The holidays aren’t happy for everyone. In a season built around family, friends, peace and harmony, there’s one man who knows none of the above.

Ashley J. Williams, S-Mart’s finest chainsaw-handed employee, faces his least-favorite time of year in Dynamite Entertainment’s “Army of Darkness: Ash’s Christmas Horror One-Shot” due to hit shelves December 24.

Written by veteran “AoD” comic scribe James Kuhoric with art by Dave Simons, the one-shot takes a look at the darker side of the season with a downtrodden Ash forced by the Necronomicon to survive holiday scenes warped by evil.

“It follows Ash on a Christmas Eve in his life,” said Kuhoric, “He has no friends, family, or lovers. He has a lousy job. And he has to work retail the day before Christmas. Simply put, Ash hates the holidays.” Read more…

As we enter awards season, and now that Heath Ledger has been nominated for a Golden Globe, comic fans now wait with baited breath to see if The Academy will take notice of not only Ledger’s jaw-dropping portrayal of The Joker, but if “The Dark Knight” will do the near-impossible and find itself among the “Best Picture” nominees.

We’ve already seen the “For Your Consideration” ads released by Warner Bros., but apparently that’s not enough for some fans of the film who feel that it should be considered one of the best of the year, so they’re making ads of their own — and they might be even better than the official ones released by the studio.

(After the jump, check out some of products of the grassroots campaign to get “The Dark Knight” recognized for an Academy Award.) Read more…

We’re extremely excited about the announcement that David Fincher, Zack Snyder and Gore Verbinski still intend to direct segments of a new “Heavy Metal” animated feature, but it’s probably for the best that we temper our enthusiasm with a bit of caution. According to Fincher, the undoubtedly awesome film has yet to move on from the development stage.

“We’re still trying to get that made,” Fincher told MTV News.

Even so, does the director, hot off the critical success of his new film “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, have any particular “Heavy Metal” stories that he would like to adapt to the screen? Read more…

As we reported earlier this week, these days, when it comes to Frank Miller, it seems that what the legendary comic artist/writer has coming up is just as exciting than his films that are currently hitting multiplexes.

Case in point, at a recent press junket for “The Spirit,” MTV ventured into “upcoming film” territory, asking the on-the-rise director about the status of “Sin City 2,” to which Miller replied, “I’ve written ‘Sin City 2.’ Its all written. Now we’re just working out the mechanics of getting it there. Marv is in there and I hope it’s Mickey Rourke. I’ve got my Ava, but I really don’t want to talk about casting because it could end up being somebody else and I wouldn’t want to insult her.” Read more…

Sure, on the surface, Broadway musicals and comic books go together like Tony Stark and a six-pack of O’Doul’s, but when you’ve got the musical miracle workers that are Bono and The Edge from U2 (who are co-writing “Spider-Man: The Musical“), fantastical funnybook magic can happen.

Hot on the heels of reports that Evan Rachel Wood had joined the cast to play Mary Jane Watson in the production, the U.K.’s Times Online published an extensive piece on “Spider-Man: The Musical,” and how Broadway’s current ticket sales slump may affect the show. However, we’re gonna eschew the prevailing gloom-and-doom of that piece, and focus on what Bono had to say about his plans for the musical, which is reportedly gearing up to be the most expensive to ever run on NYC’s Great White Way.

According to the Times piece, Bono says that the show will be “something the likes of which no one has seen or heard,” and says the music will be “part punk rock and part opera.” Read more…

Here at MTV, the letter “M” is pretty darn important. Whether it stands for music, movies or any other media that captures our attention, there’s a good reason why that “M” is there — and we’d like to think that’s why Focus Features saw fit to offer Splash Page the exclusive debut of this particular “Alphabet Card” for their upcoming stop-animated adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s “Coraline.” (We’ve posted a larger version of the image after the jump.)

According to Focus, 25 other unique promotional cards will debut around the ‘Net today, featuring various characters and elements from the film, and each one will be based on a different letter of the alphabet. A new website for “Coraline” also made its debut on the ‘Tubes yesterday.

“Coraline” is the first stop-motion animated feature to be filmed entirely in 3-D and tells the story of a young girl who discovers a secret door to a perfect version of her world — only to discover that the new world has some sinister and dangerous secrets. The film is based on the award-winning 2002 novella by Gaiman, which was also adapted into a graphic novel earlier this year. Read more…

Alright, readers, let’s all take out our grains of salt because it looks like we’ve got ourselves yet another “The Dark Knight” sequel casting rumor making its way around the blogs.

Yesterday, E! Online not only reported that “Batman 3” is “alive and kicking — definitely,” but their unnamed Warner Bros. sources are also claiming that Rachel Weisz is being considered for the role of Catwoman (a much welcome departure from some of the more…unusual Catwoman casting rumors we’ve heard so far). The E! piece also reports that Christopher Nolan will be back to direct the follow-up to this past summer’s box office champ, despite the fact that Nolan and other high level execs attached to the film have said that the fan-acclaimed writer/director is still weighing his options. Read more…

It’s beginning to look like “1990s Day” here at Splash Page — over the past few hours, we’ve had mentions of “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” news on a new film based on “The Phantom” (which hopes to one-up the 1996 Billy Zane flick), and now, according to Variety, it looks like the 1990’s goth anti-hero, “The Crow,” is headed back to Hollywood with “Blade” director, Stephen Norrington, set to write and direct.

While Variety points out that a “Crow” revamp is still in the very early stages of development — basically noting that Norrington has signed on to write and direct, and that negotiations with producer Ed Pressman to acquire the franchise and to finance the film are underway — the big news is Norrington’s return to the medium since taking an extended sabbatical after the failure (as well as the rumored behind-the-scenes drama) of “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” (which was also the last film made by it’s star, Sean Connery). Read more…

He’s known as “The Ghost Who Walks,” but after hearing the news breaking out of Australia today, “The Phantom” should be known as “The Ghost Who Rides Again.”

You read that right — according to the Australian Associated Press, it appears as though Sherlock Symington Productions, a Sydney, Australia-based company, has secured the rights to “The Phantom Legacy,” which is being reported as, “a $130 million special effects-laden blockbuster that…will shine the spotlight on some of the best actors and film crews in [Australia].” Read more…

Last month, we received our first look at screenshots from the upcoming “Watchmen: The End is Nigh” video game, but during the Spike Video Game Awards this weekend, the first trailer for the highly anticipated game made its debut.

Here’s what premiered during the show, but head over to GameTrailers for a high-definition version of the video:

After the jump, I’ve posted some initial thoughts about the game based on the new trailer. Read more…