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TMNT director Kevin Monroe has signed on to direct War Monkeys, and Sammo Hung is in talks to star for Dark Horse Indie. The sci-fi horror comedy tells the story of two slacker janitors who get trapped in an underground research facility (think Area 51) during the Christmas holiday, after accidentally unleashing military-trained research monkeys.
Monroe explained to Sci-Fi that it is “almost like a modern-day Abbott and Costello movie”, comparing the plot to Aliens and later saying that the screenplay is “sort of like if Tarantino wrote Gremlins“. What?! Munrow plans to shoot the film using a mix of live trained rhesus monkeys, puppets and [...]

You might not recognize Sandy Collora’s name, but you’ve probably seen his films. Special effects artist and creature designer turned filmmaker, Collora is probably best known as the director of one of the most famous fan films of all time Batman: Dead End. If you haven’t seen it, check it out now. The film is most memorable for it’s Hollywood-level production values and a shocking climax that involves Batman battling Alien and Predator. Collora’s 2004 follow-up, World’s Finest, which involved the team-up of Batman and Superman, was not as well received.

Four years later, Collora has returned with his first original feature film, Hunter Prey. Shot with the RED camera system, [...]

Bloody Disgusting has a first look at Sam Rockwell in the upcoming sci-fi film Moon. Rockwell stars as Sam Bell, an Astronaut who has been mining Helium 3 on the moon three years alone. With only two weeks before he returns home, Sam begins seeing and hearing things.
Did I mention that Kevin Spacey provides the voice of the robot? Also, Clint Mansell (Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain) is doing the score. I’ve included some of the photos above and below, but head on over to BloodyD for the whole batch of photos. I’m a big fan of old school space sci-fi, and photos like this get me very [...]

Bad and Ugly has the first set photo of George Clooney in costume on the Albuquerque, New Mexico set of Grant Heslov’s adaptation of Men Who Stare at Goats. Based on Jon Ronson’s 2004 book about U.S. military efforts to develop paranormal powers for American soldiers. Clooney plays a U.S. Army First Earth Battallon unit member who goes to battle using ancient Chinese mind techniques.

Disney has released the first trailer for Race to Witch Mountain. It’s easy to immediately discount any kids film (outside of the Pixar-animated movies), but I actually think Witch Mountain looks like disposable fun. Kinda like the kid flicks from the 1980’s. And that might just be the echos of my fond childhood memories of Escape to Witch Mountain, a film this is based on. Please, tell me what you think in the comments below.
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Official Plot Synopsis: Race to Witch Mountain is [...]

Warner Bros has started pushing The Dark Knight for Best Picture with For Your Consideration advertisements in the trades. The advertisement below was found on Variety.com.

Aaron Eckhart (The Dark Knight, Thank You For Smoking) has signed on to star in Columbia Pictures’s big sci-fi action film Battle: Los Angeles. Chris Bertolini’s spec screenplay tells the story of a Marine platoon’s  battle against an alien invasion in downtown Los Angeles. Eckhart will play the platoon leader.
Originally pitched as a West Coast Cloverfield, director Jonathan Liebesman is planning to make something more along the vibe of “Independence Day meets Black Hawk Down.” Problem is that Liebesman is the guy behind Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning and Darkness Falls, which makes him no Ridley Scott. LatinoReview called the film “dull and boring and infuriating at times”, and admitted [...]

Tiscali Games has the first screenshots from the Watchmen video game, Watchmen: The End is Nigh.

Developed by Deadline Games (Total Overdose), the episodic game will follow Rorschach and Night Owl in 1972.

Michael Ferris and John Brancato are in early talks to write the screenplay for XXX: The Return of Xander Cage, the third film in the series which re-teams hack director Rob Cohen and robot turned actor Vin Diesel. Ferris and Brancato made a name for themselves with David Fincher’s The Game, but are probably best known for Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, The Net, Catwoman, Primeval and Terminator Salvation. Yeah, not exactly a good track record, not that there was any hopes for a third XXX film in the first place.
On the other hand, at least it can’t be any worse than xXx 2: The Next Level.
In quick [...]

Warner Bros has hired new screenwriters for their big screen live-action adaptation of Robotech. Smallville scribes Alfred Gough and Miles Millar have come on board to rewrite Lawrence Kasdan’s previous draft. This is not good news. Gough and Millar were the team behind The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, Herbie Fully Loaded, Made Men, Showtime, and the Shanghai Noon franchise (you remember, the Jackie Chan/Owen Wilson western comedy films?). To be fair, they got a story credit on Spider-Man 2…
And to think, Warner Bros gave those two guys the job of rewriting a script penned by the the screenwriting legend responsible for both Raiders of the Lost Ark and [...]

Could the first teaser trailer for James Cameron’s Sci-Fi 3D epic Avatar be on its way? MarketSaw posted these very convincing photos of a batch of packaged 35mm film trailers. Fox’s The Day The Earth Stood Still hits theaters on December 12th, could the teaser be attached to that film? I can’t imagine that Cameron would want to release an Avatar trailer not in 3D, would he? Some have pointed out that the lengthy running time listed on the boxes might point to it being a fake.

It’s impossible to talk about Marc Forster’s Quantum of Solace without first reflecting on how far the Bond franchise has come in recent years. When Martin Campbell’s Casino Royale debuted in 2006, it rebooted the franchise and heralded the age of a bold new Bond. The suave secret agent of previous years was replaced by a rough-and-tumble soldier, who relied more on fists, knives, and guns to get things done, rather than outlandish gadgets. The lifestyle of a double-O, which had seemed intensely appealing over the course of the last few decades, was suddenly transformed into one filled with self-sacrifice, self-reflection, and self-loathing. While the card game sequences might have [...]

Twitch has the first trailer for the second a part of John Woo’s massive epic period war film Red Cliff, based on the The Battle of Red Cliffs in 208 AD. Looks pretty intense. The most expensive film in Chinese film history. The first part broke box office records in China.

To help promote the release of Pixar’s WALL-E next week on DVD/Blue-Ray, Disney has sent us a batch of concept art and production photos. As always, click to enlarge. I’d especially recommend that you check out the two small strips below.

15 more photos after the jump.

Warner Bros has released a new trailer for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Is it just me, or do the trailers for the Potter series seem to get more and more epic with each new film that is released? Even the title cue has an extremely epic take on John William’s original Potter theme. Tell me what you think in the comments below.

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Plot Synopsis: Voldemort is tightening his grip on both the Muggle and wizarding worlds and Hogwarts is no [...]