Okay, okayyy … all scepticism aside, this does look pretty cool.

Here it is, sports fans. Enjoy!

The first full trailer of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is finally here. It’s the first in a two-part retelling of JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit by Lord of the Rings trilogy director Peter Jackson. The film’s poster was also released today.

The film isn’t scheduled for release until 14 December 2012 in the US. (No dates announced yet for Singapore or the rest of Asia.)

With the Christopher Nolan series of Batman movies coming to an end, the opportunity will arise again to reboot the Bat franchise on film. But does it really have to be live action?

My vote is for an CGI / Motion-capture Batman movie in the tradition of films like Beowulf and Final Fantasy: the Spirits Within. But to make this work, the film must feature the voice talents of two men who have brought these classic characters to life for almost two decades: Kevin Conroy as the Batman and Mark Hamill as the Joker.

What? A “cartoon” Batman feature film? Here’s why the idea isn’t all that crazy:

First, Batman the Animated Series is regarded by many Batman fans as the best incarnation of the Dark Knight in any medium. Conroy and Hamill have been fan favorites ever since they first starred in the series in 1992. Since then, they have been brought back in a number of animation projects featuring Batman and the Joker, including Superman, Justice League, Batman Beyond and two direct-to-DVD feature films. They are also both marvelous actors, as this scene from one of the animated series shows.

Most recently Conroy and Hamill reprised their roles in the hit video games Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City. The latter has already sold over 4.6 million units since its release on 18 October. (That’s about US$230 million in gross revenue after only two weeks, which puts it in the same league as any Hollywood blockbuster film.)

Finally, technology is now able to give us the dramatic performances we need to make this an excellent film. Both actors will not only be able to voice but to fully perform these characters. With CG, whether or not the actors resemble the characters in real life is no longer an issue, as the following clip from the making of Beowulf shows.

We’ve all seen how full CG characters — from Yoda to Gollum — can command emotional performances onscreen. I am very excited at the prospect of both Conroy and Hamill fully performing these iconic characters. Plus, the action should be spectacular. Take a look at this trailer for Arkham City.

If you would like to see this film made, please Like this page on Facebook and help spread the word!

Yeah, baby. GTA is back. This is the latest game on my Can’t-Wait-To-Play-It List.

How many characters / story references can you name? 

The first Avengers movie trailer shows Loki as the principal villain, a bunch of cars blowing up and tensions flaring between members. It is also probably the coolest two minutes of video on Youtube today.

Avengers will hit screens in Singapore 1 May 2012.

This one is really worth seeing. The “music” of the Imperial March from Star Wars (aka Darth Vader’s theme) is actually the noise made by two hard drives. Great job!

I met Paul Levitz, former President & Publisher, editor and writer of DC Comics, at the Singapore Toys Games & Comics Convention 2011 yesterday.

For more than 35 years with DC Comics, Levitz was responsible for hiring talents such as John Byrne, Marv Wolfman, Keith Giffen and Alan Moore. My favorites among his works as a writer include All Star Comics in the late 1970s, featuring the resurrected heroes of the Justice Society of America. He is credited with creating the Huntress of Earth-2, Helena Wayne.

My favorite of all Levitz’s contributions would have to be his run on Legion of Super-Heroes in the 1980s. He wrote Legion from 1981 to 1989, including the classic “Great Darkness Saga” where the LSH faced off against Darkseid.

Legion, with its ensemble cast  of more 30 super-powered teens from the 30th Century, was easily my favorite book at the time. I have the emblem of one of its members, Timber Wolf, tattooed on my arm. Even the electronic hardware I have at home (PCs, network drives, etc) are named “Ayla”, “Kara” and “Imra” after female Legion members.

Paul Levitz returns as writer for Legion of Super-Heroes on 21 September 2011 as part of DC Comics’ “New 52″ line-up of new #1 comic books.

Sadly it’s not commercially available … yet. The game was designed by Arthur Nishimoto, a student at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago. This should be a wake up call for the folks at LucasArts whose game efforts in recent years have been less than memorable.

Reported by Kotaku.