Microsoft’s online service will celebrate is One-Year anniversary with a massive addition of new media. Starting on November 22, Xbox 360 owners will be able to use Live Marketplace for more than just horse armor or fake money. TV Shows from Adult Swim, MTV, and CBS will be available to purchase and download and new HD movies like Superman Returns, V for Vendetta, and Jackass will be available to rent. This follows a year of very successful offerings for game and movie trailers, as well as original content like exclusive Red vs. Blue clips.

Theres still an awfull lot of people out there with HD TVs with no cable or satellite feed. This fills a content gap for sure. The only worry is the Xbox 360‘s hard drive. 20GB seemed like more than enough when we were talking about game saves, some music, and a few demos. How long until Microsoft unleashes the 100 GB Hard Drive.?

Full details are available on Xbox.com

Ramping up to the big Iron Man feature and follow on the heels of 2 successful Ultimate Avengers direct-to-DVD releases, Lions Gate and Marvel will release Invicible Iron Man on January 23rd. The invincibly tiny cover art was provided by DavidDVD and heres a synopsis of the plot:

While raising the ruins of a long buried Chinese kingdom, billionaire inventor Tony Stark digs up far more than he bargained for. He unleashes an age-old prophecy that foretells the resurrection of the Mandarin, the emperor of China’s darkest and most violent dynasty. To confront this destructive force, Stark creates an armored suit infused with high-tech weaponry to stop the evil that he himself has raised form the earth.

I’m supposing this will take place inside the Ultimate Avengers continuity as a prequel or something.

Special features include featurettes on the origin of Iron Man, a gallery of Iron Man armor, and a first look at the 4th Marvel DVD feature, Dr. Strange. Suggested retail is $20 as usual but theres a Gift Set planned with Iron man and both Ultimate Avengers movies and a Marvel Icons Iron Man bust. That will set you back $60. They obviously carefully planned this gift set release for the busy Valentines day season. Ladies, you now know how to charm your comic nerd boyfriend, and its with cartoons and the torso of an alcoholic in a suit of armor.

Hollywood Reporter is breaking news that the Matrix directing Wachowski Brothers are now going to helm a Live Action update of Speed Racer for producer Joel Silver.

The article mentions Vince Vaughn being screen tested for Racer X, and that Larry & Andy want to make a more family friendly movie unlike their existing efforts (Bound, The Matrix, V for Vendetta).

They’re of course promising mind blowing effects and racing in ways we’ve never seen before. I certainly hope so because after this summers 1-2 Nascar punch of Cars and Ricky Bobby, I’m not sure racing is very interesting to film without the type of unexpected chaos a car chase in a movie allows. That said, I’m a fan of the car chase in Matrix Reloaded and hope they’ve got some fresh ideas.

Speed Racer is of course an infamously cliched Japanese animated series, and one of the first to ever be imported to the US.

Of course, instead of posting an actual Speed Racer clip to go with this article, I’ll go with the Dexter’s Lab send up. Its funnier and less boring.

SuperHeroHype brings us lots of updates on comic-based movies coming out.

• Ron Perlman and Kelly Hu are joining Samuel L. Jackson on the Afro Samurai project for Spike TV.

  • The five-part animated series is produced by Japanese studio Gonzo in association/partnership with GHK K.K. and FUNimation and premieres on SPIKE Thursday, January 4, 2007

• I just noticed that IMDB is listing Kelly Hu as Yuriko Oyama in the Wolverine movie, listed as ‘in pre-production’. So expect to see a rematch of Wolverine vs. Lady Deathstrike, or at least some interesting flashbacks.
• A Superman sequel looks like a go with Bryan Singer on board to produce and direct.
• Superman Returns hits 200 million domestically, clearing an obstacle for a sequel which already looks to be given the go ahead now.
• Fourth Spiderman 3 villain revealed to be Bruce Campbell?
• Marvel’s Moon Knight property is heading for a TV series!

[UPDATE – CRAZY: Just noticed that IMDB is listing Kelly Hu as ‘rumored’ for Wolverine and not yet confirmed.]

A press release from Peter Jackson’s Wingnut films confirms what may have been obvious to all after the studio fall out 2 weeks ago.

As was previously confirmed, we deeply regret that both Universal and Fox did not choose to move forward with financing the Halo film under the original terms of the agreement. At this time Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, along with their partner, Microsoft, have mutually agreed to postpone making a feature film based on the Halo video game universe until we can fulfill the promise we made to millions of Halo fans throughout the world that we would settle for no less than bringing a first class film to the big screen. We are fully supportive of Director Neill Blomkamp’s vision of the film. Neill is a tremendously gifted filmmaker and his preliminary work on Halo is truly awe-inspiring. While it will undoubtedly take a little longer for Halo to reach the big screen, we are confident that the final feature film will be well worth the wait.

Ain’t It Cool’s Quint had some nice things to say, being one of the few people who has seen the pre-production work on Halo.

Some sites are touting this as a cancellation but the text of the release still implies the movie is on, just not on for a release any time soon.

If at first you don’t succeed: fail, fail again.

12 years after Universal dropped the Jean Claude Van Damme “Street Fighter” onto an unsuspecting populus, Capcom has given motion picture rights to Hyde Park Entertainment. The new live action movie will focus on Chun Li, but the story is not being mentioned at this time. Justin Marks has been tapped to write the script, who also wrote 2003’s “The Stranger” starring powet.tv fave Xander Berkeley.

There’s no shortage of animated Street Fighter product, and UDON keeps comics on shelves, but every time someone tries to dress up like these characters, it looks corny.

They’re aiming for a 2008 release, in time for the 20th Anniversary of the series. Will this movie be any good? Hard to say. I mean, the first Street Fighter game was pretty dismal too, but we all know Street Fighter II.

source: Variety

Movieblog reminded me theres a new animated Hellboy movie coming on Cartoon Network TOMORROW NIGHT.

Hellboy: Sword of Storms, the first of the animated Hellboy movies, debuts Saturday at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT on Cartoon Network.

Sorry we couldn’t get enough advance warning here on the front page, but set your Tivos and VCRs to record for whats sure to be some good pre-Halloween viewing. Miss this and your next chance won’t be until the February 6 DVD release.

Theres another Hellboy movie on the way called “Blood & Iron” next year. Best part is these animated flicks star Ron Perlman and Selma Blair from the fantastic Hellboy live action movie a couple years back.

Loads more info at the Hellboy Animated Production diaries!