FUNimation announced three more licensed anime properties, one new and two previously released domestically. Slayers Revolution is a 26-episode series following the three previous series (Slayers, Slayers Next and Slayers Try); FUNimation will release the complete series on DVD.  
 
FUNimation also acquired the rights to the 24-episode Gankutsuou:  The Count of Monte Cristo series from GDH. 

The 26-episode Gungrave joins the for previously announced Geneon titles Ergo Proxy, Hellsing Ultimate, and Black Lagoon.  
 

Mitch Hurwitz, creator and executive producer Arrested Development told Fancast that development on the big screen version of the film has been slowed by the reluctance of series stars Michael Cera and Will Arnett to appear in the film.

“I don’t want to talk about who is holding out right now because we might still work that out and I don’t want to pressure anyone through the press,” said Hurwitz. “Although I will say that Will Arnett is gung-ho, so there’s a big clue!”

He said until the cast is locked in lace, he will not begin work on a screenplay. “I think in some respect it would have to pick up where the show left off. Maybe the benefit of that would be, if nothing else, just to recap everything. There are a couple of ways to get into it. I was even thinking about a big animated sequence to start. Kind of like how the Blake Edwards movies used to start – to kind of catch everyone up.”

Will the movie allow audiences to finally see Michael Bluth’s wife?

“I don’t know,” he said. “There were a couple of areas where I always sort of held back, where I always felt like if I needed to deal with at some point, I could. One of them is definitely that story, and who those people are, and what effect that has on this kid. I don’t know if we’d necessarily see her.”
 

Warner Home Video is finally releasing their own version of the Superman cartoons produced by Max & Dave Fleischer.  The seventeen classics have been in the public domain and collected repeatedly over the last 20 years.  Come April 7, though, the first authorized collection will be released.

In addition to the Paramount cartoons, released in 1941 and 1942, the two-disc set will include two extras: “The Man, The Myth, Superman” and “First Flight: The Fleischer Superman Series”. The set will retail for $26.99 and if you have never seen these cartoons, they are well worth it

Studio 407 has announced a deal for its Hybrid series to become a motion picture to be directed by Ernie Barbarash (Cube Zero). The four issue miniseries has garnered good reviews and a trade collection will be released from Bluewater Productions on February 25.

The deal is part of an earlier agreement granting Myriad Pictures (Jeepers Creepers II) a first-look partnership.  Production on the film, which has yet to be cast, is expected in 2009.

Written by Peter Kwong, the story focuses on four friends who rent a schooner then discover a derelict trawler. When they spot a little girl waving to them, they feel compelled to offer assistance but quickly discover she is not alone. The story has ecological themes in addition to thrills, blood, and mutant creatures.

Studio 407 is a small studio run by managing director and film producer Alex Leung (Around the World in 80 Days).

Leung told ShockTillYouDrop.com, “We came out of Asia as an intellectual property/multi-media company that was started in Bangkok. From there we opened a small office there with four people and when I came back to Los Angeles, we started an office here and we got started with Myriad with the idea to not only use our comic books but to also develop genre material with them because they were very successful with Jeepers Creepers 2. They wanted to find a way to do more of those kinds of films. It just made sense because it’s what the market demands right now. A lot of their films they put together through foreign sales and pre-sales, and obviously a genre that crosses over really well is horror. We wanted to do more of these and we could provide a lot of that material, but we could also produce those films because we have experience in that field as well.

“The movie, if we’re lucky, will be out by the end of 2009. It’s skewing towards a straight horror title with it very much in the vein of the classic Creepy and Eerie comics. It’s a modern day Creature from the Black Lagoon with elements of Jaws. It’s very a much an old school creature feature but updated with an environmental angle, very much like The Host was. It’s a very subtle thing that’s set up in the beginning, then touched on lightly throughout.”

He praised Kwong scriptwriting abilities, making him perfect to take their concept for Hybrid and turn it into a comic to interest Myriad. “But what we went out with was a first draft and it’s rare that you can hook a studio right away just on the first draft. To be honest we did not expect Hybrid to happen. Basically, we told our investors not to expect any films in the first two or three years. So, we’re very fortunate to have two films going. Hybrid, as a matter of fact, is our second film.”

Studio 407 and Myriad have previously collaborated on the film Hunter.