According to a new survey over at Fandango, the hottest movie-related Halloween costumes of 2008 might have a little something to do with the year's biggest film. As far as men go, the number one movie-related costume this year will, of course, be The Joker (as played by Heath Ledger) from The Dark Knight -- with Batman following closely behind at number two. Iron Man/Tony Stark, Kirk Lazarus (black action hero from Tropic Thunder), Indiana Jones, Hellboy, Two-Face, Jigsaw (from Saw), Simple Jack (as played by Ben Stiller in Tropic Thunder) and Saul the Dealer (James Franco in Pineapple Express) round out the top ten. Simple Jack? Really? Can you do me a favor and punch the guy who dresses as Simple Jack at your next Halloween party?

As for the ladies, it seems slutty Playboy bunny is all the rage this year. Yup, The House Bunny (Anna Faris) topped their list, with Angelina Jolie's Fox (Wanted) coming in second. Hannah Montana, Gabriella from High School Musical 3 and Bella from Twilight round out the top five. Don't Bella and Gabriella look like regular girls? How do you create that costume -- by picking up some clothes at The Gap?

We posted the full lists after the jump (for men, women and couples), and feel free to tell us what movie-related costume you've created for Halloween. Better yet, show us -- in about a week from now, we'll be officially launching our Fourth Annual Halloween Costume Contest. Prizes, pictures, voting -- it's oh so much fun. Do join us.

It didn't take Obama supporters long to jump on the whole Star Wars-themed bandwagon, and so in the spirit of t-shirts like this Luke Skywalker one, comes a new t-shirt created by Barack Obama supporters. On the front of this one (see above), you get Obama and R2-D2 (shoulda been R2-Biden) in an X-wing being chased by a few tie fighters, and then on the back you have a drawing of the Death Star ... but if it was run by John McCain and Darth Vader. (Check out both images enlarged in the gallery below). They're telling us that all proceeds for this particular shirt -- which runs at $19.95 -- will go directly to the Obama campaign.

Who's behind it all? From the website (where you can purchase the shirt): We're a group of people based in Santa Cruz, CA and New York City who desperately want to see Obama prevail. We've created this t-shirt because we think it captures how so many of us feel about the upcoming election and the way the other side operates. Our goal is to unite people all across the country around this sentiment and to raise as much money as we can to defeat this Empire that's been running our country for the last 8 years."

Personally, I'm still waiting for someone to doctor-up an image of Obama as Lando ... (ahem, creative readers ...)

As is often the case with the translation of any geek property to the screen, this Friday's release of Max Payne seems to elicit just as many hopes and doubts as one would expect from a big-screen adaptation of a popular video game (well, one not directed by Uwe Boll, that is). So, coming from a position of relative ignorance when it comes to most titles (trust me, my PS2 gathers more dust than yours does), what's the current reading from fans on a film proudly rated PG-13, although based on a series of M-rated games?

And for which upcoming projects are you most hopeful: Halo -- that is, with or without Peter Jackson? Gore Verbinski's BioShock? Jerry Bruckheimer's Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time? (And just when is The Rock's Spy Hunter coming out anyway? Do you care?) (Should I?)

As for my fellow ignorati: does this look to you like an appealing action movie regardless? Which video-game movies worked best despite your lack of familiarity with the source material? My vote goes to the first Resident Evil, with some moderate supporting love going to Silent Hill and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within -- no great blasphemy intended.

Oh, and just to keep things jumping, any thoughts on the following titles, or any left out, are more than welcome: DOA: Dead or Alive, Doom, Double Dragon, Hitman, the Mortal Kombat films, Street Fighter, Super Mario Brothers, the Tomb Raider franchise, Wing Commander.

Here's a question: Should any studio greenlight a sequel based on advanced buzz and before the original even hits theaters? Sure, if you're a fan of the Twilight novels, I suspect you'd want the studio to greenlight, like, a billion Twilight sequels, like, right this second -- but wouldn't it be a risky move? Nikki Finke over at Deadline Hollywood claims Summit's already prepping the sequel (New Moon), though that's about as far as she goes with it. Finke, however, does state the obvious: that even though the first Twilight film isn't due out until November 21, the latest trailer was viewed over 3.5 million times in 48 hours, the Twilight soundtrack has already hit the Top 5 Best-Selling Albums on Amazon (despite the fact that it doesn't come out until November 4th) and the merchandise for this sucker rivals that of the boy wizard, Harry Potter.

Okay, so obviously there's an audience for not one film, but two -- yet what if that audience doesn't like the first installment? Is that even possible? Is this the sort of film fans will love no matter what the final product looks like? And do you really take a chance greenlighting a sequel with a film whose audience is not comprised of the oh-so-lucrative teen male population. Are teen and pre-teen girls (and their moms) enough to carry this entire franchise?

And for you Twilight fans out there: While early, is there anything different you'd like to see from the sequel?

Despite the heavy hints in Iron Man that Jim Rhodes, best friend to Tony Stark, would come to play War Machine in a future film, it won't be Terrence Howard reprising his role as Rhodes in the forthcoming sequel, but rather Don Cheadle. According to the Hollywood Reporter, there hasn't been a formal announcement by Marvel Studios about it, but the casting swap appears to have come as a result of money matters (natch).

Returning still are stars Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow, in addition to director Jon Favreau, as Justin Theroux, fresh off the success of Tropic Thunder, currently tinkers away at the script. Last month, amidst the press blitz for the Iron Man DVD, Favreau confessed to wanting to incorporate both 3-D and IMAX technology in the making of the sequel (to which the world collectively replied "[BLEEP] yeah!").

Alas, it remains for the Paramount/Marvel number-crunchers to determine in which format exactly we'll see Downey Jr. and Cheadle team up come the summer of 2010.

Here's a round-up of some stuff (and things) currently causing waves online:

-- Moviefone has launched the latest installment of Unscripted, featuring stars Josh Brolin and Elizabeth Banks discussing their new film W. using reader questions and some of their own. Additionally, above you'll find some newly-released art for the film. Heh.

-- After breaking up with Paramount, Dreamworks has officially found a new f*ck buddy in Universal, so says Variety. The two signed a seven-year worldwide distribution deal.

-- Darren Aronofsky's The Fighter looks to be in trouble. Now that the writer-director is working hard on that Robocop remake, seems this other flick is being neglected. Brad Pitt has apparently dropped out, and Mark Wahlberg -- who's been training for the role for over a year -- doesn't seem to know the film's current status. All that being said, Slashfilm claims their scouting locations in Mass.

-- A few photos of Mel Gibson on the set of Edge of Darkness have appeared online, most of which show the man going full-Diddy, forcing some woman to hold an umbrella so the sun doesn't, ya know, shine on the poor man. In case you forgot, this film marks Gibson's return to acting as a homicide detective investigating the death of his daughter. See image to the right, click to see enlarge. [via Crabbies Hollywood]

-- A theme park in the UK is actually moving forward with a ride based on the Saw films, called Saw - The Ride. I bet folks will just kill to get on it. HAR! Apparently, we're looking at a ride with "beyond vertical drop of 100-degree from a height of 100ft, as well as a rather sinister sounding "three inversions" to add to the fun." Who's down? [via IGN]

Guillaume Depardieu, the 37-year-old son of Gerard Depardieu, died today in Paris from a bout of acute pneumonia. Depardieu, who's starred in upwards of 20 films, struggled with drugs and drinking over the years.

A few new images of Samuel L. Jackson and the late Bernie Mac in the new film Soul Men have arrived in the Cinematical inbox. Check them out in the gallery below.

But was he ever considering it in the first place? Not long ago it seemed a Lethal Weapon 5 was all but a lock, what with Shane Black writing the script and Columbus Short supposedly in talks to play Danny Glover's son -- but now, according to a recent interview with Richard Donner in the LA Times, it looks like the whole thing might just go away. Thank God. That's because, in Donner's world, Mel Gibson has already passed on the project. (And here we thought Glover passed over a year ago.) The director notes, "Mel turned it down. I would like to think that Mel turned it down because I wasn't involved. Knowing Mel, I would like to think that. Would that be the kind of thing he does? It sure would be."

Though "Gibson's people" refused to comment, the LA Times is pretty confident in their findings. Donner, who directed all four previous Lethal Weapon films, seems a bit "I toldja so" in the interview, regarding Warners decision to follow Joel Silver's lead: "It's too bad, actually, because Channing Gibson, who wrote the fourth one, and Mike Riva, a designer on three of them, and myself and Derek [Hoffman, an associate at The Donner Company] had an incredibly strong story for the fifth movie. But we weren't given the opportunity and I think maybe I could have convinced Mel to do it. But Warners chose to go with Joel Silver." He later adds, "Yes, the project is pretty much dead in the water unless someone had the sense to come to me."

Of course, Donner could be talking out his rear end ... though, on the surface, it seems like a reach for both Gibson and Glover to agree to a fifth film, especially one without Donner behind the camera. But what do you think? Would you actually be down for a Lethal Weapin 5? Or are these guys just too old for this sh*t?

Back when The Incredible Hulk hit movie theaters -- and because of Nick Fury's appearance in Iron Man -- folks were itching for more Avengers references with their summer movie watching. Thus, fans went bat-sh*t (excuse the DC reference) over a rumor that Captain America popped up in a scene during Incredible Hulk, which was fueled by a sorta confirmation from director Louis Leterrier ... but then the flick hit theaters and nada. Now, with the DVD due out on October 21st, it seems there's a little easter egg awaiting fans. A number of different sites have reported that a shot of Captain America frozen in ice exists within the alternate opening scene -- one that follows Bruce Banner to the arctic circle in search of a very random way to kill himself (see photo above, courtesy of Slashfilm). So there ya go. And seeing as the upcoming Captain America film will be set during WWII, we now know how they'll make that work for the Avengers movie. He was frozen in ice! Hopefully we won't get any corny lines like "What's an iPod" when the good old Captain shows up in theaters in 2011.

Oh, and speaking of Hulk, the Iron Man writers would love to see him play villain in the aforementioned Avengers movie. Mark Fergus tells MTV: "You don't want like 10 super-badass good guys fighting together. Where's the fun in that? Let's break it off a little. Friends or colleagues who become enemies is always an interesting thing because you know it's based on love and friendship and that's always the worst thing to have turn bad - is someone you actually care about and someone you actually believe in."

What do you think? Should Hulk become the villain in Avengers? If not him, then who?