All right, Doctor Who fans out there, brace yourselves, because the opportunity you’ve been waiting for since the end of the fifth series (or season, if you favor the Americanized term for a block of television episodes) has landed. The crew out at the BBC sent over a copy of Doctor Who: The Complete Sixth Series for us to review, and for those who can’t get enough of the new Doctor, well, you’ll get all you can stand and then some.

Once again, Doctor Who The Complete Sixth Series joins us with the last Time Lord. Hailing from the lovely isles of Gallifrey, the Time Lord known only as Doctor Who (or more often, the Doctor), and his selected companions, will go romping about space and time, occasionally pausing to protect Earth from rampaging hordes of otherworldly menaces who want the Doctor dead and his adopted homeworld reduced to a cinder in space lest any of those other Gallifrey types manage to show up again.

Considering that the first episode of the series will be a bizarre science fiction analogue of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, you have a pretty good idea of what we’re in for here. And considering Matt Smith’s penchant for comic glee (here, I do personally maintain Christopher Eccleston as the best Doctor, though Matt Smith has certainly done a bang-up job in the role. Great Doctor, yes indeed, best Doctor, not so much.), as well as some fine dramatic tension, you’ve got a terrific combination here that makes the Doctor seem so wildly insane. Or, of course, merely beyond our definition of sanity, as some have suggested about Batman’s Joker character.

The Doctor will do more impossible things in just one one-hour show than most people will do in a lifetime, and that may not be for everybody. But for the most part, you will have both heartwarming and spinetingling moments here, and it’s not so often I can get my entire trunk involved like that. It’s terrific stuff, in all honesty, and is going to be well worth your time to watch for any of a variety of reasons. And even better, there will often be a twist at the end that makes things even more impressive. Much like our last tangle with the Doctor, we saw the most bizarre circumstances get suddenly pulled into place, tight and clean, with a minimum of loose ends. It’s delightful fun, wildly entertaining, and very much worth your time to watch. The Doctor has legions of rabid fans out there. This is why.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives Doctor Who The Complete Sixth Series a nine out of ten for doing a whole lot of bizarre but exciting things that will prove to be terrific in the end. The sheer bizarrity of it all will make it prove to be not for everyone, but for those willing to stomach the Doctor’s sheer epic weird level, you’ll likely have a fantastic time on board this wild TARDIS ride.

We’ve seen a lot of movies involving costumed serial killers over the years, but one that’s going to take a real run at the brass ring as far as that standard goes is Medium Raw: Night of the Wolf. The folks out at Anchor Bay sent a copy for me to review, and it’s going to certainly be something. The something in question is

Medium Raw: Night of the Wolf follows a serial killer known as The Wolf due to his propensity to wear a spiked helmet that looks like nothing so much as a wolf’s jaws. His murderous ways caught up with him, though, and The Wolf was sentenced to life in a maximum security asylum in the grandest Arkham tradition. A massive power failure strikes the prison, and unlocks all the cell doors. Now the inmates are running the asylum, out for blood and vengeance on their keepers, while The Wolf once again prowls.

Sound interesting? Sure it does. We’ve read Batman comics that start like this. And it certainly doesn’t hurt that Parker’s Asylum, the place where the movie is set, looks every inch like an Arkham simulacrum, right down to the aging construction, the manor-house resemblance, and the ultra-secure levels containing some really homicidal characters. For crying out loud, one guy looks almost exactly like Bane, only without the Venom implants.

But sadly, it doesn’t exactly live up to its promises, at least not in the early going. See, this movie has a run time of about two hours. And the first hour or so is going to be almost painfully slow. They’re clearly taking their time about things, setting up for a real Sunday punch, or so you hope. And while there is an absolutely terrific moment toward the end of the first hour, the second hour doesn’t quite have the punch you’d expect of a movie that’s supposed to be about a building full of homicidal sociopaths. Sure, there are some interesting segments, like a cannibal lovingly describing her craft to her psychologist, whom she’s holding hostage at knifepoint. But still, this is surprisingly dull stuff for a movie that should be an absolute horror-action frenzy of a film.

It’s hard to completely revile this one, though, because there are all these lovely bits in it, like silver coins strewn across a great sandy beach, that improve the whole nicely. A twist here, a joke there, all the best stuff. But they’re interspersed in a largely talentless and wholly lacking presentation that leaves me a bit cold.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives Medium Raw: Night of the Wolf a medium-good six out of ten. The whole is significantly worse than the sum of its parts, and while there are some little bits of good in here, they can’t overwhelm the overall shoddiness of the presentation.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt will work with his Inception director Christopher Nolan once again on The Dark Knight Rises. He will play Alberto Falcone, the son of Mafia chieftain Carmine Falcone, which Tom Wilkinson played in Batman Begins.

Alberto Falcone is also known as the Holiday Killer, and this brings Nolan’s superhero trilogy full circle. Comic book geeks might say that the character fits with the director’s desire continuity and inclination to pit Bruce Wayne against “realistic” villains, as opposed to cartoonish nemeses from early incarnations of Batman like Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy in Joel Schumacher’s 1997 Batman and Robin.

Gordon-Levitt next stars opposite Natalie Portman in the independent drama Hesher, which opens in theaters this April. He’ll also be seen alongside Seth Rogen in Jonathan Levine’s cancer comedy 50/50 will release on September 30, 2011.

Gordon-Levitt recently wrapped David Koepp’s thriller Premium Rush, which is scheduled to open in January. He’s currently filming Rian Johnson’s science fiction movie Looper with Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt.

Just about every comic book ever drawn is in consideration for a big-screen adaptation these days. Long past are the times where just Batman and Spiderman would turn up on the silver screen. From American Splendour to Persepolis to Scott Pilgrim and Sin City, every alternative comic is being read and analyzed by Hollywood execs. And according to The Hollywood Reporter, Will Eisner’s comic A Contract With God is now to be adapted into a live-action film.

Eisner was creator of The Spirit, which was made into a star-studded film in 2008. However, critics slated it and it was a commercial disaster. But before you brace yourself with more camp antics, A Contract with God is an entirely different comic. It’s a collection of four stories about life as an immigrant in the New York borough of the Bronx. So no masked heroes and villains in this one. In fact the best comparison could be American Splendour (an adaptation of the series by recently, and sadly, deceased writer Harvey Pekar), one of the best films of the last decade.

Each of the four stories will have a separate director: Tze Chun (Children of Invention), Alex Rivera (Sleep Dealer),  Barry Jenkins (Medicine for Melancholy) and Sean Baker (Prince of Broadway). All of which are indie or upcoming film directors.

We’ve previously reported that Christopher Nolan (Memento and the most recent Batman films) has been considered to make another Superman movie, and we have now heard that David Goyer, who wrote the screenplays for Nolan’s Batman films, is going to write the film.

This new Superman film is called The Man of Steel, and from what we heard, it will be a slightly darker look at the Man of Steel, and have the popular Superman villains Lex Luthor and Brainiac.

It would appear that Brandon Routh will not be the man, this time. I’m sure he’s really disappointed over that, but he doing a good job playing a different kind of Superman on TV’s Chuck.

Source

…right?

The internet is getting more and more whiny, as a whole, over the depressing lack of news relating to the third installment of the Batman series.  Frankly, I think good riddance–The Dark Knight set the bar AWFULLY high and I’m genuinely unsure if they could ever top that.  I mean, yeah, sure–Aaron Eckhart is good and all but he’s no Heath Ledger.  Maybe it’s best to just let it go out with that incredible Joker-licious bang.

But no…despite the fact that there have been rumors aplenty–Dane Cook as the Riddler, Megan Fox as Catwoman–there hasn’t been any actual NEWS about this one for some time.  No announcement of a shooting date, no actual casting news, zippo.

And you may be wondering why I’ve seen fit to actually report as news that there is no news.  Simple–two reasons.

1. The two year anniversary of The Dark Knight is rapidly approaching. July 18th was the original release date.

2. At least year’s Comic-Con, Gary Oldman went on record as saying shooting would start this year.

You add those two together–plus reports from Nikki Finke (one of the most well-connected names in Hollywood) that David Goyer left Flash Forward to work on “feature projectss”, and you’ve got the strong possibility that we’re gonna see some new Batman fairly soon.

If you remember an old Playstation 2 title by the name of XIII, you’re not alone.  I happened to play this one myself back in the day–way back in the day, even though Playstation 2 is still a viable game console.

I was personally very fond of the game’s smooth controls and deep plotline, and couldn’t help but think: this might make a good movie.

Well, someone apparently listened to me.  Debbie Park out at UGstrategies shot me a memo detailing how XIII will be brought to a direct to video release, called XIII: The Conspiracy.

It’ll feature Stephen Dorff (you’ll remember him from Blade), Val Kilmer (a former Batman!) and a Bond girl, Caterina Murino.  Plus, a television series around the game has also been greenlit, with production starting later this year.

So for those of you who still think that direct to video is the last refuge of the has-been and the never-was, this might well give you cause to think again.  XIII hits video stores this Tuesday.

Riddle me this…riddle me that…who’ll never show up in a movie about the Bat?

Simple answer: Dane Cook.  Long answer: the same but it involves numerous non-work safe expletives, a brief seizure and cries about “any justice in the world”.

But that hasn’t stopped the thoroughly unfunny comedian from trying!  He’s apparently trying to get his foot in the door of one of the Batman movies to try his hand at playing The Riddler, a concept that Jim Carrey pretty much destroyed for all time with HIS portrayal of same.

When asked how Cook would play such a role, possibly in sheer disbelief that the moron would even suggest such a sacrilege, Cook said that he’d play it like “The Crow…only more comedic”.

Like that putz even knows what comedy IS.  Look, you want comedy?  Go get Denis Leary. He’d make a sweet Riddler.  Have some fun with it–get Gabriel Iglesias.  A fluffy Riddler would be awesome. They could let out one of Matthew Lesko’s suits and we’d be off to the races!

Don’t worry, though, folks–as long as Chris Nolan’s in charge I doubt you’ll ever see Dane Cook in a Batman movie.

No, seriously.  Really.   I don’t even know where you people get these rumors.

I’m faking that last bit of indignation, because frankly, I don’t know where it came from myself.  I hadn’t even heard Depp might possibly have been up for a role in the first place, and now I’ve got negative confirmation on it.  Well, I guess it could be worse…in fact, you know what?  Let’s  MAKE it worse.  Let’s take a run at our OWN outlandish Batman rumors.  How about:

The next Batman villain will be the Clock King, and he will be played by Wallace Shawn. That freaks me out just thinking about it, because a. Wallace Shawn would totally nail the part and b. no one cares about the Clock King in the first place.

Christian Bale out, Viggo Mortenson in. That one also gives me the creeps because it’s so very plausible.  But seriously, at this point, does anyone think they’re going to change horses midstream?

The next Batman installment will be a cartoon, and all the actors will be strictly voice actors.  Oh, come on–like that couldn’t happen?  They’d save vast quantities of money and still make huge bank opening weekend.  They could have Christian Bale stare at the walls for the first half of the movie and STILL make monster bank.  That’s the kind of force this franchise has now.

See?  This is just all kinds of fun!  Try making up your OWN outlandish Batman rumors and post them in the comments section.

You might be surprised–oh, who am I kidding?  Chances are you’re going to be REALLY surprised–by who’s rumored to be slated to play Catwoman in the next installment of The Dark Knight series.

None other than Transformer vixen Megan Fox, that’s who.

Both the movie buff in me and the cynic in me say that this is a really, REALLY good idea that deserves a note of praise.  Taking advantage of Megan Fox’s steadily climbing career from both the Transformers series and other stuff like her upcoming Jennifer’s Body is just a really good move.  But it’s shaky at best–Fox all but laughed off the idea of playing Wonder Woman.  Why would she go for a different DC property?

But then, I end up wondering why.  Considering how well the other two installments of the Dark Knight series have done–for crying out loud, The Dark Knight managed to win a guy a posthumous Oscar, and that’s almost never done!–does it really matter who plays what at this point?  Isn’t it a foregone conclusion that it’ll do well as long as any competent actor takes the available parts?  Does the Batman series really NEED star power?

But this is all just sort of whistling in the dark anyway–star power never hurt anything–and it’s likely to GET star power whether it needs it or not.