I’m not feeling great this week, so when the floodgates opened up today with a frenzy of backlash in regard to the news that 20th Century Fox is looking to re-cast all of the voice actors for the revival of Futurama…well, my little illness tripled over on me. That’s right, after making the giant announcement that the show would return (Read: Never Underestimate The Power Of Hypnotoad: ‘Futurama’ Is Officially Back!), they now are looking to replace brilliant talents like Billy West (Philip J. Fry, Professor Hubert Farnsworth, Dr. Zoidberg, Leo Wong, Zapp Brannigan), John Di Maggio (Bender), Katey Sagal (Turanga Leela), Phil LaMarr (Hermes Conrad), Maurice LaMarche (Kif, Donbot, Morbo, Calculon) and others.

At first, many believed it was just some sort of marketing ploy and that the plan was to throw everyone into a panic and then throw some big surprise party with the cast showing up and all being well in the world. Though this scenario would be accepted and laughed about later, I believe it would still infuriate fans to hear they purposely did this. However, it appears that word first broke out when multiple cast members mentioned it on their Facebook, which takes away a Comic Con surprise. [...]

Entertainment Weekly‘s new Comic Con preview issue is out this Friday and one of the goodies that it holds is our very first look at Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow in Jon Favreau‘s mega-sequel Iron Man 2. Click the image to go larger, and head over to EW for a look at the cover that features stars Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Mickey Rourke as Whiplash, and Johansson.

The image is pretty basic, but fans of the comic and the character alike will be itching to get a peek and compare how Johansson stacks up as the Widow — an assassin who is also known as Natasha Romanova and gets a job as Tony Stark’s new assistant after Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) is promoted to CEO of Stark Industries. As expected, some fairly thick jealousies begin to make their presence known.

The article also touches on some more in-depth character details. Odd-couple villains Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), who is described as “a fast-talking weapons manufacturer who fancies himself the next Tony Stark,” and Rourke’s “Vanko, who, while incarcerated in a Russian prison, creates his own battle-suit, which shoots devastating, whip-like beams,” will team up to try and take down Tony Stark. [...]

The Gold Box deal of the day today at Amazon is the Blade Runner Five-Disc Ultimate Collector’s Edition on limited edition DVD for only $37.49 (52% off the list price of $78.92) or on Blu-ray for only $18.99 (53% off the list price of $39.99).

The DVD version comes packaged in a limited edition individually numbered case that looks like Rick Deckard’s briefcase, complete with handle, and includes a lenticular motion film clip from the original feature, miniature origami unicorn figurine, miniature replica spinner car, collector’s photographs, and a signed personal letter from director Sir Ridley Scott.

Both DVD and Blu-ray sets contain five versions of the classic scifi film starring Harrison Ford, including the newest “Final Cut” version from director Ridley Scott; there’s also the 1982 theatrical and unrated international versions; the 1992 director’s cut without Deckard’s voiceover narration and “happy ending” finale and adds the unicorn” sequence; and the rare workprint version with altered opening scene and altered scenes, Deckard narration only in the final scenes, no “unicorn” sequence or “happy ending,” and alternate music [...]

Hack/Slash is a comic book movie adaptation from Relativity Media that’s been on the way for a couple of years now. It was originally set up to be directed by Todd Lincoln but, as with most properties that sit around for an extended period of time, the movie now has a new director: Fredrik Bond. The new director is another in a line of newcomers who are best known for their TV and music video work. Bond must be impressing people with his non-cinematic works, as he’s also been tapped to helm the remake of popular foreign monster movie The Host, and a remake of The Hunger for Ridley and Tony Scott’s Scott Free Productions.

Hack/Slash is a comic that follows Cassie Hack, a victim of a monster attack. After she survives the attack, she vows vengeance on monsters everywhere and sets off to put them down one-by-one — including some rather well-known horror movie monsters! Of course, she’s not alone: a giant, disfigured man named Vlad who dons a gas mask and wields two meat cleavers stands by her side on this quest. [...]

If Richard Hatch (Battlestar Galactica) has his way, the future of great science fiction programming will be user generated, not studio produced.

In an interview with Geeks of Doom, the actor/writer/director says he plans to launch an online network (first reported last year) comprised of original web based series that would not only unleash the creativity and talent in the sci-fi/fantasy community, but also cultivate it.

“So often sci-fi shows are run by people who, I don’t really think, understand Science Fiction. Too many great shows go down way too soon,” says Hatch, who listed Firefly, Babylon 5, and others involving spaceships as just some of the casualties. “They’ve all gone off the air because those networks aren’t set up to serve the sci-fi community.” [...]

Quirk Books announced today that the follow-up to their Jane Austen horror mash-up Pride and Prejudice and Zombies will be Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters.

While Zombies was 85 percent of Austen’s original work, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters will contain 60 percent of Austen’s original novel, Sense and Sensibility, with the edition of all-new scenes of giant lobsters, rampaging octopi, two-headed sea serpents, swashbuckling pirates, and other seaworthy creatures written by Ben H. Winters.

Check out the book cover here at right; below are two black and white illustrations from the novel and a trailer for the book, along with a description of this unique twist on the classic tale. Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, which will be released on September 15, 2009, is available for pre-order now [...]

The Gold Box deal of the day today at Amazon is Dirty Harry Ultimate Collector’s Edition on DVD for only $31.99 (57% off the list price of $74.98) or on Blu-ray for only $56.99 (56% off the list price of $129.95).

This collection includes all five of the Dirty Harry films, which star Clint Eastwood as badass detective “Dirty” Harry Callahan — Dirty Harry, Magnum Force, The Enforcer, Sudden Impact, The Dead Pool.

Both collections contain bonus materials, such as feature-length documentary Clint Eastwood: Out of the Shadows; several featurettes; a 42-page hardcover book; a replica Harry Callahan wallet with inspector’s badge and I.D. card; five 5″ x 7″ reproduction lobby poster cards; never-before-seen production correspondence; a Scorpio Portrait of a Killer Poster-Sized (19″ x 27″) map of San Francisco detailing Harry’s hunt for the killer, and much more [...]

Back in June, it was reported that X-Men Origins: Wolverine stars Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins were the first announced cast in Andrew Stanton‘s live-action John Carter of Mars project. Now the project has it’s first big name star with the signing of Willem Dafoe.

Dafoe will be playing the role of Tars Tarkas, a Martian with a heart of gold who has the ability to love, which is very much not a virtue of his particular species of vicious warriors. He joins up with John Carter (Kitsch) in the first story, The Princess of Mars — which this first movie is based on. Collins will be playing said Princess of Mars.

John Carter of Mars follows a Civil War veteran who is mysteriously transported to Mars — a planet that’s dying — and right into the middle of two civilizations that are at war with each other. The character was created by Edgar Rice Burroughs almost one hundred years ago. [...]

Brüno
Directed by Larry Charles
Starring Sacha Baron Cohen, Gustaf Hammarsten, Josh Meyers, Robert Huerta, Gilbert Rosales
Rated R
Release Date: July 10, 2009

You can say what you want about him, but Sasha Baron Cohen has a knack for pissing people off. In his new movie Brüno, he does just that — but not for the reasons you would think. At its core, Brüno is nothing more than an indirect sequel of sorts to its wildly successful and superior predecessor, Borat. The character is slightly different, but the structure is the same. Both feature Baron Cohen playing a foreign character on some fish-out-of-water quest that allows him to interact with unsuspecting people while he pushes the boundaries of taste in the hope of yielding something funny. This time around we have Bruno: a gay Austrian fashion reporter who gets fired from his television program. He decides to come to America to become the most famous person in the world.

It has enough in common with Baron Cohen’s previous work, so it has to be good, right? I mean, all I’ve been hearing for weeks is that it is more outrageous and over the top than the movie that made Baron Cohen famous. It seems that outrageous and funny aren’t hand in hand after all [...]

The first teaser trailer for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone director Chris Columbus‘s new movie, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief has been released online, and it looks fairly interesting. The property is the first of a new possible franchise based on the five-book Percy Jackson & The Olympians series. It follows a young boy who discovers that he’s the half-human son of the Greek god of the sea, Poseidon. This sets off an adventure that sees him trying to save his mother while attempting to locate the stolen lightning bolt of Zeus, and even trying to prevent a war among the gods.

The trailer is just a teaser and doesn’t show much, but what you do see is compelling. To sum it up, we see the young boy Percy Jackson (played by Logan Lerman) enters the Empire State Building in New York City and presses a mysterious Omega symbol button in the elevator. This brings him up as high as it will go before magically shooting through the top of the building in a beam of light, and bringing him to the base of Mount Olympus itself. [...]

For a while now, many rumors swirled of the return of the Scream franchise. Eventually it was confirmed that writer Kevin Williamson was not only aiming to make another movie, but another whole trilogy of movies. Some fans cheered at the thought of more Scream finally coming; others cringed at the very thought of what it might bring. Most assumed this would be some sort of reboot with a whole new cast of actors involved, but soon word came that they were talking to none other than David Arquette and his wife Courteney Cox to reprise their roles as Deputy Dewey and Gail Weathers. This report has now been confirmed by Arquette himself, who stated to E! that he and his wife are both all set to return to the franchise that sparked their romance, and that Williamson was writing the script and fingers were crossed that Wes Craven would return to direct.

The last movie in the franchise came out in 2000, and even though that’s near a decade ago, it doesn’t really feel like it’s been that long. Even so, up until we found out they wanted Arquette and Cox, the Scream 4 project felt like it was stuck in a sort of purgatory, not sure whether it was another sequel or some kind of reboot [...]

With the release in theaters today of the sixth Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the Gold Box deal of the day today at Amazon is Harry Potter Years 1-5 in a Limited Edition DVD Gift Set for only $56.99 (52% off the list price of $119.97) or on Blu-ray for only $56.99 (56% off the list price of $129.98).

Both collections include the first five movies — Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix — plus plenty of bonus materials, including additional footage and features on creating the magical world of Harry Potter from book to screen, the various houses of Hogwarts, the stunts and craftsman, and much more.

The limited edition DVD gift set also contains a Harry Potter DVD game “Hogwarts Challenge,” as well as an exclusive “Harry Potter’s Bookmark Collection” and collectible trading cards, and is packaged in a case made to look like a traveling trunk similar to what Harry uses when he goes off to Hogwarts every year [...]

It’s being reported that Danny Huston has been cast as of King Richard in Ridley Scott‘s Robin Hood.

Huston is best known as the man who played William Stryker in the recent X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but has also appeared in 30 Days of Night, as well as a great role in the Australian western film, The Proposition. As for upcoming appearances, he will be seen in the new epic remake of Clash of the Titans as Poseidon.

As we know, this version of Robin Hood will take a more realistic path, with Robin of Loxley as a highly-trained archer and warrior who wears armor and not so much of those iconic green tights. In this new version, Robin Hood is an expert archer in the army of King Richard in the war against the French. Robin eventually moves to the town of Nottingham, whose people are suffering under the corrupt authorities who are over-taxing them. when Robin arrives, as we all know, he leads an uprising against the Sheriff of Nottingham and the corruption, while helplessly falling for the Lady Marion. [...]

The Gold Box deal of the day over at Amazon today is Batman: The Motion Picture Anthology on DVD for only $35.99 (55% off the list price of $79.98) and on Blu-ray for only $57.99 (55% off the list price of $129.95).

The anthology includes the Batman films released in theaters from 1989-1997: Tim Burton’s Batman and Batman Returns and Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever and Batman & Robin.

Both sets come packed with bonus materials, including full-length director’s commentary for all the films, along with features on the history of the characters, bonus footage, behind-the-scenes of the films, the music, and much more [...]

Natalie Portman will join the cast of Thor, the movie based on the Marvel Comics’ version of the Asgardian god of thunder, according to the studio.

Portman will portray Jane Foster, which longtime fans of the original comics may know as the romantic interest of Thor’s human identity Donald Blake. The character will get “updated” for the movie, according to Marvel.

Chris Hemsworth, who plays Thor with Tom Hiddleston as his evil half-brother Loki, round out the main cast. Kenneth Branagh will direct. Principal photography for the film is set for early 2010 and tentatively released May 20, 2011 [...]

A brand new website has been making waves as of late, and the time has come to spread the word of its existence. The website is called Flickchart and was created by Nathan Chase and Jeremy Thompson. In just its early stages, it has quickly abducted the hands of some of the ‘nets biggest movie geeks with the subtle begging for just one more click of your mouse; followed by another…and then just one more. Before you know it, you’ve chosen thousands of movies over thousands of others, and your mouse is a melted, warped plastic blob.

Basically, Flickchart is a new kind of social networking for movie fanatics. The site presents you with two movies and you simply choose one. However, as you do this more and more times, you repeatedly discover yourself in a vicious stalemate with your own personal preferences. While many of these selections can be incredibly painful to break through, there is also another catch: every single time that you click, your stats are calculated, and eventually, you will build your very own ultimate top 20 movies list. [...]

Alvin and the Chipmunks. Underdog. Garfield. These are just a few of the classic cartoons that we’ve all grown up with and have since been turned into live-action/CGI hybrid movies. Now comes word of the next cartoon character to get the dreaded treatment: Hong Kong Phooey.

Hong Kong Phooey is a Hanna-Barbera ‘toon about a dog named Penrod Pooch, a janitor at the local police station who does the superhero thing — turning into Hong Kong Phooey and fighting evil-doers with his sidekick cat, Spot. Phooey never really successfully brings any justice, usually foiling criminal plans by accident or with the assistance of the much more-skilled Spot.

There may be one saving grace to watch here. David Goodman has been hired to write the script, and he’s been a producer and writer on Seth MacFarlane’s Family Guy, which obviously means the guy could potentially have some great humor in his work. Could this mean that Hong Kong Phooey may just actually be funny enough to enjoy? [...]

Columbia Pictures and producers Charles Roven (The Dark Knight) and Steve Chasman (The Transporter) have announced that they will be bringing a brand new film called The Destroyer to theaters. The movie will be based on The Destroyer book series featuring fictional action star Remo Williams.

The movie will be an origins tale about Remo Williams, a New Jersey cop who is wrongfully convicted of a crime he did not commit, and is sentenced to death. His death is ultimately faked and he moves on under the name the Destroyer, where he joins an group of assassins put together by the government to handle certain situations, while also trying to figure out who framed him so he can obtain his revenge.

The first book of The Destroyer series was seen in 1971, with hundreds of Remo Williams offerings since then. One movie has already made based on the character, called Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins. That movie was released in 1985 and starred Fred Ward and Wilford Brimley; it followed the above-mentioned storyline. [...]

The Gold Box spotlight deal of the day over at Amazon today is the The Ultimate Matrix Collection on Blu-ray for only $57.99 (that’s 55% off the list price of $129.95).

This Blu-ray edition features all three Matrix films — The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, and The Matrix Revolutions — in high definition, along with The Animatrix presented in 1080p for the first time.

There’s 35 hours’ worth of bonus material included in this set pertaining to the making of the trilogy, the music, stunts, effects, deleted scenes, commentaries, and much more. There’s also a digital copy of The Matrix [...]

‘Cause I Sez So
New York Dolls
Produced by Todd Rundgren
Atco
Rhino
Released May 5, 2009

In 1973 a young band from New York released an album into the world. The cover featured a black and white photograph of a group of men dressed in women’s clothes. In stark contrast to the photo was a line of pink lipstick which spelled out their name: New York Dolls. A band too Punk for Glam Rock and too Glam Rock for Punk.

In 2006 came the release of One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This after a thirty-two year studio album absence (granted there was a break up in that time). This was a new New York Dolls, New York Dolls Part 2, even. A band that had time to reflect on their rock ‘n’ roll lives, who had suffered the heartache of losing loved ones. They were more laid back and David Johansen’s voice had succumbed to years of hard living, becoming a gravelly growl rather than a cocky yell. This was the sound of the New York Dolls growing old gracefully (whoulda thought it?) not re-hashing their best work of thirty years ago in a desperate attempt to re-capture that popularity.

Sylvain Sylvain and David Johansen are the only two surviving original members. There is always a question mark over whether bands should keep the name when so many line up changes have occurred (yes, Axl Rose, i’m looking at you, too). To many, the New York Dolls just isn’t the same band without Johnny Thunders and Arthur ‘Killer’ Kane. Its true, without those guys the band is very different, but there are some similarities…