KGNB news is reporting that stars Adrien Brody, Alice Braga and Danny Trejo were all Texas setting up a big shot at Canyon Lake Gorge, pictured above. And "apparently the filmmakers thought the gorge was the perfect look to create an alien landscape." This makes us a little happy to see a bit of variation being thrown into the otherwise Hawaii jungle-dominated or green-screened film. Plus, it's very beautiful, let's hope someone dies on it with buckets of blood.

In other news the director, Nimród Antal, told Coming Soon that he was all but done with fans unhappy with his casting decisions. Namingly, replacing Arnold's bulk with the stick-figure Adrien Brody and tiny Topher Grace:

I think when we cast Adrian, there were a lot of people going, 'What?' but at the same time, if we cast a Vin Diesel in that role or if we cast anyone who is Arnold-esque, we would have been attacked for doing that. So we decided early on to go in a very different direction as far as the casting process, but it turned out fantastic. He plays a mercenary in the film and if you look at the guys in Iraq and Afghanistan today, they're not 'yolked-out' Schwarzenegger-looking guys. They're all very wiry and thin guys, and I think it's going to play well."

Read the rest of the interview at Coming Soon, and while we understand what he's saying, we'd still like to see an action hero with a little meat on his/her bones go up against the Predators. The movie is still being filmed but will be released in theaters on July 7th, 2010.

[picture via edwards aquifer]

Note: This is not a history of novelizations of existing movies or TV shows — just original novels and story collections set in those worlds. And for the sake of sanity, we're not going to touch on non-SF tie-ins like the amazing Shaft and Starsky And Hutch novels of the 1970s. (Even though Starsky And Hutch: Kill Huggie Bear and Shaft Among The Jews have pride of place on my shelves.)

Also, I'm not even going to pretend this covers every tie-in novel ever published. Feel free to chime in in comments with stuff I've missed!

The early years:

Doctor Who didn't get its own tie-in novels until the early 1990s (although there were annuals that included short fiction published almost ever year from 1964 through to the show's cancellation in the late 1980s.)

But Who's 1960s rival The Avengers had a slew of books. Berkeley-Medallion put out nine books, including The Moon Express and The Magnetic Man, both by Norman Daniels. And star Patrick Macnee himself co-authored two novels for Hodder and Stoughton: Deadline and Dead Duck. The 1960s also saw a ton of novels based on Get Smart, Man From Uncle and Mission Impossible, over in the U.S.

There were also a handful of novels tying in with The Prisoner — most notably, Thomas M. Disch wrote a Prisoner book called The Prisoner, in which Number Six finally tracks down Number One — and she's a female robot whose hand falls off. Hank Stine also wrote a demented novel called The Prisoner: A Day In The Life, in which Number Six falls through a succession of loopy, acid-trip realities designed to undermine his sense of self.

Fawcett also put out one novel tying in with the 1970s TV show The Invisible Man, called simply The Invisible Man by Michael Jahn.

Jahn also wrote one of a half dozen Six Million Dollar Man novels that Warner Bros. put out in the mid-1970s. The Six Million Dollar Man, of course, was based on an original novel series, Cyborg by Martin Caidin, but the television show was drastically different and the later novels had more in common with Lee Majors' portrayal than anything from the original books. (Update: Jahn wrote to us and explained: "I wrote five "Six Million Dollar Man" books (one under the name Evan Richards), not just one, and about 15 other tie-ins including "The Invisible Man" book that you know about. The pseudonym was required because Caidin was afraid he was losing Steve Austin to me, which is a bizarre concept.")

But probably the most significant stand-alone media tie-in of the 1970s, in retrospect, was the Star Wars novel Splinter Of The Mind's Eye by Alan Dean Foster. Splinter quickly became non-canonical thanks to its climactic battle scene in which Luke manages to lop off Darth Vader's arm — not to mention its incestuous embrace between Luke and his sister Leia. According to some reports, Foster wrote Splinter to be a low-budget sequel to the original movie in case it bombed — hence the fact that it reuses many props and sets from the first film, and avoids ambitious locations. It also doesn't feature Han Solo, because they didn't think his character was going to catch on. Han Solo did get to star in his own trilogy of novels as consolation, though, starting with Han Solo At Stars End There were also a handful of Lando Calrissian novels.

The rise of Star Trek novels:

According to the excellent book Voyages Of The Imagination: The Star Trek Fiction Companion by Jeff Ayers, the first original Star Trek novel was 1968's Mission To Horatius, a young adult novel by Mack Reynolds. But the best known early Trek novel was the second, 1970's Spock Must Die! by James Blish, who also wrote adaptations of the original series. Spock Must Die!, which I totally read as a kid, involves an accident which produces two Spocks — and only one of them can be allowed to go on living.

In the 1970s, Bantam put out a series of original Star Trek story anthologies called The New Voyages,, plus a dozen original novels, edited by famed science fiction author Frederik Pohl.

The golden age of Trek novels, though, was probably the 1980s, with David Hartwell editing the Trek line for Pocket Books. Vonda McIntyre, who also did incredible novelizations for Star Treks II, III and IV, wrote two great books: The Entropy Effect in 1981 (ignore the horrible cover) and Enterprise: The First Adventure in 1990 (which would be a good counterpoint to the recent J.J. Abrams film in terms of showing how the crew got their start.) In this interview, McIntyre explains why she identifies with Sulu, and how she gave him his first name: Hikaru. (The publisher freaked out, until someone actually asked Gene Roddenberry and George Takei, who were both fine with it. But you have to wonder what Takei thought of Sulu's porn stache. Probably he didn't mind it.)

Another great author who wrote a couple of memorable Trek books was John M. Ford, who vastly expanded our understanding of Klingon culture in How Much For Just The Planet? and The FInal Reflection. (Ford also wrote Klingon manuals for the Trek role playing game, and was always treated as an honored guest at Klingon gatherings. At the 2009 Worldcon, a panel about the late Ford included a moving tribute from a Klingon audience member.)

Meanwhile, Diane Duane did more than any other author to flesh out both Vulcan and Romulan society, with 1984's My Enemy, My Ally and 1988's Spock's World, among others. The Romulans — who call themselves the Rihannsu in Duane's version — have never seemed as fully realized or believable as a culture on screen as they have in Duane's books.

According to Ayers' book, however, all was not well with the Trek novels — Gene Roddenberry wanted to micro-manage the book line and had his personal assistant, Richard Arnold, read every single book. And Arnold tended to balk at anything that went beyond what had been established on screen. If you want to read a hair-raising account of what it was like to write a Trek book that ran into trouble with Roddenberry or Paramount, here's writer Margaret Bonnano's incredibly lengthy account of her troubles writing the tie-in book that became PROBE. Shorter version: tons of micromanaging, characters being cut out, and calls for Bonnano to rewrite the whole thing in six days.

Other franchises to get tie-in novels in the 1980s included Battlestar Galactica — most of those books were novelizations of episodes, but eventually it looks like they ran out of episodes to adapt and started writing original volumes; and Blake's 7, which got a sequel novel called Afterlife. (There was also a horrendously poorly received B7 novel in the 1990s called Avon: A Terrible Aspect, written by actor Paul Darrow.) And of course, as we detailed in a recent post there were 16 great V novels, which continued the story after the original show went off the air.

Early 1990s: Star Wars and Doctor Who

Two other media juggernauts that had never had a credible presence in the tie-in novel market suddenly started producing in the early 1990s.

Star Wars launched an ambitious series of books set after the events of Return Of The Jedi, with Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy, which followed the exploits of Admiral Thrawn and also the fate of Luke, Leia and Leia's kids. These were the beginning of the Expanded Universe books, which tied in explicitly with the video games and comics, and often seemed to be canonical unless explicitly contradicted by the movies. Eventually, the Expanded Universe gave us a new alien menace to fight the descendants of the Jedi: the monstrous Yuuzhan Vong.

And once the Star Wars prequels were out, we saw more books and other tie-ins set in the era long before the original series — the Old Republic novels take place an an era long before the prequels, when the Jedi were plentiful and kept peace throughout the galaxy. Meanwhile, other series of novels take place during the Clone Wars, like Karen Traviss' amazing Republic Commando/Imperial Commando novels, and still others expand the stories of Han Solo's kids Jaina Solo and Jacen Solo.

The really breathtaking thing about the Expanded Universe novels, starting with the Zahn books, is the fact that they're the only continuation after Return Of The Jedi we've got. Most people, in George Lucas' shoes, would have insisted that only they should be allowed to tell the authoritative story of what happens to Luke, Leia and Han Solo after the third movie of the trilogy — but Lucas seems to be totally content with letting the novels be the final word on those characters' fates, reserving for himself the right to go back and annotate the stuff that happened before Luke came of age in increasing detail. At times, it feels like Lucas' Star Wars movies and Clone Wars cartoons are occupying the space that's normally reserved for tie-in novels — filling in backstory — while the tie-ins forge ahead answering the question, "What happens next?"

These days, it seems like a month doesn't go by without at least one or two new Star Wars novels coming out, from the Fate Of The Jedi series to the more esoteric volumes, like the zombie tale Death Troopers by Joe Schreiber.

Meanwhile, after Doctor Who went off the air in 1989, Virgin Publishing got the rights to do a series of novels that were "too broad and deep for the small screen." The New Adventures line was launched, with an odd mix of books ranging from John Peel's bland fanfic to Paul Cornell's bizarre, Vertigo Comics-influenced metafictional odysseys. At their best, the New Adventures were daring, loopy and sacrilegious — and several authors contributed to the line who later wrote for the TV series, including Cornell, Gareth Roberts and Russell T. Davies himself. There was also a lot more explicit sexuality and racy content in these books than the original show had allowed.

Unlike the Star Wars novels, the New Adventures novels don't tell the official story of what happens to the Doctor after the series ends — I'm pretty sure the new TV show has already contradicted them in many particulars. But what the New Adventures books do instead is something just as awesome — they vastly expand our understanding of the Doctor, and give him a new pathos as well as a terrible, Prospero-ish puppetmaster sensibility. Building on little hints from the TV show, the novels give us a Doctor who's much more complex and much more tormented than we ever realized — and also more fallible, on occasion. You could not look at the eternally childish traveler in time and space the same way after reading a slew of these books — and the new reinvention of the show in recent years has built on that reimagining.

The Doctor Who novels are still being published — but after the 1996 TV movie, the BBC took them in house and toned them down considerably. And after the new series came on the air in 2005, they've become much more kid-oriented.

All in all, the twin early 1990s phenomena of the post-ROTJ Star Wars novels and the Doctor Who: New Adventures novels pointed to a greater potential for tie-in novels to be something more ambitious than the simple "adventure too minor to televise" format that book publishers had mostly stuck to. (With a few notable exceptions, like the Duane Star Trek books in the 1980s.) At the same time, Trek books were stretching their horizons a bit, with Peter David's sweeping Troi-Riker romance Imzadi gaining critical acclaim beyond what a usual tie-in novel would expect. If tie-in novels became big business in the 1980s, they came of age in the 1990s.

The mid-1990s: every big series gets tie-in books

By the mid-1990s, tie-in novels seemed to be pretty standard for most TV shows and some movie series as well. There were mostly forgettable novels tying in with Predator, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Alias, Farscape, Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, The X-Files, Xena, the BSG reboot, and various other media properties. There were a host of authors who would churn out novels connected to Charmed, Buffy or whatever, like Keith R.A. DeCandido, Christopher Golden, K.W. Jeter, Peter David and Kevin J. Anderson. Two or three women wrote a slew of Star Trek books under the pseudonym L.A. Graf, which reportedly stands for "Let's All Get Rich And Famous."

And of course, William Shatner started writing his own Kirk fanfic with 1995's The Ashes Of Eden, with generous contributions from Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens.

The other interesting thing that happened in the late 1990s was the rise of novels based on comics — Byron Preiss put out a series of novels based on Marvel Comics' characters, and there was a well-received anthology of Batman short stories. Here's a fairly lengthy list of Marvel tie-in novels — the best of the bunch is probably the Incredible Hulk novel What Savage Beast by Peter David, which tells the story of what David would have done if Marvel hadn't 86ed his plans for the Hulk in his comics run. It brings back the Hulk's evil alternate self from the future, the Maestro, as well as an army of Hulks from alternate universes.

Babylon 5 also put out a bunch of tie-in novels, and from 1996 onwards creator J. Michael Straczynski was closely involved in the novel line, working to ensure a great deal of consistency with the television show. Gregory Keyes, Peter David and Jeanne Cavelos, in particular, put out a handful of B5 books each that were considered not just canonical, but essential. Cavelos' The Shadow Within has been reprinted a few times, and Dreamwatch Magazine called it "one of the best tie-in novels ever written."

Spin-offs, video-game novels and name authors:

The biggest development of the past decade has been the rise of spin-offs and tangents from established series — David has given us a series of Star Trek novels, The New Frontier, that follow a mostly new set of characters in a sector of space that no Trek ever visited before. The TNF books simultaneously play with tons of obscure Trek references — including characters from the animated series — but at the same time they color far, far outside the lines. With their weird hermaphrodite pregnancies, married captains, and above all their obsession with the dynastic politics of an obscure alien empire, the TNF books often feel like David's own space-opera/soap-opera series, only loosely connected to Trek.

Trek has also given us another spin-off, the Starfleet Corps of Engineers books by DeCandido. Meanwhile, Star Wars has given us the Jedi Academy books and the aforementioned Republic/Imperial Commando books.

And then there are the video-game books, which started as a trickle 15 years ago and are now accounting for a large and larger share of bookstore shelf space. The first Doom novel, Knee Deep In The Dead, came out in 1995, and was followed by several others. The Halo book series started with 2001's The Fall Of Reach by Eric Nylund. Nowadays, many TV shows don't feel the need to put out novels — where's our Fringe book series? — but every successful video game gets a ton of novels, without fail.

And that leads to the other big development of the past decade or so — bigger authors turning to tie-in novels to try and make some extra cash or win new fans, or just have fun with a beloved icon. Greg Bear surprised some fans by announcing he was working on a Halo novel, a sequel to Fall Of Reach. Tobias Buckell also wrote a Halo novel, 2008's The Cole Protocol. Jeff VanderMeer wrote a Predator novel, South China Sea, also published in 2008. And of course, Michael Moorcock surprised everybody by announcing he was doing a Doctor Who novel.

Some professional writers are alarmed at the growth of sharecropping novels, where authors dabble in characters they didn't create for media conglomerates that keep most of the profits. But they're a growing slice of the publishing world — and at this point, you can't claim it's impossible to create meaningful, groundbreaking work in the tie-in novel world. As a whole, tie-in books may look like a shower of drek — but they've helped expand our understanding of some of science fiction's most iconic characters, and — perhaps — helped those big media properties become more interesting and thoughtful along the way.

Additional reporting by Josh C. Snyder.

What I love about these pictures, taken from premiere Predator community site Hunter's Lair, is how incredibly beautiful and detailed the outfits are - and how much goofy fun people are having with them. I picked these images in particular because they all show the Predators in very human situations. It's my crazy dream to one day walk into my local grocery store and just run into a Predator in the aisles - or maybe out in the parking lot, being led around by a hot lady in leather. Hey, it could happen. And I've got the photos to prove it!

via Hunter's Lair Suit Thread

Back when this film was announced all we asked for was a return to the dirty, bloody, fist-fighting human-versus-alien action epic we know and love. And then we got news that the next addition to the slightly tarnished Predator franchise would feature a bad ass jungle fighting throw down. I was happy. However, today news broke that the team leader of the blood-thirsty murderers, so bad-ass they've been kidnapped from Earth to face the most feared alien monsters of all time, is Adrien Brody. Say what now?

Variety is reporting that Adrien Brody, Alice Braga, Danny Trejo, Walt Goggins, Oleg Taktarov, Mahershalalhashbaz Ali, and Louiz Ozawa are all starring in the new Robert Rodriguez produced Predators film.

The movie will take place on a Predator jungle planet in which a crew of Earth's worst of the worst criminals and killers are shanghaied, and hunted down for sport. But that's not all, according to The Hollywood Reporter: Topher Grace is in negotiations to star as the unassuming serial killer in the bunch.

But before I rant even more, let's speculate on who each character is...

So that's a few seemingly formidable villains, and Topher Grace. And Adrien Brody. These are not the commandos we're looking for. I don't care if they tied up a stack of hookers in their dark basement, Topher and Adrien would die immediately face to hideous face with an actual Predator. Especially against the super steroid Predators we've been promised.

But you know what, I still like what I've heard about the script. Brody can act, and some of these other actors look promising. But I'm not really sure if inner turmoil and character depth is why I pay $10 to see a PREDATOR movie. So, make me eat crow Rodriguez. I'm begging you.

The next Aliens Vs. Predator game isn't due out from Sega until next spring, but some fans on the Sega forum discovered what appears to be new concept art. Besides the lovely spaceport above, there's a lush jungle. And a scene of a poor Colonial Marine getting dragged away while an Alien and Predator prepare to throw down — which is almost worthy of one of the Old Masters, what with the Marine's uplifted face, filled with horror.

The fact that the AVP movies are dead remains a very Good Thing. But maybe one more AVP game could be worthwhile? We can hope, anyway. More art at the link. [SEGA Forums]

Latino Review has a sneak peek inside Robert Rodriguez's Preadators film, and thankfully it sounds like the "shoot 'em up, chase and fight" movie that belongs in the Predator franchise. No deeper meanings, no alien discovery — just them versus us.

Here are a few highlights from their report. As we know the bulk of the film takes place on the Predator home planet, which is a giant jungle similar to Earth in the Cretaceous period. Our hero is Royce, a "Steve McQueen" type.

The film begins back on Earth, when Royce gets in a fight with another human, and kills his opponent — but some Predators are watching the whole thing from behind their camouflage screens. The Predators like what they see, so they kidnap Royce and shoot him over to their home planet.

Royce, along with seven other abducted humans, all wake up after parachuting into the Predator home planet. This surly bunch of brutes were all collected because they are the best of the worst on Earth. And the Predators will be hunting these supposed baddest humans on Earth — or Earth's answer to Predators, if you will.

The seven include:

• Cuchillo A Mexican enforcer from the drug cartel, who is Danny Trejo's character.
• A Russian named Nikolai with a four barrel gas powered rotary machine gun....close to The Body's weapon.
• The token female role goes to Isabelle, a "tough as nails" lady who can speak French and carries a sniper rifle.
• A possible skin head convict, who is armed only with a prison made knife, is also in the group.
• Plus a Japanese enforcer who appears to be carrying a samurai sword,
• a member of the Sierra Leone death squad,
• and a small "unassuming" man named Edwin who was on the FBI's most wanted list.

They figure out relatively quickly that this is a "kill or be killed" game. So they make haste in this massive jungle, while being hunted by two Super Predators and their leader, the Black Super Predator. LR describes these baddes as "the regular Predator on steroids." Excellent.

Eventually the super Predators raise the stakes on the gang, including one human they pick up along the way in the jungle, and force all the madness to an accelerated climax. LR claims that there may be a Predator cameo, and drops a hint about who it could be. (Thankfully, it doesn't seem to be Danny Glover.) To learn more about the script and the rest of the team, watch the Latino Review video which contains additional details.

Iron Man 2:

How is this movie different than the first one? Co-star Sam Rockwell explains:

It's a bigger scope. There's a lot more action and fighting. More characters. It's bigger and there's a lot more to get your head around, so it's a tougher job for [Jon] Favreau and Justin Theroux, who wrote it.

And in case it wasn't already clear, Rockwell's character, Justin Hammer, teams up with Whiplash (Mickey Rourke) to take down Tony Stark. And he says Hammer is sort of the "smarmy cousin" of the character he played in Charlie's Angels. [IGN]

Predators:

Frequent Robert Rodriguez collaborator Danny "Machete" Trejo says "we're" doing Predators soon — leading some to speculate that Trejo is in reimagining of the Predator movies. [Slashfilm]

Zombieland:

Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) first meets Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) while making his way down a highway strewn with car wrecks. And it's Tallahassee who insists that they not call each other by their names, due to their short life expectancy. Tallahassee agrees to give Columbus a ride, so Columbus can locate his estranged family. And after they hook up with Little Rock and Wichita, the foursome decides to go to L.A. [IGN]

Lost:

Inside sources say Alan Dale (Charles Widmore) will be heading to Hawaii soon to film some scenes for the show's final season, to nobody's surprise. [The ODI]

Boone (and the other Oceanic 815 passengers who've been lost to the show) won't be appearing that much in the new season, judging from Ian Somerhalder's interview, where he says his filming on the show was "very quick." (Maybe we just see most of the 815 passengers getting off the plane at LAX, and that's all we see of them?) [SpoilersLost]

Another set report says that after Kate drives pregnant Claire to visit Aaron's potential adoptive mom in L.A., Kate drives Claire to the hospital (in the stolen taxi) and Claire gives birth. [Lyly Ford]

Meanwhile, even though there are all these reports about Oceanic 815 landing safely in L.A. with Kate on board, another source swears he saw the filming of a scene in which Sawyer and Kate talk on a dock on the island — so are there two simultaneous timelines? Or does our gang get back to L.A. safely, and then somehow reset the timeline to the "original" version? [The ODI]

Dollhouse:

Eliza Dushku was Twittering a storm on Friday night. Among other things, Alexis Denisof has an "extraordinary DH arc," and "next week's Mommy" was one of her hardest imprints to play. "Russian is hard too." [Twitter]

Want to know how the Echo-Ballard relationship will play out now that Ballard is Echo's WatcherHandler? Let Eliza Dushku and Tahmoh Penikett elucidate: [BuddyTV]

And here's a new promo for Friday's episode:

And Joss talks Summer Glau's upcoming guest spot, plus Dr. Horrible. [Zap2It]

FlashForward:

Here are a couple of sneak peeks from this show's second episode, "White To Play". [Spoilers Guide]

Supernatural:

Here are three sneak peeks from this week's post-apocalyptic episode. [SF Universe]

And here's the official description for episode 5x06, "I Believe The Children Are Our Future":

FAIRY TALES DO COME TRUE - Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) investigate a series of odd murders that strangely resemble fairytales and urban legends. The brothers track down an 11-year-old boy named Jesse (guest star Gattlin Griffith) and realize that whatever Jesse believes is coming true. Castiel (Misha Collins) tells Sam and Dean that Jesse is a serious threat and needs to be eliminated.

[Devoted Fans Network via SpoilerTV]

Smallville:

Remember how we mentioned that Clark is getting the superpower of "thought hearing"? Yes, in Smallville, sharks jump over you. It's happening in episode four:

THE TOYMAN RETURNS AND TAKES OLIVER HOSTAGE - Tess (Cassidy Freeman) forces Oliver (Justin Hartley) to come to a Queen Industries gala to put the Board at ease, but things go awry when the Toyman (guest star Chris Gautheir) shows up with a bomb and a plan to take revenge on Oliver. The Toyman tells Oliver he must confess to murdering Lex or he will blow the place up. Meanwhile, as part of his training, Jor-El gives Clark (Tom Welling) the ability to hear other people's thoughts.

And here are some pics from the episode. [SpoilerTV]

Stargate Universe:

Here are some descriptions for the season's fourth, fifth and sixth episodes:

"DARKNESS": Dr. Nicholas Rush (ROBERT CARLYLE) has been working throughout the night to try and determine why the ship's power reserves are critically low. He reiterates his mounting concerns to Colonel Young (LOUIS FERREIRA), who advises the crew to limit their power consumption to essential services only. Suddenly the lights dim to emergency levels and everything but life support goes dead. Overwhelmed by fatigue and frustration, Rush declares that all on board will perish within days. But when Destiny's flight path towards a solar system reveals the existence of three planets, they hope that one of them is habitable.

Meanwhile Eli (DAVID BLUE) records individual messages from the crew in case they don't survive.

"LIGHT": The Destiny is still without power and an attempt to alter their collision course with a star has failed. The situation is now critical. A plan is born to abandon ship using the last working shuttle, with the hope that one of three planets in close proximity will be habitable. Although this strategy initially raises the crew's spirits, it is short lived when Col. Young (LOUIS FERREIRA) announces there is only room for seventeen people and a lottery will determine who goes and who stays. Stunned by the implication of this news, everyone considers their fate. Some, including Dr. Nicholas Rush (ROBERT CARLYLE) and Col. Young, opt to stay on board. Others, determined to survive, vie for a seat on the departing shuttlecraft.

In the short time that remains, alliances are forged and others damaged while Eli (DAVID BLUE) tries to create a message in a bottle with the aid of a Kino. But, unbeknownst to all, forces are at work that no one could have foreseen.

"WATER" Despite severe rationing and around the clock security, the water reserves on board the Destiny continue to drop. Dr. Nicholas Rush (ROBERT CARLYLE) has no explanation for this latest setback but, if they are to survive, they must find a new water source soon. The only planet within range is a frozen wasteland surrounded by a thin and poisonous atmosphere. Donning two of the ships deteriorated spacesuits, Col. Young (LOUIS FERREIRA) and Lt. Scott (BRIAN J. SMITH) head to the planet's surface, hoping to retrieve enough ice to replenish their water supply. But once there, tests reveal that the ice near the Stargate contains traces of highly toxic chemicals. Young and Scott take off in search of drinkable samples knowing they don't have long before their air will run out and Destiny jumps back to FTL.

Back on board the ship, Lt. Tamara Johansen (ALAINA HUFFMAN) works with the crew to catch an intruder they believe is responsible for the lost rations.

[TV By The Numbers]

Star Wars: Clone Wars:

Here are a couple promos for season two that you might not have seen before, focusing on the new bounty hunter characters. [Examiner]

Eastwick:

According to a casting call, we meet Roxie (Rebecca Romijn)'s mom Edie in episode eight when she comes for a visit, and Edie reveals a memory that explains why she was so aloof during Roxie's childhood. And there are some actual casting script pages, which include a bit where Roxie gets zapped from her bedroom at night to a frozen lake on a different night. Edie shows up late and misses Roxie's art show opening because one of the Barkers' dogs got out and stuff. Roxie tells Edie her art show sold out, and Edie says it's amazing what people will spend their money on. Then Edie undermines Roxie's authority with her daughter Mia, who's supposed to be grounded.

Meanwhile, Darryl Van Horne bursts into the ER with an unconscious Greta in his arms. Greta's having a heart attack and crashing, and Darryl tells Kat she's a healer and she can help Greta now, rather than letting the doctors do it. There's more magical soap-operatics at the second link. [SpoilerTV and SpoilerTV]

Sanctuary:

Here are the official descriptions for the season's first two episodes, "End Of Nights" parts 1 and 2:

2.01: In the season two opener of Sanctuary, Ashley (EMILIE ULLERUP) remains captured, in the dangerous hands of the Cabal. While desperately searching for her, Magnus (AMANDA TAPPING), Will (ROBIN DUNNE), Druitt (CHRISTOPHER HEYERDAHL) and Tesla (JONATHON YOUNG), encounter Kate Freelander (AGAM DARSHI) a quick-talking con artist with Cabal connections. Pressing her for information, Magnus gets the location of a secret Cabal facility that may lead them to her daughter. Although aware that Kate is less than trustworthy, the team takes a risk and moves in on the Cabal way station. They quickly discover they have been led into a trap and that the Ashley they once knew has made a formidable and alarming transformation, with no intention of coming home to the Sanctuary.

2.02: Furious at being duped into a trap, Magnus (AMANDA TAPPING) takes on Kate (AGAM DARSHI), demanding information and complete access to her Cabal contacts. The Cabal's true agenda is revealed and Magnus realizes that they are not only holding Ashley (EMILIE ULLERUP) as ransom to obtain complete control of the Sanctuary Network, but turning her into the ultimate weapon. Now transformed into a Super Abnormal with devastating powers, Ashley and her newly cloned fighters begin their onslaught, destroying Sanctuaries in cities around the world. Tesla (JONATHON YOUNG) and Henry (RYAN ROBBINS) attempt to create a weapon that can stop the attacks…without killing Ashley. As the team prepares to defend the Sanctuary with Tesla's new weapon, Magnus must come to the realization that they may not be able to stop the Cabal's attacks without harming Ashley. She realizes she might have to choose between saving her only daughter, or losing the Sanctuary and all the lives and secrets within it.

[TV By The Numbers]

Vampire Diaries:

And then there's a sneak peek from this high school vampire show's fourth episode:

And here's the official description for episode six, "Lost Girls":

IN A FLASHBACK SEQUENCE, STEFAN REVEALS THE SALVATORE FAMILY HISTORY TO ELENA - Elena (Nina Dobrev) demands that Stefan (Paul Wesley) explain the frightening events that have been happening in Mystic Falls. In flashbacks, Stefan explains how his rivalry with Damon (Ian Somerhalder) began. Back in the present, Damon impulsively takes control of Vicki's (Kayla Ewell) future, and a confused and frightened Vicki runs away. Finally, Sheriff Forbes (guest star Marguerite MacIntyre) and Mayor Lockwood (guest star Rob Pralgo) take steps to protect the town.

[Vampiresite]

Additional reporting by Alexis Brown.

According to a local Hawaiian site the Predator location scouting is under way.

Scouts for 20th Century Fox's $40-million creature feature are back on the Big Island for their third week of scouting Hawaii most of it where a lot of jungles have been looked at. The production would film for 18 days with an October start if the Hawaii portion is a go. That decision is expected to be made very soon…Some Hawaii production execs are being contacted about availability…

This is just further proof that Robert Rodriguez and Antal are serious about getting back to the roots of the series . So don't hold your breath for an outlandish Alien Versus Predator-style showdown — this film may be staying classy, and stripping it down to the bare essentials. Of course, judging from some of Rodriguez' recent statements, that jungle may be on an alien planet, so it won't be exactly the same as the original.

[Via Bloody Disgusting]

Iron Man 2:

IGN has the same set visit report Marvel.com had earlier, but with a couple extra details. Like Vanko aka Whiplash has daddy issues just like Tony Stark — his father was a famous scientist named Anton.) And it turns out that in addition to coming out as Iron Man, Tony Stark has been trying to revive the Stark Expo his dad started, and use it to promote new energy sources. And Tony's trying to control his own technology and only use it for public benefit.

When we catch up to him six months after the first movie, things are just starting to go to hell. Halfway through the sequel, Tony hits "rock bottom," which doesn't have anything to do with alcohol, but is more related to trying to do everything and losing control over it all. Tony's imperious, I-can-do-it-all-myself attitude will cause tension with Pepper and Rhodey.

Also, Tony's workshop included a German passport, newspaper articles, a map of Antarctica, and a diagram of Captain America's shield. And there were several boxes marked "Project Pegasus," which is an energy project in the Marvel Universe that often attracts supervillain involvement. [IGN]

Avatar:

Here's a new production photo showing James Cameron on the set of his space mega-movie, tinkering with one of his huge guns. A bigger version is in the new issue of Empire Magazine, and on Empire's site. And there's also a piece of concept art at Slashfilm, which looks a bit familiar to me but may actually be new. [Empire via Slashfilm]

Predators:

Robert Rodriguez confirms this movie takes place on an alien planet, and says he hopes Arnold Schwarzenegger could come back, at least for a cameo. And he says the movie's title has a double meaning:

the predators, are you talking about the creatures or are you talking about this group of humans that are actually going in there against them. Are they going to kill each other off if there were no predators?

[MTV]

G.I. Joe:

ComingSoon/SuperheroHype visited the set of this movie and observed the filming of the scene where Duke carries the Baroness to safety, though explosions, gunfire and jets of water shooting up into the damaged MARS base. And producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura explains exactly what's the deal with those nanotech-enhanced Vipers:

One of the experimentations that they're doing in this movie is on this human experimentation and can they make you not have no fear, have no hesitation of orders, increased endurance and things like that. One of the things that The Doctor character in this movie is [doing is] he's experimenting on these Vipers and Neo Vipers too see how invulnerable you can make them.

And it sounds like Snake Eyes has a scene where he walks on his fingertips. [SuperheroHype]

Splice:

Stargate's David Hewlett says his character doesn't do much in this movie, but "he's definitely a thorn in our heroes' side." And he says the movie, which director Vincenzo Natali has described as "The Bonnie and Clyde of genetics," is going to push the boundaries of both science fiction and good taste. The sexy human-animal hybrid film is very dark, and so shocking it's almost a comedy, but not quite. "It almost mimics a dysfunctional family. It touches on religion, sex, aging, the quest to be the first."[Sci Fi Pi]

New Moon:

The movie whose main selling point seems to be large amounts of shirtlessness will have a nude scene. Actor Jamie Campbell-Bowers, who plays one of the Volturi, says they just added a scene where he, Michael Sheen and Christopher Heyerdahl sit around naked for a few minutes. [Access Hollywood]

Gamer:

Here are a few new stills from this deadly-video-game epic. W00t. More at the link. [Slice Of SciFi]

Battle: Los Angeles:

The exciting alien invasion movie, which substitutes Baton Rogue for the City of Angels, cast three more stars alongside Marine Sergeant Aaron Eckhart. Michelle Rodriguez will play Cpl. Adriana Santos, a member of a radio battalion. Michael Pena plays the father of a little boy the marines find along the way. And Bridget Moynihan plays a veterinarian. (And no, I don't know why you'd need a veterinarian when fighting alien invaders. Maybe they're cat people? One can but hope.) [Hollywood Reporter]

Lost:

It's official (if you believe unnamed sources, anyway) — Dominic Monaghan will be back. And he'll be in at least three episodes. [E! Online]

Fringe:

Yay! Here's our first glimpse of season two. Although it may be fake, since most of the clips are old. What do you think?

Also, a new season two poster (plus matching banner) includes a few clues. Like a leaf, a six-fingered handprint and a seahorse. Click on the link for more details about where these show up in the poster. [Fringe Bloggers]

And there's a new casting call. Episode 2x05 features Dr. Nayak, an East Indian or Middle Eastern doctor, who's sort of a Jekyll/Hyde character. He's dedicated his life to his work, but he's hiding a deep-seated addiction.[SpoilerTV]

Warehouse 13:

Leena, the lovely B&B owner, has some secrets of her own, and she turns up in four more episodes this season — including the finale, which she figures in prominently. [TV Guide]

And here are some pics from episode seven, "Implosion." Gun-totin' Artie! [SpoilerTV]

Additional reporting by Alexis Brown.

Antal's involvement was confirmed by Rodriguez - who's "overseeing" the movie, as well as co-writing - on Ain't It Cool, where he also spilled a small amount of beans about what'll be happening in it:

I can't go too much into the story right now, because we're still writing. But it still involves a very intense group of people stranded on a Predator planet discovering unspeakable horrors (that are not always from outside their group). So like the original movie, the title does have a double meaning. Aliens was a different take on the Alien idea, and an original movie in it's own right, and that's what we want to do with this.

So, let's see - Aliens made the original movie's title plural and upped the ante by taking characters to (potentially) the home planet of the first movie's monster, whereas Predators will make the original movie's title plural and up the ante by taking characters to (potentially) the home planet of the first movie's monsters. Hey, I've got a great idea for a sequel to The Thing - I'm calling it The Things. Anyone want to guess what the plot is?

Snark aside, Rodriguez explained what we should expect from the new movie:

When I was hired to write the original draft back in 1994, i was only brought on as a writer. I never thought I'd get to work on it in any other capacity. So a few months ago, when Alex Young at Fox contacted me about re-inventing the franchise using my original draft as a template for getting as far away as possible from the AVP movies, I jumped on it... Alex came down and saw Troublemaker Studios, and the facilities and crew that I've built up over the past 12 years, and he felt right away that this is where the movie should be made and that doing it down here would be the best way to protect it from the studio system. He was keen on making a very "non-studio" picture... As to how this movie will be viewed, one of the guys at Fox told me "No one is ever going to talk about AVP again after this film, I will stake my life on it." And he's a really nice guy, so I don't want to see him dead. Now that lives are at stake, it's no longer a job it's a mission. Failure is not an option.

A non-studio studio relaunch for the franchise to make people forget all about Aliens Vs. Predator? We can get behind that... as long as it's much less of an Aliens rip-off than it currently sounds.

Nimrod Antal is directing Predators - Q&A with Robert Rodriguez reveals more!!! [Ain't It Cool]

So ready for this randomness, Latino Review is pointing to Nimród Antal, the director of Vacancy. Yeah I didn't remember him either. But out of the seven alleged directors in the running Antal is supposedly the number one pick. Why? No idea. I'm guessing sheer numbers, at this point.

The studio has to know that they could let just about anyone direct it, and people would still show up for it.

Best of luck to you Nimród, but know this: We Predator fans still don't think it can be done. People may show up to see this film but that doesn't mean it will be a success, people still went to Terminator Salvation, after all. The script is still supposedly based on Robert Rodriguez's original treatment.

Admittedly, fans of beefcake may find the amusingly titled Milo Ventimiglia Presents Berserker #1 - All Beef Edition more to their liking. (I promise, I am not making that title up.) But I'm sure there's an audience out there for Barack The Barbarian, the swords and sorcery satire launched by Devil's Due this week.

If equally ridiculous comics are your forte, then DC's Superman: Tales From The Phantom Zone reprints some stories about Superman's least favorite interdimensional prison, while William Shatner Presents Tek War promises to be ridiculous in a whole other, ego-trippical, way.

Marvel Comics's weekly haul may look very grim at first view, with so many books tying into the ongoing Dark Reign storyline. The books The Sinister Spider-Man, about Venom, Zodiac, about a new - and suitably deadly - character up to no good, and Dark Avengers/X-Men: Utopia, bringing Norman Osborn's bad guys to San Francisco to screw around with mutantkind.

But fans of ultraviolence and snark will treasure the complete collection of The Ultimates by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch, while everyone else can treasure two recent classics: Kathryn Immonen and David LaFuente's Patsy Walker: Hellcat and a hardcover collection of The Immortal Iron Fist by Matt Fraction, Ed Brubaker and David Aja, both of which are as highly recommended as I can manage.

Over at DC, it's all about the ladies for their two new releases. Paul Dini brings together Catwoman, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy for the new series Gotham City Sirens. And Greg Rucka and JH Williams III launch Detective Comics into a new era of greatness, with the beautiful new Batwoman strip (and Rucka and Cully Hamner provide a Question back-up, for extra value).

Dark Horse, meanwhile, have the first issue of their great new Predator series coming out. And IDW have three GI Joe books for you to use as preparation for next month's movie: the Movie Adaptation, a Movie Prequel and the first volume of a new regular series. Who knew that military maneuvers had so much homework?

If you're still looking for more four color fantasies, you could do worse than take a peek at this week's Diamond Distributors Shipping List, which - as ever - is completely printable for a trip to your local comic store. Just make sure that your credit card is ready to take a pounding.

The Marshall rumor comes from Bloody DIsgusting, which cites a "100% reliable source" for the buzz that the Doomsday and The Descent director is close to signing with 20th Century Fox to helm Predators, a movie that reportedly involves a team of commandos facing down a whole race of the dreadlocked aliens. Robert Rodriguez, who co-wrote the script, backed out of directing it last month but will still produce. The film, which may or may not feature a return-visit cameo by Arnold Schwarzenegger, is due in July 2010.

Now, we may have gone a bit overboard in our enthusiasm for Doomsday, but then, so did Marshall in directing it. We hereby endorse him for the Predators gig. In fact, if he doesn't get the job, heads will roll. Then again, if his Predators is anything like Doomsday, plenty of heads will roll if he does get the job.

Upon hearing the rumors that Rodriguez wanted Schwarzenegger to appear in the new movie, Moviehole did some snooping and heard that an offer was definitely made a couple days ago, and now the filmmakers are waiting to hear back from the governor. Their source explained:

"They've written a role for him" a second source later told us via email. "Rodriguez is as against the idea of a straight-up remake as much as anyone – which is why they're considering this an official sequel to John McTiernan's film. Like Terminator, they know Schwarzenegger's a vital ingredient of the franchise. Ideally, Arnold will see it that way too. Ball is in his court now."

Considering Schwarzenegger's hectic schedule, it's hardly surprising they haven't heard anything back yet. He did ultimately agree to appear in Terminator Salvation, so it's not out of the question that he signs on for a cameo in Predators. Of course, there's a massive difference between allowing your image to be used and actually signing on for a couple days worth of filming, which this role would almost certainly entail.

He also already turned down a chance to return as Dutch in Predator 2, and that was back when he wasn't busy running the world's eighth largest economy. Still, I'm going to remain optimistic Terminator Salvation has started a trend of Schwarzenegger returning to all his old movies. Personally, I think Schwarzenegger should take over the role of the woman the new Quaid hides inside in the Total Recall remake.

The source also gave a report on the script for the film, which is gearing up to start production in the near future. Everything sounds very positive thus far:

"The script is terrific... I hear. It's partly the old Predators script Rodriguez did, but mostly new stuff by [Alex] Litvak. And it's violent – like the original. Everybody here at [name removed] has pointed out how much better it is than [Paul W.S] Anderson's abomination. Doesn't sound like there's any reason to worry."

It sounds like there's every chance Predators will be a decent flick with or without the governor's involvement, but a confirmed Schwarzenegger appearance would instantly make this one of the movies I'm most looking forward to. Predators is currently on track for a July 2010 release.

[Moviehole]

Talking to MTV, Rodriguez explained that the movie's death came about from a mixture of budget concerns and a love of family:

It came to the point where [a company from] Germany offered us a $70 million budget, which would have been by far the biggest budget I ever would have had for a movie... But I had to shoot it in Germany and post it in Germany. Nothing against Germany, but I have five kids and I was like, ‘God, I don't know if we can do that. I don't know if I can be away that long.'

Even though the movie will never happen, it doesn't mean that Rodriguez has entirely walked away from the project, however; he hopes to release the pre-production artwork in some form, because he loves it so much:

We had all this artwork and screen tests of what it would look like. It was a really cool, R-rated, sexy-almost like that [1981 animated] movie, ‘Heavy Metal'-version of a ‘Star Wars' movie. Something that no one ever could get to see. It was gonna be really great... People said, ‘Why are you doing ‘Barbarella?' And I showed them the artwork and explained it. They would go, ‘Ooooh, okay!'

And meanwhile, Bloody Disgusting is reporting that Rodriguez' script for Predators is getting a new coat of polish from Alex Litvak (Medieval). It's now being described as a sequel to the original Predator, in which a team of commandos face down a whole race of vicious monsters. And while Rodriguez is still producing, through his Troublemaker Studios, he's no longer in line to direct. The film is on a fast track to come out July 9, 2010 from 20th Century Fox... which is awful fast, since no director is even signed up yet.

[MTV Movie Blog and Bloody Disgusting]

If you've been craving some superhero action but don't know what's going on with your old favorites, DC's Blackest Night #0 and Marvel's Free Comic Book Day Avengers both offer all-new stories that'll bring you up to speed in a fast and stylish manner; both books are written and drawn by the company's top talent (Night boasts story by Geoff Johns and art by Ivan Reis, while Avengers is a Brian Michael Bendis and Jim Cheung co-creation), and hint at what's to come fairly effectively. Other superhero thrills can be found in Wolverine: Origin of an X-Man (Just in time for this weekend's X-Men Origins: Wolverine release), Image's Savage Dragon #148 and Cyberforce/Hunter Killer Preview, and new indie comic Fist of Justice.

If you'd rather look for some more familar characters, Dark Horse and IDW have you covered; the former are putting out two books, Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Aliens/Predator, while IDW have a Transformers/GI Joe flipbook ready and waiting for you. If that's not enough, the Dabel Bros. Showcase offers a new Dresden Filesstory as well as - weirdly enough - a preview of an upcoming Star Wars novel from publishing partners Del Rey, while Boom! have a new Warhammer preview (as well as a reprint of the first issue of their Cars series) and Mirage reprint the first issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to celebrate the characters' 25th anniversary.

Of course, there's also all manner of new work out there for you to discover tomorrow as well. Our pick would be Oni Press' Resurrection #0 (tying in with this week's Resurrection collection, offering up a view of life post-alien invasion), the Comics Festival collection of Canadian cartoonists and, of course, Fantagraphics' Love and Rockets Sampler... which may be neither new nor sci-fi, but is still some of the best comics out there.

A full list of the books available for Free Comic Book Day is available here, and as ever, your local comic book store can be found by clicking here. Visit, find some new favorite things to read, and take advantage of the freebies.

In an interview with Ain't It Cool News, Rodriguez discussed his plans for the dreadlocked beasties. The director mentions that his treatment to the monster film is very R rated, which is a step in the right direction. He also discusses that adding the "s" to the end of Predator sounds like more of a nod to what James Cameron did for Ridley Scott's Alien, but I get the feeling that this could mean that there will most likely be more than one big bad alien, which sounds like a bad idea. I'm wary of his ideas to explore the alien universe, with more than one Predator running around. The core brilliance of this franchise comes from its simple concept, which is "Human versus beast."

Rodriguez talks about his original treatment and ideas for the feature, which have not been fleshed out yet with an actual screenwriter, so bare in mind these are just ideas... that will most likely be used in the film.

"I set it on a jungle-like Predator planet. It was just a writing assignment, so I didn't have to worry about budget constraints or how the movie would actually get made with the technology that existed back then, so I just wrote any cool thing I could come up with... "

"We'd create new otherworldly characters while not taking away from the draw our main Predator has. I think another reason I called it Predators was to mark it as a project that should be taken seriously by a filmmaker to make a worthy follow-up to a classic, much in the way Cameron made Aliens a compelling work on its own, following Ridley Scott's Alien."

Hmmm introducing new aliens, I'm not so sure how I feel about that. One of the reasons I adore Predator is because that ONE alien alone is so unstoppable that it can destroy an entire city, or a team of trained killers, all juiced-up on steroids and red meat. Until the beast comes up against Dutch, and it becomes a mano-a-alien showdown of biceps and wits. He'll conquer the beast with his savvy skils and muscles, or die trying. A herd of Predators would wipe out the human population, especially on their own turf.

Sure, Danny Glover wasn't a juiced up commando, but he had the home team advantage. And of course, the second film did show more than one Predator at the end, but only one of them went hunting, because that was the Predator code. Remember the final scene — it's about respect for the mutual warriors not an all out assault. Featuring more than one Predator changes the rules completely, and you risk spawning another AVP.

While new aliens are always nice, I'm much more interested in the alien-human throw down than exploring a new universe. I hope that if they're going in this direction, it eventually becomes a stripped down one on one fight and not a whole space battle, because in truth, that's all I really want from my Predators.

In an interview with IESB director Robert Rodriguez came clean about the many movies he's been rumored to be making.

"I'm going to be able to shoot my upcoming Machete here, a sci-fi action film called Nerverackers, a re-boot of the Predator series called Predators, and a couple of smaller movies called Sin City 2 and The Jetsons."

Making both the Jetsons and a Predator reboot is a pretty brave move, seeing as die-hard Predator fans are very protective of the franchise. And The Jetsons - well, my expectation for a futuristic family is so high, I don't know how you could accomplish such a feat without green-screening the entire thing. Which we all know RR loves to do, but who knows how that will look when you use other colors, besides just black, white and red? We'll have to wait for more information on both, but I'm filled with so much simultaneous dread and excitement, it's causing me to laugh-cry.

Dark Horse Comics, which has been publishing various Aliens and Predator comics since the 1980s - and which created the Aliens Versus Predator franchise - is relaunching each franchise this year with new series, all written by Hellboy-spinoff BPRD writer John Arcudi.

Series editor Chris Warner talked to Newsarama.com about what to expect:

I don't want to get too much into the stories, since we're throwing in some new angles to the mythos that we hope will be surprising and fun. John Arcudi will be writing all three series, which will give them a nice sense of cohesion, and he's a terrific writer. The art that's coming in from Zach Howard on Aliens and Javier Saltares on Predator is kicking major ass, so I'm confident the fans are going to dig it. As a huge fan myself, to whom these books have played a large part in my career, it's important to me that we do this stuff right.

One thing that you can expect is a return to the classic takes on the series; the Aliens series - launching in May - is advertised as following a group of prospectors who discover something dangerous lurking within archaeological ruins...

Aliens launches in May, with Predator launching in June, and Aliens Vs. Predator due towards the end of the year.

Aliens & Predator Factor Big Into Dark Horse's 2009 Plans [Newsarama.com]

First we hunted down original producer Larry Gordon, who's currently working on Watchmen, to see if there was any truth to the rumor.

We heard there was a Predator reboot in the works with Robert Rodriguez?

I haven't seen that.

Do you think it could be done?

Yeah of course. But I don't know who would be the Arnold. Arnold is the only guy you could put against the Predator. I haven't heard that though that's a good idea. Why not?

So we thought and thought and thought, who is big enough to hunt down a real life Predator, and worthy of replacing Arnold and The Body? And low and behold we ran into Michael Duncan, out promoting his next part as Balrog in the Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li film. Duncan already has a history with Rodriguez, from his Sin City days, and he's big enough to be in listed in my Predator Commando Fantasy League, so we asked him.

I know you work with Robert Rodriguez a lot, have you heard anything about his Predator reboot and would you want to be in it?

I would love to. I love those movies. I love Predator and Alien Versus Predator I could watch that thing over and over and over. I would love to battle the Predator. That's what I would do.

Well you should tell Rodriguez that and make it happen.

They don't think, some studio execs don't get certain things at some points. They think 'oh that's not going to work,' or 'ooh that's too different.' They don't know that I would kill for roles like that. That's what I want to do.

And I agree, if they're going to make this movie - which we still highly doubt because Rodriguez still has a lot on his plate - Duncan should be the high-watermark for the weight class of the future would-be Commandos. Except for the short bookish fella with glasses who's the brains of the outfit (and who should be named Rabbit, Books or Pencils). So let's hope Hollywood is listening and gives Duncan the mini-gun. Can't you imagine him saying, "If it bleeds, we can kill it"?

Until then you'll have to wait and see Duncan in Street Fighter on February 27th.