Today was a day saved by CIT Group, Inc. (NYSE: CIT). The stronger Leading Economic Indicators helped, but today was all about a less futile financial services sector. It was also the 9th day in a row that the NASDAQ was up on the day.

Here were the unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 8,847.93 +103.99 (1.19%)
S&P 500 950.97 +10.59 (1.13%)
Nasdaq 1,909.29 +22.68 (1.20%)

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According to Variety Magazine (subscription), Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) has purchased the rights to the 15 Oz (the fantasy land, not the prison) stories of L. Frank Baum from Ted Turner. In partnership with Village Roadshow Pictures, the company's Warner Bros. division plans to bring the world back to the big screen. Among those involved in the project are Todd McFarlane of "Spawn" and screenwriter Josh Olson.

The movie industry has found a great deal of success with franchises such as Batman and Spiderman, as well as Lord of the Rings, so reaching into the past for another iconic work seems like a shrewd move.

McFarlane and Olson are looking to bring the cinematic version closer to the tone of the original series, which were darker than the Judy Garland classic. Variety quotes Olson as saying "I want this to be 'Harry Potter' dark, not 'Seven' dark.

Not as dark, I hope, as the vision behind McFarlane's 2003 McFarlane Toys Twisted Land of Oz Action Figures, a disturbing reimagining of the world featuring Dorothy in bondage and other gruesome scenes and characters.

Nonetheless, I'm counting the days, my pretty, until flying monkeys return to the screen.

Thanks to SliceofSciFi for the lead.

Time Warner Inc.'s (NYSE: TWX) Warner Bros. Entertainment division revealed the look of actor Heath Ledger as the Joker in The Dark Knight, the upcoming sequel to 2005's Batman Begins, last week on one of three new websites designed to promote the film: www.ibelieveinharveydenttoo.com. The image has since been removed from the site and a disclaimer reads "Page not found" but if you highlight the page you can read several hundred "ha ha's," with displaced letters throughout the text reading "see you in December."

The sequel planned for release in the United States in July 2008, follows the $372 million blockbuster Batman Begins, which showed a young Bruce Wayne struggling to deal with his parents murder and vowing to clean-up Gotham City as Batman. In The Dark Knight, Batman will purportedly continue his fight to clean-up Gotham while the Joker, his comic book arch-nemesis, comes into the picture and causes more chaos. If this image and its grotesque indications are any sign, the new film is going to follow the first nicely and add more to the realistic tones set down by director Christopher Nolan and writer David S. Goyer. Fans and summer blockbuster viewers will have to wait another fourteen months to see though.

Time Warner, which closed at $21.56 yesterday, will have a hard road in those months to sell this new Joker to kids and families like it has sold products for every Batman film since 1989, which featured Jack Nicholson as the Joker. While this new incarnation is showing no sign of being connected to Nicholson's portrayal, it seems hard to determine how or if Time Warner will even attempt to market the character. Certainly a Heath Ledger Joker action figure will be produced, but who will purchase it? Kids (the parents for the kids), or the fans and collectors that jump on the dark nature of the acting, character, and ultimately film.