I may not look forward to the next Potter film with the same pee-your-pants intensity I held for the final novel, but it doesn’t mean I’m not excited for the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Judging from the trailer – which fellow AMG-er Perry described as “Omen-y” – there is a lot to get excited about, including but not limited to Voldemort in his formative years, badass Dumbledore, and if we’re lucky, the reanimated corpses of some very unfortunate wizards. After all, evil just isn’t evil without a zombie army.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus came to a sad and jolting halt following the death of its leading actor, Heath Ledger. While the circumstances are hardly lucky, the film, described as a modern-day fantasy adventure, involves a magical mirror capable of transporting people into different dimensions. Due to the real life tragedy, the mirror’s abilities have been tweaked to include altering the appearance of those who use it.

As a result, three Hollywood favorites – Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, and Jude Law, respectively – will be stepping up to fill in the blanks. Producers insist that no aspect of Ledger’s performance will be modified through digital technology.

“Each of the parts played by Johnny, Colin and Jude is representative of the many aspects of the character that Heath was playing”, says director Terry Gilliam, who continued filming with the support of Ledger’s family.

While unique, this is not the first time an actor has been called upon to fill the shoes of another; in the 1994 goth favorite The Crow, doubles and a variety of special effects were required to complete the film after the death of Brandon Lee.

According to “sources”, mysterious though they may be, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom as the Crystal Skull is being prepped for a worldwide premiere at the celebrated Cannes Film Festival. The premiere – if it happens – will precede the film’s official release date of May 22, 2008.

If these sources are not, in fact, cruelly mucking about with our dreams, all of Indy 4’s major players, from Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, to Karen Allen and Harrison Ford, will make their first Jones-related red carpet appearance since the 1989 release of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. There will be no Nazis on the premises.

It looks as though fans will have to wait until fall to find out the latest comings and goings of their superpowered friends, be they time travelers, indestructible megalomaniacs, or goodhearted young women dealing with both a language barrier and life as an involuntary spreader of plague. According to Ain’t It Cool News, Hayden Panettiere, a.k.a the conflicted, almost immortal cheerleader Claire Bennett has confirmed that new episodes of Heroes will not be shooting until April, despite progress in the writer’s strike.

The His Dark Materials series has worn a fair share of hats since it was published in 1995. After running the gamut of British bestseller lists and performing well in the United States (a particularly impressive feat considering the Potter phenomenon), author Phillip Pullman’s fantasy series has been referred to as Lord of the Rings for tots, a highbrow version of Harry Potter, a courageous proponent of free thought, and an act of blaspheme designed to corrupt the souls of children. Unlike the Potter series’ fanciful spiritual notions scattered about a stronger message of commonsense goodwill to others, His Dark Materials relies less on invoking the golden rule and more on questioning that which represents absolute authority, whether it be an ill-intentioned adult, organized religion, or God. It’s no surprise that the announcement of a film adaptation of The Golden Compass, the first installation in the series, inspired its share of boycotts, blustery mass e-mails, and book burnings. Judging by the film’s mediocre performance in theaters, the protestors were successful; however, The Golden Compass, while flawed, is a solid, thoughtful film.

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From the moment Georgia “George” Lass uttered the angst ridden and eerily prophetic words on what would ultimately be the last day of her life, I was hooked. She explained that she had little interest in being a good or a bad person, because bad people were punished by society’s laws, while good people were punished by Murphy’s Law (cut to a shot of an unlucky woman impaled on her own picket fence in an attempt to rescue a cat from a tree). Either way, she tells us, we’re screwed. Shortly afterwards, George is staring at the sad remains of her body after it was unfortunately decimated by debris from the miscalculated de-orbiting of the Mir space station – specifically, by the space station’s high-velocity toilet seat.

I almost skipped this show. It seemed suspicious of Showtime to air a death focused comedy drama with heavy supernatural overtones in the glory days of Six Feet Under. Considering Bryan Fuller’s Dead Like Me was cancelled after only two seasons, I have a sneaking feeling a lot of people felt that way. Maybe it was a case of Murphy’s Law as applied to TV. At any rate, Dead Like Me was nothing like Six Feet Under. Played with equal parts sensitivity and sass by Ellen Muth, George spends the first season grappling not only with the event of her own death, but with the half-afterlife that was presented to her immediately following. Rather than going to the great beyond herself, George is commandeered by a veteran reaper (of the Grim variety) named Rube (Mandy Patinkin), who explains the terms of her new job. As the newest reaper in the Accidental Deaths division, George is handed a post-it note bearing the location of a fatal accident to be and the initials of the doomed. While she isn’t responsible for the croaking of any individual soul, she is required to guide them into the next world. Despite their different personalities, all of the reapers (Patinkin, Muth, Rebecca Gayheart, Callum Blue, Jasmine Guy, and Laura Harris), however unintentionally, help each other cope with the empty spaces left by their deaths. The DVDs help me cope with the empty space of Dead Like Me’s cancellation.

The latest addition to a motley club consisting of several angry Romanian villagers, an offended etiquette teacher, two misguided frat boys (and a partridge in a pear tree) is none other than acclaimed director and alleged ruiner of fun, Steven Spielberg. Unlike his company, Spielberg isn’t interested in suing Sacha Baron Cohen, but his actions may lead to the end of Borat all the same. The director has signed a $6 million dollar deal with Cohen, who has reportedly agreed to play the role of Abbie Hoffman in The Trial of the Chicago Seven. Though the film, which follows the events leading up to a violent anti-Vietnam protest, has the potential to make polite society uncomfortable, it’s a far cry from letting chickens loose on a New York subway train and stirring up trouble in a traditional American rodeo. Will we see Borat wreak havoc throughout the U S and A while rocking a mean mustache after reaching legitimate actorhood? Only time will tell.

Best Bear Fight – The Golden Compass

The Golden Compass’s resident bears — unjustly banished prince Iorek Byrnison vs. super lame wannabe Iofur Raknison — battle it out for the throne in the most rousing bear fight since the legendary death match between Winnie the Pooh and Yogi. Compass loses a couple of Awesome Points for not adhering to the book (in which the winner of the fight ritually removes and eats the loser’s heart), but I’m willing to sacrifice a bit of cannibalism in the name of family friendliness.

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