With news of Mary-Louise Parker, John C. Reilly, and Helen Mirren joining the film adaptation of Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner’s Red, don’t you think you need a little bit more evil in the mix?

The Hollywood Reporter has some news for you, as Dr. Doom and William Stryker have entered the building.

Julian McMahon, who played Reed Richard’s deformed, electricity shooting (yay, creative liberties!) archfoe in the two Fantastic Four films, along with X-Men 2’s Brian Cox, are apparently in negotiations to join the film, the Reporter said.

McMahon is in the running to play the Vice President, who is at the center of the conspiracy, while Cox will play a personal nemesis of protagonist Bruce Willis.

In addition to these two, Ernest Borgnine is in talks to play the keeper of the CIA’s records, while Richard Dreyfuss will have be “a wealthy man who builds a fortune out of lucrative government contracts.”

Mark your calendars and set your time pieces. Disney’s “Alice in Wonderland” arrives in theaters on March 5, 2010. The above image has just been released by Disney. Want to see more? Join The Disloyal Subjects of the Mad Hatter on Facebook and help prepare his army! Do as The Mad Hatter says and you’ll be rewarded. You’ll be given orders like, “Do you want to see what I see? Then start shouting for it! I won’t release it until I’ve received 1,000 Likes. Please begin the praise now!”

From the press release:

From Walt Disney Pictures and visionary director Tim Burton comes an epic 3D fantasy adventure ALICE IN WONDERLAND, a magical and imaginative twist on some of the most beloved stories of all time.  JOHNNY DEPP stars as the Mad Hatter and MIA WASIKOWSKA as 19-year-old Alice, who returns to the whimsical world she first encountered as a young girl, reuniting with her childhood friends:  the White Rabbit, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Dormouse, the Caterpillar, the Cheshire Cat, and of course, the Mad Hatter.  Alice embarks on a fantastical journey to find her true destiny and end the Red Queen’s reign of terror.  The all-star cast also includes ANNE HATHAWAY, HELENA BONHAM CARTER and CRISPIN GLOVER. The screenplay is by Linda Woolverton.

Capturing the wonder of Lewis Carroll’s beloved “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” (1865) and “Through the Looking-Glass” (1871) with stunning, avant-garde visuals and the most charismatic characters in literary history, ALICE IN WONDERLAND comes to the big screen in Disney Digital 3D™ on March 5, 2010.

Considering how we’ve heard how Marvel intends to reboot certain underperforming film franchises — the Fantastic Four and Daredevil being two that spring to mind — MTV has some interesting news about the Spirit of Vengeance himself. Namely, that a reboot is not in Johnny Blaze’s future.

“This story picks up eight years after the first film. You don’t have to have seen the first film. It doesn’t contradict anything that happened in the first film, but we’re pretending that our audience hasn’t seen the first film,” David Goyer told MTV. “It’s as if you took that same character where things ended in the first film and then picked it up eight years later—he’s just in a much darker, existential place.”

Goyer said he hoped that the next film — which will be darker and less over-the-top — would do the Ghost Rider franchise what Casino Royale did to reenergize the James Bond series. The thing I’m curious about is: will Nicholas Cage return? On the one hand, he wasn’t exactly hitting Leaving Las Vegas levels with the last film, but on the other hand, his recent financial troubles may make him a bit of a bargain for Marvel. What say you, Rama readers?

Sherlock Holmes is a character whose fame far outstrips the source material that birthed him. People seem to absorb Holmes lore via a sort of pop-cultural osmosis. You don’t have to read a word of Conan Doyle or even watch the movie adaptations to have Holmes’ indelibly etched on at least a tiny space in your brain. Like Tarzan, or even Superman and Batman, Sherlock Holmes is probably in your head whether you’ve made a conscious effort to put him there or not.

Holmes already prodigious profile is definitely on the ascendant these days. He’s featured in a comic series by Dynamite, TV hit House is, if not a straight adaptation, a definite riff on Holmes, and Holmes will even go head to head with zombies in the upcoming VICTORIAN UNDEAD. Most prominently in the zeitgeist, is second string Tarantino Guy Ritchie’s upcoming Sherlock Holmes film adaptation, a buddy action movie that threatens to bend the character out of all recognizable shape. With all of this Buzz floating around one of literature’s most enduring creations, it’s a good time to go back and look at the original legacy of a man who has a legitimate claim on the title world’s first Superhero.

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Today saw the release of the DVD for G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, the much-maligned summer blockbuster based on the enduring Hasbro toy line. I resisted seeing this when it was in theaters over the summer because the previews made it look like baby vomit, and I had no desire to spend ten bucks and a couple of hours in a movie theater to have my intelligence insulted, no matter how desperate I was for air-conditioning. Thank goodness for Redbox, because I only had to pay $1 to have my intelligence insulted in the comfort of my own home.

Actually, I didn’t think G.I. Joe was really all that bad. Don’t get me wrong, it was still a lousy film, it just wasn’t the crime against humanity I was expecting it would be. It helped a bit that I didn’t go in to the movie expecting to see the G.I. Joe from my childhood. Director Stephen Sommers and crew aren’t interested in that G.I. Joe, they would prefer to create a G.I. Joe for the new generation. And that’s fine, and in that sense, they’ve mostly succeeded. I can see kids going street rat crazy for the movie, what with the nonstop violence, copious amounts of explosions, not-very-funny one-liners and hot ninja-on-ninja action.

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Variety has announced that the newly-formed Vigilante Entertainment will be developing Warren Ellis’ Black Summer.

The book, published by Avatar Press, chronicles the struggle of the Seven Guns, a team of scientists who transformed their bodies into weapons to battle back the police.

Vigilante, meanwhile, is a new group founded by Hichram Benkirane, formerly of the French comics publisher Les Humanoides Associes. Benkirane still holds control of the properties he created at Humanoides, including Fragile, Miss: Better Living Through Crime, and The Book of Jack.

According to Variety, Knowing’s Ryne Pearson is slated to write the adaptation. This is yet another bit of good news for Ellis, as his series Red was recently optioned, and is slated to have Morgan Freeman and Bruce Willis attached.

Forgetting driving your enemies before you and hearing the lamentations of their women — Moviehole has posted some casting breakdowns for the upcoming Conan film!

As far as things go, it looks like director Marcus Nispel is going the reboot route with the Cimmerian Barbarian, as seen by this partial description of Conan himself:

Conan is very smart, almost inhumanly strong, and very cunning. His entire life, from the moment of his birth, has been shaped by violence. Being the last of his tribe and having to watch his father die a cruel death, he is determined avenge his peoples slaughter by killing all those who led the attack on the Cimmerians, including the all-powerful Khalar Singh. He is prepared to die in order to accomplish his goal. What Conan did not expect, was to find a reason to live

Want more information? There are some more character information — as well as some spoilerific plot points revealed — at Moviehole, which you can see by clicking here.

Mattel have released some imagery of the latest from the GHOSTBUSTERS action figure line. After the jump is a handful of shots of some of the characters based off the original motion picture in various shapes and sizes.

By the way, did anyone here see Zombieland?
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The race is on again, as Jon Favreau will not be assembling the Avengers on-screen.

The Iron Man director spoke with MTV about his decision, confirming that Marvel will have to find another director to take on the group franchise, as he says he has really focused his energies on Iron Man.

“It’s going to be hard, because I was so involved in creating the world of Iron Man and Iron Man is very much a tech-based hero, and then with ‘Avengers’ you’re going to be introducing some supernatural aspects because of Thor,” Favreau told MTV. “How you mix the two of those works very well in the comic books, but it’s going to take a lot of thoughtfulness to make that all work and not blow the reality that we’ve created.”

That said, Iron Fans, Favreau will be involved in the Avengers film as an executive producer, which presumably will give him a decent amount of say in terms of maintaining Tony Stark’s characterization and well-being in the event additional Iron Man and Avengers films came out.

So what say you, Avengers fans? Are you disappointed? Is this good news? Who do you feel should helm the Avengers franchise?

I couldn’t make this up if I tried.

Usually, former heads of state spend their retirement years creating foundations and libraries, knocking a few holes back on the golf course, or, depending on the country of course, occasionally getting trussed up for war crimes. But Junichiro Koizumi — the former prime minister of Japan from 2001 to 2006 — has a different gig lined up.

He’s going to be Ultraman King.

Time reports that Koizumi will be lending his voice to the upcoming Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legend, the Movie. Ultraman King is seen as the elder “god” of all the Ultra heroes. In this film, King will give a rousing speech to the heroes, urging them to press on.

According to Time, representatives from the producers have said “Koizumi, as a former national leader, is the only person who has the presence to deliver such a pivotal address in the film.” Koizumi apparently first turned down the role, only to have his 28-year-old son Shinjiro convince him to take the part.  “[The role] is not related to politics, so it should be okay,” he told the former statesman.

Yep, it’s about as believable as it sounds, and yes, I did spend way too much time Photoshopping this image.

But Variety reports that star of the Dahrjeeling Limited will be taking on that hunter of the spaceways in the upcoming Robert Rodriguez film, “Predators.” To be fair, with that title, I think he just thought he was signing on for another Roman Polanski film.

That said, Brody’s luck against larger-than-life foes hasn’t been good, if any of you have seen the Peter Jackson remake of King Kong.

Even more hilarity — The Hollywood Reporter has said that Topher Grace is also in talks to be in the film as well. I guess the motto of this one is “it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.” That is, until the dog gets horribly murdered by the Predator’s plasma caster.

A Nightmare on Elm Street in HD

Michael Bay has made a name for himself by doing two things: blowing shit up, and producing crappy, unimaginative remakes of classic horror flicks like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hitcher, The Amityville Horror, and Friday the 13th. (Actually, his Friday the 13th was superior to the original films, but that’s not saying a lot. The original Friday series sucked hard.) Next year, Bay once again dives headfirst into creative bankruptcy with his production of the Samuel Bayer-directed remake of Wes Craven’s classic A Nightmare On Elm Street.

As a longtime Nightmare fan, I’ve been dreading this movie ever since it was announced. The original is one of the most enduring horror films ever created, and Robert Englund’s Freddy Krueger has become an iconic figure in movie history. So while I understand why the movie is being made ($$$), I seriously doubt anyone has ever watched Craven’s original version and thought, “Hey, this movie really needs to be remade, because it sucks.”

Now that the trailer for Bay/Bayer’s quasi-reimagining has been unleashed, we’ve had our first glimpse of what the movie will be like. And since I have a tendency to be a judgmental ass, I figured I would share my initial thoughts about the movie.

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