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I found my curiosity piqued this morning by a story on Bureau 42 describing the trailer for the new Aliens vs. Predator sequel as “amazing” and “adult.” I’ve made no secret of the fact that I consider the first AvP to be an unwatchable piece of garbage — bad enough to make Alien: Resurrection look like a masterpiece of restraint and nuance. “Amazing” is a pretty strong word, and I’ve always been fond of Bureau 42, so I hopped over to IGN and checked out the R-rated trailer. I thought to myself: “Could Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem actually be good?”

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Well, it’s official. According to Sci-Fi Wire, Dark Horizons, and the official site itself, the title of the fourth Indy movie is Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Internet fans the world over are already expressing their carefully pre-loaded outrage, perhaps disappointed that the title wasn’t Indiana Jones and the Wildly Overused Old-Age Joke like they’d secretly been hoping all along.

Despite my personal misgivings about Indy IV — or, indeed, any movie with Shia LeBoeuf in it — I’m not bothered at all by the title. I definitely heard worse in terms of speculation, and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull evokes the kind of classic, purple, pulp-adventure feel that made Indy famous in the first place. A cool title, Marion Ravenwood coming back — I may get really excited about this if I’m not careful.

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.

Sci Fi Wire reports that yet another Dune movie may be in the works, following in the footsteps of the 1984 David Lynch film and the 2000 Sci-Fi Channel miniseries.

C.H.U.D. reported a rumor that a new movie version of Frank Herbert’s classic SF novel Dune may be in the works. The site cites Byron Merritt, who runs the official Dune novel forums and is a member of the Herbert family.

“We’re getting VERY close to a deal. Heard that news today,” Merritt reportedly posted on Aug. 24. “Although only rumor, I’ve heard that ’someone’ at the studio wants Dune reallllly bad and has been a fan of the novel for years. They’re not saying who this is (and it might just be hype), but I’m holding out hope that whoever this might be is a big enough fan that he/she will do the book justice. Supposedly it’s some director.”

Well, the number of extraneous l’s in reallllly certainly has me convinced it’s a lock! Granted, it’s too early to tell whether anything will come of this, but with hoary sci-fi franchises being “rebooted” left and right, it’s probably a safe bet.

Personally, I’m of two minds about this: On one hand, Dune has never really been done well — I have a fondness for the loony verve of Lynch’s version, and the Sci-Fi Channel version, while barely passable, tried too hard to be cute, with its rapping Baron Harkonnen and unnecessarily oblique takes on pronunciation. Will a third take cure what ailed the first two attempts at bringing Dune to the big screen? Well, probably not. But one can hope.

Quick quiz. What’s the only thing you could do that’s more ill-advised and bone-headed than remaking the Robert Wise classic The Day the Earth Stood Still? Cast the Duke of Ted as Klaatu!

Twentieth Century Fox has set Keanu Reeves to star in The Day the Earth Stood Still, its re-imagining of the 1951 Robert Wise-directed SF classic movie, Variety reported.

Reeves committed over the weekend to play Klaatu, a humanoid alien who arrives on Earth accompanied by an indestructible, heavily armed robot and a warning to world leaders that their continued aggression will lead to annihilation by species watching from afar.

Erwin Stoff is producing, with Scott Derrickson (The Exorcism of Emily Rose) directing from a script by David Scarpa. Reeves’ commitment puts the picture on track for a late fall or early 2008 production start.

The Klaatu role was originated by Michael Rennie. The 1951 film’s premise, a response to the rise of the Cold War after World War II, is being updated, and the film will use advances in visual effects.

This is the single most mind-boggling thing I’ve read since learning that Zack Snyder tried to get Reeves to play Dr. Manhattan in the Watchmen movie. Granted, Reeves did fairly well in the Matrix films, in a role that never required him to emote or project; he could restrain himself to looking mildly confused and flying around on wires, two things he admittedly does very well. But unless we’ve dodged a massive bullet and Reeves will be playing a hapless Army grunt who gets disintegrated in the opening reel as a lesson to other numbskulls, we may be in for one of the lousiest remakes of all time.

According to rumor, this remake has already been canned once. If you have any love for the late, great Robert Wise, pray it gets canned again.