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From Dark Horizons:

Michael Cerenzie and Christine Peters’ CP Prods. have optioned Midway Games 1982 arcade game “Joust” reports Variety.

Though “Joust” has had several sequels, the original game, in which one or two players control a knight on a flying ostrich who combats flying buzzards, is best known.

The company is also developing Midway Games 2005 release “Area 51″ as a feature film.

I would love to wax sarcastic about this, but I simply don’t have the words.

I’ll admit it. When I first read the news about Shia LeBeouf being in Indiana Jones 4, I thought they were talking about the chick with the rack there, on the left. What? Her name could be Shia. Frankly, I find myself contending with no small amount of disappointment. No, turns out Shia LeBeouf is going to be playing Indy’s son. I won’t wax indignant about the progressive storytelling possibilities of having Indiana Jones have a swashbuckling archaeologist’s daughter instead of a son, because frankly, I’d still be hoping she looked like… that’s right. Chick with the rack.

Anyway, I won’t speak to my continuing dismay about Indiana Jones 4 apparently not being a pipe dream after all, despite no one I know actually wanting such a thing to happen. Of course, because it is an Indiana Jones film, and Indiana Jones is one of my favorite film franchises of all time, my curiosity will overcome my reticence, and I’ll be there anyway, all my bitching notwithstanding. I will probably even get excited, to the everlasting glee of close friends who delight in seeing me err deeply and mumble with remorse later. They’re watching. Always watching.

However, in the column of things I do want to see happen, James Cameron has confirmed his casting of Sigourney Weaver in his new film, Avatar. Now, I’ll readily admit that I don’t know the first thing about Avatar, partially because I can’t make heads or tails of the vague plot summaries I’ve found online (it’s in 3D? What?) and partially because I just love to be surprised — the reuinion of Weaver and Cameron is good enough for me. Well, that and the fact that whatever Avatar is about, it’s almost certainly not about a petty con and a spoiled brat trapped on a leaky boat.

In one other enticing tidbit from Sci-Fi Wire, LucasArts is developing The Force Unleashed, the game which, if it lives up to its promise, will finally grant the wish of Star Wars fanboys everywhere — namely, hunting down Jedi with Darth Vader somewhere between Episodes III and IV. At one time, this alone would have been enough to secure my purchase; LucasArt’s somewhat spotty record since those days will keep me waiting and watching. But still, as far as Star Wars game concepts go, you could do a lot worse than striding around with Darth Vader choking motherfuckers out. I just hope there are no minigames where Vader gets drunk after hours, starts crying over Padme, and you have to talk him down or get him a cab or something.

Updates this week! No, really, I mean it! Yes, I’m painfully aware that it’s nigh unto the end of February and there are five goddamn stories written for the mont, more than half of them the Reverend’s fine Macropodian offerings. Mea culpa and all that.

I know, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted any news. Well, there wasn’t any news worth talking about for a long time. Except for that Peter Jackson / Hobbit thing, which is just too depressing to get into. But look! Dear, sweet, kung pao style Jesus, look!

This just seems too good to be true — and it probably is. From Wired:

Like Capt. Mal Reynolds stumbling in after a bar fight, the short-lived but much beloved sci-fi series Firefly will soon make an unexpected return, not as a TV show, but as a massively multiplayer online game.

Now that’s shiny.

Multiverse, maker of a free MMO-creation platform, plans to announce Friday morning that it’s struck a deal with Fox Licensing to turn the show into an MMORPG in the fashion of Star Wars Galaxies or Eve Online.

The “Browncoats,” as Firefly’s most devoted fans are known, have been campaigning to bring the show back almost since the moment it was canceled in late 2002. Now they’ll get their wish, albeit in a new form.

Now, while I have no illusions that your average MMORPG player is not going to be capable of Joss Whedon-level dialogue, this is very exciting all the same. If ever a game could lure me away from the soul-shriveling siren call of World of Warcraft, this is it. Cross your fingers, Browncoats.

From Dark Horizons:

South Africa-born, 26-year-old commercial and music video director Neill Blomkamp has landed one hell of a feature debut. Blomkamp has been selected for the job of directing “Halo,” Universal Pictures and 20th Century Fox’s big-screen adaptation of the video game series reports the trades.

The games follow a character named Master Chief and his companion Cortana as they try to save the galaxy from alien forces called the Flood. Halo refers to an artificial ringworld that actually is a weapon capable of destroying the galaxy.

Alex Garland (”28 Days Later”) wrote the screenplay. Blomkamp’s work for the likes of Nike & Citroen in the ad world has landed a lot of awards for innovation. Guillermo Del Toro was the favourite, but committed to “Hellboy 2″ instead.

Microsoft was aiming to get the pic quickly into production to tie in with the 2007 release of “Halo 3.” But development has taken longer than expected. The earliest the film can be expected in theaters now is summer 2008.

So the man helming the Halo movie directs commercials. That’s pretty fitting. No word yet on whether it stars “The Rock,” but I’m counting on it.