‘Twilight,’ Ron Moore and Christian Bale, all in Everyday Hero headlines

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Welcome to the latest edition of Everyday Hero, your roundup of handpicked headlines from across the fanboy universe....

THE NEXT BIG ‘THING’: The Sci Fi flagship show ‘Battlestar Galactica’ is winding down (we’ve already told you how the channel will try to soldier on without it) so what is Ron Moore going to be up to while he waits to launch ‘Caprica’? According to Michael Fleming, writing in the trades, Moore will be taking on a script about the alien who came in from the cold: ‘Universal will add a new chapter to ‘The Thing,’ lining up another take on the paranoid horror classic most recently brought to the screen by John Carpenter in 1982. Studio has set ‘Battlestar Galactica’ exec producer Ron Moore to write the script and commercials director Matthijs Van Heijningen to direct the re-imagining. New project borrows heavily from the John W. Campbell Jr. short story ‘Who Goes There,’ the basis of the Carpenter film and 1951 Howard Hawks original ‘The Thing From Another World.’ It is set in a Norwegian camp and chronicles how the shape-shifting alien was first discovered and overcame the inhabitants of that camp ... Van Heijningen has shot blurbs for brands including Toyota, Pepsi, Heineken, Bud Light and Visa. He is also developing ‘Army of the Dead’ at Warner Bros. with producer Zack Snyder.’ [Variety] ALSO: Hollywood is gearing up more than a dozen other remakes of classic sci-fi films; you can read about it here.

FAR TO GO, DAKOTA: The ‘Twilight’ fans, a famously mellow and forgiving bunch, are going to love this tidbit from gossip maven Elizabeth Snead: ‘Dakota Fanning is really, really excited about taking on the role of Jane, the Volturi vampire in ‘Twilight’s’ sequel, ‘New Moon.’ However, she hasn’t even read the book yet. Fanning admitted at this afternoon’s junket for her new film, ‘Coraline,’ that she’s only halfway through reading the first ‘Twilight’ book. Asked if there was any movement on ‘New Moon,’ Dakota replied, ‘It’s not 100% for sure yet that I will be doing it, but it’s definitely not like a rumor or anything. It’s definitely a possibility and something I’m excited about.’ Asked if there was any particular scene from the book that she was looking forward to doing, she said, ‘I don’t know ... I just think the character is what I’d be excited about. It’s kind of evil, it’s a vampire, it’s really cool.’ Does she have any favorite vampires from films? ‘I don’t. The only vampire movie I’ve seen is ‘Twilight.’ ‘ [Dish Rag]

ZACK SNYDER REVEALED: Writer Nisha Gopalan has contributed to the Hero Complex, and we always enjoy her work. That’s especially the case with her new interview with ‘Watchmen’ director Zack Snyder, who confesses to dark chapters in his past (Attending Renaissance fairs! Making beer commercials! Hanging around with naked blue men!) and also talks about casting his son as young Rorschach. Here’s a chunk of the Q&A exchange: ‘’Why on Earth would you cast your 11-year-old son in this movie as a younger version of Rorschach, an abused sociopath whose mom was a hooker? My son was in ‘300,’ too, as the young Leonidas -- he fights the dad, and then he punches a kid in the face. [Laughs] I feel like he’s together enough actually, that he can handle [the ‘Watchmen’ role]. I didn’t try to get too deep into it. Though there is a woman yelling at him, ‘I should’ve had that abortion!’ ‘ [Nylon Guys] ALSO: Check out all ‘Watchmen’ coverage at Hero Complex right here.

ON THIS DATE: Christian Bale celebrates his 35th birthday today and now clearly reigns as the dark prince of fanboy cinema. He has played Batman in two films (one of which now stands as the second-highest grossing film in U.S. box-office history) and he will star in the new ‘Terminator’ franchise that launches this summer. He has played a dragon slayer, reluctant gunfighter, a serial killer with a penchant for Huey Lewis hits and (in one of my favorite recent films) a magician with a dark secret. To see some video scenes of the Wales native through the years, keep reading....