Nemesis, a new series created and owned by Millar and his Civil War collaborator doesn't just look like the Joker's smile painted on an all-white-costumed Batman's face, it's literally "What if Batman was the Joker." Millar explained to Comic Book Resources:

Yeah, a lot of people who've read it have been coming up with hilarious tag-lines. "What if Batman was The Joker?" is the tame one. "What if Batman was a total cunt?" is maybe my favourite, although it's hardly going to be an ad. [It's] is a reversal of the Bruce Wayne or Tony Stark archetype. What if this genius billionaire was just this total shit, and the only thing that stood between him and a city was the cops? It's Batman versus Commissioner Gordon, in a weird way. Or maybe a super-villain version of "Se7en." A billionaire anarchist up against ordinary people. The Joker's the best thing in the Batman movies, so this guy is a bit of an amalgamation of all the stuff we like.

Consider it a psychological thriller with an unlimited special effects budget, if Millar's description of the series is anything to go by:

All the cops are needed to go up against a guy as formidable as this. He's almost supernatural, he's so good. But he happens to just be in a costume. Hopefully nobody's ever seen anything like it before. We're so used to supervillains fighting superheroes, I just thought, "Imagine if there was only one person on the planet like this, and he was actually a bad guy." How would cops deal with him, even though he has no super-powers? ...Very simply, I wanted to do a book about the world's greatest villain up against America's greatest cop. I just liked the high concept of that - the idea of a villain going around from country to country and having a battle of wits with the best guy that he can get his hands on. And he sends them a little funeral wreath with the date and time of when they're going to die on it, every one dying at precisely that time. All these cops in the Pacific Rim are dead, and then we come in at the American side of the story and see the struggle of this guy in just trying to stop him.

(As much as this is so-obviously-they're-admitting-it-right-off-the-bat a Batman rip-off, am I the only person who got to "All the cops are needed to go up against a guy as formidable as this" and "I just thought, 'Imagine if there was only one person on the planet like this, and he was actually a bad guy'" and thought that it was Death Note?)

The series will debut in 2010, and yes, Millar admits in the interview that there's already Hollywood interest in a movie adaptation.

"Nemesis" Asks: What if Batman was The Joker? [Comic Book Resources]

MTV announced earlier this week that Marvel Comics writer Millar had other priorities besides a Superman movie - including, apparently, making money:

I don't think [DC Entertainment] could afford me now... I'll stick with Marvel.

On his own website, however, Millar disowns the quote:

I don't think I said they couldn't afford me now. If I did I was joking because writing Superman would be a massive payday so if I said that I was obviously laughing at the time. It's possible though as I like being glib.

He goes on to say that what little we know about his plans for a trilogy aren't enough:

Nobody has ever seen my Superman idea besides Matthew [Vaughan, Kick-Ass director]. We never pitched. I've never done a pitch in my life (it's demeaning) so all this stuff about people hating my Superman ideas, etc, is just bullshit. Nobody's seen it. I don't write or give ideas away for free and simply wouldn't. I mentioned a big epic idea to Empire in a Wanted interview which was a couple of lines long, but no story stuff at all. So the stuff about me pitching is nonsense. I don't and will never pitch. That's why I like working in comics.

Considering DC Entertainment's apparent lack of desire for a Superman movie, the idea of them asking someone working for their biggest competitor to write a trilogy without presenting a pitch first seems more than a little unlikely, but dare to dream, Mark.

Mark Millar interview with MTV's Splash Page [Millarworld]

We got a chance to sit down with Bekmambetov, director of Night Watch, Day Watch and Wanted, about his role as producer of Shane Acker's 9, which opens tomorrow night. Bekmambetov says he fell in love with Acker's short film (with the same title) back in 2005, when his partner Gene Levy sent him a DVD while he was at the Berlin Film Festival. Says Bekmambetov, "It was like a door sliding open, and you see a little bit of the world behind the walls. You want to see much more." He decided to help make this short film into a feature-length picture, just so he could see more of that mysterious world of ragdolls and deadly machines.

Bekmambetov says 9 has his sensibility and he feels "very connected" to that whole world that Acker has created.

And 9 really is about your real life and the people around you. Wherever you go, there are people playing the same roles. In 9, the dictator is ragdoll #1, who's sort of like Morgan Freeman's character in Wanted.

In our society, in our lives, in our mind... to understand the world, we create the roles. Like dictator, friend, girl, and the crazy guy... And what Shane did, he just created these characters fulfill these archetypes. And I grew up in a small town. And I think it's important for children to grow up in a small place, because then the world is solid. You know everything about this world from the beginning. There was one mad man — one crazy guy, everybody knows him — one prostitute, one policeman, one good guy, one superman. It was exactly the same. Every role has one representative. It's the same as 9, every character represents part of your [worldview]. I think the audience will really understand who is a dictator — who is a 1 — in their lives, who is the friend — 2 — who is a 7, the girl. It's easy to identify.

And yes, there's only one female ragdoll in the movie. Although, says Bekmambetov, "We don't know about 3 and 4, they are twins, children."

You might think 9 is a very dark film, what with the killing machines and desperate ragdolls and all. But Bekmambetov says it's actually a "very bright movie" with a dramatic contrast between brightness and darkness. Think of it like a Rembrandt picture, with bright figures standing out against a dark background. Sure, there are horrible machines, but there are also love, friendship and heroic characters, and people sacrificing themselves for the sake of good.

And that's exactly what we all do in real life, says Bekmambetov: try to survive and hold on to our beliefs.

Also, Bekmambetov revealed he's already finished filming his next Russian movie — a superhero movie. "The Russian audience is very excited and waiting for it." It's the film we mentioned a while back, about the flying black car, tentatively called Black Lightning. He says "It reminds me of some American movies, like Spider-Man, but because it's in Russian it's so different... It's the same idea, but because there's a totally different environment you feel like it's totally unique."

Here's the teaser trailer, from Youtube:

Bekmambetov says superheroes remain popular because they're really new versions of the same archetypes we've been dealing with for thousands of years, dating back to Greek tragedies. "We cannot create new stories, we're just changing environment and changing consciousness and rearranging things."

So yes, Fox shot herself (and a ton of other people) in the head at the end of Wanted. But that doesn't mean she can't return, says Bekmambetov:

We are working hard to wake her up. She was deadly wounded. The bullet's still there (in her head), and now it's a process of how to wake her up. There has to be a reason for that. We survive if we have a reason to live. She decided [to shoot herself], it's her decision. And now we are trying to figure out what's the motivation for her to resurrect. It's happening. I think we will make it happen.

So they're not undoing the gunshot wound to the head, or showing her in flashbacks, or bringing her forward in time or anything. Instead, they're sticking to the gonzo anything-can-happen, power-of-the-human-mind spirit of the original, by having her recover from a deadly bullet wound through sheer will power. Which, really, is as it should be.

Timur Bekmambetov was doing interviews for his stitchpunk movie 9, but we'll have plenty more on that later.

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]

Green Lantern:

Thank goodness, that flawed draft of this superhero movie's script we reviewed a while back wasn't the final version. Screenwriter Marc Guggenheim says he just turned in another draft. And he calls it a "loving, respectful approach" that draws from comics throughout the character's decades in comics. [Sci Fi Wire]

Inception:

A couple of minor details about Chris Nolan's widely anticipated next movie. Joseph Gordon-Levitt confims he has a fairly major role in the film, and says Nolan has a particular way he wants the project to be unveiled to the public — suggesting there's some kind of mystery or secret inside the film. Also, the Calgary Sun quotes sources as saying a lot of filming will happen around Fortress Mountain, with an elaborate set being built. This film's only description says it takes place within "the architecture of the mind" — could that literally be a type of architecture? [MTV and Calgary Sun]

The Time Traveler's Wife:

We showed you a smaller version of this movie's poster the other day. Now here's the giant version. [New Line Cinema]

G.I. Joe:

Someone who claims to have seen a test screening of this powersuit epic has a fairly damning review. There are tons of silly one liners and far fetched tech, but the film also tries to ground itself in today's sociopolitical reality. G.I. Joe is actually a branch of NATO that recruits members from all over the world. The story revolves around a suitcase full of warheads full of self-replicating, super-destructive nanomachines, which keeps changing places between COBRA and the Joes, over and over again. Also, the film starts with a 1700s era flashback explaining villain James McCullen Destro XXIV. Oh, and those famous power suits don't turn up that much in the movie. [Slashfilm]

John Carter Of Mars:

Add another star to this Martian epic. Thomas Haden Church told an interviewer he'll play a role that's "very dramatic," which people are guessing refers to Tars Tarkas, an alien warrior who butts heads with John Carter but eventually becomes his sidekick. [Reel Talk via The Cinema Post]

Wanted 2:

Timur Bekmambetov told Russian media that he plans to start shooting this sequel late this fall or in the winter, and shooting will take place in America, India and Russia. Also, he claimed he's found a way to bring back Fox, Angelina Jolie's character. Also coming back: the Executioner, played by Kostya Khabenskiy. [Coming Soon]

Lost:

There's now mutual interest between Dominic Monaghan and the producers for having Charlie reappear in this show's final season, sources say. [E! Online]

Battlestar Galactica:

Ronald D. Moore says "The Plan," the TV movie airing this fall, has lots of surprises, even though we know how the story ends now. There are lots of breadcrumbs and tidbits that give us a new slant on the events we already know. And apparently the focus of the movie is in-fighting among the Cylons, after their scheme to wipe out humanity leaves resistance fighters and a fleet of refugees. [Wired]

Supernatural:

Sources say Anna will reappear next season. Yay! [E! Online]

True Blood:

In next week's episode, Jessica is having trouble adjusting to her new vampy status, and she misses her family, so she asks Sookie to drive her to her parents' house so she can take a look. But she ends up nearly killing her dad before Bill steps in, and blames Sookie for stirring up a mess of trouble. Also, more is revealed about Tara's boyfriend Eggs, who spent time in prison for drugs, armed robbery, and assault. Lafayette asks Eric to turn him into a vampire. And Sam turns into a dog again. [E! Online]

Also, in season two we'll go deeper into Eric's character and realize that he actually has a sensitive, loyal side. He doesn't like that many people, but if he likes you, he'll be a great friend. [Sci Fi Wire]

Eureka:

Here are the titles of the first four episodes of the new half-season: "Welcome Back Carter," "Your Face Or Mine," "Insane In The P-Brane," and "It's Not Easy Being Green." [SpoilerTV]

Additional reporting by Alexis Brown.

New comic site Bleeding Cool launched yesterday, by breaking news of the collaboration between Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons, which Millar — whose Kick-Ass is currently being filmed with Nick Cage and Superbad's Christopher Mintz-Plasse in starring roles — initially called "totally wrong" before admitting that the two are planning something for mid-2010:

Dave and I still in very early stages, but would imagine we'll do something for next summer, probably around six issues.

The comic will see something of a return to the mainstream for Gibbons, who has stayed somewhat away from high profile projects since his post-Watchmen Martha Washington series with Frank Miller. Maybe his experience with Zack Snyder got him interested in making more movie dollars. Expect us to give you more details if and when they're released.

Mark Millar And Dave Gibbons To Create New Comic Together [Bleeding Cool]

Don't get me wrong; I don't doubt that Furious scriptwriter Chris Morgan (also one of the writers of the original Wanted movie) can come up with a theater-filling idea, and I also wouldn't be surprised to see Evan Spiliotopoulos (former Disney scriptwriter of such movies as The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning and Pooh's Heffalump Movie) turn that idea into something that won't stick in the brain too much. No, what I'm unconvinced about is how well either writer will come up with something in line with the original Mark Millar and JG Jones comic that this sequel is apparently still based on, despite the original movie pretty much throwing away most of it with glee.

Of course, with original director Timur Bekmambetov apparently on board to helm this sequel, the writing may be the last thing on anyone's minds.

'Pooh' writer tapped for 'Wanted' sequel [Hollywood Reporter]

There's no getting around it; for almost every publisher this week, it's all about the reprints. DC collect some of the funniest self-referential comics ever in the black and white Showcase Presents Ambush Bug, Marvel showcases the next generation of mean green mothers with the Hulk: Skaar, Son of Hulk hardcover, Wanted creator Mark Millar's stab at religion, Chosen gets a reissue as American Jesus Volume 1: Chosen (worth picking up if only for the insanely terrible ending, and I say that with something approaching love) and a genuine classic gets new life as Ted McKeever Library Volume 3: Metropol.

(Also released, if Diamond's shipping list of this week's releases is to be believed - although I am convinced that it can't be, because this isn't due for another month - is the collection of IDW's Star Trek: Countdown, the prequel to JJ Abrams' big screen reboot of Gene Rodenberry's franchise, and a fun Next Generation story in and of itself. I keep thinking I should do a recap for Trek fans who haven't picked it up, and the same with IDW's Terminator: Salvation prequel - Would you guys be interested in that?)

That said, Boom! Studios have easily taken the win for the week's releases with two new books based on old friends.

Firstly, Pixar's The Incredibles come to their natural home with the first issue of The Incredibles: Family Matters (written by Kingdom Come, The Flash and many other great things writer Mark Waid), which manages to capture the tone of the movie pretty damn well... but even so, still isn't the best thing to hit stores tomorrow.

No, that title belongs to the first issue of Boom!'s new The Muppet Show series, which I will tenuously define as sci-fi for the purposes of inclusion here thanks to the Pigs In Space sketch contained therein. For anyone who loved the old Muppet Show TV series... you have to buy this. You really, really won't be disappointed. Unless you hated the comedy and only tuned in for the musical numbers.

For those who know what it is to laugh, you'll have to use the Comic Shop Locator to find out where to buy the wonder (and pick up The Incredibles, while you're at it). For everyone else...? Well, why not look and see what else is coming out this week to find something to tickle your fancy?

Assassinated in the Act

The Jennifer Morgue by Charles Stross: Some people have a monkey on their back; Ramona Random has a succubus. If Ramona doesn’t have sex, the demon gnaws at her mind. If she does have sex, it devours her partner. It makes her questionable girlfriend material, but a highly effective assassin.

Goldeneye: Bond henchwomen often use their seductive powers to get what they want, and what Xenia Onatopp wants is a good orgasm. Unfortunately for her partners, she nothing brings Xenia to ecstasy quite like squeezing a man to death between her powerful gams.

Worshipping the Queen of Sheba (American Gods by Neil Gaiman): Bilquis, an incarnation of the Queen of Sheba, doesn’t get loving any more from the worshippers who once prayed to her and held sexy fertility rites in her temples. So she maintains her power the best way she knows how: by posing as a prostitute, having sex with her johns, and promptly devouring them with her vagina. Judging by the screams of ecstasy, it’s not an entirely unpleasant way to go.

Getting it on with Alien-Possessed Women

Torchwood “Day One”: Cardiff is ground zero for alien mischief, so when a beautiful woman leads you into the bathroom for some anonymous love, stay on your toes. She might have a fetish for sexy time in the stalls, but she might also be possessed by an alien gas that wants to suck the sperm – and all the energy – from your body.

The Outer Limits “Caught in the Act”: Chaste Hannah wants to wait until marriage before going all the way with her boyfriend Jay. When an alien lifeform takes control of Hannah’s body, premarital abstinence flies quickly out the window as she starts seducing every man on campus. But this isn’t sexual liberation; it’s a hunger for man-meat that goes way beyond genitalia. When Jay starts tailing his suddenly unfaithful love, he discovers that she’s absorbing men into her body during the act.

Death by Snoo Snoo (Futurama “Amazon Women in the Mood”): After all the men died out on Amazonia, the Amazon women devised a method of punishing male trespassers that fulfills the needs of the hetero sex-starved population: Snoo Snoo. Evidently, dying of a crushed pelvis only sounds like fun.

Alien Sex Vampires

Liquid Sky: The aliens who land on the roof of artist Margaret’s loft find human endorphins especially tasty. Initially, they’re content to nibble on the endorphins released during heroin use, but they quickly learn that the orgasmic variety is far more satisfying. So they start murdering Margaret’s partners at the height of their sexual pleasure, leaving Margaret behind to deliver avant-garde monologues in her neon makeup.

Lifeforce: When a beautiful naked woman found imprisoned in the tale of Hailey’s Comet crawls on top of you and starts kissing you wildly, it’s probably not because she thinks you’re neat. It’s much more likely that she’s searching for a convenient orifice through which to suck out your soul, leaving you a desiccated, undead ghoul.

Angel “Lonely Hearts”: Angel & Co. hunt down a demon that kills its host when close to another naked body. But it’s not looking to snag its host’s energy; it’s just leaping from body to body during sex, looking for the perfect body to inhabit forever.

Having Sex with Your Proxy Self (Kaiba): In a future where memories can be stored, traded, and implanted in someone else, having sex with someone who shares your memories can be a form of near-masturbation. But the experience is so intense that it can make your head (and the rest of your body) explode.

Death by Rapid Pregnancy

Fringe “The Same Old Story”: When you’re a human specially designed for rapid aging, and your sperm is similarly designed, it’s best to use protection when sleeping with a fertile female partner. But even condoms fail from time to time, and those rapidly gestating pregnancies tend to kill the mother.

Species II: The same rules apply to men infected with alien DNA. Female alien hybrids can handle nine months’ worth of pregnancy occurring in the span of a few minutes. Female humans just don’t have the wombs for it.

Magically Boinked to Death

Dresden Files: Storm Front by Jim Butcher: When Harry Dresden is sent to investigate a pair of lovers whose hearts exploded in the act, he comes across a wizard who draws his energy from sex and lust. The wizard sent his target a coital heart attack, and her unfortunate partner got his own dose of cardiac overload.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer “Where the Wild Things Are”: Buffy and Riley’s repeated and enthusiastic lovemaking literally wakes the dead, freeing a crew of sexually repressed poltergeists. Once freed, the poltergeists try to ensure that they’ll have a steady supply of sexual energy by getting Buffy and Riley to continue their round-the-clock shtupping until they die of exhaustion. Fortunately, the rest of the Scoobies come to the rescue with a spell to pry the lovers apart, at least temporarily.

Kryptonite Condom (Wanted by Mark Millar): Perhaps taking a cue from Mallrats’ speculation on how Clark Kent and Lois Lane might copulate, supervillain Professor Seltzer once devised a kryptonite condom to take down his own Superman-like nemesis. Apparently, the hero’s girlfriend never quite got the radioactive rubber on him, leaving us to wonder whether a kryptonite diaphragm would have been more effective.

The Classic Coital Coronary

Star Trek: New Frontier: Vulcans are known for their remarkable stoicism, which breaks down spectacularly every seven years during an individual’s pon farr, during which a maddened Vulcan must mate or perish. But not every Vulcan has the constitution for the intense consummation. The Vulcan Voltak had a heart attack while between the sheets with his new wife, Enterprise Dr. Selar, leaving Selar widowed and throwing off her pon farr cycle.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine “Let He Who Is Without Sin…”: Curzon was a great diplomat and a notorious womanizer. So it’s apt that he irreparably strained himself with attempting the sexual ritual of jamaharon on the pleasure planet of Risa, although he didn’t give up the ghost (or, in this case, the symbiont) until several days later.

The X-Files “Gender Bender”: The alien Kindred lead a life of quiet isolation in a rural Massachusetts community. But when one of the Kindred ventures into the outside world, their intense alien pheromones both attract a constant stream of willing partners and give them coronaries in the throes of passion.

The Tick “The Funeral”: Many superheroes hope to go out in a blaze of glory, felled by some worthy opponent. Famed superhero the Immortal meets his fate on a mattress in Captain Liberty’s apartment, felled by her vagina. Although judging from the pending paternity suits, he died pretty much how he lived.

Powers “Little Deaths”: Philandering superhero Olympia has a similar exit, albeit accompanied by a literal blaze of glory. His alter ego's wife commits suicide over the ensuing tabloid coverage, but the woman who was on top of him at the time gets half a million dollars for the TV movie rights.

Movies:

The Dark Knight just came out on DVD, and pretty much everybody who doesn't hate movies is going to want to own it. Our sister site Gizmodo just reviewed the BluRay version, and the picture quality on an HD screen is the next best thing to seeing it in actual Imax.
Extras: Nothing to write home about, sadly. No Christopher Nolan commentary track. No outtakes or gaffes, because Nolan doesn't believe in doing that to his actors. The second disc includes those "Gotham Tonight" faux news programs that were on the Internet a while back. Plus some featurettes, like this one:

Wanted is an unrated DVD, which means just a smidge more crazy violence and nudity in this story of a working stiff who discovers he's the super-powered heir to a society of mega-assassins.
Extras: There are tons and tons of featurettes, plus a music video to a song by Danny Elfman. I like this one, about how much fun it is to be beaten up by Angelina Jolie:

This one, about the special effects work behind the spinning train, is also pretty cool:

Wall-E is the best animated movie in years, and one of the best movies of the year. A lone trash-compacting robot is left behind on a destroyed Earth.
Extras: Two short films, Burn-E and the theatrically released Presto Amazing. Some deleted scenes, including this one:

And some featurettes, including this one about why Wall-E doesn't have elbows:

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army. One of the best directors working today, Guillermo Del Toro, takes on a second installment of this supernatural superhero story, featuring a deeper look at Hellboy's alienation and tangled relationships.
Extras: There are two commentaries, one by Del Toro and one by some of the actors. Plus tons of deleted scenes. But for my money, the features that make it most worthwhile are the looks inside the making of GDT's amazing creatures, and his personal tours of the movie's elaborate sets, like the troll market:

Plus there's a giant two-and-a-half-hour documentary, "Hellboy: In Services Of The Demon." And a look inside the puppet theater, and a glimpse of Del Toro's notebook.

The Incredible Hulk, Marvel's less appreciated superhero film of 2008, is still a pretty satisfying monster romp, and the DVD gives you more of a sense of how ambitious a project it really was.
Extras: There are featurettes, showing how Ed Norton became the Hulk and Tim Roth became the Abomination. There's the original opening sequence, in a snowy wasteland, where Bruce tries to kill himself and turns into the Hulk. You can see some deleted scenes, which give you a glimpse of the much longer, more introspective movie co-writer Edward Norton wanted you to see. Like this one, where Bruce cries over psycho-babble at dinnertime:

Or this one, where Bruce and Betty look at an orchid together:

Johnny Mnemonic/Omega Doom/Universal Soldier. Yes, you heard me right. Sony just collected all three of these awesome 1990s instant classics and put them onto one bargain-priced DVD set. (As cheap as $14 on one site.) This is a whole day's viewing. You can drink coffee and watch Mnemonic, then get stoned and watch Universal Soldier, and then drink Drano and watch Omega Doom. (You've never heard of Omega Doom? It's Rutger Hauer playing a post-apocalyptic robot who's lost his memory. Okay?)

Extras: Ummm... Thai subtitles. Could come in handy.

Thirteenth Floor/Screamers/Solo. And here's another one. I bet you have a friend who doesn't own any of these movies. Again, going as cheap as $14 on some sites. The Thirteenth Floor was actually a pretty okay movie, part of the cyberpunk mini-boom of the late 1990s. Solo is Mario Van Peebles as a super-cyborg.
Extras: Umm... If you get stoned enough, you can watch these movies more than once.

David Lynch: The Lime Green Set. The notoriously wacky director has just put out a box set, including a remastered Eraserhead, plus Elephant Man and Blue Velvet. It also includes some new-to-DVD apocrypha, such as Wild At Heart's "Industrial Symphony No. 1" and Dumbland. And there are some early short films, like "Six Men Getting Sick."
Extras: There are never-before-seen Elephant Man DVD extras, plus a fancy booklet and a new sound mix for Velvet.

TV box sets:

Lost: The complete fourth season. Relive the season when this island-castaway show started getting exciting again, thanks to the flash-forwards and the saga of the Oceanic Six getting off the island.
Extras: There's a pretty hilarious Oceanic Airlines safety card, plus two whole discs of bonus features. You've got that wacky feature about flash-forwards that we showed you recently, plus the mockumentary about the hoax of the Oceanic Six. Documentaries cover topics like filming on location, creating that massive freighter set, and all the guns that everyone carries. Plus bloopers, which are never as funny as you think they'll be. And deleted scenes, like this one:

Jericho: The Complete Series. For your friends who just don't get why you were so pissed off that CBS axed this series about the town in Kansas that survives a massive act of nuclear terrorism.
Extras: Supposedly this set has everything the first and second season sets had, plus some bonus features. Including a wacky list of 100 reasons why you should watch Jericho, which include "Funny Arms Skeet." And a documentary showing a table-read for the script for season two, episode one.

The 4400: The complete series. This show about 4,400 people being abducted and given weird superpowers turned out to be a lot more bizarre and complicated than it looked at first, with a weird cult and Summer Glau as a psychopath with mind powers. And Jeffrey Combs as a mad scientist. Yay. And now here's the complete thing, for only about $66 on Amazon.
Extras: I think you basically get what you would have gotten with each of the separate season box sets.

Doctor Who: Series Four. In many ways, the end of an era for the BBC's time-travel action-comedy-soap. The last full season starring David Tennant and under the stewardship of Russell T. Davies, plus the final (probably) end of the story of Rose, the time-travelers most besotted companion. It's not the best season of the RTD years, but contains some real gems, like "FIres Of Pompeii," "Midnight" and "Turn Left."
Extras: I love the DVD menus, which feature the usual view of the TARDIS set, until you select something — then the Titanic crashes through the wall. There are the usual Doctor Who Confidential mini-documentaries for each episode. The "Time Crash" mini-episode, featuring two Doctors, is included, and there's also a David Tennant video diary. Plus commentary tracks. And deleted scenes, like this one:

And this alternate ending:

Mystery Science Theater 3000: 20th Anniversary. Has it really been twenty years of the guy on the space station watching bad movies with robots? Huh. In any case, this is a comemorative tin box set with four of the show's most popular movies: First Spaceship on Venus (1960), Laserblast (1978), Werewolf (1996), and Future War (1997).
Extras: The oral history of MST3K (sounds unhygienic.) A Comic-Con reunion panel. All six versions of the theme song. Four fancy lobby cards, plus a Crow T. Robot figurine.

Star Trek: Season Three remastered. Your friends may already have the seminal space opera on DVD, but do they have the fancy-schmancy remastered version? Now you can watch the show slide downhill into oblivion in better picture quality, with restored special effects.
Extras: There's a new version of the show's original pilot, "The Cage," with improved effects. And footage of the cast and crew goofing around, from home movies. And footage of makeup tests.

Transformers Energon: The Ultimate Collection If you're going to mess around with Transformers Energon, it might as well be the ultimate version, dammit. This was an animated series running from 2004-2005, most notable for featuring a lot of Unicron, the evil robo-planet formerly voiced by Orson Welles.
Extras: None that I can find out about.

Bubblegum Crisis 2040: Complete Collection. There's already been a "Perfect Collection," but now there's a "Complete Collection," which sounds even better. In the aftermath of a huge earthquake, an evil corporation wants to take over Tokyo using genetically engineered monsters. Oh noes! Luckily four super-powered women stand in their way, in this anime spinoff.
Extras: None that I can learn about.

Voltron Volume 6 A totally new Voltron is constructed to battle the Drule threat in this new DVD box set. This covers episodes 73-90 of the 1980s series.
Extras: Featurettes include "Vehicle Voltron Pilot," "Vehicle Voltron Fans Unite," "Vehicle Voltron Featurette," "Team Up Clips" and "Episode Synopses With Original Air Dates."

Wild Wild West: The Complete Series. If your own exposure to this weird steampunk excursion was the Will Smith movie, now's your chance to discover it in full.
Extras: It includes the two later TV movies, which weren't included with previous box sets. There are also audio interviews with creators like Fred Freiburger, John Kneibuhl, music composer Richard Markowitz, and special effects creator Tim Smyth. And you get to see one of star Robert Conrad's Everready battery commercials from the late 1970s, plus a network promo reel.

Other:

Thomas Pynchon - A Journey Into The Mind Of [P]. This 2002 documentary about the writer of The Crying Of Lot 49 and Mason & Dixon is finally out on DVD as of November. The Dubini brothers, Italian-German film-makers, try to unravel the mystery of the reclusive Pynchon through the use of photographs and archival films, plus tons of interviews with random Pynchon admirers and hangers on. Some reviewers have been a tad underwhelmed.
Extras: None that I'm aware of.

Timewave 2013: The Future Is Now Odyssey Two. Honestly, I would get this just for the title. Your friends will never look at you the same way again. It's the sequel to the acclaimed 2012 the Odyssey Armageddon Is Not What It Used To Be. Says the blurb:

This is definitely an adventure into the nature of time itself, with some of the world's foremost metaphysicians, sages and experts lending their wisdom. Buckle yourself in for a breathtaking ride! The experts in this film reinforce the notion of continual change, inner change and the amazing opportunities presented by the advent of the galactic alignment in December 2012.

Extras: You'll discover that the end of the Mayan calendar isn't really the end of time. Sort of.

Avatar:

Whatever you expect James Cameron's 3-D opus to be, it'll actually be something totally different, says Cameron. And a teaser trailer could possibly appear before Monsters Vs. Aliens. Maybe. [MarketSaw]

2012:

Tired of movies that trash New York? Roland Emmerich agrees with you, judging from what Amanda Peet says about Los Angeles in this new disaster movie:

There are some things that happen in Los Angeles, crazy stuff. [My character and John Cusack’s character] see it from a plane. We get off the ground and we escape in an airplane and some of the stuff that [Roland] shows us is incredible and really frightening.

Also, she says she and John Cusack are civilians trying to escape from the catastrophe. [MTV]

Wanted 2:

Common, who played the gunsmith guy, wants to return for the sequel, even though his character got his head blown off. His idea: make a prequel featuring himself, Angelina Jolie and the rest. As for McAvoy, I guess we could see his character as a baby or something. [MTV]

Battlestar Galactica:

Sci Fi updated its "You Will Know The Truth" viral site, with a clip from earlier in the season showing Baltar and HeadSix talking about how Baltar must challenge the old gods, and how magnificent and godlike Baltar will be when he does. And then there's this revision to the well-known Last Supper pic. Notice who's not there now?

For what it's worth, I will be exceedingly cross if Roslin is the final Cylon and Ron Moore says "But look, she's not in that picture!" After having sworn for months now that the final Cylon is not anyone in this version of the pic. It could also mean Roslin is saying bye-bye soon. [Battlestar Blog]

Also, the show's ending is beautiful, says Katee Sackhoff. And "no-one will ever guess" who the final Cylon is. In this interview from Comic-Con, she makes weird faces when the guy asks if it's Ellen Tigh or Tom Zarek, strongly implying it's neither of those two. Or maybe she's a master of the deceptive weird face. [Access Hollywood via SpoilerTV]

Caprica:

The Battlestar Galactica prequel, due to air in 2010, follows the Graystones and the Adamas, as they compete and thrive in the "vibrant world" of the 12 colonies. The two families clash in "action scenes of corporate conspiracy and sexual politics." It's a family saga full of intrigue and political backbiting. Polly Walker plays Sister Clarice, who she says is "a very strong character, a woman that is on her own in a sense. She's not attached to anybody, she has strong convictions and I think and believe that I can do something equally interesting with it." [Monsters And Critics]

Lost:

Someone named Grant From Edmonton saw a bit of filming, mostly during a break, in Camp Erdman, which is the site of Othersville. Who was there? Jack, Kate, Sayid, Hurley, Sawyer and Jin. Sayid wore civillian clothes, and Kate wore a blue jumpsuit. The other four wore those tan/cream-colored Dharma Initiative jumpsuits. At least a dozen other actors/extras also sported Dharma uniforms, including kids. There were at least four new-looking Dharma vehicles, including a Volkswagen van. And there was the left edge of a banner that read "NEW." More pics at the link. [Hawaii Weblog]

In season five, Ken Leung and Jeremy Davies will be series regulars, but Rebecca Mader won't. [EW]

Meanwhile, how does Sun feel about Jin's supposed death now? Check out this newish trailer:

Dollhouse:

Here are parts two and three of the Access Hollywood set visit. Joss Whedon does not look happy. [Access Hollywood]

Doctor Who:

Here's the official description for "The Next Doctor":

It's Christmas Eve in 1851 and Cybermen stalk the snow of Victorian London, in this special Christmas edition of Russell T Davies's Bafta Award-winning time-travelling drama.

When the Doctor arrives and starts to investigate a spate of mysterious deaths, he's surprised to meet another Doctor, and soon the two must combine forces to defeat the ruthless Miss Hartigan. But are two Doctors enough to stop the rise of the CyberKing?

[SpoilerTV]

Heroes:

Here's the Canadian trailer for next Monday's episode, "Our Father."

Unlike 90 percent of the deaths on the show, Elle's death the other night is totally super permanent. For reals. In spite of what we told you yesterday. [EW]

In other blonde actor news, Brea Grant says Daphne is definitely one of the heroes on the run in next spring's "Fugitives" storyline. And we do get to see her relationship with Matt progress, but then next year Matt "gets a little crazy." [Superhero Profiles]

Smallville:

The show's producers are gung ho for a ninth season, but Tom Welling may be eager to move on. The show is progressing, however, says producer Darren Swimmer. "Clark’s now in full control of his powers and basically accepting the face that he’s going to become Superman. The formation of the dual identity is what he’s going to be negotiating form her on out. He’ll start to experiment." (Probably around the time he gets "outed" as the red/blue blur. Also, we'll see classic Superman villain the Toyman in February, and the Justice League will be back in some form by the end of the season. Also, if Welling really won't come back, Swimmer hints/jokes that a Martian Manhunter spin-off could happen. [OSCK]

Chuck:

The much missed Anna will be back in a big way next week. Also, show creator Josh Schwartz explains about the Dark Intersect, which Chuck encounters in episode 14 ("Chuck Vs. The Suburbs." and forms part of a three-episode run in February and March: "The Dark Intersect is the first sign that the bad guys (read: FULCRUM) are figuring out that if they can't find the Intersect, why not rebuild it — which makes Chuck even more valuable." [EW]

Supernatural:

The fact that Sam slept with Ruby while Dean was in hell doesn't mean Ruby's the one for Sam. He'll soon be getting nekkid with a hot doctor. Also, when Sam and Dean come to blows in an upcoming episode, they won't be in control of themselves. [Zap2It]

True Blood:

According to Michael Ausiello, the vampire show is casting the following for its second season: "Sarah, the pleasure-seeking missus of Steve Newlin, the Fellowship of the Sun's big kahuna; Daphne, Merlotte's new waitress (and Sam's likely new love interest); and Luke, a burly twentysomething who's as dedicated to religion as Jason is to sex." [EW]

Kyle XY:

New-ish season three promo. Squee, and all that.

The biggest challenge in writing a sequel to the first movie: Everyone dies at the end, except for Terence Stamp's gun-making monk and the main character, James McAvoy's nebbish-turned-superkiller, Wes. Morgan, who's going to work with Millar on the sequel's storyline, says that's a huge problem. But the answer is to "continue the journey that Wes started in the first film... It's time to move him forward." He also said the sequel is "going to be more global." Does that mean he'll travel around to different countries and meet a slew of hot, tattooed gun-slinging women with exotic accents?

I'm honestly having a hard time imagining a Wanted sequel without Angelina Jolie. And it didn't have to be this way. Jolie tells MTV (in a separate interview) that the first movie's original script had her survive at the end, and she demanded to be killed off.

“In the original, she doesn’t kill herself,” said Jolie. “I actually changed the ending. I said, ‘If she was to find out she had killed people unjustly and was a part of something that wasn’t fair, then she should take her own life.’”

It's true, by the way. If you ever find out you're a part of something that isn't fair, you should immediately kill yourself. [MTV and MTV]

Something you can't fault Millar for is thinking small, as he demonstrated to Empire magazine, explaining that his version of a Superman movies is actually an 8 hour movie split into three parts, each released a year apart, just like Lord Of The Rings:

It’s gonna be like Michael Corleone in the Godfather films, the entire story from beginning to end, you see where he starts, how he becomes who he becomes, and where that takes him. The Dark Knight showed you can take a comic book property and make a serious film, and I think the studios are ready to listen to bigger ideas now. The problem with Superman Returns was like releasing Star Wars in ’77, The Empire Strikes Back in ’80 and then waiting 28 years to release Return of the Jedi, it wasn’t relevant. I understand what Bryan Singer was trying to do, to pay homage to Richard Donner’s original vision, but I think you should pay homage by doing something completely different.

And if you're wondering what kind of "completely different" Millar is considering, he's willing to tell you how it starts... and finishes:

I want to start on Krypton, a thousand years ago, and end with Superman alone on Planet Earth, the last being left on the planet, as the yellow sun turns red and starts to supernova, and he loses his powers.

...Wait, so Superman... loses? And dies, because the world ends? Really? That's a surprisingly downbeat ending for a character that thrives in a more upbeat unreality... and also something that kills the franchise, as well.

We're also not convinced about starting the story a thousand years before Superman was born - Isn't the main thing about Krypton that it blows up, after all? Bringing in a vast millennium-old Kryptionian backdrop is either going to be gratuitous special effectery or a subplot that suggests a Smallville-esque direction for the trilogy.

Ultimately, of course, it's less about what we want, and more about what Warners thinks is right for the character - and it'd be hard to argue with the success of Wanted and excitement around Kick Ass. Here's hoping that Geoff Johns gets his pitch in first.

Exclusive: Mark Millar Talks Superman [Empire Online]

To be fair, there are some differences between Villains and Wanted. In Wanted, it turns out that supervillains took over the world in 1986 and Wesley Gibson's real father was one of them. He learns to take on his father's mantle and become an amoral bastard in his own right. In , a loser dork named Nick Corrigan is drifting through life and getting crapped on (including losing his job) when he realizes his cranky old neighbor is a supervillain. He blackmails the neighbor into teaching him the supervillain trade, but the neighbor has some nasty surprises for him. So it's sort of an Apt Pupil thing, with the supervillain possibly betraying his apprentice on several occasions. Could be fun.

The main thing that makes me think of Wanted is the graphic novel's cynical narrative voice, which drones on and on, saying things like, "Some days it feels like everyone's out to get me. But that's just paranoia. The truth is, we're all out to get each other." Wow, man. The movie version will be co-written by Matt Jennison and Brent Strickland, who sold a World War II-era Wonder Woman spec script to Warners a while back. It's being produced by Idealogy, who are also behind Tr2n, the Tron sequel. [Hollywood Reporter]

 
 
 
 
 
 
Leeloo from The 5th Element:

Milla Jovovich's character is the savior of the whole planet, and you can tell just from looking at her wrist. And of course, her dotted markings also match the markings on the movie's ever-important stones.

Tattoo From Elektra

Chris Ackerman's character's colorful belly buddies could come alive, off of his skin, and do a lot of damage. Obviously he's not the only tattoed man with powers. There's a Green Lantern villain, the Tattooed Man, who's a classic. We may actually be seeing Abel Tarrant the Tattooed Man in the Green Arrow's new flix Supermax

Fox from Wanted

Even though Angelina Jolie was pretty tatted up before playing the role of hottie assassin in Wanted, she added on even more wordy tattoos to her arms, hands and back. Guess which ones are real.

The vampire tat from Blade.

I think that if I ever saw someone with the familiar tattoo from the Blade movies we would become fast friends. While Wesley Snipes had some pretty serious shoulder markings around his upper half, nothing could beat the secret society "friends of the vampires" sign.

Enola from Waterworld

When the world is flooded and you spend your days on a boat drinking your own urine, look for the girl with the map on her back. The Japanese tattoo, that was NEVER explained, apparently held the key to dry land.

Scully from X Files

Scully gets a tattoo because she went through a thing, oh admit it Scully you're a bad girl at heart. Before finding out that her buddy's tattoo controlled his actions (photo above voiced by Jodie Foster no less) she got a Celtic Ouroboros slapped on her back. Here's video of Scully getting all inked up:

Lana Lang from Smallville

Lana's witchy tattoo connected her, not only to a bad lady with evil intentions, but to the Krypton Stones as well.

Jessica Sanders from Heroes

The symbol which plagues all the super humans is tattooed onto Jessica's back, and is half of the symbol of the evil company Pinehearst. Will the tattoo get its own plot line on Heroes?

Darth Maul from Star Wars : Episode I - The Phantom Menace

Before Darthy became an evil Sith he was just a red little fella, and then Sidious got his hands on him.

Chakotay from Star Trek Voyager

Noble Chakotay's face markings aren't explained until the "Tattoo" episode where you learn that others have the same style and design. Chakotay's tatts are to honor his father.

Rico Dizz And The Rest Of 'EmStarship Troopers

Because you're not really a bug killer unless you have a ridiculous tattoo, best part is during the futuristic laser branding scene they throw alcohol all over his freshly zapped skin, ha.

Denton Van Zan from Reign of Fire

Matthew McConaughey ridiculous dragon fighting attitudes were eclipsed only by his body armor of dragon tatts, he totally stole Clooney's look from Dusk Till Dawn.

Snake from Escape From New York

Fantastic character, terrible, horrible "snake in my pants" tattoo. How many times do you have to make the "do you want to see my trouser snake" joke, just for getting that tattoo?

Battlestar Galactica Love Tattoos

If I wasn't such a total wuss I would get Starbuck's and Anders' awesome "we're in love" tattoos tomorrow. Besides the fact that they are pretty beautiful, I love that they supposedly got them around the time of their wedding to represent love. The tattoo on the left however is from Gaeta! Who knew he had it in him.

The Doctor from Doctor Who

Jon Pertwee sported a cool tat in his first appearance as the Doctor — now do tattoos stay after you regenerate?

And no as much as I wanted to talk about Constantine, From Dusk Till Dawn and Harry Potter tattoos, they ain't scifi my friends. (Dusk Till Dawn's Clooney tattoo wins in that group btw). What's your favorite science fictional tattoo?

According to /Film, any potential movie adaptation of Millar's War Heroes - an Iraq War satire produced with artist Tony Harris that's occasionally confused as to whether it condones or condemns the gung-ho, right-wing mindset behind the war - is being hindered by a 2006 comic called Grunts, that has a similar set-up as Millar's latest:

Millar describes War Heroes as “Full Metal Jacket meets The X-Men”. The series is “set a couple of years in the future. John McCain has just won the election and the war in the Gulf is getting bigger, so they give the troops superpower pills. That gets all the young American kids signing up to fight the Iraqis.”

Grunts is described as “24 meets the X-Men” with “Tom Clancy on speed” military style action. The pitch: “During World War II, an American squad encounters a German superhuman assault squad and starts a Eugenics Race that carries into present day!“

While earlier similarities to existing works didn't hinder Wanted, Grunts is also in active development as a movie right now - and that may be enough to scare off anyone interested in a new Millar movie. Well, until the box office returns for Kick-Ass come in, I'm sure.

Exclusive: Mark Millar’s War Heroes vs. Grunts [/Film]

Cage plays Damon aka Big Daddy, the "redneck superhero" father of Mindy, the wannabe superhero who goes by Hit Girl. "It's like the Punisher, but with a daughter, and more extreme," explains Millar in an interview with Newsarama. And posting on his own message board, Millar talked about watching Cage, as Big Daddy, in action:

Coincidentally, the first scene shot on the movie was the first scene I wrote on the comic (now the opening to issue six) and it's Hit-Girl in her secret identity, wearing a Hello Kitty T-shirt and a kevlar vest as her Dad pumps round after round into her chest so she knows how a bullet feels. I loved the scene in the comic, I loved the scene in the screenplay, but Nic just took it to a whole new level with his delivery, the genuinely mental glee and beautiful comic timing as we see this little kid in pink clothes and a pink hat blasted back into mud in an abandoned factory. The scene in the swing park the following day is even better, but I don't want to spoil anything. All I'll say is that nobody is going to be prepared for this movie when it opens late Summer 09.

Millar told Newsarama it's true that director Matthew Vaughn had trouble raising money because of some of the film's underage violence, like a little nine-year-old girl who goes around decapitating people. But the stories have been exaggerated a bit, and anyway it's lucky that Vaughn is wealthy and has lots of wealthy friends.

Meanwhile, the film has put out a call for high-school-aged extras. If you're goth/emo kid with lots of facial piercings, or a clean-cut all-American jock type, in the Toronto area, this is your chance to be immortalized.

More pics at the first link. [TheBadAndTheUgly and Millarworld and Newsarama]

Given that Incredible Hulk and The First Avenger: Captain America screenwriter Zak Penn has previously spoken about Millar's Ultimates series being a major influence on the Marvel movie franchise, it's no surprise that Millar's new series is created, in part, as a template for future movies, as the writer explained to Newsarama:

I'd say the biggest success I've had, the one thing I feel very confident doing, is a new spin on the old characters. Cap, Thor, Iron Man, Nick Fury, Hawkeye... all these guys worked out really well in Ultimates, so much so that Marvel Studios are using them as the basis of the movie characters... and I'd like to extend that a little. I want to do Ultimate Blade, Ultimate Ghost Rider, even Ultimate Tomb of Dracula. I have all the stories worked out already and am very excited by it... Kevin [Feige, head of Marvel Studios] has mentioned this a few times in the past and Zak had a whole panel about it at SDCC in the summer, where he said they're really following the Ultimate versions of the characters as they're the easiest to translate to the screen. It's very complimentary of course.

This wasn't the only Marvel announcement at yesterday's Diamond Distributors retailers summit; they also revealed that the fall-out of Secret Invasion will appear under special branding called Dark Reign, and that the black and white teaser images they've been releasing for awhile are for a new imprint called Marvel Noir launching in December.

Ultimate Avengers launches next year.

Back to the Ultimate U - Mark Millar on Ultimate Avengers [Newsarama]

The report by the ASA was troubled by the message given by the posters:

We noted Angelina Jolie, an actress generally recognised as being glamorous, featured in both ads and in ad (a) the gun she held featured prominently. We noted James McAvoy's character appeared in an action pose in ad (a) and the guns he held were pointed towards the reader; and that several guns were depicted in ad (b).

We noted one of the guns in ad (b) had recently fired, a moving bullet was shown and the ad featured other images related to the use of guns, including a bullet sprayed target; furthermore, Angelina Jolie was shown, holding a gun, in a pose that may be considered provocative. We noted the prominent text used in ad (b), "6 WEEKS AGO, I WAS JUST LIKE YOU ... AND THEN I MET HER ... AND MY WORLD WAS CHANGED FOREVER", in conjunction with some of the smaller text, suggested James McAvoy's character's life had changed for the better since he had become an assassin.

You almost want to read a review of the actual movie by the person who wrote this report, don't you? "And then it appeared that Morgan Freeman, an American actor of no little import, used the word 'motherfucker' multiple times before discharging his weapon in a manner that suggested he was displeased."

In the end, the ASA agreed that the posters glamorized the use of guns and were unsuitable for children, but not for adults:

However, we considered most members of the public would understand that the posters reflected the content of an action film. We therefore concluded they were unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence.

The clear implication being that British children, apparently, can't tell the difference between movies and reality these days. Personally, I think that they should rise up in protest. Preferably using guns and screaming "We can't help it, we saw the posters for Wanted" in high, pre-pubescent voices.

[ASA Adjudications, Via]