Captain Kirk velvet painting from The Velvet Store

Admiral Ackbar velvet painting from eBay auction.

Velvet Yoda painting for sale here, for just $1,500. Cheap!

Velvet Yoda Elvis painting, from BoingBong

Unicorns in space, from BoingBoing!

Star Wars poster on black velvet, from Mike Jackiw.

U.S.S. Enterprise on black velvet — sorry this is so low-res, but I had to include it. From Who Would Buy That? via Site Du Jour.

Chewbacca, plus weird creepy angel heads, on black velvet. From Brancusi7 on Flickr.

Baby Princess Leia on black velvet, from Bonnie Burton at the Star Wars Blog. (Thanks Bonnie!)

Admiral Ackbar (again!) From Indignico Inc. on Flickr.

Unicorn on the Moon! From Indignico Inc. on Flickr.

Wesley Crusher! As presented to Wil Wheaton. From Indignico Inc. on Flickr.

The Winchester Bros. From Indignico Inc. on Flickr.

A Sleestak, in contemplation. From Indignico Inc. on Flickr.

The Joker. From Indignico Inc. on Flickr.

Kim Jong Il and another Sleestak (why??) From Indignico Inc. on Flickr.

[via Superhero Hype!]

The Hollywood Reporter suggests that Guggenheim's involvement was always intended to be temporary, and that he was assigned to the new series "[b]ecause of Goyer's limited hands-on TV series experience," something that has now apparently changed with the first half of the first season under his belt. The co-creator of the series (with Star Trek alum Brannon Braga, whom he worked with on the dear departed alien invasion series Threshold), Goyer will now act as showrunner as well as executive producer for the season's remaining "back nine" episodes. What this means for his commitments to movie projects like SuperMax or the much-rumored Dark Knight sequel remain to be seen.

Marc Guggenheim leaving 'FlashForward' [Hollywood Reporter]

Here's a list of all the movies with production budgets of $170 million and over, for the past ten years. (We chose the threshold of $170 million because there were a ton of movies clustered around the $150 million-$160 million mark.) Movies that failed to make back their budget at the U.S. box office are underlined.

2009:

Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince: $250 million

Avatar: $237 million (according to AP)

Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen: $225 million (according to NY Post)

Terminator Salvation: $200 million

G.I. Joe: The Rise Of COBRA: $175 million

Up: $175 million

2008:

Quantum Of Solace: $230.6 million

Prince Caspian: $225.6 million

Iron Man: 186.5 million

Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull: $185.5 million

The Dark Knight: $185.5 million

Wall-E: $180.5 million

2007:

Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End: $317.4 million

Spider-Man 3: $272.9 million

The Golden Compass: His Dark Materials: $213.4 million

Rush Hour 3: $187.4 million

2006:

Superman Returns: $295.3 million

Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest: $223.1 million

X-Men: The Last Stand: $209.3 million

Poseidon: $171.3 million

2005:

King Kong: $232.5 million

Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion The Witch & The Wardrobe: $197.6 million

Sahara: $176.8 million

Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire: $150 million (2005 dollars)

2004:

Spider-Man 2: $232.2 million

Troy: $199.9 million

Van Helsing: $182.8 million

The Polar Express: $186.6 million

Alexander: $175.4 million

2003:

Terminator 3: $238.4 million

The Matrix: Reloaded: $176.7 million

Master And Commander: $175.6 million

The Matrix: Revolutions: $175.6 million

2000:

The Perfect Storm: $175.6 million

1999:

Wild Wild West: $221 million

The World Is Not Enough: $173.3 million

The 13th Warrior: $206.8 million

Notes: All figures are in 2009 dollars, adjusted for inflation. These figures are just production budgets, and are based on the most accurate figures we could find. They don't include marketing budgets. And of course, many of the films which failed to break even at the U.S. box office did make a profit when you factor in international box office.

Conclusions:

There hasn't been a movie as expensive as Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End since 2007, so you could argue that, over all, movies are not getting more expensive. However, after a few years where there were four mega-budgeted movies per year, the last two years have each seen six movies with budgets over $170 million (in inflation-adjusted dollars.) And as we mentioned above, this year had the most movies costing $200 million or more of any year, with next year likely to see even more films over $200 million.

And the listing above doesn't reflect this fact, but we also found a steep rise in the number of movies costing around $150 million every year — this seems to be the safe point for a film that is expected to do well, but may not be a blockbuster. Films like X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Batman Begins, Star Trek and many others all have production budgets in the magic $150 million zone.

At the same time, Hollywood seems slightly better at picking winners lately. We haven't had a year where most of the hugely expensive movies failed to make back their budget at the U.S. box office since 2004, when two historical epics, The Polar Expressand Van Helsing all bombed. Or 2003, when one of two Matrix sequels underperformed, along with Terminator 3 and Master And Commander.

One thing jumps out at me: There were apparently no budget busting movies in 2000, 2001 or 2002. Apparently the first X-Men movie, which came out in 2000, had a budget of only about $75 million. And the Star Wars prequels, hideous though they were, were apparently on the cheap side, costing around $120 million each (in non-adjusted dollars.)

Why would this be? Well, look at the three big-budget movies from 1999. Notice anything the three of them have in common? Hmmm... Other mega-expensive bombs in the late 1990s include Speed 2: Cruise Control, Lethal Weapon 4 and, of course, Waterworld. The only mega-budget movies to make money in the latter half of the 1990s were Armageddon and Titanic.

Sources: Know Your Money, Forbes.com, Listphobia, The Numbers, IMDB, Box Office Mojo, Wikipedia, and other sources as cited.

Inception:

Someone who claims to have read the whole screenplay for Christopher Nolan's "architecture of the mind" thriller posted a review online — and several salt mines worth of grains of salt are probably indicated. The synopsis is vastly different from the other dribs and drabs we've learned so far, and sounds a bit outlandish to boot. At the same time, you just never know — and I remember dismissing a spot-on accurate summary of The Dark Knight as a fake months before the movie came out.

In any case, the lucky (or lying) reviewer says that far from being about stepping into people's dreams for espionage purposes, as we've reported previously, Inception is actually about using the mind to travel to any point in space. A man named Jacob Hastley has recently become paraplegic, and he considers killing himself — but instead he discovers a connection between the human mind and space. Since both space and the mind's capacity are infinite (they are?), you can create a doorway from your mind into any point in space.

So Jacob discovers a "thought algorithm" that lets him travel to any point in the universe, without actually traveling. He visits other solar systems, and even other galaxies, and it's groovy. Then he discovers that other people already know how to do this mind-traveling thing, and they're 150 percent smarter than average humans because they use more of their brain capacity. These other travelers are aware of Jacob's travels, and Jacob has to find the truth behind the origins of the universe (hence "Inception") before the other travelers catch up to him.

The supporting cast includes Lisa, a genius and Jacob's ex-wife who dumped him after he was injured, but who shows up again right after his first trip. Plus Kansas, a dog whisperer who connects in an unearthly way with her animals, Tark, a 37-year-old man who seems to have a wisdom beyond his years, and Isabell, a blind woman who will stop at nothing to see again. So... what do you think? Do we call in TrekMovie's Senator Vreenak?

Update: Apparently it was an April Fool's prank. Oh well. [Script Shadow, thanks Ryan!]

Batman 3:

Have we already mentioned a dozen times before that Aaron Eckhart says Harvey Dent died at the end of The Dark Knight? Here's one more for luck. [MTV]

Surrogates:

Just how badly do you want to see some kick-ass robot-fighting new footage from Surrogates? Badly enough to sit through a music video by the band Breaking Benjamin? If so, then here ya go. The song is pretty dreadful, but the scenes from the movie make it look pretty darn amazing. [Thanks Mike!]

Jennifer's Body:

Director Karen Kusama explains what appealed to her about this movie's script:

I really, really loved the fact that it had this subverted fairytale kind of structure where in the end it's Needy who has to save Chip, save herself and deal with Jennifer. That she really has to become an adult over the course of the movie and that was powerful to me. I know the movie plays like a crazy, fun genre film, but I hope that there's something a little bit emotionally richer.

A tragedy befalls the town, and the townsfolk find a song to unify them in their grief. And there's a great moment where we see Jennifer cupping blood out of a torn-open torso. [ShockTillYouDrop]

Supernatural:

Tired of Sam and Dean ripping each other to pieces? Then there's good news. Eric Kripke says season five is about "building Sam and Dean back up in a way that makes them older, sadder, wiser, and, ultimately, stronger. It's funny, we've been feeling in many ways that this is the most optimistic season of Supernatural we've ever done. Because even though the exterior circumstances are a massive cluster f–k, internally, the boys aren't tearing each other apart every episode. It's more like, ‘Hey, maybe we'll lose, but, dammit, let's go down swinging.'" [EW]

Fringe:

The question with Charlie isn't so much whether he's going, but when. (And I think this means in which episode he'll leave, and it's not some kind of hint that Charlie will be time-traveling.) [EW]

Another combined Bones/Fringe promo:

FlashForward:

A new clip from the pilot, in which people start to realize those blackouts weren't just blackouts. Plus a few promos I don't think we've shown you before.

House:

House has "steamy goings-on" with she-who-shall-not-be-named in the season premiere, but Huddy is far from over — House and Cuddy have an intense attraction, but it's as much intellectual and spiritual as sexual. Also, when House, Wilson and Cuddy go on a business trip in episode seven, Lucas tags along. [EW]

Warehouse 13:

A sneak peek from next Tuesday's episode, where Myka has to save her dad (Michael Hogan!) from a sinister artifact.

Heroes:

Ready to pick at that scab again? Here are a bevy of photos from the two-part season premiere, "Orientation" and "Jump, Push, Fall." (I guess "orientation" refers to Claire going to college as well as, possibly, her much-discussed lesbian-until-graduation-ness. Must resist the temptation to make a joke about matriculation.) [Herosite]

Smallville:

Tom Welling explains that going into season nine, Clark has lost faith in his old view of the human race:

Well, in the past Clark has always been the reluctant hero. Everyone is telling him what he has to do and he doesn't want to do it. With the events of Jimmy's death [in May's season finale], along with the eight seasons building up, he realizes that his view on humanity has been wrong. And he goes to Jor-El and says, ‘I messed up, what do I do now?' Jor-El takes him in, and Clark starts his training. His training ultimately is what will prepare him to be who we all know he's going to be in the future. So it's him spending time at the Fortress of Solitude downloading all this information. At the same time, information is given to him that the fate of the world depends on Lois Lane's survival. So Clark has to struggle between his destiny and his humanity. Especially in the first few episodes it gets in the way of the training, because he just can't help but deal with humans and help people, when all Jor-El wants him to do is shut everyone off, forget about them, rise above them and be the hero he needs to be.

And Clark wears the "S" symbol on his chest, the sign of the House of El, as a means of establishing a "call sign" for himself. He's no longer the red-blue blur, just the Blur. In episode two, through a contrivedcomplicated set of circumstances caused by "interesting lighting", Lois gets a good look at the symbol on Clark's chest, but doesn't see his face. Clark has an opportunity to step forward and show her his face, but chooses not to. And here's a new pic. [TV Guide Magazine via OSCK]

Chuck:

Angie Harmon wants Captain Awesome dead because he's a superspy now. Or something. [EW]

Eastwick:

I don't think we've featured this sneak peek and promo from the "Desperate Housewitches" show:

And it's not much of a spoiler to say this show is "cheesy and dull" according to E! Online. The devil is a douche instead of debonair. Sara Rue is wasted in the background, at least in the pilot. [E! Online]

Additional reporting by Alexis Brown.

We know, we know: the Hollywood development cycle is a slow, lumbering beast. It can take anywhere from a couple years (for a "fast-track" project) to a decade for a movie to see the light of day. But given how many people were saying, this time last year, that The Dark Knight had changed everything, you'd expect there to be at least some films in development, if not in pre-production or actually filming.

And there don't seem to be any movies in "the pipeline" that seem consciously influenced by TDK. Here are a few possible contenders:

• Super-Max. Written by TDK co-writer David S. Goyer, this film has obvious elements in common with Knight. From the scraps we've gleaned, it's about the snotty trust-fund superhero Green Arrow, who gets sent to prison, probably for a crime he didn't commit. And he has to escape from the world's toughest, most advanced prison by teaming up with a host of DC Comics supervillains. Gritty dark action? Check. Moral ambiguity? Check. Heroes who cross the line? Pretty much. Too bad that every time we hear about this film, it sounds more and more like it's stuck in limbo.

• 

• Superman Returns (Again). Every time someone mentions doing another Superman movie in the wake of 2006's underwhelming Superman Returns, they say it'll feature a "dark" take on the Last Son Of Krypton, influenced by Christopher Nolan's take on Batman. Says Warner Bros. president Jeff Robinov, "We're going to go dark, to the extent that the character will allow." More recently, rumored Super-director James McTeigue said something similar. But this "darker" Man Of Steel movie is still stuck in limbo, and Warner Bros. execs told a courtroom that they don't see much box-office potential in another Superman movie. (Granted, they were trying to get out of having to pay Superman's creators' heirs tons of money for Hollywood rights.) In fact, when they talk about doing a "darker" Superman movie, it's usually said with an air of "Well, nobody really wants to make a Superman movie, but if you put a gun to our heads, we'd do a darker one." The confusing copyright situation with Superman means they have to start development on a new Superman film in the next few years, but assuming Warners gets more enthusiasm for the cinematic Man Of Steel again, they'll probably rediscover their love for his fun, escapist side.
• 
  
  
• The Fantastic Four. News sites started claiming last spring that Fox was considering rebooting this super-family series as a darker, "less bubble-gum" version. And now, just the other day, Fox announced it was definitely rebooting the Fantastic Four. On the other hand, they tapped the decidedly non-dark Akiva Goldsman (Batman And Robin, I Am Legend) to produce the new movie, and
  Michael Greene, writer for Smallville, Heroes and the upcoming Green Lantern movie, will write the script. I am having a hard time imagining that team creating a "dark" FF movie. Plus everyone assumes Fox's sudden interest in moving forward with Reed Richards & Co. was motivated by Disney's purchase of Marvel, and the fact that Disney reportedly wants to take back all of the Marvel properties' movie rights as soon as outside deals expire. If Fox wants to impress Disney, a misguided "dark" Fantastic Four doesn't seem a likely approach.
• 
  
  
  
• Shazam. It's hard to believe, but yes, they were talking about a dark Shazam movie in the wake of The Dark Knight. This is the story of a little boy who discovers a magic cave full of statues of the Deadly Sins, plus an old wizard who teaches him a magic world that will transform him into a big galoot whose nickname is The Big Red Cheese. And then he fights an evil mad-science worm with the help of a talking tiger. Actually, screenwriter John August and director Peter Segal wanted to do a fun, upbeat take on Shazam, but Warner Bros. wanted something more like The Dark Knight. So August rewrote his fun script to make it darker:

  This wasn't "Big, with super powers" anymore. It was Black Adam versus Captain Marvel, with a considerable push into dark territory and liminal badlands like Nanda Parbat. It wasn't the action-comedy I'd signed on to write, but it was a movie I could envision getting made.

  But then Warners pulled the plug on the Shazam movie altogether — remember how I said the enthusiasm for "dark" stories often seems to coincide with a lack of enthusiasm for making the movies at all? And now Shazam is back on track, with Bill Birch writing and comics scribe Geoff Johns pitching in. Says Variety, "The studio is now looking to go back to the original DC Comics source material for inspiration." Going back to the original comics source material is slang for "not fucking it up with a dark reimagining."

So what happened? There are a few theories.

Watchmen happened. You could argue that The Dark Knight changed everything, and then Watchmen changed it all back. Zack Snyder's movie version of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' classic graphic novel was everything the studios were saying they wanted: dark, controversial, morally gray, challenging — and it didn't resonate that well with audiences. It had a so-so opening weekend, followed by a steep drop-off. (Sample headline from the L.A. Times: "Watchmen is going largely unwatched.")

Another "dark" movie that came out this summer, Terminator Salvation, did similarly badly. (It wasn't strictly a superhero film, but it had superhero-ish themes, and starred Bruce Wayne himself, Christian Bale.) And while Frank Miller's The Spirit was more goofy than dark, it did have a noir-ish look to it and was the handiwork of the original "Dark Knight" reinventer.

Meanwhile, movies like G.I. Joe and Wolverine, which were fluffy and bubbly and only challenged you to avoid giggling at their ridiculous dialogue and acting, did great. Audiences didn't suddenly stop liking braindead fun just because they liked one smart, bleak movie.

Also, the economy happened. Suddenly, people were hurting and depressed, and there were a spate of news stories saying that people in an economic shitstorm want upbeat, happy films. They want escapism and a pick-me-up, not a dreadful reminder that life is full of no-win situations and suffering. Whether that theory is true or not, it's one that seems to have a lot of currency in Hollywood.

And finally, looking back through those articles where execs are saying "I want a dark Shazam! I want a dark Dazzler! America needs a dark Howard The Duck!", I can't help noticing that this is usually accompanied by a lack of enthusiasm for whatever superheroic properties they're discussing. Sure, superheroes are big right now, but not every superhero movie is a huge hit, and characters like Superman and the Fantastic Four have fallen squarely into the second or third tier of big-screen spandex-flexers in the past decade or so.

Execs cast about for ways to make those lame fillies run again, and the "dark" thing is one of the ideas they hit on. But at this point, nobody seems to think "dark" is a cure-all for tired superheroes. At least, let's hope not.

This is, of course, just a teaser, but it does its job - We're curious to see what's behind the seemingly random images (One of which is repeated on the movie's just-launched official site), and wondering whether or not we're feeling underwhelmed by being reminded of The Matrix so much.

[Via] (Thanks, MissMercyStreet!)

As if the grouchy Batman and swimming-pool-appearing Aquaman aren't enough to make you love Medeiros - creator of the webcomic Sopa de Salsicha ("Sausage Soup," if Google's translatobots are to be believed) - there's also his cute take on Star Wars' second-greatest double act to win you over:
Get this man working on a Star Wars comic immediately! Or a Batman comic! Or anything, really.

Parte 1 de 5 (Story continues from there) [Hellatoons]

Savage, created by Street and Smith Publications executive Henry Ralston and editor John Nanovic in response to public interest in their The Shadow character, first appeared in 1933's Doc Savage Magazine (later Doc Savage, Science Detective), in stories written by Lester Dent. The character - who "rights wrongs and punishes evildoers" with a list of skills approaching superhuman standards and his very own Fortress of Solitude before Kal-El thought of getting one - went on to star in radio shows, comic books and even a 1975 movie, but despite his longevity, never quite managed to penetrate the mainstream in the same way as the characters he inspired.

That may all change when Savage returns in November's Batman/Doc Savage Special, announced yesterday by DC Comics. Written by 100 Bullets and Wednesday Comics' Batman strip writer Brian Azzarello, and drawn by Phil Noto, the one-shot special will reintroduce the character through a team-up with the Dark Knight, ahead of Azzarello's First Wave project that will explore Savage and other pulp heroes in a contemporary setting.

Unveiling the Batman/Doc Savage Special [The Source]

On the face of it, it's so ridiculous that there's no chance that it could be true, especially when you trace it back to a story that claims that Cyrus dressed in a Batgirl costume to impress Warner Bros. execs recently. Wasn't that exactly what Sean Young did with Catwoman for Batman Returns, after all?

But there's something so ridiculous about it that we can't help but feel a little scared. After all, even if Warners isn't secretly hoping that Nolan will make the next Batman movie a little more family-friendly, who's to say that Nolan - a man who has cast both Katie Holmes and Scarlett Johansson in his movies, remember - wouldn't think that there's some bizarro artistic value in taking kid star Cyrus and casting her against type in a dark epic about the nature of darkness in heroic evolution as personified by a man dressed as a giant bat...?

Or, to put it another way: Alicia Silverstone didn't end up in Batman and Robin by herself.

[Via]

Hollywood Reporter's Risky Business blog reports that the live action reboot of the popular Japanese cartoon that was being worked on by 20th Century Fox — which had a completed script, courtesy of Justin Marks — is no more, thanks to rights reversion.

Once the rights became available, Atlas Entertainment — namely Dark Knight producer Charles Roven and his Get Smart producing partners Richard Suckle and Steve Alexander - quickly snapped them up, and are developing a brand new version of the character along with Wanted producer Jason Netter. Ted Kopler, another producer involved in the project, admitted that the success of Michael Bay's Transformers movies helped with the decision to grab the movie rights, but described their take as something different:

[U]nlike other robotic action movies, 'Voltron' is the personification of the human spirit, a quality that will set this movie apart.

Wait, "personification of the human spirit"? This is the same Voltron that's a giant robot made up of other robots, right...?

No studio has been announced as being involved with this project yet.

Voltron comes together again [THR Risky Business]

No word just yet on the price, but I'm estimating it will cost one adult human's dignity. While the armor is ridiculous and looked hot on Bale (strange stomach-muscle ridges aside) I'm pretty sure nobody else could pull off this look, let alone on a motorcycle. But if you can afford it — and I'm sure it's coming with a hefty price tag — more power to you.

An Officially Licensed Replica Like No Other is Coming.

- Strong Cordura Mesh Base with Heavy-duty 4 way stretch Spandex
inserts.
- Removable CE Approved Body Armor in both Jacket and Pants
- Highly detailed, removable lightweight interior lining.
- Form Molded Leather and Kevlar Armor Sectons.
- Made from Quality Tanned Cow Hides

- COMING SOON

[Universal Designs via Geekologie]

Perhaps the most damning part of the decision document was the revelation that executives at Warners shared fans' cynicism about Superman's potential (Remember, Warners and DC were the defendants in this case):

Defendants' film industry expert witness, Mr. [John] Gumpert, termed Superman as "damaged goods," a character so "uncool" as to be considered passe, an opinion echoed by Warner Bros. business affairs executive, Steven Spira... Indeed, Mr. [Alan] Horn [Warner Bros. President] admitted to being "daunted" by the fact that the 1987 theatrical release of Superman IV had generated around $15 million domestic box office, raising the specter of the "franchise [having] played out."

Almost as surreally, DC and Warners apparently argued to the court that

Superman was equivalent [in terms of public recognition and financial value] to a low-tier comic book character that appeared mostly on radio during the 1930s and 1940s and that has not been seen since a brief television show in the mid-1960s (the Green Hornet); an early 20th century series of books (Tarzan) or a 1930s series of pulp stories (Conan) later intermittently made into comic books and films; or a television, radio, and comic book character from the 1940s and 1950s, much beloved by my father, that long ago rode off into the proverbial sunset with little-to-no exploitation in film or television for decades (The Lone Ranger).

And these are the people in charge of the character?!?

There was, of course, legal value in downplaying Superman's status for WB and DC. But it's hard to shake the sense that even the character's owners don't understand the value and potential of Clark Kent's alter ego, or who (and what) he is and could be. But should we really be surprised, considering that these are the same people behind the pedestrian Smallville and almost-there-but-what-the-hell-is-with-the-stalker-thing Superman Returns?

Superman should, by rights, be up there with Batman. Certainly, he has the longevity and the high-concept, if not the moral ambiguity - and maybe that's one of the problems, that Superman's "goodness," his moral character and status as a reminder of our own potential, puts people off - to match Gotham's broodiest citizen. But what he lacks, and not necessarily for want of trying, is the pop cultural impact that Batman has had; it's not that Batman is necessarily a better character, but he's definitely one who has, at four specific points in the last decades (and, for the most part, in different ways), perfectly synched with the cultural zeitgeist to gain a weird standing as some kind of cultural avatar with a cape.

(Those points, for me, in case you're wondering: The 1960s TV show, which was less to do with Batman as a character as comic books as a medium, taking the "low art" trappings of the character and milking them for all their worth as pop art was doing the same. 1986's The Dark Knight Returns and 2008's The Dark Knight, which both used the character to embody and express paranoia and fear about politics and society in the real world, and 1989's Batman movie, which showed the power of branding, making the movie and the character foremost in everyone's minds by sheer force of making sure that no-one could turn anywhere without seeing a reminder of it.)

Superman, by comparison, is almost never allowed that level of contemporaneous value by the people telling his (mass media) stories, instead finding himself portrayed as either an anachronism due to his values or a naive outsider who doesn't fully understand the darker side of human nature (I have to separate comics from this; many comic creators such as Geoff Johns, Kurt Busiek and Grant Morrison have tried to demonstrate how Superman can and should work in modern, cynical society); I don't know whether it's that those making the stories think that that's how everyone else views Superman and that they should match that, or whether they see the character as someone out of step with modern times, but simply by taking that approach, they limit the impact Superman can have, and prevent him from becoming the success he should be.

(There's also a third route, as Bryan Singer's Superman Returns demonstrated: Superman as Jesus. But the problem with that is that, in order for the story to work as a superhero story, he has to stop turning the other cheek at some point. If you dropped a couple of "I am floating outside your window" scenes and added some more scenes of derring-do, Returns would've been a much better movie.)

Here's the thing: I firmly believe that now should be Superman's time. As The Dark Knight took all of our Bush-era worries and concerns and made them into an action movie, so should Superman be around right now to embody Obama's (still-resonant, even a year after campaigning) message of hope and positive change and being the best we can be. Instead of using Superman's inherent positivity against him, or thinking that it pushes him out of step with today's world, focus on the way in which he personifies that which we want to believe in, and the people that we want to be. If we elected a president because we believed in the ideals of Yes We Can and Hope and Change and all those buzzwords, I refuse to believe that we wouldn't want to see a movie that sold us the same message but with added punching, flying and action.

(I've said it before, and I'll say it again; Star Trek's success comes as much from it being positive and colorful and optimistic escapism as it being a good movie, this time around. Superman has those qualities in spades.)

Is Superman damaged goods? To an extent, yes, but he shouldn't be; there's nothing wrong with the character, or the concept, when done right, and I think that the audience is more ready for what he's selling now than they have been in years. What damages him most, perhaps, is the attitude from his owners that he's a problem that they don't know how to solve. The first step to stopping him being damaged goods is to stop treating him that way.

For those of you coming to this late, The Middleman was a graphic novel that spawned a television show on ABC Family last year. It followed the adventures of art student Wendy Watson, who takes a temp job that turns out to be an apprenticeship with the Middleman, a mysterious superhero who fights monsters and mad scientists. And the Middleman strikes up an awkward but really sweet flirtation with Wendy's roommate Lacey.

The Forbidden Romance Contingency: Show creator Javier Grillo-Marxuach says he balked at having any kind of romance between MM and Lacey. "I was only willing to make it a joke in the pilot," but insisted that would be the end of it. The pilot, incidentally, was 90 percent the same as the first issue of his graphic novel, laying out the characters as broad archetypes: the stoic, quirky hero, the snarky art student and her idealistic roommate.

But this is what happens when you develop a TV show, Grillo-Marxuach says. You bring that story that you created sitting in a room by yourself into a room full of other writers, and they start putting in their own ideas and influences. And you bring in actors like Natalie Morales (Wendy Watson), Matt Keeslar (The Middleman) and Brit Morgan (Lacey Thornfield) and they have bring their own stuff to the characters. One of the things that really jumps out at you, if you read the graphic novel (which you should) and then watch the TV series (which you most definitely should) is how much more complex and nuanced the characters become. Grillo-Marxuach says that's a result of working on the characters in a collaborative setting.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.And Grillo-Marxuach says he has "boundaries" in his own writing ability, stuff he can't or doesn't do. So when the other writers on the show started pushing for Lacey and MM to go on a date, Grillo-Marxuach pushed back. "But the writers in the writer's room kept insisiting... It's weird to be a showrunner at loggerheads with the writing room." He objected for several reasons: "He's older than she is, he's Wendy's boss and an authority figure." But in the end, he gave in, and that led to some of the more poignant moments in the show, and deepened the characters immensely. "If it was just me writing this in my room by miself doing every episode you'd never have seen that," says Grillo-Marxuach. "I'm not a megalmanical show runner, and I like it when people make my work better."

The Superhero Comedy Initiative: We just sat down and watched most of the show's run once again on DVD — the DVD box set comes out July 28, incidentally — and it's striking how much the show feels like a straight-up comedy when you watch a bunch of episodes in a row. Grillo-Marxuach is happy for people to view The Middleman as a comedy. "It was always a comedy, in that it always riffs on popular culture, and it always had this very specific pattery way of talking."

"If you want to send a message to the world — and I don't know that the show was a big message show — it's better to do it by making people laugh than by being preachy," Grillo-Marxuach says. The Middleman "was always a very sweet-souled show, and it had a lot of heart. It has a lot of pity towards villains. It says that evil is little people doing a lot of work not to be good, even though being good is probably easier."

And as we talked about last summer at Comic Con, a big part of the show's lightness is in response to the fetishization of darkness in genre entertainment of the past 20 years, shows and movies which insist that life is hard and full of struggle, and heroism will destroy your life. In response, "an affirmation of the possibility of joy and accomplishment is very much what the show is all about. Of course, my show got canceled after 12 episodes, and The Dark Knight made $600 billion," notes Grillo-Marxuach.

The Unlikely Terry Nation In-Joke Alert:The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.The fact that The Middleman is such an upbeat show makes it even funnier that — SPOILER ALERT — the unfilmed final episode is full of tiny references to Blake's 7, the famously depressing British science fiction series. I would list them, but we'd be here all day. "I was trying to find the show that has the most depressing series finale ever" to reference in The Middleman's finale, says Grillo-Marxuach. That unfilmed final episode, of course, is coming out as a graphic novel in time for Comic Con, and there'll be a reading of the episode's script, featuring the original cast, on Thursday at Comic Con. And for those who missed it, here's the official description:

Who is The Middleman's long-lost love? Can Lacey Thornfield ever forget her requited but never-acted-upon attraction to The Middleman? Is Manservant Neville a beneficent plutocrat or an evil madman with a nefarious plan for world domination? Will Wendy Watson and Tyler Ford ever find time for one another? Will Wendy Watson ever wear a slave girl costume? All your burning questions will be answered - and all your burning answers will be questioned - in this season-ending, series-concluding installment of The Middleman.

And at the right is a sneak peek at the graphic novel's final image of MM, from original artist Les McClain.

Anyway, all of those Blake's 7 references are there to set up a downer ending, but the graphic novel's actual ending is not that bleak, says Grillo-Marxuach. In fact, the graphic novel version of the series finale has a more upbeat ending than the actual episode would have had if it had been filmed as planned. By the time the show's creators were working on the 13th episode, they were exhausted from doing the first 12 and struggling with "big budget obstacles," and their beloved colleague Neil Levin had just died. (The show's 12th and final episode is dedicated to Levin.) But since Grillo-Marxuach had some time to rework the script slightly between the show's cancellation and the graphic novel coming out, "I found a way to end it on a more optimistic note... Had we shot it, it would have had more weariness."

So as Grillo-Marxuach puts it, "In our world, Blake is not evil, and the Federation is destroyed." (This led to us having a huge debate over whether Blake is evil in the Blake's 7 series finale.)

The "Never Say Never Again" Potential: So if the DVD box set sells a billion copies, could The Middleman still return in some form? Absolutely, says Grillo-Marxuach. "The nice thing is, this happened with Firefly, it happened with Futurama, it happened with Family Guy. There's a history of cult shows being found and further exploited by the corporations, in a good way."

So this seems like a great moment to plug the DVDs, which are coming out July 28 on Shout Factory. We'll post a review of the box set later, but they're already available for preorder at Amazon.com. And it's never too early to do your Christmas shopping. You never know when your local shopping mall will be overrun with gun-toting gorillas, after all.

Fandango has reported that advance sales for the sixth outing of Warner Bros' version of the magical hero are outstripping those for Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen, which barely fell short of The Dark Knight's 2008 record, with sales for the movie currently making up 65% of all Fandango sales. Whether it's audience desire for something magical in these troubled times, box office frenzy brought on by the success of Transformers and Ice Age, or a mix of positive reviews and a return to the PG certification, there's every chance to that Harry Potter could surpass Batman's $203million opening weekend.

Of course, there's no guarantee that advance sales will translate into final box office success; initial glee based on Watchmen's pre-release sales failed to lead to bigger boffo bucks once the movie opened, and Fandango may be skewing facts by offering a free download of a song from the Potter soundtrack with every advance ticket sale.

What do you think? Will this end up being the summer of Harry, or will Transformers' Bayhem end up reigning supreme?

'Harry Potter' Outpacing 'Transformers' in Advance Ticket Sales on Fandango [PR Newswire]

In its first three days in the US, Michael Bay's sequel has made $125.9 million, leading some industry watchers to predict a 5-day total of over $190 million - up $30 million from what it was initially expected to take. If the movie's momentum - which has bypassed the cool reception it received from critics - keeps up, it's possible that it may make much more than $190 million... and break last year's Dark Knight record of $203.8 million. Box office estimates for Saturday aren't in yet, but even at $190 million, it'll be the second most-successful 5 day opening in US box office history (Even if it magically made no money on Saturday or Sunday, it'd still be in the top 15).

(Memo to Chris Nolan: Make Batman Vs. The Transformers as your Dark Knight sequel. The world will be yours.)

'Transformers' pulls in $36.7 on Friday [Variety]

The two films lying ahead of Michael Bay's giant robot sequel are 2005's Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith and last year's The Dark Knight, demonstrating that genre sequels are apparently the way to go get a big opening number at the box office. Transformers' haul was only $2.5 million below The Dark Knight's $18.5 million, and the two movies flip positions when it comes to IMAX screens - Transformers took that particular top spot with $1 million, against Dark Knight's previous record of $675,000.

Coming so soon after last weekend's stunning international debut, the question is now whether the movie will turn out to be critic- and word-of-mouth-proof, and if so, whether we're looking at the movie that's going to dominate the summer.

'Transformers' rakes in $16 million [Hollywood Reporter]

Last week rumors leaked that Nolan couldn't find a story for the third Batman movie, since Heath Ledger's Joker was supposed to continue on as the villain in the third feature. In an interview with MTV, Bale seemed to confirm that rumor, stating:

"I truly don't know that we're going to see another Batman movie."

When asked if that saddened him, because Chris doesn't feel like doing it, Bale answered somberly:

I wouldn't see Chris as being so whimsical as that. It would be purely that he would need to find a story that is good enough. And if he can't find one then it might not happen.

But finally, and we think maybe the reason for Bale's sour disposition, is the question, "Would you work with another director?" To which Bale skirted and said:

I don't even know if there will be a third so I'm a step away from even having to have to consider that.

Oh silly Bale. The Dark Knight printed a small South American country's annual money supply for Warner Brothers, you'll be in this film even if they decide to let Brett Ratner direct it. But that's what you're really scared of, isn't it? Hey maybe you could rewrite the next Bat too, if it comes down to it.

Speaking of bad rewrites, at the press junket, Bale also revealed that no-one has been talking to him about a Terminator 5. I wonder why?

The Key Art Awards, held every year by the Hollywood Reporter, recognize the contributions made by the people behind the trailers, posters and other movie marketing efforts that often get taken for granted. This year's batch of winners was dominated by last year's Batman flick, which won eight awards including "Best Theatrical Poster", "Best Theatrical TV Spot" and "Best Teaser Print," but overall, comic book movies were well-represented, with Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, The Spirit and Wanted all coming away with awards. In addition, Spider-Man director Sam Raimi was recognized with a Visionary Award for being a filmmaker who inspires marketers (A dubious honor, perhaps).

(Non-comic book, but equally io9, Wall-E also picked up more than a few awards, including "Best Animation/Family Trailer," even if it was robbed for animation by Kung Fu Panda.)

While we're always excited to see comic book movies get their due, we're wondering whether or not The Onion's take on the importance of marketing is getting ever-closer to finally coming true... and also whether The Spirit should've just stayed as a trailer in the end.

'Knight' notches 8 wins at Key Art Awards [Hollywood Reporter]

Judd Winick, who'll be taking over the writing duties of the regular Batman series in June, told Comic Book Resources that he plans to stick squarely to punching and kicking when it comes to his aims for the character:

We're talking three-issue arcs, four-issue arcs where it's Batman whooping it up, kicking ass, getting his ass kicked and coming back and kicking some more ass. This is a superhero book and it's one of the things that I enjoy. I mean, I do enjoy Batman as a masked detective but I myself enjoy Batman beating the living hell out of people in various ways, shapes and forms... This is a "Batman" title. And I don't think it will have any of the social commentary, which I've done maybe five or six times out of 10 years I've written comics. Which apparently, everybody thinks I do in every single issue or something... There's going to be nothing viewed as an after school special in this run of "Batman." There's lots of touchy-feely shit along with the beating up of bad guys. And explosions and dangling from sides of buildings and what not because I like writing humanistic characters but all that crap that everyone usually whines about that I do, I obviously won't be that doing here.

Me, I'm a fan of a Batman who does more than just beat people up, but that's why they make so many Batman comics, so everyone can get the Bat they want, I guess...

Under The Hood With Judd Winick, Pt 1 [Comic Book Resources]

Moore has turned down tons of interview requests lately, but the comics giant did talk to the Guardian newspaper, about his 750,000 word novel Jerusalem among other things. And he gave a new explanation for why he didn't think Watchmen could work as a movie:

There is something about the quality of comics that makes things possible that you couldn't do in any other medium.. Things that we did in Watchmen on paper could be frankly horrible or sensationalist or unpleasant if you were to interpret them literally through the medium of cinema. When it's just lines on paper, the reader is in control of the experience – it's a tableau vivant. And that gives it the necessary distance. It's not the same when you're being dragged through it at 24 frames per second.

Not that he's all that attached to the story anyway - turns out Moore doesn't own a copy of Watchmen, or any of his other writings that he doesn't own the rights to. But even more than his usual diatribe about movies versus comics, there's this lovely quote, which encompasses exactly why Hollywood writers might want to try and create their own original stories instead:

To me, all creativity is magic. Ideas start out in the empty void of your head – and they end up as a material thing, like a book you can hold in your hand. That is the magical process. It's an alchemical thing. Yes, we do get the gold out of it but that's not the most important thing. It's the work itself. That's the reward. That's better than money.

Meanwhile, The Rumpus talks to Michael Uslan, who's owned the movie rights to Batman for the past thirty years. Almost as if he's responding to Moore, Uslan says that in a sense, comic books are "frozen movies. If you look at a comic book, you are seeing the storyboard for a film." And he talks about the thorny issue of film-makers trying to make their movies look as much like the static images of the comic as possible:

I remember in the early days, in some of the early comic book movies, certain white dissolves were used that would try to emulate the look and feel of comic book panel borders. Sometimes they would frame shots in panels or circles that gave it a real comic book feel. With the Batman television show, they always liked to skew the camera and give it a tilted look, and often played with colors and lighting, and many of the comic book-based movies and TV projects over the years, particularly some of the early ones, loved to play with primary colors, reflecting the fact that at that time, all comic books were done at a four-color press. But you could have somebody like a Tim Burton, who, in creating the first serious comic book movie, chose to create an entire universe. As Tim brilliantly said, from the opening frame, Gotham City had to be created in a way that audiences would believe in Gotham City, in order for them to suspend their disbelief and truly believe there could be a guy dressing up as a bat and going out and fighting criminals like the Joker.

He also explains exactly what went happened with Batman Forever and Batman And Robin. (Short version: it's a mixture of paying homage to the 1950s and 1960s versions of the character, and the studios wanting lots of villains with brightly colored costumes, so they could sell toys.) [Thanks to James Tiberius Quirk for the Guardian heads up!]

It's weirdly fitting that The Dark Knight and Watchmen look like they're going to end up serving the same purpose for movies that The Dark Knight Returns and, well, Watchmen served for comics twenty-plus years ago; namely, misdirecting creators into thinking that superheroes have to be "dark" and "realistic" in order to be successful. There's every possibility, of course, that Watchmen's theater bow will end up far lower than expected (That 78% drop this Friday doesn't look good, let's face it) and shift this expectation - just as there's the possibility that Warners and Fox execs are right in assuming that the mainstream movie audience really does just want grumpy, moody superhero movies. But somehow, I doubt both of those possibilities.

That Hollywood wants another Dark Knight is completely understandable, even ignoring the exceptional box office take of the movie; Chris Nolan's second Batman flick was artistic, sincere and adult (even if it was also twice as long as it should've been), and showcased a new way to approach superhero movies without traditional sensationalism and cliche, after all. But that doesn't mean that it needs to become the template for all superhero movies from now on. Part of what made Dark Knight work so well was that the darkness and the stabs at moral ambiguity were entirely in keeping with the world of Batman as we've all come to accept it in recent years. It wasn't an attempt to graft something that didn't belong onto the character - as, I think could be argued, Superman Returns tried to do with the "Lois has moved on/Clark is a stalker" angst that hit such a false note - but an indulging in the greyness that Batman has become increasingly surrounded in since his day-glo '60s TV show heyday.

(The same with Watchmen's grit, which was always in the source text. In fact, there's definitely an argument that what makes Watchmen unsuccessful to some degree - and, of course, there are all manner of arguments over just what that degree may be - are the deviations from the original, whether it be in plot of the slick glossiness that Snyder's movies seem to have no matter what.)

The original two Fantastic Four movies weren't financial failures, per se, but they weren't Spider-Man or X-Men, either; the reason for that, though, wasn't that they were too happy. Creatively, they were... fun enough in a "I'm half-watching them on an airplane because there's nothing else to do" way, perhaps, but they weren't really the Fantastic Four, either. The key to those characters and that series is, ultimately, still in the tone that was established in the first 100 issues of their comic - a strange mix of sentiment, soap opera and invention that, to be honest, is much closer to the Back To The Future movies (or, more obviously, Pixar's The Incredibles) than Fox's previous attempts... and something that's a million miles away from the "dark" reinvisioning that rumors are suggesting that Fox is considering.

(The mind boggles, in a way, at the idea of a dark Fantastic Four franchise; the characters are so amazingly undark - they're called the Fantastic Four and their main nemesis calls himself Doctor Doom, for the love of God; there's a childlike suspension of disbelief necessary to buy into the concept as something other than parody in general, surely? - that I can't really imagine how it would even work for an entire movie never mind the reinvention of a franchise. If it is being seriously considered, it speaks to the assumption that it's a result of desperation to keep movie rights than anything else.)

The key to successful superhero movies, ultimately, is in faith to the spirit of the original (Case in punny point: The Spirit may have shared character names with Will Eisner's comic strip, but little else, and was an artistic failure because of that. Of course, it was a financial failure because it was a terrible movie), but that point - maybe the real lesson of The Dark Knight, especially if taken in tandem with last year's also-successful, but much more playful, Iron Man - is perhaps lost behind the dollar signs that appear in movie executives' eyes whenever Dark Knight is mentioned, particularly in light of all the publicity push of the equally gloomy Watchmen. It's a shame, because the superhero genre - for all its faults - is something with so much more potential than any amount of gritty deconstructionist, "realistic" takes could properly demonstrate, and various characters already headed to the big screen - whether they're Green Lantern, Thor or even Captain America - deserve stories that are much, much bigger than real life.

Lost and The Dark Knight are clear winners in terms of nominations - both get 11 each - but apparently the Academy has gotten Heroes and Battlestar Galactica mixed up, because there's no other explanation for NBC's superhero drama getting more nominations than Sci Fi's amazing space-opera. Well, that or they were really disappointed that Earth was a nuked-out wasteland. My real question about the nominations, though, is how the hell did Gran Torino and Changeling get in there? They're great films, sure, but they're not SF, horror or fantasy...

The awards will be presented June 25th, although the venue is still to be announced. The full list of nominations is:

Science Fiction Film
"The Day the Earth Stood Still" (20th Century Fox)
"Eagle Eye" (Paramount / DreamWorks)
"The Incredible Hulk" (Universal / Marvel)
"Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (Paramount / Lucasfilm)
"Iron Man" (Paramount / Marvel)
"Jumper" (20th Century Fox)

Fantasy Film
"The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" (Walt Disney Studios)
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount)
"Hancock" (Sony)
"The Spiderwick Chronicles" (Paramount)
"Twilight" (Summit Entertainment)
"Wanted" (Universal)

Horror Film
"The Happening" (20th Century Fox)
"Hellboy II: The Golden Army" (Universal)
"The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" (Universal)
"Quarantine" (Sony)
"Splinter" (Magnolia / Magnet)
"The Strangers" (Rogue / Universal)

Action / Adventure / Thriller Film
"Changeling" (Universal)
"The Dark Knight" (Warner Bros.)
"Gran Torino" (Warner Bros.)
"Quantum of Solace" (Sony)
"Traitor" (Overture)
"Valkyrie" (MGM / UA)

Actor
Christian Bale ("The Dark Knight") (Warner Bros.)
Tom Cruise ("Valkyrie") (MGM / UA)
Robert Downey, Jr. ("Iron Man") (Paramount / Marvel)
Harrison Ford ("Indiana Jones & Kingdom of the Crystal Skull") (Paramount / Lucasfilm)
Brad Pitt ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button") (Paramount)
Will Smith ("Hancock") (Sony)

Actress
Cate Blanchett ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button") (Paramount)
Maggie Gyllenhaal ("The Dark Knight") (Warner Bros.)
Angelina Jolie ("Changeling") (Universal)
Julianne Moore ("Blindness") (Miramax)
Emily Mortimer ("Transsiberian") (First Look Studios)
Gwyneth Paltrow ("Iron Man") (Paramount / Marvel)

Supporting Actor
Jeff Bridges ("Iron Man") (Paramount / Marvel)
Aaron Eckhart ("The Dark Knight") (Warner Bros.)
Woody Harrelson ("Transsiberian") (First Look Studios)
Shia LaBeouf ("Indiana Jones & Kingdom of the Crystal Skull") (Paramount / Lucasfilm)
Heath Ledger ("The Dark Knight") (Warner Bros.)
Bill Nighy ("Valkyrie") (MGM / UA)

Supporting Actress
Joan Allen ("Death Race") (Universal)
Judi Dench ("Quantum of Solace") (Sony)
Olga Kurylenko ("Quantum of Solace") (Sony)
Tilda Swinton ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button") (Paramount)
Charlize Theron ("Hancock") (Sony)
Carice Van Houten ("Valkyrie") (MGM / UA)

Performance by a Younger Actor
Freddie Highmore ("The Spiderwick Chronicles") (Paramount)
Lina Leandersson ("Let the Right One In") (Magnolia / Magnet)
Dev Patel ("Slumdog Millionaire") (Fox Searchlight)
Jaden Christopher Smith ("The Day the Earth Stood Still") (20th Century Fox)
Catinca Untaru ("The Fall") (Roadside Attractions)
Brandon Walters ("Australia") (20th Century Fox)

Director
Clint Eastwood ("Changeling") (Universal)
Jon Favreau ("Iron Man") (Paramount / Marvel)
David Fincher ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button") (Paramount)
Christopher Nolan ("The Dark Knight") (Warner Bros.)
Bryan Singer ("Valkyrie") (MGM / UA)
Steven Spielberg ("Indiana Jones & Kingdom of the Crystal Skull") (Paramount / Lucasfilm)
Andrew Stanton (Wall-E) (Walt Disney Studios)

Writing
Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway ("Iron Man") (Paramount / Marvel)
David Koepp, John Kamps ("Ghost Town") (Paramount / DreamWorks)
John Ajvide Lindqvist ("Let the Right One In") (Magnolia / Magnet)
Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan ("The Dark Knight") (Warner Bros.)
Eric Roth ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button") (Paramount)
J. Michael Straczynski ("Changeling") (Universal)

Network Television Series
"Fringe" (Fox)
"Heroes" (NBC)
"Life On Mars" (ABC)
"Lost" (ABC)
"Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" (Fox)
"Supernatural" (CW)

Syndicated / Cable Television Series
"Battlestar Galactica" (Sci Fi)
"The Closer" (TNT)
"Dexter" (Showtime)
"Leverage" (TNT)
"Star Wars: The Clone Wars" (Cartoon Network)
"True Blood" (HBO)

Presentation on Television
"24: Redemption" (Fox)
"The Andromeda Strain" (A & E)
"Breaking Bad" (AMC)
"Jericho" (CBS)
"The Last Templar" (NBC)
"The Librarian: The Curse of the Judas Chalice" (TNT)

Actor in Television
Bryan Cranston ("Breaking Bad") (AMC)
Matthew Fox ("Lost") (ABC)
Michael C. Hall ("Dexter") (Showtime)
Timothy Hutton ("Leverage") (TNT)
Edward James Olmos ("Battlestar Galactica") (Sci Fi)
Noah Wiley ("The Librarian: The Curse of The Judas Chalice") (TNT)

Actress in Television
Lena Headey ("Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles")(Fox)
Jennifer Love Hewitt ("The Ghost Whisperer") (CBS)
Evangeline Lilly ("Lost") (ABC)
Mary McDonnell ("Battlestar Galactica") (Sci Fi)
Anna Paquin ("True Blood") (HBO)
Kyra Sedgwick ("The Closer") (TNT)
Anna Torv ("Fringe") (ABC)

Supporting Actor in Television
Henry Ian Cusick ("Lost") (ABC)
Thomas Dekker ("Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles")(Fox)
Michael Emerson ("Lost") (ABC)
Josh Holloway ("Lost") (ABC)
Adrian Pasdar ("Heroes") (NBC)
Milo Ventimiglia ("Heroes") (NBC)

Supporting Actress in Television
Jennifer Carpenter ("Dexter") (Showtime)
Summer Glau ("Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles")(Fox)
Yunjin Kim ("Lost") (ABC)
Elizabeth Mitchell ("Lost") (ABC)
Hayden Panettiere ("Heroes") (NBC)
Katee Sackhoff ("Battlestar Galactica") (Sci Fi)

Guest Starring Role in a Television Series
Kristen Bell ("Heroes") (NBC)
Alan Dale ("Lost") (ABC)
Kevin Durand ("Lost") (ABC)
Robert Forster ("Heroes") (NBC)
Jimmy Smits ("Dexter") (Showtime)
Sonya Walger ("Lost") (ABC)

'Dark Knight,' 'Lost' lead Saturns [Variety]

Firstly, to placate the nervous: Yes, $55.7 million is a lot of money; Watchmen's first weekend is the third-largest March opening of all time (even including adjustments for inflation), second largest IMAX opening (behind The Dark Knight), 12th largest superhero movie opening (20th when adjusted for inflation) and 6th largest R-rated opening (14th when adjusted for inflation), none of which is to be laughed at. Furthermore, Warners domestic distribution president Dan Fellman has said that the studio is "pleased" with the opening weekend. The New York Daily News is even predicting that the movie's success will usher in even more superhero movies - although, admittedly, the examples it cites were all greenlit before the movie opened.

However.

(And you knew there was a "however," didn't you?)

Even ignoring the fact that all the talk of Watchmen beating Zack Snyder's previous movie, 300 to take the March crown was optimistic at best (Although I'm unconvinced by the "The length of the movie meant that it never had a chance" arguments, I have to admit; Watchmen is only 13 minutes longer than The Dark Knight, after all, and the latter outperformed the former by more than 100% per theatre in its opening weekend), there are still signs that Watchmen's performance may cause headaches for its producers after all. The worrying drops of the three days from the movie's weekend - $25 million to $19 million to $11 million - is noteworthy, although whether it's because of negative word of mouth or simply what happens when all the fans see the movie on opening night and then you're left with an somewhat-disinterested general public is open to question. We'll get to see in following days, and especially this coming weekend, whether non-fans are taking to the movie (as well as, perhaps, how much repeat business the movie gets from its most eager supporters).

More worrying to those involved now, however, is whether Watchmen will make any money for Warners at all in its initial run; the Hollywood Reporter isn't sure that it will:

Judging by a NYU's professor's regression model on how opening weekend box office numbers predict total movie grosses, and adjusting downward due to expected higher-than-normal opening weekend geek fandom, we'd expect this film to eventually gross about, or just above, $130 million domestically when all is said and done (Paramount holds overseas rights). Funny enough, that happens to be the same figure as the reported budget of the film.

That's not factoring in the money spent on promotion or the payout that Warners owes to Fox as a result of the lawsuit, of course (which may go as high as 8.5% of Warner's take). While Devin Chud is right that pretty much all movies make money at some point of their existence - especially considering the inevitability of numerous "Director's Cut" versions on DVD in the future selling to the hardcore fanbase - there's no escaping the fact that, if the Reporter's projections are right and this movie doesn't turn a profit for Warners in theaters, Watchmen's performance can definitely be viewed as a disappointment.

All of this may be beside the point for some; there is definitely an argument to be made that like it or not, the fact that the movie was made at all could be considered an achievement, and a more important one than box office could ever be (Man, where were those people when Speed Racer tanked?), but it'd be shortsighted at best to think that Watchmen's performance is entirely unimportant or won't affect other unknown comic properties. For now, we're all watching Watchmen... if only to see whether the movie will, accidentally, have as big an effect on superhero movies as the comic did on superhero comics.

If you were watching last night's unusual ceremony (Hugh Jackman gave it his all, but still) - or, more entertainingly, following the Twitter commentary along at home - it won't come as news that not getting a Best Picture or Best Director nomination was only the beginning of The Dark Knight's woes; despite being nominated for 8 awards, the movie only took home two (Ledger's and Best Sound Editing). Also robbed, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which only won 3 of its 13 nominated categories - although, admittedly, I took Wall-E not winning Best Original Screenplay much worse, even though it had less of a hope. Overall, it wasn't a particularly interesting night - the winners weren't incredibly surprising, the hosts weren't incredibly entertaining, and there wasn't even that much to get annoyed about afterwards (Who can really begrudge Slumdog Millionaire's wins?). Still, at least we got to see host Hugh Wolverine Jackman standing up for Batman and other costumed characters in his opening performance (Skip to 1:30 for a strange complaint about The Dark Knight not being recognized properly):

How can a billion dollars be unsophisticated indeed, Mr. Jackman.

Last night's winners in full:
Best picture: Slumdog Millionaire

Best director: Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire

Best actor: Sean Penn - Milk

Best actress: Kate Winslet - The Reader

Best supporting actor: Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight

Best supporting actress: Penelope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Best original screenplay: Milk

Best adapted screenplay: Slumdog Millionaire

Best animated feature film: Wall-E

Best animated short film: La Maison en Petits Cubes

Best foreign language film: Departures - Japan

Best documentary feature: Man on Wire

Best documentary short subject: Smile Pinki

Art direction: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Costume design: The Duchess

Make-up: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Cinematography: Slumdog Millionaire

Best live action short film: Spielzeugland (Toyland)

Visual effects: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Sound editing: The Dark Knight

Sound mixing: Slumdog Millionaire

Film editing:Slumdog Millionaire

Best original score: Slumdog Millionaire

Best original song: "Jai Ho" - Slumdog Millionaire

Thanks to Yair Raveh's rundown of the planned scheduling for tonight's show, it's become much easier for us to plan your evening out for you, letting you know just when you can stop paying attention and start ordering pizza (All times PST):

5:38: Host Hugh Jackman's opening performance: How can you not want to see Wolverine himself in what is likely to involve some comedy and some singing? You can't, if only for the potential car-crash potential in working in an awkward X-Men Origins: Wolverine plug. Me, I won't be happy unless Liev Schreiber appears for a cameo.

5:45: Actress In A Supporting Role: The closest thing SF has to a horse in this race is Taraji P. Henson for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, although the A Different World fan in me is hoping for a Marisa Tomei victory here.

5:51: Original Screenplay: Wall-E! Wall-E! Sadly, as much as I want Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon and Pete Docter to win for their pitch-perfect script for the Pixar movie, I think they're going to lose out to favorites like Milk and In Bruges, sadly.

5:55: Adapted Screenplay: As much as I'm hoping that Simon Beaufoy clinches it for Slumdog Millionaire, the genre-correct thing would be to point to the fact that The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is nominated here.

6:03: Animated Feature Film: Look, come on. Kung-Fu Panda may be fun and all, but if this doesn't go to Wall-E, then someone's managed to bribe the entire Academy.

6:05: Animated Short Film: Unless you're a big animation fan, this would be a good time to go check on your drinks situation; you won't have heard of any of these nominees and, sadly, you'll probably never hear of them again, either. Wait, was that too cynical?

6:14: Art Direction: In fact, you're in the depths of the awards by now - The next big one isn't until 7 o'clock, so if you need to go out and walk the dog or something, feel free. Although this is the first of The Dark Knight's nominations of the evening, so you may want to stick around after all...

6:18: Costume Design: And this would be a good time to flip over to see whether Sci Fi's Lake Placid is looking worth checking out, unless you have any costumer friends.

6:20: Make-Up: Not that I didn't like Aaron Eckhart's Two-Face in Dark Knight, but if Hellboy II: The Golden Army doesn't win this one, it'll be my scream that you'll be hearing around this time of the evening.

6:30: Cinematography: Another Dark Knight nom here - and one that it deserves, considering the beautiful look of the movie and the technological challenges involved in shooting it.

6:36: Science and Technical Awards Recap: That embarrassing part of the evening when they say that the technical awards aren't as important as all the other awards, and cut to a video of some poor actress who had to host a separate ceremony all on her own.

6:41: Live Action Short Film: Remember what I said about Animated Short? Yeah, that applies here, too.

7:03: Actor In A Supporting Role: Welcome to one of the most cynical scheduling decisions of the night. This is one of the - if not the - most anticipated awards of the evening, thanks to Heath Ledger's nomination for The Dark Knight, and it's being used as the prop in the middle of the boring awards in order to keep everyone tuned in at home. It's enough to make me want Robert Downey Jr. take it for Tropic Thunder just to spite everyone.

7:08: Documentary Feature: See what I mean? At this point, I think they're hoping that the Ledger effect will take you through this and 7:10: Documentary Short Subject.

7:20: Visual Effects: Oh, this one is entirely in our wheelhouse: Iron Man, Dark Knight and Benjamin Button are the nominees, and I'm pulling for the Stark Industries entrant, I have to admit.

7:22: Sound Editing: Another case where all nominees (Dark Knight, Benjamin Button, Wall-E, Wanted and Slumdog Millionaire) are equally deserving. Well, except Wanted, of course.

7:26: Sound Mixing: We're back in the woods of the duller categories, in case you couldn't tell. Unless you're a particularly big fan of Jerry Lewis or music, you can start thinking about skipping the next 45 minutes or so without fear.

7:29: Film Editing: Again, a Dark Knight nom, but don't feel too guilty if you ignore it in favor of... well, almost anything else, really. Especially considering what's coming up next.

7:37: Jean Hersholt Award to Jerry Lewis: I know, I know. Breathe calmly and think of The Nutty Professor. It'll be over soon.

7:48: Original Score and 7:55 Original Song: We're nearing the end; fans of Wall-E and Slumdog Millionaire will undoubtedly like these two categories, but everyone else may want to stay away until 8:14.

8:01: Foreign Language Film: Everyone who's voting for Waltz With Bashir, raise your hands. Everyone who hasn't seen any of these films, do the same. Yeah, that's what I thought.

8:10 In Memoriam: The most depressing, saccharine part of the evening, and yet, you know that you're going to get choked up at at least one point during the montage of people who've died in the last year.

8:14: Directing: And the Oscar goes to... Christopher Nol - No, wait, he wasn't nominated in what really was the snub of the year. Not to get too fanboyish on you all, but I refuse to believe that, as good as Frost/Nixon is, Ron Howard really deserved the nod more than Nolan did. Neither, for that matter, does Fincher's Benjamin Button. Controversial!

8:23: Actress In A Leading Role and 8:31: Actor In A Leading Role: This may be where the schedule falls apart, if they're really hoping for short acceptance speeches from the likes of Meryl Streep, Sean Penn or Frank Langella. There aren't really any io9-friendly movies in the running for Best Actress, but my crush for Kate Winslet means that I'm pulling for her success in that category. For Best Actor, io9 loyalty to SF pushes me to hope for Brad Pitt's success.

8:38: Best Motion Picture: Will it be The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Reader or Slumdog Millionaire? My money's on the latter, to be honest, but this is your last chance to complain about your movie of choice not getting recognized before it's all over bar the fashion analysis. But don't worry; we get to do the whole thing again next year.

Don't get me wrong; I don't actually want the movie to fail, and actually expect it not to, at least in the short term. If nothing else, the ridiculous success of The Dark Knight has definitively proven that a mainstream audience exists for what, for want of a better term, could be called "Arthouse Superhero" movies (Something that had been hinted at before; I tend to think of Tim Burton's Batman Returns and Sam Raimi's last two Spider-Man movies - in particular Spider-Man 3, with its jazz interludes and weird uneven tone - as earlier examples of superhero auteurism), and Watchmen's intense, endless marketing campaign is definitely aiming for that level of gravity, with mentions of a "visionary director" adapting "the most celebrated graphic novel of all time." What I'm worried about, though, is what the marketing isn't saying, and what effect that could have on the Arthouse Superhero genre moving forward.

From what we've seen of Watchmen so far - and I write this as someone who hasn't seen the movie, although I've talked to people who have - we know that they're trying to be faithful to the look of the book, at least; the trailers show glossy CGI-massaged scenes that we recognize from Dave Gibbons' original drawings, and many comparisons have been made between movie stills and comic panels. It seems, at times, that this is the drive of the entire marketing for the movie: Look how much it resembles the comic! Look at how much detail we have copied over, even down to the dedication on the Comedian's gun! The trailers, in fact, are much less about the story of the film than a collection of fan-familiar images meant to make the faithful fans get excited with recognition and warm with the glow of nostalgia. But the problem with that is, in many ways, the visuals are the least important thing about Watchmen the book.

For all of the claims that Watchmen the book was unfilmable, very few of them centered around the kind of special effects needed to make us believe a man could explode and then re-create himself as a glowing blue naked go (In fact, shitty special effects may even have been more in tune with the arch-knowingness of the original book that both acknowledged and transcended its pulpy, ridiculous roots). No, what would make Watchmen unfilmable - and what the trailers and the arcade game-style web extras and the released scenes with too much slow-mo and the black and white portraits od actors and everything we've seen from the film so far have failed to show us is in evidence in the movie - is the deftness of Alan Moore's writing, which manages to balance a formal exploration of the comic medium with a complex, flawed humanity that looks "behind the hood" of the characters to make them into real people who would look ridiculous in those outfits... and not as Batman Begins-esque as the movie's Nite Owl. Of these two things, one is literally impossible to translate to another medium, and the other would seem to be nearly impossible to fit within a three-hour movie, no matter what you may feel about Zack Snyder's talents as a director.

I can't help but feel that it's this potential misdirection - that the truly important elements of Watchmen the book have been ignored or lost, and instead we're seeing the movie being sold on how much it looks like the comic - that will be the downfall of the movie, ultimately. It strikes me as foolish to try and promote the movie to fans on how faithful it is visually, when the heart of the book will be missing, and to non-fans, the mainstream audience that made Dark Knight such a massive hit, the faithfulness will have no meaning without the original context; all they're seeing are a bunch of colorful characters and explosions and being told it's a big deal.

It's that mainstream audience that all of the hype should have been geared towards; the very idea of a Watchmen movie would be enough to anger and excite the hardcore fanbase in and of itself, and while all of the promotional pandering has been welcomed, it won't change the final outcome, which is that Watchmen the movie will almost definitely disappoint them. That's not a comment on the quality of the final movie, but on the expectations those fans have for it; after almost a year of hype and previewed footage and interviews and seeing the Owlship at San Diego Comic-Con, there is almost no way in the world that any movie can live up to the one that they've created in their minds (A movie that will, undoubtedly, include the squid at the end). You can almost taste the backlash now. Better to have spent the time, and the money, selling everyone else on the movie, and hope that they understand and embrace whatever it turns out to be.

And what happens if it DOES fail? In one sense, very little; more mainstream superhero movies like Thor and Avengers will most likely be unaffected in terms of box office, although they may find more snark thrown their way by critics stung by wanting to fall for Watchmen more than they actually did, perhaps. I think that, if audiences don't love the movie to Dark Knight levels, then that won't affect their desire to see Robert Downey Jr. wisecrack his way through another 90 minutes while wearing armor; they may not even see any real connection between the two movies. But what I'm worried about is what it'll mean for movies that aren't summer blockbusters based on well-known comic book franchises. Will The Dark Knight start to be looked at, not as a sign of things to come, but a fluke that shows that audiences only really want to watch self-important superheroes when they grew up with them? Will movie producers shy away from projects that aim for epic grandeur and high budgets, because Watchmen suggests that that kind of thing scares people away? Will Billy Crudup's career survive?

Okay, maybe I don't really care about that last one so much. Sorry, Billy.

There's a lot resting on the success of Watchmen, I think; not just Fox's ability to point at Warners and laugh and say that they were right in the first place to pass on the project (and then, you know, sue just in case), but in a strange sense, it's managed - through force of marketing as much as anything - to become the First Post-Dark Knight-Era Important Superhero Movie. If it succeeds, then the door may be open to more and more ambitious science fiction movies (whether based on comics or not). But if it fails, then maybe we'll end up with a movie industry that thinks that Transformers and X-Men Origins: Wolverine is all that genre movies should aspire to... And that's a much greater tragedy than losing a giant alien squid for your climax.

Warner Bros made the announcement yesterday afternoon, noting that the movie's recent IMAX re-release - and, curiously, the Ecuadorian moviegoing audience - were responsible for taking the movie past the billion dollar mark. It is only the fourth movie in history to do so, after Titanic, The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King and Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, and is still the second most-successful US domestic movie (after Titanic) and most successful 2D IMAX movie worldwide.

Industry experts are already at work discussing whether Christopher Nolan or Christian Bale's next projects will have the most unnecessarily high expectations place upon them.

'Dark Knight' breaks $1 billion mark [Variety]

Inception, described by Warners as "a contemporary sci-fi actioner set within the architecture of the mind," and is based on a script written by Nolan himself, his first all-original movie since 2000's Momento. Outwardly, Warners are happy about the announcement - the Hollywood Reporter quotes president Jeff Robinov as saying, "Chris Nolan is a visionary filmmaker who continually raises the bar with each movie he makes. We are thrilled to be collaborating again with him and Emma [Thomas, Nolan's producer partner] on this exciting new motion picture" - although you have to wonder how the mood is inside the studio, knowing that this announcement pushes out any potential Dark Knight follow-up at least for a couple of years.

Christopher Nolan inks 'Inception' [Hollywood Reporter]

All Ledgerisms aside, is it wrong of me to be worried about people who saw The Dark Knight and thought, "That kind of creepy guy with the obvious lack of morality? I wanna have him on my face when it's cold!"? Also, what is a "combination ski mask and beanie" anyway? Now I know that I'm going to have nightmares tonight.

The Dark Knight Joker Combination Ski Mask & Winter Beanie [Amazon] (Via)

Business blog Silicon Alley Insider reported on yesterday's conference call, where Bewkes said that the success of Dark Knight meant one obvious thing:

"The obvious thing we're going to take from it is more Dark Knight... We look at Harry Potter [and i]t's fantastic to have franchises that last that long. We want to do that with Batman and Superman and perhaps Sherlock Holmes.

Earlier on the same call, Bewkes named Terminator: Salvation and Watchmen as movies that the studio was excited about for this year, and added that more DC Comics characters will be coming to movies soon. Has the studio finally learned the lesson of the tightly-controlled Potter franchise, and will start taking better care of their SF and fantasy franchises? We can only hope - But this is definitely a step in the right direction.

Time Warner Earnings: LIVE (TWX) [Alley Insider]

Batman 3:

I don't know if there's enough grains of salt in the world for this, but in any case a script fragment of Chris Nolan's third Bat-flick has been making the rounds online. Everyone agrees it's probably fake, but then again that's what they said about the early Dark Knight synopsis that turned out to be real. In any case, the script starts out with a map of Gotham City, pulsing with blue and white lines, which are hit with brown-outs, until the remaing lines form a Bat-signal. Then we go to newscasters Vicki Vale and Mike Engel, reporting on the hunt for the Batman and the rash of Joker-inspired gang crime. A shadowy figure is listening to the reports and talking to the cops.

Then there's a police cordon around a building where Batman has already taken out a gang of Joker thugs. The cops are surrounding the building, because they can hear Batman still inside, fighting the remaining Joker-gangsters. The police SWAT teams are ready to storm the building, but Commissioner Gordon keeps stalling them. And then the shadowy figure shows up — it's police consultant Edward Nigma, who keeps talking in riddles. (Subtle, eh.) And then we cut to Batman inside the building, fighting the last Joker thug and demanding to know where the other hostage is.

Okay, so it really is probably fake. [Scribd via Oh No They Didn't]

Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen:

Here's a new set video showing Sam's parents running from something that will be CG-added later, during their vacation in Paris (which is really Philly.) [Transformers Movie Chronicles]

Also, writer Roberto Orci says it's no exaggeration to say there are 40-odd robots in the movie. Nobody utters the word "Spike" in the film. (??) The camera work may be less choppy this time around, so we'll be able to see what's actually happening. [Transformers Live]

Battlestar Galactica:

Here's the Canadian promo for Friday night's episode, showing a bit more of the crazy mutiny action. Apollo is having a bad day. [Battlestar Blog]

What else happens on Friday? Apparently, Adama and Roslin decide to take their relationship public, by smooching in front of the whole fleet. Everyone. They, like, broadcast it or something. Apparently, the display is greeted with a mixture of "ewwws" and "awwwws." [EW]

Doctor Who:

Here are some more set pics of David Tennant and Michelle Ryan, this time from the British newspapers. [via Life, Doctor Who and Combom]

Lost:

We mentioned a while back the show was looking for someone to play a younger Philip Seymour Hoffman. And it turns out this role will be filled by Brad Henke (October Road). He's playing someone connected to Ilana, the pivotal new character played by Zuleikha Robinson, who may become a regular in season six. [EW]

According to set reports, in episode 5x09, Sawyer and Jin are reunited with the first half of the Oceanic Six in a very emotional reunion. And Jack talks to Marvin Candle. Also, by this point, Sawyer and Juliet are shacked up. (Ooh!) [SpoilersLost]

More set reports: Dharma wants to capture/kill Sayid, and a teenage Ben helps Sayid escape. Ben gets shot, and Jin may witness this. Juliet tries, and fails, to help Ben, but she convinces Sawyer and Kate to help her carry Ben back to Richard Alpert and the Others. Locke was shooting a scene where he's wearing a suit very similar to the one he's buried in. And there may be a sequence where Locke sits near the injured Ben. [SpoilersLost]

Also, there's a casting call for episode 5x13, in which we meet a prepubescent Asian boy, who wanders away from his mom and finds himself in a scary situation — but discovers he has more fortitude than he ever imagined. [SpoilersLost]

Tonight's episode starts to unveil the possible reason for Charles Widmore's and Faraday's interest in the island, and increases the danger to the people left behind by the Oceanic Six. And we learn a reason why Desmond might want to abandon his promise to help Daniel. [IGN]

And a clip from next Wednesday's episode, "The Little Prince," already aired on Good Morning America:

Heroes:

We already mentioned the rumor that both Ali Larter and Hayden Panettiere want to leave the super-powered angst fest. Apparently, it's only really true for one of those two, and NBC is unlikely to let it happen. [EW]

And here are some new set photos featuring Hiro and Ando. And a baby! [SpoilerTV]

So remember how this spring's episode "Cold Wars" is supposed to be a new HRG-centric episode along the lines of "Company Man"? Here's what actually happens:

While being held hostage, HRG (Jack Coleman) is subjected to Matt Parkman’s (Greg Grunberg) unique brand of interrogation, revealing how he became involved with Nathan’s (Adrian Pasdar) government plot to capture those with abilities. Meanwhile, Matt’s discoveries bring Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) face-to-face with “The Hunter” (guest star Zeljko Ivanek).

[SpoilerTV]

Life On Mars:

The time-lost detective show starts up again tonight, and we'll see the beginnings of actual romance between Sam and Annie back in 1973. But don't forget about Sam's 21st century girlfriend Maya — she hasn't turned up much because Lisa Bonet has been on maternity leave. But she'll be back at the end of the season, with some information that may "rock Sam's world." [Zap2It]

Smallville:

In episode 8x19, "Stiletto," Lois and Chloe are having some "cousin time" and hanging out. And then they get attacked by two thugs, and Lois takes one of them down with her stiletto heels. The other one gets away with Chloe's car, which has some sensitive info inside. Lois starts to feel like a superhero, and she decides to spread rumors there's a new heroine named Stiletto in town, in hopes of bringing the red-blue blur (aka Clark) out of hiding. She gets Jimmy to help her document her fake story. But when she tells Clark about this, he tells her she's a better reporter than to use a fabricated story to scare up a scoop. And she may actually encounter the red-blue blur in this episode. [KryptonSite]

Fringe:

Jared Harris, who plays Mr. Jones, says he's definitely a villain, but he may also help out the good guys. We'll see Mr. Jones' relationship with Olivia develop further. He gets to spend more time in the lab and hang out with Broyles and John Noble. (Haven't seen last night's episode yet, so he may be talking about stuff that aired la [TV Guide]

Star Wars: The Clone Wars:

Here's a new shot from Friday night's episode. Anakin winds up on an icy planet which is having conflicts with a nearby moon, and he needs help from super-translator C-3PO to mediate the dispute. [Lucasfilm]

Supernatural:

Here are some new pics from episode 4x14, "Sex And Violence." Strip joint! [FanPop]

Batman: The Brave And The Bold:

What happens in Friday's episode? Here's what:

Batman's life hangs in the balance when he is poisoned by Chemo, who is under the control of the evil Brain. The Atom races to the rescue with Aquaman by shrinking down and entering Batman's bloodstream. While Aquaman and the Atom battle the infection deep inside Batman's body, Batman struggles to end Chemo's rampage and defeat the Brain! This week's teaser features Elongated Man and Plastic Man teaming up to derail a bank heist and capture the criminal Baby Face.

Wow, Plastic Man and Elongated Man teaming up at last! Oh, and here's a couple clips. [Comic Book Resources]

Additional reporting by Alasdair Wilkins.

Two days later, and I'm still upset that The Dark Knight was inexcusably excluded from the Best Picture category at the Academy Awards as well as Nolan for Best Director. But I'm not alone in my lament; Dark Campaign has been rooting for TDK's success for some time now. Jonathan Nolan (TDK screenwriter) sent an email to the faithful fans explaining his dismay and thanks for the ongoing support:

hey — not sure who to address this to as it looks like a collective effort, but I just wanted to pass along my thanks.

It’s truly humbling that you guys would take the time and effort to try to get the film recognized. I, like you, was disappointed that Chris didn’t get some recognition this morning, but for Heath and so many of the people who worked so hard on this thing to get nominated is thrilling.

Any nominations for a comic book movie is a thing of beauty no matter how you slice it, and that takes the sting out a bit. Besides, I’ve been to the big show before, and, like any of these things, it’s a little disappointing. Did you know it’s not even an open bar once the show starts? At least this time I would have remembered to bring a little cash so I could buy myself a drink after losing.

The best part of this experience is seeing other people getting passionate about the film the way that we did. It has been a truly incredible experience. So thank you again.

best,

jonah nolan

Also check out this amazing fantastic, yet super sad, video Dark Campaign made.

Watchmen:

Maybe the movie's soundtrack track listing gives you some clues as to its narrative arc:

1. Rescue Mission 2. Don't Get Too Misty Eyed 3. Tonight the Comedian Died 4. Silk Spectre 5. We'll Live Longer 6. You Quit! 7. Only Two Names Remain 8. The American Dream 9. Edward Blake, The Comedian 10. The Last Laugh 11. Prison Fight 12. Just Look Around You 13. Dan's Apocalyptic Dream 14. Who Murdered Hollis Mason? 15. What About Janie Slater? 16. I'll Tell You About Rorschach 17. Countdown 18. It Was Me 19. All That Is Good 20. Requiem (Excerpted from Mozart's Requiem) 21. I Love You Mom

[Sci Fi Wire]

Star Trek:

More toy spoilers! At least, here's the complete set of Trek action figures, including Nero and all of Kirk's crew. Bigger pic at the link. [L.A. Times]

Batman 3:

Does it count as a spoiler if it's just an actor giving a non-committal answer? Sure, why not? MTV asked Liam Neeson if he would be willing to come back for the third movie, and he said, "You never know." So there you have it. Ra's Al Ghul will definitely return in the third film. [MTV]

Battlestar Galactica:

Wondering what was missing from that press conference scene that appeared on You Will Know The Truth a while back? Wonder no longer! Here are two minutes of clips from tonight's episode. [Battlestar Blog]

Speaking of tonight's episode, "The Disquiet That Follows My Soul," it's show creator Ron Moore's directorial debut. And here's how Moore describes it:

It's a character piece. It's a smaller show; I designed it deliberately to be that way. I wanted to take a breath after the events, the shocking events, of the past couple of episodes. Things were happening huge. Revelations were coming one on top of another. And now I wanted to do a smaller piece that was just about people on the ship and where they are in their lives before the next giant arc just sort of pulls them along into even bigger events.

[Wired]

In episode 4x13, "The Oath," Ellen Tigh returns "in the flesh." And Baltar's "Head Six" returns in that episode as well, says actor Tricia Helfer — the Head Six is more of an angelic guide and less of a wicked seductress, by this point. [TVZine]

The question you should really be asking about BSG is "What's the point?" says Mary McDonnell. And when you find out what the point of all this has been, you'll be just plain gobsmacked. "It's very, very humbling," she says of "the point" of the show. The relationships come to fruition "to a certain extent... but the bigger issues about life and death are addressed so broadly by the end of this." [TV Guide]

Lost:

So in case you had any remaining doubts, the female character who will be in mortal danger next week is Charlotte. Those nosebleeds are going to get a lot worse before they get better, but luckily Daniel is crushed out on her and extra-incentivized to save her. Miles will see four dead people next week, and the reason for those four to be on the island in the first place could solve a lot of Lost mysteries. Juliet will reveal a new secret power that comes from her Otherhood.

Also, next week we'll meet a character who may turn out to be a major player in the Ben-Widmore war, possibly a third force all his/her own. [E! Online]

Jorge "Fountain Of Knowledge" Garcia told a radio station that we'll learn more about the origins and nature of the smoke monster around episode 4x12. [SpoilersLost]

Dollhouse:

Harry Lennix, who plays Boyd, says his character is sort of the show's moral compass, but more exactly the guy who asks "why" all the time. Like, why does the Dollhouse exist, and why do people need its services? He starts getting more answers to his questions by the end of the first season. And Lennix explained that the show's mindwiped "Actives" are programmed to trust their "handlers," like Boyd. [Sci Fi Wire]

Heroes:

Some pics from the first episode of "Fugitives," "A Clear And Present Danger." Could Ando be contemplating a ridiculous superhero costume? That wouldn't be good, exactly, but it would hold my interest. [SpoilerTV]

Fringe:

Here's the official description for episode 13, "The Transformation":

When the Fringe Division delves into another bizarre occurrence aboard an international jumbo jet, freakish remains are discovered at the crash site. Memories tip the team toward some promising leads, but the bigger picture and mysterious threat eludes them. With limited options and insufficient intelligence, Olivia and Peter go undercover.

Guest stars include "Felix Solis as Strickland; Neal Huff as Bowman; Armando Riesco as Gavin; Darby Totten as Agent #1; Ash Roeca as Agent #2; Guisseppe Jones as Agent #3; Al Sapienza as Conrad; Chris Lapanta as Gavin’s Man and Dina Comolli as Mom." [Fringe Television]

Smallville:

There will be "a lot of tears" when Lana leaves once and for all, promises Kristin Kreuk. And we'll learn more secrets about why she went away and why she's back. (I haven't seen last night's episode yet, so maybe we already learned some of those.) Also, Lana and Lois never really interact at all. [TV Guide]

Additional reporting by Alasdair Wilkins.

The big winner this morning was The Curious Case Of Benjamin Buttons. The backwards aging baby was nominated for 13 awards including Best Performance (Brad Pitt), Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay (which I'm a little dubious of) and Best Visual Effects. WALL-E received 5 tips of the hat including Best Animated Feature, Best Original Song and Original Screenplay. The visual effects and sound effects nominations are stuffed with scifi and it's great to see Hellboy II get the recognition it so rightly deserves for makeup. So on that note I'm quite pleased with many of the nominations.

But I'm very disheartened by the passing over of Christopher Nolan for Best Director in The Dark Knight, as well as the snub in the Best Picture category and Best Original Score. The Dark Knight deserves every single technical award it was nominated for, but the movie as a whole deserved attention as well (not saying it deserved to win but a nom for sure). But let's take solace in the fact that Heath Ledger was rightfully nominated for his supporting role, and I will say he should win this category hands down. Plus it is a pleasure to see TDK getting props for Achievement In Cinematography.

Here are the rest of the nominees please feel free to share your surprise and delight.

Performance By An Actor In A Leading Role:
Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Richard Jenkins in The Visitor
Frank Langella in Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn in Milk
Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler

Performance By An Actor In A Supporting Role
Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight
Josh Brolin in Milk
Robert Downey Jr. in “Tropic Thunder”
Philip Seymour Hoffman in Doubt
Michael Shannon in Revolutionary Road

Performance By An Actress n A Supporting Role
Taraji P. Henson in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Amy Adams in Doubt
Penélope Cruz in Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis in Doubt
Marisa Tomei in The Wrestler

Performance By An Actress In A Leading Role
Anne Hathaway in Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie in Changeling
Melissa Leo in Frozen River
Kate Winslet in The Reader

Best Animated Feature Film Of The Year
Bolt
Kung Fu Panda
WALL-E

Achievement In Art Direction
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Changeling
The Duchess
Revolutionary Road

Achievement In Cinematography
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

Achievement In Costume Design
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Revolutionary Road
Milk
The Duchess
Austrailia

Achievement In Directing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button David Fincher
Frost/Nixon Ron Howard
Milk Gus Van Sant
The Reader Stephen Daldry
Slumdog Millionaire Danny Boyle

Achievement In Film Editing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Frost/Nixon
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire

Achievement In Makeup
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Achievement In Music Written For Motion Pictures (Original Song)
"Down to Earth" from WALL-E Music by Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman, Lyric by Peter Gabriel
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Alexandre Desplat
Defiance James Newton Howard
Milk Danny Elfman
Slumdog Millionaire A.R. Rahman

Best Motion Picture Of The Year
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Achievement In Sound Editing
The Dark Knight
Iron Man
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E
Wanted

Achievement In Sound Mixing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
WALL-E
Wanted>
Slumdog Millionaire

Achievement In Visual Effects
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Iron Man

Original Screenplay
WALL-E
Frozen River
Happy-Go-Lucky
In Bruges
Milk

Adapted Screenplay
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Doubt
Frost/Nixon
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

The award show will be held on February 22.

[The Academy of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences]

Author F. Paul Wilson had a chance to see The Dark Knight recently, and found Ledger's Joker rather... familiar:

Yeah, that's my Joker.

Am I saying they couldn't have come up with that Joker without me? Not at all. As I was watching I got hints of the infusion of anarchic nihilism I'd administered, but nothing to write an email about…until the interrogation room scenes and his scene in the hospital with Harvey Dent. I watched those multiple times, recognized the seductive evil a work, and realized the emailers were right: Somebody somewhere along the line, in researching the character, had read [Wilson's short story from the 1989 prose anthology The Further Adventures of Batman] "Definitive Therapy." He may not even remember. I know I didn't realize that Matheson's "Born of Man and Woman" became my "Faces," and Lovecraft's "The Thing on the Doorstep" became Sibs until I reread their stories. It happens.

Am I gonna sue? Hell, no. First off, I can't. The Joker is not my character and the story was work for hire, so what I did with him belongs to DC. (As I've said before, When you play in someone else's sandbox, they get to keep your castle. This is why I don't do work for hire unless the sand is so special I've just gotta play with it. Like the Joker.)

And second, I think it's cool they liked my guy enough to put him to work in their film.

To convince others of his case, Wilson's put "Definitive Therapy" online - and, yes, there are definitely some similarities in the portrayal of the Joker... but both just seem to harken back to the same basic idea of a scary man with a clown's face that came from the Joker's original comic appearances. Go and read for yourself, and make up your own mind, however.

My Joker... Their Joker [Repairmanjack.com]

MTV's Splash Page blog ran with a quote from Dark Knight producer Chuck Roven from the red carpet of the People's Choice Awards:

“We have to separate the actors from the role,” said Roven when asked whether they would’ve done anything different with Heath Ledger’s villainous Joker if they knew the actor wouldn’t be reprising the role.

“On a personal level, Heath was a friend of mine. We had worked together before ‘The Dark Knight,’ but I still think that ‘The Dark Knight’ is its own thing, and we have to separate them,” added Roven.

Could that mean they’re open to re-casting The Joker? Will we see The Clown Prince of Crime return for the “Dark Knight” sequel?

The problem is, of course, saying that they wouldn't have changed what happened to the character if they'd known Ledger was going to die isn't the same thing as saying that the character will be back, or be recast in any future Batmovie. In fact, elsewhere in the same red carpet chat, Roven is clear about the fact that - beyond scriptwriter David Goyer "talking and thinking" about the next film with Chris Nolan - he doesn't know anything about what a Dark Knight sequel would involve.

So ignore MTV may be jumping to conclusions; this one seems as likely as an Eddie Murphy Riddler right now.

‘Batman 3’ Update: Christopher Nolan & David Goyer ‘Talking,’ Says ‘Dark Knight’ Producer [MTV Splash Page]

Writing on his blog about the death of the Shazam movie, John August knows just what caused the movie to pass through multiple drafts, contradictory notes from the studio, and other forms of torture, leading to its slow death:

In retrospect, I can point to two summer Warner Bros. movies that I believe defined the real issue at hand: Speed Racer and The Dark Knight. The first flopped; the second triumphed. Given only those two examples, one can understand why a studio might wish for their movies to be more like the latter. But to do so ignores the success of Iron Man, which spent most of its running time as a comedic origin story, and the even more pertinent example of WB’s own Harry Potter series.

With August initially describing his view of Shazam as "Like Big, but with superpowers," it's no surprise that a Warner Bros. looking for movies to be closer to The Dark Knight than Speed Racer's whimsical eye candy, but that doesn't necessarily stop us from wistfully wondering what could have been.

Shazam! It ain’t happening. [John August]

Batman exists in a universe full of science fictional elements.

Batman hangs out with aliens from the planet Krypton and Mars and the 30th century and the 5th dimension, and so on. "But wait," I hear you say, "that's in the comics. In the movies, Batman's separated from that. He's a stand-alone character who's never even heard of Beppo the Super-Monkey." It doesn't matter.

Here's the only question you need to ask yourself: is Batman a superhero? If the answer is yes, then he's still connected to all that stuff. Superheroes are more than capes and funny insignias — they're part of a whole tradition of larger-than-life archetypes and tropes.

You can't even look at Batman without seeing him as part of the superhero tradition. You don't question why he can jump off a tall building without going splat, even though he has no superpowers — because you're used to superheroes. (Yes, he's got a sort of hang-glider thingy and a grappling hook line and stuff, but still. It's also just a convention of the superhero genre.)

Even when he's in a movie, Batman is still a comic-book character, and he's still part of that fine comic-book tradition of mashing up noir vigilantes with aliens, wizards and giant robots. It never occurred to comics writers to try and separate these genres.

The comics have frequently admitted as much — when Grant Morrison took over writing Batman, he had a scene where Batman opened up his "scifi closet" full of alien artifacts, weird future technology and other
toys.

You can strip all that away, but it creeps back in.

Okay, so you're still not convinced? After all, Chris Nolan did such a great job of burning away all of the campy baggage that had glommed onto the Caped Crusader in the 1990s movies, and he explicitly tried to keep Bats more down to Earth.

The same thing happened in the comics, actually. Starting in the late 1980s, then-editor Denny O'Neil decreed that Batman would exist in a slightly more realistic world than the rest of the DC Universe. He kept Bats out of the Justice League, and even changed old stories to say that Batman had never been a Leaguer.

But the more grim and "realistic" Batman became, the more otherworldly elements found their way in. Like the replacement Batman, Azrael, who turned out to be part genetically engineered monkey as well as part human. (Please don't ask me to explain Azrael's origin. It made my head hurt the first time.) Or Dr. Shondra Kinsolving, who magically healed Bruce Wayne's shattered spine with her mental powers.

Weirdly enough, one of the most grim and realistic-feeling Bat-comics from the O'Neil era is 1992's Batman Vs. Predator, written by Dave Gibbons and published in conjunction with Dark Horse. It's a harrowing story of Batman facing a superior foe he doesn't know how to beat, and in the introduction to the trade, O'Neil explains how it fits in with his grittier, more grounded idea of Batman:

We generally put the planet-hopping variety of science fiction off-limits to Batman scripters; Batman's roots are in the dark myths — vampires, demons, were-creatures, ogres, all the shadow beings that creep from the nether side of the human psyche. Rocket ships and Batman are not a good mix: our Caped Crusader may use technology — he has to, to be a credible crime-fighter in the twentieth century — but he is not of technology; it has nothing to do with what he is. And it has nothing to do with what the Predator is, either. Take a look at him and then search your memory for predecessors. Shiva, Satan, Grendel, the Fenris Wolf — the fiends, the devils, the devourers, the enemies of mercy and humanity — those are the Predator's kinfolk. Do we really care that he arrived by spacecraft instead of being belched up from a fiery pit? Not unless we're very picky indeed... Batman shouldn't tangle with just any old bug-eyed monster who slides through the ozone, but the Predator was the right alien for him to fight.

So there ya go — the biggest opponent of "scifi Batman" is saying that Batman is about as science fictional as the Predator.

He uses tons of improbable gadgets — including his suit.

Okay, okay, so you want me to shut up about the comics. Lots of people who saw TDK had never read a single comic book in their lives, so only the movies should count anyway.

Fine. So let's talk about the movie. It's full of Bat-toys that are either way beyond our current level of technology, or at the very least five minutes ahead. In the same way that many of the James Bond films are science fictional to greater or lesser extents, Batman's toys, in themselves, make him what Alan Moore would call a "science hero."

Remember the Batpod, that awesome motorcycle? It violates just about every law of physics except for the Law Of Awesome. Just ask Popular Science. (Also, the Batmobile/Tumbler has a "stealth mode," which works like a cloaking device.)

And then there's the doodad that Lucius Fox comes up with, which allows Batman to jump out of an airborne plane — and then jump back into it when he's done with his mission. Oh, and did I mention the supercomputer that lets Batman turn every cellphone in the city into a listening device, and then listen in on all of them at once? I didn't? Well, I don't think that's within our current technology, despite what some conspiracy theorists might say.

Actually, go read the comments on that Popular Science piece on the physics of Batman. They're full of people saying "Batman is fantasy, you can't expect it to be realistic." Or: "Batman has an exoskeleton that gives him superstrength." Which reminds me: the Batsuit? Totally science fictional. Nobody questions that Iron Man is scifi because he's in an obvious exoskeleton, and he has a reactor in his chest. But Batman's suit is only different from Iron Man's by degrees, not type. That's where I disagree with Denny O'Neil. These days, at least, Batman really is of technology.

He fights science fictional supervillains.

Still not convinced? Maybe you think Batman just gets a free pass on physics and plausibility the way Bourne does, or the Transporter or whatever. So let's talk about his villains.

Even if you ignore the comics, and all of the Burton and Schumacher movies, you still have to admit that The Dark Knight takes place in the same universe as Batman Begins, right? That's not much of a leap, since they share the same stars and director (except for Katie Holmes).

In Batman Begins, we meet Dr. Jonathan Crane, aka the Scarecrow, a psychopharmacologist who's developed a powerful hallucinogenic that directly targets the fear centers of the brain. This amazing substance can be delivered in an aerosolized form, at close range. But it can also be dumped into the water supply of Gotham City, where it'll be just as effective at driving the entire populace into a panic. It' s a pretty versatile substance, given how effective and fast-acting it is. (Crane makes a very brief reappearance in The Dark Knight.)

There's also Ra's Al-Ghul, of course, who's a super-ninja pretending to be a French guy. He's not so much a science fictional figure, except for his whole supervillain-esque desire to "save the world"
through mass murder.

That's the thing about Batman: he fights supervillains. By contrast, the Punisher fights regular criminals (except maybe Jigsaw.) Even though some of the same arguments I'm making could apply to the Punisher just as well as Batman, the Punisher clearly isn't a superhero and doesn't belong to quite such a fantastical world, unless you put him in a room with the Avengers.

As for the main villains of The Dark Knight, there's nothing overtly superhuman or high-tech about the Joker or Two-Face... except that as badly destroyed as Harvey Dent's face looks, he might not be running around quite so nimbly. As for the Joker, he's just barely a realistic figure, until you consider everything he gets up to in the film. Which brings me to my last point.

The Dark Knight is either science fiction or urban fantasy

Some movies are works of strict, inescapable realism. Off the top of my head, Sideways is such a film. There are the Dogme 95 films, which adhere to a strict set of rules designed to remove anything artificial or fancy.

Needless to say, TDK is not one of these films.

I could be here all day listing all the unlikely stuff that happens in the movie, but a lot of it has to do with the Joker, who technically doesn't have superpowers but possesses some fantastic luck. As the Guardian puts it:

Wait, so the Joker really orchestrated that big truck chase just so that he could get caught and go to prison, then he could kidnap that guard and grab his phone to make the call to set off the bomb he'd previously sewn inside the henchman in the next cell? That would kill the guy who stole the mobsters' money, thus enabling him to … er, what?

Not bad for a guy who says, "Do I look like a guy with a plan?" He also manages to rob a bank, blow up a hospital, kidnap the district attorney, and set explosives on two big ferries, all without getting caught.

I know, I know — it's just a movie. But it's a fantastical, larger-than-life movie, full of improbable technology, weird science and comic book characters. To my mind, that makes it science fictional.

We admit it; while we worried that The Dark Knight was overhyped, but that was before the movie made more money than Star Wars. In our defense, such skepticism didn't stop us from giving you the 10 Batman Books You Must Read, or reviewing the movie twice (I still say I was right). While the comic book Batman may have ended up in some uncertain death-state thanks to the much-hyped Batman RIP storyline - complete with equally teased replacements (even if they're not telling you just who said replacement is), there's no way of getting around it: This was the year of The Dark Knight. Here are the ten most popular Batman stories of 2008 - and look at how many of them are related to Christopher Nolan's blockbuster.

5 Villains Batman Should - But Won't - Face In The Next Movie:
When it comes to discussion about what should happen in the follow-up to The Dark Knight, all of the (so far entirely baseless) rumors seem to be centering around all the old familiar characters: Catwoman? The Penguin? The Riddler? Come on, people. Batman's been around for almost 70 years, can't he deal with some other bad guys on-screen for once?

Batman Sues Christopher Nolan Over Success Of The Dark Knight:
It's not a dream or an imaginary story - The Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan really is being sued by Batman over unauthorized use of the "Batman" name. But before we all start celebrating the first proof that, as we all suspected all along, let's face it, Bruce Wayne's troubled crimefighter is actually real, I should explain: the "Batman" in question is actually a little-known a city in Turkey. And they're pissed.

Dark Knight Inspires Copycat Crimes, Over-reactions:
It's taken four weeks, but it's finally happened - Fans of The Dark Knight have started to take some of the Joker's methods into the real world, and are paying the price. But, considering what was actually done in the Joker's name, the price being paid may be far too high.

Will The Dark Knight Return?:
With The Dark Knight continuing to rule at the box office, passing the $400 million mark and still going (relatively) strong, it's not surprising that everyone is talking about the next movie even before director Christopher Nolan has agreed to do one. But what's slightly more surprising is the new speculation that a third movie from Nolan would be his first straight adaptation... and that it would be adapting Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns.

Dark Knight DVD Psychoanalyzes Itself for You:
Virals, bat-suit extras and behind-the-scenes snippets are packed onto the 2-disc Dark Knight DVD. Spanish site PlanetaHD is reporting on all the DVD goodies that you'll find when Dark Knight comes out, including a documentary that psychoanalyzes the man behind the mask himself.

Catwoman In Batman 3? Depends Who You Listen To:
Will we see Maggie Gyllenhaal's Rachel Dawes in any potential sequel to The Dark Knight? Certain rumors are saying that we will, although she may be going under a much more familiar guise than we've seen her so far.

A Video Peek Into Batman Gone Anime:
The animated Batman DVD will look amazing, judging from the clips you can see in this promo reel. Batman: Gotham Knight will come out when Batman: The Dark Knight hits the big screen.

You Could Become Batman, Says Scientist:
Sure, Batman is cool and all, but he's a work of pure fiction, right? Well, a Canadian scientist and lifelong Batman aficionado has examined the Dark Knight's skills and figured out how regular people could transform themselves into real-life Batmen and Batwomen. There are only six not-so-easy steps to a Bat-enhanced you. Better start training now, because it's going to take about 20 years before you're ready to mete out justice on the mean streets of Gotham City... or Boise.

Meet The Stars Of The Next Knight?:
The Dark Knight's sequel will feature Catwoman, the Riddler and Harley Quinn, as played by Marion Cotillard, David Tennant and Kristen Bell - or, at least, that's the dream of one particular artist who's come up with posters for his version of Chris Nolan's third Batman movie.

Bruce Wayne's Backstory, Dateline-Style:
Gotham Cable News brings us the full tabloid report on playboy Bruce Wayne. Taking a note from flashy entertainment news shows, this detailed report on the scion of the Wayne family catches us all the way up to the new penthouse digs of the billionaire.

Not on the list, sadly, is my personal favorite Batman post of the year - but then, I could always slip this in at the end of the post, and then remind you that it's NSFW. Considering that he's "dead" and all, here's hoping that Batman's 2009 is a little quieter... The other superheroes need some time to shine, after all.