Remember how we reported sales of Spider-Man 3 bootlegs in China? And then how we reported Sony said that wasn’t so? Well, Sony lied. Kind of.
There certainly were Spider-Man 3 DVDs being sold in China, at one buck a pop – as reported. However, if you bought one and popped it in your player, you were likely to have seen Dan Aykroyd’s 2001 teevee comedy blockbuster Earth vs. the Spider.
Caveat Emptor.
Spider-Man 3 has already earned nearly $30,000,000 and it hasn’t even opened in the United States.
The blockbuster-in-making has taken in a bundle in such places as France, Italy, South Korea and Hong Kong, according to the Associated Press. You may have heard it’s opening in the States on Friday.
Then again, you may already be in line for the midnight showing.
There won’t be a new Doctor Who episode a week from this Saturday, also known as May 12th here on Earth. The hit show is leaving this time–space continuum to make room for the Eurovision Song Contest and if they didn’t bump it the BBC would have to move the Doctor’s starting time up and the earlier the starting time the lower the ratings so screw it, they’re taking the week off.
Of course, the BBC is ad-free, so why sweat the ratings? Whatever. We’ll live. Angry, but breathing through it.
At least Doctor Who‘s not being bounced for Dancing With The McCartneys.
I guess the first question is, what took them so long?
Frank Miller’s 1983 mini-series Ronin has been optioned by Warner Bros., no doubt noticing the success of Miller’s recent movies Sin City and 300. Whereas there are only reports of an option deal, Variety reports director Sylvain White is going to direct the live-action project.
It will come as no shock that Ronin will be shot in the blue/green screen method used for Sin City and 300.
No word on any guest-shot from Samurai Jack, who would fit in like a glove.
Comics artist Tom Artis died of complications from diabetes today at his home in Springfield, Illinois.
Tom had been hospitalized off and on for the past several years. According to his friend, fellow artist Doug Rice, Tom had been in a hospice since the beginning of the year. His wife Kim and children, Duke and Hope, were there with him when he died.
Tom’s many credits included Judge Dredd, Aliens vs. Predator, Justice Society of America, She-Hulk, The Spectre, Green Arrow, and his own creation for DC Comics (with friend and writer Peter Gillis), Tailgunner Jo.
I had the honor of working with Tom for several years; he was a talented artist and a good man. He will be missed greatly.
Three of the good folks behind Mystery Science Theater 3000 – Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbett and Mike Nelson – have done some work in various media as The Film Crew. On July 10th, they’ll be reuniting for a series of D2DVDs distributed by the Shout! Factory label.
According to the official MST3K news site Satellite News, here’s the premise: Determined to provide a commentary track for every movie, the guys settle into the dank basement of an office building, where, each day, their boss, entertainment mogul Bob Honcho, calls them on speakerphone and tells them which bad movie they will riff. There’ll be breaks in the riffing action for sketches and, best of all, no worries about whether they can eat and breathe!
First up from The Film Crew: Hollywood After Dark, the 1968 blockbuster starring Rue McClannahan, later of Golden Girls fame. Warning for the prudes and the peculiar: Rue’s got a strip scene. Three more "episodes" are in the can and will be released in upcoming months: Giant of Marathon (1959, starring Steve Reeves), Killers from Space (1954, starring Peter Graves) and The Wild Women of Wongo (1958).
Retail price will be $19.99.
Sometime following the release of the next X-Men movie – a solo Wolverine feature starring Hugh Jackson – noted comics writer (JSA) and movie producer / director / writer (Batman Begins, Blade, Ghost Rider, The Crow: City of Angels, Nick Fury, The Dark Knight, plus last week’s The Invisible) David Goyer will be directing the second X-Men spin-off, Magneto.
The movie will focus on Magneto’s “origin” – the time he spent in a Nazi concentration camp (as seen in both comics and the X-Men movies) and the years following his liberation. Whereas Sir Ian McKellen has gone on record saying he wanted to star in the movie and that they could “de-age” him with the sort of CGI effects used in X-Men III, it is expected he will only appear in framing sequences and another actor will play the younger character.
Perhaps Christopher Eccleston would do?
(Photo copyright Variety; All Rights Reserved)
Would you trust the President of the United States with your most precious secret?
If the polls are even remotely accurate, today a substantial majority of Americans would not. Perhaps any reasonable person would not trust any politically motivated opportunist with such knowledge. But there was an unfortunate time when Superman did.
In Action Comics #309, cover dated February 1964, The Big Red S needed someone to cover him at an event where it was necessary for both Superman and Clark Kent to be in attendance. I won’t trouble you with the details – Batman was similarly engaged – but Supes asked the President to stand in. Evidently having nothing better to do, John Kennedy said “sure, you bet, champ” and did the Iron Mask bit. Superman closed the story with “If I can’t trust the President of the United States, who can I trust?”
Sigh. Young-uns, now you know why we Baby Boomers long for the good old days.
Of course, the good old days weren’t always so good. Sharp-eyed reader that you are, I’m sure you noticed how this particular issue was cover-dated “February 1964.” History-aware that you also are, you knew President Kennedy was murdered in November, 1963. You probably did the math, remembered that cover dates were well in advance of newsstand release dates, and figured they (sorry about this) dodged the bullet.
No such luck. Action Comics #309 appeared in distributors warehouses about two weeks after the assassination. Editor Mort Weisinger, who by that time was well on his way towards finishing Action #313, didn’t remember the JFK story had yet to see print. Few others at the company knew of the issue’s contents. The book was not recalled at the distributors level. Comics got the lowest priority on the shipping chain: imagine Fed-Ex offering “Overnight,” “Two-day,” and “Eventually” and you’ll begin to grasp the problem.
Not that it stayed on the racks very long. Enough people saw it to express outrage, not knowing the molasses-like nature of the newsstand distribution process in those days. So word got out and many (certainly not all) retailers removed the issue. In those days, many distributors split their top-selling comics, distributing a part of the print run once again several weeks later. Those who were paying attention pulled Action #309 from this second round.
But there was Superman, answering the question: Who do you trust?
What would The Man of Steel do today? I wonder.
Mike Gold is editor-in-chief of ComicMix.com.
Artwork copyright 1963 National Periodical Publications, Inc. Renewed by DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.
If you’re going to be at this weekend’s Pittsburgh Comicon, you’ll be seeing a lot of folks wearing ComicMix t-shirts and such. That’s because a whole lot of us are going to be there – Timothy Truman, Mike Grell, Robert Tinnell, Martha Thomases, Mike Raub (podcasting and videotaping, no less), Kai Connelly, Chris Burnham, and yours truly.
Many of us will be on a panel together on Saturday at 1:00 – ask us about the new GrimJack and Jon Sable Freelance projects, badger us about Phase 2. No doubt Mr. Raub will try to stick a microphone in your face at some point; he’s a broadcaster so he can’t help himself. Timothy, Mike, and Chris will also have tables in Artist’s Alley.
We hope to see you this weekend at the Pittsburgh Comicon. For more information, click here.
Last July, Pinewood Studio’s famed 007 Stage – once the largest in the world – burned down like the final action scene in a James Bond movie. Given the type of movies being made these days, that was quite a setback to the British film industry.
The folks in Pinewood immediately started rebuilding, and now the 007 Stage is reopening as the largest sound stage in Europe – all 59,000 square feet of it.
Want to take a tour? Yep, it’s got its own website.
(Glenn Hauman contributed mightily to this story.)
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