Yearly Archive: 2008

‘Sin City 2’ to Shoot in April?

  • News
  • December 9, 2008

Frank Miller and Eva Mendes are doing the rounds of interviews as the December 25 premier of The Spirit inches closer and journalists are seeking every shred of information about future projects from the director and actress including both returning for Sin City 2, the long-awaited sequel to 2005’s Sin City.

At IGN, Miller said, “Sin City 2 is written.  It’s mainly a matter of working out the details of the production.  I’m hoping to do it with Robert Rodriguez again in the same circumstances that we did the first one, and we could begin shooting again as early as April.” The script is said to be adapting the graphic novels A Dame to Kill For which as a prequel to prequel to The Hard Goodbye. The focus will be on Blue Eyes and the Old Town Girls while a new Nancy Callahan (Jessica Alba) story will be included.

Rosario Dawson confirmed to IESB that she will return as Gail while Mendes has told the press she’ll also be back.

Mickey Rourke told MTV last week he’s ready to return as Marv but then Superherohype reported this weekend that Rourke has no interest in returning. Could he not like the script or be holding out for more money?  Who can say?

The fact remains that the film still needs to sort out accreditation issues with the director’s guild.
 

Review: ‘Haunted Tank’ #1

  • Uncategorized
  • December 8, 2008

The [[[Haunted Tank]]] has to be one of the oddest war comics concepts ever published.  A descendant of Civil War General JEB Stuart is haunted by the Virginian during World War II.  While the rest of his crew thinks he’s got a screw loose, Jeb Stuart gains vital tactical knowledge and inspiration from the ghostly guardian and together they mowed down countless enemies in the pages of [[[G.I. Combat]]].

DC recently reprinted many of those entertaining tales in a Showcase volume and that comes highly recommended.

The concept of a descendant looking after another was carried forward in Kurt Busiek’s [[[Power Company]]] as the World War II Stuart’s spirit haunted the Cyber-Command Assault Vehicle, a modern day tank commanded by his granddaughter, Lieutenant Jennifer Stuart. Jen Stuart.

Clearly, JEB had unfinished business and returns to guiding yet another member of the Stuart family in Vertigo’s new miniseries, Haunted Tank.  This time, though, the Southerner is looking after Jamal Stuart, an African-American with blood ties to the Virginia slaves owned by the Stuart family.  The racial tension appears to be the fuel for the series as written by Frank Marraffino.

His dialogue is easy going but other than pop culture references and curse words, he doesn’t do enough to differentiate the tank crew of G.I.s despite them coming from different ethnic and racial backgrounds.  He’s helped out by Henry Flint’s lively artwork and clear storytelling.

Set in 2003, the tank has been separated from its pack in Iraq and is beset by hostile forces when the ghostly general makes his first appearance. Unlike previous appearances, he can manifest his form and actually manipulate the controls of the tank and fire the machine guns.  His arrival spooks the crew, all of whom can see him this time, and they slowly come to accept his presence and aid.

The first issue, which went on sale last Wednesday, is all set up and done well enough that you know the players and set-up but it’ll fall to the four subsequent chapters to see if this works.  If all they do is bicker about race and sins of the past, it’ll become old real fast.  Will the General’s eyes be opened by the mess of the Iraq war and will that make his sage advice obsolete? Can the crew be taken seriously if they’re aided by a ghost?

How this plays out will determine if the updating of the Robert Kanigher-created series works or nor.  So far, I’m intrigued.

Catherine Hardwicke Dropped from ‘New Moon’

  • News
  • December 8, 2008

Nikkie Finke broke the story this weekend that Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke was not being invited back to make the sequel New Moon. Summit Entertainment quickly assured Deadline Hollywood that "Catherine and Summit have agreed to part ways on the sequel because our visions are different." In other words, Summit didn’t like Hardwicke.

The news breaks as Hardwicke and the teen cast is touring Europe to promote the blockbuster so the timing could have been better.  It also comes after Hardwicke cleanly broke the ranks and became the female director with the best opening weekend.

A source told Finke, "Summit didn’t like her. They’re saying the DP [director of photography] Elliot Davis is the one responsible for the film’s sumptuous visual look, that the editor Nancy Richardson had to save the film in post-production, and Summit thought Hardwicke’s [CAA] agent Beth Swofford was alternately ineffectual and hysterical. It certainly demonstrates, while CAA agents boast of their vast influence, how little clout and muscle they actually have, or are willing to use, to protect their artists."

New Moon is on a crash schedule to be ready for 2010 release and the third film in the series, Eclipse, is being considered for back-too-back shooting to contain costs and keep the cast looking eternally youthful. The sequel is expected to be more than twice as expensive given the special effects needs and cast salary raises.

The film continues to perform well at the box office despite a critical drubbing not dissimilar to the first Harry Potter film, which actually benefitted from a change in director. (more…)

‘Emo Boy’ Optioned by Vanguard Films

  • News
  • December 8, 2008

Emo Boy, a comic from Steve Emond and published by Slave Labor Graphics, has been optioned by Vanguard Films. Kyle Newman (Fanboys) is said to be directing and will cowrite the script with Emond according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Vanguard hopes the film will be in the vein of Napoleon Dynamite “but with a more prominent musical component, which will satirize the hyper-sensitive ‘emo’ musical genre.” The series is described as “the travails of the most self-dramatizing young man in the history of the world, whose emotions were so intense he even had ‘emo powers’."

Emond first gained attention with Steverino, a comic strip that won the national contest sponsored by Andrews McMeel/Follett College Stores.  The strip ran in several Connecticut newspapers before moving to the web.

Newman’s Fanboys finally will be seen in February after years of delays and re-edits courtesy of The Weinstein Company.
 

Marvel Animation Green Lights Season 2 of ‘Wolverine and the X-Men’ Animated Series

  • News
  • December 8, 2008

Marvel Animation and Singapore-based Toonz Entertainment Pte Ltd have given an early green light to a second season of Wolverine and the X-Men. The series debuts on Nickelodeon in January and other markets around the world in the next few months.

P. Jayakumar, Toonz Group’s CEO commented in a release, “We are thrilled to extend our relationship with Marvel and continue showcasing one of the most sought-after, iconic characters of all time. This second season will bring fans even more fresh and exciting stories and take us even deeper into the X-Men universe.”

Eric Rollman, Marvel’s President of Animation added, “The response to this series has been outstanding and the decision to move forward immediately with a second season was simple. We are bringing together the same team who produced the first season and looking forward to continuing the success with all new episodes.”

Canadian network YTV confirmed that Wolverine And The X-Men will be pre-empted for the entire month of December due to special holiday programming. Wolverine and The X-Men will return to the network in January 2009 with new episodes.

‘Lost’ Season 4 DVD previews: Sawyer Abroad

losy-dvd-4107369Yes, even more previews of the Lost Season 4 DVDs (here’s Bob’s review and here’s the first preview). Here’s how they do the shooting in one of the loveliest places on the planet, and make it look like every other place on the planet.

Keep coming back to ComicMix for more previews.

speak-of-the-devil1-3668274

Review: ‘Speak of the Devil’ by Gilbert Hernandez

  • Uncategorized
  • December 8, 2008

speak-of-the-devil1-3668274

Speak of the Devil
By Gilbert Hernandez
Dark Horse, November 2008, $19.95

Most of Gilbert Hernandez’s comics have been set in the same world, featuring a huge cast of characters with many obvious and obscure links, reaching from the small Latin American town of Palomar to Southern California and covering the second half of the twentieth century right up to now. Even the few of his comics that aren’t obviously in that world often turn out to have links to the “[[[Palomar]]]” cast.

Last year, Hernandez put out the graphic novel [[[Chance in Hell]]]. That story didn’t itself take place in his usual world – but it was a comics version of a movie from that world, a movie that featured his character Fritz in a minor role. Hernandez is continuing that conceit; [[[Speak of the Devil]]] is another metafictional comic, the story of a movie that only exists within another world of fiction, and one that featured Fritz in a larger part. (Fritz had a short but eventful Hollywood career, so we might well get another half-dozen “movies” with her as an “actress.”)

Like Chance in Hell, Speak of the Devil is a noirish drama with a timeless feel – there are a few details like cellphones that place it in the modern day, but the atmosphere and touches like a beatnik tertiary character make it feel like a movie from the late ‘60s or early ‘70s – that is, if we take Hernandez’s bait and think of Speak of the Devil as a movie to begin with. Devil does have the feel of a movie sometimes; Hernandez often allows his panels to stretch all the way across the page for a widescreen effect before diving into an array of smaller panels to indicate quicker events.

(more…)

ABC Commits to ‘Fables’ Pilot

  • News
  • December 8, 2008

ABC has commissioned a pilot for an hour-long television series based on Vertigo’s acclaimed Fables.  The network has committed to a “put” pilot which means Warner Bros will produce the pilot for consideration for the 2009-2010 season according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Stu Zicherman and Raven Metzner, the team behind the series Six Degrees, will write the pilot based on comic written by Bill Willingham and mostly drawn by Mark Buckingham and Steve Leialoha. David Semel will direct the pilot that reveals the hidden society of real-life fables living in a Manhattan enclave, exiled from their lands. Semel is a veteran at pilots with credits including Heroes.

"Their lives become interconnected in vary big way," Zicherman said. "They share a secret and a bond." The writers indicated the core characters of the Big Bad Wolf and Snow White will likely be focal points for the show.

"We set up a structure to allow any fairy tale character to show up in any one episode," Metzner said.

The comic debuted in 2002 and has since won 14 Eisner Awards.  The series has been collected in ten volumes plus one original hardcover with more planned.  James jean’s award-winning cover paintings have also been collected in separate volume. A spinoff, Jack of Fables, debuted in 2006.

Previously, NBC had the rights and attempted a pilot for the 2006-2007 season with writer Craig Silverstein but it never got beyond a script. A film version had also been shopped around for years with no takers.
 

Warners to Remake ‘Captain Blood’

  • News
  • December 8, 2008

Warners to The only question is what took so long.

After three installments of Pirates of the Caribbean brought in plenty of filthy lucre to Disney, Warner Bros. is finally announcing a remake of Captain Blood.  The classic Rafael Sabatini novel was immortalized in 1935 when it arrived on the silver screen with Errol Flynn in the lead back by a stirring Eric Korngold score.

John Brownlow (Sylvia) has been signed to write the new version for director Philip Noyce (Clear and Present Danger) according to Variety.

The swashbuckling tale is about a “doctor wrongly sentenced to slavery in the Caribbean, where he and his comrades become avenging pirates. It was nominated for the best picture Oscar.”
 

Comic Con Founder Seriously Ill

  • News
  • December 8, 2008

Shel Dorf, once the letterer of Steve Canyon, and a founder of the San Diego Comic Convention, has been hospitalized since April and word is that he now needs permanent long-term care.

An e-mail from his friend Charlie Roberts has been circulating and is partially reprinted below:

“Wanted to let you know that Shel has been at Sharp Hospital in Kearny Mesa since April……yes, April (!)

“David Siegel called us Wednesday night about this, and my wife Joan and I went down to Shel’s home in Ocean Beach near San Diego on Thanksgiving where his brother Mike is moving everything out. I’ve known Mike since the 1980s, though it’s been some 20 years since I’ve seen him.

“Today Joan and I went with David Siegel to see Shel. He’s lost some weight and is fragile, but we had a brief and friendly visit with him. He’s extremely hard of hearing, and is apparently on pain medication but at least we were able to see him and he was glad to see us. The head nurse told us Shel will never be well enough to go home again, but otherwise he’s stable.

“Mike plans to eventually move Shel closer to a critical care hospital near Mike’s apartment in L.A. The visit to Shel’s was pretty emotional, as the first job I ever had in San Diego was helping Shel with his lettering on Steve Canyon, while Joan transcribed some of his interviews. We lived right around the corner from Shel from August 1983 to August 1987. I also made several trips to LA with Shel as unofficial photographer while he did his interviews, and got to meet some amazing people.

Those who’ve read his interviews or benefited from his early work in launching the San Diego Comic-Con off the ground might want to send him a card expressing best wishes at:

Sharp Hospital
7901 Frost Street
San Diego, CA 92123

Dorf has written about the people he’s met and experiences he’s had at Comic Artville Library.
 

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