GHOST RIDER

The anticipation builds with just days until the movie opens, and actors Nicolas Cage and Eva Mendes did a new interview with Superhero Hype, taking the Hollywood establishment to task for the negative attitude about comic book-based movies. "Somebody asked me a question about 'Do you think comic book movies get a bad rap?'" Cage said. "And someone mentioned to me that there was a blurb in Entertainment Weekly -- very condescendingly -- 'We get a kick out of watching Academy Award winners being in movies they have no business being seen in.' And I thought, 'Well, that's really shallow thinking, because they can't get outside their own box.' They don't understand the concept of what I would say is art. You have different styles and you can choose to be photo realistic like 'World Trade Center' or you can be pop art illustrative. Why limit yourself to one style of acting? And especially when you look at 'Ghost Rider' you see a comic book story structure that digs a little deeper. It doesn't take itself too seriously, of course, it's funny, but it's coming from Classic themes like Faust with Gerta or Thomas Mann or then 'Beauty and the Beast' and it's fascinating to take those story structures and reintroduce people to it in a pop art, contemporary manner. In a comic book especially, no less, which is fun and reaches a lot of people. Entertainment Weekly is the kind of magazine that is very condescending and they think in a very narrow box and they always have."

Meanwhile, you can find the movie-centric toys shown at Toy Fair also at Superhero Hype.

Finally, SuperheroFlix has an article about how a sequel is already in the pipeline, which Cage seems up for in the aforementioned interview.

RONIN

Right here at CBR, we've got the announcement that producer Gianni Nunnari is working on an adaptation of yet another Frank Miller project, as well as the non-story about Warren Ellis' "Ocean."

Black Film has an interview with the alleged director of this new "Ronin," Sylvain White, talking about how he got the job and how the script development is going.

3 GEEKS

Another one we've got here at CBR -- the indie comic series is being adapted for film by writer/artist Rich Koslowski and filmmaker Heath McKnight.

HEROES

CBR also has video previews of tonight's episode, "Run."

SPIDER-MAN 3

We've got it all here at CBR -- Wizard Magazine did an interview with actor Topher Grace, and sent us over a sneak preview.

THE DARK KNIGHT

According to Batman-On-Film, "There's some talk that Tim Booth may reprise his role as Victor Zsasz in 'TDK.'"

HULK 2

There's a rumor over at Ain't It Cool News that the next actor to play Bruce Banner will be "Pianist" star and Halle Berry-kissing actor Adrien Brody.

SMALLVILLE

As always, our pals at Kryptonsite have fresh spoilers about some brawlers coming to Kansas. They also have highlights from Gough and Millar's convention appearance on Sunday, hinting at a possible Bizarro Clark, Supergirl, the conclusion of Lionel reading Kryptonian and they said that they do want to bring Pete Ross back to "Smallville."

FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER

You can see some of the toys based on the new film -- the Surfer, the new Doom, the Fantasticar -- first debuted at Toy Fair this weekend, over at Superhero Hype.

Also, Marvel's Kevin Feige told the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel why the Surfer didn't find his own movie first. "We at Marvel decided, you know what, it would be best to introduce him as he was in the comics, which was on an adventure with the Fantastic Four," Feige said. "If that works out, we would love to spin him into his own movies."

TRANSFORMERS

You can catch a good look at the toy versions of Optimus Prime and Bumblebee at Superhero Hype alongside a long press release about the whole cross-promotional effort. Superhero Hype also has Toy Fair photography.

WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN

Animation director Steve Gordon made a post on his blog about what's happening with the latest animated version of the kids from Xavier's. "Before you ask this is in no way a continuity with 'X-Men: Evolution' and I will NOT be doing the character designs for this show. But I am doing design work for one of the next Marvel direct-to-videos that I cannot reveal the name of because it hasn't been announced yet. So needless to say I'm pretty busy these days."

AFRO SAMURAI

Stephen Gerdling emailed us to point out the screen captures from the season finale, over at Kung Fu Rodeo.

UNIVERSAL COMIC MOVIES SLATE

The studio released its, uh, release dates for upcoming films of note, and Comingsoon.net has the scoop, placing Mark Millar's "Wanted" on silver screens March 28, 2008, the "Hulk" sequel on June 13th and "Hellboy 2" for August 1st.

SANDY, CAN WE ROLL THAT CLIP?

We can't do this without you. The rumors, the scoops, the set photos -- they're all fueled by passionate fans emailing in the goods. The ones who ask, "What do you mean your sister's dating somebody who works for Miles Millar?" The ones who know the code names of movie projects and scour city permit filings for them. The devoted, the involved. Fans, just like you. Whatever you know, we wanna know, and whether you want your name shouted to the web's rafters or kept closer than a classified report, we've got you covered like a comforter. Broadcasting live from Los Angeles, this is your humble scribe Hannibal Tabu (web site, MySpace blog) saying thank you for your time and indulgence, and "enough talk -- let's go make with the 'biff' and the 'pow' already."