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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By now, you’ve read a dozen articles proclaiming the past year or so to be the Age of the Vampires. You have probably complained loudly about how many darn vampire movies and television shows there are. I know I have.

I make a few exceptions (you’ll pry my True Blood DVDs out of my cold, undead fingers) but for the most part, I could let most of the movies and television shows pass on by.  But we’re all going to have to make another exception for Sigourney Weaver.

According to THR’s Heat Vision, Weaver has joined the cast of Amy Heckerling’s vampire horror comedy Vamps.   The film centers on two young vampires played by Alicia Silverstone and Krysten Ritter who find their permanent youth, sexiness, and penchant for darkness a boon in the New York club scene.   But when they find true love, they face a difficult choice that threatens their immortality.

Weaver will play Ciccerus, a vicious vampire who turned both girls into bloodsuckers.   She’s also a queen vampire. Move over Evan Rachel Wood!  Weaver will have the power of Zuul at her back. Frankly, that’s why I’m excited to see her embrace her (campy) dark side. No one can play vicious like Weaver, and few have her dry comedic chops.

Even if the idea of a vampire romantic comedy immediately makes your fangs pop out, you have to admit this addition makes Vamps a lot more appealing.

Vamps is eying an April start.   Let’s hope all the blood isn’t drained of the trend before we get to see a goddess like Weaver have some fun with it.

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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As I was watching the new Eclipse trailer, out of sheer boredom and a hint of curiosity, I found myself wondering why in the world two super-powered boys would fight it out over a girl clad in American Apparel who’s a hell of a downer.

How is there an entire film series devoted to one girl’s delusional obsessions of a fairy tale ending with a born-again killer? Sparkely vampires want to kill you, strapping werewolf shape-shifters want to keep you safe.

Do these Edward fans have a death wish and a yearning for abandonment? Is Bella Swan so heavily marketed as mesmerizing that it erases the history of the brazen blonde that came before her?

A long time ago, otherwise known as the 90’s, there was a series called Buffy the Vampire Slayer where a feisty girl from the southland slayed Urban Outfitted demons. This legendary show paved the way for multi-tasking girls who cheer by day, slay by night, and every once in a while hook-up with a tormented blood sucker.

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Every once and awhile, a groundbreaking idea creeps into the world of film and has experts and connoisseurs puzzled at exactly how it will play out to a mass audience. Whether it’s something like 3D that hits it big, or something that flops like “4D”, there is always room for new ideas and potential leaps in technology when it comes to the theatrical experience.

13th Street, a production company out of Germany, has recently tested out their newest project, which combines the classic horror film with the interactivity of a modern game show. Each viewer uses their cell phone to call in to the service and at the beginning of the film, one of them is chosen at random to “speak directly” with the film’s protagonist. From there, that person gives voice commands that dictate which direction the character will go, and what they will say.

Obviously, there are some pretty big potential flaws with this idea, such as “who wants to watch a movie when it’s encouraged for some jerk to scream at the screen?” or “why would I spend money for somebody else to interact with the film?” These are all valid points, which means that we could still be years away from seeing this project take off internationally.

The sheer idea that something like this is on the way only means that we’re getting that much closer to a Back to the Future 2-like lifestyle, which is exciting in it’s own right. Check out the trailer for Last Call and see exactly how it all works after the jump.

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Much Like District 9, Cloverfield and Paranormal Activity before it, Monsters exists in a world where filmmakers with a singular vision just decide one day to go out and make the film they’ve always wanted to make. Packing his cast and a small crew into a van, writer/director Gareth Edwards traveled for several months throughout Central America in an attempt to realize that vision. Monsters is the result.

Part alien invasion, part road movie and part love story, Monsters balances all three well and manages to entertain and generate quite a few thrills and suspenseful moments. It also has other moments of genuine humor, emotion and character which are often lacking in other more mainstream films and doesn’t rely on heavy-handed spectacle to get its points across.

It’s also the strength of the developing relationship between the two leads, Kaulder (Scoot McNairy) and Sam (Whitney Able), which gives Monsters its emotion center. Perhaps it’s because the two leads developed a real romantic relationship over the course of making the film that their onscreen relationship works so well. You believe it because it’s actually happening.

As they go through the ordeal of the film, you trust they are experiencing what is happening to them and as they do, this brings them closer together. At first, of course, they are far apart but as the film progresses and the danger increases, they draw closer and must fight together to survive. Adversity, as it often does, brings people closer together, and these two are no exception.

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Tucker & Dale Vs Evil is a film I went into with low expectations and, for the most part, I was not disappointed. Showing at midnight on the first day of SXSW, it was a perfect way to start off the late night screenings. However, the film works best and can be most enjoyed if you don’t take it too seriously or expect too much from it.

While the two leads, Tucker (played by Firefly and Dollhouse’s Alan Tudyk) and Dale (Tyler Labine, recently of Reaper and the upcoming Sons of Tucson), are immensely likable and have good chemistry and banter, the film falls short and doesn’t live up to their potential. This is unfortunate on many levels because given more effort and time, it probably would have turned out a lot better and been a more fitting vehicle for these two actors.

The premise of Tucker & Dale is very simple and in most cases when it comes to filmmaking, simple is a good thing. Sadly, a simple premise alone does not a complete movie make and as the movie progresses, the slender thread of that premise starts to unravel. This is where this film chiefly falls in that while it does have a simple premise, it doesn’t expand much beyond it and instead offers a string of somewhat uninspired and progressively repetitive “accidents” that go along, leading the film to its inevitable conclusion.

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It’s a grab bag of items on the radar this week. Wolverine and Sabretooth have dinner together, Bruno himself could be the next Man in Black, and in honor of The Flickcast crew attending SXSW some Predators love (of which they may get a taste).

Predators get dark and scary…finally!

Robert Rodriquez’s Predator reboot, Predators, is starting to get some buzz.  While the first film of the series was a great sci-fi/action hybrid subsequent films have been less than stellar.  Predators star, Alice Braga talked a little about the new film and what we can expect:

“The new Predators are dark. They are really, really scary. So I think the fans are really going to be happy with it. I hope so. The director Nimród Antal, he’s a fan of the Predator films. So it’s like a fan directing this, [it was] like a kid on set, and having that energy was very special. I wish I could tell you more.”

Here’s hoping “dark” and “scary” means an R-rated film and not a watered down PG-13 movie.

Conan will square off against Avatar villain

As an update to our last ‘On The Radar’ article, it has now been confirmed that actor Stephen Lang will indeed play Conan’s villain, Khalar Singh.  Speaking with MTV, Lang stated:

“I have no idea how I’m going to do it,” Lang laughed. “First I’m going to find out how I’m going to sound. I’m going to get back on a Mongolian pony and ride like the wind. I’m going to flash my scimitar. I’m going to cut the nuts off Conan and his father.”

That last threat may seem really out there, but after seeing Lang’s bad ass side in Avatar I have no doubt he can make good on it.

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Liam Neeson has been pretty busy lately. Between “summoning the Kraken” as Zeus in Clash of the Titans, getting back his daughter in Taken, putting together plans in The A-Team, and hanging with Amanda Seyfried in Chloe, he’s having quite the life. However, it seems he’s still got some more juice in him as he’s playing the (potential?) bad guy in the upcoming film After.Life.

From unknown writer/director Agnieszka Wojtowics-Vosloo (who’s name will allow you to win every game of Scrabble. Ever) and Paul Vosloo, the premise is simple. Christina Ricci dies, and is caught between life and death. Only Liam Neeson, a funeral director who can see dead people, can carry her over. Only, she doesn’t exactly want to go.

Confused? The trailer doesn’t help you that much, unfortunately. The premise is enticing, yet could potentially be very contrived. All we’ll say is check out the new trailer after the jump, and expect an M. Night Shyamalan-like twist at the end of the film, which hits theaters on April 9th.

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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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