Author: Robert Greenberger

20th Century Fox Announces 75th Anniversary Video Releases

  • News
  • April 18, 2010

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment has kicked off a 12-month marketing, promotions, publicity and media campaign to honor and promote the studio’s legacy and library. The celebration will include the release of more than 300 films on Blu-ray Disc and DVD, showcasing a remarkable, rich and unparalleled heritage of great movies, Academy Award®-winners and box office smashes featuring a cast of the greatest movie stars and directors from yesterday and today.

Fox’s year-long celebration will include extensive catalog releases of more than 300 of the studio’s most notable films on Blu-ray Disc and DVD and will be supported by event publicity campaigns, national advertising, retail and account specific promotions, internal and studio driven special events and limited-edition gift with purchase promotions.

The studio has launched a dedicated Web site that will feature information about upcoming Blu-ray Disc and DVD products, theatrical releases and national and local events and promotions tied to the 75th Anniversary campaign.

The website provides consumers with a chance to win a prize daily from Fox Home Entertainment. Prizes include a chance to instantly win $75,000 or a special limited edition poster, Blu-ray Disc or DVD.

PRODUCT HIGHLIGHTS

Fox Home Entertainment will release a selection of seasonally timed singles, double and triple features and classic quads on DVD representing some of Fox’s most recognizable films. Each product includes a gift with purchase offer to redeem a limited edition 75th anniversary commemorative movie poster. Each poster features a globally recognized and iconic film image from Fox’s 75 years of glamour, dynamic duos, rebels, cult classics, screams, sci-fi and music.

The first product wave representing critically acclaimed films timed to awards season is available in stores now. (more…)

Review: ‘Merlin Season One’ on DVD

When the BBC series [[[Merlin]]] debuted two years ago, it was quickly described as a British version of [[[Smallville]]], that is a reimagining of the classic tale skewed towards teen characters for a more mass audience.

The difference, though, is that when Smallville debuted nine seasons ago, it was one of the sharpest written series on the air. The messages conveyed through dialogue, the foreshadowing, and rich experience of watching Clark Kent master his powers was slowly revealed.

Merlin, which aired in America on NBC last summer and returns this summer on SyFy, has had poor writing and lazy character development. The first season is released as a five disc DVD set on Tuesday and you can decide for yourself how palatable this look at the Arthurian legend is.

Rather than a Merlin who ages backward, this teen is a bit of a doofus, prone to gaffes but is a loyal and steadfast friend to the court. At a time when Uther Pendragon has forbidden the use of magic, Merlin comes to the court to train under Gaius, the King’s physician. As a result, every episode involves him using magic at great risk, and every episode has him learning some valuable lesson.

To be kind, the series has been very liberal in its interpretation of the characters with most being recognizable in name only. In addition to goofus Merlin, there’s gallant Arthur (Bradley James), the apple of Uther’s eye and being trained to succeed the king. He’s a callow youth only now beginning to understand the gravity of his destiny thanks to Merlin. Then there’s Guinevere (Angel Coulby), a peasant’s daughter and handmaiden to Morgana (Katie McGrath), a ward of the king and herself trying to comprehend the magic growing within her. Of course, Merlin likes Gwen, Gwen likes Arthur and Arthur likes himself. It’s complicated.

In addition to Gaius (Richard Wilson) being new to the story, there’s the chained dragon Kilgharrah, who seems to know Merlin’s destiny and provides counsel. Often, Merlin ignores it and makes the dragon, voiced by John Hurt, cry mournfully.

These thirteen episodes are largely repetitive as one or another gets into trouble, the others rally to his/her defense, Merlin does good but often pays for it in comical ways. There’s very little in the way of true danger or variety making the season a tedious one. Word is, the second season is far stronger, but they’re already lost me.

The cast, headed by Colin Morgan, is an attractive one and several guest stars could have enriched the show, starting with Michelle Ryan’s witch Nimueh. No doubt they’d all be more interesting to watch if they had good storylines or dialogue. Anthony Stewart Head is wasted as Uther, given a largely one-dimension bastard of a character to play. When his reasons for banning magic are revealed, it makes sense, but makes us sympathize with him no more.

All the tropes from [[[Excalibur]]] to [[[Mordred]]] are present, foreshadowing the legendary times ahead, all adapted in vaguely recognizable ways.

The episodes are accompanied by two making-of featurettes adding up to over an hour of information on the cast and the production. A 16 minute featurette also explores the episode focusing on the Black Knight in addition to a photo gallery, wallpapers, and a set of video diaries which are mildly amusing.

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Bergès-Frisbey In; Kruek Out

  • News
  • April 18, 2010

Several actresses of note have been cast in or out of projects so here’s a roundup.

French actress Astrid Bergès-Frisbey has been announced as playing Syrena, a mermaid, in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, the fourth film in the series. She is expected to play a key role in the further adventures of Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp).

Unknown to American audiences, she has appeared in French films including Bruc and La Première Étoile along with television fare such as La Reine Morte, and Elles et Moi . She was born in Barcelona to French-American and Catalan parents and has done stage work including Equus.

Production on the big budget film is set for later this year in Hawaii, Great Britain and Los Angeles with a May 20, 2011 release date planned. Rob Marshall (Chicago) makes his maiden voyage as director, replacing Gore Verbinski.

Meantime, Nikki Finke’s Deadline Hollywood broke the news that heartthrob Kristin Kreuk has been replaced in the CBS pilot Hitched. The site reported, “The switch was made Wednesday, just before the multicamera pilot’s table read. Kreuk starred on two drama series, including her star-making turn on Smallville, and she was wonderful in an arc on Schwartz’s NBC dramedy Chuck this season but she has never done a half-hour sitcom and Hitched ultimately proved not a perfect fit for her.” Sara Fletcher was signed to replace her.

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‘Star Trek: Vanguard’ Adds Anthology

  • News
  • April 17, 2010

While Pocket Books’ publishing program has to avoid the five year mission era of Captain Kirk and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise until 2012 when the second film from J.J. Abrams is released, that doesn’t mean there won’t be stories set in the original universe.

Star Trek: Vanguard, a novel series conceived by former editor Marco Palmieri and writer David Alan Mack in 2005, continues to tell stories during that fertile period for the United Federation of Planets and this week it has been confirmed that the series will continue with the just announced Star Trek: Vanguard – Declassified.

“This is an idea David and I hatched a few months ago, which was eagerly accepted by our editor at Pocket, Jaime Costas,” Dayton Ward wrote on his website.

Vanguard tells of the Taurus Reach, a sector of space near the Tholian border and where powerful alien artifacts speak of a once-powerful race that ruled that portion of the galaxy. The UFP is fully exploring it and has built Starbase 47 as its base of operations but such a large establishment has piqued the curiosity of the Klingons and Romulans. Over the course of the five novels to date, the sprawling story and large cast of characters  have learned many secrets and work to preserve the galactic peace.

“The plan is for this collection to be released in mass-market paperback, and indeed count as the sixth book in the current series. Each novella will feature one or more of the series’ rather large cast, with tales spanning the length of Operation Vanguard from inception right up to and perhaps even past the events of the fifth book, Precipice. Further, these aren’t intended to be throwaway tales, but will be considered integral parts of the storyline and may also even set up situations for the series’ next novel-length installments. To be honest, we’re in the midst of figuring out a lot of that as I write this. Any or all of what I just typed could change, depending on where any unhinged brainstorming takes us.

“’Wait,’ I can hear you saying out there in the audience, “who the hell is we?” I’m glad you asked. The four novellas will be written by Kevin Dilmore, David Mack, Marco Palmieri, and me.”

The series to date has included the 2005 inaugural novel,  Harbinger (Mack) along with Summon the Thunder (Ward & Dilmore), Reap the Whirlwind (Mack), Open Secrets (Ward)  and Precipice (Mack). There was also a prequel of sorts in the eBook Distant Early Warning – Star Trek: SCE. #64 (Ward & Dilmore). Declassified is expected for release sometime in 2011.

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‘Leverage’ Leaps from TNT to RPG

  • News
  • April 17, 2010

leverage-the-ro-md-1892614We here at ComicMix adore Leverage and have been eagerly awaiting tie-ins to the TNT dramatic series co-created by John Rogers. The first such product was announced this week with Margaret Weis Productions scheduled to release Leverage: The Role-Playing Game in June. The RPG will allow players to assume the roles of series regulars Nate, Elliot, Parker, Hardison, and Sophie while attempting to scheme and outwit their targets.

The Quickstart Job, a 16-page full color single scenario adventure, has been designed for June release to act as an introductory game.
 
The Leverage RPG will use the Cortex system as its foundation, and the 192-page, full color core rulebook will give players all the basics. The sourcebook Leverage: Grifters and Masterminds is due in September.  The 112-page full color trade paperback will include expanded rules for staging heists, planning capers, and working cons. 

The second season ended over the winter and will be released on DVD May 25 while the 15-episode third season is scheduled to begin running in June.

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‘Hugo Cabret’ Headed for Silver Screen in 3-D

  • News
  • April 16, 2010

Slipped into the coverage for Kick-Ass was the fact that Chloë Grace Moretz will also be seen in Martin Scorcese’s adaptation of The Invention of Hugo Cabret.

The 2007 novel from Brian Selznick is a quasi-graphic novel mixing prose with long silent stretches of graphic narrative, totaling 284 of the 533 pages found in the Scholastic release.

Scorsese, known for his graphic violence not his graphic fiction, will be making the film in 3-D. The movie will be the director’s first kid-targeted effort, with London production scheduled to begin in June. Sony has already announced a December 9, 2011 release date.

Moretz will play the daughter of Cabret who befriends an orphan (a part yet to be cast) who has been living with his uncle in the great train station. The story is largely based o the life of pioneer film-maker Georges Méliès, known for his silent film A Trip to the Moon. He was also an invention of mechanical, wind-up figures called automata which plays a major role in the story.

The novel has won the prestigious Caldecott Medal and was a 2007 National Book Award Finalist, Young People’s Literature. Scorsese bought the film rights when the hardcover was released and hired John Logan (Gladiator, Star Trek: Nemesis to write the adaptation).

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Are ‘Green Hornet’ and ‘Jonah Hex’ in Trouble?

  • News
  • April 16, 2010

IESB is among the several sites reporting that after years in development, the now shooting Green Hornet film has been underwhelming the suits at Sony. The phrase “displeased with the results” was used. Another was quoted as saying the “tone is too campy, they’re not happy with the work from director Michel Gondry and Seth Rogen does not look the part. At all. In fact, the feeling at Sony is the movie is a disaster.”

Sony of course declared the reports “complete garbage” and went on to say the executives have screened one third of the movie and find the results “outstanding… remarkable”. We’ll get a clearer idea based on what the studio cares to show fans at Comic-Con International in July.

Speaking of films in trouble, the lack of presentations at WonderCon and this weekend’s C2E2 does not bode well for Jonah Hex, the June 18 release based on the DC western anti-hero. After a splashy presentation in San Diego last summer complete with teaser footage and poster, there has been nary a bit of promotion for the Josh Brolin-led production.

Warner Bros. website offers up a synopsis and a link to a Yahoo site showing off the teaser poster from last July. In January it was confirmed that 10 days of reshoots would occur involving Brolin and costars John Malkovich, Megan Fox and Michael Fassbender. Additionally, The Hollywood Reporter noted  “Although no test screenings have taken place, the studio has decided to work on story and action during the shoots, working in 12 pages of additional script mixed in with some reshoots.”

Joining director Jimmy Hayward for the reshoots was Constantine director Francis Lawrence, listed as a consultant.

THR’s Heat Vision blog said, “Some insiders said the new infusion of scenes and money was designed to fix certain problems with the movie; others have said it’s being done to beef up the moderately budgeted pic so that it can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the big-budget tentpole crowd.”

Since then, there remains no obvious marketing campaign to make audiences aware of the movie which was moved from the relatively safe August 6 into the more competitive June 18 slot. That normally shows a sign of confidence in the finished product but temper that with the lack of appealing to the fan masses as convention season continues.

While Hex does not have direct comic book-based competition, it does follow remakes of  The A-Team and  The Karate Kid by a week and will open the same day as Toy Story 3 and is followed less than two weeks later by The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.

Rumors continue to point to disappointment with Hex which may have cooled the studio’s ardor for adapting Lobo. Guy Ritchie had been on board to direct the film but he dropped out to shoot a sequel to Sherlock Holmes. Producer Akiva Goldmsman has yet to land a replacement and Warners doesn’t appear to be in a rush.

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Captain America Gains his Peggy Carter

  • News
  • April 16, 2010

After being turned down by Emily Blunt and possibly others, Marvel Studios issued a release announcing relatively unknown actress Hayley Atwell has been added to the Captain America cast as Peggy Carter.

Atwell is known to some from her work in A&E’s disappointing remake of The Prisoner, but she has also been seen in The Duchess and Brideshead Revisited.

Peggy Carter was introduced as the Star-Spangled Avenger’s love interest when he debuted in Tales of Suspense #64  (April 1965) and was the original spy known as Agent 13. She was later reported to have suffered dementia and was confined to LarkMoore Clinic. Her niece, Sharon Carter, also dubbed Agent 13, is Cap’s enduring romance partner since Tales of Suspense #75 (March 1966).

Here’s the formal release:
 
Marvel Studios announced today that Hayley Atwell has been cast to star as Peggy Carter in the studio’s highly anticipated movie CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER opposite Chris Evans.  In the early comics, Peggy Carter fell in love with Captain America while they fought together in the war effort.  The character will be updated for the feature adaptation.  Joe Johnston will direct the film penned by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely.

Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige will produce CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER.  Alan Fine, Stan Lee, David Maisel and Louis D’Esposito will executive produce.  The film will be released in the US on July 22, 2011 and distributed by Paramount Pictures.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER will focus on the early days of the Marvel Universe when Steve Rogers volunteers to participate in an experimental program that turns him into the Super Soldier known as Captain America.
Atwell will next be seen in PILLARS OF THE EARTH, the 8-part miniseries premiering July 23 on Starz and the TV series THE PRISONER.  Her film credits include THE DUCHESS, BRIDESHEAD REVISITED and CASSANDRA’S DREAM.

In addition to CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER, Marvel Studios will release a slate of films based on the Marvel characters including the highly anticipated sequel, IRON MAN 2, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow on May 7, 2010, THOR on May 6, 2011, and Marvel Studios’ THE AVENGERS on May 4, 2012.

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Kick-Ass Goes Digital

  • News
  • April 15, 2010

In a release from Marvel Comics, just in time for tomorrow’s premier of the Kick-Ass movie:

Kick-Ass fever is sweeping the nation and now you can discover the hit series on your favorite mobile device! The complete Kick-Ass limited series is now available in single issue format for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch users through the Comixology, Iverse and Panefly applications, while PSP users can download directly to their device!

“I have an ancient cell phone given to me by a relative that’s so old it can’t take pictures so this tech is so far away from me it might as well be science fiction,” said Kick-Ass writer and co-creator Mark Millar. “But I read about it on Comic Book Resources and Marvel.com– the guys seemed excited so consider me excited by osmosis. More readers and new readers is always a good thing.”

John Romita Jr, artist and co-creator of Kick-Ass, said, “I’m excited about these advances in technology that I have been hearing about for, what seems like ten years. Now it has arrived, and all I can think of is that it advances the state of ‘comic books’ in that it will direct people to the source material. I believe this will cement the tangible material, the comics themselves, into the hands and minds of future ‘young’ generations! It always comes down to the quality of writing and the sequential art. Holding a comic and turning the page for more will forever be a novelty, even with advanced technology as an option.”

Review: ‘Cocoon’

Ron Howard was a beloved child actor who showed some directing chops with [[[Splash]]], a fantasy-themed comedy but he truly showed that he was a director to be taken seriously with his follow-up, 1985’s Cocoon
. The movie was light-hearted, but a drama, which immediately showed his range. Additionally, Howard worked with a collection of veteran actors and he coaxed terrific performances from them all, resulting in Don Ameche’s Supporting Actor Oscar.

The movie is referenced now and then but has largely slipped from the collective consciousness, which is a shame, because it’s a nice story, well told, and worth seeing again. 20th Century Home Entertainment has released a 25th anniversary edition on Blu-ray and interestingly, rather then now-common combo pack, this a single Blu-ray disc retailing for the reasonable $24.95.

Watching the movie is a delight because we see long-gone veterans like Ameche, Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy, Jack Gilford, and Maureen Stapleton in poignant roles as seniors.

David Saperstein’s novel provided the springboard for Tom Benedek’s adaptation which posits that 10 millennia ago, beings from distant Antarea came to Earth and formed an outpost on what is now considered the lost continent of Atlantis. As the cataclysm claimed the land, all but 20 members of the exploration team left the planet. Those who remained behind were shrouded in cocoons, waiting for the day they could be brought home.

When four of their brethren return, led by Brian Dennehy, they rent a home, collect the cocoons and charge a swimming pool with lifeforce to sustain the 20 survivors until the Antareans could bring them home.

Nearby, though, is a retirement home filled with people looking at the twilight of their lives, but some refuse to give up without a fight. Ameche, Cronyn, and Wilford Brimley sneak off and take a dip in the neighboring pool, rejuvenated by the lifeforce. They’re spry, energetic, even amorous and loving every minute of it. When Dennehy discovers them, he decides no harm, no foul and lets them continue to enjoy themselves.

The one who can never take joy from life, Gilford, also learns Dennehy’s secret but stays out of the water. He sees the bleakness of life and inevitability of death so refuses to take a dip or even bring his terminal wife, Herta Ware to heal. Instead, he lets his feelings fester until he blurts out the secret and suddenly everyone else in the home wants a chance at a second life, setting up the moving denouement.

Actions, we’re shown, have consequences and Howard lets things play out nicely. It’s a relatively simple story, using a science fiction setting to tell a story about people dealing with aging and the end of their years. Even this second chance has them reflecting in touching ways, with one another, their alien hosts, and their families. There are many wonderful performances here, capped by Ameche’s winning role, but everyone rises to the occasion, even younger folk like Steve Guttenberg, in one of his less obnoxious roles.

You can’t help but like a film such as this. The video transfer is fine if unexceptional as is the audio aided by the Dolby digital. Sadly, for a 25th anniversary edition, they merely replicated Howard’s commentary and five featurettes from the 1994 DVD release, totaling maybe 20 minutes all told. While many of the performers are gone, some sort of look back was in order and this is a missed opportunity.

(more…)

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