Goth King Filming Dracula Origin Story

Alex Proyas, the Aussie director of cult goth classics The Crow and Dark City is returning to his gloomy roots after a flutter on the indie side of things and a big budget Hollywood flick. According to Movieweb this "big" director is set to direct Dracula Year Zero, a film focusing on a fresh look at an overdone horror staple. Think Batman Begins with more fangs and blood.

Proyas says this will be different as it is "sort of the origin tale that mixes [the historical] Prince Vlad of Transylvania with sort of [fictionalized] Bram Stoker [story]."

I was also a little concerned with his tooth fetish after this comment, "Oh, you've got to have teeth, I mean, the teeth are really important. I think Frank Langella in the 'Dracula' movie that was made in the 70s, I think he didn't want to have teeth in the movie. But, no, I like the teeth. I want to see girls with a lot of teeth." Riiiiight.

He may like teeth but he doesn't so much like the garlic stating that it was "kind of weird" but do not fret Drac fanboys as he went on to say that there will be "stakes and teeth. And lots and lots of blood!"

The last time we saw old Pale-n-Fangy was in Francis Ford Coppola's "Dracula" starring Keanu Reeves, Anthony Hopkins, Winona Ryder (before her "5 finger discount" problems) and Gary Oldman in 1992.

Production Volt Spied On Transformers 2 Set

Here it is folks! The first shots showing more than just a tease of GM's saviour, the Chevy Volt.

Autoblog alerted me to the spy shots taken on and around the set of the new Transformers movie today and I must say it's a relief to see the Volt dressed in something other than the silver we've seen so many times before although I'm not a huge fan of the purply blue either.

The official coming-out isn't far off but it's still exciting to see what could herald in a new era for the US car market, if not the world car market. Remember, the Volt uses only the electric motor for propulsion with the secondary internal combustion engine kicking in to recharge batteries when they dip below a certain limit. Other, older hybrids rely on their internal combustion engines for propulsion and only use the electric motor when idling or driving slowly around carparks etc. This means if you only drive 50-odd miles between charges you may never use petroleum again. It's also based on the E-Flex architecture where the secondary "recharge" motor can be swapped out at a later date for something completely different.

Here's another shot of the Volt where you can actually read the word "VOLT" just next to the side mirror (click for a higher res image).

More photos are available over at AutoblogGreen but they're mostly fuzzy mobile phone camera shots.

Audi R8 GT3 Is Teh Hawtness

I'll be the first to admit that the Audi R8 is one mean machine. Not only does it look great and goes like the clappers but it recently beat off four other supercars on Top Gear to run the furthest on a gallon of fuel.

Well, Audi have now developed the R8 GT3 dubbed "R16" internally at Audi Sport . This rear-drive racer features a six-speed sequential gearbox, mostly production-spec suspension components, plus an updated front end and a large rear wing designed to keep it planted to the tarmac.

The best thing about it is this car will be on sale to the general public (well, the general RICH public anyway) by mid-2009. More pics and info over at CarAdvice.com.au.

Invite Your Friends To The Facebook Movie

From the WTF section of the human race comes news today that Aaron Sorkin (West Wing, Studio 60, Charlie Wilson's War) is currently writing a movie about the inception of Facebook. No, you didn't misread that, a movie about Facebook.

Sorkin has created a Facebook page and an Aaron Sorkin & the Facebook Movie Group on Facebook where he states that he is indeed writing the script.

"I've just agreed to write a movie for Sony and producer Scott Rudin about how Facebook was invented. I figured a good first step in my preparation would be finding out what Facebook is, so I've started this page. (Actually it was started by my researcher, Ian Reichbach, because my grandmother has more Internet savvy than I do and she's been dead for 33 years.)"

What's next? A book about Google?