'Captain America' Filming in June 2010

Joe Johnston, the director of Marvel Studios’ Captain America has revealed that he is working toward a June start for filming the The First Avenger: Captain America, which is slated for a July 22, 2011 debut.

In an article in Fangoria about Johnston’s remake of The Wolfman, Johnston told the interviewers that he was speaking from the Marvel Studios’ art department where he was readying the Captain America film for a June start. So far none of the cast of the Cap movie has been announced, though if the film is to begin principal photography in June, casting announcements will likely be made over the next few months.

Lupin the 3rd Episode 0 : the First Contact

Amazon currently has a listing for Lupin the 3rd Episode 0: First Contact, which is slated for release on March 20th, 2010. The 92-minute TV Special, which aired in Japan in 2002, will be available from Discotek Media for $24.95. This is the first Lupin DVD out in North America since Geneon stopped the release of the Lupin the 3rd TV show (many episodes of which were directed by Miyazaki), and Funimation finished with the eight TV specials that it licensed in 2002. Unlike the Geneon and Funimation releases, the Discotek DVD won’t have an English dub track, just English subtitles.

Based on the seinen manga created by Monkey Punch, Lupin the 3rd is the saga of a team of super thieves led by Arsene Lupin III, the grandson of the fictional French cat burglar created by Maurice LeBlanc. Hundreds of episodes of various Lupin the 3rd anime series were produced in the 1970s and 1980s along with six theatrical films including a certified classic, Miyazaki’s Castle of Cagliostro, as well as 21 movie-length TV specials that have remained a fixture on Japanese TV right up to the present day.

"300" tie-in is 'Xerxes'

Frank Miller has plotted a new graphic novel tied to "300" titled Xerxes, the comics auteur told Geoff Boucher of the LA Times, and is beginning to work on the art. The book will tell the story of the Battle of Marathon, which takes place prior to the events in 300.

Dark Horse publisher Mike Richardson told ICv2, “We hope so,” when asked whether he thought he would get a new Miller project in 2010

"The Borrowers" from Studio Ghibli

Studio Ghibli will release a new animated feature based on The Borrowers, the award-winning 1952 children’s fantasy novel (plus sequels) about small beings that borrow things from full-sized humans and keep their existence hidden, next summer. The film, Karigurashi no Arrietty (Arrietty Borrows Everything), will be directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi with uber-director Hayao Miyazaki writing and overseeing the production.

Bryan Singer on 'X-men: First Class"

Bryan Singer has signed to direct X-Men: First Class for Fox, returning to the franchise he started by directing X-Men and X2, according to the Heat Vision blog. The characters will be younger than in the other movies, and the movie will tell the story of Xavier and Magneto’s first meeting and the founding of the Xavier Institute.

A new writer, Jamie Moss, has been hired to produce a script. Josh Schwartz did an earlier version.

Blake's 7 Audio CDs'

Created by Terry Nation, the writer who brought The Daleks to Doctor Who, Blake’s 7 is a legendary BBC science fiction series that aired in the U.K. from 1978-1981. Noted for its dark pessimistic tone this Robin Hood-like space opera has earned a devoted following over the years. In 2006 B7 Productions began creating a series of Blake’s 7 audio narratives written by Ben Aaronovitch, Marc Platt, and James Swallow that were produced in association with the Sci-Fi Channel. Described as a “radical new re-interpretation of Terry Nation’s original series,” the radio plays featured Derek Riddell as Roj Blake, Colin Salmon as the tech-savvy con man Kerr Avon, and Daniela Nardini as megalomaniacal Terran Commander Servalan.

The B7 Productions audio dramas have been collected in a series of 3 CDs. CD #1 Rebel and CD #2 Traitor have an MSRP of $15.98, while CD#3 Liberator, a 2-CD set is $27.98. All three are available in a slip-cased set for an MSRP of $59.98. The Blake’s 7 CDs are available from Davis Marketing Services and will be offered in the January issue of Diamond Comic Distributor’s Previews.

Another audio series from B7 Productions, Blake’s 7: The Early Years takes listeners back to the early years when the seeds of the rebellion were sown. The Early Years series, which provides the backstories for the key characters in the series, was also written by Aaronovitch, Platt & Swallow. The Early Years CDs feature vocal work from original Blake 7 cast members Michael Keating and Jan Chappell as well as from some of the actors from the B7 productions. The first five of the Blake’s 7: The Early Years CDs will also be listed in the January Previews.