With slightly more than a month until the release of The Spirit, Lionsgate has released one final trailer for Frank Miller’s adaptation of the Will Eisner comic.

The Spirit opens on Christmas.

In what probably comes as bittersweet news to creator DJ Coffman, IM Global is developing the Platinum Studios comic Hero By Night as a live-action TV series.

The concept, about a young man who discovers the lair of an old superhero, won Platinum’s first Comic Book Challenge in 2006. The comic debuted in December 2007, but was suspended by Coffman in June because of slow payment from the company.

Although Coffman initially reported that he was talking with Platinum about reclaiming the rights to Hero, relations between the two parties quickly deteriorated. Platinum put an end to any discussions, and Coffman quickly moved from being the company’s biggest online defender to being one of its most outspoken critics.

Platinum CEO Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, IM Global’s Gavin Reardon and Stuart Ford, and Rigberg Entertainment’s Glenn Rigberg will executive produce the series.

Update: Coffman responds to the news.

Marvel’s god of thunder is hitting the big screen and the TV set.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Marvel Animation is developing a 26-episode Thor series that will launch in fall 2010, a few months after the debut of the live-action film in theaters.

The trade paper reports the cartoon “will take place in various worlds — from mountainous landscapes to places of icy mists and fiery voids — and will include many of the comic’s supporting cast, including Balder the Brave, the Warriors Three and Thor’s evil adopted brother, Loki.”

Thor will join an animated Marvel roster that includes The Black Panther,  Wolverine and the X-Men, Iron Man: Armored Adventures, Marvel Super Hero Squad and, in 2011, The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

Yahoo! Movies has the newest trailer for Zack Snyder’s adaptation of Watchmen. It’s the one that’s attached to Quantum of Solace, which opens this weekend. Click the link for a larger version.

Watchmen hits theaters on March 6.

With Dec. 5 quickly approaching, Lionsgate is stepping up the promotion for Punisher: War Zone. First up, Superhero Times has two images of Dominic West (The Wire) as the villain Jigsaw. And then ComicBookMovie.com has the film’s first TV commercial.

When state Rep. Jason Mumpower neglected to report his comics collection to the Tennessee Ethics Commission, somebody dropped a dime. Or, rather, an email.

Mumpower needn’t worry, though: His 17,000 comics apparently don’t qualify as a financial investment that must be disclosed to the commission.

“My common sense tells me that isn’t something that should be reported,” Bruce Androphy, the commission’s executive director, tells the Knoxville News-Sentinel.

Mumpower, the 35-year-old House Republican Leader, says he’s been collecting comics since he was 12, and has no idea of their value.

He notes that President-Elect Barack Obama also is a comics fan. (He reportedly likes Conan and Spider-Man.)

“There are two things Barack Obama and I have in common: We both collect comic books, and we both have big ears,” Mumpower told the newspaper.

HBO has approved production of a pilot for A Game of Thrones, a drama based on George R.R. Martin’s best-selling fantasy epic A Song of Ice and Fire.

“It’s just the pilot so far,” Martin writes on his blog. “They’ll need to see that before they decide whether to proceed with a full season’s episodes. So let’s all hope the pilot will kick serious ass. …  It should. David Benioff and Dan Weiss did a terrific job with the script. And yes, all of you can relax, it’s very faithful. Dan and David will be the executive producers for the pilot and (we hope) the eventual series.”

The cable network acquired the rights to the property nearly two years ago. Plans are for each novel in the planned seven-book cycle to provide a season’s worth of episodes. A Game of Thrones is the title of the first book, which was published in 1996.

The Hollywood Reporter notes that if Thrones receives an episodic order, it would represent the rarerest of TV genres: the full-fledged fantasy series. They’re just too expensive.

Set primarily on a sprawling continent called Westeros, A Song of Ice and Fire centers on a dynastic civil war for the Iron Throne, the threat of creatures from the north known as the Others, and the journey of the exiled daughter of the rightful king.

The fifth book in the series, A Dance with Dragons, is tentatively set for release in April.

Entertainment Weekly‘s PopWatch Blog has the first look at the U.S.S. Enterprise from J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek.

Yes, it looks a lot like the ship we’ve seen for the past four decades but, as Abrams says, “If you’re going to do Star Trek there are many things you cannot change.”

“The Enterprise is a visual touchstone for so many people,” he tells PopWatch. “So if you’re going to do the Enterprise, it better look like the Enterprise, because otherwise, what are you doing?”

Star Trek opens in theaters on May 8. The first trailer debuts this weekend with Quantum of Solace, and on Monday at the official website.

If you’re a fan of comics with spines, this is a good week for you.

Image Comics brings out the first volume of the Ted McKeever Library and a new printing of Bill Sienkiewicz’s Stray Toasters, while Dark Horse collects the “Wolves at the Gate” storyline from Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight. Marvel returns to Civil War with a 512-page hardcover, and gives Hulk the premiere treatment.

DC Comics, meanwhile, releases the much anticipated collection of James Jean’s Fables covers titled, appropriately enough, Fables: Covers by James Jean.

On top of that, there’s another volume of CF’s Powr Mastrs, the beginning of Kevin Smith’s Batman: Cocophony, and a complete set of Kia Asamiya’s Junk.

To see what other titles Chris Mautner and I think are worth mentioning, just keep reading. As always, let us know your choices in the comments below.

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Plot synopsis released for X-Men Origins: Magneto

The latest issue of Production Weekly includes a plot synopsis for David Goyer’s planned X-Men Origins: Magneto — one that includes an altered role for a certain bald telepath:

“The original X-Men film began with a prologue that showed the character as a child being led to a concentration camp by Nazis and that is the period in which the Magneto film will take place. This setup will allow a future villain to at least flirt with the designation of protagonist since the character will be seen almost exclusively in his formative years. The storyline will heavily involve Professor X, the wheelchair-using X-Men leader. That character was a soldier in the Allied force that liberated the concentration camps. The professor meets Magneto after the war and while they bond over the realization that they are alike in their special powers, their differences soon turn them into enemies.”

According to David Bentley of the Coventry Telegraph, an early draft of the script featured Charles Xavier as a staff member at an Israeli hospital, not as an Allied soldier.

It’s unclear when Magneto will begin production. In August, Goyer said he hadn’t decided whether to tackle this project or The Invisible Man next.

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Continuing its series of political comics that began with biographies of Sen. Hillary Clinton and Gov. Sarah Palin, Bluewater Productions has announced a spotlight on the next first lady, titled Female Force: Michelle Obama.

According to the publisher, the book will follow the former Michelle Robinson from her youth in Chicago’s South Side and her education at Princeton and Harvard to her career as an attorney, educator and hospital executive and her marriage to Barack Obama.

“Mrs. Obama is a dynamic force and one of the most influential women in the world,” Bluewater President Darren G. Davis said in a press release. “Her potential influence on future policy decisions makes her a fascinating figure to feature.”

Female Force: Michelle Obama is due in stores in April, somewhat removed from the excitement of the election and the January inauguration.

Neil Gaiman, who’s been relatively mum about his upcoming turn on Batman with “Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?”, provides MTV’s Splash Page with a tease and a correction, but little else.

“It starts at a little bar, and Selina Kyle and Joe Chill come along,” Gaiman said over the weekend, “and after that, it gets really odd.”

He also confirmed that the Andy Kubert cover that made the rounds back in September isn’t the actual cover for #685: “What it was, was a trial of an idea to draw the cover of Batman #1, and it didn’t work out really well.”

Grant Morrision, who will return to the series after Gaiman’s two-parter, said “Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?” is “going to be quite a personal thing” unrelated to what follows.

“Think of it as Neil Gaiman’s Batman,” Morrison said. “It’s not about continuity. It’s more kind of an overall look at the whole mythos.”

Earlier this morning, J.K. linked to a new Watchmen character poster spotlighting Dr. Manhattan. It’s part of a series that debuted today across six pop-culture websites, from Wired to MTV to USA Today. Internet Movie Poster Awards rounds them up, noting that EW decided to post a tiny version of the Manhattan poster, while MTV (as usual) slapped its logo on the one for Silk Spectre.

You’ve already seen Manhattan, as well as Rorschach above. The others can be found after the break.

Update: I’ve added larger versions of Dr. Manhattan and Nite Owl, and a Silk Spectre poster without that annoying MTV watermark. You can see them all after the break.

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A too-brief article in the San Diego Union-Tribune suggests that, with the election of Democrat Barack Obama, we may be due for another wave of vampire fiction. Specifically, movies and TV series.

The writer, Peter Rowe, points to True Blood, Twilight and Let the Right One In as harbingers of “a new cycle of vampire films and television shows,” and finds a handful of experts to prop up a theory that a Republican administration provides a breeding ground for zombie flicks, while a Democratic White House spawns bloodsucker movies.

Or maybe they’re simply socio-political indicators: Annalee Newitz of io9.com points to the uptick in zombie movies that coincided with the election of President George W. Bush in 2000. Rowe continues along that line with a laundry list of zombie films released in the Reagan and Bush eras, and vampire movies released during the Carter and Clinton administrations.

What’s the correlation? The assembled experts theorize vampires are less-threatening monsters that signal “hopefulness,” while zombies may represent fears of “a revolt of the poor and disenfranchised.” (Those don’t sit well with the article’s pitchfork-wielding commenters, some of whom still may be smarting from last week’s election.)

While there’s obviously a connection between political climate and horror fiction, Rowe’s argument is a little unconvincing.

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Paramount Pictures has released two new shadowy/moody posters of Chris Pine as Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Spock in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek.

The second poster can be seen after the break. The movie opens on May 8.

(Via Slashfilm)

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The Dark Knight leads the nominations for the 35th annual People’s Choice Awards, with seven nods in such categories as Favorite Movie, Favorite Action Movie, Favorite Cast and Favorite Superhero.

Iron Man received five nominations, including Favorite Movie, Favorite Action Movie and Favorite Superhero.

Fans may vote for their favorites in each category beginning today at the People’s Choice Awards website. Voting ends on Dec. 7. The winners will be announced Jan. 7 during a ceremony broadcast on CBS.

Other noteworthy nominees are Angelina Jolie (Wanted) for Favorite Female Movie Star and Favorite Female Action Star, Will Smith (Hancock) for Favorite Male Action Star and Favorite Superhero, and Heroes for Favorite Sci-Fi/Fantasy Show.

The full list of nominees can follows after the break:

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The Dark Knight strikes — and then strikes again

The Dark Knight is the gift that keeps on giving for Warner Bros. and Imax.

Hollywood gossip columnist Nikki Finke reports the blockbuster already has grossed $997.5 million worldwide — $528.5 million domestically and $469 million internationally — since its North American release on July 18, and should hit $1 billion any day now.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, The Dark Knight helped giant-screen exhibitor Imax reduce its third-quarter loss. For good measure, the movie is being re-released in Imax venues in January.

Rumor mill: McG being floated as Wonder Woman director

If I knew how to make the words “rumor mill” flash in giant magenta type, I’d use it for this item: IESB reports a “source at WB Burbank” says McG is rumored as the possible director for Warner Bros.’ adaptation of Wonder Woman.

I don’t know how much there is to it, though, as McG’s name seems to get attached to every third movie during the early stages of development. Still, IESB’s Robert Sanchez says “a few other industry insiders” have heard the rumor, too.

McG, who’s helming Terminator Salvation, also directed both Charlie’s Angels movies and We Are Marshall.

The mayor of a city in southeastern Turkey plans to sue director Christopher Nolan for unauthorized use of the name “Batman.”

You see, that’s the name of the city: Batman. It’s the the capital of Batman Province, an important oil-producing region. It rests on the banks of the Batman River.

I’m not making this up.

“The royalty of the name ‘Batman’ belongs to us,” Mayor Hüseyin Kalkan tells a Turkish news agency. “There is only one Batman in the world. The American producers used the name of our city without informing us.”

He tells Hürriyet Daily News that after a media spotlight was cast on the city last year because of an increasing suicide rate among women, a columnist asked why the mayor hadn’t sued the producers of the Batman movies for royalties to aid the struggling economy.

With that, a light bulb went off.

But there is, apparently, another issue at play: Residents of Batman who live abroad can’t use “Batman” in the names of their businesses because of trademark infringement.

Curiously, though, Kalkan’s wrath is reserved solely for Nolan. He doesn’t plan to sue DC Comics or Warner Bros.

Bizarro update: A commenter points to this 2007 article that states Kalkan “was awarded damages by DC Comics after a lawsuit over the use of his town’s name for the superhero Batman.” In February 2008, the mayor was sentenced to 10 months in prison for “spreading terrorist propaganda” in a newspaper interview.

Josh Brolin still isn’t sure about Jonah Hex

There was at least some truth to the rumor-mill report last month about Josh Brolin playing Jonah Hex in the upcoming Mark Neveldine-Brian Taylor adaptation.

Brolin, star of W. and No Country for Old Men, is mulling over the part but he hasn’t — in the words of the original story — “locked down the deal.” IESB says nothing has been signed, and Collider reports Brolin may end up working on a Tony Scott movie.

The Warner Bros. adaptation of the DC Comics Western anti-hero was announced in July 2007. In March, producer Andrew Lazar said he wants to film Jonah Hex in New Orleans, for a potential 2010 release.

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Add singer-actress Beyoncé Knowles to the ever-growing list of stars who would like to play superheroes on the big screen.

“I want to do a superhero movie and what would be better than Wonder Woman?” she tells The Los Angeles Times’ Geoff Boucher. “It would be great. And it would be a very bold choice. A black Wonder Woman would be a powerful thing. It’s time for that, right?”

While Beyoncé isn’t the first actress to throw her lasso into the ring, she may be among the few to actually meet with representatives of Warner Bros. and DC Comics to let them know just how much she desires the role.

Maybe Beyoncé, who co-starred in Austin Powers in Goldmember and Dream Girls, is just what — or, rather, who — Wonder Woman needs to finally get the movie off the ground.

The project has languished in Hollywood development hell for years, as a parade of screenwriters took turns at a script. The movie finally showed real signs of life in March 2005, when Joss Whedon was brought on board to write and direct.

However, in February 2007, Whedon bowed out because of creative differences with Warner Bros. and producer Joel Silver. Even before his departure was made public, the studio bought a script from a pair of newcomers, supposedly as a preemptive measure to protect itself from a plagiarism lawsuit. But considering that their story took place during World War II, and Whedon’s was set in the present, that seems unlikely.

In October 2007, Silver announced Wonder Woman had been put on hold so the studio could focus on the Justice League movie. When that much-maligned ensemble project was officially “tabled” in April 2008, Silver said of Wonder Woman: “It’s sitting there, and when I figure out a way to do it, I’ll do it.”

So, could Beyoncé be the answer Silver is looking for?