To be perfectly honest, I just don’t know how much more insanely cool stuff needs to happen for the seemingly slow folks at 20th Century Fox or some other network to bring back Joss Whedon and his Firefly.

In a message via their Twitter account yesterday at 4:18 PM EST, National Aeronautics and Space Administration shared with the world that their shuttle space crew were awoken to the addictive melodies of “The Ballad of Serenity,” the theme song and opening titles tune for every episode of Firefly.

@NASA Shuttle crew awoke @4:14pET to theme song from “Firefly.” The Ballad of Serenity, performed by Sonny Rhodes, was played for Bob Behnken.

Because SciFi Wire (where I first saw this) included it, you can also click on over to watch the opening titles for Firefly and hear the song, just in case you haven’t heard it before or even if you’re just itching to hear it again. [...]

Since it was reported that a new feature film adaptation of The Lone Ranger was on the way with Johnny Depp starring as Tonto, we have not heard anything else that would indicate forward progress. This is rather surprising, considering how long the Ranger has been around, how popular he is as a character, and the star-power of Depp. Not to mention the scale and box office numbers that any movie produced by Jerry Bruckheimer can bring to the table, as this movie is.

Now comes word that a screenwriter is now in sights to pen the script for the movie. Justin Haythe, who recently handled the adaptation of Oscar-nominated Revolutionary Road, is currently in talks to take on the job. Haythe also wrote the script for The Clearing, which starred Helen Mirren and Robert Redford, as well as Jekyll, the new film based on the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde that has Keanu Reeves currently attached to star and is planned for a 2011 release. [...]

First there came Pitch Black, the small cult classic horror movie about a group of people who are trying to get off a dark and deadly planet where vicious creatures lurk in the shadows. After that came the much bigger-budgeted sequel, The Chronicles of Riddick. So are we now ready for even more adventures with elusive fugitive?

Neither of those two films made that much more money than they cost to produce, but regardless, Universal Pictures has locked down star Vin Diesel and is moving forward with a third film in the franchise, currently being called Riddick.

The plot of the movie is unknown, but sources claim that it will attempt to reacquire that small-scale feel that the original film possessed. David Twohy is set to once again write and direct the new installment; he handled the same duties for both of the previous films. Aside from the Riddick series of films, Twohy also wrote and directed recent flick A Perfect Getaway, and worked on the screenplays for The Fugitive, Waterworld, and G.I. Jane respectively. [...]

Born
Directed by Richard Friedman
Starring Alison Brie, Denise Crosby, Kane Hodder
Lionsgate Films

When I was a very young lad, a very wise cartoon rabbit once said “if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” Now, perhaps it was because I was at an impressionable age or maybe it was because it came from the mouth of a talking rabbit, but I have taken this little piece of advice to heart. However, after watching Born, I think I might have to break this rule just one time.

Born is a horror-comedy film about virginal Sally who, after attending the funeral of her mother, is mysteriously pulled into the ground at the cemetery. When she comes out of the ground, she is suddenly pregnant. The unexpected little bundle of joy turns out to be a demon that is hell-bent on entering our realm and wrecking her life in the process.

There are many things wrong with this film. For one thing, while it is suppose to be a horror/comedy, it is neither very scary nor is it very funny. It tries too hard to be both and ends up, more often than not, striking out. I just sat there for an hour and a half just bored. Very bored. You know a movie is just really bad when two straight female characters hook up right in the middle of the movie for no apparent reason. Then one of the women’s unborn fetus kills the other woman (Don’t ask) [...]

Bad Lieutenant
Directed by Abel Ferrara
Starring Harvey Keitel, Victor Argo, Paul Calderon
Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Release Date: July 28, 2009

When it was first released in 1992 Bad Lieutenant was greeted with praise and revulsion, accolades, and protest, nearly everywhere it played. The NC-17 rating bestowed upon it by the Motion Picture Association of America signified that this movie would not be holding anything back and whoever dared to venture into cinemas or into the local video stores (except Blockbuster, which no doubt probably carried a cut down R-rated version) would be in for a soul and brain-scarring experience few films can deliver. To this day it remains one of the seminal films in the independent film revolution of the 1990’s and the high water mark in the careers of director Abel Ferrera and star Harvey Keitel. It defied every conceivable notion of crime drama and character study and gave us a front row seat. For me it’s difficult to put my feelings about the movie into words. A description of the plot of Bad Lieutenant would be moot because this film is not about its plot. We’re treated to a relentless look into the festering wound of a soul that is its title character, and much like an auto accident it’s difficult to look away even when we want to, or think we should [...]

It’s a good time to be an Avengers fan!

This May we can look forward to a double dose of new Avenger books with some great creative teams behind them. Marvel recently showed off two similar ad campaigns for two not so similar books.

Last week came the announcement that Brian Michael Bendis and John Romita Jr. are teaming up to relaunch the classic Avengers book with issue #1 and this week word surfaced about the second Avengers series called Secret Avengers. The superstar creative team of Ed Brubaker and Mike Deodato will be bringing that story to life.

So far the classic Avengers series has five confirmed members on its roster — Hawkeye, Captain America, Spider-Woman, Thor, and Iron Man. (Bendis confirmed on Twitter that this is not the complete roster.)

Both titles launch in May.

It looks like Black Panther and War Machine might be two of the Secret Avengers but I have no idea about the others. Who do you think the Secret Avengers in the teasers are? Check out the covers here [...]

No one denies how good the movies that Judd Apatow directs tend to be, but many great comedies that have his name attached to them are ones that he is in the role of producer on.

One of the Apatow-produced films that won many hearts and much laughter was of course Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Now, many of the talents that made that film are set to bring us another called Get Him to the Greek, and you can see the first official trailer, poster, and synopsis right here.

The movie stars Russell Brand and Jonah Hill, and it tells the story of a young record label up-and-comer who has to find a way to get an unruly rock star from London to a comeback concert date in Los Angeles. Get Him to the Greek is also directed by Sarah Marshall helmer Nicholas Stoller, which is actually pretty fitting. Considering the synopsis of this movie, those involved, and people like Brand’s character in Sarah Marshall, it feels almost more like sequel or spinoff movie than its own film, and that could be a lot of fun in its own right. [...]

Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Entertainment have released the second official trailer for next Summer’s highly-anticipated Toy Story 3.

The trailer is definitely a different direction from the first trailer that we saw released. In that one, it was mainly about Andy going off to college and the toys being dumped off in a day care facility. This time around, you’re returned to the day care, but you get to meet some of the new toys that we’ve heard about but not seen, like the Ken doll voiced by Michael Keaton, the mysterious toy that appeared in Pixar’s last film, Up, and Timothy Dalton‘s Mr. Pricklepants.

Continue on down to the bottom to read a synopsis and watch this brand new Toy Story 3 trailer for yourself. And do not forget, the movie will be released in only 4 short months on June 18, 2010.

Synopsis
The creators of the beloved Toy Story films re-open the toy box and bring moviegoers back to the delightful world of Woody, Buzz and our favorite gang of toy characters in TOY STORY 3. [...]

Did you know that ultra-popular zombie movie Zombieland was originally created as a television series that was picked up by CBS? Well, it was indeed, and it’s not completely out of the question that some day in the future it will try once again to find a home on your TV set.

Writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick spoke to MTV recently and explained how things had come to be. In 2005, they crafted the story as a pilot episode and sold it to CBS, but it was eventually decided that it just wouldn’t work at a series…as you might imagine. Clearly, if this was ever going to happen, it would have to be on HBO or Showtime — maybe FX at the very minimum, but that wouldn’t be preferable.

Because Zombieland was such a huge hit, the writing duo are already well into writing a sequel to it. They’ve also proven themselves a talented team, and have been hired to write a sequel to G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra and also the adaptation of popular comic Deadpool, which will star Ryan Reynolds. [...]

It appears that New Line Cinema is ready to put a charge into their planned remake of John Carpenter‘s classic, Escape From New York.

The studio has been trying to get the project in motion for a while now, but according to Vulture, they’re ready to move “quickly” on it after a new rewrite from Allan Loeb has them satisfied and raring to go…but with a few things toned down, it would seem.

The original Escape From New York is a futuristic alternate history story, set in a 1997 dystopian New York City at the end of World War III. Due to the unbelievable rise in crime, the entire island of Manhattan has been turned into a maximum-security prison. When the President is taken hostage by an extremist group, Police Commissioner Bob Haulk (played by Lee Van Cleef) makes a special offer to Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell), a special forces soldier who turned to a life of crime: rescue the President within 24-hours, he will be given his complete freedom from the prison. What Plissken doesn’t know, is that if he fails or decides to try anything crazy, an explosive that was secretly injected into his body will be detonated. [...]

The end of DC’s Blackest Night is fast approaching, and with the end of one story comes the beginning of the next [read What Happens After Blackest Night? ‘Brightest Day’].

Now, we’re starting to get more information about that next story, Brightest Day. Today on DC’s The Source blog, the company released an image that will have fans of a certain undersea monarch jumping for joy (check it out here at right; click for larger full view).

The cover for Brightest Day #2, drawn by David Finch, shows what looks like a reborn Aquaman, sporting his classic look, and facing his own shadow. Brightest Day co-writer Geoff Johns expounded on what Aquaman’s appearance means for the upcoming story [...]

Another movement has begun, and it is a matter of life and death, people.

The fans have decided that Betty White, star of The Golden Girls and universally awesome grandmother to us all, needs to be allowed to host Saturday Night Live. The movement started on Facebook, where almost 200,000 fans have joined the Betty White to Host SNL page in an attempt to grab the attention of executives at NBC,and persuade them to bring her in immediately.

SNL still has a faithful fan-base, but has not been getting laughs like they used to. It could be the writers; it could be the current cast, but for some reason, that strong level of funny has been completely M.I.A. The studio hasn’t had the most support lately, either; after the Conan O’Brien/Tonight Show fiasco, this would also be a chance for them to win some fans back. Does this really require any amount of thought, NBC!? [...]

Demo Vol. 2 #1
Written by Brian Wood
Art by Becky Cloonan
DC/Vertigo
Price: $2.99 Release date: February 3, 2010

I generally like Brian Wood’s writing, I generally like Beck Cloonan’s art, and I generally enjoyed the first series of Demo stories that the two creators released a few years ago, so I was looking forward to the new volume of stories.

Unfortunately, I was not blown away by this particular issue. If you’ve never heard of Demo before, the basic pitch is that the stories are about normal young people who discover they have super-powers. Volume 2 Issue #1 deals with a young woman who thinks she may be able to see into the future through her dreams, and decides she has to try to save someone she saw in one of her visions.

One of the things that made the first series stand out was that while the stories may have super-powered elements in them, they were really about the characters in those stories. One problem with this issue is that there wasn’t much effort put into making the reader care about the main character [...]

Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley have been hired to pen the script for New Line’s planned Vacation sequel/reboot, according to Variety.

While the trade is reporting that New Line is doing a franchise reboot as if that’s new information, this project was actually already confirmed back in early October 2009 with David Dobkin (Wedding Crashers) to produce (read Are We Ready For A Sequel To ‘National Lampoon’s Vacation’?).

Back in October, New Line announced their intentions for the new Vacation, with Dobkin producing and possibly directing. The new film will be a reboot of the franchise, but also a type of sequel, since it will be about a now-adult Rusty Griswold — the son in the original films — and his own road trip, this time with his own wife and kids. Where to? Wally World theme park, the destination of the first film, which is closing its doors forever.

Chevy Chase, who played dad Clark Griswold in the film series, is reportedly returning as the grandfather for the new film [...]

We say it often here, and we’ll say it again: most rumors aren’t worth even reading, let alone covering. But when a rumor has any kind of a backing or a solid inside source, and when it involves something one simply can’t ignore, then we shall bring it to your eyes.

Cinema Blend has word from a source that they have at Universal Pictures that the studio is “strongly” considering the possibility of remaking Steven Spielberg‘s classic 1975 Great White shark movie, Jaws, and bathing it in 3D for today’s audiences. The logic here is that everything is in 3D these days, and everything is being remade, so the smartest way for them to make a ton of money is to remake their classics with modern technologies. The same source even said that Universal was looking at actors like Tracy Morgan for the role of Hooper, once played by Richard Dreyfus.

If the very whisper of that paragraph doesn’t lead you break at least one thing in your general vicinity, than I would question your mental status as a movie fan. [...]

There’s no question that fans of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise are strongly skeptical of director Rob Marshall taking over as director from Gore Verbinski on Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Marshall is best known as someone who makes popular musicals like Chicago and Nine, but not so much someone who can rock the action-fantasy chords.

Whether Marshall delivers us another great time at the movies or not, he is using his standing to sway possible new talents. The trades have heard word that Penélope Cruz — star of Marshall’s latest musical, Nine — is in negotiations to star in the fourth installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.

It is not yet known who Cruz would be playing in the movie, but it is likely to be some kind of Spanish lass who has stories to tell of a one Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp). One thing is clear for sure, however: she would be a conscious effort to replace the beauty and sex appeal that the departed Keira Knightley brought to the first three films. [...]

We’ve known for a while now that a live-action version of popular Japanese anime Akira was on the way through Leonardo DiCaprio‘s Appian Way Productions. Apart from knowing this, not many updates have been offered so far, but according to NY Mag’s Vulture Blog, a director — or directors — are about to be obtained.

Sources say that Warner Brothers is in negotiations with the Hughes Brothers, Allen and Albert, to take on the remake. The brothers are just coming off of a WB project with the post-apocalyptic drama, The Book of Eli with Denzel Washington. It would appear that the studio very much liked what the duo did with that property, and that it would best to scoop them right back up again here.

It’s also apparently part of the overall plan to make not one, but two Akira films. The 1988 animated movie that most casual fans are familiar with is only a portion of Katsuhiro Otomo’s 1982 manga series. [...]

Some major reports are coming straight out of Deadline Hollywood this week, and while confirmation of Tom Cruise’s involvement in Mission: Impossible IV may be huge, this particular story may just top it.

A source close to or within Warner Brothers has revealed that the studio has reached out to Christopher Nolan, the director of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, to act as a sort of mentor or “Godfather” on the eventual second attempt to modernize Superman. A few years back, X-Men and X2 director Bryan Singer brought us Superman Returns with Brandon Routh as the iconic hero, but the movie never quite lived up to the hype…both financially and critically. When Nolan took over the Batman franchise for a major reboot (back when studios waited a couple decades first), he brought the characters out of their comic book existence and placed them in our own dark and gritty world. [...]

Star Wars fans rejoice! Dark Horse has just announced a new way to satisfy your Star Wars cravings.

Fan favorite author John Jackson Miller (Mass Effect: Redemption, Knights Of The Old Republic) has will be writing Star Wars: Knight Errant first as an ongoing comic series to be released later this year, and then next year as a novel to be published by Del Rey Books. The novel will be set in the same era and feature the same characters but following them in an all-new adventure.

Knight Errant will introduce us to Kerra Holt, a young Jedi who’s about to realize that her role in the galaxy is far more important, and vastly different than she could have ever imagined. The series and novel will be set one thousand years before Episode I, in the “Dark Age of the Republic.” This pivotal time in the history of Star Wars has been largely unexplored, until now [...]

Incorruptible #2
Written by Mark Waid
Art by Jean Diaz
Cover Art by Dennis Calero (Cover A); Rafael Albuquerque (Cover B); Jeffrey Spokes (Cover C)
BOOM! Studios
Price: $3.99; Release date: January 19, 2010

Previously in Incorruptible…

Until recently, Max Damage headed the FBI’s most wanted list. Then mankind’s premier defender, the Plutonian, went berserk and blew up the FBI.

Something happened in the moment of Plutonian’s transformation, something Max isn’t talking about yet…but it was a transformative moment for Max, as well. After weeks of disappearance, Max has resurfaced, apparently having rededicated his life to superheroism. Max’s sidekick, the severely underage Jailbait, is — to put it mildly — unhappy with his bizarre decision. Max’s former enemy, police lieutenant Louis Armadale, is skeptical of Max’s new path…but he’s willing to listen, eager to find out just what set this former supercriminal on his new path…

The second issue of Incorruptible continues to give us more information on Max Damage, revealing more on his super power through a clever shaving scene with him and Jailbait that I really enjoyed. Speaking of Jailbait, I find her parts (no pun intended) hilarious and whenever she comes on-panel I light up with excitement [...]