What can we expect when “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” returns in February?  According to actor Thomas Dekker, we’ll see a “smarter” John Connor.

“What I love so much about our back nine, for me personally, is John is a lot smarter even than I think everybody’s thinking he is about everything that’s going on,” he told SciFi Wire.  ”So it’s very cool, for me, to get through that. … Because he still kind of has that kind of innocent vibe with his thinking, and you find out it’s not true. So that’s very cool.”

Dekker also says we’ll see more flash-forwards to the future of humanity and the war against SkyNet.

 ”A lot more. Yeah. A lot more. I think that that’s inevitable, you know what I mean? You can’t sort of toss it in, … like, “This happens soon.” You’ve got to bring it in now, he said.

Dekker also says that fans can be expect the show to be more serialized in the second half of the season and that there will less of “revolving door” of Terminators sent back in time to snuff him out.

“I think that the writers are tired of that. I think that initially, when we started the second season, kind of one of the requests of sort of the powers that be was that we did more singular episodes, less serialized.” he said.  ”That’s why they invented the wall with all the names on it, so that we would be able to do a mission an episode. But that involved a lot of Terminators coming back, and to me that’s always irritated our writers. And now they have permission to be more serialized again, and more science fiction, so that’s happening less. Because that started to bug me. I was like, “Yeah, this time machine’s busier than freaking JFK airport.” ”

When “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” ended last month, audiences were left hanging with several cliffhangers including the fate of two prominent women in John Connor’s life–his mother, Sarah and his girlfriend, Riley.

The last time we saw Riley, she was cradled in John’s arms, having apparently slit her wrists in a suicide attempt.  Co-star Garret Dillahunt let slip that Riley wasn’t dead, yet and now actor Thomas Dekker, who plays John, confirms that Riley will live, despite her self-inflicted injuries.

“She did not die from slitting her wrists,” Dekker said. “I will say that much. But I can’t say what happens—Garret’s a trickster, so I wouldn’t believe much that he said.”

However, Dekker did hint that the promised death of a main character hasn’t happened just yet.

“They said at Comic-Con that one of the major characters would die this season, and I think everyone thought it was Garret’s character [killer cyborg Cromartie] … His character did die, but then … he’s back [as a new cyborg, so] maybe he’s not the one who dies,” Dekker said.  ”I can’t really say who. It’s so cryptic. Somebody still has to die. … Yes, there’s still a major death. I think.”

Finally, Dekker did confirm what many saw in the preview for the second half of the season–John will meet his father, Kyle Reese, during the second half of the season.    Kyle is set to be played by actor Jonathan Jackson.

When asked in what time period we’d see John meeting Kyle, Dekker was elusive.   He said that the meeting could happen in the present or future, teasing “Wait for the first episode. You’ll get what I’m saying.”

“Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” returns on Friday, February 13.

British comedy actors Simon Pegg and Nick Frost have been cast as the Thompson Twins in at least one of Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg’s two Tintin movies.

The duo, who have played alongside each other hilariously in both ‘Shaun of the Dead’ and ‘Hot Fuzz’ will play near-identical twins in the motion capture adventure flick.

From Variety -

The 3-D performance-capture films, based on Georges Remi’s comic books and co-financed by Sony Pictures Entertainment and Paramount Pictures, will center on Tintin’s globetrotting adventures as a fearless reporter. In the books, the Thompson Twins are a pair of incompetent, clumsy detectives who can only be told apart by the shape of their moustaches — Thompson, with a “p,” has a flat moustache, while Thomson, without the “p,” has a flared version.

The casting was confirmed by Dawn Sedgwick, Pegg’s agent in London, who was unable to confirm if the Twins would appear in both pics.

As previously reported, Andy Serkis will play Tintin’s sidekick Captain Haddock. Tintin has yet to be cast. Thomas Sangster had been set for the role, but exited the project when it was delayed due to funding difficulties caused by the DreamWorks/Paramount split.

I can see why these two have been picked out play these roles. When casting a motion capture film, you need actors that are able to express themselves through physicality as well as vocally, and these two are definite masters of the pratfall (anyone who has seen their previous collaborations can attest to that) and are pretty much hilarious in every way.

Slightly disappointed to see Andy Serkis in the role of Tintin’s sidekick as opposed to Tintin himself, as possibly the world’s most accomplished motion capture artist I can’t think of anyone better for the role (if he can convincingly play both Gollum and King Kong I’m pretty sure he can do anything).

Picking the end of August for a release already paid off for the first remake of "Halloween," which started Aug. 31, 2007 and ended up delivering a $30.5 million opening weekend.

STYD also received a sneak peek at the new Michael Myers mask, which you can check out in the pic to the left. Note that this is just an outline, and definitely not the final mask.

Other than that, all we know is that the second film kicks off immediately where the last one ended. Tyler Man will also return as Michael.

Let me wrap this up with some words Zombie posted on his blog: "If you thought Michael was fucked before, you ain't seen nothing yet! He is bigger, meaner and more psycho than Dr. Loomis ever thought possible."

Transformers Live Action Movie Blog had a breakdown of the info shared in the article -

* Bay and LaBeouf confirm the Fallen is a separate character.
* Egyptian hieroglyphics …turn out to be depictions of Transformers who visited Earth.
* Bay claims Megatron is not coming back and the tank is just a new toy.
* Around 40 robots.
* Budget is $200 million.
* Ramon Rodriguez is the one holding on for dear life to a pole while cars are flung (Empire TF2 Image).
* Devastator appears at the pyramid, he’s probably 50 feet tall because that’s the height of the camera crane they used on location.

The biggest news is the lack of Megatron. I hope he is just trying to throw us off the scent and we see a rebuilt tanky Megatron in this film.

They rebuilt Jazz for fuck sakes. Why not Megatron??

And I am all for having more bots, but 40? I hope that most of them make up background shots to establish that there are a bunch of them all over the earth and they gather together to fight the Fallen.

I like that they are going with a lesser known story to tie in the live action versions of the characters, but no Megatron? Seriously?

So when we hear that Mickey Rourke is apparently talking down about Sean Penn’s performance in Milk, we start to wonder why.

But wait! Is he?

Hollywood Elsewhere says:

Daily Beast contributor Gerald Posner reported today that yesterday (12.28) “a Los Angeles entertainment honcho shared a text message with [him] that Mickey Rourke had sent him about Sean Penn: ‘Look seans an old friend of mine [but] i didnt buy his performance at all — thought he did an average pretend acting like he was gay besides hes one of the most homophobic people i kno’”

Perhaps someone thought that this sort of smear campaign would work like a presidential election. Instead of focusing on how good you are, fling mud at the opposition.

Interestingly enough, I am not even sure that Mickey Rourke is the one saying these things. So while there seems to be some bubbling in the water, we don’t know who its coming from or to what end. Is someone trying to shittalk Penn, using Rourke (his rival to the award) to do it? Or are they trying to make Rourke look like an ass?

The conflict comes in that Gerald Posner is respected among his peers for his investigative reporting, however throws this line out with the credibility of a tabloid rag. His only sources are “an LA entertainment Honcho” and rumours of a passing statement said backstage on Letterman. I like that Jeff at Hollywood Elsewhere notes this pair of vague unconfirmable sources suddenly turned into “several” when his sources were challenged.

I have heard celebrities comment about others. A couple of years ago When John mentioned Milo Ventimiglia in front of Johnathan Frakes, Frakes admitted he was a fan. That happened. John and I both standing there face to face with Frakes. Can I confirm it? Nope. Happened in passing. So its not a valid source.

Its not like this was said in an interview. There is no proof any of this was said at all. Someone unidentified allegedly showed a text message allegedly from Rourke But someone somewhere is trying to start something here. I bring it up to address the validity of the statements. Some sites are all ready to hang Rourke by these statements that no one can confirm were even said by him.

So is Rourke talking trash? If he is, who do you think it hurts more?

Without assuming Rourke or Penn as the winner, if it is a tight race to the finish, would something like this sway judges? I think it should still be about the performance. So what does anyone have to gain inventing this. It would be a different topic altogether if Rourke was on Letterman, on the air saying he didnt think Penn was his competition, or shouldn’t even be considered. But he didn’t.

Gold Derby’s Tom O’Neil on AFI’s naming Slumdog Millionaire one of 2008’s Moments of Significance:

The movie isn’t on AFI’s list of top 10 movies because it’s not an American production. AFI’s lists focus on superb examples of American’s “moving images” — it usually makes a strong point to underscore domestic turf — but now, to be brutally honest, it looks like the institute’s cramming “Slumdog Millionaire” on this new, grab-bag list so it won’t be embarrassed next February like it was two years ago when the Oscar best picture champ wasn’t on the AFI top 10 film roster (”The Departed”).

This is what the press release said about Slumdog:

“‘Slumdog Millionaire’ — A Celebration of the Global Film” “Slumdog Millionaire” stands as a monument to the possibilities of cross-cultural storytelling. Danny Boyle’s masterwork is rooted in the worlds of Dickens and Dumas but captures their spirit with a visual and narrative splendor that serves as a cinematic passport to a vibrant, modern India. A love story at its core, the film is also a powerful reminder that our global obsession with money leaves many of the world’s children in need.

Also of significance, “Slumdog Millionaire” is a signpost in America’s search for greater authenticity in its stories. Subtitles — once an inconvenience to American audiences — are now expected and, in fact, demanded to confirm the universality of our daily, global experience.

Other films that reflect this cultural shift include “Gran Torino,” “The Visitor,” “Australia” and television’s “Heroes.”

Now comes news from Ain’t It Cool that the movie will be shot entirely in 3-D. What’s even more interesting is that with the latest technology the filmmakers will be able wear the glasses at the monitors as they shoot, allowing them to instantly see the results.

We’re also specifically told to expect a 3-D first person view from inside a light cycle, which should be pretty spectacular.

Don’t laugh. Back in the day these little
bastards were harder to kill off than Herpes.

Now I know TRON has developed a real cult following over the years but, truth be told, I remember seeing it as a kid and finding it to be dreadfully dull (or at least the first half of the film spent in the real world). However after hearing this latest news I can honestly say that dull storytelling and leaden pacing are no longer a concern to me. If anything’s gonna keep me awake it’s gonna be the felinesque Wilde magically purring in my lap. (BTW — Just to confirm I was speaking of Olivia Wilde and not Oscar Wilde).

In case you missed it, here’s the bootleg footage from Comic-Con:

I'll be out until later this afternoon so I won't be able to confirm guesses or provide clues for a while. But here it is anyway. Good luck.

Nikki Finke reported that Baz Luhrmann has bought the rights to and is going to make F. Scott Fitzgerald’s very fine novel into another film adaptation (is there ever going to be any improving on the book?  I don’t think so.):

He just paid tribute to his home country in the epic Australia, but director Baz Luhrmann is landing next on Long Island. Yes, it’s true: I can report that Baz Luhrmann’s next project is definitely The Great Gatsby.

The Aussie filmmaker recently purchased rights to the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic and my favorite book, which is set primarily on the lush North Shore (aka the Gold Coast) where I grew up in East Egg. Thankfully, Baz should wipe away memories of that 1974 abomination with Robert Redford and the horribly miscast Mia Farrow, or the 1949 laugher with Alan Ladd. (And let’s not forget that Entourage just cast Vincent Chase as Nick in Marty Scorsese’s version.) My insiders confirm that Luhrmann is actively searching for a young actress to portray Daisy, Jay Gatsby’s unrequited love. I think Amy Adams fills the bill (because, mercifully, box office poison Nicole Kidman is too old). Forget my suggestion of Paul Rudd for Nick because he played that part in an A&E version I never saw. As for Gatsby himself, Baz’s Romeo & Juliet leading man Leonardo DiCaprio if he doesn’t break the budget. Or James Marsden on the cheap. Other names?

Adams is not a bad choice for Daisy but I don’t think she is quite right.  Rachel McAdams would be my choice for Daisy and Brad Pitt was born to play Gatsby.  Baz is pretty good at the longing from afar thing, Australia notwithstanding.