The Point -Bazooka Joe Gets A Movie Deal!
PRESS THE BUTTON to Get The Point! And be sure to stay on The Point via
, RSS, MyPodcast.Com or Podbean
Transcript
Hello, it's Mike Raub. Welcome into your three-day weekend. It's The Point where all parts of pop culture come together. Still hanging out for a bit on Broadway with The Toxic Avenger, your favorite TV shows? Well, some are coming back, some aren't. Jay books his last guest, Archie's getting married, and Mike Gold says if you're feeling bad, eat a candy bar. It's Friday, May 22, 2009 and we get to The Point right now.
This is The Point, The Point radio, get The Point radio. In 1984, Lloyd Kaufman introduced The Toxic Avenger to the big screen, and he remained there as a staple of midnight movies for decades. Now The Toxic Avenger is on a bigger stage, Broadway, the New World stage on West 50th in New York City, to be exact, and producer Tom Pullum explains how the road got them there. Well, Gene and I, Gene Cheever and
I, came up with the idea to do this as a musical, and the first person we went to was Joe. We said, hey Joe, would you be interested in doing this as a musical? And he said, I know the movie. It's a perfect idea for a musical about the most polluted town in New Jersey, and that's how it started about three and a half years ago. Joe DePitbro was the guy charged with writing the script and putting together the music.
I thought, my God, this is a fantastic idea for a small, utterly ridiculous, fun musical. So, yeah, so that was the idea, and we wanted to turn it into a bit of Theater of the Ridiculous, where it was five people playing all the roles, and just this wild, great, fun, funny, rocking, musical romping. You've seen some of the trauma films, and you know they have well a unique quality about
them. So was it fun bringing that flavor to the big stage? Totally. We wanted to really capture the spirit of Lloyd Kaufman's trauma films, so we really wanted something that was out there and a little bit edgy, but that really had wide appeal that everyone could understand. And we also tried to create characters with some heart to it. So even though it's crazy and as funny and as out there as it gets, you
actually understand these people and like these people and follow their stories. Although he might be just a little prejudiced, Tom says it's all a good time. The show is hysterically funny at a time when we really need to laugh and have a great time, Lloyd himself who started the horror comedy genre back in the 1980s and started this thing going. I think that in times of economic distress, which we saw in the 1980s, kind of seeing
feeling the same thing again, it's interesting what people are being drawn to. And I think that The Toxic Avenger had a huge chance on the stage and perhaps as a revival in the film world. The movie becoming a musical and back into a movie, well, Joe's got an opinion on that. I would love that. And we just opened and we've had some interest, so it would be great.
I mean, The Toxic Avenger musical as a movie, I think would be fantastic. So I'm hoping that happens. There are a lot of other characters in the trauma universe who also could fit well on a big stage. I haven't thought that far because we just opened the show. But I do have to say Kabuki
Man NYPD is one of the best titles ever for a movie, ever. It's fantastic. It's hard to take the show to other cities as well. But right now The Toxic Avenger is showing at the New World stage in New York City. It's Friday, May 22nd, 2009. Here's what we're talking about in pop culture this week. It's the age old story in comics, the big gap in numbers between the people who love
it and the people who buy it. Marvel's Captain Britain and the MI-13 ends with issue number 15. That's the one scheduled for July. Writer Paul Cornell says that pretty much the story arc he intended is coming to a close anyway. So the book does have a good ending. No word on whether Captain Britain will appear in other Marvel series before the end of the year.
And one other pending cancellation may affect your comic buying Sojo Beat, the regular magazine targeting anime material. Looks like that might be coming to an end in July as well. Sojo Beat has been around for about four years. Published by Viz and the problems again seem to be circulation. There's a couple of bits of news out there about casting for the Thor movie. That's the
one done of course by Marvel Studios and directed by Kenneth Branagh. Scheduled for a couple years from now. Right now it looks like an unknown actor named Tom Hiddleston, at least unknown in the United States, will be playing Loki and there's strong rumors that actor Chris Hemsworth will take the part of Thor. Hemsworth you might remember a little bit more. He's the guy who played James Kirk's father in the new Star Trek movie.
Hiddleston definitely seems to have the part of Loki. However Hemsworth, well that's still a strong internet rumor but you know how those go. Marvel Studios plans to release Thor in 2011. And in just a little more casting news it looks like the Man Drake The Magician movie is back on the go list and Hayden Christensen has nailed the part of Man Drake in the movie
which is said to be directed by the person that also handled The Peacemaker and Deep Impact. There might be some extra credit here for your English lit class but Boom Studios has announced they're going to be publishing a four issue mini series and the subject writer Edgar Allan Poe. They say it's not what you think it is. Poe's relationship with famous
characters and stories from his body of work are pretty much what this is going to consist of but there's also a twist that involves an alternate history and well you'll have to read it to see it. The four issue mini series which by the way has a couple of different very nice variant covers begins in July from Boom Studios. You might have missed this one but DC Comics now has the rights to the Golden Age Fall Hero Doc Savage and they're planning
on a series involving him in the very near future. It'll be set in a universe totally different from the rest of the DC heroes so don't look for a Superman or Batman crossover just yet. By the way more strong internet rumors and little teases being given out of conventions that DC also may be on the way to announcing a shadow series as well. Got a few minutes to kill where there's a couple of real interesting clips available on the
internet both from ABC TV. One is a new clip from the upcoming series Flight Forward that's the one we told you about a few days ago. David S. Goyer is the producer. It's on ABC. It's been compared to Lost a little bit but it's probably not necessarily a fair comparison. Flash Forward tells the story of a mysterious event that encompasses the earth causing everyone to black out and be given a glimpse into the near future. How the world deals with it and
what causes the event in the first place is the focus of the program. Meanwhile there's also clips available for the new incarnation of V coming to ABC. Interesting clips because it features Elizabeth Mitchell from Lost as one of the regulars which begs the question of what's going to happen to Juliet after that mom went off. Oops. Was that a spoiler? Well come on it's been a week already. Catch up on your television. V premieres on the
ABC schedule coming this fall. According to comments made earlier in the week from Dan Aykroyd it looks like Ghostbusters 3 is still on track. Dan says that the movie will involve the older characters passing the torch to a new set of Ghostbusters and he also confirmed that not only himself but Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson and Sigourney Reaver are all definitely involved in the third Ghostbusters movie. He also says that the cameras could
start rolling as early as this winter on Ghostbusters 3. The final piece has seemed to be falling into place for the 2009-2010 TV season ABC added a few more things to the list back in business for Better Off Ted and Castle both renewed. However Samantha Who fell by the axe due to budget considerations and won't be renewed by ABC. Meanwhile over on NBC it looks like Heroes is going to move to the 8 o'clock on Monday night time slot to be
followed after the mid-season break in January by the new run of Chuck in that very same time period. There's no word by the way still on the fate of My Name Is or All of Their Strong Rubors if another network may pick that one up as well. By the way over the summer if you're missing some of your favorite shows some great webisodes are planned for a number of them including Heroes and The Office and they'll be available at NBC.com. Time is fast
approaching when you're going to have to make your decision on just which of the Watchmen DVDs you're going to want to pick up. Scheduled to hit stores the 21st of July and you're going to have a couple of different choices. First of all there's the Watchmen's Director's Cut 2-disc Digital Copy Special Edition. Not an easy title but here's what it contains. The Director's Cut which has 25 additional minutes of footage including a lot more Rorschach
and the scene of Hollis Mason's death. You get several different documentaries. You get the webisodes of the Watchmen and the My Chemical Romance music video as well plus a digital copy. Then there's the Director's Cut Blu-ray Disc that has everything we mentioned above plus the maximum movie mode with Watchmen Director Zack Snyder as your host telling you everything you need to know about the movie plus director walk-ons, scene analysis
and picture and picture video from the cast and the crew as well as side by side comparisons of the graphic novel in the film and timeline comparisons of our world to the world of Watchmen. Again both those DVDs and of course a regular one for those who just want to watch the movie will be in DVD stores on the 21st of July. It's been a while since it left television but there's still a lot going on in the Buffy universe. That of course in the Dark Horse
series known as Buffy Series 8 where a lot of familiar names and faces are turning up starting with former Buffy writer Jane Espenson. She's returning to the series with a new story arc starting in Buffy number 26 that will involve the return of Oz and a couple of other villains as well. Again Buffy is from Dark Horse. Right now they're running a Tales of the Vampire story arc. That will take place this month and then Buffy number 26 with the
return of Seth Green's Oz and a new story arc from writer Jane Espenson hits comic stores in June from Dark Horse. The summer convention season just about ready to get underway in the comic book world means a lot of different things but one of the most important means it's a great time to join the comic book legal defense fund. There's a number of different membership levels and a lot of variety of incentives to thank you for supporting the
group. Starting with a membership card you get it's got some great artwork by Mark Ballar and John Romita Jr. featuring Kickass. Members only get a downloadable wallpaper for the computer as well. You also get a discount at any of the legal defense fund merchandise sold at conventions over the summer. If you want to go a little higher to a different level of membership you can get things like an oversized issue of Rassle by Jeff Smith.
Liberty Comics number one signed by Walt Simonson. Buffy season eight volume one limited hardcover that's also signed and a lot more. For a full list of the goodies or more importantly to join as soon as possible go to cbldf.org. April was a better month in comic sales with direct market comic book stores reporting on Upsweep which is a good thing. Some of the biggest sellers in comic stores for April included Thor number 601 and number 10, number
nine was Green Lantern number 39 part of the origins tie-in. Number eight Justice Society of America number 26 ad number seven Hulk number 11 for Marvel. At number six another DC title Batman Battle for the Cowl number two. Number five best-selling comic last month was New Avengers number 52. At number four Dark Avengers number four. Number three Wolverine Weapon X number one. Number two was Flesh Rebirth number one and the best-selling comic of the
month. Detective Comics number 853 second part of the Neil Gaiman and Andy Coopert story there from DC Comics. CBS has dropped that last shoe as far as what's happening on their network with the new fall season and there's a couple of surprises here. A lot of returns of course no problem there CBS was the number one network for pretty much most of this season and was the only network to have an increase in audience. Coming back all the favorites including Two and a Half Men, The
Mentalist, The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, most of the CSI shows, Ghost Whisperer, Cold Case and others. Some new things on the CBS agenda include Miami trauma which is coming in mid-season, a new police drama called The Bridge which I'm not mistaken has a few familiar faces from Battlestar Galactica in it and the most interesting is the addition of Medium from NBC to the CBS lineup. It'll join Ghost Whisperer for a two-hour supernatural block on Fridays on CBS.
There was a touch of sarcasm as he said. Sugar is now health food? Wow who would have thunk it? What a thunk it. Items on the healthy foods list trade positions with those on the bad foods list more frequently than Crystal Meth Freaks trade partners and a sex orgy. So now it turns out that real sugar is good
for you. Well at least it is this week. The folks at Pepsi Cola are test marketing a product unfortunately named Pepsi Throwback. Yes Pepsi Throwback. No kidding. I'll let you consider that moniker for a moment. The big deal about Pepsi Throwback and I can barely say the name is that instead of high fructose corn syrup they're using sugar hence the name Throwback. No they're not selling it for
a nickel a bottle. Trigger is healthier than high fructose corn syrup to be sure but it is not repeat not healthy. A 16 ounce serving contains 54 grams of sugar which is roughly the same as four standard Milky Way candy bars. Yeah it's a throwback all right. I'll throw back to the times when you could sell shiny crap with something other than snake oil. This is weird scenes inside the gold mind. I'm Mike Gold on the point.
Three day weekend is coming up but first let's go back to 1982. British Marine Commandos and paratroopers stormed the Falkland Islands in a major air ground assault. Public outcry forced the California parole board to cancel the hearing of convicted assassin Sirhan Sirhan. A Minnesota rape victim who managed to kill her attacker sued his estate with the approval of that state's Supreme Court. In the movie's top of the ticket list was the oh so artsy Chariots of Fire. Also
there was a stranger is watching Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid with Steve Martin, Warren Beatty in Reds and a future governor as Conan the Barbarian. TV Tonight at Harbor Valley and One of the Boys. Couple of easily forgotten shows. Couple of long-standing series. There was a Love Boat and Fantasy Island on ABC and Late Night at Saturday Night Live with Olivia Newton-John as the host. On the radio was a guy who had one of the longest running chart hits of the 70s, a song called I Go
Crazy. He tried it all over again with this one. It's 65 Love Affair. Here's Paul Davis. 65 Love Affair. We weren't getting nowhere. But we didn't care. It was crazy.
65 Love Affair. Rocking in a circle and wave. I still can hear. I can hear it, baby. All right. Next stop is 1968.
Police stormed a barricaded building on the Columbia University campus, injuring over 70 protesters, all who were a part of the Students for a Democratic Society. Pylons of the Suez Canal erupted when Israeli and Egyptian troops fought a 30-minute gun battle. The economy in France faced serious damage when 8 million workers went on strike for better wages and benefits. In the movies there was Madigan, there was A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die, Yours Mind and Ours with Bob Hobbs and Lucio Ball,
and a film imported from Britain with a lot of great critical acclaim. It was called Poor Cow with a great soundtrack from Donovan. TV tonight there was Lost in Space with the Virginian over on NBC that was run for your life and for the more sophisticated, a comedy on CBS that got a lot of critical acclaim, called He and She. Time Machine.
Oh, the radio changing their name from Tom and Jerry was probably the second best thing they ever did. The first was to get involved with a movie called The Graduate. Here's Simon Agarbunkel and Mrs. Robinson. That puts a cap on our week. Enjoy your holiday weekend. We'll be back on The Tale Ed on Monday with the story of How to Be a Bad Guy.
It's not as hard as you think. The Point is produced by Malgadette Media and heard on great websites like michaeldavisworld.com, ComicMix.com, zccomics.com and ravenswolfstudios.com. Get us in the iTunes podcast directory. Search under The Point Radio. We're also on my podcast dot com and Podbean.
And get in touch with us by writing me a mic and get the point radio dot com. See you on Memorial Day.
