Rumors are flying since MTV News caught up with director Robert Zemeckis and asked which old franchise he was thinking of revisiting now that technology in entertainment has come so far.  Though the interviewer’s sights were set on a new BACK TO THE FUTURE, Zemeckis stunned him with his answer:

“I’ll tell you what is buzzing around in my head now that we have the ability—the digital tools, performance capture—I’m starting to think about ‘Roger Rabbit,’” he told us.

Zemeckis has been championing motion capture since its rise to popularity, first with THE POLAR EXPRESS, and now with the upcoming A CHIRSTMAS CAROL.  The real question here is how far will he take it.  Having live action actors playing true cartoon characters obviously won’t work; and since the original WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? was set in the golden age of Hollywood cartoons, when they were hand-drawn, how will that translate into our modern 3D-happy world?

The Hollywood Reporter announced that Konami Games will be pulling the plug on the game SIX DAYS IN FALLUJAH.  Touted as a shooting game “unlike any other,” FALLUJAH mixed missions with history to create a game that mirrored the battle.

The game sought to re-create the 2004 Fallujah battle from the perspective of a U.S. Marine fighting against insurgents. It was developed by Atomic Games with input from the Marines.

The game was pulled after many veterans and civilians considered it inappropriate to turn one of the fiercest battles in the Iraq War into a game played for leisure.

According to AWN, Cartoon Network’s series FOSTER’S HOME FOR IMAGINARY FRIENDS will be concluding its 5 year run on May 3rd.  The beloved series by Craig McCracken will be having a final send-off of 5 new episodes including the show finale.  The goodbye to FOSTER’s will begin at 1 PM with a marathon of FOSTER’S favorite episodes before the final 5.

– 4:30 p.m.: “The Bloo Superdude & The Great Creator of Everything’s Awesome Ceremony of Fun That He’s Not Invited To” — Bloo imagines he is engaged in another hair-raising adventure as the Bloo Superdude, but in reality, he is just deliriously sick and trying to attend Mac’s birthday party. 
– 5:00 p.m.: “Bad Dare Day” — What starts as an innocent dare turns into a house-wide competition that pits the friends against each other in a bid to win the title of Dare Champion!
– 5:30 p.m.: “Read ‘Em and Weep” — Several recently adopted Imaginary Friends start to paint a less-than-rosy picture of life outside the house through a series of letters sent to Foster’s.
– 6:00 p.m.: “Fools And Regulations” — Bloo and the Friends are forced to choose between staying upstairs and staying outside while Frankie and Mr. Herriman host an important party at Foster’s.
– 6:30 p.m.: “Goodbye to Bloo” — Bloo and the Friends think Mac is moving away forever, so they set out to make his last day at Foster’s the greatest he’s ever had.

FOSTER’S has won a bevy of awards and the hearts and imaginations of people everywhere.  I know I will be buying the complete series.

It seems that Aardman finally settled on a new distributor for their next two films.  AWN reports that the famous stop-motion animation company has teamed up with Sony for two feature films, ARTHUR CHRISTMAS and PIRATES!  ARTHUR CHRISTMAS is a CG film that will take the audience into the inner workings of Santa’s workshop.

Set on Christmas night, the story at last reveals the incredible, never-before seen answer to every child’s question: “How does Santa deliver all those presents in one night?” Santa’s exhilarating, ultra-high-tech operation revealed by the movie is on a massive scale that requires the creation of a huge CGI world.

PIRATES! will be done in the classic Aardman style of stop-motion, and being based on the absurd and tremendously funny book “The Pirates! (In An Adventure With Scientists)” by Gideon Defoe, PIRATES! promises to be an all out wacky, swashbuckling battle against the forces of reason and common-sense.

The story follows the fortunes of a cheerful but hapless pirate band as they cross the seven seas in search of the thing pirates love best: adventure. And what greater adventure can there be than battling Black Bellamy and Cutlass Liz in an attempt to win the coveted Pirate of the Year trophy? 

PIRATES! is directed by Peter Lord, co-founder of Aardman and animation veteran; while ARTHUR CHRISTMAS is directed by Barry Cook and Sarah Smith.

AWN reports that Hasbro has created a new mini- series, G.I. JOE: RESOLUTE.  Geared to the adult fans of the original 80’s show,  G.I. JOE: RESOLUTE is 11 short episodes of original content that got rave revues at both Comic-Con and JoeCon.

These episodes are broken down to ten 5-minute episodes and one 10-minute finale. All this week episodes are being posted on Adultswim.com leading up to a full presentation of the entire series. 

Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim and AdultSwim.com will be the only venue to catch the new mini-series.  What is really interesting is that this installation of the G.I. JOE story is not affiliated with either the EA game or the movie G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA, but a complete standalone entity.

Here is a Friday treat, MTV Movie Blog has posted a 2 minute segment of the upcoming post-apocalyptic tale ‘9′.  Based on the acclaimed short by Shane Acker, the movie is about 9 voodoo like dolls trying to save the human race.  

Featuring the voice talents of Elijah Wood, Jennifer Connelly, John C. Reilly, Crispin Glover, Martin Landau and Christopher Plummer, “9” hits theaters in limited release on September 9 (in other words, 9/9/09).

With its strange plot and frightening look at the future, ‘9′ promises to be a trippy ride.  Check it out.

For all you gamers out there, Variety reports that MTV Games and Harmonix of the ROCK BAND franchise has signed up with Lego to take a go at the video game.  With more game play than just rocking out and Lego’s fun and friendly approach, MTV Games hopes to make ROCK BAND more attractive to families and younger rockers.

Title will incorporate Lego’s build-and-play mantra, enabling users to create their own Lego rock stars, bands, venues and stadiums, as well as roadies, managers and crew.

Blur’s “Song 2,” Carl Douglas’ “Kung Fu Fighting,” Europe’s “Final Countdown,” Pink’s “So What” and Good Charlotte’s “Boys and Girls” will be included in the list of songs to play.

After the Lego rendition of BATMAN, STAR WARS, and INDIANA JONES, MTV hopes that LEGO ROCK BAND will capture the dollars that ROCK BAND 2 missed.

“The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupery is having another go at television.  According to The Hollywood Reporter, DQ Entertainment of India and Method in France is creating a 3D animated series of the story.  However, this won’t be the first Asia-Europe ALLIANCE to bring this popular tale to TV.  In 1982 Japan, France, and Germany teamed up under Franklin Cofod to create THE ADVENTURES OF THE LITTLE PRINCE.  

While working on THE LITTLE PRINCE, DQE is also creating a version of Kipling’s “The Jungle Book” that will be more faithful to the original book.  And it seems that DQE is up to the challenge, having worked for many premiere animation studios including, Walt Disney TV Animation, Nickelodeon Animation, Electronic Arts Worldwide, and BBC.

According to The Hollywood Reporter; Henry Selick, the director of CORALINE and THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, is looking passed the 3D trend in holograms.  Selick believes that with the amazing leaps in technology, soon Hollywood will have the power to take a movie where it has never gone before.  

“It looks like this is going to happen,” he said Monday at the NAB Show. “This could be huge, though it could take long time. Everyone wants to bring spectacle to entertainment.”

Though Selick isn’t motion capture’s biggest fan, he does believe that if used correctly the technology is a good tool to further the movie-going experience. 

“In terms of motion capture, I have mixed feelings about it,” he added. “I don’t really love it. … I think the best use of it was what David Fincher did with ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ where he captured the performance of Brad Pitt and used that on a variety of versions of Benjamin Button.”

Is this just a techie’s dream, or will the exodus to 3D continue till movies will be replaced by holo-decks?

As the 3D fad continues to grow, Disney calls for standards to be set for 3D DVD’s.  At the National Association of Broadcasters Show, otherwise known as NAB, Mark Zoradi of Disney said,  ”we don’t want a format war for 3-D for the home”, claims The Hollywood Reporter.

Citing the recent Blu-Ray Disc/HD DVD battle, he said: “Your standards will allow us to creatively manage our digital content. We need 3-D standards to be flexible … allowing audiences to see 3-D any way they want to view it and in the highest possible quality.

This corresponded with Disney’s showing of a teaser of their film in the works, TOY STORY 3.  Variety reports:

Custom-animated short shows Woody supervising the Toy Story characters as they improvise a sign for the pic, only to have Buzz upstage them all with a high-tech version.

TOY STORY 3 will be released in June of 2010, after a 3D re-release of TOY STORY 1 & 2.