The offbeat, swirly, Gothic-lite, snow-filled reign of Tim Burton will never let up. According to Deadline Hollywood Daily, Universal’s Illumination Entertainment has snagged the rights to Charles Addams’ original The Addams Family cartoons with an eye to letting Burton direct a stop-motion feature out of them. Why yes, the term “3D” is also being tossed around. Yay.

I love The Addams Family. I was unhealthy obsessed with the Barry Sonnenfeld film as a pre-teen, and I used to hang out at the bookstore reading the original cartoon collections. It was the closest I got to becoming a Goth.  While I’ve enjoyed a lot of Burton films over the years, I’m not sure I want to see the Addams sent through The Burton Factory, and made out to be a family with a penchant for swirls and black and white stripes.

DHD notes that Burton will ignore the previous films and television show, and return straight to the source.  Apparently, he’s quite drawn to the sharp wit of the original comics. And they are funny. Much funnier than Burton’s Addams imitation, The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy which is just kind of gross and painful to read.

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I’m still anxiously awaiting the day I get to see Kick-Ass, and be as cool as our SXSW team that caught its Austin premiere. (Be sure to check out Shannon Hood’s review.)   But at least I could content myself with Mark Millar’s Kick-Ass: Creating the Comic, Making the Movie which the gang at Titan Books was kind enough to let me review.

Anyone who viewed the trailer knows that Kick-Ass is going to be a unique movie. One look at Chloe Moretz’s Hit Girl can tell you that much. But I hadn’t realized just how unusual its page-to-screen transition was. Millar was still in the process of sketching the book out when he approached Matthew Vaughn (licking his wounds after leaving Thor) about directing.

The movie took shape as the comic did, with Millar running back and forth between the production offices and his own keyboard, incorporating ideas from Vaughn and screenwriter Jane Goldman as he went. Characters who were meant to be minor players such as Red Mist took on a life of their own after they were cast, and ended up becoming major players in Kick-Ass’ story arc. If there’s a sequel to Kick-Ass, it may be entirely due to Christopher Mintz-Plasse single-handedly rewriting his character.

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With less than a week to go until the highly anticipated release of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls (prequel to publishing phenom Pride and Prejudice and Zombies), Quirk Books has released a blood-soaked trailer for fans to get a glimpse of how the Bennet sisters became formidable zombie killers.

The terrifying and hilarious prequel is a coming-of-age story details the origins of the zombie plague in early-nineteenth-century England and how the five Bennet sisters go from clumsy country lasses to savage slayers of the undead. Fans of the beloved Elizabeth Bennet will witness her clumsy first attempts at training with nunchucks and katana swords to mastering the placement of a ninja star in a zombie’s neck (tasty!).

Written by Steve Hockensmith, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls will be available at a bookstore near you on March 23.

Catch the gory (well, 19th-Century gory) two-minute trailer after the jump

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Variety is reporting that HBO’s popular undead gothic series True Blood will return for a twelve episode third season on June 13. The return of the series shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, as the series drew more than 12 million viewers per episode last season. The season two finale alone drew a record 5.1 million viewers, making it the cabler’s most watched contemporary show.

Fans should be prepared to expect some new faces around Bon Temps, as  Alfre Woodard and Kevin Alejandro (Southland) have both signed on for the season. Michelle Forbes, who played Maryann Forrester, Bon Temp’s seductive and deadly maenad, will not be returning for another season (which isn’t too surprising if you paid attention during season two’s finale).

Based on the hit series of novels from Charlaine Harris,  True Blood stars Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer and Sam Trammell.

Marvel fans who have been dreaming about future sequels to Iron Man, X-Men, The Incredible Hulk and Spider-Man might be entering into a creative nightmare. According to The Hollywood Reporter the children of comic book icon Jack Kirby have officially sued Marvel to terminate copyrights and gain profits from such lucrative comic creations as Iron Man, X-Men, The Incredible Hulk and Spider-Man.

The suit, officially filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, is a follow-up move from the 45 notices of termination the estate sent out to Marvel, and owner the Walt Disney Co., as well as Sony, Universal, Fox in September of 2009. Marvel responded in January, filing its own lawsuit, claiming the creations were “work-made-for-hire” and that Marvel was the real “author” of such works under the 1909 Copyright Act.

Kirby’s heirs are seeking declaratory relief, including copyright termination and profits, focusing on Kirby’s chief creative period, from 1958 to 1963, when Marvel existed in a tiny office with few employees and relied upon “freelancers to which they had little or no obligation.” As such, they are disputing Marvel’s claim that all creations were “work for hire.”

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Originally titled Guardians of the Ga’Hoole, Zack Snyder’s next directorial work, Legend of The Guardians has been picking up quite a lot of steam lately. This is the first thing that Snyder has worked on since he’s finally settled down after the epic task of adapting Alan Moore’s Watchmen last year.

Originally based on the young adult series by Kathryn Lasky, it’s basically an epic adventure of heroism and wonder, but with owls. The book series ended in November of 2008, topping it off at 15 books, and now Snyder and Warner Bros. are planning on taking that success to the world of film.

The film has a pretty huge cast list, as most big-budget CGI films do these days. Sam Neill, Hugo Weaving, Emilie de Ravin, Ryan Kwanten, Jim Sturgess, Geoffrey Rush, and Helen Mirren round out a pretty well known list of players.

USA Today recently got their hands on the first images from the upcoming film, which is currently set for a September 24th release date. Check out the pics along with the very first trailer after the jump, and be sure to keep it here for any new info as we get closer to the release date of Legend of The Guardians.

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In an era where things like Monopoly, Battleship, and Stretch Armstrong are all getting turned into big-time movie properties, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that Warner Bros. is planning a movie adaptation of the 60’s sitcom Gilligan’s Island.

The show, which surrounded the crash of the S.S. Minnow, leaving 7 strangers deserted on an island, went on for 98 episodes, including some big specials with guest stars like The Harlem Globetrotters. According to Variety, the film is set to be a major reboot, with some of the original creative team helping out.

Charles Roven and Richard Suckle are onboard to produce for Atlas, with Brad Copeland penning the screenplay. Original show producer Sherwood Schwartz is aboard to exec produce along with son Lloyd Schwartz.

Plans are for a contempo take on the well-known premise and characters, with the studio and the Schwartzes’ blessing Copeland’s initial idea for the screenplay. Roven told Daily Variety that he’s hoping to start production as early as next year but won’t move forward on seeking a director or cast until Copeland’s script is completed.

“The characters are so good,” Roven added. “We think it’s going to be a great story to transport these cultural icons to the modern day.”

The film is currently in the stages of being written, with Wild Hogs writer Copeland typing away. No word yet on who they are looking to for casting, but you can imagine that they’d want to amp up a film like this with some of the bigger names in Hollywood.

Might we suggest Dan Aykroyd and Jay Baruchel as The Skipper and Gilligan? Who would you cast as the 7 castaways? Let us know!

While Tim Burton is getting ready to unleash his interpretation of Alice in Wonderland onto the world this Friday, he’s already planning on sinking his producing teeth into another piece of historical fiction. Seth Grahame-Smith, the author behind the cult classic Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, got his newest historical/horror hybrid released yesterday, in the form of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

The premise is about as black and white as it sounds. In the time during Lincoln’s presidential term, he is forced to wage war against blood-sucking demons before they’re able to bring down the free world. According to Heat Vision, some gentlemen known in the genre have already taken interest.

Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov, the producers behind last fall’s 9, will be producing the novel for a big screen adaptation. This fits right into the directors’ current resume, as Bekmambetov got his US popularity from his work on the Russain Night Watch films, and Burton is no stranger to the world of gothic vampire-like scenarios.

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With Universal’s The Wolfman bringing in over $30 Million in its first weekend, it’s only expected that other studios will be giving the green light to some interesting scripts involving some of Hollywood’s other classic monsters. The first news of that is that Dean Koontz’s best-selling Frankenstein book series, a 21st century spin on the classic tale, is getting an adaptation to the big screen.

According to Variety, the film may just put the good doctor and his creation into the passenger seat for a bigger murder plot.

Project places the doctor — a socially prominent and successful businessman — and his super-human original creation Deucalion in modern-day New Orleans. Winter and Botwick are aiming to launch a franchise. “These books have enough twists and turns to keep the public coming back to the theaters for many years to come,” the duo said.

The story centers on a pair of street-smart detectives who encounter Deucalion while investigating a murder, leading them to a bizarre array of “engineered” humans.

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With the internet community and a few studio execs hinting that this current season of 24 may be the last, big news is now coming out of Twentieth Century Fox’s camp, as they have just announced a film adaptation of the series.

The studio was allegedly blown away by a pitch from screenwriter Billy Ray (State of Play, Flightplan), in which Jack Bauer goes to Europe, and they have already hired him to finish the script for production. From Variety:

Script is said to have come through “24″ star Kiefer Sutherland, who’s also an exec producer on the series — and is said to be eager to turn the long-running TV skein into a feature franchise.

Feature would be produced by the TV show’s key exec producers, including Sutherland. Series was created by Robert Cochran and Joel Surnow, while exec producer Howard Gordon runs the show through his Real Time Prods. banner.

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