Every week, I stick my fingers into the dark and varied crevices of the internet tubes to pluck out nuggets of geeky news. Every weekend, I share the gems with you, the fortunate reader.

MOVIES

• Rose McGowan confirms that she’s set to play the titular role in the Barbarella remake.
• Jake Gyllenhaal has been offered the lead in the adaption of the Prince of Persia video game.
• Pixar has revealed its upcoming slate through 2012, including Toy Story 3 and Cars 2.
• The disease-ridden Justice League production might be moving to New Zealand thanks to issues in Australia. In other news, director Jason Reitman (Juno) reveals that he turned down the JL job.
• McSweeney’s has released the unproduced screenplay of Spider-Man 2 by Michael Chabon (The Yiddish Policemen’s Union).
• Fanboys writer Ernie Cline sold Lakeshore Entertainment the rights to Thundercade. Think Kingpin plus King of Kong.
• Columbia Pictures has picked up the alien invasion script for Battle: Los Angeles from screenwriter Chris Bertolini (The General’s Daughter).
• The two guys behind Spike TV’s The Joe Schmo Show have sold their pitch for “sci-fi epic” Earth vs. Moon to Universal.
• The Watchmen production has a video blog.
• The first spy shots of James Cameron’s Avatar reveal… a big, fake plant.
• Kevin Munroe (TMNT) will direct an adaptation of Dylan Dog from Dark Horse Comics.
• Prolific and unproven genre screenwriter Justin Marks is adapting comic book Hack/Slash from Devil’s Due Publishing.
• Davis Entertainment (I, Robot, AVP) has acquired the film adaptation rights to Boom Studios’ new post-apocalyptic comic book series North Wind.
• Lucasfilm is suing the British prop designer who designed and produced the original stormtrooper uniforms for Star Wars in 1976 and has been selling new stormtrooper uniforms from the original molds.
• The X-Files Revelations DVD set coming out on July 1 will include eight episodes and other special content that influence or preview the upcoming X-Files 2 movie.
• Punisher: War Zone director Lexi Alexander talks about the movie’s release getting pushed back.
• V creator Kenneth Johnson is working on getting big-screen releases for a remake and sequels of the 1980s sci-fi series.
• The RoboSapien toys are getting a movie thanks to Marvel Studio’s Avi Arad.
• Quarantine, a remake of a Spanish zombie flick, gets a trailer, and so does Before the Fall, a Spanish doomsday film.
• Kenny Baker, 73, the actor inside the R2-D2 costume, was hospitalized.

TV

• There might be a season three of Jericho thanks to a co-production deal with Comcast.
• Darren Aronofsky (The Fountain) is developing Riverview Towers, a supernatural thriller series, with AMC.
• Super-hot Tricia Helfer (Number Six on Battlestar Galactica) has signed a one-year talent holding deal with Fox.
• Smallville creators Al Gough and Miles Millar apparently left the show due to money concerns and missed big-screen opportunities.
• Firefly is getting a special edition release on Blu-ray.
• ABC might order an additional episode of Lost this season.
• J.J. Abram’s sci-fi project Fringe gets a showrunner in Jeff Pinkner (Alias, Lost).
• Bobby Cannavale has been cast in the lead role of the Cupid remake from Veronica Mars producer Rob Thomas.

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COMIC BOOKS

• Alex Ross has released the cover art for the upcoming double-sized issue of Uncanny X-Men #500.
• In May, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art will open an exhibit on superhero fashions(!).
• Luminary comic book creators share which issues got them “hooked.”

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VIDEO GAMES

• US residency has its privileges. Rock Band will arrive in Europe at much higher prices.
• A game developer for the Xbox 360 purports that Microsoft is copying the Wii-mote.
• The Rock Band Wireless Guitar arrived this week for the Xbox 360.
• Sega has revealed the (extensive) list of playable armor suits that will be available in the upcoming Iron Man video game.
• Ninja Gaiden 2 gets screenshots and a trailer.
• The first details of the eagerly-awaited Warhammer 40,000 massively-multiplayer online game have been released.
• Girl gamers The Frag Dolls have set the record for “longest continuous play of a single first-person shooter.”
• Game publisher Pseudo Interactive was working on a new version of the classic Carmageddon before the company shut down.

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BOOKS

• Heroes creator Tim Kring got $3 million from Crown Publishers for an alternate-history book trilogy.

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