Stuff You Need to Know: If Ned Gets Involved in Blackest Night, Consider Me On Board

San Diego Comic-Con happened this weekend. We, like you, are trying to pick up the pieces. We’ll break out the Shop-Vac and let you see the results. You just relax and have an espresso.

So here’s the trailer from Comic-Con for the upcoming Starz mini, Spartacus: Blood and Sand (which we warned you about previously). Which is cool, as long as you understand it appears to be Zack Snyder‘s Gladiator.

Direct link for the feedreaders. Found via TV Squad.

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Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell) has Assault Girls coming out in Japan on December 19th. It’s his first live action flick in eight years and “stars Oscar-nommed Rinko Kikuchi (Babel), Meisa Kuroki and Hinako Saeki as hunters in a desert landscape in a post-apocalyptic world. Their quarry, called ‘sand whales,’ are huge, morphing beasts. Sounds like I’m on board. You? Source.

Billy Elliot is going on a national tour–the musical, that is–starting next March with an extended run in Chicago.

David Cronenberg will co-produce, helm and scribe a film version of Don DeLillo’s novel Cosmopolis. This will make it the follow-up to Cronenberg’s excellent Eastern Promises. Production starts next year. Source.

Due Date, the comedy that Todd Phillips is doing with Zach Galifianakis after their success with The Hangover (and which I saw initially misidentified as the sequel to Hangover–but apparently that’s a separate project) has gotten Robert Downey Jr. on board. Production starts in September. “Downey will play an expectant father who finds himself on a road trip with a mismatched partner, as he races to get there before the birth of his first child.” Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland (both from King of the Hill) scribed and Adam Sztykiel (co-scribe on Made of Honor) revised their work. This is a very smart move for everybody involved, as Downey is seriously funny as hell and his added star power will make the film even more of a must-see for folks. Let’s just hope that script is tight. Not even Downey can save you if your script is a no-show. I won’t mention any titles, because that would be indiscreet. Source.

Bruce Lee is getting a three-part feature film biopic entitled, oddly enough, Bruce Lee. Production starts in October with the cooperation of Lee’s family, but no helmer’s on board yet–although Zhang Yimou (House of Flying Daggers) has stated that he wants to shoot a biopic at some point. Of course, he could probably just go off and do his own if this one doesn’t bring him on board–after all, a fifty-part biography aired at the end of last year (as we mentioned previously–no sign of it airing stateside or hitting DVD anytime soon though). The film is set to hit on November 27, 2010, which would be Bruce Lee’s 70th birthday. Source.

I saw it from Andy Diggle first, who apparently got it from Ryan N.S. Richards who was there, but Marvel has apparently snagged the rights to Marvelman (or Miracleman as he was known here stateside thanks to, go figure, Marvel) and plans to roll out stuff in 2010, probably starting with reprints of all the stuff that hasn’t been reprinted in freaking forever. They did this by going to the source, original creator Mick Anglo. And now what happens? Will The Neil and Mark Buckingham go forth and finish the series? I sure as hell hope so. I’ll just be glad to see the series back in print–it’s amazing stuff. More info here.

Here’s some good news: Miyazaki‘s Ponyo is getting a big release. This is John Lasseter‘s way, no doubt, of making up the half-assed releases his work has gotten in the past. I’m speaking personally of when I went to see Princess Mononoke again at its opening night in Atlanta…when people had traveled from twelve hours away to see it…only to find that Miramax hadn’t ensured the goddamn print had arrived. Inexcusable. Anyway, it’s going to hit August 14th. Excellent. Source.

DC Comics, in a desperate attempt to get me to buy some of their stuff again, is picking up the dead TV show Pushing Daisies–thus spake the show’s head burrito, Bryan Fuller. I will say this–if they somehow tie this in to Blackest Night, then I will buy that “event” series. That makes the third way DC can get me to buy Blackest Night, the other two being the resurrection of either Grant Morrison or Jean Grey as Black Lanterns. Just for the record. Source.

Rock Band expands into the country genre with Country Track Pack. You’re welcome to ponder aloud if the USB washboard or banjo will be forthcoming. That being said, a banjo would pave the way for more Bela Fleck in Rock Band, so maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe one of the ultimate levels in Banjo Hero, you could play as Steve Martin. I’m getting off the subject here. Anyway, if you want to play tracks like Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler” or Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again” or…or…I don’t recognize any of the others. Oh well.