Author: Robert Greenberger

Ukrainian-born actress Olga Kurylenko addressed being the latest Bond girl in Quantum of Solace when she met with Australian press.

"That’s not what an actor hopes to play", she said, referring to the many women Bond has encountered. "They’ve mostly been dull and just arm-candy."

The 29 year-old actress plays Camille, a woman also on a mission of revenge, much like Bond. Unlike her feminine predecessors, she did not manage to bed the secret agent. "Yeah, I liked [the older ones] but I especially liked Casino Royale", she says. "The Bond girl is also a lot more interesting in that one. That’s what inspired me to go and audition for this one".

Having gotten the part, she then trained for the physical work which pleased her. "It was amazing. It was the first time I’d experienced doing such action stuff", says. "I trained a lot. I trained all the time, all the time – every free moment I had. They brought me in a month before I started shooting and during that month I just trained with the stunt people. They taught me how to fight- just basic fighting with fists and kicking and punching, so not like Asian martial-arts like Michelle Yeoh [in Tomorrow Never Dies]. This was more tough military-style fighting.

"I also had to learn how to skydive – we shot it in a wind tunnel but I still needed to train for a month to know how to do it properly."

Kurylenko was also seen this fall in Max Payne and expects to find a career in American films. "They know me in France – they’ve known me since 2004 when I did The Ring Finger — but America doesn’t me. Hitman was my first English-speaking part, and my second was Bond — I only did 3 days work on Max Payne, in the middle of filming Bond, so that doesn’t really count. Hitman did get me an American agent and it did open doors to an extent but this one more so, because it’s just so big!"
 

Once upon a time, these would have been faznines produced using Xerox machines or newfangled offset presses.  But, today, Alter Ego, Back Issue, Write Now!, Draw! and the Jack Kirby Collector are all legitimate magaines from TwoMorrows. The company has expanded to include books such as their Modern Masters series along with their welcome Companion books exploring facets of DC Comics history.  We sat with founder with John Morrow to see what was new.

ComicMix: Did you ever imagine this being a fulltime gig?
 
John Morrow: Initially, no; furthest thing from my mind. Back in 1994, my wife and I were in the early stages of building our graphic design business, and had just gotten over those first few years where you’re killing yourself pulling all-nighters to service your clients. Just as things slowed down to a reasonable level, Jack Kirby died. I’d been out of comics for several years, but I felt compelled to produce a (albeit fairly slick) fanzine about Kirby, just to re-experience what drew me to his work originally. This led to lots more all-nighters getting the Jack Kirby Collector off the ground, but I envisioned it lasting no more than maybe six or seven issues, having some fun, then calling it a day.
 
CMix: What has surprised you the most about running TwoMorrows?
 
JM: Other than the fact that we’ve been at it for 15 years, it’d have to be the staying power of Kirby’s work and influence. I was really naïve to have ever thought Jack’s hold on the industry would wane over time; if anything, it’s probably as strong now as it ever was, with all the reissues of his work, and revamps of his characters. I don’t think I could still be doing an ongoing magazine about anyone else in comics, 50-plus issues and 15 years later. (more…)

On tonight’s episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the dreaded Jar Jar Binks makes a return appearance. In “Bombad Jedi”, Jar Jar Binks and C-3PO team up to save Padme Amidala from the evil Viceroy Nute Gunray, which is made more complicated when the Separatists assume that the Gungan is a Jedi.

You have been warned.

"So there are two stories, so basically, I don’t know what I’m supposed to give away, but obviously the world is sort of in peril," actress Amanda Peet  (Studio 60) told a gaggle of reporters yesterday about 2012. The original science fiction drama from Roland Emmerich’s has been in production this fall for Sony.

"Well, we’re in peril, obviously!" she said. "And some people know that we’re in peril, and some people don’t. Like some people in the government. So there are a few different stories. And I’m with a family that doesn’t know. So we’re in a survival story, basically. … I’m a civilian."

Given that the Mayan calendar predicted that the world will end on December 21, 2012, Emmerich launched his story, which was first announced in May. Sony anticipates a July 10, 2009 release for the feature which also stars John Cusack, Thandie Newton, Danny Glover and Thomas McCarthy.

She addressed the blue screen acting process given the apocalypse taking the form for floods, volcanic eruptions and typhoons. "You watch playback, and you realize that you look like you’re on a Saturday Night Live skit, and you have to take it down a little bit. Or, luckily if John Cusack is around … he sets the level. Tom McCarthy and I always make jokes, because we’re not used to dealing with this kind of thing. And John is like an old pro. So whenever John was there, it was much better. … When John was there, we’d be like, ‘Oh, s–t, we’ve totally been overplaying this. … Are we in a silent movie, from a different era?’"

When asked point blank of Harrison Ford thought there would be a fifth film featuring Indiana Jones, the actor told MTV, “I don’t know. If we come up with a good idea…”

And who would come up with the idea? George Lucas, who has conceived most of the previous stories, is charged with coming up with the next idea. “That’s the process,” he said. “With some general input he goes off and searches for the MacGuffin and then stumbles into a story. And at some point we have a chance to take a look at and give some input.”

Given that Jones has married Marion Ravenwood and is getting to know his adult son Mutt, it would suggest new areas to explore. With luck, something fresh will suggest itself improving on this year’s installment.
 

At the Screenwriters Expo in Los Angeles, Heroes’ creator Tim Kring addressed the criticism heaped on not only the second but the current third season of the NBC series.

“The problem is you run into a whole series of issues,” he said. “Where show and business run into each other. The network falls in love with characters, the audience falls in love with characters, the press falls in love with characters. And it’s contractually hard to get people onboard for a brief period… You find yourself writing for characters you thought would be gone.”

As a result, characters intended to be short-lived have gained prolong life. He does like having a large cast of characters to work with since it allows storytelling flexibility. “An hour of television should have the vibe as a day of your life,” he said.

He assured fans that the oft-used time travel elements would be dropped after the current volume, “Villains”, concludes next month. Kring called the serialized format, which he was working with the first time an “absolute bear of a thing. The serialized story is so Writers Room-intensive and requires an ‘all hands on deck’ quality to it; you’re often just carrying the water for the next storyline.”

After discussions with NBC and the dismissal of Jesse Alexander and Jeph Loeb, Kring said the series would continue to break the season into volumes to ensure compact storytelling and allowing different characters to be spotlighted.  As a result, viewers who might have found the mythos off-putting can sample each new arc.

“You can hop on the train and you won’t have missed too much."
 

Arnold Schwarzenegger may well have shot a cameo for McG’s Terminator Salvation film according to Total FIlm.

“We’re trying to synthesize a human character with a CGI character and that may or may not have something to do with the T800,” McG told the site. “At the moment it’s not good enough,” he said. “And we’re running out of time.”

The synthesis being attempted by Industrial Light & Magic have not been deemed successful.

Meantime, Moviehole says that McG took advantage of the film’s ending being leaked to alter so there will be surprises. “That is not the ending. John Connor is not the machine. We did discuss that idea, but that is not the ending, I can say that right now.”