We put an empty can with a string attached to our ears and heard Mania.com whisper that Clancy Brown, the man who played the formidable and creepy Brother Justin Crowe in HBO’s Carnivale, as well as the heartless Captain Hadley in The Shawshank Redemption, keeps coming up in conversations over at Warner Bros. about who should play Lobo.

Also under discussion, apparently, is just how much CGI should be used for the character.  Brown is also an accomplished voiceover artist, working as Mr. Sinister in Wolverine and the X-Men and Mr. Eugene H. Krabs in SpongeBob Squarepants. As of late you can spot him in the teaser trailer for A Nightmare on Elm Street.

What are the chances that this is good news?

/Film relayed to us that comic book writer  Alan Grant mentioned at the MCM Expo (the little sister of Comic Con that takes place across the pond) that neither he, Keith Giffen nor Simon Bisley have been contacted about consulting for the upcoming Lobo film and the same goes for him and John Wagner regarding a new Judge Dredd.  “Jock,” (a.k.a. British Comic book artist Mark Simpson) who’s been working on concept art for Dredd stated plainly that no one’s been tapped to direct the film.  How plainly, you ask?  This plainly!

“…there’s not a director attached at the moment”.

Crazy.  Anyway, wanna little context for all these names and movies?  Then read on, people.

Akiva Goldsman, the screenwriter/producer who has brought us such gems as Batman & Robin, Lost in Space, The Da Vinci Code, Hancock and I am Legend, recently spoke to the L.A. Times and dropped a few tidbits of info on the many comic book films he currently has in the pipeline as a producer.

So, if you want some updates on DC Comic films Lobo, Swamp Thing, Jonah Hex and more, keep on reading as I cut down the lengthy interview into some easy-to-absorb snippets for you to feast on.

Check it out:

We here at Screen Rant have really started something with these speculation pieces about our favorite comic book movies… After imaging such things as what the plot of Batman 3 will be, or the potential villain of Wolverine 2, we’ve recently turned our attention toward the string of films be developed by the newly-formed DC Entertainment Inc., wondering which actors can play which DC characters.

MTV Splash Page’s Josh Wigler put together a recent list of actors who chould play Lobo in the Guy Ritchie-directed film about the DC Universe’s interstellar anti-hero bounty hunter. That list was ok, but neglected two outstanding choices that we here at Screen Rant just had to feature in our own Lobo casting post.

Well, one of those actors we suggested must’ve gotten word that his name was being floated around the blogosphere, because less then ten days after we nominated him, Jeffrey Dean Morgan has officially announced his candidacy to play Lobo.

Yesterday we found out that Warner Bros. has created DC Entertainment Inc. (DCE) to better expand the DC Comics into a multimedia brand of steel . Now comes the inevitable question of “What’s the game plan?”

MTV Splash Page posted a nice piece declaring which DC properties should be put on fast-track under the DCE banner, and this being Friday and all, I thought I’d once again do a little call-and-response on the topic (I now consider Splash Page’s Josh Wigler to be something of a pen-pal).

So in response to the call, here’s my take on the DC Entertainment venture and what paths it should be considering…

After the Disney/Marvel merger DC Comics and longtime-partner Warner Bros. had to be shaking in their boots. “The House of the Mouse” is already looking like a force that few will likely be able to reckon with.

Well, in an effort to become one of those few forces able to take on Disney/Marvel, Nikke Finke reports that Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. has launched a new division, DC Entertainment Inc., in order to better expand the DC Brand.

Marvel fanboys have already been having heart palpitations wondering what the fate of their favorite characters will be in the hands of Disney. Now DC fans can officially share in that anxiety.

MTV Splash Page has started up a weekly column where they fantasy-cast their favorite upcoming superhero movies. And since we here at Screen Rant have been on the “What If?” track for the last few MONTHS with posts like “What If Disney/Marvel Buys Superman?” or “What Will Batman 3 Be About?“, we naturally have a reaction.

Last week we responded to the question of who should play Sinestro in the upcoming Green Lantern movie; MTV had a strong list of (albeit somewhat improbable) candidates, but still missed the obvious casting call of Hugo Weaving, which our Screen Rant readers jumped on in seconds (they’re good like that ).

With the recent announcement that Guy Ritchie will direct DC/WB’s Lobo movie, Splash Page is wondering who should get the role and after reviewing their picks…let’s just say a few names need to be added to the pool.

Ok, so here is who MTV picked to play Lobo:

The “Main Man” has found a man to bring him rip-roarin to the big screen, lock, stock with both barrels smoking!

That’s right, DC Comics interstellar bounty hunter, Lobo, has a feature film in the works and Guy Ritchie (Sherlock Holmes) will be the man helping to realize the vision… But what’s all this about a PG-13 Rating???

Variety is reporting that DC/Warner Bros. has attached Ritchie to the project, which they hope to have in production by early next year. If you’re not familiar, Lobo is the foul-mouthed, interstellar bounty hunter of the DC Universe. He rides a pimped-out space bike, is strong enough to take on Superman, with enough energy left over to drink, party and get laid all night by the lovely ladies of the cosmos. All when he isn’t brutally slaughtering bad guys and collecting bounties, that is.

Do you remember Lobo, the extremely violent character and comic book from DC Comics?  He was extremely popular for a few years in the early 1990s with comics that were over-the-top in violence, to the point of just being redundant.  Anyway, Warner Bros. may finally be moving forward with a long-in-gestation film adaptation.

Lobo is an intergalactic bounty hunter who basically always gets his man or woman, and does so in violent fashion.  In some ways he’s DC Comics’ version of Wolverine, and the two fought each other in 1996’s DC vs. Marvel comic book mini-series.