Three stills from the WWII drama/thriller Shanghai, starring Gong Li, John Cusack, Chow Yun-Fat, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Rinko Kikuchi and Ken Watanabe. Morgan plays Connor, an American killed in Japanese-occupied Shanghai before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Cusack's Paul Soames sets out to investigate his friend's murder and discovers a larger secret that the government is hiding. Directed by Mikael Håfström (1408) and written by Hossein Amini (The Wings of the Dove). [imdb]

Poster for Sons of Anarchy, FX's new show about a motorcycle gang. It stars Charlie Hunnam, Ron Perlman and Katey Sagal. [imdb]

Star Trek posters for Sulu (John Cho), Scotty (Simon Pegg), McCoy (Karl Urban) and Chekov (Anton Yelchin). (TrekMovie) [imdb]

Brad Pitt has signed on to star in Quentin Tarantino's war movie Inglorious Bastards. He'll play Lt. Aldo Raine, the head of theJewish resistance in the World War II film. In talks to join him are Simon Pegg, Nastassja Kinski, David Krumholtz and B.J. Novak. (THR) [imdb]

Heather Havrilesky at Salon.com reviews HBO's True Blood:

'Yes, "True Blood" is that odd mix of kitschy, campy, over-the-top ridiculousness and weighty, message-laden social commentary. Alan Ball calls it "popcorn TV for smart people," but the average viewer is likely to find it at once addictive and stupid, intoxicatingly weird and confusing and goofy.'

Two promos for The Sarah Connor Chronicles, one quirky, both awesome.

Star Trek character posters from EW. [imdb]

EW's exclusive preview of Zack Snyder's adaptation of Watchmen. [imdb]

Official still of Christian Bale as John Connor, from Terminator: Salvation. [imdb]

The trailer for The Dark Knight...starring children.

Season three Dexter cast promo pictures.

5 allegories for Charlize Theron's role in Hancock (contains spoilers). The director Peter Berg would probably be displeased, considering how his aim in life is to remain neutral and apolitical.

Some more Dune related quotes from Peter Berg:

“We’re just starting with writers now, I’ve been impressed with the intensity of the Dune fans offering me their comments and their postings and the way they’ve been sending me letters. My feeling is that having read the book twice cover to cover, which I wonder whether some of these guys have actually done, it’s a great adventure tale, it’s a big, rough, fun, intense, dramatic tale. I think if you reread the book and look at even the original Star Wars you’ll see that George Lucas borrowed heavily from Frank Herbert. The Force is as much Frank Herbert as anything I’ve ever read.”

Berg is directing the upcoming movie adaptation of the novel. You'd think he know better than to insult the fans before he's even started filming? And he goes on:

“What I love about Dune is there’s a real human quality to that book that gets lost if it’s all just scope. Obviously there is scope, y’know, there’s 100 metre monster earth worms that come up, they’re the most ferocious creatures ever put on film…”

Because "scope" is something directly measurable by the number of effects dollars spent...

So, Starbucks is closing down 600 of its U.S. stores? Can they do the same in Australia? Maybe then it'll be easier to get actual decent coffee in the metropolitan areas.

Production stills from The Mummy 3: The Tomb  of the Dragon Emperor. It stars Brendan Fraser, Maria Bello, Michelle Yeoh, Jet Li, John Hannah and Luke Ford as Alex O'Connell. [imdb]

Justin Chatwin (War of the Worlds) will play Goku and James Marsters (Angel: The Series) will play Piccolo in a feature film adaptation of Dragon Ball Z, the popular Japanese manga and animated series. Just Jared has pictures. (Coming Soon)

Trailer for Bryan Singer's WW2 thriller, Valkyrie, starring Tom Cruise.

Ridley Scott will produce and direct the supernatural thriller, Stones, which revolves around the mysterious destruction of ancient religious sites around the world. (Dark Horizons)

New trailer for the animated feature Persepolis, based on the acclaimed graphic novel, winner of the Jury Prize at Canne and the Most Popular Film at the Vancouver International Film Festival. [official site] [imdb]

Clifton Collins Jr. (Capote) is the latest addition to the cast of J. J. Abram's Star Trek. He'll play Ayel, the cohort and general to Nero, the villain played by Eric Bana. (Dark Horizons) [imdb]

New York Magazine interviews vidder Luminosity (sockkpuppett).

FX's Damages, starring Glenn Close and Rose Byrne, has been renewed for second and third seasons. (Moviehole)

Matt Damon is People's Sexiest Man Alive for 2007. This year's list also included Patrick Dempsey, Ryan Reynolds, Brad Pitt, James McAvoy (!), Johnny Depp, Will Smith, Javier Bardem, Adrian Grenier, and Will Yun Lee (!).

Was reading a paperback just before walking into my Economics exam today (papers on Adam Smith and Keynes; it was good), and remember just why Terry Pratchett's The Fifth Elephant, after Jingo and The Truth, is my favourite of the Discworld books. It's a real knuckle-biting espionage thriller, in the manner of Graham Greene or Le Carre (or as close to one as you'll get with Pratchett, because espionage thrillers, in my experience, generally aren't this funny). With the exception of Jingo, I don't remember Pratchett ever thrusting so many of his beloved characters into so much danger - and it's no coincidence that in both novels, this happens outside of the familiar territory of Ankh Morpork. And I don't think I've ever felt more shocked by the death of one of his supporting characters than when ( spoiler )

Helen McCrory (The Queen) has reportedly been cast as Narcissa Malfoy in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. McCrory was originally to play Bellatrix Lestrange in The Order of the Phoenix, but had to step down due to her being pregnant at the time of the filming of the fifth film. (Her second child with fiance Damian Lewis was born only 2 weeks ago!) (CBBC) [imdb]

The five-part period drama based on Elizabeth Gaskell's The Cranford Chronicles begins airing of BBC 1 in the UK this Saturday (9pm, 18th November). Created by Sue Birtwistle and Susie Conklin and written by Heidi Thomas (I Capture the Castle), Cranford follows the small absurdities and major tragedies in the lives of the people of a small Cheshire market town during one extraordinary year.

It stars Simon Woods (of Rome, and looking more like Paul Bettany than ever) as Frank Harrison, a handsome young doctor newly arrived from London whose revolutionary medical methods, and the effect he unwittingly has on many of the ladies' hearts, cause a stir in the town that is on the cusp of change due to the new railway heading their way. Judi Dench, Francesca Annis, Eileen Atkins, Imelda Staunton, Michael Gambon, Philip Glenister, Lesley Manville, Julia McKenzie, and Greg Wise also star. Other adaptations of Gaskell's novels include North & South (2004) and Wives and Daughters (1999). [fansite] [set photos] [imdb]

Winona Ryder, Jennifer Morrison (House) and Australian actor Chris Hemsworth (Home and Away) have been cast in J. J. Abram's Star Trek. Ryder will play Spock's mother, Amanda Grayson, and Hemsworth will play Kirk's father. Also: first picture of Zachary Quinto as Spock! Edit: And another one of Spock. [imdb]

Dexter has been renewed for a third season. (E! Online)

wee_warrior wants you to watch NBC's Life. So do I.

For the Moonlight fans: Beginner's Guide to Mick St. John's Facial Expressions, by alexandral.

Life continues to be awesome. WHY HAS THIS SHOW NOT BEEN RENEWED?

Bruce Greenwood (Capote, I'm Not There) has been cast as Christopher Pike, the Starship Enterprise’s first captain, in J. J. Abram's Star Trek. I'm as delighted about this as the guys at I Watch Stuff.(Coming Soon) [imdb]

Jennifer Connelly and Kathy Bates are joining Keanu Reeves in the remake of the sci-fi classic, The Day the Earth Stood Still. Scott Derrickson (The Exorcism of Emily Rose) is directing. (Coming Soon) [imdb]

Featurette for the WWII thriller, Valkyrie, about a plot to assassinate Hitler. Directed by Bryan Singer, starring Tom Cruise, Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Eddie Izzard, Terence Stamp, Stephen Fry and Thomas Kretschmann. [imdb]

9 clips from August Rush, a drama with fairy tale elements, where an orphaned musical prodigy uses his gift as a clue to finding his birth parents. Starring Freddie Highmore, Robin Williams, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Keri Russell and Terrence Howard. This one gives me goosebumps - can't wait for the soundtrack to be released. [imdb]

Clips from next week's Heroes, "Four Months Ago". Edit: Addition clip at Sprint.

Oh, Alan Sepinwall, this is why your TV columns rock: ( spoilers for this week's episode of Heroes )

100 Rome season 2 icons by darkangsty42.

Look at Brain Darling in his clergyman's collar and his evil smirk! Glenn Fitzgerald isn't the only reason I'm watching Dirty Sexy Money (and loving it), but he's definitely the highlight. ( spoilers for 1x04 )

Edit: About the latest Bionic Woman. ( Read more... ) Their scenes aside, it wasn't a particularly interesting episode.

Karl Urban (The Bourne Supremacy) will play Leonard "Bones" McCoy, the Starship's Enterprise's medical officer, in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek. (Hollywood Reporter) [imdb]

The Wolverine movie has an official title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Directed by Gavin Hood (Rendition), it will star High Jackman in the lead role. Liev Schreiber is reportedly in talks to play the young William Stryker. (Hollywood Reporter) [imdb]

Trailer for the war drama, Stop Loss. Cast features Ryan Phillippe, Abbie Cornish, Channing Tatum, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ciarán Hinds, and Timothy Olyphant. [imdb]

Final trailer for Todd Haynes' film about the many faces of Bob Dylan, I'm Not There. [imdb]

Interviews with the cast of Prince Caspian - Ben Barnes, William Moseley, Skandar Keynes, Sergio Castellito and Pierfrancesco Favino. [imdb]

Toni Collette (Little Miss Sunshine) will star in the new comedy for Showtime, The United States of Tara. (They really need to come up with a less cumbersome name.) The series is about a wife and mother of two teenage kids who seems normal on the surface but actually suffers from dissociative identity disorder. (Coming Soon)

Gerard Butler, Michael C. Hall and Kyra Sedgewick are signed on to the science fiction thriller, Game. In a dystopian future, the ultimate online simulation environment is humans remote-controlling other humans in mass-scale, multi-player online gaming. Butler plays Kable, the No. 1-ranked warrior in the highest-rated game, called "Slayers." With his every move tracked by millions, Kable's ultimate challenge is to regain his identity and bring down the system that has imprisoned him. So, kind of like Gladiator, but with "retardedly hot" twins? It also reminds of of a series of YA books by an Australian author that I read more than a decade ago, where a group of teenagers went into this virtual-reality game environment. I just can't remember what it was called... (Coming Soon) [imdb]

See the armoured bears. New posters for The Golden Compass here and here.

Simon Pegg (Hot Fuzz) is Scotty and John Cho (Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle) is Sulu in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek. The main cast also features Chris Pine (Kirk), Eric Bana (the villain, Nero), Zoe Saldana (Uhura), Anton Yelchin (Chekov), and Zachary Quinto and Leonard Nimoy as Spock. (Coming Soon) [imdb]

The Jumper trailer, now in HD Quicktime. Stars Hayden Christensen, Jamie Bell, Rachel Bilson, and Samuel L. Jackson. Directed by Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity).

Review of Battlestar Galactica: Razor at Eclipse Magazine. HUGE SPOILER at the end.

Clips from the next episode of Heroes, "The Kindness of Strangers." (Oh, Angela Petrelli!) Also, "Milo Is Shirtless" is evidently the new Heroes tagline.

Alan Sepinwall's column on Mad Men, which is finishing up its first season next week (contains spoilers):

'One of the keys to the genius of "Mad Men" -- far and away the best new show of the year, making every network rookie look lazy and dull in comparison -- is how often the series' writers resist the temptation to spell everything out in large print.'

Trailer for Doug Liman's (The Bourne Identity) sci-fi action adventure, Jumper, based on the novel by Steven Gould. A young man discovers that he can teleport, but the ability comes at a cost - an ancient sect called the Paladins is intent on killing everyone who is like him. It stars Jamie Bell (Hallam Foe), Hayden Christensen (Shattered Glass), Rachel Bilson (The OC), and Samuel L. Jackson. THIS LOOKS SO MIND-BLOWINGLY COOL. Edited: trailer_spot has the link for the downloadable Quicktime version of the trailer. [imdb]

Edited 2: Interview with author Steven Gould about his latest book.

A new trailer for His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass. Ian McKellan voices Iorek Byrnison, Christopher Lee makes an appearance, and Stelmaria speaks with Kristin Scott Thomas' wonderful and seductive voice! (I know she doesn't appear in person, but just the thought of KST and Daniel Craig in the same oral space is enough to make me weak.) Also, director/writer Chris Weitz at the HisDarkMaterials.org blog defends his decision to move the last few chapters of The Golden Compass into the script for the sequel, The Subtle Knife. [imdb]

Eric Bana has been cast as the villain in the J.J. Abrams directed Star Trek XI. Already on board are Anton Yelchin, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana and Leonard Nimoy. Meanwhile, The Hollywood Reporter says that Chris Pine (Just My Luck) is in talks to star as Captain Kirk. Don't know who he is either? Here is a picture. [imdb]

New trailer for Love in the Time of Cholera, directed by Mike Newell (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), based on the novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. [imdb]

Teaser trailer and some (regretably small) stills at Twitch from Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon, a historical martial arts epic directed by Daniel Lee. It features Andy Lau and Maggie Q. The story is based on the classical Chinese novel, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms (pinyin: sānguó yǎnyì), set in the period of disunity and turbulence at the end of the Han dynasty. It's a work of fiction that has had as much an influence on the Chinese consciousness as Homer or Shakespeare do in the West. [imdb]

Slate has a slideshow of the history of the vibrator - just the thing after the latest episode of Mad Men!

Moonlight wasn't quite as excrutiating to watch as I'd feared. I don't think it has a hope in hell of surviving unless the writers come up with some original storylines and better dialogue. (And why is pop culture bagging anthropologists all of a sudden? Cut it out.) But Jason Dohring's 400 year old yuppie Josef reminds me pleasantly of my old LARP days AND he has the best lines ("Now we have the food mouthing off to the farmer."). Why couldn't we have a show centred around a paranoid, amoral, wise-cracking, suspenders-wearing vampire instead? A sort of The Player meets American Psycho? I'd watch that.

OutNow has a bunch of hi-res stills from Eastern Promises, starring Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts and Vincent Cassel. Some of them contain spoilers.

Star Trek XI plot spoilers and casting rumours at IESB. An offer has gone out to Karl Urban (The Bourne Supremacy, The Chronicles of Riddick) to play the villain of the film, ( spoilers ). They're also reporting that Mike Vogel (Poseidon) is the forerunner for playing Kirk.

Photos of a new cast member behind the scenes of Heroes.

Guardian Books interviews Neil Gaiman.

fatema has made 14 Katee Sackhoff/Bionic Woman icons.

_wisteria has compiled some Battlestar Galactica s3 spoilers.

kenorland! I forgot to add it to my post this morning, but Zoe Saldana will indeed play Uhura in J. J. Abram's Star Trek movie.

Saldana is currently filming another science fiction feature, James Cameron's big budget epic, Avatar.