Before I get into anything else, if you like ‘80s nostalgia you need to check out this week’s episode of the Totally Rad Show video podcast. The show usually features the amiable Alex Albrecht from Diggnation and his friends Dan Trachtenberg and Jeff Cannata reviewing and discussing new films, video games, and TV, but this week they’ve outdone themselves by “discovering” a lost episode from 1986 in which they review Short Circuit, Ghosts ‘n Goblins for the NES, L.A. Law, and Alf. It’s complete with a Max-Headroom-esqe background, popped collars, and bad video effects. It’s bodacious. One might even say, to the max.

So let’s get to the bad news first – some disappointing denials involving certain creators involvement in upcoming comic films. A minor geek frenzy erupted when Brian Michael Bendis tweeted that he had visited the production office for the Spider-Man reboot. Did this mean the creator of Ultimate Spider-Man, on which the film is said to be based, would actually be consulting, or even scripting? As it turns out, not so much. Bendis denied the admittedly appealing rumor flat in a later tweet. He’s too busy working on the film adaptation of his own graphic novel, Fire. On a side note, can we please funnel some stimulus money towards a committee to come up with a better name for some of this technology? Between tweets, Yahoo, Google, and Bing it’s very hard to sound like a rational adult …while talking about grown men and women in spandex.

Anyway, secondly, DC Entertainment President Diane Nelson has denied that Christopher Nolan is consulting on the new Superman film, The Man of Steel. Sort of. She claimed Nolan being attached to the project is merely a rumor, and their policy is not to comment on rumors. This could mean that they just prefer to make the official announcement themselves at some point, but who knows? Nolan himself is knee-deep in post production on Inception and has yet to comment either way.

But how about another Man of Steel rumor to make things even more confusing? Sure, why not? Now it’s being said that David Goyer has been hired to write the script. Goyer was Nolan’s writing partner on Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, you see. So having Nolan involved in any way would be just kuh-raaaaazy, right? Goyer has had kind of a mixed career, but with more good than bad. I’ll try to put aside the relentlessly mediocre FlashForward series and remember the fantastic Batman films, the better-than-they should-have-been Blade movies, and the amazing Dark City, which was Matrix¬ cool before The Matrix.

As I’ve collected comics over the years, I find myself being drawn to titles based more and more on the creative talent involved rather than any allegiance to the characters themselves. This is probably why I’m excited over the announcement of a film adaptation for a character I know little about. Shane Black will be directing a version of Doc Savage, the jack-of-all trades pulp hero (also known as The Man of Bronze) who’s been around for just about as long as Superman. Black wrote and made his directorial debut with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, the fantastic thriller comedy from a few years ago with Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer. Before that, he wrote the screenplays for The Long Kiss Goodnight, and The Monster Squad. Oh yeah, and something called Lethal Weapon. Clearly, he is not too old for this shit. While he doesn’t seem to be handling the script, I get the feeling we’ll still be able to notice his unique and witty stamp on the project.

Finally, I should ‘fess up that I was really pushing the geek thing hard yesterday, because I was refreshing the page at Flynnlives.com in vain for hours and hours, hoping to take part in the alternate reality game promoting the new Tron Legacy film. There’s been this strange binary clock there counting down for weeks until zero hour yesterday morning, when a list of locations in various cities around the world was posted. While I think most were, like myself, hoping for tickets to an early screening, it looks like the first one to get to the sites received a Velcro Tron wallet with some classic trading cards inside, and a cell phone that may or may not be useable except to continue taking part in the game. Hopefully the film won’t be as disappointing as the promotion.

So until next week, get your geek on, stay strong and….no seriously, can someone please get to renaming Twitter at least? Come on, that thing is ridiculous.

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