Tim Burton has reportedly been confirmed as the director of Dark Shadows, the rights of which are held by Johnny Depp's Infinitum-Nihil shingle. No official confirmation has been made, but Depp has held the rights since last year, and a big-screen remake has been cooking over at Warner Bros.

For those of you that don't know - Dark Shadows was a supernatural television show in the 60's (over 1200 episodes!!) that had a fairly successful reboot in the early 90's. It is described as, "A gothic-horror tale centering on the life of vampire Barnabas Collins and his run-ins with various monsters, witches, werewolves and ghosts."

Word is that Depp is interested in the role of Barnabas Collins, but again, nothing has been confirmed.

Are you ready to see Burton and Depp tackle yet another pale, dark, gothic movie? They are always good, but to tell the truth, they might be getting kind of old. I'll still be there if this comes to truth.

Bruce Willis is negotiating to star in Kane & Lynch, Lionsgate's adaptation of the Eidos Entertainment video game "Kane & Lynch: Dead Men". Willis will play Adam 'Kane' Marcus, a mercenary who makes an unlikely alliance with a schizophrenic killer named James Lynch. The duo is forced on a mission to retrieve a stolen microchip. The vidgame has sold 2 million copies worldwide since its launch in November, 2007.

Kyle Ward (someone who hasn't done anything pretty much) wrote the script. Filmmakers are now looking to set an actor to play Lynch, and shooting will begin before year's end.

While this may be good news for the video game to have such an A-lister added to it's cast, it seems more likely that this film was chosen while Bruce Willis was drunk and only using half of his brain. I know, that's mean. It just doesn't seem like a good idea to make a movie of a video game that got pretty poor reviews (I haven't played it, but most people seem to think it sucked). I could be wrong, but I'm not that excited really.

There was a new Wanted trailer released recently. It isn't as good as the Russian one I posted a while back. This one makes it seem a little to Matrix-y. It's still worth a watch though.

We are getting more and more Spidey 4 news by the week. It is exciting to get this news every time because I'm such a fan of the Spiderman series thus far (3 was not as awesome, but still a fun flick with some good stuff in it). Anyway, we get 2 main bits of news as recently J.K. Simmons and Sam Raimi have spoke up about developing Spiderman 4 news. First, J.K. Simmons (J. Jonah Jameson) said to IESB.net on a recent visit,

IESB: So we know that James Vanderbilt just turned in a script for Spiderman 4 have they reached out to you yet or anything?

JK: We, sort of, check in once in a while, they say, y’know, we want JK to do it. We don’t know where. We don’t know when. We don’t know who. We don’t know anything, y’know? They signed all of us for the first three films. Sam, Tobey, all the way down the line to me and, we’ll see where it goes. I also, I mean, it's all conjecture and you guys probably know more than I do at this point. There was talk of doing four and five concurrently and I don’t know if they’re still considering that or not and, y’know, I spoke to Tobey in, I guess it was February…sort of awards season time and, y’know, he’s certainly amenable to doing some more and hopefully we’ll be able to get everybody back and make another good one.

IESB: Or a couple of them?

JK: Couple, three, four, five! Whatever, you know, I could buy a bigger house.

IESB: What if Sam decides not to come back as a director but stays as a producer, would you guys still be-
JK: Well-

IESB: Would you and the rest of the gang still come back.

JK: Well, I can only speak for myself, but, if Sam were not the director but was, still had a hand in it then I would certainly have a reasonable amount of faith in it. You know? Obviously if he’s the director I’m there a 100%. If he’s not involved at all, which I think is VERY unlikely, then it would be a situation that I would have to think about. But if he’s involved, hopefully directing or at least as a producer then I’m pretty confident that it would be something that I want to do. Plus they pay money.


Sam Raimi had this to say about Spiderman 4's future,

"James Vanderbilt is writing the script and I'm excited to read it. I think it's going to be done in a few months," Raimi told us, adding, "I'm hoping it's as great as our discussions were about it and I'm hoping it feels right for me because I love Spider-Man. I'm hoping I'm well rested enough to embrace it and I'm hoping Sony wants me to do it. If all of those things come together, I would love to do it. There are a lot of unknowns about the future."

And how does he feel about re-casting key players if needed? "I'd hate to re-cast anybody in the future, I can't imagine that."


Well, this is all pretty good news. It seems that as long as a great script is available and Sony wants Raimi, we may get the entire cast back together (I wonder if they can convince Kirsten Dunst as she originally said she would only do 3). My mind is racing with the possibilities, but I REALLY want to see The Lizard, and we know from previous interviews that this is Raimi's favorite character. I say it's time.

We have a couple new bits of Transformer news, although these ones seem a little more solid and a little less "rumor" stuff because of the sources and the fact that some of this news comes from the actual shoot.

First off, we have the news that the full title for the film will be Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen. While this doesn't provide much plot info, it does tell us that someone (most likely someone who died) from the first film will be back. Best guess? Megatron. Maybe he comes back as Galvatron? Although it seems a bit early for that.

We also have quite a bit of info about characters appearing and some plot events. Possible SPOILER ALERT, although remember, this could also be more fake news. This comes courtesy of /film,

The opening of Transformers 2 takes place at a Steel Factory in Shanghai, China (filmed in Bethlehem, PA), where the Autobots, the British SAS (Matthew Marsden as “Graham” and Andrew Howard) and Captain Lennox’s Military team (Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson) are chasing after a Decepticon Audi RS8. Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox are not featured in the opening chase sequence.

The TwinsThe autobots include a pair of robots called The Twins, which join together to form an Ice Cream Truck. An ice cream truck is a great disguise for a transformer as no one would suspect. I’m guessing that one of the twins is white and the other is pink (but this is just a guess). This appears the be the coolest new addition to the autobot line-up. There’s one sequence where the Twins are speeding down a Shanghai street and split apart around a group of chinese children in the street, which should be pretty cool looking. At another point the truck crashes and the Twins split in two and have a brotherly fight. Yes, it looks like the comic tone of the original film is back.

Also involved in the chase is a hot pink ninja style motorcycle with black highlights which turns into Arcee (toy pictured below), a go-cart named Wheels / Wheelbot and Stinger (possibly a Porsche). Lennox’s team meets up with Ironhide on a Shanghai Street. I’m not sure exactly what happens but it appears that the Deception R8 escapes. All in all it seems like a pretty bad ass chase sequence.

The production has now moved to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum for a scene which takes place late into the film (I’m guessing about an hour into the film). Bumblebee and The Twins are left in the parking lot as Sam (Shia), Mikaela (Fox), Sam’s college roommate/friend Leo (a new supporting character played by The Wire’s Ramon Rodriguez), and Sector 7 Agent Simmons (John Turturro) distract the guards and sneak into the Smithsonian after hours. Simmons uses a radiation tracker (a call back to the first film) to find a SR-71 Blackbird in the museum.

Sam uses something called the “Splinter” (maybe a tiny piece of the alspark?) to activate the SR-71, which transforms into Jetfire. Jetfire as a Blackbird spy plane? Very Cool. For some reason he has a Decepticon logo, not sure why. Maybe he switched sides?

The involvement of a Constructicon Earth Mover pretty much confirms the rumor that the Constructicons and Devastator might appear in the film.

Courtesty of IESB.net,

Dark Horse will release HELLBOY II: THE ART OF THE MOVIE with pages full of concept art and more on June 18th!

The IESB has got an early sneak peek for you here!

The anticipation is ratcheting up for one of this summer's biggest action-adventure events, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, and Dark Horse is taking you behind the scenes!

As we delved into the original box-office hit, this 224-page tome likewise presents the most extensive look into the film's evolution, from early concept art and diary sketches to photos of the final props, sets, and filming. A unique look at filmmaking and the art of graphic novels.

Guillermo del Toro and Hellboy creator Mike Mignola once again bring their world-renowned talents to bear on a brand-new chapter in Hellboy's history--a visual feast only they could produce. Get your sneak peek well before the celluloid hits the screen!

* Guillermo del Toro's (Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth) complete screenplay including a deleted scene--is featured in this book and is illustrated with the original storyboards.

* Interviews and commentary from creator Mike Mignola and filmmaker Guillermo del Toro!

Check out some more art over on IESB.net

Pre-order your copy now - CLICK HERE

Art books are totally awesome and really inspirational to people like me who would love to someday be working within the movie industry (not necessarily art, but somehow in the industry). I have always had great appreciation for the art that goes into films and video games and pick up books whenever I get the chance. I wish I was creative enough to do some of the work like this as I always find it very fun to look at and enjoy.

Apparently Guy Ritchie has come aboard to direct Warner Bros.' "Sherlock Holmes" for Lionel Wigram and Dan Lin. He is working on a rewrite of a script written by Tony Peckham. The studios are eyeing a 2010 release date. Execs at Warners are aiming to reinvent Holmes and sidekick Dr. John H. Watson. Wigram's noted that the new Holmes would be more adventuresome and take advantage of his skills as a boxer and swordsman.

I think Guy Ritchie is a great choice. A man who is known for his contemporary London undergroung drug/crime/caper films should make a great transition to an older setting. This is a fantastic idea and I see it working extremely well, especially after films like The Wolfman coming out which have that gothic classic horror feel to them. I also envision a kind of Van Helsing/From Hell/The Prestige vibe, although hopefully better than than Van Helsing. The question remains, who should play Sherlock Holmes? I think Hugh Jackman or DDL would be a fantastic choice for such a character, what do you say? DDL with a pipe and hat? I'm game.