First off I just wanted to thank Dave and John for handling last week’s The Pull List as special guest reviewers. They did a great job, and I’m glad I’ve got backup when I need it!

Pull of the Week:

Giant-Size Wolverine: Old Man Logan One-Shot – Marvel – $4.99

Score: 9.0

Anyone who has read the Pull List knows I am not a huge fan of high priced comics, especially when that higher price only comes with a sketchbook or a reprint of an old issue. But this issue, the conclusion to Millar and McNiven’s “Old Man Logan” eight part story was beyond worth it and easily the best $4.99 issue of the entire year. If you hadn’t been following this story, shame on you.

Fifty years in the future and unlike any other seen in Marvel like “Days of the Future Past” or the time-line Bishop traveled from, the villains have won. In one fell swoop, the villains of the world under the leadership of the Red Skull came together and wiped out all the heroes of the world with only a few survivors, most notably Hawkeye and Logan, who is no longer calling himself Wolverine. After a cross country journey to earn the money he owes the Hulk Gang, the descendants of Bruce Banner, Logan returns to find out he was too late to save his family.

This issue gives what looks to be the final showdown between these age old foes. With nothing left to lose, Logan decides that if Banner is responsible for taking away his family, he will return the favor in kind.

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We’ve been bringing you quite a lot of coverage of next month’s release of Brütal Legend, Activision’s newest explosion of heavy metal and fantasy video games. Jack Black, Tim Curry, Lemmy, and Ozzy Osbourne are just some of the names that lend their talents to this epic video game, and there’s more gore and humor than you can shake a stick at!

The plot is about Eddie Riggs (Jack Black), the world’s greatest roadie, who can rig or fix just about anything in the world. He gets transported to a mystical world where rock is REAL and used to vanquish evil foes. You follow Riggs as he takes down demons and dragons using his epic axe and electric guitar.

The game is quite a lot of fun, and we’ll be sure to have a review up for you to check out soon. But for now, you get an exclusive peak at the intro video from the game that sets up the story. An interesting tool used throughout the game is an option to choose gore and profanity over censored violence and dialogue. This allows some of the older fans to take advantage of the brutality of Brütal Legend, while also appeasing parents who don’t want their children subjected to such things.

Check out the video after the jump. Brütal Legend hits game stores on Rocktober 13th.

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With the Marvel/Disney deal looming, the race is on for studios to secure properties. Variety is reporting that Columbia Pictures is working on a sequel to Ghost Rider, with David Goyer reportedly in talks to create the story, as well as supervise additional writers for the film. Nicolas Cage is expected to reprise his starring role as Johnny Blaze.

The resurrection of Ghost Rider as a franchise comes in the middle of negotiations with other Marvel characters at Sony, Fox, Universal and Paramount. Studios must move on these properties now if they want to retain the rights to their Marvel superheroes.  If the properties languish, Marvel Entertainment can reclaim the rights to those characters. This is exactly what happened with the Dr. Strange, Black Panther and Iron Man properties. Iron Man languished in development hell at New Line before Marvel turned the property into a self-financed blockbuster last year. And we all know how well that went.

Although Goyer stated through a spokesman, that he has not officially signed on to a second Ghost Rider, plans are already under way to base the sequel on a script Goyer penned years ago. Goyer’s, superhero work includes successful screen transfers of DC’s Batman Begins and Marvel’s Blade franchise.

Columbia isn’t the only one getting in on the properties action. Fox plans to reboot Fantastic Four with Green Lantern scribe Michael Green; develop a Wolverine sequel and other X-Men spinoffs; a Silver Surfer film; and a revamped version of Daredevil.

Sony recently tapped James Vanderbilt to pen the fifth and sixth installments of the Spider-Man series, and Universal is continuing work on Sub-Mariner. Paramount will continue to be the distributor for Iron Man 2 and are also expected to distribute the upcoming Thor and Captain America flicks.

Whether you’re a hardcore PC gamer looking to upgrade your system or just a computer geek looking for something to drool over, today you’re in luck. Alienware has given us a first look at their five new gaming systems, announced today at the Tokyo Game Show. Take a look, and be prepared to drool.

Alienware M15x

If you’re a gamer on the go, the Alienware M15x is perfect for you. Featuring a beastly Intel Core i7 Processor at 2.0GHz and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M videocard with 1GB of video memory, this machine has enough power to fuel your games to the max without sacrificing your space or style.

It even has a Blu-ray player with a high-definition 15″ widescreen display, so whether you’re playing your favorite game or watching your favorite movie, you’re doing so with the clearest picture and most power possible in a laptop.

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It would seem the children of legendary comic book creator Jack Kirby want some of that four billion dollars that changed hands between Marvel and Disney a few weeks back. Earlier this week, The Kirby estate issued 45 notices of termination of copyright against Marvel.  If acted on, it means Marvel could lose control of characters such as The Silver Surfer, Hulk, The Fantastic Four, and Thor (to name just a few).  Of course, Marvel would seemingly never let such a pantheon of characters go so this could end up turning into a windfall for the Kirby kids in the way of royalties.

It’s hard not to compare this case with the ongoing actions between Warner Brothers (specifically DC Comics/Entertainment) and the estate of Superman creator Jerry Siegel.  Siegel’s family is seeking to regain the rights to Superman from DC.   Actually, the connection is closer then you may think.  You see, the law firm representing the Siegel family, LA-based Toberoff and Associates, is the same one acting on behalf of the Kirby family.

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In 1992, Executive Producer Aaron Spelling’s latest soap-drama Melrose Place was lacking some serious ratings sizzle. Heather Locklear was recruited to play the stiletto heeled, micro-mini wearing maneater, Amanda Woodward. The character stirred things up in the boardroom (at D&D advertising agency) and in the bedroom.

Almost overnight, ratings climbed, and Locklear was credited with a 22% rise in ratings, according to Entertainment Weekly. Originally hired for a guest starring stint, Locklear remained on the show throughout its 7 year run, and her character’s bitchy persona and questionable board-room attire provided fodder for countless water cooler chats.

Later, Locklear appeared on Spin City, Scrubs, and Two and Half Men. All three shows saw a bump in ratings as well (“The Locklear Effect”, so to speak).  Her 2004 series LAX didn’t fare as well, though, and was quickly canceled.

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Much like the rest of the universe of comic and TV fans out there, we have had a love/hate relationship with Smallville. The first few seasons were fun, but then the show began to lose it’s focus, along with a number of dedicated fans. Last season, that all seemed to change with the move of the show’s setting from Smallville to Metropolis, and more specifically, the Daily Planet.

At the end of last season, one of the big cliffhangers that was thrown into the last hour was that of Lois Lane (played by Erica Durance) disappearing into the future after stumbling across a Legion of Superheroes ring that one of the Legionaires left on their last visit.

Check out a new clip from Friday night’s season premiere in which Chloe (Allison Mack) and Clark (Tom Welling) discuss Lois’s disappearance–and reappearance–from the present time. This clip also alludes to a new villain for this season, which we will have a clip of tomorrow. Don’t forget to catch Smallville in it’s 9th season this Friday on The CW and 8PM/7PM Central.

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We here at The Flickcast are all but shocked when we hear about this thing or that getting rebooted or remade. Sadly, we were a little bit surprised when news came that 1986′s Highlander is getting a fancy Hollywood facelift, and even has a director and producer attached.

Distributor Summit Entertainment is going forward with the reboot of the film, hiring the team of Justin Lin to direct and Neal H. Moritz to produce. The team was also behind Fast and Furious, which was one of the bigger film of the year, and the highest grossing title of the year for Universal Pictures.

Summit has had great success so far with the adaptation of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series (with New Moon hitting theaters this November). According to Variety this may be the birth of another franchise for the company:

Summit plans to expand on the original “Highlander” premise of immortals hunting each other through the ages. The new pic will center on the immortal Scottish swordsman Connor MacLeod, who must confront a murderous barbarian who lusts for a fabled prize.

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We’ve discussed the notion of how cool it would be to see a movie where Bruce Willis takes on an army of robots, and this week, we’ll actually get to see it happen in theaters across the country. This Friday marks the national release of Bruce Willis in Surrogates from Disney and Touchstone pictures.

For those who are unaware of the film’s premise, yet intrigued by the idea of Willis kicking tin butt, the plot is simple. Humans grow lazy and develop a robotics program that allows them to play as robot versions of themselves from the comfort of their own homes. Those robots are able to do all the things that humans could not, without all the risk of…well, risk. This is all good and well until a person gets murdered when his surrogate is killed. FBI agent Bruce Willis is on the job, and in order to do it, he must step outside as himself, not his robotic counterpart.

There’s a brand new featurette hitting the web, which has a few people from the film discussing it. Alongside stars Willis and Radha Mitchell is director Jonathan Mostow, producer Max Handelman and co-writer of the original graphic novel, Robert Venditti.

Check out the video after the jump, and catch Surrogates in theaters this Friday.

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As we reported yesterday, a title update went live for Left 4 Dead which updated the Infected HUD. Many people also speculated it would play a role in laying the coding framework for the new “Crash Course” Campaign, even though it hadn’t been given a release date. On the heels of that update comes the announcement that “Crash Course” is indeed coming before the end of the month to both PC and XBox 360 on September 29th.

The update will be free for PC players but will be 560 Microsoft Points ($7.00) on the XBox 360 due to XBox Marketplace rules regarding free Downloadable Content. “Crash Course” is presented as a more streamlined multiplayer experience for L4D players, containing a half hour campaign that links together the events of the original retail release’s “No Mercy” and “Death Toll” campaigns.

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All week long, we’ve been bringing you daily exclusive interviews with some of the folks behind the scenes for DC’s newest animated venture, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, which gets a release next Tuesday. Monday, we had a chat with the screenwriter of the feature, Stan Berkowitz, then yesterday executive producer Michael Goguen on adapting the comic to the animated screen.

In continuing with that fashion, we got a chance to speak with legendary casting director Andrea Romano out at Comic-Con, and she was more than elated to discuss getting the “dream team” back together in Tim Daley, Kevin Conroy, and Clancy Brown as Superman, Batman, and Lex Luthor respectively.

Check out the video after the jump, as we discuss the team coming back together, some of the cameos we may or may not see, and what Clancy Brown’s original idea was for Superman: The Animated Series. Keep it here all week for more interviews before the release of Superman/Batman: Public Enemies on September 29th.

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