Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Casting, Deals, RumorMonger, Remakes and Sequels

Well, either John McTiernan took a pass on the offer or AICN had their collective legs pulled when news came that Die Hard helmer McTiernan was in talks to direct the Conan the Barbarian update for Millennium Films. Dark Horizons has now reported that French director Xavier Gens told film site Le Film Francais.com that he was in line to direct the fantasy update. After the drawn-out battle for the rights to re-make the 1982 film, it seems like the production is still having a little trouble finding a director or a star. Although AICN did name Gerard Butler as one of the contenders for the role (I guess he has plenty of experience in a loincloth already). Gens is probably best known as the director for the video game flick Hitman — which might not be the best calling card if you take the cringe-worthy score of 13% on Rotten Tomatoes as any indication of the man’s abilities.

Gens entrance into the Hollywood blockbuster scene probably didn’t quite work out as he had hoped. First, there were rumors that there were arguments with the studio over Hitman’s rating, and then finally there was talk that Gens had been pulled from the project altogether. There was some PR back-pedaling surrounding the problems with Hitman, but even if the rumors weren’t completely true, it could not have helped his reputation. But since Gen’s involvement in Conan is still a rumor at this point, fans probably shouldn’t get too worried just yet. Let’s just wait until we hear something a little more official. Conan the Barbarian is scheduled for release in 2009.

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It seems that Britney Spears and Paris Hilton are welcoming 2008 with a bitter bitch fight - the two are planning to launch their own chains of Las…

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Filed under: Late Night, TV Royalty, Programming, Celebrities, Talk Show

Here’s who’s sitting down on the couch on the late night shows.

• Charlie Rose: a look back at those who passed away in 2007
• The Late Show with David Letterman: Robin Williams and Lupe Fiasco
• Jay Leno: Governor Mike Huckabee and Chingy
• Jimmy Kimmel Live: Kid Rock
• Tavis Smiley: Will Smith (repeat)
• Late Night with Conan O’Brien: TBA
• The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson: TBA
• Last Call with Carson Daly: Mike Cammalleri, Derek Armstrong, and OneRepublic (repeat)

Note: The Daily Show and The Colbert Report return with new episodes next Monday.

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Filed under: Rumors, Demos

Rumors have surfaced regarding Sega’s upcoming PS3 exclusive title, Yakuza 3. The game, whose prior two incarnations dealt with more modern-style gangster brawls, takes you back to the time when swords and skill were pretty accurate measures of your ability to earn respect. We’d love to know how it plays and that’s where the rumor kicks in — Sega may be releasing a demo on the Japanese PlayStation Store sometime this month. Sega hasn’t said anything officially, but according to some random source over at Gamefront, it’s coming. We’ll find out, we guess.

[via CVG]

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Filed under: Downloads

Eye of Judgment has one major advantage over just about every other game ever made - you can play it anywhere you want, even without the console it was designed for. It’s true, because at its core, Eye of Judgment is just like any other collectable card game. Of course, by doing this, you won’t get all the fancy schmancy graphics, heavy metal tunes and you’ll actually have to keep up with a lot of the goings-on either in your brain or using the dying technology of pencil and paper.

However, Tyler Tinsley, a tabletop game designer, has made it all the more easy for those wanting to take EoJ into the furthest reaches of the world. He’s constructed a printable tabletop kit that consists of everything you need to play. To make it even easier on the players, he printed health meters on the tiles to make to keep track of your monster’s health.

We’re not sure how many EOJ veterans like ourselves would be interested in playing without their PS3s, but it could be a good way to convince your naysaying friends just how amazingly fun this game is. Big thanks to Tyler for creating this and having it available to gamers everywhere for free.

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Filed under: Videos and Screenshots, e-Distribution Games

The upcoming PSN game PixelJunk Monsters is just around the corner, and GameVideos has new footage of the game’s early sections. This defense game is filled with charm, and may be able to suck away countless hours of your life when it releases soon. Check out the video, and then images in our updated gallery below.

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Filed under: Products and services, Launches, Google (GOOG)

Will 2008 be the breakout year that some of Google (NASDAQ: GOOG)’s products and services besides search-targeted ads are able to start contributing revenue to the company’s bottom line? Pundits will be watching for that, as will Google shareholders, who are mostly large fans of the stock, but reserved in the “eggs in one basket” approach Google still has when it comes to revenue diversification.

Are Google’s products like Gmail, Docs and Spreadsheets, and Calendar holding up their fair share? Gmail is the only product that includes advertising, and Google is careful not to say how much revenue it receives from customers clicking on ads within Gmail. How about Google Base? It’s just an entry point into Google Search. Google Trends? Google Book Search? Google Page Creator? Google Notebook? All of these nifty products are — for now — free of charge to use, but don’t have any kind of ads, which could directly produce revenue.

Google’s hope for 2008 revenue beyond search advertising rests in many areas, from YouTube advertising to generating an actual income from subscribers to its Google Docs and Spreadsheets product for large installations (universities, companies, small businesses, etc.) that would prefer not to spend a small fortune on Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Office, and who also want web-based portability for their documents anywhere there is a web-connected computer.

Does the web search leader have plans to diversify revenue even further than these two examples? Surely — but gleaning that information from the company will be met with competitive-advantage silence for now.

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Filed under: Internet, Google (GOOG), Yahoo! (YHOO), Employees, Technology

Another day, another high-profile defection from Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO). This time, it’s longtime Yahoo! web performance executive Steve Souders, who announced he was joining Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) come January 8. Souders has been at Yahoo! since 2000, which is a lifetime in the technology business.

Souder’s responsibilities at Yahoo! included managing the team for development of the “My Yahoo!” personal web start page that is used by millions every day. Souder was also into developing products and platforms to ensure the performance of Yahoo!’s web products (as in, speed) while ensuring the smoothest and most consistent customer experience.

One thing that most likely caught Google’s eye was Souder’s work on making Yahoo!’s sites faster. Google is so proud of how quickly it delivers global search results to each customer that it prints the number of milliseconds each search takes for each of the billions of monthly searches performed on its network.

Will Yahoo! have some serious work to do in 2008? Yes, it will — this year will be a make-or-break year for the company. It has quite a feat ahead to come back from piddly financial performance results (compared to the competition, anyway) and really deliver in some areas. For Yahoo!, revenue growth could come from internet search, but taking share away from Google may be impossible. Still, the growth from its paid services was not that hot in 2007 either, so where does that leave it? We’ll find out in 2008.

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Filed under: Products and services, Launches, Google (GOOG)

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) just loves trying to get users of its services a more interactive experience. This past summer, Google announced a unique new offering where readers may be able to add their own two cents to a new story indexed by Google News if they find themselves quoted in the news.

The New York Times‘ Noam Cohen reminds us of Liebling’s words: “Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.” Well, with this service, Google has been allowing comments to be ‘paired’ with news articles indexed by its News website. Google News currently tracks over 4,500 news sources globally and is now resurfacing in the news as it gains more traction — and more watchers to what this could do to online news interaction.

The concept Google has here is brilliant and was overdue before its launch in mid-2007. The large number of quotes and sayings printed daily that are taken out of context for some publisher’s agenda molds the minds of many millions of people who — believe it or not — believe everything they read. Pity. However, Google’s attempt to level the playing field is an admirable one, and 2008 should see the uptake of this new “featu