So reports Cinematical and there’s liek a photo and everything.

This has long been rumored and I think is very good news.

It can be found here.

It is rather minimalistic to be sure, but given that there are no new visuals to use (heck, they haven’t even cast Kirk yet), that isn’t too surprising. The font, however, reinforces that this is a TOS-based flick (as did the first one with the Kirk Yellow/Spock Blue colors and the TOS insignia).

For those who have read the Deathly Hallows and want to know more about what happened to the characters, Rowling speaks (via MSNBC): Exclusive: Finished ‘Potter’? Rowling tells what happens next - Wild about Harry.

h/t: Betsy Newmark.

The long-rumored casting of Zachary Quinto (Sylar of Heroes) as Spock in the new Trek flick due out in 2024 is confirmed (via Reuters): “Heroes” villain, Nimoy join Star Trek pic:

Zachary Quinto, best known for playing the villainous Sylar in “Heroes,” will don a pair of pointy ears to play Mr. Spock in the newest installment of the Star Trek feature franchise — and he’ll be joined by Leonard Nimoy, reprising the role that he created.

Quinto has done an excellent job as the exceedingly creepy and evil Sylar. However, at the moment he is so ingrained in my mind as Sylar (as, I am sure, in the case for many others) that I am hoping his acting skills are sufficiently remarkable as to make us all to forget about Sylar when we see him as Spock.

Speaking of Spock, the movie must have some sort of flash to the future, as Nimoy will play a TNG era Spock (or, at least, it would seem that he is playing a post-Generations Spock, as getting Shatner as Kirk into those scenes are apparently an issue. One guesses that perhaps this is some sort of recollection of Spock on his deathbed or somesuch that leads to the telling of the early days of Trek.

Via Reuters: “Watchmen” powering up with castings< /a>

Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earle Haley, Matthew Goode, Billy Crudup, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Malin Akerman have been cast in the Warner Bros. movie. Shooting is set to start in the fall in Vancouver, with director Zack Snyder employing many of the techniques he used for his box office success “300.”

[…]

Haley — Oscar-nominated this year for “Little Children” –will play Walter Kovacs, a.k.a. Rorschach, who ignores the ban on costumed vigilantes.

Crudup (”Almost Famous”) will play Dr. Manhattan, a superpowered being with godlike powers and temperament.

Akerman (”Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle”) will play Laurie Juspeczyk/the Silk Spectre, who is involved with Dr. Manhattan — but that relationship begins to fall apart as he becomes more disconnected from humanity.

Goode (”Match Point”) will play Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias, a costume adventurer who retired voluntarily, disclosed his identity and built a large fortune. He hatches a plot to avert a global catastrophe he believes will be caused by Dr. Manhattan.

Wilson (”Little Children”) will play the Nite-Owl, a crime-figher who uses technical wizardry and has an owl-shaped flying vehicle.

Morgan (”Grey’s Anatomy”) will play the Comedian, a cigar-chomping, gun-toting vigilante-turned-paramilitary agent.

Steve Bainbridge has a very interesting post on the question of the coherent ideology (or lack thereof) of fictitious evil overlords. It is written in response to a post by Ilya Somin at the Volokh Conspiracy.

It makes for an interesting discussion, that I sadly do not have time to engage in at the moment, so I will refer you to the posts in question.

There are no spoilers in the posts, btw

(And I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows last night and will be commenting on it shortly, no doubt.

My two oldest sons (10 and 7) and I went to see the new Potter flick yesterday and we quite enjoyed it. My wife stayed home with my youngest (5), as there was some sense that perhaps the film might be too scary in parts. In truth, I don’t think that there was anything that would especially have gotten to him, although since a lot of the movie was narrative and not action, the more likely problem would have been him getting fidgety and bored rather than scared (although I will say that there are portions that might disturb some five year-olds–it just depends on the child).

(more…)

Via the SyFy Portal: Mark Sheppard Teams Up With ‘Bionic Woman’.

Sheppard played the role of defense attorney Romo Lampkin in the final three episodes of season three of BSG, and did a mighty fine job of it. Further, in listening to him on some of the podcasts he seems to be an interesting and engaging fellow, so this is good news as far as I am concerned.

Katee Sackhoff’s evil bionic character has also been given a recurring role on the series.

Pretty good:

h/t: Sullivan

Tucked in at the end of a piece on Season Two ofTorchwood at th SCI FI Wire is this little tidbit:

Torchwood’s first season will begin airing on BBC America on Sept. 8 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

Nifty.