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

• Marvel announced its upcoming movie slate, including Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America, and The Avengers.
• Matthew Vaughn (Stardust) is no longer attached to direct the live action adaptation of Thor, set for release on June 4, 2010.
• Meanwhile, Vaughn has completed a screenplay adaptation of Mark Millar’s new Kick Ass comic book series.
• Jonah Hill is no longer in talks to costar in Transformers 2. Meanwhile, Michael Bay denied that Australian Teresa Palmer had been offered a role.
• Images of the complete in-costume cast of G.I. Joe have been revealed.
• Rapper Common has been cast in Terminator 4, which will likely be rated a mild PG-13.
• The latest Dark Knight trailer has been released.
• The next Batman movie will in part be based on content from graphic novels Batman: The Long Halloween and Batman: Dark Victory.
• The high-def trailer for Star Wars: The Clone Wars debuted.
• Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean) will direct and produce the film adaptation of the best-selling Bioshock video game.
• Lionsgate moved up the release of Will Eisner’s The Spirit–written and directed by Frank Miller–to Dec. 25, 2008.
• Creative Artists Agency picked up the rights to the estate of Will Eisner and will push for more movies based on his books.
• MacGyver creator Lee David Zlotoff announced that a big budget MacGyver movie is in the planning stages.
• Screenwriters have already been hired to pen the sequel to this Summer’s upcoming film based on Mark Millar’s comic book mini-series Wanted.
• Nu Image/Millennium Films has acquired film rights to Buck Rogers, and will produce a live-action film.
• The Donnie Darko sequel S. Darko will begin shooting May 18. Richard Kelly, director of the original, is not involved.
• Brandon Routh (Superman Returns) will star as an investigator drawn into the world of zombies in Dead of Night, adapted from the bestselling Italian comic book series Dylan Dog.
• Ron Perlman (Hellboy) will play the bad guy in the hybrid martial-arts movie Bunraku, which will draw from puppets, origami, comic books, video games and German expressionism.
• James McTeigue (V for Vendetta) will direct Revelation, a thriller about alien abductions.
• Universal is developing The Knights Templar, about knights from the Middle Ages defending the Holy Grail from an invading vampire army.
• Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster will star in sci-fi thriller Pandorum.
• The Creature from the Black Lagoon remake is in motion.
• Lionsgate picked up the rights to the comic book Deal With the Devil and hired writer Kyle Ward to adapt.

TV / DVD

• Seth MacFarlane, creator of Family Guy, signed a $100+ million deal with 20th Century Fox Television.
• Allison Mac, who plays Chloe on Smallville, might be the latest actor to leave the show before next season.
• Both Reaper and Moonlight (ugh) are expected to return next season.
• Bruce Boxleitner (Babylon 5) and Brea Grant (Friday Night Lights) have joined the cast of Heroes. NBC has released a promo for seasons 3.
• Battlestar Galactica prequel Caprica got new casting news: Paula Malcolmson (Trixie on Deadwood) will play the mother of the girl whose likeness provides the mold for the first Cylon, and Esai Morales (Jericho) will portray Joseph Adama, Bill’s dad.
• The hit UK geek series Spaced will finally arrive on DVD in the U.S. on July 22.
• Marvel released a trailer for its upcoming Wolverine and the X-Men cartoon series.
• Marvel announced a new animated series to debut next year, Marvel Super Hero Squad, aimed at 6- to 8-year-olds.
• The South Park: Eleventh Season DVD set will include three songs for download for the Xbox version of Rock Band.
• Blog@Newsarama has more images from the upcoming Batman - Gotham Knight anime DVD.
• Marvel’s complete library of cartoons will be released on Region 2 DVD.

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COMICS

• Next week’s Batman #676 will feature a redesigned Batmobile, kicking off the Batman: R.I.P. storyline.
• EW.com has an exclusive first look at five pages from DC’s upcoming Final Crisis.
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art unveiled its new exhibit, “Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy.”
• Veritgo will publish writer Brian Wood’s new limited series DEMO, Volume 2 sometime after June.
• Michael Cho’s blog “Tony Stark: Your Go To Guy!” features tons of sketches of Iron Man from various artists.

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VIDEO GAMES

• id Software announced Doom 4. No release date set.
• Grand Theft Auto IV racked up record-breaking sales of $500 million in its first week of release.
• New gameplay footage debuted from Gears of War 2.
• Activision revealed that we’ll see new installments of Call of Duty and Guitar Hero within the next year.
• There won’t be an annual Tony Hawk title released this year, for the first time since 1999.
• Amazon has sold out of Wii Fit pre-orders ahead of the May 19 launch.
• Killzone 2 got a release date timeframe of February, 2009.
• LucasArts might be the next publisher (after Activision and Vivendi Games) to leave the Entertainment Software Association, producer of the E3 conference. Meanwhile, id Software is uncertain about its attendance this year, and Electronic Arts will attend.
• Atari has been delisted by Nasdaq.
• The upcoming Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe game will feature less “outrageous” (read: bloodless?) finishing moves.
• The new James Bond game Quantum of Solace will feature the Call of Duty 4 engine and launch concurrently with the movie in the Fall.
• Ninja Gaiden 2 can get three costume packs in July from Xbox Live for 200 MS points a pop.
• NPD estimates that online gaming subscriptions in the U.S. total over $1 billion annually.

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