Fox has renewed Fringe for a third season according to an EW report. Meanwhile, TV by the Numbers reports that the pickup is for a full 22 episodes. It’s no secret the show’s ratings have been down this year, but at the same time giving Fox a foothold at a new time slot. Anyway, fans can stop fretting over nothing as a third season is coming. Fringe stars Anna Torv, John Noble, Joshua Jackson, Lance Reddick, Jasika Nicole and Blair Brown that balances episodic sci-fi mysteries with the overarching story of colliding universes.

Fringe is currently on hiatus but will resume airing on April 1st with a mythology-heavy episode dealing with Peter’s past. Fans should know what that means.

The Coen brothers’ version of True Grit has added Barry Pepper to its cast, according to Variety. He’ll portray “Lucky” Ned Pepper, an outlaw in the western played by Robert Duvall in the original 1969 adaptation of the Charles Portis novel. Pepper joins Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and Josh Brolin in the film, along with newcomer Hailee Steinfeld.

The period western follows a 14-year old girl (Steinfeld) who teams with a United States Marshal (Bridges) and another lawman (Damon) to find her father’s killer (Brolin) 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.

True Grit is currently targeted for release on December 25th.

Michael Giacchino has signed on to score Andrew Stanton’s John Carter of Mars, according to MovieScore. While Stanton has directed Finding Nemo and WALL-E and Michael Giacchino has found great success scoring several Pixar films (The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Up), this will be their first collaboration. Giacchino also scores ABC’s Lost. John Carter of Mars is Stanton’s live-action debut although it will heavily feature advanced performance capture technology for the Green Martian characters. Stanton co-wrote the script with Mark Andrews, another multi-skilled vet of Pixar, based on the stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

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 accompayning John Carter at the story’s beginning.
• Daryl Sabara (Edgar Rice Burroughs) – Fictionalized nephew of John Carter.

John Carter of Mars is currently in production and scheduled for release summer 2012.

In an exclusive from Heat Vision, Huge Weaving is in final negotiations with Marvel to portray Red Skull in The First Avenger: Captain America. Red Skull is Captain America’s biggest nemesis, a vicious Nazi commander personally trained by Hitler. Just as Captain America finds himself frozen and later thawed in modern times, Red Skull also conveniently makes that temporal transition in the comics to continue the battle. It would seem that Marvel is open to having the same thing occur in the movies as Weaving’s proposed contract would include options for several films, not unlike Samuel L. Jackson’s deal to play Nick Fury in nine films. That doesn’t inherently mean Red Skull would return, but Marvel’s definitely keen to keep the option open with the same actor behind the mask.

Joe Johnston (The Rocketeer, Jumanji, Jurassic Park III, The Wolfman) is directing The First Avenger: Captain America, which remains without a lead actor. That should be sorted out relatively soon what with shooting scheduled to begin in June. For what it’s worth, my pick from the supposed list of current contenders would be Wilson Bethel. He’s got the look and I liked his performance in Generation Kill.

The First Avenger: Captain America is scheduled for release on July 22nd, 2011. Aside from bookends in modern times (ie. expect to see Nick Fury welcoming Captain America back from the ‘dead’), the movie will be the origin story of Steve Rogers as Captain America fighting in World War II against the Red Skull and all manner of Nazis.

Yahoo has premiered the new full trailer for director Ridley Scott’s take on Robin Hood.

Russell Crowe stars as the titular hero along with Cate Blanchett (Maid Marion), Kevin Durand (Little John), Mark Strong (Sir Godfrey), Matthew Macfadyen (Sheriff of Nottingham), William Hurt (William Marshall), Danny Huston (King Richard) and Scott Grimes (Will Scarlett). Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential, Man on Fire) wrote the screenplay.

I’d say it looks good, although after Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven if we really need another historical war/action film from Ridley Scott. The aesthetic is the same, and we’ve already seen similar duels and bigger battles, only this time the action will be PG-13. I realize it’s generally a different story, but after watching the trailer I can’t help but feel I’ve already seen this, and perhaps in better form.

Robin Hood is scheduled for release on May 14th, 2010.

Disney unveiled a pretty spiffy teaser trailer for Tron Legacy in front of Alice in Wonderland last weekend before releasing it to the net a couple days ago. 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.

View the trailer over at Apple.

Besides the visuals, the most exciting thing about this movie is that it’s being scored by Daft Punk, and yes, that’s their new music in the trailer. Even if the movie is a total bust, at least there’s that.

My big fear for this movie is that the Garrett Hedlund won’t be a satisfying lead. I can’t say I’ve seen him in anything, except for Troy apparently, though I don’t remember him at all. It’s just that all the parts of the trailer that make me hesitate in my anticipation involve him. To be sure, I’ve seen way too little to make any real call, but he reminds me of Hayden Christensen and his physicality of Chris Pine, neither of which is a positive mental connection for me. That shot of him walking into the distance makes me think of the 30 Rock episode where Alec Baldwin’s Jack Donaghy tries his hand at acting and forgets what humans look like when walking… hopefully he delivers in the final product.

Tron Legacy will hit theaters on December 17th.

Here’s the second full trailer for Iron Man 2, courtesy of Yahoo.

Iron Man 2 hits theaters on May 7th, 2010 with Jon Favreau in the director’s seat once again. Robert Downey Jr. stars as Tony Stark, with Gwyneth Paltrow also returning. Don Cheadle replaces Terrence Howard as Rhodes. Mickey Rourke, Scarlett Johansson and Sam Rockwell claim new characters Whiplash, Black Widow and Justin Hammer, respectively. Samuel L. Jackson will also be featured again as Nick Fury. Justin Theroux (Tropic Thunder) wrote the screenplay.

Time is closing in on the production start for David Cronenberg’s next feature film, The Talking Cure. The big news from Deadline is that Christoph Waltz dropped out in order to take a role in Water for Elephants, which lead Cronenberg to now-frequent collaborator Viggo Mortensen as his replacement. Vincent Cassel, another returner from Eastern Promises, has also joined the cast according to the French distributor. I believe this will make Mortensen the most used lead actor by Cronenberg, and in three straight films to boot, beating out the two films with Jeremy Irons.

The Talking Cure is based on a play by Christopher Hampton. Here’s the premise:

Overshadowed by portents of the coming wars, Zurich and Vienna are the setting for this tale of emotional vicissitude and intellectual debate. The Talking Cure is an intimate picture of the birth of psychoanalysis and of two intense and inextricably interwoven relationships. Carl Jung uses Sigmund Freud’s “talking cure” on Sabina, a young Russian hysteric with whom he will fall in love. Impressed with Jung’s results, Freud anoints him his successor, but when Jung develops his own theories they part ways. Sensitive and intelligent, The Talking Cure illuminates the origins of one of the twentieth century’s most influential schools of thought.

Mortensen will portray Sigmund Freud, with Michael Fassbender playing Carl Jung and Keira Knightley as Sabina. The nature of Vincent Cassel’s role isn’t clear. Production is scheduled to kick off on May 17th for 10 weeks in Germany.

It’s Cronenberg, so needless to say I’m psyched. I’ve got my fingers crossed for an end of the year release date.

Goldfrapp recently unveiled the first music video accompanying their fifth album, Head First. “Rocket” gets a very vibrant and quite literal video interpretation. Look out for the little cameo by Will Gregory, the other half of the band opposite frontwoman Alison Goldfrapp.

Watch the video at YouTube.

Head First streets on March 23rd. “Rocket” and a set of remixes are available now.

Gorillaz have unleashed another preview of its Plastic Beach album in the form of “Superfast Jellyfish”. The track features guests Gruff Rhsy and De La Soul. Check it out at YouTube.

Plastic Beach is the third true LP from the Gorillaz and will street the week of March 8th.

Update: Jolie’s casting has turned out to be false.

There’s a report in from Vulture that Angelina Jolie is set up for an Alfonso Cuarón film called Gravity. It’s seemingly a science fiction film that would star Jolie as the last surviving crew member on a space mission desperately attempting to return to Earth and her daughter. Jolie’s character would apparently be virtually the only one in the movie. Shades of Moon? Cuarón wrote the script with his [adult] son Jonás. The two also collaborated on an animated short called The Shock Doctrine in 2007.

That’s not a whole lot to go on, but it’s Alfonso Cuarón and he gave us one of the best sci-fi films of the last decade with Children of Men. Even better, the movie is set up with Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures who have a pretty stellar record over the last few years of supporting directors and their visions. Cuarón and sci-fi will have me in the theater without knowing anything else. Hopefully we’ll be in for a treat, assuming this goes forward.

HBO’s new miniseries The Pacific is quickly coming up to its March 14th premiere and over the last couple weeks HBO’s put together some new commercials for the big event. Like Band of Brothers before it, The Pacific is executive produced by Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Gary Goetzman. Many of the directors and writers also worked on the first World War II miniseries. The three lead characters are Joe Mazzello, James Badge Dale and Jon Seda.

Anyway, here’s some of the recent videos.

Dwayne McDuffie told MTV that in addition to next week’s Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, he has also written scripts for two other upcoming DC Comics animated movies. Naturally, he can’t reveal what they are yet, but clearly the line of direct-to-DVD animated films is going to be continuing for quite some time. Those are in addition to the confirmed Batman: Under the Red Hood since we know Judd Winick is the writer on that one.

Chances are at least one of the movies involves the Justice League if only because that’s where most of his DC history lies. He was involved in one way or another with two-thirds of the Justice League and Justice League Unlimited shows along with writing a couple dozen issues of the Justice League of America comics. He’s also written a couple arcs for Batman series and he’s the creator of the Static character, although he’s it’s rather doubtful he’d be the star for any of these movies. At the end of the day, it’s anyone’s guess what these movies are, but rest assured there are a number of DC animated movies on the way.

Sylvain Chomet (The Triplets of Belleville) just premiered his latest film, The Illusionist, at Germany’s Berlin International Film Festival and with that comes a first look at the movie in motion. Thanks to Twitch for the heads-up. The clip also features an interview with Chomet, but unfortunately there are no English translations.

The Illusionist is based on an unproduced script from 1956 by Jacques Tati and Henri Marquet. It is about an aging stage magician who is finding it harder and harder to stay in the limelight as his audiences flock to newer entertainment in the form of rock and roll. He’s forced into smaller and less-glamorous venues until he meets a young female fan who believes he can truly perform magic. Their relationship forms the crux of the story.

Now that the film is done, hopefully we can anticipate some news about its theatrical release. Twitch also has a review up from the festival.

UNKLE has released the details on its next studio album. Titled Where Did the Night Fall, the album features collaborations with the likes of The Black Angels, Sleepy Sun, Gavin Clark, Autolux, ELLE J, Katrina Ford, Mark Lanegan and more. “Heavy Drug” has been heard in various remixed forms going back to last summer while “Natural Selection” has just been released on UNKLE’s site for free download. It seems like they’re sticking to the path that War Stories opened up, sort of rock ‘n roll by way of certain electronic sensibilities, which is fine by me. Spin has a short article discussing the way the album and some of its collaborations came together.

Really looking forward to more UNKLE. I never miss a release. I wonder what kind of deluxe packaging and pre-order bonuses will accompany this one?

Where Did the Night Fall will drop the week of May 10th in Europe and North America.

Tracklisting:

1. Nowhere
2. Follow Me Down (feat. Sleepy Sun)
3. Natural Selection (feat. The Black Angels)
4. Joy Factory (feat. Autolux)
5. The Answer (feat. Big In Japan (Baltimore))
6. On A Wire (feat. ELLE J)
7. Falling Stars (feat. Gavin Clark)
8. Heavy Drug
9. Caged Bird (feat. Katrina Ford)
10. Ablivion
11. The Runaway (feat. ELLE J)
12. Ever Rest (feat. Joel Cadbury)
13. The Healing (feat. Gavin Clark)
14. Another Night Out (feat. Mark Lanegan)

Alan Burnett sat down with Comics Continuum for an interview and spilled more details about the series of DC Comics animated shorts. Burnett’s been a writer and producer at Bruce Timm’s side on many of the DC animated projects starting way back with Batman: The Animated Series.

The DC Showcase line of short films feature lesser known characters from the comics universe. The first one getting the treatment is the Spectre, which will accompany the DVD of Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths. We also know that Jonah Hex is in the second short, which is presumably appearing with Batman: Under the Red Hood. Actually, since the Jonah Hex feature film comes out mid-June, I wonder if we won’t see Batman: Under the Red Hood come out before the typical July slot for these animated releases, so that the Batman viewers can get an introduction to Jonah Hex.

Anyway, Burnett reveals that Green Arrow is the third character receiving a short film. That strikes me as kinda odd since he was fairly heavily featured in Justice League Unlimited. He was even the lead character in at least a couple episodes. He’s also apparently a major player in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, but I’m not a viewer of that one. I was expecting characters with a lot less previous screen time, but whatever. I don’t care too much about which smaller characters are used for these shorts, as long as the products are good. For the record, Jonah Hex has made single episode appearances on both Batman: The Animated Series and Justice League Unlimited along with a couple in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, while the Spectre’s first animated appearance will be his short film.

Burnett also slipped that the fourth short will have a longer runtime of approximately 22 minutes. He wouldn’t say what character that one is featuring, but I can’t help but notice that 22 minutes is right there at the length of a half hour television episode. Could this be a sort of backdoor pilot?

Here it is, the full trailer for Pixar’s Toy Story 3!

Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Don Rickles, Estelle Harris, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, John Morris, Laurie Metcalf, etc. are all returning to their characters. Jim Varney passed away shortly after Toy Story 2 was released, so he’s been replaced by coincidental friend Blake Clark as Slinky Dog. A whole host of new characters are appearing in the third film, voiced by the likes of Timothy Dalton (Mr. Pricklepants), Whoopi Goldberg, Jeff Garlin, Ned Beatty (Lotso), Kristen Schaal (the triceratops), Bonnie Hunt and Michael Keaton (Ken).

Lee Unkrich is making is his solo directorial debut (he co-directed Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo) from a script by Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine).

Toy Story 3 hits theaters June 18th.

Disney’s CEO Bob Iger let slip during an earnings report that Cars 2 has been pushed from a June 24th, 2011 release to sometime the following December. Logically, this would seem to additionally indicate that Brenda Chapman’s film The Bear and the Bow, previously scheduled for that holiday season, will be similarly postponed. And unless Disney decides to try that film in the spring, it would seem that Newt, Gary Rydstrom’s feature directorial debut previously set for June 2012, will also be delayed.

It’s unclear why Cars 2 is being delayed, whether it’s some sort of corporate/financial maneuvering or if the film simply doesn’t look like it’ll be ready on time. Whatever the case, it’s a shame that we’ll be waiting longer than anticipated for new Pixar films.

Cars 2 is being directed by Brad Lewis, producer of Ratatouille. The film moves the action to several other countries as Lightning McQueen participates in the Race of Champions while accompanied by the first movie’s cast. Meanwhile, Mater finds himself involved in a Hitchockian case of mistaken identities and international intrigue.

With the release of Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths just a couple weeks away, it’s time for info on the following animated DC Comics movie to come out. The LA Times has the scoop with the first real details on Batman: Under the Red Hood. Judd Winick wrote the script based on his own comics arc which involves Batman dealing with a violent new vigilante in Gotham called Red Hood. Brandon Vietti (co-director of Superman: Doomsday) is in the director’s chair for the project. The voice cast includes Bruce Greenwood as Batman, Jensen Ackles as Red Hood, Neil Patrick Harris as Nightwing, John DiMaggio as the Joker and Jason Isaacs as Ra’s Al Ghul.

The film will be previewed on the disc releases of Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths come February 23rd. No release date is yet announced, but given past schedules for these DC Comics releases, look for Batman: Under the Red Hood around July.

Details have been announced for the third LP from Flying Lotus, Cosmogramma. Thom Yorke notably provides guest vocals on one track. Both Flying Lotus and Thom Yorke will be at Coachella, so maybe Yorke will pop up in at the Flying Lotus set to do his song. There probably won’t be many other instances where that song could be done live. Laura Darlington has guested on a single track on each of Flying Lotus LP and that trend continues here. Thundercat brings his bass skills to “Mmmhmm”. Ravi Coltrane and harpist Rebekah Raff also contributed to the album.

Tracklisting:

1. Clock Catcher
2. Pickled!
3. Nose Art
4. Intro//A Cosmic Drama
5. Zodiac Shit
6. Computer Face//Pure Being
7. ..And The World Laughs With You ft. Thom Yorke
8. Arkestry
9. Mmmhmm ft.Thundercat
10. Do The Astral Plane
11. Satelllliiiiiteee
12. German Haircut
13. Recoiled
14. Dance Of The Pseudo Nymph
15. Drips//Auntie’s Harp
16. Table Tennis ft. Laura Darlington
17. Galaxy In Janaki

Warp Records is releasing Cosmogramma the week of May 3rd, so that’s May 4th for North American buyers.

Tim Robbins has joined the cast of Green Lantern, the live-action big screen adaptation of the DC Comics character. According to Heat Vision, he is playing Senator Hammond, the father of Dr. Hector Hammond (played by Peter Sarsgaard). Hector Hammond is the main villain in the story, after being infused with telepathic and telekinetic abilities.

Ryan Reynolds stars in the film as Hal Jordan, a test pilot who is chosen by a power ring to become the latest addition to the Green Lantern Corps, a sort of intergalactic police force. Blake Lively is playing Carol Ferris, Jordan’s love interest. Mark Strong is in talks to play Sinestro, Hal Jordan’s mentor and eventual arch-nemesis. Martin Campbell (Casino Royale, Edge of Darkness) is directing from a script by Greg Berlanti, Michael Green and Marc Guggenheim.

Green Lantern is set to being production in New Orleans come March. It will hit theaters on June 17th, 2011.

Pitchfork scored the first music video from the solo debut of Jónsi, the lead singer for Sigur Rós. The song “Go Do” is the first to receive video treatment off the upcoming release Go. The quickly cut video features Jónsi and a lot of birds and feathers. It seems to be the visual motif being used for the album.

Go will be released in North America on April 6th.

Matthew Broderick will star in the NBC comedy pilot Beach Lane. That’s worth noting in and of itself, but what makes me actually excited about this one is that it’s created by Paul Simms, the man behind my favorite traditional sitcom Newsradio. He also wrote 18 episodes of The Larry Sanders Show, so yeah, I’m psyched to see whatever he does. Simms has most recently busied himself as a consulting producer on Bored to Death and Flight of the Conchords. On the latter he also wrote two episodes and directed one.

Beach Lane is about a celebrity author (Broderick’s character) hired by an irresponsible millionaire to run a struggling small-town newspaper in the Hamptons. Between the irresponsible millionaire description and being centered around another media organization, maybe it sounds a little too much like Newsradio, but we’ll see. This will similarly be a multicamera sitcom, not a single camera show like The Office or 30 Rock.

Lorne Michaels and his Broadway Video production company will be producing the show.

The domestic theatrical trailer for Mother has found its way over to Apple. The film is the latest from South Korean director Bong Joon-ho (Barking Dogs Never Bite, Memories of Murder, The Host).

Hye-ja is a single mom to 27-year-old Do-joon. Her son is her raison d’être. Though an adult in years, Do-joon is naïve and dependent on his mother, and a constant source of anxiety, often behaving in ways that are foolish or simply dangerous. Walking home alone one night down a nearly empty city street, he encounters a young girl who he follows for a while before she disappears into a dark alley. The next morning, she is found dead in an abandoned building and Do-joon is accused of her murder. Thanks to an inefficient lawyer and an apathetic police force, Do-joon’s case is quickly closed, but his mother refuses to let this be the end of the story. Trusting no one, Hye-ja’s maternal instincts kick into overdrive, and she sets out to find the girl’s killer and prove her son’s innocence.

The story is sort of the inverse to Memories of Murder, which followed police repeatedly attempting to match people to a serial killer’s profile and the limited circumstantial evidence. For those who care about such things, Mother is South Korea’s submission for the Academy Awards’ Best Foreign Language Film.

Mother is receiving a limited release courtesy of Magnolia on March 12th. I’m really looking forward to seeing it. It’s definitely my most anticipated release of the spring, though closely followed by the Red Riding trilogy and Shutter Island.

NBC has given Parks and Recreation an early order for a third season. This comes off news that the show’s current season will be extended to 24 episodes.

The early pickup was made in order to lock in the actors for the planned production schedule, presumably because some of them were facing other options that would conflict.

The show has been striking gold this season pretty regularly after a somewhat rocky six episode first season, so this is good news, if completely expected.

Parks and Recreation stars Amy Poehler, Rashida Jones, Aziz Ansari, Paul Schneider, Nick Offerman, Aubrey Plaza and Chris Pratt. It was created by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur.

Full details have been released concerning the upcoming release of the third Gorillaz album, Plastic Beach. The album will hit on March 8th (9th in North America). The first single is “Stylo” and will be available for purchase on the 26th. It can be heard right now over at YouTube or the official Gorillaz site. “Stylo” features Mos Def and Bobby Womack on vocals. I’m really digging this one, it’s got a funky disco vibe going on.

The ’story’ of the virtual band’s characters is described like this:

The band have taken up residence, recording on a secret floating island deep in the South Pacific, a Plastic Beach HQ, made up of the detritus, debris and washed up remnants of humanity. This Plastic Beach is the furthest point from any landmass on Earth; the most deserted spot on the planet.

There are also three little trailers for the album up at the Gorillaz YouTube channel. They feature looks at the so-called Plastic Beach along with some tunes which may or may not be elements from the album itself. Could these clips be any sort of hint at the style of any of the album’s accompanying

Full tracklist and corresponding featured artists after the jump:

1. Orchestral Intro (ft. Sinfonia ViVA)
2. Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach (ft. Snoop Dogg and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble)
3. White Flag (ft. Kano, Bashy, and the National Orchestra for Arabic Music)
4. Rhinestone Eyes
5. Stylo (ft. Bobby Womack and Mos Def)
6. Superfast Jellyfish (ft. Gruff Rhys and De La Soul)
7. Empire Ants (ft. Little Dragon)
8. Glitter Freeze (ft. Mark E Smith)
9. Some Kind Of Nature (ft. Lou Reed)
10. On Melancholy Hill
11. Broken
12. Sweepstakes (ft. Mos Def and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble)
13. Plastic Beach (ft. Mick Jones and Paul Simonon)
14. To Binge (ft. Little Dragon)
15. Cloud of Unknowing (ft. Bobby Womack and Sinfonia ViVA)
16. Pirate Jet

AMC is moving ahead with development on Walking Dead with a pilot order, according to THR. (It looks like the “the” has been dropped from the TV show’s title.) The proposed series is based on the comics by Robert Kirkman that take a long form look at the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse. As opposed to the relatively short adventures depicted in the likes of George A. Romero’s films, where characters might have to survive for a few days and then the story ends, The Walking Dead follows characters for months and years, looking at the long term issues confronting survivors. Of course, major characters drop dead all the time while the main cast is joined by newly found survivors. It’s a pretty fun series so I’m really looking forward to the television version, provided the pilot leads to a series pickup (and chances are good considering AMC is thus far three for three on ordering series off pilots).

Plus, the biggest weakness in the comics is Kirkman’s often over-explanatory dialogue but Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Mist) is writing, directing and producing the series, so I expect to see improvements in that regard. Kirkman doesn’t put enough trust in his artists to convey emotions and plot points, but I don’t think Darabont has that problem when it comes to the visuals his scripts are paired with. He certainly proved with The Mist that he can handle unrealistic horror premises in genuinely scary and believable ways.

AMC also ordered a pilot for The Killing, an adaptation of a Danish show titled Forbrydelsen. It follows three storylines stemming from the murder of a girl. The English version would take place in Seattle and is written byVeena Sud.

Here’s a plot synopsis for Forbrydelsen from IMDb:

The brutal murder of a young girl launches an extended police investigation. Detective Sarah Lund is supposed to leave for a new life in Sweden, but can’t bring herself to leave the case behind. The girl’s parents and friends struggle to cope with their loss. Troels Hartmann is campaigning to be mayor of Copenhagen, but struggles when links are revealed between city hall and the murder. Over a time span of twenty days, suspect upon suspect is sought out as violence and political pressures cast their shadows over the hunt for the killer.

It sounds like it could be extremely interesting to me. It sounds like a mix between the Five Days miniseries and maybe the Korean film Memories of Murder with a dash of the politics from State of Play.

If picked up, both shows would be targeted for 2011 debuts.

NBC has asked for additional episodes in this season for two of the comedies that make up its Thursday comedy block. Community will add three episodes to its first season for a total of 25. Parks and Recreation is adding two to its second season for a total of 24. That’s good news considering how good both shows have turned out this season.

Trauma, Law & Order and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit also received additional orders for the current season. NBC is attempting to ensure it has original programming when The Jay Leno Show disappears from the 10 o’ clock slot, although only the dramas will literally fill that time period.

The first pictures are out from the short DC Showcase: The Spectre that comes with Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths. This is the first of several planned short films that will feature less commercially popular characters from the DC universe. We already know that a Jonah Hex short written by Joe Lansdale is on the way, presumably for inclusion on Batman: Under the Red Hood, to help promote the live-action film coming in the summer.

DC Showcase: The Spectre is written by Steve Niles (30 Days of Night) and voiced by Gary Cole and Alyssa Milano. Joaquim Dos Santos is the director. Bruce Timm is producing the companion line of shorts and spoke to Voices from Krypton about the endeavor. When asked about the concept of the DC Showcase series, Timm said:

They’re a blast. It’s great, because we can play with these oddball characters who wouldn’t commercially support making a full length feature with them. I wish the business model was such that we could do that, but now we get to mess around with these more off-trail characters and have fun. In a weird kind of way, the Spectre is perfect for a series like this, because those original Fleischer/Aparo comics this version is based on, were really simple, straight-forward little standalone stories. You don’t have to expand it and make it bigger than it is: bad guys do a crime, Spectre shows up and kills them in horrible ways. Ten minutes of that works great.

Timm also talked about the challenges in moving to short form stories:

The biggest problem was figuring out how to tell a satisfying story in 10 minutes. It’s literally half the length of a standard half-hour episode, and we didn’t want to make each one non-stop action. We wanted to make sure they had a beginning, middle and an end and a little bit of character development. I wouldn’t say it was worrisome, but we did kind of struggle with it in the beginning, wondering if that would be enough time to do a satisfying story featuring any of these characters. We’ve seen the first two at this point, so far so good.

You can read the rest of the interview at Voices from Krypton.

Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths is set for home video release on February 23rd.

Sony just confirmed an earlier report from Vulture that Marc Webb, of (500) Days of Summer, will direct the Spider-Man reboot film set for summer 2012. In fact, it seems he has options to direct two sequels as well.

While I’m admittedly not a fan of (500) Days of Summer, my problems with that film didn’t have to do with Webb’s direction. Rather, I think his work and Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s presence were fantastic. I just didn’t really like the script. I simply could never buy someone who was so in hopelessly love with Zooey Deschanel’s character. Or perhaps more accurately, I can buy it in real life, but I don’t consider sitting through a movie about such a pathetic circumstance entertaining. I can acknowledge those characters as appearing in real life, but I have little sympathy or even empathy for them.

Anywho… I think Marc Webb’s whimsical style would be a great fit for Spider-Man, and without being cheesy or ridiculous. He should be able to make it genuine and consistent while grounding the humorous elements of the character in reality. It’s no secret that I hate Raimi’s take on Spider-Man, so I’m hopeful for something better this time around.

Er, wait. As I’m writing I see this from Risky Business. They report the projected budget at around $80 million which is about what X-Men cost back in 2000 or what It’s Complicated cost last year. Granted, Marc Webb probably doesn’t command tons of money after one movie and the proposed cast of relative unknowns will bring things down, but still, that’s incredibly low for a summer blockbuster. It’ll be interesting to see what percentage of the story is high school drama and how much superhero action is present.

The current script for the reboot is by James Vanderbilt (The Rundown, Zodiac) and returns the character to the high school setting. It’s unclear, however, whether the film will explicitly redo the origin story.

An official red band trailer has popped up for the Saturday Night Live spin-off film MacGruber, starring Will Forte as the MacGyver spoof. You can view it at the official site.

I don’t know whether this will prove good or not, but it does look better than most movies based on SNL sketches. Along with Forte the movie stars Kristen Wiig, Val Kilmer, Ryan Phillippe, Maya Rudolph, Bill Hader, Powers Boothe and Rhys Coiro. Forte co-wrote the script with John Solomon and Jorma Taccone, which is the trio behind the show’s sketches as well. Taccone is making his feature debut as director, with experience directing SNL’s digital shorts and the MacGruber sketches.

MacGruber hits theaters on April 23rd.

Here’s the second video Air has produced in support of their album Love 2. I can’t seem to find any info on who directed the piece, but enjoy it anyway.

The LA Times recently spoke to Christopher Nolan about Inception and extracted some clearer details about the film’s story. The article questions whether the film is “an international thriller,” “a story of madness and lost love,” “or Hollywood’s first metaphysical heist movie” and quotes Nolan as saying “all of the above.” It’s not clear whether Nolan or the interviewer originated those descriptions, but they fit what we’ve seen thus far. Still, the article says “a key part of the premise is corporate espionage by way of dream invasion, but motives and even reality are slippery in a film that toys with perception as its travels through time and space.”

Emma Thomas, the film’s producer and Nolan’s wife, says they’ve been talking about this movie for “seven or eight years.” Although The Dark Knight’s success allowed them to go huge in terms of production size or scope, picking Inception as the follow-up had more to do with doing a personal project than simply upping the ante, though that came with the story. Talking about some of his inspirations for Inception, Nolan says:

I grew up watching James Bond films and loving those and watching spy movies with their globetrotting sensibility…. We get to do that here, not just geographically but also in time and dimensions of reality as well. We get to make a movie that’s expansive, I suppose you’d say, in four dimensions.

I assume the movement through time could just refer to the dreams and/or mental spaces that DiCaprio’s character invades, whether they be past or present, and not more traditional notions of time travel. Nolan got to shoot the film in six different countries, which probably satisfied his Bond film desires.

Nolan adds that “this is the biggest challenge I’ve taken on to this point” and “we’re trying to tell a story on a massive scale, a true blockbuster scale – the biggest I’ve ever been involved with.” Between the scale and the story concepts being touted, I’m psyched. It continues to feel a lot like a Satoshi Kon film to me, that is if he worked in live-action and had a massive budget to use. Something in that vein coming from another of my favorite working writer/directors is what makes this undeniably my most anticipated film of 2010.

Inception stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Cillian Murphy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ken Watanabe, Tom Hardy, Tom Berenger, Michael Caine, Lukas Haas and Dileep Rao. DiCaprio plays a CEO-type, Cotillard is his wife, Gordon-Levitt is an associate while Page plays a young grad student who’s at DiCaprio’s character’s side. Watanabe has the villainous role and is blackmailing DiCaprio’s character.

Inception opens on July 16th, 2010.

AMC is developing a miniseries called Black Gold: The Teapot Dome Scandal based on the non-fiction book by Laton McCartney. Kirk Ellis is behind the project, who last made his mark by the writing the whole John Adams miniseries, which instantly makes this one noteworthy for me. Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank will serve as executive producers. They’ve previously teamed on the likes of Las Vegas and United States of Tara.

Here’s a synopsis from the book that will help the clueless about what the Teapot Dome scandal was and what the series would cover:

In this amazing and at times ribald story, Laton McCartney tells how Big Oil handpicked Warren G. Harding, an obscure Ohio senator, to serve as our twenty-third president. Harding and his “oil cabinet” made it possible for cronies to secure vast fuel reserves that had been set aside for use by the U.S. Navy. In exchange, the oilmen paid off senior government officials, bribed newspaper publishers, and covered the GOP campaign debt. When news of the scandal finally emerged, the consequences were disastrous. Drawing on contemporary records newly made available to McCartney, The Teapot Dome Scandal reveals a shocking, revelatory picture of just how far-reaching the affair was, how high the stakes, and how powerful the conspirators–all told in a dazzling narrative style.

Casting news is arriving in droves as Green Lantern prepares for production in the spring. Firstly, as you know Ryan Reynolds was cast a while ago as Hal Jordan, the test pilot who becomes a Green Lantern. Martin Campbell (GoldenEye, Casino Royale, Edge of Darkness) is directing from a script by Greg Berlanti, Michael Green and Marc Guggenheim. In brief, the Green Lantern Abin Sur crash lands on Earth and upon dying, his power ring seeks out a worthy heir. That’s where Hal Jordan comes into play, at which point he becomes a member of the Green Lantern Corps. and finds himself embroiled in wild interstellar adventures. The Green Lanterns’ power comes in the form of a ring that they can use to create green constructs of whatever form they wish.

So first up there’s Blake Lively (Gossip Girl) who will play Carol Ferris, Hal Jordan’s superior at the aerospace testing facility and his love interest. In the comics she eventually becomes a villain called Star Sapphire, though it’s safe to bet if that plot were ever touched upon it’ll be saved for sequels.

Peter Sarsgaard is in negotiations for the role of the villain Hector Hammond. In the most recent telling of Hal Jordan’s origin, Hammond is a consultant for Ferris Aircraft. At some point he investigates Abin Sur’s crashed ship and a meteor shard on board affects him by increasing his intellect and generating new mental powers, including telepathy and telekinesis.

Finally, MTV has word that Mark Strong (Body of Lies, Sherlock Holmes) is in negotiations to play Sinestro, the ultimate nemesis of Hal Jordan’s. However, he begins as another member of the Green Lantern Corps. and acts as a mentor for Hal Jordan. Eventually his thirst for power leads him to betray the Green Lanterns and he takes control of a yellow power ring fueled by fear (as opposed to the green rings charged by willpower).

Martin Campbell also assured MTV that we’ll be seeing a lot of the other Green Lantern Corps. in his film, including the likes of Abin Sur, Kilowog, and Tomar-Re.

Green Lantern is currently scheduled for release on June 17th, 2011.

HBO has signed Spike Lee and his production company to do a follow-up documentary to his series When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts about the whole Hurricane Katrina debacle. Shooting begins tomorrow apparently, and the project will revisit some of the subjects of the previous documentary series while also expanding the scope to areas beyond New Orleans that were affected by the hurricane.

I regretfully haven’t yet watched When the Levees Broke, but I’ve explored the devastated neighborhoods of New Orleans by foot and helicopter, so that’s gotta count for something right? I’ll get to it eventually, and since it was so acclaimed I’m pleased to see more documentary work being done on the situation. Hopefully there’s more of a consensus by future generations on how much the federal government fucked up than there is now. (Yes, there’s lots of blame to go around, but if you don’t think the feds had a ton of responsibility, then you don’t understand the purpose of our federal government, simple as that.)

HBO’s released a little teaser trailer for its upcoming drama Boardwalk Empire. The new period drama from Terence Winter (second most prolific writer on The Sopranos) is 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. To see who they’re all playing, check this post.

Boardwalk Empire will premiere in the fall.

Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad)  is coming aboard John Carter of Mars, according to Heat Vision. The film marks Andrew Stanton’s (Finding Nemo, WALL-E) live-action debut, although it will feature a lot of Avatar-type performance capture. It’s an adaptation of A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, about a Civil War officer who finds himself mysteriously transported to Mars where he becomes entangled in the planet’s warring factions. Bryan Cranston is playing a Civil War colonel who clashes with lead character John Carter. As far as I can recall, there was nothing in the book where Carter clashed with another veteran, but maybe there’s going to be more pre-Mars stuff in this film, or the escapade that precedes his teleportation will be switched from involving Apaches to a fellow veteran. Or perhaps this is an element from another book, as it appears elements beyond A Princess of Mars are being used.

The 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 rest of the known cast is as follows:

• 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.

Andrew Stanton co-wrote the script with Mark Andrews while Michael Chabon wrote a revisionary draft.

Production started this week in London. John Carter of Mars is scheduled for release during summer 2012.

Ivan Reitman spoke to MTV and revealed that he will indeed return to direct Ghostbusters 3. Reitman directed the original and its sequel. In the last decade he’s only directed two films, Evolution and My Super Ex-Girlfriend, so take that as you will. There’s still not really much known about the planned story, though it will involve the original cast and a new generation of Ghostbusters. Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky are writing the script and are working on their second draft. For what it’s worth their first feature film work was Year One, which was fairly unanimously hated, although a lot of that seems to stem from Jack Black and Michael Cera playing their standard roles. Writing for that endgame can’t be too fruitful. Anyway, they’ve also done great work on The Office, so who knows. With established characters – characters, mind you, not just actors in costumes – maybe they can pull off something great. We know Harold Ramis has been keeping watch over things, so that’s another positive. We’ll see. I’m pretty skeptical that this franchise needs revisiting, although I’ll be damned if I wouldn’t absolutely love a great sequel.

Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Bill Murray and Ernie Hudson are expected to reprise their roles. Sigourney Weaver’s involvement isn’t quite firmed up. In my opinion, it’d be pretty sweet if this movie managed to get Rick Moranis out of retirement, but who knows. Reitman is hoping to shoot the film this year, leading to a likely 2011 release.

Vera Farmiga and Michelle Monaghan are lining up to join the cast of Source Code, the sophomore film from Duncan Jones (Moon). The sci-fi movie stars Jake Gyllenhaal as a soldier recruited into a program where he is repeatedly inserted, via some technological wonder, among the passengers of a train just before it is attacked. He must continually live through the bombing until he can discover its perpetrator. Heat Vision reports that Vera Farmiga would portray the communications officer in charge of the process Gyllenhaal’s character undergoes. Michelle Monaghan’s character is on the train itself, and is romantically involved with the persona Gyllenhaal’s character inhabits.

Ben Ripley (The Watch) wrote the original draft of the script, then Billy Ray (Shattered Glass, Breach)  made revisions. Production is scheduled to begin in March, so a late 2010 release would be the earliest Source Code might be released.

Here’s the first teaser for the latest in film adaptations of old television shows, The A-Team. Joe Carnahan (Narc, Smokin’ Aces) directs from a script by Michael Brandt, Derek Haas and Skip Wood. The A-Team stars Liam Neeson (‘Hannibal’ Smith), Bradley Cooper (‘Faceman’ Peck), Sharlto Copley (‘Howling Mad’ Murdock), Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson (‘B.A.’ Baracus), Jessica Biel and Patrick Wilson. I think the trailer’s narration (ripped from the show’s titles) sets up just about everything as for what’s known about the story.

I don’t know what to think of this one. I loved The A-Team as a kid, but it’s very much a product of the ’80s and this appears to be sticking extremely close to the source material besides changing the war these guys fought in and upping the ante in over-the-top action. I suspect this will be a casual rental for me during those times I get tired of more serious fare, unless I hear it’s great fun.

The A-Team hits theaters on June 11th.

Recently it was confirmed that David Cronenberg’s next movie would be an adaptation of the play The Talking Cure and would star Michael Fassbender (Hunger, Inglourious Basterds), Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds) and Keira Knightely. Movieline spoke to Fassbender and while nothing majorly new is revealed, it seems the film is going into production in just a short few months in Berlin. That would make it Cronenberg’s second time shooting outside of Canada, with the first being on Eastern Promises.

Anyway, here’s what Fassbender had to say when asked about the project:

[...] I’m super excited myself. I met Mr. Cronenberg up in Toronto about three, four months ago and he’s an absolute gentleman. Obviously, I’m a massive fan of his work. Basically, it’s the story surrounding Freud and Jung and one mutual patient of theirs called Sabina — it’s a triangle between those three characters. I’m very excited to do that and I’ll be shooting in Berlin, where I shot Inglourious. Of course, Christoph is an absolute gentleman and a phenomenal talent as well, and Keira Knightley, she’s not too shabby either! [Laughs] Before that, I’m going to be working with Cary Fukunaga on Jane Eyre, I’m also very excited about that.

HBO has begun running a little teaser for Treme. It doesn’t really contain any looks at its characters or storylines, but strictly glimpses of New Orleans and the post-Katrina environment that the show will inhabit. Of course, it makes it rather clear music and musicians will figure prominently in the series.

Treme is David Simon’s much anticipated follow-up series after completing The Wire. Eric Overmyer is the co-creator and wrote and produced on the last two season of The Wire as well. Wendell Pierce (Det. ‘Bunk’ Moreland on The Wire) stars as a jazz musician with an ex-wife and new baby. Khandi Alexander (NewsRadio, Simon’s The Corner, CSI: Miami) plays the ex and a barkeeper. Melissa Leo (Frozen River) is a civil rights attorney while John Goodman plays her husband, a college professor. Steve Zahn (Rescue Dawn) portrays another musician. Clarke Peters (Det. Lester Freamon from The Wire) plays a Mardi Gras Indian chief. Rob Brown and Kim Dickens round out the main cast.

Treme is set to premiere in April on HBO, with unconfirmed reports saying the 11th.

I haven’t mentioned the recent troubles with Spider-Man 4’s development since I hate the film series, but here’s something I just might be able to get excited over. Deadline Hollywood has the scoop that Sony will reboot the franchise in summer 2012 without Sam Raimi, Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, et. al. Sony quickly confirmed the reboot via Twitter. Due to Raimi and the studio’s inability to get on the same page with a fourth film quickly enough, Sony is forging ahead without him. James Vanderbilt (The Rundown, Zodiac) is handling the new script which will return Peter Parker to high school with a new director and a new cast.

Here’s hoping we get an appropriate cast this time around (I can’t tell you how much I dislike Maguire and Dunst in those roles) and uh, maybe a Green Goblin who didn’t walk off a Power Rangers set. We’ll probably get villains that haven’t already been done though… While we’re at it, I wouldn’t mind Parker actually being a science genius again by creating his own webshooters. Oh, and less cheesy sequences involving New York pride.

I have no idea how this will actually turn out. I’m not sure I trust Sony with the franchise at all, but I also know I trust Raimi with it even less. At least now I can have some fun once again imagining the potential for a great film with this character. First judgment will come when we see who is hired as the director.

I enjoy wrapping up each year with a look at my favorite albums, although I don’t really have the knowledge base to do much musical analysis. So this year it will be a fairly basic list, with some embedded samples from each album and very brief thoughts. Without further ado, my top fifteen albums of 2009 (listed alphabetically by artist), plus a glance at what 2010 holds for my tastes.

2562 – Unbalance: This is the second LP from Dave Huismans under the 2562 moniker. It’s more or less glitchy dubstep with occasional appearances by the sorts of ethereal background vocals known to the genre.

“Flashback”:

Air – Love 2: French electronic duo Air delivers another great record that returns to a more playful sound after the darker Pocket Symphony. They’re responsible for some of the more cheerful and carefree electronic music nowadays and Love 2 doesn’t disappoint. And no, it’s not actually a sequel album.

“Sing Sang Sung”:

Dextro – Winded: Light, relaxing tunes that strike a balance between electronic and post rock sounds.

“Distance”:

Fever Ray – Fever Ray: I’ve made no secret that this is my absolute favorite album of the year. Karin Dreijer Andersson takes a break from The Knife with this solo effort and crafts an astoundingly moody, even creepy at times, sound with occult aesthetics.

“When I Grow Up”:

IAMX – Kingdom of Welcome Addiction: Chris Corner returns with his third solo album as IAMX, providing more of the dark, subversive glam rock/electro you’d expect from him. As he puts it, the album is “like Disney World but with lipstick, cynicism and wit.”

“Tear Garden”:

John Goodman is joining Treme, David Simon and Eric Overmyer’s new HBO show about New Orleanians rebuilding their lives after Hurricane Katrina. According to The Times-Picayune via NOLA, he’ll play a college professor married to Melissa Leo’s character and the role has been retroactively added to the pilot.

Treme is David Simon’s much anticipated follow-up series after completing The Wire. Wendell Pierce (Det. ‘Bunk’ Moreland on The Wire) stars as a jazz musician with an ex-wife and new baby. Khandi Alexander (NewsRadio, Simon’s The Corner, CSI: Miami) plays the ex and a barkeeper. Melissa Leo (Frozen River) is a civil rights attorney. Steve Zahn (Rescue Dawn) portrays another musician. Clarke Peters (Det. Lester Freamon from The Wire) plays a Mardi Gras Indian chief. Rob Brown and Kim Dickens round out the main cast.

Treme will premiere in April on HBO.

Lionsgate has released a full trailer for Kick-Ass, the upcoming film from director Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake, Stardust) based on Mark Millar’s comics about a group of kids, and one adult, who decide to become vigilante superheroes. Aaron Johnson plays Kick-Ass, Chloe Moretz is Hit-Girl, Christopher Mintz-Plasse is Red Mist and Nicolas Cage portrays the Big Daddy. Mark Strong, Xander Berkeley, Clark Duke and Lyndsy Fonseca also appear. Vaughn co-wrote the script with Jane Goldman.

Kick-Ass looks pretty fun to me, and has been very well received from some already held private screenings. Hopefully the full film delivers on the atmosphere and humor the trailers convey.

Kick-Ass is set for release by Lionsgate on April 16th, 2010.

David Milch and Michael Mann

David Milch (Deadwood, John from Cincinnati) and Michael Mann (Heat, Public Enemies)  are joining forces for a new HBO drama pilot called Luck. Per The Live Feed, the show is about the horse racing world, and would be told from the perspectives of a variety of characters who intersect at the racetrack. Milch is responsible for the creation and writing of the series while Michael Mann is set to direct the pilot. Both are executive producing. This echoes the setup of HBO and Terence Winter’s Boardwalk Empire which had big timer Martin Scorsese direct the pilot.

I can’t say I have any predilections towards horse racing, but then I don’t care about competitive surfing and found John from Cincinnati very interesting. If the characters and writing are good, the rest usually falls into place. John from Cincinnati alone gets me to watch this one if it goes to series. I regretfully haven’t really seen Deadwood yet, but I’ll get to it someday…

Blu-ray editions of the Back to the Future trilogy have been pretty much a foregone conclusion in 2010, given it’s the first film’s 25th anniversary, but confirmation comes via The Digital Bits (and Zona) and the date is sometime in July. Universal hasn’t made its own official announcement, but looks like a flyer has been hitting retailers for wholesale purchasing.

Normally I probably wouldn’t post this kind of thing, but Back to the Future is a damned great trilogy, and who doesn’t want it in HD? I ended up skipping the DVD set, first because of that disc printing issue with the initial batch, then because it lost priority among other new releases. Eventually I figured I’d be buying the Blu-rays down the line anyway, so why bother at all. So I for one, am quite excited to pick these up and revisit them in HD glory come summer. Film lovers everywhere can collectively reminisce about the days when Robert Zemeckis made real movies, not ugly mo-capped oddities.

Here’s the big trailer reveal for Inception, which teases out a few more details on what to expect without really giving anything concrete about the plot. It seems DiCaprio’s character is set upon stealing an idea, perhaps right from someone else’s mind. Everything I see and hear about writer/director Christopher Nolan’s latest makes me giddy with excitement: one of my favorite working directors, a fantastic cast, great modern production design and an original sci-fi story. The apparent corporate backdrop and some kind of invention that enables people to enter other minds or states of consciousness reminds me a lot of Satoshi Kon’s Paprika, and seeing as how that’s one of my top films of the last decade, I’m pretty psyched about this one. Plus, Nolan’s shown a real aptitude for toying with subjectivity in his films (most notably Memento and The Prestige, but Insomnia also features skillful examples), and this story concept will lend itself well to those predilections. There’s no film I’m more excited about in 2010 than Inception.

You can view the trailer at Apple.

Inception is based on an original idea by Christopher Nolan that’s been described as a “contemporary sci-fi actioner set within the architecture of the mind” and it deals with dreams of one sort or another. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Cillian Murphy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ken Watanabe, Tom Hardy, Tom Berenger, Michael Caine, Lukas Haas and Dileep Rao. DiCaprio plays a CEO-type, Cotillard is his wife, Gordon-Levitt is an associate while Page plays a young grad student who’s at DiCaprio’s character’s side. Watanabe has the villainous role and is blackmailing DiCaprio’s character.

Inception opens on July 16th, 2010.