To many studios and producers in Hollywood, the word “reboot” seems to have magical properties. To them, the word means “take a failed property and wash away all the bad with a new film.” It doesn’t always end that way, when the “bad” in this instance is something as bad as Ang Lee’s Hulk, and even a Robert Downey Jr. cameo can’t wash that away.

Relentlessly, studios don’t seem to care and continue to “wash away” failed films with shiny new projects. With that in mind comes news that Warner Bros. is planning a reboot of the 1995 adaptation of Mortal Kombat. The original was certainly no Street Fighter, but it’s in no way a “classic” either.

The plan is to have newcomer Oren Uziel pen the script, with no set date on production. A reboot may not be a bad idea, considering the bad press that video game films got in the 90s, and how that seems to be changing lately with the Resident Evil and Tomb Raider films doing well financially.

The question now is “What ever happened to the third Mortal Kombat film that was set to begin production last September?” The film was originally rumored to be a reboot, with cartoon writer Sean Catherine Derek writing the script.

No word on whether that film fell apart or not, but with the recent news of Warner’s involvement, you can believe that the original project is dead.

Its Monday so that means new episodes of NBC’s Chuck and Heroes. We know you’re watching both of these shows but just in case, we’ve got some preview clips for you from the episodes to get you in the mood.

Tonight’s Chuck features guest appearances from the very beautiful and talented Kristin Kreuk and the dangerous Stone Cold Steve Austin. Get an introduction to their characters in “Chuck vs. First Class” in the two clips after the break.

On Heroes, Noah Bennett starts his plan to take down the Sullivan Brothers Carnival and, of course, things don’t go quite as he planned. Tune in for new episodes of both shows starting at 8/7c.

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Another week, another batch of great comics from the fine filks at Marvel. This week sees the release of several books we’re looking forward to including a new X-Force, Captain America: Reborn #6, Kick-Ass #8, Secret Warriors #12 and the latest New Avengers.

As always, be sure to check out the previews of some covers for these comics after the jump. New comics go on sale this Wednesday at a comic shop near you. To locate your nearest comic shop that carrier your favorite titles, use this handy guide.

Comics On-Sale:

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #619 (GNTLT)
AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE #32 (S)
CAPTAIN AMERICA: REBORN #6 CASSADAY VARIANT
CAPTAIN AMERICA: REBORN #6 GATEFOLD COVER
CAPTAIN AMERICA: REBORN #6 QUESADA VARIANT
DAREDEVIL #504
DARK REIGN: HAWKEYE #5 (DR)
FALL OF THE HULKS: GAMMA 2ND PRINTING VARIANT
FALL OF THE HULKS: RED HULK #1
FANTASTIC FOUR #575
FANTASTIC FOUR #575 SEVEN DECADES VARIANT
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #22
HALO: BLOOD LINE #2

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Sega and Dark Horse Comics have announced a special “Hunter Edition” of the upcoming Aliens vs Predator video game that’s slated to hit stores February 16th. The full press release is below, along with 5 preview pages from the re-colored hardcover shipping with the set.

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THE ORIGINAL ALIENS VS. PREDATOR IS BACK!

DELUXE “HUNTER EDITION” OF THE UPCOMING AVP VIDEO GAME FROM SEGA TO FEATURE HARD COVER COMIC FROM DARK HORSE!

JANUARY 21ST, MILWAUKIE, OR–In conjunction with last week’s release of the all new Aliens Vs. Predator: Three World War comic, it was announced today that the upcoming video game from SEGA, will be released in a deluxe “Hunter Edition,” featuring the newly recolored zero issue of the original Dark Horse series. Originally released all the way back in 1990, this first six issue series built on the storyline established in the pages of Dark Horse Presents, and remains one of the most popular crossovers in the history of sequential storytelling.

Featuring a dynamic new cover by artist, Raymond Swanland, and all new colors by Wes Dzioba, this all-new “remastered” edition is a fantastic update to the classic story that started it all! In addition, this limited edition hardcover features the eight page “Blood Time” story, originally published in Dark Horse Presents, and featuring the same creative team.

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Last week, Fox aired a special 2-night, four hour premiere of the eighth season of 24 to record ratings, and a groundbreaking plot that will keep us enthralled for most of this season. Now it seems things are heating up even more for for Jack Bauer and the CTU team.

Tonight will be hours 8PM to 9PM, which is already the fifth episode of the season. Now that Jack and CTU are based in New York City, things are already getting intense for the East coast. From Fox:

Four explosive hours after being unwillingly drawn back into action, Jack Bauer reteams with a risky Renee Walker to track some very dangerous leads. Meanwhile, back at CTU, a desperate Dana Walsh faces tense and untimely circumstances, and emotions escalate when President Taylor learns of a larger looming threat that jeopardizes the peace accord with President Hassan.

Check out four brand new clips from tonight’s episode, and be sure to catch the episode “8:00pm-9:00pm” of 24, tonight on Fox.

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The SAG (Screen Actor’s Guild) awards aired on Saturday evening. As far as the actual awards given, it was largely a repeat of last week’s Golden Globes.  However, since Avatar was not nominated in any categories, another film  got to bask in the glow of the evening.

Inglourious Basterds won for best ensemble cast, and Christoph Waltz repeated last week’s Golden Globe win. Other repeat winners included Jeff Bridges, Sandra Bullock, Mo’Nique, Michael C. Hall, Julianna Margulies, Alec Baldwin, Kevin Bacon, and Drew Barrymore.

Despite the lack of  suspense, the show seemed quite a bit more lively and more entertaining than last week’s rather restrained Golden Globes. Here are a few highlights.

Sandra Bullock beat out perennial favorite Meryl Streep, and this was a vote by her peers.  She clearly has won the respect of a lot of naysayers this year. She gave an adorable acceptance speech, and was truly funny when she introduced Betty White for her lifetime achievement award.  This is shaping up to be the year of the Sandra.

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Another week, another Avatar win, more records broken, blah, blah, blah. No seriously, Avatar dropped a measly 16% from last week and added another $36 Million for a domestic cumulative of $552 Million in just six weeks.  It now stands as the number two motion picture of all time having beaten The Dark Knight over the weekend and at this rate will end up beating the number one record holder Titanic very soon.

New release Legion was not screened for critics in most areas, but it still managed to make over $18 Million.  Word of mouth was bad, though. According to Entertainment Weekly, the film only got an exit score of C- from theater goers. Denzel Washington’s Book of Eli held on to the third spot, dropping almost 50% for $17 Million.  Its two week total is $62 Million.

New release Tooth Fairy made $14.5 Million for fourth place. It actually got a rather high cinemascore of A- from audiences polled. The Lovely Bones rounded out the top five, dropping about 50%, and making about $8 Million.  It has now earned  $31.6 Million total.

Outside the top five, the first film from CBS films, Extraordinary Measures, had a pretty bleak debut, making about $7 Million.  The combined star power of Harrison Ford and Brendan Fraser wasn’t enough to get people in the seats. On an up-note, It’s Complicated is about ready to cross $100 Million, as its cumulative total now stands at $98 Million.

Hot Toys, a company that makes life-like renditions of famous movie and pop culture figures, has released images of their newest creation. Brad Pitt’s Lieutenant Aldo Raine, from Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds can (hopefully) soon by yours.

The 1/6th scale recreation covers the smallest detail from the Nazi scalping knife to the unexplained noose scars around his neck. The resemblance to the actual Brad Pitt (of which, this is his first officially licensed figure), is uncanny.

Check out some neat images and the specifications for the figure, courtesy of our pals at SlashFilm, after the jump.

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Premium Hollywood has word about a potential series based on Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming’s Powers comic book series, which will be for the cable network FX. Not only is the pilot being written by Bendis, but Kevin Falls has stepped in to give Bendis a hand.

Falls, who’s show Journeyman was cancelled after only one season, was about a man who mysteriously gained the ability to spontaneously travel through time. The series’ main character was seemingly given the power to solve mysteries. Or as the similar Quantum Leap would phrase it: “putting things right, that once went wrong.”

Requiring intricate plots, it seems a natural match for the neo-noir setting of the superhero world of Powers where police detectives Christian Walker and Deena Pilgrim who solve crimes in a city where superheroes exist.

With The Walking Dead, Human Target, and now Powers coming to the TV screen we may be moving into the comic book-ing of another medium — much like movies have now become flooded with superhero stories. I have to say I’m pretty excited to see where this all goes.

There haven’t been many inspiring kids’ books in the past decade that hold the same timelessness as “Where The Wild Things Are” or “Hop on Pop.” There were a few that were later made into decent films, such as Rober Rodriguez’s Shortz or of course any of the Harry Potter films. With the newest trailer for Diary of a Wimpy Kid finally out, it looks like one more to add to the list.

The film is based on the series of “cartoons” or basically comic strips, about a kid who just can’t seem to get a grasp of his life in middle school. The books were all written and illustrated by Jeff Kinney, who was also named one of Time’s 100 most influential people of the world for his work on the four books.

The film looks to stay true to it’s source material, with Zachary Gordon as the titular character Greg. Gordon has been in quite a few things as of late, from an appearance on Robot Chicken to How I Met Your Mother, even to work on last year’s indie comedy The Brothers Bloom. The film also stars Steve Zahn, Rachel Harris, and Kick-Ass’ Chloe Moretz.

Check out the first trailer for Diary of a Wimpy Kid after the jump, which is set for an April 2nd release date.

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TNT, the network known for its legal/detective dramas (including endless reruns of Law & Order), is now venturing into Sci-Fi with Steven Spielberg and Dreamworks on a series that will star Noah Wyle and Moon Bloodgood. The series, despite not yet having a name, has a pilot directed by Carl Franklin (Devil in A Blue Dress, Out of Time) — who is also working with Spielberg on episodes of the forthcoming WWII television mini-series The Pacific — and a story written by Saving Private Ryan scribe Robert Rodat.

Noah Wyle, who has become quite familiar with TNT through his numerous The Librarian TV Movies, will star as a professor that winds up in the rebellion against the alien invaders. Bloodgood, who really seems to have a taste for the genre with her past roles Terminator: Salvation and the “canceled too-soon” series Journey Man, will play a therapist that works with surviving children of the invasion.

Other names of cast members include Seychelle Gabriel (The Spirit, and M. Night Syamalan’s The Last Airbender), Jessy Schram (Life, Crash: The Series) and Drew Roy (Greek, Lincoln Heights). According to reports, the series opens shortly after aliens have wiped out most of humanity. The aliens are now rounding up the few people left, but they are met with strong resistance from a group of soldiers and civilians who fight for their survival – all while struggling to maintain their humanity.

The series is set to debut sometime in 2011.

The cable movie channel Starz isn’t best known for their original programming. They’ve had mild success with the episodic spinoff of the Oscar winning Crash, starring Dennis Hopper, but outside of that, things have been pretty quiet. That’s all expected to change tonight, as Spartacus: Blood and Sand premieres on the channel, bringing in fans of all creed to enjoy this epic tale of Roman gore. Luckily, that’s exactly what the show is.

Obviously, the main focus of the show is Spartacus (played by Andy Whitfield), while there are plenty of other fan favorites to help us along the way, such as Lucy Lawless, John Hannah of the Mummy movies, and Legend Of The Seeker‘s Craig Parker. These familiar faces help us along the way, making it feel a bit more like a Raimi/Tapert production, which always helps.

Now onto the grit, which is certainly in affluence here. Of course, the show creators wanted this series to stand out above the rest, and with a name like Blood and Sand, they also wanted to deliver on the former. With that comes, in my opinion, way too much CG blood. The slow-motion fight sequences are one thing, but when you’re using buckets of computer animated blood to transition between scenes, a la a gory episode of Home Improvement, you may have gone too far.

Not many know this but Ridley Scott’s Gladiator is actually based on the story of Spatacus, among others. With that in mind, you may find yourself developing a bit of déjá vu. Luckily the overabundance of blood and nudity, and complete lack of Russell Crowe, will snap you back into the moment.

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