Walt Disney Studios have released the first five minutes of their upcoming return to hand-drawn animation: The Princess and the Frog. The studio just recently released a brand new trailer for the movie, so they’re obviously planning to come at us hard and heavy with their marketing campaign.

The first five minutes is a good way to get a feel for the movie and if it’s able to win you over right away. Although many great movies take a while to get going, you can usually tell right off the bat if the table being set is your kind of meal or not. The Princess and the Frog starts off with our main character as a young girl, and sets up her eventual confrontation with a frog seeking her kiss to return him to his princely status. While watching, you can definitely feel the Disney in it, and it looks like it could be a really beautiful movie. You can even hear that old school tone in the dialogue that their actors delivered, which will go a long way in this return to traditional form. [...]

Splice is a movie from producer Guillermo del Toro that’s been around for a while now, but with only words and a few very intriguing and creepy images to go by. The fate of the movie is still yet to be decided, and each and every day that passes by seems to point more toward the movie getting the feared direct to DVD treatment that great looking movies like Mike Dougherty’s Trick ‘R Treat have been getting. Whatever the fate of Splice may be, it now has its first clip from the movie.

Basically, the premise is that there’s a pair of scientists who find a way to genetically engineer a new living being by splicing together human genes and animal genes. As you might imagine, the results are a bit…un-natural. The clip that has been released shows the scientists as they deal with a stage of the creature that has escaped. In case you missed them, a bunch of the above-mentioned images were released a while back (Read: New Images From Guillermo Del Toro-Produced ‘Splice’). It helps to check them out and see the spliced hybrid creation before watching the new clip! [...]

The world’s longest running science fiction series, Doctor Who, is scheduled to continue on after current Doctor David Tennant ends his run. This means a new doctor and, of course, a new logo.

The new logo with accompany the on-screen debut of Matt Smith as the eleventh Doctor in spring 2010.

Below is a video teaser of the new logo, which I don’t really have much of an opinion of yet. This is more than likely because I’m still trying to get over Tennant leaving and I can’t be concerned with “new” anythings until after his final specials air. The final three episodes featuring Tennant will air later this year, with the existing logo on-screen.

What do you guys think? [...]

At the end of last week, Quentin Tarantino proclaimed that there was definitely room for a Kill Bill Vol. 3 in the world (Read: Is Quentin Tarantino Armed & Ready To Make ‘Kill Bill 3,’ Possibly 4?). Naturally, when the highly-popular director makes claims like this, his fans go absolutely insane, but have trouble knowing if there’s truth to it, or if it’s just talking in the moment. Whether we actually get to see Kill Bill 3 or not, one thing is now known for sure: it is still a long, long ways off.

While in Mexico promoting his latest film, Inglourious Basterds, at the Morelia Film Festival, Tarantino went ahead and confirmed his hopes to make more Kill Bill movies. This is a great sign that he was being truthful, and that we will one day see the movie. But when? He went on to explain that his plan is to give star Uma Thurman and her Bride character’s daughter B.B. (Perla Haney-Jardine) ten years to recover before getting back to the cutting, hacking, and slashing. This would sadly put us in around the year 2014 before we saw the sequel. It also means that we will very likely get the storyline where Vernita Greene’s (Vivica A. Fox) daughter comes after the Bride for killing her mother, and young B.B. will now be deadly dangerous herself, setting up a battle between daughters. [...]

The Gold Box deal of the day over at Amazon today is Friends – The Complete Series Collection DVD box set for only $114.99 (that’s 62% off the list price of $299.98).

This is a 40-disc DVD collection contains all 10 seasons of the popular NBC sitcom that aired from 1994 to 2004 and has remained on television thanks to major syndication runs. Friends showed a group of 20-something friends — Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Joey, Chandler, and Ross — living in New York City going through all kinds of real-life ups and downs with relationships, jobs, money, and friendship, all to humorous effect.

The six major stars — the “friends” — were played by Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer, but the series had many major guest stars like Aniston’s then-husband Brad Pitt, Bruce Willis, and Danny DeVito, along with a reoccurring role by Tom Selleck as Monica’s older boyfriend [...]

The legendary comedy troupe Monty Python had a little show called Monty Python’s Flying Circus that began in 1969, which made Monday their 40th birthday. The group is composed of gods of the comedic realms John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and of course, Graham Chapman, who passed away in 1989.

All five of the remaining members are gearing up for one of their rare gatherings on October 15, when they will head to New York City and receive an award for Outstanding Contribution to Film and Television from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA).

Celebrations for the event were underway back in July when it was announced that four of the six members would be reuniting for a new show based on Life of Brian called Not The Messiah (He’s a Very Naughty Boy) (Read: Monty Python To Reunite For Their 40th Anniversary; Documentary To Follow). Palin, Idle, Gilliam, and Jones are will appear in the special event, while Cleese was unable to commit due to a conflicting schedule. [...]

Not too long ago, a bunch of new images from some big upcoming movies invaded the inter-webs; one of which was a magazine cover featuring Sam Worthington in the new Clash of the Titans. As it turns out, this cover wasn’t the end of the rainbow — this issue of Empire magazine held many more images from the movie, and they’re pretty fantastic. Entertainment Weekly also has a few new behind the scenes images, which give us our very first look at Liam Neeson as the God of Thunder himself, Zeus! (Shown at right, click to go big)

As for the official images in Empire, they’re really our first glimpse at scenes from the film. You get a good feel of that raw and gritty war tone the movie looks to have, and better yet, you’ll see some of the creatures being featured, and they look very good. You can really see in all of the pictures that director Louis Leterrier (The Incredible Hulk) wants to deliver this legendary fantasy tale in realistic fashion — especially in the Zeus image. [...]

Spike TV will televise the fourth annual SCREAM Awards, a 2-hour ceremony rewarding all things sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and comic book, on Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at 10 PM, ET/PT.

At this year’s awards event, which will be taped in Los Angeles on Saturday, October 17, there will be a cast appearance and world premiere footage from the upcoming Twilight sequel New Moon, as well as an appearance by the cast and creators of the HBO series True Blood, including Alan Ball, Stephen Moyer, Anna Paquin, Alexander Skarsgård, and Sam Trammell, among others.

As a special treat for those of us who miss our Battlestar Galactica, there will be a cast reunion for the beloved SciFi Channel series with a farewell tribute featuring Edward James Olmos, Tricia Helfer, Grace Park, James Callis, Kate Vernon, Katee Sackhoff, Michael Trucco, Tahmoh Penikett, and executive producer David Eick [...]

Adventure Comics #1
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Francis Manapul
Colors by Brian Buccellato
DC Comics
Price: $3.99

I may be the only one who signed up to get Adventure Comics based solely on the strength of Francis Manapul’s art. I became a fan of his work after reading it in the pages of Jim Shooter’s recent Legion of Superhero run. It’s a shame that the run was cut short, because his art was perfectly suited for that book. His art on that book showed that he could handle any kind of action sequence that was thrown at him. Fortunately, he’s on to bigger and better things, with this new (old) series that features the new adventures of Superboy.

Connor Kent is back from the dead, killed by Geoff Johns in the pages of Infinite Crisis, and returned from the grave by Johns in Final Crisis: Legion of Three worlds. Those in the know will remember that DC had run into some legal troubles over the use of the name Superboy, but they were able to clear that all up, and now he’s back and ready for action. This issue picks up with him trying to get back to a normal life. He has moved back to Smallville, and is living with Ma Kent, meanwhile he’s trying to live up to Superman’s legacy. Unfortunately for his peace of mind, Connor is only a half-clone of Superman, with the other half belonging to Lex Luthor, and this leads to him questioning what is behind his motives. Is he Superman, or is he Luthor? The first issue gives us a good set up for what should be a good run [...]

Zombieland
Directed by Ruben Fleischer
Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin
Rated R
Release date: October 2, 2009

I love horror movies and I also love comedies, so blend the two genres and you immediately have my interest, even if the final product is shockingly subpar. Just about every subgenre of horror, from mad scientist movies (Re-Animator) to werewolf movies (An American Werewolf in London) to even vampire movies (The Lost Boys), has seen their decaying shelf lives increased thanks to a lightning bolt to the heart in the form of some much-needed humor. When the horror movie monsters of old have outlived their usefulness, what better to keep them fresh than to point out how patently absurd they actually are? But when it comes to horror movie monsters being played for laughs the zombie always comes out on top. Even in George Romero’s classic Dead series, the zombies — while never less of a threat — are often regarded with a sense of humor because they’re creatures without any real personality and anything resembling a brain who act primarily out of instinct, kind of like petulant toddlers. As a result, they do goofy things like get caught on escalators, play with guns, and stand idly by while the living throw cream pies in their faces. Zombies are fun, but still scary. After all, you may find their dead-eyed antics amusing, but would you want to be one of them? I doubt it.

However, killing zombies still sounds like a lot of fun. If you have an IQ greater than your shoe size then you have the advantage over the walking dead. How many of us, after devouring every zombie flick we can get our hands on (even the shittier ones), have dug deep into the bowels of our horror-soaked imaginations and wondered how we would act in the face of a global zombie apocalypse? We’ve watched every movie George Romero movie and at least two to three of the Return of the Living Dead flicks (the first two to three preferably) and read the works of Max Brooks cover-to-cover, so we all have daydreamed about our own possible survival scenarios in a world conquered by the shambling dead. What will we do when the majority of the planet’s population has either been turned into zombies or become food for the undead? Load up some shotguns, raid the local 7-11 for booze and beef jerky, and then hit the Hummer dealership, that’s what! [...]

Twitter Wit: Brilliance in 140 Characters or Less
Edited by Nick Douglas
Published by It Books
Release date: August 25, 2009

My first thought was “you’re missing the point” when I heard someone was planning to publish a book containing only 140-character messages from micro-blogging site Twitter. Then I discovered that this someone was former Valleywag editor Nick Douglas and my thoughts instantly shifted to intrigue.

Douglas is a talented wordsmith, who in years past, has demonstrated a vivacious ability to both inform and entertain readers, [See, Everything indie sucks now]. Having been with Valleywag, it’s obvious that he understands technology from all angles, including the cultural level. If anyone is qualified to create a book of tweets worthy of being collected and bound for $12.99, Douglas is certainly a front runner. Twitter Wit is such a book, featuring about 600 tweets and a foreword by Twitter Cofounder Biz Stone [...]

Shootin’ the Sh*t with Kevin Smith
The Best of Smodcast
By Kevin Smith
Titan Books
389 pages
US $14.95/CAN $18.95

“I’m telling you man, I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again- I am really am one cock shy in the mouth of being gay.”

I’m a huge fan of Kevin Smith and his films. I was first introduced to the man’s work back in early 1995 when, after hearing nothing but raves about how it was the funniest film of the previous year, I took a chance on renting his directorial debut Clerks from the video store down the street from my house. Raw, naturalistic, shot in grainy black-and-white like it was recorded straight off a convenience store’s security camera, and joyfully vulgar and funny as a motherfucker, Clerks was my first official introduction to the world of independent film and a brilliant new voice of cinematic comedy. I’ve been hooked on Smith’s films ever since, and yes even Jersey Girl had its share of memorable moments. What attracted me to the cinema of Kevin Smith was his gift for crafting bold and colorful characters through profane but hilarious dialogue that revealed their innate intelligence and vulnerability. Next to Quentin Tarantino and the writing staff of Seinfeld Kevin Smith was the best at turning convoluted conversations about pop culture and sexuality into windows into the souls of unconventional characters who would typically be sidelined in a conventional Hollywood feature [...]

Eclipse, the third book in author Stephenie Meyer‘s wildly popular vampire series Twilight, has unexpectedly given a major boost to the classic novel Wuthering Heights.

The Telegraph reports that fans of the Twilight books are running out to get Wuthering Heights thanks to the reveal that the 1847 Emily Brontë novel is a favorite of Bella’s, the main character in the Twilight series.

To get in on all the new readership from the Twilight fanbase, HarperTeen Publishers are re-releasing Wuthering Heights on October 6 with a new Twilight-inspired cover, which will include a new stamp that reads “Bella and Edward’s Favorite Book.” A similar cover revision was already done earlier this year for the UK version of the book.

In Eclipse, Bella references the Brontë novel several times, comparing her relationship with her vampire love Edward to that of Heathcliff and Catherine from Wuthering Heights, quoting the part of the classic novel where Catherine talks about Heathcliff [...]

Let the Right One In is a Swedish horror movie about vampires that took film festivals by storm and received countless amounts of gushing praise. As with most foreign horror movies that become incredibly popular (The Ring, The Grudge, Quarantine), the movie was immediately pursued for U.S. remake treatment. What we already knew about the remake is that it will be called Let Me In, and it will be directed by Matt Reeves (Cloverfield); what wasn’t yet known is who would star…until now. It’s being reported that the first three cast members that have been hired are Richard Jenkins, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Chloe Moretz.

The movie tells the story of two children who bond through some very difficult times in the cold winters of Sweden. One is a 12-year-old boy, and the other is a 200-year-old vampire child. The original film is directed by Tomas Alfredson and based on the book of the same name by John Ajvide Lindqvist. It focuses on the story of these two kids’ relationship and many real-world issues like drugs and prostitution while keeping the unique vampire elements in-tact as well. [...]

Collider was able to talk to producer David Goyer recently, and he shared a fun little fact about the sequel that very few are looking forward to seeing: Ghost Rider 2. Goyer is best known as a writer who penned all three Blade movies and both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight (co-writer). He’s also done some directing, like his horror movie The Unborn; as well as a producer, bringing us the latest TV hit, Flash Forward.

The catch here is that when Goyer wrote the script, he wrote it in the same light as Blade: dark and violent with a hard R-rating. Sony, of course, wants nothing to do with that, so their plan is to clean it up and work it around to get the same PG-13 the first movie had.

It sounds as though the reason that they want to use this pre-existing script is that it simply makes the job easier to progress, though Goyer’s script could just as well be too good to pass up. Unfortunately, this sounds a lot more like the former, and that does not bode well for the movie. [...]

Nintendo announced last month that it would be lowing the price of its highly popular Nintendo Wii game console by $50.

So, right now, the Nintendo Wii is available for only $199!

Nintendo said they felt like many potential users were priced out of the gaming experience with the original $250 price, which has been the cost since its release in 2004.

Nintendo will also release New Super Mario Bros. Wii on November 15; it’s available for pre-order now. Amazon has a special right now where you get $10 off a future video game purchase when you order New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii will be the first Mario Bros. game to accommodate four players at the same time [...]

A party bag of new images from some big time new movies have been released all over the ‘net today. The images are basically just some sneaky behind the scenes shots of filming, but they’re our very first look at these movies, which makes them pretty exciting. There’s also a news image of Sam Worthington from Louis Leterrier‘s Clash of the Titans from Empire, which you can see at right!

The first movie we’re getting our first good look at is The Green Hornet. Splash News has a collection of pictures from filming, and they show writer/producer/star Seth Rogen as the Hornet himself, along with sidekick Kato, played by Jay Chou. As you can tell, they’re being pretty faithful to the look of the characters, so fans should be pretty excited. [...]

Ever since fan-favorite director Quentin Tarantino made Kill Bill, there’s been whispers every once in a great while that there could be more to the Bride’s (Uma Thurman) story. The obvious remaining story would follow Vernita Green’s (Vivica A. Fox) daughter, who Beatrix told to come find her when she grows up, and that is one of the two that have been rumored.

While on a talk show in Italy, Tarantino was asked about any possible sequels to Inglourious Basterds or Pulp Fiction that we might see. He answered that Basterds has a prequel story that could happen eventually, and that Pulp Fiction isn’t going to happen. Tarantino then turned the tables to the woman interviewing him and told her she forgot to ask whether he would do a Kill Bill 3, so she did, and he answered “Yes,” as the crowd went nutty. No one knows how serious he is about it, or when it could happen, but it looks like the story is there. After his promise of a one year delivery of Basterds actually happened, we have about a 50/50 shot of this going down. [...]

As the follow-up to their mega-successful Jane Austen horror mash-up Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Quirk Books has recently released their newest take on an Austin classic with Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. While Zombies was 85 percent of Austen’s original work, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters contains 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 co-written by Ben H. Winters.

As a special treat for our readers, Quirk has given Geeks of Doom five (5) copies of the book to give away!

Five (5) winners each will receive:

– One (1) copy of Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters

What do you have to do to get a chance to win? Glad you asked ’cause it’s really easy. Just make sure you’re a subscriber to our email digest, and then go ahead and fill out the handy dandy form. Done.

Good luck! [...]