Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen:

Michael Bay, Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox had a press conference in South Korea, and here's the whole thing. [TLAMB]

Deadpool:

Ryan Reynolds has a promise for you about his Deadpool solo film:

He's going to be the Merc with the Mouth, [we're going to give] all those answers that everyone wants. He's going to have the scarred-up face, he's going to be in the suit - and, it's going to be incredible.

Right now, he says they're just working out what the spine of the story will be, including what antagonists Wade will face, and whehter there will be flashbacks or flash-forwards or what. [MTV]

The Hobbit:

Not sure how much we're covering this franchise, but in any case Guillermo del Toro says the plan is no longer to adapt this book into two movies plus a "bridge" movie. Instead, the new plan is simply to adapt the book into two movies, adding in some subplot material. What subplots, you ask?

There is a whole other chapter, so to speak, which is the comings and going of Gandalf which are dealt with, people that know the lore know that Gandalf was delayed with a crisis… with a character that is very shady called the Necromancer that proves to be Sauron.

Also, he says Andy Serkis, Ian McKellen and Hugo Weaving are back in their roles from the earlier films. And he says he's definitely still directing Frankenstein, with Doug Jones playing the monster. But he says Blade IV and Hellboy III will probably never happen, and he's only producing Jekyll and Hyde, not directing. [Slashfilm]

Zombieland:

Here are the first official photos from this zombie comedy, which has the following storyline:

Jesse Eisenberg plays Columbus, a teenage who has made a habit of running from what scares him. Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) doesn't have fears. If he did, he'd kick their ever-living ass. In a world overrun by zombies, these two are perfectly evolved survivors. But now, they're about to stare down the most terrifying prospect of all: each other. The film also stars Emma Stone (Superbad) and Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine).

More pics at the link. [AICN]

Moon:

It's not just that the duplicate Sam meets on the Moon is a clone — the "original" Sam is a clone too, says director Duncan Jones. After he's injured in an accident, the robot Gerty activates an "energetic and irritable" copy of him. The older Sam is burned out and ready to go home, the newly activated Sam is still the guy who was eager to escape his wife and go to the Moon. They bicker and fight, until they realize that the mining company views both of them as disposable. [Wired]

Lost:

Shannon probably won't be back next season, but Charlie might turn up, you never know. And Rebecca Mader says she's eager to come back and play Charlotte for one or two episodes. [E! Online]

Torchwood:

The new five-part miniseries "Children Of Earth" pushes the Torchwood storyline forward, but leaves the door open for a fourth season, says Eve Myles. It starts with the gang still grieving their lost comrades, but then they have to put that aside and face a new threat, in a bigger storyline than the show's had before. It ends up with the team's relationships to each other, and to the world, greatly transformed. [Wired]

Battlestar Galactica:

Did we already show you this teaser for this fall's TV movie, "The Plan"? Just in case, here it is. There's more coming on Friday night, during Primeval.

Dollhouse:

So why will season two be better than season one? Joss Whedon explains:

We really understand the show now. We understand what works, and what didn't work so well or what we weren't so thrilled about. We don't have the onus of trying to be a big hit sitting on our shoulders. We can just be ourselves. And so the stories we're breaking are pure, and exciting, and everybody's on-board in the room, and it's never flowed better.

As for what will happen, he says the stories will expand on the second half of season one, and a lot of the plots are driven by wanting to have the most fun with these actors, and seeing all the stuff Eliza Dushku can become. Plus expanding the mythology of the Dollhouse. As for Alpha, the season won't pick up right away with "We've got to find Alpha!" Rather, the character will be used sparingly. As for Echo, here's her storyline in the new season:

Echo wants to find not just Caroline, but what's going on behind everything. She doesn't have all of the skills. [Laughs] But she does have this weird super power of becoming a different person all the time, so she might start using that more specifically to find out who Caroline was and what happened to her and why this place exists.

And surprise: Echo's past imprints may not be as wiped out as the Dollhouse would like to believe. [EW]

Supernatural:

Jensen Ackles says the Winchesters won't be calling the shots in the war between Heaven and Hell, but they may play a pivotal role. To some extent, the Winchesters will just be caught in the middle, but they will lend whatever help they can to Castiel and the other angels. And Ackles says Sam's demon blood addiction will remain a problem next season:

The demon stuff is still coursing through his veins, and he's got that to deal with. The season finale ended with the big, giant realization that he was being duped into becoming what he didn't want to be. So now he's got to deal with that and try to get back to neutral

Also, he says that a sixth season of the show isn't really all that likely. All he and Padalecki meant, when they talked about season six at that convention in England, is that they're signed up for six seasons. So if it happens, they have to be part of it. [E! Online]

Virtuality:

Ronald D. Moore talks more about the strands that run through this TV movie, airing June 26:

I think some of the fundamental questions on the show go to things like "What is real? What is not real in this story? What is manipulation? What is not manipulation?" If we went to series we would continue to explore that, and we'd play different characters starting to unravel different mysteries. What are they telling them from Earth, and is that true? Are they just being paranoid? Is somebody aboard manipulating their messages, the virtual reality? There are a lot of mysteries and certain interesting things that were set up that we would continue to play if the show went to series.

[Sci Fi Wire]

True Blood:

Sam Trammell and Rutina Wesley talk season two on a morning talk show:

Additional reporting by Alexis Brown.

Hollywood Reporter has announced that Keanu Reeves is attached to an upcoming movie called Jekyll, scripted by Justin Haythe, writer of recent Sam Mendes movie Revolutionary Road. Details about the movie - including whether or not it's connected to Stephen Moffat's BBC TV show of the same name - haven't been released, but this is the second movie based on Robert Louis Stephenson's novel in the works at Universal; the studio is also working on an adaptation from Guillermo del Toro that's said to be "more faithful" to the original source. That movie, however, is way down the priority list for the in-demand director (First comes his Hobbit project with Peter Jackson, and then another couple of movies with Universal), meaning that there's every chance that the Keanu version can come, flop, and be forgotten about before del Toro's version even gets filmed.

Of course, if Jekyll is enough of a hit to start a franchise, then Universal may have more of a problem on its hands. Expect Jekyll to hit screens late 2010, early 2011.

Keanu Reeves in for new 'Jekyll' [Hollywood Reporter]

Dr. Leonard McCoy ("Bones") (Star Trek)
Kind of the obvious place to start, right? It's kind of hard to think of something to say about McCoy that hasn't already been said. He's probably the original Awesome Space Doctor, providing not only medical expertise to the Enterprise, but also being one-third of the trifecta that is Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. If Spock is the logic and Kirk is emotion, then McCoy is morality glue that holds it all together. (Morality glue?) Originally portrayed by DeForest Kelley, he will be played by Karl Urban in this summer's film.

Dr. Pieter Cross (Doctor Mid-Nite) (DC Comics)
Dr. Cross is actually the third DC hero to don the mantle of Doctor Mid-Nite, and like his predecessors, he a) can only see in pitch darkness, and b) is a doctor. Despite the fact that the chosen spelling of midnight looks like the name of a bad motel, it's a little refreshing, really, to have a superhero who uses the title of "doctor" and has the medical degree to back it up. Cross, in addition to his vigilante activities, still puts in a full day at the office and is always willing to take time to deal with a medical emergency. On top of that, he's the superhero community's physician of choice, having done everything from emergency surgery on Hourman to removing the Brainiac virus from Oracle to removing a bullet from Lois Lane to giving Power Girl her annual checkups. (I kid you not; Pieter Cross is a lucky man.)

Dr. Janet Frasier (Stargate SG-1)
Dr. Frasier is basically amazing. She is a compassionate physician and finds herself not only dealing with Earth diseases, but alien ones as well, as she treats extraterrestrial refugees. Over the course of the show, she adopts a daughter, Cassandra, an alien orphan.

Dr. Owen Harper (Torchwood)
Owen is the medical officer for Torchwood Three. He's kind of sarcastic, kind of abrasive, and eventually also kind of wonderful. He spends his spare time getting romantically entangled with both of his female coworkers, a female aviator from 1953, and, well, pretty much whoever else he happens to run across. In the show's second season, he dies, but gets better. Sort of. In that he essentially becomes the team's resident snarky zombie boy for the rest of his run.

Dr. Simon Tam (Firefly TV series, Serenity, 2005 film)
A brilliant young doctor (graduating in the top three percent of his class at the Medical Academy), Simon became a resident trauma surgeon in a major hospital and his future looked bright. That is, until he has to bust his sister out of the Academy, where she's being experimented on, escape, and join up with a less-than-savory crew that conducts less-than-legal business. Lucky for him, their business tends to keep his medical training pretty well in demand. (Plus, he's pretty much a shoe-in to win Best Dressed among the ship's crew. He owns some nice waistcoats.)

Dr. Carson Beckett (Stargate: Atlantis)
If there were a competition for Most Awesome Doctor On This List, chances are Beckett probably wouldn't win, although he might earn a few points for sharing a last name with an existentialist playwright. At the same time, he's a pretty competent physician and has the honor of being the only Scottish doctor on this list. He also probably holds the honor of having the most awkward character death on here, but at least he's back now. As a clone. Which is also kind of awkward.

Dr. Victor Frankenstein (Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
Maybe he's not exactly a certified physician, but you have admit that creating a living being out of a bunch of dead people is about as impressive as you can get when it comes to medical skill. Unfortunately for everyone concerned, however, Victor both fears and rejects his creation because of its ugliness. Way to be a pansy, man.

Dr. Thomas Elliot (Hush) (DC Comics)
He started out as Bruce Wayne's childhood friend, despite being kind of a nutjob of a kid, and went on to become a successful, Harvard-educated surgeon. Unfortunately, he eventually becomes the doctor of one Edward Nigma (The Riddler), which spells bad news, considering Elliot is the guy who tried to kill his parents as a kid (and half-succeeded) and now hates Bruce Wayne. Well, he and the Riddler realize they have that in common, and Dr. Elliot invents himself an alter-ego to work on the whole bringing-down-Batman plan. And thus, Hush is born.

Dr. Stephen Franklin (Babylon 5)
Dr. Franklin is the chief medical officer aboard the space station, and as Wikipedia describes him:

Dr. Franklin is a strong-willed, kind person and idealistic leader on Babylon 5; he is also a workaholic. He is not afraid to take risks to save a patient's life; this habit can occasionally get him into trouble. He has strong moral and ethical values, but he can also be self-righteous and a perfectionist at times.

And while those qualities make him kind of awesome, they also kind of make him addicted to stimulants in the show's third season. He, of course, beats the addiction and goes back to the awesome.

Dr. Miles Bennell (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1956 film)
The good doctor is called into town to look at the uncle of the cousin of his ex-sweetheart, who somehow seems not to be himself as of late. (This ex-sweetheart also seems to be able to call in some pretty convoluted favors.) Dr. Bennell is at first unable to find anything wrong, but a little more investigation leads him to discover the pod people, come to Earth to replace us. And, of course, snatch our bodies in the process-A fate which Bennell warns us of the last dramatic fourth-wall-breaking moments of the film. (The 2007 adaptation, The Invasion, features Daniel Craig as a doctor named Ben Driscoll. It unfortunately also features a bad movie.)

Dr. Sherman Cottle (Battlestar Galactica)
The Chief Medical Officer of Galactica, Dr. Cottle is also the only real physician-surgeon aboard. As the Battlestar Wiki describes him:

Cottle is somewhat eccentric and is considered a "bastard" among some of Galactica's crew, in addition to his penchant for being a heavy smoker, despite knowing the risks, and one not overly impressed by positions of power. He is, above all things, a healer. To him, nothing else really matters, be it rank, riches, or species.

Despite his somewhat abrasive manner, he's still well-trusted among the crew.

Dr. Samuel J. Loomis (Halloween franchise)
While its debatable whether or not the Halloween films are remotely science-fiction (although Michael Myers pretty inarguably displays some rather superhuman abilities), it's pretty safe to say that Dr. Loomis is just about the most awesome licensed psychiatrist in the business. After all, one of his main charges is more or less Unmitigated Evil. Then again, Loomis also doesn't have a great track record with keeping Michael from killing people. But he does get to say things like, "Death has come to your little town, Sheriff." And in Donald Pleasance's voice to boot.

Dr. Donald Blake (Thor, Marvel Comics)
Dr. Blake was Thor's original alter ego, having somewhat accidentally discovered the ability to transform into the god while on vacation in Scandanavia. Blake was a surgeon and while not being Thor, was actually seen practicing medicine in the comics. He is also said to have worked with Thor on multiple occasions, but what exactly that entails is a little beyond me.

The Doctor (Star Trek: Voyager)
The Doctor might be an Emergency Medical Hologram, but he's more than just a bit of hardware. In an attempt to build his own personality, he develops artistic talents and a holographic family, as well as friendships with his crewmates. He even writes a novel titled Photons Be Free.

Doctor Gogol (Mad Love, 1935 film)
Doctor Gogol is a brilliant-but, of course, completely mad-surgeon. After all, he's played by Peter Lorre, who pretty much invented brilliant-but-mad. Gogol is (madly) in love with an actress named Yvonne, and when her husband, a concert pianist named Stephen, has his hands crushed in a tragic accident, she comes to him, begging for help. He obliges by replacing Stephen's hands with those of a recently executed knife murderer. The results? Well, let's just say that Stephen and that kid from Idle Hands should get together and form some kind of support group. And Doctor Gogol? Completely mad. But also brilliant.

Dr. Cecilia Reyes (X-Men, Marvel Comics)
A Puerto Rican doctor, Cecilia has the ability to project a forcefield around her. As Wikipedia says:

Cecilia Reyes decided to become a doctor when her father was gunned down in front of her as a child, and she was unable to do anything to help him. The X-Men tried recruiting her when it was discovered that she was a mutant, but Reyes had no interest in being a superhero. However, when Operation: Zero Tolerance, a government-backed anti-mutant task force, targeted her, she was forced to join forces with the X-Man Iceman and other mutants to escape New York City and track down Bastion, Operation Zero Tolerance's leader.

Doc Benton (Supernatural, 3.15 "Time is on My Side")
When people started turning up with surgically removed organs and a dead man's fingerprints all over them, the Winchester brothers begin looking into it, as they are wont to do. Their investigation leads them to Doc Benton, a nineteenth century surgeon who discovered the secret to eternal life and now has a habit of replacing his parts whenever they wear out. Maybe it's not the best plan to win a guy friends, but it sure makes great use of his surgical skills.

Doctor Strauss, along with Professor Nemur (Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes)
Although nobody really remembers the name of the doctor who tripled Charlie Gordon's IQ, you have to admit that pulling that off is no small feat. Unfortunately, the effects are-not to ruin the ending-not exactly all they're cracked up to be. Additionally, Strauss and Nemur can claim the credit for one of the most famous mice in sci-fi.

Dr. Julian Bashir (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
As Wikipedia tells it:

As a child, Julian Bashir fell behind in school, and was evaluated as having learning difficulties. Because of this, his parents, Richard and Amsha Bashir, had him subjected to genetic engineering. The procedure made him mentally superior to most humans, and greatly enhanced his physical abilities. However, because human genetic engineering is illegal in the United Federation of Planets, Bashir and his parents kept his procedure a secret throughout most of his adult life.

Throughout the course of the show, he gets to do such exciting things as end up in a prison camp, see the woman he loves (Jadzia Dax) marry someone else, and attempt to integrate some other genetically engineered people into Federation culture.

Dr. Henry Jekyll (Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson)
Unlike his more temperamental counterpart, Dr. Jekyll is a well-liked, friendly doctor. The secret life he leads as Mr. Edward Hyde, however, puts that likeable reputation at stake, thanks to a potion Jekyll invented. Perhaps the lesson here is that you shouldn't mix your own drinks, even when you're a trained professional.

According to Slice of Scifi:

The director will add his own twist to the well-known “Frankenstein” franchise, a story he has been waiting to tell all his professional life.

“To me, Frankenstein represents the essential human question: ‘Why did my creator throw me here, unprotected, unguided, unaided and lost?’ ” del Toro said. “With that one, they will have to pry it from my cold dead hands to prevent me from directing it.”

However, for “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” del Toro plans on sticking closely to the original Robert Louis Stevenson tale.

Probably the last great version of Frankenstein to hit the screen was Kenneth Branagh's version with a scarred, whiny Robert De Niro emerging from a gooey, womb-like machine to become the monster.

As for Jekyll and Hyde, I'd like to see del Toro have the guts to really stick to the original story, which does not contain any annoying girlfriends or maids who are menaced by Hyde. Every single filmed version has had one or two ladies in it, which completely blows the premise of the original tale about a man who is so alone that he's driven to explore himself and divide in half.

And del Toro will also be adapting Vonnegut's beloved novel Slaughterhouse-Five:

In his upcoming version of “Slaughterhouse-Five,” del Toro will migrate away from the first film adaptation of Vonnegut’s inspiring novel and provide a more literal rendition, one that stays truer to the novel.

“There are ways that Vonnegut plays with and juxtaposes time that was perhaps too edgy to be tackled on film at that time,” del Toro said.

We'll see. This is one of those movies, like Watchmen, that could have fans clutching their heads in agony because it's really meant to be a book not a film.

del Toro's 9 Year Calendar [via Slice of Scifi]