As anyone who has caught a couple of minutes of TV time the past few weeks should know, Speed Racer from the Wachowski Bros. is in theaters starting today. I’m sure most of you will be doing the same thing I shall be doing, going to see Iron Man again and playing more Grand Theft Auto IV. At least a few of the classic volumes of the original animated Speed Racer series are on sale at Circuit City through Saturday.

El Siglo de Durango has been talking with DB movie producer Tim van Rellim about shooting in Durango, Mexico and some future plans of the film. Goku, who happens to die several times over in the animated franchise, is planned to head for the clouds once again during the second Dragonball film. The 100 million dollar film has been pushed back to 2009, but El Siglo has some behind-the-scenes pictures to get you ready for Goku & co.’s newest adventure.

Warner Bros. have finally opened an official website for their upcoming Batman: Gotham Knight DVD release. Six Japanese directors (including Yoshiaki Kawajiri) and six different stories are weaved together to fill-in some of Batman’s exploits while WB gets ready for The Dark Knight on the silverscreen. Kevin Conroy (the voice of Batman/Bruce Wayne for fourteen years) has been brought back to voice the famous title character, his first time since Justice League: Unlimited ended in 2006. Gotham Knight is in stores July 8th on DVD & Blu-Ray while The Dark Knight starring Christian Bale and the late Heath Ledger hits theaters on July 18th.

Forget waiting for the Dragon Ball Z MMORPG to be finished or spending hundreds of dollars on your World of Warcraft character because Hello Kitty is making the leap into online gaming with Hello Kitty Online. The website is currently accepting users for the closed Beta so you better sign up now because already 30,000 users have sent in their email address. Of course, I would imagine at least a few of them sent in more than one address to get in. Hello Kitty fans are hardcore for everything Hello Kitty. (If you don’t believe me, visit a Sanrio store!) Personally, I’m hoping to see not only Chococat inside, but also the roly-poly penguin himself: Tuxedo Sam.

Following up on the first set pics from the Dragonball movie, Mexico’s El Siglo de Torreon has posted up a set pic from a fight/training sequence in the film. Nothing says Dragon Ball like pink… err, light red uniforms.

HoyCinema has posted a few pictures taken by a fan while passing by the set for the new movie Dragonball. Justin Chatwin will play the role of Goku while the article mentions Emmy Rossum taking up the role of Bulma. While it’s too early to tell how it will turn out (you can guess my opinion), the fact that the writer/director is James Wong (famous for crap such as Final Destination, Jet Li’s The One, and Final Destination 3)… I think I’ll just see Iron Man, The Dark Knight, and Indiana Jones 4 a second time right now.

I bet you’re glad that the Evangelion movie is still stuck in pre-production funding hell right now, aren’t you?

The trailer for the upcoming Speed Racer film from the Wachowski Bros. (the Matrix people) has been posted online as America’s possible attempt to out-camp Hideaki Anno’s Cutie Honey film. Go Mach GoGoGo so very far away because it’s way too early in the morning to see something this colorful.

Anime UK News recently published two new interviews - a podcast one with Johnny Yong Bosch, and a regular text interview with FUNimation’s Laura Bailey and Colleen Clinkenbeard.

Geneon Entertainment’s Marketing Manager Chad Kime has sent out an email informing fans that the Geneon Spot fanclub has been closed down. Included is a PDF letter from CEO Eiji Orii concerning people’s comments on Geneon’s halting of production.

“At this time, we are internally discussing plans to explore all available options to continue distribution of Geneon titles, both old and new, at a later date. However, nothing is certain at this time. We will release more information to the public once we have concrete plans, if any.

If you will recall an earlier report referring to comments from Epcar and several other sources, The Ocean Group was working on a Ghost in the Shell property that was believed to be the Solid State Society movie. Well, it was close. Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - The Laughing Man cuts down the first GitS:SAC TV season into a 2 hour OVA and features a brand new cast from The Ocean Group.

Now before you go grabbing your pitchforks, keep in mind that The Laughing Man is a (greatly) shortened version of Season 1. So, you’re not losing your original English cast for an entirely new addition to the Ghost in the Shell saga. Instead, you gain an interesting second look at Season 1 and something on DVD that isn’t just TV episodes with a few new lines of dialogue added. The Laughing Man hits stores October 2nd in a 2-Disc set.

FUNimation has posted up the English dub version of episode 2 and 3 on their Glass Fleet website to check out. Simply follow the link and click on “Watch Episode” in the top menu. Volume 1 hits stores Oct. 16th in Single DVD and DVD with Box flavors.

ActiveAnime has added an audio response interview with Stephanie Wittels. Stephanie is a recent addition to the ADV roster with recent roles in Welcome to the NHK, Air, and Xenosaga the Animation as Shion Uzuki.

The ADV/Geneon deal that would have placed sales, marketing, and distribution of Geneon’s titles in ADV’s hands has been called off between the two companies. The press releases from ADV and Dentsu (Geneon’s Japanese parent company) don’t reveal many details other than the deal has been called off, but that won’t stop the rampant speculation this weekend by fans. Over the past couple of weeks Geneon has been letting go of its sales and marketing staff so the company will have to decide something soon as ADV was set to take control as of Oct. 1st.

 Oh! And if someone sees Stephen Tang wandering around, tell him to email in. I’m not through with our Alba VS Kardashian conversation just yet.

Continuing our coverage of the Wii game, GameTrailers has added a new Victorious Boxers: Revolution trailer featuring the same English voice cast from the Fighting Spirit TV series. Go check it out when you get a chance. Also, the new issue of EGM (Silent Hill 5!) features an ad for the upcoming game.

FUNimation has updated their Witchblade website with 8 clips featuring the new English dub for the anime series. Volume 1 and Volume 1 with Box hit retail stores Sept. 25th.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. has picked up the movie rights to Robotech with Tobey Maguire’s production company producing the flick. And on top of that? Tobey is considering to take up the lead role (Rick, not Roy, I’d imagine). So, who should play everyone’s favorite Skull Squadron leader?

Active Anime has conducted an audio interview with Don Rush about his careerer and current job directing Innocent Venus.

Naruto the Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow (referred to as Naruto the Movie for now on to save my fingers some wear and tear) has several store exclusive versions coming thanks to a tip directly from Viz.

Best Buy: DVD with Mouse Pad ($24.98)
Borders/Waldenbooks: DVD with Lenticular Cover ($24.98)
FYE/Suncoast: DVD with Exclusive Naruto Lunch box ($29.98)

Oh, and then there is also the Deluxe Edition listed on RightStuf. Regular hits stores Sept. 4th, Deluxe is listed as Nov. 6th. Choose, but choose wisely. (We’re pretty sure the extras aren’t delving into Orochimaru’s secret activites. Pretty sure… but no guarantee.)

While the weekend was busy with rumors of whether or not it was true, an official press release from ADV Films confirms that Geneon will be moving their sales, marketing, and distribution duties to ADV as of October 1st.

Personally, I’m rather disgusted with anime fandom at the moment thanks to many of the people I’ve seen posting online over the weekend. Those doing their own little happy dances that they might be able to get a Geneon title for a slightly bigger discount while ignoring the fact that real people who care deeply about this market are losing their jobs now. Wow, a whole friggin $1 to $3 dollars more off. Big whoop. Learn to shop better or don’t buy so much at once.

To all of those who have been with Pioneer and later with Geneon, thanks for all the hardwork and we wish you the best of luck from the staff at Crystal Acids.

Martha McIsaac (Haruko Akagi in Slam Dunk) and Marcella Lentz-Pope (daughter of the now deceased Tony Pope) can both currently be seen on the big screen in the smash hit comedy Superbad playing the lead’s love interest Becca and Becca’s friend Gabby respectively.