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Despite a widely embraced first season, NBC's "Heroes" has steadily declined both in ratings and critical approval to the point that it now faces cancellation. What exactly happened to cause such a fall? To answer that question, there's no one better to ask than Tim Kring, the show's creator.

In a recent interview with The A.V. Club, Kring spoke about some of the superhero drama's most criticized elements, including an inability to kill off certain characters due to network interference.

"It becomes very hard to kill off certain characters," he said. "The network has a very strong say in this, because of actors who are under contract and do publicity for them. It's not just up to the writers to decide." Read more...

Tags heroes, Tim Kring

Earlier this month, we received updates on the status of two classic Japanese manga series — "Akira" and "Ghost In The Shell" — being adapted into live-action films. And now it appears that Hideyuki Kikuchi's "Vampire Hunter D" may be the next Japanese property to invade the silver screen.

According to a report in the Japanese horror magazine Rue Morgue (by way of Anime Vice), Kikuchi is working on a live action "Vampire Hunter D" film in addition to a new anime feature.

The story also states that a producer from the "Biohazard" (aka "Resident Evil") video game series — whom Anime Vice speculates is Hideyuki Kikuchi — is involved with the live-action film. Read more...

Tags vampire hunter d

One of the most popular and longest-running webcomics of all time, "Penny Arcade" has become so much more than that since the first strip was posted in 1998. Now, creators Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik are not only the authors of the regularly updated comic about video games and gaming culture, but also the founders of Child's Play, a charity that provides toys for children's hospitals, and Penny Arcade Expo, an annual gaming convention.

This week, the pair kicks off a nationwide book tour for "The Splendid Magic of Penny Arcade: The 11 1/2 Anniversary Edition," which chronicles the rise of "Penny Arcade" from niche comic to global phenomenon. Beginning February 23 in Seattle, running through PAX East, and concluding March 31 in St. Louis, the "Splendid Magic" tour is the first of its kind for the duo.

MTV News managed to catch the hardworking pair in a rare moment of downtime, and picked their brains about the new book, the evolution of the webcomic medium, gaming, Twitter, and yes... "Penny Arcade: The Movie." Read more...

Tags jerry holkins, mike krahulik, penny arcade

Comic books this week will have a tough time beating out Olympic hockey as far as hard hits and excitement go. When the U.S. beat Canada last night, creators on both sides of the border were on their feet and Twitter sounding off.

Birthday wishes were flying around all over the place today today, and the Twitter Report would like to shout out to Cliff Chiang, Andy Diggle and Duane Swierczynski — all A-listers in my buy pile. My favorite b-day tweet came from Geoff Johns, though. The newly anointed chief creative officer says he misses Diggle's writing at DC Comics, which may be worth noting as he looks ahead to the Lee/Johns/DiDio era. Check out those tweets below along with an "Iron Man 2" editing breaking from Jon Favreau and some serious professional wrestling discussion between Jamal Igle and Jill Thompson.

It's all in the Twitter Report for February 22, 2010. Read more...

Tags andy diggle, chris hastings, chris ryall, duane swierczynski, geoff johns, jamal igle, jeff lemire, jill thompson, jon favreau, kevin smith, Twitter Report

With "Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths" scheduled to hit stores Tuesday, February 23, Warner Brothers Animation has released some additional stills from the upcoming animated feature. And while "Justice League" producer and animation legend Bruce Timm was unable to attend last week's premiere in Los Angeles, he did offer his thoughts on his latest endeavor.

"In a weird kind of way, this is a return to my favorite show 'Justice League Unlimited', explained Timm. "The original script [by Dwayne McDuffie] was intended to be the bridge story between 'Justice League' and 'Justice League Unlimited' to explain how we went from seven heroes to more than 50 super heroes. We loved the story and the script, and it floated around here for years while we tried to figure out what to do with it — it was considered for a comic, but fortunately that got shot down. Then we took a look at it and, with just a few slight tweaks, we jumped at the chance to make it a DC Universe movie.

Timm also revealed that a member of the voice cast has an unexpected connection to the "Justice League" animated series. Read more...

Tags bruce timm, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths

Even with Jason Momoa inhabiting the title role, a "Conan" story is nothing without a solid line-up of villains for the Cimmerian warrior to wage war against, and wrestling icon Shad Gaspard is looking to join the fight.

According to a post on his MySpace page, Gaspard has auditioned for the role of Ukafa in director Marcus Nispel's forthcoming "Conan" adaptation. The WWE wrestler revealed that casting for the character has been narrowed down to him and a handful of other competitors.

In the post, Gaspard likened the importance of his potential casting in "Conan" to Dwayne Johnson's casting in "The Mummy Returns," a movie that famously changed Johnson's career trajectory. Read more...

Tags conan, Shad Gaspard

Batman's strict stance against injustice is well established within the confines of fiction, but now Gotham City's ever vigilant protector is bringing his war against crime to the real world.

According to The Wrap, a Missouri resident has been sentenced to two years in prison and must pay a fine of $24,738 for illegally recording "The Dark Knight" in theaters and consequently distributing pirated DVDs for profit. The sentence was issued after the man pleaded guilty to the crime.

The defendant, identified as Robert Henderson of Grandview, Missouri, will serve a three year probation period following his prison sentence. Read more...

Tags the dark knight

A long time has passed since we've heard official word on "Runaways," Marvel Studios' adaptation of Brian K. Vaughan's beloved comic book series, but that silence might be breaking in the form of a certain "Weeds" actress' potential involvement.

All Things Fangirl reports that Allie Grant, the young actress who plays Isabella Hodes on Showtime's "Weeds," is currently performing in a stage production called "How I Learned To Drive." According to the show's program guide, Grant is said to have a role in Marvel's planned "Runaways" film.

"Grant can be seen opposite Michael Shannon in the upcoming Marvel Studios film, Runaways," reports the guide. Read more...

Tags Allie Grant, runaways

Not even a full week has passed since "Blackest Night" writer Geoff Johns ascended to his new role as the Chief Creative Officer of DC Entertainment, but the comic book superstar is already hard at work on the movie side of the DC Universe.

Over the weekend, Johns visited the New Orleans set of director Martin Campbell's "Green Lantern," the upcoming DC Comics adaptation starring Ryan Reynolds as the emerald-clad defender of Space Sector 2814 — and luckily for the fans, it sounds like all is well on the project.

"Back from an amazing trip to Green Lantern town a.k.a. New Orleans!" Johns declared on Twitter. "Ryan IS Hal. And Mark Strong is going to be a brilliant Sinestro." Read more...

Tags geoff johns, green lantern

Another week in the rearview mirror, and it's time again to look at how the week's stories stacked up. While the big announcement at DC Entertainment was clearly one of the week's most buzzworthy news items, updates from the "Spider-Man" movie front continued to stake their claim on the top headlines, too.

Regular readers might also notice that the Back-Issue Bin has been moving around in the weekly schedule a bit recently. Once a Friday fixture, we're moving the list to the weekend to account for stories that post late in the day on Friday.

So, now that we have all that out of the way, let's get to the week's Top 10 Headlines, shall we? Read more...

Tags Back Issue Bin