Daybreakers

We get a human-vamp encounter in a new clip. [via CinemaBlend]

Thor

Apparently, there was a rumor that Jude Law was going to be in the movie. He's not. [MTV]

Inglourious Basterds Prequel

Quentin Tarantino has written 40 pages of the prequel to his history-shattering slaughterfest, but he's working on a "less epic" picture first. [MTV]

30 Days of Night: Dark Days

Producer JR Young talked about the sequel to the vamps-in-Alaska adaptation, which takes the widowed Stella Olemaun to Los Angeles to try to expose vampires to the world:

I think the second film definitely stays within the world of the first film and it stays true to the second graphic novel in the series for those fans out there. The story is within that world but there are differences and a lot of that is due to the graphic novel. The first film is very much a survival film and this next one is all about revenge. There's an action component. The last one is a western, this one is more of a war movie. It's taking the battle to the vampires.

[ShockTillYouDrop]

True Blood

Alan Ball has confirmed that he's looking at a Latino actor in his 30s to play Lafayette's boyfriend. [EW]

Lost

Apparently, one of the following spoilers is false, and the other is true:

* We find out John Locke is related to C*****s *id**re [Charles Widmore] and J*** ***ph*** [Jack Shepherd] in a way you would never ever expect-yes, "related" as in by blood!

* Terry O'Quinn does something bat-poop insane involving a character we have known since the very first episode of Lost's first season, then says: "I'm sorry you had to see me like that."

[E!]

Dollhouse

Eliza Dushku's real-life boyfriend Rick Fox will have a brief cameo in the January 8th episode. He'll be one of dozens of Dolls imprinted with their original personalities and then released from the Dollhouse. We'll also Summer Glau return during that episode. [EW]

Fringe

We've mentioned that Fringe is filling some of its second season gap with an unaired episode from season one. That episode, "Unearthed," features a girl who, after being pronounced dead, is taken off life support only to wake up and star screaming alphanumeric code. And, for those who miss Charlie, Kirk Acevedo will be in the episode. [MTV]

And here's a promo that appears to contain footage from the episode. [via Spoiler TV]

After "Unearthed," the next two episodes will be titled "Edina City Limits" and "Jacksonville." [Spoiler TV]

Chuck

Michael Ausiello has seen the first three episodes of the season and says they're phenomenal — and there's nary a Subway sandwich to be seen. The first episode picks up six or ten months after last season's finale, and we'll see a recurring character die. We'll also find out that a recurring character is secretly a fan of Wilson Phillips. And we'll get a look at Morgan's huge collection of something. We'll be seeing lots of Awesome in the third episode — and his bare chest will apparently guest star. [EW]

Zachary Levi explains Chuck's connection with Kristin Kreuk's chracter Hannah:

They're both tech geeks. They're both into that world where they know how to reboot servers off of backup script.

Kreuk has filmed three episodes so far, but may be back for more. [Fancast]

The latest promo focuses on Chuck's choice between being a spy and being with Sarah. [via ChuckTV]

Heroes

According to Deanne Bray's Facebook account, Emma will appear in at least five more episodes, including the January fourth winter premiere. [Spoiler TV]

The puzzle pieces fall together in a trailer for the January return. [via Spoiler TV]

Iron Man 2:

Sam Rockwell says his character, Justin Hammer, is sort of like Lex Luthor (the Hackman and Spacey versions) mixed with Bill Murray in Kingpin and Richard Gere in American Gigolo. And in case we didn't cover this before, Rockwell also says his character is the one who builds Rhodey's War Machine armor, and Rhodey has no choice but to work with Hammer. But Rhodey doesn't let Hammer try the armor on. [MTV]

Tekken:

At a party for distributors, the studio showed off some footage from this live-action movie adaptation, starring Luke Goss, Jon Foo, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Gary Daniels, Ian Anthony Dale, Kelly Overton, Cung Le, and Tamlyn Tomita. The movie follows Jin Kazama as he struggles to get revenge on Tekken Corp. chairman Heihachi Mishima for the death of his mother. And the only way to get revenge is to enter Tekken's Iron Fist Tournament. Just because.

So the trailer/sizzle reel included captions saying:

One tournament ... decides the fate of millions. ... They fight for power ... They fight for honor ... They fight for pride ... But one man ... fights for revenge. ... Courage fuels him ... Rage drives him.

We see a flying car soaring over an arena in a futuristic city, and a bloodthirsty crowd waits for the action to begin. We see a montage of the movie's fighters, including Raven, Eddie Gordo, Bryan Fury, Craig Marduk, and Yoshimitsu. They all look sort of like their game counterparts. And there's lots of fighting, punching, kicking and general mayhem. Jin Kazama runs along building tops, parkour style, and fights in a cage match, rising up from the streets to the Iron Fist competition. Woo!

Jin Kazama meets Steve Fox (Goss) and the sexy Christie Monteiro (Overton), and then there's a training montage, showing him pummeling a wooden dummy. Steve Fox yells, and Kazuya Mishima (Dale) walks bare-chested in front of a wall of fire. There's a hero shot of Jin looking like his game counterpart, then he's fighting in the ring, and then chicks are fighting in the ring. Jin fights Bryan Fury (Daniels) and one of his blows causes an energy ripple across Fury's chest. Guards pull a distraught woman away, and then there's more fighting, including maces and half-moon axes. Even more details of fighting and posing at the link. [IGN]

Avatar:

This totally ridiculous Coke Zero ad and a couple of new TV spots include a teeny amount of new footage from the movie. [Thanks Slashfilm!]

Resident Evil: Afterlife:

Milla Jovovich is still Tweeting from the set of this movie, and among other things, she explains that her new costume includes a leather gun harness and a "butt bra." And those mysterious figures in all white are "Pod People," who've been subjected to horrific Umbrella Corp. experiments. [ShockTillYouDrop]

The Hobbit:

Guillermo Del Toro explains exactly what he'll be adding to Tolkien's original story:

We will be integrating Gandalf's comings and goings [into the script] because he does disappear in the book quite often. So, as opposed to the book, we see where he goes and what happens to him.

That means we'll see the battle against the Necromancer. And the Wargs will have "a certain beauty" so you don't get the message that everyone beautiful is good, and vice versa. And Smaug the dragon will be unique and look unlike any dragon you've ever seen. [Total Film via MTV]

Twilight:

The Wolf Pack come up on Access Hollywood to talk about their abs and explain why werewolves are better than vampires.

Dark Days: 30 Days Of Night:

Here's your first image from this sequel, showing Kiele Sanchez as Stella Oleson (played by Melissa George in the first film) waving a knife as she prepares to take the fight to the vampires. Also in the film are Lost's Harold Perrineau, Mia Kirshner (as the vampire Lilith), Diora Baird, Rhys Coiro, Troy Ruptash, Jackson Berlin, John De Santis, Marco Sorian and Katherine Isabelle. Full version of the image at the link. [AICN via ShockTillYou Drop]

The Prisoner:

Ian McKellen was on The View, where he showed a brief clip from this remake of the classic 1960s series... and put up with Whoopi Goldberg confusing him with Michael Gambon. Oops. [Cinematical]

Lost:

The show was filming at the Survivors' camp, and actors in attendance included Evangeline Lilly (Kate), Matthew Fox (Jack), Michael Emerson (Ben), Jorge Garcia (Hugo), Emilie de Ravin (Claire), Yunjin Kim (Sun), Jeff Fahey (Frank Lapidus) and Nestor Carbonell (Richard Alpert). [SpoilersLost]

Doctor Who:

Here's a brief new TV spot for this episode, premiering (in the UK) on Sunday!

And Russell T. Davies says this episode is "absolutely terrifying, one of the scariest things we've ever done." The things the Doctor and the people around him are forced to do are totally mad and it's a really exciting hour. [BlogtorWho]

V:

Here are some promo pics from the fourth and final episode of the year, "It's Only Just Beginning." It looks as though someone is getting pregnant... and the father is the last person you would expect! [VisitorSite]

And here are six clips from tomorrow night's new epsiode, including Morena Baccarin turning herself into a virtual paper doll to try out outfits on.

Fringe:

Here's some info about the Nov. 19 episode, "Observer":

An unusual abduction in Boston reveals information about the Observer and bizarre evidence that Walter, Peter and Astrid must sort out in the lab—-in between Walter's constant cravings for a milkshake.

[TV Guide]

FlashForward:

In upcoming episodes, we'll meet the adult version of the mysterious scarred Somalian child from episode three, and he may be played by The Wire's Michael K. Williams. Also, we'll be meeting Miles Fogel (Michael Ealy) who becomes a thorn in Benford's side and becomes a regular character starting in episode ten. Episode nine will be all about Dr. Bryce Yarley, and we'll be meeting the Japanese woman from his flashforward, Keiko. Callum Keith Rennie will be back at least a couple more times this season, says David S. Goyer. [MTV]

A new featurette focuses on Dominic Monaghan, showcasing his role as Simon and the actor's thoughts on quantum physics:

And here are a few stills from an upcoming episode — but we're not sure which one. [SpoilerTV]

And here's a sneak peek from the next episode, in which Monaghan talks about being oh-so-tawdry:

A casting call for episode 14 details a couple new characters we'll be meeting:

[DON SESTITO] 50s-60s, open to all ethnicities. Wry, very sharp. A veteran Federal judge for some 20-plus years, he's seen and heard it all and cuts to the chase. one scene

[JOSH BARKHAM] late 20s-early 30s, open to all ethnicities. Intelligent, well-spoken, argues in court. A once-idealistic attorney, experience has worn the shine off his former earnestness. one scene

[SpoilerTV]

Supernatural:

As you've seen already, Lucifer gets Castiel trapped in a ring of holy fire — but he doesn't just question the angel. He tries to convince Castiel to join him as a rebel angel, according to Misha Collins. Also, we might see Castiel using his supernatural tolerance for alcohol to win some drinking games. [Huffington Post]

Chuck:

Season three will be like "The Matrix," says Zachary Levi. Plus Brandon Routh explains his new character. [AOL via ChuckTV]

Smallville:

Zatanna will be back in an episode early next year, entitled "Warrior." [TV Guide Magazine]

And here's the description for the Nov. 20 episode, "Pandora":

Lois is kidnapped by Tess and forced to reveal what she learned during the weeks of her disappearance. She witnessed a future with Metropolis controlled by Zod and Clark left without his powers because of the red sun. With this information, Clark makes a big decision about Zod.

[TV Guide]

Stargate Universe:

Eli may get to handle some guns sometime soon, hints David Blue. And he would like to have a long scene where he and Rodney McKay geek out about stuff. [SF Universe]

And here are some pics from the episode "Time" — in which, I'm guessing, they're running out of time, until they get some more somehow. [SpoilerTV]

Additional reporting by Mary Ratliff.

A reader sent in this little tidbit above - this is the packaging for the New Moon movie companion book. We're glad that the marketing team at Twilight is in on their own joke, though I would like to add that what the movie is selling are clearly bare-chested were-puppies. Thanks for the tip and picture Matt!

Also Disney is thinking about getting into the Twilighting business. The mouse house registered some interesting domain names recently that suggest they will be turning Adrian Phoenix's "The Maker's Song" series into a film, TV movie or show. There are three books in the entire series. Here's the Amazon summary of the book series:

Set in the brooding New Orleans area long established as the best location for all things vampiric, Phoenix's lively debut has it all: Rogue [FBI] agents, Bureau-ordered hits, mad-scientist experiments in psychopathology, vampires and fallen angels and a slicing-dicing serial killer. Smart, sexy FBI Special Agent Heather Wallace has been trying to catch the Cross-Country Killer for three years when the trail leads to New Orleans and Club Hell, where Dante Prejean performs with the Inferno, an industrial/goth rock band. Dante is a Cajun and a born vampire whose memories of his terrible past have been erased, leaving him vulnerable to the psychopathic killer, E, who knows all that Dante has forgotten. As E begins targeting Dante's loved ones, Heather must swallow her skepticism and work with Dante's vampiric friends and family to save him. Phoenix alternates romantic homages to gothdom and steamy blood-drinking threesomes with enough terse, fast-paced thriller scenes to satisfy even the most jaded fan.

And it looks like this (below). So - guns, vampires and little outfits. That's good, right?

And finally the 30 Days of Night sequel will have a familiar face according to Shock Till You Drop:

Sequel to 2007 vampire horror hit about a lonely and desperate woman who joins a group of rogue vampire hunters to seek revenge on the bloodsuckers responsible for an attack on her tiny Alaska town.

They Come Back, But Not Quite Alive

Torchwood: When Jack Harkness is understandably upset when Owen Harper is shot and killed. But at least he's got the Resurrection Gauntlet to bring him back to life, right? Well, sort of. Owen still walks and talks, but he's not precisely alive. His heart doesn't beat, his flesh doesn't heal, and his reflexes are gone. And, if that wasn't bad enough, he can't even enjoy food or sex anymore, and Weevils follow him everywhere.

Caprica: Granted, the consequences of bringing Zoe Graystone back from the dead are pretty far-reaching. After all, it results in the creation of the Cylons and the eventual decimation of humanity. But when Joseph Adama encounters a computerized copy of his dead daughter, her concerns with being back from the dead are more immediate. Without a living body, she has no pulse and just generally feels wrong, to the extent that she can't stand being semi-alive this way.

"Playback" Arthur C. Clarke: Caprica's borrowed a page from Clarke here, who wrote a tale of aliens who try to bring a pilot back to life after his ship explodes. They manage to restore all of his memories, but have no idea what kind of body he had, and he's a bit depressed to find that he's just a non-corporeal simulation.

"The River Styx Runs Upstream" by Dan Simmons: When a young boy's mother dies, his father has her body resurrected. Although her body has returned, her mind simply isn't there, and she wanders through life as an automaton. The boy's distraught father and older brother eventually kill themselves in their grief, horror, and shame, but the boy doesn't think resurrection's so terrible. He himself goes to work for the Resurrectionists, spending his free time with his resurrected family.

You Bring Them Back Wrong

Doctor Who "The Empty Child:" Well-meaning nanobots attempt to reconstruct a child killed during the London Blitz. But not knowing what a human child looks like, they bring him back as a mindless abomination, with a gas mask for a face and ever searching for his mother. Even worse, the bots decide that this is what all humans must look like, and proceed to transmute healthy children as well.

"The Monkey's Paw" by WW Jacobs: The mystical monkey's paw grants wishes, but never in the way you hoped. After the first wish Mr. White makes results in the death of his son Herbert, his second wish is for Herbert to return. Mr. White never sees his son, but he knows after a horrible accident and a week on the slab, Herbert probably isn't the same. His third wish takes Herbert away.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer "Forever:" Following the same vein as "The Monkey's Paw," Dawn tries to resurrect her dead mother via magic. She also never sees her mother, realizing that what comes back won't quite be her, and breaks the spell before her mother reaches their front door.

They'll Try to Kill You Afterward

30 Days of Night: Dark Days: After Eben Olemaun becomes a vampire to save the remaining citizens of Barrow, he turns to ash when the polar sun finally rises. This sets Stella Olemaun on a quest to bring her husband back to life. But when she succeeds, Eben is still a vampire — and a hungry one at that.

"Herbert West — Reanimator" by HP Lovecraft: Medical student Herbert West is fascinated by life and death, and develops a serum he believes will restart the machinery of the human body. The serum works, but turns the corpses into cannibalistic zombies. West is unrepentant , focused on new ways to find dead subjects for his experiments. Of course, eventually his zombie experiments turn on him.

Practical Magic: After Sally Owens' boyfriend Jimmy turns out to be abusive, she drugs him and accidentally kills him. Fearing prison, Sally and her sister Gillian cast a spell to revive him, but Jimmy's immediate reaction isn't exactly gratitude. He tries to kill Gillian, forcing Sally to murder him once again.

Pet Sematary: Any dead creature buried in the ancient Micmac burial ground comes back to life, just not quite the way you put it in. After losing his young son Gage, Louis buries his son in the graveyard. Sure enough, Gage comes back — and promptly murders his mother.

Lexx: You would think that, given the prophecy that the last of the Brunnen-G would kill His Divine Shadow, the last thing His Divine Shadow would do is resurrect a Brunnen-G corpse. But he did exactly that to Kai, making him one of the living dead as a Divine Assassin. It takes over 2000 years, but eventually Kai does get around to killing him.

Supernatural "Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things:" College students and necromancy are always a recipe for trouble. When a broken-hearted boy tries to bring his dead crush back, she's of course got to go zombie and start chomping down on her loved ones.

God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert: For thousands of years, Leto Atreides has ruled over humanity, and always has a ghola — a copy — of his father's faithful friend Duncan Idaho to serve him. But the Duncan ghola's almost inevitably rebel against Leto and try to kill him, forcing Leto to kill all but 19 gholas. Still, Leto keeps bringing in a fresh Duncan ghola after each attempt on his life.

They Bring Death With Them

Pushing Daisies: When pie maker Ned touches dead bodies, they become reanimated, without regard for mutilation or decay. But if he fails to deanimate them after more than a minute, a random person in close proximity dies, taking their place. And for Ned, bringing the dead back to life is further complicated by not being able to touch them, lest they fall dead once again.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer "After Life:" Actually, bringing a body-stealing demon into the world of the living was probably the least of the disastrous consequences of resurrecting the Slayer. Still, when a demon gets loose in Sunnydale, the Scoobies have to kill it before it kills Buffy.

Carnivale: Ben Hawkins has the power to bring people back from the dead, but it comes with a price: one person of Hawkins' choosing must die in exchange for the life. And, try though he might, he can't choose himself.

Torchwood "Dead Man Walking:" Another fun consequence of Owen's walking death is that Death himself comes along for the ride. He's looking for 13 souls to consume so he can remain in the world of the living and slake his thirst for destruction.

It Will Come at Great Personal Cost

The Dresden Files: The sorcerer Hrothbert of Bainbridge committed a crime against his order by bringing his beloved Winifred back from the dead, prompting the High Council to hand down a severe and lasting punishment: they imprison his spirit inside his skull for all eternity. Hrothbert, now "Bob," has been around over a thousand years, but he can't interact with the physical world.

Torchwood "They Keep Killing Suzie:" The other Resurrection Gauntlet actually does bring the dead back to full-fledged life. But naturally there's still a catch: the resurrected person draws life energy from the living wearer, and permanent resurrection means the death of the living wearer.

Full Metal Alchemist: After their mother dies, Edward and Alphonse try to revive her through alchemy. Not only do they fail to bring her back from the dead, they lose physical pieces of themselves in the process, with Edward losing his left leg and Alphonse losing his entire body.

Supernatural: The Winchesters thrive on death and resurrection. When Sam is shot and killed, Dean trades his soul for Sam's life, with the bartering demon collecting in just a year. Sure enough, after a year, Dean dies and head off to Hell.

It Will Attract Unwanted Attention

The Outer Limits "Josh:" When reclusive Josh Butler resurrects a young girl through a strange electromagnetic pulse, it attracts the attention of a tabloid TV reporter looking for a scoop. Unfortunately, it also attracts the attention of the US Air Force, who promptly seize Josh and start performing medical tests.

The 4400: Shawn Farrell manages to bring a bird back from the dead, just one example of his amazing healing abilities. But not everyone is thrilled about his strange new powers, and they bring him to the attention of Jordan Collier, which is a bit of a double-edged sword.

It's Only Temporary

AI: Artificial Intelligence: The evolved mechas who find David frozen beneath the water are able to give the robotic boy his greatest wish: time with his long-dead adoptive mother Monica. The resurrection only lasts a day and can never be repeated. David's okay with the arrangement, since that one day is perfect, but it's a clear audience tearjerker.

They Were Actually Okay With Being Dead

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Willow assumed that Buffy's death by interdimensional portal had sent the Slayer to a hell dimension, and conjured up some ill-advised magic to bring her back. Unfortunately, Willow never considered that Buffy might actually be in Heaven, leaving her in a major season-long depression as she adjusts to inferior life back on Earth.

Supernatural: Okay, so Dean didn't exactly enjoy his stay in Hell, but he's dealing with some very Buffy-like issues on his return to Earth. He clearly remembers his agonizing time in Hell and got a real taste for torture. And God might have pulled him out of Hell, but his plans for Dean on Earth involve more havoc and torture.

Green Lantern: Maura Rayner is infected with a sentient virus sent by Sinestro and her son Kyle failed to get back in time to save her. He uses his powers to revive her, but she won't have any of it. She senses that, once dead, there's something wrong with being alive and begs him to let her be dead once again.

You Never Really Liked Them in the First Place

The Venture Bros.: Dean and Hank Venture are a tad on the death-prone side, so their father always keeps a few clone slugs around to imprint with their memories. But once they're alive again, he generally treats them as nuisances — or ignores them entirely. But he does find it handy to have a spare organ donor (or two) around.

Red Dwarf: Nearly the entire complement of the Red Dwarf is killed off in the first episode, only to be resurrected in the eighth season thanks to a little nanobot magic. Lister is no longer the only human in the universe, but he and his cohorts immediately run afoul of the newly reconstructed crew.

It Makes for Unnecessary Sequels

And Another Thing... by Eoin Colfer: We said goodbye to several major characters from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series (as well as the entire planet Earth) at the end of Mostly Harmless. Presumably Eoin Colfer's sequel will see Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, and Trillian ride again, and Arthur's none too pleased about it.

The current craze for Vampires was probably kick-started by the success of last year's movie version of cult comic 30 Days of Night, which did for bloodsuckers what 28 Days Later did for the undead years before. That movie may have snuck in on the back of the comic book craze (starting, as it did, as a 2002 comic by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith), but it also heralded today's new lust for blood: While HBO's True Blood may not be entirely winning us over, the channel is happy enough with the ratings - or perhaps just the zeitgiest-surfing qualities of the show - to order a second season. And why not? Once the David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve made sucking blood weirdly sexy twenty years ago.
Maybe that explains why both Cloverfield director Matt Reeves and Hellboy's Guillermo Del Toro are turning to Nosferatu's children for their next projects (Reeves will be directing a remake of cult Swedish vampire movie Lat den ratte komma in, while Del Toro has just signed a deal to co-write a trilogy of vampire novels). We thought that it might've been pirates, or maybe ninjas, but no - it really is Vampires that are the new superheroes, who were the new zombies. Give it a year, and we'll all be bored of the sight of blood.

If you're anything like us, then Eisner Award finalist Templesmith's art will bring out the hidden Decadent in you — the one who likes to snort powdered absinthe and scream out Rimbaud poems on New Orleans street corners just for a lark.

Templesmith also names Ronald Searle and Ralph Steadman as influences, and it's this mix of comic and horrific influences that gives Templesmith's images such vigor, along with a cheery inability to censor himself. His latest book is Wormwood, Gentleman Corpse: It Only Hurts When I Pee, and it features the continuing adventures of the aforementioned gentleman corpse.

Wormwood is, as they say, "defiantly weird," in the way people use "weird" when they're at a loss for words. Templesmith's black sense of humor, his uniquely delicate yet muscular style, his nuanced but bold use of color, and his knack for finding just the right detail to make a panel or page come to life—these traits in combination make the art and words work so well for readers.

Templesmith told us:

Wormwood is really just me having fun and trying to through in as many disgusting perversions of my old childhood influences. [And I do] call it my riff on Doctor Who, if it were more demonologically oriented and written for very juvenile adults with a sick sense of humor.

I am afraid of it. Always reluctant to dive in and embrace it, but once I do, I pretty much fall in love with it. (The latest being "Twitter," which I'm addicted to). I [also] try to keep my computer work fairly simple. I don't want to swap completely to the computer to do all my art. I still value the personal meat-world touch and only use technology for the bits I can't replicate physically myself. Some people think I do it all on computer, but I think I've just worked out a system that plays to the strengths of all the mediums, rather than overly rely on just one.

I literally have no constraints from the publisher, they just let me do as I wish. Well, so far anyway. I've yet to be sued or told 'no, you can't put Paris Hilton in the book and have her decapitated corpse used as a play thing by a band of sexually depraved redneck zombies, Ben.' Wormwood is really my personal project, so just the fact I get to do it at all is the fun bit.

Despite the commercial success of 30 Days of Night, including getting the major motion picture treatment and winning a Spike TV award, Templesmith is refreshingly oblivious to the idea of following up by adhering to any one formula for success. In addition to continuing to work on Fell with Warren Ellis, he's starting a new series called Welcome to Hoxford that looks like it's going to be a no-holds-barred psychiatric hospital creep-fest. Our guess is that Doctor Who won't figure into this one, unless he shows up as a patient . . .

Ben Templesmith [gallery]