Sci-Fi Squad Sci-Fi Movies, News, Trailers, DVDs and More

Peter Jackson is, to put it lightly, a very busy man. As a producer, he brought us District 9, is knee deep in preparing The Hobbit films, has Dambusters looking at a release sometime next year and, oh, a little project called The Adventures of Tintin. His latest directorial effort, The Lovely Bones, is rolling out across the country. And according to one New Zealand newspaper, Jackson may also be working on an adaptation of Phillip Reeve's Mortal Engines.

According to The Dominion Post, Jackson has had the rights to the award-winning post-apocalyptic novels. There are five books so far (the sixth will be released in April 2010) in the series, set in a world where cities have become massive moving entities that most devour one another in order to survive.

Jackson's publicist deferred to the writer/director/occasional genius, who was unavailable for comment. If this all pans out, it should be very interesting to see what Jackson and his Weta Workshop can do with some good 'ol steampunk. Personally, I have not yet seen The Lovely Bones, but just looking at the cover image for Mortal Engines, this seems like the sort of thing the Weta people could really sink their teeth into.

(via The Dominion Post)

Votre esprit est la scène du crime.

Translation: Your mind is the scene of the crime, or less literally, there's a low-res Inception trailer online and it's in French (courtesy of Making Of). If that's all you need to hear, then just go below the jump and we've got the trailer embedded for you.

If you're curious as to what exactly is being said in the trailer, Daemon's Movies went to the trouble of translating things for us. After checking out the translation, I'd say the voice-over is intriguing but definitely not the least bit revealing. Christopher Nolan and the Warner Bros. promotional team seem to be playing things close to the chest, and after catching this extended look at what they've got on hand, it looks like the mystery could really play to their advantage.

We watch a city block literally fold in on itself (correct me if I'm wrong, but that looks like Paris), scenes of city destruction and some very, chilly blue shots of Leonardo DiCaprio in what could easily have been an outtake from The Dark Knight. In short, this thing looks absolutely wild (side note: DiCaprio and Ellen Page make for an interesting visual pair on the screen, eager to see how that works out in full).

Here's a score for some inspired casting -- Kevin Bacon will be playing a super-villain in James Gunn's upcoming Super, which is set to shoot through January in Shreveport, Louisiana. Bacon will be joining Ellen Page, Liv Tyler and Rainn Wilson, who will be playing the part of the hero.

Bacon's character is a nasty (but obviously, charming) drug dealer named Jacques who cuts in on an average Joe's (Wilson) wife. Said marital imposition forces Wilson's character to take revenge and become the superhero known as The Crimson Bolt. Page -- who appeared in Juno with Wilson, albeit only in one scene -- will be playing something of a wannabe sidekick to Crimson Bolt, as previously reported.

We certainly have no shortage of superhero deconstructions coming our way (Defendor, Kick-Ass), so it'll be interesting to see how Gunn handles what (based on Wilson's involvement) will likely err toward more of a straight up comedy. Getting Bacon into costume definitely seems like a good start.

(via Screen Daily)

A couple weeks ago, we had news of Marshall Allman (Prison Break) and Denis O'Hare (Milk, Garden State) joining the cast of HBO's True Blood, the sex and blood thirsty polar opposite of all things Twilight on the vampire spectrum of entertainment. Now it looks like we've got another name to add to the fold -- Lindsay Pulsipher of A&E's short-lived crime drama The Beast will be playing Crystal Norris.

For those who would rather be kept in the dark about Norris's involvement in the larger scope of things, we'll keep things vague. She shows up in the fourth installment (Dead to the World) of Charlaine Harris's The Southern Vampire Mysteries, the source material for the show. If you haven't read the books and really want to remain completely spoiler free, I would recommend keeping away from The Hollywood Reporter's casting reports for True Blood.

However likely certain upcoming additions to the show may be (i.e. POSSIBLE SPOILER: werewolves this season...END POSSIBLE SPOILER), some people prefer not to know, and THR gives away these sorts of things in their headlines. Just a heads up.

(via The Hollywood Reporter)

Sometimes it's just impossible to keep an open mind about things, and ever since Warner Bros. announced their plans to develop a Marvin the Martian feature film back in July 2008, the studio hasn't really given much of a reason for anyone to do otherwise. Back then, the pitch revolved around Marvin landing on Earth just in time to destroy Christmas but "being prevented from doing so when he's trapped in a gift box" (via Variety).

Now, the LA Times reports Marvin the Martian has a director and two writers, all, unfortunately, working on the same lame premise announced back in 2008. Alex Zamm -- the director who brought you Inspector Gadget 2 and will soon bring you Beverly Hill Chihuahuas 2 -- will helm the project with Paul Kaplan and Mark Torgove (George Lopez, Just Shoot Me! and Spin City writing/producing credits) working on the script.

But wait, there's more.

The producers are talking to "a number of stars", but one name that has come up is Mike Myers, which actually may be the one bit of good news in all of this. Because that ain't all folks, I saved the best for last. Marvin the Martian will be a "a CG creation" in a movie of live-action actors, with the tried-and-true template being Alvin & The Chipmunks. For my feelings on all this, I defer to Marvin: "You have made me very angry, very angry indeed!"

With the critical verdict on Nimrod Antal's Armored being about as favorable as you could hope for, things are looking brighter all the time for Antal's directorial involvement on the Robert Rodriguez-produced Predators. The cast on Predators was already looking pretty damn solid: Adrian Brody, Danny Trejo and Topher Grace. Now, you can add Laurence Fishburne to the list.

Dispatched from a visit to the Predators set in Austin, JoBlo.com broke the news of Fishburne's spot in the cast, as well as a little bit on his character. Noland, unlike most of his comrades, is not new to the Predator-hunting game, in fact, he's something of a seasoned veteran. From Othello to Morpheus to "Whitey" Powers, Fishburne has honed that badass on-screen persona, so I definitely buy the guy as someone who has seen a few scuffles with a Predator over the years.

As far as hearsay goes on the project, according to Ain't It Cool News, everyone has been pretty bowled over by what Rodriguez and Co. have cooked up on the Predators set. With a July 7, 2010 release date and the film nearing the end of production, you have to figure we can't be too far off from a teaser of some sort.

"There will be blood in the water, and the sharks will come."

So says Whiplash (Mickey Rourke) in the just-released Iron Man 2 trailer (available on Apple's website in glorious QuickTime) and man oh man does it look like Jon Favreau and Co. outdid themselves. They don't hold much back in the chock-full 2 minutes and 28 seconds, but still, there's nothing too spoiler-ish going on, especially if you've been keeping up on your Iron Man 2 news. The correct one word response: totallyf-ckingawesome.

Since the end of Iron Man (i.e. "I am Iron Man"), Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) has gone full-blown rock star to the next degree. The sin of hubris attracts a lot of attention, mainly a pair of Ruskies, Whiplash (who we get a lot of) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson filling out that leather outfit nicely). Only a glimpse of Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), but hey, cars flip, things explode, and yes, the oh so appropriate Black Sabbath song is back.

Did I forget to mention...War Machine (Don Cheadle replacing what would have been Terrence Howard)? Please just do yourself a favor if you haven't already and let this thing kick your ass all over the place. Or watch it again. Ahhh, May 2010 can't come soon enough.

No word yet if Marvel Studios has decided to release this thing in 3D, although I've got a gut feeling that that's going to be a big fat negative.

Some three years ago, in a court room far, far away (California, actually), George Lucas successfully sued Brit Andrew Ainsworth for $20 million copyright infringement. Ainsworth had been making and selling replicas of the iconic Storm Trooper helmet and armor from Star Wars, which at least sounds pretty illegal, but what holds true in this country isn't necessarily so in another.

The British court system would not enforce the ruling, thus prompting Lucas (via Lucasfilm) to appeal the British decision. On December 14, Lord Justices Rix, Jacob and Patten agreed to dismiss the appeal, citing that the helmets and armor were, according to The Times UK, "'utilitarian' rather than artistic purpose, so 'neither the armour nor the helmet are sculpture'." The ruling also stated that Lucasfilm could not exercise its US copyright in the UK. At least they made it clear that Ainsworth did not actually own copyrights to the helmet or armor (well duh...).

I can't pretend to understand the finer points of US copyright law, let alone those laws as they translate to the UK, but doesn't something about this just seem fundamentally...wrong? Would the ruling have been any different had Ainsworth been making Darth Vader helmets or Boba Fett suits?

(via The Times UK and The Hollywood Reporter's THR, Esq. blog)

Just in case you were worried that this little vampire-Hollywood love affair might suddenly disappear, never fear, because we have yet another fanged feature coming our way.

Thor screenwriters Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz will handle writing duties on Damn Nation, a vampire-survival flick set in the future. The project is based on Andrew Cosby and Jason Alexander's (no, not that Jason Alexander) Dark Horse Comics three-issue mini-series of the same name.

In Damn Nation, humans are plagued by carnivorous night-dwelling creatures that only come out at night (the plot descriptions I've read seem to carefully avoid "vampire"). The remnants of organized government have holed up in London while the survivors, well, survive until scientists can figure out a solution to the vampire problem.

There's probably one recent film in particular that comes to mind based on that brief synopsis (I Am thinking of a Will Smith movie...), so let's just leave it at this: Hopefully the Dark Horse Entertainment/ Damn Nation production team knows well enough to avoid going the CGI route for these post-apocalyptic night-dwellers. Because as we now know, CGI vampires (or blood-sucking night creatures, whatever you want to call or avoid calling them) may not look as silly as sparkling vampires, but it's still pretty awful.

(via The Hollywood Reporter)

From the first teaser to the generally hush-hush attitude, Warner Bros. and all the players have taken, mums been the word on the details of Christopher Nolan's Inception. This might seem hypocritical coming from a movie blogger, but it's actually kind of refreshing how WB and Nolan have managed to keep loose lips from sinking the secrecy around any significant details.

Keeping those appetites wet, WB released the first Inception poster, which Quint over at Ain't It Cool News pointed out, is cut almost precisely from the mold as posters like this one. Nothing wrong with a little pilfering, and technically, it isn't really stealing if you're taking from your own cookie jar. The more interesting bit is where the poster came from -- a nifty little game on the Inception website called "Mind Crime". Essentially, you plot out a maze with a start and end point, and then the rudimentary map becomes a city maze. Avoid contact with all other little people on the map (in true paranoid form, everyone is the enemy) and when you finish, the big reveal is...the poster that you've already seen.

Besides being an addicting office diversion, though, "Mind Crime" seems like a pretty good place to keep your eyes peeled for future trinkets, like say a full trailer or something of that nature. The WB marketing team really knocked it out of the park with The Dark Knight viral stuff, so it'll be great to see how they continue to sell Nolan's original sci-fi project.