Author: Robert Greenberger

Gina Torres, Superwoman

  • News
  • February 24, 2010

On Monday, I identified Gina Torres as giving the best vocal performance in this week’s Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths. Courtesy of Warner Home Video, here’s an interview with the women we know for her work on Alias, Angel, Firefly and countless other films and television series.

Torres had an unanticipated assist in bringing about the powerful, yet sultry voice of Superwoman, coming into the booth in the final days of a bad flu that slightly lowered her vocal range and added a smoky sexiness to the outstanding performance. Even more impressive is her perfect match with the voice of Owlman, James Woods – considering the two actors recorded on opposite coasts, weeks apart, and have never met each other.

Torres has also spent some time in the animated world, working with Warner Bros. Animation as Vixen on Justice League.

QUESTION: As you stepped into the sound booth to voice Superwoman, were you actually feeling wickedly sexy, delightfully cruel and ultimately powerful … or was that all just acting?

GINA TORRES: I’m so glad they called me to do Superwoman, (she laughs) because I was in the mood to get back in there and be a badass. Superwoman is one of those super heroes that knows her power, and is very comfortable in her power. And it’s all cat – it’s no mouse with her. She likes to bat around her prey and she really enjoys what she’s doing.

In the booth, you sort of have to become this person. When you’re not on stage with other actors and you’re not on camera, you really get to free up your body and do all kinds of things that maybe aren’t as pretty on camera. You get to have a good time getting your whole body involved in the interpretation. (more…)

IDW Announces ‘A-Team’ Prequels

  • News
  • February 24, 2010

IDW and 20th Century-Fox released the following information today: 

San Diego, CA (February 22, 2010) – In anticipation of the summer movie event The A-Team, starting in March, IDW Publishing, in partnership with Twentieth Century Fox Licensing & Merchandising (Fox Licensing), will launch two A-Team comic book series, entitled A-Team: Shotgun Wedding and A-Team: War Stories. The original stories penned and inked by some of the industry’s biggest names, will give fans an in-depth look at the upcoming action-adventure from Twentieth Century Fox – The A-Team – which will hit theatres June 11, 2010.

“Like many, I was a huge fan of the original A-Team television series in the 80’s,” said A-Team comic editor and co-writer Tom Waltz.  “I’m happy to report, after reading the new movie script, the updated A-Team movie has all the wit, swagger and kick-ass action of the original series, but tells a story much bigger than was possible on the show.  For our comics, we’ve worked directly with the filmmakers to build a solidly action-packed foundation for a new generation of A-Team fans.”

“This comic project is the ideal collaboration between the studio, the production, the filmmakers and the publisher maximizing everyone’s talents for the best product. IDW has demonstrated their ability to bring on some of the best writers and artists in the comic book industry and work closely and effectively with all the constituents. The A-Team has a huge following and these comics, much like the upcoming film, contemporize this enormously popular action-adventure franchise and deliver fresh, compelling stories and art to the fans,” said Virginia King, Vice President U.S. Sales for Fox Licensing & Merchandising.  

Taking inspiration from the eagerly anticipated feature film – The A-Team – the comic book series provides the back story for the characters in the film and documents several of the team’s first missions. War Stories features four stand-alone, bi-weekly issues that each focus on a different member of the team, offering details of their Desert Storm adventures as Army Rangers before each joins The A-Team. Each series will also be collected into individual graphic novels, available in stores in May.

Co-written by comics great Chuck Dixon (G.I. Joe) and Erik Burnham (Nanovor: Game Day), the series kicks off with Hannibal and B.A. in March, followed by Face and Murdock in April.  Each team member’s story will feature a different artist in order to best bring out every character’s individual personality.  Hugo Petrus (Marvel Illustrated) will provide interior art for Hannibal, and Casey Maloney (G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra) tackles B.A. in March.  In April, Alberto Muriel (Legion: Prophets) revives Face, followed by Guiu Vilanova (After the Fire), who delivers Murdock. Fan-favorite artist Michael Gaydos (Alias) will provide covers for every issue.

“I was a devoted A-Team fan from the first episode and love all of these characters. Pure action and excitement,” said Chuck Dixon.  “I jumped at the chance to join Erik and work on this property and it’s been better than expected. The dialogue and characterizations came so naturally to me, it was scary.”

Also starting in March, A-Team: Shotgun Wedding, a bi-weekly four issue series, gives fans a taste of the team’s missions after they’ve officially formed The A-Team.  This original adventure, co-plotted by  the movie’s director, Joe Carnahan, and Waltz (who also handles the scripting) follows the team from frigid Alaska to sunny San Diego and onto a wedding cruise that becomes utter chaos. Artist Stephen Mooney (Angel: After the Fall) adds heat to every explosion,  while John K. Snyder III offers eye-catching covers.

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Review: ‘Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths’

jl-crisis-bd-3dskew-42-3085184DC Comics brought the notion of parallel universes to comics, beginning with the classic “[[[Flash of Two Worlds]]]” and then began the annual team-ups between the Justice League of America and the Justice Society of America. Since then, the inhabitants of Earth -3, the Crime Syndicate of America, have been interpreted and reinterpreted with regularity. As a result, they have remained a popular aspect of the multiverse and certainly ripe for use in animation.

[[[Justice League: Crisis on Two Worlds]]] brings us a brand new take on the CSA, using Grant Morrison’s [[[JLA: Earth-2]]] graphic novel as a launching pad and going in a brand new direction.  The original animated feature goes on sale this month in a variety of formats from Warner Premiere and Warner Home Video. With a script from veteran comics and animation writer Dwayne McDuffie, the story posits an early version of the JLA with a limited membership. We open as they are still building their satellite headquarters only to have their work interrupted by the arrival of the parallel universe Lex Luthor.

On his world, the CSA has effectively taken control of the world, dividing it in six sections with each member exerting control through ten super-powered “made men”. Luthor and the Jester were the last of the metahuman resistance but the Joker-doppelganger sacrifices himself, taking their version of the Martian Manhunter with him, to allow Luthor to escape.

The JLA argues whether or not their mission should include other realties and when Batman is outvoted, he remains behind to oversee construction. The others cross the barrier and the action begins, rarely letting up. Overall, it’s a swift story that’s very entertaining with some playful touches including Slade Wilson as Earth-2’s US President. We see many “evil” versions of familiar JLAers in addition to the addition of new heroes to the JLA, so we get to watch the growth of the World’s Greatest Super-Heroes.

It’s far from perfect including my dislike for the character designs. Each of the Warner Premier videos is stand-alone and that seems to mean they are forced to reimagine how the heroes appear. This time, they’re a little too lean, too angular to appear as powerful as they should be, notably Superman. While a stellar alignment of voices is used, most feel miscast or bad matches to the characters designed. For me, the best characterization, dialogue and voice work are seen in Superwoman, performed by Gina Torres.

The overall threat, put into place by Owlman, has a poor rationale while the resolution leaves huge dangling threads. It’s a good effort, overall, but also not WP’s strongest offering.

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Bruce Timm offers New Insights

  • News
  • February 19, 2010

Executive producer Bruce Timm offers new perspective on the creation of Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, the latest entry in the ongoing series of DC Universe animated original movies,  and The Spectre, the inaugural DC Showcase animated short, in an all-new Q&A with the guru of super hero animation provided to ComicMix by Warner Home Video.
The full-length animated Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths on February 23 as a Special Edition 2-disc version on DVD and Blu-ray, as well as single disc DVD, and On Demand and Download. We will be reviewing this on Sunday.Timm, the executive producer has been the creative force behind many of Warner Bros. Animation’s modern-day successes, elevating DC Comics’ canon of super heroes to new heights of animated popularity and introducing generations of new fans to the characters via landmark television series and made-for-DVD films. The latter task includes the creation of the current series of DC Universe animated original movies, which have drawn critical acclaim and further whetted the public’s appetite for comic book entertainment.

Question: What excites you about Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths?

Bruce Timm: In a weird kind of way, this is a return to my favorite show Justice League Unlimited. The original script was intended to be the bridge story between Justice League and Justice League Unlimited to explain how we went from seven heroes to more than 50 super heroes. We loved the story and the script, and it floated around here for years while we tried to figure out what to do with it – it was considered for a comic, but fortunately that got shot down. Then we took a look at it and, with just a few slight tweaks, we jumped at the chance to make it a DC Universe movie.

Question: What sets it apart from the TV version of Justice League?

Bruce Timm: It’s a very satisfying, grand scale adventure movie with a big cast of interesting, quirky characters. It’s amazing how much it feels like a great episode of Justice League Unlimited as a big, epic film with slightly different visual stylings. That’s a good thing.

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Neil Gaiman to Edit Best Comics Collection

  • News
  • February 17, 2010

Houghton Mifflin announced the editor for their 2010 Best American anthologies. The well-regarded line of books continues with familiar names handling many of our favorite genres.ComicMix readers can start saving up for the Comics collection to be edited by Neil Gaiman.

Here’s the complete list:

The Best American Short Stories 2010: Richard Russo

The Best American Essays 2010: Christopher Hitchens

The Best American Comics: Neil Gaiman

The Best American Nonrequired Reading: Dave Eggers (guest introducer: David Sedaris)

The Best American Science and Nature Writing: Freeman Dyson

The Best American Mystery Stories: Lee Child

The Best American Travel Writing: Bill Buford

The Best American Sports Writing 2010: Peter Gammons

The Best American Noir of the Century: Otto Penzler and James Ellroy

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Review: ‘Graylight’

Graylight

By Naomi Nowak
NBM ComicsLit, 144 pages, $12.95

[[[Graylight]]] is a wispy story surrounded with lovely, ethereal artwork, but utterly fails to create characters or situations with enough clarity to maintain your interest. The attractive Swedish artist hails from Sweden and developed her style as she discovered comics and began producing graphic novels, influenced by European albums and [[[Manga]]].

She received excellent notices for her first two offerings and this third book, released this month through NBM’s ComicsLit imprint, is said to be aimed at women 16 to 24.

It’s attractive and certainly a quick read but everything is sketchy. A woman has a son, Edmund, sees her mate walk away, and then she becomes a reclusive and famous author. Erik, middling journalist arrives in town to seek her out for a profile but first encounters Sasha, a woman who claims to be collecting geological samples but clearly has been drawn to the area for other reasons. She’s been there long enough to develop relationships with the locals and has a demonstrated habit of stealing. When she accompanies the journalist, the woman is offended that permission wasn’t obtained before hand and is rude. The younger woman leaves but not before stealing a book. Over the next few weeks, the handsome son stalks her in the hopes of retrieving his mother’s book.

So, we have several triangles going: the two women and the son; the two men and the woman. Toss in some witchcraft and you have the makings of something interesting.

Nowak’s pastels and art are lovely to look upon and her page compositions are interesting to study. Somewhere along the way, though, she needs to stop and learn storytelling, both in words and pictures. Her characters are underdeveloped and the exact motivations for the reclusive mother/witch are murky at best. Who Sasha is and what she really wants is left up in the air.

The story is sparse and the dialogue does nothing to help the reader. In fact, her characters need more distinctive voices to help make them more identifiable.  While lovely to look at it, its misty look and feel is easily forgotten because you care nothing for the people and the situation. The book has no substance and can be easily dismissed. If you like Nowak’s art, then check this out, otherwise, wait until she has something to say.

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Paramount Announces Fourth ‘Mission: Impossible’

  • Uncategorized
  • February 10, 2010

mission-impossible-logo-2825419Paramount Pictures has gone out of their way to announce Mission: Impossible 4  — what feels like a rushed project, coming out in just over a year.

The film is being described as a reboot, without J.J. Abrams behind the camera and will most likely introduce agents to take over the franchise. It also arrives during a packed May 2011 which already has scheduled Thor (5/6), Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (5/20), and The Hangover 2 (5/26).

HOLLYWOOD, CA (February 9, 2010) – Paramount Pictures announced today that it is making “Mission Impossible IV.” The film, which will be produced by Tom Cruise, J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot Productions and will star Cruise, will be released Memorial Day weekend 2011.

“Tom and J.J. are great talents and we are excited to be working with them to re-launch this legendary franchise,” said Paramount Pictures Chairman & CEO Brad Grey.
 
Screenwriters Josh Applebaum and Andre Nemec are attached to write the script, from an original idea by Cruise and Abrams.

The studio, Cruise and Abrams are in now the process of identifying a director for the film.

 Abrams’s last project with Paramount was “Star Trek,” which he produced and directed. The film grossed $385 million globally.  Cruise’s “Mission Impossible” franchise has grossed over 1.4 billion globally.

“Mission Impossible IV” will be co-financed by David Ellison’s Skydance Productions.

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Review: ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show – The Complete Sixth Season’

There were many groundbreaking television series as the 1970s arrived and most have been extensively written about because of their casting or long-term cultural impact. Norman Lear made the sitcoms more relevant by making his characters more like us and Larry Gelbart helped make sitcoms comment on issues of the day by adding an edge to the humor. But James L. Brooks, Allan Burns and company helped bring about a revolution in character-based comedy with [[[The Mary Tyler Moore Show]]].

Running from the 1970-71 season through the 1976-77 season, the series was built around Mary, a single, independent working girl. Initially, she was to be divorced but CBS wasn’t ready for that but she still broke ground. She had friends at home and at work, she dated, she gave terrible parties, but was exceptionally competent at her job, producing the evening news at WJM.

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment finally released the penultimate season this month and as with the best of comedy, it’s all in the timing. One of the show’s best writers, David Lloyd, died recently and just about every obituary singled out his episode “Chuckles Bites the Dust”, which is included in The Complete Sixth Season three-disc set so now we can see it once more.

By the sixth season, neighbor Rhoda Morgenstern (Valerie Harper) had been spun off into her show as was her landlady Phyllis (Cloris Leachman) so the series focused more on the newsroom. By now, the relationships and inter-personal dynamics between Mary, her boss Lou (Ed Asner), the news writer Murray (Gavin McLeod), and anchor Ted (Ted Knight) had been sharpened. The ensemble worked well together and their comic timing is strongly evident here, especially when they’re all together such as at Chuckles’ funeral. The supporting cast had been broadened allowing Betty White’s salacious Su Ann Nivens and Georgia Engels’ innocent Georgette to gain more screen time and each get showcased during the 24 episode season. It may have been MTM’s name in the title, but she graciously allowed everyone to take their turn.

The season opens and closes interestingly on characters not Mary. “Edie gets Married” is a terrific spotlight for Asner as he watches his ex remarry while “Ted and the Kid” shows how Ted and Georgette struggle to conceive only to wind up adopting (spoiling the episode was the pat pregnancy at the end). In between, we see Mary date and fall in love, only to have her heart snapped in two. She meets new neighbors, recurring characters played by Mary Kay Place and Penny Marshall (just as she gained fame as Laverne). Place, by the way, also wrote for the series so her contributions were strongly felt.

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Review: ‘Amelia’ on Blu-ray

America loved [[[Amelia]]]] Earhart, as much for her pioneering work in the sky, but for being a woman of accomplishment at a time women were still getting used to having the right to vote. She was celebrated in book, story, and song up to her disappearance over the Pacific Ocean in 1937. Since then, her story has been told and retold numerous times and the woman herself has been portrayed by the likes of Rosalind Russell, Diane Keaton, and Jane Lynch. On [[[Star Trek: Voyager]]] she was portrayed by Sharon Lawrence and most recently, Amy Adams displayed her as a plucky, ready-for-action woman in [[[Night at the Museum 2]]].

But, until Hilary Swank was cast as Amelia in the recent Mira Nair film, it had been some time before her story had been explored on screen. It’s a shame that the movie wasn’t a better, more engaging product. Swank is picture perfect as Earhart and Richard Gere was well cast as her husband G.P. Putnam.

The movie, out now on DVD from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, is solemn and sucks the joy out of flying and doesn’t really let us into Earhart’s mind. Instead, the movie goes through the motions but the motivations and emotions are all kept at a distance. Structurally, her fateful final flight is intercut throughout which is a nice concept but really interrupts the flow of the film itself.

While she goes from passenger on her maiden trip over the Atlantic to full-fledged pilot on her next outing, we never see her train or work at aeronautics. Meantime, the plans she takes up grow more sophisticated and no doubt more challenging. The movie does a better job showing how Putnam, already a successful publisher, reaps a tidy sum from endorsement deals. He says it’s to invest in her career but it’s told, not shown, violating one of the storytelling rues Also, her affair with Gene Vidal (Ewan McGregor) is present but we never understand how she recoils her feelings for both men and why she ultimately chooses to stay with Putnam. The movie also addresses the rumor of her affair with navigator Fred Noonan (Christopher Eccleston with a horrible American accent).

What makes the DVD worth checking out, though, are the archival Movietone film clips showing us the real media frenzy around Lady Lindy. The Blu-ray disc has plenty of these and they’re worth checking out. Also, the nearly 14 minutes of deleted scenes actually answers some of the questions above, making one wonder about how this was edited. There is also the by-the-numbers Making Amelia; The Power of Amelia Earhart which has everyone discuss the pilot’s significance; The Plane Behind the Legend, a nice piece on the final plane in her life; and Re-constructing the Planes of Amelia, which is for the model makers in the audience. The two-disc set comes with the requisite digital copy.

The video transfer is particularly crisp and a joy to watch, make one want to soar along with Amelia, something the film itself fails to do.

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Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths gets big-screen Premieres on Two Coasts

  • News
  • February 5, 2010

jl-crisis-bd-3dskew-4-5478269Warner Home Video, Newsarama.com and The Paley Center for Media proudly present the bi-coastal World Premieres of Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, the highly anticipated next entry in the ongoing series of DC Universe animated original PG-13 movies, in New York on February 16 and in Beverly Hills on February 18. Filmmakers and members of the voice cast are expected to attend both events.

On February 16, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths will screen at The Paley Center in New York City (25 West 52nd Street) with a media interviews starting at 5:30 p.m. and screening commencing at 6:30 p.m. A panel discussion with filmmakers and voice cast will follow the screening.

On February 18, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths will screen at The Paley Center in Beverly Hills (465 North Beverly Drive) with media interviews starting at 6:00 p.m. and screening commencing at 7:00 p.m. A panel discussion with filmmakers and voice cast will follow the screening.

Media wishing to attend the premieres must RSVP via email to WHVRSVP@gmail.com.

A limited number of free tickets are available for the general public. Fans in New York City wishing to receive free tickets to the NY event on Feb. 16 must RSVP via email to justiceleagueNY@newsarama.com. Fans in the Los Angeles area wishing to receive free tickets to the Beverly Hills event on Feb. 18 must RSVP via email to justiceleagueLA@newsarama.com. Tickets to both events will be distributed on a “first come, first served” basis. 

In Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, a “good” Lex Luthor arrives from an alternate universe to recruit the Justice League to help save his Earth from the Crime Syndicate, a gang of villainous characters with virtually identical super powers to the Justice League. What ensues is the ultimate battle of good versus evil in a war that threatens both planets and, through a diabolical plan launched by Owlman, puts the balance of all existence in peril.

A star-studded cast provides the voices behind the super heroes and villains, led by Mark Harmon (NCIS) as Superman, James Woods (Mississippi Burning) as Owlman, Chris Noth  (Law & Order, Sex and the City) as Lex Luthor, William Baldwin (Dirty Sexy Money) as Batman, Gina Torres (Firefly/Serenity) as Superwoman and Bruce Davison (X-Men) as President Wilson. Other cast members include Josh Keaton (The Spectacular Spider-Man) as The Flash, Vanessa Marshall (Grim & Evil) as Wonder Woman and Jonathan Adams (Bones) as Martian Manhunter.

Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths is an original story from award-winning animation/comics writer Dwayne McDuffie (Justice League). Animation legend Bruce Timm (Superman Doomsday) is executive producer, and Lauren Montgomery (Wonder Woman, Green Lantern: First Flight) and Sam Liu (Superman/Batman: Public Enemies) are co-directors.

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