Author: Robert Greenberger

Diary of a Wimpy Kid will be directed by Thor Freudenthal (Hotel for Dogs) according to The Hollywood Reporter. Casting continues to find a fresh face to portray the junior high school student who writes the diary. There was an open call back in October with no teen yet selected.

The Fox 2000 film will be produced by Nina Jacobson.

Jeff Kinney’s  characters gained life on the web before Harry N. Abrams’ Charlie Kochman brought the stories to print.  There are now two books plus a related activity title already on sale.  The third book, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw, is due out in January.

The series tell of  “the life of pre-adolescent Greg Heffley, a smart aleck who frequently gets caught up in escapades at school and with his family.”

Top Cow Productions, Inc. announced Wednesday that due to popular demand, redesigned and rebranded hardcover copies of the Witchblade Compendium Vol. 1 and The Darkness Compendium Vol. 1 are scheduled to be in comic shops on December 17. Softcover editions will be available December. 24.

The Witchblade Compendium Vol. 1 collects Witchblade issues #1-50 and a complete cover gallery. The Darkness Compendium Vol. 1 collects The Darkness vol. 1 Preview and issues #½-40, Tales of The Darkness issues #½-4, Witchblade/The Darkness issue #½, The Darkness vol. 2 issue #1, The Darkness: Wanted Dead one-shot and a complete cover gallery. Both books are an impressive 1,280 pages, and both hardcover editions feature bonus posters on the reverse side of the slipcovers.

The books were first printed in 2006 and immediately sold out. Demand for more copies was high, which prompted Top Cow to reprint the books after a complete rebranding of the company’s entire trade paperback line was complete.

“It’s taken us a bit longer to get the Compendium’s back into print, but the redesigned look was well worth the wait,” said Top Cow Publisher Filip Sablik. “Plus, the price cannot be beat. Fifty comics for 60 bucks! Just another way Top Cow is giving you more than the competition.”

Copies of the compendiums can be ordered through local comic shops using the following Diamond item numbers:

Witchblade Compendium Vol. 1 Hardcover ($99.99)
Witchblade Compendium Vol. 1 Softcover ($59.99)
The Darkness Compendium Vol. 1 Hardcover ($99.99)
The Darkness Compendium Vol. 1 Softcover ($59.99)
 

Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, who has been a part of every incarnation of her husband Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek, has signed on to reprise her role as the computer voice in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek according to Variety.

As an actress, Majel Barrett was cast as Number One in the original television pilot but NBC had issues with a female as the second-in-command.  She was recast as Nurse Christine Chapel for the three seasons of the series and animated show that followed. She did a variety of voices for the show including the computer.

She reprised the computer voice for Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager.  Her voice work was also heard in the feature films and she appeared as Chapel in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek: IV: The Voyage Home.

Barrett-Roddenberry also played Lwaxana Troi in TNG and DS9.

Tomoko Ninomiya’s Nodame Cantabile manga is moving to the big screen according to Variety. The story of a pianist and an apprentice conductor who have a torrid romance has already been a television series and the leads, Juri Ueno and Hiroshi Tamaki, will reprise their parts for two feature films according to Variety. Their television director Hideki Takeuchi will join them on the features.

Shooting on the first feature is scheduled to begin in May, taking the couple around Europe for five months. Toho and NTV anticipate releasing the first in December 2009 and the second feature the following spring.

The best-selling manga led to the television series in October 2006 and has been a growing success in Janapan.

NTV has produced a successful series of films based on Death Note and is shooting a trilogy,  20th Century Boys, based on Naoki Urasawa’s manga about “a convenience store clerk who discovers that the disastrous prophecies he wrote as a boy are coming true. The first part, released at the end of August, has earned $42 million.”

Deadline Hollywood reports that the Blu-ray edition of The Dark Knight sold 600,000 copies on Tuesday, its first day of release.

“By contrast, Marvel/Paramount’s Iron Man sold 250,000 Blu-ray discs when it premiered on September 30th and ended up selling 400,000 Blu-ray units in its first week,” Nikki Finke wrote.

The film had already been named the #1 movie downloaded via Apple’s iStore.

“The Dark Knight was not only 2008’s best DVD sales day, but is also likely to be 2008’s bestseller of the year by next week with a projected number of 7 million units,” she continued.

The film is poised to break the $1 billion at the global box office and continues to set records.  With a rerelease announced for January 23, the film will continue to generate huge profits.

With Awards season just beginning, the new is likely to continue.  Already today, Heath Ledger earned a posthumous Golden Globe nomination for his work as the Joker.
 

The Golden Globe nominations were announced this morning with three films each nabbing five nominations.  No clear winner was in the pack with many of the films and performances yet to be sampled by audiences as the features slowly roll out to theaters across the country. As expected, though, Heath Ledger’s Joker, did get a nod.

The Globes tend to recognize more mainstream fare but are also seen as a predictor for the Academy Award nominations, which will be revealed in February. The Globes will be aired on January 11 on NBC.

FILM

BEST FEATURE – DRAMA

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
The Reader
Revolutionary Road
Slumdog Millionaire

BEST FEATURE – COMEDY

Burn After Reading
Happy-Go-Lucky
In Bruges
Mamma Mia!
Vicky Cristina Barcelona (more…)

The Sci Fi Channel announced a schedule for its 10 Battlestar Galactica webisodes, kicking off Friday and running regularly through January 12.  The final half season will begin airing on January 16.

The Webisodes are titled "The Face of the Enemy," and were written by Jane Espenson and Seamus Kevin Fahey, They star Alessandro Juliani (Lt. Felix Gaeta) and Grace Park (various No. 8 Cylons).

The Webisodes will run three or four minutes long, go live at Noon EST on each of the following dates.

•    Friday, December 12:  Chapter 1
•    Monday, December 15: Chapter 2
•    Wednesday, December 17: Chapter 3
•    Monday, December 22: Chapter 4
•    Wednesday, December 24: Chapter 5
•    Monday, December 29: Chapter 6
•    Wednesday, December 31: Chapter 7
•    Monday, January 5: Chapter 8
•    Wednesday, January 7: Chapter 9
•    Monday, January 12: Chapter 10

"’The Face of the Enemy’ follows the gripping action and suspense inside a stranded Raptor carrying a group of passengers including Lieutenant Felix Gaeta (Alessandro Juliani) and a Number 8 Cylon (Grace Park). When passengers suddenly start dying one by one in alarming ways, fear, panic and chaos erupt within the confines of the small ship, as they come to realize there is a killer among them. Michael Hogan (Colonel Tigh) and Brad Dryborough (Lieutenant Hoshi) also star."

Entertainment Weekly has announced the cast for M. Night Shyamalan’s live-action adaptation of The Last Airbender.

The youthful cast includes Karate star Noah Ringer will play Aang, the Avatar (the spirit of the planet manifested in human form), the last surviving Airbender and a monk of the Air Nomads, a race of people with the unique ability to manipulate the air around them. He is assigned with the task of keeping the Four Nations at peace.

Jackson Rathbone (Twilight) will play Aang’s friend Sokka, a warrior of the South Pole’s Southern Water Tribe, a race of people who can control and manipulate water.

Nicola Peltz (Deck the Halls) will play Sokka’s fourteen-year-old sister Katara, the last remaining Waterbender of her entire Tribe.

Pop/R&B singer Jesse McCartney will play the Fire Nation’s evil prince Zuko. Exiled from the Fire Nation by his father, Zuko is sent to capture the Avatar in order to restore his honor and right to the throne.

The Last Airbender, based on Nickelodeon’s Avatar anime, will be released July 2, 2010.

Remember Adventures in Babysitting, the Chris Columbus teen comedy with Elisabeth Shue? Comic fans were most amused that one of her charges, Sara (Maia Brewton), wore Thor’s helmet throughout the film and Vincent D’Onofrio’s creepy character was nicknamed Thor.

The movie did well enough to spawn a short-lived television series and finally word is out that a sequel is being made.  The star will be Miley Cyrus, according to The Chicago Sun -Times, and the movie is slated for 2010. The Hannah Montana star will appear opposite fellow Disney headline Raven Symone with Tiffany Paulsen (Nancy Drew) at work on the script.