FANTASTIC FOUR 2

Director Tim Story has updated his MySpace blog with some details about a piece of FF lore. "Al'ight. I'm in town for a couple of meetings (Translation: I'm over budget and something's gotta go) so they set it up for me to go visit the Fantasticar while it's being assembled (sp?). This car is the coolest thing I've ever seen. Not saying this because it's in my movie. (But there is obviously a bias) But it's cool. I mean this is like 'the car from The Spy Who Loved Me' type of cool. You guys remember the one, white and went under water. (I might be saying the wrong movie, so forgive me, too excited) Anyway, the company, I'm dealing with built all the cool vehicles in a lot of big movies. Including a few batmobiles [sic], and planet rovers from few space movies, blah blah blah, and the excitement from them is ridiculous. I mean, these guys build jets for the airforce [sic]. I went to their top secret local way out in the middle of nowhere and when I walked in, I just couldn't believe my eyes. It's better than I imagined. Can't wait to shoot this thing. It doesn't get to us until late September but I can't wait to put our Fan4 inside. We (my production designer Kirk P.) also saw the models for the individual pods -- once the Fantasticar splits up. They are on schedule and preparing all the gadgets and circuit boards, blah blah blah. I needed this visit. A little shot in the arm."

THE DARK KNIGHT

Actor Christian Bale commented on the title and other developments in a story at FilmFocus. "I just love that title," Bale said. "You know, nothing's written in stone yet, but I like, very much, that it doesn't have 'Batman' written in the title. This take on Batman of mine and Chris' is very different from any of the others and everything else always had Batman in the title. I think this is kind-of distancing it even further and saying, 'Hey, this is a whole different creature from what has come before.'"

TRANSFORMERS

There was a link to a segment from Access Hollywood showing a glimpse of the mechanoids themselves, over at director Michael Bay's blog. However, faithful reader Tom Williams wrote in to point out this article chatting up the Imaginary Forces design of the logo for the teaser.

WANTED

In a follow up from our coverage on (yes, we go this deep), March 31, 2004, it was revealed at last weekend's Wizard World Rosemont that the adaptation of the Mark Millar/J.G. Jones comic about a son who inherits his father's supervillain status is being written by Michael Brandt and Derek Haas ("2 Fast 2 Furious," "Spy Hunter: Nowhere to Run") and attached to direct is Timur Bekmambetov ("Night Watch"). Also discussed were developments on "Witchblade" and "Aphrodite IX" projects.

30 DAYS OF NIGHT

There's a new video clip on the official website, showing director David Slade talking about the adaptation.

TMNT

It's back to basics, according to quotes from writer/director Kevin Monroe, over at Sci Fi Wire. "Peter Laird wanted to get back to the original comic book," Gray said. "We had botched badly [film] number two, and I suffered personally from that with Peter. We were racing to get the second film out because we didn't know how long the series would last, so from the day we opened the film, one year later we were on the screen again. We didn't take our time and do a very good story. Director Michael Pressman did a great job, but the story was weak. I think it really hurt the series, and Peter felt we betrayed the vision he and [co-creator] Kevin [Eastman] had."

SPIDER-MAN 3CNN Money examines the role the sequel can play for Marvel's bottom line, while this video at Sci Fi Wire shows footage from the film and interviews with the cast and crew.

SMALLVILLE

Who loves fresh spoilers? You do? Well, how convenient that Kryptonsite has a whole mess of 'em about upcoming season six episodes.

Meanwhile, Cinescape has a report on the "Smallville"-centric Insurgence convention, held in Coventry, UK.

DC DIRECT-TO-DVD

According to coverage here at CBR, DC's launching a slate of projects as DVD animated features, much like "Ultimate Avengers," the first of which will be a "New Frontier" movie based on Darwyn Cooke's 2003-04 story. Future films include an abridged "Death of Superman" story featuring Doomsday and "The Judas Contract," based on the classic Marv Wolfman/George Perez "New Teen Titans" epic storyline. Each of the films will emulate the art style of the comic books they're based on.

BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CITY

The Ill State Tour was great but exhausting, but it's good to have the Comic Reel back in LA. Here's where you get in on the action. Did you see a link we didn't catch? Have you snuck into a closed movie set, and have inside data? Maybe your cousin is dating somebody who knows something, and they had to tell you? Whatever it is, we wanna know it all -- fire off an email and let us know whether you want your name used or your contributions to geekdom to go down anonymously. Broadcasting live from Los Angeles, this is novelist/karaoke host/all-around lunatic Hannibal Tabu saying thanks for your time and indulgence, and [tagline sent back to development hell until something hipper can be dreamed up].