So what’s it like for your favorite geeks to geek out over something? It’s an interesting question, mostly because you never think of writers, directors, or comic book guys as being geeks (or at least I don’t, I have this image of them as all being super cool like Vincent Vega).

Regardless Wizard Magazine sat down with Damon Lindeloff (Lost), David Goyer (writer of Batman Begins, Blade Trilogy), Brian K. Vaughn (Y: The Last Man) and Ed Brubaker (comic god in general) to talk about nothing but Alan Moore’s seminal piece of literature Watchmen.

This interview is pretty awesome and provides a nice primer for either folks who haven’t read the book yet or for folks trolling for more information before Zak Snyder’s film adaptation comes out. It’s an excellent companion piece to all the casting rumors being bandied about lately.

Yes, we have entered the stages of digging up any and all information about Watchmen that we can.

They should have just cancelled The Price is Right when Bob Barker decided to retire to the stud farm, alas producers have tapped Drew Carey to replace him.

CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler says Carey “is incredibly smart, he’s fast on his feet, his facility with improv is extraordinary, but also he’s a man of the people. Much of what The Price Is Right is about is establishing a rapport with contestants. When they come up there, they really (will) feel he’s rooting for them. Plus, he’s funny.”

Tassler credits CBS chief Leslie Moonves with the idea of hiring Carey. As president of Warner Bros. Television, Moonves worked with Carey on TheDrew Carey Show.

CBS says Carey’s Price Is Right shows will begin airing this fall, but it’s unclear when.

Carey, has some hosting experience, and not at the local Applebees. He presided over Who’s Line is it Anyway? for ABC back in the day. His sitcom was pretty good, so maybe there is hope.

Have we missed Wes Anderson? Well, not as much as one would think. His last movie The Life Aquatic seemed to fall flat on its face for us. There was something missing from it, something that made us feel like we were watching another filmmaker trying to imitate the affectations of a Wes Anderson picture.

So, it’s safe to say we’ll definitely be checking out his latest flick, The Darjeeling Limited when it hits theaters on Sep. 29. Mostly, because Anderson’s first three movies (Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, Royal Tenenbaums) have aged so well over the years with their whimsy and off-beat humor.

This one concerns three brothers: Owen Wilson, Adrian Brody and Jason Schwartzman as they reconnect on a train trip through India.

Check out the trailer over at Apple.

Director Robert Zemeckis, of Forrest Gump, Back to the Future and Castaway fame, has got a jonesing for motion capture animation. He’s already knocked off The Polar Express and next up he’ll hit theaters with his take on the Beowulf saga. One would think that he’d eventually get tired of this technology and return to regular old filmmaking, however, his next project is going to be for Disney and a holiday 2009 release.

We’re talking about his take on the Charles Dickins classic, A Christmas Carol. He’s already lined up Jim Carrey to play Scrooge, but it’s also been announced that Carrey will portray the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future. This will be the first production for Zemeckis’s ImageMovers Digital Studio. Which Disney is, no doubt, hoping can become their next Pixar Studios.

According to Jim Hill Media, Zemeckis has also lined up Bob Hoskins to portray Mr. Fizziwig and he’s trying to coax Tom Hanks, Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd into the roles of Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim and Marley’s Ghost, respectively.

Getting back to “A Christmas Carol” now … It’s important to keep in mind that Hanks, Lloyd & Fox (as well as Mr. Hoskins) are allegedly just on Zemeckis’ casting “Wish List.” So while he’s already supposedly spoken informally with all of these performers about possibly appearing in this project, it’s still up to Disney & the actors’ agents to work out all of the necessary details before Tom, Christopher, Michael J. & Bob can all officially come on board this film.

Meantime, the suits back in Burbank would obviously love it if they could have all of this star power behind ImageMoversDigital’s premiere production. But that said, some Mouse House managers are reportedly already grumbling about this proposed casting stunt. Suggesting that it will unnecessarily drive up the production cost of this already sure-to-be-expensive project. More to the point, particularly when it comes to Mr. Fox … Well, there are those at the studio who — due to his long courageous struggle with Parkinson’s Disease — are wondering aloud if Michael J. will really be up for the rigors of production.

Mind you, Mr. Fox isn’t the only “Christmas Carol” cast member that Disney execs are reportedly worried about. Given Mr. Carrey’s somewhat difficult reputation (As well as his bailing out on voicing the role of R.J. in DreamWorks Animation’s “Over the Hedge” back in 2004. Supposedly because Jim really didn’t enjoy the piecemeal approach that actors have to take when recording dialogue for an animated film), Mouse House officials are just hoping that they can keep Carrey on board this project long enough to get all the vocals & performance capture work that they need to finish the picture.

If Robert Zemeckis can line that cast up, and there’s no reason, other than financially, why he wouldn’t be able to, then it looks as if this could be the defining holiday movie for 2009. Take a gander at an image from the movie.

Copyright ImageMoversDigital / Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

Ah yes.  Makes you wonder why the inmates at the CPDRC jail in the Phillipines don’t put all their effort into breaking out of prison.  Regardless, this makes for a funny clip.  I’m sure Michael Jackson would be proud, but we just can’t help but feeling like WTF?

Impressive choreography, no?  Much better use of their yard time than trying to shank some rival gang member.  And yes, if you’re wondering I watch way too much “prison” shows on The History Channel and MSNBC, if for nothing else than to remind me to walk the straight and narrow.

This is not the first choreographed dance the inmates have done.  Take the jump for some of their other brilliant work. MORE »

Not sure how many other people had their weekend consumed by Harry Potter.  I did a lot of reading, but I’m only about 300 pages into The Deathly Hallows.  Also, got a chance to see a few movies I’ve been wanting to see.

Seraphim Falls is  a decent western starring two Irish blokes, Pierce Brosnan and Liam Neeson.  It’s basically a revenge flick, with Neeson stalking Brosnan through the mountains and desserts of Utah and Nevada.  It’s got an unsurprising twist ending, where your sympathies shift from one character to another and a strange magical realism ending, but otherwise it’s worth watching on TBS or basic cable.

13 Tzameti is a tense, tense movie.  I think I was sweating as much as the characters in the movie.  It’s claustrophobic and tragic.  It’s also in French with subtitles.  Basically, it’s about a poor construction worker who gets caught up in a plot when he’s trying to find some money for his family.  He intercepts a letter from a dying man thinking it will lead him to riches, but instead it leads him to an underground gambling ring.  He unwittingly becomes a contestant in a Russian roulette game.  Each contestant is given a gun and each round the stakes are raised.  The entire movie is essentially the stress from the deadly game.  Awesome, just an absolutely fantastic suspense film.

Little Children is about cheating housewives.  Stars Patrick Wilson and Kate Winslet as adulturous parents, but I only made it through about 3o minutes.  Can’t tell if I was tired and it was 2 a.m. or if the strange voice-over narrration and Todd Field’s plodding direction made me not want to watch it.  I’ll revisit it again.

Mad Men has become, after only one episode, my must watch television show of the summer.  It’s on Thursday at 10 p.m. on AMC.  It’s about lecherous Madison Ave. ad men in the 1950’s.  Truly like stepping into another time period and it’s all well done, especially with the guys smoking butts and drinking booze on the job and sexually harrassing the female employees.  Great stuff all around and just watching it for the cinematography would be worth it, but it seems like it could be a great story as well.

Some headlines to catch:

- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sold about 8.3 million copies over the weekend, which means that author J.K. Rowling is now richer than Richie Rich.

- I Know Pronounce You Chuck and Larry was the number one movie over the weekend.  And that means people would rather watch Adam Sandler act gay than John Travolta in a dress.

- AOL is streaming a few discs worth listening to this week.  Among them, The Simpsons Movie Soundtrack, Prince and Teagan & Sara’s latest.

- The Boggs dropped into Daytrotter last Thursday and it’s worth picking up the four songs they recorded for the session.

- In case you needed another reason to see The Simpsons Movie this weekend, WB is going to attach The Dark Knight teaser trailer beforehand.

- You know them, you love them, now know the stories behind the greatest alcoholic icons of all time.

- Welcome to the 21st century.  Tonight CNN and YouTube have a Democratic debate, where the everyday joe can pose questions to the candidates.  Should be as interesting as when JFK and Tricky Dick squared off so long ago.   Tune in tonight at 7 p.m.

- Lance Armstrong is pushing cancer into the presidential politics, by hosting a forum in Iowa.

- Corey Haim and Corey Feldman have given us what we all want with a show about the two of them.  Seven-and-a-half minutes worth of clips and stuff have popped up on A&E.  The Two Coreys debuts on July 29.   Yes, we couldn’t resist and the show starts out as Haim is down on his luck and moves into the  “Feldmansion.”  We always knew we liked Feldman a whole lot more than Haim.

- We’re losing the fight against HIV/AIDS.  We better get our shit together, cause the scare in 1992 is something no one wants to live through again.  Remember when Pedro died?  I think I speak for everyone when I say that his death just left us crestfallen.  Let’s try to save more Pedros, huh.

- Entertainment Weekly has a preview of this weekend’s Comic Con Convention in San Diego (which is German for… sorry but it just rolls off the tongue every time someone mentions San Diego).  What got us geeked out is the photo of Robert Downey Jr. with some Iron Man weapon.

- AICN has a few early reviews of Sean Penn’s latest flick Into the Wild.  

- The long gesticulating Wolverine movie has finally landed a director.  His name is Gavin Hood.  You might have seen his awesome movie from South Africa called Tsotsi?  It’s an interesting choice and one I can certainly get behind.

- Seth Rogan has become an unlikely leading man.  As a big fan of both Freaks & Geeks and Undeclared, it never really seemed like Rogan would become that guy.  He always seemed really funny and always delivered the goods with his sardonic delivery, but then again he never really made you think he was going to be a big star.  Well now he is and now he’s adapting The Green Hornet property.  And word is he wants Stephen Chow to play sidekick Kato.  Which is cool, especially if anyone has seen Kung Fu Hustle.  

- Sadly, those Yardbird reunion rumors are just that.

By now, many of you have been squared away, entranced in the latest Harry Potter book. But we thought we’d take a moment just to let you know of the craziness that went down in Harvard Square last Friday night. It was a zoo, absolute mayhem, with Potter fans jammed into the Cambridge area, standing shoulder to shoulder just to wait six hours in line at one of the myriad bookstores.

Sounds like it was the jam. Just want to thank Varmazis for the photos. They give a great indication just what it was like to be there.

Waiting in line around midnight for the book. And this is the big intersection at Harvard Square below. You’d think the smaht kids were protesting or something, but alas, it was just Harry Potter fans with nothing to do but stand outside.

And now you can go back to reading “The Deathly Hallows” as it’s about 1,000 times more interesting than this bit of news.

Oh those crazy Vermont ice cream makers. This weekend the company, known for it’s outlandish creations based around cult celebritites like Phish and The Grateful Dead, have paid tribute to Homer Simpson. Unfortunately, the ice cream flavor of beer and donuts, creatively named “Duff & D’Oh-Nuts ice cream” was only available for a one off performance at the Springfield, VT. world premiere of The Simpsons Movie.

We say that’s just tragic. You can’t create a ice cream that’s based off of beer and chocolate donuts and not offering to the world in small batches. Shame on you Ben and Jerry, shame on you!

The flavor, called Duff & D’oh-Nuts, is described by the company as a combination of chocolate and cream stout ice creams with glazed chocolate doughnuts.

Sean Greenwood, a Ben & Jerry’s spokesman, said he had just tried a sample on Wednesday afternoon — and, aye carumba, he enjoyed it.

“We definitely have some folks here who have some experience in combining flavor,” he said. “It’s got kind of a grainy chocolate taste, a little wheaty. Then you get this blast of doughnut that comes through with every bite. The doughnut is sweeter than the ice cream.”

Well, so much for that. Woulda been nice to at least try the new flavor.

And all we really have to say is that we can’t wait to dip our balls into this box set.

The State

No word yet on when it will be made available, but this is great news for sketch comedy lovers everywhere.

It’s been a busy few days and as my impending move to Portland, OR is taking shape (leave date is August 16 folks) I realize now just how much crap there is to do.  It’s all little things here of there, distracting all of them, not including the big things like packing, finding an apartment and a job, et cetera et cetera.

I’m going to try to line up some guest bloggers for the two weeks I’ll be driving out to Oregon.  But you can expect site reports from Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse, Yellowstone, The Tetons, Jackson Hole, Bozeman, Montana.  Gonna be great.

So we feel neglected, but here are a few things we’ve been occupied with the past few days.

- Scary Neocons on a boat talking ignorantly about liberals.

- With that in mind, apparantly the leader of Al-Queda in Iraq was a fictional character.  And you wonder why so many people think this war can’t be won.  Someone should tell the White House this is a war of information.

- Stereogum has a tribute to Radiohead’s Ok Computer with a ton of up-and-coming indie bands.  Mostly it just makes us appreciate Radiohead and gets us thinking that down the line blogs might transition into record companies or film studios.

- First look at Mr. Cruise in the upcoming Bryan Singer men on a mission flick Valkyrie.  Cruise, you’ll remember is starring as a German Colonel who gets caught up in a plot to assassinate Hitler.  The remeblance between Tom and the actual  Herr von Stauffenberg is uncanny.

- The 2007 Mercury Prize nominees were announced.  This award goes to a British musical act for album of the year.  Last year the Arctic Monkeys won for their debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not.   As always you’ve got a mix of the known and unknown.  Early favorites have got to be Amy Winehouse, The Klaxons and possibly the New Young Pony Club.  Though don’t count out past winner like the Arctic Monkeys or 2003 winner Dizzee Rascal.

- No Lost, no The Wire, no Battlestar Galactica, no Veronica Mars.  You can bet your bottom dollar Annie, that if your favorite show is gettin’ no love than it has to be Emmy time.  The finalists for the most pointless awards show has been announced and the contenders for best drama inlcude: Boston Legal, Grey’s Anatomy, Heroes, The Sopranos, and House.  Me thinks only two of those shows are actually worthy of being nominated.  But I’m sure I don’t have to tell you which two.  As for the unfunny comedy series nominated are: The Office, Ugly Betty, Entourage, 30 Rock, Two and a Half Men.  I will never take an awards show serious which nominated a CBS sitcom for best comedy series on television.  It’s that simple.

- Our  daily dose of The Dark Knight, some early video has popped up, thanks to Dark Horizons.  Also a spoiler free review of the screenplay is up on Batman on Film.

- And yes, we’ll be watching AMC’s Mad Men tonight and we’ll let you know how it is tomorrow.  Friday should pose to be a very busy day as we’ve got the Harry Potter event at Harvard Square tomorrow night and several interviews to get up for you.  Until then kids, keep the faith.

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There was a sharp pain when it was announced that director Todd Haynes would be crafting a Bob Dylan bio-pic, featuring six different actors as the vocally challenged musician. Each of the six different actors would represent a different time period of the superstar; furthermore each segment would be filmed in a visual style appropriate to the character.

The movie was approved by Bobby D. himself, but we still couldn’t help but feeling like this was the work of A) a rank amatuer B) Someone still at NYU film school or C) a lunatic. Never did option D) “Hey this is a cool idea! Why hasn’t this been done before?” enter into the equation.

And now that the first footage has leaked online of Cate Blanchett as Bob Dylan meeting up with the Beat poet Allen Ginsburg (David Cross) for the first time, it’s safe to say this thing is going to be an utter trainwreck. It’s almost fitting in a way, since so much of Dylan’s career was like one glorious trainwreck.

So just to be sure:

Dylan = Greatness. This movie = not so much.

Oddly, Blanchett plays the part well, but when Cross rolls up in his golf cart, the scene takes on a Mr. Show type of feel. But then maybe that’s what Todd Haynes is going for. The other actors involved in depicting Mr. Dylan are Christian Bale, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, and Ben Whishaw.

I’m Not There sings its way into theaters on 9.21.07

Take the jump for some actual Dylan highlights and just for kicks we’ll toss you some Mr. Show as well. MORE »

As always the handful of stories worth talking about at the coffee maker or the water cooler, if people still did that in the wake of The Sopranos last episode.  Which also may still be worth talking about.

- The Philadelphia Phillies know a thing or two about mediocrity.  They’re the first Major League Baseball franchise to get to 10,000 losses.  That’ll happen when you have no pitching, no hitting and no fielding.  The best part about the loss?  The Philly faithful gave their nine a standing ovation after the loss.   Gotta love a city that can cheer for the visiting team to win.

- When you get to your cubicle today, you’ll probably notice that your Internet Radio Station hasn’t shut down over the weekend.  After a fair amount of outcry, SoundExchange (the people responsible for music royalties) have postponed enacting theirs ludicrous fees.  Still, enjoy them while you can.

- A powerful 6.8 earthquake rocked Japan yesterday, leaving five people dead and another 650 injured.  The epicenter was 160 miles northwest of Tokyo, and more than 300 buildings were completely destroyed and another 200 or so were partially damaged.  Mudslides, toppled houses, and even a fire at a nuclear power plant.

- President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert are making a play to bolster support for the Palestinian Fatah Party, after Hamas seized control of Gaza within the past month.  I guess this one is the lessor of two evils is my friend?

- Spinner has a look at “20 Protest Songs That Matter.”  All we can say is our favs are PE at #2 with “Fight the Power” and N.W.A. at #11 with “Fuck the Police.”  We’re just saying is all.  Marvin Gaye checks in at numero uno, but the list is pretty unconventional and fairly well-rounded representing all genres of music.

- Heath Ledger is full on Joker makeup.  He’s not doing much, but dang it, this movie can’t get