The trailer for Evan Almighty will debut on this Thursday. NBC will premiere the trailer during its "Night at the Office" event, in which airings of multiple episodes of the hit sitcom will air over the course of that evening’s prime time (8 pm – 11 pm Eastern/Pacific; 7 pm – 10 pm Central).

Steve Carell, reprising his role as the polished, preening newscaster Evan Baxter of Bruce Almighty, is the next one anointed by God to accomplish a holy mission. Director Tom Shadyac returns behind the camera for this next episode of divine intervention. This time, however, his cast grows two-by-two.

Newly elected to Congress, Evan leaves Buffalo behind and shepherds his family to suburban northern Virginia. Once there, his life gets turned upside-down when God (the divine Morgan Freeman) appears and mysteriously commands him to build an ark. But his befuddled family just can’t decide whether Evan is having an extraordinary mid-life crisis or is truly onto something of Biblical proportions…

Set for a June 22th release, Evan Almighty also stars Lauren Graham, John Goodman, John Michael Higgins, Jimmy Bennett, Wanda Sykes and Jonah Hill.

There’s a stroy going around (DarkHorizon.com.) that Tom Welling, Clark Kent himself, will be the next teen wolf.

Whereas one would think he’s a bit gray in the pelt, Welling would be following a trio of actors who used the part to launch major careers. It all started in1957 with Michael Landon (Bonanza, Little House on the Prairie) in the classic motion picture I Was A Teenage Werewolf. 28 years later, Michael J. Fox used the Teen Wolf role to help in the transition from teevee to the big screen, and Jason Bateman followed in the sequel two years later with somewhat less success.

Personally, I’m holding out for another return of Quentin Collins.

We kick off a Big Week in Pop Culture, with a tip on a great Archie Comic out this week, when Ultimate Alliance will get bigger, the reason why The Turtles are cool again (Flo and Eddie?) and a strange story on what Elton John offered to Billie Jean King in the back of a limo.

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For a lot of years I didn’t know much about Arnold Drake beyond some minimal biography: he was a first-generation comic book writer, he had written a movie or two. Then, last summer, we were thrown together for a public conversation at a small convention and for an hour I found Arnold to be charming, witty, a good raconteur, a treasury of information about the history of our medium, and way younger than his years. When we parted, Arnold gave me his card and we made vague noises about getting together in Manhattan, some time or other. We never did, and last week an email from Danny Fingeroth informed me that Arnold had died.

When I think about guys like Arnold, I’m reminded of the final scene of Herman Wouk’s play The Caine Mutiny Court Martial. You may remember it: Defense lawyer Barney Greenwald, having just cleared his Navy officer client of a charge of mutiny and, in the process, humiliated a career Navy man named Captain Queeg, arrives at the victory party and, bitterly, eloquently, regrets what he has done. Queeg and his ilk, Greenwald says, kept the Navy going during the years between wars, when there was no opportunity for glory, maintained the infrastructure so there was something to build on when the country was threatened.

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Imagi, the Hong Kong based animation house, has had a heck of a weekend, with TMNT opening at #1 in America.

But, as the saying goes, that was yesterday. What have they done for us today?

Wonder no further. Via IESB, we learn that Imagi’s next film project is a full length version of Gatchaman, or as we called it when we watched it on television in the 70’s, Battle of the Planets. Yes, Battle of the Planets! G-Force, five incredible young people with superpowers! And watching over them from Center Neptune, 7-Zark-7! Watching, warning against surprise attacks by alien galaxies from beyond space! G-Force! Fearless young orphans, protecting Earth’s entire galaxy! Always five, acting as one. Dedicated! Inseparable! Invincible!

Ahem. Sorry.

Some images at the link. No word on voice casting yet (hey, Casey Kasim’s still around) or whether we’re going to see 1-Rover-1.

Many animation fans believe Tex Avery to be the greatest – and, arguably, wackiest – American cartoon director. On May 15, Droopy, his best-known creation, will be released on DVD in all his complete glory.

Tex Avery’s Droopy: The Complete Theatrical Collection will also contain the eight Droopy cartoons produced in letterbox ratio, which have been rarely seen on television. Many of the shorts feature the ultimate slick bad-guy Wolfie, another of Avery’s best-known creations. Episodes include Dumb-Hounded, The Shooting Of Dan McGoo, Wild And Woolfy, Northwest Hounded Police, Señor Droopy, Wags To Riches, Out-Foxed, The Chump Champ, Daredevil Droopy, Droopy’s Good Deed, Droopy’s Double Trouble, Caballero Droopy,  The Three Little Pups, Drag-A-Long Droopy, Homesteader Droopy, Dixieland Droopy, Deputy Droopy, Millionaire Droopy, Grin And Share It, Blackboard Jumble, One Droopy Knight, Sheep Wrecked, Mutts About Racing, and Droopy Leprechaun. Extras include Droopy and Friends: A Laugh Back and an ersatz gag reel.

Droopy’s more recent guest-appearances with Roger Rabbit and The Simpsons are not expected to find their way onto this Warner Bros. two-DVD box set; of course, they were tributes to Tex produced after his death.