When Twilight was feeling its rise to popularity there were two comparisons that were thrown about. The literary popularity in young readers like Harry Potter fans, and the criticism that the romance was ripped from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

And now Hollywood is rumoured to be alive with the buzz that Joss Whedon, creator of the aforementioned Buffy the Vampire Slayer is eyeing the success of Twilight with anxious hands gripping a feature film script he had prepared for the continuation of the show.

Moviehole Reports:

The monster success of girly vampire pic Twilight at the US Box office last weekend could kick open the door for a big-screen return of Joss Whedon’s much-loved Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Rumours are circulating in Hollywood that Whedon has a feature-film script based on his hit TV series ready to roll as soon as a studio is prepared to commit.

I could see this as prime picking for a return of the delectable Sarah Michelle Gellar and her Scooby Gang to return to the big screen. I have no doubt that Joss has a multitude of ideas stashed away for the Buffyverse in that treasure trove of a mind of his.

Maybe if Buffy gets a movie treatment in this high time of teen vampire romance, other spinoff possibilities could return to television as well. Faith the rebel slayer was rumoured to be getting her own show back in the day and even Spike was considered, but the one spinoff show I was looking more forward to seeing was Ripper. The story of Giles, the last remaining Watcher gathering and reforming what is left of the council (destroyed in the closing end of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on TV). Anthony Stewart Head is currently staring as King Pendragon in the BBC’s Merlin.

David Boreanaz is enjoying great success on Bones (also a favourite of mine) but I am sure he too could leave some room for a feature film to return as Angel.

Joss has a cult following, which I am a member of so I am tainted in my opinion. But it might be high time for him to reign the TV waves again. Joss once swore to never do TV, but mid-season he has Dollhouse premiering with former Buffy Alum Eliza Dushku (which is getting mixed reviews and speculation on the Whedon TV Cancellation curse) and his outstanding success online with Doctor Horrible’s Sing-a-Long Blog are keeping him just shy of the spotlight.

But the rabid Whedonites have let him down in the past with Firefly. But while the market is hot for angsty vampire love, and Hollywood itching to make a movie out of every popular but ened TV show (Friends, Sex and the City, Arrested Development) we just might find all the planets are aligned for our best chance at seeing it happen.

Looks like Tim Blake Nelson’s character in the Hulk was not just any old Doctor with a made up name. That name was Dr Samuel Sterns. Avid comic book readers would pick up this little tidbit as the name that the longtime Hulk Nemesis The Leader. Sounds like The Leader is precisely where they were headed when they gave the role to Mr Nelson.

ComingSoon.net quotes Nelson

That’s the plan. That’s what they tell me, but I don’t know when that’s happening or what the details are but I am eager to do it and I hear that’s in the works. I would tell you if I knew more, but I honestly don’t.

I was never a fan of The Leader as a nemesis for the Hulk. He is a diminutive little man with a ridiculous oversize cranium dome, and of course he is green. Sacrificing brawn for brains, he creates a legion of plastic humanoids that are all super strong and mostly invulnerable. Kind of a dumb villain and not something that should rank as “nemesis”

However, for a movie? Seeing the Hulk wade through hundreds of indestructible plastic men or a variety of robots would be a visual treat for certain. They would just keep coming, and he would keep smashing. Effects extravaganza!!

Seems today is all about Star Trek! Now we have an updated trailer for Star Trek. How updated? Well it is the same trailer we were introduced to last week. With a little more.

You have to watch the whole thing to see the three seconds of extra footage, but it is worth it to see a very old looking Spock offer a “Live Long and Prosper”

IDW Publishing has released the above cover for January’s Star Trek Movie Prequel Comic Tie in. Now as a collector, I have seen many movie tie in comics, and they often just come off as fluff or “tidbits we hope you know before you see the film” for those who are unfamiliar with a franchise. But it seems this might be a little different than I have come to expect in these sorts of books.

ComingSoon quotes

“There was a lot of back and forth about doing this project, how to do it, what it would be about, but what all parties agreed on was that we needed the right story and that it needed to matter. It had to count both on its own merits and when read in conjunction with the new movie,” said series editor Andy Schmidt. “I couldn’t be happier with the project and what it means to the overall Star Trek franchise!”

“‘Star Trek: Countdown’ lays the groundwork for what happens in the movie,” said Roberto Orci. “It’s our way of passing the baton from the ‘Next Generation’ characters and their movies to the new film.”

Abrams is presenting the book for obvious reasons, but it is plotted by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman - famous in comic world for its mature and graphic presentation of Transformers in print.

It is written by Mike Johnson (Superman/Batman) and Tim Jones, and features stunning art by David Messina (”Star Trek: Mirror Images”) who also did the above cover.

I really look forward to seeing how they are going to incorporate the Original Series characters, who are being redirected in history with this film, and the Next Generation characters. All of the previous history we know and love is being re-written by the events of this film effectively rebooting the series, so where would these characters have any place in its story?

I will have to pick up this book just to see how they do it.

/Film found a clip of William Shatner responding to the new design for the Starship Enterprise for JJ Abrams vision of a new starting point for Star Trek.

Shatner has never held back about his feelings on Star Trek, and I think in his more mature days he has a better grasp on the man he was and the man he is today. I have oodles of respect for the guy.

I also like that people would go to him to find out what he thinks of the new direction. Granted he is bound to have feelings on a film that is re-imagining a character that he is best known for playing, but I almost feel like people want him to lose his shit over this stuff so they can rally around it. Fortunately that is not happening and Shatner appears to be all for the new vision.

But in true class and in very few words Bill pulls out a gem of wisdom, even stumbling momentarily to say it doesnt matter if a window is up here instead of over there … its the traditions and ideals that matter. He even wishes JJ well.

I can’t wait for this movie.

There was a LOT of trash talking over Twilight, and I tend to notice that when there is a lot of people complaining about something they know little about, it usually means that it is successful. I am not a Twilight fan and was never drawn to pick up the books. But I couldn’t avoid recognizing its popularity. I saw that book cover more than newspapers when out around town, and even if you feel it is not deserving of the praise it is getting, it cannot be avoided. Twilight is a hit.

Yahoo reports:

Audiences found the vampire romance “Twilight” infectious in its opening weekend, pushing the movie to a take of $70.6 million.

Catherine Hardwicke’s film also enjoyed the biggest opening ever for a female director, blowing away the previous standard of $41.1 million set by Mimi Leder’s “Deep Impact” in 1998.

Drawing from its huge fan base of teenage girls, who fell for Stephenie Meyer’s novel of forbidden love between brooding vampire Edward Cullen and bookish high schooler Bella Swan, “Twilight” made a whopping $20,636 per theater, according to Sunday morning estimates.

See, unlike truly undeserving boxoffice success like Jackass or PottySpoof movies, this franchise has hit on an appealing concept to a very large demographic of readers. It may not be your cup of tea, but at least it had SOMETHING to offer other than recycled potty jokes and crotch kicks. I have to give it at most that much credit.

Well while all you people are busy trying to cut up Twilight and pretending that it doesn’t matter, allow me to point out that this weekend Twilight beat out a family friendly film on its opening weekend - an addage here at the Stub that rarely goes challenged: never underestimate the Family Friendly Film. Twilight nearly triples the release of Bolt with $70.6million while Quantum of Solace lands a comfy second place (on its second week) at $27.4million while Disney’s animated feature Bolt was sniffing Bond’s heels at $27million.

I would have guessed that Bolt would have fared better than Bond’s second week, but I didn’t doubt for a second that Twilight was going to eat up all the attention at the boxoffice. So while all the naysayers are having their fun trying to come up with creative insults for Twilight, it would appear you are in a minority. There seems to be an awful lot of people (polls show teenage girls mostly) who are willing to go check this out.

Credit where credit is due. Twilight owns the boxoffice.

Pushing Daisies is an incredible show. With all the wit deserving of a Douglas Adams, and all the whimsy you would expect from the morbidly enjoyable writer of Dead Like Me and Wonderfalls, I was instantly in love with this show.

Sadly, the mediocre ratings the show received were not enough to keep it on the air. Not when they can take a chance on another show that could possibly be a bigger hit.

So that is the equation of TVland?
A mediocre sure fire show < A possibility at a hit show.

And this is what perplexes me deeply. EW Ausiello Files reports, Knight Rider gets a full season ordered.

Knight Rider? For serious? Come on… Knight Rider gets a shot at eternal fame and glory and Pushing Daisies is set aside after a writer’s strike fraught first season and a shortened by cancellation second.

I predicted 3 episodes before the network came to their senses .. the TV Movie/pilot wasn’t bad, but the first episode of the series was painful. So even if Knight Rider doesn’t see a second season, it looks like it might see more episodes than Pushing Daisies.

Is it deserving of this praise? Did it get better than the transformer ripoff and tired supporting cast stereotype garbage that they delivered in the first episode?

I know that the full season did come with the weight of some retooling which caused 3 of the supporting cast to lose their jobs. Apparently they are streamlining it to be more about helping normal people instead of an anti-terrorist squad.

Do you find it worth watching?

Thanks to ThinkHero.com we get a peek at Astroboy. Looks pretty accurate to me, though I figured we might get a look at his bare chested action mode outfit instead of just a peek at his “I am a real boy” digs.

Thanks for checking out Rodney’s Bolt review.

When I first saw the preview for Bolt, I honestly didn’t see that much that made me want to go to this. But it didn’t look like it would be bad either so I checked it out. This was Disney without the aid of Pixar, doing 3D so at very least I would see what they came up with on their own. I was overwhelmingly impressed.

THE GENERAL IDEA

The film is about Bolt, a small white German Shepherd who has lived all his life on the set of a TV show in which he portrays a superhero dog. As a result, he thinks that his superpowers, and events on film, are real. When he is accidentally shipped from his Hollywood soundstage to New York City, he embarks on a cross-country journey to reunite with his owner and co-star, Penny. Along the way, Bolt teams up with a jaded housecat named Mittens and a TV-obsessed hamster named Rhino who also happens to be an extreme Bolt fanboy, and eventually he discovers that he doesn’t need superpowers to be a hero.

THE GOOD

Holy crap the effects in this movie were staggering. The opening scene shows the front of the pet store where we are first introduced to Bolt before he is adopted. It looked SO REAL. Seriously, I wondered if it really was until I saw the stylized shop owner walk into the screen. Very much a Pixar styled human, but so seamlessly blended into this picture perfect scene. Everything in the movie looks so realistic and yet doesn’t contradict with the animated cartoon-esque characters. One particular scene where they pan along the strip in Las Vegas had my hetero-plus-one guest (who had just recently returned from Vegas) literally gasping in shock at the realism and perfect translation they made.

Bolt himself is the star of this movie, but the real comedy comes from his unlikely companions Mittens the cat and Rhino the hamster. When I first saw the scene with the Hamster, I was ready to write him off. He was a little irritating at first. But some of the best lines in the movie come from this drooling fanboy hamster. I fell in love with the character and had many a good laugh at his expense.

Lastly, in one of the opening scenes we see Bolt as he is in the TV Show to set the understanding of Bolt’s world. Seriously, that was made of awesome. The scene was action packed and full of excitement. I would watch the show that Bolt is in. If they make a spin off on TV about this (They did it for Buzz Lightyear!), I hope they show us the Bolt show. Damn that was good. I was almost disappointed when the rest of the movie kicks in at the end of the scene. I wanted more of that! But the rest of the movie doesn’t disappoint either.

THE BAD

Now the basic premise is that Bolt thinks he is the character he plays on TV. When he enters the real world he still carries on like he has powers and this leaves him in a multitude of situations where he is pretending to have powers like his super bark, or laser eyes. Meanwhile everyone around him is rolling their eyes and think he is insane. I kept waiting for one of them to vent their frustration and shout “YOU ARE A TOY!!!” Yeah, the parallels to Toy Story and the delusional Buzz Lightyear were there. Almost distracting. They handle it well, nearly better than in Toy Story and at very least on par. Once I forced Toy Story out of my head, I got past it.

Also, the character of Penny in the Bolt show is a teen superspy with unreal gadgets and faces off against “The green eyed man” a cat loving evil nemesis. Clearly the show is a tribute to Inspector Gadget, Penny and her Dog saving the day. Much like the Toy Story similarity it took away from the awesomeness.

OVERALL

So I wasn’t all that interested in seeing it, but very glad that I did. I didn’t even mind that Miley Cyrus was the voice of Penny, they needed a cute girl’s voice and Miley provided that and conveniently got the closing credit song as well. Fortunately it was a duet with John Travolta and is a pretty catchy song suiting the film perfectly. Once I got over the minor hurdle of the “tributes” feeling too much like a ripoff, I really enjoyed the movie.

It was a great entertaining flick with jokes for the grownups and lots of fun for kids to get a kick out of. Animation was spectacular, the characters were all very enjoyable. The wit of their lines was sharp and laugh inducing. Go see this movie. Even if you don’t have a kid to make it look like you have to. Seriously.

Overall I give Bolt a 8 out of 10.

By whatever gods you worship, if there was ever a blot on the Star Wars Universe it was the Star Wars Holiday Special. This wonderful masterpeice of farted out garbage makes JarJar look like Brad Pitt. But for many fans it is the obscurity of this one time released Holiday Special something to acquire. I own a copy.

So here is the deal. There is no Christmas in Star Wars so they join Chewbacca’s family in celebrating “Life day” and the show reunites all the cast of the super successful Star Wars Universe for a made for TV movie. This was SO DAMNED BAD that if you ask George Lucas in an interview about it he dodges the question and all but denies its existance. It was aired once - Friday, November 17, 1978 on CBS-TV. ONCE! Not to add to its collector’s value, but beacuse it was so so bad that Lucas never wanted to inflict that on the fanbase ever again. The original director David Acomba left mid project and Lucas, who didn’t have much to do with this project applauded him for it.

Lucky for most, you have never seen it. Its worth a watch just to recognize that I am not making this up. Its bad.

But the official website decided to celebrate this forgotten (aka buried) TV Special on this, its 30th Anniversary week. StarWars.com will be offering these features all week long. I have retained the hyperlinks for the features already live on their site.

* Extended interviews with many of the cast and crew of “The Star Wars Holiday Special”, reprinted and updated by “Holiday Special” aficionado Ross Plesset (Part 1, Part 2)!
* Collecting the “Holiday Special”
* “Holiday Special” animation animatics video
* The props of “The Star Wars Holiday Special”: What has survived?
* Interview with “Holiday Special” fansite administrator SKot Kirkwood

And lo, you are not yet forewarned. So I found this clip outlining the Holiday Special hiting its “plot” in about 5 minutes. They didn’t show the animated segment which features Boba Fett’s first appearance, but it does show you a very girly looking Mark Hamill and Diahann Carroll’s video that looks awfully suggestive in this clip. (she just sings a bad song. Honest)

Disney’s Beauty and the Beast was a breakthrough film for computer generated 3d images complimenting their classic 2d cell animation. Well now that 3d has improved, Disney plans to Lucas Beauty and the Beast and re-release it with updated effects - in IMAX.

Yahoo says:

Disney has begun re-rendering in 3D the 1991 Oscar-nominated “Beauty” for a big-screen debut in 2010, bringing Disney’s 3D slate for that year to 11 titles, Disney Studios President Mark Zoradi said at an event in Singapore.

The company also announced a five-picture deal with IMAX, starting with the 2009 release of Robert Zemeckis’ “A Christmas Carol” starring Jim Carrey.

By today’s standards the ballroom scene stands out the most as the clashing of two styles of animation. The 3D ballroom in Beauty and the Beast was staggering in its time and at first viewing you were wow’ed by the awesome visuals that you didn’t care that they don’t fit quite perfectly. Now we have movies that incorporate 3D too well, threatening the jobs of set designers and location scouts, and might offer too much of a clash if they make the ballroom photo real while dancing the 2d cell characters on it. I am sure they will pick a style that works well with the animation.

A theatrical release of this film seems a bit over the top, but you know it will only fuel the sale of the Special Edition dvd with the updated tech in it.

I look forward to seeing how they blend this in and what else might come out in IMAX.