Welcome back dear readers!

That’s right, I’ve returned from holiday and am refreshed and raring to go! Now, we’ve been keeping track of news while we’ve been away and have rolled the highlights into this week’s coverage, but this means we have a hell of a lot to get through, so let’s get started!

We’ve a new Dark Knight Rises trailer, the first look at Angelina Jolie in Malificent (A full costume shot has appeared as well) and a red band trailer for found footage horror film VHS. Talk of an Avengers director’s cut appears to be just that, there’s a look at some of Man of Steel’s costumes and Prince George Hugh Laurie is in talks to appear in the Robocop remake, which already has Gary Oldman and Samuel L Jackson on board. I’d buy that for a dollar!

In convention news, Oz Comic Con will take place next weekend in Melbourne and Sydcon 2012  (Sydney’s friendliest gaming convention!) has games, but needs more! A sequel to I Am Legend is being worked on, but Will Smith isn’t involved and if you thought that was bad, what about the rumour about a reboot of Twilight? Couldn’t they at least wait till the corpse is cold? Incidentally, there’s more footage and the first full trailer from Breaking Dawn Part 2, if you’re interested.

That’s exactly the sort of parent I’m going to become.

Spider-Man could appear in the Avengers sequel (As just about every Marvel hero has been an Avenger at one point or another), while there was a plan for the Oscorp building to cameo in the film, but it was too late in the day to work in. Meanwhile, Spider-Man’s producers are working on a Venom spin off, which couldn’t be any worse than Spider-Man 3 right?

We finally have the first trailer for Dredd, which looks awesome, but could use a better theme tune  and Jurassic Park 4 has new writers. There’s a fan made Walking Dead web series  while comic creator Robert Kirkman is making a zombie proof car in conjunction with Hyundai. We’ve a trailer for Be Here Now, about the final days of Spartacus star Andy Whitfield, who succumbed to lymphoma late last year, a new trailer for British horror film Storage 24, a sneak peek at the Dark Knight Returns animated film and Glee is going to Comic Con again Why?

It’s controversy in Kings Landing with a massive storm erupting over what looked like the severed head of George W Bush being on a spike in the season 1 finale of Game of Thrones.  It was mentioned in the DVD commentary of the episode that one of the heads decorating the walls resembled the former President of the USA and oh, did a storm erupt… HBO have apologised, as have showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss, saying they meant no political statement and shouldn’t have mentioned it in the commentary. The shot will be removed from future releases – so if you own the show on DVD it’s now a collector’s item! One thing I don’t understand: the episode first aired over a year ago and the DVD’s have been out for some months – why did it take this long to pop up?

In other news about the show, director Neil Marshall has talked about the amount of nudity in the episode he directed (Short version: one of the executive producers has the mind of a 15 year old boy) and actress Natalia Tena (Who plays Osha) say’s while she’s OK with being nude on screen, she’d like the male to female nudity ratio to be equal.

It’s important for parents to give their children responsible goals in life.

If you’re after more Star Trek: The Next Generation, then you’re in luck! IDW comics have released details of the new series, with former Trek writer Brannon Braga writing them. Yep, that’ll go well. Kit Harrington (AKA Game of Thrones Jon Snow) has joined the cast of How to Train Your Dragon 2, where he’ll play the villain and comics advocacy group Hero Initiative is raising funds to cover the funeral of writer Robert Washington, best known for creating the character Static, who died last week aged 47.

There’s movement in Asgard, with Fandral the Dashing having to be recast in Thor 2 due to actor Joshua Dallas being booked up on Once Upon a Time. Word is that Zachary Levi (Chuck) is up for the part, which is funny, as he was up for the part in the first place but had to pass when Chuck had it’s season extended. Meanwhile, his Chuck co-star Yvonne Strahovski has joined the cast of Dexter.

The first pictures of the new Doctor Who companion have been released and sources say a certain race of Martians (Enigmatic enough for you?) are returning to the show next season, with the episode written by Mark Gatiss. Steven Spielberg has talked about the ET sequel that never happened (Wow,  would that would have needed some therapy to deal with or what?) while there’s been movement on Mockingbird Lane, with the casting of Portia DeRossi as Lily Munster and Jerry O’Connell as Herman. As my wife said when I told her of O’Connell’s casting: what?

An artist’s impression of the writer’s wife after hearing that bit of news.

It’s not encouraging signs for the adaption of World War Z, with Damon Lindelof being hired to rewrite a good chunk of the film, along with 7 weeks of reshoots. Yep, that certainly makes me feel confident about it! Much the same is happening on the set of The Lone Ranger, with the film going over budget (From the trimmed $215 million back to the original $250 million) and now also being over schedule. There’s some good news though, with the Michael Bay Ninja Turtles movie being put back to 2014 and Attack the Block director Joe Cornish signing up to direct Snow Crash.   

We have the first trailer for Wreck it Ralph, the story of a video game villain who just wants to do something else - if you can identify all the cameos you get a shiny new ‘Nerdier than I am’ point! The trend for turning kid’s toys into movies has continued, with a Tonka truck movie in production. To add insult to injury, it’ll be produced by Happy Madison productions, Adam Sandler’s company. I haven’t seen a better argument for nuclear Armageddon since Transformers 2… 

We found a new trailer for the Warhammer 40,000 fan film The Lord Inquisitor, if you want to see the slower scenes in Looper you’ll have to get a Chinese print of the film, there’s a fresh trailer for and a new clip from The Watch (Sadly the Ben Stiller film, not anything Terry Pratchett related) and a Swedish artist is recreating Blade Runner in watercolour.  

Nobody expects the Imperial Inquisition!

There was a teaser for the trailer for Resident Evil: Retribution, with the full trailer being released soon after.  We’ve fan concept art of a Pixar Justice League movie and some more information on the Mortal Kombat remake. The internet has all but melted down over the Lara Croft reboot, there’s a new trailer for Clone Wars season 5 and my nostalgia-o-meter just went to 11… thousand, with word of a new series of Mysterious Cities of Gold! No, not a reboot, but a continuation of the original. If you need me I’ll be in the corner weeping with joy.

Cartoon series Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes has been cancelled, to be replaced by new series Avengers Assemble, said to be more tied into the movie-verse.  Nuts. I was enjoying that... On that note, Disney have renewed Ultimate Spider Man and the Muppets are sort of returning to the BBC. In news that might not sound like our area, 18 year old Sydney Spies (Yes, that apparently is her name…) had her high school yearbook photos banned for being ‘too racy’. Why are we reporting on this? Because it got her a part in a SyFy original movie, that’s why! *sigh* Man the lifeboats, the idiots are winning…

In the wake of The Avengers earning all the box office money, all the time, DC have resumed plans for not only a Justice League movie, but have a bundle of other franchises in development, including The Flash, Green Arrow and Wonder Woman. Good luck to them, they’ll need it. There’s a new trailer for the Amazing Spider-Man game  starring Stan ‘The Man’ Lee and a pair of trailers for Lego Batman 2, here  and here, which in a first for the franchise has the character’s talking. Superman has quite the knack for sarcasm…

*ba-dum tish!* Thank you, I’ll be here all week. Don’t forget to tip your waitress.

Pixar have released the first trailer for Monsters University, along with four teasers, Nicholas Refn is making a Barbarella TV series and George Takei will appear in Archie spin off Kevin Keller. You can hear the Lizard speak in a new Amazing Spider-Man TV spot and ad agency Clark and Kent have a pretty super business card. Gotham City has signed The Dent Act into law, we’ve what could be the first Transformers 4 poster, a Sesame Street film is on the way (I’m sure those of my readers who’ve spawned would like to know) and Lucas Till (Who played Havok in X:Men-First Class) wants Polaris to appear in the sequel.

Director Peter Berg has given his theory on why Battleship sank and please try not scream too loudly, but actor Aidan Turner has revealed there’s a romantic subplot in The Hobbit. George RR Martin is worried the Game of Thrones series will catch up to his writing too quickly (Stop writing scenes involving food then!),  Alan Moore’s latest League of Extraordinary Gentleman book has a character who’s apparently Satan, but who resembles Harry Potter and Neil Patrick Harris has been poking more fun at Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark at the Tony Awards.

Bill Murray is still waiting for a script for Ghostbusters 3 that lives up to the original, there’s the first picture from Pacific Rim and director Guillermo Del Toro has talked about the fight scenes, we’ve a  new trailer for Arrow, Stephen King’s It has a two part movie deal and footage has surfaced from the set of Return of the Jedi.

And there’s a lot of room in his pants, if you know what I mean…

There’s the first plot details for Neil (District 9) Blomkamp’s new film, Brent Spiner will be joining Warehouse 13 next season and Kevin Smith has promised a Jay and Silent Bob animated film. I just want the time I spent watching Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back returned to me, if that’s not too much to ask?

Men in Black 3’s director, Barry Sonnenfeld, is planning DC Comics’s The Metal Men as his next film (Can he wait till there’s a full script before shooting?) and Transformers 4 may be headed to Cybertron. That is, if they can afford it. There’s a Spider-Man fan film from 1969, (Directed by Donald F Glut, who wrote the Empire Strikes Back novelisation trivia fans!) an extended trailer for Hotel Transylvania (Can you check out but never leave?) and economist Paul Krugman has sad (not entirely seriously) than an alien invasion could help the US economy. Well, it couldn’t make it any worse…

There’s the Futurama intro in live action, we’ve the first picture of James Franco in Oz, the Great and Powerful, a trailer for the new Ninja Turtles cartoon and we’ve been deeply saddened to learn of the death of actress Caroline John, who played Dr Elizabeth Shaw opposite Jon Pertwee’s Third Doctor.

Lastly, we continue our string of ending on a cheerful note. Remember the car ad from last year where a small boy dressed as Darth Vader was trying to use the Force? That boy, 7 year old Max Page, has spent the time since then raising money to help the LA Children’s Hospital, as he has a congenital heart defect which he underwent surgery for this week. Happily, the Force was with Max and he made it through the surgery, being released soon after. Young man, we salute you. *bows*

Quote of the Week:

Another man duck-walks across the flight deck.... He's about sixty, with a dirigible of white hair that was not ruffled in any way by the downdraft.
"Hello, everyone," he says cheerfully.
"Who are you?" Tony says.
The new guy looks crestfallen. "Greg Ritchie," he says.
Then, when no one seems to react, he jogs their memory. "President of the United States."
"Oh! Sorry. Nice to meet you, Mr. President," Tony says, extending his hand....
"Frank Frost," Frank says, extending his hand and looking bored.
"Don't mind me," Y.T. says, when Ritchie looks her way. "I'm a hostage."

Neal Stephenson – Snow Crash

Remember, The Shadow knows…