-Sir Ian McKellen now says he will definitely be back as Gandalf, and the movie will hopefully start shooting in January, which tallies nicely with some other recent rumors. This still shouldn’t be considered official confirmation, but considering how frustrated McKellen has seemed with the project previously, his sudden optimism is probably based on something at least somewhat tangible. So um… that’s a thing, I think

-At Capcom’s event in Tokyo, there was a candy maker on hand to whip up confectionary treats. Besides Mega Man, Ailu from Monster Hunter, Amatersau from Okami and the Umbrella Corporation logo from Resident Evil.

-Ryan Reynolds is busy working on the upcoming DC superhero film Green Lantern, but he’s also still on track to play Marvel’s antihero in the proposed Deadpool movie, a character he previously portrayed in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Reynolds told Heroes Complex the Deadpool movie won’t be beholden to the events in Wolverine and in fact, it’s not going to be like any superhero movie you’ve seen before. “It goes in such a different direction than a superhero movie usually goes. It’s a nasty piece of work. It’s just based in so much emotional filth, completely. It’s like Barfly if it were a superhero movie. It sort of treads into the world of an emotionally damaged person. I always say that Deadpool is a guy in a highly militarized shame spiral. … It’s so different than the superhero movies to date, it departs so far from that.”

-It’s a hoodie that’s just got a seemingly ordinary giant hand on it when it’s zipped up. But zip it down a bit and suddenly you’re giving everyone around you a mega-sized Vulcan salute (and transforming into a big geek … but you already knew that). It’s called the “Traditional Greeting,” and it was designed by Paulo Bruno. It’ll run you a logical $40 at Threadless.

-If you like Jewel Staite as Kaylee from Firefly and Serenity and Dr. Jennifer Keller from Stargate: Atlantis, you’ll love the REAL Jewel Staite! She’s agreed to join Blastr.com to answer your questions and share whatever happens to be on her mind.

How would YOU have wanted Firefly to end?

Well, I wouldn’t have, now would I? But in my perfect imagination, it ends a little something like this: Nine glorious seasons later, Kaylee and Simon have had several beautiful brunette babies, a couple of which have turned out to be crazy geniuses like their Auntie River (Firefly: the Next Generation?), and one who mysteriously looks a lot like Matthew Fox, who became a regular cast member in season six. River has finally found her marbles and is now captaining her own ship with her loyal second-in-command, Jayne, who claims that River is the best captain he’s ever known. Saffron is now their mercenary, and Jayne’s lover. And because this is the future and vast discoveries have been made in the world of medicine, Jayne is pregnant with their first child. Inara and Mal finally profess their undying love for each other while Inara is, well, dying in his arms (something gruesome, lotsa blood), and Mal finally realizes that life is short. And promptly confesses his (other) undying love to Zoe. And she promptly punches him in the face.

-See through Aluminum. Stronger than glass, various military and commercial applications for this remarkable material are already being tested. What was once used in the science-fiction Star Trek movies, see-through aluminum is now something that – through test mixing with rubies, sapphires and more – is now being tried out in all kinds of ways to create transparency where strength is also required.
For now, it is used in static-free transparent aluminum wrapping for computer parts and other electronics. It is also being tested in otherwise-conventional see-through soda cans and military shielding for vehicles where windows once were. At over ten dollars per square inch, however, it is still not cheap enough for mainstream everyday use – but may be someday soon.

-Jupiter is cozying up to Earth this month. At its closest approach, the giant planet will swing closer and shine brighter than at any time between 1963 and 2022. It will be brightest in the second half of September. The gas giant’s closest approach will be at a distance of 368 million miles on Monday, September 20. Its previous swing-by in August 2009 was 2 percent farther, and the next approach in October 2011 will be a little less than 1 percent more distant. Jupiter is also brighter than usual by about 4 percent because one of its brown cloud belts is hidden.

-Buzz Aldrin has walked on the moon, survived 66 combat missions over Korea and even appeared as a contestant on “Dancing With the Stars. For his lifetime of achievements, the 80-year-old was given a 600-pound cake. This was not your typical terrestrial cake, it was a moon cake that featured a large replica of a lunar lander as the centerpiece, The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. The creation even included an electric-powered Earth that revolved around the giant cake. But the man who should know found a technical glitch with the direction of the rotating Earth, according to The Review-Journal . “Small detail,” he said. “Wrong way.”

-Paramount Pictures has inked a deal with Shawn Levy’s 21 Laps Entertainment to make “Deadliest Warrior” for the big screen. Pic, based on the original TV series from Spike TV (Paramount’s sister shingle), marks the first time that the shingle and Par, both owned by Viacom, have worked together. Storyline for feature version is being kept under wraps but the TV series follows the story of world-class warriors battling against one another to see who reigns supreme. Levy and 21 Laps prexy Dan Levine will produce the pic, with the possibility that Levy may direct. 21 Laps is the shingle behind “Night at the Museum” franchise and current action pic “Real Steel” starring Hugh Jackman for DreamWorks. Announcement of the project comes after the show’s Season 2 finale wrapped. Spike TV has renewed the series for a third season.

-Telltale Games, creators of Sam & Max and Monkey Island episodic games, are hard at work on all-new Back to the Future games chronicling the time-traveling adventures of Marty McFly and Doc Brown. Today, they bring good BTTF news. The developer has tapped the talents of Christopher Lloyd to voice ol’ Doc Brown, with Back to the Future screenwriter Bob Gale coming onboard to “consult” on the creation of the episodic game series. Telltale’s Back to the Future games are timed to hit later this year, after the Back to the Future 25th Anniversary Trilogy hits Blu-ray and DVD. Telltale’s Back to the Future series has also secured the likeness of Michael J. Fox’s Marty McFly and the iconic DeLorean time machine, so expect authenticity to assault your eyeballs later this year.

-Gravity, the 3D film that Warner Bros is mobilizing with director Alfonso Cuaron and Robert Downey Jr., is suddenly in danger of falling back to earth after Angellina Jolie said no to a full court press and a big money offer to star in the film. It has put Warner Bros in a bind. The studio needs an actress who can hold the screen and draw an audience to an $80 million film. Much like Tom Hanks’ role in Cast Away, the Gravity heroine is the only person onscreen for a large part of the movie.” This was first announced back in March, but today Syfy said production is going to start next week on its 4-hour Peter Pan prequel called Neverland. It’s being written and directed by Nick Willing, who worked on Syfy’s Tin Man and Alice, which were reimaginings of The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland.

-Here’s an interesting statistic: There are 4,700 freshwater fish species in South America right now. On average, over 100 species per year have been discovered. This year alone, 69 new species have been described thus far. These numbers show very clearly that we are far from knowing the number of freshwater species in South America. And oh, scientists have found a new species. An armored, Amazonian catfish. That eats wood from fallen logs — and, when desperate, the feces of its fellow catfish. With teeth shaped like spoons to make the eating easier.  The largest one is about 65 centimeters, the other two are half that size.

-Seth Green is about to let the world take over someone’s life for six weeks. In the show, “Control TV”, the central twentysomething figure, who has yet to be cast, will take orders, in real time, from viewers on every aspect of his life — from what he wears and eats to where he works and whom he dates. The human puppet will drive Ford’s new small Fiesta and receive calls and texts using the HTC EVO 4G phone. “‘ControlTV’ places the audience in complete control of a show for the first time ever, and we are eager to learn what they will decide for our protagonist,” Green said.

-In the last year, Ghostbusters 3 has gone from “someday, maybe” to “getting more and more likely.” They’re writing a script, Ivan Reitman’s involved, and even Bill Murray says he’s interested. Now it looks like Sigourney Weaver is ready to get on board. “I’ve also been contacted,” Weaver said in an interview on Aug. 27 in Beverly Hills, Calif., where she was promoting the comedy You Again. “All I said was I really think my little boy Oscar, who went through that traumatic kidnapping, should be a ghostbuster. So I think that might happen.” Weaver said the next step for a new Ghostbusters movie is just getting a good script done.

-NASA has created the clever Space Rock program that lets the public vote on what song shuttle astronauts flying on mission STS-133 will wake up to. As they put it, “The wakeup song has been a part of the space program since the days of the Apollo missions, and now NASA is giving you two chances to be a part of this history! We need your help selecting wakeup songs to be played during the final missions of the Space Shuttle Program!” To what should be exactly no one’s surprise, the Star Trek theme song by Alexander Courage is leading the pack with nearly 400,000 votes. What’s actually somewhat surprising though is that lagging behind in a distant sixth place is the theme from Star Wars, written by John Williams, which had an insignificant 12,661 votes the last time we checked.

-The goal is to get humans to Mars by the mid-2030s, but what are the stepping stones that will get us there? Returning to the Moon gets a lot of publicity, but the better test might be a near-Earth asteroid. Space.com columnist Leonard David has an intriguing feature on Lockheed Martin’s research into sending astronauts to a near-Earth asteroid by the mid-2020s. Nicknamed the “Plymouth Rock” mission, landing on an asteroid wouldn’t only be a great dress rehearsal for the long trip to Mars; it could also allow us to set up planetary defenses against asteroid impacts. (Armageddon is turning into a documentary so slowly, no one’s even noticing.)