Latest rumours emerging suggest that a deal with Benico Del Toro to appear in the upcoming Star Trek film is now dead in the water.

Previously, rumours claimed that Del Toro had been approached to be cast as the next villain – speculated to be Khan.

However, news has now surfaced that although Khan is going to be the next villain, Del Toro will not be the man for the job.

The plot thickens. For more details, head over to FilmSchoolRejects.

International Rescue - but will they look like this when we see them next?

The Guardian reported today that Gerry Anderson is preparing to bring Thunderbirds back to our screens some time in the future.

For those not in the know, Thunderbirds followed the adventures of International Rescue, a family of heroes who rescue people, er, internationally.  The stories were fairly standard stuff for the 60s, but it was the show’s medium that really grabbed the attention of its audience. Like most of Gerry Anderson’s shows, the cast was composed entirely of puppets. No attempt was made to conceal this; many of the strings were on show, adding to the charm.  Today Thunderbirds holds a very special place in the hearts of many people of all ages, despite an iffy recent attempt at big screen live-action success.

In an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live, the Thunderbirds creator confirmed that a deal has been reached with ITV, who own the rights to the show, to produce an all-new season of the nation’s favourite puppet show.  He’s not at liberty to go into too many details due to signing a non-disclosure agreement, but he did offer the following tantalising tidbits:

“It will certainly be modernised. It will be a brand new show, keeping all the main characters, all the machines and all the locations. Everything will be changed, updated, with all the mod cons … It will have all the elements that made Thunderbirds popular in the first place but will be made with today’s technology and today’s thinking and today’s pace.”  (Source: BBC Radio 5 Live).

He also said that he wasn’t fond of working with the puppets as they “can’t do anything.”

Now I don’t know about you, but this puts me in mind of the CGI Captain Scarlett series of a few years ago.  That was … rather less than good, if we’re honest. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the new series takes that exact route rather than, say, investing in developing better puppets. Hey, I like puppets. If the makers of Mongrels can craft puppets that are effective and make you care about the characters, then surely it’s worth a try for a project this close to the hearts of its fandom?

Thoughts? Opinions?

Milton Keynes.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year – and you know what that means!  That’s right … snow!  As I sit writing this, the UK is slowly but surely being covered by billions and billions of tiny white flecks of snow. Naturally this means that, despite living in a country where this happens pretty much every year, every day life is brought to a standstill and the most sensible of people quake in fear at the idea of being forced to drive slightly more slowly on the roads. Madness!  As your view out of the window begins more and more to resemble Hoth, here’s a couple of survival tips for you to help you get out and about in these most troubling of times.

Ditch the car – get a tauntaun

Oh sure, your car may well have perfectly adequate heating. It may have four-wheel drive, leather seats and perhaps even a fancy cup-holder.  But there’s one thing it doesn’t have, and that’s the capacity for love.  Tauntauns are the perfect means of transport in the icy wasteland the UK is fast becoming; they’re warm, fluffy and (mostly) capable of withstanding ridiculously low temperatures. Plus they snort encouragingly when you’re having difficulty finding your lost companions.  And, of course, they won’t think twice about laying down their lives for your preservation and warmth.  Sure, they smell bad inside and out, but that’ll probably clear up if you hang a pine-scented freshener around their neck.

God bless you, Timmy The Tauntaun, God bless you.

Wrap up warm? Nah – pilot a mech

Ok, so you’re too attached to your vehicle to swap it for a loving flesh-and-blood ride.  Fair enough. But one thing that Anime has taught us is that everything is better with giant robots, so why should this situation be any different?  Consider the advantages – while everyone else is sat in gridlocked traffic, wearing three layers of clothing and cursing the poor town planning that’s led to jammed roads as far as the eye can see, you’ll literally be striding ahead of them.  And as for accessories, if you think the cup-holder’s a swanky feature, how about heat-seeking missiles?  Giant beam-swords?  Fuzzy dice that transform into robot sidekicks? The possibilities are limitless.

Pack a phaser, lightsaber, plasma rifle – any kind of weapon, really

You might think this is a bit of an overreaction, but having seen The Day of Tomorrow I can safely assume that the zoos will open and England’s cities will be overrun with wild animals. Well, the cities that have zoos will be.  If the animals don’t freeze first.  Still, you can never be too careful – if you do decide to take your car out instead of a tauntaun or mech (you rash fool) then you’ll doubtless be set upon by fellow commuters who have turned feral due to the lack of warmth and comfort.  They will likely be trying to steal your dashboard cigarette lighter to provide warmth, or perhaps your CDs out of your glove compartment if they’ve mistakenly left the house with nothing but a handful of Eminem albums (which would be enough to turn anyone feral).  We can assume that in this terrible harsh climate of chilly fear, post-apocalyptic survival rules apply. Make your in-car snacks last!

Too cold for ice-cream – eat Space Food instead

Speaking of food, you might get a craving for ice-cream while you’re staring at the soft white snow that’s inexorably burying you and your car alive in an icy seasonal tomb.  But eating an ice-lolly now would bring your core temperature down, which would SURELY be fatal in these circumstances. You need to conserve your body temperature! In this case, you could probably do worse than to invest in some freeze-dried ice-cream, which is neither cold nor wet. When eaten with a Soylent Green sandwich and a Romulan Ale, it should make for quite a filling meal.  Hopefully it won’t be your last!

So there you have it. In all seriousness, stay safe on the roads out there, and please remember to feed your tauntauns well, or they’ll freeze before you hit the first junction on your route home. In which case, I’ll see you in hell!

CSI creator Anthony Zuiker is launching the second part of his book trilogy. The novel is titled Dark Prophecy. Released on October 14th, we’ve attached a rather spiffy looking trailer for it.

The guys over at the SGU trailer editing department really do deserve an Oscar. Another top quality promo.

Very psyched for the new season, now.

I don’t know about you, but I think this is genius. GENIUS.

When closed, this hoodie’s design shows a simple palm. Not much out of the ordinary there.  But pull the zip down a little bit and its full geeky potential is realised – it’s a Vulcan Salute Hoodie! Admit it – that’s awesome. Nerdy and awesome.

If you’ve saved up your latinum bars and know a geek in need of a nifty Christmas present, head over to Threadless where the hoodie’s available for $40 (£25.60ish, or 30.5ish euros).

Ask me a year ago, and I’d have argued that the chances of Rhydian appearing in the War of the Worlds live musical were a million to one.

Okay, excuse the pun, but it appears that Justin Hayward and Jeff Wayne will be being joined at the O2 in London on the 12th December by a rather unusual bunch of co-stars.
Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of The Worlds – Alive on Stage! stars Jason Donovan, Atomic Kitten’s Liz McClarnon and X Factor’s Rhydian.

Quite how strong a vocal performance that’ll be, we’ll have to wait and see.

Viral marketing has begun, however, as you can see below.

I did have the pleasure of seeing this show in Belfast a few years ago, and it is rather excellent – if only for the spectacle.

Making Future Magic: iPad light painting from Dentsu London on Vimeo.

Well worth a watch. Fantastic, intriguing and downright clever.

Admittedly, it’s not brand spanking new. But hadn’t seen it before, and I thought it looked pretty cool!

I instantly expected this to be in Nevada, for some reason, but no! It’s coming from the Netherlands.

The opera is written entirely in Klingon, and features an array of very suspect looking plastic forehead extensions.

For further details and video, click here to access the BBC!