According to Coming Soon, Radha Mitchell has joined the cast of Jonathan Mostow's sci-fi thriller, The Surrogates. The movie is based on the graphic novel from Robert Venditti and was adapted by the screenwriting duo of Michael Ferris and John D. Brancato. The bad news is that these guys have written some pretty crappy movies in the past. Hopefully, these two are better at adaptations than they are at original ideas.

In The Surrogates, Bruce Willis stars as a cop in a futuristic world where all human interaction is performed by look-alike robots called Surrogates. Not only do the robots do all the talking for us, but they're even better looking too (when it comes to Mitchell, though, the original is none too shabby ... so I can't imagine what they would do to make her even better looking). When someone begins murdering 'surrogates' right and left, Willis is forced to venture into the outside world for the first time to track down the killer.

I recently attended a press junket for Sylvester Stallone's amazingly violent new Rambo (in theaters January 25th). There, he was asked about his plans to remake the 1974 Charles Bronson classic Death Wish. Peter told you a bit about the new Death Wish in November, when Variety announced that Stallone would direct and star. The film will be scripted by Michael Ferris and John D. Brancato (The Net, The Game, T3: Rise of the Machines). Stallone says he thinks Death Wish, done today "would be volcanic." And despite the lack of success for recent revenge thrillers like Death Sentence and The Brave One, I think he might be right. Below is what Stallone had to say about his take on the material:

The idea in the original of Jeff Goldblum as a mugger who breaks into an apartment seems very simplistic. It gives you an idea of how bad the elevation of violence has become. I want to focus on defense attorneys, on the people who are really allowing this crap to happen. Not so much the guy out in the street, but who permits it? What if it happened to you? What if your daughter down the hall was grabbed and her eyes were put out, would you want to defend that guy? There's moral questions here that are being presented that have not been asked in 30 years. So it's not the pacifist. This fella I see, and I'm giving you a little hint here, he was a very violent human being. An ex-convict who walked the walk, was accepted back into society, did everything he could to be clean. When the incident happens, he reverts back, and it's like "My God." Now you've unleashed a man who really understands the world of violence. He isn't burdened with this passive-aggressive conscientious objector thing that's been done. It's really what happens when the wolf in sheep's clothing goes back to the wolf.

What do you think? Does Stallone's Death Wish sound like something you Wish you could see?

He was supposed to head up Oliver Stone's latest Vietnam drama, Pinkville -- but that is on indefinite hold due to the strike. So, instead of some really depressing accounts of war, Bruce Willis is going sci-fi. Variety reports that the actor has signed on to star in The Surrogates -- Jonathan Mostow's robot production that Erik Davis blogged about back in March. The team that collaborated with the director on T3, Michael Ferris and John Brancato, wrote the script, which is based on a graphic novel from Robert Venditti.

Similar to the game Second Life, Surrogates is set in the near future, where humans live in isolation and interact through surrogate robots who are "better-looking versions" of themselves, rather than making the effort to step out of doors themselves. (A comment on the electronic age? Undoubtedly.) Bruce will play a cop, big surprise, who uses his surrogate to investigate the murders of other surrogates. (Wouldn't that be robotocide?) As the mystery unfolds, he has to do the unthinkable -- leave his house for the first time in years to solve the crime. While I don't go gaga for Willis, he's an attractive man, so I can't wait to see these "better-looking" robotic versions. Will good-looking celebs play sequestered humans who then play with even better-looking robots? This could get tricky really fast. The film will get released through Touchstone, and will gear up to shoot in early 2008.

I know I'm not completely in the minority with this, but I have to admit first off that I loved Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. I really thought Jonathan Mostow did a great job delivering the action -- obviously not close to as good as James Cameron would have done, but better than many others could have. When it was revealed that a fourth Terminator was in the works, I hoped Mostow would be rehired for the gig. But I guess he's either doing something else (Swiss Family Robinson perhaps?) or for some reason he's not welcome back. According to CHUD.com, his replacement on the franchise may be McG, who I find to be one of the most annoying guys working in Hollywood these days. Really, though, I just hate on the guy because of his stupid name. I guiltily kinda enjoyed his two Charlie's Angels movies. Apparently, McG is currently in talks to take the helm of the sequel, for a pre-strike production start, but it isn't for certain that he'll get the job.

I'm sure many of you will probably be upset if McG officially signs on, even if you too just criticize him for his name. It could be the nail on the coffin for a lot of fans already nervous about the continuation of the storyline without any definite sign of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Michael Biehn, Robert Patrick, Edward Furlong, Nick Stahl, Claire Danes or anyone else who has previously starred in the series. From what we've so far heard, it seems part 4 will focus on the post-apocalyptic period involving the war between the machines and John Connor's army. Everything else, regarding an Arnie cameo, or whatever, I'm still considering to be hearsay. Anyway, all I care about now is that at least Terminator 4 has been scripted by T3's Michael Ferris and John D. Brancato, a duo I'm sure are well-enough-versed in the Terminator universe to make this next installment interesting and worth seeing.