Sir Ian McKellen recently spoke to MTV while promoting his re-imagining of the 1967 mini-series The Prisoner. It did not take long before the conversation jumped to the obvious priority of all news seekers: Guillermo del Toro and Peter Jackson’s two-movie adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Topics discussed mainly hovered around his urge to return to the epic fantasy role that netted him an Academy Award nomination, the surprise arrival part of the script and the security lengths being taken to ensure its safety, and also his curiosity when it comes to del Toro and his directing methods.

McKellen states that he longs to become the “fantastic” Gandalf character again and can’t wait for production to start. He also speaks about how he and Jackson both preferred the original Gandalf the Grey character before he took on his god-like White persona. “He was more humane somehow. He was the guy who liked to hang out with the Hobbits and drink too much and smoke too much,” McKellen admits. [...]

Wil Wheaton is something of a fanboy favorite for the people. He’s a former child star, best known as the lead in the Rob Reiner adaptation of Stephen King’s Stand by Me, and also as Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation. He’s done tons of other stuff along with these two better-known titles, but the best thing about him is that he’s grown into a regular everyday guy and fan of many things geek, which puts him high on our list of coolest celebrities in the universe.

One thing that we didn’t know about Mr. Wheaton — and you probably didn’t know it either — is that he was actually in J.J. Abrams‘ Star Trek. That’s right, Wes Crusher of Next Generation was in the new Trek.

On the official Wil Wheaton blog, the actor and writer shared the whole story yesterday, and it is quite the amusing tale indeed. [...]

In yet another announcement regarding a classic cartoon character, it appears as though there is a Yogi Bear movie in the works, and it’s actually set to begin filming next month. Naturally, this will be another hybrid movie that will mix live-action humans with the former cartoons getting their CGI makeover.
This comes [...]

It seems like every post these days has a list-off of all of the toys and board games being made into movies, so we’re not even going to worry about it here. Now it’s being reported that Sony Pictures have acquired the rights to Hasbro’s strategy game, Risk, and will indeed be turning it into a movie. The game was created in 1957 by French filmmaker Albert Lamorisse. Who knows, maybe they can go to war with Universal’s Battleship movie! (Read: ‘Hancock’ Director Peter Berg To Helm ‘Battleship’ Movie; 2011 Release).

Once again, there isn’t really a storyline to Risk, so you have to imagine that this will ultimately just become some kind of a war movie in which nations battle for world domination. Two scenarios are most logical: in one, they could go back in time and create the movie within one of the first two World Wars; in the other, they could go futuristic and make a movie about World War III, which is probably the most likely of paths. [...]

While on the set of his new movie, Steve Guttenberg spoke to WENN and dropped a mega-bomb on the unsuspecting world: Disney is developing a third movie in their Three Men and a Baby franchise called Three Men and a Bride. Wait, wait — it definitely gets better. Guttenberg also claims that, he Ted Danson, AND Tom Selleck are all set to reprise their roles. Oh, thank you…thank you, God.

The 1987 original movie was a hugely popular hit back in its day. It followed a trio of friends who are living the bachelor life in a sweet bachelor pad before a mysterious baby shows up at their door that supposedly belongs to one of them. Hilarity ensues when these completely unfitting fathers attempt to care for the baby and of its glorious baby habits. The film spawned a sequel entitled Three Men and a Little Lady in which the mother comes back and plans to move the kid to London. [...]

We at Geeks of Doom are very pleased to share with you this exclusive new clip from AMC’s remake of The Prisoner, the classic 1967 British series of the same name.

This re-interpretation of the original show — which ran 17 episodes from ‘67 to ‘68 — stars Jim Caviezel (The Passion of the Christ, Pay it Forward) in the lead role of Six (first played by Patrick McGoohan) and Sir Ian McKellen (The Lord of the Rings, The Da Vinci Code) in the role of Two. The miniseries also stars Ruth Wilson (Jane Eyre) as 313, Hayley Atwell (Mansfield Park) as Lucy, Lennie James (Snatch) as 147, and Jamie Campbell-Bower (Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd, Twilight: New Moon) as 11-12.

Click on over to the other side to watch this exclusive clip immediately and check out a couple of images as well. You can also head on over to AMC’s official The Prisoner website for a lot more information on the show and its 1967 inspiration! [...]

The Weinstein Company is incredibly giddy that their juggernaut Scream franchise is being revived for a new trilogy. Scream 4 is just gaining some good speed with a script in the works from Kevin Williamson and some of the core cast members locked in to return. This hasn’t stopped the Weinsteins from trying to get all of us giddy-ized (word invented — stamp it!) right along with them, though; the company has created an ultra-basic new teaser poster to check out (Click to go big). All the poster is a our first face-to-face with the infamous Ghostface, and a tiny little promise of some new rules being thrown into the chaos.

As you may or may not know, this is a project that the Weinsteins have been begging Williamson for for a long time now. He finally broke down and got to work developing it as a whole new trilogy. Stars David Arquette and Courteney Cox were pretty much instantly-confirmed for the return, but there was a little drama when it looked like their lead, Neve Campbell, would not be coming back. This, however, did not last long, as it was later confirmed that she too was returning for the ride. The one huge missing link still, is whether Wes Craven will return to direct. [...]

We’ve certainly seen the story before: high technology machines and robots evolve, rise up, and take over the world of men. Whether it’s Battlestar Galactica, the Terminator franchise, or a movie like I, Robot, people love being scared by the thought of man-made machines turning on us and killing us all. If this trend is kept up, the robot apocalypse could become a genre in itself like zombies, but that isn’t stopping DreamWorks, who are on the verge of acquiring the rights to an unpublished manuscript entitled Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson.

So what makes this project so attractive? What makes Robopocalypse different from the other movies that we’ve seen? Well, it’s realism. Wilson is an actual Ph.D. in robotics, and he has injected a massive level of realism into his tale of man vs. machine, which is what immediately grabbed DreamWorks’ attention. Over the past few years, there have been some terrifying videos of actual man-made robots that are so freaky-realistic, you almost expect them to evolve and slaughter mankind. [...]

Just last week, we learned that last year’s Academy Awards host, Hugh Jackman, would not be returning for the job (Read: Good News Everyone: Hugh Jackman NOT Hosting The Oscars; Who’s Next?), leaving us wondering who would get the gig and if it would be worth caring about in the slightest. The NY Times is now reporting that the annual show’s producers have made not one choice, but two. That’s right, the next Oscars will have two hosts, and they are none other than comic legend Steve Martin and greatest actor ever to live, Alec Baldwin.

The plan this year to to have the wild and wacky antics of Martin contrast Baldwin’s calm, dry delivery. We know that both are very much capable of some great comedy, so it is easy to declare that this could be a phenomenal production. The two actors are also appearing together in master of the romantic comedy Nancy Meyers’ (What Women Want, The Holiday) It’s Complicated, where they will battle each other for the love of Meryl Streep. [...]

It’s quite likely that 99.9% of you have already decided that you will not be seeing either of the movies discussed here based solely on the title of this post. Sadly, you are perfectly fair to judge so quickly, and you are not alone in your disdain for these and other childhood characters (liked or not) being made into feature films.

First up, it’s being reported that Owen Wilson has signed on the dotted line to voice the role of Marmaduke, a giant clumsy CGI dog based on the 1954 comic strip of the same name. The movie will do the same as all of these movies do in mixing CG and live-action. The plans for a Marmaduke movie have apparently been around for a while now as it has a cast of known names that will surely regret ever agreeing to appear in it down the road. The names include William H. Macy, Judy Greer, and Lee Pace as live-action characters, while Steve Coogan, Emma Stone, Damon Wayans, George Lopez, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Marlon Wayans, and Fergie will all voice CG characters. You might as well call it Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2: Honey, I Blew Up the Chihuahua. Marmaduke is set for release in June of 2010 — get excited. [...]

If it’s true that a movie can become so over-hyped that it affects our view of the film, then James Cameron’s massively-pre-praised Avatar is going to have to really be amazing to live up to our expectations. Already we’ve seen many people let down by our first glimpse of the movie in its debut teaser trailer, but now we have a full-length theatrical trailer to watch and really see whether excitement blooms or skepticism rules on. Once again, all of these trailers won’t be able to fully present the IMAX Digital 3-D format the movie is specifically being built for, so you have to imagine it as big as big can be and as personally enveloping as movies can get.

The trailer has a lot of things we’ve seen before, but with an extra minute or so of footage, you’ll certainly see some new goodies. It seems the real concern is still the Na’vi and if you love or hate their look, but overall, imagining in the above-stated IMAX format, you can see how this will without doubt be a dreamscape of never-before-seen visual treats. If the movie hits on all entertainment levels, then we really are looking at an amusement park ride of a movie-going experience. [...]

As we all know, many movies based on toys and board games have been made recently, and are still on the way, including Transformers, G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra, Clue, Monopoly, Stretch Armstrong, Battleship, and Candy Land. On the horror front, Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes is developing a feature film based on the [...]

It’s been a long time coming, but the first official movie trailer for Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer’s video game adaptation Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time has been unveiled by MySpace.

The trailer certainly makes its intents known immediately, and it’s pretty clear that movie-goers are either going to love it or hate it passionately. What really stands out is the visuals, which are without doubt very beautifully done. The big concern lies within the cast, which started the very moment that Jake Gyllenhaal was cast as a Persian prince. This now has secondary concerns attached to it because Jake is also going to be attempting an accent, as you’ll be able to tell, and also because it appears that he and his co-star Gemma Arterton don’t look like they have very convincing chemistry together. With a supporting cast that includes Ben Kingsley and Alfred Molina, there is hope that these things can be overlooked, but Prince of Persia has a little mountain to climb if it wants to start winning our hearts and wallets. [...]

OK, I’ll admit it: this isn’t really news. But in a world where Twilight is everywhere you look and read, stuff like this is needed to keep everyone (me, me!) sane.

Basically, our favorite sibling assassins with hearts of gold, the Boondock Saints (Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus), stopped by MTV recently to talk about their long-awaited sequel, Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day. While there, they were prompted to take part in a small Big Buck Safari challenge. If you do not know what Big Buck Safari games are, if you’ve ever been in an arcade, you’d recognize them as a hunting simulation in which you hold an orange plastic gun and try and hunt for the best deer.

This isn’t the amusing part of the day, though: before leaving, the Saints made sure that they set their superior status in stone by taking a stand-up of The Twilight Saga: New Moon star Robert Pattinson and giving it the true McManus brothers treatment for those who have sinned against mankind; that’s right, two shots to the back of the head. All we need now is some audio of them saying their prayer beforehand and some pennies for the eyes and all would be well in the world. [...]

We’ve been hearing a lot from Robert Zemeckis in the past few months in regard to a potential sequel to Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, his classic live-action/cartoon hybrid. We’ve heard some good news, like that the 2-D animated characters will remain 2-D, though some new 3-D characters could be introduced (Read: SDCC 09: Director Robert Zemeckis Says 2D Characters Would Remain That Way In A ‘Roger Rabbit’ Sequel). We’ve also heard bad news, such as Bob Hoskins saying that he wouldn’t be able to come back and do a sequel if it happened (Read: Bob Hoskins Says ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit 2′ Won’t Have Eddie Valiant? I Call Shenanigans!).

To add to all of that, Zemeckis recently spoke to MTV and shared some new news that will get fans really excited: not only is he serious about wanting to make Roger Rabbit 2, but he already has the original movie’s writing team of Jeffrey Price and Peter Seaman developing a script right this moment. [...]

We’ve all seen it before, whether it be on purpose or while flipping thorough channels: a daytime TV show has a holiday special where they present fun and helpful tips on decorative ideas, crafty party/hosting tricks, and unique food and snack recipes.

The Today Show held one of these special shows recently (which you can see much more of in our recent post) for Halloween, and they went all out, complete with a full Star Wars theme. Hosts Al Roker and Ann Curry dressed up as Han Solo and Darth Vader, and they even brought in a couple of little Ewoks to set the perfect mood! Unfortunately, this backfired on them a little; it didn’t take long before the Ewoks took over the show. It starts off light with a little playful talking, food throwing, and stealing the Halloween cocktails, but the more reactions they got, the more they feed off of it, and that prompts them to start dancing and moonwalking, fighting each other, and humping Mr. Roker’s leg. Yes, you read that right: an Ewok humps Al Roker’s leg. [...]

Every year, After Dark does their part to bring the world a collection of new horror movies. Their 8 Films to Die For are custom built for the die-hard horror fan, with none of that PG-13 crap — no, no, these are real horror movies that are graphic and completely unapologetic.

Being a big fan of horror movies, I jumped at the opportunity to not only take a look at one of the third annual collection’s offerings, but to swim around in all eight of these demented and twisted tales. My happy dreams may now be permanent nightmares, but really, what fun would it be to just review one part of what’s mean to be an entire collection of pure horror good-ness?

From here on out, I’ll do my best to review each of the eight films so movie fans and horror buffs alike can decide whether they want to see just one or if they want to see them all over and over again. [...]

In case you’ve yet to notice Paramount Home Entertainment has been putting out new Deluxe Editions of the Friday the 13th movies. First they released parts I, II, and III (Read: DVD Reviews: ‘Friday The 13th’ 1-3 Deluxe Editions), and now we have IV, V, and VI!

As I’ve said before: when it comes to Friday the 13th, it’s almost impossible to review them as single movies. Again, the franchise as a whole and the character Jason Voorhees is more of its own life force than a bunch of movies. You either hate Friday the 13th, or you love every cheesy, gory second of it.

With this set of three flicks, we move out of the realms of the less-liked Friday the 13th movies, and into some of the most-popular ones, where Jason transforms from a horrifying and seemingly unstoppable killer, to an undead and definitely unstoppable killer!

Let it begin…again…after it had ended! [...]

Just this week, we were treated to a brief glimpse of some of the vehicles that series writer and director George Miller was having constructed for his long-awaited fourth chapter in the Mad Max franchise, which is being called Fury Road. During that interview, Miller stated that they were in the process of casting but had no idea who would be chosen yet. Whether that was the truth or not is unknown, but it did not take long to find out that two actors have indeed been chosen. It’s being reported that Academy Award winner Charlize Theron and up-and-comer Tom Hardy have been cast in the lead roles.

Hardy will be filling the large shoes once occupied by Mel Gibson as the vengeful post-apocalyptic hero, Max. Theron will be taking the female lead in which details are not yet known. The movie is said to be a sequel, taking place a short time after the events of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. This means that the hopes for a Gibson cameo as the original Max is unlikely, but a cameo as someone else could still be put together for amusement purposes. [...]

It’s being reported that last year’s Academy Awards host, Hugh Jackman, has decided that he doesn’t want to host for a second year in a row. Jackman currently has a Broadway show going on and obviously has other projects making him quite the busy man. He ensured that he might be willing to return sometime in the future, but as for consecutive appearances, he was not interested.

Every year, fans of the Oscar ceremony anxiously wonder who will host the show that year. The decision on who will host sets the entire table and hints at whether you get really excited, or really skeptical of the show and how entertaining it could be.

Last year, Jackman was brought in to host the ceremony. It was one of many new moves that the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science have taken to try and refresh the awards and bring new fans in to fortify their dwindling ratings numbers. Traditionally, the Oscars were hosted by comedic entertainers and actors who weren’t usually nominated and could really own the stage — most popular of them being either Johnny Carson or Billy Crystal. [...]