Variety announced that Helen Mirren has joined the cast of the live adaptation movie of the comic Red.

The Time Traveler's Wife director Robert Schwentke is adapting Warren Ellis' three-issue comic series. The story follows a retied old black ops CIA agent who is forced back into the wild world of espionage, when he finds out he's marked for death. So he's got to rally his old retired CIA buddies to get behind the conspiracy theory surrounding the plot to kill him. With an "old people are so nutty and can murder you with their bare hands" twist. So what does Warren think of the new casting?

Warren Ellis replied via Twitter:

Current casting of the film adaptation of my graphic novel RED: Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman and Helen Mirren. SO WEIRD.

But who will she be playing? Summit hopes Red will be in theaters Nov. 19, 2010.

Update: The Hollywood Reporter just added that John C. Reilly and Mary Louise Parker will also be joining the cast. Reilly will play a paranoid retired CIA agent convinced that everyone is out to kill him, and Parker will play Bruce Willis' love interest, a federal pension worker who gets caught up in his struggle to survive. [via /Film]

Artist Harald Belker created this red racer as a piece of concept art for a Fahrenheit 451 feature film that was canceled after a few weeks of development. It's a shame too, because we would have bought the toy version of this firetruck for sure. We just hope that all those rounded edges don't mean they'll be cutting corners when it comes to safety.

We thought fires in the future would be fought with foam-dispensing hoverpods and wormhole-powered oxygen suppression systems, but if the engines are going to look this great, then by all means keep all four wheels on the ground.