Everyone’s got their favorite superheroes, and their reasons for liking them. Ours drive cool cars. Comic-book-turned-big-screen do-gooders like Batman (and his mild-mannered alter-ego Bruce Wayne) and Iron Man (Tony Stark). That’s just one of the reasons we’re stoked for The Driver.

The animated series-in-the-making centers around a mysterious vigilante who chases down criminally reckless drivers on the streets of Los Angeles, and a shutterbug sidekick who follows him around as he puts the baddies to shame in Gorillaz-style animation. It’s shaping up to be as car-obsessed as the best of us, and after launching the first trailer back in April of 2010, the creators have now (the better part of two years later) released some additional footage. Follow the jump to see Nissan’s 350Z square off against its own GT-R.

The cannonball was supposed to blast through an array of water barrels and a cinderblock wall. Supposed to. Instead it hit the wall, a hill, a house, and Jasbir Gill’s Toyota Sienna. Now do you see why they tell you not to try this at home?

The accident occurred Tuesday afternoon at an Alameda County Police bomb range adjacent to Santa Rita Jail, about a half mile outside of Dublin. The gun had lifted slightly from its intended position just before it fired, putting the steel round over the water barrels, off the hillside, and 700 yards East.

There it bounced through the front door of a home, up the front stairs, through a bedroom—past a sleeping family—out the wall, over a six-lane road, and on through the van’s front passenger window.

Nobody was injured, though Gill was understandably peeved. “I’m angry and lucky to be alive. Anybody could have been hit by this,” he told the San Francisco Chronicle.

SOURCE via SFGate

The Top Gear crew has been spotted filming in China. James May and Jeremy Clarkson have caused a stir in Beijing as they take to the wheel in the newest vehicles available from Chinese automakers.

Judging from the photos that have surfaced so far, it looks like the intrepid duo spent some time in exquisite pieces of engineering like the JAC Binyue and the Greatwall Haval M2, while also taking a look at some of the country’s vehicles that infringe on the copyrights of pay tribute to cars manufactured around the globe. That meant taking a gander at hardware like the Smart ForTwo-inspired Shuanghuan Noble, the BMW X5-flavored Shuanghuan SCO and the Mini Cooper-themed Lifan 320.

The episode is likely to surface next season, and we’re betting it will feature plenty of insightful commentary from all three of the hosts. If this seems like the setup for yet another international incident, you’d be right. But isn’t that why we keep watching? Head over to Car News China for a look at the full gaggle of photos.

Jackson is currently hard at work shooting The Hobbit in 3D. But instead of using the bulky 3D rigs commonly associated with 3D movie films. Jackson is using RED EPIC cameras and mirrors to keep the cameras mobile.

Most “3D” films are crap. Sure Avatar looked good, but the story was lammmeee. Hollywood has gotten in the habit of ham-fisting 3D into even crappier films during post-production to squeeze a few extra bucks out of movie goers. Also lame. The Hobbit—an amazing story—has been developed as a 3D film from day one. Even the hand-drawn concept art is 3D. And thanks to the 48 RED EPIC cameras shooting 5K at 48FPS, the movie should look outstanding.

While the RED camera bodies are small, the lenses needed to shoot the film are large enough that creating the interocular distance that mimics the distance between human eyes was impossible if the cameras were placed side by side. To combat the issue, one of the cameras shoots from a horizontal position through a mirror, while the other shoots a reflected image off the same mirror in a vertical position. The result is a 3D camera rig that shoots amazing footage and is relatively portable. Check out the video above for Jackson’s tour of the production.

The Hobbit should be in theatres December 2012 and I should be in line for a ticket in November 2012.

SOURCE via CNET

We’ve already seen FarmVille invade our Facebook feeds and 7/11 branches around the country (for those in the States), and now it looks like there might be a FarmVille movie in the works. Speakng to IGN, two of the writers that worked on Toy Story dropped hints about a Zynga collaboration that they’re working towards.

During an interview regarding their work on upcoming video game Skylanders Spyro’s Adventures, Alec Sokolow and Joel Cohen, both writers on the original Toy Story movie, assured the site that they’re still working on movies and highlighted Zynga as one company they’re in talks with.

“So, yes, we will continue writing movies. We are also working on several new and very exciting opportunities,” they said. “We’re in conversations with Zynga to do something with one of their brands. Can’t really say too much on that front yet, but ‘Old MacDonald’ didn’t have a factory, if you get our drift.”

Well, when you put it like that, it’s hard not to get your drift, guys. IGN reports that FarmVille-developer Zynga refused to comment.

As much as we’re not fans of FarmVille here, the prospect of a FarmVille movie doesn’t seem so bad. We’re picturing an animated farm movie for kids, and it kind of makes sense to us. Would you go and watch a FarmVille movie? Ugh…

SOURCE via IGN

HTC’s CFO Winston Yung appears ready to make a deal with market rival and patent nemesis Apple. The Taiwanese company has had some rather harsh words for the Cupertino crew, and it hasn’t seemed any more conciliatory after getting slapped by the ITC. That may be starting to change, as Yung told Bloomberg, “we [Apple and HTC] have to sit down and figure it out.” He went on to say that the house that Sense built was open to discussions with Jobs and co. but did not venture to guess what a final agreement might look like. Of course, it’s worth pointing out that this is absolutely standard practice, and we’d expect nothing less.

SOURCE via Bloomberg

The attached video explains it all, so we’ll keep this simple. It seems Michael Bay directly cribbed scenes from his 2005 movie, The Island, for 2011′s Transformers: Dark of the Moon, which is gobbling up people’s disposable income this weekend, which sucks terribly to me. The 3D is totally not worth it.

Anyway, extreme credit goes to the YouTube user who recognized Bay’s clever use of CGI and called him out on it. This also proves that at least one human being actually saw The Island. Hit the jump to watch the side-by-side video comparison.

Bruce Wayne has lots of toys at his disposal. Billions of dollars and Lucius Fox mean a near unlimited supply of pure awesome. Still, Wayne can’t play Batman during daylight hours, so his ride has to be a tad more subtle than The Tumbler. In Batman: The Dark Night, Bruce Wayne drove a Lamborghini Murciélago LP640, which he used to save someone else’s life.

We won’t lie, that scene caused the room to get a little misty. Thankfully for Wayne, his billions allow a new bull to take the Murci’s place, and a Lamborghini Aventador appears to be the ride of choice for Gotham’s favourite playboy.

A member of the Luxury4Play.com forums, obtained photos of the Gotham-plated Aventador on the set of the new film. The aggressive features of the Italian supercar are strong enough that the two-door could become a villain in its own right. Thankfully, the good guy holds the keys. Batman: The Dark Night is expected to zoom into theaters next summer, Lamborghini and all.

I have to admit that although the Resident Evil movies aren’t really going along truly according to the game, but it’s still a nice trilling action movie nonetheless. But how did Paul W.S. Anderson, director of all those Resident Evil movies, keep coming up for ideas for new entries in the running franchise? According to his wife, who is also the popular series star Milla Jovovich, “professional video game players” do his research for him.

Yes, Mr Anderson (not the guy from Matrix) didn’t play the game at all (or at least he didn’t claim to), and directed the movie based on how others played the game. Yup, he literally watched people playing the console game for days.

Thanks to the clone army introduced in Resident Evil: Extinction, Anderson doesn’t have to worry about having sex withheld any time soon, so he can focus instead on watching footage of kids playing Resident Evil games in front of the console for hours.

“Paul knows kids that are professional video game players,” Milla said. “All they do is play the games until they master every level and unlock every code. They play the games for weeks and give Paul the footage. So he’s literally watching days of the most awesome Resident Evil players out there to get inspiration for the next installment of the franchise.”

Right, did you hear anybody that are interested in hiring Starcraft 2 players in Hollywood?

SOURCE via Milla Jovovich Loses Her Husband To Zombies! [ShowbizSpy]

Star Wars Day happened yesterday, and if you’re a Star Wars fan and enthusiast, then you should’ve heard about this news from LucasFilm. On September 16^th, the three editions include The Complete Saga with all the movies included, or the original trilogy / prequels by themselves will hit stores, with some crazy 4 hours extras in it. International market will be on September 12^th.

SOURCE via Star Wars