Back in September, William Shatner himself weighed in on the age-old debate over Star Trek vs. Star Wars that has taken place for decades among fans of both franchises as to which is the superior, which is more worthy of their loyal devotion.

A brilliant new video has now surfaced, with thanks to Deadline for the heads up, in which George Takei, best known for his role as Sulu in Star Trek, tries to broker peace.

“Each is wonderful in its own special way… What’s needed today, now more than ever, is Star Peace, for there is an ominous, mutual threat to all science fiction…”

That threat?

“It’s called… Twilight. And it is really, really bad.”

Takei pokes fun at the younger franchise with the stereotypical complaints pitted against the film by anti-Twilighters, and calls for a mutual banding together of Star Trek and Star Wars fans against this new and dangerous threat, and says that he’s already calling in the big guns to lend a hand,

“To help us rid the world of this vampire menace.”

Brilliant. A great three minutes to brighten your afternoon.

Although there are a few dud notes in his repertoire, David S Goyer has a genuinely impressive track record. He wrote the first two Blade films, co-scripted Batman Begins and co-wrote the story for The Dark Knight and the upcoming Rises. He also helped to create TV sci-fi series Threshold and Flash Forward and has scripted the Superman reboot, Man of Steel.

Accordingly, any new project of his should be accorded some measure of eager anticipation, including mooted new graphic novel adaptation, 100 Bullets. 100 Bullets is a DC property that spanned 1999 to 2009, about an Agent Graves, who sets out to bring down a nefarious multi-national organisation called The Trust. Apparently it is a sprawling crime saga and a well-loved graphic novel series.

Although Flash Forward hit the buffers pretty hard and never moved on to a second season, it was nonetheless a promising premise, as was that of Threshold and it clearly shows that Goyer can work as comfortably in an episodic format as on the big screen. Frankly, TV could really do with this dark, noirish story of crime and punishment, with Warner Bros TV apparently producing the show for it to screen on US channel Showtime. One would assume it will find its way to the UK in due course, perhaps on Sky’s newly christened Atlantic channel.

We’ll let you know as soon as any of these intriguing rumours coalesce into something solid.

Source: Deadline

Although Wesley Snipes undoubtedly has his hands full, given his alleged problems with the IRS over unpaid taxes, he is nonetheless trying to press on with a pet project about FBI-head J. Edgar Hoover’s attempts to discredit Martin Luther King Jr.

Snipes intends to produce the Justin Stamm penned script and is hoping to find a role for himself in the piece as well.

Deadline say that he recently sat down with King’s son, Martin Luther King III and received the family’s blessing to pursue the project, which tells of William Sullivan, then assistant director of the FBI and his analysis of the perceived threat posed by King and the appropriate manner to address that threat. He apparently wrote to Hoover:-

“We must mark [King] now, if we have not done so before, as the most dangerous Negro of the future in this nation. It may be unrealistic to limit ourselves as we have been doing to legalistic proofs or definitely conclusive evidence that would stand up in testimony in court or before Congressional Committees.”

Sullivan is said to have then become conscience-stricken over the FBI’s approach to King. Deadline continue as follows:-

The script takes the position that Sullivan’s conscience about such outrageous behavior caught up to him, and that he felt conflicted about his actions because he admired King’s efforts, but never spoke up before the assassination. He then bared Hoover and the bureau’s dirty laundry to journalist friend Jack Taylor for a book Sullivan hoped would expose his boss as a hypocrite and a tyrant. Right after telling his story, Sullivan was shot and killed — it was called a “hunting accident” — shortly before testifying about the killings of King and John F. Kennedy before the House Select Committee on assassinations. A sanitized version of the book eventually appeared.

The project is currently named “Code Name Zorro” and will follow Sullivan’s actions such as phone-tapping, playing King’s conversations with other women to his wife and generally tarnishing his reputation, before presumably experiencing the change of heart referred to above.

Snipes himself said of the project:-

“I was attracted to the whistleblower dynamic. It’s a challenging situation for a man to be in, to be among the shadowy and most powerful men in the world, who exposed information to mislead the public. What an interesting conflict and life dilemma. It makes for good drama and there are great roles for actors to play these historical figures who are part of a whole story that many of us weren’t aware of.”

Whether this will give the finished film shades of Michael Mann’s excellent “The Insider”, we will see. In other Snipes-related news, he said that “maybe” they would get around to making another Blade film and that although he would have thought the studio would have approached him, many other actors seemed to be interested.

Whether this means another recasted reboot is on the cards, like Spider-Man, Batman and Superman, who knows? Certainly there should be plenty of life left in the Blade franchise, even if Blade: Trinity represented something of a drop in quality from the first two films.

With the Blu-ray release of the Alien Anthology on the 25th of October HeyUGuys are taking a look at the entire Alien and Predator series. From Facehuggers to trophy hunting Predators, from the iconic and classic to the dubious crossovers – this is your ultimate retrospective.

So remember, even if you ain’t got time to bleed, in the Video Vault no-one can hear you scream…

Adam Lowes is our man in the penal colony.

Third entries into popular film franchises are notoriously difficult to get right. For every Toy Story 3, there are the second sequels to Blade, Spiderman, X-Men, The Terminator and even The Godfather, all of which have failed to deliver the goods and satisfy fans by either losing a grip on character continuity or generally been unable to match what has come before.

Alien 3, a departure from the previous film’s “Vietnam-in-space”, action-packed extravaganza, and considered a failure by most critics and audiences upon it’s release, won me over upon seeing it for the first time (thanks to a shoddy cinema copy on VHS) due partly because of it’s attempts to do something different with the material.

If the ending to Aliens had a fairy tale quality to it, with the surviving members of the ill-fated rescue mission all now finally safe and earth-bound, and Ripley having tucked Newt in and wished her sweet dreams, the beginning (and indeed the rest of) Alien 3 is like a waking nightmare. Any chance of living happily ever after for Sigourney Weaver’s iconic character and co. is suddenly gone when the spaceship experiences an onboard fire and launches an escape pod containing the crew, into the stars.

The pod then crashes on Fiorina ‘Fury’ 161, an all-male penal colony, full of shaven-headed (due to space lice) hardened criminals, many of whom have now taken the religious path in seeking atonement for their crimes. Ripley awakens in the prison hospital where she discovers that she too has been scalped and is informed by a kindly doctor (Charles Dance) that she is the only survivor of the crash, well…at least the only human one.

Not even the presence here of Brian Glover (bread advert voice-over extraordinaire and the fascist PE teacher from Kes) as the prison warden was enough to distract me my sympathetic reaction to the grim surroundings and situations Ripley has to contend with in this film. The prisoners all look suitably malnourished and grimy, although that Hollywood conceit of casting all British actors to play them (and the guards) is present and correct, although arguably, this does add another dimension to the film.

I think one of the main problems fan of the series had here was that they couldn’t reconcile the fact that after such a gripping and bombastic second film, this was another similarly thoughtful and meditative take on the material to that of the first film. In many ways, it’s almost the antithesis of Aliens. There is only one creature stalking all the men but (owing to the fact that this is a prison planet) all forms of firearms have been prohibited, leaving the prison inhabitants extremely vulnerable and essentially sitting ducks. The space marines back on LV-426 could easily destroy a whole enclave of aliens with one round from their pulse guns (although they were ultimately outmatched too).

Around two-thirds of the way into the film when you think things can’t possibly get any worse, they do. Ripley makes the horrific discovery that she has been impregnated with an egg from a stray facehugger who must have hitched a lift on the spaceship after the events of the previous film. I remember watching this for the first time and feeling utterly devastated that this strong paternal figure, who had managed to survive two other near-fatal encounters with the xenomorph, was now destined to meet her fate because of the species.

This is why Alien 3 resonated so much for me at the time. No matter the flaws, you will rarely see a mainstream sci-fi picture with such a grim sense of foreboding doom. This was further confirmed to me when I first watched the scene where Charles Dutton (playing the religious leader of the inmates), giving his fellow prisoners a pep talk and uttering the line that they were “all gonna die anyway” so they should do their best to eliminate the source of what was killing them.

It’s been well documented that director David Fincher had a nightmare of a time on his debut feature, clashing with the studio and having to contend with endless, day-to-day rewrites. There have been many of occasions where films with similar problems have failed spectacularly from both a critical viewpoint and at the box office (the recent Jonah Hex springs to mind), so it’s to Fincher’s credit here that he was able to sculpt something interesting and unique out of all the troubles, and maintain a vision of sorts.

The bittersweet and highly touching ending, where Ripley “gives birth” and is a mother-figure once again for a fleeting moment, resonated with me on a far more emotional level than the celebrated ending of Terminator 2, another considerately more successful sequel at the time.

For that reason alone, I will always look upon Alien 3 as a fascinating attempt to take a film series in a different direction to that of it’s predecessors which, for better or worse, still managed to leave a lasting and profound affect on me – a feat that appears to be increasingly harder to do in modern mainstream filmmaking of any genre.

In what seems like a really odd piece of potential casting, Bloody Disgusting has news that Mark Wahlberg has been offered the lead role in a new version of The Crow.

The 1994 original starred the late Brandon Lee in the tale of a musician who (alongside his fiancée) is brutally murdered, only to return from the dead to seek vengeance.

The remake comes attached with a good pedigree of talent (singer and writer Nick Cave has been involved in script rewrites and the Blade director Stephen Norrington is onboard), but considering where Wahlberg is career-wise, this material would probably best suit a young up-and-comer, although maybe the Boogie Nights star feels he still needs to make amends for The Happening.

Blood: The Last Vampire fights its way to Blu-ray and DVD November 2. The movie is a slick and stylised English adaptation of the hugely popular cult hit anime series of the same name. The movie is full of blood and gore, so in celebration of this release, we have compiled a short list of some of the bloodiest films to date. Chances are, if you loved these films and relished the blood, then you will love Blood: The Last Vampire. The name speaks for itself!

Blood: The Last Vampire (2009)

It is clear to see that Blood: The Last Vampire sticks true to its gory genre. In many of the scenes, Saya is surrounded by a group of demons. The creativity of their deaths is the winning factor here, for example in one scene she decapitates a demon by throwing a metal grate at it, and slices another in half to create an upward blood fountain, always escaping the blood spurts after killing someone. Ultimate gore!

The Shining (1980)

In The Shining Wendy sees blood rushing out of elevator doors which sloshes down the hallway. What puts this scene onto our list is the sheer amount of blood on display! It is a sea of blood. It flows like a river and encapsulates the viewer. It’s pretty shocking for a film of its time, and a timeless classic to this day. Not to mention the rest of the films climatic expertise and creepiness.

Blade (1998)

Perhaps one of the most creative uses of blood is seen in Blade. Picture the scene ““ clubbers dancing away at a night club, when blood starts spraying out of the fire sprinklers all over the patrons below. To your typical clubber, it’s pretty sick. However, naturally there are some vampires in the club, who are thrown into ecstasy, and start to gyrate with each other under the slick red rain. Enter Blade, who proceeds to kill the instantly identifiable vampires by shooting and stabbing them. Lots and lots of blood, in a contemporary setting, what more could a horror fan want?

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

In A Nightmare on Elm Street we witness an unbelievable amount of blood in a very familiar place- one’s bed. Dragged into the middle of his bed by the infamous Freddy, Glenn is literally sucked into the underworld. Following his being dragged down into the depths, copious amounts of blood then spray aggressively onto the ceiling. The Blood shoots out of it like a geyser, or a high powered pressure washer. It’s all pretty surreal and strangely amusing to watch. His screaming mother only adds to the dark humour.

Kill Bill (2003)

When one thinks of bloody films, of course Kill Bill comes to mind. Specifically the scenes from The Bride where “˜88′ crazy suited men try to kill her, but get a little more than they have bargained for. And the highlight of this bloody battle? When The Bride kills one of the 88′s by pulling his eye out completely. She also does a break dance move and cuts the shins, ankles, and legs of the 88′s, spraying their blood everywhere. That girl can move, and it is mesmerising yet stimulating to watch!

Saw (2004)

Another high contender in the gore stakes is the Saw collection. In one particular scene in the first Saw, Amanda’s head is in a reverse bear trap. There is a key to unlock it, but it’s buried in the guts of her seemingly dead roommate. In true Saw fashion, Amanda is expected to use a knife to retrieve the key from his stomach. The next few minutes see her riffling through his liver, intestine and other organs. As one can imagine, this is quite a messy job and she ends up covered in his blood and guts. Several points for creativity!

Scream (1996)

No horror movie list would be complete without reference to the ultimate classic, Scream. Let’s take the Casey Becker scene. She is running from the killer and, well, she doesn’t get very far. He stabs her in the chest, slits her throat, and then continues to stab away until she couldn’t be any deader, and his knife couldn’t be any redder. He kills her brutally with a kitchen knife! Lovely and lots of blood for good measure too.

Final Destination 2 (2003)

Final Destination 2- or actually any of the Final Destination collection- wins where gore is concerned. In this particular scene we see another incredibly gruesome and original death take place. A woman is involved in a car accident that causes a piece of pipe to break in her car. Whilst fire fighters use machinery to free her from the mangled car, the airbag goes off and the back of her head is thrown onto the broken pipe. Her death is unexpected and sudden, leaving her with a pipe coming out her forehead, with brain matter and a pool of blood streaming down her face.

Hannibal (2001)

Another master of creativity would be Mr. Hannibal Lecter. Remember the scene where he tied up Detective Pazzi with duct tape in Hannibal? Having secured one end of a rope round the detective and the other around a separate chair, he sliced his abdomen and threw him off a balcony. The rope around the chair stopped Pazzi mid fall, but not his guts. These kept falling, out through the hole in his stomach, and spilled onto the ground below as the force of gravity took its toll. What an ingenious, blood-thirsty, gory way to kill.

Carrie (1976)

Carrie takes blood to the high school movie. A geek that falls victim of the bitchy girls at school thinks she has finally overcome it all when she wins the coveted title of prom queen. Unfortunately for her, some of her tormentors manage to tip a bucket of pigs over her whilst on stage, in front of the entire student body. The neat thing about this scene is the realism, the fact that it could actually happen. As Carrie stands dripping in blood, the scene is compounded by the awkward silence that follows and the true horror of her situation comes to light.

Blood: The Last Vampire is out on Blu-ray and DVD November 2

http://www.bloodthelastvampire.co.uk/