Terminator: Salvation:

Here's another new image from the fourth Terminator film. [IGN]

Star Trek:

So the villain of the J.J. Abrams Star Trek reboot/requel, Nero, is supposed to be the leader of a merry band of Romulans. But you might have noticed, in the posters that came out the other day, that he has no pointy ears. And weird face tattoos. What gives? Co-writer Alex Kurtzman says Nero "isn't necessarily a Romulan," and that "It's all part of the plot." [Trek Web]

X-Files: I Want To Believe:

Is the new X-Files movie a shipper lovefest? Well, this smoochy new TV spot may give you a bit of a clue.

Monsters Vs. Aliens:

Some new trading cards give some more insights into the characters in Monsters Vs. Aliens, the 3-D animated movie that's just what it sounds like. Stephen Colbert is the president of the United States and Kiefer Sutherland is the crazy General W.R. Monger, who's been locked in Area 52 along with the monsters he caught. Insectosaurus is a grub who was exposed to radiation and grew to 350 feet, and Reese Witherspoon's Ginormica was hit by a meteor on her wedding day and grew to 49 feet, 11 inches. Dr. Cockroach, PhD (Hugh Laurie) was trying to combine the survival traits of cockroaches with humans, when he accidentally gave himself a cockroach head. And the Missing Link is pretty self-explanatory. [Film School Rejects and Slashfilm]

Repo! The Genetic Opera:

A new review gives some details about the organ-repossession musical. Buffy's Anthony Stewart Head plays Nathan, a blade-wielding scientist who's convinced he's responsible for the death of his wife and the illness of his goth daughter Shilo. Rotti Largo, owner of GeneCo, tricks Nathan into becoming his Repo man, collecting on debts and "the occasional kidney." Shilo is the emotional core of the film. Weird bits of casting include Paris Hilton and Phantom Of The Opera star Sarah Brightman. In a weird twist, the painkiller used in organ transplants can be harvested from the dead, and the operatic Grave Robber is the one who collects it. [Variety]

Sarah Connor Chronicles:

Here are a couple of new trailers for the Terminator TV show, which includes some new footage of crazy homicidal Summer Glau and resolute, gun-clicking Sarah Connor. Who takes a shower.

Battlestar Galactica (And Torchwood):

With both Jamie "Apollo" Bamber and Freema "Martha" Agyeman starring in Law And Order: UK, they may both be too busy to film other things. Which may mean no Lee Adama in a forthcoming BSG TV movie. And no Martha Jones in Torchwood? [Digital Spy]

Heroes:

The Petrelli brothers spend more time together this season. And Tim Kring told Milo Ventimiglia that anyone who dies this year stays dead for real. Really. No kidding. [Sci Fi Wire]

Knight Rider:

Here's a new preview of the smart-car show you're most excited for in the fall season. [Spoiler TV]

Both early reviews, at Ain't It Cool News and Voize, agree that the movie is kind of boring and emotionless. Writer/director Chris Carter has said in many interviews that he wouldn't allow the cast to have full copies of the script, to guard against leaks. And as a result, the cast appear not to know what's supposed to be going on in the movie, leading to flat, dull performances. Not a lot happens in the movie, and it feels like a TV episode padded out to 90 minutes.

But the feelings of major dread come from reading the spoilers in the AICN review. If true, they make the film sound truly hideous. First and foremost, Billy Connolly's psychic priest character, Father Joe, is a convicted pedophile who's been defrocked as a result. The FBI agents are forced to work with him because he holds the key to finding a kidnapped FBI agent, through his psychic connection with her. It's sort of a Clarice/Hannibal situation, except that Father Joe's pedophilia isn't dealt with meaningfully. And the movie hints that the victims of pedophiles are more dangerous than the pedophiles themselves.

Also, Scully mentions rather casually that her baby is dead, as a convenient way to let her and Mulder sally forth without worrying about a kid. And it's also mentioned in passing that the FBI has stopped chasing Mulder and Scully, even though the charges against them were never dropped. It's just mentioned, but not really explained. There's a subplot about Scully's administrative duties at a hospital that goes nowhere. There's a weird sight gag involving a picture of George Bush and a picture of J. Edgar Hoover, which falls flat. More importantly, the movie supposedly has a third act that verges on unintentional comedy.

[Ain'tItCoolNews and Voize]

Dragonball:

The Dragonball live-action movie follows a boy named Goku, who tries to fulfill his dying grandpa's request to find a great master and unite seven balls of power, to prevent an alien's rise to power. Jamie Chung (Samurai Girl) plays Chi Chi, a strong female character with martial arts skills. [Sci Fi Wire]

Star Wars: Clone Wars:

Here are a couple of new TV spots for the upcoming Clone Wars animated movie. [KamuiWeb]

X-Files 2:

Neither Scully nor Mulder dies at the end of X-Files: I Want To Believe. The movie focuses on the power of their relationship, and the final scene is just the two of them together, says co-writer Frank Spotnitz. [NJ.com]

Battlestar Galactica:

Right before Battlestar Galactica wrapped filming, fans noticed a Baltar/Six scene filming downtown in Vancouver. It featured Baltar wearing a suit and Six in her va-va-voom red dress, with really big hair. So it's probably a head-Baltar/Six scene. It had lots of extras wandering around them, but probably wasn't taking place on Caprica. [Television Without Pity forums]

Life On Mars:

More details about how the American Life On Mars alters the storyline of the British cult hit about a cop who time travels via head injury. The new producers hinted that we'll learn that Sam Tyler definitely isn't in a coma, or at least there may be more to it than that. "If he was ultimately just in a coma, or it was all a dream, it felt unsatisfying," says executive producer Josh Appelbaum. "So we made it a deeper mystery."

In the second episode, Sam writes on the blackboard 13 different possible explanations for his time-traveling, including the idea that he's on "a separate plane of reality." We won't have to worry about Sam changing the future through his travel back to 1973, because it's not really a time-travel show. Or maybe it is. But really it's something "much deeper" than time travel. I'm actually hoping, for the first time, that the U.S. version doesn't get cancelled after a week, because it'll be entertaining to see where they go with taking the simplicity of the British version and making it "deeper." [Sci Fi Wire]

The Sarah Jane Adventures:

The new producer of the kid-friendly Doctor Who spinoff, Nikki Smith, revealed some more details about the second season. After Maria and her dad move out of Sarah Jane's neighborhood in the first story, the Chandra family moves in to their house. The daughter, Rani, wants to be a journalist and looks up to Sarah Jane. But it doesn't sound as though Rani is THE Rani or anything. Also, a "rogue" Sontaran appears in both the first and last stories of the season, and the evil Miss Wormwood's return happens in the final story. (Which is the one with the Brigadier.) Bradley Walsh plays an alien who has three identities. And the Doctor may indeed show up. [SFX]

Heroes:

Peter gets a bullet in the back of the head (probably from when Future Claire shoots him). And whoever Ali Larter's playing this week gets her throat slashed, with tons of blood everywhere. Also, when Hiro stops time, his speedster nemesis Daphne just slows to normal speed. (I was wondering how that was going to work.) And here's a new pic of Hiro and Daphne. [Heroes The Series]

And Hayden Panettiere hinted that she plays two characters in the upcoming season — presumably present Claire and Future Evil Claire. She may not be the only person who gets to have an evil doppleganger. [Show Biz Spy]

Chuck:

Here's the first picture of Nicole Richie as Sarah's old high-school rival, from an upcoming episode of Chuck. (Click to enlarge.) [Entertainment Weekly, via Chuck Online]

Stargate Atlantis:

In the 16th episode of the current Stargate Atlantis season, "Brain Storm," Rodney McKay has a reunion with his old school frenemy, Malcolm Tunney, who's gone on to fame and fortune. Meanwhile, Rodney hasn't published in years and can't tell anyone what he really does. Rodney brings Dr. Jennifer Keller back to Earth as his "date" for Tunney's scientific presentation, in a secret desert facility. Tunney is about to test a device so important, the room is full of big-wigs. But some of Tunney's colleagues have warned of disastrous consequences should he activate the device. He switches it on, and the room's temperature drops — it seems like the device is a weather-controller, which could help to combat global warming. Everybody applauds, until they realize the device can't be shut down, and it endangers the lives of everyone there. [Spoiler Geeks]

Lost:

A few more tidibits about Lost season five. Actor Harold Perrineau was annoyed his character, Michael, was killed off, but the producers promise the show will be an "equal opportunity murderer" in the future, killing lots of white people. [TenGossip]

Knight Rider:

Another batch of Knight Rider script pages have gotten leaked, for the episode "A Hard Day's Knight." The Feds intercept a kid carrying a briefcase, but it turns out not to be the briefcase they're looking for — someone is being tricky and using the kid as a distraction. The feds need to get their hands on a bad guy who smuggled stolen National Security Agency intelligence to North Korea. Mike wears a Mission Impossible-style mask to meet the evil courier, pretending to be someone else, and then gets the drop on him.

Then Mike has to go undercover as the courier to get the goods on his bosses. Mike has to use KITT's technical wizardry to put on the courier's voice and fake the courier's retinal scans. They give Mike the case containing the "goods," but then they inject him with a hypodermic needle in the neck! The bad guy, Ash, explains that he's ensured Mike's loyalty by poisoning him! Oh noes! He has three hours before his nervous system shuts down, and he doesn't get the antidote until he makes the drop. Worst yet, Mike may have to miss a wedding he's supposed to go to with Sarah, his not-really-a-girlfriend.

Mike is struggling to complete his mission as the poison drains his strength. Wearing his Mission Impossible mask again, he has to get a ladies' purse from a coat check, and feels all embarrassed. He's searching through a crowded convention center, using computer vision that makes him all confused and wigged out, looking for his target. And his concentration is going. He finally identifies his target: a rich inspirational speaker named Damien Richards, founder and CEO of Innovative Technologies. Mike can barely walk, but luckily KITT has escape routes planned and is going to come get him. Mike shoots Richards and runs away.

Two police officers show up. KITT advises him against engaging in a physical confrontation in his weakened state, but he says "too late" and decks both cops with brutal efficiency. The murder of Damien Richards is all over the news. Worst yet, there may not be any antidote for the poison. But then it turns out that Mike didn't really kill that Richards guy — it was fake blood. Phew! The fake blood tastes like cherries.

Later, Sarah and someone named Rivai corner Ash and demand the antidote at gunpoint. Rivai says right now Ash is only facing attempted murder of a government agent, but if Mike dies it becomes actual real murder, for reals. Ash pulls out a vial, but then smashes it on the ground! Nooo! Sarah soaks up some of the liquid using her shirt and then gives it to KITT the supercar to analyze. [Spoiler TV]

Thanks to Lauren Davis for research help.

The X-Files Conspiracy Timeline

Beginning four and a half billion years ago and ending with 2002 series finale "The Truth," this timeline chronicles every event of The X-Files by episode title and exact date. Website creator Mike Marek also provides a conspiracy-specific timeline that collects only the events pertaining to the show's unique mythology, a Lone Gunmen timeline, and an essay with Marek's own interpretation of what the X-Files mythology means.

The X-Files Mythology Guide

For every mythology-related episode in each season, sitemaster Derek Beebe provides a rundown, an analysis, and a bulleted list of plot points. This is a painstakingly detailed and thoughtful exploration of the series, and, impressively, it's near-complete: the Mythology Guide covers the first eight seasons and the first movie.

Cracking the Conspiracy: Making Sense of the X-Files Mythology Arc

This giant essay by Anthony Leong takes readers through each separate aspect of the X-Files mythology, complete with pictures and quotes. Though it only covers the first five seasons of the show, it is a well-organized and reasonably concise overview of the conspiracy arc — I'm sure it was no easy task to complete. Plus, there's an appendix with summaries of all the mythology episodes.

The X-Files Wiki

In this enlightened age, there's a wiki for everything; this is the one for The X-Files, related series Millennium and The Lone Gunmen, both X-Files movies, and even two X-Files video games. It's extensive and detailed, so start clicking — and if you've got as much free time and pathetic obsession as I do, feel free to edit some articles as well.

Red Wolf's X-Files Episode Guide

It's simple, it's not image-heavy, and it's way less work than going through the complete transcripts. This episode guide collects summaries, cast lists, and memorable quotes from each installment of The X-Files. The best part? The entire thing is available in PDF files, either in A4 or US Letter paper sizes. You can thank devoted fans Jens Vogel, Autumn Tysko, and Kevin Patterson for that convenience.

BONUS: The X-Files Relationship Episode Guide

If you're looking for some mind candy after that dense parade of complex mythology, here's your treat. Fanfic writer Kipler provides us with a hilarious quip on every bit of Mulder/Scully tension in the nine seasons of the show and the film; it's shipperdom at its best. Don't miss "Ode to Bambi," by Fox Mulder (1960-?).

All this internet knowledge should save you the 300 dollars it would take to buy the complete X-Files collection on DVD. This is the great gift that keeps on giving, from a show that arguably started web fandom. Enjoy — the truth, it seems, is only a click away.

The Dark Knight:

Here's some behind-the-scenes footage from The Dark Knight, including some minor spoilers. It's the "B-roll," which people run in the background while talking about the film in TV coverage or whatnot. You can hear Bruce and Alfred cross-referencing criminal records to track down a suspect at one point. Jim Gordon orders a search of the building, but Commissioner Loeb tells him, "You're unlikely to discover this for yourself. The Police Commissioner gets a lot of threats. I discovered the correct response to them long ago." (I'm assuming this is shortly before Loeb bites the dust.) [Trailer Addict via Slashfilm]

X-Files: I Want To Believe:

Some serious X-Files 2 spoilers are making the rounds online. We'll know in a couple of weeks if these are real or not, but meanwhile here they are: Mulder and Scully haven't actually been separated for the past six years after all. The movie's first shipper-y scene has them spooning together in bed. We see them having lots of light conversations, including one scene in Mulder's office when he still has his beard. They talk about William.

Mulder and Scully break up because of a disagreement about their future, and this leads to lots of angst. And at the end of the movie, they start having a "goodbye" conversation, but it leads to them kissing and making up. The real "happy ending" only happens after the credits, and it's truly bizarre. Meanwhile, the movie's actual plot is flimsy, incomprehensible and not very scary. [Celebridiot]

Meanwhile, Chris Carter says we'll see "someone or someones" from the TV series in the movie. [KREN]

Love Story 2050:

But who cares about the X-Files, when the Bollywood time-travel movie Love Story 2050 is out now in India? I know which movie I'm more excited about. Love Story 2050 starts out with Karan, its male hero, being a rich guy whose mom is dead and whose dad has no time for him. So he goes to Australia and takes up extreme adventure sports. Until he spots butterfly chaser Sana, and "Plonk!" he falls in love with her. (The review actually says "Plonk!") Then he chases her over buses, bridges and cars, leaping across the rooftops.

They finally meet up, fall in love, and get engaged. And they just happen to be in the same town as Karan's uncle Yatinder, a mad scientist who's invented a time machine. Karan and Sana get in the time machine and she sets the controls for Mumbai 2050. It's a wonderland of flying cars and robots. But soon the couple get separated, and the evil masked Dr. Hoshi is trying to destroy Dr. Yatinder and Karan. Somehow, Sana gets "reborn" as Ziesha, a pop star with red hair. After they reach the future, the movie's pace sort of grinds to a halt. [Screen India and India Info

Dragonball:

Piccolo will look "old, decrepit and ugly," in spite of the producers' attempts to make him look beautiful, says actor James Marsters, who insisted the make-up department add extra ugly sauce to his appearance. After all, Piccolo has spent 2,000 years in prison. And the movie has some changes but will be "true to the spirit of Dragonball." [DWScifi]

Doctor Who:

There are rumors floating around that former star Tom Baker will appear in the fifth season of time-travel action-soap Doctor Who (in 2010, so huge grain of salt here.) Also, Winston Churchill and Jenny, the Doctor's Daughter, are both rumored to show up at some point in the one-hour specials that will air during 2009. [Doctor Who Forum and The Sun]

The Prisoner:

AMC's Prisoner remake, starring Jim Caviezel and Ian McKellen, will still have a big role for "Rover," the big white ball that keeps Number 6 prisoner. And there will still be futuristic gadgetry in the Village. [Sci Fi Wire]

Heroes:

Some lucky Brits got to see some intriguing clips from Heroes season three. Nathan Petrelli gets rushed to hospital after being shot, but is apparently DOA. "There was nothing we could do," a doctor tells the Petrelli clan. Elle spends a fair bit of time sparring with Sylar this season.

Angela Petrelli introduces us to the notorious Level 5, where the Company keeps its serial killers, rapists, and assorted baddies. And in Level 5, there's a giant bald man, shouting "I'm not who you think I am. I'm Peter Petrelli!" And we see Sylar come up behind Angela and put his hands on her shoulders in a friendly way.

Meanwhile, poor Matt Parkman is alone in a desert, screaming for help. And when Daphne the Speedster steals something from Hiro, she quips, "Gotta run." Finally, we see Linderman, quoting that Yeats poem about "The second coming is at hand." (You know, the gyre, the falconer, mere anarchy, blah blah blah, beast, etc. Nobody ever stands up and intones about going to Innisfree in an ominous voice. I wonder why?) [Digital Spy]

And here's a new promo video, featuring Claire with a knife and an ear-rending scream. [Heroes The Series]

Next Avengers:

Here are a few new stills from the animated direct-to-DVD Next Avengers: Heroes Of Tomorrow, about the children of the Avengers, umm, avenging their dead parents. I have to admit, I really like the way Ultron looks here. Although, don't they know Ultron's a hot naked robo-chick now? [Marvel Animation Age]

Here's the first picture of Keanu Reeves as Klaatu in The Day The Earth Stood Still. Oddly enough, he looks just like Keanu Reeves. (Click to enlarge.) [Film1.nl via New Film Dimension]

The Dark Knight:

Today's Joker-isms: "Does it depress you, how alone you really are?" (to Batman I guess) and: "You had plans. Look where that got you." Plus: "This town is mine now." They come from an exclusive Domino's Pizza trailer for The Dark Knight, which I guess you're only supposed to be able to see, on the Domino's site, if you order some really crappy pizza. But look, it's on Youtube:

X-Files: I Want To Believe

Here's a new TV spot for the second X-Files movie, which gives a few snippets of new footage. Including a body in a tank, for just a split second. [Shocktillyoudrop]

Battlestar Galactica:

A few new snippets about the rest of Battlestar Galactica season four from the Battlestar wiki: The next few episodes are rumored to be called "Sometimes A Great Notion," "The Disquiet That Follows My Soul," "The Oath," "Blood On The Scales," "No Exit," and "Someone To Watch Over Me." And Laura Roslin is still alive (or appearing as a ghost) by episode 15, "No Exit," judging from a call sheet.

Also, BSG was just filming some last-minute scenes in and around Kamloops, BC a couple of weeks ago — Kamloops was the setting for the Algae Planet in "The Eye Of Jupiter" and "Rapture." The scenes, believed to be from the series finale, required a lot of extras who were either clean-cut and athletic, or slim with long hair or dreadlocks. [Battlestar Wiki]

Lost:

When castaway drama Lost finally ends, the ending will take place on the island, according to actor Naveen Andrews. [Hellhound's Lair]

Doctor Who:

Some tidbits from British magazine articles: "Casualties mount" in this Saturday's season finale, and prophecies abound that one of the Doctor's companions will die. (Also, doom is "predicted for Donna," says one magazine.) And the Doctor is "effectively out of action" after getting zapped. "Lots of questions will be answered," including questions about the Doctor and Rose, says producer Russell T. Davies. It's the story of "how far you would go to save the people you love, with the greatest loved one of all being the Doctor." [Blogtor Who and Spoiler TV]

And here are a few new pics from Saturday's episode. [Digital Spy]

An "official" press release announces that Robert "Trainspotting" Carlyle will be replace David Tennant as the Doctor in this Saturday's Doctor Who episode. He'll also appear in the Christmas special, but not in the 2009 specials, which will only feature Tennant. And then Carlyle will take over as the Doctor full time in 2010. The press release is supposedly embargoed until July 6, and it contains a couple of spelling errors... so it's probably not real. [Doctor Who Forum]

Oh, and is it significant that in his Doctor Who Confidential interview, it looks like David Tennant is wearing his costume, but has dyed his hair black? Does his regeneration just change his hair color??? [The Zen Room]

Meanwhile, I feel like I want to defend the honor of spoiler-wranglers here. A lot of websites and newspapers are saying that nobody predicted the Doctor would regenerate in last Saturday's episode. In fact, the idea of a "botched regeneration" happening in episode 12 has been floating around on message boards for months now, and morning spoilers mentioned it at least twice. Spoiler pride!

Eleventh Hour:

And here's a new trailer for Eleventh Hour, Jerry Bruckheimer's remake of the British show about a scientist who steps in at the last minute to stop abuses of science from going too far — with his sexy bodyguard at his side. [Spoiler TV again]

The Middleman:

In the July 21 episode of The Middleman, not only does a boy band (Varsity Fanclub) turn out to be a group of exiled intergalactic dictators — their foul-mouthed 14-year-old superfangirl turns out to be an alien warrior sent to prevent their escape from Earth. But then it emerges that if the girl's plan to prevent the boys from returning and wreaking havoc on their homeworlds succeeds, the Middleman's trusty Ida will be destroyed. [Middlefan]

Eureka:

Season three of genius-town comedy Eureka will be lighter than the tense season two, and the ongoing story arcs will be less blatant. The mortality rate in Eureka will remain three times the national average, but you won't see as many characters in hospital beds. You'll see a lot more gadgets and weird experiments, and glimpse more of the secrets of Global Dynamics. And this year's over-arching mystery may be smaller than the "artifact" was.

As the season begins, we'll get resolution on whether Henry will go to prison after being hauled off by the feds in the second season finale, and we'll get back the happy-go-lucky Henry from season one. We'll also get closure on whether Alison will say yes to Stark's marriage proposal, and the love triangle between Stark, Carter and Allison. Alison and Carter will be working together more closely, and they'll be like the town's Mulder and Scully.

The show also will introduce a new character, the Fixer (Frances Fisher), a corporate shark brought in by the government as an outside consultant, to make Global Dynamics more profitable. [Spoiler TV again]

Gotham Knight:

Here's a new featurette about the direct-to-DVD animated anthology Gotham Knight, showing how Batman has become "like Hamlet" due to dealing with his villains. Ohh kay then. But it still looks mighty purty. [Comic Book Resources]

Next Avengers:

Do you care about Next Avengers, the direct-to-DVD movie about the kids of the Marvel Comics' Avengers superteam? If so, there's a new trailer, and the tracklisting for the official soundrack includes some spoilers. It sounds like Ultron creates his own version of the Avengers called the Iron Avengers, and the Next Avengers have to fight them. The Next Avengers also have to wake up the Hulk so he can help them fight Ultron. [Comic Book Movie]

In the footage shown, a guy gets hit in the face with a trowel and buried in the snow. Then Billy Connolly's psychic priest finds him buried. And that's when Mulder and Scully get involved. Scully tells Mulder, "This isn't my life any more." He walks away from her and mutters, "I'm trying to ignore you." Mulder also insists he's still looking for his long-lost sister Samantha, and doesn't believe she's dead.

Also, Spotnitz told the crowd that "shippers will be happy" with the movie, presumably meaning there'll be some Mulder/Scully lovings. And some of your questions will be answered, said writer/director Chris Carter. Finally, Mulder actor David Duchovny said he and Scully actor Gillian Anderson had some conflicts over how they were playing their characters, which "keeps it interesting."

[Defamer X-Files News and Sci Fi Wire]

City of Ember:

Here are a couple of new photos from City Of Ember, October's movie about the creepy girl from Atonement investigating the secrets of her post-apocalyptic underground city. (Which probably don't involve half-naked James McAvoy this time.) Click the link for bigger versions. [Cinemablend]

Virtuality:

Here are a few more spoilers I left out of yesterday's write-up of Ron Moore's new show Virtuality, either because I forgot or because they were too spoilery. Rika, the wife of the ship's therapist/show producer Roger Fallon, works in the ship's "greenhouse" and says plants are better suited to space travel than humans — but the plants start having root problems. Roger allegedly gets a percentage of all the revenues from the ship's "virtual reality" show. Jules Braun has the V.R. program simulate his dead son Shawn, but the simulation isn't rreal enough, until the program takes from Braun's own psychological profile, and then Shawn is a bit of a psycho.

One of the Green-Eyed Man's virtual-reality murders targets Captain Pike when he's having illicit virtual sex with Dr. Fallon's wife Rika. The Green-Eyed Man "kills" the Parkinsons-afflicted Dr. Meyer in V.R., but he finds the experience liberating instead of scary. When the Green-Eyed Man attacks Billie, the computer geek, she tries to tell the computer to "freeze" the program, but the program won't stop. And she can't exit the program prematurely. (Oh, and the V.R. is via headsets, not a holodeck. Shoulda mentioned that before.)

Dr. Fallon disagrees strongly with Captain Pike's decision to take the V.R. modules off-line after Billie's assault. He feels that without the V.R. modules, the crew will go nuts in deep space. Also, an engineer named Jimmy Johnson, who's confined to a wheelchair, really needs V.R. because it's the only way he can get out of his chair. (The show has a dozen characters, which is a lot to get to know.)

And here's the major spoiler: At the end of the pilot, Capt. Pike gets killed while trying to repair the ship's com-array. (It sucks, because he's one of the most likeable characters in the script, and we've gotten pretty attached to him by this point.) And the ship's com-array is still broken at the end of the episode. Jimmy Johnson takes command, and his first order is to reinstate the V.R. modules. [Thanks so much to Lukas for the heads up]

Get Smart:

In the Get Smart movie, they "super-teched" the Cone Of Silence, says original series writer Mel Brooks. (And did you know that World War Z author Max Brooks was Mel Brooks' son? I didn't.) [LA Times]

X-Files 2:

Mulder does a lot of climbing and jumping off cliffs in X-Files: I Want To Believe, while Scully does no fancy stunts at all, says Scully actor Gillian Anderson. [IGN]

Tekken:

Is Tekken science fiction? I seem to remember the original Tekken movie had a fighting android in it. In any case, here's the first pic of martial arts champion Cung Le as Marshall Law. The movie also stars Luke Goss as Steve Fox and Chiaki Kuriyama (Kill Bill) as Ling Xiaoyu. [Kotaku]

Doctor Who:

The BBC released a new picture from the first part of Steven Moffat's space-library two-parter, which airs a week from Saturday. Plus a short excerpt from the script. [Planet Gallifrey]
THE GIRL: Something's here! Someone got in! No one's supposed to get in!
Dad, agitated, barely able to keep his seat...
DAD: She's never mentioned anyone else. She's always been alone.
The girl, panicking now, afraid...
THE GIRL: Someone's in my library.

Heroes:

Heroes fans are tossing around rumors and speculation, including that Sylar kills Bob, the nominal boss of the Company. Also, we may find out the reason the Company's founders had that meeting that was immortalized in that photograph that everybody kept looking at during season two. [Superhiro.org]

Stargate: Atlantis:

In the Stargate: Atlantis episode "The Lost Tribe," the team meets Katana, the ship's commander for the Travelers, a race that travels in the Pegasus galaxy to avoid the Wraith. And the Travelers are techno-magpies, grabbing all the technology they find in their travels. Katana comes to Atlantis to find out why stargates are blowing up. [TV Squad]

The trailer includes rapper/actor Xzibit ordering what appears to be a search party over a snowy terrain and Callum Keith Rennie (Leoben from BSG) giving you the old shifty eyes. Between the little girls trapped under the ice, crazy Bill Connolly's blood-hued eyes and the predictable emotional tension between Mulder and Scully it could turn out to be a solid X Files. [Movies Online and IGN]

And here are those viral videos:

Fox Mulder on Dana Scully:

Dana Scully on Fox Mulder:

Speed Racer:

Here's a featurette that IGN Movies posted, showcasing Matthew Fox's Racer X character from Speed Racer, including a few snippets of footage we haven't seen before. It looks as demented as everything else I've seen from the film. [IGN Movies]

X-Files 2:

There's a rumor whooshing around the web that Mulder and Scully are still a couple in X-Files 2... but Scully "has someone on the side." After searching all over, I tracked the rumor to the movie's IMDB FAQs, which cited co-writer Frank Spotnitz as a source. (The item has since been removed, but here's the Google cache.) [IMDB]

Iron Man:

Iron Man comes out today, which means this may be the absolute final chance to obsess about whether Samuel L. Jackson has a blink-and-you-miss-it cameo. Now MovieHole is claiming there definitely is a moment of Jackson as pirate-eyed spymaster Nick Fury after the credits of the theatrical release (but not the version screened for critics). Says MovieHole:

At the end of the credits, Stark comes home and finds Nick Fury in his living room -staring towards the window. He then turns to tell Stark he's the not the only superhero in the world. Stark asks who he is, and Fury turns and says he's "Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D, and I'm here to talk to you about The Avengers Initiative".

Incredible Hulk:

Here are some new Incredible Hulk stills that came out on the heels of that new trailer. I have to admit, the more I see of the CGI in this movie, the more it feels like it belongs in a 1990s haunted house movie. [MovieHole again]

Doctor Who:

One viewer has an absolutely airtight theory about what's going to happen on this Saturday's Doctor Who:

I think that the gas isn't actually gas, but really it is a teleporter device where 1 particle of gas teleports 50 sontarans. Then they will shoot the humans and afterwards, get out a shotgun. Then they will shoot the humans heads off, take their heads and put them on their feet. Then they will go ice-skating and fall in love with the doctor. They get married and have a child; hence 'the doctors daughter'

Also, some guy who knows someone says that David Tennant's Doctor will make a cameo appearance in the second season of Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures. [TenMartha4Ever]

And Alex Kingston (ER)'s character in the upcoming Steven Moffat super-library two-parter "Silence In The Library"/"Forest Of The Dead" is named Professor River Song and may have her own sonic screwdriver. And "Turn Left," this season's Doctor-lite episode, may take place in an alternate universe where military rule is in force and everyone has a strange insect-like creature on his/her back. (Is this the alternate universe where Rose lives, or another one?) In the final two-parter, Dalek creator Davros may do a "Borg Queen" style entrance. And there will be tons of different Daleks, including some fitted with claws. [Death Ray, via Keith]

In this Saturday's episode (really) the Doctor shepherds Donna into the TARDIS for safety, but then the Sontarans teleport the TARDIS aboard their ship. With the world's sky turning poisonous, the nations of the world unite to launch a nuclear strike against the Sontarans, in spite of the Doctor's warnings that it'll do no good. After the adventure is over, Martha's ready to go home to her fiance, but she's physically restrained from doing so. And here's some dialogue from the episode, plus a new clip:
Donna: God, the air's disgusting.
Doctor: Its not so bad for me - go on, get inside the TARDIS —
(holds out key)
Oh. Never given you a key. Keep that, go on. That's yours. Quite a big moment really.
Donna: Yeah, maybe we can get sentimental after the world's finished choking to death. [Planet Gallifrey]

DC Universe 0:

The 50-cent DC Universe 0 comic which goes on sale today (possibly by the time you read this) ends with Barry Allen, the fast-running superhero known as The Flash, coming back from the dead. Which means almost everyone who's ever died in DC Comics is now alive again. Good for Marvel Comics leaving Spider-Man's Uncle Ben dead — except for that alternate universe version a couple years ago, but that hardly counts. I think. [Superhero Times]

io9's intrepid intern Nivair H. Gabriel was one of the first to jump up and into the question line. When she asked Carter and Spotnitz whether Mulder and Scully had been communicating with one another during the six years that elapse between the series and the movie. Carter's good-natured, ever-elusive response? "Well," he answered coyly, "they've been texting."

Other random movie details:

• 
  
• They showed the same trailer we already featured at io9 a couple of weeks ago.
• As we've heard before, it's a stand-alone story, without the government conspiracy/UFO mythos that made up a large bulk of the show's plot arc.
• The movie also provided a chance to get personal with the characters of Mulder and Sculy in a way the series never could, Spotnitz and Carter said.
• They're hoping this will only help move X-Files into the future and didn't rule out additional projects.
• One sort-of straight answer, at least: no, Scully's family, an emotionally wrought subject for her on TV, won't be appearing in the film. Carter was squirrelly, though: that doesn't mean we'll never see "references" to them again.
• Carter says that the X-Files is, and has been, not about aliens, but about other people.
• Spotnitz is happy to hand over full credit to Carter for the movie's title, "I Want To Believe"
• No word on extra or cut footage, but we're promised that a future Blu-Ray will be "very cool"
• A question comes about the political climate today. Mysteriously, we're told that while the X-Files movie isn't political, it feels like it's taking place "right now." "We live in scary times," Carter adds, tracing his own initiation into paranoia to the Watergate era and suggesting that we look to what our own government is up to more often.
• What should we take away from the movie? Spotnitz: Hope. Carter: The trash from under your seat.
• A question is fielded as to whether the movie has an underlying theology. Spotnitz says there's no theology, but that there's meaning and value in the world (always a critical element of the X-Files, he says.)
• Carter and Spotnitz have generously extended the Q&A several times to accomodate a long line of fan questions. Any actual information about the film's plot or the characters included are mostly skirted, though Amanda Peet and Xzibit are reconfirmed as playing FBI agents, and Billy Connolly, noted as an excellent comedian, will be very much "not funny" in "I Want to Believe." Carter neglected to mention sci fi favorite Callum Keith Rennie's inclusion, which likely would have brought cheers from some of the gathered fangirls/boys.
• A Q comes about whether the men have seen fan efforts online. Carter congenially responds that while it's appreciated, "that stuff is waaaay too racy" but he appreciates that "people are living much more hot and racy lives than I am" and using his characters for a medium. While Iappreciate Carter saying so, that's quite a change in tune from from the years when 20th Century Fox lawyers used to hound the websites of small X-Files fanfic websites with cease-and-desist letters.
• A fan asks: was Carter inspired at all by the late Arthur C. Clarke? Yes, Carter answers, without having to think about it: he was inspired by Clarke's uncanny way of predicting the future.
• Some old series issues wrapped up: by the 7th season Mulder has accepted that his sister Samantha is dead, and Mulder is, indeed, the father of Scully's baby, which I'm sure I wrote a story about once.
• No love for Mitch Pileggi as FBI boss Skinner? Carter joked that Skinner was surely a part of the excised steamy love scene Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny had talked about shooting together in order to mess with our fragile fan brains.

Here's the blurb for the movie novelization, which is written by Max Allen Collins (creator of Miss Tree, the greatest comic book character ever):

When a group of women are abducted in the wintry hills of rural Virginia, the only clues to their disappearance are the grotesque human remains that begin to turn up in snow banks along the highway. With officials desperate for any lead, a disgraced priest's questionable "visions" send local police on a wild goose chase and straight to a bizarre secret medical experiment that may or may not be connected to the women's disappearance. It's a case right out of The X-Files. But the FBI closed down its investigations into the paranormal years ago. And the best team for the job is ex-agents Fox Mulder and Dr. Dana Scully, who have no desire to revisit their dark past. Still, the truth of these horrific crimes is out there somewhere...and it will take Mulder and Scully to find it!

X-Files: I Want To Believe:

Mulder has been living for the past six years in a house on the outskirts of Washington, D.C. at the start of X-Files: I Want To Believe. The house includes an office that's a loving recreation of Mulder's FBI basement space, including a poster with the words "I Want To Believe" on it. The office also includes some other touches from the TV show: a bowl of sunflower seeds, a board with newspaper clippings, a drawing of the creature from "Post-Modern Prometheus," pencils stuck in the ceiling, a photo of Samantha, and a basketball. Another room has a fishtank in it. There's a scene where Scully shows up at the house in a long camel coat, while Mulder is clipping something from a newspaper. He turns to face her, and that poster comes into focus in the frame. [Sci Fi Wire]

Splice:

Splice, the genetic experiment movie starring Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley, includes a very "lax" laboratory that looks as though the couple is doing DNA experiments in a slapdash manner, very much under the radar. Their "child," Dren, ages rapidly but her room in a nearby farmhouse still looks like a child's room, including a teddy bear. Delphine Chanéac, who plays Dren, had to shave her head and also wear weird clothes that allow the VFX crew to superimpose effects on her body, especially her legs below the knees. Dren develops into a deadly winged half-human creature. (And here's an early design of what Dren is supposed to look like. You can see more photos here, but some of them are NSFW.) [Bloody Disgusting]

Iron Man:

There's a new featurette showing Iron Man director Jon Favreau on the set, which reveals that Tony Stark has a very nice house. [IESB]

Wolverine:

A high-res version has appeared of a Wolverine promo pic that you may have seen before. It confirms that, yes, his claws do keep getting longer and longer. [IESB again]

Doctor Who:

Here's a photo from this Saturday's Doctor Who, which also includes the following dialog:
The Doctor: You've been shot.
Ood: The circle...
Donna: No, don't try to move -
Ood: The circle...must be broken.
The Doctor: What Circle? What d'you mean? Delta Fifty, what circle? [Spoiler TV]

Lost:

The upcoming Lost episode focusing on Locke (airing May 1 or May 8) will include a return appearance by Nestor Carbonell, as we'd previously speculated. Also, we'll see Ben in "a few different places" over the next few episodes, and Ben will seem like less of a bad guy compared to the violent and dangerous characters we'll be meeting in upcoming episodes. The final batch of episodes will move backwards, forwards and "sideways" in time. [Spoilers Lost]

Also, celeb gossip sites caught Josh Holloway, who plays Sawyer, in Los Angeles. Apparently he's doing some filming there, and it's not for a flashback. [Lyly Ford]

And here are some stills from episode 10, "Something Nice Back Home." Jack is injured, and meanwhile it looks like Sawyer and Locke may have a bit of a falling out. [Doc Arzt]

Smallville:

Some details about the Smallville season finale, "Arctic," have leaked out. Unfortunately, they're only in Spanish (that I've seen.) Here's what I've been able to glean: Clark is freaking out at the farm, when Kara comes crashing to Earth, with no memory of the past few weeks. She has no clue how to find Brainiac, but keeps urging Clark to go to the Fortress and seek Jor-El's help. Clark says he's tried that, but Kara keeps insisting that they should go to the Fortress, with a weird urgency.

Meanwhile, Lex has Jimmy firmly under his thumb thanks to the deal Jimmy made to protect Chloe. And there are some scenes with Edward Teague where they talk about the death of Virgil Swann, and how to use the device Lex found in Zurich. And then Lex tracks down some weird power sources in the North Pole, using government sources.

Clark goes to warn Lois not to underestimate what Lex is capable of. Lois says it's cute when Clark acts all concerned about her. Then Lois stumbles upon Jimmy's bloody body in the street. Jimmy says Lex has Chloe. And indeed, Lex has Chloe tied up in a vat of Kryptonite, connected to a computer via electrodes on her head. Lex is performing some kind of experiment on Chloe, having to do with tissue regeneration (I think.) [Smallville-Krypton]

Meanwhile, some clips from tonight's Smallville have turned up online, and they pretty much confirm what you already thought: Lex kills his dad. And then argues a lot with his inner child. If I may interject a personal opinion, the "Lex kills his dad" part seemed sort of promising. But then you add the "Lex argues with his inner child part, and I'm suddenly less thrilled. Here they are. [The TV Addict]

Even more spoilers for tonight's episode, from someone who's seen it: if Lex gets both of the Veritas keys, Clark will have to "do his bidding" and Lex will have complete control over Clark. Lex tells Clark, "I did try, Clark. In fact, when I first met you, you inspired me." Lex forbids anyone from going to Lionel's funeral, but Clark goes anyway. [Tasabian]

X-Files 2:

Here are some new promo stills from July's X-Files sequel. You can just glimpse a clipping behind Mulder that says something about a Frankenstein doctor.

Iron Man:

Professor Yin Sen, the Vietnamese scientist who helps Iron Man create his armor, is now played by Shaun Tolb, who also appears in The Kite Runner. Tolb says he appears in about 30 minutes of the movie, saves Iron Man's life and sends him on his journey. [Superhero Flix]

Batman: The Dark Knight.

That scene showing Heath Ledger in a body-bag won't be cut from the theatrical release of Batman: The Dark Knight, as some had speculated. [MovieHole]

Heroes

Here are the titles of the first four episodes of Heroes season three: "The Butterfly Effect," "Dreamtime," "One Of Us, One Of Them," and "The Year Of Our Lord." So, just reading between the lines here, we'll see some philosophizing about how you can't step on a butterfly without changing the course of history. And that wise Aborigine storyteller we're told is joining the cast will take us on a spiritual journey in the second episode. Or maybe I'm reading too much into those titles. In any case, the first two episodes are written by Tim Kring. [Heroes Television]

Lost:

In the first Lost episode back, we'll quickly learn the identity of the Rousseau and Karl snipers. The body that washes ashore in the episode is that of Doc Ray, from the freighter, and the body itself isn't as significant as what it implies. Meanwhile, we'll soon discover more about how the Island has a "pull" on people, even after they leave it. And there are more hints that Claire may not have much longer to live. [Spoilers Lost]

The second episode of Lost after the break involves Kate and Juliet teaming up to save Jack, whose "health is severely compromised." Meanwhile, Sawyer, Claire, Aaron and Miles head back to the beach, and then "something goes wrong." It appears this episode may be a Jack-centric flash-forward after all, since they were filming those scenes of FutureJack visiting Hurley in the mental hospital. [Fan Forum]

In upcoming episodes of Lost, Desmond stays on the freighter, where there are more shenanigans, says actor Henry Ian Cusick. And the actor has a strong feeling that Desmond is not going to make it out of the show alive. [Doc Arzt]

And here's a promo for the next episode:

Doctor Who:

Remember Friday's spoiler about the Doctor Who Christmas special featuring Cybermen in a Victorian graveyard? Here are a couple more pictures of the shooting. [South Argus and AltNation] And here's the synopsis for the upcoming "Planet of the Ood": "The Doctor takes Donna far into the future, to her first alien world. But on the planet Ood-Sphere, they discover terrible truths about the Human Race. As the enslaved Ood struggle for survival, a secret buried for 200 years threatens to rise up and engulf them all." [Bad Wolf PR]

Star Trek:

J.J. Abrams' Star Trek reboot has been filming in Bakersfield, in a farm that's supposed to look like Iowa — presumably where Kirk grew up. And here's some video of the filming, which shows a 1960s Corvette, which seems to have a woman and a boy (young Kirk?) driving. [TrekMovie]

Hancock:

Here's a new promo still from July 2's Hancock, which shows Will Smith's superhero doing "more harm than good." [USA Today]

Wolverine:

A German fan hiking in New Zealand got to watch some of the filming for the Wolverine solo movie, and took pictures of a barn being blown up, and Wolverine on a motorcycle. You can view the pictures here. [Goliath]

Also, British actor and martial artist Scott Adkins will play Weapon 11 — the next most advanced military experiment after Wolverine's Weapon X — and will fight Wolverine in a spectacular end-sequence in the X-men spin-off, due in 2009. [IGN]

X-Files 2:

The new X-Files movie includes a good priest (Billy Connoly) and a bad priest, plus genetic engineering and organ harvesting. It also includes a "horrific disease" and a warped cult. One major character is an eleven-year-old in a wheelchair, and someone's head gets cut off, according to rumors from semi-reliable sources. [Westender]

Doctor Who:

In Doctor Who season four episode four, "The Sontaran Strategem," Martha Jones summons the Doctor back to Earth (using her cell phone?) The ATMOS devices are spreading all over the world, and even Martha's own family may not be safe. It may already be too late to save the Joneses. [SpoilerTV]

Meanwhile, the Doctor Who Christmas special is already filming, and as you've heard, it takes place in Victorian London. One scene today in a snowy graveyard involved a woman in red, a vicar and a bunch of other Victorians running from a pyre. And then some Cybermen attack the Victorians and "delete" a whole bunch of them by grabbing their necks. They look exactly like the "Cybus Industries" Cybermen from season two. Plus, there are some other weird-looking "Wraith Cybermen," who have feathery cloaks and weird-looking cyber-heads that are more like rust or bronze, with the handles in a diamond shape. The "Wraith Cybermen" appear to be working with the regular Cybermen. [Planet Gallifrey]

And here's a new preview clip from Saturday's episode:

Lost:

The latest Entertainment Weekly includes tons of info on the final five (or six, possibly) episodes of Lost season four.

The show was shooting its next episode, "The Shape Of Things To Come," in a rock quarry, and Michael Emerson (Ben) says he's in an "all-Ben extravaganza" that includes "combat, riding horses, foreign languages. And piano playing!" The episode is a flash-forward focusing on Ben's war with Charles Widmore, and as we've reported it includes the funeral of Sayid's old flame Nadia. And we learn something new about the smoke monster. It'll also start a major turning-point storyline for Claire that carries on for the remaining four episodes.

As for the rest of the season, in addition to learning how the Oceanic Six got off the island, we'll find out who was in that coffin, what happened to those left behind, and why future Sayid is Ben's hit-bitch. The only flash-back will be "mythically significant" and (probably) feature Locke. (We already reported on the filming of what seemed to be Locke's birth.) We'll see a new Dharma station called the Orchid, with three lvels — and it sheds some more light on the island's time-warping properties. Penelope, Matthew Abaddon and Nestor Carbonell will turn up. But we won't learn more about Farraday and Miles until next year, thanks to the writers' strike.

That "spectacular" kiss we keep hearing about in the season finale? Will complicate the Jake-Kate-Saywer triangle. And the finale's revelations will underscore just how hard it will be for future Jack to get back to the island. The season-ending plot twist, code-named "Frozen Donkey Wheel," will set up another reinvention of the show's premise. And at some point, we may no longer have flashbacks or flashforwards. [Entertainment Weekly]

Battlestar Galactica:

To nobody's surprise, TV Guide posted the following description for next week's Battlestar Galactica episode: "Cally learns the truth about Tyrol." Just a reminder that you probably shouldn't be getting to attached to Cally.

The Dark Knight:

At one point in the new Batman movie, the Joker gets up in Christian Bale's face and quotes that Brokeback Mountain line about "You complete me," but in a really stalkery, unnerving way. (I thought that was a line from Jerry Maguire?) Also, there's a scene where the Joker gets inside a body bag and pretends to be dead, which freaked out everyone in the audience of an early preview screening — and it may have to be edited out. The movie's soundtrack includes a Jaws-esque tension-inducing heartbeat sound. Eric Roberts plays an icky mobster. Everyone in the movie, not just Harvey/Two-Face, has some kind of duality. [Batman on Film]

X-Files 2:

UGO has one of its spoiler roundups about X-Files 2, and doesn't really add much new information. Except supposedly the movie starts with scrolling introductory text, like Star Wars, to bring new viewers up to speed. And it does reference old episodes of the show. And Mitch Pileggi may be back as Skinner. And Mulder and Scully may encounter creatures they first met on the TV show. [UGO]

Dragonball:

James Masters, who plays Piccolo in Dragonball, will have the silliest fake latex muscles you've ever seen. At least, they look pretty stunning in this picture from make-up artist Edward French's home page. French won't reveal the prosthetic makeup he spent four hours applying to Marsters, but he did show off everything below the neck. [Edward French, via I Watch Stuff]

Heroes:

Season three of Heroes will introduce two new characters, because the show isn't overcrowded enough already: Joy, who's in her early twenties and good at getting herself into, and out of, trouble. And Senator Robert Malden, a "political straight shooter" in his fifties. [TV Guide]

Doctor Who:

Towards the end of Doctor Who season four, rumor has it we'll hear more references to the Medusa Cascade, which the Master mentioned at the end of season three. Also, still more rumors that Davros is showing up. And the final episode is supposedly extra long, which means it'll be extra-butchered for American viewers.

And the new Doctor Who Magazine includes key quotes from some upcoming episodes. In the Pompeii episode, the Doctor tells Donna, "Some things are fixed, some things are in flux, and Pompeii is fixed...That's how I see the universe. All the time, every waking second: what is, what was, what could be, what must not. That's the burden of a Time Lord, Donna."

In the Ood episode, the Doctor says, "The Ood aren't born like this, can't be - a species born to serve could never evolve in the first place. What does the company do, to make them obey?"

In the Sontaran two-parter, the Doctor says, "Whatever you do, Colonel Mace, do not engage the Sontarans in battle. There's nothing they like better than war! Leave this to me..." [Doctor Who Forum]

Smallville:

The 150th Smallville episode, airing May 1, will resolve the Clark/Brainiac story once and for all. That's the episode where Clark visits a world where he never crash-landed on Earth. (Think the Buffy storyline where Buffy never came to Sunnydale.) And in the alternate reality, Chloe is engaged to be married, while Alt-Lex will have a fancy job with an even fancier office. [Ask Ausiello]

Lost:

That "spectacular kiss" in the Lost season finale happens between a boy and a girl, and it doesn't take place on the island [E! Online]

The season finale involves a "big scene" involving the rescue of the Oceanic Six from the island, soon to be filmed. But the freighter crew aren't the ones who rescue the Six, and the cliffhanger will "leave you ballistic." Also, in the last five episodes of the season, we learn a lot more about Kate's love-life, both in the present and in flash-forwards. [Spoilers Lost]

Ben 10

The new Ben 10 series, Ben 10: Alien Force, takes place five years after the original series, with a more mature Ben. Ben goes to visit his grandfather, but aliens attack and his grandpa goes missing. So Ben teams up with Gwen, plus Max's old partner, an alien plumber, and they bust a weapons deal that turns out to be the work of Kevin Eleven, now back in human form. Despite being pissed about his deal going south, Kevin agrees to help Ben's team, and they use a "spiffy piece of alien tech" to infiltrate an alien base. The mission is mostly successful, but they the plumber dies, and they still need to find and rescue Grandpa Max. Meanwhile, Ben's watch has transformed and gives him access to a whole new set of aliens. The show launches April 18 on Cartoon Network. [Toonzone]

Wanted:

A new one-sheet for super-assassin movie Wanted gives a pretty detailed plot synopsis, which makes the film sound a bit... well, stupid. Here's what it says:

25-year-old Wes (James McAvoy) was the most disaffected, cube-dwelling drone the planet had ever known. His boss chewed him out hourly, his girlfriend ignored him routinely and his life plodded on interminably. Everyone was certain this disengaged slacker would amount to nothing. There was little else for Wes to do but wile away the days and die in his slow, clock-punching rut.

Until he met a woman named Fox (Angelina Jolie).

After his estranged father is murdered, the deadly sexy Fox recruits Wes into the Fraternity, a secret society that trains Wes to avenge his dad's death by unlocking his dormant powers. As she teaches him how to develop lightning-quick reflexes and phenomenal agility, Wes discovers this team lives by an ancient, unbreakable code: carry out the death orders given by fate itself.

With wickedly brilliant tutors—including the Fraternity's enigmatic leader, Sloan (Morgan Freeman)—Wes grows to enjoy all the strength he ever wanted. But, slowly, he begins to realize there is more to his dangerous associates than meets the eye. And as he wavers between newfound heroism and vengeance, Wes will come to learn what no one could ever teach him: he alone controls his destiny.

Speed Racer:

Here are some new promo pics from May's Speed Racer.

Superman

If Superman Returns does get a sequel, chances are Kevin Spacey's Lex Luthor will be back. At least, Spacey says he's already signed to appear in it. [Cinemablend]

Doctor Who:

The first episode of Doctor Who season four, "Partners In Crime," is a "comedy episode" and features 15 minutes during which the Doctor and Donna are both investigating the same thing, but keep managing to miss each other. At one point, they're in the same office, but whenever the Doctor stands up, Donna looks down, and so on. Sarah Lancashire's evil diet pill scheme involves the fact that she controls what happens to your fat after it leaves your body.

And then in the second episode, "Fires of Pompeii," the Doctor and Donna lose the TARDIS in Pompeii, just a few hours before the eruption. Donna befriends a family that she wants to save, but the Doctor doesn't want to save them. And there are scary soothsayers in addition to those rock monsters, the Pyrovillians. [TV Scoop]

Meanwhile, here are some rumors and rank speculation about the end of season four and the specials that follow. Donna turns evil, and in fact is in league with the Master (an evil Time Lord) all along. Rose dies at the end of the season, giving the Doctor a new reason to be sad. The Doctor reprograms the Cybermen to help him defeat an army of evil Time Lords. (This one has been debunked already.) And the Rani, another evil Time Lord, appears in this year's Christmas special. [Doctor Who Forum]

Battlestar Galactica

Here are some stills from the third new Battlestar Galactica episode, "The Ties That Bind," which is rumored to be the one where Cally kills herself. [Dryope]

Smallville:

The rest of Smallville season seven is all about Lex's fall to the dark side. And Lex finds what he's always been searching for, says executive producer Brian Peterson. The season finale sets up all the storylines in season eight, which he hinted may answer some of fans' longstanding questions about when various elements of the Superman mythos will show up. [Sci Fi Wire]

Heroes

Kristen Bell thinks she'll back on Heroes as Elle the zappy psycho girl this fall. [Superhero Hype]

Lost:

"Leaked" script pages for the end of the Lost season finale have a mystery woman (probably Kate) dying in Jack's arms. And then it turns out Jack's dad is the evil mastermind behind everything bad in the world. Too bad these awesome pages also contain the words "April Fools" in a not-too-subtle code. [Doc Arzt's Lost Blog]

X-Files 2

And another piece of info that we're assuming is an April Fools thing. Supposedly Fox wanted to call the X-Files sequel X-Files: Curse of the Werepeople, but Chris Carter insisted on calling it X-Files: Full Moon Rising. And the film is Cat People meets American Werewolf In London. Ohhhkay then. [IESB]

X-Files 2

Mulder and Scully's baby William "will not go unconsidered" in X-Files 2, says director Chris Carter. [IF Magazine]

World War Z

Ain't It Cool News has a review of J. Michael Straczynski's movie script adapting Max Brooks' book zombie-battle book World War Z. It's a Children of Men-esque look at the ruined post-zombie world, as Gerry takes an assignment to travel around and document what went wrong in the zombie outbreaks. We see how difficult travel has become, including strip-searches and blood tests, and Gerry travels to China to talk to Dr. Tsai about an encounter with zombies at New Dachang. We learn that a mixture of bureaucracy and flawed military strategy made the situation worse. As Gerry interviews more survivors, we realize that people are starting to question whether just having survived is any kind of victory. There's also a brutal subplot about black-market organs. [Ain't It Cool]

Dollhouse

Here's a ton of leaked spoilers/rumors about Joss Whedon's new show Dollhouse, starring Eliza Dushku: The Dollhouse, home of the amnesiac "dolls" who can be anyone or anything, is in Los Angeles. There are two types of "dolls," Actives and Inactives. Dushku's character, Echo, is an Inactive.

In one scene, Adelle, the "ice queen" who runs the Dollhouse, meets with a Senator who's considering "buying" an Active doll to use as an "escort." She convinces the Senator the Active will be better than any human escort, because the emotions will be real to the "doll" and she'll be programmed to want it as much as he does.

The geek who programs the dolls, Topher, calls Echo's "handler" Boyd, because he's noticed that a group of the mind-wiped dolls has sat together at lunch at the same table for the third time within a week. Dushku's character, Echo, seems to be initiating this clique, which means she may be evolving beyond her mind wipes. There is definitely something unusual about Echo, compared to the other "dolls." If Adelle the boss finds out, she'll have Echo killed.

Topher the geek and Boyd the handler have differing opinions about their work. Topher believes it's purely programming and sort of morally wrong (even though he enjoys doing it.) But Boyd thinks it's healthy for the "dolls" to get to experience every possible human emotion through their programmed personalities. [Blank_Dolls community]

Doctor Who

Some new bits of info have leaked out about Doctor Who season four. The Agatha Christie episode attempts to explore the real-life mystery of Christie's two-week disappearance.

Meanwhile, Steven Moffat's two-parter set in the giant deserted library features "data ghosts," plus a menacing entity called the Suit Creature, which may be sort of like Moffat's "Empty Child" from back in season one. Also, the library's air swarms with flesh-melting piranha called the Vashta Nerada, and the library is full of dead bodies. ER's Alex Kingston plays an Indiana Jones-esque archeologist.

And there are more rumors that Dalek creator Davros will be back. Also, completely iffy rumors that the prehistoric Sea Devils, the Axons and jolly rogue Sabalom Glitz will put in appearances. [TeleWatcher]

Meanwhile, in "Planet of the Ood," we learn what drove the Ood to become a servant race. And in "The Sontaran Strategem," the cloned warrior Sontarans show up on Earth looking for their longtime enemies the Rutans. And then, supposedly, the Sontarans use mind-control on some soldiers from the alien-fighting organization UNIT, and they take the Doctor's friend Martha Jones away to be cloned. But then more UNIT soldiers show up to rescue her. [DoctorWhoForum]

Here's a source claiming that Davros doesn't show up at all. Instead, we get John Simm's version of the Master back again, in a "botched regeneration. [Stuff On TV]

And remember the Adipose? Those weird aliens in the season opener, who use diet pills to turn fat people into alien babies? Well, here are early special effects shots of them. (Not entirely sure what's happening to the woman whose cleavage we see in one shot.) Stephen Regelous, who developed the Massive FX technology used to create crowd scenes in the Lord of the Rings movies, used it to create these swarms of Adipose. [SFX]

Lost

Lost is filming some scenes at the "Santa Rosa Mental Institute" where Future Hurley is a patient, and Matthew Fox and Jorge Garcia were both there, along with Jack's truck. Since we recently had a casting call for a doctor appearing in episode 10, these scenes could be from that episode... but it was rumored to be a Kate-centric outing. So it's possible this episode will feature all of the Oceanic 6. [Spoilers Lost]

Once again we see the footage of Billy Connolly leading a small army of FBI agents on some sort of manhunt across the snow, and then digging the snow with his hands. Mulder tells Scully he needs her on this case, and Scully says, "That's what scares me." There's also a very romantic moment with Mulder's hand on Scully's face, as if he's about to kiss her. Oh, and some kind of weird autopsy-looking thing. The video probably won't cause epilepsy, but we make no promises. [X-Files News]