World War II all around: Valkyrie, Miracle and Red Tails

I've been rather shocked at the mostly negative reviews that have piled up so far for Spike Lee's "Miracle at St. Anna" (30 percent positive at Rotten Tomatoes, and even those were only really lukewarm.)

The main complaint I've read is that Mr. Lee has just bitten off too much to deal with here and lets his movie sprawl over the place and never really focuses on a single story line. Even if that is the case, I'm perfectly willing to sacrifice a rather whopping 2 hours and 46 minutes of my life to see what he's cooked up, because the only Spike Lee movie I can think of that I just had no time for at all was "Crooklyn," and most of the rest of them are movies that I just love. I'm gonna see it this afternoon, so please feel free to check back either tomorrow or Sunday to find out what I thought of it.

(As an aside, there's one scene in "Crooklyn" that just makes me cringe more than just about anything else I've ever seen on the big screen [and I'm really not exaggerating]. It's been a long time since I've seen it, but the stretch comes when the kids get shipped to my Maryland for a while, and apparently to make some kind of swipe at my homeland, he films the whole thing with some kind of gauzy haze. I still have no idea what he was going for, but it was just bloody awful.)

OK, I'm back. Along with releasing his own movie this week, Mr. Lee made news earlier in the week when he apparently disclosed to Roger Ebert the name of the director for "Red Tails," the upcoming Tuskegee Airmen flick being produced by Georgia Lucas. Here's what he had to say:

It was like eight men at the roundtable. And two of ‘em, Lee Archer and Roscoe Brown, was the 8th pilots of the Tuskegee Airmen, which I might add, this spring George Lucas is finally doin’ his Tuskegee Airmen film, “Redtails." He’s gonna produce it and a young African-American director, Anthony Hemingway, is gonna direct it. He’s done several episodic TVs, and is a young director so I’m looking forward to that and hopefully “Miracle” with “Redtails” coming’ up will generate more films to show the untold story about the participation.

You can read the rest of Mr. Ebert's interview here, and it's well worth spending a couple of minutes on. Mr. Hemingway's TV work covers everything from a few episodes of shows I love, "Battlestar Galactica" and "The Wire," to scattered episodes of other blockbusters like "ER" and "CSI NY." Screenwriter John Ridley, who came up with the uneven but still very funny "Undercover Brother" among other films, is scripting the tale of the pioneering airman, so this is one well worth keeping your eyes on when it comes out next spring or so.

And, finally, out today is also the first trailer (that I know of) for Bryan Singer's "Valkyrie," which if I'm not mistaken will finally come out in January. Tom Cruise stars as the main agent in an operation to kill Adolph Hitler, and though the movie supports a rather astounding supporting cast (Bill Nighy, Kenneth Branagh, Carice Van Houten, Stephen Fry, Terrence Stamp, Tom Wilkinson and Eddie Izzard, among others), I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that Cruise is the only name that appears in text in this rather kinetic trailer. Enjoy, and have a great weekend. Peace out.

What in the world ever happened to Cameron Crowe?

There are really few movies in the world I loathe more than Cameron Crowe's "Elizabethtown."

Now, obviously, I'm not saying by any objective standard that that semi-autobiographical rom-com is one of the worst movies ever made, because it clearly isn't. But I only reserve the word "hate" for films from directors from whom I expect a whole lot but really let me down. Therefore, you'll probably never hear me use it for a Uwe Boll movie (unless I ever bother to see "Postal"), but there's a very good chance you might hear it this weekend for M. Night Shyamalan if he disappoints again with "The Happening."

(If I can digress just a bit about that, does anyone else find it ominous that the only way they can find to promote "The Happening" in commercials is that it will be Shyamalan's "first R-rated movie"? SFW!?!?)

OK, I'm back. My rather circuitous point here is that I used to have tons of love for Cameron Crowe. I just love movies that make heroes out of possibly the most inappropriately loathed workers in the world - journalists - so I just adore "Almost Famous," probably beyond any rational amount it might deserve. I also have tons of time for "Say Anything," and of course he also wrote the timeless "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." So I certainly welcome any news of a Cameron Crowe comeback to wash away the rather bitter taste of "Elizabethtown," even if the details so far are very scarce.

Now comes word that he's apparently completed the script for an as-yet-untitled romantic comedy and signed on to direct it for Columbia Pictures, with Reese Witherspoon and Ben Stiller set to star.

I still like Stiller quite a bit when he's not starring in movies for either himself or the Farrelly brothers, and have nothing but love for Reese, so here's hoping this will be a return to top form for the formerly-fairly-great Mr. Crowe. Stay tuned for details as soon as I get them.

What will the new "Muppet Movie" look like?

Although I found Jason Segel's "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" to be a bit of a letdown, there's no denying that that "Dracula" puppet show he put on at the end was a classic. And, luckily, the Henson folks took notice too and have handed him and bud Nick Stoller the rights to make a new "Muppet Movie."

But just what will that mean? Will it be a good, old-fashioned Muppets flick suitable for all audiences? I certainly hope so, and from what Segel recently had to say to IESB.net, he does to. Here's some of what he had to say.

IESB: Is Sam the Eagle in it?

JS: Sam the Eagle is definitely in it. Statler and Waldorf - the whole gang!

IESB: Can you tell us a little bit about the story, which way you are headed with the MUPPETS?

JS: All I can say is that we are trying to bring it back to the early '80s movies where it's not Muppets in the Sahara or Muppets Underwater. It's the Muppets getting back together to put on a show, to save the studio.

IESB: No Pigs in Space?

JS: I can't give that away.

IESB: And the hope is to stay 100% traditional with the Muppets right?

JS: Oh yeah, absolutely.

IESB: No CGI Muppets or some horseshit.

JS: No, no, no. Hopefully it will fall right in the pantheon of The Great Muppet Caper, Muppets Take Manhattan, Muppet Movie, you know, we're trying to make one of those.

IESB: You said you had written something for Charles Grodin?

JS: Yeah, a brief cameo. We'll see if he wants to do it. There are some great cameos in there.

You can read the rest of the interview here.

Well, I was already fairly confident this flick was in the right hands, but now I'm sure. Here's hoping Segel - who said he just turned in his first draft of the script to his corporate handlers - is able to follow through on this and get the movie he, and all the rest of us, really want.

A new trailer for "Valkyrie"

If I'm not mistaken (as I definitely sometimes am), Bryan Singer's "Valkyrie" was first set to hit theaters, well, right about now. For whatever reason, and hopefully none of them terribly bad, it's now been pushed back until at least Feb. 13, 2009.

Which has made it fairly easy to forget all about what should be a more-than-fairly-cool flick. Personally, I'm still eager to see it, 'cause I'm always amped for a good World War II flick (especially Spike Lee's "Miracle at St. Anna," set to drop Sept. 26), and one that features a reteaming of the "Usual Suspects" team of Singer and Christopher McQuarrie with a plot to assassinate Hitler is right up my alley.

Anyways, here's the latest trailer, which indeed looks pretty intriguing. Enjoy, and have a perfectly pleasant Tuesday. Peace out.

A "Veronica Mars" reunion? Well, sort of

Just how in the world did Rob Thomas become the hottest property on TV?

I mean, I'm all for second (or third) chances, and I've made clear my devotion to Thomas' way-too-short-lived "Veronica Mars," but three pilots in one season? Sheesh.

Just 'cause I'm in that kind of mood this morning, I'll start with the least interesting and work my way up to the news of the day (just in case you couldn't figure it out from that none-too-cryptic headline.)

The first is some kind of reimagining/update/sequel to "Beverly Hills 90210." Now, I'm an admitted fan of trashy TV, tuning in as I do week after week for the CW's "Gossip Girl" even though I'm at least a few years beyond its target demographic (hey, knock it if you will, but I work 10-hour days and rather enjoy a little mindless entertainment at the end of the day.) Even so, I just can't see any possible way I'll tune in to this one.

The second must give Thomas some solace after his failed attempts to resuscitate "Veronica Mars" in a slightly altered format. For ABC he's getting to revive another of his shows that fans (though I can't say I'm one, since I missed it the first time) would say died too soon, "Cupid." I don't have too-high hopes for this one unless he's able to bring back star Jeremy Piven, which doesn't yet seem to be in the works.

And now, finally, to the big news of the day: Kristen Bell let it slip to E! Entertainment's Kristin Dos Santos here that she is indeed in final negotiations to reunite with Thomas for his third - and by far most interesting - pilot of the season. Also for ABC, he's developing something called "Outrageous Fortune," which is based on an Aussie series and centers on a family of criminals in which moms tries to make everyone go straight after dad gets sent to the big house. In less interesting casting news, Rene Russo is about to sign on as the mom. Sorry, but I've just never cared for her much at all.

Man, even if Mr. Thomas really likes to work, that just seems like a recipe for burnout. If Bell is indeed able to fit it into her schedule - along with a confirmed return engagement on "Heroes" and her continuing narration on "Gossip Girl" - "Outrageous Fortune" at least is one well worth keeping your eyes on this fall.

New "Muppet Movie" clearly in the right hands

For me, the Muppets are just something you don't mess with unless you have the purest of intentions, and it seems that Jason Segel and Nick Stoller indeed have a great, old-fashioned idea for the beloved critters.

According to this report at CHUD, the plotline they're developing in fact sounds like it fits right in the Muppet world. The Muppets will apparently be doing what Muppets do - putting on a show - this time to save their theater from an evil character who wants to tear the place down to get at the oil underneath.

Sounds great to me. Segel next stars with Ms. Bell in "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," which will hopefully be the year's first great comedy when it finally drops April 18, and there's some other pretty cool casting news out about another of his upcoming projects.

"I Love You, Man" will star the very funny Paul Rudd as a man who's about to get married and - realizing he has no friends - goes on a series of man-dates to find a best man, which turns out to be Segel. Rashida Jones is on hand as Rudd's fiancee, and in great news, Jamie Pressly - the funniest gal on TV on "My Name is Earl" - has now joined the cast as her best friend.

Now, this is apparently written and directed by John Hamburg, who made the rather wretched "Along Came Polly," but he also directed some episodes of Judd Apatow's "Undeclared" back in the day, so I'm willing to cut him a break. Besides, if he actually manages to come up with something bad with a cast like that, it will indeed be a rather monumental failure.

Your daily dose of Nazis

What could brighten your day more than a photo of Tom Cruise and, even better, the great Bill Nighy in their best Nazi garb on the set of Bryan Singer's "Valkyrie"? Well, I couldn't think of anything, so here's the best photo from Empire magazine, and you can find a few others here. Peace out.

Take heart: There are indeed good movies in sight!

I really can't remember a worse beginning to a movie year than we've had so far in 2008.

I was really hoping Kimberly Peirce's "Stop-Loss" would lift us up out of the muck, but with its thoroughly cliched characters and meandering storylines it just couldn't do it. That makes exactly one movie I've loved almost unconditionally - Michel Gondry's "Be Kind Rewind" - in wide release so far this year. Man is that depressing.

But, of course, summer is just around the corner, which means Iron Man, Indy and a whole lot more fun. And I do have somewhat high hopes for Clooney's "Leatherheads" and slightly lower ones for Scorsese's Stones doco "Shine a Light," both supposedly opening wide this week (though as of yet I see no proof of Scorsese's flick hitting Macon.)

Today here, however, it's all about the fall, when the studios unveil the big guns for awards season. And frankly, surveying the field, it looks like it's once again the Coen Brothers' race to lose (how cool would it be if they actually managed to win back to back Best Picture kudos?!?) So, here's a look at some of the big contenders you'll see hitting your multiplexes come September:

(Brief aside: As I write this I'm listening to Bettye LaVette's album with the Drive-By Truckers, "Scene of the Crime." If you like Southern soul and blues music at all, it just doesn't get any better than this .. OK, I'm back now.)

Sept. 12: "Burn After Reading"
Why not start out with the reigning champs? The Coens' latest will star not only George Clooney and Brad Pitt, but also Tilda Swinton (pretty much a guarantor of kudos), John Malkovich and Frances McDormand (huzzah!). Here, as far as I can tell, is the rather twisted plot summary: Malkovich will play a CIA agent who, after getting fired, writes an inflammatory memoir. The disc containing it is stolen by his soon-to-be ex-wife, played by Swinton, who then accidentally leaves it at the gym, where it falls into the hands of a trainer (Pitt) and the gym owner (McDormand), who want to use it to blackmail Malkovich. Throw in Clooney as a CIA agent investigating all this mess, and I can only say bring it on.

Sept. 12: "The Duchess"
It seems like I've been seeing the trailer for this since last summer, and it just looks like nothing more than the most bland kind of period piece, but here's hoping I'm once again wrong. Starring Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes, it is based on Amanda Foreman's biography of the scandalous 18th-century English aristocrat Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire. I can only assume that Knightley plays the duchess, but it might be slightly more interesting if the reverse were true.

Sept. 19: "Blindness"
Though I've made it clear there's nothing but mad love for the Coens around here, if I had to pick one single favorite director it would be Fernando Meirelles, and now he's finally back again. In what I'm hoping will be a return to smart science fiction on the big screen, Julianne Moore will play the wife of a doctor (the great Mark Ruffalo) who finds she is the only person who can see in a world where everyone else has gone blind. She feigns illness in order to take care of her husband as her surrounding community breaks down into chaos and disorder. I'll probably have to wait until like December to see this out here in the hinterlands, but I'm still rather jazzed for this.

Oct. 3: "Valkyrie"
Tom Cruise and Bryan Singer's World War II epic has been pushed back from a summer release to make time for the shooting of a crucial battle scene, but presumably also to put it squarely in the middle of awards season. This one, about a German soldier (Cruise, of course) who launched a plot to assassinate Hitler, represents a reteaming of Singer and screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie, the team behind "The Usual Suspects," so it should be great.

Oct. 10: "Body of Lies"
In another high-profile reunion, Russell Crowe is back with director Ridley Scott, and Leo DiCaprio's on board too, for this second CIA flick of the season. In what should be a much more somber (and probably less fun) movie than the Coens', DiCaprio will play a CIA operative who is sent to Jordan to find a high-ranking terrorist and forms an uneasy alliance with the head of Jordan's covert operations.

Oct. 25: "Flash of Genius"
If it has the fun spirit of "Tucker," which it certainly looks like it could, I think this could be the sleeper hit of the Fall (and not just because it means - finally - a prominent role for Lauren Graham!) Greg Kinnear will play Robert Kearns, a Detroit engineer who claimed the auto industry stole his idea for the intermittent windshield wiper, and Graham will play his wife.

Nov. 14: "Australia"
Is Baz Luhrmann really going to manage to finish his first movie since 2001's "Moulin Rouge"? Given all that I've read about trouble on the set, I have my doubts, but if he does it promises to be a typically ambitious project. Nicole Kidman will play an English aristocrat who inherits a large cattle ranch in northern Australia prior to World War II. To save her inheritance from cattle barons she joins forces with a cattle-driver (Hugh Jackman) to drive her 2,000 head of cattle across the country just as the Japanese start to bomb the continent. This could be either epicly good or awful, but I seriously doubt it will be boring.

Nov. 26: "The Road"
After the success of "No Country for Old Men," it indeed seems like we'll be stuck with Cormac McCarthy's works on the big screen for a while, which will probably be a good thing. Ridley Scott has his eyes on "Blood Meridian," but before that John Hillcoat will director this Oprah-approved McCarthy work about a father and son who journey together for many months across a post-apocalyptic landscape that was once the United States, some time after a great, unexplained cataclysm. The big names for this one are Charlize Theron, Viggo Mortensen and, in a welcome return, Guy Pearce.

Dec. 5: "Frost/Nixon"
Peter Morgan adapts his own play about David Frost's famous TV interviews with Richard Nixon for director Ron Howard. Though I have my doubts about Howard, you can't knock the casting for this one: Michael Sheen (Tony Blair in "The Queen") is Frost and, in the leading contender for next year's Best Actor Oscar, Frank Langella is Nixon.

Dec. 12: "Seven Pounds"
I couldn't bring myself to see "The Pursuit of Happiness (yes, I insist on spelling it right!)", and I'll probably skip this Will Smith-Gabrielle Muccino collaboration too unless I hear tremendous things about it. In the flick, Smith plays a man who "will change the lives of seven strangers." Yep, I can tell already that I'm gonna just have to skip this one.

Dec. 19: "Revolutionary Road"
In what essentially sounds like "American Beauty" set in the 1950s, Sam Mendes will direct wifey Kate Winslet and Mr. Dicaprio in this flick. The duo play a husband and wife who grow bored of their lives in the Revolutionary Hill Estates, and eventually tear each other and their marriage down. Sounds cheery, eh? I didn't really care too much for "American Beauty," so I can only get mildly excited about this redux.

Dec. 19: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
This time I have indeed saved the best for last, because I think David Fincher's next flick will be a real dark horse contender come awards season (and surely one of my favorite flicks of the year.) In the flick based on a F. Scott Fitzgerald work, a man (Brad Pitt) is born in Baltimore (huzzah!) in 1919 at the age of 80 and ages backwards through the 20th century. Cate Blanchett is also on board as a woman he falls in love with round about the time he hits age 30. Here's what Fincher himself has to say about this promising project: "It's dark, it's romantic, and it also deals with mortality in a pretty unflattering way. The guy is born in 1919 - with the film itself beginning in World War I, traveling around the world and carrying on all the way through to the year 2000." Simply cool.

And there, for anyone brave enough to stick it out to the end of all that, you have it. Definitely plenty to look forward to in the next awards season. Peace out.

Pity for Tom Cruise? I think not

To anyone who bothered to see the simply wretched "Lions for Lambs," please accept my most sincere apology, even if i didn't have anything to do with the making of it. Luckily, it seems almost no one made that mistake.

It seems that the flick, the first for Mr. Cruise and producing partner Paula Wagner, will not even hit $20 million at the domestic box office, and less than $60 million worldwide. Here are the hard numbers from through last weekend, according to the great Box Office Mojo site: Still playing on 1,527 screens, the flick had managed to take in just a meager $13,795,571 domestically. For a bit of perspective, the Coen brothers' "No Country for Old Men" has already taken in $16,313,580 playing on only 860 screens (though that is expanding further this weekend, with it even playing at one theater in Macon, the Regal Rivergate 14, so go see it if you're here!)

Cruise's rather embarrassing debut as company runner might not have looked so bad if "Lions for Lambs" weren't such an extreme act of hubris. Playing the senator supposedly selling a new front in the war on terror, Cruise was unable to for even one second hide the smugness he felt in knowing it was all hogwash. And I'm certain that if Robert Redford, who wrote and directed this mess, takes a second to more properly channel his still righteous anger he will be able to come up with a much better movie than one in which he spends the whole affair yelling at a slacker student who just doesn't "get it."

One thing you shouldn't take away from this epic failure is that there isn't a hunger out there for bold movies that take on the war in Iraq and its many consequences, but is it too much to ask that at the same time these flicks be entertaining? In Cruise's case, clearly yes, but I had a slightly better time watching Tommy Lee Jones mope his way through Paul Haggis' "In the Valley of Elah" (But Mr. Jones, like me, definitely had a lot more fun with the Coen brothers.)

Will Cruise recover? Judging from what's up next at United Artists, the answer is yes. There's a lot of cool stuff in the pipeline for next summer, but I think Bryan Singer's "Valkyrie," starring Cruise (natch) as the German colonel who launched a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler may be among the best. It's being co-written by Christopher McQuarrie, who penned Singer's sublime "The Usual Suspects," and has a tremendous supporting cast that includes Bill Nighy, Carice Van Houten, Kenneth Branagh, Stephen Fry, Terrence Stamp and Tom Wilkinson.

After that he's clearly landed a titan in convincing Guillermo del Toro to direct "Champions," based on an old British TV show I've never heard of. The original series apparently starred Stuart Damon, Alexandra Bastedo and William Gaunt as members of a United Nations-affiliated organization called Nemesis. After a plane crash in the Himalayas, all three are saved and given supernatural powers including ESP and precognition.

In more bad news, however, UA was forced to postpone Oliver Stone's next Vietnam flick, "Pinkville," because of the writers' strike, and then star Bruce Willis pulled out.

And in case you were wondering when a Tom Cruise movie last managed to take in less than $20 million domestic, it was a heck of a long time ago. Released in 1986, the fantasy/adventure "Legend" (which does have some charms) grossed $15.5 million domestically, but of course expectations were much lower way back then.

Please, if you take nothing else from this admitted screed, at least promise me this: When "Lions for Lambs" comes out on DVD, please, please, please do not even bother to give it a rental. It's just that bad.

Actors on actors

Faced with little actual news to report thanks to the ongoing strike, Variety this morning published a series of predictably self-congratulatory pieces in which some of Hollywood biggest stars talked about their co-workers. If you can cut through the cheese, it's actually not a bad way to waste a few minutes at work. Here are two snippets that didn't make me just hurl, Julia Roberts talking about the great Paul Rudd and Matt Damon talking about rising star Amy Ryan, and you can read the rest here.

"Paul is the most unexpected movie star. For his facial hair in 'Anchorman' he probably walked around like that for months. The people at the grocery store don't know why he looks like that. They think he's nuts. He's not scared to do those things. ... At a dinner party, if you're seated next to Paul, you'll leave thinking, I'm so funny. I always want to be seated next to Paul."

"I sat dumbfounded watching this performance in 'Gone Baby Gone.' Every moment, every detail in Amy Ryan's performance is spot-on. In fact, I've never seen an actor from outside Boston come to our city and be this convincing - and a lot of great actors have come here and given award-worthy performances. This is at another level, though. It's that place actors hope to get to at least once in their career, where they completely disappear into someone else -- that place that made me ask, 'Who the hell is she and why hasn't she worked more on film before this?'

New pictures of Iron Man

The more I see from Jon Favreau's first foray into superhero flicks, the more I'm convinced he's gonna deliver a real winner next summer with "Iron Man." After all, I don't think you can go wrong with Robert Downey Jr. as our hero Tony Stark, and the supporting cast of Terrence Howard (who seems to work a heck of a lot), Jeff Bridges (huzzah!), Gwyneth Paltrow, Samuel L. Jackson and even Ghostface Killah ain't shabby either. Anyways, Comingsoon.net has managed to get its hands on several new pics, of which I swiped just one. You can see the rest here, and have an entirely enjoyable weekend. Peace out.

Nazis by numbers: Your guide to the greatest cast ever?

In the current race to produce World War II flicks, I'd have to puy my money behind Spike Lee's being the best, if he ever gets around to making it, but it certainly seems Bryan Singer will at least be first with "Valkyrie." And his flick should be pretty darn good too, especially with the cast assembled above.

That photo, swiped directly from London's Daily Mail, has those big red numbers on it for a reason (you may have to click on the photo to make them out.) The Mail was kind enough to provide a breakdown of exactly who's who, in case you couldn't make them out. Here goes:

1. Carl Goerdeler
Kevin McNally plays Carl Goerdeler, the former mayor of Leipzig.

2. Albrecht Riter Merz von Quirnheim
Christian Berkel plays von Quirnheim, once a committed Nazi officer who became disillusioned with Hitler's conduct of the war in 1943.

3. General Friedrich Olbricht
Bill Nighy (huge huzzah!) plays the general who was one of the main architects of the Valkyrie operation.

4. Count Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg
Tom Cruise (yes, he's in this too) plays the leading role of the nobleman who planted a briefcase containing two pounds of explosives in Hitler's conference room at his headquarters.

5. General Ludwig Beck
Terence Stamp plays one of the only officers to stand up to Hitler in the early days of his regime.

6. Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben
David Schofield plays one of the conquerors of France in the Blitzkrieg of 1940.

7. Henning von Tresckow
Kenneth Branagh plays Stauffenberg's closest accomplice in the Valkyrie plot.

It feels more than a little weird getting geeked up about Nazis, but I just can't help it. To read more about the historical figures these actors will be portraying, you can read the entire Daily Mail article here.

Faith hits comic book shelves!

And that's something that, despite my advancing age, I can get fully geeky about with no apologies. With Vol. 6 of Season 8 of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" hitting comic book stores today, the attention does indeed turn to Cleveland's baddest broad, and thankfully she still looks a lot like Eliza Dushku (at least on the cover.)

As the second arc of the first season begins, Joss Whedon hands over the writing duties to Brian E. Vaughn (Y: The Last Man, Pride of Baghdad.) Dark Horse's marketing folks offer this simple but effective teaser: " The fugitive slayer is given the assignment that could change her life ... if Giles's specialized training doesn't make her want to end it first."

I'm definitely in for that. Artist Georges Jeanty continues his great work with the series, and Whedon will remain as executive producer. These have been selling out on the first day they hit shelves, so I'd recommend you act fast or maybe order a copy at TFAW.com (though you'll pay for delivery, of course.)

To see four or five pages beyond the cover, you can catch Dark Horse's preview here.

Could it possibly have been a mob hit?

Well, it doesn't seem so, but when you're talking about something like this it's only seems responsible to be as sensational as possible.

It seems that an explosive device, originally thought to be a pipe bomb, detonated outside the studio Dante, owned by "Sopranos" star Michael Imperioli. It's located two blocks south of Madison Square Garden. Given the times we live in, I guess it's not surprising that Mayor Michael Bloomberg was called in to diffuse the situation.

"There was an explosion in the street, it blew out windows of a van parked in front of the building, and thankfully no one was injured. While there certainly is no evidence that this was terrorism, we are taking this and every act of violence extremely seriously."

Well, for the good people of New York City, I'm glad someone is, and that it doesn't have to be me. That leaves me free to fantasize that, even though Christoper Moltasanti is dead, some of the gangsters he maligned in "Cleaver" are still out for revenge. That's so much more fun than the reality of bombs in NYC, isn't it?

"The Wachowski Brothers are no more"

Though folks like me might hope that means they're gonna stop making movies, it's a whole lot weirder than that.

It seems that, and if you haven't heard this already be assured that I'm not making it up, Larry Wachowski is well on is way to becoming (or indeed may already be) Lana. Apparently, and I'm not going to hazard any psychosexual guess as to why, he had a sex change operation about a year ago.

I wanted to post a photo of his rather oddly evolving appearance, but I can't get it to work, so instead you can go and read all about it at the source, Rated-M.com.

Into the "Golden Age" with Elizabeth

OK, it's been awfully goofy here today, so I'll try and class things up just a bit with this new trailer for the upcoming Oscar-magnet "Elizabeth: The Golden Age." Starring Cate Blanchett, Clive Owen, Geoffrey Rush and, though you only get glimpses of her in the trailer, la bella Samantha Morton, this one promises to be both a sumptuous period piece and pretty darn good action flick to boot. Enjoy, and have an entirely suckfree Wednesday.