G4’s Attack of the Show has announced that Wolverine: Weapon X’s Jason Aaron, along with Preacher artist Steve Dillon, will be taking on Punisher MAX.

According to G4, Aaron says they will be on for at least four story arcs, which will introduce the Kingpin and Bullseye to the Marvel MAX Universe. The first arc will show Kingpin’s rise to power, and how Frank Castle helped get him there.

I’ll be honest, with Aaron’s rising reputation as the king of gristly violence at Marvel with his work on Wolverine and Ghost Rider (and I don’t mean that as a bad thing — they’re some of the best books Marvel’s printing) and Dillon’s strong track record with Frank Castle, this pick seems like a no-brainer.

Joss Whedon might not be directing a new Buffy movie, but he will be directing the season 2 premiere of Dollhouse.
From Chicago Now:

Fox is pushing back the second season premiere of Joss Whedon’s “Dollhouse” by one week this fall. The premiere now will air at 8 p.m. Sept. 25, the network announced Wednesday.

It’ll probably be worth the wait: series creator Joss Whedon will write and direct the episode.

You know you’re thrilled.

Also, there will be a Dollhouse panel at San Diego Comic Con where attendees can see the episode, and attend a Q&A with Whedon and series star and co-producer Eliza Dushku.

MTV’s Splash Page picked up on a bomb dropped during a recent Damon Lindelof Q&A. Brian K. Vaughan, comic book writer extraordinaire and the man responsible for much of the pop culture, comic, and light-hearted moments (one can assume anyhow) on the last 2.5 seasons of LOST, is leaving.

“Unfortunately he has left for greener pastures,” the series’ executive producer Damon Lindelof told fans during a Q&A Session at Curzon Cinema.

There hasn’t been any indication yet what those greener pastures might be, but to get Vaughan, who was a full producer last season as well as one of the writers, to leave a hit show in its final season, those pastures must be very green indeed.

Since the breakout hit of Y: The Last Man and his run on Runaways ended, Vaughan has been content to write WildStorm’s Ex Machina as his only current comic book. He’s had a near radio-silence since shutting down his own website, BKV.TV in February, 2008. In addition to comics and TV, the writer has penned drafts of movie scripts adapting his own comics. We’ll have more as soon as we hear it.

This is a “remix” of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Edward Cullen from Twilight. And yep, it’s pretty funny. It plays the overwrought, overdramatic bits of Twilight up against the snarky, sarcastic Buffy we all love.

Yet I am a bit irritated by the constant comparison of Buffy to Twilight as if Buffy was perfect and Bella Swan just a horrendous corruption of all feminist ideals. Was I the only one who remembers the part where Buffy slept with not one, but two vampires who also stalked her, hovered outside her bedroom while she slept, and in one instance, tried to rape her?

Buffy gets a pass because mostly she kicks vampire ass and in the end she doesn’t need any of the men. However, I very much doubt if you can scratch a Buffy fan and find someone who doesn’t get a bit emotional about Buffy and Angel. Forbidden love is as much a part of the Buffy mythos as Twilight–in fact, I describe Twilight to people as “The Buffy and Angel part of Buffy, without most of the sarcasm and action.”

But you know, the reason a lot of girls don’t want to call themselves feminists is because they think it means they have to hate men, or fit some certain vision of a “strong woman” that maybe they don’t want to fit. What if they’re quiet and bookish, like Bella Swan, not coordinated enough to fight vampires?

I’m not saying that Twilight is a perfect vision of the romance I think girls should aspire to–it’s not. But it’s fiction. The romance in Love in the Time of Cholera or Lolita or Beloved isn’t one that I want teenage girls aspiring to, either, yet I think those are all wonderful works of literature that should be widely read. And Buffy? Well, the human parts of Buffy are the ones that really kept us with her for seven seasons, not the perfect ass-kicking sarcasm machine. That would’ve gotten old, fast.

Y’know, I think a lot of people have gotten so wrapped up in this myth of Megan Fox (which goes hand in hand with the myth about Michael Bay, by the by), that no one seems to realize that she’s a real human.

And a comics geek to boot.

On Jimmy Kimmel last night, the Transformers actress revealed that she once wanted to become a comic book artist, before she became, to quote some CGI artists, “impossibly hot.” Not only did she draw a picture of Jimmy Kimmel (which was not half bad), but she also gave some love to Witchblade, Fathom, and Gen13, not to mention a shout-out to onetime Amazing Spider-Man cover artist J. Scott Campbell.

I’ll be honest — I wasn’t expecting that from her. She’s got a sense of humor, and a little bit of awkwardness regarding her sex appeal, and, well, it certainly makes her seem a bit more approachable. (Unless Especially if you’re this guy.) What say you, Rama readers?

We have to go back — to the toy store!

Bif Bang Pow! has announced it will be unveiling a line of Lost action figures and bobble heads at the San Diego Comic Con.

At the Entertainment Earth booth, you can have your very own Benjamin Linus bobble head, at $17 including tax!

“The twists, turns, and multiple threads that characterize Lost give rise to a host of distinctive and unforgettable characters. These characters lend themselves to the creation of unique figures and accessories that have terrific fan appeal and serve to memorialize this exceptional TV series,” said Jason Lenzi, CEO of Bif Bang Pow! in a written statement. “We’re thrilled to be bringing new bobble heads and poseable action figures to market in the vein of what Bif Bang Pow! has done with licenses in the past. As always with Lost and Bif Bang Pow!, expect the unexpected!”

This figure will be a Comic Con exclusive, limited to only 1,008 copies.

G4 and Lucasfilms will be teaming up for an unprecedented live airing from the San Diego Comic Con!

The Star Wars Spectacular! will film at 2pm on July 25th, as a live airing of the main Lucasfilm panel from SDCC. In addition, Olivia Munn and Kevin Pereira of Attack of the Show will meet up with Lucasfilm’s Steve Sansweet as well as voice talent from the Clone Wars television show, to give their own insider insight.

Never-before-seen footage will be shown, and there will be a live table reading of a new Clone Wars script. Furthermore, Lucasfilms will also unveil Star Wars Stories, which asks Jedi lovers everywhere to tell their movie memories and other tales of fandom, to help contribute to the company’s historical archive.

You can upload your stories here (or if you’re at the con, find Lucasfilm’s camera crew) — otherwise, make sure to set your TiVo, as G4 will be hitting the convention from 4-7pm!

Topless Robot has found the new trailer of M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender online:

Love it? Hate it? Think he looks like the Dancing Baby from Ally McBeal? Share your thoughts!

If you were holding out for a hero in the struggling NBC series, look again.

Entertainment Weekly has reported that Bryan Fuller, who many saw as the potential savior of the series upon his return to the show late last year, has confirmed that he is leaving Heroes once more.

The writer of the critically acclaimed Season One episode “Company Man” had initially left to pursue his series Pushing Daisies, which was cancelled at the end of last season.

“I’m crafting two pilots right now and it’s a lot of work,” Fuller told EW. “It was just too hard to [juggle] Heroes and my development; something had to give.”

TV Guide.com is reporting that Brian Austin Green, last seen on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, has joined the cast of Smallville for at least two episodes of Season 9. He’ll be playing John Corben and his villianous cyborg with a heart of Kryptonite alter ego, Metallo.

Fans of Green or his Green-hearted character don’t have to wait too long to see him; he’ll be showing up in the first two episodes of the Season, starting September 25 (that’s a Friday, don’t forget). So, does he fit the role of Metallo to you, dear readers? Does this make you any more (or less) excited for the new Season?

Total Sci Fi announced that ITV will not be renewing its sci-fi drama series Primeval.

“Basically ITV have changed their policy about drama before 9pm in that they’ve decided they really don’t want any, at least not of the quality and cost of Primeval,” Total Sci Fi attributed to a source close to the production. “The show remained as popular this run (in terms of audience share) as ever before but the fact is that everyone knows ITV have money problems and they’ve decided that whatever drama budget they’ve got left is better spent after 9pm.”

Total Sci Fi’s source also alluded to the awkward cutoff to the series, as well as fans’ likely response. “At the point where we finished the third series, we had every reason to believe we would be doing a fourth. Had we known there was any likelihood of cancellation, clearly we wouldn’t have left half the cast marooned up a tree in the distant past. We can understand that some fans might be frustrated by this ending and we’re sorry for that,” the source said.

Yet with rumors of a feature film or a U.S. release of the series, “Obviously we’re devastated that things should end this way with ITV. But we’re absolutely certain that although this stage of its evolution seems to be over, Primeval isn’t dead. We’re very proud of what we’ve achieved over the past three years and we have every intention of keeping Primeval alive in other ways.”

Primeval dealt with a cast of five scientists who patrolled temporal disturbances, and tracking down the creatures — both from past and future — who came out.

Yeah, you read that right.

Topless Robot has posted a link about that most geeky of purchases: a Star Trek coffin. So when you do go to the Final Frontier, your family (if you have one) will remember all the times you dressed up as a Klingon and attacked the cat with your bat’leth.

And don’t worry, if you’re setting phasers to “cremate”: there’s also a Star Trek urn, too.

If you’re interested in going out in — well, I can’t exactly call it “style” — check out Eternal Image for pricing details. And be prepared for your mother to disown you.

David Carradine, best known for his work in Kung Fu and Kill Bill, was found dead in a Bangkok hotel room today. He was 72.

Initial reports from Fox News state have stated that Carradine was found hanging in his hotel room using cords from the curtains.

According to his agent, Carradine was staying at the hotel since Tuesday, but failed to attend a dinner with the cast and crew on Wednesday. Police reports from around 10 a.m. this morning state that Carradine had been dead for at least 12 hours.

Carradine was a jack-of-all-trades in the Hollywood set, working not just as an Academy Award-nominated actor (as Woody Guthrie in Bound for Glory), but as a writer (Kung Fu: The Legend Continues), composer (Kill Bill: Vol. 2), editor (Americana), voice actor (for the video game Saints Row), and even directed a few episodes of Lizzie McGuire.

For those who don’t know him, here’s a nice little clip from Kill Bill, Vol. 2, in which Carradine played the titular Bill, in which he, perhaps fittingly for this site, discusses comic book dualities:

Josh Friedman, producer of the recently-canceled Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles, has updated his blog following the end of his series, giving a humorous, scathing, yet altogether educational perspective of life in television and Hollywood:

I had this little scary robot show and for whatever reason couldn’t convince enough people that it was a) scary enough b) robot enough or c) in English. Add that dim sum combo of factors to a red bean paste of non-monetizable early adopters dvring the show like motherf**kers and now I’m unemployed.

Everyone says having your show cancelled is like a death but I’ve been dead before and at least when you’re dead you don’t get thrown off the Warner Bros. lot for haunting your old parking space. They probably mean it’s like the death of a friend or a family member but that shit only hurts when it’s YOUR friend or family member and even then it’s mitigated by age, lifestyle and whether that person was a Hollywood friend or a real one and whether that family member left you money.

There is a ton of swearing in this post, BTW, but if you’re curious to hear his perspective — especially when the writing was on the wall — you should totally check it out. If you want a shorthand perspective on Sarah Connor’s hair-splitting loss to Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse, just click here.

The Hollywood Reporter has announced that Robert Knepper has been cast as the new lead villain in Heroes.

Knepper, best known as “T-Bag” on Prison Break, will play Samuel, a dark but charismatic villain who bounces through the cast’s lives. In the series breakdown, his character was also known as “Carnival Barker.”

Heroes will come back in the fall with an all-new Monday at 8 p.m. time slot.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer may be venturing forth once more…

But this time, without her most potent weapon — Joss Whedon.

The Hollywood Reporter has announced that not only is a new Buffy feature film in development, but it’s going forward without the input of her creator, Joss Whedon, who shepherded her through a film as well as an immensely successful television show (and comics).

This new film, which is being worked on by original director Fran Rabel Kuzui along with her husband Kaz and Vertigo Entertainment’s Roy Lee and Doug Davison, would be a remake or relaunch of the franchise, leaving out supporting characters Willow, Angel, Xander, and Spike. According to the trade, Kuzui and Kuzui Enterprises has held on to the rights since Kuzui, “discovered the “Buffy” script from then-unknown Whedon. She developed the script while her husband put together the financing to make the 1992 movie, which was released by Fox.”

The producers are meeting with writers and hearing takes on the property, and while they do not rule out Whedon’s involvement, they have not reached out to him. Kuzui told the trade that they are constantly approached about not only Buffy film sequels but also theater, video games and foreign remakes.

“It was Roy’s interest in taking Buffy into a new place that grabbed us,” Fran Kuzui told THR.

Needless to say, many of the fans on Whedonesque are not thrilled — what say you, Rama readers?

While we reported yesterday that Fringe star Kirk Acevedo left a Facebook message decrying his being fired from the show, execs behind the show deny it.

Executive producer Jeff Pinkner told Entertainment Weekly today that not only was Acevedo not fired, but “Like all things on Fringe, there is more to this story than meets the eye… We have already seen two of him on the show…We have already met the second Charlie. He had a scar on his face.”

This is why having a show like this is so maddening — is this true? Is it a weird PR/alternate-reality game stunt? Or is this just a smokescreen for what really happened?

Kryptonite, Lex Luthor and Doomsday have yet to fell the “Boy of Steel” (funny, for a lead actor in his 30s now), but finally something may be too deadly for Clark Kent/Kal-El/Superman to overcome: A new Friday night timeslot.

Making the rounds in entertainment trades is news that The CW network has laid out their Fall 2009 schedule, and while Smallville managed to survive (news known for weeks, actually), the show looks like odd man out in terms of its choice time of the week. Making way for a new program (The Vampire Diaries) to be paired Thursday nights with the thriving Supernatural, Smallville has been moved to Fridays and given a mere repeat of America’s Top Model (I just threw up a little in my mouth) to carry the night for the network. Gotta love, also, how CW has put together a night devoted to Aaron Spelling material from days of old, 90210 and Melrose Place. I can assure you what network I will NOT be watching on Tuesday nights come September.

Terminator fans know all too well how toxic Friday night prime time can be with the recent cancellation of Fox’s Sarah Connor Chronicles. And despite being touched by an angel with Dollhouse, Joss Whedon fans were infamously burned with the short shrift given to cult classic Firefly. But despite the fact that I am sure Smallville’s move to Fridays is the first step in The CW clearing it off the books a year from now, I really can’t complain about the show’s treatment dating back to its origins on The WB in 2001. Nine seasons for any show in this day and age is remarkable, and in spite of creative ups and downs over the years, there is no denying that Smallville cemented its status in Superman lore years ago.

Ultimately my biggest hope is that the show producers develop a season from beginning to end that’ll make some sort of historical sense in Man of Steel mythology and not make it up as they go along, unsure of the promise of a tenth season. And I know everyone who follows the show has an idea in their head on how the eventual series finale should play out, but I for one would like them to simply end Season 9, regardless of the show’s fate, on a note that gives fans a sense of hope, if not closure. Stay tuned.

Kirk Acevedo, who played Agent Charlie Francis in Fringe, may have just been edged out of the next season.

Entertainment Weekly reports that  Acevedo, who has been in films such as Saving Private Ryan and Invincible, wrote on his Facebook page, “WELL BOYS AND GIRLS THEY DONE DID YER BOY WRONG! THEY FIRED ME OFF OF FRINGE, AND IVE NEVER BEEN FIRED IN MY LIFE!!!!”

The Livejournal ohnotheydidn’t has an image of the Facebook posting in question. There has currently been no word from Fringe backer Fox.

[Image via TVGuide]

Geeks are shooting three for four on the bubble shows. Chuck, which has been in the ether for the last few weeks after its “change everything” season finale, has now been confirmed as picked up for a third, 13 episode season, according to Hollywood Reporter and EW.com. No word on whether it has the option of more episodes, but it is currently reported as being on the fall schedule. The show will be making budget cuts, including less frequent apearances by much of the supporting cast. Doesn’t seem like too big a deal, though, as the finale lent itself to some new story telling, with Chuck moving on from the Buy More and his best friend moving to Hawaii.

In not-so-great geek TV news, however, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles won’t get the chance to ride on the coattails of the next Terminator feature film, Terminator: Salvation, as it has been officially cancelled, EW also reports. The show saw steadily plummeting ratings in its sophomore season, having shared Friday nights with Dollhouse, which defied the odds and did pick up another season. A possible new pairing for Dollhouse, now, is DC Comics adaptation Human Target, coincidentally also a show about constantly changing identities.