News Flash! Er, Flash News!

MTV.com is reporting that Wedding Crashers director David Dobkin will helm the upcoming superhero flick, “The Flash,” which will be a spinoff of George Miller’s upcoming Justice League film.

In the running (pun intended) to play the title character? Rumor has it Adam Brody (The OC’s Seth Cohen) may be attached to play Wally West. For those keeping track, this would also mean that Brody would be playing the role in Justice League. It’s fascinating how quickly Warner Bros. is churning out these DC Comics adaptations. I mean, Justice League is still in the planning stages and they’re already gearing up for follow-up projects? Did they forget how badly Catwoman bombed?

Warners: Take your time. We’ll be patient, I promise.

Radiohead Returns to Form with In Rainbows

It’s taken me far too long to write a proper review of Radiohead’s new album In Rainbows, partially because I didn’t want to short-change it after a single listen. Or a second or a third. After spending some quality time with its 10 stripped-down tracks, I can safely say that In Rainbows is Radiohead’s strongest album since OK Computer.

Don’t get me wrong. I thought Kid A and Amnesiac were breakthrough albums worthy of their praise. But they also require the listener to be in the proper mood for them, and be able to sit down and appreciate the album as a whole. If “Like Spinning Plates” hits my ears when my iPod is on shuffle in the middle of my commute, chances are I’ll skip it. Not a fault, necessarily, but Radiohead's early work on Pablo Honey, The Bends and the aforementioned OK Computer is far more approachable and more, dare I say it, listener-friendly.

Like most people, I liken 2003’s Hail to the Thief to a melancholic funeral dirge. The energy just isn’t there for a vast majority of the album and the gang just seems bored. Even Thom's soulful vocals can't save most of the tracks from being depressingly dull.

Thankfully, In Rainbows rectifies its predecessor’s faults. Thom Yorke seems to have purged himself of his techno-demons with last year’s synth-heavy solo project The Eraser, giving guitarists Ed O’Brien and Jonny Greenwood plenty to do .

Favorite tracks? “Bodysnatchers” easily sits at the top, with its chaotic guitar distortions. I also liked the trippy “Faust Arp” and the socially critical “House of Cards.”

In Rainbows is Radiohead at the top of their game, mixing their best past sensibilities while at the same time moving forward musically.

Head on over to inrainbows.com and name your price for the download. Call it arrogance or generosity, but Radiohead is letting fans decide how much they’d like to pay for the album. A boxed version of the album, complete with a second CD, two vinyl records, artwork and a lyrics booklet will hit stores December 3rd. A standard version will be released in January.

Justice League Movie News!

Some of the geekiest news on the Internet surrounds production of a live-action Justice League of America movie, directed by George Miller. For the uninitiated (and by default better looking and more popular), the Justice League is a team consisting of DC Comics’ most prolific characters, including Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern and Aquaman. Well, prolific and Aquaman hardly belong in the same sentence, but that’s for another article.

A lot of the wild casting rumors have sent tremors through Internet message boards. Jessica Biel as Wonder Woman? Ryan Reynolds as The Flash? Biel debunked rumors surrounding her interest in donning the star-spangled panties, but the major point here is that the cast is skewing pretty young. And, most importantly, it has nothing do with Christopher Nolan’s Batman series, nor the recently revived Superman series. Think of it as an alternate universe. And if you read comics, that should be fairly easy.

Now, take this with a grain of salt, but UGO has posted some script details, and things have gotten a lot more optimistic. The story concerns Batman keeping all of the other superheroes under surveillance, a two-on-one smackdown pitting Superman against both The Dark Knight and Wonder Woman, and villains Maxwell Lord and Talia al Ghul (daughter of Batman foe Ra’s al Ghul). The story also leads off with a superhero funeral, introducing each of the characters clad in black.

Again, take all of this unofficial buzz with a grain of salt. Ain’t It Cool News reported yesterday (10/26) that Teresa Palmer (Wolf Creek, The Grudge 2) will be playing the role of everyone's favorite Amazon in the patriotic corset. But, if you’d like some low-sodium Justice League news, you might want to wait until some official studio announcements.