The L.A. Times is reporting that Warners is trying to buy the movie rights to the classic arcade game Space Invaders. Producing the project, if all goes as planned, will be Mark Gordon, Jason Blum and Guymon Casady, who have worked on various genre projects from The Day After Tomorrow, The Relic, to Paranormal Activity.

We're not really sure what it will look like, but let's assume it's some sort of Independence Day-type action film... or this:

[Picture/T-Shirt via Threadless]

Bloody Disgusting has a tip that WB has its eye on yet another Mortal Kombat movie. Oren Uziel, whose past scripts have made the 2009 Black List, is in talks to write the script(s). Our biggest issues with the past films was their total utter lack of gore and spine-ripping death. This was the only reason to play this fighting game: to watch Scorpion shred the flesh off of his stunned victims. We can not bear another crappy Mortal Kombat movie, unless there is violence, buckets of blood, and Jean-Claude Van Damme recreating Johnny Cage's fatality sequence.

At least this news gives us the excuse to post this hilarious sketch about how Mortal Kombat isn't really a tournament at all.

And here is a collection of fatalities — my personal favorite is when Cyrax pulls the Predator kill.

A much longer clip will be shown at the Spike Video Game Awards on December 12th.

This latest piece of concept art is from Dylan Cole. Via MartketSaw.

Ubisoft has announced that it plans to make a game based on Bryan Lee O'Malley's six-book series, and it's certainly a game tie-in that makes sense. After all, the entire Scott Pilgrim universe seems to be trapped inside an indie rock arcade game. In each book, Scott must defeat one or more of his girlfriend Ramona's evil exes, who each present special challenges and possess otherworldly abilities. And whenever Scott defeats an enemy, he vanishes leaving behind some sort of reward (the most creepy being the extra life, shaped like Scott's head).

Ubisoft is looking to retain the character and charm of the books, opting for a classic side-scrolling design and working with O'Malley to develop the gameplay. As much as I'm geeking out over Edgar Wright's daily dispatches from the Scott Pilgrim film set, I suspect the game might prove a more apt adaptation, since the structure of the books is more suited to a video game. And O'Malley has promised plenty of fun gaming treats for fans:

It's still in the really early stages, but we're talking about having lots of characters, lots of Easter Eggs for readers of the books – a lot of stuff that couldn't fit into the movie but is more suited to the game. That's what I'd like to see and what we're working on.

[Comic Book Resources]

Here's the official synopsis from the site, and yes if you were wondering that video is narrated by Lance "Bishop" Henriksen.

The Keeper of the Jedi Archives has entered a new holorecord. Continuing his investigation, Master Gnost-Dural delves deeper into the history of the galaxy after discovering that the blockade that Hylo Visz helped end was a result of the actions of the new Mandalore.

BTC 8 – During a Republic resurgence in the Great War, a bold young warrior rose to fame in the Gladiatorial arenas on Geonosis. Adopting the ancient and infamous title of Mandalore, this young leader amassed an army of Mandalorian mercenaries and bounty hunters. The new Mandalore led his forces to form a blockade and challenge the Jedi Order, effectively turning the tide of the war back in the Sith Empire's favor.

In other, very exciting news, TV Squad is hearing rumors are being leaked the George Lucas may stop by San Diego Comic Con to talk about the live action Star Wars television series supposedly gearing up to shoot in Australia as we speak. Or at the very least, Lucas may be piped in via videoconference. Let's hope he doesn't show up empty handed.

The District 9 computer game has you running around squashing an alien uprising as a human, or gathering fuel cells as an alien bug creature who's stuck on this planet. As an alien, you're warned you'll either be arrested or shot if caught, but those MNU officers always shoot first and ask questions later. I wonder if there'll be an actual fuel gathering alien resistance in the film? We know from the trailer that the illegal aliens are out of fuel. Are the Earthlings holding out on them?

Here are a few screen grabs from the new District 9 game, where tolerance is best learned at the business end of a rifle.

The video game, which you can play as a Na'Vi (the 10-foot-tall blue-skinned native of Pandora) or as a human, and fight for either side's directives (each species has different goals, and who's to say who's the bad guy). Also interesting is the entire gaming story runs parallel to the movie, but won't spoil the film. Here is the entire clip from Cameron's video E3 presentation, thanks to G4.

Stills from video game collaborators Ubisoft.

The story picks up a bit afterStar Wars: Knights Of The Republic ended (but about 3,000 years before the movies' timelines). The story unfolds during the war between the Galactic Republic (Jedis and friends) and the Sith Empire. And from the looks of things, the Siths are winning. While there isn't much out there yet, but this footage is lovely, especially for an MMO. But it sounds like it will be a long while until the game is released.

The machinima series follows Moon's character, Blair Williams. So far, it looks like all the same storylines as the Terminator Salvation game, but it does have new kill bots, and I know you all love that. Here is the official description:

The Resistance is the last hope for survival. Commanded by the remnants of a decimated military system, resistance fighters battle the machines of Skynet day and night without quitting. Blair Williams is one of these fighters. Blair is in her early 30's and is old enough to remember a normal life but vital enough to learn how to fight. She is highly skilled and superbly courageous - traits that often get her some of the hardest missions.

We meet Blair at the beginning of one of these missions. She has been sent into the heart of downtown Los Angeles, a known hot zone, to seek out and destroy something called "The Ghost" - a code name designated to a machine designed to interfere with Command's communications. The resistance knows that Skynet is ever evolving and this must be just another tactic to bring down the leadership. Without the ability to talk to each other, the Resistance would simply fracture and collapse. It was already starting to happen.

The series is currently available on iTunes and Amazon.

Craig Zinkievich from Cryptic Studios took some time to show a few new bits of the Star Trek MMO and talk about how deep and layered this game is going to be, and how much it shows of the post-Nemesis future. We're especially excited that you can become a one-eyed Klingon. They also talk a little bit more about one of the possible objectives of the games, besides shooting everyone.

Check out all the little beauties sent into the wild to end the human race, I am especially afraid of the top bot, Spider, because he looks so much like Dog Bot. Let's kill it now, people - before it revolts and slaughters us all.

You will be able to play as John Connor on PC, Xbox360, Playstation 3 and Wii, and it should be in stores later this year. To check out the rest of the stills from the Terminator Salvation video game, check out Action Trip.

Champions Online will be an vastly action-oriented MMO — the brief clip screened featured battles with exploding forcefields and clashing katanas. Unlike games where a single enemy is encountered, Champions will have its heroes fighting off squads of attacking henchmen at first, with new strategies and tactics introduced as gameplay progresses and your advancing character comes into contact with hardcore villains and supervillains. The game is especially interested in elevating the level of personalization and character-building, allowing for unique modification of powers and putting more power than ever in the hands of players.

What's special about this game?

—Customization! A huge part of what they're excited to bring to Champions Online is enabling players to have hands-on creativity within the game's world. The game will be classless, featuring pre-defined themes and power sets, but your character will be defined by the skills and talents you choose, entirely self-constructed. There will be opportunity for hybrid characters that can switch between offense and defense capabilities, and characters in general will be able to temporarily take over the action role of a team member if they go down. You'll be able to select various roles, switch up your build, and learn about more powers than you'll be able to use at once. The mobility of switching between active and supporting roles is an exciting development, meaning no one team member will feel forced into a box by their chosen skill-set.

—The Nemesis System — the creators seem the most excited about this new, extensive feature. You'll be able to build your own villain that you can fight once you build up your reputation. You can customize your villain entirely, choose their power sets and minions, even create a background and mythology for them. The game's creators suspect that as much time if not more will be pored into villain-creation than into heroic character-building. You'll be able to invite people to fight with you, then show off your nemesis-constructing skills when your personal villain attacks. This element of being able to create and share the result with friends is one of the features creators wanted most for Champions Online. By the time you're creating your own nemesis, you'll be very well-acquainted with the game, and your own villains will likely be the most difficult enemies you encounter.

—Action-oriented MMORPG — There will rarely be static fights and there will always be somewhere interesting to go. You'll be able to constantly move around, with lots of interaction in many different environments. There will be constant activity on the game, marked at first by fighting off swarms of lower-level minions. If you've always wanted to take on a ring of bad guys and show them how it's done, this will be your chance. It'll feel heroic to battle coordinated attackers, feel even better when you reach more challenging solo opponents.

—A Variety of Vistas — Champion Online's creators wanted to bust out of just being set in city-scapes. Millennium City (set in the ruins of a very old Detroit) will be the hub of adventuring, but there will be a ton of different places in the world to visit and find new challenges. Every area will have a strikingly different feel. A few of the settings the panel let slip featured a desert, a location in Canada, and Monster Island. While "everything and the kitchen sink" is in Millennium City, there will be many types of neighborhoods/genres within the disparate cites sites. Each place will look and feel distinct, and offer a different type of gameplay, from typical showdowns to espionage to crime-solving.

—Complex Storylines — One writer shared that "the amount of dialogue and scripting is insane." He had recently submitted 29 pages of dialogue for one neighborhood of one setting. Although there are several overarching storylines threaded throughout, there willl be tons of stories and missions that mingle horror and comedy with heroism.

Info from the Q & A:

—The stats operation system will be unique, and you'll be able to use items, talents, and "perk rewards" to alter your status.
stat operation: use items and talents and perk rewards, able to alter your stats

—Will there be unusual weapons? (The questioner wanted a guitar). There will be a lot of unusual weapons on top of more than 200 "mundane" weapons, plus we are promised "crazy fun cool new stuff."

—You'll be able to band together with other players to form "supergroups."

—Can you punch people through plate glass? There'll be breakable surfaces, along with interesting things to pick up and hurl (the biggest at the moment is a tank, but they hinted there may be an F-14 jet to throw at some point).

—Do you have to grind out levels with the daily grind so many other games require? Certain levelling-up is a feature of most MMOs, but the creators believe that Champions Online is unique because there are no limitations to where superheroes can go and what they can do; the genre gives more freedom, and players will be involved in creating their own content.

—Will there be super-vehicles? The game's creators are starting to work on vehicle tech, aware that some players are interested in "supercars and motorcycles and superpogo sticks," and are in development stages with those ideas. Super-vehicles aren't guaranteed for launch.

—What happens at the max level? Work is progressing on the endgame now. Items will continue to mean upgrades to your character, and they're working on having an arena-like fight club. The game is built to be in the hands of the players, and the endgame will grow with player suggestion and input.

The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, voiced by Vin Diesel (who else!) is the long awaited update since the 2004 Riddick game Escape from Butcher Bay. Athena picks up right after Riddick's escape from the last game. Riddick and John Vessel get sucked into the clutches of a bounty hunters ship... but, of course, he's not going down without killing a few people with unconventional objects. Here's the video from G4, which will be hosting the game's producers tonight at 8 PM.

If that's not enough for you, there will be even more goggle-faced goodness when Riddick is released on Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PC in the spring.

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li follows Kristen Kreuk, as she learns all about her street fighting skills and uncovers the mystery of her past. And the little kicker becomes pretty pissed when she finds out who is responsible for her family's troubled past.

Even though I truly love this video game, I just can't see how this film will deliver. I need to see how bad-ass Bison is going to be, because right now, we're borderline not cutting it, also I'm still going to need to see more bulk on the lovely Kreuk. You should be able to break a chair over her, and she should just shrug it off.

The action movie will be released on February 27, 2009.

I traversed the city, poking my head in each store looking for what might be gone and what's probably still in stock for you last-minute shoppers. Now, just because some stocks were dwindling in my town doesn't mean it's lights out for Watchmen across the nation. But just in case we've got a list of back-ups so you don't show up to the holiday festivities empty handed. Sorry — there are only so many times you can use the "I bought you Netflix" line, when you simply showed up with nothing.

Video Games:

Sold Out: Gears Of War 2
Instead: First off, ask the clerk. I ran into three lying liar faces that had more copies stashed in the back room. "What you see is what we got" need not apply to most video games, as they churn out these discs like heroin. But should you run into this predicament, there are more video games out there, trust me.
Instead: Try Fallout 3 or Dead Space. Both should be in ample supply.

Sold Out: Wii or Wii Fit. Yearning to try the workout of the future? Too bad. They are sold out — all of them. You will get laughed at to your face by some 16-year-old on winter break. (I did.)
Instead: Flip Camera. Sure, it's not a Wii, but really what is? And at least they'll be ready when the Cloverfield Monster strikes their town. They're reasonably priced (a little over $100) and can hold a lot more video than most of the cell phones out there.

Movies:

Sold Out: Hancock, because apparently a lot of people liked this movie.
Instead: There are two other infinitely better bad good movies that had loads upon loads in stock. I suggest Death Race or Doomsday. They're both action packed and terrible in a good way, and NO WILL SMITH.

Sold Out: WALL-E. I actually found a few here and there shoved in the wrong spots, so keep a keen eye out. Plus, the Blu-ray had a few left over.
Instead: So you can't watch the new awesome robot from Disney? Well, what about the old awesome robots, gadgets and space creatures? Teach others about the great scifi kid movies of our past. Flight of the Navigator, Honey I Shrunk The Kids and Black Hole are all on sale at Best Buy for $5.99. If that doesn't work, go with Enchanted, but seriously if your child/friend/sig. other doesn't like one of those first three, you need to sit them down and have a long holiday talk.

Sold Out: Dark Knight. This is hard to replace, I admit, but there are other big releases that should tempt some scifi fans.
Instead: Wanted and the new X Files were in stock but personally if I couldn't have Batman for Christmas a close second would be Bill Murray. There is a Ghostbusters box set with both movies for a mere $15.

Sold Out: Futurama's Bender's Big Score (the best of the Futurama DVD movies)
Instead: Aqua Teen Hunger Force Volume 4

Books And Comics And Things:

Sold Out: Twilight Book Set
Instead: Teach your Twilight fan about the other work of Stephenie Meyer, The Host. Or go really crazy and pick up the other vampire series, from Charlaine Harris: the Sookie Stackhouse books, which are now HBO's True Blood series. But be careful, these Twilighters are a fickle breed.

Sold Out: Watchmen.
Instead: Y The Last Man in hardcover, Buffy The Vampire Slayer and the Joker hardcover. Our intrepid comics reporter Graeme McMillan has put together a fantastic collection of 10 great graphic novel gifts that would also make a fantastic gifts, if the Watchmen you're looking for is no longer about.

Sold Out: Neal Stephenson's Anathem
Instead: Sly Mongoose by Tobias Buckell, or Karen Traviss' Clone Wars. Need more to go on? Jot down a few of these book gems from Annalee's bookish gift guide.

Sold Out: World War Z by Max Brooks
Instead: Easy — Max Brooks' Zombie Survival Guide.

Quick Gifts:

Box sets, I'm telling you this is the way to go. Don't get a mere chapter of a series, get the entire collection. The ones that caught my eye was a $10 DVD of BOTH Never Ending Story movies, the Resident Evil Trilogy, and possibly the most amazing thing I've ever seen the Alien Predator Pack, an 8 disc set of every single Alien, Predator and the two AVPs for $55.

But should you have more questions, you can always consult the Ultimate Scifi Gift Guide.

Eidos and Warner Bros’ video game Batman: Arkham Asylum is certainly trying to guarantee the good by bringing on Mark Hamill to voice The Joker. Hamill has already proven himself, first as the new hope and later as a pretty stellar voice work actor for Batman: The Animated Series in the 90s and on.

Gravely voiced Kevin Conroy, who was recently in Gotham Knight, along with amazing past work on the animated series, will also be working the voice as the Batman himself. Should be fantastic, as Conroy really nailed the best Bat-voice in my book of angry whispers. (Certainly better than Christian Bale's Springsteen-with-a-cold growl.)

Check out this showcase of the many laughs of Hamill's Joker from Batman: The Animated Series:

[The Force]

In an interview with Sci Fi Wire Kreuk explained that her character remains pretty true to the Chun-Li history:

"It's about the character Chun-Li. It's her origin story from when she was a little girl. She loses both of her parents. Her father is taken away. She doesn't know that, and she goes on a revenge journey and then eventually finds a teacher, a master to help her overcome her emotional attachments to getting her revenge so that she can actually see a greater good, and then go forth and fight from there."

Kreuk continues on explaining how she went through massive training with Moon Bloodgood (Terminator Salvation, Journeyman), who plays an Interpol agent. But sadly, most of the sword scenes ended up on the cutting room floor, and there's no mention of squats or leg presses. Surely Ms. Kruek has to know what sort of insane inspection her legs are going to be under for taking on the tree trunk-limbed character Chun Li.

This video game looks amazing. I cannot wait to get my hands on it, let alone see additional game-play sequences. Although I'm still looking for a better look at the allegedly appearing Poison Ivy — since Batman and Robin I've been dying for a new take on this character to wipe my mind of the past.

Batman: Arkham Asylum will be released in the summer of 2009 and will be available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.