As Scott pointed out in his review, you need not fear that this week's Superhero Movie is another brainchild of Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, whose satanic perversions of the parody genre -- Date Movie, Epic Movie, Meet the Spartans -- have been terrorizing unsuspecting audiences every year since 2006. Superhero Movie was actually directed by Craig Mazin, a protégé of the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker dream team responsible for Airplane! and The Naked Gun, and produced by David Zucker himself. But it, too, is plagued -- albeit to a much lesser degree -- by what's turning out to be the problem with the entire modern generation of spoofs going back to Scary Movie: relentless pop culture specificity.

The basest incarnations of this, of course, are the Friedberg-Seltzer monstrosities, which may be worthless as comedies but which could prove valuable to historians because they indicate precisely what dominated the American zeitgeist in the few months before their release. It's too generous to call these films' vulgar spasms "jokes," but to the extent that's what they are, they depend entirely on either audience members' awareness of US Weekly-type factoids such as Britney Spears' shaving her head or their recall of particular scenes and characters in recent box-office hits. That's not to say that these kinds of jokes can't be funny -- the problem with Friedberg and Seltzer, as others have pointed out, is that they think throwing something current on the screen ("Look, Paris Hilton!") constitutes humor. But they do limit comedies' universal appeal and staying power.

Christian Bale was on hand at ShoWest to promote some footage from The Dark Knight, and gave a revealing interview to Entertainment Weekly. The magazine immediately pumped him for Batman information, and Bale was forthcoming -- but noncommittal.

When asked if there would be a third installment, Bale wouldn't confirm or deny. "Um, look, let's wait and see." When the magazine "mistakenly" referred to it as a sixth installment, Bale was quick to correct them, and elaborate on the possibilities of a trilogy. "No, no, no, no, no. Part 3 is what I'd consider it, yeah, I don't say part 6. Batman Begins - that was the beginning there, with all due respect to the others. We are re-creating this. You know, obviously the decision is out of my hands. I would, knowing the Dark Knight story, I would like very much to complete a trilogy. And I think that knowing the story of The Dark Knight, it leaves you anticipating something that really can get very, very interesting for a third. Now, the question would be: Is Chris going to be doing it? Because to me I find it tricky to imagine working on it without it being a collaboration with Chris."

So, can we safely assume that Heath Ledger's premature death does not affect the trilogy's storyline? That has been the biggest question on everyone's mind. If you combine this interview with Aaron Eckhart's latest, I am still of the belief that Joker ends up in Arkham, and Two-Face could be the main villain in a third film. I can't imagine they didn't leave Joker's fate open ended, considering the villain's place in Batman's world, but no one from the film seems to feel the storyline cannot continue. Perhaps a bigger question is why Nolan isn't confirmed to continue the series.

Universal has to be really hoping The Incredible Hulk is better received than 2003's Hulk, because according to Edward Norton, the 2008 comic book adaptation is expected to be the first of many. The actor talked exclusively with Total Film magazine and had this to say: "To me the whole thing was to envision it in multiple parts. We left a lot out on purpose. It's definitely intended as chapter one." (Quote retrieved from Ace Showbiz.) You may recall that Norton himself wrote the final draft of the screenplay for The Incredible Hulk, so he would know what was "left out." He could also be hinting that he means to write the sequels as well. But what happens if this version of the Marvel comic is not successful? Will it feel incomplete if it ultimately exists as a dead end?

It is hard to imagine just how much better The Incredible Hulk will be than Ang Lee's film, which really only failed because of a badly rendered Hulk and a truly awful climax. The title character will still be computer animated and the story could still have a disappointing denouement (we've never really witnessed Norton's writing skill before), and it's not unfair to say that Louis Leterrier is not quite as talented a director as Lee. Norton seems quite confident that he's going to deliver something possibly comparable to Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins in quality and tone, but it's easy for comic book geeks to be skeptical. Only 3% of Cinematical readers expect The Incredible Hulk to be the best comic book film of 2008. While that's not surprising since we've also got The Dark Knight and Iron Man to look forward to this summer, it still makes me wonder how many moviegoers expect The Incredible Hulk to be any good at all. So, I ask you:

Now that the The Dark Knight trailer has been making the rounds for a while, with Heath Ledger's Joker wowing everyone from fans to filmmakers, it's time for Mark Hamill to throw his opinions into the ring. If you're not a big animated series fan, this might seem weird -- what does Luke Skywalker have to do with the Joker? Well, Hamill has been the voice behind the character for years now -- most notably on Batman: The Animated Series. (Hear him in action here.) So, MTV recently caught up with the quirky Clown Prince, and he had some nice things to say about the most recent Joker incarnation.

"For all those fans that dreamed of an adult approach to the material, Batman Begins got nearly everything right. I have no doubt this one will be just as good or better." Unfortunately, there's no word on what he thinks the first got wrong, but he does say of Christopher Nolan's changes to the character: "The balls-out debauched psycho approach seems like a great way of reinventing everyone's favorite scary (and scar-y) clown." Ah, punning goodness!

So Hamill can't wait to see Ledger in action. Can you? Do you like the eerie way that Nolan has taken the character, and that Ledger is playing him, or are you wishing that Hamill got to make his Joker large and live-action? Or that you'd get more Jack Nicholson? Or maybe someone else?

Warner Bros. really needs to get on the ball. That new trailer for The Dark Knight, which arrived yesterday attached to prints of I Am Legend and which we told you about earlier, has now leaked all over the place in a fourth-rate bootleg. I guess that's how the studio wants people to see it -- from the vantage point of a camcorder hidden in a guy's jacket. Come on, Warners, what are you thinking? Anyway, I have to say I'm not terribly impressed by this trailer. First of all, there's no great Joker moment like we would expect -- he appears to just be a typical knife-wielding thug with a bit of flair. Also, there are no show-stopping lines to report. I remember enjoying Michael Caine's speech from an earlier teaser trailer, about how Batman's aggressive actions 'pushed the mob into the arms of a man they didn't fully understand' but that's absent from this full-length trailer. In fact, it's mostly full of action beats.

I wasn't over-the-moon about Batman Begins and I don't really expect to be about The Dark Knight, either. Christopher Nolan is a fantastic director, but dialogue isn't his best-foot forward and The Joker is a character who demands a great writer. By the time I actually heard him say "Why so Serious?" in this trailer -- the line we've already seen all over the marketing a hundred times, I started to get a sinking feeling that that's the best we're going to get. But who knows, maybe I'm wrong, and they'll probably get my $11 bucks to find out, which is all that really matters, right?

Update -- Check here on Sunday, where we've been told the trailer will appear.

The dude (sorry, David Goyer) has come a long way over the last 17 years. He came onto the scene when he wrote the super-awesome Jean Claude Van Damme and Robert Guillaume flick, Death Warrant -- the movie that, for some reason, I had a poster of as a teen. After that came a whole slew of different supernatural flicks. His pen has been behind the likes of everything from Dark City to Batman Begins, and he's been getting into the directorial side of things with films like Blade: Trinity and the upcoming Magneto.

Now The Hollywood Reporter has posted that Goyer is signing up for his next helming gig -- an untitled supernatural thriller for Rogue Pictures. They're not saying too much about what Goyer's script entails, other than that it "follows an 18-year-old who realizes she is slowly being possessed and then begins to fight back." Am I the only one imagining a modern-day Ash? I'm sure this will be much more serious than my musings, but I can't help but picture a girl dealing with a demonic hand and chopping it off.

They're looking to start this puppy in February (not sure what that means for Magneto), so we should start hearing more soon. In the meantime -- what girl can pull this off? The only one that comes to mind for me is the young actress who has become the champion of young female talent -- Ellen Page. She'll hit 21 when the production starts, but I can't think of anyone even close to comparable. How about you?

The new website for the heist comedy Mad Money has gone live with its first full-length trailer. It is pretty much what you would expect from a harmless little comedy, so if you are looking for a hard-edged crime flick, you are definitely in the wrong place. Along with the trailer, the website has the usual photo galleries and downloads (you can check out Cinematical's exclusive gallery here). There is even the chance to win a little of your own 'mad money' in a sweepstakes. Directed by Callie Khouri, the film stars Katie (or Kate; I can never keep it straight) Holmes, Queen Latifah, Diane Keaton, and Ted Danson. The story centers on three employees of the Federal Reserve who pull together for a plot to steal the money that is going to be taken out of circulation.

Khouri is probably best known as the writer for another famous female 'buddy film'; Thelma and Louise. Money is a pretty light-hearted flick so I doubt we'll be seeing Keaton, Holmes, and Latifah going over a cliff in a protest of patriarchal control. Mad Money will be Holmes' first big-screen role since Batman Begins and Thank You for Smoking back in 2005. As we all know, Holmes wasn't invited back for The Dark Knight and there were even a few thinly veiled shots directed towards her in the press over the whole matter. Since all that Wonder Woman talk never panned out either, for the sake of her career I only hope that comedy vets like Keaton and Danson can help keep Mad Money afloat at the box-office. Maybe then, Holmes will get credit for being something other than Mrs Tom Cruise. Mad Money hits theaters on January 18th.

The word 'goth' can be very confusing these days, especially when talking about 'gothic' stories. For example, when Variety mentions that something is a 'gothic love story', is it referring to gothic in the sense of late-18th century British literature? Or is it referring to the current subculture of people who wear dark clothing, listen to bands like Bauhaus and have an interest in macabre subject matter? At first I thought it meant the former in its report that JT Petty was signed on to helm an adaptation of a Japanese novel -- and manga -- titled Goth. But now that I've read about the novel, it is clear to me that this is all about the subculture. The novel, written by Otsu-ichi, is about two teens, both of whom are obsessed with death, one with a fetish of standing in locations a body has been, who end up solving a number of murder mysteries and taking on the serial killer responsible.

Petty has written and/or directed a few horror features, including the straight-to-video Mimic: Sentinel (aka Mimic 3), but he may be best known as the writer of Batman Begins ... the video game. He has also scripted the Tom Clancy-created Splinter Cell games and is set to write the screenplay for a Splinter Cell film. Next up, though, he's got a horror-western titled The Burrowers, which has just recently finished shooting. Goth will be produced by Lauren C. Weissman, Jennie Lew Tugend and Shinya Egawa, all of whom worked on the movie Dance with Me, as well as on Norio Tsuruta's Masters of Horror episode "Dream Cruise".

Considering how popular the gothic subculture continues to be (if it had a tagline, it'd be something like "keeping Hot Topic in business since 1990"), Petty would be smart to up the influence on this adaptation. Obviously he'll be wanting to feature a hot goth-rock soundtrack and a lot of hot goth-chicks, who have always been able to transcend the subculture and appeal to non-goths, boys and girls alike, with their distinct, hyper-sexualized fashions.

It's been more than five months since The Dark Knight began shooting in Chicago, but the Batman Begins sequel is very far from being completed. Currently the movie is filming in England, and according to Variety, the production is on its way to Hong Kong, where it will film a number of scenes this fall. Locations will include Central District, which is the city's business district, and Western District, which is ironically the least Westernized part of Hong Kong. The movie may also feature the Symphony of Lights, a touristy light and laser show that occurs nightly around Victoria Harbor. The shoot is scheduled to last nine days, and will happen in November.

Variety claims the HK sequences will be the first time Batman is depicted on-screen fighting crime outside Gotham. But it isn't likely the trade really knows the plot or what scenes will actually be filmed in the Chinese city. Anyway, Batman Begins did already show us Bruce Wayne in China, of course it was prior to becoming the Caped Crusader and he wasn't exactly fighting crime. The trade does point out that it is also unknown whether Hong Kong will be called Hong Kong in the movie, or if it will have a fictional name, a la Gotham. However, considering there's an actual graphic novel titled Batman: Hong Kong, I assume the DC Universe's acknowledgment of the city will extend to the movie franchise. In any case, The Dark Knight will reportedly be the highest profile film to shoot in the former British colony in many years.

In other, more tragic Dark Knight news, a crew member was killed on the set yesterday afternoon when he drove a 4x4 camera truck into a tree. According to BBC News, the sequel was doing a test run for a sequence involving the Batmobile near Chertsey, Surrey, England. The unnamed crew member, a special effects technician, was pronounced on the scene, an effects facility in Longcross. Surrey Police and the Health and Safety Executive are investigating the incident.

I love the internet. Without it, actors couldn't use their own website forums to get feedback on which roles to choose. This is precisely what Paddy Considine is doing. In a forum topic titled "Considine: 'I Haven't Sold Out.'", the guy claims to have been offered a role in The Punisher: War Zone, and he wanted to know if it would be selling out to take the part. The issue has fans divided, but mostly the consensus is that he should do it, if only because comic book movies like Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk also have great actors. Of course, there was discussion about the other Punisher movies being bad, though initially nobody seemed to mention the fact that the new installment will be a reboot of the franchise, a do-over with completely new talent and direction.

Considine posted again and confirmed that the role offered is that of the villain, Jigsaw. He still hadn't decided on taking it, though, and stated he would be reading the script today. He admitted that he only thought of "Jigsaw" as being the villain from the Saw movies. One enthusiastic fan has since posted that Considine must do it, because of the screenwriters (Iron Man scribes Matt Holloway and Arthur Marcum), the director (Oscar nominee Lexi Alexander), the star (Ray Stevenson) and the suggestion that War Zone will be the Batman Begins for the Punisher character. Another poster detailed the character of Jigsaw, a scarred pretty boy mobster, and pointed out that he should be a villain that lasts through more than one film. Now it could be your chance to join the forum and give your own opinion of whether or not Considine is good for the role (or vice versa). Personally, I've got Cinematical to express my own thoughts, and I think he should go for it, because he indeed would make the movie better by appearing in it. And it certainly would be good for his career to do a bad guy in a mainstream picture, even if it doesn't do well. Hopefully he has enough internet-presence to see this and takes my advice.

UPDATE: Turns out Considine is not taking on the role. Over on his blog, he's reported the following: "The original choice for Jigsaw dropped out, then they offerered it to me. I'm very dubious because the other films looked shite. Then whoever is responsible said that their original choice has decided to do it, therefore pulling my offer. The only blessing was that I didn't waste an hour of my life reading the script. That be the way of the film world."

[via Coming Soon]

The word is right there at the beginning of the headline, but I'll go ahead and say it again. This post includes spoilers. Do not read this post if you don't want to know the plot of Magneto. Fans of The X-Men beware or enjoy. Yes, over at Obsessed With Film, they've learned the entire plot of the X-Men spin-off, written by David S. Goyer, who will also direct. Deciding not to reveal every plot point, OWF's Will Reynolds provides the basics, including the fact that the film will have bookending scenes set in Poland at the 60th Anniversary of the Auschwitz Liberation. After the basically present-day opening, Magneto heads back in time to that prelude in X-Men, where young Erik Lehnsherr (aka Magneto) destroys the concentration camp's gates. He's then experimented on by Nazi scientists, including a Dr. Kleinman.

Fast forward to the Ukraine, where we see Erik married to Magda, with whom he has a daughter, Anya. So far, we're following the comics pretty well. Then, apparently both Magda and Anya are killed when townspeople burn down the Lehnsherr's home (it should only be Anya, right?). From there, the spin-off follows the plotline in which Magneto goes Nazi hunting. Erik ends up in Paris and then moves to Argentina, where he searches for Dr. Kleinman with the help of a CIA agent. Eventually the plot moves on to Israel, where Erik meets a soccer-playing Charles Xavier (aka Professor X), who is said to be good at helping Holocaust survivors. Will the duo gang up to fight Baron Von Strucker and HYDRA? We'll have to wait and see ...

Of course, there are more details over at OWF, as I think if you really don't mind spoilers, you might want to check out the site. From the description they've provided so far, the film seems more like a drama, like Munich, than a super-hero action flick. OWF also says Magneto, which may actually be fully titled X-Men Origins: Magneto, will feature Senator Kelly (young and old), Victor Creed (aka Sabretooth, who also shows up in the Wolverine spin-off -- good news for Tyler Mane) and Mystique.

This is a lot more information than I was able to provide last week, and I have to thank OWF for giving just enough of a synopsis to keep me excited without feeling like I don't need to see the movie (like I would ever think I didn't need to see this!). The site likens the screenplay to Goyer's script for Batman Begins, combined with The Boys from Brazil (which is being remade just in time to go head to head with Magneto) and, of course, the X-Men trilogy. Keep in mind, as always, these are only rumors and the completed film could always head in a different direction.

As J. Peterman once said, "I am smack dab in the middle of a good old-fashioned cat fight!" While recently discussing her role in next year's Bat-sequel The Dark Knight, Maggie Gyllenhaal dunked Katie Holmes into a Dawson's Creek of verbal abuse. Gyllenhaal is taking over the role of Rachel Dawes, which Holmes originated in 2005's Batman Begins. Check out this quote from Gyllenhaal, but you might want to put a jacket on first: "I'm not thinking of it as a role that anyone's played before. I'm not walking into Katie Holmes' performance. I'm thinking of it as an opportunity to play somebody who's alive and smart. Chris (Nolan) asked me to do this because he wanted me, not because he wants some generic lady in a dress." Daaaaaamn! No she didn't!

I'm not sure Holmes really deserves any more negativity at this point. She's in a mercilessly mocked marriage that no one seems to take seriously, she's got a new baby, and she hasn't exactly been adored by the critics. Holmes certainly gave a pretty weak performance in Batman Begins, but let's give the gal a break here, no? What do you guys think about this, is Gyllenhaal being too harsh on Holmes? In the interview, Gyllenhaal also mentions that she might give the Jackie Chan thing a try in the film: "I'm really excited about it. I mean, it's not some silly action movie. Chris Nolan is directing, Christian Bale's starring. I'm really excited and curious about doing a couple of stunts in Batman." Why do all "serious actors" feel they have to justify being in action movies? They always have to point out how different and superior this one is to all the others, or its "I'm only doing this crap so I can finance my pet project -- a tone poem about migrant Chinese workers." You want to do an action movie, silly or otherwise, do it! We don't need to hear that you'd normally be above such frivolous projects.

Sources have told Comingsoon.net and and some other outlets that a teaser trailer for The Dark Knight will make a double-premiere on July 27, both on prints of The Simpsons Movie as it hits theaters across America, and during the Warner Bros. ComicCon presentation earlier that morning. For the last few weeks, we've been hearing that it was simply too soon for anything of substance to be unveiled at ComicCon for The Dark Knight, but really, how hard is it to cut a teaser together? If it's cleverly done, you can get by with only seconds of useable footage from the film, and it doesn't have to be money-shot footage. Looks like the powers-that-be have come around to that way of thinking. If all of this is legit, it would, of course, be the first time footage from the film has been seen anywhere, although some fans have gotten so impatient that they've actually crafted some fan trailers to keep themselves satiated in the meantime.

So what secrets are left about the production? We're still not completely sure who Anthony Michael Hall is playing, although source after source has claimed to know that he is playing Edward Nygma, a.k.a. The Riddler. It's also still up for debate whether Aaron Eckhart will transform into Harvey Dent in this film, or whether that's being saved for the next one. We're also fairly sure that Harley Quinn will not be making an appearance in the film, despite some earlier rumors that Sarah Michelle Gellar was up for that role. What about the role of the cop, Renee Montoya? Still no word on that either, although it's likely to be a small part even if its cast. Stay tuned to Cinematical for all the latest.

Between the next Indiana Jones movie and the next Batman movie, location spies are really keeping busy. For the Batman pic, The Dark Knight, we've gotten cell phone photos from the unofficial Dark Knight blog, a report from JoBlo about the Joker, a report from Superhero Hype! about Scarecrow and a video from the Mancow radio show showing us footage of the Tumbler. MTV Movies Blog now has some further info for us regarding a new character named Gamble. The character is yet another villain, though certainly not as prominent a bad guy as The Joker. Cast in the role is an actor well-known to comic book fans: Michael Jai White, who played the title superhero in Spawn and who also has voiced characters in the Justice League cartoon. White won the part over rapper/actor David Banner, who MTV had previously reported as having excitedly auditioned back in May.

Many comic and movie fans may be worried that having another villain in The Dark Knight could make it too much like the crowded Batman and Robin or Spider-Man 3. According to MTV Movies Blog, however, Gamble is only a minor thug. The blog got the scoop directly from producers Emma Thomas and Charles Roven that Gamble is one of the crime bosses attempting to fill the place of Carmine Falcone (Tom Wilkinson's character in Batman Begins). The plot of The Dark Knight will begin with Batman having to decide what criminal is a bigger priority, Gamble or The Joker, an dobviously he will choose The Joker. We also know that Scarecrow is in the film, and there are other characters who may later become villains, such as Harvey Dent (Two-Face) and possibly Edward Nygma (The Riddler).

From the hardcore comic geeks to the general moviegoers -- everyone seems to have loved Batman Begins. Like, a lot. Which explains why we're writing little articles about next summer's sequel twice a day. The Dark Knight will bring back most of the cast from the first film (although Katie Holmes has been (thankfully) replaced by Maggie Gyllenhaal) and offer up new additions like Heath Ledger as The Joker!

Over the last few weeks we've gotten reports on Batsuits, Batbikes and Bat-marketing galore, but our pal JoBlo has an inside scoop from someone on the set! Visit the Emporium to read the full report (mild spoiler warning), but here's just a little snip to whet your appetite: "The Joker does not look as grotesque as he did in the photo on the harveydent site. He has long hair with green highlights in it, he was wearing a long purple jacket with a blue sport coat under it, purple gloves and I regret to say I forget the color of his pants. But anyways, he comes in shooting and people are being hurt and killed left and right, he's looking for Harvey Dent (his first line says so). As Joker is hitting people along the way (he's slapping extras!), comes in Batman in that new suit that was in Entertainment Weekly this week. They fight, it's all long and drawn out and during this, JOKER DOES HIS LAUGH."

Dang. As if I weren't already slobbering over the thought of Christopher Nolan's follow-up ... this article did the trick. I only hope I can remain somewhat spoiler-free before the flick hits theaters next July! If you've missed any of our recent Dark Knight coverage, please do click here, here and here. And here, here and here. (And here.) And here, here and here. That's it. And here.