Orson Scott Card crafted one of the greatest science fiction saga’s of all time with the Ender books starting with Ender’s Game. Marvel talent and Card have been bringing Ender’s story to comic books and now an all-original story, the prequel to Ender’s Game, is coming to comic book form first. The 7-issue miniseries called Formic Wars Burning Earth is written by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston with art by Giancarlo Caracuzzo.

Marvel is partnering with ComicsPRO retailers to release the first installment of the miniseries a day early on February 14, 2011. These retailers will be celebrating this story by offering some great sales on the other Ender collections. If you’re in Chapel Hill, NC, you may want to head over to Chapel Hill Comics that day where Card and Johnston will be on hand to sign the comic [...]

It’s been officially announced that a brand new multiplayer demo for the highly anticipated Crysis 2 will be coming exclusively to the Xbox 360′s Xbox Live.

While the game will be released on multiple platforms, including the PlayStation 3 and PC, on March 22, 2011, only Xbox Live users will have access to the multiplayer demo set to become available on January 25.

The demo will include one map and two game modes to try out. The map is called “Skyline,” and the two game modes are called “Team Instant Action,” which is the traditional option where two teams see who can kill each other more, and “Crash Site,” where teams fight to control and protect alien pods.

You can see the trailer for the Crysis 2 multiplayer gameplay by clicking on over to the other side now!

Cevat Yerli, CEO of Crytek, had this to say about the multiplayer action:

Back in March of 2010, a strange string of events unfolded when news broke that a group of what was described as “bouncer-type” security guards entered the offices of Infinity Ward, the video game developers behind the popular Modern Warfare games in the Call of Duty franchise.

Ultimately it was revealed that two of the founders and current heads of Infinity Ward, Jason West and Vince Zampella, were fired by parent company Activision for “breaches of contract and insubordination,” leaving the future of the Modern Warfare series in question.

While many lawsuits have come of that mess, Activision has re-staffed all of the vacant positions at Infinity Ward and — even though the game hasn’t been officially announced — they have been working on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 ever since, with full expectations to meet their normal November release date…until now. It’s being reported by The LA Times that Activision has brought in a new team to help develop the third installment, which means things might not be going so smoothly. [...]

Here we are again — staring at one of those unbelievable headlines that simply has to be an April Fool’s joke…only it’s January, and this is apparently very real.

Deadline is reporting that the legendary actor, director, and producer, Clint Eastwood, will be directing his own take on the musical A Star is Born, with Beyonce Knowles set to star in the lead female role. The script for the movie is written by Will Fetters (Remember Me).

This will be the fourth version of the story, which tells the story of an aspiring actress being helped into the industry by an old veteran actor. The first came in 1937 and starred Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, while the second came in 1954 and starred Judy Garland and James Mason, and the third in 1976, starring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson.

All three previous versions of the film were nominated for Academy Awards, with two of the three winning an Oscar. [...]

It’s being reported that Sacha Baron Cohen will be playing quite the interesting role in an upcoming movie: infamous Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein.

The movie, which is fittingly titled The Dictator, is based on a book called Zabibah and the King. The book is a romance novel (sorta), which is said to have been written (or ghostwritten) by Hussein, painting himself as a hero to a woman (the people of Iraq), who’s married to an evil man (that’d be us) that abuses and rapes her.

In a press release by Paramount Pictures, they describe the movie as telling the “…heroic story of a dictator who risked his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed.”

The Dictator is set to be directed by Larry Charles, who has previously directed Baron Cohen in both Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan and Brüno. [...]

Today game developer Gearbo hit us up with a double dose of Duke Nukem Forever via its Twitter feed. First they gave us an official release date of May 3, 2011, just a little before my birthday, perfect timing. It’s funny to finally have a release date to a title that was on vaporware lists the world over for about a decade.

They also gave us a new trailer which shows some game play footage. It’s embedded below for your viewing pleasure.

The game is available now for pre-order for Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and PC [...]

MGM Studios just released a new RoboCop app for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch to help celebrate the film’s 25th anniversary (and perhaps to bring in some money from all the RoboCop fanboys with a spare buck).

Essentially, the RoboCop app is a soundboard featuring all your favorite lines from the last three films. However, since the idea of soundboard apps is a bit exhausted in this iOS handheld exhausted market, they’ve also built in some other perks to increase the coolness factor.

Unlike the previous SFX-only apps, this version has video clips, a Robo-Mouth setting (which is just a Cyborg mouth you can hold up to your face when the memorable quotes are spoken), and the ability to create your own witty, monotone one-liners by speaking into the mic [...]

Popular comic book creators Colleen Coover and Paul Tobin (Small Favors, Banana Sunday)are launching an all new series titled Gingerbread Girl. The story will first appear on Top Shelf 2.0, indie comic book publisher Top Shelf Comix’s free web comic venture. New installments of the story will appear on Mondays and Fridays culminating with the complete story being released in a hardcover graphic novel this Spring. Very little has been released by Top Shelf about the story [...]

Earlier this week, the first look was released of Taylor Lautner in the upcoming conspiracy thriller Abduction.

Liongate has released two more images today of Lautner in Abduction, where he plays a high school senior who finds his baby photo on a missing persons website, and realizes the people who raised him aren’t his real parents.

Check out the photos here below; one is a behind-the-scenes look at Lautner running (it seems like he’ll be doing quite a bit of this in the film); the other is of Lautner with co-star Lily Collins. I also updated the first-look photo of Lautner with a hi-res version [...]

After that nude wedding night photo of Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson from The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, this is going to seem like a bit of a letdown but…

Summit Entertainment has released the title treatment for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part I, the first half of the two-part film finale.

Part I, which was written by Melissa Rosenberg and directed by Bill Condon, will be released in theaters on November 18, 2011 [...]

Steel
Reign of Doomsday Part 1: Full Circle (One-shot)
Writer: Steve Lyons
Artist: Ed Benes
Cover Artist: Alex Garner
DC Comics
Release Date: January 5, 2011

Steel #1 is part of a series of one-shots and regular issues that DC Comics is releasing with iconic covers of their heroes. Alex Garner‘s artwork on the cover immediately catches your eye.

The story begins in the middle of a battle between Steel and Doomsday, the vicious creature that murdered Superman in the monumental Death of Supermanstoryline. All of Metropolis’ other defenders are unavailable, so it falls on John Henry Irons to defend the city. Irons is recently recovered from a coma, but he feels that it is his duty to stop Doomsday [...]

We’re well into the first month of DC Comics new initiative to lower (or maintain) prices across the board on all of their regular monthly titles without sacrificing the quality of stories [Read: DC Comics Drops Price On Comics To $2.99].

But in addition to sharing the $2.99 price point, most regular titles have something else in common: white backgrounds.

Not only does it make the artwork “pop,” but it dominated the new comics wall at my local shop, causing me to consider picking up a few new titles to my mostly Marvel hold file.

If you want to see what I mean, check out the thumbnails embedded below courtesy of DC’s official blog The Source. Also, let us know which new titles you added this month from DC in our comments section. [...]

A new film based on the comic book super-hero Black Panther is in development by Marvel Studios.

Black Panther is the alter identity of T’Challa, king of the African nation of Wakanda, who made his debut in Fantastic Four #52 and later starred in a solo title that is credited as being the first to feature a black super-hero as the lead.

Marvel has tapped documentary film maker Mark Bailey to pen the new movie, which may give some sort of indication about the overall tone we’re likely to see on the big screen.

One notable element present in Black Panther comics has been the ability for the fictitious African nation to juggle its political relationships with other countries who would like trade deals of Wakanda’s most valuable resource — a nearly indestructible metal called Vibranium. It would be interesting to see a District 9-style telling of Black Panther as opposed to the standard super-hero movie that has become all too common in the last decade. [...]

In a completely unsurprising turn of events, DC Comics has finally abandoned the Comics Code Authority, and replaced it with a set of their very own ratings system, as DC’s The Source reported Thursday afternoon. This comes at a very strange time, as most publishers left the Comics Code Authority behind several years ago, and since pretty much no one else enforces the code, let alone pays any attention to it at all.

DC Comics has used this code since its inception, but instead of sticking with it, the publisher has finally decided to move into the direction of it’s peers. DC has opted for a ratings system much like the ESRB for video games, or the current rating for television programs.

DC’s ratings system is as follows:

E – EVERYONE

Appropriate for readers age 12 and older. May contain mild violence, language and/or suggestive themes. [...]

Liam Neeson will reprise his role as Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn in upcoming episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars on Cartoon Network. In a new 3-part story arc set to begin on January 28, Jinn will appear before Obi-Wan Kenobi in visions that focus on the destiny of the Chosen One, Anakin Skywalker.

In an interview with EW, Neeson talked about why he wanted to return to the Star Wars saga: “These characters resonate, even after all these years. Growing up, my heroes were cowboys; they were strong and mysterious, and it seemed like they always rode off into the sunset. For kids today, Star Wars has that same kind of magic. I really wanted to be a part of that.”

You can check out a clip of Neeson’s appearance by heading to the bottom of this post.

Neeson will be lending his voice to the role in two episodes of the three-part story — one on the aforementioned January 28 and again on February 11. [...]

Continuing with the twentieth anniversary celebrations for grunge-lords Pearl Jam, this year will see the release of the documentary Pearl Jam Twenty.

Director Cameron Crowe, who burst onto the movie scene with his brilliant indie debut Fast Times At Ridgemont High and also directed award-winning movies Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous, was given full access to the band. Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready said the director would have free reign over “….all our footage, with all of our existing footage that we have.”

There will also be a book and soundtrack album to accompany the documentary.

Following on from the release of new live album Live On Ten Legs earlier this week, 2011 is proving to be a packed year for Pearl Jam fans. I’m a big fan of Cameron Crowe and Pearl Jam, and this is one film I’m very much looking forward to this year. [...]

A new Sherlock Holmes novel — the first officially endorsed by the estate of original author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle — is coming to book shelves soon, announced Orion Publishing House.

Written by children’s author Anthony Horowitz, who is known for his past work on the book series about teenage spy Alex Rider, the new novel will be true to the original material as much as possible.

“My Holmes is going to be exactly the Holmes of the (original) novels without any new information on my part,” Horowitz said in an interview with BBC. “I don’t want to take any liberties with this great iconic figure.”

Having grown up reading the Sherlock Holmes novels, Horowitz said he couldn’t resist the opportunity to write a brand new adventure. “My aim is to produce a first rate mystery for a modern audience while remaining absolutely true to the spirit of the original.” [...]

Being Human is a new Syfy series that tells the story of three roommates trying to make lives for themselves in the city. The difference in their story and thousands of others is that one of them is a vampire, the other is a werewolf, and the third one is a ghost. In the second episode the group has to deal with the fiancee of the ghost coming over for a visit.

There’s some interesting potential story here from a couple of serialized elements of the show that focuses on other vampires and a family member that learns the truth about her werewolf brother. The question is will the show devolve into cheesy soap opera drama or truly do something interesting with these characters? It’s a little early to tell but the odds are about half and half.

Check out the clip below and share your thoughts [...]

Sad news for anyone who buys their graphic fiction at Borders Book Stores.

Diamond Distributors, the company that supplies comic books, graphic novels, manga, and the like to most shops across the country, has elected not to ship any new (or back catalog) merchandise to the chain of book stores due to late payments.

The decline in print media demand has caused most brick and mortar book retailers to see their sales slump, but Borders has been hit especially hard due to an absence of a digital business strategy.

The elimination of a graphic fiction section isn’t going to help matters much either [...]

Yes, another story about Ricky Gervais! Yay!

I know you’re all thrilled, and this one will be the last for a while, promise…unless of course something else big enough to cover comes up tomorrow, of course.

It’s being reported that Gervais will have a cameo appearance on NBC’s hit comedy series, The Office. According to Vulture, Gervais will have a brief encounter with star Steve Carell, who’s soon leaving the show after seven solid seasons.

For those who don’t know, Carell plays the same role on the show that Gervais played on the original BBC series of the same name, which Gervais created. Since the American version has become so popular, there’s been many occasions where Gervais has thrown bitter fits at the success of others based on something he created (assumed to be completely staged for comedic purposes), including this past Sunday during the Golden Globes where he and Carell had a brief confrontation that many people were talking about. [...]