I think that by far and away the most interesting release this week is World War II in HD.  It is an amazing thing to see moving images from World War II both in color and high definition and this is no exception.  For any history buff, this disc is essential viewing.

Next on the list is the incredibly interesting, but ultimately cheesy, Bruce Willis vehicle: The Surrogates.  Bruce Willis stars as a cop in a world where no real person leaves their homes, but lives their live through a lifelike avatar.  It seems as though stories involving these sorts of caricatures of humans are coming to full fruition lately.

There’s also a Blu-ray version of Highlander out today, though it’s preposterously expensive and even out of stock.  A bit of google-searching yielded no results as of to why this would be.

Michael Jackson’s This is It came out today as well.  I’d be interested in seeing this, though I’m not sure if I’m interested enough to buy it on my own.

Diamond Select has finally revealed their entire line of Iron Man 2 Minimates (almost)! These little guys should be coming to retailers shortly before the movie hits theaters, so be on the look out for them because there are of course some “chasers”!

From diamondselecttoys.com:

Iron Man 2 Minimates – The Reveal!

Fans all over the world are gearing up for Marvel Studios’ next sure-fire blockbuster Iron Man 2 and at Diamond Select Toys we are excited to reveal details surrounding our previously Top Secret Iron Man 2 Minimates! Due in stores this March, two new assortments of Minimates are sure to thrill fans of all ages!

While one particular high-flying armor-clad character will remain hidden until the March release date, we can now reveal the full contents of our upcoming Marvel Minimates Series 35 Assortment and Iron Man 2 Single Pack Minimates Display. Rounding out the cast of Series 35 is the high-tech army builder paired with Pepper Potts and Happy Hogan – Hammer Industries’ Hammer Drone! Glimpsed only briefly in the Iron Man 2 trailer, not much is known about the Hammer Drones – except that Iron Man and War Machine will apparently square off against an entire squad of them at some point during the film!

The biggest reveal comes in the form of our Iron Man 2 Single Pack Minimates Display, a special set of individually boxed Iron Man 2 Minimates limited to only 500 cases. This set was under complete lockdown, however now we can reveal the full contents!

Each display will include 12 individually packaged Iron Man 2 Minimates, including:

• Air Assault Drone
• Ground Assault Drone
• Sea Assault Drone
• Tactical Assault Drone

Plus limited short-packs found in every case featuring:

• Battle Damaged Hammer Drone
• Justin Hammer

Styled after the four branches of the US Military, exact how these high-powered armors will come to exist and what their creation means for Iron Man remains to be seen – but we can’t wait to find out! Retailers can still order this limited set as part of their January 2010 Previews orders, so if you want these Iron Man 2 exclusives to become a part of your collection make sure you let them know before it’s too late!

So, any guesses as to who the unrevealed figure is? Perhaps Iron Man Mark 4? You can check out the full line at Diamond Select’s website!

As we all know by now, (500) Days of Summer director, Marc Webb, is taking on the Spider-Man reboot from Sony. However, The Risky Business Blog over at THR had a little bit more to add to this news surrounding some possible details about what form the reboot will take:

Webb, who has options on two sequels, will now tackle a Jamie Vanderbilt script that sees a “Spider-Man” movie that will look and feel very different from the big movies that went before it.

The plan for the movie is to be in the $80 million range and feature a cast of relative unknowns (so you can quash those Rob Pattinson or Gordon-Levitt rumors at this point). And the story will be pared down to center on a high school kid who is dealing with the knowledge that his uncle died even though the teen had the power to stop it.

The touchstone for the new movie will not be the 1960s comics, which were the inspiration behind the movies by Raimi, who grew on up on them, but rather this past decade’s “Ultimate Spider-Man” comics by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley where the villain-fighting took a back seat to the high school angst.

Even though (500) Days of Summer is all we have to judge Webb on right now I remain optimistic because frankly, that film was one of the best things I saw in all of 2009. On top of that now, some news that they might be heading in the ‘Ultimate Spider-Man’ direction is even more good news in my opinion. Bendis has done amazing things with the Ultimate version of our wall-crawler and I think a lot of them would work well on the big screen – at least more-so than some of the campy 60’s Spider-Man stuff Raimi was trying to translate (which, don’t get me wrong, for the most part he did very well).

As you read, production will start this year, so I have a feeling we are going to be getting quite a bit of news and rumors off and on about this reboot throughout the year.

And I thought I’d get a break after Spider-Man 4 was cancelled….

It has been confirmed that (500) Days of Summer director, Marc Webb will direct a reboot of Spider-Man.

As much of a bummer as it is that the same creative team that helmed the first three films won’t be back for a fourth, at least the franchise is in good hands. Webb should have the ability to bring a great amount of humanity to the beloved Marvel characters.

It might prove to be interesting to see a retooled version of the mythos in film, perhaps this reboot will be what Ultimate Spider-Man was to The Amazing Spider-Man books and even integrate the characters in Marvel Studios’ interconnecting Iron Man, Thor and Incredible Hulk. Hell, if the studios were smart they’d have Brian Michael Bendis either write or produce the damned thing.

Though, with only one flick under his belt, does Webb have the experience to pull it off?  Let’s hope so, no one wants another Spider-Man 3.

This weekend, James Cameron’s Avatar held the number one spot for an astonishing 5 weeks in a row. After this weekend – and not counting MLK Jr. Day for the long weekend – Avatar has brought its total up to $491.8 million, passing Star Wars who originally held the spot with $460.9 million.

The next stop for Avatar is the number 2 spot, which is currently held by The Dark Knight at $533.3 million – then, Cameron’s only other film in the last decade, Titanic at number 1 with around $600 million.

I say Avatar deserves the number 3 spot more than Star Wars. As much as I love Star Wars, Avatar just blew me away and is obviously the superior movie of the two. The script is better, the acting is better, and it’s quite obvious this film was under much better direction. Also, mind you, Star Wars total is a culmination of multiple theater releases – Avatar was only just released and I highly doubt Cameron will re-release it in 20 years with new scenes and call it a “special edition”.*

Like, love, or hate James Cameron and his movies you have to hand it to the guy; he’s only made two movies in the last decade and 2 of them are in the top 3 all-time domestic box office!

*In case it’s not painfully obvious, these are not really the thoughts of us here at BSR! In fact, while Avatar has surpassed Star Wars on the all-time domestic box office list, it should be noted that Star Wars is still way ahead in total individual ticket sales. It’s called inflation folks.

Of course since the news dropped Big Shiny Robot -just like all the other nerd and geek sites out there- has been a buzz about the cancellation of Spider-Man 4. Some are happy about the announcement of a reboot, some are upset, some are right down the middle.

A regular reader of ours, “Jerk-Bot” sent us an e-mail the other day. The e-mail included a link to an article on moviehole.com that talks about the reasons behind the cancellation, the direction Spider-Man 4 was heading, and the fact that a reboot was already on deck in the event that this breakdown happened. I really encourage you to go read the rather lengthy article over at Moviehole; essentially all of these “rumors” about The Vulture, The Vulturess, Pete and MJ having a kid – they may have actually been true after all. I’m not quite sure who or what this guy’s sources are, but he seems to have some insight.

“Jerk-bot” was nice enought to list the main points of the article that you can check out right below. You can read the full thing at Moviehole!

*Raimi, Maquire, and Dunst were all on-board and committed to the fourth movie. John Malcovitch and Anne Hathaway were already cast as the father-daughter villains of Adrian Toomes and Felicia Hardy respectively.

*Raimi believed he was allowed to have complete creative control and Sony apparently agreed.

*However, the studio then insisted that Anne Hathaway’s character of Felicia Hardy be “The Vultress,”–yes, that was indeed true, apparently–even though, by this point, Hathaway already walked out of the project.

*There were FIVE different writers working on this script.

*Peter and MJ were, I guess, married and have a baby when the film begins.

*Adrian Toomes, as the Vulture, was going to be the new Editor at the Daily Bugle.

*The reboot script was already written (apparently more “Dark Knight” and without “the fluff”) and was part of Sony’s back-up plan, especially since they believed Raimi, Maquire, and Dunst were still uncertain about returning for a fourth film. Not to mention that, according to Sony’s contract, if they do not continue to make Spider-Man movies, then those rights immediately go to Marvel and also Disney.

*Raimi walked once he realized he wouldn’t make the deadline for the 2011 release (due to all the “creative differences,”), so Sony went ahead with their “Plan B reboot” option.

BSR followed a lot of these rumors but none of them ever got as far as to be “confirmed”. If even half of this is true, then I am that much more glad that Spider-Man is getting the reboot. Seriously?! MJ and Pete have a baby?! Guh.

You know the drill, sound off in the comments!

Boxoffice.com spoke to The Wolfman director Joe Johnston about his upcoming film. Just like every other director that is attached to a comic book film and has a movie coming out, the subject turned to his Marvel Superhero project. In Johnston’s case, he’s set to direct The First Avenger: Captain America. Here’s what he had to say:

What can you tell me that people might not have already heard about Captain America?

It’s not going to be a Captain America that you expect. It’s something different. It is influenced by the comic book, but it goes off in a completely different direction. It’s the origin story of Captain America. It’s mostly period—there are modern, present-day bookends on it—but it’s basically the story of how Steve Rogers becomes Captain America. The great thing about Captain America is he’s a super hero without any super powers. Which is why this story, among the hundreds of super hero stories, appealed to me the most. He can’t fly, he can’t see through walls, he can’t do any of that stuff. He’s an every man who’s been given this amazing gift of transformation into the perfect specimen—the pinnacle of human perfection. How does that affect him? What does that mean for him emotionally and psychologically? He was this 98-pound weakling, he was this wimp, and he’s transformed instantly into this Adonis. You’d think he got everything he wanted. Well, he didn’t get everything he wanted. The rules change at that point and his life gets even more complicated and dire. For me, that’s the interesting part of the story. It’s got some great action sequences in it and some incredible stuff that we’ve never seen before. But at the heart of it, it’s a story about this kid who all he wants to do is fit in. This thing happens and he still doesn’t fit in. And he has to prove himself a hero—essentially go AWOL to save a friend. Eventually at the very end, I don’t want to give away to much, but he does fit in. But it’s the journey of getting him there that’s interesting. And it’s a lot of fun.

I for one was hoping that Captain America would be a period piece and a lot of what Johnston said really gave me some confidence that just like Iron Man with Favreau, Captain America is in good hands. The only point of concern is when he said, “It is influenced by the comic book, but it goes off in a completely different direction.” But, of course, that could mean one of a million things so I’m not going to lose any sleep over it.

Johnston also skirted around some Jurassic Park questions and you can read the full Q&A over at Boxoffice.com.

Finally some fairly solid news about Ghostbusters 3. Ivan Reitman met up with Mtv on a recent red carpet event. As per usual, the conversation turned to the long awaited sequel:

Reitman was all business again when the talk turned back to the schedule. “I hope to start shooting in this next year,” he said, giving weight to Ramis’ recent comments about a planned 2011 release.

Then the bomb dropped. Asked if he would be returning to direct “Ghostbusters III,” Reitman answered with a simple and unequivocal “Yes.”

In the interview he also skirts around some of the rumors previously started by Sigourney Weaver:

“I’m not going to comment on what’s in the script and on what Sigourney may or may not have said,” he told us. “She’s been so busy on ‘Avatar,’ I’ve not been able to find her. There’s some very cool things in the new draft, let’s just put it that way.”

I think its safe to say more news will start coming in faster over the next few months. Check back here for these updates as we report on them!

Today it was announced that Peter Sarsgaard is in negotiations to play the villain in the Green Lantern movie. Sarsgaard will play Hector Hammond, the pathological son of a senator who is a disappointment to his father. He gains powers after discovering a meteor. In the comics his powers include a genius level intellect, mind control, telepathy, and telekinesis.

Sarsgaard will be joining Ryan Reynolds and the recently cast Blake Lively in this eagerly anticipated movie slated to be released June 17th, 2011.

As almost the entire nerd and geek community are aware, yesterday Sony dropped a bomb. They announced that Spider-Man 4 has been cancelled and that Sony will move forward with a reboot of the franchise, aiming for a Summer 2012 release.

Probably more than most of the bots on this site, I have invested quite a bit of time keeping up with the development of Raimi’s fourth installment of the series – from the resigning of the cast to villain speculation, and more recently, the production hold and Malkovich’s confirmation of the Vulture being Raimi’s villain of choice. Upon hearing the news of the cancellation, I have mixed emotions about it. I’m going to break down my thoughts for you and I want you to share what you think in the comments below.

I want to start with the bad, so hopefully I can end on a fairly positive note. And let me be clear, overall, I do think this can be a positive thing.

So, let’s face it, while Spidey 3 wasn’t fantastic, most fans of Raimi and the franchise seemed to be willing to give it a pass in hopes of a better 4th installment. There were several stories wrapped up in Spider-Man 3, but it also left a lot of things open. A few things I would have like to see come to fruition at the hands of Raimi:

1. Peter and MJ’s relationship status was questionable at best at the end of 3, we will never get a resolution to how bad Peter screwed the pooch on this one.
2. Would have liked to see The Lizard character take form
3. Over the course of three movies, we never got to see Peter truly be Spider-Man. He was always just learning to use his powers, questioning them, or falling to a “dark side”. Aside from the end of Spider-Man 2 I feel we never got to see a confident “I’m Spider-Man and I’m going to fight the bad guy” Peter Parker.
4. Finally, on my abbreviated list, we never saw a good ol’ fashioned purely evil villain. All of the villains from the films had some sob story about them to try to make you feel bad. Not once did we see a villain bent on destroying Spider-Man that didn’t care who or what got in his way. I would have loved to see some villain show up and truly go toe-to-toe with Spider-Man, with Spidey having no choice but to kick his ass into next week.

Perhaps had Spider-Man 3 been better and wrapped more things up I would be a lot more excited about a reboot, but I feel a lack of closure with the current series that even perhaps one more entry from Raimi could have remedied.

Above everything else though, the most negative part about this is this little tidbit from the press-release from Sony:

“Now everything begins anew, and that’s got us all tremendously excited about what comes next. Under the continuing supervision of Avi and Laura, we have a clear vision for the future of Spider-Man and can’t wait to share this exciting new direction with audiences in 2012.”

If any Spider-Man fan could only name one person to blame for the bad of Spider-Man 3 I think most would agree on one man: Avi Arad (now, not to say Raimi wasn’t 100% excused from being part of the problem). Essentially, he forced Raimi’s hand into putting Venom in the film among other aspects. The sheer fact that the reboot is in the hands of Sony and this man makes me weary. Just when I think a lot of people breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing Riami will have more control over the major decisions of the fouth installment we hear that Arad and Sony will be again at the helm for a reboot. I doubt even the biggest haters of Spider-Man 3 are at least a little weary about this fact of the reboot.

And finally, just today, EW has published news/rumor/specualtion that Sony may be wanting to go for a more gritty reboot like Batman Begins. Let me be clear, Spider-Man is not that gritty. Spider-Man 2 had just enough light-heartedness and reality to keep it balanced. You turn Spider-Man into a Batman and you will lose some of what’s so great about Spidey.

Now, for the positive.

The set-up. For as much of a lack of closure there is after Spider-Man 3, there is a fact that the writers had kind of written themselves into a corner. Were they going to flesh out the Stacy’s? What kind of leap of faith would MJ have to take to stay with Peter? While there are a lot of directions we would have really liked to see the next installment go, realistically there were only a few roads they could take without asking the audience to either just ignore some of the movie’s continuity or take a leap of faith with some plot holes. So with a reboot, we have a fresh start to hopefully learn from mistakes and create a continuity and story that can feasibly be carried across multiple movies.

The cast. I really like the idea of a new cast. I’ve never been a huge fan of Toby being Peter, I hated Dunst as MJ, and the fact that Franco went back to do some soap opera episodes says a lot. In fact, I think the best casting that was done was JK Simmons in the part of J. Jonah Jameson – and he was at best a supporting role! So bring in a new cast, do a better job at casting the parts. I am actually excited about this.

A new beginning. Sony explicitly stated in their press release they want to explore Peter’s roots. I would love to see perhaps a little younger Peter, perhaps Ultimate Spider-Man style? Keep him in high school longer, let him deal with that aspect of beeing a teenager, high school student, and superhero. I would also love to see Gwen Stacy played out and have MJ come in later.

Finally, fanboy speculation. Remember before the first movie came out? All the excitement and wonder about how Spidey would be handled on the big screen? Well, we get to experience that again. All the hopes, ideas, fanboy lists of demands – it’s all back at square one and even with all of the concerns from the first time around, anything is possible at this point!

Overall, while I would have liked to see some closure and another entry that was more in Raimi’s control, this reboot will probably have more positive than good. Hopefully, Sony will see the success Marvel has had with their own movies and allow for more input from them. There are a lot of good up and coming writers and directors out there that I’m sure will be able to do this franchise justice, and I for one am looking forward to the next interpretation of everyone’s favorite wall-crawler! If anything, we not longer have to be forced to watch Kirsten Dunst’s horrid interpretation of MJ anymore! Rejoice!

Now that we can lay all of this Spider-Man 4 drama to rest, start watching for Spider-Man reboot news and rumors!

Sound off in the comments! What are you all excited/concerned about with a reboot!?