August 20, 2008
Whiz of the Web: Wednesday Whiz-Up
The best of the internet, squirted out in flavorful neon globules, just for you.

- The boys at Penny Arcade really outdid themselves today. But... ahem... well, not to get even nerdier than usual on you or anything, but... they also spelled wookiee wrong. It's two e's at the end. Everybody gets that wrong.
- Cinematical picks seven romantic comedies actually worth watching.
- The three main stars of the original The Greatest American Hero TV show have all received offers for cameos in the film remake.
- The voice cast for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs includes Anna Faris, Andy Samberg, Bill Hader, and Mr. T. Mr. T?! Awesome.
- Watch the trailer for An American Carol at your own risk. It appears to be a combination of A Christmas Carol and a brainless satire about Michael Moore (focusing mostly on the idea that he's anti-America). Ugh. (Via)
- Dean Cain's going to be in a movie about the Wendigo called Maneater. They should have just called it Superman vs. the Wendigo! There probably would have been some kind of copyright or trademark issues, though...
- The Coen brothers have cast Tony-nominated stage actor Michael Stuhlbarg and TV's Richard Kind in the two lead roles of their next film, A Serious Man, which is a black comedy set in 1967 Minneapolis.
- McG, director of Terminator Salvation, has apparently distributed copies of Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road to cast members, to help them understand the "existential detachment" that comes with living in a post-apocalyptic environment.
- Check out the trailer, and a new TV spot, for RocknRolla, Guy Ritchie's latest. Looks good!
- Cinematical's Geek Beat lists what we learned from this summer's movies.
- A deal is coming together wherein Sam Raimi would produce and Tom Cruise would star in a film adaptation of the DC/Wildstorm comic book series Sleeper, about a super-powered guy who goes undercover in a criminal organization and finds his loyalties tested.
- Warner Bros. is thinking long and hard about what to do next with its star property, Superman. It could very well be that they'll reboot the franchise yet again and kick Bryan Singer to the side of the road.
- The latest in Guitar Hero news: The Wii version of Guitar Hero World Tour will make use of Miis, although how exactly is not yet clear. Meanwhile, British metal band DragonForce will debut a new single in a Guitar Hero III track pack later this week.
- The rumor is that director Paul W.S. Anderson has been taken off the Spy Hunter movie, which leaves the film in an uncomfortable limbo.
- FireNES is an add-on for Firefox that gives you ready access to a massive repository of NES games. (Via)
- This web game gives you five minutes to guess as many as you can of the 100 most common words in the English language. (Via)
- It's the hottest bikini ever!
- Sci Fi Wire got more info on Ronald D. Moore and Michael Taylor's upcoming show, Virtuality, and picked the nine best Star Wars spoofs.
- Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens will join director Guillermo del Toro writing the screenplay for The Hobbit and its sequel. In fact, the writing has apparently already begun. Woo hoo!
- Alex Proyas will write and direct a film based on the Robert A. Heinlein novella The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag, which is about a man who cannot account for his activities during the day or even what he does for a living, and hires a husband-and-wife private detective duo to find out for him, leading to some unexpected revelations.
- James McAvoy and Emily Blunt are in negotiations to voice the title roles in Gnomeo and Juliet, a computer-animated Shakespeare adaptation about garden gnomes in love.
- Microsoft recently revealed that Guitar Hero World Tour, Rock Band 2, and Rock Revolution's instruments would all be cross-compatible on its platform. If you're still puzzled about all the compatibility possitilibites, the latest version of Joystiq's instrument compatibility matrix should clear things up. In other Microsoft news, the company has officially halted the distribution of all Xbox Live-related iPhone applications via Apple's App Store, but only because they want all such programs to be offered to users free of charge. Aww, that's nice.
- Which to buy, Rock Band or Guitar Hero World Tour? Game|Life does its best to compare the two.
- It's a Street Fighter IV arcade machine locator! We'll save you the trouble of looking, though, and just give you the bad news now: there's none anywhere nearby. :( (Via)
- The House of the Dead: Overkill is a brand new installment in the zombie-shooting video game series made specifically for the Wii. Check out the brilliant, Grindhouse-style trailer here.
- For some reason they're going to remake Poltergeist.
- Sam Raimi is considering actor James Franco for the star role of Jack Ryan in his reboot of the franchise.
- An examination of 20th Century Fox's lawsuit against Warner Bros. over Watchmen, and what it could mean for the movie. (And speaking of Watchmen, check out Springfield Punx's updated collection of illustrations of characters from the story.)
- A great fan-made video of Star Wars invading San Francisco.
- The WB is coming back as an online shop with plans to offer an extensive catalog of network hits as well as a slate of fresh web-only programming.
- Nintendo Wii Fanboy displays highlights from the I Am 8-bit video game art show.
Image Credit: Flickr user marvins_dad






