire. One of the unique aspects to the Sin & Punishment series (it’s officially a series now!) is the sword attack. When enemies are close you can slash at them instead of shooting. There will also be enemy attacks that can be deflected or even reflected back if you time the attack properly. This adds some nice variety and often strategy during more chaotic moments or boss fights. Sometimes it’s better to let an enemy missile survive until it’s close to you so it can be knocked back at a target of your choosing for more damage than your laser delivers. There’s also a dodge function (keeping with the Star Fox comparisons, think of the barrel roll) that lets you slip through enemy attacks without taking hits. Dodging and jumping (when/if you are running on the ground instead of flying) are controlled with the nunchuk’s buttons while aiming, shooting, slashing (quick tap of the shoot button) and charging shots are done with the Wii remote. Outside of the pointer function, the game doesn’t use any other motion controls.

Killing enemies in succession without getting hit yourself increases your score multiplier, giving you more points each time you destroy something. Get hit, and the multiplier drops a point or two, but it’s nice that it doesn’t reset completely if you screw up once. After beating the game, this will prove to be the most important mechanic as beating your own high scores, and other people’s on the online leaderboards, will be what gives the game longevity. Even without actual scores, it’s fun to replay stages and master the enemy patterns and get into a zone of blowing up everything in your path while dodging bullets, which at times will easily number in the hundreds. That last point leads to the game’s significant degree of difficulty. It’s been a long time since I’ve played a game so challenging on its easiest setting. You will face swarms of dozens of enemies that might all be firing upon you. Bosses can have some complicated attack patterns that aren’t always easy to figure out how to exploit. Levels are also pretty long, so even on easy your health can be a concern. Game overs won’t be a rare sight even on the easy setting, but it’s never too discouraging. There’s even an optimistic little chime that occurs upon death that helps ease any frustration.

Beyond the difficulty, which – as in all rail shooters – decreases as you replay the game and learn its patterns, perhaps the other possible problem is the game’s length. This is an odd complaint, but it’s perhaps too long, at least to play through in one sitting. For most games, that would be a good thing, but with a rail shooter that ultimately finds value in encouraging replays for beating high scores, it’s a little more complicated. Doing a score attack on individual stages is simple enough, but if you’re trying for a high score for the whole game, it’s just physically tough to do. Halfway through, my hands are cramped and my brain is getting loopy. There’s a save feature, but there’s something unsatisfying about taking a break while going for a high score. It doesn’t quite let you get the bliss of getting into a zone and ripping through a game you’ve learned inside and out. Not like, say, Star Fox 64 or even Sin & Punishment: Successor of the Earth. The likely result is that doing score attacks on individual stages will be the preference for most gamers. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it is a bit different to the genre’s history.

It also needs to be said that there’s a lot of variety within this game. Each stage has a radically different environment and its own set of enemies which have their own unique attacks. The second stage throws you into an inexplicable tube of air flowing through the ocean letting you fight all kinds of marine life, submarines and giant eels. There’s even two scripted moments where your velocity throws you outside of the tube on turns for a few moments before swinging back in. It’s just a pretty cool view and a moment’s respite from the action, that is, if you don’t choose to keep shooting at the enemies still inside the tunnel. Stage four features a haunted forest that’s largely pitch black except for the area around where you’re aiming. Some stages progress to the right instead of into the screen, further shaking things up. Another stage puts your character in a vehicle, and so on. There’s also a huge score of bosses, several per stage that all present unique challenges and patterns. It’s really quite amazing for a rail shooter to have so much fresh material spread across a couple of hours of gameplay.

If you enjoy blistering rail shooters and find satisfaction in achieving high scores, you can’t go wrong with Sin & Punishment: Star Successor. Treasure specializes in making intense and challenging action games, and they haven’t failed here. I doubt the game has very significant commercial appeal in the modern market, but for gamers who can still enjoy an old school approach to design, or willing to take the plunge anyway, this game is a real gift. I quite strongly recommend it.

* Buy Sin & Punishment: Star Successor from Amazon.com

Some firm details have emerged regarding the upcoming DC Universe animated movie Superman/Batman: Apocalypse. It’s now confirmed to be based on Jeph Loeb comics arc “Supergirl of Krypton”. The comics served to reintroduce Supergirl into the post-Crisis continuity. She arrives on Earth via the kryptonite asteroid featured in Superman/Batman: Public Enemies and becomes embroiled in a conflict between the titular heroes and Darkseid, as the latter tries to seduce the not-yet-Supergirl to the… er, dark side. Wonder Woman was also prominently featured in the comics, though it’s unclear if that will remain in this adaptation. Kevin Conroy and Tim Daly will reprise their roles as Batman and Superman, respectively, while Summer Glau is confirmed to voice Supergirl.

Superman/Batman: Apocalypse is scheduled for release on September 28th and will feature a Green Arrow short film. A preview will be included on Batman: Under the Red Hood, which hits on July 27th.

There have been false announcements before, but there’s no question this time. Back to the Future and its two sequels are coming to Blu-ray on October 26th to celebrate its 25th anniversary (which actually falls this coming Saturday). Aside from all the obvious technical updates we’ll see with Blu-ray (and hopefully no ‘improvements’ like digital noise reduction or revisionist color timing) and all the special features that have come before, there are some new bonuses planned for this release. I’ve listed those below, or you see the full list of specs and features for the set over at Blu-ray.com.

• Tales from the Future: new six-part retrospective documentary featuring interviews with Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Director Robert Zemeckis, Producers Bob Gale and Neil Canton, plus Executive Producer Steven Spielberg.
  • In the Beginning…: Delve into the genesis of the project, casting, re-casting, the DeLorean, sets and overall pre-production.
  • Time to Go: Production stories through the release of the first film.
  • Keeping Time: The score and the songs of the Back to the Future Trilogy.
  • Time Flies: Learn more about how the sequel came about, the futuristic look, the special and visual effects, recreating 1955 and more.
  • Third Time’s the Charm: Learn about building a western town, Doc Brown’s love story, the casting of Mary Steenburgen, the train sequence and completing the Trilogy.
  • The Test of Time: Back to the Future becomes a phenomenon! President Reagan quotes the film, the Back to the Future ride opens at Universal Studios theme park and fans rebuild the iconic DeLorean. The film’s cast and crew take a look back and discuss why these beloved movies live on.
• The Physics of Back to the Future: A discussion with celebrity best-selling author and physicist Dr. Michio Kaku about the overall appreciation of the science in the Back to the Future Trilogy.
• Nuclear test site ending storyboard sequence: Storyboard sequence of the original proposed ending of the film.

The storyboarded original ending sequence should be pretty interesting to behold. I never picked up the DVDs of these movies for a variety of reasons, beginning with the manufacturing errors on the first printing, so I’m definitely excited to own these in a high quality format. Now if we could just get the Star Wars trilogy in their original forms…

This isn’t exactly confirmed, but Pajiba has a source they trust that reports David Cronenberg is attached to direct an adaptation of the Jonathan Lethem novel As She Climbed Across the Table. Any and all Cronenberg news is of great interest to me, so I’m passing it along. The word is that Steven Zaillian (screenwriter of Schindler’s List and Moneyball) would serve as a producer.

Here’s the blurb for the novel from Amazon:

Particle physics, false vacuum bubbles, an alternate universe–this is the stuff of Jonathan Lethem’s novel As She Climbed Across the Table. The tale echoes Alice in Wonderland in its mad tumble through a rearranged reality. Narrator Phillip Engstrand is a university professor who has made a career out of studying academic environments. Engstrand is in love with Alice Coombs, a particle physicist engaged in a bold attempt to replicate the origins of the universe. The result of the experiment is Lack, a very selective black hole that sucks some things into its void–a cat, a pair of socks, a strawberry–and rejects others, namely, a love-struck Alice. As Alice’s unrequited obsession with Lack grows, Phillip becomes so desperate to save his beloved from this empty rival that he risks a journey down the metaphysical rabbit hole.

It sounds pretty interesting to me, and something Cronenberg could definitely work some magic with. Even if it doesn’t become a film, with or without Cronenberg, I think I’d like to read the novel.

There’s no indication when this production might happen, but Cronenberg is currently in production on A Dangerous Method, starring Viggo Mortensen, Michael Fassbender, Keira Knightley and Vincent Cassel. That film is based on the play “The Talking Cure” and explores the relationships between Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and a female patient who comes between them. After that, Cronenberg is scheduled to shoot Cosmopolis next spring, an adaptation of the Don DeLillo novel. That project is set to star Colin Farrell and Marion Cotillard. As of last September, the director was attached to remake his film The Fly, itself a remake. However, nothing has been heard of that since. There are additionally plans for a sequel to Eastern Promises, with star Viggo Mortensen and screenwriter Steven Knight returning.

Note: I can’t help but think of the Maya Deren film At Land when I read the novel’s title. I wonder if it holds any relevance? It could certainly be considered a “mad tumble through a rearranged reality,” though on a different level than Alice in Wonderland.

Following up on the news that Pixar will be producing up to four Toy Story short films a year, Toy Story 3 director Lee Unkrich tells the MSN Movies (and me as I double checked) that a Toy Story short will appear in front of the theatrical release of Cars 2 next summer. To my mind, that’s a good news/ bad news situation. I’m completely happy seeing the Toy Story characters live on in short films through any distribution method (ie. Internet, Disney Channel, in front of theatrical releases). However, I’d be lying if I weren’t simultaneously disappointed if this Toy Story short replaces the traditionally original short film Pixar delivers with its new feature films. That’s not something I want to see stop. Toy Story is already incredibly established, it doesn’t need to be in front of Cars 2 in order to justify its existence. And how does this news mesh with the assumption that freshly opened Pixar Vancouver (which we know is definitely working on Cars and Toy Story related projects) is doing the Toy Story shorts? If that’s the case, what happens to the pattern of the theatrical shorts being chances for Pixar’s feature staff to dabble in different and/or higher positions on a small-scale project?

While I have faith that Cars 2 and Monsters, Inc 2 will have perfectly good stories and won’t reek of cash-ins like the sequels certain other animated studios dish out every couple of years, it’d be nice to at least see original characters in short form before those features. I don’t want to be too negative, nor too cynical about the ratio of sequels to new movies we’re known to be getting from Pixar in the future (3:1) but it does concern me if we have to lose an original short film to get a Toy Story one in front of Cars 2. It just seems like the Toy Story shorts can stand on their own elsewhere, or help support other movies (like say, July 2011′s Winnie the Pooh).

Cars 2, and the unnamed Toy Story short, will be in theaters on June 24th, 2011.

Okay, so it barely qualifies as news, but Breaking Bad was renewed for a fourth season by AMC as its third ended with an incredibly suspenseful finale. I have no idea why the order is just being made now for the show, but it’s very welcome all the same. Breaking Bad is the best thing going for television right now, in my opinion at least.

If you’ve finished up season three, there’s a couple good interviews with creator Vince Gilligan about the last season and the future over at The Live Feed and AV Club.

Presumably we’ll be seeing season four on the air beginning March 2011.

Rayman is returning from exile for a 2D animated HD platformer. Details are sparse, but it runs at 60fps and will be released episodically, with the first episode arriving sometime this year. The game’s being developed by a very small team called UbiArt. It’s unclear if famed Rayman designer Michel Ancel (also behind the brilliant Beyond Good & Evil) is involved.

Cooperative play seems likely given most of the trailer involves both Rayman and Globox running around, but nothing is confirmed on that front.

Look for the first episode of Rayman Origins later this year, presumably on PSN and XBLA.

Kirby’s making his return to consoles in a stylish new 2D platformer for the Wii called Kirby’s Epic Yarn.

The new game features a pretty spiffy visual style based around yarn and other cloth textures, and even turns the aesthetic into a gameplay element. Kirby seems to have lost his ability to inhale enemies and assimilate their powers, but he makes some automatic transformations when performing certain actions, like turning into a car when dashing or a submarine when swimming. The game will also enable cooperative play between two players. Perhaps the best news is that the game is being developed by Good Feel, the crew behind Wario Land: Shake It!, so we already know they can pull off a great Wii sidescroller. It looks great to me, and it’s fantastic to that we’re getting a 2D sidescrolling rendition. The art style is also really cool and special, something that can really give a game some great character (see: Yoshi’s Island).

Kirby’s Epic Yarn is set for release this fall on the Nintendo Wii.

If you look above, you can see the first production still of Andrew Lincoln as The Walking Dead‘s lead character Rick Grimes. In other news, Chandler Riggs has been cast in one of the most important roles, Rick’s son Carl. Hopefully the production has a strategy in place to deal with the inevitable growing Riggs will do between seasons, unlike Lost and Walt for instance.

Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Mist) is the writer and director of the pilot and will continue to be the main creative driver of the series, which is based on Robert Kirkman’s comics series. The story begins with police officer Rick Grimes waking up in a hospital to find the world around him devastated by a zombie apocalypse. He sets off to find his wife and son, with events spiraling from there. Unlike most zombie stories that take place over the course of just a few days, The Walking Dead comics follows a group of survivors over the course of months, dealing with the long-term issues of a ruined civilization. So it’s not just about finding a safe house for a short time, but finding permanent residences, sustainable food sources, creating a working community, etc.

The series stars Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes), Sarah Wayne Callies (Lori Grimes), Chandler Riggs (Carl Grimes), Jon Bernthal (Shane), Jeffrey DeMunn (Dale), Steven Yeun (Glenn), Laurie Holden (Andrea) and more yet to be announced cast members.

The Walking Dead will begin its six episode first season on AMC in October.

The first trailer is up at Apple for Never Let Me Go, Mark Romanek’s (One Hour Photo) sophomore film based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. The film stars Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield, Keira Knightley, Sally Hawkins, Charlotte Rampling, Andrea Riseborough, Nathalie Richard, Ella Purnell, Isobel Meikle-Small and Charlie Rowe. Alex Garland (28 Days Later, Sunshine) wrote the screenplay.

I quite liked the novel and I’m a fan of Romanek’s directing, so this is a majorly anticipated film for me. Hopefully everything translates to the screen well enough. Romanek certainly scored some great actors for the lead roles, that’s for sure.

I’ll leave you with the novel’s book jacket description:

From the acclaimed author of The Remains of the Day and When We Were Orphans, a moving new novel that subtly re-imagines our world and time in a haunting story of friendship and love.

As a child, Kathy–now thirty-one years old–lived at Hailsham, a private school in the scenic English countryside where the children were sheltered from the outside world, brought up to believe that they were special and that their well-being was crucial not only for themselves but for the society they would eventually enter. Kathy had long ago put this idyllic past behind her, but when two of her Hailsham friends come back into her life, she stops resisting the pull of memory.

And so, as her friendship with Ruth is rekindled, and as the feelings that long ago fueled her adolescent crush on Tommy begin to deepen into love, Kathy recalls their years at Hailsham. She describes happy scenes of boys and girls growing up together, unperturbed–even comforted–by their isolation. But she describes other scenes as well: of discord and misunderstanding that hint at a dark secret behind Hailsham’s nurturing facade. With the dawning clarity of hindsight, the three friends are compelled to face the truth about their childhood–and about their lives now.

A tale of deceptive simplicity, Never Let Me Go slowly reveals an extraordinary emotional depth and resonance–and takes its place among Kazuo Ishiguro’s finest work.

Fox Searchlight will release Never Let Me Go on October 1st.

Comics Continuum has sources that claim Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One will be one of the upcoming DC Comics animated movies, and that it will be directed by Sam Liu (Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths). Honestly, I really hope that these sources are either bullshit or misinformed. That’s not a dig at Comics Continuum, I just really want this to be false. I don’t want this because it’s simply not needed. So much of Batman: Year One has already been mined for the live-action films. Some of it’s been adjusted, but we’ve already seen the early days of Batman and Jim Gordon, the fight against the Falcone crime family, Flass as a corrupt cop, Gordon’s family held hostage, etc. It’s been done. The only major element we haven’t seen is Selina Kyle’s early development into Catwoman (and she starts as a dominatrix…), and some typical scenes dealing with prostitutes. There’s some stuff with Gordon having an affair, but that’s not all too interesting either. Miller’s work tends to be ‘mature’ in the terms that a 13-year-old would view the concept and I can do without that nonsense now. Between that and material that has already been translated to the screen, this doesn’t excite me at all.

Comics Continuum also says that the previously confirmed Green Arrow short film, expected on the release of Superman/Batman: Apocalypse, is written by Greg Weisman (producer of the upcoming Young Justice show). That release is expected in September.

Here’s a short video introducing the concept behind the latest short film from Pixar, Day & Night. The short is directed by Teddy Newton and will appear in front of Toy Story 3 when it opens on June 18th.

Back in late April, DC Comics animation producer Bruce Timm told Think McFly Think that a sequel to the direct-to-video animated movie Green Lantern: First Flight wasn’t on their schedule because sales had been only been slow but steady, and even though it was profitable it wasn’t up to what Warner Bros wanted. Now, a little over a month later, Warner Bros told investors that a “made-for-video” Green Lantern product would arrive in June 2011 as part of the character’s big yearlong push, spearheaded around the live-action film. So which is it? Do plans change that quickly over there or is this not an original product and it’s just some sort of repackaging? The latter would seem like an odd thing to single out to investors as a significant merchandising element alongside the games, summer blockbuster movie and TV series, so it seems like we’ll be getting a new DC Comics animated movie for Green Lantern next June. This isn’t overly surprising given the obvious marketing possibilities and that Warner Bros previously had Batman: Gotham Knight ready to go around the release of The Dark Knight, but it’s weird given the recent comments Bruce Timm made. One way or another, it looks like one way or another we’ll be seeing an animated Green Lantern next June.

Before then, the other DC Comics DTV movies include Batman: Under the Red Hood, Superman/Batman: Apocalypse and presumably a February/March release next year.

Here’s a variety of news bits about Disney and Pixar’s future slates that I’ve neglected to comment on in the last couple months that I’ve still wanted to point out. So here we go.

• Pixar’s The Bear and the Bow was renamed Brave, which was apparently the film’s early codename. The film is written and directed by Brenda Chapman (The Prince of Egypt). The movie’s logline: “In rugged and mythic Scotland, the impetuous, tangle-haired Merida (Reese Witherspoon), though a daughter of royalty, would rather make her mark as an archer. A clash of wills with her mother compels Merida to make a reckless choice, which unleashes unintended peril on her father’s kingdom and her mother’s life. Merida struggles with the unpredictable forces of nature, magic and a dark ancient curse.” Brave will be released on June 15th, 2012.
• Pixar’s newt has reportedly been canceled, or at least shelved for the time being. That project was being directed by Gary Rydstrom (Lifted).
• Monsters, Inc 2 is officially happening, and targeted for a November 16th, 2012 release date. Absolutely no details have been revealed, but my bet is on Bob Peterson being the director.
• Cars 2 has returned to its June 24th, 2011 release date after a brief delay to that December.
• Disney has seemingly revived Joe Jump as Reboot Ralph. This project has been in various stages of development for about a decade. It was originally shepherded by Sam Levine, but has undergone major changes as Rich Moore (The Simpsons, Futurama) stepped in with his own take on the material, hence the new title. Reboot Ralph is set for March 22nd, 2013.
• Disney’s King of the Elves, based on one of Philip K. Dick’s forays into fantasy, has been pulled from the release schedule for retooling. Like a lot of projects at Disney, we’ll probably see this one again, sooner or later.
• Discovery Channel will be premiering a special called Reign of the Dinosaurs that involves “top creative talent” from Disney and Pixar to bring to life the most recent paleontological discoveries while involving some kind of “Hollywood storytelling.” It’s not very clear what kind of special this is or what roles Disney and Pixar are playing. This is set for the 2010-11 season at some point.

With all that said, here’s the known schedule for animated films from Disney and Pixar:

• Toy Story 3 (June 18th, 2010)
• Tangled (limited – November 12, 2010, wide – November 24th, 2010)
• Cars 2 (June 24th, 2011)
• Winnie the Pooh (July 15th, 2011)
• Frankenweenie (November 2011)
• Brave (June 15th, 2012)
• Monsters, Inc 2 (November 16th, 2012)
• Reboot Ralph (March 22nd, 2013)

Disney revealed to Reuters that the company plans to produce and release up to four Toy Story short films a year. Naturally, this is at least in part to keep the franchise in public view because of the massive amount of money Toy Story merchandising brings in. Andy Mooney, head of Disney’s consumer products division, says the shorts will remain thematically similar to the movies, unlike the Buzz Lightyear of Star Command Disney TV series that followed Buzz’s exploits as a fictional space hero. He added that “the strength of the property rests on the relationship between the core characters,” so it seems likely we’ll see lots of the core characters. Each short would be less than seven minutes long, similar to the Cars short films. It’s unclear whether the films’ voice actors will be contributing to these shorts. Hopefully that can be worked out, because it’s hard to imagine other people bringing life to Woody and Buzz.

While not confirmed here, I would assume these short films will be produced at the freshly opened Vancouver expansion to Pixar’s operations. That branch was created to handle the offshoots to Pixar’s properties, like short films and video content for Disney’s amusement park attractions. Meanwhile the main Pixar offices in Emeryville will be focused on the feature films and the major theatrical short films.

It’s not clear when the first of these shorts would be finished or released, nor exactly what distribution methods would be used. The obvious possibilities would be simple web releases or appearances on the Disney Channel, but it’s also conceivable that Disney could leverage them by pairing ‘em up with other theatrical feature releases. It’ll likely be combination of those, as previously seen with the Cars Toons series of shorts.

Until then, Toy Story 3 arrives in just a short while on June 18th.

Production on the pilot just began today, but AMC is already providing a look at the zombies being created for The Walking Dead. You can see more pictures here. Looking great so far. We also recently learned that the series will be shot in full color, so it won’t follow the black and white imagery in the comics.

Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Mist) is the writer and director of the pilot and will continue to be the main creative driver of the series, which is based on Robert Kirkman’s comics series. The story begins with police officer Rick Grimes waking up in a hospital to find the world around him devastated by a zombie apocalypse. He sets off to find his wife and son, with events spiraling from there. Unlike most zombie stories that take place over the course of just a few days, The Walking Dead comics follows a group of survivors over the course of months, dealing with the long-term issues of a ruined civilization. So it’s not just about finding a safe house for a short time, but finding permanent residences, sustainable food sources, creating a working community, etc.

The series stars Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes), Sarah Wayne Callies (Lori Grimes), Jon Bernthal (Shane), Jeffrey DeMunn (Dale), Steven Yeun (Glenn), Laurie Holden (Andrea) and more yet to be announced cast members.

The Walking Dead will begin its six episode first season on AMC in October.

New shots of the packaging for Batman: Under the Red Hood reveals that the following DC Comics animated movie is titled Superman/Batman: Apocalypse. A preview for that film will be included on the DVD and Blu-ray sets for Batman: Under the Red Hood. It’s not immediately clear what the movie’s story will be given that there’s no direct corollary in the comics with that title. I’m betting Dwayne McDuffie (Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths) is behind the script though, as we know he wrote two more scripts for DC animated films. Now that the title is out, we’ll probably get more details in the next couple weeks, or at the latest when Batman: Under the Red Hood hits. We also know that the third DC Showcase short film features Green Arrow, and that should be accompanying Superman/Batman: Apocalypse. Presumably that movie should hit around late September if past release schedules are anything to go by.

Until then, Batman: Under the Red Hood arrives on July 27th.

Here’s a nifty new poster for Splice, from director Vincenzo Natali (Cube). Sarah Polley and Adrien Brody star as two young rebellious scientists who defy legal and ethical boundaries and forge ahead with a dangerous experiment: splicing together human and animal DNA to create a new organism. Named “Dren”, the creature rapidly develops from a deformed female infant into a beautiful but dangerous winged human-chimera, who forges a bond with both of her creators – only to have that bond turn deadly.

Guillermo del Toro is among the film’s executive producers. Natali wrote the script with Antoinette Terry Bryant and Doug Taylor.

Splice debuts in theaters on June 4th, a date which cannot come soon enough.

AMC has ordered a new drama pilot according to a report by Deadline. Hell on Wheels takes place in the 1860s and explores the construction of the transcontinental railroad which propelled the development of the western United States. The project is written by Joe and Tony Gayton. No other details are known.

Hell on Wheels is the sixth pilot AMC has ordered, with Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Rubicon and The Walking Dead all going to series. The fifth pilot, The Killing, is in production now. AMC obviously has a big track record with its pilots, so it’s probably a safe bet this will go beyond the pilot stage.

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977)

Disney’s new Winnie the Pooh movie has been given a release date of July 15th, 2011. The film marks the second traditionally animated film made by Walt Disney Feature Animation since John Lasseter took over and brought the technique back into use, the first being The Princess and the Frog. They’ve gone back to A. A. Milne’s work and found five stories that have never been put to the screen and combined them into a single feature length script. In a nice nod to the past, Burny Mattinson is the project’s lead storyboard artist. He worked as an animator on the three Winnie the Pooh shorts made in the ’60s and ’70s before being compiled into The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. He would also go on to contribute to the stories for the likes of The Great Mouse Detective, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King, among others. Stephen Anderson (Meet the Robinsons) and Don Hall are directing.

The movie’s intended to not be as kiddy as other recent appearances by the inhabitants of the Hundred Acre Wood. This is WDFA’s big 2011 release with much of the same crew as The Princess and the Frog, including animating heavyweights like Andreaa Dejas and Mark Henn. It’s also another musical, with those components being written by the team that did the Broadway play Avenue Q. The voice cast is known to include Jim Cummings (Pooh, Tigger), Tom Kenny (Rabbit) and Craig Ferguson (Owl).

I’m hoping to not only get a fun film but one that helps keep traditional animation alive on the big screen.

Here’s the first music video to arrive in support of How to Destroy Angels, the new collaboration between Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) and his wife Mariqueen Maandig, former vocalist for West Indian Girl. Atticus Ross is also involved. The video is directed by Rupert Sanders.

They’ve also debuted the first single, “A Drowning”, which is available for streaming or purchase.

How to Destroy Angels has a six track EP coming this summer and they’re planning to have an LP ready for early 2011.

Now this is unexpected news. THR has the scoop that David Fincher is in negotiations to direct Disney’s new big budget version of Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Perhaps even cooler, Scott Z. Burns (The Bourne Ultimatum, The Informant!, Contagion) is writing the script. Word is Fincher was looking to try a different kind of project, namely a big blockbuster aimed at all audiences. Hopefully now that he has an established career he’ll have more control over this big studio project than he did when he directed Alien 3.

I just hope this won’t be an attempted Captain Nemo origin story, as the now canned movie from McG was going to be. That didn’t sound appealing at all. The mystery from learning about Nemo and the Nautilus from an outside perspective is a significant part of what makes the story great. THR says that Burns and Fincher’s movie would be “visually dazzling” and in the vein of Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, whatever that means. I’ve always been wary of this material being revisited since I’m a huge fan of the novel and of Disney’s 1954 film, but I’m intrigued and optimistic about what Fincher and Burns might do. We’ll see, if this goes forward it’ll probably be 2012 release.

David Fincher has The Social Network, the story of Facebook’s origins, ready to bow in October, and he’s readying an English adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

HBO’s beginning its video promotion of the return of guilty pleasure True Blood, first with this 30 second piece.

True Blood kicks off its third season on June 13th.

Futurama is set to return with its sixth season on June 24th at 10PM EST on Comedy Central. The network ordered a total of 26 new episodes with the whole original cast returning. I’m assuming that order will be split into two seasons of 13 episodes apiece given that’s more of a cable standard. The action kicks off right from the end of Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder.

Here’s the debut trailer for The Adjustment Bureau, starring Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Terence Stamp, John Slattery, Michael Kelly, Anthony Mackie, Daniel Dae Kim and Shohreh Aghdashloo. George Nolfi (Ocean’s Twelve, The Bourne Ultimatum) wrote the film which is based on the short story “Adjustment Team” by Philip K. Dick. He also makes his directorial debut here.

As you can see, the story involves a politician (Matt Damon) running up against a group of people who can stop the world and ‘adjust’ it to keep things going according to certain plans. Among the adjustments they deem necessary is preventing him from developing a relationship with a ballerina (Emily Blunt). There wasn’t a whole lot of meat to the short story, so I hope it’s developed more here, in more ways than just introducing the romance angle. Either way, it’s good to see a science fiction film coming that doesn’t involve big special effects or a teenaged target audience, though those things are fine when done well.

The Adjustment Bureau will hit theaters on September 17th.

Even as David Cronenberg prepares to start filming A Dangerous Method in a matter of days, he’s busy putting the cast together for his adaptation of Don DeLillo’s novel Cosmopolis. According to Variety, Colin Farrell and Marion Cotillard have joined the cast, with the project set to shoot in New York City and Toronto from March to May 2011. The report also includes word that Cronenberg himself is scripting the film, which he hasn’t done since 1999′s eXistenZ.

Cosmopolis the novel follows a single day for a young billionaire (the novel places him at 28 years old) as he crosses New York City in his limo to get a haircut. Along the way he encounters numerous major traffic delays (from a riot to a presidential motorcade), several chance encounters with his new wife and two stalkers. He additionally loses incredible amounts of money over the course of the day by betting against the yen. He may actually be embracing his downfall. Colin Farrell would play the billionaire while Marion Cotillard takes the role of the wife. Most of the novel takes place in the confines of the limo, so it should be interesting to see how this translates to the screen.

David Cronenberg is currently focused on A Dangerous Method, an adaptation of Christopher Hampton’s play “The Talking Cure”. That movie stars Viggo Mortensen, Michael Fassbender, Kiera Knightley and Vincent Cassel. You can read more about that here. He’s also planning a sequel to Eastern Promises and he’s also attached to direct a remake of his earlier movie The Fly, itself a remake, for Fox.

By the end of Tony Stark’s time in terrorist captivity in Iron Man, there was a wealth of interesting thematic material for the character to deal with. Most immediately, there was his mortality and legacy. There was reconciling his wealth and family history being built upon weapons sales and the carnage that ensued, typically in far away countries. And there was his own technical ingenuity and its promise to let him shape his own destiny. Unfortunately, Iron Man squandered those opportunities, at best paying these topics lip service and at worst trying to quickly remove those topics from play entirely. Thoughts exclusive to that first film can be found in a post from May ’08 (Reflections on Tony Stark and Iron Man).

That’s all a preface to my reaction to Iron Man 2, a movie which completely abandons all possibility of actually engaging with this character. Rather, Tony Stark and Robert Downey Jr. are simply unleashed without direction. There is no character arc here, not even a feigned one as in the first film. Stark, in all his self-absorption and narcissism, has become an even bigger dick in the six months since we last saw him. He’s fully embraced his role as a human weapon, arguing that he and the suit are one. Gone is even a minuscule amount of care about his business, of which he quickly hands away control. The first film at least had him say once or twice that he wanted his company to shift away from weapons to energy sources, but it’s not clear that that’s happened. Tony Stark has restarted his father’s Stark Expo – basically a World’s Fair – but the only tech we see shown off there are weaponized suits and robots. It’s more like a Tony Stark/Iron Man fan convention than an event meant to inspire and give back to the people.

Anyway, it’s not clear what Stark Enterprises is doing as business anymore, but we can be sure that it has not made any effort to mass produce the arc reactor technology to help solve the world’s energy problems. In fact, based upon the movie’s senate committee sequence and Ivan Vanko’s need to build his own arc reactor, it would seem Stark has no plans to let the technology into the hands of anyone else, neither the government nor the public. Tony is eventually forced to revisit the arc reactor tech, but only for his own health purposes. As he’s facing death, which never feels very credible, there’s some lip service about legacy and finals moments, but it culminates in some goofy shenanigans as he gets drunk and acts like dangerous asshole for what he’s calling his potentially last birthday. You’d think with the pieces in play – Tony facing his own mortality and the story returning to elements of his father’s career and legacy – that a decent story involving Tony struggling with defining a positive role for himself in the world would write itself, but instead the entire plot is even more insular than in the last one.

There’s a glimmer of hope for the movie when Stark visits Vanko in prison. The latter accuses the Stark family of being thieves and murderers, and I find myself hoping we’re going to actually delve into that legacy this time around. Unfortunately, just as quickly as Mickey Rourke’s line reading is done, so is the film’s interest in that topic. Stark doesn’t genuinely engage with his or his family’s demons, let alone conquer them. The script just trots them out once in a while, “look over here, doesn’t this element kinda give Tony Stark some depth? Now back to CGI robots clanging around the screen and glib quips by Downey Jr.” The problem with occasionally reminding us that there are interesting possibilities in Stark’s story is that it makes what we get all the more unsatisfying.

Vanko also opens up the possibility of the movie dealing with Stark’s reaction to inspiring copycats, including those who would use similar technology for evil purposes. This, like the rest of the film’s thematic opportunities, is avoided completely. There’s not even an acknowledgment that he’s in any way responsible for any part of what Vanko and Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer do in creating their own villainous machines. Stark never once even comments on the plot against him. There’s no “escalation” moment like in the finale of Batman Begins. Hell, for some inexplicable reason Congress gives Stark an award at the film’s end, even though the film’s plot proves the points senators made earlier. Suffice to say, some things in Iron Man 2 don’t even make sense on their own superficial plane of existence, let alone a deeper one. The movie simply refuses to break through the surface, instead it’s content with being a brainless popcorn flick. All flash, no bang.

I don’t believe I have read a single comic that Iron Man appears in, but it’s not very difficult to see that the character has dramatic potential. The first act of Iron Man did a fine job of revealing several intriguing opportunities with its lead character. It’s just a shame the people responsible for producing these films couldn’t care less.

This is pretty cool. As Conan O’Brien and crew are traveling the country with their tour, they stopped by Google for 45 minutes and Conan and later Andy Richter participate in a Q&A. This occurred on May 5th. And yes, Conan does slip a few less-than-guarded comments in there about Leno and NBC. A lot of the talk revolves some of his experiences after the NBC debacle ended, but also about earlier elements of his career and all kinds of other random stuff. It should be noted that the video is also hilarious, so if you’re not seeing his tour and need a Conan fix, here’s 45 minutes of him.

Conan O’Brien will begin his new show on TBS in November.

Columbia Pictures gets to continue its Men in Black franchise as Will Smith and director Barry Sonnenfeld have signed on for a third installment according to Heat Vision. Tommy Lee Jones is in negotiations to return while Josh Brolin is in talks to join the cast as a younger version of Agent K. It seems most of the movie would take place in 1969. Etan Cohen (Tropic Thunder) wrote the script while David Koepp (Ghost Town, Angels & Demons) is giving it a polish. The movie has been scheduled for release on May 25th, 2012.

It’s hard to be very excited about this when it’s another sequel born of a cash grab. Men in Black was a fun romp and remains so, but Men in Black II was a dreadful mess. No one put any effort into their performances and the humor was more outlandish and juvenile. There was an Entertainment Weekly article way back in the day that seemed to provide a lot of evidence that no one cared about making a good movie, they were just giddy about cashing massive paychecks. I rather expect the same thing here. We’ll see. Everyone involved burned me badly on Men in Black II so there isn’t a chance in hell I’m holding my breath on this one. Besides, time travel plots in blockbuster movies have a tendency towards the ridiculously stupid.

Looks like the rights issues have been cleared up and Disney is free to distribute Studio Ghibli’s Tales from Earthsea (Gedo Senki) in the US now. The movie’s been given a release date of August 13th, though it’s unclear how wide of a release it will be.

Tales from Earthsea was Studio Ghibli’s 2006 film, loosely based on the books by Ursula K. Le Guin. The US release had to be delayed because Syfy (then Sci-Fi Channel) had the rights to the books and made their own miniseries adaptation in 2004. Now that those rights have expired, Disney is free to bring the movie over. It might not have been the biggest loss though, as it was Gorō Miyazaki’s debut as a director, a move that even his father and Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki didn’t feel he was ready for. The film had a mixed reception, especially for a Studio Ghibli release, despite going on to be the fourth highest grossing film in Japan for 2006.

Still, it’ll be nice for non-importers to get a look at the film and Americans can fill in a gap of Ghibli’s history. At the very least you know the animation will be gorgeous.

Studio Ghibli is currently wrapping up another adaptation, The Borrower Arrietty based on Mary Norton’s The Borrowers. That will hit Japan on July 17th, and should be expected in North America during summer 2011.

There’s a new director attached to the long-in-development-hell adaptation of William Gibson’s groundbreaking and archetypal cyberpunk novel Neuromancer. The most recent director in line for the project was Joseph Kahn of Torque infamy, so news of any change is pretty much good news. (The concept poster seen above was made by the production company for when Kahn was attached.) THR reveals that the new director is Vincenzo Natali, of Cube and the soon-to-be-released Splice, so the movie actually has some potential now. Of course, adapting the novel is a mighty challenge with all of the abstract imagery involved and the inevitable reliance on CGI, not to mention the complicated nature of the plot. The cyberspace scenes from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex are actually a pretty accurate depiction of the cyberspace scenes Gibson created here. Plus, given that the project is set up with some smaller Canadian companies, who knows if this will ever move forward.

Natali is also writing the script, according to this Astral Media press release.

Here’s a little blurb about the novel’s story:

Case was the hottest computer cowboy cruising the information superhighway–jacking his consciousness into cyberspace, soaring through tactile lattices of data and logic, rustling encoded secrets for anyone with the money to buy his skills. Then he double-crossed the wrong people, who caught up with him in a big way–and burned the talent out of his brain, micron by micron. Banished from cyberspace, trapped in the meat of his physical body, Case courted death in the high-tech underworld. Until a shadowy conspiracy offered him a second chance–and a cure–for a price…

Tom Cruise has confirmed to Empire that Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Ratatouille) has signed on to make his live-action directorial debut with Mission: Impossible IV. Yay?

I’ve been of two minds on this since word first came that Brad Bird was considering the job. On the one hand, Mission: Impossible is a tired franchise that in my opinion has only produced one good film thus far, that being the first. Brad Bird is a fantastic filmmaker and what I really want is to see him keep making original movies dear to his heart, like his three animated films and the the big live-action movie about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake that he’s been trying to get produced. A franchise film, and one so important to Tom Cruise and Paramount, thus invoking control issues, seems beneath him. On the other hand, it’s true that he’s had a tough time getting Warner Bros to commit to the massive budget 1906 requires without making significant script concessions, so if proving himself on Mission: Impossible IV and having a profitable live-action blockbuster on his resume helps secure the funding for future endeavors, perhaps that’s for the best.

Since it doesn’t matter what I think and Brad Bird has made his decision, I hope he knocks this out of the park. I also hope he gets to put his own spin on the script that Josh Applebaum and Andre Nemec having been writing based off a story by J.J. Abrams. I trust the man who wrote The Iron Giant, The Incredibles and Ratatouille a million times more than Abrams and his proteges. Abrams is also producing Mission: Impossible IV though, so his mark will surely be present. At the very least, Brad Bird’s proven he can direct some seriously good action sequences in animated form, so hopefully that translates to live-action. I still think the airplane sequence in The Incredibles is among the most intense sequences of the last ten years from all film.

Best of luck to Brad Bird with this endeavor, in making the switch to live-action, and in dealing with a studio franchise and all the baggage that comes with his lead actor.

Mission: Impossible IV has been given a release date of December 16th, 2011.

Okay, I lied about not posting any further details about the plot. I’ll put the official synopsis up since word is, like The Dark Knight, we’re not going to receive even a peak at the film’s third act before release day and that the synopsis spoils nothing we won’t figure out very early in the film. Also, here’s the fourth poster courtesy of Yahoo.

Acclaimed filmmaker Christopher Nolan directs an international cast in an original sci-fi actioner that travels around the globe and into the intimate and infinite world of dreams. Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a skilled thief, the absolute best in the dangerous art of extraction, stealing valuable secrets from deep within the subconscious during the dream state, when the mind is at its most vulnerable. Cobb’s rare ability has made him a coveted player in this treacherous new world of corporate espionage, but it has also made him an international fugitive and cost him everything he has ever loved. Now Cobb is being offered a chance at redemption. One last job could give him his life back but only if he can accomplish the impossible–inception. Instead of the perfect heist, Cobb and his team of specialists have to pull off the reverse: their task is not to steal an idea but to plant one. If they succeed, it could be the perfect crime. But no amount of careful planning or expertise can prepare the team for the dangerous enemy that seems to predict their every move. An enemy that only Cobb could have seen coming. This summer, your mind is the scene of the crime.

Inception marks the seventh feature film Christopher Nolan has directed. He also wrote the script. Alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, Inception stars Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ken Watanabe, Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy, Tom Berenger, Michael Caine, Lukas Haas and Dileep Rao.

Inception will be in theaters on July 16th.

A few days ago EA and Visceral Games debuted the first teaser trailer for Dead Space 2, their big sequel to 2008′s action-horror title. The sequel picks up three years later with Isaac Clarke in a hospital on the Sprawl, a massive space station. Unfortunately for him and the rest of the station’s population, the necromorph infection and the madness caused by the alien (?) marker is about to arrive. The developers are promising a better pacing to the action and horror elements, with more ebb and flow and less constant intensity. Also expect a greater variety of environments since the story will take place in what is essentially a city in space, rather than a mining vessel.

For what it’s worth, it’s been confirmed that none of the voices in that clip are Isaac’s, although he won’t be a silent character this time around.

The Dead Space franchise is probably my favorite new IP of the current gaming generation. I love the action-horror combo, and the rich universe behind the games’ stories. I’m also a complete sucker for horror stories involving creatures and futuristic manmade structures (see: Alien and its sequels, Eden Log), even though so few are good. But with just the first game, the creators introduced so many interesting elements to the world, between the government and corporate factions, the Church of Unitology and no shortage of individuals with their own agendas. It feels fully fleshed out and complex, without clearcut good and bad guys, just a lot of people’s differing interests and beliefs colliding during an alien infection. And it’s all pretty well told, unlike the Resident Evil games. I’m also a sucker for world-building in games, hence my love for this franchise and the BioShock series, two that let the player piece together the story and universe through lots of little details obtained through text logs, audio logs, various NPCs, etc. I love that stuff, it really gets me right in there with the character and his situation. It also helps that EA is looking at the franchise as a multimedia property, with comics, other games, movies and soon books backing up the universe. The animated movie kind of sucked, but the rest of their efforts have been solid thus far.

So anyway, Dead Space 2 is pretty much one of my most-anticipated games coming within the next year, at least with what’s currently known.

Dead Space 2 is expected to be released in the first quarter of 2011 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC systems.

Steven Spielberg appears to have finally settled on his next project according to Variety, that being an adaptation of the novel War Horse by Michael Morpurgo. The novel will be adapted by Lee Hall (Billy Elliot) and Richard Curtis (Love Actually, The Girl in the Cafe). The children’s novel is a World War I story told from the perspective of a horse.

Here’s the book’s product description from Amazon:

In 1914, Joey, a beautiful bay-red foal with a distinctive cross on his nose, is sold to the army and thrust into the midst of the war on the Western Front. With his officer, he charges toward the enemy, witnessing the horror of the battles in France. But even in the desolation of the trenches, Joey’s courage touches the soldiers around him and he is able to find warmth and hope. But his heart aches for Albert, the farmer’s son he left behind. Will he ever see his true master again?

I can’t say this sparks much interest for me. As with most recent bits of Spielberg news (like the short-lived remake of Harvey), I wish he’d just crack down and make either the Civil War-era Lincoln biopic or Interstellar, the hard sci-fi script involving wormholes that Jonathon Nolan (The Prestige, The Dark Knight) wrote. War Horse just sounds too sentimental, romanticized and contrived for me. but we’ll see.

Spielberg is also in post-production with his performance capture film The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, which will debut during the 2011 holiday season.

Disney will release the DreamWorks production on August 10th, 2011.

Big news from The Jim Henson Company! Power of the Dark Crystal, the sequel to the 1982 film The Dark Crystal that’s been gestating for a few years now, is ready to go forward with Michael and Peter Spierig directing. The pair previously made the films Undead and Daybreakers, so this is a fairly significant shifting of gears for them. The script comes from Craig Pearce (Moulin Rouge!) based off a story by Annette Duffy and David Odell. If you’ll recall, this film was once going to be directed by Genndy Tartakovsky (creator of Samurai Jack). Fortunately, one part of the original announcement remains true, with The Dark Crystal‘s concept designer Brian Froud back to continue creating the characters he was responsible for nearly three decades ago. The picture I’ve included with this post is a conceptual piece provided when the film was first announced back in 2006.

The film will be produced using a combination of puppets, animatronics, live-action elements and CGI. In the press release, Michael Spierig says “we feel a tremendous amount of responsibility in telling this story with the same meticulous care that Jim Henson and Frank Oz gave the 1982 original.” Peter Spierig follows up by explaining that “this is a chance to take the world of puppetry into the modern age by using modern techniques (like motion capture CGI) and the tried and true methods (like puppetry and animatronics) to create a one hundred percent real world that is unique to The Dark Crystal.” Hopefully this isn’t just lip service.

The official story premise is as follows:

Set hundreds of years after the events of the first movie when the world has once again fallen into darkness, “Power of the Dark Crystal” follows the adventures of a mysterious girl made of fire who, together with a Gelfling outcast, steals a shard of the legendary Crystal in an attempt to reignite the dying sun that exists at the center of the planet.

For those that care (read: not me), Power of the Dark Crystal will be produced in 3D. The movie does not currently have any distributors signed on.

Here’s the third poster for Inception, the big new film from writer/director Christopher Nolan (Memento, The Dark Knight). Inception is a “contemporary sci-fi actioner set within the architecture of the mind”. In more direct terms, the story involves a team lead by Leonardo DiCaprio attempting to steal ideas directly from the minds and dreams of their targets. The poster seems to highlight the members of DiCaprio’s team. It’s funny though, how Dileep Rao makes it onto the poster despite not being among the credited names, but that’s par for the course when it comes to wacky poster crediting.

There have been a lot of plot details coming out in various print features about the production, but I’m avoiding them ever since the LA Times seemingly spoiled something fairly major that hasn’t even been hinted at in any trailer or trade report. Outside of any further trailers, I’m on a blackout. If you want to know more, you’ll have to go elsewhere.

Along with DiCaprio, the movie stars Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ken Watanabe, Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy, Tom Berenger, Michael Caine, Lukas Haas and Dileep Rao.

Meanwhile, a second full trailer is set to premiere in front of Iron Man 2 on Friday for North American viewers.

Inception will be released on July 16th.

Focus Features and Yahoo have debuted the first trailer for The American, the sophomore film from director Anton Corbijn (Control) starring George Clooney. The movie is an adaptation of Martin Booth’s novel A Very Private Gentleman. If only they’d kept that title over the generic new one.

Alone among assassins, Jack is a master craftsman. When a job in Sweden ends more harshly than expected for this American abroad, he vows to his contact Larry that his next assignment will be his last. Jack reports to the Italian countryside, where he holes up in a small town and relishes being away from death for a spell. The assignment, as specified by a Belgian woman, Mathilde, is in the offing as a weapon is constructed. Surprising himself, Jack seeks out the friendship of local priest Father Benedetto and pursues romance with local woman Clara. But by stepping out of the shadows, Jack may be tempting fate.

The American also stars Bruce Altman, Thekla Reuten, Paolo Bonacelli and Violante Placido. The script was written by Rowan Joffe.

I’m pretty excited about this one for two reasons. First, George Clooney has pretty great taste in projects and is among the only stars making mid-budget dramas for adults. Second, Anton Corbijn has won me over both with his extensive history of gorgeous music videos and his feature debut Control, an incredibly engaging biopic about Ian Curtis, singer for Joy Division.

Focus Features will release The American on September 1st.

David Cronenberg’s upcoming adaptation of the play “The Talking Cure” has been renamed A Dangerous Method. I suppose that’s a bit more exciting and subversive than the original title. The film takes place on the eve of World War I as Sigmund Freud and student-turned-rival Carl Jung give birth to psychoanalysis while a woman named Sabina finds herself the battleground of their theories and emotions. Viggo Mortensen will portray Sigmund Freud, with Michael Fassbender playing Carl Jung and Keira Knightley as Sabina. Vincent Cassel also stars. Christopher Hampton, the original playwright, handled the adaptation himself. Notably, the film marks the third straight collaboration between Mortensen and Cronenberg following A History of Violence and Eastern Promises.

David Cronenberg had this to say about the project’s appeal:

I have long been drawn to the story of erotic daring between these two good doctors and the woman who both divided and defined them. History can only hint at the psychological and physical terrain they opened up, but a film can explore it.

Production is scheduled to kick off on May 17th for 10 weeks in Germany. I have my fingers crossed for an end of the year release.