The Plan is the new Battlestar Galactica prequel that fills us in on some of the storylines that we’ve seen, but from the other side of the fence: the Cylons’ point of view. The movie is directed by Admiral William Adama himself (Edward James Olmos) and will feature most of your favorite stars and characters. A teaser trailer for the movie was released a while back (and has since been pulled), but now you can see the new trailer for the show right here!

Back in August, Olmos appeared on Attack of the Show and pleaded with the fans to make sure that they purchase the movie when it comes out on October 27, 2009, because if it sold around 350,000 to 500,000 copies in its first day of release, we would see “many plans” (Read: Could Big Numbers For “˜The Plan’ Mean More “˜Battlestar Galactica’?). No one knows what exactly this means, but one would assume there’s a lot more DVD movies like this to be made if the success keeps flowing.

Click on over to check out the trailer and to read the dirty DVD details!

Green Lantern: First Flight
Single-Disc Edition
Directed by Lauren Montgomery
Starring Christopher Meloni, Victor Garber, Tricia Helfer
DC Animation/Warner Brothers
Released: July 28, 2009

DC Animation has hit on something with their recent direct-to-DVD releases, particularly the Batman: Gotham Knight and Justice League: The New Frontier movies and the streak continues with their newest film, Green Lantern: First Flight. DC/Warner Bros picked a good time to release this, what with the Green Lantern comic series being the best it’s been, arguably ever, and big news being thrown around with Ryan Reynolds being cast as Hal Jordan in the upcoming live-action movie. Let’s be honest, Green Lantern has never been as big a name to the non-comics world as say Batman or Spider-Man, so it’s nice to see that DC hasn’t forgotten about him. Is this movie as good as the current series? I wouldn’t say that, but it does a good job of introducing the characters and world of GL, so it succeeds in that part.

One thing to be said about the story is that it isn’t a straight adaptation of a story already told in comics, ala Superman: Doomsday or New Frontier. It’s a completely new story, although it does borrow elements from the entire series, and specifically some elements from the Sinestro Corp War.

By Cultural Learnings

Burn Notice, premiering its third season on Thursday, June 4th on USA Network at 9/8c, is a show that started out as something very small. The story of a CIA operative who suddenly finds himself burned (blacklisted from government work, stuck with no passport, no money, etc.) and dropped off in Miami, the show may appear on the surface to be a traditional formula: with the help of his “trigger-happy” ex-girlfriend Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar) and his former colleague Sam (the week’s honoree, Bruce Campbell), Michael Weston (Jeffrey Donovan) helps out people in the community who need someone who knows how to handle a gun, is able to rig a bomb out of just about anything, and who’s street smart enough to get the job done without involving the authorities.

At that basic level, the show is a procedural like any other, but it was first boosted by two primary elements that raise its quality. First, the presence of Anwar (who despite being a polarizing figure is damn fun to watch due to her sadistic streak) and Campbell (who is both the heart and humor of the show, usually simultaneously) help to give the show a nice banter, along with Michael’s connection to his mother and brother who also happen to live in Miami. Second, the missions themselves take the form of Michael offering narration as to his MacGyver-like abilities with hardware store purchases — he takes us through the missions piece by piece, allowing us to see the inner workings of the process. It takes missions that are good to begin with thanks to their populist streak (everyone likes to see a good guy helping out the little guy) and gives them an added point of interest for the viewer, especially those who enjoy geeking out at some ingenious engineering. Combined with the beautiful Miami setting, and the bikini-clad women who somehow always seem to populate the streets, and you have a show with something for everyone.

The final day of the Battlestar Galactica live charity auction is underway right now at California’s Pasadena Convention Center, with bidding to start at 10am PST.

If you can’t make it down to the Center, you can watch the live stream at Auction Network and bid on the items up for grabs in real time.

A portion of the proceeds from the auction, which has over 900 items available from the SCI FI Channel series, will go to benefit United Way.

This final auction will include items like Lee Adama’s (Jamie Bamber) bomber jacket; the painting that Kara “Starbuck” Thrace (Katee Sackhoff) painted in her Caprica apartment before the Cylon attacks; the Galactica Podium; Admiral Adama’s (Edward James Olmos) desk chair; a full size Viper Mark II ship; and a full size Blackbird Stealth ship. The infamous red dress worn by Number Six (Tricia Helfer) and a Starbuck flight suit will also be offered in this auction.

Universal Home Entertainment will release Battlestar Galactica: The Complete Series on DVD and Blu-ray on July 28, 2009.

This 20-disc Blu-ray set and 25-disc standard DVD set contains every episode of the popular SCI FI Channel series, along with extensive bonus materials, and is now available for pre-order.

Created and executive-produced by Ronald D. Moore and David Eick, the series starred an ensemble cast led by Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Katee Sackhoff, Jamie Bamber, James Callis, Tricia Helfer, and Grace Park.

The last half of the show’s final season — Season 4.5 — is also now available for pre-order and will also be released on DVD and Blu-ray on July 28, 2009 with loads of extras.

Check out the box art here at right and below (click for larger view).