First, try abstinence.

The absolute best way to avoid sequel-itis is to avoid sequels. Just say no. Don't succumb to peer pressure — just because everybody else lets go and greenlights a fourth Spider-Man movie and a second Wanted movie doesn't mean you have to. Tell everybody you're saving yourself for the right original project.

If abstinence fails, at least don't be a story slut.

So you had a story that worked really well in the first installment, and you want to go back to the well. At least try to expand on the story that worked the first time — don't go hooking up with every stray idea that comes along. Look at The Matrix: The first film had a perfectly excellent set of ideas, dealing with the nature of reality, and whether you can be sure you're not living in a virtual world created by evil machines. The Wachowskis even wrote a sequel script that dealt with those same issues (a copy has been floating around for years, and I think it's genuine). But then they decided to go off in a million other directions, dealing with fate vs. free will, cyclical history, rogue computer programs, evil ghost Rastas, etc. etc. etc. Now we can't even watch the original Matrix without thinking about all the layers of crud the Wachowskis added to it. Like orgasm cake and the keymaker and stuff.

Don't get caught up in trying to chase a bigger and bigger rush.

It's understandable — you want your sequel to be bigger and crashier than the original. If the original had one great chase scene, the sequel needs five great chase scenes. If the original had a poignant soliloquy about the hero's burden, your follow-up novel should have a 500-page treatise on the burdens heroes must bear, and whether it helps for the hero to have lumbar support. Etc. etc. This is how we get movies, with numerals in their titles, that are five hours long and feel as though you've always been watching this movie, since before you were born. (It's not science fiction, but the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie made me feel like I was keeping vigil over the melting of the polar icecaps.)

Along those lines, skip the villain crowd scenes.

Villains are like giant missiles. You know how when you shoot two giant missiles in opposite directions, they can cancel each other out? So that it's almost like you didn't fire any missiles at all? Villains are like that. Two villains are almost like no villains in a movie. Three villains are like half a villain, according to a complex mathematical formula that I will be happy to sketch on a napkin at Comic-Con for anyone who asks. More than three villains in a movie, and you actually have a villain implosion that leaves your movie completely mellow and sort of peaceful... like laying in the grass watching the clouds explode in the distance.

Avoid the "We won! What now?" subtext... or at least do something with it.

When you make one of the biggest movies of all time, it can be kind of overwhelming, and the pressure to craft a sequel that matches — or tops — that accomplishment can be pretty intense. It's almost like you, the filmmaker, are the hero who's vanquished the ultimate evil, and you're left wondering what you're supposed to do with the rest of your life. So it's tempting to play out those anxieties in your story itself. Like Spider-Man 3, for example, which is clearly partly about the creators' anxieties about the success of Spider-Man 2. How else do you explain the fact that Spider-Man has gone from being publicly reviled to becoming everybody's favorite hero, with people celebrating Spider-Man Day? And suddenly the story is about whether fame will go to Peter Parker's head. Wha huh?

If you have to play out the "What next?" anxiety in your story, do what The Dark Knight did: make Batman's success part of the problem. Batman has done too good a job of pushing out the mob, and he's opened up a power vacuum that can only be filled by a mofo as crazy as Bats himself.

Don't do a three-quel.

Just don't. There's no need. Or if you're doing a book thing, maybe do a trilogy and stop there. Don't go back to the well until it's a brackish puce color. We'll all thank you.

Talking to Entertainment Weekly last week, Bay explained why he can't see any further than Revenge Of The Fallen right now:

When we were writing the script, I said to the writers, "I hate sequels that try to make it to the third movie. Pretend like we’re never having a third movie, so let’s go for broke on the second one. I hate those cliffhangers! Let’s just make this movie stand on its own." I really feel this movie is not a forced sequel. I think the script is really good, and I think it’s got a lot of new stuff in it.

If you're hoping for a hint of said new stuff, then Michael's definitely not your man:

There are a lot of rumors out there, but we’ve released a lot of fake stuff. We’ve done a really good job of keeping things secret... [All I'll say is that t]here are some great, new robots that are really inventive.

Of course, maybe all of the above is one of his foilers as well, and the entire film really is a set up for Transformers 3: This Time It's Personal. And Has More Pee Jokes.

Michael Bay talks 'Transformers 2' and 'Friday the 13th' remake [EW.com]

Star Trek:

Star Trek director J.J. Abrams was willing to reveal a few scraps of info about his film. The sequences featuring baby Spock and kid Kirk are not "flashbacks." And Leonard Nimoy is a major presence in the film. [Coming Soon]

Outlander:

Are you excited about Outlander, the Vikings vs. alien monster movie, yet? How about if we show you a second trailer, featuring a voice-over narration from Sophia (Doctor Who) Myles? How now?

Watchmen:

As we've reported before, the movie of Alan Moore's celebrated Watchmen graphic novel remains the same as the original, squid and all. [MTV Movies]

Transformers 2:

In Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen, as we mentioned before, Megan Fox's character Mikaela is left behind in L.A. when Sam Witwicky goes off to college. But the two do finally reunite. And there are some hair-raising scenes where they're zooming along in Bumblebee, and he's going 120 miles per hour without anyone driving him, and with no seatbelts. [Sci Fi Wire]

The Dark Knight:

World's most minor spoiler: good cop Jim Gordon has a daughter who looks about eight or nine years old in the new Batman movie, and she has a creepy encounter with a supervillain. Could she be Barbara Gordon, fated to become Batgirl? Nobody's saying, probably because that's an issue for the ninth or tenth movie in the series. [MTV Movies]

Also, here are even more message-board spoilers. The Joker pretends to kill Rachel in an explosion, but instead he ties her up and burns her to death. (It's mostly off-camera.) The Joker kills a ton of mobsters and cops in gruesome ways, and there's a broadcast of him torturing a fake Batman to death which is pretty horrifying. You think the Joker is going to die, but then he survives. But Harvey/Two-Face does die at the end. [Agony Booth]

Heroes:

Volume III of Heroes would have focused on the actual villains of the show if the writers' strike hadn't happened, but the retooled version this fall will be much more about the good guys facing the temptation of their powers. And romance. There'll be lots of romance. And weird murals. And a turtle. And when Adam/Kensei comes back from being buried in that coffin, he'll be pretty pissed at Hiro. [TV Guide]

Life On Mars:

Some changes to the American version of the British cult hit Life On Mars. The time-traveling cop will be in New York, not Los Angeles as in the earlier U.S. pilot. And whereas the earlier pilot made it very clear that Sam is actually in a coma, and not really transported back to the 1970s, the new version will be much murkier. It'll get more mysterious and confusing as to what's really going on with Sam, in each passing episode. (Although it will eventually make sense, promise the producers, who worked on Alias and are aware of the perils of too much confusion.) [TV Guide again]

Doctor Who:

Yes, it's true. There will be Doctor Who spoilers every day between now and Christmas, when the British time-travel programme actually returns. Today, some crazy rumors about the 2009 one-off specials. One of the Doctor's companions will be a "heroic cyberman" (named five of eight perhaps?). One of the special episodes will take place entirely within the TARDIS, so we'll finally see the massive scope of the Doctor's craft. And we're not done with the Time War, by any means. [Veidt.com]

Chuck:

So we were lucky enough to dig up some actual script pages from the fifth and sixth episodes of the new season of spy-database-brain comedy Chuck. They're "casting sides," which means they're for audition purposes. But they appear to be actual pages from the scripts.

In the fifth episode, we start off in 1983, where Jeff Barnes, sporting a mullet and mustache, has just won the Moto Industries Missile Command championship. He's asked what's next for him. Flanked by two bikini babes, he says: Why decide, when I've got so many tasty options? Then it's 25 years later, and he's working at the Buy More, wistfully muttering to himself about his "tasty options."

Some terrorists have taken over Moto Industries. Casey and Chuck show up to infiltrate the place, and Chuck tries to use his nerd skills to talk his way in with the geeks up front. But the PhDs at Moto Industries are not impressed with Chuck's paltry nerd-fu. "Why don't you help some old lady log onto AOL or something?" So Sarah has to go in and flash some cleavage to get the nerds' attention. The nerds fall all over each other to help fix her computer. Meanwhile, Casey decides to sneak around, leaving Chuck where it's safe — but as soon as Casey's gone, a terrorist turns up. But Chuck talks his way into Mauro Moto's penthouse.

A Moto Industries satellite is going to destroy everything unless Chuck can get the control codes, which can only be found on the last level of every Missile Command game, as we explained before. Maury Moto explains that the mathematics underlying Missile Command are too complex for anyone else to reach that level: "the music of the universe." "As much as I loved making games, I hated making weapons," he adds. The terrorists have forced Maury to play Missile Command, so they can access those codes. "How many will die for my weakness?" he asks. But Maury has to keep playing the game, or it'll explode. "The kill screen doesn't end," he explains. So Chuck and Casey have to escape, leaving Maury to explode.

Casey mistakenly believes that anybody who was into Missile Command would now be in their 30s and have jobs, wives and kids, but Chuck mouths: "No they don't." Meanwhile, he sees a TV broadcast about someone trying to beat the Missile Command high-score record, and "flashes" on the information. He realizes the terrorists are using the local TV station to control the satellite. Sarah heads over there.

Jeff explains the secret of Missile Command is "all about patterns. Heavy duty math. Before I play, I like to listen to Rush, and when I listen to Rush, I like to partake of a certain 100% natural, but not altogether legal, herbal enhancer... It's gotta be outta this world." Meanwhile, literally out of this world, the satellite is preparing to strike. Morgan is jealous of all the attention Chuck is paying to Jeff. It turns out Rush's music follows the exact same time signature as the game. And Rush's sheet music is in the "intersect," the spy database in Chuck's head. Because they're Canadian.

But Morgan gets over his jealousy enough to announce Chuck on-stage, with flashing lights, as "the King Of Sting, the Dancing Destroyer," etc. Chuck jumps up on stage and brandishes a single quarter. Chuck loses the first time, to the amusement of a crowd of jeering nerds who call him "king of the losers." But then he gets Morgan to play some Rush, and this time he beats the game, reaching the "kill screen" and then "beating the kill screen," finally getting to the satellite codes.

Meanwhile, Sarah takes out two terrorists holding the TV relay station, catching one unawares with a bag of chips in his mouth. She catches both their machine guns and brandishes them. Chuck gets her the codes just in time to stop the countdown, as Casey is preparing to try and shoot the satellite down.

And then episode six starts off with a flashback to 2003, with Chuck wearing a slightly different version of the Buy More uniform. He's at a Tri Delt sorority party at Stanford, and people are whispering about how he got kicked out for "stealing." He insists he didn't cheat. Then he throws a pebble at his ex-girlfriend Jill's window. Her bitchy friend Shari opens the window and says that if Jill wanted to talk to Chuck, she would have answered his 28 phone calls. Chuck says it's only 20 phone calls, because for eight of them, he hung up before her voice mail picked up.

A bunch of frat guys gather around, and it's getting embarrassing. Chuck says he drove 346 miles on his break from his purely temporary job because he loves Liz. She finally pokes her head out and says "it's over." Chuck hopes she means the public conversation is over, to be replaced with a private chat at Starbucks. But no. She's dating Bryce Larkin now. "Deal with it," says Shari.

In the present day, Chuck is in a hotel conference center, when he spots Jill. He hides under the desk, and begs the hotel clerk to pull the fire alarm as a distraction, so he can get away. Then Jill walks up and asks for help setting up her computer. The hotel clerk gives up Chuck's location.

Chuck takes Jill out for a stroll and a fancy dinner, where everybody else in the restaurant is CIA. Casey is the maitre d', and this gives Chuck a chance to act like a big shot, giving Casey a rolled up dollar bill and patting his cheek. Sarah is the waitress. Just when Chuck is trying to convince Jill he's a big shot now, the rest of his Nerd Herd coworkers show up. He tries to pretend they're his ex-coworkers who just won't let go. Then a valet shows up with a Ferrari, and Chuck tries to pretend its his. Lester bursts his bubble: "He makes eleven dollars an hour at the Buy More. Do the math."

Some time after that, Chuck is standing outside the door of Jill's hotel room, giving a long speech about his life, and the fact that he rented a car he couldn't drive, because of the transmission, and his ability to quote movies, and the fact that he still hasn't gotten over Jill. A middle aged woman across the hall is quite impressed and tells Chuck she has a bubble bath running. Chuck says he'll play this hand out first. Then Jill opens the door and asks if it's really true that Chuck hasn't gotten over her. He says yes and she invites him in. Casey and Sarah are watching the hotel room, and Casey owes Sarah ten bucks.

Later, Chuck listens in on Jill's phone line in the spy van, and hears Jill talking to her bitchy friend Shari about how Chuck came to her hotel room to apologize, and she let him in. He's like a cute puppy that she couldn't turn away. Shari says Chuck is a loser who only makes $10 an hour, and Chuck can't resist piping up to say he actually makes $10.75. Jill is like, "Why are you on my phone line, Chuck?" Chuck tries to pass it off: "I just tried to call, I guess our wires got crossed. Is this a party line?"

Chuck spots an assassin named Fox Den getting into an elevator, and Casey and Sarah follow. It turns out the assassin is really named Rommell, and he kills someone named Guy Lafleur.

Sarah has to give a talk on toxicology at a scientific conference, pretending to be an Australian scientist named Dr. Eva Anderson. She stalls, talking about how great the buffet was. Meanwhile, a man named Rommell pulls out a vial of deadly virus, with a thin membrane covering it. The membrane starts smoking away. Casey thinks it's a wet dog, then realizes: "The virus has been released. Don't inhale!"

They find Rommell, who tells them he's really CIA and the mission is much more complex than they could have realized. Then Chuck runs up and announces that he's their only hope for survival. "Just when I thought things couldn't get worse," Casey gripes. [Casting sides]

Meanwhile, here's a new promo photo from the upcoming episode where Chuck goes to Sarah's 10th high school reunion. And here's a brief new clip about Nicole Richie appearing on the show, which includes a tiny amount of new footage. [Chuck Online]

In an upcoming episode, Casey answers a knock at the door from a man dressed in a FedEx uniform who gives the correct passcode. But then the man surprises Casey and leaves him coughing up blood. The man's partner tells him they have two more targets, and shows pictures of Chuck and Sarah. [TV Remote]

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles:

John Connor flips over a car, says star Thomas Dekker. And something happens to John in the first episode to harden him, and he becomes more of a bad-ass out of rage. Also, if you care about his feelings on Hayden Panettiere's love life, he addresses that issue. [EW]

The Middleman:

Wendy has to put on high heels and pearls to go undercover at Omega Theta Nu sorority house, going against all of her moral fibers to track down a ghostly apparition. But she begins to suspect something other than a haunted sorority house is going on. Meanwhile, Tyler, the cute guy who lost his memory after the Lucha Libre attack, comes looking for the soulmate he met that day. But he mistakenly thinks it's Lacey, Wendy's roommate. [SpoilerTV]

Kyle XY:

Ally Sheedy's super-mom character will appear in the season opener of ABC Family's show about a teen with strange abilities. But then you probably won't see her again until the season finale. [TV Guide again]

As a card-carrying member* of Generation X, I am sick of Gen-X pandering from the entertainment industry. I lived through the 1980s, and they licked the first time.They were a vapid time: full of neon, preppies, pastels, bad hair, callow materialism and Debbie Gibson. (Actually, I kind of liked Debbie Gibson. But don't tell anybody.)

Signs of the apocalypse include a He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe movie — why, Vishnu, why? — and a new 90210 sequel series, featuring some of the original actors. (Okay, so 90210 isn't science fiction, except that Shannon Doherty is some sort of mutant.) Not to mention a G.I. Joe movie, a Transformers sequel, a Knight Rider TV show, an Escape From New York remake, a Robotech movie, a Bill And Ted remake, another new Terminator movie and TV show, an A-Team movie, a Greatest American Hero movie, a War Games sequel and a Wolverine movie — even though Wolverine first hit in the 1970s, he didn't really hit until the 1980s. Plus, the Brits are bringing me a new Blake's 7 show!

Not to mention, the comics industry is obsessed with the comics that were coming out during the exact month I realized you're not supposed to act impressed by your first real kiss. Marvel is putting out a series that's actually called 1985, and the whole point is: it takes place in 1985. Plus the big money shot in Secret Invasion #1 is all the Marvel superheroes, looking like their 1980s counterparts, stepping off a spaceship as if they've been away for 20 years. And every DC comic for the past three years has been a rehash of Crisis On Infinite Earths. And did DC really publish a new Outsiders comic, or did I just hallucinate it?

Not to mention that they're using the magic of modern technology to put out a new Mega Man game that looks totally retro (i.e., crappy) and 8-bit. And you can actually buy an Atari 2600 controller with games that look just as crufty as they did when I drank 10 liters of coke and conquered Adventure.

As Doris Lessing says in her science fictional Canopus In Argos series, nostaglia means "longing for what has never been." Much of Lessing's work is about the use of nostalgia to poison people, drawing people into supporting bad wars and worse policies and regressing everyone into pliant babies. Speaking of which, they're totally redoing the Canopus series except this time there'll be a talking tea-kettle named Naughty.

The other morning when I woke up, Kevin Feige, Brad Grey and Jeff Zucker were gathered around my bed, holding little mugs of hot chocolate with marshmallows and replicas of the Wonder Woman pajamas I used to wear. "We're bringing it all back!" Kevin Feige said. "It's 1986 all over again!" Jeff Zucker said. "That day you ate ten boxes of nachos and swigged half a bottle of Malibu until you passed out marinating in your own stomach acid and pancreas squeezings? It'll be just like that!" I tried to explain that I didn't really want to relive those years, and the greatest antidote to lingering nostalgia is to see all of the plastic castles of youth rebuilt anew.

"But it'll all be a hundred times better this time, thanks to CG!" Paramount's Brad Grey jumped up and down. "Just look at this new Airwolf pilot, where the super-helicopter is also an ipod, and it's got the brain of a self-help guru inside it, and it'll travel back in time and make your junior prom not suck. And it's in love with Tina Majorino from Veronica Mars! Also, the CG can make it so the people who only pretended to like you in high school really did like you!" I had to dive out the window before they could show me the pilot for a new series that mashed up Manimal and Perfect Strangers, where a guy's cousin turns out to have a funny accent and animal powers.

I had to duck out the window, still wearing my non-footie pajamas, to escape from the bombardment with pop detritus my mom threw out when I was a teenager. They chased me down Haight St., waving posters for their new reality TV series that blends The Big Chill with Cherry 2000: The Big Cherry Chill, where old friends gather, with their malfunctioning sexbots in tow, and listen to the music of their youth: Depeche Mode. I dove into a bong store to seek refuge (Haight St. is pretty much all bong stores — I blame nostalgia) but the guy in the store was one of those new cyber-preppies, obsessively checking his friends network on the new Preppie Handbook-themed version of Facebook. It was actually worse than being pandered to by Jeff Zucker.

In the end, I had to surrender. They tucked me in, fluffed my pillows, put me in the Wonder Woman PJs, and snuck me some weed. It was just like when I faked sick at age 15. Then they put the portable TV at the foot of my bed and showed me the director's cut of Speed Racer, which is ten hours long and turns pornographic right before Christina Ricci's skin falls off and the Mach-6 starts only going backwards. And hey. As I drifted into a warm place, feeling as though I could just wet myself right here in the bed and Brad Grey would clean it up for me, I had a stab of memory: being annoyed, in the late 80s, whenever the fuck the 20th anniversary of the Summer Of Love was (1986? 1989? No clue) and being annoyed by all the crappy 1960s nostalgia, Star Trek was back and everything 1960s was back... and thinking: One day it'll be our turn. So hey, now it is. I might as well enjoy it. Right?

* Actually I lost my card. I'm a slacker, what do you want? If you actually still have your Gen-X card, you're not really Gen-X. If you've got your Gen-X card and you laminated it or covered it with mylar of some sort, you're probably actually part of the Net or Millennial generations. (Actually, according to this incredibly confusing and enlightening chart by Josh Glenn, I'm really part of the Generation That Ate Its Own Entrails, or GAIE for short.)

Transformers 2:

The stakes will be higher in Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen, and the bad guys will have a more coherent plan. Plus it'll be more science fictional, and we'll see way more of the giant robots, and less of the humans. (Yes!) Instead of building up to revealing the Transformers halfway through the film like the first movie, the sequel will start right out with some Transformer action, says writer Roberto Orci.

Arcee, the female Transformer who turns into one or three motorcycles, was in an early script draft, but may or may not be in the final movie. But Soundwave is definitely in the second movie, although he may not still turn into a tapedeck. And it's possible we'll spend some time on the Transformer homeworld of Cybertron, but Orci wouldn't say one way or the other. Which would be totally wild and awesome. More details at the link. [Sci Fi Wire]

As Transformers 2 begins, Shia and Megan Fox have been dating for two years, and they're like an old married couple, says Megan Fox. [JoBlo]

The Dark Knight:

Some more Dark Knight spoilers from some guy on a message board: Rachel does die. Harvey/Two-Face gets "closure," including a funeral scene at the end. And we don't really get to see what happens to the Joker at the end, after a SWAT team shows up and the Batman leaves. Does the Joker get arrested? He just sort of disappears from the movie. [ZGeek]

Star Trek:

In the new Star Trek movie, we'll see how Kirk and Spock became "so connected." And Spock will make you cry with his dense, rich performance. [KREN and E! Online]

Star Wars: Clone Wars:

Here are a couple of Clone Wars posters. Nothing much new, except maybe a glimpse of space-shippy action. [IESB]

Fringe:

In the course of solving the case that threatens the life of Olivia's partner John, Olivia discovers there's a whole branch of Homeland Security devoted to investigating the mysterious chain of events known as The Pattern, which call into question the nature of reality. We'll learn more about Olivia's complicated past as she tries to figure out if anybody is behind all these events, or if they're just natural occurrences.

Mad scientist Walter Bishop may have suffered a mental breakdown 20 years ago, as a result of the harm his oddball research was doing. And since then, he's been exposed to extreme therapies that may have damaged his mind further. Meanwhile, his former partner, William, is super-rich and runs a company called Massive Dynamics. William's chief operating officer, Nina Sharp, takes a maternal interest in Olivia and is aware of the Pattern. She may be trying to protect her company from it, or possibly harness it for profit or some other reason. [Newsarama]

Doctor Who:

Rumors for guest spots in the 2009 one-off specials include the Sea Devils, the Judoon, the Master, Winston Churchill, the eighth Doctor, 1980s companion Ace... and Brian Blessed, either playing the barbarian King Yrcanos or a new character. And here's a new trailer for the Sarah Jane Adventures season two, including a (shudder) clown. [Planet Gallifrey]

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles:

The first episode of Sarah Connor Chronicles season two will make huge changes to every character. Sarah Connor will have massive biceps this time. John Connor will have a new love interest, Riley, who shows up in episode 2, and she won't know John's apocalyptic secret. She'll have a bit of a love triangle with John and Cameron. Also, Sarah Connor's war is "grander and more complicated" than she had believed. [Wired and TV Guide]

Smallville:

Remember Warrior Angel, that superhero movie they were filming at the Kent farm on Smallville? We get to see a fundraiser tying in with it in episode three of the new season ("Toxic"), but Green Arrow (Ollie) gets poisoned at the party, and Clark and Chloe are also there. Characters being cast for the episode include Marcos, Angelica, Megan, a guard, a reporter and a cop. And then the following episode will feature Maxima — the name of an alien queen who demanded to marry Superman in the comics — according to a casting call. But then the casting call changed the character's name to "Melissa." Hmm. [Kryptonsite]

The Middleman:

Wendy actually wears the black catsuit you can see her wearing in The Middleman's opening credits, in an upcoming episode. And the Middleman actually goes on a date with Wendy's roommate Lacey, which makes Wendy uncomfortable. We'll learn more about the mystery about Wendy's missing father, and we'll see more of Tyler, the guy who almost got Wendy's job but ended up with three-day amnesia instead. [New York Post]

Additional reporting by Lauren Davis.

The Spirit:

Sand Saref is the "first love of the Spirit's life" who turned to crime, and the Spirit has to bring her down. [IGN]

The Dark Knight:

Honest cop Jim Gordon gets to drive the awesome SWAT car. And at one point, he gives a crime scene to Batman over his own cops and detectives, letting Batman have it to himself for five minutes. At the end of the movie, Batman agrees to "take the fall" for a bunch of deaths, says actor Gary Oldman. (This seems to confirm a spoiler we reported ages ago that Batman takes the blame for Two-Face's killings.) And if there's a third Batman movie, Gordon will have to be hunting Batman publicly, but meeting with him privately. [CHUD]

There's a scene where Batman wants to spy on millions of Gotham City residents by wiretapping their phones. Lucius Fox is horrified by this notion, calling it "too much power for one person." [Delaware Online]

Meanwhile, the HBO "First Look" special has turned up on YouTube:

Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen:

Matthew Marsden plahs Graham, a British Special Forces officer who's attached to Lennox's team and fights the Decepticons at that Chinese factory (the Pennsylvania steel plant where they were shooting.) And he doesn't die in the movie. [IESB]

Watchmen:

Prison scenes in the Watchmen movie include Nite Owl and Silk Spectre II taking on a phalanx of prisoners to bust Rorschach out of prison. But also a convict's arms being sawn off through the bars of Rorschach's cell. Also, the Owl Ship has guns that can fire 2,500 rounds per minute, and swiveling VTOL engines that allow a smooth take-off and landing. [IGN]

Star Wars: Clone Wars:

The Clone Wars animated movie and TV show won't just deal with Anakin Skywalker and his student Ahsoka, because we know what happens to Anakin and we can guess that something will happen to Ahsoka before Revenge Of The Sith. Rather, it follows a bunch of other minor characters. (And Jar Jar Binks may show up.) We'll learn how Yoda became such a bad-ass and what the attack droids and clones were like before they became naughty. [Sci Fi Wire]

Battlestar Galactica:

You'll find out the identity of the final Cylon sooner rather than later when Battlestar Galactica finally returns. [SyFyPortal]

The Prisoner:

In AMC's remake of the 1960s show The Prisoner, the imprisoned spy Number 6 "finds his way back," and we learn what the village is, says actor Hayley Atwell. She plays the "love interest" in the program, a woman who works for a very important corporation. She's not what she seems. She turns up in the Village blind, with a number. Asked whether her character stays blind the whole time, Hayley answered cryptically: "She's in a parallel world, and it's actually a different part of her." Also, the new show will be about post 9/11 security concerns, the same way the original was about the Cold War. [MTV Movies]

Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog:

Just a reminder that Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible launches online today! The titular villain vlogs, bungles experiments and studies with a voice coach to perfect his evil cackle. [Wired]

Fringe:

The mad scientist in J.J. Abrams' mad-science show Fringe, Walter Noble, used to work out of a major university and was part of a U.S. Army experimental project called Kelvin Genetics. And then he was institutionalized for nearly 20 years. [Zap2It]

Lost:

In spite of Lance Reddick showing up on Fringe as a regular character (FBI boss Broyles), he'll still have time to show up on the island as Matthew Abaddon next year. [E! Online]

Heroes:

Here's another new Heroes trailer that shows more of the "Villains" plotline, plus a glimpse at Future Claire in all her messed-up glory. [Heroes Spoilers]

Smallville:

As we mentioned, the Justice League will rescue Clark at the start of Smallville season eight, led by Green Arrow. Also, Jimmy will propose to Chloe, and she'll accept. New LuthorCorp CEO Tess will have an assistant, named Kat. Clark will work with a man named Nicolai on a boat in the Arctic, and there'll also be a scientist, guard and researcher in the Arctic at the start of the season. [Superhero Profiles]

Also, this season we'll glimpse how Green Arrow's early rough times are coming back to haunt him. And he'll team up with Clark more than in previous seasons. Clark isn't leaving his hometown for good. [Newsarama]

Eureka:

A main character on Eureka dies this season. Also, the first episode is about a "rogue robot" that's causing trouble. [Spoiler TV]

Additional reporting by Lauren Davis.

It's like geek catnip in the week of The Dark Knight's release: Batman's "Tumbler" Batmobile from Batman Begins... as a Transformer. See the whole thing and find out where it came from under the jump.

The image is a fan creation, courtesy of "Jolin" and "JesterJJZ" of indie video production house Jester Pictures, mixing the movie-style Transformers with the Batman design - Dig the pointed ears, chest and belt emblems - to create the kind of thing we should expect to see if Michael Bay ever gets his hands on Batman in the near future...

Tumbler [Jester Pictures] (via Autoblog)

You may be sick of superhero movies this summer, but don't worry, the zeitgeist is already shifting. What started with the success of last year's Transformers movie - and will continue with next year's GI Joe - is just the start of what Hasbro are hoping will be the next big movie trend: Toy Movies.

The effects of last year's Michael Bay explosionfest were definitely felt at Hasbro, America's second biggest toy manufacturer: International revenues were up 33% (and US revenues up 15%) in 2007, compared with the previous year, a fact that many within the company attributed directly to the Transformers movie (Some analysts even predicted 2008 profits would fall. as a result of the lack of Transformers movie). No surprise, then, that the toymaker has decided to try and see what other products they can get turned into movies ASAP.

First up are the two you already know about for next year: Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen and GI Joe. Both of these are generally expected to be successful for obvious reasons - not only the success of the last Transformers movie, but also the in-built audience for both franchises who played with the toys, watched the cartoons and read the comic books when they were kids - but they're also the only two franchises of that nature that Hasbro happen to own. Is there really a hardcore fanbase out there clamoring for the big budget, live action My Little Pony movie, for example? Or George Clooney's Visionaries?

Not that that's stopping Hasbro, however; earlier this year, the company unveiled a deal with Universal Pictures for "at least" four movies based upon their toys and games. No actual titles were announced at the time, but some names bandied about included Stretch Armstrong, CandyLand and, for the second time in its career, Clue (It won't be able to reach the heights of the Tim Curry original, mind you).

Hasbro isn't the only company looking to get in on this action, either; Mattel have movies in various stages of pre-production for both Masters of The Universe (with John Woo attached) and Hot Wheels, and we've just seen (or, more likely, stayed well away from) the release of Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, based upon the peculiar and expensive American Girl line. On the one hand, it makes sense; having exhausted the television and comic books of your youth, why shouldn't Hollywood move into your toy closet? But if we ever find ourselves reporting on the announcement of the Big Jim's PACK movie, then it really is time to get worried.

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Let's get the bigger publishers out of the way first: With the exception of a preview of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's next project, Captain America: White, Marvel pretty much lets this week slide to focus on the latest issue of Secret Invasion and a hardcover collection for Joss Whedon's (disappointing, let's be honest) Runaways story. DC, on the other hand, just seem to be letting it slide altogether, with the exception of Final Crisis: Requiem, a one-shot memorializing the dearly-departed Martian Manhunter. Instead, turn your attention to Dark Horse Comics, which is happy to fill the gap with their new Hellboy spin-off, BPRD: The Warning and equally new Indiana Jones series, Indiana Jones And The Tomb Of The Gods.

Perhaps, however, you'd rather read about robots in disguise who don't go around raping each other; if that's the case, then you should definitely pick up the first issue of Transformers: All Hail Megatron, the "What if the Decepticons took over the Earth?" series that we've told you about already and happen to be waiting for with baited breath. Watching Megatron rule our planet with a literal iron fist seem too much of a downer? Then there's also Transformers Movie Prequel: Saga Of The Allspark premiering this week, giving you all the backstory about the deus ex machina that Michael Bay didn't quite manage to get around to.

For the books of the week, however, you have to go to Image Comics and Ben 10 co-creator Joe Kelly. Not only does his new series I Kill Giants launch on Thursday (featuring Barbara Thorson, a fifth-grader who either has a very, very active imagination or really does kill giants, pixies and other mythical creatures in her spare time), but his children's book Captain Stoneheart And The Truth Fairy also gets a fine re-release. Stoneheart, which started life as an issue of the Elephantmen series, bills itself as "a grim tale of broken bones and broken hearts," but really it's just a beautifully-written, wonderfully-illustrated (by X-Men and Amazing Spider-Man artist Chris Bachalo) children's story... albeit one that you can now get in a deluxe package including the original script, uncolored pencil artwork and CD of the audio version of the story. You can see a trailer for the book here.

As is really honestly always the case, you can find the complete list of everything hitting stores here and then go and buy whatever you want at the store closest to you, a fact that you can work out by going here. Just make sure that your stack has a hippo or robot somewhere in there. Preferably both.Hel

[Tim Flattery via TFW2005]

Apparently, the US military are io9 readers - How else to explain the fact that, right after we post about the fictional next generation against terrorism and Transformers, we get to tell you that the real-life next generation of the War On Terror involves the US using tranforming robots?

According to a report in the Scotland on Sunday newspaper,

The US military has signed a £1.6m deal with a technology firm to design robots which are intelligent enough to work out how to wiggle through small spaces to reach their target... They want scientists to come up with a design for a tiny robot able to move under its own power and change shape so it can get through gaps less than half an inch wide.

The US administration has not said what it wants the robot to do but its specification says: "Often the only available points of entry are small openings in buildings, walls, under doors, etc. In these cases, a robot must be soft enough to squeeze or traverse through small openings, yet large enough to carry an operationally meaningful payload."

We've already asked about the moral implication of robot combatants, but now that we're heading towards real life versions of Optimus Prime, do we have to consider the awesome implications as well?

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/scitech/US-wants--scifi-killer.4260519.jp

As the creator of Dream In Pink, Shinju-chan, prepares to open up the site to other artists, she reflects on the entire world of Transformer Yaoi:

Contrary to what some people might believe, Transformers yaoi is NOT a new concept. I actually read and shared TF slash back in the mid-1980's while the original series was still yet on the air. The only reason why it seems so ‘fresh’ now is due to the fact we have the internet which offers far more greater exposure than localized fan groups swapping ideas and the mail-order fanzines of old. We also didn’t refer to it ‘yaoi’ back then either. As a matter of fact, I don’t believe we dubbed it anything at all —-other than robots being very gay.

Still, in all of slash-dom, there is no other show I can think of that seems to rival all the ‘taboo’ that surrounds Transformers related slash. If it’s not the irregular homophobic fans you’ll encounter who’ll argue that you are —quote— ‘Raping my childhood!’ and ‘How dare you do such a thing!’, you also have the other side of the fan community that are in fact into TF slashing, but have totally different ideas and separate opinions as to how those sexual acts are performed by giant mechs... Some fans feel that ‘sex’ among the robots is purely mechanical in it’s nature; attaching cables, buttons, and pushing keys. Some slash fans enjoy adding a more human-like element by having phalluses and such. Still yet, there’s another part of the Trans-slashdom who appreciate the ‘Transformers human’ concept that depict the robots in a human form (Such as based on the G1 Season 3 episode of ‘Only Human’) engaged in sexual acts. That part of the community has another fraction to it all of it’s very own that include Transformers involved in sexual acts with human beings! The majority of this concept seems to have it’s roots laid thick in Japan where the Transformer/Human idea is a very prevalent one. The KISS Alternators product line for instance.

Shinju is more of a classicist, however; her strip Confessions has a very simple plot: Optimus Prime beats Megatron in battle... and then rapes him. Apparently, the seemingly morally-upright leader of the Autobots really was more than meets the eye, after all.

[Dream In Pink]

The folks at Comic Book Movie were intrigued enough to ask:

During the climactic fight scene in the Hancock movie, with all the tornados blowing around, you see something that looks like a transformer, or giant robot walking across the street during the melee. At the time, I past it off as one of the combatants or an illusion because of all the debris flying around, but we've had several emails asking us about it. Does anybody know what it was? And did everybody see it? Tell us!

Sadly, the consensus among Comic Book Movie's readers was that it was just "a guy on stilts—one of those panhandler freaks that are only found in LA." Which raises another question: Is LA really full of panhandlers on stilts? Do they have signs saying things like, "Will Impersonate Giant Robot For Food?" [Thanks to Jake for the heads up.]

On Tuesday the studios made their final offer to SAG. Of course the actors are all still mulling over the negotiations, but no word yet if there will be a strike. That being said, many movies are moving forward with filming schedules.

Terminator 4's John Connor and Dark Knight's Batman, Christian Bale didn't seem to pleased about the possibility of a strike. In an interview with ReelComix he tried to blow it off, but you could see he yearns for work, "I mean clearly I hope there is nobody out there who wants to have a strike. I hope that everybody wants to be able to make a deal. The industry has been reeling from the writers strike, people have barely recovered from that. [So] I cannot understand why anyone would be desiring a strike rather then make a deal."

Even pugnacious Hellboy star Ron Perlman hoped for peace and told the Associated Press, "I hope that cool heads prevail and that people get a chance to work...I'm hoping and praying that they find some middle ground."

I think Batman and Big Red's sentiments are shared with much of Hollywood. Didn't they punish the middle guy enough? Think of the grips, makeup artists and set designers and artists that would have to go with out movie money again. With the ever impending recession, it's no wonder that half of Hollywood isn't living in a old timey Hoovervilles anyways. But if it happens, they'll both be prevented from talking to the press or working on any upcoming projects at all. Heroes producer Tim Kring says the show's third season will be totally ruined if the strike goes forward.

Big-budget scifi films Terminator 4 and Transformers 2 have decided to push through the strike as of right now. (Although Transformers 2's filming schedule built in a "hiatus" around now to work on visual-effects stuff without any actors, in case the worst happens.) According to the New York Times both studios seem to believe it will all work out. But just in case both movies have been filming at a feverish rate (Transformers 2 almost constantly) is this a mad dash to finish what they still can before the actors whose egos are bruised cause an all out riot?

So it looks like the big scifi movies will keep burning the candle at both ends until they can't anymore, but what of our beloved Comic-Con?

Slash film speculates that we could be seeing a celebrity-free Comic-Con. Which they deem a positive thing, and I tend to agree. Why waist time standing in line for a pictures with a celebrity when you can now spend countless more hours bothering writers and producers for spoilers. Plus imagine the fan boy riots when they find out Leonard Nimoy isn't coming — priceless!

The video, remixes the already very disturbing Lucky Star Decepticons video before giving it a new soundtrack that happens to be a cover of Underworld's "Born Slippy" by Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan Lee O'Malley. Why does it do any of these things? I have no idea. And for some reason, that makes it all the more perfect.

O'Malley commented on the mix:

It's just weird at first, but once the beat kicks in it gets kind of great.

He's not lying.

Decepticonboooy AMV (Kupek's Born Slippy Cover) [YouTube]

The poster first appeared online at the Seibertron message board, who were very quick to distance themselves from the source:

We do not know about the validity of this source, but a poster has been seen that supposedly advertises the now filming Transformers live action movie picture, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen". The picture is distorted, but be wary of possible spoilers if legit.

"Distorted" is a polite way of describing the small grainy shot, but even the low-resolution pic was enough to get fans at the TFormers message boards into detective mode:

I think it's a photoshop...the face is TOO much Bay-like. Namely, that one CG image of Megatron you see anywhere. Note the way the eyes and cheeks line up.

A comparison is provided and, sure enough, they do look very similar:

Others aren't so convinced:

That is real. The head is Galvatron. Behind him is Unicron going towards Earth (Unicron below Galvatron's head and Earth behind his head).

Leave it to the movie's screenwriter, Robert Orci, to wrap everything up:

never seen [the poster] before.

Of course, that doesn't mean that it's definitely a fake... What if Orci has been recruited into the disinformation campaign as well...?

Transformers ROTF Promotional Poster Rumor [Seibertron]

Iron Man 2:

Thor won't be making a cameo in Iron Man 2, says director Jon Favreau. He also mentions he's seen early art from from the Captain America movie, and it looks great. [IESB]

Hellboy 2:

Variety also posted its review of Hellboy 2, and it includes some spoilers. As the movie starts, Hellboy's girlfriend Liz is pregnant, but he doesn't realize this at first. There's an early sequence where he battles a giant green forest deity, cradling a baby in his arms. We see a flashback to 1955, where Professor Broom (John Hurt) reads Hellboy more of that story about the making of the mechanical Golden Army to protect the Elves against the humans. The crown controlling the army gets split up, with one part going to the humans and two parts to the ancients.

Fifty years later, Hellboy is working for the Department of Paranormal Research and Defense. His boss wants Hellboy to be discreet and low-profile, so of course he gets thrown out of a burning building and onto a police car. It turns out the Elf Prince Nuada wants to reactivate the Golden Army, but his sister Princess Nuala hides her piece of the all-important crown. The army finally does get awakened, in Ireland, and Hellboy fights Nuada on top of a giant clockwork mechanism. [Variety]

Journey To The Center Of The Earth 3-D:

Variety also posted its early review of Journey To The Center Of The Earth 3-D, with more spoilers. Brendan Fraser plays Trevor, whose brother Max disappeared years ago. Max's bratty teenage son Sean shows up for a visit, bringing a box of Max's papers including a copy of Jules Verne's Journey To The Center Of The Earth. It turns out Max had a theory about volcanic "tubes" that could carry you past the Earth's magma layer into the planet's core. He takes Sean off to Iceland to discover the truth. They hook up with a mountain guide, Anita, who believes Verne was actually writing the truth. They ride a broken down mining rail, over a steep cliff, plummeting miles below sea level into a giant jewel-encrusted cave. They cope with carnivorous plants, Alien-like fish, and dinosaurs. [Variety]

Transformers 2:

Jon Voight (the Secretary of State in the first Transformers) says he won't be back for the sequel. [Collider]

Also, I totally missed the snippet towards the end of this article, where Michael Bay mentions a bit about the plot of Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen. Sam Witwicky goes off to college at an Ivy League-esque East Coast school, but Mikaela (Megan Fox) can't afford college. She travels from L.A. to visit him at his school. [NJ.com via TrekMovie]

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles:

Garret Dillahunt's Terminator, Cromartie, will be a regular in the second season of the Terminator movie spin-off show Sarah Connor Chronicles. Cameron (Summer Glau) has some issues after surviving that explosion at the end of season one, and everybody changes at the end of the first episode. We'll also see Cameron trying to eliminate other girls in John Connor's life, if she feels they pose a strategic threat. [E! Online]

Smallville:

Young-Superman show Smallville is casting three characters for the first episode of season eight: a guard, a scientist and a researcher, all of whose storylines relate to Chloe somehow. Also, Clark has a surprise for Lois when he returns to Metropolis. [Kryptonsite]

Doctor Who:

So what exactly happened at the end of Saturday's episode of time-travel soap Doctor Who, when the dying Doctor started to regenerate? Nobody knows, but there are a few theories:

1) The Doctor has a failed regeneration, with his severed hand involved somehow, and as a result he turns into two different Doctors, both played by David Tennant. (We showed some pics of Tennant wearing two different colored suits on the beach where he said goodbye to Rose in season two.)
2) The Doctor has a failed regeneration, which splits him into two Doctors, one played by David Tennant (thanks to the severed hand?) and the other played by David Morrissey (who's in the Christmas special later this year playing a character referred to as "the other Doctor" on the actors' trailers.)
3) The Doctor has a failed regeneration, which splits him into two Doctors — one of whom is actually Donna. (Not sure where this one comes from, actually.)
4) The Doctor "rolls back" his regenerations for a bit, and turns into Sylvester McCoy, the Doctor from the late 1980s. (The main evidence for this is that Syl was interviewed for Doctor Who Confidential, and was wearing a version of his old costume on camera.)
5) The Doctor's regenerations are tied to the Master's now, so he somehow turns into John Simm. (This has apparently been debunked. Simm won't be back this week, but the Master will show up sometime in 2009.)
6) Something different will happen.
All we do know for sure is that Tennant was filming the Christmas special a while back, so he's definitely not being gotten rid of — unless that was the most elaborate foiler ever. [Doctor Who Forum]

But if you really can't wait, here's someone's fanfic of what might happen on Saturday. [Yo-Mawari]

We do know that Sarah-Jane Smith won't die, because Elisabeth Sladen says she's in the middle of filming a second season of Sarah-Jane Adventures already. [Spoiler TV]

And here's a trailer for Saturday's episode, which reveals almost nothing, except that Davros wants to reduce the universe to atoms, which will become nothing. "The destruction of reality itself!" (What if Davros actually succeeds, and then reality reforms itself, because of nature abhorring a vacuum?) [Planet Gallifrey]

Heroes:

"Villains" is volume three, not season three, of superhero melodrama Heroes — the show's third season will consist of both volumes three and four. (Volume three is just 13 episodes.) The season doesn't introduce many new characters, but some new villains will show up. There's definitely more to Nathan's assassination than meets the eye. Also, we'll explore what will happen if "Sylar were only the tip of the iceberg" in terms of morally corrupt people with superpowers. [Collider again]

Don't get me wrong; I know that Batman is as much about the gadgets as he is the whole parents-getting-killed-so-he-fights-crime thing. But the last two posters to be released promoting The Dark Knight have both focused much more on the Batcycle than they have the caped crusader; all you can see is his head, on both posters. Holy guano, Batfans; why are Warner Bros hiding the dark knight?

I'm all for mystery, but in the fifteen posters released for The Dark Knight to date, not only is the eponymous hero of the movie absent from eight of them, there are only three where you can really see more than his head or a hand - and in two of those, he has his back to you. When you can actually see more of Christian Bale's Batman in a Got Milk advertisement than the movie's own publicity, you have to wonder what's going on. We've narrowed it down to three possibilities:

Someone finally realized that the movie Batman costume looks ridiculous: Yes, it's practical with all the padding and everything, but look at it - It's like he's wearing a tire. It's a movie where we're already buying a hundred different unbelievable things, so why do we have to care about the believability of his body armor? Whatever happened to the simplicity of the comic book outfit, with the grey and the black and wearing his pants on the outside?

Christian Bale couldn't breathe in and push out his chest for the length of the movie, and almost all publicity shots they had made Batman look fat: Hey, crimefighting's a tough gig, and who can manage to look glamorous all the time when keeping a city safe from Aaron Eckhart 24-7? Just as cops like to stereotypically take a break by having a doughnut or several, so does a Batman like to indulge in his pastry of choice: The bearclaw.

Warner Bros wants to convince fans that Batman is now a Transformer: It sounds ridiculous, I know, but think about it: Transformers was a massive hit last year, and Warners may be hoping that the audience out there is so hungry for new stories about heroes who can turn themselves into vehicles that they'll mistake Batman's head on a bike to mean that Batman has, himself, taken his crusade for justice so far that he was willing to turn himself into a part-man, part-bike cyborg if it meant Gotham City was even 1% safer at night. And when most people haven't seen anything other than Batman's head and his massive bike, who's to say that that's not the case?

It's sad to see that the folks at Warners seem to be downplaying Batman in the advertisements for his own movie. I mean, I like The Joker as much as the next man, but you pay too much attention to him and not your star and you end up with... well, the first Tim Burton Batman. And no-one wants to go through that again.

[The Dark Knight]

Tokyopop's absence is just one in a long line of worries for the publisher, which has just been forced to pull back significantly on its publishing program, either releasing titles online only or cancelling them outright (One of the casualties of this decision is Brandon Graham's awesome King City), as well as having to make large-scale layoffs to its staff.

(One of the unexpected effects of Tokyopop pulling out? No Wil Wheaton at the con.)

Paramount's involvement, however, is slightly more in question. Initially, the studio had explained its absence by pointing out that their next big geek movies (including Transformers: Rise of The Fallen, the Star Trek remake and M. Night Shyamalan's live action version of Avatar: The Last Airbender) weren't coming out until next year, and that "the timing was off this year." But when Variety's Anne Thompson broke this story, she was contacted by a studio spokesman:

Paramount spokesman Mike Vollman just called me to say: "We have a vibrant and exciting schedule of activities planned for Comic-Con." The studio will be unveiling a number of marketing materials on these pics.

So, while they may not have a booth as such, apparently you'll still get fliers for all their products. It may not be as fun as a lifesize Iron Man armor, but I guess that it's something...?

(Flickr image by Karl Monaghan)

Comic-Con Update: Paramount Goes Viral [Variety]

Star Trek:

Harry from Ain't It Cool News saw about 7 minutes of rough footage from the Star Trek reboot, and he posted some descriptions. First he saw a scene of baby Spock being cradled by Sarek and Amanda (Winona Ryder) on Vulcan. Then he saw a sequence involving the Kelvin, that Federation ship 25 years before the Enterprise's time. The shot starts as a close-up, then pans back to show the ship (with a saucer and one nacelle above and one below) against an angry sun. Then we glimpse inside the ship, which looks like an old submarine.

Then he saw a scene in a hangar, with cadets massing around shuttlecrafts waiting to hear what starships they'd be assigned to. Leonard McCoy gets assigned the Enterprise, but Uhura doesn't. And Kirk demands to know why his name wasn't called at all — turns out he's still in trouble over that Kobayashi Maru training-simulation stunt he pulled, and his future in Starfleet is at stake. McCoy helps Kirk to get on a ship, in a funny scene that shows their chemistry developing. Meanwhile, Uhura confronts Spock over her assignment to a ship other than the Enterprise.

And then there was a scene on the Enterprise bridge, commanded by Captain Pike, with Sulu at the helm. The Enterprise bridge and uniforms look like "classic Trek," but everything is more functional. (Harry's description explains more what he means by that.) [Ain't It Cool News]

The Dark Knight:

Here's another new trailer for the Batman film The Dark Knight, and a blurry scene of Batman and the Joker playing chicken that showed during Entertainment Tonight. [Wired]

Plus there's more speculation that the Joker kills Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal) by dropping her off a tall building. [Topless Robot]

And here's a clip from the direct-to-DVD animated anthology spin-off, Gotham Knight, that went up on MTV Movies the other day. [MTV Movies]

Doctor Who:

Here's another clip from Saturday's Doctor Who, showing a scene we've already described in some detail before. [Spoiler TV]

G.I. Joe:

Brendan Fraser confirms he has a brief cameo in G.I. Joe in a "training scene." [MTV Movies]

Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen:

Remember that Transformers 2 scene we mentioned, where Sam goes to class and starts freaking out and writing equations? More details have come out. Apparently, it's the Astronomy 101 class taught by Professor Colon (played by Rainn Wilson) who also wrote the class' textbook. The prof tells the class to turn to page one, but Sam reads the entire page in seconds, then starts telling the professor which parts are wrong. Then he gives a speech about what Einstein got wrong as well. He demands to know why nobody understands him, then finally leaves. (The second day, he comes back to class, but acts less nuts.) Meanwhile, he also warns Mikaela not to touch "it" (a piece of the Allspark?) maybe because of the effect it had on him. [The Movie Blog]

Meanwhile, a call-sheet from Transformers 2 turned up a couple of weeks ago, and I don't think we blogged it at the time. It gives more details about that Shanghai steel mill sequence that was filmed in Pennsylvania. A strike force in Hummers and Trikes pulls off its hazmat suits. Meanwhile, an ice cream truck rolls up to some kids and they run to get treats, but the truck splits in half and spins away from them, leaving some treats behind. (This is the Decepticon known as the Twins.) Then the three motorcycles that make up Arcee roar past the ice-cream truck. So do an Audi R8, the Hummers, the Stingers and the Trikes. The Twins chase the R8 into an alley, then crash and split in two again.

There's also a scene at the Smithsonian where Sam, Mikaela and Simmons sneak in, using a radiation detector to find the hidden Decepticon Jetfire. Along with a Transformer named Wheels. They find Jetfire, but he transforms and it sounds like he escapes. [Comic Book Movie]

Heroes:

Heroes producer Tim Kring gives some hints about season three. The questions the show originally asked, about identity and how people are connected, and where all these powers are coming from, all get turned on their head "in an interesting way" in season three. Unibrowed ubervillain Sylar will be an integral part of the whole season, and won't be going anywhere any time soon. [Sci Fi Wire]