“X-Men” star Hugh Jackman must have loved his experience playing a popular comic book superhero because he is going to be making his own comic. “Nowhere Man” is the title of the character that the Australian movie star is developing for Virgin Comics. “I’ve had so much fun in the graphic novel world with the ‘X-Men‘ franchise that I wanted to get even more involved. I’m excited to work with Virgin and Marc and create a compelling character and story that hopefully will also make it to the bigscreen,” Jackman told Variety. Virgin Comics has recruited other Hollywood talent to make their comics including Nicolas Cage and “Revolver” director Guy Ritchie.

The idea is for “Nowhere Man” to launch first as a comic book and then take it to other platforms such as videogames or even as a movie that would star Jackman. The storyline is a carefully guarded secret but what little is known about the comic is that it is set in a future society where people have given up their privacy for personal safety.

Jackman is currently in Australia playing his character of Wolverine for a fourth outing in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” for 20^th Century Fox. It is scheduled for release in May 2009.

Just as Shia LaBeouf’s star is set to go into supernova starring opposite Harrison Ford in “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” in two months his personal reputation is starting to be tarnished. The latest brouhaha that the 21-year-old finds himself involved with is having his SUV vehicle towed from the driveway of a Los Angeles apartment complex. LaBeouf left his car parked in the driveway of the complex, blocking all other vehicles that wanted entry or exit from the apartments. The owner of the property went outside to Shia’s car and left a note tucked under his windshield wiper that read “Think of other people that live here,” before having LaBeouf’s car towed away to the impound yard. The “Disturbia” and “Transformers” star was too busy the next day to get his wheels from lock-up, forcing the actor to hire a driver and car to shuttle him around L.A. to get to a photoshoot for “Arena” magazine.

It’s just the latest run-in that LaBeouf has had. Last week he pleased not guilty to a charge of misdemeanor smoking after he was caught puffing away in a no smoking zone. Last November he was arrested for refusing to leave a Walgreens store late at night. Is the rough and tough image that LaBeouf is now creating just to prepare the world for his 50s style greaser character that he plays in the new “Indiana Jones” movie or is Shia headed down the same slippery slope that Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton went down? Time will tell.

Arthur C. Clarke, the writer of the legendary science fiction movie “2001: A Space Odyssey”, died yesterday at the age of 90 in his home of Sri Lanka. In the 1960s the famous writer collaborated with director Stanley Kubrick on what was to become one of cinema’s most celebrated films, an epic tale starting with the origins of man through to humanity’s first encounter with alien intelligence. “2001” was a milestone in movies and Clarke followed it up with three sequel novels, “2010”, “2063” and “3001”, with the first book being adapted into a 1984 film. Several of his other novels are in the process of being turned into movies including “Childhood’s End” and “Rendezvous With Rama”.

In addition to his fame writing “2001” Clarke is also credited with inventing the idea of satellites in Earth orbit that could transmit telecommunications signals.

Rumors that “Dirty Dancing” star Patrick Swayze had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer turned out to be accurate but the star isn’t as ill as the initial reports made him out to be. “Patrick has a very limited amount of disease and he appears to be responding well to treatment thus far,” Swayze’s physician, Dr. George Fisher, told news reporters last week. “All of the reports stating the timeframe of his prognosis and his physical side effects are absolutely untrue. We are considerably more optimistic.”

The earlier reports also said that the “Ghost” leading man had been forced to retire from show business so he could fight the dreaded disease. That is also untrue. He has finished filming a pilot for a new television series on A&E called “The Beast” and if that show gets an order from the network the 55-year-old will be ready to report to the set for work. Perhaps the rumor got started when Swayze backed out of a movie titled “Fired Up” after he didn’t like the creative direction that the show was going in.

“He’s got such a big heart and been such a good and generous person. It breaks my heart to know he’s suffering. But he’s hanging in there and getting the best treatment,” said Swayze’s 81-year-old mother Patsy about her son’s medical fight.

The producers of Heath Ledger’s final movie are promising his fans that they will not alter or change in any way his scenes in the film. Immediately following the January 22 death of the young actor production was halted on “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” until its creators could determine if the show could go on without its lead actor. Three contemporaries of Heath’s soon volunteered to finish the movie in his honor, Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell. Because of the fantastical nature of the movie’s story the three new leading men can each take over Ledger’s role and give their interpretation of the performance. “Since the format of the story allows for the preservation of his entire performance, at no point will Heath’s work be modified or altered through the use of digital technology. Each of the parts played by Johnny, Colin and Jude is representative of the many aspects of the character that Heath was playing,” read a statement released by the production this week.

It means that Ledger’s final work can eventually be seen by audiences. “I am delighted that Heath’s brilliant performance can be shared with the world,” said the film’s director Terry Gilliam. “We are looking forward to finishing the movie and, through the film, with a modicum of humility, being able to touch people’s hearts and souls as Heath was able to do.”

Filming resumed this week on “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”.

Alison Lohman has replaced “Juno” actress Ellen Page in “Drag Me to Hell”, a horror movie co-written and to be directed by “Spider-Man” mastermind Sam Raimi. Page had been attached to the project before her Oscar nomination for playing a teenage mother-to-be made her schedule white hot. After accepting the lead part in Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut “Whip It!”, Page’s schedule was pressed hard and she had to drop out of Raimi’s scarefest. The loss of Raimi’s original choice pushed back the start of filming on “Hell” until the end of the month.

“Drag Me to Hell” was written by the “Spider-Man” and “Evil Dead” director and his brother Ivan and is about a woman who is cursed by a supernatural menace. This will be Sam Raimi’s return to horror after “Army of Darkness”, the 1993 movie that was the third and final film in his “Evil Dead” trilogy.