ComicMix Radio: Torchwood Series Three Less Is More
Our exclusive talk with the creative minds at BBC Television continues with Julie Gardner, executive producer of all things Doctor Who as she talks about her next career move and the reasoning behind next years shortened season for Torchwood, plus:
- William Katt and Robert Culp share feelings on the return of The Greatest American Hero
- Mark Millar hits the road this week for War Heroes
- Sold Out books and shipping changes are updated all nice and neat for you
And for another Torchwood scoop, check out this earlier article. Meanwhile, there is lots to cover here so buckle up and Press the Button!
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Transcript
Broadcast, 244. CometMits.com At Torchwood they're saying less may be more. CometMits.com Hi, it's Mike Raub, but we continue our chat with some of the creative geniuses behind BBC television.
And today we look at Torchwood with the season coming up that won't be as long as we hope, but might just be even more exciting. That's on the way on August 9th. 2008, CometMits News. It's a big week for Mark Millar and Tony Harris and their sold out superhero hit called War Heroes. Coming off the trip to England to the Forbidden Planet store there, in the next few days they'll be making stops at several stores around the country.
Including next Saturday the 16th in Midtown Comics in New York after that on the 17th which is Sunday. Their heroes aren't hard to find in Charlotte, North Carolina. Then on the 19th which is a Tuesday, there are Lone Star Comics in Dallas, Texas. After that they head to Arizona's Atomic Comics, Las Vegas' Comic Oasis, the Golden Apple store in LA, and in San Francisco, Isotope. At each stop they'll be offering the extremely limited War Heroes number one tour edition, which will not be available through any other channel at this point.
And speaking of sold out comics, the highly popular Old Man Logan story arc, running in the Wolverine series, again by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven, has sold out again. Wolverine number 67 is gone. There'll be a second printing of that with another McNiven cover coming to stores on the 10th of September. And the first part of the story, Wolverine number 66, has sold out for a second time. So there'll be a third printing variant, again with a new McNiven cover on the front, and that'll also be in stores on September the 10th. September 30th is now the day that Iron Man hits the stores on DVD with a domestic theater gross so far of about $315 million.
It remains the number two biggest movie of the year so far, just behind the dark night. The new DVD will be a two-disc Ultimate Edition in both regular and Blu-ray. It includes a seven-part making of the film documentary and a six-part feature on Iron Man's comic book origins. There'll also be Robert Downey's original screen test and a lot more features. There'll also be sort of a bare-bones edition for Riddle and for the smaller stores.
It'll have the movie and some deleted and extra scenes as well. Again, they both hit stores on September the 30th. The Sci-Fi channel says they're now going to air a two-hour Battlestar Galaidega prequel movie in 2009. It'll come at the conclusion of the final ten episodes of that last season, but this will take place in a period of time before the original miniseries did. Edward James Olmos will direct, James Espenson will write the prequel, and it'll be available on DVD after it airs on the Sci-Fi channel. But it is not to be confused with Caprica, which is an entirely separate project.
CBS has a new series on the way called the CRU at the center of the crime drama is homicide detective Michael Bennett, who is also the lead character from the James Patterson 2007 novel Step on a Crack. CRU stands for Catastrophic Response Unit. As the second time a Patterson character has been used in a TV show the first time was the short-lived Women's Border Club last year on ABC. Nickelodeon has made some of their classic TV series available via Nick Rewind at the iTunes store.
It'll feature a mix of full-length episodes, full seasons, and best of volumes of some of the Nick live-action and animated shows from the decade past, including The Amanda Show, Clarissa Explains It All, Rocket Power, Hey Dude, and others. Hi, I'm Summer Blair and you're listening to ComicMix. ComicMix Radio! ComicMix Radio! We continue our exclusive sit-down with some of the main creative forces at BBC Television.
This time is Julie Gardner, executive producer of pretty much the entire Who universe. That includes Doctor Who, Torchwood, and the Sarah Jane Adventures. But not for long, sometime in the near future, Julie's planning on moving on. But when? I'm not sure because it's the longest abdication in the history of the world. I mean, like, it was announced that I was going last December and actually it's going to be the end of May 2009 because I'm seeing through this season of Torchwood,
Sarah Jane is filming at the moment, I have lots of independent shows, and I'm looking after Doctor Who specials. Which takes me, on our filming schedule, which takes me to the end of May next year. So I'm not going to make any fast decisions. I'm surveying the landscape. Things are starting to heat up, especially for the crew of Torchwood, even though next season will be a little different. Well, Torchwood is four weeks away from filming, so we're in a really busy period of ground regret.
As you probably know, we are making five episodes for season three. And that was an editorial term to tell one big serial story across five episodes. And, you know, tell one big chunky story and see how that will fade out. What about cast changes? And the biggest question that always comes to mind, how long do we get to keep John Berylman? What I know about John is he absolutely adores playing Captain Jack. And it's a really important character for him.
He's a big character. He was a huge fan of Doctor Who when he was a child. So starting that character in Doctor Who and then spinning off into a whole new world and a whole new show for him is huge. He is building a house in Cardiff, so I think that suggests a kind of love for filming in that area. So I don't think that's truly perturbed. And, you know, he always gets get yours mad. He rules in so many things. It's brilliant.
There's more in the days to come as we talk with Julie, Steven Moffat and the lovely Tash from Torchwood as well. We'll share that coming up in a few days. Comic-Man's Radio. We're aware of my favorite comics gone. Well, if you're looking for something that has not hit the comic stores yet, it might be on this list of shipping changes for the next couple of weeks.
Starting with kick-ass number four, it is now scheduled to be out the end of this month on the 27th. The all ages Marvel Avengers number 27 also out of the 27th of this month, as is the mighty Avengers number 17, which is a secret invasion crossover. New Universal Conqueror comes in on the 27th as well. Ms. Marvel number 30 has been moved to the 3rd of September as has criminal to number five,
which will now be out on the 10th of September. NYX no way home number two rescheduled till the 10th of September as well. And the powers encyclopedia moved up again. It's now set for the 1st of October. Iron Man Viva Las Vegas number three has been moved to the 8th of October. And Marvel 1985 number six has been moved to the 22nd of that month.
Incredible Hercules number 122 moved way ahead. That'll be now on the 29th of October as well as the zombie variant for that issue. And the official Marvel Universe A to Z premium hardcover will now be moved again to the 29th of October. Over at DC Batman R.I.P. is being slowed down just a little bit. Number 680, a couple of issues away of Batman, will now be out on the 24th of September along with the variant.
All-Star Superman number 12 has now been rescheduled till the end of the month on the 27th of August. Billy Batson and the magic of Shazam also coming out on the 27th of the month. That's issue number two. DMZ number 34 from Vertigo also moved to August 27th. As is Final Crisis, Rogue's Revenge number two, Hellblazer number 247 and Jack of Fables number 25.
As well as the wrap up to Teen Titans year one. That's issue number six and Teen Titans number four again all moved to the 27th of this month. Don't look for the Unman number 13 until the 3rd of September or Ex Machina number 38 until the 10th of September. To face year one, number two comes the 10th of September as well from DC. And then Fables number 76 moves to the 24th of September.
Same date you'll pick up Jack of Fables number 26 from DC. ComicMix Radio. One of the more welcome announcements at San Diego Comic Con was the return of the greatest American hero. Series star William Cadd became the catalyst for the formation of Catastrophic Comics. He'll be publishing a greatest American hero comic on a regular basis as well as doing a web animation series and there's even talk of a movie revival.
Cadd is co-writing the comic and he said there have been a few changes. We've updated it. We've updated it and what we're doing is telling the first two hours the origin of how he got the suit. How him and Bill Maxwell met, the relationship with Connie Salica or the skirt as Robert likes to call her. And then we take it after that first two hours we take it into a new generation of stories. For instance stories that as if the seasons had just continued on.
What do you think is the perspective? It's been about a quarter of a century since the greatest American hero was on television. And at the time nobody including the actors involved ever imagined a revival a couple of decades later. Especially series co-star Robert Cole. Good God no. No we, we, when you make a pilot you're just happy to have the job for the day. And then you hope maybe, maybe it's going to sell and you can extrapolate from there no one ever dreams of the kind of success.
It was a family show yes but the kind of family success that the show had is I'm told unparalleled for a project which only had 44 episodes. And at 44 episodes when it went out in syndication it was the most successful financially of all time. As we said beyond the comic there's a web animation series on the way and Stephen Konell says there's even talk of a movie deal very close. But why bring the greatest American hero back to comics? Well Yum Cat said it just seemed like the right thing to do. I was a comic lover as a kid I went away for many years but you know I've always been a storyteller and a writer.
And I thought it was about two, two, two and a half years ago I was sitting with my dear friend Chris Fellino and we said he was also a screenwriter and a storyteller and a wonderful director. And we said well let's do what we've always loved which is right for the media that is so adored by so many fans which is the comic books. Check with your retailer he'll be placing orders real soon for the very first issue of the revival of the greatest American hero from catastrophic comics. Comic next timeline August 9th. Now at the drugstore comics were settling into their 12 cent price tag and from DC we got yet another Hawkman tryout by Joe Kubert in Brave of Bold number 44.
Challengers of the Unknown checked in at number 28 we got Green Lantern number 16 with Star Sapphire. House of Mystery number 127, Jimmy Olsen number 64 with Jimmy Olsen Hollywood Star. And Lois Lane number 36 with The Day Lois Lane Vanished. For the war fans there were Star Spangled War Stories number 105 and for the space folks Strange Adventures number 145. Few titles to add to our Marvel collection which seemed to be grown by leaps and bounds.
We got Journey to Mystery 85 with Thor and Loki this week. A second appearance of the Human Torch in Strange Tales number 102 and Tales of Suspense number 35 which was pretty much filled with spooky stories at least for another few months from Marvel. In the news the FCC, Connell Rad emergency broadcast system was scrapped by the government. Rival armies battled for control of the Argentine government and Marilyn Monroe was laid to rest at a Hollywood cemetery. In the movies there was Boys Night Out, Jimmy Stewart still hanging into his career with Mr. Hobbs takes a vacation.
Dores They and Lover Come Back, Hataari and Jerry Lewis in The Delicate Delinquent. TV tonight at Frontier Circus, Donna Reed an episode of the very popular Dr. Kill Bear. The early days of My Three Sons and at 8.30 they rang the bell. The Real McCoy's, starring Walter Brennan created by Irving Pincus. Want you to meet the family known as the Real McCoy's.
That's Tranfampianus, the head of the clan. He's always like a lion but he's gentle as a lamb and now he's luke. He's with Joyce and in faith and physical. The charts was a young man who had a number of trips to the charts throughout the decade and as it turned out also an almost brilliant with history.
He was traveling with the Dick Clark Caravan of stars this year and by the end of next year in November of 1963, his stop would take him to Dallas, Texas on November 22nd. He and the members of his group had a chance to be on the street to see the president and first lady pass by in the motor gate just minutes before tragedy struck. He borrowed a camera from tour singer Bobby V who was there with him and managed to take some film of the event.
But as it turned out, forgot to take off the lens cap. 1962. Better known for music than photography, he made hits all the way to the end of the decade. This time of the charts was a song called Sealed with a Kiss. Here's Brian Island.
Oh, you gotta say goodbye for the summer. Darling, I promise you this. I'll send you all my love every day in a letter. Sealed with a kiss. ComicMix.
Back at the start of the week with our visit to the comic shops and the DVD rack, more from the BBC on Torchwood as well. You don't have to miss any of that. Subscribe to us real easily on iTunes and while you're there, we'll be back over for ComicMix.com for the very latest in news and commentary.
And some great free comics too, including Black Ice, White Viper by Dick Giordano and Frank McLaughlin, and Hammer Of The Gods by Mark Wheatley and Michael Lomang. And there's a lot more warming up in the wings too and again, it is all free. Get updates from ComicMix to wherever you are on MySpace, Twitter and Facebook. Talk to you in a couple of days. Bye.
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