The Death of the Human Torch, and 7 Other Stories You'll Be Talking About Today

human_torch_225.jpgAlso in this Tuesday edition of The Broadsheet: Oscar nominee James Franco may play a pornographer... Sundance's first bomb arrives... Those Matrix sequels are not on the way... and more ahead.

· Marvel has revealed that Johnny Storm, a.k.a. The Human Torch, dies in issue #587 of the Fantastic Four. Apparently the hero's "life is taken amid a massive battle that writer Jonathan Hickman has been scripting for a year-and-half," thus reducing the Fantastic Four to three. No word on how the remaining characters will continue or if the writers have come up with the right alliteration for the word "three." May he rest in peace...until he is resurrected like almost every other iconic superhero who dies at some point in a comic series. Meanwhile, with Chris Evans busy playing Captain America, here's guessing none of this really bothers him. [NYT]

· Just in case you thought it was safe to stop paying attention to James Franco for even a second: He is now in discussions to play pornographer Chuck Traynor in a biopic about porn star Linda Lovelace from Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, the directors of Howl. Kate Hudson has the offer to place Lovelace. [Deadline]

· Apparently Sundance has it's first bomb! At least, that's what the internet is saying after THR ran a piece describing an "exodus" of distributors and audience members at a Press and Industry screening for Dito Montiel's star-studded crime film Son of No One. That said, if a movie needs to fight an uphill battle, it's probably good to have Al Pacino, Tracy Morgan, Katie Holmes, and Juliette Binoche on your team. [THR]

· You know that rumor about the two Matrix sequels that was burning up the internet yesterday? The one with 3-D and James Cameron? Yeah, it's not true. [Vulture]

· James Gandolfini is set to star in a new film from The Sopranos creator David Chase titled Twylight Zones. Like The Sopranos, it will be set in New Jersey. Unlike The Sopranos it's about a '60s Rock 'N Roll band. Gandolfini will play the father of one of the band members, who apparently doesn't like that hip-shaking music. [Deadline]

· Guns N Roses guitarist Slash is starting a horror movie production company that he says will "bring back character-driven, dramatic, intelligent, humorous horror movies -- horror movies that have some depth." Among the first four titles on the development slate is Theorem, which concerns "a mathematician who figures out the equation for evil." I'll be starting a petition later today to halt development, and let this synopsis just exist for all time on its own as the best logline ever. [The Independent]

· The Vice President of Google and unofficial "father of the internet," Vint Cerf, predicts that the internet will run out of IP addresses in a matter of weeks. Don't panic. [Time]

· Bad news: A monkey named Lucky who bit nearly 120 people in Japan has just escaped captivity and is on the loose! Good news: No new attacks have been reported yet. Mishima City has issued an emergency notice urging residents to lock their doors. [The Awl]



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