The voice cast of "Justice League: Doom" , the DC Animated Movie to follow "Batman: Year One" will feature Nathan Filion ( "Firefly", "Castle") as Green Lantern, Tim Daly ("Eyes", "Private Practice") as Superman, Kevin Conroy ( Batman: The Animated Series", "Justice League") as Batman, Michael Rosenbaum ("Smallville", "Justice League") as The Flash, and more to be revealed later.          NBC is developing "Revolution" a new adventure thriller series from J.J. Abrams and Eric Kripke. I don't even need to know any more details, they had me at J.J. Abrams. Now that's a recipe for success.
         The cast of the movie "Dark Shadows" directed by Tim Burton has been revealed. Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins, Helena Bonham Carter as Dr. Julia Hoffman, Jackie Earle Haley as grounskeeper Willie Loomis, Jonny Lee Miller as Roger Collins, Michelle Pfeiffer as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, and Chloe Moretz as her teenage daughter Carolyn. The new movie tells the story of Barnabas Collins, turned into a vampire by a witch whose heart he broke. She entombs him for 200 years, until he emerges in 1972 where the story really begins. Originally, a daytime drama on ABC starring Jonathan Frid as Barnabas, the series ran from 1966 to 1971 and is the basis for the new movie. There was a reboot of the franchise in 1991 starring Ben Cross as Barnabas and also starring Joanna Going and Joseph Gordon-Levitt that ran for 12 episodes.
         

        Terra Nova aired on Fox Monday Night and the show was better than I expected. They took a few classic sci-fi premises and managed to completely incorporate them into a brilliant new sci-fi adventure. Hopefully, this show will have the kind of success that will allow the story to fully unfold.

 

 

                                                                                      

         I recently watched "Season of the Witch" starring Nicholas Cage and Ron Perlman. The movie was the story of two medival knight who after fighting in The Crusades are drawn into service by The Church to transport a witch who unleashed a plague to a group of monks who can break her spell. The movie was better than advertised and quite a surprising suspense and horror movie.

          The season finale of "Alphas" aired on Monday and the season ended in grand fashion, and much to my delight SyFy picked the show up for a second season. The show is about people with extraordinary powers and abilities who solve mysteries and combat enemies who are gifted like them.

 

 

 

 

                                                                               

                                                                                                                                                                  

                                                                                

     Cartoon Network premiered new episodes of their Friday Night animated block. All of the shows are debuting new episodes. The line-up is as follows:6;00 p.m. "Batman: The Brave and The Bold" ,6:30 p.m. Young Justice, 7:00 p.m. Generator Rex, 7:30 p.m. Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, 8:00 p.m. Star Wars: The Clone Wars which is followed at 8:30 p.m. with a rebroadcast episode of the new "Thundercats" series.

                                                                                

     Marvel Comics are coming out with a group of graphic novels called Season One which retells and updates the origins of The Fantastic Four, X-Men, Daredevil, and Spider-Man. The one-shot books launch starting in Feb. 2012 with Fantastic Four and ending with Spider-Man in May 2012.

                                                                                              

    "The Immortals" a movie that features Henry Cavill, the new Superman, is opening on 11.11.11. The movie is an high octane action packed version of the mythical tale of Theseus. The movie also features Mickey Rourke, Luke Evans, John Hurt, Kellan Lutz, Frieda Pinto, and Isabel Lucas.

                                                                           

                                                                                   

     "Marvel's X-Men Anime" to debut on G4 on Friday, Oct. 21. X-Men will join "Iron Man" and "Wolverine" anime on the G4 network. A another anime series "Blade" will air on G4 this winter.

                                                                                

                                                                        

     "X-Men: The First Class" debuted on DVD and Blu-ray last week. I watched this movie over the weekend I had to reassess my reasons for not seeing this movie in the theater. The movie was far better than I expected it would be. Although, I had to give it low marks for not maintaining continuity with the other X-Men movies and that includes "X-Men Origins: Wolverine". I would recommend that if you don't see any other superhero movie ( and I don't say that lightly) that you see this movie.

                                                                                                                                                                        

           

         And the remakes just keep on coming, I just saw a trailer for a remake ( and this will be the third time this movie has been made) of "The Thing". The original novella that was made into the 1951 movie "The Thing from Another World" and is perhaps one of the most chilling and creepiest pieces of sci-fi/ horror ever written. The 1982 version of "The Thing" starring Kurt Russell really tapped into the horror aspect of the story and this remake promises to raise the game.

 

 

 

 

      

         "Thor" was released this Tuesday on DVD/Blu-ray. The movie directed by Kenneth Branagh and starring newcomer Chris Hemsworth as title character was the next to last puzzle piece setting the stage for next summer's blockbuster"Avengers' movie. The movie also stars Natalie Portman, Kat Dennings, Clark Gregg, and Stellan Skarsgard. Incidently, Stellan Skarsgard's son, "True Blood" actor Alexander Skarsgard was a fan favored pick to play the role of "Thor".

 

                 

                                                                                  

      Lastly, "Contagion" ruled the weekend box office making 23.1 million dollars, " The Help" was number two taking in 8.5 million dollars, and at number three "Warrior" taking in 5.6 million dollars.

                                                                                                            

                                                                               

      Last week, DC Comics released Justice League #1 part of the new 52 title relaunch; talk about hitting the ground running. The issue written by Geoff Johns and drawn by Jim Lee reintroduces us to The Justice League takes us to a new beginning for the team. Without giving anything away, it's like we are meeting these characters for the first time while they meet each other for the first time. I didn't want the issue to end, and I can hardly wait for the next one. 

        

       I recently watched the movie "Priest" and I was definitely pleasantly surprised. The movie was quite good and I was impressed by the plot, the story, and the cast. I never get enough of good sci-fi and good vampire movies and this is a combination of both. The cast features Paul Bettany ("The DaVinci Code", "Legion"), Karl Urban ("Star Trek", "Red"), Cam Gigandet ( "Never Back Down", "Twilight"), Maggie Q ("Mission: Impossible III", "Live Free and Die Hard"), Christopher Plummer ("The Sound of Music", "Up") and also includes Lily Collins, daughter of musician Phil Collins, who stars in the movie "The Blind Side" and also stars in the upcoming movies "Abduction" and "Snow White". I recommend this movie if you haven't already seen it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

        Another movie that was quite surprising was "The Warrior's Way", this movie was an entertaining martial arts/ western hybrid, if you can believe that. As impressed as I was by the plot and the story, the cast was the biggest surprise of all. Dong-gun Jang plays the main character, an assassin who decides to forsake his path and instead chooses to protect a child he was supposed to kill. He flees to The West to escape his clan and ends up in a town in the middle of the American badlands. Of course, he becomes attached to the townspeople especially a beautiful young woman named Lynne, so when they become endangered, he picks up his sword again. The cast includes some easily recognizable faces, such as Kate Bosworth ( "Blue Crush", "Superman Returns"), Geoffrey Rush ( "Shakespeare in Love", "Pirates of the Caribbean"), Danny Huston ("30 Days of Night", "X-Men Origins: Wolverine"), and Tony Cox ("Bad Santa", "Date Movie"). The movie is a bit bloody and a whole lot of fun.

 

 

                                                                    

                                                                                        

                                                                                    

                          

                                                                                          

  

     "Doctor Who" returned to BBC America this past Saturday with a jaw dropping episode, and that's saying a lot considering the jaw dropping episode they ended with before they went on summer hiatus. Talk about a show not only living up to the hype, but far exceeding it. I highly recommend keeping up with this show that skillfully manages to combine humor, action, horror, sci-fi, and a whole lot of brilliantly written dialogue. This coming Saturday following the new episode, a special will be aired called "Best of the Doctor" which has Matt Smith reviewing his best "Doctor Who" moments and celebrity fans sharing their favorite moments.

                                                                               

    As the countdown to director Christopher Nolan's final episode in his Dark Knight trilogy nears, we get more teasers to entice us. The latest enticement is a photo of Anne Hathaway in full Catwoman costume, which makes you wonder how the character will be interpreted in this franchise. The other big tease has been images of Tom Hardy as Bane facing off against Christian Bale as Batman. We know that this version of Bane will be highly intelligent much like the comic book character. However, the biggest question about the character Bane is whether he will be able to increase his muscle mass like his comic book and animated counterparts. Only time will tell.

 

 

     

 

      The weekend box office took a hit due to Hurricane Irene, but despite the stormy weekend causing a 15 to 20 percent drop in attendance, the top three movies still had a strong showing at the box office. "The Help" was number one with 14.3 million, "Columbiana" an action/adventure movie starring Zoe Saldana ("Avatar", "The Losers") that opened in second place with 10.3 million which exceeded the studio expectations, and coming in third with 8.7 million "Don't Be Afraid of The Dark" from producer Guillermo Del Toro ("Pan's Labyrinth"), a remake of a 1970s TV movie frightfest. This version stars Katie Holmes ("Batman Begins, "The Kennedys") and Guy Pearce ("The Time Machine", "Momento").

 

 

                                                                             

  

     Marvel Knights Animation's "Thor & Loki: Blood Brothers" adapted from the story by creators Robert Rodi and Esad Ribic arrives on DVD on Sept.13. Here is the trailer for the movie produced by Shout! Factory.

 

 

                                                                              

                                                                    

                                                                                                

    Kate Beckinsale returns to her role as Selene in " Underworld: Awakening" set for release Jan.20, 2012. I haven't heard any details about the script and quite frankly who cares? Kevin Grevioux who wrote the previous "Underworld" movies is one of the writers and Kate Beckinsale stars as the most kickass female vampire ever. Enough said.

                                                                               

    Nicholas Cages returns as Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider in "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance". The movie due out February 17, 2012 was written by David S. Goyer (Batman Begins, Flash Forward) and finds Johnny Blaze hiding out in Central Europe and is called upon to stop the devil who is trying to take human form.

                                                                                                                                                                              

       Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige introduces the cast of "The Avengers" at Disney D23 Expo in Anaheim, Ca. They also showed footage from the movie that features Loki on the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier in an exchange with Nick Fury and Tony Stark. Hopefully, the studio will release some of the footage and we'll get to see some more trailers. In the meantime, here's the footage of the cast being introduced.

 

 

 

                                                                                           

                                                                                                                                                     

                                                                                 

      Although I'm still less than thrilled with NBC, I'm giving credit where credit is due where the "Wonder Woman" series is concerned. I saw the pilot episode and was less than awed, to say the least. Instead of trying to change the character into a superhero version of Ally McBeal, David E. Kelley should have remained true to the comic book or even the previous television incarnation of the character. The action scences were great! However, the plot and dialogue was completely forgettable and/or dismissable,whichever you choose. There is no origin story and you find out that everyone knows who Wonder Woman is and I mean that literally. Here are the questions I would ask. Wonder Woman a corporate CEO? No secret identity? No invisible plane? No lasso of truth? Really, are you freaking kidding me? This venture was doomed to failure because it was in no way the Wonder Woman anyone wanted to see. The best thing about it was the actress Adrianne Palicki in the costume actually fighting and doing the classic bullets and bracelets blocking move.

        

 

 

 

      "Rise of the Planet of The Apes" topped the weekend box office for a second week in a row with 27.5 million dollars. "The Help" came in number two with 25.6 million dollars. "Final Destination 5" came in third with 18.6 million dollars. Ironically, "The Help" stars Emma Stone who plays Gwen Stacy in next year's "The Amazing Spider-Man" and Bryce Dallas Howard who played Gwen Stacy in 2007 in "Spider-Man 3".

        Now to turn my ire to SyFy and to their cancellation of one of the best series on television and one of my favorite shows, Eureka. That show is one of the very few reasons I watch that misnomer of a channel. I used to have high hopes for that channel and what a disappointment they turned out to be. They have very few shows that even qualify. Eureka is a clever and quirky show about a secret town of geniuses thhat work on top secret government projects. Naturally, things constantly go awry and often with a combination of potentially disasterous and hilarious results. A brilliant and well-written sci-fi show the likes of which is still rarely seen on television. Syfy intially renewed the series for a sixth season and then turned , around an announced that they decided to cancel it instead. And then they turned around and decided they want to add just one more episode.Pehaps, they will also grace us with a "Eureka" t.v. movie.

 

 

   

                                                                                   

                                                                     

      Marvel has plans to do more supehero movies in additon to sequels "Iron Man 3" and "Thor 2", but they are being so super secretive about what movies they have planned that this has the rumor mill going wild. Personally, I would love them to finally make a "Black Panther" movie, which would be great since it could tie in to a potential sequel to "The Avengers". There is talk of a "S.H.I.E.L.D." movie featuring Samuel L.Jackson as super spy Nick Fury, a possible "Dr. Strange " feature film, and "Runaways" based on the Marvel comic book title that tells the story of group of teens who find out that their parents are all a part of a group of supervillians. In complete defiance, the teens decide to atone for their parents behavior and take action by taking on any bad guys they encounter. These are the three frontrunners based on all the media scuttlebutt. I eagerly look forward to seeing which movie projects they actually choose to greenlight.

      Speaking of movie projects that got the greenlight, Universal 's upcoming action adventure "Battleship" based on the Hasbro board game of the same name is due for release May 18, 2012. Before you say "Really, Are you freakin' kidding me?!?" The movie boasts a great cast and a very talented director. The movie directed by Peter Berg (The Kingdom, Hancock) features a cast that includes Tyler Kitsch (X-Men Origins: Wolverine, John Carter), Brooklyn Decker (Just Go With It, What to Expect When You're Expecting), Liam Neeson (A-Team, Unknown), Alexander Skarsgard (True Blood, Straw Dogs), Peter MacNicol ( Ghostbusters 2, Numbers), and Rhianna, in her feature film debut. Apparently, Universal believes in this movie to the tune of 200 million dollars. That's a lot of belief! That's definitely the kind of belief I want to experience.