Action Figure News: NECA's upcoming "Conan the Barbarian" series!

Okay, so maybe these are a tad late, considering the movie first came to theaters in 1982. But anyone with a taste for nostalgia (yes, that would be ME) and who would agree that Conan the Barbarian is still one of Schwarzenegger's best films (and the better of the two Conan films, though I know some who would debate that) I think would agree that these are VERY well done renditions of Ah-nald in all his Cimmerian blood-soaked glory. What's most impressive to me is the facial sculpts on both figures--not only do they REALLY look like Schwarzenegger, but they accurately reproduce his facial expressions in those scenes in the film (his days as a pit-fighter slave near the beginning and the attack on Thulsa Doom's temple, respectively)! NECA's really outdone themselves with this assortment ... guess I'm going to have to find room somewhere in my place for these, too ...

UPDATED: Smallville Series Finale tonight (or at least it SHOULD be ...)

Sorry, found this image of Mack while doing a Google search for her and just HAD to include it ... WOW when did she do this? GO CHLOE!


UPDATE (11:09AM) - Well, looks like the folks at the CW haven't lost their minds completely: they've signed a deal with reps for Allison Mack to bring her back as a series regular next year, after all. Here's the word from TV Guide's insider, Mike Ausiello:

Smallville fans, consider this bullet officially dodged: Multiple sources confirm to me exclusively that after weeks of tense negotiations, Allison Mack has sealed a deal to return next season as a series regular!

[The crowd roars]

Although the specifics of the new contract -- which was signed just hours ago -- are being kept under wraps, I'm told it calls for Mack to appear in all episodes produced next season. As I reported earlier this week, the actress' reps were (wisely) using the imminent departure of Smallville vet Michael Rosenbaum as leverage in the negotiations. I'm going to go out on a limb and say the strategy paid off.

My concerns still stand, of course--you're still losing Lex and Lana as regulars, but Lana will appear for a few, and even if Lex appears in a 3-4 episode arc, that might not be too bad. This business about introducing Doomsday as a villain next season, though? The CW seems determined to have Smallville jump the shark, as if a great many people didn't think it had done so already.

10:30AM




This past season has certainly had its ups and downs, like any other, and this season's finale promises to place all the principals in cliffhanger-style danger, just as many others have, except this time we know certain things FOR CERTAIN going in:

1) Goodbye, Lex: Michael Rosenbaum has said his official goodbye in an open letter to fans--he will not be back as a regular next season (though he MAY do a limited number of episodes);

2) Goodbye, Lana: Kristin Kreuk is also leaving as a series regular, though it IS confirmed she WILL do a limited number of episodes next season (last report was seven).

In addition, there's this bit of news, not as certain:

3) Goodbye, Chloe (maybe): Allison Mack is not contractually signed for Season 8, and many in Hollywood are reporting that her representatives are demanding from the CW more than the network is willing to pay. TV Guide's Mike Ausiello reported earlier this week after previewing tonight's episode that given what occurs tonight, it would not be difficult AT ALL to explain Chloe's absence from the show next year.

So, potentially, we could have Smallville without Lex, Lana, OR Chloe, with the returning principals being Tom Welling (Clark), Erica Durance (Lois), and Aaron Ashmore (Jimmy Olsen). The return of Laura Vandervoort (Kara) is even in question, as her name was not mentioned among the show's cast at the CW's "upfront" presentation in New York this past week (neither was Mack's, although Kreuk was given second billing). So, Clark, Lois, and Jimmy ... shall we rename the show "The NEW new Adventures of Lois and Clark"?

Once again, I must renew my call to end this show NOW, gracefully, with the majority of its original cast still onboard. It won't happen, no matter how much fan outcry there is, but I have to ask one more time. Without Lex, Lana, and Chloe (and with Pete Ross long departed, along with Jonathan and Martha Kent), this is no longer Smallville at all, and "Lois and Clark", well, that's been done before. The CW is keeping this show alive on a respirator, basically--the ratings have been falling all season, and with all the changes planned will PLUMMET next season--because they have precious little else to hang their hopes on. There are simply too many fans out there, particularly fans of Allison Mack, who won't tune in next year because it's too much. I'm not even sure I will be watching next year, given what we know now. And with what tonight promises, a FINAL confrontation between Lex and Clark with all the cards at last on the table, however it resolves itself I'll be happy to not watch a single episode again, rather than endure the show's slow demise in the absence of its most essential elements.

TV Blog: Smallville "Descent"

So now we begin what will be the swan song of both Lex Luthor and Michael Rosenbaum on Smallville, the final five episodes of the season that will finish Luthor's journey toward being the super-villain we viewers have always known he'd become, while also bringing to a close Rosenbaum's active involvement in the series. Of course, it's possible he could return for a few spot episodes next year, as Kristin Kreuk (Lana Lang) is slated to do, he will certainly not be a regular. Tonight's episode, "Descent", begins with the death of a major character--the trailer leaves very little doubt who the victim is--and apparently deals with the aftermath and how this act moves Lex from the "morally bankrupt" category to the "diabolically evil" category.

For me, I know I'll miss John Glover's presence on the show, but this is something that needed to happen to the Lex character, so I'm looking forward to it in that respect. In the last few years I've had no trouble whatsoever loathing Lex, but now the "true" evil will emerge, and it will be all the easier.

For the last four episodes, anyway.

Movie Geekiness: "Incredible Hulk" theatrical poster

Universal Pictures today released to media outlets the final theatrical poster for their entry into this summer's superhero movie mayhem, "The Incredible Hulk".

Maybe it's just me, but looking at this image, with Bruce Banner (Edward Norton this time out) in the center of the image, walking with head downcast and sadness weighing upon him as palpably as the bag slung across his shoulders, I can almost hear the piano tones of the theme song from the "Incredible Hulk" TV show with Bill Bixby and Lou Ferigno. I know I'm one of the few right now, amongst the many out there who still remember the last "Hulk" movie and were disappointed by it, but I think they're on the right track with this one. Everything I've seen so far in terms of marketing and trailers tells me this is a Hulk character and story that will feel much more familiar to the general movie-going populace, in addition to being quite the superpowered beatdown once the two gamma-irradiated combatants, Hulk and Emil Blonsky/Abomination (Eric Roth), get down to business.

Not nearly as excited for this one as I am for "Iron Man", of course, but I'll go see this one, for sure, and I'm hopeful it will succeed more than its predecessor.

Iron Man - Run before you walk

Iron Man - Run before you walk

Just one more REALLY FRICKIN' COOL clip from Paramount and Marvel Studios' upcoming summer blockbuster "Iron Man", due in theaters May 2nd. Enjoy!

TV Blog: Battlestar Galactica Season Four begins tonight!

This teaser image released last year in Entertainment Weekly drove us BSG fans utterly batshit with speculation ... but it’ll be nothing compared to how we’ll all feel after tonight’s episode.

After almost a year of waiting, Battlestar Galactica’s fourth and final season begins tonight with "He That Believeth in Me", an episode that promises to, in the long-standing tradition of BSG, provide few answers to the burning questions left last season and add a whole bunch of new questions to the new mix. This is, after all, how you keep an already-rabid fanbase hooked. The fact that there were so many plot threads left dangling at the end of Season Three makes it logistically impossible to wrap them all up in one hour of television without short-changing almost all of them, and the audience in the process, and that is something the writers and producers of BSG simply do NOT do. The transition from Seasons Two to Three is a good example--the many story threads left hanging at the end of Season Two, with it’s one-year-later jump and cliffhanger ending with the Cylon occupation of New Caprica, took the first seven episodes of Season Three to resolve. No, nothing will be resolved or explained tonight--we’ll simply have more narrative, more story to chew on and speculate and obsess over, more Adama, Roslin, Apollo, Starbuck, and Cylon drama to drive us crazy.

Which is, of course, exactly what we’ve been wanting all this time. Bring it on, RDM. We’re ready, or at least we think we are.

TV Blog: Producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar to leave "Smallville"

Smallville Executive Producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, the duo that developed Smallville for television, announced Wednesday night that they'd be leaving the show following the end of the current season to focus their efforts on feature films. During an interview with Comics Continuum, Gough detailed further what lies ahead for the pair of producers, whose feature film credits include "Spider-Man 2" and "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor". ""We are currently working on Jungle Cruise for Disney, and producing a movie for them as well, which I can't talk about because there hasn't been an official announcement, but it starts shooting in May."

Smallville will continue for an eighth and probably final season on the CW next year, though now it is slated to continue without its original producers and two of its headlining stars, Michael Rosenbaum (Lex Luthor) and Kristin Kreuk (Lana Lang). Kreuk is set to return in a limited number of episodes next year, but will no longer be credited as a member of the main cast. Earlier this week, current Smallville producer Brian Peterson had this to say about what's to come in Season Eight: "The things I think I can hint at are the Lois and Clark of it all," he said, referring to the 1990s Superman-themed series that ran on ABC. "It's really going to be a season about Lois [Erica Durance] and Clark [Tom Welling]." This is curious because the Lois/Clark romance is a subject that Gough and Millar had previously said they felt they should not touch on in Smallville because it was the realm of the Superman feature films.

Me personally, I'm very skeptical now about the final season, and a part of me wishes they would simply shut it down after this year. Smallville, it seems to me, was never intended to introduce audiences to Superman, only to the young Clark Kent, the teen would someday become Earth's greatest hero. It was not meant to show us Clark's falling in love with Lois Lane--Lois is his adult love, the love he comes to after MUCH more seasoning, world-traveling, and experiences. Lana Lang, meanwhile, is the love of his adolescence, the love he was meant to leave behind, but who had a hand in shaping his hopes and fears about relationships, and we've seen that relationship for the most part run its course. On a practical level, this show for so long has been built around the dramatic triangle of Clark, Lana, and Lex Luthor. Now two of those three pillars are being taken away, and those who put forth the original vision are now choosing to move on. The question in my mind now is will the show even resemble what it's been for the past seven seasons, or will it be "Lois and Clark ... with Chloe and Kara, too!" Will hardcore fans like myself end up disavowing this final season because it will be so different in tone and form?

Time will tell, as in all things.