Raise your hand if you remember the movie Screamers. OK, keep your hand raised if you remember anything other than "Peter Weller," "Philip K. Dick," and "box office failure." Yeah, that's what I thought. It's not that Screamers is that rotten of a sci-fi horror movie ... more that it's just OK. Not awful, but certainly not cool enough to warrant a full-bore cult following. But that hasn't stopped a bunch of Canadian filmmakers from unleashing Screamers: The Hunting.

I'll embed the trailer clip in just a sec, but since Quiet Earth did the leg-work on this item, we'll refer you to their site for more info. Screamers: The Hunting looks pretty plain across the board, but of course I'm always interested in seeing a video sequel to a 14-year-old sci-fi flick that nobody talks about anymore. (I'm weird that way. Someone kick me if they ever find a trailer for Galaxy of Terror 2.) Digging a little deeper I learned that Screamers 2 was directed by Sheldon Wilson (Kaw, Shallow Ground) and written by Miguel Tejada-Flores, who used to write fun flicks for Filmax, so I'm feeling 10% better about Screamers: The Hunting than I was ten minutes ago.

Except ten minutes ago, I had no idea Screamers: The Hunting even existed. (Oh wait, yes I did.) Expect the flick's arrival in the next month or two. Probably on Sci-Fi Channel, but I'll just wait for the DVD.

Just yesterday I was inspired to write "Everyone should watch District B13" on my Facebook page, and then I watched the dang movie AGAIN! Basically I think it's one of the most entertaining action flicks of the past ten years, so when I came across THIS PIECE during my regular Twitch-surfing, I got very excited indeed. Looks like District B13: Ultimatum will reunite the amazing ass-kickers known as David Belle and Cyril Raffaelli; Luc Besson is on solo screenwriting duty; and the director is a Frenchman namd Patrick Alessandrin.

No solid word yet on when D-B13:U will be completed (or even who'll be distributing in this part of the globe, athough Magnolia did a fine job with the first flick), but if you spend a few minutes at Twitch then you'll find four behind-the-scenes clips to flicker through. (The most recent one is the coolest, and it's the one I've embedded below.) And then after the jump, a bonus that just never gets old. (Previous reports on this movie can be found here and here.)

When we last heard from Sherwood Forest, there was a bit of confusion as to who exactly Russell Crowe was playing in Nottingham. Was he Robin Hood? Was he the Sheriff of Nottingham? Were they the same guy? Did they change it up, halfway through? Those who had read the initial script reported they were two different characters -- something that was suggested by hints of a "love triangle" between Robin, Nottingham, and Maid Marian.

Well, MTV caught up with Brian Grazer, who set the record straight on all the character confusion ... well, kind of. "The two role confusion is that what Robin Hood does is he sees Nottingham in battle very early in the movie and Nottingham dies. And Robin Hood takes over the identity of Nottingham. That's how it plays out." Grazer also described the film as an "origin story" of the characters.

I'm really curious if "origin story" means the film is setting itself up as the "real story" behind the legends, or if this is an origin reinvention / franchise in the vein of Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes? If it's the former (and it probably is), meh. I'm throughly sick of that trend, especially as the "true" stories end up even more inaccurate than the fantasy versions. But if it's the latter, and it meant a few medieval outings with Russell Crowe, well, that's would be pretty exciting. Dreamy, even.

All reports of "endlessly delayed" may also have been exaggerated -- Grazer also reports that they're waiting on a final rewrite from Brian Helgeland, and that he fully expects that the film will start shooting in March 2009. Huzzah!

A couple of months ago -- and after watching the film spit out monster box office totals -- there was word Warner Bros. would throw The Dark Knight back onto IMAX screens (and possibly conventional theaters) for one last run. With the flick currently lingering around the $996 million mark, a re-release would all but guarantee it the much sought-after $1 billion. However, according to Superhero Hype, it's not gonna happen. They don't give much of a reason or a statement, just that plans to re-release on IMAX screens have apparently been scrapped.

It's unfortunate, too, because the DVD (which we'll review tomorrow) includes a few great behind-the-scenes features on the film's IMAX sequences. And, as someone who did not have a chance to catch the flick on IMAX screens, I was kinda looking forward to taking in a screening this January during the re-release after watching how they went about shooting it. Considering Christopher Nolan and his crew made history by becoming the first major feature film to shoot partly using IMAX cameras, you'd think folks might want to stage an encore engagement. Oh well.

Also of note: Variety reports that The Dark Knight will arrive via video-on-demand in South Korea two weeks before the DVD hits shelves, making it the first Hollywood blockbuster release to go VOD before DVD.

Were you looking forward to watching The Dark Knight again on IMAX screens?

UPDATE: BoF reports (via a Warner Bros. source) that this is not true, and that the film will indeed be released on IMAX screens in January. Superhero Hype has removed the original story from their website. We'll let you know when something a little more official hits, but it looks good for fans ...

I really loved the first Speed movie. You had Keanu before he became Keanu, and Bullock before she became Sandra Bullock -- it was simply a nice, refreshing on-screen duo featuring two actors we didn't quite know yet and a villain played by one we already loved. Speed 2: Electric Cruise Ship Boogaloo? Not so much. And even though the sequel wasn't nearly as successful as the first (partly because the story was absurd, and partly because Keanu was replaced by Jason Patric), folks still talked about a third installment in the series -- so much so that The Guardian even announced last year that Dennis Hopper had a role in it. Weird, I know, considering the ending of the first flick, but who knows what these Hollywood types have up their sleeves.

Which brings us to today and yet another Speed 3 rumor. This time, AICN has received a message from one of their sources that says a scriptment for the sequel is floating around and it reintroduces the Jack Traven character, played by Keanu Reeves. And yes, the studio would like to talk Reeves back into starring. No word on whether Bullock would play leading lady (what else does she have to do?), but something tells me folks would rather Keanu if they had a choice between the two, hence Speed 2: Keanu-less Water Park Nightmare.

What say you? Speed 3 with Keanu? You down for it? And did the film Crank already give us the best possible Speed 3 premise?

White Dog
Samuel Fuller's follow-up to The Big Red One was shelved by Paramount Pictures before its scheduled release in 1982 because of fears that its premise -- a white dog has been trained to attack black people -- would stir up more controversy than box office. Fuller was understandably outraged; in his autobiography, A Third Face, he wrote: "The studio has used me as a scapegoat for their lack of determination and courage." The film, co-written by Curtis Hanson (LA Confidential), with a score by the legendary Ennio Morricone, later received acclaim when it was released in Europe but never received a home video release in the US and has rarely been seen here. Kristy McNichol plays an actress who adopts the dog; Paul Winfield is as an anthropologist who tries to reverse the training. The Criterion Collection DVD includes a featurette with Hanson, producer Jon Davison, and Fuller's widow, plus a print interview with the dog trainer and essays by J. Hoberman and Armond White. I'm buying, but even if you're not a huge fan of Samuel Fuller, you'd want to check it out. Rent it.

Step Brothers
Combining Will Farrell, John C. Reilly, Richard Jenkins, and Mary Steenburgen under one roof, Step Brothers mines familiar territory with sharp timing and plenty of belly laughs. Mine is, admittedly, a distinctly minority opinion. Available on DVD (single-disc rated, single-disc unrated, two-disc unrated) and Blu-ray, with an audio commentary by Farrell, Reilly, director Adam McKay, and a score by Jon Brion. Other features include deleted scenes and alternate takes, a gag reel, 'making of,' and a couple of gag featurettes. Rent it.

Much more on Wanted, The X-Files: I Want to Believe, and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian after the jump, plus Indies on DVD, Blu-ray Picks, and Collector's Corner.

When Cinematical visited the set of Sherlock Holmes last month, we certainly wanted to learn a lot more about this much-anticipated film (which we did), but we also wanted to find out once and for all whether the classic Holmes villain Moriarty would make an appearance. Up until this point, Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong) was the only villain on record, and so far folks behind the scenes have managed to successfully dodge the big Moriarty question. That is, until now.

Note: Watch for spoilers below ...

While we received a number of shady answers (followed by evil smirks) from the cast and crew regarding Moriarty during our set visit, IGN managed to get someone to talk: Mr. Mark Strong. At the British Independent Film Awards over the weekend, Strong said this about Moriarty's involvement: "Moriarty's in it ... but you don't really see him. I think he's there because if the franchise carries on, there's a possibility that he will appear in a larger guise. But for the purposes of this one and the detective narrative, I'm the guy that Sherlock's after, Lord Blackwood. And he's a cultist/Satanist lord who is the ultimate cad." So he's there, but you don't see him? Hmmm. I guess we'll take that as solid confirmation ... until we find out who's playing him (ahem, Russell Crowe?).

Fans of the Transporter films aren't usually looking for a lot of subtlety and nuance, not unless those are codewords for "butt-kicking" and "car crashes." But Louis Leterrier, the whimsical Frenchman who directed the second film and co-directed the first one, said in 2005 that he had a subtext in mind for Jason Statham's title character: He was gay.

Chris Lee writes at the Los Angeles Times' fanboy blog that three years ago, when Transporter 2 came out, well, so did Frank Martin. According to Lee, Leterrier pointed to the scene where Frank turns down a romantic advance from Amber Valletta by saying, "It's because of who I am." Leterrier said, "That's him coming out!"

"If you watch the movie and you know he's gay, it becomes so much more fun," Lee quotes Leterrier as saying in 2005. "It's so great -- the first gay action movie hero! ... Action fans in general are pretty homophobic. You see these tough guys who say, 'The Transporter, that's such a great movie!' If they only knew they're really cheering for a new kind of action hero."

Statham didn't pay much attention to his director's comments, telling Lee in 2005, "It's just Lou-Lou trying to be funny. Although he did say, 'In Part 2, you will become the gay icon.'" That part might have come true, as Statham's many shirtless scenes made him popular in certain quarters, even if the character himself wasn't overtly gay.