At the end of 2012 the cast members who have survived the massive floods and volcanic destruction on Earth head over to Africa, the new center of the world. What happens next has just been picked up by ABC as a television series that Emmerich is helping out with. We got the chance to find out more about his post-post-apocalypse series at the 2012 press day.

io9: You may dislike sequels but I hear you are interested in making a TV series sequel to the this film called 2013?

Roland Emmerich: But that's something different. It's something like Lost, which has a totally different feel to it. It's more than a little bit like District 9. These ships show up in Africa and [in] Cape Town there are survivors, and they are not happy people. Because they were left behind. And how do you start a new society? It has no visual effects, it's all about characters. What will the future bring? Hope for us?

Will 2013 have to happen pretty quickly after this movie is released? Do you have any actors or additional writers in mind?

They just made a deal with ABC. And we're very happy about that. I'm already discussing with the people that write and try to help them with what this could be. The original idea is from [2012 co-writer] Harold [Kloser], me and Mark Gordon. Mark is big in TV so Harold and I had an idea. Because there were a lot of things we couldn't incorporate in 2012. And we thought it was interesting what happened after all this. When we were writing the script we had to end it at one point and we left it very vague. They discovered that Africa is still existing. It has just risen a couple thousand feet. But that's it. And we ended on a really really small note about a little girl who overcame her fear. It was a very small way [to end]. Which was also kind of for us something very personal and poignant. [In the sequel] people would expect visual effects but it will be only what happened between people. We can do that on a TV show week after week after week.

It's just the fact that they come off their shiny arcs to a destroyed Cape Town. And it's not the bright and happy future everybody was envisioning. It's same old problems.

According to the Denver Post, the father, Richard Heene, is an amateur scientist, and was in a weather based research team called Psyience Detectives. The homemade saucer was constructed from plywood and string, but was never intended for flight. And yet it was filled with helium — but perhaps it was never meant to fly dangerously about so high.

Mr. Heene is also a storm chaser, who is trying to prove that storm have their own magnetic fields and that there is life on Mars...as you can see from the above iReport video.

ESA photos edited out buildings on Mars. NEW PYRAMID!! I just discovered Edited photos!!! The European Space Agency has leaked evidence clearly showing civilization on planet Mars.This video will show you the evidence,as well as how you can download it and judge for yourself. Also this Video shows a new Head Monument that has been recently identified on the Maritian surface. This is not a hoax.

Here is a picture of them all together via MSNBC, in front of what looks like the balloon, or another experimental weather device.


Richard Heene, wife Mayumi, and sons, Bradford, Ryo and Falcon (in the middle).

Let this be a warning to the rest of the amateur scientists out there — please, safety first. Rescuers still have not found Falcon, and he wasn't in the downed balloon. We hope for a safe and speedy return of Falcon to his family so they can continue chasing storms together.

At the Alice In Wonderland press conference, people cornered Burton about his next rumored movie project Dark Shadows, the vampire soap opera that aired on ABC.

When asked if he had plans to pursue the movie adaptation of Dark Shadows and bring the infamous Barnabas Collins back to life his response was:

Yeah if I ever finish this one here [Alice in Wonderland]. It's hard to think beyond this at the minute but yeah that's the plan.

The rights to the show's rights were optioned by Infinitum-Nihil, which is Johnny Depp's production company. This can only mean one thing: Edward has some gigantic competition. Burton and Depp do everything together lately, there's no reason we shouldn't start assuming the same. Depp as a vampire — is there anything more ridiculous and wonderful at the same time?

MGM has just announced that screenwriter Peter Morgan, who penned The Queen, The Last King of Scotland and Frost/Nixon, is joining up with past Bond writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade for the 23rd film in this franchise.

Producer's Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli commented via release:

"Peter, Neal and Robert are extraordinarily talented and we're looking forward to working with the three of them."

Morgan is a great writer, and we have full confidence that he can take Bond's quips to an elegant and biting word-play high. He's also known for his serious dramas, so let's hope he can help out balancing the action with interesting character development. Also, we're hoping for a little style to be injected back into our mystery man and — fingers crossed — Morgan can elevate the dialog from the last film (He's Bond for goodness sakes! He doesn't just steer women into the bedroom with a nod like cattle). This is a good score for the movie... It all hinges on the choice of director now.

Daniel Craig is confirmed for the picture, but they have yet to set a production date.

One of io9's tipsters has given us word that Jamie Campbell Bower is currently one of the actors under consideration for Peter Parker.

You may recognize him as young Anthony who sang next to Johnny Depp in Sweeney Todd. The then 19-year-old Bower was the floppy-haired sailor in love with little Johanna. He's got theater experience and a voice:

True, this is still just a rumor but we love Bower. He's got the voice, and the charmingly innocent face. Plus we need someone who can dance around Evan Rachel Wood and make her look good, because I'm still not 100% convinced about her as Mary Jane.

Last year we broke the news about director Wolfgang Peterson parting ways with the adaptation of Orson Scott Card's film adaptation for Ender's Game. Since then, there's been tons of speculation over whether the future war saga (about genius children working for the military) will goa head. Despite comments from Card in an LA Times interview this week regarding the film, one of the films producers insists that the project is not dead.

After telling the times that:

“[Card] was not interested in a ‘tough-hero action film’ and refuses to condescend to green-screen Hollywood. Card imagines a ‘film where the human relationships are absolutely essential — an honest presentation of the story.’”

It seemed as if all was lost. But we're bringing you news today that Ender's Game the movie, is not over. Producer Lynn Hendee insists that the "project is not dead."

So can we all breathe a giant collective sigh of relief, because I don't want to leave this Earth without seeing zero gravity battle simulator, especially with an awesomely precocious kid leading the troops.

Q: Will you be making another appearance on Middleman?

Kevin Sorbo: I really had fun doing that show and loved my character. There was talk of a spin off, but I have too many things on my plate that I want to do. I have no idea what is going to happen to that show, but I am hearing rumors it will be canceled.

Not being able to contain ourselves for fear of our Middlemania reaching its end (the thought of no more Dub Dub and Lacey is terrifying) we went straight to Javier Grillo-Marxuach and asked him to if Middleman is indeed getting canceled and what about this Guy Goddard spin off show staring the awesome-haired Sorbo?

Javier Grillo-Marxuach's reply was a little noncommittal — but comparing it to shows such as Family Guy and Firefly is doing nothing to calm my fears of cancellation.

I don't think ABC Family is ready to throw in the towel just yet. They love, and — more importantly — own The Middleman. But I think it's fair to say that they aren't going to order any new episodes in the immediate future. Right now, we are all focused on closing a deal for a DVD set that will please the fans with a lot of bonus material, bring new viewers to the show, and secure the show's legacy and longevity. As was the case with shows like Firefly, and Family Guy, the sales of the DVD will truly be the barometer for the future of The Middleman.

Ok but what about the zany 1969 Sorbo spin off, any truth to that because Guy was a great character?

Kevin Sorbo is one of the most gracious, professional and charismatic people with whom I've had the pleasure to work - and he embodied one of the most memorable characters in the Middleman pantheon; so I absolutely ran by him the idea of either bringing back, spinning off - or better yet, doing some kind of a movie set in the time of - Middleman '69. We had a great time discussing it, and, frankly, I'm grateful that he liked the show enough to think it was a nifty idea. With greater success or a longer run of episodes, it is something I would have pursued.

So while it sounds like this may be the end of Wendy and MM, sigh, at least we may have an awesome DVD collection to watch through tears and laughs each weekend. You'll regret this day, America — the Middleman was a classic gentleman among crappy TV superheroes. Seriously, the world commissions more episodes of Knight Rider, meaning that clever dialog and snappy comebacks have to take a back seat to Mike Tracer's less-than-thrilling abs? There is no God.

At the Soul Men premiere we got Friendly chatting about the next installment of Big Momma's House and the new comedy Don't Send Help about a guy who ends up on on a desert island with six of the most beautiful women in the world, and he doesn't want to be rescued. But our ears perked up when he started talking comics with us.

Q: The big trend in Hollywood right now is science fiction. All of the blockbusters are derived from scifi or comic books, what's your take on that? I know you work with a lot of comedy, will we be seeing any scifi comedy from you?

Friendly: Well, I think you're talking about movies like Transformers and things like that. I think that the audience that goes to movies, they don't just read traditional books and magazines. They read graphic novels and comic books, and they're on the internet. I've got a 13-year-old son who's on Xbox Live. He's playing games with people in Russia, he doesn't even know who he's playing. What you have to do is broaden your horizons. I've started reading graphic novels I never would have started reading before.

Q: Oh yeah what have you been reading?

I read one that I'm interested in pursuing. I don't want to say the name.

Q: Aw come on tell us?

I'll tell you just for fun it's called Desolation Jones. It's a really good comic book. I would love to work on a graphic novel and turn it into a movie, because I've never done that and it's a challenge. And I think what is important is people like me have to stay current with how people are being entertained. If you just rely on books and screenplays, you'll be left in the dust. It's a cool book. It's just something I kind of want to go after.

In order for this to happen I'm assuming that Warren Ellis would have to be a part of it, as I believe he still owns the rights to this slightly abandoned book. Last we heard Desolation Jones was in a publishing limbo. I'd like to see this book get the conclusion it deserves, maybe in a movie?

Desolation Jones is about a former agent of MI6 who undergoes the Desolation Treatment, which entails a year without sleep. He survives and becomes an all white and gray-colored man who kills without remorse. After the project ends, he lives in LA as a private eye who hallucinates all sorts of wacky stuff and works for the people of LA, which turns out to be chock full of imprisoned ex-agents.

Update: We just got comment from the Warren Ellis about the possibility of the Desolation Jones movie. He simply replied:

"All I can tell you is that we've never heard from David Friendly."

Fair enough, but what is this "All I can tell you," is there something to tell? Let's put these two in a room together stat, it could be a fun live action adaptation.

Moon, which is directed by David Bowie's son Duncan Jones, centers around a space miner named Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell). He is a contract worker for the LUNAR corporation and his 3-year contract is about to expire and Bell can't wait to get home and see his family. But then, things start to go wrong and Bell finds out that LUNAR is going to replace him. At a press roundtable for Choke, Rockwell told us his replacement is his clone, which he has to come face to face with.

[In] Moon, that guy's got a big problem. He's been stuck on the moon for three years, and he meets his own clone. So he's got a big problem and he has to get home. Oh and he doesn't know how long he has to live. So he's got some pretty Shakespearean problems.

When we asked if being isolated on a moon alone meant that Sam was most of the cast in Moon Rockwell revealed who his new robot buddy would be, "We've got Kevin Spacey who's going to play the voice of the robot. Which is great. But [otherwise] it's just me, and there are a couple of supporting roles of people who do transmissions onto the space station."

No telling if this robot is evil, or comic relief. But I imagine if the robot works for the LUNAR corporation that cloned Sam Rockwell without his knowledge, the Spacey-bot may have shady intentions. Also I'm dying to know if "the robot" is a walking, talking droid or a HAL-esque mainframe computer that runs the space station Rockwell is stranded on. I'm betting on the the 2001: A Space Odyssey reference.

But besides Spacey and a few other key characters, Rockwell explained that he'll be getting plenty of screen time in this isolation flick:

That's a pretty weird movie. That's a lot of Sam. It's a lot of Sam for me to watch. There's no Anjelica Huston, Kelly Macdonald and Brad Henke [his cast members from Choke] in that movie, but we do have Kevin, thank god.

Still the indie actor did all he could do from losing his mind on this space-story. "It was hard," Rockwell explained. "I would say Choke, Joshua and Moon are probably the hardest things I've done. And Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind, but we had a longer schedule. So what you're talking about with a movie like Choke or any of those others. You're doing a part like Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind or like Fight Club, but you're doing it in a month. So you can imagine, it's taxing on everybody." You can see Rockwell in Choke on September 26, Moon will be released in 2009.