twilight

Nothing to see here, folks. The new Spider-Man is not cast yet. Let's clear the scene. Let the experts continue the investigation.

There were rumors swirling all around these here internets a few weeks back concerning Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief star Logan Lerman entering talks with Sony over taking the role of everyone's favorite wall-crawling, web-slinging superhero. Cue Sam Raimi shaking with rage and Tobey Maguire ordering a strong drink.

This was quickly shot down by Sony and Lerman's people...until the rumors re-surfaced today, apparently even making it onto The Early Show.

Sony has, once again, denied that Lerman is in negotiations and has insisted that they have not entered talks with anybody. Of course, studios and agents are wily these days, so does all of this "No! We're not casting the kid, back off!" really translate to "Yes, we're casting the kid, but we want to keep it quiet so we can offer him a smaller paycheck, so shut up interwebs!"? What a crazy age we live in.

I didn't see Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, so I cannot judge Lerman in any way, other than to say he looks like the man-pretty type that will appeal to the Twilight crowd, which will be a huge plus for this "high school friendly" reboot. Honestly, I'd be relieved if he wasn't the new Peter Parker, mainly because I wouldn't have to spend six hours typing Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief ever again.

Untitled Spider-Man Reboot is apparently supposed to come out next year. Insert mandatory joke about director Marc Webb's franchise-appropriate last name.

(Via Coming Soon)

Back in the summer, word popped up of Paramount's decision to dip into the 'ol toy box again and pull out another potential action figure-to-film franchise: Max Steel. According to Variety, it looks like the studio has their eyes set on Taylor Lautner of The Twilight Saga: New Moon fame for the titular, 19-year-old superhuman secret agent. No director has been lined up yet, but writers Chad Damiani and JP Lavin (whose Capeshooters adaptation is set up at Warner Bros. with Bryan Singer producing) are working on the script.

Maybe I was just a little too old when the action figure and subsequent computer-animated TV series came out, but frankly, I don't really see the huge appeal here -- an extreme sports athlete gets infused with nanotechnology, essentially turning him into a barely legal Inspector Gadget with superpowers. Something tells me Paramount is betting on Lautner's tummy muscles to sell this concept to those outside the 10-year-old boy demographic.

Thanks to Ain't It Cool News for pointing out that YouTube is currently running the entire Max Steel series online. Enter the uncanny valley of severely dated computer animation, if you dare. Seriously, ReBoot has aged better than this.

Welcome to Captain's Log -- your (semi) daily round-up of sci-fi randomness from around the web. Here's what's happening:

SciFi Wire shares some of John Barrowman's shnazzy "Single Ladies" moves. You know, Captain Jack Harkness.

Daniel Radcliffe, aka Harry Potter, is going to guest on The Simpsons to spoof the vampiric wonder that's Twilight, so says EW.

Plus, The Daily Beast shares the horror of Twilight tattooage, which isn't just girl fandom -- one set of guy/gal best friends branded themselves "lion" and "lamb."

Dying for the new Van Damme-led Universal Soldier? Quiet Earth alerts us all to the fact that it's now available for pre-order.

The Twitter Feed running for Production Weekly notes that the CW is still trying to adapt Warren Ellis' Global Frequency.

TVGuide shares a peek at Smallville's Hawkman.

According to The Guardian, The Lovely Bones test audience wanted more violence.

Was Jane Espenson edged out of Caprica? She tells io9 no, and hopefully she's not just being professionally nice.

Ever since President Obama wore that Three Wolf Moon t-shirt, we've seen countless parodies of it -- and the latest now comes in the form of a Twilight-related spoof trailer starring Aubrey Plaza and John Gemberling. Like the SNL spoof trailer from last week (in which Taylor Swift falls for Frankenstein instead of a vampire), this spoof trailer shows you what happens when Bella (Plaza) falls for a nasty fat dude who constantly pimps out a Three Wolf Moon t-shirt. Cute? Kinda. I do like how they have the one kid running around shirtless, though. That made me chuckle.

Watch the trailer after the jump, via College Humor.

By: Monika Bartyzel (originally posted on Cinematical)

Forget about crop circles -- those are as passe as lame-o's hitting the dance floor to jive to the funky chicken. There's a new crop-destroyer to contend with, and it doesn't just plow down strange circles of land. It professes love for young, suddenly muscled studlets and sparkling boys with a taste for blood. In one of the strangest twists of fandom and movie marketing yet, New Moon has inspired a "Team Jacob" and "Team Jacob" proclamations in maize.

Black Island Farms in Utah has gotten into the Twilight craze by creating puntacular mazes in maize, where fans can stroll through the corn-filled faces of both Jacob and Edward. Vampires, werewolves, whatever floats your boat, they'll deliver! No surprise that it's in Stephenie Meyer's home state of Utah, and I imagine that as utterly over-the-top as this is, it'll probably do good business even if the patrons can't see that they're actually walking through the hotties' faces.

Go Team Crazy!

[via Just Jared]

The long-awaited 14-second preview of the latest New Moon trailer should be enough proof that we, as a society, have completely lost our freaking minds. But you have to hand it to Summit Entertainment for teasing the Twilight fanbase just enough with half a photo here, 14 seconds over there -- by this point, I wouldn't be surprised if some Twi-hard freaked and broke into Summit's offices demanding to see more. It could be like the sequel to Fanboys ... only way lamer.

Anyway, the full New Moon trailer will be attached to Bandslam in theaters this Friday (don't you love how Summit even uses Twilight to get people to see their other movies, too?), and it should arrive online shortly thereafter. But if you're itching to see Bella get a little closer to Jacob, then check out the 14-second piece of nothing after the jump.

This post originally appeared on our sister site Comics Alliance

Am I the only one who raised an eyebrow after noticing that this ad for the HBO vampire show "TrueBlood"...



...was in fairly close proximity to this booth?

Welcome to Captain's Log -- your (semi) daily round-up of sci-fi randomness from around the web. Here's what's happening today:

- Director Steven Norrington says he's returning to Marvel's Blade franchise for a possible prequel film starring Stephen Dorff as Frost, the big bad vamp from the original movie.

- Y: The Last Man writer Brian K. Vaughan is leaving Lost. Vaughan has been with the show since season three, helping to develop it's vast mythology and it's character's taste for geeky pop culture. What's the comic book writer's next project? Roundtable, a film described as a twist on the King Arthur legend.

- Is there a Twilight vampire baby on the way? MTV U.K. says Kristen Stewart might be pregnant with Robert Pattinson's (probably) pasty child.

More sci-fi awesomeness after the jump.

What happens after Summit shovels out their four Twilight movies, all based on Stephenie Meyer's books? Will the franchise go the X-Men route and start pumping out spin-off flicks? Will Meyer write the books to accompany said spin-offs, or will these be original-for-the-screen stories? Which would the Twi-hards prefer? Here's Jenni Miller's report from Cinematical:

As much as we might like to poke fun at Twilight now and again, there's no denying it's a multimedia juggernaut. Besides the books, you can read about the stars in their off-hours in celeb gossip mags, listen to Twilight-inspired bands like The Bella Cullen Project, read Twilght fan fiction, peep fan art, buy all the Twilight tchotchkes your heart could desire over at Hot Topic or Amazon (like this jewelry box!) and, yes, get inked with Twilight-inspired tattoos.

But unless Stephenie Meyer starts cranking out some more books about Bella and Edward, the four Twilight tomes are going to be the end of Bella and Edward on the big screen... right?

Not necessarily, according to Twilight's producers, who were caught on video by the folks over at RadarOnline.com at the 36th Annual Vision Awards this past weekend. RadarOnline's intrepid reporter tracked down Wyck Godfrey and Greg Mooradian at one of the awards parties and asked them about the possibility of a spin-off about the Volturi family.

Read the rest at Cinematical

Above: The spaceship from District 9

Now that we've entered the month of June, folks are beginning to geek out about this year's Comic Con in San Diego, which looks to be already setting up some pretty awesome (and geektastic) treats for all those who make the trek out there. In a new story over at the New York Times, they reveal that Peter Jackson will make his first ever trip to San Diego Comic Con this year in order to help promote the upcoming flick District 9, which he's producing. Jackson will be joined by that film's director (and Jackson apprentice) Neill Blomkamp.

The film, which looks to be an extension of sorts of Blomkamp's fantastic short film Alive in Joburg (watch it here), tells of an alien race that's forced to live in a slum-like environment on earth while government examines the situation further. (Watch the Cloverfield-like trailer over here.) There's no word on whether Jackson will reveal any nuggets of coolness regarding his other upcoming movies like The Lovely Bones or the first Tintin film, though even if he doesn't I bet the Comic Con crowd will grill him to pieces during Q&A time.

Check out some of the clever outdoor marketing for District 9 in the gallery below (via Flickr).



After the Jump: Will James Cameron Bring Avatar to Comic Con?