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The big-screen adaptation of Brian Michael Bendis' crime-noir thriller "Torso" has traveled a rough road the last few years, and I wasn't alone in wondering how the project would be affected by last month's announcement that the rights to the film had expired with Paramount. While the film's producer, Bill Mechanic, told MTV News last week that "Ness" (the working title for the film) is still on and likely to remain with the studio, I snagged Bendis himself to get an update on the project during New York Comic Con.

"I have to be very Zen about it," Bendis told MTV News of his take on the situation. After confirming that the rights had indeed reverted to himself and "Torso" co-creator Marc Andreyko, Bendis said there is "still movement afoot with the project" and it "hasn't died."

The veteran creator then offered up some thought on the project's long and troubled history (which you can watch in the video I've embedded here), and addressed Mechanic's recent comments about the film's future. Read more...

Tags brian michael bendis, torso

Just in case a cartoon and potential live-action television series isn’t enough to get your “Star Wars” fix, two new spin-off comics will be hitting comic shops and computer screens from Dark Horse Comics this May. Announced during last weekend's New York Comic Con, the new comic book series will be published online and cover two very different time periods in the "Star Wars" mythos.

“Star Wars: The Old Republic,” is set thousands of years previous to the films, and set in the same universe as the publisher’s print series “Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.” The series will be written by Rob Chestney, one of the developers for "The Old Republic" video game, and appear biweekly on Fridays at www.starwarstheoldrepublic.com. Read more...

Tags star wars, star wars: invasion, star wars: knights of the old republic, star wars: the old republic

“Underworld: Rise of the Lycans” writers Dirk Blackman and Howard McCain will adapt yet another project conceived by Kevin Grevioux for the big screen. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the writing duo will adapt Grevioux's “ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction” comic book series, published by Red 5, for Benderspink.

Grevioux, who created the “Underworld” franchise of films with director Len Wiseman, wrote and starred in the first film of the series. His “ZMD” comic follows a group of soldiers sent on a top-secret operation in hostile territory in the Middle East where they soon discover a government-created army of the undead. Read more...

Tags kevin grevioux, zmd: zombies of mass destruction

As we continue to count down the days until the April 8 release date of "Dragonball Evolution," you can only imagine our excitement when we stumbled across an all-new sneak-peek at the film, fresh from what appears to be Japan's version of "Entertainment Tonight."

Given that there's really no way we can possibly prepare you for the pure awesomeness that awaits you (seriously, we could easily spend a good 300 words based solely on Piccolo's appearance in the clip), we'll spare you our digital geeking-out and just let you check out the clip for yourself, then read on for more "Dragonball" news. Read more...

Tags dragonball evolution

Attentive X-Men fans might have caught a hotly rumored cameo in the most recent “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” trailer. We know Gambit, Sabretooth, and even the loudmouthed Rob Liefeld creation Deadpool are all going to be featured. But one other mutant appeared to have sneaked in the back door: Storm!

There’s a small girl with bright white hair who could easily pass for a young Ororo Munroe at about the 1:53 mark of the trailer. (Read on for a screenshot of the scene in question.) And now, producer Lauren Shuler Donner appears to have confirmed that Storm was at least originally slated to appear.

“She was a little part of the movie,” Donner told Widescreen Vision. The bad news is, however, that Ororo may be skipping straight from the trailer to the “Wolverine” DVD. Read more...

Tags lauren shuler donner, X-Men Origins: Wolverine

FROM MOVIES BLOG: We’ve all spent the last few months, the last few years -- hell, the last few decades -- counting down to a “Watchmen” movie. More often than not, it seemed like a dream to simply hope that one would ever hit theaters. Well, now MTV News is going to make some people’s dreams come true a few weeks early.

Remember that huge, crazy “Twilight” bash we held a few months ago, the one we called “Spoilers”? Well, the good news is that it was a huge success, and “Spoilers” is coming back later this month with an edition focusing on “Watchmen” and several other upcoming movies.

And if you’re a die-hard fan of Rorschach, Silk Spectre, Dr. Manhattan and the others, we want you in the audience that will meet the cast and see the film some three weeks before its March 6th release.

For more on the upcoming "Watchmen" episode of "Spoilers" and your chance to attend an early screening, head over to MoviesBlog.MTV.com.

Tags watchmen

We already announced that "Alien"-killer Ellen Ripley made the #2 spot in our Greatest Movie Badasses of All Time feature, and we even interviewed alter-ego Sigourney Weaver about the honor. But that's only one part of the puzzle...the discussion around our selection is just as entertaining as the character herself.

Our NY Comic-Con panel of four celebrities (Method Man, Judah "30 Rock" Friedlander, Chuck "Best Week Ever" Nice and James "Tyson" Toback) threw out one hilarious observation after another. Check out the Ripley segment below, and then click here to watch the entire Greatest Movie Badasses panel.

This week, the producers of Frank Miller's big-screen adaptation of "The Spirit" return to Will Eisner's classic hero with a three-part story that kicks off in issue #26 of DC's ongoing "The Spirit" comic book series -- but this time, their focus will be on the hero's notorious femme fatales. MTV News sat down for a chat with film and comics veteran Michael Uslan and his longtime creative partner F.J. DeSanto to discuss their upcoming run on "The Spirit" and why an examination of the series' leading ladies is way past due.

"This is the most daunting, challenging, terrifying thing I have ever done in my career," said Uslan of taking the reins on DC's "The Spirit" series -- no throwaway remark, given Uslan's role as producer of all the various Batman movies (as well as many other comics-inspired films of the last few decades) and his long list of comics writing credits.

"To me, The Spirit is the greatest creative work ever to come out of the comic book industry," Uslan told MTV News. (Read on for more from Uslan and DeSanto on their three-part story arc in "The Spirit.") Read more...

Tags fj desanto, michael uslan, the spirit

It's been a few months since we last heard anything about "X-Men: First Class," the film that looks to explore the younger days of some of Marvel Comics' popular mutants. In fact, the last news that surfaced about the project was the attachment of "Gossip Girl" and "Chuck" executive producer/writer Josh Schwartz as the film's writer -- an announcement that prompted much debate over whether he'd make the film his directorial debut (or if he'd even been offered the chance).

During an interview with MTV News at last weekend's New York Comic Con (appropriately enough), Schwartz cleared up at least one question surrounding the film... and created a few more in the process.

"No, that's not true," Schwartz told MTV News when asked if he passed on directing "X-Men: First Class," as some rumors suggested. "But I would be terrified to have the first thing I direct be a giant franchise movie." Read more...

Tags josh schwartz, x-men: first class

FROM MULTIPLAYER: When I spoke with Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley last year, I asked if the company had any plans to make their MMOs more appealing to female players. He said, “We are going out of our way in ‘DC Universe Online’ because we saw that women were really the largest part of the audience for ‘The Dark Knight‘ [movie].”

Certainly the publicity and the widespread acclaim surrounding the latest Batman film couldn’t hurt, but creative director Jens Andersen and senior producer Wes Yanagi told me some specifics of how their game will appeal to the ladies.

Read more about the plan to make "DC Universe Online" video game more female-friendly at MultiplayerBlog.MTV.com.

Tags dc universe online