That’s right, it’s the movie event you’ve all been waiting for: DreamWorks Animation is developing a new animated movie based on those wacky-haired Good Luck Troll dolls we’ve all seen or owned at some point in our lives. Whether you actually had one for good luck, a pencil-topper (who ever thought that was a good design…awkward), or any of the many other treasures created around them, those little buggers are recognized by millions.

The little trolls, best known for their massive, frizzy, colorful hairdos and their horrifying and inexplicably naked appearance, are owned by Dam Things of Denmark, who is teaming with the studio to make the movie happen. The company was formed when Thomas Dam carved a doll based on Scandinavian Trolls for his daughter in 1959, and they caught on in popularity.

The script will be written by siblings Adam Wilson and Melanie Wilson LaBracio, and will take the Trolls and craft a world and story around them with all the humor and charm and adventure that goes into most of today’s animated flicks. [...]

Rise of the Apes, 20th Century Fox’s Planet of the Apes prequel, is wasting no time waiting around. Since the movie was revealed back in March, we’ve found out that the lead role will be played by James Franco, and now two new cast members are joining the .

It’s being reported that the always-popular John Lithgow has signed on to the project, and he’ll be joined by Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire, Immortals). Lithgow will be playing the father of Franco’s character, who suffers from Alzheimers Disease. Pinto’s role will be the female lead of the movie, a primatologist.

Rise of the Apes will take place in a modern-day San Francisco where a scientist (Franco) is working hard to cure Alzheimer’s Disease. The medical discoveries he makes, he tests on primates to see if they show any signs of progress. One of the apes being used for tests, named Caesar, shows unbelievable improvements, which leads the scientist to remove him from the lab and protect him. [...]

As reported earlier, DC Comics has finally launched their digital publishing initiatives with a native application for Apple’s iOS4 mobile operating system (iPad, iPhone, iTouch) and two separate distribution deals with comic reader platform ComiXology and Sony’s PlayStation Network (PS3, PSP) — with plans to sell comics digitally through the DC Comics website later in the year [read DC Comics Releases iPad/iPhone App].

“As both a comic book creator and Co-Publisher, it was incredibly important that our plan includes not only creator incentive payments, but also an innovative component that supports comic shop owners. We see digital as an opportunity to grow our entire business,” stated Jim Lee in DC’s official press release. [...]

Halo: Reach is a highly anticipated game for the Xbox 360. Halo: Fall of Reach is a best-selling novel based in the Halo universe that tells about the creation of Master Chief, the protagonist in the first three Halo games. Why stop with just two high selling properties? In September, we will see the premiere of Halo: Fall of Reach “Boot camp #1” from Marvel Comics and 343 Industries.

The comic will basically retell the same story told in the novel from a few years back. The writer for the series will be Brian Reed, with the art done by Felix Ruiz [...]

In a surprise twist, DC Comics has shocked the world and joined the digital revolution by releasing their very own iPhone and iPad apps this week!

This application is based off of and made in conjunction with the popular Comixology comic reader that provides the basis for the Marvel Comics and Boom! Studios apps as well, so it seems like Comixology is going to be the source for this medium in the future.

I have yet to see any official press release from DC Comics, but after browsing through the application, I have noticed a few key things. First, a free preview is available for Superman #700, which hits stores today, but there are no other same day releases that I can find. Not only does this application have access to the wide-spanning DC Universe, it also celebrates the strong libraries of DC’s imprint publishers Wildstorm and Vertigo. The application has paid issues from All Star Superman, Planetary, and Fables, but it also has free comics like Batman: Black and White, Fringe, and Mirror’s Edge [...]

As Disney has been prepping for the release of Tron: Legacy for well over a year now, it seems about the right time for them to start teasing their line of toys to coincide with the film’s release in December. But rather than manufacture the standard hunks of plastic, batteries, and tiny light bulbs, the Tron Light Cycle toys actually perform much like they do in the film: by climbing walls and driving on the ceiling (a.k.a. “defying” gravity).

The Light Cycle toys also feature a streaming trail of light that if crossed with another cycle’s stream, will cause both cars to lose traction and fall to the ground just like in the movie, according to Fast Company, who got their hands on a few as shown in the video embedded below.

What you won’t find is an explanation of how the Light Cycles work beyond mention of Zero-G Technology from the toy’s manufacturer Spin Master.

Tron fanboys only have to wait until October to purchase these bad boys, which will retail for $34.99 each. It’s a very reasonable price considering the hours of entertainment you’ll experience by chasing your cat around the house and uploading videos of it to YouTube.

[NOTE: Just below the demo, we've embedded a video of the "real" Light Cycle, which we recorded during a Tron: Legacy marketing event at last year's San Diego Comic-Con.] [...]

Over the past ten years or so, we’ve basically watched the stars of the Harry Potter franchise grow up. From children to teens to young adults, we’ve watched, like a billion distant relatives who only see family once a year or less.

One of the more oft-wondered aspects of this was whether these kids would be cursed to live out their days as Harry Potter typecasts, or if they had the talents and youth to move on to many other films, and construct impressive careers. They’ve already made more money than most would have a clue what to do with, so now it’s really all about legacy.

The three main stars have all set themselves up nicely by doing smaller films and theatrical productions in between Potter films, but with the mega franchise’s filming all wrapped up, it’s time to set their future in motion. This begins with the announcement that Daniel Radcliffe has signed on to star in a new remake of the World War I classic, All Quiet on the Western Front. [...]

A movie adaptation of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko‘s 1963 comic book Dr. Strange has been in and out of development hell for years now, with many different studios and talents being attached and detached from the project along the way.

It appears now another attempt at the movie is on the way with the announcement that Marvel Studios has gone out and hired Thomas Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer to write a script. The duo recently worked on the script for Marcus Nispel’s Conan reboot, as well as a script for an adaptation of the video game Uncharted: Drakes Fortune and a draft of Jon Favreau’s Cowboys and Aliens, which went on to the hands of Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and Damon Lindelof.

Dr. Strange tells the story of a brilliant neurosurgeon who’s also just a little full of himself. One day he’s in a terrible accident, which damages his hand beyond repair enough to ever perform surgery again. [...]

We’ve seen the big news from the other big gaming companies and during their Nintendo E3 Keynote week, we’re found out what Nintendo will have to offer in the coming year.

The first new game announced was one that I know I’ve been waiting a few years to hear about — a new Zelda game! Legend of Zelda, Skyward Sword. It has an updated look for Link, and controls with, as one would expect, the Wii motion controllers. The Wiimotion plus is used for movement and swiping your sword, while the nunchuck is used to raise your shield. There are other weapons including a slingshot, which did not go so well in the demonstration. We’ll see if the game control for distance weapons is as poor when the game is released [...]

Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson‘s The Boys comic put out by Dynamite, which is scheduled for a big screen release in 2011, might have a director. While it was originally reported by Collider that Samuel Bayer wanted to adapt the comic, they are now reporting that they have two sources that say that Adam McKay is in talks with Sony Pictures about directing the film.

Will this be a good move considering McKay’s previous work? Anchorman and the upcoming The Other Guys being a completely different style of film it will definitely make an interesting experiment. The Boys will definitely be a departure for him, but McKay has made it known that he has wanted to get his hands on a comic book movie for quite a while now. It is also immensely intriguing that McKay would choose such a polarizing comic book to start with. The Boys is more of a deconstruction of superheroes than a normal comics story [...]

Ron Howard and Brian Grazer‘s Imagine Entertainment, as well as Barry Levine and Radical Pictures are joining forces to develop a new movie based on the graphic novel Legends: The Enchanted.

The Radical Publishing comic (read our review here!) is created, written, and drawn by Nick Percival. Legends tells a dark and sometimes gruesome fairy tale story, using many of the familiar characters we’ve known all of our lives. Just to give you an idea, some of these characters you’ll find include Red Riding Hood (known here as simply Red Hood), a dangerous wolf-hunter; Jack, a slayer of giants; a deadly mercenary called Goldilocks; and even two psychic exterminators known as Hansel and Gretel.

The comic is still brand new itself, but the content has clearly made enough of an impact to inspire this new cinematic re-invention. The concept of popular fairly tales given very mature and dark makeovers is so appealing because it opens up great new creative doors. The list of projects like this seems to grow longer each and every day with Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and other projects in development. [...]

The Green Hornet has faced many obstacles on its way to the big screen, but star Seth Rogen has been helping it along for a while now, and tonight the production begins showing itself off to the world.

Sony Pictures has released the first trailer and a couple of new images from the movie, which is directed by Michel Gondry. This is no teaser trailer, either; this is a full-on trailer and it looks like it’s shaping up to be a ton of fun. There’s lots of action, lots of humor, and I for one am much more excited having now seen a little peek at what we can expect.

You’ll see Rogen in action as Britt Reid, and how the story falls into place. You’ll see Jay Chou as Kato and how the two team up. You’ll get a look at Cameron Diaz as the female lead. And of course, you’ll see Christoph Waltz as the villain.

Click on over to the other side to see the first trailer and the two new images now! [...]

The third season of HBO’s hit vampire series True Blood has just recently gotten started, but the numbers are impressive enough for those who make the decisions. It has been decided that a fourth season of the show is a worthy investment, and the green light has been given.

Speaking about the announcement, HBO president of programming Michael Lombardo said “The new season of True Blood is off to a terrific start, as enthusiasm for this unique show continues to build among both subscribers and critics. We’re looking forward to more chills from Alan Ball and his gifted team next year.” Series creator, executive producer, and sometimes writer/director Alan Ball also added “I am beyond thrilled to be able to continue working with this amazing cast and crew. This is the most fun I have ever had.”

True Blood is loosely based on The Southern Vampire Mysteries book series by Charlaine Harris. It takes place in a time when a synthetic blood has been created, bottled, and sold as Tru Blood, allowing for vampires to enter into society without a need to feed on humans anymore. [...]

Looking for a new addition to Battlefield Bad Company 2? Well you’re in luck, because coming out tomorrow is the addition of Onslaught mode, Battlefield’s version of Gears of War 2’s Horde mode, or Fire Fight in Halo 3: ODST. The big difference? Those games came with that mode FOR FREE. If you want it for BFBC2, you’ll have to shell out 10 bucks, or 800 Microsoft Points, if that’s how you roll. I think it’s kind of silly to have people pay for a game mode that has become a staple of the shooting genre.

Also coming out tomorrow for Playstation 3, already out for Xbox, is something they are calling “Kit Shortcuts.” Basically if you don’t want to actually play the game to level up, but want all the best guns you can just pay $6.99 for one (560 MS points) or $19.99 (1600 MS points) for all of them. Kind of confused by the point of this one as well, isn’t part of the fun of playing the actual leveling up? I mean, I know it sucks when everyone else has better guns, but just deal with it until you level up as well [...]

The Amazon Kindle has just dropped down in price to only $189!!!

This 6-inch wireless reading device was released in February 2009 and was previously sold for $269. So, this is a major drop in price and totally worth grabbing right now!

I was gifted this very device for my birthday last year and I can honestly say it changed my life for the better. Yes, I still love print books, but believe me, having to carry only a thin little tablet like the Kindle makes a difference in your life. Also, with the Kindle, if you’re on the go and feel like reading a particular book, it takes less than a minute to have the book transferred to your Kindle.

And if you’re worried about reading off an electronic device, have no fear — there’s no glare on the screen and you can make the typeface larger if necessary. It’s very easy to use and you can fit a ton of books on it. Also, if you have a Kindle, you can also read your Kindle books through your PC or Mac computers, iPad, iPhone, and Blackberry!

See below for details from the product page, but take my word for it, the Kindle is a worthy investment, especially at this new low price [...]

Thor #610
Written by: Kieron Gillen
Art by: Doug Braithwaite
Colors by: Andy Troy, Doug Braithwaite, & Paul Mounts
Letters by: Joe Sabino
Cover by: Mico Suayan & Laura Martin
Marvel Comics
Price: $2.99
Release Date: May 26, 2010

Well Thor enthusiasts, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that the wrap up of Siege in Thor #610 was very well done and Kieron Gillen is doing an awesome job keeping up with almost all aspects from issue #1 of J. Michael Straczynski’s run. The bad news is we had an art change and I for one don’t feel like Doug Braithwaite is fully grasping all the characters yet.

This Siege Epilogue did a great job of wrapping up all of the things covered in Siege. but I do wish there was a little more set up for the future of the book. There is some dialogue that foreshadows but it is in the slowest section of the book. My favorite parts are with Kelda and Valkyrie going to see Bill in his afterlife, Volstagg trying to make up for his mistake, and Thor being welcomed back just as Ragnarok needs to be defeated [...]

It looks like Marvel’s plans for introducing the second-tier characters has been slightly modified [read Marvel Plans To Release Lower Budget Movies With B-List Characters].

Latino Review has a scoop that instead of the $20-$40 million low-budget films that were originally planned for these characters, Marvel may opt for short ten-minute films instead.

This approach could be used for Marvel “B-Team” characters such as Luke Cage, Dr. Strange, and the Black Panther. It is also believed that these films would be shown before full-length Marvel films such as The Avengers [...]

Amazon has resurrected one of its amazing deals!

Right now, the Firefly Complete Series Blu-ray collection is on sale for $27.99! (that’s $62 off or 69% off the list price of $89.98).

That’s all 14 episodes of the Joss Whedon scifi space western television series Firefly, which was canceled much too prematurely by Fox back in 2002 before the first season was even completed. This Blu-ray edition includes the last three episodes that never aired on television.

Grab this deal while you can because there’s nothing on the listing page that specifies how long this sale is going on.

Below is a run-down from the product page of the episode/special features that appear on the 3-disc Blu-ray set [...]

Joe the Barbarian #5 (of 8)
Written by Grant Morrison
Art by Sean Murphy
Colors by Dave Stewart
Letters by Todd Klein
Vertigo Comics
Release date: May 19, 2010

Grant Morrison delivers yet again in Joe the Barbarian #5. In this issue, Joe and company are still diligent on their quest to find the light, but along the way they run into terrible monsters and an ever-growing darkness that seems to be consuming the entire world. This story is a fantastic look at the mind of a young boy, who is literally walking the edge of fantasy and reality.

I absolutely love every panel of this book, and have been more than pleased with the entire mini-series. Morrison is doing a fantastic job of telling an incredibly, albeit complex, story of a lonely young boy who is very apparently crossing realms of imagination and reality and is having a harder and harder time distinguishing between the two. The story itself is powerful and intriguing, but the sheer genius of Grant Morrison is shown through his ties between fantasy and reality. For example, in the fantasy world we see a powerful river that is running down a mountain, but in reality we see that this river is an overflowing sink that is going down a flight of stairs. This is just one example, but Morrison also likens a demonic appearing monster to a dog, and the ever-growing darkness is mirrored as a house with a blown fuse, or simply that the power has gone out. Morrison also does a wonderful job with his characters by writing Joe and his gang in a manner that makes you truly feel compassion for them [...]

Shutter Island
DVD | Blu-ray
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams
Warner Bros Home Video
Release date: June 8, 2010

Martin Scorsese’s foray into violent territories has been characterized by blood, weapons, extreme wealth and more blood. Working with these characteristics he managed to use them to help mold his image of Man, using them as instruments to inflict pain upon Man in the process. Scorsese has become synonymous, as we have all come to know, with violence and gangster qualities, leading him to produce unequivocal masterpieces. But, surprisingly, he works at equal competence when he displays Man as a helpless entity, one who suppresses his true feelings and, as in Shutter Island, one succumbing to psychological occurrences that are far beyond his collective knowledge.

These themes undoubtedly occur throughout most of Scorsese’s pictures but the way he delves into the psychological depths of an individual’s mind, which has nothing but contempt and regret regarding his past, in his new film, brings out a baroque like menace which we haven’t seen in Scorsese before. Shutter Island is an immersive movie nightmare that rises above the thriller genre, emancipating itself from the mundane conventions of such films so it can blossom into a piece of art that is dreadful, ghastly and surreal [...]