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If the Mayan calender is correct and the world does end in 2012, it'll be ok because we will have gotten all of our '80s remakes by then! Whew. Fresh on the heels of Total Recall getting its writer, the Oscar nominated Taraji P. Henson joining The Karate Kid, and Jonah Hill's 21 Jump Street plans comes an update on the Short Circuit remake.

According to Variety, Dan Milano of Robot Chicken and Greg the Bunny fame has been recruited to pen the remake for Dimension Films, replacing original writers S.S. Wilson and Brent Maddock. He plans to give it a"subversive edge" similar to his Adult Swim work. Contrast that bit of positivity to the enthusiasm from Dimension Films and producer David Foster, who have no plans to change the design of Number 5 to reflect the 21st century, its improvements in robotics, or the fact that a really popular PIXAR film looks an awful lot like him. "We think of Wall-E as an extended trailer for our film, because it's the same face," Foster said.

In my opinion, there's the mentality that just sums all this up. It's just not hollow enough to remake a 1986 movie, but you consider the existence of Wall E as a cross between a fan film and viral marketing, instead of respecting PIXAR for having used Short Circuit as a nice little homage to something original. But that's my black heart showing. If you're an optimist, you may find it amusingly meta.

Over the weekend my cousin was telling me how he bought the NFL package this year where he gets to watch every single football game, and how there's one channel called The Red Zone that broadcasts without commercials and only shows you live coverage of a team that's about to score. So basically, only the best parts of every game. Well imagine if a similar thing existed for movies and television -- a channel that only aired the "good parts" of whatever movie or television show they decided to highlight. Could be kinda cool, right?

Leave it to those lunatics over at Robot Chicken to dream up such a channel, and last night I caught a little sketch on the show called Just The Good Parts. A couple of television shows are mashed in here, so excuse the non film-related content, but they also tackle a whole bunch of movies like There Will Be Blood, King Kong, Lawrence of Arabia and more. In addition to the clip below, I've included one of my favorite clips from their recent Star Wars episode after the jump called My Dinner with Vader. Hilarious. Check them both out and enjoy.

Warning: The following clip includes foul language

Here's a round-up of today's news:

• Jamie Kennedy is going to produce an indie called In Northwood, which stars Nick Stahl as a man condemned to a mental hospital after committing murder. THR
• Cocaine Cowboys has picked itself up a scribe -- gonzo journalist and screenwriter Evan Wright. THR
  
• Everyone's favorite pot-smoking Jay, aka Jason Mewes, has nabbed a starring role in the indie slasher flick Silent But Deadly, which shoots in Ontario next month. Variety
• Phillip Noyce, meanwhile, is going to hit the plank and write the remake of Captain Blood. THR
• Check out Jennifer's blood-dripping lips, which just so happens to look like a certain television poster that was released recently. JoBlo
  
• Get ready for Robot Chicken: Star Wars: Episode 2! Coming Soon
• Posters: The Day The Earth Stood Still and Max Payne

This is a pretty slow week for DVDs, but there are two more TV-themed releases just perfect for the movie world with slices of celebs and Star Wars content.

Spaced
Tim and Daisy are two strangers who meet while trying to find a new place to live. When they find the perfect apartment, one that requests a couple, they fake it and move in together. The pair try to keep this from the alcoholic landlady while dealing with their dysfunctional romantic lives and spending time with downstairs neighbor Brian, Tim's best friend Mike, and Daisy's best friend, Twist. It sounds fun enough, but add in a ton of geeky cultural references, and names like Jessica Hynes, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost, and then the rabid fandom starts to make sense.

While it's a number of years old, Spaced has created a whirlwind in the last year -- one that has stretched well beyond its UK borders. And now, finally, we've got the saucy new DVD. You've probably heard about this release over the last few months, because it's not your everyday DVD release. It's a star-studded event.

The packed disc offers not only commentary from people like Pegg, Hynes, and Frost, but also commentaries from Diablo Cody, Matt Stone, Quentin Tarantino, and Kevin Smith, plus Pegg teaming up with a few others -- Patton Oswalt and Bill Hader. There's also biographies, homage-o-meter, teasers, outtakes, featurettes, alternate endings... and even more.

Buy the DVD

Granted, McG doesn't have the best track record in holding on to projects, so until everyone signs on the dotted line we will have to chalk this up to idle chatter for now. According to Bloody-Disgusting.com McG will be taking over directing duties for the fantasy film Me and My Monster, which is about, "A young boy [who] has a friendship with a bizarre creature that changes the course of his life as he becomes an adult." This instantly brings to my mind the Phoebe Cates film Drop Dead Fred, but I tend of have a film memory that is ruled by tangents. The script for Monster was written by Matthew Huffman and Robot Chicken writer Dan Milano and originally, Jake Gyllenhaal was attached to the project as the lead, but there has been no update on that recently.

The last film we had from McG was the male weepy We Are Marshall and there had been some talk that he had been chosen to replace Peter Berg on the big-screen version of The Losers -- a DC/Vertigo series that was based on obscure DC title. But now, that project has been taken over by Tim Story. There is still the chance that McG will be producing a live-action film about Hot Wheels, but it's almost been a year and there seems to be no movement on that one. The current studio climate seems to favor nostalgia, so it could still happen -- that is if he doesn't drop out or get replaced first.

Call it a coincidence or call it fate, but three minutes after finishing my post on that horrific Star Wars trailer, this little nugget showed up in my RSS feeds. According to CNN, Mark Hamill has agreed to resurrect Luke Skywalker for -- wait for it -- a thirty-minute Robot Chicken special on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. Not only that, but George Lucas (who, of course, had to give the greenlight) will play himself in the special. Imagine that one! Lucas has lightened up. I love it! Apart from acting, Lucasfilm helped collaborate with Chicken creators Seth Green and Matthew Senreich, going so far as to provide them with sound files on Chewbacca and R2-D2. The special, Robot Chicken: Star Wars, will premiere on Adult Swim this June 17 at 10PM EST.

I've never been a huge fan of Seth Green, but the man earned a ton of respect from me when his Robot Chicken hit the boob tube last year (or was it the year before, I forget?). The show, which utilizes a stop-motion animation technique, is so ridiculously funny that I often find myself laughing so loud, my neighbors are forced to bang on the wall. This entire special came about after Robot Chicken featured a skit called Emperor's Phone Call, in which Darth Vader calls the Emperor to let him know the Death Star has been blown up. When reps from Lucasfilm wanted the sketch for StarWars.com, a meeting was held between Green, Senreich and Lucasfilm, they pitched their ideas and, now, Luke Skywalker is coming back! Now, don't get too excited -- it's not like Hamill will bring back Luke for the upcoming animated Star Wars TV show, but knowing those Chicken boys, I'm sure this one-time appearance will be worth a watch.