Stars: Linzey Cocker, Shaun Dooley, Neve McIntosh | Written by Lawrence Gough & Colin O’Donnell | Directed by Lawrence Gough

When a mysterious container washes up on the shores near Liverpool, the residents of a sleepy cul-de-sac are plunged into violence, terror and paranoia after a group of heavily armed military personnel storms the area, sealing off the close and ordering the residents at gunpoint to retreat inside their homes. Unsure if this is the first sign of a terrorist attack, or something worse, single mother Beth (Mcintosh), finds it in herself to fight to save her estranged daughter Jodie (Cocker), who is visiting her for the holiday but is now stranded across the street in a neighbour’s house. However, the trapped residents soon discover that the imminent threat is far more monstrous than any of them could have possibly imagined.

I’ve been looking forward to seeing Salvage ever since it played at last year’s FrightFest – the idea that the headline making event of shipping containers washed up on the UK shores was turned into a horror flick was so appealing. Sadly the six month wait to see the film may have raised my anticipation too high as despite all the good things I had heard about the film I saw nothing in Salvage that makes it anything more than your typical DVD pot-boiler.

Salvage starts out well, director Gough throws the viewer into the middle of a father-daughter car trip and the pair are eminently likeable, with a brilliant rapport between the two characters their relationship feels really natural. However the time spent on the pair its wasted, as the duo reach their destination – the estranged mother’s – the father is never seen again; and the way we’re introduced to the mother, Beth – the daughter Jodie walks in on her during sex – really didn’t endear her to me, so I spent the rest of the film completely dis-interested in everything she did.

Beth spends the rest of the movie trying to get to her daughter (who ran off after catching her mum in flagrante), a job that should only take a few minutes as the daughter is literally across the road – but it seems Beth is more interested in chatting to her one night stand than finding her daughter! When she does venture out she runs foul of the huge military force that are trying to contain the situation. I say huge military force, but due to budgetary constraints it’s more like four guys – and that’s the entire problem with Salvage, the idea is sound but it’s the execution that lets the film down.

A bigger budget and tighter script & direction and Salvage could have really been a taut “ripped from the headlines” horror. As it is, Salvage merely joins the ranks of the low-budget DTV could have beens…

7.10pm The Lost Boys (Sky Movies SciFi & Horror)
Unmissable classic ’80s movie starring Corey Haim, Corey Feldman and Keifer Sutherland. Financial troubles force a recent divorcee and her teenage sons Mike and Sam to settle down with her father in the California town of Santa Carla. At first, Sam laughs off rumours he hears about vampires who inhabit the small town. But after Mike meets a beautiful girl at the local amusement park, he begins to exhibit the classic signs of vampirism. Fearing for his own safety, Sam recruits two young vampire hunters to save his brother by finding and destroying the head vampire.

8.00pm Friday the 13th: The Series (Zone Horror)
An old antique dealer made a pact with the Devil to sell cursed antiques. When he dies, his store is inherited by his niece Micki and her cousin Ryan. With the help of Jack Marshak, they fight to retrieve the antiques from the people who bought them to stop them from causing harm. Season One, episode 23.

9.00pm Razortooth (Zone Horror)
Mutant killer eels take over a small town in the Florida Everglades. Can an unlikely band of students hunt them down and save their town.

OR

9.00pm Fifty/Fifty (Movies4Men +1)
Two bickering mercenaries are hired by the CIA to overthrow a South East Asian dictator. Action drama starring Peter Weller and Robert Hayes.

OR

9.00pm Snakes on a Plane (Channel 4)
Samuel L. Jackson plays Neville Flynn, an FBI agent escorting Sean Jones, a witness to a gangland slaying, from Hawaii to Los Angeles. However, the gangster, Eddie Kim, has secreted crates of venomous serpents in the cargo hold and when they’re released, all hell breaks loose.

10.00pm Road Trip (Sky Movies Comedy)
Josh and Tiffany have been together since they were kids. Enter Beth, a sexy blonde going to college with Josh. One night, Josh and Beth hook up and make a videotape the same day that Josh plans to mail a video to Tiffany of him talking about college life. The wrong tape gets sent, forcing Josh, along with a few pals, to go on a road trip to Austin and stop Tiffany from seeing the tape.

10.55pm Lockjaw: Rise of the Kulev Serpent (Zone Horror)
In the countryside, the boy Alan and his friend Becky steal a creepy wooden box with a powerful voodoo stick inside from his voodooistic neighbor. When the boy draws with the stick, his drunken father is attacked by a snake and vanishes. Years later, Alan and Becky are married to each other; while planting some flowers to celebrate the death of Alan’s mother, Becky finds the box buried in the garden and she keeps the stick in her pocket. Meanwhile, five friends are traveling in a monster truck, drinking beer. The driver accidentally runs over Becky, but believes he had hit an animal. When Alan witnesses the hit-and-run and sees his wife dead, he uses the stick seeking revenge against the youngsters.

12.00am Carrie (True Movies 2)
Carrie White is a shy, troubled teenage girl with the unwanted and often uncontrollable gift of telekenisis, the ability to move any objects by mere thought which is triggered at any time by Carrie’s heightened emotional state of anger or fear. Carrie is frequently harassed at her high school by wealthy and snobbish classmates and even more at home by her demented, Christian fundamentalist fanatic mother Margaret. One classmate, Sue, feels compassion for Carrie and gets her boyfriend Tommy to asks Carrie to the senior prom. But another classmate, Chris, is banned from the prom and plots a cruel prank against Carrie at the prom involving a bucket of pig’s blood which pushes the unstable Carrie completely over the edge and uses her telekinetic powers to turn the prom into a bloodbath of her own. 2002 TV remake starring Angela Bettis as the titular Carrie…

Suck, which premiered at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, stars Rob Stefaniuk, Jessica Paré, Paul Anthony, Mike Lobel, Chris Ratz, Dave Foley, Henry Rollins, Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper, Carole Pope, and Alex Lifeson; and tells the story of:

Joey (Stefaniuk), the ostensible leader of the Winners, a bar band going exactly nowhere. They’re broke and feuding with one another, and the crappy gigs they’ve managed to cobble together and call a tour are being cancelled. Even their lame manager Jeff (Foley) doesn’t want anything to do with them. Things aren’t much better on the home front. Joey’s permanently enraged girlfriend feels neglected and isn’t thrilled that his ex, Jennifer (Paré), is still in the band. But their luck is about to change.

Picked up by a rather scary goth type, Jennifer shows up the next day looking, well, paler than usual. This would normally be a cut-and-dried moral situation, but Jennifer’s recently acquired gifts get the band more attention than ever. And as the bodies pile up and the band’s tolerance for sunlight drops, Joey is faced with an impossible decision: give up what he’s dreamt of all these years, or do the right thing.

Directed by Rob Stefaniuk, Suck has still to recieve a release date. However check out these  images from the film, and the brand new official trailer:

If you haven’t seen them already, you can check out two clips from Suck that were released back in January, right here.

Welcome to the second in our all-new regular feature here at Blogomatic3000, where – in association with the folks at Sky Movies HD – we take a look at some of the films premiering on Sky Movies and Sky Box-Office this month.

NICK AND NORAH’S INFINITE PLAYLIST

Stars: Michael Cera, Kat Dennings, Ari Graynor, Alexis Dziena, Aaron Yoo, Rafi Gavron | Written by Lorene Scafaria | Directed by Peter Sollett

Nick can’t stop obsessing about Tris, his cute, blond, conniving ex-girlfriend. Norah, also a senior and an acquaintance of Tris’, is dissed by Tris at a club in New York City, so to show she’s cool and has a boyfriend, she goes up a stranger, whispers in his ear, and kisses him. It’s Nick. So begins a night of fits and starts between Nick and Norah as they share a love of music, search for Norah’s drunk friend Caroline, and hunt for an elusive band scheduled to play somewhere in town…

A rom com for the emo era, Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist is the latest in the long line of “one wild night” style movies that Hollywood churns out every few years or so – After Hours, Adventures in Babysitting, The Night Before – and like those films, the success of  this movie rests on it’s two leads, in this case Michael Cera and Kat Denings, a duo whose chemistry really holds the film together, so much so that I wonder if the film would’ve fallen flat without them. Taking cues from the John Hughes school of storytellling, film is a slow burner – a series of mishaps and misadventures that eventually build to a satisfying romantic conclusion – and like Hughes’ films, Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist makes good use of music to help tell the tale…

Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist debuts on Sky Premiere and Sky Premiere HD on March 26th at 5.30pm

(500) DAYS OF SUMMER

Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zooey Deschanel | Written by Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber | Directed by Marc Webb

Zooey Deschanel is Summer, a cynically jaded commitment-phobe who captures the heart of greetings card writer Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Flitting back and forward through the 500 days that their relationship flounders, the film delivers alternative spin on the tradtional rom-com.

In what could be the first post-modern chick flick for guys, director Marc Webb uses a non-linear storyline to tell the story of a relationship between a boy and a girl over the period of 500 days. (500) Days of Summer differs from traditional rom coms in that it is less about the story and more about the emotion, the film captures the feeling of being in a relationship – from the highs (portrayed brilliantly in one of the best dance sequences since the Gene Kelly era), to (what at the time feels like) the life-shattering lows. (500) Days of Summer is a rare feat: it manages to take one of the oldest stories in cinema – that of boy meets girl – and brings a new spin to the tale, avoiding cliches and packing the film with stylish flair. The film is one of those rare movies that come along once in a while and really MOVES you…

Don’t take my word for it, judge for yourself: (500) Days of Summer is now showing on Sky Box Office.

In an interview with ITN’s GameOn, Kiss front man Gene Simmons has accidentally revealed that Guitar Hero 6 is in development. Simmons claimed that he has been hired by Activision to provide voiceover work for the game.

The studio is yet to officially announce a Guitar Hero 6, but it has confirmed that there are plans to launch a new Guitar Hero title in the later half of 2010. According to RedOctane’s founder, Kai Huang, the development team is looking at incorporating the use of new technology such as Project Natal or Sony’s Move into the game. One song is already known – the band Tesla revealed their song ‘Modern Day Cowboy’ will appear in the title.

As a young child, Kotono (Minami Tsukui) witnesses the slaying of her father, a master swordsman, by one of his most gifted pupils. Already trained in swordsmanship from an early age, she continues her studies and inherits her father’s skills and his legendary weapon. Now, fully grown and adopting the persona of a beautiful geisha, Kotono sets out to avenge her father’s death by confronting the man who killed him. But, the path to completing her quest is an obstructed one. To reach her goal, she must first conquer a succession of adversaries including deadly female ninjas, murderous monks, fantastical demons and ruthless assassins.

Ohara’s movie combines the look and feel of arthouse Asian cinema such as House of 1000 Daggers with the no-punches-pulled mayhem of Kill Bill and the breathless fight-after-fight principles of a modern-day combat video game.

Geisha Assassin will be released on DVD by MVM on 5th April 2010.

7.00pm Tremors 2: Aftershocks (Sci-Fi Channel)
When an army of Graboids – giant, carnivorous underground worms – threaten the Petromaya oil refinery in Mexico, its owners call on Earl Bassett, who once helped kill four of the creatures in Perfection, Nevada. Having squandered the money that came from his resulting celebrity status, Earl is convinced by the $50,000-a-head bounty offered, as well as the enthusiasm of admirer Grady Hoover, who becomes his partner. At Petromaya, Earl and Grady meet geologist Kate Reilly, and begin Graboid hunting, tricking several Graboids into swallowing bomb-rigged, remote-controlled cars. When they find they’re facing a lot more Graboids than they ever expected, Earl calls his friend Burt Gummer, a survivalist who arrives well-stocked with weapons. Followed immediately by Tremors 3.

8.00pm Friday the 13th: The Series (Zone Horror)
An old antique dealer made a pact with the Devil to sell cursed antiques. When he dies, his store is inherited by his niece Micki and her cousin Ryan. With the help of Jack Marshak, they fight to retrieve the antiques from the people who bought them to stop them from causing harm. Season One, episode 22.

9.00pm Deep Evil (Zone Horror)
Mega Shark and Giant Octopus battler Lorenzo Lamas fights a whole different type of monster in this DTV sci-fi action flick. An alien microbe lands in remote Siberia in the 1950’s and in the year 2004, US scientist working at a top secret underground lab in Alaska clone the microbe. A garbled distress signal is heard from the lab just before a complete lock down of the facility and total radio silence. Which leads to the military sending in a team of scientists and military personnel to find what went wrong.

OR

9.00pm She’s The Man (Film4)
This comedy, lightly based on Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, stars Amanda Bynes as Viola, twin sister of Sebastian (James Kirk). When he plays truant for two weeks from his boarding school, she takes the chance to impersonate him and achieve her ambition of playing soccer for the boys’ team, rather than the girls’ team at her school. Her disguise works well, fooling even coach Dinklage (Vinnie Jones), but matters get more complicated when Olivia (Laura Ramsey) becomes attracted to her as Sebastian, particularly since Viola’s roommate Duke (Channing Tatum) is attracted to Olivia. The unusual romantic triangle comes to a head as the boys’ team takes on the girls’ team.

10.00pm Watchmen (Sky Movies Premiere/Premiere  HD)
In a world where superheroes have been outlawed, the murder of a masked avenger brings his colleagues out of retirement. Investigating the killing, the team uncover a sinister plot that could change the course of history.

11.00pm xXx 2 (Watch +1)
Agent Augustus Gibbons has selected an imprisoned former US Navy SEAL Darius Stone, a new agent in the xXx program, travels to Washington D.C., where they track a splinter faction of the U.S. military that attempts to overthrow the U.S. government and assassinate the President, led by Secretary of Defense and former 4-Star General George Deckert, Stone’s former commanding officer whom he once led a mutiny against. But he’s been targeted for assassination by a radical splinter group of dissenters deep within the United States government. The new xXx agent must uncover the insurgents from within. It is the nation’s only hope to stop the first coup d’etat in American history.

12.00am Megasnake (Zone Horror +1)
Outrageous monster mayhem that sees a paramedic scared of snakes who must fight his brother’s oversized, murderous, slithering specimen. Stars Michael Shanks.

1.05am TimeCop 2: The Berlin Decision (ITV1)
Twenty years after a set of events, the TEC (Time Enforcement Commission), the agency that makes sure that no one travels into the past without permission and changes history, is still going strong. Now Brandon Miller a TEC operative, believes that they have a responsibility to change history hoping that the world will be better but Ryan Chan another Tec operative stops him but kills the woman he loves in the process. Two years later Miller escapes from prison and sets out to eliminate all TEC operatives by killing their ancestors. Eventually Ryan’s the only one left and has to stop Miller before he gets him.

Some may be oblivious to the work that network television goes through to make sure the public is entertained and they keep revenue numbers in the black. Take network giant ABC for instance, Who are slowly riding out the last of the hit series Lost (airing it’s final season this year), as well as working on other, more recent, hit series such as V and Flash Forward. Even with all of this they’re still working on television pilots for 2011, here are the highlights:

187 Detroit (Drama)
Executive Producer: Jason Richman & others
Cast Includes: Jon Michael Hill, Aisha Hinds
Synopsis: A realistic yet humorous look at a Homicide Division in Detroit as seen through the cameras of a fictitious documentary crew.

Body of Evidence (Drama)
Executive Producer: Chris Murphey & others
Cast Includes: To Be Announced
Synopsis: A procedural that focuses on the exploits of an examiner who is a genius neuro surgeon, using her expertise in her field to give interesting new takes on solving crimes, much to the chagrin of her coworkers.

Off The Map (Drama)
Executive Producer: Jenna Bans & Others
Cast Includes: Martin Henderson, Enrique Murciano
Synopsis: Three Doctors looking for a fresh start leave the united states to take up residency in the tropics. Along the way they face challenges, both medically and personally.

No Ordinary Family (Comedy)
Executive Producer: John Feldman & Others
Cast Includes: Michael Chiklis
Synopsis: A typical American family begin to realize that they have supernatural abilities and find themselves dealing not only with their new powers, but also with the day to day challenges met in a modern day family.

Who Gets The Parents? (Comedy)
Executive Producer: Joe Port & Others
Cast Includes: To Be Announced
Synopsis: Three adult siblings begin to deal with the challenges of their parents late-in-life divorce.

With these pilots, along with the many others being worked on by ABC and the rest of the US networks, we can all rest easy knowing that even on the eve of the 2012 apocalypse as predicted by John Cusack, we will be adequately entertained!

NY Magazine’s Vulture is reporting that David Fincher (Seven, Zodiac) is interested in directing the proposed US remake of the Swedish crime-thriller The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

The rights to the Millenium series of books by now-deceased author Stieg Larsson were picked up by Sony back in December. Scott Rudin, who was apparently instrumental in securing the US remake rights, is producing for Sony, with screenwriter Steve Zaillian (Schindler’s List, American Gangster) adapting the novel.

In other The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo news, Sony are looking to Best Actress nominee Carey Mulligan for the role of Lisbeth Salander, the socially awkward hacker heroine. However, neither Fincher or Mulligan have signed on board yet…

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is in selected UK cinemas now

20th Century Fox have released a sneak peek of Predators – the same one that was shown yesterday to those attending SXSW in Austin, Texas. The film is produced be Robert Rodriguez and directed by Nimród Antal; and stars Adrien Brody, Topher Grace, Alice Braga, and Laurence Fishburne. The official synopsis reads:

Predators, a bold new chapter in the Predator universe, shot under the creative auspices of Robert Rodriguez, stars Adrien Brody as Royce, a mercenary who reluctantly leads a group of elite warriors who to come to realize they’ve been brought together on an alien planet…as prey. With the notable exception of a disgraced physician, they are all cold-blooded killers-mercenaries, Yakuza convicts, death squad members – human “predators” that are now being systemically hunted and eliminated by a new breed of alien Predators.

This sneak peek comes courtesy of the just-launched official Predators website, which also revealed that the first trailer for the film is due out next week and we’ll bring it to you as soon as we have it…

Predators is due for a US release July 9th and in the UK on July 22nd 2010.

Following in the bloody footsteps of The Machine Girl and Tokyo Gore Police by way of Mad Max, Robocop and The Bionic Woman, Hard Revenge Milly is a hyper-violent tale of vengeful retribution garnished with geysers of gore and viscera dished out by a heroine who is to die for. Boasting incredible, over-the-top special makeup effects by the Japanese king of gore, Yoshihiro Nishimura (the man responsible for the breathtaking effects seen in RoboGeisha, Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl, Samurai Princess, The Machine Girl and Tokyo Gore Police), superbly choreographed sword and fist fight sequences and introducing a hot new female action star in the form Miki Mizuno, the Hard Revenge Milly movies are a definite must-see experience for extreme splatter fans everywhere.

Hard Revenge Milly
In a near-future, post-apocalyptic Japan, Tokyo has become a wind swept desert while Yokahama City has been taken over by gangs of vicious criminals, the worst among them being the notorious ‘Jack Brothers’. Butchered and left for dead by Jack and his gang after being tortured and forced to witness the murder of her husband and infant child, Milly (Miki Mizuno) awakes in a deserted hospital to find herself miraculously alive and now in possession of a partly mechanized body. With nothing left to live for and driven only by revenge, Milly vows to hunt down the killers and to settle the score. First learning the art of sword combat from a master swordsman, she eventually embarks on a journey that can only lead her to straight to Hell.

Hard Revenge Milly: Bloody Battle
Having tracked down and confronted the Jack Brothers, Milly is approached by a beautiful girl named Haru (Nao Nagazawa) who asks her to help find and kill the person responsible for murdering her boyfriend. Initially reluctant to become involved in any more bloodshed, Milly recognizes and identifies with Haru’s passion for vengeance and agrees to train her so she may exact her own revenge. But no sooner have they begun than they are accosted by a gang of Jack’s sycophants who want Milly dead once and for all. Led by a cyborg-armed psychopath named Ikki, they prove not only to be a match for Milly and Haru, they are also found to be in possession of a secret that could drive a deadly stake between the two women.

The Hard Revenge Milly double-bill will be released on DVD by Cine Asia on 5th April 2010.

Summer Glau, the hardest working woman in sci-fi television (Firefly, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Dollhouse) has joined NBC’s superhero-themed drama pilot The Cape.

Directed by Simon (Con Air) West, the pilot sees David Lyons (ER) play a former cop who is set up as a criminal and becomes a masked hero, The Cape of the title, to clear his name.? According to THR, Glau has signed up to play Orwell:

…a cute and intrepid investigative blogger who fearlessly goes after corrupt cops and costumed bad guys.

THR also report that Glau’s role of Orwell in The Cape will once again see the actress getting physical and kicking mucho ass.

In a build-up to the shows return, Fox have released two new promo images for Glee, featuring Sue Sylvester getting up to her usual hate-campaign tactics – check them out:

Glee is currently airing in the UK on Mondays at 9pm on E4, and returns to Fox on April 13th

Originally MTV said they were debuting the three posters on consequtive days – Thursday, Friday and Saturday – however it looks like demand from Kick-Ass fans was so high that they’ve debuted the final poster, which features Hit-Girl in a very 50s style design, a day early! Check it out below:

Kick-Ass is released in the UK on March 26th

Avengers Academy comes from the creative team of Christos Gage and Mike McKone.

8.00pm Leverage (Bravo)
New US action series featuring hi-tech Robin Hoods exacting revenge on the wealthy and wicked. The team try to avenge the death of a young girl, who was killed by toxic fertilizer, but the CEO of the conglomerate that makes the chemical is prepared to go to any lengths to protect his company’s interests. Season One, episode 8.

OR

8.05pm The Perfect Score (Film4 +1)
6 teenagers from diverse backgrounds conspire to break into a SAT testing center to steal the answers in hope of acing their exam. They quickly realize that the answer to their problems and the key to their happiness do not lie in achieving a perfect score. Stars Chris Evans, Erika Christensen, Bryan Greenberg and Scarlett Johansson.

9.00pm Pet Sematary (TCM)
After moving into their new home the Creed family’s cat is killed after wondering onto the highway. Jud an elderly neighbor shows Louis, the father, to an isolated hill behind the local Pet Cemetery and instructs him to bury the deceased feline there. Not long after the cat reappears at the Creed home, only he is not the same. The docile cat is now vicious and destructive. When their youngest son meets with a fatal accident, the distraught Louis buries him in the same location hoping to revive him. Unfortunately he unleashes far more than he had bargained for.

10.00pm Watchmen (Sky Movies Premiere)
In a world where superheroes have been outlawed, the murder of a masked avenger brings his colleagues out of retirement. Investigating the killing, the team uncover a sinister plot that could change the course of history.

10.40pm An American Werewolf in London (Sci-Fi Channel)
Two American students are on a walking tour of England and are attacked by a Werewolf. One is killed, the other is mauled. The Werewolf is killed, but reverts to it’s human form, and the townspeople are able to deny it’s existence. The surviving student begins to have nightmares of hunting on 4 feet at first, but then finds that his friend and other recent victims appear to him, demanding that he find a way to die to release them from their curse, being trapped between worlds because of their unnatural death. Unmissable classic 80’s horror comedy from director John Landis.

12.00am Demons 2 (The Unexplained Channel)
A documentary is shown on TV of group of teens who investigate the site of a demon infestation (seen in the first film). When they find a lifeless corpse of a demon, one of the teens causes it’s resurrection, and the demon makes it’s way into the nearby world by TV-broadcast… An unlucky girl, having her birthday-party at that time, gets posessed by the demon while watching the documentary and soon the complete building in which she lives turns into a living nighmare.

British icon Dan Dare has never really made much of an impact outside of our fair shores here in Blighty, but that may all be about to change… The news is that the long-mooted big screen adaptation of the British hero has finally found it’s leading man in actor Sam Worthington.

According to Pajiba (via /Film) Worthington has signed on to portray Dan Dare for US studio Warner Bros., a move which may open up the audience for the film in the rest of the world given that Worthington is enjoying an epic cinematic run with the back-to-back blockbusters Terminator: Salvation, Avatar and Clash of the Titans.

Rumour has it that the film version of Dare will take it’s inspiration from the more recent Virgin Comics run by Garth Ennis (pictured above), a run which has been released in graphic novel form in an unprecedented THREE times in the past year by Dynamite Comics – perhaps proving that interest in Dan Dare is growing?

The official Kick-Ass YouTube channel has debuted two brilliant video interviews with Aaron Johnson and Chloe Moretz, aka Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl, both of which I’ve embedded below:

The film is directed by Matthew Vaughn from a script by Mark Millar and Jane Goldman and stars Aaron Johnson, Chloë Moretz, Nicolas Cage, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Mark Strong. Kick-Ass is released in the UK on March 26th and the US on April 26th 2010

But, as we said last night, that’s not all…

MTV have, in celebration of the press event, commissioned three new SXSW exclusive posters for Kick-Ass, the first of which we posted late last night, and the second of which is below:

There’s one more SXSW exclusive poster to follow on Saturday so stay tuned. Kick-Ass is released in the UK on March 26th

This award-winning, tense and unnerving psychological drama will be available from 26th April 2010 on Universal’s cutting edge indi VISION label.

Spiral follows lonely introvert Mason, an insurance company worker by day and talented artist and lover of jazz by night. His only friend is his boss Berkeley (Zachary Levi – TV’s Chuck), who keeps an eye on him and humours his bizarre behaviour. When a vivacious co-worker Amber (Amber Tamblyn) shows an interest in him he finds her friendliness soothes his disturbed mind, and he allows her into his world. But the more Amber learns of Mason’s past the more she questions her safety as the unsettling mood grows. With a dark atmosphere that builds suspense and intrigue throughout, Spiral will keep you gripped until its shocking conclusion.

Spiral is released on Region 2 DVD (RRp £14.99) on April 26th, courtesy of Universal. To check out the full indi VISION library visit www.universalpictures.co.uk/indiVISION

In what sounds like the strangest project Steven Speilberg has ever been attached to, Deadline are reporting that the legendary director has been tapped to bring us the Robopocalypse!

Based on the Daniel H Wilson book about the human race’s attempt to survive an apocalyptic robot uprising – which sounds remarkably like a cross between I,Robot, Terminator and RoboCop – the script is currently being written by Cloverfield screenwriter Drew Goddard, and that’s despite that fact the book isn’t even finished yet!

However the news can be taken with a heavy pinch of salt, Robopocalypse is only the latest in a long line of films that Spielberg has been linked with, previous films include War Horse, Gershwin, and The 39 Clues. The next Spielberg film to hit cinemas will be his big-screen adaptation of Herge’s legendary Tin Tin character: The Adventures of Tin Tin: The Secret of the Unicorn.

Whilst there’s still intense debate raging over just who should play the eponymous character in Marvel’s The First Avenger: Captain America, it does look like the casting on some of the other roles may be falling into place, as news reaches us that Marvel is looking to Hugo Weaving to fill the villainous role of the Red Skull.

THR’s Heat Vision are reporting that Marvel are at a “delicate stage” in the negotiation process – no doubt because Marvel have a reputation for lower salaries and multiple movie contracts – and a character like the Red Skull, who whilst primarily a Captain America villain, has been known to make his prescence felt in Marvel’s Avengers titles too.

The Red Skull has been a key Captain America villain since the early 40’s when he appeared in comics as Hitler’s right-hand man. More recently he was responsible for the death of Captain America during Marvel’s Civil War. The character was also the villain in the low-budget 1990 Captain America movie.

The First Avenger: Captain America is due for release July 22, 2011

As well as a screening of the film, MTV have announced they are to host the official SXSW Kick-Ass panel on Saturday, featuring the cast and creators of the film, including director Matthew Vaughn, comic creators Mark Millar and John Romita Jr., and stars Aaron Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Chloe Moretz. But that’s not all…

In celebration of the event, MTV have comissioned three new SXSW exclusive posters for Kick-Ass, the first of which is below:

There are two more SXSW exclusive posters to follow tomorrow and Saturday so stay tuned. Luckily we don’t have to wait as long to see the film – Kick-Ass is released in the UK on March 26th…

He discovers that Nazis Max and Klaus, along with beautiful Japanese sabateur Ozu, plan to attack a secret American manufacturing plant. After his family is attacked and his girlfriend Beth is kidnapped, it is up to Danny and the living deadly Puppets to stop this Axis of Evil…

Puppetmaster: Axis of Evil is released on DVD in the US on June 15th 2010, as both a standard DVD release and a limited edition ‘Andre Toulon Trunk Collectors Case’ which can be pre-ordered from March 18th at Full Moon Direct.

I have to say that so far I’m not feeling this Avengers Academy line-up, fair enough Marvel are introducing new characters and bringing lesser known and under-used characters to the fore, but I’m not as excited for this as I am for Secret Avengers – and I don’t even know whose in that line-up!

Avengers Academy, from the team of Christos Gage and Mike McKone launches June 2010.

(Source: CBR)