With the news that Albert Finney has been cast for one of the Doctor Who 2009 Specials, speculation is running at Blogtorwho that he will reprise Winston Churchill, a part he’s played on television in the past.

So, it’s probably best to sum up all that we know to date about the four Specials and the annual Christmas story so we can keep fact from fiction straight.

The 2008 Christmas Special, entitled "The Next Doctor" according to the BBC, will guest star David Morrissey (The Other Boleyn Girl) and Dervla Kirwan (True Dare Kiss) and air on the BBC in December.  No American airdate has been announced.

The four 2009 specials have two written by producer Russell T. Davies, one written by Davies and Phil Ford and one by Davies and Gareth Roberts. Two are expected to be filmed in the United States.  One will feature the characters of Donna Noble(Catherine Tate) and her grandfather, Wilf (Bernard Cribbins).  The Master (John Simm) will be back for one story. Brian Blessed has been announced but either as Yrcanos or someone new. George Moffett will be back as the Doctor’s daughter Jenn.

As for opponents beyond The Master, the site says a scene from the season finale featuring Cybermen aboard the TARDIS was cut (but is expected on the DVD release) and may set up the first Special. The Sea Devils, last seen in 1984’s “Warriors of the Deep”, are said to be coming back.

The first special is currently scheduled to air in the UK next April. The second special may not air until Christmas time and then the final two are set to run the week following.

Finally, a new Children in Need special is rumored as being planned fopr their November 14 broadcast which will feature former Doctors Peter Davison, Sylvester McCoy and Colin Baker.  To raise funds, a behind-the-scenes tour of the studios where Doctor Who, The Sarah Jane Adventures and Torchwood are filmed is being offered as a prize in this year’s BBC Children In Need appeal.

Cardiff will play host to 100 competition winners, who must be UK residents, and their friends and families on November 8 and 9, during a brief gap in the production schedule.

Russell T. Davies said in a release, "This is so exciting. Giving fans the opportunity to take a behind-the-scenes look at where we film Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures is just brilliant.

"It’ll be the perfect opportunity for the whole family to experience something unique and truly extraordinary. It will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience – and the best thing is that all the money raised will go towards BBC Children in Need."

To be in with a chance of winning a place on the tour, people will have to correctly answer a multiple-choice question. This will be announced on Friday, September 26 on The Chris Moyles Show on BBC Radio 1 and on BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio Cymru. It will also be available on the official Doctor Who website, along with the full terms and conditions.

Guest comics are a tool of the trade in webcomics: The host needs a day off, the guest wants to get his work out there. A small comic can get a huge boost to traffic with a link and endorsement from a more popular site, and a guest comic is often the best way to get both.

Artist Ryan Estrada has taken this to new heights by drawing 70 comics, all of which were posted last Wednesday, 9/18. The comics are now being posted at Estrada’s own site, and are archived at each of the host sites. The lineup includes such notables as 8-bit Theater, Real Life Comics, Overcompensating, Dominic Deegan, and Wapsi Square. The good folks at Fleen have been kind enough to work up a complete list.

This is actually the second time Estrada has set guest comic records: Last year, during “Estradarama 2007”, he posted guest comics to some twenty different sites. This draw attention both to his ongoing work and the then newly-created custom-comics service Cartoon Commune.

This year, he’s using the day to announce a new full comic book, written with John Baird of the Create a Comic Project, titled Create a Comic Project Presents: Climate Change. The 34-page book is available at Lulu.com as a $6.00 printed edition or $0.50 download.

Spider-Woman is suddenyl a hot chatracter again after her major role in Secret Invasion. Now for the video completist out there, be aware that Morningstar Entertainment will release Spider-Woman – Spider-Woman vs. The Fly on October 14.  According to TV Shows on DVD, the disc will contain the monumental battle from the 1980s along with two bonus episodes from the 1967 Spider-Man cartoon: "The Slippery Dr. Von Schlick" and "The Spider and the Fly".  At present this is only scheduled to be released in Canada and can be purchased through Amazon.ca.
 

Brett Ratner gets his name attached to a lot of films, some by design and some through association.  When he took a meeting Nu Image regarding the Conan the Barbarian film, it was suddenly reported everywhere that Ratner was no attached to the film.

According to the Latino Review, Nu Image was talking to Ratner as one of many directors being considered for the revival of Robert E. Howard’s immortal character.  Other directors spoken to include Neil Marshall, James McTeigue, The Strause Brothers, Mark Neveldine, Robert Rodriguez and Brian Taylor. Next on their shopping list is Juan Carlos Fresnadillo.

While Rodriguez is reportedly the most rabidly interested, given his association with the companion Red Sonja film, he’s booked way beyond Nu Image’s time frame.

In celebration of it’s 21st birthday, the cast and crew of the popular British scifi comedy Red Dwarf will be coming back to put together four televised specials. They are being made for UKTV’s new free-to-air channel, Dave (interesting name). Series creator Doug Naylor will be taking the helm for the specials and they will go as follows:

Show One – The Making Of The Specials
A highly entertaining look at what goes on behind the scenes on a Red Dwarf production.

Show Two – Red Dwarf Special: Part One
The cast get back into character, and costume, a decade on…

Show Three – Red Dwarf Special: Part Two
The adventure continues…

Show Four – A Clip Show With a Serious Difference
The cast do it their way. Red Dwarf as you have never, ever seen it before!

The shows are currently planned to air sometime next year, and would mark the first time in 10 years since new Red Dwarf material has aired since the eight season in 1999 (unless you count the 1988 "lost" episode which aired in 2005). And if the newfound popularity of Doctor Who is any indicator, this could prove to be the rebirth of the franchise.

Red Dwarf debuted in 1989 and ran for a total of 52 episodes scattered over eight seasons on the BBC. It spawned an assortment of merchandise including the entire series available on DVD.  Four oruiginal novels were also published. An Americanized version never got past the pilot stage in 1992 and a feature film version was written but never got funded.

Producer John Davis spoke openly about how he’d make a film out of the interactive video game The Sims. At a roundtable interview for his latest film, The Express, Davis expounded on hi splans and forthcoming slate of films.

“First of all,” Davis told the press, as reported at Collider, “The Sims, 65 million units have been sold, the most successful video game ever. Right? Ever.

“And Tom Rothman, the Chairman of Fox said to me, ‘How are you going to take this incredible piece of IP and make it into a movie?’ Right? Because most games aren’t movies, so this is the way I did it: The Sims, as you know, you can control your imaginary world, right? And our movie, a young man, a 16 year old kid of a 14 year old kid and his friend get their hands on this thing called the Sims Infinity Pack, right, which kind of this very strange video game store which was there just for that moment, and seemingly wasn’t all that. But what they realize is that they can scan their world in, because this is the most life like, real Sims game ever. And as they are playing this they are all of a sudden realizing is what they are playing on the game is having an effect on the real world. So in effect, through the game, they are able to control their world. It’s wish fulfillment, and obviously it turns against them.

“And definitely there will be somebody coming out of the game into the real world, like Weird Science did.”

In other news, Davis said there are no plans for a third Aliens vs. Predator film but he thinks the Predator is a great monster and would love to make another solo film with Arnold Schwarzenegger once the California governor is out of office.

Davis also confirmed Zak Penn continues on the new version of Jason and the Argonauts and is hoping to land a Big Name director. “I think that a realistic version of Jason, where you basically deal with a guy who’s a doubter in a world were everybody believes, still, in the gods and the gods influencing our world, and starts to become a believer, but very slowly because he can’t explain all this stuff. And it’s at the time were we were going from the idea of many gods to one, so there’s a lot of historical cool things there. You know, Jason was based on a great Greek myth, right, but it’s that great story of . . . You know, all those Greek tragedies have the greatest of human foibles, the greatest of human downfalls embodied in them, and I think this has that. And so it’s a more realistic version of all that.”