Every day, another graphic novel is optioned by a studio great or small, and very rarely do they stir much interest in me. They always seem to be a variation on the assassin-with-a-heart-of-gold or superhero deconstruction, which can't even motivate me to pick up the graphic novel, let alone buy a movie ticket. So, it's a rare treat when the trades run the latest comic to be snatched up and I go "Okay -- this one I get." Hiding in Time is one of these.

According to Variety, Warner Bros has bought the rights to Christopher Long and Ryan Winn's series. Time is set in a future where the Witness Protection Program is no longer interested in changing your name and moving you to Tampa -- instead, they send you back in time to hide from those you snitched on. If hiding out in the Black Death to escape your mob buddies sounds too good to be true, it is, as a group of armed thugs begin hunting them down across the ages. It's up to one humble scientist in the Time Portal Division to stop them. (The trades mention that the scientist teams up with a master thief to track down his old crew -- I don't know if that's part of the movie pitch, or if that actually happens in the series.) No director has been named, but Beau Thorne is tackling the screenplay.

According to Variety, Matthew Fox is in talks to play the title character in Warner Bros' Billy Smoke, an adaptation of Oni Press's newest comic book series. Don't feel bad if you're wondering who the hell Billy Smoke is, and why you can't keep up with comic books these days -- it won't be published until next year. Oni Press doesn't even have a preview of it up, so we can't judge it based on six pages.

However, the story goes a little something like this: Smoke is an elite hit man, who is nearly killed during a botched job. He has a change of heart, and realizes that his only way to find redemption is to rid the world of all assassins. It's waking up the ghost of another film in my brain, but I'll be damned if I can remember what it is. Readers?

The series is being written by by B. Clay Moore, who already has racked up some luck in the movie business. His graphic novel, Leading Man, was recently optioned by Universal. And yes, that too is published by Oni Press. I'm a little worried they are actually taking over Hollywood, as this is the fifth book of theirs to be optioned by a studio. The Last Call was bought just last week. I'm not sure what titles are even left to buy at this point -- may I nominate Polly and the Pirates?

...and by SEs I mean big, fat, loaded mega-special editions of the studio's most popular stuff. And when WB delivers a Special Edition, they generally don't mess around. (Unlike some home video distributors *koff Universal* who throw the SE term around willy-nilly.) Just a quick scan through my mega-awesome DVD collection reveals WB SEs like Goodfellas, Dirty Harry, Amadeus, The Shawshank Redemption, Blade Runner, Superman, and a whole bunch more. If there's a catalog title you love, you should pray it gets the WB 2-disc SE treatment.

And a bunch more are on the way! According to Video Business, WB plans to double its SE output moving forward, and while we don't have any specs just yet, we do know that the following titles will be available (in fancy form) later this year: 300 (yes already, even though I thought the first 2-discer was pretty damn excellent), Casablanca (also again, but if any film deserves it...), A Christmas Story (cool!), JFK (a movie I need to see again), and I Am Legend. Come to think of it, all five of these movies already have Special Edition releases! These new discs better be pretty dang impressive.

Also on the way: The Peanuts Complete Holiday Collection. Which I definitely will own.

MTV snagged an exclusive photo from the mysterious Where the Wild Things Are, which they spotted at the New York Licensing Expo. Click on the tantalizing photo on the right to see the whole thing over on MTV. It isn't very big, but it is one of those evocative images that makes you absolutely crazy to see this movie. It really is perfect -- from the wolf suit down to those mysterious monster paws.

The rumors still abound about it. The fact that it is appearing at the Licensing Expo gives one hope that we will see it, and that they won't actually recast a child they have featured on the advertising. To catch you up, Kim talked to Tom Noonan at Cannes. He thought the film would be released as Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers had intended it to be.

Yet, as Monika reported at the beginning of June, Warner Bros is prepping a month of reshoots. It was unclear how much was being changed, but new casting calls went out for various stand-in roles. That suggests that it is more than a few pick-up shots, and that all the whispers of unhappiness and drastic alterations are true. The silence from all involved (with the exception Noonan and Forrest Whitaker) doesn't help. At least we can enjoy the picture and wonder.

[via Empire]

Near the end of last week, Defamer spread the rumor that Picturehouse, once the indie arm of New Line Cinema and currently dangling from the edge of the hulking entity known as Warner Bros., has its days numbered. Now that New Line is history and Warners, like many studios, has faced increasing cutbacks, it may give short shrift to the shingles responsible for handling artier fare. Along with Picturehouse, this also includes Warner Independent Pictures, whose recent release slate includes David Gordon Green's magnificent Snow Angels.

Defamer suggested that Picturehouse president Bob Berney might wind up at WIP or head up a new, currently anonymous company. On Friday, Variety's Anne Thompson put it in more coherent terms: It appears quite likely that WIP and Picturehouse will merge together as a single company, with current WIP president Polly Cohen working alongside Berney. Whatever happens, let's just hope that the final result still leaves room for the sharp selection of independent and foreign titles that Picturehouse has handled since its birth three years ago. Defamer points out that Marion Cotillard's unexpected Oscar win for La Vie en Rose matters less than the flop of Run, Fatboy, Run, while the John Simpson-directed horror film Amusement might get dumped on DVD. It was just last year, however, that the company helped edgy fare like The Orphanage and Rocket Science get the sort of release most studios would never try. Let's hope that bravery lives on, somewhere.

It's been awhile since news of a live-action Teen Titans movie surfaced, what with all the hoopla surrounding Justice League. But when ComicMix sat down with writer-producer Mark Verheiden, the guy had a ton to say about where Warner Bros. is currently at with that Teen Titans movie, as well as what his plans are for the characters and the story. Regarding the script, Verheiden says, "I turned in a pass to Warner Bros. right before the strike and we've talked about that and I'm going to get back into it. I'll address some of their thoughts and work on the next draft."

On where he plans to go with the story: "We're going to have some strong adversaries, or antagonists, but really, I'm trying to concentrate on the core group of these characters, who we meet at a point when they're at the cusp of adulthood ... It's no secret Robin is in this movie, so what if you were him, after living in the shadow of Bruce Wayne and Batman, and now you wanted to go off on your own and become your own man, your own superhero? That's got to be a huge thing to overcome. That makes it interesting for me ... I'm also looking to the work of Marv Wolfman and George Perez as the touchstone of inspiration for the film."

Wolfman and Perez, of course, were responsible for the 1980s Teen Titans revival. Check out the full interview with Verheiden (including all sorts of Battlestar Galactica stuff) over at ComicMix. What do you think about this Teen Titans flick? Could it be better or worse than the upcoming Justice League movie?

As both an ardent DVD collector and a shameless bargain hunter, I'm a big fan of these double-feature and triple-feature DVDs that have been hitting the shelves over the past year or two. (As long as the movies are in their original aspect ratio, I'm a happy guy -- plus I got Larry Cohen's It's Alive trilogy for nine bucks!) So you figure three movies in one DVD case (for about $14) is a pretty good deal, provided you actually LIKE all three of the movies. Well, Warner Bros. Home Video is aiming to beat that deal. Streeting on November 7 will be the following packages. (The official WB site lists each item at $14.95, which is a great deal ... if the flicks are any good!)

• Children's Fantasy -- Five Children & It (2004), The Neverending Story (1984), The Secret Garden (1993), The Witches (1990)
• Classic Horse Films -- Black Beauty (1994), International Velvet (1978), National Velvet (1944), The Story of Seabiscuit (1949)
• Draculas -- Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972), Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968), Horror of Dracula (1958), Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970)
• Extreme Action -- Eraser (1996), The Last Boy Scout (1991), Passenger 57 (1992), Point of No Return (1993)
• Family Adventures -- The Amazing Panda Adventure (1995), Duma (2005), Flipper (1996), Shiloh (1996)
• Family Comedies -- Funky Monkey (2004), Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003), Osmosis Jones (2001), Space Jam (1996)
• Horror -- Bad Moon (1996), Body Snatchers (1993), Coma (1978), Wolfen (1981)
• John Wayne War -- Back to Bataan (1945), Flying Leathernecks (1951), Operation Pacific (1951), They Were Expendable (1945)
• Lethal Weapon -- Lethal Weapon (1987), Lethal Weapon 2 (1989), Lethal Weapon 3 (1992), Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)
  
• Martial Arts -- The Bloody Fists (1974), Militant Eagle (1978), Moonlight Sword and Jade Boxer (1981), The Prodigal Boxer (1973)
• New Line Family -- The Adventures of Pinocchio (1996), The Little Vampire (2000), Monkey Trouble (1994), Son of the Mask (2005)
• New Line Romantic Comedy -- The Bachelor (1999), Bed of Roses (1996), Don Juan DeMarco (1995), Laws of Attraction (2004)
• Romance -- Best Friends (1982), Forget Paris (1995), The Goodbye Girl (2004), Her Alibi (1989)
• Stephen King -- Cat's Eye (1985), Creepshow (1982), Dolores Claiborne (1995), Dreamcatcher (2003)
• Steven Seagal -- Above the Law (1988), Fire Down Below (1997), The Glimmer Man (1996), Under Siege (1992)
• Sylvester Stallone -- Demolition Man (1993), Over the Top (1987), The Specialist (1994), Tango & Cash (1989)
• Thrillers -- Copycat (1995), The Crush (1993), Diabolique (1996), Pacific Heights (1990)

Over at her blog, Nikke Finke has written a long and somewhat contradictory post-mortem on last weekend's big news story, spawned by her, that Warner Bros. no longer sees women as viable leads for their motion pictures. She notes a number of communications she's had over the last few days with Robinov, the studio chief who apparently made the offending comments, but says they are off the record and won't discuss them. She also strangely calls his e-mails "charming" at one point before returning to defend herself against accusations of overreach on this issue. Just as I was rolling my eyes and about to flip away from the blog, I noticed that Finke also throws in something on the Justice League movie. She says Robinov "has been saying he would only make Wonder Woman ... as a spin-off of Justice League. But his proviso is that Justice League, about four superheroes including Wonder Woman, would have to do really, really boffo to justify having a female as the main star of a spin-off pic."

This makes sense to me. I bet Robinov tried to lock Jessica Biel into some indentured servitude contract that would pay her peanuts for both the Justice League film and a low-budget Wonder Woman stand-alone to follow (think Catwoman-level cheapness), and she balked. If that's the case, then what is Robinov's problem? Why doesn't he just stop postponing the inevitable and cast Jennifer Connelly in this thing -- honestly, could anyone else do Wonder Woman justice? -- pair her with an A-list male star to alleviate concerns over womanly box-office punching power and throw money at someone to write a script that's actually not terrible. How hard could it possibly be?

So if you needed some final, indisputable proof that somebody out there thinks a Thundercats movie is a great idea, here it is: Warner Bros. has hired a director. First-timer Jerry O'Flaherty will be bringing the ol' Cats into the multiplexes through the magic of CG-laced nostalgia. (I'm guessing it'll look and sound a whole lot like the slick and forgettable TMNT from earlier this year.)

Although he hasn't directed any features, O'Flaherty is a long-time veteran in the field of video game animation. And isn't it really all the same stuff nowadays? The screenplay will come from a guy called Paul Sopocy, who has one thing in common with his new director: Thundercats will mark his first feature film. According to Variety, "the origin story expands on the major heroes and villains from the animated series, with the plot focusing on Lion-O coming of age as the leader of the Thundercats."

And just in case you need a quick refresher course on the long and storied history of the Thundercats, here are two more sentences: "The property revolves around a group of humanoid cats who must flee the planet of Thundera, which is destroyed. Once crash-landing on another planet, Third Earth, they must thwart Mumm-Ra, an evil sorcerer bent on killing them off." Yeah, I remember this cartoon. Trippy-colored cat-people super-heroes and a maniacal mummy sorcerer who really hates them feline freaks. I distinctly remember a very annoying sidekick....

No, not Guillermo Del Toro! That guy's busy enough! I'm talking about the Oscar-winning bad-ass actor known as Benicio Del Toro. A while back we informed you that the guy would be starring in a new version of The Wolf Man for Universal. and director Mark Romanek. Well, the flick is still on the way (fortunately), but Benny has some other projects to get through first -- including two Soderbergh films in which he'll play Che Guevara!

But back to the wolfy stuff. Del Toro will play Lawrence Talbot in Romanek's new rendition, and the behind-the-scenes info just keeps getting better and better. Not only does the adaptation come from the man who wrote Seven and Sleepy Hollow -- but according to the actor (and the MTV Movies Blog) the legendary Anthony Hopkins has just joined the cast. It's been a rumor up till now, but the actor semi-confirms it: "I think so," he says. Universal seems to have May 2009 penciled in for the return of The Wolf Man, but why not bump it a few months? A big-budget Wolf Man re-do ... that's got the Halloween season written all over it.