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Michael Emerson 's latest gig is no joke. The man best known as Lost's über-manipulator Ben Linus and Person of Interest's calculating Harold Finch is taking on one of pop culture's most iconic villains, the Joker , in the upcoming animated DVD-movie Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2 . In the film, a harrowing adaptation of Frank Miller's seminal 1986 DC Comics series, the depraved Clown Prince of Crime renews his rivalry with an aging Batman, who has just reemerged in Gotham City after a decade. (Part 2 comes out in early 2013; Part 1 is available Sept. 25 on DVD, Blu-ray, digital download and on demand.) "He's one of those great villains that an actor like me likes to play because he has layers — he has a face for the world and a face for himself," the Emmy-winning Emerson says of the Joker. "He is, in a way, a villain who is a natural actor. All of that is that is delightful and confounding at the same time." Playing the unbri

File this one under "Please Don't Let It Die." Comic artist Phil Jimenez pitched an epic idea of joining the ranked realms of Superman and Batman with the Autobots and Decepticons . But it was killed in committee. Here's why ... The tricky world of corporate licensing is the prime reason this dream project won't see any starlight. DC Comics passed on the recent crossover pitch, no doubt due to legal wrangling with IDW Publishing, which owns the Transformers comic license, Hasbro, which owns the master license, and their mega marketing partner Marvel. Any way you slice it, the mere sight of a titanic, rampaging Bat-former, Optimus Prime sporting a Green Lantern ring or Megatron waving a torn Superman cape makes us misty. "Oh, what an epic that would have been," wrote Jimenez on Twitter . "You missed out on Wonder Woman's invisible jet becoming a very cool Transformer." Please Leave A Comment- Source- Blastr Via CBM

Heroes alum Milo Ventimiglia is heading to Sony's digital platform Crackle . The actor, who most recently completed TNT's Frank Darabont pilot L.A. Noir, will star in and executive produce Chosen , a half-hour drama from creators Ben Ketai (30 Days of Night: Dark Days) and Ryan Lewis (High School). Crackle has ordered six half-hour episodes of the thriller that follows Ian Mitchell ( Ventimiglia ), a husband, father and lawyer who wakes up one morning to discover a box on his doorstep containing a loaded gun and a photo of a stranger he's instructed to kill within the next three days. Office Space's Diedrich Bader , Hall Pass' Nicky Whelan , Awkward's Brett Davern and Spartacus: Vengeance's Katrina Law co-star in the Los Angeles-based original series, which will premiere in the winter across all Crackle platforms. Chosen becomes the latest original scripted property on Crackle, following Chris Collins' longform anthology series The Unknown

Starz is betting on The White Queen . In keeping with the premium cable network's straight-to-series strategy, Starz has ordered 10 episodes of a drama adapted from Philippa Gregory's New York Times best-selling novel series, The Cousins War . Set against the backdrop of England's Wars of the Roses during the 15th century, the story revolves around women caught up in the ongoing conflict for the throne. They are some of the most ruthless players in history and will stop at nothing to support their own causes and those of the ones they love. White Queen will be told through the stories of three equally driven women -- Elizabeth Woodville, Margaret Beaufort and Anne Neville -- in their quest for power as they manipulate behind the scenes of history. “Phillipa Gregory's novels have become runaway best-sellers with passionate fans the world over, making this a project ripe for reimagining,” said Starz managing director of original programming Carmi Zlotnik. “The per

For the vast majority of his career, Michael Fassbender has been known for serious drama, big action movies or films without much to really laugh about (unless you count some of the X-Men: First Class comedy moments or used giggling as a self defence mechanism while watching Jonah Hex ). But now he’s signed up for a comedy in the shape of Frank . Lenny Abrahamson is set to direct the film, which boasts a script by Jon Ronson and Peter Straughan (who, possibly not coincidentally, adapted Ronson’s book The Man Who Stare At Goats for the big screen). Frank follows the misadventures of an aspiring musician ( Domhnall Gleeson ), who gets in over his head when he joins an eccentric rock band led by the OTT Frank ( Fassbender ). It certainly sounds like it could be a blast, especially if Fassbender gets to go all Velvet Goldmine (though without pulling a Ewan McGregor, even if he does have form on screen). Fassbender, of course, most recently finished shooting Twelve Years A Slave

We got our hands on the first trailer for Hansel And Gretel: Witch Hunters . The film will be in 3-D. It is a continuation to the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel by the Brothers Grimm. Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton have been cast in the titular roles, while Famke Janssen has been cast as the leader of a coven of evil witches that they seek out to destroy. Catching up with Hansel ( Renner ) and Gretel ( Arterton ) 15 years after the traumatic incident involving a gingerbread house, the siblings have evolved into vengeful bounty hunters dedicated to exterminating witches. Over the years, the siblings became expert hunters, famous for their proficiency at tracking and taking down their prey. Although still recovering from their ordeal, their work is relatively easy as for an unknown reason harmful spells and curses do not work well against them. The Mayor of Augsburg recruits them to rid the town and nearby forests of an evil sorceress ( Janssen ) who is planning to sacrifice man

Fans of Metal Gear Solid – and the ongoing saga that is Metal Gear Solid's film adaptation – have reason to celebrate today, as super producer Avi Arad brings glad tidings about Solid Snake's possible big screen appearance. Speaking at Metal Gear's 25th anniversary party in Tokyo recently, series creator Hideo Kojima revealed that not only is the film version back in the works, but the man behind the Spider-Man movie franchise(s), Arad himself, will be producing. This means that Arad has three game adaptations on the go, with Naughty Dog's Uncharted series and Sucker Punch's Infamous franchise also ticking along. Previous attempts at taking the stealth-based action game of spies, snakes and strangely inconspicuous boxes have crashed and burned – Mike De Luca was the last to give it a try back in 2008, but that was given the kibosh in early 2010. With its Sony/Playstation affliations, the studio in charge remains just as you'd expect (that's Univ

Warner Bros. and New Line have set July 18, 2014, as the release date for the third film in Peter Jackson's ambitious The Hobbit trilogy . Additionally, the second film has been retitled The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug . The third film will take the title that was previously assigned to the second film, The Hobbit: There and Back Again . Warners is banking big on the trilogy. And, in sharp contrast to Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the second and third Hobbit pics will open within seven months of each other (the Lord of the Rings pics opened a year apart, at Christmas). “We wanted to have a shorter gap between the second and third films," Warner Bros. president of domestic distribution Dan Fellman said in a statement. "Opening in July affords us not only the perfect summer tentpole, but fans will have less time to wait for the finale of this epic adventure." Veronika Kwan Vandenberg, president of international distribution, added: "The