For those of you that listen to our podcast, you've heard us mention the direct-to-DVD Wonder Woman movie that is set for release next year. It stars Keri Russell and Nathan Fillion as Diana and Steve Trevor (respectively). As I just saw the two in Waitress and can attest to their smokin' on-screen chemistry, I'm going to bet that their cartoon counterparts will be delightful to watch, as well.

If you rented / purchased the Batman: Gotham Knight DVD, there was a preview on it (much like the Gotham Knight preview on The New Frontier) for the Wonder Woman movie. There was not much by way of completed scenes, or even colored-in frames. It was mostly interviews with the stars/producers/director set against a few animatics and sketches. Since it clocked in at ten minutes, and roughly half of that was explaining who Wonder Woman is (yawn), I cut it down quite a bit to feature all the bits with drawings. Available after the jump.

ONE WEEK ONLY! AN INTERNET MINISERIES EVENT!

"Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog" will be streamed, LIVE (that part’s not true), FREE (sadly, that part is) right on Drhorrible.com, in mid-July. Specifically:

ACT ONE (Wheee!) will go up Tuesday July 15th.

ACT TWO (OMG!) will go up Thursday July 17th.

ACT THREE (Denouement!) will go up Saturday July 19th.

All acts will stay up until midnight Sunday July 20th. Then they will vanish into the night, like a phantom (but not THE Phantom – that’s still playing. Like, everywhere.)

Other information revealed in the post included the fact that, following July 20th, the musical would be available for download at a "nominal fee," to be followed by a DVD at some point, with, what Whedon describes as, "the finest and bravest extras in all the land." More details about those will be revealed at San Diego Comic Con. If you can't wait that long, TV Guide's Matt Roush has some information about them in an article that I will not be reading because it also contains spoilers about the plot. (OK...fine...I skimmed, and the one DVD extra I saw mentioned sounded AWESOME!)

If, in February of this year, you had told me that I'd not only go to see Wall-E on opening day, but that I would be anxiously awaiting its release -- up to the point of counting down the hours till I could catch the first midnight showing -- I would not have only laughed in your face, I probably would have pushed you.

Of course, you would've been right, and I would've been wrong (and kind of a dickhead.)

Courtesy of the official fansite, here's the teaser for Joss Whedon's "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog," starring Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, and Felicia Day. I have so got to get me a pair of goggles like that.

Last month, Netflix released a set-top box to accompany the "Watch Instantly" section of their website. It's called Netflix Roku... and it's awesome.

At first, I thought maybe the IO9 editors were having an off-day when they suggested that Cillian Murphy would make a better Spider-Man than Tobey Maguire. Now, let me be honest: Do I like Cillian more than Tobey? Yes. Do I care much about Spider-Man or Spider-Man movies? No. (That's Laura's department.) But do I think Cillian Murphy would be a good replacement as Peter Parker for the Spidey 4 movie?

Uh, no. Because I don't smoke crack for a living.

Some pretty awesome news coming from Marvel Entertainment today. First of all, it has been announced that "Runaways," which started in 2002, is being developed for a feature film. The script is being written by the comic's co-creator, Brian K. Vaughn. (via The Hollywood Reporter) For those who don't know, "Runaways" is about a group of teens in LA who find out their parents are a group of supervillains called The Pride, and proceed to do exactly what the what the name implies. Among others, the team includes a lesbian alien, a dinosaur, a goth-gil who has to cut herself in order to access her magical staff, and the cutest little mutant girl you ever did see.

The second bit of news is that Marvel Entertainment exec Kevin Feige has spoken to sever sources, including IESB, and has revealed the Captain America movie set for 2011 release will be a period piece set, obviously, during World War II. He also put to rest that horrid casting rumor from a couple of weeks ago, but confirmed that the film will in fact have the very unfortunate title of "The First Avenger: Captain America."

We have news on yet more remakes of 80s cult classics. First up, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Summit Entertainment has acquired the rights to remake "Highlander" with a script from "Iron Man" writers Art Marcum and Matt Holloway. The article points out that "Highlander" is a franchise recognized worldwide, having spawned 4 sequels and three (three? really?) television series. "There can be only one" my ass!

Next up, Variety reports that Sony has won a bidding war over the rights to "Flash Gordon," which will be directed by "Sahara" helmer, Breck Eisner. The article does not mention whether the film will remain faithful to the 1980s classic, but one can only hope it recreates the classic football fight. What is clear is that the soundtracks of both films will be significantly less awesome than the originals.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, MGM is looking to remake "Red Dawn" and "RoboCop." True fact: About halfway through "Iron Man," I started getting this strange desire to watch "RoboCop." Maybe the MGM executives aren't as dumb as they seem...except for the whole remaking "Red Dawn" thing. There's no way to make that a good idea.

Just a reminder to everyone that this Saturday, May 3rd, is Free Comic Book Day. How awesome is that? If you follow the link, you will find a store locator for participating shops. Unfortunately, it is for the U.S. and Canada only, but Free Comic Book Day is international. There's also a list of the comics that will be available, several of which I would buy if they weren't free. I'm most excited about getting my hands on Tiny Titans #1, since I missed out on it when it first came out, and the Hellboy/B.P.R.D. comic. The Marvel Adventures Iron Man issue is written by Jeff Parker and Paul Tobin, so that one is definitely going to be good. If you didn't buy All Star Superman #1 when it came out, you really want to get that one. Trust me. There's a lot to be excited about this year, so go check it out. Get free stuff. Bring the kids. If you don't have kids, pick one or two up at the local playground. They won't mind. They're getting free comics. Unless you reach your limit on the free comics you can get, but there are others you want. Then you might want to take the kids' comics.

Apparently, some movie with a lot of hype starring some famous former drug addict comes out this week. People seem to like it, and are excited about it. Whatever. I'm not disappointed at all that I'm not going to get to see it until next week. I don't like the Fascist douchebag anyway. I'll just watch this Incredible Hulk trailer over at the Apple website. Then maybe get a better glimpse of how awful Hulk and Abomination look in the trailer images at Blog@Newsarama. Aside from the fact that I think Edward Norton is absolutely perfect casting for Bruce Banner, this reboot seems like more of a downgrade from the 2003 film. The trailer barely even utilizes the theme music from the TV show, which is the only thing to be really excited about in this adaptation.

Finally, Quick Stop Entertainment brings you the non-shakey-cam version of the Venture Brothers Season Three preview, making it okay that we had seats right in front of the screen, but couldn't get our camera to work.

More exciting video after the jump.

On Saturday, Rania and myself had the joy of sitting through a few major panels in the New York Comic Con screening theater. One of the showings was Disney related, and thus had many clips of Wall-E and the new Prince Caspian / Narnia flick. Wall-E didn't really capture my imagination before, but after seeing the previews of it, I'm definitely going to try and catch it when it opens in theaters. (On June 27th.)

The other panel was Battlestar Galactica related, and as you can see, I could actually be bothered to dig my camera out of my bag to snap some pictures. Originally, the panel description was to have stars Tahmoh Penikett and Grace Park, but to the surprise of everyone, convention virgins Rekha Sharma (Tory, Roslin's Aide) and Michael Hogan (Colonel Tigh) appeared with Michael Trucco (Sam Anders). They didn't have much to say by way of spoilers for the final season, but they did have some interesting comments about discovering they were Cylons (video after the jump.)

Geektress is still recovering from the New York Comic Con, and despite the fact that three of us were there, we have to catch up on all the news and announcements just like everyone else. (What can I say? We just don't care all that much about Skrull invasions, the umpteenth DC Crisis, or movies directed by Frank Miller.) However, this little piece of news begged our immediate attention. In the vein of Marvel Zombies, Marvel Comics has now announced Marvel Apes to be written by Karl Kesel with Ramon Bachs on art.

Pilot season seems to be shifting in to high gear. The fourth and final season of Battlestar Galactica only began two weeks ago, and already creator Ron D. Moore has made plans for his next project.

"Virtuality" is a series about bored NASA astronauts on Earth's first intergalactic spaceship, and how they use "virtual reality modules" to keep themselves occupied. Of course, as there always is with these things, there is a "bug" in the system that I can only imagine causes shenanigans.

If you have been sitting around thinking "Man, there is nothing I loved more than the Star Wars prequels, I wish I had more alternative medium interpretations of that stuff, man that was great," I have good news for you. In a move that confuses me, George Lucas has bumped the brilliant Genndy Tartakovsky's Clone Wars from his Star Wars site and replaced it with promotions for The Clone Wars

If you were a fan of the stylized mini-series that Tartakovsky created and generally want to punch Jar-Jar Binks and anything involving the word "Padme" in the face, read on.

Jackson Publick has announced on his livejournal that the new season of The Venture Bros. will premier on June 1. There's also a mention of season 4. You can now commence being overcome with relief and joy. I'll give you a minute.

20 Uses For Iron Man's Helmet

In the comic books, Tony Stark has been an inventor, an industrialist, a playboy, a superhero, a member of the Avengers, the Secretary of Defense, a member of a secret organization called the Illuminati, the Director of S.H.E.I.L.D., a futurist (whatever the fuck that is), and an alcoholic. He's gone in and out of the superhero closet, traveled through time with Dr. Doom, fought Communism, slept with a lot of women, shot Hulk into space, and imprisoned a bunch of his friends in the Negative Zone. His most recent role is as Marvel's resident Fascist Douchebag.

Now Iron Man is the subject of a major summer movie starring Robert Downey, Jr. Naturally, this means his head was bound to be turned into a Slurpee cup. Slurpees are awesome, but once the deliciousness is gone, what does one do with a Fascist Douchebag's helmet? Geektress has got some ideas.

I was just informed today (and by "just informed" I mean I read FilmDrunk,) that the sort-of tolerable Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins movie title was recently re-worked by McG. Chud reporter Jeremy Smith is saying this:

I am 100% certain that the title below is the approved-by-McG replacement. Dig it:

Terminator: The Return of the Terminator

While out loud I'm hoping to jeebus that Jeremy is just kidding around, secretly I want this to be the title, because it provides me ammunition to load my McG Hatred Guns with. Just earlier today I had a sinus headache to beat the band (as my grandmother would say), and now I'm feeling slightly better. When you have one eye that feels like it's trying to stab its way out of your skull, the best medicine is to get incredibly enraged about something really geeky like killer robots. One entire throbbing skull really detracts from the pain of allergy season.

Hugh Jackman is apparently teaming with television and comic book writer Marc Gugenheim to create a comic book for Virgin Comics to be titled Nowhere Man. Here's what the press release has to say about it:

Story details are being kept under wraps but Virgin officials describe the story as a Sci Fi odyssey set in a groundbreaking vision of the future in which mankind has traded privacy for safety. “I’ve had so much fun in the graphic novel world with the X-MEN franchise that I wanted to get even more involved,” said Jackman about the project. “I am so excited to work with Virgin and Marc and create a compelling character and story that hopefully will also make it to the big screen."

So it's not about the TV show?

Not surprisingly, Jackman's own production company, Seed Productions, is already developing it for film and "other areas." One can only hope this includes radio.

You may have heard this already, but TV Guide had the story last night about how Jared Padalecki is just seconds away from being involved with Michael Bay's Friday the 13th redundancymake. J-Pads apparently really wants to outnumber his Supernatural co-star Jensen Ackles in the Terrible Horror Movie section of their résumés. (House of Wax, anyone?)

"But Brenda, why are you featuring a picture of Michael Bay in your banner graphic instead of a shirtless Jared?" That's a good question with a fairly decent answer, kittens. And to get you to keep reading, I promise that a shirtless Jared is just after the jump link.

Guitar makers Gibson have got a major bug up their butt, and decided to sue the jeebus out of everyone and their brother this week. Those specified in various different lawsuits are the companies that make the game "Rock Band" -- Harmonix, MTV Networks and Electronic Arts -- in addition to Activision and Red Octane, for their "Guitar Hero" game. Gibson has also filed suit against retailers like Wal-Mart, Target, Kmart, Amazon.com, GameStop and Toys “R” Us for selling both Guitar Hero and Rock Band games.

And I thought I was the cranky one this week. I shouldn't have given up smoking crack for Lent.

Because we essentially missed all this news the first time around, here it is, in convenient digest format.

Back in December, Peter Berg said he wanted to remake Dune and was totally planning on doing it as soon as the writer's strike ended. Unfortunately for Dune, the writer's strike ended.

So now, Berg is all set to direct his movie adaptation of Frank Herbert's 1965 novel "Dune," which you may or may not remember as having already been attempted in 1984 by David Lynch -- and then again in 2000 as a miniseries by the Sci Fi channel. Expect the musical theater version of Dune in 2015, followed by the movie adaptation of the musical in 2018 or so.

"Coming Eventually to a Theater Near You: BrigaDune!"

Thank God for Whedonesque, the internet's best source of all things even remotely Whedon-y. They visit sites like Ain't It Cool News so that we don't have to, and find out that Neil Patrick Harris is working on a web short film musical thing with Joss Whedon called Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog. Fortunately, it's also the sort of place where Whedon posts regularly, and can confirm such things.

The R2D2 Trashcan, available from Think Geek for $99.99.

Three thoughts:

1. I must have this.
2. $100 is way too much to pay for a trashcan that can't talk light up carry secret plans for the rebellion empty itself.
3. I must steal this.

Newsarama has an interview with Paul Tobin announcing a new addition to the Marvel Adventures line of all ages comics, entitled Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes. Tobin describes it as such:

The title is set up to revolve in four issue arcs, with not only the creative teams but also the featured characters themselves changing out. It’ll give us a chance to showcase characters that don’t have their own book, or team-ups of characters that do. Beyond that, Super Heroes largely holds to the same "rules" as the rest of the line, so we're looking at one-issue storylines with an emphasis on fun and action.

Tobin will be writing the first arc, featuring Spider-Man, Iron Man and the Hulk in stories that revolve around the Hulk entering Orthus and Cerberus into a dog show, extreme sports in space, a Kang the Conqueror plot involving potato chips, and Klaw becoming a country singer. As if it couldn't get even more insanely brilliant, Tobin dropped some hints, and some preview art (above) about an upcoming Marvel project with his wife, the crazy talented Colleen Coover.

A five year old Brenda bonds with the original K.I.T.T.

And now, another "Email Exchange" special from Brenda and Laura, this time covering the highlights of the highlights from NBC's Knight Rider tv movie.

These are always more interesting than real reviews, right?

Laura: So, is it wrong that I would actually watch this show if it went to series?

Brenda: I actually had a cigarette after the opening credits. They could've just played that over and over for two hours.

Here's our 2008 Toy Fair roundup. First of all, our header graphic here is one of NECA's new Harry Potter busts, available starting June 2008. At $55 it's slightly less expensive than the full body statue things for Voldemort and Harry himself, but since I never noticed until now that David Thewlis is like a young Peter Tork, perhaps this thing will satisfy both your Harry Potter and your Monkees needs.

Let's start by saying this: Is this the worst thing I've ever seen in my life? No. It is not. Because I've seen Meet Joe Black, and that was a far worse waste of my time than any one of the three Star Wars prequels. (Any time Brad Pitt getting hit by a car is the highlight of your movie, AND it happens within the first twenty minutes of the film, you should know you're in trouble.)

I'm here to warn you about Tin Man. It comes out on DVD on March 11th, and if there's one thing I can impart to you in this review, it's that you should not pay money to rent it or buy it. If you missed the original airing and the re-broadcast on the Sci Fi channel, you lucked out. That's six hours of your time that you probably spent doing any manner of things more important than watching possibly the worst miniseries in television history. At one point in this thing, I actually thought that Richard Dreyfuss probably saw what was happening around him and DEMANDED that his character be killed in the second act. (SPOILER!)

Metroblogging Los Angeles reports that LA Opera is going to put on a new opera production of David Cronenberg's "The Fly." It is to be directed by Cronenberg and conducted by Placido Domingo, with music by Howard Shore and book by David Henry Hwang. (via The Beat)

I imagine the conversation went something like this:

Makers of new Knight Rider movie: Hey, GM. You know how you built a new Camaro for Transformers? Can you design us a new Firebird?

General Motors: Go away, we're busy diddling around with Corvettes.

Makers of new Knight Rider movie: Well, okay. I guess we'll just have Will Arnett portray a Ford Mustang, then.

General Motors: We are so confused by the new Dodge Charger! Won't someone love us?

TVGuide.com has a "First Look" at Hawkman from the episode of The Batman entitled "What Goes Up...", which airs February 16 on Kids WB. He will be voiced by the T1000 himself, Robert Patrick. I only hope that the plot involves a missing Robin, so that Hawkman can ask someone "Have you seen this boy?"

So, Geektress very kindly invited me in for a guest posting, because I'm right on my uppers and I cannot write poetry as well as Ewan McTeagle.

This site tends more toward comics and science fiction than not. I love these subjects quite a lot, but not passionately enough to write knowledgeably about them.

However, Bren offered me some subjects to discuss, including "Gadgets We Don't Need But Want (You Know, Like Jump Drives Shaped As Sushi)."

I found an issue of World's Finest in the bargain bin of the local used bookstore. It was worth every penny. Issue #167, from June 1967, deals with what happens when DC writers smoke a lot of crack and get bored with the usual Bats/Supes slashiness. Alternate Universe! Boosh!

Cyber Group Animation has a trailer and description for the new "Wolverine and the X-Men" animated series. My favorite part of this trailer is when Cyclops optic blasts Wolverine into another building. That needs to happen more often.

Diversify! Diversify! DC Comics Must Diversify! Or at least that's what they were shouting two years ago as they announced a slew of upcoming "diverse" characters ranging from a Hispanic "Blue Beetle" to a lesbian "Batwoman", Kate Kane. Blue Beetle passed under the radar as far as a major fan outcry goes, however Lezzy Kane did not-- not that this is a surprising turn of events.

The very first appearance of the new "Batwoman" was in my comic book store in 52's issue number 7. The introduction was short and wanting for more. Several weeks passed before Kate's first caped appearance would flap its way across the panels, and admittedly, it was pretty bad-ass.

Newsarama is reporting that Lionsgate Films and Marvel Studios have signed an interim deal with the Writers' Guild of America, similar to the ones made with United Artists, The Weinstein Co., and Worlwide Pants. This is significant because it will allow Lionsgate to continue to churn out "Saw" sequels while the strike continues, though one wonders if those movies even really need a script at this point. It also means that work can be resumed immediately on the various films based on Marvel characters that are slated for production, which include Ant-Man, Captain America, Thor, and The Avengers. It also continues the long trend of Marvel actually making movies while Warner Brothers allows its DC related film projects to fall apart. I wouldn't be surprised if we actually see The Avengers movie hit theaters before the JLA. Hell, there'll probably be a Cloak & Dagger movie before there's another Superman movie.

Cold chills, y'all. Cold chills. I am actually developing some hope that this is going to be done right.

[Also, we hope this version of the trailer doesn't give you epilepsy. -Bren]

How the hell did I miss this? There's going to be a "Greatest American Hero" movie. Not only that, but it's going to be directed by the guy who directed "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure." IGN found the report on ProductionCharts.com earlier this month. I didn't even know a "Greatest American Hero" movie was a possibility, let alone that it was ready for a director or a July 2008 production start date. Apparently, it has been in development since 2000.

Geektress Laura brought to our attention that Wizard Universe online had a story article titled "READY FOR A RAMBO VS. PREDATOR MAIN EVENT?", which did not in fact involve any sort of event Re: Rambo V. Predator. Which, to be sure, was a disappointment to all of us here.

As much as I am loathe to give them credit for anything, Ain't It Cool News and their readers had a question and answer session with Sly Stallone. His response to "What's next for Rambo?":

...I think a challenge would be to take the character, which has been perceived mostly in a realistic vein, and add another element of the surreal that would actually take the audience into a slightly different genre. It’s not like I’m going to turn it into a full-on Broadway musical starring the Muppets, but it is ambitious.

Tired of hearing me say things like: "I like Supernatural, it reminds me of all the good stuff about the X-Files," Chris Carter has taken a quick survey of his finances and has finally decided that an X-Files movie sequel would be a good idea.

USA Today has the first pictures from the new film, which I didn't use for the banner photo because it's just not goddamn sexy enough.

(Video via buzzfocus)

The scenes were shot in the Long Beach City Council Chamber (you can see a picture of the space here - it really does look like a Trek set, even without set dressing). Extremely minor spoiler after the jump.

Writer: Gail Simone
Art: Terry and Rachel Dodson
Imprint: DC Comics
Publish Date: 11/14/2007

Christmas came early for me when DC announced that Gail Simone would be taking over the writing helm for Wonder Woman. After her excellent run on Birds of Prey, I really couldn't think of anyone better suited to write for one of my all time favorite superheroes. Add the Dodsons on art, and well, my head exploded off my shoulders. So, imagine my absolute delight when, after hungrily tearing through the issue before I even made it out of my comic book store (and then the heavens opened up with a most glorious light and the angels trumpeted while I gently wept tears of redemption), I realized that this was indeed going to be a fun ride.

Chud is reporting that the producers of the ridiculously long named X-Men Origins: Wolverine are offering the role of Victor Creed, also known as Sabertooth, to current comic adaptation It-Boy, Gerard Butler. This is after Karl Urban fell out of talks, which, if they can get Butler, seems fortuitous for them. I like Karl Urban, but Gerard Butler is a star on the rise. Chud also reports that director Gavin Hood is seeking Natalie Portman to play a character named "Kayla" (good luck with that) and that Deadpool may make an appearance.

In this short clip from a failed pilot (Alexander the Great, 1965), we get to see William Shatner and Adam West sharing a scene dressed up like ancient Roman soldiers.

In order to preserve the chastity of those who do not wish to be spoiled for last night's season two finale of Heroes, do not read what's after the jump. For everyone else, a Laura/Brenda email exchange classic is just beyond the cut.

In light of the recent casting rumors, we at Geektress have given some thought to how best to address Warner Brothers current production difficulties and the concerns of fans who are less than thrilled with various elements of the film. We believe we have come up with a solution that should please everyone.