ComicMix Radio: Robert Tapert Storms Back
He was the “father” of Hercules and (actually) the husband of Xena, and now Robert Tapert returns to pop culture with a hand chosen set of horror movies and a new television series. In our exclusive interview, Robert fills us in on both plus where things stand with Xena and Evil Dead, plus:
- Witchblade on ITunes
- DC prepares a crash course on The Spirit
- Neil Gaiman, Guillermo delToro and Dr Strange oh my!
Catch the full exclusive ComicMix interview with Robert Tapert right here on Sunday, and in the meantime get warmed by and Press the Button!
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Transcript
! Broadcast, 275. ComicBits.com He's coming back! ComicBits.com
Hi, it's Mike Raub, the guy behind Hercules, Xena, and a lot more is on his way back to television and the DVD stores as well. We'll talk exclusively with Robert Tappard coming up on… October 18th, 2008. ComicBits.com Funimation Entertainment has announced that all 26 episodes of the Witchblade anime series that was created by Gonzo and based on the comic series published by Tom Cow are now available for downloading on the Apple's iTunes website.
And there's even better news too, the first Witchblade episodes is available for download for free until the 26th of October. Better hurry. At the Diamond Retailer Summit in Las Vegas, a number of questions came up about how to introduce the character of the Spirit to some of the new readers today who maybe don't want to necessarily invest in a Spirit Archive. To do so, just in time for the Spirit-released movie which hits on Christmas Day, DC Comics is rushing out something called the Spirit Special Number One. It's a full-color collection of four classic Will Eisner stories intended to introduce readers to the Eisner creation.
There's some great stories in there as well which should put you certainly in the mood for whatever ends up on the big screen on Christmas Day. Spirit Special Number One is set to hit stores on November the 19th. Check with your retailer to make sure you're going to get one. Chalk it up to wishful thinking, but Neil Gaiman has told MTV that he'd love to do a Doctor Strange movie and he'd like Guillermo del Toro to be the director. Of course, there's a few problems in between there, one of which is the fact that Guillermo's off doing The Hobbit right now, which is at least three, maybe four years of work for him. After that, he's got Hellboy 3 on his plate, so before a Doctor Strange movie could take place, we could be talking maybe five to seven years from right now.
Nonetheless, Gaiman said he's willing to wait and he'd love to do the movie with del Toro. According to Variety, Fox 2000 has acquired the rights to Joe Haleman's 1974 science fiction hit The Forever War. It'll be directed by Ridley Scott, who plans to make The Forever War his first science fiction film since Alien and Blade Runner. A historic side note here, back when he finished Blade Runner in 1982, Scott said he planned to make The Forever War, but since then has not been able to acquire the rights. The tell is backing your deals to develop a new CGI animated version of Hot Wheels. This one will be called Hot Wheels Battle Force.
A half hour series is set to be animated and launched in the fall of 2009 on the Cartoon Network's Saturday morning block. Halloween's not that far away, just a couple of weeks and here's something to put you in the mood. Slacker.com has a special seasonal radio station filled with all sorts of Halloween music, including stuff from Black Sabbath, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, dancing Rob Zombie, Metallica and of course, Alice Cooper. Great place to get some ideas to do your own Halloween party playlist and you can check it out at slacker.com. And your water cooler story for next week. Are you ready for this one? Well, again, it comes from the Cartoon Network.
They've acquired all four seasons of a short form series that will premiere not only here, but also on Cartoon Network in Spain, Italy and Latin America. The new series is called Thumb Wrestling Federation or TWF. Start flexing now. Hi, this is Paul Levitt, president and publisher of DC Comics and this is ComicMix Radio. ComicMix Radio. Hercules and Zima just about 10 years ago owned a piece of the pop culture television market, pretty much like Stargate or even Battlestar Galactica do today.
And the guy behind those series was Robert Tapper. Now, Robert's coming back on the scene with a couple of different unique projects, the first of which is called Ghost House Underground. Along with longtime collaborator and movie great Sam Raimi, Robert has chosen eight little scene horror movies and put them together in one DVD package. These are not classics or not movies that Sam or Robert created, but ones that have been done and haven't really found that audience over the past few years. Call them indie horror movies, call them little cult films, call them what you want, but Robert and Sam put a lot of work in choosing these.
Sam and I picked the bulk of them and here's why I say that. We're partnered with two other guys, Barry Brooker and Stan Wortley, who come from a long line of building DVD libraries. And so there were certain decisions that we needed to fully understand because we're just fans of the genre and we may not understand as well the marketplaces those guys do. So there were certain things where they would think, guys, you can't have ten foreign movies or you can't sell them. There was just some guidance that needed to be done. So at the end of the day, yes, by and large, we picked these movies.
How about a return to series television? Well, would November the first be soon enough for you? Robert's got a brand new show set to debut all around the country called Legend of the Seeker. That is now the title of what was once called The Wizard's First Rule and it is based on a series of books by Terry Goodkind. And the books came from one of my partners in that endeavor, Josh Donnan, the son of Stanley Donnan, and read the books, gave it to Sam. Sam started reading the books, loved them, passed it on to me and said, Rob, this is what we should go back into the television business with. And so it was an opportunity to return to television, something I love, doing action fantasy.
And there was nothing like it on the air right now and we thought, well, this is the perfect time. So the next obvious question would be, what about bringing back Hercules or Zena? Shouldn't be too hard after all. Robert is married to Lucy Lawless, who, by the way, is on Battlestar these days. But seriously… I'd love to go back to Zena. There were untold stories in that and now with technology and with what I know, there's a different way to approach that in a 300-m wanted sense style.
Another popular franchise and Robert's associated with the long, of course, with Sam Raimi is Evil Dead. With the musical, the comics and the ever growing DVD sales, what's next there? I don't know. You know, Sam said quite that he'll do Evil Dead 4 with Bruce. I just hope Bruce is alive by the time we start shooting. I'm all right. Robert's got a lot more to say and you'll see it all right here in an exclusive interview this weekend on ComicMix. ComicMix.
ComicMix timeline. October 18th. 1985. This week in the comic stores, DC's first crisis was spilling over into other titles like Batman and the Outsiders. Number 29, there was Blue Devil number 20 this week. Another crossover in Green Lantern number 196, there was Teen Titans number 16. Swamp Thing number 44 and Warlord was hanging in and issue number 101. Marvel had a couple of new miniseries that were just getting rolling, including Baldar the Brave. We got issue number two of that. And we got number four, Vision and the Scarlet Witch. There was Captain America number 313, Dazzler number 41.
Eternals number four, Howard the Duck number 32 and we were just starting to see what Frank Miller had in mind. And Daredevil number 226. 1985. In the news, a landslide buried the town of Mameys, killing nearly 200 people in Indonesia. A new flame was unveiled on the Statue of Liberty in New York and the premiere of Italy resigned after the way his country was handling the Achilles Laurel hijacking, but not without after taking a couple of swipes at the US. In the movies, Arnold and a teenage Alyssa Milano were in commando. Michael J Fox was in Teen Wolf. There was Invasion USA. Better off dead, jagged edge, the eclectic after hours. And we still had a chance to catch one more time the first run of this one.
Michael J Fox again, of course, in the original Back to the Future. TV Tonight, there was the original Knight Rider. Dallas was on CBS. There were episodes of Mr. Belvedere and Benson on ABC, along with an episode of Spencer for hire with Robert Urich. And then there was… A superhero show of sort didn't last long on NBC. It was the Misfits of Science. 1985. On the radio was business as usual for this pop icon who just happened to be on a worldwide tour when Penthouse and Playboy published some old black and white nude photos.
How did she react? Well, she told one concert audience she wasn't even about to take her jacket off because she probably paid for it 10 years later. That's the way it was for Madonna on top with Dress You Up. Back at the start of the week as we wade hip deep into all the new comics and DVDs and tell you what's what and what's good. And we'll finally get to sit down with Darwyn Cooke about that new IDW project, Parker. Just a click and you can subscribe to us on iTunes. Don't forget that. In the meantime, plenty to see on ComicMix.com, including a lot more with Robert Tappert this weekend. And you don't have to miss it.
We'll give you a nudge when it's up real easily on Facebook, Twitter or Myspace. Free comics too. A whole week of those lie ahead, including another episode of Original Johnson. More on Black Ice, White Viper and Hammer the Guides too. And they're all free at ComicMix. Talk to you in a couple of days. Bye.
