In addition to its new audio dramas based on Doctor Who, Big Finish Productions also handles original properties in addition to other licenses. Recently, Big Finish announced two new installments in their ongoing Dark Shadows adventures.

Quentin Collins (David Selby) and Angelique (Lara Parker) take center stage in November’s The Skin Walkers. Set in New York at the turn of the century, “Quentin is stalked by a mysterious cult, hell-bent on harnessing his werewolf powers.”

Next month’s The Path of Fate, “explores Angelique and marks the Big Finish debut of Stephen Mark Rainey, an author familiar to Dark Shadows fans from his acclaimed official novel, Dark Shadows: Dreams of the Dark.

“Series two of the full-cast audio dramas is on track for release in August 2009 and will be our most ambitious Dark Shadows project to date.  It’s a four-part epic, continuing our ongoing stories in grand fashion. We will be recording these new CDs once the last of our current run of Dramatic Readings are released.  The first of the new stories is tentatively called The Banished Creatures and picks up directly from the exciting final scenes of The Rage Beneath.”
 

Just the other day we were joining in the speculation for when Miyazaki Hayao’s Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea would hit North America.  Now we hear from Ghibliworld that Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall of DreamWorks will be handling the new edition.  They have assembled a stellar voice cast including Matt Damon, Tina Fey, Cate Blanchett, Liam Neeson, Lily Tomlin, Betty White, Fankie Jonas, Noah Cyrys and Cloris Leachman.

Test screenings are currently being held in the states, with the final version expected around Easter.

McG spoke to Total Film to address and dispel the four major rumors surrounding his forthcoming Terminator Salvation.

In clear language, he said that Ain’t It Cool News’ rumored ending was a fake. “That is not the ending. John Connor is not the machine. We did discuss that idea, but that is not the ending, I can say that right now.”

As to whether or not James Cameron blessed someone else directing his baby, McG said, “I did go to see James Cameron. He didn’t give us his blessing, but he didn’t shit all over our movie. When Jim was making Aliens, he was following the great Ridley Scott, so he knows how we feel.”

There was the issue about lead actor Christian Bale’s doubts about taking on the role of an adult John Connor. “I met Christian when he was shooting The Dark Knight. He told me to fuck right off, he didn’t want to do it. He said, ‘Write it so that it could be read cold on stage and I’ll think about doing it.’”

And finally, last week’s rampant rumor about Arnold Schwarzenegger making a cameo appearance. McG remains noncommittal and sly on the issue.

With Heroes building up to a climax for “Villains”, details are starting to slip out about volume four, kicking off in January. E!’s Krstin de los Santos says there will be some house cleaning coming up with characters being killed off in a dramatic fashion.

“I’m told Hunter (Zeljko Ivanek) captures many of our favorite Heroes and loads them onto a transport plane. (Think prisoners heading to Guantánamo Bay.) When the plane goes down, ‘You don’t know who survives,’ says [Greg Grunberg]. When asked if Angela Petrelli would be joining their nondirty ‘mile-high club,’ Cristine Rose tells me, ‘I’m getting old, I don’t see myself parachuting.’ So could that be how some of our Heroes survive? More importantly, did the plane go down because Desmond forgot to key in the numbers in the Hatch?”

One of the romances will be ending as one of the partners also dies with suspicion aimed at Grunberg’s likeable Matt Parkman, who recently got involved with the charming Daphne, the speedster.

The series will take a long break with the fourth volume airing its first episode Monday, February 2 during the next Sweeps period.
 

Sony Online Entertainment’s Free Realms has been licensed by Topps for a trading card game, according to ICv2. They report, “The games will interact, with the physical trading card game complementing the digital game in the online world.” 

Passport to Free Realms Starter Pack will include physical and digital loot, while the Free Realms Booster Packs will come with a loot card in every pack. Both series will be released in the spring.

Free Realms is currently in beta version, will be available for free, with “subscriptions or micro-transactions available for acquiring in-game objects, etc.”   Sony expects social networking and other activities will make this a broadly appealing option compared to adventure games such as Sony’s Everquest.

The online and trading card games will go live simultaneously according to Sony.

Topps’ Michael Eisner said in a release, “We are thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with Sony Online Entertainment on Free Realms, a company that understands the relevance of cross-platform entertainment….”

Under Eisner, Topps has moved into the CCG category with properties such The Dozens, based on the Wayans Brothers and Club Penguin TCG, based on the kids’ online game.
 

Letterer extraordinaire Todd Klein has announced the release of his latest signed print, Comic Book Dreams, in collaboration with famed artist Alex Ross. This one is for comics fans of all ages. The print goes on sale this Sunday, November 30, at Noon, Eastern Standard Time at Todd’s website.

Available at the same time will be the third printing of Alphabets of Desire, written by Alan Moore, and the second printing of Before You Read This, written by Neil Gaiman. All prints are 11 by 17 inches, printed on Exacta Vellum Bristol paper, and each has elements hand-painted by Todd. There will be 500 copies available of each print, which will be placed in a protective plastic sleeve and mailed in a sturdy mailing tube. Todd expects all orders received in at least the first week to arrive before Christmas.

Todd has written about the projects here and here.

I’m writing this late on Thursday evening, full of turkey and stuffing and good will toward my fellow man. And I’ve been thinking that I don’t have any theme to unify them – I almost had three books starting with “G” and then almost had three volume twos  — but a theme just jumped out and poked me. Today is Black Friday, and these three books all fit that theme: they’re all pretty black. (Yes, I know that’s not what “Black Friday” means, but humor me.)

Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo, Vol. 1
Manga by Mahiro Maeda; Scenario by Yura Ariwara; Planning by Mahiro Maeda and GONZO
Del Rey, November 2008, $10.95

Gankutsuou is the least dark, at least at this point, but it clearly is going to get darker and bleaker. For one thing, it’s explicitly a retelling of Dumas’s novel The Count of Monte Cristo (“Gankutsuou” means “The King of the Cave,” and was the title of the first Japanese translation of Monte Cristo), which is not a tale of sweetness and light. And, second, our young hero Albert is the son of one of the men who schemed to put Edmond Dantes – surely you remember Edmond Dantes? – away for good, and, even worse, he’s the son of Mercedes, who was supposed to be Dantes’s wife.

Gankutsuou updates Monte Cristo to the kind of unlikely aristocratic interplanetary future that we don’t see much of any more; it never made a whole lot of sense as a setting, but I must admit that I missed it, and so I’m happy to see it come back here. Monte Cristo is a story that must be told in an aristocratic society – the Count himself only makes sense in such a world – and so it works; it’s a big, gaudy world, with extremes of wealth and poverty – just like the world Dumas wrote about.

This first volume is mostly set-up; we start with Albert and his friend Franz in the midst of a Grand Tour of sorts – of the major planets of our solar system, apparently. They’re just coming to Luna for its fabled Carnival, where the mysterious Count of Monte Cristo meets, befriends, and helps Albert. (Albert, in that all-too-typical manga style, is an overly innocent, puppy-dog-ish young man with boundless enthusiasm and utter lack of guile. I’m afraid he’s in for it, and equally afraid that Gankutsuou’s creators have been utterly innocent of the knowledge of real young aristocrats to think that type is even possible.) (more…)

The CGI-animated Igor, telling a monster story from the point of view of the mad scientist’s erstwhile assistant, may have done poorly at the box office, with just under $20 million earned to date, but should make for fun winter viewing when MGM releases it on DVD January 20.

Igor features a stellar ensemble voice cast including Golden Globe nominee John Cusack (Being John Malkovich, High Fidelity), Academy Award nominee John Cleese (Shrek The Third, A Fish Called Wanda), Golden Globe nominee Steve Buscemi (Fargo, The Big Lebowski), Sean Hayes (The Bucket List, Will & Grace), Emmy Award winner Jay Leno (Ice Age 2: The Meltdown), Jennifer Coolidge (American Pie, Joey), Christian Slater, Emmy Award nominee Molly Shannon (Kath And Kim), Emmy Award winner Eddie Izzard (The Riches) and Arsenio Hall.  

Synopsis
This hilarious animated twist on the classic monster movie is must-see family fun!  Determined to prove he can create his own diabolical invention, a mad scientist’s (John Cleese) nice-guy assistant, Igor (John Cusack), creates a female Franken-monster.  But his creation, Eva (Molly Shannon), is sweet and sings show tunes!  That is, until she falls into the clutches of Dr. Schadenfreude (Eddie Izzard) and his shape-shifting girlfriend (Jennifer Coolidge).  Now it’s up to Igor and his sidekicks (Steve Buscemi and Sean Hayes) to save Eva – and their country – from real evildoers, including sneaky Prince Malpert (Jay Leno)!

The Igor DVD is presented in widescreen and full screen with English Dolby Surround 5.1 sound and includes bonus features such as deleted scenes, bloopers and “Be An Igor” featurette.  Entertaining for children and adults alike, the IGOR DVD will be available for a suggested retail price of $17.99 U.S.  The IGOR Blu-ray Disc is presented in widescreen and features an alternate opening scene and commentary by Director Tony Leondis, writer Chris McKenna and producer Max Howard and will be available for a suggested retail price of $39.99.

Igor
DVD Price:                              $17.99 U.S.
Blu-ray Price:                          $39.99
Street Date:                             January 20, 2009
Total Run Time:                     87 minutes
Rating:                                     PG
Screen Format:                      Widescreen and Full Screen
Subtitles:                                 English
Closed Captioned:                Yes