A sad day for the literary world today as the writer of famed novel Catcher In The Rye, J.D. Salinger, has passed away at the age of 91. Salinger was known as a devoutly private author, refusing interviews and turning down offers of further publishing.

It was widely known that Salinger refused to let his most famous novel be turned into a film, as he hated “Hollywood phonies” more than anything else. According to his publicist, Salinger’s health was excellent until the turn of the new year, when it suddenly declined and the author suffered from a broken hip.

Many people will remember Salinger for his novel and recluse lifestyle, but fans of comics and movies will always remember the work of his son, Matt Salinger. It’s little known, but Matt Salinger was the actor who portrayed Captain America in the original 1990 film.

Check out a clip below, and our prayers go out to Matt along with the rest of the Salinger family.

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The siege of Asgard continues, Indigo becomes the new choice of color and Captain America “officially” returns in this latest edition of The Pull List Comic Reviews! Due to time constraints and unforeseen delays, this week’s column is abbreviated. As always, WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.

PULL OF THE WEEK:

Atom & Hawkman #46
DC Comics – $2.99 US
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Ryan Sook
Score: 9/10

Ray Palmer, known better as the Atom, has been knocked down more than most during his career as a costumed crime-fighter, but he always manages to pick himself up. Not surprisingly, that compassion of his has earned him an Indigo ring, and with the dead seemingly winning the war, Ray has figured out a way to swing the battle to the good guys; even if the good guys aren’t all necessarily “good” to begin with.

I would never have thought that, of all the Blackest Night-themed “continuation” issues, this would be the best of the bunch (so far), but with Geoff Johns at the helm, I should have known better. Johns uses a This Is Your Life presentation of Ray Palmer’s history as a canvas to show just how much the character brings to the table, and in doing so, the writer sets the stage for what could be the turning point in war against Nekron.

Artist Ryan Sook simply crushed this issue. Everything in this issue was pitch-perfect, from Ray’s past to the horrific present – every panel led to the next without skipping a beat. Instead, the body of work in this issue touched on varying types of visual storytelling that not only worked incredibly well, but also showed the artist’s vast range of skills.

Wrap all this up and throw in the aforementioned revelation of the Indigo rings, and you’re left with a can’t-miss issue that’s also the Pull of the Week.

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Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland is certainly turning heads with every new image and trailer that the film has to offer. Mostly because of how outrageous Burton’s style seems to be with this timeless classic, and of course his continued success when partnering up with Johnny Depp.

Fans of both Depp and Burton will get an eyeful in this new clip that’s been released for the film. In it, we get a glimpse at Depp, while he talks about Burton’s take on the classic. Also, some great shots of Twiddle-Dee and Twiddle-Dum, as well as the Cheshire Cat and even Crispin Glover as The Knave of Hearts.

The film also stars Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hatheway, Alan Rickman, Kingdom’s Stephen Fry, Christopher Lee, and Mia Wasikowska as the titular Alice.

Check out the clip after the jump, and be sure to see much more from Burton’s wild new world as time draws closer to the March 5th release date. There are also rumors that Disney is buying time during next Sunday’s Super Bowl for an extended trailer, so be sure to get your DVR’s ready!

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Regardless if people are still watching and some people feel strongly that NBC’s Heroes has run its course, the network is still promoting the show and still airing it. With the season finale (and perhaps the end of the show entirely) weeks away, NBC has sent us some videos giving you a behind the scenes look and interviews with some of the cast.

In the videos, you can go on the set and get an inside look at the show. Plus, you can how the cast and crew work together in the filming of each episode and hear from stars Masi Oka and Greg Grunberg during some of their downtime on set.

Even if the show’s future may be incertain, it’s still nice to see that the cast is behind their show and willing to talk about it in order to keep fans interested. Normally, I would chalk this up to simple desire to see their job continue.

But in this case, they seem to actually be genuine and really love the show. Maybe we should give Heroes another chance?

Check out Heroes Monday nights at 9/8C on NBC.

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With more and more news hitting daily on the upcoming Green Lantern film, there will of course be more information hitting the web that shouldn’t actually be out there. Between how big of a film this is turning out to be, and how much of a fanbase the DC character has developed over the decades of print, there were bound to be a few leaks.

With that news comes some potential new concept art for the alien life that we’ll be seeing in the film. Martin Campbell already confirmed that we’ll be seeing Kilowog, Abin Sur, and Toma-Re in the upcoming flick, but these is the first time we’ll be seeing what they could actually look like.

The images first hit on one of the Green Lantern fan message boards, and was later confirmed by several sources to be legit. This comes only days after Warner announced that Sony will be doing the special effect work for the upcoming film.

Check out the concept art after the jump, and be sure to keep it here for more Green Lantern news as it comes our way.

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Bones seems to be a show that only gets better after it’s fifth season, while most other shows fall to the wayside in that time. This season alone has been so much of a milestone for everyone involved, and it’s only the beginning.

Fox has announced plans for the upcoming 100th episode, airing on April 8th, in which series star David Boreanez will direct the episode. Seeing as how we’ve got some time before April, tonight’s episode looks to be pretty enticing as well. From Fox:

When a human skeleton is discovered in the trenches of an old Civil War battleground, Brennan and Booth are called to the case. Despite the historical location, Brennan quickly identifies the bones as belonging to Dan Pinard, a present-day local dentist. While Booth investigates suspects, including the victim’s former boyfriend, Hodgins and lab intern Vincent Nigel-Murray work doggedly to clean the bones of a stubborn clay residue which is preventing the team from determining a cause of death. Meanwhile, Booth’s brother, Jared, returns from his travels with some surprising news.

Check out four new clips from tonight’s episode, “The Dentist And The Ditch”, and be sure to catch it tonight on Fox, 8PM Eastern/Pacific.

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Marvel is at it again, adding a new spin to their image and changing things up to excite readers new and old. This time around, the publisher is set to unleash “the dawn of new heroism in the Marvel Universe.” What are they talking about? Well, read on for all the scoop, via the official press release.

Marvel Comics is proud to announce The Heroic Age, the dawn of an exciting new era of heroism in the Marvel Universe! Beginning in May 2010 with the release of Avengers #1, The Heroic Age ushers in a brighter Marvel Universe and a bold new era for the world’s greatest super heroes as they emerge from darkness with a renewed sense of hope and optimism, leading to the formation of all new teams with new members…and brand new characters!

Titles branded with the Heroic Age banner offer a perfect jumping on point for readers new and old alike, as the top comic book creators in the world deliver a Marvel Universe like you’ve never seen before!

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It’s almost February and some really great movies are hitting store shelves this week for the first time and for the first time on Blu-ray. This week’s releases include This Is It, Surrogates, Whip It, Saw IV, the complete run of NBC’s canceled-too-soon Southland and the Blu-ray release of Wim Wenders’ classic Paris, Texas with Nastassja Kinski and Harry Dean Stanton. (pictured above).

Check out this week’s new releases:

Movies

Atonement ~ James McAvoy (Blu-ray)

Bright Star ~ Abbie Cornish, Ben Whishaw (Blu-ray and DVD)

Fame (1980) ~ Irene Cara (Blu-ray)

Give ‘Em Hell Malone ~ Doug Hutchison, Thomas Jane (Blu-ray and DVD)

I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell ~ Matt Czuchry, Geoff Stults (Blu-ray and DVD)

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In news that seemed “too good to be true”, Guy Ritchie, who directed such action-comedies as Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, would be directing an adaptation of the DC character Lobo for Warner Bros. Since then, Ritchie’s stock has gone up in a huge way with his Sherlock Holmes bringing in over $350 worldwide since it’s Christmas Day release.

With that in mind, both Warner and super-producer Joel Silver have decided to fast-track a Holmes sequel, which would put Lobo on ice, possibly permanently. When the LA Times sat down with Silver, he didn’t seem too convinced either way.

“I don’t think he’s going to do it now,” Silver said of Ritchie directing “Lobo.” “The studio wants us and Guy to focus on making another ‘Sherlock Holmes.’ So I think we’re going to be doing that. But we’re seeing what happens with this.

Everybody is analyzing everything. It’s all kind of happening right now as we talk. ‘Sherlock’ is sitting at just about $400 million in worldwide gross and showing itself to be pretty effective and pretty strong. So we’re trying to see if we can do something quickly with another ‘Sherlock Holmes’ movie. We have some ideas and some good story points.”

It was also rumored that Brad Pitt, a Guy Ritchie favorite, would be stepping in on the Holmes sequel to play the evil Professor Moriarty, but Silver didn’t seem to think that the plan would move on past the “wouldn’t it be cool?” stage.

Downey Jr. also just recently picked up his second Golden Globe for his performance in Sherlock Holmes, which you can still catch in some theaters.

Now that I’ve had a chance to think about it and perhaps Steve Jobs’ “reality distortion field” has worn off a bit, there are some things about the iPad I don’t like or wish had been, or hadn’t been, included in the new device. On the surface, the iPad seems like a great device and one that I will most likely get. But today’s announcement still left me wondering about a few things.

And here they are:

No camera – For a device like this it would make sense to have a video camera for video conferencing and to take pictures and video, much like the iPhone 3GS. If this device is supposed to be some sort of laptop replacement, it should have a camera. The deliberate omission of a camera smells like an obvious ploy by Apple to not cannibalize sales of the iPhone and iPod.

No Flash – Say what you will about Adobe’s Flash but for the full Internet browsing experience you still need to have Flash. Sure, the iPhone doesn’t have it but if this is supposed to be a larger, better device that can replace my 13″ MacBook, it should have Flash.

Navigating to web pages and seeing those black rectangles where video should be isn’t the fantastic experience Apple makes it out to be. It’s just bad and seriously undermines the credibility of Apple’s mobile web browser.

Storage – I realize that Apple probably isn’t positioning the iPad as a complete laptop replacement but it would still be nice to have more storage than the maximum of 64GB. Of course, having more storage would probably mean that battery life would suffer or the device would be more expensive but still, video files are usually pretty large and I’ve also got a lot of music and other files, plus applications and games, so larger storage options would be great.

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When I set out on this long and dusty trail, one of my goals was to highlight the classic (or not so classic) films people could watch online. It’s never been my intention to restrict it to online selections, but I feel like the “Instant! Now! Yes!” can excite people to go watch a film like The Searchers immediately instead of putting it off yet again.

That said, we are talking about the wild wild west here. There are no rules! Guidelines are meant to be broken!  Especially when Django arrives in the mail.

Django exists in the murky world between “completely obscure” and “well known classic,” that world Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, and Takashi Miike live in and gleefully borrow from.   Despite that it was the one of the most violent films of the 1960s (it was even banned in England and Sweden), type it into Google and the top results are websites for the Python web framework.

How did Django fall so low?  I’m not sure, except there does seem to be a suspicion or a distaste for the spaghetti westerns that followed Sergio Leone. For moviegoers, and the bastions of film criticism, it seems to have  ended with Once Upon a Time in the West, and nothing else was worth watching.

Especially not a film that reportedly spawned 100 unofficial sequels, and a German following that was so desperate for more that they pretended every Franco Nero movie was a Django installment.  In Germany, Camelot was renamed Django Lancelot. (No, not really. At least, I don’t think so ….)

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Today, in an event hosted by Apple CEO Steve Jobs, the company announced a shiny new touch screen tablet computing device which utilizes Apple iPhone OS and has a host of new features. The device, dubbed the iPad, will serve as another example Apple’s dominace in the mobile computing space.

According to the announcement, the iPad is “fully customizable,” “better than a smartphone or a laptop at browsing,” will alow you to read e-books, and has a “great maps application.”

Here are just some of the specs and features:

• 9.7″ IPS screen
• 1/2″ thick
• 10 hours of battery life
• “Shut the iPad down, come back in a month and it still has a charge”
• 16-64 Gigabytes of flash storage
• Accelerometer and compass
• 80s.11n Wifi and Bluetooth 2.0
• It can run all iPhone apps, unmodified, out of the box
• New Software called iBooks along with iBooks Store to purchase and read books
• iWork suite developed expressly for the new iPad
• Syncs with your Mac and iTunes via USB cable just like the iPhone
• In addition to Wi-Fi, also features 3G service from AT&T with unlimited plan @$ 29.99/Month and 250 MB plan @ $14.99/Month

• Prices start at $499.00 for 16 GB model, $599.00 for 32 GB model and $699.00 for 64 GB model. 3G will be $130.00 extra across the board.

• Shipping in 60 days for base model. 3G Model ships in 90 days.

More on this extraordinary device as we get it.