Paramount Pictures is officially announcing Stephen Sommers as the director of the long anticipated G.I. Joe movie. Variety has the story.

The studio is hiring a writer immediately, and has set a February production start for a summer 2009 release.

The accelerated production schedule began right after Sommers pitched his version of the film to Par chairman-CEO Brad Grey and production prexy Brad Weston on Wednesday evening. He was hired in the room.

Lorenzo di Bonaventura will produce with Hasbro chief operating officer Brian Goldner. Sommers and his Sommers Co. partner Bob Ducsay will also be involved as producers.

IESB has a lead on that writer: Stuart Beattie. He wrote scripts for Collateral and Pirates Of The Carribean.

Well its official now, and if they’re not using any of the existing scripts that have leaked online or been reported on before, we should be fine. Because those scripts suck. I’ve got one here where Cobra Commander is Duke’s childhood buddy and was turned evil by Destro. Yeah.

CNN reports the Senior Senator from Vermont has been cast in a cameo in The Dark Knight, the next Batman movie.

Patrick Leahy is professed comic book fan, and this will be his third appearance with Batman. He was an extra in the movie Batman & Robin and was the voice of the Arizona Governor in the Batman: The Animated Series episode “Showdown”

Like the rest of the cast, he isn’t talking about his role, except to say that he did share the scene with Christian Bale and Heath Ledger(Batman and The Joker, respectively).

Today is the more widely known “American Independence Day” but all too often “Mexican Independence Day” is unreckognised by people outside of Mexico but no longer will that be the case. Mark your calendars because Powet.tv will be bringing you this special movie on this coming Mexican Independence Day, September 16th 2007, to celebrate this momentous occasion. This film will be much like the Blockbuster hit “Independence Day” only more Mexican. The movie is shot entirely in Spanish though it stars only English speaking people and features staples of Mexican culture.

Primary photography on this project has been completed though no special effects, ADR or reshoots have been done at this time. Enjoy some stills from the film’s production while you wait patiently for it’s release.

I couldn’t have been more satisfied with Transformers (review on the way), but few will disagree that the mysterious trailer for a movie without a title stole the audiences attention for those few moments before Peter Cullen’s voice took hold of the theater sound system.

But what IS this movie? IMDB refers to it strictly as Untitled J.J. Abrams Project, the website , which is simply the release date www.1-18-08.com, shows a single still image. Thankfully, there is SOME information on Wikipedia…

The film is scheduled to be released by Paramount Pictures on January 18th, 2008. The premise is a giant alien known as “The Parasite” invades Earth and it is filmed entirely with handheld cameras. Also known is that the movie isn’t even done filming and the trailer was filmed before the movie was finished. Not much is known about the movie, and it has been widely regarded as a secret movie and Cloverfield may be a temporary working title .

More info as we get it. Between this, I Am Legend, the Invasion Of The Body Snatchers remake and the already released Transformers, were really set for alien invasion movies. Hollywood reaction to immigration reform or just another excuse to blow something up? You decide! Leave a comment below.

The trailer itself isn’t online officially, though low quality bootlegs appear on youtube with some frequency. The best way to see it is just going to Transformers.

My review of Knocked Up
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Hoping to match some of the success of X-Men and Batman Begins, Warners Bros announced today their intentions to bring Teen Titans to theaters.

Hollywood Reporter doesn’t know the lineup yet, but Nightwing will be in there. I wonder if this will take place in the same universe as Batman Begins or Superman Returns? One of the benefits of WB’s ownership of DC is that the rights are all clear for future team-up movies, but if Dick Grayson is already Nightwing, then Batman might as well skip right to Tim Drake… Oh I’m getting ahead of myself here. The point is they have the potential to bring us a really great movie with some characters lesser known outside of the comic world. And if they do keep the tone of Batman and Superman as promised, this could be an amazing movie.

Akiva Goldsman will produce the movie. He won an Academy Award for his screenplay for the Ron Howard directer A Beautiful Mind. He also wrote the Joel Schumacher direct posion Batman & Robin AND Batman Forever, and has produced an amazing list of shabby films. OK, so maybe the odds are stacked against us for an “good” movie, but I’ll hold out hope if the right director, script, and cast come up to bat.

Next year’s sequel to Batman Begins is gaining momentum in the online world with some strange marketing decisions.

A central plot point of the movie will be Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent being elected as the District Attorney, and a teaser site called “I Believe In Harvey Dent” has a campaign poster for his election.

Of course the other central plot point of the movie is Heath Ledger as The Joker coming to power as the primary adversary for Batman and Gotham City at large. The Joker has set up his own little website called “I Believe In Harvey Dent Too!” with a defaced poster. Now here’s where is gets interesting: I submitted my email address to the form below the poster and got a message titled “defacing public servants” from tragicpast@ibelieveinharveydenttoo.com. Inside was the following note:

I always say, you never know what a man is truly made of until you peel the skin off his face one piece at a time. Here is your chance to help

There was a set of coordinates with a link back to that defaced poster. After entering them it removed a single pixel. Along with the hundreds of others plugging in coordinates as this site makes its way around to Bat-fans, a new images is slowly being revealed.
Whats under there? The first picture of The Joker? Harvey as Two Face? I have no idea, its still too blurry and scattered to tell.

Adding some guerrilla marketing to the mix, a comic store in Southern California found Joker playing cards scattered in their store with the scribbled message again saying “I Believe In Harvey Dent Too!” and all the HAHAHAs you’d expect from the Joker.

We’ve still got a full year and some months before the movie is released on July 18, 2008, but theres word we’ll see a short teaser trailer attached to a major movie this summer.

Fun Dark Knight Fact: Nestor Carbonell will play the Mayor of Gotham. He’s current seen weekly on TV as Dr Richard Alpert on LOST, but also played the Latino themed parody character Bat Manuel on the short lived “The Tick” live action series.

The Superman: Doomsday DVD arrives this fall, on September 18th, but the website for the movie has just launched! Alright, I admit, that’s not really news in itself, but what IS news is that there’s a pretty telling, very interesting behind-the-scenes trailer that runs as soon as you enter. You can visit the site here and see the trailer in full. If you want a quick look at some some screencaps and analysis of what was said, then read on after the jump.
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