As a general rule, the official site for any major studio release is a fairly by-the-numbers affair where you find sanctioned images, flattering bios, wallpapers, and other promotional detritus.  Every once in awhile, though, an official site actual creates a novel online presence that would be worth exploring even without the movie it's meant to promote.  Paramount has launched an official site for the fictitious nation of Wadiya featured in the upcoming Sacha Baron Cohen comedy The Dictator, and it is just such a presence.

Earlier this week, we saw a commercial for the commercial that will promote The Avengers during this Sunday's Super Bowl game.  The thirty-second TV spot will hopefully give some more insight on the nature of the villainous army that necessitates bringing together Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, and the Incredible Hulk.  For the moment though, all you Avengers superfans are going to make due with that ten-second tease of a TV spot and some minor goodies that made their way online today.

First up there are two new banners featuring the major heroic players in the big Marvel Studios ensemble.  Actually, they're both pretty much the same banner, but one swaps out Iron man for the SHIELD trio of Nick Fury, Agent Coulson, and Maria Hill, played respectively by Samuel L. Jackson, Clark Gregg, and Cobie Smulders.

Look, the Evil Dead remake is happening.  You're never going to get that sequel that opens with Ash stomping undead ass on the lunar surface or generally being an unstoppable force of coolness.  Let's accept that, move on, pop in our battered VHS copies of Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness, thank whatever deity to which we pray that Sami Raimi's trilogy exists, and hope for the best from this The Evil Dead remake.  That remake won't feature Bruce Campbell as Ash, but it has just cast its two lead actors.

For weeks now, leading man Vin Diesel has been hapily offering up photographic evidence that Riddick is shooting on soundstages in Montreal.  Either that, or he's been doing some shockingly elaborate cosplay in his backyard.  Said photographic evidence, which all indicators suggest do, in fact, come from Montreal, can be seen here, here, and here (that last one is from less than 24 hours ago).  Nonetheless, Universal Pictures, One Race Films, and Radar Pictures have decided to formally announce the start of production today.

In an ideal world, the twenty-third onscreen adventure of Bond, James Bond, would involve the international superspy teaming up with Barney from How I met Your Mother to wear incredibly snazzy suits, fight bad guys, and, of course, bed innumerable gorgeous women with a minimum of effort.  Were that that happen, Skyfall would be legend – wait for it – ary.  In the absence of a Barney Stinson-James Bond team-up, there's the actual new Bond movie and it's currently shooting in London, the ostensible home of Ian Fleming's globe-trotting sex machine.  A new crop of set photos have made their way online, showing Daniel Craig on the Skyfall set looking wearing an outstanding suit and holding a tiny gun.

At the end of Short Circuit 2, as newly gold-plated robot Johnny 5 leapt to the freeze-frame ending he so deserved, you probably found yourself thinking, "This robot couldn't get any more goddamn heroic.  We've truly reached the end of a full, beautiful character arc, and Johnny 5 is indeed alive.  Bravo!"  While the 1988 sequel did indeed seem to forever close the door on Johnny 5's maturation as a sentient being, that doesn't mean we can't just start over again with a Short Circuit remake.

Over the last few weeks, Vin Diesel has, in his characteristically magnanimous way, been sharing images from the Montreal-based production of Riddick, the second sequel to 2000's down and dirty science fiction suspense movie Pitch Black.  Before that, the leading man was happy to show off concept art and the like, but then he dropped two photos from the set – one of Riddick in some Necromonger armor and another of him in a crouchy action pose.  Today, Diesel has unveiled another new Riddick image, and this one looks more like an actual still from the film, a close-up of the title character in his signature goggles.

Viola Davis is in a good place right now.  The actress has been doing outstanding supporting work for years, but she wasn't a household name.  Now, she's the odds-on favorite to win an Oscar for her performance in last summer's The Help, and she just took a Screen Actors Guild Award for playing Aibileen Clark in the surprise hit.  With the Academy Awards approaching, Davis has just signed on to two new projects, including a lead role in the drama Beautiful Creatures.  Before that, though, she'll play a role in Ender's Game, the long-awaited adaptation that has built up quite a formidable cast.

Wrath of the Titans has a lot to prove, considering the response to its predecessor, 2010's Clash of the Titans.  That film made plenty of money worldwide, but wasn't terribly well-liked by damn near anyone and became an example of rushed, unnecessary post-conversion 3D.  For the sequel, quite a bit has been changed up.  

Several actors, led by Sam Worthington, are back in the monster-filled action spectacle, but the director is new and a whole slew of actors are fresh additions as well.  One of them is Rosamund Pike, who relaces Alexa Davalos in the role of Andromeda.  You can see the new Andromeda throwing down in a new image from Wrath of the Titans, along with two others featuring the newly hirsute Worthington as indomitable warrior Perseus.

One day, two big happenings pertaining to The Hunger Games.  It's still early, but the second big news on the potentially huge adaptation of Suzanne Collins's first novel in her dystopian Panem trilogy is the release of a new theatrical trailer.  It's brief, clocking in at not much more than one minute, but it does a lot with the time, hitting a bunch of big emotional notes, getting across the basic concept of the eponymous competition, and setting up the dystopia of Panem.