What happens when you cross werewolves with Sex and the City? The FOX network is developing a television show about four female friends in the big city who happen to be werewolves. The title? Bitches. The creator of the show is X2 and Superman Returns co-writer Michael Dougherty, with former Pushing Daisies writers/producers Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts also involved in developing it.

After a court ruling that 20th Century Fox owns the film rights to Watchmen, the planned March release of the film is in question because it was produced by Warner Bros. Fox wants an injunction against the film being released by WB. I'm sure at some point a settlement will be reached giving cash and a cut of the profits to Fox, but I don't know how much of a delay that will create.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader looks like it won't get made any time soon after Disney pulled out its financial backing. This year's The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian was deemed a box office failure after it brought in only half of what 2005's The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe did. Walden Media will try to find another studio to back the third film.

For once it's not director M. Night Shyamalan's twist endings that are making people upset. His live action film Avatar: The Last Airbender is being criticized for replacing the Asian characters in the original animated series with an all-white cast.

The National Film Registry of the Library of Congress added several genre films to its list of culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant films meriting preservation: 1933's The Invisible Man (directed by James Whale), 1957's The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (special effects by Ray Harryhausen), and 1984's The Terminator (directed by James Cameron).

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog will be released on DVD on December 19th only through Amazon.com. I've pre-ordered a copy.

I'm going to see the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still next week. I'm not keen on remakes, particularly of classics, but the visual effects look outstanding. The new cinema that opened nearby has an IMAX screen that the film will be showing on, which I think will make the visual spectacle even better. The first trailer for X-Men Origins: Wolverine is also attached to the film.

The Day the Earth Stood Still director Scott Derrickson and co-writer Stuart Hazeldine have an ambitious plan to adapt John Milton's poem Paradise Lost into a film. Derrickson is consulting with Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth) about how to visualize such a production. It seems folly to even consider making a mainstream film based on the work.

Bill Willingham's award-winning comic book Fables may be coming soon to a television screen near you. The ABC network has ordered a pilot to be written by Six Degrees creators Stuart Zicherman and Raven Metzner, and directed by David Semel (a veteran of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Heroes). If it's well received, the network will commission a full series. I think it'll be difficult to adapt, but ABC proved with Pushing Daisies that it can handle a quirky fantasy property (at least as long as it gets good ratings).

The cast of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland has grown to include Alan Rickman as the Caterpillar, Anne Hathaway as the White Queen, Crispin Glover as the Knave of Hearts, and Christopher Lee and Stephen Fry in unknown roles. They join the already announced Mia Wasikowska as Alice, Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, and Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen.

It looks like Watchmen's running time will be around two hours and thirty-five minutes, with an extended three hour and ten minute director's cut planned for later release on DVD. I don't know why they can't just release the director's cut theatrically, since The Lord of the Rings proved films of that length can be very successful.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader remains in pre-production. Several reports indicate that it won't be greenlit for production unless the budget can be cut, perhaps by as much as half, due to the disappointing box office results of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.

Remember John Carpenter's cool 1980s sci fi B-movie, They Live? Universal Pictures wants to remake it. Is there anything that isn't being remade?

We're two months away from the debut of Dollhouse, the new Joss Whedon-created series. Whedon insists the poor time slot on Fridays and massive network creative interference aren't problems, but I think he's simply being too nice about it. Former Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Battlestar Galactica staff writer Jane Espenson has joined the writing staff, though. If the show can survive long enough, I think her presence can only help.

Review: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

The second film based on C.S. Lewis's series of novels isn't as smoothly realized as its predecessor, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but it still offers a good amount of entertainment value.

The four English children (Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, William Moseley, Anna Popplewell) who became rulers of Narnia in the previous film are called back after 1,300 years have passed there to aid Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes) in overthrowing his evil uncle, King Miraz (Sergio Castellitto), and restoring freedom to Narnia.

Director Andrew Adamson (Shrek, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) once again proves capable of bringing the world of Narnia to life and his background in visual effects (he supervised the effects for Batman Forever and Batman & Robin) still serves him well. However, his sense of pacing frequently deserts him this time around, delivering a film that wanders aimlessly at times and has abrupt scene transitions at others. Even though it's two hours and twenty minutes long, it feels like it was intended to be a much longer film but was reduced to a shorter running time. Editor Sim Evan-Jones (Shrek, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) certainly deserves a share of the blame for the pacing problems.

Adamson and co-writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (both of whom worked on the previous film) make more changes to Lewis' novel than the last film did. The rivalry between Peter and Caspian, and the romance between Susan and Caspian, are unnecessary additions. The spectacle overtakes the story just a bit here in trying to make a bigger film. Still, it's a solid adaptation overall.

Cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub (Stargate, Independence Day), production designer Roger Ford (Babe, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe), and costume designer Isis Mussenden (Shrek, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) do a good job of building on the visual look of the previous film. It's still not quite up to the standards set by The Lord of the Rings, though. The score by Harry Gregson-Williams (Shrek, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) is suitable to the story. The visual effects are outstanding, and the CGI looks smoother and more realistic this time.

Henley, Keynes, Moseley, and Popplewell again bring the characters of the children to life quite convincingly. Barnes is slightly wooden as Caspian, but still adequate to the tasks at hand. Castellitto is convincing as the villain of the piece. I've always enjoyed the performances of actor Peter Dinklage (Threshold, Penelope), and it's no exception here where he plays Trumpkin the dwarf. Eddie Izzard is marvelous as the voice of Reepicheep the swashbuckling mouse. Liam Neeson's voice work as Aslan is again right on the money. Although not strictly faithful to the novel it's fun to see Tilda Swinton return as the White Witch for a cameo appearance.

The rest of the cast is solid across the board, including Pierfrancesco Favino as Miraz's military commander, Damián Alcázar as the scheming Lord Sopespian, Vincent Grass as Dr. Cornelius, Warwick Davis as Nikabrik the dwarf, and Ken Stott as the voice of Trufflehunter the badger.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian has more flaws than its predecessor, but it's still an above average fantasy film that children and fans of the novel should enjoy. The third film, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, is in pre-production and may benefit from a different director in Michael Apted (Gorillas in the Mist, The World Is Not Enough).

[3.5 out of 5 stars]