While everyone is buzzing with anticipation for the second season premiere of "Heroes" tonight, NBC is hitting us with some more news. The in-between series, "Heroes: Origins" will be drawing in some well-known talents to write and direct certain episodes, scheduled to air next summer while the regular "Heroes" series is on hiatus.

Horror writer/director Eli Roth will be both writing and directing his episode of the spin-off, which seems like an accurate fit. Sometimes this show can get pretty gruesome, so I'm interested to see what Roth does with it. In addition, Superman Returns co-writer Michael Dougherty will be writing one episode. And, as we already knew, Kevin Smith is set to write and direct one as well.

The "Heroes: Origins" series will introduce new superheroes and then will ask viewers to vote on a character to become a regular on the original "Heroes" series once it returns in the fall of '08. These are some great names, so it looks like NBC might actually succeed in keeping "Heroes" fans interested and entertained during the slow TV months next summer.

But that's months away. For now — hooray for new "Heroes" tonight!

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