DC Comics is going back into the universe of “Watchmen” this summer with the launch of “Before Watchmen”, seven new limited series that will serve as prequels to the acclaimed 80′s comic series.

The projects will mark the first time that characters such as Doctor Manhattan, Rorschach and the Comedian have appeared anywhere in comics since the original 12-issue series – one of the most influential comic books of the past quarter century and the most popular with more than two million copies sold.

The project is polarising a lot of people as the original creators – legendary writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons – are not involved. Moore himself tells The New York Times that “I tend to take this latest development as a kind of eager confirmation that they are still apparently dependent on ideas that I had 25 years ago.”

Instead various other famed writers and illustrators will expand on the back stories of the costumed vigilantes. Brian Azzarello will pen both the “Rorschach” and “Comedian” titles, J. Michael Straczynski will handle “Nite Owl” and “Dr. Manhattan”, Darwyn Cooke will do “Minutemen” and “Silk Spectre”, and Len Wein will do “Ozymadias” and the mini multi-part story “Curse of the Crimson Corsair”.

The set consists of a whopping 131 DVDs containing all 1225 episodes but doesn’t include the two movies – 1970′s “House of Dark Shadows” and 1971′s “Night of Dark”. It also uses the same DVD masters as the original individual 4-DVD sets issued over the past 10 years and will retail at $600. [Source: TV Shows on DVD]

Spartacus Vengeance
The first episode of “Spartacus: Vengeance” premiered over the weekend on STARZ. The show managed to pull in a record total of 2.1 million viewers across two showings on Friday night – a 10% increase over last year’s ‘Gods of the Arena’ prequel.

The episode was also available on-demand and online for a week ahead of the premiere and more than 1.4 million on-demand and online views were logged to date. [Source: Zap2It]

The story revolves around Ben Tennyson, a boy who can transform into ten different alien creatures with the help of a glovelike device called the Omnitrix.

Joel Silver, Andrew Rona and Steve Richards are producing with Warner Bros. Pictures likely to distribute.

Rocky Russo and Jeremy Sosenko have been hired to pen a feature adaptation of the graphic novel “Too Cool to Be Forgotten” at Red Crown Productions and Likely Story.

The story centers on a man whose hypnotherapy session seemingly transports him back into his 15-year-old body in 1985. Daniela Taplin Lundberg, Daniel Crown and Anthony Bregman will produce.

Three years ago came word that Universal Pictures was creating “Stretch Armstrong 3D”, a project based on the toy that would use a script by Steve Oedekerk (“Bruce Almighty”) and be produced by Brian Grazer.

The toy was launched in the 70′s and was a 13-inch, blond-haired, bulky muscled figure in a speedo whose limbs could be stretched to nearly four feet. Naturally an actor who looked nothing like it, “Twilight” hunk Taylor Lautner, was confirmed to be starring in the film approximately two years ago.

The project was one of over a half dozen projects Universal and Hasbro were developing together, the first being the big-budget “Battleship” opening in May. Last Summer it appeared as if Universal was essentially culling all its Hasbro game & toy adaptations in development including “Monopoly,” “Ouija,” “Clue,” “Magic: The Gathering” and “Candy Land”.

Now, Hasbro and Relativity Media have come to a new partnership to work together with ‘Stretch’ being the first cab off the rank and already setting a April 11th 2014 release date.

Lautner however will no longer be headlining the project due to scheduling conflicts. Ryan Kavanaugh, Brian Goldner and Bennett Schneir will produce.

Last year’s ‘First Class’ was one of the best reviewed tentpole films of the year with critics scoring similar marks to the franchise’s previous best effort “X2″. It also pulled in a solid $353 million worldwide.

Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy and Jennifer Lawrence are all expected to return, as are producers Bryan Singer and Simon Kinberg.

Kinberg is also reportedly going to write the script, a concern considering he’s penned both good tentpoles (“Sherlock Holmes,” “Mr. and Mrs. Smith”) and bad (“X-Men: The Last Stand,” “Jumper”). Then again it’d be a surprise if Vaughn doesn’t do some big re-writes of his own.

Meanwhile writer/director Joss Whedon and cast members Tom Hiddleston and Clark Gregg will be participating in a Global Twitter Chat on Tuesday, January 31st 2012 at 11 a.m. US-PST.

Fans around the world will be able to participate in the Q&A on Twitter by using the @Avengers handle and the #Avengers hashtag. There will also be a 10-second tease of the 30-second Super Bowl spot.

Captain America: The First Avenger 2
Neal McDonough, who played Dum Dum Dugan in “Captain America: The First Avenger”, says that the sequel could shoot this year:

“They’re planning [to go into production] for the end of this year, because Marvel does one film at a time. So they’re going to do Thor 2 and as soon as Thor has wrapped, they’ll do Cap 2″ he says.

Disney and Marvel presently have two 2014 release dates set aside for currently unspecified titles. It’s not looking like “Doctor Strange” and “Captain America 2″ will probably fill those slots. [Source: The IMDb]

Iron Man 3
Filming on the third “Iron Man” could start a few weeks earlier than previously planned, with the shoot beginning in Wilmington, North Carolina during the last week of April or first week of May. [Source: Comicbook.com]

Rawson Marshall Thurber was previously attached to direct the story of a tribe of elves trying to find others of their kind while avoiding humans and trolls. Comic co-creator Wendy Pini gave the following statement on the title’s Facebook page:

“After close to four years of suspense – and longer than four years of your much-appreciated interest and support – the word has come down from Warner Bros. And the word is “no.” Their simple explanation is that they don’t want to compete with The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. This was a possibility, among several, that we were prepared for. It is a relief, at last, to know.”

Meanwhile another project that began life back in 2008, a CG animated adaptation of Eric Powell’s “The Goon” comic which David Fincher optioned, looks like it might have died on the vine.

Paul Giamatti and Clancy Brown voiced the characters of Franky and The Goon in a test footage reel in 2010. IFC spoke with Giamatti at Sundance this week and asked him how the film was progressing.

“I have no idea what the hell happened. I asked and no one knows. I guess they just ran out of money” he says. This matches comments from Fincher last year who suggested getting a project like this financed was extremely difficult.

“Fox has been talking about (it) and it looks like it’s going to happen. We’re going to have a meeting I think next week and Carlos [Saldanha, Director] is coming to town to tell us the story, and it looks like it’s a go” he tells The Press Association.

Saldanha may also want to tie in the sequel to the 2014 World Cup which will take place in Brazil. No script or deals however are in place.

The UK’s BBC One greenlit a third season a few months ago, the question remains when in 2012 they will actually get around to filming them.

Though she was a major character in the first and had a small appearance in the second, Ruth Wilson isn’t expected to return as Alice for this season. The actress is currently committed to Disney’s “Lone Ranger” film.