P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast’s nine volume House of Night series has been optioned by producers Michael Birnbaum (John Tucker Must Die) and Jeremiah Chechik (Benny and Joon) according to Variety.

The young adult novel series is yet another to feature teens and vampires, a sub-genre exemplified by Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight. The conceit, according to the trade, "’vampyres’ are accepted in society; they possess a genetic anomaly that manifests itself in some people at puberty. Vampyres are ‘marked’ and sent to the House of Night, a school that offers training necessary to become an adult vampyre.”

The lead character, 16 year old Zoey Redbird, has just been turned into a vampire and switches schools with all the attendant teen issues plus the vampire factor.

The series kicked off just last year with Marked. The fourth book, Untamed, was released in September by St. Martin’s Griffin.

"P.C. and Kristin Cast created a thrilling world that juxtaposes teen drama with supernatural suspense, using the transition from human to vampire as a metaphor for the transition from adolescence to adulthood," Birnbaum said.
 

Universal Studios would like to revisit the Klumps once more and have put out an open call to writers for pitches for a third Nutty Professor film according to The Hollywood Reporter. Universal and Imagine Entertainment saw ox office success with two films based on the 1963 Jerry Lewis classic.

The previous two were tour de forces for Eddie Murphy and the studio would like the pitches to pick up on the threads from The Nutty Professor 2: The Klumps. The basic concept involved the overweight but kindly professor accidentally turning into a slim, obnoxious love machine and hilarity ensued.

The 1996 remake scored $270 million while the 2000 sequel found just $162 million in ticket sales.  However, the desire for familiar properties trumps concern over eroding interest in such humor or Murphy, whose box office draw has been diminishing with disastrous career choices (last summer’s Starship Dave was a new low).

He has not signed for a third film and would be approached only when there was something to show him.

Dark Horse Films is negotiating with Sammo Hung (Kung Fu Hustle) to star in, and Kevin Munroe (TMNT) to direct War Monkeys, described as a horror comedy. The script is from Cleve Nettles (All Over Again) and will be produced by Chris Patton (Destination Mars), who came up with the concept, and Robert Sanchez.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film “follows two janitors who, during a Christmas holiday, get trapped in an underground research facility after accidentally unleashing military-trained Rhesus monkeys. Hung is one of the janitors who battle the rabid simians.”

"Monkeys, guns, explosions. As a genre freak, I couldn’t ask for anything more," Munroe told the trade.

The independent film company hopes to begin production early next year and use live, animatronic, and CGI-generated monkeys. They recently earned their first Emmy for the John Landis-directed documentary Mr. Warmth and are about to release My Name Is Bruce, starring and directed by Bruce Campbell.
 

Nothing has the warm and fuzzies attached to it better than a classic Disney Christmas, just one of the titles we point to on this week’s tour of the comic and DVD shelves, plus:

• Pushing Daisies the comic!
• Are you geek enough for MTV?
• DC caters to the oldsters
   

 Stop humming “Jingle Bells”  and Press the Button!

And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via or RSS!

Comics Kingdom is the latest web initiative for traditional comic strips. Launching today, the site is from King Features Syndicate and is designed as a portal for newspapers to include comic strips as part of their online presence while tapping advertising and KFS’s deep archives.

“The premise behind this new type of comic delivery is to offer the newspaper a product that better helps the paper monetize their comic page online,” according to a release.

King Features Syndicate President T.R. “Rocky” Shepard, said, “for almost 100 years, King Features Syndicate has assisted newspapers in attracting new readers and incremental ad revenue by providing appealing, premium content. As our newspaper partners face new challenges in the ever-changing media landscape, we are continually looking to develop innovative ways to help them reach their business goals – which still remain the same as ever: attracting new readers and driving ad sales.”

The Albany Times Union, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and The Oklahoman/ NewsOK are the first three papers to use the new feature. During beta testing, the Times Union’s General Manager said the feature “almost doubled the traffic to the comic section and increased the average amount of time spent on the site — a key metric to increasing advertising revenue.”

Last month, United Media rebranded its comics.com website switching from a pay model to an advertiser-supported model allowing people to read their archives for free.