Other great moments include all the amazing product placement throughout the film, and the wonderful salute to consumerism when our heroes arrive in the future Mumbai and discover that ads are now holographic and can lunge down your throat. (It's awesome!) And there's a snake charmer — with a robot snake! Plus the bit where they find a derelict sex bot and repair her, so she becomes their true companion.

And the bit, earlier on, where our hero tries to use the time machine to get some nookie from his girlfriend — who doesn't put out, so he coaxes her into running out into traffic to get him an ice cream. "Hurry up! I'm waiting for my cold kiss!" he yells just before a truck smushes her. Ah, love. [IMDB]

Yuen Wo-Ping, who did the stunts for The Matrix, Kill Bill and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon will mastermind the movie's action sequences. Costume designer Mary E. Vogt, who worked on Batman Returns and Men In Black, will design the "futuristic suits" people will wear, but Manish Malhotra will design the regular everyday outfits of the movie's future people. Stan Winston Studios will design the movie's animatronics, and VFX houses like ILM and Tippet will do the movie's visual effects.

I love that the announcement says "one song" will be filmed at Machu Picchu in Peru, while director Shankar and star Rajnikanth are filming two songs in the U.S. It's just something about the idea of filming songs instead of scenes that is so awesome. By the way, apparently Enthiram is a "Kollywood" movie instead of a Bollywood film, because it's being filmed in Tamil. Additional reporting by Lauren Davis. [Galatta and

The Dark Knight:

Here's some behind-the-scenes footage from The Dark Knight, including some minor spoilers. It's the "B-roll," which people run in the background while talking about the film in TV coverage or whatnot. You can hear Bruce and Alfred cross-referencing criminal records to track down a suspect at one point. Jim Gordon orders a search of the building, but Commissioner Loeb tells him, "You're unlikely to discover this for yourself. The Police Commissioner gets a lot of threats. I discovered the correct response to them long ago." (I'm assuming this is shortly before Loeb bites the dust.) [Trailer Addict via Slashfilm]

X-Files: I Want To Believe:

Some serious X-Files 2 spoilers are making the rounds online. We'll know in a couple of weeks if these are real or not, but meanwhile here they are: Mulder and Scully haven't actually been separated for the past six years after all. The movie's first shipper-y scene has them spooning together in bed. We see them having lots of light conversations, including one scene in Mulder's office when he still has his beard. They talk about William.

Mulder and Scully break up because of a disagreement about their future, and this leads to lots of angst. And at the end of the movie, they start having a "goodbye" conversation, but it leads to them kissing and making up. The real "happy ending" only happens after the credits, and it's truly bizarre. Meanwhile, the movie's actual plot is flimsy, incomprehensible and not very scary. [Celebridiot]

Meanwhile, Chris Carter says we'll see "someone or someones" from the TV series in the movie. [KREN]

Love Story 2050:

But who cares about the X-Files, when the Bollywood time-travel movie Love Story 2050 is out now in India? I know which movie I'm more excited about. Love Story 2050 starts out with Karan, its male hero, being a rich guy whose mom is dead and whose dad has no time for him. So he goes to Australia and takes up extreme adventure sports. Until he spots butterfly chaser Sana, and "Plonk!" he falls in love with her. (The review actually says "Plonk!") Then he chases her over buses, bridges and cars, leaping across the rooftops.

They finally meet up, fall in love, and get engaged. And they just happen to be in the same town as Karan's uncle Yatinder, a mad scientist who's invented a time machine. Karan and Sana get in the time machine and she sets the controls for Mumbai 2050. It's a wonderland of flying cars and robots. But soon the couple get separated, and the evil masked Dr. Hoshi is trying to destroy Dr. Yatinder and Karan. Somehow, Sana gets "reborn" as Ziesha, a pop star with red hair. After they reach the future, the movie's pace sort of grinds to a halt. [Screen India and India Info

Dragonball:

Piccolo will look "old, decrepit and ugly," in spite of the producers' attempts to make him look beautiful, says actor James Marsters, who insisted the make-up department add extra ugly sauce to his appearance. After all, Piccolo has spent 2,000 years in prison. And the movie has some changes but will be "true to the spirit of Dragonball." [DWScifi]

Doctor Who:

There are rumors floating around that former star Tom Baker will appear in the fifth season of time-travel action-soap Doctor Who (in 2010, so huge grain of salt here.) Also, Winston Churchill and Jenny, the Doctor's Daughter, are both rumored to show up at some point in the one-hour specials that will air during 2009. [Doctor Who Forum and The Sun]

The Prisoner:

AMC's Prisoner remake, starring Jim Caviezel and Ian McKellen, will still have a big role for "Rover," the big white ball that keeps Number 6 prisoner. And there will still be futuristic gadgetry in the Village. [Sci Fi Wire]

Heroes:

Some lucky Brits got to see some intriguing clips from Heroes season three. Nathan Petrelli gets rushed to hospital after being shot, but is apparently DOA. "There was nothing we could do," a doctor tells the Petrelli clan. Elle spends a fair bit of time sparring with Sylar this season.

Angela Petrelli introduces us to the notorious Level 5, where the Company keeps its serial killers, rapists, and assorted baddies. And in Level 5, there's a giant bald man, shouting "I'm not who you think I am. I'm Peter Petrelli!" And we see Sylar come up behind Angela and put his hands on her shoulders in a friendly way.

Meanwhile, poor Matt Parkman is alone in a desert, screaming for help. And when Daphne the Speedster steals something from Hiro, she quips, "Gotta run." Finally, we see Linderman, quoting that Yeats poem about "The second coming is at hand." (You know, the gyre, the falconer, mere anarchy, blah blah blah, beast, etc. Nobody ever stands up and intones about going to Innisfree in an ominous voice. I wonder why?) [Digital Spy]

And here's a new promo video, featuring Claire with a knife and an ear-rending scream. [Heroes The Series]

Next Avengers:

Here are a few new stills from the animated direct-to-DVD Next Avengers: Heroes Of Tomorrow, about the children of the Avengers, umm, avenging their dead parents. I have to admit, I really like the way Ultron looks here. Although, don't they know Ultron's a hot naked robo-chick now? [Marvel Animation Age]

The other four awesome special effects sequences, according to Bajewa, include:

The giant airborne fight sequence between Karan (played by Bajewa's son Harman) and Zayesha (Priyanka Chopra), with the actors doing all their own stunts. I'm guessing there's a lot of wirework involved (similar to Hancock, which also substitutes real wirework for CGI flying.) And it looks like it's some kind of video game brought to life.

Boo, the robot teddy bear and Zayesha's best friend. He looks like he's fully animatronic, rather than just CGI. Oscar winner John Cox, who also worked on Babe and The Host, created Boo.

Karan's friend QT, the female robot. Come on, it's a female robot named QT. That's just insane. Boo and QT team up to bring Karan and Zayesha together. And she shares a crazy dance number with Karan:

The huge fight scene between Karan and Dr. Hoshi, the bad guy. Which looks like it's full of CGI, what with the energy balls blasting back and forth and the crazy face-distortions. I would never say no to a huge energy-ball battle in a futuristic metropolis. Especially if it's followed by a big robot dance number. [Star Box Office]

The new stills and wallpapers, mostly come from the movie's new website, which director Harry Bajewa (Harman's dad) says is the most futuristic website they could make. (It has Java!) And here's that awesome dancing clip. I'm still beyond excited for this movie.

[123 Masala and Bollywood Hungama]

Avatar:

Sigourney Weaver dropped a few more hints about Avatar, the 2009 James Cameron movie she's starring in. Her character, Dr. Grace Augustine, isn't too much like Ripley, her character from the Alien movies. Grace would have wanted a normal life, but chose to devote herself to science. She "has an avatar," and is "very involved" in the movie's plot, including action sequences. In fact, says Weaver, "I would say her real life is as an avatar." (It's not clear what Weaver means, but in an earlier treatments of the movie that's been circulating for years and is believed to be genuine, humans use "avatars," alien-human hybrid bodies, to move around on the surface of the planet Pandora.) Weaver also says Grace is a leader. "Someone who gets the job done. Someone very very driven and smart and yet funny." She modeled the character after Cameron himself. [MTV Movies]

Greatest American Hero:

An informed source spilled details on the Greatest American Hero remake now in development. This version of Ralph Hinkley is the most popular teacher at his school, who connects really well with his students. And he doesn't just fly, he also bursts into flames like the Human Torch — which first happens at the worst possible moment, during a school Open Night in the first half of the film. Also, one of Hinkley's students is Josh, the son of his love-interest Pam. And during one scene, Ralph is talking to Pam, and suddenly has uncontrollable itching on the back of his neck, and has to make a mad dash for the boys' room, where he freaks out about the changes he's going through. The movie also includes a bumbling-but-pompous teacher, Harve Lundy, who has his desk on a pedestal overlooking all his students. [Moviehole]

Star Trek:

At a Star Trek convention this past weekend, Zachary "Spock" Quinto hinted that he does have some scenes with the older Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and with Spock's parents (Winona Ryder and Ben Cross), as we'd pretty much expected. [Trek Movie]

Faran Tahir (who plays the terrorist Raza in Iron Man) also plays Captain Rabu in the new Star Trek movie. He's a new character to Trek, and all Tahir can tell us is his character is the captain of a ship that we've never seen before, and is "one of the good guys." [The Deadbolt]

Iron Man:

That cameo by Samuel L. Jackson as one-eyed, cigar-chomping superspy Nick Fury? Definitely not in the movie. We think. [Starpulse]

Dragonball:

Dragonball producer Tim Van Rellim says our hero Goku dies at the end of the first movie, or the beginning of the second. And Goku's death sets up the storyline of the second film, which they're hoping to start shooting by early next year. [Dragon Ball Movie Blog]

Battlestar Galactica:

Here are some higher res versions of those promo photos we already showed you, from next week's episode. It certainly looks as though some of these pictures take place at Cally's funeral. And President Roslin has a wig: Someone claims to have seen the next four Battlestar Galactica episodes, and offers a ton of spoilers. Grain of salt required, as always. Tyrol "doesn't suspect" Tory of involvement in Cally's death. (Does that mean Tory is involved, and it's not just suicide?) Tyrol feels guilty, but also decides he never really loved Cally because she was too whiny. It also sounds as though Cally, before she dies, admits to Doc Cottle that it's weird that she "basically proposed" to Tyrol after he beat her up.

Baltar's one-god cult grows, and he has a "Jesus overthrowing the money lenders" moment. Tigh gets Six and his dead wife Ellen mixed up. In a mutiny, Sam shoots Felix Gaeta in the leg, and it may have to be amputated. Also, a Six and an Eight die. And so does Seelix. (Noooo!)

Also, Kara keeps getting lost on the way back to Earth, which annoys her crew more and more. And then she picks up a "hitchhiker" — Leoben, who's in a tough scrape after a battle with the other faction of Cylons. Leoben's ship's hybrid tells Starbuck that Three will lead the humans to the Five, who came from the Thirteen (i.e. the thirteenth colony, Earth?). And the Hybrid says Starbuck will lead everyone to their death. [Television Without Pity]

Love Story 2050:

Love Story 2050, the Bollywood time-travel romance that we're all dying to see, takes place in the present for the first half. It's only in the second half that we visit the future, says director Harry Bajewa. [DNA India]

Lost:

The twelfth episode of the current Lost season, "There's No Place Like Home," is rumored to revolve around Claire. And the show is currently filming a funeral which takes place in the future, probably from that episode. At the funeral, Hurley, Sayid and (probably) Jack are there. The funeral appears to be for a "staid older gentleman" — probably Christian Shephard, Jack's dad/boss. Hurley is with a young woman (maybe his old crush Starla) and she's carrying a baby (Aaron?). It looks as though Sayid is with his old flame Nadia, who's not dead yet in this timeframe. (Sayid attends Nadia's funeral in episode nine.) Here are a couple of photos. [Spoilers Lost]
The next episode, April 24, features an "amazing death sequence," which may be related to the return of the smoke monster. Also, the upcoming Claire storyline may be related to actress Emilie de Ravin's new contract. [Ausiello Report]

Stargate: Atlantis:

In the eighth episode of Stargate: Atlantis season five, "Tracker," Ronon, McKay and Keller visit a world where the Wraith have recently arrived. The Wraith turn out to be pursuing a "Runner," a warrior tagged with a homing device so the Wraith can hunt him/her for sport. The Runner, named Kiryk, takes Keller prisoner and leads her to a 10-year-old girl who needs medical attention. Kiryk is surprised to hear that Ronon used to be a Runner, but isn't one any more. Meanwhile, Ronon and McKay have to evacuate a village into nearby caves, with the help of a man named Erran. [Gateworld]

Smallville:

In the 150th episode of Smallville, airing May 1, Kara sends Clark a message from Krypton in the past, warning that Brainiac wants to kill Clark as a baby, so the grown-up (sort of) Clark won't foil his plans in the present. Clark is torn, because he thinks maybe the world would be a better place if he hadn't been there. So his dad, Jor-El, arranges for him to see what life would be like without him: Lex is President of the U.S., Kara was raised by the Luthors, Jonathan Kent is alive, Lana is happily married, and Chloe and Lois are reporters. [KryptonSite]

Doctor Who:

Next year's Doctor Who specials may include a story featuring Winston Churchill and the Daleks. [Doctor Who Forum]

The following quotes appear in this Saturday's Doctor Who episode "Planet of the Ood," except that instead of annoying asterisks, they have actual words:
"Do you like milk and sugar?"
"The ****** must be broken, so that we can ****."
"Very observant, ginger."
"I think your **** must *** soon. Every **** must ***."
"We don't just ***** the Ood, we make them ******."
"That thing about the bees is odd." [Planet Gallifrey]

SRK's movie will start shooting towards the end of the year, and in the meantime he'll be asking the world's greatest special effects technicians to help make it the greatest effects movie of all time. He tells Variety, "It will madcap, over the top. I want it to be as beautiful as Spider-Man in terms of effects." The movie will be about kids who wish for bad things, but "get a reality check when they come true." SRK reportedly jumped ship from Robot because he felt its storyline, about a companion robot that turns deadly, wasn't realistic enough.

Hollywood hasn't courted SRK yet, and he says he's waiting for the right opportunity for his quirky persona:

I'm waiting for someone like Steven Spielberg or James Cameron or some other great person like Ang Lee to make a film a film about a brown, thin, scrawny Indian guy who doesn't speak English too well. If they ever have a character like that and Google it, I'm sure they'll find me... Seriously, it would have to be character-specific. I'd love to do an action-comic film like Chris Rock and Jackie Chan.

[Variety]

Mr. India (1987). A cheesy sci-fi comedy with song-and-dance numbers. Arun discovers his scientist dad created a special wristband that turns the wearer invisible. He uses this to stop the mad genius Mogambo, who wants to take over India. (Mogambo's evil schemes weirdly include cutting off Arun's line of credit at the grocery store, but also launching nuclear missiles at India.) Here's a clip that shows Mogambo's evil lair and his giant gold epaulets:

Kol... Mil Gaya (2003). Maybe the most famous Bollywood science fiction film ever. An ET-esque alien named Jadoo befriends a mentally challenged boy and cures him. But then it turns out the alien's spaceship crash actually killed the kid's father. Here's one of the song-and-dance sequences involving Jadoo (wearing an orange hoodie and bling around his neck.) The little Kraftwerk sample gets bonus points:
Krrish (2006) is a quasi-sequel to Kol... Mil Gaya, about a small-town kid who gets superpowers and fights evil. It uses many of the superhero conventions, including the secret identity and the nosy girl reporter.

We're anxiously awaiting 2008's Love Story 2050, which takes place partly in a dark future Mumbai and partly in the present day. The future Mumbai will be mostly CGI, but the film will also feature an animatronic character, a robot named Boo. And lead actor Harman Bajewa learned Parkour, the art of jumping from rooftop to rooftop, for the movie.

Also fervently awaited: S. Shankar's Robot, starring South India's darling Rajnikanth. It'll have a billion-rupee budget and tons of special effects. It's the story of a scientist who creates a robot companion for his disabled child. But the robot goes berserk and starts killing people. Like robots always do.

India hasn't produced much original science fiction in the past, but there are two reasons why India will rule the genre in the future. First, India is ground zero for computer animation and special effects. There were only 27,000 professionals working in computer animation in India in 2001, but there will be 300,000 people in the industry in 2008. Also, Bollywood films have always had extensive "fantasy sequences" where realism suddenly goes out the window and bizarre stunts happen. Just imagine if some of that same cinematic language gets applied to science fiction.