Heroes - The Movie

MANY thanks to another of our secret sources for sending along some very exciting information:

During the recent writers' strike, NBC/Universal was quietly exploring other profitable opportunities to utilize their "Heroes" property rights. The result: starting production on a full-length feature film!

The studios have been keeping the plans extremely quiet for legal and publicity reasons, as non-WGA writers had been hired to work on the screenplay during the strike.

Another consequence of the strike is that our favorite characters may look a little different on the big screen...

As many of the actors in the television series were in full support of the writers during the strike, they flatly refused to work on the upcoming film until a settlement with the writers was reached. In order to expedite the production of the film, the studios chose to cast other actors who were willing to start immediately.

So, who can we expect to see cast in the roles of our favorite Heroes?

Well, the studios are trying to keep mum about much of the details, but here is what we know so far: Hilary Duff (of Disney fame) is confirmed as accepting the role of Claire Bennet. Zach Braff (seen in Scrubs, Garden State) is rumored to be playing the role of Peter Petrelli. The part of his ambitious brother, Nathan Petrelli, is said to be taken by Borat's Sacha Baron Cohen. The heiress/paparazzi sweetheart Paris Hilton has likely been cast as Niki/Jessica Sanders. The rest of the cast has not been revealed.

Our sources say that the studios are now fully confident that the movie will be a blockbuster, with Tim Kring now on board, along with select members of the original cast (yet to be named). Kring has stated that the film will expand upon the plot of the show, without interfering with future chapters, and will include much of the information found in the graphic novels.

NBC/Universal has also revealed that they were holding off on leaking any information until this spring, in order to allow the excitement over the movie to keep fans interested during the show's long hiatus.

How soon will you be able to check out Heroes on the big screen? There is no firm release date as of yet, but our sources say that April 1, 2009 is a strong possibility.

*Note: (Added Apr. 2, 2008) - I hope that you all enjoyed this bit of April Fools fun. I am now marking this with an appropriate tag, for future reference.*