Alma
Rodrigo Blaas has posted his beautiful, but highly disturbing, clip Alma on the internet as a special holiday treat for those who want to scare children away from toys forever. It's brilliant: "Happy Christmas kiddies, just don't close your eyes while you sleep or your dolls will come alive to steal your souls."

Alma from Rodrigo Blaas on Vimeo.

Zombie Wedding:
Alright, I'm kind of fascinated by this Turkish film. It's like Cloverfield, but instead of a going away party it's a wedding, and instead of a monster, it's zombies. So, ok, not like Cloverfield at all but you get what I'm saying, right? The good folks at Quiet Earth roughly translated the synopsis:

Known each other for a long time friend of the five-person group, partner to attend the wedding of a friend Büyükada'ya expenses. Erhan, together with the wedding and a long range team can record their happy moments brought a camera for receiving and continuous shooting is near. Viewed throughout the entire film, this camera mirrors ones. Later in the hour of the wedding guests and a group of zombie attack, mess turns into the lake of blood.

And here's the trailer. Thoughts?

Re-Wire
This little trailer was brought to our attention thanks to Twitch, and consider our eyebrows highly arched in anticipation of this short film. Re-Wire features a man getting his brain rewired to cut fear out of his life. This decision doesn't seem to be made on a whim, but rather this fear has forced him to take such drastic measures. It stars Brandon McGibbon, who is also in the highly anticipated Splice.

Trailer:

Re-Wire (2009) Trailer from David Fernandes on Vimeo.

2084
Here's an interesting little dystopian film where after the virus was released into the world the entire population was forced into their homes, condos and apartments. But what happens when the people in charge die out?

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.

Ghost Machine
What would happen if the Ender's Game kids started up their own virtual Gitmo? British film Ghost Machine shows what happens when a bunch of techies get their hands on a government virtual soldier training program. But when a spirit from the abandoned prison seeps into the game, all hell breaks loose. This direct-to-DVD release actually looks pretty exciting.

The Tesla Device -
I'm intrigued by The Tesla Device. The main character Tommy uncovers a sciencey machine in his brand new house that his dead mom bought for him and made sure he would get upon his graduation. Sure, fine. But then things get tricky: It turns out this isn't any ordinary sciencey machine - it's a TESLA sciencey machine. So that changes everything. Then, Tommy starts time traveling and, from what I'm guess to the trailer, things get WAY out of hand for him and his fake-accented girlfriend and he eventually becomes some sort of Gollum with goggles. Time travel movies set in the here and now always piss me off because by now, everyone should have seen one of the Back to The Futures and realized that meddling = Biffworld, so time travel bad. Also major props to the "jerk" actor who pushes the girlfriend in the most ridiculous way I've ever seen. Hey man! That's my lady you just chucked across the bar! I think I'm going to like this movie...

For more information check out the Tesla Device site.

Star Searcher
Thanks to Quiet Earth for pointing out this strange little stop motion wax people and end of the Earth short. It's not very long, but pretty endearing. But I'm still trying to decide how many people are left on planet Earth now that it's destroyed. Creator Adam Brown, who made this for graduate school at Ryerson, certainly knows how to make his miniature cities - even the skies are lovely. Not a huge fan of the robot's name (robot), but I'm a big fan of the creature itself. It's very pretty, check it out.

Starsearcher from Adam Brown on Vimeo.

Tales of Ancients
Did you know they were making a sequel to The Sword And The Sorcerer? Neither did I. I also didn't know that they got the mighty Hercules to star in it. Behold its beauty and incorporation of Fantasy Shaky cam. Super rough clips via Twitch...

TAE_ROUGH_CUT_CLIP_3_OCT_27 from Albert Pyun on Vimeo.

Tales of an Ancient Empire_ROUGH_CUT_Clip_4-Oct_27 from Albert Pyun on Vimeo.

Ruairi Robinson is best known as the director tapped to make the Akira film. With that movie still up in the air, rest assured that he's not sitting on his laurels. The comedic film Bad Robot has completely won me over with its Shirley Temple dance.

The company that is behind Robinson's previous short Silent City is working on Bad Robot, so we're not sure if this will be a short or a feature length film. And, no there's no relation to JJ Abrams' production company. Although I'm sure with all this new internet hype, they will start to have a relationship very soon. Until then, check out Robinson's previous post apocalyptic short Silent City, with Cillian Murphy.

[via Quiet Earth]

KING CRAB ATTACK ! from Jérôme Lozano (Headeater) on Vimeo.

Also it reminds me of this delightful onion clip, giant crabs what could go wrong?

Experts Agree Giant, Razor-Clawed Bioengineered Crabs Pose No Threat

[via Twitch]

It's Alive
Bijou Phillips, the curly headed girl from Hostel 2, stars in the straight-to-DVD '70s remake It's Alive. The film is pretty similar to the original in the sense that another woman gives birth to a baby that eats people and also has Mighty Mouse strength. Just one more reason to be afraid of those soft headed rosy-cheeked devils. Here's the new red band trailer from Bloody Disgusting. The DVD will be out October 6th.

Red Band Trailer

Trailer

Zombies And Cigarettes
Quiet Earth pointed out this little foreign zombie short where a zombie infestation takes over a mall, as they so often tend to do....

Short film Zombies and cigarettes / English subtitle from Rafa Martínez on Vimeo.

Get Robotic
And finally, here's a short promo we found from the Robots & Us installation at Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana, CA‎. It's got the robot-dancing Kaba Modern Dance Troop moving it with actual robots, so we all win really. Come on! It will make you smile.

Get Robotic! from Eye Tape on Vimeo.

We've seen a lot of stellar shorts here; some are simply wonderful as brief visits with strange beings and strange worlds, and some are already being adapted as feature films (like Sundance-winning Tomo and possibly Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog). These are just a few of the short films that could make for wonderful, fun, or strange feature films:

The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello
Notes: Jasper Morello proved a film festival darling, taking top prizes at the Australian Film Institute Awards, Flickerfest, and Dragon Con, and received an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Short Film.

Synopsis: Jasper Morello, a disgraced airman, lives in a city plagued by a terrible and incurable sickness. He is called to be a navigator on a mission carrying an unusual passenger, the eccentric physician Claude Belgon, who is studying airmen in hopes of devising a cure. During the voyage, his wife back home, a nurse, develops the sickness, but the crew finds a strange beast whose flesh can cure the sickness. Unfortunately, the creature has a taste for human blood.

How it could be expanded: Already 26 minutes long, Jasper Morello wouldn't need much expanding once we get a bit more into Jasper's background and the personalities of the crew. But in an expanded Jasper Morello, Claude Belgon could commission an air mission on behalf of the Royal Academy to find a mysterious treasure long rumored by airmen to exist on a far off island, one closely guarded by air pirates. Belgon is fully aware of the treasure's true nature: it is a deadly monster that could potentially cure the sickness. When the airship reaches the island, they are nearly thwarted by the air pirates, but they manage to defeat them, taking one unconscious pirate hostage. They find several of the monster cocoons and take them aboard, but then crew members start disappearing. It is not until the air pirate wakes that it is revealed that Belgon has been feeding the crewmen to the growing monsters. From there, the remaining crew would have to evade Belgon and the monsters (and keep the ship afloat). In the final confrontation, it would be revealed that Belgon chose Morello specifically for this mission because he knew of Morello's disgrace and his wife's likelihood of contracting the sickness, and believed it would make him easy to manipulate. The film ends not with Morello trapped in a cavern feeding the beast, but him steering the monster-filled airship home after killing Belgon, knowing full well that, in trying to save his wife, he could be condemning the entire city.

What could kill it: Much of the short's charm comes from its silhouette animation, which might not translate well to a feature-length film. A live action, or perhaps stop motion, film would have to stay close to the look and feel of the original.

Inception:

We brought you the first set pics from Christopher Nolan's new movie, Inception, the other day. Here's another set, showing Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page filming a scene on a bridge in Paris. More pics at the link. [JustJared]

And People Magazine has a description of the scene they were filming:

Monday's scene on the closed set utilized two giant mirrors, each the size of a storefront and slowly rotating and reflecting each other. The leading man – dressed in a grey-green Armani jacket, black trousers and looking very tanned and blond – stood between them, creating a funhouse-mirror effect of a thousand reflections before the mirrors pulled away to reveal him walking the bridge with Ellen Page amid a sea of extras.

An argument develops between them and Page turns violent, shoving him, knocking him down. What followed were shots of the extras, standing as still as statues, as though they were frozen in time.

[People]

And someone got hold of a callsheet, which includes the names of the film's main characters, except for DiCaprio's. Ellen Page plays Ariadne, Joseph Gordon Levitt plays Arthur, Tom Hardy plays Eames, Ken Watanabe plays Saito, Dileep Rao is Yusef, Cillian Murphy is Fischer and Tom Berenger is Browning. And there's a character named COBB,
who has no actor listed. Chances are, he's either a code name for DiCaprio, or he's a computer-generated character. (Oh, and apparently Oliver's Arrow is a fake working title.) [CloneWeb via NolanFans via Slashfilm]

Wolverine 2:

Liev Schreiber says he's open to returning as Sabretooth in this sequel, and he'd love to see how his version of the character became the more animalistic rendition Tyler Mane gave us in X-Men. [MTV]

Iron Man 2:

Scarlett Johansson hints her character, the Black Widow, could be back in the Avengers movie — and could possibly have her own spin-off film as well, if the fans take to her skintight catsuit. Supposedly ScarJo is signed for several movies. [IOL via ComicBookMovie via Comic Book Resources]

Legion:

In a fairly hilarious interview, Paul Bettany talks about the tattoos he wears as the angel Michael:

They actually go all over my body, including my – I don't want to talk about it. The application of those tattoos is a private matter! They developed the sort of typeset. In actual fact [the language] was developed by a man called John Dee, and you'll have to check this but he was a Necromancer and he was apparently in touch with angels and they gave him their language. This actually all says stuff, but you'll have to forgive me because I have about 60 tattoos or more, I think. So I don't know what each of them say, but they say stuff. This one I know says "If you're freeze-framing this film, you're really weird."

And he clarifies that, yes, Michael does lose all his supernatural powers when he clips his own wings, and he also sheds some kind of heavenly obedience collar. And there's a totally awesome fight scene with Gabriel. [ShockTillYouDrop]

Shorts:

Some more details about Robert Rodriguez' latest kids' movie. Apparently James Spader's character, Carbon Black, has two kids: Helvetica Black is a tiny terror, and Cole Black is the leader of a gang of bullies who target our hero, Toe Thompson, mostly by shoving him in trash cans. They live in Black Falls, a company town where everyone works for Carbon Black's firm, and they're all obsessed with upgrading the mysterious all-purpose product that Black Box Industries makes. Until one day, the rainbow wish-granting rock descends from space. [Yahoo! News]

Battle: Los Angeles:

The mayors of Shreveport and Bossier City, LA will hold a press conference today to discuss the location filming of this alien invasion film. For now, though, Shreveport director of film, media and entertainment Arlena Acree says the movie includes explosions, battleground scenes, car chases, crashes, smoke, helicopters, and street closures. "This is the first project where we have been attacked by aliens," she says of Shreveport. [Shreveport Times]

Twilight: Eclipse:

The third movie has started filming, and a press release lists the entire supporting cast. And no, the part about there being an actor named BooBoo isn't a typo:

Bryce Dallas Howard as Victoria, Xavier Samuel as Riley, Catalina Sandino Moreno as Maria, Jack Huston as Royce King, Julia Jones as Leah, BooBoo Stewart as Seth, and Jodelle Ferland as Bree. Also continuing in the saga as The Cullen Family are Ashley Greene as Alice, Peter Facinelli as Carlisle, Elizabeth Reaser as Esme, Kellan Lutz as Emmett, Nikki Reed as Rosalie, and Jackson Rathbone as Jasper. Billy Burke also returns as Charlie Swan.

[L.A. Times]

Lost:

John Hawkes (Deadwood) is joining the cast as Lennon, the scruffy, edge spokesperson and translator for a foreign corporation who's more powerful than you'd guess from his position. (We posted the casting call for this role the other day.) [THR]

Warehouse 13:

Bondage and games of possum, in this clip from next Tuesday's episode, "Duped":

Supernatural:

Creator Eric Kripke says we'll never learn how Ruby's demon knife got its powers, because a little mystery is good. But we will see the magical kill-anything Colt pistol again — it pops up early in the season, and then plays a major part in episode ten. The Colt is the Winchester boys' best chance at shooting Lucifer in the face. And there's always a possibility Jeffrey Dean Morgan might pop up again at some point. [EW]

Fringe:

We already showed you this season two poster, but now here it is in ridiculously high resolution. Click to enlarge. [Fringe Television]

Oh, and speaking of clues, a whole new set of cast pics for season two includes a pic of Peter where his shadow looks different than everyone else's. [Fringe Television]

FlashForward:

This show's future-glimpsing premise is summed up, in one of the ugliest posters I've ever seen. Gah! [TVOvermind via SpoilerTV]

Eureka:

Here's a new clip from tomorrow night's episode, "Shower The People," featuring guest star Billy Campbell:

Smallville:

A pretty cool twist, involving Chloe, will take place within the first ten episodes of the new season. [EW]

Star Wars: Clone Wars:

Things get a bit darker in the second season, says Dave Filoni:

We have the rise of the bounty hunters entering the war - bringing in a lot of chaos and a whole new set of problems for Anakin and Obi-Wan.

And we'll start to see the seeds of Anakin's turn to the dark side, but we'll also see more of his heroism and the fact that he could have been the saviour of the galaxy. Also, we'll discover more of Obi-Wan's past. [Wired]

Additional reporting by Alexis Brown.

Avatar:

Asked whether Avatar is a "classig going native film," in the style of At Play In The Fields Of The Lord, James Cameron responds that APITFOTL was one of the videos he used for reference. Then the reporter goes even further and asks if Avatar is similar to Dances With Wolves, since it's about "a battered military man who finds something pure in an endangered tribal culture." Cameron responds:

Yes, exactly, it is very much like that. You see the same theme in "At Play in the Fields of the Lord" and also "The Emerald Forest," which maybe thematically isn't that connected but it did have that clash of civilizations or of cultures. That was another reference point for me. There was some beautiful stuff in that film. I just gathered all this stuff in and then you look at it through the lens of science fiction and it comes out looking very different but is still recognizable in a universal story way. It's almost comfortable for the audience – "I know what kind of tale this is." They're not just sitting there scratching their heads, they're enjoying it and being taken along. And we still have turns and surprises in it, too, things you don't see coming. But the idea that you feel like you are in a classic story, a story that could have been shaped by Rudyard Kipling or Edgar Rice Burroughs.

He also says that the motion-capture software is so close to the actors' real performances, he wants to call it "emotion capture" instead of "motion capture." And that's what still astonishes him, more than the floating mountains and thousand-foot trees. [L.A. Times]

Shorts:

James Spader says his character, Carbon Black, is a bad guy, but "the things he's doing wrong are because he's oblivious to it," Spader said. "Or there's nothing Machiavellian about him; everybody in the picture is caught up in the story of the picture, and he is too. And he's completely caught up in it: Maybe even most of all, he's caught up in it." [Sci Fi Wire]

Legion:

Will there be punk-ass angels with guns in this movie? New poster says yes. [ShockTillYouDrop]

Zombieland:

And speaking of posters, here's a pretty sweet-looking one for this zombie carnage extravaganza. Bigger version at the link. [Coming Soon via Dread Central]

2012:

It's the end of John Cusack's careerthe world! Some new stills from the Roland Emmerich disaster movie. [IGN]

Fringe:

Jon Cassar, director of episode 2x06, Twittered a picture of his rough storyboards for the episode. What do you think it means? What are all those arrows doing? [TwitPic, thanks to The Booted Lady!]

And here are some set pics from the filming in Vancouver. [Alexei White on Flickr and Jon Yeo on Flickr via SpoilerTV]

And here's a thrilling new promo for the season opener:

Supernatural:

Here's a new promo for season five, featuring a few glimpses of the season opener, "Sympathy For The Devil":

And Eric Kripke says Sam's storyline will be similar to that of an "ex-addict" in the new season. Just as long as we don't go into "Willow in Buffy season six" territory, everything will be fine. [The CW Source]

FlashForward:

And here's a video I don't think we've shown you before. [TrekMovie]

Smallville:

New set photos purport to show you Tom Welling filming season nine, in a vaguely Matrix-esque outfit. But it's super hard to make out anything. More at the link. [SpoilerTV]

Chuck:

In episode 3x03, "Chuck Vs. The Angel Of Death," we'll meet Premier Allejandro Goya, the dictator of the fictitious Latin American country of Parador. (Is the name intentional?) And Goya has come to the United States to announce his country will be holding democratic elections for the first time. [SpoilerTV]

Stargate Universe:

Luis Ferreira's character, Col. Everett Young, is "a rock – cool and unflappable, a solid and steady leader... Young is the calm in the eye of the storm, the guy you want calling the shots when things get heated." And episodes 19 and 20 are a linked storyline with a "B" storyline that's still undergoing some revisions, and there's a surprising ending. [Joseph Mallozzi via SpoilerTV]

Also, Michael Shanks, who has a super-brief role in the series opener, will have a more significant cameo in another episode later on. [Gateworld]

Heroes:

Episode 4x07 is called "Strange Attractors." [SpoilerTV]

Additional reporting by Alexis Brown.

In the first clip, we see Spader as Mr. Black motivating (and periodically firing) the employees of Black Box, the ominously ill-lit Apple send-up that employs the entire town:

Here, our hero Tobin "Toe" Thompson (whose parents are the ill-fated team leaders in the clip above), stands up to school bully (and daughter of Mr. Black) Helvetica by insisting she's in love with him:

Toe's bully-confronting strategy gets a little help from the wishing rock he finds, which enables him to conjure up a crew of aliens who prove as strong as they are tiny:

But naturally the wishes don't always go as planned, as when Toe's friend Loogie wishes for one of their crew to become super smart:

Or when "Nose" Noseworthy summons forth a sentient monster made from his own boogers:

We also get two clips from the Black Box employee party. First, Jon Cryer and Leslie Mann get too close for comfort:

Then Toe has another violent encounter with Helvetica:

Zombieland:

IGN visited the set of this zombie epic recently, and they're posting reports now. Apparently, they witnessed the filming of a scene in an abandoned shopping mall, where Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) and Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) go looking for food, but wind up scrapping with some zombies. The two zombies that they fight are pudgy, including a fat sweater-wearing pen-pusher, and you're never allowed to forget these used to be people before they were zombies. During one take of that scene, Harrelson improvises a bit where he strums a banjo and quotes from Deliverance about someone having a "purty mouth."

Also, Wicihita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) are a pair of girls who con Columbus and Tallahassee out of their car at the start of the film, although eventually the four survivors team up. There's a sequence where Wichita is doing something, and she senses a zombie coming up behind her. She turns and, almost without looking, she shoots the zombie square in the head, blowing his face off. And then she goes back to what she was doing.

The film picks up months after the zombie epidemic started, and Columbus has managed to stay alive because his paranoiac, jumping-at-his-own-shadow attitude has turned out to be a positive characteristic in this new environment. Columbus has 47 rules for surviving a zombie outbreak — and we see one of them in action when a minor character is driving away from a horde of zombies. The bobble head on her dashboard keeps bouncing and distracts her, and then she crashes and flies through her windshield, thus proving one of Columbus' rules: "Always wear your seatbelt." The movie starts with a montage of these rules, showing the horrific consequences when various people fail to obey them.

Also, the movie ends with a big blow-out fight scene at an amusement park, as we mentioned the other day. Harrelson ends up hanging from the fairground ride, with the chairs that swing around in mid-air, and shooting zombies with one hand. We see zombies being killed in lots of inventive ways, and there's a flashback where we see Harrelson handling two chainsaws at once. [IGN]

Also, Emma Stone reveals that Wichita and Little Rock are actually sisters. [Slashfilm]

A review of the movie's script provides some more details. Like, another one of Columbus rules: Always keep your ammo dry by keeping it in ziploc bags, because you never know when it'll be raining windshield wiper fluid (it's a sight gag in the movie.) Originally, Tallahassee and Columbus are traveling separately, but they're both going East, so they decide there's safety in numbers. It sounds like there's a weird Michael Jackson joke that may get cut now that he's dead. Also, Wichita gets a funny Sigourney Weaver joke. And Little Rock and Tallahassee have a running joke where they play off their huge age difference somehow. [Corona Coming Attractions via Cinemablend]

Kick-Ass:

A new pic from this gritty superhero dramedy, directed by Matthew Vaughan, shows Kick-Ass/Dave in costume, with his hood off. Bigger version, and another pic, at the link. [Slashfilm]

Shorts:

A few more details on Robert Rodriguez's kid-friendly epic: Toe Thompson (played by the young Jim Kirk in Star Trek, Jimmy Bennett) is a bullied 11-year-old who wishes he had friends who are as unique as he is. And then he finds some new friends, and they're space aliens. It's a wacky romp where "you don't know what's coming up next," says Rodriguez. There's a magical wishing rock, but the wishes often go wrong. People might wish for telekinesis and get "telephonesis" instead, so a telephone comes out of their heads. And the film's title refers to the fact that the film's narrator doesn't remember the story in order, so he tells it in a series of disjointed shorts. [MTV]

Also, Leslie Mann plays a soccer mom who wishes on the rainbow rock that she and her husband could become closer — so the rock fuses them into one person. Says Mann:

It's just like his top half and my bottom. It's half of his leg, and half of my leg - and Robert Rodriguez, with his magical powers, made it look like one person. It's cool!

[MTV]

Stargate Universe:

Here's a new promo photo of Robert Carlyle as Dr. Nicholas Rush. Bigger version at the link. [Wired]

Heroes:

Swoozie Kurtz will be back in the new season as Millie, Angela Petrelli's old high-society friend, and we'll find out who Millie's daughter is. And it's connected to the decision Angela made twenty years ago, which is coming back to haunt her now. Explains Adrian Pasdar:

An incident occurred when Nathan was a boy that he has no memory of. He has to go and make amends for the crime he committed and the whole thing ends up very poorly.

[TV Guide Magazine]

Also, the Daily Star (yet another completely untrustworthy British tabloid) claims to have talked to an unnamed source connected to the show, about the whole "Claire's sapphic adventure" thing. The source, who may or may not be a real person, says: "It's just girly fun at first. But it might progress into something more serious. It depends how viewers respond." [Daily Star]

Warehouse 13:

Gabriel Hogan will reappear as Sam, Myka's dead partner, in at least one upcoming episode. And Hogan's parents, Michael (Saul Tigh) Hogan and Susan Hogan, will appear at some point, as Myka's parents. Upcoming artifacts will include Lewis Carroll's mirror (as we mentioned) and Pandora's box. But they'll always relate to an individual person and his/her desires, says producer Jack Kenny:

The artifacts are almost always connected to people, and what they want out of life, and what gets in their way...Our characters tend to carry around their own artifacts: the photograph of Sam that Myka carries is her own artifact, and Pete's [artifact] is the badge, relating to his father, who died in the fire. We all have these things we carry with us-personal histories that have a powerful effect on our lives, and the way we operate in our lives. And that's the metaphor of the warehouse itself, that it's full of these objects of incredible personal import to people.

[E! Online]

True Blood:

Here are descriptions for some upcoming episodes:

2.07, "Release Me": Maryann and her minions put Sam in a difficult situation; Sookie uses her telepathic powers to reach out to Bill; Jason tries to sever his ties with the Fellowship of the Sun.

2.08, "Timebomb": Sookie's captivity takes an unexpected turn; Sam makes a gruesome discovery at Merlotte's; Tara and Eggs get physical; Jason pays off his debt to the vampires.

2.09, "I Will Rise Up": Eric plays Sookie for a fool; Lafayette and Lettie Mae try to figure out how to get Tara away from Maryann; Hoyt defends his relationship with Jessica

2.10, "New World in My View": Sookie, Bill and Jason return to Bon Temps; Hoyt and Jessica try to keep Maxine's madness a secret; Jason tries to rescue Sam.

2.11, "Frenzy": Bill seeks the advice of the vampire Queen of Louisiana; Sookie and Lafayette find it difficult to protect Tara; Sam turns to an unlikely source for assistance

[SpoilerTV]

And here are some promo pics for some upcoming episodes. [True-Blood.net via SpoilerTV]

Additional reporting by Alexis Brown.

Sunnydale

Location: California near Santa Barbara

Where does it appear? Buffy the Vampire Slayer universe

Locals: A slowly declining population of families and commuters, with a thriving underground community of demons and vampires.

Dangers: It's situated directly over the Hellmouth, so there's that. Think of this city as a magnet for everything in the world that wants to do harm to humankind. Demons, vampires, plagues, ghosts, trolls, witches...the list goes on. If you live in this city and wanted a small family of two kids, I'd have three just to be safe.

Gotham City

Location: Depends, many maps put Gotham right where Manhattan or Vancouver would be situated. But generally you're looking for a Northern city near the coast.

Where does it appear? Batman

Locals: Home to Batman, the Wayne family, and stomping grounds of many other superheroes and villains. This town is full of hard-working city folk with a lot of attitude and gumption, which is imperative as the crime rate is so high they need to keep their spirits up to get through the day. The town is riddled with psychotics, superheroes and masked avengers all looking to either do some good or some harm.

Dangers: Highways, banks, the docking yards and hospitals all seem to be violent areas. Rule of thumb, stay away from these places or any government official or people with strollers, as they all seem to be large walking targets in this town.

Bon Temps

Location: Northern Louisiana, above Alexandria

Where does it appear? True Blood and the Sookie Stackhouse series

Locals: Blue collar Southern types. People who have lived in the same place for years, centuries even. Bon Temps, home to Sookie Stackhouse and her many supernatural friends has a pretty steady fatality rate. While it's nowhere near Sunnydale or Gotham City numbers, there are still a fair number of citizens getting snacked on by the lush supernatural life that populates the woods nearby.

Dangers: Unruly vampire nests, bull people with poison talons, werewolves, werepuppies - it's basically an all-the-time party for anything unnatural. Living here is a dangerous balancing act of being aware of the dangers in front of you, so you know how to respond, but not being so infatuated that you're putting yourself in harms way. Plus there's the fact that the law enforcement is pretty lax, so should you get murdered it may be weeks until they find your body.

The local Louisiana Tourist Board has set up a Welcome To Bon Temps site - "everyone wants a taste."


Smallville

Location: Kansas

Where does it appear? Smallville TV series, Superman

Locals: Good salt of the Earth farmer folk that attract doom like honey does flies.

Dangers: If you live in Smallville, you run the chance of having one of your relatives getting killed by a radioactive meteor - or the risk that you will become exposed or mutated by a radioactive meteor, or that you will be attacked on a weekly basis by someone who has been mutated by a radioactive meteor.

Eureka

Located: Somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, possibly Oregon or Washington state. It's a secret town built by Global Dynamics - if they want you to know the exact location, you'll know.

Where does it appear? EurekaTV series

Locals: Scientists, superbrains, and the best of the best of every field all in one town.

Dangers: Malfunctioning science experiments that could potentially harm you or your belongings (most likely the belongings). Things are always exploding or ripping the fabric of time. Also the world ends just about every week and at one time or another you could be called upon to roll up your sleeves and help solve the problem, which has lead to a few fatalities here and there. The town has been known to bust out into song time and again (similar to Sunnydale).

Hill Valley

Location: Pasadena area of California

Where does it appear? Back To The Future

Locals: A never ending loop of faces that pass on generation to generation.

Dangers: When your city houses a meddlesome scientist and his good-looking assistant who can't help but dabble in time travel, your life is going to be greatly influenced by these two and their shenanigans. Of course the entire world will be changed with time travel, but if you're a resident in Hill Valley and your great, great grandfather gets knocked off a cliff by a DeLorean, you can bet that will impact your future a whole lot more.

Coast City

Location: Midway between San Francisco and LA

Where does it appear? The Green Lantern universe

Locals: Regular people and a space cop or two.

Dangers: This poor city looks nuclear disaster square in the face. It was destroyed in a nuclear explosion in the mid-1990s and magically restored a few years back. But who can say how long that's going to last?

Bludhaven

Location: Gotham's suburb

Where does it appear? Batman universe

Locals: Family folk commuting into Gotham.

Dangers: Turned into a post-nuclear wasteland, then ground zero for the anti-life equation outbreak that led to humanity becoming mindless zombie drones. So it attracts serious outbreaks and attacks as opposed to the smaller but more frequent Gotham City crime waves.

Black Falls Community

Location: Classified

Where does it appear? Robert Rodriguez's movie Shorts

Locals: The families of Black Box Industries.

Dangers: Besides the usual bullies, the products from Black Box industries seem to make all the inhabitants a little bit more dangerous. Then there's that rainbow rock that the kids have where they can turn you into a dung beetle just by wishing it. So slightly dangerous if in the wrong hands.

Shorts takes place in a private town where a little kid stumbles across a rainbow rock that makes dreams come true. I actually think this film looks cute and is a welcome step away from movies aimed at kids that are all flash and no wit.

Plus, James Spader is playing the evil corporate guy, and I've loved him since he was a smarmy rich kid always putting down the girl from the wrong side of the tracks. Shorts, which comes out August 7th, looks like a lot of fun and I hope it challenges other writers (Rodriguez also wrote this script) to think past "Hey let's make talking guinea pigs and chipmunks."

[via Nickelodeon]

The Pack

Twitch pointed out a few highly disturbing stills from the French film The Pack, and holy hell if that monster doesn't make me yearn for more GDT pictures. The FX are from the same company that worked on Mutants and The Horde, and I know you've all quite enjoyed what we've seen from those pictures thus far. The official synopsis is:

In the middle of a snowy no man's land, Charlotte picks up Max, a hitchhiker; they stop in a truck-stop restaurant, and when Max doesn't come back from the bathroom, Charlotte starts looking for him in vain. She decides to return during the night but gets kidnapped by the bartender, La Spack, who turns out to be Max's mother and needs to feed her kids, 'The Pack', a bunch of blood lusting ghouls.

Sounds delightful, plus it's about time we threw some new insane mothers into the mix.

Hissss

Hissss shows you what happens when you bring back a beautiful snake lady, and introduce her to modern day culture. I'm guessing it all ends in tears (and full lady snake belly). Can't wait to see the trailer, as Mallika Sherawat is absolutely dazzling. It should be fun to turn on the super sexy charm on unexpected, horny, fellas.

Primal

Aussie horror film Primal is giving us the gross-out chills. Its been ages since we've paused a trailer and said, "What the hell is that?" The plot is this: A group of kids head out to the countryside looking for aboriginal art painted on the sides of rocks. What they find is either a demonic possession or virus that turns each member into a fanged ancient zombie/vampire creature. Quiet Earth directed us towards the brutally graphic trailer.

Anyone have a clue what this is? I really hope it's an evil shrimp and not what that lady was cutting into her belly for, yeach.

Finally, here is a short about finding love in the stars... I think. Maybe. Whatever, it's pretty and made me think about nighttime picnics, astrology (ahem let me explain like lovers and cosmos and fate), as well as astronomy and nerds getting freaky. Plus, it's very well done.

Parallelostory from impactist on Vimeo.

In Black Falls all the houses are identical and everyone works for the corporation Black Box. Main character discovers a magical rock from space - or something like that - that grants wishes. But we all know that wishes are never what they you expect. Shorts will be out in theaters August 7th.

Mutants:
Check out the latest trailer for David Morley's French film Mutants, where one pregnant woman has to fight off her rapidly changing boyfriend. It actually looks pretty gory, so I'm quite psyched.

Mutants

via Quiet Earth.

Zombies of Mass Destruction:
The latest zombie picture, which has nothing to do with the ZMD comics or ZMD movie adaptation, is from Kevin Hamedani and focuses in on what happens with a little island city gets overrun with zombies. It looks like, despite all the limb hacking and skin gnawing, this film will actually follow cultural and political intolerance between the island inhabitants - which could just be awful if they try and teach everyone wholesome values along with the zombie fighting, but we'll have to wait and see.

Meet Meline:
Twitch pointed out this beautiful little short from French CG artist Virginie Goyons and Sebastien Labanon. Check out the tiny trailer for the short - the little girl is captivating. The little lady supposedly uncovers an alien life form in her house, but don't worry - it looks nothing like Mac and Me.

MEET MELINE (2009) - TRAILER from Sebastien LABAN on Vimeo.

Sleep Dealer:
And finally, here are two clips from Alex Rivera's Sleep Dealer, which pops up all over theaters in the US on April 17th. The drama follows the future of labor laws when the US builds a giant fence around the country and contracts hired hands in from Mexico via robot Avatars.

Kenny Starfighter: Kenny Begins
This Swedish comedy takes place in the Hero Galaxy Academy, where our anti-hero Kenny is a Hero-in-training. But of course, he's miserable at the occupation. Kenny's parents know this, and give him an ultimatum: finish Hero School or become a hairdresser. Things go haywire, and big Kenny ends up on our Earth and befriends local nerd Pontus. Unfortunately for them both, Pontus absorbs superpowers and now it's up to Kenny to protect him from space bounty hunters and bullies. It's chesseballtastic and I love it. We'll keep you updated on release dates, but as of right now it's only being released in Sweden.

Captain Coulier (Space Explorer)
This is the first time I've met a depressed captain in space. I've seen horny, stupid and angry, but I've never met a boss like Captain Coulier, someone so bored with their space existence that they take the fun out of lightspeed. Check out the entire short for Captain Coulier below.

Book Of Blood


First up from movies that I'm anxious to hear more about from the IMAGINE Film Festival is the Book Of Blood, based on Clive Barker's short stories. The festival synopsis is below, but we can't get over the picture above.

The dead have highways. Ghost trains and dream carriages run across the wasteland behind our lives. There are intersections. Sometimes, when the traffic gets heavy, that's where the world of the dead spills over into our world. Book of Blood is about such an intersection: a house where something evil once happened and where the dead now want to have their story heard. Psychic investigator Mary Florescu and medium Simon McNeal read the signs they find written on a very gruesome page.

From Inside


This post-apocalyptic tripped-out CG animation from John Bergin is devastatingly beautiful. In a bleak future, the main character Cee is juxtaposed against a crew of 2D CG renderings. Here is the full description from the festival.:

In the near future, highly pregnant Cee is travelling in a battered steam train through a bleak, post-apocalyptic landscape while mourning her lost husband. There are plenty of threats along the way: war, famine and frightening diseases are gunning for all living beings. Where is the journey headed?

IMAGINE Film Festival 2009 is held in Amsterdam during April 16th through the 25th.

This 25 million dollar movie, gobbled up by MGM, is being directed by Robert Moniot, who is no stranger to low-rent spoofs. In 2001 the director created Pearl Harbor II: Pearlmageddon, which I've included below. So watch and judge, does Moniot have what it takes to take a crack at the big-shot movies? Or should we just discontinue this genre by burying all of its writers alive? The entire title is called 2012-ish: The Day The Earth Bent Over and I hope and pray that it ends the reign of bad sight-gag comedies, opening the door for a higher class of parody, Airplane style.

The official synopsis is:

A brilliant young scientist named Tom Mahoney fights to save the planet from a multitude of catastrophes that threaten mankind - in spite of the idiots that keep getting in his way: A bumbling President, a manic-depressive NASA shuttle commander, and a sexy reporter who can't keep her clothes on.

Fingers crossed, people. Until then, enjoy Pearlmageddon:

[Via Quiet Earth]

We found an adorable little short about two boys who stumble across a magical toaster that turns ordinary breads into solid gold! The Toaster That Toasted the Golden Toast was written and directed by Danny Bourque and can be viewed in its entirety here. We grabbed a few fun pics below.

In other funny scifi indie news, we've got the trailer for Thor At The Bus Stop (Thanks to Quiet Earth for pointing out this little gem). Don't let the generic indie guitar music fool you, this looks like quite a little cutie. The film follows Thor, the Norse God, on his last day on Earth, as he knows he must die to save the planet. On his final day, the fearless warrior traverses about a little suburb meeting people and causing a chain reaction through each character.

Thor At The Bus Stop Trailer:

And finally, feast your eyes on the amazing new trailer from Russian scifi epic Inhabited Island. This is how you make a space movie: Find a pretty boy, put him in space, and then get him all dirty and angry. In Inhabited Island Maxim Kammerer crashlands on a planet wasted by nuclear destruction and ruled by unknown "fathers" who govern with mind-control towers.

Patching Up The Wounded Robot Troops in "Field Surgeons":

Two Robots Get Lost In The Field In "Virgins:"

The Final Battle: The Robots Get A New Foe In "Oz Part 2:"

The whole Robots Vs. Dragons series is over at Super Deluxe.