Marvel and Fox are developing a prequel spinoff of the popular X-Men villain.

Marvel Studios and 20th Century Fox are developing the X-Men spinoff Magneto, with David Goyer set to direct.

Ian McKellen, who played the role of the villain in the original movie trilogy, would most likely have limited participation in the spinoff, which will be an origin story. Goyer, who’s working on a host of various other projects, will develop a script that was written by Sheldon Turner.

Magneto, whose mutant power is the ability to manipulate metal objects, is an Auschwitz surviver who hunted down and killed Nazi war criminals who tortured him. It’s this need for vengeance that turns him and the telepathic mutant leader Professor Xavier (played by Patrick Stewart in the trilogy) into enemies.

Special Edition DVD of the 1980 movie will feature cover artwork by Alex Ross.

****Warning: The following contains strong Freddie Mercury-related bias.****

Universal Home Video has announced plans to release a special edition of the 1980 version of Flash Gordon. This is the movie that proved to the world (read: me) that all you need were a butt-load of cheesetastic special-effects, a monstrous bad guy, and a soundtrack by QUEEN, and you’ve successfully created an instant geek classic.

I’m serious. The chocolate and peanut butter mashup of fantasy movies with Queen music was a combination of genius proportions! I’m really surprised that it took so many years for another movie (Highlander) to stumble upon this secret formula.

I’m going on record to say that if it wasn’t for Queen, both movies would’ve been mere blips on the radar.

I’m right, and you know it.

The annual event opened in New York City with global warming theme.

The sixth annual Tribeca Film Festival opened last night with a gala in New York City hosted by former Vice President and environmentalist Al Gore, star of the Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth.

The theme of this year’s festival is global warming and many of the films focus on the subject. One of the films was about the upcoming reunion of the legendary mock rock band Spinal Tap. Tap will be turning their amplifiers up to eleven on July 7th when they take part in the Live Earth concert at London’s Wembley Stadium. The Live Earth concert will deliver 24 hours of music from seven continents with the goal of bringing awareness to the dangers of global warming.

The official site for The Golden Compass allows users to create their own daemon with a new interactive “Meet Your Daemon” feature.

The official Web site for New Line Cinema’s fantasy film The Golden Compass launched an interactive feature called Meet Your Daemon.

The “Meet Your Daemon” activity asks users 20 personality questions that are then used to formulate which daemon (pronounced dee-mon) best fits their demeanor. The resulting avatar created can then be downloaded as desktop wallpaper or AIM logo as well as embedded into a personal Web site or MySpace page. (That’s the daemon created for me at right; view my animated avatar after the jump.)

Heroes actor to play Mafia kingpin in The Dark Knight.

Eric Roberts will play a Mafia kingpin in Christopher Nolan‘s The Dark Knight, the sequel to 2005’s Batman Begins, according to the Los Angeles Daily News.

Roberts, who has been appearing in a recurring role on the NBC series Heroes, will join the film’s production in June.

The Dark Knight also stars returning players Christian Bale as Batman along with Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, and Michael Caine. New to the sequel, which hits theaters July 18, 2008, are Maggie Gyllenhaal (replacing Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes), Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent, and Heath Ledger as The Joker.

Source: LA Times via SciFi.com