Joseph Gordon-Levitt and his Hit RECord production company have launched a new television variety show called “Hit RECord on TV.” In the YouTube video embedded above, they invite writers to contribute work for the show.

The show will be broadcast on the brand new Pivot channel. If you want to submit, you need to join the hitRECord network and share your work online. Gordon-Levitt explained the process:

Hit RECord is a collaborative production company. So we are going to make this TV show together. Anybody can come contribute to our collaborations or start your own … As with any HitRecord production, if we use your stuff, we pay you for it. So. Writers, write us a short story or a script or a poem. Maybe another artist on the site will act that out and that becomes a short film.

Legendary Pictures has released a two-minute trailer for The Dark Knight Rises, the conclusion of Christopher Nolan‘s Batman film trilogy.

Follow this link to watch the trailer–what do you think? Nolan collaborated on the screenplay with his brother, screenwriter Jonathan Nolan. The movie will hit theaters in July 2012. The trailer highlights the infamous Batman villain Bane as he wrecks Gotham City.

Here’s more from Movies.com: “[The trailer revealed] some enticing dialogue from Anne Hathaway, playing Selina Kyle (aka Catwoman). Naturally her chat with Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale), as they dance close together at a masquerade ball, falls somewhere between seductive and threatening, but that’s what we expect from her character. Will she be a villain? A romantic sidekick? Both? Other brief glimpses of Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine and Matthew Modine are exactly that — brief glimpses.”

As we close out another Monday, here are some news briefs from the literary blogosphere…

Barnes & Noble has launched a new mystery blog entitled Ransom Notes, featuring posts by Anne Perry, John Sandford, Louise Penny, and Robert Crais.

International authors sign a petition supporting the release of Roman Polanski, including Bernard-Henri Levy, Salman Rushdie and Paul Auster. A petition excerpt: “Seventy-six years old, a survivor of Nazism and of Stalinist persecutions in Poland, Roman Polanski risks spending the rest of his life in jail for deeds which would be beyond the statute-of-limitations in Europe.”

The Book Bench features an upcoming short film based on an Elmore Leonard story, directed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt from 3rd Rock from the Sun.

The Rumpus publishes a timely essay: “A Short, Personal History of Small, Independent Publishing (1995-2009).”