R.I.P. Andy Hallett, a bit of news, and the DVD pick of the week

Now this is just amazingly sad. When I saw this name, I have to confess it didn't mean anything to me at first, but if you watched "Angel" during it's five-season run, you're certainly familiar with Andy Hallett.

Hallett played Krevlornswath of the Deathwok Clan, a k a Lorne, "The Host" who specialized in reading people's auras as he induced them to sing karaoke (yes, I know that sounds incredibly silly, but awfully entertaining too.) Hallett, who had apparently been battling heart disease pretty much since the show ended in 2004, died Monday night of heart failure at only age 33. Just amazingly sad.

In much better news, any doubts that Sacha Baron Cohen was going to push the envelope as far as possible in "Bruno" have been removed as the MPAA has given the flick an NC-17 rating in its first pass.

I have little doubt that Cohen and crew will be able to tame it down enough to get this one into theaters even in my rather safe little corner of the world, but - not having seen it, of course - it does make you wonder how much of that rating comes from the fact that it deals with a touchy issue, homophobia, rather than from any truly offensive content (though I'm willing to bet there's plenty of that too.) How much violence is allowed into movies rated PG-13 and below while the smallest whiff of sex - gay, straight or otherwise - just sets censors crazy is grist for a whole post in itself, but not one I have the time or energy to get into this morning.

Bottom line: "Bruno" should be a heck of a lot of fun in theaters, and way better on DVD.

There's a lot of good stuff out there this morning - the day after "Friday Night Lights" got renewed for two more seasons, huzzah! - so if you'll bear with me, I'm just gonna plow right through it.

David Cronenberg, who has until now balked at sequels of any kind, is seriously considering making an exception to that rule to continue the "Eastern Promises" saga, which I have to say would only be a good thing.

As you may remember from the end of the movie (AND IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT, FOR GOD'S SAKE, PLEASE JUST SKIP THIS PARAGRAPH), the big twist is that Viggo Mortensen's Russian gangster is actually a British intelligence agent. In the right hands, a k a those of Cronenberg, screenwriter Steven Knight and Mortensen, all of whom are in talks to return, this could not only make another great flick but perhaps even a series, if they're so inclined. Here's what Cronenberg had to say about the project to the surprisingly informative MTV Movies Blog:

“We are going to have a meeting very soon between me, Steve Knight and Paul Webster to discuss what the script would be. I have some very strong ideas about what I would like to see, but I would like to hear what they have to say as well. And then after that, if all goes well, Steve goes away and writes a great script. If we all like it, we make it.”

Here's hoping, and in other casting news for flicks I'd certainly like to see, "Watchmen" director Zack Snyder has lost one waif and quickly picked up another to play the lead in his next flick, "Sucker Punch."

Amanda Seyfried was forced to drop out because HBO wouldn't let her out of her "Big Love" contract, so Aussie Emily Browning has stepped into the lead role. Though she starred this year in "The Uninvited" (which, rather amazingly, was still playing in one multiplex in my hood as recently as last week), you'll probably best remember her as Violet in "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events."

Seems like a lateral move to me, but Browning should be a lot of fun in the lead role of a young woman forced into an insane asylum by her stepfather, who then uses the power of her imagination and the help of her fellow inmates (most likely Evan Rachel Wood, Vanessa Hudgens, Abbie Cornish and Emma Stone) to escape.

No matter how this all works out, however, the best thing is that Snyder is finally cooking up something from his own mind instead of making another comic book flick.

And speaking of HBO, I'm rather psyched for the second season of "True Blood," which may even be enough to induce me to pay for the channel when the vampire series returns for season 2 on June 14.

I spent a good portion of my recent trip through the Southeast reading the source material for the second installment, Charlaine Harris' "Living Dead in Dallas," and can happily report that it has plenty of crazy stuff in store for the series (not exactly high art, I know, but it was just the perfect book to read while getting too much sun lazing on the beach in Gulf Shores, Ala.) Not to spoil too much, but the novel starts with the death of Lafayette (which ended season one of the show) and somehow ends up at an orgy.

The photo below, featuring Macon native Carrie Preston (left) as the Merlotte's waitress Arlene, and plenty more are on display at HitFix, and you can view them all here.


DVD pick of the week:

The big name this week is certainly Oscar winner "Slumdog Millionaire," and that one indeed did nothing but make me smile from start to finish each of the two times I've seen it already. But my pick this week is one of the only other movies I bothered to see twice in theaters in 2008 (along with "The Dark Knight"), the French thriller "Tell No One."

Not surprisingly at all given just how maddeningly entertaining it is, this mindbender based on a Harlan Coben novel is already being remade for American audiences, but please believe me that you should see it in its original French form from director Guillaume Canet. What he's cooked up here combines the best elements of the French psychological thriller genre with a genuine potboiler mystery tale, and put it all together with tons of style. I also promise that the "reveal," easily my favorite movie scene from last year, will stick with you for a long time. Rent it already.

And on that note I'll close with this rather awesome poster for Sam Raimi's "Drag Me to Hell," set to hit theaters May 29. We've all had days like this, if not quite as bad as poor Alison Lohman's, so enjoy and have a perfectly passable Tuesday. Peace out.

Can "The Dark Knight" really take out "Titanic"? And will Whedon's "Dollhouse" really ever open?

On the surface, it might seem like a gamble for Warner Brothers to send "The Dark Knight" back to theaters Jan. 23, banking on a bounce from the Oscar nominations being announced the day before.

If you think about it, however, there's really no way the flick can lose at this point. If it snags the Best Picture nomination it clearly deserves (and some posthumous love for Heath Ledger), than a run big enough to net the $77 million domestic take needed to unseat "Titanic" as the U.S. champ becomes inevitable. But even if it doesn't, the chip that will put on the movie's devoted fans' shoulders will only gin up the drive to take the title even further.

And I'm not a "Titanic" fan or much of a hater either. I do know that "The Dark Knight" is a far superior flick, and as a sports fan I love competitions of all kinds, so I can only say bring it on (and I'll certainly contribute my $8 or so to see it again, maybe this time finally in Imax.)

But on a personal note, this weekend is now shaping up as perhaps the best movie weekend of the year. Along with visiting a friend for lunch tomorrow, I'm hitting Atlanta mostly to see two of the movies I've been looking forward to all year: "Slumdog Millionaire" and then "Milk," both at the fantastic Regal Tara theater. I can't wait, and of course feel free to check back for reviews of both soon.

Here today, however, it's mostly about the first review of Joss Whedon's "Dollhouse," which has been in development for more than a year, has gone through at least two pilots and is supposedly still going to hit the airwaves in February on Fox (though I'll believe it only when I see it at this point.)

Well, it seems that Time TV critic James Poniewozik has done exactly that, and had what could be charitably be called a mixed reaction at best.

For those who can't remember (and really, who could blame you at this point), the new show from the creator of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" will be about a group of people known as "actives" or "dolls" who have had their personalities wiped clean so they can be imprinted with any number of new ones to perform missions. It's set to star Eliza Dushku, a k a Faith the vampire slayer, in the lead role of doll Echo, and also Olivia Williams (a k a Ms. Cross from "Rushmore") as the matron of the "dollhouse," Tahmoh Penikett of "Battlestar Galactica" as a FBI agent tracking the secret project and even "Angel" veteran Amy Acker in a recurring role (if it even goes that far) as a doctor who tends to the dolls.

After offering the qualifier that he initially misunderestimated "Firefly" when that great Whedon sci-fi Western hit the air for its far-too-brief run, Poniewozik had this to say about Whedon's new offering:

Yes, this is certainly Joss Whedon trying to do What People Think Works on Broadcast TV Today—the legendary serial-procedural hybrid. But the first episode—in which Echo is imprinted with a kidnapping-negotiator's personality to secure the return of a rich man's abducted daughter—is well enough written to be absorbing. Writing a crime hour doesn't seem like Whedon's thing, but the episode is tight, suspenseful, with intriguing psychological twists and flashes of Whedonesque humor. ...

Now the minus. Dollhouse as conceived (a heroine plays a different "person" every week) is less a series concept than an actress' showcase, a sort of extreme version of an Alias undercover premise. And the actress being showcased is Eliza Dushku. Now, I have nothing against Dushku. I thought she was fine on Buffy. But she's not exactly Toni Collette (who's playing a multiple-personality case on Showtime's The United States of Tara, which I have not seen). Watching her inhabit her imprinted "personality"—a tough negotiator with secret vulnerabilities—I did not see her becoming another person. I thought: Oh, look! There's Eliza Dushku with glasses and her hair in a bun!

If it weren't for Whedon's pedigree, I'm not sure I'd be dying to see a second episode. But for me, the main draw now is not seeing Dushku become a different person every week, but getting to see Joss Whedon become a different writer every week.

I could certainly do without the Dushku hating, but from his assessment I'd say this was just about exactly what I'd expect. Anyone who's seen the rather pedestrian first seasons of both "Buffy" and "Angel, however, knows that Whedon's stuff can often get off to a rocky start but - given the chance - eventually develop into something seriously entertaining.

You can read the rest of what Poniewozik had to say here, and like I said, please feel free to check back for a couple reviews of what are hopefully two of the year's best movies later this weekend. Peace out.

When bad things happen to beautiful women ...

Well, I suppose the second entry in this post can't really be called a bad thing, but there's no doubt in my mind that Julie Benz agreeing to be nearly tortured to death for our "enjoyment" can only be an evolutionary step backward.

I'm not gonna rail anymore about "torture porn," "torture chic" or whatever you might want to call it, but it still amazes me when people I enjoy watching in movies or on TV agree to take part in this crap.

But I guess I should get to the news of the day before I rant any further. Julie Benz, a k a Darla of "Buffy" and even more so "Angel" fame, has indeed signed on to topline "Saw V," due out in October (if you had put a gun to my head I probably wouldn't have been able to guess that there have already been four other "Saw" movies. Sheesh.)

Now, it's too early yet to tell if she'll be a victim or otherwise, but I still can't imagine what would drive her to agree to this. I don't think it can be money. She appeared in "Rambo" last year and is one of the principal stars of Showtime and Now CBS' "Dexter," and is also set to star in the upcoming flick "Punisher: The War Zone."

With the exception of Alyson Hannigan's (hopefully continuing for quite a while) run on "How I Met Your Mother" and David Boreanaz's run on "Bones," it's been a pretty bleak career landscape for almost all the stars of "Buffy," but this is indeed a new low.

Elizabeth Banks as Laura Bush?

Like I said at the outset, you could hardly call this a bad thing career wise, but does any woman really want to hear they look like Laura Bush?

Banks, who recently wrapped shooting Kevin Smith's "Zack and Miri Make a Porno," is about to sign on to play Laura Bush in "W," Oliver Stone's biopic on the life and presidency of, well, W. Josh Brolin already is on board to play Bush in the biopic, which begins shooting in late April in Shreveport, La.

To be serious for a second, I really like Elizabeth Banks, and not just because she lands squarely on the hot side of the scale, so I hope this turns out to be great. She's a very funny lady, and for evidence of that you can turn to the very-little-seen "Slither," in which she co-starred with "Firefly" vet Nathan Fillion.

And besides, it could certainly be worse ... at least they didn't ask her to play Barbara. Peace out.

Did Joss Whedon cause the writers' strike?

Just kidding with that, of course, but it did seem more than a little coincidental that the rather tremendous news last October that Joss Whedon was coming back to television came just days before the writers officially took to the picket lines.

And, after all, Whedon has had his share of TV bad luck. We all remember "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel," of course (fondly, I would hope), but there was also the just tremendously shoddy treatment given to "Firefly" by Fox, which managed to only show 11 of the 14 episodes produced - and out of order, at that - before cancelling the whole thing. (It would live on, though, with the space Western flick "Serenity," which, if you somehow haven't seen, do so immediately.)

So when it was announced that Whedon would indeed give TV another try with something called "Dollhouse," on Fox no less, it only seemed natural that the strike and maybe other difficulties would get in the way. Now, however, through only one sentence buried in a Variety article about CBS picking up three drama pilots, comes word that it's not only back on but becoming a big "Angel" family reunion.

But, since it's been so long since I've mentioned it, a word about just what "Dollhouse" is might be in order. "Buffy" fans will be happy to know it stars fellow vampire slayer Eliza Dushku, who apparently wooed Whedon back to TV at a lunch where they hatched the idea. Here, as far as I can tell, is the plot summary:

"Dollhouse" follows a top-secret world of people programmed with different personalities, abilities and memories depending on their mission. After each assignment - which can be physical, romantic or even illegal - the characters have their memories wiped clean, and are sent back to a lab (dubbed the "Dollhouse"). Show centers on Dushku's character, Echo, as she slowly begins to develop some self-awareness, which impacts her missions.

Sounds more than a little familiar, but still ripe with possibilities. And, even better, it's got "Angel" mastermind Tim Minear (late of the very short-lived "Drive," another Fox catastrophe) on board, and now the writing team of Sarah Fain and Elizabeth Craft, who served as executive story editors for "Angel" and co-wrote eight episodes.

I realize this is more than a bit of info (and gushing) about a show that's only received a 7-episode pickup and won't be seen until autumn (at the earliest), but Joss Whedon and TV are just the perfect combo to me.


Viva Mexico, once again?

Remember when Mexican directors seemed to rule the world (it was only a year or so ago, so I certainly hope so.) After the big three - Alfonso Cuaron, Guillermo del Toro and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu - received so much simultaneous acclaim, they formed a production company called Cha Cha Cha, which is finally bearing some fruit.

But before I get into that, what are they each up to? Cuaron, my favorite of the three, is listed at the IMDB as being in preproduction of an "Untitled Alfonso Cuaron Project" described as "a drama about a family set in 1971 in Mexico." Cool enough.

Del Toro has "Hellboy II" set to come out July 11 and then most likely will turn his attention to not one but two "Hobbit" movies, which he's been christened to direct for producer Peter Jackson.

Inarritu is simply listed as also having an "Untitled" project in the works, with no plot details available but with shooting tentatively set to begin in May. I'll be curious to see what he comes up with after breaking with writing partner Guillermo Arriaga, who's moved on and is now filming a drama titled "The Burning Plain" and starring Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger.

But what brought all this to mind was something Variety had about three interesting Mexican films now in the pipeline. The first, and by far the most interesting to me, indeed will be the first flick put out by Cha Cha Cha. Here are the details about the three, all listed as being in post-production:

"Rudo y Cursi"
Carlos Cuaron, brother of Alfonso, is directing this flick which reunites "Y Tu Mama Tambien" (one of my favorite flicks) stars Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna as two brother who play for competing Mexican soccer teams. Sounds uber-cool to me.

"Los Bastardos"
This second flick from writer-director Amat Escalante follows Mexican immigrant workers in a U.S. city who are hired by an American to kill his wife.

"Insignificant Things" ("Cosas insignificantes")
In writer-director Andrea Martinez's first feature, secrets unfold from the ordinary treasures an adolescent girl guards in a box.

They all sound like potential winners to me, and even if I only get to watch most Mexican movies on DVD, I can only say bring it on. Peace out.

Where are they now: "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"

The inspiration for this post actually comes from welcome news about a veteran of a different Joss Whedon project, Jewel Staite, a k a Firefly ship's mechanic Kaylee.

Though this isn't normally exactly my cup of tea, I'll probably give "The Tribe" a chance with her in it. The flick, set to come out next summer, is described at the IMDB as being thusly: "After a devastating boat crash, a group of friends is stranded on an uncharted island, where they encounter an ancient tribe of humanoid creatures." Sounds pretty meh to me, but like I said, I'll at least give it a shot.

That news got my mind, which does tend to move quicker than my body when I write these things fairly early in the morning, on the idea that it would be fun to check in with the cast of Whedon's masterwork, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Knock it if you must, but it was the smartest and funniest show of its day, and any fans of serials like "Lost" and "Heroes" should recognize its import.

This might be a bit long, because I put together a list of 20 bit to not-so-bit players from the Buffyverse. And I hope at least a few people enjoy reading this even slightly as much as I did researching it. Here goes:

Buffy: Where else would you start than at the top? Given its apocalyptic storyline and extremely long rollout, I guess I shouldn't be surprised by the savaging of Richard Kelly's "Southland Tales." In the flick, which may never even make it out to my little corner of the world, Sarah Michelle Gellar plays a porn star/reality TV star (and really, what's the difference between the two?) She has two future credits listed at the IMDB, neither of which look too promising. The first, "Possession," indeed sounds like a parody of most of her post-"Buffy" film work: A woman's life is thrown into chaos after a freak car accident sends her husband and brother-in-law into comas. Thrills arrive after the brother-in-law wakes up, thinking he's his brother. Wow does that sound bad. The next is truly odd. Called "Alice," it springs from a video game called "American McGee's Alice" which in turn was inspired by the Lewis Carroll novel. One of these days SMG will get to star in a good movie, but it's not on the horizon yet, I fear.

Willow: I've been watching season two of Alyson Hannigan's new series, "How I Met Your Mother," on DVD, and I can confirm it's just as funny as I remember. Sadly, I couldn't find upcoming film credits that would offer the chance to redeem herself after the disaster that was "Date Movie," so here's hoping CBS gives "Mother" a solid five-year run or so.

Xander: I guess it shouldn't be surprising that "Buffy" vets get tied down to fantasy/horror work pretty fast. After a thankfully short run on the TV show "Kitchen Confidential," Nicholas Brendon has two current IMDB credits. I can't imagine any movie that really stars Rowdy Roddy Piper will be any good, but 2008's "The Portal" is described thusly: Investigators pursuing a bizarre hemorrhagic illness are lead to a strange black painting that they discover is a portal to another dimension. Sounds more than a little like your standard SMG movie. Next comes "Blood on the Highway," a horror/comedy with this rather ominous tagline: "There's a sucker born every minute!" I can only hope they're not talking about us.

Rupert Giles: The always-welcome Anthony Stewart Head is, as far as I can tell, the only "Buffy" vet who's still actively in the Whedon mob. Although I can't find a firm credit anywhere, I'm fairly certain they're developing a "Ripper" spinoff movie or miniseries for the BBC. In more certain credits, you can see the great Mr. Head as a ghost in Tim Burton's take on "Sweeney Todd" and then with, yes, Paris Hilton in "Repo! The Genetic Opera!" I guess a man's gotta eat.

Spike: "Buffy" and "Angel" player James Marsters had a nifty little run on "Smallville" and can be seen soon as the third lead behind Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler in the December chicky flick "P.S. I Love You." Much more interesting could be his next role, as serial killer Ted Bundy in a miniseries called "Chasing the Devil," scheduled to hit your TV sets somewhere in mid-March.

Anya: Except for some work (along with many of her fellow "Buffy" vets) on Seth Green's "Robot Chicken," Emma Caulfield amazingly has no work listed after a TV movie called "A Valentine Carol" that apparently ran on USA last February. Somehow I managed to miss that one. How in the world can a woman both this beautiful and witty be un- (or at least way under-) employed?

Dawn: Though she was great in "Mysterious Skin," I somehow managed to resist Michelle Trachtenberg's two other big flicks, "The Ice Princess" (which I probably wouldn't admit to seeing even if I had) and the rather unfortunate "Black Christmas." She currently has two other flicks listed as completed, "Kids in America," a coming-of-age comedy headlined by Topher Grace and Anna Faris, and "The Possibility of Fireflies," which promises to be exactly the type of flick I will never see.

Cordelia: Charisma Carpenter left "Buffy" to have just as good a run on the "Angel" spinoff, and also had a great turn as Kendall Casablancas on the late and much-missed "Veronica Mars." Amazingly, that's her last listed acting credit. About the only way I could have gotten excited about a "Wonder Woman" flick would be with her as our heroine and Whedon at the helm, but that's clearly not gonna happen.

Angel: I tuned in for one episode of David Boreanaz's still-running series "Bones" and rather quickly dismissed it as the standard police procedural fare that's saturated our airwaves. If I'm wrong and it's somehow better than that, please let me know. Along with that, he's just wrapped "Our Lady of Victory," a flick in which he plays the hubby of Carla Gugino (triple and resounding huzzah!), who plays the coach of the women's basketball team at a tiny Catholic college who leads her charges to a national title. After that he'll voice The Green Lantern in the animated "Justice League: The New Frontier."

Tara: Clearly the coolest thing Amber Benson has done post-"Buffy" was the "Ghosts of Albion" animated series with Chris Golden for the BBC online. You can still watch it here. She has four current (and most likely straight-to-DVD) credits listed at the IMDB: "Kiss the Bride," starring Tori Spelling (always a promising sign); "Strictly Sexual," of which she's the headliner and actually has this plotline: Two successful women, sick and tired of dating and relationships, decide to keep two young men in their pool house for strictly sexual purposes.; a horror/comedy called "The One-Eyed Monster," of which she's also listed as the principal star, and then a werewolf flick called "Shifter" toplined by Rachel Miner (remember her? I think she was once MacCaulay Culkin's wife.)

Oz: With his own creation, the stellar "Robot Chicken," and as the voice of Chris Griffin, Seth Green has had steady and very entertaining work on TV post-"Buffy." Unfortunately, his upcoming movie credits are a "rumored" role in the John Travolta/Tim Allen "comedy" "Old Dogs" and then what I can only assume is a sequel to the remake of "The Italian Job," to be called, creatively enough, "The Brazilian Job."

Riley: Buffy's college paramour, Marc Blucas, actually has a role in a flick hitting the multiplexes in my little burg this week, "The Jane Austen Book Club," in which he plays the hubby of Emily Blunt. He'll next topline the recently wrapped "Animals," some kind of horror/fantasy with a plot too odd to describe in brief, but did you know he was a starting guard on the Wake Forest basketball team back in the day? Bizarre.

Johnathan: Surprisingly, Nerd of Doom Danny Strong has probably had the most successful career of the "Buffy" ensemble. After a long stint as Doyle, Paris' man, on "Gilmore Girls," he managed to pen the movie "Recount." About the rather screwed-up 2000 presidential election, it's being made by HBO to be trotted out just in time for the 2008 edition. If you really wanted to, you can apparently currently see him in the Amanda Bynes flick "Sydney White." His future credits include "Bad Guys," which, since it wrapped in April, I can only assume is headed straight to DVD, and the comedy "Robbin' in da Hood," which is apparently directed by someone who simply goes by the name Quake. Yes, just Quake.

Andrew: The funniest of the nerds, Tom Lenk, actually had a part in this summer's "Transformers" as "Analyst No. 2," but it doesn't look too promising after that. His only credit: The I suppose inevitable "Boogeyman 2." Sheesh.

Warren: Along with a lot of TV work, head nerd Adam Busch has also managed to have a part in easily one of the worst movies I've had the displeasure of seeing in the last five years or so, "American Dreamz (zzzzz)." After that he only has "Geohunt," which I rather fear will be yet another flick about humans hunting humans.

Faith: Granted, Eliza Dushku should have gotten a much more prominent position on this list, but I figured a trio of very beautiful women was necessary here after the nerds. Her three current credits are "The Alphabet Killer," apparently based on the "double initial" killer of Rochester, NY, "Sex and Breakfast," a romantic comedy toplined by Rachel Miner's former husband, and easily the most promising one, "Bottle Shock," a flick about the birth of the Napa wine industry which will also star Freddy Rodriguez (huzzah again!) and Alan Rickman.

Drusilla: Juliet Landau's seriously insane vamp was always my favorite of the "Buffy"/"Angel" characters. Her upcoming credits include "The Yellow Wallpaper," described (rather optomisticly, I fear) as a dark, Gothic thriller, "Land of Canaan," yet another psychological thriller starring, somehow, Tara Reid, and another thriller called "Darkness Visible" (I couldn't make this stuff up!)

Darla: Along with her steady work on TV's uneven but mostly entertaining "Dexter," the alluring Julie Benz has a big part in next summer's "John Rambo." Yes, that Rambo. Please, dear Lord, don't make us have to watch her make out with Sylvester Stallone.

Wesley: The last place I remember seeing Alexis Denisof was in a very funny run on season one of wifey Alyson's sitcom "How I Met Your Mother." Since, he has nothing else listed, but I did find out that, like the great Linda Hamilton and the late Frank Perdue, he is apparently a native of Salisbury, Md., the little burg where I happened to grow up. Cool.

Caleb: Why not wrap things up with the agent of Buffy's final foe? Nathan Fillion went on to play Captain Mal, of course, in Whedon's "Firefly" and "Serenity" (when in the world is the Sci-Fi Channel gonna come to its senses and revive "Firefly" already?), and also starred with Keri Russell in easily one of my favorite movies of this year so far, "Waitress." His next flick will be something called "Trucker," with Michelle Monaghan which doesn't look too promising, but I like Mr. Fillion enough that I'll watch him in just about anything.

Whew! That certainly went on a long time, so I apologize to anyone who thought it was more than a bit of overkill. As Buffy herself once said, to me it was "just enough kill," and a perfectly enjoyable accompaniment to my morning coffee. Peace out.

Elvis battling vampires? Please say yes to this, Bruce

Having failed to watch any movies this weekend except "Serenity," I was beginning to think there was nothing to talk about today. And then I found something so crazy it made me wake up right away.

If you somehow haven't seen "Bubba Ho-Tep," do so as soon as possible. It's much more fun and surprisingly moving than I can make it sound here, but you've got Bruce Campbell as Elvis and Ossie Davis as JFK and, well, a mummy. And now, thanks, to the twisted mind of Don Coscarelli, it seems we may be in for even more fun.

In a prequel of sorts, "Bubba Nosferatu and the Coven of She-Vampires," the king would be filming a movie in Louisiana when he runs afoul of a coven of, well, she-vampires. And, believe it or not, Paul Giamatti is somehow involved in this madness, to play Col Tom Parker.

What in the world would compel him to do this? Well, as you can probably guess just by looking at him, Giamatti is just a big geek at heart. Here's what he had to say about this to Rotten Tomatoes:

"Did you ever see Bubba Ho-Tep? Great movie. And that director [Don Coscarelli], I love that guy's movies. All the Phantasm movies and stuff. But we are trying to do it."

I'm definitely with him on the "Phantasm" movies (of which there will apparently be a fifth, also from Mr. Coscarelli, in 2008.) The only thing holding this up, apparently, is Elvis. I'd be surprised if Bruce Campbell really does turn his back on this, but so far he's apparently hesitating. Again, Mr. Giamatti:

"Bruce Campbell was waffling around about whether he wants to play Elvis or not again. So that's the problem. I'm playing Colonel Parker, which will be great, but you gotta have Elvis and you really want him playing Elvis, so hopefully we can get him to do it. If not, I'm sure they will try and find somebody else but I think it's contingent on whether he'll do it or not."

Mr. Giamatti, of course, will be in another extremely silly movie very soon, "Shoot 'Em Up," set for release Sept. 7. In the meantime I at least get to spend my Monday thinking about Elvis battling she-vamps, which is of course so much more pleasant than anything else that might come up at my actual job.

Warning: It's gonna get geeky in here

Oddly enough, I found this e-mail from the folks at TFAW.com just after I had finished watching all the "Serenity" extras (and this is a special edition truly worthy of the name, for once.)

It seems that among the "Serenity" and "Firefly" toys you can buy there is a brand new release, the actual papers for the Serenity vessel (no, I'm not kidding.) If you actually have $120 to spend on something as silly (yet undeniably cool) as this, you can get 13, 8 1/2-14 inch papers from the ship, one of which I've included at right. And, if you somehow missed out on the Buffy Season 8 comics, TFAW recently reissued the first four titles (which quickly sold out), and they're promising to do it again very soon, so stay tuned.

And, possibly even better than that is that Eliza Dushku is coming back to Fox TV, and possibly in something that's not craptastic. This rather radical idea comes from Aintitcool, so I'll give all credit before proceeding.

Faith has apparently signed a development deal with Fox and is now in the process of meeting the networks's stable of writers. And who's sitting at Fox with nothing to do at the moment? "Angel" veteran Tim Minear (having been mercifully removed from the sure-to-be-wretched "Angel" ripoff "Moonlight.") So, and as I said I can't take credit for this idea, why not bring the two together for a "Faith the Vampire Slayer"?

That's not even a rumor at this point, but every idea has to start somewhere. Dream with me, people, and I guarantee you'll have a much more bearable Monday. Peace out.