News, rumors, cool stuff and other transmissions from the far-flung reaches of the geek cosmos

Welcome (back): Welcome to "Across the Universe," a biweekly roundup of all things sci-fi, horror, fantasy, superhero and just plain geek in the worlds of film, TV, video, comics, animation and books. (Sorry, gamers, I'm not your man. But I'll do what I can.) We'll also analyze and possibly even break some of the latest news.

Speaking of which, we were heartened to see in Variety last Friday that director Ridley Scott is returning to helm what is now officially called a prequel to the "Alien" movies. The franchise has taken a beating in the 23 years since "Aliens" was released, but we wish the best to the man who started it all. And here's hoping we finally see more of that long-dead non-human astronaut whose corpse has haunted us since 1979.

(20th Century Fox)