LatinoReview has a scoop that during The Brothers junket, Maguire was asked who he wanted to work with his answer was, Guillermo del Toro. Which he followed with:

"We may have something here in the near future."

Cue the internet fanfare and rumor whirlwinds. This must mean that Tobey is the next Bilbo Baggins — but then again, it's the closest thing we've heard to actual Hobbit news in a while. Plus LatinoReview confirms this overheard conversation with a CAA source. Plus, Tobey is not shooting Spider-Mans 4 and 5 back to back, so he may have some free time. And it is a role of a lifetime — we'd still rather see David Tennant in the role, but Tobey has had an impressive career, and there's no doubt he could handle the role. We guess the rest is in GDT and Jackson's hands.

UPDATE: Movieline has the update from Maguire's publicist saying that the whole rumor is false, meanwhile super Tolkein site TheOneRing.com says the rumor is completely new to them, and none of their sources can confirm the possible Maguire Bilbo talks.

Sometimes, you just need an escape from the relentlessness of the Thanksgiving celebrations, and Hollywood has been there for you — at least, some years. Certainly, in recent years, there have always been a couple of oddball films coming out for T-Day — but in previous years, it was hit and miss. Here's the complete list of Thanksgiving counterprogramming of the past 25 years, including some stuff that's not science fiction but is in some sense genre film.

All movie titles link to IMDB or Box Office Mojo pages containing release dates:

1984

Supergirl A movie guaranteed to make you give thanks that you're never going to see it again — and a strong contender for the worst superhero film of all time. What I want to know is, what sort of guy sees his buddy blown thirty feet across the parking lot, and then decides to try and attack Supergirl using a switchblade?

1985

Rocky IV The good news is, it would inspire you to go get in shape after eating all that turkey and stuffing, thanks to one of the most classic training montages ever:

1986

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home The most fun of the original cast movies, this probably would have been a good one to escape to with your family. Although the famous "Shatner underwater" scene might have proved distressing.

Solarbabies I'm convinced there's something very broken about this post-apocalyptic rollerblading film, but at least on the surface it looks very wholesome. Except for the part where the woman with the huge shoulderpads says, "Lock it down and disembowel it."

1988

Cocoon: The Return I'm not sure anybody should have to deal with Steve Gutenberg on a full stomach.

1989

Back to the Future 2 Given that Marty McFly's mom gets bizarre breast implants and becomes Biff Tannen's bitch, this is definitely a good film for a family outing.

1990

Predator 2 The underrated cop drama/Predator attack movie starring Danny Glover... it's really not as bad as you remember.

Robot Jox This, on the other hand... giant mecha gladiators, fighting it out with chainsaw crotches and other armaments... this is what family is all about.

1992

The Crying Game Terrorists, thugs, and the great transgender panic of 1992. I bet you took your mom to see this one.

1994

Junior Pregnant Arnold Schwarzenegger, watching sentimental movies and crying a lot, will help you understand your own family. Really.

1995

Casino It's an underrated Scorsese classic, full of brutality and weirdness. Perfect Thanksgiving fare.

Nick of Time I may be the only person who saw this movie in the theater. Johnny Depp has 90 minutes to kill someone or other, or else Christopher Walken will kill someone or other. Mostly worth it to watch Depp and Walken overacting in a shopping mall. And for Walken saying, "I'll make you a sauce for that black Irish cocksucker's meat." I'm happy this and the Scorsese film were the main choices for Thanksgiving 1995.

1997

Alien Resurrection The whole time you're with your family, you can imagine you're actually hanging out with lesbian android Winona. Or you can just daydream about what this movie could have been if they'd filmed Joss Whedon's screenplay.

1998

Very Bad Things A sex worker gets killed at a bachelor party — and then things turn ugly. Probably just like your family gatherings. It does star Jon "Iron Man" Favreau, and it's directed by Peter "Hancock" Berg.

1999

End of Days Satan and Thanksgiving — and Arnie! They fit together perfectly! Satan is looking for his Bride... so it's about family and relationships and stuff.

2000

Unbreakable A horrific act of mass murder brings to light a guy who can find the rapists and creeps in our midst. It's light family entertainment — but it does deal with some real questions about the power of story. So yeah, probably a good one to get out of the house for.

Quills This, on the other hand — the Marquis De Sade! In full effect! I'm betting many of you dragged your entire family to see this.

2001

Black Knight Martin Lawrence gets zapped back to the Middle Ages, and presumably, goes medieval on their asses. Enough to make your entire family commit mass suicide, Heavens Gate-style.

The Devil's Backbone An early Guillermo Del Toro classic, and more proof that horror owns Thanksgiving. Your family doesn't deserve this movie.

2002

Solaris You could watch Steven Soderbergh's trippy-ass remake of Tarkovsky's classic while you're already wigged out on tryptophan. Why not?

Wes Craven Presents: They Or you could have seen this gem — they're coming for you!

2003

Timeline "Your father is in the 14th. century." Hey, maybe he can hang out with Martin Lawrence there!

2006

The Fountain And speaking of trippy movies when you're already stoned on tryptophan... at least your entire family will each have different opinions about what happened in this film.

Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny Jack Black! Rocking out! It's bound to make more sense than The Fountain.

2007

Hitman A video game adaptation about a guy who kills people and thwarts some vague conspiracy thing. Probably the purest example of counterprogramming ever.

The Mist Given the shocking, ultra-secret ending, this is an... interesting choice for a family occasion. If you don't want to be spoiled, don't watch this clip:

2008

Transporter 3 It's a threequel starring Jason Statham. How can it be bad?

Twilight You probably have at least one family member who's as creepy as Edward. So it's good to get some perspective.

2009

The Road And then we're up to this year's crop... this whole movie is as depressing as The Mist's ending. But at least it does have a genuinely pro-family message.

Ninja Assassin This is the film we'll probably actually be watching on T-day. Ninjas! Wachowskis! James McTeigue! Out-and-out mayhem!

Additional reporting by Mary Ratliff.

And here's a featurette with Brody, Polley and director Vincenzo Natali (Cube), plus executive producer Guillermo del Toro.

Splice is already playing in select theaters around the U.S., but hopefully it'll be coming to your town (and ours) sometime soon!

As part of its master plan to capture a greater male audience, Disney is looking to Double Dare You to create a darker slate of animated films than the usual Disney cartoon fare, as well as produce books and merchandising tie-ins. The plan is for Del Toro to produce all of Double Dare You's films, as well as direct some of the features.

First on the agenda is Trollhunters, based on an original story by Del Toro, which will introduce a mysterious aspect of his new brand:

The pics will all be tied together by "one feature that shall remain secret, but that you shall soon be very familiar with," del Toro said.

[Variety]
Image by *blix-it on Deviant Art.

The Hollywood Reporter announced yesterday that Fessenden, who has worked mostly on limited release thrillers like Wendigo and The Last Winter, would remake the 2007 film, about a woman who, with her husband and adopted son, returns to her hometown to fix up the orphanage where she grew up, only to find her son befriended by the ghosts that haunt it. The original film, which was also produced by del Toro and directed by his protege Juan Antonio Bayona, received critical acclaim upon its release, and great success with audiences worldwide.

New Line bought the rights to remake The Orphanage with del Toro back in 2007, and now it seems likely we'll see that remake in the next few years. And with the American remake of the 2008 Swedish vampire film already scheduled for a 2010 release, it's apparent that studios believe these foreign horror films are a sure thing — at least when they're in English.

But won't a remake of The Orphanage so soon after its original US release feel like a retread? Maybe not where the box office is concerned. The Orphanage earned ten times more abroad than it did from its US release, and New Line probably hopes to replicate the film's foreign success at home. So why not simply give these foreign films a bigger marketing push in the first place and avoid the cost of remaking them? It's likely another example of studios playing it safe with stories that are already hits instead of taking risks on fresh scripts. As Bayona himself said after his film's release:

The Americans have all the money in the world but can't do anything, while we can do whatever we want but don't have the money...The American industry doesn't take chances, that's why they make remakes of movies that were already big hits.

[The Hollywood Reporter]

The Strain began life as a television pitch, but when Guillermo del Toro delivered his idea for a realistic story of vampire pandemic, complete with long, complex character arcs and anal parasites, Fox execs wanted a show that was more Buffy than an undead version of The Wire. When they asked him to turn his idea into a comedy, del Toro teamed up with author Chuck Hogan to rework The Strain as a trilogy of novels.

But now, a The Strain television series is back on the table. Variety reports that Grady Twins Productions, a production company started by Marti Noxon and Dawn Parouse Olmstead, is working with del Toro and Hogan to develop a three season series, which they plan to shop early next year.

It's perhaps ironic, given that Noxon was a writer and executive producer on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which was the sort of vampire dramedy Fox likely had in mind, not to mention a show we ourselves have accused of defanging the vampire genre. But Noxon, whose writing and production credits include the slow-burning Mad Men, is certainly no stranger to smart writing and gradually developing character arcs, and can hopefully deliver the over-the-top mania and horror del Toro's work demands.

[Variety]

The Daily Telegraph is reporting the rumor based, apparently, on speculation from the LA Times' Geoff Boucher, who noticed that Tennant and Jackson were both attending the convention next week, so take that with however many grains of salt you want. Tennant is just one of the actors who have been connected with the Bilbo Baggins role in the movie, with others including Wanted's James McAvoy and Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe. Personally, I was hoping for an awkwardly CGI-deaged Ian Holm based on the character's appearance in the Lord Of The Rings movies.

Doctor Who's David Tennant tipped to play Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit [Daily Telegraph]

GDT rewrote the original 1970s horror film, so you can bet the little baddies are going to do a lot more than whisper in Katie Holmes' ear and leave shadowy figures against the wall. The film is being directed by Troy Nixey, and Homes has already been cast to play the unfortunate Sally Farnhammonth, who unleashes the little demons into the family's life.

The original film follows a couple who inherit an old mansion with a tiny sealed door. After nights of whispers and creepy disturbances, Sally opens the door, even though she was warned against it by the creepy old caretaker.

Opening the tiny door unleashes Hell on the family, in the form of these tiny demon creatures, who are more harmful than they look — especially with GDT's rewrites, I'm sure. In the updated version, it's Pearce's daughter who unleashes Hell from the locked door in a house she shares with her father and his girlfriend, played by Holmes. Pearce refuses to believe their tales of demonic torture, most likely until it's too late. Production will begin next month, and it should be interesting to see what GDT's "protege" Troy Nixey can do.

[The Hollywood Reporter]

The Enchantment Emporium, Tanya Huff (DAW)

In this urban fantasy, Allie Gale's grandma disappears, leaving behind a strange shop that sells magical supplies to the local witch population. When Allie takes it over, she's suddenly involved in a mysterious struggle within the Canadian magic community. If you ever wanted to speculate about the witch population of modern Toronto, this is your book.

Naamah's Kiss, Jacqueline Carey (Grand Central Publishing)

From the io9 review:

This is a novel of pure adventure, with a kick ass heroine who gets to fight, do magic, and get laid just like the swashbuckling heroes of old. It's a perfect beach read. And the best part is the Jacqueline Carey is extremely clever – don't let her fool you with all that romantic frippery. She manages to slip a lot of interesting, subversive messages into this swords-and-sorcery tale.

The Women of Nell Gwynne's, Kage Baker (Subterranean)

The women of a Victorian brothel are hired to cater to the needs of a party of businessmen holding an auction for a mysterious piece. They find themselves quickly involved in intrigue and espionage, in a story with flecks of steampunk and classic mystery. We reviewed it (along with a couple of other Baker books) here.

Wild Thyme, Green Magic, Jack Vance (Subterranean)

This career-spanning collection of stories from Jack Vance includes a wide variety of genres, including a few science fiction stories about other worlds. Vance's ability to build worlds has been praised by Frank Herbert, Poul Anderson and Robert Silverberg.

Fragment, Warren Fahy (Delacorte)

A reality show crew on a ship stumble on an island ecosystem inhabited by parallel-evolved monsters. From the io9 review:

If you like monsters and mad science - and who doesn't? - this is the perfect book to take on your vacation or on that long plane ride to a remote island. However, if you're looking for characters who move outside of two dimensions, you might want to give this one a pass.

The Year's Best Science Fiction 26, edited by Gardner Dozois (Griffin)

I'm a sucker for well-complied science fiction anthologies, and this one appears to be no exception. Including 30 stories from masters and new writers alike, this collection also has an extended list of honorable mentions. It looks like a pretty hefty resource for the short story geek.

Green, Jay Lake (Tor)

A fantasy / steampunky tale of international espionage and mythology. From the io9 review:

At times unsettling but always compelling, Green abounds with intrigue and adventure. A feminist fable lovingly written with a father's hope and concern for his daughter's future, Green is the story of a strong-willed young woman trying to find her place in a world that would rather ignore her. Green will not be ignored.

A Monster's Notes, Laurie Sheck (Knopf)

This novel turns inside out one of the oldest science fiction stories. The story imagines Frankenstein's monster not as Mary Shelley's creation, but as her companion, consoling her in a time of sorrow. He discusses with her all of the facets of humanity, trying to understand human connection in a world where he doesn't belong. It's a tale of speculative alternate history, couched in a story of compassion and companionship.

Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America, Robert Charles WIlson (Tor)

A speculative future of post-oil America. From the io9 review:

Peak oil has left the world a churchy, early-industrial shambles in Robert Charles Wilson's new novel Julian Comstock. An engaging cross between post-apocalyptic series Jericho and Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, it may be the best science fiction novel of the year so far.

Haze, L.E. Modesitt Jr. (Tor)

An agent of the now-Chinese-run Earth investigates a planet surrounded by a haze of nano-satellites. He finds an eerily familiar world of superior technology.

House of Suns, Alastair Reynolds (Ace)

This book came out a little while back in the rest of the world, but this month marks its publication in the United States. It's a space opera of post-humanity and colonization, with the added twist of relativistic travel. As a result, this novel chronicles a mystery distorted by time. It's certainly nice to see a space epic that explores some of the complexity of actual interstellar travel. We reviewed it here.

The Strain, Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan (William Morrow)

Master of Horror Guillermo del Toro brings vampires back from their whiney post-Buffy image. From the io9 review:

The Strain is a breakneck thrill ride chronicling only the first four days of the vampire plague that may destroy civilization. The cinematic quality really comes though, making the book feel more like a action blockbuster than a thought-provoking horror novel.

Wired Magazine has a lovely interview with the producer, director and writer, including this picture of his home. Can you imagine being one of his children and growing up there? I'm completely jealous.

Also in the article is a long sidebar where GDT goes through and lists his future movie projects, and ranks the likelihood they'll ever get made, with the number of unicorns representing the chances we'll ever see it. The two films with the smallest amount of unicorns are the rumored stop-motion recreation of Roald Dahl's The Witches and the Del Toro and Neil Gaiman collaborative Doctor Strange project. Which is sad because if anyone could translate the mystical childlike fear from a Dahl book onto the screen (again), it's del Toro.

This weekend at Fangoria's Weekend of Horror, director and writer Guillermo del Toro sat down with co-author Chuck Hogan to talk about their new book series The Strain. After yet again calling today's sparkle-vamps lame and praising classic Eastern European vampiric lore, he divulged how The Strain could have been the most amazing TV show ever.

"We started collaborating on it about three yeas ago," GDT explained to the crowd. "Originally I wrote an extended [series] bible for Fox TV. It was a long-form narrative, because I was completely addicted to The Wire. And I thought what if we bring that kind of reality into a vampiric pandemic. I went to Fox with a 12-page proposal. And they said, "We like it. Can you turn it into a comedy?" And I fucking grabbed my ticket and went away."

"I couldn't find any other format. I didn't want to do it as a movie, because then I would have to shorten the character arcs. It would be the same set of problems. I knew there was some violence and brutality in the proposal that I wanted to try out. And cable may have allowed me to do it. I find cable these days to actually be much more free than the movies. And [when you're making a movie] they're always trying to do everything PG-13, so fuck that shit."

"I talked to my literary agent.... I wanted to find a partner who was heavy into procedural stuff. Because when I wrote Mimic, and I could write fucking Mimic and I wasn't being ass-raped, I found that my New York looked anything but New York. I read a lot of bad books and then this man [The Strain co-author Chuck Hogan] came out like a fucking prince charming and I read his books and my hair floated and music came. I was hooked. He's a sick bastard. We ended up collaborating in more ways... some of the sickest shit in the book. Some of it is his fault. When you get to the passage that includes to anal blood worms, this [i.e., Hogan] is the man who made it. You'll get to it."

Also interesting (apart from the anal blood worms) is the fact that the beginning of GDT's The Strain reads a lot like the beginning of Fox's new TV show Fringe. Now the director was not personally making any claims of copy-catting, BUT comparisons have been made by others. Guillermo del Toro merely said:

"I pitched it to Fox four plus years ago, so if you see anything to do with Fringe, either it's a coincidence, or blame Fox. Because the [Strain] pitch opens with a 747 stopping dead in the middle of the runway. The CVC comes in and opens the door, and everyone is dead. So call Fox if you have any complaints, I myself don't think twice about it."

1. Michel Gondry
Imaginative and whimsical, Gondry's style would suit our girl perfectly. Gondry was Drew Barrymore's first choice to direct when she was attached to the project, and screenwriter John August even flew to France to have a development meeting with the director. I would love to see Gondry return to Jean-Claude Forest's comics as source material and completely reimagine Barbarella.

2. Roman Coppola
Coppola practically asked to remake Barbarella, with his debut CQ (2001). The film is a chronicle of a young American in Paris (Jeremy Davies, long before Lost), working on a very Barbarella-esque sci-fi film. Coppola not only has the skills to reintroduce us to the 60's icon, but obviously a true understanding of what the original film was all about. And can't you just see Jason Schwartzman in the David Hemmings role of rebel leader Dildano?

3. Spike Jonze
Jonze's sense of humor falls right in line with the tone of Roger Vadim's original film, and if the preview for Where The Wild Things Are is any indication, he's mastered the ability to create a very real and very stunning fantasy world.

4. Guillermo Del Toro
Guillermo Del Toro would be an ideal choice, with his incredible visual style and his fondness for fantasy. Seeing his interpretation of the City Of Night and the Matmos alone would be worth the price of admission. Too bad he's busy in pre-production on that other fantasy film.

5. Joss Whedon –
Experienced sci-fi director? Check. Tongue firmly in cheek? Check. Ability to direct a strong, sexy female lead? Check. Joss Whedon has the perfect credentials to take us on the all-new adventures of Barbarella. Better yet… to give us Barbarella: The Musical.

Okay, that's my five. Who are yours?

This book began life as a TV series pitch to FOX, a few years back. Del Toro scoffs at the romanticized image of the vampire that infests modern media, and wants a return to the dark folkloric roots of the creatures. He isn't alone: many of us are sick of these pale and pretty poseurs, brooding about their cursed immortality and chatting up jailbait by the Orange Julius. Oh sure, they can go all scary cat-face, just before they fight cheerleaders, but usually they look like they're trying to get a record deal. Honestly, what happened to the Horror? Someone who considers you a source of protein is not a good role model.

It's common to lay the blame for all this at the feet of Anne Rice, but it goes back further than that. Bela Lugosi's dapper aristocrat, dressed for a night at the opera, lunges to mind. The original Dracula is responsible for much of the bodice-ripping and doomed-love themes that still flit around the genre. The appearance and mannerisms of Count Dracula were inspired more by Bram Stoker's relationship with the stately and imposing actor Henry Irving than any actual Eastern European folklore.

Del Toro and Hogan pay tribute to Stoker's classic, while presenting a more primal depiction of the undead as figures of repugnance and terror. At the same time they borrow heavily from Richard Matheson. His excellent I Am Legend was the perhaps the modern novel first to deal with vampirisim scientifically, as a disease. It was made into an enjoyable film in 1964. While not exactly groundbreaking, The Strain combines the ancient stories that scared the kreplach out of our peasant ancestors, with our modern and wholly rational panic about plagues. The attempt is somewhat effective, although it falls short of the vampiric reinvigoration del Toro and Hogan seem to desire.

It begins on the 24th of September, 2010. Echoing the arrival of the Demeter in Dracula, a Regis Air 777 lands at JFK with no lights, and sits on the tarmac with all the window shades drawn. There is no communication from the airliner, not even a single cellphone call from the passengers. Everyone at the scene feels an ominous dread. When local and Federal authorities get inside the plane, all 210 people on board appear dead. Fearing the worse, Dr. Ephriam Goodweather of the CDC is summoned. Ephraim is a recovering alcoholic and is recently divorced. He'd much rather be spending a weekend with his beloved son but duty calls. At the site he and fellow epidemiologist Nora — who is totally hot — suit up and investigate the scene.

There is no sign of panic, violence, or trauma on the plane. Only four people are found alive, but unconscious. When they come to, they have no recollection of anything odd, and complain about sore throats. But since they seem fine, they're allowed to go home. Only the fourth survivor, flight crew member Captain Redfern (like Renfield, get it?), agrees to stick around the hospital to help Ephraim with his inquiries. The deceased are sent to morgues in four of the City's five boroughs and examined for peculiarities. None of the bodies shows any sign of rigor mortis or decomposition. There is still a slight but measurable core temperature, and everyone has a hairline laceration, mostly on the neck. All their blood has been replaced by a turgid white ichor. There are also significant ongoing changes to the internal organs, and a strange growth on the vestibular folds above the larynx.

"Well, good work everybody, let's call it a night and get a fresh start tomorrow. No, I don't think we need to take any extra precautions. The night shift will give us a call if anything odd happens. 'Bye!"

Meanwhile back at the plane, three pieces of undocumented luggage have been found in the cargo hold. There's a kayak, a set of golf clubs, and a huge, long black wooden box covered with grotesque carvings exuding a miasma of menace. The bomb squad finds only a layer of rich soil inside, so they chuck it in an outbuilding with no security and only one camera. What the hell, really? Del Toro has stated he wanted the procedural feel of shows like CSI for this story. Given that series' regard for protocol and scientific accuracy, I'd have to say he got it 100%. Sure, this is a world where nobody believes in vampires but wouldn't extraordinary circumstances call for, oh I don't know, extraordinary measures? I think the golf clubs are sent to Broom Lake for further study.

The next day there is a total eclipse of the sun over New York City (look it up – no there isn't.). During the eclipse, or occultation as the authors prefer, the big box of dirt disappears mysteriously from the airport. An old man shows up at the morgue, annoying everybody by insisting that the bodies be destroyed. The cops arrest him, but not before he totally creeps Ephraim out with his ranting about UV light and ancient evil, blah, blah, blah. The four survivors are acting oddly, and their throats are feeling worse. One of them, a Marylin Manson-style rockstar, is getting his freak on with some groupies and gets really, really freaky. Another man is at his suburban home with his family and dogs when... well, best Toolshed of Horror since Shaun of the Dead. Before the night is out, all the corpses from the 777 are missing but the authorities insist everything is just fine. Ephraim, the brilliant doctor, is beginning to suspect otherwise.

From fairly early on, we learn all this is part of a Nefarious Plan by the creaky, old billionaire, Palmer Eldritch who wants to live forever. Uh, guys — Philip K. Dick called, he wants his villain back. Very little of the Plan is revealed. I suppose it will all make sense in the subsequent volumes, that's suspense, right? So far it shows all the logic and business acumen I've come to expect from South Park's Underwear Gnomes. Mostly Eldritch shows up once in a while tenting his hands and softly saying, "Excellent!"

The plot so far is rather silly, but I really liked the rebooted old-school vampires. They resemble Max Schreck from Nosferatu a great deal, as well as the Reapers from del Toro's Blade II. The change is brought upon by a crazy-ass virus using tiny parasitic worms as a vector. All the organs are replaced with new structures, cancerous mockeries of human anatomy, the genitalia wither and hair falls out in clumps. Grey mottled flesh writhes constantly as the worms take residence in the circulatory system. Preternaturally fast and strong with a predator's heightened senses and always hungry.

After most of these people's personality has been burned away, all that remains is a compulsion to return home to be with their Dear Ones. In all the gruesome descriptions of the attacks and feeding is the sense of horrific violation and betrayal. Your friends and family are part of a new family and want you to join them. Give Momma a kiss.

And what a kiss. No retractable canines needed here. Vampire 2.0 comes with a fabulous new nutritional input system you'll just flip for. The jaw unhinges like a PEZ dispenser, but instead of candy, a stinger-tipped tendril whips out a meter or two, piercing a major artery. Paralytic venom and virus go in, red, red blood is pumped out. As a nice added detail, they defecate while feeding, a thin transparent slime that reeks of burnt ammonia. Edward never does that. Soon (how long is not quite clear) each victim turns ready to infect more people, adding to the hive of bloodsuckers. The only reason vampires never took over the planet before is because of some Ancient Pact by six Master vampires. Now a seventh rogue Master has made a deal with Palmer Eldritch, and the infection spreads geometrically across New York City.

Yeah, all kinds of furious handwaving here.

Fortunately we have some fearless vampire hunters on the case. Ephraim and his trusty sidekick Nora hook up with that ranting old guy from the morgue. Abraham Setrakian has been hunting the revenant strigoi since he first encountered one at the infamous Treblinka II concentration camp. All his life, eccentric University professor has been doing the Van Helsing thing, tracking and killing vampires all over the globe. Now he runs a pawnshop in Spanish Harlem. This would seem an anti-climax, but it has proven to be an excellent way to amass a stockpile of weapons and other items of dubious provenance. Setrakian gives Eph and Nora a crash course in vampire-killing. Crosses and holy water are useless, these are strictly secular suckers. Sunlight works best, if you can pull them from their nests, a high-powered UVC lamp will cook them nicely. Silver, not wood, does a lot of damage and decapitation is always a good idea.

The old frail professor is still a major badass head-cutter and Eph is a quick study with a sword. Nora can wield the weaponized nail gun with the best of them, but she's there mostly to look totally hot and scream at appropriate moments. The new team gets a big boost when Vasily Fet joins the cause. Vasily is New York's finest Pest Control Officer, an expert in rats and their underground world. Swings a mean length of rebar too. Also look out for Gus Elizade, an eighteen year old hood whose mean streets just got a whole lot meaner. He seems fated to fight vamps too, but his future looks doubtful.

The Strain is a breakneck thrill ride chronicling only the first four days of the vampire plague that may destroy civilization. The cinematic quality really comes though, making the book feel more like a action blockbuster than a thought-provoking horror novel. The publisher is hyping the heck out of this book, and it will sell like a Dan Brown of the Undead. It has some dopey parts, but is also pretty entertaining and scary. This would be an excellent vacation read, although I would not recommend reading the first fifty pages on an airplane if you are a nervous flier. Save it for the beach soaking up the UV rays.

You can purchase The Strain now from Amazon,
or support your local independent bookseller.

There is also a Spanish-language version, Nocturna, in trade paperback.

Commenter Grey_Area is known to all the strigoi as Christopher Hsiang. He regularly enjoys drinking los vampiros in his neighborhood. ¡Muy sabroso!

On the left, you see a picture of a Revenant (there is also video of them in action in the jail scene clip below) and on the right is a Reaper from the GDT directed Blade 2. They both look pretty similar, minus the "stinger" from the new vamps. Funny enough, I'm completely OK with the similarities. First off, because Blade 2 was actually a refreshing and interesting look at the vampire world (how could you not love the snap open jaws?) and second, I'm a believer in GDT's work. He's a trustworthy director, so I have no doubt that even if the Revenants are similar to the Reapers, they're still going to be a bad ass infection of bloodsuckers that make you scared of things that go bump in the night.

Trailer:

Jail Scene:

Check out the The Strain's website for more details and listen to a chapter being read by Hellboy Ron Perlman himself (which is surprisingly coherent).

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]

Talking to MTV, the incredibly busy del Toro said that it'll be some time before we see a third Hellboy movie:

We’re three, four years away from anything happening—so I don’t think anyone is, you know, in a big hurry.

However, he did reveal that he'll happily step aside for another director helming a BPRD movie, focusing on the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense that (spoilers) Hellboy, Liz and Abe all quit at the end of The Golden Army. Whether or not Universal Studios think there's enough profit in a spin-off from the franchise without del Toro's involvement is open to question - they had to be convinced to make Hellboy II, after all - but I'd love to see what a BPRD movie could be like... as long as we get some Ben Daimio out of the whole deal.

‘Hellboy 3′ Three Or Four Years Away, Says Guillermo Del Toro [MTV Splash Page]

Variety is reporting that The Champions - a movie version of the 1960s TV show about three members of an international taskforce given superpowers by a hidden advanced civilization after a plane crash in the Himalayas, produced by Hellboy's Guillermo del Toro - is just one of three projects being reworked by writer Chris McQuarrie for Cruise in the wake of their partnership on "good Nazi, no really" movie Valkyrie.

Don't expect to see it in theaters anytime soon, however; while studio United Artists thinks that The Champions could be Cruise's first franchise opportunity since Mission: Impossible, McQuarrie and Cruise will first collaborate on a remake of French thriller Anthony Zimmer before they can think about boarding any disaster-bound jets.

'Valkyrie' writer, Tom Cruise re-team [Variety]

To anyone who's seen Morrison - writer of The Invisibles and We3, as well as the man who didn't kill Batman in Batman RIP recently - speak at a convention, the story of Sleepless Knights is probably very familiar by this point. The script deals with a world that, thanks to a time machine-related accident, is permanently stuck on Hallowe'en, and the only thing saving humanity from destruction at the hands of gleeful supernatural beasties is a group of demon hunters who keep themselves permanently awake through somewhat inventive and chemical uses. At one point, the movie was going to be directed by Pan's Labyrinth and Hellboy director del Toro - but now, Morrison told MTV's Splash Page blog, that doesn't seem to be the case:

[I]t’s no longer, as far as I know. It’s not at Dreamworks anymore, as far as I know. We spoke to some people after the [San Diego Comic] convention, and that aspect seems to have gone quiet again.

With del Toro now rumored to be attached to The Hobbit, a Pinnochio movie as well as an adaptation of Roald Dahl's The Witches and many, many other movies, he's probably too busy to return to this project, but that doesn't mean we'll stop hoping that he realizes that the world needs a supernatural Goonies more than it needs more Peter Jackson-produced Tolkien. You know it's true, Guillermo.

Grant Morrison And Guillermo Del Toro’s ‘Sleepless Knights’ Movie: Put To Bed? [MTV Splash Page]

The film's post-production is taking ages, with producer Guillermo Del Toro supervising edits. And the CG effects of the bloodthirsty human-animal hybrid (Delphine Chanéac) are taking forever. Producer Don Murphy expects the film to premiere at the Toronto Film Festival next September. [ShocktillyouDrop]