Rob Zombie
Photo: MTV News

Rob Zombie spent too long rescuing Michael Myers from the bloody scrap heap of desecrated horror slayers to watch another writer or director butcher his resurrection of the "Halloween" franchise. He'd walked away two years ago after his remake of the 1978 original and had no intention of returning to the terrorized town of Haddonfield, Illinois, for a sequel.

And then Zombie saw what other filmmakers were planning to do with the machete-wielding Myers, and his blood began to boil. "I just got protective of the series, because I had spent so much time trying to revive the whole thing that it looked like they were just going to go back in and destroy it," he told MTV News.

Zombie had seen what had happened to the franchise as creative players came and went over the decades and Myers became an increasingly absurd caricature. He couldn't let the killer be mistreated once again. "Every one had a different director, a different guy playing Michael Myers, a different story line," he said. "They're shooting off in all different directions."

With "Halloween II" finished and arriving in theaters Friday, the director sees his two films as the most complete package in the entire, 10-film series. The newest "Halloween" picks up shortly after the events of its predecessor, as Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton) wanders into the Haddonfield town square, covered in blood after her previous battles against the mask-wearing Myers. She's picked up by the sheriff and taken to the hospital for what Zombie promises is merely the first of the film's gruesomely realistic scenes. Everyone in town, from Laurie to Sheriff Lee Brackett (Brad Dourif) to Myers' old shrink Dr. Loomis (Malcolm McDowell) are struggling to deal with the life-altering fallout from Meyers' bloodbath. And, of course, it's only a matter of time before that wily psychopath shows up again.

With the sequel, Zombie said he was freed from the burden of remaking someone else's material — "You can never find that groove," he said — and had free reign to create fresh plotlines and character arcs. It was both an artistic impulse and the result of fan feedback from the 2007 film.

"Everybody liked the stuff that was different, new," he said. "There was nobody raising their hand going, 'Yes, please give me more of the same old crap! I love seeing the same old crap!' Even though studios seem to think that's what everybody wants, nobody wants it."

Check out everything we've got on "Halloween II."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

• MTV Rough Cut: 'Halloween II'

• 'Halloween II' Premiere Red Carpet
• "Halloween 2"

• Rob Zombie

Rob Zombie on the set of "H2"
Photo: MTV News

Are you ready for a sneak peek at tomorrow's blockbusters today? Check out our new series "Behind the Screen" Sunday night at 11 p.m. on MTV for the broadcast premiere of the "Brüno" trailer, an exclusive clip of Brad Pitt in Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds," the very first visit to the set of Russell Brand's "Get Him to the Greek" and much more!

With some help from the incomparable Rob Zombie, "Halloween" is coming early this year. First he let MTV visit the set of August's "H2," then we brought you a new photo of blood-soaked Michael Myers, and now Rob has given us the first clip ever released from his highly anticipated horror sequel.

Tune in Sunday night at 11 p.m. for our brand-new movie show "Behind the Screen," where Rob's exclusive footage will be accompanied by peeks at such films as "Brüno," "Inglourious Basterds" and "Get Him to the Greek." On the eve of the show, Rob spoke to us about the sequel, why this is his final "Halloween" film and ... "Weird Al" Yankovic?

MTV: What's the latest on "H2," Rob?

Rob Zombie: We're editing now. The movie comes out August 28, so we've gotta haul ass.

MTV: You've gotten past the origin story/ remake baggage and now Michael is yours. What are you doing with your newfound freedom?

Zombie: I can deal with the aftermath in a realistic fashion. All of our lead characters now are dark and damaged. Not just Michael, but also Laurie Strode, Sheriff Brackett and all these characters that were pretty unaffected in the first film, but have now gone through hell. Following their journey is much more interesting.

MTV: It sounds a bit deeper than the old-school "Halloween" stuff.

Zombie: It is. This is about the journey of three parallel lines that run through the movie: The journey of Michael, the journey of Laurie and the journey of Dr. Loomis. They all run parallel to each other, interweaving, until they collide in the finale — it's not just that Michael is back to chase more girls around.

MTV: And are you also going out of your way to make the kills the bloodiest yet?

Zombie: Not exactly. I think [one of the problems] with the series was when it tried to get creative with a lot of the killing and it became silly. People were getting electrocuted and stuff that was so much larger-than-life that you'd roll your eyes and it almost became like a Road Runner cartoon. There's a scene in this movie where somebody dies, and it is as heartbreaking as any scene in any movie of someone dying.

MTV: What's going on with Malcolm McDowell's Dr. Loomis this time around?

Zombie: Loomis has become the ultimate money-hungry media whore. He's out there doing everything, selling everything he can — with no remorse. The girls that survived, their faces are scarred, their bodies are scarred, but Dr. Loomis is in better shape than ever. He's the person who caused it all, some people think, and he's living it up and loving every minute of it. Until he's not.

MTV: I heard that "Weird Al" Yankovic is in the film. Seriously?

Zombie: Yeah, he plays himself. I wanted to have a scene where Loomis was on a "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"-type -type talk show, and I needed another guest on the couch with him to relay what a sellout he is. I was like, "What celebrity would be the complete antithesis of someone claiming to be a serious doctor?" And I thought "Weird Al" would be great — he adds such a great level of realism to what's going on.

MTV: How many more "Halloween" films do you plan on making?

Zombie: I would say this is definitely it for me. I did all I can do — I'm sure they'll make more, but they'll make them without me. After "H2" comes out, I'm going to put out an album and go on tour — so I can relax.

MTV: Does this film have a definite ending, wrapping up the Rob Zombie pair of films?

Zombie: Yes, it definitely does. When it ends, you definitely don't think to yourself, "Oh, they're setting up a third one." Instead, you'll just think, "Holy f---!"

Will the vampires grab more trophies than the slumdog? What was the year's ultimate onscreen WTF moment? It's up to you to decide the winners of the 2009 MTV Movie Awards. Vote now, and tune in on May 31 at 9 p.m. ET, when the big show airs live from the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California.

Check out everything we've got on "H2."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

• 'H2': A Completely Different Vision

• "Halloween 2"

• Rob Zombie

Tyler Mane as Michael Myers in 2007's "Halloween"
Photo: Marsha Blackburn LaMarca

Fill up that bucket of popcorn and order 64 ounces of your favorite soda — the summer movie season has nearly begun! As always, MTV News has it covered for you every which way with our annual Summer Movie Preview Week! Keep checking MTVNews.com all week for exclusive interviews and clips from "Terminator Salvation," "Harry Potter," "Star Trek," "Inglourious Basterds" and more.

COVINGTON, Georgia — It's 1 p.m. on a Tuesday and we're surrounded by bloodied wolf-men, evil clowns and topless alien babes. The location is a small town in rural Georgia — which, despite not having a single stoplight, now finds itself home to the set of Rob Zombie's "H2: Halloween 2," the follow-up to his successful remake of John Carpenter's iconic film.

Around 200 extras are gathered for the production's largest single shoot, the filming of a massive Halloween rave complete with live music. Each of the extras is attired in a distinctive costume, fully adorned in intricately designed makeup and body paint. Because it's a Rob Zombie picture, the outfits are on the gory side and include everything from a rabid monkey to metal-clad female warriors.

The rave takes place inside a large barn, which is quickly becoming a sauna for the hundreds of cast and crew tucked inside the wooden structure — especially for people outfitted in furry costumes and those dressed as robots. The heat is smearing the carefully applied body paint, forcing extras to repeatedly go outside for touch-ups.

One look is all it takes to know it's a Rob Zombie film. The director says he felt somewhat stymied the first go-round, because it was a shared vision with Carpenter. For the sequel, it's entirely him, and he bathes in the freedom that allows.

"This one is 100 percent mine," Zombie says. "Every day, we laugh about how different it is. We don't even think about 'Halloween' anymore. We just do what we do."

With his first "Halloween," the filmmaker struggled to maintain the balance that audiences expected, but according to him, the shackles have been released for "H2."

"The first one, it was like a true remake, reimagining, whatever the hell people want to call it," Zombie says. "So you had to go through the beats of, 'How much do you keep? How much do you change? What do the fans expect? What don't they expect?' Because if it's too similar it's a waste of time, and if it's too different everyone's upset. But on this one, it's, 'Do whatever you want.' "

But Zombie isn't the only one who's unrestrained. Scout Taylor-Compton, who plays the female lead, also feels the newfound autonomy. Her character, Laurie Strode, ended the last film as a powerful heroine, and she picks up that mantle again for "H2," albeit with Laurie having slightly more baggage than her last time around.

"If you just watch the first one and just see all the stuff she has to go through, it was very traumatizing for her," Taylor-Compton says. "So in this one, she's just trying to find herself, and she's trying to find out answers, and just trying to get over everything. People kind of deal with things differently, and I think she just sort of rebels and doesn't know how to control it."

Audiences will see the results of Laurie's journey into madness when "H2: Halloween 2" opens August 28.

The 2009 MTV Movie Awards are coming May 31, live from the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California, at 9 p.m. ET. And this time, you're in charge of picking the nominees. Head over to the Movie Awards site and vote now.

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

• 'H2': A Completely Different Vision

• Rob Zombie

Rob Zombie
Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images

There are a lot of words you could use to describe Rob Zombie, but "indolent" isn't one of them. The shock rocker's always got a full plate, and is constantly working. Whether he's thumbing through scripts or writing riffs, Zombie is always thinking about the next project. At the moment, it's the follow-up to 2006's Educated Horses that's taking up most of his time.

"We're almost finished," Zombie told Metal File this week, about his forthcoming, still-untitled solo LP. "We'll probably finish with the record completely before Christmas, and it's great. The unique thing about this record is, it's the first time since White Zombie broke up [in 1998] that I've actually recorded with a band, in the sense that these are the guys that I tour with, that I hang out with, and we're a band, and we'll record as a band."

Zombie said he's been working on his next album — which he hopes to release this spring and which will feature the tracks "Jesus Frankenstein" and "Sick Bubblegum" — for the last few months, alongside guitarist John 5, drummer Tommy Clufetos and bassist Piggy D.

"The record's hard to describe, but it's just got a much more solid vibe, and it's going to be a much more intricate, interesting record just due to the fact that we have four people that are in the room all the time, contributing and working on it," he explained. "For me, it's great, because my solo records have been somewhat disjointed because there's always a changing roster of people. Great things usually come out of situations where you have a great vibe and you can usually feel it. And that's what's going on here."

The feel of the album, according to Zombie, is "all over the place." He said he didn't head into the studio with any specific goals in mind, other than to evolve his sound naturally.

"We just go into the studio and let it happen," he said. "Having a band helps because we change things at the spur of the moment. We'll start with something in the morning, and by the end of the day, it's morphed into something completely different. The lyrics — I'm pretty loose with that, in how I approach it. You just bang your head against the wall until something comes out. But I'm always trying to do something [with my records] that sounds fresh without making it so different that it's not you anymore. That's the problem with anything you do, as time goes on. If it's too different, everybody complains, and if it's too much of the same, everybody complains. So I'm always trying to find that tight rope, that middle ground, where it's your vibe and your thing, but it still sounds fresh."

On November 25, Zombie releases Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, a career-spanning five-disc box set, featuring everything White Zombie ever recorded. Zombie said he compiled the entire package on his own, not seeking the help of any of his former bandmates, whom he said he hasn't even spoken to since the group's last gig. But putting the box set together was an interesting exercise that made Zombie appreciate his current setup that much more.

"It made me appreciate the new band more, because going back and putting the box set together brought up a lot of things that I had forgotten about, and unfortunately, some of it was negative," he said. "So you really appreciate when you're in a good situation with a good group of musicians and a good group of guys. It took 20-something years, but I feel like I've finally found the three perfect people to work with."

Zombie, who claimed he'll be touring the States after next summer, said the time was right to release a White Zombie box set, and that it's been a project he had wanted to wrap up for years. "I would let everything take precedence over it — movies, records," he said. "I'm not big into revisiting the past. I like to move forward all the time, so whenever anything else would come up, [the box set] would go on the backburner. I had a little bit of a window and just knocked it out, and I also figured, 'If not now, when?' If I'd waited any longer, CDs aren't even going to exist."

He said that, with Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, he's essentially closing the door on White Zombie for good.

"There's really nothing more to be done," he said. "There's other crappy demos and stuff we could release, but they're probably not worth listening to. This is the last thing that will come from the band.

"The funny thing was, when I was putting it together, it seemed so long ago," he explained. "It felt like I was putting together a box set of somebody else's band, because even though it's not that long ago, it just seemed like forever ago, and some of the early songs are 20 years old. It seemed weird. Most of the really old tracks I hadn't listened to since we recorded them. It was just kind of weird. I found a lot of old flyers and junk. I was just happy I had saved a bunch of that stuff, because I was saving it for no apparent reason. Now, there's a reason, so I can throw it all away."

Zombie said he doesn't really miss the White Zombie days at all, and is glad that this chapter in his life has finally reached its end.

"When the band started, everyone was so young, and then you go through a lot of changes," Zombie said. "You start a band when you're 18, and I don't remember how old I was when it ended, but you're basically right out of high school. So you're not in a mind frame to sometimes handle what it takes to put that together, and then you do mature, and being in a band becomes a weird situation, because it's almost like the situation hasn't matured with you. So that band had a lot of growing pains and a lot of baggage all the way through. I think we did a lot of good stuff, and we were kind of ahead of the curve in the beginning, and we did some groundbreaking stuff. But it was a painful situation most of the time."

The rest of the week's metal news:

Deftones bassist Chi Cheng remains in a coma after sustaining injuries in a car accident two weeks ago. "Chi's condition remains the same — serious, but stable," the Deftones said in a statement. "He still lies in a coma, however his vitals (heart, lungs and blood pressure) all exhibit very stable functions and doctors have begun removing much of the excess monitoring equipment. Chi remains strong in his fight to recover." ...

The Dillinger Escape Plan are putting the finishing touches on a new DVD, as well as their next album. "We're wrapping up a DVD — a documentary on early-years Dillinger, from the beginning, all the way through the end of the Calculating Infinity cycle, which is going to be really cool for the 10 of you out there who weren't in elementary school when this band started," the band said in a statement. "For everyone else, it'll be a history lesson well worth watching, to see how this beast got started." ...

Is anyone else tired of these incessant Chimaira updates? The band's been hard at work on their new album, and it feels like every week, they're posting information about how that's been going. According to the most recent update, they're almost 40 percent finished with tracking the record, which will hit stores April 28. Hey, guys — how 'bout you save the next update for when the record's actually finished? ...

At last weekend's Vision of Disorder reunion show, the band revealed that they're eyeing a fall 2009 release for their next studio effort. Sweet! ...

Unearth will be hitting the road early next year with Emmure, Impending Doom and Born of Osiris. The F--- School, F--- Work, Let's Rage! Tour kicks off January 9 in Detroit, and dates are booked through January 30 in Portland, Maine. ...

God Forbid will release their forthcoming album Earthsblood on February 24 through Century Media. Metal File has heard some of the disc, and it's beyond brutal. ...

Cattle Decapitation, Psyopus, Book of Black Earth and Gigan will be hitting the road together starting January 21 in Santa Barbara, California. Gigs are scheduled through February 13 in San Marcos, California. ...

Extreme black metal outfit Satyricon have signed a North American recording deal with Koch Records. The band's forthcoming seventh studio album, The Age of Nero, lands in stores January 13, and will feature the tracks "Black Crow on a Tombstone," "My Skin Is Cold" and "Last Man Standing."

• White Zombie
• Rob Zombie
• Dillinger Escape Plan
• Chimaira

Beth Ostrosky
Photo: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images

Howard Stern's fans know her as "the lovely Beth O," the object of Double A's affections and the svelte blond model who's been by the shock jock's side since 2000. But on October 3, Stern and Beth Ostrosky made it official, tying the knot after a 20-month engagement.

They had a quiet ceremony officiated by Mark Consuelos, the husband of "Live With Regis & Kelly" co-host Kelly Ripa, and held at the ritzy Le Cirque restaurant in Manhattan. The wedding was attended by 180 guests, including Joan Rivers, Chevy Chase, Rob Zombie, Jimmy Kimmel, Sarah Silverman, John Stamos, Barbara Walters and Donald Trump. During the evening, the Sterns were serenaded by 1970s songbird Phoebe Snow, who sang the wedding classic "You Send Me," and Billy Joel entertained guests with a rendition of "The Stranger" during the reception. Train's Patrick Monahan also performed before the night was through.

(Check out pictures of Sarah Silverman, Rob Zombie and more celeb guests at the wedding.)

"Chevy Chase doing an impromptu [and X-rated] speech was fun," Ostrosky told MTV News on Monday night outside the New York premiere of "Filth and Wisdom," a new film that marks Madonna's directorial debut. "Billy Joel serenading us was not planned, and my best friend got up and spoke. Jimmy Kimmel made a surprise speech at the altar as Mark Consuelos was officiating. It was so much fun."

The last few weeks have been especially busy for Mrs. Howard Stern, 36, who has been training for the upcoming New York City Marathon, set for November 2. Ostrosky, who is a vocal proponent of animal rights, is participating in the marathon to raise money for the North Shore Animal League. She hopes to raise more than $250,000 for her cause, which fans can support by visiting her Web site, GoBethO.org.

All the proceeds raised through Ostrosky's sponsorships will benefit the Animal League's mission to find permanent homes for more than 20,000 orphaned animals.

"Between getting married, the honeymoon and my marathon training, it's been crazy," she said. "I did my first 20-mile [run] on Saturday, and we moved. We've moved into a new apartment, so it's all at once."

How did Ostrosky keep up her training amid all the hectic wedding planning? "That, to me, is the top priority," she said of the marathon. "The getting-married part was easy. The planning was a little more difficult, but it was the training that took top priority."

• Howard Stern's Wedding Album

• Howard Stern
• Madonna
• Train
• Rob Zombie
• Billy Joel

Rob Zombie in 1998
Photo: MTV News

Where do old interviews go to die? Since 1988 they've gone into the MTV News vault, but we've been exhuming them to bring you these classic natterings. Here's the latest in the series, which runs every Tuesday.

Back in his artsy early days, Rob Zombie had done a bit of production-design work for MTV, so it was sort of fitting that he should return in August of 1998, in the midst of officially vaporizing White Zombie — the New York horror-metal band he'd led for the previous 13 years — and striking out on his own with a solo album called Hellbilly Deluxe. Only two further studio albums have followed, but then Rob has been busy, mainly with movies.

Zombie's love of old schlock exploitation films was already clear in his music, in song and album titles like "Spiderbaby" and The Sinister Urge, and in the name White Zombie itself, which is also the title of an old Bela Lugosi fright flick. After lobbing a number of his songs onto the soundtracks of movies ranging from "The Matrix" to "Bride of Chucky," Rob finally went totally Hollywood in 2003, writing, directing and scoring his own schlock epic, "House of 1000 Corpses." This, as you know, was followed two years later by the similarly depraved "The Devil's Rejects," and by last year's "Halloween" remake. Next up will be "The Haunted World of El Superbeasto," an animated feature based on Zombie's own comic book, and featuring Paul Giamatti voicing the villainous Dr. Satan.

Back in 1998, when we spoke to Rob on our own "Headbangers Ball" set, the emphasis was still on music. We learned, for instance, that he had little use for rock stars with messages in their music ("I don't care what I'm thinkin'; why do I care what he's thinkin'?"). In fact, his relationship to rock culture was ultra-basic in every regard. "You're supposed to go to a show and get hurt," he mumbled. Are you still allowed to say things like that on TV?

Enjoy digging through The Loder Files? You'll find more here, and there's much more to come from the vaults — check back every Tuesday!

• The Loder Files: A Trip Inside The MTV News Vaults

• Rob Zombie
• White Zombie

Rob Zombie
Photo: Frederick M. Brown/ Getty Images

Rob Zombie is not the sort of guy who'd be content just resting on his laurels. The shock rocker likes to keep busy: It seems as though the man is constantly touring (he'll be out with Ozzy Osbourne and In This Moment through January 21), and his proverbial plate is spilling over with various music and film projects he plans to deliver to the masses over the course of the coming year.

Not only does Zombie hope to record another studio LP in 2008, he's still working on the companion DVD to his recently released album, Zombie Live, Zombie's inaugural live offering, which sold 15,000 copies during its first week to debut at #57 on the Billboard top 200. He'd like to have the DVD finished for a spring 2008 release, he said during a recent teleconference with reporters.

"I'm not sure [when the DVD will be in stores], 'cause right now, the editor who I'll have edit that is editing [this] behind-the-scenes documentary, documenting the making of 'Halloween,' " he said, referring to his re-imagining of the 1978 classic, which hit theaters last summer. "So when he's done doing that, he's then going to go do this one. So, who knows?

"I didn't want to really just make a live DVD, because I felt like, 'Ah, who cares?' " he continued. "What I really did was [make] a tour documentary similar to the documentary I made for the DVD for 'Devil's Rejects,' where it starts with the first rehearsal through the building of the stage, through traveling and flying and playing every show and after the show and this and that."

So what of that long-rumored, oft-delayed White Zombie box set, a compilation of every piece of music the band ever put to tape?

"I don't know when it's going to come out," he explained. "I always keep putting it on the backburner to do other projects. What my plan for what to put on it was basically every single thing ever, so that I could put out the box set and go, 'That's everything. Don't ask me about anything else. That is absolutely everything that band's ever recorded.' There [won't be] a lot of extra stuff, but there's tons of stuff that was never even on CD that was just on these limited vinyl releases. I'm not real good at going back and wanting to redo old stuff. I always want to do new stuff, so that's why the project keeps dragging on forever."

Zombie is not sure whether the box set will see the light of day in 2008, but he admits that "if I wait much longer, no one will even know what a box set is."

Zombie is also still working on his much-anticipated animated comedy "The Haunted World of El Superbeasto," which features the voice talent of Paul Giamatti, Geoffrey Lewis and Zombie's wife, Sheri Moon. Zombie said he's "almost 100 percent done" with the flick, though it still has to be edited and soundtracked for an expected 2008 release.

"The problem is, I have too many projects," he said. "So, now I'm on tour, and as soon as I get off tour, we'll go home and wrap that up, and then that'll be finished."

While it had been reported that he'll helm an upcoming remake of the 1984 horror film "C.H.U.D.," Zombie said he won't be involved with the project. He wouldn't go into what his next film project will be — at least not in any great detail.

"I'm planning another movie, which, right now, I don't know how that's going to be because the writers just went on strike, and the directors will go on strike soon," he said. "So, I'm not sure how that whole world is going to pan out. Right now is really the worst time to try to plan the next year. The next movie I'm planning isn't really a horror movie."

Would Zombie ever consider casting Ozzy in one of his films? "No, no," he responded. "Acting is not a joke for me, and not everybody can act. There are a lot of people that [have] great personalities, but that doesn't mean they're actors, because acting's hard and it's hard on the actors. And that's why usually musicians are terrible actors, because they have their personality and persona, but it doesn't mean they can act."

Zombie recalled the first time he met Ozzy, and the numerous tours the two have done together since.

"The first time I toured with Ozzy was '99, but I had met him before then," he remembered. "For some strange reason, I don't even remember why I was meeting [him]. It was very early on — I mean it was '95, maybe, or something before then — and I went over to his house. I know that my manager, Andy Gould, had been friends with Sharon Osbourne for a long time, and I'm not even sure what it was all about. Sometimes, you just meet people and hang out for no reason. And it was great. I'd always loved Ozzy, loved Black Sabbath, and at that point, it was very funny because it was me and Ozzy in his house, and he played me the entire album he had made with Mark Hudson that was very Beatles-sounding. It's never been released but it was fantastic.

"I've toured with him so many times that it just seemed like it was that time of year again," he said about reuniting with Osbourne for this latest trek. "It seems like about every two years, I tour with Ozzy. ... This is maybe the fifth time we've done this. I love touring with Ozzy. He's always been super nice to me. He's a really nice guy. I like all the guys in his band, and it's always a very pleasant experience. It's usually a pleasant experience touring with everybody, but [with Ozzy] it's a great time."

Check out everything we've got on "The Haunted World of El Superbeasto."

Visit Movies on MTV.com for more from Hollywood, including news, reviews, interviews and more.

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

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• Rob Zombie
• White Zombie

Carrie Underwood's <i>Carnival Ride</i>
Photo: Arista

Carrie 2: Carrie Underwood doesn't really need to put out a new album — after all, her 2005 debut, Some Hearts, has sold more than 1 million copies this year alone — but the former "American Idol" winner is jumping on her Carnival Ride anyway. Underwood gives the album-title theme a whirl on songs like "Wheel of the World," but the entire effort isn't all fun and games — she gets heavier on "Just a Dream," which revolves around a woman coping with the death of her soldier fiance. The country crock pot also contains a cover of "I Told You So," one of Randy Travis' earliest hits. Underwood said in a press release that the album title is apt because "it describes the wonderful craziness that I've been through over the past couple years."

'Round the World: Big things have also been happening to Coheed and Cambria, a band that deals with big concepts: In 2006, they went through lineup shifts and the death of frontman Claudio Sanchez's mother. But the group is going for a sense of finality with No World for Tomorrow, which concludes its long-running conceptual sci-fi saga. "I certainly feel a great weight has been lifted off my shoulders," Sanchez told MTV News over the summer. Fans will be on a quest for the deluxe edition, which has a bonus disc featuring animated projections the group used on tour, plus a video about the making of No World for Tomorrow, a deluxe booklet and more.

Serjical Procedure: While Coheed and Cambria's saga is ending, System of a Down singer Serj Tankian's adventure is only beginning. Elect the Dead, the first album he's stitched together — rather literally in some cases, as the limited-edition version comes wrapped in linen — features "humor, political stuff, ecological stuff, personal pain, transcending personal pain, transcending the material and physical — there's a lot of things, whatever I felt at the moment and whatever came through," Tankian told MTV News. If you're looking for an even more intimate side to Tankian, be sure to grab the limited version — it has acoustic versions of two tracks, artwork, poetry and codes to unlock exclusive content online.

Cobra Style: While Tankian is singing about the Dead, Cobra Starship are coming alive with Viva la Cobra!, the dance-punk act's second album. With songs like "World Has Its Shine (But I Would Drop It on a Dime)" and "Prostitution Is the World's Oldest Profession (And I, Dear Madame, Am a Professional)," frontman Gabe Saporta surely got goofy song-titling tips from their pals in Fall Out Boy — in no little coincidence, Cobra Starship penned their entire new effort while touring with FOB. In their defense, though, Saporta did recently tell MTV News, "You're damn right we're not serious."

Relying on Puns: Up for more cringe-inducing titular jokery? Look no further than Relient K's Let It Snow Baby ... Let It Reindeer, which is actually a resurrected version of the Christian rockers' Deck the Halls, Bruise Your Hand, an album that came as part of a combo pack with copies of 2006's Two Lefts Don't Make a Right... but Three Do. The Christian rockers wrap seven new songs — including "I'm Gettin' Nuttin' For Christmas" and the hidden song "Good King Wenceslas" — plus a reworked version of "Auld Lang Syne" onto the Christmas release. If that doesn't sound like a holiday treat to you, maybe you should give Larry the Cable Guy a call.

Story of the Hurricane: Speaking of calling on others, you know a rookie is destined for big things when he's able to rope in Game, E-40, Baby and Jadakiss onto his first release — and Hurricane Chris has done just that. Said players appear on the "Rachet Remix" of "A Bay Bay," the 51/50 Ratchet debut single that has brought the 18-year-old to the rap foreground. Chris is hoping his new single, "The Hand Clap," can match the success of "A Bay Bay," which reached #7 on Billboard's Hot 100, but if not, he can always resort to "Playas Rock," "Doin' My Thang" or "Walk Like That."

Zombie Lives: Like Hurricane Chris, Rob Zombie is making his album debut this week — his live-album debut, that is. Zombie captures highlights from his 2006 Educated Horses tour — reaching all the way back to White Zombie's "Thunder Kiss '65" and "Black Sunshine" — on Live, which also folds in the title tracks to his flicks "Devil's Rejects" and "House of 1000 Corpses." (Horror-movie fans should also take note of the "Saw IV" soundtrack, which features Avenged Sevenfold, Drowning Pool, Ministry, Sixx: A.M. and more.)

Still Seething: Seether put out a concert album last year — the acoustic One Cold Night — but are already back with a new studio LP, their third. "We've adopted an 'anything goes' attitude for this album," Shaun Morgan said in a statement. But the frontman, who went to rehab last year, added that, "This is not by any stretch of the imagination a concept album, nor is it a 'Woe is me, I'm sober' album."

Not in Shambles?: Pete Doherty, who also knows a thing or two about rehab, you could say, is back with his band Babyshambles, who are birthing their second effort this week. Shotter's Nation, which the band recorded in London with producer Stephen Street (Blur, Morrissey), boasts a guest appearance by Scottish folk legend Bert Jansch — on the final track, "The Lost Art of Murder" — and also includes "Crumb Begging," "French Dog Blues" and "Baddies Boogie."

Fallen "Idols"?: We can hear enough about "American Idol" contenders when they're on TV, but when it comes time for them to release material, some of them are actually making their albums hard to find. Elliott Yamin put out his NBC Sounds of the Season: The Elliott Yamin Holiday Collection in Target stores only last week, and now Bo Bice is delivering his new album, See the Light, exclusively to Wal-Mart. Black Crowes drummer Steve Gorman and ex-Allman Brothers Band keyboardist Chuck Leavell helped make sure Bice's second effort had a Southern touch.

Song Title of the Week:

"Manager and Coordinator of Prostitutes" by Les Georges Leningrad (on the Worried Noodles compilation)

Album Cover of the Week:

The "Barbie as the Island Princess" soundtrack

Other Notables:

Black Dice's Load Blown
Given the number of releases the red-hot experimental band from Brooklyn, New York, has put out in recent years, it's no surprise this collection got the name it did. This disc culls tracks that can be found on three of the group's 12-inch vinyl EPs — although, unusually, the third EP is actually dropping Tuesday (October 22) as well. The result is an overview of the output Black Dice have put out the last 18 months, and the disc includes "Kokomo," "Cowboy Soundcheck," "Toka Toka" and more.

Prefuse 73's Preparations
Guillermo Scott Herren goes by many names, but of all his music projects, this glitchy one has been catching on the most. Prefuse 73's fourth release follows 2005's Surrounded by Silence, and while the earlier effort featured a ton of outside artists — Ghostface, GZA and Blonde Redhead among them — this one only has a few guest spots, most notably one by Battles drummer John Stanier. But it also comes with a bonus disc, the 15-track Interrugnums, although it only comes with purchases of the physical release.

Castanets' In the Vines
On the topic of aliases, this act is also centered around one man: Raymond Raposa, the only constant member of the project. Born in San Diego but living in Brooklyn, Raposa regularly mixes up his cast of collaborators, sometimes amid a tour. This album features the likes of Jana Hunter, Nonhorse of Vanishing Voice and Phosphorescent's Matthew Houck, who come together to tell a story partially based on a Hindu fable about being trapped in an unavoidable fate. It also integrates stories of Raposa's adventures as a teen pro surfer and beyond.

New Releases:

· The 69 Eyes - Angels/Devils (two CDs; Caroline)
· Ryan Adams & the Cardinals - Follow the Lights (EP; Lost Highway) [Buy Now]
· The Agony Scene - Get Damned (Century Media)
· Gary Allan - Living Hard (MCA Nashville)
· Audio Caviar - Transoceanic (Machine Productions)
· Avenger of Blood - Death Brigade (Heavy Artillery)
· Babyshambles - Shotter's Nation (limited edition comes with DVD; Astralwerks) [Buy Now]
· The Besnard Lakes - Vol. 1 (Jagjaguwar)
· Bo Bice - See the Light (available exclusively at Wal-Mart; StartArt) [Buy Now]
· Bizarre - Blue Cheese & Coney Island (Koch)
· Blue Sky Black Death - Hell Razah (Babygrande)
· The Bridge - The Bridge (Hyena)
· Tom Brosseau - Cavalier (Fat Cat)
· Carla Bruni - No Promises (enhanced; Downtown)
· Grayson Capps - Songbones (Hyena)
· Carbon/Silicon - The Last Post (Caroline)
· Cassius - 15 Again (Astralwerks)
· Castanets - In the Vines (Asthmatic Kitty)
· Steven Curtis Chapman - This Moment (Sparrow)
· The Cinematic Orchestra - Breathe (EP; Domino)
· Circle - Sunrise (No Quarter) [Buy Now]
· Cobra Starship - Viva La Cobra! (Fueled by Ramen) [Buy Now]
Read: "Cobra Starship Take Aim At Their Sudden Fame With Viva La Cobra!"
· Coheed and Cambria - No World for Tomorrow (Columbia) [Buy Now]
Read: "Coheed And Cambria Saga Comes To An End On No World For Tomorrow"
· Crime in Stereo - Crime in Stereo Is Dead (Bridge Nine)
· Justin Currie - What Is Love For (Rykodisc)
· Einstürzende Neubauten - Alles Wieder Offen (Potomac/Ryko)
· Euros Child - Miracle Inn (Wichita)
· Famouz - Ghetto Passport (World Jam)
· Far-Less - A Toast to Bad Taste (Tooth & Nail)
· The Forms - The Forms (Threespheres)
· Dave Gahan - Hourglass (also available with bonus DVD; Mute/Virgin)
· Ghost - Overture: Live in Nippon Yusen Soko (with DVD; Drag City)
· Hangar 18 - Sweep the Leg (Definitive Jux)
· Heart - Dreamboat Annie - Legendary Albums Live (Shout! Factory) [Buy Now]
· Helloween - Gambling With the Devil (SPV)
· Ty Herndon - A Ty Herndon Christmas (Pyramid)
· Daniel Higgs - Metempsychotic Melodies (Holy Mountain)
· Holy F--- - LP (Young Turks)
· Hurricane Chris - 51/50 Ratchet (J)
· I Like Trains - Elegies to Lessons Learnt (Beggars)
· Shooter Jennings - The Wolf (Universal South)
· Jesu - Lifeline (EP; Hydra Head)
· Juanes - La Vida Es un Ratico (live; limited-edition version comes with DVD; Universal Latino)
· Junk Science - Gran'Dad's Nerve Tonic (Definitive Jux)
· Karate - 595 (Southern)
· Knights of the Abyss - Juggernaut (Candlelight)
· Layo & Bushwacka - GU33: Rio (Global Underground)
· Lazarus - Hawk Medicine (Temporary Residence) [Buy Now]
· Little Brother - Get Back (ABB)
· Loop 2.4.3 - Batterie (Music Starts From Silence)
· Megan McCauley - Better Than Blood (Wind-Up)
· Moonspell - Under Satanæ (SPV)
· Mötley Crüe - Carnival of Sins Live (two CDs; Eleven Seven)
· Mountain Heart - Road That Never Ends: The Live Album (Rural Rhythm)
· The New Rivals - The New Rivals (SoBe)
· Of Hearts and Chainsaws - Touching Base With a Chainsaw (Tyburn)
· Lisa O'Kane - It Didn't Hurt (digipak; New Light Entertainment/ Universal)
· Orgone - The Killing Floor (Ubiquity)
· Oscar G - Nervous Nitelife: Space Miami (Nervous)
· Phosphorescent - Pride (Dead Oceans)
· Robert Plant and Alison Krauss - Raising Sand (Rounder)
· Power Pill Fist - Kongmanivong (digipak; Graveface)
· Prefuse 73 - Preparations (two CDs; Warp)
· Realistic - Perpetual Memory Loss (Illegal Art)
· The Redwalls - The Redwalls (Mad Dragon)
· Saturday Looks Good to Me - Fill Up the Room (K)
· Say Anything - In Defense of the Genre (two CDs; J) [Buy Now]
· Scotland Yard Gospel Choir - Scotland Yard Gospel Choir (Bloodshot)
· Scum of the Earth - Sleaze Freak (with DVD; Eclipse)
· Jon Secada - A Christmas Fiesta (Big3)
· Seether - Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces (Wind-Up) [Buy Now]
Read: "Seether Frontman Won't Respond To Amy Lee's Attack: 'I Just Refuse To Lower Myself To That Level' "
· Shaman - Reason (Locomotive)
· Siberian - With Me (Sonic Boom)
· Sick City - Nightlife (Trustkill)
· Skindred - Roots Rock Riot (Bieler Bros.)
· Smif N Wesson - The Album (Duck Down)
· Soft - Gone Faded (Academy Fight Songs) [Buy Now]
· Sole and the Skyrider Band - Sole and the Skyrider Band (Anticon)
· Stare Into the Sun - Whispers Turn to Howls (Reformer)
· Subtle - Yell & Ice (Lex)
· Serj Tankian - Elect the Dead (Serjical Strike/ Reprise) [Buy Now]
Read: "System Of A Down Frontman Serj Tankian On Intimate Solo LP: 'I Believe In It' "
· The Temptations - Back to Front (New Door/ UMe)
· These Are Powers - Terrific Seasons (Hoss)
· Thy Will Be Done - Was and Is to Come (Stillborn)
· Toolroom Knights - Mixed by Gabriel & Dresden (Toolroom)
· Tullycraft - Every Scene Needs a Center (Magic Marker)
· Tunng - Comments of the Inner Chorus (Thrill Jockey)
· Carrie Underwood - Carnival Ride (Arista) [Buy Now]
· Victory Pill - Victory Pill (Corporate Punishment)
· Seth Walker - Seth Walker (Hyena)
· The Warlocks - Heavy Deavy Skull Lover (Tee Pee)
· Ween - La Cucaracha (Rounder)
· West Indian Girl - 4th & Wall (Milan)
· Witchcraft - The Alchemist (Candlelight)
· Yea Kid + Kid Static - Yea Kid + Kid Static (Jib Door)
· Yeasayer - All Hour Cymbals (We Are Free)
· Dwight Yoakam - Dwight Sings Buck (New West)
· Neil Young - Chrome Dreams II (collector's edition comes with DVD; Reprise) [Buy Now]
· Rob Zombie - Zombie Live (Geffen) [Buy Now]
· Various artists - DJ Rekha Presents: Basement Bhangra (Koch)
· Various artists - Downtown San Francisco - Mixed by New Mondo (two CDs; Swank)
· Various artists - Free Yr Radio (Free Yr Radio/ Urban Outfitters; available through UO stores only)
· Various artists - Steve Aoki: Pillowface and His Airplane Chronicles (Thrive)
· Various artists - Worried Noodles (two-CD box set with book by David Shrigley; Tomlab)
· Various artists - "Saw IV" soundtrack (Artists' Addiction)
· Various artists - "Barbie as the Island Princess" soundtrack (Koch)

Notable Reissues and Archival Material:

· The Abyssinians - Satta Massagana (Heartbeat)
· At Vance - Chained (Locomotive)
· Gato Barbieri - Bahia (Fania)
· Ray Barretto - Greatest Hits (Fania)
· Black Dice - Load Blown (EP; Paw Tracks)
· Black Moth Super Rainbow - Falling Through a Field and Starting a People (digipaks; Graveface/ 70's Gymnastics Recording Co.)
· The Briefs - Greatest Story Ever Told (with DVD; BYO)
· Can - Anthology (two CDs; Mute) [Buy Now]
· Karen Dalton - Cotton Eyed Joe: The Loop Tapes - Live in Boulder 1962 (two CDs and one DVD; Delmore)
· Jermaine Dupri - Y'All Know What This Is ... the Hits (So So Def/ Island Urban) [Buy Now]
· Jacques Loussier - Jacques Loussier Plays Bach - Encore! (two CDs; Telarc)
· John Mellencamp - 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection (Island/UMe) [Buy Now]
· Jacob Miller and Ray I - Natty Christmas (VP)
· Charles Mingus - 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection (Verve)
· Relient K - Let It Snow Baby ... Let It Reindeer (Capitol) [Buy Now]
· Shadows Fall - Seeking the Way: Greatest Hits (Century Media)
· The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Jukebox Explosion (In the Red)
· T. Rex - Electric Jewels (Get Back)
· Paul Oakenfold - Greatest Hits & Remixes (two CDs; Ultra)
· Of Montreal - If He Is Protecting Our Nation ... Who Is Protecting Big Oil, Our Children? (EP; Polyvinyl)
· The Owls - Daughters and Suns (two CDs; Magic Marker) [Buy Now]
· Tamia - Between Friends/ A Gift Between Friends (two CDs; Plus 1 Llc)
· Various artists - The Christmas Spirit: The World's Favourite Hymns and Carols (two CDs; Decca)
· Various artists - A Holly Jolly Kids Christmas (Hip-O)
· Various artists - Putumayo Presents: New Orleans Brass (enhanced; Putumayo World Music)

Music DVDs:

· Heart - "Dreamboat Annie - Legendary Albums Live" (Shout! Factory) [Buy Now]
· Yusuf Islam - "Yusuf's Café Session" (Hip-O)
· Carole King - "Welcome to My Living Room" (Rockingale)
· Ringo Starr - "Ringo Starr Live at Soundstage" (Koch) [Buy Now]
· Steeleye Span - "The 35th Anniversary World Tour 2004" (Park)

Digital Releases:

· Leigh Marble - Red Tornado (Laughing Stock)
· Arthur Russell - Four Songs by Arthur Russell (EP; Beggars Banquet)

Coming Attractions:

October 30:
· Avenged Sevenfold - Avenged Sevenfold (MVI also available; Warner Bros.) [Preorder]
· Backstreet Boys - Unbreakable (deluxe digipak also available; Jive) [Preorder]
· Mario - Go (J) [Preorder]
Read: "Mario Gets Back To Making Music With Akon, Timbaland, Neptunes"

November 6:
· Angels & Airwaves - I-Empire (Geffen)
Read: "Angels & Airwaves' Revolution Has Begun - Just Wait 29 Years, Tom DeLonge Insists"
· Chris Brown - Exclusive (deluxe edition comes with DVD; Jive) [Preorder]
Read:
· Jay-Z - American Gangster (Roc-A-Fella) [Preorder]
Read: "Jay-Z's American Gangster: A Guided Tour By Jigga, Jermaine Dupri, Pharrell And Others"

November 13:
· Alicia Keys - As I Am (J) [Preorder]
· The Killers - Sawdust (Island) [Preorder]
· Ja Rule - The Mirror (Murder Inc./ Universal) [Preorder]
Read: "Ja Rule Leaves Bitterness — And 50 Cent Beef — Behind On New Album"

• Bizarre Christmas Albums

• Carrie Underwood
• Coheed and Cambria
• Serj Tankian
• Cobra Starship
• Hurricane Chris

My Chemical Romance's Gerard Way
Photo: Paul McConnell/ Getty Images

My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way got married over the weekend, his representative confirmed to MTV News on Wednesday (September 5). The Projekt Revolution tour, which featured the band, ended Monday in Englewood, Colorado, and Denver radio station 93.3 FM reports that Way married Mindless Self Indulgence bassist Lyn Z that evening at the venue, the Coors Amphitheatre. MSI were on the Projekt Revolution tour as well and are slated to support MCR on their European tour beginning October 30. ...

Lindsay Lohan attorney Alfred Gerisch filed a brief late last week supporting the starlet's request for the dismissal of all or part of a negligence suit that had been filed against her over an October 2005 car crash, according to Los Angeles TV station CBS 2. In the brief, Gerisch claimed Raymundo Ortega is using lies about Lohan being drunk at the time of the crash "as a battering ram to force a settlement." Gerisch cited as the evidence a police report that called Lohan an "innocent victim" and stipulated alcohol was not involved in the incident, although Ortega's attorney Robert G. Klein has called the document hearsay. A hearing on Lohan's motions is set for Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court. ...

Busta Rhymes (real name: Trevor Smith) saw his trial postponed Wednesday after the prosecutor and the defense lawyer said they weren't ready to begin, The Associated Press reports. Instead, a judge ordered the rapper to appear in court November 7 for hearings on charges of attacking two men, driving drunk and driving with a suspended license. He previously rejected a deal that would land him in jail for a year. ...

Looking healthier than she had prior to her reported drug overdose and hospitalization last month, Amy Winehouse took the stage at Tuesday night's Mercury Awards show in England to sing "Love Is a Losing Game." It was the singer's first public performance since she announced the postponement of her fall U.S. tour and cancellation of her VMA appearance on doctor's orders to rest. ... Usher — who just remarried pregnant wife Tameka Foster on Saturday — is making another lifestyle change: He has put his five-bedroom in metro Atlanta's Country Club of the South community up for sale, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. The asking price for the house — which Usher bought from L.A. Reid — is a cool $1.9 million. ...

A judge on Wednesday approved Jennifer Lopez's $545,000 arbitration award in a lawsuit against her first husband. Also in accordance with a court-ordered arbitrator's decision early last month, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael C. Solner issued a permanent injunction barring Ojani Noa from publishing negative details about the singer/actress. Lopez had filed the breach-of-contract lawsuit over Noa's plans to publish a tell-all book in which he was expected to claim Lopez had multiple affairs. Solner also told Noa to give Lopez all copies of materials related to the book, and denied his request for another 30 days to find a lawyer. ...

It sounds like fans aren't feeling the American Idols Live Tour this time around. Halfway through the outing, there were no sellouts for the first 30 shows on the tour, with only one date topping the 93 percent capacity mark — a gig in winner Jordin Sparks' home state of Arizona — Billboard Boxscore reports. Compare that to last year's tour, which boasted appearances from Taylor Hicks, Chris Daughtry, Katharine McPhee and Elliott Yamin — and had 17 sellouts in its first 30 dates and 10 shows with more than 93 percent capacity. Boxscore reports 14 of first 30 shows for the current tour were below 60 percent capacity and a gig in Birmingham, Alabama, was at an anemic 38.9 percent. ...

Bono, J.K. Rowling, Russell Simmons and — sure, why not? — Homer Simpson rub elbows with Bill Gates, President Bush and Oprah Winfrey on USA Today's most-influential-people list, which came out Tuesday. ... Master P is going Green — well, in a sense. The hip-hop mogul is joining forces with none other than Seth Green for "Play the Industry," a new role-playing video game with a hip-hop theme, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "Play the Industry" will feature a 3-D world and allow gamers to become a star hip-hop artist, athlete, power broker and more. A late 2009 release is being targeted. ...

Apparently $31 million isn't good enough for Rob Zombie. While the director's "Halloween" scared up a whopping figure at the box office over the weekend, he's "not going to do any more 'Halloween' movies, or any more remakes of any kind," he told EW.com. In fact, Zombie isn't even so sure he'll be sticking to horror when it comes to his recent deal with Dimension Films. "I signed up for two more pictures, but not two more 'Halloween' pictures. They're going to be original stuff — and I don't necessarily know that they're going to be related to the horror genre either.'' ... Daniel Radcliffe is "terrified" over the prospect of acting on Broadway. He told Reuters that "Equus" — for which he appeared nude in the London production — might open in New York late next year. "It will be amazing, but I will be terrified," the actor said of the prospect. "I would be very nervous because I think that [the audiences are] even more discerning than in London." ...

For a guy who isn't planning to release an album anytime soon, Beck sure is busy. In addition to "Timebomb," the new track he pumped out last month, he's spruced up Philadelphia psych-rockers Dr. Dog's "The Girl" with a new remix. The song will appear on a Dr. Dog 7-inch in October, and the B-side will be a cover of the band's "Heart It Races" by Architecture in Helsinki. Dr. Dog will tour with Wilco starting Tuesday and ending September 21. ... Pop Montreal has put together a snappy lineup for its five-day stint October 3-7. The fest will host Hot Hot Heat, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Patti Smith, Black Mountain and more. ...

The annual Bridge School Benefit concert hosted by Neil Young at the Shoreline Amphitheatre near San Francisco will boast the usual mix of old friends and new faces this year, with unplugged sets from John Mayer; Metallica; Eddie Vedder with Flea and Jack Irons; Tom Waits with the Kronos Quartet; Tegan and Sara; Regina Spektor; Jerry Lee Lewis; and, of course, host Young. The shows will take place October 27-28. ... Warped Tour has come to a close — so naturally, it's time to move on to founder Kevin Lyman's other big shindig: next year's Taste of Chaos. Atreyu will headline the fest, with dates and additional acts to be announced in the coming months. ...

Closing arguments in the Phil Spector murder trial began Wednesday, with prosecutors delivering a multimedia presentation that traced the events leading up to the death of Lana Clarkson, the Los Angeles Times reports. The defense objected to part of the presentation, asking Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler to declare a mistrial, but he refused. The defense is due to begin its closing statements Thursday, and jury deliberations will likely begin Friday. ...

Jude Law was arrested outside his London home late Tuesday after allegedly attacking a photographer there, according to the U.K.'s Press Association. The actor voluntarily went to a police station after the incident, which is under investigation. ... Nicole Kidman was engaged to marry another man in between her marriages with Tom Cruise and Keith Urban, she divulged to Vanity Fair, although she did not identify the person. "I got engaged to somebody ... but it just wasn't right," she told the magazine for its October cover story. The actress also said she didn't have any regrets about marrying Cruise. My agents told me, 'Once you become Mrs. Tom Cruise, you do know your career is going to die.' I was appalled. I was like, 'Hello?' I'm in love, and I don't care if it's shooting myself in the foot. I'd much rather be married and have a family.' " ...

Legendary tenor Luciano Pavarotti, who has pancreatic cancer, is in very serious condition, according to AP. He has been suffering kidney problems and losing consciousness while recovering after a recent hospital stay. ...

New Model Army have scrapped their planned tour of North America due to visa complications. ... As the Strokes continue their hiatus, guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. announced on his MySpace blog last week that he is headed back into the studio to work on the follow-up to his solo debut, Yours to Keep. "I'm happy to say that at the end of October we are going in for round two," Hammond wrote. "We are going into Electric Lady Studios for five weeks to record the second record." Hammond said he plans to videotape some of the sessions and show the clips on his MySpace page.

09.4.07

In Style's readers have voted, and Justin Timberlake, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Fergie are among the sexiest stars in the constellation. TV and movie stars dominate the Sexy Portfolio, part of the magazine's 10th annual Sexy Poll, which garnered 50,000 votes on InStyle.com. Fergie is the only musician to get "hot-to-the-touch" status (her 14 fellow hotties include Terrence Howard, Isla Fisher, Ben Stiller and more). "Cleavage is in-your-face, a bare stomach is overt, but a bare leg is always sexy and appropriate," Fergie said, explaining her appeal. "I'm pretty out there in my videos, but in real life, I feel sexier when I'm more subtle. Josh [Duhamel, her boyfriend] agrees. It's better to be alluring than too available." Beyond the Portfolio, "Grey's Anatomy" won Sexiest TV Cast; Jolie earned Sexiest Movie Star Whose Va-Va-Va-Voom You'd Like to Steal; Pitt and George Clooney tied for Sexiest Reasons to Spend $10 on a Movie; Pitt and Jolie nabbed Sexiest Too-Hot Twosome; Timberlake got the Sexiest Troubadour badge. Beyoncé, Shakira and Carrie Underwood tied for Sexiest Girl Found on on iTunes. ...

(See Fergie, Terrence Howard, Ben Stiller and more make In Style's Sexy Poll.)

Britney Spears' lawyer says the singer has been cleared of recent complaints to child-welfare workers, People.com reports. "It does not appear [Los Angeles County] will pursue any action at this time," Laura Wasser said at a hearing in Spears' child-custody battle with ex-husband Kevin Federline. According to the site, there will be three more court hearings in the dispute this year, during which Federline's request for primary custody of sons Sean Preston and Jayden James will be considered. His attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan is seeking depositions from Spears' assistant, former nanny and others close to her. Meanwhile, Spears bodyguard Cesar Julio Camera has been officially charged with misdemeanor battery after wrestling with a pair of men who were trying to photograph the singer with her children in Las Vegas in July. ...

Owen Wilson has returned to his home in Santa Monica, California, after attempting suicide last week, Fox News reports. Director Wes Anderson — who collaborated with Wilson on September 28's "The Darjeeling Limited," as well as "The Royal Tenenbaums" and more films — talked to reporters at the Venice Film Festival on Monday, saying Wilson is "doing very well." "Owen wishes he could be with us," Anderson said. "We all miss having him. Obviously he has been through a lot this week. I can tell you he has been doing very well, he has been making us laugh. When he is ready he's going to speak for himself much better than any of us could." ...

Game (real name: Jayceon Terrell Taylor) will stand trial on three felony charges stemming from a pickup basketball game in Los Angeles in February, TMZ.com reports. His next court date is September 25. Game is charged with three counts of making a criminal threat, possession of a firearm in a school zone and exhibiting a firearm in the presence of an officer. The rapper, who is free on $50,000 bail, faces more than five years in state prison if convicted. ...

The full itinerary for Kelly Clarkson's rescheduled tour in support of My December will carry the singer through a 26-city outing. The trek begins with a string of three dates at the Beacon Theatre in New York (October 14-16) and also ropes in two home-state gigs, in Dallas and Houston. The seven-week tour — which replaces a scrapped summer tour — will have Clarkson playing more intimate theaters than the arenas she was originally booked into, including the Orpheum in Boston (October 23); Fillmore in Detroit (October 28); Paramount Theater in Denver (November 5); and the legendary Ryman Auditorium in Nashville on December 3. ... Take a seat, Amy Winehouse — Klaxons have scooted by the starlet and picked up the U.K.'s prestigious Mercury Prize for their debut, Myths of the Near Future. The band also nudged past the Arctic Monkeys, Jamie T and others. ...

Usher made it official again on Saturday. The 28-year-old singer married pregnant wife Tameka Foster, 37, in a large, glitzy ceremony in Atlanta a few weeks after the pair got officially hitched in a civil ceremony. People.com reports that 200 people attended the wedding at a 16th-century-style French chateau resort outside Atlanta. The lavish wedding came nearly a month after their previously scheduled wedding was called off at the last minute. ... Halle Berry is three months pregnant with her first child. She's due to have the baby, whose father is Berry's boyfriend Gabriel Aubry, on Valentine's Day. ... Tobey Maguire tied the knot with his fiancee, jewelry designer Jennifer Meyer, in Hawaii over the weekend, according to "Entertainment Tonight." Leonardo DiCaprio was among those who reportedly attended the ceremony. ...

Evanescence have sketched out new tour dates for the U.S. and Mexico. Amy Lee will take her troupe through Florida and Texas from October 23-31, then head to Mexico for three shows to be held November 3, 5 and 7. After that, they'll plow through the States from November 10-December 4. ...

Zac Efron denies that money is the deciding factor in whether he takes part in "High School Musical 3" — he says it's all about the script. The actor told People, "There's no feuding with 'High School Musical,' " and added, "If the script is good and if we all agree on a final script, then there's nothing that is going to hold us back from doing [a third installment]." ...

Hulk Hogan has spoken out on last week's car crash involving his son, Nick Bollea, saying he didn't think anyone had survived. "We were going to get something to eat and Nick paged me and said, 'Dad, I want to go early, because we don't have a table at the restaurant,' " he told TV's "The Insider" in an interview set to air Tuesday (September 4). "As I was going down our normal route, I saw this yellow car, and it happened to be twisted ... and there were ambulances there and police were there, and — bam — [I realized that] it was my car." Hogan also commented on his son's condition and that of John Graziano, the passenger who is still in critical condition. "Nick is doing good," Hogan said. "He's got a broken arm, some broken ribs, some neck problems and some stuff wrong with his knees, but he's hanging in there. He's living at the hospital with John. He's going to be OK, and John's going to be OK, and we're going to move forward." ...

The new single from Dave Matthews, the live favorite "Eh Hee," debuted Tuesday on iTunes. The video for the song, co-directed by Matthews, will be available as a free iTunes download for a week. The track, on which Matthews sings all vocals and plays all the instruments, is not tied to any upcoming release. ... PJ Harvey is planning two live performances around the release of her next album, White Chalk, which drops September 25. She'll perform October 10 at the Beacon Theatre in New York and October 15 at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles. ...

DragonForce guitarist Herman Li performed with Tool during their August 22 gig at London's Brixton Academy. He performed a guitar solo in the middle of "Lateralus." ... H.I.M. and Bleeding Through will hit the road next month for a trek that is set to run through December. The first gig is booked for October 18 in Sayreville, New Jersey, the jaunt will wind down December 2 in New York. ... Bloodsimple have been forced to drop off the tail end of this year's Family Values Tour, as frontman Tim Williams needed dental surgery. The band's sophomore LP, Red Harvest, is slated for release October 9. ... Alice in Chains plan to immortalize their August 21 acoustic gig at the Rave/ Eagles Club in Milwaukee with a to-be-scheduled live release. During the show, the band performed "Heaven Beside You," "Angry Chair" and "Rooster," as well as a cover of Elton John's "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy." ... Tracks made famous by Stevie Wonder, Louis Armstrong and Aretha Franklin get a new shine on Frankie Valli's Romancing the '60s, due October 2. ...

Pete Doherty's drug case was postponed Tuesday after he failed to show up in court, Reuters reports. The case — which stems from the troubled rocker's recent arrest on suspicion of drug possession in London — was adjourned until October 2 after West London Magistrates Court heard he had checked himself into rehab. ... Bill Murray was dropping off people after a party when he was pulled over for speeding in a golf cart in Stockholm, Sweden, late last month, he said at the Venice Film Festival on Monday, The Associated Press reports. The police "asked me to come over and they assumed that I was drunk, and I explained to them that I was a golfer," he said. Authorities took a blood test after Murray refused to submit to a breathalyzer test, and he could face drunken-driving charges. ...

Bo Diddley was released from a hospital in Gainesville, Florida, on Saturday. The rock icon was hospitalized late last month after suffering a heart attack during a routine medical exam. ... Jeffrey Carter Albrecht, 34, who played keyboard for Edie Brickell & the New Bohemians since 1999, was shot and killed early Monday morning in Dallas while trying to kick in the door of his girlfriend's neighbor's house. The neighbor, who believed a burglar was trying to break in, fired a shot through the door around 4 a.m, according to AP. Albrecht, who had also played with Brickell's husband, Paul Simon, and who was prepping a solo album, died on the scene. No arrests had been made in the incident as of press time.

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Tyler Mane in "Halloween" 2007.
Photo: Dimension Films

Seventeen months ago, Rob Zombie announced plans to do the unthinkable: remake John Carpenter's 1978 horror classic "Halloween." Since then, he has constantly answered the two vital questions that haunt any filmmaker who'd take on such a task.

"It's always, 'How much do you keep?' 'How much do you get rid of?' It's this constant balancing act," Zombie said recently as he prepared to unleash his creation on audiences Friday. "Remaking something is a weird game."

(Watch Rob Zombie explain why his "Halloween" remake is different from the recent onslaught of gory movies.)

The fact of the matter is that Rob Zombie's "Halloween" isn't really a remake — but it certainly isn't a wholly original film either (see "Rob Zombie Isn't Interested In A 'Halloween' Sequel: 'It Won't Involve Me' "). Instead, the originality in Zombie's vision comes from the masterful ways in which he walks the tightrope between being too faithful (Gus Van Sant's "Psycho") and too hellbent on change (Michael Mann's "Miami Vice").

"There are some built-in things with remakes," Zombie explained. "So you try to basically mess it up as much as possible but still retain some elements."

With that in mind, here's a spoiler-free look at a few of the key decisions in Rob Zombie's re-imagining, as explained by the director and his stars.

A Totally Cool In-Joke: While there aren't a lot of humorous elements in the original flick, one of the most beloved is fun-loving Lynda's repeated abuse of the word "totally" to describe everything from her hectic cheerleading schedule to her boyfriend's skills in the sack to the amount of trouble the girls are in. For the new flick, Kristina Klebe steps into the role originated by teen fave P.J. Soles — and after some thought, Zombie told Klebe that she should totally use the word as much as possible. "There were certain things that jumped out to me," said the director, who insists that teens still abuse the adjective three decades later. "I didn't make a list or anything, but I thought ['totally'] was one of those things that could still work and be funny."

Casper The Not-So-Friendly Ghost: Another element the director elected to keep was the post-coital costume party that Lynda's boyfriend begins when he goes downstairs to get a beer. When someone else returns wearing Bob's disguise, let's just say that the sheet hits the fan. "I thought Bob dressing up as the ghost was another one [we had to keep]," Zombie remembered.

The Sharp-Dressed Man: No Michael Myers costume is complete without a one-piece jumpsuit. In the new "Halloween," we see the killer select his wardrobe at a location that isn't exactly Macy's. "My favorite scene is definitely when I get the suit from the trucker in the truck stop," grinned Tyler Mane, the monstrous actor who plays the new Myers (see "Tyler Mane Hopes To Be 'Scariest Michael Ever' In Rob Zombie's 'Halloween' "). "That is a very, very intense scene in that bathroom."

Michael Myers Is Stripped To His Core: In the original flick, Dr. Loomis pieces together the mystery of Michael's whereabouts using a blink-and-you-miss-it shot of a matchbook reading "The Rabbit in Red Lounge — Entertainment Nightly." In Zombie's version, the now-iconic drinking establishment has been turned into a seedy strip bar where young Michael's mother dances nightly. "With Rabbit in Red, if you haven't seen the original movie you wouldn't think anything of it," Zombie explained. "Even the casual person who's only seen it once probably wouldn't remember that the matchbook said Rabbit in Red. But I thought that would be a cool thing to blow up into something bigger, for the fans."

A Change For Nichol's: In the Carpenter classic, Haddonfield's hardware store is briefly glimpsed after Myers has robbed the place. Zombie has crafted all-new explanations of how his killer obtained his weapons, but the director said to listen carefully for a quick shout-out "mentioning Nichol's Hardware, which was the hardware store in the original movie that Michael Myers stole his mask from. I wanted to keep that there."

Laurie Strode Comes Out Of The Closet: The classic climax involves Jamie Lee Curtis, a half-empty closet and a coat hanger. For the new finale, however, Zombie was determined to lose the familiarity and keep the claustrophobia. "I wanted to take it one step further," he explained. "At the end of the movie, I have her climb into the wall, which presents the same situation [as the closet]. The closet worked not because it was a closet, but because she had backed herself into such a small corner. Where else are you gonna go? I thought, 'Well, what's the next step that would be even more extreme?' and then I thought, 'Jamming yourself in a wall!' There's nowhere to go."

Talk About A Bad Neighborhood: One similarity that Zombie did embrace from day one was a determination to shoot in the same Pasadena, California, neighborhood and on the very same streets that Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasence used for suburban Illinois back in the day. "Sometimes there were moments that were pretty surreal," admitted Zombie, a longtime fan of the original flick. "When you're filming on the same streets, and Michael Myers looks different but similar enough — that was one of the great things about [Tyler Mane]."

Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Back: "Going into it, I just wanted to make sure I got it down, because everyone's such a fan of the original," explained Scout Taylor-Compton, who landed the highly coveted role as the new Laurie Strode (see " 'Halloween' Star Scout Taylor-Compton Calls Michael Myers 'Cute,' Talks Sequel"). "She's so wholesome, and quiet and cute. But then, meeting Rob, we decided to change it up a bit. She's still the wholesome girl, but now she has a little bit more attitude to her." Keep your ears open for an NC-17 conversation in the first scene with Taylor-Compton, announcing right away that this isn't your parents' Laurie Strode. "Rob wanted me to do a little bit of a different introduction," Taylor-Compton remembered of the soon-to-be-infamous bagel scene. "That was a Rob Zombie idea."

Check out everything we've got on "Halloween."

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