Yearly Archive: 2008

The Sci Fi Channel announced a schedule for its 10 Battlestar Galactica webisodes, kicking off Friday and running regularly through January 12.  The final half season will begin airing on January 16.

The Webisodes are titled "The Face of the Enemy," and were written by Jane Espenson and Seamus Kevin Fahey, They star Alessandro Juliani (Lt. Felix Gaeta) and Grace Park (various No. 8 Cylons).

The Webisodes will run three or four minutes long, go live at Noon EST on each of the following dates.

•    Friday, December 12:  Chapter 1
•    Monday, December 15: Chapter 2
•    Wednesday, December 17: Chapter 3
•    Monday, December 22: Chapter 4
•    Wednesday, December 24: Chapter 5
•    Monday, December 29: Chapter 6
•    Wednesday, December 31: Chapter 7
•    Monday, January 5: Chapter 8
•    Wednesday, January 7: Chapter 9
•    Monday, January 12: Chapter 10

"’The Face of the Enemy’ follows the gripping action and suspense inside a stranded Raptor carrying a group of passengers including Lieutenant Felix Gaeta (Alessandro Juliani) and a Number 8 Cylon (Grace Park). When passengers suddenly start dying one by one in alarming ways, fear, panic and chaos erupt within the confines of the small ship, as they come to realize there is a killer among them. Michael Hogan (Colonel Tigh) and Brad Dryborough (Lieutenant Hoshi) also star."

Entertainment Weekly has announced the cast for M. Night Shyamalan’s live-action adaptation of The Last Airbender.

The youthful cast includes Karate star Noah Ringer will play Aang, the Avatar (the spirit of the planet manifested in human form), the last surviving Airbender and a monk of the Air Nomads, a race of people with the unique ability to manipulate the air around them. He is assigned with the task of keeping the Four Nations at peace.

Jackson Rathbone (Twilight) will play Aang’s friend Sokka, a warrior of the South Pole’s Southern Water Tribe, a race of people who can control and manipulate water.

Nicola Peltz (Deck the Halls) will play Sokka’s fourteen-year-old sister Katara, the last remaining Waterbender of her entire Tribe.

Pop/R&B singer Jesse McCartney will play the Fire Nation’s evil prince Zuko. Exiled from the Fire Nation by his father, Zuko is sent to capture the Avatar in order to restore his honor and right to the throne.

The Last Airbender, based on Nickelodeon’s Avatar anime, will be released July 2, 2010.

Remember Adventures in Babysitting, the Chris Columbus teen comedy with Elisabeth Shue? Comic fans were most amused that one of her charges, Sara (Maia Brewton), wore Thor’s helmet throughout the film and Vincent D’Onofrio’s creepy character was nicknamed Thor.

The movie did well enough to spawn a short-lived television series and finally word is out that a sequel is being made.  The star will be Miley Cyrus, according to The Chicago Sun -Times, and the movie is slated for 2010. The Hannah Montana star will appear opposite fellow Disney headline Raven Symone with Tiffany Paulsen (Nancy Drew) at work on the script.

Chris Weitz (The Golden Compass) appears to be the leading candidate to replace Catherine Hardwicke on New Moon, the sequel to Twilight.

Deadline Hollywood reveals, “my source says Summit Entertainment liked the look of [Compass] even if it didn’t heat up the domestic box office (but did better overseas). I don’t have official confirmation yet that this Twilight sequel offer has gone out to Weitz. But my insider says another reason it came down is because Weitz and Summit’s president of production Eric Feig are longtime pals.

“But let’s also not forget Weitz’s behavior on Golden Compass. On December 15, 2004, Weitz announced his resignation as director of the trilogy, citing the enormous technical challenges of the epic and later admitting he was worried about dissing by the book’s fans. After another helmer came on and then walked off, Weitz returned to direct saying he’d done ‘a lot of growing in the interim’.”

The current plan seems to call for New Moon and Eclipse to be shot back-to-back which would certainly tax most directors but makes financial sense for the small studio.Summit, today, announced a November 20, 2009 release date which puts the project on a faster-than-anticipated schedule.

Ain’t it Cool News had a set report from Kick-Ass, the movie based on the Mark Millar/John Romita, Jr. and they included a photo of Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Red Mist along with Aaron Johnson as Dave Lizewski.

The Matthew Vaughn-directed movie has been shooting since September and is due out in 2009.

Plot Synopsis (beware of possible comic book spoilers):

Dave Lizewski is a kid growing up in a rundown suburb of America, he isn’t a gamer, he isn’t a jock, he isn’t a mathlete, he’s just a regular kid. When he is not hanging out at the local comic store with his friends Todd and Marty, he is fantasizing about his school teacher and Katie Deauxma, the class hottie. The only thing that is unusual about Dave is that about a year ago his Mother died. But somehow through this blend of normality, teenage angst and irritation at being continually mugged, Dave makes the decision to become a superhero’ KICK ASS! Dave’s first foray into being a Superhero results in him being stabbed and run over. When Dave recovers he realizes he can’t walk away from being a hero, and when he successfully steps in on a mugging he brings himself to the attention of the US media and Frank D’Amico could this be the guy who knicked his coke? As Dave gets sucked into the dark world of vigilante crime fighting he gains a sidekick named ‘Red
Mist’.
 

Sonya Walger (Lost) will play the female lead in ABC’s Flash Forward, according to The Hollywood Reporter.  Christine Woods (House) has also joined the cast in what is probably the hottest pilot currently in production.

Walger will play Ralph Fiennes’ wife, Olivia, “who is disturbed by her vision of being in love with another man.” Woods, meantime, will play Janis, a “computer-savvy FBI agent who helps to uncover a pivotal clue in the mystery.”

Robert J. Sawyer’s science fiction novel is being adapted by David S. Goyer (Blade), who will direct the pilot, Brannon Braga (Enterprise) and ABC Studios. The trade says the novel “chronicles the chaos that ensues after everyone in the world blacks out for two minutes and 17 seconds and has a mysterious vision of the future that changes lives forever.”

ABC has high hopes for the pilot which may become a companion series for Lost for the 2009-2010 television season according to the trade.

NBM Publishing has just launched a blog by many of its star cartoonists.  The bloggers will include Rick Geary, Rall, Neil Kleid (Brownsville), Dirk Schwieger (Moresukine), Naomi Nowak (Unholy Kinship), Jesse Lonergan (Flower and Fade), and David Axe (War Fix).

The blog contains fresh comics and commentary from the artists.  In addition, the blog will replace NBM’s present news page and will announce NBM publications, author appearances, and other news.

"I’d like to think that for the first time anywhere we really are creating a community with this blog instead of just the editors informing their readers,” NBM publisher Terry Nantier said in a release. “Each artist has direct access to posting entries on this blog. You can RSS a specific artist and talk with one or with all and the artists between themselves as if on a panel at a con! Our readers will be able to see snippets of our authors’ new works as they’re coming along. This is the true NBM community coming to our site, and I’m quite excited about it!"

The new works that the artists and writers are previewing on the blog include:

• To the Heights of the Golden Age, Jesse Lonergan’s memoir of life in the bizarre dictatorship of Turkmenistan.

• Naomi Nowak’s eerie graphic novel Graylight.

• Neil Kleid and artist Nicolas Cinquegrani’s The Big Kahn. Kleid says, “It’s the story of what happens when a New Jersey rabbi dies and at the funeral, his family and congregation of forty years discover that he’s been conning them: he isn’t even Jewish.”

Blogging is nothing new to NBM.  The company has published collections of comics blogs such as Trondheim’s Little Nothings and Schwieger’s Moresukine.  NBM has even run selections from these blogs on its website.

The new blog is part of a tradition of innovation dating back to 1976, when NBM (under the name Flying Buttress) became the first American house to publish an ongoing line of graphic novels.

This February, nineteen core titles from the DC Universe will feature “Origins and Omens” backup stories. “Origins and Omens” lays the groundwork for the upcoming Green Lantern: Blackest Night miniseries and more in 2009.
 
These “Origins and Omens” issues are solicited in the December Previews and are scheduled to arrive in stores in February. DC Comics will announce the full lineup of writers and artists contributing to these stories soon.
 
Watch for “Origins and Omens” stories in these issues:
 
•           ACTION COMICS #874
•           ADVENTURE COMICS #0 — Specially priced at just $1.00!
•           BIRDS OF PREY #127
•           BOOSTER GOLD #17
•           GREEN ARROW/BLACK CANARY #17
•           GREEN LANTERN #38
•           GREEN LANTERN CORPS #33
•           JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #30
•           JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #24
•           NIGHTWING #153
•           OUTSIDERS #15
•           ROBIN #183
•           SECRET SIX #6
•           SUPERGIRL #38
•           SUPERMAN #685
•           TEEN TITANS #68
•           TITANS #10
•           VIGILANTE #3
•           WONDER WOMAN #29
 
Also this month, watch for Adventure Comics #0, reprinting one of the cornerstone stories of the DCU with a special price of just $1.00 and featuring its own all-new “Origins and Omens” tale! To celebrate the upcoming Adventure Comics #1, this issue reprints a Silver Age classic from the title’s prior volume — Adventure Comics #247, the first appearance of the Legion of Super-Heroes! Adventure Comics #0 also features a new cover by Aaron Lopresti that’s an homage to the original.

The story also serves as the inspiration for Geoff Johns’ episode of Smallville, scheduled to air on January 15.

BOOM! Studios has announced a December 24 in store date for its Farscape miniseries. 

"We originally solicited this for November, but we pushed back the release because we had to make sure the book was the best product possible for fans awaiting Farscape‘s return,"Chip Mosher, BOOM!’s Marketing and Sales Director in a release. "And let me tell you, it will be worth the wait!"

Farscape #1 is written by television series creator Rockne O’Bannon with script by Keith R.A. DeCandido, interior art by Tommy Patterson and cover art by fan-favorites Dennis Calero and Joseph Corroney!

Picking up directly where the television miniseries Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars left off, fans can look forward to show creator O’Bannon steering their favorite characters into new and original stories, keeping with the existing canon – and then extending it!

Debuting on the Sci-Fi Channel in 1998, Farscape follows the adventures of astronaut John Crichton, who has a freak accident during an experimental space mission that catapults him across a thousand galaxies to an alien battlefield. Suddenly, he’s trapped among alien creatures wielding deadly technology – a battle that 20th century sci-fi pop culture never prepared him for. Hunted by a merciless military race, Crichton begins his quest for home from a distant galaxy.

A groundbreaking award-winning sci-fi production, Farscape from The Jim Henson Company and [Hallmark] has become a global favorite. Named by TV Guide as one of television’s "Best Cult Shows Ever" and most recently named by Empire Magazine as one of the "50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time," Farscape is known for the overwhelming fan-based campaign that led to its miniseries production.  The show has continued to find new audiences as it airs in syndication and is available on iTunes and DVD.

Look for a conversation with DeCandido closer to release.