A long list of quick hits

There is a lot of coverage on the San Diego Comic Con out there, but much of it is buried in panel reports and drawn out press events. Also the world has not stopped turning just because of the con. There is other cool entertainment news to be had as well. But I just don't have the time to write up posts about everything. So maybe a few quick hits are in order. I mean, theres a lot of cool stuff going on, I wouldn't want to miss it. And with that said here are a few quick stories or links for you.

According to THR, Leonardo DiCaprio and his Apian Way production company are looking to possibly make a series of movies out of old Twilight Zone stories. They've put the call out to writers for pitches.

Some descriptions of the 3 minutes of Tr2n footage that was screened at the con can be read here and here, with more follow up details at AICN. And just a note, the footage was NOT actually from the new movie.

Cartoon Network is developing 3 comic book titles into tv movies. The first is Firebreather, a story about a teenager growing up in a divorced family with a typical worrying mother, and a fire-breathing dragon for a father. The next is The Mice Templar, a book about templar mice, a prophecy, and oh so much more. When I was at Wizard World the creator gave me a full 5 minutes on the book after I guessed that it was probably just like Mouseguard... And the third is The Vanishers, about a fifth grader who travels through time to rescue his friends after they start disappearing from existence.

Bryan Singer is developing a feature based on the comic miniseries Freeedom Formula , a sci fi about a high speed illegal mecha racing circuit and the cost of freedom in a fascist techno-future. Seems reminiscent of IGPX with a bit of Akira.

You can watch the trailer to Afro Samurai: Ressurection at Spike TV right now, or read more about the show here.

You can watch a painfully bad clip with Paris Hilton singing from Repo! The Genetic Opera over at MTV right now.

An honestly pretty cool trailer for Sam Raimi's new family friendly tv show Legend of the Seeker (formerly Wizards First Rule) has landed online. The show is based on Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth book series, and premieres on ABC on Nov 1st, '08.

Kevin Feige said at the SDCC Marvel panel that FOX was waiting the see how well the Wolverine movie does before moving forward on the Silver Surfer solo film.

NBC has posted videos of their Knight Rider and Kings panels on their website. Also catch this new one minute KR trailer.

The will be NO Dinobots in Transformers 2 say the writers.

Care of IGN watch the trailer for the upcoming animated film Resident Evil: Degeneration. No word on a western release date yet.

MTV interviews The Rock on Shazam, and Sam Jackson on Nick Fury.

AICN has a review of what is apparently a terrible script rewrite on Escape From New York by Jonathan Mostow.

IESB has heard that The Rock may appear in the Johnny Quest film, as Race Bannon!

Watch almost 4 minutes of new footage from Star Wars Clone Wars right here on Yahoo!

MTV has a preview up for the upcoming direct to dvd Marvel animated film "Hulk vs Wolverine" and it is killer.

Read Comingsoon.net panel reports and coverage on The Spirit, Watchmen and here, Day The Earth Stood Still, Prince of Persia, The Wolfman,

Read AICN panel reports and coverage on Wolfman, Watchmen, Twilight, Wolverine, Batman: Brave and the Bold and here, and a non-con Star Trek report

Read Latino Review's reports on the Hasbro panel (G.I. Joe), the Fox panel (DTESS, Max Payne, Wolverine), Watchmen, Punisher WZ, The Spirit, Ninja Assassin, Star Wars, and a video interview for Red Sonja,

Read IESB.net's well written reports on Watchmen, Twilight, the Fox panel, the best Wolverine footage breakdown online, and video interviews on Wolverine, Max Payne, and DTESS

And that's about all I can handle for now. That's sure a ton of info, And there'll be even more tomorrow after the Saturday panels get going at Comic Con. It's kinda crazy, but very cool stuff overall. Anything in this list really stand out to you as awesome? In my opinion the Star Wars footage steals the show so far. I'll post it up on its own later this weekend. Until then, I'm off to bed.
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Red Sonja poster

Well, apparently at San Diego Comic Con things are always happening. Today brings the first big day a few tidbits fell the way of the web for us mere mortals not lucky enough to be there. Like this sweet new poster for Red Sonja as seen over at MTV.

Or this cool Red Sonja t-shirt art seen from Comingsoon.

As I mentioned before, the film is set to star everyone's favorite machine gun legged hottie Rose McGowan, and will be produced under the watchful eye of Robert Rodriguez, and directed by Douglas Aarniokoski. Since no footage has been shot yet, all they had to reveal was this preliminary artwork. but McGowan and Rodriguez were on hand for question about the planned film.

While not too much new information came out of today's panel at SDCC, the one shiny piece of info that dropped is that Rodriguez is in early talks to produce the upcoming Conan movie as well. And that alongside Sonja and the planned Thulsa Doom, should really round out the universe extremely well.

Thulsa Doom is another Robert E Howard character, only not a barbarian warrior. Instead he is a dangerous necromancer, who we've actually seen on screen before as portrayed in his older years by James Earl Jones in Conan the Barbarian. But a new take on this character as well was recently announced as in the works, with Djimon Hounsous attached to produce and star.

So we've got three Robert E Howard characters from the same universe all converging to the big screen at around the same time? Must be kismet.
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Red Sonja redux

Nu Image and Millennium Films have announced that the barbarian woman Red Sonja of Robert Howard's classic tales is coming to the big screen again. If you'll remember Red Sonja, a character who spun off out of the tales of Conan the Barbarian was already the subject of a major movie starring the beautiful Brigitte Nielson in 1985. According to wikipedia, the character of Red Sonja actually owes much of her history to the Marvel comics stories of the 80s. So I suppose in this age of superheroes where Sonja herself has a new and sexy comic from Dynamite Entertainment, its no surprise that she would be making her way back to the big screen.

In the new film, the buxom warrior woman Sonja, will be played by Rose McGowan. Set to be produced by Planet Terror director Robert Rodriguez, and directed by Douglas Aarniokoski. The story, based on a screenplay by David White, follows "Red Sonja, a young girl risen from the ashes of tragedy to become the most feared woman warrior of all time. The mythical red-head blindly seeks vengeance on those who destroyed her family. In her path of destruction she discovers a larger purpose for her unearthly powers: to save all Hyrkania from the villainous Kulan Gath."

Production is slated to begin this October, with a 2010 release being eyed up. And all that said, this seems just another link in Nu Image / Millenium's plan to bring us everything we've seen before again, only better. We'll have to see if its successful or not. Interestingly enough, McGowan is also attached to star in the update of Barbarella... must be her personality :)

While we wait, why not enjoy the trailer for the last Sonja film. It was pretty fun, I hope this new one will be too.



UPDATE - IESB has an article about how it looks like Barbarella might be having funding problems, and that may be why Red Sonja is moving forward now. That said, I didn't realize she was an item with Rodriguez...
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