Bay, Kurtzman and Orci's Batman
Pros: You'd get a new Batman movie every two years, even if Michael Bay would complain and tell people that he didn't want to make it but the studio offered him so much money he couldn't say no. Plus, with Bay attached, you know that they'd get to Catwoman as soon as humanly possible instead of this whole "I am a nihilist Joker" crap from The Dark Knight.
Cons: Kurtzman and Orci would probably take their Daddy issues (Fringe's Walter/Peter complicated relationship, Star Trek's Kirk trying to live up to his dead father's memory by self-destructing but then coming through as the hero he was destined to be, even Transformers' Optimus as Tough-But-Fair Robot Daddy to Shia's Sam Whitwicky) to pop culture's most parent-obsessed character, leading to the risk of a third act emotional breakthrough where Batman cries. There are enough Batman characters to make Revenge Of The Fallen seem understaffed, and the various personality tics of said Batman characters could lead to more unfunny schtick like the Twins and/or Jazz from the Transformers movies. Michael Bay possibly already sees himself as Bruce Wayne. Also, there's every possibility that the movie would make no sense whatsoever (See: Transformers, Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen).

JJ Abrams' Terminator
Pros: Abrams' sense of kinetic, fun filmmaking is just what the franchise needs after Terminator Salvation - He's a sci-fi nerd who knows how to make successful popcorn movies full of tech that are really all about people; in other words, he's a younger James Cameron, before Cameron fell more in love with the tech involved in making movies. A Terminator-ized "Bad Robot" logo would be awesome. There'd probably be a Simon Pegg cameo.
Cons: Abrams' inability to not have a happy ending would mean that Skynet would be completely defeated by the time he was done, whether it was a movie or trilogy. The time travel core concept would allow him to reboot the series whenever he wanted, with Zachary Quinto as Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator. There'd probably be a Keri Russell cameo. Actually, fuck the cons. I really want to see Abrams do Terminator, the more I think about it.

Christopher Nolan's GI Joe
Pros: If anyone could give GI Joe some critical credibility, it's Christopher Nolan.
Cons: Nolan's attempt would probably be called A Real American Hero and would likely be three hours long, most of which would be spent filled with actors who should know better (Yes, Gary Oldman, we're looking at you) telling the audience how difficult it is to be a real American hero in a morally ambiguous world. There would be at least one subplot about abuse of military power to underscore the moral ambiguity until we move into the third act when the audience needs to get pumped and then Duke would abuse military power to stop the bad guy and then walk away in disgust in order to make a point that will be lost on the majority of an audience who were excited to see shit blow up finally. Cobra Commander would be so compelling that you'll start to wonder if he's wandered on set from a different, better, movie. Purists would complain about Snake Eyes' closing monologue about how difficult it is to be a ninja in the US military. No child would ever want to buy a GI Joe toy ever again.

Bryan Singer's Transformers
Pros: Singer's mix of geek cred and understanding of human drama/cheap angst is exactly what the Robots in Disguise need. His X-Men movies show that he can deal with large casts, and also keep the core of the original concepts and characters without getting weighed down by nostalgia. His Superman Returns shows that he, uh... knows Kevin Spacey, who could probably do a good Megatron voice? Okay, maybe not that last one.
Cons: Tom Cruise would end up playing Optimus Prime, and Ian McKellen would cameo as the Matrix of Leadership/Allspark/Creation Matrix/whatever the hell it's called these days. Singer would leave before the last film in the trilogy to go and make a Go-Bots movie about Leader-1 really being Jesus and stalking his ex-girlfriend.

McG's Dollhouse
Pros: Revamping Joss Whedon's television series into a stand-alone movie, McG would give interviews about really getting to the heart of the darkness at the center of the concept but then present a movie that's a series of comedic vignettes wherein Eliza Dushku, Lucy Liu and Ellen Page are sassy, independent girls who have to roleplay different personalities and lives while working undercover for D.O.L.L.house, a secret spy organization that pretends to brainwash people and rent them out to clients - with hilarious consequences!
Cons: Revamping Joss Whedon's television series into a stand-alone movie, McG would give interviews about really getting to the heart of the darkness at the center of the concept but then present a movie that's a series of comedic vignettes wherein Eliza Dushku, Lucy Liu and Ellen Page are sassy, independent girls who have to roleplay different personalities and lives while working undercover for D.O.L.L.house, a secret spy organization that pretends to brainwash people and rent them out to clients - with hilarious consequences!

Pink Tentacle has an incredible gallery of album covers, movie posters and car art by Nagaoka, whose work we've admired for ages without knowing it was his. (If you're into late 1970s-early 1980s funk/R&B, several of these covers will strike a chord as well.)

Here are some of our favorites — the last image is the NSFW one. Check out the rest over at the link. [Pink Tentacle]

According to Empire Online, I Am Legend director Francis Lawrence and screenwriter Chad St. John are planning to take DC's war veteran into the future with the adaptation, in order to overcome studio nerves about a period setting and racist wartime attitudes. If true, this suggests that not only does Warner Bros. miss the point of the character altogether (Sgt. Rock is a series about a soldier in World War II! The time frame is the entire point!), but also that we have another potential comic-to-movie disaster on our hands. Then again, Lawrence has experience of both, having directed the Hellblazer adaptation Constantine, starring the not-so-British Keanu Reeves.

Is Sgt. Rock Finally Happening? [Empire Online]

There is very little information about Clint Eastwood's next project, which he is currently filming right now. But The Guardian revealed this bit of information...

Hereafter is a supernatural thriller by Frost/Nixon and The Queen writer Peter Morgan that stars Matt Damon as a reluctant psychic. Production got under way in France yesterday, and will later shift to locations in London and then on to Hawaii.

The film tells three parallel stories that eventually intersect – about a French TV journalist, played by Cecile de France, who suffers a near-death experience during the Asian tsunami of 2004; a drug-addicted English single mother, played by Lyndsey Marshal, who loses one of her twin 10-year-old sons in a car accident; and Damon's character, who can talk to the dead but prefers not to. De France and Marshal contact Damon in a desperate quest for answers and consolation.

Peter Morgan has an amazing track record, so we may be in good hands — but still, it seems a bit callous to play off the visuals of the tsunami's destruction a scant five years later. But how long is long enough? Here's hoping the film is about one victim's personal experience, as opposed just a retelling of the terrible event, with a supernatural twist.

Also, according to Variety, this film is similar to The Sixth Sense.

[The Guardian via First Showing]

Screen Daily is reporting that Eminem will be starring in an original movie, being described as a blend of Twilight Zone and Creepshow. And according to some reports, the movie's episodic stories will riff on Christine, Aliens, and The Lost Boys, with Eminem putting his own "spin" on them.

Shady Talez will be in 3D and is currently being produced by I, Robot producer John Davis and Dallas Jackson. The only other bit of news we can find is that the angry kid from Role Models, Bobb'e J Thompson is attached to the movie and that it will be inspiring a four-issue comic from Marvel.

Here's the official synopsis for Piranha:

A tremor under the surface of Lake Victoria unleashes scores of prehistoric piranhas, an event which rallies the local sheriff (Elizabeth Shue) who will risk everything to save her townsfolk.

The cast is pretty impressive and includes Ving Rhames, Christopher Lloyd, Eli Roth, Elisabeth Shue, Dina Meyer and Paul Scheeer.

Piranha will be in theaters in 3D on April 16, 2010.

To see more pictures check out Dread Central.

Mania is reporting based on inside sources that McAdams has met with producers for Spider-Man 4 and is the "top contender" for the role of The Black Cat. Let's hope she's the number one pick — McAdams is not only gorgeous, but she sells her characters hard. And she'll have to walk a tightrope to play a slightly unstable, tortured cat burglar, especially since everyone will most likely compare this character to Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman in Batman Returns, even thought they're very different characters.

But also reportedly in the running for Black Cat is Romola Garai, who starred in Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights. Slashfilm pointed out that in The Observer she comments about "putting something on tape for a part in Spider-Man 4." And rumors are also running wild that she may also be playing The Black Cat.

Whoever gets cast in the part, we're cautiously optimistic about the Black Cat joining the films — Spider-Man needs a female character who isn't always getting kidnapped.

Check out the video from behind the scenes of the Joe Dante choose-your-own-adventure Netflix film — yes, Netflix is making original movies now — featuring the Candyman, Tony Todd.

In Roger Corman's GAS-S-S-S, Or It Became Necessary To Destroy The World In Order To Save It, the military releases a gas that kills everyone over the age of 25. The result? A bongo-bruising hippie dance party, and a movie you really need to be on hash to appreciate. What do you do when all the old farts are dead? Have a crazy rave party, with freaky shapes, at a drive-in theater... featuring Country Joe And The Fish!

Nooooo! Make it stop!

I love how in apocalyptic movies, the roads are always clogged with derelict cars. It never fails:

Pretty much every television show has done a Flowers For Algernon episode at some point, featuring miraculous technology that boosts your intelligence — and highlights the problems that go along with it. According to Wikipedia, this short story and novel have already been adapted eight times, into movies, stage musicals, plays, radio plays and more.

Movie news site Pajiba reports that Smith is set to play Charlie, the mentally disabled man who undergoes an experimental surgery that boosts his intelligence to genius level. (Algernon is the lab mouse who undergoes the procedure first.) Unfortunately, becoming a mega-genius doesn't do much for Charlie's relationships with everyone else. According to Pajiba's anonymous sources, Smith's frequent collaborator Gabriele Muccino (who directed Seven Pounds and Pursuit of Happyness) may be directing this one as well. Just as long as it doesn't end with Smith climbing into a bath with a jellyfish:

In any case, this is definitely an unsubstantiated rumor from a random website. So, you know, take it with several bucket fulls of salt, and a few jellyfish. [Pajiba]

Heckerling is responsible for the brilliant Clueless and Fast Times At Ridgemont High along with the cleverly written but never fully-formed film The Loser (Yes, yes Loser was bad, but it had potential). Anyways, if done right, maybe - just maybe! - vampires could save us from the horrible drought of intelligent romantic comedies we're all currently suffering through. At least, we hope it will, but we're setting our sites low. Very low. Here's the movie's synopsis, according to Screen Daily :

The film will be a modern-day tale of two young female vampires living the good life in New York until love enters the picture and each has to make a choice that will jeopardise their immortality.

But on the plus side, the lovely Krysten Ritter will be playing one of the lead vampires, and we've loved her since Gilmore Girls. What say you?

[Picture via Dark Pozidia ]

Here's the book's caption for the above image and our other images of that concept art:

The parallel reality of conceptual design - visions of the exotic bazaar a wandering Kirk might have stumbled upon in the film. In its final design, the desert planet becomes a threatening world of snow and ice.

So instead of seeing Kirk chased through the snow by the Cloverfield monster's cousin, we could have seen him encountering a slew of weird alien traders and smugglers on a desert world? I guess Abrams' film was already enough like Star Wars without this sequence.

Star Trek: The Art Of The Film, on sale next week, is Titan Books' latest coffee-table art book tying in with a major science fiction movie, and it's one of the best so far. You get insights into stuff you might not have thought about, like the many different head tattoos the film's scurvy-addled Romulan dogs sported in the film — there's a two-page spread showing all the different tattoos, just in case you and all your friends want to get done up as Nero's crew for a convention. It turns out that the U.S.S. Kelvin was originally designed to look like a Soviet submarine (there are some early renderings) and Nero's ship, the Narada, was supposed to be like a hundred scary knives. The Cloverfield monster in the film was origianlly hairier and more like Aggedor from Doctor Who.

We've already seen some gorgeous concept art from the film, but there's still some great stuff in the book I hadn't seen before — including some early paintings of Vulcan, and a huge section on the reimagining of the U.S.S. Enterprise.

Images from Star Trek: The Art of the Film. Out November 17th from Titan Books.

Dougherty left the X-Men franchise with director Bryan Singer when Singer decided to work on Superman Returns. But, during an interview with the /Film podcast about horror DVD Trick 'r Treat, Dougherty shared the ideas he and X2 Singer considered for the third X-Men movie:

"The idea was that you open up with Alkali Lake but it's completely barren and dried up and there are these odd reports of strange phenomena going on around the world accompanied by bright lights in the sky.

"The idea would be that both the X-Men and the Brotherhood realise that essentially a very god-like force had entered their reality and that it was causing disruptions around the world, you know mutant prisons being decimated, I had pitched an idea about a fleet of cargo ships getting torn apart in the Atlantic and you found out that they were shuttling mutants as slave labour.

"You found out was that Phoenix was going round the world taking things into her own hands and that she had basically returned as a god, which they did in X3. She had viewed herself as above the conflict, that she was here to end things on her terms, she was sick of the fighting and she was going to take things into her own hands and she did not give a s**t what the X-Men or the Brotherhood had to say about it.

"And ultimately the way it was going to end, at least the version I was pushing for, would be that Phoenix was kind of like the Starchild at the end of 2001, she didn't just get stabbed and die again, but she kind of chose to leave.

"The one idea that I loved, that I really wanted to do, was that Cyclops would build the Danger Room. He felt guilty that because the X-Men were too weak, they weren't strong enough or fast enough, that was the reason Jean died. If they were a little bit better at fighting, then she might still be alive. It was all about this guilt he had about her death and he built the Danger Room to train them to be better. In the end it really was about him not being able to let go of her and that causes the chaos and disruption in the movie and in the end it's about him letting her go.

"Ultimately she kind of becomes that cosmic force that Phoenix is known to be, she leaves Earth and becomes a god or at least a higher level of intelligence and she goes into the cosmos possibly to kick-start life somewhere else. The final scene for me would have been her telling Cyclops or her telling the X-Men 'I'll be watching.'"

Dougherty also said he wouldn't have had Rogue take a cure for her draining mutant abilities, and felt it was the wrong message to send:

"The whole point of Rogue's character is that she is supposed to come to terms with who she is and also I don't think it's good to tell girls 'Yeah you should change yourselves so you can get a guy.'"

Podcast with Michael Dougherty [/Film via (and transcribed by) The Geek Files] Here's the direct link to the interview.

Below is unused concept art of the Phoenix's destruction by Adrien van Viersen. [also via The Geek Files]

you can subscribe to the podcast here.

Latino Review is reporting that aliens are being added to spice up the Battleship script, which will be directed by Hancock's Peter Berg. We don't know what kind of aliens or why — we just know that they will be the ones sinking your battleship in 2011. Because aliens mean District 9, Star Trek big bucks — right, Hollywood?

Still this has to be more interesting than listening to "C 5?"..."MISS!" the entire time, unless Jeff Goldblum is doing it. And we completely agree with Stephen Colbert's pitch for Keanu Reeves as the white peg.

Artist Joanna Mulder was showing off her amazing wares at NYC's King Con this weekend, and they are just brilliant. Check out her site as well — any artist who knows how to incorporate Enemy Mine into an ad, and put our two favorite droids into love's sweet embrace is uber-talented. Here are a few of my favorites...

Purchase these shirts and a lot of other great geeky items at Etsy.

Thanks for the tip OMG_Ponies.

AICN spoke with The Wolfman director Johnston and managed to wrangle out a few hypotheticals out of the Jurassic Park 3 director. After saying the only way he'd get involved would be to revamp the franchise and take it completely off of the island, he explained why.

"Why would anybody go back to that island? It was hard enough to figure out the second and third reason for them to go, but it would take it off in a whole other trilogy basically, but when it gets to that level it's sort of about studios and Steven [Spielberg's] thing and who knows. I think we are at that point where we are due for another one if we are going to do it."

Off the island is very tricky, as it didn't work so swimmingly with Jurassic Park: Lost World. Personally I kind of like this idea. [Thanks, Gitemstevedave]...

Or they could just write a wholly original dinosaur story — I'm not sure which one is less likely to happen.

James Cameron and his crew have repeatedly said that the budget for Avatar was $230 million, but the NYT guesstimatesthat after tallying up the marketing campaign and Cameron's own personal contributions, the movie's cost will be around $500 million.

That would make this the most expensive movie of all time — so much so that Rupert Murdoch, the News Corporation's chairman, was drawn to comment on the film (which he's watched, and was "excited and moved" by.) Murdoch expressed faith that the movie will be a success over the Chirstmas season. They'd better hope so. Of course, the Times article may be vastly exaggerating the marketing budget — especially since we only started seeing TV ads for the picture in the past couple weeks, including during Fox's own football broadcast.

But who loses money if Avatar dies a horrible death at the box office? The director himself — that's how much Cameron believes in it — or can stand to lose a few million.

In a further hedge, Mr. Cameron would give up part of his own participation in the film's returns if production costs exceed a specified level, according to those who were briefed on the film. If final production costs exceeded $300 million, for instance, Mr. Cameron would effectively defer much of his payout until the studio and others were compensated, despite his years of labor on the movie.

Still the studio isn't putting all its eggs in one basket. Fox is rolling out the big guns right after Avatar, just in case — and the "secret weapon"....

That would be "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel," set to open just a week after studio marketers get "Avatar" into theaters. It is the relatively safe sequel to a chipper family comedy that cost about $60 million and took in $217 million at the domestic box office when it was released two years ago.

Will we ever be rid of anthropomorphised furry characters? Apparently, no.

The Blackout
One thing I love more than "versus" movies (man versus beast, beast versus monster, monster versus monster versus man) is holiday themed horror flicks. And The Blackout has both. It's monsters versus humans pegged with a Christmas Eve time stamp. The official synopsis is:

When an apartment building's lights go out mysteriously, all of the tenants put aside their problems and band together to get to the bottom of the city-wide blackout. Deep in the basement of the high-rise, a hideous breed of monster hatches and begins to wreak havoc. Everyone must find a way to kill the blood-thirsty creatures and survive the darkness before it destroys the world.

Here's the poster...


For release dates check out the official site.

Gladiators V. Werewolves: Edge of Empire
Here is some bananas concept art from Rob Green's werewolf flick. No one is cast in it, but it's supposed to be released in 2010. I think we all know what it's about...

Synopsis:

The film takes place in Roman occupied Britain, where captured werewolves are pitted against the land's best warriors in Gladiatorial games. But the werewolves are far more cunning then they let on, as they are using the games to infect and turn their enemies into their own werewolf army.

Here's some additional art, check out Geek Tryant for even more.

Ice

Vampire Bill is getting into the disaster porn spirit. The makers of the Day of The Triffids are coming out with another TV Movie titled Ice starring Stephen Moyer and we're really really really hoping he plays a scientist who know the world is about to end but no one will believe him. Joining him is Claire Forlani, Ben Cross, Petrick Bergin, Simon Callow and Sam Neill (hooray Jurassic Park).

Official Synopsis:

It is 2020. Findings by environmental scientist Professor Thom Archer suggest that Halo, the corporate energy company drilling on the Greenland Glacier are causing it to melt. Archer's warnings are ignored, so he heads to the Arctic to find indisputable evidence. Upon arrival, he realizes humankind is under immediate threat, and races home to save his family. The glacier collapses, with devastating consequences. Astonishing weather patterns emerge and plunge the world's temperatures into steep decline.

It's currently filming, come on VAMPIRE SCIENTIST BILL.

Shorts:

Ataque de Pánico (Panic Attack):

Here's a quickie short from Uruguay. Created by Federico Álvarez and Mauro Rondán, see what happens when giant robots are set lose on their home town. The entire thing is below and it took two years to complete, well done!

[Via Scifi Latino]

Singing Head Band

This is what all beat boxing should be like. All of it. Check out Neurosonics Audiomedical Laboratory footage.

Neurosonics Audiomedical Labs Inc. from Chris Cairns on Vimeo.

FISH!

It's been a while since I posted some sexy nature-centric news over here. And while looking for new inspirational animal friendly films to watch at 3 AM, I found this beauty. This is Kuroshio Sea the 2nd largest aquarium tank in the world, which is in Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium, Japan.

The main tank called the "Kuroshio Sea" holds 7,500-cubic meters (1,981,290 gallons) of water and features the world's second largest acrylic glass panel, measuring 8.2 meters by 22.5 meters with a thickness of 60 centimeters. Whale sharks and manta rays are kept amongst many other fish species in the main tank.

Do yourself a favor and watch it in HD. The song is "Please Don't Go" from Barcelona.

Kuroshio Sea - 2nd largest aquarium tank in the world - (song is Please don't go by Barcelona) from Jon Rawlinson on Vimeo.

Jones has been announced as the director for Source Code, in which Gyllenhaal will star as a soldier who wakes up to find himself inside a computer that forces him to relive a train bombing until he can discover who was behind it. The movie, expected to go into production early next year, will be produced by Mark Gordon, one of the men behind Roland Emmerich's upcoming disaster porn 2012.

Gyllenhaal goes straight to 'Source' [Variety]

An insider who worked on Fourth Kind tells io9:

I can assure you it is totally fake. The interviews were shot in High Def on a soundstage with actors and then made to look like bad home video. The college logos and video break-up was added by a visual effects team.

According to this same insider, the film ran overbudget in post-production. Fake footage can be pricey!