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.