The best day ever for fans of animated science fiction?

These are both rumors at this point, but since it's Monday morning, isn't it just much more fun to take them as fact, especially when that would just make the day so much cooler?

The first is actually pretty solid. It's long been known that David Fincher, for obvious and hopefully very twisted reasons, has wanted to make a third movie inspired from the universe of "Heavy Metal" magazine. I've never seen the second, something called "Heavy Metal 2000, but I certainly can't wait for a third installment, especially with the directing talent that's now on board.

If FilmSchoolRejects has this right, and I rather believe they do, the anthology film will now also include segments to be directed by Zack Snyder, that pirate guy Gore Verbinski and even James Cameron. Perhaps best of all, "Kung Fu Panda" director Mark Osborne will reunite with Jack Black to do a comedy segment. I know this will be blasphemy to all Pixar fans, but as much as I loved "Wall-E" (and I did quite a bit, and much more than "Up"), I thought "Kung Fu Panda" was the better movie of the two.


Even better than that crazy news in my book, though much less close to confirmed, is this wild word about the future of "Futurama" that comes from Collider.

I've enjoyed the "Futurama" TV-to-DVD movies quite a bit, but was amazed they managed to make four of them and was fairly certain that that would be the end for Fox's most abused animated series, a title it won by just a nose over "King of the Hill." And I have to say, if Collider has this right, and I'm betting they do, "Futurama" is even more of a survivor than Mike Judge's show, which had a thoroughly improbably 13-season run.

Finally getting to the buried lead that just makes me giddy, Collider says Comedy Central has ordered 13 new episodes of "Futurama." Let that sink in a minute if you're a fan of very funny, almost-as-smart sci-fi (and if you're not, why not?) I guess it's not all that surprising, since it seems like Comedy Central shows "Futurama" every night of the week, but pretty friggin' amazing all the same. And if you'll excuse me now, I have to return to the job that still manages to pay most of my bills. Peace out.

Let it be "Sunny" everywhere on TV

When I first (and admittedly belatedly) started to hear a lot of hype about FX's "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," I had my doubts.

But then, most of that hype came from my former cubicle mate Travis Fain (before I moved across the room), who has a fairly dark view of the world, so I should have known he was on to something. As I found out well after much of the world, it really is just about the funniest thing on TV, and now we're about to get more from it's three main men, Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day and Glenn Howerton.

The trio has signed a two-year deal overall deal with Twentieth Century Fox, with the most immediate benefit being a new show on Fox, "Boldly Going Nowhere." The new comedy series will answer one of those burning questions of life: What does a spaceship captain do when he's not on a mission? Fox has ordered five additional scripts beyond the pilot.

"We grew up watching shows like 'Star Trek,' anything having to do with the future, and it was always about the adventures they'd go on," McElhenney told Variety. "We thought it would be funny to watch what goes on in between those adventures, when they're waiting for the next big thing to happen. How do they keep themselves busy?"

Unlike with "Sunny," the trio won't star in the new Fox show, which is, thankfully, not being shot until October so the guys can shoot a fourth, 13-episode season of "Sunny" this summer for FX (and a hearty huzzah to that!) in time to bow in fall.

And it's really hard to exaggerate just how funny "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" is. It's more than a minor accomplishment to create a sitcom full of completely reprehensible characters (who called their first show "The Gang Gets Racist" and hit on women at an abortion protest for the second) that's also utterly devoid of sentiment.

Given my fear that the writers' strike had poisoned the water so bad that we'd get only reality fare from now on, I'll take anything else I can get, especially from guys as funny as these dudes.

Fincher digs "Heavy Metal"

While I'll probably go see "Horton Hears a Who" this weekend, and am rather naively hoping it's a genuinely G-rated flick that captures the spirit of Dr. Seuss, I also have a tremendous soft spot for the kind of R-rated animated fun we used to get with "Heavy Metal."

And luckily David Fincher and some of his cohorts seem to have that same longing. In what sounds like a wonderfully crazy project, Fincher will supervise and be one of eight or nine directors on a new animated film inspired by the '70s sci-fi fantasy magazine. (I probably should have lead with news as good as this, now that I think of it.)

The film will consist of eight or nine individual animated segments, each of which will be directed by a different director who hopefully has the "Heavy Metal" spirit at heart. On board so far, along with Fincher, are "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" co-creator Kevin Eastman and Tim Miller, whose Blur Studios will handle the animation

Thankfully, this gives David Fincher a very full plate. I would assume he's just about finished with "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," based on the F. Scott Fitzgerald tale about a man (Brad Pitt) who ages in reverse through the 20th century, but after that it gets a bit murky. Along with the "Heavy Metal" project, he's also attached to direct a flick based on Charles Burns' graphic novel "Black Hole" and. if the IMDB is to be believed (and it almost always is), maybe "Rendezvous with Rama," based on the sci-fi novel by Arthur C. Clarke.

Whew! That's a lot to keep track of, but a world in which David Fincher has too much work is just way preferable to one in which he has too little. 'Nuff said.

"Pineapple Express" trailer

"That's not gonna get us a ride, man."

Since it's Friday, I'll leave you with this trailer for "Pineapple Express," which, against almost all odds, looks more and more like it will be an actually insanely funny stoner movie. The line above made me laugh the loudest, but there's a lot to enjoy here (with headphones on if you're at work!) in this preview of the flick starring Seth Rogen and James Franco as, well, basically what their "Freaks and Geeks" characters Ken Miller and Daniel Desario would have turned into by now. Enjoy, and have a perfectly pleasant weekend. Peace out.