Cinematical

Update: Thanks to our pal Maxim Pozderac, we now have video of the goods in store for you, should you try to track down your local Flynn Lives operative. If you're the kind of fan who wants their hands on some cool (and presumably rare) Tron Legacy memorabilia, keep checking FlynnLives.com for updates on the city nearest you.

Last week a bunch of folks received a different colored (red, yellow, blue) diamond-shaped piece of viral awesomeness from the Tron: Legacy people, and it revealed a website that was counting down to 11am EST, today. What has now been revealed over at the official Flynn Lives website is a scavenger hunt that's taking place in cities across the world ... right this very second. Says a note on the site: "We are deploying envoys to 27 locations around the world and we need you to meet up with the Flynn Lives contact in your area. Check the link below to find out when and where this rendezvous will take place. Then, get ready to hit the streets."

Only Chicago, Orlando and Paris are active right now, with directions to head to a certain location (which appear to be arcades or spaces large enough to hold a make-shift arcade) and give someone in a Flynn Lives t-shirt a password, but those of you who live in the following cities should continue to check this site to see when your turn is up: Sydney, Denver, Madrid, Boston, Washington DC, Atlanta, Raleigh, San Diego, New York, Philadelphia, Toronto, Austin, Minneapolis, Nashville, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Las Vegas, Phoenix and London.

If you do head out, let us know what you find. As we saw with similar viral campaigns for films like The Dark Knight, this all will most likely end later today with some sort of trailer premiere (we hope), image reveal ... or perhaps some sort of 3D footage reveal at said locations. Sound off if you happen to find anything cool ...

From Cinematical:

What do you do when Hollywood won't give you a leading role unless it's in a film you already starred in? Well, if you're Vin Diesel, you put your head down, thank God you managed to survive as an actor for this long, and take those horrible sequels like a man. Not only is Diesel getting ready to star in sequels for XxX and Fast and the Furious, but now he's leaping over to another dead franchise hoping to breathe a little more life into it and his career.

Variety tells us Diesel has signed to produce and star in a third installment of his Riddick franchise, with David Twohy taking on writing and directing duties after previously penning and helming both Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick. No storyline has been revealed yet, though some claim this sequel will nudge closer to the more successful (with fans, anyway) Pitch Black by focusing on the character of Riddick rather than the universe he inhabits. After he's done with Riddick, Fast and the Furious 5 and XxX (2? 3? 4? Where are we on this one?), one imagines Diesel will then move on down the list to see what other previously successful Vin Diesel films he can sequelize -- most notably, The Pacifier, which earned roughly $113 million at the box office. Then, hopefully, we'll get to see Diesel team up with The Rock in a film that combines the action and the family-friendly; perhaps something like Santa Clause vs. Chanukah Harry: To The Death!

Which Diesel sequel are you looking forward to most?

Soon we're going to be able to see what happens after the world "ends." The movie hasn't smashed its way to screens yet, but Roland Emmerich (director and producer of 2012) has told Entertainment Weekly that they're already working on transporting the story to the smaller screen, saying there's "plenty to do" with a television series.

Before you wonder how the hell they could take a show through the potential end of the world and not die in the budgetary stress of big explosions and effects -- not to mention staving off the apocalypse if ratings are good and more seasons are ordered -- this will be a continuation of the film. "The plan is that it is 2013 and it's about what happens after the disaster. It is about the resettling of the Earth." Writer Harold Kloser came up with the idea, and they took it to TV producer Mark Gordon (who worked on the film). Emmerich says: "I think it will focus on a group of people who survived but not on the boats ... maybe they were on a piece of land that was spared or one that became an island in the process of the crust moving. There are so many possibilities of what they could do and I'd be excited to watch it."

Sounds a smidge like Lost, eh? That's a wee bit convenient since rumor has it ABC is in talks for the series, and while Gordon wouldn't confirm that information, he noted the network's "opening in their disaster-related programming after Lost ends."

Are you game for a new disaster series where folks must find their way through a newly fashioned Earth?

No super-successful comedy series can stay away for long. Back in April, ShoWest brought news that the aliens were coming back for Men in Black 3. There was no word on which stars would return, or anything other than the faintest murmurings of a plan, but now things are coming together. THR's Risky Biz Blog reports that Etan Cohen, the scribe behind Tropic Thunder, will pen the script while director of the first two, Barry Sonnenfeld, returns for the third bout.

With a script and director slotted into place, naturally, the next question revolves around Will Smith. As of now, the actor has no solid plans to return, but buzz says he is interested. As for Tommy Lee Jones -- his involvement is "uncertain." Smith has nothing pressing right now, so he's wide open (save from helping along his son's blossoming career), and Jones has only got two in-development features in his future.

At the very least, this is a whole heck of a lot more interesting than a Candy Land movie for Cohen. But the sequel's success will really depend on how much effort is put into the affair. While both raked in the cash, the first did a whole lot better than the second -- $589.3 v. $441.8. milllion, to be precise. It would be quite easy for this to fall another hundred down. What do you think it will take to make this project thrive and make back that $148 million loss?

Just last month, Warner Bros. decided to shelve the idea of a new Superman reboot, ending any recent chance to wipe Superman Returns from our heads. (Sorry fans, but aside from the shot to the eye, that flick was anything but cool.) Yet now I find myself wishing they'd reconsider, and it's all because of Smallville.

I'm not a fan of the series. I've watched a few eps, shrugged with an "eh," and couldn't even get tantalized by the inclusion of James Marsters, who singlehandedly gave Torchwood new life during its second season. But now... As you might have heard, Julian Sands recently signed on to play Jor-El, papa to Superman (or Kal-El as he was once called). And now there's a whole slew of stills from the Season 9 episode "Kandor" over at Daemon's TV.

It makes me want a new Superman. A LOT. I want Sands to be thrown on the big screen, and see a remake that intermingles great, but unexpected names with the usual mainstream box office flair. It would be such an easy way to add a lot of talent without breaking the bank with the biggest of big names. Sands as Jor-El... Definitely Jon Hamm as Supes. Fixing the ol' artist mistake and casting Philip Seymour Hoffman as a with-hair Lex Luthor. Or back to the lesser known, a bald Clancy Brown for Lex, riffing on the animated series. (Thanks to my geek king Michael Holmes for that one.) You could go obvious and beefy for Brainiac, or get all-out talent with, say, Hugh Laurie? And to wipe the abysmal Lois Lane casting, I say Vera Farmiga would be killer alongside Jon Hamm.

And with that, I'm dying for a remake. Would you buy it with some heavier and older talent, and who would you cast?

From Cinematical:

Over on his official blog, Michael Bay has announced that Transformers 3 will arrive in theaters on July 1st, 2011, not 2012 as others (including Bay) had speculated. Originally Bay had wanted to take some time off from Transformers to shoot a smaller film called Pain and Gain, though someone or something (a giant pile of money, perhaps?) convinced him to instead bang out a third Transformers movie and then move on to his passion project. Bay says that today is Day One on Transformers 3 pre-production, and it started with a five-hour meeting at ILM in San Francisco and will continue as Bay flies to Rhode Island with screenwriter Ehren Kruger to meet with Hasbro and discuss new characters.

As far as Megan Fox and their War of Words is concerned, Bay had the following message for her: "P.S. Megan Fox, welcome back. I promise no alien robots will harm you in any way during the production of this motion picture. Please consult your Physician when working under my direction because some side effects can occur, such as mild dizziness, intense nausea, suicidal tendencies, depression, minor chest hair growth, random internal hemorrhaging and inability to sleep. As some directors may be hazardous to your health, please consult your Doctor to determine if this is right for you."

So it looks like the whole gang will be back for another go-round. What do you think? Can Bay and Co. possibly make the third installment any bigger than the first and second? You think we'll get Transformers 3D? Sound off below ...

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Some science fiction films take us to different worlds or alternate realities, or offer visions of the future. In each of these new worlds, certain new rules apply. Sometimes the rules are pretty simple and can be easily and clearly established, as in Star Trek or District 9. Other times the rules are exceedingly complex and raise a million questions, as in the new Surrogates, which is based on a comic book by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele. In this future world, humans can strap themselves into a chair, plug themselves into a bunch of sensors and have complete control of an artificial being, including movement, speech and senses. This artificial being can then go out into the world to perform daily tasks, while the real person is safe at home, never risking getting hit by a car or falling down a manhole.

From there, things get sticky. A narrator explains to us that 98% of the population uses the surrogates, and later a character says something about a "billion" users. Last time I checked, a billion was only about 20% (or less) of the population. Plus, how much do these surrogates cost? Can all the poor people of the world afford them? We do get to see a few things like a surrogate bringing home food for its owner to eat, and other points in which surrogates freeze up while their owners use the bathroom, but just how do people go about their daily lives? Some of the users look like they're in pretty bad shape, sitting in their chairs. Is using a surrogate physically or emotionally addicting? Do their muscles atrophy? Do they take showers? Do they ever get together to have sex? Has the population gone down because of too much surrogate sex and not enough human sex?

Read the rest over at Cinematical

By Monika Bartyzel

Did you even know that Stephenie Meyer has another series that does not deal with sparkly vampires? It's called The Host, and sadly no, it's not about large, killer tadpoles that have to be brought down by a weird and dysfunctional family. Instead, it's about an alien race whose souls have taken over the planet, inserting themselves into their human hosts by erasing their minds and taking over. But there's a girl named Melanie Stryder who is not so willing to let the aliens take over her mind, and this Wanderer starts feeling what Melanie does, and wants "to locate the last pocket of surviving humans on Earth." Oh yeah -- and it's an adult novel.

Variety reports that producers Nick Wechsler, plus Steve and Paula Mae Schwartz, ponied up their own money to grab the screen rights to Meyer's novel, and have tapped Andrew Niccol (Gattaca, The Truman Show) to write the script and direct the feature. Turns out, Meyer had been refusing bids for The Host, but was charmed by "a significant offer, a strong vision for the project, and a collaborative spirit." It helped that Niccol was involved. It seems two of her top 5 sci-fi films are Truman and Gattaca.

Read the rest over at Cinematical

(Apparently a screen test shot dating back to that failed Superman project starring Nicolas Cage has arrived online, and we think we speak for all of you when we thank the heavens that this thing never made it out alive. Here's Monika Bartyzel reporting for Cinematical.)

I was always intrigued by the notion of Nicolas Cage as Superman. It seemed insane, but possibly brilliant, especially in a time before the craptastic fare that Cage has busied himself with recently. But man, if the above image is legit, we dodged the biggest bullet ever. Tim Burton JP revealed the above stunner, which is supposed to be one of Cage's costume tests for the production. It looks one teeny tiny degree away from rubber nipples. So much for my visions of Cage in stretchy cotton!

As IGN outlined, the Warner Bros. production of Superman Lives was gearing up back in the late '90s, with Cage playing Supes, and Tim Burton directing from a screenplay by Kevin Smith (that was rewritten by Wesley Strick). But the budget was expanding out of control, and after concept art and costumes were designed, the project was scrapped (Hallelujah!) and ultimately reworked into the less-than-stellar Superman Returns many years later.

I love The Burton, but he really would've rivaled Joel Schumacher for ridiculous superhero costumes if this made it to the big screen. Could this possibly be real? Could you have stomached Superman donning a cape and faux-muscled body suit?

I was recently inspired by friends and readers to put together a Top 100 Horror Film list, and I had a lot of fun doing it. You can see it right here at Horror Squad. So as soon as the dust cleared on that one, the obsessive-compulsive movie freak that controls my brain spoke up and said "Hey, dummy. Do one for science fiction now!" Actually, that may have been Erik Davis saying that. Either way, here's the list.

Ah, and I feel I should preface it with the same words I used for the Horror 100: "Call 'em my "favorites" (although I'm sure I left some out) or call 'em "required viewing" for an aspiring horror sci-fi freak. I'm cool with either. And while I'm the manager of a scary movie blog and the film critic for an excellent horror outlet, the only thing that really qualifies me to MAKE such a list ... is that I cared enough to see all the flicks (and hundreds more) and then rank 'em. You should try it sometime. Feedback and outrage is, of course, welcome ... although I'll tell you right now that I'm already working on list #2, so don't get too crazy."