Lionsgate has released the teaser trailer for Kick-Ass over at MySpace. The film is based on Mark Millar’s comics series of the same name and follows a teenager who attempts to become a costumed superhero, minus the powers, and the copycats he inspires. Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake, Stardust) directs and co-wrote the script with Jane Goldman. The movie stars Aaron Johnson, Chloe Moretz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Nicholas Cage, Mark Strong, Clark Duke and Xander Berkeley. While the teaser does a poor job of illustrating it, the final film will be have a definite R-rating with no shortage of violence.

Kick-Ass will be released on April 16th, 2010.

IGN’s got a new trailer for the next DC Comics animated movie, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths. There was also a promotional video on the Superman/Batman: Public Enemies disc, of which I’ve included a piece of below the fold since I never posted it before.

The plot revolves around a ‘good’ Lex Luthor appearing from an alternate universe to recruit the Justice League to battle the Crime Syndicate on his Earth. The Crime Syndicate is an evil reflection of the Justice League, with members sharing similar powers and histories to the heroes. A war between the Justice League and Crime Syndicate engulfs both worlds while a plot by Owlman (Batman’s evil counterpart) may jeopardize existence itself.

A few voice actors have been announced with Mark Harmon playing Superman, William Baldwin as Batman, Bruce Davison as the president, James Woods as Owlman, Gina Torres as Super Woman and Chris Noth as Lex Luthor. Dwayne McDuffie (of many Justice League and Justice League Unlimited episodes) wrote the script while Lauren Montgomery (Wonder Woman, Green Lantern: First Flight) and Sam Liu (Superman/Batman: Public Enemies) are jointly directing.

Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths will be released on DVD and Blu-ray early next year.

Fox has announced that it won’t be continuing with Dollhouse though it will finish production of its current second season thirteen episode order. It’s completely expected news given its poor ratings and the fact that Fox already took it off the air for November sweeps. It’s also a bit disappointing considering how good the show has become, with its last aired episode being a really phenomenal exploration of the dark depths the Dollhouse’s personality and memory implants make possible.

Oh well. On the bright side, even before this news Whedon was planning to give the season’s thirteenth episode some resolution and finality, and that’s been reiterated again. I wasn’t really a fan of the “Epitaph One” episode that skipped into the future, or at least I didn’t like its execution, so I’m not concerned about possibly not reaching that stage of the plot again.

Whedon posted this over at Whedonesque:

Hmm. Apparently my news is not news.

I don’t have a lot to say. I’m extremely proud of the people I’ve worked with: my star, my staff, my cast, my crew. I feel the show is getting better pretty much every week, and I think you’ll agree in the coming months. I’m grateful that we got to put it on, and then come back and put it on again.

I’m off to pursue internet ventures/binge drinking. Possibly that relaxation thing I’ve read so much about. By the time the last episode airs, you’ll know what my next project is. But for now there’s a lot of work still to be done, and disappointment to bear.

Thank you all for your support, your patience, your excellent adverts. See you again. -j.

Dollhouse will return to the air in December for back-to-back episodes on Fridays.

The teaser trailer for the Clash of the Titans remake has arrived and it’s a bit of a dud. It’s a quickly cut montage of action moments set to generic hard rock music that fails to generate any sort of atmosphere or interest. This worked with the 300 trailer because it had some setup and an awesome Nine Inch Nails track, but here it’s just a bad facsimile. Of course, I think 300 was largely a waste of time, so hopefully this one goes the other way and the film itself is better than the marketing.

Clash of the Titans is directed by Louis Leterrier (Unleashed, The Incredible Hulk) and tells the story of Perseus and his attempt to save the Earth from Hades. Sam Worthington stars as Perseus, with Liam Neeson as Zeus and Ralph Fiennes as Hades. Gemma Arterton, Mads Mikkelsen, Danny Huston, Polly Walker and Nicholas Hoult round out the cast.

Clash of the Titans is due out March 26th, 2010.

Word has come down through Cinemusic that Danny Elfman’s music won’t be what you’ll hear when you see The Wolfman next February, despite him already composing his score. Instead we’ll be hearing a score by Paul Halsinger, who has composed films like Underworld, Crank and Death Race. It seems that with continued changes to The Wolfman in the post-production phase, and possibly studio interference, Elfman won’t be available to finish the film.

I have mixed feelings about this. To start with, I think The Wolfman looks pretty sweet, and I really hope its turns out well. I haven’t been impressed with a Danny Elfman score in a long time. Generally, it seems like he’s been rejiggering a few scores from earlier in his career over and over again. (I swear, listen to the Spider-Man theme and tell me it’s not just a mash-up of his themes for Batman and Men in Black.) On the other hand, director Joe Johnston really believed in his work and said he’d just let Elfman cut loose. And as Cinemusic says, the score that Elfman composed is apparently “a traditional, grandly gothic effort a la Kilar’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” which seems to be exactly the sort of music to fit this film. Meanwhile, Paul Halsinger has historically writen more electronically-tinged scores, so is that an indication of the new direction? I’m not sure I want a period werewolf film like The Wolfman to feature a more modern soundscapes. Of course, maybe Halsinger won’t take that path anyway. I hope whoever is calling the shots at this point knows what they’re doing.

However this turns out, it’s another odd occurrence for a film that’s been delayed three times, and will hit theaters just a couple weeks shy of two years after shooting began. The whole thing is just a bit unnerving when the film was supposed to be released back in April.

The Wolfman is scheduled for release on February 12th, 2010.

Here’s some news from Video Business. Netflix is in discussions with Fox, Universal and Warner Bros. regarding the institution of a 30-day delay on renting out new releases in exchange for being able to buy discs from the studios at as much as half the current price. The studios have been concerned with the rapid growth of online renters, like Netflix, and kiosk services, like Redbox, and the bite they’re taking out of home video purchases. The studios are already denying Redbox new releases for that time period, though this has resulted in lawsuits. For the time being Redbox is buying from retailers in order to provide their stock.

“Creating a rental window is not a punitive action,” Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos said. “It’s a decision that the retailers and studios can make together. If the studios can entice a rentailer to create a rental window, I believe that rentailers, studios and consumers can all benefit from it.” He would not comment specifically on the pricing Netflix is looking for, but did confirm it is seeking discounts in exchange for the window.

While Netflix claims 70% of its business is in catalogue titles, I don’t see any indication for why consumers should be happy with this. Would some of Netflix’s savings be passed on to its customers in the form of cheaper subscription rates? Or would they perhaps buy more stock of those new releases so those who want them can get them sooner? Of course, a healthy industry ultimately helps keep this content coming, but if Netflix subscribers, like myself, saw nothing out of a potential deal like this, that would be a tough pill to swallow.

“The economics with Netflix don’t work for us,” said another studio source. “There are several ways to change the outcome, one way is windowing, rev-share or acquisition price. But the economics need to change.”

There’s little doubt change is coming, but my cynical side says consumers are going to get screwed.

Here’s the official domestic trailer for A Single Man, the directorial debut of fashion designer Tom Ford. Adapted from the novel by Christopher Isherwood, the film takes place during one day in 1962 as a gay professor (Colin Firth) mourns the recent death of his lover (Matthew Goode) while going through the paces and considering suicide. The attentions of another young man (Nicholas Hoult) and a night out with a close friend (Julianne Moore) may change his mind. Ginnifer Goodwin also stars.

I’m inclined to say it’s one of the most beautiful trailers of the year and is possibly my most anticipated movie of the rest of the year.

The Weinstein Company will give A Single Man a limited release beginning December 11th, and it’s currently planned to expand more by Christmas.

Pete Docter, director of Monsters, Inc. and Up, was interviewed by New York Magazine and was asked about his next project. Here’s the exchange:

How far into the next project are you?
That one I just started. We finished Up, I took some time off, spent some time in Europe and Japan doing publicity over there, so I’ve only been on this for like a couple weeks.

Is that the Monsters Inc. sequel?
I’m not working on … I’m working on something else, but I cannot announce what it is.

When will it be released?
Well, if the past is any guide, it generally takes at least four years, if not five, to do these. So I don’t know … What is that? I’m bad with math.

So if there is indeed a Monsters, Inc. 2 in the works, as rumors and circumstantial evidence has pointed to for a while, Pete Docter isn’t directing it. Earlier this year Jim Hill reported that buyers at the Licensing International Expo 2009 were told by Disney that the sequel was happening, although with Pete Docter attached. Also earlier in the year was the odd case of someone on the Pixar lot Google searching for “monsters 2013 pixar” as found by The Pixar Blog.

We know Up’s co-director, Bob Peterson, shifted away from that production’s final year in order to develop his own feature. I’m thinking he could very well be the one directing Monsters, Inc. 2. He voiced the original’s Roz and was also the film’s story supervisor and just finished up closely working with its director. Who better to be trusted with Mike and Sulley’s next adventure?

Or perhaps all of these elements are completely unrelated. At the very least, Docter didn’t deny that Monsters, Inc. 2 was coming, just that he wasn’t directing it.

Pixar’s current confirmed schedule:

• Toy Story 3, directed by Lee Unkrich for June 18th, 2010.
• Cars 2, directed by Brad Lewis for June 24th, 2011.
• The Bear and the Bow, directed by Brenda Chapman for the holiday season 2011.
• Newt, directed by Gary Rydstrom for June 2012.

HBO’s released a promotional video for its miniseries The Pacific featuring many of the producers talking about what kind of story they’re telling and how it differs from Band of Brothers. Appearing in the video are Tom Hanks (executive producer), Steven Spielberg (executive producer), Gary Goetzman (executive producer), Bruce McKenna (co-executive producer, writer) and Tony To (co-executive producer, director), all of whom also worked on Band of Brothers. The massive ensemble cast is lead by Joe Mazzello, James Badge Dale and Jon Seda.

The Pacific premieres on HBO in March, 2010.

Duncan Jones, who made his feature debut with the low-budget flick Moon, has committed to direct Source Code with Jake Gyllenhaal in the lead spot. The science fiction film follows a United States soldier who must discover the perpetrator behind a train bombing by repeatedly living through the few minutes preceding the event via a virtual simulation. Ben Ripley (The Watch) wrote the original draft, then Billy Ray (Shattered Glass, Breach)  made revisions. Screen Daily reports that production is scheduled for the first quarter of next year.

I seem to be among the few who were not so impressed by Moon, but I’m a fan of any director interested in bringing original science fiction stories to the screen. I’m also interested in rewatching Moon upon its home video release to see if I can figure out what everyone else saw. I just found it devoid of suspense and I couldn’t engage with the story’s stakes. It was, however, quite impressive on its technical qualities.

Jones is also attached to direct Escape from the Deep, a true story about a World War II sub that was hit by its own torpedo and the ensuing struggle for survival. He’s also planning yet another sci-fi film called Mute which would take place in a future Berlin where a mute barkeeper unraveling the mystery of his partner’s disappearance. Additionally, it takes place in the same universe as Moon and is intended to feature a cameo by Sam Rockwell.

HBO’s running a new featurette showing the first footage from three of their new shows coming in 2010. It leads off with some info on the next season of Big Love and also mentions at the end that Bored to Death is returning for a second season.

Treme is the new drama from David Simon (The Wire) and Eric Overmyer. It’s follows several characters in the Treme district of New Orleans as they rebuild their city and lives following Hurricane Katrina. The cast includes Wendell Pierce, Khandi Alexander, Clarke Peters, Melissa Leo, Steve Zahn, Rob Brown and Kim Dickens. Treme premieres on HBO in April.

Boardwalk Empire is new period drama from Terence Winter (second most prolific writer on The Sopranos) about the rise of Atlantic City during the Prohibition era, and all the corruption that came with it. Martin Scorsese directed the pilot episode. The show has a large and impressive cast featuring Steve Buscemi, Michael Pitt, Kelly Macdonald, Michael Shannon, Michael Kenneth Williams, Stephen Graham, Aleksa Palladino, Paul Sparks, Paz de la Huerta, Dabney Coleman, Vincent Piazza, Anthony Laciura and Shea Whigham. Boardwalk Empire doesn’t yet have a specific release window.

How to Make It in America is from the producers of Entourage and is somewhat similar with a group of young men searching for success in a big city, although this begins in the earlier stages and takes place in the New York art scene. The show stars Bryan Greenberg, Victor Rasuk, Shannyn Sossamon, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Lake Bell, Luis Guzman and James Ransone. It also doesn’t yet have a specific release window in 2010.

HBO is also premiering it’s Band of Brothers conceptual follow-up called The Pacific in March.

I’m particularly excited for Treme and Boardwalk Empire given their creative pedigrees and fantastic casts. I’m very psyched for some new HBO dramas. How to Make It in America doesn’t grab me as a concept, but then, neither did Entourage and that provided a good amount of fun, at least for a while.

Here’s the first trailer for Salt, an action-thriller from director Phillip Noyce starring Angelina Jolie, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Liev Schreiber. Kurt Wimmer (Equilibrium, Law Abiding Citizen) came up with the story and co-wrote the script with Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential, Man on Fire).

Evelyn Salt is a CIA officer who swore an oath to duty, honor, and country. When she is accused by a defector of being a Russian sleeper spy, Salt goes on the run to clear her name and ultimately prove she is a patriot. Using all her skills and years of experience as a covert operative, she must elude capture and protect her husband or the world’s most powerful forces will erase any trace of her existence.

Based on what the trailer gives us, this looks incredibly silly and nonsensical. It’s Minority Report without all the precog stuff that would make an accusation of a future assassination mean anything. You know how she could prove her innocence? Sit tight in protective custody for a day.

I’m sure there’s a twist or two in there to justify all the chase sequences, and I’m putting my money on Jolie actually playing two characters. Someone else is out there who looks just like her or is disguised as her. That’s my bet.

Salt will hit theaters on July 23rd, 2010.

Electronic artist Four Tet (real name: Kieran Hebden) has announced that There is Love in You will be released on January 26th, his first full album since 2005’s Everything Ecstatic. The new LP will feature nine tracks. Earlier in the year Four Tet collaborated on two tracks with Burial called “Moth” and “Wolf Cub”, which you can check out here.

The oncoming new material is being kicked off with the nine-minute single “Love Cry” which is getting a vinyl release on December 8th. For now, you can hear it at his MySpace page or below.

HBO Films has grabbed the rights to Mark Bowden’s Guests of the Ayatollah: The Iran Hostage Crisis: The First Battle in America’s War with Militant Islam and will turn it into a movie. Bowden also wrote the non-fiction book that spawned Black Hawk Down. Andrea Berloff (World Trade Center) is writing the adaptation. A director isn’t yet attached.

The Iran hostage crisis began on November 4th, 1979 when students and militants supporting the Iranian Revolution stormed the American Embassy taking 66 hostages. The situation would last 444 days and have strong reverberations in both American and Iranian politics.

William Horberg (The Quiet American, The Kite Runner) is the executive producer and the initiating force behind the project. He gave this statement to Variety:

I was able to visit Tehran as part of the Academy delegation’s international outreach committed. I spent ten days there, screening films and meeting Iranian filmmakers. A couple of weeks after I was back and lunching with ICM agent Ron Bernstein and telling him about the trip, he said the rights to the Bowden book were free and clear. Mark writes these historically significant books that read like page-turners, and this 700-page yarn grips you from the moment those students climb over the gates. It is one of the most important defining political events of the last 40 years, the introduction of radical Islam to most people, and HBO seemed the only place to tackle this kind of epic political subject matter. And it’s still relevant.

HBO always manages to knock historical dramas out of the park, so this should be something to anticipate.

Director Danny Boyle’s next film is scheduled to be 127 Hours, the true story of mountaineer Aron Ralston who famously got pinned under a boulder for five days before amputating his arm with a dull knife in order to free himself. Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire) is writing the script based on Boyle’s own treatment. Fox Searchlight and Pathe are handling financing and distribution.

I’ll never deny that this is a hell of a story, but would it really make a good film? There’s not much that’s cinematic about being pinned beneath a boulder for 127 hours. Sure, he proceeded to rappel down a 65-foot cliff face with one arm and scour the area for help, but it all seems more interesting in the form of an interview or a detailed article. I’m not sure how these events translate into 100-120 minutes of interesting drama. Do people want to watch in excruciating detail the manner in which he snapped his bones, cut away the soft tissue and attacked his tendons with pliers?

Anyway, the plan is for filming to begin in the spring with a release targeted for 2010’s end.

There’s a new Sherlock Holmes trailer out, courtesy of MTV, which shows off several new CG-enhanced set pieces. In my humble opinion, they don’t really look too hot. I was sorta hoping this would be a more down to earth film without the likes of a big fight sequence atop an unfinished Tower Bridge. Oh well, the banter between Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law still looks good.

Sherlock Holmes is directed by Guy Ritchie and also stars Rachel McAdams, Mark Strong and Eddie Marsan. It will be released to theaters on December 25th.

The second season of the Starz comedy Party Down is in production and the big news is Megan Mullally joining the cast as a regular. The new character is a small-town mom who moves to Hollywood to try and make her young daughter a star. Mullally replaces Jane Lynch who is now committed to Fox’s Glee, although the latter actress will return for at least one appearance. It’s not clear how many episodes this involves, but Kristen Bell is also returning for guest appearances, as the rival catering company owner and new girlfriend to Henry.

Other guest stars for the second season will include J.K. Simmons, Joey Lauren Adams, Steve Guttenberg, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Thomas Lennon and Jimmi Simpson.

Party Down is about a catering company in Los Angeles that employs struggling/failed actors, comedians and screenwriters. The show also stars Ken Marino, Adam Scott, Lizzy Caplan, Martin Starr and Ryan Hansen.

Season two will be ten episodes long and should premiere in April, 2010.

According to Dark UFO, Zuleikha Robinson has been promoted to a series regular for Lost’s final season. It’s not too surprising considering her character, Ilana, and her mysterious group was set up as agents of Jacob in some fashion. Seeing as Jacob is possibly out of the picture now, someone’s going to have to take up the mantle of… well, I suppose we need to find that out too.

Ilana first appeared in “316″, the sixth episode of season five along with six subsequent episodes.

Lost returns for its sixth season in January.

Watching the pilot episode of V is a little bit like viewing one of Lost’s midseason summary clip shows without any prior knowledge of the show. V’s premiere is full of revelations and plot turns, enough to fill more than a few whole hours with satisfying reveals, but without all of the necessary development to make these points resonate. The show never stops to explore the repercussions of its major events, rather rushing off to deliver the next one. I love slower, deliberately paced shows – though that doesn’t mean I like filler – if the time is spent on developing its concepts and characters. When it comes to V, the setup of its scenario occurs so quickly it’s impossible to get a grasp of the world or even individual characters’ reactions, even though it’s absolutely pivotal to the show’s themes.

One day, two and a half dozen alien motherships appear over the world’s biggest cities, causing minor destruction and potentially major panic in the populace. The leader of these Visitors, Anna, quickly delivers a message to humanity by way of what’s essentially a giant screen on the ship’s underbellies declaring their presence to be peaceful. They claim to be surprised and glad to meet another intelligent race in the universe and want only to stop by for a while to restock on some necessary provisions and to open up many of their advanced technologies to humanity. The fear quickly dissolves into a crowd of clapping New Yorkers, in a scene that easily recalls such unrealistic portrayals of humanity as the bridge scene at the end of Spider-Man. I don’t care what the human-appearing aliens are promising, they have a giant supremely advanced ship over your city, and again, they’re aliens! No population representative of reality embraces that so quickly. Unfortunately, reality is devoid from nearly the entire enterprise. Within hours Anna is on Earth casually talking to reporters, as if no government agency had even shown up on the scene, let alone considered any of the likely considerations, like a quarantine, secrecy, major policy discussions, etc. Almost immediately we jump forward three weeks’ time and I’m thinking I’d have loved to see the show’s first 15 minutes fleshed out to an hour or even two.

It’s not really a spoiler to say that we quickly learn that there’s more to the Visitors than they’re letting on. It’s been two decades since the original show aired and the revelation that the aliens are in fact reptilian underneath human skins is part of pop culture, albeit to a smaller degree than Soylent Green being made of people. All of this is revealed by episode’s end anyway, and doesn’t cover the bigger two twists that were apparently not part of the original show, so I’ll save those for a later, designated section. The point is, knowing that the Visitors are not altruistic in their desires to help Earth is exactly why the lack of development in reactions to their presence hurts the show so much. If a big aspect of the series is going to deal with those who come to know the Visitors are evil or are at least suspicious or skeptical and those who fully embrace them if not devote their lives to the aliens, then it’d be to the show’s benefit to actually see how those two sides would arrive at their positions. Instead it simply happens. Again, go back to the New Yorkers clapping an image in the sky for promising to cure a variety of diseases and physical ailments. Sure, that’s pretty sweet, but how quickly are real people going to give their bodies over to alien medicine? Show me the Visitors doing their public relations game. Show me a scared, cynical public slowly seduced by these alien gifts.

We see brief evidence that the Visitors do indeed have great medical knowledge, but the character the show follows to explore the seduction side is a terrible choice. We’re given over to a 17 year-old named Tyler, who’s written as if he’s 13. He’s vaguely rebellious against his single mother, Erica, which means part of his attraction to acquainting himself with the Visitors and their PR program Peace Ambassadors, is simply because it’s different and his mom might not approve. It has nothing to do with the bigger issues they represent and offer. The other more significant reason for his attraction to the aliens is more literal-minded. He’s a stupidly horny kid and he becomes instantly infatuated with one of the Vs, Lisa (Laura Vandervoort). Never mind that again, he’s sexually attracted to an alien. I know males can be pretty dumb in letting their genitals do their thinking for them, but this is on a whole different level. This, alongside an early comment by the journalist/news anchor played by Scott Wolf about Anna and the other Visitors being attractive, is what the episode spends its time on with regard to the Visitors’ efforts to ease interspecies relations. Basically, they’re hot, so why wouldn’t you trust them with your bodies, let alone your planet? Side note: I find it hilarious that Tyler’s crush looks a hell of a lot like a younger version of his mother. This kid’s got serious issues.

The lead character is the aforementioned Erica (Elizabeth Mitchell) and the closest thing we have to a government perspective, which seems like a missed opportunity. Anyway, she’s an FBI agent dealing with counter terrorism issues and pays little attention to the Visitors. In one of her scenes the latest news about the Visitors is quite literally background noise. She’s too busy trying to get to the bottom of an outlier terrorist sleeper cell, the only one on her radar whose activities spiked with the Visitors’ arrival. Meanwhile, Father Jack (Joel Gretsch) is a local priest who finds himself more skeptical of the Visitors, or at least unwilling to take the Vatican’s party line that the Visitors must be part of God’s plan and shouldn’t be distrusted. This character’s position actually has the potential for some interesting explorations of faith, religion and self-interest as he’s also afraid that the Visitors could essentially take the place of God and be the new power to which the masses devote themselves. He’s not a religious fanatic, but he’s also not a super progressive priest-in-name-only. This is the character who is most interestingly challenged by the disruption of normalcy when the Visitors arrive.

*Begin spoilers*

It’s time for the major spoilers, so back out now if you care. Erica finds information about the sleeper cell’s meeting location and heads to check it out. At the same time, Jack is approached by a severely bleeding man claiming that the Visitors are evil reptiles and not benevolent guests. He gives Jack a package and asks that it be taken to a location that is, yes, where the sleeper cell is convening. Both arrive and it becomes quickly apparent that neither knows what this is about. It’s certainly not a traditional terrorist cell. In an incredibly quick and unrealistic manner, the undercover Erica asks direct, skeptical questions about the cell’s purpose, forcing the leader to give a monologue about the whole conspiracy. The Visitors aren’t exactly new arrivals. No, they’ve been disguised as humans for a long time, moving into positions of power, orchestrating the world’s turmoil and preparing for the coming of the main fleet. (Apparently the world’s current conflicts are the result of V manipulations. Funny how humans didn’t need their help in past centuries.)

Erica and some of the others are incredulous, but Jack brings forth the package which contains pictures, including one of the Visitors’ second-in-command with an unidentifiable man whom Erica had stumbled upon in researching the cell. Inexplicable to me, this so-called evidence confirms the whole story for our characters. The cell is then attacked by Visitors, including Erica’s until-then FBI partner (played by guest star Alan Tudyk), leaving most of the humans dead while our protagonists escape. The FBI partner, however, is cut open and we get a confirming look at the actual scales and even an eye beneath his human skin. So that’s the one twist, the Visitors have been among humans for some time now.

The second twist involves another character, Ryan (Morris Chestnut), who is being hounded by the cell leader to rejoin the group. He’s concerned about the safety of his soon-to-be fiance (Lourdes Benedicto) but eventually concedes and is present for the battle at the end. He receives a knife wound which reveals that he is also a Visitor, although apparently a traitor and was working against his own species. We’re given no reason why, but he claims there are more just like him. That’s a whole lot of major revelations for a pilot episode of any show. It all occurs in a huge rush. The show can’t wait to get to the final moments when Erica and Jack talk about how they have to form a resistance movement in order to protect mankind from the Visitors. This is, in the universe’s time, just minutes after they’ve learned about the whole conspiracy in the first place. It’s even stranger when Erica didn’t even really give the Visitors a second thought after their initial appearance. Again, everything happens so quickly that it’s impossible to figure out what you should think about each revelation, let alone for the show to give you any clue what the characters themselves are thinking. Things are just happening at a breakneck speed.

I can easily envision how this would have made a better four episodes. Start with one focused just on the Visitors arriving, maybe throwing only the audience a hint that they’re actually reptilian since everyone knows it anyway, but keep the characters in the dark for the time being. Let them grapple with just the alien presence for a bit. Another episode could delve into the Visitors ingratiating themselves with mankind with their medical treatments and other demonstrations of their good faith while continuing to get to know the characters and seeing how all of this impacts them. Introduce the conspiracy in the third episode and reveal the traitors in the fourth. Bam, you can deliver on all of those twists fairly quickly while showing, rather than quickly telling, us the impact of the Visitors on Earth and the main cast. Let’s see how they react and how the parts of the populace are seduced by their offers. Make it credible so that the Visitors are seen as truly dangerous when we learn about their secrets. Basically, approach the Visitors like they’re Brother Justin in Carnivàle. Now there’s a great example of a series showing us an antagonist’s secret evil ways and his magnetic and charismatic public side.

*End spoilers*

It’s a shame about this pilot because I think there’s a great story in there somewhere, if only the writers/producers and/or ABC had wanted to spend some time on it. Instead they’re in a mad rush to get to the juicy stuff, but you can’t have effective climaxes if you don’t have the developing actions. In a crude way, I think of this pilot as being like Lost if its pilot had ended with them opening the hatch. Sure, Lost had a fair share of filler, but it also had some interesting world building and character development, which enabled the big reveals to really spring to life and mean something. It also enables some suspense and mystery, when the reveals keep coming there’s not much time to consider what they mean in order for those conditions to form. Perhaps the show will improve, especially since as of this writing it’s already undergone two changes in showrunners. I’ll likely watch the next couple and see what happens. Lots of pilots are rocky. I just hope it slows down and gives the characters, world and plot twists some breathing room.

George Clooney is in talks to lead the cast of Alexander Payne’s next film, The Descendants, according to Variety. The project is based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings. Here’s a blurb from the book:

Hemmings’s bittersweet debut novel stars besieged and wryly introspective attorney Matt King, the land-rich descendant of Hawaiian royalty and American missionaries and entrepreneurs. He wrestles with the decision of whether to keep his swath of valuable inherited land or sell it to a real estate developer. But even more critical, Matt also has to decide whether to pull the plug on his wife, Joanie, who has been in an irreversible coma for 23 days following a boat-racing accident. Then Matt finds out that Joanie was having an affair with real estate broker Brian Speer, impelling him to travel with his two daughters—precocious 10-year-old Scottie and fresh from rehab 17-year-old Alex—from Oahu to Kauai to confront Brian. Matt finds out the truth about Joanie and Brian, which influences his decision about what to do with his family’s on-the-block land and complicates his plans for Joanie. Matt’s journey with his girls forms the emotional core of this sharply observed, frequently hilarious and intermittently heartbreaking look at a well-meaning but confused father trying to hold together his unconventional family.

Clooney would play Matt King. The script was written by Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, which would make this the first of Payne’s films that he didn’t also write. Payne previously directed Citizen Ruth, Election, About Schmidt and Sideways.

We Fell to Earth has a new single coming out in two weeks, that’s seemingly unrelated to the debut album which they dropped in the summer. So this is the first appearance of “Deaf”.

We Fell to Earth is the new band formed by Richard File (previously of UNKLE) and Wendy Rae Fowler. Unfortunately, their music has yet to be released in the United States, though you can hear more than half their tracks between their official site and MySpace. It’s a shame how many great acts don’t get distribution in the U.S.

“Deaf” will be released as a single on November 16th in the UK.

Here’s the trailer for the next film from DreamWorks Animation, How to Train Your Dragon. It’s notable for directors Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, who previously teamed for Disney’s Lilo & Stitch. Unfortunately, and in my opinion, I don’t see much of their previous film’s charm coming through here, except somewhat with the dragon, although its design and personality are clearly very similar to Stitch’s anyway. Their faces have the same shape. It doesn’t help the film that the designs for the human characters are rather blah and caught in an awkward place between caricature and realism. There’s also an odd disconnect between what the design of Hiccup is telling me about the character and what Jay Baruchel’s voice is telling me. I’m really not sure how old he’s supposed to be.

Gerard Butler, America Ferrera, Craig Ferguson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Jonah Hill and Kristen Wiig also lend their voices to the movie.

How to Train Your Dragon will be in theaters on March 26th, 2010.

IGN has the debut of the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time trailer.

A rogue prince reluctantly joins forces with a mysterious princess and together, they race against dark forces to safeguard an ancient dagger capable of releasing the Sands of Time—a gift from the gods that can reverse time and allow its possessor to rule the world.

Mike Newell directs the adaptation of the video game franchise. Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, Alfred Molina, Toby Kebbell and Ben Kingsley star.

Well, it looks like what you’d expect given that it’s a Jerry Bruckheimer production and it’s designed to kick off the next Pirates of the Caribbean caliber franchise. Lots of action, big special effects, a period location, a romance featuring a spunky female, etc. That is to say, it’s a formulaic summer blockbuster from one of the kings of Hollywood, leaving me completely indifferent.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time will be released on May 28th, 2010.

Alongside the trailer, which was already long at 3.5 minutes, Fox has put out a 4 minute video featuring some of the stars and crew talking about the film. More interestingly than those standard hype-building comments is the ton of new footage that’s played as well. Some would argue it might even be too much. Between these two videos, about 6 minutes of the film have been glimpsed today, so consider how much you want to see before watching this one. It’s not really big on plot spoilers, although it does reveal why Jake (Sam Worthington’s character) is specifically sought out for the job of taking an avatar to see the Na’vi. Mostly it shows off a lot of floral, fauna and some environments not previously seen and lots of other little things. It adds up though so consider this your warning.

It’s nice of them to recognize The Abyss when they list Cameron’s films here, unlike in the trailer.

Risky Business has word that Etan Cohen is writing the second Men in Black sequel for Sony, which is hoping to head into production early next year. It sounds like none of the big three, ie. Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones and director Barry Sonnenfeld, have deals yet, but Sony’s pushing ahead anyway. As with the first sequel, checks for massive sums of money always win out. It seems like the best chance this has of being made comes thanks to Smith’s unusual inability to get one of his couple dozen developing projects in a state ready to shoot. This year was the first since 1994 to be absent a Will Smith feature, and it looks like 2010 will be the same.

For me, Men in Black II destroyed my interest in the franchise. The first film was great fun, but the second was dreadful. It was lazy, slapsticky and rehashed too many gags and situations from the first. Even the makeup, special effects and alien designs became cruder and uglier, right alongside the script. It took every joke too far and drove them into the ground. I can’t say having one of the writers of Tropic Thunder and Idiocracy on board fills me with much hope either. Both of those films were less than hilarious and lacked solid character fundamentals, which is largely what made the original Men in Black so great. It was just about the characters.

Anthony Hopkins has been officially added to the cast of Thor in the role of Odin, according to Variety. Odin is the father to Thor and Loki, played by Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston, respectively. Also in the cast are Natalie Portman, Jamie Alexander and Colme Feore. Kenneth Branagh is directing from a script by Mark Protosevich, Zack Stentz and Ashley Miller.

The film’s plot will involve Thor, a powerful yet arrogant warrior, being banished from Asgard to Earth after accidentally reigniting an ancient war. It’s not long before the dark forces of Asgard, presumably lead by Loki and Feore’s villainous role, turn their attentions to humanity leaving Thor to rise to the occasion.

Production is scheduled to begin in January with a release date of May 20th, 2011.

The big three and a half minute trailer for James Cameron’s Avatar is up over at Yahoo. It’s definitely more exciting than the teaser trailer, but I remain incredibly ambivalent about the cliched story tropes that have been told, on film no less, countless times. It’s Pocahontas, Dances with Wolves, The Last Samurai and so many others, but in space. It appears to be a very standard story of a select few characters changing sides when they realize their own is completely in the wrong.  Hopefully Cameron has some surprises up his sleeve for the story.

James Cameron wrote and directed the film, his first narrative work since Titanic. It stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, Giovanni Ribisi, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder and Dileep Rao.

Avatar will be released on December 18th.

Game Informer has been running a series of features about the upcoming Nintendo Wii game Epic Mickey, which is designed as a grand revitalization of Mickey Mouse as a character along with reintroducing Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Oswald was Walt Disney’s (and Ub Iwerks’s) first creation and while extremely successful, Universal retained ownership after Disney and Iwerks left over a contract dispute. At this time they created Mickey and well, the rest is history. Oswald, however, was recently purchased back from Universal, allowing him to appear here in the role of the bitter forgotten ’son’ in contrast to Mickey’s fame and fortune.

The game involves Mickey having to go into the Wasteland, where Disney’s forgotten characters and settings now reside, where Oswald’s jealousy has fermented for decades. Of course, Oswald’s not likely to stay a villainous character for the game’s entirety but other classic baddies will be appearing to fill that void, such as the Phantom Blot, Pete and the Mad Doctor. It’ll all be explained by game designer Warren Spector, known for the likes of Wing Commander, Deux Ex, System Shock and Thief: The Dark Project, among others. Along with the following piece, there’s a lengthy interview with him about how the project came together, the game details and the historical elements of Disney’s characters as it impacts Epic Mickey.

GI’s embedding function doesn’t appear to be working well, so check out the video here.

Overall, there’s so much to love about what’s being said about this game, especially if you’re a fan of classic Disney animation. There’s a lot of love and history going into it, which is always a good sign. It’ll be especially fun to see Mickey return more to his roots, before he became a tamer goody two-shoes. Epic Mickey is currently scheduled to arrive on the Wii in the fall of 2010. While you wait, check out the fantastic DVD set Disney put together that compiles the surviving Disney era Oswald shorts.

Generally I avoid writing about rumors as doing so tends to require also writing about the inevitable clarifications, denials and whatever other developments stem from them. It quickly takes on a tabloid nature. It’s better to just wait it out and pay attention to the facts. I’m going to make an exception here because I really, really want to chime in and say how awesome this would be if it came true. Mania claims to have an inside source that says that while it’s extremely early, Clancy Brown’s name has popped up a lot as the actor to potentially portray Lobo in the DC Comics film that Guy Ritchie is directing. Lobo is a violent and often amusing alien being who travels the universe as a mercenary and bounty hunter. Now, it seems the production doesn’t even quite know yet how they’re going to bring the character to the screen, as in, pure CG or more makeup and prostheses or some other combination. Plus, there’s the secondary question of whether casting a non-name is satisfactory to Warner Bros.

So, whether there’s any truth to this or not, I’d be damned excited about this project if Clancy Brown were involved in that lead role. Whether it’s playing the hardass in Starship Troopers, the villainous Kurgan in Highlander, voicing Lex Luthor in the DC animated shows or being the twisted, sociopathic priest in Carnivàle, Brown always delivers in an amazing way. His voice could make anything intimidating and he’s already got a big physical presence without any other help. The comedic elements wouldn’t be a problem either based on his countless voice acting roles, like Mr. Krabs on SpongeBob SquarePants.

If Clancy Brown were Lobo, I wouldn’t need to know a single other thing about the project. I’d be there on day one. I would definitely love to see this happen.

Lost executive producer Carlton Cuse revealed on Twitter that William Atherton had signed on for a guest spot in the sixth and final season of the show. Nothing was revealed about the role. Atherton’s best known as the antagonists in several classic ’80s films, like Ghostbusters, Real Genius and Die Hard. He most recently had a major recurring role on the show Life. The Lost production is currently filming the sixth episode of the season, so expect his role to pop up in the seventh at the earliest. I really enjoyed his stint on Life, and it goes without saying his roles in all the classics, so hopefully this will prove great as well.

Lost will return for its final season in January.

Last week NBC ordered the back nine episodes for both Parks and Recreation and Community.

Parks and Recreation has been very good this season, so if you haven’t given it a try yet or were turned off by the less stellar first season, check it out. They’ve started getting some good mileage out of the second tier of characters like The Office did early on, so that’s a good indicator. I’m very glad to see that this show will get to continue to develop for at least this full season.

Community has definitely found its die hard fans, but I’m not quite enamored. It’s decent and very easy to watch, but it doesn’t add up to much. It tends to struggle a bit finding stories and mixing up the character interactions. Hopefully they can eventually find something better to do with Chevy Chase’s character, as they’ve already done the same b-story for him twice. The show has moments of brilliance though, and in general I think it’s been improving.

Community and Parks and Recreation air in the first hour of NBC’s Thursday night comedy blocks.

The trailer for director Clint Eastwood’s next film, Invictus, is now up at Apple. It’s based on the true story of newly elected South African president Nelson Mandela using his country’s underdog rugby team to unite the white and black populations during their run at the Rugby World Cup. Morgan Freeman stars as Nelson Mandela while Matt Damon plays team captain Francois Pienaar.

I’m rather wary of Clint Eastwood tackling anything involving race issues, and I’m not really a fan of his anyway, but at least this is a true story and he didn’t write it. Rather Anthony Peckham (Don’t Say a Word, Sherlock Holmes) wrote the script based off John Carlin’s book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Changed a Nation. It looks exactly like what you’d expect from an inspirational true story, so if that’s your thing, this will probably be worth checking out.

Invictus will be released by Warner Bros on December 11th.

The first trailer for Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon’s third collaboration has been released. Green Zone is about a rogue U.S. Army officer who must hunt through covert and faulty intelligence hidden on foreign soil before war escalates in an unstable region. It appears to be much more action oriented than I expected. I figured this would be more along the lines of Body of Lies with less personal action and more behind-the-scenes planning and coordinating. The film is based on journalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s book Imperial Life in the Emerald City, based on his experiences in the Iraqi Green Zone, though after this trailer it seems it was used more for the background info than the actual scenario.

Brian Helgeland wrote the script. Amy Ryan, Greg Kinnear, Brendan Gleeson, Jason Isaacs, Khalid Abdalla and Martin McDougall also star.

Green Zone hits theaters on March 12th, 2010.

The second episode of season four returns to a traditional Venture Bros. tale of arching gone awry. The Monarch is holding Hank and Dean for ransom but Captain Sunshine shows up to partially settle a beef with the Monarch while also saving Hank from his clutches. Dean, apparently, wasn’t Captain Sunshine’s type. The fun of “Handsome Ransom” comes as it explores two aspects of the Venture universe. First, we get the hijinks of Monarch and Dr. Venture’s interactions as they consistently bump against the Guild of Calamitous Intent’s laws of arching. The Monarch’s ambitions never fail to either backfire or break the rules of his chosen profession, and the pattern is still as hilarious as it was in season one. Like most of the show’s characters, the Monarch is his own worst enemy.

Captain Sunshine is fundamentally a spoof of Batman mixed with a little Michael Jackson. To cement the Batman comparison, Kevin Conroy (the voice actor for most animated Batman projects) provides the hero’s voice, taking Batman and exaggerating him into a mess of flamboyance and emotion. See, Captain Sunshine is reeling from the death of the third Wonderboy (read: Robin) and sees Hank as a potential new ward. That cues a couple dozen gags regarding Captain Sunshine’s relationships with his young male sidekicks along with no shortage of Batman references. Oh, and wait until you see Sunshine’s alter ego, and for that matter the alter egos of the whole superhero team of which he’s a member.

“Handsome Ransom” will go down as one of the great self-contained episodes of The Venture Bros. thanks to its use of the show’s meat-and-potatoes arching plotline plus the fantastic performance Kevin Conroy gives as Captain Sunshine. Hopefully we get to see him again in some capacity down the line. And the episode’s greatness was accomplished without a single appearance of Brock, too…

According to Variety, Matt Damon and Josh Brolin are in negotiations to join the next Coen brothers film, True Grit. It’s based on the Charlie Portis novel which was previously adapted in 1969 and earned John Wayne an Oscar. The period western follows a 14-year old girl who teams with a United States Marshal and another lawman to find her father’s killer in Indian territory. The first adaptation focused on the Marshal while this one, as scripted by the Coens and truer to the novel, will be from the girl’s perspective. Josh Brolin would reunite with the Coen brothers in order to player the story’s killer while Matt Damon would play the lawman. Jeff Bridges was previous cast in the U.S. Marshal role. The lead role of the girl has yet to be cast.

Paramount is producing True Grit, with shooting beginning in March for a late 2010 release.

The first song from so-called supergroup Them Crooked Vultures have released the first full track from their debut self-titled album. The band consists of Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age) on vocals and guitar, Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters) on drums and John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) on bass. There hasn’t been much rock that’s had an impact on me in recent years aside from occasional individual songs and The White Stripes, but I like what I hear in this one. The self-produced 13-track album Them Crooked Vultures is due on November 17th.

DreamWorks announced early last year that it had acquired the rights to Masamune Shirow’s manga Ghost in the Shell with plans to turn it into a 3D (stereoscopic) live-action film. Now Laeta Kalogridis has come on board to write a new script. Kalogridis has writing credits on Night Watch, Alexander and the upcoming Shutter Island. Jamie Moss previously worked on the script. There is no director attached but Avi Arid, Ari Arad and Steven Paul are producing.

Of course, Ghost in the Shell already has a rich animated life in Japan, with Mamoru Oshii’s two feature films, the pair of 26-episode television series and a third film based on the TV version. I happen to love pretty much everything about this property, from the manga itself to the films and TV show, so I’m a bit wary of it getting the Hollywood treatment. On the other hand, I think it’ll transfer over much easier than, say, Akira, which is hard to imagine taking place anywhere but Neo-Tokyo and some geopolitical themes that more unique to Japan. You certainly won’t catch me complaining too much about Hollywood tackling a big cyberpunk story. There’s never enough of that.

Neill Blomkamp, the writer/director who burst onto the feature scene this year with District 9, has secured financing for his next science fiction movie from Media Rights Capital. There aren’t any details provided about the plot, but it’s possible it’s likely it’s the movie he spoke of to /Film, in which case he revealed that it takes place on another planet and it’s violent. Otherwise, it’s a mystery. The budget is said to be higher than District 9’s $30 million but nowhere near that of other sci-fi blockbusters. Blomkamp will write, direct and also be a part owner of the movie. Bill Block will produce and likewise own a share of the film.

Blomkamp made these statements, courtesy of Variety:

MRC is letting me make the film I want to make and that is by far the most important thing here. The film will hopefully be commercial, but it is very much a singular film, that comes directly from me. District 9 was a bit different. I was learning the process then, under Peter Jackson’s wing. He had control, but was awesome enough to let me make the film I wanted to. Bill’s producing this with MRC, so the difference is Pete’s involvement.

I’m not particularly interested in massive budget films, or creating huge spectacles that some young directors might be attracted to. Hopefully, this will be a bit unique, very much a reflection of me. It is absolutely another science fiction film, quite different from District 9, but some of the blending of genres and the tone might be within the same realm.

The untitled film will go into production in the middle of 2010.

Fever Ray has released its fifth music video, although this one doesn’t support the self-titled debut that hit back in February. Rather, this video is for “Stranger Than Kindness”, a cover of Nick Cave and Anita Lane’s song which Karin Dreijer Andersson (aka Fever Ray) has been performing in her live shows. It’s one of two covers that are being given the studio recording treatment for the November 24th release of a deluxe edition of the album, which will include the original album with the covers, a live recording of the show in Luleå and a DVD of all five music videos plus a look at the tour.

Andreas Nilsson directs the video, which features all the spooky costumes and haunting sets that you’d expect from Fever Ray. You just gotta love the creepy, antique lamps, which are also major props for Fever Ray’s stage show. Here’s the video, as premiered by Vanity Fair.

The other cover song is also available for listening. That track is “Here Before”, originally by Vashti Bunyan, which you can hear below.

There’s still a couple months left in the year, but I’m pretty damned sure Fever Ray will remain my favorite album of 2009. It’s just that good.

Here’s a second international trailer for The White Ribbon. Austrian writer/director Michael Haneke (Funny Games, The Pianist, Caché) takes audiences to a small German village on the eve of World War I. A teacher and his students are at the center of things as they gravitate towards unspoken violent acts within their small community while the film contemplates the forms of fascism and terrorism that stem from Protestant devotion to discipline, obedience and punishment. All in all, a tale of violence and cruelty surreptitiously emerging in a society. The White Ribbon won this year’s Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

Sony Pictures Classics will open The White Ribbon in Los Angeles and New York City on December 30th before expanding to other cities.

That’s right, co-creator Peter Laird and Mirage have sold the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise to Nickelodeon and its parent company Viacom for a cool $60 million. (Co-creator Kevin Eastman had sold his own share of the property to Laird and Mirage back in 2000.) That leaves Paramount to take over the planned live-action reboot that Scott Mednick has been producing. At this time it doesn’t appear as if anything has changed with the film’s progress, except that it’s now targeted for 2012. Also set for that year is a new CG animated television series for Nickelodeon. For the time being, the current running series produced by 4Kids Entertainment will continue to air on The CW until August 31st, 2010.

Peter Laird talked about the sale on his blog, and how he wasn’t necessarily looking to sell but Nickelodeon came along with a good offer that he was comfortable with. Laird expresses the fact that he’s somewhat worn out of the Turtles, what with them turning 25 years old this year, meaning he’s spent very close to half his life managing these characters. I recommend reading the entirety of his thoughts. They’re pretty honest and open about what happens from here on out. If you care to read the full press release announcing the sale, Reuters has it.

A second trailer for Universal’s The Wolfman is up at Apple. This trailer focuses a little more on the action, horror and atmospherics than the story, as the first trailer did, but the film still looks absolutely fantastic. I’m really quite excited for this one. It looks like everyone brought their A-game. It’s especially nice that the effects work looks really solid.

The Wolfman stars Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt and Hugo Weaving in a retelling of Universal’s classic monster film. Joe Johnston (Jurassic Park III, Hidalgo) directs from a script by Andrew Kevin Walker and David Self.

Inspired by the classic Universal film that launched a legacy of horror, The Wolfman brings the myth of a cursed man back to its iconic origins. Benicio Del Toro stars as Lawrence Talbot, a haunted nobleman lured back to his family estate after his brother vanishes. Reunited with his estranged father (Anthony Hopkins), Talbot sets out to find his brother…and discovers a horrifying destiny for himself. Lawrence Talbot’s childhood ended the night his mother died. After he left the sleepy Victorian hamlet of Blackmoor, he spent decades recovering and trying to forget. But when his brother’s fiancée, Gwen Conliffe (Emily Blunt), tracks him down to help find her missing love, Talbot returns home to join the search. He learns that something with brute strength and insatiable bloodlust has been killing the villagers, and that a suspicious Scotland Yard inspector named Aberline (Hugo Weaving) has come to investigate. As he pieces together the gory puzzle, he hears of an ancient curse that turns the afflicted into werewolves when the moon is full. Now, if he has any chance at ending the slaughter and protecting the woman he has grown to love, Talbot must destroy the vicious creature in the woods surrounding Blackmoor. But as he hunts for the nightmarish beast, a simple man with a tortured past will uncover a primal side to himself…one he never imagined existed.

The Wolfman will hit theaters on February 12th, 2010.

A shorter 1.5 minute trailer for AMC’s The Prisoner miniseries is available for viewing over at i09. Check it out.

The miniseries is based on the short-lived British series of the same name from the 1960s. AMC’s version stars Jim Caviezel, Ian McKellen, Jamie Campbell Bower, Ruth Wilson and Lennie James. Caviezel plays No. 6, a man who finds himself mysteriously in The Village, an isolated community in the middle of the desert that acknowledges no existence of an outside world. McKellen is No. 2, the apparent boss of The Village and works to make No. 6 conform to the community’s ideas, but the latter only has escape on his mind.

AMC will premiere its miniseries The Prisoner on Sunday November 15th. Two of the six hours will air that night, followed by two more on the 16th and the final two on the 17th.

The fourth season premiere of The Venture Bros kicks off with a slightly confusing episode involving some Memento-esque storytelling. One timeline follows Brock right from the end of last season’s finale where the explosion of the Monarch mobile left him with HELPER’s head embedded in his chest, while the other picks up months down the road with the Venture family fighting Nazis with their new bodyguard Sgt. Hatred, and then moving backwards from there. Each thread intersects a couple times with each other, and all told you can piece together everything but it’s purposefully confusing and complicated for the first 15-20 minutes.

As season three ended with a few major events, this season picks up with the repercussions of those. Brock quit the OSI and his job as Dr. Venture’s bodyguard to seek out the truth about the assassins sent after him. The aforementioned injury sidetracks him for a while, but after some surgery by the plastic surgeon who did Hunter Gathers’ sex change and an amusing period of rest in the company of Steve Summers (the Six Million Dollar Man) and his Sasquatch lover, he’s back on the case, albeit far from in peak physical condition. Scoping out the headquarters of Molotov Cocktease’s Black Hearts headquarters, Brock runs into an agent of Sphinx. (Sphinx is the Cobra to the OSI’s G.I. Joe.) If you’ll recall Hunter was last seen coordinating the Black Hearts’ efforts to have Brock take out the world’s other top assassins, and he’s back here talking to Molotov when Brock and the Sphinx agent fall into the room. Molotov shoots Brock out the window where he falls into the street as is picked up by a van of even more Sphinx agents.

As the confusion over everyone’s allegiances continues to grow during Sphinx’s interrogation of Brock, we learn that Sphinx had captured Hunter too. Or rather, as it turns out, Hunter is some sort of double-triple agent and has been working for Sphinx all along. He remarks that while undercover with Molotov’s organization he used the opportunity to make Brock leave the OSI and his bodyguard position in order to free him up for more important work with Sphinx. Along with Hunter, we see that Sphinx employs the plastic surgeon, Holy Diver and Shore Leave. If it’s not painfully obvious, the show’s mythology is growing only more and more complex, even after the pretty damned complex developments of season 3. It’ll be interesting to finally learn a little bit about Sphinx and what its agenda is, especially if they are in fact the ‘good guys’.

The Venture family storyline is comparatively straightforward even if it’s told more or less backwards. Dr. Venture’s cloning technology is out in the open after Hank and Dean released their “presents” in the finale and all of their clones were decimated on the battlefield. Henchman 24 died in the Monarch Mobile explosion, leaving 21 lost and confused, and asking Venture to clone him, although this doesn’t appear to happen. Nazis also arrive with a dog they claim has the blood of Hitler in him and they want Venture to create a human baby from it. Dean gets himself attached to the dog even though the evil creature must eventually be killed. Sergeant Hatred has been wiped of his pedophilia by OSI doctors and goes from Venture family nemesis to bodyguard. Hank struggles to cope without Brock around, but tries to follow in his former bodyguard’s footsteps by manning up. When it’s his chance to kill Hitler (the dog), he fails but is saved by an appearance by Brock, which must be kept a secret but emboldens Hank and gives him a boost. Oh, and Brock mails HELPER’s head back and it’s installed on a walking eye robot instead of a more humanoid form.

There was a lot of setup in this one which should prove fun to explore in future episodes. It’s a really neat change to bring Sergeant Hatred into the Venture family and shake up the dynamic between Hank and Dean and their guardian. I suppose that means Dr. Venture is once again in need of a new archenemy… maybe the Monarch can get his wish and be matched with him again? It’s a little unclear what 21 is up to outside of mourning 24 in his own weird ways. He’s hanging around the Venture compound a lot, so is he still working for the Monarch? And what the hell is really going on with Hunter Gathers? Who’s side is he on and how many different agendas does he have? Most of all though, the big change is that Brock Sampson is no longer on babysitting duty and we’ll likely get to see him go commando while working with Sphinx. For this episode at least, it was a nice treat to see so many returning faces, between Steve Summers, the Sasquatch, Hunter, Molotov, the plastic surgeon, the Lepidopterists, etc. Going into this fourth season, it’s clear that The Venture Bros universe is a complicated and crowded one. I’m not complaining either. While this show began as a more simplistic comedy parodying the likes of Jonny Quest, it’s turned into a massively complex action adventure series that happens to be funny. With those qualities, it stands pretty much alone on modern television.

Director Brad Anderson has lined up an adaptation of the one-off comic The Living and the Dead by writers Todd Livingston and Robert Tinnell, and artist Micah Farritor. Thanks to Mania for the scoring the news. The synopsis for the comic follows:

You are a simple, country doctor in a small village. You have a beautiful wife and a wonderful son – the perfect life. Only they don’t know that in your past, you did a very bad thing! People died because of it, and you were forced to flee and live incognito. Now, in an opportunity to redeem yourself, you unwittingly unleash a brutal and perverse murderer, a deviant sociopath hell bent on using innocent people in a Grand Guignol of flesh and blood – a veritable nineteenth-century snuff theater. You alone can end his reign of sick terror – but at the risk of revealing your secret past and losing everything you love. Only you don’t know what’s worse – what you’ve created – or what you have to do to stop him!

Brad Anderson’s previously directed such noteworthy films as Session 9, The Machinist and Transsiberian. He’s also found some success directing several episodes of Fringe, including last season’s great finale. As far as I’m concerned, he’s among the relatively undiscovered major talent out there that just needs a hit and some funding to really strike out. Anything with his name on it grabs my attention.

Anderson just began shooting Vanishing on 7th Street, a psychological thriller dealing with four people who band together after the rest of mankind disappears. John Leguizamo, Thandie Newton and Hayden Christensen star in that one.

Here comes Mel Gibson’s return to the world of acting. Martin Campbell (Casino Royale) directs Edge of Darkness from a script by William Monahan and Andrew Bovell. The film is based on a six episode BBC series from 1985 which Campbell also directed. Also appearing in the film are Ray Winstone, Danny Huston, Bojana Novakovic, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Shawn Roberts and Denis O’Hare.

Thomas Craven (Gibson) is a veteran homicide detective for the Boston Police Department and a single father. When his only child, twenty-four year old Emma (Novakovic) is murdered on the steps of his home, everyone assumes that he was the target. But he soon suspects otherwise, and embarks on a mission to find out about his daughter’s secret life and her killing. His investigation leads him into a dangerous, looking glass world of corporate cover-ups, government collusion and murder – and to a shadowy government operative Darius Jedburgh (Winstone), who has been sent in to clean up the evidence. Craven’s solitary search for answers about his daughter’s death transforms into an odyssey of emotional discovery and redemption.

Looks like it has a lot more potential than other recent Hollywood thrillers. Certainly Martin Campbell is doing great work right now, coming off the stellar Casino Royale. He also has a pretty good grasp on solid and believable action sequences, which looks to be exercised here a few times. Some of the accent work seems wonky, but perhaps it’ll work better in more than just snippets of dialogue.

There’s also something hilarious about a character played by Mel Gibson using a crucifixion metaphor while threatening someone…

Edge of Darkness will be released on January 29th, 2010 by Warner Bros.

Chris Pine (Star Trek) is in negotiations with Paramount to become the fourth actor to portray Jack Ryan, the character from Tom Clancy’s novels previously played by Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck. At the last update, the script was known to be an original by Hossein Amini (The Four Feathers, Killshot) rather than an adaptation of one of Clancy’s many Ryan books. Of course, the novels that featured a younger Ryan were all heavy with the Cold War influence so it’s unlikely would Paramount would want to use those stories to relaunch the franchise.

Speaking of which, is this franchise even worth anything? Don’t get me wrong, I liked The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger quite a bit (I never bothered with The Sum of All Fears), but come 2011 or whenever, would the Jack Ryan name really a draw? At this point in time it seems to me that Tom Clancy is best known as a video game brand name more than for his novels. Maybe they should follow Ubi Soft’s lead and preface the title with Tom Clancy’s name. Perhaps Paramount will opt to use one of the novels’ titles just to trigger a connection for some people, even without using any of its content. I just don’t see much point in revisiting the character at this point. Just create a new agent without the complicated history, the convoluted and numerous different versions, etc. No matter how hard they try, Jack Ryan will never be James Bond.

Tommy Lee Jones is negotiating to take the director’s seat for The Lincoln Lawyer, an adaptation of the Michael Connelly novel, according to Risky Biz. Matthew McConaughey is set to star as a lawyer who operates out of a Lincoln Town Car and typically defends low profile criminals and drug dealers until he gets the shot to defend a Beverly Hills playboy accused of murder. Jones would also co-star, although it’s unclear in what role. John Romano (Nights in Rodanthe, story for Intolerable Cruelty) wrote the script.

Tommy Lee Jones previously directed The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada and is also set to direct The Sunset Limited for HBO, in which he stars with Samuel L. Jackson.

According to THR, ABC has won the bidding war for a new single-camera comedy show that will star Matthew Perry and be directed by Thomas Schlamme. Perry came up with the idea and will write the pilot script with Alex Barnow and Marc Firek. All four will also executive produce. The concept revolves around a self-involved manager of a second-rate sports arena who begins to re-evaluate his life on his 40th birthday. The project is currently without a title.

For me it’s Schlamme’s presence here that raises my interest, but also in part because Perry sought him out. Schlamme was the pilot director for Studio 60 and the Sunset Strip (and three other episodes) plus an executive producer on that series, the short-lived but great NBC drama that Matthew Perry starred in during the 2006-07 season. Schlamme was also a major force behind The West Wing and Sports Night. I was never a Friends fan, but loved Studio 60, so having some of the team from that recombine intrigues me enough to keep this on my radar. On the other hand, Barnow and Firek were producers and writers on ‘Til Death, the Fox comedy with Brad Garrett, and that’s seemingly dreadful.

Director Lee Unkrich revealed a couple more casting details via Twitter. Firstly, Kristen Schaal (The Daily Show, The Flight of the Conchords) is providing an unspecified character’s voice. Laurie Metcalf is returning to voice Andy’s mom, and John Morris is back to voice Andy himself. One of the bigger casting questions was who would be taking over for Slinky Dog, since Jim Varney passed away in 2000. The role has gone on to Blake Clark, a character actor who everyone can probably recognize if not identify. As it turns out, he was also a long time friend of Varney’s, so there’s something fitting there.

In related news, the Toy Story/Toy Story 2 3D double-billing is being given an extended stay in theaters thanks to its popularity. It’s not clear how much longer, but it’s at least one additional week after originally being scheduled to end this Thursday.

Toy Story 3 will be in theaters on June 18th, 2010.