Avatar

The first (generally positive) reviews are utterly brimming with spoilers. The Hollywood Reporter lays out the basic plot most clearly, and includes some more details about the Na'vi. Apparently, one of the reasons that the Na'vi are so reluctant to relocate is that the unobtainium deposit sits beneath a holy tree that happens to be the center of Na'vi life. The tree holds tribal memories and ancestral wisdom, and apparently the Na'vi can access this as they possess an innate ability to tap into a Force-like ability that ripples through Pandora's plant life.

And from Empire's review, it sounds like the holy tree might not fare well, as there's "a human attack on a Na'vi landmark that recalls 9/11 in its devastating imagery."

We already know the humans set up schools to teach the Na'vi English, and Variety clarifies that they learned English from Grace.

James Cameron added more details about Pandora and what we'll find there. He himself designed the monstrous Thanator which features flexible bone shields and sensor quills. It also has a single nostril called an operculum, which is based on the flapper valve on top of a stingray's head. He also says that his goal with the animated characters was to cross the uncanny valley, and while he believes that some of the shots are an eight out of ten, there are some that go right up to eleven. He calls the Na'vi's central tree the Tree of Souls, and says it's the input-output station for the Pandora biological communications network — and where Neytiri's clan has lived for 10,000 years. There are apparently two scales of trees on Pandora, normal jungle canopy trees and gigantic Great Trees. Getting into human technology, the same magnetic fields that cause Pandora's mountains to float also mess with the instrumentation on the Samson gunship, forcing it into "Second World War-style combat mode." [Times Online]

Splice

We get more images from Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley's genetic experiment, including another peek at the transgenic fruit of their labor. [ShockTillYouDrop]

Sherlock Holmes

Can't wait to watch Robert Downey Jr. solve possibly occult crimes? Here's a cornucopia of stills to tide you over.

Book of Eli

A trio of character posters to keep you company at the end of the world. [CinemaBlend]

Dark Shadows

Shooting is scheduled to begin on the supernatural soap adaptation in October 2010, but producer Graham King says it's still waiting on a script. [ShockTillYouDrop]

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Tom Felton, who plays Draco Malfoy describes the final showdown between the forces of good and the forces of evil as akin to a Western shoot-out. [MTV]

Lost

Yet another filming report places Hurley and Alpert near a big tree in the middle of a jungle. Hurley was wearing his red shirt and Alpert was in dark clothing. Apparently, the crew said they did a lightning scene with pyrotechnics in the area and are planning to do a similar scene on the beach location. The camp had recently been rebuilt with green palms, and Ben, Kate, Jack, Hurley, Sun, Miles, and Ilana were all filming on the beach, sitting around a campfire. [DarkUFO]

True Blood

Rutina Wesley says that Sookie will be helping Tara deal with her grief and the fallout from last season, as well as the handsome vamp ready to sweep her off her feet. Alexanger Skarsgard adds that we'll get another Eric flashback; he won't say what era we'll see, but Eric and another person wil act as a tag team. [TV Guide]

Dollhouse

Five clips from tonight's episode show Echo contemplating whether she's really Caroline, a Dollhouse interrogation, and a tease of Alpha's return:

Fringe

Here's a neat detail from the alternate universe. An eagle-eyed viewer noticed that in Peter's childhood dream in the alternate universe, there's a poster celebrating the Challenger's 11th mission in June 1984. In our universe, the Challenger exploded during its tenth mission on January 28th, 1986. How advanced is the other universe's technology? Check out the photo evidence at the link. [Tallisen LJ]

Anna Torv doesn't know precisely how Peter will react to the news that he was kidnapped from the other universe, but like everyone else, she has her speculations:

"And I think its going to be heartbreaking… heartbreaking for Walter, but particularly for Peter too because this year seeing him take an active interest in his father and an active interest in the investigations and he's really taken it on. For that to explode, or implode, is going to be devastating," she explained. "But that's what you want isn't it?"

[MTV]

Peter-Olivia shippers don't have an ally in Joshua Jackson:

"This is only my opinion, but I don't think that's the direction that the story is going in," Jackson said. "In my head, what you have between these three people is a family dynamic rather than a romantic dynamic. She would be a very tolerant woman if she were willing to start dating a man who lives with his father."

[Inside TV]

Smallville

Sometime before the Justice Society two-episode movie, Chloe will get a non-Watchtower job offer. In "Society," the first part of the movie, some Justice Society member will know who Watchtower really is before it's revealed to them, and there's a supervillain that we haven't learned about so far. [KryptonSite]

Chuck

By law, all science fiction television series must feature Mark Sheppard at some point, and Chuck is not exempt; Sheppard tweets that he's starting an arc this week. [via Spoiler TV]

Additional reporting by Josh Snyder and Charlie Jane Anders.

Pandorum:

Here are a couple of new TV spots for this space-horror epic:

Jennifer's Body:

A new behind-the-scenes featurette takes you behind the sexy horror of the horrific sexiness.

And Entertainment Tonight actually featured a clip of the Amanda Seyfried/Megan Fox kiss, plus Megan Fox talking about her character:

Surrogates:

More details on the footage that director Jonathan Mostow showed reporters: Bruce Willis and other surrogate cops are chasing a suspect in a helicopter, and the suspect is on a motorcycle. The suspect weaves in and out of Boston traffic, then abandons his motorcycle. He takes out some cops with his pulse gun, then shoots at the helicopter. Willis disconnects from his surrogate just before the blast hits, waking up in his apartment. Then he reconnects to his robotic surrogate and continues the chase, following the suspect into the surrogate-phobic reservation, showing how badass his robot body can be, jumping over shit and taking lots of damage.

And Mostow says Willis has "existential ennui" because the only crime that's left — crimes against people's robot surrogates — is a property crime rather than murder or whatever. (So why don't criminals just break into your house and stab your real body while you're controlling your robot body?) This makes Willis feel his job as a cop is meaningless, and he can't connect with his wife. Once Willis has to operate as his real self, he realizes just how hollow his robot-body-driven life was. [IGN]

9:

Star Elijah Wood was on Conan O'Brien the other night, and he talked about the numerology of this movie as well as Comic Con:


There's also this somewhat weird disturbing clip from his children's TV appearance, which has nothing to do with this movie, but it's too weird not to share:

Also, Wood and director Shane Acker talked to Sci Fi Wire, and explained a bit more about the film — we start out seeing through 9's eyes, and he knows as little about this world as we do. We follow him on his journey of discovery, and he convinces the other ragdolls to try and figure out more about who they are and what the machines are. They can't physically fight the machines because they're too fragile. So gathering knowledge is the only way they can win. Also, 7 (Jennifer Connelly) is a fiercly independent warrior who pushes everyone else away. She's a maverick. [Sci Fi Wire]

And here are a couple new featurettes, from what appears to be the film's official Youtube channel:

Gamer:

So we talked to Amber Valletta yesterday about being a sex-puppet in this sex-and-violence games movie. Apparently, the guy who controls her is sort of a disgusting slug, and he licks his lips in every single scene he's in. The two of them never appear together, though, because he's controlling her remotely. [UGO]

Dark Shadows:

One of the biggest challenges with this film is to recapture the weird tone of the original, says director Tim Burton, who certainly seems to think Johnny Depp will star in it, judging from the way he namedrops Depp. [MTV]

[Rec] 2:

Some new images from this sick-building-syndrome movie. More at the link. [Aullidos via ShockTillYouDrop]

Twilight:

The third movie, Eclipse, will feature Jasper doing a lot of fighting, says Jackson Rathbone. And there'll be some Civil War scenes giving his character's origin. [MTV]

Doctor Who:

A couple of tidbits from the forums over at Gallifrey Base. For one thing, IMDB is now claiming that Bruno Langley, who played Adam back in season one, will appear in David Tennant's final episode. Is Adam coming back to cause trouble again? Or is this another instance of the Doctor traveling back into his own past, like the thing where the tenth Doctor drops in on Rose before she's met the ninth Doctor? Oh, and there's a rumor — and I emphasize rumor — that a 1960s companion will turn up. But forum posters don't think it'll be Carole Ann Ford, because she's turning up in a Big Finish audio production, and those usually avoid using elements that are turning up on the TV show. [Gallifrey Base]

FlashForward:

Here's a new promo, featuring a confession of future infidelity:

Lost:

David H. Lawrence XVII, who played the puppetmaster guy on Heroes, Twittered that he landed a role in the final season of Lost. [The ODI]

Supernatural:

I don't think we've shown you this hilarious trailer, featuring some subliminal messages, before.

Smallville:

Here's a screencap from a new season nine sneak peek, featuring the Superman logo. Bigger version at the link. [The ODI]

Someone named LilMissX twittered a couple of promo photos of Chloe from the new season. [TwitPic via SpoilerTV]

And here's a sneak peek from the season opener, featuring Brian Austin Green making us all wish Sarah Connor was still being Chronicled.

Stargate Universe:

The season will end with an episode called "Subversion," followed by a two-parter called "Incursion." And that two-parter ends with "big-time cliffhanger," according to writer/producer Joseph Mallozzi, who calls it the "biggest HOLY #%&@! ending I have ever written." Because "Incursion" has been expanded from one hour to two, one other episode will get held over to season two — which means probably nobody much dies in that cliffhanger, or else they're able to rework the held-over episode somehow. [Gateworld]

Chuck:

Smallville's Kristin Kreuk will appear in multiple episodes as Hannah, a publishing industry veteran who meets Chuck on a flight to Paris. She loses her job and winds up working at the Buy More. And both Chuck and Morgan will have feelings for her. [EW]

Heroes:

So we already knew there would be more time travel this year, and now here are more details. Hayden Panettiere donned her old cheerleader outfit for some scenes that probably take place back during season one. And meanwhile, Hiro and Sylar filmed a confrontation in Odessa, TX that's probably set during the same era. Sylar throws Hiro up against a bus, and Hiro screams "Stoppp! I am dying!" And Sylar points his finger at Hiro's head. And here are some pics of both scenes — more at the link. [The ODI]

Also, Greg Grunberg says the thing where his Head-Sylar kidnaps his baby will all make sense. And he explains more of Matt's arc this season:

What's cool is that my powers evolve, and I start this year so regretting what I did last year that I have absolutely cut it cold turkey. I refuse to use my powers, and Sylar wants me to, so he's constantly on my shoulder going, 'Use your powers, you p-ssy.' It's great. It's really cool.

[Sci Fi Wire]

Creator Tim Kring says the upcoming "Redemption" arc could serve as the end of the show's story, but it doesn't have to.

We've never really posited an ending… [because] it's never been one long serialized story. Each volume has a beginning, middle and end. So we try to wrap things up pretty neatly each time and string a cliffhanger over the break to reward the loyal viewers.

[EW]

Eureka:

Here are some pics from episode 3x18, "What Goes Around." [SpoilerTV]

True Blood:

There's a plan in place for Evan Rachel Wood to return as Sophie the Vampire Queen next season. [EW]

Additional reporting by Alexis Brown.

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?

The soap-opera lovers over at Collider yesterday managed to get producer Richard D. Zanuck to confirm that Dark Shadows is Burton's next project, filming next year in England. Depp, who owns the rights to the series, has said many times that his greatest fantasy as a kid was to become Barnabas.

But how will the team that brought you Sweeney Todd manage to cut down all that TV into a digestible chunk? Obviously they'll have to choose one of the mini-arcs from the show to focus on (let's hope it's from the sequence where Barnabas travels back in time to an alternate nineteenth century). Or maybe they'll just come up with a brand-new plot arc involving Barnabas. That might be the best way to go, with just a few nods to the original thrown in for die-hard fans.

More importantly, will audiences go for it? By the time this movie comes out, everybody may be suffering from vampire fatigue. Probably the second Twilight movie will be in theaters, and HBO's True Blood will have cornered the market on smart-sexy vamp action. Burton will also be competing with another gothic, old-school vampire tale: Mike "Hellboy" Mignola's Baltimore, directed by David "Dark Knight" Goyer.

Previous attempts to reawaken the sleeping show have also been unsuccessful. When Curtis rebooted the series in the early 1990s as a weekly tale of the supernatural on NBC, it was canceled after just a few months. A 2004 pilot for a WB version of the show was never picked up.

But let's not get gloomy about this. There's plenty of room for more vampire stories, and Dark Shadows isn't just vamp-focused anyway. It's more like The Supernatural, ranging from tales of ghosts to alternate realities. And let's face it: This story was pretty much made for Burton, who is the master of dark camp.

Zanuck Spills It About Dark Shadows [via Collider]