According to The LA Times Eisner is set to direct the latest remake. And it sounds, thank goodness, as if the film will be sticking to the original creep-fest's script, about a mother who telepathically communicates with her mutant babies, causing them to kill.

Here's the original synopsis:

A man tries to uncover an unconventional psychologist's therapy techniques on his institutionalized wife, while a series of brutal attacks committed by a brood of mutant children coincides with the husband's investigation

The film is slated for early 2010, which means we won't be short of any remakes this year. What with The Crazies, The Creature from The Black Lagoon, Wolf Man and others

Larter is in talks to play Virginia Lake, the "strong but feminine" woman at the heart of the show, says Gratzner. She'd be starring opposite Joshua Jackson, who's playing pilot Paul Foster.

And the new movie is already planned as the first installment in a trilogy — the first screenplay is written, and the second and third movies exist in treatment form. The movie's aliens will still be evil organ-stealing bastards, and they'll be humanoid instead of District 9-style creatures. It sounds like a recipe for exciting G.I. Joe-style schlock, but apparently that's not the goal.

Gratzner, a veteran special-effects worker, tells Forbidden Planet:

What I want to do with UFO is what Christopher Nolan did with the Batman franchise, or Martin Campbell did with Casino Royale. UFO is not a spoof, or a parody or a kids' movie. It's a pretty dark story, actually…it is not a show for young children.

You could argue, of course, that both Batman and James Bond had a track record of being dark and tackling adult themes before those films appeared, whereas UFO has a track record of this:

Great pep talk: "You're doing a fine job — a man's job. But you don't have to do it any better just because you're a woman [in a Lady GaGa costume.] And don't forget, you're a very pretty girl." And then they make the other woman stand with her leg raised , in a silver miniskirt. When she tries to move, they're like, "Hold it right there." As she says, "Not the most flattering of pin-ups."

Anderson's first live-action science fiction series, before Space: 1999, UFO is a delightfully campy adventure show about SHADO, a secret organization that fights evil organ-harvesting aliens. The moonbase staff all wear purple wigs and shiny silver outfits, and the music is jazzay, sixties style.

On the other hand, reading between the lines of Gratzner's interview, it sounds like he really wants to make something closer to J.J. Abrams' Star Trek, keeping a lot of the concept design and silly outfits of the original, but with a smidge more character development and slightly more serious plots. But he's namechecking Batman Begins and Casino Royale because they're the gold standard for reboots right now. In any case, an Abrams-esque remake could be an attainable goal, and could actually do quite well amidst a swarm of Nolan-wannabes. Fingers crossed! [Forbidden Planet]

MTV managed to ask Cameron about reports that he and veteran screenwriter Salermo were collaborating on a new film, and he explained that it's not Salermo's Kurosawa-themed unproduced screenplay Doomsday Protocol. Rather, Cameron is producing a Salermo-scripted remake of Fantastic Voyage, in which a team of scientists shrinks themselves and goes inside an assassinated diplomat, on the brink of death, to perform emergency surgery on a blood clot in his brain.

As MTV points out, this remake could have way better special effects than the original — although Raquel Welch surely counts as a special effect. And also the improved special effects could be a double-edged sword, since the temptation to focus on cool animations of leukocytes instead of actual story could be pretty overwhelming. Plus, it couldn't possibly be as great as these gems:

THR broke the news of Noxon's involvement, and also revealed that...

The new version will keep the comedy-horror tone while modernizing the effects.

Keeping the tone sounds good, but it would be a shame to lose the campy horror of the original movie's long-fingered prosthetics.

Noxon wrote 22 episodes on Buffy episode including "Villains," where Willow goes bezerk and rips off Warren's skin — a very special episode indeed. She was also the producer on Buffy for the end seasons and worked on Mad Men, writing ""The Inheritance" and serving as a consulting producer. So perhaps there's hope for this film yet — especially since the entire project was almost dumped a few months ago because they didn't think they could get the script to work. That shows some kind of dedication to getting it right, which in itself gives us a tiny cause for optimism.

THR is reporting that director Zebediah de Soto will tackle this new story with what they are calling "an American-style anime" executed using new technology. Hopefully this will prevent the CG curse that is actors interacting with tennis ball stick monsters.

Call me pessimistic but I'm not sure I want to see a CG zombie film before my Henry Selnick claymation zombie movie ....

The producer De Soto Simon West, who directed Con Air and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, gives us a little hope. He's got good C-movie cred.

The official announcement was made over the weekend, and the accompanying press release quotes Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook as saying,

This is truly an inspired collaboration, and a wonderful opportunity to revisit one of the most imaginative and memorable musical fantasies of all time. To be working with the amazing folks at Apple Corps, and to have Bob [Zemeckis] helming the sub is truly as good as it gets. With all those incredible Beatles songs and imagery, the spectacular vision of Bob and his pioneering team at ImageMovers Digital, and a classic adventure full of wit and action, we're sure that moviegoers are going to have a great time on this latest trip to Pepperland.

On the other hand, we're left wondering what the point is. Yellow Submarine isn't a classic story - or even that good a story, for that matter - and what successes it has as a movie come as much from the animation and ability to capture the then-zeitgeist as anything else, with neither of those things being replicated by any remake. The remake won't even have the chance to hear new (and/or rare, depending on when you first saw the original) Beatles songs. So, really, why is this being made?

It feels like a mixture of failure of imagination - Why not do something new, even a new story inspired by other Beatles songs if that's the true impetus of the idea? - and strange hubris about the technology being used in making the new version. Zemeckis is quoted in the press release as saying,

'Yellow Submarine' is one of the greatest fantasy films of all time, and making this new 3D performance capture movie is a dream come true for me. With the latest advances in technology, we will be able to take moviegoers on a voyage unlike any other, and bring new excitement and dimension to Pepperland and the various sea worlds they encounter.

...But how will the latest advances in technology - especially performance capture, considering the movie is about five people (four real ones, two of whom are dead, and therefore unable to be performance captured) in a fantastic, surreal environment filled with non-human , which'll be freed of the realism that performance capture was created to represent - actually "bring new excitement"? Doesn't that excitement come from, you know, seeing something new?

(And that's not even going near the weird, creepy quality of Zemeckis' other CGI movies, The Polar Express and this year's upcoming A Christmas Carol, where characters look almost photo-realistic but not enough, leading you to wonder why they didn't just shoot it with real people on greenscreens.)

That Disney, the Beatles and Zemeckis want to relive past glories makes some level of cynical sense; it's the reason companies spend $4 billion to buy IP instead of create their own, after all, but remaking Yellow Submarine seems to encompass everything that's wrong with remakes in general in one fell swoop, and demonstrates an impressive ability to miss the point of what (little) the original had going for it in the first place: A belief and faith in the imagination, individuality and not being afraid to do something new.

Bloody Disgusting are reporting that Anderson's comments to the effect that we can expect a third X-Files movie somewhere around 2012 (Perhaps that's the terrible disaster that will spark the end of the world as promised by Roland Emmerich, countless ancient prophecies and fixed Google searches) are part of a possible reboot of the franchise that's currently being discussed by the powers that be, although they add that "[n]othing is set in stone, all should be taken as rumor until confirmed."

We're not too surprised that an X-Files reboot would be considered, considering the critical drubbing of the last movie and a remake/reboot-happy Hollywood that sees no problem in rebooting Battlestar Galactica less than a year after the last version, but it has to be asked: Doesn't Fringe already do that job pretty nicely? Do we even need any new X-Files anymore?

News Bites: Alba on 'Machete' Set, New 'Pandorum' Poster, a Third 'X-Files', New Discoveries! [Bloody Disgusting]

The crew over at Slashfilm was tipped off with a casting tape of the latest casting reels for vampire remake Let Me In, from director Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) . They also recently posted a crop of concept posters which lead me to believe that Eli, would no longer be the androgynous little vampire playmate we all came to love. I speculated that the tights and long hair concept art meant that the studio might be toying with simply ignoring Eli's wicked backstory and make her a cute little girl. The name change from Eli to Abby isn't calming these fears.

That said, I quite like one of the little youngsters for the role. But I'd like to see what you all think, so to the polls!

Slashfilm got hold of some of the concept posters for the American adaptation of Let The Right One In, now titled Let Me In. I don't know about you, but I loved the mysterious allure of Eli's gender ambiguity and gamine androgyny. This representation seems a little too much intended to "pull one over on the audience," or maybe they cut Eli's back story entirely. But, the stark snowy appeal is still there, so we know that Cloverfield director Matt Reeves at least has the right idea. Plus I'm very happy with the recent casting rumors, but there's still plenty of reason to be concerned about a remake of an already-perfect film. Here is another chilling concept poster...

Check out the additional posters at Slashfilm.

Syfy Creative Director of Original Programming Mark Stern sat with us and talked about the new reboot we're all eagerly awaiting, which is the Tim Minear (Angel, Dollhouse, Firefly) reboot of Alien Nation. And as it turns out, they're still trying to get Quantum Leap back on the air as well.

You just announced Syfy's plans to reboot Alien Nation, was it your idea to go after that series?

Alien Nation has been [one of] three or four shows that I want to do. I want to do those shows, at least one of them. And yet again, if you're going to go and do Alien Nation, you'd better do it the right way, same as with Battlestar. We've been talking to a number of writers, since I got here, about Alien Nation. What's the right approach, how do you do it so it feels relevant? And Tim Minear came in with a great approach to it, that really felt like it didn't just tell the same story again, and it was still really true to what Alien Nation was about.

So that worked. I would love to find our time travel show — whether it's literally Quantum Leap — and we've been talking to Don Bellisario [show creator] about [doing] that as a possibility, because what is the next really great time travel series.

Where are you with that what are you pitching at Bellisario a darker take or a Eureka-esque whimsical time travel series, it really could go either way?

I honestly don't know. Every three or four months, we take Don out to lunch and see how he's doing and where his head's at. Whether he's ready to kind of go into that world again. It's a process, and the same is true with Alien Nation. You need to gestate and take time. What you don't want to do is rush into them and just say "okay, it's out version of this," and it's not good. We definitely always have our eye on the great shows from the past. But really our focus is on what the new stuff is.

When it was mentioned that Tim Minear was going to dabble with the Starsky and Hutch feel to Alien Nation, people were a bit surprised. They thought the show would be going darker. Can you give our readers an idea what you and Tim have in mind for Alien Nation?

You know it's very early, but I do think what Tim wants to do, which is very much what Ron Moore and David Eick did with Battlestar, is take what was great about that franchise, which was obviously the relationship between these two different people and these two different cultures, and find a way to make it relevant to the things we care about today. Is it going to be darker? I don't know what the tone is going to be yet, honestly. Tim is not a dark writer, he comes from a very different place. He wants it to be more than just frivolous and silly. It's going to have to attack a lot of the same themes that the original series and the movie did. But it really has to feel like there's something new there, like this isn't the same old. I wish I could give you more specifics, but we really just had that first pitch meeting with him where he said, "This is what we want to do," and we said, "That sounds fantastic. Let's do it." Now it's really about him pulling it together.

And I have to ask, will aliens still have the spotted skulls?

Man, I have no idea. I really don't. I'm sure, you know there's no Battlestar without cylons. They'll definitely be our version of cylons, I don't know what that will be yet. The thing is that's the challenge of all of those. Hold on to what's really great, what's cool about it, what makes you want to watch it, what you remember about it, and update it. It's a very fine line you're treading.

The original 80s feature gave birth to a Fox series that focused on the lives of a bunch of newly landed, spotty headed aliens and their integration into human society. Specifically, it was a buddy cop show between alien detective George Francisco and his human partner Matthew Sikes.

Minear explained to Variety how he's going to bring back this buddy-cop classic:

It's genre mixed with procedural mixed with funny and mixed with big, giant scary. I love serialized stuff, but this is also a cop franchise. That 'Starsky and Hutch'/'Lethal Weapon' buddy cop comedy is absent from TV right now.

The reboot will most likely take place in the Pacific Northwest, 20 years after the UFO crashes onto our planet. So the aliens have had some time to assimilate to Earthling life. The trades claim that the alien population will have grown to about 3.5 million and most of the others will have their own segregated habitat in something similar to the "North African ghettos in France."

So now you can all stop clamoring about District 9 simply being a copy of Alien Nation, because we're actually going to have an updated copy of Alien Nation. Will alien intolerance replace the post 9/11 themes that were created from shows like Battlestar Galactica? But more importantly will audiences care about the plight of an alien?

[Variety]

Movie Hole is reporting that WB is hunting for writers to reboot Teen Wolf, and they're not sure what direction they're going to take it in yet. I hope it's a dark one, because that's in style now, right?

It's not possible to recreate this type of 80s camp — it is just not. Just go ahead and cast Zack Efron in it and get it over with. News like this is utterly demoralizing. Just make a new werewolf movie — why try and live up to the highs of were-Michael J. Fox?

They already tried to make a Teen Wolf Too, and although I love Jason Bateman, we all know how that went....

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for an insurgence of new were-centric media, but something new please. Maybe they'll hire the Lonely Island writers as they seem to grasp the funny behind the original:


But we all know they won't, and it will reek of yester-comedy, and moulder in the theaters, a giant desecration of the original.

Natalie Portman is attached to star in Aronofsy's film Black Swan, about an aging ballerina who's locked into a competitive situation with a rival dancer — who may be real, or a supernatural entity, or a figment of the ballerina's imagination. Black Swan has been in development hell at Universal since early 2007, but now that Aronofsky's scored a big hit with the Wrestler and Portman's on board, studio insiders see it going into full swing as soon as this year. (Also, the script got a needed lick of paint from development exec Mark Heyman.) Apparently, it's a "spine-tingler" along the lines of The Others, the Nicole Kidman movie where you don't know what's real.

As for RoboCop, it's not sounding good. The Hollywood Reporter's sources refer to it as not "ready to go," which means it's probably on the back burner for now. Which, as I said, is good news if you hate remakes. Although I have to admit, I'd way rather see Natalie Portman play a one-woman cyborg SWAT team than see her as a neurotic ballerina. [The Hollywood Reporter]

McFarlane tells MTV News that he'd like to cast DiCaprio in his remake-that's-not-a-remake. Not that DiCaprio would play the undead antihero. "The main character isn't Spawn, per se, it's the guy chasing Spawn," McFarlane told MTV News. That is, DiCaprio would play a detective — but a new character, not fan faves Sam or Twitch. McFarlane said the film would play as a Godfather-like crime drama in which DiCaprio's character would come to discover that something supernatural and diabolical is going on beyond the usual cops-and-robbers stuff.

Why DiCaprio, who McFarlane says was always in the back of his mind for the role? "It's a big wish, but his dad was a big fan of underground comic books and he came from that," McFarlane told MTV. "It's not a big special-effects movie, it's a character movie, so I could shoot it in 40-50 days and you don't have to budget that much time."

No word, of course, on whether DiCaprio is actually interested or available, or whether comic book readers might not prefer to see someone a little more, um, rugged hunting down Spawn. Still, given the shift in focus, we won't be the first to holler, "YARM!" Your mileage, however, may vary.

Screenwriter Dan Milano comes to the project with the kind of comedy background that gives me some hope for this project. He co-created and voiced the title character on the cult classic Greg The Bunny, and he's currently writing for the geeky awesomeness that is Robot Chicken.

The 1986 film follows the adventures of Johnny 5, a military robot who develops a personality after a lightning strike and goes on the run from his creators with the help of an animal-lover and Steve Guttenberg. David Foster, one of the producers of the original Short Circuit, will also be producing the remake, and he stressed the film will be acknowledging the massive strides the robotics field has made in the last twenty-three years:

"We're bringing Number 5 into the 21st Century and taking advantage of the improvements in robotics that are so massive that robots are now performing heart surgeries in hospitals."

I'm going to just go ahead and assume that means the new Johnny 5 will perform a wacky heart surgery at some point in the film. Foster also stressed the robot's iconic design will remain the same. That presents an unusual problem, as that design is now recognizable to younger viewers as that of Wall-E, raising the very real probability that audiences will think the new Short Circuit is ripping off Pixar. Foster dismissed this potential problem with a shockingly upbeat attitude:

"We think of 'Wall-E' as an extended trailer for our film, because it's the same face."

You know, it takes almost unimaginable chutzpah to dismiss a movie as beautiful and powerful as Wall-E as nothing more than a promo for the Short Circuit remake. Between Dan Milano's comic pedigree and David Foster's comments, we just might have the most exciting pairing of a funny writer and an insane producer since Kevin Smith and Jon Peters teamed up for Superman Lives. If nothing else, I'm guessing some good stories are going to come out of this.

[Variety]

Wimmer's also worked on highly praised films such as The Thomas Crown Affair, and I'm imagining the gritty, dark mutant-strewn Mars our young protagonist will have to search through, now that he's got a new set of vacation memories. But I'm still not sure this needed to be made.

This original film, based on Philip K Dick's We Can Remember It for You Wholesale, is such a classic, it's almost blasphemous to consider an Arnold-free remake. All we know from the studio is that they're planning on making it a "contemporized adaptation." (Shudder.) Does this mean no more three-breasted lady and eye-popping prosthetics? Will the ending be more like the story? All important questions we put out there to you, Hollywood, as your audience and the people who will picket outside the premiere unless the three-breasted lady gets her cameo.

[Hollywood Reporter]

Brad Copeland (Wild Hogs,Arrested Development) is writing the remake of the alien and boy family flick. The movie, which didn't really find its audience until it was released on VHS, is about a young boy who syncs up with an shiny UFO, with a liquid staircase.

Because of his connection to the UFO, the young lad gets transported into the future and evil government scientists pick him up for "experiments." Together robot alien and boy escape, and try to find a way back home, to the past.

While I don't mind Copeland's involvement, after watching the recent Race To Witch Mountain reboot, I can't help but think this remake will be all guns and explosions. Which isn't really what this film is about. At it's heart, it's a simple journey between a boy and his mechanical alien friend, trying to find their home. No doubt they will muddy it up with excessive violence and chase scenes, between jets and the UFO.

[The Hollywood Reporter]

The trades are reporting that DreamWorks has its sights on the Fright Night vampires from the 80s. Honestly, I'm very confused by this move. Fright Night is, at its heart, a basic vampire tale. Mysterious but sexy neighbor moves in, local kid thinks he's a vampire, he is a vampire, kid kills vampire. The only big difference is the inclusion of the local horror TV show host for the vamp slaying, Peter Vincent, played by Roddy McDowall.

So, why remake this? It's classic 80s fodder with bad haircuts and punk rock drop out friends, covered in a cheeseball tale. What could updating this possibly add to the franchise? Plus wasn't the idea of a show about a show played out? The only real solution would be to update Fright Night, the in-movie TV show into a web series — and no one wants to see that. Second are there even the type of actors to take on the parts handed to the original vampire Christopher Sarandon? I shudder to think of Jack Black or Will Ferrell taking on this type of character, who has to straddle sexy, serious with a touch of silly... Okay, a lot of silly — but not stupid silly.

Just come up with a new and fresh vampire tale, please. Hell, you can even stick in the giant fangs from the original as a nod to Fright Night, how about that? If we start down this path, the next step is remakes of vampire comedies My Best Friend Is A Vampire, Love At First Bite and Once Bitten, and I'll be damned if I'm going to sit though a "Hands Off" vampire, slutty doll dance-off remix.

All joking aside, I'm seriously nervous for the vampire franchises of the past. Is this going to open the door for a Near Dark remake? I don't know if my heart could take that.

[Hollywood Reporter]