The computer animated, movie version of the popular, classic cartoon series Astro Boy has it's lead. Imagi Studios told us tonight that they've hired Freddie Highmore to provide Astro Boy's voice.

I know there are a lot of people out there with an attachment to this character, but to be honest I'm only reporting on it because it's a robot, and let's face it I'm obviously a sucker for anything automaton related. Just look at the site. However I somehow missed out on this particular phenomenon. Apparently it's an anime riff on the old Pinocchio theme.
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This morning frequently wrong rumor site ran a story claiming that George Takei would show up in JJ Abrams' Star Trek prequel. Of course this flies in the face of everything anyone associated with the production has had to say on the matter. The people actually making Star Trek have been pretty clear on this: None of the original cast will be in the film except Leonard Nimoy.

Still, AICN insists it's true. Except of course their story is based on nothing but vapor. All they have is an interview with George Takei where he basically says "no comment". That's hardly a confirmation that he's in it. AICN has invented a story out of nothing.
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Believe it or not, they're still making sequels to Starship Troopers. Like the last one, this new one is a direct to DVD feature being put out by Sony. It's called Starship Troopers 3: Marauder, and unless it has a co-ed shower scene I'm having a hard time finding a reason to be interested. At least Casper Van Dien is back, though it's not like he has anything better to do.
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This is a rumor that has me really excited. Apparently a sequel to the classic 1984 movie The Last Starfighter is under way. In fact, it's supposed to start shooting this month and the original film's star, Lance Guest, will be back.

The news comes from Cinema Blend, where they say the movie will be about the original Last Starfighter's son. I guess that makes sense.

Sadly, they movie will have go on without the best character in the original, Centauri. The great Robert Preston, who played Centauri, died in 1987 of lung cancer. Hopefully they'll have the good sense not to try and replace him. They'd be better off writing the character out altogether. There's no replacing Preston.

NBC/Universal has just sent us a huge gallery of really great promotional images for the upcoming season of the best show on television, a little science fiction series called Battlestar Galactica. The images aren't actual shots from the movie, but posed photos of the cast. Still, it's interesting what these pics can tell you about the new season.

For instance, if you browse through the images below, you'll notice that Apollo is never shown in uniform. This fits with the rumors we've heard that he'll be abandoning his role in the military to become a lawyer full time.
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Well it's really happening. McG is being allowed to direct a Terminator movie. Duck and cover!

Variety reports that his awkwardly named film Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins will start shooting this spring and has a May 22, 2009 release date. Christian Bale is set to star as John Connor and don't expect Arnold to take time out from politics to return as the Terminator. Be ready for a replacement robot.

Personally, I had zero interest the minute McG was attached to this project. I'm quite satisfied getting my killer robot fix on television, with the very excellent Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Who needs McG?

It's a big weekend for X-Files sequel news, only this time it's real. A teaser trailer for X-Files 2 was shown at Wonder Con this weekend, and of course it's already been leaked out online.

Check it out via the embed below, while it lasts. I suspect Fox will cease and desist this sucker first thing Monday morning:
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Tonight the guys at our sister site Cinema Blend were sent an amazing, incredible image from the upcoming second X-Files movie. It was from an anonymous source, and they had no way to verify its authenticity. But now, after a little digging and a lot of blind, stupid luck, we're here to tell you it's a fraud.

The picture is of David Duchovny, as Fox Mulder... turning into a Werewolf. There've been rumors for awhile now that the sequel's plot might involved werewolves, but we believe it's all a red herring being put out there by the movie's director Chris Carter and his production team, to throw people off track. After a little digging, we discovered that the image they sent CB was actually a really well photoshopped version of a promotional image for Duchovny's Showtime series Californication.
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This year's batch of Saturn Award nominees have been announced, and they're a little disappointing. In name they're the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror, but Science Fiction is very poorly represented this year. All of their most nominated films fit instead more comfortably into the Fantasy and Horror genres, which is perhaps a sad commentary on the waning popularity of genuine science fiction in modern pop culture. Nobody wants to think about the future, they want lame ass Harry Potter.

Still, a few movies like I Am Legend, Transformers, and Cloverfield did get their proper due, and in Television Lost scored big. Check out all their nominations below:

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Knight Rider returned to NBC tonight in a 2-hour made for TV movie which may or may not end up being a series. But then if you’re any kind of science fiction geek, or if you grew up in the 80s, you probably already knew that. Actually if you grew up in the 80s, then you’ve probably spent the last two weeks gently caressing your vintage, metal Knight Rider lunchbox in anticipation. I know I have been.

Unfortunately, the whole thing got off on the wrong foot right out of the gate. Within the first five minutes Knight Rider gave us threesomes, lesbian cops having one night stands, and brutal death. Not exactly family television. NBC does know this is a show about a talking car… right?

To me that was the real problem with this new Knight Rider. It never quite knew what to be. It tries to walk a strange middle road between being the fun, cheesy, show we remember from the 80s, and being some sort of strange ripoff of the show Las Vegas. Luckily, it got better as it went on and when KITT finally gets his driver and heads out into the boonies the original show used to spend so much time in, things start to have that old familiar Knight Rider hum… assuming you can ignore all of the script’s ridiculous plot holes.
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