This is big enough news to warrant a post outside of the Daily wrap-ups.
Look to the left. See that? Its VENOM. Topher Grace is officially, 100% on record as being Spider-Man’s hideous doppleganger.
Ain’t It Cool has a major rundown of the panel featuring Grace, Tobey Maguire, Sam Raimi, Thomas Hayden Church, Kirsten Dunst, and Bryce Dallas Howard.
They also whipped up some character posters you can see here.

The biggest news in the Halo universe this week (this week having no Halo 3 news of course) is that Marvel and Bungie are going forth with an ongoing Halo comic book.

Frank O’Conner was also caught by a pirate at ComiCon, which explains why he didn’t pen this week’s update.

I found out about Halowiki, which is vast repository of information on Halo 2’s multiplayer. These guys are experts and mapped out every advantage and weakness of every weapon on every map. Best of all, they’re sharing the knowledge so we can all be better players. Of course it goes without saying they beat Bungie in 3 game match.

Last week some friends got up in arms about Oscar Winner Denzel Washington playing Master Chief John Spartan. Denzel was in New Zealand recently and was spotted chatting with Richard Taylor of the Weta special effects design team (Lord Of The Rings, King Kong). Apparently theres something wrong with a highly respected and talented actor lifting this franchise beyond its inferred b-grade game roots. Well relax, denizens of the internets: according to AICN Denzel was just making a visit to Weta workshop for another movie he’s directing. Richard Taylor isn’t even working on Halo, since Bungie is doing all art and conceptualization in-house. Weta is just going to build and model what Bungie designs.

If you like boxart and you like fan art, then how about some fan box art? With limited elements at hand and no knowledge of the game itself, these are some convincing Halo 3 covers.

Finally, Joyride studios made a new ODST figure for ComiCon. He’s limited to only 1200, and is probably gone by now. I can’t imagine how much this will fetch on the secondary market as first wave figures like Sgt Johnson already command $80 and over.

Transformersthemoviedvd.com has finally revealed the new cover for the re-release of the 1986 Transformers movie, featuring new art by Don Figueroa.
More than just a new box, the movie will feature both widescreen and full frame formats, as well as commentary from Director Nelson Shin, Story consultant Flint Dille, and voice actress Susan Blu.
Sony BMG also claims they’ll include many original commercials and materials for the original 1986 release, as well as a “Matrix Of Knowledge” version of the movie with pop-up facts, in-jokes, and other trivia.
Finally there will be a peek at the new Transformers movie with comments from Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg.

Hey, wheres The Touch?

Full press release after the jump.

[Read the rest of this entry…]

Well I only reported on this yesterday, but we’ve already got a trailer online for the movie!
Click here to kick shell in High Definition!

I have to say, this is a really, really encouraging look. Theres definitely a hint of the old turtles in there, but the animation and movements of the 4 of them scream “ninja” way more than “teenage” or “turtle”

The big question is: Can a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie satisfy old fans AND new ones?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will get another crack at the big screen next spring, when Warner Bros pictures releases a new 100% computer animated movie based on the foursome’s orignal comic outings.
Though Imagi Animation Studios is promising a gritty Hong Kong action movie, the film’s already headed for a PG rating and its unlikely 4Kids or WB will dish out the killer Ninja Turtles stories from the first volume of the Mirage comics. I mean if they wanna send the Turtles into space and chop off Shredder’s head, thats cool with me. I just don’t think its gonna happen.
Link: IMAGI INTERNATIONAL, which has no animation to speak of as an example. Kinda weird for an unknown studio, eh?

Oh yeah, Ubisoft has tied up rights for the video game, ending Mirage’s long standing deal with Konami. No details announced yet, but if past Ubisoft games are any indication: expect the game to have online support and find a way to use every single button the controller.

Direct from our unsubstantiated rumor department, EGM’s notorious “Quarterman” column directly implies that EA will not sit on the Batman video game rights and wait for a new movie to come out.
The word is they’re working to adapt Frank Miller’s classic “Dark Knight Returns” story, where a 55 year old Bruce Wayne comes out of retirement to become Batman again, foiling plots by aging foes like Two Face and Joker, adopting a new Robin, and even confronting Superman.
Theres some precedent for this, as EA released “From Russia With Love” as a filler title before “Casino Royale” set to ressurect the James Bond franchise in movies. Similarly, Activision developed an “Ultimate Spider-Man” game last year to fill the gap between a Spider-Man 2 and 3 movie game adaption could be produced.
Here’s hoping EGM is on the money with this rumour and that the game can take the “Dark Knight” story to a new level.

They’re getting the band back together, man.
Newsarama readers contributed 19 pages of questions to the new Justice League writer Brad Meltzer. He answered every single one.
Part One is online now, with more Q&A later in the week.
Justice League of America relaunches tomorrow with #0, with Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman rebuilding the shattered team from scratch. Meltzer won’t reveal who will make the cut, but after his fascinating work on “Identity Crisis” in 2004, I can’t think of a better person to determine the future of the team.

Richard Linklater’s film adaptation of the story by Phillip K. Dick, A Scanner Darkly is the semi-Autobiographical story of Dick’s own battles with substance abuse and his perceived course of the drug war.

Published in 1977, his bleak outlook gave us only 7 years until everything we say and do is monitored. Obviously, the current world climate nearly 30 years later is coming closer to that becoming a reality than ever.

Keanu Reeves plays the role of Robert Arctor, an undercover narcotics agent who has to ingest dangerous amounts of the drug he’s trying to get off the streets in order to maintain his cover. The drug “Substance D” causes brain damage and combining that with his already split identity causes Arctor to slowly lose grip on reality. Woody Harrelson, Robert Downey Jr, Winona Ryder, and Rory Cochrane round out the cast as Reeve’s perpetually stoned friends.

Linklater took great care with the visual style of this movie, using a rotoscoping technique where actors are filmed and then had animation cells and computer effects painted over the original film. While the film rarely takes upon any action that one might associate with producing a feature in such a manner, the story calls for some events and visuals where the medium is pitch perfect.
With Total Recall, Blade Runner, and Minority Report already successful adaptations of Phillip K Dick stories, this one is much more subdued, a lot less action packed, more paranoid, and as a result, more faithful to the source material.

The score by the Golden Arm Trio with songs by Radiohead and Thom Yorke assists the ambiance of a “world getting progressively worse.”

Some may be turned off by the film’s lack of motion. Its also hurts that a so clearly science-fiction concept in its time resembles life today so closely. Had the film been made 10, 20 years ago in the same way, it would’ve seemed revolutionary and controversial. But its concepts are so accepted as fact or eventualities that it becomes too easy to pick apart the drama and characters.

But thats OK. Not every head trip movie has to be for every person who liked head trip movies. Certainly Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas was a failure in theatrical release, but a favorite on dvd years later. A Scanner Darkly may take a few years to reach its ultimate audience.

I can say, however, that I enjoyed it.

Trailer: A Scanner Darkly