I Am Monday Morning's Really Long Link

There's an enormous amount that I feel inclined to link to this morning - damn you ComiCon! - so I might keep each bit briefer than usual...

--- The next issue of the Buffy: Season 8 comic comes out in a few weeks and it's switching gears from the first Buffy-centric arc to one of that other Slayer, Faith (yay!) - you can see the fantastic cover right here and then this site has some scanned pages (spoilery, obviously) from the actual comic!

--- Will Joss Whedon's next project be a horror movie? Written by man-god Drew Goddard? He said so at ComiCon (via AICN):

"Whedon just finished writing "the horror film to end all horror films -- literally" with fellow “Buffy”/”Angel” alumnus Drew Goddard. It's called “Cabin in the Woods.” (Goddard, you’ll recall, also wrote J.J. Abrams’ mysterious upcoming “Cloverfield” movie.)"

Somebody break out the defibrillator paddles quick, I can't take it. Joss also says he's not done with the Maleka Fray character (that's the future Slayer, newbies), and that he is writing more issues of the Buffy comic in the future.

---Joss also told the crowd at ComiCon, via AICN, that there is hope on the horizon for a Buffyverse spin-off movie, at least for the Watcher, Rupert Giles - The Ripper as a movie for the BBC was batted around as a rumor back after the show ended, and it still has life in it, it seems, and may happen next year!

--- From that first AICN link we hear Lucy Lawless will indeed be making her return to Battlestar Galactica for a few episodes in the fourth and final season, thank the gods.

--- Director Zach Snyder, currently sorta preoccupied with something called Watchmen, told BD some news on what he wants to do next, another zombie movie (after directing the far better than it had any right to be Dawn of the Dead remake) called Army of the Dead, and he says:

"... that what will separate this film from any other zombie film is it's scope... "it will be massive!" He really drove home the point that we have never seen anything of this scale in our horror lives. He also proclaimed his love for the genre and said he'll be sticking around for quite some time. Set in a quarantined Las Vegas in the not-too-distant future, "Army" revolves around a father who tries to save his daughter from imminent death in a zombie-infested world."

Just an insignificant aside here - can somebody start making zombies movies whose titles aren't "_____ of the Dead" or what? I'm all for that being George Romero's schtick, he could make a romantic comedy but it'd have to be called like Swoon of the Dead or something, but non-Romero projects, no.

--- I wrote about the casting rumor-mill for Death Race 3000 back in May, and it seems Djimon Honsou and Glenn Close (!!!) passed, because the roles have been filled by Tyrese Gibson and JOAN ALLEN. What what what? Please tell me she checked out director Paul W.S. Anderson's resume before she signed on the dotted line. Actually, no, I'd rather think she didn't check out his films, because if she had I don't see how she could've signed on the dotted line. Oh Joan! You'll be so much better than this movie, I know I'll have to watch it just to see you be awesome. Oh, and also to see people score points by running over toddlers.

--- Best Living Director Michael Haneke has his next film lined up, and he'll be returning to Germany after detouring to make his first English-language feature (his remake of his own Funny Games) - his next film will be called The White Tape or The Teacher's Tale and all Variety says is it's set in a North German village pre-WWI.

In that same Variety article they give us this harrowing news:

"... thesp Daniel Bruhl ("Goodbye, Lenin!") will star in a new adaptation of Franz Kafka's "Metamorphosis," the classic spooky novelette about a man who turns into an insect.

Pic will also star Stephen Rea and Anna Paquin.

The production will be the directorial debut of Limor Diamant, the producer of "FeardotCom," and has a reported budget of $9 million."

If they fuck up this story - one of my absolute favorites - somebody's gonna pay.

--- When Hostel: Part II is released on DVD on October 23rd, Lionsgate will be releasing a director's cut of the first Hostel film, this time with the apparently never-seen-before original ending. Urgh. I'll just be renting it, I'm tired of these double-dippers. But I'm curious to see if the trouble I have with the original's ending is fixed, at all. Or worsened, one never knows with Eli...
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