A myriad of celebrities are set to star in the BBC's modern remake of the classic sci-fi novel Day of the Triffids. Names include Jason Priestley, Vanessa Redgrave, Brian Cox and Eddie Izzard.

There seems to be quite a few remakes going on in the world of British television at the moment (Triffids was adapted for BBC television once already in 1981 and had a big-screen version in 1962). We have The Prisoner, Survivors, and now Day of the Triffids. Both Survivors and Triffids deal with the theme of a post-apocalyptic world.

I'm not sure if Triffids was the first story to use the post-apocalyptic genre, but it's certainly one of the most popular. The book itself is a combination of the movies The Happening (where plants attack humanity) and Blindness (where most of humanity is rendered blind).

The anti-Soviet themes of the book won't be applicable in these times, but I'm sure the flesh-eating Triffids will have other, more modern analogies.

You see this picture? That's Christopher Egan in NBC's new midseason drama Kings. He'll be playing a David-like character -- as in David versus Goliath -- when the series debuts later this year or in early 2009. And in an interesting casting coup reported by EW's Michael Ausiello, Macaulay Culkin has been cast on Kings as King Silas' nephew. The king, by the way, is the formidable Ian McShane. Joel reported just how formidable McShane is at last summer's TCA.

Culkin is a long way from the adorable Kevin McAllister in the Home Alone movies, but he's still got that charismatic appeal.

Since Kings is all about power, as McShane's nephew who has been exiled from the kingdom and returns after David's success defeating the Goliath of the show -- a killer tank -- I can see him perhaps as a Mordred character. In other words, an antagonist with issues.

Culkin isn't the only name to join Kings in some capacity: Brian Cox, Miguel Ferrer, Leslie Bibb and Michael Stahl-David are also on board for guest arcs.