The actor is barely recognisable as the Vegas magician who helps Charley Brewster played by Anton Yelchin (Star Trek) battle his neighbour Jerry Dandridge played by Colin Farrell (Minority Report), who happens to be a bloodthirsty vampire who torments the teen.

Despite the promise of a ‘R Rated’ horror film the banner seems to have been designed by the Twilight marketing team, there’s even a hint of (oh dear God no!) Van Helsing in the font.

Which maybe bad news for any fans (I’m talking to both of you) of the 1985 original which saw Chris Sarandon (The Princess Bride) call on the help of the late Roddy McDowell (Planet of the Apes) to help fight the neighbourhood nasty.

Joining Tennant are Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Kick-Ass) as Brewster’s best friend, Evil Ed; Sandra Vergara (Nip/Tuck) as Vincent’s assistant; Imogen Poots (Christopher and His Kind with Matt Smith) as a popular high school senior called Amy and Toni Collette (About a Boy) as Charlie’s mom, who will obviously fall for the Vamp and then disprove of her sons meddling ways.

Fright Night will be released on October 7th 2011 in 3D and glorious 2D.

(via Dread Central)

Clark – who previously directed 2007’s Gridlock and The Lazarus Experiment (in which Gatiss starred as the eponymous professor) – recently updated his Twitter feed (@rclarkie) with the revelation:

In the thick of Dr Who. New drafts coming along. Mark Gatiss story wonderful.

He also tweets enthusiastically about Neil Gaiman’s episodes, which kind of suggests he’s also directing.

Mark Gatiss – who gained popularity as part of comedy troupe The League of Gentlemen – previous wrote 2005’s The Unquiet Dead, 2010’s Victory of the Daleks (in which he also appeared) and of course co-wrote and Executive Produced the BBC’s Sherlock alongside Steven Moffat.

(Via Digital Spy)

The picture here has it all: the Doctor embarking on his final venture of five-ness, Peri being Peri, and a bunch of explosions and quarries and people and stuff that also appeared in this four-parter.  ‘Scuse me for being vague, but I think you’re too busy looking at the picture to notice.  Which means, unfortunately, that you’re also going to miss this list of DVD extras:

‘The Regeneration’ – inside the studio during the climatic regeneration. Features an optional commentary track

‘Creating Sharez Jek’ – inside the character courtesy of an audio recording of the late Christopher Gable.

BBC 1 trailer for the first episode

A compilation of news reports and interviews about Peter Davison leaving the series

Isolated music score, composed by Roger Limb

‘Chain Reaction’ – the making of the story that is regularly voted as the best Doctor Who story of all time

‘Directing Who: Then & Now’ – Graeme Harper discusses directing Doctor Who, classic and new

Colin Baker and Peter Davison on the Russell Harty show.

Brand new and updated subtitles

Plus the usual photo gallery, coming soon trailer, PDFs, commentary, and Easter eggs.

All this and the picture on this page will be included alongside such treasures as the previously mentioned TV Movie and The Talons of Weing-Chiang in the Doctor Who: Revisitation Box Set – Volume 1, which will be available in the UK as of 4 October.  Give me one good reason why you’re still on this page and not on Amazon pre-ordering this baby right now!

(Via Gallifreyan Embassy)

The picture you see on this page was originally posted by the author himself on his blog, and depicts Moffat holding a drink next to director Richard Clark while Gaiman and Matt Smith are slowly devoured by the light from a crack in the wall.  Unfortunately, Gaiman doesn’t say too much about his story, but we do discover that between the Christmas special and Series-Six-Episode-Three (the planned slot for the tale in question), Rory isn’t going to go and DIE on us, again:

“The guest star or stars will be fabulous, Matt’s great, Arthur [Darvill, otherwise known as Rory] is wonderful and I never got to say hullo to Karen (who was amazing).”

We also now know thanks to the same blog post that the absolute 100 percent matured-and-polished final draft of the script STILL has yet to be written:

I had a meeting after the readthrough with the producers and director, pinpointing stuff that needs fixing or clarifying (‘So we need to change that without making it longer or spending any money. Right.’). But nothing that needs rewriting is anything other than cosmetic, and I should get it done tomorrow or Thursday.

Seems to be one of the very few signs of those oft-lamented budget cuts that really weren’t evident at all this year.

Oh, and next time you’re frustrated by a plot-hole or an over-simplified scientific explanation in the show, don’t forget this handy advice from Steven Moffat:

“Look, you understand that, and I understand that, but we’re Science Fiction people. The other 100% of the audience may not get it.”

Maybe we should go pull Matt and Neil out of that light before they’re permanently erased from our memories…

Has anyone heard who’s been cast as the Eleventh Doctor yet?  David’s been gone for eight months, you’d think they’d pick someone already!

“I’m really looking forward to it. What Steven’s [Moffat] got planned is so madly inventive, it really is.”

Although like the rest of the Whoinverse Smith knows very little about the series or which guest stars will appear in it.

“It’s funny because I’m in a similar sort of position to the people that watch the show because I literally don’t know anything until I get the scripts.”

Smith is due to get his hands on those sacred pages in the next few days before filming commences soon – and he will also appear at one or all of the Wembley Arena shows of Doctor Who Live: The Monsters are Coming taking place between the 8th and 10th October.

For the rest of the tour the Doctor will be interacting with Vorgenson, a new character played by Nigel Planer (The Young One’s), who is described as the Greatest Showman in the Galaxy and the Doctors biggest fan, via video recordings.

In the production Vorgenson, who has been developed specially for the show by Steven Moffat, will use his incredible invention, ‘The Minimiser’, to make any Doctor Who character appear on stage as part of his travelling show dedicated to his hero.

Daleks, Silurians, Cybermen and many other beasts and baddies will be appearing before audiences across the UK along with a 16-piece orchestra playing music written by show composer Murray Gold.

Meanwhile, tickets for Doctor Who Live start at £38.50 while there are cheaper options at £34.50 or £25.00 – ypu can book for any of the nine venues here at Ticketmaster!

Hurry, they’re selling fast!

Matt Smith will next be on our screens as the Doctor in the upcoming Christmas special.

(Via BBC Newsbeat)

The 21 year-old from Ilkley, who had just finished drama school before being cast in the show has confirmed that he’ll be playing a younger version of Kazran, the character played by Sir Michael Gambon.

Unsurprisingly Horn was full of praise for The Singing Detective and Harry Potter star.

“Working with Michael was fantastic as he’s one of my heroes, and Matt is brilliant to work with – absolutely fantastic.”

In the episode, based loosely on Charles Dickens’ immortal A Christmas Carol, Danny’s character spends most of his time with Opera Warbler Katherine Jenkins’ character, who, like Danny, is making her dramatic debut in the special, he said:

“It was a bit of an alien world to both of us, if you’ll pardon the pun

We were together for a lot of the episode – let’s just say I might be a bit of a hero with the boys.”

The actor, who has an upcomming role in MI:High is hoping the special can springboard him into bigger and better things.

“So far it’s going well. I’ve got a couple of really exciting opportunities ahead.

I’m down to the final two for the lead in a big film.”

(via Telegraph & Argus)

Former Sixth Doctor actor Colin Baker is the latter.

Not only will he always be known as a flamboyant, loud and (these days, thanks to various Big Finish plays) caring Time Lord the Doctor, he is now taking on the mantle of well known Detective Inspector Morse.

Colin is appearing at theatres nationwide in “House of Ghosts”, a Morse mystery written by Alma Cullen who, incidentally, wrote four of the TV episodes that starred the late and great John Thaw. Speaking to the Yorkshire Post, Baker spoke about how he approached the role:

“It’s a little like taking on the role of Doctor Who, the knack is not to try to follow in the footsteps of the person who has gone before you… I could never fill John’s shoes, he was wonderful in the role, but I look different, I am different.

“What I had to do was go to the books and find the character for myself. There are certain things that people will recognise and that I have found important to playing him. His meanness, the appalling way he treats women, and Lewis.”

Baker was cast as the Sixth Doctor when Doctor Who was under severe scrutiny from not only the general public but also BBC bosses as well. However, his feelings on his tenure and also the new series remain greatly positive:

“Oh I loved my time on Doctor Who, loved it, for three years it was among the happiest times of my career… I am completely knocked out by the new lot…I’m quite envious of all the things they are able to do, with the special effects and everything and I think Russell T Davies has done a wonderful job as the producer.”

Baker clearly has no regrets and still continues to wow us with his unique portrayal of the Doctor to this very day. Speaking candidly, he does have one regret which he reflected on:

“The thing that I’m most envious of, however, is the care that the BBC takes of it these days. When I was in it, the show was as popular, in terms of viewing figures, as it is today, but it seemed to be something that the BBC was almost embarrassed of. That’s the only sadness I have about my time in the show.”

Colin is never one to pull punches when it comes to airing his views, he has been writing a weekly column for his local newspaper The Bucks Free Press for 17 years now:

“It all started when I wrote a letter to the paper 17 years ago and the editor wrote to ask me if I would like to write a column and I’ve done that, weekly, ever since…I have just written this week’s and I’ve sounded off about student loans and how appalling the system is. Lots of people have to deal with things like that and all they can do is get to the point where they are so frustrated they think their brain will explode – I get to write it down and get it all out. It’s a great release valve.”

Colin Baker always performs to his fullest and his rich and varies acting experience will surely translate well to the stage when he gives us what will surely be a unique portrayal of one of Britain’s most famous Detectives.

You can call 0844 847 2322 to book tickets for “House of Ghosts” which will be showing at York Grand Opera House from September 16th to 18th.

For anyone who didn’t catch the one hour horror drama set in a London hospital, it was actually rather good. The characters are “fleshed out” (ahem) before the audience start to realise that a sinister experiment has started to get hideously out of control.

It was aired on BBC Three some months ago but nothing has been heard about it until now. The BBC Three controller Danny Cohen said:

“The decision about which series to commission was not determined solely by audience numbers. BBC Three looks hard at Appreciation Index responses, how good they thought a series might be… Pulse got an okay AI.

“There’s a range of reasons. It’s about which one you think creatively – instinctively – has the most mileage.”

At a time when TV is all about branching out into new avenues of entertainment, it’s a shame that this did not get turned into a full series. Channel 4’s Dead Set proved that zombie dramas can be done and excellently achieved.

Overseas, a new ongoing zombie drama called The Walking Dead (based on a comic book series from Image Comics) starring Andrew Lincoln is starting up over Halloween and looks set to be fantastic, the key is that the advertising has been properly arranged. Pulse had little to no marketing and so didn’t get the full attention it deserved. With more zombie TV shows on the way, it wouldn’t be at all surprising if someone picked up Pulse for a full series.

Over the past month we’ve told you about Bernice Summerfield: Dead and Buried, the first-ever CGI adventure starring Benny, the Seventh Doctor companion in the Virgin New Adventures!  We recently engaged in a discussion with the story’s animator, Alex Mallinson, who shared with us some wonderful anecdotes about his career thus far, including what it was like putting everyone’s favourite off-screen archaeologist… well, on the screen!

The roots of Alex’s interest in animation stem from the 1980s, “the heyday of the action/adventure film, usually replete with special effects and that certainly inspired me. I’m a bit of a combination of hermit and control freak, perhaps stemming from years of quietly crafting my own, lonely worlds in Lego and I’m sure that the solitary nature of animation appeals on that front.

“My biggest two influences are Doctor Who, whose special effects always had that accessible quality which looked like one could aspire to; and a Miyazaki animation called Laputa: Castle in the Sky, which I saw aged about 9 and which utterly blew me away. Epic themes, airborne pirates, robots and explosions. So I suppose it’s that love of spectacle and fantasy that drove me to use animation to create the things I could never see.”

This fascination with the bold and astonishing genre of visual storytelling eventually led Alex, ironically, to the Whovian-treasured audio-play makers at Big Finish, whom Alex admired long before working with them.  “I spent several years working in video games and my last employer was little better than a production line for run-of-the-mill titles. I stumbled across the Big Finish site around that time (remember the old one which stretched down for miles?!) and escaped from the drudgery of work into the Whoniverse.

“Once I went freelance as an illustrator I approached them to see if they were interested in my work. There are two very good reasons why they didn’t hire me at that time. The first was that my work was very pedestrian (and occasionally still is if inspiration doesn’t strike before the deadline) and the second was that I’d rampaged merrily across message boards trailing deeply insulting remarks, never suspecting for a moment that the people involved might read these comments. In my meagre defence, it was largely a way of venting frustration that I wasn’t involved. Simple jealousy I suppose.”

This “simple jealousy” that nearly every Whovian has experienced at some point during his or her fanhood, may have temporarily prevented Alex from his Big Finish debut, but even the Doctor Who audio masters could not stop a zombie outbreak:  “At a Shaun of the Dead signing I met the writer Jim Swallow and got chatting. He introduced me to John Ainsworth, who employed me on his Space 1889 audio range and got me into Big Finish working on the adverts. He then introduced me to Nick [Briggs] and before long, Big Finish was my biggest client, in fact I don’t really think of them as clients any more! They’re the best bunch I’ve ever worked for.”

Alex’s “biggest client” allowed him to produce animated trailers for audio stories featuring some of the Doctor’s most infamous opposers, including Cyberman.  “It was quite early on in my BF career, I don’t think I’d done any covers at that stage and it was another way to get their attention and do work that inspired me. I’d been working on adverts and virals for a while at that point so I felt fairly confident. In retrospect, the Cyberman’s chin is too big. They’re buggers, those Invasion Cybs, the mask proportions are odd and every time I tweak it, it throws something else out. I had fun with the spaceship designs, which were meant to be utilitarian but ended up looking a bit like lions. The models have cropped up in all sorts since.

“Just as you can recognise bits of old BBC spaceships all over Blake’s 7 and Doctor Who, so those ships have ended up in Viyran vessels and the whaling ship from Song of Megaptera. There’s even a bit of it in the Benny animation.”

You may recall our initial report where, upon being asked, Karen said she wasn’t sure if she’ll return for a third run:

“Who knows? I’m just taking it series by series and I’m just having fun.  So, I don’t know.  I have no idea.”

Some of you have predicted in comments to various articles that the mid-series split will be the end for Amy, and this is the first inkling that you may in fact be correct.  As you’ll know if you’ve been following us during the past week, Steven Moffat considers the episodes in Autumn 2011 to be an entirely separate season from those in the earlier Spring.

“We are going to make it two series – seven episodes at Easter building to an earth-shattering climax, a cliffhanger we could never normally do because it would be too long before it came back. An enormous game-changing cliffhanger that will change everything.

“The wrong expression would be to say we are splitting it in two. We are making it two separate series.”

“Two separate series?”  “Game-changing cliffhanger?”  Does Karen know more than she’s letting on?  Perhaps her statement last weekend was simply worded to avoid telling a flat-out lie.

Naturally, I’m just trying to stir up conspiracy theories.  We’re really going to have to wait until Autumn, or even Spring 2012, to know if Pond continues to come along.  I don’t like waiting for Who any more than you do.