For those betting on Knight Rider being the first cancellation of the new season, you lose. Despite the critical and ratings drubbing the premiere episode received this week, the honor of first to face the axe is Fox’s Do Not Disturb which is now off the schedule. While not officially canceled, all signs point to the sitcom not coming back.
An additional episode of the somewhat funnier ‘Til Death will round out the schedule until further notice.
Trying to follow the lengthy legal entanglements between parties over beloved properties is never fun or easy. Just as you forget about a lingering case, it re-enters the headlines. Such is the case with the court ruling this week that J.R.R. Tolkien’s estate can not seek punitive damages from New Line Cinema over profits earned by the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
According to the AP story, “New Line’s attorneys successfully argued that Tolkien’s heirs had to demonstrate a ‘public wrong’ under New York law – which governs the contracts – to claim punitive damages if they win at trial. Jones ruled that the heirs’ grievance ‘is clearly seeking to vindicate private wrongs’.”
The laws suit continues to move toward its October 2009 trial date as the estate is suing for $150 million in compensatory damages in a breach of contract suit. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ann I. Jones ruled this week that the plaintiffs have established a legal basis for the fraud claim against the studio which is a part of Time Warner.
Among the claims are that millions in profits were funneled into an advertising expense line and offices built in New Zealand for production of the Lord of the Rings trilogy have subsequently been used for other studio projects.
The estate claims they have yet to see money despite the trilogy earning some $6 billion. As a result, they are seeking the court to order the currently planned two film adaptation of The Hobbit to be halted.
ComicMix’s own Matt Raub has been selected as one of the eight contestants to participate in next week’s Netflix Movie Watching World Championship. The October 2-7 event will be seen by Manhattanites in the Times Square area.
The Quest for the Popcorn Bowl is expected to last until a new Guinness World Record, for most consecutive hours spent watching movies, is set five days later on October 7. The bleary-eyed winner will take home a $10,000 cash prize, a lifetime subscription to Netflix and the first-ever Popcorn Bowl trophy.
Contestants will be expected to watch a continuous run of movies in an effort to eclipse the existing world record of 120 hours and 23 minutes held by Ashish Sharma of Mathura, India. Sharma will be on hand to defend his title.
The event begins October 2 at 10:30 a.m. with competitors assuming their positions in the Netflix Movie Watching Arena, a plexi-glass living room in the center of Times Square.
“The Netflix Movie Watching World Championship is a showcase for die-hard movie buffs who possess incredible focus and discipline,” said Leslie Kilgore, chief marketing officer for Netflix. “It combines the love of movies with the thrill of competition at the crossroads of the world.”
Raub managed to earn a spot in the competition after Netflix opened it up to amateurs who posted entertaining audition videos at Facebook. Raub’s entry can be seen here. He’ll be posting his experiences once the competition ends and he gets some sleep.
Don Wilder the writer for the Crock comic strip, died this morning at age 74 reports Editor & Publisher. According to King Features Syndicate, which distributes Crock to more than 200 newspapers, Wilder was also drawing and went on to get his bachelor’s degree from East Tennessee State University.
The commercial artist began work as a technical illustrator including a 17 year stint as a visual-information specialist for the CIA. He also did work for Lockheed Aircraft, RCA and General Electric before moving to comic strips in the 1970s.
The Virginia resident created the strip with Brant Parker, best known for his work on the Wizard of Id, in 1975. After Parker died, Wilder collaborated with artist Bill Rechin.
No word as yet from the syndicate as to what will happen to the strip, which has been a gentle parody of life in the Foreign Legion.
I haven’t reviewed books about sex in close to a month, so it must be time again, right? (As always, I’m reviewing what I have on hand, so, if you publish manga and want me to
cover it, contact me at the e-mail address far below.If you don’t publish manga, but want me to review something in particular, just leave a comment with a suggestion. If you don’t publish manga, and have no suggestions…then I think you’re good the way you are.)
Sundome, Vol. 3
By Kazuto Okada
Yen Press, September 2008, $12.99
I liked the first volume of Sundome, but wasn’t entirely comfortable with how focused on leering at teenage girls it was. (I have no problems with teenage boys leering at teenage girls – in any case, they’ll do it no matter what I think – but I don’t think it’s really appropriate for me to do so. And that can bother me, even in fictional form.) The second volume made me even more uneasy, because the “games” that teenage cutie Kurumi played on utterly-gaga-about-her Hideo were getting dangerous and cruel.
Their relationship is still shifting in this third volume; Hideo’s devotion to Kurumi is showing some positive results (he’s gotten stronger from all of his bike riding-cum-sublimation, and Kurumi’s teasing is turning more girlfriend-ish than purely mean), and the more dangerous or kinky moments are part of obvious sex-play between the two. Oh, she’s still insisting that she’ll never have sex with him…but she isn’t acting as if that’s true.
Even given the cultural differences, Sundome is one of the most raw and realistic depictions of adolescent sexuality I’ve ever seen. Sure, it’s exaggerated for fictional effect, with the usual manga shorthand, but these kids are both horny and confused in a way that fiction rarely shows. And, of course, since there’s some moderately explicit sexuality in this book – more that the previous books, I think – it’s rated “M” for adults only, and teenagers are officially not supposed to read it. That’s irony for you: because it’s so true about teenagers, teenagers aren’t supposed to read it.
Director Guillermo del Toro has signed with HarperCollins imprint William Morrow for a trilogy of vampire novels which he will cowrite with Chuck Hogan. The Stain, kicking off the event, will be released next summer.
According to Variety, the story will “revolve around an invasion of New York City by a vampiric virus. Series will trace the roots of the vampiric race back to its Old Testament origins.”
Hogan has previously wrriten thrillers including The Standoff and The Blood Artists. His Prince of Thieves was recently optioned by Warner Bros which Ben Affleck will direct and star in.
Don’t expect the director to adapt his own works, though. He’s committed through 2017 with the two film adaptation of The Hobbit followed by Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Slaughterhouse-Five for Universal. He’s also committed to adapting Dan Simmons’ Drood into a feature film.
So word is out that Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert, host of the Colbert Report, is going to be teaming up with New York’s most famous web-slinging vigilante in the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man #573, written by Mark Waid (Kingdom Come) and illustrated by Patrick Olliffe (Spider-Girl). In the Marvel Universe, Colbert is running for President of the U.S. and no doubt this will come into play in the eight-page adventure. It would certainly be in keeping with the atmosphere of several comics these days, such as DC’s True Decisions mini-series which features the JLA acting as security for presidential candidates and the most recent Captain America arc in which the Red Skull attempted to sway the election for his own purposes.
This isn’t going to be the their first meeting, of course. In Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #15, during Marvel’s Civil War crossover, the two met at a bookstore. Of course, Spidey wasn’t in his costume at the time and Colbert was attempting to act incognito, so chances are this won’t be referenced in the upcoming story.
But any true comic book fan should know that celebrity cameos have happened quite often in super-hero tales. And Colbert is by far the first comedy show host to meet a Marvel hero. (more…)
I actually had a comic book article all ready to go this week. Then I turned on the news and heard that McCain wants to cancel tonight’s presidential debate to lend his hand to solving “our” financial problem.
You must be kidding me.
My Manhattan home is mere blocks from Wall Street. Trust me, its still WORLDS away to me. There’s a famous bronze bull that stands tall there. I swear that bull would come to life and chase me away like’s it a German Sheppard and it’s 1964.
“Ours,” my ass. Nope, this is all yours, G.O.P.
Oh, McCain is willing to make up tonight’s debate by substituting it for the vice presidential debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden, I guess so Palin will put down her shotgun and help save the country in this time of need.
Obama said he wants to have the debates stating that the county wants to hear from the two people who are running for President to see what they have to say on the subject. He also said a President will be called on to handle more than one thing at a time…duh.
I wonder why the G.O.P will not let reporters talk to Palin? Hey, Mr. Right, why the chuck won’t you let reporters talk to her? This woman will be half a heart beat (that’s right, half) from the most powerful job in the universe (except for mine) and she is being shielded like she’s radioactive.
I would not hire a baby sitter to sit with YOUR kids without talking to them. I can’t believe this. Why is there no OUTRAGE at this?? Remember McCain said “I can’t wait to unleash her on Washington!”
“Unleash her?” “UnLEASH her?” Oh, I forgot. Pit bull with lipstick.
Nope, more like pit bull shit. I have a pit bull; they are not afraid of anything. Palin hides behind her handlers like a scared puppy. I ask again, Mr. Right, why can’t we talk to the bitch? Hey, she called herself a dog; I’m just using the correct word for a female one… bitch.
When in the HISTORY of Presidential politics have the American people been denied access to their V.P. candidate? (more…)
The Superest by Matthew Sutter and Kevin Cornell will move from web to print in an illustrated book to be published by Kensington. The strip is described as a world of “colorful super-heroes, where each hero’s dominant (often quirky and humorous) power serves to supplant his nemesis, although the same power acts as his Achilles heel when battling the successive super-hero.” No publication has been announced.
The Hollywood Post Alliance Awards announced the nominees for the third annual award presentation for excellent in post production work. Iron Man and The Dark Knight among other genre films received multiple nominations. The HPA Awards will be presented Nov. 6 at the Skirball Cultural Center.Nominees for the HPA Awards include:
Outstanding Color Grading Feature Film in a DI Process
Iron Man, Steven J. Scott (EFilm)
Sweeney Todd, Stefan Sonnenfeld (Company 3)
Kite Runner, Mike Sowa (LaserPacific Media Corporation)
Outstanding Color Grading – Television
Pushing Daisies, “’The Fun in Funerals”, Joe Hathaway (LaserPacific Media Corporation)
ESPN: The Masters, Siggy Ferstl (RIOT)
Andromeda Strain, Night 2: Part 1, Mike Sowa (LaserPacific Media Corporation)
Outstanding Editing – Feature Film
Iron Man, Dan Lebental, A.C.E.
Into the Wild, Jay Cassidy, A.C.E.
The Dark Knight, Lee Smith, A.C.E.
Outstanding Editing – Television
Mad Men “Indian Summer”, David J. Siegel, A.C.E.
Breaking Bad (Pilot Episode), Lynne Willingham, A.C.E. (Sony Pictures Entertainment)
Pushing Daisies, “Pie-lette”, Stuart Bass, A.C.E.
Outstanding Audio Post – Feature Film
Wanted, Wylie Stateman and Harry Cohen (Soundelux) & Christopher Jenkins and Frank A. Montano (Universal Studios)
Wall*E, Ben Burtt (Pixar Animation Studios), Tom Myers, Michael Semanick and Matthew Wood (Skywalker Sound)
Into the Wild, Michael Minkler (Todd AO), Lora Hirschberg (Skywalker Sound) and Martin Hernandez (Ztrackz)
Outstanding Audio Post- Television
CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION, “Cockroaches”, Mace Matiosian, Ruth Adelman, David Vanslyke, Bill Smith, Yuri Reese and Jivan Tahmizian (Todd-AO)
John Adams, Episode 3: “Don’t Tread on Me", Marc Fishman and Tony Lamberti (Todd-AO) & Stephen Hunter Flick and Vanessa Lapato (Warner Brothers Post)
R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour Don’t Think About It, Sam Kaufmann and John Schell (Media City Sound)
Columns / Glenn Hauman / News
Stephen Colbert, we have your writer for “The Chronicles of Amber”!
January 20, 2023
The Law Is A Ass #460: Those “For Life” Sentences Are Nonsense
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