Author: Glenn Hauman

Happy Birthday, Rene Magritte.

Britian’s ITV has a showreel for their upcoming season, with new content of interest for fans:

• The first video clips I’ve seen for the remake of The Prisoner, starring James Caviezel (The Passion of the Christ) as Number Six and Ian McKellen (X-Men, Lord Of The Rings) as Number Two. You can read more at AMC’s Prisoner production blog, with many entries by Sir Ian himself.
• Law & Order: London, starring Jamie Bamber (Battlestar Galactica) in the traditional younger detective role and Freema Agyeman (Doctor Who, Torchwood, Survivors) in the traditional female DA role. Character names? It’s Law & Order, you know the roles. Although seeing DAs in wigs is a bit weird. At least they kept the "da-dum" sound.
• Clips for season 3 of Primeval.
• A new series called Whitechapel that, as far as I can tell, has nothing to do with Warren Ellis. Unless he’s trying to recreate the Jack the Ripper killings for fun and profit. Which, come to think of it, Warren might do.

And for the obligatory comics connection, they keep using the soundtrack for The Dark Knight over clips. You’d think that soundtrack won an Oscar or someth– oops, sorry. Sore subject?

Any hits? Misses? Impending disasters? Leave your comments below.

Today on ComicMix, we’re starting a new story from Mark Ryan (Transformers) and Mike Grell (Jon Sable Freelance, James Bond: 007) that goes places no other story will go, starting from World War II to today’s war on terror to realms unknown. It’s an espionage story unlike any other, based in historical facts that are almost impossible to believe– why did Ian Fleming recruit Aleister Crowley for the war effort, anyway?

The Pilgrim is written by Mark Ryan, who has one of the most varied careers you will ever encounter in your life: as an actor, going from originating the roles of Magaldi in Evita and Nasir in Robin of Sherwood to playing Bumblebee in Transformers and appearing with Eric Idle at Carnegie Hall while wearing a green dress; as a fight director, he taught Keira Knightley, Stellan Skarsgard and Clive Owen how to swordfight; as a writer, he’s written Green Arrow for DC Comics and The Greenwood Tarot for Harper Collins– and those are the jobs we can tell you about. When he says "If I told you, I’d have to kill you", believe that he would and that he can.

Mark was inspired to write The Pilgrim upon learning about the use of psychics and occultists during World War II by Allied forces to influence the minds and strategies of the Nazi leadership, which helped save Britain from invasion. “The Pilgrim intertwines historical characters with modern paranormal capabilities used in intelligence-gathering operations to infiltrate hostile governments,” said Mark.  “It unveils a dark secret history involving classified occult research and the unmarked graves of unsung heroes who gave their lives in these desperate yet vital operations.”

Mike Grell, the comic legend behind Jon Sable Freelance, the Warlord, Green Arrow, Iron Man, James Bond, and many others, was so impressed by Mark’s script that this is the first project that Mike Grell is drawing that he didn’t write himself in over 25 years. And with the talents of Jason Millet coloring and John Workman lettering, The Pilgrim is a heck of a ride.

If you’re a fan of Warren Ellis’s Gravel or Charlie Stross’s Laundry series (or you can’t get tickets for Quantum of Solace this weekend) you’ll love this tale. But don’t take our word for it– start reading!

Sheri Kaplowitz, a.k.a. Tia Cultir, consultant for Lucasfilm, passed away today after a long battle with complications from multiple strokes.

She often couldn’t talk much about the work she did for Lucasfilm, due to the incredibly comprehensive non-disclosure agreement. I always envisioned her as part of George Lucas’s personal Jedi Council, and for all I know, she was.

Services will be held next Sunday in Boston. Our deepest condolences to her family and friends.

It’s been a good election, you all deserve a reward:

And with that, let’s close some windows:

• Robert Grandt, a librarian at Brooklyn Technical High School, was fined $500 for violating ethics codes by recommending his daughter Eve’s Shakespeare’s Macbeth — The Manga Edition as the book of the month.

• This one’s for Amy: Seth Green talks about comics, movies, Robot Chicken, and The Freshmen. And amazingly, he doesn’t want to direct.

• And speaking of Freshmen: Freshman for Life brings us the 24-hour comic, Blotchmen.

• Fundamentalists shaken by election losses have taken to writing science fiction.

• Wendy Everett, inspiration for Daredevil.

• I complain when I have to retouch a few dozen pages for reprints. Rich Keene has done almost 12,000.

• A bit late on this one, but ComicMix alumni Rick Marshall interviews various comics writers about who their characters would vote for. Oddly, none of them voted for Stephen Colbert.

• And finally, there’s nothing more surreal than reading a blog and finding out you’ve been laid off from a company you co-own.

The New York Post (I know, I know) reports that Jon Peters, the producer of Superman Returns and the Michael Keaton Batman films, has been charged with multiple violations of his parole stemming from a drunk-driving plea. Peters pleaded no contest to DUI after dozing off on the 101 Freeway in Ventura on Feb. 11, 2006. The Ventura County district attorney’s office told Page Six Peters is due in court on Jan. 16 to answer charges he failed to complete an alcohol-education program, or report to his probation officer, or complete community service.

What’s more, rumor has it a document submitted by the four-times-divorced filmmaker is being examined for alleged forgery, as it shows he did a required 40 hours of community service when he had finished only four. A Hollywood producer fudging numbers? Shocking.

Jon Peters, you may recall, is the bozo who wanted Kevin Smith to write a Superman script where Superman would never fly or appear in costume, and put the Sandman movie into development hell. And of course, the mechanical spiders. Here’s Smith’s take on the guy…