Shuler-Donner Sings ‘Wolverine’s’ Praises
Producer Lauren Shuler Donner spoke with Coming Soon about next May’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine and she admitted the film owes a lot to 2001’ Wolverine: Origins miniseries.
“I guess its closer to the first X-Men in tone,” she said, “because it’s a little darker, but there’s a lot of action. It’s his origin story. It’s really good. I’ve been in the editing room the last couple of weeks and I think that it’s good and that audiences are going to like it. But it’s a little darker.
“There’s an X-Men: Origins that some of it is pulled from, and then it’s sort of an amalgamation of some of them. But X-Men: Origins sort of goes back into his young, young past, and we started there.”
She also confirmed that Ryan Reynolds is terrific as Deadpool and she’s eyeing a possible spin-off for the merc with a mouth. “I hope so. I really hope so. He’s so good at it.”
Shuler-Donner showered praise on director Gavin Hood, saying, “I like taking someone out of the indie world and bringing someone into the action world because it grounds the movie. It gives it a reality. It gives it an emotional core, and then you can have as much fun and action in it as you wants.”
It was about time George Lucas got some good news. After the critical and commercial drubbing his feature-length Star Wars: The Clone Wars received news that the television series debuted to spectacular numbers must have been most welcome.
David Cronenberg, the director best known for creepy fare such as The Fly and Scanners, is about to change genres. 
Cinema Blend
Jimmy Gownley’s delightful Amelia Rules! has been picked up by a division of Simon & Schuster for repackaging for the bookstore market. Gownley began sel-fpublishing the comic in 2001 thoruhg his Renaissance Press imprint and features the advenuteres of Amelia Louise McBride and her fourth grade buddies. Since its inception, the series has tackled real world issues through the prism of youth and has received priase.
A bitterly fought election had come to a close but the victor had little time to enjoy himself. Instead, still in a rage over a blackmail attempt targeting his family, Jonathan Kent clutched his chest and collapsed, dying in the arms of his wife and son. Speaking of this pivotal event in Smallville’s 100th episode (January 26, 2006), executive producer Al Gough told TV Guide that this was “part of the Superman mythology that was always going to have to be told.” But did it really correspond with the comics?
Something is going on in comic books. Have you noticed? It’s been happening for a few years now. For some reason, certain comics are not making sense with the rest of the established universe and history. For some reason, things that don’t make sense have been running rampant throughout the fictional realities of DC and Marvel.
Gotta love those studio bigwigs. Even in the midst of an impending Screen Actors Guild strike and the greatest financial crisis in modern American history, these head honchos still have dollar signs in their eyes. 
Marvel Comics sent out a press release this morning announcing that production has begun on a new animated series, The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. 
