More bits n’ bobs from this week’s genre news…

* Marvel Comics plan to release a collection of stories set in their Movieverse as a lead up to next summer’s THE AVENGERS. Here’s some promo art for ROAD TO THE AVENGERS…

* SOURCE CODE writer Ben Ripley has been hired to pen the screenplay for Sony’s FLATLINERS remake. That sound you hear? That’s the bottom of a barrel being scraped. 

* The eagerly awaited sequel DEAD RISING 2: OFF THE RECORD is released October 11th for PS3 Xbox and PC. Here’s the new gameplay trailer for the ‘Sandbox Mode’. Looks like a lotta fun!

* AVATAR’s Zoe Saldana is set to play a half-human, half-angel in Alex Proyas’ (DARK CITY, THE CROW) new action horror for Paramount Pictures.

* Speaking of THE CROW… since Bradley Cooper left that particular remake recently, he’s since attached himself to alien flick UMBRA for his A-TEAM director Joe Carnahan. Cooper plays an investment banker who accidentally stumbles across evidence of a government conspiracy involving the breeding of aliens and humans.

* LOST star Alan Dale (Charles Widmore, but probably still better known in the UK as Jim from NEIGHBOURS) is the latest to join the cast of ABC’s fantasy drama ONCE UPON A TIME. The show comes courtesy of LOST writers/producers Adam Horowitz & Edward Kitsis and tells the tale of a New England town that’s the home of fairy tale characters who’ve long forgotten who they once were.  Check out the trailer if you haven’t already…

* In other LOST related news, Terry O’ Quinn will be appearing alongside his former co-star Daniel Dae Kim in HAWAII FIVE-O’s second season.

* So things are on the up-and-up for Widmore, Locke and Jin then, let’s check in with what Jack Shepard’s been up to shall we? Ah. 

* Why every Hollywood studio has suddenly decided to do a FRANKENSTEIN movie is a mystery to us (Kenneth Branagh’s 1994 retelling didn’t exactly light the box office on fire), as is Fox’s decision to court director Shawn Levy (THE PINK PANTHER, CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN).

* This live-action fan made PORTAL 2 short only has 4,997,733 hits on YouTube. Let’s help the filmmakers out by getting it seen by a few people. (But seriously, it’s ace!)…

* Ti West, director of one of the best horror movies in recent memory HOUSE OF THE DEVIL (check it out if you haven’t already!) has revealed his next movie will deal with “pharmaceutical testing in space and paranoia.” Also, werewolves. SOLD!

* Roland Emmerich loves a good apocalyptic scenario (2012, THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW, ID4), but always manages to end his movies on a note of hope, and/or victory for mankind. Working in his native Germany however, he’s obviously not bound by the demands of Hollywood formula, and has produced HELL, a bleak tale of human survival in a post-apocalyptic environment. Check out the trailer…

* John Carpenter is also keeping busy with producing duties with THE HELL WITHIN, a new horror movie who goes looking for a missing girl in the Brazilian jungle. Only to find out the child is actually bait. Sounds like a thinly veiled WICKER MAN if you ask me, hoping there’ll be more to this. The lovely Liv Tyler (LORD OF THE RINGS) will star.

* Tom Cruise’s new sci-fi project OBLIVION is undergoing a name change (unsurprising considering the videogame property of the same name, you can bet that’s in development whether they’ve announced it or not). The movie shall henceforth be known as HORIZONS. Hmmm. Sounds more like a Travel Agent. Jessica Chastain (THE TREE OF LIFE), Olivie Wilde (TRON: LEGACY), Olga Kurylenko (QUANTUM OF SOLACE), Brit Marling (ANOTHER EARTH) and Noomi Rapace (THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO) are all currently in talks for the female lead.

* Last week we learned Superman would no longer be rockin’ the red pants in Zack Snyder’s reboot MAN OF STEEL. Some liked the new contemporary approach (at least there’s no longer room for those tired old jokes about him wearing his underwear on the outside), and some, obviously, hated it. But what will the reaction be if the current rumours of Clark Kent no longer wearing his trademark glasses prove to be true? Snyder’s playing with fire with that one.

* Robert Rodriguez has enlisted the in-demand, Oscar-winning screenwriter William Monahan (THE DEPARTED) to co-write SIN CITY 2.

* Rember when we were talking recently about Lucas’s decision to replace THE PHANTOM MENACE’s puppet Yoda with the equally dodgy CGI one from CLONES and SITH? Here’s a taste of how it’s going to look on Blu-ray (and all subsequent releases)…

* Aaaaand finally! January Drones has taken some flack from a few reviewers for her decidedly dull portrayal of Emma Frost in this year’s otherwise gloriously received X- MEN: FIRST CLASS, now she’s getting even more grief from a MAD MEN co-star, namely 10-year old Jared Gilmore who plays her on-screen son. Speaking to TV Guide recently, Gilmore had this message of advice for his eventual replacement: “Be careful around January. She’s not as approachable as the others. She’s really serious about what she does. Everyone else is so nice.” Zing!

Thoughts on any of the above? share ’em with your fellow Starburst readers in the Comments below or on Twitter @Starburst_Mag