Scott Alexander

Upset about moving from a big city to a small town, teenager Zach Cooper finds a silver lining when he meets the beautiful girl, Hannah, living right next door. But every silver lining has a cloud, and Zach`s comes when he learns that Hannah has a mysterious dad who is revealed to be R. L. Stine, the author of the bestselling Goosebumps series. It turns out that there is a reason why Stine is so strange he is a prisoner of his own imagination the monsters that his books made famous are real, and Stine protects his readers by keeping them locked up in their books. When Zach unintentionally unleashes the monsters from their manuscripts and they begin to terrorize the town, its suddenly up to Stine, Zach, and Hannah to get all of them back in the books where they belong to save the town.

Author Michael Enslin, who specializes in debunking paranormal occurrences, checks into the fabled room 1408 in the Dolphin Hotel in New York City, settles in, and soon confronts genuine terror. Author Mike Enslin specializes in paranormal investigations writing books along the line of the 10 best haunted hotels in America and so on. He receives an anonymous postcard in the mail telling him not to stay in room 1408 at the Dolphin Hotel in New York City. His attempts to make a reservation there are unsuccessful and he is told that it isn't available - ever. His research reveals that there have been a number of very strange deaths in that room dating as far back as the hotel's opening 95 years ago. The hotel is forced to accept him but the manager, Gerald Olin, begs him not to stay there. In his opinion, the room is evil and no one has ever been able to stay in there for more than an hour. Enslin scoffs at the warning and is soon in the room - from which he soon becomes desperate to leave. —garykmcd Hacked off with his miserable life, the quasi-successful author of spine-chilling ghost stories, Mike Enslin, makes a living debunking supernatural events by visiting sites of reported paranormal activity. Profoundly cynical, Enslin receives an anonymous postcard warning him not to check into the mysterious room 1408 of Manhattan's Dolphin Hotel, of course, only to spark his suspicious interest. Intrigued, Mike chooses to ignore the hotel manager's insistent warnings of the evil room's grave dangers--and after packing his spirit-detecting gear--he boldly enters a secret realm of bizarre occurrences and surreal instances. Will Room 1408 make for an excellent final chapter in sceptic Mike's new novel? —Nick Riganas Supernatural writer Mike Enslin is the author of two successful books on supernatural phenomena. As research for his latest book, Enslin is determined to check out the notorious room 1408 in a New York City hotel by personally staying as a guest in the fabled room. He believes that 1408 is just a myth perpetuated by stories and rumors that Enslin has collected for his past works. However, hotel manager Mr. Olin has strong objections to Enslin's stay and only warns him of possible danger to come. Enslin is determined to go anyway. But what Mike Enslin is about to experience is no myth, as 1408 truly is a room where the guests don't check out by noon. —mystic80

Cody Banks (Frankie Muniz), a 15-year-old high school student, applies for a junior position for the Central Intelligence Agency's Special Activities Division after completing his summer camp for CIA agents. The kids enter the camp, so the parents do not suspect anything, but inside they are trained by the CIA in the highest standards of combat, weapons handling, covert espionage and other mission critical skills. Cody lives with his parents Mrs Banks (Cynthia Stevenson) and Mr Banks (Daniel Roebuck) and has a brother named Alex. At home, Cody is expected to contribute to house chores like mowing the lawn and feeding the pets. Answering to his handler Agent Ronica Miles (Angie Harmon), Cody is called upon a mission to find information about a scientist named Dr. Albert Connors (Martin Donovan). Albert is the world's leading authority on Nano technology and its applications in Nano robotics. Connors is employed by a SPECTRE type organization named ERIS led by Dr. Brinkman (Ian McShane), and his henchman, Francois Molay (Arnold Vosloo). Connors had built Nano-robots that could clear oil spills, but Brinkman wanted Connors to program the Nano-robots to eat through any kind of carbon or silicone-based materials with obvious military applications. CIA Director (Keith David) had received a last transmission from his agent undercover indicating that Brinkman had asked Connors to convert the Nanobots into a weapon. Connors only connect with the outside world is through his daughter Natalie. Cody is placed into the prep school of Dr. Connors' daughter, Natalie (Hilary Duff), the William Donovan Institute. As all CIA agents are known to Brinkman's organization, the CIA uses the unknown Banks. Banks is chosen because as per his report, he is smooth with the girls. Cody's mission is to get close to Natalie and through her, try and access Albert's lab to try and figure out his exact plans with the Nanobots. Cody is given a bunch of cool spy gear such as x-ray glasses, cell phone with a holographic display and GPS transmitter, $1000 in cash for expenses and a watch that activates an intense electric charge when its dial is pressed. Cody tells his parents that he has been admitted to a prep school with full scholarship and that it has always been his dream to go there. Cody soon finds he has no social skill with girls and has no time to work on Natalie, while balancing his chores and homework. Cody knows that Natalie is way out of his league. The CIA decides to help by doing his chores and homework, trying to build his status, and going into the school to set him up with Natalie. Eventually, it emerges that Cody had lied on his profile and that he had no charms with the ladies. The director is livid, but they have limited time, and Cody is their only option now. The CIA assembles a varying team of "experts" to train Cody into how to talk to girls and issue him with a variety of gadgets with various functions. The experts cannot agree on the best way for Cody to approach Natalie and he is back to square one. Cody fails his driving license test, but the CIA intervenes and gets him a license from the DMV, so he can drive cool cars and impress Natalie. Eventually, Cody befriends and falls in love with Natalie after rescuing her from a falling a ladder while putting up a banner. After Cody befriends Natalie, he is invited to her 16th birthday party, where he goes undercover to her father's lab. Cody gifts Natalie a necklace with a built-in location tracker. Cody finds that Dr. Brinkman is planning to use Nanobots - which can destroy any carbon or silicon-based substance - to destroy the world's defense systems so he can threaten anyone who opposes him. Brinkman announces his intention to use the Nanobots to eat away the guidance systems on all intercontinental ballistic missiles, leaving their host nations defenseless. Since the Nanobots are inactive in the cold, he plans to use ice cubes to distribute them. After Connors, Brinkman, and Francois leave the lab, Cody tries taking one of the ice cubes, but melts when in his possession. Cody falls in love with Natalie and nearly fails the mission at the same time exposing his cover to Brinkman and Molay, causing the CIA to suspend him. Dr. Brinkman sends Francois and some men to catch Natalie and bring her into his base in the mountains. Meanwhile, Cody, disobeying orders to avoid Natalie, eats ice cream at a local restaurant with her. Cody attempts to explain things to Natalie but Francois and a group of henchmen ambush Cody and abduct Natalie. Dr. Brinkman's men come over to their table and fight with Cody, knocking him unconscious. Cody is removed from the mission, and his parents punish him for staying out past his curfew. Cody gets his brother Alex (Connor Widdows) to make sure his parents do not find out that he is gone by giving him the $5,000 the CIA gave him. Cody infiltrates into the CIA weapons hold and steals a rocket powered snowboard and other devices to rescue Natalie. Cody knows Natalie's location via a tracking device in a necklace he gave her as a birthday present. Cody gets a ride to the top of the mountain and snowboards to the factory where Natalie is held. On the way, he gets caught in a grove of trees as Ronica finds him using a SoloTrek XFV. After convincing Ronica that they need to rescue Natalie, Cody infiltrates the laboratory and rescues Natalie. However, Natalie is held hostage by Dr. Brinkman, who puts an ice cube with a Nanobot inside, on her forehead to make her father program the system. Cody plants an explosive charge and Natalie places the partly melted cube in Dr. Brinkman's mouth, killing him. Cody defeats Francois and sends him to the CIA using the SoloTrek XFV. Cody, Mr. Connors, Natalie, and Ronica flee the facility before it explodes. The CIA welcomes Cody back to the team and congratulates him for completing the mission, and Cody and Natalie start a relationship.

The life of TV star Bob Crane and his strange friendship with electronics expert John Henry Carpenter. In 1965, Bob Crane, who had achieved some earlier success as a television supporting actor, was working as a successful morning radio DJ at KNX Los Angeles. Despite enjoying his work, photography (especially of the female form) and drumming, Crane wanted to be a movie star. So it was with some reluctance that he accepted the title starring role in a new television sitcom called Hogan's Heroes (1965), a WWII POW comedy. To his surprise, the show became a hit and catapulted him to television stardom. The fame resulting from the show led to excesses and a meeting with home video salesman and technician John Carpenter, with who he would form a friendship based on their mutual interests, namely excessive sex (for Crane, purely heterosexual sex) and capturing nude females on celluloid. His fame allowed Crane to have as much sex as he wanted, which was incongruent to his somewhat wholesome television friendly image, and the way he portrayed himself to almost everyone except Carpenter and his extramarital sex partners. His sex addiction was somewhat known but ignored by his high school sweetheart/first wife Anne Crane née Terzian, but well known by his second wife, Patti Olson, better known as Sigrid Valdis, his Hogan's Heroes co-star. Especially after the end of Hogan's Heroes in 1971, this incongruence and his friendship with Carpenter, with who he would have a continuing love/hate relationship, would contribute to both his professional and personal downfall. —Huggo Capitalizing on his fame as the star of "Hogan's Heroes," Bob Crane dove into the freewheeling spirit of the 60s and 70s with relish, having affairs with numerous women. Eventually, Crane teamed up with video technician John Carpenter to document his exploits, an association that may very well have led to his murder in a Scottsdale, Arizona motel room in 1978, which remains officially unsolved to this day. —Anonymous Bob Crane was a radio comedian when he was offered the part of Hogan on Hogan's Heroes. Also an avid photographer, his favorite subject was the female form. He then met John Carpenter, an electronic technician, who introduced him to the new thing, video equipment. John was also a swinger, who turned Bob into a sex addict. And it's this compulsion that would not only end his marriage but also make Bob virtually unhireable. —rcs0411@yahoo.com

A chauffeur kidnaps his rich boss's dog to hold it for ransom, but when she accidentally gets the dog back, she thinks that it's the chauffeur who's been kidnapped.

The worst child in the world makes an unthinkable discovery: there is another child even worse than he is--and it's a girl. Ben Healy and his adopted son, the mischievous and destructive Junior, move to a new town for a fresh start in what happens to be "the divorcée capital of the world." Now the two face a multitude of women throwing themselves at Ben, though a new mom isn't what Junior wants. But Junior has more to worry about than his father's dates -- the little troublemaker might have met his match in Trixie Young, a small girl with a big chip on her shoulder.

A young boy just short of a monster is adopted by a loving man and his wacky wife. The laughs keep coming as he pushes them to the limits. Ben is a good-hearted guy who's always wanted a son of his own, but so far he and his wife have had no success. The couple adopt Junior, a redheaded hellion who quickly makes their lives miserable. Disaster follows Junior wherever he goes, from camping trips that require emergency-room visits to birthday parties that turn into Grand Guignol affairs. When Ben's incensed family tells him to get rid of the boy, he starts to wonder if they might be right. —Official synopsis More than anything, Ben and Flo want to take their relationship to the next level and start a family. However, they are running out of time and options. Suddenly, adoption sounds fine; after all, adopting an older child means they will spare themselves the trouble of changing diapers. That's when Junior enters their life--a charming 7-year-old orphan with the face of an angel and a knack for causing chaos wherever he goes. As the misunderstood troublemaker rains on Ben and Flo's parade, the question looms large in everyone's mind. What is wrong with the Problem Child? —Nick Riganas