Good news: MGM is making a live-action film of The Hobbit with Peter Jackson attached to direct. Bad news: That is news to Peter Jackson. Good news: He’s game, though! (Hat tip: Jason Adams.)
Bad news: As previously hinted by producer John Harrison, the Abarat film/theme-park/multimedia-extravaganza project at Disney is officially no longer at Disney, says mastermind Clive Barker. More bad news: Weaveworld the Showtime miniseries is no longer in production at Showtime. Good news: There’s still every intention of making the Weaveworld miniseries and the Abarat films, as well as books 3, 4, and 5, Galilee 2, The Third Book of the Art, possibly Cabal 2 and 3, definitely Pinhead/Harry D’Amour mash-up The Scarlet Gospels (3,000 pages into the manuscript and counting)…all this, plus fascinating musings on writing, theatre, music, painting, and god knows what-all else in this extra-long interview with Barker at official site Revelations. (Hat tip: Pete Mesling.)
More Barker: That little Google Ads sidebar to your right reveals limited edition giclee prints from Abarat for sale at Every Picture Tells a Story.
Frank “Sin City/Dark Knight” Miller waxes patriotic at NPR.
Loren Coleman at Cryptomundo reminds us that the late, great Steve Irwin once took a turn for the cryptozoological when he devoted part of an episode of The Crocodile Hunter to the elusive, presumed extinct Thylacine, or Tasmanian Tiger.
Finally, I’ve posted my picks for the 7 Best Horror Movies of the Past 7 Years (give or take a few films).