You know "Watchmen" is going to be dark. Now it looks like its tandem DVD-release pirate story may be even darker. Last year, the New York Times reported that Warner Bros. would be releasing two of the “Watchmen” graphic novel’s stories-within-the-story as their own DVD feature. Today, it looks the pirate comic within the comic, “Tales of the Black Freighter,” may have earned an R rating from the MPAA, according to RopeofSilicon.com.

Warner Bros. has been breaking out loads of extra “Watchmen” content ahead of the film’s March 6 release date, which may be dangling by a thread. And anyone who’s been watching the trailers knows director Zack Snyder fully intends to flesh out original writer Alan Moore’s bleak portrait on superheroes. Read more...

First it was vampires , now it’s Frankenstein. The next Steve Niles comic to hit the big screen will be “Wake the Dead,” and this time, he’s helping out as a producer, not a writer, with a little help from WETA.

“Right now, we’re scouting locations,” Niles said. “[Director] Jay [Russell] wants the movie to be ready for the next San Diego [Comic-Con]. WETA is doing the designs, and it looks amazing. And whatever they need me on, I help. Jay runs the treatment by me and I put the story together, so it begins and ends with me, but I don’t have to write it.”

“Wake the Dead” is a modern Frankenstein story, where a college student named Victor is trying to reverse death. Niles researched the comic by watching heart surgery at Cedars-Sinai, to get a look at how modern medicine might affect the telling of the tale. “I’m a horror guy, but I don’t like syringes, needles, or scalpels,” he said. “I was expecting blood and limbs everywhere, so I thought I might last ten seconds.” Read more...