Yesterday was a very busy news day. Lots of new stuff coming out, special projects being announced, you’d think it was some special day, right? Anyhow here’s a couple of the most interesting news items from yesterday.

Virgle
Richard Branson announced yesterday a joint venture between the Virgin Group and Google: Virgle. Their goal is pretty straightforward: establishing a permanent settlement on Mars. Better yet though, the whole project will be open source. If you are bent on becoming a Virgle Pioneer yourself, you can even apply for it here. Find out more at Virgle: The Adventure of Many Lifetimes.

Moo’s MightyCard
We all love our little Moo MiniCards, but sometimes you just need something bigger. Something that will really impress you business clients. Something that doesn’t fit in your pocket. Moo has come up with the perfect solution: the MightyCard. They come in batches of 50 and just like the MiniCards you can get a different image on each of them. I can’t wait to see what types of holders they’ll design for these!

PayPerTweet
There are an increasing number of Twitterers with tens of thousands of followers, but no way to monetize their followership. Enter: PayPerTweet. Get paid for Twittering about web sites, products, services and companies. And earn extra cash by “ReTweeting”: users help messages go viral by forwarding the paid Twitters of others.

Flying Penguins
Camera crews for a documentary called “Miracles of Evolution” discovered a colony of Adélie penguins and were astonished when the colony suddenly took to the skies. The film maker, Prof. Alid Loyas, said: “We could hardly believe our eyes. It was amazing. It’s the perfect example of Darwin’s theory of evolution working in release.” Take a look at the flying penguins yourself:

Legend of Zelda: The Movie
I have no idea how I could have missed details on this upcoming movie! This looks so awesome; I just know this movie is going to blow everybody’s mind away. So far it looks like Link and Zelda have been perfectly cast, but I’ll have to see the complete movie to fully judge this. Watch the trailer at IGN.

Gmail Custom Time
In more Google news, Gmail revealed Custom Time, where you can set a custom time when you send an email. This way you can send emails to the past with those emails appearing in the proper chronological order in your recipient’s inbox. It uses an e-flux capacitor to resolve issues of causality. Be careful how you use these though: every person is only allowed to use 10 pre-dated emails per year. So make sure you use them wisely.

gDay
Google has been busy! Google Australia announced their new search feature gDay, allowing users to search the web pages published tomorrow. The app uses MATE™ (Machine Automated Temporal Extrapolation) to construct elements of the future. “Using a mashup of numerous factors such as recurrence plots, fuzzy measure analysis, online betting odds and the weather forecast from the iGoogle weather gadget, we can create a sophisticated model of what the internet will look like 24 hours from now.” How handy is that??

Conversational Ads
Again another Google announcement, this time for Adsense for conversations. With a few simple steps, you can display ads that are relevant to the topics you are discussing. Even cooler: anyone talking to you, can immediately take advantage of the product or service advertised. Just hit the ad with your hand and thanks to the new Teleportation Technology, you’ll be transported to the place where the service is offered.

New ThinkGeek Products
ThinkGeek introduced so many cool new products, I can’t even begin to describe them all. For starters, every geek should have the Betamax to HD-DVD Converter. It plays and records both Super and regular Betamax, uses electricity and even has a manual!

I always love a puzzle and I always lock my door, so the Defendius Labyrinth Security Lock perfectly combines this.

Caffeinated cereal! Brilliant idea! Each serving of Spazztroids cereal will pump your body with vitamins and nutrients and a 180mg dose of caffeine.

There’s also this T-Shirt that everybody is geeking out about: the Personal Soundtrack T-Shirt. It features a speaker on the front and provides background music and sound effects at your command. I wouldn’t want one of these though; my mind already provides a soundtrack and I think the two would clash with each other.

To check out more of their new products, just have a look at their website.

BMW Canine Repellent Alloy Protection
This is a great announcement for car lovers: BMW has designed a system to stop dogs fouling new BMW cars. The C.R.A.P. system harnesses energy, that would have been lost during engine over-run and braking, as Rim Impulse Power (R.I.P.). Whenever a dog tries to relieve itself against an equipped BMW, a small electric shock is administered. Dr Hans Zoff, Head of Automotive Security, says: “Beauty through engineering perfection – our philosophy in a wheel nut.”

World of Warcraft: The Molten Core
Wow, WoW is returning to console gaming! The Molten Core will allow players to experience the world of the World of Warcraft in a new format with new challenges and new rewards. It will be initially available for the Atari 2600 platform, but additional console systems will be revealed in the future. Check out the trailer, it looks super cool!

iPhone Can Connect To Everything
As a final news item, I wanted to highlight this blog post from Matt Cutts. He discovered his iPhone could connect to anything! It could even open doors:

It’s that time of the year again when networks are looking around and searching for new TV shows for next fall. And may I say that we’ve got quite an interesting bunch so far. If some of these projects turn out as great as I’m hoping they can be, I’m going to have trouble fitting it all in my schedule.

Dollhouse
Finally Joss Whedon is returning to TV! This news isn’t exactly new, but it’s one TV show I’m dying to see. Dollhouse is created/written/produced by Joss Whedon and has been picked up for 7 episodes by FOX. Yep, the same FOX that’s responsible for the deaths of countless innocent series. So don’t hold your breath (just warning). The TV show will feature Buffy-alum Eliza Dushku as Echo:

… a young woman who is literally everybody’s fantasy. She is one of a group of men and women who can be imprinted with personality packages, including memories, skills, language—even muscle memory—for different assignments. The assignments can be romantic, adventurous, outlandish, uplifting, sexual and/or very illegal. When not imprinted with a personality package, Echo and the others are basically mind-wiped, living like children in a futuristic dorm/lab dubbed the Dollhouse, with no memory of their assignments—or of much else. The show revolves around the childlike Echo’s burgeoning self-awareness, and her desire to know who she was before, a desire that begins to seep into her various imprinted personalities and puts her in danger both in the field and in the closely monitored confines of the Dollhouse.

Sounds interesting, right? For more info on the other characters, take a look at Ausiello’s report. They’re still busy with the casting of those characters, but I’m curious to see if we’ll get any more familiar faces. [Source]

Caprica
I’ve been waiting for ages for this TV show to be greenlighted and today it finally has. It was first announced way back in April 2006, only to get stuck in the fiery pits of Development Hell. The show will be a prequel to Battlestar Galactica, focusing on events 70 years before the current BSG series. It’s been described as television’s first science fiction family saga:

The series will revolve around two families: the Adamas and the Graystones. Joseph Adama, father of future Battlestar commander William Adama, is a renowned civil liberties lawyer who becomes an opponent of the artificial intelligence/Cylon experiments wrought by the Graystones, owners of a large computer corporation that builds the first Cylons.

We need more good scifi shows on TV and while I’m normally not a fan of spin-offs, in this case it could turn out really great. Especially because the “mother” series is wrapping up before production on Caprica starts and I’m guessing most of the production team will continue working on that. [Source]

Cupid
Ten years ago, before Veronica Mars, Rob Thomas had another little short-lived TV show called Cupid. Now the ABC has asked him to write a pilot for a new version of this show. I never watched the original show, but I’ve heard from various people that they used to love it. The old show starred Jeremy Piven as:

Trevor, a man who believes he’s Cupid and must fix the problems of couples on Earth so that he may gain access to Mount Olympus and begin sipping ambrosia and living the good life. The catch? He lost all his mythological abilities. The other catch? He may just be a normal guy who is missing a few screws.

It sounds like a great plot and if Rob Thomas stays on board for the entire series, I’m definitely going to tune into this one. [Source]

Beverly Hills, 90210
Rob Thomas is a busy, busy man. Besides being asked by ABC for a Cupid-remake, the CW has approached him to write and produce a re-envisioning of Beverly Hills, 90210. I would have skipped this, if Rob Thomas wasn’t involved, cuase come on do we really need this? Don’t get me wrong, I get that people like the drama/soap series about rich kids with problems (The O.C., Gossip Girl), I’ll admit I’m one of them, but why a remake of 90210? Why not something completely new? The list of characters came out today and so far I’m not seeing anything to get excited about. Ah well, I also didn’t get hooked on The O.C. until half-way season one, so I’ll just wait and see how it goes. [Source]

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog
For me, this sounds too good and way too weird to be true, but I’m completely geeking out on this small project. It’s a three part Web musical (with each episode only being 10 minutes) written by Joss Whedon and his brothers during the writer’s strike. The idea is this:

It’s the story of a low-rent super-villain, the hero who keeps beating him up, and the cute girl from the laundromat he’s too shy to talk to.

To make it even better, the role of the super villain Dr. Horrible will be played by Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother) and the role of the hero Captain Hammer goes to Nathan Fillion (Serenity, Buffy). Can this project get any better than this? [Source]

Alice
I kind of liked Tin Man, the SciFi Channel re-imagination of The Wizard of Oz. It wasn’t as great as I thought it would be, but still was pretty entertaining. The same creative team responsible for Tin Man will be back with another re-imagination, this time of the classic Alice in Wonderland. I can see how this can work; it seems like the perfect story to adapt to a scifi setting. I’m surprised actually that no one has done it before (or am I just blanking here?). I wonder what type of adaption it will be though? Will it follow the path of Tin Man with other dimensions? Or virtual reality? Or maybe something less obvious like space travel? [Source]

Here’s a roundup of all the interesting tidbits of movie news I’ve heard this week:

Sly Back For More
I never watched the Rambo or Rocky series, so I wasn’t that interested in the new installments of those series. I loved almost every other classic Sly action movie though. Now, Sylvester Stallone has signed up to direct and star in two more action films and rumours are that the first will be a sequel to Cliffhanger. Coolness! Although, I do have got my heart set on a second Demolition Man or Judge Dredd. “I Am The Law” [Via FirstShowing]

Smurf Alert
The film you’ve all been waiting for: The Smurfs in 3D. Seriously, do we need this movie?? Somehow this movie is going to suck big time. I’d much rather have a live action movie. Now that would be hilarious. Coming Soon has some production stills up, showing some of the new computer models. [Via ComingSoon]

Peacock
Ellen Page (Juno) and Cillian Murphy (Batman Begins, Sunshine) are set to star in the psychological thriller, Peacock. Set in the town of Peacock, Nebrask, Murphy will play a man with a split personality, who fools the town into believing his alter egos are a married couple. Page will play a “struggling young mother who holds the key to his past and sparks a battle between the personalities.” It sound like an interesting concept and if anybody can pull off a creepy split personality androgynous role, it’s got to be Cillian Murphy. Add Page to the mix and you’ve got one hell of a movie. [Via Variety]

CBS Series Renewed
Yes, this is TV news, not movie news, but I couldn’t let it slip by without mentioning it. CBS has renewed 11 TV shows for the 2008-2009 season: Big Bang Theory, Cold Case, Criminal Minds, CSI, CSI: Miami, CSI: New York, Ghost Whisperer, NCIS, Numb3rs, Two and A Half Men and Without A Trace. The most surprising absentee from this list How I Met Your Mother. This doesn’t mean the show has been canceled, only that it hasn’t been renewed yet, hopefully with the emphasis on “yet”. I find it weird though that Big Bang Theory gets renewed before HIMYM. As much as I like the Big Bang it’s not as funny as HIMYM. [Via AICN]

The Many Faces of Dr. Parnassus
After the death of Heath Ledger, the fate of his last movie The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus seemed uncertain. In the story Ledger’s character falls through a magic mirror into different worlds and there was a rumour that they would use different actors for the different worlds. Now it’s been confirmed that three actors have stepped up to offer their interpretations of Ledger as a way of tribute: Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell. I can’t imagine a more appropriate homage to such a talented actor. And damn, how much hotness could you put in one movie? [Via AICN]

The last week has brought a flurry of reports and rumours over the new JJ Abrams Star Trek remake, exciting and disgusting Trekkies everywhere. Although I’m not very confident this film will actually work, the amount of info leaking out of the set is worth reporting. You’d almost think it was deliberately orchestrated this way and knowing Abrams, it most probably is.

Firstly, there’s a casting call for extras, which will get the most enthusiastic Trekkies reaching for their costumes. They’re looking for:

Thin, regal talent who have BROWN or BLACK hair AND are OK with their eyebrows being shaved from the arch outward to portray a “Vulcan type” eyebrow shape.

Then, next to that, they’re looking for this:

Especially seeking talent with interesting and unique facial features, such as: long necks, small heads, extremely large heads, wide-set eyes, bug eyes, close-set eyes, large forehead, short upper lip, pronounced cheekbones, over or under sized ears and/or nose, facial deformities, ultra plain looking people, ultra perfect looking people, pure wholesome looks, twins, triplets, emaciated talent in addition to regally poised and postured talent.

Eh, so you have to look weird or completely perfect? By the way, I’ve never heard a casting call before looking for “emaciated talent”; they want people that are freakishly skinny? Or does “emaciated talent” mean “not that much talent”?

Next up, is the report that the role of Captain Pike has gone to Bruce Greenwood, an actor that has been in a LOT of movies, but in normal unmemorable roles. You know what I mean, right? It’s one of those guys that always plays the father figure or the senator/president or the husband, those roles that are needed in the movie, but won’t really impress anyone. This only strengthens my idea that Captain Pike will have a very limited part in the movie.

Now the rest of the news is at the moment still a bit fuzzy. For starters, Rachel Nichols, former Alias wannabe, has reported that she’s been cast in the remake, but doesn’t even know who her character is.

Rumours are that she’ll play Janice Rand, the other Star Trek girl, but there’s also some “evidence” that another actress has been cast in that role. /Film says that:

IESB received photos from the set (mostly extras outside of a warehouse studio covered up in parkas, nothing all too interesting), and one of the photos shows an actress who looks a lot like House star Jennifer Morrison. Is this Morrison (see IESB’s photo above), and if so, is she the new Janice Rand? We’re waiting on a confirmation.

Hmm, the photo does look a lot like her and we know that she now has blond hair in House.

Last but not least, comes the report that Winona Ryder will play Amanda Grayson, Spock’s human mother. But exactly what does this mean for the plot? i can’t believe that they would cast an actress for the mother almost just as old as the son. It somehow seems to me that there will be even more time travel in it then we originally thought, what with Leonard Nimoy also being cast Spock. My idea is that Spock travels at least twice back into the past, once when he’s a kid and once when he’s just graduated from the Academy. Or will it just be boring flashbacks? Either way, wanna bet they’re going to cast a young Spock now?