HBO has announced the development of Americatown, a new drama series project from writer Bradford Winters and producers Tom Fontana, Barry Levinson, Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy.

Americatown is "set 25-40 years into the future when the precipitous decline of the U.S. leads to a mass exodus of its citizens," says The Hollywood Reporter. The show focuses on newly arrived American immigrants in a large foreign city.

"By presenting Americans as immigrants in the near future, as both underdog and hero in the drama of global dislocation, we substitute a mirror for the rancor that informs much of the partisan debates on immigration," Winters said of the series.

The show focuses both on immigration and on potential financial meltdown, which is quite topical given current circumstances.

Says Winters of the irony: "What is happening right now is such a terrible disaster for so many people and, in some ways, I think makes it less hard to argue that the events in Americatown are impossible."

Winters has worked with Tom Fontana before on HBO’s prison drama, Oz. His two brothers, Scott William Winters and Dean Winters, were series regulars on the program as Cyril and Ryan O’Reily, both brothers and inmates within the titular prison facility. Though no casting announcements have been made, it’s likely that one or both actors will appear on the show in some capacity.

If you thought that The Dark Knight‘s IMAX footage was impressive, wait till you get a load of this one. Today, IMAX Corporation announced that Michael Bay will shoot certain key scenes of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen with IMAX cameras. After all, if Christopher Nolan could do it for The Dark Knight  then so can Mr. Action Adventure.  Director Jon Favreau called TDK‘s scene a game changer and clearly he was right.

The sequel to the 2007 robot brawl flick had already been announced for an IMAX release, and speculators wondered whether the film would feature IMAX technology itself. According to the press release, Bay will integrate IMAX footage with CGI, yielding "an unprecedented look and feel for the highly anticipated sequel to last year’s box office hit." Optimus Prime in IMAX? Thank the Maker!
(more…)

It used to be that Hollywood types were found slumming by writing comic books but the new option for creators between films may be creating video games.  Slashfilm reports that Zack Snyder has signed with Electronic Arts to create three games for the company.  EA, interestingly, will own the intellectual property, but Snyder’s production entity, Cruel & Unusual Films, would make any films based no the games.

EA had a similar deal with Steven Spielberg, signed in 2005 and the first effort, Boom Blox for the Nintendo Wii finally arrived this summer proving that Spielberg is a very good film director. Despite good reviews and his name, sales have been sluggish at best.

 “A dialogue needs to be established between filmmakers and game producers,’ Snyder said at Comic-Con International. “It’s not marketing; it can’t be an afterthought.”

Snyder’s adaptation of the Watchmen is scheduled for March 6 release.  After that, he has been announced as directing three different projects, all pencilled in for 2010 release.  The first, Guardians of Ga’Hoole, is his first animated effort.  Another is The Last Photograph but perhaps most interesting is his recently mentioned 300 prequel notion.

If you’re the owner of PC manufacturer Dell, and you’re looking for a way to compete with the Apple owned online retail giant iTunes, who you gonna call? Venkman and the gang ain’t gonna cut it this round. You gotta go with the big gun: mother-frakkin Iron Man.

The Hollywood Reporter announced today that Dell and Paramount Pictures are partnering up to offer a new front in digital distribution, with an eye to taking on the mega-sized iTunes. Their strategy? Offering customers the option to preload Iron Man into newly purchased computers for $20. Bonus footage will accompany the standard film content.

"The key here is to lead off our slow immersion into content as a major piece of the puzzle in terms of what consumers want from a PC," says Dell’s director of content, Rachna Basin.

So far, Paramount is the only studio to sign onto the plan, leaving Iron Man as Dell’s lone sentinel. As more companies partner up with Dell, consumers will likely have broader options as to which films can be installed onto their computers. Further, there are rumblings that Dell is looking to open an iTunes inspired online retail presence that would allow users to purchase films after they’ve bought their computers.

Iron Man, starring Robert Downey Jr. and directed by Jon Favreau, is out on DVD today. Dell’s offering begins today as well. So if you’re in the market for both the DVD and a new computer, then maybe it’s time to start thinking about a Dell.

Before rushing to the store today to pick up Iron Man in standard or Blu-ray, you might want to consider the various variant exclusive editions that were also released today.

Not one or two but eight different editions were hitting stores today.  Here’s what you can find and where you can find them:

Circuit City – Access to exclusive Marvel Digital Comics featuring the artwork of Adi Granov.

Best Buy – Custom Lithograph created by Marvel artist Gerald Parel.

Target – Target Deluxe Edition includes exclusive Mark III mask packaging. Available on both the Ultimate 2-Disc Edition and 2-Disc Blu-ray.

Costco – Giftset includes the Ultimate 2 Disc Edition DVD and 3 Iron Man Bobbleheads, with all 3 Iron Man suits from the film. Giftset includes the “Battle Damaged Mark II".

Walmart – Two exclusive SKUs. Ultimate 2 Disc Edition packed with an exclusive comic book chronicling the Nick Fury story. The single disc giftset is packed with the 1st episode of the new Iron Man animated series.

Kmart & Sears – Save $5 on the Ultimate 2 Disc edition with any $25 Craftsman purchase.

Trans World – FYE and Suncoast Exclusive Steelbook Package available on the Ultimate 2- disc Edition.

Borders – On pack collectible book featuring original sketches by Bob Layton and the top 24 comic cover of Iron Man.
 

Rob Cabrera, best known as the author of United Media-syndicated comic Silo Roberts has started a new independent strip inspired by this year’s presidential campaign. Super Tuesday plays the standard political-cartoon style and focuses specifically on Barak Obama and John McCain. Updates are expected to vary in frequency as events develop on the campaign trail.

Silo Roberts, Cabrera’s previous strip, was “the story of a multiethnic middle child who struggles to find his place in today’s melting pot of a world”. The strip was syndicated by Uniuted Media from 2004 to 2006, when Cabrera ended the strip to focus on graduate school. The Silo Roberts section of Cabrera’s website is “under construction,” but promises a print collection of the comic in 2008.

Cabrera’s previous notable move was a rare crossover of comic strips with the NBA: Silo Roberts featured Miami Heat superstar Dwyane Wade in December of 2005. The strips and a related news piece were featured at NBA.com, and the strip was made into a series of limited-edition Topps trading cards, released in May 2006.
 

According to Shack News, Max Payne will be released with a PG-13 rating. Director John Moore had been advocating for this rating, which is significantly more financially viable than the R rating that the MPAA had granted.

Moore and his team "trimmed some frames for the sake of trimming frames," which led to the MPAA’s reconsideration of the film’s rating.

Fans will still see a bloodier cut of the video game adaptation, which Moore refers to as the "Gamer Dedicated Cut."

"It’s a little slower and a little more atmospheric," Moore tells GameDaily. "There are some rougher edges on it, but it’s not going to be a bloodfest. I want this to be the Max Payne that I set out to shoot. It’s not that I wanted to release one version in the theaters and make a cheap buck by following up with a blood-drenched DVD version. The movie you see in the theaters will be an intense experience and the movie you see on DVD will be as intense an experience with some extra sensibilities for people who really adore the game."

Starring Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis, Max Payne centers on a DEA agent (Wahlberg) whose family is slain as part of a conspiracy. He teams up with assassin (Kunis) out to avenge her sister’s death. The duo will be hunted by the police, the mob, and a ruthless corporation.

Max Payne arrives in theaters on October 17, 2008.