Apparently the role of Robin has always been a dream role for Milo. He even goes as far as saying he wouldn't mind playing second fiddle to Batman, "I would love to be Christian Bale's sidekick in Batman. Even when I was younger I never wanted to be Batman."

I call shenanigans on this — who grows up pretending to be Robin? But more importantly Milo needs to check his aspirations at the door as Bale would rather get dragged by the Tumbler than work on a Dark Knight that included Robin, and we agree with him. No Robin thanks, we're saving room for characters that deserve be brought to life in Nolan's gritty Gotham, like Catwoman.

[Showbiz Spy]

I just love the fact that Batman carries around a giant bag of Bat-snacks. Where does he keep them? Somewhere on his utility belt? Does he keep them to reward Robin after a long day of crime-fighting? Is that the same pouch where he stores his pants after he whips them off in the earlier clip?

Personally, I doubt you could fit the cute sidekick into the noir-inspired world of Chris Nolan's Batman movies? Even Frank Miller, whose Batman: Year One inspired Nolan's vision, has failed to make Robin work in his All-Star Batman And Robin The Boy Wonder comic. The original Batman comic only lasted about a year before Robin turned up in Detective Comics #38, and the comics have been struggling fitfully to return to their lone-hero roots ever since — most notably after killing off Robin in the late 1980s.

What do you think? Would Robin ruin the Bat-movies? Or could Nolan and co. pull it off?

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[Vulture]

City of Ember:

Here are a couple of new photos from City Of Ember, October's movie about the creepy girl from Atonement investigating the secrets of her post-apocalyptic underground city. (Which probably don't involve half-naked James McAvoy this time.) Click the link for bigger versions. [Cinemablend]

Virtuality:

Here are a few more spoilers I left out of yesterday's write-up of Ron Moore's new show Virtuality, either because I forgot or because they were too spoilery. Rika, the wife of the ship's therapist/show producer Roger Fallon, works in the ship's "greenhouse" and says plants are better suited to space travel than humans — but the plants start having root problems. Roger allegedly gets a percentage of all the revenues from the ship's "virtual reality" show. Jules Braun has the V.R. program simulate his dead son Shawn, but the simulation isn't rreal enough, until the program takes from Braun's own psychological profile, and then Shawn is a bit of a psycho.

One of the Green-Eyed Man's virtual-reality murders targets Captain Pike when he's having illicit virtual sex with Dr. Fallon's wife Rika. The Green-Eyed Man "kills" the Parkinsons-afflicted Dr. Meyer in V.R., but he finds the experience liberating instead of scary. When the Green-Eyed Man attacks Billie, the computer geek, she tries to tell the computer to "freeze" the program, but the program won't stop. And she can't exit the program prematurely. (Oh, and the V.R. is via headsets, not a holodeck. Shoulda mentioned that before.)

Dr. Fallon disagrees strongly with Captain Pike's decision to take the V.R. modules off-line after Billie's assault. He feels that without the V.R. modules, the crew will go nuts in deep space. Also, an engineer named Jimmy Johnson, who's confined to a wheelchair, really needs V.R. because it's the only way he can get out of his chair. (The show has a dozen characters, which is a lot to get to know.)

And here's the major spoiler: At the end of the pilot, Capt. Pike gets killed while trying to repair the ship's com-array. (It sucks, because he's one of the most likeable characters in the script, and we've gotten pretty attached to him by this point.) And the ship's com-array is still broken at the end of the episode. Jimmy Johnson takes command, and his first order is to reinstate the V.R. modules. [Thanks so much to Lukas for the heads up]

Get Smart:

In the Get Smart movie, they "super-teched" the Cone Of Silence, says original series writer Mel Brooks. (And did you know that World War Z author Max Brooks was Mel Brooks' son? I didn't.) [LA Times]

X-Files 2:

Mulder does a lot of climbing and jumping off cliffs in X-Files: I Want To Believe, while Scully does no fancy stunts at all, says Scully actor Gillian Anderson. [IGN]

Tekken:

Is Tekken science fiction? I seem to remember the original Tekken movie had a fighting android in it. In any case, here's the first pic of martial arts champion Cung Le as Marshall Law. The movie also stars Luke Goss as Steve Fox and Chiaki Kuriyama (Kill Bill) as Ling Xiaoyu. [Kotaku]

Doctor Who:

The BBC released a new picture from the first part of Steven Moffat's space-library two-parter, which airs a week from Saturday. Plus a short excerpt from the script. [Planet Gallifrey]
THE GIRL: Something's here! Someone got in! No one's supposed to get in!
Dad, agitated, barely able to keep his seat...
DAD: She's never mentioned anyone else. She's always been alone.
The girl, panicking now, afraid...
THE GIRL: Someone's in my library.

Heroes:

Heroes fans are tossing around rumors and speculation, including that Sylar kills Bob, the nominal boss of the Company. Also, we may find out the reason the Company's founders had that meeting that was immortalized in that photograph that everybody kept looking at during season two. [Superhiro.org]

Stargate: Atlantis:

In the Stargate: Atlantis episode "The Lost Tribe," the team meets Katana, the ship's commander for the Travelers, a race that travels in the Pegasus galaxy to avoid the Wraith. And the Travelers are techno-magpies, grabbing all the technology they find in their travels. Katana comes to Atlantis to find out why stargates are blowing up. [TV Squad]

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Iron Man

We won't see Iron Man's fellow armored superhero War Machine in the Iron Man movie, but we may get to see Jim Rhodes (who becomes War Machine) put on Iron Man's old armor to rescue Tony Stark, based on hints actor Terence Howard dropped. [IESB]

Dragonball

Here's a picture of the Mexican set for the new Dragonball movie, opening in 2009. It looks like some kind of crater, presumably with CGI stuff happening in the middle where the greenscreen is. [Slashfilm]

Lost

There are rumors that the next Lost episode (the one with the funeral in Iraq) will also feature "GI Jack (aka "Through the Looking Glass" Jack)" in action, and could be a multi-character flash-forward. The episode definitely will feature scenes on the beach, in Otherton, and in the forested valley where Karl was shot. There's also a rumor there will be no Sawyer-centric episode this season. [DocArzt]

Smallville

The April 24 episode of Smallville, "Sleeper," feaures a blonde femme fatale named Vanessa, sent to investigate one of the characters. [BabetteW54]

Battlestar Galactica

Here are the official first 15 episode titles of season four: "He That Believeth In Me," "Six of One," "The Ties That Bind," "Escape Velocity," "The Road Less Travelled," "Faith," "Guess What's Coming to Dinner," "Sine Qua Non," "The Hub," "Revelations," "Sometimes a Great Notion," "The Disquiet That Follows my Soul," "The Oath," "Blood on the Scales," and "No Exit." [Pop Media Cult]

Batman

Robin's dead ex-girlfriend, Spoiler, recently started turning up mysteriously in some of the Batman comics, but we won't find out who the new Spoiler is until this summer. But she's someone we know, says writer Chuck Dixon. Also, Robin will soon face a "true badass" named 666Gun, who will force Robin to rethink his view on the world. And an upcoming storyline will challenge Tim Drake's present as Robin, and his hard-won future as Batman. This synopsis, plus an upcoming cover image (below), gives weight to the idea that Batman will be dying and Robin will take his place. [Comic Book Resources]

Marvel Comics

A low-level Marvel employee dished some minor spoilers (and bitched about the company) in a Livejournal that was deleted over the weekend. Apparently, spoilers included that several of the company's classic 1970s heroes will turn out to have been replaced by shape-shifting alien Skrulls years ago (as part of the big "Secret Invasion") — and that means blaxploitation hero Luke Cage will be back to his original tiara-wearing, yellow shirt look. Also, Iron Man may get a new villain: MODOG. And Spider-Man's dead girlfriend Gwen Stacy may be back. [Lying In The Gutters]

• A new casting notice for the delayed Justice League movie makes the plot sound even stranger than earlier versions. In this version, Superman has been killed by Doomsday, the monster from outer space that killed him in the comics. And Batman gets tossed out of the League for being a pointy-headed control freak. So the movie is about second-stringers Green Arrow and Green Lantern forming a meaner, greener JLA. [Cinemablend]
• The mutants making cameos in the Wolverine movie may include high-profile ones like Deadpool and Gambit, but also minor-leaguers like The Blob and Beak. And we may get (shudder) flashbacks to Wolvie's childhood. [IGN]
• On Lost, someone we've "gotten to know fairly well" is going to die soon, actor Michael Emerson told Barbara Walters. [DocArzt]
• Sounds like that Torchwood rumor we posted before, about Owen becoming the Weevil King, is coming true. Which does not sound good. In episode seven, Jack takes "drastic steps" to bring Owen back from the dead, but opens the doorway for "a terrifying evil" in the process. And the Weevils crown a new king. And then in the following episode, Owen is tormented by his "new circumstances," while a missing alien device threatens to kill everyone. [CoolSciFi]
• There are rumors that a new girl will be taking over as The Spoiler, the superhero whose whole superpower is giving away other people's plots. (The Spoiler used to date Robin, then replaced him, then died horribly and pointlessly. She should really be the mascot of Morning Spoilers.) [Midnight City]
• Monday's Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles sees Brian Austin Green fighting for his life and having flashbacks to life in 2037. Meanwhile, Sarah has some explaining to do to her ex. [WatchTerminatorChronicles]
• A new preview went online for Joss Whedon's newest issue of Runaways. It's been so long since the previous issue that it's all a bit blurry. But the exciting development is that when Xavin loses control, she reverts to her girl self... making that the real her! Here are the preview pages, but unfortunately they popped up backwards. Read the last one first (the one with the big black space and all the text) and they'll make sense. [ComicBookResources]

• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, arguably one of the best American writers. Mork & Mindy was written by Garry Marshall, arguably one of the best American television creators. Winner: dead heat.
• Mork's son Mearth was born after Mork and Mindy got it on and Mork laid an egg, freaking everyone out. Benjamin Button was born in a hospital (against the common wisdom of the day which was to give birth at home), and freaked the hell out of everyone. Winner: Benjamin Button.
• Mearth was played by TV funnyman and impressionist Jonathan Winters, while Benjamin Button will be played by tabloid target and one time Pringles pitchman Brad Pitt. Winner: Mearth. Winters used to crack me up when I was a kid, sue me.
• Mearth ages backwards, which means you have Jonathan Winters asking like a baby and talking in a goo-goo voice most of the time. Benjamin Button also ages backwards, but talks in a normal voice. Winner: Benjamin Button. Jonathan Winters is definitely funny, but that baby voice gets annoying.
• As evidenced in the photo above, Brad Pitt has to wear some old man makeup to look like the elder Benjamin Button, whereas Winters was already fairly older when playing his part, so no makeup was required. However, the movie is also putting the cool new Contour 3D cgi mapping systemto use in order to make synthetic old people, which is a catapult to coolness. Winner: Benjamin Button. We love high-tech aging systems.
• Mearth's special "aging problem" led to much hijinx and sitcom wackiness and Mork and Mindy tried to hide their rotund, overall-wearing son from the neighbors, while Benjamin Button gets to examine his life in reverse, leading to lessons and touching moments, probably with swelling music. Winner: Benjamin Button. We're a sucker for a good musical score.
• Mork & Mindy was directed by a slew of different television directors, including Garry Marshall. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is being directed by David Fincher, who also gave us The Game (yes!), Alien 3 (boo!), Fight Club (rad!), Panic Room (bad!), and Se7en (woot!). Winner, Benjamin Button. David Fincher's worth the risk.

Early Buzz: David Fincher's 'The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button' [/Film]

If you're not satisfied with Robin Williams' head, you can also get his eyes and arm (also from Bicentennial Man) as well as some sort of weird animatronic prop. Also on eBay:

• A ton of props from Southland Tales, including a belt worn by Sarah Michelle Gellar, Gellar's character's business card, an American flag, dog tags worn by Janeane Garofalo's soldier character and a wedding cake topper.
• A weird-ass tumbler that John Travolta drank out of in Battlefield Earth. Probably still coated in his saliva.
• A sign from the precog police station in Minority Report.
• A crew-member uniform from Star Trek: Generations You could wear it to a Halloween party. But instead you'll probably just keep it in an acid-free box and fondle it occasionally.
• The "tachyon admitter" the Fantastic Four used to separate the Silver Surfer from his surfboard in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.
• Conference-room furniture from the Transformers movie. Just think, you could, ummm... use it in your conference room.
• A rubber pick-axe and crampons from Alien vs. Predator.
• A sign, in some alien script, from Ultraviolet.
• A zombie plague victim mask from Resident Evil: Extinction.

Famous names: Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons

Crunchy goodness: 5

Spinoffs/Sequels/Copycats: The animated show Justice League Unlimited adapted this story pretty much note-for-note into an episode.

Quotable: "Think clean thoughts, chum." — Batman to Robin, who's checking out Wonder Woman's amazonian bathing suit.

Life lessons: It's easy to idealize your birth family — until you invite your friends over for the holidays. That's always when you realize your super-scientist dad isn't perfect, he's a fascist nutjob.

Victoria Wayne summarizes the story.

Famous names: Robin Williams, Pam Dawber, Garry Marshall, Jonathan Winters

Crunchy goodness: 4

Stunt casting: Raquel Welch as the evil Captain Nirvana, wearing a baby-blue outer-space version of a Vegas showgirl outfit, complete with silver thigh-high boots.

Memorable product tie-in: Th e talking Mork rag-doll sells for $15-20 on eBay (out of its packaging.) There's also the intriguingly named "Rub'n'Play Colorforms set."

Life lesson: Humans are lying, cheating bastards, and it only takes one totally guileless person to unravel the fabric of society, and before you know it, we're running through the streets with a bloody human femur in our mouths.


Mork & Mindy Online