Not too long ago Fox’s supposed filmmaker wish list for “The Wolverine” was leaked. For the most part, it was filled with fairly safe choices. To no great surprise, the studio has decided to go with one of those many easy picks: director James Mangold. While the director hasn’t signed on yet, an offer has gone out and Deadline Fukushima makes it sound like a sure deal. The idea of going from a guy like Darren Aronfosky to Mangold is disheartening and disappointing, but worse switches could happen. He’s a perfectly competent journeyman filmmaker. Walk the Line, Cop Land, Identity, and 3:10 to Yuma are all solid films, and even Knight and Day ain’t too bad. We probably won’t be getting a Wolverine film as ambitious as what Aronofsky would’ve done with the material, but I’d much rather see the director of 3:10 to Yuma than Tokyo Drift take on the Japan storyline. The Wolverine is expected to shoot this fall with the use of Christopher McQuarrie‘s (The Usual Suspects) draft.

Remember the first 13-episode run of Glee? The run that featured episodes that included the club getting high on cold medicine and selling pot brownies to raise money to transport everyone to sectionals? The episode run that just didn’t give a flying f**k about who was watching and why? The run that was just out to have a good time? Yeah, where did that go? The last season and a half of Glee has become a self aware, self righteous imitation of itself. But that’s not what’s truly irritating. The unrealistic compulsion to make the show represent some sense of morality is something everyone knows needs to change, but what’s more irritating is the ending to the most recent finale.

It’s tricky tackling a comic book film. For starters, one is generally adapting fairly fantastical ideas. Secondly, if a comic book film gets too serious, it can easily lose a sense of fun and self-awareness. Director Matthew Vaughn seems to have found a good middle ground for his superhero epic, X-Men: First Class. The genre favorite director could not have made more of a 180° turn from Kick-Ass to X-Men: First Class, both in terms of scope and his approach to the genre. Kick-Ass was the first – or most notable – modern comic book film to turn the genre on its bloody ear. Now, Vaughn is working in the genre he just previously deconstructed, which, as Vaughn says, makes him even better suited for it. Here’s what the candid and always confident Matthew Vaughn had to say about not taking comic book properties too seriously, making a film for his broadest audience ever, and reading fanboys on the internet.

Starting with the biggest, and frankly just annoyingly scary stories in the bunch, according to Deadline, cartoon “expert” (or devil to some people) Seth MacFarlane is finalizing a deal with FOX that will give him the green light to reboot the classic cartoon The Flintstones for both television and film. Frankly, there is no way to respond to this without wanting cause physical injury to someone. But needless to say, it’s a bad idea. In other news, CBS has picked up three more pilots to series including “The 2-2 (formerly known as Rookies) and Unforgettable (formerly known as The Rememberer) and the comedy How To Be a Gentleman” according to TV By The Numbers. And finally, NBC in addition to the clips we saw on Sunday, has released full four minute trailers for many of their new series. Each trailer includes loads of footage not seen in the clips:

For those of you new to the column, I am recalling pivotal events in my life that contributed to what I am today: A Special Make Up Effects Artist searching for relevance in the 21st Century. I had learned about liquid latex; I had my Super 8mm camera. Now, all I needed was the spark, the inspiration to push me. I am 15 years old… High School is a major adjustment for everyone, and I was no different. Archbishop Shaw High School in Marrero, Louisiana was not known for its liberal arts education. It didn’t have the reputation for being an Ivy League prep school. It was known for its football team. Consisting of an all-male student body you can imagine what life for a pudgy, sci-fi/horror loving, non-athlete was like. I was lucky, however, that when I entered the school as a freshman, my brother was already a senior. I had fallen in with a group of friends that carried over from grammar school that had similar interests, but for the most part, we knew we would have to keep a low profile in order to survive. That was Fall of 1976. America had enjoyed its big 200th birthday party that July and we movie lovers had a pretty good summer between King Kong, Logan’s Run, and The Omen. Hidden in my books were copies of “Starlog” and “Cinefantastique” magazines, and the margins of my notebooks were illuminated with sketches of creatures and space ships. We still had a [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]

Yesterday NBC released it’s fall schedule for the 2011-2012 season. Well today FOX has followed suit. The schedule confirms things we heard last week but does offer one interesting bit of news: Saturday regular America’s Most Wanted is going be whittled down to a four-times-per-year special rather than a weekly program. There are a lot of changes that could have been made, but I think I speak for everyone when I say “Saturday ratings still matter?” In programming news, highly anticipates sci-fi series Terra Nova has been revealed to be taking over the House M.D. 8pm time slot on Monday and House will be moved to 9pm. This is in response to the high four-quadrant numbers FOX saw from the test screenings of the pilot. In mid-season House will be moved back to 8pm and J.J. Abrams’ Alcatraz will take over the 9pm slot.

After last Tuesday’s TV news bombshell that consisted of FOX obliterating pretty much every under-performing show on their schedule, many wondered what could be next from the networks in terms of picks-ups and cancellations. Well, NBC has decided to answer that question with a slew of pick-ups, none of which involve the words “wonder” or “woman.” At the moment the fourth place network has called for series orders from four pilots including Whitney a sitcom based on the stand-up comedy and starring Whitney Cummings. The Steven Spielberg produced, Gleeish musical-comedy Smash. The U.S. adaptation of the British series Prime Suspect and the Christina Applegate starring Up All Night. But that’s not all. It appears that NBC decided to have a little heart yet again as reports are filing in from all across the internet saying that spy-comedy CHUCK has indeed been renewed for a fifth season. This is by far the best news I’ve heard all day.

FOX has released a brand new trailer for the upcoming Steven Spielberg sci-fi/action/adventure series Terra Nova. The new trailer features never before seen footage of future earth and the dinosaur infested past. I’ll say this much, FOX is really marketing this show right. Releasing little by little. Teasing us with only two shots of dinosaurs and filling the trailers with more and more scenes of the Dystopian future that will be seen in the pilot. Clearly the show writers are operating under the philosophy “less is more.” Because the less I see of the dark and dirty future earth, the more I’m intrigued by it. And the same goes for the really good looking CG dinosaurs that are running around in the past.

Studio logos are an iconography all their own, but nothing puts a grin on my face like a spiffy send-up of a traditional company emblem tailored made to gel with the film I’m about to watch. Don’t get me wrong — nothing’s going to top classics like Alfred Newman’s Fox fanfare, Jerry Goldsmith’s Universal tune or the countless other openings ingrained in our cinematic memories. But when someone takes the recognizable logo and makes it their own…well, that’s when I get giddy. For decades, movie studios have been allowing filmmakers to tinker slightly with the prestigious logos that preface every film they release. Nothing too crazy — maybe a color shift or a throwback to a retired bumper — but nothing that would tarnish their reputations. These days, most movies are free to run wild. Many stick to the time-honored traditions of their studios, but the ones that don’t feel that much more special. Regardless of a film’s quality, a great logo is like the cherry on top for most movie buffs. Here are fourteen modern variants that bring a little extra magic to the pictures they kick off:

Brimming with bleak melodrama, the new X-Men: First Class trailer has hit, showing off the glowering characters and huge action that will hopefully add up to a hell of a movie. It builds on the previous trailer by adding in a little more character detail and the reason why they fight. Check it out for yourself:

With Smallville ending in a few weeks, Human Target (unfortunately) hanging on by a the skin of its teeth in ratings, The Incredible Hulk in pre-production and the Wonder Woman pilot now shot and awaiting word on series pickup possibilities, this is a great time to discuss what other comic book franchises would be well served by a live action TV adaptation. So without any ado at all, I offer five comic book franchises that would make great TV and the networks that would make the best match.

“This is wrong, Will.” Stunning commentary on the state of medical testing? Seething critique of prequel/rebooting a beloved sci-fi franchise? Straightforward reaction to the new title of the movie? It’s probably all of the above, but it’s also one of two lines Freida Pinto has in the first trailer for Rise of the Planet of the Apes. It looks like a throwback to Robin Cook-style science thrillers. A modern-day Frankenstein tale where the patched-together man comes in the form of hundreds of primates swinging in the tree tops of your neighborhood. Seriously, it feels like The Birds for a second, but much, much hairier. Check out the trailer for yourself:

Remember when X-Men: The Last Stand had to be haphazardly thrown together because Fox and Bryan Singer had some sort of disagreement on the scheduling, so then he left to make Superman Returns instead, and Fox got Brett Ratner to jump in for a quick fix on The Last Stand, and then they both turned out to be pretty lame? Long story, but it happened, swear to God. And even worse, they made another franchise prequel after The Last Stand called X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and it ended up being an even bigger mess, had a bunch of horrible takes on new characters like Deadpool, and seemed sure to be the death knell of the entire X-Men franchise. And this came after they called one of the movies The Last Stand. Remember that? Fox did, because instead of continuing on with that series of films, they totally recast the roles, totally rebooted the story, and have made Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class. Probably we’ll have to see if audiences are receptive of this new reboot to see if there will be more X-Men movies, right? Right? Nope, the new issue of Empire Magazine, which sports several X-Men: First Class themed covers, has some quotes about the upcoming direction the franchise is going to take. Apparently I was wrong in thinking The Last Stand needed a reboot, or that it was some sort of last stand, because sequels to that film are in the works. Longtime X-Men producer Lauren Shuler Donner is [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]

Since the production would keep Darren Aronofsky out of the country and away from his family for a year, The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that the director will no longer be directing The Wolverine for Fox. It’s up to industry people smarter than I am to figure out whether that’s a political answer or the honest one, but as a movie fan, this is incredibly bittersweet. Aronofsky is a director with a vibrant vision and the brass buttons to make films the way he wants to make them, so seeing him dig his heels into the genre fare of comic book movies felt like seeing Andy Warhol paint a landscape. On the other hand, it would have been a challenge in and of itself to make something so broadly, commercially appealing while still taking chances (if Fox was set to allow him to take any).

In all fairness, Daredevil is not a bad movie to take a mulligan on. Plus, if the rumor is true, they’ve got a solid talent at the wheel. According to Variety, David Slade will be directing a new entry into the Daredevil world for Fox. Call it a reboot, a sequel, a redo, a second shot or whatever you want, but the film won’t feature Ben Affleck or make mention of the previous film. So, it’s a reboot. Just for fun, if we consider the Spider-Man retooling going on and this new announcement, the timeline for when we’ll see other reboots becomes clear. The 2002 Spider-Man is now a 2012 version. The 2003 Daredevil will now probably be 2012 as well, meaning that we might see reboots of 2004′s Hellboy at some point, followed next by 2005′s Sin City, and 2006′s V For Vendetta. The new Superman puts a dent in that imaginary timeline, but the point is clear: the cycle must start over. We’ve run out of comic books to make. That’s just a best guess as to what order they’ll come around again in. Hopefully we’ll hear word of the Batman rebooting no more than ten minutes after The Dark Knight Rises premieres.

As if the letter-writing campaign started turning some heads, Fox is going to shoot McG into space for an as-yet-untitled action film. This is actually perfect for the director, especially considering the project was scripted from Doom and Expendables screenwriter David Callaham. Why is it perfect? Because it’ll be completely generic, harmless action set in space with CGI as the main character. This is based completely on the director’s past work, to be fair. It also keeps in mind that he’s not a terrible director; he’s just aggressively average. Fortunately, he might have some surprises up his sleeve with his forthcoming black comedy This Means War, but it’s unlikely that he’s suddenly gained talent beyond middling-hood. If there was any doubt that we were in the zone of diminished returns on the sci-fi craze started by District 9, this should eradicate it. On the other hand, there’s no word on how this will affect, if at all, the Ouija board movie McG is set to do, but they should already have a prop that can give us that information. [Deadline Gainesville]

Since the most recent character posters for X-Men: First Class were so abominably bad, we decided to sponsor a little contest to see which of our design-minded readers could do better. The bar was low, but everyone went far above and beyond the call of duty, and the result was a squad of really great posters. Some went with Saul Bass inspiration, others played off the comic books, one found inspiration in The Social Network, one changed the director (see above), and still others chose to go their own way entirely. Sadly, no one chose to improve on the floating head in crotch concept. That’ll be a new contest entirely, but without further ado, here’s the winner (who will receive a 1999 lithograph recreation of the first “X-Men” cover done by comic artist/legend Alex Ross) and a gallery of some especially great runners up:

One of the franchises that started the massive superhero/comic book movie trend that’s lived past a decade at this point, X-Men has proven itself as a fan favorite just as strong as the dedication to its hand drawn form. Now, it gets the ultimate reboot by going back in time to an age where Magneto was Erik, Professor X was Charles and the world was on the brink of the next evolution of man. It’s X-Men: First Class. Check out the trailer for yourself:

There was a plethora of TV spots to behold last night at the Super Bowl, and while the Transformers: Dark of The Moon spot took the cake for me as best spot of the night, the one I was looking forward to the most wasn’t a movie at all, it was the first footage of the new FOX action/adventure/scifi show, Terra Nova. My first thought after watching this was, Avatar: The Series. But that probably just has to do with the fact that Stephen Lang appears to be playing the same character. But once the Avatar notions left my brain, I began to both appreciate and question what I was seeing. Check it out below.

Combing through movie news and trivium all day is enough to make someone jaded. Thus, it’s important to remember when a piece of fluff marketing like this comes out, to keep a level head about what it really means. Does it say anything about the movie itself? Not really. Does it say something about the photoshop skills of whoever made it. Certainly. With that in mind, here’s the first official cast picture from X-Men: First Class, showing off a little midriff on January Jones, a little stone cold stare from everyone else, and a whole lot of cheese.