Simpsons movie in, Watchmen movie out

Along with old TV series, comic book characters remain the hottest commodity in Hollywood, with Batman Begins already garnering raves (it opens on the 15th), and there are upcoming big-screen projects featuring Superman, The Fantastic Four, X-Men, and The Hulk. One superhero team that remains unfilmed, however, is Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen, from their classic 1987 mini-series (available as a 12-chapter graphic novel). Even though their official website is still up, Paramount just cancelled the film. (Universal had it before, and it, too, pulled the plug.)

Much better news is that the long-promised feature-film debut of The Simpsons is finally about to happen. A spokesperson for the show said, "We always wanted the show to end first but it just keeps going."

In related comics-to-movie news, silver screen star Harvey Pekar has a new graphic novel coming out in the fall from DC/Vertigo. It's called The Quitter and is being touted as Harvey's best work to date.