As all things go in cycles, we’re headed toward the apex of the Stephen-King-Movie-Go-Round. And, yes, I know carousels don’t have apexes because they spin horizontally, but just go with it. Some projects, like The Dark Tower still have a question mark hanging over them, and others, like remakes of Carrie and Pet Sematary, are simply ideas in the minds of executives. Today we can add another project to that pile, and take one out as well. According to /film, the proposed Showtime series adapted from “Under the Dome” is moving forward with Lost writer Brian K. Vaughan sitting down at his typewriter for the program. The story focuses on a town in Maine (surprise!) that’s sealed off from the rest of the world by a mysterious force field. Kind of like a supernaturally powered island. Adding to the prospective pile, Variety is reporting that Palomar Pictures has secured funding for two foreign remakes and an adaptation of King’s “Rose Madder” – the novel about a woman who leaves a dreadfully abusive husband and discovers a painting that she can travel into. The bottom line? Either get ready for a lot of Stephen King or get ready for Stephen King to receive a bunch of checks for movies that never get made.

Back in the Spring of 2010 word got around that Marvel was beginning work on a film adaptation of Brian K. Vaughan’s well regarded comic about teen superheroes “The Runaways.” The screenplay for the film was to be written by No Heroics creator Drew Pearce and Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist helmer Peter Sollet was going to be directing. But something with that plan went wrong, because before the project could begin production, Marvel removed it from their schedule. And seeing as they went on to hire Pearce to write the script for Iron Man 3 after that, it didn’t seem like the reason The Runaways got cancelled was a problem with the script. So what happened? While attending a recent panel conversation, The Playlist asked Pearce just that, and he revealed that the reason The Runaways got taken off the schedule was Joss Whedon’s upcoming superhero team-up movie The Avengers taking up all of Marvel’s attention. Pearce said, “Basically, The Avengers came along and everything else at Marvel got put on hold for a year. But the script is there, we’re good go. It’s kind of like [being] at the airport when you’re waiting for your slot to take off with Marvel, and we’re hoping we get a slot next year. Fingers crossed. They’re very happy with it, so hopefully it happens.” Marvel definitely has plans to release two films in 2014, one on May 16th and one on June 27th, but nobody knows which titles are going to [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Back home from my trip to Vegas, I will now begin auctioning off the ownership of Film School Rejects to pay for the incredible debt brought on by my unexpected gambling addiction and legal fees incurred by an incident that I’m not at liberty to talk about yet. My recommendation to all of you: when Charlie Sheen calls and says “lets go on a bender,” you should politely find a way to say no. Alas, here is your weekend ending, week starting edition of News After Dark.

As the only literate Reject, it’s my duty to find the latest, the greatest and the untouched classics that would make great source material for film adaptations. I read so you don’t have to. One thing has become clear in the past week. Despite the comic book movie news flowing fast and furiously, the heroes were all familiar faces. The studios investing the most in bringing comic books to life have lost the plot a bit when it comes to the next few years of heroes to cultivate. Marvel tapping Black Panther is a nice start, but the studios are going to need to find alternate comic books to adapt in order to bring new life to the genre and surprise the fans who think seeing Spider-Man again will be fun but unnecessary. This week, we’ll look at the story of a family of lions in a time of war that remind us that there is no freedom that isn’t earned.

For those on this side of the pond who have not seen the British superhero series No Heroics, you should check it out. For two reasons. One is that it’s very funny. The second being that Marvel just handed the keys to its adaptation of Brian K. Vaughan’s The Runaways over to its creator, Drew Pearce.

Rumors are circulating again that an adaptation of Brian K. Vaughan’s stellar comic book Y: The Last Man is not completely, totally, absolutely dead. In fact, if those whispers are to be believed, Louis Leterrier himself is interested in resurrecting the recently dead project. With that optimism on the line, I’d like to politely offer 7 things for the filmmakers to think about while tackling the best graphic novel that Stephen King has ever read.

Lost producer Damon Lindelof has confirmed this week that comic scribe turned teleplay master Brian K. Vaughan is leaving the show for ‘greener pastures’ prior to the start of season six.